Coaches' Blog

Blogger: Dawn Neal, Assistant Women's Basketball
Date: 8/23/2010

Lady Crusaders Basketball

Our team is returning to campus this week and it will be a busy first week. We will be basketball and weight lifting testing this week with the hopes of beginning preseason practice next week. We are looking forward to a great preseason as well as a great season with the team. This weekend we will travel to Branson for a Team Weekend Trip together. God has great things in store for us and we are ready to let Him show us what those things are. To God be the Glory.

Blogger: Debbie De Almeida, Women's Tennis Coach
Date: 8/12/2010

Back to School

Hello everyone! On my last blog I mentioned giving a preview of what is happening with our team this Fall. Tennis players come back next week and I am very excited! We have three new players coming to us and they will be perfect additions to our team.

Our first recruit signed was Claire Hoover from Mesquite, Texas. Claire will be a freshman and even though she likes the Dallas Cowboys, I love her despite this fact...(Cowboys = UGH!) Claire played at the #1 seed in doubles and I am really excited to add her strength to our line up. Claire is a go-getter and a hard worker and I can already tell she will give everything she's got on and off the court. Excited to see what she does this year:)

Marcela Rosales is coming from Leon, Mexico. Marcela is a dominate player and will be stepping into our top seed position. In the past year, Marcela has won almost every tournament she entered and her tournament wins are in the double digits! She is a phenomenal singles player and we are excited to see the strength she will add to our ladder make us stronger across the board.

Kelly Bush is coming from Ocala, Florida. Kelly is a transfer student in a pretty competitive JUCO circuit of Florida schools. Kelly was named all state and also was the state champion at the #2 doubles position. I think Kelly will add a lot of power and doubles expertise to our team and also is a hard hitter and covers the court well in singles and doubles.

This Fall will consist mainly of tournaments which really are fun and also provides an environment for high level of play, highest potential of matches, and a chance to play teams that are too far to travel to just to play one school. We will open up with our own Heart of America Athletic Conference tournament Sept 10-11. The next weekend we will go to Bethany College in Kansas and over 200 players will be participating in their organized tourney. The last tournament is probably one of the favorites for our tennis players, the ITA tournament will be played at the Plaza Courts in Kansas City which is a fantastic place to play! Players from all over the central Midwest will be participating and it is a chance to play and see great tennis.

We will wrap up our preseason in October heading down to Arkansas to play College of the Ozarks. This will be the second year we play them and it will be a good match up for the girls to finish the preseason on.

If you are a junior or senior in high school and interested in playing for our tennis team, please contact me. I would love to talk to you, watch a video of your play and if you have a chance to visit the campus, we would love to have you come and you could hit with one of our players instead of sending a video. Scholarships are available!

One of the greatest strengths we have as a team is that we have a family centered approach that our student athletes love! Come check us out!

Blogger: Lance Quessenberry, Head Baseball Coach
Date: 7/29/2010

Triple Crown World Series

On my way to Denver to the Triple Crown World Series. Looking for future EU Baseball players. Hoping to get out of the humidity for a week and enjoy some of the awesome sights Colorado has.

Might even find a player that is still looking to come to a great university like we have at EU. We can always use another guy. Can't we all.

Blogger: Jerry Breaux, Head Softball Coach
Date: 7/16/2010

Summer Time is Recruiting Time

Been busy this summer with much recruiting. My travels have taken me to California, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, and in-state Missouri. We received some early commitments from three 2011 player's. Natalia Rosales from San Diego, Brooke Jett and twin sister Jessica Jett from Victorville, California have all committed. Recruiting will finish up soon and then we will start preparing for another school year and season. Adios till next time!

Blogger: Steve Jenkins, Men's Basketball Coach
Date: 7/16/2010

Busy Summer

Our men's basketball team has kept busy this summer with some classes, camps, weight workouts, jobs, open gyms, and summer league games at The Courts. I am encouraged about the possibilities for the coming season. We should have a really good team. Most of our guys have either stayed here this summer or come back to town to attend some open gyms, camps, or Pro-Am League games. We are currently in fourth place (out of 11 teams) at The Courts with a 6-3 record. The teams are good and the competition is very keen. Every week has been a challenge and our guys have performed pretty well. If we can stay healthy, I like our chances of having a very good season this coming year.

We are putting together our 20th annual Evangel Open Golf Scramble to benefit the men's basketball team. This 4-person scramble will be held on Saturday, September 25, 2010, at Rivercut Golf Course in southwest Springfield, with a 7:30 AM shotgun start. Rivercut is the #1 rated public golf course in Missouri. We expect a full field of 30 teams, so get your team together and come out and enjoy a fun round of golf and a great tournament. There will be several specialty contests and lots of drawings for great prizes. More info later. Have a great summer.

Blogger: Dawn Neal, Assistant Women's Basketball
Date: 7/15/2010

Aldy Crusaders are Hard at Work

The Lady Crusader Basketball team is hard at work in this off-season. We are playing in the Pro-Am league at The Courts and we are doing well. We ahve 2 more games left this summer July 21 and 28 and then the tournametn begins. This league allows the girls to continue their work on their game and talos to come together as a unit. The new players are learning to play with the returning players to allow for the strength of our team to continue to develop. Last night I watched a team play hard and play together. We have so much potential and it looks like they are understanding that hustle and intensity are key elements to succeeding in any endeavor.

The upcoming season, like any other season will have its ups and downs, but with God, team work, and hard work this team will reach all that it is destined to. Each one of the girls on this team are focused and working hard to help their team with their own God-given abilities and talents. Go Lady Crusaders!!

Blogger: Debbie De Almeida, Women's Tennis Coach
Date: 7/15/2010

09-10 Wrap Up

Well, it has been a while:) Looking ahead to next season I can't help but look back at all the things that happened last season with our tennis team. With that said I thought I would reflect with you about some of the great things that happened last season! This is a great point to continue on for the season coming up! Here our some notable mentions from last year (I didn't mention everything because if I did, you would be reading this blog entry for a long time:) These are just some highlights:

1. Larissa Davidiuk and Hannah Ball received Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete Awards. In women's tennis across the country, only 115 women were awarded this honor and we are proud to have two of them on our team! In order to achieve this honor, the student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and have achieved junior academic status to qualify. Congratulations to Larissa and Hannah!!!

2. This was our first season that we took a Spring Break trip to play tennis. We went to Orlando, Florida and played some tough nationally ranked NAIA teams and also some NCAA schools. Overall, the girls did great and learned a lot and despite the downpour of rain and some matches cancelled, the girls had a great time! Many more trips to come!

3. Within the Heart of America Athletic Conference, Evangel was nominated and awarded the Best Sportsmanship Award! That says a lot when your opponents nominate you!

4. Also within the HAAC, Evangel proved to be the most improved team in tennis!

5. In the ITA ranking of NAIA Women - Central, Maria Martinez, our #1 seed for the 09-10 season was ranked #13 in their Top 25 list of singles players!

6. Also in the ITA ranking in doubles, Maria Martinez and Hannah Ball were ranked #9 out of the Top 15 doubles teams in the Central region. We are very proud of all our players!

In a few weeks I will be writing a preview of our 10-11 season and sharing news about the team, new players and more. Stay posted and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me!

I am looking for players for the 11-12 season so if you are a tennis player, please contact me, introduce yourself and let's get the ball rolling!

Thanks for reading my blog entry and hopefully you are as excited as I am about the great things happening with Evangel Tennis!

Blessings,

Coach Debbie

Blogger: Ashli O'Connell, Web Content Developer and Editor
Date: 6/4/2010

Baseball team in Mexico

Don't miss updates on the baseball team's trip to Mexico at the Campus Crawler blog. Dr. David Stair, director of athletics, is sending in updates from Tlaquepaque.