Soccer playing well in spring

First of all, congratulations to both of our basketball teams. They both have done a great job and the soccer team is looking forward to following their progress in the Southland Conference Tournament and beyond!


The women's soccer team competed in the Texas A&M Seven-a-Side Tournament last weekend. Although we would have liked to have fared better in the win/loss column, the play was much better than the year before. Many of our young players continued to lead the team and several players who did not play much last season, played very well. Both of our goalkeepers, Jenny Pence and Michele McCullough, stood tall in the goal and made some very good saves.

Next up for the team will be a game in College Station against the University of Utah. That game will be Saturday at 1 p.m. The Utes are always a top team in the Mountain West Conference and qualify frequently for the NCAA Championships. This game will be another good test for our young team.

I am headed to Germany Thursday to attend a coaching course in Cologne. We will have an opportunity to learn from some of the top German coaches about their methodology and philosophy in developing teams and players. One of the main themes will be learning how they go about match analysis. We will be visiting Bayer Leverkusen, FC Cologne, and Borussia Monchengladbach during our time there. We will also catch a couple of live games including the chance to see the great Bayern Munich team on the first day. I am excited and looking forward to gaining more knowledge to help move our Bearkat team to the top of the Southland Conference.

Lastly, but most importantly, today we added Kelsi Brown to our list of signees for next season. She is another player from the Challenge 92 team, which is the top team and top club in South Texas. Check out her soccer accolades on gobearkats.com.

I plan to send some updates from Germany, so be on the lookout for those!

Go Bearkats!!

Tom Brown
Head soccer coach

The Pevehouse Play

Lance Pevehouse made an unreal play in the Bearkats' win over UTA on Saturday night. You just have to see this.

Watch on You Tube

Southland Title video

Here is a little cutup of highlights from last night's win over McNeese and the trophy presentation.

Bearkats have very little movement in rankings

After suffering their first defeat of the Southland season, the Bearkat men’s basketball team saw everything pretty much stay the same in the rankings.

Their RPI, which is the highest in school history this late in the season, remained at No. 74.

In the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major poll, the Kats dropped one spot to No. 18.

They have a chance to win the Southland Conference regular season championship on Wednesday night when they take on McNeese State at Johnson Coliseum.

Do the Little Things Right

We preach to our girls to do the little things right. Whether it be calling the serve while passing, communicating to a teammate on defense, over-emphasizing your fundamentals, or making sure a teammate does their homework on time. Our team is getting better and better at doing this in the spring. The team really picks each other up, and vocalizes to each other what needs to be taken care of - all for the betterment of the team. No selfish people - selfishness only brings the entire team down. I hope that you out there reading this will be able to see that from our group - not just in the spring, but year-round when we are out in the community, on campus, and on the court while playing.

Speaking of playing - our team is coming along nicely. We have a few players who are hurt and recovering from injuries, but we aren't letting that stop us from getting the entire team better as a whole and as individual players. We will be playing in a few spring tournaments close to home, and hosting a spring tournament Thursday, March 11th. More details to follow, but I hope some of you will be able to come out and watch us in action.

Another facet of the program that can sometimes get overlooked, but is just as vital to everything that we do: Fund-raising. We sold out of roses on our annual Valentine's Day Rose sale, which was amazing - a first for us in the five years we have been doing so, next year promises to be even bigger for that sale! We are also hosting our 3rd Annual Golf Tournament Fundraiser Tournament here at Raven Nest on Saturday, April 17th. The tournament has grown every year, and we are looking for hole sponsors, donors, and of course: PLAYERS/TEAMS! If you are interested in helping at all, please email me: jlind@shsu.edu.

Continually getting better,


-- Joe Lind, Asst. VB Coach

Southland Tournament booklets now available

The Bearkats need a big crowd cheering on them during the Southland Conference Basketball Tournament in Katy on March 9-13. With your support, the Bearkats will hopefully have what it takes to earn a spot in the Big Dance!


