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Renovations and grand openings abound among Davis businesses

City Editor
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Downtown Davis businesses are feeling an itch for expansions, renovations and grand openings.

Recently, multiple businesses have either opened or renovated their locations. The restaurant industry in downtown Davis has become particularly affluent.

Here is a preview of some changes you can expect to see downtown:

 

KetMoRee (238 G St.)

2K Thai Food is moving its location on F Street to the corner of G and Third streets, formerly occupied by Strelitzia Flower Company.

“The [location] that we have right now is a little small,” said Nate Yungvanitsait, manager at 2K Thai Food. “We are getting pretty good business, so we want to expand to a bigger place.“

The staff hopes that with a bigger location, customers will have to wait for less time during peak restaurant hours.

The new location will change its name to KetMoRee, and will include a bar/lounge area, creating a nice place for customers to sit while waiting for a table, Yungvanitsait said.

The bar will also have later hours than the restaurant to create the potential for a more active nightlife, he added. While the atmosphere will be new, the food will remain the same.

While the owners are keeping the space that 2K Thai Food currently occupies, they declined to disclose what they will do with it.

 

Barista Brew (431 G St.)

Barista Brew is a new café that recently opened in Davis. Located on the corner of G and Fifth Streets, it is a business that caters to students and local businesspeople in the area.

Since Barista Brew’s opening on Jan. 5, their customer flow has been picking up, said owner Paul Pannu.

The café gets a lot of business from students as well as people who work in the [United States Department of Agriculture] building across the street depending on the time of day, Pannu said.

“During the evening, we see more of the younger crowd,” he said. “We also have free Wi-Fi, which is appealing to students”

Pannu, a UC Davis graduate student, is always trying to determine what the community wants and needs.

“I think they are looking for a place like [Barista Brew],” he said. “I think we offer something a little different.“

Barista Brew offers not only coffee but also breakfast burritos, frozen yogurt and lunch paninis, Pannu said.

 

Davis Creamery/Cupcake Cravings (2129 Cowell Blvd.)

Davis Creamery is no stranger to Davis, but they have now reopened their doors after two months of closing for renovations.

The ice cream parlor has also brought in a partner company, Cupcake Cravings, said Hannah Jermstad, manager of Davis Creamery/Cupcake Cravings.

“Our ice cream is homemade, and our cupcakes are delivered fresh daily,” Jermstad said.

A Sacramento-based company, products from Cupcake Cravings for the Davis location come straight from their main bakery in Sacramento, she said.

All of the base ingredients of the ice cream at the Davis Creamery are organic, Jermstad added. The creamery also has two flavors that are 100 percent organic.

Right now, the creamery receives a good mix of families and the student population, she said.

“We are trying to reach out more to the student population,” Jermstad added.

After their grand opening last weekend, Davis Creamery/Cupcake Craving staff hopes that their unique combination of businesses attracts a bigger crowd, Jermstad said.

“We are the only business in Davis that has cupcakes like we do,” she said. “All cupcakes are hand-made and hand decorated.“

 

Mountain Mike’s Pizza (4615 Cowell Blvd.)

Mountain Mike’s Pizza in the El Macero Shopping Center on Cowell Blvd. has reopened under new management.

Mountain Mike’s has now been open for about two weeks, and people are starting to realize that they have reopened, owner Jim Haines said.

“We have been closed for about a year, and [Mountain Mike’s] previously wasn’t being run too well,” Haines said. “We have been getting compliments from people coming in that the place looks much better.“

Although being located further from campus makes reaching out to students more difficult, Mountain Mike’s would like to appeal more to the college student population, Haines said.

“We would like to do a college night,” he said. “We want to appeal to the college student budget.“

Mountain Mike’s currently offers a deal of pizzas at 50 percent off on Sundays, Haines added. Staff and management encourage Davis students and residents to check out their newly renovated restaurant.

 

CAITLIN COBB can be reached at city@theaggie.org. 

Graduate School of Management to offer public health emphasis

Campus Editor
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The UC Davis Graduate School of Management and Medical Center have teamed up to create a program aiming to combat mismanagement of health care funds.

Students within the Graduate School of Management will now have the opportunity to earn an MBA with an emphasis in public health by completing 12 units taught by the Department of Public Health Sciences.

“This is a fairly unique option within the management track,” said James Stevens, assistant dean of student affairs at the Graduate School of Management. “This really does bring together the basic management principles and education of the GSM and enhance it with direct coursework in public health.“

John Troidl, an academic administrator at the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences said that the idea was partially inspired by the California Department of Public Health.

“They’re looking into the possibility of health reform in our country and know that we’ll need more people who know both management and public health,” he said. “Management goes beyond a one-by-one approach and instead deals with substantial issues at the population level.“

Stevens said they’ll be meeting with the California Department of Public Health next week to discuss the program, and that the Graduate School of Management works closely with both private and public industries to determine what the market needs are.

