The Pressbox View

To quote a former Cowgirl KraTaura Buckner – I can feel it my bones.

Many people talk about how quick the summer goes by, and to some point I agree. However, when you are the sports nut that I am and when you keep the pace of sports that we have from early September to late April-early May a nearly four month layoff it makes the wait that much more excruciating.

The last few weeks have been hectic, like they always are, but when you get the pictures taken, rosters imputed, media guides to the printers, computers tested for the pressbox, etc, the last 10 days or so before the first game come at a snail’s pace.

Maybe it is the preseason football preview by the Abilene Reporter News or the Kickoff 2010 by D3football.com, maybe it was the cold front (that is from 105 to 75) that we saw this week or maybe it is Jimmie Keeling saying “I will see you Christmas” when he leaves the main office after checking his mail – all those things kick up the endorphins to let me know that it is here.

Here are a few signs that the summer is now a distant memory.

After most of the last two weeks watching mommies and daddies drop their kids off for college, I am convinced it is a lot harder on the parents to have the kids move out than it is for the kids. There were lots of tears shed in the parking lots around Mabee Gym.

For the moms and dads your kids are in a great place, they are going to be taken care of and hopefully they will make it through with a degree and experiences that they can take into the world and make a difference. Everyone in life deserves a chance to pursue their passions and hopefully those newcomers will take full advantage of it.

Another sign is -- twice this week I had to park across the street at Mabee Gym, because the spot I parked in every day this summer is now occupied, probably by a student named Johnny Faculty Staff or something like that and they think that parking spot is made special just for them because it has his name on it. Mom and dad will like those parking tickets I am sure they will be getting any day now.

The final one is -- dropping my daughter off at Wylie Elementary. Let’s make this simple, you got a letter on it, your teacher probably sent another note on it and it is so easy. There are three lanes, parking, drive-through and dropoff. If you are going to stop and walk little Johnny to the door, then you park in the parking lane. It was made just for you Little Miss I talk on the cell phone because the laws don’t apply to me. Johnny can make it the 10 feet, I promise. If he can’t, park in the PARKING lane and don’t make the whole dropoff lane backup all the way to 707.

Enough about the signs that summer’s gone. It is now almost fall and we will have our first official game of the year next Friday when the men’s soccer team and the volleyball teams both get started. Then on Saturday you get everyone else in action. The Cowgirl soccer team hosts Trinity for a big matchup early in the season. The Cowboy football team opens at Whitworth in Spokane, Wash. and the cross country teams host their first meet of the year and just like that we will be off and running.

Where Are They Now?

This week’s WATN is former Cowboy All-American center Josh Knox. The Snyder native is now coaching at Clear Springs High School in League City. He won the Rimington Award as the top center in the nation in his senior season and after a couple of years as a graduate assistant, he is in his second season at Clear Springs. He and wife Katy also have a daughter Kaye that was born in June. Here is a picture of Josh and Kaye.



Most of my information from WATN will come from Facebook or word of mouth. Be sure and drop us an e-mail or join the HSU Athletics Facebook page. I am so glad it is finally here. I hope to see all of you at a game this year.


Chad

Cowgirls Win

Our final Spain blog. The Cowgirls won 1-0 to finish 2-1 in Spain.

Our last day in Spain started a little later than usual, as we were allowed to sleep in until 10. We got on our bus and took about a two hour trip to Figueres, close to the Spanish/French border, to visit the Salvador Dali art museum. Our bus had to fight through a long traffic jam to keep up with our tour guide, Jan, who drove his own car and led the way for us.

Many of us wanted to keep driving until we got to the border, just so we could all say we had been in France, but it would have taken too much time as we were already on a tight schedule. Dali is one of the most famous surrealistic artists of all time, so there were mixed feelings on our team about his work. However we all agreed that although his art is hard to understand, his craftsmanship and creativity were impressive. After the museum we had a short walk to a restaurant where we were served salad, three types of sausage-including blood sausage-and potatoes, followed by a dessert of ice cream. After lunch we had to quickly drive to our game where we were given 24 minutes to warm up for a 6:30pm kickoff.

