The television hit reality show “Amazing Race” has nothing on this competition.
On Thursday, the Northwestern State Lady Demon basketball team split into three teams and competed against one-another in its own version of reality-TV gone mad… with the exclusion of TV of course.
The teams had to take a clue that would lead them to a certain destination. At that destination awaited a certain event in which the team had 20 minutes to complete in order to earn points. After the five events, the team with the most points was declared the winner and earn “bragging rights” for the remainder of the season.
“I have to say, the reaction of the players on the very first clue had me rolling on the floor,” said head coach Jennifer Graf.
That clue was stated… “H. Lee had no idea a building would be named after him. Enter this building and ask the woman in charge of us for the test you must pass.”
The woman in charge… Mandy Wamsley, Lady Demon basketball secretary. The building… Prather Coliseum as most… MOST, would know.
Not these teams. They all jumped into their cars and headed in different directions – away from Prather Coliseum!
“It was the funniest thing,” said Graf. “We had one team to see our academic advisor Julie Lessiter.”
Eventually, the first test, which required the teams to correctly name all of the Southland Conference schools and their mascots, was passed and on to the next item.
One event had the teams meeting NSU assistant coach David Aguilar on the Lady Demon soccer field to compete in an archery contest. Then the teams had to follow a clue to meet NSU supporter Steve Pezant in an open field for a skeet shooting battle.
“Each team had a 25 shot limit,” said Graf. “One team didn’t complete it while another did it on their 23rd shot.”
The winning team?
“Dorothy Knox nailed the clay on just her fifth try.”
After that, the teams met on the Demon football field to attempt a 10-yard field goal and then had to push the blocking sled from one side of the field to the other.
“Ashley Barnum walked right up and nailed the field goal. That was pretty impressive. But the blocking sled was the best. We had one team run up to the sled and couldn’t move it an inch. It was the funniest thing,” said Graf.
The final event took place on Sibley Lake where one person on each team had to set up on a wake board for five seconds. There was a 20-minute time limit and only one team was able to accomplish it.
“The players were a little apprehensive about going into the water,” said Graf. “But then, Shonte (Kennedy) decided to jump in and do it.”
The problem?
“She doesn’t know how to swim.”
Luckily, everyone in the boat had a life preserver on so she was never in danger. Unfortunately, Kennedy was unable to stay the whole five seconds and her team failed in the competition.
However, her team, made up of herself, Brittaney Isom, Deashia Johnson, Dorothy Knox and Ashley Barnum were the winners of the entire competition.
“Of course, Chassidy (Jones) and her teammates are protesting the outcome,” said Graf.
So what’s the reason for conducting such an event?
“We needed some type of team building and bonding,” said Graf. “We wanted to take a break from our conditioning and I wanted the girls to overcome some fears and accomplish something they may have never thought they would ever do.”
With the new season on the horizon, the tradition of the Lady Demon basketball program seems stronger than ever.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Demons Lee Smith, Brian Lawrence making news in MLB
Former Demon basketball player Lee Arthur Smith (1975-77) is major league baseball’s all-time saves leader, with 478, but that mark is apparently about to fall.
San Diego Padres relief ace Trevor Hoffman notched save No. 474 Thursday afternoon and the NSU sports information office got its first call from a sportswriter asking for help locating the man the rest of the country knows as Lee Smith.
He still lives in his hometown of Castor but stays active in professional baseball. He worked with the South African team in this spring’s World Baseball Championships and has been a roving minor league instructor.
Bruce Sutter, the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs bullpen ace who was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in July, made no bones about it – he told every media outlet he could that Lee Smith deserves a spot in Cooperstown, too.
Perhaps Hoffman eclipsing Smith’s magnificent mark, carved out during a 19-year MLB career mostly with the Cubs and Cardinals, among eight teams, will boost Lee’s chances for induction in Cooperstown in the next few years. He picked up voting support this year, BTW.
The Demons’ current major leaguer, pitcher Brian Lawrence, had a big part in many of Hoffman’s saves since 2001 until this season. Lawrence won 49 games for San Diego from 2001-05, and was their No. 1 starter for two seasons.
