Tag Archives: sports

SFA Lumberjacks vs. Central Arkansas Bears

March 03, 2013   Kasi Dickerson

 

SFA Lumberjacks crushed the Central Arkansas Bears 72-36, Thursday, Feb. 4, at William R. Johnson Coliseum. This win put SFA’s men’s basketball team in first place in the Southland Conference. At the end of the first half, the Lumberjacks were up by 16 points. The second half brought a new dimension to the game as SFA kept UCA away from the basket for 11 minutes. At the final buzzer, SFA earned a 36-point margin win over UCA.

02_KasiDickerson

SFA point guard Hal Bateman shakes Central Arkansas guard LaQuentin Miles and breaks past the full court press Thursday, Feb. 4. SFA tied with their all-time Southland Conference record with a 36-point margin win over UCA. (SFASYOU.com photo/ Kasi Dickerson)

 

06_KasiDickerson

SFA point guard Hal Bateman attacks the basket in the face of Central Arkansas guard Robert Crawford Thursday, Feb. 4. SFA Lumberjacks crushed the UCA Bears, 72-36, reclaiming first place in the Southland Conference. (SFASYOU.com photo/ Kasi Dickerson)

 

08_KasiDickerson

Members of the Purple Haze section show their school spirit with “Fatheads” of key players and Coach Kaspar to support the lumberjacks in their game against Central Arkansas Thursday Feb. 4, at William R. Johnson Coliseum. Fans engaged in hazing the opponents and cheering the Lumberjacks to victory. (SFASYOU.com photo/ Kasi Dickerson)

 

05_KasiDickerson

Amy Wright (left) celebrates with her opponent Jessica Gilligan after winning “The Price is Right” game during a media time out at SFA’s men’s basketball game Thursday Feb. 4. As her prize, Wright received a $25 gift certificate to Jack Backers bookstore. (SFASYOU.com photo/ Kasi Dickerson)

 

03_KasiDickerson

Driving through the lane, SFA point guard Hal Bateman pushes through UCA’s defense earning two points. Bateman and teammates Antonio Bostic, Desmond Haymon, Jacob Parker and Thomas Walkup added to the scoreboard giving the Lumberjacks a 39-14 lead over the UCA Bears three minutes before halftime. (SFASYOU.com photo/ Kasi Dickerson)

 

Read More

The Richard Haifley Story

November 06, 2012   fluegel

fluegeldd@gmail.com

Read More

Let The Games Begin!

October 14, 2012   fluegel

Freshman Traditions Council member, Sarah Bizzell, was one of many Traditions Council members who put in extra time on Sunday to help create homecoming decorations.

Homecoming week starts this Monday for Stephen F. Austin State University.

The student run organization, Traditions Council, has run homecoming since their formation in 2006. They are responsible for planning and executing a majority of the Homecoming events.

Homecoming court is decided on a point system. Candidates will get points for participating in events in addition to the points they get for popular vote. The top three candidates for Senior King and Queen will then have an interview with a board of faculty and staff members. The interview counts for 25% of the total points, making it the first time that the king and queen will not be solely decided by students.

The Involvement Center is also offering a “board game” style schedule that, once completed, will enter students into a raffle to win 250 dollars or a Kindle Fire. They can pick up the schedule in the Involvement Center. Students take the schedules to the Homecoming Headquarters set up at every event where their “board game” will get the corresponding sticker for that event.

This year’s theme is “Let the Games Begin.”  Decorations will go up Sunday night. There will be characters from different games placed throughout the campus.

“Each day will have its own game theme and the decorations will be dispersed across campus,” said Nicole Lejeune, Vice President of Traditions Council.

The themes for each day (in no particular order) are Pokemon, Scrabble, Monopoly, Dominos, Candyland, and Madden.

 

Monday

Monday morning the Homecoming week starts off with Opening Ceremonies at 10 am at Surfin’ Steve. The court candidates will be announced and the fountain water in Surfin’ Steve will be dyed purple. Online voting on Axes, SFA’s new social network, will be open until 5 p.m. To vote online students can go through MySFA. Here is how students can reach online voting.

