December 2014 Commodore Nation

December 2014

THREE OF A KIND

Trio of ‘Dores carry success stories on and off the field ALSO INSIDE: VU coaches full of national titles Construction begins on Training Room project Refueling station gives nutritional boost

TODD DREXLER

CONTENTS

P.8 Trending up Senior Gonzales “A.J.” Austin has worked his way to the top after realizing his potential and refocusing toward a pro tennis career.

P.15

P.16

Driving toward success

Training Room

Junior Carson Jacobs has made himself into a better golfer over the last year.

Thanks to the generosity of donors, Vanderbilt’s new state-of-the-art training room will begin construction in January.

P.2 Compliance Corner

National Commodore Club JOE HOWELL

P.7 Inside McGugin

P.11 Soccer whiz When Jamie Kator isn’t on the soccer field, she’s most likely in the lab researching for tuberculosis experiments.

P.20 VU From Here Fans Gloria and Ray O’Steen

P.23 It’s my turn

P.12

Rod Williamson’s monthly column

National title favor

P.23

Bowling coach John Williamson and baseball coach Tim Corbin are responsible for Vanderbilt’s two team national championships but that doesn’t mean they are the only ones in the department with national crowns.

Tim Corbin and the baseball team spent Thanksgiving break in the Dominican Republic.

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Dominican trip

JOHN RUSSELL

P.3

P.19 Coach’s Handbook Associate head coach Tom Garrick brings experience as NBA player and college head coach to the women’s basketball team.

P.20 Nutritional boost On the run, between practice and class, Commodore student-athletes now have a refueling station to keep their stomachs full.

P.24 My Game Junior infielder Dansby Swanson of the baseball team.

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COMPLIANCE

CORNER

Publisher: Vanderbilt University Editor-in-Chief: Jerome Boettcher

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Daniel Dubois Steve Green Terry Wyatt Joe Howell Anne Rayner John Russell Susan Urmy Bob Stowell

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Anchor Down,

ON THE COVER: Gonzales Austin, Jamie Kator and Carson Jacobs (Photo illustration by Keith Wood)

David Williams, II Athletic Director

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December 2014

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By The Numbers

Inside McGugin

Notes from the athletic department the first athletics service trip since 21 studentathletes went to Tanzania with Soles4Souls in the summer of 2013.

JOE HOWELL

l A pair of Vanderbilt soccer players collected All-SEC honors last month. Forward Simone Charley, a sophomore from Hoover, Ala., was named First Team All-SEC after leading the team with nine goals, three assists and 21 points as a sophomore. Midfielder Lydia Simmons, a redshirt freshman from Londonderry, N.H., was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team after she had a teamhigh tying three assists.

Midfielder Lydia Simmons was named to the SEC AllFreshman Team.

l Athletic director David Williams will be one of seven “Big 5” conference athletic directors to speak at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum on Dec. 10-11 in New York. Williams will be joined by Mike Alden (Missouri), Julie Hermann (Rutgers), John Currie (Kansas State), Greg McGarity (Georgia), Stan Wilcox (Florida State) and Kevin White (Duke) to talk about the topic of “Managing Growth and the Challenges that Come with Success.” n

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hirteen student-athletes will be spending part of their Christmas break in Costa Rica. Members of seven athletic teams — football, women’s track, women’s cross country, men’s cross country, men’s tennis, lacrosse and soccer — will deliver shoes to underprivileged areas in conjunction with Soles4Souls. The group will distribute shoes to five areas while also learning about and touring the country. This is

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Finish by the women’s cross country team at the NCAA South Region Championship.

It was the first regional title in program history as the Commodores finished one point ahead of host and perennial power Florida State. Five runners finished in the top 14 and senior Claire Benjamin led the way in sixth. Veteran coach Steve Keith was named the South Region Coach of the Year. The Commodores finished 28th at the NCAA Championship.

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Touchdowns thrown by Johnny McCrary against Old Dominion in a 42-28 victory on Nov. 1. The redshirt freshman’s five TD passes tied a singlegame school record shared

by Jay Cutler (2005) and Bill Wade (1950).

Calendar

December Events Dec. 13

JOHN RUSSELL

Purdue comes to Memorial The Commodores welcome in the Boilermakers for a rare meeting. The teams have met just two times before — in 1929 and 1966. The game will hold extra meaning for coach Kevin Stallings, who graduated from and played at Purdue from 1980-82.

Johnny McCrary

JOE HOWELL

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JOHN RUSSELL

Dec. 29

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‘Dores cap off 2014 The women’s basketball team wraps up 2014 with a non-conference tilt against James Madison at Memorial Gym. The teams played in an instant classic a year ago in Virginia as the Commodores edged JMU 89-85 in overtime.

Consecutive games (and counting) the men’s basketball team has made at least one 3-pointer. The Commodores are just one of three teams, along with UNLV and Princeton, who have made a 3-pointer in every game since the inception of the 3-point arc in 1986. Vanderbilt reached a milestone 900th straight game on Nov. 25 in a 63-53 victory over Norfolk State in which the team made nine 3-pointers.

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Austin appreciative, humble on his way to top

by Jerome Boettcher

A

fter narrowly missing out on winning the National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships’ individual title in November, Vanderbilt senior Gonzales “A.J.” Austin and his coach Ian Duvenhage met with a representative from the United States Tennis Association (USTA), the sport’s governing body.

In addition to knocking off the No. 1 player in the country – Baylor’s Julian Linz – on his way to reaching the finals, Austin had been awarded the USTA/ITA Sportsmanship Award. The USTA rep praised Austin, who was having hard time believing what he heard.

“He said to A.J., ‘You know, you’re one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time and I’m 100 percent sold on you,’” Duvenhage recalled.

“Afterwards A.J. and I were talking and he looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, I’m finding it hard to believe that.’ I think when he learns to completely believe in himself and his abilities he can certainly be extremely successful in professional tennis.”

Just looking at the last year and a half, Duvenhage has strong evidence supporting his theory on Austin. And the recent results have reaffirmed to the Miami native that professional tennis is in his future.

He earned All-American honors twice last year and, along with then-senior Ryan Lipman, he set school records for doubles win in a single season (30) and career (36).

He started playing the sport “as early as anyone could start playing,” and picked up a tennis racquet when he was three years old.

His father, Gonzales Austin, Sr., was his coach

until he was 15 and his biggest tennis influence. His father moved from Haiti to New York when he was 13 years old and Austin’s mother, Susan, is from the Philippines. Together, they helped send Austin and his older sister Nakita, who played collegiately at St. John’s, to tournaments around the country in order to increase their exposure. Knowing how much his parents spent, Austin said he would feel terrible if he didn’t win the whole tournament.

