John Neese Blog 5

Since 2003, I have been fortunate to travel to Indianapolis twice for the NCAA Woman of The Year Banquet as we have had two student-athletes receive this honor. Four years ago the NCAA honored women’s basketball player, Kendra Anderson as the Texas Woman of the Year. On Saturday night they recognized Virginia Aguilar, a former volleyball player at HSU, as one of the top 30 Women in college athletics for the 2006 school year. It was a special weekend for Virginia as she had the chance to work on a house for Habitat for Humanity on Saturday morning with the other nominees in Indianapolis. On Saturday night the banquet was co-hosted by Sage Steel of ESPN and Debbie Antonelli, a National Basketball Analyst. Virginia was one of five nominees who recorded a perfect 4.0 grade point average during their collegiate careers. Virginia was a computer science major at HSU and also had 18 hours of math as she was one of our top student-athletes. Like Virginia I had 18 hours of math at HSU, with the difference being I only passed three of them. The NCAA Woman of the Year banquet will be shown on Friday, December 7 at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN 2.



One final thought on Indianapolis: the new stadium that is being built next to the RCA Dome for the home of the Colts appears to be a phenomenal building. It already towers over the RCA Dome and the structure has a beautiful brick façade with cathedral style windows. The Colts will move into this facility in 2008, and I am sure it will capture the national attention until the Dallas Cowboys move into their architectural masterpiece in 2009.

Congratulations to our football team for their win on Saturday against an inspired Sul Ross football team which was playing before a large homecoming crowd. The Lobos have received plenty of national recognition this year thanks to the efforts of 59 year old Mike Flynt, who is utilizing his last year of eligibility nearly 38 years after he last played college football. Flynt is a grandfather who has been featured on ESPN, NBC News and Sports Illustrated. Maybe it’s because I am getting older, but I have found a new respect for anyone over 40 who is still pushing him/herself in the athletic arena. Fifteen years ago I did not see what the big deal was when Nolan Ryan was pitching in his forties. Now I am just happy to be mowing my yard in my forties.

Cowboy Up,

John Neese