At 5 this afternoon, the Demon baseball team was starting hour two of sitting in a bus alongside Texas Highway 21 just west of Toledo Bend, as their road home was blocked by severe weather including tornado activity in Sabine Parish.
Coach J.P. Davis called to update us and to assure the team was safe. They've heard a tornado touched down between Zwolle and Many.
Meanwhile, today's NSU spring football practice is on hold and likely to be rescheduled. Coach Scott Stoker will work out in bad weather but never in dangerous weather. It's not windy here yet, but the lightning bolts are very frequent and that's the trigger to keeping the football team inside.
The steady rains frustrated a tremendous effort to get today's softball series finale played at Natchitoches Central High School. Among those getting muddy trying to get the field ready, only to see it inundated again and again: the players and coaches for the Demons, and softball SID Adam Jonson and student SID Matt English. Facilities director Alan Pasch and other athletic staff were giving it all they could but nobody could jam up the clouds.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Surreal to see Surane
From 1987-90, seeing John Surane at Brown-Stroud Field was like seeing the sun come up in the morning.
But time marches on, college days end, and John graduated after being a big part of the greatest turnaround in NSU athletic history.
In the first year under coach Jim Wells, Surane's senior season of 1990, the Demons on the diamond won their first 20 games -- still a state record and ranking among the nation's all-time best streaks. The final 38-13 record was the first winning season for NSU in baseball since 1978.
Surane manned second base and left a tremendous impact. No. 15 set seven school hitting records and starting in a record 151 consecutive games, the last 51 as the Demons led the NCAA in 1990 with a .981 team fielding percentage. At one point, the Demons went 14 straight games without an error. Surane fielded .984 while capping his career by playing in his 200th game in Purple and White, another school record.
He set single-season (44) and career (118) marks for runs scored, and the career hits mark was his with 173. He set the career standard for at-bats (623) and walks drawn (113). Surane was fourth in the Southland Conference with 24 steals as a senior while hitting .302 with 3 HR and 11 doubles.
The Shreveport-Loyola product earned first-team All-Southland Conference honors, then went on to play minor league ball with the Atlanta Braves, but he didn't leave without a business degree.
He's been back to visit since, but it was still a bit of a shock to walk up to the top of the hill Wednesday night at Brown-Stroud Field and have athletics director Greg Burke ask if I'd seen Surane yet. Surreal, I thought.
I didn't know I'd walked right past his wife and elementary-school aged daughter, who was playing on the hillside behind the Demons dugout.
That soon became apparent when John found me and we visited. His daughter took a little tumble and Daddy calmed her down. We laughed a minute later at the misery he experienced on the same hillside in decidedly different circumstances.
Demon baseballers through the years, and definitely during the Wells Era, viewed that hillside like those with a fear of heights look at Mount Everest.
Football coach Scott Stoker, who was playing for the Demons football team while Surane was on the baseball team, was with us. Surane, who was wearing golf gear, credited Stoker with teaching him how to play at the Demon Hills course on campus.
It will surprise nobody who knew him then that John is doing very well in business. He lives in the Chicago area and is president of Skil Power Tools since May 1, 2006.
He had been senior vice-president of sales for Bosch where he spent three years overseeing North American sales for Bosch, Skil, Dremel and Rotozip branded tools and accessories.
Skil specializes in portable electric power tools and accessories serving both the consumer and professional construction markets. According to the www.skilshop.com website, "Founded in 1924 as the Michel Electric Handsaw Company and renamed Skilsaw® Inc. in 1926, Skil has become one of the most recognized and powerful brands in the power tool industry. From circular saws and jigsaws to sanders and drills, Skil power tools are engineered to deliver the high-performance and durability that today's growing population of Do-It-Yourselfers demand."
But if you were handy around the house, you probably already knew that.
I had to go to the internet to find out.
Safe to say that Surane, always great with a glove, now helps lots of people with gloves.
But he's not at all too big for his shoes.
Doug Ireland, SID
But time marches on, college days end, and John graduated after being a big part of the greatest turnaround in NSU athletic history.
In the first year under coach Jim Wells, Surane's senior season of 1990, the Demons on the diamond won their first 20 games -- still a state record and ranking among the nation's all-time best streaks. The final 38-13 record was the first winning season for NSU in baseball since 1978.
Surane manned second base and left a tremendous impact. No. 15 set seven school hitting records and starting in a record 151 consecutive games, the last 51 as the Demons led the NCAA in 1990 with a .981 team fielding percentage. At one point, the Demons went 14 straight games without an error. Surane fielded .984 while capping his career by playing in his 200th game in Purple and White, another school record.
