Dowling College junior pitcher Buddy Cipoletti will be blogging about the team's experience at the NCAA Division II College World Series in Cary, NC. Check out the Dowling Web site for more on the Golden Lion's quest for a National Championship.

Sunday, May 24:

Lined up for the National Anthem

What would become of the future day unbeknownst to us all would be a day of precedence over projected superiority. The baseball program at Dowling over the years has consistently produced winning records and winning people. But what would happen in the course of a particular Sunday would change the face of Northeast baseball for years to come.

The team stepped on to the bus in uniform, remembering their pins for entry and sporting the Adidas logo like new shoes. As we arrived to an unprepared complex, I spotted a man running from the field to the gate to let us in. He worked up quite a sweat and I appreciated the hustle. Good people over here at the USA Baseball Complex.

We started off with our usual BP, (Batting Practice) for you non-slang folk, and the ping of our aluminum echoed off the dew tipped grass, freshly mowed. Sure, player's new cleats will in fact get dirty. They continuously do battle at the frontlines and impact with trenches throughout. But one thing I never minded sticking to my cleats was the shavings off a freshly cut baseball field. The centimeters of grass blades that stick to the toes of my cleat. I am no golfer, but I can appreciate looking down a morning fairway, with green so rare no photography can illustrate.

This morning was truly an awakening of the senses, as it was surely the first and best day of all our baseball careers to date. Each player selectively will remember the smell of the foggy air, the sun on the back of their necks, the taste of their own sweat and the feel of glove leather on the palm of their hands.

Soon after batting practice, we were led to the main stadium field. We entered in through the right field corner and faced directly to the grandstands that flanked home plate. We felt right at home. San Diego's squad had already taken their third base side dugout and we proceeded to take the first base side.

Rain complicated our pre-game rituals a bit, but it all worked out just fine. We sat in the dugout and looked out over a pristine field, a major league field. The tarp was soon lifted and seemed to unveil our stage, like the curtains being lifted off the beginnings of a masterpiece.

Buddy (third from right) and the rest of the team during game one

As the game started and our names were announced, a handful of dedicated Golden Lions fans cheered us on. We were away, so we were the first up to bat.

None of us knew what to expect, and I think it sometimes is a good thing. Again, I encourage all readers to visit the main baseball page for play-by-play statistics and accurate game articles, but what I can say is we started off hitting balls hard of their ace and we never looked back for 9 innings. Gaby cruised in perfect rhythm, keeping Triton hitters off balance for most of the game, give or take a few hard hit balls, but no damage was done. He pitched masterfully and deserving of his accolades. It was a rush of serotonin through all the guys systems, I mean you could absolutely feel it. It was one of those things, in the late innings we were up 3-1 over the number 1 team in the country, where you look at the guy next to you, and you both can't stop smiling.

Any animosity with each other, even though there is none, was gone. Guys linked arms and were together in this. Our fans cheered behind us and to the 27th out, a line drive to Frankie in center, we took game one by an easy 3-1 score, outhitting the Tritons outright. We went head to head with our aces and came out the victor.

We handled the win with class, no yelling and such. At this point we knew what we were about, and we knew we had a big job ahead of us still. It's been a week to the day since we've played in a game, and we didn't skip a beat.

We later went to the illustrious Outback Steakhouse, where we ran into some difficulties with pink lemonade and some slightly undercooked meat, but who cares. My meal was cooked to perfection. A beautiful prime rib was put in front of me and I devoured it like a prehistoric beast come back from extinction. I'm not sure if it was the sweet hunger that today's victory left me with, or just a voracious appetite that I have accumulated with my ticking age.

We look forward to playing Lynn University on Tuesday. They played well against West Chester after our game.

Stay tuned sports fans. More melodic words coming your way.

Saturday, May 23

Arise young stallions. Arise at dawn to a newborn sun. After a long previous night of hilarious interviews with teammates and coaches, Frank Intagliata, your Golden Lion number sever, woke up this morning to a clock that read 7:30 AM. He was kind enough to wake Justin and me up and we all rushed to look our bests for breakfast.

Practice was scheduled for 9 AM for us this morning, and we had our usual team breakfast early. Naturally, Edwards had already been up for hours running or bench pressing, who knows but he was sitting happily in the comforts of the lounge area looking outside thinking of philosophy or something. Good man.

Skip the boring breakfast explanation and on to practice. A lot of us still in the process of waking up, oh! I have to say, another shout to our exemplary training staff, as I have finally been utilizing the benefits of, "ice, stim and ultrasound," and I'll never look back (Thanks Trish!). Sorry for the hiatus, but it was quite necessary.

We seemed to begin to wake up after the bright flashes of people's cameras forced us to, and we took the field to being our hitting routine. A short time after, several of us broke off the Lion pride to teach some younglings how to play the game the Dowling way. Myself, Frank Intagliata, Erik Cabrera, Taylor Bargiacchi, and our newest addition, or multiplication rather, with the knowledge of not on but several men, Coach George Loft.

These little rascals were patient and attentive, and sure hustled like they were being chased around by rabid poodles. I think it's a great thing the coaches from Mount Olive College, last year's National Champions, do for these kids. It was pretty much a day camp that involved full instruction for every aspect of the game from pitching to hitting and everything in between.

The coach from Mount Olive College lectured the kids with an important message, "It doesn't take talent to hustle." I think this is a great message that should be instilled in young ball players. I felt honored to participate in teaching the kids and all the guys that participated really stepped up and took active roles in helping these kids sculpt their games into fine Roman art. Well, finger paintings for now.

The clinic was a success and Dowling College would like to thank the Mount Olive program for choosing us to help out with their camp.

After practice and clinic, we headed back to the hotel to change and rest up. Pizza was ordered for all the guys and the decision was made to spend the night back at the complex to watch the bout between Grand Valley and Emporia State.

Leaving the game we went to a nice Italian restaurant and proceeded to dine in fine style. Beneath a garden terrace and in candlelight, we only hope to romance our bats with the pitched baseballs off San Diego fingers tomorrow. We had many laughs and became drunk with good spirit. A nice remedy to polish off a solid day.

We look forward to digging our spikes into the Kentucky blue grass that stand like soldiers on the Carolina dirt, and we look forward to a big victory that will go down in the books. Here comes the pain tournament...Take 2.

Friday May, 22:

Under the sheets that comforted the Dowling players with unrivaled efficiency, the Golden Lions enjoyed a beautiful night sleep in their first nights at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Today was packed with fun tidbits of happenings. From practice to being compared to biscuits, a memorable Friday would be had in this absolutely mundane month of May.

We awoke to a beautiful spread of breakfast choices from scrambled eggs to fresh fruit. Taking advantage of this surplus of food, we left the Hilton with 30 plates to wash and rooms to clean.

Pulling up to the field we all gawked at the complex. A large wood paneled gate welcomed us into the exquisite surroundings. To our immediate right was the USA Baseball store, and straight ahead the stadium field we would call home for the coming days. Looking down at the field we waited patiently for our chance to step on to its grass.

As we walked on to the field via the right corner, the grandstands that cast their shadow opposed us. I think this was about the time most of us finally realized, we made it. Everything we had done through the season led up to this practice. The practice on major league grass, at the World Series, amongst eight elite teams, calling the Dowling Golden Lions one of them. I was immersed in a vat of confidence. I had flashbacks of my previous career, and quickly realized this was my most fond.

As far as the practice went people, this might have been the hardest we went all year. I am talking harder than Friday, "Hell in the Cell," to punishment runs that never happened...and the proof is in the pudding. I never believed it was scientifically possible to supersaturate a cotton t-shirt, but I guess science has its ways of astonishing us all. I don't think the field crew had to turn the sprinklers on after the obviously not acclimated New York squad held its practice.

Through many cups of water and the thrill of being in North Carolina, we made it through the sun stricken day sporting the foundation of fresh new tans and slightly dehydrated muscles.

Chronologically correct, we steamed our new white Adidas shirts during out showers to reduce wrinkling thanks to a tip from our fearless athletic director Rick Cole and prepared for the nights festivities. Tonight was a banquet the NCAA put on to congratulate the players on making it to the World Series.

The banquet, in my opinion, was held in a gorgeous location; an amphitheater situated within the woods. All the teams followed a path through a botanical like garden and eventually into a large wooden structure where the 8 teams participating had reserved tables. It was awkward I will admit at first, sitting next to teams you would eventually play, but I can't imagine how it must have been for them, us being obviously the best dressed at the occasion.

The festivity launched and speakers included Jack McKeon, the World Series winning manager from the 2003 Florida Marlins that defeated the New York Yankees in six games. This was a man of ultimate charisma. He slated in jokes within an overall inspiring content of stories of players past, and spoke elegantly over many.

The food was pretty good, an Italian spread flanked by brownies and pink lemonade. But the real highlight of tonight was the World Series Trivia in which all the teams had to elect two representatives to take part in. The Golden Lions chose the dashing young Justin Brooks, and the striking Drew Varela. Through intense rounds and staggering questions that would bring giants to beg, the Golden Lions took the series by firestorm and came out on top. Guessing or not, me thinks I saw the sword of Zeus stab our elects with knowledge they never knew they had.

We just win it all don't we?

Thursday, May 21:

Now, we must be just annoying the osprey's that nest above the Curtin Center as we gathered and prepared to board the bus for the long drive to Cary, North Carolina.

We sat around and observed other coaches and administration gather with us to wish us luck as we departed to greener grass. All of us surely after winning on Sunday, have been drooling over pictures of the USA Baseball Training Complex that the tournament is being held at.

With the excitement of getting on to the field, we departed with newly made memories of achievement in Rindge, New Hampshire. We lost the first game and took the rest of the regional tournament by storm that put us in the spotlight for Cary.

The previous couple of days we held practice back on our old stomping grounds and enjoyed pizza, barbeque, and lectures on how to handle ourselves while being interviewed, and what we can and cannot wear while in Cary. We have to look schnazzy for all the sports fans out there and handle ourselves like gentlemen at a southern wedding.

Since Sunday, our feet haven't touched the ground. We noticeably float around from point A to B with radiant smiles on our faces. What should be a time of panic from grades being released, was replaced with a high feeling of nirvana. Winning the last four games in a row, it was like we were halfway through Buddha's Eight Fold Path, and the smooth wood of the Regional Trophy physically enlightened us.

We boarded the bus and said our respective farewells, wishing the rowing team luck on our way out.

Saddled up and ready to roll, the drop down flat screens flickered, and then lit up with the beginning of the journey's cinematic adventures. Right about then was about the time I enjoyed a similar adventure that starred at the back of my eyelids and the entire dreaming prowess I possess. The trip, for me, was a blurry sideshow of momentary wakeups that included looking around myself 360 degrees to check if everything is ok, sound bytes of muffled audio emitted from the bus' speakers, camera flashes, awful smells coming from the bathroom, English's small bladder making its way through the twisted extremities that occupied the aisles, and bursts of laughter from some of the movies.

In due time, we arrived at a fortunate Ruby Tuesday and took our seats of four guys per table with ease and smooth transition. Some of the guys were sleepwalking I think. Personally, my table and I dominated the salad bar and went with a smart choice of mini combinations that we hoped wouldn't give us stomach problems the rest of the journey.

All the administrators and coaches sat at one table in the corner, sharing laughs and talking politics while one man was left out. Like the adult forced to sit at the children's table on Thanksgiving due to space problems, Coach McGorty turned an unfortunate incident into an opportunity to dine with the players. Soon after, the checks came and we headed back on that slow roller.

Awake and fed, a lot of us made the rest of the trip without sleeping. I watched the sun go down over the moving treetops. The sky lit up in many shades of color and the aeshetic value of the trip started creeping into my bones. Sitting on a bus with my best friends, going to play on some beautiful field, being treated like kings and snapping pictures. Life doesn't get much better than this.

Couple of hours later, we pulled up to our new home, the Hilton Garden Inn. Greeted by signs and balloons commemorating our achievement of making it to the College World Series, they had firm handshakes.

We went to our rooms, lugging our heavy bags with us and began to settle in for the night. Somewhere along the bus ride, I remember Brooks tapping my shoulder to show me something he had found. He opened his hand and inside his palm was the green glow of a smooth, emerald looking rock. I have no idea where the rascal got a hold of this on a bus, but I took it as a sign from the ancient Greek Gods. Zeus must have placed it with us as a sign of respect for us Golden Lions. Uncle Frankie Intagliata and Drew Varela's camcorders red circles on their record buttons will surely fade to pink, as memories will be made, experiences shared, and miracle victories are once again had...and blogged.

Look for the next story about our first day walking into our new home field, our practice, and shannanigans in North Carolina. Until then, safe trips to all that plan on attending, and gather resources homebodies. It's about to be a long week for our opponents.

Buddy's Blog from the NCAA East Regional at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH

Sunday, May 17:

Buddy and Ryan after their trek through the woods to catch frogs

We've made it to the fateful Sunday. After last night's insane come from behind win, we stroll into today full of confidence and swagger. Swagger that started with the Holiday Inn Express making a Golden Lion breakfast especially for us. The layout included hometown greats such as scrambled eggs and biscuits, as well as childhood favorites like sausage patties and toast. Great scholars of times past all agreed that, "A man's breakfast can dictate his day," which is completely fabricated statement but I could see it being true. The gist of it is, we dined like kings this morning.

I sat there and observed every player with a smile on their face. Sure we had an enormous undertaking ahead of us today, but everyone was in the moment it seemed, absorbing everything around the,. We've truly come together.

The great thing about our team that differs from many others is that there is no real caste system. Meaning, us upper classmen do not treat under classmen as subordinates. Yet, the under classmen naturally respect the word of us, and we respect them back equally. This has created a harmonious effect. We have a well-oiled machine that manages itself at this point. The players know their roles and we have unspoken captains, and leaders of the team that guide effectively. Mind you, this was all observed over orange juice and eggs, but can be seen at all our practices and games through the ease of operations.

Through awkward duck walls and grimacing faces, the players lugged their belongings in one shot, no matter how many bags it was. It is truly amazing what the human will do for shortcuts. It's hard to imagine a guy somehow drapping six bags, each weighing 40 pounds each over his body. Shoulders become shelves, and elbows some sort of rack mechanism. They go through this struggle to make it in one trip.

We boarded our coach bus and headed towards Pappas Field. The sky was gray with fast moving clouds that looked as though they were rushing to get somewhere, hopefully nowhere near the field. It was pretty silent I have to say, everyone had their respective headphones on for the first time. There was a constant back ground noise of Spanish jams, rap, Dave's beloved R&B, some country and some rock I guess. All together it sounded like an urban setting overrun by cats and they were fighting a turf war over a last stand of kitty litter.

Some of us in the back of the bus, including me, had been working on creating lyrics to our very own country song throughout the trip and the entire way there we sang our little hearts out to lines like, "It was the summer of '93, and that's when she left me." And another, "I turned to the bottle and then the bottle turned on me." Other greats like, "Floatin on that muddy water, and kissing farmer's daughters." Other lines we sang might be too explicit for blog content, but watch the music charts for Dowling music productions!

As we got to the field, the position players headed to the cage to hit and most of the pitchers stayed on the bus to relax. Ryan Gemma and I decided to take a hike into the New Hampshire woodland, up a steep hill and into the forest. On this hike I managed to catch several frogs and even left with a walking stick or two. It's good to get on top of a hill and breathe in fresh mountain air before a game. But I almost sacrificed my blood for it as on the way I picked ticks off of me. Terrifying.

A bit later on I got a chance to sit next to a stream with some of the guys. We all sat there and just hung out, at one point Trainor jokingly asked, "So what you guys thinking about?" I remember Pembroke answering, "I was actually just visualizing an at bat." We sat and skipped rocks into the water and relaxed before the biggest games of our college career. It's important to stay loose.

Here we were with another shot at beating Adelphi, who its no secret has had our number lately. It just felt a little different today, as none of us were pressing to perform. We were all just relaxed. We finally knew and believed what we were about.

The team lined up for the National Anthem

Game one. Both teams were announced and we stood on the line as the national anthem was played. I looked back into the stands and some of the parents and fans of our players. All of them were smiling and all of them might as well had been standing with their hats off on the line with us. I'd like to take this opportunity to reach out and say we all appreciate everything you do for us. It is truly above and beyond. We had athletic administrators on the sideline with us today, people that woke up early and made the drive to support us. You know who you are, and we all thank you. You make us happy to play for a college that continues to cater to its athletes and take personal attention and care to us.

We were home for the first game, with new traditions before we take the field. Coach McGorty took us out with a signature, "You're in business speech," that continues to impress the originator. Stay hot.

We jogged out to the field loose and relaxed. I don't know if it was a general attitude or al lthe muscle relaxers guys were on for their injuries. Either way, we were confident and it showed.

Through the course of the game, defensively guys were making plays left and right. Ground balls were all fielded cleanly and thrown to first base with style. Three double plays were turned in key spots as our middle infielders put on an exhibit of toughness, hanging on the bag until Adelphi spikes forced them off.

Our outfielders chased down fly balls like burglars of their mother's jewelry and our corner guys dove and picked baseballs up like they do it in their sleep, which is weird imagery I realize, but that's how it was.

Our bats were swift and aquainted themselves with the NCAA baseballs the entire game, some getting broken hearts from short meetings. We would go up 4-0 early on and never look back once.

After winning the first game with professional class, we took a short break to indulge in food and drink, and conversed with all who had made the trip northward.

We smelled blood. Not literally of course, but we smelled that meatloaf cookin downstairs. We smelled those good ole' ballpark hot dogs in concesion, which we literally did.

Slicing through the thick shrubs of the weekend jungle, our machetes have been sharpened and we began to see the light of an opening. With a 5-hour energy shot or two, we prepared for one last stretch of thick, thorn ridden bush.

Again, I'd like to extend an invite for all readers to visit the main baseball page for precise in game statistics, as this is merely an aesthetic entity of stats that uses words, not numbers.

Game 2. We put our "puppy," Marc Rutledge on the mound for the start. He started against them the weekend before and got hit up a bit, so he was certainly looking to right his last outing.

Adelphi started their ace Keith Couch against us on a days rest and Marc would fo right hook for right uppercut with him for 7 innings, putting up goose-eggs and shoving it. Kid did a great job keeping the ball at the knees and certainly added to crushing the morale of opposing batters more even after game one of shutout ball.

We scrapped one run to the dish. With a 1-0 ball game and Adelphi with runners on second and third, we brought in Gabriel Duran in to hold the lead. All these guys had something to prove to Adelphi after being hit by them, and prove he did. Duran would cruise through Adelphi, carving them up like a chef at a president's wedding, serving up delicious fastballs and sliders that deceived all of their hitters.

I sat in the dugout with my friends, my teammates, and brothers. We stood underneath the radiant glow of heat lamps that were turned on. We watched as Duran induced a soft groundball back to him, fielded it cleanly, and threw to first base where Pembroke made the catch. Now, whatever I said about the last games dog pile read that again, but multiply the decibels of screams by a thousand, divide by five, subtract 15, add 7, then multiply by a trillon.

World Series bound

I cannot even imagine describing the words to express the euphoric feeling that took over my entire mind, and all of our minds. I have to say, as we stood in the center of the infield and celebrated, Dom Scala, the head coach of the defeated Panthers, came to us and shook all our hands and personally congratulated us and wished us luck. What a class act. We all extend our gratitude to the Panthers and look forward to our bouts next year. But this year, we have more work to do.

We grasped each other and with dirty uniforms, awful body odor and bloody elbows, stood amongst the flashes of cameras and cheering fans, and cradled our beautiful regional championship trophy like the last baby on Earth.

I also have to add that watching the scientific approach that our coaches took toward these games was astounding. Coach McGorty and Coach Farrell both stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and hit grand slams for us. It was hard for our head coach to go down before the tournament, but he was in our minds the whole time, and we're glad we could impress him with the regional tournament victory and bring the program fame under our coaches names.

The College World Series here we come, Holy %^&*! Pardon my French.

Stay updated while we stay in North Carolina through a continuation of this blog that you will find easily located on the main page of www.dowlingathletics.com. We look forward to bringing you all back home a national champs trophy.

Extended thanks for everybody that helped us get this far. Trainers, staff, our great bus driver, franchise restaurants that kept us fed and gave me stomach aches, Rick Cole for staying up late and waiting for us at Curtin to congratulate us, everyone. Everyone and everything. Thanks turf, thanks trees, thank you weather. Hell, thank you Holiday Inn towels for drying us off after showers.

Saturday, May 16:

The team taking batting practice before the game

Miracle. I'm not going to bother talking about today's morning or the attitude amongst the players. Tonight was one hell of a night. A night we'll remember for a long time.

For all of you that got to experience the game over the radio, thanks for listening. I only hope I can paint a slight picture of what the place looked like after tonight's memorable post-season victory.

Diving right into things, we got lunch at Applebee's around 1 PM. Coach let us get whatever we wanted on the menu with the exception of no appetizers. Orders drastically changed as guys were getting humongous racks of ribs and sizzling plates came flying from the kitchen.

We headed to the field and watched Assumption take on Wilmington in an elimination match. The game would be close until late in the game, when Wilmington ran up the score with a seemingly unstoppable late inning rally.

After the teams cleared, we took the home side dugout and began stretching out. They had a mirror in the bullpen, all us backwards guys reflected back a little less.

The game began with senior Kevin McCormack on the bump. He had a bumpy first inning but after which cruised to late in the game and kept us within striking distance.

On the offensive side, we had been hitting balls hard the entire game just right at their guys. Luck seemed not on our side as we were smoking pitches and they would hit leather.

In the 8th inning, we would finally get a run across the plate making the score 3-1. Heading into the 9th, Andrew Varela pitched masterfully and kept us right there. This was a key point Coach McGorty would later bring up, "Damage Control." How important it is for guys to avoid the big inning meaning keep the score down, 1 run innings, 2 run innings. Cabrera had a ball hit over his head one inning. He relayed it right to Squeri and he threw the guy out at home. This is all damage control, holding the dog's head down when he is growling at you.

In an explosive 9th inning, freshman Taylor Bargiacchi would get the call to hit after being cold all game. He has been producing in the clutch for us the entire season, this being the most important spot of his career no doubt. Taylor would put a ball in the left center gap and start us off with a single. Every inning we have put our leadoff guy on the bases, now it was a matter of us executing. Matt Monastero was up next. He hit a groundball right up the middle and Taylor somehow beat out the throw to second base, avoiding the double play and Matt would hustle to first even with his bad ankle as the ump called, "Safe!"

Now we had something going, and we all knew it. First and second, no outs. Joe Trainor laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt down the first base side moving the runners over to second and third.

With 1 out, runners on second and third, Frank Intagliata who has been a force for us all tournament, hit a soft chopping ground ball over a jumping pitchers glove bringing in a run and beating out the throw to first.

The score was no 3-2 and Eddie Squeri was up to bat next. We had runners on first and third, with Joel Duverge on third base that came in to pinch run for Matty.

Now there are moments in college sports that everyone remembers. Final three pointers to win the game at the buzzer, walk-off homeruns, maybe even Smarty Jones being defeated against all odds.

Squeri roped a ball into the right center gap and put the damn thing to the fence. The kid had just cleared the bases for us and brought in Frankie from first base to score. We had just won the game in an inning. As Frank crossed the plate, the entire dugout emptied and turned into a western ghost town. Screaming and yelling, jumping and muscles contracted, we piled up on Dominican's side and quite honestly, was the most euphoric moment of mine, and everyone's baseball career. One pile was not enough; we would pile up again to get Squeri his love just in front of home plate.

I left that last inning with excitement I've never felt, of course, but also a ripped up left foot from being cleated, and I wouldn't have it any other way. What a night.

In the cool flowing mist of Pappas Field, Golden Lion clenched fists would be raised up together, and a momentum was built that rivals the seven great wonders of the world. So after tonight, better make it eight.

I encourage readers to visit the game story page for further game reference, as you could imaning I am emotional lately and may not be writing to effectively, rather on a bit of a whim or shooting from the hip.

But, a little bit of fact. With two wins today the Golden Lions would not only take the season series against their obvious rivals, the Adelphi Panthers, but they will go somewhere no other Dowling College baseball team has ever been before, the College World Series.

After tonight's game, I had the pleasure of interviewing our coaching staff along with several Dowling players. The content of this interview will be posted next as a bonus. Isn't that just special.

Stay tuned sports fans. Nestle yourselves into your favorite chairs. Gather round the radio like when you were kids, and listen in as your Golden Lions machete through the thick shrubs and pioneer a path straight to North Carolina. Yee-Haw people!

Friday, May 15:

Ryan Gemma's (right) pre-game ritual dance

Adrenaline, a ball player's closest friend. May 15th was a day full of it, and something the Golden Lions had been missing for some time. With many of our players battling injuries like pulled hamstrings and tight lower backs, sprained ankles and bum arms, adrenaline was the refreshing hormone that was felt surging through their veins, and confusing their brains into submission from the pain.

The day started off early. We boarded the bus at 7:15 AM and headed towards Pappas Field for the long day ahead. It was early, sure, but there wasn't a guy with a tired look on his face. It might as well have been 8 at night on a Friday.

We drove past the field on the high rising road, looking down on a field being prepared. Lined, raked, and being swept into perfection. We went into the dugouts smelling the dense woods around the field and swimming in the morning humidity. Cleats were being laced up, bags were slid into the dugout.

Across the field, the black and yellow uniforms of the Adelphi Panthers represented our chance at our first tournament win.

Close to game time, we had an unfortunate mishap with our Head Coach Celano where he was not feeling well and had to leave the team to rehabilitate. Coach McGorty and Coach Farrell stepped up to lead us. I remember a speech McGorty gave us before the game started. He said, "I see your mustache, and I raise you a mohawk." I later found out this was a Celano original and executed by McGorty. Either was, it was great. With our ace Gabriel Duran on the mound, and plenty of excitement, we were all anxious to beat the Panthers.

The game would turn ou to be a heartbreaker that none of us saw coming. The Panthers would extend a 7-0 lead before the 3rd inning. Our spirits seemed crushed in the dugout, it was sad. If there was a positive, we held them at 7-1 until late in the game, where they would scrap one more run off a sacrifice fly, and only had 2 hits over the next 7 innings. At least we put a bad taste in their mouth.

There was no time for sulking amongst us. Some of us headed back to the bus to sit in the A/C, others stuck around the field to catch the next game where Dominican and Pierce would contend. As far as that game went, it was tied 4-4 in the 9th when Dominican would drive a run across the plate to take down and eliminate the favored Franklin Pierce team, 2 and out. After Dominican losing their first match against Wilmington, to see them come out and take down Pierce gave us all a vague idea of what we had to come out and do next, beat Wilmington.

We sat on the bleachers in right field and kept things real loose. We joked around with each other and realized what we had been seemingly missing in our post-season pressure situations...having fun.

All season we had been a team that was machined by laughs and an upbeat dugout. The biggest part of our success could be credited towards our immense team chemistry. We were all best friends, and I personally wouldn't have it any other way. It can make a win that much better, and a loss easier to deal with.

We walked into the dugout for game 2, elimination staring us down like a cage up, mistreated rottweiler. We would starte it back down until it wept, and we came out and played like we have all year.

