HSU Athletic Blog

The Pressbox View

2010-08-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-13T15:29:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-09T14:20:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-02T21:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-03T07:42:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Are You Ready For Some Futbol?

2009-11-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

Are You Ready For Some Futbol?

What an exciting couple of weeks we have had on the HSU campus and it gets even more exciting this weekend.

It was not a surprise to see the women’s soccer team win the American Southwest Conference title. It is not a given for the Cowgirls to win, but of late it almost seems that way. Congrats to Woody and the Cowgirls for their seventh straight ASC title.

For their reward, the Cowgirls hit the air to California for a tough opening round weekend and HSU beat No. 4 Puget Sound and No. 16 Claremont Mudd Scripps to advance to the sectional tournament. Next up is a showdown with Trinity.

The Tigers beat the Cowgirls in the season opener 1-0 in overtime and expect another nail-bitter in the series between the battle-tested rivals. If the Cowgirls can find a way through this weekend a nice reward is on the other side as the Final Four will be played in San Antonio. There is plenty of work ahead for that to happen, but HSU may have its best team and the scary thing is they start just one senior.

The Trinity game will be aired on the Internet and there are links here. If you can’t make it to San Antonio be sure to listen in.

For the Cowboy soccer team it has been an exciting couple of weeks. First the Cowboys won the ASC title at Mary Hardin-Baylor on penalty kicks. After that win, the NCAA did what the NCAA does when HSU and UMHB are in the NCAA Tournament and they paired them together in the first round.

Again the Cowboys came out on top and advanced to the second round on Sunday evening at No. 2 Trinity. After a shaky first half that somehow ended scoreless, the Cowboys settled down and took it to the Tigers in the second half for a 2-0 win. You can see Chris O’Brien’s go-ahead goal here. It was probably the biggest win in HSU men’s soccer history and it was the first time an ASC team had advanced past the second round.

The Cowboys will play at Loras College this weekend, fighting for a Final Four berth. HSU plays Whitworth on Saturday night and the game will be video webcasted. A win would put them in the sectional finals against the Loras-Dominican winner.

Now some editorializing on my part – this is a blog by the way.

The Cowboys have showed some tremendous heart the last two weeks in winning three games in very hostile environments. The two wins at UMHB (actually the first one counts as a tie in the records, but the championship rings show who won) were great. There were very vocal crowds that made it a tough environment to play. Soccer fans are closer to the action than probably any other sport and soccer fans are not known for being the most cordial.

With the action on the field and in the stands, it makes victory that much more exhilarating. A big win brings out a lot of emotion and there is nothing wrong with that. As hard as the kids work all year to see them celebrate is rewarding. It sometimes rubs the losing team and crowds the wrong way, but for the most part our kids handle themselves in the right way. To be able to celebrate with their teammates, coaches and friends is part of the reward and they should be able to enjoy them.

Some people complain about too much celebration, which is more out of line than any of the celebrating I have witnessed over the last two weeks. Let the kids be kids. These moments don’t come around that often and they should enjoy them.

Personally, I hope that both soccer teams get to celebrate on another’s teams field again this weekend. Good luck to both teams, you have already made your school proud and anything you do from here on out is icing the cake. Enjoy it, because it doesn’t last forever.

Some other notes of recent success and hopefully more to come.

The Cowboy football team closed out its season with five straight wins and secured an 18th straight winning season. Congrats to the Cowboys for fighting back from a tough 1-4 start. Character is built by how you respond to adversity and Coach Keeling and the boys should be commended for what they did to end the season. It was not an easy feat.

The Cowgirl volleyball team ended its successful run this season with a trip to the ASC Championship game. The Cowgirls gave it their all in a tough-five set loss to then undefeated Texas-Dallas. Kaela Parnell and Chelsie Fowler were named all-region for their efforts. Parnell was the ASC MVP.

Freshman Lindsey Hinton had a nice run in the NCAA Cross Country regionals with a 63rd place finish in the 189-runner field. She is the first Cowgirl to participate in the NCAA regionals in the two years of the program.

Footballers Lee Grounds, Garrison Hardin and Paul Thebeau, soccer players Amy Kuykendall, Sarah Stansell, Becca Gault and Lindsay Cogburn and volleyball players Erin Davis and Kaela Parnell were all named academic all-district. The all-district teams are the top student-athletes in Division II, III and NAIA in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico and Louisiana. It is a big honor and HSU had by far the most players honored in the district among ASC and Division III teams.

The basketball teams get moving this weekend with the first games. The Cowgirls play in the Trinity Tournament against Trinity on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday they will play St. Olaf at 5 p.m. The men open up Sunday at Baylor. All HSU basketball games can be heard on www.hsuathletics.com with Jay Ashby and/or Chad Grubbs on the call. The men will be home next Tuesday night for a game with Southwestern.

Stay tuned to www.hsuathletics.com for all of the up-to-date information on HSU Athletics and we hope to see you at the game.

It's A Special Thing To Be A Senior

2009-10-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

It is that time of year again and no I am not talking about the baseball playoffs or college football or the other great things about the fall.

One of the things I have come to enjoy and hate at the same time has become Senior Days. Coach Keeling always says it is a special thing to be a senior. I use to think it was just coachspeak, but the more I am around college athletics the more I realize like his more often than not exactly right.

Those Senior days are so emotional for the players, parents and coaches. We try hard to take of our seniors and show them how much they are appreciated. For this sometimes big ol’ gruff guy, those senior days often soften me up and I have to admit I have had to wipe the tears away a few times.

It really is a special thing to be a senior. For our kids that go through what they do on a daily basis year round to compete in what is really just a few games is remarkable. To make it through four years is pretty much mind boggling.

The commitment level is something they will take with them for life. The friendships they will take for life. College athletics is really about molding young men and women for life. I am so thankful that I get to be a small part of that. Winning is great, but life lessons are also learned from the tough loss. Coming together for a common goal those are things that any employer should be looking for.

In this blog I am going to copy a couple of things I have seen several places, but I took them directly from a former player’s Facebook page. It is from someone that knew what it was like to play through pain, both physical pain and emotional. I saw him in near tears and obvious pain getting a treatment on a painful foot in my hotel room when I was rooming with the athletic trainer on a road trip. It was that same painful treatment every day of the season just so he could practice and play a game for what. I think the following quote tells you for what.

“People don't play sports because it's fun. Ask any athlete, most of them hate it, but they couldn't imagine their life without it. It's part of them, the Hate/Love relationship; it's what they live for. They live for the practices, parties, cheers, long bus rides, invitationals, countless pairs of different types of shoes, water, Gatorade, & coaches you hate, but appreciate. They live for the way it feels when you beat the team next to you by 1 point in overtime, and you know those 2 extra sprints you ran in practice were worth it. They live for the way you become a family with your team, they live for the countless songs you sing in your head when you’re running ALL those suicides. They live for the competition, they live for the friends, the pain, heartaches, and the memories, and it’s who THEY ARE. It's who WE ARE. WE ARE ATHLETES.”

A pet peeve of mine is when people just automatically downplay Division III athletics. You hear quotes like it is just like high school or glorified intramurals. Division III athletics is so much more than that. It is the same as other levels, but a football player might run a 4.6 instead of a 4.4 or a lineman might be 6-1, 250 rather than 6-5, 325. It doesn’t mean they are here because they couldn’t play at a scholarship school. Some of them that is true, but we have a lot of players that turn down scholarships to come to Hardin-Simmons and other schools like them.

This quote comes from the same person referenced above, but it was written by a former Division III player and is kind of the Division III creed, but the words ring so true.

“It's not about getting a scholarship, getting drafted, or making Sports Center. It's a deep need in us that comes from the heart. We need to practice, play, to lift, to hustle, to sweat, to compete. We do it all for our teammates. We don't lift weights with a future Olympic wrestler; we lift with a future doctor. We don't run with a future Wimbledon champion; we run with a future CEO. It's a bigger part of us than our friends and family can understand. Sometimes we play for 200,000 fans, sometimes for 25. But we still play hard. You cheer for us because you know us. You know more than just our names. Like all of you, we are still students first. We don't sign autographs for money. But we do sign graduate school applications, MCAT exams, and student body petitions. When we miss a kick, or strike out, we don't let down an entire state. We only let down our teammates, coaches, and fans. But the hurt in our hearts is the same. We train hard. Lift, throw, run, kick, shoot, dribble, and lift some more, and in the morning we go to class. Still the next day in class we are nothing more than students. It's about pride; in ourselves, in our school. It's about our love and passion for the game. And when it's all over; when we walk off that court or field for the last time, our hearts crumble. Those tears are real. But deep down inside, we are very proud of ourselves. We will forever be what few can claim: College Athletes.”

As we come to the end of our fall sport seasons and you see a senior, be sure to let them know how much you appreciate them and how much you care about them and what they have done for our university.

Seasons Change ...

2009-10-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

What is going on in Abilene, we have actually had a fall-like fall. The weather has been brisk and damp, we have had cold and warm. I think I kind of like this actually having seasons.

Speaking of seasons, if you look on your calendar it is almost basketball season. Can you believe the teams will hit the gym for the first time on Thursday for real practices?

It has been an interesting fall around here. Going into the football season every team has optimism and I think rightfully so in the case of the Cowboys. Lots of starters returning, led by an All-American quarterback it looked like it would be a banner year. Several injuries later and the Cowboys are 2-4 and looking just to survive the season.

One thing about this year there has been no quit in the Cowboys. I have watched every second of every game and I have not seen very many plays, if any, the entire year where the Cowboys did not give great effort. That has been a trademark of the Cowboys teams of the past. They play hard and give maximum effort. It is sad that the Cowboys big postseason plans came to screeching halt thanks to some significant injuries. The silver lining is the Cowboys will return a lot of experienced talent for next year. If some of the injured guys come back healthy next year the expectations will again be high for this team.

The Cowgirl soccer team is a couple minutes away from an unbeaten record, as it stands they are 10-1 and have won 10 straight games. HSU has increased its ASC unbeaten streak to 114 straight games and the Cowgirls have a stranglehold on another regular-season title. The amazing thing about the Cowgirls is they are a relatively young team. Three of the top four scorers on the team are freshmen.

The men’s team has also put themselves in a great position to host the conference tournament. The Cowboys need to win their five remaining games, including one against Mary Hardin-Baylor. The Cru, led by former Cowboy Brad Bankhead is 7-1. The Cowboys are in second-place at 5-0-2 in league play.

The men’s team has the right to host the tournament this year if both the men’s and women’s teams win the ASC. If both HSU team’s won the regular season, the women’s tournament would be at the No. 2 team and HSU would be the No. 1 seed.

The volleyball team has come on strong and is now 12-5 on the year and in first place in the ASC West. The Cowgirls have a big match at McMurry on Wednesday and then will co-host the ASC Crossover with McMurry this weekend. Friday night the Cowgirls will celebrate senior night to honor Sam Lucien, Chelsie Fowler and Kaela Parnell. The winner of the ASC East hosts the ASC Tournament this season.

The women’s cross country team has been more competitive this year and has a chance for a strong finish at the ASC meet this year. The men have struggled to field a full team.

The golf and tennis teams are about through the fall non-traditional seasons. Both have had solid seasons.

Be sure to come out and support your HSU teams this weekend. This is a busy weekend for everyone, but our kids enjoy your support.

Time and Place

2009-09-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

OK, I like to think I know a little about sports. I did choose early in my life what I wanted to do and have a wonderful job that I love covering sports. I will have fun with our coaches telling them what I think about their strategy and lineups and those kinds of things. For the most part, they know that it is my way of trying to keep them loose.

We at Hardin-Simmons are blessed to have great coaches, who first love their kids and second love their job. It is not all about wins and losses, but the wins sure are nice and the losses sure are painful. I have yet to come across coaches that didn’t want to win and would do whatever they thought was right to win.

All of our coaches put in a ton of time every day to have successful programs and there is not one of them that does not prepare his or her team to win a game. Not one that has ever gone out of their way to try to lose a game. The coaches do what they have been trained to do to make their teams successful.

What people on the outside looking in don’t see is the time and effort the coaches put into recruiting, practicing, fundraising, promoting, being counselors on and off the field or court, preparing game plans, watching film and all of that comes before the actual game.

Most rational people understand the job they do, but when irrational people think that they know more about what is going on with a team and they think they know how to deal with it bugs me to no end. Coaches understand that dealing with parents or fans is also part of the job, but remember there is always a time and a place for everything.

The emotion of a big win or a tough loss makes people handle emotions in a different way. One thing we at HSU have always done, at least since I have been here, is win with class. When it happens we lose with class as well. Every game that is played there is a winner and a loser and it is not always your team that wins.

I encourage each and every fan out there to savior the wins and be disappointed in the losses, but always remember that our coaches and our kids give every amount of effort they have into winning. It does not always happen. If you have a problem with a loss, deal with it personally. Don’t take it out on the kids or coaches, because I can promise you one thing they take every loss as hard if not harder than any fan out there.

And So It Begins

2009-09-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

After a long offseason, our teams finally hit the courts and fields for the first time this week and what an exciting week it was.

After a shaky first half the Cowboys showed off some of why the preseason expectations were so high for the program. The Cowboys were behind 21-7, but put on a 41-10 rout on Whitworth over the last 31 minutes of the game. We saw some very encouraging signs from a team that has said its goal is to win every game.

The defense recorded four sacks and the top three tacklers for the Cowboys in the game were defensive linemen. I will do some research on it this week, but I can’t remember a time that the Cowboys top three tacklers in a game were all defensive linemen.