Like our previous games, it took some time for us to get used to the adversity of the officiating, playing surface, and style of play of our opponents. We were able to pull out a rainy 1-0 win on an Amy Kuykendall goal, although we had clearly dominated play throughout the game. After the game, we had a long drive back to our hotel in Casteldefells, getting back earlier than usual so we could walk to the downtown area to eat one last meal by the beach. Now it is time for us all to get some sleep and get ready for our morning flight into NYC, then to DFW. We're sad to be leaving Spain, but excited to get our season started and use all we have learned here in helping us become a stronger team.

Katie Kuykendall, Kylie Rutherford, Austin Ricker, Chelsea Flores, and Kristen Brockman ~the sophomores~

Spain Day 5

Laura Bailey, Katie Dagenais, Mickey Rogers, and Melissa Rosales check in with the Day 5 Spain blog. Also thanks to Christina Hartsfield for the pictures in the photo gallery.

Photo Gallery


Esta Manana empezo con almuerzo a las 930 en la manana. Despues que eso nosotros estabamos en la hotel discussiando que queriamos hacer por la dia. Teniamos dos optiones : va al plaza de la ciudad o va a la playa de sitges. Votemos y decidieramos ir a la ciudad. Just kidding that is all the Spanish we know, as a matter of fact we are not sure those are all real words.

The morning began with a 9:30 breakfast that included the ever present croissant , ham, cheese, and about a thousand more carbs. After breakfast we had a 10:00, scratch that a 10:15 meeting since the team has adopted the Spanish idea that time is not that important. After 20 minutes of discussion, we finally voted on going back to Barcelona for the day. Our day in the city was much like yesterday, we spent way more money than any college student actually has. Thanks mom and dad. On a lighter note, anyone that ever travels with Bert needs to make sure that there is at least one person in the group with some sort of directional sense. We wandered the city in search of a bathroom and the team for what seemed like forever but realistically had been a mere hour in a long day. Fortunately thanks to the directional sense of one extremely amazing person (LB) we made it back to our destination with little concern.

After A few hours in the city, we met up to hop on the train and go to another lunch full of Spanish surprises. Thankfully this one was an excellent one. We went to a restaurant/buffet called Free Way. This place was good! They had everything from oriental food, seafood, cold salad bar, pasta bar, fruit and dessert bar, and carving station with 5 or 6 kinds of meats. Needless to say, we got our money‘s worth.

After lunch we made our way back to the hotel for a nice siesta. During the hour long bus ride back to the hotel, a few of the girls scared the Spanish children with their beautiful snoring facing. Chupacabra rings a bell. Anyone who wants to see a lovely picture of Alice ask X, she has plenty.

After our siesta we got back on the bus to head to our game with RCD Espanyol. Our evening at Espanyol started with a mesmerizing view of the men’s team and their flashy porches and BMW. They were definitely the nicest we have seen here, we mean the cars of course. After taking the usual 3000 team pictures and looking around the complex, we finally got to work.

Coming into the game, we knew they were going to be good. As the reigning Spanish league champs, they didn’t fail to impress us. Not only did they teach us a lot on the field, but they even helped us improve our Spanish. The game was incredible. The conditions were perfect for an amped up game. We were under the lights, in the rain, in an amazing complex, playing one of the best teams we have ever come across. The technical ability of every member of their team was outstanding. We have never seen girls who moved off, on, and around the ball so well. We knew we were going to have to have an outstanding defensive game to stay in it and that is exactly what we did. Becca Roth made a number of outstanding saves, and was easily the defensive player of the game. Still, she was not the only one to shine, the entire team stepped up their game to stay with the clever Espanyol offense. Unfortunately, they scored a beautiful and well-deserved goal with 20 minutes left in the game. Regardless, of the fact that we lost, the game was a great learning experience that left us all in a great mood. Getting to see another more technical side of soccer, will only add to soccer knowledge and we are thankful to have had the opportunity to play Espanyol.

Finally after all was said and done with the game, we got the opportunity to eat at a familiar yet unhealthy restaurant, McDonalds!! We are sure more than half of us were more than happy to eat a burger and fries accompanied by an array of McFlurrys. Though we only had a 30 minute break from Spanish food it was more than welcoming to not have a surprise meal for once.

