The Skyline Newspaper

Photo: Lobo football player Michael Van Wagner ison the move, helping students move belongings into the residence halls. Photos by Beth Miller

Lobo Moving Company to the Rescue

By Jason Hennington
News Writer

What can be done to maximize football and housing at Sul Ross State University? Just call the Lobo Moving Company.

The Lobo Moving Company, aka the Lobo football team, helped students move into their residence halls on Aug. 18.

The idea of football players carrying heavy items and helping students move in was dreamed up by head coach Steve Wright and Liz Garcia, director of Residential Living and interim dean of Student Life.

The plan was to maximize players, who were split into offense and defense, and then given shifts during the day to help people move. This gave players a chance to interact with incoming students and gave them a chance to see returning friends.

"It's a good way to meet incoming freshmen and a good way for freshmen to meet upperclassmen," said Chris Vela, a senior from Stockdale.

Freshmen Tim Brooks, San Antonio, and Jesse Gonzales, Crystal City, saw this as a chance to make things easier for incoming students.

"It was easy. You get to help people out, meet new people, and talk to the girls," Brooks laughed.

"It's good because I know how it feels to move in. We helped make it easier for them, met some new friends, and got some conditioning in," Gonzales said. "It made me feel good inside."

In 2003 a welcome team was created, consisting of staff members and Residential Living employees. With the addition of the football team, employees can now focus on paperwork and issuing keys, while the players move boxes.

"We totally appreciate their help," Garcia said. "It encourages faculty to help with the meeting and greeting of students."

Wright, who once worked as a director of residential living at another college, offered his players as a gesture of good faith.

"I didn't go to them; they came to us. That says something about our football team," Garcia said.

All players were required to help with move-ins, but no one objected.

"It's a good experience to get the community back in the football spirit. We make new friends and it shows the team can be helpful off the field," said Michael Van Wagner, Bandera.

Wright saw this as an opportunity for players to interact with new and returning students, as well as advertise for Lobo football.

"Interaction with our group on campus and the new group is critical," Wright said. "They get to take orders from the Residential Living staff, and interact with non-football players."

Chase Bowser, Killeen, enjoyed interacting with new students, and explained he carried various items.

"I carried TV's, radios, snacks," Bowser laughed. "This was a fantastic opportunity to meet new students."

Sean Collins, Houston, is a transfer student playing for Sul Ross this season. This was his first official duty as a Lobo.

"I enjoyed it. I got to meet new people here on campus," Collins said.

According to Wright, moving into a residence hall and getting settled in is one of the most important parts of college. He offered his team to make this process run smoother for students.

"We tried to help dilute the move-in transition," Wright said.

The thought of helping students move their belongings to their rooms and making them feel welcome at Sul Ross was the base of this program. Shortly after the move-in, the football team had an inter-squad scrimmage, which most of them campaigned for during the day.

Helping with move-ins also allowed Wright to see his players in the Sul Ross community, gained support from the Residential Living department, and hopefully from other departments.

"We want to be as supportive as we can," Garcia said. "We've established a relationship with athletics."

The players all had fun while helping their fellow students. At one point it took at least six players to carry a 60'-inch-screen TV to the second floor of Lobo Village 1.

Players got to see their returning friends and meet new friends along the way.

"A heck of a deal," according to Wright.

Big Bend Balloon Bash Draws Pilots, Community

By Madeleine Cantu
Skyline Reporter

This past Labor Day weekend saw one of the biggest fall attractions for the Big Bend area: the Big Bend Balloon Bash.

Poor weather last year prevented me from seeing the hot-air balloons at all. This year I was eager to witness their flight up-close for the first time. I rolled up to Sierra La Rana around eight o'clock Friday morning.

Fifteen balloon crews were already there and had been for some time. In fact, most of the balloons were already inflated and taking off, with only a few still grounded. One of the balloon crews, "Middle-Aged & Crazy" kindly took me in and showed me balloon insanity first-hand.

This balloon is piloted by Alan Yancey of Odessa, Texas, and has crew chiefs by the names of Cody, Ellen, and Paul, who are all friends. Alan bought the balloon from a lady in Lubbock, Texas, who used it to travel to Sunday Mass in style each week. Now the crew members for Middle Aged & Crazy participate in several different hot-air balloon festivals for the sheer pleasure of flying in the large, propane-fueled balloon.

Middle Aged & Crazy is a 1986 Raven RX-7 model, with 77,500 cubic feet of flame-resistant, rip-stop nylon, running on four 15-gallon propane tanks, which can keep it in flight for approximately 2 1/2 hours. Its basket can only hold the pilot and one passenger and has a maximum gross weight capacity of 1450 pounds. That includes gear, propane, passengers, and the basket itself, which is made of durable woven wicker and is lightweight, flexible, and easily repaired.

There is a lot of work to get a hot-air balloon up in the sky. The material has to be laid out just right before being inflated, and cables need to be attached to the basket, which are both the crew chiefs' jobs. There is roughly 30 feet of material, called the envelope, to fill up. This process takes approximately 15-20 minutes, using a large fan and the propane burner until it stands upright.