The offense also hit its stride after a couple of stumbles in the first half. The kicking game also improved greatly over the game as special teams led directly to 21 points for Whitworth in the first half.

Playing With a Heavy Heart
It was also a sad week around the football program as HSU Athletic Hall of Famer Larry Wartes passed away. Larry has been a fixture at HSU games for the last 20 years as son Alan is the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator and for the last four years grandson Seth Higgins has been a Cowboys on the varsity and and JV team.

In a beautiful ceremony on Friday, it was evident what a great man Larry was and the lives he touched. Seth spoke to the crowd on behalf of the family and it was amazing to see someone so young give a poised and exceptionally poignant message.

Our prayers are with Alan, Sharon, Abbey and Erin along with Seth and the whole Wartes family.

Soccer
The soccer team played to a tie with Division II UT-Permian Basin in its opener. Chris Hunter scored the goal for the Cowboys, who looked like they are poised to compete for a conference title.

The Cowgirls lost in overtime to arch-rival Trinity, but All-American goalkeeper Christi Carr was stellar with 12 big saves.

Both teams are home this weekend for an exciting event on campus. They will host the ASC-SCAC challenge on Friday and Saturday. Friday the Cowgirls will play Austin College at 10 a.m. on Friday and Rhodes on Saturday at noon. The Cowboys play Trinity on Friday at 4 p.m. and Southwestern on 5 p.m. Saturday.

Come out and support the soccer teams this weekend.

Volleyball
The Cowgirls picked up two regional wins on Saturday with 3-0 blankings of Dallas and Hendrix. The Cowgirls are 2-1 on the year after a close loss to perennial South region power Austin College on Saturday.
HSU will play in the Southwestern Tournament this weekend in Georgetown.

Cross Country
The cross country teams will have their first true race of the season on Saturday at Nelson Park. The teams competed in a Twilight relay last Tuesday against McMurry and ACU.

We're Back

2009-08-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

All of the fall sports have reported to campus and practice is under way for everything except soccer. They will start in the morning with testing and will both practice at 2:30 in the afternoon.

All of the fall rosters are on the web site now on the individual home page of each sport.

We will have pictures and previews up in the next few days for everyone.

I posted some volleyball video from the first practice this morning on to the site and you can expect some for soccer tomorrow afternoon.

It is amazing how you go for almost a month after Summer II until everyone gets here and the campus is almost dead, but when all of the freshmen get here for NSO and everyone returns it is a rush to see them back.

Stay tuned for hsuathletics.com, we are adding new content almost by the hour.

It is that time of year and you can start to get the feeling in the air of what is about to come.

Good luck to our teams this season, may they stay injury free and have competitive seasons.

Put On The Pads Boys

2009-08-17T15:42:00.001-07:00

The Cowboys put on the pads for the first time this year.

I have added some Video of that.

Things have looked very good so far. The defense is flying around and the Cowboys have added at least two and maybe more gamebreakers on the offensive side of the ball. There was a lot of talk between the offense and defense on the first day of pads and some competitive drills.

The team is working towards its first scrimmage on Saturday, with the young guys going at 10 a.m. and the older guys at 2 p.m. at Shelton.

The cross country team reported on Sunday evening and had their first run at 6 a.m. I was not out there for that one, but I will get some video soon.

Volleyball starts up on Wednesday and the soccer teams start on Thursday. I will have video from all three of those sports on hsuathletics.com.

It's Been A While

2009-07-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit it two things are ironic about my last blog. The first it was titled Keeping in Touch and yet I haven’t blogged since May 19th. The other is by not keeping up with the blog over the summertime it just lends itself to the misconception that we just take off for the summer and do nothing in athletics.

I will agree that the pace is a little slower in the summer, but if you kept the pace we do around here in athletics for the entire year the normal person would be totally burnt out in a year or less.

All of that being said I can’t tell you how excited that I can see right around the corner the fact that I will hear whistles blowing and pads popping and the sound of Heger saying you aren’t going to get a ring like that.

When you see over 150 games in about an eight month span and then you go four months not seeing much it all you really do start to miss the games. I have said in this space before that is one of the best things about my job is I get paid to watch a lot of games. By the Fourth of July I start to get the itch again to see a game.

I agree the content slows down in the summer but over the next few weeks you are going to see a lot of new stories and information on the web site, along with all of the schedules for 2008-09 (most of them are already up) and the fall sports rosters will be up soon after everyone reports. I will be updating the season previews in the next week or so and before you know it we will back into the game routine.

One of the things that you will see a lot more of this season is video. Not necessarily video streams of games (although you may see some) we are going to have interviews with coaches and players frequently and we are going to have more video highlights of games as well. I am going to have a new camera this year and we are going to make this more of reality than before.

Here are a few of the things that have gone on since I last blogged in the athletic department.
 Ashley Huston won about 100 awards for her amazing season. The most amazing is she was named the Honda Award Winner as the Division III Female Athlete of the Year. She also won ASC Female Athlete of the Year, was the national field athlete of the year, was Academic All-American and was selected as the ASC representative for NCAA Woman of the Year. She truly had an amazing year, including three individual NCAA titles.

 The summer time is always a fun time of the year, because not only are there always freshmen announcing they are coming to campus, there is always a buzz about some transfers. We will see some of those in a few weeks at football practice and the Cowgirl basketball team will now feature the two best rebounders in the ASC from a year ago.

 On a sad note, Susan Keeling was diagnosed with colorectal cancer and has spent a lot of the summer under chemotherapy and radiation. The chemo part is over, but we still need to pray for Susan and Jimmie and the family.

 We have not had any coaching staff changes in the offseason, which is a good thing in building continuity in our programs. We have had some of those years where we were pretty good in a lot of sports and this year seems to be looking that way.

 Just wanted to say congratulations to a pair of former Cowboy and Cowgirls that ended up getting married, who have just added future HSU student-athletes.

Zane and Beth (Ulrickson) Jillson and Garet and Becca (Neal) Black have both recently had new additions to the HSU family.

Don’t forget to signup for our Hardin-Simmons Athletic Department page on Facebook. If you are a facebooker and want to join you can click here. Twitter is something new to me, but I think it is a great way to get information out quickly. You can join the twitter page here.

I promise it won’t be two months before I update again.

Keeping In Touch

2009-05-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I have set as a goal for the sports information department is to get more of our former players and coaches back in touch with Hardin-Simmons. I just want to let you know of several different things that we are doing on the web site to help you stay involved.

First, we have set up a Hardin-Simmons Athletic Department page on Facebook. If you are a facebooker and want to join you can click here. We are also adding a twitter page. Twitter is something new to me, but I think it is a great way to get information out quickly. You can join the twitter page here.

Another thing I am going to try to do is add articles about former players and coaches that have gone on to other places. If you see articles that have HSU athletic-related ties, send me the address and we are adding them on the web site.
All of this information can be found under the Keeping In Touch Tab on the web site.
I also encourage you to sign up for the letterman’s golf tournament that will be held on June 19 at Fairway Oaks.

You can contact me by phone (325) 670-1473 or e-mail (cgrubbs@hsutx.edu) or you can contact anyone on the staff through our athletic department directory.

Busy Weekend Ahead ... Come on Out

2009-04-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

I apologize for taking so long to update the blog, the spring is just such a hectic time for me.

It is not like I haven’t had some things to write about. First of all Ashley Huston needs to get a tip of the cap for her performance at the indoor NCAA Championships. She placed fourth in the high jump and won the pentathlon to score enough points for HSU to finish eighth as a team. She has already automatically qualified for the outdoors in the heptathlon and has provisionally qualified in the high jump, long jump and 100 hurdles. The Cowgirls could have two or three other qualifiers for the spring outdoor meet and right now RaceBerry Jam has them picked to placed third, based on athletes that have qualified so far. Not bad for a first year program.
Congratulations to the two diamond sports. They both have a chance to clinch ASC West Division titles this weekend. The Cowboys will play Texas Lutheran at Hunter Field this weekend and if they win the series they will be the No. 1 seed from the ASC West and will have their second straight ASC West title. This team is exciting to watch, they have already set the record for home runs in a season in the Division III era and Regan Dixon has hit a school-record 14 home runs this season. Come out and enjoy the nice weather and support the Cowboys this weekend.

The softball team is in first place in the ASC West and has won 19 of their last 20 games. They play second place Howard Payne this weekend at Ellis Field starting at 2 p.m. on Friday. If you did not see it, freshman Taylor Namey had a huge weekend at Concordia last week, especially the Friday doubleheader when she hit five home runs in the two games. She has tied Arin Spence’s school home run record with 11 this season.

The tennis teams will compete at McMurry this weekend in the ASC Tournament. The women won their 11th straight ASC West title and they are the favorites in the women’s tournament. They will play at 8:30 on Saturday morning. The men play Friday morning at 8:30 a.m.

The spring sports are starting to wind down their season’s and before you know it summer will be here. We have had another good year at Hardin-Simmons that could turn out to be great over the next month and a half.
I hope to see you at the games this weekend.

10 Years And Counting

2009-03-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

This week marks my 10th anniversary at Hardin-Simmons and what a topsy-turvy ride it has been.

We have had great teams and bad teams, gone through tough times and shared the thrills of victory and the agony of defeat. I have been very fortunate to be along for the ride for the last 10 years.

I have seen seven new sports added to the lineup with men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and cross country as well as softball. I have seen the Grape Street Complex go from a rocky, dirty lot that was full of horses to a beautiful athletic complex – with a softball field, a pair of soccer fields, a track and two fieldhouses.

In 10 years I have seen coaches come and go and for the most part I have been in the athletic department longer than anyone other than coaches Keeling, Coleman and Wartes and athletic director John Neese. Marcus Wood and I came at the same time. When you work in athletics for a living you see plenty of people come and go in your life, whether it is coaches or players or support staff.

In my time at HSU I have seen games in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, California, Wisconsin (more times than I want to count), Minnesota, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Massachusetts. I also don’t want to count the number of miles I have driven to scenic outposts like Alpine, Clinton, Miss., Pineville, La.; Clarksville, Ark. It is crazy when you take a four and a half hour trip to East Texas Baptist and you feel like it is a home game.

All of those times on the road also are some of my best memories as well. I have seen many memorable things and many humorous things. To the road crew over the years – John Neese, John Wilson, Phil Ashby, Jimmy Pogue, Al Pickett and Tim McCarry it has been a blast and it is one of the favorite parts of my job.

Traveling on the road is not all about the games for the Road Crew. We usually find interesting things to see or do. We have seen baseball games in Oakland, Chicago, Minnesota and Milwaukee. We saw a humongous airplane (the Spruce Goose) in Oregon and they some big Art place in Chicago, while I sat in the car. We saw the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn.; along with the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield and the Space Needle in Seattle. We have seen the Mississippi River, the Pacific Ocean and Mt. Rainier.

Traveling is a fun part of the job, but my favorite part of working at Hardin-Simmons is the students. Getting to play a role in their collegiate playing experience gives me a huge amount of gratification. With very few exceptions we have been blessed with good kids at Hardin-Simmons. Do they always do the right thing? No. They are 18-22 year olds and they make mistakes. However, for the most part they do the right things on and off the playing venue and it is a blessing to have my daughter grow up around such great role models.

Do I have my favorites? Of course, that is only human nature. Do I have the ones that I don’t like? I can count on probably less than one hand the number of players I have come across in 10 years that I can say I don’t like.

I have had the opportunity to publicize 78 All-Americans, 35 ASC Titles winning teams and 36 teams that have played in the NCAA Tournament. We have had two teams make it to the NCAA Semifinals and two more to the Elite Eight.

The thing that I get to see every day that most casual fans don’t is what our kids go through to be at Hardin-Simmons and the sacrifices they make to play sports. They work hard year round to stay in the best possible condition and many are doing that while taking a full class load and working a part-time or even a full-time job.
After working in a Division I school, I saw the type of people and athletes that are on that level and it makes me appreciate where I am even more the older I get. Are the D1 kids more athletically talented? For sure. Are they better people? Not even close. I get to work with great kids every day and I thank each of them for letting me be a small part of their lives.

From the star All-American to the last player on the depth chart they all serve their roles and most importantly they all play because they love the game. It is not about being on television, or playing in front of thousands of people. For our kids it is about playing for their teammates, their schools and themselves. They do it for little public notoriety, but if you think that they don’t do it for the love of the game go to a locker room after the season has ended and you know exactly what it means to them.

Another great thing about my job is working with a great group of coaches and administrators. We have coaches that work very hard at what they do and they have great pride in maintaining the great legacy and reputation we have at Hardin-Simmons. There is a reason that HSU has more than 20 more ASC titles than the next closest competitor. It is because we have great people, who work hard and do things the right way. I appreciate all of the coaches for letting me do my job. They all are very cooperative to my needs and they always allow me to get close to their programs.

I also want to thank John Neese. He hired me to come here and we have a great relationship in and out of the office. He used to be an SID and he knows how the job needs to be done. He basically has given me all of the tools that I have needed over the years to run the sports information office and we have been on the cutting edge of sports information at the Division III level.

We were the first Division III school to do livestats for our home events and we were the first school to have an outside company host our web site. We also broadcast a high number of events on the Internet.

To all of the parents out there it has been a pleasure getting to know your child. I have had the occasional psycho-parent that likes to complain for no apparent reason, but I have had far more positive feedback from parents. I always encourage factual corrections and more often than not those come from parents.

