Commodore Nation - April 2009

April 2009

SWEETVICTORY

C O M M O D O R E N AT I O N 1vucommodores.com

table of contents6 2 Connecting With The Web

4 National Commodore Club

6 In My Words Jermaine Beal

7 Commodores Cubed Know your Commodores

8 Vice Chancellor’s Note David Williams

9 Broadening Fan Outreach Finding new ways to connect with fans

10 Reynolds Finding Success Former ’Dore making a name on pro tour

11 VU Wins SEC Tournament VU has now won six SEC Tournaments

13 It’s My Turn — Rod Williamson Times are a-changing

15 The Final 4 Aaron Westlake

16 Breaking Soundless Barrier Manning communicates in many ways

19 Risper Reaches Out Spends time at assisted living home

20 Quick Hits A look at Vanderbilt’s sports teams

22 Baseball in the Classroom VU professor teaches class about baseball

24 The Last Look

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A P R I L 2 0 0 92

Editorial

Publisher: Vanderbilt University

Editor-in-Chief: Ryan Schulz

Director of External Relations: Rod Williamson

Designers: Jeremy Teaford

Ryan Schulz

Digital Image Specialist: Julie Luckett Turner

Photographers: Neil Brake

Daniel Dubois

Jonathan Ernst

Steve Green

Stan Jones

John Russell

Todd Van Emst

Contributors: Andy Boggs

John Erck

Larry Leathers

Thomas Samuel

Chris Weinman

Administrative

Chancellor: Nicholas S. Zeppos

Vice Chancellor for University Affairs: David Williams II

Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs: Beth Fortune

Vanderbilt University’s Mission, Goals and ValuesVanderbilt University is a center for scholarly research, informed and creative teaching, and service to the community and society at large. Vanderbilt will uphold the highest standards and be a leader in the quest for new knowledge through scholarship, dissemination of knowledge through teaching and outreach, and creative experimentation of ideas and concepts. In pursuit of these goals, Vanderbilt values most highly intellectual freedom that supports open inquiry; and equality, com-passion and excellence in all endeavors.

Vanderbilt University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action university.

ON THE COVER: Vanderbilt’s women’s basketball team celebrates its 2009 SEC Tournament Championship PHOTO: Todd Van Emst/SEC

POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to National Commodore Club, 2601 Jess Neely Drive, Nashville, TN 37212.

SUBSCRIPTION: To subscribe to Commodore Nation, please contact the National Commodore Club at 615/322-4114.

ADVERTISEMENT: To advertise with Commodore Nation, please contact Vanderbilt ISP Sports.Jeff Miller, General Manager 615/[email protected]

TwitterReceive instant updates on Van-derbilt’s athletic teams by following VU on Twitter. Twitter enables fans to receive updates via text mes-sage, instant messenger and the web. It is free to sign up for an ac-count and standard text message rates apply. To receive updates, follow vucommodores on Twitter.

VUCOMMODORES.COM

Connect with

YouTubeVanderbilt’s YouTube page was recently redesigned to give it more of a Vanderbilt theme. All of VU’s game highlights, as well as interviews, are available on the site. The most-viewed video is of Shan Foster’s memorable performance on Senior Night in 2008.

GametrackerFollow the progress of Vanderbilt’s baseball, basketball, football and soccer games on Gametracker. Gametracker provides live stats of games in progress and is a great way to follow the action when you can’t attend the game.

FacebookConnect with Vanderbilt athletics through Facebook.com. The social-media site enables fans to connect with other Commodore fans online. The site is continuously updated with content relating to the Com-modores.

The Unheralded BunchI was a walk-on basketball player at a small school in North Carolina, so reading the arti-cle on walk-ons in the March issue brought back so many of my fondest memories. Like the players on Vanderbilt’s squad, I knew I was just blessed to have the opportunity to be on a college team. Chris, Raleigh, N.C.

Looking AheadAlthough Vanderbilt (MBB) didn’t make it to the NCAA Tournament, there is something about this team that has me more excited for next season, more so than recent years. Bill, Nashville

Sportswriter UI had no idea there were so many successful sports writers to come out of Vanderbilt. It is great to know that Vanderbilt is so well repre-sented in the national media. It was also sur-prising to see how many of the writers cover Major League Baseball for such prominent news organizations. Go ’Dores! Andy, Jacksonville, Fla.

To submit a letter, e-mail CN at: [email protected]. Letters should include the writer’s name and address and may be edited for clarity and space.

Letters

A P R I L 2 0 0 94

CORNERCOMMODORE CLUB

PHONE: 615/322-4114 vucommodores.com

JACKSON, MISS., NATIONAL COMMODORE CLUB EVENT (MARCH 3)

Executive Director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Michael Rubenstein, with Vice Chancellor David Williams and Coleman Lowery. The event was at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

Susan Shands Jones shows her spirit while registering for “A Commodore Conversation with David Williams” in Jackson, Miss.

Oscar Burris, Cal Wells, NCC member Baxter Brown, Frank Duke

Jackson, Miss., Alumni Chapter President Andy White introduces Vice Chancellor David Williams.

Hayden and Tish Hughes

Gifts to the NCC from foundation donor-advised funds REQUIRE the donor to decline benefits due to tax laws that govern use of those funds. Under no circumstances will ben-efits be given to donors who have made their NCC gift via funds subject to the laws governing those funds.

Any donor can give to NCC and decline benefits. Vanderbilt will issue a receipt that allows 100% deductibility of the gift. However, if you attempt to secure tickets and parking, the NCC will be unable to fulfill that request. If the need for tickets/parking persists, you will be required to write a letter indicating the desire to change your intention from "decline" to "accept" benefits.

DONOR ADVISED FUNDS/DECLINING BENEFITS


ARKANSAS MEN’S BASKETBALL GAME (MARCH 8)

Gate 2 Construction will provide continuity between Hawkins and Dudley Fields.

The towers that will welcome Vanderbilt fans to Dudley Field at Gate 3 are well underway.

Construction on Hawkins Field has been completed, including the addition of seats down the first-base line and in the outfield.

If you’ve been by Dudley Field, Hawkins Field or to a basketball game at Memorial Gym recently, you’ve seen the renovations to the facilities. Whether it is the addition of outfield bleachers to Hawkins Field or the improvements to the exterior of Dudley Field, the facil-ity improvements are another indication of the progress of Vanderbilt athletics. To find out more about how you can contribute and be involved in the project, call the National Commodore Club at: 615/322-4114.

You recently should have received your membership renewal for the National Commodore Club. Please mail it in, call 615/322-4114, click vucommodores.com or stop by the office in the McGugin Center to make your gift. Every gift is allocated toward the goal of funding student-athlete scholarships. This year’s membership deadline is May 30 (Vanderbilt’s fiscal year ends June 30). Thank you for your continued support of Vanderbilt athletics. Your Membership Matters!

JOIN THE NCC OR RENEW TODAY!

ATHLETICS FACILITIES IMPROVEMENTS

Pat Emery and Currie AndrewsNCC Members at the Vice Admiral level and above enjoy halftime hospitality during the men’s basketball victory over Arkansas.

