The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: HSU student

  • Forever dedicated to the game

    Forever dedicated to the game

    Lumberjacks football player named GNAC Player of the Week

    Editor’s Note: For transparency, Skye Kimya is the Lumberjack Sports Editor

    Humboldt State University’s sophomore safety Adam Herrera was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference special teams player of the week after an outstanding performance in Lumberjack football’s game against Central Washington on Oct. 27.

    The following week Herrera continued to hold down the defense as he intercepted the ball against Azusa Pacific in their second to last game of program history. Herrera talks about how he predicted his opponents play, and just like that he was able to outsmart them and regain possession of the ball for the Lumberjacks.

    “I saw the play happening right in front of me,” Herrera said. “And I just opened up right away towards the post. He threw the ball, so I ran up under it.”

    Herrera had a successful 2018 football season. He finished with 23 tackles and 19 assisted tackles for a total of 42, two interceptions for a total of 76 yards and a touchdown and 562 return yards with a game high of 193 total yards against Central Washington.

    IMG_0309.JPG Adam Herrera side peddles as he waits for the offense to make a move in a home game against Central Washington on October 27. Photo credit: Walter Hackett

    Football has been one of Herrera’s greatest passions for a majority of his life. Starting at a young age in elementary school, he knew football was something he would continue to pursue. Getting more serious about the sport, he knew he wanted to play for his local high school team in Los Banos, Calif.

    Playing both offense and defense for the Los Banos High School Tigers, Herrera hustled hard to earn his accolades, including MVP and offensive player of the year multiple times.

    As he took on unfamiliar positions such as quarterback, high school football challenged Herrera to become a well rounded athlete, as well as a versatile player on the football field.

    “He was a phenomenal player and a great teammate,” Head coach of Los Banos High School football Dustin Caropreso said. “He was a leader. Adam showed up to practice everyday and never complained.”

    Not only did Herrera join varsity as a sophomore but he was captain of the Los Banos Tigers both his junior and senior year.

    “When I found out he won GNAC player of the week it was pretty special,” Caropreso said. “He’s worked really hard to get to where he’s at, and it couldn’t have happened to a better person than Adam.”

    Though Herrera is known as a football player, he is also a son, big brother, and student. Family and friends have always been important to him and his daily life. His parents and grandparents had always been some of his biggest supporters as they watched him play growing up.

    “It had been a while since he received any recognition for all of his hard work,” Adam’s mother Cynthia Gonzalez said. “So it was nice to hear him receive the GNAC award in college.”

    His girlfriend Skye and closest friends Ereon, Watts, and Mark continuously inspire him to be the best he can be. Ereon Nash and Demetrick Watts play right beside Herrera on the defensive side of the Lumberjacks.

    IMG_7742.jpg Ereon Nash, Demetrick Watts, and Adam Herrera gather for photos after their 2018 homecoming game against Simon Fraser. Photo credit: Skye Kimya

    As a brother to four younger siblings, Herrera has been a huge role model and support system within his family. His only brother Moses is following in his footsteps as he too plays football and is already a recognized all-star on his Pop Warner League team.

    “Every time before a football game he calls me and pumps me up,” Moses Herrera said. “He tells me how to play the game, and he is always encouraging me.”

    As HSU’s football team completed their final season, Herrera accomplished a lot within his football career, but he’s not done yet. He has already been contacted by outside coaches and is looking to play at another university for the last two years of his collegiate career. Herrera hasn’t made any decisions yet in regards to football next fall but awaits opportunities.

    “I don’t want this to be my last year,” Herrera said. “I’ll continue to do what I need to do to keep playing football and if everything goes well for me I hope to continue on to the next level.”

  • Like father like son

    Like father like son

    Football player keeps legacy alive

    Humboldt State sophomore linebacker and Lumberjacks team captain Demetrick Watts II was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference defensive player of the week, Oct. 8, for his performance against Simon Fraser.

    The six-foot 225-pound run stopper and pass protector stifled the Simon Fraser offense, with 8 tackles, 1 for a loss, a sack, and the eventual game-winning fumble recovery in the end zone for a touchdown.

    “It brought me back to high school,” Watts said. “It was a beautiful feeling and getting GNAC defensive player means everything to me.”

    Watts’ touchdown against Simon Fraser wasn’t the first of his career. A young Watts always wanted to be an NFL star.

    “He had passion as a seven-year-old,” Watts’ grandmother, Barbera Numan said. “He needs to keep swinging those doors open and stay motivated like he is and I believe it’s possible.”

