A father and daughter team debuted their documentary, Untold” during Columbia College Chicago’s two-day Doc Your World festival in May.

Leah Zeiger, 20, a dance major at the college, was in an abusive relationship as a teenager. She told that story with her father, David Zeiger, 66, a professional film director and producer from California. When Doc Your World students were called upon to produce a documentary on a pivotal moment in their lives, the Zeigers felt obligated to share their story to heal themselves and other survivors.

“Making this film about what Leah and our family went through was necessary for all of us,” said David Zeiger. “It’s part of our DNA; that’s how we deal with it.”

Her father used his talents in film and photography to express his emotions after the death of his 9-year-old son in 1987.

Doc Your World is an interdisciplinary course. In addition to making short films, the students organized this two-day event.

A panel including the Zeigers and other sexual assault survivors, Jean Cozier, 61, and Cassandra Kaczor, 23, shared their experiences. Cozier, founder and executive director of Awakenings Foundation Center and Gallery, encompassed all of the panelist’s goals in combining their pain with their art.

“I’m a survivor who uses my art to heal myself and other people as well,” Cozier said. “I believe in it more strongly than I believe in almost anything in my life. The power of taking control of what happened to you is the most empowering thing that anybody can ever experience.”

Cozier, who was sexually assaulted as a child, exemplified this mindset with her foundation. The center provides coaching and a platform for survivors to open up about sexual violence in their lives in the form of artwork, writing, and graphic design.

Kaczor, a Roosevelt University graduate student in music composition, was sexually assaulted at 16, when a music producer she worked with forced her to perform sexual acts on him. She was then raped her junior year of college. Since then, she made it her mission to create and perform pieces that help herself and other survivors recover from their trauma.

With the same goal of healing through artistic expression, Leah Zeiger created the Sunflower Project. The multimedia organization uses dance, film and writing to educate young adults from middle school to high school about sexual assault, domestic violence and dating abuse.

Through education of young adults about healthy relationships, she hoped that they would be able to spot the early signs of abuse before escalation. One indicator she stressed was jealousy or paranoia, two signs that were prevalent in the beginning of her relationship.

The relationship was abusive mentally, physically and verbally, she recalled. After prom night, the abuse became sexual. She internalized the abuse, became depressed and attempted suicide. With her parents’ and professional help, she ended the relationship and filed a restraining order.

Sitting on a couch with her father in her documentary, she told of her ex-boyfriend’s terrifying retaliation. Police found him and a friend outside her house with a backpack filled with rope, chloroform, a bat, bullets, and condoms. Their intent was to break in the Zeiger home, take out her father, tie up her mother and siblings and rape her, police later said.

He was arrested and charged with eight felonies. After a plea deal, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

She recalled the first time she revealed her story to the public, in a dance called “Unnamed.” She spoke of the emotions that lead to it and the insights and power she gained by creating it.

“I was a dancer before I was a survivor,” she said. “Dance became a way to communicate what was going on and what happened–also a way to heal. I started dancing with a different purpose–I can dance to heal others.”

Early voting has made its way to Chicago, Chicago Election Board Chairman Langdon Neal announced last Monday at the Museum of Broadcast Communication.

Early voting started on October 20 and will continue through November 2. Neal also announced a pilot program that will offer same day voting registration at five locations throughout Chicago. These five locations can be found on the Chicago Board of Elections website.

Same day registration will allow people to register and vote all at once. This is a new pilot program that Chicago is testing out. Currently ten states plus the District of Columbia offer same day registration.

“It’s not too late … even if you want to wait until the 11th hour,” Neal said.

Artemio Arreola, political director for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said the organization seeks to promote the rights of immigrants and refugees so they can have equal access to civic, cultural, and political life.

Often times the voting atmosphere is more intimidating than it is inviting, Arreola said. He said, immigrants are still scared to walk up to the machines and that long lists of candidates’ names are often overwhelming, so the initiatives and changes to the voting process are helpful for his community.

However, changes to voting such as more polling locations and having bilingual workers can help Hispanic voters, Arreola added.

“This is an advantage to our community to participate in…it is more accessible for our community,” Arreola said.