A P R I L 2 0 0 96

In My Words

Jermaine

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On the experience of playing overseas for missionary teams the past two years

It was great. I went to Argentina with SCORE (International) and China with Reach USA last

year. In Argentina, before each game, we’d give the other team bibles, and after each

game we’d have bible study for 15 min-utes. In China, we saw the Great Wall

and got to experience a different cul-ture. It was also a good experience

hanging out and getting to meet guys from other college teams.

On the competition the teams faced

I grew up playing AAU ball around the country, but noth-

ing compares to going overseas. The competition level is much

greater because you are playing against pro teams. A lot of the teams

we played had players in their 30s.

On how he improved his shot from his sophomore to junior season

In the summertime, I worked on it quite a bit by shooting a bunch of jump shots. I just stayed at it, and shots started to fall for me this year. I didn’t have a set time of day that I shot because of my class schedule, but a lot of times, I would come in mid-day after weights. I tried to take 300 shots a day.

On taking the younger players under his wing

The coaches look at me to lead these guys, so I am trying to do the best that I can. We’ve got a young team, and we’ve had a lot of bumps and bruises, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

On his nicknames

I have a lot of nicknames on the team, but my favorites are Dolla Beal, Top Dolla or just Dolla.

No player elevated his game from one year to the

next more than junior point guard Jermaine Beal.

A native of Desoto, Texas, Beal went from the

fourth or even fifth scoring option to the No. 1 or 2 option in

2009. After reaching doubles figures in scoring just 14 times

in his first two seasons, Beal scored in double figures 21

times this season. His top scoring performance of the sea-

son helped the Commodores defeat South Carolina on Feb.

28, when he scored a career-best 27 points. A large factor

for Beal’s improvement has been the number of hours he

has put in during the offseason. The past two years, Beal

has supplemented his offseason workout program by play-

ing overseas with Christian missionary teams from Reach

USA and SCORE International.

Beal


jordanWORMSLEY

Baseball

lanceGOULBOURNE

Basketball

annaCARR

Track and Field

maryWETZ

Swimming

Reality show on which

you’d like to guest star

The ContenderI don’t watch

any reality shows

Wipe OutAmerica’s Next

Top Model

Favoriteballpark food

Popcorn Funnel cakes Hot dogs Funnel cakes

If I could wake up

anywhere tomorrow

it’d be

On a tropical island

BahamasA beach on a small island

Paris

Favorite 80s song

The Final Countdown

Europe

ThrillerMichaelJackson

Livin’ on a Prayer

Bon Jovi

Every Breath You Take

The Police

Commodores CubedOn having one of the nation’s top assist-to-turnover ratios

I’m a team player, and I’m unselfish, so any time I have a teammate open, I’m going look for him and try to give him the ball to the best of my ability.

On becoming the first Commodore since 1998 to play the full 40 minutes of a game when he did so against Alabama on Feb. 5

When the game ended, I did realize that I didn’t come out once, but I’m in shape, so I can go 40 minutes if coach needs me to go 40. It was the same game George (Drake) was hurt, so I knew I was going to get more minutes with him out … I just didn’t think it would be 40.

On wearing No. 0

I wanted to come in with something differ-ent. At the time I got (to Vanderbilt), Gilbert Arenas was playing well before he had all the injuries. He was an influence, but I mainly wanted to be different.

On the players he tries to model his game after

I try to take something from many different people. A few I like to follow are Steve Nash and Deron Williams.

On looking ahead to next season

Next year ought to be fun for us, and our team will be a whole lot better just because we have a year to grow. We can have a whole bunch of fun next year, but we’ll have to work in the summertime to get where we want to be.

On the area of his game he will focus on the most this offseason

I’ll probably focus on improving my shoot-ing the most. I’m also going to work on mus-cling up, while slimming down at the same time. I also have to work on my quickness, my jumping ability and explosiveness. n

Men’s Basketball Team Shows Promise

Even as Alabama was putting the finishing touches

on its win over Vander-bilt in the first round of the Southeastern Con-ference Tournament, it was hard not to think about where the bas-ketball program will be one year and even two years from now.

Vanderbilt returns everyone off its roster following a year in which the Commodores finished the regular season by winning its final three games for the first time since the 1993-94 season. The home stretch included wins at LSU, the SEC regular season cham-pions, and at home against South Carolina, who finished second in the SEC East.

The strong finish will give Vanderbilt extra confidence heading into the offseason, just as the loss to Alabama will provide the team

with motivation to improve. “We just have to remember (the loss to

Alabama) and hopefully we can put every-thing together the rest of the spring and the summer and have a good season next year,” freshman guard Brad Tinsley said.

Tinsley, who scored a career-high 20 points in the loss to Alabama, teamed with Jeffery Taylor to form one of the league’s best freshman duos. They became the first Vanderbilt freshman duo to average double figures since Charles Davis (15.3) and Greg Fuller (10.8) did so in 1977.

Also making history in 2009 was A.J. Ogilvy, who became the first Commodore to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau as a sopho-more. Defensively Ogilvy led the team in blocks and helped the Commodores set a school record for most blocks in a season.

It is a long way until Vanderbilt opens practice next October, but the moving parts are in place for what could be a special sea-son in 2010. n

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A P R I L 2 0 0 98

622 Church Street East Brentwood, TN 37027phone: 615-277-4000 fax: 615-277-4653

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BRENTWOOD SUITES“An Affordable, Luxury, All-Suite Hotel”

Vice Chancellor’s Note

By David Williams II

Our athletic administration has been unique to the Southeastern Confer-ence and much of college athletics

since 2003, operating without the position of athletic director.

However, as vice chancellor for univer-sity affairs and athletics, I am the closest thing that Vanderbilt has to a traditional director of athletics.

Rest assured, our unique structure has been good for Vanderbilt, and I wanted to discuss some items I believe are important for you to know. I would like to spotlight three important issues concerning our department and student-athletes.

On Valentine’s Day I travelled to Baltimore to cheer for our out-standing women’s bowling team. You may recall this young team has captured Vanderbilt’s only NCAA championship. In addition, last year Josie Earnest received the Player of the Year Award, which is the equivalent to football’s Heisman Trophy.

At the end of this match, two things stood clear. First, we won all 10 of our matches and maintained our No. 1 ranking. Second, each of our young women and their parents thanked me for attending. I was taken aback! I thanked them for their sacrifices and hard work.

Our football, baseball and basketball teams have huge fan bases and play in front of sold-out crowds. Names like D.J. Moore, Tina Wirth, Pedro Alvarez and Shan Foster provide immediate recognition. But can you name a member of our women’s tennis team, which has advanced to NCAA postseason play for 13 straight years? Make no mistake – we love and are extremely proud of our high-profile teams; however, I want you to know that we have some great student-athletes who work just as hard but for the most part play to smaller crowds. Come enjoy their games and get to know these coaches and student-athletes. I guarantee that you will have a great time. I certainly do.

First and foremost, Vanderbilt is not only an academic university but one of the top ranked academic institutions of higher education in the world. Student-athletes at Vanderbilt must compete against the absolute best on the field, but also in the classroom. There are no easy classes or academic places to hide here, and we would have it no other way. Our goals are not eligibility but rather graduation with the credentials to enter graduate or professional school.

