Preparation Is The Key To Success
To be successful, you got to have quality preparation. For the SHSU Orange Pride Dance Team, their preparation is at Bearkat sporting events.
The team have won back-to-back National Championships and will be going for their third at the National Dance Association (NDA) Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship in Daytona Beach, Florida from April 11-15.
“It’s bigger than I can describe,” senior co-captain Hannah Shields said. “We have all of the talent and have been working very hard to be where we are.”
The team is part of the Spirit Programs under the Department of Student Activites that includes the All-Girl Cheer Squad, the Co-Ed Cheer Squad and Sammy The Bearkat Mascot program.
The team trains everyday in preparation for the football season, the basketball season, special events and for the NDA competion that is held every year in Daytona Beach.
They placed first in the NDA National Competition in 1998 and 2005. In 2008, the team came up short in the competition and it taught the team a very important lesson about hard work.
“We had a big wake up call and had to step up our game,” Shields said.
After the season, they hired Sarah Pritchard as their head coach. Under her leadership, the team improved on their technique and learned new dance routines that helped them win back-to-back national championships at the NDA competition in 2010 and 2011.
“They have a lot of pride in Sam Houston and the dance program,” Spirit Programs Coordinator Brian McColpin said. “They want to go out there and win for their coach.”
They know that the competition are aiming at prevent them from winning their third straight championship. But for the dance team, they are more determine to achieve their goals because of the coaching and the leadership that each person brings to the team.
“I want to leave here with three rings on my finger,” Shields said. “I chose not to get a senior ring because I want another national championship.”
The Ally Kats Strike
Over the weekend, the Sam Houston State Bearkat Bowling Team finished fourth at the Big Red Tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska. They are now 53-26 for the season and are currently ranked fourth in the new National Ten Pins Coaches Association media poll.
“You always have high expectations and because of the variables, we cannot take anything for granted,” head bowling coach Brad Hagen said. “We just needed to go out there and make shots.”
The process to get the bowling program at SHSU started in 2009 when the Southland Conference wanted to add an additional sports in order to have a balance between the men’s and women’s sports.
Stephen F. Austin State University became the first school in the conference to start a bowling program. It made the decision easy for athletic director Bobby Williams to add bowling as the 15th sport to the SHSU program.
Once the program was incorporated, they hired Hagen as the first head bowling coach.
He worked tirelessly to bring in top quality talent who would be successful in the game and in the classroom while at the same time preparing for the inaugural season.
Since they were a first year program, they were picked to finish next to last in the league, but instead made it to the NCAA Bowling Championships in Detroit, Michigan, USA, becoming the only first year program in history to make the championships. They finished 7th in the championships to complete their inagaural season.
Now they are determined to get back to the big dance as they started the 2011-12 season strong with a third place finishes at the Greater Ozark Invitational, the New Jersey Jamboree and with wins at the Lumberjack Invitational and their own Track Kat Klash Tournament.
“When we come together as a team, we rely on each other,” sophomore Neishka Cardona said after winning the Kat Klash Tournament. “We win as a team, we lose as a team.”
Here are some of the highlights from the Kat Klash Tournament on BowlTV.com.
Pep Rally In Frisco
For the first time in as many years, the Sam Houston State Bearkat football team are given students, staff and alumni something to cheer about.
The first ever championship pep rally was held at Nylo Hotel on Friday night. The event was open to alumni, donors, students and friends of Sam Houston State University. It allowed those who have graduated, but have not been at the university, to reconnect and see what has been happen since graduating.
“I have never seen anything like this before,” Leah Mulligan, Ph.D., director of Student Activities said. “There is so much enthusiasm for the team. This is how all football games should be.”
The pep rally was organized jointly by the Office of the President, the Alumni Association, Student Services and the Athletic Department. Current and former Bearkat students-athletes have been amazed at the turn out of the event and understand the impact that the football team is bringing to the university
“This is so much fun,” Carli Kolbe, former Bearkat volleyball player said. “We really want to be supportive and are happy to see this happen for them.”
“It’s really exciting because they are so many fans here,” Maggie Collum, director of university events said. “This is one of the first steps to get people back on board. It’s awesome!
A “Town” For Tailgating
by Cheval John
Though the Bearkat football team lost to North Dakota State Bison 17-6, the team has brought a new sense of pride to the university and the Huntsville community.
Students, faculty, staff and alumni got to experience the festivities at “Tailgating Town” in the parking lot area of FC Dallas Stadium.