B-Law has been on the shelf this season after major shoulder surgery in February. He was injured on the opening day of spring training, tearing the labrum in his right (throwing) shoulder at the Washington Nationals’ camp after being traded there by the Padres in the off-season.
The 30-year-old East Texan, a 17th-round Padres draft pick after his senior season at NSU in 1998, told the Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance-Star last week his “arm feels great” and he’s “not far off” and could be ready for an October game “but I don’t think we’re trying to get to that.”
Brian, whose No. 27 NSU jersey was retired in January 2005, will be in an option year and is expected to be released by the Nats, but could be resigned at a lower salary than the $5.7 million option listed in his contract. He says he hopes to stay with the team because he feels good about the direction they’re going. He dresses out with the Nats every day and makes most road trips. He’s been living in the Washington area, not back in his off-season home in southern California.
He says “the ball is coming out of my hand better than it has in three years and I am not even 100 percent yet.” He is confident he will be much better than he was in his last two years with the Padres, when he says he “just thought I was getting older” but now thinks there was “probably something wrong in there.”
San Diego Padres relief ace Trevor Hoffman notched save No. 474 Thursday afternoon and the NSU sports information office got its first call from a sportswriter asking for help locating the man the rest of the country knows as Lee Smith.
He still lives in his hometown of Castor but stays active in professional baseball. He worked with the South African team in this spring’s World Baseball Championships and has been a roving minor league instructor.
Bruce Sutter, the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs bullpen ace who was inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in July, made no bones about it – he told every media outlet he could that Lee Smith deserves a spot in Cooperstown, too.
Perhaps Hoffman eclipsing Smith’s magnificent mark, carved out during a 19-year MLB career mostly with the Cubs and Cardinals, among eight teams, will boost Lee’s chances for induction in Cooperstown in the next few years. He picked up voting support this year, BTW.
The Demons’ current major leaguer, pitcher Brian Lawrence, had a big part in many of Hoffman’s saves since 2001 until this season. Lawrence won 49 games for San Diego from 2001-05, and was their No. 1 starter for two seasons.
B-Law has been on the shelf this season after major shoulder surgery in February. He was injured on the opening day of spring training, tearing the labrum in his right (throwing) shoulder at the Washington Nationals’ camp after being traded there by the Padres in the off-season.
The 30-year-old East Texan, a 17th-round Padres draft pick after his senior season at NSU in 1998, told the Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance-Star last week his “arm feels great” and he’s “not far off” and could be ready for an October game “but I don’t think we’re trying to get to that.”
Brian, whose No. 27 NSU jersey was retired in January 2005, will be in an option year and is expected to be released by the Nats, but could be resigned at a lower salary than the $5.7 million option listed in his contract. He says he hopes to stay with the team because he feels good about the direction they’re going. He dresses out with the Nats every day and makes most road trips. He’s been living in the Washington area, not back in his off-season home in southern California.
He says “the ball is coming out of my hand better than it has in three years and I am not even 100 percent yet.” He is confident he will be much better than he was in his last two years with the Padres, when he says he “just thought I was getting older” but now thinks there was “probably something wrong in there.”
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Bat Bubba has put the hammer down
It’s a sledgehammer about 10 feet tall, and the handle is more than 30 feet long.
But then, former Demon football player, student equipment manager and all-around gentle giant Matt Padgett has always been most comfortable with biggie-sized items.
His latest endeavor earned Matt a front-page story in Wednesday’s Natchitoches Times, complete with a photo of his graduate art project, “And God Said.” The story, by journalism student Willie Valrie, explains that Padgett’s work was the result of NSU sculptor Matt DeFord encouraging his students to “think outside the box.”
Matt’s display is made of steel products and a telephone pole. It sits in the common area between Magale Hall (the Fine Arts Building) and the University Police station.
Padgett, 6-3 and 350, needed about 10 days to finish the project. He hopes to work as a sculptor, possibly doing large commercial pieces like ones outside large buildings in metropolitan areas.
