March 2015 Commodore Nation

March 2015

ICE IN THEIR VEINS VU baseball trio trades in hockey for bats and gloves

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CONTENTS P.9

P.15

P.17

Artistically inspired

Strong upbringing

Hitting with an idol

Freshman Megan Huebner of the cross country and track teams uses varieties of artwork as an outlet to express herself.

Freshman Wade Baldwin grew up with parents in law enforcement fields. His mother works for the FBI and his father worked for the DEA.

Freshman Daniel Valent of the men’s tennis team pulls motivation from an experience two years ago when he warmed up with fellow Swiss and tennis great Roger Federer.

P.2

Compliance Corner

P.3

National Commodore Club

P.7 P.12 Hockey trio Baseball is not the only bond teammates Tyler Green, Jeren Kendall and Will Toffey share. The trio is connected through hockey, which they all played growing up.

Inside McGugin

P.22

VU From Here Commodore fan Paul Darden

P.23

Snedeker strikes VU alum wins at Pebble Beach

P.23

It’s my turn Rod Williamson’s monthly column

P.19 Coach’s Handbook Pitching coach Scott Brown is in his third season with the Commodores.

P.24 My Game Redshirt sophomore linebacker Stephen Weatherly is a jack of all trades, from playing seven instruments to skate boarding, cooking and figuring out brainteasers.

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COMPLIANCE

CORNER

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

Designer: Keith Wood Director of Communications: Rod Williamson

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Contributors: Brandon Barca Andy Boggs David Dawson Larry Leathers George Midgett Kyle Parkinson Emily Sane Ryan Schulz Frederick Breedon

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March 2015

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SEATING & PARKING

On game days, you can see and hear National Commodore Club members supporting the Commodores as they take an up-close seat to the action at their tailgates, the Star Walk and in Vanderbilt Stadium. Our players feed off of this energy, and it fuels them to be the best. Now is the time to make plans to join the Commodores on West End for the 2015 season. To score priority seats, a gift to the NCC unrestricted annual fund is required in addition to the ticket price. Your annual gift applies to priority seating and parking. Anchor down for season tickets and renew by March 23!

2015 Priority Football Parking Parking location Lot 1 (reserved space) Lot 1A Lot 2 Lot 3 Lot 4 Lot 71 (disabled)

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Inside McGugin

By The Numbers

Notes from the athletic department

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orty-nine Vanderbilt students were named to the 2014 Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll, the league announced in February.

Twenty-nine Vanderbilt football players and 20 soccer players made the honor roll, which is based on grades from the 2014 spring, summer and fall terms. All honorees had to have at least a 3.0 GPA for the preceding two semesters.

Former Vanderbilt wide receiver Jonathan Krause became the first Commodore to win a Super Bowl ring in seven years when he won with the New England Patriots.

l The second annual Vanderbilt Football Alumni Golf Outing will be held on Friday, March 20 in conjunction with the Black & Gold Spring Game Weekend. Former Commodore players, managers, trainers and coaches are invited to participate in the outing, which includes 18 holes of golf and dinner at the Hermitage Golf Course. Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason and the entire coaching staff are scheduled to participate in the outing, which is one day before the Spring Game on March 21. Cost for golf and dinner is $150 a person and $20 for only dinner. To register or for more information, call the NCC office at 615-322-4114. l Jonathan Krause became the first Commodore to win a Super Bowl ring in seven years. The former Vanderbilt wide receiver was on the practice squad for the New England Patriots and was in Arizona for New England’s 28-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1.

The undrafted rookie started the year with the Cleveland Browns on their practice squad and then landed on injured reserve due to an injury. The Patriots picked him up in October and he became the first Commodore to win a Super Bowl since linebacker Jonathan Goff won a world championships with the New York Giants in 2008. n

Amount of Vanderbilt studentathletes named to the 2014 Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll—29 football players and 20 soccer players.

43 ½

Length of Simone Charley’s recordbreaking triple jump on Valentine’s Day at the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas. It marked the second time in a month the sophomore had broken the school record in the indoor, breaking the mark first at the Vanderbilt Invitational in January. Charley also owns the outdoor school record.

Calendar

March Events

March 27–29 ‘Dores host Tennessee The reigning national champs host in-state rival Tennessee for a three-game series at Hawkins Field. The last time these teams met, Vanderbilt ended Tennessee’s season and eliminated the Vols from the SEC Tournament.

March 11–15 SEC Tournament hits Nashville The Commodores will try to make a run at the championship when the SEC men’s basketball tournament comes to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville for the second time in three years. Vanderbilt has won the SEC Tournament championship twice.

March 21 Spring Game The Commodores’ annual intra-squad scrimmage gets its earliest start in recent memory. Coach Derek Mason enters his second season at the helm as the team will play at 1 p.m. at Vanderbilt Stadium.

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8

March 2015

‘I was always the last kid to leave the craft table’ Distance runner sees art as therapy, way to spread joy to others

JEROME BOET TCHER

by Jerome Boettcher

Freshman cross country and track athlete Megan Huebner was one of 13 Vanderbilt student-athletes who ventured to Costa Rica with Soles4Souls in December. On the trip, her artistic talent was on display as she decorated the many shoes the group donated to children at area schools, churches and day care centers.

