Tag Archives: NAIA

COLUMBIA (MO) COUGARS UPSET THE D2 CHAMPS

The Columbia (MO) Cougars, the 19th-ranked team in NAIA men’s soccer, upset the defending NCAA Division 2 Champion Ft Lewis Skyhawks in a shutout 2-nil. The Cougars’ Yudai Yamaguchi, off an assist from Dylan “Thomas” Barduzzi  put Columbia up with a goal in the 24th minute. The Cougs took that 1-nil lead into half-time. (By the way, it’s a little known fact that federal law requires 72 % of the teams in the NAIA to be called the Cougars. I’M KIDDING!) Minutes into the 2nd half Barduzzi got fouled in the box, becoming the force that through the green fuse drives the flower to the Skyhawks (Dylan Thomas fans will get it), sealing their defeat by putting Columbia up by 2. Cougars’ goalie Ken “No pasaran!” Searles recorded his 2nd shutout win of this young season, improving his team to 2-2-0. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Cougars, who next travel to Kansas City to take on Division 1’s UMKC Kangaroos this coming Saturday. 

To let the Columbia Cougars know you find their schedule insane click here: http://www.columbiacougars.com/

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NAIA FOOTBALL SEASON STARTS THIS THURSDAY NIGHT, AUG 26TH

Forget all this preaseason NFL stuff, if you’re hungry for games that matter the NAIA has you covered this Thursday night with 5 games and 3 of the NAIA Top 25 in action! For a composite schedule of all the games scheduled from August 26th through September 11th click here: http://naia.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/2010CompositeSchedule.html

And for a look at tomorrow night’s matchups just read on:

 

SAINT XAVIER COUGARS (#4)

VERSUS

BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS

MINOT STATE BEAVERS (#14)

VERSUS

 

BEMIDJI STATE BEAVERS

 

 

DICKINSON STATE BLUE HAWKS (#18)

 

VERSUS

 

ROCKY MOUNTAIN BATTLING BEARS

 

 

GEORGETOWN (KY) TIGERS

 

VERSUS

 

HANOVER INDIANA PANTHERS

 

 

SOUTHERN VIRGINIA KNIGHTS

 

VERSUS

 

CONCORD MOUNTAIN LIONS

 

 

DON’T MISS ACTUAL, HONEST-TO-GOD FOOTBALL GAMES THAT MATTER

Football helmets courtesy of The Helmet Project at: http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/ 

 

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SOCCER RESULTS – NAIA TOP 25

Just a few of the Top 25 teams were in action on opening weekend in both the men’s and women’s polls. Here are the results.

 

MEN’S

1. LINDSEY WILSON BLUE RAIDERS 1   SXU COUGARS nil

9. SO POLY RUNNING HORNETS nil  11. BETHEL (TN) WILDCATS nil (2 OT)

17. AU-MONTGOMERY SENATORS 3   DAVENPORT PANTHERS 2

WOMEN’S

4. LINDSEY WILSON BLUE RAIDERS 1   SPRING ARBOR COUGARS nil

5. AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS 2  DOMINGUEZ HILLS TOROS 2 (DRAW)

7. GRACELAND YELLOWJACKETS 2  GRAND VIEW VIKINGS nil

23. THE MASTER’S MUSTANGS 4  ROBERTS WESLEYAN RAIDERS nil

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VIKINGS PRESEASON ACTIVITIES VIRTUALLY ON HOLD FOR ONE VERY SPECIAL MAN

“You shouldn’t have!” I exclaimed to the thousands of Missouri Valley College Vikings fans, coaches and student-athletes who had turned out to greet me. It was a veritable media circus what with all the television stations covering my plane landing and my ride to the MVC campus. Sports-talk radio stations were discussing one subject and one subject only: me.