  1. Login to MySFA
  2. Click on the “my services” tab
  3. Scroll down and click on the “AXES: The Web Portal for Student Involvement at SFA” link located in the middle of the page.
  4. Create an account (new users only)
  5. Find the link that states “2012 Homecoming Court Election ends 10/15/2012 5:00 PM Vote Now!”
  6. Click “Vote Now!”
  7. Vote for your desired candidates
  8. Students can only vote once, so students who vote online will not be allowed to vote in person.

The organizations competing for the Spirit Organization Award will be announced during the Homecoming Kickoff. Organization boards (ply wood that is decorated by competing organizations) will be presented. The Spirit Organization Award will be decided by a point system just like Homecoming Court. Organizations will gain points by participating in and winning events. Then Kickoff will shift gears. Participating organizations will run game themed tables in the plaza. Students who participate will earn raffle tickets to enter drawings for movies and electronics, like iPod speakers and a printer.

 

Tuesday

There will be a blood drive starting at 9 a.m. and going until 5 p.m. Organizations and court candidates can give blood or have others give blood in their name to earn points. Physical voting for Homecoming candidates on the plaza will start at 10 a.m. A validated student ID must be presented in order to vote.

The day ends with the Amazing Traditions Race, a campus scavenger hunt. The winning team earns the prize of 100 dollars.

 

Wednesday

Voting for Homecoming Court on the plaza continues until 2 p.m. when voting is stopped for counting. The campus recreational center invites all students to come by and tie dye a shirt at 4.

Homecoming Court candidates and organizations can gain points by participating and winning in the ODK (Omicron Delta Kappa, Leadership Honor Society) Trivia Bowl at 5. Groups of 4 to 5 students compete against each other in a battle to see who knows the most trivia.

 

Thursday

The organizations will be competing with each other once again at 2 p.m. on the plaza for the Big Event Food Drive Build. All through the week organizations will be turning in cans for the food drive into the Involvement Center. They will use those cans to build an object pertaining to the theme selected by the judges.

At 5 o’clock the Homecoming Court will be revealed at the Cheer Competition/Court Reveal in the Grand Ballroom. There will be ten students in the court, a duke and a duchess from each class plus a king and queen from the senior class. After the court is reveled organizations will compete by performing their cheer in order to obtain more points in the race for the Spirit Organization Award.

 

Friday

The day starts off with two golf tournaments hosted by the Alumni Association. The tournament for traditional golf will be held at 10:30 in the morning while the tournament of disc (Frisbee) golf will be held at 2 in the afternoon.

At 8:30 p.m. the torch light parade will begin. Glow sticks will be handed out to students. The king and queen and the court will lead the parade with a torch in hand. They will march from Surfin’ Steve down Raguet Street to Starr. From Starr they will head towards the intramural fields to the spot where the bonfire will be held.

After the bonfire is lit there will be a Bonfire Pep-Rally. During the pep rally Lumberjack’s head football coach J.C. Harper will come and talk to all the students and the winner of the Spirit Organization Award will be announced.

At 9:30 after the pep rally local Texas Country star, Aaron Watson, will hold a concert on the intramural fields, hosted by Student Activities Association.

 

Saturday

The final day of the Homecoming week starts at 8 in the morning with a 5k run at the parking lot behind Schlief Tennis Complex on the corner of Wilson and Starr.

Then at 10 o’clock the Homecoming parade will be held on Main Street downtown. Campus and local organizations along with the Homecoming Court will be on floats supporting their organizations and local businesses.

The final event of homecoming will be the football game at 3 in the afternoon as the SFA Lumberjacks face the Nicholls State University Colonels. The Lumberjacks come into the game as the favorite. Lumberjacks are 2-4 (1-1 in conference) while the Colonels are 1-5 (0-2 in conference). Both teams are coming off a game from the same opponent. Lumberjacks played Sam Houston Bearkats on October 6th and lost by eight points. This past weekend the Colonels faced off against the Bearkats and lost 41-0. During half time the homecoming court will be introduced a final time to all those present at the game.

 

For a full schedule of all the events and information or forms to register for the parade visit the Involvement Center or Homecoming web page at http://www.sfasu.edu/studentaffairs/94.asp.