    At Hillcrest High School in Riverside, California, Watts stood out as a two-way player. His running back strength and quickness showed through his original offensive position. On defense, he was the best linebacker in the league winning MVP twice. Watts also earned All-River Valley League Honors and the Athlete of the Year Award for the Citrus Belt League in 2015.

    Like the love for football, Watts shares many things with his father, including his name. Watts’ father passed away when he was a freshman at Hillcrest High. His passing was due to a blood clot in his leg. Watts moved in with his grandmother who lived down the street and continued at Hillcrest for the remainder of high school.

    “His dad was also an athlete,” Numan said. “He played football at Sonoma State. But you know, he had a family and he lost the vision. He was a family man now.”

    Watts’ father worked with him on drills, conditioning, and different aspects of what it meant to be an athlete, let alone a football player. They were very close, his father helped mold Watts both on and off the field.

    “Demetrick won many awards but he was always so humble,” Numan said. “That made me happy. He was a positive child, and became a respectful adult.”

    Coming into Humboldt State, Watts redshirted his freshman year but was always at practice and his favorite spot, the weight room. The recreation administration major would routinely be in the gym for two-a-days. Coaches talk about the discipline and work ethic behind Watts, and how much time he puts in off the clock.

    “Monday is my ideal day, I get my big lifts in,” Watts said. “Getting my legs under me and grounded makes me feel great.”

    Samuel Barfield, Watts’ cousin, was an incoming freshman this year and plays tight end for the Jacks. Sam is new to football, playing mostly basketball, but he still loves the sport.

    Barfield gets to witness the daily grind of Watts’ work ethic and looks up to him as his older cousin. Football became an avenue to help Barfield get out of the crime area of Riverside that they both call home. He thanks his older cousin for this.

    “I’ve always wanted to play aside my cousin,” Barfield said. “Whatever he does I want to copy. I know I’ll be good if I follow him. Our city is bad right now. People don’t get out and football is all we got.”

    Just like Watts, Barfield plans to continue his football career at another university considering Humboldt State recently decided to cut the program due to financial issues.

    “I love football and I put my everything into this,” Watts said.

    The Humboldt State Lumberjacks will play their very last football game Saturday, Nov. 3 at the Redwood Bowl against rival Azusa Pacific at 1 p.m. The seniors will be honored in remembrance of their journey here as a Jack.

  • Community still demands ‘Justice for Josiah’

    Community still demands ‘Justice for Josiah’

    Police are past their estimated time for solving the more than one-year-old crime

    He was smart. He had goals. He came to Humboldt to avoid the challenges of South L.A.

    These words were spoken outside of Arcata City Hall by Karim Muhammed, a friend of David Josiah Lawson. Lawson was murdered on April 15 2017 and his case still remains unsolved.

    Discussion on race and safety in the community were the main subjects amongst community members on Oct. 15. Tears streamed down faces as homemade posters of Lawson were hung on the walls in front of Arcata City Hall.

    Muhammed met Lawson their freshman year in the dorms at HSU. He said he misses Lawson and was at his dorm everyday.

    “He was one of the first people I met when I moved to Humboldt,” Muhammed said.

    Muhammed said he thought Arcata was safe compared to south L.A but that isn’t his experience. How to keep moving forward he said is to bring awareness and continue to inform incoming students about Lawson’s murder.

    “We need to get it solved, get new people in power, get people informed and vote,” Muhammed said.

    Muhammed said the goal is to make the community safer but many people in the community are still oblivious to the death of Lawson or they just don’t care. When he learned of the roster release of the HSU’s predominantly African American student clubs to the Arcata Police Department, Muhammed said that was a big red flag. He said this shows where they stand with the situation and further proves their indifference.

    “People choose what they want to believe or they just don’t want to believe,” Muhammed said.

    Meg Stofvsky, a retired school psychologist, said the vigil’s are held to continue remembering Lawson as well as inform people who are new in the area. Stofvsky was representing Charmaine, Lawson’s mother, and said Charmaine has caught the interest of the California State University system about her son’s murder. She said Charmaine has been travelling to other CSU’s to talk about safety on campus and will be in Sacramento later this week.

    “We need a firm insistence we are not going to continue to let this happen,” Stofvsky said.

    It has been 18 months since Lawson’s murder and Stofvsky said the county seems to be sliding backwards. She said we need to continue having resilience and hope and to keep the Arcata Police Department accountable. Stofvsky said the APD recently gave a six to eight week time limit to solve the case and that limit is up.

