Sept. 13, 2013
Quick Slant is an array of brief insights and occasionally opinionated overviews of collegiate athletics in general and the Vanderbilt Commodores in particular.
Readers might be surprised to realize that our head coaches hit the pause button in their frenetic daily schedules to meet periodically as a group with Director of Athletics David Williams on topics that include compliance, SEC and NCAA updates, financial matters and significant new department policies. Yesterday was one such meeting, a lunch hour session that included Director of Compliance Candice Lee and the department’s associate directors. Williams’ experience that includes chairing of the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee is very helpful in these meetings.
We’ve had some really good tennis from both the men’s and women’s programs and the recent preseason rankings prove it. Senior Ryan Lipman is the No. 4 rated singles player in college tennis while junior Gonzalez Austin is ranked 35th. They are 13th as a doubles team. On the women’s side, Courtney Colton and Lauren Mira are ranked as the sixth best doubles unit.
New Hall of Famer Jeremy Sowers was telling us at last week’s induction dinner that his most fun baseball was pitching for the Commodores. He said back then baseball was fun and classes were “work.” After he became a first-round draft pick, baseball became his job and he struggled to find the fun and the dynamics for him were just different.
Cross off the great state of South Dakota, home of Mount Rushmore and the Corn Palace, from the list of National Commodore Club no-shows! And let’s hear a rousing ANCHOR DOWN for the husband and wife team of Stacie and Nik Aamlid, new members of the NCC from that fabulous state. Now we hone in on the final four: North Dakota, New Mexico, Alaska and Idaho. Who’s next?