L

ike any student-athlete Megan Huebner values her free time.

Between practices and meets for cross country and track and a challenging biology major and study hours, the Vanderbilt freshman knows down time is a luxury.

That’s why she is prepared to fill it when the time comes—with one of her favorite hobbies.

An avid drawer, painter and creator of varieties of art, Huebner is constantly thinking about her next project.

“I always have ideas going in my head,” she said. “I keep a constant journal of sketches of different art ideas that pop in my head randomly and store them away until I have extra time, which is not very often. For breaks and stuff for school, the first thing I would do was take my favorite idea and go straight to an art project because it is such a luxury for me to be able to sit down and work on something. That was always one of my favorite parts of getting free time from school is to work on the art projects.”

Artwork has been an outlet for Huebner for as long as she can remember.

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“I was always the last kid to leave the craft table,” she said.

Back at her home in La Quinta, Calif., there is a wall dedicated to Huebner’s creativity. Colorful paintings of horses and wild birds stand out, along with owls painted onto a piece of wood, a guitar filled with mosaics and a golden retriever sticking his head out of a car framed by an old Ford grill.

Animals are some of her favorite subjects.

She is surrounded by them as her parents have two dogs, three cats, two rabbits and a desert tortoise. She also volunteers at a nearby wild bird sanctuary and eventually wants to become a veterinarian.

“I really like making art for other people,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of pet portraits and stuff for people. Some of my favorites are bird or horses.

I think I feel like they convey power and freedom and make me feel good. Something happy to paint and create and I love using color. I really love very expressive color in my work.”

Huebner takes the saying “the world is your canvas” quite literally.

She took an old guitar and rebuilt into

Megan Huebner took a gourd, carved into it and then painted the plant and used beads to frame the drawing of two giraffes. Animals are one of Huebner’s biggest subjects as she aspires to be a veterinarian.

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TOP LEFT: Megan Huebner drew a sketch of two girls and a pair of brothers she met and played with while on a Soles4Souls trip in Costa Rica in December. TOP RIGHT: Huebner smashed plates to colorfully cover this old guitar in a mosaic style. BELOW: She framed this picture of horses with an old crate board and added a horseshoe and beads.

a vibrant mosaic with plates she bought at a Goodwill and flea markets and smashing them into pieces. She carved and painted giraffes onto a gourd. Another project involved using an old wooden crate board as the base for a horsethemed piece. Posted on the board was a colorful drawing of a white horse, surrounded by a metal horseshoe, beads, old skeleton keys and shells.

“I love going to flea markets and antique stores and finding weird little objects,” Huebner said. “The process of creating something is a lot of times more enjoyable than even the final product.”

Huebner says she loves to try new things, dabble in new media. Sure, she uses acrylic paint but she has also worked with a power drill. She took a piece of tin siding and used it as a backdrop for a painting of a moose.

So drawing on shoes really wasn’t a weird concept to Huebner. It was a joy.

Huebner was one of 13 Vanderbilt studentathletes who ventured to Costa Rica in December on a trip with Soles4Souls to deliver shoes to children in need. The group distributed 1,263 pairs of shoes at churches, schools, day cares and community centers.

At each stop, they sized the children for shoes, then washed their feet and gave them a pair of black rubber shoes. But the process wasn’t complete. Huebner and a handful of other studentathletes would stencil the child’s name or color on the shoe.

Huebner was a mainstay at the drawing station, sketching butterflies, flowers and soccer balls. She won’t forget when she decorated one little girl’s

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March 2015

shoes with a rose and she yelled, “How cute!” in Spanish and thanked Huebner with a hug and kiss on the cheek.

Huebner felt so inspired by the trip that when she headed home for winter break she had to convey what she felt through her art.

She sketched a drawing of two girls, Sophia and Hillary, who latched onto her at the Christmas party on the last day of the trip, and two brothers.

The younger brother, NJ, possessed a laughter that was contagious.

“I got back from that trip and I just felt so strongly about the amazing experience and how inspiring the kids were,” she said. “They are a joy in

the face of such a different, harsher lifestyle than we’re used to. It is just inspiring. I wanted to pay tribute to the trip and art is one way I know how to do that.”

Calling art a type of therapy, a medium to relax, she also understands the impression it can leave.

That’s why, when she has the time, she loves to use one of her favorite hobbies as a way to leave a lasting impact.

“I do like to do art pieces that convey a lot of feeling and are expressive of happiness or remind people of some memory,” she said. “Art is a good outlet for me to express myself and also feel like I can somehow make a difference.” n

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Ice bond: Hockey connects three baseball ’Dores

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or Will Toffey, his memories go as far as back as the wee toddler stages—not too long after he learned to walk.

Tyler Green thinks he started just a little later, around the age of five. Jeren Kendall was the late bloomer, picking it up when he was in the seventh grade thanks to his cousins.

Though all three now reside on the Vanderbilt baseball team, they have another thread connecting them—hockey.

“It is definitely a bond we have,” Green said.

“We like to talk about it and live back the glory days with hockey.”

On a team chocked full of baseball talent, Toffey, Green and Kendall also displayed elite skill on the ice until they hung up the skates when high school ended.

Despite living in Wisconsin, freshman outfielder Jeren Kendall caught onto hockey late, picking up the sport in seventh grade thanks to his cousins.

He played through his junior year of high school, putting more focus on baseball.

STEVE GREEN

12

Toffey was recruited by numerous Division I universities in the Northeast, including several who wanted him to play both sports. Green had Division III schools showing interest before he stopped playing travel hockey and decided to focus more on baseball. Kendall saw hockey as his winter sport and reprieve from baseball—a sport in which he was named the Wisconsin Player of the Year his last two years.

“When I wasn’t playing baseball—and that was very rarely—it was hockey,” Kendall said.

“Hockey was just a way to get away from baseball a bit, get away from the swing, get away from the arm and take a break. I loved hockey.”

For Toffey and Green, hockey trickles through their families.

Toffey’s older brother, John, played baseball and hockey at UMass-Amherst (after transferring from Ohio State). He was selected in the ninth round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played three years professionally in the East Coast Hockey League—two tiers below the NHL. He is currently the baseball and hockey coach at Salisbury School, a boarding school in Connecticut—the same school Will went to. Serving as his high school coach, John had a strong influence on Will, especially when it came to the college decision and which sport to choose.

“I was looking up to him and he told me to pick one and go with it,” said Will, a native of Barnstable, Mass., whose father, Jack, played baseball at Rollins College in Florida.

Will, a First-Team New England Prep hockey selection who helped Salisbury to two New England Prep championships, certainly had his pick of the litter when it came to choices. Along with the numerous baseball offers, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound defenseman also received interest to play hockey from Ivy League institutions Cornell and Yale along with Hockey East schools Vermont and Maine. Several offered him to play both baseball and hockey.

“I was definitely split between liking (hockey and baseball) pretty equally in high school and as I was growing

March 2015

STEVE GREEN

by Jerome Boettcher

Will Toffey’s brother, John, was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Will had offers from a handful of colleges who wanted him to play both baseball and hockey.

up so it was definitely a really hard decision,” said Toffey, who started at third base for the Commodores the first two games this season.

“I just felt baseball is a better opportunity for me. I could see myself playing baseball in college more so than I could see myself playing college hockey.”

Green also grew up in a hockey family just outside of winter weather haven Buffalo in Williamsville, N.Y. In fact, every winter the Green family built an ice rink in the backyard.

“Buffalo weather, the winters made it easy— a lot of snow and a lot of cold,” he said, smiling. “We always had friends over and played on the backyard rink. It is the main sport in Buffalo. So when winters come around it is the big thing to do.”

His father, Sean, played collegiately in New York before playing professionally in Europe.

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STEVE GREEN

Tyler’s younger brother, Owen, just 17, is playing professionally in Canada in the Ontario Hockey League for the North Bay Battalion.

At 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, Green looks the part of a hockey bruiser. He proved his versatility, playing forward, center and wing and was an all-conference selection and captain while leading Williamsville North to the New York state championship in 2011.

“I miss the high school games and the great school spirit we had,” Green said. “It was a lot of fun to play for the high school.”

Green played travel hockey all the way up to high school and continued to played for his high school team through his junior season. He received some interest from Division III schools but it “never got to anything serious.” Baseball was the favorite for the three-sport athlete, who also played tight end on the football team.

“I liked baseball better,” he said. “It was just kind of a feeling. It was not that I didn’t like playing hockey or any of the other sports, baseball I just always liked it a little more so I tried to pursue that.”

Basketball really didn’t pique the interest of Kendall. So looking for a way to spend the Wisconsin winters indoors and off the baseball diamond, Kendall picked up hockey in seventh grade when he started playing with his cousins.

Like Green, his family built a hockey rink in the backyard every winter.

“That was nice—just playing a sport that was different than most people think,” said Kendall, who grew up in Holman, Wis., just across a lake from Minnesota. “I love telling people that. ‘Oh yeah, I’m a hockey player.’

Just because people are like, ‘What?’ It is either football, baseball or basketball so it is cool telling people I play hockey.”

Kendall never received much interest from colleges about playing hockey nor did he want it. Baseball was his sport; hockey was for enjoyment. He believes his younger brother, Justin, 16, will be the hockey star in the family as he is already getting looks from junior teams.

“I left that for my brother,” he said. “I’ve played baseball my whole life. My dad said I was hitting off tees when I was 3.”

Though hockey is no longer an everyday occurrence for the three, they find many of the skills they learned on the ice carry over to the diamond.

Racing around on skates while also withstanding the physicality requires balance, speed and agility. Toffey also believes tracking the puck takes good hand-eye coordination, not unlike hitting a baseball or stopping a hot shot to third.

Hockey also provided its fair share of bumps and bruises—and cuts.

At 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, Tyler Green looks the part of hockey bruiser. He grew up with a hockey rink in his backyard in Buffalo, N.Y., and received interest from Division III schools before he stopped playing travel hockey.

Kendall lost four of his teeth—one of his teeth on the bottom have a chip—when one of his buddies’ sticks whipped up and smacked him in the mouth. Toffey remembers falling over and over again on the ice when he was seven years old and hitting his chin on ice, requiring stitches. He’s broken several bones, including his thumb when someone fell on him.

“Definitely a high risk and high reward sport,” Toffey said.

