Randolph Wildcat's Softball Team on a Winning Streak

Written By: Michael Ehilegbu ‘14

Published April 2014

Randolph College Softball Team
Photo Courtesy of RC Athletic Department

This spring, head coach Caroline Cubbage led the Randolph College softball team to one of its best starts in program history. Cubbage is currently in her fourth season as head coach of the Wildcats; posting a 66-55 overall record. In her first year at the helm, She lea the Wildcats to a program record 22 wins and the program’s first ODAC title game. In the 2013 campaign Cubbage and the Wildcats shattered their record earning 26 wins last season.

This season the resilient Wildcats have been tough to beat; currently owning an 18-9 record. Randolph began the season slow, dropping their first four games. However, the Wildcats quickly returned to form, winning 17 of their next 19 games. They recorded two separate win streaks of six consecutive games each.

So far this season, the Wildcats have registered six sweeps in double header match ups, defeating Shenandoah University, York College, Castleton State College, Bridgewater College, and Salem College. They’ve boasted a team batting avg. of .308, while scoring 154 runs, and knocking three home runs.

This year’s team has been piloted by Hunter Glaves ’17. Glaves, a first-year, has quickly adapted to the college game; she leads team in batting average (.453), home runs (three), RBI (25), stolen bases (five), on base percentage (.529), and plate appearances (86).

Glaves is joined by other first years Ashley Dudding ’17, whose average is .345, and who has nine RBI, and Jackie Lamberty ’17, whose average is.182, and has six RBI. Both are having strong seasons. Dudding ’17 states, ”My transition into my first year was pretty smooth thanks to the help of my teammates. They helped me adjust to the culture of college sports.”

Sophomores Hannah Cook ’16 (avg .414, RBI 14), Jessica Nowak ’16 (avg .296, RBI 9), and Erin Wehrhen ’16 (avg .270, RBI 5) have increased their production this season, helping guide the Wildcats to the ODAC tournament. “I feel like my success this season has been embodied through my teammates. We were picked ninth in the preseason polls, so that really motivated us and we really came together this season and fed off of each other’s play,” said Hannah Cook ’16.

Juniors Patti Vinson ’15 (avg .260, RBI 17) and Haleigh Wilson ’15 (avg .260, RBI 6) have also sparked the team this season, helping provide toughness and stability. And seniors Britney Via ’14 and Logan Carter  ’14 have helped lead this year’s surge. Via owns a batting average of .304, with 24 hits, and 15 RBI’s. She also leads the conference with eight doubles. Carter is Randolph’s ace pitcher; she has started 14 games and has currently led the Wildcats ten of their 18 wins this season. Carter holds an ERA of 2.62 with a blistering 83 strikeouts. In addition, in nine of Carter’s ten wins she pitched the complete game. She also leads the ODAC in shutout with two.

The Wildcats will have six sets of double headers remaining this season. On Saturday April 5, 2014 the Wildcats will travel to Virginia Wesleyan College for an ODAC double header. The following day Randolph will return home to host Randolph-Macon College for senior day. Next Randolph will be on the road for four straight games as they take on Sweet Briar College and then follow that up with a double header at Roanoke College. On Tuesday April 15, 2014 the Wildcats will return home to face Emory& Henry College for “Green Day” for liver cancer awareness. Randolph will wrap up its season on April 19, 2014 as they travel to Guilford College.

The Wildcats are currently ranked fourth in the ODAC standings. They will look to be playing the best ball as their season winds down and they get ready for the ODAC tournament. “We just want to stay focused and take it one game at a time. We can’t be effected by past wins or losses; the postseason is a whole new season. We understand that we have a target on our back, we just have to play our game,” said Cook ’16.

How Far Is Too Far?: Randolph’s Anonymous Twitter Craze

Written by: Alyssa DeNisco ’14 and Kendall Trewin ‘14

Published April 2014

Most colleges throughout the country have at least one “confession” site that allows students to submit anything they would like to anonymously fess up to via social media. Confessions range from the innocent: “I think you’re pretty” to the intimate: “I cheat on my girlfriend”, to the insensitive (see above picture).

Harvard, Tufts, University of Notre Dame, Kansas State University, Louisiana State University, Eastern Illinois University and the University of Alabama, to name a few, all currently have active confession sites.  Given the wide spread demographic of these Universities, it is no doubt that the college confessional trend has caught on faster among 18-25 year olds than the latest Apple product.  Until recently, these sites were limited to Facebook, but have now started to become more prevalent on other forms of social media, namely Twitter.

For those of you who have not yet joined the twitter world, “tweeting” is when you post a 140-character message on your “feed” through your twitter name or “handle”.  The main difference between Twitter and Facebook is that Twitter doesn’t require as much information to create a profile, making it much easier to create and maintain anonymous accounts. Now, it is important to point out that “anonymous accounts” and “confessional accounts” are two separate beasts. “Anoym accounts” are run by one or more people who write and post tweets under a fake name.  On a “confessional account” tweets are submitted to a separate website, like survey monkey, that maintains the senders’ anonymity.  The administrators who run the account then post the tweets on their feed using quotation marks to distinguish what was submitted from any comments they added.

