Tiger Bites: ETBU vs. Hardin-Simmons

Some personal notes/tidbits from the history of the ETBU vs. Hardin-Simmons football series:

-- The Cowboys have never scored less than 20 points in a game against the Tigers. That would be less than 21 points in a game, but HSU didn't get to get the now-infamous extra point in overtime back in 2003, a point that helped the Tigers get the ASC's automatic playoff bid under the old three-way tie system of point differential. (I guess our HSU Baptist brethren will always have bad blood toward us for that... even though it was just playing by the rules as they were written at the time, good or bad). For the record, the tiebreaker rule was changed after that season.

-- There haven't been many years in the rivalry where I can honestly, truly say I thought ETBU had the better team. One of those was that 2003 game, although HSU was certainly a stout bunch back then. I think last year's game in Ornelas Stadium was also a free-for-all, and the Cowboys simply made more plays on both sides of the ball to get the win.

-- Other than that 2003 overtime classic, none of the games in Abilene have been remotely close. The Cowboys put up a very easy-seeming 69 on us back in 2001, and the lowest point total HSU has put up in the other games was 31 back in 2005.

-- Over the years I think most ETBU followers and fans have grown to respect the Cowboys simply because Hardin-Simmons wins every year. I mean, last year was considered a bad year for them and they lost two conference games. That's it. You have to respect a bunch that never ever expects to lose...because that means they don't do it very often.

-- My most meaningful personal memory over the last eight years of this series is, ironically, a game I wasn't even attending. During Hardin-Simmons week in 2003, I had to undergo emergency surgery (I had a "ripe gallbladder that had gone bad) and I was forced to stay home and listen to the game on the radio. There I was, lying up in bed, listening to a bedside clock radio and trying not to get too excited as to rip the stitches out of my gut. The Tigers and Cowboys didn't do me any favors that day, and at the end of it I felt even sicker after HSU had pulled out that 20-14 overtime win. Never in my mind did I ever consider that ETBU would get a second shot at the postseason later, until Coach Harris pointed out the tiebreaker situation going into the UMHB game. Knowing those rules gave our coaches a definite plan going into the UMHB game a couple weeks later, something I'll probably touch on when the Cru visits ETBU in a few weeks.

Looking back, I will agree that yes, the situation and the rules totally wouldn't have been even considered remotely fair had the shoe been on the other foot, but playing by them shouldn't be considered wrong by anyone either. Luck of the draw had us playing UMHB later than HSU, and we had the luxury of playing by the tiebreaker rules. And we all finished 8-1 in the conference, something I don't really honestly think will ever happen again. Those were three very good football teams at ETBU, HSU and UMHB that year -- quite frankly, every one of them should have gotten into the playoffs. The team that upset us that year in the second round -- Lycoming -- would not have finished in the top three of our conference.

See you Saturday.

Up Close With The Tigers

Hopefully you have been noticing a newly-added feature to our upgraded ETBU athletics website, the Up Close section down the left side of the main pages for our sports.

While the site is really not quite finished (not sure it will ever be, because I keep getting all these ideas and I end up changing everything!), we will definitely be keeping Up Close. I try to highlight a player or two each week during the season in hopes that by the end of the year everyone in a Tiger or Lady Tiger uniform will have been featured.

Some sports will have to linger with theirs into the offseason, especially football. To combat that I have gone to two football players in the section instead of one. But we will eventually get to everyone.

If you might be wondering how we come up with the little survey there, that asks the players about their favorite types of things, etc. I give each player at the beginning of the year a bio sheet for them to fill out. This includes athletic information such as their high school, their high school accomplishments, their career plans, etc. The bulk of this information goes in the bios of the players in the media guides.

But I wanted to add the Up Close section to the website, so I attached another page to this year's bio sheets. It's up to the players to decide whether or not they want to answer every question, hopefully they fill it out completely enough to sound interesting.

The questions range from "Who is your favorite superhero?" to "The best advice you could give a child is..." Hopefully the answers are fun and enlightening at the same time. I know I have some fun reading each of them as they are posted to the site.

For some who might be wondering, there are a few trends and popular answers coming so far on the bio sheets. Most everyone lists a parent or close family member as the "person I most admire." The Dark Knight, to this point, has been the most popular movie in the past year for our student-athletes, and not surprisingly, Batman follows as the most popular superhero.

Most student-athletes list the sport they are involved with as the reason they chose to attend ETBU. That's really not a shocking thing, and it tells us that athletics is an important part of our university life.

The "most interesting person from the Bible," ranges to anyone from Paul or Job, usually. I must say here that on most of the bio sheets I included, (other than Jesus). Duh, that would be like saying the most interesting person on your birthday was, well, you. Jesus is The Most Interesting Person in the Bible, period. But I wanted the answers to the bio question to vary this year.

Most TV shows that aren't missed among our student-athletes are stuff like Grey's Anatomy or CSI. Michael Phelps has been a popular "Favorite All-Time Athlete." And, for favorite U.S. President, it's almost a dead heat between Bill Clinton, Abraham Lincoln and George W. Bush.

That's a quick, minor overview of the survey taken of our fall athletes with their bio sheets. We've still got basketball and baseball and softball to come, of course, so the information will be expanding further. Maybe. Or maybe not -- maybe the consensus of the fall is that everyone has pretty much the same favorites here at ETBU.

Tiger Bites: ETBU vs. McMurry

Some notes and odd and ins about ETBU's football series against McMurry University over the years:

-- McMurry is the only team in the ASC never to have defeated the Tigers. That much you might already know. On the flip side of that, ironically -- McMurry's fellow Abilene ASC member, Hardin-Simmons, has never lost a game to ETBU in eight tries.

-- ETBU played its first home game in 50 years back on Sept. 23, 2000, against McMurry. Only thing was, it wasn't really a home game for ETBU -- the game was played at Marshall High School's Maverick Stadium, as Ornelas Stadium was still undergoing the final touches of construction. That game remains the only scheduled home game for ETBU to be played outside of The Jungle.

-- McMurry was ranked in the Top 25 nationally when it visited Marshall for the first time back in 2000. Since suffering a 28-14 defeat at the hands of a freshman-laden ETBU team that day, McMurry hasn't been ranked since.

-- Gary McClelland rushed for 279 yards and two touchdowns in the Tigers' first visit to Abilene to play McMurry, a 33-26 win for ETBU. That remains the single-highest rushing yardage in a game for a Tiger running back.

-- McMurry is 0-3 all-time on Ornelas Stadium. ETBU's wins in those three games, however, have been by just 10 points per game.

You can't talk about the ETBU-McMurry series without mentioning that very first game back in Maverick Stadium in 2000. The Tigers were literally running out a team full of first-year freshmen who most of which didn't know how to shave yet. McMurry was nationally-ranked but coming off a loss to an up-and-coming Mary Hardin-Baylor squad that year, as I remember, and the then-Indians were expected to be hopping mad and on the warpath against the young ETBU kittens...

I've never seen a game before or since where you can pin the outcome solely on emotion. Those young Tiger pups swarmed all over McMurry and raced out to a huge lead, putting pressure on the quarterback, forcing turnovers, cashing in points. The Indians tried to rally in the second half but kept shooting themselves in the foot, and one of the biggest upsets to this day in ETBU football history was finished with a 28-14 Tiger win.

ETBU wouldn't win a game the rest of the year, finishing 2-8. But it was McMurry that seemed to reel the most from that loss, as the Indians haven't won a game in the series yet and now aren't even called the Indians anymore, by the way, thanks to that controversial ruling a few years ago concerning nicknames and mascots. Luckily for ETBU, no Tiger or other large feline has complained much to the NCAA about being offended...

It's not like the Tigers have just penciled in a win every year against McMurry, either. These games are typically close and hard-fought until the fourth quarter. Last season's game out there in Abilene went into overtime, after McMurry had jumped out to a quick two-score lead in the first half. The home team appeared ready to lock up a game-winning touchdown late in regulation when ETBU's Shea Harborth delivered the punt of his career out of the back of ETBU's end zone and past midfield. Huggie Frazier then sealed the Tigers' win in overtime by knocking away a pass in the end zone on the game's final play.

See you Saturday for another one in The Jungle.

Tiger Bites: ETBU vs. Texas Lutheran

The Tiger football team has another big game on Saturday night down in Seguin against Texas Lutheran. Here are some facts about the series with the Bulldogs, as well as some fun (and-not-so-fun) memories I have of ETBU-TLU football:

-- The Tigers haven't won in Seguin since 2002. ETBU has lost the last two games played in Matador Stadium.

-- The 2004 game played down there was a heartbreaker for us. We were in the middle of one of those years where nothing -- absolutely nothing -- went right for ETBU. TLU quarterback Sean Salinas passed for over 500 yards that day, including a 98-yard bomb to Jason Trahan that stands as the longest play ever against the Tigers. Still, it took TLU going on a 20-0 run in the fourth quarter to pull out a wild 39-28 win.

-- The last three games of the series have been quite exciting. The margin of victory in those games is by a total of six points, including ETBU's 19-17 win last season in Ornelas Stadium.

-- Just as Seguin has been a tough place for ETBU, TLU hates coming to The Jungle. The Bulldogs are 0-4 all-time against the Tigers in Marshall.

