Crystal Klein

Last semester, Loras Junior Nick Rizzo accepted a position coaching soccer at Wahlert High School.  And it seems many of his teammates are following in his footsteps, coaching soccer at other area Dubuque high schools.

Loras Senior Chris Migley had never thought of being a coach, until his college coach, Daniel Rothert approached him about an opportunity to coach at Senior High School with duhawk alumni, Tom White.

“I love the game of soccer, and I love teaching and working with kids and being in the classroom, it’s a great experience and I thought it would be even better to see them on the field,” said Migley.

Migley’s fellow loras teammate, Luke Schweitzer agrees, “I really have a strong passion for the game and working with High School aged kids.  I just would really like to share my knowledge of the game with them,”

Hempstead’s JV coach and Loras junior, Morgan Spencer says, “I just want to learn a lot from them, and I think they are hopefully learning a lot from me.”

Schweitzer, along with duhawks Santiago Mejia and Matt Splittgerber, all coach boys soccer at Hempstead High School, Coach Migley’s team’s cross town rival.

“On the field when were coaching it’s a little vicious and there’s some trash talking,” jokes Spencer.

Schweitzer insists, “We’re each other’s biggest fans, but during that match obviously were enemies, we still want to win.”

“You don’t want to lose, but I mean the scoreboard may say something, but it’s the hard work and the effort that the kids put on the field that counts the most,” adds Migley.

Despite the competition between their teams, they’re all still duhawks.  And they hope their camaraderie will instill good sportsmanship amongst their players.

Crystal Klein can be contacted at crystal.klein@loras.edu

Michael Higgins
Published: April 22, 2009

DUBUQUE -The Loras track and field team is off to another great start in the outdoor season SportsZone caught up with one athlete who has something new to contribute.

Three Thousand meters, thirty-five hurdles, including six water barriers was the challenge in front of senior middle distance runner Joey Hetland last Saturday at the University of Dubuque Open.

“I’ve never been able to run at conference because we had a pretty stacked mid-distance team the four years that I have been here so I wanted to run the steeplechase in order to do that,” said Joey.

“He was looking for events that weren’t terribly deep in where he could contribute and steeplechase is one of them and he’s a mid distance guy so for an eight hundred runner to say hey I want to do the steeplechase that is quite a step and I’m just proud of him. I think a lot of people take that for granted just running at the conference championship and I think for Joey that would be the icing on the cake for his career,” said track and field coach Bob Schultz.

Moving up in distance from the eight-hundred meter and mile races, Joey has been able to use his cross country experience to adjust. The hurdles were another story.

“I was really nervous about the water pit, I’ve never jumped into one of those before so once I got through those I knew I was alright, I wanted to finish the race after that,” said Joey.

Joey and other Duhawks will be competeing here at the Loras Open this weekend. The event starts at ten o’clock on Saturday morning.

Michael Higgins can be contacted at Michael.Higgins@loras.edu

Felcia Carner
Published: April 9, 2009

Dubuque - Water polo is an aggressive sport but not too aggressive for the Loras’ Duhawks, not even for their female swimmers.

Sophomore Colleen Green plays for Loras’ co-ed water polo team and says that playing on a team with guys only adds to the fun of the game. Although males are the more physically dominate she says, “I do my best to keep up.” Green says the team as a whole is trying to keep up with the bigger spectrum of the game.

This is the fourth year of existence for the Loras College Water Polo team and they have yet to become an official club.
While other schools receive both funding and professional coaching, these Duhawks fund and train themselves. The team is student lead by two of Loras’ students, senior Ashley Rivard and freshmen Ricky Lucas. Both leaders played in their high school years and their knowledge has been apparent to their team.

“They have stepped in and given us a direction and planning,” said Dennis McCormick, a Sophomore who plays on the team.
Lucas’ love for the sport, lead him to assist Rivard in conducting this team.

“I couldn’t live without water polo, I love the sport and I’m glad we might get it to be an official club at Loras College,” said Lucas.

Lucas says that the team is ready for the next level and has written a constitution for the team. Lucas has turned the constitution into the Student Union for review and approval. They are currently awaiting the union’s ruling.

If their constitution is approved the team will then be provided with a budget that will assist them in paying tournament entry fees and basic equipment.

One of the first things on their list is the supplies needed to build proper tournament sized goals.