“Representing one-sixth of the nation’s economy makes health care the largest industry in the United States – and a logical starting point for a union between the Department of Public Health and the Graduate School of Management,” Stevens said.

Health care spending in the United States reached $2.4 trillion in 2008, according to the National Coalition on Health Care, and is projected to reach $3.1 trillion in 2012.

“This spending accounts for 16.2 percent of our GDP, but without increase in the nation’s health status,” said Troidl. “The same service is costing more and we’re getting the same mediocre results.“

The “results” – the nation’s health – are measured in terms of longevity, health disparities among different populations and also how many years we have of healthy living, Troidl said.

“As we age, do we so healthily? Compared to other countries, we don’t,” he said. “If we can help the population be healthier throughout their life span then it’s better for all of us and less expensive – prevention is a way of saving money.“

Troidl believes these MBAs with public health emphasis will be able to make critical decisions and provide valuable leadership in the health sector going forward.

“We think they’ll be very employable – they’re people who would be good executives and good leaders who understand the population perspective – which is increasingly being considered important by everyone” he said.

Five of the 10 largest employers in the Sacramento area are health care associations – something Stevens believes will factor into future enrollment numbers.

“Two of our first-year students in the MBA program specifically chose UC Davis because of this option, and I think more people will be looking here because of it,” Stevens said.

 

MIKE DORSEY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

Spectacular Oliver leads Aggies to upset win over 49ers

Sports Editor
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If there is one thing the Big West Conference has, it’s parity.

The UC Davis men’s basketball team sits in a four-way tie for fourth place in the Big West standings after upsetting league-leading Long Beach State on Thursday and then falling to UC Riverside on Saturday.

With a 5-5 conference record, the Aggies are two games behind Long Beach State, sitting alongside UC Riverside, Pacific and UC Irvine.

UC Davis returns to the Pavilion this week to host UC Irvine on Thursday and third-place Cal State Fullerton on Saturday. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.

 

Thursday – UC Davis 82, Long Beach State 76

Vince Oliver couldn’t help himself from smiling.

After the night he had, no one could blame him.

The senior guard scored 22 of his career-high 33 points in the second half, including 10 in the final minute, to carry UC Davis to an 82-76 upset road win over Long Beach State (12-10, 7-3).

“It feels good, I’m not going to lie,” Oliver said. “I was in a groove and my teammates got me the ball. But I’m most proud that it came in a win.“

Oliver was 9-of-16 from the field, 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and 12-of-14 from the line, topping his previous career high of 30 set as a sophomore.

The performance saw Oliver vault from seventh to fifth on UC Davis‘ all-time scoring list, surpassing John Frost (1,346 points) and Ryan Moore (1,358) with 1,374 career points.

“It’s an honor,” Oliver said. “But it‘s something I won’t really think about until the season is over. I‘m just focusing on the season right now and trying to get to the [NCAA] Tournament.“

Oliver’s biggest field goal was his last, a three-pointer from the right corner that gave UC Davis a four-point lead with a minute left in regulation. The Aggies then went 9-of-12 from the free throw line to close out the win over the conference’s top team.

The win snapped a two-game losing streak for UC Davis and was its third straight on the road.

“With this environment and the stakes, coming in against a first-place team and on the heels of two setbacks,” said coach Gary Stewart, “it speaks volumes about our kids‘ character and fortitude.“

Joe Harden just missed his sixth double-double of the season, finishing with 18 points and eight rebounds. Dominic Calegari added 10 points to round out the Aggies in double-figure scoring.

Battling a right foot injury, Long Beach State’s Donovan Morris was limited to five points on 1-for-8 shooting in 13 minutes. Freshman forward T. J. Robinson picked up most of the scoring slack, netting a career-high 24 points to go with 12 rebounds.

 

Saturday – UC Riverside 58, UC Davis 53

Playing in front of a sell-out home crowd was unfamiliar territory for the Highlanders.

Seeing Kyle Austin and Aaron Scott so ineffective in the same game made it all even stranger.

But then, just when a wacky night at the Student Rec Center couldn’t get any wackier, it found a way.

UC Davis, the top free-throw shooting team in the country, had rare trouble from the charity stripe, missing six of 12 attempts in the second half to make for a fitting ending to an odd 58-53 loss to UC Riverside (13-9, 5-5).

“Our kids fought really hard,” Stewart said. “We just didn’t make shots, but I can’t fault our effort.“

The Aggies held Austin and Scott to six points each on a combined 4-for-21 shooting. It was the lowest scoring output for Austin (16.3 points per game) of the season, and Scott’s 1-for-9 shooting effort was the least efficient of the senior’s career.

UC Riverside had a strong defensive night of its own, holding UC Davis to a season-low 53 points on 35.4 percent shooting.