I would like to give a special tip of the cap to Pat and Mitchell Harris. I have been at HSU for 10 years now and for nine of those there has been a Harris either coaching or playing on the women’s basketball team. Kristen played her final game on Sunday and it will be sad not to see them at games as often, because they did not miss many over the last nine years.

I also want to thank my wife Lori for putting up with me for all this time. She has spent lots of lonely weekends at home while I have been working events both home and away. When we first came here we thought we would be here three or four years and be on down the road. However, we have started to really put down our roots and Abilene and would like to be here forever. Our daughter was born here and we love Abilene.

I really can't believe it has been 10 years since I stepped out of the hotel I was living in and saw a orange sky and the wind was blowing 30 MPH or more and I thought ‘What have I done?’. It has been a great ride and I hope it lasts a lot longer.

Welcome Spring Time

2009-02-11T09:44:00.001-08:00

It’s that crossover time of year, where basketball is wrapping up and the spring sports are in full gear. Just last Saturday we had seven teams competing, so you have plenty of chances to get out and support your HSU teams.

It has been a roller coaster year for the men’s hoops teams, but the Cowboys go into this weekend’s games tied for third place in the ASC West Division. They close the season with four straight games on the road, but they are all against teams that the Cowboys are tied with or below in the conference standings. It would be quite an accomplishment for this team to make it to the ASC Tournament and as we have seen in the past anything can happen once you get into the tournament. The ASC is probably a one bid conference this season so it could be an all out battle royal in Richardson for the tournament. UTD has not clinched, but they are in the driver’s seat to host.

The Cowgirls continue to rack up the victories and they are one game behind McMurry in the standings. HSU needs help to host the ASC Tournament. The Cowgirls need to win out and have someone beat McMurry. HSU would have the tiebreaker over McMurry if HSU wins out and they ended in a tie, by virtue of HSU sweeping Concordia and McMurry losing to Concordia. The Cowgirls are looking for their 11th straight 20-win season.

Congrats to Lindsey Newcombe for being selected to the D3Hoops.com team of the week. She won her fourth ASC West Player of the Week this week. She is putting together one of the best seasons in Cowgirl history.

Congratulations go out to Ashley Huston who provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor meet in the pentathlon. She won the Texas Tech meet last weekend.

The Cowgirl tennis team opened the season with a win over Division I Prairie View A&M.

The basketball teams had senior day last Saturday and the six seniors were recognized. Mollie Brawner and Kristen Harris for the women’s team and Marcus Smith, Terrence Willis, Rian Stubbs and Rob Yeatts all got starts ton Saturday. Smith is out of the season with a broken foot, but he participated in the opening tip and was immediately subbed out.

Stay tuned to www.hsuathletics.com for all of the new of HSU athletics. Also, the dates have been set for the Lettermen’s Golf Tournament (June 19) and the Joe Black Golf Tournament (Sept. 11). There is also a reunion of 20 years of Cowboy football being planned alongside the lettermen’s tournament.

Catching Up

2009-01-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

What a historic day for our country, it is an amazing day when you see something that has never happened before. I hope President Obama is ready for the huge undertaking of getting our country back in order.

I apologize for taking so long to update my blog. Sometimes things just start flying by and you forget some things. It amazes me that it is already the 20th of the month.

Not only has it been a historic day for our country, I was telling coach Briggs earlier today that she made some history – not really her but her team. In particular the starting five of Haylee Allen, Lindsey Newcombe, Bo Warm, Kristen Harris and Mollie Brawner all have GPAs of 3.55 or above and this morning I nominated all five for Academic all-American. That is a first for me to nominate the whole starting lineup. No wonder they have been doing so well on the court, they are a smart group.

If you have not seen the Cowgirls play, they are really an exciting team to watch. They play extremely well together as a team and do not care who is the leading scorer. In fact four players average more than 12 points per game and the team is averaging close to 87 points per game over the last 10 games or so. They have so many ways to beat you on the offensive end. This team really, really has a chance to do some damage in March. They are 11-3 with two 1-point losses. In case you haven’t noticed, the ASC continues to be a brutally tough league. Outsiders don’t see how tough it is, especially the top eight or nine teams.

As for the men’s team, the Cowboys snapped a seven-game losing streak on Saturday against Texas Lutheran. Casey Riddle was great down the stretch and willed the team to victory with 13 straight points in the final five minutes, then Carlos Singer hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 13 seconds to play. I must admit I was particularly happy for Casey’s performance. I have always admired the underdog and Casey has persevered his way into the starting lineup and took advantage of it. I also like seeing kids from small towns succeed. So many times the kids from small schools are overlooked and all they really need is a chance.

The Cowboys continue to work really hard and is getting better and better. The good thing is that at least three of the spots for West teams are up for grabs and the Cowboys are right in the mix for one of those three spots.

Thursday night HSU hosts Howard Payne and everyone needs to come out and support the teams. They really appreciate it when you come to the games and make noise.
Congrats to the track team on their first meet last weekend at Texas Tech. They will run two of the next three weekends at Texas Tech to conclude the indoor season.
Spring sports are firing up practices over the next few days and will be going before we know it.

Just a note of condolences to Sul Ross State on the loss of Jermaine Swearington, an All-ASC running back. He was killed in Midland earlier this week. Ironically, it was on the one year anniversary of the death of our own Brentdrick Walker.

Another person I would like for you to keep in your prayers is David Bates. David was the longtime bus driver for the Cowboys and Cowgirls and he was the team's number one fand and official's number one nightmare. He always was so good to our coaches and players and always got us to places safe and secure. Dave has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and we really need to keep him in our prayers.

HSU Wins in Overtime

2008-12-20T19:34:00.001-08:00

Newcombe MVP and Allen on the all-tournament team. Check the web site in about an hour for the story and boxscore.

It's Over

2008-12-20T19:23:00.002-08:00

84-75 Cowgirls.

82-75

2008-12-20T19:23:00.001-08:00

33 seconds to play seems in hand now.

Steal and Bucket Again By Bo

2008-12-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

79-73 with 1:01 to play

2008-12-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

Cowgirls up 79-73 on two Brawner FTs.

I think that was the 35th walk called in this game

2008-12-20T19:18:00.000-08:00

Has to be an NCAA record. Make that 36 before I could type it.

HSU Up 77-73

2008-12-20T19:17:00.000-08:00

Newcombe jump hook. Then an illegal screen by Babson. Timeout Babson 77-73 - 2:36

Cowgirls up 4

2008-12-20T19:14:00.000-08:00

Steal and layup Bo, stop and layup by Newcombe 75-71 3:30 to play.

Overtime

2008-12-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

No shot! Overtime.

Steal Kristen

2008-12-20T19:09:00.000-08:00

5.1 to play timeout Cowgirls.

Another Timeout Still 8.4 to play

2008-12-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

Kristen Lay-up

2008-12-20T19:06:00.000-08:00

Tie game with 8.4 to play. Kristen with a layup and timeout Babson.

Block by Kristen- LAyup Kenzie tie game

2008-12-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

Babson then scores with 22.1 seconds to play HSU ball trailing 71-69.

69-67

2008-12-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

Babson ball with 1:02 to play - timeout.

69-67

2008-12-20T19:01:00.000-08:00

Kenzie with a three

67-64 Babson

2008-12-20T18:55:00.000-08:00

2:45 to play.

Cowgirls Trailing with 5:06 to Play

2008-12-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Cowgirls trail 61-58. It has been an ugly last 10 minutes from the field.

55-53 Babson on a 7-0 run

2008-12-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

Babson converts four straight HSU turnovers into eight quick points tied at 55 with 7:37 to play.

Different Look

2008-12-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

The Cowgirls lead 53-43 with 10:00 to play and have a lineup of Hayleee Allen, Angels Newcombe, Kenzie Tarpley, Sarah Sides and Lara Colsman. The group has pushed out the lead.

Sarah Sides Scores And One

2008-12-20T18:36:00.000-08:00

Sarah Sides is playing much more of late and she just had an old-fashioned 3-point play to give the Cowgirls a 51-42 lead with 11:07 to play.

Bo Warm has been out about six minutes and has gone back to the locker room with what appears to be a shin or ankle injury. Dot Fero is warming her up now.

Playing Really Well Out of The Break

2008-12-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

The Cowgirls are playing really well out of the break and now lead 44-32. Newcombe and Bo have been hot since halftime.

Cowgirls Lead 34-28 At Halftime

2008-12-20T18:11:00.000-08:00

Cowgirls have 11 assists on 12 made baskets, but Babson is outrebounding HSU 31-16 on the boards, including 15 on the offensive end. They had 16 turnovers we had 11.

Scoring
Haylee Allen 9
Mollie 7
Kristen and Lindsey 6 each
Bo, Jasmine and Kenzie have 2 points each.

Cowgirls Are Ice Cold

2008-12-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

HSU has missed five straight FTs and even more easy shots it could be a 15-point lead or more but it is now 28-20 with 3:39 to play.

24-15 - 7:55

2008-12-20T17:52:00.000-08:00

Newcombe has come back and been a force and Haylle Allen has run the floor well to get to the foul line.

Cowgirls looking good.

Haylee Hits A Three

2008-12-20T17:41:00.001-08:00

She is 4-for-4 on the tournament. HSU up 16-11 with 12:16 to play in the half.

Newcombe Goes Out

2008-12-20T17:39:00.000-08:00

Newcombe just went out with her second foul with 13:30 to play in the half. Babson has cut it to 14-11. They are a very big and also athletic team.

Hot Early

2008-12-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

Mollie is 3-for-3 early with seven points. Newcombe has the other four and the Cowgirls lead 11-5 with 14:49 to play in the half.

Championship Game

2008-12-20T16:46:00.000-08:00

We are at the gym and getting ready for the championship game. The third-place game has about eight minutes left. I have posted a photo gallery from different things during the trip. I will have some more pics of the game tonight. Send me an e-mail at cgrubbs@hsutx.edu if you have any questions you want answered on the blog.

HSU 75, Gettysburg 61 (Final)

2008-12-19T10:18:00.001-08:00

Played through a physical game. Haylee Allen had 18 points in the second half and 21 in the game. All five starters were in double figures.

Check the main site for a complete recap in an hour or so.

Haylee Allen On Fire

2008-12-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

Haylee has 11 of the Cowgirls last 13 points HSU leads 56-43 - 5:53 to play.

45-32

2008-12-19T09:56:00.000-08:00

11:15 to play

36-23

2008-12-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

17:18 to play. Newcombe just picked up her fourth foul. Looten coming in.

Halftime

2008-12-19T09:22:00.000-08:00

We played a lot of players during the first half, but we are in foul trouble. Haylee and Lindsey Newcombe have three each. Bo has two fouls.

First half numbers.

Newcombe 10
Harris 8
Warm 6
Brawner 5
Allen 3
Lewis 2

We held them to 23 percent shooting and forced 11 turnovers. Outrebounded them 29-20.

Getting Sloppy

2008-12-19T09:10:00.000-08:00

Lots of turnovers and fouls for both teams and Haylee has three fouls and Bo has two. Harris and Newcombe lead the way with eight each.

18-5

2008-12-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

Running them out of the gym. Harris two breakaways she has six. All five starters have scored it is 18-5.

All Cowgirls

2008-12-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

Cowgirls dominating early 9-2. Timeout GC. We are way faster.

What We Came Here For

2008-12-19T08:53:00.000-08:00

The Cowgirls are in the locker room and about five minutes from the tip.

Checking In

2008-12-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

The Cowgirls had a good day in the Bahamas. The team went snorkeling and also mixed in a practice. We will play at 11 a.m. (CST) on Friday and I will try to blog from the gym.

I don't have any pics from the snorkeling trip, but I have attached some from the area that we are in. It has been a very relaxing day and the weather is nice, but not all that warm. 70's with a sea breeze can actually feel chilly when the sun is behind a cloud.

Hello From Nassau

2008-12-17T18:14:00.001-08:00

Greetings from Nassau.

Well the Hardin-Simmons Cowgirls and the traveling party have made it safely to the Bahamas. We had a relatively uneventful day on our flights and everyone’s bags made it safe and secure.

It has been a long day as the girls left Abilene at 5 a.m. and after a quick stop to drop some cars off at the Newcombe’s house in Keller it was on to DFW and a flight that finally left around 12:15. We arrived in Miami at 4:20 and then on to our connecting flight (a turbo prop) and then to Nassau.

It was dark when we got here so we have not actually seen the ocean yet but our hotel is really nice. We had a quick buffet meal.

To show how small of a world it is, we met a Hardin-Simmons alum and relatives of John and Tina Hunter in line checking in at the international section at the Nassau airport. We also saw former Cowgirl Rachel Cisneroz at dinner as she is here with the UT-Arlington women’s team, where she is the director of basketball operations.

Everyone is getting their bearings tonight and tomorrow is a relative free day until a 6 p.m. practice.

Send in your questions to my e-mail and I will try to answer them in this blog over the weekend.

Just to answer a question I have received – we will not be broadcasting the games. I will try my best to update the game score frequently on the main HSU athletics site during the game, depending on our internet access at the gym.

This and That

2008-12-03T08:26:00.001-08:00

I apologize it has been so long since I blogged. The crossover season is a really hectic time, but I wanted to mention a few odds and ends.

Basketball season is in full swing and both teams look to be contenders in the ASC again.

The men came away with an exciting win over Mississippi College on Saturday. That is the first time the Cowboys have ever defeated MC and they did it on a night when MC played really well. MC shot 48 percent in the game and had only 15 turnovers. HSU countered by hitting 15 3-pointers. This is a really fun style of play to watch, especially when the 3’s are going in.

