Daily Bruin – Page 180

USC, Stanford among universities embroiled in athletic admissions scandal

The federal investigation into admission and recruiting violations has found its way to UCLA, but several other athletics departments are implicated in the situation as well. Sailing, rowing, soccer and tennis programs across the country have been discovered to have been falsifying test scores and athletic experience to help prospective students gain admission to top schools, with dozens of coaches, parents and administrators already being indicted.

USC
Gabriel McCarthy, assistant Sports editor

USC was involved in the same college admissions cheating scheme as UCLA.

USC will review its student population to determine if any additional students are connected to the scheme, and all outstanding USC applicants with ties to the fraudulent admissions scheme will have their admission revoked.

The architect of the scheme, Rick Singer, had bribed a number of university officials through the Key Worldwide Foundation in order to designate students as student-athletes and guarantee them admission to the university.

Senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel and men’s and women’s water polo head coach Jovan Vavic were both terminated following their indictment in the investigation.

Heinel received payments of more than $1.3 million to her USC accounts between 2014 and 2018 in order to facilitate the admission of more than two dozen students. Singer made payments totaling $250,000 that funded Vavic’s water polo teams and also made fabricated scholarships in order to pay for Vavic’s children’s private education.

Former USC assistant women’s soccer coach Laura Janke and former USC women’s soccer head coach Ali Khosroshahin were both charged with racketeering. Janke and Khosroshahin received a total of $350,000 after designating students as four-star recruits and granting them admission to USC, despite the students never having played competitive soccer.

Stanford
Sam Connon, assistant Sports editor

Fellow Pac-12 rival Stanford is also implicated in the scandal, spearheaded by former sailing coach John Vandemoer.

Vandemoer pled guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy on Tuesday – the same charges handed down to UCLA men’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo and the rest of the coaches involved. Vandemoer was fired Tuesday morning after it was discovered he took $270,000 in bribes.

The former coach helped admit multiple students, claiming they were competitive sailors when, in reality, they were not. He took a $110,000 payment from Singer – designated as a charitable donation to the program – in May 2018 after agreeing to hold a spot for the prospective student the prior summer.

That student did not ultimately enroll in Stanford, but in the summer of 2018, Vandemoer asked for $500,000 from Singer to save the spot for another one of his clients. That teen did not end up applying, but Singer still sent a $160,000 check to serve as a deposit for future clients.

Vandemoer – the only one of the coaches to plead guilty as of Wednesday – will have his sentencing hearing June 12 in Massachusetts.

Yale
Gabriel McCarthy, assistant Sports editor

Yale was also connected to the admissions scandal by way of Janke. Singer had facilitated the payment of $1.2 million dollars in 2017 from an applicant’s family in order to guarantee the student’s place at Yale. Janke created a fabricated soccer profile in order to provide foundation for the student’s recruitment as a student athlete.

Janke was instructed by Singer to detail in the student’s athletic profile that she was played under Janke or Khosroshahin at Academy FC Newport and was also a member of the JR National Development team in China. After the athletic profile was completed, Singer sent the information to then-Yale women’s soccer coach Rudolph “Rudy” Meredith.

Meredith coached the Bulldogs from 1995 to late 2018. Meredith received a payment of $400,000 from one of the KWF accounts after designating the student one of the recruiting places on the women’s soccer team and granting her admission to the school.

Georgetown
Sam Connon, assistant Sports editor

Gordon Ernst – former coach of Georgetown men’s and women’s tennis – was also implicated in the nationwide scandal.

Ernst aided the enrollment process of 12 students to the university by helping them be admitted as student-athletes. Some of these prospective applicants had never played competitive tennis, and 33 parents were indicted in the case – including Elizabeth and Manuel Henriquez, Stephen Semprevivo, Elisabeth Kimmel and Douglas Hodge.

All of those parents have had kids enrolled in Georgetown since 2012, a period in which Ernst took a total of $2.7 million in bribes. Georgetown had discovered Ernst’s admission and recruiting violations in an internal investigation while he was still with the program before he left for the University of Rhode Island in 2018.

Georgetown claimed to be cooperating with the investigation and did not indicate if school or athletics officials were implicated as well.

