NEWS, NOTES &
COMMENTARY
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The Bradsher Beat
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
By Bethany Bradsher |
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Professor Bradsher's spring
survival primer
By
Bethany Bradsher
©2010 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
The process of
getting my kids out of bed this morning was a lot like hauling large
bags of cement downstairs. They had just enough Spring Break last week,
it seems, to infect them from now until June.
Spring fever has
officially arrived, not just at my house but all over Pirate Country. Since
the chief symptom of spring fever is a wandering mind, I have created a
study guide of sorts, a cram sheet of the most vital facts from the spring
sports frenzy that encompasses more than half of the sports at East
Carolina.
Pay close attention. This
information will be on the End-of-Season (EOS) test:
1. Spelling.
This lesson begins with the ABCs, specifically the opening letters of
the Pirate track and field team. A is for Dennis Aliotta, who set a school
record in the shot put at a recent meet in Raleigh and then won both the
shot put and the hammer throw at the Mountains vs. Beaches challenges. B
stands for Tynita Butts, who has broken the school record twice in the high
jump during this high jump season and is aiming for a second NCAA
qualification mark after finishing 10th at the NCAA Indoor Championship last
month. And C is for Camelia Morman, who reached her own outdoor personal
record in the triple jump in Wilmington with a second-place leap of 12.23
meters.
2. Math.
It’s simple subtraction: 17 minus 9 equals 8, which is the number of
teams in the Wolfpack Intercollegiate, including the East Carolina men’s
golf team. Out of that field, 9 finished below the Pirates, who finished the
tournament No. 8. In more advanced arithmetic from the same event, the
68th-ranked Pirates finished ahead of five teams — No. 31 Wake Forest, No.
47 Michigan, No. 56 UNC-Wilmington, No. 59 Virginia Tech and No. 64 New
Orleans — that were ranked higher than them in the latest Golf Weekly poll.
3. History.
The Lady Pirates softball team would ace this test question: Who won
both of the games between ECU and N.C. State last season? The Pirates swept
that season series, defeating the Wolfpack 5-0 in Raleigh and 3-1 in
Greenville. It’s time for history to repeat itself, as ECU (23-14) is
traveling to Raleigh today for a doubleheader, with games at 3 p.m. and 5
p.m. The rivalry match will break up an intense Conference USA stretch for
ECU, which is hoping to re-invent history this spring with its first C-USA
title.
4. Geography.
This lesson comes straight from the roster of the ECU men’s tennis team,
which includes players from Slovakia, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Norway.
This United Nations of Pirate teams has collected an 18-6 record so far this
season, beating opponents like Tulane, UAB and Appalachian State. The
Pirates only need one more win to tie last season’s school record for most
victories in a season, chasing the 2009 team’s mark of 19-5. They only have
one more chance in the regular season, Saturday at Elon, before they play in
the Conference USA tournament starting on April 22.
5. Physics.
Defined as the “science of matter and energy and their interactions,”
physics will govern the next few weeks of the ECU women’s golf team,
especially as they travel to Hattiesburg, MS, this weekend for the C-USA
Championships. At stake is the Lady Pirates’ chance to play in the NCAA East
Regional that they are hosting at Ironwood — only one of three such events
in the nation. If enough golf balls interact favorably with holes, ECU could
get the opportunity to participate in the tournament, rather than simply
stand by and show hospitality.
Spring fever or not, there reaches a time when
you have to study the material and show that you can rise above the
distractions and reach excellence. And these lessons go beyond the three Rs
to things like RBIs, pole vault heights and eagles.Please try to stay focused. You might want to
move your desk away from that window.
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