How are we doing? Well, for the fourth consecutive semester, our average GPA for all student-athletes is higher than 3.0. Last year for the first time, the average cumulative GPA for our student-athlete popula-tion was also higher than 3.0. Much credit has to go to our coaches and our crack academic support staff and tutors led by Elizabeth Wright.

Remember Russell Lakey, the point guard on our men’s basketball team that made a trip to the NCAA tournament? What happened to him after his playing days? Russell called me last November to let me know that he has successfully passed the bar exam in Arizona. He graduated from Vanderbilt’s outstanding law school and now is fulfill-ing one of his childhood dreams as a lawyer. This happens every year at Vanderbilt, time after time.

Finally, I really want to give a shout out to a bunch of people you might not know. You all know Bobby, Kevin, Melanie and Tim, and some of you might know many of our other coaches. But how many of you know Luke Wyatt, Meggie Butzow, Lisa Teasley, David Sparks, Angela Bess, John Thorpe or George Midgett, to name a few unsung heroes? They make this department run, and they do it because they love this university and they love these kids. Let me publicly thank them and say to you that whatever success we have, it is in large mea-sure to this talented and hardworking staff. They maintain the facilities, clean the uniforms, cook the food, pay the bills and so much more. They might never be named to an All-America team or win a coach of the year award, but they make it possible for others to achieve those and other awards. In my book, they are not only All-Americans but All-World. Next time you are over here at our place, say hi to some of them and let them know what a great job they are doing. Believe me, it will be appreciated and it is well deserved!

If you ever have a suggestion, a question or a concern, please feel free to contact me. n


VU Finding New Ways to Connect with Fans

W ith newspapers and television stations cutting back their sports coverage, Vanderbilt is finding

new methods to deliver even more informa-tion to Commodore fans.

In recent years, Vanderbilt has amped up the amount of content on vucommodores.com by providing more feature stories, audio and video content as well as live Webcasts. Vanderbilt also has connected with its fans using social media platforms such as You-Tube and Facebook, and has increased the amount of blogging in the last few months. The department’s latest endeavor into social media has been the use of Twitter.

If you don’t know what Twitter is, you soon will as it continues to grow in popularity. Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows users to connect with others by sending short, real-time updates, or tweets, that can be sent over multiple networks or devices. Updates can be no longer than 140 charac-ters and they can be sent via text message, the Web, instant messaging or e-mail.

Vanderbilt began using the application at the beginning of March as a way of con-necting with fans and providing them up-to-the-second information. Thus far, Vanderbilt has used Twitter to send live score updates, news releases and in-game promotions to encourage interaction with fans at the game. By following Vanderbilt on Twitter at the games, fans will have the opportunity to win prizes only available to Twitter users.

It is free to sign up for Twitter (twitter.com) and the only cost you may incur would be

dependent on the messaging plan you have with your wireless provider, since standard text messaging rates apply.

In order for fans to have more control over the updates they receive, Vanderbilt has cre-ated sport-specific accounts, as well as a general account for fans to follow.

By following Vanderbilt’s general account, vucommodores, fans will receive general releases pertaining to Vanderbilt athletics, as well as final scores from specific sport-ing events. However, vucommodores will not provide live score updates throughout games. To receive live score updates, fans will need to follow one of Vanderbilt’s sport-specific accounts (see table to left). By fol-lowing a specific sport, fans will only receive information regarding that sport.

Vanderbilt Head Baseball Coach Tim Corbin has even set up an account, and fans can follow his updates at TimCorbin.

Twitter has grown exponentially the last few months and has even attracted many celebrities. Shaquille O’Neal, Lance Arm-strong and Ashton Kutcher have more than 225,000 people following their daily updates on Twitter.

If you are looking for a new way to stay informed with up-to-the-minute news about Vanderbilt athletics, following the Commo-dores on Twitter is the way to go. n

Compliance questions? Please contact:Candice Storey Lee George Midgett John PeachDirector of Compliance Compliance Coordinator Compliance Coordinator615/322-7992 615/322-2083 615/[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

1 Nevada was the only FBS school to play its spring game before Vanderbilt’s March 28th date. Nevada had its game on March 14th.

6 The number of SEC Tourna-ment titles won by Vanderbilt’s women’s basketball team.

5 The number of tournament titles by Vanderbilt’s bowling team during the 2008-09 regular season — a school record.

1 A.J. Ogilvy is the only player in school history who has reached 1,000 career points by their sopho-more season.

22 The number of runs Van-derbilt scored against Lipscomb on March 10 — the most runs Vander-bilt has scored since also scoring 22 against Yale in 2000.

0 The number of men’s cross country programs with a higher team GPA than Vanderbilt’s 3.755 GPA in 2008.

4 Christina Wirth became the fourth Vanderbilt women’s basketball player to earn Academic All-America honors with her selection to the 2008-09 team.

NUMBERSBy The

CORNERC O M P L I A N C E

Q:

A:

Free Kick is a women’s soccer prospective student-athlete. Free is interested in know-ing more about Vanderbilt so she calls her neighbor, who is an avid supporter of the Vanderbilt athletics program, to find out more information. Is this permissible?

Yes. According to NCAA Bylaw 13.1.3.5.1.1, an athletics representative of a member institution may speak to a prospective student-athlete via the telephone only if the prospective student-athlete initiates the telephone conversation and the call is not for recruiting purposes. Under such circumstances, the representative must refer ques-tions about the institution's athletics program to the athletics department staff.

OFFICIAL VANDERBILTTWITTER ACCOUNTS

vucommodoresVandyBaseballVandyFootballVandyMBB

VandyWBBTimCorbinCommodoreNation

A P R I L 2 0 0 910

Reynolds Finds Continued Success on Tour

Bobby Reynolds left Vanderbilt as the NCAA’s top-ranked singles player in 2003 and hasn’t looked back since, ris-

ing through the ATP rankings to a career-best singles ranking of 63rd this past February.

Now in his sixth year on the professional tour, Reynolds has secured his spot as not only one of the top players in America, but in the world. While he has yet to earn his first win on the ATP Tour, Reynolds has won six Chal-lenger tournaments, including two in 2008. Reynolds also has competed in the main draw of the last seven grand-slam tourna-ments, dating back to Wimbledon in 2007.

In a sport where there is no guaranteed money and you must earn every dollar you make, Reynolds’ success on the tour is something that makes even him take a step back at times.

“While I was growing up, I dreamed of playing professional tennis but never thought I was capable of achieving it,” Reynolds said. “After playing on the tour for six years with many of the players I looked up to, I feel very grateful to have had this opportunity.”

Reynolds has had much success over his six-year career, but he had never been in the spotlight quite like he was last June at Wim-bledon. In what was just his second singles appearance at the All-England Club, Reyn-olds made a splash by advancing to the third round, which was further than any American at the tournament. The former Commodore defeated Filippo Volandri and Frank Dancevic en route to matching his best showing in a grand slam. He also advanced to the third round in the 2005 Australian Open.

