SPORTS
- Inside the Huddle
- Furry friends gather for Mascot Night Lori Bero
- Team celebrates 25th anniversary with new records John Weidner
- Ospreys break all the wrong records against Savannah Ryan Clarke
- Two intramural flag football teams travel to national competition Kaelena Incinelli
Inside the Huddle
 Ace Stryker Copy Editor |
 Ross Brooks Features Editor |
 Matt Coleman Editor in Chief |
 Kaelena Incinelli Sports Editor |
| Question 1: The BCS national championship game is once again surrounded by controversy. What do you think the letters "BCS" should really stand for? | |||
| Biased Competitor Selection, because if you're not from one of the big-name conferences, you get screwed. | "Botched, Convoluted Standings." Seriously, what the hell? No more bowls, let's get a playoff system going. This topsy-turvy season has proven that anyone can win on any given Saturday. | Banana cognac shake. It's a lot more appetizing than a championship game featuring Ohio State again. | Teams playing for the championship "Because the Computers Said." |
| Question 2: As the college football season comes to an end, the firing of head football coaches begins. If you were an athletic director, how would you fire a coach? | |||
| I would take him to the aquarium, and we would look at all the fish, and talk about which ones were our favorites, and then I would fire him. | I would have my new choice for hire and former coach come in, and have the new coach critique game film in front of him, including his choice of facial expressions and head-phone tossing. | Old Yeller style. | It's not you, it's me, the empty seats and your 0-13 record. |
| Question 3: Why was the attendance for Dec. 1's ACC championship game in Jacksonville so horrendous? | |||
| What game? If it doesn't have monster trucks, me and the rest of Jacksonville are staying home. | Well, it could have something to do with the ACC having only five of its 12 teams breaking even in their division games. | Same exact reason Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver cries himself to sleep on his bed of cash. Jacksonville doesn't seem to care about football. | Probably because La-Z-Boy recliners are much easier on the rear than plastic bleachers. |
| Question 4: The Florida Marlins are still a baseball team, and they traded one of the best hitters in baseball, Miguel Cabrera, to the Detroit Tigers. What would you have given the Marlins in return for the 24-year-old slugger? | |||
| I would have given Miami a football team. | Baseball sucks, next question. Wait, this is the last question? OK, I would have given the Marlins an MTV music award. There will be plenty for sale on Ebay. | A two percent chance of making it into the playoffs if they trade their only source of offense. | I'm not sure what use I would have for a slugger, but if he was any good at writing, I might have paid him minimum wage for 10 hours a week. |
Furry friends gather for Mascot Night
UNF mascot Ozzie the Osprey will bring his friends out for a night of celebration at the men's basketball game Dec. 7 against the College of William and Mary.
"Nine out of 10 mascots want to hang out with me," Ozzie said. "The other is just lame."
Visiting mascots will include Ronald McDonald, the Chick-Fil-A cow, one of the Adventure Landing mascots, the Jacksonville Jam mascots and possibly Chuck E. Cheese.
"I wanted to invite a few of my local furry friends to
partake in some fun at UNF," Ozzie said. "Everyone knows that I am amazingly awesome all by myself, so just imagine the awesomeness Friday
night. It's going to be
pandimonius!"
The mascots will engage in a short basketball game during halftime. They also plan to mingle with fans and sign autographs during the game.
"We're all going to be
available for pictures and
autographs before, during, and after the game," Ozzie said.
The Nathan B. Forrest High School pep band will also be making their way to UNF for the game in response to a call to various high school pep bands to come and play at Osprey games.
"It will be a great kids' event," said Elliot Darkatsh, director of marketing and promotions. "It helps to enhance game
atmosphere."
Dec. 5 will be Wild Osprey Wednesday, a monthly spirit event on the Green. Dec. 6 is the baseball team flex-off and Dec. 8 is the women's basketball game.
"It will be a nice filled weekend before finals week," Darkatsh said.
Admission to the game is free for UNF students with a student ID, and $5 for general admission.
Contact Lori Bero at sports@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Team celebrates 25th anniversary with new records
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Sophomore Krissy Harms competes in the individual medley, where she had a season best in UNF's win over the University of New Orleans. |
On the day that UNF's swimming program celebrated its 25th anniversary, the swim team gave the program a lot more to cheer about by setting a pair of new school records in a 165-66 victory over the University of New Orleans.
Freshman LynAnn Nelson continued her breakout season with three first-place finishes, which included a new school record time of 10 minutes, 30.88 seconds in the 1,000-meter freestyle. Nelson followed her swim, which broke Heather Rasor's previous record of 10 minutes, 33.23 seconds, with first-place wins in the 400-individual medley and the 500-freestyle.
"I knew she had the ability to break the record," head coach Beth Harrell said. "She was getting excited about the race early in the week. LynAnn thinks through her races before she swims them and is very good at targeting her goal. It's exciting for us to be breaking records during the dual-meet season."
Harrell said junior Caroline Poling put together her performance with wins in the 200-butterfly and 200-medley relay.
Her time of 2 minutes, 10.49 seconds in the 200-butterfly was a season best.
Freshman Megan Boudreau picked up a pair of victories with top finishes in the 200-freestyle (1 minute, 57.58 seconds) and 100-freestyle (55.1 seconds). She was also on the winning 400-medley relay team.
