Women's Tennis Spring Trip Gallery

It sure is difficult to get our women's tennis team to loosen up and have a good time. They're just so darn serious all the time. Here's a photo gallery of the Eagles not having any fun what-so-ever on their Spring Trip.

Edgewood College Women's Tennis Spring Trip photo gallery

###

Spatola, U.S. team in tiebreaker for final medal round spot

SWIFT CURRENT, Saskatchewan -- Erika Brown, Nina Spatola and Team USA got exactly the results it needed Thursday to stay in contention for the playoff round at the Women's World Curling Championships.... (Read more here on Madison.com)

Let's go Nina! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Women's World Curling Championships official site

Matt Werner: Guatemalan Adventure #6

The first five parts of Matt's journal are available here: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5

Well, it has been a while since I have had the time to give an update from down here due largely in part to the long days I've been putting in at the school. However, I haven't missed a second of developments going on at Edgewood College.

I am happy to report that although the school year here got off to a late start due to a teacher's union strike, everything is back to normal and the teachers have returned. It appeared that the public school teachers here were unhappy about the tax hikes proposed during the summer vacation and voiced their opinions in a month long strike. However, they only were away for a month and instead of starting in late January they started in late February. The government succumbed to the union's requests and classes resumed.

I have fulfilled the role as roaming English professor and computer teacher. It was the best decision for me to move from classroom to classroom teaching 30 minute lessons to each grade from pre-school to sixth grade Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I give an hour long computer lesson to grades 4, 5, and 6. In a joint decision with the teachers, we decided it was best to only give lessons to those grades as the lack of computers and knowledge of the younger grades would cause a lot more problems than provide them with education. The school day runs from 7:30 am until 12 pm. They receive a government sponsored snack at their recess time (10:30am) but I still have not found out why they don't attend school for a longer day. However, I believe it has something to do with the government preferring to only pay teachers for half a day's work as opposed to a full day.

In the afternoon, I give my own private English classes open to all in the community. I never thought being a teacher required so much preparation and planning, much less a foreign teacher with a lack of resources. However, I will make it and I give kudos to all the teachers who are doing their best. I can't wait for Easter vacation because I will be visiting my family in Florida and making a special trip to see our Eagle baseball team play in Vero Beach (on March 28). I will see you all then!

Matt
###

Spatola and U.S. team in second place at World Championship

Edgewood College student Nina Spatola is competing for the United States at the World Women's Curling Championship in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. The Americans are currently in second place with a 4-1 record, behind Canada. The U.S. defeated Norway 8-7 yesterday with Spatola playing a key role in her first World Championship appearance above the junior level.

(Photo: Nina Spatola of McFarland, Wis. (left) discusses strategy with U.S. Team skip Erika Brown of Madison, Wis. at the World Women's Curling Championship. Photo courtesy of Universal Sports)

Day 3 wrap up (courtesy of Universal Sports)

Universal Sports' World Championship Central

###

Eagle alum provides Final Four floor

The road to the Final Four actually runs through Edgewood College. Well, at least through Edgewood College alum Jason Heiman.

When you watch the NCAA Basketball Tournament this year, pay attention to the floors, because chances are it was an Eagle that built it. Heiman is the owner and president of Jason Thomas Flooring. This season his company is providing the custom playing floor for five different NCAA Tournament sites, including the ultimate site, the Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Read the article below courtesy of OnMilwaukee.com.

Local floor specialists provide shining moment (by Bob Brainerd, special to OnMilwaukee.com)

###

Sidearm Scoop: Let the Horses Run Wild

Edgewood College relief pitcher Blake Hunt provides his take on week two of the Eagles' baseball season. Sadly, no hair status updates are included....

We had another extremely successful weekend at the Metrodome this weekend splitting with Concordia Moorhead and sweeping UW-Oshkosh to move our record to 5-1. We got awesome pitching performances again from Scott Winters and Matt Krueger who both threw complete games against UW-Oshkosh. It was also good to see freshman Blake O'Brien throw extremely well against Concordia Moorhead. If he can keep this up our pitching rotation will be extremely good. On offense, we continued to get clutch hits when we needed them and almost everyone contributed in some way. Mitch Mogensen, who always seems to come up big in key situations, had the game winning hit in the second game against UW-Oshkosh. Tim Barry continued his hitting streak and Erik Massey played the role of crafty veteran to perfection at the plate.