The Duhawks will lead themselves to their next tournament on April 18th at Augustana College in Illinois.

Felicia Carner can be reached at felicia.carner@loras.edu

Jordan Rasmussen
Published: April 9, 2009

Dubuque - Secretary of the Loras physical education and sports studies club, Kristine Mason, is in love with soccer. She has been organizing and fundraising to put on a three on three soccer tournament at Loras called Grassroots Soccer.

Mason said that,” Grassroots soccer is an organization in South Africa where they combine soccer with the education of AIDS, because it is such a huge epidemic there.”

Teams could sign up to play in the event for 30 dollars and could purchase t-shirts for five dollars more, with all of the money going directly to the KICKAIDS foundation in Africa.

The goal of the days was to bring people from all over the Dubuque community to play.

“Soccer is such a huge part of the whole Dubuque community, especially at Loras College; just everyone in the community is really soccer excited,” said Mason.

The tournament took place on Sunday, April fifth with snow falling and strong winds, but that didn’t hamper the spirits of those who participated.

“We won our first game, it was fun, it’s really cold out, but, you know it was fun, that’s what it’s all about today, it’s not really about who’s winning or losing, but just getting out for a good cause and playing soccer,” said Luke Schweitzer, a Loras athlete.

The day ended with over 21 teams and 104 participants coming together to show off their soccer skills for one great cause. All together the participants raised $1, 550 from donations, t-shirts sales and registration fees. The club still plans on continuing to raise money.

“We are always going to except donations and continue to make this grassroots soccer event an annual one.” Mason said

To learn more about grassroots soccer:
www.grassrootssoccer.org

FIFA produced video on the program: Grassroots Soccer Video

Jordan Rasmussen can be reached at Jordan.rasmussen@loras.edu

Michael Higgins
Published: March 25, 2009

Atlanta/Orlando - The Loras track and field team made its way down to Orlando, Florida this spring break. The team was able to bond and train under beautiful weather.

“The team, over this week-long trip, really becomes a lot closer and we start meshing more and more as a team,” says jumps and hurdles coach, Geoff Kaiser, “In regards to the training as well, we can do a week’s worth of hard training in good weather and really get ourselves ready for the outdoor season. That puts us at a big advantage to a lot of the other Iowa Conference schools.”

The team’s trip, which involved a track meet at Emory University, was a great overall experience for each individual athlete.

Junior distance runner, Dan Murphy commented, “The training facilities were great, we got to run on the same track as professionals and see what they do every day. The weather was perfect, we couldn’t ask for much more.”

“It’s really a great treat coming off such a cold winter to be able to come down for a whole week and be able to run in 80-degree weather with palm trees around us and to be able to finish off this meet in this type of weather. This is perfect racing conditions and there’s great competition,” said sophomore distance runner, Dain Leytem.

One outstanding performer at the Emory Invite was sophomore, Tara Kilburg, who ran a winning time of four minutes and thirty-nine seconds in the 1500 meter race.

Kilburg stated, “I was really happy with it for my first race. It was a personal record and I almost provisionally qualified for nationals. Just those two things give me a lot of confidence going into the outdoor season.”

Now that the Duhawks are back in Dubuque they will be hosting the Alumni meet this Saturday at the Rock Bowl.

Michael Higgins can be reached at Michael.Higgins@loras.edu

Michael Higgins
Published: March 4, 2009

WAVERLY – The IIAC conference meet was held last weekend at Wartburg College. Both the men and women had high expectations. Coach Schultz commented, “Well for the men I was a little disappointed. We came in hoping to win and it was a great team battle between us, Wartburg and Central all the way to the end. We just came up a few places short.”

There were many outstanding performances both on the men’s and women’s sides, but one individual came up big by scoring the Duhawks a total of 34 points. “Chris Buresh, on the men’s side was through the roof. He qualified for nationals for two events, was conference champion in two events, was All-Conference in a third event, and is going to nationals in the high jump and pole vault,” stated Coach Shultz.

Another conference champion was Brian Westemeier who won the weight throw with a qualifying mark that made him good enough for nationals. His goals for the outdoor season included coming back to Central and beating them in their own place and trying to possibly win the whole conference.

The women’s team met their goals for the indoor season. Schultz said, “The women’s side was great. We were fifth last year and the girls moved to second in a year, and we graduated some good girls last year. The track team will be traveling to Florida this spring break for some warmer training. Their first outdoor meet will be at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia on March 21.

Michael Higgins can be contacted at michael.higgins@loras.edu

Nick Helten
Published: February 18, 2009

DUBUQUE - Due to the recent economic downturn the Loras athletic department finds finances are anything but well.

Stores are closing, jobs are being cut and it seems no one can escape the current economic downtown. The list even includes the Loras Athletic Department.

Junior tennis player Alesha Espey is one feeling the pinch.

“This year our meet got canceled due to budget cuts so we just kind of aren’t able to travel this spring to play,” said Espey.
The loss of these extra activities is a new philosophy to keep Loras sports within its means.

“Right now we’re just trying to delegate between what are the wants and what are the needs and just deal with the needs,” said interim athletic director, Brad Soderberg.

While a few perks enjoyed in the past will not be seen this year, athletics director Brad Soderberg assures no drastic changes are coming in the near future.

“There are no plans right now to drop any sports or to lay off any people,” said Soderberg.

Next year Loras is raising its tuition by only 3.5%, but it is yet to be seen if this will have any effect on the athletic department’s budget.

Despite the worries and lack of competition, Alesha Espey is hopeful for next fall.

“It’s unfortunate but it’s not going to make or break us this spring. We’re still going to practice and go on with our season,” said Espey.

LCTV13 attempted to contact the Loras financial official for further details on the athletic department’s budget but did not receive a response. Details will be posted to our website as they become available.

Nick Helten can be reached at Nick.Helten@lctv13.com.

Nick Helten
Published: February 18, 2009

Starting the season without a conference win until January twenty-fourth is not great news for a wrestling program, but the Loras wrestlers found a way to turn things around. The Duhawks finished the season four and four in the IIAC Conference and looked to do damage at the conference tournament.

The Duhawk wrestlers were at it again Tuesday at Luther College for the Iowa Conference tournament.

Loras placed seven wrestlers in the top six, Senior Tom Drosopolis (125), Junior Mark Beatty (125), Sophomores Mike Levassaur (174) and Alex Grafft (197).
The two finalists were senior Jordan Loy (141) and junior Erik Hanson (157).

They both went into the tournament as the number two seed and came out as runner-ups.

Loy is currently ranked ninth in the nation while Hanson is ranked third.
Senior Trevor Kaufman (285) took third place which was just enough to get him through to the National tournament.

Final team standings here. Final individual standings here.

Nick Helten can be contacted at Nick.Helten@lctv13.com

Michael Higgins
Published: February 18, 2009

PLATTEVILLE –This past weekend the fifteenth ranked men and the twenty-sixth ranked women track teams were in Platteville, Wisconsin for the Nike Impact Sports Invite.

The Loras Track and Field team may be nearing the finish line of their indoor season, but they are not slowing down, with conference right around the corner several men and women boasted their best marks last Saturday.

Head Coach Bob Shultz was very pleased with his team’s performance.

“I think it was a good meet, I know Brian Westemeier had a personal best in the shot put,” said Shultz.

“Obviously our women did awesome in the distance medley relay qualified for nationals broke the school record third fastest time in the country, Mary Bridget Corken ran an indoor personal best in the half and was first place in that we had a lot of personal bests today so it was a good meet,” said Shultz.

One outstanding middle distance runner on the team is junior, Hannah Weiss.

“My biggest achievement so far would probably be qualifying for the 800 for nationals and also the distance medley relay,” said Weiss

Another member of the Loras track team who is having a stand out season is Barb Kremer, currently ranked fifth in the nation in the fifty five meter hurdles.

“My achievement personally is that I qualified for the national meet which was one of my big goals, another goal was to run an 8.40 and I accomplished that today by running an 8.34,” says Kremer.

With conference only two weeks away Coach Schultz holds high expectations for both the men and women teams.

“Well the way things are looking right now I think both teams will be able to reach their goals, the guys’ goal is to win, I think we got a good shot at that, and the women’s goal is top three and I really think they have a shot at finishing in the top two,” says Schultz.

The Loras track and field team has one last indoor meet down the street at the University of Dubuque this weekend.

SportsZONE will bring you all of the Duhawk’s results after their conference meet at Wartburg on February twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth.

Michael Higgins can be contacted at Michael.Higgins@loras.edu