Ernst was Michelle, Sasha and Malia Obama’s personal tennis instructor and was enshrined in the USTA New England Hall of Fame in 2015.

Gymnastics heads into final home meet, will bid farewell to coach Kondos Field

Valorie Kondos Field is preparing for her final meet in Pauley Pavilion.

“This is what it must have been like during coach John Wooden’s days,” the coach said.

Kondos Field, along with four seniors, will be saying goodbye to the Bruins’ home crowd this weekend.

No. 2 UCLA gymnastics (8-1, 7-0 Pac-12) will close out its regular season against Utah State (5-9, 0-6 MW) in Pauley Pavilion on Saturday. It will be the last home meet for seniors Katelyn Ohashi, Brielle Nguyen, Macy Toronjo and Stella Savvidou who will be sitting out the meet due to an injury. It’s also a goodbye for Kondos Field − who will be retiring after 37 years with UCLA Athletics and 29 years as a head coach.

“I know I’m going to be wearing waterproof mascara,” said junior gymnast Gracie Kramer. “I think that being supportive and being thankful for their time at UCLA is something that the team is going to focus on, not that negative pressure and sadness that goes along with it, because we still have to compete.”

The Aggies will roll into Pauley Pavilion riding a three-meet losing streak.

Utah State and UCLA share only one opponent this season − No. 17 Washington. The Bruins bested the Huskies 197.600 to 196.00 on Feb. 10, while the Aggies fell 195.025 to 196.750 on March 1.

Utah State’s Madison Ward-Sessions posted a 9.975 on her most recent floor performance. Ward-Sessions ranks 17th and averages a 9.900 on the event. Only two Bruins − junior Kyla Ross and Ohashi − have posted 9.975 or higher on floor this season.

The Bruins now rank first in one team event − floor exercise. No. 1 Oklahoma outranks UCLA by just .005 on both balance beam and uneven bars.

Ross ranks first as an individual on vault, uneven bars and all-around. Ohashi ranks first on floor and second on beam nationally.

“In the moment last week, I was pretty sad that I wasn’t doing floor because the energy in the crowd was so amazing,” Ross said. “I really wanted to perform, so I can’t wait to see that amazing crowd again this week and actually compete on floor in front of them.”

Saturday’s meet will be the final time Bruin fans will see Kondos Field in action.

Kondos Field began her UCLA career as an assistant coach and choreographer in 1983 and was appointed head coach in 1991. She has coached the Bruins to seven NCAA titles and has been named National Coach of the Year four times.

Kondos Field was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010 and was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Century in 2016.

“I know I am going to think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the last time I’m driving to Pauley Pavillion, parking in Lot 7, the last time I’m walking into Pauley as the head coach,’” Kondos Field said. “Last, last, last, last, last. I think I have prepared enough that I am going to enjoy it because I am leaving with no regrets.”

A UCLA gymnastics attendance record was set last weekend when the Bruins defeated No. 23 Stanford at home. Kramer said she’s expecting another record-breaking crowd to pack Pauley Pavilion this Saturday as well.

“I’m surprised they didn’t take us to the Staple Center for this event,” Kramer said. “I’m surprised that they are not going to be rebuilding Pauley Pavilion. That’s how many people I think are going to try to come, and we are ready for them.”

Wang’s Word: UCLA Athletics damages its reputation by recruiting fake athletes

Forget for a brief moment the celebrities who were indicted for buying their kids’ admissions to some of the top colleges in the country.

And forget about the numerous qualified high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds who overcame the obstacles in their lives, only to be denied admission in favor of the human equivalent of fool’s gold.

Let’s talk about UCLA’s role in this scandal.

You’re telling me the No. 1 public school in the U.S. and one of the world’s leading research institutions couldn’t run a simple Google search to double check the background of a prospective student-athlete?

This is the same school that opened a $65 million football facility and $25 million basketball facility within the last two years, and is currently aiming to secure $20 million from donors to construct an academic center for student-athletes.

Yet UCLA has failed to dedicate the resources to make sure the athletes that are recruited are in fact Division I athletes.

Yikes.

The extent to which the athletic department was aware of men’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo’s alleged crimes and how complicit the student-athlete admissions committee has been is currently unknown.