 

MICHAEL GEHLKEN can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Tough match favors the foe

Sports Editor
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Heading into Saturday’s Big West Conference opener against UC Santa Barbara, coach Bill Maze knew how tough a fight it would be to be for the Aggies to come out victorious.

“It’s going to be a very tough match, a real battle,” Maze said before the match. “We’ll have to play very, very well to beat UCSB.“

Even though the Aggies (4-4) did indeed play well, putting up 50 singles points to the Gauchos 66, it proved not to be enough as UCSB picked up a 5-2 win.

Hosting UCSB (2-0) at the Marya Welch Tennis Center, UC Davis struggled from the get-go, losing all three doubles matches to fall behind 0-1.

It appeared as though the Aggies would rebound in singles play when the freshman Dahra Zamudio checked in at No. 2 with a 6-2, 7-6 (4) victory over Jill Damion.

It was the first time playing at No. 2 for Zamudio, who has proved herself to Maze this season by going 9-8 overall prior to Saturday’s match.

Even after the freshman checked in with her impressive victory, tying the match up at 1-1, UC Davis could not capitalize on the momentum.

One by one as the Aggies finished up play, four in a row would be chalked up for the Gauchos, sealing the victory for UC Santa Barbara.

The final point of the day was awarded at the No. 6 match, as UC Davis‘ Emma Shapiro defeated Bryanna Ojeda 6-2, 7-6 (4).

The UC Davis women’s tennis team will return to action on Valentine’s Day to face Big West foe Cal State Fullerton.

 

MATT MILLER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

UC Davis falls to Boise State

Sports Editor
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The Aggies traveled to Idaho in hopes of beating one of the top programs in the country, but left with disappointment as they fell to Boise State 38-3 Saturday night at Bronco Gymnasium.

No. 11 Boise State, which boasts seven nationally ranked wrestlers – including four ranked in the top five, handed the Aggies their sixth loss of the season which dropped them to 7-6 on the year and 3-4 in the Pacific-10 Conference.

The Broncos improved to 14-3 on the year and 5-0 in Pacific 10 Conference.

“They’re a tough team,“ said coach Lennie Zalesky. “I think they deserve to be ranked even higher.“

All of the Broncos ranked wrestlers won on Saturday, with five of their nine wins coming by bonus point decisions.

The Aggies lone victory came from their only ranked wrestler in No. 18 Marcos Orozco at the 125-pound class. Orozco got a 3-0 decision against the Broncos‘ Alan Bartelli.

The Aggies‘ main goal right now is to get to full health before the Pac-10 Championships, Zalesky said.

“We’re a pretty tough team when we have our full lineup,” he said. “The goal is to go into the Pac-10 Championships with each of our 10 guys healthy. To get them healthy, we’re just going to have to give them some rest.“

UC Davis is almost at full strength. Nine of its 10 varsity wrestlers competed this weekend in Idaho, including the return of heavyweight wrestler Ricky Alcala.

The Aggies are looking to close out their conference record at .500 with a win over Cal Poly. The Mustangs come to the Pavilion on Sunday for UC Davis‘ final home dual of the year.

The Aggies will then have a few weeks to get ready for the Pac-10 Championships, which starts Mar. 1.

 

KYLE HYLAND can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Women’s basketball swept in weekend homestand

Sports Editor
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By MAX ROSENBLUM

Aggie Staff Writer

 

The Aggies have been finding themselves in very similar situations at the end of games as of late.

For the fifth straight game on Saturday, UC Davis (7-14, 3-7) saw a second-half lead turn into a narrow defeat against UC Riverside (13-9, 9-1) after falling to Long Beach State (5-17, 2-8) on Thursday. The two losses came by a combined seven points.

 

Thursday – Long Beach State 68, UC Davis 64

The Aggies began Thursday night looking to end a mini three-game losing streak.

They started off the game as if they were going to do just that.

UC Davis took a 10-point lead at the halfway point of the first period of play.

The 49ers then fought back to tie the game at 35-35 with a little under two minutes to play only to see the Aggies take a 40-35 lead into halftime.

Long Beach State then kicked it into gear, going on a 20-6 run to begin the second half.

The Aggies tied things up at 64-64 with 1:21 to play, but their offense stalled from there. UC Davis missed its last two shots as the 49ers edged out the victory.

“We had the 20-point lead, got down nine and came back,” said coach Sandy Simpson. “There is something to be said for that when we weren’t hitting on all cylinders to fight back to tie the game.“

For the players, the loss came down to two things: energy and a lack of a winning instinct.

“It is our energy level,” said freshman Lauren Juric, whose 14 points were a team-high. “We try to come out with energy, but the past couple of games we have been low on that. …We always seem to have a way to let the other team get back into the game.“

“I think everyone needs to develop some instinct when the other team starts scoring to not put our heads down and fire ourselves up to get back in their face,” said senior Genevieve Costello.

 

Saturday – UC Riverside 47, UC Davis 44 (O.T.)

