Friday, May 28, 2010

Women's Basketball Odds & Ends

I’ve been meaning to mention a few Falcon women’s basketball-related honors and achievements for a few weeks now, and today's the big day. Some BGSU (and former BGSU) greats have been in the news lately, and certainly deserve a mention here ...

* Former BGSU women’s basketball coach Fran Voll and one of his players, Jeanne Arnzen Gulick, were inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame over the weekend. Voll compiled an eye-popping record of 208-17 during nine years as the girls basketball coach at Delphos St. John’s High School, then came to BGSU in 1984 and went 144-60. During that time, the Falcons won three MAC regular-season championships, four MAC Tournament titles and made four consecutive trips to the NCAA Championships from 1987-90.

* Gulick, as Jeanne Arnzen, was a starter under Voll on Delphos St. John’s teams that made three consecutive trips to the state tournament, winning the Class A championship in 1977 and the Class AA title in 1979 after losing in the AA semifinals in ‘78. She played two years at Northern Kentucky University before playing her final two seasons at BGSU.

* The Delphos Herald and Marion Star each did stories on the Hall of Fame induction.

* Laura Bugher, who recently completed her four-year playing career with the Falcons, was one of three University students chosen by the BGSU Board of Trustees to receive its Leadership Scholarship. The scholarship is given to students with outstanding records of leadership, academic achievement and social commitment.

* The BGSU women’s basketball banquet was held a few weeks ago at Olscamp Hall. The list of individual award winners can be found here at BGSUFalcons.com. I don’t have a ton to add to what’s in the release, other than to say that this was truly a special night. I’ve been to many, many banquets over the years, and being old, bitter and jaded (not necessarily in that order), I have sat through a few that have lasted far, far too long. This one, though, lasted close to three hours, but was incredibly entertaining from start to finish. All of the speakers were great, and all four seniors – Bugher, Tara Breske, Sarah Clapper and Tamika Nurse – gave very good speeches. In fact, Tamika’s speech may have been the finest senior speech I have ever heard, and I’ve heard a lot of them. If I were in position to hire her for an on-air job at ESPN (or TMZ, for that matter), I would do so in a heartbeat. If anyone has video of Tamika’s speech, let me know and I’ll try to link it to this blog.

* The 2009-10 team was quite successful on the court, but the student-athletes were just as stellar in the classroom. Yesterday, I posted a release on the team’s academic accomplishments, and there are a lot of them.

* Coach Curt Miller and emcee Larry Weiss provided a few pieces of information at the banquet that you may or may not be aware of. First off, Miller announced that seniors-to-be Maggie Hennegan and Lauren Prochaska will be the co-captains of the 2010-11 Falcons. The head coach also announced that rising seniors Tracy Pontius and Kelly Zuercher, along with rising junior Jessica Slagle, will join Hennegan and Prochaska on the team’s leadership council. This group will have a say in the day-to-day operation of the team, on and off the court.

* As the banquet wrapped up, Weiss mentioned that the Falcons will open the home portion of the 2010-11 schedule with a game against Creighton on Monday, Nov. 15. He added that the Creighton game will be one of at least six non-conference games at Anderson Arena. With the Falcons assured of eight MAC games at home, that means you've got 14 more chances to see BGSU play at Anderson. Along those lines ...

* As you know, the ’10-11 season will be the last at Anderson Arena, as we are “Closing the Doors on the House That Roars.” There is still time to vote for your favorite Falcons (for volleyball and men’s basketball, as well as women’s basketball) for the All-Anderson Teams, to share your favorite Anderson Memories, and to track the progress of the Stroh Center construction. You can do any or all of those things by Clicking Here. Roll Along!

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