February 2010 Archives
It was Team Purple versus Team White at Bank of America Arena on Saturday morning as legends from the Washington women's basketball played in their biennial alumni game.
 Purple won the game, 55-53, on a late 3-pointer from Michelle Augustavo, who is just a year removed from her letterwinner days here at UW. Augustavo is currently an intern for the Seattle University women's basketball team.There was good representation from the alums, with the overall total hovering between 40-50 Husky greats. The event was held in conjunction with the Storm's "Winter Warm Up," which features a Q&A with coach Brian Agler. Storm CEO Karen Bryant was also in attendance, and participated as a coach.  A sample of alumni who attended was Jamie Redd, Loree Payne (currently an assistant coach), Rhonda Smith, Megan Franza, Tara Davis and Kayla Burt. But all eras from the Husky program were represented. After the game, the alumni and the Storm contingent gathered upstairs in the Founders Club for a lunch. The alum were later introduced during halftime of the Huskies game against Washington State. Before the game, the program also held its silent auction, where fans bid on a variety of special items, such as dinner with Coach Tia Jackson or round-trip airfare to the Scandinavian countries, where the team will play a foreign trip in 2011. The team is at Beasley in Pullman right now doing a shoot around and we're winding down at practice. The "shooters" are doing an around the world shooting drill right now where they have to hit 5 of 7 from five different three-point stations to advance. If the player hits five in a row, they advance at get to shoot at the nexst station. Guess who's winning? C.J. Wilcox. Coach Romar exclaimed "Put a quarter in him" because of his machine-like shooting skills. Man, is he going to be fun to watch next year! In case you missed it, here is a Q&A with Wilcox from GoHuskies.com earlier this week. Monday is a big day for the Husky Ticket Office. It's the day season ticket and Tyee renewals are due! Read more about it here and get fired-up for Washington Husky football! Everyone knows the story of Cougars coach Ken Bone's familiarity with the Huskies - having coached with Romar at Washington for four years. But, a side note is that his nephew, Kegan, is one of the managers for the Husky basketball team. The Everett Herald's Scott Johnson wrote a nice article on the Bone family and how their our roots on both sides of the state for the Apple Cup of hoops match up. Read more... Coach Romar met with just a few members of the media on Thursday before the Huskies head off to Pullman to face the Cougars. Here are a few notes from the session: --Brendan Sherrer is in the hospital right now with an infection. He is expected to fully recover and a UW staff member who visited him reports he is smiling and in good spirits. He should be released from the hospital in the next couple of days. --The Huskies took Sunday and Wednesday off.this week and coach Romar reports that this is a good time of the year to only play one game and have a little break: "It's fine for us. We have finals coming in a couple of weeks a hopefully guys take advantage of not playing a game over a week long to do some extra studying. But also, a little bit to rest the body and the mind. At this time of the year, your mind can be drained. A break like this during this time will kind of free your mind a little bit so that when you come back you'll be ready to get going. " --Coach Romar was asked if the time off after having such a great game on Saturday could have some negative drawbacks. He said there is a chance, but that at the same time the guys should remember how much fun they had last time they were on the court and the success that they had. He went on to say that the team did have a lot of energy on the court Monday and Tuesday so it didn't seem like there was any let down. --When asked how things are different now than from when he played against WSU, coach Romar said that the crowd size is the biggest change. When he played, a crowd of 6,000 fans made him fired up feel that there were a lot of people there. Now, if there's 6,000 fans that can be interpreted that no one showed up. The Washington men's basketball team travels to Pullman this weekend to take on in-state rival Washington State. The game will be televised live by FSN Northwest at 7 p.m. with a replay on Monday at 5 p.m. Don't forget, if you aren't near a television you can catch the game on the radio (Washington ISP Sports Network & 950 KJR AM) or the internet (GoHuskies.com). Here is this week's FSN Northwest schedule of Husky hoops coverage:
Some of our die-hard fans may have noticed the absence of a new Dawg Dish so far this quarter. Have no fear - the show is alive and well and preparing for its debut on UWTV in March! The crew has been busy capturing all new content and behind the scenes action of your favorite Dawgs!