According to The Pew Hispanic Research Center, 25.3 million Latinos are eligible to vote in this year’s midterm elections. And the majority of the Hispanic vote comes largely from the youth population.

This year 33 percent of eligible voters are between the ages of 18 and 29, and within this same age group, 18 percent of eligible votes are white and 25 percent are black, according to Pew.

Youth engagement will play a huge role in this election season, according to Neal. He said there are a total of 4,000 high school and college students who are trained to work the polls.

“We lead the nation in youth engagement and participation…we are very proud of that,” Neal said.

But Marissa Liebling, program director for the Just Democracy Coalition, said there can be some draw backs.

The process of voting can be imitating and even scary to first time voters, Liebling said. She added, it can be difficult for young people to decide which candidate to vote for because there are thousands of ads being thrown at them daily. The purpose of early voting allows young people to cast a ballot despite all their other responsibilities, Liebling said.

“Early voting is incredibly important…there is a convenience factor because you can go to any early voting site no matter where you live,” Liebling said.

The Center for Information and Research on Civic and Learning Engagement (CIRCLE) said nationally there was a 50 percent youth turnout rate including ages 18-29. This number is close to the national youth turnout rate – 52 percent – in the 2008 election.

“I think our vote matters because what I want to see in the future will be affected by the politicians I choose today,” said Gabriel Evans, a student at Roosevelt University.

After she admittedly failed to live on the minimum wage in August, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) has voiced strong support for increasing workers’ pay. At a forum at Roosevelt University in Chicago on Tuesday, she came out in support for making paid sick leave mandatory.

A co-sponsor of the proposed Schedules That Work Act (HR 5159), Schakowsky said at the forum that the bill is designed to protect low-wage workers from employer retaliation when they request time off for sickness, childcare, secondary job requirements or to attend school. She also expressed support for the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act (HR 3712), which mandates paid sick leave for all workers, and the Healthy Families Act (HR 1286), which establishes seven earned paid sick leave days each year.

“These are winnable fights,” Schakowsky said. “We’re starting to win them now.”

Schakowsky also said a good reason to raise the minimum wage was to support women. Nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Providing paid sick leave will allow more women to take care of their children and families, Schakowsky said.

Jessica Milli, a senior researcher at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, told about 70 people attending the forum that 42 percent of private-sector workers in Chicago currently have extremely limited or no access to paid sick leave. Women are slightly more likely to have access than men, but even then, there is disparity. She said 53 percent of Hispanic women, 40 percent of black women and 35 percent of white women have no access to paid sick leave in Chicago, with slightly higher rates for men.

“When women succeed, America succeeds,” Schakowsky said. “That’s not a slogan, it’s just a fact.”

Chicago aldermen Joe Moore (49th Ward), Will Burns (4th Ward) and Toni Foulkes (15th Ward) also attended the forum, along with Illinois State Representatives Christian Mitchell, Lisa Hernandez and Daniel Biss and 39th District state representative candidate Will Guzzardi. Burns chairs the Mayor Rahm Emanuel-appointed Minimum Wage Working Group, of which Moore is a member. It advocates raising the city’s minimum wage to $13 per hour, and Foulkes has voiced her support for a higher minimum wage in the past.

Carlos Romero, an organizer with Restaurant Opportunities Chicago, a workers’ organization that advocates for better conditions for restaurant workers, said he wasn’t surprised by the pitch.

“It’s reelections,” Romero said. “This is an opportunity for us to get s–t done.”

Columbia College Chicago does not offer a discounted transit card to students taking summer courses, making it more expensive for commuters already paying higher tuition.

Roosevelt University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, also in the Loop, did not offer discounted cards, called U-Passes, either. DePaul University and Robert Morris University did offer the student cards during the summer.

“I live in the city but commute downtown,” said Erick Campos, 31, a photography student at Columbia. “I do wish they would offer that because I have to budget aside money, and sometimes it doesn’t work out.”

In March 2013, the Chicago Transit Board expanded its U-Pass program with Ventra, the electronic fare system used by Chicago’s mass transit systems, to include 52 area schools. The U-Pass offers discounted public transit to students while school is in session. But this discount does not extend to all schools for summer semesters. Some schools restrict the passes to full-time students. Others, like DePaul, offers the discount to students taking a single credit hour, said Zallencia Harris, coordinator of Commuter Student Affairs at DePaul. Robert Morris University offers the summer U-Pass but requires students to be registered for 12 credit hours.

