The WichiTanpage 4

The sTudenT voice of MidwesTern sTaTe universiTy

WEDNESDAY SEptEmbEr 3, 2008

Sizzling cinemaMovie theatres were packed with a mixture of blockbusters and flops over the summer.

page 6Promising kick-offMustangs rise to No. 2 after de-feating Incarnate Word and St. Mary’s in opening weekend.

Autism Support Program makes history at MSU

Brittany norman

Editor in ChiEf

Opportunities to enjoy gritty Red Dirt music were easy to come by this summer in the Wichita Falls area. Musicians from all over Texas and Oklahoma paid visits to clubs and outdoor venues to entertain north Texas outlaw country fans. The Iron Horse Pub was the place to be on most Thursday nights. An earful of red dirt sound was something club-goers were looking for. The ever-popular Stoney LaR-ue took the stage on a stormy night in June, returning to the Falls to play for a packed house. The downtown venue was humming with excitement when LaRue and fiddler Jeremy Watkins came in out of the wind and rain. The prospect of an acoustic set by the duo was enough to spark electricity among the gathered red dirt fans. LaRue’s unassuming, laid-back de-meanor was apparent immediately. He was in no hurry to get the music started, and took the time to light a cigarette and take a few drags before playing his first chords of the night. The Texas-born, Oklahoma-raised mu-sician brought what the audience was looking for. The songs lost little except

Area country fans got earful of outlaw music during the summer months

see “MUSIC” on pg. 4

see “ASD” on pg. 3

Photo by Patrick JohnstonPolice CruisingMSU Chief of Police Michael Hagy tries out the new T3 Mo-tion scooter. The university is looking into purchasing one of the all-electric, zero-emissions vehicles to aid in campus patrol. The T3 Motion takes three to four hours to charge and travels up to 25 mph. Each vehicle costs about $9,000 and can go 25 miles on one charge.

Chris Collins

Managing Editor

Sophomore Brooke Taylor is a lot like most of the students at MSU. She enjoys reading, garden-ing, singing and playing the gui-tar. The soft-spoken 21-year-old also loves animals and listening to music. But Taylor isn’t your typical MSU undergrad: during her ju-nior year in high school she was diagnosed with Autism Spec-trum Disorder, a developmen-tal disability that affects social interaction and communication skills. The disorder makes perform-ing some normal daily tasks, like cooking, cleaning and doing chores, confusing and even frus-trating. “I don’t look at the world the same way that a lot of other peo-ple do,” Taylor said.

Taylor and two other ASD stu-dents have an opportunity this semester that few at MSU have ever had. The Autism Support Program, headed by Dr. Millie Gore’s Special Education de-partment, is the first of its kind. The program, which began as a proposal to MSU adminis-tration in February, has come to fruition more quickly than any-one thought possible. “If we were part of one of the big systems it wouldn’t have happened like this,” said Dr. Mil-lie Gore, professor of counseling and special education. “We’d be talking multiple years before it ever got funded.” The Autism Support Program will benefit ASD students by giving them full institutional support, supervised study hall, housing and the ability to start an organization. Similar programs

Photo by Brittany NormanSophomore Brooke Taylor sits in the dining room of the Ranch House, a home given to the Autism Support Program by MSU.

Photos and illustration by Brittany NormanThe Eli Young Band plays their hard-to-classify brand of Southern Rock and coun-try music for thousands of people who at-tended Shrinefest on Aug. 23. This event was only one of many that quenched the musical thirst of Red Dirt fans this sum-mer.

Staff Editorial

ViewpointsThe WichiTan

Finalist2004 Associated Collegiate Press

Pacemaker Award

Sweepstakes Winner 2006 Texas Intercollegiate

Press Association

The WichiTan

Copyright © 2007. The Wichitan is a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Asso-ciation. The Wichitan reserves the right to edit any material submitted for publication. Opinions expressed in The Wichitan do not necessarily reflect those of the students, staff, faculty, administration or Board of Regents of Midwestern State University. First copy of the paper is free of charge; additional copies are $1. The Wichitan welcomes letters of opinion from students, faculty and staff submitted by the Friday before in-tended publication. Letters should be brief and without abusive language or personal attacks. Letters must be typed and signed by the writer and include a telephone number and address for verification purposes. The editor retains the right to edit letters.