-- TLU head coach Dennis Parker was my high school football coach here in Marshall, back in the late 1980s. I've always had the utmost respect for Coach Parker. I just wish I'd been about 6-3, 290 or so so I could have actually helped the Mavericks out back then. But alas, I was only a 5-10 or so, 190-pound (dripping wet) O-lineman. I have always proudly boasted to any Marshall fans who would listen -- I was part of the last team to finish with a losing record under Coach Parker with the Mavs. In the three years after my graduation, the Mavs won like 40 or something games, played deep into the state playoffs every year and won a state championship once. Either my class was a springboard for that program, or I probably should have not wasted his time...

-- The 2003 ETBU-TLU game is memorable for me in a not-so-nice way, I guess. The reason: I was sick as all get out that day, which ended with a 45-21 Tiger romp in The Jungle. I had been battling some nausea and stomach pain for a few days, but thought it was just something, well, not major. El Chico catered the press box meal that day, which didn't help matters with my nausea -- nothing against El Chico, but the smell of tacos and enchiladas isn't something that's prescribed when your stomach is turning somersaults up into your throat... I went home after the game and woke up the next morning in a bad way, and by late Sunday night I was in the hospital with what the surgeon would later describe to me as a "ripe" gallbladder. I was on the shelf and hospitalized for almost a week, and missed the Tigers' thrilling overtime loss at Hardin-Simmons the next week. The Tigers went 9-3 that year, but I was 9-2. And minus a minor body part... On that note, you know what minor surgery is? It's surgery that's happening to somebody else.

-- The most exciting game in the series, probably for ETBU fans, has to be the 2001 contest. That's the game where Jabori Jackson exploded on the national scene by single-handedly whipping the Bulldogs. The Tigers won 38-24, and Jackson accounted for 24 points himself. Jabori scored in every way possible, almost -- he took two passes for touchdowns, and he returned two kicks for scores. The numbers speak for themselves: 4 catches for 187 yards and 2 TD, and 3 kickoff returns for 190 yards and 2 scores. I will go on record and I'm pretty sure there are a lot out there who will back me up -- there hasn't been a better kickoff returner in the ASC in the last nine years than Jabori Jackson. There's been some good ones, but his name is at the top of the list.

-- Finally, can't forget the memories of the 2005 game in which Jeremy Seeton kicked the game-winning field goal with 12 sacks. TLU was nationally-ranked, coming off that impressive 2004 season, and Salinas was back for his senior year. I had a lot of respect for Salinas in the two games I saw him play against us -- he was as elusive a quarterback as we've seen in this league and he simply made the Bulldogs into a contender by being on the field. He was a special player. But we got to him nine times that day -- Micah Rucker had three sacks -- and that kept the game close into the fourth quarter. The offense got things going in the final 15 and managed to put enough points on the board to Seeton a chance to win it at the end.

A Tail Of A Tale

Let's talk about traditions today -- specifically, tailgating.

I cannot express how much I was impressed as both a part of a college football athletics program -- specifically, football in this particular case -- and as a fan with the game day atmosphere that awaited us at Saint John's a few weeks ago. Of course, those folks up there have nearly a 100-year head start on us down here with their football program, but somehow I don't think it took them that long to figure out that a huge part of the college football experience involves tailgating.

We've come a long way here at ETBU in nine years. I actually see some small tailgating parties going on outside Ornelas Stadium on game day. I'm not talking about the larger ones sponsored by, say, cheerleaders, or the alumni association, or any of that. Nothing at all wrong with any of those and we certainly welcome the efforts of the people involved with that in generating game day spirit for the Tigers.

But up at Saint John's, let me tell you, there were some people doing some serious partying. Nothing obnoxious, mind you, just good-natured tailgating in the middle of the parking lot. There were burgers on the grills, brauts, krauts, whatever. It was being cooked. I tried to sneak through there unnoticed, but the blue and gold I was wearing made me about as invisible as The Incredible Hulk. But the folks up there invited me over for some kind of mini-burger that tasted like pork sausage on a bun, and let me tell you it was -- delicious.

There's a certain science to tailgating. Go to a Cowboys game at Texas Stadium, for example, and you'll find all food groups represented in some form or fashion. And, I might add, some food that doesn't belong in any food group.

Most places we go, if there are tailgaters, it's most hamburgers, hot dogs, maybe some barbeque. You know, it all depends on how much you want to eat before a game, and how much you're willing to spend to make it all happen. With the food, I mean.

I actually thought about hosting a little tailgate this past Saturday for the Tigers' game against Sul Ross. I typically arrive at Ornelas Stadium about three hours or so before a game, anyway. That's probably way too early, but I don't work well under pressure. If I can get everything set up and ready to go well ahead of time, trust me, my day goes much, much better. If I'm rushed because of time, well, it doesn't go so well.

I was thinking about setting up a tailgate, getting there a couple of minutes earlier than normal, and seeing what might happen. Then it hit me about Thursday of last week -- what kind of tailgate can you have at 8 in the morning? Kickoff for our first two games at home this year have been moved to 11 a.m., to help with the brutal East TexaS heat that pounds on our fans and press box in the middle of the afternoon in September.

Eggs? Bacon? Pancakes, maybe? The ideas starting popping into my head. But somehow that didn't fit my definition of a tailgate. I was having visions of burgers and hot dogs, maybe some sirloin, you know, anything that smells good on the grill and tastes even better. And despite my physical appearance, I don't do much red meat in the mornings.

My tailgate would probably have been reduced to Frosted Flakes. So I declined. But I'm thinking about the future.

I've thought about suggesting a tailgating contest at some point, where we appoint a committee in true Baptist fashion to survey the various sites around the stadium for the best fare. Maybe we could get a sponsor of some sort to donate something like a barbeque grill or something, and at the end of the year make it worth everyone's while. I don't know.

Or maybe I'm just trying to envision a place that is hopping on game day, getting ready for the Tigers to chomp somebody to bits. Trust me, it's not the reason Saint John's has won all those championships, but it's a lot easier to get ready to play when you've got 50 barbeque grills smoking out there a few hundred yards away, whetting your appetite.

Or maybe, just maybe, I'm being selfish and just want to smell it myself. Hmmm. I can taste it already...

That's What I'm Talking About!

Thursday night was a very exciting time down in the House of Blues.

Credit for unofficial nickname for ETBU's Ornelas Gym, I think, goes to former Lady Tiger volleyball coach Suzanne Wingrove. Suzanne brought an attitude to our volleyball program back in 2001 along with an ability to recruit really, really well. In one year, back in 2001, she led a transformation of ETBU's volleyball program from a middle-of-the-road outfit to a conference champion, literally overnight. The program has just continued to build tradition since then, including the march of the 2008 club.

That bunch finally got to play a home game Thursday night in the House, and it was one of the best atmospheres I've been around going on nine years here at ETBU. We of course earned the distinction in 2007 as the No. 1 team in the nation in terms of attendance average at our volleyball games. I will be the first to admit that setting attendance is an inexact science. We don't charge admission to our volleyball games, so we can't count tickets. It's pretty much an eyeball process.

According to our facilities director, Mr. Randy Pringle, one middle section of Ornelas Gym -- from floor bleachers, to chairback mezzanine to upper bleachers -- can hold 700 people. There's two sides, of course, in the gym, so technically if those sides are full that's 1,400 people. Considering capacity in the gym is 1,700 thereabouts, that's a pretty even gauge when we have to compute attendance.

Using this as a guideline, that's how we determine our attendance at volleyball, basketball and soccer games. Like I said, it's an eyeball process, but there is a method to it most of the time. By the formula above, there were well over 700 people in the gym last night because the far side of the House was nearly full. And there was a pretty good crowd behind us at the scorer's table, so... who knows, there might actually have been well over the "estimated" 732 as posted on the final box score.

All that to say this -- having people in the gym at ETBU really creates an atmosphere that has been lacking in some years, and it was really, really nice. I have the opportunity to travel with some our teams on occasion, and the ASC -- and probably D-III in general -- is really underrated in terms of genuine game-type atmosphere. We have great fans and great programs in this league, and ETBU's facility for indoor sports is one of the best around.

When it is rocking like it was Thursday night for volleyball, it can be one of the toughest places to play. Volleyball in and of itself is made for emotion and momentum, and as Coach Mashe mentioned this week, having a big, loud crowd behind you in a match really, really does make a difference. The Lady Tigers were going full-bore last night, diving for balls and giving maximum effort on every point. And when things went our way -- and sometimes not -- the House of Blues responded in loud fashion.

It was a great start to what we hope is a fun year in all of our athletics programs. It's a college atmosphere. Obviously winning helps to generate excitement but I think the biggest thing in the building last night was that -- finally -- we had a team playing in front of us. Since the start of school nearly a month ago, we'd had exactly two games played at home -- both women's soccer, and both on back-to-back nights at the very end of August -- so it kind of felt like nothing was going on.

Remember the "phony war" phase at the beginning of World War II? It was kind of like a "phony" fall athletic season around here for awhile.

But the Lady Tigers helped usher us back to competition Thursday night. And Tiger football will get to unveil itself before the home fans Saturday...morning? That's going to be nice, the 11 a.m. kickoff.

And don't forget that soccer will be back in town next week, with a rescheduled men's game on Tuesday night followed by back-to-back conference matchups for the men and women next weekend.

Also...cross country's season will officially begin Saturday, with a meet up at Southern Arkansas in the morning.

Athletics is picking up steam at ETBU. That's what I'm talking about.