Sitting in the dugout, I was not available to throw this game because I had just thrown 6 innings against Adelphi, so I got a chance to watch a team cocoon, go into metamorphosis and come out a new animal that we were familiar with. The bats started to light up 1 to 9. We were hitting with authority and putting balls into the gaps. Regardless of the score that produced a noticeably different offensice team stepped back onto the field for game two.

Buddy pitching in game one against Adelphi

I'd have to use an analogy to support this. I'd say we were a blue-collar type team. We work hard all year and love out 2-hour practices through the entire season. We like to wear jeans as much as we can, and don't care for dressing up much. I watched all of us put on tuxedos for the conference tournament championship, and none of us liked the way it felt, or fit. We put on our tuxedos again for game one against Adelphi, but the thing is, we have never been the team to dress up and look, "prettier". We just come out and mash, we pitch, and we make plays. We got our jeans dirty, and we prefer it that way. For game two, we threw the jeans back on, and we played like we had a renewed sense of being.

In the 9th inning, Albero would come out after tossing a hell of a game. It's good to see such a young kid full of unlimited potential. Andrew English would come in faced with a first and second situation, with 1 out.

Off Albero, Wilmington would single to the right side past the gloves of diving Trainor and Pembroke and bring in 2 guys making the game 3-3. With an eventual bases loaded situation and tie game, English would induce a groundball to Squeri who tossed it perfectly to Trainor who turned a 6-4-3 doube play that kept the game tied. The entire bench erupted with screams. A synchronized release of adrenaline pumped through the entire roster's veins, maybe some of the parents as well. Who knows, maybe some random guy walking by caught a little hormone too. Anyway, it was just what we needed. We needed to be reminded our blood wasn't red, but blue and gold.

Now, Casey Rafferty, our "Eye-in-the-Sky," would relay a game changing message to Coach Farrell. Apparently, a pinch runner Wilmington brought in just before they drove runs across the plate to tie the game was not listed on their official post-season roster. After a long delay, the game would be reset to the 9th inning, man on first, 2 outs, Dowling winning 3-2. We sent out closer Joe Trainor to the mound as he faced down Wilimington's number 9 hitter, a lefty who had been making solid contact all day.

There is no need to butter anything up. Trainor threw three fastballs by this kid and struck him out looking to end the game. It even deserves its own paragraph.

Adrenaline through our veins again, 2% red blood cells, 98% animal. I don't see us putting on our tuxes anymore, these jeans just fit too good.

Thursday, May 14:

Buddy (far right) and his roomates modeling the mohawks while waiting to leave for the game

In the midst of dreams, most of the team was awoken this morning around 9 AM by the sound of clashing gears and the spinning blades of lawnmowers. The Holiday Inn apparently schedules its once a week landscaping for crack of dawn Thursdays.

Most of us skipped the continental breakfast this morning to stay in and watch Charlie's Angels on TBS or stayed up too late watching compelling searches for river monsters on the History Channel. Either way, through an uneventful morning of lounging in bed and dealing with overly polite maids offering towels, the one thing on all our minds was the task ahead.

We tried our hardest to relax and counted down our timepieces until they read 1:00. We suited up and made our way to the coach bus, trickling on like a leaky faucet.

The atmosphere was still light like the day before, but now there was a definite foundation of seriousness and continuous moments of silence as we neared Pappas Field. Whoever was two to a row the day before was now three. Whoever sat solo in thier row now doubled up. We were all accompanied by our chance at revenge, and revenge sat silent with us.

The Golden Lions await their chance to play

Some of the guys even brough their bats on the bus, believing if they rode down below with the bags, they might smite their averages or not produce a hit for them, who knows. But it's an acceptable process all college ball players go through, superstitions.

Arriving at the field we watched Assumption and Franklin Pierce battle until the rain started coming down at a steady drizzle, and quickly headed back to our bus to sit and wait.

We crowded the back of the bus because it was the only view where we could still see the game that was being played. Through fogged windows and the beads of water, we watched as Assumption would take the lead 3-2 in the 7th, and the tarps would be pulled on in the top of the 8th. After that, we soon heard from coach that our game had been moved to the next day at 10 AM.

Heading back to our hotel, we were dissapointed we wouldn't get a chance to play today, but the spirit stayed high among the Mohawks, and we all looked forward to dinner.

The team sits through the rain delay on the bus

Tonight we went to Chili's, and through an uneventful day, most of the events went down at dinner. Some notable things; a game was invented where people sneeze on each other, who shall remain nameles due to parents sake. A real swing flu spreader, but whatever it got a laugh. I remember glancing to my left and observing my coaches sharing a sundae, digging into its delicious mountains of premium ice cream with spoons, and giggling like small children on monkey bars.

With full stomachs, a new game plan, and the whole crew in New Hampshire supporting us, we look forward to fighting the good fight. Good night, and may god bless.

Wednesday, May 13:

The Golden Lions practicing on Day One at the NCAA East Regional

Mohawk Memoirs: A Dance in New Hampshire

Through the eyes of the ospreys that nest above the Curtin Center - a team of Dowling student-athletes startled them this morning as they resembled not men, but ancient predators sporting Mohawk haircuts that surely once called native to an ancient Long Island.

Instead of mocking the Mohawk tribes that roamed this land, we only hope to honor them by summoning their spirits in the form of the, "Dowling Approach," ; driving the ball back up the middle and executing out pitches and defense.

At 10 AM sharp, we boarded the long house on wheels and took our respective positions within it. Of course the "A-Team," dominated the backseats, while the other strapping young men filled the rows with talent. The bus just stunk of it. Talent that is...Talent and an aura of confidence that would rival Redcoats and challenged crooked politicians.

The coach bus TV screens lit up with movies, among them were classic flicks like, "Knocked Up," and "Cable Guy." But a movie none of us saw coming was a real must-see. Starring Nicholas Cage and other soon to be greats, "Con-Air."

Within the tight grasp of Con-Air, about three-quarters of the way through it, we finally arrived at our temporary home, the Holiday Inn Express. As we were all looking forward to getting up and straightening our contorted bodies after 5 hours of awkward sleeping positions and a general musky stench that inhabited the ride with us thanks to egg sandwiches from Idle Hour Deli (Thanks Guys).

Joel Duverge bunting during batting practice

Coach relayed our room assignments and gave us a whole five minutes to drop our stuff off and get back on the bus to head to our hour long practice at Franklin Pierce. We didn't care a bit, we were filled to the gills with tenacity and anxious to get on that Raven turf.

Some of us returning, others first timers, here we were. Back in the Regional tournament with the first days climax around the corner. Our valiant head coach Celano counted us down while we stood at the gate like we were horses at the Belmont. 3, 2, 1...and we jogged on to the field.

It was a mad dash to get properly stretched for batting practice as we were on the official clock. 59 minutes left and counting before the next time we step on to the field. It was chaotic organization. Some guys were throwing, others were jogging, cleats and shoes were flying overhead like kamikazi birds. Bird lovers aside, the L-screen was in position and hitting groups were called out, like a fine symphony everything eventually came together and same of our best swings all year took place on the field. Tufano even went yard to left. I don't like to brag but...I also took some phenomenal fungo swings as well and fed my infielders quality groundballs like Wendy's on Montauk highway feeds our sluggers.

After batting practice we took a nice infield-outfield and adjusted ourselves to the high-bouncing, unforgiving nature of the field turf and finished on a high note with Coach McGorty's dazzling homeplate pop-ups...but we love him anyway.

Shortly after we hit up the Olive Garden, where we were family, but fed like homeless strangers. We await tomorrow's 6 PM game against Adelphi, and redemption. With Coach McGorty's speech when we returned from dinner fresh in our minds, we hit the pillows and focus in for the task that lay ahead.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

I had the privilege of being a guest speaker at the recent Division II Community Engagement Conference in Philadelphia in April. I rightly call it a "privilege" because I am not part of the inner-sanctum at the NCAA. I'm an outsider, and it was an honor for me to be invited to speak in front of so many great athletics directors who had gathered for one specific purpose: Create a better brand for Division II athletics.

Why does Division II need a "better brand"? I have a few opinions, mainly from the perspective of recruiting high school student-athletes:

Division II is not easily defined. No definition, no story. No story, and it's hard for anyone - especially a 17 or 18-year old kid - to buy in to what's special about the Division II experience.

Division II is the place "tweener" athletes have traditionally settled for. By "tweener" I mean athletes that weren't quite good enough athletically for a Division I scholarship, and not academically or financially ready to consider a Division III school. So, for years now, Division II has often been the place where those student-athletes went to continue their athletics careers.

Division II has misconceptions they consistently fight against. Misconceptions that I have heard in the past include the thinking that scholarship money is unavailable, sports are not taken seriously, Division II schools aren't good academic schools ... and the list goes on.

Comfortably camping out at one of the back tables before and after my involvement in the conference, I observed passionate athletics directors and industry experts talk about how the new Division II theme - "I Chose Division II" - was being used to better brand institutions around the country. There were lots of examples of how different ideas worked at institutions, ideas from other really sharp experts and outsiders, and there was a general feeling the mission the entire conference was trying to achieve; namely, a brand and a strategy that will help them better compete for fans, money and recruits.

Based on my experience, here's why I think they're on the right track:

They are building their brand around "positive action". The theme of "I Chose Division II" is action oriented. You either choose the Division II ideal, or you don't. And in the case of their branding theme, it's a positive action-oriented idea ... the concept of choosing to be at a Division II program, not settling for a Division II program.

The institutions are unified. Where else in the NCAA has a large segment of members aligned their interests in one forward motion with the intent to improve the whole group? I can't name one. At this conference, you had athletics directors sharing ideas and strategies with their competitors openly and enthusiastically.

They can tell a better story. It's natural to read the new branding theme of Division II and ask, "Why did you choose Division II?" That allows coaches and athletics departments to create wonderful story lines for their recruits and community about the positive benefits of the Division II experience for the student-athletes.

It also allows those departments to dispel the misconceptions that I outlined earlier that are prevalent in the minds of today's high school prospect and their generally uninformed parents. That's a crucial piece to the Division II puzzle that needs to be addressed within every Division II athletics department in the country, because many won't get the chance to sell their benefits if they don't first overcome their prospect's misconceptions.

The next challenge for Division II is to take the broad themes and branding initiatives developed over the past two years and customize them to tell effective stories at each individual institution. If they can do that, this powerful brand message will begin to resonate with those that are actively looking for the reason to "choose" Division II athletics.

Can Division II programs compete for Division I and Division III athletic prospects on a regular basis? Yes, if the right story is told. Can they persuade those athletes to choose Division II over D1 and D3 schools? Without a doubt...I've seen it happen.

The more organized, more unified, and more focused Division II institutions become the more the rest of college sports is going to have to compete with those institutions for athletics dollars and good recruits.

The sleeping Division II giant is waking up, and the rest of the college sports landscape is going to have to take notice.

This post was submitted by Hope College men's basketball coach Glenn Van Wieren.

Each year, prior to their playing season, the Hope College men's basketball team goes on a weekend retreat with Coach Glenn VanWieren to his northern Michigan cottage. Along with team building activities, the team also writes a mission statement which hangs on the wall in their locker room.

Part of this year's mission statement was for the team to serve in some volunteer capacity within the Holland community. It was the team's desire to work in an elementary school with a program that would enhance reading and promote positive individual values.

Subsequently, we met with Brian Davis, the superintendent of the Holland Public Schools system. Mr. Davis was very excited about the possibility and recommended that our players work with fourth and fifth graders at the Holland Heights Elementary School.

Rhonda Klomparens, principal at Holland Heights, was very excited about the partnership with Hope College men's basketball. She said, "Hope basketball players will be great role models for the Holland Heights students because the school is about 75 percent minority students, and 75 percent of them are on the free or reduced cost lunch program because they are at or below what is considered the poverty level."

Hope coach Glenn VanWieren was excited because his mother Wilma taught fourth grade at Holland Heights years ago. Also, Brian Davis expressed the school's need for role models such as the Hope men's basketball team.

In December 2008 the men's basketball team initiated the program by presenting a basketball clinic during an assembly with the fourth and fifth graders at Holland Heights. The elementary students were excited about watching and participating in the basketball activities. Principal Klomparens said, "There is definitely a need here because a lot of our fourth and fifth graders come from very disadvantaged homes, so a lot of the kids don't have the male role models they need."

Our players, for the first time, had a chance to meet the students they would be working with in the classrooms. The players introduced themselves, involved the students in drills, and then put on a basketball demonstration for the students to observe. It was amazing how attentive and excited the students were, knowing they would be working with these men in their classrooms.

There were four classrooms of fourth and fifth grade students taught by exceptional teachers (Shawnda Garcia, Ryan O'Connell, Todd McKay, and Dawn Davison). The 28 players compiling the men's varsity and junior varsity teams would be divided into four groups, each of which would be assigned a classroom to visit once per week.

Each Hope player would work with a small group of three or four students when they went to the classroom. Upon arrival the teachers would provide the players with reading material and a lesson plan with discussion questions relating to values enhancement. Each classroom also read articles about the men's team published in local newspapers and had autographed player and media pictures displayed.

Shawnda Garcia said of the Hope players, "I thank them so much for coming to our classroom. It is an honor to have them here and I know I am repeating myself, but I love these young men because they are such outstanding role models and the students have a great desire to learn and discuss when they are here. Thank you Hope College for sharing them with us."

For every week during the months of January, February, March, and part of April, 28 Hope College basketball players would visit Holland Heights Elementary School to work with kids. Hope senior Zach Osburn who is majoring in education said, "It is good for me as a future teacher and it is good for the kids because they get to see role models who are going to college and who have goals. We all had people we looked up to when we were growing up. We're trying to do the right things for ourselves but at the same time we want to do the right things for other people."

On Saturday, February 7, the Holland Heights Elementary School fourth and fifth graders were invited to attend a Hope College home basketball game in the DeVos Fieldhouse versus Kalamazoo College. One hundred and forty students along with Superintendent Brian Davis, Principal Rhonda Klomparens, teachers, chaperones, and parents attended the game and sat directly across from the home team. Prior to the game our players visited with students and had a group picture taken at mid-court.

At half-time the visitors were invited to a hospitality room filled with food and refreshments. During the game our guests were applauded by a capacity crowd and after the game there was more time for the students and our players to interact and complete a really wonderful experience.

At the conclusion of our program together at Holland Heights Elementary School we will have an assembly with students and the Hope men's basketball team. During that time we will visit, take comments from students and players about the experience, and present each student with a certificate of recognition for this year's program.

Many individuals from the Holland community have shared thoughts on what has been happening between Hope players and elementary students in our reading and values enhancement program.

One such person had this to say, "What a great thing for the Hope College players and assistants to do with the Holland Heights kids! The basketball players keep my faith in humanity alive. Well done." Our players know they have made a difference in the lives of these elementary students while gaining invaluable life experiences themselves.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

It's a heck of a lot of money, to be sure.

$35 million to coach Division I college basketball over the next several years. That's the deal that John Calipari signed with the University of Kentucky, leaving Memphis - Calipari's former school - wondering if they can find a man that can come close to duplicating Calipari's impressive 137-14 record in four years as their coach.

The contract, similar to several other big deals that other college coaches in basketball and football have signed in the last few years, has some people raising questions. Is it appropriate, especially in these uncertain financial times, for a college employee to earn an incredible sum of money just to coach at a place of higher learning?

Yes.

That's just my opinion of course, but it's as valid as any other contrary opinion that is currently circulating through the blogs and sports magazines. One writer on SI.com, the online home of Sports Illustrated, authored a piece entitled "Calipari Deal Sends Wrong Message in Tough Times".

The author, a national sports columnist for the Associated Press named Tim Dahlberg, makes several points in against such contracts: Other schools are forced to cut sports, many people in Kentucky are out of work and struggling financially, Kentucky is a state taxpayer supported school, which means that such a contract should not be justified.

I disagree.

Here are three reasons why...

Calipari earned it. In Division I college athletics, it's still a free market system: The big programs, with the big budgets, can hire the best talent and pay them the most money. Those positions are few and far between, and barely 1/10th of one percent of college coaches make the kind of money that Calipari is now earning.

Want to guess what Calipari had to do to get to the point in his profession when he would even have the chance to be considered for that kind of a contract? It would make most Americans' jaws drop: Family sacrifices that few would be willing to endure. Twenty hour workdays during the season. Public relations work during the off-season. All of which, mind you, is done without union protection or guarantees of future employment. For every Coach Calipari, there are fifty coaches who tried - and, for various reasons, failed - to demonstrate the same kind of leadership, organizational and coaching prowess that all of the high paid college coaches have demonstrated. And, lest you harbor any sympathy for the mistreatment that those fifty coaches endured, you should realize that the vast majority would sign-up to do it all over again (and whoever wants to give up their place in line, there are two hundred aspiring coaches ready to take their place in a heartbeat).

It's a fact of life: Larger schools have larger budgets. That kind of economic reality is being questioned not only in college athletics, but in our national political arenas as well. However, fans of college sports should not get lulled into the thinking that the larger school's budget advantage is "unfair". The SI.com writer, Dahlberg, laments the situation of Division II Kutztown University. On the same day that Calipari was signed to his big contract, Kutztown Athletic Director Greg Bamberger was forced to announce the elimination of two sports - men's soccer and the school's swimming team.

The elimination of sports because of tightening budgets is tragic. As someone who works closely with Athletic Directors and coaches around the country - many of whom are now close friends of mine - it is heartbreaking to see the cuts that some schools, like Kutztown, are forced to impose.

However, I would doubt that the Athletic Directors at those smaller schools would insist on a program at a competing athletic department contribute to a type of NCAA social engineering experiment to equal budgets across the nation so that each school could have the same number of sports, coaches and programs.

Most Athletic Directors I know accept the economic climate for what it is: A problem to be managed under their direction, using their training as administrators to gut-out a win for their department in the same way that Coach Calipari calls on every ounce of his years of coaching experience to pull out 137 wins in 151 tries these past four years. Good Athletic Directors are up to the challenge, as are savvy CEO's in the midst of leading their respective companies through some very rough times.

Calipari, and the success of Kentucky basketball, will bring in millions of dollars to the University. College athletics compensates student-athletes (granted, not to the degree that some would advocate) by awarding a free, or significantly discounted, college education at the Division I and II levels. It is, therefore, and easy argument to transfer to the coaches who are proven successes in their sports: They should be rewarded for the ancillary benefits that they bring to their respective institutions; primarily, fans who pay to see their teams compete and win, as and more student applicants who want to have a winning college team as a part of their college educational experience.

Take the University of Southern California, for instance. Many people forget what their football program was like prior to the arrival of head coach Pete Carroll; suffice it to say that Trojans' football was not a big draw to fill the cavernous Los Angeles Coliseum, much less to a prospective student looking for a winning tradition on a Saturday afternoon. However, what happened the year after they won their first national championship should be evidence of the value of a great coach who turns a college sports program around: Applications for the university skyrocketed, and the team is now selling-out the Coliseum every Saturday they take the field.

Incidentally, the money that basketball and football programs bring in to their respective college athletic departments help fund the rest of the sports in the program, a truth that is confirmed on both large and small campuses that I visit in the course of my work with athletic departments and coaching staffs. For a program like Kentucky's, what they will pay Calipari should pale in comparison to the increased revenue the athletic department will have at their disposal if those hopes of a national championship are realized, both in tuitions today as well as alumni giving in the decades to come.

I understand the culture we live in now, and I see why some would try to tie it to the economics of college athletics. Many make compelling cases for sensitivity to the economic suffering that many around the country are dealing with, and it is certainly the safe opinion to harbor in today's climate of pitchfork-wielding masses who would seem to relish a more equal approach to awarding salaries in college athletics and in America's boardrooms.

However, I think those of us who understand the lessons taught through college athletics - that there are winners, and losers...that life isn't always fair...that all you can do is try your hardest and let the scoreboard take care of itself - should applaud these rare celebrations of excellence like Calipari. It should bring hope to every college coach - including those at Kutztown University and every other under-funded athletic department struggling with their budgets today - that athletics in America still rewards the winners who have sacrificed more than most of us will ever know, and have demonstrated that they are the best in their field.

The American dream is alive and well in college coaching and college athletics. Let's keep it that way.

This post was written by Josh Plotnik, a swimming student-athlete from Carnegie Mellon University.

Now that the collegiate swim season is behind the NCAA, perhaps the biggest decision to come this off-season pertains to suit technology and its role in the sport. Simply put, should these suits be allowed or should they be banned? Those who are within the swimming world know the trinity of big name, high-tech swim suits exists: the Blue Seventy Nero, the Speedo LZR, and soon to be TYR Titan Tracer. TYR and Speedo are the veterans of this trio; both have been in the competition suit business for decades. Blue Seventy is the new comer to the party, and for lack of a better metaphor, fashionably late to the party so that everyone takes notice of their entrance.

To be fair, this argument is long overdue, as the boom in high-tech competition suit research has been occurring in front of our very eyes since the turn of the century. In 2000, Speedo hired a group of engineers to design a low drag material resembling the skin of a shark. This suit released later in the year in time for the Sydney Olympics, and was cleverly named the FastSkin. Engineers continued to work on the fluid dynamics of drag, specifically focusing on areas of high drag using 3D computer imaging. Speedo eventually released the FastSkinII (prior to the Athens Olympics), the FastSkin Pro, and now the FastSkin LZR (just before the Beijing Olympics). Speedo has always been known as the ultimate in competition swimwear with hundreds of world records to boast.

It was only a matter of time that other companies caught on to the science behind competitive swimming. For a long time, Speedo had essentially held a monopoly over the sport - the fastest suits were made by Speedo. Prices rose hundreds of dollars for the advantage of reducing the drag coefficient (a completely different argument in itself). Clearly, science-driven suit technology was a money-making business.

So why blame Blue Seventy? I would argue that if Blue Seventy did not release the Nero, the Speedo LZR would be an accepted form of competition suit. This whole debate would be laughable. Competition between companies to produce the best product is not only healthy, it is essential for the growth of sport. It has become obvious that both the Nero and the LZR have produced their overly-abundant share of NCAA cuts, national records and world records. The argument among swimming circles is solely about the Nero; very few agree that FINA and the NCAA should ban Speedo as well. If technology has been taken too far, companies cannot be selectively banned.

The next argument would be the boundaries of science in swimming. The inclusion of technology in the sport has been overwhelming in the past decade, but has been an ongoing process over the last century. Is it acceptable to just stop all progression in the sport, and leave everything where it is? Would the sport have to take a step back in its progress and return to paper suits? Once suits get banned, lines will get cloudier and it will be less clear to firmly create a new line. At the 2008 Olympics, 25 world records were set. In 2004, 14 world records were set. And in 2000, 15 world records were set. These numbers are staggering; but where is the line of acceptable technology in swimming?

As of now, there is no testing by the NCAA to prove that a suit is a performance enhancer. And it would be essentially impossible to compare suits and say one suit enhances performance more than another. I will concede the argument that FINA and the NCAA should set standards for competition suits. I agree there should be limitations to the material and benefits of a swimsuit. But it is simply too late to turn back the clock and tell the swimming world that their governing bodies were sleeping while allowing these products to market. Limits must be created around the current technologies, while still leaving room for progression to occur. Progression is never a negative, and it is essential for the survivability of any sport.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

In my line of work I hear lots of recruiting stories. It doesn't matter what sport or Division you coach, recruiting within the rules is essential.

Here are some recruiting tips:

Stick to the rules on contacting recruits. The truth is, our studies show that the frequency of contacts plays no major bearing on a prospect's final decision. Regular contact is important, but it's what you say in those contacts that counts the most. Weekly contact is just fine in the eyes of today's teenage prospect.

When you do talk to them, keep it short. This has nothing to do with NCAA rules. But it has everything to do with the effectiveness of your phone calls. Most recruits we talk to say that most coach calls can be (and should be) kept to ten minutes or less. The worst thing you can do is extend the call needlessly by asking the general "chit chat" questions. Stop doing it, unless it's a natural part of your conversation with them, or if they are the ones that bring it up.

Log every contact, every time. The array of contact management recruiting software available to coaches at every level makes it almost inexcusable to not track every communication with every recruit.

Assume that every step you take in the recruitment of athletes will be made public at some point. When you think it won't, it will. You can win the recruiting battles by staying in-bounds and playing by the rules. Mark my words, the first time you step outside the lines will be the time you get caught.

Coaches who follow the rules always come out ahead.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

In the middle of March Madness, I thought it would be a good time to remind college coaches around the country that there's another "final four" that they need to pay attention to if they want to sign the best prospects possible.

The final four I'm talking about? The big four factors in how most prospects make that final decision on whether your college is right for them, or if another program is a better fit.

And while none of these "final four" factors are rocket science, they are largely ignored by otherwise smart, successful coaches. If you can incorporate some sound strategy in making these work in your favor, you'll be winning most of the recruiting battles you face.

Here they are:

Prospects judge what coaches tell them over the phone. When prospects talks to a coach over the phone, our studies tell us that they are trying to judge two very important things: First, is the coach being honest with them? Second, are they sincerely interested or just logging in some time on the phone? Coaches that pass those first two tests will be viewed as serious contenders by a prospect. This is one of the big factors in less prestigious programs being able to out-recruit a bigger rival for a top prospect.

Prospects judge what a coach tells them in person. The same study that revealed the importance of what a coach tells a prospect over the phone also stated that an even more important factor in making their final decision revolves around their conversations with a coach face to face. They're making another judgment on whether or not the coach is sincerely interested in them or not. Here's a quick true story to prove the point: At a college that recently invited me to conduct one of our On-Campus Workshops, I had the chance to interview a group of their student-athletes. One of the female athletes told me that she decided against going to a more prestigious program because when she went for her visit, the head coach had forgotten that she was supposed to be there and only spent about ten minutes with her. That sealed the deal for her...she said no to them, and yes to the other school. Think they aren't paying close attention to what coaches tell them in person? Think again. It's one of the most important factors in their decision making process.

Prospects judge what they find wrong with you and your school when they visit campus. It's a really important principle to understand: When prospects visit your campus, they are there to figure out why they should cross you off their list. They're actively looking for reasons to eliminate you from contention. With that in mind, I would make the case to all college coaches that they need to carefully plan their prospect's campus visits. What they see and hear during their time on campus with you and your team is THE number one factor in deciding whether or not to attend your school. And speaking of being on campus with your team...

Prospects judge whether or not they are liked by your team. And they will use that feeling they get from the athletes on your team to make a judgment on whether they will fit in or not. Fitting in is extremely important to all of us, but especially so for today's generation. They will almost always pick the school whose team gives them the "feeling" that they are accepted and belong on the team. If your team gives them that feeling, you stand an excellent chance of getting that prospect.

So, while you watch anxiously to see who makes it to the NCAA Final Four, keep in mind these vitally important "final four" factors in your own program's recruiting. While a win in recruiting won't get the same kind of national television coverage, it will put you in a great position to build a consistent winner. Pay attention to these four factors as you are recruiting your next class, Coach.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

So I'm flipping around channels on the hotel TV late Thursday night and come across the last few minutes of the Syracuse-Connecticut Big East Tournament game.

The score is close, and since I love the final minutes of college basketball games I decide to stick around and see who pulls out the win.

Little did I realize that I'd have to wait until close to 1:30 in the morning to get my answer.

Six overtimes and nearly four hours after it started, No. 20 Syracuse pulled out an a 127-117 win over No. 4 Connecticut. It was one of the most amazing college basketball games I've ever seen, and well worth every bit of lost sleep.

