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l may 2009 l 3

Southern I l l inois Universi ty Carbondale 2009 Summer Camps

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Name Date Description Age Group *Fee (Resident/Commuter)

Volleyball Setter/Middle Hitters Clinic June 6 Commuter Grades 6-12 $60 – Call 618-453-5476 Nike Golf Camp June 7-11 Resident/Commuter Ages 10-18 Call 1-800-NIKECAMPSaluki Baseball Camp June 8-11 Commuter Ages 7-13 $175 person /$155 (team of 6)Softball Hitting & Defense Camp June 8-11 Commuter Grades 3 -12 TBATennis Camp I June 8-11 Commuter Grades 3-12 $195Volleyball Jr. High Camp June 10-12 Resident/Commuter Grades 6-8 $210/$160Volleyball Outside Hitter Clinic June 13 Commuter Grades 6-12 $60 – Call 618-453-5476Boys Basketball Full Day Camp June 15-18 Commuter Grades 3-8 $150 | $200 both day campsChallenger Sports British Soccer Camp June 15-19 Commuter Grades 1-12 www.challengersports.comTennis Academy Session I June 15-19 Commuter Grades 7-12 $100 (5 days)/$70 (3 days)Universal Cheer Association Camp I June 16-19 Resident/Commuter Grades 6-12 1-888-CHEER-UCAVolleyball Defensive Specialist Clinic June 20 Commuter Grades 6-12 $60 – Call 618-453-5476Boys Basketball High School Tournament June 20-21 Commuter Grades 9-12 $330 (1 team) | $575 (2 teams)Tennis Academy Session II June 22-26 Commuter Grades 7-12 $100 (5 days)/$70 (3 days)Saluki Swim Camp June 22-26 Commuter Ages 8-12 $195Tennis Camp II June 29-July 2 Resident/Commuter Grades 3-12 $375/$195Universal Cheer Association Camp II July 6-9 Resident/Commuter Grades 6-12 1-888-CHEER-UCAVolleyball High School Camp July 8-10 Resident/Commuter Grades 9-12 $245/$190Volleyball Team Camp July 8-10 Resident/Commuter Grades 9-12 $245/$190Track & Field Clinic July 11 & 12 Commuter Grades 6-12 TBABoys Basketball Half Day Camp July 13-16 Commuter Grades 3-8 $85 | $200 both day campsSoftball Pitching Camp July 14 - 15 Commuter Grades 2 -12 TBANational Cheer Association Camp July 29-31 Resident/Commuter Grades 6-12 1-800-NCA-2WIN

Cooperative Youth Conference June 4-5 Resident/Commuter Grades 11-12 $95Equine Science Camp I June 8-12 Resident/Commuter Ages 14-18 $800/$650Eco U Camp—Animal Adventures June 8-12 Commuter Grades 1-6 $175 — 453-1121Summer Wings I (Aviation) June 14-19 Resident/Commuter Grades 9-12 $1375/$1225Challenge to Excellence Camp I (Jr. High) June 14-19 Resident/Commuter Grades 6-8 $375/$300Equine Science Camp II June 15-19 Resident/Commuter Ages 14-18 $800/$650Eco U Camp—Survival 101 June 15-19 Commuter Grades 1-6 $175 — 453-1121Summer Wings II (Aviation) June 21-26 Resident/Commuter Grades 9-12 $1375/$1225Challenge to Excellence Camp II (High School) June 21-26 Resident/Commuter Grades 9-12 $375/$300Engineering Day Camp June 22-24 Commuter Grades 6-8 $120 (3 days) or $50 (1 day)Kid Architecture Session I June 22-26 Commuter Grades 4-6 $175 Eco “You” Camp June 22-26 Commuter Grades 1-6 $175 — 453-112111th Annual Young Writers Workshop June 23-27 Resident/Commuter Grades 10-12 $275/$225Beginning Robotics with Boe Bot June 29-July 2 Commuter Ages 11-15 $275Eco U—Wonderful Water June 29-July 2 Commuter Grades 1-6 $140 — 453-1121CampCEO (Entrepreneurship) July 5-10 Resident Grades 9-12 $495 Architecture Middle School Camp July 5-10 Resident/Commuter Grades 7-9 $499/$350Architecture High School Camp July 12-17 Resident/Commuter Grades 9-12 $499/$350Kid Architecture Session II July 20-24 Commuter Grades 4-6 $175 Advanced Robotics with Boe Bot July 27-31 Commuter Grades 9-12 $225 or $375 with Boe BotLEGO® Elementary Engineering July 27-31 Commuter Ages 8+ $115LEGO® Junior Engineering Camp I July 27-31 Commuter Ages 5-7 $115LEGO® Junior Engineering Camp II August 3-7 Commuter Ages 5-7 $115LEGO® Vehicles Engineering and Building August 3-7 Commuter Ages 8+ $115

For more information or to register: Division of Continuing Education — Online: www.dce.siu.edu Phone: 618/536-7751

ArchitectureDesigned to introduce young people to the design of built environment.

CampCEOThis entrepreneurship camp puts you in the driver’s seat of owning your own company and creating a business plan.

Cooperative Youth ConferenceStudents participate in workshops on struc-ture, financing, management and careers in cooperatives.

EngineeringHands-on experiments, demonstrations and conversations with College of Engineering faculty.

LEGO®Camps will cover gears, levers, wheels, axles, structures, force, simple machines and more.

Eco UExperiential nature camps at Touch of Nature with innovative and environmentally safe activities designed to enhance the camper’s ecological awareness.

Equine ScienceDesigned to expand horse knowledge includ-ing topics on horse selection, nutrition, health care and management.

RoboticsThese camps focus on basic electronics, mechanical systems, control systems, and programming and sensors for autonomous control.

Summer WingsThis camp gives students an opportunity to explore a career as a pilot by providing ground and flight training similar to the training that SIUC flights students undergo.

Young Writer’s WorkshopDesigned to give students the chance to ex-plore and develop their talents in poetry and prose writing.

4 l may 2009 l

The L ineUp

A Big Wheel in Men’s Community College GolfTom Ferris leads the JALC duffers to success

32

Features

The MasterSISC’s very own Ceasar Maragni named Master Editor by Southern Illinois Editor’s Association

14

Murf’s Turf...............................38

Ask the Coach...........................8

Ask the AD..............................12

Around the Horn.....................16

Faith on the Field....................17

Saluki Notes............................23

JALC Journal...........................36

RLC Report..............................40

SISC Viewpoint........................42

In Focus..................................18

Publisher’s Greeting..................7

From Where I Sit.....................10

From Where I’m Still Sittin’......44

On the High Road....................46

From Aas, Norway to Sesser, Illinois, USAForeign exchange student Elisabeth Saveraas is complet-ing a whirlwind nine months

30

l may 2009 l 5

Volume 2 . . . . . . . . . . . Number 1 0

Cover Story

Young GunsAn elite bunch of hurlers are leav-ing their legacies in the memories of fans – and most certainly of hitters – across Southern Illinois

LEFT:Carterville’s Brad Drust

Chris Kays photo

24

on the COVER:Clockwise from left:

Harrisburg’s Reid Roper, Mt. Ver-non’s James Mulvaney, Carterville’s

Brad Drust, and Marion’s Nathan Dorris

Chris Kays photos

6 l may 2009 l

Publisher/Editor Jim Muir

Graphic Design Toby Brooks

Consultant Cheryl Shafer Collins

Photographers Christopher Kays Ceasar Maragni

Contributing Writers Teri Campbell Danny Czerwinski Chris Denault John Homan Roger Lipe Ceasar Maragni Mario Moccia Jim Muir Mike Murphy Jackie Myers Les O’Dell Sean Patrick Nathan Wheeler Tom Wheeler

l may 2009 l 7

Publisher’s

greetingBy Jim Muir

G reetings and welcome to the May issue of Southern Illinois Sports Connec-tion.

Perhaps the best way to begin this month’s greetings is for me to simply let out a deep breath, scratch my head and mutter to nobody in particular, ‘my, how time flies.’

We’ve all heard countless times the old adage that ‘April showers bring May flowers’ but ask any baseball or softball coach in Southern Illinois and, while they’ll probably agree about those pretty May flowers, they’ll also tell you that those April downpours bring a mad scramble to make up games and get conference schedules completed. While it seems that we were just ushering in the spring sports schedule a short time ago, we’re now within a matter of days until the end of yet another school year and post season action in track, softball and baseball.

As always I think we’ve got a diverse collection of stories for our loyal readers this month.

In order to tell you about our May cover story let’s look back one year when we featured four of the area’s top softball pitchers on our cover with the heading ‘Armed and Dangerous.’ I still believe it ranks as one of our top covers and top stories in SISC’s history. However, I believe this month’s front cover and story is equally impressive.

Not to leave the guys out, this month we featured four of the top pitchers in Southern Illinois – ‘Young Guns’ is the way we’ve labeled them. I think you’ll enjoy the well-written cover story by Joe Szynkowski about the ‘gun-slinging’ abilities of Harrisburg’s Reid Roper, Carterville’s Brad Drust, Mt. Vernon’s James Mulvaney and Nathan Dorris, of Marion.

Congratulations are also in order this month to SISC photographer Ceasar Maragni who was recently named by the Southern Illinois Editor’s Association as a Master Editor. Maragni is the first-ever photojournalist to win the prestigious award. I speak for everybody at SISC when I say that the award is well-deserved. While Maragni’s off-the-charts photography skills have been on display in Southern Illinois for 40 years and are well-documented each month in this magazine, perhaps what stands out the most to me is that Ceasar is even a better person/friend/co-worker than he is a photographer.

Congratulations again, Ceasar, we’re proud of you.

Perhaps I should borrow an idea from legendary President Harry Truman and have a sign made for my desk that states, ‘The Buck Stops Here.’

I learned that firsthand last month when I mistakenly left out Tom Wheeler’s “From Where I Sit” column – which based on the comments I hear each month is probably the most well-read column in SISC. I’d like to place the blame on some-body else while raising my voice and demanding to know why the column didn’t run. However, the fault lies with me and me alone, period. As Ol’ Harry said … the buck stops here.