“I know almost every other school in the city does it so I don’t see why they wouldn’t,” said Matt Tunney, an operations management major at DePaul University. “It can only help students.”

Mary Oakes, director of Residence Life for Columbia, said only 36 students are living on campus this summer in Columbia’s housing. Oakes said the school doesn’t have access to information about how many of the almost 2,000 students enrolled for classes in the summer of 2014 are commuters because they may be living in on-campus housing that is managed independently of Columbia.

Columbia’s Office of Academic Records lists 146 of those 1,717 enrolled students as full-time—being registered for at least 12 credit hours, including undergraduate and graduate students.

Marcus Copeland, 26, a full-time student enrolled in four summer courses at Columbia said he struggles with paying for transportation. Columbia considers 12 credit hours to be full-time during the summer.

“I think that’s messed up,” he said. “I’m a college student on a budget.”

Molly Hess, Rashmi Shivni and Victoria Street contributed to this story.

For Roosevelt University junior Elaina Feuerbach it begins at 7 a.m., when she wakes up for track practice, and it usually ends somewhere around midnight — after another track practice, soccer practice, classes, homework and volunteering as a tutor at a local shelter.

Feuerbach isn’t alone.

Fellow Lakers athlete Jake Cigelnik plays soccer and tennis and lives the double-life of a dual-sport athlete as well. Like Feuerbach, Cigelnik has finished half his day before most students even wake up.

There was a time where multisport athletes like this were lauded for their dedication, but they are becoming a rare — and some may say, “dying” — breed among 21st-century athletes because of the increase in single-sport players.

With fewer multisport athletes, the days of competitors like Bo Jackson, Randy Johnson and Steve Nash could be gone. And the days of single-sport players with shorter careers could be the future.

The more specialized athletes become in one sport, the more travel teams, elite clubs, youth organizations and community leagues pop up. The result: more and more children at younger and younger ages are not only starting to play sports, but are also feeling the pressure to play at a high level and pick one sport they think they’ll be the best at to focus on for the rest of their lives.

In the United States, 77.7 percent of high school athletic directors reported an increase in sport specialization. Yet, less than 1 percent of youth athletes, ages 6 to 17, reach a professional level, according to a Loyola Stritch School of Medicine study.

While some think specialization and intense training will lead to an elite level in a shorter time frame, for most sports there is no evidence that this is necessary. However, there is proof that sport specialization leads to a higher risk of injury, increased psychological stress and burnout, according to the Loyola study.

The ongoing study of youth athletes, 8- to 18-years old, reported that 38 percent quit another sport to specialize in one. Of the remaining multisport athletes, 32 percent said they spent more than three quarters of their training time focused in one sport.

With the demands to play one sport year round, Roosevelt’s Feuerbach said the underlying appreciation and passion for sports decreases as a result.

“I don’t think kids really have the chance to miss it if they are in it all the time,” Feuerbach said. “They don’t learn to love it, instead they just learn that it’s an everyday thing, which is upsetting.”

In addition, Loyola’s study showed one out of five specialized athletes reported injury as the reason for quitting the sport — something seen first-hand by Tim Rylander, physical therapist and head of concussion rehab at Accelerated Rehabilitation Centers.

“The one thing that we’ve noticed consistently across the board is that we’ve seen individuals, particularly children, sustaining injuries at an earlier and earlier age, primarily overuse injuries,” Rylander said. “This really wasn’t a problem years ago.”

Rylander said that single-sport athletes today are playing that sport all year round, which can cause serious damage at a much earlier time in their careers.

“For a lot of these athletes, there’s hardly an offseason,” Rylander said. “We’re seeing injuries that we didn’t use to see until individuals were in the 30s and 40s, and now we’re seeing it in their teen years.”

He added that those who have faulty or bad habits in their chosen sport tend to speed up the break down process and increase their risk of injury. Single-sport athletes are not giving their bodies a chance to have varying movement patterns or cross training that multisport athletes do.

Rylander said specialization stems deeper than the physical ailments that can occur.