As happy as Reynolds was about his play, the result was bittersweet given the perfor-mances of his American colleagues.

“It was a Catch-22 because while it was the best result I put up in a grand slam, it was disappointing that no other fellow Americans were there,” Reynolds said. “I got asked a lot of questions about being the last American standing, but I honestly would rather see a fellow American win the tournament than be the only American to make it to the third round.”

Reynolds’ success at Wimbledon added to what was his top season on the tour. Reyn-olds began 2008 ranked 112th and climbed

to a year-end ranking of 70. His rise through the rankings in 2008 continued a pattern of ending each season with a better ranking than the year before. Only once (2006) in his six-year career has Reynolds not improved his ranking from the previous year.

“I feel like each year I play, I gain more and more experience,” Reynolds said. “I’ve learned to better manage the number of tournaments I play and my travel schedule throughout the past few years. I’ve learned that a lot more goes into playing high-level tennis than just hitting the tennis ball well.”

Part of what he has learned has come from the coaching he has received from former Vanderbilt player David Drew, who serves as Reynolds’ coach.

“Having his familiarity with my tennis game has helped me improve even further,” Reynolds said.”

Drew began coaching Reynolds when he was a 11 and coached him through the junior ranks until Reynolds reached college.

After not getting the results he desired the first few years on the tour, Reynolds realized he needed a change and turned to Drew, who has now been his coach the last three years on the tour.

Drew credits Reynolds’ rise through the rankings to many factory, including the improvement of his return game, his increase in athleticism and his ability to stay healthy.

“(Bobby) has done a great job and it has been a blast to work with him and see him do well and have a strong career,” Drew said.

“His game has gotten in better shape and is more complete, and right now he is playing the best tennis he ever has.”

Reynolds plays 30-34 tournaments a year, which on average equates to playing tour-naments three out of the four weeks each month. Like the PGA Tour, the ATP Tour has almost turned into a year-round tour with tournaments running January to November. Because of the schedule, the majority of Reynolds’ down time comes in December.

Just this past winter, Reynolds took advantage of that downtime to marry for-mer Vanderbilt track star Josie Hahn. They live in Charleston, S.C., where Hahn is in dental school.

Not only was Drew at the wedding, he was in it. Over the years, the two have developed a relationship that is well beyond that of just a coach and a player.

“The great thing about our situation is that we have such a great friendship,” Drew said. “Our relationship goes well beyond just coaching. He is one of my best friends. We know each other so well that we kind of know how to push each other’s buttons and get the most out of our working relationship on top of a great personal relationship.”

Under the tutelage of Drew, Reynolds has become one of the top tennis players in the world, and is ranked among the top six Americans, but getting to this point did not come without early struggles or sacrifices. After two years of play on the tour, Reynolds’ top ranking was 271. In order to consistently

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AMERICANS IN THE TOP 100ON THE ATP TOUR (As of March 9)

Rank .................................................Name7 ........................................... Andy Roddick13 ............................................James Blake20 ...............................................Mardy Fish49 ...........................................Sam Querrey65 .........................................Robby Ginepri66 .....................................Bobby Reynolds93 .......................................Wayne Odesnik98 ......................................Robert Kendrick

Reynolds was the lone American to advance to the third round at Wimbledon in 2008.


play in the main draw of grand slam tourna-ments, you need to be ranked much closer to 100 than 300.

To raise his ranking, Reynolds traveled across the country and across the world to play in future and challenger tourna-ments, which are a step below ATP tourna-ments. The tournaments took him to bustling metropolises such as Joplin, Mo., Bingham-ton, N.Y., and Calabasas, Calif. Even now as an established player, Reynolds continues to travel the world to play in challenger tourna-ments in order to maintain his ranking.

“(Professional tennis) definitely is not as glamorous as the TV makes it out to be,” Reynolds said. “When I first started playing, the daily grind of matches and tournaments was more grueling than I had expected. The televised tournaments are all in large cities with great setups, but the future and chal-lenger tournaments that are needed to get to the top are often in second- or third-world

countries. It has definitely been an eye-opening experience for me.”

Even though professional tennis isn’t as glamorous as it may look to outsiders, Reyn-olds wouldn’t trade his career for any other. In his six years on the tour, Reynolds has experienced more than most people do in their lifetimes.

“It’s great to be able to play the sport that I love for my job and travel the world to see different places while doing it,” Reynolds said. “I have seen so many places and met so many people because of my career that I otherwise would have never experienced.”

Although he was only on campus for three years before turning pro, Reynolds credits his time spent at Vanderbilt as being a large reason for why he has been able to perse-vere through the challenging times.

“With the busy schedule of a student-athlete at Vanderbilt I learned how to effi-ciently manage my time,” Reynolds said. “I

am a well-rounded player today due to jug-gling athletics, academics and a social life at Vanderbilt. Along with time management, I also gained experience in leadership and networking skills, which I use daily in my ten-nis career.”

That positive experience he had at Van-derbilt is something that has made his desire to return to Vanderbilt and complete the work toward his degree grow even with his success on the tour.

“I plan on finishing school once I near the end of my tennis career,” Reynolds said. “Education has always been important to me, and I already put in three hard years. It would be a shame to see a Vanderbilt educa-tion go to waste.”

In the meantime, Reynolds will continue to represent Vanderbilt and an entire country well as he continues his ascent up the rank-ings in quest of obtaining his next goal — a tournament title on the ATP Tour. n

Four SEC Tournament titles in the last eight years. That’s what the Vander-bilt women’s basketball team accom-

plished with a 61-54 win over Auburn in the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game on March 8 in North Little Rock, Ark.

Vanderbilt has won two of the last three SEC Tournaments, and the Commodores four wins since the 2001-02 season are unmatched by league rivals. The 2009 tour-nament title was Vanderbilt’s sixth all-time, which ranks second only to Tennessee’s 13 titles. It was the third tournament title in seven seasons at Vanderbilt for Head Coach Melanie Balcomb (right).

After defeating Auburn, 73-70, in Nash-ville on Feb. 19 to take over first place in the SEC, Vanderbilt only needed to win its final two games to claim the regular sea-son title. Instead, the Commodores lost both games, falling at Mississippi, 71-69, and at Tennessee, 75-66.

Vanderbilt's losses at the end of the reg-ular season left many pundits doubting the Commodores would make much of a run in the SEC Tournament, especially with-out the services of forward Hannah Tuomi, the team’s second-leading scorer and top rebounder who missed the tournament due to an ankle injury.

Instead, Vanderbilt rallied and posted consecutive wins over No. 7-seed Geor-gia (69-61) and No. 3-seed LSU (61-47) to reach the championship game against top-seeded Auburn.

Vanderbilt started the game 0 of 8 from the floor. A start like that would doom most teams, but Auburn never was able to take advantage of how poorly Vanderbilt began the game. Instead of having to dig out of a

huge hole, Vanderbilt found itself down just three after Tia Gibbs scored Vanderbilt’s first points with a three-pointer at the 14:54 mark of the first half.