“Somehow my parents found a way to get me to play enough tournaments to be a top junior player so I could come to a school like Vanderbilt,” he said. “It is real easy to lose sight of that, especially as an 18 year old. Just thinking that all your friends are able to go to tournaments, you feel like you should be able to as well. You get a little older and you get a little more experience and you realize it is really hard to pay for a kid to go travel. That is definitely something I am unbelievably grateful for to my parents.”

Duvenhage saw this intangible quality in Austin. Sure, Austin had pinpoint control with his serves, a strong forehand and a calm demenaor on the court. But his sense of indebtment — even though he didn’t grow up playing at country clubs — appealed to Duvenhage.

“Here is a kid that doesn’t have everything like many tennis kids have,” he said. “That is one of the reasons I wanted him so badly. I thought he would appreciate this and he has.”

As he climbed up the national tennis rankings – he was ranked No. 1 in the country at one point in high school and won the USTA 16s Summer Championship – he’d go back and forth on whether he wanted to be a professional tennis player.

He admits three years ago when he arrived at Vanderbilt, he was burned out from the end of his junior tennis career. But whereas he was on his own as an individual competing in junior tournaments throughout the country, the team and family atmosphere at Vanderbilt rekindled his passion in the sport.

“It is kind of like you rediscover your love for the sport and your love for competing,” he said. “That definitely happened over here and it

Senior Gonzales “A.J.” Austin earned AllAmerican honors in singles and doubles last year as he played deep into the NCAA Tournament in both categories.

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December 2014

JOE HOWELL

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FREDERICK BREEDON

made it really easy with the team aspect. Because when you’re on your own (in juniors) and you’re traveling it is really easy to get burned out and lose sight of the big picture. When you come here and you’re playing for your best friends and you get to go to school in an awesome place, it makes it a lot easier to refocus yourself and find great joy in playing the game.”

His first year on campus, he made the SEC All-Freshman Team in 2012. Then he had what he called a “pretty average season” as a sophomore, though the results said otherwise – he won 25 matches, was ranked as high as 20th in the ITA, played in the NCAA Singles Championships, helped the Commodores reach the Sweet 16 and was named First Team All-SEC. Still, Austin said he was “on the fence” of a professional career after his sophomore year.

The double major in economics and political science spent the following summer in Washington, D.C., working as intern for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). He played tennis a couple times a week over the summer with some of friends and thought about his future.

For Duvenhage, he saw in Austin a freshman who clearly wanted to play professionally.

But then Duvenhage witnessed an “odd kind of lull” as a sophomore. But the veteran head coach also credited Austin’s intelligence and well-roundedness for creating interest in other areas – reading, politics, art.

From watching Austin’s sophomore year, Duvenhage thought Austin had decided he wasn’t going to play professionally.

“Then, somewhere, during his junior year last year I started noticing he was doing extra weight workouts, he was doing extra conditioning workouts, he started putting in a lot of extra work,” he said. “We talked again and he said, ‘I’ve decided I’m going to commit to giving this go.’”

The proof was in the pudding right from the start of his junior year.

In the fall, he reached the quarterfinals and semifinals of two ITA national indoor tournaments. After the break, the drive and determination carried over. He was named First-Team All-SEC for a second straight year and was tabbed to the SEC All-Tournament Team as the Commodores reached the semifinals.

Then, he advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA Singles Championships and, pairing up with good friend Ryan Lipman, made the quarterfinals of the NCAA Doubles Championships. It was the farthest a Vanderbilt doubles team had ever advanced. In the process, Austin earned All-American honors in both singles and doubles play.

“Even if I didn’t end up pushing a pro career, I wanted my junior year to be a lot better,” he

Senior Gonzales Austin first picked up a tennis racquet when he was 3 years old and, with his father, Gonzales Austin, Sr., as his coach, he later became one of the top Junior players in the country.

said. “I ended up having a really good year and that definitely helped me come up with a career path I wanted to follow.”

After graduation, Austin plans to team up with Lipman, now a volunteer assistant coach, and try their luck on the pro circuit as a doubles duo.

Of course, Duvenhage has extreme faith in his humble star.

“I just don’t think he realizes how quite good he is and how good he can be,” he said. “He is not only a great tennis player, he is a great person. He is the total package.” n

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December 2014

Kator balances soccer and demanding course load

STEVE GREEN

by Jerome Boettcher

Along with patrolling the midfield for the soccer team, junior Jamie Kator maintains an impressive 3.847 GPA in the the demanding major of molecular and cellular biology.

T

he art of compartmentalizing is not lost on Jamie Kator.

She balances both ends of student-athlete and loads up her proverbial plate in the process. The Vanderbilt junior is a threeyear letterwinner on the soccer team while handling the demands of a molecular and cellular biology major.

“A lot of what I have been doing is constantly juggling the two,” she said, “but it is something I’ve been doing since I was 14. I’m used to it.”

And she thrives and excels while multi-tasking her two passions.

On the soccer field, she has played in all 58 games of her career, making 33 starts with three goals and eight assists. She succeeds in the classroom, too, as the two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll recipient has an impressive 3.847 GPA. If her major wasn’t hard enough, Kator was also one of 60 students – along with teammate Claire Anderson – chosen her freshman year for an honors program in the College of Arts and Science.

Plus, her major offers a directed study, which gives her class credit to serve as a research assistant in the Tuberculosis Center.

“I always knew I wanted to go to an academic institution as well as one

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that values their athletics,” said Kator, who plans to apply for medical school this summer.

The importance of academia was stressed to Kator at a young age.

Her father, Michael, serves as the chair of a law firm in Washington, D.C. Her mother, Nancy, has been a doctor for nearly 30 years, specializing in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Her older sister, Allison, is a biomedical engineer in Wisconsin.

“They really emphasized academics and I’m glad they did,” Kator said of her parents. “I know it’s going to give me the best opportunities. They never really steered me in one direction. They wanted me to do the best and follow what I was good at.”

At Vanderbilt, Kator has found plenty of challenges and chances to grow – in the classroom and through lab work.

After the first semester of her freshman year, she applied and was accepted into the College of Arts and Science’s College Scholars Programs based on her academic achievement in the fall semester. Through the program, she has participated in honors seminars and earned honors points. A seminar is limited to 16 College Scholars and taught by professors with expertise in that field. Kator, who is currently in a bioethics seminar, will earn honor points by enriching the course and satisfy a writing requirement with a research paper.

“It is a very unique learning environment,” she said. “They are great opportunities and it gives me a lot of connections to professors. We are in such a small classroom environment with so much discussion you really get to know your professors.”

The 20-year-old has also taken advantage of shadowing and learning from professionals.

At the Tuberculosis Center, Kator is a research assistant for Dr. Christina Fiske, an assistant professor of Adult Infectious Disease. She spends three days a week – and earns class credit – in a lab, analyzing immune cells in people with extra pulmonary tuberculosis.