“Beyond the physical aspect of it, there’s a huge psychological aspect that carries with it too,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of burnout and a lot of psychological stress in individuals.”

In addition to the physical and mental tolls specialization has on athletes, Rylander said another burnout factor is the pressure to perform at a high level, which is not only existent in high school, but has expanded into the middle school and youth levels as well.

“I definitely think that the fun aspect of organized sports has started to take a back seat,” Rylander said. “I see kids coming into high school who are just worn. They’re just worn out.”

As an athlete who experienced burnout twice during his career, Roosevelt’s Cigelnik, said sometimes you have to leave to realize how much you miss that sport. But for those who specialize in one sport year round, there might not be a return.

“There are times where I wished I played one sport,” Cigelnik said. “But if you pick the wrong sport, then you’ll never know what other sport you would’ve played and you’ll get burned out of it.”

Brian Watkins, program director of i9 Sports of Chicago’s North Side, said the encouragement of multisport athletes and the use of athletics in character building is not only something i9 Sports is centered around, but is also something he stresses to his fifth-grade students.

“You can tell there are those skills — social skills and personality skills — that sports definitely bring out of the kids,” Watkins said. He added that those athletes are more comfortable around other people and with handling daily challenges.

i9 Sports, which is based in Tampa, Florida, is the nation’s first and largest youth sports league nationwide — more than 600,000 members across 500 communities from New York to Hawaii. The organization says it focuses on fun, safety, convenience and good sportsmanship for athletes, ages 3 to 17.

Watkins said he thinks the majority of people still want their children to explore multiple sports because of the range of offered sports and rapid growth i9 Sports has seen nationwide.

Watkins said as the hype and media coverage of professional and high-level collegiate athletes grow, the further away the sports industry gets from the initial reason children go out for sports in the first place: camaraderie, fun and friendships.

Instead of learning how hard work helps overcome adversity and creates confidence, younger and younger athletes are focused on not being “good enough” if they don’t start playing early and all year round. That not only deters kids from initially playing, but also leads to burnout, Watkins said.

Corey Brown, a former Division III four-time All-American wrestler from Thiel College in Greenville, Pennsylvania, said that although he still has moments where he wonders how his career could have been different had he not played football in his middle and high school years, he also thinks specializing in only wrestling would have made burnout and injury harder to avoid.

“Looking back, I gained a lot from football, but think I would’ve been an even better wrestler if I didn’t play football,” Brown said. “If I would’ve kept the same motivation level that I had, and had I wrestled everyday for 12 years, I think I would’ve been a national champion with that extra invested time … but throwing in those unknown variables of potential injury and then potentially being burned out, I don’t know if I would’ve even reached what I did to get here.”

While Brown said his in-season and offseason wrestling training increased once he got to college, he said regardless of whether the athlete is a multisport or specialized in one, there has to be time off to recover physically and mentally.

Brown not only has mixed feelings on his own career, but also he said he has various thoughts on whether he would push his future children to be single-sport athletes because of how much the pressure to perform has increased at younger ages compared to when he played.

“I remember it was fun for me when I played when I was that young because you think it’s fun and you enjoy it, you’re less stressed,” Brown said. “I just know as soon as I got to high school … it was like ‘fun time is over;’ but I was a freshman in high school, not fifth grade.”

While the Loyola study reported that parents were the strongest influence for athletes to initially play sports, outside factors such as social media, coaches, college scholarships and the dream to play professionally lead to the debate on whether specialized athletes will dominate, and the days of Bo Jackson are far behind.

“I think we’re fighting an uphill battle on this one,” Brown said. “Back in the day [Bo Jackson] could do that … but there’s no way he could do it today because of the level of competition. That’s because of single-sport athletes. Everyone’s so specialized now that it’s one thing to do them, if you’re even allowed to do them, but to excel in both of them, it’s going to become more and more of a rarity.”

As a physical therapist, Rylander stands behind the medical reports that show there is no evidence that specialization is needed to reach an elite playing level.

“I don’t think sports specialization is needed to enhance performance, but there’s this perception that it is,” Rylander said. “From a biomechanical point of view, cross training and participating in multiple sports enhances athleticism, and can actually, in my opinion, further progress their primary sport while reducing their injury risk.”