Sometime around the fifth overtime, I hear the announcers say that another Syracuse player had just fouled out. Coming into the game to replace him was a young man named Justin Thomas. Thomas, they point out, is a walk-on. He's only played 21 minutes all season, and now is coming in to be one of the five Syracuse players on the court that will determine whether they win or lose one of the most epic battles in Big East college basketball history.

"Wow", I think to myself, "that sure goes to show you how important good walk-ons are for a program."

Little did I know everything Thomas had been through to get to this point.

He was a star basketball player in Los Angeles heading into his junior year and getting attention from all the big west coast programs.

Some analysts said he might be one of the best guards to come out of the area in decades. Then, playing a pick-up football game at lunch, he breaks is fibula and tears all of the ligaments in his ankle. He's out for his junior year. Then, ten games into his senior season, he breaks his hand going for a steal in a game. Two surgeries on his severely injured hand later, his high school career was over.

All of the recruiting letters stopped. He finds himself at Syracuse and tries to walk-on as as freshman. He doesn't make it...no guard spots are available, and Coach Jim Boeheim isn't willing to make an exception.

Thomas heads home and worked out all summer in the hopes of making the USC Trojans roster.

No luck.

Thomas heads back to Syracuse for his sophomore year intent on making the team this time, but knowing in his heart that if he didn't he probably would throw in the towel.

This time around, Syracuse says yes. Thomas is a walk-on at Syracuse.

Just when things were looking up, Thomas was injured again. He slipped on some ice on camus and is forced to sit out in the middle of the season. Luckily, He recovered in time for the tournament.

Walk-on athletes play a unique role in college recruiting and in college programs. Some stay in the shadows their entire college careers, and others are given opportunities that can only be defined as being in the right place at the right time. We as fans who follow college sports love to point out when a star player started his career at the bottom as a walk-on.

Back to the Syracuse-Connecticut game: Here's Thomas walking on to the court, and Coach Boeheim (understandably) doesn't have an overly confident look in his eyes as he sees his often-injured walk-on getting ready for one of the biggest pressure situations any college player could face.

Thomas, on the other hand, looked confident and fully aware of what he needed to do. He needed to get out there and show the world, and himself, that all of his incredibly hard work and dedication was worth it.

If you read the box score from the game, Justin Thomas' line isn't going to impress you all that much: Seven minutes of playing time, a rebound, and a blocked shot. No points, no shots taken.

But he played well, and did what he had to do as part of a team. Thomas was sent into battle with all of 21 minutes of college playing time under his belt. And he played like a seasoned pro.

In working with college programs around the country, it always surprises me how random walk-on players' opportunities tend to be. One coach described his walk-ons as "necessary evils", another admitted that her walk-ons were all coached by her assistants because she just didn't have the time to devote to them like she would with her scholarship players.

Those coaches are missing the big lessons that Thursday's game should teach every coach in the country. In the same way Justin Thomas should inspire student-athletes who are clawing their way into college sports through the walk-on process.

Thomas' important role down the stretch in Syracuse's amazing six-overtime Big East tournament win over Connecticut should remind college coaches just how important these players are in determining the success of their programs

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

In the last two or three months, I've been made aware of more than a few articles published in respected journals and coaching magazines that have really been negative towards small college coaches.

The articles ranged from editorial comments from professors and parents decrying the newfound competitive nature of Division III and small college athletics and its effect on their campus and their children, to "experts" who are wondering if Division III sports has what it takes to challenge the dominance of their Division I counterparts.

More than ever before, increased attention - and pressure - is on Division III college coaches: Pressure from fans, alumni, local media and even their athletics departments. It's no longer adequate to have the equivalent to a club sport on the D3 campus.

Coaches at small colleges are under increasing pressure to win. If they don't produce, they are finding that the results are the same for them as it is for their Division I compatriots: Unemployment.

In dealing with small college coaches and athletic departments on a regular basis, I've seen this metamorphosis occurring for several years now. The change at the small college level will have an impact on those athletics departments, and I believe it will also affect the Division I recruiting landscape.

Why?

Division III sports have a lot to offer and their coaches are getting better and better at recruiting.

What does the future hold for college recruiters? Things are only going to get better.

Here are three things every small college coach should know about the new recruiting landscape:

You can recruit Division I athletes to your Division III programs. I've seen it happen, and I've helped coaches develop the strategies to make it happen. What's the secret? Small college coaches need to first understand that many top-caliber athletes don't always want the pressure and lifestyle that come with a Division I opportunity.So, I recommend that small college coaches should always recruit a good number of Division I prospects. How can you get them to choose your school? You need to accentuate your differences and sell your prospects on the D3 college lifestyle: Serious sports with room to breathe and enjoy college life. It can be done, and is happening more and more. It takes some planning and training, but the pay-off is huge.

You need to win. Your athletic director expects you to compete and succeed at a high level. So do your fans, and so do your alumni. The days of being the little team on the other side of the campus that squeezed in a few practices in between classes is over. Most Division III campuses are investing in facilities and realizing that better sports performances equal increased alumni financial support. So, coach, the pressure is on. Now for the good news: You are better positioned than ever before to get better athletes on campus, and meet these new expectations. The first step is to develop a more aggressive plan for reaching your "next level" prospects and developing a compelling case for why they should want to compete for you at your Division III school. Like I said, there has never been a better time to do that.

It all comes down to your story. The biggest mistake I see small colleges make in this new era of recruiting opportunities is to try and act like their D1 competition. They will try to compare their facilities, their records, and on and on and on. My advice is to build a completely unique, unforgettable, attractive and compelling "story" about you, your program and your college. And, small college recruiters need to tell it with the same passion and belief that a D1 coach would. You'd better believe in what you are selling, and be ready to firmly assert the idea that their D3 school should be #1 on their prospect's list. A great story that gives prospects something to believe in is a great first step.

Division III sports are changing. The good news is that there has never been a better opportunity to do that as a small college recruiter.

We could spend time, as some have, writing high-brow articles on the philosophical implications of these changes that we're witnessing on the small college sports landscape. Instead, I'd like to focus on how those that make their living as a small college coach or athletic director adapt to these new realities. At the end of the day, competing successfully and winning the recruiting game is what matters to most of the coaches that I talk to.

This entry is written by Shanay Freeman, a basketball student-athlete at Fairleigh Dickinson. She is a member of the Division I National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

As I watched the North Carolina/Maryland women's basketball game recently, I was reminded of my coach and all women's coaches who fight cancer. Both teams wore some form of pink: UNC's jerseys and Maryland's shooting shirts.

My coach died just a few years ago from cancer,and more recently we have learned about the death of Kay Yow, the former women's basketball coach at North Carolina State. There are so many women and people who suffer from this disease that awareness is more important now than ever. The WBCA formulated an initiative called "Think Pink", now called "WBCA Pink Zone," to create awareness and raise funds for cancer research. As a former women's basketball player, I am proud to have participated in this initiative.

According to the WBCA, in 2008 "over 1,200 teams and over $930,000 was raised for breast cancer awareness and research." This is an issue that hits close to home for me but, more importantly, this is an issue affecting so many of our coaches. I urge student-athletes to ask your administration to participate in "WBCA Pink Zone," if you do not already do some form of cancer research and awareness fundraiser, The more awareness and research we can create, the better chance we have to finding a cure for this disease.

Kay Yow devoted a large part of her life to breast cancer awareness after being diagnosed in 1987. Kay Yow became an inspiration to all those around her even those who weren't blessed to know her personally. Her continuous effort to fight her disease inspired people to always try their best at everything and not give up. She was a mentor, and al living example of how to fight to the end.

Make sure you can be a part of a great cause. Think Pink!!!!

This entry is written by Michael Cross, the executive associate director of athletics at Princeton. This article originally appeared on his blog, The Ultimate Sports Insider.

As the news related to athletic budgets continues to pile up and difficult financial situations are faced by many across the country, some campuses have begun to question the place of athletics compared to other priorities that are considered "core" to the educational mission of a college or university.

Jessica Berry, a starting senior guard for Princeton Women's Basketball, is an English major from Little Rock, Arkansas. The message below (reprinted here with her permission) was in an e-newsletter sent to supporters of the Princeton team. Although its original purpose was to provide an inside perspective on the team, it responds to the question, "Why does athletics matter?" I hope you'll enjoy her writing, which demonstrates the educational value of athletics and likely provides a voice for many student athletes.

It's Sunday at about 4:15 AM, and I've had quite enough tossing and turning. I need a book, but nothing thesis-related--or school-related, for that matter. And it can't be too happy. I need a book because I can't sleep, because I keep replaying our overtime loss to Dartmouth, our nine-point loss to Harvard in my head, over and over. I see myself missing a free throw, missing a three-pointer, putting a little too much on a pass. It's painful--a maddening montage of missed opportunities, and I'm in need of escapist fiction. Sherlock Holmes, Elizabeth Bennet... something.

Choosing Sports Illustrated writer Gary Smith, I'm really not escaping. But when my journalism class interviewed Smith last December, the 4-time National Magazine Award-winner said something that stuck with me--something about the necessity of searching for the true nature of sport, for the reasons the players play their chosen games. In the midst of my montage, in the midst of my last season and my last semester as a collegiate athlete, this is an investigation I need to undertake.

"The Boys on the Bus," page 38 of Going Deep: 20 Classic Sports Stories. Smith takes his son to a Summerville-Stratford football game three days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Why should high school football resume so soon after such devastation? How could a game-clock tick as time stood still for millions of Americans, for millions around the world? ABC's Nightline replayed a montage of images more nightmarish than my missed shots could ever, ever deign to be, be they million, trillion-fold.

So why lose so much sleep over basketball? Why play on this team of 14 girls, of 14 athletes who love the game and play their hearts out? Who, even after a two-loss weekend, arrive early for 8 AM Monday lift, ready to spend over 20 hours this week at Jadwin gym?

The answer for both Gary Smith and for me is magical realism. As author Gabriel Garcia Marquez sees the novel form, sport can be seen as a safe space for the illogical within the logical, as an abnormal realm where the magic of a competitor's passion is not only sanctioned, but also given agency and meaning. The Summerville-Stratford game was a solemn affair, but the fans did cheer, the band did play. Summerville Sophomore Tyler Horat capped an 18-play march with a 1-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, but the play was called back; Stratford scored three times in the third to win the game and move up one spot in the 5AAA conference standings. And three days after a national tragedy, it somehow mattered, though the teams, the parents, and the referees knew it didn't really matter at all.

There are other things going on in the world besides Princeton Women's Basketball. House and Senate leaders today approved a $789 billion economic stimulus bill; last week, Palestinian militants fired mortar shells from southern Gaza and Israel carried out an air strike against members of the launching squad. Personally, I've been mourning the death of a friend, worrying over the surgery of a family member, and making plans for post-Princeton life.

But as we put on our orange and black jerseys, the magic of basketball can take the "real" and infect it with the arduous rhythm of a pre-game clap, with the roar of a bench-wide cheer. Each possession of a basketball game is a page being turned, a magical realism novel in the making. Eyes in the stands and on the sidelines move back and forth, following the ball like lines on paper. So with 2:54 left in the second half, when I dribble off my foot and the ball goes backcourt for a turnover, it matters, though I know it doesn't really matter. And with 1:34 left in the first, when I pass to Addie Mircir and she knocks down her third three pointer of the night, it's magical, yet it doesn't really matter at all. It matters because, to us, it matters; we don't expect to grace the February 16th cover of Sports Illustrated, but we do expect high fives from teammates. We expect to be helped up after taking a charge or diving after a loose ball.

I finish my chapter of Gary Smith, and, remembering the nature of my love for sport, I sleep. I sleep knowing I need my rest for Monday, for a new week of practice and preparation for Cornell and Columbia, for 21 more practices in my college career and at least 11 more games as a member of this magical team--who knows, maybe more? Anything can happen in a Garcia Marquez novel, and anything can happen in Ivy League conference basketball.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

Those wondering whether the country's current economic troubles would affect college athletics have their answer.

Readers of the Double- A Zone blog saw two examples of the state of the economy on college sports, with stories about Michigan State raising their football ticket prices and a contingency plan that could affect the way regionals for this year's Division II basketball championships are staged.

Want more proof? It's easy to find. Small schools like Benedictine College, as well as large schools like UNLV, are enduring across the board athletics department budget cuts. Miami University announced the football team will travel by bus to two of their away football games. Stories of shrinking budgets in college athletics departments are plentiful.

All these budget cuts are forcing coaches to get creative when it comes to recruiting. No more ballooning budgets; instead, get ready for the era of penny-pinching prospecting.

The athletics departments and coaches that we work with at Selling for Coaches are being advised to focus on a different set of strategies when it comes to recruiting more intelligently during these turbulent economic times.

Here are three strategies for coaches to use when recruiting prospects:

Lead with a conversation about tuition, scholarship amounts and other money related issues. For most of your prospects and their parents, the financial component of your offer will be front and center on their minds. For a Division III coach who is reading this, this is especially important for you. It's tough enough to sell your school at time when you have no athletic money to give, but don't compound the challenge by putting off the conversation until the end of the process. Talk about it immediately. Learn what concerns and challenges the cost of the school pose for the parents of your athlete. Ask them how they would imagine how they would make going to your school a reality. Again, no matter what level you coach, this is a conversation that needs to happen sooner - not later - in the recruiting conversation with a new recruit as we head into some challenging economic times.

Make your message about your prospect, not you. Here's a question: How many of your brochures, letters and other recruiting materials are speaking to your prospect's needs instead of listing all of the wonderful aspects of your university and program? It's time to create a new story for your recruits, and it needs to be totally and completely centered around them. For example, a coach's communication that is currently centered around new facilities needs to tie the benefits of those new facilities directly to the prospect. Make it personal, relevant to their goals, and something that sets you apart from your competitor down the street. Now more than ever, the message you send needs to be better than it has ever been.

Focus on the parents as much as you focus on your prospect. In times like these, parents are going to wield some heavy influence over the choices their sons and daughters make. Even when a full scholarship is being offered, parents are going to be a big influence in the final decision. The recent comprehensive study we did on how college athletes make their final school choice yielded some amazing insights when it comes to the parent's role in recruiting. The majority of prospects said their parent's opinion of an athletics program was either an important or very important factor in their final decision. Prospects today want and expect their parents to help them with their decision, and I think that will be even more important during these uncertain economic times. What should coaches do? Make sure that you have targeted recruiting messages developed specifically for parents of your recruits. In many cases, this strategy will prove to be the most beneficial changes coaches make in 2009.

Let the government debate the merits of $800-billion legislation. A college coach should be focusing on the numerous inexpensive things that you can put into practice quickly and easily. If you do, you'll start to see positive results immediately -- even in the midst of an economic crisis.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

Two of college football's premier coaches found out first-hand how easily today's prospect will back out of a supposedly "solid" verbal commitment to a college program.

By all accounts, Pete Carroll and the USC Trojans lost four top prospects who had verbally committed to the program. Urban Meyer's Florida Gators did worse, losing six committed prospects to his program on signing day last Wednesday.

If two of the nation's best coaches and recruiters can't keep verbal commitments, you know this phenomenon is far reaching throughout college athletics. From BCS football programs to small Division III softball programs, verbal commitments are meaning less and less in the competitive world of college recruiting.

Why?

I think there are three big reasons.

PROSPECTS SEE COACHES "PULL" SCHOLARSHIP OFFERS. They read the stories of coaches who make an offer, and then pull an offer back before the prospect gives them a yes. For most athletes, they miss a key ingredient to this scenario: The college coach gives the athlete the opportunity to commit verbally, but the athlete doesn't accept the chance to give their commitment to that coach (subsequently, the coach has to make the offer to another prospect). However, our conversations with athletes in doing work for our coaching clients tells us that the athletes only see the negative side of these types of incidents...they see the coaches "pulling" an offer, and don't realize that the athlete may not have accepted or responded to an offer in time. As a result of this misconception, athletes are feeling empowered to "pull" their commitments to a coach if a better opportunity comes along. It's a mistake on the part of the athlete, but one that college coaches have to contend with nonetheless.

PROSPECTS ARE DOING MORE HOMEWORK ON EACH PROGRAM. It used to be that only hard-core alumni and fans would follow the daily comings and goings of the recruiting trail at a particular college. However, with the advent of Rivals.com and other recruiting tracking Web sites, it is easier than ever for anyone to follow a school on the recruiting trail -- including the prospects themselves. Today's web-savvy prospects are researching incoming classes, and will de-commit in a heartbeat if they see too many athletes at their position entering the program at the same time. Players want opportunities to play, and coaches who don't communicate how they plan to use the prospect and how they fit in with an incoming recruiting class risk losing prospects on signing day.

THIS GENERATION IS ALL ABOUT THEM. At least for a good percentage of today's prospects, they have grown-up with the idea that college athletics is not about honoring a commitment to a program, being part of a team, or focusing on their education first. Instead, they have been taught - through their coaches, media, society and their friends and family - that this opportunity is their chance to secure their future. And, if they have to break an earlier non-binding commitment to better position themselves in the process, so be it. Understand, I'm not saying that this is the mindset for every prospect with whom a coach would be communicating with on a regular basis. However, it's enough of a problem to be causing quite a bit of concern in the offices of college coaches around the country.

The three reasons listed here are symptoms of a larger issue, which centers around a quiet shift taking place in the recruiting world. The attitude of today's teenage prospects is changing, and it's a change that is going to challenge the way most coaches recruit.
The challenge for coaches is daunting: Build more trust with athletes who are increasingly skeptical about the process, and feel more empowered in their ability to control the process.

How college coaches respond to this new attitude among prospects will be fascinating to watch in the coming months and years.

This entry is written by Heather Lawrence, an Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Ohio. She was an all-American student-athlete at Florida during her collegiate days. She runs the Everything College Sports blog.

I have to begin by letting everyone know that this topic (and a lot of the content of this post) is a result of an e-mail conversation I had with Nick Infante, the illustrious editor of College Athletics Clips.

Anyway, back to the topic. We all know that the country, and most of the world is in the midst of a recession. So, what is the best strategy for college athletic programs to survive and even thrive in this economic climate? I'm not sure this post will answer the question, but I want to propose one idea that Nick and I think has some merit.

Can a case be made for going against the grain and increasing instead of decreasing spending in tough economic times? The term counter-trend spending (or as Nick puts it "ignore-the-recession spending") encompasses this idea.

Nick argues that, "Whether you're a big-time athletic program, a beer brand or an appliance store, strategic spending during a recession could be an effective way to gain on competitors. Increased spending - on personnel, advertising, price promotions, etc. -- could attract recruits, fans, coaches & staff (for big-time athletic departments); new customers, distributors and bars/restaurants (for a beer brand) and new shoppers (for an appliance store)."

If other institutions are not doing these things, will the programs that are reap a big payback later? This is not a new concept in business, but it is in education. It's all about market share. For athletics, gaining market share is usually associated with the "arms race" of facility construction, spending on football, basketball, and coaches. I think it can have multiple meanings such as signing better recruits than the competition, raising more private dollars, securing more sponsorship deals, or having more fans. As athletic programs compete for the consumer entertainment dollar, fan affinity over other entertainment options might also be considered market share.

I also believe that there is internal competition within an institution for market share. For many institutions, there is a finite amount of alumni donors. If athletics is spending more on development while academic units are cutting back, will athletics see a bigger return and could they move donors from academic donations to those for athletics?

A core challenge in moving forward with this idea is having the financial means to leverage this strategy and the guts to try it. As part of institutions of higher education, is there any athletic department willing to take the risk?

Plus, how can ROI be measured in these scenarios? Few athletic programs are flush with cash right now, so where is the money to activate these ideas going to come from? Is it worth borrowing to make this happen? Plus, this recession is pretty darn big. So, even the business concept of counter-trend spending during a normal downturn may not hold true given the scope of this recession. It would take a gutsy A.D. and president to give this a shot.

Sponsorship Insight Group has a great write-up on attracting sponsors ()during a recession and the opening quote is in-line with this post, "Economies are like gardens, the seeds you plan today will reap rewards in the future. With the right seeds, the right amount of light (your positive attitude) and some TLC (creativity) your garden can do more than survive, it can thrive."

**Nick Infante was an economics major at a prestigious eastern university (UConn), a marketing MBA from the same, and a dozen years as a hot-shot exec.

This entry is written by Patrick Jenkins, a track and field student-athlete at Western Kentucky. Jenkins is a member of the Division I National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

In my experience, a tremendous amount of time at Division I National SAAC meetings is focused on the negative aspects of college sports: early recruitment, commercialism, lack of diversity and less than sparkling academic performance. However, at this year's recent NCAA Convention, we were able to put these topics aside and hear how collegiate athletics helped shape an individual. It was none other than CNN's Soledad O'Brien, who at one time was a lacrosse and rugby student-athlete at Harvard University.

Her message covered topics that most student-athletes learn at some point in their scholastic and/or athletic career, which made it easily relatable to life in general. She first explained that hard work was and is the main reason for success on the field, as well as in life. "Natural talent is certainly part of the equation," she explained. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, hard work is a better correlation to success. Too many times I have seen this scenario played out: talented individuals succeed early in their career and, later after putting in no work, they get passed up by others who have worked hard during the offseason.

She conveyed that success is significant, but the process is what is most essential. It is through the process that we learn lessons applicable to other areas of life: perseverance, communication, and diversity. Diversity, in my opinion, is the most visible. As a track and field student-athlete, it is easy to see how diversity leads to success. In order to succeed, a group of a variety of individuals must come together and perform in many different events. You do not see any serious program succeeding when putting distance runners in throws, jumps, or sprints.

This fit very well into our meetings. The DI National SAAC had two meetings focusing on diversity and it looks to be something that the NCAA will look to the SAAC for help in the future.

O'Brien argued that knowing a diverse group of individuals not only promotes success, but also introduces you to a larger number of people that provide wisdom and experience. She went on to explain her mentors have come from all directions: colleagues, family members, coaches, and people she has interviewed. By expanding our mentors beyond our coaches and fellow student-athletes, it allows us to reach out to more people and gather more experience/advice. Ultimately, O'Brien suggests we will be better equipped to handle whatever is thrown at us.

As O'Brien stressed, the life lessons learned from athletics will benefit us even after our athletic careers are over. Once she finished, I found it insightful to look back on my three years as a student-athlete. It was amazing to see how many lessons I had learned and how those could help me once I had a degree.

My sophomore year stood out. I was coming off a freshman year that exceeded my and my coaches' expectations and was ready to build on that. However, during the summer I developed a stress fracture which ended my cross country season before it began. I rehabbed and got in shape for track. Shortly, after indoor track was complete, I developed another stress fracture which ended my outdoor track season. I spent basically my entire sophomore year recovering from stress fractures and had nothing to show for it. With patience and hard work during the summer I was able to get back into shape and perform better than I ever had.

Through that year long experience, I learned the meaning of hard work and perseverance and I will be able to carry that wherever I go--be it in the classroom, on the track or course, or later as I get into the professional world.

O'Brien's speech made me realize how lucky I was to have these experiences to learn from before getting into the real world. Through these, I have been able to develop skills I will use in the future and that is something I will never take for granted.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

Replay after replay, the outcome was the same: Pittsburgh Steelers' wide receiver Santonio Holmes caught the game-winning touchdown, and got both feet down in the end zone.

It sure was a close play.

The officials reviewed it and we all watched the replay over and over again. Was the right foot down or was it an inch away from touching the turf?

That one inch was the difference between a catch or an incomplete pass.

Winning or losing the game.

I often tell college coaches, recruiting is a game of inches. It doesn't matter the sport or Division. An inch can be the difference between signing a prospect or losing them to another school.

What recruiting "inches" can make or break a program's recruiting efforts?

1. The prospect's parents. How successfully a college coach connects with the parents is one of those "inches" that can make or break a recruit's final decision. Study after study we have conducted shows the same thing: Parents of a prospect have a big impact on the final decision, even if the parents insist the prospect make up their own mind.

I often ask coaches a very simple question: What are you doing to specifically recruit the parents of your prospect? If coaches don't have a good answer to that question, it shouldn't come as a surprise when the prospect chooses another school.

2. Current student-athletes. Specifically, how do they treat prospects during official campus visits. National Signing Day is just around the corner for college football prospects. Coaches should keep track of how many prospects mention "feeling comfortable" with their future teammates when announcing their decision. Often, a prospect will trust their feelings more than they trust a coach's sales pitch.

Coaches need to ask themselves: What are we doing to make sure that our team knows how to relate to a prospect who visits campus? Coaches who fail to recognize that part of the recruiting process risk not getting that other foot down in the end zone for the big catch.

3. The campus visit. I've already talked about the important role current student-athletes play during campus visits. There are also other little things that happen during a campus visit that can make a big impact in the mind of a prospect.

4. The one thing I tell coaches around the country is a prospect is visiting your campus to figure out what's wrong with your program or college. They are looking for the little things - the "inches" - that will help them make a decision. Was the visit too hurried? Did the head coach pay enough attention to me? These questions are all real reasons prospects cross schools off their lists.

These suggestions might seem like small things, but they can be the difference makers in the recruiting process.

The lesson for coaches is to always sweat the small stuff. There's no doubt Pittsburgh's Holmes practiced making that sideline catch over and over again.

It's those "inches" that will make you or break you when the pressure is on in the big game of college recruiting.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

While it is still a rare occurrence, tensions between college recruiters and high school coaches are steadily rising. We are hearing about more and more instances of conflicts between college coaches and the high school coaches of the prospects they are pursuing.

The two usual scenarios go something like this:

1. The college coach pursues a high school athlete, asks for the high school coach's help, fails to sign the athlete, and blames the high school coach for not helping more with getting the athlete's commitment to the college program. That results in damaged relations between the college coach and the high school.

2. The college coach offers a high school athlete a scholarship, the athlete gives the college coach a verbal commitment and accepts the offer, staff changes or priorities change within the college program, the offer is pulled. That results in disappointment for the athlete, and outrage from the athlete's high school coach directed towards the college coach.

An similar incident involving South Carolina's football coach Steve Spurrier, and head coach Franklin Stephens and star linebacker Jonathan Davis of Tucker High School (Georgia) recently occurred.

Click here if for the full story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

There are three recruiting lessons that college coaches to take away from this event.

1. In the long run, the trust and reputation of a college coach is hurt from these situations. We need to give Coach Spurrier the benefit of the doubt in this situation. There may be behind-the-scenes issues that lead to all of this. Even if that is the case, this type of news reduces the trust - between all parties. It's not good for the handshake system of verbal commitments that much of college recruiting rests upon.

2. Look for prospects to feel more comfortable with the idea of breaking early verbal commitments to college coaches. College coaches are increasingly asking me about the right strategy for continuing to recruit their prospects even after they give a verbal commitment to their program. Why? Because more and more, college coaches are seeing examples of their prospects breaking a verbal commitment to a college and signing with a different school. I wouldn't be surprised to see an increase in the number of "de-commits" by either side, to the point that the NCAA may need to address the situation in the not-so-distant future.

3. College coaches will need to develop "second phase" recruiting strategies. Recruiting a prospect after they have committed verbally or promised to enroll at a college (in the case of non-scholarship and Division III schools) will take on new urgency. Coaches will need to focus heavily on keeping the interest and commitment of their prospects.