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Fax (940) 397-4025 • E-mail WICHITAN@mwsu.eduWeb site: http://wichitan.mwsu.edu

Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Brittany Norman

Managing Editor Chris Collins Entertainment Editor Courtney Foreman

Op-Ed Editor Position Open Sports Editor Bobby Morris

Photo Editor Patrick Johnston

ReportersRichard CarterJosh Mujica

PhotographersLoren Eggenschwiler

Advertising ManagerAyesha Dorsey

Copy EditorPosition Open

AdviserRandy Pruitt

Parking woes...again Another year, another parking complaint. It may seem as though addressing the issue of parking (or the lack thereof) on campus is simply beating a dead horse at this point. After all, it’s been a problem as long as anyone can remember, and with enrollment on the up-and-up, it doesn’t seem like a solution is anywhere in the foreseeable future. This year, however, the parking problems have a unique twist thrown in. While there are more stu-dents than last year, there are also fewer spots. The parking lot surrounding the Mercantile building was demolished over the summer along with the structure to make room for new housing. Which, ironically, will allow for the university to accommodate more students who can complain about the lack of parking. Driving around campus looking for a spot, there’s an abundance of commuter tags in the resident lots, resident tags in the commuter lots, people illegally parallel parked, cars without handicap tags in the handicapped parking areas, and students parked in faculty reserved spaces. Oh, the parking tickets abound. The question again arises, what’s the alternative to parking illegally? Commuters can always park off-campus and walk half a mile to get to their class. Resident students can conserve gas by grabbing a close spot on the weekend and refusing to drive anywhere all week long for fear of losing such prime real estate. And there’s always the stalk and pounce method of parking, wherein one circles the parking lot like a vulture for an hour and a half, waiting for some poor schmuck to vacate his space. Unfortunately, since everyone seems to know about this game, there’s the mad dash to see who can squeeze into the spot first in a race between dueling drivers, which could conceivably result in more than a few fender benders before the semester is out. It seems as though there are a few buildings on campus that would be better off as parking lots. Marchman Hall is little more than a storage build-ing; surely bulldozing it wouldn’t be too much of a loss. A few lucky residents could fight over the fifty-or-so spots that would make room for. Of course, it’ll be better next semester, when people drop out. Until then, the only truly effective solution seems to be for the students to take matters into their own hands and take on a second job to pay for all the tickets.

Karrie WalKer

For The WichiTan

The International Studies pro-gram here at Midwestern State University gives students the once in a lifetime opportunity to explore historical, cultural, and social points of interest in Mex-ico, Spain, England and France, all while gaining college credit hours. Students have the choice of studying for an entire semes-ter abroad or just a month during the summer, such as I did this past summer in London. At first I did not know what to expect. I have hardly been out of Texas, much less out of the country. I figured I would be taking a cool class and in the meantime get to see historic places like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. Little did I know how truly amazing this experience would be and how much my eyes would be opened up to a completely new and different world. Experiencing the big city life-style and seeing high fashion clothing all around me made me feel like a celebrity. The weekends gave us plenty of free time to travel to other nearby cities and countries on our own and I must say by the end of this trip, I felt like an ex-pert traveler. However, our journey through-out London was not always roses and butterflies. The differences between the two countries are sometimes very subtle, but re-ally make an American like me

truly appreciate our country. If you are interested in a study abroad program in England, get ready to walk your feet off, eat less than tasty food, stand a little too close to smelly locals on the Underground tubes, and most importantly, have the time of your life. I first want to get off my chest my complete disdain for the food in England. If you are a meat lover, get ready to become a vegetarian temporarily. One safe food item would have to be pizza, which I liter-ally ate at least 5 times a week. I survived my trip by living off of pizza and PB&J sandwiches. I work at Texas Roadhouse where all and I mean ALL the food is good, so it was a major culture shock when I could not find a decent hamburger or steak anywhere. I hate to admit it, but I did in fact eat at McDonald’s on multi-ple occasions. Give me a break; it was my only safe haven with real American food! You would have done the same, believe me. The next aspect of life that would irritate a typical Ameri-can is the amount of walking that takes place everyday. Granted, with the way they drive in Lon-don, I would never want to own a car there, but I had no idea how much walking this trip would entail. The London Underground tubes make traveling very fast and efficient to different places in the city, but the catch is all the walking you must do to and from

the tube station and the many different locations you visit. During just the first weekend, I had already walked around so much and ate enough nasty food to realize why I only saw skinny people in the city. Although I enjoyed the conve-nience of the tube as opposed to driving and parking a car, I could live without being crammed next to sweaty strangers on the crowded trains who apparently don’t know what deodorant is. So one would probably al-ready know, but you will need to save a lot of money to live in London for a month. Once you think you have saved enough, double that amount because you will be spending twice as much of your American money in Lon-don as you do here at home. My secret to success was find-ing a friend who was as picky of an eater as I am and split your meals! It won’t taste that good anyway, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t get very much to eat. I had to get my annoyances out in the open, but trust me when I say that all of those frustrations are completely worth the experi-ence. London is such a fantastic place to live in, and for the girls reading this, get ready to have a lot of attention coming your way. American girls are treated like superstars and get noticed quite often by the male species, so if you are single and ready to min-gle, London is the place to go! You might even get lucky like