Don’t forget to purchase your ticket booklet for $75 online at SHSU Ticket Office or by calling 936-294-1729. Tournament booklets include tickets to all sessions of the Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments. Don't hesitate because there are a limited number of booklets available in the SHSU cheering section and with the demand for tickets at an all-time high, you do not want to miss out on your chance to see the Bearkats play for a conference championship and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

If supplies remain on March 1 a decision will be made concerning splitting the tournament booklets into individual tournament sessions and placing them online for purchase or by calling the SHSU Ticket Office. See you in Katy!

Ticket Redemption Night

A reminder that the Feb. 24 Men’s Basketball game vs. McNeese St. is “Redemption Night” for our season ticket holders. Bring your tickets by the athletic ticket office located in the Ron Mafrige Fieldhouse and pick up your free tickets during normal business hours (8am-5pm).

You may also bring your unused tickets the day of the game and redeem them at the Will Call Window (Ticket Window #3). Ticket Windows open one hour before tip-off. See you there!

Baseball schedule change already

Well we didn't even make it a week into the season and there is already a change to the baseball schedule. Tuesday's game against Prairie View A&M has been postponed due to the threat of inclement weather that evening.

The game has been rescheduled for March 24 at 6:30 p.m.

Since the game was slated to be a free preview game for Bearkat Vision, we are going to make a few adjustments to the streaming schedule as well. Friday's game against Utah will now be offered for free to all fans. Also, we have added the first game on Saturday and the Sunday game of the Utah series to the streaming schedule.

For the complete lineup of games that will be shown live on Bearkat Vision check out the live events page.

Women's golf off to good start

The girls got of to a great start in 2010 in Louisiana, by finishing second out of 13 teams and missing first by just a single stroke.

It was a strong showing with two juniors and three freshmen in the lineup. Also, seven of the eight Southland teams were participating, so it was good to see how we could match up. Freshman Shelby Hardy finished fifth while Meghan Stevens took sixth, posting a 70 on her final round, which was the low round of the tournament.

As a team we shot 301 on the last day which was the best team total of the event.

Congratulations girls!

-- Tommy Chain, SHSU women's golf coach

Broadcast schedule posted for baseball season

The broadcast schedule for baseball is pretty much done with 25 games on the schedule including 24 games featuring the Bearkats. The tournament game between Northern Colorado and Creighton will also be broadcast on Bearkat Vision.

We will get the season started with a free preview on Tuesday for the Bearkats home opener against Prairie View A&M. If you can’t make it out to the game, log on to Bearkat Vision and see if you like it.

The premium broadcasts will start on Friday against Utah. The cost is just $7.95 a month which will come out to less than a dollar a game for the season.

There is still the possibility of adding a few other games to the schedule as well depending on how a few other potential scheduling conflicts play out.

We will also broadcast a few select softball games this season and those will be offered to all fans for free.

If there are any schedule changes, we will make them on the live events page as well as note them here on Bearkat Bytes.

Soccer spring season heating up, kind of

Hi everyone! My name is Jenny Pence, and I am a goalkeeper and captain on the women’s soccer team. Although the weather hasn’t felt like it lately (it was freezing last week!), we are at the start of what will hopefully be a successful and productive spring season! We’re starting off the spring with quite a few less players than we had on our fall squad.

We currently have 16 players I think, but at practice we can even have a few less that that because of conflicting class schedules and injuries. Although we can’t play full field drills in practice because of this, we are doing a lot of small sided games that work on foot skills, positioning, and LOTS of finishing, which is always fun for keepers! Overall, the quality and speed of our play has improved already from the fall, so I’m excited to see how we can match up to some of the challenging teams on our spring schedule.

We start off the spring playing at the Texas A&M 7 vs. 7 tournament this weekend. We have 3 games that day, starting with Houston Baptist. After that, we play the University of Houston, and then end the day against Texas A&M. Defensively, we actually played the Aggies pretty well in the fall (even though the score line didn’t necessarily show it), so I’m excited for us to get on the field with them again!

To add to our numbers, Coach Brown and Topper signed 7 new recruits. From what I’ve heard, these girls can really play, and should be a great fit into what we’re trying to do in our program. We’ve done nothing but get better and better over the last two years, and this recruiting class should continue that trend.

We were very competitive in conference last fall, and we surprised a lot of people. It’s definitely not a stretch to say with the level of talent that we already have, combined with the new recruits coming in, that we can be even more competitive and be in the running for a conference championship next fall. BUT, I’m getting ahead of myself!!

