Defying Gravity

Being a collegiate athlete is an impressive accomplishment for any student, but Angel Pace takes it one step further. Angel is a senior on the UMHB Acrobatics and Tumbling team and she is hard of hearing. Without her hearing aids—which she can’t wear when she performs—she has to rely on her lip-reading ability and cues from her teammates to help her through the practices and routines.

“I never dreamed that I would actually have the opportunity to be a collegiate athlete!” she said. Angel first learned about UMHB when former A&T Coach Courtney Pate reached out to her through Instagram and asked her to be a recruit for the inaugural acrobatics and tumbling team at UMHB, which started in 2019.

“I never imagined that I would be given the amazing opportunity, and I did not want to take it for granted,” said Angel, who is majoring in criminal justice. “I fell in love with the campus size, the Christian values and the campus itself.”

Angel specializes in topping, balancing at the top in straddle pyramids, walk-ins and other moves that defy gravity.

“One thing I love most about this sport is the amazing bond it creates between my teammates and me,” she said. “The level of trust, love and respect that we all have for each other is amazing. Whether I am on the mat or not, cheering for my teammates is one of my joys in life! I also love getting to challenge my mental blocks and fears and eventually work through them. Overall, this sport is very unique and it allows women to show their own strength in crazy ways.”

Angel has been playing sports since she was two years old, and acrobatics and tumbling counts as her seventh sport to play.

Even though she hadn’t participated in acrobatics and tumbling before coming to UMHB, she had been in gymnastics for 12 years and was a four-year varsity gymnast in high school.

“One of the hardest things about being on this team is having to trust others,” she said. “Since I come from a gymnastics background, which is primarily trusting yourself and not someone else to hold you up, that was and still is one of the biggest challenges that I struggle with but it has improved so much since my freshman year!”

Senior criminal justice major Angel Pace, from Saginaw, Texas, was diagnosed with a hearing impairment when she was in kindergarten, but has never let that keep her from competing in sports throughout high school and college.

Johnson, Rosborough Named Players of the Year

Josiah Johnson, a senior guard on the UMHB men’s basketball team, and Arieona Rosborough, a sophomore guard on the women’s team, were both named 2023 American Southwest Conference Players of the Year.

Josiah also won the title last season and was the 2021 West Division POY. He ranked second in the ASC in points per game (21.7) and free throws made (172). He made 170 field goals, ranking him 18th in Division III with 565 total points. Josiah also led the conference with 2.8 steals per game. He is the second all-time leading scorer in the ASC with 1,883 points in three seasons. He had double-digit scoring performances in all 26 games this season, with 16 games of

20-plus points and a pair of 30-point performances. Josiah also earned First Team All-ASC, All-Defensive Team, National Association of Basketball Coaches First-Team All-American honors this season, and was a Jostens Trophy top-ten finalist.

Arieona was also named First-Team All-ASC, ASC All-Defensive Team, and D3Hoops.com All-American Team. She ranked second in the conference with 396 points scored, averaging 14.7 points per game. She shot .428 this season from the field with 146 made field goals. She also ranked fourth in the conference with 58 total steals, adding 19 blocks and 168 rebounds. She had double-digit scoring performances in 23 games this season. Arieona also recorded three double-doubles this year with a season-high 26 points against Sul Ross State.

Men's basketball closed its season in the NCAA Round of 16, falling to Christopher Newport University 72-60.

Women’s basketball closed out its season 19-8 overall and 13-5 in American Southwest Conference action, falling to No. 2 East Texas Baptist University in the ASC semifinals.

ACROBATICS & TUMBLING WINS NCATA DIII TOURNAMENT

After only four years as a program, the UMHB Acrobatics & Tumbling team won this year’s National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association Division III Tournament Championship. Under the leadership of Head Coach Raffaela Scotto and Assistant Coach Kate Puentes, the team also went 10-1 and won 10 of 15 event finals at the NCATA DIII Tournament. After winning an at-large bid, the team went on to compete in Six Element Acro at the NCATA National Championship Event Finals, which includes Division I and II programs. The Cru also ranked 10th in the NCATA Final Top 10 Poll, making it the first Division III program in history to make the final poll.

Nursing ROTC Students Excited About Their Futures

By Christi Mays

Getting

Through

nursing school is an impressive accomplishment in and of itself, but doing so as an Army ROTC student adds a whole other level of respect.

