By Randy York

Nebraska Athletics reached a milestone this afternoon, reaching 90,000 followers on Twitter. The Huskers rank No. 1 in followers among all NCAA Athletic Department Twitter accounts. Florida (82,360) ranks second, followed by Alabama (79,503), Georgia (78,797) and Louisville (63,473) in the Top Five. The second five includes Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Iowa and Notre Dame. The Nos. 6-10 tweeting schools range from 62,000 to 51,000 followers. “Twitter is a great way to keep up with a person or an organization on a daily basis,” said Kelly Mosier, director of Huskers.com web operations and social media efforts. “We try to engage with our fans on Twitter daily to give them first-hand access to information about what it means to be part of Nebraska Athletics.” 

Tim Miles uses Twitter to his strategic advantage, and Nebraska’s head basketball coach has 46,266 followers of his nearly 3,000 tweets. Bo Pelini has about 1,500 fewer followers than Miles, even though he’s only tweeted 95 times. The heavy tweeters on Bo’s staff are assistants Terry Joseph and Rich Fisher. If you’re interested in following a team knocking on the door of the College World Series, follow Rhonda Revelle. Nebraska’s softball coach, who has more wins than any other head coach in Nebraska athletic history, puts her heart and soul into her Twitter account. She has more tweets than followers, but with Nebraska visiting Oregon this weekend in a Super Regional that will send the winner to the CWS in Oklahoma City, now would be a good time to jump on Revelle’s Energy Bus.

Don’t forget Husker baseball, which is fun to follow on Twitter, even if a game is being carried live on the Big Ten Network, which, by the way, has more than 104,000 Twitter followers of its own. If we haven’t mentioned your favorite sport or favorite program, don’t worry. Check out this comprehensive list of sports, departments, voices, coaches and venues that are actively engaged in Twitter and Facebook. If you want the global view of Nebraska Athletics as a whole, the catch-all place for the names you know while on the go is right here at your fingertips: https://twitter.com/Huskers.Try it and if you like it, join it and help us boost our nation-leading Twitter totals, so we can follow our own new motto … Through These Hashtags (#Huskers & #GBR) Tweet the Greatest Fans in College Football.

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com(Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive

Megan Southworth and Conor McDermott receive $7,500 scholarships.

By Randy York

The Big Ten Conference Thursday honored Husker student-athletes Conor McDermott and Megan Southworth with $7,500 postgraduate scholarships. McDermott, a tight end letterwinner on Nebraska’s 2012 football team, graduated last December with a Bachelor’s degree in Business, Economics and Finance. Southworth, a letterwinning infielder on the Huskers’ 2013 softball team, graduated this month with a Bachelor’s degree in Education and Human Science. Both Big Ten scholarship winners in this inaugural Big Ten program are from Omaha. McDermott graduated from Creighton Prep High School and Southworth from Papillion-LaVista High School.

“This scholarship will provide great assistance to reach my goals,” McDermott said. “I’ve decided to enroll in UNL’s law program, and I want to dual enroll in an MBA program. With my undergrad degrees in law and finance, I can combine my passions with law and business.” A walk-on, McDermott persevered in football and eventually changed to tight end. He worked his way onto the travel roster and ended up playing in every game in his final season as a Husker.

“The Big Ten scholarship will assist me with my first year of postgraduate study and is profoundly important to me in pursuing my Doctor of Occupational Therapy degree at Creighton,” Southworth said. “Within three years, I will complete the academic and clinical work required to earn the highest degree in that field. Creighton is one of three universities that offer this program with the most advanced training available in the School of Pharmacy program.” Southworth also will earn her fourth varsity letter in softball this spring.

One male and one female student-athlete from each of the 12 Big Ten institutions receive the conference scholarships that are based primarily on academic achievements. Southworth, a 2012 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award winner, carries a 3.784 GPA. McDermott, a 2012 First-Team Academic All-Big Ten selection, has a 3.664 GPA.

“Conor is an intelligent young man who continually challenges himself to develop leadership skills and achieve academically,” said Dennis Leblanc, Nebraska’s senior associate athletic director for Academics. “Conor is dedicated and determined, and he has good time management skills. He was selected to our Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll nine times during his football career. He did it all while double-majoring in Finance and Economics and still graduated in 4½ years. Conor is well-prepared to handle the rigorous demands of law school.”

Nebraska Softball Head Coach Rhonda Revelle said Southworth is an equally focused and persistent young lady who has strategically mapped out her educational and professional goals. “Megan has balanced the demands of being a Division I athlete with four letters and was still a standout in the classroom,” Revelle said. “Megan is so much more than her grade-point-average and her scholastic honors, though. She’s a very conscientious, dedicated and resilient person who aspires to become the best professional she can be. She’s passionate about serving people, and in particular, people with special needs. Serving and giving back runs deep in her genetic makeup. She has a huge heart and is a true champion for people in need.”

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive

Senior Courtney Breault’s successful bunt helped Nebraska beat Purdue.