Though Randolph prides itself in offering an alternative to what many would consider “a typical college experience”, i.e. a Greek system, Professors who know you only as a number and a graduation that lasts for days, we did not manage to escape the anonymous twitter craze.

Anonymous accounts started in the class of 2014’s freshman year, three years ago.  @wanda_knows_all, the prequel to @RandyProblems, would tweet about the weekend happenings on campus, usually calling out specific people by name. We can only assume that someone reported the account to Twitter as harassment, because it was only up for a few weeks before being deleted.

Shortly after the ‘original’ Randolph associated twitter handle was shut down, @RandyProblems took over. Though it was still operated by one, or a few, Randolph students, they did not post tweets nearly as scandalous as their predecessors. Instead of blatant digs at specific people, most of the content was school-wide inside jokes. The tweets were more about the experience of going to a formally all-women’s, private liberal arts school, than explicitly singling out people’s personal lives. Of course, some of the tweets incited online twitter riots. Like that time they tweeted about why the Equestrian Team was invited to the athletic banquet was so uncalled for, not that we’re biased or anything. 

        

We recently got in contact with @RandyProblems via email. Unfortunately, @RandyProblems was not able to get us in contact with any of the other accounts. Here’s what they had to say:

Sundial: “Why did you start the account?”

@RandyProblems: “I started the account to poke fun at our own lil’ Randolph, I thought everyone could have a chuckle at it.”

Sundial: “Do you think it has affected the campus community positively? Negatively? Maybe a little of both?” 

@RandyProblems: “Both. Obviously, some people can tend to get more offended than others, but they shouldn't be taking anything too serious.”

Sundial: “What do you think of all the other Randy pages that have been cropping up?”

@RandyProblems: “Some of them are kind of entertaining but nothings better than the original ;)”

Sundial: “Do you have anything to do with them?”

@RandyProblems: “We are all part of the inner Randolph social circle, kind of like the illuminati.”

Sundial: “What are you going to do once you graduate? Pass it down?” 

@RandyProblems: “Not sure. Maybe John Klein or Harvey can run it?”

Sundial: “If you could say one thing to Randolph what would it be?”

@RandyProblems: “Don't ruin the fun, let us enjoy college!”

Those who have been here for the entire anoym twitter boom will tell you that Randy Problems helped build a bridge between the academic and athletic divide in some ways. Making light fun of those early morning wake-ups that we’re all so fond of, or tweeting snarky commentary on dining hall horrors­—c’mon, we all remember taco dogs—reminded us that we all live behind the same red brick wall.

 @RandyConfession brought it to a whole new level.

@RandyConfession really does come off as a beneficial to the campus community: “Have a confession? Let us know!” is featured as their tagline. It seemed like a healthy way for students to express themselves without creating real gossip.  However, at a school as small as ours, it is not hard to guess who is writing what about who. Within the first week, cheeky confessions turned into obvious attacks.  Names got dropped, and personal information was either fabricated or exploited.   

        

When you demand that 600 18-25 year olds live and work in the same place, it is obvious that there will be a cutthroat rumor mill. These accounts can certainly be entertaining if the tweets are witty enough, but don’t we already know WAY too much about each other’s lives? Putting it in print solidifies gossip in an un-healthy way, making divisions between cliques more defined.

        

And don’t think that we are getting away with it without administration knowing. Dean Thornton was made aware of the accounts a year ago.  However, she stated that administration’s main concern at this point is the use of the college logos on the account profiles rather than the content of the accounts. As of yet they have not yet reported the copyright infringement to Twitter.

        

Though the priority at the moment is maintaining the integrity of the school’s logos, Dean Thornton does recognize the potential for these accounts to have damaging effects on students. “Because this behavior is being conducted anonymously online, I must stress the important role each of our students play in making sure our community is safe and respectful to all,” stated The Dean in an email interview last week.  She urges students to report any instances of harassment or bullying to DOS immediately because “harassing and intimidating members of our community is unacceptable and a violation of the student handbook.”

        

So, what do we do now? Shut down the pages? Turn each other in? Start more gossip and drama for our selves by getting people expelled over this? Here’s an idea, how about we start submitting actual confessions instead of passive aggressive commentary. This is not a call to clean up your act Randy. Twitter is not the place for loud, proud and positive messages, by any means; but it should not be the reason another chapter is added to our handbook either. So the next time you find your little thumbs itching for anonymity behind the redbrick wall, submit the story of how you got drunk and peed in your trashcan. Leave the snarky sub-tweet about that girl you can’t stand in your draft folder, however wittily you made it rhyme.