The Aggies were without the services of Paige Mintun and Costello, leaving only seven players to suit up against the Highlanders.

Just don’t tell the players who did suit up there were only seven of them.

UC Davis stuck with favored UC Riverside from start to finish, forcing overtime in a 47-44 defeat.

The Aggies forced the Highlanders to miss their first 13 shots from the field, jumping out to an early 11-0 lead in the game’s first nine minutes. UC Davis took a seven-point lead into the break, 23-16.

“We came out and really executed defensively,” Simpson said. “Without Paige or Genevieve, we were down to the basics as far as personnel. We rebounded well and I was pleased with that.“

UC Riverside kicked it into gear with six minutes remaining, turning an eight-point deficit into a one-point lead with 47 seconds to play.

A layup by Juric to give the Aggies the lead was countered by a UC Riverside free throw, sending the game to overtime, 38-38.

“We came out strong again in the second half,” Simpson said. “UC Riverside is a veteran team. You can’t stretch that lead out. They don’t let you.“

The extra session was close, as the Highlanders had only a three-point advantage with 1:18 remaining.

UC Riverside proceeded to miss its next six free throws, giving UC Davis three more opportunities to get down the court to score. But the inability to convert late hindered the Aggies.

“I like the fact that we had the opportunity to come down a couple of times for shots,” Simpson said. “We got a look at a three, but [didn’t convert].“

Juric scored 14 points, a team-high for the second consecutive game. She also added 12 rebounds to get the double-double.

“Lauren played well and competed at both ends of the floor,” Simpson said.

 

MAX ROSENBLUM can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

UC Davis dominates UC Irvine

Sports Editor
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It was standing room only Saturday afternoon at Schaal Aquatics Center, as the Aggies wrapped up their dual season against the Anteaters of UC Irvine.

UC Davis put up a dominant performance against its Big West Conference rival, as the Aggie men and women beat UC Irvine by scores of 161-128 and 175-123, respectively.

The Schaal Aquatics Center played home to a senior tribute in which the 12 graduating team members were honored at a mid-dual intermission.

“That was the fastest performance by a UC Davis team at Schaal – ever,“ said men’s coach Pete Motekaitis. “Hopefully, this dual was a stepping stone to a fantastic performance at conference.”

The Big West Championships begin Feb. 25 in Long Beach, Calif.

The men finish their dual season at 9-3, while the women improved to 9-10. The wins give UC Davis its first sweep of the Anteaters since the 2004-2005 season.

The men’s program made an impressive start, winning the first 10 events of the day before swimming the final four events in exhibition.

As for the women, they won eight events, taking first and second place in six events.

Junior Heidi Kucera continued her streak of winning individual and relay events. She’s won three or more events for four straight weekends.

Kucera took the top spot in both the 100- and 200-breastrokes with times of 1:05.62 and 2:24.54. She also won the 400 individual medley in 4:30.97.

Freshman Jordan Lager also had three personal-best swims, as he too won three events. He set two Schaal Aquatics Center records with his times in the 100- (49.29) and 200-backstroke (1:49.37). He also swam exhibition to win the 400-yard individual medley (2:03.62).

Junior transfer Ed Morrison captured two individual wins, taking the 200-butterfly (1:52.29) and the 500-freestyle (4:33.69) as an exhibition swimmer. His 500-free time was the third fastest in pool history.

Morrison also led an Aggie sweep in the 200-butterfly, followed closely by junior Danny Donnelly (1:54.33) and freshman Reid Hartz (1:55.42).

UC Davis continued to keep moral high all the way to the last event, as junior Russ Underwood completed the anchor leg in the 400-free relay with a crowd-pleasing, 50-meter sprint.

 

ANDREA GUTIERREZ can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Victory in defeat

Sports Editor
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On the surface, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of parallels between the 2008-2009 UC Davis women’s basketball team and the 1982 morgue-attendant inspired film “Night Shift.“

Unless, of course, your name is Sandy Simpson.

“There’s a scene where they’re in jail,” the UC Davis women’s basketball coach said. “This one guy says, ‘You know, it can’t get any worse than this.‘ Then he turns around, sees something else happen, turns back and says, ‘I was wrong.‘ That’s kind of how I feel.“

Who can blame him? Every time Simpson turns around, something bad happens, usually leaving him with one less player on his fast-shrinking roster.

From Vicky Deely and Haylee Donaghe suffering season-ending knee injuries to Genevieve Costello (ankle) and Paige Mintun (concussion) going down at Friday’s practice, the Aggies haven’t been dodging the injury bug this season.

In fact, they’re chasing after it as quickly as they can. If things keep up at this rate, the team will be holding open tryouts effective yesterday.