Host Huskers Earn No. 14 National Seed

By Randy York

You don’t see her in the headlines, but you can’t miss her in the box score. Yes, Nebraska has two of the five unanimous 2013 All-Big Ten Conference selections in junior twins Tatum and Taylor Edwards, but there’s another Californian making a steady difference in Nebraska’s high hopes to create momentum in the NCAA Women’s Softball Tournament. Meet Courtney ‘Spark Plug’ Breault (pronounced BREE-alt), one of four seniors on this year’s Husker team. Breault, a 5-9 senior infielder from Roseville, Calif., came to Nebraska by way of Arkansas, where she made the 2010 SEC All-Freshman Team before battling injuries and transferring to Nebraska and earning back-to-back second-team All-Big Ten honors.

Nebraska Softball Coach Rhonda Revelle has nicknames for all four seniors, and three of them are among the top five hitters in Nebraska’s batting order – third-baseman Gabby ‘Momma Bear’ Banda, Brooke ‘Constant Leader’ Thomason and Breault, the team spark plug. Breault and Thomason both have achieved second-team All-Big Ten status two years in a row, and Revelle will be counting on her senior class to be the experienced-based glue that helps deliver a Lincoln regional title next Sunday. No. 14 seed Nebraska (40-13) hosts the University of Northern Iowa (26-24) Friday at 7 p.m. after Stanford (37-19) plays Tulsa (42-14) at 4 p.m. The 64-team 2013 NCAA Softball Tournament field was released Sunday night. The winner of the double-elimination Lincoln regional will move on to the Super Regionals May 23-26 against the winner of the Eugene Regional, hosted by No. 3 national seed Oregon. The eight Super Regional winners will advance to the NCAA Women’s College World Series. Revelle believes all four Big Ten teams in the NCAA Tournament — No. 8 national seed Michigan, Big Ten Tournament champion Wisconsin and Minnesota, which edged Nebraska in the tournament’s semifinals Saturday in Lincoln, have the capability to compete at the highest level. If you’re looking for the classic case in point, remember Nebraska handed Oklahoma its first loss of the season in early March.The Sooners (47-4) earned the No. 1 overall seed in the 2013 NCAA Division I Softball Championship and will host an NCAA Regional in Norman.

Even though the Huskers feature talented younger players, Revelle will ask her seniors to continue to be psychological catalysts. Banda, in season four as a starting infielder, plays her “Momma Bear” role like a fiddle, knowing when to motivate, endure and help relieve stress and reduce pressure. The 5-5 senior from Angleton, Texas, is so tough she played her entire junior and senior seasons with a torn ACL. When the going gets tough, she helps her team get going. Friday, she went 1-for-3 at the plate. Breault went 1-for-2, and Thomason was 2-for-3 with a crucial RBI and a run scored, proving why Revelle considers the 5-8 senior outfielder from Overland Park, Kan., a constant leader. Like Banda, she is in her fourth year as a starter and owns a school record two grand slam homeruns, including an historic shot in Nebraska’s first-ever Big Ten Conference softball game against Northwestern. She hit a solo homerun in the sixth inning and a grand slam to win the game with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

Revelle is understandably proud of all four senior leaders, and that includes the role Megan Southworth has played. The 5-4 senior from Papillion-LaVista High School in suburban Omaha was recruited as a catcher and made the transition to outfield, starting 28 games as a sophomore. Nebraska’s deep and talented group of outfielders reduced Southworth’s role to pinch-hitting and pinch-running, but make no mistake, she is a superstar in the eyes of her head coach. “Graceful and grateful are the two words that describe Megan,” Revelle said. “She exudes everything good about being a Husker, and she influences this team every day in her own way.” A speech-language pathologist major, Southworth won the Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award. She is the ultimate team player, and Revelle sees her succeeding in the biggest game of all – life.

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive

Nebraska: The Birthplace of Strength Training

YouTube: N’Side Interview with James Dobson

By Randy York

When Chad Wade was a 13-year-old living in Weeping Water, Neb., he could not wait for the mailman to deliver what became the highlight of his week – the latest weightlifting program from the Detroit Lions, where his uncle, Gary Wade, was the head strength and conditioning coach. “Gary’s my dad’s brother, and my dad was just as interested in getting that program as I was. We’d both start lifting the day we got it in the mail,” Chad recalled Friday after receiving the highest honor in the strength and conditioning coaching profession – a Master Strength and Conditioning Coach (MSCC) designation from the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCa).

As much as Wade prefers to work in the shadows for the benefit of Nebraska football, this honor was one time when he could not avoid the spotlight, especially when the presentation is the annual highlight of CSCCa’s national conference. Nearly 400 people at the Downtown Kansas City Marriott Hotel applauded Wade Thursday night when James Dobson, Nebraska’s head strength and conditioning coach, presented Wade a blue Master Strength and Conditioning Coach jacket.

A year ago, Dobson had received the same MSCC designation to become the second Nebraska strength coach to earn that honor. The only other current Husker coach who has achieved that level is Mike Arthur,director of strength and conditioning at Nebraska. Arthur’s 35-year association in Nebraska’s pioneering strength and conditioning program has been so crucial that he joined Boyd Epley in the first induction class into the USA Strength and Conditioning Coaches Hall of Fame.

“Gary worked for Boyd, and Boyd hired me as a graduate assistant for football in 1996,” recalled Wade, who became a fulltime strength coach for Nebraska basketball from 1997 to 2002 before moving back to Husker football in the spring of 2002. “I feel very fortunate to have worked in this field with so many great people over a long period of time, including Boyd, Mike, Dave (Kennedy) and James. It was humbling to be up there and see people I work with every day –  Willie Jones, Tyler Clarke and Lauren Harris – in the same room.”