Two extraordinary Army ROTC students—Cadets Jami Hayden and Bernadette Rivera—not only received their nursing diplomas this May but were also commissioned as Second Lieutenants in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves. Out of a massive cohort of 5,518 cadets studying at universities of all sizes across the nation, Jami ranked No. 43, and Bernadette ranked No. 73 nationally.

TWO ‘STELLAR CADETS’

“We have an exceptional class of cadets currently enrolled in Army ROTC at UMHB,” said Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Shalchi, departmental chair and professor of military science leadership. “These young leaders are at the top of their class on campus and nationally within the Department of the Army, and we are proud of them and what their future holds in the next chapter of their military careers.”

Though Jami and Bernadette’s stories are quite different, both found themselves at UMHB with full-ride Department of Army scholarships and as the only two nursing students in the ROTC program commissioning this year.

Jami, who is from Red Oak, Texas, was a junior in high school when she decided she wanted to go into the military. Even though she applied to the Navy, Air Force and Army, she ultimately chose the Army because of the professional and military education options offered by the U.S. Army and chose UMHB because it was close to home.

She initially thought of becoming a doctor, but her sister-in-law, who is a nurse, persuaded her to look into nursing.

“I want to care for people and be able to help them when they’re sick,” Jami said. “The more I looked into it, I realized that being a nurse is closer to what I feel called to do. It just felt like that was my purpose.”

Bernadette is originally from Chicago but now lives in Copperas Cove. When she entered high school, she thought of going into engineering, but an instructor in her school’s allied health program talked her into trying out one of her classes, and Bernadette fell in love with nursing.

“She kind of opened the medical world up to me, and I thought, ‘Oh, this is cool!’ and I just kept going on that path,” Bernadette said. She got her CNA certification in high school and volunteered at a hospital for three years until she turned 18 and was hired as a CNA. Two years later, she decided to join the Army and later contracted as a reservist, where she has served for the last eight years. A request to transfer to a medical unit so she could pursue a nursing degree brought her to Central Texas, and when she learned that UMHB had an ROTC program as well, she was excited to join.

Looking Forward

Now that Jami and Bernadette have received their Bachelor of Nursing degrees, they will soon head to San Antonio for three months of basic officer leadership courses. Then, it’s off to careers in nursing and the military that could take them anywhere in the world.

The “unknown” is one of the exciting aspects of being in the military, they both agreed.

“I guess if someone already has their lives completely planned out, then it feels like you’re closing doors,” Bernadette said.

Jami will serve with the Army for eight years— four in active duty and four in either active duty or the reserves; Bernadette is committed for six more years in the reserves. She can work as a civilian nurse while she continues to train monthly as an Army Reservist.

When asked to describe the nursing program at UMHB, they both threw out phrases like “ it’s no joke,” “really rigorous” and “extremely tough.”

But they both were also quick to point out that they always had support along the way.

“The faculty here see you as one of them because you’re going into their profession as nurses,” Jami said. “They give you extra support, and you never feel like you‘re out on your own. It’s tough, but they help make it feasible.”

Just as the cadets both experienced camaraderie in the UMHB Army ROTC program, Bernadette said she felt it in her nursing classes as well; she knows it means something special to be able to put that you’re a UMHB nursing graduate on a resume.

“The instructors aren’t here just to pump out nurses,” she said. “They take it very seriously, so when you put UMHB nursing program on your resume, they know people will be saying, ’Oh, we want some more of those nurses.’”

Day In The Life

Talk to any college student, and they will tell you most of their days are jam-packed. But talk to an Army ROTC nursing student about their schedule, and you’ll wonder how they do it all.

On their busiest days, Jami and Bernadette go to physical training (PT) from 6 to 7 a.m., to nursing classes from 8 to 11, to ROTC classes from 11 to 12:30, grab a quick bite of lunch, and then back to class until 3 or 4 p.m. On Wednesdays, they also have lab until 6 p.m.

“It’s a long day!” Jami admitted.

On top of her busy school schedule, Bernadette also works outside of school as a caretaker for an elderly woman and still drills with her reserve unit monthly in Dallas and trains for two weeks yearly.

“Now that school is over, I wake up feeling like I should be in a class somewhere,” Bernadette laughs. Both look forward to whatever is on the horizon.

“I keep learning about all the opportunities that I could have in my career, and it is exciting,” Jami said. “We’re standing right at the beginning of this big opening, and we can go anywhere from here.”