Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Scene from the Green at Michigan Stadium

The entire Sports Information staff came to Michigan Stadium to participate in the fun brought on by the BGSU v. Michigan football game, but one daring soul fought through the crowds of Maize and Blue to get field-side and gain this video of the intense atmosphere provided by The Big House and its occupants.

Here is video of BGSU's entrance through the tunnel and leading onto the field ...



... and here is video of the National Anthem being played for nearly 110,000 people in attendance.



Enjoy the rest of the game!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Mike Cihon's Big Day, Part Deux

The fun continues at Perry Stadium -- when last we spoke, I had just enjoyed lunch and a quick check of some football action from around the nation. So much has happened since then, I don't even know where to start. OK, I have a rough idea of where to start.

I made a quick trip over to the press box with BGSU athletic communications guru Dave Meyer. While over there, I snapped a quick photo of the Falcon Marching Band. The FMB, obviously, is a huge part of Falcon football fun, and they work just as hard as the football team to ensure that everything goes well on game day (or, in today's case, game night)...

From there, it was out to Tailgateville to get a sense of the mood of Falcon Nation. In one word or less, the mood is 'festive.' This photo may not accurately depict all of the awesome festiveness that was taking place, but just trust me -- it's a fun atmosphere, and this photo was taken nearly six hours prior to kickoff...
Back inside the stadium, the FMB was still going at it. They will be joined by a large number of high-school bands from around the region this afternoon/evening as well...
And, some of those H.S. bands started to arrive at The Doyt at around 2:00 p.m. ...

... and joined the MFB on the field ...

At this point, I need to step away from the computer for a while to get ready for tonight's game. Until I'm able to post again, Roll Along!

Mike Cihon's Big Day

It's Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010. Most of you are well aware that the BGSU football team's home opener is tonight. But, there are a lot (A LOT) of other things going on around the BGSU athletics complex today. There's nothing creepy about an ugly old man wandering around with a camera, so I figured I'd capture some of the action on this day...

The day started with a couple of soccer practices on the Perry Stadium turf. The BGSU men practiced at 9:00 a.m., while the women's team practiced at 10:00. Both teams play Sunday matches on turf fields (women at Indiana State, men at Valparaiso), hence the reason for their using the turf field for Saturday's preparations. Because I didn't have the brilliant idea for this blog post until late in the women's practice, there's no picture from the men's practice. But, here are the BGSU women going through their preparations at the south end of The Doyt...
(Note - soon after this photo was taken, the abbreviation for tonight's football foe was changed from "Marsha" to "Herd" -- I just thought you'd wanna know.

With women's soccer practice winding down, I headed over to Keefe Courts, where the BGSU Invitational is underway. Penny Dean and the tennis Falcons will be in action today and tomorrow, hosting the season-opening tournament, so wander on over and catch the Falcons in action.

The first round of doubles action had concluded, and senior Christine Chiricosta and freshman Emily Reuland were on the court playing singles matches when I arrived. Here's a photo of Christine, under the watchful eyes of Coach Dean ...

... and here is Emily Reuland, firing a serve during her first-ever collegiate singles match ...

From there, I made a quick stop at the computer to get these photos off of the camera before I accidentally deleted them or something (you'd be surprised -- or maybe you wouldn't -- at how often that happens), and then went over to the Ice Arena to see the women's soccer Falcons off. Here's a photo taken through the windshield of a moving vehicle (note: I was not driving)...

When the coaches arrived, an impromptu catalog photo shoot broke out. Andy Richards is such a diva...

... and there are no words to describe assistant coach Scott Gloden. He actually posed for these pictures ...

The team received their lunch (from Panera - perhaps you've heard of it? Their food is pretty darn good) and prepared to head to Indiana State...

What kind of an SID would I be if I didn't get a free lunch out of the deal? (I actually owe assistant coach Tiffany Hansen some money for my lunch, but maybe she'll forget.) After a quick lunch at my desk...

... and a quick check of some college football scores ...

