Colorado University Athletics

Throwin' You A Bohn

Throwin' You A Bohn

Happy New Year!  Here’s hoping 2008 is great for you, yours and the entire Colorado Buffalo family!

 

We’re right in the middle of basketball season, and we are thrilled the women’s team is back in the nation’s top 25.  They are an exciting group to watch, and I encourage you to come out to the Coors Events Center and see Kathy McConnell-Miller’s team for yourself.

 

The men are making some strides, and gave Jeff Bzdelik his first Big 12 Conference victory the other night with a 55-51 win over Nebraska.   We had a great environment with a spirited crowd, the kids played hard, and you can feel the excitement building.  

 

I am so grateful for all the support and increased teamwork throughout all our constituent groups that have helped us improve, and encourage everyone to support Jeff and Kathy in our quest to build exciting, entertaining and successful basketball.  The new operations center, including offices for both coaching staffs, is on schedule to be open by Valentine’s Day.

 

It’s also fun to watch what is going on with our ski team right now.  They’ve had a good first two meets of the winter, but we have two skiers trying to make history.  We have as an illustrious ski history as any school in the nation with 17 national titles; to achieve that, it requires success across the board in all four disciplines (giant slalom and slalom in Alpine, freestyle and classical in Nordic), as well as within each discipline.  As a result, quite often two or three skiers within a single discipline have won races. 

 

The school record by an individual is 13; we have two seniors chasing that number, Lucie Zikova (12) and Maria Grevsgaard (10), and they are two of just seven to have won 10 or more career races.  They are two of the best in the country and it will be exciting to track what they and the team accomplish the rest of the season.

 

I’d like to recap our experience at the Independence Bowl, and once again, the people involved in our program made a big difference:

 

The Fans.  I thought we had an awesome following in Shreveport; you had a great attitude and were fun to be around. Thank you for joining us for the game.

 

Hawk.  He was complemented for having the full team, and not just a handful of players, participate in bowl functions such as the Lift Up America event (a food giveaway for hunger) and the Battle of the Bands; for his access to boosters, fans and the local community; and for the access he allowed the media to the team.  He consistently features a great attitude and was genuinely appreciative of all the support.

 

The assistant coaches worked hard and also had a great attitude, and their families had plenty of things to do while they were coaching; we are most appreciative of the hard work of the bowl committee in thinking of them.

 

Staff.  The staff along on the trip also worked their tails off and did it with a great attitude.  But we also had things going on back in Boulder, so the staff and volunteers that worked over holiday break here also need to be recognized.

 

Campus Leadership.  President Brown, Chancellor Peterson, several vice chancellors and other key administrators were all active participants in attending functions and speaking to all the positives CU has to offer.  This group was integral in creating new bowl guidelines and supportive of all the new policies that have been recently adopted, and they made a difference in our efforts to build a great bowl experience for all.

 

Ralphie.  I’ll say it flat out, Ralphie is our star.  She and her handlers made the long trip, to include a very icy stretch through Amarillo, Texas along the way.  Once in Shreveport, it was like an icon had arrived, everyone wanted to see her.   We made her available at several functions and a big thanks to Ben Frei, Kevin Priola and the student handlers that took good care of her. 

 

The Marching Band.  They did an excellent job in replicating the Pearl Street Stampede during the Battle of the Bands event the night before the game.  They made a 16 hour bus ride each way to get to and from Shreveport, but were positive, had a great attitude, worked hard and played passionately; I felt we won the band battle with Alabama, and the Buff Club chapters played a role in that, as they helped with pompoms and mini-footballs our players were able to throw to the crowds.

 

Independence Bowl chairman Joe Darwin wrote not one but two letters to the area media about how much the bowl committee enjoyed all aspects of having Colorado in their game, and that should make us all proud.  That kind of acknowledgement is a direct result of a concerted team effort.

 

I believe we continue to maintain great momentum throughout the institution and with recruiting going extremely well, we are shooting for a record crowd at our Denver recruiting luncheon, hoping for 1,500 at the Adams Mark Hotel on February 7.  Hope to see you there (or in Greeley that same day at a luncheon the Northern Colorado Buff Club puts on; we will feature recruiting coordinator Robert Tucker and SID Dave Plati at that one as your speakers).

 

I am off to Vietnam for several days, as I have been fortunate enough to be invited along with a few other athletic directors, by NIKE to tour its factory and operations in that country.  I am excited to learn about NIKE success (and hopefully pick up some ideas), and am fired up about sharing our CU story with them as well. 

 

From a personal standpoint, this is my first time overseas other than going to Hawai’i, so I am sure it will be an eye-opener to see another culture first-hand.  I intend to bring back some pictures and stories to share with you in my next column.

 

Go Buffs!