 

Read More

Battle of the Piney Woods

October 08, 2012   fluegel

Read More

SFA Golfer Pursues Professional Career

May 05, 2012   Michael Smith

When it’s time to graduate, most seniors know the career they want to pursue and will use the knowledge that they acquired in college to seek that career. But what about the people who don’t use their majors, or don’t want to pursue their studies, and would rather pursue lifelong dreams of being professional athletes? One of those people at SFA is Stetson McMillan.

McMillan, who is finishing up his fourth and final year at SFA as a psychology major, has no intentions on pursuing his major, but has every intention on pursuing his childhood dream of becoming a professional golfer.

“It has always been my dream to play professional golf, but now the time has come where I have to actually try it, and it is pretty exciting but also scary at the same time,” McMillan said.

McMillan grew up in Lindale, Texas, where for the majority of his childhood he played competitive baseball at a high level.

“I played baseball ever since I was little and all the way until high school and just played golf for the fun of it. It wasn’t until my freshman year of high school that I picked up golf and got serious about it,” McMillan said.

Professional golf is unlike most sports, you don’t get drafted, you don’t play for teams, and you don’t automatically have things paid for according to McMillan.

“The thing people don’t realize is how hard golf is to pursue as a career. Not only is it very expensive, but unless you’re one of the best players in the country, sponsors and help with money are very hard to find,” McMillan said. “I have been fortunate enough to find a few sponsors to help me out with the costs of traveling around and that will help out so much.”

Another big part of professional golf, according to McMillan, is finding club sponsors to supply you with equipment and apparel to play with.

“Finding equipment sponsors is usually tough but I was able to work out a deal with Adams golf who is going to supply me with clubs when I need them which will be a big help. I also was able to work out a deal with them for my apparel so I have been very lucky so far with money help,” McMillan said.

Most don’t know what goes into the steps of turning professional in golf, but according to SFA head coach Trey Schroeder, it is not easy task.

“It is very tough out there on the mini-tours, not only is it very expensive, but if you’re not winning or getting top fives week in and week out, you won’t be making any money. I tried to make it for a couple of years after I graduated and did ok, but I just wasn’t making enough money,” Schroeder said. “But Stetson has been fortunate enough to get more back up then I ever had, so he should have a little better chance at being successful.”

With all the talk about how hard it is to just prepare to become a professional golfer, according to McMillan, it only gets harder when you get out there and compete.

“Since I have already got all the money stuff taken care of, my toughest task will definitely be just competing with all the guys out there. It is a completely different level of golf and now it is not only for trophies and rankings, but it is for money and my career. I know I have the game to compete out there but it is just going to be quite an experience,” McMillan said.

McMillan will be kicking off his professional career this summer in May, where he will attempt to qualify for a PGA tour event in Dallas, Texas call the Byron Nelson championship.

Stetson McMillan speaks on career

 

 

 

Read More

Parkour

May 03, 2012   Will Hackney

While other students are practicing football or learning how to play tennis, Colton Wilie, junior, is doing parkour, also known as free running. This sport originated in the 1920’s in Eastern Asia and is, to put it simply, jumping from point A to point B in a really cool way.
Wilie started doing parkour in 2006. “I started doing parkour because of videos I saw on the Internet,” said Wilie. “I was really horrible when I first started but then I wanted to get better so I joined a free running crew called The Rag-a-muffins. After I joined The Rag-a-muffins, I started getting better and then I started making videos. After that I started entering online contests…which we never won.”
Laws were apparently made to be broken, however. “We did a lot of breaking and entering,” said Wilie. “We broke into our high school- the outside part of it. And we broke into restricted areas of medical centers and stuff, mainly the roofs, where we would make three-story roof transfers. As in, we would jump from roof to roof.”
With broken laws, comes broken bones as well. “My first injury was when I slid down a concrete wall and basically gashed my leg from my ankle to my knee,” said Wilie. “I was bleeding heavily and actually had to tie a shirt around my leg to get me to the emergency room. When I got there, I had to tell them what I did. They all just kind of rolled their eyes and stitched me up.”
“Another injury I had was when my shoes exploded,” said Wilie. “I was on a one and a half story Gazebo and as I jumped off, I landed on a hill going upward. I rolled forward but unfortunately didn’t roll fast enough and I ended up hitting the ground so hard that my shoes exploded. As in, the soles of them blew out. They didn’t literally explode.”
Free running has an unknown artistic lifestyle. “People who run love the artsy side of it,” said Wilie. “There’s a flow to it that creates a mood in you that I can’t explain. The flow just carries you from wall to wall or roof to roof. It’s a very artistic and creative experience. Messing with the flow is like shanking your in-law. You just don’t do it.”
A major part of it is documenting it through videos. “That’s how we communicate,” said Wilie. “Free runners communicate through videos so that it’s all documented and we can show it to other free runners. That’s also how you join a crew. You document yourself running and stuff and then you upload it to parkour websites. Prospective crew leaders from the area pick up on it and decide if they want you or not.”