The women are off to a 3-1 start and are a last-second shot from being 4-0. The Cowgirls definitely have the meat of the conference schedule at the front end. HSU plays MC, Louisiana College, UT-Tyler and McMurry in the first four games and that is probably four of the top five opponents in the league this year. If they can get through the gauntlet, they will be in good shape going into ASC West play.

I am really looking forward to the games at UT-Tyler on Thursday and then on the Monday after finals (Dec. 15) the two teams will play at home against McMurry. Both games should be great games and we encourage as many students to stay around for those games as possible. It is always fun to play in front of the big crowds for our players. Both teams are exciting to watch, so come out and cheer on your teams, you will not be disappointed.

Just a quick reminder that all of the games can be heard on the Internet at www.hsuathletics.com. Jay Ashby will bring the call of all of the home games and either him or I will call the road games at least until ASC West play begins.

Congrats go out to Justin Feaster as he was named the ASC player of the year and also is one of 10 finalists for the Gagliardi trophy, given to the top player in Division III.

I just wanted to give a congrats to all of our fall sport seniors. You all had great careers and to make it four years is a special feat. Hopefully, all will finish their degrees and look back on the great times they had at Hardin-Simmons. If you see one of these seniors around campus or anywhere be sure to tell them how much they are appreciated, because they really do take a lot of time and personal sacrifice to not only be at Hardin-Simmons, but to also represent the school on their respective teams.

I hope everyone will remember the reason for the season as we hit Christmas time. Be sure to enjoy the time with your families.

TD Cowboys

2008-11-22T12:45:00.001-08:00

HSU tied it up with a nice drive. Grisham with a 5-yard TD pass. 1:30 to play.

HSU Ball

2008-11-22T12:33:00.001-08:00

Cowboys force a punt and take over at the 21 with 5:41 to play, trailing 35-28.

Cowboys Right Back For A Score

2008-11-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

Long return by Robbins, long run by Carrillo and a 19-yard fade on 4-and-9 to Baker for a touchdown. 9:45 to play. Cowboys need a stop right here.

UMHB Take Two Score Lead

2008-11-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

Two trick plays for touchdowns for UMHB to give them a 35-21 lead.

Headed to the Fourth 21-21

2008-11-22T12:08:00.003-08:00

Stephens stopped two inches short on fourth down. UMHB ball 2-and-10 as we start the fourth quarter.

Punt Exchange II

2008-11-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

Both teams exchange punts again and it is HSU ball at the Cru 46 with 2:51 to play in the third quarter.

Teams Exchange Punts

2008-11-22T11:50:00.000-08:00

Both teams forced punts on the first drive. HSU takes the ball at 9:15 to go in the third quarter.

Halftime

2008-11-22T11:01:00.000-08:00

30 minutes down and nothing has been decided. The game turned into a defensive battle the last six minutes of the second quarter. HSU has 272 yards of offense at the half with Feaster going 14-for-19 for 166 yards and two scores.

We get the ball first. Settle in it should be a good one.

Cowboys Hold

2008-11-22T10:57:00.000-08:00

HSU holds UMHB and forces a punt HSU ball at their own 16 4:03 to go in the half.

Feaster Scrambles For a Touchdown

2008-11-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

Feaster avoids a rush and scrambles 15 yards for a touchdown. Shootout in Belton. 6:09 to play in the first half.

21-14 UMHB

2008-11-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

Saenz option touchdown run.

14-14 2nd Period

2008-11-22T10:43:00.000-08:00

Carrillo with a highlight reel 30-yard one-handed touchdown catch. Both teams are moving the ball at will.

UMHB's returned a kickoff for a touchdown and the second TD came after a roughing the punter penalty.

Stay tuned UMHB driving at the 3.

Championship Week

2008-11-06T12:25:00.000-08:00

Can you believe the fall sports are winding down? It always amazes how fast the time flies when you get into postseason play.

I think all three teams playing in the championships this weekend are legitimate contenders for the title. The women’s soccer team is looking for its sixth straight title and will host the tournament at the HSU Soccer Complex on Friday through Sunday. If you get a chance come out and support the Cowgirls. They play at 11 a.m. on Saturday and if they win the championship will be on Sunday at 1 p.m.

The men play at UT-Tyler in what is shaping up to be a competitive tournament. The top five seeds were separated by just four points in the final standings. The Cowboys play at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The game can be heard on the Internet via the UT-Tyler tournament site.

The Cowgirl volleyball team will head to Seguin for the league tournament. HSU opens the tournament with a noon game on Friday against UT-Tyler. If they win they will play UT-Dallas at 5 p.m. Friday and the finals are slated for 2 p.m. Saturday. The championship game can be seen live by an audio stream. The Cowgirls came in eighth in the regional rankings this week.

All three tournaments will have livestats for all of the games and you can access those by clicking here.

The football team looks to continue its late season roll with the regular-season finale against McMurry at Shelton Stadium. The Cowboys look to be in good shape for a Pool C slot into the NCAA playoffs. HSU was ranked fourth in the region this week. Game time is set for 2 p.m. at Shelton Stadium.

I got a chance to watch the men and women’s basketball teams at their scrimmages this week and both looked very good. They both have a lot of experience returning and both have brought in a talented class. Believe it or not the Cowboys open the season on Nov. 15 at UT-Arlington. That game is set for 8 p.m.

I encourage all of you to come out to the games this weekend and if you can’t be there follow the games on our web site. The new site has been averaging about 1,300 unique visitors per day, so we hope you keep www.hsuathletics.com as your main source for Hardin-Simmons athletic news. The site has been a great investment in promoting HSU athletics.

Celebration and Sadness In One Day

2008-10-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that Saturday was one of the more memorable days in my time at Hardin-Simmons.

No it wasn’t a 55-10 win over Sul Ross State or senior days for the soccer program, but it was about the 500th game in the coaching career of coach Keeling.
People inside the program know what a special man that Coach K is. They know him as a fair man that loves his players no matter what. He will do whatever is in the best interest of his team no matter what.

He has taken a program and built it from scratch and it is one of the most respected programs in the country. His teams always play hard. They might not be the most talented, team on the field every Saturday, but you never see them not playing hard. With that simple mantra that his players have heard daily, the Cowboys have built that program.

I got the chance to talk to coach Keeling before the game. Every game he makes the walk from the fieldhouse, down the middle of the field and then to through the press box. I am not sure of the exact time, but my guess is it starts somewhere around 10:15 (Keeling time that is) and it probably hasn’t ever changed.

As he was going through the press box he stopped briefly and he thanked me for writing the story I wrote about him last week. In his usual manner, he said it was a pretty good story considering the content I had to work with. I have to disagree with coach on this one. He is a legend, even if he doesn’t want to admit it, and it has been a pleasure to work with him over the last 10 years.

As he was walking out the door he said I just want to win A game. I am sure he was talking about the Sul Ross State game, but I get the feeling that he wants to win THE game. You know the one that is played in Salem, Virginia on Dec. 20th.

This year’s team has overcome some adversity, come together as a group and they get better and better every week. Yesterday was about as perfect of a game as you can play offensively and the defense has improved leaps and bounds. From week one to now it has been an amazing transformation.

Back to the game, the Cowboys took control from the opening kickoff when ZaVious Robbins returned it 100 yards for a score. You could see how special the game was to the players and staff after the game in the celebration honoring their coach. There were many former players at the game, and that included some from his high school coaching days as well.

At a gathering at the Keeling’s after the game the gleam was still there and it was a celebration, but he asked me for scores around the league, like he always does on Saturday nights. He was already thinking ahead to next week.

There is no doubt Keeling is a special coach, but to many he is known more for being a special person.

I got to see how strong of a person coach Keeling was in January when Cowboy player Brentdrick Walker was killed in a motorcycle accident. He held his team together in a very emotional time. There is no book on how to handle that situation at Books-A-Million, but he could probably write one and make some money.

The loss of Brentdrick has had a big impact on this team. You may notice that the Cowboys have been late getting to the field for each of the home games. The reason for that is that every player goes by and touches the locker of their fallen teammate.

Unfortunately, coach Keeling may have to go back to that unwritten book this week as the Cowboy family has lost another one of its own way to early. Former Cowboy Ke-Ke Sims, who played in the 2005 and 2006 seasons for HSU as a cornerback, was killed last night in a car wreck in Abilene. Many of the current Cowboys were teammates with Sims.

The Cowboy family needs your prayers once again. It is so great to have a leader like coach Keeling in charge during the tough times. It is easy to be a leader in the good times, it is the bad times where your true identity is formed.

So what turned into a great day of celebration, turned into tragedy, but with the Lord’s guidance we will get through this again, because He has promised not to give us more than we can handle.

500 and Counting

2008-10-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

As we head down the stretch toward the postseason the soccer, volleyball and football teams are still in the hunt for conference titles.

The soccer teams have the most realistic shots at regular-season conference titles. The women’s soccer team needs three wins in their last four games to secure hosting the American Southwest Tournament for the sixth straight year. The Cowgirls have not allowed a goal in conference play this season.

The Cowboy soccer team is still in the hunt for the regular season title, but they do not control their own destiny for that title. They would need UT-Dallas to lose a game. However, if they win out they will finish no lower than second and that would get them a first-round bye in the ASC Tournament. That makes the last four games extremely important.

Saturday will mark senior day for the soccer programs and a tip of the cap goes out to the five seniors for the soccer programs. Kelly Watson, Cassie Sandifer and Morgan Loyd have all overcome huge obstacles to be factors for the Cowgirls. Watson has played her entire career despite being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Sandifer has been a solid contributor and may be one of the hardest workers on the team. Loyd has played through some chronic back pain and other painful injuries throughout the years and ranks fifth in school history in scoring with 120 points.

On the men’s side, Berto Martinez and Chinedu Okoro are a pair of players that have been significant contributors. Okoro did not play last year and has come back to lead a Cowboy defense that is one of the tops in the conference. Martinez has been a solid midfielder for the Cowboys.

The volleyball team is preparing for its final two weeks of the season. The Cowgirls play at McMurry tonight and then play in the Trinity Tournament this weekend. HSU needs to win its final four conference games and have McMurry beat Texas Lutheran to have a chance at sharing the conference regular-season title.

The football team continues to improve each week and that is a bad sign for opponents. I don’t know if it is possible to play a more perfect game of offensive football than the Cowboys played last week. The Cowboys set a school record with 499 yards rushing and set a Division III high with 692 yards of total offense. That is with starter Justin Feaster not even touching the field in the second half.
HSU needs to take care of its business the last three weeks of the season and the Cowboys would likely see themselves in the playoffs again.

I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate coach Keeling for coaching in his 500th career game this weekend. It is amazing to have the passion and longevity that Keeling has displayed. Not only has he coached for 500 games he has won over 71 percent of them. I had the chance to set down with coach this week for a story and rest assured that the legendary coach is not slowing down any at all.

Not only is Coach Keeling a great leader, he does it the right way. His players respect him, they graduate and they go on and are productive citizens. I have never heard anyone that really knows anything about coach say a bad word about him. He is tough and fair and that approach has proven to be successful.

I have had a chance to watch the men and women’s basketball team practice a couple of times over the last week and they both look to be very exciting for this year. Both teams have brought in some great new talent and with both teams returning a lot of talent it could be a VERY, VERY exciting year for both teams.

The women’s basketball team will be having a BBQ dinner this Saturday at the football game for a fundraiser. They will be serving sandwiches, chips and a drink for $5. It is a fundraiser to help support their trip to the Bahamas in December so go out and get a nice meal before the game.

Another Big Week

2008-10-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite days of the year comes on Wednesday when the basketball teams open practice.

It has been a long offseason for both teams, but both teams should be among the favorites for ASC titles this year which makes it even more exciting.

The Cowgirls return three starters and six of the top eight scorers from last season. They have also added an extremely talented class of newcomers and this could be the year the Cowgirls make it back to the NCAA Tournament.

The men had an interesting offseason with coach Howard leaving and new coach Craig Carse coming in late in the summer. It will be interesting to watch how the team of talented players comes together. Cowboy fans will enjoy watching the up-tempo style of play. This team should score a lot of points, but must find a way to replace All-American Mardochee Jean in the middle.

It was nice to see the Cowboy football team play a fourth quarter with some breathing room on Saturday. HSU put away East Texas Baptist in the third quarter and how about the defensive effort. HSU picked off five passes in the game and you can see that unit starting to get more and more comfortable with the new scheme of Jay Niemann and Steve Barrows. The offense continues to move the ball at an amazing rate and they have improved their drive finishing rates.

It is good to see the team getting more and more confident each week and if they continue to get better a deep run in the playoffs is not out of the question. Before that can happen they have to play it one week at a time.

The soccer and volleyball teams continued their good seasons with strong weekends. The women’s soccer team beat Mississippi College 3-0 in a first-place showdown and also handled Louisiana College 8-0. They have the inside track on hosting the American Southwest Conference Tournament for the sixth straight year.

The Cowboys beat Louisiana College 4-1 and then got what has became par for the course treatment in Mississippi on Saturday. The Choctaws received a penalty kick with 22 seconds to go in the game to tie it and MC won it in overtime. This came after MC had twice tackled an HSU player in the box that should have been penalty kicks in the final minutes of the game. Such is life when you play at Mississippi College and you know going in you have to overcome it.

The volleyball team pushed its home winning streak to 15 and its streak over McMurry to eight with a win last Wednesday. The Cowgirls also won at Concordia. HSU will play at UMHB in the other crossover this weekend after playing at Howard Payne on Tuesday night.