    “We hear a lot of talk about progress from the APD but we haven’t seen any,” Stofvsky said.

    When Charmaine Lawson comes into town for court hearings or monthly vigils she stays at Sharon and Michael Fennell’s house. Both are HSU alumni and have been proponents seeking justice for Lawson. Sharon Fennell, was a KHSU DJ under the name Sista Soul and said she met Charmaine at the second vigil held for Lawson.

    “We show up once a month. This is a beautiful thing and Charmaine knows,” Fennell said.

    Fennell offered ideas to start selling “Justice for Josiah” shirts at the HSU bookstore to continue to bring awareness of his murder. She said that way Lawson would be seen more on campus and students would be reminded of what happened. A conflict Fennell has is that students come to HSU but then leave after they graduate, which keeps Humboldt from changing.

    “People need to come, stay, build businesses and change the community,” Fennell said. “If not we stay 80 percent white. Boring.”

    A member of the “Justice for Josiah” movement, Jill Larrabee, said actions by CSU and California Faculty Association are starting to take hold regarding safety on campuses but society needs to change. Larrabee said we need to learn, educate, heal and grow and get more people in office.

    “Humboldt County has the good ol’ boys club in power,” Larrabee said.

    To move forward Larrabee said white people need to converse with other white people about racism. Larrabee said racism is still a big problem here in Arcata but more and more people are coming out and acknowledging their privilege.

    “When we hear white people say we can’t guarantee safety, then we are going to demand it,” Larrabee said.

  • Jacks Pass

    Jacks Pass

    By Keaundrey Clark

    No.1 HSU Softball Splits  first 2 games of 4 game Series with No.13 Chico State

     

    No.1 Humboldt State Softball returned home for a four game series against No.13 Chico State. Postponed earlier in the season due bad weather conditions. They played this game in McKinleyville. HSU split its first day doubleheader against No.13 Chico State Monday afternoon. Chico State took game one 2-0, while HSU bounced back claiming game two 10-4. The Wildcats have a two game lead in conference play over the Jcks.

    In the loss Madison Williams was very solid in the circle for the Jacks as she only allowed 4 hits while striking out ten batters on her way to her 15th complete game of the season.

    In Game two Kalyn Paque improved to 13-2 on the season, completing her 8th complete game of the year.

    The second back to back games of the doubleheader were cancelled because of rain.

    HSU finished the homestand  29-8 overall with a conference record of 17-7.  

    For both HSU, pitching has been a strong point this season. HSU leads the conference in strikeouts with 214 while allowing the second least amount of earned runs, giving up 67 in 35 games. The Jacks also rank third in the conference with a team ERA of 2.03

     

    Rowing Ranked No. 2 First West Region Poll

     

    Humboldt State Women’s Rowing debuted at No. 2 across the board in the first Division II West Regional ranking on Tuesday. HSU sits behind Western Washington who captured the number one across the board.

    The Lumberjacks are back in action at the Covered Bridge Regatta in Eugene, Ore. April 15.

     

    HSU Track and Field dominates Chico Distance Carnival and Twilight Invitational

     

    Humboldt State’s Track and Field team had strong showing at the Chico Distance Carnival and Twilight Invitational on both the men and women’s side Saturday.

    Ariel Oliver had a strong performance in shot put and discus. HSU dominated  shot put as Oliver placed first with a distance of 13.83m and teammates Lily Bankas and Marissa McCay came in second and third with throws of 12.28m and 12.16m.

    HSU also had four of the top six spots in the discus as Oliver placed first again. Eliana Campos finished second, Ashley Ross fifth and Lily Bankas sixth. Alyssabeth DeJerez, Marissa McKay, and Ellie Earle-Rouse all matched National provisional marks in the 200, long jump, and high jump respectively.

    On the men’s side Tiegan Eilers had a PR in the discus with a throw of 36.89m. Dustyn Salomon looked strong winning his heat in the 800m, while Daniel Tull placed 3rd in the Invitational Mile. Calvin Herman placed second in the 400m Hurdles, and Mario Kaluhiokalani ran a fast 110m hurdle race earning himself a spot in finals.

    Track and Field travels to Long Beach, Calif. 4/13-4/15 for its next meet.

     

  • HSU student affected by Trump ban

    HSU student affected by Trump ban

    By Morgan Brizee

    Mohammad Maleki spent all of his tuition money on multiple boarding passes and then had to catch up on a couple weeks worth of classwork because of Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. The ban is an executive order President Donald Trump issued that prohibits people with passports from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen from entering the United States.