Eat ‘em up!

-- Jenny Pence, senior, goalkeeper

Kats continue move in RPI

Another week, another two wins for the Sam Houston State men's basketball team. They remain unbeaten in Southland Conference play and have clinched a spot in the Southland postseason tournament.

With the two wins, the Bearkats also continue their climb in the NCAA RPI. With the latest ranking released today, the Bearkats have moved up two more spots to No. 74.

SHSU is also one of five teams left in Division I basketball that are still undefeated in conference play. They will have a pair of road tests this week when they travel to Lamar on Wednesday and then San Antonio on Saturday.

They will need all the fans they can get so if you live close or can make a road trip, these would be two good games to go see. Last season when the Bearkats travelled to both Lamar and UTSA, the games went double overtime.

The Clavel dunk

I was not able to see the men's game live on Saturday. I traveled this past weekend to Corpus Christi with the women's team. But before I even got back to Huntsville I had already received a phone call. I had just missed a great dunk from Gilberto Clavell.

As we were driving through The Woodlands, I got a blow by blow description of the play that evidently blew the roof off Johnson Coliseum. I walked into the arena moments after the game had ended, and on no less than 10 occasions, someone wanted to tell me about Clavell's dunk.

Cody Stark described it to me as the greatest dunk in Johnson Coliseum history -- I am still partial to Eddy Fobbs' follow-up dunk against McNeese in the 2003 semifinals -- but there is no doubt this is a good one. If you didn't see it, or just want to see it again, here it is.

-- Jason Barfield

Mikulin: We are coming together as a team

Wowww!!! How excited I am about this season! First off, my name is Morgan Mikulin, I am originally from Huntsville, Texas and I am a senior pitcher on the Bearkat softball team! This being my senior year, I have high hopes and goals for not only myself but for our team! This is going to be a very exiting season, and we are ready to get it started!
You may have read Hailey’s blog and how she mentioned the seniors we have this year! We have 9!! Which is exactly the right amount of girls you need to play defense in a game! :D But our team is much bigger than that! We have girls from all over the state of Texas! We understand that we all have to work hard to earn our spot on the team!

I would like to start off by mentioning the chemistry we all have. In our minds, it is more than just a game now! This is something that we all love doing and as for us seniors have worked hard for 4 years now. We consider each other like family and get along very well! These girls mean a lot to me, and I feel that the chemistry we have will get us very far this season! This season we have begun to do more “team building” as Coach Collins calls it! Which is soooo much fun! From falling off of the roller that rolls up our tarp BACKWARDS and trusting our team will catch us, to playing hacky sack, and a game to get us moving before practice, we call links, are just a few examples!

We play at the University of Houston tournament this weekend, and although the weather man says it’s supposed to be freezing (literally), we are all very excited and have worked extremely hard to prepare! When I say prepare, I mean exactly what I say! From, hosting a 14 & under tournament all weekend and having to practice at 7:00 Sunday night; when it is close to 32 degrees with the wind chill making it feel like 10 degrees, to coming early to practice and getting in a few extra swings or grounders. I speak for our team when I say this, but we really have worked very hard so far this season and don’t plan on slowing up! We have made team goals for this season, and are working to accomplish each one!
We play Texas A&M, next Wednesday, Feb 17!!! Come out to our complex and cheer us on!! :)

-- Morgan Mikulin

Bearkats in the News: Aaron Thompson

Coach glad he did not redshirt freshman

By Coy Slavik

Times Record News
(Wichita Falls)

 

Sam Houston State coach Bob Marlin was prepared to redshirt freshman center Aaron Thompson this season before he was overruled.

“All of our seniors didn’t want him to redshirt,” Marlin said. “They wanted him to play. He had really good workouts in practice.”

Marlin hasn’t regretted his decision. Thompson, a former high school star at Burkburnett, has provided some quality minutes off the bench as the Bearkats have sailed through the first half of their Southland Conference schedule.
Read the rest of the story

Baseball preseason rankings

There are all kinds of web sites dedicated to college baseball rankings, maybe more so than any other collegiate sport. I found one that really gets in depth called Perfect Game USA.