“This is an incredible honor for Chad,” said Dr. Chuck Stiggins, CSCCa’s executive director. “Being named a Master Strength and Conditioning Coach signifies a commitment to the student-athlete, the University of Nebraska athletic program, and the strength and conditioning profession. We’re honored to have Coach Wade as a member of our association and to have him join the ranks of our Master coaches. He is truly a model of an outstanding strength and conditioning professional.”

Among the five criteria to earn the Master’s designation is having a minimum 12 years of experience as a full-time strength and conditioning coach on the collegiate or professional level. About 10 percent of the CSCCa members have achieved the Master’s designation.

One of the presenters at CSCCa was Eric Kapitulik, who has been working with Nebraska football over the past two seasons with his Boston-based company called The Program. “He nailed his presentation on shared adversity,” Dobson said. “All 400 people in the room were listening and writing down notes. It was right on target.”

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive

Patricia Veresova and Mary Weatherholt: Nation’s No. 3 doubles team.

Senior Tribute Video Features Four Huskers at the Finish Line

Huskers Play Wichita State  Tulsa, UNLV Join Regional

NCAA Women’s Bracket      Buy, Print Tickets Here

By Randy York

Nebraska’s Scott Jacobson and Hayden Perez make a productive tandem as tennis coaches just like Husker seniors Mary Weatherholt and Patricia Veresova combine to make one of the best doubles teams in NCAA women’s tennis. The coaches’ shared vision and the competitive commitment of Nebraska’s top two players are fundamental keys for the No. 15-seeded Huskers to make history this weekend in Lincoln. Jacobson and Perez are in lockstep agreement on the mental and physical requirements to defeat Wichita State in Friday’s first-round match. If the Huskers win that, they will play the winner of Friday’s Tulsa-UNLV match to go where Nebraska women’s tennis has never gone before – to the NCAA Sweet 16.

Jacobson is a Minnesota native in year No. 22 as Nebraska’s head tennis coach. Perez, who claims Texas as his roots, is in his eighth year as the Huskers’ associate head coach. The two bring different leadership elements to a diverse group of student-athletes, who are determined to carve their niche in Nebraska athletic history. Jacobson is all about cooperation, compassion and the ability to handle adversity with courage. Perez always links life on the court to life in the classroom, and that’s why he’s so successful as an international recruiter. Perez, who played at Cameron (Okla.) University and coached at Florida State, is a walking billboard for enthusiasm, positive energy and leadership.

The Jacobson/Perez joint leadership team blends, complements and enables the Weatherholt/Veresova team’s rise to a No. 3 ITA national doubles ranking entering this weekend’s 64-team NCAA field. Anyone who can’t see the connection between academic rigor and competitive fire might be interested in a fact that both coaches believe relates to their energy on the court. Weatherholt, a Prairie Village, Kan., native, was named the 2013 Nebraska Student-Athlete of the Year. She graduated a year ago with a 3.873 GPA in Business Administration and has focused this past year on her master’s degree. Veresova has a 3.847 GPA in Business Administration and is on track to graduate in December.

Weatherholt Has No. 11 National Ranking in Singles

Weatherholt has won back-to-back Big Ten Conference Tennis Player of the Year honors. After peaking at a No. 6 national ranking – the highest individual ranking in Nebraska history – Weatherholt will take a No. 11 ITA singles ranking and a 23-1 individual record into the NCAA first-round and second-round matches. With six wins against ranked opponents and an overall 19-2 record, Weatherholt and Veresova qualify as a legitimate contender to win an NCAA National Championship.

Weatherholt is the Big Ten’s automatic singles qualifier and will be among 64 players to compete in singles play. She also joins Veresova as the conference’s automatic doubles qualifier with the No. 3 seed in the 32-pair competition. The NCAA Championships are set for May 22-27 in Urbana, Ill. – a competition that will follow the team portion of the tournament that runs from May 16-21.

But let’s get real here. Jacobson and Perez, like John Wooden and Tom Osborne, never mention the word “win” during their team’s daily workouts, monthly grinds or even throughout this unusually outdoor weather-ravaged season. “It reflects the senior leadership we’ve had all season long,” said Jacobson, who includes Janine Weinreich and Stefanie Weinstein in that senior leadership category with Weatherholt and Veresova. Both have been competitive in singles and rock-solid as the Huskers No. 2 doubles team. The two natives of Germany went 25-1 together and 11-0 in Big Ten doubles, leading their coaches pointing to their combined academic/athletic success. Weinreich has a 3.76 GPA as an International Business Management and Marketing Major. Weinstein has a 3.92 GPA in Business Administration. Is there any wonder why the tennis team won the Herman Award in both 2012 and 2013 for having the highest team GPA among all Husker women’s sports programs?

Nebraska Reinforcing Its International Recruiting Ties

Nebraska’s depth cannot be confused with the loaded lineups from such perennial women’s tennis powers as Florida, Stanford, Georgia and North Carolina. Still, Nebraska’s ability to tap into the international recruiting pipeline has been steady and could be poised to blossom even more. When the Huskers beat Notre Dame, Tennessee and Georgia Tech early in the season, Jacobson remembers coaches from an SEC power and another school with ACC clout asking him directly what Nebraska was doing to emerge in a sport dominated by schools in warmer climates. He also remembers getting emails from at least four different countries recommending potential recruits. Less than a week ago, Jacobson and Perez received a signed National Letter of Intent from Varberg, Sweden native Lisa Andersson,who ranks No. 7 nationally in her age group. That signature will bring Andersson to the top of Nebraska’s tennis roster, which currently has seven of its eight team members having last names that start with V, W or Z.

