Spring Excitement

David R.

April 29, 2010 - 5:00 PM

As a new intern for the athletic department, my first job is to help out at Oregon's spring game coming up this weekend. The teams have already been selected and the game will be aired on ESPN so that our troops abroad can watch some college football.

 

Tomorrow morning at nine a.m. I have to head over at the Casanova Center next to Autzen to help set up the inflatables that are deployed during football games. The following day on Saturday I have to back at nine again to help set up for the game. I am really excited to get started. It sounds like a lot of fun and it is the kind of thing that I would love to go into after my time at Oregon.

 

While college football season is slowly approaching, the first round of the NBA finals is slowly coming to an end. My boys from Denver were able to hold off the Jazz last night in Colorado. Nene, the Nuggets starting forward sustained a knee injury during last night's game and will likely miss the rest of the series. Those who have watched any of this series know that the Nuggets were trounced during both games in Utah earlier in the series. The Nuggets have to find some way to steal a game in Salt Lake City. Lord knows the home town crowd will be rowdier than ever, especially when the Jazz can smell blood in the water. Even with a victory last night the Nuggets still have their backs against the wall. Some how, some way, the series needs to come back to Denver. Even if the Nuggets win tomorrow night the series will only be knotted at three.

 

The Portland Trailblazers, the fan favorite in Eugene, are in a similar predicament, but they have the opportunity to tie their series in their own building tonight. As rowdy as it gets in Salt Lake City, the Portland Trailblazers have arguably the best home court advantage in the NBA. The Phoenix Suns are the clear favorite, but the favorites haven't necessarily fared to well thus far in this year's playoffs. The Nuggets and the Dallas Mavericks, both favored, have experienced a few road bumps in the opening round.

 

I have spent a great deal of my time lately trying to organize a special event for Habitat for Humanity, my group's client in Allen Hall Public Relations. We are coordinating an event titled "How To...", in which we will teach students how to fix basic appliances around the house. As many college students will be on their own after graduation, these can be helpful tips to know. For example, fixing a leaky faucet isn't too difficult, but I wouldn't even know where to start if I hadn't learned how.

 

Yesterday I drove around Eugene and dropped off a few donation letters at some of the local bakeries. We are trying to find a business that would be willing to sponsor the event by providing cookies for it (many students can be easily enticed with food). We are hammering out the final details, and I hope that the event is as successful as we hope it will be.

 

 

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The NBA Playoffs & NFL Draft

David R.

April 23, 2010 - 3:00 PM

The NBA playoffs are barely underway and already the excitement is building. After stealing game one in Phoenix, the Portland Trailblazers have been blown out during their last two contests. The one seed Los Angeles Lakers dropped a game to the Thunder in Oklahoma City last night (second in a row). The Denver-Utah series, the one that has been chosen by ESPN analysts as the one that is most likely to go seven games, has been taken over by Utah at two games to one. Utah was able to snag a game in Denver before heading home to Salt Lake City. It is imperative that the Nuggets take at least on game in Utah. Utah's home court advantage worries me a bit because like Portland, Salt Lake City's only professional sports franchise in the Jazz. Fans come out whole-heartedly to support their only team. This will undoubtably make for quite a hostile environment.

 

As the NBA playoffs are moving along, the 2010 NFL draft is underway. As expected, Sam Bradford went first overall to the Saint Louis Rams. There were definitely some surprises as well. Dez Bryant, Jimmy Clausen and Colt McCoy were un-drafted after the first round. Clausen was the third best passer in the nation last year , McCoy led the Longhorns to the national championship game and Dez Bryant was one of the best receivers in college football.

 

The Denver Broncos went with some interesting moves on day one of the draft. Originally the Broncos had the eleventh pick in the first round. McDaniels and owner pat bowlen decided to trade up three times to be put in position to acquire the University of Florida great Tim Tebow. Many were surprised that Tebow went so early in the draft. He wasn't considered a first rounder by analysts, especially considering that Jimmy Clausen was still on the table. Nonetheless, I have confidence in Tebow. Granted he wasn't the best passer in college, but he has been working meticulously to change his throwing motion so that he can be more effective via air mail. The media was and still is in love with Tebow, so I feel he is the perfect guy to be the face of Denver's franchise. Denver's current quarterback situation is weak. Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn are far from what any logical thinker would consider to be a productive pair. Orton was a part of Denver's epic fail during the 2009-2010 season. He has shown that he is rather in-capable of leading a team the way Elway did.

