Past the basketball shoes, Hanson is just your average college student

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Forward David Hanson is Cal Poly’s leading scorer this season, averaging 16 points and six rebounds per games. Photo by Ryan Sidarto.

There is a distinct difference in forward David Hanson’s personality on and off the court. When he’s playing, he is focused, aggressive, serious, instinctual and completely set on getting the team a win.

Off the court, however, his friends and family describe him as an easygoing, laid back prankster who likes hot chocolate, reality shows like “Jersey Shore” and teen-pop sensation Justin Bieber.

“He is completely bipolar,” said his brother Matthew, a Cal Poly alumnus who is now playing professional basketball in Australia. “You will see two different sides of him, but that’s what makes him so effective.”

Even while in high school, Hanson displayed his leadership abilities as captain of the basketball team three out of his four years. His high school coach Jeff Wahl said it was like having another coach on the floor.

“He had a knack to bring out the best in others,” Wahl said.

Hanson also displayed his kindness and good nature, as a well-liked student in his small Christian school — Maranatha Christian Academy — of less than 800 students in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

“He was classy all the time, befriended everybody,” Wahl said. “Everyone wanted to emulate him.”

Hanson grew up in Minnesota as the middle child of 10, with seven brothers and two sisters. He ended up playing basketball because of his brothers. His father, Tim Hanson, said his son gets along with many people because of his good character and his desire to “be a blessing” to people he meets.

“(His faith) accounts for the really positive qualities in his life,” he said.

In fact, one of the biggest aspects of Hanson’s life is his faith. He was raised Lutheran and is devoted to attending church, Campus Crusade and Athletes in Action, where athletes use sports to help answer questions of faith. He reads the Bible every day and even holds Bible studies when traveling to away games.

“My faith in the Lord, my relationship with him, that’s first priority,” Hanson said. “Everything that I do — basketball, school, relationships — it filters down into all those things.”

He attends church with his best friend and roommate Joel McKnight, an agricultural business junior. Hanson best exemplifies his off court personality at home where they share a room. Hanson has two posters of Justin Bieber and a quilt his mother made for him when he was born. He’s obsessed with keeping their room clean and keeps everything organized.

McKnight also said Hanson is a horrible cook, but he loves going out to places like Panda Express, Firestone and Chipotle. McKnight considers Hanson a great roommate and a great friend.

“Really loving, caring towards us, always looking out (for us),” McKnight said. “Kind of fatherly, shepherding us to make sure everything’s going all right.”

When not playing basketball, Hanson enjoys hunting, fishing, hiking and has tried to take up surfing, but admits he’s horrible at it. He also attends all of his roommates’ sports games when he can.

His other roommate and best friend, business administration senior Ricky Franklin, said they often walk down to the Chevron by their house to get hot chocolate and a DVD from the Redbox rental kiosk. Hanson likes to relax in solitude, watching movies like Step Brothers and The Hangover or “really stupid” reality shows.

“He loves ‘The Hills’ and ‘Jersey Shore,’” Mc Knight said. “(Television) shows he finds entertaining. He never had cable growing up.”

He expressed his distaste for Hanson’s attire, calling them “hideous massive thermals,” and said Hanson didn’t wear his basketball attire unless he had to. Hanson responded by saying in Minnesota you wear thick clothes and it’s just a habit. He also said he doesn’t like wearing his basketball gear because off the court he wants to show he’s not “such a jock.”

Yet, Hanson’s main priorities are “God, family, friends, basketball, in that order,” Franklin said.

Sometimes, these priorities overlap for Hanson. Maliik Love, guard on the team, said he knows his captain is always there for him. He describes Hanson as dead serious and competitive on game day but relaxed and loose off the court. Love said Hanson is the funniest person on the team.

“To me, he’s like a big brother,” Love said. “And a great leader out there on the floor.”

As a forward, Hanson is considered short for the position, standing 6-feet-5-inches tall. Forwards from other schools, such as UCSB’s Jaimé Serna and Jon Pastorek or UC Davis’ Mike Kurtz and Alex Tiffin, are all four to seven inches taller than him. That doesn’t stop Hanson, who scored a career-high 29 points against Cal State Bakersfield Jan. 29.

“I’m definitely undersized but I think I make up for it by being faster than the guy that’s guarding me which allows me to get open more,” Hanson said.

He said he doesn’t let the pressure of being captain of the team get to him and has just embraced it.

“I knew coming into this year that it would be a really big year for me and the team was going to need me,” Hanson said. “So I put in a lot of work in the summertime and I was really focused. I was confident coming in.”