“We got off to a slow start, but six points is not too much of a deficit to come back from,” tournament MVP Christina Wirth said. “We said, ‘We’re fine, we’ve just got to go out there and relax and our shots will fall.’ ”

From that point on Vanderbilt was able to seize the momentum and take a 10-point lead into the half. Auburn was able to get within three points with just over five min-utes to play, but that would be as close as the Tigers would get.

Auburn spent the season running past opponents on the court with a league-best scoring average of 77.0 points per game, but in both meetings against Vanderbilt, the

Tigers were held below their scoring aver-age. As a result, Vanderbilt gave Auburn two of its three losses heading into the NCAA Tournament.

“We know we can’t play them straight up, they’ve got great players,” Balcomb said. “You have to do different things to get them out of their flow on offense, disrupt their offense and limit touches to their shooters, and then you have to fight on the boards.

“You have to rebound well to keep them under control in transition. They’re the fast-est team up and down the court in transi-tion that I’ve ever coached against, and we tried to limit those transition buckets.”

Auburn may have won the regular season title, but the Commodores had the final say in the conference tournament, just as they have four of the last eight seasons. n

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A P R I L 2 0 0 912


It’s My Turn

By Rod Williamson

Times are a-changing

I’m taking a guess that a majority of you reading this issue of Commodore Nation are like me in that you are on the north side

of the BIG 5-0.I make this assumption because our chil-

dren and our children’s children aren’t spending much time with printed publications. Readership of newspapers and magazines has plum-meted as many of yesterday’s news beacons are out of business or on life support.

This also is true of television ratings, which have fragmented with the proliferation of new options. The days of Walter Cronkite telling Amer-ica what it should know are long over.

These trends are seriously affecting how those of us responsible for promoting Vanderbilt athletics must think about how we go about our duties. And we’re not alone; these are national trends cutting across all ways of life. It’s a brave new world.

Inside McGugin Center we have concluded that to inform you ade-quately we simply cannot rely on traditional media as we have done for decades. This isn’t a slam at the media, it’s merely a fact. “They” no longer have the financial resources to cover us as they once did.

Old-school media have been forced to reduce staff, trim budgets and shrink the size of their final products. During an hour-long six o’clock block, local TV has shrunk the sports into three or four teeny minutes, which, like their travel budgets, gets dominated by the Titans.

The same is true with venerable institutions such as The Tennes-sean, long a cornerstone of our coverage and, accordingly, our media relations attention. A Tennessean staffer remarked a couple of years ago that had our great baseball team made the College World Series he wondered if his paper would have sent a reporter to Omaha. Sobering! The days of large entourages covering college teams have ended. With few exceptions, our experience is echoed around the SEC.

When our men’s basketball team traveled to Georgia near the end of the regular season, the only Middle Tennessee journalist there was Andy Boggs, our own staffer. A few years ago he’d be called a sports information director, but right now, with so few journalists pestering him for information he is now a communications assistant.

This example holds even truer for women’s basketball, baseball and is getting dangerously close to the fact in football, where it is not unusual for Coach Johnson to address “our” media in a very small room.

So how are you going to follow your beloved Commodores in the future? Well, few believe the old media will disappear completely, but we have begun a “New Media Team.” It’s my hunch that it won’t be long before our insiders are providing the largest percentage of information to you.

Our official Web site, vucommodores.com, has taken on the role once held by outsiders. We’re ramping up our video interviews, blogs, Twitter neighborhoods, YouTube, Facebook and other communica-tion trends. (If you don’t understand what this paragraph means, find a young person to explain things!) It’s easier than you think, and you won’t be missing out on the latest word.

Admittedly, our coverage may lack the “third-party” objectiveness offered by traditional media. We won’t Monday-morning-quarterback our coaches or go out of our way to identify a certain student-athlete that is not getting the job done. At least not yet!

Some pro teams already have hired their own beat reporters to write what these scribes used to do for a paper. Can those days be far away for the rest of us? n

A P R I L 2 0 0 914


AARON WESTLAKE• Baseball• Redshirt freshman

With catchers Andrew Giobbi and Curt Casali going down with injuries, Head Coach Tim Corbin turned to Aaron West-lake to man the plate. Despite never play-ing a game at the position at any level of baseball, the Redding, Calif., native has been one of the team’s most productive players this year.

Is there anything you did differently this offseason than the previous year?Last year I took a huge number of swings, but they didn’t have a purpose. This year, I took fewer swings, but they were more purposeful swings. Last year as a freshman, I was playing tense. This year, having a year of experience under my belt, I am more relaxed and am able to play how I am capable of playing.

What was your reaction when Coach Corbin came to you and asked you to catch?Last year, before I had my injury we had talked about it a little bit just jokingly. This year, it was a necessity and I told him I’d try it out and see how it goes. My reaction was that I’d do whatever I can to help the team.

How big of a learning curve has the position been for you?It has been a big learning curve. There is so much that goes into catching. Coach and I talked about high energy and setting the energy level for the team. Doing that and setting the pace of the game really has a big impact, too. The big things like catching a ball just comes with time and experience, but the little things are what guys like (Andrew) Giobbi, (Curt) Casali and all the coaches help me with.

How difficult was it for you to miss the end of last season due to a blood clot?It was very frustrating, but what was even more frustrating was coming back after-wards and not performing like I could and wanted to. That was more frustrat-ing than anything.

The Final 4

• Vanderbilt alumni and friends now can become a permanent part of Vanderbilt Stadium with the “Pave the Way” program, which allows fans the opportunity to purchase com-memorative bricks that will be the centerpiece of Vanderbilt’s two new walkways out-side the southern gates. The program allows fans the chance to engrave their names, those of family, friends, classmates or even their favorite dates in Vanderbilt history on a brick. Bricks are available to purchase at an introductory price of $200 through June 1, 2009. After June 1, the cost will be $250. Bricks can be ordered through vucommo-dores.com or by calling the National Commodore Club at 615/322-4114.

• Senior women’s basketball player Christina Wirth was one of five unanimous selections named to the First Team All-SEC squad. She also was named SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Fellow senior Jennifer Risper and junior Merideth Marsh earned second-team honors, and Risper was selected as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.

• Vanderbilt earned many awards at the 11th annual O’Charley’s Dinner of Champions on March 2 at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel. Head Football Coach Bobby Johnson was named 2008 Sports Person of the Year, while former basketball player Shan Fos-ter was named 2008 Amateur Athlete of the Year. The football team’s win in the Music City Bowl also topped the list for “Top Sports Moment of 2008.”

• Vanderbilt's bowling team won its school-record fifth regular season tournament of the 2008-09 season on March 15 when it claimed the Columbia 300 Music City Clas-sic. Senior Josie Earnest was named tournament MVP.

• Five players who have made significant contributions in recent years were held out of spring practice as they recover from injuries: Myron Lewis (CB), Broderick Stewart (DE), Jared Hawkins (RB), John Stokes (LB) and Brandon Bryant (LB).

T I DB I T SC O M M O D O R E

A P R I L 2 0 0 916

The popping sound a ball makes when it hits the pocket of a glove, the crackling sound that metal spikes make on the

base paths and the distinct sound the umpire makes when he calls a strike. These are just a few of the most distinguishable sounds at a baseball game. They are sounds Joey Man-ning doesn’t take for granted.