“A lot of science, a lot of immune cells I didn’t really know existed,” she said. “It has been a challenge to really hone in on all this science and biology but it has definitely been very educational and I’ve learned a lot from it.”

Currently, Kator and the Tuberculosis Center are studying why tuberculosis leaves the lungs in some patients and spreads to other areas of their body. Their research has found that patients with HIV or diabetes are more likely to have tuberculosis spread. In 2013, more than 1 million people died from tuberculosis.

“Usually your immune system walls it off and keeps it in your lungs,” Kator said. “Some people, the disease travels and we’re trying to find out what they have in their immune system that is different… I’ve gotten some opportunities to shadow some doctors who work in infectious disease in the hospital and I think it has been really good to really make myself evaluate where I want to be and what kind of doctor I’d want to be.”

Kator has narrowed in on that decision – eying a career in orthopedic surgery. She’ll apply for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine this summer. Before she starts medical school, though, she plans to defer to pursue professional soccer overseas for at least a year.

“Having the medical center so close, there are so many research opportunities and shadowing opportunities to interact with medicine,” she said.

“It is another really good experience for me to have going forward with my career. It is a unique experience that puts me ahead of my competition I hope.” n

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Baseball coach Tim Corbin is one of 13 Vanderbilt coaches to have won a national championship as either a student-athlete, assistant coach or head coach.

VU coaches no strangers to national titles

F

JOHN RUSSELL

or many Commodore fans, their favorite “I just think a national champion is a different Christmas gift came about six months beast,” lacrosse head coach Cathy Swezey said. early – back in June when the baseball “You are a champion inside before you accomplish team captured the national championship. that goal. You just have to be willing to go through The title was a long time coming for many hunwhatever wall is put in front of you in order to win. gry Vanderbilt fans who had waited their entire I think the people that are that gritty are the ones lives for this moment. The championship ended that succeed.” a long drought for Commodores men’s sports, Swezey, in her 18th year at Vanderbilt, tops the which had never won a national title – and it was list with a mind-boggling eight national chamthe first since the women’s bowling team won the pionships over two sports. She won five lacrosse school’s first team championship in any sport in and field hockey national championships as a 2007. Individually, Ryan Tolbert won the women’s player and three more as a graduate assistant – all national championship in the 400-meter hurdles at Trenton State (now The College of New Jersey). in 1997.

But while bowling coach John Williamson and baseball coach Tim Corbin are the only coaches to deliver team national titles at Vanderbilt, they’re not the only ones on staff to know what that moment feels like.

Championship pedigree can be found throughout the athletic department – from lacrosse to track and field to tennis to football to golf. Current Vanderbilt assistant and head coaches have won 26 national championships as either a student-athlete, assistant coach or head Head men’s golf coach Scott Limbaugh, left, won two coach. collegiate national championships as a golfer.

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December 2014

Men’s golf coach Scott Limbaugh won back-toback national championships at Central Alabama Community College to start his playing career.

Men’s tennis associate head coach Jamie Hunt also had the same good fortune, winning two national championships at Georgia. Assistant track coach Clark Humphreys was crowned an NCAA champion after setting the Auburn school record in the pole vault with a mark of 18 feet, 4.5 inches.

Men’s tennis coach Ian Duvenhage has coached two doubles teams and two singles players to national crowns (at Miami and Florida). Head cross country and track coach Steve Keith was the distance coach at UTEP when two of his runners claimed NCAA championships.

Football assistant coaches Charles Bankins and Keven Lightner were on the staffs of Richmond and Western Kentucky, respectively, for national championship runs.

Pitching coach Scott Brown and hitting coach Travis Jewett collected their first national titles, along with Corbin, this past summer at the end of Vanderbilt’s triumphant run through the College World Series. And assistant bowling coach Josie Earnest was a freshman when Williamson and the Commodores, in just the third year of the

JOE HOWELL

program, won the 2007 national championship.

“They’re so hard to come by – championships,” Humphreys said. “The stars have to line up. You have to have everything right and healthy. They are hard to come by. They should be celebrated.”

Swezey knows a thing or two – or eight – about celebrating national championships.

Trenton State was on its way to becoming a Division III powerhouse when Swezey arrived in 1990. Swezey turned down Division I offers for the chance to add to the legacy of both the lacrosse and field hockey programs, which were both and are still led by coach Sharon Pfluger.

As a player, Swezey helped the Lions win national championships in 1991, 1992 and 1994 in lacrosse. In 1993, Trenton State also claimed the crown but Swezey took a redshirt because of an injury. She then served as a graduate assistant in 1995 and 1996 as the Lions won their sixth straight championship. The two-sport All-American was also on the field hockey team for two titles and a third as a graduate assistant.

“Every time we won it was just as sweet,” Swezey said. “The excitement level and energy.

Just knowing that you put so much effort into something and you get a positive outcome. I often tell my teams now that I want you guys to realize the fruits of your labor. I want you to know because you worked this hard, good things will come.”

Hunt also walked into a juggernaut as a freshman.

The Georgia men’s tennis team was ranked No. 1 in the preseason and lived up to the billing.

The Bulldogs went 32-0 in 2006-07, winning 18 matches against Top 25 opponents and cruising to the fifth national championship in school history on its home courts in Athens.

But it was probably Hunt’s second national title

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that was more satisfying. The 2008 crown was unexpected, as the Bulldogs had lost two seniors, including current pro tennis player John Isner, to graduation and missed their top two players for an extended period of time during the season.

“I would say the second one was more rewarding,” he said. “We weren’t expected to win. We were able to grow as a team because more was asked of each guy behind them… It took a little while to hit us. That is one of the main reasons why you play and you work so hard in the year and you sacrifice so much is really that moment.

You are all celebrating together. It is a really special moment.”

And the second crown wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Hunt.

Before the Bulldogs defeated Texas in the national championship match, they had to get past No. 1 and undefeated Virginia in the semifinals. With the match knotted at three games

FILE PHOTO

JOE HOWELL

Associate head coach Jamie Hunt won back-to-back national championsips with the tennis team at Georgia.

apiece, it came down to the No. 4 singles match.

With all eyes on Hunt as Georgia tried to defend its crown, the sophomore rallied from losing the first set to win the next two and upset the top ranked team and heavy favorite.

“It was 3-all and I was the last guy on the court so that was pretty intense,” he said. “But it was also an incredible moment for me, knowing my team and coaches and the whole Bulldog nation were behind me. To be able to come through and beat the undefeated team was pretty awesome.”

When the Vanderbilt women’s bowling team won the school’s first team national championship in any sport in 2007, it was a surreal and thrilling moment as well. But head coach John Williamson immediately began to think about the moments that almost certainly loomed ahead, especially with four sophomores and a freshman – All-American and current assistant coach Josie Earnest – in the starting lineup.

