By AIDA SANTANA
​Staff writer

by LOGAN JACKSON
Special to The Tystenac

Attitude, popularity, and hours of rehearsal. Tiffin University held its first-ever musical, Heathers, which was “like, totally not for kids.”

Originally released in 1989, Heather’s can sometimes be considered the foundation of Mean Girls. The show follows the storyline of the three most popular girls in school, along with Veronica, who adjusts her lifestyle to impress her new friends. This show is known for humor, drama, and fantastic music.

Opening night was Feb. 15th and it kicked the weekend off with a successful show. Most students involved spent countless hours in rehearsal and their hard work paid off afterward. Nearly all music students volunteered to help in any way they could, including lights, sound, and ushering.

Not shown is Aly Horn, the director of the musical. Horn chose this as TU’s first musical because “the music and requirements fit all of the cast accordingly and well.”

Horn is a professor in the Music Department. She has experience with Vocal Coaching, directing Higher Ground (Tiffin’s previous all-female a capella group), the Pop Choir, and she is also a professor for a number of Music Fundamental classes. Although this isn’t her first time directing a musical, this is her first as part of the TU family.

Senior cast member, Layla Pollock, was asked what her favorite part of being involved was. She initially stated that it was difficult to choose, due to the many good things. overall, “getting to witness everybody coming out of their shell, also piecing every scene together into a whole act”.

Another great part Pollock mentioned she was proud of how students involved were actually creating characters, rather than a college student imitating a character, making the act more believable. Among the cast, Chloe Holt and Darla Arnette are first-year students and they made a phenomenal impression.

More photos and remarks available across Tiffin Music’s social media platforms.

by BRANDON UTLEY
​co-editor

Imagine this. You are sitting in your room this weekend with nothing to do. Netflix is boring, homework is done, and you have already eaten all of your Ben & Jerry’s and discount Valentine’s Day chocolate. What do you do?

Come to the Performing Arts Lab Friday February 15 & Saturday February 16 at 7pm and Sunday February 17 at 2pm to see Heathers: The Musical.

The show is centered around Veronica Sawyer, a naïve teenage girl who just wants to fit in with the popular kids, “The Heathers.” Her plans get turned upside down when she meets the mysterious outcast Jason Dean. Follow these two as they navigate the treacherous trail of desire, lust, drama, and death.

The show does feature scenes of extreme violence, language, suicide, sexual orientation, and murder so it is totally like… not for kids. 

by Lara Jade
Staff writer


1. Where did you grow up?
Keionn: “Well, I’m from Toledo Ohio. not too far from here. It’s a… really cool city. We have a habit of striving for greatness and that is something that you can really see when it comes to this mixtape. I hope I can make them proud.”

2. What is your major and why did you come to Tiffin University?
Keionn: “My major is Arts Administration with a concentration in Music Industry. I chose Tiffin mainly because I came here seeking track. I’m a track athlete. They recruited me and that’s how I came here.”

3. Is your family musical?
Keionn: “No. No, my family loves music but they don’t have any experience in it. They’re more working people, you know, blue collar, every day.”

4. What is the first song you remember learning?
Keionn: “First song I ever learned on an instrument was Mary Had a Little Lamb on this really janky keyboard that I found in the basement one day. “

by MADISON DOSS
Special to The Tystenac

Tiffin University hosted a Sports Talk Presentation that featured two Olympians in the University’s Heminger Center on Wednesday morning. The Olympians who spoke were Katie Smith, all-time leading scorer of women’s professional basketball, and Jan Boutmy, renowned fencing, hall of famer and sportsman.

The presentation was one of many events incorporated into Elite Sport and Culture Week, which ran from October 20-25. Organized by Tiffin University, Terra State Community College, Tiffin Mercy Health and National Machinery, Elite Week showcased Olympians and Paralympians from all over the world.

One of the organizers and professor at Tiffin University, Bonnie Tiell, opened the presentation by discussing the importance of substance abuse and young athletes.

Tiell then introduced Smith and called her to the stage.

Smith said she is from Logan, Ohio, and graduated from The Ohio State University. She said she earned three Olympic gold medals and helped Team USA win two world championships.