“We lost Vicky, then we lost Haylee and then I think, ‘Oh, it can’t get any worse than this,‘” Simpson said. “Then I’m watching Genevieve writhing around in pain on the ground. Then I see Paige run off the court in a bit of a fog and I say, ‘Well, I guess it can get worse.‘”

When the Aggies took the floor at the Pavilion on Saturday to face UC Riverside, they had just seven players in uniform.

Seven players. Seven. Six freshmen. To face a UC Riverside team that had lost just one Big West Conference game in nine chances, the lone defeat coming against undefeated UC Santa Barbara.

On paper, the Highlanders were supposed to run away with things on Saturday night.

In reality, the Aggies gave them all they could handle.

UC Davis‘ roster of the walking wounded held UC Riverside to 25.9 percent shooting, forcing overtime before the favored Highlanders squeaked out a 47-44 win.

“It almost felt magical,” said Kasey Riecks, who played all 45 minutes and scored 11 points. “We’ve never been so pumped up for a game. People were like, ‘Oh my gosh, they have seven players, Riverside has only lost one game.‘

“We were proving everybody wrong. …We knew we could do it. Maybe no one else knew, but we knew.“

The fact of the matter is simple: UC Davis pushed arguably the Big West’s best team to overtime. With seven players.

If there ever was such a thing as a moral victory, the Aggies picked one up Saturday night.

“It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get the win, but it almost felt as good,” said Hana Asano, who started at point guard in place of the injured Costello. “One of the nice things about this season is we’ve faced adversity – a lot of it – from the very beginning.

“We’ve fought through things. We never let down. …We have so much Aggie pride, even as freshmen, that it almost hurts.”

It should be UC Davis‘ opponents that are doing the hurting in the not so distant future.

The six freshmen that played in Saturday’s game against UC Riverside – Riecks, Asano, Cortney French, Lauren Juric, Samantha Meggison and Lisa Peterson – have been racking up big minutes, picking up a world of experience in the process.

When you think about taking those six and pairing them with Mintun, Donaghe and Deely, it’s scary.

When you think about adding Anna Harp, who’s redshirting this season due to injury (go figure), and Heidi Heintz, a transfer from San Francisco who Simpson said “has as good a head for the game as anybody I’ve coached in 30 years,” to the equation, the future of the UC Davis women’s basketball program is looking very, very good. Crazy good.

That’s not saying this season is over. Far from it.

The Aggies‘ future rests in the development of its current freshman class – a class that showed on Saturday that it’s already a force to be reckoned with.

“We’re anxious to see if we can build on this,” Simpson said. “That’s the question for them: Are they tough enough to build on tonight and carry this forward?”

 

ADAM LOBERSTEIN has exceeded his inch count, leaving him no space to offer additional commentary here. He can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

 

Camping in Japan

Features Editor
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J.R. Best had a great idea.

He would move to Japan, and start a sports camp for Japanese youth. It would be a cultural exchange – U.S. students could come and intern as camp counselors, while Japanese youth would have the opportunity to learn from Americans.

In 2005, Best, a UC Davis 1979 alumnus, turned that idea into a pilot project in Kiyosato, Japan, a small town in the mountains three hours west of Tokyo.

“We started with 15 kids. We decided that the camp was not just going to be a football camp; we wanted the kids to experience a typical American camp … the whole bit,” Best said in an e-mail interview.

Since then, Sports Camp of America (S.C.O.A.), founded by Best, has become the only established sports camp in Japan conducted in English with American athletes as camp counselors. It has received support from the U.S. Embassy in Japan and NFL Japan, as well as sponsorship from All Nippon Airways.

In the past four years, the camp has provided Japanese first grade through junior high students, and young American athletes, the chance to interact through football, cheer and other sports. Run in the summer during August, the camp works in partnership with Kiyosato Educational Experiment (K.E.E.P.), a Japanese nonprofit located in Kiyosato that provides S.C.O.A. with cabin facilities and logistical support.

“For the kids, we want to accomplish several things … we want them to come away from their camp with a good feeling about Americans. Second, we want to get kids out of their shells by exposing them to American traits like self-expression and being outgoing. And third, we want S.C.O.A. to be the spark that makes them want to go visit other countries and experience other cultures,” Best said.

The idea for S.C.O.A. came in 2004, when Best and his wife, Keiko, were in Japan visiting relatives near Tokyo. Aware of his football background, Keiko’s sister asked if he would volunteer to help at his 11-year old nephew’s football camp.

The coach at the camp asked Best if he could show the campers how to run a pattern. Best acquiesced, and with a combination of broken Japanese and some physical language, demonstrated his technique.

“Next thing I knew, the head coach stopped practice, and twenty kids, ten dads, and five coaches are standing in front of me waiting for the American football coach to teach them about patterns,” Best said.

Watching from the sidelines, Keiko saw potential.

“At the end … she said that she had witnessed something amazing. At the start, the kids were quiet – almost afraid of me – but after two days they were into it, learning new things and repeating the English phrases I was throwing out rapid fire. That was the ‘aha!’ moment,” Best said.

