by Cheval John

With the 2012 Southland Conference (SLC) Baseball Tournament winding down this weekend in San Marcos, one could wonder what the future holds for the conference.

Almost two years ago, Texas State University-San Marcos (TXST), University of Texas-Arlington (UTA) and University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) informed SLC Commissioner Tom Burnett that they were departing the conference effective July 1.

Though their destination was the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in the beginning, each university had second thoughts because they did not know if the conference was going to be there in the future.

Suddenly, UTSA changed their minds and said that they will join Conference USA on July 1.

UTA  followed their lead and will leave for the Sun Belt Conference on July 1.

TXST on the other hand will keep their commitment to the WAC on July 1.

The twist to all of this is that they will be a member for only a year before joining the Sun Belt in 2014.

The irony in all of this is that they left a solid conference, like the SLC for a conference that probably will not be there in the future and that put them in a situation in which they had to scramble to be in a conference before July 1.

Commissioner Burnett  was not rattled by their decision as he immediately sought for replacements.

After the delegation visited Oral Roberts (ORU) and Houston Baptist University early last year, the commissioner made a formal invitation to both the universities to join the conference and both gladly accepted.

ORU will join effective July 1 of this year to compete in all sports except football because they don’t have a football team while Houston Baptist joining the following year.

In the process, they have fielded a football team that will begin athletic competition in 2014.

ORU have been dominant in the Summit League over the years as their basketball team have made a couple of appearances in the NCAA basketball tournament.

The acquisitions of both those schools increases the possibility of future expansion for the  Southland Conference.

In addition, both schools will not have to travel as far as New York for in- conference competition because members of the SLC are within an driving distance between 3-8 hours of each other.

That alone will save the athletics department money while the other three schools that left will now have to expand their budget to accomodate to their travels because of distance of each school in both the Sun Belt and Conference USA.

In the end, the SLC got the last laugh.

by Cheval John

It’s official, Chelsea F.C are the 2011-12 UEFA Champions.

What was supposed to have been a down year became  the most remarkable turnaround in sports history.

At the UEFA finals in Munich, they defeated Bayern Munich in penalty kicks by the score of 4-3, in front of their own fans.

For Bayern Munich, this was a home game that happened to be the second biggest game in soccer history.

The turnaround began in March when they named Roberto Di Matteo as their interim head coach and things started to go for them.

What’s more remarkable about this is that they defeated Barcelona in an away game to make it to the final.

The reason why I mentioned this is because three years ago, the same Barcelona team, who were the eventual champion, went to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea, defeated them in aggregate goals when the game ended in a 1-1 tie.

Many people remember that game as contreversial because they were calls in the game that could have gone Chelsea’s way, but didn’t.

One instance, with Chelsea leading 1-0, Michael Ballack shot the ball toward the goal inside the penalty box and a defender, purposely stuck his hand in the air to prevent the shot.

In soccer, you cannot use your hands and if you are caught doing it when in the penalty area, then a penalty shot is awarded.

The referee saw it, but did not award the penalty shot, keeping Barcelona hopes alive.

They would take advantage of that opportunity in stoppage time when Andres Iniesta blasted a shot that went past goalie, Petr Cech that gave them the needed goal to tie the game and win the match in aggregate to move on in the final.

Chelsea had an opportunity at redemption  last April when they faced Barcelona in the second leg of the semifinals at Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain.

With Barcelona leading the match 2-1 and the aggregate tied at 2-2, Fernando Torres, who was wide open at mid-field, received the pass and went the distance, made a great move on goalie Victor Valdes, and scored the decisive goal in a wide opened net to break the hearts of the Barcelona faithful.

Chelsea showed perseverance and grace when things didn’t go their way and proved to the world that good things come to those who wait and in the end, they got their “poetic justice.”

by Cheval John

Every student athlete dreams of finishing their collegiate career on a high note.

For senior pitcher Tomi Garrison, she will get that opportunity to close out her career as Sam Houston State Bearkat softball team competes in the Southland Conference Post-Season Tournament that will be held in San Antonio from May 10-12.

The Bearkats, who started the season at 1-13, won their last 25 of 31 games to finish the season at 26-19 and secured the No. 2 seed for the tournament.

Garrison played a major role in the turnaround as she collected 9 wins, pitched a total of  73.2 innings and struck out 50 total batters in her last 11 starts and got three saves in relief to finish the regular season at 10-8.

“We started out the season saying, ‘we’re going to the tournament,’ and now we are” Garrison said.

“We knew we had a good team…when we went through that slump, it brought our team together. In the middle of the season, you started seeing more chemistry between us.”

It comes as no surprise to Garrison as she has been on every winning team since she began playing the sport competitively at nine years old.

The psychology major was the starting pitcher at Garland High School, the team made it to four state championships, winning two in the process.

As a starter, she compiled a record of 97-13 and racked up awards including the  All-State Tournament and State Tournament Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2007 and“District 10A-5 MVP,”  and the Gales Fields Awards in her senior year.

She also pitched for the Texas Glory Softball Club, that won the  AFA National Championship.

Garrison knew that she wanted to attend Sam Houston State University because during her time at Garland, one of her assistant coach Jennifer Robertson, was a former player and assistant coach for head coach Bob Brock at SHSU.

“I got a call from her (Robertson)…’you need to come out and watch our freshman pitcher (Garrison), she’s really good,” coach Brock said. “I got a young lady who ended up pitching all four years in the final state championship game.”

“I really wanted to go to Sam because coach Brock would come to a lot of my games,” Garrison said.

She compiled a 3-3 record, with 26 strike outs and a 3.22 earned run average (e.r.a.) and made the SLC Tournament in her first year at Sam.

She improved in her sophomore year, with a 5-4 record and striking out 37 batters.

Her junior year was a break-out year as she struck out 116 batters and dropped her e.r.a to 2.62 and was an honarable-mention on the All-Southland Conference team.

“She is consistent and she get strike outs when you need them,” coach Brock said.

Now with the regular season over, Garrison is more focused on winning the tournament and knows what it takes to win.

She has established her legacy on the softball program and coach Brock is a better person because of the opportunity he had to coach Garrison.

In every competion, they always have to be a winner and a loser. That was no different in the NCAA National Championship game that transpired between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the University of Kansas Jayhawks.

Though it was a good game, the Wildcats defeated the Jayhawks by the score of 67-59 to win the national title.

The championship was their eighth in school history and one would conclude that they are the real winners of the NCAA tournament.

The Jayhawks were the losers, they had a chance to represent their school and to play for the national championship.

However, the real winners of the NCAA Basketball Tournament are the student journalist who represented their college newspapers.

The reason is because they have covered each of these basketball teams for the whole season and with the Final Four taken place, each of these student journalist got the opportunity to sit side by side with sport journalists represent well-known national television and print media that includes ESPN, CBS, TNT, The Houston Chronicle, Yahoo Sports, USA Today and a whole lot more.

With them covering these teams for their school newspapers, they took advantage of the opportunity to network with those that have succeeded in their respective fields, putting themselves in position to get a job once they graduate from their respective universities because in the end, employers are looking for those who have experience along with the degree.

Wouldn’t you want to say that I have met Dick Vitale at the Final Four?

Here is the video tribute to the 2012 National Champions University of Kentucky: