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Commodore Notebook 10/31/2005 Notes and Commentary Musical Game Times Last Monday we were informed that our Florida football game had been chosen for telecast by ESPN2 with a 6:15 (CT) kickoff. That set off a flurry of conversations inside our department because the new football game time would directly conflict with the men’s basketball exhibition game with Northern State. To further complicate things, the women’s basketball team was set to play Anderson College in an exhibition at 2 o’clock. What seemed good news for our football fans potentially was not so good for fans that wanted to see football and basketball but now would be forced to choose. We didn’t want that to happen. Both Melanie Balcomb and Kevin Stallings were most cooperative in arranging a winning timetable. Coach Balcomb moved the women’s game up one hour to 1:00 p.m. while Coach Stallings approved a switch of three hours to 4:00 p.m. Both moves required our opponents to agree to change their schedules. There was one more consideration and that was the men’s basketball radio broadcast, which was set on our network for 7:00 p.m. Obviously, the football game would trump the exhibition game coverage. Our radio folks decided that it would not make good sense to do the opening minutes of the men’s basketball game live and then switch to the football pre-game show. It took several days to get the radio clearances along our network and with our flagship, WGFX, 104.5-FM, but we were finally able to announce that the men’s basketball game will be broadcast on a delayed basis immediately following our football game post-game coverage. None of these changes required a rocket scientist but they all required teamwork and cooperation. Our primary objective was to allow our fans the chance to enjoy all of our teams in person without being forced to choose one over the other. No option was perfect but we hope the majority of our local fans will take advantage of the new lineup. Tough Luck Runners Our women’s cross country team, under the expert direction of Coach Jim Spivey, was looking forward to last weekend’s Southeastern Conference Championship. Our young but talented team appeared to have an excellent shot at placing among the top three teams if things would fall right. Well, things didn’t fall right! Just a few days prior to the race, our No. 1 runner, Erica Schneble, was ruled out with an injury — a cruel blow to Erica and her teammates. Without our leader in the mix, we finished seventh in a talented field. Kane is First Bowling Champ Freshman Tara Kane of Greenburg, Pa., became the first Vanderbilt varsity bowler to win an individual tournament championship last weekend when she won the Lady Indian Invitational hosted by Arkansas State University. Kane averaged 215 over seven games on what bowling experts call “sport conditioned lanes”. In other words, the lanes were to bowlers what the Masters greens are to golf — fast and tricky. Two other Commodore freshmen, Kaitlin Reynolds and Michelle Peloquin, also shined. Reynolds placed third and made the all-tournament team while Peloquin missed fifth place by a mere four pins. Both averaged well over 200 for the tourney. Soccer Coaches of the Year I don’t have a ballot but if I did, I would vote for Ronnie Hill as the Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year on the basis of our huge turnaround and 15-3-1 record. I might vote for men’s coach Tim McClements as the national coach of the year for having his team in position to win the Missouri Valley Conference title with just one game left. The Commodores are 9-5-1 and tied for the MVC lead, which many believe is the finest men’s soccer conference in the nation. There could be no coach in the country that makes more of his resources than McClements, who has steadily built the Commodores into a contender. |