A sophomore outfielder from Bartow, Fla., Manning can hear the sounds and has always been able to, but he knows all too well what it would be like to not be able to hear anything at all.

Manning’s parents, Jeremiah Sr. and Laurie, both are hearing impaired. Laurie was born deaf, while Jeremiah Sr. contracted meningitis when he was three months old, which resulted in his loss of hearing. Because of his experi-ence growing up, Joey has a special apprecia-tion for what he is able to hear.

“A lot of people take their hearing for granted,” Joey said. “I’m really fortunate. Being deaf is a setback, but it is not as bad as it could be. I just always think about what it would be like going to a concert where music is playing loud and hearing absolutely nothing.”

It may be hard for others to relate to how it would be to grow up with parents that are deaf, but for Manning, it is the only way he’s known his entire life. Before Joey could speak English, he could sign. Although he was proficient in sign language at a young age, his verbal skills weren’t up to the same level.

“When I was first growing up, I didn’t know anything different than how my parents com-municated,” Joey said. “When I was younger I used to have speech problems a little bit, and that was probably because I was around my parents all the time.”

The middle of three children, Manning’s upbringing forced him to be more responsible at an earlier age than his peers. Joey, along with his older sister Mara (22) and younger brother Jeremy (14), have been counted on since a young age to help their parents with tasks that others would consider just a part of everyday life.

“I just had to learn how to have social skills early because my parents couldn’t talk, so a lot of the time either my older sister or I would communicate for my parents when we were going somewhere,” Joey said. “It would be somewhere as simple as going through the drive thru or going to the bank, we are always with them to help them out.”

Joey’s ability to communicate is something Terrence McGriff noticed right away as his var-sity basketball coach at Bartow High School.

“I think that what both his parents being deaf forced him to do is be a great commu-nicator,” McGriff said. “Most kids don’t know how to communicate effectively with adults until they are older, but he was a kid who was able to communicate effectively as a ninth grader. I think he got that because he had to be an effective communicator in order to

communicate at home.”Joey’s ability to communicate also made

him a natural leader on the team and helped him earn second team all-county honors in basketball despite not picking up the sport until ninth grade.

“In my 13 years of coaching basketball, he was probably as smart a kid at picking up stuff as any player I’ve coached,” McGriff said of Manning, who was drafted in the 47th round of the 2007 draft by the Philadelphia Phillies, despite already being enrolled at Vanderbilt.

The responsibility Joey had at home with helping his parents communicate also forced him to mature much sooner than most children.

“I was having to communicate with people older than me all the time,” Joey said. “That definitely helped me mature faster. I was hav-ing to be independent at an earlier age because my parents weren’t there to help me do a lot of stuff that your everyday parent does.”

To Joey, helping his parents with things oth-ers may take for granted and communicating

with them through signing was just a normal part of life. He had no reason to believe his relationship with his parents was any different than his classmates. It wasn’t until third grade when Joey realized his relationship with his parents was in fact different.

“The first time I ever noticed (something was different) was when I was in third grade and they had an open house at the school,” Joey said. “My mom actually went with me to that, and I remember seeing everyone’s parents and they were talking to their kids and the teach-ers. I could communicate with my parents very easily, but it takes a little longer to sign.”

The way Joey communicates with his par-ents reinforces how fortunate he is to be able to hear. Although his parents' hearing loss is not hereditary, there was concern that Joey and his other siblings could be born with hearing loss.

“My sister is older than me, and my parents said that they were really worried about her being deaf,” Joey said. “Even though she isn’t deaf, it was still a little nerve-wracking when I

Manning Breaks the Soundless Barrier

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was born just to see if it didn’t skip a child.”Being so involved in helping his parents

communicate on a daily basis forged a bond that would be hard for others to relate to. That relationship with his parents made his deci-sion to leave Florida to attend Vanderbilt that much more difficult for Joey. Complicating the decision even further was that the other school he was looking at was Miami. Not only was it closer to home, but it was a school he grew up following.

“Growing up I just loved Miami, and it was really hard for me to not go to Miami with it being closer to home and to come up here, but it just kind of tells how much I like the coaches and the program (at Vanderbilt),” Joey said. “It made it a lot easier to be around people like that in the program.”

For as much as Joey loved the Vander-bilt program when he was going through the recruiting process, the thought of leaving his parents for a school so far away left a knot in his stomach.

“It was pretty tough at first just because, I wouldn’t say I hold our family together, but we have a lot of issues financially and socially that go on in my family,” Joey said. “When I first left, things kind of broke apart for a while, but then things got better and everything is pretty good now.”

Joey admits that at one point last year he thought about transferring to another school so he could be closer to his parents. Part of it

was concern for his family and part of it was his lack of playing time. Now in his second season, Joey couldn’t be happier than he is in Nashville.

“I’m really glad that I came up here, and I love everything this program is about … I’ve settled in nicely,” Joey said.

Although Joey is a long way from home and he is unable to have a traditional phone conversation like most children do with their parents, he has found other ways to commu-

nicate at a distance. Every day, Manning con-nects with his parents through e-mail or by using Skype, an online service that enables people to communicate face-to-face on the computer via a Web cam.

Manning may be a long way from his par-ents, but even when he isn’t connected with them on his computer, the unique sounds that fill the air at baseball games bring his mind back to them. n

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Their eyes light up when Jennifer Risper walks into the room. It’s not because she plays basketball at Vanderbilt or that they’ve seen her playing on TV, it’s because she is there to visit them.

Each day can seem much like the day that preceded it at an assisted-living home, which is what makes Risper’s visits to The Blakeford at Green Hills that much more special for the residents.

Since January, Risper, a senior on the women’s basketball team, has spent a few hours most every Monday and Wednesday, depend-ing on the team’s schedule, brightening the lives of the residents.

When Risper started volunteering her hours, she knew she was doing something for a good cause, but she didn’t realize how large of an impact she had.

“They love it,” Risper said. “I didn’t know that they would appreci-ate it that much. I knew they would like it, but they love it.”

One person Risper has built a special relationship with is Martha Earthman Hudson, a Vanderbilt graduate. Since Risper began visit-ing, Hudson has welcomed her with open arms and usually invites Risper to eat lunch with her.

“Jennifer is so sweet for coming over and visiting,” Hudson said. “It just makes our day to see her.”

Before volunteering at The Blakeford, Risper had never spent time at a retirement home. A devout Christian, the idea to visit a retirement center came to Risper while she was reading her Bible.

“I came across a verse in James that said you need to spend your time with widows and orphans,” Risper said. “I don’t even know how I found that verse, but I did, and I was like, ’wow, that is something I need to do.’”

Risper admits that she was a little bit hesitant and nervous at first when she arrived for the first time and met Blakeford Activities Coor-dinator Amy Bendle, but those nerves quickly turned to joy.

“I was nervous for a second, but once I walked in that first room and started a conversation, I was fine,” said Risper, who was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 2009.

Bendle has witnessed firsthand how much of an impact Risper has had on everyone at the center.

“We just really enjoy having her come by, and it really brightens their day,” Bendle said. “It is just great having someone who cares so much.”