As someone who knows next to nothing about hot-air balloons, watching all of this take place left me feeling a little out of my element. When Paul invited me to tag along with the "chase crew," I couldn't imagine passing up the offer. So it was that I found myself piling in with seven other people (and Ellen's dachshund, Mina) into Alan's Suburban to track down Alan and his passenger wherever they might end up landing. Although communication is kept between the pilot and his chase crew by means of a radio, the pilot can navigate and tell the crew where he is by using GPS.

When I say "wherever," that is the full truth. The crew will never be able to predict exactly where the balloon will touch down. It is almost entirely at the mercy of the wind. The pilot can only change the altitude by either burning more propane to make it rise, or venting it through the top valve at the crown of the balloon to lower it. Because of the dependency on the vagaries of the wind, hot-air balloons are flown early in the morning or just before dusk, when the winds are calmest.

Only guessing that we were going in the right direction, we bumped along side roads, and consulted a few maps and held constant contact with Alan. In short, we didn't really know where we were going, only that Alan had landed over in that general direction, and we needed to find a way to get there. We gained a few passengers along the way, in the form of grasshoppers leaping in through our windows as we went through six feet of overgrown grass.

We almost got stuck twice but finally prevailed! Fortunately, the staff in charge of the event were aware we were having difficulties getting to the balloon and were standing by to direct us to its landing site. In a pleasant twist of fate the necessary route ended up being a short and mild ride down Avenue I. We eventually found Middle Aged & Crazy in one piece nearly an hour later, by which time the balloon was already deflated.

When all was packed and secured and we had piled back into the Suburban, it was back to the balloon field, where the pilots were initiating a new member to their ranks. After a pilot's first flight, everyone gathers around the kneeling initiate. Preacher Jim, a fellow pilot who has been in the business for years, leads the ceremony.

He begins by telling a fictitious story that is meant to be drawn out, torture the pilot, and make everyone laugh. After he's finished, they all recite the balloon pilot's prayer and then soak the new pilot with any liquid that is handy--Coke, dirty water, ice water, beer.

The day wound down after 1pm. After the crews waited in line to refill their balloons' propane tanks by means of a WTG propane truck, they headed to the city park to tailgate and barbeque. There they exchanged stories and reminisced. Although they part ways for the evening, early morning will find them all together again in the field, ready to repeat the excitement with no less enthusiasm.

This festival would not have been possible if it were not for the hard work of the Big Bend Balloon Committee and the owner of Sierra la Rana, Al Micallef. His sponsorship of the event made the Big Bend Balloon Bash what it is--he advertised in magazines all over Texas, built the road that the spectators and crews used to access the field, and prepared the field itself expressly for these hot-air balloon enthusiasts. Local landowner cooperation is vital to the festival's success, as landing sites could possibly cross fence lines.

The Big Bend Balloon Committee is always looking for volunteers and donations to help make future events an even better experience. If you would like to get involved, they usually have a monthly meeting here in Alpine.

Whether you're interested in tagging along with crews, becoming a member of one, or looking into becoming a pilot, the committee would be a great source of information for you. Please call (432) 837-7486 for more information.

Hands Join Across Border to Protest Proposed Wall

By Clarence Russeau
Skyline Contributor

Many United States and Mexican citizens joined in a national protest to stop a wall being built on the boarder between Prisidio, TX, and Ojinaga, Mexico.

A crowd of approximately fifty people attended the gathering on August 28, 2007, to show their solidarity to protest the idea of a wall to separate the two nations.

Congress authorized funding for barriers along the Mexico and United States borders when they passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006. The intent is to build approximately 700 miles of some sort of partition between Mexico and the United States to help stop the influx of immigrants.

In a statement, United States Representative Raul M. Grijalva, D- Arizona said allowing flexibility for a local approach to border security made far more sense than "mandating an unrealistic and harmful wall."

He continued to say the Secure Fence Act and REAL ID promote a "one fence fits all" solution and hamper the ability of local experts to implement security measures that would be more effective and have less impact on the border environment.

"Constructing a fence along the border would be completely impractical over the rugged terrain of the mountains and deserts and would be disastrous to the fragile border ecosystem."

Grijalva represents Arizona's 7th Congressional District. Outside of Texas' 23rd Congressional District, it is the biggest district along the southern border. It includes 300 miles adjacent to Mexico, running from Tucson in the east to the California state line.

Tony Gonzales, a sophomore in Industrial Technology at Sul Ross State University said, "It's designed to keep people and families apart, and it's a racist move."

Johan Richards of South Korea and a graduate of San Angelo State University said, "What's taking place is inhuman."

The peaceful crowd held hands and stood across the bridge on the U. S. side just enough not to block traffic.

Many people on both sides of the border spoke to the crowd in Spanish and English. The organizer, Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr. of Del Rio, spoke to the crowd, thanking them for their participation in a peaceful protest and repeating to the crowd their purpose to oppose the wall. "Its not beneficial to the people who we have great relations with. It will destroy the environment, the economy and most importantly, our good relations with Mexico."

Years ago, President Ronald Reagan, on a trip to West Berlin, Germany said to the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, "If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Chris McWilliams, a 2006 graduate of Sul Ross said, "It may look good on paper in Washington, but when you're on the ground its not such a good idea, so there must be a better solution than a wall."

Hands across the border will end September 9, 2007. For more information go to www.borderambassadors.com or call (830) 768-0768.