ND Women’s Golf

Notre Dame Golf No Responses »
Apr 292009

Yes, now it is time for something completely different after this blog has been on hiatus for far too long. The topic though isn’t completely as random as you might initially think. Back in my manager days at Notre Dame, I was assigned Men’s and Women’s Golf for my senior year sport. I still keep track of both teams and am still rather fortunate to have a good relationship with the current coaches and golfers on the women’s side of the camp. So I figure I should brag on them a little bit here.

Last week the Lady Irish golfers set out to defend their Big East title in Dade City, FL. The Lady Irish went sub-300 combined in all three rounds shooting 295-298-294. The final two rounds were the tournament low for their respective days; however, it was not enough to catch up from Louisville’s initial 279 round in the first, causing the Lady Irish to fall 11 strokes short of a back-to-back team title.

However, the Irish were not to leave the tournament empty handed. Senior Lisa Maunu, on her birthday no less, finished her final Big East tourney with a bang, winning the tournament outright as an individual. The Canadian lefty shot 74-71-70 to finish -1 for the tournament, besting Sara-Maude Juneau of Louisville by 3 strokes. Maunu’s 71 and 70 final two rounds were daily tournament lows, with her final round including an amazing charge on the back nine with included five birdies to seal her victory. Maunu’s victory gave the Irish back-to-back individual Big East titles (current Junior, Annie Brophy, won last year’s individual title).


Maunu chips from a bunker in the 2007 Big East Tournament

The Irish individual honors did not stop with Maunu. Sophomore So-Hyun Park and Junior Annie Brophy both finished the tournament +8 and tied for ninth place overall in the tournament and gave both girls All-Big East honors. For Park, this is her second consecutive All-Big East award and for Brophy, it is her third straight. Yes, you read that right, both girls have received All-Big East honors every year they have been at Notre Dame.

Annie Brophy (Left) and Julie Kim (right) tee off in the 2007 Big East Tournament

Freshman Becca Huffer finished the tournament 11th with a +9 showing and Junior Kristen Wetzel rounded out the Irish effort with a +19, earning her 23rd place. With these final showings, the Irish were able to place all of their golfers in the top-25 individually. This was most definitely an unbelievable effort on the part of the whole team.


Kristen Wetzel lines up a putt in the 2007 Big East Tournament

The Lady Irish season, however, does not stop at the Big East tournament. The Lady Irish will head to “the” Ohio State for the NCAA Central Regional May 7-9. The Irish will once again have another shot at Louisville along with the following teams: UCLA, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Wake Forest, Kent State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Stanford, New Mexico, Georgia State, North Carolina State, Washington, Kentucky, Chattanooga, Michigan, Murray State, Illinois State, Harvard, and Fairleigh Dickerson.

The top five finishers in this field will advance to the NCAA Finals. Notre Dame is still looking for its first ever trip to the final tournament.

The Lady Irish will be lead by current Big East Champ and Senior Captain Lisa Maunu, along with last year’s Big East Champ, Junior Annie Brophy, Junior Julie Kim, Sophomore So-Hyun Park and Freshman Becca Huffer.

If you wish to track this event, www.golfstat.com will have live scoring of this and all NCAA Regional Tournaments.

Best of luck to you girls! GO IRISH!

Posted by Ryan Ritter at 11:49 PM Tagged with:

Breaking News: College Football Hall of Fame to Possibly Move to Dallas

CFB No Responses »
Apr 132009

Norm Hitzges, radio personality from 1310 the Ticket in Dallas, reported this morning that there will be a conference this morning in Dallas to discuss a bid to move the College Football Hall of Fame from South Bend to Downtown Dallas. Norm reported that the facility would be funded completely by private investors and would serve to honor all amateur football (so I would assume a high school wing would be added).

Norm’s sources have reported to him that Dallas is currently the front-runner for this move. On the radio he said it was a deal that could easily be done if “all the T’s are crossed and I’s dotted.” There are several Dallas connections on the college football board that runs the Hall of Fame as well — the biggest being the president of the board, whom is a current Dallas resident.

Norm concluded that a decision on the matter will be publicly announced on November. From the sounds of his report as well, the Hall of Fame will definitely be moved somewhere.

This news rather floored me. The Hall of Fame was one thing that I didn’t get an opportunity to visit while I was in South Bend. Looks like I should definitely take the time to stop by this next football season. Being in Dallas, this does excite me; however, I must say I always thought it was cool that the Hall of Fame was centered in South Bend. With the Hall being there, it felt like just another huge slice of college football tradition that was attached to ND.