Green, not surprisingly with his stature, says he avoided most major injuries.

“I have been in a couple scrums, a couple fights. I don’t have any big injuries,” he said.

“Blood everywhere, never any broken bones.

Nothing exciting like that.”

As far as which sport is tougher, though baseball isn’t the most physical, Green believes it requires more mental toughness.

“I think hitting (a baseball) is the hardest thing to do in sports,” he said. “Hockey, you can throw the skates and hit someone and have a good game. Baseball, you can’t really hide...then again, some people don’t know how to skate. Skating is not exactly an easy thing to do.”

The pace of hockey prepped Toffey for the competitive moments of baseball, always keeping him alert despite the many moments where the game slows down. “(Hockey) is such a fast tempo game,” he said. “There is always something to do. Something going on. You get a short break and you are right back into action. Baseball can be a little more laid back and slow. It still applies.

I’m used to being so competitive that when I finally step into the box or get a ball (hit my way) I’m ready to go.” n

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March 2015

Law enforcement background helps mold Baldwin

by Jerome Boettcher

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healthcare fraud and government fraud. Before that she worked in recruiting agents, along with street crimes and teaching at the FBI Academy.

“She is absolutely the strongest woman I have ever come across by far,” Wade said. “I think I get my toughness from her.”

Wade said because of his parents’ background, he learned organization, discipline and mental toughness. He also got a taste of the rigorous training they went through to even be qualified for their jobs.

Three summers ago, he went to the FBI National Academy Youth Leadership Program in Quantico, Va. Baldwin was one of two representatives from the state of New Jersey to be chosen for the nine-day program, which attracts national and international students. In order to be accepted, he had to complete an application, write an essay and provide high school transcripts in addition to completing an interview.

Wade and his peers were put through the gauntlet with 55 hours of classroom instruction regarding law enforcement and leadership skills, along with book reports and team-building exercises. He also got a literal eye opener with a 5 a.m. wake-up call every morning that jumped right into a demanding physical fitness program.

This was the condensed version as his parents went through nine months of basic training.

“I got a little feel of what it is like to become an agent,” Wade said. “It really inspired me and it was shocking how my mom, especially—I knew my dad had the toughness to go through it—but I just really learned a lot about my mom and the toughness she had to go through as a strong woman, going through that type of training.”

At the end of the program, each student runs through the Yellow Brick JOE HOWELL

V

anderbilt freshman point guard Wade Baldwin IV shares a first name with his father. But he isn’t named after him.

When he was only 10 years old, Wade Baldwin III’s father, Wade Jr., died. At that time, Wade Baldwin III remembers telling his mother if he ever had a son, he would name him after his father. Thus, the youngest Wade is named after his grandfather.

So the old adage of what’s in a name carries a deeper meaning for Wade Baldwin III and he reminds his only son that he’s not just representing himself when he’s out on the basketball court or in the classroom.

“I was told at a young age by my father’s older brother, never to disrespect your last name,” Wade III said. “That was a name that was given to you. It wasn’t yours. I told Wade that wherever he goes, don’t ever disrespect your name.”

Respect, good moral character, hard work and diligence in the classroom were preached to Wade Baldwin IV at an early age. In fact, it was hard for Wade to get away with anything as his father was a senior special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration and his mother, Monica, worked for the FBI. “I had the rough basketball dad who really dug into me, coached me up a lot,” Wade said. “Then I had the mom who was nice, but she was still grinding and pounding, hitting me with I need to do well in school, do well in basketball as well. It was like I had two fathers and a mother. It was awesome. Awesome people. I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”

In December, Wade III retired and moved to Tampa after 27 years with the DEA as an undercover agent in narcotics that took him from New York to the Bahamas to Baltimore then back to New York. When Wade III lived in the Bahamas for six years, Wade IV would spend every July with his father, playing baseball and getting to join his father in a Coast Guard helicopter.

Monica has spent the last 26 years in the FBI. She supervises a squad who handles white-collared crimes such as mortgage fraud,

Wade Baldwin IV with his mother, Monica, and father, Wade III, at a ceremony at the FBI National Academy Youth Leadership Program.

Road—a Marine Corps obstacle course and run.

Wade finished first in his class of 50 and was awarded the coveted Yellow Brick.

Wade said he was the only athlete in the program. He was out of his comfort zone, and loved it.

“It was great. There was not a single athlete,” he said. “I met kids who drove tractor trailers to school, kids from Hawaii, who only go to school for three hours. I had a very limited connection with any of them. By the time we all graduated from the program… I still keep in contact with people. It was a good network. Basketball meant nothing for them. Meant nothing for me at that time. Shook down to what type of kid I am and what kind of kids they are.”

Whether Wade follows in his parents’ footsteps remains to be seen.

In high school, he thought wanted to become a college athletic director. Now he is eying an economics major and isn’t counting out law enforcement.

“What the FBI is really looking for now isn’t really a criminal justice major, more people who have work experience, computer science, speak different languages,” he said. “Not typically what an average person would think to be in the FBI.” But he does want to do his best to make his parents proud. And at just 18 years in, he has already done that.

“You do your best to raise a child with good moral character, gets good grades and achieves the most he can in life,” Monica Baldwin said.