For Wilie, Some experiences stick out more than others. “I went to do a photo shoot with Houston Community College to promote an after school program they were doing,” said Wilie. “It was an intramural type thing. We went and free ran around the Houston community and then gave a seminar later that day about doing parkour. It made me feel realy cool getting all those people involved. I loved it.”
His parkour days didn’t last long, however. “I stopped running when a mildly famous free runner that I knew died,” said Wilie. “He fell from a six story parking garage. It was at that time that I realized how stupid it was and how dangerous it could be. It made me realize how one mistake can take your life. It just wasn’t worth it.”
Although Wilie doesn’t parkour anymore, he still respects it and the community that still does it.

Colton Wilie Interview

hackneywr@titan.sfasu.edu

Read More

Smith Weekly Tips takes Youtube by Storm

April 26, 2012   Steven McLeroy

The stress of school work and golf practice everyday can be a tiring down process. Being on the road seven out of nine weeks is a grueling process for anyone, especially a college senior.

Michael Smith is two weeks away from graduating from Stephen F. Austin University with a degree in Journalism.  To add to his resume, he has also helped lead the Lumberjacks to several collegiate victories.

Trying to stay focused on school with the golf season going on can be a very difficult task. With the spring golf season down to its last tournament Smith has become well-known throughout the collegiate athletes with his new YouTube hit videos.

Over the past several weeks Smith has been performing a parody of Michael Breed golf tips.

Breed is a highly respected golf instructor who has been giving golf tips on the Golf Channel for several years now. His show the “Golf Fix,” has impacted every level of golfer. Breed comes out with new instructions of teaching every day.

Being a high level golfer and watching the show Smith came up with the idea that he would start doing his own videos of golf tips in a comical way.

Smith’s first video became viral during Mid-February. Watching Breeds’ latest show on how to hit the “flop” or an exciting high soft golf shot, Smith immediately went to the camera to start his acting career.

“Once I saw Breeds’ video I had this idea to do comical lessons to try and make my friends and team mates laugh. I would go off what Breed would say in his shows then I would totally just flip what he said to do,” Smith said.

What started out as a joke, Smith quickly received immediate feedback from friends and fellow classmates.

“All of the responses were the about the same, everyone couldn’t stop laughing and they wanted more. So I did what the people wanted and started doing them weekly,” Smith said.

Smith Weekly Tips was born and was spreading like wildfire. The first video received a number of views, and when the Lumberjack squad traveled to golf tournaments players from other universities were asking for advice. Once the Lumberjacks returned home from South Carolina Smith recorded his second video of, “How to hit the long ball.”

The video contains a two minute instruction on how to gain distance on your tee shots during the round. While recording the instructional video Smith accidentally hits the golf ball in the house and nails the wall.

“We were about to do another take since I accidentally hit the ball into the wall but after I watched it, it was perfect,” Smith said.

The second video was an immediate hit. It doubled the views of the first video in two days. Also, it attracted not only young stereotypes but older people were starting to comment.

“Im not a very good golfer but the videos just make me forget about all the issues I have and makes me laugh,” Brian Day, amateur golfer said.

Since the second video Smith has recorded two more videos with his most recent one coming out on April 19. With some of his fellow teammates struggling to get out of the bunkers in golf , Smith decided he would poke fun of them and make a video.

Joking and laughing in the video Smith recorded his funniest video yet with hundreds of people replying back via text and facebook to Smith.

“It was crazy within an hour of posting the video I got about ten text messages that said best video yet or I can’t stop laughing,” Smith said.

With all the hype around the videos Smith is considering sending an application into the Golf Channel to see if he can team up with Michael Breed one day.