And now it is bed time. Adios from Espana,

Laura Bailey, Katie Dagenais, Mickey Rogers, and Melissa Rosales

So Long Summer -- Well Except For The Heat

Well the 2010 fall season has begun with a flurry.

The Cowboys reported for fall camp 179 players strong and it has been a busy first two days. Not only do the players get force fed a lot of material early on in meetings, then you mix in practice, pictures, and it becomes a very long day.

Just a little bit about what goes into the beginning of fall practice on my end. I came in early yesterday around 7 and started working on the information sheets the players turn in to me. They actually filled them out in the late team paperwork meeting on Wednesday night. I got to give a hats off to Coach Chris Jones and his assigned GAs because they had the player sheets alphabetized and three-ring bound for me when I showed up.

For the next several hours I typed in all of the newcomers into an excel file I call the working football roster. It is a file that I work off of to keep the huge numbers of players straight. Sometimes reading the hand writing off those sheets can be crazy and it is where the most mistakes of player spellings come in to play.
I then update the returner’s weights, position changes and number changes and merge them into a file to have a working roster. I had everything into a roster by 10:30 and we had pictures scheduled for 11. We ran through all of the players in about an hour. I had them check the roster and make sure their information was correct and then we were done.

All of the pictures have to be cropped and edited so I started in on that until about 2:20 and then headed over to the practice field to help setup the media with interviews at practice. KTXS and KTAB/KRBC did interviews with coach Keeling, Hank Hornsby and Justin Feaster. I also shot some pictures and video for the web site.

I then came back and posted the pictures and a press release about practice to the web site. Then at 5:15 at the end of practice I went back to the practice field, shot some interview footage and lined Abilene Reporter News Beat Writer Daniel Youngblood up with some interviews with Steven Rockwell and Derrick Grant.
After that I went back to the office and started editing the video and put it on to the web. It takes a while to load the video, fortunately I had it timed about right and my wife and daughter brought me some dinner around 7ish. Then crazy me decides to set up my new desk that I received yesterday, which I did and then finally edited some more photos before finally going home about 11.

I was back at it early this morning and finally finished editing and IDing the photos around 12:30. Julie Pride, out student worker did a good job of starting to type the newcomers into the backend system of our web site. I added the photos to the newcomers and did some reworking of the web site bios (which have to be put in manually one at a time) and finally at 4:45 I put up the first public viewing off the roster with pictures (except for a few that have to take retakes).

I also am trying to finish off the football media guide over the weekend and send it to press early next week. It will be a full weekend and then next week its starts over as volleyball and soccer report.

This is the busiest time of the year, but it is also the most challenging and fun for me. I am so excited for our teams this year. Both soccer teams and the football team are all ranked in the national preseason polls and the VB team should also be a contender for the conference crown. Cross country has added some depth and should be more competitive this year as well.

Spain Day 4

Day four started with a scenic ride on the train to Barcelona. First on the list of places to go was the Gaudi Mosaic Guell Park, but in order to get to it we had to conquer a very steep hill, comparable to ones found in San Francisco (maybe worse according to Allison). Halfway through our trek up the mountain, our tour guide Jan bought us ice cream, which we enjoyed while taking pictures of the view of Barcelona from the top of the mountain. We finally got to the park and were looking at the merchandise of the street peddlers, when the peddlers frantically starting stowing their merchandise because the “policia” showed up. After that incident, we got to view the unique and amazing architecture that the park contained. This included a wall made out of rocks that was designed to look like an ocean wave, sculptures and buildings that we heard a British man to describe to his a daughter as looking like “sugared candy”.

Then when we were going to our next location, we were about to get on the train when our tour guide rushed us back up the stairs because of a commotion going on. We soon found out that the police found a group of pick-pocketers in action and tasered them. This made us even more conscious of guarding our purses.