Matt became a rather big hit in 2000 and 2005 while he was handling the equipment manager’s job for the Demon baseball team. His trademark garb, which he first OK’d with coach Mitch Gaspard, were blue jean suspenders and a T-shirt. He enjoyed his work, and was hard to miss when he scurried out to pick up loose bats around the on-deck circle, thereby earning the nickname “Bat Bubba.”
When the Southland Conference champion Demons reached the 2005 NCAA Regional in Baton Rouge at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium, in his hometown, Matt became a media celebrity due to his appearance and his enthusiasm. After heavy rains struck during the NSU-LSU game, as the storm began to subside, a couple of LSU managers decided to do the old slip ‘n slide routine on the tarp covering the infield, to entertain the crowd and the teams.
They sent up spray. Bat Bubba nearly created a tsunami.
The CST TV cameras and the Baton Rouge Advocate loved the show, and so did everybody at the Box.
But then, former Demon football player, student equipment manager and all-around gentle giant Matt Padgett has always been most comfortable with biggie-sized items.
His latest endeavor earned Matt a front-page story in Wednesday’s Natchitoches Times, complete with a photo of his graduate art project, “And God Said.” The story, by journalism student Willie Valrie, explains that Padgett’s work was the result of NSU sculptor Matt DeFord encouraging his students to “think outside the box.”
Matt’s display is made of steel products and a telephone pole. It sits in the common area between Magale Hall (the Fine Arts Building) and the University Police station.
Padgett, 6-3 and 350, needed about 10 days to finish the project. He hopes to work as a sculptor, possibly doing large commercial pieces like ones outside large buildings in metropolitan areas.
Matt became a rather big hit in 2000 and 2005 while he was handling the equipment manager’s job for the Demon baseball team. His trademark garb, which he first OK’d with coach Mitch Gaspard, were blue jean suspenders and a T-shirt. He enjoyed his work, and was hard to miss when he scurried out to pick up loose bats around the on-deck circle, thereby earning the nickname “Bat Bubba.”
When the Southland Conference champion Demons reached the 2005 NCAA Regional in Baton Rouge at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium, in his hometown, Matt became a media celebrity due to his appearance and his enthusiasm. After heavy rains struck during the NSU-LSU game, as the storm began to subside, a couple of LSU managers decided to do the old slip ‘n slide routine on the tarp covering the infield, to entertain the crowd and the teams.
They sent up spray. Bat Bubba nearly created a tsunami.
The CST TV cameras and the Baton Rouge Advocate loved the show, and so did everybody at the Box.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
“The Way You Do the Things You Do”
Going to Las Vegas has its Temptations, even if it’s a business trip.
First-year Lady Demon volleyball coach Brittany Uffelman found that out Thursday.
Flying out of Houston to watch prospects play at a big tournament in Las Vegas, Coach B saw a fellow passenger fumble his French fries while waiting near the gate. Being the sweet person she is, and because for a volleyball player it’s second nature to hit the floor, Uffelman dove in and helped the gentleman try to clean up the spill and salvage anything that hadn’t been ruined.
So now the legendary Motown group The Temptations – yes, the group inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Dion, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder in 1989 -- knows all about NSU and Lady Demon volleyball.
“Can I Get a Witness?” That had to be the question on Coach B’s mind when she quickly sent a text message trying to find out anything she could about the group. After all, she’s 24, and The Temptations are five years past their 40th anniversary.
Thanks to her kindness and outgoing personality, and a long flight delay, on Thursday evening, Uffelman was “My Girl” for middle tenor Otis Williams, the only surviving original Temptation, and his song mates.
The group, Grammy-nominated as recently as 2002, was extremely cordial and interested, she said. It didn’t hurt that she was wearing some NSU volleyball gear and she had Lady Demon schedule cards to hand to each Temp.
Perhaps if they someday make a match, they might root for a “Ball of Confusion” by NSU’s opponent. Picture the Temptations doing “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” between games 2 and 3 of a Saturday night match at Prather Coliseum, for their buddy, Coach B, and her girls.
