(Posted May 13) The SUU softball team ended its season in The Summit League's conference tournament, which took place in Cedar City over the weekend. The T-Birds went up against Western Illinois first in a game that began Friday afternoon and was suspended until Saturday morning on account of darkness.
Most college athletes will spend their summer enjoying the break from the demands of balancing a full-time academic schedule along with practice and traveling to games all over the country. For 11 T-Bird baseball players, the summer won't provide any time for relaxation but rather a chance to improve on the baseball diamond in hopes of contributing to next year's team as well as gaining recognition among Major League Baseball scouts.
(Posted May 10) The T-Bird baseball team toppled the Centenary Gents in three of four games in its final home weekend of the season. Coach David Eldredge said the winning weekend, topped off with Saturday's 11-5 victory, was welcome. The T-Birds came off five straight losses on the road, putting their record at 26-24 overall and 13-10 in conference play.
The Thunderbird Park baseball and soccer facilities are due for an upgrade that is currently scheduled to begin in spring 2009. Baseball Coach David Eldredge said SUU is the only university in Utah whose baseball team does not play in a stadium. "There's a lot of high school parks in the state that are better than ours and so it's hard to ask people to attend at this level when they had fields in high school that were better than ours," he said.
Football coach Ed Lamb takes over the reigns of a struggling T-Bird program, but the first-time head coach isn't deterred by last year's winless season and has set the bar high for the upcoming season. "I expect we can earn a winning season, a conference championship, and a playoff selection," Lamb said.
The SUU volleyball team will not compete until the Fall 2009 season, but the T-Birds will have girls on campus this fall (preparing for the following season.) SUU volleyball coach Debby Baker has been on the recruiting table and said as of Tuesday she had three girls committed to join the T-Birds in the fall.
A new era in SUU football will begin on August 30 when the T-Birds travel to Colorado Springs to take on the Air Force Falcons. The four years of the unwatchable football being played under coach Wes Meier are finally over and the T-Birds now have sufficient reasons for hope in the future.