As a parent and former athlete, i9 Sports’ Watkins said he thinks the turn back to a multi-sport-focused society will be tough, but is something that will happen because parents will not want their children to experience the heightened pressure, but instead have fun and explore a variety of sports to find where their passions lie.

Whether specialization is here to stay or the constant “uphill battle” as Brown said, Roosevelt’s Feuerbach said the main point to remember is that whether it’s a multisport or single sport athlete, it should be the choice of that athlete to decide at any point in their career where their passion lies and where they want to devote their playing time.

Although it’s cliché, Feuerbach said regardless of how many sports you play, the amount of time spent training, the money, the pressure or the questions you receive throughout your athletic career, to always remember to play “for the love of the game.”

And it’s exactly what the Roosevelt Lakers men’s basketball team got when they defeated both Indiana University- South Bend (Titans) and Olivet Nazarene University (Tigers) in the first two rounds of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament (CCAC) that got underway on Monday (Feb. 24th).

Back in late January, the Lakers lost a heart breaker to Indiana- South Bend on their home court when Titans’ junior guard, Jason Jordan, hit a buzzer-beater to take the air out of the Lillian and Larry Goodman Center. In that game, neither leading rebounder Jeremiah Jackson nor senior reserve forward, Mykyta Chesko, were active for the contest — both of them being sidelined with leg injuries.

Not this time around.

Both players were a go for the rematch as Roosevelt bested Indiana- South Bend in an overtime thriller, 73-68. The Lakers held Jordan, arguably the Titans best player, to 33 percent shooting (6-of-18 from the field) on the evening in securing the team’s first modern playoff win since the program was resurrected 4 years ago. Jackson chipped in 10 points and hauled in 5 rebounds despite still being hampered with a lower leg injury.

“He’s a game changer … even when he’s at 80 percent, he’s still big for us,” said Joe Griffin, Roosevelt men’s basketball coach.

Riding the momentum of the win, Roosevelt traveled to Bourbonnais (IL) for a quarterfinal matchup against Olivet Nazarene — a team that drubbed the Lakers (still without Jackson and Chesko) 91-64 at the Goodman Center just a week after Jordan’s buzzer beater. In that game, the Tigers led by 18 at the half and coasted the rest of the way, leaving a bad taste in the Lakers’ mouths. So as fate would have it, Roosevelt couldn’t have scripted a better opponent to square off against in the second round of the tournament.

From the opening tip, the Lakers showed that they were a much better team — and a more complete team — than the ones that were embarrassed weeks ago. They held the lead for the first 10 minutes of the contest and trailed by just 3 at halftime, 43-40. Roosevelt was within such short striking distance thanks in part to a big first half by junior forward Joe Harks (21 points, 6 rebounds) who pumped in 12 points and the sharpshooting of Jason Sotira. The senior backup guard let it all hang out (11 points) knowing that he could quite possibly be playing for the last time in a green and white uniform. His two three-pointers, including one with just five seconds to play, sliced the Tigers lead in half heading into intermission.

“We used that loss (to Olivet) as motivation for this game,” said Sotira. “They probably thought that they would come in here and roll all over us.”

Coach Griffin was pleased with Sotira’s heightened level of play as well.

“Jason’s a senior, he’s not leaving any bullets left in the holster,” said Griffin. “He hit some big shots for us.”

And he wasn’t the only senior that refused to let this be his final game.

Coming off the bench and spelling Jackson, who got into foul trouble early in the second half, Chesko tallied four points and four rebounds in 17 minutes of play as the Lakers scratched and clawed against the Tigers all night long. But despite the team’s valiant efforts, Roosevelt trailed by eight with just over three minutes to go in the game.

That’s when the defense put on the clamps while Harks and Jackson went to work. After starting guard Jason Markus drilled a three-pointer to cut the Tigers’ lead to 71-68 with 33 seconds remaining, Harks had a clutch steal and was fouled driving to the rim. As the raucous crowd of over 600 jeered, he calmly buried both free throws to trim the lead to one. Then, trailing by two with under 15 seconds to play, the Lakers turned to Jackson who bulldozed his way inside and tied the game with 11.7 seconds left to force overtime.

“J.J. was a huge factor for us tonight,” said starting point guard, Tyree York. “He didn’t play the first time around so he was big for us tonight.”