But, the mistake did lead to a funny exchange between ‘Wheels’ and myself and the first-ever lifetime contract at SISC. Be sure to read about that in my ‘On the High Road’ column.’

As always you’re going to find the usual grab bag of good feature stories, columns (I did get them all in this month) and commentary, so without further ado … here’s the May issue of SISC. Enjoy.

All the best,

Jim Muir

8 l may 2009 l

By Tom Wheeler

TODD RUSHING, Pinckneyville High School football and track coach the past eight years af-ter coaching the same sports in Red Bud for five years:

“There is a two-sport policy at Pinckneyville which means an athlete can participate in two sports, but the athlete must list which sport comes first if there is ever a conflict so both coaches know.”

Rushing knows the value of this policy as both his sons took advantage of it. Ryan, who will be trans-ferring from Eastern Illinois to SIU to play football, ran track and pitched in a very successful baseball program. In 2007 Ryan was an outstanding pitcher who helped Pinckneyville to a second place finish in state. Ryan did miss a track meet for his Dad when he pitched a win in the sectional. According to Rush-ing, Ryan would go to pitching practice after track

practice, being a pitcher he would know where he was in their rotation. Todd’s oldest son Bobby used the same policy in the fall when he ran cross country and played split end on the football team.

“Bobby would do his running at 6 a.m. before school and would try to run in one cross country meet a week, if they were Saturday meets it worked out great but he sometime would have to run on Monday or Thursdays.

Todd’s wife Lindy, (high school track coach in her fourth year after many successful years at the junior high) also addressed the two-sport athlete question.

“I had a girl, Brittany Lalicker, who threw the shot and discus and also played softball and started with her priority as a softball player but later made track her top choice.” Both coaches agreed it takes a spe-cial athlete to work that hard to be victorious in both sports, but in a small school it’s important to share the athletes when possible. Todd’s sprinter Ben Har-ris is doing both this spring.

l may 2009 l 9

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JAY THOMPSON, Long time Har-risburg Athletic Director and baseball guru:

“Harrisburg has had an open policy for a long time. Very few athletes try it but we have had some really good ones that were very successful. Ron-nie Seets placed in state in the dis-cus and played in state in baseball, in

fact he attended Murray State on a baseball scholarship. Damon Lampley was the state high jump champion one spring and also played center field on our state champi-onship team the same year and went on to high jump at Iowa State. Patton Seagraves was another example of how the policy helped two squads as he ran in a section-al cross country meet one Saturday morning and then quarterbacked the football team that afternoon in a play-off win. It takes a extraordinary athlete to do both and great co cooperation between the coaches. This spring we have about 8-10 ladies playing soccer and compet-ing in track but none are playing softball. The key is the athlete does have the opportunity to do both if they want. I think that is very important for the athletes.”

MARK NORTH, Veteran track/cross country coach at Sparta High School whose track team was State Champs in 2004, runner-ups in 2006 , third in 2003 and finished sixth last spring:

“There are no boys doubling up at Sparta, although at one time we had athletes do both. The only doubling we some-times have is when a cheerleader will play golf or run cross country, but this will sometimes cause problems. Today so many athletes “specialize” in only one sport which takes up all their time. An athlete doing both, even with a priority, will have to make a decision at ‘crunch’ time which puts extra pressure on the athlete, his team-mates and the coaches. I have athletes that come to me wanting to try both, but when you compare the two spring schedules that we have today, throw in an expected amount of rain outs and the kid wouldn’t have to much free time. Then you throw in the mix of the class load a student has and you wonder when they will study.”

North added a thought that wasn’t a worry 10 years ago.

“Then toss in the fact that an athlete must take time to text his girlfriend or buddies 1,000 times a day and 24 hours in a day may not be enough time for some.”

10 l may 2009 l

‘W hat is a Dirt Dawg,’ I asked?

I’ve seen little girls and big girls with Dirt Dawg T-shirts, moms with Dirt Dawg hoodies and Dirt Dawg stick-ers on the back windows of cars all over Southern Illinois. My curiosity got the best of me so I stopped by Beav’s Sporting Goods in downtown Christo-pher and talked to the founders of the Dirt Dawgs, Steve and Jill Beavers.

“My daughter Amanda was nine years old and played softball for the South-ern Illinois Elite, then the Southern Il-linois Express and I was an assistant coach,” Steve explained. “The next year we started the Dawgs and now in 2009 we have seven Dirt Dawg teams, ages 10-18.”

Steve, a Benton graduate, got started in softball because of his daughter Amanda but his love for the game was shown the year Amanda had surgery on her knee and couldn’t play and Mom and Dad continued to coach. In fact, their youngest daughter Ashton, a good softball prospect herself, has

From where I SIT

By Tom Wheeler

decided not to play softball but in-stead will concentrate all summer on basketball. But the Beavers will con-tinue to coach as they seem to have a new batch of ‘daughters’ every year.

Steve explained the Dirt Dawg’s phi-losophy.

“Our players are committed to the game, they know what to do with the ball, there is a required family atmo-sphere, travel is at a minimum (St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Springfield, Mattoon, Evansville etc.), and every-one plays their share, while a chance to play college softball is the ultimate goal.”

It seems that the Dirt Dawgs truly is a stepping stone to playing at the next level. The past year, Amanda played at Fontbonne in St. Louis, Benton’s Lindsay McGuire at McKendree Uni-versity, Herrin’s McKenzie Falker at Beloit, Wisconsin, Crab Orchard’s Jessica Chamness at Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg, and Shawnee Community College has the services of Marion’s Krista Hoover and Mulkeytown’s Katie Kondoudis.

Four high school seniors on the Dirt Dawgs who have signed to play at the college level next year, including

Anna-Jonesboro’s Amanda Dillow, Johnston City’s Breezy Morgan and Sesser-Va-lier’s Kasey Rasnic to Shawnee and Johnston City’s Emily Mouyard to McKendree. These college gals will make up the bulk of their 18-U team this summer with each

girl playing at the col-lege level, which in-cludes three juniors

who will sign next year.Steve and Jill both explained that these girls moving to the next level meant a lot more than all the trophies, games won (including ASA State Championship in ‘07) and other hon-ors bestowed on these teams.

I still wondered about the name itself, and where it came from.

“When Amanda played for the Ex-press she played against a team from Oklahoma called the Fury Dirt Dawgs,” explained Jill. “Since we are big SIU fans we just went with the Dirt Dawgs.”

Jill knows a little softball herself; I can remember when she was a power hit-ting third baseman for Zeigler-Royal-ton when I was coaching at Christo-pher. In fact, she was the only player we intentionally walked in my softball coaching career, a move that really upset her dad. (But we were scared of her with people on base, sorry Jill!)

The Beavers like to throw out credit to their coaches of each of the seven teams, to the parents for their sacri-fices and mostly to the girls who are motivated and dedicated to be Dirt Dawgs. Also receiving credit is assis-tant coaches Toby Hoover and Terry McGuire, whose main job is to pick up the softball bucket after Steve kicks it over. They also give credit to Royal-ton native Steve Short and Perryville, Missouri’s John Lambert for being the coaches’ softball mentors.

Try to get out and see these Dirt Dawgs play. They are a class organi-zation. Get there early because they have one dad known as ‘Grill Dawg’ who grills out at every game and I un-derstand that his cooking is as good as their softball.

That’s the way it looks From Where I Sit this month.

ABOVE: A Dirt Dawg reunion was held last year at Marion City Park. The group began with three players and now have more than 75 on seven different teams.

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12 l may 2009 l

What will happen to the Saluki mascot whose remains are buried at McAndrew Stadium?

We are in current discussions about this very topic. Our team is work-ing with Phil Gatton, the head of our Physical Plant, to identify our options. My idea is to exhume the remains of King Tut, our original mascot, as well as the pyramid marker, and place it somewhere along the Saluki Walk route where the football players will travel from their locker room to the new stadium. I was thinking that it could become a tradition, similar to touching the Rock at Clemson Uni-versity, as the players come onto the field. Also, when we are on television, I thought this would be a great open-ing shot to convey who we are, the uniqueness of the Saluki mascot and the Egyptian influence on our campus and region.

The current location in the corner of McAndrew is so far removed from the vast majority of our fans and athletic staff, that they don’t have access to it at all. The bottom line is that there are several hoops to jump through, but we will ultimately be placing it in a more prominent spot.

Last year, SIU did a Military Appre-ciation Day (Veterans Day) which I and my sons enjoyed immensely. Will you be doing one this year?

We will be conducting Military Appre-

Ask the AD

By Mario Moccia

ciation Day on September 26 when we play North Dakota State in football this season. In addition we will con-tinue to have one for men’s basketball during the 2009-10 season.

Please give your opinion on the future of the SIU men’s basketball program.

I think the future of the program is very bright. With our freshman class getting a full year of playing time un-der its belt, and some quality recruits coming in, I think we are poised for an upswing in the standings. With all the injuries and lack of roster depth, we still managed to finish 5th in the MVC. Our sights are set nothing short of the MVC title.

The non-conference slate will again be exciting as we will be playing UNLV, Western Kentucky and SLU, plus go-ing to a tournament in Las Vegas. In addition, this will be the last season in the SIU Arena prior to its renovation, and that will help us attract recruits for years to come.

With the mid-majors getting the cold shoulder in the NCAA Tour-nament, what are the chances that top, young players leave their pro-grams to get better exposure else-where?

It sure seems like this is possible, and we recently saw Seth Curry do this when he left Liberty to attend Duke University. All players will have to sit out one year, which is certainly a dis-incentive. In this day and age, unfor-tunately, I see more of this happening in the future.

I was just curious about the long-term plans to improve our baseball facilities? As you know, many of the MVC baseball facilities are be-ing upgraded.

