Bearkat Bowlers On A “Roll” With Fourth Tournament Win
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Sam Houston’s No. 4 ranked women’s bowling team bagged another first place trophy Sunday, winning the team title at the Frederick Underwood Classic in Laurel, Maryland.
The tournament was hosted by Bowie State at the AMF Laurel Bowling Center.
In best-of-seven bracket play Sunday, Sam Houston defeated No. 19 Bethune-Cookman 4-3, Chowan 4-0 and North Carolina A&T 4-0 in the finals.
“Today was an important day for us not only from a competitive stand point but more mental,” head coach Brad Hagen said. “We needed to make shots, manage the emotions, and gear down. Everyone had a piece of today’s success and despite a few silly losses a lot of good came out of this weekend.”
“We have a lot of work to do and still have 50+ matches so its officially time to lock down the focus and take care of business if we want a legit shot at a nationals selection. This team has the heart to get it done.”
Sam Houston ended the tournament with an 11-2 record.
Saturday in traditional team match action, the Kat bowlers defeated Howard 1,046-882, Lincoln University 898-637, Chowan 1,019-686 and Virginia Union 1,011-755.
The only loss came in the second match of the day as Sam Houston feel to North Carolina Central 970-943.
In Friday’s quad baker team play results, the Bearkats started with a 900-781 win over Alabama-Birmingham.
The Kats defeated Coppin State 850-500 and Salem International 740-535 before falling to Bowie State 770-762.
Sam Houston bounced back to down Morgan State 771-690 in the day’s final match.
Sam Houston now stands 63-19 in dual match play for the season.
During the fall semester, the Kats won tournament championships at the Tulane Invitational, the Alabama A&M tournament and the Track Kat Klash in Huntsville and finished as team runner-up at the Bethune-Cookman tournament.
The Real Losers Of The NHL Lockout Are The Fans
by Cheval John
It has been almost three days since the National Hockey League (NHL) and the NHL Players Union reached a deal that ended the 113-day lockout that canceled most of the season including the 2013 Winter Classic.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, issued an apology to the fans, players and sponsors today for the prolonged lockout and said that he “understand their frustration.
He added that they will now focus more on the ice because the CBA agreement is for 10 years and that will allow them to regain trust with the fans.
In reality, I don’t buy it.
The reason is because they had plenty of time to avoid the lockout because the previous one canceled the 2004-05 season and that left a void in North American sports.
If they had really understand, then they would have done everything that they can to reach a new deal and started the 2012-13 season without a hiccup.
Instead, fans, sponsors and television networks in the U.S. and Canada had to cover their gripe over and over in the last 113 days.
The NHL Players Association, led by Donald Fehr, who previously led the Major League Baseball (MLB) Players Association, didn’t want to reach a deal because he felt that the owners and the board of directors of the NHL would have budge and give in to their demands.
If the NHLPA had done their research on Mr. Fehr before they had hired him to be their representative, they would have seen that he was part of the reason why the MLB canceled the rest of the 1994 season and also was part of the steroid era in the 1990s.
Instead, they hired him and look where they are right now.
The NHLPA blamed the owners for trying to cut their salaries in order to help smaller market teams to sustain the NHL.
The owners are not without fault as well because they wanted to keep as much money as possible because of the revenue that the NHL makes from the television contracts and sponsorships.
In my opinion, I don’t feel sorry for either side because they make enough money (estimated $100,000 for the lower bench players to $20 million for the stars) playing the game they love.
You going to tell me that they are not satisified with their pay while the average “Joe” in this economy have to work at least two jobs to make ends meat and pay the bills and the most dedicated fan have to pay an estimated $400 dollars for season tickets and to pay at least $40 dollars for snacks and drinks while at the game?
That is ridiculous.
What this tells me is that these players want more money just to show off their “bling, bling” and to claim that they are the most paid athlete in the sport.
What they showed by having this lockout is that they don’t give a “flying leap” about the fans who live and die for their team.
They don’t understand that the fans needs this game to help them relax and be themselves after a hard days work or if they are unemployed.
The players and Mr. Bettman hopes that the fans will forgive them for the lockout and that they will come back in hoards.
I really hope that the majority of the fans including the die-hard fans will not return to watch a 48-game season to let these guys to show them that they will not put up with their shenanigans.
Maybe that will let them think twice and get their act together.
Bearkat Wide Receiver Earns Invite From NFLPA
by Cheval John
With all the attention that the Sam Houston State Bearkat football team has received during their consecutive run at the FCS National Championship, many wondered could it get any better than this?
Well, it gets even better when Bearkat wide receiver Trey Diller received an invite to participate in the NFLPA All-Star Collegiate Bowl that’s set to be played in Carson, California on Jan. 19 on ESPN2.
Diller, who caught the ball 62 times for 927 yards and four touchdowns, became the first Bearkat to ever participate in the NFLPA.
