Athletics
SUU softball player graces cover of Sports Illustrated
Southern Utah University softball player Mandy Brown is featured on the
cover of the Sept. 16, 2002 issue of Sports Illustrated. Brown, a freshman
pitcher from Poway, Calif., is one of a group of Americans highlighted
in the issue for achievements they have made in the face of adversity
since Sept. 11, 2001.
Brown lost her father to a heart attack last spring several weeks before
the softball season started. Faced with the loss of her father and a pending
suspension from school for missing so much time due to the funeral and
related events, Brown considered quitting softball and missing her senior
season at Poway High School. Instead she decided to stay with the sport
and rallied her team to a state championship despite entering the tournament
as a last-place team.
"What happened to Mandy is really quite interesting," SUU softball
Coach Laurel Simmons said. "She loses her father, is faced with suspension
by the principal and was really struggling personally, let alone with
softball. But she made an amazing turn-around and pitched that team to
a CIF championship after going into the tournament in last place. She's
a courageous young woman and she's going to be one of the top pitchers
on our team this year."
Brown appears on SI's cover wearing an SUU softball jersey while standing
in front of an American flag.
Gymnasts win academic national championship again
For the second straight year and three of the last four years the SUU
Women's Gymnastics team has been named the Academic National Champions.
That's five academic national championships in the last nine years. These
marvelous women student athletes have established a reputation for toughness
and single mindedness that is unsurpassed in their sport. One can't help
but conclude that they are so good in gymnastics because they are smart
and they are smart because they are good. The team carried an incredible
3.780 grade point average for the 2001-02 season.
Cross country teams continue dominance of conference
The men's and women's cross country teams have dominated the Mid-continent
conference since joining the conference six years ago. Each team has won
five championships-the women again this year.
Great student athletes
Eighty seven student athletes at SUU have been named to the AD's Honor
Roll for the spring semester 2002. In all seventeen women's track and
field athletes, sixteen football players, ten gymnasts, eight women's
basketball players and eight baseball players. Additionally seven men's
cross country runners, six soccer players, five women's tennis players,
four men's basketball players, three golfers, and three softball players
were named to the list.
Kathryn Berg honored
Dr Kathryn Berg was recently inducted into the SUU Athletic Hall of Fame
at halftime of the SUU vs. St. Mary's football game. Dr. Berg served as
a coach, associate athletic director and senior woman's administrator
at the University for 34 years is the first inductee into the Athletics
Hall of Fame since 1997. During her tenure here at SUU Dr. Berg coached
virtually every woman's sport as well as serving on numerous NCAA committees,
including the prestigious NCAA Steering Committee.
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