HSU cleaned up on the ASC player of the week awards. Justin Feaster won his second of the year, Morgan Loyd won for women’s soccer and Kaela Parnell and Gracen Harris swept the offensive and defensive awards for the week.

The women’s cross country team had a fourth place finish at the UTPB meet on Saturday. Ashley (Allen) Huston ran her first meet of the year and finished eighth overall.

There are just three weeks left of the regular season for soccer and volleyball and it is on to the playoffs. The soccer teams have a light conference week as they only have one game this weekend against McMurry. The Cowgirls will host Southwestern on Friday in non-conference action.

Just a few other odds and ends.
• The Howard Payne game on Saturday is at 1 p.m. rather than the normal 2 p.m. start.
• The Cowgirl basketball team will have a BBQ sandwich dinner prior to the football game next Saturday. Check back for more details.
• The Sul Ross State game will be the 500th of the distinguished career of coach Keeling.
• How about my OSU Cowboys ranked eighth in the nation. I take a lot of grief about my alma mater in these parts, but it is nice to see them doing well.

On The Rise

2008-10-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

I talked last week about what a big week it was for the Cowboy and Cowgirl soccer, football and volleyball teams.

It was a milestone weekend for the soccer teams as the men defeated Ozarks and tied UT-Dallas. With the win over Ozarks Dan Heger became the school’s all-time leader in wins. What a great accomplishment for him and his team.

Ozarks and UT-Dallas have been right at the top of the list along with the Cowboys as the top teams in the conference. The Cowboys head into another big weekend as the leader of the ASC and it has already played three of the top contenders. The schedule is lighter on the back end, but a trip to Mississippi College this weekend could be the determining factor if the Cowboys are to claim one of the top two seeds and allow HSU a bye in the first round of the conference tournament.

If you haven’t watched this team yet there are only two more chances and that is October 24th and 25th when Cowboys will play UMHB, led by former Cowboy Brad Bankhead, and Howard Payne. They are really a fun team to watch play.

Congratulations are also in order for the Cowgirl soccer team as they pushed their ASC unbeaten streak to 100 games. What an amazing feat. Coach Wood and the Cowgirls earned a 0-0 tie against old rival UT-Dallas.

This is a big weekend for the Cowgirls again, especially the game at Mississippi College. Currently, the Cowgirls are 5-0-1 in league play and Mississippi College is 5-0-0. If the two teams tie or if MC wins the game and wins out then Mississippi College would host the ASC tournament. HSU has hosted the last five ASC tournaments and probably not coincidentally have won the last five ASC titles.

I have been asked a couple of times about who would host if the men and women both were regular season champions. The quick answer is the women would host if they both won the right to host this season.
In the 2005 season both of our teams won the right to host and we hosted both tournaments. Honestly, it was not the championship experience that the league or anyone really wanted to put on. Without lights, there were games played not only at HSU but at Shotwell Stadium. Without lights the games obviously had to be played in the daytime. With shorter daylight hours in late November and four games having to be played on one day we had games starting at 8 a.m. and no one should have their season determined at 8 in the morning.

After that season the league’s coaches, then AD’s, then president’s voted that one school could not host both events anymore. They put in a system where if both teams won the right to host that the men would get the right in odd years and women in the even years. There are similar rules in NCAA Tournament play as well with both teams hosting. It is the only sport in the ASC that has this problem, because the other sports have divisions that alternate between the East and West.

The volleyball crossover tournament went well last weekend with the Cowgirls winning all three matches. They are currently one game behind Texas Lutheran in the standings and they still get to play TLU at home. The Cowgirls host McMurry tonight at 7 p.m. and can put some distance between themselves and McMurry. The Cowgirls have won 14 matches in a row at home and have won seven straight matches against McMurry.

The football game last weekend was really exciting and we had a legitimate chance to win the game. I think the team really believes it is making progress and if they can win out they would have a great shot at making the NCAA playoffs.

This weekend marks the 200th football game of the Jimmie Keeling era. The Cowboys host East Texas Baptist for Homecoming. HSU has never lost to ETBU, but the Tigers are undefeated in league play and have the lead on the Cowboys in the standings.

How Do I Know It Is Fall?

2008-09-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

There are the obvious signs – the cool, crisp mornings and evenings, the weatherman said it turned to fall last week and tomorrow the calendar turns to October.
Then there are the signs that anyone around campus this week will see. There is the pep in the step of all of our fall sport athletes this week, there is the business-like feeling at the football fieldhouse and most obviously there is the schedule on my desk that says HSU and UMHB are playing football this week and HSU and UT-Dallas are playing soccer.

Since I have been at Hardin-Simmons there have been some rivalries that have come and gone, but two have remained at the top of the rivalry list. The football game with Mary Hardin-Baylor and the women’s soccer game with UT-Dallas.

Rivalries are good for teams. Rivalries are good for fans. Rivalries are good for the schools. Sometimes you can see rivalry games get ugly. Maybe a cheap shot here and there, some fierce competition and general disregard for the other team.

That is not what I have noticed with these two rivalries. I think there is total respect for the programs on both sides.

The football game has quickly become one of the top rivalries in Division III. Why? The biggest reason is that both teams have been good over a period of time. Both teams have had success (although UMHB has had the edge of late). The winner of the game has been the ASC champion every year since 1998 (there was a three-way tie one year).

The question for this week is how far has the Cowboy program come in a year. Last year UMHB won 47-14. I feel confident the Cowboys are better this year. I expect a close game on Saturday. It will probably come down to who can take care of the ball and who can come up big on special teams.

Now to the women’s soccer game with UTD. Granted there is a game with Ozarks on Friday, but make no mistake the big game for the Cowgirls is on Saturday. UTD and HSU have been the top teams in the ASC for many years. They have played for four of the last six conference titles.

HSU has gotten the better of the play of late. Since 2002, the teams have met 10 times and every one of the games has been decided by one goal or resulted in a tie. HSU is 6-1-2 in that time frame. The two ties are the only two ties during the Cowgirls run of 98 straight unbeaten league games that were not wins. The loss came in the 2002 ASC Championship (and the tournament games don’t count as conference games, thus not the ASC unbeaten streak).

The Cowgirls have won the games in painstaking ways against the Comets as well. UTD led 1-0 until the 88th minute of the game when Kelsey Jensen tied it up and then Amy Kuykendall gave the Cowgirls the win in overtime. In 2005, defender Natalie Longhofer scored in overtime to give the Cowgirls a win.

If the Cowgirls don’t lose either of the games this weekend it would push the streak to 100 games, which is the longest in the nation. What a sweet way it would be to get to 100. The games are always close and the Cowgirls more often than not have found a way to come out on top.

I talked to a former Cowgirl the other day about the streak and what it meant to them and her response was interesting to me. She said there is so much pride in the streak that they will fight to do whatever to keep the streak alive. She said she was part of the team that lost a home winning streak that had gone into the 50’s. It was the lowlight of her career at HSU to have that happen and each team’s leaders have done what it takes to relay that on to the newcomers.

That is the true definition of tradition.

You talk about the two rivalries, but it is also a big weekend for the men’s soccer and volleyball teams. The men take on Ozarks and UT-Dallas in a key weekend in ASC play. One of the three teams has won nine of the last 10 ASC titles and all three are expected to be at the top again this year. With a couple of wins the Cowboys would be in good shape heading into the back half of the league schedule.

The volleyball team is hosting the ASC Crossover for the first time in school history. HSU will play at 4:30 on Friday and will play at 9:30 and 2:30 on Saturday. There will be six games at the Mabee Complex over two days.

I encourage the HSU fans and students to come out to some of the games this weekend. You will not be disappointed and the players would enjoy your vocal support.

Wow what a weekend!

2008-09-21T20:20:00.001-07:00

If this past weekend is any indication of what we have in store it is going to be another great year. The soccer, volleyball and football teams had a perfect 7-0 weekend.

I got my first live look at soccer and volleyball and was really encouraged by what I saw.

Soccer and volleyball had taken their lumps with demanding preconference schedules. Part of that was youth, and part of that was by design. They all played tough competition with November in mind. I think all three of those coaches think they have very talented teams, but they are also all three relying on young players in key positions.

There is no doubt that all three did a solid job on the recruiting trail. That is a key part of the job that people on the outside don’t realize how hard our coaches work on. It is probably the biggest part of their job, because a coach is only as good as their players.

To be successful at Division III, you have to go hard after kids that have the talent to play at scholarship schools. That makes the job even tougher. Not only do they have to get the kids to not take scholarships they have to get them to sometimes win over parents egos regarding the prestige of getting a scholarship.

The reality is hardly anyone at Division II, NAIA or Junior Colleges are getting full scholarships. Most are on one-quarter or less scholarships. With the right combination of financial aid, a lot of times they would pay less bottom-line at Hardin-Simmons or other Division III schools. Getting parents, often-times more so than the potential student-athletes, to realize that is the toughest part of the recruiting battle.

HSU has a lot of things to sell – a beautiful campus, great and getting better athletic facilities, a great school where a degree means a lot, the Christian environment and an unmatched overall athletic tradition when compared to other schools in the conference.

All of that said, you can see the work our coaches have done on the trail and the success is evident on the field. There is another cycle of great young talent on campus, how they continue to progress will be the difference in a good year and a great year.

The volleyball team looked dominant in a pair of sweeps. The Cowgirls are still trying to mix the new players in with the large group of returners, but should be contenders for the league title.

The women’s soccer team won 9-0 and 5-0 and the men won 3-0 and 1-0. The tennis teams both had solid showings at the ASC Individuals Tournament in Tyler.

The football game was another barn-burner that didn’t feel as close as the final score indicated. The Cowboys moved the ball well between the 20’s and had to settle for three field goals. This team is getting better and better every week. The defense again shows continued signs of improvement and with more and more of the injured players getting back this team has the chance to be really good. They keep finding ways to win.

As good of a week as this past one was, the week ahead will tell a lot in the ASC races.

In case you haven’t seen, the women’s soccer team is on a 96-game unbeaten streak in ASC play. That streak will get a test this week. The Cowgirls hit the road to UT-Tyler on Thursday. HSU and the Patriots played for the ASC title and anytime you take a young team on the road it is a test. It will be the first road conference games and will be against one of the contenders. There have been several of these tests during the streak, but the Cowgirls have found a way to come through.

Not to be overshadowed is the men’s game at UT-Tyler. The Patriots are one of the top contenders in the league and a Cowboy win or tie could go a long way in the ASC race.

Both teams also play at Concordia on Saturday. Those games will be at Cedar Park High School.

The volleyball teams hit the road for an improved Schreiner team on Friday and on Saturday play at ASC West rival Texas Lutheran. HSU and TLU shared the conference title last year and then they played an epic five-game match in the ASC final that TLU won. The winner of the ASC West gets the right to host the ASC Tournament so a win on the road could go a long way in earning the right to host.

The football team returns home to host Mississippi College, who got on track last weekend with a 44-7 win over McMurry. MC and HSU tied for second in the league last year and were considered preseason contenders for the title this year. MC started 0-2 but is a talented team.

Everyone knows that injuries are part of the game, but when it comes to marquee players it is potentially team-changing. Our thoughts and prayers go out to two of the top players in the ASC in football. Adam Shaffer, who is the quarterback at MC, had a season-ending knee injury. It is the second-time in three years his knee has been injured in the opening weeks of the year. He was a preseason All-American and the preseason player of the year. Mary Hardin-Baylor star running back Quincy Daniels has an apparent season-ending knee injury as well suffered on Saturday.

Cardiac Cowboys

2008-09-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

Something special seems to be brewing with the Cowboy football team.

The Cowboys in the last two weeks have defeated two of the most storied programs in the nation and both times did it with scores on their final drive.

Yesterday felt almost like the opposite of last week. The Cowboys seemed to be the ones in control this week and all of a sudden a couple of good drives by Linfield and HSU looked up at a late deficit. Once again Justin Feaster and the Cowboy offense were up to the challenge.

Feaster appears to be the most comfortable in the two-minute, hurry-up situations. The Cowboys scored three straight touchdowns and a field goal last week in the hurry up. HSU scored at the end of both halves yesterday in a speed-up mode. The Cowboys have come up with ways to make big plays in tough situations.

While the Cowboys offense has come up big in the clutch, it is the defense that is the difference. The unit has forced six turnovers in two games, which have resulted in 28 points. They fly around to the football better and are more confident. The majority of the players playing on defense were on the unit last year. They are just a year more mature and the new scheme appears to be working, especially against the pass.

Overcoming adversity against good teams, teaches you a lot about a team. This team has done that twice and the good thing is that the Cowboys have not fired on all cylinders and are by no means healthy. This team will get better and better.

There are several players that are within a week or two of making it back. M.J. Hatchett, Garrison Hardin and Adam Rogers should be ready soon on the defensive line and that will add some depth especially inside, where the Cowboys have been really thin and playing four freshmen.

Kurston Williams should be back on the offensive line and Adam Podzemny and Matt Fields could be back to play wide receiver. The receiving corps has been productive, but there is little depth.

You add those six players and the depth is improved. All six can and all but Hardin have been impact players for the Cowboys. Things are looking up with this team and by the end of the year could be a national contender.

Just a Few More Things

This is a busy week at Hardin-Simmons. The soccer and volleyball teams will be home for the first time this weekend. All three squads open American Southwest Conference action. The women’s soccer team plays at Abilene Christian on Tuesday.

I am anxious to see all three teams play for real for the first time this season. All three teams have great talent and should all three contend for ASC titles.