me and bring a boyfriend back with you. One of the best things about the study abroad program in London is the opportunity for us to travel to other countries on our own or with whomever we want on our weekend breaks. I personally visited Paris and Venice with my friends, but the possibilities are abundant as some students also went to Ire-land, Rome, Spain, and even Greece. Our time spent traveling around London gave us the knowledge we needed to know how to navigate our way around other countries, even when we didn’t speak their language. It’s not often that a person can say they visited three or four different countries within one month. I would highly encourage ev-ery college student to take a trip for study abroad. Most people want to visit other countries, but there is nothing that compares with the experience you can have from study abroad. You can see things first hand that you have only read about in your history book, and as cheesy as it sounds, the experience makes learning a desirable activ-ity. I made some amazing friends on this trip that are not only from MSU, but from other schools as well. Out of all those people, I have not talked to one who doesn’t miss London already.

Study abroad provides unique experience for students seeking a new adventure

News The WichiTanSep. 3, 2008 3

Campus briefs• Sep. 4 Athletics lun-

cheon; Wichita Falls Museum

of Art at MSU; Thursday 12

p.m. - 1 p.m.; cost $6

• Part-time job and volunteer

fair; Career Management Cen-

ter; Thursday 12 p.m. - 3 p.m.

• Foreign Film Series: City of

Lost Children; Kemp Center

for the Arts; Thursday 7 p.m.

• Student Success Series: Ul-

timate Road Trip; CSC Shaw-

nee; Thursday 7 p.m.

• Sep. 5 WFMA Reception:

John Kingerlee recent work;

Wichita Falls Museum of Art

at MSU; Friday 6 p.m. to 8

p.m.

• Sep. 6 Theatre Depart-

ment Costume Sale; Fain Fine

Arts Center; Saturday 9 a.m.

to 12 p.m.; $1 - $5

“ASD”............................................................................................................continued from pg. 1

Need a costume for Halloween?

Fain fine arts Costume SaleSaturday 69 a.m. - 12 p.m.

all items $1 - $5

at other schools are rare, Gore said. “There’s almost nothing any-where like this,” Gore said. Other programs can cost up-ward of $30,000 and require ASD students to live in dorms with everyone else. The indi-vidual needs of special students aren’t met in these programs. “We’re targeting folks who cannot live by themselves,” Gore said. The program, comprised of three ASD students and three peer mentors, will help teach in-dependence in a supportive en-vironment. MSU gave the program about $20,000 to get started, but won’t support it for longer than a year. Gore is looking into private do-nors and federal grants that will be able to fund the project after its inception this semester. “Private corporations are there to make money,” Gore said. “They aren’t part of a university. We aren’t trying to make a profit. We’re just here to serve.” “I love being available and being here for them,” said Jes-sica Dunn, a graduate student of special education. Dunn was one of the five authors of the original proposal for the program in Feb-ruary. “We’re still figuring out what the program’s all about and what it’s going to do,” Dunn said. “It’s a big project and we didn’t ex-pect university support, either. Not that fast.” Alefia Paris-Toulon, coordina-tor of the special education de-partment at Hirschi High School was another author of proposal made in February. Her concern for autistic students at Hirschi was one of the key proponents of the program. “Everybody has an opportu-nity to continue education if they meet the standards,” Paris-Tou-lon said. Autism is being noticed because more people are being diagnosed with it, she said. “It’s a new disability to schools, but it’s becoming more pronounced,” Paris-Toulon said. “The reponse to the proposal was timely and quick. It was overwhelming.”