He set single-season (44) and career (118) marks for runs scored, and the career hits mark was his with 173. He set the career standard for at-bats (623) and walks drawn (113). Surane was fourth in the Southland Conference with 24 steals as a senior while hitting .302 with 3 HR and 11 doubles.
The Shreveport-Loyola product earned first-team All-Southland Conference honors, then went on to play minor league ball with the Atlanta Braves, but he didn't leave without a business degree.
He's been back to visit since, but it was still a bit of a shock to walk up to the top of the hill Wednesday night at Brown-Stroud Field and have athletics director Greg Burke ask if I'd seen Surane yet. Surreal, I thought.
I didn't know I'd walked right past his wife and elementary-school aged daughter, who was playing on the hillside behind the Demons dugout.
That soon became apparent when John found me and we visited. His daughter took a little tumble and Daddy calmed her down. We laughed a minute later at the misery he experienced on the same hillside in decidedly different circumstances.
Demon baseballers through the years, and definitely during the Wells Era, viewed that hillside like those with a fear of heights look at Mount Everest.
Football coach Scott Stoker, who was playing for the Demons football team while Surane was on the baseball team, was with us. Surane, who was wearing golf gear, credited Stoker with teaching him how to play at the Demon Hills course on campus.
It will surprise nobody who knew him then that John is doing very well in business. He lives in the Chicago area and is president of Skil Power Tools since May 1, 2006.
He had been senior vice-president of sales for Bosch where he spent three years overseeing North American sales for Bosch, Skil, Dremel and Rotozip branded tools and accessories.
Skil specializes in portable electric power tools and accessories serving both the consumer and professional construction markets. According to the www.skilshop.com website, "Founded in 1924 as the Michel Electric Handsaw Company and renamed Skilsaw® Inc. in 1926, Skil has become one of the most recognized and powerful brands in the power tool industry. From circular saws and jigsaws to sanders and drills, Skil power tools are engineered to deliver the high-performance and durability that today's growing population of Do-It-Yourselfers demand."
But if you were handy around the house, you probably already knew that.
I had to go to the internet to find out.
Safe to say that Surane, always great with a glove, now helps lots of people with gloves.
But he's not at all too big for his shoes.
Doug Ireland, SID
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Skipper and a trip to Camelot
First-year Demon baseball head coach J.P. Davis is no rookie.
Pitching coach for NSU over the past seven years, he knows the territory around campus, around the Southland Conference and in Louisiana.
And, of course, he's firmly entrenched in college baseball circles.
None of which was required to realize that getting five-time national champion coach Skip Bertman to speak to his team Tuesday was a tremendous gift.
Most sitting athletics directors might not feel comfortable about making a motivational speech to the visiting team before a game on his campus. The Skipper is, in many ways, a cut above.
So it was that Bertman strode into the Camelot Club, on the 21st floor of a downtown Baton Rouge building, where the Demons were treated to their pregame meal Tuesday afternoon before visiting LSU at venerable Alex Box Stadium.
Skip sees the big picture. It's not about who wins a mid-week game, but it's about impacting lives. If you've ever heard him speak, you're fortunate. He's one of the more outstanding motivational speakers in this era of college athletics. He didn't win those five national titles simply with great players and spot-on strategy, he found the extra edge that pushed his Tigers over the top again, and again, and again.
His talk mirrored tenets for the Demons put forth last fall by Davis, who has stressed a team-first approach. Bertman spoke "all about the game" and how it will test you because it's mostly about overcoming failure, said Davis.
He pointed out that Pete Rose is major league baseball's all-time hits king, but nobody made more outs than he did.
He said Rickey Henderson holds the stolen base record in the big leagues, but nobody was caught stealing more. Nolan Ryan is the all-time strikeout leader, but he also walked more hitters than any other pitcher in history.
Bertman asked the Demons what they were doing to make their team better, and said that approach would always provide them with positives. He asked a very fundamental question, and having heard him speak a few times, I'll paraphrase with a little Skip-ese:
"Fellas, each one of you has to ask yourself this -- if the locker room could talk, what would it say about you? Are you gonna be the guy who stands up for the fella going 0-for-the weekend? Or are you the guy who doesn't even notice when somebody else is struggling?"
What an experience for a room full of young baseball players, all of them dreaming big and hoping they were part of a team that could score a head-turning win over one of the great programs in college baseball.
