It seems kind of ironic – a collegiate softball player majoring in journalism and English who wants to cover music instead of sports. But that is exactly the case with UMass junior Lauren Proctor.
The equation may seem a little more strange when one considers her pedigree. Her stepfather, Richard Restuccia, played professional for the Milwaukee Brewers before wear and tear on his shoulder forced him into retirement. But it’s not just Papa Proctor, however. Her mom is just as big a sportsaholic.
“They are sports nuts. I’ll give them a call and they’re saying, ‘Today we’re watching the Atlanta Braves and then we’re going to watch this sport and this sport,’” Proctor says. “And so I’ll be talking to them and my mom will be, ‘Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. Home run!’” Proctor says.
Despite this overwhelming upbringing into the Wide World of Sports, Proctor thinks she would rather write about concerts and tattooed guitarists then sports games and athletes.
And she is grabbing her ambitions by the horns.
So far, she has already gotten her foot in the door with multiple music publications like Performer Magazine, a magazine for which she has a concentration on artists coming out of the area. But this 21-year-old likes to keep busy – so she spreads herself around. She also writes for www.talkofnewyork.com, a hip-hop site run by BET photographers which receives 104,000 unique visits a day. The site has allowed her to interview people like Tyrese, Clinton Sparks (Diddy’s DJ) and Frankie J.
Or how about Skope Magazine – an internationally circulated magazine that just got a deal to be distributed in Barnes and Noble.
She also writes promos for Existence Records, an electronic label out of Canada that just had a release featured on iTunes Canada, UK, and Japan, reaching Number eight on the Japanese charts.
But Proctor doesn’t stop there.
She is also in the process of starting an online music magazine called Thrill Music Mag. It will cover all musical genres and is set to launch Sept. 1. She says she has stories lined up with artists ranging from My Chemical Romance to Justin Timberlake and Amy Winehouse. The site will feature a section called ‘Tastemakers’ that will feature highlight artists who necessarily ‘chart-famous’.
“I love writing about music. I’ve always loved music and in high school I made it a point to find new bands before they got famous. I feel lucky that I’ve found something I truly enjoy so much,” she says. “My parents have definitely encouraged me to be a sports writer but I guess I feel a different calling with my life. I love sports and have really enjoyed playing, but just don’t necessarily see sports journalism in my future.”
No matter what kind of a career her future holds or what kind of doors her diploma opens, Lauren knows that right now she plays for UMass Softball – that’s all that matters. Her team just won the Atlantic 10 Championship for the 13th time in 14 years – and 19th overall – and the Minutewomen have no intention of stopping there.
It was announced during the NCAA softball selection show on ESPNews on Sunday that UMass will host the Regionals for the second year in a row. The Minutewomen are the No. 2 team in the Amherst Regional and will face No. 3 Rhode Island (33-20) at 4:30 p.m. The regional is double elimination and runs through Sunday.
“I think it took us a little while to get going and to figure some things out, which is natural. But, I would say, that we’re doing well,” Proctor says.
It didn’t take Proctor long to figure things out, as she was a key factor in the Minutwomen’s success from Day One.
Heading into the further depths of the season, she maintains a batting average of .367. Over the course of the season she racked up 33 runs, 54 hits, 40 RBIs and a .503 slugging percentage. She is the epitome of a solid player – though she does not lead the team in any of the aforementioned categories she is consistently in the top two or three and she will always come through in the clutch.
“LP is as timely as anybody,” Sortino says. “She’s probably one of our best hitters with runners in scoring position this year. She’s solid.”
Though Proctor’s 2006-07 numbers may jump off the stat sheet to the casual reader, they are still the result of the steady progress she made since first donning the maroon and white.
She started all 54 games of her freshman season, finishing fourth on the team – and ninth in the A-10 – with a .322 batting average. By the time the year was done she had accumulated 27 runs scored, 47 hits (including three home runs) and 31 RBIs. She also garnered a slugging percentage of .466 and an on-base percentage of .385.