Autism is still an unclear sub-ject, even for those suffering with the disorder. “So many cases are going un-diagnosed. Students are going to college but aren’t advocat-ing that they have the disorder,” Dunn said. The Disability Services De-partment at MSU currently has only one registered autistic stu-dent. There are three in Gore’s program alone. “Some students think it’s a bit of a stigma to register,” said Katie Comello, secretary for dis-ability services, “but it’s a big help.” Disabled students who regis-ter with the department are able to test in separate rooms and are sometimes entitled to extra time on assignments. Special accom-modations are made on individ-ual basis and take many factors into account, Comello said. “We have students with autism on campus today that just don’t get the services they need,” Gore said. “MSU has always been about inclusion,” said Dr. Howard Far-rell, vice president of student affairs and university advance-ment. When we found a way to help these students we did.” The Disabilities Services of-fice at MSU was created a few years ago especially to help stu-dents with special needs, Farrell

said. Now the university is giv-ing even more support. “We gave them the opportu-nity to get out the gate,” Farrell said. “We thought it was the right thing to do.” One person out of every 126 born is diagnosed with one of the five forms of ASD. Asperger’s syndrome is the highest-func-tioning form of autism, charac-terized mostly by social difficul-ties. All three students in Gore’s program suffer from Asperger’s. “There’re seeking university-level stuff, they just need a little extra support,” Dunn said. “They have amazing capabilities. Their capacity for things surpasses our thinking in a lot of ways,” she said. Some students with ASD, even Asperger’s, may not be able to continue education after high school. “It really depends on the individual. Even among people with classic autism there’s such a huge range of ability and drive,” Dunn said. One of Taylor’s problems is seeing the world through others’ perspectives, she said. Living with other ASD students should help her with this. “I’m already starting to see some of the ways this could be positive,” Taylor said. “If one of us understands a problem, we can share that with the other

people in the house.” All six of the residents in the Ranch House – the home desig-nated by MSU for the program – help maintain the home. Completing household tasks helps the students prepare for what life will be like when they are outside of the university, Dunn said. “We’re here to suggest,” Dunn said. “We’re here to encourage, but we don’t tell them what they can and can’t do. We’re just here to promote success.” Two other special education graduate students live at the Ranch House with Dunn, who is the lead peer mentor At least one of them will be at the house at all times to help students with homework and chores. “But we’re not babysitting,” Dunn said. Living and interacting with other autistic students is a new experience to Taylor, she said. “I’ve never really been around other people who are classified as ASD or anything. It’s funny watching how we interact.” Taylor, a transfer student from a Dallas community col-lege, came to MSU with about 60 credit hours. Keeping up with all the schoolwork by herself be-came overwhelming. “It was time for me to start going to a four-year univer-sity,” Taylor said. “They have what I need here.” Taylor said she would probably be going to school somewhere else if it weren’t for the Autism Support Program. A good middle ground has been struck by the program, though there is room for improvement, Dunn said. She would like to see more staff training in the needs of ASD students in the future. “It’s satisfactory so far,” she said. “It looks like it’s been left to us.” There is a long waiting list of students to participate in the program, Gore said. She’ll admit them on a first-come, first-serve basis. The only prerequisite for the program is being accepted to MSU.

Photo by Brittany NormanBrooke Taylor and Jessica Dunn sit in the dining room of the Ranch House on Hampstead.

EntertainmentThe WichiTanSep. 3, 20084

Summer box office hits and misses

What a glorious summer of cinema it was, with “The Dark Knight” remind-ing us why we miss Heath Ledger, ABBA fans coming out of the closet and out of the woodwork for “Mamma Mia!,” “Kung Fu Panda” and “WALL-E” keeping the kiddies entertained and an August so littered with funny, raun-chy movies the nation’s frat houses threatened to empty out altogether. Sure, most were instantly forgettable comic-book adaptations, ditzy musi-cals or pot-fueled farces. But they’re worth remembering, even if Oscar vot-ers don’t. Let’s tear open the envelopes and hand out some awards, even if we don’t have naked-guy statuettes, Price Waterhouse or Whoopie Goldberg. Best actor: Robert Downey Jr., in iron (“Iron Man”) and in blackface (“Tropic Thunder”). “I know who I am! I’m a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude!” Dude, you said it. Best actress: Maria Bello, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emper-or.” What, you think it’s easy imperson-ating Oscar winner Rachel Weisz in a really bad movie? Best supporting actor: Danny McBride, “Pineapple Express,” “Tropic Thunder” the funniest Southern accent in the cinema. Best supporting actress: Gwyneth Paltrow, “Iron Man.” She made us care,

and made the flirtation work. Best director: Jon Favreau, for mak-ing “Iron Man” witty, heartfelt and fun. Best picture: “WALL-E.” Great ani-mation, a simple story, a cautionary message. Best on-base percentage: Ben Kings-ley, in five movies this summer. Best Ben Kingsley accent: A dope-smoking “New Yawk” shrink, in “The Wackness.” His “Transsiberian” Rus-sian isn’t bad, either. Worst Ben Kingsley accent: South-ern. Somewhat. Sometimes. In War, Inc. Best myth debunked: “All Irishmen can sing.” Maybe they can, Pierce Bro-snan. But not ABBA. Not sober, any-way. Best upgrade: Maggie Gyllenhaal, replacing Katie Holmes in “The Dark Knight.” Best sneer: Alan Rickman, balefully considering Kentucky Fried Chicken, in “Bottle Shock.” Best reunion: Karen Allen and Harri-son Ford, “Indiana Jones and the King-dom of the Crystal Skull.” Best surprise: James Franco find-ing his blitzed bliss in “Pineapple Ex-press.” Second best surprise: Richard Jen-kins, going toe-to-profane-toe with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in “Step Brothers.”