As a final note, this wasn’t a story that I could find a news release on. However, I easily trust the word of Norm on this matter. He is a sports radio legend around here and his sources and reporting are beyond reproach. I have no doubt at all of this story’s validity.

Posted by Ryan Ritter at 3:14 PM Tagged with:

Hopefully My Last Post on “Obamania”

Misc No Responses »
Apr 012009

(Side-note: Hope everyone enjoyed yesterday’s post)

It would appear that my sentiments on this issue are quite in line with the class of 2009. The Observer put out an article March 27 that broke down the Viewpoint letters for and against Obama speaking at ND. The breakdown actually rather surprised me to a point:

Of the 612 Letters to the Editor The Observer has received as of 2 p.m. Thursday, 313 have been authored by alumni. Of those letters, 30 percent are supportive of the University’s decision to invite the president and 70 percent are against.

And while more alumni have written to The Observer than students, their voice must not be lost. In fact, of the 282 letters authored by students, the breakdown is a bit different: 73 percent of students who have written Letters to the Editor are supportive of the Obama selection, while 27 percent are against it.
Looking at the senior class’ response, the sentiment is even more extreme: 97 percent of seniors are supportive, 3 percent are not.

Now, I know that letters alone aren’t a perfect poll, but the numbers are still rather staggering nonetheless.

The article continues, remarking on some of the same statements that I myself have tried to express:

There is a clear disconnect between alumni and the student body as a whole on this issue.

This is the seniors’ graduation, their last memories of Notre Dame as a student. Protesters would do well to remember this. Make your views known; healthy debate is welcomed. Photographs of aborted fetuses are not.

The “healthy debate” seems to be getting completely glossed over as an option. In my opinion, that is were the biggest disconnect seems to come from. Students do see the outrage and understand why people want to protest — the issue has been though why try to protest via shock tactics and being purposefully disruptive to other members of the Notre Dame family (of which some alumni have threatened in previous letters). I am hoping that some of the more outrageous protest threats do not go through and cooler heads will indeed prevail some May.

For instance, some better ideas for protests:

  • The South Quad Cross display done every year during a football weekend by the Pro-Life group
  • Organizing a protest at the airport when Obama arrives, keeping the circus away from campus
  • For students in the class of 2009: Spelling out “Pro-Life” or “Choose Life” on your caps with a group of your friends
  • Those in attendance at the ceremony: Do not stand/applaud Obama.

All these can get the point across without resorting to ridiculous shock tactics or asking the University to slap the President in the face by resending his invitation to speak. Sometimes very simple gestures and demonstrations are the most profound. For instance, I for one always thought the cross display on South Quad was one of the more chilling demonstrations that I’ve ever seen, and that is even after seeing it multiple times as a student.

The article concludes with a recent quote from Fr. Hesburgh:

University President Emeritus Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, without a doubt one of the most influential American Catholics, a man who has fought tirelessly for civil rights in this country and to transform the University into a respected institution of higher learning, said this Friday speaking to a group of alumni, parents and friends of Notre Dame:
“No speaker who has ever come to Notre Dame has changed the University. We are who we are. But, quite often, the very fact of being here has changed the speaker.”

I believe this is what any protester should hope for and should try to embrace this challenge. It is my hope that this is what alumni or any other protester will keep at the front of their minds if they are around the campus come May.

Posted by Ryan Ritter at 5:43 PM

Random Ramblings

NDBB, NDFB No Responses »
Apr 012009

Lot of news to catch up on, so I’m just going to bypass some form of witty (or not) introduction and just get to it.

Weis Drops Bombshells in Presser

Charlie Weis made two major announcements in his last spring ball presser.

The first of which was that Weis is petitioning the NCAA to give Brady Quinn and extra year of eligibility. This news comes somewhat on the heels of Cincinnati head coach, Brian Kelly, getting a sixth year of eligibility for DB Drew Frey and petitioned for USC transfer Vidal Hazelton to have the usual “sit out year” waved. This news, it seems, was the catalyst for this rather bold and slightly insane move by Weis:

“Well, you see the reasoning is really two fold,” Weis responded, “First of, I figure that if Kelly can make up the rules as he goes along why can’t I? Seems the NCAA doesn’t have too much of an issue with it, so why not. Secondly, it seems there was a rather large contingent that wanted Kelly to be sitting in this chair rather than myself. So I took at look at the two of us. What does he do differently than I do? I am simply giving the fans what they want.”

“Also think about it. Imagine Quinn throwing downfield to Floyd and Tate all day long. We will be unstoppable and get the National Title everyone wants to desperately.”