A native of Moreno Valley, Calif., Risper is unsure of what her plans will be after she graduates in May. She hopes to give basketball a shot for a few more years, but no matter where she ends up, she plans to continue volunteering because she knows she is making a difference in people’s lives.

“I think (I am making a difference in their lives),” Risper said. “I

especially realize it when I’ll visit with residents and their kids will come or somebody who always visits them will say, ’Oh my gosh, you made their day, you have no idea how hard today was for them.’ Moments like that make me know I’m doing the right thing.”

For as much of an impact as Risper is having on others, they are having just as much of an impact on her.

“It is not just me going out there and making their days, they are making mine, too.” n

Risper Reaches Out in the Community

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Jennifer Risper (second from right) poses with Vanderbilt grad Martha Earthman Hudson (left), Vanderbilt grad Calvin W. Fite (second from left) and former Belmont Chancellor Herbert C. Gabhard.

A P R I L 2 0 0 920

Quick Hits

• Catcher/first baseman Aaron Westlake was named Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week on March 2 af-ter hitting .667 in a five-game span. The same week, he also made his first-ever start behind the plate at any level of his career.

• David Price’s Project One Four Founda-tion presented a $25,000 check for the Nathan Stephens Endowment Scholar-ship Fund. The proceeds were raised through three events that were held this past year, including a bowling breakfast and benefit, a golf tournament and si-lent auction.

• Vanderbilt’s 22 runs scored against Lip-scomb on March 10 were the most runs the team has scored since also scoring 22 against Yale in 2000.

• A.J. Ogilvy was voted second team All-SEC and Jeffrey Taylor was voted to the SEC All-Freshman team by the league’s coaches.

• Former Commodore Phil Cox was rec-ognized among the 2009 class of SEC Basketball Legends at the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament.

• In victories against LSU and Arkansas, A.J. Ogilvy became the first player to post a double-double in consecutive games since Matt Freije did so in 2004.

• Vanderbilt’s eight blocks against Ar-kansas on March 9 gave the Commo-dores a school-record 134 blocks in 2008-09. The previous record was 131 in 1994-95.

• Former Commodore Shan Foster was named Nashville’s 2008 Sports Person of the Year at the O’Charley’s Dinner of Champions held March 2.

• Head Coach Bobby Johnson announced staff promotions for Bruce Fowler, Jamie Bryant, Des Kitchings and Rick Logo on Feb. 25. Fowler is now assistant head coach in charge of the defense, while Bryant was promoted to defensive coor-dinator. Kitchings and Logo were named co-special teams coordinators.

• Johnson was named Nashville’s 2008 Sports Person of the Year at the O’Charley’s Dinner of Champions, which was March 2 at the Renaissance Nash-ville Hotel.

• Vanderbilt’s win in the Music City Bowl also topped the list for “Top Sports Mo-ment of 2008” at the O’Charley’s Dinner of Champions.

• Vanderbilt won the Seminole Intercolle-giate on March 8 after shooting a 54-hole team score of 1-under 863. The Commo-dores defeated Virginia by one stroke en route to earning their second team title in as many years.

• Sophomore Ryan Haselden eagled the final hole to win medalist honors and clinch the overall team title by Vander-bilt. Haselden won the tournament with a score of 3-under 213. Haselden was one stroke back of the leader entering the fi-nal hole before he eagled the 540-yard par five 18th hole.

• Following Haselden's performance, he was named Golf World College Player of the Week.

• Fourteen of Vanderbilt’s 16 matches through March have come against ranked opponents.

• VU plays host to Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky in its April home matches.

• Vanderbilt won the SEC Tournament for the sixth time and for the fourth time in the last eight seasons.

• Christina Wirth was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Women’s Basketball Third Team. She is the fourth Commodore to earn national Academic All-America honors, and the first since Zuzi Klimesova (2001 and 2002).

• Three Commodores received postsea-son SEC honors on March 3. Christina Wirth was selected to the All-SEC First Team and was named SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Wirth was one of five unanimous selections to the first team as she became the first Commodore to be selected to the team two years in a row since Dee Davis. Wirth also was named to the 2009 SEC Community Service Team.

• Also earning All-SEC honors were Jen-nifer Risper and Merideth Marsh, who were named to the All-SEC Second Team. Risper also was named the league’s De-fensive Player of the Year and was select-ed to the All-Defensive Team.

• The Women’s Basketball Coaches Asso-ciation selected Wirth as a 2009 WBCA Scholarship Award winner. Wirth was one of two players to win the award, which awards the recipients with $1,000 toward completing their degree(s).

• Vanderbilt signee Stephanie Holzer was selected to play in the 2009 McDonald’s All-American Game on April 1. Current Vanderbilt senior Christina Wirth played in the game in 2005.

• After winning the National Championship two years ago and placing third last sea-son, Vanderbilt will return to the NCAA Championships April 8-11.

• The No. 1-ranked Commodores won the Music City Classic on March 15.

• It was the first time VU has won its home tournament, and it was VU's fifth win of the year — a school record.

• Megan Grehan led Vanderbilt at the UCF Challenge on March 10, placing 23rd overall. The team finished 16th at the tournament.

• VU earned its first road victory of the sea-son with a 19-18 upset at No. 10 Boston.

• Vanderbilt will close its home schedule April 15 when it plays host to Notre Dame on Senior Day.

• Junior Jess Cohen was named to the 2009 SEC Women’s Swimming and Div-ing Community Service Team.

• VU set five school records en route to a 10th place finish at the SEC Champion-ships.

• The 'Dores swam to school records in the 100-yard freestyle (Jennifer Mol-chan, 52.20), 100-yard breaststroke (Al-lie Voss, 1:04.11), 200-yard breaststroke (Laura Dillon, 2:19.56), 200-yard medley relay (Molchan, Voss, Kelly Obranowicz, Zoe Cooper-Surma, 1:46.31), and the 400-yard freestyle relay (Molchan, Obra-nowicz, Anna Fargo, Voss, 3:30.66.

• Vanderbilt will hold its final home match of the regular season April 5 against Ole Miss.

• Distance standout Rita Jorgensen was one of the many highlights of the indoor season for the `Dores with a new school record performance of 9:37.14 in the 3000-meter run at the ISU Classic.

• Teegan Hill recorded a season-best 55.73 in the 400-meter dash at the Iowa State Classic. It was her third top-10 400-meter finish of the season. Hill's 55.73 ranks third all-time in the school's indoor record books and is the fastest 400 time recorded by a VU sprinter in over a decade.