“It is safe to say, Wade did that in basketball and also in school during high school. As a young man, he made some very smart, mature decisions. Whether the law enforcement aspect played into that or whether it was the way he was raised, I’m not going to credit either one but I’m sure it is a combination of both.” n

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

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March 2015

Warming up with Federer motivates Vanderbilt freshman

T

o say Vanderbilt freshman Daniel Valent was starstruck would be a huge understatement.

He started throwing a tennis ball against the wall when he was two years old. He entered his first tournament when he was seven. At age 14, he won the Swiss Championships indoor and outdoor finals and rose to No. 1 in the junior rankings in Switzerland.

So for a tennis enthusiast such as Valent, standing on the other side of the net from arguably the greatest tennis player in the world was a thrill to say the least.

“Roger Federer is my man crush,” he said. “I know pretty much everything there is to know about him. I wrote my final paper in high school about him. It was 30 pages long. Yeah, I’m obsessed with that guy.”

Two years ago, in Hamburg, Germany, Valent shared the court with Federer. Two natives of Switzerland—one with 17 Grand Slam championships to his name, the other a budding young player wanting to make a grand first impression to his idol.

Federer’s coach knew Valent’s junior coach and called him and asked him if his pupil would be interested in warming up Federer before a match in the ATP Tournament. Valent had just finished a match in a junior tournament in Hamburg and was back in his hotel room stretching when his coach called him. Valent, just 17 at the time, didn’t think twice and picked up his racquet to face the pro.

“It was amazing,” Valent said. “When we played together, I was really nervous. I just told myself, just give it your best and go for every ball.

I remember after practice, I asked him, ‘So what do you think?’ He said I like your intensity. Sometimes he just hit a drop shot just for fun and he thought, ‘OK, now the point is over.’ But I really went for every shot and he was real surprised.”

Eventually, Valent hopes to join Federer on the professional stage. It is a dream of his, one his brother, Roman, lived. Roman, who is 12 years older, went pro before he finished high school back in their hometown of Zurich, Switzerland, won Junior Wimbledon and rose to No. 180 in the ATP rankings.

“I always saw my brother playing and I also wanted to play,” Valent.

Daniel, however, wanted to pursue college tennis in the United States before taking a shot on the professional circuit. He had played in Futures Tournaments in the International Tennis

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Federation and decided he wasn’t ready for the men’s tour.

So he visited Vanderbilt—after associated head coach Jamie Hunt reached out to him—and chose the Commodores over North Carolina and Wake Forest.

“I just liked our team mentality—we went out and played wiffleball (on his visit) and had a lot of fun,” said Valent, a biological sciences major.

“I also liked the campus. You can walk everywhere. The coaches seemed really professional.

They know what they are doing. Everyone gave me the feeling they really care about me.

College tennis here is a highlight for me. The fans, how they support us, I’m not used to that.

To experience tennis as a team is pretty cool. I love playing tennis for a team. We have that in Switzerland but it was not that close.”

Living in the United States has been a bit of a transition for Valent, with the language barrier providing the biggest challenge. He speaks four languages fluently—his native tongue of German, Czech (his parents are from Czech Republic) and French.

He believes his English has gotten much better now since he speaks it every day.

He has also had to adjust to different food and the lack of some of his favorites like Swiss chocolate and Swiss bread. In fact, he brought over 25 pounds of Swiss chocolate, which quickly disappeared as he passed it out to his teammates and friends.

Experiencing a team mentality has also been a new, rewarding and enjoyable process for Valent. While much emphasis is put on individual play internationally, the team camaraderie and playing for team championships has been a welcome experience.

“The most important lesson I’ve learned is to put the team first,” said Valent, who was riding a 12-match winning streak in mid-February. “Tennis is a sport where you’re alone on the court. I didn’t understand this concept. But, now when we have these meets, I saw how we were all supporting each other. That is one of the best experiences I’ve had here—playing tennis as a team.”

Valent has goals of continuing the team concept as he hopes to play for Team Switzerland in the Davis Cup some day, along with the Olympics. But he knows has much room to improve before he reaches that point.

Just thinking back to that summer day two years ago when he swatted back on forth with Federer reminds him of that. Federer’s serving

JOE HOWELL

by Jerome Boettcher

Freshman Daniel Valent pulls from his experience of hitting with tennis great and fellow Switzerland native Roger Federer a couple years ago.

accuracy bewildered Valent. Often he returned shots up by his eyes because Federer puts so much “ridiculous” spin on the ball.

Every time he steps onto the court, he uses his match against Federer as motivation, to stay humble while simultaneously fueling for goals that lie ahead.

“It is a great inspiration,” he said. “Sometimes I’m on the court and I feel very good. Then I tell myself, ‘But remember when you played Roger, how he was hitting the ball?’ Then I always know what I can do better.” n

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March 2015

Coach’s Handbook: Pitching coach Scott Brown Scott Brown is in his third season at Vanderbilt. The Syracuse, N.Y., native, spent nine years as St. John’s pitching coach. Prior to that, he was a head coach in the New England Collegiate Baseball (Summer) League and worked for his alma mater for four years at State University of New York at Cortland. Brown and his wife, Mary, have three children—Nolan (6) and two-year-old twin daughters Kelsey and Riley.

