5 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(03/20/11 9:49pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Abruptly, Kevin Wilson was in Bloomington. Touching down on runway 35, the private twin-engine jet carrying Wilson and Bloomington’s newest famous family arrived at Monroe County Airport seven minutes early on Dec. 7, 2010.In a sense, the surprise landing was akin to Wilson’s hiring as the newest leader of IU football. The coach doesn’t fit the bill of a big name in the college ranks, but yet it took mere days — and few other candidates, if any — for IU Athletics Director Fred Glass to make the eye-raisingly quick hire. But the North Carolina-born coach, with a hint of a southern drawl — however surprising to followers of IU football — already had ties to IU’s Athletics Department. Wilson’s pedigree includes time at a pair of traditionally black colleges as an assistant before he was hired as an offensive assistant at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Wilson’s most recent background was as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma. Often nicknamed the “Cradle of Coaches,” Miami has employed an incredible array of successful coaches, ranging from legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes to former IU coaches Bill Mallory and Terry Hoeppner. Such begins Wilson’s inadvertent, but very real, connections to IU. While at Miami, Wilson worked alongside Hoeppner for several seasons and in a very direct way. “Terry was the defensive coordinator, and Kevin was the offensive, so they had some battles (on the field),” Hoeppner’s widow Jane said. Terry Hoeppner tragically passed away in June 2007 after coaching IU for just two seasons.“We lived near each other for 10 years. He lived in our neighborhood,” Jane Hoeppner said about Wilson. “When I heard there was a chance that he might get the job, I was just beyond thrilled.”Wilson only needs to look toward IU’s Sembower Field to find another acquaintance from his days at Miami. Tracy Smith, IU’s baseball coach, was a member of the RedHawks baseball staff during part of Wilson’s time in Oxford.“You have to remember — Miami University in Oxford, Ohio is not a real big place,” Smith said. “I knew him from his coaching days there. We weren’t great buddies, but we knew each other professionally. We certainly knew each other well enough to sit down and talk.” Smith said he thought bringing Wilson and his demeanor to IU football would work out well. “The thing you always got from him was that, yes, he was always a very intense guy, very direct,” Smith said. “I think what everyone is going to see from him is that he is very focused. ... He’s a very con?? dent guy, and he’s been-there-done-that in the Big Ten.”Smith credited Glass’ outlined process with bringing in a coach he feels will ?? t well into the IU Athletics culture.“As Fred always says, take your job seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously,” Smith said. “That’s kind of how I would see Kevin. I think he’s going to come in here and have an understanding of what he wants to do, but he’s going to bring other people along with him. As my wife Jamie said, he’s unpretentious.”Wilson and Glass made no hesitation to draw upon the indirect connections during a press conference announcing the new hire. It left Wilson to make one simple summation of why IU felt like the right first.“I knew this was a great place, a place I could be a part of,” Wilson said.Originally published in the IDS on Dec. 8, 2010.
(05/07/10 1:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Calling it his favorite time of the year, IU baseball coach Tracy Smith is looking forward to his team’s first conference series without classes or final exams to worry about.“It’s a time where (the season) feels like pro baseball,” Smith said. “You can work out a little bit in the morning and get your work done. There’s nothing to concentrate on except to eat, sleep and play baseball.”Smith hopes that the more focused approach will allow his Hoosiers (21-21, 7-8) to come away successful from this weekend’s conference series at Northwestern (20-25, 9-6).Sophomore Hoosier pitcher Drew Leininger will toe the mound for IU on Friday afternoon in the first of a three-game series at Rocky Miller Park in Evanston, Ill. Leininger, IU’s top starting pitcher in 2010, has had a pair of consecutive rough outings after starting the season 6-1.The native of Poway, Calif., is pitching with a sore knee that knocked him out of the lineup early in the season and has watched his ERA climb from a conference-leading 1.20 to 3.38 after two-straight losses.“I know it’s affecting him,” said Smith, already saddled with a pitching corps hampered by injury and a lack of depth. “I’m not going to say one negative thing about him and his performance because I know he’s pitching on one leg."It’s a concern, but I’m also hoping his competitive instincts can take over.”In conference play, the Hoosiers are now 1-3 in weekend series after dropping the rubber match of last weekend’s three-game home stand with Purdue in the tenth inning. Meanwhile, Northwestern, after dropping its first series of Big Ten play to Ohio State in April, has won three straight and moved into a tie at the top of the conference standings.That didn’t slow Dylan Swift, IU’s starting catcher, from talking about what his team needs to finish the weekend with, record-wise.“We’re looking for a sweep this weekend, legitimately,” Swift said after the team took batting practice Thursday. “If we sweep and things keep going how they were, we’ll be at the front of the conference.”The Big Ten standings are tight, as first and last place teams are only three games apart.Alongside Northwestern in first is Michigan, while Purdue, Ohio State and Minnesota are just one game back and tied for third. The Hoosiers fit in the three-way sixth-place tie with Michigan State and Penn State, just two games behind first.For Swift’s aspirations of the Hoosiers pulling off their first sweep of the season to succeed, their normally high-producing offense will need to continue. Heading into weekend play, the Hoosiers are leading the conference with a .511 team slugging percentage and 793 total bases.“We got to step up at some point with the Big Ten still being crazy,” Swift said.