We should point out, however, that the Huskers will continue to recruit aggressively within its own region. Weatherholt is, after all, the lead catalyst in Nebraska’s tennis renaissance, and she recruited Nebraska just as much as the Huskers recruited her. After taking an unofficial visit to Nebraska during her junior year of high school, Weatherholt targeted Lincoln as the place she most wanted to play before she was 16 years old. When her parents discovered that their already under-aged daughter wanted to graduate from high school a semester early to kick-start her college career, they assumed she not only would have to walk on, but take a redshirt first year so she would not threaten the position of any incumbent players. Their daughter, however, seized an immediate opportunity. She finished 20-2 that spring, was named Big 12 Freshman of the Year and earned a spot on the All-Big 12 Singles Team.

Astute Nebraska fans know the rest of the story. Weatherholt has led Nebraska to unprecedented heights both in the Big Ten and in the NCAA. The Huskers have reached the NCAA second round twice, but lost to Northwestern in 2010 and then to Texas in 2012. This year, Nebraska is a definitive favorite to advance into the Sweet 16 and play the winner of a regional that includes Tennessee, Virginia Commonwealth, South Carolina and North Carolina, the No. 2 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Saturday: First NCAA Tennis Match in Lincoln History

This weekend will be historic because it marks the first time Nebraska will host an NCAA Tennis Tournament. Friday’s first-round match against Wichita State will begin at 2 p.m. at the campus courts at 17th and Vine Streets. Saturday’s second-round match is also scheduled for 2 p.m. If weather threatens outdoor play, the NCAA Tournament will relocate to the Nebraska Tennis Center on 70th Street, a mile north of Cornhusker Highway.

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive

With runs like this against Missouri, Tommie Frazier finished second in the 1995 Heisman Trophy voting. Omaha World-Herald Photo

By Randy York

Someone asked this morning if I had any good Tommie Frazier stories, and I have three. But I also want to share my first experience with Tommie and thank him for signing an 11x14-inch photograph of his fabled 75-yard touchdown run in the 1995 national championship romp over Florida in Tempe, Ariz. I’m looking at that photo right now in my office, and I will never forget how gracious Tommie was to sign it at a downtown Kansas City event. Here now are my three favorite Tommie Frazier stories, gleaned from interviews I’ve done with him or events I’ve attended:

Story No. 1…a sappy saga: My favorite story was listening to Tommie answer questions for a full hour at Bo Pelini’s late July Football 202 class at the Hawks Center four years ago – the same day I met Rick Burkhead, Rex’s dad. We both loved hearing Tommie talk about his on-the-field conversations with Miami All-America defensive tackle Warren Sapp during the 1995 Orange Bowl that produced Tom Osborne’s first national championship. In that game, Sapp kept baiting Tommie, who was making his first start after missing the previous seven games with a blood clot. When Frazier went back into the national title game to replace the late Brook Berringer, Sapp tried to get inside Tommie’s head. “Where you been Tom? Where you been?” Sapp asked Frazier, who told him his name was Tommie, not Tom. So the next time Frazier came back into the game late in the third quarter, Sapp said: “Where you been, Tommie? Where you been?” Finally, Frazier told the Football 202 class, he turned around, looked squarely into Sapp’s eyes and said: “It’s not where I’ve been … it’s where I’m going, fat a _ _!” Frazier’s punch line brought the house down. So did his animated impersonations of two coaches he played for at the same time – Osborne, his head coach, and Turner Gill, his position coach. For Osborne, the mock conversation was understandably slow, and for Gill, the dialogue became fast and inspired. “It was almost like Coach Osborne was on No Doz for four years, and Coach Gill was on Red Bull, the energy drink,” Frazier quipped. “Try putting up with that for four years!”

Story No. 2 … a hard place to sleep: Most of us have forgotten that one of Frazier’s last games as a freshman quarterback starter was a 38-24 triumph over Kansas State on Dec. 5, 1992, in, of all places, Tokyo, Japan - a mutually agreed upon replacement for a K-State home game, 6,300 miles from Manhattan. “I’ll never forget that 13-hour plane ride from Kansas City to Tokyo - the longest plane ride in my life at the time,” Frazier recalled in an interview “I was sitting between two big offensive linemen - Zach Wiegert and Lance Lundberg. For a while, I thought it would take forever to get there.” Fortunately, though, like all good offensive linemen, Wiegert and Lundberg created some extra room for their quarterback and kept him happy. “Zach wandered off somewhere, and Lance laid down and went to sleep on the floor,” Frazier recalled. When the 6-foot-5, 310-pound Wiegert and the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Lundberg vacated their seats, things opened up for Touchdown Tommie, who put the arm rests down, threw a pillow next to the window and spread himself across three large seats to take a long and well-deserved winter’s nap.