We finally made it to our next destination, the Familia Sagrada Cathedral. As we came up to ground level from the trains, we looked up to our left and saw a monumental structure. We thought nothing could beat the Monastery we saw yesterday, but we were in awe of this amazing structure. The cathedral is so intricate and detailed that construction was started on it in the late 1800’s and will not be finished for 50 more years. Unfortunately the line to get into the cathedral was three hours long, so we weren’t able to see the inside of it. We still were able to go all the way around it and take plenty of pictures in front of it though.

Next, we all split up and got to do some major shopping in downtown Barcelona. Team favorite stores included the Nike store, H&M, and a lot of tiny stores containing Barcelona souvenirs and trinkets. Thirty minutes before we had to meet up to leave, it started pouring down rain. One group of girls had the good fortune to be stuck in a gelato shop when the downpour started. The employees at the shop joked with us saying they would close the doors, turn up the music and have a dance party during the rain. They really did turn up the music and we threw up a couple of fist pumps in response.

Once we met up with the rest of team, we boarded on the train to head back to the hotel. It was an interesting ride to say the least. The train was packed full of people. Allison and John Neese had someone try to pickpocket them, both by the same person who was a suspicious looking middle-aged woman. We got off the train and hopped on a bus for the rest of the ride home. On the ride, a few of us had the opportunity to talk to a couple of college age students from France vacationing in Barcelona during their summer break. It was fascinating to hear about their culture and fun to share with them about ours.

Today was an amazing day. We can’t believe we have already been here for four days, but plan to make the next couple the best! We miss all of you at home!

Allison Ray, Kelsey Byars, Miranda Bersosa, and Becca Gault

Cowgirls Win Game 1, 3-0, In Spain

The HSU women's soccer team won the first game of its three-game trip. Austin Ricker had a pair of goals and Megan Ryan added another.

Today was an incredible experience going up the mountain to Montserrat and playing our first game against Spaniards who passionately love the game. In the morning our bus ride up the mountain was absolutely breath taking. Pictures did not do any justice to the amazing drop offs and the rugged boulders. There is only one other mountain range which is similar in formation, which does happen to be the United States, but nothing beats looking down from the top to see Spanish villages and rooftops. With multiple beautiful locations for photos, we took many team pictures atop Montserrat (probably too many as we began to find that each different view was more beautiful then the next). Several people were very daring, standing on the brick walls that separated the lookout from a hundred foot drop off on the other side.

All scenery aside, Montserrat is equally known from the beautiful monastery built atop the mountain. The cathedral was clearly built with great attention to every detail in the ceiling, the light, and every other part imaginable. Just to think of the long hours men put into building this cathedral for their Lord and that these men never saw their years of work completely finished. Again pictures and words cannot do any sort of justice to the majesty of this very special place.

After a steep train ride down the mountain and a quick change to our new bus, as our original bus broke down shortly after dropping us of at the mountain, we went to a nearby town for lunch. A true Catalonian meal, we were a huge pot of seafood paella family style for all 26 of us. The jury is still out on this Spanish favorite with some who liked it and many who did not. Either way, it was definitely not your everyday pregame meal.

From there we bused over an hour to our game against U.E. LLeida, making a great time to experience the Spanish culture by way of siesta. Upon arriving at the game we all seemed slightly apprehensive but that quickly changed as we warmed up. They were a different type of opponent then we are used to in the States but we were still able to get a 3-0 win with two great goals from Austin and another from Meg!

This whole experience has really put our minds into deep thought about their way of culture being really laid back compared to our “the busier the better” way of life. Since our phones would be extremely expensive almost all of us leave our phones in our bags or in the hotel, which might have been the greatest bonding experience possible. We’ve realized that we’ve had more conversations at lunch, on the bus, or just sitting around with these girls that we see every day than we have ever! I love how God can turn a vacation into making our friendships grow deeper and more meaningful!

Adios :)
Amy Kuykendall, Christina Hartsfield, and Brittany Vacca

Barcelona Trip Day 2

Well breakfast was at 9, but our room didn't wake up till 9:47 because Meg’s phone was set to Texas time. The rest of the team was awake and ready for the day, with surprisingly little jet lag. We headed to Sitges via train for an afternoon of shopping and relaxing at the beach.