The preseason rankings are out and they go a little farther than other sites. Not only to the team rankings stretch to the top 100 teams, they also rank the top 500 players in college baseball.

Prefect Game just released their top 100 on Wednesday and the Bearkats are ranked No. 79. The Bearkats are the highest ranked Southland Conference team with Texas State the only other team in the top 100 at No. 88.

The site also tabbed Mark Hudson at SHSU’s top 2010 draft prospect for position players (No. 253 overall). The top pitching prospect is Dallas Gallant (No. 111).

Bearkat Auctions

The Bearkat Auction site is now back up and running again with two items currently up for bid.

A game-used football signed by the 2009 Bearkats is up for auction. The starting bid on the ball is $50. Also up for bid is a pair of roundtrip airfare tickets on Delta Airlines. The value of the tickets is approximately $1,000. The starting bid for the tickets is half that price.

Both auctions will be running for two weeks. Continue to check back as more items will be added soon.

Check out the auction site now.

Volleyball selling roses

The Sam Houston State volleyball team is holding a fundraiser this week leading up to Valentine’s Day. They will be selling roses with all proceeds going directly to the volleyball team.


You can buy one rose for $5, three for $10, six for $15 or a dozen roses for $20.

For more information contact assistant coach Joe Lind at 936-294-3596 or e-mail at jlind@shsu.edu.

Phone and e-mail orders can be placed until 5 p.m. on Thursday. The volleyball team will be in the LSC mall area on Friday from 8:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. selling as well.

Bearkats in the News: Guido Merkens

Edison graduate played with Saints during hard times

By David Flores

Kens5.com/San Antonio

There was a time when the New Orleans Saints were so bad that their fans called them the “Ain’ts” and wore paper bags over their heads at home games.

The embarrassment was justified.

The Saints finished with losing records in each of their first 12 seasons before going 8-8 in 1979, but they returned to their losing ways a year later when they went 1-15. New Orleans was 0-14 before beating the New York Jets 21-20 on the road.

The following week, San Antonio native Guido Merkens was picked up by the Saints after he was cut by the Houston Oilers.

Read the rest of the story

SLC Tournament tickets now on sale

The Southland Conference basketball tournament is a month away and tickets are now available for purchase from the SHSU ticket office.

You can go online a purchase right now to guarantee a seat in the SHSU section at the Merrell Center in Katy. To get your tickets CLICK HERE and reserve your tournament booklet.

We are asking or fans to purchase tickets from the SHSU athletic department for a few reasons. Mainly, we want everyone in orange sitting together and creating an amazing tournament experience for the players. But also, the allotment of tickets we have to sell were purchased from the Southland Conference. The more we can sell to our fans, the better it is for the department.

Ticket booklets are $75 each and are good for every game of the tournament. The women's tournament will get started on March 9 and the men will follow the next day. There will be four games each day the first three days of the tournament. The women's championship game will be Friday, March 12. The men's championship game will be Saturday, March 13.

Frisco needs your help

The Southland Conference along with the city of Frisco, is one of two sites bidding to host the FCS National Championship game for the next three years, and you can help bring the title game to Texas.

Visit http://www.collegefootballfrisco.com/ and pledge your support for Frisco. They are holding a ticket pledge on the site until Feb. 22. A ‘yes’ is an expression of interest, only, and not binding. So go log on, and do your part to bring the championship game a little closer to home.

“Team Frisco” will make a final presentation before the entire NCAA Committee on February 25.

Women golfers take match from UTSA

The Bearkats women’s golf team hit the links on January 18 in their first practice of the spring semester and their hard work paid off on Jan. 30 with a match against UTSA who is one of the favorites to win the conference. Even though the wind chill factor was 24 degrees, we upset the Roadrunner by winning three of the five matches. Meghan Stevens won 3-and-2, Jessica Borth closed out her opponent 5-and-3 and Landa Stewart took down the No. 1 player 3-and-1. Congratulations ladies.


- Tommy Chain, women’s golf coach

Signing day is here

Signing day has arrived for new Sam Houston State head football coach Willie Fritz.

As the names start coming in, they will be posted here first. Also, if you can't keep up all morning on the computer, follow us @bearkatsports on Twitter.