(01/20/09 4:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>His teammates and coaches rejoicing for their upcoming trip to Tampa, Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin chose to ignore his team’s celebration. As his coach Ken Whisenhunt takes what is arguably the worst-performing franchise in NFL history to the Super Bowl, Boldin didn’t even hang around to commemorate the team’s first NFC championship. According to reports from the San Francisco Chronicle, Boldin bolted from the team’s locker room just before the rest of his teammates returned Sunday night after celebrating on the field at Glendale’s University of Phoenix Stadium. Teammate and longest-tenured Cardinal Adrian Wilson’s post-game celebratory tears aren’t even enough to keep Boldin around.Boldin didn’t want any part in the confetti, the trophy or the never-ending rain of cheers from the bewildered Cardinal fans taking in a moment they likely thought they’d never see in their lifetimes. Instead, Boldin chose to allow a personality dispute with his coaches and a desire to be traded from the NFL’s most surprising team to override celebrating what many players never get – a trip to the Super Bowl. That dispute in personality also came to light during the NFC title game, when cameras caught Boldin arguing heavily with offensive coordinator Todd Haley during the team’s game-winning touchdown drive. Meanwhile, wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald was on the field and contributing three of his nine catches that totaled 152 yards as the Cardinals marched down the field to Super Bowl glory. I’d bet the definition of “team player” wouldn’t have Boldin’s mug as the descriptive photo. Boldin’s problems with the Cardinals began early in 2008 when teammate Fitzgerald signed a four-year, $40 million deal with the team – making Boldin’s current deal of three years and $12 million pale in comparison. Boldin requested a trade from the team as a result, but the Cardinals denied his request despite offering to renegotiate his contract. Apparently Boldin cares less about winning or making money and more about being No. 1 on a team’s depth chart. After the game, the Chronicle reported Boldin tried to slip out a back door before a group of media caught the receiver. He denied the issue and said that he gave his “heart to this organization” and that it was “paying off” in the form of a Super Bowl. Boldin has come back to play again this season after a nasty hit in September that left him unconscious, but the Cardinals might as well just leave their No. 2 receiver at home when they head to the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, Fla. When you’ve got the seemingly humble Fitzgerald destroying defenses, the reborn Super Bowl winner in Warner and a running back (remember that guy named Edgerrin, Indianapolis?) taking his new role in stride, things are looking pretty good for a team without Boldin. After all, do these Cardinals really want to a take back a sulking, back door-departing Boldin? I’m betting not.
(09/19/08 4:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bloomington resident Marlo Bowlen had some issues with her camera Thursday evening when she first got her picture with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart.“It didn’t turn out right,” said Bowlen, after she had managed to get herself back inside the Bloomington J.D. Byrider Auto Sales office for another frame with Stewart. “Can we take another one?” she asked the two-time champion.Stewart gladly obliged, but cautioned Bowlen before her friend Natalie Watkins pushed the shutter button on the digital camera.“I’ll have to warn you that this one isn’t going to be any better because I’m still in it,” said a grinning, self-depricating Stewart, drawing laughs from the store’s employees, two police officers and fans who were in earshot.That’s the Tony Stewart people love. That’s the driver who has secured the hearts of so many adoring race fans who show up to watch him at all 36 races on the Sprint Cup schedule. And that’s especially the person who so many people in his home state of Indiana admire.He’s humorous.He’s realistic. He’s as close as race fans get to a driver who is just like them.And, most of the time, he is just downright nice.The good things Stewart has done could fill a decent-sized book. His charity, the Tony Stewart Foundation, donates millions of dollars a year to organizations benefiting chronically-ill children, endangered animal species and other drivers who have found themselves injured from racing-related activities.But then, there are the bad times with “Smoke,” his nickname in the NASCAR garage area.He’s had altercations on and off the track with other drivers and NASCAR officials, most recently in Indianapolis prior to the Allstate 400 in July when he knocked off the headset of and pushed a United States Auto Club official during a midget race at O’Reilly Raceway Park.And just two weeks ago in Richmond, Va., Stewart lit into his crew over the in-car radio after finishing second and blamed them for coming up short in the race.Everyone gets mad, and that’s something I understand. And I get the fact that Stewart doesn’t have the option of anonymity, but at some point you would think the guy – the Hoosier who can be so down to Earth – would learn to channel that frustration in a better manner.Regardless, Thursday night at J.D. Byrider, Stewart was refreshing, fun and a joy to be around as I would imagine he normally is.It’s nights like Thursday that make Stewart the guy he is – the driver who still lives in his childhood home despite the multiple zeros in his checking account, the one who doesn’t have a problem taking that second picture for a fan.And it’s nights like Thursday that make people all over the country just like Bowlen fall head over heels for Stewart.
(09/18/08 4:07am)
In the Rear Window: New Hampshire
New Hampshire treated Republican presidential candidate John McCain, a
track-side guest, to a 2008 first-time winner and a shocking finish for
one of the presumptive championship favorites as the first race of 2008
Chase for the Sprint Cup got underway Sunday afternoon.