While every win is something to celebrate, he takes from basketball something more than that.

“The memories that you make with the guys and the people you meet, in the arenas you play in,” Hanson said. “I think that’s the experiences that you remember.”

Originally published February 11, 2011 in the Mustang Daily.

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VIDEO: Cosplay! A Mini Documentary

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This is a mini documentary about cosplayers during the San Jose’s FanimeCon.

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San Luis Obispo Marathon a breakout success in debut

Under fog-hazed lighting, people stretched, jogged in place, or talked excitedly with friends and strangers gathered for the inaugural San Luis Obispo Marathon. Barely before 6 a.m., the downtown crowd buzzed with excitement.

Jennifer Millier and Rosemary Cassie headed toward the starting line, wearing black trash bags to stay warm.

“We started out running together about six years ago and caught the marathon bug,” said Millier, who described herself as “a weekender from Los Osos.” This is her 11th marathon and Cassie’s seventh. “We like running long distances together and talk the entire time.”

They hadn’t scoped the course out before and weren’t in it for the competition. They expected to complete the race in five hours.

Nearby, Andrew Murray of Sydney, Australia, also expected to come in at five hours. He wore the Australian flag as a cape for patriotic pride; he had just flown in the week before to compete “just for fun.”

An air horn blared to signal the start of the race, and it was growing light out when the last of 2,800 participants disappeared into the deserted and barricaded San Luis Obispo downtown for the first leg of what organizers plan as an annual event.

“They’re going to pass the Fremont theater, the Mission, they’re going to go down Higuera Street, into our neighborhoods — cute little bungalows — and then out into the Edna Valley and see the wine country,” said event director Heather Hellman, who worked for more than a year bringing the marathon together.

Following the last runners’ heels were volunteers who moved the barricades and tore down the finish line, quick to open the roads back up to locals and visitors.

A while later, people sat on their porches and sidewalks, cheering the returning half-marathon runners. Some were in their pajama sweatshirts, some were drinking from steaming mugs, and a few held signs with participants’ names, but most were cheering and shouting encouragingly.

William Preston of Islay Street decided not to go to work Sunday morning because of the road closures and instead watched the race.

“I see guys my own age and I’m feeling more hopeful as the day matures,” he said.

His neighbor, Michael Johnson, dressed up like a clown with a lime green wig and top hat.

“I used to do marathons,” he said. “And to me, it’s a party atmosphere.”

The party continued at the finish line, where white tents were set up with food, entertainment and vendors. According to the medical staff, the 12 cots in the medical tent were never full during the race and all the ice bags were gone.

Sean English, a professional race announcer with more than 200 events under his belt, greeted winners by name over the loud speaker to the applause of spectators along the white fences of Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo.

“Honestly, I’ve never seen a first-year event go so well, be so well thought out and so well supported by the community,” English said.

Originally published April 22, 2012 in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

Local Air Force major meets Obama in Afghanistan

A San Luis Obispo woman met President Barack Obama last week, in less than normal circumstances and very far from home.

Air Force Maj. Heidi Gibson had her picture taken with the president Tuesday at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, where he made a surprise visit. With military vehicles at his back and troops as his audience, Obama’s speech focused on the future of U.S. involvement in the region.

The speech was given on the first anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden and focused on the eventual withdraw of American forces from Afghanistan.

“It was pretty exciting,” Gibson said in a phone interview. “Basically, we were chosen to be part of the backdrop for his press conference.”

Afterward, the troops were invited to meet Obama, take photos, shake hands and have their hats signed.

“We thanked him for coming; he thanked us for our service,” Gibson said. She couldn’t really talk to him because of all the Secret Service agents, she said, but she had her picture taken with him.

Gibson has served for more than 25 years. Straight out of high school, she joined the Air National Guard.

“I was actually what you’d call a bomb loader,” she said with a laugh. “I did that for maybe five, six years.”

When Gibson received her degree in architecture from Cal Poly, she went on to officer training school, was commissioned and went into the civil engineering division.

Now she’s on a six-month tour in Afghanistan — her first tour and her first time in the region. She oversees about 20 construction projects on the air base.

But when she isn’t at work, “the monotony over here kind of gets to you,” she said.

When Gibson returns home in July, she will come back to her job as a principal architect at Studio 2G. Her business partner, Laura Gough, has been managing the firm since she left.

Gibson will also return to her husband, Mike Gibson, 10-year-old daughter Grace and 8-year-old son Gannon.