The beach was beautiful with clear, blue water and people were everywhere. Some laid out, others kayaked, while a group of us rented a paddle boat with a slide on it.(best invention ever! haha) While the water was fun, those on the beach took advantage of all the vendors walking around selling clothing and accessories. For lunch, we all met up at a restaurant for a 3 course meal of culturally different yet appetizing food. Most everyone ordered steaks, but they are prepared differently than what you would imagine, with a type of Spanish sauce and fries. Beware when you order "fish of the day," just ask Mr. Neese how the Sardines were. Once we finished eating we continued to walk around the city.

It was really neat to see the architecture of the older buildings and all of the little stores and cafes. A few of the places were closed from 2-5 because many of the people here stay up late so it is normal for them to take naps, aka siestas. We then headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours and were off to training.

The training was fantastic. The team was called C.E. Sant Gabriel, a professional team who gets paid to play (which is rare for womens’ teams here). One of the girls on the team was actually on the Spanish National Team; it was an honor to be practicing with someone of that level. A few of the girls talked with Mel, Bert, and John Neese about the different opportunities of playing in the states. They play a different style of soccer partly because most of them grew up playing on boys' teams. They are very technical and almost always play the ball on the ground.

The language barrier made it difficult but fun at the same time. We were able to communicate what needed to be said and were able to joke about the similarities and differences of our languages and cultures. They were very friendly and we would enjoy practicing with them again if we ever got the chance.


Dinner was on our own in Castelldefels, the town in which we are staying. Brittany found an amazing Chinese food place where most of us chose to eat. We asked the waitress about the size of portions and had to explain to her that we are futbol players, and we eat alot!

Well, it's midnight here and we just finished our meal, it's off to find dessert then get a good night's sleep! Tomorrow we are going to the top of a mountain and then playing our first game!!

P.S. Shout out to Erin Low!!! We all miss you!!



Buenos Noches de Espana!

Megan Ryan, Rebecca Roth, Carlyn Powers

Hola From Spain

Many of you know and some of you may not that the women's soccer team is in Spain for an international experience. Just the returners are allowed to go by NCAA regulations. The Cowgirls are going to be sending us a daily blog highlighting their trip.

The first blog was sent in by Cowgirl senior defender Sarah Stansell. We hope to be updating this blog daily while the Cowgirls in Spain.

Sunday started early with us meeting at the field house at 5:00 a.m. in order to leave for DFW by 5:30. We were sitting there waiting for the bus to arrive when a maroon minivan pulled up. The driver stepped out and the first words we heard were “We have a major problem”. Needless to say, we knew we were not going to be leaving on time. It turns out that the bus would not turn on or something to that extent. Luckily, John Neese was there to save the day and got us the HSU vans to take to the airport. While loading the vans up, we were faced with another setback. One of the keys had been misplaced. We spent a little while looking for them and finally found them. It was not even six in the morning and we had already faced two problems that could have ruined our trip! It was shaping out to be an eventful trip. We finally got on the road around 5:50. We made it to DFW in the vans, checked in and went through security without a hitch.

We thought that our bad luck was over. Then we started to take off for New York. The take off started off like any other one except that about two seconds into it, the pilot slowed down. Apparently, a light had come on in the cockpit signaling that one of the wheels was not turning properly. We returned to the gate and stayed for 30 to 45 minutes in order for the wheel to get fixed. Once that was fixed, we were on our way to New York. We boarded our plane for Barcelona and thought we were about to leave but then the pilot came on the intercom. He informed us that maintenance was on the plane fixing a part. An hour later we took off on our seven hour flight to Barcelona. I do not think any of us had any difficulties falling asleep on that flight. We were all pretty wiped.

The next morning we finally reached Barcelona. Right after we got off the plane, we loaded our bus that would take us around the city. This bus was not like the buses in the United States. It was pretty small. Let’s just say that not all our luggage fit under the bus so we had to make an unplanned trip to our hotel first. After we dropped off our bags we loaded back on the bus to head to the heart of Barcelona.