She said she retired from the WNBA in 2013 as a seven-time all-star and was named Ohio State’s female athlete of the century.

Smith is now the head coach of WNBA’s New York Liberty.

Smith began her presentation by talking about anti-doping and said she wanted young athletes to take care of themselves and to have equal playing fields.

She then provided a website address, SafeSport.org, as a resource for athletes who are not sure what substances are safe versus not.

Smith said she participated in track and field, volleyball and basketball in high school.

She fell in love with basketball and said she played professionally for 17 years.

Smith presented four core values and their meanings, and said young athletes need those values to be successful. The values were respect, excellence, consistency and determination.

Without those four values, “it is difficult to have good habits that create good days and those good days turn into good weeks and so on,” said Smith.

“How you do anything is how you do everything,” said Smith.

In closing, Smith said her favorite memory from the Olympics was walking in the opening 2000 Olympic ceremony in Sydney, Australia.

After Smith’s closing remarks, Tiell introduced Boutmy and invited him to the stage.

Boutmy is 88 years old and fenced in 10 Olympic Games for the Netherlands, including Tokyo’s in 1964 and Mexico City’s in 1968. He said he also served as a fencing director, judge and director of fencing information desk at the Olympic Village.

Boutmy is the president of the Olympians Netherlands Antilles Association and vice president of PanAmerican Olympians Association, but said he currently lives in Curacao.

Growing up, his first fencing trainer was his father, who helped him learn the game and grow as a fencer, said Boutmy.

Boutmy spoke about his journey through the 10 years of participating in the Olympics. In total, Boutmy he said he won eight medals: four gold, one silver and three bronze.

He also tried different sports growing up like Smith did, but he played soccer, tennis then tried fencing.

The one major thing Boutmy learned while competing is how to respectfully treat the officials because they were a huge factor in how the matches play out.

“Tiffin was honored to have two legends in its presence,” said Tiell.

Post-presentation, Smith said the most important thing she wanted student-athletes to take away from her portion was to follow the four core values and to be present in everything one does.

Rick Goeb was an additional organizer for Elite Week and said the events were going as
planned. Goeb is also a professor at Tiffin University.

Goeb attended the elementary/middle schools which also had some Olympians present speeches.

“The schools’ students and administrations were excited,” said Goeb.

The most challenging aspect of planning Elite Week for Goeb was figuring out all of the logistics such as travel, lodging and schedule, said Goeb.

​“This week has been great, and we are looking forward to the rest of events for the week,” said Goeb.

by NATHAN DANKO
Special to The Tystenac

During Tiffin University's Elite Sport and Culture Week, the diverse culture of the Olympics was fully displayed. The poster showcase reflects the diverse culture and the rich history of the Olympics. With posters created by Tiffin University students, the walls of the Heminger Center were decorated in the honor of the Olympics during the event.

The Monday of Elite Sport and Culture Week began with the poster showcase. Between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., the walls of Heminger were decorated. The posters covered the history and controversies of the Olympics. The history of the Olympics was propped along the walls of the Heminger Center.

The posters were a colorful sight. Arranged in the windows, the entry way to Heminger was filled with knowledge of the Olympics. The poster showcase demonstrated the history of the Olympians and the flags they carry.

“I found the Tanya Harding case to be the most interesting,” said Angela Holahan.

Holahan and her group made a poster reflecting the Harding controversy of the 1994 Olympics in Norway. The Harding case proved to be a monumental moment in the history of the Olympics.

Holahan’s poster was similar to other posters at this event. Some posters at this event reflected the problems throughout the Olympics’ history. One poster reflected the Munich 1979 Olympics. The poster presented the facts of this massacre and tragedy as well as the games.

The poster reads, “Mark Spitz won seven gold medals and set seven world records”.

This fact reflects the positives of the 1979 Munich Olympics. The 1979 Olympics are best known for the massacre.

"Drug testing has increased due to more athletes using banned substances for athletic advantage,” reads the poster titled, “Athlete Doping.”

Some posters at this event reflected constant issues throughout the Olympics. “Athlete Doping” covers the issue of performance-enhancing drugs.