Growing up were you always playing baseball?

Baseball has been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. My parents would joke that the game was never over for me. If I had a game, I would come home and play another game even if it was by myself. Or I would turn on a game on TV. It was something about the game. I never wanted to stop playing anything. I was really sports oriented. It really has been a part of my life. My dad and my grandparents they all played (his grandfather played for the Philadelphia Athletics, a semi-pro barnstorming team). I have always studied the game a little bit and tried to create games within games.

You’re from upstate New York but you’re a Red Sox fan?

That’s a long story. A really long story. I was actually a Yankees fan the first 10 years of my life and fell asleep at night listening to Yankees games on the radio. In 1986, my grandfather went south to Florida every year as a snowbird.

We went down and it was my first taste of Major League Baseball period. I had never seen a game in person, never seen a Major Leaguer in person. I was just wowed. Got all the autographs of the Red Sox. Jim Rice handed me a broken bat. Al Nipper handed me a baseball. It was just a workout day taking place and I bounced around the complex. Needless to say, I lost my Yankee baseball card collection on the way home. I was so enamored by the experience I had there. I didn’t know that I had gotten Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs and Mike Greenwell and these guys’ autographs. The funny part about that story is that I had a Garfield notebook that I picked up on the way that I was going to get autographs. The only guy that signed the Garfield notebook that day was Ted Williams, because I didn’t know who he was. He wasn’t in the media guide.

Any particular reason you got into coaching?

I always had the dreams that I was going to play in the major leagues. I don’t think that dream ever left me until… I mean I went into my senior year that was what I was going to do. Even though I threw like 82 miles per hour, nobody could tell me that wasn’t going to happen. I was so focused—that was where I was going to be. Then when reality came in, I said baseball has to be a part of my life. It just has to. Coach Joe Brown became the head coach at Cortland. He gave me a great opportunity to become an assistant there and learn on the fly with no experience as a coach. I was there for a few years and then I got an opportunity at St. John’s, which worked out well. It was everything. The right time with coach Ed Blankmeyer and then I’m very fortunate to end up here. The thing you don’t understand is you can’t put a price on the people you’ve been around. You don’t realize it until you’ve moved on and how much you’ve learned. Then you look and you say, ‘Wow.’ I played for Steve Owens who is now the head coach at Bryant. He was our head coach at Cortland. He has been successful his whole life. He helped shape me. Then Coach Blankmeyer for nine years at St. John’s. Now, coach (Tim) Corbin. It is incredible. All it is doing, it is continuing to make me a better coach and a better person. Hopefully I can pass along to players and, more importantly for me, it is about being a good dad and a good husband.

JOHN PETERSON

How enjoyable has it been to be a part of the Vanderbilt family the last two years?

Scott Brown, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., is in his third season as Vanderbilt’s pitching coach. In his first two years, he’s guided a pitching staff that helped the Commodores reach the Super Regional in 2013 and reach the College World Series and win a national championship in 2014.

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It has been incredible every day. But people that know me know that I’m pretty mild-mannered and even keel on a daily basis. I’m always smiling. I just enjoy it. I really do. It almost doesn’t feel like you won a national championship or the players accomplished the things they did. Because it really like almost every day here is enjoyable. Yeah, it is easy to say because in two years we haven’t hit rock bottom. We had some ups and downs last year but it never felt like, well, this is wearing you out. It is a great experience. The people here are fun to be around. You can learn a lot from them and there is energy every day. I appreciate it and I’m thankful my family can be implemented into that type of environment as well. I have young kids. Six-year-old Nolan loves to be here for batting practice. My twin daughters are just excited to stand up on the dugout and dance during practice. It is a family atmosphere and it is fun to be around these people. n

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

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March 2015

1/23/15 3:01 PM

THE VU From Here

Paul Darden

by Jerome Boettcher Paul Darden’s Commodore fandom predates Memorial Gymnasium. And that’s saying something since Memorial, built in 1952, is the oldest basketball arena in the Southeastern Conference.

“I was following them then,” Darden said.

“I remember being a fan in high school.

Vanderbilt and Tulane were big rivals back then. I remember a game at East Nashville High School with Tulane. Of course it was a small gym, but it was packed. So I’ve been following them a long time.”

A Nashville native and Peabody College graduate, Darden purchased his first season tickets in 1956, a year after he got out of the Army. He has been coming to Vanderbilt games for an incredible 58 straight seasons.

“I hardly miss any unless the weather is bad,” said Darden, who has lived in Donelson for the last 48 years. “I don’t miss any if I can get there. I’m that much of a fan.”

The 84-year-old started sitting on the student side back when it just had two sections.

He was next to the wall, not far from where the radio broadcast teams set up. In 1965, Clyde Lee’s freshman season, they added on more seats in the end zone and extended the stands with an aisle. It was then when he moved up to the front row of Section 2F, where he has been ever since.

He has two tickets and shares with a friend from his (now defunct) North Nashville High School days. His friend, who is 88 years old, doesn’t usually come to night games so Darden will gladly share them with friends— even if they aren’t Commodore fans. He took friend Mike Drudge, a Purdue grad, with him when Vanderbilt played the Boilermakers in December.