I wish I had concrete plans for base-ball, as it has not received much at-tention in many, many years. With ev-ery dollar having to go to Saluki Way, we are not at the present time actively fundraising for our baseball facility. I have discussed the possibility of lights with a donor group and am wait-ing to hear if there is any movement on this. I would love to add lights, a new grandstand and press box, along with new bullpens and dugouts. If we could get someone to get the ball roll-ing, I would think some of our ex and current major leaguers might assist in the completion of funding of this. It certainly isn’t out of the question, but more on the back burner for the pres-ent time.

I noticed there were no logos on the helmets for the spring game. Does this mean there is a chance we could finally get the SIU bul-let logo on the helmets? I think it would look so much better.

I spoke with Alvy Armstrong, our Di-rector of Equipment Operations on this, and he answered that we have never had logos on the helmets for spring practice. The thought is that in the spring, all the players are fight-ing for their position or trying to “earn their stripes”. When we start camp in August, you will see all the returning players with stripes on their helmets, while the new players will have no lo-gos on their helmets, because they haven’t been earned. Alvy and our As-sistant AD for Marketing, Mark Gazdik, have been looking at some potential new looks for the helmet, but Coach Lennon would need to approve. Also, as a superstitious ex-athlete, with six-straight football playoff appearances and four league titles in that time, I am not sure myself if I want to make any changes, while we are on such a good run.

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14 l may 2009 l

A t the very moment when attention and accolades was be-

ing focused on him by his peers longtime Southern Illinois photo-journalist Ceasar Maragni chose instead to deflect the praise and point out the many blessings in his life.

To those who know Maragni, his humble and modest gesture wouldn’t come as a surprise.

In the storied history of the South-ern Illinois Editor’s Association Maragni was named Master Edi-tor – the first photojournalist ever to receive the prestigious honor and be named to the SIU Jour-nalism Hall of Fame.

“I’m truly blessed,” Maragni told the overflow crowd at Giant City Lodge during the April 24 pre-sentation. “This award means so much to me; it’s a very humbling experience.”

A native of Waltonville Maragni is an SIU graduate and actually began his work career as a fifth-grade teacher at Sesser-Valier. It was also during this time that he began taking photos part-time for the Benton Evening News. He later left the teaching pro-fession and became the first full time photographer for the Frank-lin County newspaper. During those years he covered Benton and Franklin County prep sports, Saluki athletics, Rend Lake Col-lege athletics, John A. Logan College athletics and St. Louis Cardinals professional football and baseball teams as well.

In the late 1980s Maragni took a job as a photojournalist at “The Odessa American” newspaper in West Texas. While there he cov-ered the Permian High School Panthers football team in 1988, the season later made famous in Buzz Bissinger’s best selling book, “Friday Night Lights”. He

also covered Odessa College athletics while there. During his time in Odessa he was nomi-nated for a Pulitzer Prize for his extensive photo essay “Hunger Has Many Faces,” which docu-mented that problem in the West Texas oil town of Odessa.

In 1989 Maragni joined the photo staff at The Southern Illi-noisan newspaper based in Car-bondale, working there until his retirement in 2007. Since then Maragni has worked as a pho-tographer, writer and columnist for Southern Illinois Sports Con-nection, Marion Living and now Saluki Illustrated.

While noting that the Master Edi-tor award was well-deserved, Jim Muir, publisher of SISC, called Maragni “a true professional.”

“Ceasar’s work speaks for itself but beyond his skill as a photo-journalist he is just a good per-son and someone I count as a dear friend,” said Muir. “His work as a photojournalist here in Southern Illinois is unparalleled. Here at SISC we know just how fortunate we are to have him as part of our staff.”In all Maragni has worked nearly four decades as a photojournal-ist and said his motivation comes simply through a love for what he does. “I’ve stayed with it because I have always had a passion for it,” said Maragni. “Spot news

Maragni named Master Editor by Southern Illinois Editor’s AssociationFirst-ever photojournalist to receive prestigious honor

Ceasar Maragni, with more than 40 years of photo-journalism under his belt, addressed the overflow crowd at the SIEA ceremony. Chris Kays photo

l may 2009 l 15

seemed to be my specialty. I always considered it a challenge to have to take that one image or two that would convey to the reader what happened on the scene, always trying to take images that would both get their attention, and tell the story even with-out a caption.”

Maragni said he has no plans to give up his lifelong career of viewing life through a camera lens. “I really don’t plan to retire from taking photos that tell stories, and will probably do so as long as I can lift a camera,” said Maragni. “The bonus for me now is that I still get to do so with Southern Il-linois Sports Connection, Marion Living and Saluki Illustrated magazines. I’m truly blessed.” Maragni and his wife Phyllis, also an SIUC gradu-ate and retired educator, live in Marion.

Maragni named Master Editor by Southern Illinois Editor’s AssociationFirst-ever photojournalist to receive prestigious honor

Ceasar and Phyllis Maragni look on dur-ing Southern Illinois Editor’s Associta-tion awards ceremony held April 24 at Giant City Lodge. Maragni was named Master Editor, the first-ever photojour-nalist to receive the prestigious award.

Chris Kays photo

16 l may 2009 l

Around the

hornBy Sean Patrick

A s I reached up for the cord to pull down the attic door, it dawned

on me that the annual ritual of storing away the heavy coats and hunting attire was the offi-cial start of the ‘no-more-arctic-blasts season here in Southern Illinois … according to Jim Ra-sor and Clint Misselhorn, any-way. But, with all the rain we’ve continued to receive, it might be time to think about investing in a canoe.

It just warms my heart to see the standings, with the Cards on top, and those Cubbies in the cellar (or close to it), looking up. I imagine Sweet Lou has a high-speed-come-apart about once a day in his office at Wrig-ley Field.

I was watching the game live when the trainer came running out to see what was wrong with Chris Carpenter. I’m about to reach the end of my patience with this ‘tease’ that was once a Cy Young award winner. I know it’s not his fault, but when every day it’s something else, you won-der how many freak injuries one guy can endure. Thank good-ness for guaranteed contracts, huh? I look back on players of the past, very successful players from the past that pitched and hit

and never sustained these kinds of injuries. There’s hurt, and then there’s injured. Something tells me that multi-million dollar deals have eliminated the belief that you can play if you’re hurt, not if you’re injured. At least that’s what I was taught.

This is also the time of year for the annual ‘golf scramble’ season to get going. My first of the year was the CCHS Athletic Booster Club’s outing held at Hickory Ridge this past weekend. Good food and good times were had by all. Make sure to check out the local media outlets for upcoming events here in Southern Illinois. There are some great organizations and causes that are supported by these golf events. I’ve never had a bad time at any one of them! Next up in a few weeks… Wheeler’s Big Bear Classic.

It’s also the time of year for the summer slow pitch softball sea-sons to get going. I’m fortunate enough to play with a great group of guys in the summer softball league in Marion on a team spon-sored by Just One More Bar & Grill. Oh, the names of teams you’ll see playing slow pitch softball! Go to www.southernillinoissoftball.com for more information about the league.

I’m hoping things work out for the new SIU Women’s basketball coach, Missy Tiber. She’s got a heck of a hole to dig out from, but some fresh ideas and a new perspective can go a long way in achieving that goal. Hey Coach Tiber, may I recommend retaining Rasheeda Love as an assistant on your staff? Best of luck to the local JUCO teams in the area as they prepare for Regional Tournament play this next week. By the time this edi-tion of the SISC hits newsstands, someone will be headed to the Chicago area to compete in District Tournament play. Whatever Region 24 team that may be, hopefully the Vols, Warriors or Fal-cons, may they enjoy much success on the path to the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.

In closing, I highly recommend checking out a book called “Re-membering Jack Buck: Wonderful Stories Celebrating the Life of a Broadcasting Legend” by Rich Wolfe. I’m about halfway through it right now, and it is absolutely fantastic! It will be right up the alley of any baseball fan, especially any Cardinals fan, of the past 50 years.

Thanks again for your time, this time, until next time … when we go ‘Around the Horn.’

l may 2009 l 17

Faith on theField

By Roger Lipe

The Emotions of SportSport brings with it a series of risks. We regularly risk injury, mis-understanding, disappointment, frustration, failure, loss and more. If you play your heart out, the risks are even greater, especially the emotional ones. Trust me when I tell you it’s worth the risk to taste the wide variety of emotions which bring richness to life.I love it when I feel:

The momentum swing from the opponent’s sideline to ours when • an athlete makes a big play.The breathless excitement of a victorious locker room after a last-• second win.The gut-wrenching grief of a comeback that came up one point • short.The flush of emotion I feel when a coach reveals the ache in his • heart.The calm assurance of having done our best when a game, • match, season or career is completed.The heart-in-throat, watery eyed emotion I feel when I see a play-• er press through his fears or her frustration and into satisfaction.The warm sense of well-being I have when I see my wife outside • the locker room after a victorious afternoon.

Not all these emotions are pleasant and some of them are filled with real pain. They all are full of the stuff of life. They bring richness to the emotional fabric of our lives and are the direct result of our play-ing our hearts out. Compete with all your ability and feel life richly and deeply.

Don’t Call my Mom“I don’t know where my dad is. Don’t call my mom, she’d just make a scene.” That was the response to my offer to contact the player’s parents as he was lying on the emergency room bed with both his tibia and fibula broken at a 45 degree angle to the rest of his leg.

I looked in the young man’s eyes as he was saying this and my heart just broke. On the day when you really need your parents to be with you, you’re worried that your mother will make a scene. I looked across the room at my wife and gave her the ‘I’m-not-leaving-here-for-anything-look.’

As the afternoon progressed and he kept hitting the pain reliever pump, we saw a stream of nurses, doctors and eventually the or-thopedist. Dr. Golz was kind and reassuring that his football career

would not be over. He explained that he would set the bones in order and would put a titanium rod through his tibia from behind the knee cap, past the break and would insert four screws to se-cure the bones.

Wow, was all I could think.

The surgery went very well and I waited with a few of the coach-es at the surgery center. We all wondered how our friend would come back from such a terrible injury. This was in mid-April dur-ing spring football practices.

