5/6/08
Howdy Ags!
We had an exciting week last week in Aggieland with lots of athletic teams nearing the end of their regular season and several teams in first place in the Big 12. Of major interest today on campus, the prospect that Aggie Jr, Jason Castro may be bringing the entire American Idol production team to the A&M campus. For this to happen, all Aggies need to join together tonight and vote for Jason to put him in the final three candidates. As many of you know, the show is broadcast to tens of millions of homes each week. If Jason makes the final three, A&M will be prominently featured on national TV in next week's broadcast. Here is the info as sent out from the Association of Former Students …
***YOUR VOTES ARE NEEDED TONIGHT (TUESDAY)
Texas A&M student Jason Castro '09, a landscape architecture major from Rockwall, has made it to the final four on the Fox television talent show American Idol. If he receives enough votes tonight to advance to the final three, Jason will come home to Texas A&M to film a segment for the American Idol show, bringing a glimpse of Aggieland to tens of millions of American Idol viewers around the world. But for that to happen, the Aggie Network must join together to vote Jason through to the next round.
Something special happens when the Aggie family unites in support of a fellow Ag—bonds are strengthened, memories are made, and the Aggie story gains another layer. This is where you come in as a former student. Tonight at 7 p.m. Central time, take a moment to watch Jason perform live on American Idol on your local Fox station, then follow the instructions for voting Jason through to the next round. Voting is straightforward: a simple phone call or text message to the number on the screen.
For more information:
Maroon Out planned for Jason Castro http://dmc-news.tamu.edu/templates/?a=6181&z=15
Vote Jason Home podcast (iTunes software required) http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/tamu-public.1529657407.01529657415
"An American Idol Journey" from The Bryan-College Station Eagle http://www.theeagle.com/entertainment/castro_watch/
* BASEBALL NEWS
*** AGGIES At Sam Houston Tonight (Tuesday) : No. 5 Texas A&M embarks on a six-game road trip Tuesday when the Aggies (40-8) head to Huntsville to face Sam Houston State (30-19). First pitch at Don Sanders Stadium is set for 6:30 p.m. A&M, which has won 23 of its last 25, is in first place in the Big 12 standings at 18-3 and became the nation's first Division I program to reach the 40-win plateau with Saturday's victory over Dallas Baptist. The Bearkats, meanwhile, have won four of their last five games and are in second place in the Southland Conference's Western Division at 15-9. Fans can listen to every pitch locally on the flagship home of Texas A&M Athletics, News/Talk 1620 WTAW. Dave South, Scott Clendenin and Chuck Glenewinkel call the action all season long. All broadcasts begin 15 minutes prior to first pitch.
*** ANDERS HONORED BY BIG 12: Texas A&M junior first baseman Luke Anders was named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week last week by a select media panel, the league office announced. Anders, who earned the first weekly honor of his career, hit .467 to pace Texas A&M to a 4-0 week that included a three-game sweep of No. 4 Missouri. Anders hit two home runs, drove in five and scored four runs, while getting hit once and drawing three walks. In addition, he posted an .867 slugging percentage, a .579 on-base percentage and was perfect in the field in 25 chances at first base. Anders’ two home runs came in Saturday’s victory over the Tigers, marking his second multi-homer game of 2008. The junior has been on a tear of late and now sits third on the team with a .377 batting average, while leading the way in home runs (11), slugging percentage (.703) and on-base percentage (.514). Anders’ 40 RBI ranks him fourth on a squad that averages 8.2 runs per game.
* SOFTBALL NEWS
*** AGGIES BEAT HORNS, WIN BIG 12 TITLE: Senior Jamie Hinshaw was 3-for-3 for with a home run and two runs scored as the fifth-ranked Texas A&M softball team (46-7, 17-1) earned a full point in State Farm Lone Star Showdown standings with a 2-1 victory and the series sweep of the Texas Longhorns (25-20-2, 9-9) Wednesday night at the Aggie Softball Complex. With the win A&M retained sole possession of its second Big 12 regular season title since 2005. The 17-1 mark in Big 12 play is the best any A&M softball team has posted since its inception into the conference in 1996. The last time the Aggies swept the two-game series against the Longhorns was in 2004. A&M will take a week off from game-action and return to the playing field May 9-11 in Oklahoma City at the 2008 Big 12 Softball Championship.