Barcelona is not quite how I pictured it to be. That being said, I can’t paint a picture of what I thought it would look like. The architecture of Barcelona varies, ranging from modern to 16th century or older. The small street ways are what you see in the magazines and movies. They are beautiful. I am convinced that I can never capture how those buildings look like in my pictures and have almost given up on trying (however, I think I’ll still have to give it a try for the slight hope that I will be able to capture it in that one magical picture). While walking the streets of Barcelona, we went through a giant food market with fruit that looked impossible to pass up, saw a 16th century cathedral, and a gigantic fountain that centered one of Barcelona’s most beautiful squares.

After eating lunch in the city, we boarded the bus once more and headed over to FC Barcelona’s stadium, Nou Camp. This stadium was amazing! We took a tour around the stadium, took a picture on the ground level and even took a picture with the latest trophy they won, the Champions League Cup 2009. It was interesting to look at the massive amount of trophies FC Barcelona has won and look back at their history to see how they won so many. After a long visit to FC Barca’s official store, we headed to what is said to be Spain’s largest soccer store. While it was nice, it was not the best soccer store I had seen. However, we didn’t need a huge soccer store in order to find something to buy.

We headed back to our hotel after our soccer shopping spree. Our hotel is very close to the beach, so our tour guide took us on a walk to show us the way to the beach, local shops and restaurants. The little shops and restaurants almost have a boardwalk vibe to them. It was really nice to walk around in perfect weather and check out the local scene. We ended up splitting up and going to eat at different places.

I went with Mel, Carlyn and Amy. Others were going to go to a pizza restaurant, and me being the picky eater I am, was going to join them. However, Mel convinced me to try something local and not get something I could get in the US. We ended up going to some restaurant where we could not understand the menu. Mel can speak Spanish fairly well, but here in Spain, many speak Catalonian. Our waiter used some different words that Mel did not quite understand. Long story short, Mel ended up ordering the wrong thing. We had wanted an item on the menu that cost 12 Euros. However, the one Mel had ordered was 38 Euros. It was too late to change the order so we stuck with the 38 Euro dinner. It was our first stroke of luck! The food was amazing! It was beef (almost like sirloin) that was cook on the grill, served with potatoes and peppers. It ended up feeding the four of us perfectly and was probably the most economical purchase we could make. We ended our night with gelato before walking back to our hotel.

Our first day was amazing and seemed to last forever! I’m still having a hard time believing that while I am writing this at 11:00 in Barcelona, it is only 4:00 in Texas. I’m glad it’s 11:00 here. That means it’s time to sleep!!!! I’m so excited to lie down in a bed and sleep for more than 4 consecutive hours. I need my rest because we have the beach and a training session with a women’s professional team on tomorrow’s agenda!

Sarah Stansell

Changes Coming Soon

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

We have heard that saying for most of our life and it is really true. We are going to undergo some major changes to what we have typically done for promoting our programs for the new school year, but that does not mean that you are going to get anything less.

We have always tried hard to be on the leading edge of what we do as far as promoting our teams and athletes. We were the first Division III team in the nation to use an outside firm for the design of our web site. We were the first Division III school to offer livestats on our web site (starting with baseball in the spring of 2000). We have always won more awards than any other school (Honda Award, NFF Scholarships, Academic All-Americans, All-Americans, All-Region, etc.) in our conference.

We are still going to do that. Having a good web site and pushing our kids for awards has always been my top two goals. Those things ARE NOT going to change.
What is changing is how we go about promoting our department through the web site. As many of you know the way media covers college athletics has changed. We used to get a lot more coverage than we do now. We are still grateful for what we do get, but local college is not their focus anymore and that is too bad.

The role of the SID office nationally is changing from working with the media to becoming our own media. Of course, we are still going to accommodate the media when the do come out to our events, but we are going to be driving force about telling the story of our programs. The internet is a powerful tool for not only promoting ourselves, but recruiting student-athletes.

As many of you know we are not printing media guides for most of our sports anymore. We will still be doing a guide but it will be done on-line for the sports we have done them in the past (volleyball, soccer, basketball, baseball and softball). That is great in two areas for me. We have unlimited space and we can expand those books (especially the bios) and we also are able to keep them updated more than once a year.