The “town” was put together by the NCAA in conjunction with the staff of FC Dallas Stadium.
Different activities that transpired in the area was sponsored by corporate entities including Capital One Bank and AT&T that included the football skills challenge featuring former Football Championship Series (FCS) players who currently play in the NFL and winners and finalist of prestigious awards in the FCS level, who teach kids techniques that will make them successful in the game.
“It was awesome,” Bo Levi Mitchell, former Eastern Washington quarterback and winner of the Walter Payton Award said. “It was so much fun because we got to spend time with the kids and to see their passion for the game.”
They also had a mechanical bull and rope challenges that gave the participants an opportunity to test their endurance and see how long they can withstand the mechanical bull. They had a station where fans can get their face painted right before the championship game.
The Office of Students Activities, along with the Alumni Association set up a tent in the area where fans got towels to wave, pom-poms and much more to cheer on the football team.
Fans also got the opportunity to listen to live music and to get into the spirit as the SHSU cheerleaders and the Orange Pride performed in front of thousands of fans.
“Everyone was very excited to be here,” Angie Taylor, Director of Leadership Intiatives for Student Activities said. “They were honking their horns on the way to Frisco, it was great.”
SHSU Student Takes A Small Step To Change The World
Sam Houston State University student Mark Denman’s ambition is to use his skills to help people in time of need or crisis. The junior biology major took the first step in that direction as he spent two months in the Republic of the Philippines during the summer of 2010 and spent the first six months of 2011 in Mali through the organization “Go Now Missions,” based out of Arlington, Texas. Since then, he has been involved with the International Programs as a volunteer in helping international students to adjust to the culture of the United States and to campus life. We caught up with Mark to get his perpespective on his trip.
What’s The Word: Can you tell us about the time when you first went overseas? What was that like?
Mark Denman: The first time I went overseas was last year in the summer. I traveled to the Republic of the Philippines for two months backpacking with six other Americans in a rural island setting, a very non-tourist area. We set out to backpack these trails to discover villages and the people that live there. We did some ethno research to see what languages they spoke, where they lived and mapped out communities. I had a blast doing it and was a very awesome experience.
WTW: How did you find out about the trip?
MD: I am an active participant in the Baptist Student Ministry (BSM) and a friend of mine who spend a year living in Ethiopia teaching English. He had a great experience and told me “It seems that you like to meet people of different races and cultures. Why don’t you check out this program?” So I found out about “Go Now Missions” and I signed up and filled out an application and they allotted funds for me and that is how I got there.
WTW: With that in mind, what was it like living in Mali?
MD: Well, I had a blast. I spend six months in Mali, living in a rural setting among the villagers. They was no electricity, running water, or plumbing. It was just farmers who plow the land to get food. They speak their own language and we did not have translators. Our purpose was to develop relations with the people and to experience their culture and to learn the language. Though it was challenging and difficult, we persevered for the sake that it would impact their lives in ways that other Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s) couldn’t.
WTW: One of the things that you encountered was the fact that they were dependent on the West and are not self-sufficient. Why is that?
MD: They are a lot of speculations. The West feels more generous because we have abundance and we see pictures of Africa and go over there and see that the people are impoverished and don’t have things that we have. So we feel obligated sometimes to give them stuff which is great, but if we do not understand the culture, the ramifications behind what we are doing causes more damage than good. It has been noted that philanthropist who have gone to Africa and donated millions of dollars for AIDS relief and water wells. Two to three years down the road, no work has ever been done because the West call it a “mismanagement” of funds. But the African mentality doesn’t think it is mismanagement , but is how they handling the money to take care of things that is more important than water wells.
WTW: How has this experience changed you when you return to the States?
MD: Coming back as a student, I have become more compassionate about people. To me, the village of Mali, West Africa is a neighborhood on Sam Houston Avenue. It becomes real to me when I meet international students from Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Senegal that are here in Huntsville, Texas. I can pick up on that, not because of the language, but the clothes they wear, their style, the way that they walk and have an outlook on life that is different.
WTW: Globalization is happening all around us. What do you think that students need to do to be prepared for the 21th century workforce?
MD: I think the greatest thing that we can do is to get involve and befriend international students here on campus. I know 75 students from all over the world that are coming here to either get degrees or to learn English for a semester. They really love to practice English with an American and to learn the culture of the United States. They can also connect with the world through studying abroad, NGOs, Peace Corps, etc. in order to learn a new language and a new culture.