Can you dig it? We’d all be on “Cloud Nine.” I can’t help it, I “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” although I know that’s “Just My Imagination.”
First-year Lady Demon volleyball coach Brittany Uffelman found that out Thursday.
Flying out of Houston to watch prospects play at a big tournament in Las Vegas, Coach B saw a fellow passenger fumble his French fries while waiting near the gate. Being the sweet person she is, and because for a volleyball player it’s second nature to hit the floor, Uffelman dove in and helped the gentleman try to clean up the spill and salvage anything that hadn’t been ruined.
So now the legendary Motown group The Temptations – yes, the group inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Dion, Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder in 1989 -- knows all about NSU and Lady Demon volleyball.
“Can I Get a Witness?” That had to be the question on Coach B’s mind when she quickly sent a text message trying to find out anything she could about the group. After all, she’s 24, and The Temptations are five years past their 40th anniversary.
Thanks to her kindness and outgoing personality, and a long flight delay, on Thursday evening, Uffelman was “My Girl” for middle tenor Otis Williams, the only surviving original Temptation, and his song mates.
The group, Grammy-nominated as recently as 2002, was extremely cordial and interested, she said. It didn’t hurt that she was wearing some NSU volleyball gear and she had Lady Demon schedule cards to hand to each Temp.
Perhaps if they someday make a match, they might root for a “Ball of Confusion” by NSU’s opponent. Picture the Temptations doing “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” between games 2 and 3 of a Saturday night match at Prather Coliseum, for their buddy, Coach B, and her girls.
Can you dig it? We’d all be on “Cloud Nine.” I can’t help it, I “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” although I know that’s “Just My Imagination.”
Monday, September 11, 2006
Memories of 9/11
It’s impossible not to reflect on 9/11 on the fifth anniversary of the tragic events of 2001.
The entire NSU athletic department was together, attending the always entertaining and mandatory fall semester department meeting, beginning at 7 a.m. that morning in the Stroud Room of the fieldhouse.
I was one of a few people at the meeting with a cell phone. Sometime about 8:30, I got a call from a good friend who was shaken up by what she was watching on television – something none of the five dozen of us in the meeting had any idea was unfolding.
The meeting was about to conclude, so I waited for it to wrap up a couple of minutes later and spread the word as quickly as possible. As I was explaining what I’d heard, athletic department icon Thomas Foster walked into the room and said the Pentagon had just been hit and the situation was unsettling.
I remember football coach Steve Roberts canceling practice that afternoon. I remember the confused discussion that ensued among athletic administrators around the nation, and certainly in the state and Southland Conference, trying to figure out what was prudent and appropriate. Some schools, very few, went forward with activities and games. I can remember thinking that if we were worried about security and logistics in the SLC, I couldn’t imagine how a BCS school could give any assurance of safety at its stadium that weekend.
Ultimately, all games in all sports for NSU and the SLC were postponed or cancelled through the weekend. That meant Demon QB Ben Beach and his family never saw his picture on the cover of the game program for the home game that weekend against Gardner-Webb.
An interesting byproduct of the cancellation of the G-W game was our entry into the scramble to fill the sudden open dates. The Demons were able to hook up with Oklahoma State for a game on Sept. 29, since both teams lost games on Sept. 15 and had open dates that weekend. The connection was NSU strength coach David Deets, who came to us from OSU (where he is now back, on staff as a fulltime coach, still with enough purple in him to greet and eat dinner with Coach Mike McConathy and the Demons basketball team last December a night before NSU toppled the Cowboys at Stillwater). Deets had close ties with the assistant AD in charge of scheduling at Oklahoma State.
When the football team took the field again, on Sept. 22 at TCU, we like to reflect on the thrilling 27-24 overtime win by a team that went on to reach the I-AA playoffs and nearly beat Montana in Missoula. I remember the pre-game ceremonies and the vibe around the stadium before kickoff in Fort Worth on a lovely September evening. Nobody knew what might be ahead, but we were truly the United States of America. You saw as much red, white and blue as you did purple in the tailgating area on that beautiful campus.
I heard today that one in five Americans knew somebody who was killed or injured on 9/11. I am fortunate not to be in that number and I hope you are too. But one former Demon football player was very close to the scene.
Carl Hazlewood, who graduated two years ago after helping the Demons win the 2004 SLC championship as a tight end, was a Naval Academy student and football player on 9/11. He came to NSU the next spring.
He had been at the World Trade Center, on the roof, three weeks earlier. He had friends who worked in the building. There were Navy graduates killed at the Pentagon.
Hearing Carl talk about how the campus in Annapolis quickly changed into a tightly guarded military installation, in part because at the time authorities considered it a potential target for terrorists on 9/11 and in the aftermath, was chilling.
I remember trying to reassure my friend when she called that morning. No foreign government would be involved in such an attack, I said, and I told her the world was about to see the best of America. That proved true, for a time. Hopefully today’s observances can rekindle some of that collaborative spirit and determination.
The entire NSU athletic department was together, attending the always entertaining and mandatory fall semester department meeting, beginning at 7 a.m. that morning in the Stroud Room of the fieldhouse.
I was one of a few people at the meeting with a cell phone. Sometime about 8:30, I got a call from a good friend who was shaken up by what she was watching on television – something none of the five dozen of us in the meeting had any idea was unfolding.
The meeting was about to conclude, so I waited for it to wrap up a couple of minutes later and spread the word as quickly as possible. As I was explaining what I’d heard, athletic department icon Thomas Foster walked into the room and said the Pentagon had just been hit and the situation was unsettling.
I remember football coach Steve Roberts canceling practice that afternoon. I remember the confused discussion that ensued among athletic administrators around the nation, and certainly in the state and Southland Conference, trying to figure out what was prudent and appropriate. Some schools, very few, went forward with activities and games. I can remember thinking that if we were worried about security and logistics in the SLC, I couldn’t imagine how a BCS school could give any assurance of safety at its stadium that weekend.
Ultimately, all games in all sports for NSU and the SLC were postponed or cancelled through the weekend. That meant Demon QB Ben Beach and his family never saw his picture on the cover of the game program for the home game that weekend against Gardner-Webb.
An interesting byproduct of the cancellation of the G-W game was our entry into the scramble to fill the sudden open dates. The Demons were able to hook up with Oklahoma State for a game on Sept. 29, since both teams lost games on Sept. 15 and had open dates that weekend. The connection was NSU strength coach David Deets, who came to us from OSU (where he is now back, on staff as a fulltime coach, still with enough purple in him to greet and eat dinner with Coach Mike McConathy and the Demons basketball team last December a night before NSU toppled the Cowboys at Stillwater). Deets had close ties with the assistant AD in charge of scheduling at Oklahoma State.
When the football team took the field again, on Sept. 22 at TCU, we like to reflect on the thrilling 27-24 overtime win by a team that went on to reach the I-AA playoffs and nearly beat Montana in Missoula. I remember the pre-game ceremonies and the vibe around the stadium before kickoff in Fort Worth on a lovely September evening. Nobody knew what might be ahead, but we were truly the United States of America. You saw as much red, white and blue as you did purple in the tailgating area on that beautiful campus.
I heard today that one in five Americans knew somebody who was killed or injured on 9/11. I am fortunate not to be in that number and I hope you are too. But one former Demon football player was very close to the scene.
Carl Hazlewood, who graduated two years ago after helping the Demons win the 2004 SLC championship as a tight end, was a Naval Academy student and football player on 9/11. He came to NSU the next spring.
He had been at the World Trade Center, on the roof, three weeks earlier. He had friends who worked in the building. There were Navy graduates killed at the Pentagon.
Hearing Carl talk about how the campus in Annapolis quickly changed into a tightly guarded military installation, in part because at the time authorities considered it a potential target for terrorists on 9/11 and in the aftermath, was chilling.
I remember trying to reassure my friend when she called that morning. No foreign government would be involved in such an attack, I said, and I told her the world was about to see the best of America. That proved true, for a time. Hopefully today’s observances can rekindle some of that collaborative spirit and determination.
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