After Head Football Coach Paul Troth made his welcoming speech it was my turn to speak. I choked back tears of emotion and started out by thanking everyone for bearing with me as I agonized over whether or not I would make a blog post about the preseason activities for MVC Vikings fall sports. After the usual opening blandishments I got more to the point with my comments:

“I know some people could say ‘This guy must be incredibly insecure and have a very fragile ego to want to have it stroked so frequently.’ They could say ‘He long ago robbed moments like this of even the pretext of sincerity by shedding crocodile tears at some of his previous public remarks.’ They could ask ‘How hopelessy misguided are the so-called sports media to actually think people want non-stop coverage of one egomaniac’s Hamletesque posturing’…Yes they could say all of these things and there would certainly be some truth in all of those comments.”

After making a mental note to myself to rent a pickup truck for the next public appearance I made like this (preferably one with no muffler) I got down to actually covering the story I had come to Marshall, MO to cover. 360 Missouri Valley College student-athletes had reported to campus to begin preparing for the upcoming academic and sports seasons. Every single one of them told me they were big fans of my blog, proving to me that they were even less sincere than I was.

Football, volleyball, cheerleading and both the men’s and women’s soccer teams were all on-hand and getting ready to compete. The ladies on the volleyball team start their season August 27th in the Grand View Tournament in Des Moines, IA (Tourism slogan: “Des Moines: C’mon, what’s the worst that could happen?”).  The men’s and women’s soccer teams both host their home-openers on August 31st and the football team takes it on the road against the Baker Wildcats on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, Sept 4th.

The sun was beginning to set, so it was with a renewed sense of urgency that I hit up all the head coaches for a few quotes to justify this whole trip as a business expense on my tax returns. Unfortunately on the return flight I accidentally spilled bourbon all over most of my notes. Luckily a few quotes from Head Volleyball Coach Derick White survived intact.  “I am very excited to get the 2010 season started,” he said, “We have some great freshmen and transfers to add to our mix of talented returners. We are hitting the ground running learning our system and we are looking forward to implementing it in our first weekend of play.” 

Here I am with some of the MVC Vikings whom I talked into posing as high school students so I could condescendingly make a big deal about tossing them a few footballs.

 

To find out how much the cleanup following the big welcome I got will cost the taxpayers of Marshall, MO click here: http://www.moval.edu/athletics/

Balladeer’s Blog is not affiliated with or operated by the NAIA or the NCAA or any of their member institutions. 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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LNN: LINDENWOOD NEWS NETWORK

 

"This is LNN"

 

When you’re a big-time, world-renowned blogger like myself, you get sports news releases in your e-mail in-box, along with the usual pro bono notifications that a bank in Nigeria needs your help in disbursing large amounts of money (easiest 2 million bucks I ever made!). Anyway, one of those releases included a veritable bonanza of information about the sports programs at Lindenwood University. Since at first glance it seemed like enough material to launch a sports network about the Lions I used that as my lame premise for this post.

*ITEM: LION-HEARTED  BILL BRITTON: HERO AT LARGE – July 26th – Bill Britton, an incoming football player for the Lions, along with his cousin Jeff, came across an overturned vehicle on Highway 100 in Missouri. Not only did they call 911 but when the vehicle burst into flames Britton, Jeff and 2 other people dragged the driver out of the vehicle to safety.  “I still do not know what to think about it,” said Britton, “…The flames were five foot high and you could hear the tires popping. It is cool though that we were in the right place to be able to help somebody out.”   In the tradition of Buford Pusser and Serpico some enterprising producer needs to turn this into a television series. Jeff would have his own spin-off series, so the show about Bill would have TV Guide entries like this: “Bill’s attempt to finish his term paper is interrupted when he is called upon to save the elderly patients at the nearby hospital from a dangerous gas leak.” or maybe “On his way to practice Bill becomes caught up in a Tri-State search for a missing toddler.” For the big season-ending clifff-hanger it could read “Bill’s budding romance with an exchange student involves him in a desperate attempt to save the staff at the International Space Station from certain doom.” I think we’ve got another Frank Merriwell on our hands here!

*ITEM: LINDENWOOD ATHLETICS TO BEGIN 2010-2011 SEASON – Following a hotly-contested vote the students and administration of Lindenwood University moved that it was, indeed, the 2010-2011 sports season. 