Third Best surprise: Julie “Take a Chance on Me” Walters rocking the house in “Mamma Mia!” Best remake: “Brideshead Revisit-ed.” Best catch-phrases: “I’m sorry. This is the fun-vee. The hum-drum-vee is back there.” (“Iron Man”) “I’m not a monster. . . I’m just ahead of the curve.” (The Joker in “The Dark Knight”). Career in trouble: Mike Myers. “The Love Guru” would have been the hit of the summer ... in 1994. Best bad self-parody: Writer-director David Mamet at his David Mametiest with “Red Belt.” Best sequel: “The Dark Knight.” “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” wasn’t bad, either. Most pointless sequel: “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.” Best movies you missed: “Mongo”; “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson”; “Son of Ram-bow.” Seriously, how many times do you need to see “The Dark Knight”? Worst bad movies you flocked to: “Get Smart.” And “Hancock.” Really, people. Worst excuse for a 3D movie: “Fly Me to the Moon” (animated). Worst moment: The Yeti “field goal” in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.” And they were digital yeti, to boot. Director Rob Cohen, have you no shame?

RogeR MooRe

McT

“Mamma Mia”

“Iron Man”

“Wall-E”

“The Dark Knight”

without the backing of LaRue’s band The Arsenals. The pared-down sound emphasized the singer/songwriter’s spot-on vo-cals and gave a new dimension to the tracks from 2005’s The Red Dirt Album and the 2007 Live at Billy Bob’s record that have doubtlessly been in heavy rota-tion in fans’ CD players. The crowd didn’t hesitate in singing along at the top of their lungs. While this isn’t the kind of country that fans of Kenny Chesney and Taylor Swift are ac-customed to, it certainly doesn’t lack the infectious melodies. In fact, it’s difficult to place just who LaRue’s sound resem-bles best. Even with nothing but an acoustic guitar and a fiddle, the Southern Rock influences are visible through the home-grown honky tonk sound. That isn’t surprising for an artist who claims influences range from Ray Charles to Willie Nelson. LaRue believes in his music. Anyone who was paying any at-tention could tell. He might have paused between songs to take a drink of beer or even hammer back a shot or two, but the au-dience caught on to his enthusi-asm. By the time he played his sin-gle Oklahoma Breakdown, which topped Texas Country charts in 2006, the area in front of the stage was crowded with fans try-ing to get just a little closer to the passionate artist. While there were no loud elec-tric guitars, drummers, or bassists in the house, those who weath-ered the summer windstorm and crowded into the venue certainly got an earful of good red dirt mu-sic. A few weeks later, another popular name on the Red Dirt cir-cuit, Mike McClure, also played at the pub. Seymour-based band Un-der the Influence kicked off the evening with their loud, raucous southern music. They played several original pieces as well as songs penned by other artists. The lead guitarist was espe-cially impressive. His hands flew up and down the neck of the gui-tar, dancing between the frets as he played the fast-paced music. Under the Influence got in about an hour on the Iron Horse stage before Mike McClure took over. The listening room quickly became more crowded as the Oklahoman and his band set up.

It was quickly obvious why the audience anticipated Mc-Clure’s music. Not only was it loud enough to please rock fans and southern enough for the country connoisseurs, but the lyrics had enough depth to take a careful listener out of the mu-sic itself and into the words for a moment. If the crowd got a little rowdy, they did so right alongside Mc-Clure. The front man moved around the stage more like a punk-rocker than a Red Dirt mu-sician, and he had the clothes to match: skater shoes and shorts instead of the normal outlaw country uniform of blue jeans and boots. McClure entertained with his antics as well as his songs, often making silly faces while playing, messing with the drum kit while the drummer tried to play, even telling an audience member he’d play a requested song if the man took his shirt off and bought four Jager bombs for the band. Both conditions of the bargain were

fulfilled. Lighting up and smok-ing a cigarette during a guitar solo was another demonstration of quirk that the crowd seemed to enjoy. And then there were the less-than endearing qualities, like insulting the audience—pre-sumably in jest. He also teased the crowd with the opening riffs to songs that he never finished playing. There were more than a few jam sessions throughout the show that, had McClure and his band been less talented, might have seemed drawn-out and self-indulgent. Instead, they pulled it off and drew the audience in. The surprises came in the form of unexpected songs, as well. An extended version of ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ had the specta-tors participating, standing up and singing along. Local boy Johnny Cooper also made an appearance at the Iron Horse, managing to pack fans in the listening room while he played the crowd favorites.