“When she gets back, she’ll need a few weeks to decompress and readjust. Just a little family time, we’re not planning anything special,” Mike Gibson said.

Originally published May 6, 2012 in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

SLO youth baseball team bound for Cooperstown tournament

The members of the SLO Tigers might be 12 years old, but they have been playing baseball together for years.

They started out as 8-year-old Cal Ripken All Stars who didn’t want to stop playing after the 21⁄2-month recreational baseball season ended. Jono Hicks, the team manager, said his son and teammates kept practicing, and they started their club baseball team in 2008.

For the past three years, Hicks said, the Tigers’ goal has been to make it to the Cooperstown Dreams Park and American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament. Now that goal is about to be realized: The Tigers will be going the week of June 2 to Cooperstown, N.Y., home of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, to play in one of the top youth tournaments in the country.

“The Cooperstown tournament is kind of the crown jewel of youth baseball tournaments for 12-year-olds,” Hicks said. “The facility is just amazing, the quality of the teams you see there, and you see the diversity of teams from all over the country — even Canada and Mexico come play.”

Each week from June to August, groups of 104 youth league teams compete for the national title in the city known as the Home of Baseball. More than 1,300 teams will participate over the course of the summer. Each team is inducted into the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame, yielding bragging rights and exposure for the team and players, Hicks said.

There is no qualifying for Cooperstown — teams register and are selected from a lottery, Hicks said. The cost of the trip — including food, lodging, travel and registration — is about $1,500 per person. The Tigers won a place this year, but 800 teams across the nation were turned away, including a squad from Paso Robles.

“You’re going to spend a lot of money, it’s going to take a lot of time, you put a lot of effort into getting ready to go over there,” he said. “You don’t want to go if you’re just going to go over there and lose seven games and go home.”

So the Tigers had to be ready for the competition by the time they were eligible as a 12-and-under team. Over the years, the squad has added players from throughout the Central Coast region to its original Cal Ripken All Stars. There are 11 players, with six from San Luis Obispo. To meet the qualifications for Cooperstown, two players were recruited from Goleta.

“We’ve always tried to focus on San Luis Obispo,” Hicks said. “We’ve really built a team focusing on those original kids, which we currently have seven of the kids who have been playing together since 2009 on this team.”

In the most recent season rankings for the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) baseball 12-and-under AAA division, the SLO Tigers are No. 1 in the state out of 104 teams. They are No. 1 in the Western region out of 220 teams, and rank No. 3 nationally among 1,300 teams. So far this season, they have compiled a record of 31 wins, 11 losses and two ties.

The team was originally named the Mustangs, but now they wear black and gold and adopted the name the SLO Tigers after the local high school.

One reason for the Tigers’ success, according to both the players and the coaches, is defense.

“I think we’re a really good defensive team,” said 12-year-old second baseman Benny Rodgers. “We don’t usually make a lot of errors, but we always expose the other team if they make some.”

Third baseman Nate Guillen, 12, comes from Santa Maria to play for the Tigers. Even though he isn’t one of the veteran players, he can point out another reason for success.

“We just have really good chemistry together,” he said.

“There’s a lot of other teams that work in a school type atmosphere where you just have a whole bunch of kids working together and then you just pull people up to an A team or a B team,” center fielder Will Compton, 12, said. “Our team has just been together for five years, we’ve had very few added people so we all know each other very well, we’re all friends, and I think that’s a big deal.”

The coaches see this bond at every practice. Thomas Eager played with the Cal Poly Mustangs and was drafted for the St. Louis Cardinals, but now he coaches both the Cal Poly team and the Tigers, and he can see why the boys excel.

“These kids are slowly developing into being leaders on the team, every one of them. They’re around each other so much that they’re able to hold each other accountable, which you won’t see at this young of age,” he said.

Because of their teamwork, Eager can also teach the Tigers advanced techniques that are more common in high school baseball and college.

“(We’ve) had coaches come up and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve never seen a Little League team do something like that!’ ” he said. “That puts a smile on my face.”

Originally published May 14, 2012 in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

Arroyo Grande girl to compete in Italian youth games

Angela Gemignani, 13, was a child who didn’t sit still, said her mother, Sheila. The Arroyo Grande girl instead did handstands in the living room and wanted to run rather than walk. As she got older, her energy was channeled into competitive gymnastics and track and field.

Arroyo Grande High School track and cross-country coach Sean Ricketts began working with her when she was in fifth grade.