2010 Sam Houston State football signing class
updated (1:45 p.m.)

Forbes Baggett, DL/OL. 6-2, 270, Huntsville
Brian Bell, QB, 6-2, 170, China Spring
Colton Cline, OL, 6-4 305, Seminole, OK / Norman North
SaQwan Edwards, WR, 6-1, 170, Marvel
Cory Hamlett, CB/SAF, 6-0, 190, Jacksonville
Justin Havard, OL, 6-6, 260, Diboll
Jeremy Jackson, LB, 6-0, 215, Bellville
Drew Johnson, OL, 6-0, 240, Denton / Guyer
Ken Jones, OL, 6-1, 230, Spring/Klein Collins
Dwight Kennedy, DE/DT 5-11 250 Terrell
Gary Lorance, DT 6-0 270 New Boston
Chuks Orabuchi, CB, 6-0, 165, Denton / Guyer
Koko Smith, RB, 5-6, 170 Daingerfield
Ricky Smith, WR, 6-1, 190, College Station/A&M Consolidated
Bookie Sneed, CB 6-0, 180, Conroe
Steve Solomon, OL, 6-4, 242, Lovelady
Tyler Sweatt, TE/FB, 6-1, 230, Argyle
Michael Wade, SAF, 6-0 185 Arp
Ryan Wilson, RB, 5-10, 185, Carrollton/Creekview
Jarvis Young, CB/S, 5-11, 175, Houston/Jersey Village
Seth Patterson, WR, 6-3, 185, Round Rock (Western Michigan)
Garrett Roget, LB, 6-1, 185, Arlington (Tyler JC)
Grant Merritt, WR, 6-1, 203, Sugar Land, (Blinn JC)
John Trotter, DE, 6-3, 240, Rusk
Rob Boyd, DL, 6-2, 240, Ennis
Aaron Mueller, DE/TE, 6-3, 230, Caldwell
Ridgeway Frank, RB, 5-9, 180, Spring/Spring HS
Adrian Tarpley, OL, 6-3, 280, Longview/Spring Hill

2010 Women's Soccer Signings Complete List

Catherine Abitua - Houston, TX / Cy Creek High School
Emily Edenstrom - Wylie, TX / Wylie High School
Mallory Garthwaite - The Woodlands, TX / The Woodlands High School
Natalie Johnson - The Woodlands, TX / The Woodlands High School
Tricia Mallory - Spring, TX / Klein High School
Carly Rheman - Katy, TX / Katy High School
Gayle Ziegler - Richardson, TX / Pearce High School

Signing day is Wednesday

Wednesday is national signing day for football and we will have everything you need on GoBearkats.com and right here on Bearkat Bytes.

If you want to keep up with all the day's event, we will have stuff for you all day long. Be sure and check out Bearkat Bytes as we will be posting names throughout the morning as the national letters of intent start coming across the fax machine.

Can't hang out at the computer all morning? No problem, the names will be posted on Twitter as well so if you have your phone set to receive Twitter updates you can keep up with all of the action here at the field house. Not following us on Twitter yet? Check it out here and start following.

Once the list is complete, the full bios will be posted on GoBearkats.com along with highlight videos of many of the new Bearkats.

To cap things off, we will be having a press conference at 3 p.m. with head football coach Willie Fritz here in the field house and the video will be available shortly afterwards.

Bearkats in the News: Bob Marlin

Southern Cooking: Marlin leading Bearkats to hardwood success

By Jason Belzer
Fox Sports

With a dominating win over Southland Conference opponent Texas A&M – Corpus Christi on Saturday night, the Sam Houston State Bearkats are off to a hot 6-0 start in conference play. This is the first time in 23 years they have been undefeated in their first six league games. Oh and did we mention the average margin of victory over league opponents this season is 15 points? Needless to say, remaining conference opponents have their hands full.

Boasting a 14-5 overall record, the success of the Sam Houston State’s season extends beyond conference play. Impressive victories over Auburn, Oral Roberts, Rider and Florida International more than substantiate this claim. Defeating Rider and ORU earned them the Mayan Division championship at Cancun Challenge in Mexico. In addition, the notable 107-89 win at Auburn was the first victory over a Southeastern Conference opponent in the program’s history. Under Coach Bobby Marlin, reaching such milestones has not been uncommon.