* TRACK & FIELD NEWS
*** A&M MEN AND WOMEN HIGH IN RANKINGS: Following a very successful weekend at the Penn Relay Carnival, the Texas A&M men moved up a position to No. 2 in the recent rankings tabulated by the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association and the Aggie women remain locked into the No. 3 position. LSU maintains its No. 1 slot in the men’s rankings, but the gap is narrowing based on the point totals produced from the ranking system. The Tigers have a total of 278.93 while the A&M moved improved their total to 273.05. Following those two squads is Florida State, who dropped from No. 2, with a 266.48 point tally. Meanwhile, an updated men’s form chart by Track & Field News has Texas A&M placing fourth at the NCAA Championships with 37 points behind Florida State (51), LSU (50), and USC (46). The rest of the top 10 teams include: 5. Baylor (35); 6. Auburn (34); 7. Florida (32); 8. Arizona State (28); 9. Texas (27) and 10. tie, Tennessee & UCLA (23). The top 11 teams in the USTFCCCA rankings on the women’s side remained unchanged this week as each had bright moments during the weekend. The Aggie women, who achieved an American record as well as three school records during the Penn Relays, remained in the No. 3 position behind No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Arizona State. The A&M track & field teams will be at the Houston Invitational this weekend as they continue to prepare for the Big 12 championships May 16-18 in Boulder, Colo.
TRAVEL WITH TRACK AND FIELD: Aggie Athletic Auctions and the Texas A&M Track and Field team have put together a travel package for two winners to join the Aggie Track team on their trip to the Big 12 Championships in Boulder, Colorado in May. The package can be accessed at this web site address:
http://aggieathletics.cstvauctions.com/auctiondisplay.cfm?auctionnbr=3760&auction_item=Texas+AM+Track+and+Field+“Elite+Access+Experience+Package
* TENNIS NEWS
*** A&M MEN MAKING 15 TH STRAIGHT NCAA APPEARANCE: The 25th-ranked Texas A&M men’s tennis team will make an unprecedented 15th consecutive postseason appearance as the field of 64 teams for the upcoming 2008 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Team Championship was announced by the selection subcommittee on Tuesday. The Aggies (12-11) will take on former Southwest Conference and regional rival SMU (20-8) in the NCAA First Round on Saturday, May 10 at the Baylor Tennis Center in Waco, Texas. First serve between the Aggies and Mustangs is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start. The winner will move on and play either host and ninth-seeded Baylor (22-8) or Oral Roberts (7-9) in the second round to be played on Sunday, May 11 at 2 p.m. Both A&M and SMU were among 33 teams which received at-large bids, while BU was one of 16 top seeds in the tournament. First-and second-round competition will be conducted on May 9-10 or 10-11, with the winner of each site advancing to the NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships hosted by the University of Tulsa on May 16-20 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla. The individual championships will be held following the team championships on May 20-26 on the Tulsa campus.
*** AGGIE WOMEN EARN NINTH STRAIGHT BID: The Texas A&M women’s tennis team earned its ninth consecutive bid to the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships and will face the University of Washington in the first round, Friday, May 9 at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium on the University of Stanford campus in Stanford, Calif. The winner advances to the second round and will take on the winner between No. 4 seed Stanford and Boston University on Saturday at Stanford. The second-round winner advances to the Round of 16 to be played at the University of Tulsa’s Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla., beginning May 15. The Aggies, who are making their 14th overall NCAA appearance, are 16-8 and ranked No. 31 in the nation after advancing to the semifinals of the Big 12 Championships. A&M, which placed third in the Big 12 regular season with a 9-2 record, fell to Texas in a third-set tiebreaker in the last match standing on Saturday. Washington (12-9, 2-6 Pac-10), ranked No. 38, is making its first appearance in the NCAAs since 2005.
* GOLF NEWS
*** A&M MEN FINISH FOURTH AT BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP: No. 16-ranked Texas A&M closed with a round of 301 last Sunday and finished fourth at the Big 12 Men’s Golf Championship at Whispering Pines Golf Club. No. 5 Oklahoma State claimed the title by 20 strokes with an 11-under par total of 1,141. Texas was second (1,161), followed by Texas Tech (1,165), A&M (299-284-294-3-1=1,178), Baylor (1,191), Kansas (1,194), Oklahoma (1,200), Kansas State (1,202), Iowa State (1,206), Colorado (1,208), Nebraska (1,225) and Missouri (1,237). “Everybody on the team is pretty disappointed,” A&M Coach J.T. Higgins said. “The conference tournament was one of our big goals for the season and we came up a little short. We had enough good holes to compete for the championship, but we gave back so many shots with double and triple bogeys. Those will kill you in big tournaments.” The Aggies are expected to receive a bid on Monday to the NCAA Central Regional May 15-17 in Columbus, Ohio. The NCAA Championship is May 28-31 in West Lafayette, Ind.