For those of you that tried to listen to our game Saturday on the internet, we apologize for the mixup. It is never good to turn on the HSU game and hear the ACU broadcast. There was a communication breakdown between our internet streaming provider and the radio station. Fortunately it was back on for the exciting fourth quarter and the issues have been worked out.

I hope you have been enjoying the photo galleries, video and livestats on the new web site. The video is the viewer on the front page, the livestats can be found on the livestats button on the middle of the front page and the photo galleries are under the multimedia tab.

All of the photos have been taken by my graduate assistant R.C. Waters. He has done a great job with the number of photos we are able to get on the web.
Also the fall sport media guides (football, soccer and volleyball) are on the web. You can see them on each sports page.

Land of 10,000 Lakes

2008-09-11T11:00:00.001-07:00

Being from Oklahoma, I always have scoffed at the idea that everything’s bigger in Texas. On our trip to Minneapolis, I think Minnesota should use the logo “Everything’s Bigger in Minnesota”.

Everything seemed bigger to me. The Mall of America is ridiculous. Grapevine Mills would fit in the amusement park area of the thing. I have never seen so many stores. Then there steaks – wow – I have had a lot of good steaks in a lot of places, but I put our pregame steak up there with anything I have had. Not to mention the coconut cream pie. I love my grandma to death, but she got outdone on my favorite dessert.

Some other things that I noticed on the trip to.

The Republicans were leaving and that’s a good thing. They thought the election was apparently held last week. The election can wait until November.

The Metrodome is starting to show its age, but is a great place to watch a game. One question though, is 21 not the drinking limit there, because it seemed everyone over about the age of 14 had a beer (or maybe I am getting older and those 21-year olds look 14).

Saturday night games make Sunday’s very long. We got out of the stadium at Winona State around 10:15 and we got to our hotel about 1:15 a.m. By the time I did some work updating the web it was 2 a.m., which made that 4 a.m. wakeup call come very early. Fortunately we were back in Abilene by 11:30, but that doesn’t matter much when you have a four-year old and naps are not an option.

Chris McNair is probably the smartest person I know and he can explain things to dummies (like me) where they can understand it.

It has been a fast a furious start to the fall sport season, despite the fact that we have not had a home event so far.

The football game was quite an adventure. It definitely had its ebbs and flows. It seemed like we dominated the first quarter and you look up and it is still 0-0. They were able to break a long run to take a 7-0 halftime lead and there was not a sense of doubt at that point.

Two short fields led to a couple more scores for UWL and at 21-0 some doubt had started to creep in. Then a quick score and a couple of turnovers by them and scores by us and suddenly it is 21 all with a little over nine minutes to play.

Then they drive it down to the two and we come up with a big stop to keep the emotion on our side. Then the first play a mishandled snap causes a safety with just over three minutes to play. We get the key defensive stop and a clutch drive and kick for the win. It was the biggest deficit the Cowboys have overcome for a win in the Keeling era.

Men’s and women’s soccer got their first wins of the season last weekend and both of those young teams continue to grow each week. Both coaches say the same thing in the fact that by November they could be scary good.

Volleyball went 2-2 on its trip to Atlanta. Men’s and women’s tennis played at ACU over the weekend and I am still waiting on those results. The cross country teams had their first ever meet on Saturday at ACU. Women’s golf opened the season with a fourth-place finish at the UT-Dallas Tournament.

Losing A Great One

2008-08-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

It was a day we have all prepared ourselves for mentally several times over the last several years, but we lost a great friend this morning.

Glen Casselberry not only worked in maintenance for the school, but for many years served as the video coordinator for the football team. He was at ever game and took every win with pride and hurt with every loss.

He loved the Cowboys and he loved the university, but the thing he loved more than anything he loved his son and wife Brenda. Hunter has been the ball boy for the Cowboys since he could walk. I can't believe he is already playing high school ball for the Jim Ned Indians. Their interaction showed love. They both loved the road trips, even in the early days of the cancer.

There is little doubt in my mind that Glen fought the painful disease so long for Hunter. There were things he wanted to see him do and he fought hard to the end to see those things.

Hunter had to grow up all too soon with this, but he is a great kid. Brenda is a loving mom and was a trooper through the whole process. They both need our prayers and our support.

Heaven found another Cowboy today. Glen is in a better place, he fought the fight and should be admired for his strength, toughness, spirit and the love of his family.

I am sure Glen will be up there with a view of the whole field, not just that two inch viewfinder.

An Interesting First Week

2008-08-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

Well it has been an interesting first week – in more ways than one.

Football reported last Thursday for its first day of practice. We also took their publicity pictures that day and I was able to finish up the media guide and send it to the printer. Feeling, I was really actually ahead of where I needed to be in preparation for the season. I was pretty far ahead in the soccer and volleyball media guides so I decided to get out of Abilene for the weekend.

The family and I went for a great relaxing weekend on the river and at the Zetsch Ranch in Mason (thanks Jimmie and Susan). Apparently the rain moved in early Saturday and has played havoc ever since with practice schedules and the like.

I was all refreshed and ready for the onslaught of Monday. Then in the middle of the night my wife and I got what we thought was some sort of bug. I missed out on work on Monday and went in on Tuesday but still did not feel great. My wife had kicked her virus and was back to work.

I got the new rosters on the web for soccer and volleyball and was catching up some other items and decided I was going to stop by the clinic for a shot just to get to feeling better. When I went in he sent me straight to the emergency room with a dangerously low oxygen saturation level. He suspected pneumonia, but wanted me to go to the ER.

The ER tested me for several things and they admitted me at about 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday. They did more tests on Wednesday and finally ruled out anything cardiac. Finally, on Wednesday afternoon they diagnosed me with bilateral pneumonia.
I am on the mend, but they will probably keep me around through the weekend (much to my shagrin). I actually feel great now, and am tired of sitting around in the hospital, but they want to make sure my oxygen levels get back to normal and the IV antibiotics work faster than the oral ones.

I guess the fall sport teams are still progressing in their process toward the seasons. The volleyball team is on the new Mabee Gym floor and the soccer teams are finally getting some nicer weather. The cross country teams are running in the mornings. Here are some photo galleries from soccer, volleyball and football. Look for more galleries coming up. They are located on the front page of the new web site under the Multimedia tab.

Hopefully I am back to work next week. I really do miss not being around for this time of the year.

I would be remiss if I didn’t think a few people. My new graduate R.C. Waters has done a great job this week, running the office with little direct training. Those of you that know R.C., know that he is going to do his best to get the job done and with his addition to the office this year we are going to be able to kick out even more content than ever before.

I have mentioned this several times before on this blog, but I work with the best coaches and staff in America. Almost all of them have called, e-mailed or been by the hospital. I thank everyone for all of their gifts, prayers and communication.

Good friends John Neese and Jeff Smith have been by a couple of times and I appreciate that. Not everyone can work under parameters that their boss is also a good friend, but as much time as John and I spend together we better like each other. I really do have one of most unique situations in all of college sports, because not only is he my boss, but he has also been an SID and knows the time commitment and knows what is important for the department (i.e. the commitment to a new web site, a new digital camera, a graduate assistant for the first time, etc.).

Oh well, I guess if this had to happen it is better this week than next, or the week after that, because we are going to have a great fall and I am looking forward to it.

Summer Is Over

2008-08-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

There are signs marking the different times of the year. There is Christmas lights telling you it is almost Christmas, there are fireworks for the Fourth of July and the crispness of the morning telling us that the summer heat is a thing of the past.

For me there is no better indicator that the summer is over and it is time for another year like this week. On Monday, we had the conference Sports Information Directors meetings. On Tuesday, we took pictures of the football coaching staff, which is in the middle of what I call their bunker down week before the players arrive. On Thursday, we have our annual beginning of the year staff meeting.
It just means is the anticipation of a new year is finally here. It is my favorite time of the year, even though it is the busiest. To actually see teams back on the field or court practicing and getting ready it gets you fired up for what is in store.

There have been some changes in the offseason – we have a new men’s basketball coach in Craig Carse. I think our fans are going to enjoy his style of play and Chuck Hudson better be practicing punching those scoreboard buttons, especially for when other up-tempo teams like Concordia come into the building.

Speaking of basketball, the Mabee Complex floor is currently in the process of being painted. It was totally stripped down and new markings are being painted for the new 3-point line and permanent volleyball lines.

The track is coming along as well and should be ready sometime in the fall. The soccer and track coaches have moved out to their new home in the Fieldhouse at Grape Street.

We also have the new web site for this year and I am anxious to see some of the new features in place.

I expect that this is going to be another exciting year. Several of our teams are the on-paper teams to beat going into the year. Some of them won’t be. That is why we don’t play the games on paper.

Just seven more days until football practice starts up and about 10 before the rest of the sports get ready to go.

One More Thing

Is the Brett Favre finally over?

Good Luck Coach

2008-07-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

One thing about working in athletics, much like the Texas weather, it is always changing.

John Neese and I were having a conversation the other day about the number of people that have been around the American Southwest Conference since 2000. We came up with about a list of 12-15 people quickly off the top of our head that have been around that long and that is about it. I further looked at it and amazingly there are just 32. Take out SIDs and Athletic Director’s and there are 22 coaches in the league that have been in the league that long.

With 15 schools and each averaging about 12-15 coaching or administrative people and that is a very low percentage that have been in the league at least nine years.
That just goes to show you how much things turn over at small colleges.

We have been very fortunate at Hardin-Simmons to have coaches that stick around. We say it a lot, but Hardin-Simmons is a great place to be. Most of us are not here for the money. We could all go somewhere else and make more money. Most of our coaches could go coach middle school P.E. in the Metroplex and make more money than we get at HSU.

But life is not all about money and for the most part if you get into college athletics you are not into it to get rich. We have a great support system at HSU and have a great camaraderie between our coaches and staff. We for the most part do the jobs we do because we love them. There is little stress on us, we work in a comfortable work environment and are pretty flexible with our work schedules. Every one of us on staff knows when it is time to work, we get the job done. We don’t have to be told we need to put in more effort.

I think that has a lot to do with our success as a department as a whole. All of us have pride in our area and we don’t want to be shown up.

All of that being said change does happen and we lost one of the more veteran members of our staff over the weekend. Head basketball coach Dylan Howard has taken a job at Mississippi Valley State.

Coach Howard has done a great job for us at Hardin-Simmons and has been a very good friend to me. From an up-and-back trip to Colorado College in his first year, to the ASC Tournament three of the last four years it has been a fun ride. He took the team to the ASC final in 2007 and had a shot to win the game. There is one good thing about Coach Howard leaving, those Mississippi referees will be on his side now, because he never could get them on his side while playing against the Choctaws.

We had a lot of good times both at games here and on the road. We often found ourselves after a game finding a restaurant to rehash the game good or bad. Sometimes I would have to tell him we would win another game, or he would say they are getting better. He brought a lot of excitement back to men’s basketball at HSU. He allowed me to get close to the team, even watching practice on a lot of days.
We sometimes disagreed on different players and what they could and could not do, but most of the time he came around to my way of thinking.

If he would ever come around to admitting that Coach K is the most overrated coach in basketball history, we would be getting somewhere.

Some players thought they were getting the short end of it. Some finally figured out that he just wanted them to be their best, some didn’t and quit. Some players figured out soon that it was his way or the highway. It took some longer than others to figure that out. I think at the end of the day, his players figured out that if they did things the way he wanted them done they would have no problems.

Coach I wish you the best of luck and I am going to miss you.

Well, here it is

2008-06-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is.

The new and improved version of the HSU Athletics site is finally available for your viewing pleasure. I would like to thank several people that have made this transfer as easy as possible.

First and foremost is Mike Donlin at Presto Sports. He has made the daunting transition process run as smoothly as possible. He was always there to answer my questions and no matter how repetitive they had to seem to him, he never made it seem like I was bothering him. It is a busy time for Presto as they have several launches going live soon with several former CSTV clients like ourselves making the switch.
The Presto design team was amazing. Although I never met them or even talked to them directly, through Mike I gave them my vision of what I wanted to see in the site and they hit it spot on with colors, design, etc.

I have had several people help me throughout the entire process, either indirectly or directly. Corrie Reed is serving an internship with me this summer and she has received a load of work on the site. It may have been more than she bargained for, but I thank her for a job well done. Kirk Ashby and James Sweatman served as interns for me in the spring semester and they did a lot of the record updating in the spring.

I would like to thank R.C. Waters and Josh Bowerman who provided me with great photographs for the site. They take a lot of pictures over the year and I appreciate all the work they have done.

Athletic Administrative Assistant Kim O’Dell has been a great help as well. She has helped me track down things I needed for the site. John Neese has been valuable to me as he basically gave me the free reign to go out and find a new web site company and bring us to this point. I appreciate the trust factor for this exciting challenge. Assistant basketball coach and resident computer expert Melanie Orsak also has been my go to person on this project. She gave valuable comments and suggestions and it is always good to have a professional eye that your trust.

Last but not least, I have to thank my wife Lori. She had a major surgery last week (she is doing great by the way) and I have been working from home the last two weeks. I have basically been stuck to my computer for the last two weeks, but she has been understanding and also appreciative that I was able to work from home during this time (although she is probably ready for me to go back to work).

As for the site, we hope you enjoy the new look. This is an ever-evolving site and there are things on it that will not work yet, because we haven’t had games. We will still have livestats for our home games, a lot of our games will be on the Internet and one thing I am excited about is we will have the ability to put video highlights on the web for the first time.

If you see something out of whack or you have a comment, query, question or complaint, please drop me an e-mail. We look forward to a great year.