...it was off in search of more BGSU action. Hopefully, I will have time to check in later and update this top-quality (???) blog entry. Until then, Roll Along!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

News and Notes Leading Into The Home Opener

It's really turning into an exciting day around the BGSU Athletics Department today. Even though the football home opener is still two days away, there is so much buzz and activity going on around here. Sure, there's a lot of stress to put our best foot forward for our fans, but it also makes it really fun. At heart, we're all fans around here too and these types of weekends are what attracts us to our jobs. Just thought I'd drop a few notes leading into Saturday:

* If you haven't heard, the game is being picked up by ESPN3.com and ESPN Game Plan. Really, we want to have our fans in the stands but if you can't be here, there should be plenty of opportunity for you to follow the game. If you have an internet subscriber that doesn't allow you to watch ESPN3.com, we will also have the video stream available for purchase through American One at BGSUFalcons.com.

* Attendance seems to be tracking pretty well. It's unlikely to be a sell out but I would expect an announced attendance number much higher than last year's 14,514 for the home opener against Troy.

* If you haven't been there yet, be sure to check out the Gameday Central page. We're posting as much info on there as we can and should be an invaluable tool for both fans who are coming to the game and those who will be following at home. You can access it at: http://bgsufalcons.com/sports/2010/9/14/FB_0914105719.aspx?id=218

* Just a reminder that we'll be having a fireworks show as soon as the game is over Saturday night as well. Hang around for those postgame festivities.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Cleaning out the flip camera files

Here are a few more videos from the women's soccer team's trip to Niagara Falls. Most of them are relatively self-explanatory...

The Falcons practiced on the game field at Niagara University on Thursday night (Sept. 2) ...


The next morning, the team took a walk from the hotel to nearby Niagara Falls. Senior Alexa Arsenault, a native of Canada -- it's right across the river, you know -- was asked to give a brief, yet informative, tour of the Falls to her teammates. Mission accomplished ...


The next day, the team boarded the Maid of the Mist. My "if the camera still works" comment turned out to be prophetic, as the flip camera took on a little water before the team boarded the boat and was rendered useless during the entire voyage...


Before the team boarded the boat, and before the camera stopped working, however, hilarity ensued ...


The Falcons take on Minnesota this afternoon (Friday, Sept. 10) at Cochrane Field. If you can't make it out to the field, log on to BGSUFalcons.com for live stats as BG battles the nationally-ranked Golden Gophers.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Inside The Radio Booth With Todd Walker

We spent a couple of minutes with Todd Walker and Falcon Radio Network engineer Dave Morris in the radio booth prior to the BG/Troy football game:

Todd Walker Shows Us What He Does

Todd Walker showed us how he prepares to announce a BGSU football game as he gets ready for the BG/Troy game this evening.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Heading To Alabama

Posted at 4:51 pm Friday -- Well the plane landed in Alabama and the team headed to Troy for walk through. Those of us who didn't need to go to practice went back to the hotel (mainly those on bus 3 with busses 1 and 2 being player/coach busses). Those of us in athletic communications went to Jim 'N Nick's BBQ for some good southern food. For myself, I spent the plane ride re-reading through Troy's game notes. A few things that I found noteworthy:

*Troy has won 23 consecutive home openers dating back to 1986 (when I was in 6th grade).
*Troy has never won a game over a MAC team (0-3 all-time).
*What does Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State, Florida and Troy have in common? Since 2001, they have been the five toughest teams to beat on their home field.
*Here's a cool little note -- Troy's Tyler Clark will wear #54 Saturday (normally he wears #58) to honor his best friend and former high school teammate Cody Dean, who was killed in a construction accident this summer.

Posted at 1:27 pm Friday -- Video from Todd Walker and John Gibson on the bus headed to the airport for Troy:



Follow us all weekend here on the BGSU Athletics Blog as the football team heads to Alabama to play Troy Saturday night at 7 pm EST. We'll provide as much of a behind-the-scenes view of the trip as we can, posting some videos and our thoughts as the Athletics Communications team. We leave at 9:30 this morning and the plane is scheduled to land in Alabama around noon CST. Here's a few links to keep you busy in the meantime:

BGSU Game Notes
The Weekly BGSU Press Conference
Gameday Central
Results From Around The MAC (The league went 4-1 Thursday night)

On another note, for those BGSU fans unable to be in Alabama, you can watch the game live on your computer at ESPN3.com.