There wasn't any immediate "Skip Magic" that propelled NSU to victory over LSU (something current LSU coach Paul Mainieri kiddingly expressed concern about to Davis during their very cordial pregame visit on the field), but you can bet his message will resonate around the Demon dugout and locker room, not only for the next few days but all season long. Well after they sack up their bats and hang up their gloves for good, I'm certain most of them will retain strong memories of those few minutes on Tuesday, March 25, when they ate like kings and were treated to a magical message.
It was, indeed, a little slice of Camelot.
Doug Ireland, SID
Pitching coach for NSU over the past seven years, he knows the territory around campus, around the Southland Conference and in Louisiana.
And, of course, he's firmly entrenched in college baseball circles.
None of which was required to realize that getting five-time national champion coach Skip Bertman to speak to his team Tuesday was a tremendous gift.
Most sitting athletics directors might not feel comfortable about making a motivational speech to the visiting team before a game on his campus. The Skipper is, in many ways, a cut above.
So it was that Bertman strode into the Camelot Club, on the 21st floor of a downtown Baton Rouge building, where the Demons were treated to their pregame meal Tuesday afternoon before visiting LSU at venerable Alex Box Stadium.
Skip sees the big picture. It's not about who wins a mid-week game, but it's about impacting lives. If you've ever heard him speak, you're fortunate. He's one of the more outstanding motivational speakers in this era of college athletics. He didn't win those five national titles simply with great players and spot-on strategy, he found the extra edge that pushed his Tigers over the top again, and again, and again.
His talk mirrored tenets for the Demons put forth last fall by Davis, who has stressed a team-first approach. Bertman spoke "all about the game" and how it will test you because it's mostly about overcoming failure, said Davis.
He pointed out that Pete Rose is major league baseball's all-time hits king, but nobody made more outs than he did.
He said Rickey Henderson holds the stolen base record in the big leagues, but nobody was caught stealing more. Nolan Ryan is the all-time strikeout leader, but he also walked more hitters than any other pitcher in history.
Bertman asked the Demons what they were doing to make their team better, and said that approach would always provide them with positives. He asked a very fundamental question, and having heard him speak a few times, I'll paraphrase with a little Skip-ese:
"Fellas, each one of you has to ask yourself this -- if the locker room could talk, what would it say about you? Are you gonna be the guy who stands up for the fella going 0-for-the weekend? Or are you the guy who doesn't even notice when somebody else is struggling?"
What an experience for a room full of young baseball players, all of them dreaming big and hoping they were part of a team that could score a head-turning win over one of the great programs in college baseball.
There wasn't any immediate "Skip Magic" that propelled NSU to victory over LSU (something current LSU coach Paul Mainieri kiddingly expressed concern about to Davis during their very cordial pregame visit on the field), but you can bet his message will resonate around the Demon dugout and locker room, not only for the next few days but all season long. Well after they sack up their bats and hang up their gloves for good, I'm certain most of them will retain strong memories of those few minutes on Tuesday, March 25, when they ate like kings and were treated to a magical message.
It was, indeed, a little slice of Camelot.
Doug Ireland, SID
Saturday, March 22, 2008
A year ago - snow?
Hard to believe that on this weekend a year ago -- OK, it was even later, in April, but it was Easter Weekend -- I stood in the Outfield Club cheering on the Demon softball team and watched snow flurries.
Heavy snow flurries. The Demon baseball team was playing at home the same weekend and there was a little thought given, I heard, to a snow delay because the baseball was white and of course, so were the snowflakes.
It didn't last more than 10-15 minutes, but it was quite a sight. And quite a difference, as today is absolutely beautiful and spring has sprung, no doubt.
It's also odd that for the first time that I can remember, NSU is not hosting any spring sports activity on Easter weekend.
Last night I wished we had been at home when AD Greg Burke sent me a text reporting that Denny Choate had turned an unassisted triple play at Southeastern. THAT would have been neat to see! Talk about finding the Golden Egg (which always evaded me in my Easter Egg hunting days) ...
Happy Easter!
Doug Ireland, SID
Heavy snow flurries. The Demon baseball team was playing at home the same weekend and there was a little thought given, I heard, to a snow delay because the baseball was white and of course, so were the snowflakes.
It didn't last more than 10-15 minutes, but it was quite a sight. And quite a difference, as today is absolutely beautiful and spring has sprung, no doubt.
It's also odd that for the first time that I can remember, NSU is not hosting any spring sports activity on Easter weekend.
Last night I wished we had been at home when AD Greg Burke sent me a text reporting that Denny Choate had turned an unassisted triple play at Southeastern. THAT would have been neat to see! Talk about finding the Golden Egg (which always evaded me in my Easter Egg hunting days) ...
Happy Easter!