To find out more about the Automobili Lamborghini Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory, click here. Gail Wood, a sports writer from The Olympian, has just released a new book titled Saved Twice. The book is about the inspirational stories of 13 athletes and sports figures that have overcome life-threatening moments to succeed. Among the Huskies represented are Lorenzo Romar, Kayla Burt and Brian Sternberg. Here is a little excerpt provided by the author: Lorenzo Romar felt the barrel of the pistol push against his forehead. "What would happen if I pushed the trigger?" snarled a member of a notorious gang. Growing up in Compton, Calif., Romar learned about the jagged edge of life. Before Romar became the Pac-10 coach of the year at the University of Washington, he had to learn about surviving gangs. Romar shares his story in Saved Twice, a recently released book about 13 athletes. The book is written by sportswriter Gail Wood, who was named Gannett's columnist of the year and won a Blethen Award from the Seattle Times for feature writing. Two other former UW athletes - Brian Sternberg and Kayla Burt - also share their stories. Marty Tadman, the All-American defensive back from Boise State, talks about the night he considered suicide. "We all love a comeback," Wood said. "These stories are about the best comebacks ever. The bring hope and inspiration." With their real-life drama as a backdrop, their stories are inspirational. To order the book for $10.99 call the toll free number 1-866-909-2665. Or go to http://www.xulonpress.com/ or to http://www.amazon.com/ Both the Husky men's and women's tennis teams hit new season-high marks in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association national rankings this afternoon. Washington is one of just fourteen programs to have both its men's and women's teams in the Top-25. The women moved up one spot to 18th following wins over Sacramento State and Minnesota last weekend, both of which were ranked. This is the highest ranking for the women since 2005 when they were ranked as high as 8th. Currently, sophomore Denise Dy is ranked fourth in the national singles rankings and junior Venise Chan ranks 14th. Dy and senior Joyce Ardies are the NCAA's 6th-ranked doubles team. The men jumped two spots this week up to No. 23 coming off a win over then-No. 36 Notre Dame on Saturday. Last week's individual rankings saw junior Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan get back towards the top of the charts as he came in at No. 51. He then upset 28th-ranked Casey Watt of Notre Dame to pick up some more rankings points. Juniors Alex Rosinski and Tobi Obenaus are also ranked 42nd in doubles. Both UW teams are on the road this week, with the 9-1 men heading to Oregon and the 7-1 women going farther south to California for non-conference duals. Complete rankings are available here. With the announcement that next Thursday's Washington men's basketball game at the University of Oregon was not selected as part of the Pac-10 television package, it is probably a good time for a quick refresher on a couple of the league's basic TV policies. Prior to the season, roughly September, the Pac-10 and its television partners (FSN, ESPN, CBS) select most of the games the league plans to television for the entire season. The television schedule includes conference and non-conference home games for every Pac-10 school. The only games exempt from this early-season selection are those played on the final weekend of the regular season. The league reserves those games in order to ensure they can select games for its package that have the most appeal or impact on the league standings. After the league makes its selections public, the rights to whatever games remain untelevised revert back to the schools to broker whatever television deals it is able to. In the case of the UW, FSN Northwest is the school's exclusive television partner and is obligated to televise every available game - home and away. Because of the relationship with FSN Northwest, the UW has one of the best local/regional television deals on the West Coast - perhaps one of the better deals in the country. Over the last several years, only a couple of the program's games each season have gone untelevised. The same is true in football where almost every game over the last several years has been televised live. Now... back to the Oregon game. When the league televises a game as part of its package, policy dictates that schools may not televise a game at the same time - or "head-to-head" against the telecast. This policy protects the integrity of the package and ensures league can capture the largest audience possible for its television partners. When the league did not select the Thursday night game at Oregon, the only options were for 1) Oregon to move the time to a window that would not conflict with the Pac-10 telecast; 2) apply for a waiver of the policy that dictates time period exclusivity; or 3) Allow the game to go untelevised. With FSN televising the 5:30 p.m. USC at Arizona State and 7:30 p.m. UCLA at Arizona games, the only options would be to move the game to either 3:30 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. tipoffs. Obviously, on a Thursday neither of those times make a lot of sense for fans attending the game. The UW worked with FSN Northwest to try to put together a workable solution to televise the game, but every potential solution found a stumbling block. Clearly, it's easy to find blame in a situation that does not favor the Huskies. But, keep in mind the big picture - that all but two games this season have been televised live this season and the UW and FSN Northwest are doing everything possible to televise every Husky game possible.
Locally, it's no secret the level of talent here in Seattle is on an elite level. Look at the success our university has had in basketball this decade. But it's nice to see the 206 represented on a national scale when Sports Illustrated penned an article about the quality of hoops in the Emerald City. It's a long read, but well worth the time.