Jackson continued to be “big” for the Lakers in the extra period scoring the team’s first six points before exiting the game with more leg trouble. That was York’s (23 points, 10 rebounds) cue to take over. With the game tied at 78, the junior hit a go-ahead three-pointer to put the lakers up by three — a lead they would not relinquish. He and Harks combined to hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final 23 seconds, none bigger than Harks’ two to ice it after the Tigers were called for an out-of-bounds penalty with a chance to tie or go for the win. Final score: Lakers 88-84.

As the final horn sounded, an elated Coach Griffin raised his hands in triumph as his jubilant squad lined up to shake hands with their vanquished foe.

“We talked about playing our best at the end of the year and that’s what we’re doing right now,” said Griffin. “We’re on cloud 9.”

Roosevelt now advances to the CCAC semifinals for the first time in program history. They will face 7th-ranked Saint Xavier in Milwaukee, Wis. on Friday night at 7 p.m. The Lakers lost both regular-season games to them this year, but if its first two playoff games were any indication, that shouldn’t matter much to Roosevelt. And win, lose, or draw, every member of the Lakers squad, “1-thru-20”, can hold their heads high with all the feats they have accomplished for the program this year, especially the seniors who have watched a team that was once an afterthought, emerge into viable contenders for the CCAC Title.

“I’m so glad to see the team has improved every single year”, said Chesko. “To be one game away from the conference championship is unbelievable.”

And as the losses have begun to pile up, so have the injuries.

For the past several weeks, the Roosevelt (Lakers) have been without the services of 6-foot-6 junior forward, Jeremiah Jackson and 6-foot-5 senior forward, Mykyta Chesko due to foot and leg injuries. With the two of them sidelined, the Lakers have become very thin down low and have struggled at times in defending the paint.

Both players could be out for the remainder of the season, according to Roosevelt men’s basketball coach, Joe Griffin.

“It is what it is,” said Griffin. “They’ll be no excuses, no whining and no crying…it’s college basketball and we’ve got to respond (to the adversity).

Last Wednesday (Jan.22^nd), it appeared as if Roosevelt would “respond” when they squared off against Indiana University-Southbend (Titans) at the Lillian and Larry Goodman Center; the start of a two-game home stand for the Lakers.

Roosevelt led for a good portion of the evening and at one point in the first half, the Lakers impressively held the Titans without a field goal for nearly 12 minutes, carrying a 32-25 edge inter the locker room at intermission.

Filling in admirably on the offensive end for the injured Jackson was junior forward Elliott Vaughn. Not usually regarded as a scorer, Vaughn led the Lakers in scoring for the game as he pumped in 18 points , scoring at will from  inside.

“I just try to come into the game with the mindset to help out in any way I can,” said Vaughn.

But all of Vaughn and his teammates’ efforts were in vain as the visiting Titans erased a nine- point deficit with just over six minutes remaining, and shocked the Lakers by hitting a game-winning basket as time expired for a 68-67 win.

It was yet another game that went the wrong way for the home team.

“We’ve been in these situations before and tonight it didn’t fall in our favor,” said Vaughn. “Come tournament time, if we get into this situation again, we can say we’ve been here before…just step on our opponents’ throats and finish the game off (with a win).”

But for Roosevelt to make a deep run in the tournament, there will be little room for error ⎯ errors that doomed them against the Titans.

“We couldn’t rebound in the second half and that killed us,” Griffin said. “We let them right back in the game.”

That lack of rebounding continued on Saturday (Jan.25th) when Roosevelt hosted Olivet Nazarene University (Tigers) at The Goodman Center. The Tigers took an 18-point lead into the half and never looked back as they blasted the Lakers 91-64. Olivet Nazarene dominated Roosevelt in the rebounds department, holding a decisive 53-26 advantage.

So now it’s gut check time for a Roosevelt team that sits at 12-9 on the year and plays its next two games on the road against Purdue University-North Central and Trinity International.

“Everybody has to step,” said Griffin. “Every player,coach and manager– 1 through 20 on our team.”