When August arrived, there he was running with the slightest of limps with his teammates in pre-season camp. He stood there with a noticeable lump on the side of his shin, a testament to the skill of his doctors and the heart of a competitor. My heart still jumps into my throat when I think of his return to the field and his leader-ship of his teammates that fall.

Please take a cue from my friend and play your heart out. In spite of a broken family and broken bones, he was strongly commit-ted to his teammates, coaches and friends. These relationships were central to his life and fueled his life as a player.

18 l may 2009 l

InFocus

By Ceasar Maragni

R ecently former Carbondale High School baseball

coach Larry “Chico” Jackson and I visited our longtime friend SIU head baseball coach Dan Callahan at his office in the Saluki Clubhouse at Abe Mar-tin Field. It was a visit we both won’t soon forget. We had a wonderful time with a friend who shares a love for baseball with us, but who also loves his family, friends, fellow coaches and players even more. It was most memorable though because of the raw courage that Coach Cal displayed as he shared with us his thoughts on baseball, his SIU career, his players, his family and his game plan for the toughest op-ponent he’s every faced. I’ve known Coach Cal since I first met him in the Saluki dug-out back in 1995 when he be-came the head coach of the baseball Salukis. My job as a photojournalist for the South-ern Illinoisan kept me in con-tact with him over the next dozen years until my retire-ment from that job two years ago. Working with Coach Cal

on a professional basis was great because he always treated me and other journalists with the utmost respect, courtesy and cooperation. Simply put, he made our jobs easier. But, as the years passed, it was on a more personal, man to man level, that I really got to know Cal and the substance of who he is, both as a coach and as a friend. It’s not inaccurate to say that our friendship developed over bis-cuits and gravy at Mary Lou’s diner in downtown Carbondale. I used to begin each day with breakfast there, seated at the coun-ter alongside Cal and his associate head coach Ken Henderson. I considered them ideal breakfast companions, not only because they too loved baseball, but as I was quick to learn, they are won-derfully kind, and decent men, who loved sharing stories about their family and friends as much as I did. As change comes into our lives, so does the pattern of our daily routines. A few years ago health concerns and an expanding waistline forced me to give up those biscuits and gravy break-fasts for a bowl of oatmeal at home each morning instead. I’m almost used to the dietary change now, but still miss my break-fast buddies. I hadn’t seen Coach Cal in some time and was recently sad-dened to hear that the malignant melanoma that had first invad-ed his body eight years ago had come back with a vengeance. The cancer monster had once again thrown its dark shadow over the Callahan home, putting him, wife Stacy, and daughters Alexa and Carly under stress that only other cancer victims and their families can know. For nearly two years now they have quietly battled the monster again, and during this time it’s been a non-stop regiment of sur-geries, chemotherapy and radiation. Earlier this year he under-went a major surgery that required removal of a portion of his right jaw. The after effects of that operation left the veteran coach with complications that prevented him from taking any food or liquids through his mouth for months. During our recent visit Cal told me, “Ceasar, just last week I was finally able to eat some mashed potatoes and it tasted as good as steak!”

l may 2009 l 19

At the end of April Callahan was once again admitted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis where surgeons performed complicated surgery in an attempt to restore healing to his mouth and jaw. You might think that could be the final blow to break Coach Cal’s spirit, but if so, you’re wrong. Way wrong. He told Chico and I that day in his office, less than a week before the operation, that he was ready to get this next step behind him, and to continue doing whatever is necessary to win this bat-tle. When a coach talks about winning, the really good ones have a seriousness about their game plan that is almost palpable to those around them. That’s exactly how Cal spoke to us that day. I begin each day with that bowl of oatmeal and prayer. In these quiet early morning moments with God I now mention Coach Cal. Do me a big favor and please do the same. He could use some help off the bench right now.

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salukiNotes

By Fred Huff

J erry Kill’s business card lists him as “Head Football Coach, Northern Illinois University.”

It just as easily -- and as accurately -- could read “Motivational Speaker Deluxe.” Kill, who resigned his position as SIU’s head coach two years ago to accept the identical position at NIU, was the principal speaker at the Du Quoin Elks’ 62nd annual banquet honoring the high school’s boys’ sports teams. Sixty-two years old and with a string of illustrious sports personalities as its past principal speakers, the Wednesday night event may have been the finest of all . . . and all because of Kill’s half-hour talk to Du Quoin’s athletes, their parents, coaches and fans. Yes, he touched briefly on his good fortunes with the Salukis and how fortunate he was to have been successful in resurrecting SIU’s football program. He even slightly mentioned the fact that he had guided NIU to its first bowl game ever in his first season there last fall. What he dwelled on, however, were the occasional difficulties of life as a teenager and the requirements needed to become a productive adult. Many of the banquet’s previous speakers have been superior. The Uni-versity of Illinois’ former football coach Ray Eliot was known nation-ally for his after-dinner speeches. Stan Musial, Gale Sayers, Charlie Spoonhour, Bruce Weber, “Itch” Jones and many others who preceded Kill at Du Quoin delivered impressive messages. Kill’s style, however, was memorable and should his career as a football coach ever “go south” all he’ll have to do is have a new business card printed.

Meanwhile, on a few other points of interest: Congratulations are due SIU’s tennis team which scored an impressive win in upsetting heavily favored Drake for the Missouri Valley Confer-ence championship last weekend. Qualifying for the NCAA as a result, the Salukis are now headed for the west coast to challenge UCLA, one of the top teams in the nation. A follow-up on the Drake Relays and SIU’s 4x400 relay team which set an American collegiate record there in 1984 is that it still stands. This year event held last weekend under far less than ideal weather condi-tions produced a winning time almost five seconds slower than SIU’s mark of 3:00.78 established 25 years ago.

Another former SIU athletics di-rector, Gale Sayers, will be hon-ored next month at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics annual convention in Orlando, Fla. Gale, who directed the Salukis’ men’s program for five years (1976-1981), will receive an award for being the first African-American to head up a Division I program. We frequently are asked about Sayers’ present status and assure one and all that he has enjoyed an extremely prosperous career as head of a large comput-er firm in the Chicago area since departing Carbondale. Although not wishing to prema-turely mention a soon-to-happen event, it was exciting to visit re-cently with area author, Jim Muir, about a new publication that will be making its debut this summer. Muir, a co-publisher Toby Brooks will launch “Saluki Illustrated” – a color-glossy, monthly publication dealing exclusively with SIU’s ath-letics program.

Muir, who has published and ed-ited the well-received “Southern Il-linois Sports Connection” for near-ly two years, is well on his way to finalizing plans for the second publication which will provide area fans with a refreshing new look at SIU athletics.

24 l may 2009 l

YOUNG GUNS

an elite bunch of hurlers are leaving their legacy in the memories of fans – and most certainly of hitters – across Southern Illinois

l may 2009 l 25

YOUNG GUNS

an elite bunch of hurlers are leaving their legacy in the memories of fans – and most certainly of hitters – across Southern Illinois

By Joe SzynkowskiPhotos by Chris Kays

26 l may 2009 l

Baseball pitchers can intimidate opposing hitters in different ways.

Marion’s Nathan Dorris, for example, gets his point across with a 92 mile-per-hour four-seam fireball. Others, like Mount Vernon’s Jim Mul-vaney, depend on a masterful ability to change speeds and a knack for hit-ting the corners. And then you have Carterville’s Brad Drust and Harrisburg’s Reid Roper, whose super-skilled arms are comple-mented with a tenacity more suited for a boxing ring than a mound. No matter their method, all four of these pitchers make up an elite class of hurlers who are leaving their lega-cies in the memories of fans – and most certainly of hitters – across Southern Illinois.

“He’s got that fire inside” Brad Drust missed a big chunk of football last fall after he broke his right foot during a routine practice drill. So when it healed in time for him to return to the Lions at the end of the season, he tested it the only way he knew how. “There really was no rehab,” he said. “They just told me to throw the pads back on and hit somebody.” Drust brings that football mentality with him every time he puts on a baseball glove. Carterville coach Bobby Jack-son isn’t complaining. “He’s been a great player in football, b a s k e t b a l l and baseball and he just d o e s n ’ t like to lose,” Jackson said. “He’ll do whatever it takes to win the game. If we’re up by a sizeable mar-gin in a game and he’s play-ing first base and gets a pop-up…he’s diving after it. He plays all out and that’s all he knows.” Jackson lost a few key players to

graduation from last year’s regional-champion team, but he knew he could look to Drust to lead the way this spring. “We have a very young team this sea-son and if I could pick one guy to lead a team it’d be Brad Drust,” Jackson said. “He doesn’t have to say any-thing. He shows his leadership by working hard. Before practice he’s getting his running in and after prac-tice he’s taking extra cuts. He’s got that fire inside. The other kids see it and they feed off of it.” Drust has dominated hitters with his pitching arsenal since his sophomore year. The movement on his two-seam fastball is paired with the drop on his sweeping curveball, and last summer he started developing a cutter during his time with the Southern Illinois Bul-lets. “One of the biggest adjustments he has made this year is getting bet-ter command of his curve and chan-geup,” Jackson said. “One thing with him, like most lefthanders, his fastball moves so much. Now he’s learned how to control it.” Ever the perfectionist, Drust sees plenty of room for improvement. “I need to keep my mechanics straight and work on my control,” he said. “I have to hit the corners more and try to paint the black.” It’s that kind of dedication to his craft, Jackson said, that has made Drust o n e of the Lions’

most steady pe r fo rm-

ers. The c o a c h still re-m e m -

bers the f i r s t time he

real-

ized Drust would be something spe-cial. “It was his sophomore year and he hadn’t really had that big of a start to the season,” Jackson recalled. “We had a game against a tough Pinck-neyville team…he goes up there and shuts them out. I think that really opened his eyes to see what kind of potential he had. He’s just kept that kind of confidence going ever since.” Drust recently decided to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Ben, by signing a letter of intent to play base-ball at John A. Logan College. Ben, now an infielder for the University of Alabama at Birmingham, played a big factor in Brad’s decision to become a Volunteer. “(JALC head coach) Jerry Halstead and my fam-ily being close was a big p a r t of it,” Brad s a i d . “I sat down with m y brother and we had a good conversation about it. He told me to see where I fit in the best and just remember the decision is about everyone involved, not just me.”

