UHV SPORTS IN 2007

Written by Don Brubaker

Monday, 31 December 2007

AT SIX O'CLOCK MONDAY NIGHT, WE COVERED THE TOP LOCAL AND AREA SPORTS STORIES OF 2007, EXCEPT FOR ONE. '07 WAS QUITE A YEAR FOR THE NEW UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON-VICTORIA ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT. THEY GOT A MASCOT, THE JAGUARS, AND A LOGO. THE SOFTBALL TEAM PLAYED ITS FIRST GAMES, THE BASEBALL TEAM SCRIMMAGED FOR THE FIRST TIME. AND UHV ALSO BENEFITTED FROM AN EVENT THAT HAD BEEN IN THE WORKS FOR OVER A YEAR. THE UHV ROSEBUD CLASSIC BASEBALL GAME BETWEEN THE HOUSTON COUGARS AND UTSA ROADRUNNERS DREW A CAPACITY CROWD AT RIVERSIDE. "It was huge", said Ashley Walyuchow, UHV Athletic Director. "It raised much-needed funds for the program with that game, but it gave the community a sense of what baseball and UHV athletics can bring to this community, and looking back, it gave me a sense of what a baseball game can do and what can happen at Riverside Stadium on a regular basis with the Jaguars playing and even over at the St. Joe O'Connor Complex with the softball team. If we get that kind of support for every game, we'll be in good shape down the road. The softball team first started playing games. What was that like to see the Jaguars' first games in sports? It was pretty exciting. It gave me a sense of everything finally coming together. For the last year it's been all behind-the-scenes work, paperwork, getting all the planning done, but to actually see the teams take the field is pretty exciting and amazing in a way that it's on the field, it's coming together with student-athletes, and it was just a nice culmination of all that. The baseball team weathered some bad weather and got a couple of scrimmages in. From what you saw of them, how excited are you about their chances for their first season? It's almost a mirror of what the softball team is. Great coaching with Coach Puhl, the players are close-knit. A lot of them knew each other growing up. They played some high school ball together or against each other. It's a lot of the same characteristics that the softball and baseball teams have, and that cohesiveness will lead to a better product on the field right away. The fever's starting to build, and once we get into the new year, we're four weeks away from the first baseball games at Riverside on the 26th, the softball Jaguars will be down in Galveston February 8th for their first tournament action, we'll see the pitch build the week before those first games. It'll be very exciting." THE JAGUARS BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL TEAMS MIGHT BE STARTING WORKOUTS AGAIN NEXT WEEK, AND OF COURSE, WE'LL HAVE THE FIRST AND LATEST JAGUAR INFO RIGHT HERE IN 2008.

Last Updated ( Monday, 31 December 2007 )