*ITEM:  MORE THAN 10 LIONS INDICTED – July 30th – Okay, that was just my teaser headline to get attention. In reality this story is about former Lindenwood Lions individuals and teams being inducted into the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame. (Who doesn’t love play-on-word headlines? Well, besides the people who overreacted when I ran the headline “4 Dead In Local Pre-School” instead of “4 Deer In Local Preschool”. Some people just can’t take a joke!) Inductees will be: student athletes Dawn Cameron “Swayze”, softball; Jenifer “Leave off the second N for ‘Nice'” Dykes, women’s soccer; Matt “Johns” Hopkins, men’s golf; Debbie Johnson “Is Right!”, women’s soccer; Jason “Your-cek” Micek, men’s golf;  “Dangerous” Daniel Odom, men’s basketball; “Mighty”, Michelle Patrico, softball; and Katie “Killer K.P.” Pizzardi, women’s basketball.  Also being inducted are Fern Bittner, former Director of Horsemanship; Dr Harlen C Hunter, Meritorious Service; the 1977-78 Men’s Basketball Team; the 1999-2000 women’s basketball team; the 2004 men’s soccer team and oddly enough the 1988 Notre Dame football team. Weird. The 2010 Induction Ceremony will take place Homecoming Weekend Oct 15th-16th.

* ITEM: THURSDAY NIGHT MILESTONE – The first ever Thursday night game in Lindenwood Lions football history will take place September 2nd as the Lions welcome the Evangel University Crusaders.  

*ITEM: BEDTIME FOR ZOMBO – July 14th -Former NHL Player Rick Zombo has taken over as Head Coach for the Lindenwood men’s ice hockey team. For the past 2 years Zombo has been the team’s  Top Assistant Coach and helped the Lions capture 2 straight National Championships for ice hockey. “With the increase in responsibility as head coach,” Zombo observed, ” my ambition is to make the program even stronger. We have a tremendous core of returning players that understand the difficulty of winning a title, but will cherish the process of continued success.”  

To read the coach’s annoyed reply when I asked if he was related to the Zombo character that Louis Nye portrayed on an old episode of The Munsters click here: http://www.lindenwoodlions.com/

Balladeer’s Blog is not affiliated with or operated by the NAIA or the NCAA or any of their member institutions. 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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THE COOLEST HELMET IN THE MID-STATES FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION – MIDEAST DIVISION

Team: Malone University Pioneers

Site: http://www3.malone.edu/athletics 

Comment: Pioneers need to be made of hardy stock, and if the face on that helmet was any hardier opponents would get a bloody nose just looking at him! Malone University was named after Walter and Emma Malone, so maybe that picture is supposed to be Walter…or perhaps Emma after a LOT of surgery!  

As always, football helmets courtesy of The Helmet Project at: http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/

Balladeer’s Blog is not affiliated with or operated by the NAIA or the NCAA or any of their member institutions. 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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THE COOLEST HELMET IN THE DAKOTA ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

Here’s a new feature to help all of us get in the mood for football season! I’ll be going through the NAIA and NCAA Division 3 conference by conference and looking at the coolest helmets in each. 

 

Team: Black Hills State Yellowjackets

Site: http://www.bhsu.edu/Athletics/tabid/82/Default.aspx

Comment: “Up and at’em….Atom Ant!” The Black Hills State helmet sports one of those mascots who are so cool-looking they should have their own cartoon series!

As always, football helmets courtesy of The Helmet Project at: http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/

For some of NCAA Division 3′s Coolest-Named Teams click here: https://glitternight.com/d3-20-coolest/   

 For the NAIA edition of The 20 Coolest College Sports Teams You May Never Have Heard Of click here: https://glitternight.com/2010/06/21/the-20-coolest-named-college-sports-teams-you-may-have-never-heard-of-naia-edition/ 

And for The 20 Coolest College Sports Logos click here: https://glitternight.com/2010/07/20/the-20-coolest-college-sports-logos

Balladeer’s Blog is not affiliated with or operated by the NAIA or the NCAA or any of their member institutions. 

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog, 2010. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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