 The focus on the story is the interwoven community basketball has fostered in Seattle. Nate Robinson, Brandon Roy and Spencer Hawes are prominently mentioned, as are Abdul Gaddy, Isaiah Thomas and Venoy Overton. Within the fraternity, the old protect the young, calling them, mentoring them and making sure they are in the gym working out. Acknowledged where they've come from, Robinson gleefully pointed out to reporter Kelli Anderson the Space Needle tattoo on his forearm.Also mentioned was Kristi Kingma from the Huskies women's team. Kingma is the second-leading scorer for her squad and was one of the more highly recruited players in the metro area (Mill Creek) during her senior year at Jackson. We should also mention that Seattle's own Apolo Anton Ohno, and leading speed-skating Olympian, graces the cover of the issue. A few months ago, the Huskies, Bulldogs, Aggies and Tigers all decided they'd travel to Tucson, Arizona to open the 2010 baseball season in the sunny, warm surroundings of the desert Southwest. Sounds reasonable, right? After all, the February weather in Seattle, Spokane, Las Cruces, N.M. and Columbia, Mo. is sketchy this time of the year. The allure of playing four games in three days and opening the season at the spring training ballpark of the Arizona Diamondbacks made the Cactus Classic perfect. Well, apparently things don't always work out as planned. Just six innings into this morning's game between New Mexico State and Gonzaga showers move into Tucson, causing a four hour, nine minute weather delay. The rain lasted only about an hour, but the field took on a significant amount of water before the umpires halted the game and the grounds crew (with the help of the coaches and players of the two teams) pulled a tarp over the infield. The two teams returned to the field at 5 p.m. (PT) to complete the game. The Washington vs. Gonzaga game was cancelled, as was the 6 p.m. (PT) Missouri vs. New Mexico State game that was supposed to take place at a Diamondbacks practice field across the street. Washington's game against Missouri will take place at 6 p.m. (PT) During the delay, the Huskies grabbed some sandwiches, conducted a team meeting and several players watched NBC's coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Games.  Photo Gallery
Digger Phelps - the unofficial warm up act - revved up the crowd and prepped them for the show. His enthusiasm was infectuous and he did a great job of making sure that the Dawg Pack was ready to go. Before the show got going, there was a donut eating contest and an appearance by Captain Husky and the fish throwers from Pike Place Market - plenty of action before the real action even got going. At about 7:30, ESPN did a live look-in at BOA and the crowd made it feel like there were 10,000 fans in the stands with their decibal levels. It was pretty evident that by 8:00, they were going to rock the joint. Sure enough, when the actual College GameDay show started rolling live, it felt like we had just hit a buzzer beater. It was raucous and you could barely hear the broadcast going on in the forefront. The Dawg Pack did a great job of keeping the energy rolling throughout the entire show. A couple light moments: The Dawg Pack was determined to get Rece Davis to wear a Husky snuggie during the broadcast and Harry the Husky approached Digger to plead with him to wear a purple tie. Both requests were politely declined by the talent! All-in-all, the morning was a resounding success. Now, the trick will be to make sure that the Husky fans who had the early wake up call are ready to rock-and-roll tonight. First-year Washington baseball coach Lindsay Meggs earned his first win as a Husky Friday night when the Dawgs handed New Mexico State a 4-2 loss in the second game of the Cactus Classic in Tucson, Ariz. It was the season opener for both teams. GoHuskies.com has a complete recap of the game. But, here are some comments from Meggs that didn't make the story. "We did just enough offensively tonight to give ourselves a chance to win. We talked to our guys after the game. (NMSU) is on the road, too. This is very much like their home ballpark. The elements and the way the field plays. We really give our pitchers credit for keeping the score low and keeping the ball in the park. Really, if we don't have a guy fall down at second and our centerfielder catches a fly ball, we throw a shutout. You have to be pleased with the pitching." Congrats go out to Coach Meggs, assistant coaches Dave Nakama, Greg Moore and Bill Haselman and the players. Solid first effort.
Gonzaga and Missouri play the tournament's first game at 12 noon (Pacific), while Washington faces New Mexico State in the nightcap at 5 p.m. (Pacific). Live coverage for the Washington games is available on GoHuskies.com. Gametracker and live audio for the non-UW games are available on the other schools' websites: www.mutigers.com, www.gozags.com and www.nmstatesports.com. Sports Video Group published this story on the UW's innovative television deal that will provide Husky softball fans with live coverage of several of the defending national champions' games this season. UWTV is scheduled to televise live a minimum of eight UW softball games this season, while FSN Northwest will replay each game on a tape-delayed basis. For a complete schedule for UW softball, including live television, radio and Internet coverage plans, visit GoHuskies.com. Nate Robinson is headed to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Eddie House and Bill Walker, according to multiple sources. The deal will move Robinson to a contending team where he is expected to back up Rajon Rondo. Robinson has spent his entire five-year career with the New York Knicks after being acquired in a draft-day trade with the Phoenix Suns. He has won the NBA Slam Dunk title three times in his career and is a fan favorite in NYC.