“When we actually won it, I think I wasn’t prepared to actually win it,” Williamson said. “I instantly started thinking about how great we could be as a group with four sophomores and a freshman. I instantly started thinking about numbers 2, 3 and 4. Ultimately, what it showed me was winning a championship on any level and any sport is pretty difficult. It would definitely be something I’d appreciate more and I would probably stay more in the moment now and not get too far ahead of myself.”

Williamson and the Commodores are still searching for their second bowling national championship.

They have reached the NCAA Tournament every year since and made the championship match in 2011 and 2013. But they haven’t been able to duplicate that feeling from 2007.

And Williamson, who began the program in 2005, says eight years later he is learning that it can’t be duplicated. Getting caught up in trying

Coach John Williamson, right, led Vanderbilt to its first national championship in 2007 in women’s bowling. collegiate national championships as a golfer.

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to live up to the expectations that come after winning a championship, can be nerve-racking and ineffective.

“We focused steadily on the last few years on not necessarily talking about winning the championship, more so on taking care of our stuff, more about our process and more about our event,” he said. “If we handle ourselves and compete against ourselves we should have a pretty good result. I think you get in trouble if you start trying to recreate things or you start trying to relive things you’ll never recapture it.”

Ask any of the Vanderbilt coaches with national championships on their resume what it takes to stake claim as the country’s best and they’ll give you a myriad of answers.

Swezey says her teams at Trenton State also had a fear of losing, more than they wanted to win.

Three and a half hour practices were the norm so much so that the Lions assumed everyone else was working just as hard to win.

“In the end, now do I realize we outworked everybody in the country? Yeah,” she said. “But at the time I don’t think we necessarily knew. Hard work was just part of the equation.”

In addition, Swezey credits great leaders who made the difference on those teams. Understand-

JOHN RUSSELL

JOE HOWELL

Special teams coordinator and running backs coach Charles Bankins won a championship at Richmond.

For Williamson, he believes the 2007 crown was won because he had a team that was good enough and caught some lucky breaks – which is the case for most championship runs – along the way. The fact that his team was so young – it was only the third year of the program – probably didn’t hurt either. Their youth and inexperience may have kept them from grasping the magnitude of the moment.

Tim Corbin had a mixture of youth and experience this past year. And like the bowling team’s title, Vanderbilt baseball’s first crown was unexpected. A team that lost 21 games and were bounced early from the SEC Tournament seemed to develop and form right when it mattered the most – with its season on the line.

“There was a mental toughness component of their team that certainly grew. It was not there at the beginning of the year,” Corbin said. “…

When they gained that, the team became more confident. You could see better things starting to happen. The energy was all directed in that way.

It was a perfect storm. It was a storm that came together, and it grew. I felt at the end of the year they weren’t going to let this moment go.”

Hunt says Georgia’s championships team possessed discipline to make the right decisions on and off the court that benefited the entire team – not just the individual. He also agreed with Corbin that team chemistry was a key ingredient.

“It is not the most talented teams that win a lot of time but it is the closest team,” Hunt said.

For Humphreys, he refused to lose. His individual championship was on his shoulders. When a rain delay threatened to keep him from jumping, Humphreys shooed away the official running the pole vault competition and raced down the wet and slick runway to leap more than 18 feet. After a four-hour rain delay, in which he sat by himself and stayed in his zone, he pushed to 18 feet, 4 1/2 inches to claim the crown.

Lacrosse coach Cathy Swezey won eight lacrosse and field hockey national championships as a player and graduate assistant at Trenton State in New Jersey.

ing the importance of leadership – athletically, academically and socially – has benefitted her most successful teams at Vanderbilt, including the Final Four squad in 2004. Athletic director David Williams believes those same qualities resonate in his coaches – in all sports. They demand the best from their student-athletes and want them to experience the championship moment.

“We’re very blessed to have a cadre of coaches that have the ability, the qualifications and the credentials that they have,” Williams said. “I really think we have the best collection of coaches in the country. It is not only that they are good coaches, they are good colleagues. Everybody is cheering for everybody else.” n

National Championship Breakdown

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Coach

Current position

Sport

Total

Cathy Swezey (Lacrosse)

Head Coach

Lacrosse/Field Hockey

8

Ian Duvenhage (Men’s Tennis)

Head Coach

Men’s Tennis

4

Scott Limbaugh (Men’s Golf)

Head Coach

Men’s Golf

2

Steve Keith (Cross Country/Track)

Head Coach

Track

2

Jamie Hunt (Men’s Tennis)

Assoc. Head Coach

Men’s Tennis

2

Clark Humphreys (Track)

Assistant Coach

Pole Vault

1

John Williamson (Bowling)

Head Coach

Bowling

1

Josie Earnest (Bowling)

Assistant Coach

Bowling

1

Tim Corbin (Baseball)

Head Coach

Baseball

1

Scott Brown (Baseball)

Pitching Coach

Baseball

1

Travis Jewett (Baseball)

Hitting Coach

Baseball

1

Charles Bankins (Football)

Special Teams/Running Backs Coach

Football

1

Keven Lightner

Offensive Line Coach

Football

1

December 2014

Athlete first, Jacobs develops into elite golfer

by Jerome Boettcher

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polished. His story is one that means a lot to me.

It is nothing we’ve done. It is the environment we helped create but he owned it.”

The path to where he is now – ranked 13th in the country by golfweek.com and on the short list for to make the United States team for the Palmer Cup next June – wasn’t without obstacles to overcome.

Jacobs struggled to crack the lineup his freshman year. He played in just four tournaments and 11 rounds. The start of his sophomore year wasn’t much better as he played in just one tournament in the fall.

“When I got to school I felt like I got hit in the mouth like a lot of kids do when they get to college sports,” Jacobs said. “It is a whole different level. There was a lot for me to learn. I think everyone would say the first step in becoming good is believing in yourself. I think I have always believed in myself. I was just missing some physical pieces and stuff, different parts of my game.”

Limbaugh and assistant coach Dusty Smith appreciated the fact that Jacobs played many sports as a kid. They thought it made him mentally tough because he had been “through the fires.” But, at the same time, when Jacobs got to Vanderbilt Limbaugh said he was an “athlete playing golf.”

“He wasn’t necessarily a golfer for this level and there’s a difference,” Limbaugh said. “We like athletes playing golf. He just wasn’t polished enough.”

Jacobs didn’t sulk, though. Instead, he wanted to hear the truth from Limbaugh – and he wanted to know how to get better.

Limbaugh and Smith implored one of the top swing coaches in the country to help with the “physical pieces.” They introduced Jacobs to Todd Anderson, who is the Director of Instruction at the Sea Island Golf Club in Florida. Anderson, named the 2010 National PGA Teacher of the Year, worked with former Vanderbilt standout Brandt Snedeker.

