by Allie Greenhaw | Sep 26, 2021 | News Slider, Sports, Student Spotlight
Kyle Wilson, a junior Data Science major from Atlanta, Georgia, has been gaming for much of his life. “It’s just something that I’ve always been passionate about,” says Wilson. “I know that sounds silly, but like, all throughout high school, that’s like all I did. That’s how I made friends. After school, we all lived like 45 minutes away from each other so we could just hang out online. And then in college, I could do it in person through a club and online. “[In my] freshman year, I saw a gaming club poster on campus, and I got really excited because that’s what I did in high school. I joined the meeting and they told me about esports meetings. When I went to the first one, there were only five of us, so we didn’t even have to do tryouts. So I joined another team as well that did involve tryouts, and was on both teams that semester. I had a blast! I had a lot of fun. Then one of the teams fell apart because people graduated, but the other team kept going and I ended up making most of my friends that way. We created a friendship outside of the team, too. We called ourselves the LUsers — we weren’t very good! But we had fun, and that’s what mattered to us.” At first, the LUsers’ meetings were pretty quiet, but as they played more, the team began to open up and goof around a little more, and Wilson says it was pretty much downhill from there. The LUsers grew and started creating club leadership. Now, all of the people on the team are leaders, excited to welcome a...
by Allie Greenhaw | Sep 9, 2021 | News Slider, Opinion, Sports, Student Spotlight
Fifteen years ago in a churchyard in southern Bogotá, an energetic, dark-haired little boy kicked around a soccer ball as the youth minister droned on during his Sunday lessons. The minister’s pleas for him to stay still were in vain—this boy’s heart was taken by soccer. In some ways, the young man so many at Lipscomb have come to know is reminiscent of that boy, but there is a light in his eyes that says something changed. To say that junior Colombia native David Silva has stories to tell would be an understatement. The key to understanding Silva is his love for the game of soccer. For him, this game is woven into who he is. “The ball was my best friend, like Wilson in that Tom Hanks movie. It’s funny because that’s my name too!” Growing up on the southern side of Bogotá brought its own challenges. Although soccer runs in the veins of Colombian culture, not everyone in his neighborhood owned a soccer ball. Sometimes, a plastic water bottle was the next best thing. Silva played constantly, with whatever bottle or ball was around, and he got really good. By the time he was 13 years old, Silva had caught the eye of the academy team of 15-time Colombian champions Millonarios FC. They trained on the north side of Bogotá, so he traveled four hours round-trip every day on a bus to train in the afternoons. He woke up each day at 5 a.m., attended school, stood on the bus for a couple of hours, trained, took the bus home, and returned at 8 or 9 p.m. to his homework and family. Silva kept up this grueling schedule for two...
