Big night in Shreveport

The parking lot at Savoie's The Catering Place was jammed full Thursday night as NSU supporters gathered for the annual spring crawfish boil hosted by the Alumni Association.

The chance to hear from new football coach Bradley Dale Peveto and meet his coaching staff was the obvious incentive creating the biggest turnout yet for this event.

Aside from his rousing speech, the tremendous crawfish and catfish supper, and the fellowship, this trip is always valuable for the media exposure it generates.

All three Shreveport TV stations (KSLA, KTBS, KTAL) were there to interview Coach Peve. In the hour before the gathering, he was the in-studio guest on the popular "Ben and J.J. Show" on 710 AM KEEL Radio, the 50,000-watt radio giant in our region.

And Shreveport Times sports editor Scott Ferrell was there to visit with Coach Peve, writing the story below. Also on hand, Times sports writer Jimmy Watson, whose daughter is a Phi Mu attending Northwestern, and Mr. and Mrs. Pesky Hill, the former Demon SID and parttime correspondent for The Times sports department when he's not working, serving on the Independence Bowl Foundation board or aiming for yet another hole-in-one on the golf course at Southern Trace.

Here's the link to Mr. Ferrell's story:

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090403/SPORTS02/904030320/1001/SPORTS

Peveto, Aldredge, Love motivate Lab Schoolers

New Demons football coach Bradley Dale Peveto and two student-athletes, second-team All-Southland Conference defensive end Ledell Love (middle) and newly converted tight end Justin Aldredge (right), provided motivational talks Tuesday to about 125 eighth-graders at the NSU Lab School. The students began five days of LEAP tests to evaluate their academic progress on Wednesday - something I am sure a few of them considered a bad April Fool's Day joke.

Among the Lab School faculty attending the pep talk: Chris Evans, wife of the venerable NSU athletic trainer Ed Evans, and Casey Hendricks, son of the late Emmett Hendricks, the former Demon basketball player who later became head coach at Louisiana Tech, where Mike McConathy was his star player. Emmett returned to Natchitoches and opened the very popular Nicky's Mexican Restaurant probably 15-20 years ago.

Demon football update

A good Demon football notebook topped the front page of the sports section of Tuesday's Shreveport Times:

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009904010325

36 and Inspired

Come April 11, I'll be 37 years old.  But this past Saturday in Turpin Stadium after watching and listening to the Demons in their first major scrimmage of the spring season, I felt like 18 again and ready to join the Demons in full pads and all.

Bradley Dale Peveto, his staff, and the players had that kind of effect on me, and I'm sure others in the stands.

It was inspirational, motivational, enthusiastic, encouraging... very active and energetic.

There were lots of "hootin' and hollerin."  Tons of competition.  And mounds of enthusiastic chants.

The togetherness the team displayed reminded me of one thing... the scene in "Remember the Titans" when the Titan team comes together in the school gymnasium.

Coach Peveto has definitely brought some excitement to Demon Land in more ways than one.

If you get a chance to come out to Family Day on Saturday morning, and you don't know what you'll be missing if you don't, you'll leave equally impressed with the product on the field and the enthusiasm and encouragement surrounding it.

Matthew Bonnette

NSU Associate SID

 

Lady Demon tennis TV coverage

A feature on the international flavor on the Lady Demon tennis team ran on KTAL TV in Shreveport last Friday.

http://arklatexhomepage.com/media_player.php?media_id=74921

Hard to ride this referee

Coaches get worked up with officials. It's the nature of competitive sports. But there wasn't any chance of that Saturday morning at the Demons' spring football scrimmage.

The head referee was the head coach's brother.

Garey Birt Peveto brought his high school officiating crew from the Orange, Texas, area to work the scrimmage, the Demons' first under his brother Bradley Dale.

If only that could happen during the regular season....!