sports7
wingspan • april 8, 2011
Cheap Seats
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s technology has changed, so have athletics at West. During the winter sports season, Athletic Director Kent Parent purchased iPads for the baseball and men’s basketball coaches to use with their teams. Brandon Ball, head coach for the varsity baseball team, recently received his iPad and is excited to start using it to enhance his coaching. Scouting teams will become easier with the use of a baseball app, as well as keeping team statistics. “It is going to free up some time as far as scouting teams and that sort of thing,” Ball said. “It is going to help us put some scouting reports together. In the past everything has had to be kept on paper. We had to combine different charts and try to make one scouting report on each hitter for each team. It will free up some time that way. We will be able to do more things on the field instead of sitting down and doing scouting reports.” Parent said he hopes that the iPads will provide a large database for all the stats. The iPad stat tracker will be able to sort different stats by the correct player and team. He purchased iPads with funds from the Booster Club, and the iPads will be rotated between sports as the seasons change. “The iPad keeps an accumulative record of the stats for the entire season. Rather than going to the scorebook and transferring that data into a database, they already captured that data. The data is compiled by position, by team and by player,” Parent said. “It saves them hours and hours of sitting in front of another computer trying to input that data. So the primary reason why I bought them is to cut down time on the stats so they can concentrate more on coaching.” As the season began, Ball planned to use the iPad to keep a stat book of his own players to see what they needed to work on in order to prepare for the regular season. In past years a book has been kept during intra-squad games in order to keep track of players’ tendencies. Now the iPad can let the coaches work more one-on-one with players and more easily print out a report at the end of practice. “We can use it for practice. A lot of times, especially preseason, we are only allowed to have two scrimmages. So a lot of times we have intra-squad. We will split the guys up into two different teams so that way they can face live pitching,” Ball said. Parent hopes the iPads will improve the athletic program by allowing coaches to make real-time adjustments during the game. “During our basketball games we were able to set up a shot chart at halftime so the coach could say, ‘Look where we are shooting in the paint.’ Green X’s indicate made shots and red X’s indicate shots missed,” Parent said. “So the iPad app tells live data to the players so they can make their adjustments.”
Cam Newton not NFL ready
Photo by Haley Glatzer
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Tennis team welcomes new coaching staff
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Meredith Cole Feature Editor
s he prepared to serve the ball, senior Zane McGhee was ready to win his match. His team only needed one more point to seal a win over county-rival North Henderson. As the ball went up in the air, McGhee and his doubles partner, Mike Aamodt, focused on the return. A couple of seconds later, they had achieved their goal and won the last point. The men’s tennis players said they are off to a positive start. McGhee and Aamodt are 5-2 in doubles in conference play. “This season is going well. Everyone is a little stronger and more experienced, and experience goes a long way. As a team we are playing better each match,” McGhee said. The season kicked off Feb. 28 with a scrimmage against Owen. The tennis team has had 10 matches since then, and its record stands at 6–4, (6-1 WNCAC). “I think that the recent match against Tuscola went really well, either that or the game against North,” McGhee said. “Tuscola was a lot of fun to play because they were very good, and it always feels nice to win a conference match.” This year’s team consists of five upperclassmen and five underclassmen. In addition to two new freshmen joining the team, they also gained new coaches. Allen Combs and Paul Thompson are the men’s tennis coaches for the 2011 season. Players on the team said they are appreciative of the new coaching style the men have introduced. “As opposed to last year’s open practices where we could work on what we wanted, this year we have more structured practices, and I feel like everyone on the team has improved from last season and that is do in big part to the way the coaches run practices and encourage us to do our best,” senior Record: Graham Pate said. Pate and the rest of the team remain optimistic about the postseason.
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Photo provided by Lifetouch
t seems like every other year there is a college quarterback entering the draft who generates tons of hype, but ends up overrated. Fifteen quarterbacks picked in the first round of the NFL draft over the past 10 years are no longer with the team that drafted them. When a franchise drafts a Camen Royse quarterback in the first round, they expect that quarterback to be their leader for the next 10 or more years. Could former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton be following in the footsteps of Vince Young and Michael Vick when he was with Atlanta? He is the talk of the draft. Athletically, he’s astounding: at 6 feet, 5 inches and 250 pounds, he can run the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds, and he moves like a running back. His passing mechanics are impressive for an athletic quarterback. The problem? He is nowhere near ready to play in the NFL. The offensive system he played in college made passing the ball simple, but an NFL defense makes nothing simple. Newton relied on his athletic ability to carry him through a game even if he was not being very efficient with the ball. The way the league is now, rookie quarterbacks get thrown into the game their first year (most owners want someone they’re paying millions of dollars to to make an immediate impact). If Buffalo drafts him, he would be in an ideal opportunity to develop behind Ryan Fitzpatrick. Aaron Rodgers and Philip Rivers were first round draft picks that had to sit on the bench for a while before becoming the starter and now they are two of the top quarterbacks in the league. However, if he goes to an organization like the Carolina Panthers, chances are he will be thrown in the action immediately. For the most part, when rookie quarterbacks are named the starter without really having to work for it, they fail. Newton has potential, but for him to not simply be another bust as an athletic quarterback, he must ride the bench next season.
Aury St. Germain Feature Writer
Leaps and Bounds At the opening meet of the track season at North Buncombe, sophomore Tyler Pedersen leaps over a hurdle in the 300-meter event. “I knew that I had to get off to a good start. I was able to pull ahead immediately and knew that I had to stay focused to finish well,” he said.
Track teams begin season with wins Aury St. Germain Feature Writer
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roudly holding their first place trophy, the women’s track team walked off the track at the Eddie Reneau Invitational held at East Henderson on April 4. It was the team’s third win in their first four meets of the season. First place finishes for the women’s team included sophomore Heidi Brickhouse, shot put; sophomore Angela Gross, two-mile; and junior Kathryn Gorgas, pole vault. Senior Kiersten Ellsworth broke the mile record for the meet with a first place finish time of 5:42. The men’s team placed second at the meet with first place finishes by the 4 x 800 meter and 4 x 400 meter relay teams. Sophomore Zach Bryant placed first in the 400-meter race. Sophomore Saban New won the long jump and
placed third in the triple jump, earning most valuable field athlete honors at the meet. Track team members are pleased with how the season is going, but they still have goals to work on. “I want a team that can collaborate and work together on things. Right now the team is kind of separated, and there is a distance group, sprinter group and the field group,” Brickhouse said. “It doesn’t feel unified, but all of these groups have to come together for the team to continue to win.” The men’s team won the Blackhawk Invitational at North Buncombe on March 22. “The first meet at North Buncombe I was on the 4 x 800 team, and we placed first,” junior Sean Rapp said. “Whenever we went back to North Buncombe for the Black Hawk Invitational, I got sixth place in the two mile, which I wasn’t too happy about, but it was really hot that day. Despite the weather, everyone really stepped it up.”
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