The Ospreys also saw season-best times from freshman Becky Ryerson (26.12 seconds in the
50-freestyle), freshman Sara Taylor (5:18.12 in the 500-freestyle), sophomore Rachel Branston (56.98 seconds
in the 100-freestyle) and sophomore Krissy Harms (2:16.33 in the 200-backstroke and 4:43.56 in the 400-individual
medley).
Juniors Emily Eisenhower and Debbie Rapoza split the top finishes in 1- and 3-meter diving. Rapoza's score of 265.65 in the 1-meter competition put her in first, while Eisenhower's mark of 262.45 in 3-meter brought her a first-place finish as well.
"I thought they swam well today, and I was pleasantly
surprised," Harrell said. "It was good to see that effort from the team for the end of the semester."
The win for the Ospreys took their dual-meet record for the year to 5-0 - a new school record.
The Ospreys will face off against No. 20 Florida State University and University of North Carolina Wilmington Jan. 5, 2008, in a double-dual meet at the UNF Aquatic Center.
Contact John Weidner at sports@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Ospreys break all the wrong records against Savannah
The UNF men's basketball team had a game of worsts Nov. 27.
The Ospreys fell to the Savannah State University Tigers 58-32, and set some records - bad records - while they were at it.
For starters, the 32 points matched the record for fewest scored in a game.
The Tigers came into the game with a 4-4 record, with one of those losses being to Southeastern University, a member of the Federated Christian Athletic Association (non-NCAA).
Savannah State scored 23 consecutive points
after the Ospreys took a 5-3 lead to open the game.
It took a little over six minutes for the Tigers to open up a 20-point lead,
Senior center James Grimball snapped the run with a pair of free throws, and junior guard/forward Tom Hammonds added another pair minutes later. The Ospreys converted 14 percent from the field in the opening half, going 2-14.
The 19 turnovers against the Tigers matched the Ospreys' game average. They had two assists and were outrebounded 17-12. The 16 points scored were two better than the school record for lowest points scored in a half.
"Those 20 minutes were about as horrendous as I've ever seen," said coach Matt Kilcullen.
UNF finally walked into the locker room down 35-16, where Kilcullen perused the statistics and told his team, very simply, to forget about the first half.
"[We had to] forget about the last 20 minutes," he said. "There's nothing [we] could do about that [performance]."
The Ospreys began the second half with a 19-point deficit. The Tigers offense had a slow start in the second half, but the Ospreys could not capitalize on it, scoring just two points in that span.
Defensively, the Ospreys' Grimball recorded a school-high seven blocks, which matched the team's field goal total for the game.
By the time the second half was over, the Ospreys finished one of the worst offensive outputs in school history, shooting field goals at a clip of 16 percent - breaking the record worst of 22 percent - and committing 28 turnovers, breaking the record of 26.
Furthermore, the team's 3-point shooting set some new marks, as the number of threes hit (two) and the team's percentage from behind the arc (16 percent) tied the team's records. The team's
shooting percentage was two points off the team's all-time low of 16 percent.
Kilcullen spoke of his teams' injuries as one of the reasons the Ospreys have struggled since their Labor Day Canada trip, where they went 2-1. The Ospreys have since lost sophomore guard Stan Januska and freshman forward DeVon Jones. Freshman Justin Cecil returned to full-time action after battling
ankle and shoulder problems for the past month.
Junior guard Ian Gibson came out late in the first half with a hip injury and went to the hospital. All four were expected to be key contributors to this year's squad.
"Once we get them back on the floor, we'll see a much improved team," Kilcullen said.
The Ospreys return to the UNF Arena Dec. 7, when they play William and Mary at 7 p.m.
Contact Ryan Clarke at sports@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Two intramural flag football teams travel to national competition
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For most students, Christmas break is a time of relaxation and recuperation, but for two intramural flag football teams, it's a chance to show America their talent.
UNF women's flag football team Duval Mafia and men's flag football team Swoop will be traveling to New Orleans Dec. 29 for the National Collegiate Flag Football Championships.
"I think we're going to do well this year at nationals," said Duval Mafia center Ali Pancoast. "Our team chemistry is awesome, and we work well together."
Since the beginning of the year, Duval Mafia and Swoop have been practicing one-to-two times a week to sharpen their skills for the national tournament.
"We started practicing the second week of school," said Swoop quarterback Eric Bryant.
In order to gain competition experience, Swoop attended the Swamp Bowl tournament in Gainesville and a regional tournament in North Carolina. The team finished seventh at the Swamp Bowl and third at the regional tournament.
"It gives us a chance to compete with some of the best competition," Bryant said.
Both teams attended a national championship in Texas during the 2006 winter break.
"It was a really good learning experience and a lot of fun," Pancoast said. "We did not do as well as we had hoped, but we didn't know what to expect. It gave us a chance to see the competition out there. We played the defending national champions."
Her team is going to be much better
this year since it now has experience,
Pancoast said.
"At nationals, we're going to have a
better showing, because our training has made us better prepared," Pancoast said. "There's no way of telling how well we'll do, though, because we don't know what the competition will be like."
Bryant is confident in his team's ability to succeed at the national championship.
"We have to practice some defense," he said. "Our offense is set, and we are
going out there to bring a national title to UNF."
In order to travel to New Orleans, pay the entry fees, and stay during the tournament, the teams have to raise some funds.
Beef O'Brady's is sponsoring Swoop by giving them 25 percent of their proceeds on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Duval Mafia is still looking for sponsors and planning fundraising events.
Both teams are eager for the opportunity to play at nationals and ready to fight hard for
every win, Pancoast said.
Contact Kaelena Incinelli at sports@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE