Bearkat Volleyball Player, Coach Earns SLC’s Top Honors
Courtesy: Paul Ridings, Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Deveney Wells-Gibson is the 2012 Southland Conference volleyball “Player of the Year,” Brenda Gray received league “Coach of the Year” honors and five Bearkats have been voted as All-Conference performers after leading Sam Houston to its first regular season volleyball championship since 1994.
Wells-Gibson was the top-scorer with 496 points for a Bearkat volleyball team that rolled to a 20-10 overall regular season mark and posted its highest Southland victory total ever with a 15-3 league mark.
The sophomore from San Antonio ranked No. 2 in kills (421) in the Southland and also was No. 10 in digs (339) and No. 12 in aces (34). She totaled double figure kills in 26 of the Bearkats’ 30 matches and was a two-time Southland Conference offensive player of the week selection.
Wells-Gibson is the first Bearkats to claim the honor since Julie Franzen won after SHSU’s 1993 conference championship season.
Gray, one of only 29 active head coaches in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball to post more than 500 career victories, to a season of 20 or more victories for the 12th time in her coaching career.
The 2012 Sam Houston team rolled up 13 consecutive victories at one point during the march to the conference title.
The 13-match winning streak is the longest since SHSU moved up to the Division I level in 1986.
In her 29th year of coaching this year’s honor marks her third “Coach of the Year” award in the Southland Conference.
After starting the season 3-7, the Bearkats went 17-3 the rest of the season including 12 three-set sweeps.
Her 595 career wins ranked third all-time among Southland Conference volleyball coaches.
Kendall Cleveland joined Wells-Gibson as a first team All-Southland Conference selection.
The senior from Houston totaled 389 points with 350 kills (3.53 per set) eight aces and 56 total blocks.
Tayler Gray and Kim Black, both Huntsville High School products, were second team selections.
As the Bearkats’ setter, Gray assisted on 1,162 of Sam Houston’s 1,413 kills this year and lead the squad with 383 digs.
Black was a force in the middle for the Bearkats, leading the Southland Conference in total blocks (140).
She stands No. 2 at Sam Houston in career blocks.
Kaylee Hawkins received honorable mention.
This marks the third time that she has made the All-Southland team (2009 first team, 2010 honorable mention).
The senior from Dickson is currently No. 3 in career digs (1,597).
Sam Houston is the No. 2 seed in the Southland Conference post-season tournament this weekend in Conway, Arkansas.
The Bearkats open play Friday at 11 a.m. against No. 7 seed Nicholls State.
The tournament semifinals will be played Saturday with the finals at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
SHSU To Host Intercollegiate Golf Tournament
Courtesy: Paul Ridings,Jr., SHSU Sports Information
Twelve women’s teams and nine men’s squads will gather Monday morning at Raven Nest Golf Course as Sam Houston State plays host to the annual Harold Funston Intercollegiate Golf Classic.
The even marks the third year in a row that SHSU has hosted a fall golf event at Raven Nest.
Sam Houston won the men’s tournament both in 2010 and 2011 and the Bearkat women are the defending champs in their competition as well.
A&M-Corpus Christi, Alabama State, Houston Baptist, Lamar, New Orleans, Saint Edwards Texas Southern University, Texas-Pan American, Tyler Junior College, Western Texas College and Jacksonville College will be the participants in the women’s event.
The women’s layout at Raven’s Nest will play at par 71 with a yardage of 6,067 yards.
Jacksonville, North Dakota State, Texas-Brownsville, Texas-Pan American Texas Southern and Tyler will compete in the men’s team competition while four-man squads from Baylor and Houston will play as individual medalist entries only.
The men’s layout also has a par 71 and will be 6,943 yards long.
Play begins Monday with an 8 a.m. shot gun start.
The 54-hole tournament will feature 36 holes on Monday and the final 18 on Tuesday.
Bearkat Volleyball Team Set For Oral Roberts
by Cheval John
There are always a first time for everything.
Your first day of school. Your first day of work.
For the Sam Houston State Bearkat volleyball team, it will be their first meeting against Oral Roberts University at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum on Thursday at 7 p.m.
ORU joined the Southland Conference this past July and the Bearkats are looking forward to the matchup.
“Obviously, Oral Roberts is new to the conference,” assistant coach Ellen Andrews said. “It’s interesting to open the conference season with them.”
The Bearkats (4-7) finished their two week road trip at the Sugar Bowl Classic in New Orleans with a 1-2 record.
That win came against host Tulane in the last game of the classic.
Oral Roberts also have a record of 4-7 and are on a five-game losing streak.
Three of their players have a total of 100 kills or more.
“We’re really optimistic about the conference season because we knew that we scheduled a really tough ‘pre-season,’ Andrews said.
“We are pretty battle tested at this point.”