Read More

The First Tee

April 16, 2012   Steven McLeroy

A tropical storm blowing out of the South was not the problem this week for collegiate golfers in the state of Arkansas. It was a 40 mph wind that came through Tuesday morning.

The Lumberjack Men’s golf team traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas, this weekend to battle with some of the best collegiate teams in the nation. The tournament field consisted of 7 out of the 12 teams ranked in the top 50 in the nation.

Arizona, North Texas, New Mexico, Baylor, Texas A&M and a handful of other teams all made their way to Little Rock to try and win The First Tee Collegiate Invitational.

The tournament consisted of three days of golf, March 25-27, with each competitor playing 18 holes a day.

With round one kicking off on Sunday, March 25, the Lumberjacks started off of hole number 10 around 12:30 p.m. With the weather being absolutely perfect for scoring conditions, freshman Blake Pugh, Southlake,  and junior Jeff Hageman, Southlake, got off to a red hot start ;each being two under par in the early going of the tournament. As the round continued and the sun starting to drop, the Lumberjacks started fading towards the back of the pack.

At the end of the day the Lumberjacks fired a 297, 9 over par first round with senior Michael Smith, Cedar Park, leading the way with a one over par 73. Hageman was not far off of Smith’s pace with a 2 over 74. Freshman Blake Pugh and junior Mitchell McLeroy, Mansfield, both carded 75’s. After round one the Lumberjacks were 23 shots off the lead to The University of New Mexico after they fired a solid round of 274.

“We didn’t get any rounds under par today and that’s what really hurt us here in the first round. These teams know how to get it done when conditions are like this and my number one and two man didn’t perform how they wanted to today,” Head coach Trey Schroeder said.

“We have to go out there tomorrow and see if we can cut 23 shots in half,” Schroeder said.

Being 23 shots down, the Lumberjacks teed it up in round two with red numbers being only thing on their mind.

With weather conditions being absolutely perfect once again, junior Mitchell McLeroy got off to a red hot start birding two of his first six holes. Knowing that his team mates were struggling, McLeroy turned it up on the back nine carding two more birdies to get him to four under for the day with four holes to play until a double bogey stopped him dead in his tracks. McLeroy finished the round with three consecutive pars and posted SFA’s first under par score of the tournament.

Senior Michael Smith started the day off rough but fought back hard to knock three strokes off of his score on the back nine to shoot 75.

“I just didn’t get anything going in the beginning of the round and I knew the team needed me so I found something on the back nine and it seemed to work,” Michael Smith said.

The Lumberjacks ended up posting a 296, shaving one stroke off their day one performance. Once again it wasn’t enough to cut the lead down of the Lobos, who shot a  286 for the day.

With round two coming to an end, the players and coaches knew the worse was yet to come. With weather reports indicating that a cold front was coming through Little Rock Monday night. With Tuesday bringing 40 mph winds to the tournament.

The tournament was greeted with mother nature and her force on Tuesday morning. With the Lumberjacks being the test dummies, they were the first out onto the course with the hurricane winds.

With the Lumberjacks playing steady golf they quickly started climbing up the leader board. Each player of the team made the turn after nine holes at 3 over par or better with the rest of the field going way up in scores.

With head coach Trey Schroeder informing his players that they were moving up, the team started turning up the heat. Out smarting and out playing everyone else, the Lumberjacks started making birdies on the very difficult golf course.

Junior Jeff Hageman recorded five birdies on the back nine en route to a three under par 69, the lowest score of the day for the entire field.

“I really just stayed very calm out there all day and didn’t press and that‘s when putts started falling in. It was actually pretty easy,” junior, Jeff Hageman said after the round.

McLeroy and  Smith followed in Hageman’s footsteps recording birdies on the back nine before running into problems on the final three holes.  

Smith ended up with a 74 while McLeroy stumbled to a 77 in the final round. The Lumberjacks ended up firing a 302 being the third lowest team round of the day.

Hageman’s stellar play took him from a tie in 57th place to a tie for 12th in the tournament.

Smith and McLeroy finished in a tie for 31st place with 6 over totals for three days while freshman Blake Pugh ended up in 72nd place.

The Lumberjacks will travel to Victoria, Texas next week to play in the Jim West Collegiate hosted by Texas State. The Jim West collegiate tournament will be live on Golfstat for all fans and SFA alumni to watch.

With the spring semester coming to a close, the Lumberjacks are faced with two more tournaments until they have to battle in McKinney, TX, for the Southland Conference Championship.

“All of these tournaments this year is just a preparation to see where we are at and to see what we need to work on before the conference tournament,” Schroeder said.

The Southland Conference tournament will begin on April 23 and will consist of 18 holes a day over the span of three days. The winning team of the tournament will automatically advance to the regional tournament that will be played during May 16 through the 18th.  The Lumberjacks have not advanced to regionals since 1998 when head coach Trey Schroeder was on the winning team himself.

sm.mcleroy@gmail.com


Read More

Changing of the Guard

April 16, 2012   Steven McLeroy

Collegiate players and tour pros everywhere are making the switch to the new putter.

There was a time in golf when every player used the same type of putter as everyone else. The putter ran from anywhere between 28 to 37 inches long. With the blade of the putter sitting on the ground and the player having to rock his shoulders back and forth to make a stroke. With technology growing more and more everyday the invention of the belly putter soon arose in the game of golf.

A standard belly putter is between 42 to 53 inches long where instead of holding the end of your putter in your hands you put the end of the grip in your stomach to anchor the putter. In doing this, it takes your hands completely out of the stroke and makes you rock your arms and shoulders how they are “supposed to rock.”

The belly putter didn’t make its debut on the PGA Tour until 1999. Paul Azinger was an aspiring golf professional with an amateur resume that stunned the pros. During his first seven years as a pro Azinger struggled to make cuts and perform when it came down to crunch time. At the end of the 1999 season Azinger was ranked 111th in putting.

With putting being his problem, Azinger went to a local golf shop to look for answers. In the shop Azinger discovered something that was about to change his life forever. Azinger found the belly putter sitting in the corner of the shop and started putting and playing around with it. Feeling comfortable with it, he immediately took it on tour. With the belly putter making its professional debut Azinger stunned the world and won with ease. This was an eye opening win not only for Azinger but the world as well since Azinger went from bottom to top in putting statistics in one week.

With gossip going through the country like a wildfire only a handful of pros were up to the challenge and made the switch. Major champions Vijay Singh and Fred Couples were the next to try out the new sensation of putting. The next year the belly putter won eight times on tour with Singh winning four times.

The boom of the belly putters exploded after the 2004 season. Professionals and amateurs were buying belly putters left and right. Once all these victories came with the belly putter competitors that were not using the new putter began talking and protesting. They felt as the putter was a cheating device and it was “to easy” to make putts under pressure.

These protests soon went under investigation by the United States Golf Association rules committee. Former president, Frank Thomas, was the first to agree with the protestors and asked for the putters to be banned. But, it soon got overturned by the rest of the committee saying that this wouldn’t be fair because of sponsorships and endorsements players had with the companies that made the putters.

The belly putter ended up being able to stay and the expansion of the putter went on. Soon enough the putter took over  took over the tournaments where  you would see at least half of the players in the field using the putter.

In the year of 2011 their were 42 events played on the PGA Tour and the belly putter won nine times including a major championship. Two standout golfers that converted to the different style of putting were Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson. Mickelson didn’t find results right away with the putter but Scott was a different story. In only his fourth start using the putter,  Scott found the winners circle in the WGC- Bridgestone Invitational where he took down the number one ranked player in the world(insert comma) Luke Donald.

“I felt confident with the putter all week long and was very confident heading into the final round. Once I made my first one of the final round I was off and running. It was going to be tough to catch me,” Scott said.

With pros switching to the putter it soon transitioned over to the amateurs of golf. With the belly putters booming at the professional level it has not had the type of effect on amateur golfers.

Kyle Robbins, former SFA golfer, switched to the belly putter during his sophomore year. With putting being his weakness, Robbins felt that it was time to make a change. The Lumberjack team traveled to Charleston, South Carolina for College of Charleston Invitational. This was the first event Robbins used the belly putter and after 54 holes of grueling golf Robbins came out on top with his first ever collegiate win.

“It was the first time in my golfing career I felt comfortable over every putt. I stay committed and never second guessed myself over a putt,” Robbins said.

Since Robbins has won with the belly putter more and more SFA players have switched over to the new era of putting.