One of my main passions is writing and that is something that I have gotten away from. I am going to write a lot more, especially features on our kids. We have also beefed up the bios on each player, adding career and season game-by-game stats as well as action photos for some of the sports. I implemented those in the spring last year and some of them have been updated. We will be updating those more in season and all of our student-athletes will have a complete bio this year.

The thing we have been behind on is our video. That is changing. Video is going to be our concentrated focus. We will be live streaming a majority of our home games with audio (when possible) and video. We will only have a setup for one event at a time so I will have to make some decisions on what games will be shown when we have multiple events going at the same time. I think for the fall we only have four conflicts. It will also be integrated with livestats for the sports that we do live stats for. We are providing this service to our fans free of charge, rather than charging a subscription.

Streaming of games is just the start of what we will be doing video wise this season. Below is the schedule that I have devised for the fall. It will be similar for the basketball seasons and then also in the spring.

Monday – Weekend Recap 3-5 minutes of recaps from the previous weekends games, with highlights when available.
Tuesday – Men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball and cross country coaches shows. These will be 3-5 minutes each highlighting your programs. We will do a quick recap of last week, a quick look ahead to this week, honor a player of the week and spotlight one of your athletes.
Wednesday – Football coaches show. This will be 3-5 minutes each highlighting the program. We will do a quick recap of last week, a quick look ahead to this week, honor a player of the week and spotlight one of your athletes.
Thursday – Coming This Weekend – a 1-2 minute preview of this weekend along with a weekly column that I will be writing.
Friday – Getting to know a student-athlete feature. This will be 1-2 minutes of video to go along with a written feature each week.

A student-athlete from each sport will also be writing a weekly blog that will appear on the web site in their own words.

We will also beef up our presence on Twitter and Facebook. Everything that we put on www.hsuathletics.com , will also find its way on to the facebook page and I will be posting in-game updates on the facebook and twitter pages on the games that I am at. If you have not already done so and you are a facebook or twitter person, please sign up.

I am looking forward to a great season. I am excited about the possibilities for a lot of our teams this season.

If you have ideas let me know on the comments section of this blog. We will not post comments that come anonymous, especially when they are unfounded rumors or fabrications.

Chad

Congrats Coach

What a great weekend for the Cowboys this weekend in Brownwood. HSU swept the series and took over sole possession of first place in the ASC West. That in itself was a great accomplishment. In a year of balance in the ASC West there have been only two sweeps in the league so far.

In the process of the sweep, Steve Coleman won his 300th game as the head coach of the Cowboys. He is far and away the career leader in wins at HSU and Coleman is the dean of ASC coaches in his 13th year in the league.

His teams are consistently in the ASC playoffs. In fact, the Cowboys are the only team in the ASC West to advance to the ASC Championship Series in each of the first five years of the format. He has been close to the ASC title several times.
I don’t know of another coach who is more deserving of a conference title. He has put in the work, recruited great players and kids to the school and put them in a position to win seemingly every year.

Personally, Steve has been a great friend to me since I have been in Abilene. He always takes care of me when I am on the road with meals and hotels when he doesn’t have to. He makes you feel a part of the program and trust me that is not always the case in collegiate athletics.

A few things that I really admire about Steve.

The first is how he treats his players. He may be the most fair coach I have ever seen. He does not mind putting freshmen in the game, he plays the best person and doesn’t care who likes or does not like that. He is not afraid to get on a player when they need and he is also the first one to put his arm around a kid and tell him what he needs to be doing to help the team. He wants things done the right way and you know what, I think, his players appreciate that the most about him. I would say by percentage you see more former players come around the program even years after they are gone, moreso than any other program on campus. Rarely do we go on the road that we don’t see a former player at the game.

The second thing is how he handled coaching his two sons. Both Chad and Brad played for the Cowboys for four years. The big difference is Brad was a starter from day one and was a great player. Chad was more of a role player. That didn’t matter to Steve. I am sure he probably had pressure from across the dinner table to get Chad more at-bats or playing time, but he did what was best for the team. It had to be a hard situation, but both kids accepted their roles and I never heard Chad complain one time about not playing. He did everything that was asked of him and probably cares about the program more than anyone. The thing about both of them is they are great people and have followed in his footsteps as coaches.