According to Transparent California, Salcedo’s total pay and benefits in 2017 was $272,077. The United States Department of Justice purported that Salcedo earned $350,000 for clearing the way for two illegitimate student-athletes to get admitted to UCLA.

That’s a lot of money for a coach with a tenuous track record of success.

In Salcedo’s 15-year head coaching stint, UCLA men’s soccer has signed the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class seven times and churned out 19 MLS first-round picks. But the Bruins have only advanced past the NCAA tournament quarterfinals three times under Salcedo.

On the other hand, Stanford men’s soccer head coach Jeremy Gunn’s six-year tenure has produced four first-rounders and three NCAA championships.

It’s a bad look when the coach lines his own pockets while the team struggles to win.

You would think that a coach that has accomplished so little with a mother lode of talent would be on the proverbial hot seat with his every move scrutinized.

It’s also hard to believe that no one in UCLA Athletics keeps track of their recruits, and no one notices that two or three student-athletes on multiple teams have no business training alongside the Olympic-caliber athletes that call Westwood home.

As a change, the athletic department could start challenging the merit of any potential walk-on’s athletic background to make sure they can potentially compete at the Division I level.

But as of now, there’s no doubt that there is evidence within the J. D. Morgan Center that demonstrates, at best, incompetence – and at worst, blatantly criminal behavior.

Take, for example, the former women’s soccer student-athlete who Salcedo succeeded in gaining admission to UCLA. She was described as having no competitive soccer experience, so a quick Google search would have revealed the fake athlete profile that was created for her.

No one in the admissions process was responsible enough to check.

Ultimately, the responsibility to recruit and fill out a roster belongs to coach Amanda Cromwell.

It’s time for the Morgan Center to be transparent with its knowledge and handling of recruits.

There is an abject systemic failure that must be exposed and excised if UCLA Athletics ever wants to retain its reputation.

At the very least, tell us if there are any more fake athletes.

Jack’s Facts: USC water polo coach indicted, but successful team should still keep titles

Although Jovan Vavic ruled collegiate water polo for years, UCLA should just be glad he’s gone.

The former USC men’s and women’s water polo coach was fired from both positions after he was indicted Tuesday for accepting bribes in order to help students get into USC through the athletics department. This brings an end to one of the most successful coaching careers in all of college athletics, and certainly one of the best in the history of water polo.

Since 1998, the year of Vavic’s first title, the Trojans have won 16 water polo championships – 10 with the men and six with the women.

This firing could dramatically change the dynamics of NCAA water polo.

On the men’s side, this might bring about a drastic shift in power around the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. USC has either won or been the runner-up every year since 2005. UCLA lost to USC in the semifinals last season, but upended the Trojans to win the title the year before.

The Trojans still have a national title to defend after all, but they must do so with a new coach – one who couldn’t possibly match Vavic’s prestige right off the bat.

While the women’s team has not dominated as much as the men, they have won every national title since 2010 that Stanford did not. They are currently 19-0 and have wins over UCLA, California and Stanford – their three biggest rivals. The Trojans have been ranked No. 1 in every poll this year after winning last year’s national title, and they are the odds-on favorites to win it again.

The team is still talented and has a good depth, but the loss of a legendary coach midseason could distract the Trojans and open the door for the Cardinal, Golden Bears or Bruins in the race for the title.

However, Vavic was not making as much as his less successful coach counterparts on campus. USC football coach Clay Helton earned $2.6 million last year to lead his team to a 5-7 record despite losses against rivals UCLA and Notre Dame.

Vavic, on the other hand, has had almost total control of both water polo programs for nearly two decades. He was held up on a pedestal by the university and was allowed to bring three of his children onto rosters during his tenure, but the salary never matched his reputation.

While Vavic’s salary is unknown, UCLA water polo coach Adam Wright made a little less than a quarter-million dollars in 2017, according to transparentcalifornia.com. If Vavic was paid like a football coach who won multiple titles, maybe he wouldn’t have had to take $250,000 in bribes on the side.

Even though he took bribes, he gained no competitive advantage over his opponents. His team still had to compete every game to win all 16 titles.That’s why one radical idea that has been thrown around by certain Bruin fans is not a good idea in the slightest.