She continued her excellence during her sophomore year, starting in all 57 games. She mustered a .364 batting average to accompany her 30 runs scored, 60 hits, 20 RBIs and a .419 on-base percentage. She also had a slugging percentage of .455.
Her outstanding numbers earned her the honor of being selected as a third-team ESPN The Magazine All-District, first-team NFCA All-Region, Atlantic 10 All-Tournament team, first-team Atlantic 10 All-Conference and Academics All-Conference.
Those types of accolades have the ability to make any player look down their nose at her peers – but not Lauren Proctor. Her goal is not to amount statistics or numbers that win her the attention of the who’s who of the sports world, but rather to perform well day-in and day-out and help her team.
“I would say that I work for the hopes of contributing to the team and hopefully the team will do well in the end, but those types of honors are just an added bonus,” she says. “It’s nice to get that recognition, so it’s just a bonus for all the work that happens.”
While the adjustment moving from the West Coast to the East Coast might pose difficulty for most young students, it was no problem for Proctor, who is used to uprooting and relocating.
Born in Phoenix, Ariz., she moved to Pismo Beach, Calif. After finishing her sophomore year of high school in the picturesque city of California, her family again upped and moved – this time to Redmond, Washington. After Lauren tossed her high school graduation cap into the air, her father’s job as a regional manager for a sprinkler company forced them to pack their bags and move to La Jolla, Calif.
Whether it was this constant relocating at such a young age or the company that met her at UMass, Proctor did a terrific job of adjusting from the laid-back atmosphere of California to New England.
“I think that move in the middle of high school really helped me embrace a new place and the team was amazingly welcoming,” she says. “[Coach Elaine Sortino] made a point to make sure that I understood that I would be a key player from the very beginning and it was a great transition.”
Where a young, aspiring college athlete chooses to attend school depends very heavily on the coach that is doing the recruiting and Proctor couldn’t be happier that Sortino sought her out.
During her recruitment, the two would talk on the phone for hours at a time. Proctor says her coach is truly interested in who her players are and really tries to understand them. Any thing they shared over the phone held true once Proctor arrived at UMass – nothing is fake with Sortino.
“The coach I talked to over the phone during my recruiting period is the same coach that has been here,” Proctor says.
Sortino is relentless on her players. She wants the very best out of everyone that sports a Minutewomen’s jersey and eats and drinks nothing but UMass Softball. And this legacy that gripped Proctor actually stretches throughout the United States.
“I talked to some other coaches and Jackie Joseph of Michigan State said, ‘She is legendary.’ She used that word, ‘legendary’ and that’s when I kind of realized, ‘You know what? She is,’ Proctor says. “She’s a great person, a great coach – I couldn’t ask for more.”
“She is tough on us, but I think it’s because she wants us to succeed,” she continues. “She has the belief that if you’re going to succeed in the classroom, you’ll also succeed on the field and so you have to bring your work ethic to every aspect of your life.”
It usually takes just the right coach to ease the initial blow of the college jump and Sortino did just that. But, of course, Proctor’s teammates deserve some of the credit.
All of the Minutewomen have formed a bond rare among sports teams nowadays. The ‘25 players, 25 cabs’ mentality of Red Sox teams from decades ago is nonexistent in the UMass clubhouse. It is no-pressure, low-key atmosphere where the girl at the locker next to yours is not just your teammate, but also your friend.
“It’s a great group of girls,” Proctor says. “We have a really healthy team culture where everyone’s friendly, everyone is really respectful. There’s not a lot of seniority issues. It’s really a model team – one of the best teams that I’ve ever played for.”
Oh, and did you know Lauren Proctor speaks Spanish? It’s true.
While growing up in Arizona, she had a nanny from Mexico City named Lupe. With Lupe knowing only Spanish, Proctor was brought up learning the language. When Lupe stopped working for the family, however, Proctor knowledge of Spanish depleted, so she became taking courses at UMass in order to pay homage to the person who helped raise her. In fact, she plans on getting a Spanish minor.