Which party is to blame for all this? I'll let smarter people than me to figure that one out.

Here's what I do know: This trend will begin to chip away at early verbal commitments that are the foundation of today's college recruiting, and that's not good for either side.

This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

College coaches have heard the stories. We all have. In fact, they're getting more and more frequent.

A high school sophomore gives a verbal commitment to a college program. A freshman declares his allegiance to a college coach after playing his first prep season. College coaches troll tournaments for high school underclassmen who might be the next big catch in the high stakes game of college recruiting.

As the "early recruiting" anecdotes become more and more commonplace, so do the questions that some around college sports are beginning to ask about the logic - and even the ethics - of high school athletes committing early to a college program.

A Division III softball coach who reads the Double- A Zone blog regularly and follows the recruiting advice of Selling for Coaches contacted me last week about the issue of early recruiting. In his sport, early recruiting is a fact of life; the good prospects commit early, a trend that has been accelerating over the past decade.

"The biggest problem I see in early recruiting is that it doesn't have the athlete's best educational interest in mind," said the coach, who wanted to remain anonymous. "Even most college freshmen remain undecided about their major because they're not sure what they want to study, and if that's true most high school freshmen certainly have no idea."

And that, contends this coach, is the problem with the trend of early recruiting. "These prospects have no basis for deciding if the school they're committing to is a good match for their academic and professional interests."

This college coach isn't the only one concerned about the issue of early recruiting.

The question is, can anything more be done to reduce it? Moreover, should anything be done?

Can the NCAA extend its reach and prevent non-binding verbal commitments?

Probably not.

It would be virtually impossible to prevent an athlete from telling a college coach that they want to play for them. It's hard not to agree that the current NCAA rules limiting when a prospect can make their commitment official is sufficient. To date, no new proposals offering significant limits on the ability of a student-athlete to give a college coach an early commitment are on the table.

With those realities in mind, here is the advice we would give college coaches who want to aggressively - and ethically - get in front of young student-athlete prospects who they might want as a part of their collegiate program a few years down the road:

Coaches need to be guides. Deep down, young prospects and their parents want direction through the complicated world of college recruiting. Coaches who take the time to answer questions and give advice are going to rise to the top of that athlete's list immediately.

Coaches need to respect the decision making process of a high school prospect. Whether you deem it in their best interest or not, they have the freedom to make their own choices. And sometimes, they will make it earlier than you think they should. In hindsight, some will have made terrible mistakes in committing too early. Others will have a great college experience.

Coaches need to understand that many prospects want to get the process done sooner rather than later. The promise of a paid college education is a powerful thing, and it should come as no surprise that today's teens and their parents put a big value on securing it as soon as possible. In addition, the studies Selling for Coaches has done with high school prospects strongly suggest that the recruiting process is both stressful and confusing. Many of today's prospects cite the pressure of the process itself in wanting to end it as soon as possible.

Coaches who want to succeed need to get in front of prospects as early as possible. There are plenty of creative ways to put your message and your program's high points in front of young high school athletes you would want to attract. In some sports, this is absolutely essential for long-term success. In others, it is a way to get a big jump on your competition for recruits.

Early recruiting is a fact of life in today's recruiting environment. If you creatively and ethically use the additional time to expose their prospects to their program will find those athletes eager to take a serious look at what you have to offer...and maybe secure the services of some pretty good athletes earlier than you ever have before.

This entry is written by guest blogger Rich Haglund

Look no further than the Bowl Championship Series, more specifically, the BCS rankings.

The BCS rankings, are determined by averaging the percent totals of the Harris Interactive Poll, the USA Today Coaches poll and a Computer Rankings Percentage (drawn from six computer polls).

If you're bored or looking for extra credit, a more detailed explanation is available here.

These six computer polls rely heavily on algebra to calculate the weekly BCS rankings.

1. Chris Hester and Jeff Anderson developed one of the six computer models. According to Hester, "The rankings were developed mostly with formulas we learned in high school algebra."

Hester and Andersion developed their ranking system while attending the University of Washington in 1993. The two were political science majors.

In 1998 the BCS asked to use the pair's formula in the BCS rankings.

Anderson declined to divulge how much money he gets for the use of his football rankings, but concedes the payout is mostly emotional.

Anderson told the Washington City paper, "The plan was to give more weight to strength of schedule than the existing ranking services did. "What we're trying to show with our rankings is who had the best season," he says. "We're not trying to show who we think would win if teams meet. That's not what our rankings are trying to do. We're trying to reward teams for their actual accomplishments."

2. Another computer ranking was created by Richard Billingsley, a business consultant who operates the College Football Research Center, He developed the "power rating" system, detailed here.

He tajkled with ESPN to discuss the "power rating" system: "I've been ranking College Football teams since 1970, developing the core of my formula at the age of 19. No, I'm not a math whiz, and yes, in times like these I wish I were. I look around the landscape of the BCS pollsters and see an MIT Math Graduate, a Rocket Scientist, a World Renowned Medical Researcher, A Mathematics Professor, and a Missile Tracking Expert and wonder how in this world I ever became a part of this esteemed group. Well, have you ever heard the old saying "find something you like to do, do it well, and eventually you'll be successful". I don't know how successful I am, but that old saying certainly held true for me."

"Many times I'm asked about the formula I use, and it's evolution through the years. Mathematically, it's not a complex formula, using only simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. What makes it unique I think are the "rules" that are used in the formula's evaluation process. These rules relate to specific scenarios that I've seen play themselves out over the course of my 40 some odd years of closely observing the sport."

3. Wesley Colley, a professor at the Center for Modeling, Simulation and Analysis at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, has a Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences from Princeton. He runs an interesting rankings site called "Bias free matrix ratings." Check it out here.

Colley currently conducts several research projects, including some for NASA and the Naval Air Warfare Center. Colley has also used his model for the football rankings to this year's presidential election.

4. Kenneth Massey, a mathematics professor at Carson-Newman College in Tennessee, has a system that he believes is "the most scientific and full-featured system available for analyzing the performance of members of a competitive league."

Massey's formula is complicated.

Each team's gametime performance is assumed to be normally distributed about a certain mean (its rating). The probability that team A would defeat team B is then determined from the cumulative distribution function (CDF) associated with a normal random variable.

Let p = Prob(A beats B) = F(rA,rB,hA,hB), where rA,hA and rB,hB are ratings and home advantages of teams A and B respectively. F is a function of rA,rB,hA,hB that is based on the CDF of a normal random variable.

All the game scores are translated to a scale from 0 to 1 by the GOF. Let g = GOF(pA,pB), where pA and pB are the points actually scored by teams A and B in a particular game.

A nonlinear function of the teams' ratings is formed by multiplying terms that look like:
p^g * (1-p)^(1-g)

Here ^ denotes an exponent. Also note that 0 <= p,g <= 1. By maximizing the resulting function, maximum liklihood estimates (MLE) are obtained for the ratings and home advantages. The optimization problem may be solved with standard techniques such as Newton's method.

Still confused? Check it out here.

In 1997, Massey published an undergraduate honors project applying statistical models to ratings of sports teams. He's also created a presentation showing how mathmetics has invaded competitive sports. View it here.

5. Peter Wolfe is a UCLA physician and infectious diseases professor. His rankings formula is also complex. It utilizes, His ranking system uses "a maximum likelihood estimate"

In it, each team i is assigned a rating value ??i that is used in predicting the expected result between it and its opponent j, with the likelihood of i beating j given by:
??i / (??i + ??j)

The probability P of all the results happening as they actually did is simply the product of multiplying together all the individual probabilities derived from each game. The rating values are chosen in such a way that the number P is as large as possible. This is often called a Bradley-Terry model, and is described in papers listed at Wilson's site (see Bradley and Terry 1952, Ford 1957, Elo 1986, Keener 1993).

Check out the whole things here.

6. Probably the most well-known ratings system was created by Jeff Sagarin, who earned a mathematics degree at MIT and an MBA from Indiana Univesrity.

He ranks a variety of sports and his rankings have been published in USA Today since 1985.

Sagarin system for the BCS:

In ELO-CHESS, only winning and losing matters; the score margin is of no consequence, which makes it very "politically correct". However it is less accurate in its predictions for upcoming games than is the PURE POINTS, in which the score margin is the only thing that matters. PURE POINTS is also known as PREDICTOR, BALLANTINE, RHEINGOLD, WHITE OWL and is the best single PREDICTOR of future games. The ELO-CHESS will be utilized by the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).

The overall RATING is a synthesis of the two diametrical opposites, ELO-CHESS and PURE POINTS (PREDICTOR).

Check out a detailed description of Sagarin's college football rankings system here.

Extra Credit
Here's the problem: Expected payouts for teams in the five BCS games in January 2009 will be approximately $18 million. Fox is paying $80 million per year to televise the BCS games through January 2010. ESPN recently agreed to pay $125 million each year to televise the BCS games from 2011 through 2014.

a = w + t

So, if w is the average annual payout from the BCS games and t is the cost to broadcast the games annually, then what is a, the amount of money generated in part by "formulas we learned in high school algebra"?

Of course there's some football involved in generating all this revenue. And an economist would be able to estimate the total amount of money being invested in the opportunity to win some of that $18 million and the national television exposure -- probably totaling over $1 billion.

This entry is written by Carl Ehrlich, a football student-athlete at Harvard. He wrote this entry before Saturday's 10-0 victory over rival Yale, which gave Harvard a share of the Ivy League title.

Check out Carl's previous blogs: Playing Under the Lights, Summer Dogs , R.I.C.E., A tale of two lives, Remembering recruiting, No holidays in football and No bulletin board material before Harvard-Yale game.

Whenever kids dream about sports, they dream about endings. They dream about being the hero.

They count down the game clock as they hoist rubber basketballs that are smoothed over by countless hours spent practicing in their driveway, lofting them towards slightly lopsided hoods as they imagine the echo of the buzzer drowning out the swish of the metal nets.

They ignore all previous baseball instruction, dipping their shoulders and pulling their heads out as they cream a 3-2 pitch in the bottom of the ninth out of their hometown baseball stadium, a pitch that just happened to be made with a water-logged tennis ball in a backyard.

And with a flick of the wrist, they tell their friends to run farther and farther back as they imagine themselves buying time in the pocket to hoist up a last second "Hail Mary" to win the game.

Our momentary fates in these fantasies depend upon the roll of the rim, the break of the curveball or the effectiveness of the twentieth head fake to buy space to make the game-winning catch. When they fall in our favor, we're winners, heroes, and everything is right with the world. When they don't, we lost, end of story. No morals, no "better for the experience," nothing.

In this regard, I think that our perception and appreciation of sport is flawed. Sports are not always about the fingertip catch, the homer that's still rising as it leaves the park or the three pointer that rolls around the rim three times before dropping. They're also about the two-yard run in the first quarter, the quirky warm-up routine the hitter has in the on deck circle and a good joke the point guard made in the locker room while he was tying his shoes.

In focusing on the ending, we lose sight of what really matters in sport - the journey. Sports are not beating Yale or Yale beating us - it's about playing The Game. It is about the process through which we arrived at this point in time, what it was that gave us the chance to play for all the marbles. Yes, the seniors got to end their Harvard careers on the highest possible note and would not be wrong to think that they were going to wake up from this dream any second. But even without such a storybook ending I would hold them in equally high regards.

Out of admiration and appreciation for all of the graduating seniors, I wanted to spend my last post of the 2008 season talking about who they were and what makes each of them so important.

Peter Ajayi was given the burden of being one of the most gifted athletes that anyone has ever laid eyes on. With that burden came constant attention and expectations, but Pete never let any of this faze him. Each day, whether he was the hero or the goat, Pete came to practice or lift ready to work to get better as well as step into a vocal leadership role in which he flourished despite his naturally quiet demeanor. Despite taking longer than any girl I have ever seen to get dressed and ready, he's been a great teammate and an even better friend.

Andrew Berry is one of the most incredible people I have met at Harvard and my experience wouldn't be what it has been without him (I've now rewritten this paragraph four times but this is only sentence I've kept). Berry is a guy whom I truly couldn't write enough about and I would be doing him a disservice by even trying to reduce him to a few sentences. He has not only worked hard to advance himself in all arenas, but taken an interest in the well-being and success of every person around him. It was only fitting that he won the Robert Kennedy award at the end of the season.

Alex Breaux is one of the most talented kids on the team. More impressive than his hands and agility is who he is as a person. I've had the privilege of seeing him perform on stage as well as sitting and picking the brain of this gifted wide receiver who spends much of his off time reading the newspaper cover-to-cover. Football is a sport often threatened by individuality, but Alex became very much his own person within the confines of the team-first structure and should be commended for never allowing one to threaten the other.

The first thing I learned about Harvard Football was about Desmond Bryant: The coaches told me about him when I was still a senior in high school and when we first met I understood why. He was immense. He looked like he had just eaten Muhammad Ali. Dez and I started off the season under inauspicious circumstances because we were both battling for the same spot, but never once did this take away from my appreciation for who he was as a player and a teammate. Dez has battled for everything he has gotten and I'm looking forward to watching him play on Sundays even more than I enjoyed playing with him on Saturdays

I don't want to write anything too nice about my roommates, because a) they know how I feel about them and b) our day-to-day dorm macho is not conducive to moments of extreme nostalgia, but I've got to give it up to Zach Copple. Copple is the wise man in the locker room and brings an entirely new perspective to everything. He didn't come to Harvard to land a job on Wall Street - he came to Harvard to push himself both mentally and physically and has done so admirably. Never once did he use an excuse to give up (and believe me, he had a thousand opportunities), and as a result he got to finish his career like the champ he is. He still swears that he is going "into the wild" after he graduates, but I don't want to call his bluff because I'll miss him too much if he does.

The problem with writing about football for a non-football player is that people too often take clichés to be just that. That aside, Michael Doerner has simply been a guy that has done everything that has ever been asked of him and never once expected anything in return. Jogging over to the weight room after the Columbia game, I noticed that he was wearing a boot on his ankle and a wrist brace. After I sarcastically asked him how he was feeling, he responded in dead seriousness, "good enough to win these next two games." This tough-guy mentality, however, should not take away from his easy-going personality off the field and his infectious chuckle.

Glen Dorris cares so much about football that I'm not sure I would let him coach my kids. For someone who comes across as laidback as he does, I'm not sure anyone on the team cared more about football than Glen did. Before every practice, he would stop himself and make sure that he was completely mentally focused on the task ahead. He refused to set foot on the field unless he was entirely committed and ready to play. As much as we bonded by having lockers next to each other, the one thing I'll take away from Glen is the look in his eyes every time he took the field in a game. It's hard not to have confidence when you turn around and see a linebacker so ready to play.

Elliot Lauzen for president. Elliot is a dedicated worker, a loyal friend, a diligent student, a selfless teammate and a pentathlon national champion. I couldn't be more sincere in each of these assessments. He is one of the most highly respected kids on the entire team and despite being a kid that has had everything going for him, has had no qualms in taking on any role that could help the team. He spoke with us about having the opportunity to have competed in the 2012 Olympics in the pentathlon but passing it up to be part of a team. I couldn't be happier he did.

The turning point in my relationship with Sonny McCracken was going out to live with him in Santa Monica for a summer. While we never failed to get along, there remained an air of confusion regarding who the other person was when the summer started. Sonny took me under his wing for the summer and welcomed me into his family, giving me the opportunity to see what a good older brother and son he was and in the process we formulated a great friendship. Plus he taught me to surf! He took a similar role on the team this year and emerged not only as a playmaker, but as a positive influence on all the underclassmen.

Austin McLeod is an unsung hero on this team. While he never got the chance to make his full impact as a linebacker felt on Saturdays, he made sure that he got every ounce he could out of his opportunity at Harvard and led the team the best way he knew how. No one took more pride in what they did than Austin, who made a conscious decision everyday to max out the chance he was given. Because of this attitude, he became a crucial special teams player for us and, more importantly, a perfect example for how football should be approached.

Inherent in being a jokester is the desire for people to find you funny, but never should this be confused with not being taken seriously. Everyone that knows him knows that Jason Miller is a joker, but what I'll remember the most about him is a conversation I overheard him have with our head trainer about getting back to practice. Jason had a terrible rib injury all year that allowed him to play in the games but limited his practice reps. This wasn't good enough for him, and I've never held him in higher regard than I did after listening to him badger the trainers about allowing him to take every single snap he could in practice during the week. No joke.

Most every person on the team would write about how selfless B.J. Merriweather was this year and how no one could've matched the team-first attitude he brought everyday. What I'll always remember about BJ is freshman year when he pulled me aside, told me how much he appreciated my filming practice all year and asked how I was doing. Being injured, cold, overworked and homesick, his appreciation and general interest in my well-being did more than he probably knew.

There are few people I would rather sit around and shoot the breeze with in the locker room than Justin Morgan. Conversely, he is the last person I wanted to go against in practice. A true football player through and through, Justin never let any of his injuries hold him back from knocking my brains out every time I lined up across from him. We've traded some serious blows on the line in practices but the one thing that we do share, beyond a heavy mutual respect, is a combined loss of too many brain cells because of our hard-headedness (or lack thereof). One of the toughest players I've ever lined up against, there was many a time when I begged him to sit out of practice because I could see that he was hurting. But he's old school tough, abiding by the belief that whatever didn't kill him made him stronger and really pushed the envelope in this regard.

In one of my summer blogs I wrote about my summer roommate Liam O'Hagan's habits. I joked about how boring his dietary and sleep habits were, but in all seriousness, to look at him over the last two years was to know that he was a man on a mission. It would have been easy for Liam to become complacent after experiencing the success he did so early in his career, but he only became more and more focused on making himself the player and teammate he is today.

JUICE! Last year when I was putting a resume together , I asked Randy Ojukwu to send his over so I could get a couple examples of what they should look like. I wish I hadn't. Opening up the document, I was reminded what a driven and talented kid he is (and consequently how short my resume would be next to his). But, on top of all of his extracurricular activities, he has always come down to the field house energetic, focused, and ready to offer whatever ridiculous and unfounded sports opinion he has that day.

MOOSE! Ryan Pilconis is a quiet guy, but what he has done in this program speaks volumes. Coming in freshman year, he was undersized and had a rough go of it (granted he was going up against some killers), but all he ever did in response was everything he could. In addition to developing into the player that he was this year, he simultaneously developed into a Harvard Football institution. Through wing nights, lobster roll expertise, or locker room impressions, all in addition to what he brought as a dominant offensive tackle, Big Pilc will not soon be forgotten.

Chris Pizzotti is the exact same person today that he was when he walked in the door to Harvard. Yes, he has obviously become a much better football player, but so much of him has remained completely unchanged. No matter his position on the depth chart or his game performance, he has always worked as hard as he could and always has been one of the most standup guys I've known. From the moment I walked into Harvard, he has made a point to look out for me and take an interest in my life and because of that I feel especially close to him. The thing is, most every person on the team probably feels this way because he treats every person equally and would never allow himself to be placed on a pedestal.

If Tom Rodger rubs you the wrong way, he doesn't care. Every workout and every practice, Tom came to get better and wouldn't let anyone stand in his way. Like a character out of "The Outsiders," Tom is old school "tuff" and has definitely left a valuable impression on the young offensive linemen that are going to have to step up in his place next year. Although I still resent his self proclamation of being the "Tug Champ," all Tom did was make me better this summer and fall.

To say that Chris Sanders has been through a lot is an understatement. No one has gone through more in their four years here than Chris Sanders has, both on and off the field, and yet no one has kept a better attitude throughout it all. We talk about handling adversity all the time in our program, but Sanders has put on a tutorial in doing so. Given countless opportunities to feel bad for himself, he has never done anything but what was best for the team. With this selfless attitude, he would've been more than happy to have his actions go completely unnoticed, but everyone that was a part of this team knows and appreciates what he has done for this program.

Heading over to dinner after a long day of meetings at the beginning of preseason this year, I had a long talk with Eric Schultz about football and how he saw his career ending. He told me that he had worked his entire life to play football and play it well for as long as he could. What he really wanted out of this season was an ending that did the entirety of his dedication justice. He got it. Whether it was forcing the fumble on the goal line of the Holy Cross game to lead us to our first win, forcing the fumble on the goal line of the Yale game to give us our last, or any play in between, Schultzy gave his career the ending it deserved, as well as many remarkable moments along the way.

Two freak injuries have limited Steve Sheehan - The Shark's - action the last two years, but the very second he was allowed to get back in the mix he was 100 MPH. His first game back against Dartmouth, he reminded us what we had been missing as he broke up a pass with a highlight reel hit. If there is one knock on him, it's that he plays too hard; Corey Mazza still has nightmares about coming across the middle in practice and seeing Steve coming. I will sincerely miss having him around, but I'm not sure all of our receivers will.

There is a term on the team, "moxie," that is used in reference to some indescribable quality that is roughly equivalent to getting "pumped up." From the start I was outspokenly opposed to the term, for reasons I now forget, but Sam Silverlieb kept pushing it and now it is in the team's every day vocabulary. At a certain point this year I stopped my campaign against it, not because of its futility, but rather because it had come to be associated with Sam and what he has done in this program. If this is the case, and its usage encourages people to work as hard and care for the team as much as Sam did, then I couldn't support it more.

Sophomore year, Bryan Sweeney left the defensive line to play tight end on the "Dark Side" of the ball. We couldn't have been happier to get him back his senior year. He's one of the few players to ever win "Most Improved" his junior spring, and that serves as a testament to how focused and driven he has been regardless of circumstances. This year he was sidelined because of a shoulder injury and never stopped trying to do everything he could to get back. Because they tested his hurt shoulder against the healthy one to see if it was getting better, I once suggested that he fake weakness in the healthy arm to make the injured one look cured. He looked up at me and exasperatedly replied, "you think I haven't tried that?!" It should also be noted that the "Shwan" also helped keep Sean Hayes in line when he got too big for his britches.

Matt Thomas may be the most pure football player on the entire team. He truly is a student of the game and every time he stepped on the field you could tell that a) he was working his tail off and b) he was having a great time doing it. There are a lot of early mornings and tough periods that a Harvard Football player comes across during his time here and its guys like Matt that keep everybody up. He'll be the first kid to give up his body to win (whether it be a conditioning drill or a third-down stop) and the first kid to make a joke and lighten the mood when things get tense.

In his speech to the team during Yale week, Riki Yoshinaga talked about how futile it was to try to explain what it was to be on a football team to his friends back home. Similarly, only after being on the team with Riki could a person understand what he has meant to everyone. Riki went about his business as diligently as he did quietly (very), and never looked for praise, because he understood the value of a cohesive unit and that no individual part is every greater than the whole.

When I signed up to live with Matt Curtis my freshman year, I got more than I bargained for. I got a roommate, a friend, a competitor, a role model and a brother. Thinking back on my career, everything has been very easy up to this point because I've always had Matt there to compete with and look up to. It's easy for the "wolf at the bottom of the mountain" to be hungry, but even when Matt got to the top he never stopped fighting. I couldn't have asked for more out of Matt; there couldn't have been a better person to play with and study under.

Growing up, we imagine ourselves to be the one hoisted above the crowd, pumping our fists in the air, showered in confetti and waves of admiration, too encapsulated by the moment to notice the flashbulbs popping off around our heads. But along the way, and as we grew, we realized that there was something more to the game. It was never about being the one hoisted above the rest of the team, but standing next to them as an equal. The thing that made this team so great is that no person every imagined themselves on someone else's shoulders - they imagined themselves doing the lifting. And in the end, every one of them got to be the hero.

This entry is written by Carl Ehrlich, a football student-athlete at Harvard. He wrote this entry before Saturday's 10-0 victory over rival Yale, which gave Harvard a share of the Ivy League title.

Check out Carl's previous blogs: Playing Under the Lights, Summer Dogs , R.I.C.E., A tale of two lives, Remembering recruiting and No holidays in football.

There are a lot of mistakes that I could (and do) make when posting my blog entries. I've had singular/plural issues, used the passive voice, confused tenses and I've even added the occasional contraction apostrophe to a possessive pronoun. But the one mistake that I will never make is giving another team "bulletin material."

The fate of my blogging career will not hang on the perils of this game. There will be no guarantees, no predicted scores, no personal call outs, and definitely no "mama" jokes.

Before sending each entry in to be posted on GoCrimson.com, I carefully go through the document one more time from the perspective of the other team. Because while putting up a blog that goes unnoticed may be unrewarding, putting up a blog that grabs the attention of another team would be much worse.

Anything can be misconstrued as an insult when a game grows near and everyone is looking for something to complain about to fire themselves up. Besides, Yale is a tough team to beat. We've watched a lot of film on them and they do a lot of things well. They've thrown the ball really well the last couple of weeks, and they're a hard-nosed team - they play hard. We're lucky to get them at home.

To show you how extreme this "bulletin material" hunt is, imagine a Rohrshach quote experiment using just the text above.

"The fate of my blogging career will not hang on the perils of this game."

Player 1: Ehrlich thinks he's above it all.
Player 2: So it's a career now, is it?
Player 3: We'll show this bozo some peril!

"Everyone is looking for something to complain about to fire themselves up."

Player 1: So we're a bunch of whiners, huh?
Player 2: We're fired up already!
Player 3:Typical Harvard psychoanalysis of everyone but themselves.

"They are a tough team to beat. They've passed the ball real well the last couple weeks."

Player 1: Typical Harvard trash talk, thinking they can talk about our running game like that. That's a back-handed compliment if I've ever seen one.
Player 2: All year I've busted my tail and he's only going to talk about the last couple weeks? Like the first half of the season didn't even exist?
Player 3: Tough team to beat? Who said they were going to beat us?!

"The bottom line is that we've got a lot of respect for these kids. We're very lucky we get to play them at home."

Player 1: They feel lucky to play us? Typical Harvard condescension!
Player 2: They won't feel very lucky on Saturday!
Player 3: And who is he calling a kid?

"We've watched a lot of film on these guys. They're a hard-nosed group of guys that who play really tough."

Player 1: They've watched film, so what? If this guy thinks he can just watch film on me and just come out on Saturday and beat me he is dead wrong.
Player 2: Besides, the camera adds ten pounds.
Player 3: What did he say about my nose?

What's going to happen Saturday? Let me tell you this:

Joe Namath was seen as a hero when he "guaranteed" a victory over the heavily favored Colts.

Matt Hasselbeck became a pariah when, on ( the "frozen tundra of Lambeau Field," he announced that "we want the ball and we're gonna score," before throwing an interception that was run back for a touchdown to seal the wildcard game for the Pack in 2003.

Babe Ruth's "called shot" will live in the hearts of baseball fans forever.

In 1994, the back of the New York Post read, "We Will Win Tonight", a guarantee from Mark Messier in a dramatic season for the Rangers.

Patrick Ewing's "see you in Chicago" pronouncement will life in infamy. So my prediction?

It's going to be a great game. Put that on your bulletin board.

This entry is written by Carl Ehrlich, a football student-athlete at Harvard. Check out Carl's previous blogs: Playing Under the Lights, Summer Dogs , R.I.C.E., A tale of two lives and Remembering recruiting.

Last Tuesday, as every eligible American should have, I voted.

Many Americans might find the election and their personal voting decision to be a private matter. As for me, I feel as though my vote is far too important of a topic to "let it shine under a bushel basket."

