This is always the strangest time of the year for me.

With the running of the NCAA DIII Outdoor Track and Field Championships last weekend, the 2006-07 sports season has officially come to an end for me. Sure, there are a couple of academic teams that will be announced in the coming weeks, but for the most part the 2007-08 season is already well underway.

The most popular question I have put to me these days are about my summer plans. The load does lighten during the summer, but there is still plenty of work to do. If you haven't checked out the football web site, we already have the 2007 roster loaded, so you can scan through it and learn the names of the 128 young men who will be on campus in about 2-1/2 months to begin football camp.

That's even harder to believe. As fast as the academic year went by, how fast will it seem these few weeks will rush through before we once again have students in the Allen Center, heading out to practice, talking about their class schedules.

Some of our athletes are staying on campus this summer. Geoff Lambert, who just finished his season last weekend trying to battle through a hip injury while running at the Nationals, is working in the library once again this summer. Adi Pynenberg, an All-American linebacker and an equally accomplished student, is one of 12 students participating in a summer business immersion learning program. He and teammate Andy Deig are hitting the weights and the track every morning before heading out at 8 a.m. to learn about the business world every day. And Justin Gardiner is back a semester in Europe, serving as a summer assistant in the archives department. If you know what a Civil War buff I am, imagine the conversation JG and I had two days ago as he was going through the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, part of several books in the Wabash Civil War collection.

So we say farewell to last season, remembering fondly the accomplishments on the field, in the pool, and on the track, court, or mat of the outstanding young men who chose to become a part of the great history of athletics at Wabash.

A new chapter --- the 2007-08 season --- is just around the corner!

Posted by Brent Harris at 07:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I spend more time being stunned on Commencement Weekend and the first few weeks of August every year.

Yesterday was another classic example. Seniors milled about the Mall Sunday morning, visiting with parents and guests while waiting to for the Baccalaureate service to begin. Some students, like Tim Schirack and Drew Weintraut, I know are seniors. But it still seems like it was just a year or two ago when we first met to discuss the possibilities of working in the sports information office.

Tim and Drew are just two of many outstanding young men I have the pleasure of working with during the school year. They are like so many who have graduated ahead of them. It seems like they were only here for a short time, but their contributions are numerous.

Schirack might be easier to recognize in his familiar number 44 jersey on the football field. But his voice is just a recognizable after serving as the "Voice of Chadwick Court" as a freshman before stepping behind the radio microphone to become the "Voice of Wabash Basketball" for the past three years. Now he heads to Chicago to begin a new chapter in his life, but one that will certainly be just as successful as his four years at Wabash have proven to be.

You might not know Weintraut as well, but his accomplishments are no less spectacular. Drew has always been one of my go-to guys. He's entered nearly every football statistic into the scoring computer during the past season, including the Monon Bell game. Want a challenge? Try sitting at the Monon Bell game as a senior without being able to cheer for the players as the game goes on, particularly when your friend --- Tim Schirack --- makes a huge catch to set up an early touchdown, then makes another spectacular grab for his final career TD. Drew might pump his fist and high five the rest of the stat crew quickly, but then it's right back to the keyboard to enter the play so the media and Wabash fans watching the live stats around the world can keep up with the action.

Drew even interviewed for a job this spring with former Wabash baseball pitching great Matt McGuire '00. During the interview the talk turned to sports. When Drew returned to campus, he wanted to get McGuire's stats and send them to him as part of a thank you for the interview, even though Drew decided to accept another job offer after graduation.

It's a classic case of two Wabash men connecting via their common bonds at a college that sent another 160 talented and unique young men into the world after Sunday's Commencement.

To view photos and stories from the three-day Commencement weekend activities, check out this link.

Photo - Drew Weintraut is flanked by two of his classmates as they head to the Baccalaureate service.

Posted by Brent Harris at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok, that's not quite how John Lennon wrote it, but the idea certainly applies.

Over the past few months my student workers (primarily Josh Vaughan) and I have been cranking through the old stat files for various Wabash sports. Josh got the honor of entering every stat for every player in the history of Little Giant football since 1956. Let me repeat --- that's a stat for every player since 1956.

Now that's not to say we've put together every game for every player, but all of the season totals have been entered. So what does it mean and why in the world would we do it?

Well, for a couple of reasons. Number one, I'm a records guy. I love records, and I love to know where our current players stand on the all-time records list. With some of the changes in the computer software by my good friends at Stat Crew (yes Mike, Alex, and Monica, it's a quick plug!), tracking those records is so much easier than it ever was before. With the new data entered I can tell you the top-50 all-time tacklers in Wabash history, who has the best receptions per game average of any player, or any other stat that's been keeping you up late at night.

That leads to reason number two. Apparently you care almost as much as I do about these numbers. While Josh was plugging away at football, I worked on baseball and tennis (you've got to do something during an eight-hour bus ride to Meadville, Pennsylvania). We recently added those files to the web site (look for the links on the right-side navigation after the current season statistics). Less than 24 hours after adding them, I started receiving emails from alums who were remembering their games, astounded they were still on the top-20, 30, -50, or whatever list, and even happier to see their exploits remembered.

The reason we worked so hard on baseball and tennis was because of the record-breaking efforts of Jake Thomas, Matt Dodaro, Adam Van Zee, and Jay Horrey (read about their exploits for baseball and tennis). Now before you ask, of course we'll be adding the other sports during the summer and fall (all the soccer stats I can get my hands on will be heading home with me this summer in an attempt to put all of those records up before the start of the 2007 season). And look for that football project that Josh just completed a week ago to go on the site soon.

So now we can all admit to our addiction to numbers and start our counseling group for fans who just want to know what the Wabash baseball team's record is in Tuesday games when the temperature is above 50 degrees and the wind is blowing between 10-20 mph (and no, I don't have that figure....... yet!).

Photos (top right) Jake Thomas set the Wabash single season record for hits with his 59th last Saturday vs. Earlham.

Sophomore Jay Horrey (middle left) and senior Adam Van Zee (bottom right) broke the season mark for doubles victories on the tennis court this year.

Posted by Brent Harris at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)