    Mohammad Maleki is a 23-year-old political science major from Iran who came to HSU as a freshman in fall 2015. Maleki was coming back from visiting his family during winter break when he found himself unable to get back to the U.S. for the spring semester. Before he even got his boarding pass to the US, he had issues renewing his visa. There is no American consulate in Iran, so Maleki went to Dubai to renew his visa. He waited weeks in a hotel until he got approved from his background check by the United States.

    “It was written that my application may take days to several weeks[to get approved],” Mohammad said. “They didn’t give me any information.”

    After waiting three weeks, he received his visa and passport. Mohammad then bought his boarding pass in Dubai for a flight to the San Fransisco Airport. He wasn’t alerted that anything was wrong until he went to the gate to board his flight. The security told him that he was not allowed to come to the U.S. because of his nationality.

    Mohammad Maleki, 23-year-old HSU political science major from Iran working on school work in the library.

    “I was in transit in the airport and I didn’t know what to do,” Mohammad said.

    He was told that because of Donald Trump’s immigration ban he would not be able to board. He then had to get another flight but this time to Turkey to figure out what to do next.

    “I couldn’t go back to Dubai and I couldn’t go back to my country,”  Mohammad said. “If I go back to my country I have to go to the military for two years.”

    Maleki was unsure of what was going to happen next. Turkey was the only place he could go without a visa. Then he learned about a judge in Boston suspending Trump’s ban.

    “I got a call from my father telling me to go to Boston,” Mohammad said.  

    In order for him to go to Boston he had to go from Turkey to the Frankfurt airport in Germany because it was only a German airline that was allowing flights to the U.S. despite the ban.

    “Again, from the Frankfurt they didn’t let me get into board,”  Mohammad said. “They said again because of your nationality.”

    So again, he flew back to Turkey to figure out the next plan of action to try to get back. Another judge, this time a federal judge in Seattle, Judge James Robart could temporarily block Trump’s ban.

    “I asked Turkish airline if the news was true,” Mohammad said. “But they didn’t know what was going to happen in a couple hours or tomorrow.”

    So, he decided to take yet another chance and buy another ticket to the United States. This time it worked and he made it past the gate and into the plane on his way to the US. All while this was happening his younger brother Amir was in the United States waiting for his brother’s arrival back.

    “We had a consideration of me going back if my brother wouldn’t be able to come back,” Amir said.

    If Mohammad couldn’t come back both his brother and him would travel back to Iran and join the military. The current President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, made an issue that students with temporary visas elsewhere were able to come back to Iran twice, each time for up to three months without having to join the military.

    “I already used my two chances so I can’t go back,” Mohammad said. “If I go back I have to enlist.”

    Once Mohammad made it back into the United States he had another challenge. Mohammad had to get permission from all his teachers to allow him to join the class after school had already begun.

    Jared Larson is  lecturer for the department of politics. Larson is Mohammad’s teacher for two of his political science classes.  He still remembers getting the email from Mohammad that he was having issues getting back into the United States because of Trump’s ban.

    “I about jumped out of my own damn skin,” Larson said. “I responded saying ‘that I was embarrassed and ashamed that this is happening to you’.”

    Larson along with Mohammad’s other teachers did not have to think much when accepting Mohammad into class late in the semester. They just knew that it was going to take a lot of work for him to catch up.

    Amanda Admire, research associate and lecturer for department of geology, is another one of Mohammad’s teachers that was able to help guide Mohammad in catching up with the class.

    “Once I was contacted I didn’t have an issue with helping him get back in the course and working with him to get him caught up on the material on everything,” Admire said.

    Mohammad took multiple quizzes and assignments all at once in order to get caught up on his schoolwork. But the teachers weren’t the only ones on campus helping Mohammad feel comfortable again.

    Megan Mefford, coordinator of international admission and immigration, was a big factor in helping Mohammad get back into the swing of things.

    “Mohammad and I kept in close contact by email and phone,”  Mefford said. “I was the first one to know about Mohammad and yes, I was worried.”

    Mohammad has now caught up with his homework and tests and is able to focus on current work. However, his brother Amir was unable to get his teachers to let him join classes late at College of the Redwoods. Amir is now talking with a lawyer about getting his I-20 student visa reinstated since it was revoked after not being able to rejoin classes.

    “The more the merrier, the more diversity of identity and of experience the better,” Larson said. “We are a weaker group because of this policy choice.”