Vacating titles is not an uncommon practice in NCAA investigations. In recent years, Louisville had to vacate their most recent title because coaches gave special benefits to athletes they were recruiting to entice them to come to their school.

But this is not the same situation. Vavic did not pay to get athletes to play for him, he got paid to help kids get into USC – a highly selective school – and those kids never made any contributions in the pool.

UCLA had its own part in this, with its men’s soccer coach Jorge Salcedo currently on leave after being named in the same report as Vavic. If one coach is forced to give up his wins and titles, would every team implicated be required to forfeit wins for their coach’s actions?

These students were not actual athletes. They pretended to be athletes, but either quit or faked an injury just to stay enrolled. Vavic did not gain any edge over his rivals in the pool, hence the program should not have those titles stripped away.

Vavic’s role in turning USC into a powerhouse in water polo is unprecedented. He was hugely successful while watching USC continuously overpay unsuccessful coaches in other sports. He leaves in turmoil, but to strip the program for one man’s folly is ridiculous.

But now the Bruins have the chance to capitalize on their rival’s chaos.

Alumni works featured in exhibition exploring LA film history’s black narratives

A critic in the ’80s told L.A. Rebellion filmmaker Alile Sharon Larkin that her short film was terrible.

Years later, the same critic watched the short at a screening of the L.A. Rebellion archives and wrote a positive review.

Larkin is one of many alumni whose work is shown at “Time is Running Out of Time: Experimental Film and Video from the L.A. Rebellion and Today,” a collaborative exhibit between Art + Practice and The Broad that is running through Sept. 14. The exhibit is in conjunction with The Broad’s exhibition “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983.” Jheanelle Brown, a co-curator of the exhibit, said it showcases themes of politicization and community prevalent in L.A. Rebellion films.

“(‘Time is Running Out of Time’) basically localizes to LA and historicizes the conversation to LA (as well as) making sure that film production is added to that conversation because everyone is influenced by different mediums,” Brown said. “Why not bring out all the contributions that folks have been making in LA to this larger (black art) conversation?”

The L.A. Rebellion refers to projects by African and African-American filmmakers from UCLA in the 20th century, said Allyson Nadia Field, one of the co-curators of the L.A. Rebellion Preservation Project at the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The first wave of L.A. Rebellion filmmakers originally entered UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television after the 1965 Watts Riots and prompted UCLA to found an EthnoCommunications initiative, which brought more people of color to the school, she said.

Due to the political events at the time and the increase in black identity movements, she said there was a sense of urgency in how they utilized film to reframe black identity, harness political potential and engage with the community, she said.

“(L.A. Rebellion filmmakers) understood they worked together for a common purpose, rethinking of how to work against the trends of classical Hollywood cinema that had been hostile to the representation of people of color and thinking of using film form more creatively to shape a new image of black cinema,” Field said.

Larkin herself entered the school of Theater, Film and Television in 1975 for a MFA in motion picture production. There, she said she found many other African-American filmmakers collaborating on films about race, class and gender. Some of the films’ experimental approaches led to them being screened at prominent festivals like Festival de Cannes – many while the filmmakers were still in school, Larkin said.

While the L.A. Rebellion films were critically applauded, Brown said the Broad exhibit originally had no film pieces and did not specifically focus on LA artists. She said she was interested in a collaborative exhibit with Art + Practice in order to bring films and LA artists into the conversation of black art during the ’60s to ’80s, she said.

“There is this collaboration between filmmakers and video artists and visual artists, (which is) something that can only be teased out in LA because it was only happening in LA at that time,” Brown said. “It feels like a unique intervention that we are able to make.”

Brown said the exhibit considers three main themes within the movement: consciousness and politicization, community and family, and gender and womanhood. Many films in the movement explore the sacrifices of black mothers, chosen family and criminalization of black girls. Other filmmakers explored gender, either through the subject or by women physically being behind the camera, she said.

Larkin’s half-hour 16mm black-and-white film “Your Children Come Back to You” is included in the exhibit. While it was a short narrative, Larkin said the piece was still relatively experimental, since it was made by a young black woman in the 1970s. “Your Children Come Back to You” explores class inequality through the lens of a small child who is torn between her conservative Western aunt and her parent’s Pan-Africanist values, Larkin said.