Senior, Michael Smith, was the first person to make the switch after Robbins won in South Carolina and like Robbins Smith immediately found success immediately.

Smith recently won the Texas Public Links using the belly putting and beating down every competitor he faced with ease.

Junior, Mitchell McLeroy, has made the transition to the putter as well. But, unlike Robbins and Smith, McLeroy has gone on and off with the putter. McLeroy has played phenomenal with the putter then there are weeks that it felt like nothing would work.

However, the putter is growing just as rapidly in the collegiate level as in the pros.  More and more student athletes are making the switch every tournament.

With the sport of golf growing more and more each year and great players like Phil Mickelson switching over to the belly putter there is no telling where the putter could go. Could we see every player switch over to the putter? Or will it get banned soon due to pros complaining?

Whatever happens the putter is here for now claiming more and more victims everyday making the switch. With 20 percent of the PGA Tour using a belly putter in the year of 2011 we could very well see that number double in 2013 or 2014.

sm.mcleroy@gmail.com

 

 

Read More

“One Night Stand” Tournament

April 16, 2012   Will Hackney

This weekend, SFA was the host of the annual “One Night Stand” Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. The tournament consisted of teams from universities all across Texas such as Texas State, Texas A&M, University of Texas at Austin, and many more including our very own SFA.
Ultimate Frisbee is a relatively new sport when compared with other well-known activities such as football, baseball, basketball, etc. It was created in the early 1970’s and quickly evolved into what it is today.
The game is played with one Frisbee disk and two teams of seven people each. Similar to football, the idea is to catch the Frisbee at an end zone to score a point. The team with the most points wins.
“I love Ultimate Frisbee so much,” says Christina Wapplehorst, a junior at Texas State University. “It’s a great way to be active and I just have so much fun with it.”
Wapplehorst has been playing for two years. “When I first started out I was a little nervous because I had never been involved in any sports before,” says Wapplehorst. “But this was just so easy and it really came natural to me. I love how simple the rules are. It makes for a whole lot less confusion.”
Wapplehorst first started out at SFA, however. “The first team I was on was here at SFA when I was a freshman,” says Wapplehorst. “But then when I transferred I joined the Texas State team. I really miss my SFA team sometimes but I still have been having a lot of fun with my new team. Also, it’s nice to see some old faces this weekend and being able to play against the people that helped teach me in the first place. That’s been interesting.”
Now Wapplehorst finds herself teaching others. “It’s weird to know that I’ve been playing for so long now that I’m actually teaching incoming freshmen how to play,” says Wapplehorst. “I always tell them the basic rules of the game first before I teach them special skills and tricks and stuff.”
The rules, which are pretty simple according to Wapplehorst, are always the hardest thing for the new team members to learn. “They tend to have trouble figuring everything out at first, but eventually they get it. I just tell them to stick with their position (Header, middle man, or wing) until they get a hang of the game and how to play and all that.”
“Really though, it’s simple,” says Wapplehorst. “You just throw the Frisbee back and forth to people on your team and try to catch it in the goal area for a point. You can’t run with it though. That’s the most common foul that people commit in these games because it can be hard to stop running once you catch it. Also it’s pretty tempting.”
For the “One Night Stand” tournament this weekend, Wapplehorst made sure she was prepared. “Well the whole reason it’s called One Night Stand is because it’s played from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.,” says Wapplehorst. “So to prepare for it, I did some cardio workouts for the weeks leading up to it and I made sure to eat a lot of energy food the day of the tournament. I also slept all day as well to make sure I would stay up all night.”
By the end of the night, Wapplehorst ended up playing nearly half of the games at the tournament. “I usually don’t play that many games in one tournament,” says Wapplehorst. “But we kept winning so I just happened to play a lot of them that night.”
Although her team lost the tournament, Wapplehorst says, “It’s all for fun. I don’t care whether I win or lose.”

Christina Wapplehorst

hackneywr@titan.sfasu.edu

Read More
« Older posts

  • Calendar

    May 2013
    M T W T F S S
    « Apr    
     12345
    6789101112
    13141516171819
    20212223242526
    2728293031  
Powered by WordPress | Designed by: SEO Consultant | Thanks to los angeles seo, seo jobs and denver colorado