“A Joy to Coach” Joe Thompson watched patiently from the dugout as Murphysboro’s bats came alive against Reid Roper, his junior ace pitcher, in a game earlier this sea-son. The coach was waiting for a sign of frustration or fatigue from Roper. He was trying to decide if his team would benefit from a pitching change. The Red Devils hit two home runs – one a grand slam – and tacked on a few more runs in the inning to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 9-5 lead. Most of the runs were unearned after Roper com-mitted an error trying to field a bunt. “I’ve coached a lot of kids who in that

Brad Drust

Reid Roper

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Reid Roper

situation will be looking into the dug-out begging to come out of the game,” Thompson said. Not Roper. “He finished the inning and came back in the dugout fired up. He said he wanted to finish the game. We turned around and tied it up and it went into extra innings. He threw harder in those extra innings than he had all game…we won the game 11-9.” Roper’s pitching stats that day stick out like a sore thumb when com-pared to the majority of his efforts. He finished 8-1 as a starter last season and pitched the Bulldogs to a regional title. His bat – he hit .474 last season – is just as damaging to opponents as his arm. “It’s been real obvious since the be-ginning of this season that people just aren’t going to pitch to Reid,” Thomp-son said. “As a result, I think he’s been a little frustrated not being able

to get pitches to hit. I think that hap-pens a lot to kids after they build up to being a great hitter. It’s been a great learning experience for him, though.”

Roper said he has worked hard to hone his baseball skills,

but chooses to deflect praise to his team-

mates when discussing his reputation of

being one of the best pitch-ers in Southern

Illinois. “I like that people think that I’m one of the best but I get a lot of help because my defense always makes plays and our offense always hits,” Roper said. “So even if I have a bad day I know I have a chance to win the game.” Thompson is used to hearing such talk from Roper, who has verbally commit-ted to play baseball for the University of Illinois.

“One thing about Reid is that he is a very humble player in every sport,” Thompson said. “He does not like to call attention to himself and is more than happy to go out and compete and let other people get the atten-tion. That’s what makes him a joy to coach.” Roper’s coach-ability and desire to win are also what make the pitcher so similar to Carterville’s Drust, accord-ing to Jackson. “I think Reid Roper is the mirror image of Brad Drust,” Jackson said. “He’s such a competitor. He’s got that heart when he’s playing and he’s not going to lose. I see them as the same type of players.” Thompson said he enjoys watching Drust pitch and agrees that the two players epitomize the spirit of leader-ship on the baseball field. “They’ve played a lot together and they carry themselves in the same way,” Thompson said. “They’re not out there pumping their fists and draw-ing attention to themselves. They go about their business and when they do well, they talk about their offense and defense. When they struggle, they talk about themselves.”

“I Want a State Title” This time next year, Nathan Dorris will be throwing for perennial-pow-erhouse Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. But that’s the last thing on his mind right now. “I want a state title,” he said. “We all do…that’s what we’re working for.” Marion’s 6-foot-4 lefty says the Wild-cats entered the season with extra intensity after losing to eventual Class 3A state champ Highland in last spring’s sectional. “After we lost it kind of moti-vated us to be as good as them,” Dorris said. “That

was just our focus.”Dorris and his teammates have wel-comed the pressure of repeating last season’s success and have used it to drive the Wildcats’ blazing start. “We listen to that kind of stuff but once we’re out on the field it doesn’t matter,” he said. “We just try to use the pressure to our advantage and it doesn’t really bother us.” The fact that Dorris started the sea-son 5-0 with an ERA under 1.00 doesn’t surprise Marion coach Marty Manfredo. What has caught his eye, however, is a change in Dorris’ inten-sity on game day. “We were looking for Nathan to have a big year after what he did last season,” Manfredo said. “The thing I like most about him is he has really learned to focus this year. Every game is impor-tant to him. Maybe it’s because it’s his senior season, maybe it’s because he knows we have a good team and he doesn’t want to let his teammates down…for whatever rea-son he’s just really fo-cused

t h i s year and

he’s having a lot of success.”

Dorris consistently throws

his fastball in the high 80s but has reached 92 mph, and

his knee-buckling curveball

Nathan Dorris

28 l may 2009 l

usually crosses the plate at about 73 mph. And in case those two pitches don’t overmatch the average high school hitter, Dorris is gaining more and more confidence in using his changeup when he’s ahead in the count. “I’m really trying to focus on that pitch,” Dorris said. “It’s a touch pitch and a tough one to feel comfortable with. You have to slow down the ball without tipping the pitch with your delivery. It gives me a lot of grounders.” Manfredo’s first encounter with Dorris’ curveball – during an open gym his sophomore year – left the coach in awe. “You could tell he was special,” Manfredo said. “What stood out was how he was just snapping off that curveball. Here we are in the gym and he’s throwing those curveballs and I was like, ‘Oh my, he’s got a chance to be awful good.”’ Vanderbilt thinks so, too, and Dorris’ decision to attend there was not an easy one. He visited seven colleges, in-cluding the University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University and Missouri State before settling with the Commodores. “It was probably the most stressful but most exciting sum-mer of my life,” he said. “It was overwhelming going on all of those college visits but I’m glad I ended up choosing Vanderbilt…it just feels right. “It was the combination of athletics and academics that Vandy offers. They always have great teams, great coach-es and they have a great pitching coach (Derek Johnson). I went to watch them play and it seemed like ev- ery-body on the team was striving for the same goal of winning the game.” Dorris’ win-first attitude will fit right in at Van-derbilt, unless Manfredo has his way. “I’m checking the rule book trying to find a way to redshirt him so we can keep him,” he joked. “But I don’t think that’s going to work out.”

“Does All the Little Things” Dorris’ exact opposite is Mount Vernon’s James Mul-vaney, a control pitcher who teases opponents with pinpoint accuracy and off-speed efficiency. The Mount Vernon junior righty has started at the varsity level since he was a freshman and pitched the Rams one-game short of a regional title last season. “When Jim has a tough outing it’s because he has such a small margin for error,” said Mount Vernon coach Tim Holloway. “It’s easy to appreciate his success. He’s not a power guy with high velocity. He’ll work

three or four pitches for strikes and he pitches to soft con-tact.” Mulvaney throws a fastball that usually tops out in the low 80s, a circle changeup and a slider. He uses instinct and the opponents’ skill set to determine how he will mix the pitches into a winning formula. “It usually takes getting through the lineup once to see where I’m at,” he said. “We always have a strategy to start the game but you have to be flexible to be able to change it if things aren’t going your way in the first couple of in-nings.” Mulvaney’s changeup has garnered praise from Dorris, who has seen the pitch numerous times during games be-tween the two South Seven Conference rivals. “He just controls the plate so well and has a lot of move-ment on his ball,” Dorris said. “He actually has a really good changeup that he’s developed so I follow him a little bit.” Mulvaney pitched a two-hit victory against Centralia in last year’s regional to set up a title game against Dorris and Wildcats. The Rams fell to Marion, 7-0, and although Mulvaney said the defeat stung, he stopped short of say-ing his team is focused on revenge. “We’re really just worried about our-selves and mak- ing our team better,” he s a i d . “We’re just trying to work on the l i t t l e things that we struggled with last

year.”

Holloway is hoping for another playoff run and knows the Rams are a contender in any game

when he pencils the name “Mulvaney” into the lineup – either at pitcher or first base.

“Jim is such an intelligent pitcher,” Holloway said. “He holds runners on well and fields his position well…

he gets ton of ground balls. Anytime he’s on the mound we have a chance to win.

“This year he moved up to the cleanup posi-tion (from the 5-hole) and he’s come through

with some clutch hits. He’s one of our core guys we count on and he does all the little things you need. He’s shown that in most

RBI situations he’s going to get the job done.” Joe Szynkowski is a freelance writ-er for SISC. He can be reached at

joeszynkowski@hotmail.com.

James Mulvaney

l may 2009 l 29

30 l may 2009 l

T he first organized game of basketball that Elisabeth Saveraas saw was one she played in.

The Aas, Norway native is completing her senior year at Sesser-Valier High School and has crammed about as much as possible into her nine month stay playing basketball, volleyball and track and even joining the high school band. Saveraas has lived with Mike and Robin Sulser, who have served as a host family for several foreign exchange students in the past.

Personable and well-spoken Saveraas played soc-cer, volleyball and tennis in Norway but said the game of basketball proved to be the biggest obstacle she faced during her stay.

“Basketball was very interesting for me because I had never watched a game before,” Saveraas said. “I found it very confusing and complicated, especially the rules.”

Saveraas laughed out loud when she was asked if she scored any points during her one-year

basketball career.

“I did,” she said with a sense of pride evi-dent in her voice. “I scored six points dur-ing the season, two points in three differ-ent games.”

Saveraas gave a surprising answer when she talked about those three baskets noting that excitement gave way to another emotion.

“I really wasn’t as excited as I was shocked,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘I totally can’t believe that went in.’”

Brian Gibson, S-V girl’s basketball coach, said Sav-eraas is “a joy to be around.”

“Truthfully, she’s one of the best kids I’ve ever met,” said Gibson. “She’s got a ton of personality and she’s

Foreign exchange student Elisabeth Saveraas is completing a whirlwind nine months in Sesser that included her first-ever basketball game

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very bright and a very hard worker. She always had a smile on her face, all the time.”

Gibson said Saveraas is competitive and her in-ability to completely pick up the game of basket-ball proved frustrating to her.

“She had a hard time with the speed of the game because she had never seen a game before. The other girls just grew up with it but she knew noth-ing about the game,” said Gibson. “But, it was just a very rewarding experience to have her on the team. She’s just an awesome kid and it was a real positive for her to be a part of the team this year.”

Saveraas said the transition to high school track has been a much easier one than basketball.