By engaging with localized and intergenerational African-American film, “Time is Running Out of Time” shows what African-American artists can add to the larger conversation surrounding black identity, Brown said.

“Whether it’s independent, experimental avant-garde or commercial, (African-American films) can all be forms that recognize that there’s no monolith blackness,” Field said. “There’s many different ways of expressing black history, black culture, black aesthetics.”

Q&A: Conan Gray reflects on transition from YouTube to playing live shows

Conan Gray embraced his self-proclaimed title of “lonely kid” through music.

Gaining popularity from his YouTube channel, Gray uploads covers, original songs and vlogs detailing his life experiences. Having just concluded his tour as the opening act for Panic! At The Disco, the alumnus and “Crush Culture” singer said he creates music in hopes that others will find parts that relate to themselves. Gray will perform at the El Rey Theatre on Thursday and Friday in promotion of his EP “Sunset Season.”

The Daily Bruin’s Kaia Sherry spoke with Gray about his transition from high school loneliness and writing songs on the toilet to touring with Brendon Urie.

Daily Bruin: How would you describe the journey from YouTube covers to being signed to Republic Records?

Conan Gray: It definitely was a long one. I started songwriting when I was 12 and the first video I ever put up of me singing was me singing a song that I’d written. I think making videos for me was an outlet where I could put songs that I’d written or videos of me and my friends up online. The fact that it turned into a career was a surprise to me, really. … It was a weekend project and I was a pretty normal high schooler.

By the time I was a senior in high school, I had written a song called “Idle Town” and I produced it myself in my bedroom. I recorded it on a really cheap microphone that I taped onto a broken lamp. That song ended up taking off and getting the attention of Republic, and now I’m signed, which is pretty insane because I really didn’t expect it. It just fell in my lap and it’s everything I ever wanted to do with my life.

DB: What benefits does YouTube as a platform give you?

CG: I think YouTube is really versatile because it’s just so massive. When I first started out, … people weren’t making YouTube videos for money, but these days it’s just become such a massive outlet for companies and things like that. I think YouTube for me was just this strange place where I could put up a song that I’d written and people would tell me what they thought about it. It really was very helpful to me as I was a very lonely kid. It was just me and I was putting up this music and telling the world how I felt through these songs and having them tell me that I was a reasonable human for feeling all these emotions.

DB: Do you have any specific songwriting rituals that help spark ideas?

CG: I definitely don’t have any rituals, because it happens differently every single time. I wrote “Idle Town” in the shower, and I came up with the idea for “Crush Culture” on the toilet, so it just kind of happens out of nowhere. I’ll just be walking around or doing something like washing dishes, and a song idea will pop into my head.

DB: Are there specific experiences you drew from when writing “Crush Culture?”

CG: I definitely wrote “Crush Culture” about a very specific experience that happened to me my senior year of high school. … I think senior year was the year when everybody was falling in love. I’d walk in the halls, and everyone was making out with someone, and couples would be holding hands. In high school, I never dated anyone – I still have never dated anyone before. (For people) to be so in love and so open about their love for each other was what inspired “Crush Culture.”

DB: You’ve discussed being half white, half Asian in tweets and YouTube videos. Does your racial identity ever figure into your music?

CG: I think that the biggest thing for me with being biracial was I never really felt like I belonged to any group. I went to a really big public high school in the middle of Texas, so basically everyone was white and I was just that one Asian kid that nobody really understood, and I definitely didn’t belong. I think being biracial automatically puts you in a spot where you don’t really know where you belong in the world. I think that experience really made me become who I am.

I was a really lonely kid and I still am very much a shy person. I spent all of my years watching the world from afar and not really feeling like I was in it because of the fact that I was a bit of a social outcast. With songwriting, I think it’s the most visceral way to express how you’re feeling.

DB: How was your experience opening for Panic! At The Disco? Did it inspire any future endeavors?

CG: It was absolutely life changing and truly bizarre just because it went really quickly from playing shows of 200 people to shows of 20,000 almost immediately. It was a hard transition, but it was super eye-opening and an honor to go out there and sing to all these people. The crowds were so great and they all put up their phone lights for “Lookalike,” and it really was a pleasure. Getting to see and learn from (Urie) was a massive opportunity and I don’t think I’ll ever be the same after that.