Story No. 3 … mom definitely knows best: Five years ago, when I had the honor to help induct Tommie into the Nebraska Black Hall of Fame at the North Omaha Boys and Girls Clubs, he mentioned the most important life lesson he learned from Priscilla Frazier, his mother, after receiving his award. Frazier remembers how much he struggled when he arrived on UNL’s campus. He also mentioned how difficult it was to go beyond southern Alabama, his previous northern-most location. Not surprisingly, Tommie got so homesick, he finally summoned enough courage to call his mom and ask if he could come home. “You can come home, but you ain’t gonna live here,” Tommie’s mother told him and he made sure he re-enacted the conversation as closely as possible for the banquet crowd that night. “I had no choice. I had to stay in Lincoln,” Tommie said before adding: “But everything worked out okay – in football and in life.”

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive

Husker offensive coordinator Tim Beck draws a crowd of Nebraska media.

By Randy York

If this is a Monday that deletes winter from spring and delivers sunshine all the way to Memorial Day, then maybe we really can trust that day. This Monday certainly was not everything we hoped it would be, nor was it something we could guarantee, but we still feel rather bullish about these three quick-hitters from an N-Sider’s point of view.

No 1: Congratulations to Nebraska’s Media Relations Team, led by Assistant Athletic Director Keith Mann. That hard-working group was more than worthy of another “Super 11” designation from the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), headquartered in Dallas. Tim Griffin, the FWAA’s 2010 president and chairman of the Super 11 selection committee, says the award represents “the best of the best” sports information departments that support football. Griffin pointed out that Nebraska is the only school that has won a Super 11 honor from two different conferences and told me that is considered no small feat by the selection committee, which admires the NU Media Relations Team’s ability to adapt and adjust to dramatic change. If asked to choose 11 words to describe what fuels ‘Super 11’ status, the first seven would be culture, content, contacts, conduct, criteria, conferences and coaches. The last four would be media access and player accommodation, before and after practices and pregame/postgame. Nobody does it better than Nebraska, which has a long, proud, half-century history of meeting media demands. Of the 11 schools achieving Super 11 status for 2012, nine are first-time honorees in this four-year-old category. Georgia, Nebraska’s New Year’s Day opponent in Orlando’s 2013 Capital One Bowl, has earned Super 11 status in all four years. USC ranks second with three Super 11s and Nebraska is tied with three other NCAA Division I schools with two awards each. Clemson, Utah and future Big Ten member Rutgers are the only other multiple winners. Kudos to Mann’s full-time staff: Jeff Griesch, Shamus McKnight, Jeremy Foote, Matt Smith, Hilary Winter, Scott Bruhn, Annie Wood and Vicki Capazo. Mann’s team is uniquely gifted in the way it integrates the efforts of other full-time staff members and student interns to accommodate the media in every way possible. If Nebraska doesn’t serve the largest media corps that regularly covers a college football program, it would have be close to the largest. The only other three Big Ten Conference schools that have merited Super 11 honors are Minnesota (2012), Michigan State (2011) and Northwestern (2010).

No. 2: Monday’s announcement from Mann’s team that Nebraska will host two BTN primetime games struck a chord here. Love opening the season at home in a 7 p.m. CT nationally televised game Aug. 31 against Wyoming, the school that sent Bob Devaney to Lincoln and Nebraska to immediate and unprecedented heights that include the best record in college football over the last half century and 50 consecutive years of home sellouts at Memorial Stadium. A week later, on Sept. 7, Nebraska will host Southern Miss in another BTN nationally televised non-conference contest. Kickoff for that one is 5 p.m. Hey, maybe we can invite Drew Carey to the game. It will be, after all, a five o’clock world when the whistle blows, and Tim Beck will have his offense tuned up and ready because, one week later, UCLA comes to town for the third of five consecutive home games (followed by South Dakota State and Illinois). By the way, does anyone remember Memorial Stadium ever having a 5 o’clock kickoff? Mann can’t remember one, but that only means the answer will require some research.

No. 3: How do you feel about Nebraska selling out its men’s season basketball ticket allotment six months before Pinnacle Bank Arena opens its doors to big-name entertainment and big-time Big Ten basketball? Stunned is the first word that comes to mind. I mean, I know former players and even loyal donors who were shocked with that development but are only blaming themselves for failing to act. One thing seems certain. If the new season ticket holders are unavailable for just about any game in the upcoming inaugural season, they won’t have trouble finding friends, family or others who want in on the action. Tim Miles was the consummate communicator whenever he had a spare moment, and Husker fans bought what he was selling. The next step, of course, is bigger and decidedly more difficult, and Miles doesn’t sidestep what he wants to see to help hold up his end of the bargain. “I want everybody to show up,” he said. “I want everybody to stand up, and I want everybody to shout at the top of their lungs when they get inside the arena.” The fans who shared Miles’ vision will be the ones sitting in their precious new seats. Now I know what Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman meant when he said Husker fans seized this opportunity to get in on the ground floor. “You know how we’ve all watched for a long time those people who bought 50-yard line tickets to Memorial Stadium in the 1920s and how successful that’s been as an investment,” Perlman said. “It’s like buying an insurance policy for future success.”  

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive

Graduation lineup: Jeremiah Sirles, Dennis Leblanc and Lora Evenstad.