“It’s always come fairly easily and it’s something that I’m really passionate about. So, when you’re passionate about something doing the work for it never seems like work,” she says.
That equals a double major in journalism and English with a minor in Spanish. That will be a pretty impressive resume when applying to Oxford – yes, Oxford. Her dream is to go there for grad school for her Ph.D. and she plans to apply to become a Rhodes Scholar. She knows it is a longshot but that will not stop her from going for her dream.
In fact, she plans to get an early start by heading over to Trinity College at Oxford for part of the summer to study. While there she will probably indulge in a little traveling, and training and maybe even working with Softball UK.
But, whether she is learning Spanish in the U.S. or using American English in England or covering Nas for a living, Proctor is going to make noise with something other than a bat in her future. She will use the same diligence and hard work she does on the softball field to achieve whatever dreams lie within her grasp.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
God doesn't hate gays...He hates the Westboro Baptist Church
Oh, boy, I have been waiting a very long time to do this – bash the Westboro Baptist Church. Well, my chance is finally here.
The raving bunch of pseudo-Christians have made the headlines of many newspapers and the top story of many evening news shows for their deplorable protests at the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq. Armed with signs reading “God hates your tears”, “God hates America”, “God hates fags”, “Thank God for IEDs”, these pathetic souls picket the burial services of America’s heroes fallen to combat because they feel the United States is a sinful and “doomed nation.”
Run by the Rev. Fred Phelps (who actually looks like he died about seven years ago), the WBC says the U.S. government has disgraced the Lord God and the Holy Bible by creating gay-friendly laws and telling the whole world homosexuality is OK. These psychopaths have been seen inflicting horrific emotional pain into the lives of a deceased’s family by holding protests (for whatever particular reason) mere feet away from a funeral.
They picketed the burial of Matthew Shepherd, a 21-year-old homosexual man who was lured from a college campus bar, tied to a split-rail fence and brutally beaten to death simply because he was gay. Members of the church (if you can even call it a church) shouted harassments at Shepard’s mother, telling her Matthew was burning in hell for committing the ultimate sin – sodomy. Mrs. Shepard was seen crying hysterically as friends and family members tried to console her.
But, gay people aren’t the only ones who suffer the WBC’s wrath. Phelps and his band of idiots are often at the funerals of soldiers killed while defending their country in Iraq – because, since America is a gay-loving nation, they were sent straight to hell. The protesters brought signs that help them spread their love to other victims of tragedy. They like to stand near the funeral procession with banners that say “Thank God for AIDS”, “Thank God for 9/11”, “Thank God for Hurricane Katrina.” No one is spared from this group’s spew of hatred – almost everyone is going to burn because America is ‘tolerant’ of homosexuality.
And these sick bastards just came painfully close to sticking their filthy paws into another American tragedy – the Virginia Tech Massacre. That’s right. The Westboro Baptist Church planned on protesting the funerals of the victims of the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people on Patriots’ Day. Members say higher education preaches rebelliousness against God and, therefore, these kids deserved to die.
“Why did this happen, you ask? It’s simple,” says godhatesamerica.com, one of the church’s websites. “The Lord your God sent a crazed madman to shoot at your children, and he didn’t miss. Get this straight – God sent this South Korean madman to kill 31 of your children at Virginia Tech. Was God asleep while this place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants.” – This gem comes straight from godhatesamerica.com, one of the WBC’s lovely websites.
The church agreed to cancel all protests related to the Virginia Tech Massacre – with a few stipulations. It suspended all pending pickets, and won’t schedule future pickets, in exchange, however, for three hours of national radio time with Mike Gallagher on his National Radio Show, where its members will openly discuss its religious positions on tragedies like the shootings at VT. They also plan on doing the same routine at the funerals for victims of the tragic tornadoes in Kansas – their home state.
