Christmas on their minds
by Joel Carlson, UM Sports Information |
Sophomore guard Sonya Rogers |
The season may be heating up for the Montana women’s basketball team and its focus may be on Pilots, Aggies, Cougars and Vandals, but that doesn’t mean the players can’t look ahead to Christmas. Given just one wish, this is what the Lady Griz would like gift-wrapped under the Christmas tree this holiday season.
Sonya Rogers: The very first Nintendo, with Duck Hunt.
Lauren Beck: The truth about the real Santa Claus.
Shadra Robison: A trip back to Maui with my family.
Jackie DeShazer: To know the winning lottery numbers the day before a big jackpot.
Mandy Morales: Air Jordan Retro Vs. They’re burgundy, and they’re tight.
Sara Gale: A trip home to see my new nephew.
Laura Cote: A tan.
Junior guard Dana Conway |
Dana Conway: A boyfriend. Maybe this will get me some phone numbers.
Annette Rocheleau: For my kids to have someone else’s genes so they can grow up to be six feet tall.
Stephanie Stender: A trip to Belize.
Robin Selvig: Great defense every night.
Betsy Snead: One million dollars.
Trish Duce: Two tickets to see Keith Urban. And as long as we’re at it, plane tickets and deluxe hotel accommodations to see him in Nashville.
Jessa Linford: A Ski Nautique boat, complete with wakeboard rack and wakeboard.
Britney Lohman: World peace.
Tamara Guardipee: For just one game, the ability to dunk.
Johanna Closson: To never go to class ever again … but still keep my eligibility to play basketball.
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Bad gifts for Christmas
by Ian Marks, UM Sports Information |
Junior guard Matt Martin |
With the holiday season fast approaching, kids everywhere are compiling their Christmas lists. They wait in anticipating wondering if they will find that shiny new bicycle or hot new video game underneath the Christmas tree.
The Montana men’s basketball team will hopefully be entering the Christmas break on a high note while preparing for the upcoming Big Sky Conference season.
The holiday season is notorious for bad sweaters, fruit baskets and holiday snow globes. Gifts are often given with the best of intentions but often miss the mark.
We caught with some of the members of the 2006 Big Sky Conference champions to see what the worst present they ever received was.
A gift certificate is usually a fool proof idea. This allows the receiver to simply go out and buy exactly what they want. If only it was so simple for junior guard Matt Martin.
“One year I got a gift certificate to Bath and Body Works,” said Martin on the store which sells a large assortment of lotions and creams.
The coaching staff is also not immune to bad gifts. Head coach Wayne Tinkle got soap on a rope about ten years ago while assistant coach Andy Hill finds a toothbrush in his stocking every Christmas. Assistant coach Brian Marso received a rock.
The Grizzlies have also received its fair share of bad clothes. Freshman center Dave Vanderjagt will explain that bad holiday gifts know no boundaries. The seven footer from Australia remembers one shirt in particular he received when he was 12.
“I got this nasty yellow shirt. It had cars and umbrellas on it. It was bad,” said Vanderjagt.
Junior forward Andrew Strait |
Junior forward Andrew Strait was also struck with an ugly shirt when he was 13.
“It was a tie-died shirt with a big whale on it,” explains Strait.
Sophomore guard Greg Spurgetis received a pair of Bubba Gump shrimp boxers that he would not wear even though no one would ever see them.
Often times it is not necessarily the way a sweater looks that can make it a bad gift. Sophomore Kyle Sharp, a 6-7 forward, liked a sweater he received one year. The only problem was that it was way too small for him.
Others give a movie, video game or cd. Sophomore guard Austin Swift just couldn’t bring himself to get jiggy with the Will Smith cd he opened on Christmas Day.
Sometimes it’s the gifts that are the most unique that find their place in the hall of shame. Junior forward Gus Chase was given a small stuffed mouse from the movie Cinderella because the two shared the name Gus. Or maybe it was the card that Stuart Mayes received.
“Who gives just a card for Christmas?” questions Mayes.
And in the case of sophomore forward Jordan Hasquet it was the gift that no one gave him that he remembers as the worst.
“When I was about 1 ½ I broke my leg on Christmas,” said Hasquet.
This year when Christmas rolls around just keep in mind that it is better to give a bad gift than no gift at all.
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Changing a culture
by Joel Carlson, UM Sports Information |
One of the big buzzwords in the business world these days is “corporate culture.” It’s something that every organization has, and it’s always unique to that organization, whether for good or for bad.
Most people have an understanding of what corporate culture means, though few would be able to put it into words. As one writer recently put it, “To many, the term itself is like air: It’s there, it’s vitally important, but it’s hard to describe and harder still to do much about.”