The third is his lovely wife Lisa. Lisa may be the perfect coach’s wife. You will always see her at the games in her seat right by the gate at home games. You will also see her on the road where she travels with the team. She takes every loss hard and enjoys every win. She always makes the teams snacks and is one of the most supportive people you will meet. She is not afraid to get on to Steve when he needs it. She also makes the best peanut butter and honey sandwiches ever. If you never had one, just ask her I am sure she will hook you up. She also opens her home for guys’ night and there is always a spread, with all of the fixings. You can sometimes even find her playing some Guitar Hero.

I think I speak on behalf of all of the former players, graduate assistants, coaches and everyone in the program congrats on 300 wins. When you finally get that ASC title (and it is going to happen some day) it is going to be a great day and all of the hard work will be worth. Like I said earlier, you deserve it and what a great celebration it’s going to be.

Sometimes I Just Can’t Understand

Working every day in athletics you get to see a lot of things, but rarely are there things that I see that I can’t fully understand.

I understand when the better team doesn’t win, I understand when a team on the bubble is left out of the playoffs for some reason, I understand when a key player gets hurt how it affects the team.

Yesterday brought out a new level of I can’t understand. I know how it happened I just can’t figure out the why it happened.

Lindsey Newcombe was named the American Southwest Conference West Division MVP for the second straight year. It was a deserved honor as she was an easy choice for the top player in the conference. I guess I should explain the ASC award process.

Coaches nominate their own players for all-ASC West Division. These players are then put on a ballot and the other seven coaches (you can’t vote for players on your own team) in the ASC West rank their top 10 players. The five players with the most points are selected as first team all-ASC West and the next five are named second-team and anyone else who gets a vote is named honorable mention.

The top five from the ASC West are then put on a ballot with the top five players from the ASC East and then all of the coaches from all of the teams in the conference rank their top 5 players and that is how the overall all-ASC team is selected.

It would be easy to see if one side was dominant and they had four or five players on the all-ASC team. That would not be hard to see. But this year there were three from the ASC East and two from the ASC West. Now mind you, seven different sets of eyes vote for the all-ASC than do the all-ASC West, but it is hard to fathom how someone that was named MVP in the ASC West had two other ASC West players picked over her for the team.

Oh well … strange things happen every day, some are just more strange than others.

The sun has come out and it is time for some spring sports. I hope you can make it out over the next few weeks.

The baseball team returns home this weekend after two weeks on the road. HSU will play eight straight games at Hunter Field.

Softball goes back on the road to the ASC First Pitch Tournament this weekend. The Cowgirls fought the weather to get three games in last weekend and they are off to a 5-0 start.

The track teams will get under way in a couple of weeks with their outdoor season and the golf teams have each played a tournament.

The tennis teams have both started off strong and both look like contenders for the ASC West crown again.

Basketball Teams Return Home

As we head to the end of January things are about to pick up around the Forty Acres.

In a weird twist of fate with the basketball schedules this season this weekend will be the first time all year that our teams have played at home with the student body on campus. I encourage each of you to come out and support both teams as they make the final push for a playoff bid.

Both teams are both sitting just out of the playoff race, but with seven of their last nine games at home the fans can have a big impact on the teams. Both teams are young and getting better as the season goes along and they would love to have your support at the games. The next week is big for both teams with games against contending teams Concordia, Mary Hardin-Baylor and McMurry.

When we go to all three of those places they play in front of rowdy crowds with great atmospheres. Let’s bring some of that out to the Mabee Complex down the stretch and get these teams over the hump to get them into the playoffs.

Feb. 1 is the Kiwanis Shootout with McMurry. That game is a big benefit for the Children’s Miracle Network and what a fun night it always is. The basketball teams along with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will be collecting loose change for the annual “Make A Change” contest between the teams in the ASC. Be sure to gather your loose change for this great cause.

Golf, tennis, softball, baseball and track all or will be in the next week or so getting ready for their seasons. We will be hosting the ASC Track and Field Championships this year on April 23-24. This will be out first time to host the meet.