The Woodlands, Texas native also was the return specialist, as he finished third in the Southland Conference with 354 yards in punt returns.
In addition, he became the first Bearkat to make the All-Southland Conference honors both as a wide receiver and a return specialist.
He played a huge part during the Bearkat playoff run at the FCS Championsip when in the quarterfinal round at Montana State, he caught a 56-yard pass TD pass from quarterback Brian Bell that allowed the Bearkats to blow the game wide open.
Diller completes his collegiate career with 1,190 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.
Bearkats Finished Season At No.2
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
For the second year in a row, the Sam Houston State (SHSU) Bearkats have finished the season as No.2 in the FCS Sports Network polls.
The Bearkats went through three Big Sky tri-champion teams (Cal Poly, Montana State and Eastern Washington) to make a return trip to the FCS National Championship game in Frisco, where they lost to the eventual champion, North Dakota State (NDSU) Bison.
NDSU was the Sports Network’s No. 1 team and were ranked No. 1 in 11 of the 14 polls this season.
SHSU (11-4) was voted second on 128 of the 142 ballots.
Coach Willie Fritz’s Bearkats, the Southland Conference co-champions, finished behind North Dakota State in the point total, 3,550 to 3,386.
The other two teams to reach the national semifinals, Southern Conference tri-champion Georgia Southern (10-4) and Eastern Washington (11-3), finished No. 3 and 4, respectively.
The rest of the Top 10 was No. 5 Montana State (11-2), No. 6 Old Dominion (11-2), No. 7 Wofford (9-4), a SoCon tri-champion; No. 8 Illinois State (9-4), No. 9 Appalachian State (8-4), a SoCon tri-champion and No. 10 Central Arkansas (9-3), a Southland co-champion.
Next up were No. 11 Stony Brook (10-3), a Big South Conference tri-champion, No. 12 Cal Poly (9-3), No. 13 New Hampshire (8-4), a CAA Football tri-champion, No. 14 South Dakota State (9-4), No. 15 Villanova (8-4), a CAA tri-champion, No. 16 Lehigh (10-1), No. 17 Towson (7-4), a CAA tri-champion, No. 18 Richmond (8-3), a CAA tri-champion, No. 19 James Madison (7-4), and No. 20 Northern Arizona (8-3).
Northeast Conference champion Wagner (9-4) finished at No. 21, followed by No. 22 Bethune-Cookman (9-3), the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion, No. 23 Eastern Kentucky (8-3), No. 24 Coastal Carolina (8-5), a Big South tri- champion; and No. 25 Colgate (8-4), the Patriot League champion.
The first teams outside the Top 25 were Eastern Illinois, the Ohio Valley Conference champion, and Indiana State, which handed North Dakota State its only loss of the season, 17-14 on Oct. 13.
The CAA finished with the most teams in the Top 25 with six, followed by the Big Sky with four and the Missouri Valley and SoCon with three each.
There were two teams each from the Southland, Big South and Patriot League, and one each from the MEC, NEC and Ohio Valley Conference.
A national panel of sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries selected the Top 25 throughout the season.
A first-place vote was worth 25 points, a second-place vote 24 points, all the way down to one point for a 25th-place vote.
What Goes Around, Comes Around
by Cheval John
Everyone were captivated by the courageous will of Notre Dame’s Manti T’eo to play through adversity.
T’eo led the Irish defense on a run toward the BCS National Championship Game in Miami Gardens, Florida where they eventually lost to the eventual champion, Alabama Crimson Tide.
Many gained respect for T’eo after hearing about his trial due to the death of his grandmother in September.
They were even more fascinated with the fact that he had fell in love with a girl online named Lennay Kukua, who apparently “died of leukemia within two weeks of his grandmother and how he was able to move on and play extremely well to the point that he was one of the three finalist for the Heisman Trophy.
T’eo thought that he lost the girl of his dreams.
But he and everyone was in for a rude awakening.
According to Deadspin.com, “Kennay Kekua” does not exist and that her death from leukemia was allegedly a hoax.
The report indicates that someone made up this “Kennay Kekua” and conspired with others to deceive T’eo into believing that she was real.
Jack Swarbrick, vice president and director of athletics at Notre Dame said that T’eo is the most honest person that he ever met and that the perpetrators knew that he was an easy target because of his trusting demeanor.
He called this a tragedy and that “The single most-trusting human being he’s ever met will never be able to trust in the same way again.”
The pepetrators are really the most sickening human beings on the face of this earth because they aimed at a person who lost a person that was very dear to him and used that for their twisted joke.
They were not sensitive to a guy, who is one of the most respected players in college football, but played with his feelings in order to just get a “laugh.”
In reality, the perpetrators are just a bunch of morons who think that they can do this sought of thing and get away with it.
What they don’t realize is that nothing can be hidden anymore and that they will get caught either for their “joke” and will have to suffer the consequences for their role in creating this fictious “woman.”
Like the saying goes, “What goes around, comes around.”
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