Head volleyball coach Jerry Wagner |
Hewlett-Packard, Gore Creative Technologies, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and Google are all roundly celebrated in business magazines and journals for their ability to have developed a strong corporate culture. These organizations recognized early that their culture would let everyone know, both inside the company and those on the outside, what the company stands for and believes in.
To put a textbook definition to it, “corporate culture is the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization.
“Organizational values are beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals.
“From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees in particular situations and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another.”
In other words, it’s “how things are done around here.” It guides people within the organization about how to think and act and it defines the unique personality or character of a particular organization.
Some organizations have consciously tried to create a certain culture. For most, it has been created unconsciously, arising from the values of the top management or founders.
Hewlett-Packard follows the “HP Way,” which it has worked hard to maintain over the years through its huge growth. It is based on 1) respect for others, 2) a sense of community and 3) hard work.
Southwest Airlines is the only major airline in the U.S. that has been profitable in each of the last five years. For Southwest, it all starts with hiring.
Head football coach Bobby Hauck |
Southwest’s CEO says, “We are zealous about hiring. We are looking for a particular type of person, regardless of which job category it is. We are looking for attitudes that are positive and for people who can lend themselves to causes. We are looking for people who are interested in performing as a team and take joy in team results instead of individual accomplishments.
“If you start with the type of person you want to hire you should be able to build a workforce that is prepared for the culture you desire.”
Gore Technologies uses a flat lattice organization. There are no chains of command and no pre-determined channels of communication.
Associates adhere to the four guiding principles that were first articulated by founder Bill Gore: 1) Fairness to each other and everyone with whom you come in contact, 2) the freedom to encourage, help and allow other associates to grow in knowledge, skill and scope of responsibility, 3) the ability to make one’s own commitments and keep them and 4) consultation with other associates before undertaking actions that could impact the reputation of the company.
It’s not a far stretch to apply those principles to collegiate athletics. The HP Way can be seen within successful teams, with its importance on respect for others, building community and hard work.
When the Southwest CEO speaks of his company’s hiring practices, it is easy to see that playing out in the recruiting process. Coaches strive to find the right type of athlete who is interested in performing as a team and taking joy in the team’s results over individual accomplishments.
Montana’s athletic teams all have their own unique culture. Bobby Hauck's football team’s culture is very different from the women’s basketball team’s under coach Robin Selvig. Go to a practice and answer the question “How, exactly, are things done around here,” and you’ll see that two different approaches can work just as well in the dog-eat-dog world of Division I athletics as it can in the business world.
The culture of the Montana volleyball team was in dire need of a makeover when the 2005 season ended – the fifth straight year without a trip to the Big Sky Conference volleyball tournament.
If the team was compared to a business, it would have been one that was financially finishing in the red every quarter, had lost employee confidence and was on the verge of filing for Chapter 11.
Amidst the success of the Montana football and men’s and women’s basketball programs, volleyball was falling off the radar of relevant sports among Griz Nation.
The team’s corporate culture needed changing in a bad way.
Head volleyball coach Jerry Wagner |
Jerry Wagner, a Griz volleyball assistant during the team’s halcyon days of the late 80s, was brought in to take on the daunting task, a hoped-for Lee Iacocca of the hardwood.
With the 2006 season now in the books, the results speak for themselves. The team advanced to the 2006 Big Sky Conference Tournament after finishing league play in fourth place, the team’s highest league finish since 1994.
An assistant coach for 18 years under numerous successful head coaches, each with their own unique approach to team building, and a student of leadership styles, Wagner used the following as his set of beliefs for creating a successful organization.
The list wouldn’t seem out of place posted on the wall in the boardroom of IBM.
* Surround yourself with good people.
* Allow these people to help establish, be effective and be invested in the process.
* Have clearly stated ideals, goals and mission.
* Allow people to re-invent themselves and give them the opportunity bring their strengths to the table.
* Include people that clearly understand the mission and goals. Make sure that they are identical to your philosophy.
* Implement a trusting, support system that allows you to excel in your endeavor.
* Be consistent in everything that you say and do.
* Keep it simple.
* Keep an unwavering commitment in what you say and do.
* Allow as many people that share your vision ownership in your program/team.
* Avoid starting things that you cannot do at a high level.
* Establish a team-first attitude.
* Prioritize.
* Weed out selfishness.
* Bring in assistants with great knowledge and experience that you want as an extension of yourself and that you implicitly trust. Surround them in an atmosphere where they can contribute, can have a voice in the decision-making process and are rewarded for positively influencing the development of the team philosophy/model/vision. Delegate responsibilities to them in the overall development of the program. In order for your assistants to gain respect of the people that work for them, you must be consistent.
* Lead by example.