And what about some of their websites – godhatesfags.com, godhatesamerica.com, godhatescanada.com and godhatessweden.com? They all spew the same kind of trash as the rest, but for different reasons. Phelps created the third website in response to the Dominion of Canada passing of a law on April 28, 2004, that makes any criticism of gays a crime punishable by fines and jail time. He created his anti-Sweden site after Pastor Ake Green was imprisoned for preaching that homosexual sex is an abomination.
Yeah, these people are simply beautiful.
I wonder where Phelps attended Sunday school and what kind of Bible he studied. It certainly was not the Bible of the Lord God – that’s for sure. My God loves every one of the creatures He created and would never condemn someone to hell simply for being gay. Phelps and his posse of mentally-warped heathens are using their First Amendment rights (a perk of the so-called “doomed nation” of America) to spread their message of hate.
Mr. Phelps, this God you claim you are speaking for does not exist. The one true God is a loving and caring one and He weeps because of what you are doing. You are sending not His messages, but rather the message of the devil.
But, just to cover all my bases, just in case a God with your frame-of-mind does exist, here is a message from me to you, Mr. Phelps: Take that Holy Bible you have perverted and those mindless drones you have brainwashed and have them forever keep you company in the bowels of Satan’s kingdom.
The raving bunch of pseudo-Christians have made the headlines of many newspapers and the top story of many evening news shows for their deplorable protests at the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq. Armed with signs reading “God hates your tears”, “God hates America”, “God hates fags”, “Thank God for IEDs”, these pathetic souls picket the burial services of America’s heroes fallen to combat because they feel the United States is a sinful and “doomed nation.”
Run by the Rev. Fred Phelps (who actually looks like he died about seven years ago), the WBC says the U.S. government has disgraced the Lord God and the Holy Bible by creating gay-friendly laws and telling the whole world homosexuality is OK. These psychopaths have been seen inflicting horrific emotional pain into the lives of a deceased’s family by holding protests (for whatever particular reason) mere feet away from a funeral.
They picketed the burial of Matthew Shepherd, a 21-year-old homosexual man who was lured from a college campus bar, tied to a split-rail fence and brutally beaten to death simply because he was gay. Members of the church (if you can even call it a church) shouted harassments at Shepard’s mother, telling her Matthew was burning in hell for committing the ultimate sin – sodomy. Mrs. Shepard was seen crying hysterically as friends and family members tried to console her.
But, gay people aren’t the only ones who suffer the WBC’s wrath. Phelps and his band of idiots are often at the funerals of soldiers killed while defending their country in Iraq – because, since America is a gay-loving nation, they were sent straight to hell. The protesters brought signs that help them spread their love to other victims of tragedy. They like to stand near the funeral procession with banners that say “Thank God for AIDS”, “Thank God for 9/11”, “Thank God for Hurricane Katrina.” No one is spared from this group’s spew of hatred – almost everyone is going to burn because America is ‘tolerant’ of homosexuality.
And these sick bastards just came painfully close to sticking their filthy paws into another American tragedy – the Virginia Tech Massacre. That’s right. The Westboro Baptist Church planned on protesting the funerals of the victims of the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people on Patriots’ Day. Members say higher education preaches rebelliousness against God and, therefore, these kids deserved to die.
“Why did this happen, you ask? It’s simple,” says godhatesamerica.com, one of the church’s websites. “The Lord your God sent a crazed madman to shoot at your children, and he didn’t miss. Get this straight – God sent this South Korean madman to kill 31 of your children at Virginia Tech. Was God asleep while this place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants.” – This gem comes straight from godhatesamerica.com, one of the WBC’s lovely websites.
The church agreed to cancel all protests related to the Virginia Tech Massacre – with a few stipulations. It suspended all pending pickets, and won’t schedule future pickets, in exchange, however, for three hours of national radio time with Mike Gallagher on his National Radio Show, where its members will openly discuss its religious positions on tragedies like the shootings at VT. They also plan on doing the same routine at the funerals for victims of the tragic tornadoes in Kansas – their home state.