Doug Ireland, SID
Revisiting the SLC Tournament
Just a few Easter weekend notes from last week's Southland Conference Tournament basketball experience ...
... former Potpourri editor and Current Sauce writer (boy, it's been a long while since that's how he was introduced) Mike Gallien treated me to my first Houston Rodeo experience. Mike's wife and he had four tickets to the March 12 Rodeo. She was overseas working in Russia, and the couple they were going to join couldn't make it, so Mike shook off the disappointment of the Lady Demons' first-round exit (albeit at the hands of tourney champ UTSA) and I joined my friend at the rodeo.
The rodeo - at Reliant Stadium. Not quite the same thing I used to attend as a kid in Jonesboro or on my first trip to a rodeo when I was a tyke in Virginia.
In fact, by the time I was done with my work at the SLC Tournament, I missed all but the vapors of the actual rodeo. I did arrive in plenty of time to settle into our seats for the feature performance by John Fogerty. It was a pretty cool way to spend an evening. Thanks, Mike! ...
... finally had a chance to watch the ESPN2 telecast of the championship game. Kudos to analyst Bucky Waters and play by play man Dave Barnett for their work. Barnett was ill and unable to leave the hotel for Friday night's semifinals. In fact, I don't think he met anybody from NSU but you could not tell it on air - his preparation was outstanding, even down to pronunciations.
Waters, whose spotlight on TV was brightest when he was one of NBC's national analysts along with Al Maguire back before CBS took control of the NCAA Tournament, worked hard to prepare and it showed. He joined the Demons on the team bus to attend their Saturday morning practice at Houston Baptist, then had a grilled chicken sandwich as the team stopped at Popeye's Fried Chicken on the way back to the hotel. He sat with Coach Mike McConathy and gathered a lot of material while sharing a ton of stories about his days as a player at North Carolina State and basketball coach at West Virginia and Duke.
His assistant at WVU was Hubie Brown. They were both from the big city - Waters is from Camden, N.J., and Brown is a Big Apple product. They almost landed a huge recruit for the Mountaineers, but failed to LSU's benefit. Pistol Pete Maravich really wanted to play for Waters at WVU, near a lot of family in nearby Western Pennsylvania, but LSU made a very good offer to Press Maravich to become head coach and that swung the decision south. Pete loved the idea of trying to play where Jerry West did collegiately -- you might not remember that West was almost as slick and flashy as it got in those days in the NBA in the late 1960s.
During the Sunday telecast -- the 11th national television appearance for the Demons since 2000 -- Waters repeatedly expressed his admiration for McConathy and for the deep rotation system the Demons have used to tremendous success in nine seasons with Coach Mike ...
... the practice session at Houston Baptist was made possible through Barbara Tolar, wife of the late Demon football All-America and AFL star Charlie Tolar. Barbara works in the HBU athletic department after four decades of helping run the show at Rice. She is a very proud Northwestern graduate, as was Charlie ...
... one of her former colleagues at Rice, Bill Cousins, helped out at the SLC Tournament as moderator for the press conferences after each game. "Cuz" left Rice about the same time Barbara did, when there was a regime change coinciding with the arrival of erstwhile football coach Todd Graham, who promptly left himself to go to Tulsa a year after taking the Rice job. Well, read between the lines there, but there is no question that Houston Baptist has benefitted from Barbara coming on board and having Cousins involved, too. GREAT people -- expect HBU to continue to rise. The Demons visit the Huskies in hoops next December ...
... Speaking of Huskies, I guess that was a Northeastern Huskies logo that some intern in Bristol, Conn., built into graphics for the ESPN2 telecast, in lieu of the Demons' trademark flaming N logo. The "Sports Leader" did not seem so in that respect, especially considering the big splash the Demons made just two years earlier in March Madness -- and the fact that it was the fourth straight ESPN2 telecast in four straight SLC Tournament finals. Credit to Jared Florreich of the SLC media relations staff for noticing the bad logo on a courtside monitor about 75 minutes before tip time Sunday, and letting the local producer know that a change was required. The local crew did get most of the graphics fixed but there were some -- including the university bio graphic -- still displayed using the wrong logo. Arrrrrrrrrgggghhh.
... One reason I was rooting for UTA last night vs. Memphis: Anthony Vereen. The SLC Tournament MVP is a class act. In the moments after the Mavs' 82-79 win over the Demons, after enjoying a celebration with teammates, family and friends, Vereen left that group and went over to the NSU bench, consoling and congratulating NSU players. Sportsmanship is not a thing of the past, and in some cases, it's not acknowledged often enough. Well done, Anthony!