 

This weekend my parents came out to visit me. It can be hard to go home for spring break so I hadn't seen my parents since January. It was great to see them again after being gone from home for so long. We ate at P.F. Changs on Friday night and my parents were able to meet all of my roommates.

 

On Saturday, I showed them around town a little bit. We drove by the new baseball field that neither of them had seen yet, and we also took a drive up to the historic Pre's rock. After a delicious meal we went over and checked out a few innings of the baseball game. The Ducks weren't able to hold on unfortunately, losing to USC in extra innings.

 

The day's last stop was at Prince Puckler's, a popular icre cream parlor just past Hayward Field. President Obama made a stop here on his way out of town after making a campaign speech. The ice cream is phenomenal and may be the best in Eugene.

 

Hanging out with my parents was a nice change of pace. I was finally able to go to my first baseball game of the season, which I have always meant to do, but always felt like I didn't have time. Week five is coming up. I'm hitting the books early so I can watch the Nuggets game tonight. Gotta have a win.

 

 

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Oregon Sports Update

David R.

April 19, 2010 - 8:14 PM

Next academic year I will be involved in a marketing and promotions internship with the athletic department. As I have mentioned before I have always been interested in the business aspect of professional and college sports. It sounds like it will be a great experience, and my first event is the spring game on May 1.

 

As spring football is underway everyone is still asking questions about who will be the starting quarterback come next season. Will it be Nate Costa, the senior who has had multiple knee injuries in his career? Or Daron Thomas, the man who will likely take over once Costa graduates? Thomas sat out all of last season and experienced minimal time the year before. Costa, the older of the two, has also seen minimal playing time during the last two seasons.

 

Due to Masoli's suspension, he will likely be thrust into the role of scout team quarterback. He will be running plays against the starting defense for that week's game. It would seem that by the time the regular season rolls around Oregon's defense will be operating like a finely-tuned machine. They will be defending a quarterback who was considered to be a Heisman trophy candidate for this season.
The Ducks were ranked sixth in the nation after bowl season came to an end. That was due in large part to the fact that Jeremiah Masoli was going to be returning as the quarterback. With an off-season that was rattled by off-the-field incidents, Masoli, along with multiple other teammates, found himself facing consequences for his actions. As was the case with Legarrette Blount, Head Coach Chip Kelly suspended Masoli for the entire season. Like that, our Heisman candidate was thrust out of contention, beaten only by himself.

 

As the football team is in search of a quarterback, the men's basketball team has finally found a head coach. Creighton's Dana Altman will be taking the reigns as he introduced himself to his new team last night. It will be interesting to see how Altman is able to recruit. In my opinion, there is nothing too appealing about playing basketball in Omaha, Nebraska. Now, Altman has been placed in a program that has powerful recruiting tools: Pac-10 basketball, in a brand new stadium, at a school whose athletic department is heavily supported by the founder of Nike. Altman has led the Bluejays to the NCAA Tournament seven times in 16 seasons. He clearly knows how to coach and could be the answer for Oregon basketball.

 

The Oregon Duck's baseball team has made its way into the top 25 polls. The Ducks are sitting right at 18 and hope to move up. A few weeks ago the Ducks took one game from Arizona State when they were ranked number one in the nation. This last weekend the Ducks took two games from UCLA, ranked number one, in Los Angeles. When George Horton said the Ducks would make it to Omaha this season, he must have meant it. Keep up the hard work fellas. People are noticing.

 

 

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A Spring Day in the Eug.

David R.

