Football players suffer biggest defeat yet
Katja Liebing/Courier
The football team reacting to the board approving the hiring of the new head
coach at the Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday.
Ahmad Akkaoui and
Christian Rivas
Staff Writers
Despite pleas from PCC football players to
retain their coach during the Board of Trust¬
ees meeting yesterday, the board unanimously
decided to name Fullerton quarterbacks coach
Tom Maher the new head coach of the Lanc¬
ers football team.
Members of the team gathered in the Cre-
veling Lounge to show support for their now
former coach Thom Kaumeyer.
Maher would be the Lancers’ third coach in
two years, marking yet another questionable
offseason.
Speaking on behalf of the team was fresh¬
man linebacker Daniel Wire.
“I believe this is a very unfair and unpro¬
fessional move,” said Wire. “They opened the
job on the Pasadena website for a new head
coach . . . but then after Tom Maher applied,
they closed the applications.”
Superintendent/President Dr. Rajen Vur-
dien explained the legality of this procedure
when it was called into question.
“Once there is an internal candidate, that is
interested in the position, then no outsiders,
according to the faculty contract we had, no
temporary person or outsiders are considered
for the position,” said Vurdien.
Players also said during public comment
that Kaumeyer applied for coaching position
but wasn’t given fair consideration.
According to Vurdien, Kaumeyer was
notified that after his one-year, temporary
contract, he would be unable to re-apply for
the head coaching position.
“We do not keep temporary coaches for
more than one year. That was made very
clear,” Vurdien said.
Wire’s teammate Joey Gregory went to the
podium to express his concerns on the hiring
COACH pg. 2
Katja Liebing/Courier
The footbal team arguing against the removal of their football coach, Thom
Kaumeyer, at the Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday.
Women’s
basketball
advances
Irma Carrillo/Courier
Lancers' starting point guard Judith Espinoza flashing a big
smile after Wednesday night's win against Rio Hondo College
with a final score 65-54 in the Hutto Patterson Gym.
Seeing a better future
for visually impaired
students on campus
Ahmad Akkaoui
Staff Writer
The women’s basketball team got
over the hump that was Rio Hon¬
do’s late-game push and defeated
the Roadrunners, 65-54, in coach
Joe Peron’s 50th playoff win to
move on to the next round of the
SoCal Regional playoffs.
Coming into the game, Pasadena
knew Rio Hondo shoots the ball
at a high level from behind the arc,
averaging 31 percent, and were
able to limit them to seven made
three-pointers in 30 attempts.
Pasadena did much better in the
third quarter of the game, scoring
1 8 points, compared to last game
when they only scored two points.
Point guard Judith Espinoza
finished with 17 points and nine
assists. She averaged just below five
turnovers a game during the regular
season but had zero turnovers this
game.
“During halftime, he was just
saying we knew coming into today
that we had to come out really hard
in the third quarter,” Espinoza said.
“We were just focused and today we
really pumped each other up and the
coaches helped too. We just knew
that we couldn’t let them come back
in the third quarter because this is
a really important game. Everyone
gave it their all and we did what had
to be done.”
The Lancers got into foul trouble
early in the second half and had the
Roadrunners at the free throw line.
Unfazed by the comeback attempt,
they kept their foot on the gas by
playing detailed on the offense and
defense.
The Lancers were able to close
out on the shooters and kept Rio
Hondo from making easy baskets.
Forward Ilianna Blanc sat out the
first half last game with two early
fouls and wasn’t able to establish a
presence. Blanc dominated in the
paint and finished with 17 points
on 7 for 1 1 shooting paired with 5
steals and 3 blocks.
“I think we took that to a big
advantage to get it to the post
because we had game film on them
and we knew they didn’t have a big
presence so we knew that we need¬
ed to work the inside out,” Blanc
said. “We knew they are a shooting
team so our first goal was to not let
WBBALL pg. 7
Brian Chernick
Staff Writer
Students have been putting up
with antiquated and inaccurate
braille signs throughout the older
buildings on campus for years and
now campus clubs and the admin¬
istration are finally coming together
to build a stronger, more accessible
campus for current and incoming
disabled students.
The level of inaccessibility
throughout parts of the campus
became apparent for Students
Unlimited president Roger Martinez
after his friend and Access Technol¬
ogy president Philbert Tjong, who
is blind, asked Martinez where the C
Building bathroom was located.
Martinez realized then that Tjong
had been making an extended trek
over to other buildings just to use
the bathroom.
Tjong has been working on a
computer science degree and be¬
cause of the complexity in some of
the math classes he would forgo a
bathroom break altogether to avoid
missing any bit of the lecture.
When Martinez examined the
bathroom braille sign he was
shocked to find that not only had
the braille sign lacked a gender spec¬
ification, but the sign had only the
room number printed on it.
“Wouldn’t you want to fix that?”
Martinez asked.
Now the Students Unlimited and
Access Technology clubs have set
out to do right for their fellow stu¬
dents by working with the admin¬
istration to make the campus more
accessible than ever before.
Tjong is not the only student
affected. Jane Suh and Joseph
Duncan, also members of Students
Unlimited, have experienced the
lack of accessibly and consistency in
the signage throughout the building.
“There are signs everywhere,”
Suh said. “But I don’t know which
side the door is on.”
Suh and Duncan pointed out that
BRAILLE pg. 2