Did I mention that it is just 50 something days before our teams start reporting for fall camps. I guess I better get to work on some media guides.

Summer Time

2008-05-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

The athletic seasons are over and we are set for a three-month throw-your-feet-up vacation.

Of course that would be great, but to the surprise of many that is not really how it goes around here in the summer time.

Yes, there are some vacations taken, and yes there is more down time, but it is the time of year that we are the most normal as far as working hours. At least hours the rest of the non-athletic world enjoys for most of the year. There is not a lot of weekend work to be done and of course no games to attend, but there is still plenty of work to be done.

There are the media guides for next year, finishing up the schedules for next year, reworking the archives from the past year and adding and updating records. We have a letterman’s golf tournament, the Hall of Fame selection committee meets and there are conventions over the summer as well.

Before you know it you look up and the kids that are leaving this week are back on campus and it is time for the first days of soccer, volleyball and football practice and it all starts again.

I will be the first to admit that I go stir crazy after about the first two or three weeks of the summer. After nine months of seeing as many games as I see, just watching the Rangers on TV is not enough. I am ready to see our teams getting after it and getting ready for another exciting year.

This was a down year for athletic’s at Hardin-Simmons, with only one conference championship. After losing as many great players as we lost last year and the success of the previous two seasons prior to this last one, it was somewhat of a predictable outcome.

The thing that all of the teams had is a strong young nucleus this year that will be back next year and several teams should be the favorites to win league titles this next year.

As many of you know we have taken great pride in our relationship with CSTV now CBS. We were the first Division III school to go with them back in 2002. Our relationship with them is ending and we will be going with a new company. They have been a great solution for us in the past, but they have made it impossible for us to maintain the relationship with a doubling of the rate we have to pay.

What does that mean for you? It means we are going to have a brand new athletic web site. We are targeting a launch date of June 30th. There will be very little updating of archival information or anything like that the we usually do at this time of the year on our current site. We are full steam ahead in the design process of the new site and there is no need to double the work load.

There are some things about the new company Presto Sports that I really like. One, they already do a lot of Division II and Division III schools sites and they understand us more than CSTV did. CSTV was more geared toward to Division I schools with huge staffs.

Next, is they are not just a cookie-cutter site. We have had some initial design discussions and we were able to go from the top down and give ideas that we wanted the site to look like. We are going to have the ability to show video clips and we will still have live stats for our home matches.

I think this will be a good relationship for us in getting the word out about our school to you.

Don’t forget to get your registration in for the Letterman’s Golf Tournament on Friday, June 27. Come back to Abilene, enjoy a round of golf and lunch and help support the HSU Athletic Department. We want to see you there.

2008-04-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well here it is, we are headed down the home stretch for the athletic season and all of the teams have either qualified for or are still in contention for a playoff spot.

The tennis teams continue on their amazing streak of American Southwest Conference victories and they will put those streaks on the line this weekend at UT-Tyler in the ASC Championships. The Cowgirls are looking for their eighth straight title and the Cowboys are looking for their seventh. The Cowgirls have a 74-match ASC winning streak and the men have won 68 matches in a row.

This year will mark the first time that either team will face another ranked team as UT-Tyler is ranked in both men and women. The finals are slated for Sunday. Both teams have first round byes and would need to win a semifinal match on Saturday.

The golf teams will play the ASC Championship next week in Anna, Texas. Freshman Ashley Luecke is one of the favorites for the individual title on the women’s side and the Cowgirls should be one of the contenders for the league crown. The Cowboys will be one of about six teams that could win the tournament.

Softball has their backs against the wall and need to come up with wins at Howard Payne and the final series of the year against Mary Hardin-Baylor, which wall mark senior day for Lydia Bradley and Sadye Hill. Only the top three teams in the ASC West make the tournament and currently the Cowgirls are in fourth place, two games behind Howard Payne for the third slot.

The Cowboy baseball team is hot and has won nine straight games heading into this weekend’s three-game set at Texas Lutheran. The Cowboys can finish anywhere from second to fifth in the ASC West. The Cowboys need one win to secure a playoff berth. There are several scenarios for the Cowboys this weekend. Those games can be heard on the Internet at www.hsuathletics.com.

One key date for former Cowboy and Cowgirl athletes is the Lettermen’s Golf Tournament on Friday, June 27. It will be played at Fairway Oaks and it is a great opportunity to catch up with old teammates and also support the HSU Athletic’s Department. You should be getting an invitation in the mail in the next few days, if you do no please contact us and we will make sure you are invited.

There was a reunion of sorts last weekend as former Division III Player of the Year Kendra Anderson got married in Abilene. Several former teammates were in town for the event and I got the chance to see former Cowboy baseballer John Schlaffer and his new son at the baseball game on Saturday. John was handling baby duty very well. Schlaffer is married to former Cowgirl basketballer Terri Robinson (the 6,000-point scorer out of Ira) and they live in the Metroplex. Both are physical therapists.

Make The Big Time Where You Are

2008-04-02T08:27:00.001-07:00

Coach Keeling is known for his crazy sayings and quirks. One of the first things you notice on his desk is a “Make The Big Time Where You Are” plaque. Those are the words of former Pacific Lutheran coach Frosty Westering and the title of one of his books. Those words were ringing home as I realized yesterday how great it is to be at Hardin-Simmons.

Anybody that really knows me knows that I am a die-hard Oklahoma State fan. I earned a bachelor’s from there (albeit with a gentleman’s D in Spanish), spent four years there (after two years at junior college), met my wife there, worked four years in the sports information office there. I totally enjoyed my time there and love the place.

However, today I am ashamed by the fact that is my school. They fired (don’t buy the resigned line) a legend’s son after two years with a winning record. No one in the history of Division I men’s basketball has been fired after two years with a 10 game over .500 record.

There are many reasons flying around about the reason for the dismissal. From everything I gather it had to do with a conflict between the athletic director and Eddie Sutton. Even if there are some long term grudges it makes little sense to take it out on Sean.

I could ramble on forever, but it just made me realize is the glamour of Division I what it is all about. If firing a coach because he did not make the NCAA Tournament with a roster that included only one senior that played and two juniors makes it the big time then no thank you.

I am blessed to work every day with hard-working coaches that could make a lot more money at “the Big Time” that make a lot of sacrifices to be at Hardin-Simmons.

I feel pretty confident in saying that you will not be fired at Hardin-Simmons if you have a winning record for two consecutive seasons for your job performance.
One of many things that makes Hardin-Simmons a great place, is that it is not all about winning, but winning is nice, too.

Around The Campus

Make sure to make it out to the baseball and softball fields as the two teams are fighting hard for postseason berths. Both teams are having solid seasons, but as I say in this blog a lot the league just keeps getting better and better.

The men’s and women’s tennis teams are through the rugged non-conference section of their schedule and now return to ASC play. Golf is winding down its season as well.

There is a chance for the second straight year all 12 HSU teams will qualify for some sort of postseason play. HSU became the first school in the conference for that to happen to last year.

Spring Is Here

2008-03-14T07:59:00.001-07:00

Spring has officially sprung and it is one of the busiest times of the year for our sports teams at HSU.

Coach Rita Jordan’s young softball team, that features 12 newcomers, is off to a 6-4 start against a very challenging schedule. The Cowgirls open league play this weekend at Schreiner. After that they will be home for a series Wednesday and Thursday against Sul Ross State.

It has been an amazing start to the senior year of All-American first baseman Sadye Hill. She is hitting .556 in the early going with two home runs and 11 RBIs. She has not struck out and has an on-base percentage of .625. She is also nearing the conference record for career hits, is the current leader in batting average and with five more home runs and 24 more RBIs will hold those records as well. She also is closing in on the walks record.

The key to the Cowgirls’ season will be how quickly the pitching staff develops. With three freshmen in the current rotation, all of whom have shown flashes of brilliance, this team will continue to get better as the season goes along.
The baseball team snapped a brief three-game losing streak with a come-from-behind win against UT-Tyler on Tuesday. Ryan Stepp and Wayne Pimpton hit back-to-back home runs in the eighth for the win. Kyle Barton continues to be unscored upon for the Cowboys this season in 19.2 innings of work.

They are home for a key three-game set with Mary Hardin-Baylor this weekend and then will play at ACU on Tuesday. Prior to that game on Tuesday, there will be a ceremony honoring Brad Coleman of HSU and Alec Sowards of ACU for their Rawlings Gold Glove Awards they won last season.

The tennis teams are set to embark on their Spring Break journey to California to get in some quality competition. The teams have extended their ASC winning streaks to 69 and 63 straight matches for the women and men respectively.

The men’s golf team will open its season on Monday and Tuesday at Texas Lutheran and the women just returned from a tournament in California, where they placed fourth. Ashley Luecke placed eighth for the Cowgirls.

It's Tourney Time

2008-02-28T12:12:00.001-08:00

In case you haven’t noticed by the 80-degree temperatures outside that it has turned to Spring and as the basketball teams hit postseason play the spring sport teams are getting their seasons in high gear as well.

The basketball teams will play in their conference tournaments this weekend. I anticipate a pair of highly-competitive events. Both teams seem to be playing at a high-level going into the tournament and both have legitimate shots at the titles.
Anytime you don’t return a starter, a back slide is expected. That is not been the case with the Cowgirls, who once again have won 20 games. It marks the 10th straight year the Cowgirls have won 20 games, which is tied for the fourth longest streak in the nation. The young Cowgirls have continued to progress as the season has gone along.

If they play as well as they can there is no reason they won’t be cutting down the nets on Sunday. It is a tough road to get there. HSU has to play Mississippi College in the first round and the Choctaws have improved greatly since the first meeting. A date with Howard Payne is likely in the semifinals. There is no doubt that HPU is a great team, but HSU is not that far away. A well played 40 minutes could get the Cowgirls to the Championship, where a crosstown showdown would not be out of the question.

There are a lot of unknowns for several Cowgirls how they will play in their first ASC Tournament. The talent is there. Best of luck to Shanna Briggs and the ladies in their quest for a seventh ASC Tournament title.

The men’s tournament on paper looks as competitive as ever. A first round loss or a championship is not out of the question for any of the eight teams. The Cowboys have several players with experience of playing in the tournament and that should help their prospects.

HSU has won at least one game the two previous times in the tournament and last year went to the finals. A win would be a nice reward for the Jean brothers in their senior year. Mardochee has had one of the best careers ever by an ASC player and it would be nice to see him play in the NCAA Tournament.

If the Cowboys continue to hit shots, I expect them to be in need of a pair of scissors on Sunday as well. To do that they will have to beat a very tough UT-Tyler team, then probably Mary Hardin-Baylor on their home court. They have beaten both teams this season, so it is not like they go in as a underdog, but it won’t be easy either.

The baseball, tennis and softball teams are all on the road this weekend as well against quality opponents. Coach Steve Coleman’s Cowboys are off to a 6-2 start. The softball team swept a doubleheader last week and is 2-0 on the year and the tennis teams play at arch-rival Trinity and open league play at Texas Lutheran.

A Tip of the Hat To Four Seniors

2008-02-18T15:07:00.000-08:00

Senior day is always one of those memorable events on campus in every sport. It truly is amazing the amount of work and dedication that our student-athletes put into their sports. We had the privilege of recognizing four seniors on Saturday at the Mabee Complex.

For the women Shelby Hodges and Rachel Cisneroz have been great ambassadors for the
the Final Four banquet. She has been a leader of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and is a great spokesperson for the school.

Rachel has one of the best voices I have ever heard. She does a great rendition of the national anthem. She has on a few occasions stepped in on no notice and belted out the anthem at events on campus.

I say all of that to say they are two of my favorite all-time Cowgirls since I have been here. Throughout their career they have been perfect role models and because of that I have also had them spend time with my daughter as not only a babysitter but just at games and to be honest I hope my daughter turns outs to be just like them. Not as an athlete, but as a person. I can tell you that my little girl looks up to those two like no one else and I am proud she does.

Now for the Jean brothers. I don’t think I have seen two players grow more in their time at Hardin-Simmons than those two. Mardochee and Dan came in as shy projects as freshmen and they are leaving HSU as mature men that are going to be productive members of society.

Saturday seeing the joy they brought to their entire family, and what a big family it is, when they would do something good on the court was something special. Getting to work with these type of people every day is what makes my job at HSU so special.

Mardochee has turned into one of the most well-spoken players on the team. I used to be worried when a reporter would ask to speak to him, but now I know he is going to give great answers to questions. He leads by example and has become an intense competitor every night. He will go down as one of the best, if not the best big men ever to play in the ASC. He has taken a team that had little experience and four starters to replace back to the playoffs and you never know, maybe they can get to the NCAA Tournament in a wide-open ASC race this season.

Dan came in as a freshman and he was a very raw basketball player. He had great athletic ability and came on down the stretch to make the travel squad. He transferred to McMurry as a sophomore in search of more playing time, but saw the light and came back to HSU for his final two seasons. There are certain teams that him and Mardochee together are an unstoppable combination.

Dan is a player that has to be challenged to bring out his best. He and I have had a good relationship. We like to talk smack to each other in a good way. During the preseason I walked in on the team in open gym and I saw Dan working on his 3-point shot. Let me tell you it needs some work. He got to the point in open gym that he thought he was a guard he was shooting so many 3-pointers. I challenged him to a 3-point shooting contest with one stipulation. If I beat him, he could not take 3-pointers for the rest of the year (because it is not like Coach Howard was going to let him shot any in the games any way). Well of course I beat him and now he just stays on the block and dunks on people.

I am so proud of the progress all four have made not only on the court, but off it as well. They are all four on course to graduate. It is amazing how fast four years go by.