April 15, 2010 - 1:56 PM

I just got done with my first midterm exam of the spring term. In my sociology 204 class, we have four tests during the course of the term, including the final exam. Because of this, the exams begin fairly early in the term. Only in my sociology classes have I had an exam in the third week of the term. I studied pretty hard so I feel that I did just fine. Like I stated in my last blog, this tends to be the time of the term in which the academic work begins to pick up. I have another midterm in my management class next week. It can be kind of hard to study for tests at this point in the term because in my case, I don't feel like we have covered enough topics to already have a test. This can also make it a little easier at the same time because that just means that there are less topics to focus on, allowing me to concentrate on a few topics as opposed to many, which tends to be the case for final exams.

 

Due to the weather lately, I think it is appropriate to say that spring has officially sprung. The last couple days have been full of sunshine and today is no different. I am done with my classes for the day and have a light load on Fridays, so there is nothing holding me back from enjoying an afternoon of leisure in the sun. I am currently looking out my window in my room and I can see the basketball hoop that my roommates and I usually occupy when we are looking for a little competition. I like to be active and partake in athletic activities when it is nice outside. Not only does this let me soak in the rays, but I can also get a little exercise as well. With everyone's busy schedule, it can sometimes be difficult to make time for exercise during the week.

 

Tomorrow I have an interview over at the Casanova Center for an internship with the athletic department that will run through the course of the 2010-2011 academic year. The internship focuses on the promotions and marketing aspect of all of the sports at the University of Oregon. This includes the in-game promotions that fans always enjoy. During half time of the football games, there is a promotional event that involves throwing a football at targets that are set up at increasing distances from the participant. This event is coordinated by students who are involved in this internship. I have always been interested in the behind-the scenes aspect of professional sports that allow for such activities to become a well-run event on the field. For those who might be interested, this internship is open to all majors. For the longest time I was under the impression that it was only open to business majors, which is why I waited for so long to apply.

 

I can no longer ignore the beautiful day that awaits outside. Take a visit to the U of O in the spring time and you will know exactly what I mean.

 

 

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School work and Sunshine

David R.

April 12, 2010 - 12:39 PM

Monday has to be everyone's least favorite day. For most college students it could be Sunday, considering that this is usually homework day; however, Monday is the first day of the week and it reminds students of how far away the weekend is. This Monday marks the beginning of the third week of the spring term. Unfortunately, this also tends to be the week when the work load begins to pick up. I feel like the term just started and I already have a midterm this week in my sociology 204 class. I have been taking detailed notes in the lectures so I should be just fine.

 

As I may have mentioned before, many students opt to take a smaller class load during the spring term because of the fact that this term tends to be the one in which the weather is the nicest; consequently, most students prefer to lay out in the sun when it is nice than to be inside of the library doing homework. Many students, myself included, sometimes tend to focus more on leisure time than academics during this term. This morning I walked into my management class and I was able to witness this concept first hand. At the beginning of the term we were divided into groups. Each group was assigned a week and a topic on which to give a presentation. This morning was group number one's turn to present and no one in the group had any clue about it. I understand completely how such a thing can occur. Personally, when the sun is shining, like it is right now, the focus tends to shift from academics to how I can enjoy the rays. Don't get me wrong, academics is the reason why students come to college. I'm just saying that there is a reason why students downscale the work load during the spring term: when the sun is out everyone is much to distracted. Especially now, given that Eugene has seen constant rain for months, the sunshine is a shock to most, as it hasn't been around for a while.

 

In my last blog I wasn't lying about being a firm believer in the expression "sun's out guns out." Since the sun is currently shining, I am writing this blog, shirtless, on the lawn of my fraternity. Beach season is upon us, and I am not about to throw off my shirt and blind everyone with my pasty white skin. I gotta be prepared for the common spring term festivities.

 

Last year for Memorial Day I went with a group of friends to Loon Lake, which is located a few hours away from Eugene. This year, I will be going with an even larger group to Lake Shasta in California. I have heard phenomenal stories about this great lake, but never have I been there. During memorial day weekend, I have heard that this lake is a hot spot for those who want to get away. I am hopeful that the weather is nice while I am there, and my tan should be perfected by the time we leave Eugene.

 

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