After starting the season on a school- record 9-1 tear, the team’s ‘easy’ part of the schedule was winding down and a much tougher schedule was on the horizon. A showdown with defending NAIA Division II National Champion, Cardinal Stritch (Milwaukee, Wisc.) was right around the bend and the Lakers needed to be ready.

So, before the season had even started, Roosevelt head coach Joe Griffin intentionally scheduled a game two days before the tilt against Stritch with Moody Bible Institute (Chicago, IL), just to iron out some kinks.

But on Thursday (Dec. 12), Moody Bible showed up at the Lillian and Larry Goodman Center and proved to be much more of a formidable opponent than Roosevelt had anticipated, despite having only one win on the year. The Archers raced to a 37-31 halftime lead that left Coach Griffin stymied.

“We don’t know how to play a full 40 minutes of basketball,” he said. “We didn’t respect our opponent.”

Fortunately for Roosevelt, they only needed to play hard for the latter 20 minutes to disband of their pesky opponent, outscoring Moody Bible 45-20 in the second half and ultimately prevailing 76-57.

Junior forward Joe Harks led the way for the Lakers as he scored a game-high 21 points (7-for-13) and Roosevelt

notched its 10^th win of the year — a full three weeks ahead of when they secured their 10^th win last season (Jan. 3).

But if the Lakers wanted win No. 11 on Saturday (Dec. 14^th), they would have to get it by going through Stritch, their biggest test of the year.

Last year, Roosevelt lost to Cardinal Stritch (Wolves) twice by double-digits. In their last meeting, the Lakers were without defensive stalwart, 6-foot-6 forward Jeremiah Jackson, but yet, only trailed the Wolves 35-31 at the half. Although they would eventually lose, team members may have realized how far they have come, using it as motivation for Saturday’s matchup.

“This is the game we’ve been waiting for,” Griffin said before tip off.

They may have to wait a little longer.

Following an hour delay due to complications involving a snowstorm that had blanketed the area, Roosevelt came out of the gate and took it right to Cardinal Stritch. The Lakers held the Wolves to just nine points midway through the first half taking a 15-9 lead. Then, Jackson exited the game after being whistled for his second foul, opening the floodgates for the Wolves.

From there, Cardinal Stritch showed why they are the defending champs as they went on a 26-4 run to take a 16-point lead, and held a 40-25 halftime edge.

Needless to say, Griffin was less than thrilled.

“We just got beat by a better team in all facets of the game,” Griffin said. “We need to play harder … our defense in transition is like a sixth grade club team.”

Any chance of a second-half rally by the Lakers was quickly extinguished as Derek Semenas, Chicago Collegiate Athletic Conference’s (CCAC) player of the week, sparked a 12-2 spurt to start the period and the Wolves would lead by as many as 32. The Lakers shot an abysmal 28 percent from the floor (17-60) and went only 1-10 from beyond the arc — a credit to Cardinal Stritch’s defense.

“They just took out some of our best players with their pressure, which, we’ve had trouble with this year,” starting point guard, Tyree York, said.

York was one of the few bright spots for Roosevelt on a dismal afternoon. The Lakers’ floor general pumped in 11 points and yanked down 7 rebounds, and was still hustling for loose balls when the game was out of reach. He left the game with a minor ankle injury in the final minutes of the contest, one that the Wolves won handily, 71-45.

“I felt like we played hard which wasn’t the case in the past few games,” York said. “I felt we came out ready.”

Roosevelt may have to play a lot harder if they plan on winning against top-caliber competition, something Coach Griffin knows all too well.

“We lost to a team that’s better than us, but hopefully we can catch them when we play them up there,” he said. “This should be a wake-up call for the locker room.”

Roosevelt plays Judson College in Elgin, IL on Tuesday, Dec. 17^th, at 7:30 p.m., and then hosts 10^th-ranked Saint Xavier University on Thursday, Dec. 19^th, at The Goodman Center at 6 p.m.

After suffering the first loss of the season Nov. 30, in a 90-86 overtime defeat to Saint Ambrose (Davenport, IA), the Roosevelt University men’s basketball team had little time to lick its wounds before heading to Watertown, Wisc. to battle Maranatha Baptist Bible College last Monday night.

The quick turnaround proved to be just what the doctor ordered as the Lakers rebounded from its recent loss and got back to its winning ways, pouncing Maranatha, 78-60.