News and Notes
I would like to welcome new track and cross country coach Rodney Smith to the campus. Track is something that has been discussed for years, but is finally a reality again.
Softball will finally get to open its season this weekend after weather caused delays last week. Baseball is back in action this week and tennis will finally play a dual that counts this week.

Where Are They Now
I heard from one of my all-time favorite Cowboys Ryan Smrkovsky this past week and he and his wife are expecting their first child any day now. He is living and working in Ozona. Smurf was an all-around good guy and unfortunately lost his senior year to a knee injury in a game at Menlo.

Seasons Change

2008-02-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it amazes me how fast time flies once we get into a season. It seems like just a few weeks ago we were starting basketball season and now we have two weeks left. It was a good start to the baseball seasons this weekend as well...

Saturday I saw or heard a few examples of what I think is the most important deciding factor if teams win or lose or if players have individual success – confidence.

In the women’s game, Howard Payne All-American Meia Daniels played her final career game at the Mabee Complex. She is a great player, and It wasn’t her best all-around game on Saturday, but as HSU made a run at the undefeated Lady Jackets she buried a pair of back-breaking 3-pointers. You could tell leaving her hand she wanted the ball in crunch time and knew they were going down.

In the men’s basketball game, junior forward Charlie Pannell has struggled of late with his shooting. Seeing him every day in practice and in games he is a great shooter, but he seemed to have lost some confidence in his shot. His teammates and coaches have done a good job of encouraging him to keep shooting and on Saturday he came out and hit his first three 3-pointers and had his best game this semester. It’s amazing the difference after you make a shot or two how easy it is to get it going.

The third example, I heard was talking to coach Coleman and Holcomb after the games on Saturday and they were discussing they saw the turning point in starting shortstop Brian Weeks was when they told him he had won the starting job and the job was his. Weeks, a freshman, had a solid opening weekend offensively and defensively and looks to have answered some of the Cowboys concerns defensively at shortstop.

It is so easy for the kids to go the other way on the confidence spectrum. What I saw this weekend reminds of how the good things that can be accomplished when you believe.

Former Student-Athlete
I got a chance to catch up with former Cowboy quarterback Jordan Neal on Saturday. He is in his new position as the offensive coordinator at Howard Payne. After playing professionally in Sweden this past summer and fall Neal took over at Howard Payne in December. He was taking in the games between HSU and HPU and then caught some of the Cowboys baseball game Saturday night.

Here Is To A Better Week

2008-01-28T09:32:00.000-08:00

I have always said that there is something special about Hardin-Simmons that you just can’t explain. Maybe it’s the people I work with, maybe it’s the students I get to see every day, maybe it is the Christian environment that I get to work in every day. In athletics you hear all of the time about the It factor, whatever that is, Hardin-Simmons has it.

Since I have been at Hardin-Simmons the good weeks outweigh the bad ones by about a 15:1 ratio. Sometimes when you see what our kids put into not only their sports, but just being good students and doing the right things off the court, course or field, you hurt a little more when they don’t reach the success they want to reach.

The last time I had been in the football locker room, prior to last Sunday, was after the Howard Payne loss. There was hurt on the faces of so many young men in that locker room. They were suffering from a loss, it was a loss on the football field in a game. It was a scene I had seen before after a Cowboy loss, but it is something that usually passes in a few hours.

Last Sunday, I knew I witnessed what it is like to really lose. What real suffering from a loss means. When there was a memorial to a fallen teammate there was hurt and pain in that room. They were still trying to comprehend the loss of a teammate that was taken away from them early. There was hurt in the eyes of close friends, not close friends, coaches and administrators. The Cowboy family vowed to come together as one, to get through this trying time together. That kind of hurt doesn't go away in a few hours or days.

Coach Keeling was so brave and such a leader for his group of men in that service, but you could feel the hurt and pain in his voice. He is a great example of a leader of men. Brentdrick Walker is gone from this life, but he will never be forgotten by the HSU family.

Emotions were still running high throughout Monday and then of all things HSU was set to play McMurry in basketball that night. The Cowgirls gave a great effort, battling back from a large deficit to make it a game late, before falling. The men’s game was an instant classic as both teams laid it all on the floor. HSU led by 10 late in the second half and McMurry came right back to send the game to overtime. It went to a second overtime and eventually the Cowboys won the game.

What happened after the buzzer has been played and replayed on the Internet and newspaper. There is a lot out there that is so far from what really happened. Coach Howard will be the first to admit he over reacted and let emotions get in the way of the situation and could have handled it better.

I want to start out by giving my view of what happened underneath the basket as time expired. McMurry missed the 3-pointer and Mardochee Jean grabbed the rebound. When he cleared the rebound he pushed off on Robert Moreno. It is not something more than what you see when battling for a rebound 10-15 times a game. There was not a malicious elbow thrown. Moreno went down and Jean asked him if he was alright (not trash talk as has been thrown out there). Moreno said he was fine and things were fine.

Casey Jones then threw the ball at Mardochee and words were exchanged, but nothing really happened as far as punches being thrown or anything. In Jones’ defense, you could tell from the film that he immediately felt bad for what he had done.

Coach Howard was walking away from where the player’s had the incident, toward the HSU bench and you can plainly see Garza yelling something at Howard. Howard turns around and you can see Coach Howard and Coach Garza in a verbal exchange and there were things said on both sides that neither is proud of. Coach Howard had to be restrained, which he was, he went and celebrated the win with our student section (which was the best they have been in several years by the way) and went back to the locker room.

There is a saying in sports that says the film doesn’t lie. A lot of what has been said about the whole situation has been over the top. Howard and Garza aren’t monsters. Moreno, Jones and Jean aren’t dirty players. Are there people that wish it had not gone down the way it did? Absolutely! Were there things said and done that should not have been? Absolutely! For the most part, it was the emotions of big rivalry game that got to the best of a few people.

The thing that many people don’t realize about the whole event that was blown out of proportion is that during the whole verbal exchange between the coaches players on both sides were talking, hugging and embracing each other on a game well played. Moreno and Mardochee were part of that. There was mutual respect being shown on the court.

I can’t tell you for sure what kind of person that Moreno is, but from everything I have heard he is a great guy and leader for their team. I can tell you FOR SURE that Mardochee is one of the most polite, engaging people you will ever meet. Trash talk and throwing elbows would be well out of the norm for him.

The thing the whole incident did was take the spotlight off of one of the best games ever in the series.

Those two things were the start to an emotional week. Walker’s memorial service was held at the school on Thursday and his funeral was in Dallas on Saturday.

The basketball teams were on the road at Texas Lutheran and Schreiner and it was a clean sweep on the road, which was a good end to an emotional week.

I am ready for the good 15 weeks in a row now. Even though a down-and-back trip to Alpine is on the agenda, this week has to be better.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

2008-01-14T20:04:00.000-08:00

In a little over a month I will have been at Hardin-Simmons for nine years. I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by.

I have always been a list guy. I don’t know why, but I have been. I am going to drop a list of my 10 favorite games since being at HSU. I don’t know how much it means, but for whatever it is worth here goes.

10. NCAA Sweet 16, 2000 -- I have to put the second game I saw at HSU on this list. The 2000 Cowgirl basketball team was a very good team. If the bracket had been cross bracketed I think they would have been in the Final Four. However, the game I remember is a knock-down-drag-out with McMurry in the Sweet 16. It was a packed house at the Mabee Complex and a great game.

9. 2005 ASC Championships For Soccer -- Both the men and women won the ASC on their home field. It was the first year at the new field and both teams had exciting wins.

8. 2004 Regular Season Football Game at UMHB -- The Cowboys dominated that game from the onset and Will Galusha was a man among boys in the contest. It was the last time we beat the Crusaders. I’ve always wondered if he had played in the playoff game if that would have been the Cowboys in the Stagg Bowl that year and not the Crusaders.

7. 2000 Baseball at McMurry – Shawn Bigham threw a two-hitter in a night game against Josh Duwe. I think it was a 2-0 Cowboy win.

6. January 12, 2002 WBB vs. Howard Payne – Kendra Anderson had the performance of the ages. She had 38 points and 14 rebounds, including the tying and go ahead basket in the final minute. HPU then retied the game and Anderson was double teamed and kicked out to Terri Robinson for the eventual game winner with nine seconds left. Then on the other end Anderson blocked away a potential game-winning 3-pointer.

5. December 2006 – HSU rallies from 13 points down and Zach Pickelman hits a 3-pointer to beat McMurry .

4. Where’s The Defense – NCAA Quarterfinals 2000. Hardin-Simmons and Trinity had gone up and down the field all day long and Trinity had the ball last. They threw a fade into the end zone and the Cowboys’ Melvin Dudley knocked it away to send the Cowboys to the Semifinals.

3. Opening Day 2004 – Craig Foreman threw a no-hitter on opening day in a 1-0 win over Lubbock Christian. I missed most of it waiting on my wife to get out of the hospital a week before the birth of our daughter.

2. The Cowgirls are Going To The Final Four – There was little drama when the Cowgirls advanced to the Final Four. HSU had just stomped Randolph-Macon to go to the Final Four. The outcome was not in doubt from about 10 minutes into the game. The best thing was to watch the reaction on the girls and Coach Briggs face when the buzzer sounded. I will always remember that big hug Briggs and I shared. I think it was more shock than anything.

About 20 minutes after that game was one of the funnier things I have ever heard from a fan. This mother was mad at us because we had called RMC’s post player, who was about 6-5 and big “the big girl” throughout the contest on the air. In Texas, she was a big girl. Anyway she comes over and asks Do you call yourself the Big Boy on the air. I just laughed, because heck we were going to the Final Four.

1. The top game for me is not a game, but a series of games. It was February 21, 2004. I will never forget the day. We had senior day for basketball, which is always a big day. It was also the first softball games at Hardin-Simmons and then we had two baseball games. I knew it was going to be a hectic day from the get-go. I had told my wife, who was ready to pop we thought a week earlier, she had to wait until after I was done from that day on Saturday. I got home about 10 that night and had a quick dinner. I hit the pillow and was about to be out, when Lori says I think my water just broke. Those words will wake you up in a hurry. Sure enough it had and off to the hospital we went. I couldn’t tell you how we did in any of the games, but it turned out to be one of the most memorable days. She had held up her end of the bargain by waiting and the next day our daughter was born and life has never been the same.

There are plenty more, but these came to the top of the melon.

Well it is already time for ASC West play in basketball and the spring sports will be hitting the fields, courses and courts soon. This is a big week for both teams so I hope to see you at the game. Also, be collecting your change and bring it to the games on Saturday and Monday for the 11th Annual Kiwanis Club of Abilene Basketball Shootout with McMurry on Monday.

I have promised some Where are They Now’s and these three are courtesy of former basketball coach Dennis Harp. He got to see three former players on a recent trip to Boulder. He was there to see his son Ryan, who is starting at SMU as a true freshman.

Phil Gates played two seasons at Hardin-Simmons University. He received his B.A. Degree in Public Communications with a Marketing Minor in the spring of 1986. Phil ranked 5th in the nation in field goal percentage during the 1985-1986 season shooting 58.5% from the field. The Cowboys who were NCAA Division 1 during that era played against the likes of LSU, Wyoming, and Hawaii.

Phil resides in Boulder, Colorado with his wife Diane and daughters Brittani and Madeline. He is a sales consultant in Boulder for YBE. The YBE organization specializes in consumer products for convenient stores. Phil has over 20 years of experience in the business. Brittani received a full scholarship for swimming at Indian River Community College in Florida. Madeline is an 8th grader who participates in basketball and track. Diane is the Chief Financial Officer for Interweave Incorporated in Boulder. She is also a member of the Boulder Marathon Running Association and has competed in the Boston and Chicago marathon. Phil and Diane will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary this year. You can email Phil at pgshouse@aol.com.

Justin Moore played basketball at Hardin-Simmons University during the 1995-1996 and 1996-1997 seasons. He was selected Academic All-Conference, 1st Team All Conference, Honorable Mention All-America, and was selected Co-Captain during his senior season. He scored a career high 34 points against Howard Payne University. Moore received his degree in finance in 1997.

Justin shot .557% from the field and .792 from the free throw line during the 1996-1997 season which both ranked high in the record books. During the 1996-1997 season Moore averaged 9 rebounds per game and 13.7 points per game.

Justin resides in Parker, Colorado with his wife Dawn and their two children Haden and Madisyn. Dawn is a former school teacher. Justin is employed as a financial advisor for US Bank Corporation Assets Management Company in Denver, Colorado. He is a registered investment advisor. He has been an investment broker for ten years. Justin can be reached via email at jemoore4@aol.com.

Shannon Wood was a stand-out basketball player at Hardin-Simmons University where he played for one season (16 games) after transferring from BYU-Hawaii for his senior season. Wood averaged 22.6 points per game, 5.4 assists, 1.6 steals, and shot 53% from the field, .429 from the three point line, and 77% from the foul line. His 22.6 points ranked him as one of the top's in the history of HSU basketball.

Shannon owned and operated Showtime Videos, a family owned business for several years. They had several locations throughout the Southwest United States. They sold the franchise and are currently in the commercial development business and fitness center business. Their fitness centers Fitness One have several locations throughout the Southwest.

Shannon and his wife of 21 years Paige live in Bloomfield, Colorado with their two sons Zach who is a freshman at The University of San Diego and Austin who is an 8th grader. Paige is a former cheerleader at Hardin-Simmons University. You may contact Shannon via email at shannonwood10@comcast.net.