That ‘aha!’ epiphany was, Best said, the ability to use sports as a universal language; it was a way for college students from the United States with little or no knowledge of Japanese to share an experience with Japanese kids with little or no knowledge of English. Sports would be the medium.

Interns, often undergraduate or recently graduated college students with high school or college backgrounds in sports, staff the camp as counselors.

Nolan de Graaff, a 2005 UC Davis alum, played three years of football for the Aggies while an undergraduate. De Graff heard about S.C.O.A. through the UC Davis Grid Club, a newsletter and network serving the extended Aggie football family of current/former players and associates.

“I went because I love to travel and I love football, and I love teaching kids; I thought it was a perfect opportunity,” de Graaff said.

A typical day for de Graaff started at 7 a.m. with breakfast with the other counselors and campers. Afterward, counselors would teach sports sessions (football, cheer, dodgeball and soccer).

“We would focus on basic skills – since it’s flag football, passing and catching and defense, not blocking or anything like that. [We’d also teach] how to line up, how to run routes, and catching skills,” said de Graaff, who coached football during the camp.

“The kids were super attentive – like a sponge,” de Graaff said. “Even though sometimes they didn’t know what you were saying, they would follow you, based on your physical action.“

Counselors would also instruct students in “English Time” sessions, where the interns would act out words using stories and body language, as well as playing games like Pictionary and Simon Says.

Julanne Wessely, a cheer dance counselor and Cal State Long Beach graduate, interned for the camp the past two summers.

“The camp was great … for us as Americans to go over there and interact with a different culture, especially kids, who are so open and willing to learn. You get there and you see smiling faces from these kids who are so anxious to learn from us,” Wessely said.

But despite the sports character of the camp, Best and the counselors go to great lengths to make sure their Japanese companions get the full, authentic, American camp experience. There are potato sack races, treasure hunts, water balloon tosses, campfire songs and s’mores.

“It says a lot that the kids…stayed for the second session – they would call home, say they had a really good time, and want to stay longer. We had a good time – I can only see [the camp] growing, and word of mouth spreading,” de Graaff said.

At the helm of the entire operation is Best, who has dedicated his time and effort into cultivating a small pilot into an innovative experience for both Americans and Japanese.

“J.R. is very passionate about what he does, you can tell that just by talking to him – he loves this camp; he cares so much about it that you want to care about it just as much,” Wessely said.

S.C.O.A. is currently looking for individuals with a high school or college sports background interested in summer internships like de Graaff’s during this coming August. Airfare and most expenses are covered; interns will also have the opportunity for a few days of sight-seeing in nearby Tokyo.

Visit S.C.O.A.‘s website at scoacamp.com to review the application and find out more.

 

ANDRE LEE can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Daily Calendar

Features Editor
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TODAY

Campus Judicial Board recruitment

2 to 3 p.m.

Garrison Room, MU

Check out this informational session for all students wishing to join the 2009-2010 Campus Judicial Board.

 

TUESDAY

Sustainable development and mineral resource extraction

12:10 p.m.

3201 Hart

Learn about the achievements and challenges of a global mining company. For more information, visit johnmuir.ucdavis.edu.

 

Imperialism and Historical Patterns of Partition

7 to 9:30 p.m.

2 Wellman

Chau Johnsen Kelly, a Ph.D candidate at UC Davis, will discuss the colonial legacy in Palestine in relationship to the British occupation and partition of India, South Africa and Ireland.

 

Health Transfer Student Association

7:30 p.m.

207 Wellman

A Kaplan representative will help with graduate school admissions with a personal statement workshop!

 

THURSDAY

Zero film screening

7 p.m.

1100 SSHB

View the film Zero and see evidence as to why the government’s explanation of 9/11 is untrue.

 

Chi Delta Theta’s Imaginasian

7:30 to 10 p.m.

Freeborn

Go to Chi Delta Theta’s very own Imaginasian! This Asian-American talent showcase will have pre-sale tickets for $10 and tickets for $12 at the door.

 

The Paradigm of Perfection: Prophet Muhammad Pbuh

7:30 p.m.

26 Wellman

Listen to Shaikh Abdul Kaireem Yahya and Shaykh Abdul Rashid Meskinyak talk about Prophet Muhammad Pbuh.

 

FRIDAY

Munich Symphony Orchestra

8 p.m.

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

Go to this orchestra’s all-Beethoven program featuring Philippe Entremont, conductor and piano soloist. Tickets range from $22.50 to $75.

 

SATURDAY

Davis Town and Gown Sonnet Walk

10 a.m.

Downtown Davis

Enjoy Shakespeare’s poetry on a guided stroll around campus and Downtown Davis.

 

Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile of Nickel Creeks

8 p.m.

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

The Punch Brothers’ fresh and cutting edge sound blends traditional bluegrass sounds with breathtaking innovation. Tickets range from $12.50 to $45.

