Fall Ball Begins and Hoops Media Guides Hurdle Overcome (submitted by Jason Plotkin, Oct. 1, 2008)
One of the big hurdles that most any sports information office faces is getting the media guides off to the printer. I'm glad to say after quite a few actual hurdles to overcome in our dealings with the company that prints them, that both our men's and women's basketball media guides are off to the printer! They will make their first appearance at the Sun Belt Conference Basketball Media Days in Hot Springs, Ark (Oct. 13-14) before a bulk arrival later in October, prior to our local media day.
Media guides are very critical to our operations. Not only does it help the media, regardless of the medium (print, radio, TV, etc), but they are used as a recruiting tool for our coaching staffs. For us in sports information, we keep our current media guides within arm's reach when in the office or handy when on the road, because you never know when you are going to need it. For all we know, Kyndall Dykes may score a school-record in points, Brittany Helm may break a conference mark for assists and the list goes on.
Regardless, it's a big relief to have them done, but just because basketball in the books does not mean media guides are done for the year. Rob is currently in the midst of his baseball guide while I near completion on our first swimming and diving media guide. It's an ongoing cycle throughout the year and one of the more time consuming parts of being in the job. Ultimately, at the end of the day, it is rewarding to see those finished products.
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Speaking of baseball, the baseball team throws the opening pitch on fall practice this week. It does not seem that long ago that we were watching the Privateers in the Baton Rouge Regional. Coach Tom Walter and his staff have had from all reports, one of the top 40 recruiting classes in the nation and one of the tops in the Sun Belt Conference. The most current Privateer roster features the names to the new faces that we'll be getting more familiar with in February, if not sooner.
I know our ticket manager Kevin Breen has gotten a few calls regarding season tickets. If you are interested in renewing or interested in joining the list of those who want season tickets for the new year, drop him an e-mail at kbreen@uno.edu or call at 280-GAME. We'll roll out all the ticket information via the Today in UNO e-mail and right here on the web site.
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The volleyball team is getting set for their annual "Dig for the Cure" event when they hit the court against UALR on Oct. 17 at the Human Performance Center. Last year, the team raised just shy of $1400 dollars and is looking to top that mark this year with their efforts. The money from this night go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The brainchild of Charlotte head volleyball coach Lisa Marston whose mother is a breast cancer survivor, the program has raised over $100,000 since started in 2003. Individuals can make a donation or a pledge by contacting Kearney Gay in the UNO athletic department by phone at 504-280-3978 or by e-mail at wgay@uno.edu. For more information, make sure to read the release on the subject.
The team got off to a 1-1 start in conference play last weekend, but the bar continues to get raised by head coach Jozsef Forman. If you've missed some of the accomplishments, including two wins over teams from the "Big Six" conferences, you can make sure to read a feature that came out on Tuesday regarding the early success.
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As you all know, UNO is turning 50 this year and when we are given a chance in the athletic department, we do what we can to promote the comings and going on campus. If you get our Today in UNO Athletics e-mails, you've seen some of our efforts.
WYES will be airing "UNO Memories", a documentary looking back at 50 years on the Lakefront. The show premieres Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. Other airings on WYES are set for Thursday, October 9 at 8:00 p.m., Friday, October 10 at 9:00 p.m., Sunday, October 12 at noon and Monday, October 13 at 11:00 p.m. While I could not make the premiere on campus, I've got my DVR set. Our good friend of the athletic department, Dan Harper informed me that the documentary is "informative and entertaining" and that anyone associated with UNO should not miss it! WYES has more information on the subject.
Speaking of UNO turning 50, the fall 2008 edition of UNO Magazine came out recently. Included is an article regarding football on the Lakefront and it's importance to the beginning of the athletic program. The sports information office also contributed two articles as we have "Privateers Make Play for Professionals" about several UNO players who are playing at the next level and a feature on the men's swimming and diving program entitled, "Men's Swimming Moving Against the National Stream". Make sure you check out the UNO Magazine for the articles and more about this great school.
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Two notes from the pool this week. If you have not checked it out yet, Randy Horner's appearance on The Morning Swim Show is now available on the UNOPrivateers.com web site, courtesy of Swimming World Magazine. The publicity was a good three minutes and 30 seconds of Privateer swimming and diving talk on a major web site in the sport. Words can not describe what kind of publicity this is for our program. We have been very fortunate over the last year to get quite a bit of publicity on the national scale for our program, whether it the NCAA on Campus airing last year or the high marks on our recruiting class from CollegeSwimming.com. Hopefully soon enough, we'll be seeing that pub coming from NCAA qualifiers. Make sure you take a few minutes to view it.
Today, we rolled out a "Student-Athlete of the Month" feature on Sarah Gros, a member of our women's swimming and diving program. Gros, a senior has set records in the pool and has also been a consistent performer in the classroom. If you have not yet had the chance to read the feature, make sure to click on Sarah's picture down the right side of the page (through the end of October). For those who may have missed any of our previous features, an archive is available.
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Our broadcast extraordinaire, Mike Wagenheim returned today from his summer stint with the Rochester (Minn.) Honkers of the Northwoods League. The last we heard from Wags, he had just earned Sun Belt Conference Broadcaster of the Year and was providing his voice to Privateer baseball action in the SBC tournament and Baton Rouge Regionals.
So what did the third-year UNO broadcaster do on his first day back? Scheduled a meeting for himself, associate AD Mike Bujol and I to go to the Lakefront Arena early this morning to figure out several things pertaining to our broadcasting, video and other things we do. Along the way, we set up a room in which we will shoot some UNO Vision exclusive interviews. If you recall last year, we had interviews with head coaches Tom Walter, Randy Horner, Chris McCarter and Amy Champion. This year, we'd like to interview our coaches, but also expand into interviewing student-athletes and other critical cogs of our athletic department. There's some other things we discussed as we made our way through the Lakefront Arena. Stay tuned for those!
In the weeks ahead, look for Wags to join me as a fairly regular blogger on UNOPrivateers.com. You can check his first entry where he talks about the year ahead on the airwaves by clicking over to the "Exciting Year of Broadcasting Ahead"
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That's all for now! I'll try to get a blog up next week, if not -- in two weeks, I'll share some perspective from my first swimming and diving meet (and the first UNO home dual of the season against Incarnate Word) as well as my trip to Hot Springs, Ark. -- home of the 2009 Sun Belt Conference tournament -- where I will be taking in conference basketball media days.
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