Up-and-comer Brazos Stone from Lubbock opened for the local songwriter, and the crowd seemed to like the high-energy rock-country that the group was offering. Individual artists weren’t the only opportunity to get a fix of outlaw music. Several festivals took place in the area, including Wolfedance in Vernon. Wolfedance 2008 started out featuring the sweltering summer heat and hotter music. It ended early with the sound of thunder-claps and lightning pyrotechnics, as well as the prospect of a make-up date later in the summer. Sweating it out at the Santa Rosa Rodeo Grounds in Vernon, Texas, area country fans gath-ered to hear up-and-comers like Twister Cain and Brazos Stone. The two early acts kicked up the excitement with electric guitars and plenty of upbeat songs as the crowd began to grow, gathering in the grandstands and down on the dirt of the arena. Things calmed down a bit when country music legend Ed-die Raven took to the stage with his mellow vocals and old-style sound. While a big chunk of the audience was a bit young to know his music aside from recent cov-ers of his songs by the likes of Kenny Chesney, Raven still had plenty to say, both through the songs he played and his conver-sational commentary in breaks between the music. As the sun started going down

and the temperature dropped, it became evident that the sky was going to make good on its threat of storms. Dark clouds came closer and lightning struck in the distance as Wichita Falls artist Johnny Cooper and his band set up their equipment. The singer/songwriter was barely into his set when the ap-proaching lightning necessitated a “fifteen minute break.” Cooper informed his fans that they’d be back once the weather had passed, and the crowd re-treated under the grandstands to wait out the storm. The wind picked up, rain dripped through the cracks in the stands onto the mass of Red Dirt fans and lightning lit up the sky all around, but the party still went on. Concessions and mer-chandise vendors cashed in on the intermission. The majority of the audience stuck around, choosing to stay out in the elements rather than miss the rest of Cooper’s set and the performance of headlining act Jack Ingram. The fifteen minute break ex-tended into almost an hour. It be-came evident that the show was unlikely to go on, after all. As the concert-goers began to file into the muddy parking lot to make the drive home, Jack Ingram had encouraging words for the fans who had braved the electrical storm in hopes that the headlining act would take the stage.

He clarified that the show was not canceled, only postponed. “We’ve never canceled a show,” Ingram said. And Wolfedance was sup-posed to be no exception. “I’ll talk to my booking agent on the way home. We’ll reschedule as soon as possible. It’ll be be-fore the end of summer. You can count on it.” While summer has ended and Ingram’s promise of a resched-ule has yet to become a reality, another festival went off Aug. 23 without nature’s interference. Shrinefest brought the big names of Red Dirt together with a few thousand of the biggest fans of the music for the annual event. The afternoon kicked off with Brazos Stone, a band that never seems to disappoint the crowds. The audience continued to grow as other early acts the Bart Crow Band, Johnny Cooper and Brandon Rhyder entertained de-spite the temperatures reaching upwards of 100 degrees. The temperature was cool-ing down, but the show was just starting to heat up when the Eli Young Band struck their first chords for the Shrinefest fans. The high-energy Southern Rock and country hybrid music had the rowdy crowd dancing and singing along. Had that group been the headlining act, it didn’t seem as though anyone would be disappointed. Flatbed trailers were still bringing people from their cars, parked sometimes a half-mile away from the venue due to the size of the audience, as the main attraction Stoney LaRue stepped up under the lights. A broken left hand didn’t stop LaRue from playing his signature guitar riffs as his band launched into all of the fan favorites, such as One Chord Song, Oklahoma Break-down, Idabell Blues and Down In Flames. And while everyone was there for the music, each ticket sold also benefited a cause. “I’m excited that the Shriners are putting this on, most of all because so much of what they do is helping kids,” LaRue said in an interview before his portion of the show got underway. “It’s also nice to get everyone together for some live music.” Here’s hoping the end of sum-mer doesn’t mean the end of the music.

MUSIC........................................................................................................................................................................................continued from pg. 1

Photo by Brittany NormanStoney LaRue plays an acoustic set at the Iron Horse Pub in June. LaRue and his band came back to Wichita Falls to headline Shrinefest on Aug. 23.

Photo by Brittany NormanA storm sent Wolfedance concertgoers under the grand-stand at the Santa Rosa Rodeo Arena for shelter from the wind, rain and lightning before headliner Jack Ingram could make it onstage.

SportsThe WichiTanSep. 3, 2008 6

On Deck this week...

FridaySeptember 5

Men’s Soccer

Colorado Mines

@ Canyon

Women’s Soccer

NW Oklahoma at

4 p.m.

Volleyball

@ Missouri Southern

Invitational

SaturdaySeptember 6

Cross Country

MSU Relays

Volleyball

@ Missouri Southern

Invitational

FootballSE

Oklahoma at 7 p.m.

SundaySeptember 7

Men’s Soccer

Fort Lewis @ Canyon, Texas

Women’s Soccer

New Mexico Highlands @ 1 p..m.

TuesdaySeptember 9

VolleyballDallas Baptist

at 7 p.m.

Home Events are Bolded

As MSU head coach Doug Elder and the men’s soccer team examined their 2008 schedule, two dates had to stand out over-shadowing all the others.

On August 31 and October 5 the Mustangs will go against the Incarnate Word Cardinals and at-tempt to avenge a pair of losses that tainted a near-perfect record last season.

Last season the Mustangs went 18-3-2 while advancing all the way to the NCAA Divi-sion II Final Four. Of those three losses, two came at the hands of Incarnate Word. And last Sunday the No. 2-ranked Mustangs took advantage of their first chance at avenging those losses against the No. 21-ranked Cardinals.

The two highly touted squads competed back-and-forth in a highly competitive first half that left the game in a stifling 1-1 tie.

Then, craziness ensued result-

ing in both of Incarnate Word’s healthy goalkeepers being eject-ed for taking down a Midwestern State player in the box.

“We got a few breaks today and they had some bad luck,” Elder said. “You just see some strange things in soccer.”

After Incarnate Word’s start-ing goalkeeper Ryan Eschenburg received a red card at the 47:32 mark, third-string goalkeeper Andy Caesar needed just 2:03 to receive two yellow cards and get ejected as well. This coupled with the absence of normal start-ing goalkeeper Gil Ben Nachum due to an injury he suffered the previous Friday left the Cardi-nals two men down and without a goalkeeper for the remainder of the match.

It took the Mustangs two min-utes to stretch the 1-1 tie into a 4-1 advantage after the ejections due to goals by seniors Ahmad Ihmeidan and Rob Humphrey and redshirt freshman Craig Sutherland.

The match was eventu-ally halted ten minutes early with the same score when both head coaches agreed to end the match.

“It was satisfying for the guys,” Elder said. “We had a good run of play last year and got unlucky against them.”

This marked the second vic-tory to open the season for the Mustangs after traveling to San Antonio and defeating St. Mary’s 3-0 last Friday.

Ihmeidan and Sutherland each contributed another goal in the opening game capitalizing on the team’s nine shots on goal compared to the just one shot on goal for the Rattlers.

Midwestern State faces a pair of Rocky Mountain Ath-letic Conference opponents next weekend in Canyon, Texas. They open against Colorado Mines on Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. be-fore battling Fort Lewis (Colo.) Sunday at 11 a.m.

The MSU volleyball team made program history last sea-son as they posted its best win-ning percentage ever with a 17-6 record. However, the Lady Mustangs fell in the Division II Southwest Regional Tourna-ment, so the taste of unfinished business remains fresh in their mouths.

“They know how close they are to winning a national cham-pionship,” MSU coach Venera Flores-Stafford said.

The Lady Mustangs are picked to finish third behind West Texas A&M and Central Oklahoma in the Lone Star Con-ference preseason poll. This past weekend in the Catawba Col-lege Invitational held in Salis-bury, N.C., MSU set a tone for the season and sent a message to opponents on their tough sched-ule that they are still a force to be reckoned with in 2008. They did

so by going 4-0 for the first time in school history while display-ing an all-around powerhouse of a team.

On Saturday, the Lady Mus-tangs steamrolled Lenoir Rhyne College, 25-17, 25-21, 25-19. Standouts for the game were seniors Jes-sica Ransom and Allison Schreiber.

Both players maintained great work ethic through-out the tournament. Ran-som led MSU with 13 kills while only committing one error in 20 attempts.

“She could be one of the best hitters in the conference,” Flores-Stafford said.

The 5-10 Schreiber, who is the all-time leader in assists for MSU, led a potent offense to a .300 attack percentage while contributing three kills and sev-en digs against Lenoir Rhyne.