Anderson developed a plan for Jacobs that pinpointed his weaknesses (his short game) and focused on building consistency within his game.

This required lots of practice over winter break his sophomore year – in unfriendly temperatures, even for a former hockey player.

“He was virtually an unknown commodity in college golf at this time last year – not virtually – he was unknown,” Limbaugh said. “In the middle of December last year he was out there practicing on his own and Coach Smith looked at me and said, ‘Coach, he’s passing people.’ You see movies where that guy is in there shooting jump shots

at 2 a.m. while everybody else is sleeping — well that is what Carson was doing last offseason. It was cold and he was practicing. It was colder and he was practicing and working and had a plan. He was like, ‘I’m going to play. I will play. I’m not going to give our coaches a choice.’”

That’s just what he did.

He won the team’s first qualifying tournament in February, ensuring himself a spot in the lineup – a spot he hasn’t relinquished.

He immediately started to play better, playing in every tournament last spring. He won his first tournament at the Talis Park Challenge last March in Florida, sharing medalist honors. He ended the year with a promising 2-over 212 at the NCAA Championship in Hutchinson, Kan., placing 42nd – the highest finish on the team behind only Stewart. His summer included advancing to match play of the U.S. Amateur and tying for 21st at The Players Amateur.

“Not that I have anything figured out at this point but I feel like I am making steps in the right direction,” Jacobs said. “We got a plan together of what we felt like I needed to do in my game to take it to the next level. There was a lot of long, hard-working days and stuff in the cold when it is not exactly fun to be out there. I think we’re seeing the benefits of that right now.” n

JOHN WEAST

C

arson Jacob’s first passion formed in the rink.

Since he was 4 years old, Jacobs loved to lace up his skates, clutch his hockey stick and aim for the net. For most of his childhood, he spent his free time playing inline hockey at the skating rink in his hometown of Hendersonville or flying on the ice at Centennial Sportsplex across the street from Vanderbilt.

“Hockey had always been my favorite sport,” he said. “I guess when you’re a kid, hockey is a little more fun than playing golf. A little more action going on.”

It wasn’t until he was 11 years old that the wellrounded athlete, who also played baseball, basketball and lacrosse, started really swinging the clubs. Soon after though, Jacobs found greener pastures – literally – on the golf course.

The more drives off the tee, the more putts on the green, the more confident he became and the more success he enjoyed. And the fewer hockey games he played.

As he entered Hendersonville High School, he decided to turn his attention solely to golf – and it paid off in a big way.

On the junior circuit, he posted a pair of top five finishes. He helped Hendersonville High to back-to-back championships his junior and senior seasons and placed third individually at the state tournament in 2011. He was a NHSGCA All-American as a freshman and a two-time County Player of the Year.

“When I looked at it, (golf) was what I wanted to do long term,” he said. “I feel like golf was going to give me the best chance to do that as far as college and on past that. I had it narrowed down going into high school of just hockey and golf. It was a hard decision because I really like hockey.

But I guess I made the right decision.”

It certainly appears that way in his third year at Vanderbilt.

The junior had a great fall season, finishing in the top 15 in all four of the team’s tournaments.

He tied for fourth at the Dick’s Collegiate Challenge Cup – paced by an opening round 64 – in Nashville. He ended the fall with his best threeround total of the year with a 204 at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational for second place. The only golfer ahead of him was senior teammate Hunter Stewart by one stroke.

“I’ve been doing this 12 or 13 years,” coach Scott Limbaugh said, “and I have not seen a young person progress the way he has progressed… It is a story that as a coach you dream about. You recruit five-star players and all these players are

Hendersonville native Carson Jacobs has turned into one of the team’s top golfers over the last year.

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December 2014

Generosity sparks expansion of new training room

by Jerome Boettcher

The newtraining room, scheduled to be completed in the fall, will feature three hydrotherapy pools.

vucommodores.com

JOHN RUSSELL

I

f anyone understands how important a new training room is to the Vanderbilt athletic department, it would be Jill Kispert.

Though she didn’t suffer any major injuries, ankle sprains frequently slowed the two-sport athlete. When not on the basketball court and soccer field, Kispert – formerly Jill Goldberg – spent many hours in the training room from 1986-89.

“So much of that (college) experience included the training facilities and the people in them and the staff, which really helped complete the positive experience I had,” Kispert said. “You don’t always want to be in there but… I have a lot of memories in that room.”

So, for Kispert, a 1989 Vanderbilt graduate, lending financial support to see the new training room come to fruition was an easy decision to make. The California resident wanted to give back to an area that helped her heal quickly.

“This was one that was near and dear,” she said. “I always appreciated the people that paid it forward for me in my experience. I was glad to do the same for this next generation of athletes.”

Now, because of the generous support of donors, the training room is getting a muchneeded facelift. Head athletic trainer Tom Bossung and his staff moved out in early December and across the street to a temporary home in the basement of Memorial Gymnasium as construction began for the McGugin Center training room.

The new facility will serve all 350 studentathletes and span more than 9,200 square feet. It will include dietary, examination and treatment rooms, a conference room, two team doctor offices, new office space for Vanderbilt’s 13 athletic trainers and a welcoming student-athlete entrance and lobby. It will also include three hydrotherapy pools and modernized equipment (such as an underwater treadmill) as well as more treatment tables, taping stations and cardio equipment and two rooms designated solely for private physician examinations.

Vanderbilt head athletic trainer Tom Bossung, who first came to Vanderbilt in 1990 as a graduate assistant, believes the training room expansion will allow his staff to be more efficient in mending the university’s 350 student-athletes.

“The training room project is going to be a great addition to our facilities,” women’s basketball coach Melanie Balcomb said. “And it will have a positive impact on every team on campus. It will also put us along side the best facilities in the SEC and the nation.”

Orion Construction will begin mobilizing and setting up perimeter fencing in January. In February, excavation and demolition work starts, as the entire process will take eight to nine months. Bob Grummon, who is an architect with Vanderbilt Campus Planning and Construction, said the training room is expected to be completed in the fall semester.

Bossung first arrived at Vanderbilt in 1990 as a graduate assistant and was in awe of a brand new training room, which had been built in 1989 and featured a state-of-the-art therapeutic eight-foot deep swimming pool.

But, since then, he notes the significant changes that have increased the need for more space — the addition of several varsity sports, his staff doubling, team roster sizes expanding and the NCAA allowing extra practice hours in the offseason. Bossung estimates during the peak times of the fall and spring that nearly 200 student-athletes visit the training room in the course of a day.

“It should allow us to be more efficient with what we do,” Bossung said. “My appreciation to those who have contributed to it. I understand a lot of times people want to give and they want to give to a certain team. That is the biggest thing – we affect all of those kids. So in a sense you are giving to those teams, it is just not one

team exclusive. It is the entire population of our student-athletes. I certainly thank and appreciate those willing to contribute.”