Stats, Music, Etc.

We've added a new feature to our website that will debut this weekend (I hope). For the first time, ETBU will have a "live-stats" feature for football games.

Basically, what the feature will allow is for anyone unable to attend the game to follow the action -- at least statistically -- through the website. Our football stat program has a feature that allows the stats to be uploaded to the website, so you'll know exactly what the stats are as they occur. We have recently added the software that makes this possible, and hopefully it'll be smooth sailing this weekend since it's the first time I've tried to use it.

Ideally, you can listen to the Internet broadcast if you're unable to attend the game, and follow the broadcast and the game statistics simultaneously. If you can't watch the game here, well, hopefully we can bring it to you as closely as we possibly can.

I expect to use the live stats feature during home basketball games this year, as well as in the spring for baseball and softball. Occasionally this fall we'll test it out with soccer, and I hope to add volleyball for sure next fall. Problem with volleyball is the speed of the game, and it's very tough to keep the stats accurately on computer. We continue to keep those by hand here, as do most of our opponents in the ASC. But I have made it a personal challenge to learn the computer program for volleyball, and hopefully it will allow us to post the live stats from our home volleyball matches in the very near future.

The other change you might notice at our events this year is pregame music. In the past it's been tough finding an even balance between what the young today and the young-at-heart-today find suitable for their listening pleasure. I wouldn't call it a problem per se over the years, but I would call it very difficult to find the balance we are looking for as East Texas Baptist University.

To that end, you will hear primarily Christian-based music at our events this year. It's the type of stuff you hear on the radio all the time, and it will be upbeat and positive. There will be times during certain events that we play some nice, popular secular stuff, but by and large we will play inspirational and upbeat Christian contemporary music.

It's all part of our goal of creating a family-friendly atmosphere and a place where our fans can come and watch the Tigers without having to worry about what might be coming out of the stadium or gym speakers. Not that we've had problems with what's been played before, but the Christian-based theme just fits well with our university.

So we invite you out to our events so you can enjoy some family-friendly atmosphere and hopefully see some winning along the way. If you can't make it, then by all means use the technology available through our website stats and broadcast. The Tigers and Lady Tigers will certainly appreciate it.

Record-Setting

Congrats to ETBU Volleyball senior Traci Twardowski, who set a new career milestone this past weekend by passing former three-time ASC East Player of the Year Allison Castillo on the Lady Tigers' all-time assists list.

I would be the first to admit that I really don't know the first thing about volleyball in terms of game strategies, X's and O's, etc. It's a game pretty much, to the untrained eye, that looks like hitting the ball as hard as you possibly can either at or around an opponent on the other side of the net.

But my experience here has managed to teach me one thing -- you don't win much in volleyball without a setter, and ETBU has been fortunate enough to have three pretty good ones in a row.

Traci is the latest, and hopefully will put a lot of miles between the new record and second place before her career ends this season. Starting the setter line was Castillo, who was arguably the most dominant player in the ASC from the setter position for four years, the last of which was spent at Texas Lutheran after three years at ETBU.

In the middle part of the setter trio is current ETBU head coach Lyndsay Mashe, known back then as Lyndsay Simpson. Lyndsay was an all-state setter at Pine Tree, signed with Panola College and then finished her career at ETBU in 2004.

The setter is kind of like a point guard, or, maybe even, the quarterback, on the volleyball court. The offensive numbers and kills put up by current Lady Tigers such as Katie Graves or Jane Hays, for example, wouldn't be nearly as gaudy without Twardowski setting the table for them at the net.

The volleyball program here at ETBU has quietly been one of the most consistent and productive programs on campus over the last seven years or so. The Lady Tigers have made the playoffs seven straight years and have never finished lower than second place in the division since 2001. Lyndsay Mashe took the coaching reins of the program less than a year after graduating from ETBU, and the team hasn't missed a beat.

A big reason for that has been the consistent play at the setter position. Congratulations Traci, and to all the Lady Tigers as you finally get a chance to play before the home folks this week.

A Day Remembered

Pearl Harbor Day in December is a day that will always "live in infamy" for Americans. But there are those out there who can't remember the exact day the Japanese invaded.

Dec. 7, 1941 -- for anyone who's wondering.

But we just passed another date on the calendar that also is infamous, and I'd daresay that every American remembers it.

Our memories fade with time for most things. For example, I can't tell you what I got on my fifth birthday, but I'm pretty sure at the time I was pretty excited about it.

But memories such as Sept. 11, 2001 never fade. I can remember exactly what I did that morning, where I was at when the news was breaking, what I was doing throughout the entire day.

Sept. 11, 2001 affected the ETBU campus as it did everywhere they day. The world was forever changed because of it. I remember running late, as was normally the case in those days with a four-year-old and two-year-old in the house. But if I hadn't been running late, I would have missed the news on the radio.

I, like most sports fans, am hooked on talk radio. I don't hardly ever agree with what's been said on sports talk shows, but I listen nonetheless. I was listening to a local sports talk show that morning, and when I turned on the radio I knew something was happening -- because the host wasn't talking.

He was ooing and aaahing, and later I guessed he was watching a TV set. It was about this time that the first plane was crashing into the World Trade Center North Tower (yes, I can remember the North was the first tower hit because I thought it incredulous that the South Tower could be hit second and yet be the first to collapse, later. I have never forgotten that.)

It was then that I knew something bad was happening. I got to the office and immediately went down to the Communications Services department. Back then, I was still officially in the Athletic Department on campus, but would be shifted over to Public Relations, which is now an arm of the Enrollment and Marketing division here at ETBU.

But Communications Services back then was, effectively, the PR department. For those who don't know, the Communications Services/PR offices used to be in what is now Carlile-Howell Fieldhouse, but as part of the renovation of that building for football, was housed in the new Herrington Service Center with our Physical Facilities department. The office is now used by ETBU's IT department, and we are now on the third floor of Marshall Hall.

But back to the memories. I went down to Communications Services because I knew my good friend and then-Director of Communications Services, Mark Dimmitt, would know what was going on. Mark is a former member of the Air Force and had a radio and TV on in his office, as all good PR and news folks do. I watched a little of the carnage there and then stopped by Dean Healthplex on my way to my old office -- in the new football field house.

There was a huge crowd standing around the TV in the Healthplex, and I realized it was one of those days where everyone was going to be glued to a TV set somewhere. I went down to my office and tried to follow the news on the Internet, but every major news organization's website was down. The usage volume apparently was just too high.

There were frantic phone calls, messages, you name it. The world was turning upside down. Coach Ralph Harris met with the Tiger football team early that afternoon and there was a team discussion about what was taking place. There were a couple of team members back then who actually had relatives up in New York for various reasons, and there was some concern about their safety.

Eventually, of course, one of the team members that year -- a freshman middle linebacker named Greg Washington -- would put ETBU on the national stage a couple of years later by being called to active duty in the middle of the Tigers' playoff run in 2003.

Most of our athletic events that week would be postponed or cancelled, as I remember, but there was the discussion about the football game scheduled for the following Saturday, Sept. 15. Most colleges or conferences immediately cancelled games. Ours left it up to the individual schools. We were scheduled to play Mississippi College in the conference opener that week, and our officials got with their officials and courageously made the decision to play.

I say courageous because we knew we were going to be the only game in town that weekend, at least within a 600-mile radius or so of Marshall. There were no high school games, nothing -- but ETBU was going to play Mississippi College. We didn't know what to expect in terms of backlash, but our university felt it was important for us to play and try to do what the President George W. Bush was urging -- return to some sense of normalcy.

We decided to play nothing but patriotic music in pregame warmups. We handed out flags to everyone who attended. And it was a good afternoon of football -- American-style. The Tigers lost in overtime, but everyone who attended that game that day felt like a winner.

I went home that Tuesday, Sept. 11, night and wept on the way home. I felt like our country was falling apart and at that time we didn't quite know what we had to do. I wanted to get home and take care of my wife and two small kids, because that was the one part of the world I could understand.

We ate dinner in silence that night, turning the TV off. I wanted to keep the kids away from news as much as possible. But as I would find out during the course of the meal, my son Coby had already seen enough.

I don't know if it was the look on my face, or what, but Coby wanted to say the blessing -- at four years old. He said his typical "thank you for this food, dear God," prayer but then he closed it by saying this:

"And please take care of the people in the buildings. Amen."

The tears welled up again. And that was the spirit that I think all Americans were trying to muster that day. We were wanting to take care of each other, and saddened when the stories came out that some of us didn't make it. We were attacked collectively -- not just in New York, or Washington, or Pennsylvania -- but right here in Texas, Marshall, Texas. Right here at East Texas Baptist University.

We honor those people whose lives were snuffed out on Sept. 11. May we continue to honor them by never forgetting that terrible day, no matter where we are or what we are doing.

Tales From The North

Wow.

That's pretty much my first impression of the experience I enjoyed this weekend with the Tiger football team up in Minnesota. In a discussion with Coach Sartain this morning, really, the only bad thing about the whole trip was the loss, which was disappointing to the fullest. But everything else that could have been gleaned from the Saint John's trip was fulfilled.

All that will come later in different blogs and stories, hopefully. Here, though, I just wanted to relate some things that you really had to see to believe up there in Collegeville. If you read the blog here and were actually there in the stands watching the game, please post your own comments as to give even more perspective.

But Saint John's is about as real as it gets in Division III. You talk about college football and a game-day atmosphere -- this writes the book. Everything from having to park literally miles from the campus and be bused to the stadium -- as some were -- to walking through a sea of barbeque grills and sweet aroma of cooked meat on the open flame, to a stadium that was filled with red as the Johnnies' home stadium was and is every Saturday..

What an experience. It's the kind of thing I personally hope we will one day see here at ETBU. We've got the facility -- and to a certain extent we are developed our own little game-day atmosphere. But this was the icing on the cake, the light at the end of the tunnel, if you will.

Over 8,000 people-- 50 or so being the loyalest of the loyal Tiger backers -- were in attendance Saturday. The official count is just under 8,000, but with players and game workers, well, it was well over the 8,000 figure. They all sat on the home side, filling it up, or down in an enormous temporary bleacher in the end zone that was filled with up to nearly 2,000 Johnnie students, again, all of them in red. Think of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Cornhuskers -- on a much smaller scale. But a much larger one than any of us in these parts have seen in eight-plus years.

There were people staked out on the hillsides surrounding Clemens Stadium. People on the track around the field. People everywhere. And every one of them breathed a huge sigh of relief when the gun sounded.

That's because ETBU didn't play its part most of the day. You couldn't find anyone who considers themselves a follower of D-III or a D-III expert who expected the little bunch of Tigers from the ASC to do much against the behemoth from the North in Saint John's. As I mentioned in an official press release last week, well, David had better odds against Goliath. Without the slingshot.

I saw some predictions for a 40-point whipping in some areas. ETBU was going to be mere fodder for the Johnnies, who have bigger and better fish to fry down the line. But that sea of red was very quiet and quite concerned when the fish jumped out of the frying pan, so to speak. When the fourth quarter rolled around, the nobodys from Texas had a one-point lead and were looking at pulling off perhaps the greatest upset -- or without a doubt one of the greatest upsets -- in D-III memory.

But here's the thing -- no, the upset didn't take place. The Johnnies did what they have done traditionally for decades, and that was find a way to win a game that wasn't going their way at crunch time. When it absolutely had to make a play, the Saint John's defense rose up in the fourth quarter and made several. Enough to squeak by with a victory.

But the most impressive thing and promising one for us is that there wasn't a single Tiger in the entourage satisfied with just coming close. As a biased observer, I think the best team on the field didn't win. The Johnnies are a great program and deserve every bit of accolade they have and will continue to receive. And they seemed to be as classy in everything they did and, like I said, were extremely hospitable with the tailgating and just overall being good people.

But Saint John's got away with one this weekend. Man for man, and again I know I'm accused all the time of being the ultimate homer, but -- I think the Tigers had the better team. We just didn't play better than they did at the key moments of the game. And there was the difference.

Knowing that, this team wasn't satisfied with just almost pulling off the shocker. That's because the Tigers themselves wouldn't have considered it a shocker. This bunch truly believes they belong on the same field with Saint John's, and by all accounts Saturday they proved it. They didn't win the game, no, but they were not overwhelmed by the Johnnie mystique.

Now it just comes down to making the plays it takes to win games like that. Competing against the Saint Johns of the world now has been proven. Now it comes down to going out and winning the game when it's on the line, just like the Johnnies did Saturday.

Congrats to everyone who participated in the contest on both sides, and a heartfelt thanks to the good folks out there in the parking lot of who wouldn't let yours truly pass by in his ETBU garb without sharing some of the local fare. It was like a Bubba Burger Saint John's style, and it was definitely delicious.

Best of luck to the Johnnies and their fans, and hopefully ETBU is on its way to some of that same type success down the road...

The Heat Is...On?

I've been virtually an East Texan all my life. Except for a couple of years finishing my degree down at Northwestern State in Natchitoches, and about nine months of living in Southeast Texas for my first newspaper gig, I've been right here in Marshall or the Marshall area -- 39 years and counting.

And this has got to be the wackiest August I've ever seen.

Where was this back in the mid-80s when I was playing high school football and dreaded -- absolutely dreaded -- two-a-days? I would leave the morning practice with borderline heat stroke, go home and sleep, and then stumble back for another two-hour-plus session in the heat. Those were the good old days!

There have been days here in August at ETBU where our football players and soccer players, in particular, had to battle that kind of furnace. It's just part of the drill while living in East Texas. It's like living up in Canada I guess -- you know there's going to be five, six, seven months with snow on the ground, so you always keep a snow shovel handy. Around here, you always know where the water hose is for a good dousing if needed.

But I would estimate that at least a dozen days in August was spent with rain either falling or getting ready to fall. The temperature for most of the month struggled to get into the high 90s, which is usually a break from the low 100s with 800 percent humidity. And now I look out my office window and we are getting drenched -- albeit not as much as forecast yet -- from what's left of Gustav.

Gustav has played havoc with our practice schedules here. Coach Sartain was busy calling around Monday, trying to secure an indoor practice facility in the area. There aren't many of those to begin with, and what was there is being used as a hurricane shelter, so it's unavailable. I stopped by practice yesterday afternoon and there was some good work going on, and that might have to be it as far as good practice time goes leading up to the opener Saturday in Minnesota.

Won't complain about the rain -- ever. It is a blessing. But it's putting a crimp in our schedules here as far as athletics. We'll see what happens the rest of the week.

Blasts From The Past

The annual Soccer Alumni Game was played this past Saturday night, despite the very real fear of cancellation due to the monsoon that hit the area last week and dumped several inches of rain on Marshall.

Rain in August. In Marshall, Texas. What is the world coming to?

That's a subject for another blog, however. The Soccer Alumni Game is always a big event for men's soccer here, and there was an added attraction this year with the first Women's Soccer Alumni Game. Attendance and participation was a bit down for the women's game, but a lot of that is attributed to the newness of the idea as well as the fact the game was briefly cancelled on Friday before being back on again thanks to Marshall High School's willingness to let us use their turf field in Maverick Stadium.

I missed the game again this year, but I always have a good reason. It's typically played on the final weekend before the season opener, and it's always the last opportunity I have to take my wife on a real date before I go into ETBU hibernation until Christmas. Looking at the schedule, I won't have a Saturday available for anything other than Tiger athletics until the holiday season, so the Alumni Game usually has to take second place on this weekend.

But it's always a popular, exciting game. My good friend and unofficial assistant, Jason Soles, of the ETBU Admissions Office, serves as the coach of the Tiger Alumni. And with the weapons at his disposal, armed with several returning All-Americans from years past, well, Soles likes to claim that the Alumni Game is the toughest game on the Tigers' schedule every year.

This year apparently was no different. The current Tigers clipped the Alumni last season, and for a solid year I've had to listen to my buddy claiming the fix was on. Saturday night, it was former Tiger All-American Bryce Morrow scoring a goal in the opening minutes and then making it stand up for a 1-0 win, giving the Alumni the mythical bragging rights for at least another year.

It's got to be a strange night for Coach Alonzo, too, however. As coach of the current Tigers, the game was started a few years ago as a way to bring the old guard back and also to give the current team a very nice, competitive tuneup heading into the season. Knowing Alonzo, yes, his intention every year is to beat his old guys with his new ones. But also knowing Alonzo, he is full of pride every time he sees the old guys come back and work their magic on the pitch again. After all, there are a few of those alumni who helped bring back-to-back NCCAA national titles to ETBU in 1998 and 1999, and memories are always nice -- especially the good ones.

The Tigers will open on the road this Saturday over at Texas College in Tyler, and ETBU actually won't have a men's soccer home game until Sept. 13. The ladies will kick things off with home games Friday and Saturday, the first home games on campus for the new school year. Hope to see you there.

Back In Business

Well, it's mid-August. The fall athletes are back on campus. And it's cloudy and rainy outside. Everything is back to normal in East Texas...

The 2008 Tiger football team has been on campus now for about a week, getting ready for the season opener on Sept. 6 against St. John's. It's an exciting time to be an ETBU football fan. I didn't really say much here on the blog last spring about it, but this is a big game for our program. It's about as big as a season opening, non-conference game can be, I guess.

When you talk about signature programs in college football, you think of a few like Notre Dame, maybe Texas, maybe USC, etc. In Division III, there are a handful of those kinds of teams. St. John's is one of them. Their coach (John Gagliardi) is a legend. He's been at SJU now for over 55 years and is averaging about two losses -- TWO losses -- per season. That's absolutely ridiculous. The Johnnies are national title contenders every season, including this one.

ETBU coach Mark Sartain talked about putting the Tigers on a national stage when he took the job back in December of 2006. There's two ways of doing that -- one, of course, is to make the playoffs, which we've done only once in eight years. The only other way is to schedule top national opponents, such as St. John's. This is the Tigers' opportunity, for one big weekend, to participate in a true national game of the week.

Why is it a national game of the week? You've got the established power taking on a team looking to head in that direction. You've got North vs. South. You've got Minnesota against Texas. Our athletes against their football players. Whatever comparison you want to make, it applies to this game.

The Tigers will get another dose of this in a couple of months when we go out to California to face Azusa Pacific, which is a top-notch nationally-reknowned NAIA program. Texas against California. That one will also carry some juicy storylines in that regard.

I've had the opportunity to go out and watch a couple of practices already, enough to have a first-look opinion. The Tigers are interesting. The coaches welcomed 146 players last Wednesday for fall camp, including about 60 freshmen and a dozen or so transfers. We typically take media guide photos on reporting day, so I had the opportunity to see these guys up close.