Read the rest of the story

Bearkats in the News: Domas Kvedys

From Naismith to Lithuania: Local resident has followed big hoops dream

By Mike Tupa
Examiner Enterprise
Sports Editor

Like most young kids crazy about basketball, Dominykas Kvedys remembers watching Michael Jordan weave his magic during televised game.

But, most young kids didn’t have to get up at 4 a.m. in the morning to see M.J. fill the airways over the NBA skies.

No doubt the Kvedys household in Lithuania wasn’t the only one with the television blaring in darkened living rooms in the middle of the night.

“Basketball is like a second religion in Lithunia,” said Kvedys, during an interview last week. “Soccer is real low.”

The 6-foot-10 Kvedys, who joked his height was spurred by the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident (his dad is only 5-11, his mother even shorter), currently lives in Bartlesville.


During his three-year college basketball career at Sam Houston State, Kvedys met and married Bartlesville High graduate Adrian Hensley. He currently is living in town and working for a local car dealership, while his wife attends medical school.

Read the rest of the story

Wiginton: Ready to get season started

Welcome back Bearkat softball fans. This year in the softball blog we have started a new tradition and the readers will get a chance to hear from two of the team members every week. This year you will have a chance to hear about the season through senior pitcher Morgan Mikulin and me, junior shortstop Hailey Wiginton.


After a long and hard offseason in the fall our team is ready for the spring season up ahead. We have a very full and exciting schedule this year. Starting off with the University of Houston tournament on Feb. 12-14 we will compete against University of Kansas, Baylor, Ohio State and University of Houston. Our home opener is on Feb. 17 in which we will host Texas A&M. We are very excited for this season and as you can tell we are not tip-toeing into this season. We are diving right into it and plan to do very well.

Now I’m sure most people are wondering what the team is going to look like this year -- well my answer is BIG. In many different ways we are a big team. We have 23 players on the team. Not just 23 people, we have 23 very important players on our team this year. We have a big senior class (nine players) consisting of Amy Brown, Lauren Burns, Mandy Gegan, Holli Hatcher, Amanda Lindsey, Morgan Mikulin, Ashley Nelson, Janaye Richardson and Tiffani Woodrum. Our seniors are going to have a huge impact on the success that our team is going to experience this year.

“And the votes are in” and our team captains this year are Ashley Nelson and Amy Brown. Both of these girls have great leadership qualities that are going to help us be very successful throughout this season. Although Ashley and Amy are the captains we have many leaders of all ages that are going to contribute as well.

As for the freshman this year they are a very important addition to our team and are going to make a huge impact on this softball program.

Alex Survant has to have surgery on her foot which is taking her out of our line-up for part of the season, possibly all. She is going to be missed throughout this season that is for sure. But while a few injuries have affected our roster this off-season, it just made opportunities for other players to step up and put themselves in the position. Every position has been a battle throughout the fall because we have so many players who can play each position. I’m just going to say that the coaches have their hands full making the line-ups this year with all the great players we have.

Our team is looking forward to a fun and successful season, so come out and support your Bearkat Softball team this year.

Thanks and EAT EM’ UP KATS!!!!

-- No. 2 Hailey Wiginton

A closer look at the RPI

The Bearkat men’s basketball team soared 25 spots this week in the RPI to No. 77. It is the highest ranking the Kats have had in the RPI this late in the season in recent memory (maybe ever). The Bearkats have done it with a strong start to Southland Conference play, winning their first six for the first time as a member of the Southland Conference.

Taking a look at the RPI (you can check out the full list here) there are some familiar names in the Kats’ neighborhood. They are one spot ahead of Georgia, which checks in at 78. Not a big basketball school but one with some name recognition.

If you are looking for a basketball school, just look one spot up on the rankings, North Carolina. Yes, that North Carolina. The defending national champs sit just one tick above SHSU on the rankings. The Kats also check in ahead of Memphis (No. 79), Illinois (No. 80) and Oklahoma (No. 83).

