Southern Girls and Sports

Tuesday afternoon while watching the basketball team practice in North Highland Park, I said to one of my professors that this school year, instead of being a flirt, I’m going to be on my best behavior and focus on getting out of college and on with my life.

“You just mentioned that you weren’t going to talk about girls this year,” he said, “and you did.”

“That doesn’t count,” I said.

With two days to go until the beginning of the volleyball season in which I’ll be the public address announcer for the team, everything I set out to do this school year is in so many words got thrown out the window when I ran into one of the new players Wednesday afternoon.

“You one of my Myspace friends,” I said to her, “I’m pretty certain because I sent a message to you on there during the summer.”

“I am?” the girl asked.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Well since you’re going to be doing the announcing for volleyball, then we’re going to have to be friends.”

Indeed and in the meantime, I’m going to have to think long and hard about what I had planned to do when school started.

Uh……………………….I don’t think so.

One interesting that happened on the day that I won a seat on the Student Senate in North Highland Park was the reaction, thanks in part to my roommate’s observation, of one of the candidates for student body president.

After believing that they won, they were shocked that my then-neighbor won the election instead of them, leaving them with the proverbial egg on their face.

Weird, huh?

You think for one minute you have the chance to replace one of the most popular students to ever set foot in North Highland Park and then you get sideswiped by someone who was more capable of leading the school in the right direction for the next school year.

There are some people in this world, like it or not, that are incapable of leading a dog through the walking trails near my former residence in Springdale-Hein Park.

And with me being a student assistant coach for basketball, I’ve started to see that line between competent leaders and incompetent ones four days into the new school year.

I always felt like if a person was a senior in college, then it was their place to be a good example for the incoming freshman.

You know, be like a mentor to the rookies.

But in some cases, it doesn’t turn out that way.

With a little over a month to go, the Cardinals, like it or not, are within arms’ reach of catching the Milwaukee Brewers for the Wild Card lead.

And while the Brewers have been playing great baseball as of late, the Cardinals have been lying in the weeds and losing to the perennial losers that is the Pittsburgh Pirates, which is in St. Louis for a three-game series that started last night.

What needs to happen with the Cardinals in these waning weeks is that they need to manufacture runs when they need it the most. Instead of relying on power from the middle of the lineup, each player from here on out needs to understand their role if they want to continue playing in October for the fifth time in seven years.

Another thing would be finishing the drill in the top of the 9th inning. In case if you haven’t noticed, the Cardinals are among the league leaders in blown saves with the woebegone Washington Senators and in order to make the playoffs, the Cardinals need to, and this is being blunt and direct, stop breaking the fans’ heart.

Or else they’ll be like the Yankees these days.

When we last left you in North Highland Park, the big news was that after a litany of Coke-drinking lectures, chicken tenders, Cardinal analogies, and God knows what else, I finally got that hot softball chick’s number.

Of course, in the three months after that, I’ve personally had to return home to help my family move out of the Springdale neighborhood I stayed in before moving to Midtown Memphis, had a much-talked about movie with my last name in it, and oh yeah, move from the peace and serenity of 2794 Madison to the chaos that will be in 2008-09 2776-2778 Madison.

With that being said, I’m happy that all of my pals are back, the real ones that is.

Let’s see if we can have a year like we had in 2007-08.

Southern Methodist Mustangs

Head Coach: June Jones (1st season at SMU, 76-41overall)

Stadium: Gerald J. Ford Stadium (32,000)

2007 Record: 1-11 (0-8 C-USA West)

Postseason: None

Key Returnees on Offense: QB Justin Willis, RB DeMyron Martin, WR Emmanuel Sanders

Key Returnees on Defense: LBs Will Bonita, Justin Smart, CS Bryan McCann, SS Bryce Hudman, FS David Haynes

The Skinny: In the two decades since SMU was hit with NCAA sanctions, the Mustangs program has been searching through the wilderness for a savior. Enter June Jones, who led Hawaii to its best season ever in 2007 and a berth in the Sugar Bowl where they lost to Georgia and is no stranger to turnarounds. In his first season at Hawaii, the Rainbow Warriors finished 0-11 and the second season followed it up with 9 wins, an NCAA record.

Now after success at Hawaii, Jones is now trying to do the same thing that has been hard to do over the last two decades, win at SMU.

Going into the 2008 season, the Mustangs’ last bowl appearance was 1984, their last winning season was 1997, and since the “Death Penatly”, they’ve been 58-135-1, unimpressive numbers for a program that for a time was one of the country’s best progams.

And after close calls against Tulsa, Houston, and Memphis last season, the Mustangs look to use those close calls as confidence-builders for 2008.

Doc’s Prediction: Looking at the schedule, the Mustangs’ slate is filled with September games against Texas Tech and TCU, plus a road trip to Central Florida along with Tulsa and Houston at home in October. The Mustangs will close the season with UTEP on the road and Southern Mississippi at home.

Projected Record: 4-8 (2-6 C-USA West)

2008 Southern Methodist Mustangs

August 29th-@ Rice

September 6th-Texas State

September 13th-@ Texas Tech

September 20th-TCU

September 27th-@ Tulane

October 4th-@ Central Florida

October 11th-Tulsa

October 18th-Houston

October 25th-@ Navy

November 8th-Memphis

November 15th-@ UTEP

November 29th-Southern Miss