The poster displays the statistics of athletic doping. The poster reads, “The country with the most doping cases is Austria.”

The poster lists the numbers of doping cases per country and names Austria as the country with the largest amount. Athletes using performance-enhancing drugs have been a problem throughout the history of the Olympics.

Another poster focused on the issue of the malpractice that some coaches and officials have committed. This poster covers the case of Jerry Sandusky, a Penn State coach who was convicted for his sexual malpractice as coach. The poster reflects the tragedies that some athletes have gone through, Olympian or not.

​Good or bad, the Olympics has had a diverse history. The posters reflected the events that have happened at the Olympic games.

by JOE HARAKAL
Staff writer

Tiffin University hosted an event from October 20-25 called Elite Sport and Culture Week. The event included multiple activities in which students, faculty, staff, and anyone who was interested could attend.

Everyone in attendance had the opportunity to interact with several former Olympic and Paralympic athletes, coaches and a member of the International Olympic Committee.

The largest part of Elite Sport and Culture Week was the Festival of Champions, presented in the Heminger Center on Tiffin University’s campus.

The Festival of Champions included the most events of the week and the most Olympic personnel. Some of the interactive events that people could take part in were pictures and autographs, races, soccer, dance lessons, basketball and one-on-one conversations with the Olympians.

Aaron Gonzalez, a baseball player at TU, said he spoke with a few of the Olympic athletes. “They are very nice and down-to-earth people. It seemed like they generally cared about meeting us and were excited to be here,” Gonzalez said.

“The point of this event was to get people involved and have an impact on the children and community,” said Rick Goeb, an assistant professor of sports management at Tiffin University.

Liston Bochette, an Olympic athlete and artist who came to Elite Sport and Culture Week, had a similar thought to Goeb’s when creating some of his art pieces. Bochette’s art was unveiled at another event that anyone had the chance to visit.
                        

​by JOE HARAKAL
Staff writer
 
Marysville Division of Police decided to start a canine unit with officer Dave Nist, a Tiffin University graduate, as the canine handler.

Nist, a former football player at TU, graduated in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. Upon finishing college, he started his career at Marysville Division of Police, and after one year on the force, was asked to start up their canine unit. This was made possible due to donations from Honda Manufacturing and various other donors, he said. 

“I have wanted to be a canine handler since college,” said Nist, as he reflected on an occurrence that happened at one of his football practices.

Nist said during one of his practices, a local canine handler stopped by and asked if someone wanted to get into the bite suit.

“I offered to go in the suit right away,” said Nist.

A bite suit is a specifically designed suit to withstand the power and force of a police and military dog bite. This suit is utilized in training for real life scenarios, without causing any injuries to the operator or canine.

​Nist got into the suit and the canine officer suggested that he could not run to the endzone before the dog caught him. He took the officers bet and won. His prize, an attack on the arm from the police dog.

“I remember making it to the endzone and turning around to see the dog running at me and biting the sleeve,” said Nist. “I thought it was so cool and I wanted to be a canine officer from that moment on.”

Nist has been working for the police department for 22 years now and has been the canine officer for 21 of them. Since the start of the canine unit, he has had three dogs. His dogs include Indi, who worked from 1998-2006, Khan from 2006-2013 and the current dog, Bear, according to the City of Marysville website.
   
Nist said that Indi was imported from Holland and Khan was from Slovakia. Both dogs are Belgium Malinois and were dual trained for narcotic’s and criminal apprehension, he said.

The current dog, Bear, was born in America and has parents that are also police dogs, he said. Nist’s faithful companion Bear was a year and a half old when he hit the streets as a police dog. He said he trained Bear, whose focus is on narcotics.
   
“I got Bear when he was a 7-week-old puppy and started training him early on,” said Nist.
   
During the training of Bear, Nist worked along side Master Trainer Jeff Moody, who was also training other police forces dogs at the time.
   
“While training Bear and the other dogs, I earned my master training certification,” stated Nist.  
   
Besides becoming a master trainer, Nist has had the opportunity at a higher-ranking position in the police force and had passed them up.
   
“I have been offered multiple different positions, but I always deny them,” said Nist. “I love working with the dogs and wouldn’t give that up.”