You have to scroll down a while to find the next Southland school. A&M-Corpus Christi is in at 158 followed by SFA at 159. They are the only other schools in the league in the top 200. Northwestern State rounds everyone out at No. 310.

As we turn the page to February, March Madness is not that far away. In the Southland Conference the winner of the postseason tournament gets the bid to the NCAA Tournament. So the Kats won’t have a chance to punch their ticket until Saturday, March 13, in Katy. But a fun site to look at is the Bracketology site on ESPN.com. Right now they have the Bearkats tabbed as a No. 15 seed taking on Purdue in New Orleans.

SHSU opens spring at Texas A&M

The soccer team is back at work following another record breaking year in 2009. The team is preparing for its first spring event which will be at the Texas A&M 7-a-side Tournament. Sam Houston State will play Houston Baptist, Houston and Texas A&M at the event. The games will be on Saturday, Feb. 20 in College Station and games will be played throughout the day.

Grissett stops playing

Freshman Shelby Grissett has decided to stop playing soccer after missing five weeks last season due to a concussion. This is not her first concussion and it was thought best after consulting doctors that she not risk further head injuries. Shelby was named to the all-tournament team at the Southland Conference Soccer Tournament after scoring the game winning goal in overtime to defeat UTSA and put the Bearkats in the semifinal round.

Signing Day this week

We are looking forward to announcing our second recruiting class on Wednesday. That date is the first day high school seniors can sign their letter of intents for the upcoming year. Please check GoBearkats.com on that day for the latest news concerning this recruiting class. You won't be disappointed!

2010 Schedule

The schedule is not quite complete but will feature non-conference games against Big 12, Mountain West, SunBelt and Conference USA teams. This will be another challenging schedule for a young team but it will help them get prepared for the upcoming Southland Conference schedule.

-- Tom Brown, head coach

This week at SHSU

BEARKAT MEN’S BASKETBALL – WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY


Your Bearkat men's basketball team continues its race for the Southland Conference championship title with two games at home this week. The will play host to UTSA on Wednesday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Johnson Coliseum. Saturday, night Central Arkansas will come to Johnson Coliseum. Tickets are available by visiting the online ticket office.

SATURDAY NIGHT TICKET PACKAGE-THREE GAMES, RESERVED SEATS, ONLY $15

This is the deal of the year. Reserve your seats now for the three remaining Saturday night home games as the Bearkats make a run at the Southland Conference championship. We will reserve your seat in section HI for all three games for just $15. Visit the online ticket office or call (936-)294-1729 and make your purchase today!

BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL SEASON TICKETS NOW ON SALE!

Ptichers and catchers report, and the sound of the ping of the bat is soon to fill Don Sanders Stadium! Now just a few weeks away, Bearkat Baseball will host baseball powers Rice, Texas A&M, University of Houston, as well as Southland Conference rival Stephen F. Austin. Bearkat Softball opens their season against the Texas A&M Aggies on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at 4 p.m. at the Bearkat Softball Complex. You won't want to miss any of the upcoming action so reserve your seats today! Individual game tickets go ON SALE on Wednesday, Feb. 17.

BEARKAT SPORTS REPORT- WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3RD

Get an inside look every Wednesday at SHSU Athletics with interviews and features from Bearkat coaches and players. This week we highlight men's basketball including a feature on senior guard Corey Allmond. The Bearkat Sports Report airs Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 8 p.m. on SHSU Channel 7.

2010 “BATTLE OF THE PINEY WOODS” TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Tickets are now ON SALE for the 2010 “Battle of the Piney Woods” between Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin. This will now be played at Reliant Stadium for the next four years starting Oct. 23, 2010. Secure your tickets early and ensure yourself the best seat location. Click the link below for more information:

Battle of the Piney Woods Information

SIGNING DAY SPECIAL MERCHANDISE OFFER

With "National Letter-of-Intent Day" upon us, Advanced Online is now offering $10 off any purchase of $50 of Bearkat merchandise through Wednesday3. For details check out the online store.

LISTEN UP KATS FANS

Be sure to tune into Kooter and Leroy for all the men's basketball action on KSAM 101.7 FM during their chase for the Southland Conference Championship. Listen to Jason Barfield and Derik Cooper on KHVL 1490 AM for all Bearkat women's basketball action.