Johnny Johnson, one of the project’s lead supporters, credited university leaders for placing a strong emphasis on the project.

The 1968 Vanderbilt graduate played on the freshman baseball team and also golfed for the Commodores. He remembers dressing for baseball games in a crammed Parmer Fieldhouse. He believes a commitment to building a state-of-theart training room goes a long way.

“This is by no means a capstone but it is certainly a very significant milestone,” he said. “The project is extremely important to advance the progress that has been made in the world of collegiate athletics and Vanderbilt being competitive in that world.”

Director of Athletics David Williams knows this project wouldn’t have happened without the generosity of donors who care about Vanderbilt athletics.

Williams reiterated Bossung’s thoughts and said this project touched all sports, which appealed to many donors.

“From a health point of view and a performance point of view it helps our student-athletes, which then helps everybody,” Williams said. “What everyone could give they were giving because they saw the importance of it. We have to raise money for a lot of the things we do. I’m just thankful we continue to have a very strong cadre of people out there that allow us to come talk to them about it, can understand and see it and give money.” n

C O M M O D O R E N AT I O N

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18

December 2014

Coach’s Handbook: Tom Garrick, Women’s basketball associate head coach

By Jerome Boettcher

Tom Garrick begins his sixth season with the Commodores and second as the associate head coach. Garrick, who led Rhode Island to the Sweet 16 in 1988, was drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers and played in the NBA for four seasons and overseas in Germany, Turkey and Spain for five years. A native of Rhode Island, he coached at his alma mater for 11 years, including two years with the men’s programs and five years as head coach of the women’s team.

What was that experience like to play in the NBA? Any memories stick out?

The main memory I will always have and always draw on is that it was a dream come true. It is a fantasy almost. But it is my reality. Very few people ever get to experience it so I’m forever grateful for that opportunity. I’m proud to say I was in a league where you have to be one of the best in the world to compete. I was able and fortunate and God blessed enough to do that. It was a dream come true… Once I got to the league, my mindset was I’m not a fan of anyone. I’m a competitor. Even walking out on the court with Michael Jordan, it didn’t move me in the sense I was in awe of him. It was just another guy who was the best of all us and we had to try to figure out a way to win the game that night.

After your playing career ended, you shifted straight to coaching at Rhode Island?

I coached with Jim Harrick with the men my first year out. That was a great experience. I learned a lot from Coach Harrick. He was one of the better basketball minds I have ever been around but he was a good person. That is one of the things he taught me as a coach – you can be an advocate for the kid and push them at the same time. You don’t have to give on either end. It’s just like parenting. There are going to be times where you have to discipline your child but you’re always going to love them.

What was it like to be a head coach, to run a program?

It was good. I thought I was very well prepared. I’ve always been a good soldier, I like to say. I think as an assistant coach you have to be a good solider. You have to follow the lead of the head coach. You have to understand what they want and what they’re trying to get across. You have to be able to convey that to 12 to 15 18 year olds, which is never easy but it is a good experience. It is a good teaching mode. Changing the culture of young kids is not very easy but they jumped on board and they felt pretty good about it and I thought we were going in the right direction.

vucommodores.com

FILE PHOTO

Was getting into coaching always the goal?

It was kind of a natural progression. The longer I played, the older I got, the younger the new people got, I felt like I was being a coach any way.

As a point guard on the professional level, it is your job to pretty much know what everybody is supposed to be doing when they’re supposed to be doing it. So you have to know the plays not just from your perspective but from all five positions. I really feel like I got a good indoctrination into what a coach would be as a player later in my career.

Associate head coach Tom Garrick has been with the women’s basketball team for the past six years. The Rhode Island native has coached both men’s and women’s college basketball, including being a head coach at his alma mater, Rhode Island.

What excites you about coming to work every day?

I think that is what excites me the most – being able to be an extension of my mom and dad. Of what they were for me, I want to be that for any young person whose ears are open to listen. The kids are the No. 1 drive for me every day and then working with a great staff who are all pulling in the same direction. It is not just that I am coaching basketball, the game that I have loved my whole life, and I get to come to work with sneakers on every day, it is that the people I am working with have the same goals and same ideas. It doesn’t have to be that way. That is what I realize. In life, it never has to be the way you want it to be. You just have to get through every day. But it is really fun when it is more the way you want it to be than not. In whatever you do. Trust me, I understand just how fortunate I am.

What do you like to do with your free time?

I might be the most boring person in Nashville. I go from behind this desk, to the court, to practice, to meetings after practice to access practice and then I go home. Whatever is on the DVR I watch. I speak to my children (daughter, Ryane, 28, son, Tom, 20) every night because they are away and just live through them a little bit and help them with their lives. My son is playing college basketball up in Rhode Island (at Division III Johnson & Wales). I talk to him every day about his experiences and how I can try to relate to him through that and help him through that. Those are probably the best parts of my day. The other best parts of my day is hearing what his day was like. I’m kind of boring and I like it. n

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McGugin refueling station gives nutritional boost

JEROME BOET TCHER

by Jerome Boettcher

The refueling station on the first floor of the McGugin Center provides student-athletes a nutritional boost in between classes, practices and workouts.

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fter morning lifts or before practice, Cole Hardin often finds himself in need of a nutritional boost.

Fortunately for the freshman on the football team and all of Vanderbilt’s 340 student-athletes he doesn’t have to search long to find what he needs. In fact, he doesn’t even have to leave the McGugin Center.

Starting in November, the Vanderbilt athletics department instituted a student-athlete refueling station on the first floor of McGugin that provides Hardin and his fellow Commodores with a variety of nutritional supplementation.

Formerly a conference room, now sits a refrigerator full of yogurt, chicken salad sandwiches, breakfast sanwiches, grape tomatoes, hummus and chocolate milk. Pretzels, nuts, chips, apples, bananas, granola bars and dried fruit line the room.

“It is nice to have a quick snack or quick lunch or breakfast if you can’t get it elsewhere,” Hardin said. “There are a lot of good healthy options.

I think this athletic department is always doing stuff to benefit their athletes and this just proves another way they’re trying to help us out.”

The refueling station, which is open twice a day for four hours, is a initiative by Vanderbilt athletic officials to offer another food option since the NCAA changed legislation in August.

Previously, scholarship student-athletes received three meals a day (21 for the week) or a food stipend for off-campus athletes. There was a restriction on how many meals athletic departments could provide to student-athletes. For example, they could give them bagels as a snack but slather it with peanut butter and that counted as a meal.

Now, scholarship student-athletes and walk-ons can receive unlimited meals and snacks in conjunction with their athletics participation.