Those who know me and my stance on the issues will say that I made up my mind before the election even started. But I just knew in my heart of hearts what the right choice was for myself and for my country. Putting all accolades and obvious collegiate bias (a Harvard man!) aside, I looked deep into the candidates and deeper into myself to determine whom I would put my vote behind.

While a GoCrimson blog endorsement might not carry much weight on a national level, I feel as though my candidate is ready to lead this country and I would be remiss if I didn't do everything I could to help him get elected. That is why I'm officially supporting Mike Fucito for the Lowe's Senior CLASS MVP.

Fucito is a senior on the men's soccer team who is having a great season and epitomizes the "classroom, character, community, and competition" that the award looks to recognize. It's a shame the award doesn't recognize the ability to pass for Dustin Pedroia, because then it would be no contest.

Make sure to log onto the website (http://www.seniorclassaward.com/vote/sport/menssoccer/?KEY=&DB_OEM_ID=9000&DB_LANG=&IN_SUBSCRIBER_CONTENT=) and cast your vote for Harvard's own.

Yes we can.

Election Day came and went last week (with a patriotically high number of absentee ballots mailed by Harvard Football players), and while the significance of the results were not wasted on the team, the "holiday" aspect of it was. Talking to my mom, a school teacher who had off school for Election Day, she began to ask how I was putting my Election Day to best use before catching herself.

C'mon Mom, you know better. There's no crying in baseball, and there are no holidays in football. Not traditional ones, anyways. Because of the demands of our schedules, our workouts don't match up well to the federal holiday calendar. The consummate football player would respond that everyday is a holiday because we get to play the sport we love, but I'll (for the sake of the non-football playing reader of course) operate on the more functional, commonplace definition of a holiday as a day off.

But in lieu of traditional holidays, we on the football team have created our own. During the offseason, we refer to our workout-less Wednesdays as "Mini-weekends" and the actual weekends then become "mini-vacations."

Our annual Media Day, held each August, is always circled on the calendar during preseason, and although it's not a day off, The Game is the most important day of the year to many in the Harvard Football family.

Working backwards, a few examples of traditional holidays...

I spent "Veteran's Day" on Tuesday icing down the injuries that I had accumulated during my service on the gridiron.

On Election Day I "elected" to wake up at 5:45 to get a lift in.

We spent all of Halloween driving to Dartmouth and preparing for the game. Matt Hanson wore the scariest looking suit and tie combo I've ever seen

On September 1st I was in the midst of camp and had two practices, bringing a whole new meaning to "Labor Day."

On the Fourth of July I celebrated my dependence. We did actually get workouts off for this day but the next week's conditioning loomed over my head so I got an extra run in.

Thought you were getting a day off for a cheap holiday? April Fools!

Season update: While I thought this would be a fun topic to write on, there isn't a player on the team that would want to be anywhere else in the world right now than down at the field house. We're in a two-game season for the ivy-league championship and play at Penn this week in a matchup of first place teams. Even if Christmas was tomorrow I'm not sure anyone on the team would notice.

Garrett Lussi is a senior baseball student-athlete at North Georgia. He is currently the Peach Belt Conference's SAAC representative.

I recently had the honor of representing North Georgia College & State University (NGCSU) at the NCAA Division II Leadership Academy in Naples, Florida. This trip not only opened my eyes to what kind of leader I can be on and off the field but what kind of person I truly am. The Academy taught me the qualities it takes to be a leader and what exercises I can use to enhance those skills to better myself and NGCSU. The Academy showed us what hard work and dedication can accomplish when people work together as well as provided us with the necessary tools to be positive agents of change on our respective campuses.

When we arrived at the Academy, we were broken into hexagon teams. They chose to call them hexagon teams because there are six different attributes that make up Division II. The six groups were: learning, passion, resourcefulness, service, balance, and sportsmanship. The hexagon teams consisted of people from many different Division II schools in the southeast, with no one group having more than one representative from the same institution. In those six groups, there were two facilitators that worked with us and guided us on what being a leader entitles and how we as student-athletes and administrators can strive to get more out of a certain situation instead of settling for just enough to get by. The facilitators were from all over the country and brought in by the NCAA because of their strong leadership attributes and their ability to exemplify those qualities.

After learning more about my personal behavioral style and characteristics of great leaders in our hexagon teams during the first half of the Academy, we had the chance to learn more about Division II and meet with our respective schools the rest of the weekend. One issue that was emphasized greatly (not only in the Division II National SAAC meeting we had, but in our conference meetings as well) was making sure we were stressing good game environment at all of our contests. One of the many good ideas mentioned was to have a student-athlete from both schools meet at the middle of the field or court and each read a sportsmanship statement provided by the conference SAAC. This would help promote good sportsmanship, not only with the two teams competing, but with the fans as well. Along with the Positive Game Environment Initiative, we further learned as student-athletes how we can play a large role on our campus with the NCAA Division II Strategic Positioning Platform and Community Engagement Initiative.

Another topic highly publicized over the weekend was Division II's Make-A-Wish initiative. Statistics showed that last year alone Division II raised a total of $316,958. We found out to grant one child's wish would cost $5,000 and Division II was able to grant over 60 wishes. Over the five year span Division II has been involved with Make-A-Wish, we have raised more than $765,000. This not only showed how great of an impact the student-athletes of Division II have made towards Make-A-Wish as a whole, but what type of positive impact we can make on a child who is less fortunate by getting everyone involved in our campus community to help make a difference.

NGCSU cross country and track coach Amanda Harris was the administrator that accompanied Brit Smith, a women's tennis student-athlete, and myself to the Leadership Academy. Coach Harris felt this academy was extremely beneficial for her ability to better coach her student-athletes. She learned about her own leadership style and ways to communicate more efficiently. Overall, she was very impressed with what the Academy offered.

Reflecting back, the Leadership Academy was an inspirational experience that really opened my eyes to who I am and how I can better myself not only as a teammate but as a person. It showed me that I can create positive change in myself, my school, and my community. If anyone ever has the opportunity to experience a Division II Leadership Academy, do not hesitate to attend. You will undoubtedly be a more effective leader and positive agent of change when you leave.

This entry is written by Carl Ehrlich, a football student-athlete at Harvard. Check out Carl's previous blogs: Playing Under the Lights, Summer Dogs , R.I.C.E. and A tale of two lives

On every road trip that we take during the season, our first stop when getting into town (our regular lunch stop aside) is the opposing team's field. We have a team "walk-around" on the field the day before the game and it's a well-liked tradition because it combines an essential mental preparatory process with a much needed stretching of the legs.

We arrange our departure time from Harvard Stadium in order to arrive at the opposing field around two o'clock (all meticulously planned in our weekend schedule), and the entire experience has become almost as much of my game preparation as warm-ups themselves. No matter the stadium or length of the bus ride, this entire experience is very much the same each week.

I stir from my sleep in the aisle of the bus by the abrupt stops and exaggerated turns that let me know we are off the highway and approaching our destination. After convincing myself that we're just taking a detour and attempting to return to my sleep amongst the Gatorade bottles and backpacks on the floor, my suspicions are confirmed as Sean Hayes kicks me to let me know we are, in fact, pulling into the stadium. We all scramble to put our travel suits, sneakers and "game faces" back on in case any players from the other team are hanging around.

We briefly scope out the facilities, take a look into the locker room we will be changing in the next day and then head out to the field. I don't want to get too deep into travel game schedules because they deserve (and will be given) a blog of their own later this season, so I will instead talk about how walking into Princeton's stadium traditionally gives me a different feeling than any other place we play.

Last Friday was the fifth time I've walked into Powers Field. I was there the summer before my senior year in high school when I attended their camp, the fall of my senior year in high school when I went to one of their games, the winter of my senior year in high school on my official visit, my sophomore year at Harvard when we played there and this time made five.

Walking onto the field for my quinquennial Princeton anniversary, my attention was immediately drawn to press boxes on top of the stadium where I ate dinner on the last night of my recruiting visit (Note: In the movie of my season, "high school Carl" is looking back down at me, but for blog purposes I'll just remember I stood up there).

I've forgotten a lot of things about my football career and the recruiting process, but I'll never forget sitting at the top of that stadium and looking down at that field. I knew that in the coming weeks I would be pressed for a decision on which school I would be heading to (at that time I was down to Harvard, Princeton, Yale and USC. Well, not USC) and I took a minute to look down on the field and really think about if I could call this home. I couldn't.

Getting recruited is a very difficult process for all parties involved, because it's like the collegiate athletic version of "The Bachelor." The recruits are the contestants, constantly trying to convince the coaches that they are good enough. But, at a certain point the recruits have to take a step back and think about if they are really ready to commit to a school or not. The only thing worse than having a school not be interested in you would be to be accepted to that school and find out that you made the wrong decision (and dare I mention the Q-word).

At that point in the recruiting process, I was lucky enough to be in the driver's seat and having the interest of my top three choices of schools, it was now on me to decide where I felt most comfortable. But there will be no "locker room material" from me in this blog about why I didn't choose another school, as I chose Harvard because I liked it the most, not hated it the least.

The one disparaging thing I will say about my visit to Princeton that weekend, is that I got a weird feeling about the kids I was going to be surrounding myself with. This sentiment came directly from the other recruit that I was being hosted with. He wore beat up moccasins, with one of the most epic bowl-cuts I had ever seen in my life and the rest of him in between followed suit. (In all fairness, I was wearing muddy Timberland boots, my letterman jacket and, as my family will never let me forget, walked around with a toothpick in my mouth so I wasn't much better).

I don't know what started the problem, but I didn't hit it off very well with "Bowl Cut," as I less than endearingly called him to my friends back home, and was less than excited at the possibility of heading off to school with him for four years. I did make friends with a skinny tight end from Indiana (Jason Miller) and dread-locked fellow Maryland native (the now clean-cut Andrew Berry), but after talking to them it sounded like they were more interested in Harvard. After my visit to Cambridge, I was sold as well.

But, to my disappointment, the first person I saw when I arrived on Harvard campus my freshman year was "Bowl Cut." He had arrived a day early with a new hair cut and I had arrived with a new attitude, and ever since, Glen Dorris and I have gotten along very well.

Talking about this before practice one day last week, I felt like I had to confess to him that one of the biggest reasons I came to Harvard was because I hated him so much on our recruiting visit. He burst into laughter and yelled, "ME TOO!"

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell, UNCG's leading scorer last season, will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each Friday, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process.

Hello All,

This past week was Fall Break so it was a nice relaxing time without any school. The team left on Friday for Charleston. I did not travel with the team and stayed back in Greensboro. On Saturday evening I sat on my couch with my two roommates and watched the game on the computer thanks to Spartan All Access. It is a great thing to have if you're a parent or fan of the team and can't make it to the game.

I was jumping up and down throughout the game whenever we scored. It was nice to be able to watch the game and chill on my couch. We ended up beating College of Charleston 2-1 on a great goal by Corey Maret. It was a great conference win for the team and a great momentum builder as we head into the last three and most important games of the year.

Sunday was a gorgeous day. I got to sleep in for the first time in a while. I woke up and took my puppy to the park and let him run around the baseball field for a little while, then I came home and cleaned up. I gave the house a pretty good cleaning and then relaxed for the rest of the day watching football on my wonderful HDTV that I have back.

Monday was another relaxing day. It was nice to wake up knowing I had no class or no practice. Sometime last week my roommate and fellow teammate bought FIFA 09 so we started our lounge. The lounge is a feature on the game so that whenever you play someone it records everything. We have 3 players in our lounge for the 3 people that live in the house. Right now I am in dead last because I don't play nearly as much as they do and they beat up on me pretty bad. But I will pick my game up when I have some time to sit down and play.

The games get pretty intense and controllers go flying every once in a while. We are planning on buying one of our roommates his own controller so whenever he gets angry at the game, he can go ahead and throw it against the wall all he wants.

Tuesday was another day off from class but we had training in the morning. It was a decent session. The guys got in a good sweat on and the team's moral was high coming off a great win the previous weekend. I took Tuesday as a day to catch up on my school work and get some paperwork done. I had a good amount of work to do for a couple of my marketing classes that are pretty intense.

Wednesday was back to class. It wasn't fun after a couple days off - it felt like a Monday but worse. It was back to my normal schedule of rehab in the morning, class during the day, and practice and weights in the afternoon. It was busy but it was nice to get back into the routine.

Thursday was another busy day as school was back in full swing. Like I said before, my marketing classes are getting pretty intense and requiring a lot of work. My one class is consumer behavior and our final project is a real-life situation. We are given a real life customer who came in and spoke to the class. We do research and conduct surveys, focus groups, and interviews for this company to see if the product they plan to start making would sell in the market. It is going to be a very cool experience that will require a lot of time, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

This weekend is a big weekend for the team. We play Elon on Saturday night. After coming off a huge win in Charleston the expectations are high. We did very well on the road now we need to do well at home. Elon has done very well in the conference this year (unbeaten in their first five matches) and it's always a tough game because there head coach is our old assistant Darren Powell. He played at UNCG a while back (the early 90's) before becoming an assistant coach, so he knows our style, our players, and our game. It's going to be a great game and hopefully we can add another win to the record.

Till next time... Tot ziens

Thomas Campbell, #7

Felician soccer student-athlete Brittany Lohman gives insight into what her senior season has been like thus far. Check out Brittany's first two blog entries: Felician soccer player bounces back from tough loss and Being a student-athlete is difficult, but rewarding.

If it's common to fear the unknown, then it's only natural how my Felician College Women's Soccer teammates and I felt at the start of our new season. We had a new coaching staff and did not know what to expect. In essence, it was a new start for everyone - the players, the coaches, and the program itself.

It was very stressful not having a coach over the summer months and then with two and a half weeks before preseason was set to start, we finally had a coach. The situation created a lot of anxiety, for not only me, but for the other five seniors as well. What was this year going to be like? How are we going to finish out our careers? We were haunted by these questions.

Fortunately, all our fears were put to rest after our first team meeting. Our new coach, Tom Notte, was our men's assistant coach last year, so he was a familiar face to us. Our new assistant, Byron Estrada, works with Coach Tom at the same club team. We walked into the meeting timid and nervous and walked out excited and reassured. This was our year to shock people and put Felician back on the map.

Coach Tom made sure everyone knew how seriously he took his new position and that it was not going to be a wasted year. It was going to be a year of growth, determination and most importantly, wins. We also established an important team goal, to qualify for our conference tournament, something that has not occurred within the past three years.

Coach Tom's passion and love for the game is very strong. We could tell he loves playing and coaching and will do anything to see his teams succeed. Coach Byron exudes the same passion and love for the game. Together they are quite the dynamic duo. Our coaches' love for soccer has been absorbed by many of the players and our own love and passion for the game has been rejuvenated. Coach Tom and Byron bring a new level of motivation to our team and demand the best from us all the time. The level of competition has increased within the team and we are hungry to win games.

Preseason was our first taste of what Coach Tom and Bryon were bringing to our team. Even despite practicing at 6am, practices were great; tactics, fitness, skills, all combined into a well-structured practice. It was the type of practice we needed not only as individuals, but collectively.

Our regular season practices continue to be at 6 a.m. but no one seems to mind anymore. At the time of this writing, we were ranked second in our conference. Preseason polls predicted us to finish 9th out of 12 teams. We are now guaranteed a spot in our conference tournament. Essentially we have accomplished our team goal, but we are far from being done. Our eye is on the conference finals now. The fire inside us is growing and anything is possible.

As a senior, nothing would excite me more then to reach the conference finals and then of course, ultimately win. Thus far, my senior season has exceeded my expectations. Coach Tom has brought new life to this team as well as a new soccer dynamic. It is now more than ever bittersweet to be a senior. I know I can't stay but I don't want to leave because the future of our program is so bright. I wish I could be a part of what the future holds but I'm thankful to have been part of the team that began the transformation.

Coach Tom and Coach Byron are both great additions to our Felician family. The women's program can only get better from here. It has been a great ride thus far and with only a few games left in my collegiate career it has been the most exciting and memorable season ever.

No matter how our season finishes, I'd like our coaches to know how great it feels to be graduating on such a high note. I also want to thank them for creating such an encouraging and positive environment. It has been a great experience playing for both these coaches. They have re-established my love for the game and I am extremely grateful for that. I wish Coach Tom and Byron the best of luck in the future and thank them for all that they have given to not only me but to this team.

This entry is written by Carl Ehrlich, a football student-athlete at Harvard. Check out Carl's previous blogs: Playing Under the Lights, Summer Dogs and R.I.C.E.

If I've learned anything at Harvard, it's the ability to multi-task. For example, right now I'm writing a much needed blog entry, rationalizing not having written one in three weeks and feeding into the most clichéd topic about which a Harvard athlete could write - all at the same time! But, clichés are formulated for a reason, and I assure you it's not accidental that all Harvard athletes talk about the shared in-season experience. Which is why I write this entry:

"A Tale of Two Cities; Cambridge and Allston"

The entirety of my experience at Harvard can be summarized by this title. In Cambridge, I've eaten, slept, gone to class (I swear), been mentally beaten by venomous TF's and spent many a late night tearing through materials for an upcoming exam. At the athletic complex across the river in Allston, I've lifted, ran, been physically beaten by ogre-like o-linemen and spent many an early morning getting taped and dressed to be on the field for 6 a.m. spring practices. While the two share common traits like the value of hard work, there remains a voluminous difference between the two. Below is a diary of an in-season day and the shuttle-like transitions between these two worlds.

Today is Tuesday. I wake up at 5:50 in Cambridge, and get out of bed for work-outs. I throw on clothes considerably warmer than I would usually wear at this time of the year in order to compensate for the briskness of the early morning (note change of clothes number one) and to recreate the comfort of my bed. With my mouth nuzzled into the top of my jacket, I walk outside and give a silent head nod to Matt Luft, Tom Hull and Brent Bryant as we climb into my Subaru and head down to lift. While this is technically Cambridge, this part of the day may as well be chalked up to Allston because beyond brushing my teeth, nothing of consequence happens until I am in "Allston mode."

After parking and changing, I'm in the weight room around 6:15 to get ready for the 6:30 lift. Because we are only allotted one hour to lift on Tuesdays, everyone gets down to business and there is no talking of life back across the river in Cambridge. While people talk about their Cambridge lives in the locker room, a lesson learned early on in the program is that when we are in Allston, we need to be here physically and mentally, so our personal lives are put on hold.

At 7:30, we have our team "break down," the concluding event of practice, in which we all repeat the same line on the count of three - something like "Crimson" or "Hair on Fire" - the term breakdown has nothing to do with tissues and childhood trauma - and head to the locker room to shower, dress and travel back across the river.

Having an eight o'clock class, I bolt into the locker room to get a head start on racing through the shower, putting on change of clothes number two, and getting ready for class.

Back at Harvard Yard, the hub of all activities that are Cambridge, I enter a parallel universe where eight o'clock is still considered early. As students trickle into the hallway to get ready for our two-hour tutorial, the only remnants of my morning lift are some Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness and a powerbar that I have to eat in lieu of breakfast.

Class starts in the philosophy tutorial on meta-physics and I am immediately intellectually blind-sided. All this time in the weight room focusing on such fundamental concepts as "dedication" and "diligence" only to find out that abstract entities like this really don't exist!

After class I walk back to my room in Pforzheimer Hall and spend the time in transit catching up on all of the phone calls I inevitably owe my family and friends. One of the biggest lessons of efficiency that I've learned here at Harvard is that if I am sitting down while talking on the phone, I am wasting time. A) I have to walk back to my dorm and B) I always have phone calls that I owe to people so C) I'm an avid supporter of knocking these two proverbial birds out at once. My Dad is so used to this habit of mine that the first thing he'll ask on the phone is "and where are you headed to now?"

Following the phone call, I take a quick nap before heading to my next philosophy class on race and social justice. Turning the material over in my head while walking down to the field house after class, I slowly morph into "Allston mode" and begin to see the applicability of what I just learned in this other realm. I realize that one reason why I am such a proponent of affirmative action is that I am in many ways an affirmative action baby myself, having been admitted partially for football prowess.

In fact, Harvard's most famous alumni were often, in this sense, affirmative action babies - John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt, for example, were beneficiaries of a special program administered by past Harvard regimes to give opportunities the kids from the ruling class. But I will spare the reader my thoughts on Dworkin's defense of affirmative action. Football is a wonderful thing, I think to myself as I cross the (affirmatively named) JFK Bridge, because race is not an issue on the team - instead, we discriminate by the color of the other person's jersey.

Now once again completely submersed in Allston, I reach my locker around 1:45, I make my third clothing change of the day (the fourth will come while getting ready for practice) and get ready to head into the training room where I'll warm-up and get taped for practice. As I'm doing this, I strike up a conversation with Glen Dorris (he's number 54, I'm number 56, so his locker is next to mine - we've finally gotten those odd number children away from us) about how we thought about time versus how people back in Cambridge viewed it.

At 2:00 in Cambridge, most students have finished their classes and are ready to start their day. At 2:00 in Allston, our day (in the Cambridgean sense of the word) is over. I think one of the strengths of our team's culture is the discipline to travel between these two worlds and not let one carry over and affect our actions in the other. With the exception of a political conversation that broke out during warm-ups (Coach Hall reminded us that the word "subsidy" should never be used on the field), every player is impressively able to leave the world of Cambridge behind them and focus on the upcoming practice.

Training room at 2:00, meetings at 3:00 (mainly watching film and brief install), practice at 4:00, training room again after practice and then the team disperses to our respective houses to sneak in before the 7:30 end of dinner. Tonight, however, I have a 7:00 section for my science class (nanotechnology - let's get small!) so I head from practice right into my fifth clothing change of the day and head off to class.

Following section, I stop by B. Good (a shameless plug for my favorite restaurant in Harvard Square - now open until 2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday) and am back in my dorm by 9:00. After coming back, I'll allow myself a half hour to sit around and space out while I catch up with roommates, but all the time being dually, duly, and dully aware that I have plenty of work to do for the following day.

But even if the in-season schedule seems brutal, it has its advantages. One of the best things about it is that you have a built-in excuse for things that seem frivolous in the rest of your life. Just by shrugging your shoulders and mumbling something about being in-season, we can be excused from an unfathomable number of things.

Haven't cleaned your room? In season! Owe your friends from home a few phone calls? In season! Wearing sweatpants to class four days in a row because you can't find the time to do laundry? In season! No blog for three weeks...well, you get it.

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell, UNCG's leading scorer last season, will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each Friday, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process.

Hello all,

Last Saturday we played High Point at home. It was an out of conference match but a good game to get things organized and get back to winning. They are a backyard rival and a lot of our guys have played with or against a lot of their guys while growing up.

We started flat and went into halftime tied 0-0. We made a couple changes at halftime and came out flying. We ended up winning 2-0 and picking up a good win at home.

I have had a busy week because Fall Break is coming up and it seems like all of the professors cram everything into this last week of class. I had a presentation early Monday morning and a test later on that day. Then I went to practice. Put on my cleats for the first time in a while and kicked the ball around for a little bit. It felt weird getting back into it and putting my leg through the motions. But after a couple minutes, it felt routine as usual. It's a good feeling to know I can slowly start progressing towards playing speed again sometime soon.

After practice I went and picked up my flat screen TV, which was damaged after a lawn guy we hired snapped our power line. (You know, I am rehabbing my knee... can't be cutting the grass myself!) It was in the shop for just about a month and everyone that knows me knows I love my TV. So after picking it up and hanging it back on the wall, I refused to plug it in until I had another surge protector. The original one was also destroyed in the power surge. I went to Best Buy and bought a surge protector. I came home and plugged it in and the surge protector blew up.

So then I got really annoyed, but realized that I could not run that much power through a 3-to-2 converter and plug it up to a 2-way outlet. I drove to Ace Hardware and got myself a new 3-way outlet with a ground tail -- nothing more than a small wire that connects from the back of the plug to the metal outlet box in order to ground it. I called one of my friends from home that is an electrician and had him walk me through the steps on how to install a 15-amp, 3-way outlet. (I know, by now all of you are picturing me as the old "Tool Time with Tim Taylor" character that Tim Allen plays on the television show "Home Improvement." I am better around the house than that, though.)

I successfully installed the outlet, plugged in ANOTHER new surge protector (that I exchanged for the old one), and plugged in my TV. It is so nice to finally enjoy sports in HD again.

Tuesday was another busy day - a full work load, rehab, a lift, and a game at Wake Forest. Last year they beat us 8-0 at home so it was a good time to prove ourselves. We ended up losing 6-0. They are a very talented team that I think will repeat as National Champs because I don't think there is anyone that will beat them; they just have too much depth.

We had Wednesday off so it was a pretty relaxing day. I had rehab and class in the morning, and then took my puppy to the park. He loves running around and chasing soccer balls. There is a little park right by my house with a baseball field so I let him run around the baseball field whenever there isn't a game going on. He gets exhausted pretty quickly because he is out of shape, but once I can start running again he will be just as fit as I am.

Thursday was another busy day. I went to class, did my rehab, went to practice, and then lifted. Practice went well as the team prepares for a huge weekend at College of Charleston. Like Furman, it is another hard place to play on the road. With a 1-2 conference record right now we desperately need a win so we can try and finish in the top four teams in the conference standings. The top four teams have first round home games in our conference tournament and that would be very important for us.

Like I said earlier, this weekend is fall break. Mostly everyone is either going home or going somewhere but I am just hanging out in Greensboro. I am not going to make the trip to College of Charleston, so I hope the team does well.

Almost forgot, the 'stache update. I believe Nirav Kadam will be rocking the 'stache this weekend when the team arrives in Charleston. I also heard a rumor that our assistant coach Justin Maullin was also planning on rocking one.

Till next time...adeus.

Thomas Campbell, #7

Carl Rydin is a soccer student-athlete at Dowling. The junior finance major is originally from Sweden, and he shares why he became a Division II student-athlete.

When I applied for colleges in America, I was looking for an institution with a good business program which offers finance and also had a strong soccer program. I wanted the college to be on the East Coast and not too far from a major city. Dowling fit that description well. It offered me an athletic scholarship and also a good finance program with professional professors.

Dowling College is known for being the "personal college" with its small classes, which I believe is the best way to learn since students have the possibility to develop a good relationship with their professors. Since I came here, I have also found it very easy to deal with the rest of the Dowling staff and administration. The Dowling athletics department is always looking out for me and wishing me nothing but success. I have always been helped whenever I have a problem. Hopefully, I can move in to Manhattan and work on Wall Street when I graduate.

But first, I want to win another championship as a part of Dowling's soccer program. I've had three knee surgeries since I came here so I don't know how much longer my body can keep up with the physical stress from soccer.

Division II has its advantages to Division I since more international players are allowed and the age margin is higher. On our team, we have people from all over the world and the diversity it brings is making us more unified both on and off the field.

Basically, I'm very happy I choose Dowling and Division II and I believe it's the best decision of my life.

Nick Fulton is currently a swimming student-athlete at Wisconsin. He is also a member of the national student-athlete advisory committee (SAAC) as the representative from the Big Ten Conference. Fulton also swam in the U.S. Olympic qualifier this past year.

In the past twelve years, the sport of swimming has perhaps seen its biggest changes. From how strokes are taught to the equipment we use it is almost as if it is a different sport today than it was before. The changes are evident too; world records just keep dropping. Every four years, swimming gets to take center stage. The Olympics serve as a showcase for summer's most popular sport and this year was no exception. One difference however this year was the amount of focus that was put upon not the swimmers themselves, but the suits they were wearing.