 Beginning the week of February 16, 2010, Sound Transit's contractor started work to replace the sidewalk and install a manhole along Montlake Blvd. at the Pacific Street intersection. The contractor will demolish the existing sidewalk and establish a temporary sidewalk, using concrete barriers to separate the pedestrian/bicyclist from automotive traffic (see attached map). The work is scheduled to finish Saturday, February 27.What is University Link? University Link is the 3.15-mile extension of light rail from downtown Seattle to the University of Washington. U-Link includes twin-bore tunnels and two stations, one at Capitol Hill (Broadway and East John Street) and the other on the University of Washington campus at Husky Stadium. Local tax funding for U-Link was approved by voters and the project also received a $813 million Federal Transit Administration grant. U-Link is projected to add 70,000 daily riders to the Link system, bringing total daily ridership to 114,000 in 2030. Construction of U-Link began in early 2009 and will continue over the next six years. Passenger service is scheduled to begin in 2016. For More Information: For more information about the Montlake Blvd. sidewalk revision or the University Link light rail project, visit http://www.soundtransit.org/UWstation. MONTERREY, Calif. - Alex Prugh was rolling along in the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at 3-under through the first 13 holes before a nine on the Par-5 14th hole sent him crashing back to earth. Prugh entered Sunday's round tied for 15th after three rounds in the 60s, but ultimately finished tied for 27th at 7-under overall. He was coming off three-consecutive top-10 tournament finishes that earned him over half a million dollars and left him 13th in the FedExCup standings. Sunday's effort netted him $41,269 and leaves him currently 14th in the season standings.
With the help of some Dallas Cowboys' cheerleaders, Nate Robinson claimed his third dunk contest title at the pre NBA All-Star Game festivities on Saturday night. The Seattle native and Huskies legend is the first to capture the dunk crown three times.
Robinson garnered 51 percent of the vote to win, just holding off Toronto's Demar DeRozan. The signature dunk for Robinson came when he threw the ball off the backboard, grabbed it in mid-air and reverse-slammed it home. The 5-9 Robinson then celebrated his final dunk by grabbing some of the silver and blue pom-poms from the cheerleaders and waving them in the air.
Alex Prugh will be tied for 15th as he heads into the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Sunday. He is 9-under 205 overall and nine strokes off the lead. Prugh shot a 1-under 69 on the Monterrey Peninsula course that included four birdies and three bogeys.  The No. 1 ranked and defending national champion Washington softball team was featured on ESPN.com's College Sports page today as Graham Hays reveals UW as his preseason favorite to win the 2010 title. Check out the links below to see all the stories that have hit the internet this week about the Huskies, including Hays rundown of the top 20 teams and his "Five Burning Questions" about the upcoming season. ESPN.com, Graham Hays: Huskies Poised to Defend Title Seattle Times, Jerry Brewer: Danielle Lawrie: A Star on the Field, Not in Her Mind Seattle Times, Terry Wood: UW Softball Begins Title Defense in Arizona Tacoma News Tribune, Dave Boling: Caution, Huskies hot on trail of softball repeat Kitsap Sun, Scott Johnson: Top-Ranked Huskies Begin 2010 Campaign Associated Press, Tim Booth: Washington Pitcher Doesn't Think She's a Star The Daily, Christian Caple: Season Preview Part One: No. 1 Huskies Begin Title Quest Today The Daily, Christian Caple: Season Preview Part Two: Salling Looking To Build Off... The Daily, Christian Caple: Season Preview Part Three: Tarr Undecided on Catcher, Pitching Rotation To view this Monday's season-opening press conference with head coach Heather Tarr, reigning National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie and sophomore Kimi Pohlman, click here. Alex Prugh once again proved that no course is too tough for him as he shot a 4-under-par 68 in round one of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and sits in a tie for 17th with nine others. Prugh had six birdies on the day that were tempered by two bogeys. Dustin Johnson is all alone in first place at 8-under. Prugh tees off tomorrow morning from the No. 10 hole on the links course at 9:17 a.m.