“With the change in NCAA legislation we are now able to provide nutritional supplementation options to help meet the often challenging nutritional needs of our student-athletes,” associate director of athletics Lori Alexander said. “After reviewing all options, the administration felt that a refueling station in our main athletic building would be the most effective and convenient option for student-athletes. That gives them the opportunity to easily refuel during the critical 30-minute post-

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December 2014

workout window after early morning or mid-day workouts, grab a good pre-workout snack on the way to their locker room or grab a snack to eat between classes.”

Taylor Elliott, a senior on the soccer team, says the convenience of the refueling station really appeals to her.

“It makes me super happy because then I don’t have to go to Munchie Mart (on the other side of campus) before practice,” Elliott said. “It is super convenient. Right now I am getting my lunch here so it’s pretty easy. And it is right before my practice time so that’s perfect.”

The refueling station is funded by the athletic department and is offered through dining services.

The room will be stocked full through the end of the semester. Over Christmas break, Alexander and the athletic department’s dietitian, Jessica Bennett, will analyze the program and decide if the hours need to be tweaked, what was a hit and if anything should be added to the menu to satisfy the needs of the student-athletes.

“The refueling station provides a wide variety of nutritional options for the wide variety of needs of our student-athletes,” Alexander said. “It includes some higher calorie options for those athletes who fight hard to keep weight on. It also includes other lower calorie healthier options, and also options for those with special dietary needs (such as soy milk and gluten-free options) that may be hard to meet at some of our regular campus stores.” n

vucommodores.com

C O M M O D O R E N AT I O N

21

THE VU From Here

By Jerome Boettcher Gloria O’Steen likes to stay entertained and engaged when watching sports. She prefers up-tempo over slow paced.

And the long-time Vanderbilt fan and her husband, Ray, get their fill at Memorial Gymnasium every winter.

“I’m not good at sitting very long and I’m not good at being bored.

You are not bored at a women’s basketball game,” Gloria said. “It’s great. I love to razz the referees. I sit far enough back that I don’t get in trouble. I think the sport is over-the-top fun.”

For the better part of two decades, Gloria and Ray have had season tickets to Vanderbilt women’s basketball games.

Up in Section 2L, hovering above the Commodores’ bench, the husband and wife can watch plays unfold, see the coaches pull aside players as they come off the floor and provide teaching moments.

Members of the National Commodore Club and the Hoops Crew, which supports women’s basketball, Gloria and Ray look at the women’s basketball team as extended family. And over the last 12 years she has really enjoyed watching coach Melanie Balcomb guide the program, leading the team to 12 straight NCAA Tournaments.

“She just has my loyalty,” Gloria said. “I cannot tell you what a lovely person she is and how much I respect her and the things she does with the young ladies who come into the college. When you meet them when they first come in and then you see them as a senior… the difference she has made in their lives is absolutely remarkable.

She is just a good person to begin with.”

Gloria and Ray have eight season tickets to women’s basketball games. They are usually joined by their daughter, Mayme Ryan, and granddaughter, Sutherland Ryan. More often than not, friends join them in row two. But when they bought their season tickets some years ago they snatched up eight for one particular purpose.

“Ray hates UT with a passion. He is a typical Vanderbilt guy,” Gloria said before laughing. “So we bought the second row… so that UT people couldn’t hit Ray on the head when they were cheering.”

Ironically, Gloria graduated from Tennessee. But she bleeds black and gold. Though they went to rival colleges, Gloria and Ray have had close encounters before. Not only did both go to Hillsboro High School in Nashville but they were both born at Vanderbilt Hospital and delivered by the same doctor.

Ray is a 1966 graduate from Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering and is the president of American Professional Search, Inc. The couple runs the head-hunting company, which finds jobs for engineers in high volume factory companies, out of their home in College Grove, Tenn., where they also own a farm stock full of Angus registered cattle.

And in they’re spare time, they’re often at Memorial Gymnasium or at the VU Soccer/Lacrosse Complex.

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December 2014

Gloria and Ray O’Steen

The couple has made bequests, which have benefitted not only women’s basketball but women’s lacrosse as well. Another sport with a fast-pace tempo, Gloria usually gets up to five home games a season at the VU Soccer/Lacrosse Complex.

To Gloria and Ray, it is just a small way to give back to a university that is given so much to them.

“Vanderbilt starts you with an excellent groundwork to go to work.

If you graduate from Vanderbilt you’re going to have a job. We just feel like we’re trying to pay Vanderbilt back for the opportunities they’ve given Ray and, through him, me. It is an incredible school.

They are warm people there. It is a pleasure to be around people at Vanderbilt – from the sports to academics. I can’t say enough good things about the entire group at the school – from the chancellor on down.”

We Want Your Ticket Stories The ticket office has long been a place to hear some of the best examples of the love affair between Vanderbilt fans and their seats for Vanderbilt games. In 150 words or less, send in your stories to ticket. office@vanderbilt.edu. We will select some of our favorites to share with other Commodore fans. If your “VU From Here” story is selected, we will give you two tickets to a home game this season, in the hope that you will pay them forward to attract new fans to Vanderbilt Stadium. n

KYLE PARKINSON

Dominican Republic trip about more than baseball

Members of the Vanderbilt baseball team sit on top of the outfield wall with local children from the Dominican Republic during the team’s recent trip.

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or the first time in five years, the Vanderbilt baseball team ventured out of the country for an educational baseball trip.

The Commodores spent Thanksgiving break in the Dominican Republic, playing seven games while also visiting different parts of the island and engaging with members of the community.

“The ability to travel abroad for the student-athlete is usually diminished because of the year-round schedule that absorbs their time,” head coach Tim Corbin said. “We have been fortunate in the past to use baseball as a way to synchronize the student-life experience of traveling overseas. The past benefits have been widespread and we wanted to take advantage of this moment again.”

The team went 5-2 on the trip, including wins over academy teams from the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox, the Dominican National Army team and reserves from a Winter League squad.

The defending national champs were also able to see different parts of the country. They went to Santa Domingo and toured the first fortress built in the Americas in 1505. They also boarded a catamaran and visited a remote beach, where the team relaxed and played volleyball.

The team also went into the community to deliver hygiene packets. Some of the most enjoyable moments were interacting with the local children, including playing baseball on a field shared with chicken and cattle.

“We played a little baseball with the kids in the town and we used a broken metal bat and a baseball that had its cover torn off,” freshman infielder Will Torry wrote in an online journal for vucommodores.com.