Physically -- and again this is my opinion -- this is the most impressive-looking ETBU team we've had in nine years. I'm talking about just pure physical, athletic-looking guys. Fans of the Tigers will be shocked to see this team in uniform compared to some in the past. They look like -- and not meaning to slight anyone who's worn an ETBU uniform in the past, by any means -- but these are just different-looking players.

None of that translates into a single win, touchdown, or even first down, unfortunately. But ETBU should be a much more explosive, exciting team to watch this season -- on both sides of the ball. If the opener were today, there would be 10 players who have started games at ETBU on the field on defense. Offensively, the team speed is three times better than last, with an offensive line that returns five starters. And there's a deep class of talent at quarterback, led by incumbent starter Stephen Oehlschaleger.

We are expecting an exciting year. You have to practice and perform in games, of course, and the Tigers have their work cut out for them with arguably the toughest schedule the program has ever faced. But it will be interesting to see this team unveil itself in less than three weeks up there in Minnesota.

Poll: Sports Movies

Some of you might have noticed the addition of "fan polls" to the right of the page here on TigerBlog. Well, at least to this point, a few of you have.

We decided to add this feature for several reasons. First of all, I personally love voting in fan polls on the Internet myself. No need to wait until November to exercise your right to vote. It's a great method of interaction and creates opportunities for discussion, which is vital in sports and among sports fans.

Also, it can give you an idea of just how many people read your site, or your blog, in this case. Each poll we've produced over the last month or so has had an increasing number of votes. Now, that could mean the same person is voting a bunch of times. In that case, I thank the two or three people out there in cyberspace who regularly visit TigerBlog!

But getting serious now... the latest poll was about the greatest sports movies of all time. The choices posted were ones that I could think of at the moment. And the winner is...

Hoosiers. Great sports movie focusing on, of course, basketball. I've seen it at least 50 times and never, ever get tired of watching it. Rumor has it that Jimmy Chitwood was recruited to play at then-East Texas Baptist College but he declined because we pumped too much air in the basketball down here in Texas...

Little disappointed that "Rocky" didn't get more love. Personally, I put it in one of my top 10 movies of all time. Again, it's one of those movies I just can't put down. Now, there's not a referee or boxing official in the world that would allow a fighter to continue that was as pulverized as Rock against Apollo, but that bit of make-believe aside, Rocky is just a feel-good story that has something for everybody -- blood, gore and violence, not to mention sports, for the guys, and a love story for the gals.

Maybe some of you didn't vote for Rocky because of what I call "Rocky fatigue." 25 sequels will do that to you I guess.

"Remember the Titans" got some love figuratively, meaning it got a vote. As did "Major League" and "Field of Dreams." Can't believe no one stepped up with at least one vote for "Kicking and Screaming," the Will Ferrell classic on the pitch.

And "The Longest Yard" probably needed some clarification -- I should have stressed that it was the original, with Burt Reynolds as Paul Cruwe. Yep, that probably would have made a difference.

The biggest mystery coming out of the poll? The one vote for "Other." Now I have to guess what that "other" is. "Raging Bull?" "Semi-Pro?" "Caddyshack?" "Kingpin?"

Watch for more polls in the future and don't hesitate to vote... many times if needed. Make your vote count!!!

DW

Website Launch

If you're reading this post in TigerBlog, you've most likely discovered that we've launched a new ETBU website.

A great deal of my time over the last 1 1/2 months or so has been designing the new athletic pages on the website. We wanted to make the new site as informative as possible while also keeping it somewhat easy to navigate. A problem with our old site was that it had become almost impossible to navigate and locate information in a timely manner. We hope the new site, at least our athletics pages from my perspective, might be a little easier.

There's nothing drastically different from the old site to the new, but I can tell you it is much easier to work with and navigate. Hopefully as you will see over the coming weeks that it is also much more colorful and will have more photos/features. TigerBlog is a main feature on every athletics page, of course, and I'll hopefully be adding more as time and manpower allows.

Let us know what you like about the new site, and maybe some suggestions for features and other ideas to include. If I can make it happen and think it would be a quality addition, we'll certainly consider it.

A big thanks goes out to ETBU webmaster Mr. Brandon Diffey, who has been working on the new site longer than any of us -- months and months and months of work went into the launch of the new site and Brandon was behind it all with some help from student workers.

I am continuing work on adding the links to various sections, which can be tedious and time-consuming, so please be patient Tiger fans. We hope to have everything linked up and ready to go full-bore by the time the Tigers and Lady Tigers come back to campus in the fall.

Go Tigers...

DW

The Big Tenn

Saw a familiar face down at the football fieldhouse this morning taking pictures of football camp participants.

Fans of Tiger football and a lot of opposing d-linemen will remember Littleton Dean. Littleton, a high school star in Tennessee, was originally signed out of high school as a linebacker by the University of Arkansas but ended up playing the final three years of his eligibility at ETBU from 2002-04. By the time he saw the field in a Tiger uniform he had been converted to a defensive lineman.

You don't see a lot of six-foot, maybe five-eleven, 200-pound defensive linemen in college football. But when Littleton arrived at ETBU, the Tigers' middle linebacker spot was manned of course by the program's all-time leading tackler Greg Washington. And Washington was necessarily ready to give that spot up, so Dean had nowhere to go as a standup linebacker.

But he was quick as a cat, and he was as aggressive a player as has ever come through this program. He also had a knack for finding the ballcarrier and doing it rather quickly, no matter where he was. So entering the 2003 season, coaches put Littleton in a defensive tackle position right next to big 300-pounder Thomas Young-Davis.

You'll remember what happened over the next 12 games. Dean earned All-America honors as the Tigers went 9-3 and advanced two rounds deep in the playoffs. He created havoc all over the field, and it was him bursting through the line to block Trinity's extra point in overtime that gave the Tigers a 42-41 win in the first round of the playoffs in Ornelas Stadium.

Littleton has gone on to play some Arena Football, with Laredo in the AF2 league. In talking to him this morning he had received an offer to try out with the arena team in Odessa, but was leaning toward hanging it up. He was just stopping by to work out in the newly-refurbished Tiger weight room, which several former Tigers have done over the last couple of years.

He still looked like he could jump a snap count too, and hit the quarterback before he ever turned around. That was Littleton Dean right there.

Football in Croatia

Got the first report of the activities of ETBU football's nine-player delegation on a mission trip to Croatia. The group left last weekend for a two-week trip to Pozega, a bustling economic hub in the former war-torn region of the Balkans.

Head coach Mark Sartain, assistant coach David Banks and nine Tiger football players made the trip with the purpose of helping build/renovate/repair a church there in Pozega. Sartain called back to the States Wednesday to give an updated report of the group's progress, which has been nothing short of amazing by all accounts.

The group's main objective was the demolition/remodeling of an underground kitchen at the church. A concrete wall had to be destroyed and cleaned up and then the players helped pour new concrete into the structure.

The amazing part of the group's job was that organizers with Advancing Native Missions expected the job to last most of the two weeks Tiger football was there. Sartain and his bunch got the job done in three hours. That's good for the church of course. But now, after just three days into the trip, with another 1 1/2 weeks to go, the group is looking for new stuff to do that wasn't originally planned.

The ETBU group has been invited to a local graduation ceremony and to attend church this weekend, where the players will have the opportunity to discuss their lives and faith at youth meetings. They have been received by the younger population in Pozega as rock stars almost -- American football is still quite the mystery overseas in some parts. And by and large Croatians don't see many large, rocked-up individuals who spend their time banging heads and crashing into each other.

There is a group of neighborhood kids who have also taken to the Tigers. Every day a football game breaks out in the street, with Tigers and locals mingling together. Sartain said the local kids are also amazed with the brand of "ladder golf" the Tigers have brought with them to Croatia.

The main thing is that it appears the Tigers are getting a chance to share the Gospel, and that is the most important thing on this particular venture. Continue to pray for their safety -- Pozega has a very large, traditionalist Catholic population that is largely unfriendly and downright hostile toward Protestants of all kinds -- and that God can use them further to spread the Good News.

More on the trip will be coming once they return.

Ratcliff makes pro football team

ETBU has its first pro football player in... its all-time softball home run king?

Allison Ratcliff, who slugged 34 home runs with the Lady Tigers from 2003-06 and is still the leading home run hitter in the ASC, tried out for and was accepted to the East Texas Saberkats of the National Women's Football Association (NWFA). The team held an open tryout this past Saturday in Marshall and will conduct another tryout in a couple of weeks.

I talked with Allison this morning and she's excited of course, but still not quite sure of what she's getting herself into. The team's coaches told her Saturday they envision using the former ETBU slugger at defensive tackle and/or center. Al was impressive enough in her tryout that she was already named team captain as well, she said.

"I don't know what all that means really other than I will have a big 'C' on my jersey," Al said with a chuckle.

The Saberkats will begin playing in the NWFA next spring. Al is currently an assistant softball coach at Waskom High School near Marshall.

Best of luck to this former Lady Tiger who certainly made an impact in a lot of areas here at ETBU during her days as a student-athlete. Al was a dynamite softball player, particularly with a bat in her hands; she was a good student, being named to the ASC's All-Academic team; and she was very active in campus groups such as the BSM.

Now apparently she'll get the chance to blaze new trails on the football field.