Back by popular demand, the Huskies will don their black uniforms tonight against California. The uniforms were originally unveiled on Jan. 30 in Washington's game against Washington State as part of Black Out Cancer Day.
SEATTLE - Senior leaders at the University of Washington have decided to donate 5 percent of their salaries to the University in support of student scholarships and academic programs. This includes UW President Mark Emmert and Provost Phyllis Wise, along with vice presidents and vice provosts, deans and chancellors, the athletic director and the head football and basketball coaches. The goal of contributing at this time is to provide additional assistance to programs supporting students and faculty that are struggling in the current economic climate and state revenue shortfall. "People throughout the university are working extraordinarily hard," said Emmert. "Our senior leaders decided to demonstrate their support for our people who have taken on extra work and larger classes to serve our students. The funds we are donating will help students and faculty in these difficult times. I am very proud of my colleagues' commitment and generosity." Contributions are expected to total over $600,000 to various programs and scholarships. These gifts from UW leaders are not the first time they have demonstrated philanthropic support for the institution. Last year, many of them, along with more than 8,500 faculty and staff, contributed over $16 million to various needs of the University, including student scholarships, faculty endowments, and current program support.
Both teams are coming off four games at opposite spectrums. Cal had four-straight on the road, where they earned a split against the Arizona schools and Los Angeles schools, while Washington is hitting the road after four-consecutive in the friendly confines of Bank of America Arena. They meet tonight in a nationally televised game on ESPN2 with a large stake in the Pac-10 standings riding on the line. If Washington can earn its first road win in five tries, then they will wake up Friday morning with a share of the Pac-10 lead. Coach Lorenzo Romar is not trying to put more pressure on the team, but he realizes from here on out, all the games are big. "It's the next game," said Husky coach Lorenzo Romar. "And like I've said many times before, there are different challenges to each game and different ramifications for winning and losing. This one is the next game, so it's huge. "Obviously, it a chance for us to get our first road victory, it's an opportunity for us to tie for the conference lead. There's a lot at stake. But if it was reversed and Stanford was the next game it would be just as big." Last time these two teams met, Washington was able to neutralize Cal's Jerome Randle and held him to five points. Patrick Christopher carried the Golden Bears with 28 points and the Huskies will have to hold at least of couple of Cal's weapons down if they expect to duplicate the 84-69 result on Jan. 16. If they can do that, the Huskies will undoubtedly turn plenty of heads and find themselves the hunted once again. When you start the PGA season as hot as Alex Prugh has someone outside of the state of Washington is bound to notice. Watching the television coverage of the past three events where Prugh has turned in two fifth place finishes and a 10th place finish, you wouldn't have much of an idea of what the Spokane-native looks like. No matter. That is the way Prugh likes it. He loves to fly under the radar. As long as he keeps golfing the way he has, he seemingly has no problem deflecting the attention. PGATour.com featured Prugh in a recent article and notes that the former Husky is starting to garner more attention and many will know his name before too long.
With the return of Sara Mosiman comes our producer/director of the team flip cam, which has accompanied us on all of our road trips so far. In the latest video, the team is off to Pullman, Wash., where we continued our win streak over Washington State (29 and counting).
One particular highlight is assistant coach Judy Spoelstra getting into a "dance off" with one particular super fan from Wazzu. Of course, in these situations, when coaches start dusting off their "Tootsie Rolls," nobody really wins, right? The video is attached in the side player in the women's basketball page of GoHuskies.com. UPDATE: Here is a link to the video on the KING-5 website in cased you missed it live Wednesday night. The one-two punch of the women's tennis team, 3rd-ranked Denise Dy and 11th-ranked Venise Chan, will be featured on the KING-5 news this evening, starting with the 5 p.m. broadcast. Sports reporter Chris Egan came out to the Nordstrom for UW's home opener against BYU a couple weeks back, and made a return trip this week to get some extra footage of the two hitting with each other to put the finishing touches on the piece. The story should also re-run on Northwest Sports Tonight during the 9:30 showing on Northwest Cable News and again at 11 p.m. on KONG. UW athletic communications assistant Jeremy Cothran recently wrote this excellent article on the Tyee Club and its rebranding efforts for the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD). Did you miss last night's Lorenzo Romar and Tia Jackson shows on the Washington ISP Sports Network and Seattle flagship station 950 KJR AM? Well, you are in luck. You can now download the Podcasts of these and other great Husky-related audio clips via GoHuskies.com and iTunes! Here are the links: → Download last night's Lorenzo Romar Show OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Former University of Washington football player U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks is likely to succeed the late Rep. John Murtha as chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending. Murtha died Monday at age 77 after suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. The Pennsylvania Democrat was head of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee since 1989. Dicks, 69, a Democrat from Belfair, has sat on the committee since 1979. George Behan, Dicks' chief of staff, said Monday that there's no timeframe on when the change could take place, but that it would likely happen soon. He says the Appropriations Committee would have to agree to it, as would the House Democratic caucus. Dicks would have to give up his post leading an environmental spending panel, but would remain on the committee. Dicks played football at Washington in 1961 and 1962. A Bremerton, Wash. native, he graduated from the UW in 1963, received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Washington School of Law in 1968 and later that year joined the staff of Senator Warren G. Magnuson. He served as Legislative Assistant until 1973, when he became the Senator's Administrative Assistant. He resigned from that post in early 1976 to begin what was a successful campaign for Congress in Washington State's 6th Congressional District, and he has been re-elected in every election since that time.