By Randy York

As different as Nebraska’s student-athlete speakers looked for Saturday’s luncheon to celebrate spring commencement exercises, Dennis Leblanc could not have selected more appropriate spokespeople to frame up what life is like as a Husker. Nebraska’s senior associate athletic director for Academics, Leblanc selected Lora Evenstad to represent UNL’s female graduates and Jeremiah Sirles to represent the male graduates. Talk about incongruity. The diminutive 5-foot-3 Evenstad is a good 15 inches shorter than the 6-foot-6 Sirles. She’s also roughly one-third his size, if that. Here’s the kicker though. Football is Evenstad’s favorite sport to watch, and it looks like the Husker All-America gymnast just might end up living in Nebraska, along with her parents, who are strongly considering moving from Grand Forks, N.D., to Lincoln when they retire.

In her short speech to fellow graduates Saturday, Evenstad thanked God, her parents, Chance Unger, her family, Tom Osborne, Shawn Eichorst, her coaches and teammates and NU’s incomparable staff support in Life Skills, Academics and Compliance. She congratulated all student-athletes who embraced Nebraska’s holistic approach to academics, athletics and life and then went on to describe her Nebraska Experience and the impact it has on the promising future she has systematically carved out.

Evenstad will marry Chance Unger, a former Nebraska student athletic trainer, in August. While she works to become a registered dietician, he will begin his University of Nebraska Medical Center journey in Omaha to become a doctor. Evenstad may be tiny, but she dreams big, competes big and delivers big. The Grand Forks, N.D., native has the same passion for Nebraska as Darin Erstad, a Jamestown, N.D., native who fell in love with Lincoln and moved back after spending 14 years in Major League Baseball. Erstad, of course, is now Nebraska’s head baseball coach.

Evenstad’s Parents Never Missed a Competition

“I love Nebraska,” said Evenstad, who can’t wait to apply her passion for nutrition and wellness in one of the state’s two largest cities. In Saturday’s speech, Evenstad pointed out how her parents, Dean and Vicky, never missed seeing her compete from 7-years-old through her final competition as a Husker – more than 200 meets in all.

“We have a map at home with pins stuck where we’ve watched Lora compete – from California to Florida and from Washington to Pennsylvania,” Dean said. “We’ve been all over the country, but there was no place like Lincoln.”

Evenstad pointed out how she first dreamed of competing for the Huskers when she was a sixth-grader. She attended Nebraska camps in the summer and competitive meets in the winter. Lora and her parents remember how exciting it was to see Lincoln’s skyline after a 500-mile drive from North Dakota.

“I call Lincoln a mini-metro,” Lora said, “because it has a metropolitan flavor but still feels like the right size of city … smaller and friendlier.”

Her dad agrees. “Vicky and I have grown to love Lincoln,” he said. “Our goal is to retire here. It’s an unbelievable city … a very progressive city. We’ve always liked it.”

For Evenstad, Life at Nebraska More than Winning

As much as Lora grew up loving Nebraska, she was encouraged to take recruiting visits so she could compare Nebraska with other top-tier gymnastics programs. She had all kinds of options and ended up taking official visits to NCAA powers Michigan, Nebraska and Utah and also checked out Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa State and North Carolina State.

“We never took it for granted that Lora was going to come here,” Nebraska Head Women’s Gymnastics Coach Dan Kendig said after listening to Evenstad’s speech on Saturday. “I think the more she looked around, the more it confirmed what she had felt all along. She knew what she wanted to do. She knew how to do it, and she knew how to get others to help get it done. Faith played such a big role in her life as a student and an athlete. She’s one of the most talented young ladies we’ve ever had here. She led us to the last Big 12 championship and the first Big Ten championship in back-to-back years.”

In her speech, Evenstad talked about her recruitment and how “Tom Osborne blew me away” with the dramatic transformation of Nebraska’s gymnastics facilities. “We went from tin lockers, magnetic shelves and bean bag chairs to 2,000 more square feet of training space that included carpet, a lounge, TVs and TiVos,” she said. “It definitely takes the recruiting game up a few notches. We’re right there with anybody on a national basis and our student-life complex is the best in the country. We’ve always been a great program, but it just keeps getting better every year. I expect great things.”

Evenstad takes one more chapter out of Osborne’s book. “Competing at Nebraska is about so much more than winning,” she told her fellow graduates. “For me, it became an opportunity to impact the community and prepare for the future. Having the opportunity to be a student-athlete at Nebraska was such an honor and is so much more than becoming a national champion, winning conference titles or being named an All-American. It’s an opportunity to impact others, and each step of the journey has definitely prepared me for life after gymnastics.”

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive

May 2013 Nebraska Women Student-Athlete Graduates

Evenstad, Lora (Women’s Gym) - Grand Forks, N.D. (Dietetics/Nutrition, Exercise & Health Science)

Furlan, Jessica (Track & Field/Cross Country) - Regina, Saskatchewan (Environmental Studies)

Hagemann, Ashley (Softball) - Elkhorn, Neb.(Elementary Education/Coaching)

Hamik, Erica (Track & Field/Cross Country) - Kearney, Neb. (Nutrition Science)

Harmon, Kailey (Swimming & Diving) - Bothell, Wash. (Nutrition, Exercise & Health Science)

Hubl, Paige (Volleyball) - Lincoln, Neb. (Business Administration)

Keiser, Katie (Women’s Golf) - Gothenburg, Neb. (Sociology)

Kim, Joyce (Rifle) - Gilbert, Ariz. (Textiles, Merchandising & Fashion Design)

Larson, Kelsey (Swimming & Diving) - Newport Beach, Calif. (Biochemistry)

