Eastern's Flag Football

On a cold, windy day, Garry Mundy is out running on a football field, hoping to out smart and out run his opponents. His teammate throws a perfect spiral, and with his breath coming out in a fog and his fingers numb, he leaps forward and manages to somehow catch a ball that he cant feel. This is just another game in the Flag Football League playoffs that started this week.

For over ten years, students here at Eastern have joined together to play flag football on the fields out on Westview St. The tradition has been to have at least six teams, all of which must only contain Eastern students who are not on the actual Eastern Eagles football team. These teams will then play in a series of off-season games as practice. Then, once each team has played the others, they join together for a single elimination playoff.

The rules are the same for regular football, with only a few exceptions. First, if a flag is pulled out of the belt or pocket, that player is considered "tackled" and the play is over. Second, physical contact is prohibited completely, unless it is obviously accidental or unavoidable. Third, a team must be able to field at least six players or forfeit the match.

"It's a lot of fun, but I was really surprised that there was an actual college team for this," said Mundy, a sophomore. "Flag Football just isn't the sort of thing you expect to find being taken seriously on a college campus."

Mundy isn't the only student surprised to have found this out, but more importantly, Eastern isn't the only school to do it. Ryan Paree, a senior at Albion college has been playing in the Albion division since his freshman year.

"It's great fun. No one worries about getting too hurt, because you just pull the flags out of people's belts. Sometimes you might miss a catch and get hit in the face or something, but this is football, after all."

It looks as if almost half of the colleges in the Metro Detroit area have their own league, though as of now there is no school sponsored inter-school games. "Last year a bunch of my friends who went to U of M wanted to challenge our team, so we got everyone from Albion together and went to their field," recalls Paree.

There are no plans currently to improve the Flag Football Leagues or promote them further.

Coup de Gras

YPSILANTI, Mich - Edward Raphael Thorstein, a sophmore at Eastern Michigan University, is creating an official university sponsored group for gaming, called Coup de Gras.

"Last year, when I first came here, I was disappointed to learn that there had been a gaming organization, but that it had fallen apart," said Edward, or Spud as his friends call him. "So, I decided to start another one."

Previously, there had been a school sponsored group for gaming called Archmage, though it concentrated almost exclusively to the table-top role playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, or Mage Knight. The group had been disbanded though, due to a lack of participants.

Spud decided not to limit himself to one genre of gaming though. Instead, he pooled all of his passions into the group. His group will also include video, role-playing, board, and card games, as well as having anime and movie nights.

The intent is to allow people with similar hobbies to find others who enjoy the same games, as well as finding new ones. "Hopefully it'll help introduce people to new and different games as well. Someone who shows up looking for dungeon and dragon players might leaving with a desire to start playing Magic the Gathering," said John Jarvis, a co-founder of the group.

The group wouldn't have been possible without Spud's dedication and drive, however. "The school didn't want to waste its time with [this type of group], because Archmage had just failed." Archmage was the name of the previous gaming group on campus. "It was only because Spud kept coming to them with new ideas, surveys, signatures... everything. He just wouldn't quit until they agreed to hear him out."

Finally, after months of asking, Spud was finally able to get Eastern to appoint Tom Ulch, a member of the faculty, as the groups faculty adviser. "He's been a great help. I had no idea there would be so much paper work, and no idea how to do it all if it weren't for him," said Spud.

The group's first meeting was held today, and the founders were proud to see so many students take an interest. "It really means a lot to me, seeing that my hard work is going to be useful to so many people," said Spud. "Hopefully, as word gets out, we'll have even more people show up."

Midnight Volleyball

Every night at midnight, a group of strangers meet together and play volleyball under the stars.

Brian Wood, a freshman here at Eastern Michigan University, had been asked by his roommate one night to give him and his lady friend some time alone. Not knowing many people, Brian found himself wandering around campus in the cold night air, trying to find something to entertain himself with. As he passed the student center, he heard the sound of laughter and cheering coming from on top of the hill.

As he rounded the crest, he saw a group of 12 individuals all gathered around the net, playing armature volleyball. As he watched he saw a young man, Hemant Persuad, jump up and try to spike the sand-covered ball, only to accidentally hit it into the net on his own side. Rather than being chastised for this though, once he landed his teammates approached him with a "Good try," and "Nice effort".

Later, Persaud would tell Brian "No one remembers who started it, and no one is really the leader or anything like that. We just start to show up and people eventually join us."

The group has started playing with as few as 2 people per side, but it is not uncommon to see eight or nine players on the same team.

Brian recalls the first time he stepped onto the court, feeling the cold sand between his toes and the adrenaline in his blood, and asked, "Do you guys mind of I join?"

"They just pointed at a spot and said, 'You're there. You any good?' I told them I wasn't, and they just smiled and said that was good, because neither were they."

As the weather gets colder, the members say they are looking to find an alternative place to play, since it will be hard to play in the snow.

The group wants to make sure that everyone who wants to play knows that they are welcome, regardless of skill. "The more players," Brian added, "the better."

Welcome to Nick's blog

Hello everyone. My name is Nick, and I want to be the next R. L. Stein. I hope to write a book series for children that get them excited to read, much like the Goosebumps books series did for me when I was a child. I remember waiting each month for the newest book to arrive at my local store. My friends and I would trade for the ones we couldn't find and stay up at night talking about them. Being able to provide that same sense of excitement for the next generation would be incredibility.

Ideally, the series I would like to write would concentrate on a topic that doesn't get much attention in most of the Western society, yet is one of the most popular genres in the Eastern world. The Three Kingdoms, a traumatic period of war and deceit in ancient China, is much like the Oriental version of our King Arthur. Everyone throughout Asia has heard the tales and knows the stories, but extremely few are aware of the historical events. I have done some professional writing on this topic, such as biographies and detailed battle reports, but what I am aspiring to do is to write a monthly publication that goes through the history, but written for children.

I know that becoming a famous fiction writer takes as much luck as it does skill, so I am trying to broaden my net, so to speak. I hope that by getting a degree in Written Communication, I will become qualified for many "real" jobs while I continue to work towards getting my children's books written and published. Journalism jobs, technical writing, academic journals.... I see all of these as potential ways to make money while I am trying to break into the business of fictional writing. I don't feel that a degree in creative writing is necessary. If you can write what people want to read, then they will read it regardless of your title or degree.