And what about some of their websites – godhatesfags.com, godhatesamerica.com, godhatescanada.com and godhatessweden.com? They all spew the same kind of trash as the rest, but for different reasons. Phelps created the third website in response to the Dominion of Canada passing of a law on April 28, 2004, that makes any criticism of gays a crime punishable by fines and jail time. He created his anti-Sweden site after Pastor Ake Green was imprisoned for preaching that homosexual sex is an abomination.
Yeah, these people are simply beautiful.
I wonder where Phelps attended Sunday school and what kind of Bible he studied. It certainly was not the Bible of the Lord God – that’s for sure. My God loves every one of the creatures He created and would never condemn someone to hell simply for being gay. Phelps and his posse of mentally-warped heathens are using their First Amendment rights (a perk of the so-called “doomed nation” of America) to spread their message of hate.
Mr. Phelps, this God you claim you are speaking for does not exist. The one true God is a loving and caring one and He weeps because of what you are doing. You are sending not His messages, but rather the message of the devil.
But, just to cover all my bases, just in case a God with your frame-of-mind does exist, here is a message from me to you, Mr. Phelps: Take that Holy Bible you have perverted and those mindless drones you have brainwashed and have them forever keep you company in the bowels of Satan’s kingdom.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Can a brother get a cheap sweatshirt?!?!
Like it says to the right of this article, I attend the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. But, you see, I often forget this, what with the plethora of non-UMass paraphernalia floating around campus and all.
Moseying my way to class every morning I pass numerous peers wearing sweatshirts and caps that feature the names and logos of colleges not our own. I encounter attire that sports emblems of colleges ranging from Fitchburg State, UNH, University of West Virginia, Miami University, even UCLA. The last time I checked a college student is supposed to have pride in his/her school. Why, then, am I constantly bombarded with my fellow UMassers donning any colors besides maroon and white?
I am so distraught over this issue that I have actually posed this very question to a few individuals among the masses that wear paraphernalia of other universities. And they say it is mostly because one cannot get a quality UMass product on the cheap.
At the U-Store in the Campus Center, a University of Massachusetts sweatshirt go can go for more than $60. Fed up with getting as screwed over at the U-Store as at the local gas station, most students head down to Steve & Barry’s at the Hampshire Mall for all their UMass clothing needs.
There is one catch, though – there is no UMass attire at Steve & Barry’s. That’s right, there is no Maroon and White apparel in a clothing store mere minutes away from the UM campus. The majority of students must choose to settle for a seven dollar-something with “Rutgers Scarlet Knights” embroidered on it.
Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this?
Students should be proudly flashing their school’s colors on sweatshirts, sweaters, hats…anything that can tell a crowd, “I go to UMass and I am darn proud of it.” But, apparently, the folks down at the U-Store – or perhaps the manufacturers – think we students are members of the Rockefeller family and can drop that much dough for a piece of clothing.
News flash: We can’t.
I don’t know about my classmates, but I can’t afford to fork over a lot of cash for anything. The money I have on me most of the time consists of whatever coins I manage to find to the floor of my dorm room on any particular morning.
I love my school. I love everything about it – the people, the classes, the opportunities, the parties. I want to flaunt my status as a UMass student (as I’m sure many other students do). But I’m not made of money. I’d like to be able to purchase some Massachusetts paraphernalia and at least be able to buy licorice after. After all, I am not Paris Hilton – I cannot wipe my rear end with $20 bills. I need clothing I can afford.
The outrageous prices on UMass gear are masking school pride and it is very unfortunate. Go to any other college campus and you will see the students strutting around their turf with all sorts of clothing decked out with their schools’ logo. The reason you don’t see Massachusetts students sporting UMass stuff in larger quantity does not mean that they are lacking in school spirit. They have it coming out of their ears. Just think about it. We needed riot police to control the swarms of (idiotic) students that trashed Southwest after the football team lost a game. But, unfortunately, the high prices of paraphernalia forces many-a-student to settle for some lame ‘Oregon’ sweatshirt.