Mickelson, Kristi (Bowling) - Bellevue, Neb. (Criminology & Criminal Justice/Psychology)

Moore, Lindsey (Women’s Basketball) - Covington, Wash. (Communication Studies)

McNeal, Allison (Volleyball) - Schulenberg, Texas (Elementary Education)

Southworth, Megan (Softball) - Papillion, Neb. (Speech-Language Pathology)

Weinreich, Janine (Women’s Tennis) - Tespe, Germany (Marketing/International Business)

Weinstein, Stefanie (Women’s Tennis) - Much, Germany (Business Administration)

White, Katie (Track & Field/Cross Country) - Broken Bow, Neb. (Nutrition Science)

Woltersdorf, Katelyn (Rifle) - Battle Ground, Wash. (Art)

Workman, Haley (Softball) - Easley, S.C. (Psychology)

Wright, Kirby (Softball) - Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. (Marketing)

Husker offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles received his diploma Saturday from Donde Plowman, Dean of Nebraska’s College of Business Administration.

By Randy York

Jeremiah Sirles would be a model commencement speaker, but Nebraska’s second-team All-Big Ten offensive lineman settled for something he considers more intimately important and meaningful memorable. The 6-6, 310-pound Lakewood, Colorado, native who still dreams of winning a Big Ten and national football championship this fall, represented 37 Nebraska senior male graduates Saturday afternoon in an Athletic Department reception on the third floor of Memorial Stadium. In his short speech, Sirles, a Management major, covered the emotion, passion and sense of self worth Husker student-athletes feel when they reach the finish line of their academic and athletic journeys.

“I want to thank (Nebraska Senior Associate AD) Dennis Leblanc and everyone in Academics for allowing me to get up here and speak on behalf of the male athletes in the class of 2013,” Sirles said. “There are so many people that have helped me become the man that stands here today. My parents have supported me since I first put on a helmet and looked like one of those little bobble heads out there running around. Nebraska instilled a work ethic in me that truly showed me that I am a student before an athlete. I thank Coach (Bo) Pelini and his entire staff for giving me the great opportunity to come here and become a part of the Husker family, and I thank my teammates for making my experience here one that I will never forget, both on the field and off the field.

“Most of us here probably remember the long hot walks from Selleck Quad to workouts in the mornings, or the cold dark winter walks to workouts at 6 a.m., or the countless number of times we’ve made the walk from the parking lots to class and back just to wake up and repeat five days a week,” Sirles said, pointing out how every football player listened to fellow classmates talk about how tired they were in a 9:30 a.m. class. “I remember looking at them and thinking how I’ve been up for about four hours, just like every football player,” he said. “But we keep it to ourselves knowing that’s just what we do.”

They Say You’re Tired; They Mean You Look Awful

Sirles said his all-time favorite memory of Nebraska was people looking at him and saying: “You look tired. Are you okay?” He remembers thinking what they really wanted to say was: “You look awful. What happened?”

“Little do they know that my weight-lifting session ran long, and I had to sprint to class so that’s why I look a little tired,” Sirles said. “We all have our own personal little memories that make this place special for each one of us, and that’s mine.”

Sirles’ fellow graduates who had received their diplomas before the athletic department luncheon all laughed because they could all relate. Describing his years at Nebraska as “full of ups and downs and good times and hard times,” Sirles said: “All of these experiences have shaped us to go out into the world and excel in everything that we do. As athletes, we’ve overcome things in college that other students haven’t even dreamed of. We know what it means to balance a schedule and how to have our priorities in order. Because if we didn’t, let’s face it. None of us would be sitting here today with a diploma in hand.

“So I say congratulations to everyone! We’ve made it!” Sirles said. “We’ve withstood the test that the Big Red has thrown at us, and we’ve won and become part of a legacy that will forever follow us in our journeys. As they say: ‘Once a Husker, always a Husker!’”

(Sunday’s blog will feature 2013 spring NU women student-athlete graduates and their athletic department speaker, gymnast Lora Evenstad)

37 Nebraska Male Student-Athlete Spring Graduates

Almeida, Andre (Men’s Basketball) - Sao Paulo, Brazil (Ethnic Studies/Sociology)

Ankrah, Jason (Football) - Gaithersburg, Md. (Child, Youth & Family Studies)

Aumueller, Christopher (Men’s Tennis) - Bayreuth, Germany (Economics/Marketing)

Blatchford, Justin (Football) - Ponca, Neb. (Nutrition, Exercise & Health Science)

Barrefors, Bjorn (Track & Field) - Stockholm, Sweden (Computer Science)

Christensen, Chad (Baseball) - Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Finance)

Coffey, Jesse (Football) - Denton, Texas (Civil Engineering)

Dean, Jase (Football) - Bridgeport, Neb. (Fisheries & Wildlife)

Fisher, Sean (Football) - Omaha, Neb. (Business Administration)

Fox, Mike (Men’s Basketball) - Beatrice, Neb. (Mathematics Education)

Gillick, Kevin (Men’s Golf) - Lincoln, Neb. (Finance)

Grande, Ross (Wrestling) - Palatine, Ill.(Dietetics/Nutrition, Exercise & Health Science)

Grieb, Brett (Track & Field/Cross Country) - York, Neb. (Biological Sciences)