Any casual sports fan knows by now that these suits are not what you wear to the pool trying to escape the heat on summer's hottest day. These are not even the suits that Mark Spitz and Rowdy Gaines made famous in their day showing all, and hiding very little. Instead, these suits are technological wonders. Scientists - even some from NASA - took a break from curing cancer and building shuttles to design these suits. They are hydrodynamic, hydrophobic, custom fitted, and, well, expensive. Sure swimmers are swimming faster with them on, but there are a lot of questions when it comes to these suits. Is it really the suit making swimmers faster? Is this a good direction for the sport of swimming to head?

In my four years of swimming collegiately at a great university, I have been fortunate enough to be in a position to try many different types of suits. Our team has worn Nike, TYR, Speedo and Blue Seventy, which pretty much covers the spectrum as far as the main players in the swimsuit battle. The decision of what suit to wear has always relied upon us doing whatever we thought would be the fastest. A lot has changed in just the past four years and this summer I switched from wearing a Nike suit to the famous (or infamous) Speedo LZR. The result? I swam my fastest 100 Backstroke ever and qualified for the Olympic Trials. So that's it then, just put on the suit and you can go really fast, right? Not so fast (pun intended).

No matter what suit technology comes out in the following years, swimming will always require an incredible amount of dedication and preparation. There will be no way to avoid the 5:30am practices or the thousands and thousands and thousands of yards swam each week. Depending on the athlete and the event, these suits are designed to drop tenths of seconds, not ten seconds. Granted, in swimming terms, a tenth of a second can make the difference between first and not being a finalist, but it's the athletes who have the speed. It is because of this that I don't completely buy into all the swimsuit hoopla. If you are to succeed in this brutal sport, it is going to be because of the time you have put in and the mental toughness you have - not because of the suit you wear.

What worries me though is the hoopla. What accompanies the showcase of the Olympics is the quadrennial influx of young swimmers. About half the swimmers on my collegiate team started swimming at least in part because they watched the Olympics and asked their parents to take them to the pool so they could chase that yellow WR line. It is these future athletes that I am worried for.

Swimming has always been an inexpensive sport. All you have ever needed was some shorts, maybe some goggles and a neighborhood pool. With the introduction of these high performance, highly expensive suits, swimming is following the pattern of other highly expensive sports like hockey and football. These suits after all, cost upwards of $300 or $400 and last for only a handful of swims. That, coupled with increased registration fees and pool time means that parents who think their child needs to wear one of these suits might have to spend a couple thousand dollars a year on swimming!

The fact of the matter is that kids do not need to be wearing these ultra expensive suits. If they love the sport of swimming and would like to succeed they need to spend time learning about the strokes and practicing hard. I hope that this message is conveyed to current and potential swim parents everywhere because there is nothing I would like to see more than the number of young swimmers increase because of the valuable life lessons and relative inexpensiveness of swimming.

While kids do not need to wear these suits, the best in the sport do. Whatever is decided by the governing body of swimming, I hope that it does not hinder the development of new technology for the sport. Swimmers are some of the most dedicated athletes on the planet and for them not to have access to what they think will serve them best would be extremely disappointing. I am glad that the NCAA realized this when they raised the moratorium on the "swimsuit issue" this fall, allowing for all approved suits to be used at the NCAA Championships.

Whatever happens, I can guarantee this: records are going to continue to fall and athletes are going to continue to amaze - just as they always have.

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell, UNCG's leading scorer last season, will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each Friday, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process. Today is the fourth installment. In case you missed the first three, here they are: Sitting on the sidelines, Ready for first win, and First wins.

Welcome back.

This week has been an exciting one with some ups and some downs. As I said at the end of last week, we had a big game coming up against UNC Wilmington. We won that game, 1-0, on a great goal by Tim Masters, who actually transferred from UNCW before his junior year. It was a great out-of-conference win, especially following a great win against Campbell. The win against UNCW put us into 10th in the region in the NSCAA poll.

Monday was a full day - back to work with school, rehab, and practice. My little puppy got neutered, rehab was hard, and school was even harder. Practice was okay as we prepared for a game Wednesday night against Charlotte on the road.

We traveled to Charlotte on Wednesday for another huge out of conference game. Charlotte has some quality wins under their belt and has been in the national rankings this year for the first time in a decade. We played a great game, but fell short 1-0 on an unfortunate deflection. I think we were the better team, but we did not get the result we were looking for.

This week is a big weekend for our school and our team. It is Homecoming so it's a huge alumni weekend. We are fortunate enough to have close alumni that support the team a great deal. Unfortunately, the "sacmaster" himself, Scott Jones will not be able to make it to Homecoming as he finishes up his season down in Puerto Rico. Scotty was a huge part of the program when I came in as a freshman, an All-American and a captain. I spoke to him on Wednesday and he told me I had to "spice" the blog up a little bit. (Well, guess that means someone's reading it!)

Since I have been on the team we have always had a great time joking around on certain issues. Mustaches' have always been on the top of our list. Nothing against people who rock a stash, but it's just hilarious when someone under the age of 25 has one. It has always been a challenge on the team to see who could have the best 'stache. This season, we decided that we would make some fun with it, so we picked one person to start it. They had to grow a 'stacheand wear it for three days. After three days they have to designate someone else on the team to grow it (under the condition that they actually can grow one). After their three days they designate someone else to rock one and so on. The beginning of the week was Striney's 'stache (Matt Strine, for those outside of UNCG) followed by maybe the best one of all time, the Icelandic captain, Jokull Elisabetarson.

As the week closes to an end, it gets closer and closer to the big Homecoming game Saturday night vs. Brown. We usually have a great crowd and a great atmosphere. These are the games that make me want to just put my cleats on and run out there with no regards to a recovering injured knee.

I look forward to the festivities which begin Friday night with a little get together with some of the alumni and some people associated with the team. It's a good way to start off the weekend. Hope the alumni have a great weekend and enjoy the few days back at the good ol' G, as well as some of the older players that make an appearance. It's always nice to see some of the guys that have graduated since I have been here.

Till next time... Vamos Greensboro. Totsiens.

Thomas Campbell, #7

This entry is written by Carl Ehrlich, a football student-athlete at Harvard. Check out Carl's previous two blog entries: Summer Dogs and R.I.C.E.

"There's nothing like playing under the lights."

That was always part of my recruiting speech to the considerable number of athletes in my school district (in suburban Maryland) who were considering forgoing the public high school football experience to play at prestigious private schools (and Saturday afternoon games). "Sure, Al Gore's kid gets to wear a blazer and goes to a school with a chapel, but we have lights, dude."

Six years later, I'll still raising the lights issue to incoming recruits; only this time I use it to draw athletes towards the prestigious private school.

Any Opening Day (or Night) gets you to look back, and after the game on Friday night, my roommates and I were talking about everything that had changed since the "glory days" of high school football - and everything that had stayed the same. While this type of reflection might be more fit for a "Dazed and Confused" deleted scene than a GoCrimson.com blog, I thought I would talk about a few different areas of interest.

In high school, I thought the kids that we played against were big. Because team rosters weren't on-line, the only way to gauge before the game how big the opposing kids were was to compare them to the teams they were playing against. Often we relied on second-hand accounts from a buddy who might have seen a kid from the rival team outside the movie theatre that summer.

While no one in the count(r)y could have been bigger than my best friend on my high school team (a 6 foot 6, 320-pund Baby Hughie who's now terrorizing people at Division II powerhouse Shepherd College), we still spent much of the week speculating what the team would look like when we got onto the field.

In college, we know the kids we are playing are big. Granted, we play in the Ivy League, which is a league of smaller, faster linemen who are more geared towards zone than power football. But this isn't to say that I'm lining up against small kids. On Friday, I lined up against the Holy Cross right guard who was a roster-listed 6 foot 6, 292-punds... and he was the small guard! Teammate and captain Matt Curtis had the privilege of lining up across from their left guard who was a whopping 350 pounds! They could've put a third number on his jersey.

With the exception of the occasional "pad monster" (a player who wears pads under his shoulder pads with a big neck roll to appear bigger - the football equivalent of heel lifts), the teams we play against on Saturdays have players big enough that the imperative question is no longer if they'll be big, but how big.

The night before a game in high school, I would sit on the floor in my basement and stretch while I watched video (remember VHS?) of the other team (that I usually purloined from the coach's office). Looking back, I did this more out of superstition than practicality because the videos looked like they were filmed by the directors of "Blair Witch Project" with prehistoric camcorders. The most I could really do was add up the run/pass tally marks to look for tendencies.

The videos I watch now are so good they look like "Plant Earth: Gridirons of the Northeast" - I keep waiting for Sigourney Weaver to narrate.

Along with the DVD of the other team that I am given each week, I'm also given a scouting report that the Secretary of Defense would find mind-boggling. We have the tendencies of other teams sorted by formation, down, distance, temperature, cloud formation, favorite color, and cleat size. Naturally, we burn all of these intelligence reports after each game, except for our offensive linemen - whom eat them.

But the greatest constant throughout all of these years of football has been how sweet it is to play in your home stadium, in front of a huge crowd, and to be a part of a fourth quarter comeback that everyone who saw it will remember - all of which I got to experience last Friday night against Holy Cross.

You simply can't beat 20,000 people showing up to cheer. And during our final drive, our final defensive series, and when Chris Pizzotti knelt to end the game (an ironic way to beat Holy Cross), you could hear the 19,500 of them who came to cheer for us. Thanks to everyone for coming out to the game!

Next stop, Providence - the city, of course - for a date with Brown, my pick for the sleeper in our league.

Josh Centor, a former baseball student-athlete at Brandeis, currently serves as an assistant athletics director at Carnegie Mellon.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat at home and watched Charlie Gibson grill vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, an hour that certainly could have been considered an event of sporting proportions for all of the advance fanfare.

I don't believe intercollegiate athletics, or the Double-A Zone, is necessarily a place for politics, but I must admit surprise that Palin's candidacy hasn't warranted any conversation on the blog. While Barack Obama's candidacy for president has been addressed as a positive for civil rights advances (and rightfully so), Palin has not been discussed at all.

Whether or not you swing on the left or right side of the political batter's box, you must admit that Palin and Hillary Clinton are both beneficiaries of Title IX. During the ABC broadcast, Title IX was referenced in a description of Palin and it was a moment for applause. To ignore the impact of the law at this time is irresponsible.

Title IX receives much of its attention for having an impact on college sports, but the legislation clearly states that equal educational opportunities must be afforded to all individuals, regardless of gender. The reach of Title IX extends far beyond the field, court or swimming pool. This year, it extends into the political arena, and that is something all Americans should celebrate, regardless of their political affiliation.

Erin Mullen, a former softball student-athlete at Belmont, currently interns for the United States Olympic Committee.

I began my internship at the United States Olympic Committee, specifically U.S. Paralympics, not really knowing what all goes into being a Paralympian. I was unaware of all the hardships and adversity these world class athletes had to endure during their rise to the top. However, their stories are remarkable. They included car accidents; birth defects; wounded soldiers and medical mysteries. Each their own, full of heartbreak, realization and hope, I was truly humbled by their words. My job at U.S. Paralympics did not seem like work but just a step in raising awareness and aiding in the growth of the Paralympic Movement. I quickly made it my personal duty to help those with physical disabilities achieve their sport dreams.

Often confused with the Special Olympics dealing specifically with intellectual disabilities, U.S. Paralympics involves athletes with physical disabilities such as limb loss or limb difference, cerebral palsy and visual impairments. Each Paralympian goes through an extensive classification process before competition that includes physical evaluations by highly trained physicians. Each classification group contains athletes with similar disabilities in order to ensure fairness.

During my internship I met and worked alongside some amazing individuals all sharing the same passion for advancing the Paralympic Movement. I feel blessed to have been a part of the planning during the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. My duties mainly dealt with logistics such as setting up air and ground transportation; filing Olympic Training Center requests (when individuals want to use our facilities, we have to request approval in advance) and apparel distribution for various team members and staff.

As a collegiate softball player at Belmont University, I took for granted travel, food and hotel arrangements. I did not think much about the extensive procedures involved with setting up these necessities. Now, being on the administrative side, I realize all the time and effort it took my former coaches to arrange the aforementioned requirements. Immediately following my experience, I personally thanked my coaches for their dedication.

So what does it take to be a true Paralympian? To be a Paralympian it takes more than hard work and dedication to training. It takes passion and devotion to those that you love. It takes modesty and pride in wearing a sweet graphically designed prosthetic. It takes confidence but not arrogance. But most of all it takes the willingness to learn and awareness of your surroundings.

I leave U.S. Paralympics wiser, inspired and humbled by my experience. These athletes are truly remarkable and I wish them all the best in their future endeavors. I look forward to the future advancement of the Paralympic Movement and will continue to raise awareness throughout my prospective career.

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell, UNCG's leading scorer last season, will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each week, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process. Today is the third installment. Here are Campbell's first and second blog posts.

Hello all.

I was looking forward to this week's blog because we finally got our first win. Like I said in last week's blog, we had a very important weekend at Elon's tournament. We played East Tennessee State University on Friday. This is ETSU's first year as a Division I program so it was very important for us to get a good result.

They played us real tough but we pulled out a 3-1 win. There were some good points and some bad points but it was an important win. When you start a season with three one-goal losses like we did, a win is a win and you just want to get some momentum going.

On Sunday, we played UNC Asheville. We played from behind for most of the game but tied it up with about five minutes to go on a great goal by Michael Bonilla. We went into overtime and scored about three minutes in, but the goal was called off for offside. We ended up in a 1-1 tie - a frustrating tie after a good win against ETSU. So we ended the weekend with a 1-3-1 record overall.

Monday's rehab was not fun. Like I said in my previous blog Mondays and Thursdays are the hardest days of the week. I stepped up to 170 lbs for 2 sets of 5. I also did 45 minutes on the elliptical and I thought I was going to die. Being out of shape is the worst feeling in the world. It just makes me realize how much more work I have to do to get back into playing shape. I get to start running soon so that will be a huge step towards getting back.

We played Campbell on Wednesday back at home. It was a great out of conference game and a great game for us to win. We started off the game awesome. The first half was the best half we have played all season. We went into halftime with a 2-0 lead. We came out solid in the second half, but sat back a little too much and ended up giving up a goal midway through the second half on a PK. With about 15 minutes to go, a Campbell player missed a bicycle kick by about 1 foot. If it went in it would have tied the game 2-2 and - I have to give him credit on this - it would have been the best goal I have scene in my college career. With less than a minute to go we cleared one off the line and held on for a 2-1 win.

So overall it has been a good week for the team and for me. After the slow start, we're unbeaten in our last three. We have another big game this weekend against UNC Wilmington, so hopefully we could pull out another great out of conference win and build on the Campbell win. UNCW has had our number a little - going back to giving us our first loss when we were No. 1 in the nation the year before I came here (2004) and then beat us again in my first match as a Spartan in overtime to open the following season. We beat them down at their place last year, so I am sure they will be ready for us, too.

If you're a soccer fan it has also been a good soccer week around the world. It was the opening week for the Champions League. My favorite team Barcelona played on Tuesday along with Manchester United. There were some other games but I did not watch them.

Thursday was my roommate Matt's 21st birthday so I need to give him a shout out and say Happy Birthday.

Till next time. Ciao.

Thomas Campbell, #7

Junior Casey Garth has been instrumental in the early success of the Carnegie Mellon women's soccer program this fall. Garth, a professional writing major from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, shares some thoughts about the season in her first blog post.

After losing an all-American and top goal scorer to graduation I was worried for this season; but when I stepped on the turf the first day of preseason and saw 29 other girls, I knew this would be a special year. With a record of 3-1-1, a national ranking, and 26 teammates, I'm in a whole new playing field. Only four weeks into the season and I have come across a lot of "firsts" in my career. The first time my team has had to make cuts, the first time we have had a winning record to start the season, and the first time I have seen a number next to my team's name in the NCAA rankings. I am a junior, halfway done with my collegiate career, but this season is proving to be pretty spectacular. With each practice and game my hopes and expectations for the season climb higher and higher.

For the first time in my athletic career I experienced the stresses and pressures that come with the possibility of being "cut." I have always been one to complain about a sense of complacency that occurs within a team when no one is battling for a position; but when the possibility of losing my starting spot arose I was eating my words. I wanted competition within the team...just not for my spot. But the constant fight for positions has proven to be very rewarding for our team. The practices are more intense, people are putting in extra work outside of practice, and we finally have subs!

The change in our practice environment has provided some positive results thus far this season. The success began in Virginia Beach at the Virginia Wesleyan Tournament. Our first game was a 2-1 victory over Salisbury, a very tough team physically. On day two we took on 17th-ranked Virginia Wesleyan. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, both goals scored on penalty kicks, but our performance was not disappointing. The following weekend we came away 2-0 in our home tournament, beating 18th-ranked Elizabethtown.

But the season hasn't been perfect. Our most recent game was a hard-to-swallow 3-0 loss to Capital, a team ranked below us in our region. I'm not worried though, two days into practice this week and the team is only looking more focused and driven. The theme of this week's practices has been putting the ball in the back of the net. We play "pretty" possession soccer, but we're not scoring enough goals. If we can start finishing our opportunities we will have no problem grabbing a lot more wins this season.

Carnegie Mellon women's soccer has never been to the NCAA tournament. This has been a season of firsts thus far and I expect that trend to continue.

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each Friday, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process. Today is the second installment. Click here for Campbell's first post.

Where do I start? (Remember, I am still new to this whole blogging thing, although I am getting the hang of it and have to say that it's pretty fun.) First, I would like to thank everyone for reading my blog and returning to read week number two. In last week's blog, I started to tell you about rehab and the upcoming weekend.

The UNCG Kickoff Class - our annual tournament - began on Sept. 5 with Elon facing Old Dominion in the afternoon followed by our game against Winthrop at 7:30. We came out very sluggish and were down 1-0 at halftime. At about the 55-minute mark a Winthrop player was red carded so we were a man up. Winthrop scored again a couple minutes later to make it 2-0. With about 15 minutes left we scored two goals to tie the game, 2-2. Not even 15 seconds after the tying goal, though they scored a third goal and we lost 3-2. It was a tough loss once again.

The team took Saturday off because we had another game on Sunday against Old Dominion. I also took the day off from rehab to let my hamstring loosen up. We ended up losing to ODU as well, so we are now 0-3. It's not a very good start and it is very frustrating for me to sit and watch, knowing I can't go out there and help my teammates. I can't even sit on the bench anymore; I find myself at the end of the bench by myself thinking about what can be done to better the team.

I have started a new rehab regiment, Mondays and Thursdays are my hard days, Tuesdays and Fridays are my max out days and Wednesday and Saturday are my footwork and plyometrics day. So I am doing rehab every morning and lifting in the afternoon. Tuesday's rehab was the hardest so far. After the second exercise, I was exhausted; and by the last exercise I was about to throw up. I am also doing cardio work everyday after my afternoon lift switching from the bike, to the elliptical, to the pool.

The team has had a decent week of training and I think we are ready to get our first win this weekend. We are playing at Elon in their tournament against East Tennessee State on Friday and UNC Ashville on Sunday. It is very important that we get a win under our belt this weekend and gain some momentum as we head into conference play.

On top of all of the soccer, I have had a busy week of classes. I am taking all 300+ level marketing classes, so my work load is very tough. I had a presentation on Monday and a presentation on Wednesday, so I haven't had much sleep this week. I have been up late every night preparing for presentations or reading material for the next day's class. It gives me a sense of realization that I am almost done with school when I am working more than normal.

This past weekend was a great football weekend. I love watching the NFL and NCAA football. I am sure everyone saw that Tom Brady tore his knee up - reportedly his ACL and MCL. Seeing that just makes me realize that it can happen to anyone. It is nerve racking every time I see an athlete go in for a tackle or a someone get hit in the knee thinking about how hard the recovery is because I do not wish that upon anyone. But seeing top athletes like that getting hurt as well just gives me more motivation to get back knowing that they will, too.

I look forward to this upcoming weekend and I hope the team is ready to get our first win. I look forward to next week's blog, as well. Adios.

Thomas Campbell, #7

Sherraine Pencil is a former San Diego State track and field student-athlete and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) representative.

Day in and day out we tend to not appreciate the things around us, the things we have. We take them for granted and don't realize how good we have it until it's gone. What I am talking about is being a college student-athlete, being part of a team for four years and only now realizing that I am no longer part of that team. It makes me appreciate my last race in my team uniform even more. It makes me appreciate the last time saying my code of honor with my team--the ten codes being the foundation of our team. It made me realize how lucky I am to say that I was an NCAA student-athlete and have had some amazing experiences that will remain with me for the rest of my life.

I am currently in my fifth year of college and my eligibility is up. I now can say I was a member of the San Diego State University (SDSU) Track and Field team. I was the captain. I was the one expected to carry the team. Now, "was" is a hard word to say. I remember my last race and feeling happy to no longer be an NCAA student-athlete--to no longer have the responsibility of carrying my team. I felt elated to know that my time was up--to know that I could train as an elite athlete and not worry about failing my team. I no longer needed to deal with team drama or worry about how to make my team better. The one thing I did not let myself feel is a hint of sadness knowing that my four years are up. I find myself saying, "wow four years really have passed? Where did the time go?" I am ready to move on and make my transition to the next level of my life.

I know that I'm going through a transition, something that I need as athlete, where I can focus on myself improving and taking what I have learned in my four years and making myself a better athlete. The idea of the transition is something that excites me. It is also very scary, but I'm ready to take the leap. It's just a bit sad to sit back and know that my NCAA career is up.

It's nice to step back and reflect on what I did and what I still am doing. Although I'm no longer part of the team, I am still on campus doing what I need to do to graduate. When I do, I will be able to say that I graduated from San Diego State with a double major in sociology and political science. I will be able to say that I have had a great deal of success in the classroom and on the track. I was a scholar-athlete two years and qualified for the NCAA championship my last three years of eligibility. I will be able to say that I was a captain of the San Diego State team for two years and was honored to be given a prestigious award from my coach that only four other track and field student-athletes from San Diego State have received in the past 10 years. I have been a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and had the honor of serving on my conference committee, the Mountain West Conference.

I did not realize, until now, how much I have accomplished. I know that I would have never been able to have any of these accomplishments if didn't get the chance of being a San Diego State student-athlete.

Being a SDSU student-athlete was one stage in my life. I have done what I've need to do. I have no regrets from my collegiate career. I still have my team's support, they are (and will forever be) my teammates.

I just had the honor of hearing LaTanya Sheffield speak, a former SDSU student-athlete, the former NCAA recorder holder in the 400 meter hurdles. She reminded me that once an Aztec, forever an Aztec. She said "if you cut me, I will bleed red and black." She said it perfectly.

Although my NCAA career is over, I'm still growing and I will forever be an Aztec.

Harvard football student-athlete Carl Ehrlich applies the acronym R.I.C.E. to preseason football practice.

Over a hundred years ago, when Harvard Football was Rooseveltian, the ballers spoke softly and carried big sticks. Today, the Harvard Crimson are walking gingerly and carrying big bottles of water.

Sandals have given way to sneakers, and summer tans now dwindle away under ice bags as the Crimson has entered into full blown survival mode (outside of practice and lift).

Seeing as preseason can be a grueling test of physical endurance, I figured that it could best be described using the old rehabilitation acronym, R.I.C.E. (traditionally; rest, ice, compression, elevation).

REST:
On the field, every player aims to expend every ounce of energy he has on every play; off the field, the goal is exactly the opposite. Team members have run exhaustive tests to determine exactly which walking path minimizes time to the dining hall (discounting appropriately for time spent in the shade and adding time for portions forged in goose droppings). You'll forgive the team if they wear sleeveless shirts on the walk; they aren't showing off, just trying to rid themselves of their practice jersey farmer tans. Some of the players have been accused of walking with a certain swagger, but it's really more of a double-legged limp.

Beyond limiting unnecessary physical exertion, sleep has predictably proven to be the biggest factor in camp survival. Most grown men kiss their wives and children goodbye when they head off to work and anxiously run home to see them at the end of the day. I feel this way about my bed. I've been sticking to the system of seven and a half hours of sleep at night with a half hour nap during the day and I'm militant about this. Continuing the habit of an early bedtime from the summer, I've now trained my friends that if they call after 10 p.m., they'd better be on the way or need a ride to the hospital. If not, they will.

Just as my fan drowns out the errant screams from the basketball court below my window, fatigue has drowned out all the aches and pains in my body. While many different parts of camp have been very difficult, getting to sleep has not been an issue.

ICE:
While ice bags have been helpful in getting over the bumps and bruises of camp, the ice baths have proven to be the fountain of youth. With the exception of some freshman, almost every player on the team has been in the ice bath during camp. We joke in the locker room that Coach Hall, our defensive line coach, only asks the freshman how they are feeling because he already knows how the seniors will answer. If camp had been a couple weeks longer, we might start having our position meetings in those tubs.

COMPRESSION:
The greatest evidence of compression in this year's camp has not been ankle wraps, but rather learning the playbook in the little time that we have. Because Harvard starts school so late, we were forced to start our preseason later than nearly every team we play. Being a senior (and having been around the playbook for four years now) and a defensive tackle (arguably the easiest position to learn on the team), the meetings have been more review than anything else. The same cannot be said for the freshman linemen who were handed a nearly 200 page playbook or the freshman defensive backs, who now have nearly as many pass coverages to learn as I do freshman names.

Another example of compression is watching increasingly infamous 7'9'' Ivan Itchndakilya try and fit into the twin beds that we were given to sleep in during camp. He's not the size thing that sleeps on a twin bed, a twin bed is the size thing that sleeps on him...

Note:
What the letter "C" in R.I.C.E doesn't stand for is CAMP. Anyone who has played college football knows to refer to this time of the year as "preseason" because there is nothing very campy about it. It reminds me of how my mom tells her students that they have "opportunities" instead of tests; optimistic rhetoric will not change the gravity of the situation.

ELEMENTARY LESSONS (originally, "Elevation"):
It's amazing how preseason camp returns us to the lessons that we learned in first grade. To name a few...

Use the buddy system:
Before going to bed every night, I double check my alarm and triple check that I still am on the buddy system with at least three players on the team. With a system as simple as a grade school phone tree, it would be nearly impossible to miss breakfast.

Take your vitamins:
While I'm not taking Flintstone chewables anymore, I am taking a multi-vitamin, a fish oil and a glucosamine tablet every morning. Because 'camp' (which pays no head to things like "weekends," or "holidays") can often resemble the movie, "Groundhog Day," taking these vitamins out of my seven-day divider every morning has been my sole way to keep track of the week.

Say please and thank you:
One of the biggest differences between high school and college football is the amount of time and effort that goes into making the experience what it is. We have clean uniforms in our locker every day, trainers to treat our injuries, managers to film our practices, and secretaries to kick our butts if we get out of line (or need a kind reminder to get a haircut). The fastest way for a freshman to get in the dog house (or the dawg house) with the team is to take one of these for granted.

Take a nap every afternoon:
I didn't really have to be taught this one.