Documentary brings in new narratives to spotlight black horror’s rich history

On March 4, 2018, Jordan Peele accepted the Oscar for best original screenplay.

Soon after, Shudder, a streaming service dedicated to horror films, gave its own production team the green light to create “Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror.”

The documentary is based on the book “Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present” by Robin R. Means Coleman and features interviews with prominent filmmakers, actors and experts in the field. It considers how the genre has changed over the years, from the 19th century when black people were often portrayed by white actors in blackface to Peele becoming the first black screenwriter to win best original screenplay for “Get Out.”

As an executive producer of “Horror Noire,” African American studies professor Tananarive Due said her position as a lifelong horror fan, in addition to her work as an academic, aided her contribution to the film. Due’s class on “Get Out” went viral after Peele visited two of her lectures. His movie is currently her favorite horror film.

“(‘Get Out’) really is just a smart examination of how you can create monstrosity from racism and give viewers a lens to even understand it if you didn’t see it before,” Due said. “But if you’re black and you already knew that, it really pricks your deepest fears – whether it’s walking alone in the suburbs or being isolated.”

Due’s parents were both prominent civil rights activists, and she said her mother dealt with a permanent sensitivity to light after a police officer threw a tear gas canister in her face. But horror movies provided a way for her mother to cope with her traumatic experience as an activist, and her love of the genre led to Due’s own obsession with horror.

“Those monster movies she raised me on – ‘Dracula,’ ‘The Mummy,’ ‘The Fly’ – were not about race at all, but they could be a stand-in for the real-life horrors she was facing in her life,” Due said. “She could sort of confront it and visualize it and go through the cycle of emotions.”

The civil rights movement and the trauma that accompanied it is addressed within “Horror Noire” as an integral aspect of black horror. The 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead” in particular was heavily influenced by the movement as Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated around the time it was filmed. Sources in the documentary highlight its political nature – it features a black protagonist who kills white zombies, but is eventually murdered at the hands of a white mob. The documentary explores the impact of Jim Crow laws and the protests that influenced the politics of “Night of the Living Dead.”

Coleman said the interviewees in “Horror Noire” make their own points, but most of the examples were drawn directly from her book. Coleman said the sources complemented the history dictated by the documentary with their own personal relationships to the films discussed. For example, actress Rachel True stated that “Night of the Living Dead” was the first time she saw a noncriminal black character on screen.

It was important for “Horror Noire” director Xavier Burgin to ensure his film didn’t rely on individual interviews. Instead, he said he paired people together to encourage more casual conversation in a theater, adding in clips from the films they discussed. Seeing the conversation between instrumental figures in horror – such as Keith David, who acted in “The Thing,” and Ken Foree from “Dawn of the Dead” – helped to highlight those whose work may have been erased by history, he said.

“Most people wouldn’t even think that there was this type of longevity to black folks being a part of horror films and being a part of the cultural zeitgeist. Even myself as a filmmaker, I didn’t know that there were people doing this in the early 1900s,” he said. “(The film) is more about really championing what it means to be black and also enjoy these films.”

The documentary also features William Crain, the director of the 1972 film “Blacula,” which reimagines Dracula as a black man – a blaxploitation meant to be a social satire. Though “Blacula” was considered a hit at the time, Burgin said Crain did not receive the level of success he deserved, despite laying much of the groundwork necessary for a young filmmaker such as Burgin to work in the industry.

Looking forward, Due said she hopes Peele’s success with “Get Out” will allow for black creators to have increased opportunities in Hollywood. However, Due said she is worried white creators may use black characters in their films in a way that perpetuates long-standing tropes, such as the black character being the first to die or existing to only sacrifice themselves for the white characters.

Peele has said his upcoming film “Us,” though it features black characters, is not explicitly about race. However, Due said it is still revolutionary for a horror film to feature a primarily black cast. Coleman said Peele’s continued success highlights the importance of black horror.

“We’ve always been included in the genre – not always in positive ways, but we have been there. I think what we have to look forward to is that horror, when it gets an Academy Award, … shows that there is an interest and respect of the genre, and right now Jordan Peele is making the most of that interest,” Coleman said. “He brings such high quality, which is absolutely essential to the success of the genre.”