Tiger In The Show II; Isom Update

About the time I saved yesterday's blog on former ETBU student-athlete Jared Wells making his major league debut with San Diego... Wells was traded to Seattle for a veteran bullpen pitcher and immediately assigned to the Mariners' Triple A team in Tacoma.

Some blogs from Seattle journalists suggest the Mariners want Wells to go back to starting in the minors with the hope of making him a starter in the majors. We'll see what happens...

On another note, this is very old news to some but former Tiger basketball star Cedric Isom proved to be an impact player at the next level. Playing in the European league with Iceland's Thor AK club. As a rookie, Cedric averaged 26.1 points per game and was named the league's Guard of the Year. The talk is that Cedric will re-sign with Thor for one more year but could possibly be in line to hook with a team on the European continent in the near future. He has definitely shown the ability to play at the next level and he's still a very young man. We'll also keep an eye on him as his career continues.

A Tiger In The Show

Former Tiger quarterback Jared Wells made his big-league debut last weekend for the San Diego Padres.

If that sounds strange -- a QB playing major league baseball -- you have to know the story. Wells was part of a class of over 100 true freshmen who came to ETBU as football players in 2000, when the Tiger football program was resurrected after a half-century hiatus.

At the beginning of the year he was just a face in the crowd. A tall, lanky young freshman just trying to live a dream of playing college football. If I remember correctly, Jared was recruited as a defensive back, maybe a safety, but coaches got wind of his arm and moved him over to quarterback early in the year.

Physically, if everything had worked out just right, Jared Wells would have been ETBU's first real starting quarterback. He had all the tools -- big, strong, and a rocket arm. He was largely learning the position on the fly but he quickly emerged as ETBU's starting quarterback in the first couple of games.

I heard rumors that he could hit 90 and above on the radar gun with a baseball, but never actually saw him pitch. After all, he was here to play football and I don't think had any intention of playing baseball -- if so he never got the chance to show it.

I remember homecoming of 2000, ETBU's first football homecoming in at least 50 years. It was just the second game in the new stadium and there was a huge crowd in attendance. I was walking down from the press box because I had to leave the game early to attend a family wedding. I got down to the area just in front of the Spirit Shop and noticed a hush come over the crowd.

All I could see was a mass of players huddling on the field, nothing else. Somebody's hurt, I said to myself, and kept on walking. It wasn't until Monday that I found out Jared was hurt -- a knee injury. We of course found out later it was season-ending and he would need surgery, the dreaded ACL.

That was it for Jared Wells as ETBU's quarterback -- five games. But he had shown such promise, I really believe he would have been a keeper and been able to put up bigger numbers had his career turn not taken place that day on the Ornelas Stadium turf.

As it turns out, of course, the injury was a blessing in disguise that has obviously turned into a big thing for Wells. He left ETBU in the spring to play baseball at Tyler Junior College, which grabbed him after seeing that gun for an arm that he had. From there Wells transferred to San Jacinto College, which is nationally-known for its baseball prowess.

With his mid-90s heater and body frame, the Padres drafted Wells in the 31st round a few years ago and he made the slow climb through the minor league system. That led to his debut in relief Saturday against Cincinnati, and by all accounts Wells will get every opportunity to stick with the big league club.

I personally haven't had any contact with the young man since he left ETBU. Never even knew he was playing baseball still, much less that he was drafted. His name is still on some of ETBU's career passing records, but those have dwindled with time and more quarterbacks putting up numbers in the eight years of Tiger football.

But there's still a little bit of pride there when we see someone who had a glimpse of ETBU as a student-athlete have so much success. We'll wish Jared Wells the best of luck in his career in the major leagues, and still view him as part of the Tiger family.

The Joys of Summer

When the final out was made in the Lady Tigers' second loss at the conference tournament last Friday, my "summer vacation" officially began.

No, ETBU doesn't shut its doors for the summer. We will be here at work, getting ready for next year, getting ready for the future. But things will slow down noticeably with the absence of the bulk of our students.

But before I get into the summer schedule of preparing fall media guides, sorting out schedules and photo arrangements, and getting ready for the launch of our new website, and just some plain vacation time at some point, I wanted to look back at some of the highlights for our programs this past year.

It's no secret that this wasn't one of our best overall years in terms of championships. We won't be hanging any banners in Ornelas Gym for the 2007-08 athletic year. There are a lot of reasons for that, but at the top of the list probably is the fact that we've hit a cycle in which most of our programs at ETBU are in rebuilding mode. Also, we play in what I believe is the toughest league in NCAA Division III, top to bottom, in the American Southwest Conference. Good teams from this league didn't make the postseason in several sports, including a couple from ETBU.

But the rebuilding thing is intriguing. Of the 10 sponsored sports on campus this year, four had new head coaches. Two of those -- football and softball -- finished with at least .500 records. Softball, under Janae Shirley, of course won 26 games and kept alive a streak of every year of the program having at least 25 wins. If that's not a big deal for you, just ask those programs around our league that struggle to get 10 or 15.

I think I'm on record in this blog about our baseball team being on the right track. Coach Blackmon's bunch had a six-game improvement over last season, and with a few runs here or there, the Tigers would have inched to at least the .500 or even slightly above the break-even point. Newcomer of the Year in the ASC East, Kyle Pope, is just a sophomore and is already one of the top leadoff hitters in the league. The Tigers also lose just three seniors who were classified as starters late in the year.

Going back to the fall, it's easy to forget that the Tiger football team won five straight games and was tied for first place in the conference race in late October. ETBU carried playoff hopes into November, even, under first-year head coach Mark Sartain. And while recruiting is definitely an inexact science, especially at D-III, the Tiger coaches are cautiously optimistic about the chances for a nice, talented haul this fall. ETBU will be young again in the fall, but the talent level up and down the roster should be much, much better.

Lady Tiger soccer is also rebuilding under coach Paul Grant, who had about two weeks to get his team ready for the season opener after being hired in early August last year. You always want your team playing better at the end of the year than it did at the first, and Coach Grant's Lady Tigers fit that description. Recruiting also has been a key part of the offseason, and Paul thinks this year's team will be much better at the beginning of the year than last year's was at the end.

Tiger soccer will be in its 14th year under Coach Jose Alonzo this next fall. ETBU had a disappointing finish last season, dropping its final three games in conference play to just miss qualifying for the conference tournament. The Tigers have not played in an ASC men's soccer tournament since becoming eligible to win the conference championship in 2001, but back-to-back solid recruiting classes have ETBU poised to break that streak. Another solid group to be added could push the Tigers into the postseason in 2008.

Lady Tiger volleyball did make its seventh straight ASC Tournament appearance, and the Lady Tigers were this close to winning the ASC East for a second straight year. Coach Mashe has been busy on the recruiting trail this year and has already received commitments from several top-notch young players, and ETBU will have a very good veteran core of returners that includes ASC East Player of the Year Katie Graves, team offensive and locker room leader Jane Hays and four-year setter Traci Twardowski. ETBU must replace senior libero Jill Boyd, the team's defensive whiz, but the Lady Tigers will most certainly be in the conference mix.

Not to forget ETBU's cross country teams, which had good, solid seasons last fall. The ladies lose top runner Natalie Bach off last year's squad, but the men return their top performer in junior Kenneth Webb. ETBU should be competitive in both next fall.

And finally, to basketball. The Lady Tigers had the growing pains/adjustment time with a new coach in Jay Bowen last year, but ETBU still was in the race for the ASC tournament until the final week or so of the regular season. I know for a fact that Jay and his staff have been tearing up the roads recruiting, and ETBU women's basketball will be back and rolling next year. The Lady Tigers may be young again, and the ASC East is getting more and more competitive every year, but the results will eventually become because this new staff works as hard as anyone.

And Tiger basketball, of course, went through that young phase last year with a group of talented, young freshmen playing high minutes for Coach Bert West. The squad finished with just nine wins, but slipped into the playoffs. The Tigers were within a bucket of nationally-ranked and eventual ASC champion Mary Hardin-Baylor with eight minutes to go in the first round of the tourney, only to see the Cru finish strong and cruise to a win. But that experience could prove to be invaluable for this bunch, which will be led by a very exciting young frontcourt player in East Freshman of the Year Josh Chambers.

Recruiting has been going very well for the Tigers since the end of the season, and it's all about rebuilding still. Pile another solid class on to the one from last year, and ETBU men's basketball is again becoming a bigger factor in the conference race.

That's a look back at the 2007-08 year in sports here at ETBU. The disappointment of not winning a championship remains, but the future is not bleak by any means. The wheel will turn -- it always does -- and the cycle will once again land for us.

Have a great summer, everyone.

At-Large Possible?

The Lady Tigers officially locked up sole possession of third place in the ASC East standings Thursday night with a sweep of LeTourneau. That puts ETBU into its ninth straight conference tournament next weekend over in Irving at Southwest Park.

Question of the day for ETBU is this -- at 23-13 heading into Saturday's season finale twinbill against Ozarks at Taylor Field, have the Lady Tigers put themselves in position for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament regardless of what happens next week?

Fact 1: Lady Tigers have wins over teams that were ranked No. 1 (UT Tyler) and No. 2 (Louisiana College) at the time. ETBU also has a win over Washington-St. Louis, which was ranked in the Top 25 at the time.