In between games we received one of the more memorable speeches in Edgewood College history from Coach Wachholz. In an effort to inspire the team he began giving a speech about how great it would be to beat UW-Oshkosh twice and finished off his speech by telling us it was "time to let the horses run wild!" The team really rallied around his battle cry and appears on the fast track to become the Eagles new slogan for 2010.

In other news Kyle "Kipp" Smith and Glenn Nowell set a new Edgewood College record by selling five hats to fans Friday night. They would like to thank all of those who supported their cause and encourage the rest of you to hop on the bandwagon and get your Eagle gear as soon as possible.

That's about all I've got for now but I would highly recommend you all check out Billy "Bubblegum Head" DeVault's video on our home page, it is absolutely hilarious.

###

Billy DeVault with bubble gum on hat

Billy DeVault's Edgewood College Eagle teammates pulled a prank on him during the Eagles' sweep of UW-Oshkosh when the put a bubble of gum on his hat.

Eagles at Sennett Middle School Literacy Day

Members of the Edgewood College baseball players participated in the Sennett Middle School Literacy Day on Friday, February 19. Sixteen players (including freshman Jake Zadra who attended Sennett Middle School) took time to read to and with the middle schoolers to reinforce the importance of learning and literacy. Below is a story by Emmy Fink which ran on the Madison's CW's feature "Buzzed into Madison"...


Powered By: VideoBuzz

###

Sidearm Scoop: The Return of the Lefty

For those eager fans of last year's Sidearm Scoop, you'll be thrilled to hear that junior relief pitcher Blake Hunt has returned to keep us up to date on what's going on behind the scenes for the Edgewood College baseball team. Here's the season opening pitch....

Hello all! I am back for my junior year on the Edgewood College baseball team and it is time for the first edition of the Sidearm Scoop. We started off our season last night in the Metrodome and swept Concordia-Moorhead. We had clutch games from our senior pitchers Scott Winters and Matt Krueger and also got huge games from some of our younger players. If the season keeps going like this, I will have a lot more time to write blog entries because our starters were dominant from the first pitch to the last.

While our team performed at a very high level on Saturday night I am sad to report that new assistant coach Ken Spangenberg's hair had an off day. For those of you who know Coach Spangenberg, his hair is usually the model of perfection with just the right amount of hair gel. While the hair gel managed to hold up during the first game it eventually succumbed to the pressure of his hat and by the end of the night it was an absolute train wreck. We're all pulling for Coach this week and hopefully he can fix the problem this week at practice and give us a stronger performance next week.*

I would also like to thank our wonderful alumni who were out in full force Saturday night. Former players Justin Dahmen, Karl Reynolds, and Cory McCullick performed admirably in the stands supporting the Eagles and tipping the scales to get several close calls called the Eagles' way.

Thats about all I've got for the first weekend but stay tuned for next week as be battle Concordia-Moorhead again on Friday night followed by UW-Oshkosh on Saturday.

*Editor's update: After a desperate but futile search for a Cost Cutters in Minneapolis that was open at 3:30 a.m. the team acquired a case of Aqua Net and some black market hairnets and returned to the team hotel. At last report, Coach Spangenberg and his hair were both resting comfortably.
###

Kim Lueck's Adventures in Ireland

Check out the front page of Edgewood.edu where you'll find a write up on Edgewood College volleyball player Kim Lueck who is studying abroad in Belfast, Nothern Ireland. She is attending the University of Ulster-Jordanstown and hopefully showing them a thing or two about serving and digging, right Coach Schlomer?

Student-Athlete reflects on international study (from Edgewood.edu)

###

Baseball practices at Hitters Sportsplex

The Edgewood College baseball team gets a leg up on the competition by conducting early season practices at Hitters Sportsplex in Middleton. The indoor training facility contains a 50,000 square foot field and multiple batting cages.