“I have always jogged and ran for fun but I had never been a part of a track team but I have en-joyed it very much,” she said. “My events are the two-mile, the 800-meter and the 400-meter.”

Saveraas said students at S-V High School have made her visit much easier.

“It’s been just great, just a great experience,” said Saveraas. “All the students have been extremely nice to me and very helpful. I’ll never forget this year and the friends I made.”

Saveraas said the single biggest difference she found in the two countries can be found in its people.

“It’s been different mostly because here people are very welcoming and outgoing and I didn’t have to reach out to people because they reached out to me first,” said Saveraas. “It’s a great country to be new in; it’s just a wonderful country.”

Saveraas said another big difference between Norway and the United States is the food.

“I eat healthier food in Norway,” she said. “I think there is more of an emphasis to eat healthy food there.”

When questioned about her favorite new food in the United States Saveraas gave a very-Ameri-can answer.

“McDonald’s … yeah, I really like McDonald’s,” she said.

When reminded that her host family owns several Subway stores throughout Southern Illinois Sav-eraas chose a diplomatic escape.

“I really like Subway, too,” she said.

Saveraas started school in early September and is scheduled to return to Norway on June 2. She said she has had a few bouts of homesickness but the kindness of her new friends in Sesser have helped her weather the tough times.

“It’s hard to be away from your family and friends,” she said. “But, everybody has been so good to me here that it really helped me get through those times. I really love it here. Being able to partici-pate in sports has really helped too. I love sports and in Norway if you want to play sports you have to do it outside of school, join a club. I think it’s just awesome that it’s a part of school here.”

32 l may 2009 l

When Tom Ferris graduated from Wichita State University some years ago, he had already es-tablished himself as a football

and baseball player. Little did he suspect that one day he would head up one of the nation’s premier community college golf programs.

After a stint in the Army, Ferris came to Southern Illinois to help develop the then-new FM country radio station WDDD.

“It was a good investment opportunity,” Ferris recalled. “I was given the chance to do a lot of things for WDDD because back then the staff was limited. Sales, sports – I got to do a lot of things.”

Ferris first came to John A Logan College in 1972 as a sports broadcaster. Since then, he has worked with such local broadcasting celebrities as Mike Reis and Mike Murphy. Ferris recalls broadcasting JALC games when Murphy played basketball there in the mid 1970s. Murphy, now a well-known Southern Illinois sports commenta-tor, hosts the popular radio call-in show “Sports Voice” Saturday mornings on ESPN radio 103.5. Reis has been the voice of Southern Illinois Uni-versity Saluki sports for the past three decades.

As coordinator of the Volunteers Radio Network, Ferris is still the “Voice of the Vols” for men’s and women’s basketball; but is perhaps better known as the man who developed the John A. Logan College Volunteers into one of the top community college golf programs in the nation.

Ferris first established the John A. Logan College women’s golf program in 1998 and promptly took the team to the NJCAA National Tournament two consecutive years.

In that second year, JALC Athletic Director John Sala recognized Ferris’s abilities and handed him the reins of the men’s program, as well.

“A resignation opened the men’s job and I was happy to take on the challenge,” Ferris said. “I

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knew coaching both teams would be tough but I wanted to help both programs.” In 2000, Hall of Fame bas-ketball coach Gary Barton took over the women’s golf team, which freed Ferris to develop the men’s team.

After a careful analysis of the men’s program, Ferris set out to improve recruit-ment. Earlier, John A Logan College golf coaches had re-cruited close to home. They sought out the best players from Southern Illinois, and sometimes ventured into Central Illinois or Southeast Missouri, but the main focus was this region.

“No coach is better than his players,” Ferris said. “With-out talented players, no pro-gram can be truly successful. We had to expand the scope of our recruiting in order to im-prove. Since we are a two-year school, we turn over players quickly and cannot afford a bad recruiting year. We have had some standout players at JALC from Southern Illinois, but we have to go to where the best players are.”

Ferris took recruitment from the regional to the national level. His first big catch was Spence Andrews, a prep standout from Glen Ellyn, Va.

Ferris speaks with pride when discussing Andrews.

“Spence was a great recruit for us. He was not only a great

golfer, but an outstanding young man and a fine ambassador for John A Logan College,” said Ferris. “He won numerous high school and amateur tourna-ments in Virginia and on the East Coast. When we signed Spence, a lot of people took no-tice of us for the first time.”

Joining Andrews on that break-out team were Derek Roach (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) and Dane McLaird (Cape Girardeau, Mo). That team went on to be the first JALC men’s golf team to quali-fy for the NJCAA National Golf Championship Tournament.

Previously JALC players had qualified for Nationals as indi-viduals, but this was the first team to qualify as a unit, a feat they repeated as sophomores.Andrews earned All-American

honors both years at JALC, something no one else has ever done. He went on to play Division I golf at the University of South Carolina.

Both McLaird and Roach also played Division I golf upon transfer. McLaird competed for Belmont-Abbey University while Roach chose Troy State University in Alabama. Ferris stresses to his student-athletes that being a college golfer is great, but academic achievement is still the focus.

“It is important to understand that our young men are stu-dents first,” said Ferris. “We have mandatory study halls that we require our players to at-tend. We also have attendance slips that each golfer must get signed by his professors. When

Coach Tom Ferris congratulates William Bremner, who last year qualified for the nationals.

34 l may 2009 l

a young man earns his degree at John A. Logan College, he will be ready to meet the aca-demic challenges of the four year college or university.”

That first recruiting class launched Ferris and his teams into the national spotlight. An-drews’ success led to more interest from top Virginia prep golfers. Other Virginians soon followed in Andrews’ footsteps including Bo Bolton, Dan Tom-lin, Nick Tipton, Sean McNe-mar, and Tucker Bradshaw.

NJCAA All-American Sean Mc-Nemar and Dan Tomlin both continued their collegiate golf at Southern Illinois University. Current Saluki standouts Pat-rick Schiel and Phillip Collier also played for Ferris and his Vols.

Another former Saluki who was first brought to the area by Ferris is Brian Norman. Fer-ris smiled at the mention of the young man from Henderson, Ky.

“Brian certainly did his part for us,” Ferris said. “He was and is a great young man, and he is certainly one of the two or three best players we have ever had here at Logan. Brian was an All-Region XXIV selec-tion two years in a row and was named an NJCAA All-American his sophomore year. He won several tournaments and was always in contention.”

Upon graduation, Norman also transferred to Southern Illinois University where he played for Saluki Coach Leroy Newton. Norman is now a PGA golf pro

fessional and is employed as an assistant pro at Crab Orchard Golf Club in Carterville.

“Everything that I’ve accom-plished in golf is related to Tom,” Norman said. “He’s a great coach. I really enjoyed my two years at Logan. When I started playing for Tom, he took my game to another level. And not many coaches can do that.”

Norman said he was equally impressed with Ferris’s concern for his academic progress and continues to stay in touch with his players long after they have left the Logan program.

“Every kid who comes through Logan is fortunate to have Tom as his coach,” Norman said.

Even though Ferris had lifted the Volunteers onto the national stage, he wasn’t satisfied.

“It’s good to be recognized as a strong program,” he said, “but to be truly competitive, especially with the schools from the Deep South and Texas, we have to do more.”

That’s when he took recruit-ment from the national to the in-ternational level. NJCAA rules allow each school to have two international students on their golf rosters.

“Our first international player was Kenny Glenn from Scot-land. Kenny was an outstand-ing player who won a Region XXIV championship for us,” Ferris said. Glenn has since re-

When not on the golf course with men’s team, Tom Ferris (right) can often be found broadcasting John A. Logan College basketball games. Here, he is pic-tured with one of the college’s longtime trustees, Jake Rendleman of Carterville. (Logan Media Ser-vices photo)

l may 2009 l 35

turned home to Scotland where he is golf professional.

Glenn was followed by two other Scottish linksters – Scott McGregnahan and William Bremner. Max Busch, an inter-national player from Germany, would later join the fold.

Currently Marcelo Rozo of Bo-gota, Colombia, competes for the Volunteers.

“Marcelo has the potential to be one of our very best,” Fer-ris said. “He is a great striker of the ball and has a level of golf maturity that is hard to find in a college-age player.”

This March, Rozo took top medalist honors at the Spring Fling Invitational tournament in Scotsboro, Alabama.

“For Marcelo to win such a prestigious tournament so early is quite an accomplishment,” Ferris said. “We are looking for really good things from him the rest of this season.”

Once again, the Ferris plan seems to be right on track. Currently, the Vols are ranked eighth nationally and preparing for the balance of the season and the Region XXIV champi-onship tournament in May. The winning team receives an auto-matic invitation to the NJCAA National Tournament.

“Our goal every year is to win the Region XXIV Tournament. Then, we are given the chance to compete at Nationals,” Ferris

said. “That’s all we can ask for: a chance to compete. We have a strong team this year and hopefully we can make a run at the top four spots.”

If history is a teacher, look for Ferris and his Vols near the top of the leader boards at both the Region XXIV Tournament and the NJCAA National Tourna-ment this summer.

John A. Logan College Athletic Director Jerry Halstead said Ferris has left an indelible mark on the men’s golf program.

“Tom has brought an energy and a passion to the game of golf that has been out-standing,” Halstead said. “Although only a part-time coach, Tom spends as much time

as anybody at the college re-cruiting and coaching. He’s a tremendous asset to our ath-letic program.

“His teams’ accomplishments on the golf course speak for themselves. Tom has been a breath of fresh air with his pas-sion and energy. He’s unbeliev-able.”

Ferris currently resides in Mari-on with his wife, Kay.

The Volunteers are all freshmen this year, yet still managed to win an early-season tournament.

36 l may 2009 l

JALCJournal

By Teri Campbell

Logan Athletes Sign with Four-Year Universities

A s the school year nears its end, stu-dent-athletes at

John A. Logan College have more on their minds than sum-mer vacation. The spring sign-ing period is in full swing, and many of the sophomores are contemplating where they will continue their collegiate athletic and academic careers. Some Volunteers and Lady Vols have already made their decisions and signed national letters of intent, and they say factors such as location, aca-demics, and coaching played a part in choosing which schools to attend.