Over the last 11 games, the Bearkats has totaled 526 kills.
Sophomore outside hitter Devene Wells-Gibson leads the team with 155 kills, which is No.3 in the conference.
“Devene is a very good volleyball player,” Andrews said.
“She has a good knowledge of the game. … She’s very calm on the court.”
Contributing to the offense is defensive specialist Tayler Gray.
The junior from Huntsville ranks No.4 in the conference with 424 assists.
Libero Jamie Haas leads the defense with 163 digs.
Though she is not in the spotlight, the senior from Deer Park produced spectacular defensive plays that creates an opportunity for the Bearkats to score.
“Sometimes they are not given enough credit for what they do because they are not the flashy players,” Andrews said.
“Jamie is setting up a lot of points for us. … She knows what she is doing out there.”
The Bearkats believe that their preparation will serve them well when they play host to ORU.
“We watch some film on them,” Andrews said.
“We have a good game plan on what we need to do to take care of them.”
Question And Answer With Melanie Kania
Melanie Kania is a prime example of what being persistent is all about.
She graduated from Sam Houston State University in 2009 during the “great recession.”
She could have given into the notion of just settling for a job that was available.
Instead, she continued to be persistent and months later, she acquired internships with two public relations firms in the Houston area.
She is now with Weatherford International were she serves as a Communications Specialist.
We caught up with Melanie to get her perspective on the journey that led her to her current position.
Vallano Media: How long did it take for you to find that post-college job?
Melanie Kania: I graduated in 2009 during the height of the recession, so it took about nine months to find the job I have now. In the meantime I pursued internships to gain experience in public relations and was exposed to a broad range of industries, which led me to oil and gas where I am now.
V.M. : Were you involved in any organization while in college?
M.K. : Yes I was involved in: Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Lambda Delta Freshman Honors Society, Public Relations Student Society of America, National Society for Leadership and Success, Golden Keys National Honors Society and Order of Omega.
V.M. : Why should students get involved in an organization?
M.K. : I believe that organization involvement is very important to college students and is an intregal part of one’s college experience.
V.M. : Did you study abroad and if so, how has studying abroad impacts a student’s undergraduate/graduate career?
M.K. : Yes I studied abroad through Sam Houston’s Puebla program and lived in Puebla, Mexico with a host family for a month. This was one of the best experiences I have ever had, and the memories made and lessons learned will be with me forever. The program gave me first hand exposure to another culture and I was able to see how they live and do business.
V.M. : Looking back, was it worth attending college?
M.K. : Absolutely, in fact I am planning to go back to pursue my Masters.
V.M. : Final thoughts?
M. K. : Get as involved as possible. Networking through my collegiate/ post college organizations led me to my current position and the internships along the way.
This Time Really Is Different
by Cheval John
With the presidential election right around the corner, the main concern is the economy.
Some say that we are at a recovery while others believe that it will get worse.
Voters are wondering if we will ever see America return back to it’s “glory days.
To understand where we are today, we have to understand the past and that is where guest writer, Dr. Brian Domitrovic comes in.
He has written a book called “Econoclast, The Rebels Who Sparked The Supply-Side Revolution And Restored America’s Prosperity,” which deals with the ecomonic recovery during the Reagan Administration.
He writes a weekly blog called “Past and Present” for Forbes and have given presentations at various conferences that includes the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (Houston Branch).
He has made appearances on radio nationally on shows like the Lars Larson Show and Voices of America and television appearances on various shows like Lou Dobbs Tonight and The Kudlow Report.
He is an Associate Professor of History at Sam Houston State University and currently serves as the Chair of the Department.
Now without further delay, here is Dr. Domitrovic:
We never seen a recovery from a recession this poor since the Great Depression.
There is some competition, and it comes from the stagflation era of the early 1980s.
The general rule is that a deep recession brings a sharper recovery, and the reason is simple mathematics.
Growth rates are calculated in the following manner: new GDP is divided by previous GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and the steeper the recession, the lower that denominator.
The lower the denominator, the greater will be a growth rate with any given numerator.
In the Depression, growth was very sharp out of the 1933 trough (40% for four years), but it still gave way to a nasty recession in 1937-38 that took unemployment to 17%.
This is the benchmark for failed recoveries: a resort to 17% unemployment.
In 1980, there was a recession, a mild one, and the recovery was meek, at 2.5% in 1981, and this gave way to another recession where unemployment just about hit 11%.
But then growth caught fire, 17% over the next three years, and 3.5% per year after that.
Today, the recovery from our Great Recession, in the aftermath of which there was 10% unemployment, has been at best on 1981 standards.
We used to recover from deep recessions with 17% growth for three years as the recovery.
Now we plod along at 1-2% per year out of a very deep swoon.
The only time we’ve done worse in the modern era is the 1930s.
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