“She started doing my little youth running camps,” Ricketts said, who also is a physical education teacher at Paulding Middle School, where Angela is now an eighth-grader. “Right away I could see how talented she was, saw that she really enjoyed running at the same time.”

It’s little wonder that Angela is one of 20 American youths attending the Italian National Olympic Committee Youth Games in Salerno, Italy, later this month. Nor is it surprising that she attended last year and won the bronze in the 1,000-meter run.

“I was a little nervous because they didn’t let us see our parents at all, because they wanted the team to be together,” Angela said.

But she said she had fun and made lasting friendships with her teammates, some of whom are returning this year with her.

To qualify for the Italian youth games, an athlete needs to be one-quarter Italian, 11 to 15 years of age and pass a national tryout. Prospective entrants are tested not only on athletic ability, but their attitude.

“The best times may not be what makes us choose them for the team,” said youth games representative Mico Licastro.

Organizers also take into account a young person’s personality, because the athletes are not yet at their full potential, he said.

Gary Heckman, Angela’s track coach at Paulding Middle School, can attest to her personality. He said she was humble and quiet, but always smiling, even though after she left track practice she would go to four-hour gymnastics practice.

“I see a student who has outstanding behavior, everything you want in an athlete,” he said. “Competitive, willing to take direction, very flexible in what’s going on, doesn’t get ruffled at all. Very easily approachable.”

Larry Goldzman, her physical education teacher — who calls her Angie — sees much of what Heckman does.

“The best thing about her is she’s always smiling and laughing and she’s out having fun with all of her friends and then — bam,” he said. “We’ll start playing a sport or going out for a little fitness run or do anything and she’s just focused.”

Angela isn’t the only one going to Italy. Team organizers choose 12 track and field athletes and eight swimmers, split evenly between girls and boys, to fly to Italy and compete against not only Italian youths, but international teams, as well.

Youths from other nations are invited to be in the games, where it is primarily Italian athletes competing in a variety of Olympic sports. Venezuela, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and America are currently the international teams competing alongside Italy.

Licastro has been with the program for three years and enabled the American team to join the youth games after more than a decade of absence.

He emphasized that there were two goals: to teach participants about the ethics of the Olympic movement and to connect them with their Italian heritage. The Olympics are not just about medals, he said, but about athletes being the best they can be.

“The main goal is to offer service to the citizens of the country who are invited to participate,” Licastro said. “For the children to have an opportunity to go to Italy and to reach some better understanding of where their parents or grandparents came from.”

While the trip will steep the youths in Italian culture, Angela revealed that last year she only ate pizza once, and it wasn’t exactly Italian.

“They put french fries and hot dogs on it because we’re American,” she said. “They only gave it to us, not like the people from Canada.”

Athletes who stand out in the games might also have a toe in the door for the Olympics. “Children who have strong potential, we bring them to the attention of the proper people to be considered for the evaluation,” Licastro said.

Originally published June 5, 2012 in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

VIDEO: SLO Sips: Kreuzberg, CA

Kreuzberg, CA isn’t a town, but “book bar and coffee lounge” named after a district in Berlin, Germany. The owners, James Whitaker and Chris Tarcon, modeled the cafe after the “quirky, fashion forward, music thriving, super creative vibe” they found there. This was their previous location.

Equipment used: Kodak Zi8

SLO Sips was a topical blog project about San Luis Obispo coffeehouses. Click the image below to visit the website.

VIDEO: SLO Sips: The Steynberg Gallery

The Steynberg Gallery is spacious cafe and art gallery located on Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo. It hosts a variety of cultural activities including art shows, live music, poetry readings, guest lectures, tea tasting, and much more.

Equipment used: Kodak Zi8

SLO Sips was a topical blog project about San Luis Obispo coffeehouses. Click the image below to visit the website.

VIDEO: A Valentine’s Day Serenade

This was a spur-of-the-moment clip I took while on my way from an interview. My video camera’s battery died before I could interview any of the onlookers, since I wasn’t prepared to make a video clip that day.

Equipment Used:
Kodak Zi8

Software Used:
iMovie

Student fights rare form of cancer

Delaney Lemus is one of 500 people diagnosed with Wilms' tumor each year. "She was getting her education and just trying to get a good start in life," Delaney's father, Luis Lemus, Jr. said. Courtesy photo.

Delaney Lemus completed her first year at Cal Poly as an agriculture business major without knowing she wouldn’t be returning back in the fall.

Up to this point, she was very active and athletic. She was a very happy person, always joking around, and before recent events, enjoyed playing volleyball and hanging out at the beach with her friends, her father Luis Lemus, Jr. said.

But Delaney is one of the many college-aged young adults who find themselves battling cancer while attempting to get a start on life.

According to the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance, a program started by the Lance Armstrong Foundation, there has been no improvement in survival rates for young adults since 1975. This is also complicated by whether they are put into adult or pediatric care — in the world of cancer research, the term “young adult” encompasses anyone from 15 to 39 years old, with about 70,000 cases each year.

Resources for young adults with cancer can be found over the Internet, from the National Collegiate Cancer Foundation, which provides financial support for college students going through treatment. Each focuses on the underrepresented young adult cancer patients and survivors, helping them get through not being able to go to school, to work or to live the life they dreamed of — before cancer reared its ugly head.

For Delaney, there were no signs of the cancer at first. She was very active but complained about back pains and couldn’t eat much before getting full. There was also the tiny lump in her abdomen. Her parents finally took her to see a doctor. In August 2009, the tests revealed she had a rare form of childhood cancer in the kidneys. It came as a total surprise to her father.

“The only thing I know about cancer is it’s bad,” Lemus said.

She had a rare form of cancer called Wilms’ tumor.

There are only about 500 new cases each year of Wilms’ tumors, which accounts for five percent of all childhood cancers, according to the American Cancer Society.

The cause is not from the environment or her lifestyle, and it could not be prevented. What sets her apart is that the average age of a child diagnosed with Wilms’ tumor is 3, and it becomes less common as the child ages. Delaney was 19 when she found out.

“She was getting her education and just trying to get a good start in life,” Lemus said.

They took her to the University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital, where she had the tumor and her kidney removed. After months of chemotherapy and radiation, Delaney’s cancer went into remission, and she resumed her old pastimes.

“She bounced back and played in a volleyball city league,” Lemus said.

In December 2010, after nine months of remission, they found the second tumor in her other kidney, bigger than the last.

“We had a few setbacks, (the doctors) tried to do aggressive chemotherapy to shrink it,” Lemus said. “(It was) applying pressure to her lungs and heart.”

During treatment, she got an infection that led to kidney failure. On Jan. 31, they operated to remove the tumor. She suffered severe blood loss and was in critical condition.

“It was a desperation surgery, they had no choice,” Lemus said. “They were able to get 95 percent of the tumor out.”

Despite all that has happened, Delaney has held on. She is still in the hospital, about to undergo more chemotherapy and radiation. She’s also been going through physical therapy and has started eating small amounts, smiling and laughing.

She didn’t speak for seven weeks while on the ventilator but now can talk with her sisters, who visit her often, Lemus said. Her father called the whole thing an “emotional rollercoaster” where they didn’t know what was around the next turn. Things are starting to go his daughter’s way again, though.

The community recently came together in support of the young woman and her family. Her friends banded together and created a Facebook group, Twitter and website called “Let’s Support Laney!” Well-wishers can post fundraising events and comments for Delaney on the website. There are currently 565 members of the Facebook group.

Other than Web page backing, Delaney is also garnering support with weekend fundraisers.

In the pouring rain last week, people came to the small parking lot by the Nipomo Miner’s Hardware store, between a drive-thru Starbucks and Taco Bell, to pay for drinks, chips and tri-tip sandwiches with $10 donation tickets. Carol Mahoney, a relative on her mother’s side, has been overseeing fundraising efforts for Delaney.

“They were drenched trying to get these tickets,” Mahoney said.

Her husband and other family members cooked 1,000 pounds of tri-tip and sold about 2,200 sandwiches altogether that day.

There will also be a blood drive during the second week of March at the United Blood Services Center for Delaney, who will need approximately 80 units of blood. On March 12, they will hold another barbecue and silent auction at St. Patrick’s Catholic Elementary School in Arroyo Grande.

Monica Wilson, a hair stylist at Tutta Bella Salon in Arroyo Grande, is participating in the silent auction. She donated hair products and a haircut for the fundraiser because, she said, everyone should do their part since every little bit helps.

“I just hope somehow they can help her,” Wilson said. “It’s got to be really hard for her and her family.”

In the end, the Lemus family is grateful for all the help the community has given.

“It’s a good, positive feeling for Delaney, and we just can’t say thank you enough,” her father said.

Any donations can be sent by checks payable to: “Delaney Lemus Benefit” c/o Rabobank, 615 Tefft St., Nipomo, CA 93444.

Originally published in the Mustang Daily.