“Then the bus came back to pick us up and we headed down the dirt road to a slightly larger community and held a small baseball clinic with the kids who came out. This was truly an awesome experience and we split into six stations. My station was base running and we ended it by having each kid do his or her best home run trot. Some were shy and others were flamboyant copying their favorite pros like Big Papi and Robinson Cano.... I would definitely say we were successful on our trip down here as all in all it was a great experience socially, athletically and educationally.” n

vucommodores.com

It’s My Turn

By Rod Williamson

G

erry DiNardo coached our football team in the early 1990’s. He was the SEC “Coach of the Year”, he never said the word “Tennessee” and he stubbornly clung to the I-Bone offense even after it became obsolete.

It reads like a Wikipedia entry and many veteran fans believe it to be true. Too bad it’s not; in fact, only the Coach of the Year part is accurate.

I worked daily with Coach DiNardo his final season and we actually plotted to say the “T” word at opportune times, often going unnoticed to our chagrin. And it took until the third game of the 1994 season before an opposing coach made the shocking announcement that “Vanderbilt hasn’t run a single I-Bone play all season”. Who knew! The facts were hidden in plain sight.

It is often a much more compelling story if reality doesn’t interfere; that’s human nature. Story lines develop, often times seemingly unchallenged, and even if they are not entirely fair or accurate, the word goes forth.

We’re not here today to bash history but rather to offer our opinion on how 10,000 people can’t all be wrong but they aren’t necessarily all right either. It is easy to be led astray.

In politics frequent repetition becomes a version of the truth; i.e.

FOX News is biased, Obamacare is a disaster. In athletics - School A’s athletic department is corrupt, Coach B is clueless. We love making black and white distinctions but the world is often a neutral shade of gray.

Repeating an opinion doesn’t make it true.

Parts of my day are sometimes spent defending journalists. I’m one myself by training; I admire the great ones for their ability to inform, inspire and warn. I have less admiration for uninformed bloggers.

Times have changed. Twentieth Century media titans with high standards have been diminished in influence by the opinion merchants who thrive on ratings, clicks and followers. To them, being first or controversial is more important than being correct. Their opinions come second-hand.

Who is more interesting, the cantankerous commentator or a meticulous wonk? Never mind the Twitter celebrity with tens of thousands of followers because she is edgy.

Social media gurus set the tone for much of our world’s conversation. Controversy sells. But are the “salesmen” providing information or entertainment? There is a difference.

Darn few coaches are as bright as given the credit and likewise, very few are as inept as it’s so easy to believe. The difference between winning and losing is often small, even if the scoreboard seems to say otherwise.

The final score always matters but it can be easy to get discouraged if that is one’s only measurement. In the SEC, it can feel that way sometimes despite the league’s efforts to promote service and academic achievement.

Television networks make heroes out of some people that you wouldn’t want in your family. Good people with great values can play second fiddle to counterfeiters.

Think for yourselves! Apply your own sensible standards to your sports fandom. And don’t believe everything you are told; just ask about Gerry DiNardo. n

C O M M O D O R E N AT I O N

23

My Game

Dansby Swanson

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played baseball in college (Mercer) and my sister (Lindsey) played softball in college (Georgia College). It is just what we do. It is what we love doing. It is what we still do today. It is completely ingrained in us. And mom is the best athlete by the way – that’s a known fact. She is in the athletic hall of fame in my high school (Marietta High).

After playing in just 11 games in 2013 due to a shoulder injury, Dansby Swanson exploded offensively as a sophomore in helping the Commodores win the national championship. He started all 72 games, hit .333 and scored a team-high 63 runs. The unanimous All-American from Marietta, Ga., emerged as a leader and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the College World Series. As a junior he’ll move from second base back to shortstop, his natural and favorite position..

Did you play any other sports in high school or was it always baseball?

I played basketball in high school (and was a team captain the last two years). At one point in my junior year I was really trying to pursue and play both. But I realized baseball was where my future lied. Yeah, I do miss basketball. I could have played in college somewhere.

What has been it like since you won a national championship? Has it settled down now that you’re back at school?

Yes and no. I still think it is a little bit surreal when you see the kids walking around campus with the 2014 national championship shirts on and recognizing you here and there. But for the most part we’ve gone through a whole fall starting the new team and you really don’t have that much time to reflect on it. You kind of move past because that’s how the game goes and looking forward to starting things back up next year. It is surreal but at the same time you haven’t had much chance to reflect on it.

Who is the best basketball player on the baseball team (Swanson ranks third at Marietta High with 171 career 3-pointers)?

Well, B-Mill (reliever Brian Miller) is gone… So me. My freshman and sophomore year here I could actually dunk. Throw it off the backboard, catch it with two hands and dunk.

What do you expect out of this season?

Looking back, though, if there was one particular moment that stuck out, what would it be?

What do you guys have to prove going into this season?

I wouldn’t necessarily talk about it as something to prove really. I think it is just another opportunity for us to achieve at the highest level. (Head coach Tim Corbin’s) coach at Ohio Wesleyan (Kevin Colbert) came and spoke to us. He is now the general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers. After they won one of those Super Bowls, it was basically 2014 is done and now we know 2015 is attainable. So you’re just setting out new goals and accomplishments to be able to get to that highest level again. We’re not defending anything because 2014 trophy is 2015 trophy. We’re not defending anything. We’re setting out on a new journey.

How long have you played baseball?

I grew up in a really, really athletic family so all I remember is a bat and a ball. I probably had one in my crib when I was 1 year old.

Your dad obviously played then and got you into it?

My dad (Cooter) played baseball at college (Troy). My mom (Nancy) played tennis and basketball in college (Troy). My brother (Chase)

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December 2014

JOE HOWELL

There’s so many. Obviously Norwood, the home run, is the given. But I think just the closeness we had over that last three weeks was something special. Our chemistry completely heightened throughout that postseason run. That is one of those things you’ll never forget is being out there with your boys.

I think it is going to be a fun year. I think it is exciting just to see because last year we were pretty inexperienced. Just seeing the experience coming back from that is very interesting. There aren’t really any comparisons because obviously freshman year was out of this world. This past year was a ride in itself. This year will be, I think, a combination of both, honestly. There are a couple gaps that need to be filled but they will be filled. A lot of the freshmen too have a lot of physical talent but haven’t played baseball as long. People that will get there but they just need the time. Once we come back after having worked out, winter break will be a huge difference in everyone.

This could be an awesome ride. That’s for sure. I’m looking forward to each and every moment of it.

You’re not blind to it and neither are your teammates that there are two or three guys on this team, including yourself, projected to go in the first round of next year’s MLB Draft. Is that hard at all for you guys to not look ahead to the draft?

For me it serves as a motivator. In this game, you strive for success.

Everyone likes to be recognized for playing well. I think it serves as a little competition between all of us to see who can be picked higher.

But that is not in the forefront. When it happens it ends up happening.

Right now, we’re going to do our best to win. We do a good job of not caring what people think, really. We just do us and put the blinders on.

What happens out there (on the baseball field) is all that really matters and helping this Vandy team win again. n