*** GATES NAMED TO ALL-BIG 12 TEAM: Texas A&M senior Bobby Gates has been named to the All-Big 12 Men’s Golf Team for the third straight year, the league office announced on Thursday. The team was selected by the conference’s head golf coaches. Gates leads the team with a 73.00 stroke average and has posted 14 rounds of par or better. He has played in all 11 tournaments with nine top 25 finishes and four top 10s. Gates tied for fourth at the Southern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas and tied for sixth at the Barona Collegiate Cup and the Arizona State Thunderbird Invitational.
*** A&M WOMEN RECEIVE REGIONAL INVITATION: The Texas A&M women's golf team will be the No. 8 seed at the 2008 NCAA Central Regional Championship May 8-10 at the University of Texas Golf Club in Austin. The Aggies will be making their eighth straight regional appearance. A&M finished 13th last year in Baton Rouge, La., and did not advance to the national tournament for the first time since 2003. A total of 21 teams will compete in each of the three regionals, with the top eight advancing to the NCAA Women's Golf Championships May 20-23 in Albuquerque, N.M. The East Regional will be in Athens, Ga., and the West Regional will be in Lincoln, Calif. The Aggies finished second at the Big 12 Championship on Sunday in Stillwater, Okla.
*** AGGIE JUNIOR GOLF SCHOOL TO BE HELD THIS SUMMER: The first-ever Aggie Junior Golf School at Traditions Golf Club will be held this summer and hosted by J.T. Higgins and Trelle McCombs. The camp is limited to the first 100 paid students. The first session of the camp will be June 22-25, while the second session will take place June 26-29. The Aggie Golf School is designed to improve and educate junior golfers (ages 13-19) of all abilities. From the beginner to the most advanced, students will receive the instruction needed to improve their level of play. All instruction will take place at the Traditions Club, where students will have access to the 22-acre practice facility, the Wahlberg Aggie Golf Learning Center (a 4,200 sq. ft. teaching facility featuring two indoor hitting bays with state-of-the-art swing analyzer computer equipment) and the championship Jack Nicklaus/Jack Nicklaus II designed Traditions Club golf course. For more information, visit: www.aggieathletics.com/camps
* GENERAL ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT NEWS
*** AGGIE ATHLETES HONORED AT BANQUET: Texas A&M men’s golfer Trey Todd and volleyball player Jen Moore were named the Bill Erwin Scholar-Athletes of the Year on Wednesday afternoon at the 18th-annual CHAMPS Awards Banquet. Todd is a three-time first-team Academic All-Big 12 pick and is a candidate for Academic All-America honors for the second straight year. He played in 28 career tournaments and tied for eighth at the 2007 Morris Williams Intercollegiate in Austin. His career-best round was a 67 at the 2006 PING/Arizona State Intercollegiate. Trey has received his masters in accounting from Texas A&M and has accepted a job with Price Waterhouse in Dallas. Moore was a three-time member of the Academic All-Big 12 Volleyball Team during her four-year career, and as a senior, the libero was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VI Women‚s Volleyball Second Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America. In 2007, the team captain played in every game and ranked second on the squad in digs per game while leading the Aggies to a 21-10 record. An honor student majoring in communications, Moore will graduate in May, completing her degree in four years, and will pursue a master’s degree in sports management at A&M in the fall.
A total of 401 student-athletes and student support staff were honored for posting a grade point average of 3.0 or higher during the 2007 calendar year. Of those, 89 earned Verizon Outstanding Athletics Scholar Awards for posting a 4.0 GPA for one or both semesters.
Men’s swimmer Ozzie Gardner was named the male Distinguished Letterman Award winner. After red-shirting his true senior season due to injury, Gardner became only the second swimmer in school history to qualify for the NCAA Championship final in the 50-yard freestyle, breaking one of the most long-standing and most sought after marks in the A&M swimming record books. Gardner led the Aggies to a 13th-place finish, A&M’s 13th top 25 finish in a row, at the NCAA Championships last month in Federal Way, Wash.
Soccer player Ashlee Pistorius was named the female Distinguished Letterman Award winner. Pistorius is the A&M school record holder for goals in a career and a four-time Big 12 All-Tournament selection in addition to being named the 2007 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. She was named the Honda Sports Award winner in January, an honor given to nation’s top collegiate soccer player following a ballot of 1,000 NCAA member schools as part of the Collegiate Women Sports Program.
The men’s tennis and women’s golf teams earned the Highest Team GPA Award for the spring of 2007 while the women’s swimming & diving team won the Highest Team GPA Award for the 2007 fall semester. Other teams earning High Team GPA Awards (for having a team GPA over 3.0) were equestrian (Fall 2007), women’s swimming & diving (Spring 2007), and women’s tennis (Spring 2007).