“It’s a big decision to make, and I thought about it a lot,” said Stephanie McSparin from Mar-ion, a 6-foot-2 forward/center who averaged 7.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game for Lo-gan this season. “I wanted to stay pretty close to home so my family members could go to my games, and that’s one of the reasons I decided to go to the

University of Southern Indiana in Evansville next year. I also re-ally enjoyed my visit there. I love the school, and it has a good program for education. I’m planning to major in elementary edu-cation so it’s a good fit for me.”

Lauren Buch of Sparta, a catcher and infielder who earned NJ-CAA All-American honors last season and is one of the Lady Vols’ leading hitters, will suit up for Murray State University next year.

“Murray is starting a brand-new softball program, and I think this will be a great opportunity to play on the first softball team there,” Buch said. “I also like Coach Jay Pyron (head softball coach at Murray) a lot. He’s a really positive person and is very knowl-edgeable about softball.” Five Logan baseball players have already made their choices. Outfielder Todd Martin is headed to University of Southern In-diana. Chase Joiner, a right-handed pitcher, signed with the University of Memphis. Pitcher and outfielder Michael Adamson inked a scholarship to SEMO, and pitchers Chan Walsh and

Lauren Buch (left) from Sparta and Stephanie McSparin of Marion are two of JALC’s student-athletes who have signed to play at 4-year universities next year.

l may 2009 l 37

James Jones signed with Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Three volleyball players have also committed to schools for next year. Sparta product Ashley Perry, a middle blocker, and Tara Ryterski, an outside hitter from Nashville, Illinois, are going to McKend-ree University. Outside hitter Jessica Gericke of Freeburg, Illinois, will attend Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Logan golfers Carly Ball and Tyler Ekenberg will hit the links at four-year universities next season. Ball, a native of Metropolis, signed with the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and Ekenberg will play for the University of Northern Alabama.

While several athletes have signed on the dotted line, many others are still visiting schools and weighing their options. Men’s basketball players Chris Parks, Simon Szablicki, and Matt Lander, as well as women’s basketball player Taylor Manley, have offers on the table. Softball pitchers Brittany Hillebrenner from Murphysboro and Kasee Wood of Anna, along with catcher Amanda Stroh from Freeburg and outfielder Janell Huppert of Murphysboro are also expected to sign athletic scholar-ships soon. Kristi DeWulf from Murphysboro, a setter on the volleyball team, is planning to commit in the next few weeks.

“It’s gratifying to see our student-athletes move on to compete at the next level,” said Jerry Hal-stead, athletic director and head baseball coach at Logan. “It takes a great deal of hard work to earn a scholarship. Schools don’t just give them away. These young men and women put in the time and effort required, both in the classroom and on the playing fields, and they have represented Logan in a first-class manner. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.”

38 l may 2009 l

Murf’s

Turf By Mike Murphy

D on’t Blink or Sum-mer Will Be Gone

It is simply amazing, the older I get, the faster time speeds by. I know that in a wink it will be time for football and the onset of fall/winter. I am now in the position of somehow trying to extend parts of the year to fully enjoy some down time.

From a very young age, Cardi-nal baseball has always been a huge part of summer. As I age, I understand more about the feelings many speak of connected to the love of base-ball. I still have a hard time sit-ting still long enough to watch an entire game. There are so many games that I always feel if I miss today’s action there will be more tomorrow and the next day. I get a kick out of younger fans that have always had ev-

ery Cardi-nal game on televi-sion and don’t have the mem-ories of t rave l ing to a Cards

game when there wasn’t Interstate 64. Soon there will be a gen-eration of fans that don’t remember seeing a game in old Busch Stadium, just as I don’t know what it was like to watch a game in old Sportsman’s Park.

If you are younger, I’m sure all the summer days are full. In the 70’s when I was in high school, they would open up the gym in the summer and when you weren’t playing baseball you hit the hardwood. Not as much happened concerning football except maybe some weight room time. Now, there are AAU Basketball Leagues and 7-on-7 football camps and a couple of different baseball leagues. What’s an athlete to do? Unless he’s got end-less hours, it forces the young athlete to specialize in one sport or divide his time between several which sometimes doesn’t set well with one of the coaches he’s trying to impress.

Then you have to leave yourself time to experience summer sports. The Southern Illinois Miners are now a fixture during the summer with their new stadium and Friday night fireworks. If noth-ing else, the stadium on the hill in Marion provides another venue for high school and college teams. Also, if the cat isn’t already out of the bag, I understand a push is being made to try and land a baseball state tournament at Rent One Park in Marion. That means more revenue for Southern Illinois and another chance to prove our end of the state can handle the big events just as well as Central or Northern Illinois.

So let’s review. Take the summer months slow and easy. It will start to get hot and humid the way it always does in Southern Illinois. Here’s something that might help. The Cardinals are off to a great start and we have the All-Star Game in our backyard this year, first time since 1966, that’s 43 years! St. Louis will be focused on by the national media for three solid days at a time when all other sports have shut down or getting ready to start up.

With our economy in decline, maybe it isn’t so bad that all the Cards games are on radio and television. It’s much cheaper to sit out on your own back porch and flick on the radio. Bathroom is a lot closer too, and not near as crowded.

Let’s Meet Here Next Month.

l may 2009 l 39

40 l may 2009 l

RLC Report

By Nathan Wheeler

Ellingsworth honored with inaugural Scott Tick-ner Huddle Coach Award

W alking the walk. Talking the talk. That’s what Rend

Lake College softball coach Dave Ellingsworth has been doing for 16 seasons. With that level of steadfastness, it was amusing to see him taken by complete surprise when he was named the first recipient of the inaugural Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Scott Tick-ner Huddle Coach of the Year Award.

His initial response at the April 21 FCA Annual Banquet in Mt. Vernon was, “Do I have to give a speech?” For those who know him, that quote is a gem. After a day or two to let it sink in, he had this to say.

“Number one, it was total sur-prise. Number two, it’s not de-served. I don’t feel like it’s de-served. To me there are a lot of people out there who are more deserving than me. It’s a very

nice award. Being honored by an award with Coach Tickner’s name on it ... that’s a classic right there. That’s quite an honor.”

Named after Mt. Vernon Township High School wrestling coach and longtime local FCA representative Scott Tickner, the award was created to honor individuals and coaches who have demon-strated a passion for FCA’s faith-based values through years of dedication, action and leadership.

“We’ve been doing one down in Carbondale with that FCA ban-quet in the name of a coach who has been real influential in FCA ... in that area,” said Roger Lipe, the Southern Illinois FCA repre-sentative since 1994. “We wanted to start something up here in the Mt. Vernon area because Coach Tickner ... has 30-plus years of serving in a very faithful, consistent and steady way in South-ern Illinois.”

FIRST CLASS - Dave Ellingsworth, head coach of Rend Lake College softball for the past 16 seasons, holds the first Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Scott Tickner Huddle Coach of the Year Award. Southern Illinois FCA Representative Roger Lipe (also pictured) presented Ellingsworth with the award during the or-ganization’s annual banquet, April 21, at the Mt. Ver-non Holiday Inn. Photo courtesy of Mt. Vernon Senti-nel Sports: Rick Hayes.

l may 2009 l 41

Lipe talked about the kind of person who de-serves this award. “I’m looking for similar ... coaches who have been serving, doing FCA stuff, and leading in their schools consistently over time,” he said. “Dave Ellingsworth has been that kind of guy at Rend Lake College. Leading a Fellowship of Christian Athletes group at a community college is really, really hard.”

“All you can do, I think, is provide a good role model ... set a good example,” Ellingsworth said. “And if you are going to require good values then you have to have good values yourself. If you are going to require Christian values, then you have to have Christian values yourself. I think that’s what you have to do.”

Tosha Ellis, Ellingsworth’s left-fielder, said her coach is very deserving.

“He’s good,” she said. “He has good morals and good standards. All he has done is lead us in the right direction.”

Ellingsworth has been involved with FCA pri-marily as a huddle coach; setting up meetings, speaking at events and getting students more involved. Ellingsworth, who just wrapped up his 16th regular season as the Lady Warriors coach, has racked up more than 600 wins, and is a two-time Great Rivers Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and 1996 Region XXIV Coach of the Year.

FCA at RLC is made up of student-athletes across the gamut of the college’s 16-team de-partment. “In FCA, the student-athletes must take owner-ship of it,” he said. “We have a problem ... at the JUCO level with the fact that we don’t have se-nior leadership. It’s very difficult to have student ownership and there are some kids right now who are ... taking ownership of it and taking lead-ership roles.”

Ellis has been a member of FCA since her fresh-

man year at Mt. Vernon Township High School. She said athletics is a great vehicle for learning about the Gospel of Jesus Christ because stu-dents can bridge their enthusiasm for athletics with their enthusiasm for Christ. “It’s a bunch of students getting together and learning more about Christ ... what he means to us and everything he’s done for us ... how God sent Jesus down to die for us and everything he has given up.” “[Ellingsworth] has been really faithful, stayed at it, and has been incredibly influential with his stu-dent-athletes – certainly the kids that he coaches, but even beyond that,” Lipe added. “When I think of faithfulness, Dave Ellingsworth is the kind of guy whose face pops into my mind. He’s a great example of what FCA wants coaches to be. “From the scripture, what the Lord really honors is faithfulness as opposed to flashiness, as op-posed to dynamic personality or any of that other stuff. That kind of faithful, consistent, lifestyle and steady influence is what we wanted to really hon-or. We see that in coaches like coach Tickner, coach Ellingsworth and others in the area.” Lipe said the future is bright for FCA with many young huddle coaches in the region who are do-ing tremendous things in their schools. When asked how much longer he’ll be directing traf-fic from third base, Ellingsworth replied, “Until it stops being fun.”