 

 

To receive placement in the AGGIE DAILY CALENDAR, e-mail dailycal@theaggie.org or stop by 25 Lower Freeborn by noon the day prior to your event. Due to space constraints, all event descriptions are subject to editing, and priority will be given to events that are free of charge and geared toward the campus community.

 

Hail to the chief

Opinion
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0

Low voter turnout for ASUCD elections has been a conversation topic among student government types for a long time. It gets talked about each election season and is the reason nearly every senatorial candidate feels obligated to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about outreach.

This election season has some people (okay, just me) holding their breath; there seems to be an effort among most candidates to do more than put out flyers advocating their position on a few topics. This means that you, the Aggie-reading, Unitrans-going, CoHo-coffee-guzzling UC Davis student will have a better chance of making an informed decision when you decide to vote at the polls for the first time this quarter.

The least you can do is meet them halfway.

Candidates can only be in so many places at once. They have class just like you do and campaigning is time consuming work. When they do make an effort to get their message to you, take the time to listen.

At least one candidate has posted a video on Facebook about his positions; take the minute and a half of your time and watch it. There’s a chance you’ll agree with what him have to say and you’ll come away with an idea of who you want to vote for.

Maybe you won’t like it; at least you’ll know who you don’t want to vote for. If these candidates are willing to make an extra effort reaching out to you with multimedia and other means, they deserve to be heard.

As anyone running for a senate seat will tell you (even if you don’t want them to), ASUCD controls a multi-million dollar budget and runs or provides funding for many of the services you use and love (even if you don’t know it).

Every year the elections committee hosts debates between senate candidates; I’m willing to bet the vast majority of you haven’t ever gone to one. This year’s committee has made a much stronger effort than in past years to promote and organize these debates. Considering that there’s generally at least one held in the Coffee House, why not go to at least one? You can eat lunch while you watch other people talk at great length about how much they want to help you. They will even take verbal potshots at one another in order to secure their ability to help you.

When was the last time you had at least a dozen people arguing in public about which one would best represent you (and if this isn’t an abnormal occurrence for you, by all means, write in and tell me why)?

Your fine friends at AGTV should have videos of interviews with each senatorial and executive ASUCD candidate available soon. You’re reading about the election in the newspaper (this very publication!). Facebook is covered in a rash of candidate support groups (take that as you will). Candidates are campaigning on the Quad. If you have a class in Olson, the chalkboard is almost certainly covered with messages of support for one slate or another.

All these people want your attention. Nearly all avenues of media have been used! Why? So you can tell them what you want them to do for you. Sure, all them have goals they want to accomplish, but those take a backseat to what you think is important; their plan of action is based on what they think you want. Speak up and tell them if they got it right or not.

Plus if you all vote in this election, voter turnout will be high enough that you won’t have to listen to me write another one of these columns telling you what to do.

 

RICHARD PROCTER will now give out his weekly props: the Lakers, whoever came up with weekends and Matt Miller. Give Richard reasons to put you on this list at rhprocter@ucdavis.edu.

Cap and Gown List

Opinion
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0

I’ve always been jealous of those who rant. It may seem a strange thing to envy, but people who get passionate about a topic and then get annoyed, angry, and just lay into someone seem so emotionally free. Granted, they may also be criminally unbalanced, but that’s a topic for another day. There’ve been times in my life I wish I had yelled or screamed; sometimes I wish I could be a royal bitch who just calls it like I see it. Alas, that’s not me. But as I began to work on this week’s column, I was determined that I too could be an effective ranter.

No one says my rant has to be aimed at someone who wronged me, or a situation out of my control. I can still rant about something that bothers me…besides, this list is all about doing things I’ve never done.

Prepare yourself for something you have probably never seen, read or imagined: A rant about poor grammar! Please indulge as I geek out and rail against punctuation errors, poor diction, and all things written that are just grammatically wrong.

Here we go!

There is a difference between they’re as in “they’re fabulous“; their as in “their fabulous friends are here“; and there as in “there are my fabulous friends“. One is a pronoun, one a contraction and one an adverb. Those are different parts of speech and deserve to be treated as such.

There’s more.

Your: adjective meaning of or relating to you or yourself. Your jeans zipper is down.

You’re: contraction meaning you are. You’re going to be embarrassed when you discover your unfortunate zipper situation.

Accept: verb meaning to receive or to give admittance or approval to. I accept that not everyone loves the semicolon.

Except: preposition meaning with the exclusion or exception of. I before e, except after c.

By now you’re probably convinced I’m either a monumentally frustrated English teacher masquerading as an Aggie columnist, or the geekiest coed on campus. Either way, I’m sure this column won’t induce you to invite me to your next party.

But I digress.

I sat in a midterm the other day, prepared to kick its multiple choice butt. Imagine my displeasure to find what stood between a perfect grade and me was not my lack of preparation, but rather the wording of some of the questions.