Monday was media day for the defending national champion softball team and the local Seattle media was out in full force to hear what head coach Heather Tarr, defending National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie and 2010 Player of the Year candidate Kimi Pohlman had to say about the upcoming season.
Check out the links below to see the stories that came out of the media day. Check back later in the week as a story will also hit the internet from ESPN.com about the nation's No. 1 ranked softball team. Seattle Times, Jerry Brewer: Danielle Lawrie: A Star on the Field, Not in Her Mind Seattle Times, Terry Wood: UW Softball Begins Title Defense in Arizona Tacoma News Tribune, Dave Boling: Caution, Huskies hot on trail of softball repeat Kitsap Sun, Scott Johnson: Top-Ranked Huskies Begin 2010 Campaign Associated Press, Tim Booth: Washington Pitcher Doesn't Think She's a Star The Daily, Christian Caple: Season Preview Part One: No. 1 Huskies Begin Title Quest Today The Daily, Christian Caple: Season Preview Part Two: Salling Looking To Build Off... The Daily, Christian Caple: Season Preview Part Three: Tarr Undecided on Catcher, Pitching Rotation To view the press conference with Tarr, Lawrie and Pohlman, click here. The story of Brendan Sherrer continues to prove to be a great human interest story. Everytime he enters the game, fans go crazy. Some have begun to call Sherrer the Human Victory Cigar because every game he has appeared in has signaled a comfortable UW lead. Here is a great feature by KOMO TV's Mike Ferrerri that appeared in Sunday's newscast. Head track coach Greg Metcalf, a perennial favorite of Flotrack.org, is currently featured on the site as part of a series where prominent coaches discuss the mental aspect of the sport. Coach Metcalf discusses the approach he takes with mental preparation and shares some anecdotes about 2009 World Championships participant Ryan Brown as well as praising the stability of current All-American Christine Babcock. Watch the full video by clicking this link. Former University of Washington quarterback Mark Brunell made NFL Super Bowl history today. The problem is, he probably won't get any credit for it. Brunell, the primary backup quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, served as the team's holder for PATs and field goals. In the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIV from Miami, Fla., Saints kicker Garrett Hartley kicked a 47 yard field goal, his longest outdoor field goal of the season. More notably, with Brunell holding, Hartley set a Super Bowl record with three field goals of more than 40 yards. According to the Dallas Morning News, "In the first half he hit from 46 and 44 yards. Cincinnati's Jim Breech was the only kicker in the first 43 Super Bowls to have made two field goals from more than 40 yards when he accomplished it against San Francisco in Super Bowl XXIII. Add that to his winning kick against Minnesota in the NFC title game and this has been a pretty good run for Hartley." The USA Today posted this piece today on Brunell making it to the Super Bowl after 16 years in the NFL.
Through their Coins 4 Kids fundraiser, UW student athletes have raised nearly $5,000 this year in support of Seattle Public Schools' Physical Education program.
Prugh made his fourth cut of the season in four tournaments - this time the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. He will tee off for the third round at noon today. You can follow Prugh's progress at many sites, but quickly becoming my favorite is PGATour.com where not only do they have a leaderboard, but a Shot Tracker that has very thorough descriptions and pictures of player's progress. Prugh is tied for 25th at 2-under. His progress has been nothing short of amazing this year. In case you missed it, the Seattle TImes had a nice feature on Alex this week. According to the Houston Chronicle, Will Conroy is a great injury replacement because he was with the Houston Rockets through training camp and was one of the team's last cuts. He was signed to a 10-day contract to replace the injuried Kyle Lowry. Click here to read the entire article.