Thomas Campbell is a senior forward on the UNC Greensboro men's soccer team. This year will be different for the three-year starter, however. Campbell will be sitting out his redshirt season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered last spring. Each Friday, Campbell will blog about the Spartans' soccer season, his teammates, his classes and his journey back to the soccer pitch in the rehab process. Today is the first installment.

Hi, I'm Thomas. I would like to welcome all of you to my blog. I am excited to take part in this experience and look forward to sharing my thoughts with all of you. While I write these blogs, I will give you all a brief description of my week and elaborate on some of the good times and the bad times.

Well, here we go. Let's see if I am any good at this blog stuff. :- )

I am from Middletown, New Jersey. It is located in Central Jersey about 10 miles from the beach and about 35 miles south of New York City. Its about 3 miles from the homes of some famous celebrities you might know - Bon Jovi, Queen Latifah, and Bruce Springsteen.

I'm entering my senior year at UNC Greensboro. We've been in the NCAA Tournament twice during my time here (making it to the Round of 16 both times) and played in the Southern Conference championship match all three years. Last year, I led our team in goals, but we lost in the conference title game.

I will graduate in December 2009 due to the injury I suffered this past spring. On April 13 while playing in a spring match, I tore my ACL. I decided to finish the semester out and get operated on after that. I underwent an ACL reconstruction and a lateral meniscectomy on June 6. For all you that don't know what a meniscectomy is, it is the partial removal of a torn meniscus. So, for this season, I will be a redshirt.

Returning to school this summer was a completely different experience. Following my surgery, I spent a good amount of time rehabbing and relaxing. The past three years, I spent my summers working out and getting fit for the upcoming season. But this season is a lot different. Returning as a senior and captain of the team without being able to play has been a difficult experience. Sitting on the sideline during preseason wasn't so bad (just like most players, I don't like to run), but sitting on the sidelines during a game is hard. As an athlete you can't let it bother you, though. You have to make the best of it and stay strong. I just keep telling myself that I will not let myself be one of those players that gets hurt and is never the same again. That has been my primary motivation to get back.

We started out our preseason play by beating Duke, 1-0, and Gardner-Webb, 3-2. The team has been playing well and we hope we can keep up the determination and hard work as the season starts up.

Last weekend (August 30) we opened up in Virginia at William and Mary. We know our first three matches are going to be a good challenge as we play Winthrop our second game and ranked Old Dominion third - both teams are picked to win their respective conferences. We need to take it one game at a time and play our game. If we do, I think we will get good results.

We returned early Sunday morning after a tough loss on the road, 2-1. William and Mary was a decent team, although we gave up two "so-so" goals. They scored the game-winner in the 88th minute. It was quite the heartbreaker, but we need to play better than we did.

We have had a decent week of training so far, so hopefully the team is ready for the upcoming weekend against Winthrop and Old Dominion.

This short week has been enjoyable but tough. Classes are very challenging (this is our second week back in session) and rehab is starting to get pretty intense. This week, I started weight training to go along with some light jogging and light footwork.

I appreciate all of you reading my first blog and I hope you return to read future entries. I look forward to the season getting going and the long rehab journey I have ahead of me.

Until next time...

Thomas Campbell, #7

Zach Freeman, a former Illinois Wesleyan basketball student-athlete, is currently playing professionally in Germany.

"Are you talking about Zach, he is NEVER going to be any good, don't even waste your time." I was crushed when I heard those words at the age of 14, but I knew it was last day in my life that I would ever feel sorry for myself. It was precisely those words that gave me the motivation, inspiration, enthusiasm, and determination that shaped my growth as a person and basketball player.

Let me first start by giving a little background about myself. My name is Zach Freeman. I am 23 years old and I grew up in Bloomington/Normal, IL, two towns with a combined population of roughly 150,000. I attended Normal Community High School and graduated with honors in 2003. Under Coach Dave Witzig, our team finished with a 24-4 record, one of the most successful teams in the school's history.

In high school, collegiate recruiting was an everyday event. With eight future collegiate players on the team, it was not uncommon to see coaches at practice and receive phone calls at home. With many options, I knew it was going to be a tough decision. In May 2003, I verbally committed to Illinois Wesleyan University, an NCAA Division III basketball powerhouse located in my hometown of Bloomington, IL.

Choosing Illinois Wesleyan was one of the best decisions I have made in my life to date. Rejecting many full and partial scholarships at other schools, I was often criticized. By choosing Illinois Wesleyan, I felt I had the chance to get a great education and be a part of a very successful program. In my four years at IWU, I helped compile a 78-33 record on the court. In 2006, Illinois Wesleyan finished in third place in the Division III National Tournament in Salem, VA. In 2007, I was honored as both an all-american and academic all-american while closing my career in the top 10 in points and rebounds in IWU's history. It was soon after the basketball season that I began seriously considering a career in basketball overseas while also interviewing for teaching jobs throughout Illinois.

The initial thought of playing overseas was a little overwhelming, taking into consideration things like language differences, cultural differences, living conditions, and leaving everything and everybody you have ever known. While I pondered this decision, I continued to workout and was invited to two different exposure camps (for NCAA Division II and III players as well as NAIA schools) to workout in front of international scouts. After sending game tapes and highlight clips out to several agents from all over the world, I signed with an agent in Duesseldorf, Germany, giving him exclusive rights to me as a player. On July 26th, 2007, I departed for Germany, with a one-year contract to play for Phoenix Hagen of the 2.Bundesliga Basketball League.

Traveling over 4,000 miles and not knowing if someone was going to pick me up took a lot of courage. The transition to life in Germany was difficult at first. Since nobody would blame me if I came back, I was tempted to quit at first. It was at this time my experiences from college helped transform my overwhelming experience into a very rewarding one. I settled in nicely and I began to adapt and thrive in the Germany culture. However, basketball in Germany was much different than I had expected.

In my opinion, collegiate athletics, within the framework of the NCAA, are athletics in its purest form. The passion, enthusiasm, and loyalty to the school and teammates are characteristics that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world. I say this because amateur athletics in Germany are all run through professional club teams. Germany's amateur athletics are inferior to the United States in structure, facilities, resources, and talent. I believe that the NCAA and other collegiate organizations are the main reason there are so many American players are playing overseas. U.S. born players have the skills, leadership, and endeavor to succeed at the professional level. These characteristics tend to be lacking in many professional European players.

In Germany, the leadership from former NCAA student-athletes is ever present. The increase in Division III athletes can also not be overlooked in Germany. When general managers are looking for players to fill their rosters, they are looking more and more for the whole package, not just the skills. I believe this trend will continue with many clubs looking for a great player that is smart and can lead a team in the toughest of situations.

I do have to say that life in Germany now is extremely satisfying. I have the opportunity everyday to help increase the popularity and develop basketball in a foreign country. Having the opportunity to mentor and coach youth players is very rewarding and integral to my growth as a future coach. My passion for teaching has also carried me to the classroom, where I teach English in several classes in Hagen. These experiences are all reasons why I wanted to be a professional basketball player. When my professional career is over, I can honestly say that I have lived the life of a professional basketball player. The experiences that I have will put me head and shoulders over my peers for a teaching job in the United States. My outlook on life is refined and ever changing.

It has been almost ten years since the day I heard those words. With basketball as my vehicle, those words have taken me all over the world. My advice is to pursue every opportunity that is available to you and follow your dreams...you never know where it might take you!

This blog was submitted by Marie Zidek, a women's volleyball graduate assistant at Oregon State University.

Whether you have received a scholarship or not, large amount of sport funding or piddle squat...whether you are the team star or the team role player...whether you are injured or injury free... collegiate student athletes understand the grueling nature of collegiate sport. Most of us have been through pre-season two-a-days, countless hours of year-round strength and conditioning, grueling seasons (most including some form of travel), team meetings, community service, other athletic requirements (can you say Life Skills events and/or athletic training room?), and many other athletic commitments.

Through my experience as a four-year letter winner with a Division I volleyball program, I can attest that I enjoyed the many hours fulfilling the duties of the student-athlete. Being a collegiate athlete is a privilege - to be in the top 4 percent of high school athletes that get to play in college was quite an honor and an experience that molded how I carry myself today. While being an unbelievable opportunity, it also was quite a challenge on many levels.

The main challenge was balancing school - the school that was supposed to preparing me for my career interest - and sport.

I now ask if institutions and the athletes attending are doing enough to fulfill their purpose in developing a career interest as well as providing athletes pathways to pursue internship, volunteer and job opportunities in order to test their interests (and grow as human beings).

With APR and major completion percentages now in effect in order to assure that collegiate athletes are progressing and graduating on-time (most are still going four and a half to five years realistically), many athletes are feeling cornered into picking a major and surviving through it while their non-athlete classmates are decided and chalking up experience hours.

As a former athlete, SAAC president, NCAA Leadership Conference presenter, graduated consumer (yes- with a normal job and normal hours), and volleyball staff Graduate Assistant, I have become more interested in how current athletes are developing their career interests. I started asking a bunch of current athletes how they were doing with career development. How were athletes thinking about their career pursuits; what did they have lined up after receiving their diploma?

I took into account the career (i.e. why they chose their major of study and what they plan to do with it), individual vs. team sport athletes, males vs. females, time of year the official season is in, etc.

What I am finding is quite unsettling.

Many athletes, when asked how much hands-on, internship or volunteer experience (which could translate to a job after graduation) they received answer they just have not been able to take "time off" from training schedules and/or summer school. Some told me that they feel like "sitting ducks." They know what they need to do to gain experience, but just aren't able to work it into their athletic commitments. Moreover, when compared to their non-student-athlete friends, many believe their friends are farther along in career development experience. As a result, they feel that they are at a disadvantage when pursuing work outside of athletics.

Some may argue that the title "former student-athlete" is an advantage during a job hunt, making up for the professional experience the student-athlete wasn't able to gain in college. However, just as there is no substitute for hard training in athletics, so too is there no substitute for the hands-on, hard work it takes to break into a career field. My purpose is to get feedback from everybody around the country - and maybe find out how individual institutions can band together in confronting what is surfacing as a major issue.

In a recent interview with two-time NCAA National Baseball Champion and Oregon State Beaver (2006 & 2007), Erik Ammon, it is highlighted that collegiate student-athletes simply don't find the right resources to get career-ready before graduation. Not feeling comfortable and/or not having the opportunity to engage in career interests put these young adults at a severe disadvantage and results in higher stress levels when compared to recently graduated non-athletes.

The Oregon State senior, who studied exercise and sport science from 2005-2008, said he had "no hands-on experience at all" prior to senior year. The little experience he was able to muster came as a volunteer with the strength and conditioning staff. His actual responses are listed below in italics with questions bolded.

Are you currently employed or involved in an internship? If yes, what type of job is it, and is it relevant to what you studied in college?
I am working a part-time job while still volunteering with the strength coaches. The job that I have is just labor work and has nothing to do with what I studied. I need to have some sort of income during the summer instead of doing my career-related internship that has been pushed back to the winter.

How do you like working with the Strength & Conditioning staff? I like working with the football team because that is what I am planning on getting into after school. It is a great experience getting more hands on work with athletes, but it is very difficult scraping by and waiting until I can finish school so I can do my internship, get my certifications, and finally start making some money in the field I have spent countless hours learning.
Any other "Athletes for Hire" out there who want to weigh in on this issue?

This guest blog was sent by "Ted" in response to NCAA President Myles Brand's post Why The Capitalism Argument on Pay for Play Doesn't Work.

Mr. Brand, You're right. Many schools don't make money on sports, and many football and basketball programs don't generate revenue that would allow them to pay athletes. Many do make enormous profits and those profits do go to funding many things on their campuses. I'll look forward to your views on that.

As a father who has raised two Division I scholarship athletes, I've seen how hard they work and how much stress they manage to maintain both their academic standings and their standing on their teams. The athletic programs have all the leverage over the athlete with only one-year-at-a-time contracts.

I've seen two full-scholarship athletes on the same team lead distinctly different lives because of the wealth (or lack of) their parents. An athlete who comes from a wealthy family drives great cars, has a fine apartment, has a wonderful wardrobe, has tons of money in his pocket or on his credit card, eats well every day, and in general, has everything he wants.

An athlete who comes from a poor family is putting out the same full day of three to six hour workouts, a full day of classes ending with study time. The monthly stipend barely pays for the monthly basics of rent, food and transportation--if at all. I've often "caught" my own son eating peanut butter sandwiches because he ran out of money and didn't want to ask for more. This is an AA athlete playing in a nationally respected, top-notch program.

I don't care if they are "paid to play," per se, but I do care if they are being provided with the right amounts to live on so they are comfortable. In some markets the rents are so high in and around universities that nearly the entire stipend simply goes for rent, and the apartments I'm thinking of are hardly palaces.

Many people like to say, "The athletes are getting an education." Yes, but the life of an athlete, especially in these times is one of huge pressures to workout ALL YEAR LONG, to invest heavily in year-long training, to maintain academics and athletics as no non-athletic student has to do.

It is time to provide athletes with, at the very least, a living stipend so they can live in a decent place, eat a decent meal, have some money left over for monthly living expenses so at least they have some peace of mind. They do provide revenue to their schools, and they do provide school pride, encourage donations, etc.

They deserve more than having to live like paupers. Their intense schedules don't allow them to hold down a part time job. Take some pressure off these athletes by increasing their stipends.

Harvard football player Carl Ehrlich shares what training is like for the "summer dogs."

1. Early workouts will make old men of us all. No one personifies this "coming of age" quite like my summer roommate, Liam O'Hagan. In all honesty, Liam comes home from work, eats his dinner, stretches, drinks a V8 and is in bed by eight o'clock. Drying paint gets bored watching Liam.
2. No one wants to chat at 5:30 in the morning. Except Mike Lawler and myself. Every once in a while we'll draw a couple people into our morning conversations, but for the most part it's a quiet locker room while people get ready to start the running. Steve Sheehan is routinely ready to kill me for talking on the car ride down to the field house.
3. We're hungry (figuratively). It would be a mistake for anyone to think that we're fat and happy after winning the league last year. I haven't heard a single person mention last season since Christmas and I've never trained with a hungrier group of people. If there is a school in the country squatting heavier than we are, they're lying.
4. We're hot (literally). The vast majority of the summer dogs all stay in the same dorm in the summer (aka "The Kennel"). In case our superintendent is reading this, we're anxiously awaiting the return of the AC.
5. Tuesday night is "Wing Night." Ryan Pilconis aka "Big Pilc" aka "The Lobster Roll Connoisseur" aka "The Moose" puts on a wing clinic every Tuesday in his room. Because we don't have workouts on Wednesday morning, it's a great chance to kick back with a lot of the summer dogs, watch some TV and enjoy Pilc Daddy's fine cuisine. He'll tell you it's the Frank's hot sauce that does the trick, but we all know how those Pennsylvanians are about their cooking secrets...
6. Cheng Ho is a budding real-estate mogul. No jokes here. The kid could sell a sun room to a vampire.
7. We're fighting the "meathead" reputation at work. But losing the battle. On my first day at work, I realized while trying to pull off a discreet hamstring stretch that half of the office was looking at me. Pete Ajayi was blending in nicely at his banking job before his stash of protein powder was discovered under his desk. And although the stair-well seemed to be a tempting place to crank out a set of pull-ups, Ryan Barnes had to be politely reminded that the office building was not a jungle gym.
8. We're all afraid for Matt Luft. Inside sources at In-n-Out Burger of California report that the large and athletic receiver is not so slowly approaching 300 pounds. This, if true, will make finishing our new conditioning test nearly impossible. Those receiver times are awfully fast, Matt ...

Felician soccer student-athlete Brittany Lohman discusses the difficulties of being a student-athlete and why it's all worth it.

Being a "student-athlete" is a demanding, yet rewarding, title to possess. On top of our academic obligations, we have a responsibility to our team. Essentially, we have two full-time jobs, and we are expected to perform and produce positive results in both of them.

As a college student-athlete - in my case a Division II soccer player - my responsibilities to my sport are never-ending. My soccer season is a 12-month job consisting of preseason workouts, practice, games and tournaments, and we can't afford to slack off in these unstructured summer months.

Summer workouts are very important, especially for fall athletes. We are expected to come into pre-season in shape and ready to go, which can make this time of the calendar as busy as the school year can be. Between working, family vacations, trying to make time for friends and working out, there is little time to do anything else.

My non-athlete friends think I'm nuts for playing a sport but I wouldn't have it any other way. Sure, they have the convenience of heading to the beach anytime they want, but many people do not understand the importance of preparing for the season nor my love and devotion to the game. Pre-season begins three weeks before the academic school year even starts, and we move back into the dormitories 2 ½ weeks before everyone else does. Some might say our summer fun is cut short but for us, the real fun is just beginning.

Like my friends, the average college student is not fully aware of the demands placed upon a student-athlete. For instance, we are expected to be leaders or role models of the school. Athletes tend to set a positive image for the other students and unify the school as well. And I haven't touched upon the academic side yet. In my case, I carry a double-major in elementary education and English with a minor in special education. My course load each semester consists of about 18 credits, which includes mandatory classroom observations on Tuesdays throughout the 15-week semester. Needless to say, spare time is rare for me.

However, I can't imagine not playing collegiate soccer. I actually enjoy being busy and having limited free time. That is another thing my friends do not understand -- how I do everything without having a melt down. But to me, this is normal; I've just always balanced the various responsibilities in my life.

According to ncaa.org, "Less than three in 50, or about 5.5 percent, of high school senior boys' interscholastic soccer players will go on to play men's soccer at a NCAA member institution". I think it's safe to say that the percentage of female high school senior soccer players is fewer then three in 50. With this staggering figure, I consider myself extremely lucky and blessed to have the opportunity to play at an NCAA Division II institution. It is a great privilege to represent my school, my family and most importantly, myself, playing the game I love.

Although being a student-athlete is not always glamorous, it is a great honor. With my collegiate career coming to an end, I am truly going to cherish every moment of this season. I hope to go out on a high note, and perhaps one day I will return to the collegiate scene -- as a coach.

Felician soccer student-athlete Brittany Lohman shares an emotional post about losing her coach during the off-season after her contract wasn't renewed.

As a rising senior, I have faced many triumphs and defeats while playing soccer at Felician College these past three years but time after time, we as team, along with our coaching staff, have made the best of our situation and always kept our heads held high. We may not have one the greatest records in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference but we certainly have one of the largest hearts in the conference.

My teammates and I have never let our struggles get the best of us. We play because we love the game and each other. With my final season quickly approaching, I have extremely high hopes and I am eager for the season to begin. However, shortly after we ended our spring semester this school year, my teammates and I suffered a detrimental loss.

Our coach, Erin (also our assistant athletic director), who would be coaching for a sixth season this fall, was told that her contract would not be renewed for the upcoming year. She will no longer be employed by the college after June 30.

Thus, in mid-May, with our preseason set to start in almost exactly three months, my teammates and I were left without a coach. Shocked, devastated, stunned...were just a few words to describe our feelings. We truly had no idea what to make of the situation and we were heartbroken. The fear of what would happen to our program definitely hung over us as we listened to our coach speak. There wasn't a single dry eye during our conversation and the feeling of dread was overwhelming. Not only were we losing our coach, we were losing a mentor, and more importantly, a friend.

I cannot even begin to explain how much Erin did for us. She went above and beyond what I think most coaches normally do. Erin did anything and everything in her power to help us, support us, encourage us and defend us. And although not everyone may have gotten along with her on the field, off the field, she was our best friend.

So here we are mid-June already, still without a coach. As a player and especially as a senior, I don't think I have ever been more scared in my athletic career then I am now. I have no clue as to what is going to happen with my team. Are we going to find a new coach in time? If we do get a new coach what is he or she going to be like? Are our incoming freshmen still going to come now that Erin is gone? These and countless other questions are constantly running through my head. What are we going to do?

I know our athletic department has our best interests in mind and our athletic director is trying his best to ease the situation. And I knew my senior season was going to be bittersweet because it means I'm not going to be playing competitive soccer like this again when its over. Still, it's a terrifying feeling not knowing what the future holds.

Erin and I had an especially close relationship because not only did I play for her, but I was also her work-study student in her office in the athletic department doing various odd jobs. We had an ongoing joke that started freshman year, because apparently I do strange things she has never seen before and so she thinks I'm "weird" (I'm not really sure what she's talking about, but I'll let it slide). One day during practice after I did something strange she said to me, "Three more years of this Britt, yay!" So from that point on, every time I did something unusual, it was "Three more years" and we would laugh. Gradually, as the seasons passed it went from three years, to two and now to one.

We were supposed to have one more year together but we don't; I feel cheated. It's hard walking into her office for work and seeing her there, knowing that I won't be seeing her in August as usual or hearing her yell instructions during a drill because she isn't my coach anymore.

As a team we are really trying to stay together and be strong for each other. Like I said, this was a huge shock to all of us, not only from a soccer standpoint, but from a personal one as well. It is really hard to stay positive when you feel you have been cheated or unfairly treated. Collectively, many of us came to play at Felician because Erin was the coach; now what? Although we are trying to make the best of everything, we are all very scared and nervous. The majority of us has never been in a situation like this before and are unsure what to do. Unfortunately, this matter is out of our control and there is nothing we can truly do. We are trying to keep our heads high and get through this just like we have overcome other struggles.

It truly is difficult to understand why this has happened while still maintaining an optimistic outlook. I personally am extremely nervous for the future of our program and our upcoming season. This is the last thing I could have had imagined for my senior season and quite honestly, I'm heartbroken. I have lost my coach and my friend. Next season is definitely not going to be the same without Erin as our coach but we wish her the best. She will certainly be missed and we all love her.

The following article was written by Will Engle, public relations manager for the American Volleyball Coaches Association.

In every situation, no matter how hopeless it may at one time seem, if you look hard enough, you can find a silver lining. Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophic event that nearly wiped out the city of New Orleans. Now, nearly three years later, the silver lining in the wreckage is that the hurricane fallout has provided a struggling school system a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reinvent itself.

The Recovery School District (RSD) was created by the Louisiana Department of Education in 2003 in order to attempt a transformation of some of New Orleans' underachieving public schools. In the school year prior to Katrina, 2004-05, 63 percent of schools in the New Orleans Pubic School system were said to be academically unacceptable.1

Then came Hurricane Katrina, and hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure damage to the New Orleans Public Schools. In other words, a blank slate.

As the people of the city of New Orleans continue to rebuild from Katrina, they are doing so with a heavy concentration on the public school system. In the wake of the hurricane devastation, more than 100 schools were turned over to the RSD, adding to the initial five. One of the city's main rebuilding objectives is to create a world-class school system, hoping that will attract students, families and businesses back to New Orleans, which will, in-turn, help renew the neighborhoods and the culture.2

One very significant way to help shape a school system is through its extracurricular activities, and even more specifically, athletics. Enter in programs from such organizations as the American Volleyball Coaches Association's Minority Coaches Committee.

The AVCA Minority Coaches Committee, with the support of the NCAA, introduced four years ago a clinic program to promote diversity in the sport of women's volleyball. Since the inception of the program, more than 600 minority coaches have participated in workshops, mentoring programs and camps administered by the AVCA Minority Coaches Committee. The clinics also now reach out to children, teaching them and getting them excited about the game of volleyball.

On April 24-25, with the help of the local New Orleans Hurricanes Volleyball Club and the Recovery School District, the AVCA Minority Coaches Committee hosted a clinic for 45 coaches and 220 students spanning nearly 30 schools in the RSD.

"I think it got some of these kids very interested in becoming a better volleyball player," said Martha Leshine, New Orleans Hurricanes director and event organizer. "I think it's a great program, and I would like to make it an annual thing for us."

Clinicians Sharon Clark and Karen Weatherington, volleyball coaches at Butler University, and Penny Lucas-White, volleyball coach at Air Force Academy, educated the students and coaches about the game, and raised the interest level for volleyball in the community.

"Those kids were like sponges," Leshine said. "I think that this opportunity really got these kids excited about volleyball!"

Not only did the program educate the students and coaches about volleyball, it also gave them an outlook of how athletics, and volleyball in particular, can open the door for opportunities later in life.

"We held on Thursday night a session about recruiting, and there were some coaches that were there that realize now their kids can actually go play places," Leshine said. Through the urging of their coaches, players now believe that "there's a school out there for them that they can get a college education."

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, 40 percent of children in Orleans Parish lived below the poverty line, and one in four Orleans Parish residents had not completed high school.3 Giving these students hope for a college education, a better future, and helping them and those teaching them provide an avenue for that college education is the work of heroes.

Through the efforts of Leshine, the RSD and some prominent sponsors were on board with the project from the beginning.

"(The RSD athletic director) got on board by making it a professional day for the teachers," Leshine noted. "He wrote to all the principals and said, 'We need to make this happen, this is an opportunity.'"

Leshine was able to get the Sugar Bowl Committee, based in New Orleans, involved by donating t-shirts for the participants. She also secured the University of New Orleans facility at no cost.

"There are places and people out there that want to help financially," she said. "Had you told the participants it was 50 bucks, they wouldn't have come."

As the infrastructure of the New Orleans Public Schools is rebuilt, so too is the investment in its athletes and teachers. Events like the AVCA Minority Coaches Clinic help to give the residents of New Orleans hope for the future. "I think it's a great program," said Leshine. "I think that it got these kids excited, and it's a good thing to see them excited."

1 - Recovery School District Legislatively Required Plan, June 7, 2006, page 8
2 - Recovery School District Legislatively Required Plan, June 7, 2006, page 4
3 - Recovery School District Legislatively Required Plan, June 7, 2006, page 9

Catch up on the latest from Robin Mackin and the Canadian softball team.

Today is the last day of our four game series against the Chicago Bandits, a pro team based out of Elgin, IL. We won our game on Friday 5-0, Saturday 6-1, and Sunday 3-1. We are looking to clinch the series tonight. I got my second appearance since my injury in Friday night's game. Each time I go out there, I feel like I am making more progress. I just have to stay the course, and trust that it will all come together when it needs to. I am slated to start the first couple of innings in tonight's ballgame as well.

Since arriving in Chicago on Tuesday evening, we have been very busy. We are continuing to stick to our lifting and conditioning regime with the understanding that we are still a few months away from the Olympics and our goal is to continue to build strength. At times it gets hard to wake up on a game day to go and lift, but we are all invested in the "big picture" (aka the Olympics). Tomorrow will be our well deserved off day. There are rumors of a possible trip to Six Flags, or maybe a bike tour of the city of Chicago. Either way, it will be fun to take our minds off of softball for a day and enjoy one another's company.

Also as a heads up to anyone that is interested, our team is going to be doing a tri-nations cup in Ontario at the beginning of July. Four of the eight international teams will be in Ontario to play some pre-Olympic exhibition games. Our first game will be on July 1st in Brampton vs. Venezuela. Then on July 6,7 and 8, we will be in Kitchener playing Japan (2nd rank), and Australia (3rd rank). Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend. Tickets will be sold at the gates. More information will be available as time gets closer.

Division I SAAC chair Kerry Kenny writes about his experience at the NCAA Student-Athlete Development Conference in Orlando.

For the past six days, I have had the distinct privilege of taking part in one of the greatest events that the NCAA has to offer. I was one of the more than 700 student-athletes that attended the 2008 National Student-Athlete Development Conference at the beautiful Yacht Club Resort in Walt Disney World. The event was split into two different sessions, with just more than 350 student-athletes attending each one.

