Police Chief Motivates
By Brian Cronin
“God will lead us in the right direction if we let him.” Chief Demings cried out.
Police Chief Val B. Demings took center stage preaching the word of God like a preacher at Sunday Mass, encouraging the student body and everyone else who attended the public service to get involved with community involvement through Christian based values.
Respected, spiritual, and motivational speaker, Police Chief Demings, invited by Faculty Advisor for Campus Crusade for Christ, Joe Marek, to speak about leadership and how God should influence our lives. The event also celebrated African American History month and honored Christ. Chief Demings is the first woman Police Chief in Orlando with well over 25 years of service to the community. Very well educated and much loved by her co-workers, she is a woman of faith.
Lights went down at 1 pm on a crowd of 80, when a loud voice emitted from the podium, “To God be the Glory for the things he had done.” Shortly after being introduced on Wednesday, Chief Demings turn the podium in the Performing Arts Center on the East campus of Valencia Community College into a preachers stand on a Sunday morning exulting and praising the word of God. The mood in the Auditorium was energetic with a few outbursts of applause.
After praising God, Chief Demings continued with her story. She enlightened the crowd with stories from her rookie years, the boundaries she had to breakthrough being a black woman in a predominant white male occupation, and having the courage to lead both mentally and physically in dire economic times, all the while inserting a few Bible scriptures that support her life story.
Ending her personal story, she took a few questions from the audience. An audience member who did not identify himself asked, “What will best help law enforcement to be better?” Chief Demings replied, “In law enforcement we need three things to better ourselves leaders in the community, well trained professional police, and citizen involvement and support.” Another question was fielded, “Will you incorporate the local churches and their following to help out the police?” She responded with a gleeful yes and went on to say, “The Orlando Police have instituted Operation Amoral where church goers and police go to the worst parts of town for forty days and pray.” Surprisingly, this actually worked she said. There was no crime in the area when these groups were present.
As the crowd was exiting, the audience explained. Jennifer Bittel said, “I am very motivated, it was encouraging to hear a woman succeed and understand that God was with her through all the challenging times.” Then Veronica Villalobos stated, “The part that touched me the most was when Chief Demings talked about her mission trips to other countries and the way children are treated in third world countries.”
Chief Demings continues to praise God for all of her achievements and ask God to grant her mental and moral strength so she can do her best at the job she is most passionate about. She eagerly invited all to volunteer and, “fear nothing, be a leader, [and] don’t let boundaries stand in your way.” Her primary concern is to reduce violent crime here in Orlando through Christian based law enforcement.

NBA All-Star Weekend

Rookies versus Sophomores
Will this be the year for the rookies?
Starting off All-Star festivities will be the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam. A game consisting of nine rookies and nine sophomores, chosen by the NBA’s assistant coaches, will play against each other on Friday night kicking off one of the many events unfolding this All-Star weekend. A rookie team consisting of three players, all at least seven feet tall, will shot for the impossible, a win over the sophomores. The rookies are coached by Dwayne Wade and sophomores coached by Dwight Howard two respectful players in their own right.
Dwayne Wade, coaching Greg Oden, Brook Lopez and Marc Gasol will challenge a sophomore team for bragging rights, in favor of the rookies in this game. The last seven years were dominated by the sophomores, however, this year the rookies appear to have chance with a more physical rooster.
Abandoning the normal way other games are played, this game will have two twenty minute halves, player fouls count, but they cannot be fouled out and in the event of a tie, overtime will consist of two minutes that will determine the winner.
Key match ups will include Kevin Durant against Greg Oden two powerhouses in their own right but the rookie Oden has the height and weight advantage of the match up. Another match up, Clippers rookie guard Eric Gordon will be pitted against L.A.’s sophomore forward Al Thornton. This match up goes to the sophomore Al Thornton with a five inch height difference.
Recent history of the game has dire consequences for the rookies. Last year the sophomore Daniel Gibson gave the rookies 11 reasons why experience pays off. Gibson scored a record 11 three points that forced a lopsided victory over the rookies by the score of 136-109. In 2007 David lee the MVP of the game that year shot perfect against the rookies scoring all of his 14 field-goal attempts incurring another lopsided victory for the sophomores. In 2006 a game won by the sophomores but the rookies kept it close eventually relinquishing the game to the sophomores when Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala, MVP of the game, scored 24 of his game-high 30 points in the second half. Seven straight years the same story sophomores win.
Along with talent, physical appearance, and pure determination the rookies have their best chance in a long time to win the game.

Wakeboarding Student

By Brian Cronin

Nick Foren, a 19-year-old, Semi-Professional Wakeboarder, wakeboarding is a water sport where a boat pulls an athlete by ropes and handles and the athlete does tricks, who attends Valencia Community College, has his plate full. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he moved to Central Florida to take advantage of the weather to train almost everyday and still have time to attend a great school like VCC. Along with his studies and grueling practice schedule, Foren also finds time to work because wakeboarding is an expensive sport.

Sponsors provide Foren with the necessary funds to play the sport. He explained, “This sport is so expensive I could not make it without help.” The company that sponsors Foren is Helium a premier distributor of life jackets, vests, ropes, handles, and neoprene tops. They provide funds for Forens wakeboard, boat, ropes and handles, gloves, cloths, and accessories. With wakeboards starting at $100, boats at more then $4,000 and countless other necessities, the sponsors don’t deny it takes money to compete according to the online website Ski Pro. Some of the gear that Foren uses is a Hyperlite wakeboard. Hyperlite wakeboards are a manufacture of wakeboards and the pioneers of the sport since its inception in 1991. They proudly craft their wakeboards to the standards set by their customers, athletes and themselves on the shores of Lake Sammamish in the United States

Starting at age 11, Foren worked at his craft, earning a few awards at local events. He developed into a Semi-Professional in the Junior Men’s Division when he received payments to participate in certain events. Last year he attended the first two stops of the Pro Wakeboard Tour. His dream includes moving on to becoming a professional wakeboarder one day. Hard work and dedication and a good education from Valencia give Foren the tools to make this dream a reality.

Staying in shape is the key to his success, says Foren so he trains daily. His workouts include: cardio three times a week, upper body twice a week and lower body workouts the other two days, “The whole body needs to be in tune for a person to succeed in this sport.” clarified Foren. Practicing at the local Lakes, Clear Lake and Lake Holden, put Foren above his competition. He rides twice a day and goes to Orlando Water sports Complex three times a week.

Eight years of experience, a good education, and continued countless hours of training, Foren knows the maneuvers, or tricks as he put it, in his sport, do not come without risk. Able to do a 720 (spinning his body in the air a full two rotations), Foren acknowledges he must still work at his tricks. “I do not want to put my life in jeopardy.” He is aware that a good education can eventually give him the edge on his competition when it comes down to the becoming a professional Wakeboarder and he is proud to say that he started his college education at Valencia Community College.