Earlier in the day the Lady Mustangs’ machine handled

Fayetteville State, 25-15, 25-10, 25-12. The outside hitters proved to be the difference for MSU. Freshmen Miranda Byrd and Ti-ana Bond carried the team with

\six kills each as Ransom and Karolina Damjanovic tallied four each. All four players combined to gain a .679 attack percentage while only committing one error in 28 attacks. Senior Shay Ve-lasquez had a service ace while adding 12 digs in the match.

On Friday, the Lady Mustangs

made easy work of the host Catawba College Indians, 25-20, 25-14, 25-21. Schreiber had 35 assists, four kills and nine digs to lead the MSU to a .319 hitting

percentage for the game. Ransom finished the game with eight kills for a .700 hitting percentage.

“Allison has the team running very well right now,” Flores-Stafford said.

Bryd had five kills and posted a .571 hitting per-centage while Velasquez

controlled the back row with 14 digs and two

service aces.Earlier on Friday, the Lady

Mustangs opened their season against Tusculum College and dominated, 25-19,25-16, 25-17.

Junior middle blocker Alysha Pritt led the way for MSU with eight kills, five digs and two blocks while maintaining a .500 hitting percentage. Lady Mus-

tangs all-star Sesley Graves con-tributed seven kills and a .545 hitting percentage. Freshman Kiara Jordan showed potential to be a rookie sensation as she led the team with nine digs in her collegiate debut.

“I felt like we didn’t have a long enough preseason,” Flores-Stafford said. “It’s a good foun-dation for the season. Starting 4-0 is a great confidence boost-er.”

The Lady Mustangs’ next challenge will be in the Missouri Southern Invitational in Jop-lin, Mo. On Sept. 5-6. The first match is slated for Sept. 5 at 1 p.m. against Drury University.

Editor’s Note : Both Allison Schreiber and Jessica Ransom were honored as LSC players of the week for their play in this tournament.

Schreiber was named setter of the week while Ransom was named the offensive player of the week.

Records were broken last Fri-day in the MSU women’s soccer season opener.

However, breaking records isn’t always a positive thing.

The Mustangs traveled to Mis-souri to compete in the Jennies Invitational last weekend. They opened the Invitational and their

2008 season against the host-Central Missouri Jennies.

Central Missouri’s Angelo Dobbie and Lexie Bristow scored two goals within four minutes of each other late in the first half to propel the Jennies to the 2-0 vic-tory over the Mustangs.

The Mustangs offense was stifled for the entire match and only mustered eight total shots including only three shots on

goal. This was the lowest amount

of shots taken in a match since September 19, 2007 when they only managed five shots in a 3-0 loss to Central Oklahoma. It also marked the lowest total number of shots on goal in a game since September 24, 2006 when they only put one shot on goal in a 3-0 loss to Incarnate Word.

The Mustangs moved on to

battle Truman State to close out the Jennies Invitational.

They competed in another defensive match that saw better competing than in their season opener.

“I felt we played better than we did Friday and really came out with good energy,” MSU coach Jeff Trimble said.

Despite placing seven of their ten shots on goal the Mustangs were unable to score throughout the match as they let a loose ball decide the 1-0 defeat early in the

second half.“We had some great opportu-

nities to score, but couldn’t fin-ish,” Trimble said. “Then in the second half, we came out flat and they took advantage. You have to play 90 minutes.”

The Mustangs will make their home debut with a weekend doubleheader at the MSU Soccer Field against Northeastern Okla-homa this Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. before battling against New Mexico Highlands at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

Lady Mustangs gallop through opening tournamentJosh MuJica

STaff RepoRTeR

‘Strange things’ propel No. 2 Mustangs to victory, 4-1BoBBy Morris

SpoRTS ediToR

Mustangs suffer disappointing start to 2008 seasonBoBBy Morris

SpoRTS ediToR

Schreiber Ransom

Photo courtesy of MSU Sports Information

Senior Ahmad Ihmeidan (10) leads the team in their at-tempt to duplicate last season’s success. He scored a goal in both of their opening games to lead the way for the Mustangs.

dallas cowboysWeek 1 Preview

cowboys browns

Cowboys will be battling recievers’ injuries and trying to keep distractions to a minimum in their season debut. The Browns starting quarterback (Derek Anderson) is coming back from

a concussion so if DeMarcus Ware and the blitzing Cowboys defense can get any pressure it could be a long night for the Browns offense. Watch to see if the Cowboys defensive unit can look better than they did in the preseason in coverage.

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