Hirsch, Zach (Baseball) - St. Charles, Ill. (Finance)

Ingram, Cole (Track & Field) - Lincoln, Neb. (Criminology & Criminal Justice)

Jean-Baptiste, Stanley (Football) - Miami, Fla. (Sociology)

Johnston, Dan (Baseball) - Papillion, Neb. (Business Education/Cooperative Education)

Kiley, Ridge (Wrestling) - Eagle Grove, Iowa (Marketing)

Killeen, Michael (Men’s Gymnastics) - Olathe, Kan. (Landscape Architecture)

Klinginsmith, Michael (Wrestling) - Kearney, Neb. (Biological Sciences)

Koehn, Tyler (Wrestling) - (Pittsburg, Kan.) - (Business Administration)

Mangieri, P.J. (Football) - Peoria, Ill. (Business Administration)

Niemann, Christopher (Men’s Basketball) - Kuhlungsborn, Germany (Computer Engineering/Computer Science)

Onwiler, Tim (Track & Field) - Panama, Neb. (Fisheries & Wildlife)

Osborne, Steven (Football) - Garland, Texas (Economics)

Phipps, Chris (Track & Field) - Patterson, N.J. (Psychology)

Polacek, Nate (Track & Field) - Kearney, Neb. (English Education)

Qvale, Brent (Football) - Williston, N.D. (Nutrition, Exercise & Health Science)

Reinertson, Jordan (Men’s Golf) - Gibbon, Neb. (Finance)

Shapland, Taylor (Men’s Track & Field) - Waterloo, Neb. (Construction Management)

Sirles, Jeremiah (Football) - Lakewood, Colo. (Management)

Stucky, Sam (Baseball) - McPherson, Kan. (Agricultural Economics)

Sutterfield, Erik (Track & Field) - Highlands Ranch, Colo. (Psychology)

Ubel, Brandon (Men’s Basketball) - Overland Park, Kan. (Broadcasting)

Videtich, Brandon (Men’s Tennis) - Lincoln, Neb. (Business Administration)

Walford, Teran (Track & Field) - York, Neb. (Nutrition Science)

Zimmerman, Austin (Men’s Golf) - Lincoln, Neb. (Accounting)

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive

Nebraska’s new downtown basketball arena is now sold out for the men.

Pinnacle Bank Arena Waitlist Has Started

By Randy York

Lane Grindle had the tweet of the day Friday when he heard a sold out sign is needed six months before Nebraska plays its first basketball game at Pinnacle Bank Area. 

How many schools in America have a wait list for season tickets in Football, Volleyball & Men’s Basketball? Husker fans are unreal!

— Lane Grindle (@lanegrindle) May 3, 2013

Grindle, one of the voices on Husker football and baseball, makes a compelling point.

Football has been sold out for an NCAA record 50 consecutive years, but will have 6,000-plus new seats this fall with the East Stadium Expansion Project increases Memorial Stadium capacity to 92,000-plus.

Volleyball has been sold out for 12 consecutive years – the longest sellout streak in the history of NCAA women’s sports. The Huskers will increase their venue capacity by 3,000-plus this fall when they move into a renovated Devaney Center.

The real shocker in this triple crown sellout achievement is men’s basketball joining those two legendary Nebraska programs. The Huskers have sold out their new 15,000-plus seat home in the downtown West Haymarket Area.

“I truly am surprised that we sold out the arena this quickly,” Nebraska Coach Tim Miles told me early Friday evening. “I think we’re blessed with tremendous fans. I think they want to see a winner, and I think they’re excited about their new surroundings.”

Miles Asks Fans to Show Up, Stand Up and Shout

As excited as he was, Miles reminds everyone he wants more than just a sold out sign to keep Husker fans motivated. “I want everybody to show up. I want everybody to stand up, and I want everybody to shout at the top of their lungs when they get inside the arena.

“This is just the first step in a whole bunch of steps that we need to be a championship-level type team. That’s the goal,” Miles emphasized. “Selling out is very important in my book, but it’s just part of getting the wheels to turn up on that hill that we will all start climbing together.”

Selling out a season for the first time in Nebraska basketball history “is a great thing for our program,” Miles said. “It says a lot about our fans. It says a lot about the excitement of Pinnacle Bank Arena. It’s a positive sign for everyone associated with our basketball program. I give a lot of credit to our administration for making tickets affordable, so people can get inside that building and become an important part of the experience.”

Fans Make Their Statement with a Sold Out Sign

Marc Boehm, Nebraska’s executive associate athletic director in charge of basketball, said NU’s administrative team set an aggressive goal of selling 11,000 season tickets for the Huskers’ first year in the arena. “This is a great statement for our fans,” Boehm said. “But it’s also a testament to our people who have worked hard behind the scenes to make all this happen.”

Nebraska’s Marketing, Ticket Office, Husker Athletic Fund and Media Relations teams worked closely together to pull off a preseason upset. “I have to say our social media played a big part in this success, too,” Boehm said. “Tim’s one of the best and most creative coaches in the country. He knows how to communicate just like he knows how to coach. It’s going to be a lot of fun filling that place up. It’s a new era, and there’s a lot of excitement that comes with it.”

Send a comment to ryork@huskers.com (Include town/city, state)

Follow Randy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RandyYorkNsider

Randy’s N-Sider Blog Archive

Randy’s N-Sider Column Archive