42 l may 2009 l

SISC

ViewpointBy Danny Czerwinski

W ith May here col-lege basketball has been over for

awhile. In my college basket-ball world, my season ended early when Kentucky didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. As many know I am one of those Kentucky Wildcats fa-natics. More times than not, I am wearing something blue or Kentucky. March was a tough month not being in the NCAA Tournament, playing in the NIT, and firing a coach. However, with the hiring of John Calipari, a renewed enthusiasm has returned to Kentucky Bas-ketball that hasn’t been there in the past 10 years.

Where did things start head-ing south? Simply put, the last eleven years of the Tubby Smith and Billy Gillispie eras has us in the current situation that we are in now. It started with a bang as Tubby took a group of players inherited from the Rick Pitino era and delivered a National Championship in 1998. This was to be the highlight but at the time it felt like things were

right. The program seemed to be staying on track in 1999 with a loss in the Elite 8. However, this would be the first of three losses in the Elite 8 and no Final Four visits again during the tenure. Five double digit losing seasons shined brighter than an unde-feated 16-0 run in 2003 in the SEC. “10-Loss Tubby” became a recurring theme when discussing the program. Several problems started to take over the program. Early exits in the SEC and NCAA Tournament, problems with players off the floor, trans-fers, early NBA exits, but the program was run cleanly by Tubby. However, recruiting became an issue as the program was not getting quality players coming to Kentucky. By not getting big-time players, the program started to sink not only in the SEC but in the national rankings.

A change needed to be made and in March of 2007, Tubby head-ed out of town for Minnesota. It was with joy that this happened. The program needed to go in another direction than what it was going in. I understood that it was going to take time to get this ship righted and back to our championship winning ways. The team was not a Kentucky caliber team competing at the highest levels in conference and nationally. It would take someone with much enthusiasm to reenergize not only the program but the entire fan base.

Several weeks went by as speculation grew as to who would be the next coach at Kentucky. As we know Billy Gillispie was selected. He turned around programs at UTEP and Texas A&M. He also helped Bill Self recruit players that eventually lead Illi-nois to the Final Four in 2005. It was a guy who had a great track record and an insatiable appetite for basketball that seemed to be a perfect fit in the 24-7 Kentucky Basketball environment.

With the first year expected struggles happened. Players from the previous regime didn’t buy into the system. Bad losses at home and on the road made for a losing record at one point. Mid-year brought a change as the players started to buy into the system. The talent previously recruited wasn’t great, but they played well enough to get into the NCAA Tournament. This past season began with some expectations but ended with a home loss to VMI to begin the season. The SEC season started 5-0,

l may 2009 l 43

but finished 3-8 and losses down the stretch ended a 17 year streak in the NCAA Tournament. When this happened, off the court issues started to surface and questions came as to whether Gil-lispie would return after just two seasons as the head coach.

In basketball terms, two years is not enough for a coach to get his system in place, recruit, coach, and win games. As reported, Gillispie refused to sign a contract for two years, disagreed about his off court duties as the Kentucky head coach, and issues with both national television media and inside the athletic and university departments with co-workers and his players meant that something had to give. It was a case of a good coach but wrong fit. There are duties with being the head coach at Kentucky you have to do off the court and if you aren’t willing to do them even after repeated requests you aren’t going to be around long and he was released.

I never thought I would see the program where it’s at now after the eight years of work that Pitino put in. However, we are better off than in 1989 when NCAA sanctions were going on due to the Eddie Sutton era. I do feel this program can get back to the top and compete for Conference and National Championships on a yearly basis. With the hiring of John Calipari on April 1st, it brought an air to the program that hasn’t been felt in quite long time. He is a proven coach who has taken two mid-majors (Massachusetts and Memphis) to the Final Four as well as recruited very well. Being at Kentucky, these two things should go hand and hand. He is the right man for the job both on and off of the basketball court. I felt good with change two years ago, but with this recent change I am ecstatic about Kentucky Basketball getting back to our winning ways under John Calipari.

44 l may 2009 l

D rivers traveling on Route 14 between Christopher and

Benton can’t miss the sign that proudly proclaims, ‘If you lived here, you would be home now.’ Those of us here in Southern Il-linois know that means you’re en-tering Buckner.

You can look to the south and see what’s going on at the Cotton Club II or to the north and check out this ol’ Coach’s ranch located on TJ Wheeler Street. But, what you might not realize is that this tiny Franklin County community has produced one of the premi-um tennis players to ever come out of Southern Illinois. A tennis player from Buckner? Yes, a ten-nis player from Buckner.

Let me explain.

This Buckner neighbor and Christopher graduate, advanced to play in the Illinois High School state tennis tournament his se-nior year, went on to John A Lo-gan College and played for two years and then moved over to SIU on scholarship.

If you know current Herrin boys’ tennis coach Matt McManaway then you know the Buckner na-tive I am talking about.

Matt started playing at an early age because a neighbor, Adam

From where I’mStill Sittin’

By Tom Wheeler

Benns and his dad would go to town to play. Matt was small but very athletic and was soon beat-ing all the guys he played against. His dad, the late Dick Mc Man-away and mother Sharon, saw the love for the game their son pos-sessed. He remembers, “I played all the time.”

His summers were taken up with playing in the United States Ten-nis Association all over Southern Illinois including Fairfield, Flora, Benton and Mt. Vernon.

In high school he was an excel-lent athlete, starting guard on the basketball team his senior year, four year letterman on the varsi-ty track team as a distance man who got strong enough to run un-der 2:05 in the 800 his senior year and score a career 171 points. As a senior he received permission to compete in the state tennis meet and advanced to state, from a school, as he puts it, “that didn’t have a tennis team.”

Attending John A Logan and playing for Coach Fay Ragan he capped off his freshman year by advancing to Corpus Christi, Tex-as for the Nationals by upsetting the defending regional champion, and number one seed, Jeff Car-mack of Lake Land 6-2, 6-3. Matt was the only Logan player to ad-vance but the next year he led his team to a second place finish and the team advanced to Texas. One of those teammates was Benton’s Karl Metzger who was his college doubles partner, as he had been

for many summers. In 1999, the mild manner McManaway was elected to John A Logan’s Hall of Fame, the only tennis player to receive this honor.

SIU won out over Evansville, Illi-nois State and Southwest Baptist in Bolivar, Missouri for this tal-ented tennis player. As a senior McManaway became captain, the only American on the team. One summer he went home with his roommate from Yugoslavia where he got to play on red clay. He re-members “we played at an acad-emy where the kids attended to play the year around” That sum-mer he also flew to Rio de Janeiro to play.

The gifted McManaway is starting his eleventh year as a special ed-ucation teacher at Herrin elemen-tary school. He helped start the tennis team at Herrin High school (their third year) along with girls coach Matt Snell This was not his first coaching experience, he coached the boys at Rend Lake college while finishing his degree at SIU.

Matt McManaway is another ex-ample, an example of how one can start on Route 14 in Buckner and go anywhere in the world via Carterville, Carbondale, Corpus Christi, South America or even to Yugoslavia.

Matt had the heart, the passion and the work ethic to make that journey from Buckner and fin-ished on top because of it.

l may 2009 l 45

46 l may 2009 l

On the high Road

With Jim Muir

SISC Awards First Ever Lifetime Contract

I wear a lot of hats here at Southern Illinois Sports Connection.

Sure, at the front of the magazine I’m listed as the publisher but there are other days when I’m editor while other times I’m copy desk boss or marketing director or advertising manager. And then of course a couple of days each month I serve as circulation manager, helping deliver the magazine.

As you might imagine there are days that get a little hectic and the pace gets a little crazy. But please don’t think I’m complaining be-cause I love every job I do…or ev-ery hat I wear.

But, with the volume of stories, phone calls, emails, faxes and oth-er daily chores it’s inevitable that an occasional mistake will happen. We try hard for that not to be the case, but in the end we’re only hu-man.

That leads me to the point of to-day’s offering.

In the April issue of SISC I inad-vertently left out the popular “From Where I Sit” column, penned with love each month by Southern Illi-nois sports guru Tom Wheeler.

When I discovered the mistake had been made I was right in the middle of another crisis – in other words I was having a high-speed-come-apart – and I made a mental note to call Tom and explain the mistake while at the same time

groveling and asking for forgive-ness.

Proving that Alzheimer’s and de-mentia is perhaps closer than I think I compounded the problem by simply forgetting to make the phone call. It wasn’t until a couple days later that I was reminded of my second mistake when I checked my voice mail for mes-sages.

As I scanned through the mes-sages I simultaneously heard Tom’s voice while at the same instant remembering that I had forgotten to call him and also rec-ognizing that his voice had a very serious tone.

Here’s what he said:

“I checked the magazine when it came out and my column didn’t run … have I been fired? Please call and let me know.”

I dialed his number as fast as possible and when he answered I didn’t even bother to day ‘hello.’

“Fired … are you kidding … it’s the most well-read column in the magazine,” I said.

I then proceeded to do what I should have done a few day ear-lier … I tried to explain the mis-take while I groveled and begged forgiveness.

And it was during my intense groveling that I decided to offer Tom a lifetime contract with SISC.

Hey, if the Lakers can offer one to Magic, the Yankees can offer one to A-Rod and the Kansas City Royals can offer one to George Brett – why can’t SISC offer one to ‘Wheels’ – a superstar in his own right?

“As long as you’re breathing and have a pulse and as long as this magazine is in existence I want you involved in SISC,” is how it was phrased.

‘Wheels’ graciously accepted and we both laughed out loud.

So, it’s with great pleasure that I announce this month that SISC has finalized its first-ever lifetime contract to publish ‘From Where I Sit.’

And it’s with equally great plea-sure that I also announce that I remembered to get all the col-umns – particularly Wheels’ – in this month.

In the past we’ve all witnessed ath-letes whose careers sometimes plummet after signing long term contracts. Don’t expect that to be the case with ‘Wheels’ though. In fact, with the lifetime contract now locked down Wheels can concen-trate on his monthly labor of love while continuing to build his stats for the SISC Hall of Fame.

That will all hinge, of course, on whether I can keep on track of what hat I’m wearing at any given minute on any given day.

l may 2009 l 47

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48 l may 2009 l

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