Men’s SportsWomen’s Sports


The Month Ahead

Men’s SportsBaseball4/1 at Belmont 6pm4/3 Florida 6pm4/4 Florida 3pm4/5 Florida 1pm4/7 at Middle Tennessee State 6pm4/10 at Arkansas 6:35pm4/11 at Arkansas 3:05pm4/12 at Arkansas 1:05pm4/14 Middle Tennessee State 6pm4/15 Morehead State 6pm4/17 Alabama 6pm4/18 Alabama 3pm4/19 Alabama 1pm4/21 at Austin Peay 6pm4/22 at Louisville 5pm4/24 Mississippi State 6pm4/25 Mississippi State 1pm4/26 Mississippi State 1pm

Golf4/6-7 at Reunion Intercollegiate (Madison, Miss.) All Day4/17-19 at SEC Championship (Sea Island, Ga.) All Day

Tennis4/3 at Mississippi State 2pm4/5 at Ole Miss 1pm4/10 Georgia 2pm4/12 Tennessee 1pm4/18 Kentucky 1pm4/23-26 at SEC Championships (Auburn, Ala.) TBA

Women’s SportsBowling4/8-11 at NCAA Bowling Champ. (Detroit, Mich.) All Day

Golf4/3-5 at Ping ASU Invitational (Tempe, Ariz.) All Day4/17-19 at SEC Championship (Blythewood, S.C.) All Day

Lacrosse4/4 Johns Hopkins 1pm4/8 at New Hampshire Noon4/12 at Ohio State 11am4/15 Notre Dame 3:30pm4/21 at Cornell 3pm

Tennis4/3 Mississippi State 2:30pm4/5 Ole Miss Noon4/10 at Georgia 4pm4/12 at Tennessee Noon4/18 at Kentucky 11am4/23-26 at SEC Tournament (Fayetteville, Ark.) TBA

Track and Field4/2-4 at Texas Relays (Austin, Texas) All Day4/2-4 at Tiger Track Classic (Auburn, Ala.) All Day4/11 at Ole Miss Invite (Oxford, Miss.) All Day4/17-18 at Auburn Invite (Auburn, Ala.) All Day4/17-18 at Louisville Invite (Louisville, Ky.) All Day4/23-25 at Penn Relays (Philadelphia, Pa.) All Day

April 6 • Opening Day

The 2009 Major League Baseball season will begin on Monday, April 6. Former Commodores expected in the big leagues this year are Jensen Lewis (CLE), David Price (TB) and Jeremy Sowers (CLE).

April 9-12 • Masters Tournament

Former Vanderbilt golfer Brandt Snedeker will play in his third Masters one year af-ter tying for third at the event and finishing four strokes off the lead.

April 21 • Spring Semester Ends

The last day of spring classes at Vander-bilt will be Tuesday, April 21. Final exams will be April 22-30.

April 25-26 • NFL Draft

Former Commodore defensive back D.J. Moore and other NFL hopefuls will be wait-ing by the phone April 25-26 to hear which team selects them in the 2009 NFL Draft.

What to Watch For

A P R I L 2 0 0 922

What can one learn about American life from studying various aspects of baseball? That’s the question

that Vanderbilt professor Bruce Oppenheimer raises in his annual class, Baseball in Ameri-can Life. A political science professor, Oppen-heimer has taught this American studies class during Maymester (a four-week period of courses that are taught in May) since 2001.

A lifelong baseball fan who attended his first baseball game at Ebbets Field in 1954, and even plays in the oldest running rotisserie league in the U.S., Oppenheimer had the idea for starting a class on baseball 20 years before it first came to fruition at Vanderbilt.

“The class is about using baseball as a vehicle for studying various aspects of things in American life,” Oppenheimer said.

Part of what intrigued Oppenheimer about beginning the class was his interest in why some of the very best American fiction writers of all time have chosen to write about baseball, including Bernard Malamud, Mark Harris and Ring Lardner.

“A lot of the very best fiction writers in the United States have written baseball fiction, so it sort of intrigued me as to why these people have chosen baseball as a vehicle for writing fiction,” Oppenheimer said.

Oppenheimer believes part of the reason so many writers choose baseball opposed to all the other sports is the pace.

“I’ve tried to figure it out, and I think it partly has to do with how the game is paced,” Oppenheimer said. “The players get time to think, and the observers get time to think.”

In the class, Oppenheimer often divides stu-dents into teams and assigns them books to read and present to the rest of the class. The class also compares how Hollywood depicts different books through film.

“Hollywood takes great baseball fiction and changes it quite a bit, so we ask why does it change and why is it different,” Oppenheimer said.

In addition to studying baseball fiction, the class looks at real baseball. The class reads books such as Moneyball and Men at Work. It also has three writing assignments, which include students writing about their first base-ball game, listening to a baseball game on the radio and describing what it was like and attending a Nashville Sounds game together and writing about the experience.

“We go to a Sounds game, and they have to write a detailed description about something they observed at the game,” Oppenheimer said. “It can be what the third-base coach is doing. It can be what the hot dog vendor is doing, but I want them to realize how hard it is to write about baseball unless you are very observant of what goes on. The people who write the baseball fiction and real baseball have to be terribly observant.”

Oppenheimer also leads the class through many discussions of statistical analysis, hero-

ism in the game, careers of individual players and innovation of the game, etc.

Through discussions of individual players, Oppenheimer will focus on players who are particularly interesting, but relatively unknown to most. Students will have to study those players and report on them to the class. The names of the players Oppenheimer selects range from Larry Doby, the second African-American baseball player; Steve Blass, who suddenly couldn’t throw a strike, much like Rick Ankiel; and Roger Connor, who was the all-time home run leader before Babe Ruth.

In the eight years the class has been taught, it has ranged from 20 to 40 students and is one of the most successful courses taught during Maymester. The class is mostly made up of men, but there are a good number of women who take the class. While Oppenheimer would be open to teaching the course during the semester, he understands he is employed as a political science professor.

“I would certainly like to (teach the class more often), but what I face is my vocation is as a political scientist not as a professor of baseball,” Oppenheimer said. “What it means is for four weeks in May, in the morn-ings, I have fun. I don’t set aside my research though. It gives me a break at the end of the school year and allows me to do something a little different.”

Because the class is taught during Mayme-ster, Oppenheimer gets a variety of students. Some are there because they specifically want to take the class, while others are there because they need the hours. Due to the subject matter, Oppenheimer also gets a fair share of Vanderbilt baseball players. Because of their experience playing the game, the play-ers add a lot to discussions.

“There are a couple of places where they really help out,” Oppenheimer said of the play-ers. “One area is when we start talking about real baseball stuff. For example, they are very helpful when we discuss whether there are hot streaks or cold streaks. I ask how innovation occurred in the game.

“I usually divide the class into four teams and each team has to come up with its own original plays or ideals that are used in a game, so when I have players in the class, they are very useful in that regard. When we get into real baseball, they know some things the rest of us won’t know.”

If you enjoy baseball, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more enjoyable class than this one, but even if you think you know more about baseball than the next guy, you shouldn’t expect the class to come easy.

“While it is fun, there is really a lot of learn-ing going on in this class,” Oppenheimer said. “It is not a walk in the park.” n

VU Professor Brings Baseball to the Classroom

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Vanderbilt professor Bruce Oppenheimer teaches a class called Baseball in American Life.

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The Last Look

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BLOCK PARTYLance Goulbourne (left) and A.J. Ogilvy block the layup attempt by Arkansas’ Courtney Fortson. This photo and dozens more are available for purchase by visiting the photo store on vucommodores.com.

Commodore Nation - April 2009

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Transcript of Commodore Nation - April 2009