Meggs joined the UW athletics program in July and has been tirelessly working to get the UW baseball team ready for the upcoming season. The team started practice recently and opens the regular season on Feb 19 against New Mexico State in the Cactus Classic in Tucson, Ariz. The Diamond Dawgs will play their first home game on Feb. 26 in the first of a three-game series against Fresno State. Tarr led the Washington softball team to its first-ever national title last spring. The Huskies were picked as the favorites to win the Pac-10 title and are ranked No. 1 in both national polls. The UW, which returns 2009 National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrieand five other starters in 2010, begins its title defense on Feb. 11 at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz.
Known as a widely recognized sport and training technique throughout the world, soccer tennis utilizes only the feet and head and is a great way to polish soccer skills through juggling and heading the ball across the net. "A lot of professional teams around the world have a soccer tennis court at their training facilities," said UW men's coach Dean Wurzberger. "It is a really great way to improve skills, get a bit of a workout and have fun playing it. Our players really enjoy playing and it can be come quite competitive." The rules are very similiar to the game of tennis. Here are the playing rules, according to www.SoccerTennis.org: "A player has two attempts to execute a kick-off and must play the ball out off his hands behind the service line, either per volley or drop kick. Ball can land anywhere on the opposing team side. The kick-off must bounce on the opposing team side before being played by the receiver. Kick-off receiver is allowed to take two touches. The ball can not touch the ground between the two touches. The receiving team is allowed to touch the ball a maximum of 3 times before returning the ball to the opposing team. (IMPORTANT NOTE: The two touches used by a receiving player off the kick-off count as 1 team touch). The ball can be directly returned to the opposing team, if desired. The ball is allowed to touch the ground a maximum of two times on a team�s side before being returned. Ball contacts must be interrupted by a player touching it. (Ball cannot bounce twice in a row without being touched.) Ball must also be returned out of the air. (Ball cannot bounce from one side to the other without being touched.)" .News from various Huskies currently in the NBA today: → The Oregonian says Brandon Roy could return Saturday against the Los Angeles Lakers after missing nine-straight games and 11 of the last 12 due to a hamstring injury. → This blog post from Slam Magazine talks about how great it was to see Roy cheerleading from the bench in the Blazers' tight come-from-behind victory over the Spurs. → Cowbell Kingdom, an unofficial Sacramento Kings fan blog had some great things to say about Jon Brockman: "I really like Jon Brockman. He's been one of my favorite players to watch this season out of anybody in the league. He's an old school type of player that brings his lunch pail, clocks in to work and throws himself into the other team. He bothers big men. He bothers BETTER big men all the time. He crashes the boards and makes things happen. Going into this game, he was fourth on the team in +/- and possessed one of the best rebounding rates in the entire NBA." → Rotoworld.com suggests Spencer Hawes might be a good pickup for your fantasy team. → It appears that once-banished-to-the-bench Nate Robinson has regained his starting position at point guard tonight for the New York Knicks. → Excellent Houston Chronicle writer Jonathan Feigen wrote this story recently about (somewhat) new Houston Rocket Will Conroy.
Through their Coins 4 Kids fundraiser, UW student athletes have raised nearly $5,000 this year in support of Seattle Public Schools' Physical Education program. Student athletes will be roaming Bank of America Arena before, during and after the basketball game so bring some coins to help a good cause! A couple notes from the morning: --The Huskies had a 7:30 a.m. Hawai'i tee time, so scores should start rolling in. You can follow live at Golfstat.com. Washington enters the final round with a two-stroke lead and Nick Taylor is second, one stroke behind leader Kevin Tway. --Alex Prugh's first round at the Northern Trust Open was halted due to darkness yesterday with 17 holes completed. He wrapped up his round with a par and finished even-par 71 on the day. He is 1-under in the early goings of the second round at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Evidently, it is raining at the course, which should help out Prugh quite a bit.
Washington moved up from 23rd thanks in part to an upset of 16th-ranked South Carolina on Saturday. Washington's lastmatch as a Top-20 team came on April 2, 2005 against Tulane. The Huskies that year wound up ranked 25th in the final poll. It's the first time in the Top-20 for UW under fifth-year head coach Jill Hultquist. Check out the complete rankings here. In other news, the Seattle Times sent a photographer out to get a few shots of top-ranked standouts Venise Chan and Denise Dy, for a feature to run in the coming weeks. With two flashbulbs set up SEATTLE (AP) - The University of Washington has the most volunteers in the Peace Corps for the fourth year in a row. The Peace Corps says 101 UW undergraduate alumni are currently serving. The University of Colorado at Boulder ranks next with 95, followed by University of California Berkeley 89, Michigan State University 86 and University of Florida 79. Washington also has 17 graduate school volunteers, tying it for tops in that category with the University of Texas at Austin.