“We’re glad we didn’t have a week to sulk and feel sorry for ourselves,” said Joe Griffin, Roosevelt University men’s basketball coach. “They were ready to play…we came out slow and sluggish, but the guys came together in the second half and pulled it out.”

Roosevelt held a narrow 34-31 halftime lead, but then Joe Harks took over in the second half, turning a close game into a blowout. The Lakers’ junior forward and Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference’s (CCAC) fourth-leading scorer with 18 points per game, made it look all too easy as he dropped 20 points on Maranatha after the break, guiding Roosevelt to its eighth victory of the year.

“They weren’t guarding the drive very well,” said Griffin. “Joey’s a good driver and finisher at the rim, so he was a beneficiary of that.”

It seemed all but over — Roosevelt would have no problem making quick work of their next opponent, Indiana Northwest University (Red Hawks), at the Larry and Lillian Goodman Center last Friday, but that’s why they play the game.

Last year, the Lakers throttled the Red Hawks, 77-44, on the road and may have expected the same result this time around on its home turf. The Red Hawks were a woeful 6-24 last season and had a sub-par 3-6 record to start the 2013-14 campaign heading into Friday night’s action. And in its last two games, the team had gone 5-for-38 (13 percent) from the 3-point range.

Easy win right? Not quite.

It must have been Groundhog’s Day because the Lakers’ level of play in the first half against the Red Hawks, mirrored its start against Maranatha. The team held a slight edge, 39-33, entering halftime and was not the type of start that Coach Griffin envisioned.

“We thought we had these guys prepared and focused, but evidently we’re not right now,” Griffin said during intermission.

Roosevelt had the luxury of holding the six-point edge at half thanks in part to backup guard, senior Jason Sotira (10 points), sinking a couple of 3-pointers in the waning minutes of the half, one of which broke a 30-30 tie.

“He came in and busted some threes for us, which is his specialty,” Griffin said.

But collectively as a unit, the team just wasn’t playing “Roosevelt Basketball.”

“We need to play harder and with more desperation, or this could be an upset in the making,” Griffin said at the half.

The Lakers, once again, would answer the bell.

Roosevelt opened the second stanza on a 7-0 spurt as the lead mushroomed to 13 and the team never looked back en route to an 88-70 victory.

Reigning CCAC Player of the Week Forward Kevin Priebe led all scorers with 20 points, shooting 70 percent (7-10) from the field and was perfect from both 3-point range (3-3) and the charity stripe (3-3).

Additionally, 6-foot-6 forward Jeremiah Jackson was a menace down low for the Lakers. The CCAC’s leading rebounder looked like a man among boys as he ripped down 13 rebounds while adding 16 points.

“Coach told us we needed to play harder and tougher,” Jackson said. “As a team, we didn’t play well on offense and defense in the first half.”

Still, there is plenty of room for improvement.

“I told the guys after the game in our first or second year we’d be jumping for joy with the win,” said Griffin. “But we’re in our fourth year and our standards are higher and expectations are higher, and this is a game we wanted to play better in so we’re not very happy.”

The now 9-1 Lakers will have one more opportunity to put two solid halves together against Moody Bible Institute 7 p.m. Thursday, December 14^th, before its biggest test of the season: a clash with last year’s CCAC champion, Cardinal Stritch 3 p.m. Saturday at The Goodman Center.

Related articles

• The Roosevelt Roundup: Week Turns Sour(chicagotalks.org)

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No, I’m not talking about Northwestern or Chicago State. They have all lost games this season.

The real story resides with a downtown school that has gone virtually unspoken in the world of Chicago sports. That school is Roosevelt University, and the team worthy of mention, is the Men’s Basketball program, The Lakers.

The Lakers have started the 2013-14 campaign on a tear in the Chicago Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) going undefeated in their first seven contests.

Roosevelt did not have a basketball program from 1989-2009. But then Joe Griffin was hired to coach men’s basketball starting in the 2010-11 season.

In his first year at the helm, Griffin led the team to a dismal 4-23 record. However, from that point, he has led them to a 15 win season last year to a perfect start to this season.

Griffin sat down for an interview to talk about coaching, the team’s hot start and how he came to be the coach at Roosevelt.

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