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MIKE DRUDGE

But years before Memorial Magic, Darden can remember watching Vanderbilt home games at East High School and David Lipscomb College.

Longtime Commodore fan Paul Darden, right, enjoys the Vanderbilt men’s basketball game at Purdue with friend Mike Drudge. Darden has been a season ticket holder at Memorial Gymnasium since 1956.

But he does draw the line.

“I’d tear one up before I’d sell it to a UT fan,” Darden said.

Half of the enjoyment of going to the games for Darden is the atmosphere. He’ll follow the Commodores’ road games on TV but it is not the same as being there.

He likes seeing the whole court, watching plays unfold and the people watching.

Currently, he enjoys sitting across the court from Frank and Tracy Kornet, the parents of Vanderbilt sophomore center Luke Kornet.

Darden watched former Commodore and All-SEC selection Frank Kornet’s entire career at Vanderbilt. Every now and then, Darden will look across the floor and watch Tracy Kornet nervously cheering on her son.

“A mother’s love,” Darden said, laughing.

After he returned from serving in the Army, he worked in purchasing and printing for the Sunday School Board and the Southern Baptist Convention for the more than 25 years.

Now retired, he lives in Donelson with his two dogs, and relishes connecting with Vanderbilt fans old and new.

“I enjoy all the connections I can with friends,” he said. “Friends mean a lot to you when your family is gone. Sure do.”

A proud Peabody College graduate with a business degree, he also respects the type of student-athletes he is watching at Vanderbilt.

For that reason, he enjoys coming back every year to root on the Commodores.

“I love Vanderbilt,” Darden said. “I have just been a Vanderbilt fan because I appreciate the high standards Vanderbilt holds, the education kids get out there. The scholastic levels of the Vanderbilt student-athletes is so high, the graduation rate and everything as compared to other schools. That in itself is something that should be admired and cause you to want to support them.”

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 games. Whether you met your spouse in the student section or shared popcorn with your grandfather from the very top row of the endzone in Section L, we want to hear your point of VU (pronounced “view”) of Commodore Football.

Send in your stories to ticket.office@vanderbilt. edu. 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

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

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March 2015

It’s My Turn

By Rod Williamson

JEFF GROSS

L

Vanderbilt alum Brandt Snedeker won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for the second time in three years and broke his own scoring record at the tournament at Pebble Beach, Calif., in February.

Snedeker wins Pebble Beach title, sets record

B

randt Snedeker was right at home in February.

The Nashville native was actually thousands of miles away in California. But he sure felt comfotable as he won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for the second time in three years. In the process, he broke his own scoring record he set two years ago as he shot a four-day, 22-under 265.

“I might need to buy some real estate here,” Snedeker said. “I love being here at Pebble.”

He played bogey-free in the final round and finished with a 5-under 67 to win by three strokes over Nick Watney. In doing so, he qualified for a spot at the Masters and PGA Championship.

“I worked my tail off last year and didn’t get result that people were accustomed to me getting,” Snedeker said. “I knew it was coming. It was just hard to be patient. To do that this week, be patient enough to wait for a tournament like this to happen... All the stars lined up for me and I took advantage of it.”

It was the seventh PGA Tour win for Snedeker and his first since 2013.

“There was so much on the line,” he said. “So much stuff going through my mind that I had to quiet down and keep focusing on the small stuff. I got emotional on 18th green before I hit my putt because I realized how important this win is for me. Gets me back on track to where I feel like I belong. All the stuff I’ve been doing has been validated.”

There with Snedeker was Toby Wilt, the founder of the Golf Club of Tennessee and chairman of the board of Christie Cookie Company. Wilt, who played football and golf at Vanderbilt in the 60s, joined Snedeker for the Pro-Am portion of the tournament and the duo finished second.

In addition, former All-American Jon Curran finished in a tie for 10th at Pebble Beach with a 15-under par 272. It was the second-best finish on the PGA Tour for the Hopkinton, Mass., native. n

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et’s talk about optimism, pessimism and realism for a few minutes—not the stuff you’d get from a clinical psychologist but rather what we’d hear waiting for a haircut.

June 30, 2014. Commodore Nation is aglow, relishing its national championship in baseball, remembering its third straight bowl trip six months earlier. Many of the program’s Olympic sports were healthy as a horse. Some called it the “Golden Age of Vanderbilt Athletics.”

We couldn’t wear our Vandy gear often enough.

It was easy to be an optimist, so many others were.

Fast forward a mere seven and a half months, Valentine’s Day 2015. Many of the gang that had been bragging about all the Black and Gold advantages have gone home and dimmed the lights. What were we thinking when we were winning?

It was real easy to be a pessimist then because the Doom and Gloom crowd had overtaken the thought waves.

Winston Churchill, regarded by many historians as the “Man of the 20th Century”, once said “a pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

There is little doubt that we’ve experienced some turbulence as several of our marquee programs are rebuilding with freshmen and sophomores against formidable foes. Methinks this is what the pessimists can’t get beyond—how wonderful things are in Opponent Land.

We have a world class university in one of the best cities in the United States.

We compete in the nation’s best collegiate conference. That has not changed overnight.

Enter realism—hurry, please! Have we not learned that things are never as good as they appear or as bad as they seem? Have we not realized that there are peaks and valleys in every sports program everywhere? Quick—name a program that hasn’t had ups and downs. I’m still waiting.