Doug Ireland, SID
Doug Ireland, SID
... former Potpourri editor and Current Sauce writer (boy, it's been a long while since that's how he was introduced) Mike Gallien treated me to my first Houston Rodeo experience. Mike's wife and he had four tickets to the March 12 Rodeo. She was overseas working in Russia, and the couple they were going to join couldn't make it, so Mike shook off the disappointment of the Lady Demons' first-round exit (albeit at the hands of tourney champ UTSA) and I joined my friend at the rodeo.
The rodeo - at Reliant Stadium. Not quite the same thing I used to attend as a kid in Jonesboro or on my first trip to a rodeo when I was a tyke in Virginia.
In fact, by the time I was done with my work at the SLC Tournament, I missed all but the vapors of the actual rodeo. I did arrive in plenty of time to settle into our seats for the feature performance by John Fogerty. It was a pretty cool way to spend an evening. Thanks, Mike! ...
... finally had a chance to watch the ESPN2 telecast of the championship game. Kudos to analyst Bucky Waters and play by play man Dave Barnett for their work. Barnett was ill and unable to leave the hotel for Friday night's semifinals. In fact, I don't think he met anybody from NSU but you could not tell it on air - his preparation was outstanding, even down to pronunciations.
Waters, whose spotlight on TV was brightest when he was one of NBC's national analysts along with Al Maguire back before CBS took control of the NCAA Tournament, worked hard to prepare and it showed. He joined the Demons on the team bus to attend their Saturday morning practice at Houston Baptist, then had a grilled chicken sandwich as the team stopped at Popeye's Fried Chicken on the way back to the hotel. He sat with Coach Mike McConathy and gathered a lot of material while sharing a ton of stories about his days as a player at North Carolina State and basketball coach at West Virginia and Duke.
His assistant at WVU was Hubie Brown. They were both from the big city - Waters is from Camden, N.J., and Brown is a Big Apple product. They almost landed a huge recruit for the Mountaineers, but failed to LSU's benefit. Pistol Pete Maravich really wanted to play for Waters at WVU, near a lot of family in nearby Western Pennsylvania, but LSU made a very good offer to Press Maravich to become head coach and that swung the decision south. Pete loved the idea of trying to play where Jerry West did collegiately -- you might not remember that West was almost as slick and flashy as it got in those days in the NBA in the late 1960s.
During the Sunday telecast -- the 11th national television appearance for the Demons since 2000 -- Waters repeatedly expressed his admiration for McConathy and for the deep rotation system the Demons have used to tremendous success in nine seasons with Coach Mike ...
... the practice session at Houston Baptist was made possible through Barbara Tolar, wife of the late Demon football All-America and AFL star Charlie Tolar. Barbara works in the HBU athletic department after four decades of helping run the show at Rice. She is a very proud Northwestern graduate, as was Charlie ...
... one of her former colleagues at Rice, Bill Cousins, helped out at the SLC Tournament as moderator for the press conferences after each game. "Cuz" left Rice about the same time Barbara did, when there was a regime change coinciding with the arrival of erstwhile football coach Todd Graham, who promptly left himself to go to Tulsa a year after taking the Rice job. Well, read between the lines there, but there is no question that Houston Baptist has benefitted from Barbara coming on board and having Cousins involved, too. GREAT people -- expect HBU to continue to rise. The Demons visit the Huskies in hoops next December ...
... Speaking of Huskies, I guess that was a Northeastern Huskies logo that some intern in Bristol, Conn., built into graphics for the ESPN2 telecast, in lieu of the Demons' trademark flaming N logo. The "Sports Leader" did not seem so in that respect, especially considering the big splash the Demons made just two years earlier in March Madness -- and the fact that it was the fourth straight ESPN2 telecast in four straight SLC Tournament finals. Credit to Jared Florreich of the SLC media relations staff for noticing the bad logo on a courtside monitor about 75 minutes before tip time Sunday, and letting the local producer know that a change was required. The local crew did get most of the graphics fixed but there were some -- including the university bio graphic -- still displayed using the wrong logo. Arrrrrrrrrgggghhh.
... One reason I was rooting for UTA last night vs. Memphis: Anthony Vereen. The SLC Tournament MVP is a class act. In the moments after the Mavs' 82-79 win over the Demons, after enjoying a celebration with teammates, family and friends, Vereen left that group and went over to the NSU bench, consoling and congratulating NSU players. Sportsmanship is not a thing of the past, and in some cases, it's not acknowledged often enough. Well done, Anthony!
Doug Ireland, SID
Doug Ireland, SID
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