As the current chair of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, I was joined at the conference by 11 of my fellow national SAAC members (four representatives from each division). As a group, we were charged with putting together an hour-and-a-half session that helped educate our fellow student-athletes on a wide variety of topics.

The purpose of having student-athletes be in charge of a presentation at such a prestigious conference is two-fold: first, it is to show the participants that there are a lot of opportunities available to student-athletes, and second, it has a different level of meaning coming from a group of student-athletes. This was the fourth national or regional leadership conference that I have had the good fortune to be a part of during my time on SAAC, and it never ceases to amaze me what NCAA student-athletes are capable of. The sessions run by national SAAC members offer a chance for these student-athletes, who were identified as leaders on their campuses, to share ideas, learn about how to improve their experience during their time on campus and continue to garner bits of knowledge that they can disseminate to their peers once they return home.

The SAAC sessions took up a bulk of the week's responsibilities for me, but it certainly was not the only thing. On Monday afternoon, the national SAAC members and a few NCAA staff members took a short trip up the road to a place called "Give Kids The World" Village. It is a resort, also located in Orlando, which is a destination for children who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. It has been around since 1989, and to date has hosted more than 88,000 families that have been affected by these afflictions. The families do not have to pay a single dollar for the trip, as the entire vacation is paid for by generous donations from corporate America and individual donors.

The vacation serves as a chance for these families to escape the daily routine of hospitals and doctor appointments, and allows these children to just be kids for a week, which for some is the only time that this can be the case. It was a truly eye-opening experience and an emotional few hours as we toured the resort and were told endless stories about the children that have been blessed to share an experience such as this. In a world that deals strictly in wins and losses, which is the case with sports in general, that terminology took on a new and much more profound meeting at this extraordinary place.

If I could tell the public one thing after attending one of these conferences, it is simply that student-athletes are some of the best and brightest young minds in the world today. Although we are best known for what we accomplish on the playing surface, what we do in the classroom and as leaders is even more astounding. This conference is a testament to the school of thought that most leaders aren't born, but they are made. More than 700 student-athletes that did not know each other, and maybe didn't know a lot about what they themselves were capable of, left Disney World armed with the knowledge and power to do great things in their remaining time on campus. Although the media tends to portray only the stories that will catch your attention with a flashy headline, these are the types of stories that make the NCAA what it is, and why the student-athletes of today are the future leaders of tomorrow.

Limestone senior lacrosse captain Marissa Pesce is grateful for her student-athlete experience - and every teammate she has had during the past four years. Now, just hours before the all-American takes the field in the national semifinals, she tells each of her teammates why they are integral to the program.

Right now I can't function. I can't concentrate. I can't sleep and I can't eat. Okay maybe I can still eat but not as comfortably as I'd like to. The butterflies in my stomach have a tendency to swish together what I had for lunch and I don't like it one bit. I'm currently in the worst waiting zone that will ever exist in my quarter-life years. As much as we don't like to dwell on the past, there is a familiarity that touches us in a sentimental way. Nostalgia isn't always a bad thing. To know where we're going, we have to know where we've been.

It feels like just yesterday that we pulled up to Limestone, shaking in our cleats and wondering where the next four years would take us. We came from all over - New York, Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, and even recruited outside our own country; all with one goal in mind: to win a national championship. It's impossible not to admire the compelling story of a national champion. Now, that time is finally here for us to declare our victory, I have to sit back and wonder. Where did all the time go?

I was reading through my brain earlier today, which of course took me for a merry little stroll down memory lacrosse lane. We have imbedded our footprints on the field. Our scoreboard has never seen another team as a threat. The goal harks along with us as we chant our poem with the common notion that we all yearn for a happy ending. Countless sleepovers and late nights that turned into early mornings...(sorry about that one coach!). And most importantly the friendships that will continue on forever. So before we take the field for the most important game(s) of our career, I say congratulations to you, Lady Saints. You deserve it.

There is no way you can explain the significance of a lacrosse match to someone, but when you are in the midst of morning practices and games, there is a ritualistic bonding that happens surrounded by the things you learn, the mysteries you solve, the confessions you witness, and the grating teeth of being together 24-7. It's a celebration of the simple pleasures of life; friendships, athletics and good discussion, all in the environment on a lacrosse field. Our coaches are our very own directors and screenwriters in most of our games. They undercut their own existential concern either with absurd humor that provides a comic relief, or a harsh attitude of sprinting until the sun comes up. Although it contains a usual blend of comedy and seriousness, the game is played.

Like a puzzle, each individual player brings a sense of unity to the team. "Attacks got your back" is the motto that our attack players cheer. Kelly Lickert comes to the field ready to dance around her opponents. With her lean back shot and quick feet, her defenders are left under the disco in a Saturday night fever. Melissa Howard shoots with a drum roll that permits her stick to be the lead singer on its own stage. She lets her stick do all the talking. Our goalie Erin Cavanaugh however, allows her mouth to do all the talking. Just like our moms used to say, they have eyes behind their head... so does Erin. She see's everything on the field and makes sure that what she screams echoes and sticks hard to us like superglue.

The draw circle is Summer Ferraro's own steel trap. Near or far, her stick has a magnetic charge that any air ball cannot deny. Lauren Askerberg has the perfect psyche of knowing what else cannot be denied, and that is the recipe of a good laugh. She pitches a notable sense of comedy in situations needed when we need that encore of support. Terri Anne George is the "state of the art" marine, who goes to war with the groundballs on that grassy field. After escalating the battle, Lauryn Wise steps up to the plate as our pacer. As much as her skills are dominating, your eyes initially slow it down like in you're in the middle of a "re-united scene" in a movie to capture the perfection "in the moment" on an eight meter shot.

Shea Farrell is one of the coolest players to watch. She plays very different than the average lacrosse player. In an instant .02 seconds, the ball has already left her stick and is sinking in the back of the net and only with little movement. Katie Illiot strives on always giving 110%, even if she has to get her head covered and wrapped like a mummy. She is rewarded for her means to prevail and no means of quitting. Erin Growney, as a freshman came in fully prepared to help us to a successful season and has carried us in keeping a deadlock on our draw circle. For me, wearing the Limestone jersey is a gift. A gift I love to flaunt and sport, in highlight to the girls who wear it alongside me.

When I was an underclassman I remember being really sad when the seniors left. It was difficult to start the new season without them but as the season progresses things always sway together naturally. One thing I want to leave the team with is a smiling face telling you this: I enjoyed being able to watch girls grow into amazing players, and learn so many new things, whether it be on the field or off. One thing I take with me is new dance moves and funny accents. I'm sure the seniors agree with me when I express my deep satisfaction with our season. I'm ready to play a national championship game, and brag about my team for decades after it.

The only Division II player on the U.S. Women's Developmental Team, C.W. Post senior Mallory Poole took time out of her night to share some thoughts about the trip to Houston and the opening ceremonies at the Downtown Aquarium.

Our trip was overall successful; we made it, however, we had a few causalities along the way. Our driver managed to leave several sticks aboard the bus in New York. Our equipment manager sprinted through the terminal and caught the plane with seconds to spare, and the vehicle rental service thought we were "coming tomorrow," leaving us stranded at the airport. However, after all was said and done, we were able to get everyone to the Hyatt in one piece. The hotel accommodations are incredible. The décor is all about the NCAA championships, it's amazing how highly promoted it is! Being a part of this event with all of the other teams is a unique experience. It is especially exciting for C.W. Post because we have two teams (softball, women's lacrosse) competing for the title!

The opening ceremony was a good time. Our lacrosse team and softball team started the party off on the dance floor. We had our own "dance off" and took over the show. Luckily we don't play as bad as we dance, because our moves were rather pathetic but it was fun to say the least. Afterwards, we went on a train tour of the aquarium to see the sharks and participated in some of the carnival rides and games. It was a fun time mingling with some of the other teams and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week's events!

Our team has the first practice slot, so I'm off to bed to rest up! LET'S GO POST!

Washington-St. Louis senior Morgen Leonard-Fleckman writes about her last days in a track and field uniform. Leonard-Fleckman was the national champion in the pole vault this winter.

It is a strange feeling to be finished with college and still competing in track. I turned in my last paper on Tuesday, but the season doesn't end until the NCAA Championships at the end of May. It is hard to think that I only have two more meets before I turn in my uniform for good. But before I do so, I want to set the record straight about the team aspect of track and field, at least as I have seen it in DIII.

When most people think of track and field, they think about individual athletes. They think about times and heights and personal bests. In my experience, however, track has been all about the team. It has been about the team breakdowns, the bus rides, the collective workouts. It has been about the e-mails over winter break to push each other to keep training and the senior thrower who shaved a "W" into his head for the conference championships. Sure, at the NCAA meet, the team attendance shrinks to only a few athletes, but all I have to do is check my e-mail or pick up my phone to remember the massive group of people supporting us.

I understand how spectators could miss this aspect of the sport. When the athletes stand in the blocks or at the end of the runway, they appear to stand alone. What is easy to overlook is the motivation going into each performance and the work behind it. It is a lot harder to give up when you know you are not just letting yourself down. And it is a lot easier to finish a workout when there is someone running next to you, pushing you to keep going.

One of the most memorable examples of team triumph I have witnessed on the track was Illinois Wesleyan's victory during the women's indoor national meet this year. With the outcome of the meet resting on the mile relay, IWU's Rachel Anderson passed four runners in the last leg to win the team title. Anyone watching the race could tell she was not just running for herself. Our team was thrilled to get third place in the meet, the program's highest finish.

As I get ready to turn in my uniform, it is the moments with my teammates that I will remember the clearest and miss the most.

Robin Mackin discusses her Olympics training and announces her departure from Fresno State.

We are now 15 weeks away from the Olympics, and less than 100 days until the opening ceremonies. Overwhelming? Yes...but exciting! Today wraps up another week of training in windy Lincoln, Nebraska. The weather the past few days leaves me with hope that spring is here to stay and summer is on its way.

Two teammates decided to stay back following our team camp last week, and trained here for the week. They have both left now, but we have two more teammates dropping in at some point next week. A lot of the girls are in and out of places for a good part of the month of May. I have decided to stay in Lincoln up until we meet together as a team because I really feel I can benefit from the individual coaching sessions as well as the convenience of the facilities.

On another note, it was recently released to the media that I have decided not to return to Fresno State University to finish out my college career. I notified the coach and administration in face-to-face meetings about a month ago, but was asked to keep the information quiet for the time being. In respect of their wishes, I had not announced any of this information. It was an incredibly tough decision that has taken several months of thought and rationalization. I will greatly miss the fans and supporting community. There are several reasons and instances that led me to my decision, but without getting into details, it is fair to say that I am looking for a better fit. I am currently in the process of pursuing options to transfer for the Fall '08 semester, and finish up my two years of eligibility. Having said that, in conjunction with training I am also making official visits to potential universities.

Thank you to all the readers for your continued support, and I look forward to keeping you informed on the rest of the journey! Have a great week.

Kelly and Kristen Taylor wrote a guest post following the ACC tournament.

We're back! Today was the last day of finals and everyone is so excited to be done with all of their tests, papers, and all of the stress and sleep deprival that has accompanied the past two weeks!

Finals started immediately following our return to Chapel Hill after the ACC tournament, where we avenged our midseason loss to BC by beating them in the first round, but fell to Maryland in the semifinals, 6-4. Our Maryland game was a story of two halves. We came out slow, slipping to a 6-1 halftime deficit. We locked down our defense and slowly started coming back climbing up to a 6-4 deficit halfway through the second half. The rest of the game was back and forth, both teams turning the ball over several times and Maryland holding on for the win despite several of our rallies. We were disappointed to return to Chapel Hill a couple of days earlier than we hoped and dreading the start of finals. There was a good chance we would still make the NCAA tournament but weirder things have happened, which left us all a little uneasy for the following week.

Just yesterday, we sat in the coaches' offices, our eyes glued to the TV screen as the CSTV broadcasters announced our fate in the 16-team bracket. We all released a sigh of relief as our name popped onto the screen. We are traveling back up to Charlottesville, Va., for the third time this year to play the University of Virginia. We struggled against UVA in our first game, falling to them 16-5. It was far from our greatest game and this is a wonderful opportunity to show how far we have come this season. We have a lot of history with UVA as they were the team to end our run in the NCAA tournament last year as well. We are all very excited to play them in the first round this year.

The weather is gorgeous down here, we are all done with school, and all we have to think about is being at our best this Sunday afternoon at Klockner Stadium at the University of Virginia. Third time's the charm!:) Go Heels!

Western Carolina softball standout Lauren Ross will sing the national anthem on senior day.

When you start off a season and lose your first 10 games, a lot of people don't take you very seriously. At the beginning of the year we were a team out to prove how good we could be and now that we have all started to play as a team, the wins have just started to fall into place.

We have won our last six out of nine games and had the chance to win all of them - when our defense and offense are in sync we are an unbeatable team. We have some amazing talent that a lot of people are starting to notice, our freshmen are playing like they have been playing college ball for years, our upperclassmen are really stepping up their games and our only senior is becoming more of a leader every game.

Our catcher Danielle Reese was just named Southern Conference Student-Athlete of the week and it was a well deserved award. She has started every game for two years and gives everything she has at every practice and every game.

Saturday is our senior day and a very big weekend for us as a team. I have been asked to sing the national anthem, and though I was hesitant at first, I couldn't turn down our senior Jamie Swank when she asked. Although the games are more for pride then standings, we are still looking to take the series. We only have one senior this year but we will definitely be playing to get some wins for her.

This is also our last Southern Conference series this seson so we are looking to have a good showing to let other teams know that when tournament time rolls around we will be looking to take it to the house. We still have a lot of softball to play and a lot of things to still prove! So come out to show your support! Go Cats!

Harvard's Carl Ehrlich wants a nickname.

I want a nickname. This is my third year in a college football program, and I still don't have a nickname. Looking over the roster today, I realized that just about everyone on the team is called by something other than their first name, and I want in. In high school, kids on my wrestling team called me "Snarl" as a joke, but never in my life have I had a real nickname. I share a locker room with Randy "Juice" Ojukwu, Steve "The Shark" Sheehan, Kevin "Sonny" McCracken, and Matt "The Overgrown Baby (OGB)" Luft, but there is no nickname for me in sight. Even if kids on the team don't have a nickname, the vast majority are still referred to by their last name, but it's still 'Carl' for me.

But in the ultimate act of nickname selflessness, I bestowed what many recognize to be the greatest nickname of all time on a teammate in preseason two years ago. This is the story of John Paris, and the evolution/spread of his nickname. When John Paris came into camp, he was a prized offensive linemen recruit, who Coach Crook wanted to nickname "Bubba," after the famous offensive linemen for the 49ers. The first day in camp and he was already being called by the name of a pro-bowler?! I'm extremely opposed to (and sufficiently versed in) freshman hazing, but where was the NCAA to report on this egregious act of upperclassmen, passive-aggressive nickname hazing? Here I was with no nickname and the freshman two lockers down was named after a three-time super bowl champion.

And then genius struck. While getting taped in the training room before practice one morning, I saw young John Paris walk through the doors and his nickname came to me, "Bubbles!" It sounded strikingly similar to the nickname that Coach Crook was already trying to spread, but this one had a playfully effeminate twist to it that made it perfect. But a good nickname just wasn't enough, it needed to catch, and with the coaches trying to push "Bubba," I had to hit the campaign trail (Note: this wasn't my first nickname campaign trail; I spent the majority of the season two years ago pushing the nickname "pitbull," for Coach Saul, a strength coach relentless in her pursuit of in-season power clean form and extreme squat depth).

"Have you guys met Bubbles yet?" I would ask my teammates. "It's not Bubba, dude, it's Bubbles," I told them. "He's not Bubba Paris, he's his own man!" I went hoarse just trying to get the nickname some momentum, but once it caught on, it really caught on.

Most football nicknames stay on the field or the locker room, but "Bubbles" spread like wildfire. Because he got the nickname during preseason camp, he was already affectionately referred to as Bubbles by the time the rest of the freshman class arrived on campus. The nickname flawlessly made its way from the field house to Harvard Yard, as word of this incredibly nicknamed Texas O-linemen spread.

With the Harvard community sold on the nickname, I felt as though my job was done, but it didn't stop there. Ryan Burkhead, a sophomore defensive end at the time, visited Bubbles in his home town, and told his buddies back home that their friend, previously known as John, had a new nickname. Rumor has it that the nickname stuck in his hometown, thus completing the retroactive nickname takeover!

Note: Don't let his nickname or his pleasant disposition deceive you, while he accepts the nickname Bubbles, he has far from embraced its connotations. Had I known what a beast he would turn into on the offensive line, I may have held my tongue. Because having a coach yell at you for getting beat by a guy named Bubbles is hardly a morale booster.

Marc Isenberg, author of "Money Players: A Guide to Success in Sports, Business & Life for Current and Future Pro Athletes," offers a guest post on the decision-making process high-profile student-athletes face when determining whether or not to stay in school or head to the professional ranks.

This is the time of year when some college basketball underclassman (and finally one woman!) announce their decision to leave college early to pursue their hoop dreams. You hope these decisions are based on sound information from respected NBA insiders. Of course that's not always the case. There are people with self-serving agendas involved in the process, but that's life. We also hear a lot of chatter about the NBA rules regarding draft eligibility and "one and done" college players. Agree or disagree, these are today's realities and all we can do is provide athletes with the best possible information to help them make informed decisions. In the last month I've sat down with several top collegiate players and their parents faced with this critical decision. There is no "one size fits all" advice when it comes to the final decision.

Here are some of the main points I make in my book, Money Players, regarding the weighty issue of going pro or staying.

The case for leaving
If you are going to be a first-round pick in most professional leagues, you will sign a contract that will guarantee you millions of dollars. Let's face it, that much money is hard to pass up. And you can always work on your college degree during the off-season. Turning pro before your eligibility expires is always a gamble. The best advice on the subject matter comes from Jerry West who told me, "The goal shouldn't be just to get to the NBA. It should be to stay in the NBA." Obviously, there are economic realities that can make this decision more difficult, but I think West's point is well taken: What steps can you take today that will maximize your career?

Testing the waters
I haven't run the numbers, but there's definitely a trend among more players to keep their options open. The NCAA allows college players the one-time option to "test the waters," get a better idea of his likely draft position, then make an informed decision to either remain in the draft or withdraw. The most critical element involves not signing with an agent and not allowing an agent to market one's athletic ability. The NCAA now allows NBA teams to pay expenses related to individual workouts.

The case for staying in college
Many athletes are so focused on getting into professional sports that they never think beyond that. Do you want to be a first-round pick, sign a rookie contract and then be out of the League after a couple of seasons? Or is your goal to have a 10-year career? College prepares you for a job, whether in business, medicine, law or sports. For most athletes, it is the place to hone the skills needed to succeed as a pro.

Go pro, young man
The sheer number of players leaving early, particularly in basketball, proves that many are making a bad decision (45 underclassmen declared for the 2007 NBA Draft.) At the same time there are legitimate reasons for leaving: risk of injury, money, and disdain for school. While there are coaches who probably would prefer their players to stay all four years, that's not realistic--or fair.

Former UNC coach Dean Smith would tell players: "We have one rule
here: We do what's best for the player out of season and what's best for the team in season." Coach Smith would generally advise players projected to be top 10 picks to come out early primarily because they could secure their financial future. If a player is projected to be an NBA lottery pick (among the first 12 selected), most coaches (and unbiased experts) will support a player's decision to turn pro.

Memphis basketball coach John Calipari famously tore up Dajuan Wagner's scholarship immediately after his freshman year to "make sure he understood he wasn't coming back." Wagner was the sixth pick in the
2002 NBA Draft, but lasted only three years due to medical problems.
Said Calipari: "Now you might say [Wagner's] out of the league, but he made $15 million."

Read the latest from Fresno State all-American Robin Mackin.

On Tuesday of this past week I flew into Lincoln, Nebraska to live and train with some teammates. I am planning on being here up until the end of May to train with the head coach of our national team. The weather here has not been very promising, but we are hoping for some sunshine this upcoming week. We have had just about every variety of weather...wind, sleet, snow, rain, and sunshine.

We are doing all of our softball training out of the University of Nebraska facilities. In the morning we are generally at the indoor facility or at the softball field for a few hours of softball training. In the afternoon we have some sort of lifting regime to follow.

It has been such a great experience to have the convenience of teammates to workout with all the time. Currently, there are four girls from the team staying under one roof. Starting Monday, the whole team will be arriving for a five-day mini-camp. It will be great to have everyone together for a bit to do a check in before we see each other next on June 1st in Oklahoma City.

The Women's Final Four honors the top teams and players in college basketball each year. But the celebration in Tampa is much more than a banquet dinner and a few competitive games. Instead, it is an entire weekend of jubilation and hoopla--not just designed for the student-athletes and coaches, but also aimed to pump up the fans and engage the surrounding communities.

Being a true rookie at the Women's Final Four, I was flabbergasted at the fabulous display of festivities and events that shaped Saturday. There were no excuses for boredom or for not getting a little tan!

Kicking off the day was the 4Kay Run, honoring North Carolina State Head Coach Kay Yow, who is currently battling breast cancer. Each participant contributed $25 via registration to support the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer fund. ESPN and WBNA analyst Debbie Antonelli opened the race with a thank you to all of the 800 runners and walkers who came out for the morning. Sue Donohoe, NCAA Vice President of Division I Women's Basketball expressed gratitude to The Hartford, which generously sponsored the event, and introduced the woman of the hour, Kay Yow. While on stage, Yow was presented with donation check of $18,548.70. Also, a special addition to the presentation, artist Kristy Osterman presented a portrait of Coach Yow and dedicated it to her forever-giving heart and everlasting spirit. Many of the participants were attired in pink to support the "Think Pink" breast cancer cause. Hear more about the significance of the race from winner Jen Gwin, Assistant Coach at St. Francis University, Pennsylvania, on this podcast.

Bounce by the Bay, an event for kids 6-16, was jumpstarted with performances from UCONN's, Stanford's and Tennessee's bands, cheerleaders and mascots, as well as local high school bands and drumlines. Each participant received a basketball to dribble their way through the streets of downtown Tampa.

After showing their basketball pride by dribbling around the streets of Tampa, many of the participants headed over to NCAA Hoop City. Fans of all ages can enjoy games, contests and competitions of all kinds. State Farm sponsored an exhibit where fans can compete in Xbox and racecar driving challenges. AT&T showcased a text-messaging contest, as well as an opportunity to be a true sports TV anchor for the Women's Basketball National Championship. Pontiac offered a drawing for a free G8, and The Hartford offered the kids a chance to experience the game of wheelchair basketball. The NCAA also gave out prizes to every kid who completed a multi-sport challenge, including volleyball, golf, softball and soccer. Basketball courts also adorn the NCAA Hoop City event for 3-on-3 competitions throughout the weekend.

Another happening on Saturday was the NCAA YES Clinics, sponsored by Powerade. Elite coaches from across the country conduct these clinics for local youth, instructing kids on technique, life skills and sportsmanship. At the Convention Center, Special Olympic participants took the court and relished the chance to get expert shooting and passing advice from some of college basketball's most renowned coaches.

Outside of St. Pete Times Forum, the NCAA and Lowe's sponsored a Women's Final Four Habitat for Humanity Build. About 40 volunteers spent the day framing a house for future homeowner Lenetta Summers and her family. Volunteers from Hillsborough County and Final Four Fans worked throughout the day to complete the frame. Listen to a podcast from Lenetta to hear about her evacuation from Hurricane Katrina and the meaning of finally having a place to call home.

Other events today included Super Saturday Team Practices and AT&T Autograph Sessions, Open Practices for each team and the WBCA High School All-America Game.

Ahoy Matey! Last night, the Women's Final Four teams had a chance to celebrate their accomplishments in true "Buccaneer" fashion. At approximately 6 p.m., the four teams were welcomed aboard the "StarShip" cruise by authentic pirates and greeted with beaded treasures and thick Caribbean accents.

Each team was fitted for rings while aboard the ship and enjoyed appetizers and the scenic views of the Hillsborough River. The boat docked at the Tampa Convention Center, where family and Women's Final Four greeters awaited their arrival.

Each team disembarked the cruise and entered the venue where the real celebration began at the Women's Final Four Salute Dinner. Emcees Debbie Antonelli, analyst for ESPN and the WNBA, and Beth Mowins, ESPN broadcaster and reporter, introduced each team as they paraded in from the rear of the ballroom. NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee chair, Judy Southard, welcomed all of the attendees and the four featured teams: University of Connecticut, Louisiana State University, Stanford University and University of Tennessee.

One of the highlights of the evening was the first public performance of "The Power of the Dream"--a song devoted to the journey of the female student-athlete and sure to be the future anthem of Women's Basketball. Sarah Lenore, a country music recording artist blew the house away with her powerful vocals and presentation. Watch out! This song could soon be hitting the country charts with its meaningful lyrics and Sarah's outstanding voice!

An eloquent dinner of salad, filet mingon, mahi mahi, potatoes and a scrumptious chocolate cake was served before the program started. They definitely know how to please the palates of student-athletes!

The tables were adorned with starfish candles and treasure chests for each guest to bring home and the stage was trimmed with pirate ships, tropical fish, lighthouses and ship wheels--a perfect theme for the tropical Tampa weather.

The guest speaker was a phenomenal asset to the program. Brigadier General Michelle D. Johnson, a former U.S. Air Force Academy basketball student-athlete and Rhodes Scholar, addressed the audience and shared her advice with the student-athletes. In addition to being the Deputy Director for the War on Terrorism, Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate and a distinguished pilot, General Johnson is the most decorated female athlete in Academy history. She spoke to the student-athletes about leadership and what it means to have an impact on so many others' lives and encouraged them to visualize themselves accomplishing every mission. As well, General Johnson instigated thoughts of the future--not just as basketball players, but as leaders of a Fortune 500 company or difference-makers in the education industry.

Next, each of the teams was individually introduced. The head coaches, along with two student-athletes from each team, took the stage where Debbie and Beth asked them questions specific to the teams' seasons, history and legacies. Also, local middle-school students submitted questions for the players and coaches and wrote essays describing what "the power of the dream" meant to them. The winning students were presented during the dinner. What an exceptional opportunity provided to the youth of Tampa!

The Salute Dinner concluded with a highlight video of each team's journey to the Final Four - closing with the phrase of weekend "And then there were four..."

Some teams stayed for photo ops in front of the nautical stage and others quickly departed the Convention Center.

What a fabulous start to the quest for the ultimate treasure--a National Championship.

On Thursday, April 3, the Final Four festivities officially kicked off in San Antonio with the Men's Final Four Salute. Each of the four teams was introduced by CBS analyst Jim Nantz, who went on to interview Ben Howland, Bill Self, John Calipari and Roy Williams during the program. At the end of the show, the attendees received a sneak peak at the first 2:30 of this year's "One Shining Moment." I promise nobody will be disappointed on Monday night.

Here is a short photo blog from Thursday night:

Inside of the auditorium prior to the ceremony.

Jim Nantz hosted his 18th consecutive Men's Final Four Salute.

NCAA President Myles Brand introduced the winners of Middle School Madness, an essay and poster contest focused on sportsmanship.

Jim Nantz talks to Memphis standout Chris Douglas-Roberts on the stage.

Members of the Men's Basketball Committee and others catch up at the reception following the Salute.