Fact 2: ETBU has been ranked or receiving votes in the NFCA Top 25 several times this season, most recently this week. The Lady Tigers have been ranked as high as No. 19.

Fact 3: ETBU plays in arguably the toughest conference in the nation, top to bottom. There are four teams with legitimate arguments (UT Tyler, Louisiana College, ETBU and Mary Hardin-Baylor) for NCAA postseason spots and another (Concordia Texas) with at least 25 wins on the bubble. And last season, three ASC teams: tourney champion Hardin-Simmons, East champion Mississippi College, and tourney runnerup Louisiana College, were given bids to the NCAA postseason.

Fact 4: The regional will be held just down the road at UT Tyler, a mere stone's throw for ETBU. As always, the NCAA is nothing if not cost-conscious when determing at-large bids or seeding, as fans of the Lady Tigers who have short memories can remember (2004).

Now here are some of the negatives:

Fact 1: The Lady Tigers have lost at least 13 games heading into the tournament, a high number for an at-large bid.

Fact 2: Since opening the season 9-1, the Lady Tigers have gone just 14-12. That's not exactly what you'd call a steamroll.

Fact 3: ETBU didn't win its division within the conference, finishing third.

Fact 4: You have to figure UT Tyler and LC are in, no matter what happens next week. If the ASC is to duplicate its three-team NCAA invite from last year, it most likely will come down to ETBU or UMHB unless something really crazy happens at the conference tournament. And remember, UMHB has a win over ETBU in the teams' only meeting so far this season, back at the First Pitch Tournament.

Since I'm giving my opinion on the blog, here's what I would think: it would be great for ETBU to finish the regular season with 25 wins, first. A loss to Ozarks -- although the Lady Eagles nearly swept UT Tyler Thursday night up in Clarksville -- would hurt the Lady Tigers' argument even further. Winning streaks are great for confidence and they also are very noticeable on the stat sheet.

I also think ETBU can improve its chances with a win or two at next week's conference tournament. The Lady Tigers have proven they can play with and even beat the nation's best the last couple of weeks. Catch lightning in a bottle for three days next week, and we won't even be talking about at-large bids. But I think ETBU must win at least one game to further enhance its argument.

The biggest plus for ETBU are those two wins against UT Tyler and LC. No one else in the country has victories over No. 1 and No. 2, at any time. The Lady Tigers have at least put themselves in position to be in the discussion, and that's a good thing.

1B, E9, +++: The Legend

Got a good-natured email from a parent this week of one of our student-athletes discussing scorekeeping of the baseball/softball variety. Our email correspondence was constructive and cordial, and believe me after eight years of doing this I appreciate those kinds of conversations.

The general subject of scorekeeping, however, takes me back a few years. Sometimes the most unpopular person in the ballpark isn't the umpire or the opposing coach for that matter.

It's the guy upstairs having to make the call on whether a play should be scored a hit, an error, a passed ball, a wild pitch, a sacrifice, etc. I request armored glass in the press box sometimes.

In the major leagues scorekeepers can ultimately determine whether or not a guy hits .300 or .290. Think about it -- a call here or there on a play, and it could cost a player millions. I don't think there are many professional scorekeepers pulling down six-figures, so I don't think there's much sympathy involved in the everyday business of calling it a 4-3, a 1b-4 or an E-4.

But at the college level -- and more specifically, here at ETBU -- it's not that easy. The student-athletes have a lot on their plate already without having to worry about whether or not the scorekeeper is having a bad day and wants to be hard-nosed. Through the years here as S.ID. I've had my moments of indecision, and have incurred the wrath of home folks and visitors alike.

Softball scoring actually gives me a bit of break in that no one really knows what I score on a certain play until seeing it in the box score online. At Woods Field, for baseball, things get a little dicier because the scoreboard keeps track of hits and errors, so everyone in the ballpark knows what's been called. I've developed the technique there of waiting a few seconds, throwing it up on the board then ducking my head so no one can look into my eyes and see the indecision. And there are plenty of looks my way in most of those situations.

Ironically, however, my most infamous moment of scorekeeping peril at ETBU did occur down at Taylor Field. It was 2004, and our softball team was ranked No. 1 late in the year and cruising toward a fifth straight ASC title. As a bit of commentary on that particular team, this conference will be hard-pressed to come up with a better team. I haven't seen one in the ASC before, or since, that 2004 ETBU bunch that won 41 games.

Anyway, the Lady Tigers that season were chasing the national D-III home run mark of 48. Allison Ratcliff, now coaching at Waskom and who is still the ASC's career home run leader, was on her way to 15 bombs that season and we had a handful of others who finished with career highs in homers. With all that thunder in the lineup, ETBU was still blessed with the type of hitters everyone needs to be successful -- a great leadoff hitter in Tonya Minor, and a very solid and pesky bottom of the order.

That group included senior second baseman Jenny Doyal. Jenny has to be regarded as perhaps the best second baseman in Lady Tiger history overall, especially defensively. She also had 150 hits in her four years and had 37 stolen bases to currently rank fifth on the Lady Tiger all-time list. A good, solid, dependable infielder who could be a pest to opposing pitchers.

But Jenny had never hit a home run in her career. Nothing wrong with that, due to her role and the type of hitter she was. But everyone knew the home run record was fast approaching late in the year, and Jenny stepped to the plate in a blowout doubleheader one night at Taylor Field.

Now, most scoring mistakes, I have to admit, come from the fact of me simply not seeing the play. When you are doing public address, scorekeeping, working the scoreboard, and also finding the appropriate music to play in the next half-inning -- your eyes will sometimes play tricks on you. But I was fully alert and watching this particular play unfold -- I would take the oath on that.

Jenny ripped a patented line drive to right field that landed a few feet in front of the right fielder. And then -- with my own two eyes -- I saw the ball scoot under the glove and between the legs of the defender and roll to the fence.

No doubt Jenny was going to score. I don't even remember if there was a need to slide at the plate. And without any hesitation, I typed in the following as the offical scoring on the play:

1b 9 E9 +++

In layman's terms, here's how you read that scoring: Single to right, error on the right fielder, runner advances three bases. A single and a three-base error. The ball went right at the girl and skipped under her glove to the rightfield wall for crying out loud...!

I have to admit that most calls and scoring are purely opinion. The NCAA scorekeeper's manual only states that a play should be scored a hit or an error based on whether or not the play was routine. That's about as vague as you can get. What is routine for one player isn't so routine for another, so what do you call "routine?" I take it to mean if the defender has to make a more-than-average effort to make a play, you should always give the hitter the benefit of the doubt as well as the fielder. Don't punish a defender simply because his or her range isn't as great as the next guy or gal.

But a ball hit directly to an outfielder, takes a couple of hops and scoots underneath the glove, that's a no-brainer in my opinion. It was that night -- and it still is today.

I took all kinds of grief over that one play, and I still am reminded of it to this day. Guess what? The '04 team ended up one home run short of tying the national record. I was accused of sabotaging the record because of that one call.

The ribbing and the accusations have become more of a joke and all done in fairly good-natured fashion as the years have gone by, but I am still reminded of that one play whenever I see anyone from that special 2004 group. Coach Janae Schlabs-Shirley, in her first year as head coach of the Lady Tigers this season, was the starting left-fielder on that '04 team and will swear to me that the outfielder that night never got anywhere near the ball, that it "sliced" away from her and into the corner. In that case, due to a bad bounce away from the fielder, I could easily have scored that an inside-the-park...

No. Not in a million years, no matter how much I enjoyed and liked that team and wanted them to get that record.

I admit I will always try to defer to the home team on scoring decisions that are too close to call, but that was about as cut-and-dried a call as I've ever had to make in eight years. And that was one of my favorite groups of student-athletes to be around as any in my time here at ETBU. That was a special group of young ladies and they gave our fans and students a lot to be proud of and a lot of excitement that year, not to mention putting ETBU on the national stage as the top-ranked team in the nation.

But sorry, ladies. I call 'em like I see 'em. The bad thing now is that I don't see as well as I used to, so... I guess I'll just request more bulletproof glass every year.

Tiger Baseball

Don't look now, but ETBU's baseball team has won five in a row and has absolutely cruised through its non-conference schedule with 10 wins in its final 10 games against non-ASC opponents.

Now if your glass is half empty, you'll say that non-conference games don't mean much. Against American Southwest Conference teams, the Tigers have gone 3-18 this season counting the two series against ASC West opponents UMHB and McMurry prior to opening ASC East action.

But our glass is half full around here -- actually closer to three-quarters full, and the 13-3 mark against teams outside the ASC is a good thing because it shows progress for Tiger baseball.

Three things make this one particular fan of ETBU baseball look forward to the immediate future. Number one, we've got a coach in Sam Blackmon who has won everywhere he's been. At the University of Dallas earlier this decade, in five years there, Coach Blackmon won over 70 percent of his games as coach. He's won at all levels of baseball -- high school, college and professional. There is no reason why that won't continue here because guys who win generally know how to get it done, and Sam is a guy who has won.

Sam's first team last year was not really his. Recruiting at the college level is pretty much impossible when you have to start in the summer, and Coach Blackmon didn't come on board at ETBU until late in June of 2006. That's about as late as it gets in the game when it comes to recruiting. His first freshman class was pretty much overmatched from day one, and it showed with just 11 wins that first year.