When we were thinking as Dale Carnegie would wish, every recruit was a future star. Every opponent on the schedule was vulnerable and beatable.

Then enter the doomsayers and every foe is suddenly Johnny Wooden’s UCLA Bruins.

That’s a bunch of horse feathers and deep down you should know that if you don’t already. Everybody has challenges although I might want to trade mine with Warren Buffet for a few days just to be certain.

An author named James Branch Cabell wrote “the optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.”

We have a world class university in one of the best cities in the United States. We compete in the nation’s best collegiate conference. That has not changed overnight and certainly not since last summer. And despite some of the snarky things you may see on the back roads of the internet, many young people see that more clearly than you might imagine.

There was an excellent book written by a successful Division III football coach a few years back, “Making the Big Time Where You Are.” It is a short, easy read and—spoiler alert—we find the “big time” is really just a state of mind. What is your state of mind?

It’s time to sit in the barber’s chair so let’s close with the Dalai Lama: “Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.” n

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My Game

Stephen Weatherly

O

utside linebacker Stephen Weatherly is coming off a sensational sophomore season in which he led the Commodores in tackles for loss (12.5) and sacks (4.5) while contributing 55 tackles. The redshirt sophomore from Snellville, Ga., also has an impressive resume off the field. A jack of all trades he plays a multitude of instruments, skate boards, cooks and loves complex brain teasers.

CN: You can play a variety of instruments. What do you play?

Stephen Weatherly: From elementary school all the way up to 10th grade I played flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, baritone, tuba and saxophone. And recently, last semester, I took piano here at Vanderbilt.

CN: You hit the whole spectrum then.

You just wanted to try a lot of different instruments?

Stephen Weatherly: It started off in elementary school. My best friend at the time played flute. So I was like, I’ll play flute with him. From then I got further and further deeper into the band.

Clarinet was pretty fun. I realized trumpets were the vocals of a song. I realized all the soul was in the sax. That’s when I got into jazz a little bit. Then I realized all the bass and all the thump comes from the big boys in the back.

Low brass.

CN: So were you in the marching band?

Stephen Weatherly: No. That is actually when I had to decide if I wanted to play football or join marching band. I picked football. I was in concert band.

CN: Do you have a favorite instrument?

Stephen Weatherly: I would say to this day, baritone is my favorite.

It is not too deep. There is still a little bit of soul and funk to it. It still brings that powerful bass.

CN: How has that been, learning to play piano?

Stephen Weatherly: I ended up getting an A in the class for beginner piano. She said I was one of the faster learners in the class because of all the other instruments I played. Reading music wasn’t hard. Reading both space clef and treble clef. The hardest part is some songs your left and your right hand are doing two completely different things. That was something I had to get used to. After I got that down, it was pretty smooth sailing from there.

CN: So you also skateboard as well?

Stephen Weatherly: Yes. I picked up long boarding toward the end of the summer. I live on a hill so class would be downhill but not too steep where I’m going too fast. I get on and stand and just ride, smooth sailing to class. Then I walk here (to practice) and then I walk back to class. When it is sunny out, it is nice, breeze through my hair, long locks flowing.

CN: Any reason you picked it up?

I have a car but not many parking spots here at Vanderbilt. I had a scooter but I wasn’t really that safe driving a scooter. So I just get on the sidewalk instead of walking. A couple teammates—Caleb Azubike had a long board, Paris Head, LaDarius Banks. I saw them have it and I was like that can’t be too hard to learn, just standing still. I have pretty decent balance so I gave it a shot. Sometimes, during the offseason, over the summer, we would go to hills and we all just ride down hills together and walk back up.

CN: Any other hobbies or interests?

Stephen Weatherly: Chess. I love playing chess.

I love puzzles. I can solve a Rubik’s cube. I love other puzzles I can fidget with, like a Gordian’s knot or a Babylon Tower. Things of that nature, things that I can sit down and use my mind to try to figure out.

CN: You cook as well?

Stephen Weatherly: Of course. Being from Atlanta, my mother and grandmother said you are going to know how to cook so I know how to cook. My favorite is Italian—baked ziti.

CN: You’re a sociology major and a minor in corporate strategy. What do you hope to do after you graduate?

Stephen Weatherly: I want to work in human capitol for a consulting firm and take people who have been laid off because of budget cuts or they want to optimize their business so they get rid of a certain sector, I want to take those people, retool their skillset and then put them back out there in the job market so they can have a better chance of getting a better job .

CN: Any of your instruments here?

CN: So you seem to be a guy who is not afraid to try anything? Were you raised that way?

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March 2015

JOE HOWELL

Stephen Weatherly: They are all at home. The only thing I do practice regularly is piano. I took that last semester because I want to get better and better at it. I have a couple pieces I really want to play (such as Beethoven’s Fur Elise and Carmen Habanera) and play for my grandmother, who also played piano. That was one of the reasons why I wanted to learn how to play.

Stephen Weatherly: My mother said to always keep an open mind to things. You don’t know if you like something until you try it. So I try to give everything—food, different cultures, different things, different hobbies—I tend to give them a shot. Don’t knock it until you try it. n

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