Coach Wagner is available for hire at $5,000 for a three-hour presentation for a group up to 1,000 people, or he can do a weekend leadership retreat for $10,000. He is available at 406-243-5411.
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Renaissance man: Jeff Marshall
by Ian Marks, UM Sports Information |
Many students at the University of Montana will soon be receiving their degrees and will embark on many different paths headed in just as many different directions. Griz football player Jeff Marshall is one such student. The fifth-year senior will receive his degree in management following the fall semester. What does he plan to do with it?
“I don’t know what I am going to do exactly. One of my goals is to never make a resume,” said Marshall.
Senior offensive lineman Jeff Marshall |
It’s not that he wouldn’t have anything to put on it though. Besides being the starting center for the Griz, Marshall may be the only football player in the nation that speaks Chinese, a skill he has taught himself through the use of books and tapes. He also earned the Eagle Scout award from the Boy Scouts of America (an award earned by less than four percent of all Boy Scouts) when he was younger growing up in California. He loves to hunt, fish and spend time in the outdoors.
Wait, back up. Did you say California?
Marshall moved to the sunny shores of Newport Beach, Calif. after living in Idaho for a few years. So how did he end up playing football at Montana?
“The coaches were actually recruiting Alan Saenz who was a high school teammate of mine. They saw me on tape and liked what they saw.”
If it wasn’t for that tape Marshall may have still played in Washington-Grizzly Stadium, but this time for Cal Poly.
Jeff’s twin brother David, who is much smaller than Jeff, is a student at Cal Poly but not a member of the football team. David visits his brother about twice a year to see him play.
Jeff also makes about five trips back home to California each year.
“Back home I love to go sailing and surfing,” said Marshall.
Former Baywatch star and German pop idol
David Hasselhoff |
His love of water could also help him with a possible career as a lifeguard or a member of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Last summer his godfather’s brother took his boat out on the ocean by himself. He fell off the boat while it was moving. The Coast Guard was alerted after the boat was found abandoned after crashing into an island. The family did not wait for the Coast Guard and went out looking for him on its own. They found him alive, drifting in the ocean. Marshall jumped into the water and helped the elderly man into the boat. Paramedics met the family on its way back to shore and transported the man to the hospital where he was treated for hypothermia.
Not many people know that Jeff could one day be a star on Baywatch. That is just his personality, never looking for attention. Much is the case on the football field.
“A good day for a lineman is when the quarterback and the running back put up good numbers. You never want attention as a lineman. If people are talking about you, it usually means you are not doing your job.”
The linemen at Montana are a close group of guys, often times rooming with each other on the road.
“The one guy I didn’t like rooming with was Colin Dow. He acts like such a little kid.”
The guys on the offensive line also know how to have a little fun out on the field.
“Whenever a new quarterback comes in, we always call out his name and that he is new. The QB’s hate it but it is all in good fun.”
Senior offensive lineman Jeff Marshall |
Some of his favorite football memories come while traveling with the team.
“Last year at Idaho State our coach told us that if we rushed for over 250 yards they would throw a screen pass to the left tackle (Brad Rhoades). We rushed for over 250 yards and we were so excited because Brad was going to catch a pass and run down field. But they never threw the screen. We were all really pissed.”
The trip down to Sam Houston State in 2004 also sticks in his mind.
“The worst pre-game meal was probably at Sam Houston State. This old man was cooking roast beef, lasagna and chicken and was sweating all over the food. Not a lot of people ate that day. The best food is definitely Weber State and Portland State.”
After overcoming injuries early in his career, Marshall’s hard work in the weight room has paid off as he has started the last 11 games at center for the Grizzlies.
“My favorite lifts are the Olympic ones. I have really good technique. My bench and squat still suck but I can hang with the best of them on Olympic lifts.”
Marshall is like most athletes and when certain workouts come around he just dreads going to practice.
“Last year we did these workouts where we would throw sand bags around and do wall sits for 10 minutes while passing sand bags. We also did a whole bunch of ab workouts. This was all after our normal practice.”
All of these different experiences have allowed Jeff the option to explore a wide variety of career paths, whether it is international businessman, lifeguard, surfer or football player.
“Who knows what I will be doing. I could just end up selling coffee at Starbucks.”
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| A letter from Griz A.D. Jim O'Day |
Griz Athletic Director Jim O'Day |
A lot of good things have taken place at UM Athletics over the first three months of the 2006-07 academic school year.
In football, the Griz went undefeated in capturing the Big Sky Conference title. The only regular-season loss came in the non-conference opener against Big 10 power Iowa in front of 70,000-plus fans in the recently renovated Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. After that, the Grizzlies ran the table against two non-league foes and eight others within the BSC.
