Sports Recreation

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Downtown Sounds: Day 2

Trailblazers: Park Butte Lookout

My Dear Friend Oscar: Best Short Documentary - Chernobyl Heart

One of the reasons I started this weekly blog was to challenge myself with the movies I watch. Sure, it allows me to see some great, popular films such as Forrest Gump or Star Wars, but my real motivation was to force myself to watch movies that I otherwise would look over. This was definitely the case with Chernobyl Heart, winner of the Best Documentary Short Subject category for the 2004 Academy Awards.

Games Galore: Batman: Arkham Knight

Community turns out for basketball tournament

Every Fourth of July, the Port of Bellingham, Haggen, and the Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce partner to create a family-friendly celebration, and this year’s event included the Hoop It Up 3-on-3 basketball tournament.

Western students learn to flyfish

WWU hosts boys basketball camp

With campus emptier than usual during summer quarter at Western, the university is able to open up its dorms, dining halls and other facilities for different youth summer camps, including the boys basketball team camp. Tony Dominguez, Western’s men’s basketball head coach, leads this camp. He has been head coach for four years and has been affiliated with the basketball camp for more than 20 years. High school boys’ teams from all along the West Coast travel to Western for this camp, and Dominguez said he believes that his camp is different from others. “We don’t usually treat camps like a lot of colleges, it’s not just a fundraiser, that’s just part of it,” Dominguez said. “We actually take it very seriously. We are here reaching out to kids around the state.” Campers don’t just focus on basketball, although it does take up most of their day. The participants also learn and benefit from team building and team bonding, Dominguez said. Not all teams are local, so the teams get a chance to travel together and get to see how they work on the road with each other, Dominguez said. “It gets the campers from around the Northwest to come down,” said Greg Meier, head assistant men’s basketball coach at Western. “They get to see how beautiful Western’s campus is. Coaches and their teams have the opportunity to play games against teams they wouldn’t normally face. This can be beneficial for the teams because they learn how to work with each other in stressful situations that won’t be on their record, Dominguez said. Dominguez stressed the fact that this camp helps the boys outside of the game of basketball, both individually and as a team. Campers learn team-building skills during clinics that are held throughout the day by Dominguez and Meier. “They have to learn how to work hard, they can’t be lazy,” Dominguez said.  “It helps them work well with groups, working with coaches, learning how to meet new people at dinner time, breakfast and lunch.” Daily clinics are held in order to focus on skills they can use outside of the camp. “I put them through a workout that we do and practice on a daily basis so they can see what college players do and how they go through individual workouts,” Meier said. “The campers can take these workouts and put them into work outside of camp and get better once they leave here.” Because teams from all over the west coast attend the camp, it creates a space for the campers to be placed in a social situation outside of school, allowing to them learn to make connections with different communities they are used to, Dominguez said. The directors, coaches and staff generate a healthy, positive environment which allows the campers to build character, develop a work ethic and be independent for a weekend. “People just love the campus as a whole and love being a part of Western for the week,” Meier said. “We make it fun,” Dominguez said. “They get to be independent, away from mom and dad, staying over night, being in a safe environment and being able to enjoy themselves without being stressed.” Because Western has won the Division II National Championship and also been to the Final Four, it attracts teams and campers from all over the state to register for this camp, Meier said. “When people see that you have success it means that we are doing something right,” Meier said.

Hidden Gems: Mediterranean Specialties Café

The Mediterranean Specialties Café is a little place that is tucked away on the corner of 32nd St. Not only can you buy sandwich wraps, meat pies, and couscous to eat it right then and there, you could also buy the groceries and cookbooks to make it a at home DIY deal.

The Blog That Bumps: Hip-Hop Ladies

KEHLANI:

Campus Style: Value Village Chic

Trailblazers: Winchester Mountain Lookout

Downtown Sounds: Day 1

Trailblazers: Lizard Lake via Alternate Incline Trail

There's an App for That: Handy Basics for College

The Blog That Bumps

"Value Village," by Mick Jenkins

My Dear Friend Oscar: Best Actor in Forrest Gump

The MDFO series has returned! And what better way to do so than to look at one of the best films of the ‘90s, “Forrest Gump,” is a movie that everyone knows at this point. This week we will look at one of the six Oscars that this film took home at the 1995 Academy Awards.

Games Galore: Fallout Shelter (iOS)

Free-to-play (in App Store purchases) With the impending arrival of Fallout 4, the focus on the series has reached series has reached a fever pitch. During the initial announcement of the game, Bethesda, the publisher, also announced Fallout Shelter, an iOS game that places the player as one of the, “Overseers" in charge of a "Vault". A Vault, in the Fallout universe, is an underground living space that houses the survivors and their descendants from the ravaged wasteland outside. Fallout Shelter works a little differently from the mainline Fallout games. Instead of trekking across the remnants of the United States, the player oversees the functions and residents of their own Vault. First, the player must build rooms that will provide power, food, and water, the three resources that are necessary to keep the Vault running. The Vault is expanded by attracting more outsiders to the Vault, or by having two people with high Charisma mate so that one of them becomes pregnant. Charisma is one of several stats each dweller has that determines what job in the Vault they are most suited for. Should the need arise, you can send out some of your dwellers into the wastes to forage for weapons, armor and other supplies. The end goal of the game is to build a flourishing Vault, by building new rooms, and populating it with as many dwellers as possible. The game nicely sidesteps many of the pitfalls of the free-to-play type of game. You don’t need to pay money in order to keep playing after a certain duration. Instead, you can pay money to get a, “lunchbox” with four prizes, such as weapons, armor or extra resources. It’s a nice bonus but it is not necessary to play the game. On the downside, the game really does require a high amount of babysitting, requiring the player to consistently monitor the amount of resources their Vault has. This detracts from convenience and accessibility of the game. Although this doesn’t matter so much later on, it’s still a little bit of a pain. Final Rating: 8/10

Paul Madison retiring after 48 years

Madison has been the sports information director for Western since 1966, when he was a Viking freshman. His title never changed. At this time, he was finishing up his degree in the journalism department and was among one of the first journalism classes to graduate from Western in 1971.

U.S. headed to World Cup semi-final

As the FIFA Women’s World Cup continues just north of the border in Canada, the United States Women’s National Team is still alive and well, making confident strides through the competition.

Bellingham Bells off to a hot start

So far the Bells are off to a great start – with 12 wins and 8 losses, they lead the West Division of the West Coast League.