When asked if Weis would be willing to sacrifice the integrity of the school in order to pull of such a maneuver he simply replied, “The hell is wrong with you? Do you read what people write out on NDNation.com? No one cares about academics or head coaches that keep their noses clean — they only care about titles and that is what I am doing.”

As if that wasn’t enough, Weis then, in a very unprecedented move, announced the pep rally speaker for this years ND/USC game:

“I know we usually don’t do this, but I feel it would be an important boost for our fans and our team for this year’s game against USC. The pep rally for that game should needs to be something that can help put or team over the top because we are all sick of losing to USC. Therefore, we have invited President Barack Obama to speak at the USC weekend pep rally, which will be held in Notre Dame Stadium and he has accepted.”

When asked what business Obama had at the pep rally of a Catholic institution, Weis responded, “Well, he clearly has some ideas for the BCS and there will be a Congress investigation into it, so firstly, we need to make sure we protect ND’s interests in the matter. Secondly, I’ve been reading the Viewpoint in the past few weeks — let me tell you, this man hasn’t even said a word on campus yet and more people are calling for his head than yous guys were calling for mine after the Syracuse game. This should be a great way for everyone to completely ignore any of my faults on the football field while at the same time, getting our fans so riled up and pissed off that I can guarantee they will take it out on USC at the game.”

With a smirk he concluded, “I’m killing three birds with one stone. It is a schematic advantage.”

I’m not sure if Weis has completely lost his mind or if he is a complete genius. All I know is that I’m going to find it very funny as people write into the Viewpoint saying they will no longer go to a ND football game again in their lives and the 2009 season will still see a full stadium for every home game.

Brey Attempts to Explain ND’s NIT Loss, Fails Miserably

Mr. No-Tie was back at it again in his post game press conference, desperately making excuses for his team that failed to show up in a horrid loss that more or less summed up the ND B-Ball season in a single game.

“Well you know, when we were seeded #2 in the NIT tournament, I thought to myself, are we really the #2 seed? I mean, take a look at the bracket we were in, we easily had the toughest possible bracket schedule in the NIT and I just knew it would be a tough road. In fact, on the plane to New York, I called my wife as we were boarding and told her ’0-1′, I’ll be home Wednesday.”

When pressed on how in God’s green earth that would cause the Irish to have the worst scoring first half in Brey’s tenure, he replied “Well, I mean that’s what happens with a tough schedule. It finally gets to you and wears you down. Our guys just hit the limit.”

Brey was also questioned about how he handled the comeback attempt — most notably why he didn’t have the Irish try to draw fouls when in the bonus with over 5 minutes to go in the game and why he called his last timeout with over a minute left and only 8 seconds on the shot clock (which turned into a shot clock violation). Brey answered “Well, we were down by 6 once we finally hit the bonus I think. At that point the answer was simple — two threes and we are tied up. Why drive the lane? You can only get two points on those free throws if you draw the fouls. I’d clearly want to try for that extra point no matter what every time down the court. As far as the timeout goes — we needed to take the time to plan a three point shot. We were obviously going to press a bad shot inside the arc at that point and I couldn’t allow that.”

…uh yeah, no real comment here.

Texas Ranger’s GM John Daniels to Make “Major Changes”

Upon hearing time and time again on how the Texas Rangers by far have the best farm system in baseball, John Daniels feels now is the time to make some “major changes” that will “define his GM tenure.”

“As I look at all the young talent we have in our system, I think to myself — why are we keeping that all to ourselves?” Daniels asked. “We clearly have a lot of room to make a lot of trades here. I know we have been saying we were rebuilding for 2010, but seriously, why should we wait any longer? I am confident we can make some major changes to get solid veteran talent in here to make a pennant run this year! These trades will definitely be something that will define my GM tenure as the man that was able to turn this franchise around.”

Rumored top interests of Daniels are Chan Ho Park, Reuben Sierra, Ricky Henderson, Kenny Lofton, and Byung-Hung Kim.

If anyone wonders why I feel so tortured as a Rangers fan — well, there you go…

Jerry Jones Receives Naming Rights Offers for New Stadium

It looks like Jones’ struggles for selling naming rights to the new Cowboy’s Stadium may soon be at an end. From a recent report:

Sources within the Cowboys organization have said that Jerry Jones is now considering a few different offers for the naming rights of his new stadiums. The top bidders appear to be Tampax, Midol, and Kleenex. The front-runner right now seems to be Kleenex as they have even put together a few different ads for the stadium. We were able to get our hands on one of the proposed ads:


Oh boy can’t wait…

Posted by Ryan Ritter at 5:31 AM Tagged with:
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