Montana ended the month of November defeating the Cowboys of McNeese State in first-round action of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision – formerly called Division I-AA. When the playoff teams were announced, Montana was a No. 2 seed. Also, head coach Bobby Hauck received his first BSC Coach of the Year award.
Women’s cross country also had an outstanding season, finishing second at the Big Sky Conference Championships. That matched the best finish by a UM women’s cross country team since 1984. Junior Allie Brosh led the way with a fourth-place individual finish, her third All-BSC honor in her three years of competing for the Grizzlies.
Brosh, who qualified for the NCAA meet in Indiana, where she placed 99th, will be joined next year by a talented cast of young runners who could make a run at a Big Sky title.
Likewise, the men’s cross-country team had a memorable season, placing fourth at the conference championship after being picked for sixth in the preseason coaches poll. Under veteran head coach Tom Raunig, this underclass-dominated squad is definitely moving in the right direction. The fourth-place finish matched the highest placing for a UM men’s cross-country team since 2000.
Neil Sedgwick’s women’s soccer team had a successful fall as well, tying for second in the Big Sky standings. Montana, which missed the playoffs last year, rebounded in 2006 to claim the No. 2 seed in the four-team league tournament. Their season ended in the semifinals when Sacramento State won, 5-4, in a shootout after 110 minutes of action.
Good times are on the horizon for this young squad.
Women’s volleyball, under first-year head coach Jerry Wagner, also showed major improvement, qualifying for the Big Sky Conference tournament for the first time since 2000. UM ended the year in fourth place and played competitively against every league school, including perennial BSC champ Sacramento State. Jerry, his staff and the returning players are anxiously awaiting next year when they hope to contend for one of the top positions in the league standings.
Tennis and golf competed in the fall portions of their schedules, and both posted outstanding marks. There’s a positive feeling about both programs as they prepare over the winter break for the spring competition.
Perhaps the best news of all is that women’s golf coach Joanne Steele hopes to rejoin the team in January after heart transplant surgery in Seattle earlier this fall. Joanne is making a remarkable recovery, and remains in our thoughts and prayers at all times. She is a true inspiration to the entire athletics department.
The UM men’s and women’s basketball teams are also off to good starts. Heading into the month of December, the Lady Griz were 3-1 – the only loss coming to powerhouse Ohio State, which was ranked No. 6 in the nation at the time of the game. Among the wins were outings against Gonzaga and Davidson.
As December approaches, head coach Robin Selvig is closing in on 650 victories – a real milestone.
Although the Grizzly men and first-year coach Wayne Tinkle were only 2-4 heading into a stretch against the likes of Boise State, Western Kentucky, UC-Riverside and South Dakota State, Montana had an impressive victory over the Minnesota Gophers of the Big 10 … the first triumph by a UM men’s basketball team over a Big 10 opponent. At the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla., the Griz faced off against talented West Virginia of the Big East and Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Another close loss came on the road to Wyoming.
As the snow flies, talks continue of national championship runs, expanding Washington-Grizzly Stadium and the signing of multi-year contracts for head coaches in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. Track and field season is on the horizon, and league play is about to begin for the hoop teams.
There won’t be many breaks, and that’s the way we like it around here. We have a dedicated staff, and all hard workers committed to excellence. If things continue at the current pace, it could be a very special year for fans of The University of Montana! In the meantime, Happy Holidays – and thanks for being a Griz!
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| UM Athletic Department and GSA announcements |
Jason Crebo (1994-97) is one of seven legacy players to have worn No. 37. |
No. 37 Legacy Jersey Program to benefit student-athletes
The Bookstore at The University of Montana and UM Athletics have once again joined forces to help raise money to purchase lettermen's jackets for all of UM's student-athletes in the 14 sponsored Division I varsity sports ... MORE
Driving the Griz Van Raffle - 2006-07
Inspired by the collective efforts of GSA volunteers and the staff at Blue Ribbon Auto Body in Missoula, the old 1984 GAA Ford van has been transformed into the “Ultimate Tailgate Van.” The vehicle was originally purchased in 1984 by the GAA to assist with recruiting needs and such within the department, but recently spent most of its time broken down in the compound area north of Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The van, which is parked near the GSA tailgate area at each Grizzly home football game, includes a complete barbeque system, multiple television sets, complete stereo system and outside speakers, satellite radio, custom interior with a poker table, beverage cooler and outside taps, a GPS
navigation system and much more ... MORE
Griz Nation wristbands on sale
All proceeds from the Griz Nation wristband will go to the Grizzly Scholarship Association at The University of Montana. Help Support the Griz by wearing the wristband and showing your pride in being the best fans in the country, which is now known as “Griz Nation." Thanks you for your support! Go Griz!
ORDER
ONLINE AT
THE GRIZ SHOP
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