There are two Steve & Barry’s gift cards in my wallet – which one of my friends was nice enough to give me – and it would be nice if (even combined) I could walk in and buy a decent UMass sweatshirt. Unfortunately, that is just not the case.
I look forward to seeing my fellow students strolling throughout campus with Maroon and White garb on, but it seems as though that may not happen for quite so time. I guess we will have to further suffer the eyesore of seeing our peers walking around with the logos of other schools plastered all over them. At least until the time comes when people wise up and realize that we college students cannot fork over a bunch Mr. Jackson’s for a piece of clothing we would love to own, that is. So, until then, let me be the first to say, “Go Tar Heels!”
Moseying my way to class every morning I pass numerous peers wearing sweatshirts and caps that feature the names and logos of colleges not our own. I encounter attire that sports emblems of colleges ranging from Fitchburg State, UNH, University of West Virginia, Miami University, even UCLA. The last time I checked a college student is supposed to have pride in his/her school. Why, then, am I constantly bombarded with my fellow UMassers donning any colors besides maroon and white?
I am so distraught over this issue that I have actually posed this very question to a few individuals among the masses that wear paraphernalia of other universities. And they say it is mostly because one cannot get a quality UMass product on the cheap.
At the U-Store in the Campus Center, a University of Massachusetts sweatshirt go can go for more than $60. Fed up with getting as screwed over at the U-Store as at the local gas station, most students head down to Steve & Barry’s at the Hampshire Mall for all their UMass clothing needs.
There is one catch, though – there is no UMass attire at Steve & Barry’s. That’s right, there is no Maroon and White apparel in a clothing store mere minutes away from the UM campus. The majority of students must choose to settle for a seven dollar-something with “Rutgers Scarlet Knights” embroidered on it.
Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this?
Students should be proudly flashing their school’s colors on sweatshirts, sweaters, hats…anything that can tell a crowd, “I go to UMass and I am darn proud of it.” But, apparently, the folks down at the U-Store – or perhaps the manufacturers – think we students are members of the Rockefeller family and can drop that much dough for a piece of clothing.
News flash: We can’t.
I don’t know about my classmates, but I can’t afford to fork over a lot of cash for anything. The money I have on me most of the time consists of whatever coins I manage to find to the floor of my dorm room on any particular morning.
I love my school. I love everything about it – the people, the classes, the opportunities, the parties. I want to flaunt my status as a UMass student (as I’m sure many other students do). But I’m not made of money. I’d like to be able to purchase some Massachusetts paraphernalia and at least be able to buy licorice after. After all, I am not Paris Hilton – I cannot wipe my rear end with $20 bills. I need clothing I can afford.
The outrageous prices on UMass gear are masking school pride and it is very unfortunate. Go to any other college campus and you will see the students strutting around their turf with all sorts of clothing decked out with their schools’ logo. The reason you don’t see Massachusetts students sporting UMass stuff in larger quantity does not mean that they are lacking in school spirit. They have it coming out of their ears. Just think about it. We needed riot police to control the swarms of (idiotic) students that trashed Southwest after the football team lost a game. But, unfortunately, the high prices of paraphernalia forces many-a-student to settle for some lame ‘Oregon’ sweatshirt.
There are two Steve & Barry’s gift cards in my wallet – which one of my friends was nice enough to give me – and it would be nice if (even combined) I could walk in and buy a decent UMass sweatshirt. Unfortunately, that is just not the case.
I look forward to seeing my fellow students strolling throughout campus with Maroon and White garb on, but it seems as though that may not happen for quite so time. I guess we will have to further suffer the eyesore of seeing our peers walking around with the logos of other schools plastered all over them. At least until the time comes when people wise up and realize that we college students cannot fork over a bunch Mr. Jackson’s for a piece of clothing we would love to own, that is. So, until then, let me be the first to say, “Go Tar Heels!”
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