What do I mean by overmatched? Think about this -- it is tough to succeed when you are throwing kids out there who less than a year before were playing for district championships in high school, and you are competing against programs with grown men who are 22, 23 years old in some cases and who are drawing looks from major league scouts. The Tigers have had to deal with that the last two years, and they have taken their lumps.

Reason number two: the Tigers have a young core in place now. Coming off last season, the coaches knew what they wanted in recruiting but they also wanted to keep the big picture in place. If you are in it for the long haul, you have got to have good, solid upperclassmen as leaders every year. You also have to bring in quality freshmen who eventually will become leaders. If you can do that every year -- well, that's called a program.

ETBU brought in some experienced help to mix with a handful of seniors coming back from '07. Guys like Cody Jones, Matt Hale, Kyle Pope -- guys who had played some college baseball elsewhere and had that experience. Those transfers, along with seniors Will Melton and Jared Gage, have given the Tigers a solid lineup most of the season.

But the young guys -- guys like Matt Schimpf, Ryan Yezak, Drew Banks, Milton Williams, Jake Atchley, Jered Price... the list goes on. This is Coach Blackmon's first full recruiting class, meaning first class as a result of a year's worth of recruiting. Did they have their rough spots this year? You bet, several of them. But there's not a one of those guys playing solid innings for ETBU right now that hasn't gotten better as the season progressed. With youth, you look for talent first and then look for improvement. With five straight wins and 10 straight against non-league opponents over the last couple of months, you can see the improvement.

Reason number three: improved facilities. It has been a priority for Coach Blackmon from day one at making ETBU's baseball facility one of the best in the conference. Not that Woods Field was shabby or second-rate when he arrived in 2006, but there is always room for improvement when you think about the future. The late Mr. Lloyd Woods made it possible for lights to be installed this season, and we have enjoyed nighttime baseball all year that has increased attendance. It also allows the players more class time while still playing every game.

There have been discussions also of a possible baseball-only field house, a redesigned outfield wall, a renovated press box and grandstand area, and further landscaping around Woods Field that would enhance the look and atmosphere even further. Those things are just discussions right now, but it is nice to think about. One thing is for sure -- the better your facility, the better your chances to recruit quality student-athletes. See the previous blog entry ("Houses Built For Tigers") for more info on that particular subject.

Last night's win at LSU Alexandria moved the Tigers to 16-21 on the season. That's five more victories than all of 2007, and we've got another three games to go. On the field, that's progress. You want your team to be better than it was the previous year, and I don't think there's any doubt about that with this club.

And all signs are pointing to continued improvement in 2008. The pieces are in place, and the steps are being taken. Patience is also part of being good, and patience is usually rewarded.

Great job, guys.

Houses Built For Tigers

With the 2007-08 school year nearing a close -- we're less than a month from commencement here at ETBU -- I also will be passing a personal career milestone.

I will be completing my eighth year as Sports Information Director here, with the ninth beginning on June 1. Eight years seems like a very long time for me. I'm one of those kinds of people who needs change to stay fresh. That's the good thing about working in athletics, specifically as an S.I.D. There's always something changing -- I just move from one season to the next, and hope always springs fresh in the springtime for better results the following year.

Since walking on campus as an employee in the summer of 2000, I have seen a lot of changes within our athletic department. My first day at work back then was still three months before ETBU's football team made its official return after being away for a half-century. Ornelas Stadium was still just a big hole in the ground, and Carlile-Howell Hall was still being gutted out and remodeled into what is now Carlile-Howell Fieldhouse.

Eight years later, Ornelas Stadium is probably the best game-day facility in the ASC. One of the best in the nation, in fact. I'll say that with total confidence because I've seen a lot of facilities over the years and there's not one that matches "The Jungle." Even the D-II places we've visited don't hold a candle to what ETBU has provided for its football program.

Facility improvement has been a constant goal for ETBU, not just athletics but all over campus, under Dr. Bob Riley as president. In athletics alone, the only current facility still in use when Dr. Riley arrived is the Tiger baseball field -- Woods Field. Over the last few years that ballpark has seen countless upgrades in appearance as well, with brick dugouts, new backstop fencing and brick, a brand-new scoreboard, a batting cage with astroturf, and this year the lights that have provided night baseball for the first time in our history.

ETBU has constructed a football stadium, gymnasium, softball field and soccer field in the last 12 years. Ornelas Gymnasium opened in 1995 and is still, again in my own biased yet well-traveled opinion, probably one of the top three indoor athletics arenas in the ASC. Even half-full sometimes, the "House of Blues" might rank as the loudest game-day venues in the league with its acoustics. There have been some memorable games played in that gym the last eight years, and I can tell you when it gets rocking your ears will ring afterwards. We expect and hope for even more loud, memorable moments in there in the near future.

Taylor Field, for softball, is also one of the top game-day facilities in the conference. It too has received an upgrade in the last three years, with its brick dugouts as well as a remodeled press box/locker room. I've been asked why we need so much space up there in the press box, and I always say so that the air conditioning can cool more space! Thank God for air conditioning!

Word is that Taylor Field is in line to receive some new lights as well as a new outfield fence sometime in the near future. That will only add to its overall quality and appearance.

And finally, Tiger soccer has had its own home since 2002 in Cornish Field, which just received its official name this past fall. The soccer field sits just beyond the line of pine trees north of Ornelas Stadium, and it provides a great place for ETBU's soccer teams in the fall for both practice and games. The first couple of years here, covering soccer, were spent at what is now Anderson Sports Complex. This in itself wasn't a bad soccer facility -- the Tigers had two national champions compete there in the late 1990s of course -- but again ETBU's commitment to first-class facilities made it essential that a new, soccer-only facility be constructed. Cornish Field's spectator area was improved last season, with new permanent bleachers and landscaping added, and there are plans to renovate the bench areas and game worker/film area as well.

We are proud of our student-athletes at ETBU, and we are also very proud of the places they use for competition. I don't know if eight years qualifies one to be an expert or not, and again I'm a bit slanted in my opinion of course. But I'd put our athletic facilities up against anyone's as a group and not feel inferior in any way, shape or form. And they are only getting better.

Welcome Back!

It's been a long couple of months for the ETBU softball team, coaches and players alike.

Not that the Lady Tigers have done much wrong on the field, necessarily -- ETBU is 14-8 and currently in third place in the ASC East playoff race. That puts them squarely in the mix for another trip to the conference tournament at the end of the month, which would give ETBU a 10th straight playoff appearance in the ASC.

But we'll have to forgive the players if they don't remember what it's like to play an actual game at Taylor Field. It's got to be as unfamiliar place as they've seen all year, other than the fact they have been able to practice there. The Lady Tigers haven't played a home game since way back on Feb. 19, when they swept Austin College to move to 2-0 on the season.

Since then, they've played 20 straight games on the road, going 12-8 in that stretch. A major league baseball team would consider that a great road trip. The fact that with the exception of a sweep at No. 2-ranked rival, Lousiana College, ETBU managed to split every road doubleheader so far against ASC East opponents, now has the Lady Tigers firmly in the driver's seat for the playoffs again.

A lot has happened since we last saw the ladies at Taylor Field. The last time they played at home, gasoline was still hovering around $3 a gallon (I paid $3.19 for a few gallons yesterday afternoon); Jason Kidd had just been traded to Dallas, that same day; and John McCain was still taking primaries seriously.

All that changes Saturday when ETBU hosts UT Dallas in the first of what will be a pivotal stretch to close the season. The Lady Tigers get to play 12 of their final 16 at home now, with every one of their closest competitors for the final playoff spot having to come to Taylor Field this month.

There are some tough home contests ahead, of course -- the top two ranked teams in the nation, LC and UT Tyler, will play two games apiece in Marshall over the next few weeks. UTD, Ozarks and Mississippi College all have playoff aspirations, and LeTourneau is a much better team this year than in years past.

Coach Schlabs and her players are happy to be at home again. We've had to move the start times back for the games to 2 p.m. due to the fact it's been raining buckets here in Marshall all day today (Friday), but the weather is supposed to be perfect tomorrow.

It'll be nice to have softball again.

Back By Popular Demand...

The TigerBlog is back after an extended absence.

Call it a five-month stay on the disabled list. Call it a vacation. Call it an extended break. Call it whatever you'd like, but I haven't posted an ETBU sports blog since Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2007, titled "Media Guides."

A funny thing happened on the way down the blogosphere path -- basketball season started. Next thing I know spring is just around the corner and I found myself at the terrifying moment I face every year but it always seems to sneak up on me nevertheless: the intersection of seasons, meaning basketball always runs into baseball and softball.

I call it "The Perfect Storm."

But as the calendar has returned to April I finally feel my legs underneath me again for the first time in months. The air is fresher, the skies are clearer, the flowers are blooming... the keyboard is calling me again. Such is the life of a sports information director.

I have no idea how many people read or were expecting to read blogs on the old site, "ETBU TigerBlog." All I know is that I have a couple of people constantly in my ear, asking me when I'm going to post again. When I get the time, was my response 100 percent of the time, which is a bit of a laugh in and of itself.

So I'm back in the blogging business, with the aim of highlighting the ins and outs of Tiger athletics. Too much has happened since last time, and I felt the urge to start fresh. If you wish to review old posts to the old blog, here is the web address: http://etbutigerblog.blogspot.com/. There's some stuff on there I enjoyed, some I didn't. But it's a part of history nonetheless.

Enjoy the blog, and once again, Go Tigers.