Leung is the Pac-10's latest blog reporter and conducted the interview while Washington was in Los Angeles.
As any Husky fan might imagine, the general consensus is that Coach Sarkisian and his staff did an excellent job in lining-up one of the top recruiting classes in Washington's recent football history. The program welcomes 30 top prospects who signed National Letters of Intent (NLI) at the first allowable opportunity yesterday. The NCAA rules designate football's signing period run from 7 a.m. (local time) on Wednesday, Feb. 3 through April 1. The NLI is a binding agreement between the school and the student-athlete that provides the athlete an athletics scholarship to for the 2010-11 season. Following are a few links to media coverage of Washington's Signing Day activities: GoHuskies.com's Signing Day Central has bios, photos, a recap of its signing day chat and a Podcast of Coach Sark's press conference. Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times says Coach Sark makes Washington a winner on signing day. The Times' Bob Condotta agrees, calling UW's signing day a success. Todd Milles of the Tacoma News Tribune notes signing class' national ranking. The Los Angeles Daily Breeze has this story on signee Sean Parker's decision to come to Washington. Scott Johnson of the Everett Herald talks about the excitement surrounding UW's 30-man signing class. Johnson also has this story that appeared in the Kitsap Sun that features an AP photo by Joe Nicholson of Coach Sark in the football offices. SeattlePI.com's Todd Dybas writes about Parker's decision as well as a few other comments from signing day. The Bleacher Report has the UW listed among its top 10 winners from signing day.
Signing Day Central on GoHuskies.com has the most complete coverage of today's National Letter of Intent Signing Day around. You can check out player biographies and photos, watch Coach Sarkisian's official press conference, download a Signing Day Podcast or buy tickets for the upcoming season (hint, hint) right on the page. One of the cool features was a special Signing Day Chat that went on throughout the morning. A few special guests stopped by so read through it for some really interesting comments from linebackers coach Mike Cox, athletic director Scott Woodward and running backs coach Joel Thomas. Just a reminder that the UW men's golf team starts their spring season today from Mauna Lani Resort in the Big Island Classic. You can follow live scoring by clicking here. An amazing field, according to Matt Thurmond, will be competing at the tournament hosted by Hawai'i-Hilo. "You'll see it, but it's just a loaded field and I expect us to play well. We have a lot of fun when we come over here. We also play really hard and we've always played pretty well." The field will tee off at 12:30 in a shotgun start. In other men's golf news, Washington's Alex Prugh is teeing off at 1:30 on Thursday for the Northern Trust Open at the Riviera Club in Los Angeles. There's a ton of Washington Husky men's and women's college basketball hoops action on FSN Northwest this week. Here's a schedule so set your DVR!
You can now listen to Husky-related coaches shows, press conferences and other interesting audio content through the new and improved GoHuskies.com Podcast! We've posted the last two Lorenzo Romar and Tia Jackson radio shows as well as Romar's post-game interview following the recent victory over in-state rival Washington State. We are also planning to post more content frequently so subscribe to the Podcast in iTunes or follow this special RSS feed. Thanks to GoHuskies.com, KJR-AM and CBS Interactive for helping launch this great feature! Academic awards are given out to the top classroom achievements each quarter by the Student Athlete Academic Services staff. Team and individual awards are given in the areas of GPA, academic achievement, academic excellence and outstanding coach. The fall quarter high team GPA for teams of less than 20 was gymnastics (3.23) followed by a tie between men's tennis and men's golf (3.14). The fall quarter high team GPA for teams of more than 20 student-athletes was women's soccer (3.31) followed by men's crew (3.02). Congratulations to our two individuals recognized for earning a 4.0 this quarter, Christine Babcock (women's track/cross country) and Taylor Fjeran (women's track). Sam Ojserkis (men's crew) was also honored for his 3.97 quarter GPA. Nine student-athletes were honored for academic achievement/excellence. They are:
Outstanding academic coach for the fall quarter was Shanna Hannan (gymnastics). The quarterly academic awards are a great way focus on the continuing achievement of our student-athletes in the classroom. Way to go, Dawgs!
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