One subject IS and two ARE, parallelism is heavenly and spelling does count when all the students should be focusing on is eliminating a,b,c or d rather than trying to ascertain which word the professor meant to type. It’s impossible to divine the answer when you can’t decipher the meaning of the question!

Don’t stop me; I’m on a roll! If I see one more person’s Facebook status that demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the difference between your and you’re, they better watch their grammar-hating behinds. Seriously people…they’re entirely different words.

The apostrophe can be your best friend, but change a few letters around and it becomes catastrophe. When something is possessive, add an apostrophe before the ‘s.‘ Ex: Dude, did you read Emily’s column today? Nerd alert!

You can also use an apostrophe to replace the ‘I‘ in is. Ex: Yeah playa, but Emily’s a cool girl if you get past the grammar obsession.

I’m pleading with you (students, faculty, friends, enemies and strangers): Elements of Style by Strunk and White is online. Look it up.

I’m begging you!

 

EMILY KAPLAN joined the Apostrophe Protection Society her step-mom found online. If you still want to be friends, e-mail her at eckaplan@ucdavis.edu.

Attention!

City Editor
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As some of you may have noticed by venturing to theaggie.org this past weekend, K.C. Cody now has two columns; his tried and true Informed Dissent, and a spiffy new advice column called Ask a Super-Senior.

So, if you happen to find yourself in a social, moral or academic dilemma, or if you just want some general advice from a battle tested source, please send your intractable scenarios to either kccody@ucdavis.edu or editor@theaggie.org and K.C. will be happy to make up a fake name for you and respond the following week.

Local group sows native landscape

City Editor
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0

Students from the Met School in Sacramento planted hundreds of native trees, shrubs and grasses to create a natural buffer around the new Clark Pacific concrete plant in Woodland.

Some of the plants that are part of the new landscape include Valley Oak, Fremont Cottonwood, Mexican Elderberry, Buckwheat and Deergrass, according to a press release.

The plants are all native plants that are intended to control erosion and sedimentation problems.

The project was led by the Center for Land-Based Learning, which hosts an ongoing program that puts local high school students in charge of landscaping and habitat restoration projects, said spokesperson Teala Schaff.

“This project represents an increasingly attractive approach in landscaping and an innovative partnership that sets a great example for local, community-based landscaping plans,” said Center for Land-Based Learning executive director Mary Kimball in a written statement. Kimball said she hopes this project will be a model for future endeavors.

The project began last October and will continue through March.

 

 

 

Council will discuss general plan, parks

City Editor
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0

The Davis City Council will meet Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Chambers at 23 Russell Blvd.

The following are descriptions of selected agenda items the council will discuss at the meeting. To view the entire agenda and associated staff reports, visit cityofdavis.org.

 

General Plan update

What will the city of Davis look like in 2035?

It’s impossible to know for sure, but the Davis City Council is about to embark on a long and arduous journey to determine what an update to the city’s General Plan will include.

The council will begin discussing the General Plan update at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. The General Plan outlines the basic development rules that guide new construction and development within the city. It defines which parts of the city are for housing, which are for industrial business, and where retail business should go.

The council will be asked to decide how to go about working on the General Plan, a task that will be expensive no matter how it is done. The three options presented by Community Development Director Katherine Hess in a report to the council range from $1 million to $3 million in cost. The least expensive option would take two years, and the most expensive approach would take four years.

Though funding for the General Plan update has not been allocated yet, it could come from a variety of different sources, such as the General Fund, construction tax revenues, development impact fees and redevelopment funds.

Opting for the cheaper approach will mean minimizing issue analysis, citizen engagement and study of alternatives, according to the report.

Councilmembers will be asked to weigh in on three overarching questions, including what the updated plan should contain and achieve, as well as what aspects are important in the process of developing the plan. Councilmembers will also be solicited for their input on what else should be considered in the plan.

 

Sports Park Environmental Impact Report

With hundreds of Davis children participating in softball, youth soccer and little league baseball, there is a high demand in the city for playing fields and baseball diamonds.

The Davis City Council will take a step toward providing more space for those activities at Tuesday’s meeting, when it is expected to commission environmental documents for a new park.

The Environmental Impact Report will cost either $199,981 or $308,255, depending on which properties the council decides to analyze, according to a report prepared by Parks and General Services Director Donna Silva. Funding for the EIR and conceptual plans will come from proceeds from past development agreements and a contribution from a property owner.

The new sports park will be 100 acres in size. The location has not been determined yet, but several sites east and northeast of the city limits would be analyzed.

If a new sports park is built, two current athletic sites will be razed and rezoned for housing. One is the Civic Center Ball Field at 23 Russell Blvd., and the other is the Davis Little League Fields at 1865 H St., near the railroad tracks.

 

JEREMY OGUL can be reached at city@theaggie.org. 

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