Track and field athletes Terry Dike and Jessica Wingfield earned a sweep of the Prentice Gautt Big 12 Postgraduate Scholarship Awards. A two-time NCAA All-American in the javelin, Wingfield placed 10th at the NCAA Championship in 2005 and 2007. Her career best mark of 164 feet ranks No. 7 on the Texas A&M all-time list. She is a four-time Texas A&M/Verizon Scholar-Athlete Award Winner, having earned the 4.0 GPA award three times. She is also a three-time Big 12 All-Academic Team member and a McFadden Endowed Scholarship Recipient. Wingfield has already been accepted into medical school at the University of Texas at Houston. Dike improved his career best mark in the triple jump to 49-6 in 2008, placing third at the Texas Invitational and qualifying for the NCAA Midwest Regional meet. He is a Craig C. Brown Senior Engineer semifinalist, a three-time Verizon Scholar-Athlete Award winner, a two-time member of the Big 12 All-Academic Team and recipient of the Ernst H. & Eva C. Gras Memorial Endowment. Dike, a former student body president candidate, is planning to attend law school following graduation.
In the community service award categories, the Community Service MVP went to women’s swimmer Meghan Nebera. Nebera, who completed her eligibility in 2007, ranks second in A&M history in the 200-yard butterfly and is one of only three Aggies to ever score in the event at the NCAA Championships. Sophomore volleyball player Mary Batis was named the Outstanding Committee Chair for her work with Aggie Athletes Involved and The Big Event. Batis has started every match and played in all but one game during her two-year A&M career. This past season, the outside hitter from San Antonio earned MVP accolades at two of three tournaments and went on to be named the team’s co-MVP after leading the team in digs per game and ranking second in kills, points and aces per game.
Student Athlete Advisory Committee President, and men’s golfer, Matt Van Zandt was honored for his work as well. The Award of Excellence, given to an athletic supporter within the department, was presented to Associate Athletic Director for Academics Steve McDonnell. McDonnell has worked in the position for the Aggies since coming over from a similar role at Iowa State in 1999. He also oversaw the transition of the academic center from Cain Hall to the Bright Complex in 2003. The Cleo Whitlock Award, given to an athletic supporter outside the department, was presented to Rush Hannigan. Hannigan often shows up for volleyball games before warm-ups start and is often the first person in the stands. He attends many A&M sports, shows up early, stays late and was submitted for the honor by multiple A&M teams for his outstanding spirit.
Athletes honored for being CHAMPS 101 Teaching Assistants were men’s swimmer Alejandro Jacobo, softball player Megan Gibson, track & field athletes Ashley McCarty and Chad Stoermer, women’s basketball player LaToya Gulley (and women’s swimmer Sally Ranzau. CHAMPS 101 is a required course for all first-year student-athletes. Ms. Gaye Zinn accepted an award posthumously for her recently deceased husband Bennie Zinn, who made significant contributions to the department as a tutor in the Academic Center.
* COMPLIANCE CORNER
*** ACADEMIC FRAUD: Occasionally, an institution will sign a prospect who faces difficulty in meeting NCAA initial eligibility or transfer eligibility requirements. Institutional athletics personnel may and should monitor a prospect’s academic progress and advise the prospect about the deficiencies he or she may have that impede immediate eligibility. What’s important in this process is for neither the institution nor the prospect to become desperate. Where some institutions have run into trouble is in exceeding awareness and advice by becoming actively involved in a prospect’s initial eligibility. This is a slippery slope that has led some institutions over the past year into some serious violations. Prospects may not use institutional athletics academic support resources such as tutors, academic supervisors or computer labs in order to complete work needed for their initial or transfer eligibility. The reason for the latter prohibition is that when the latter occurs, it is often accompanied by academic fraud, by prospects receiving the answers to the test, by coaches writing papers, counselors falsifying transcripts, etc. This has occurred at several NCAA institutions over the years, and it’s wrong. For adults, athletics is character-revealing, but for young people it is—and especially at the NCAA level—a character building exercise. Academic fraud—no matter how well intended—does not build character. Again, it is critical to not become desperate. No one prospect is worth a major infraction. And, for the prospect and his/her family, immediate eligibility is not worth risking the embarrassment and penalties of academic fraud and, moreover, is not worth the damage on a young person of showing that it’s ok to cheat. If you have any questions on this or other subjects that pertain to NCAA rules, ASK BEFORE YOU ACT by contacting Texas A&M Athletic Compliance at (979) 845-1904.
*** BILL BYRNE'S WEEKLY WEDNESDAY REPORT can be found at http://sports.tamu.edu/feature.php?type=1
Have a great weekend and Gig em!
W. Miles Marks '79, President
12th Man Foundation
Texas A&M University
www.12thManFoundation.com
Funding Scholarships, Programs and Facilities
in Support of Championship Athletics
