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Good Sports
Celebrating CALS student-athletes
by Mary Ann Reese
Tending to business is what CALS students and faculty do best, and sometimes that business takes them to swim pools, ball courts, and fields at all hours of day or night, wherever NCAA Western Athletic Conference competitors live.
During fall 2005 semester, CALS student-athletes have pushed themselves to perform with excellence in NCAA basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, and volleyball.
Meanwhile, back on campus, UI student-athletes maintain an average 3.13 GPA, “higher than the general student body,” brags Rob Spear, UI athletics director.
“They’re awesome,” adds John Foltz, college associate dean and academic programs director. “Most people vastly underestimate what student-athletes do. They work hard. Their sport is like a job, requiring them to put in four hours a day in practice and training in addition to their studies.”
Foltz would know. He, his wife Barbara, Wes Chun, professor in Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences, and Steven McGeehan, food science chemist, all officiate at NCAA swim events at UI and nearby Washington State University.
“I’m proud we have athletes in CALS, because it helps them have a broad experience here at the university,” adds Foltz.
Spear agrees. “The biggest challenge students face is time management, because by the time they do their practicing, conditioning, study hall, and going to class, there isn’t a lot of free time.” Still, these challenges teach valuable real world lessons. “You know they understand leadership, discipline, and prioritization—all valuable skills, whatever profession they choose,” adds Spear.
Meet five CALS student-athletes
“There is no better place to be a student-athlete than at the University of Idaho,” says Spear. We tell our recruits and their parents when they come here, ‘Your son or daughter will not have a better opportunity to experience a true college education, and that’s what we offer at the University of Idaho.’”
UI student-athletes come from every college across campus, including more than a dozen from CALS, where Spear served as a high-ranking administrator before accepting his AD position in 2004. Meet five of them.
Basketball—Emily Halliday, a 5-7 basketball guard, “is a tremendous outside shooter,” says coach Mike Divilbiss. “She can score off the bounce or the pass, she understands our system very well, and she has a great mentality.”
From Pasco, WA, the dietetics junior in early November still had “high hopes and high expectations for our team this year.” Halliday, who has been playing basketball “since I could walk,” is still deciding her exact career goals. For her, “It’s really rewarding when you know that you’re representing your school.”
Football—Joel Jones walked into the UI 2004 fall camp from Longview, WA, with 60 tackles and two quarterback sacks to show for his high school senior year. The 6-1 pre-vet sophomore this year is pleased to get playing time as a long snapper.
Asked when Vandal football would hit a winning streak, he had no crystal ball, but, “I can tell you that we have great coaches, and they’re getting us ready. We’ve made tremendous improvements from last year, so, hopefully, soon.”
He finds football and school “two totally different things.” While both require hard work, “the main difference is you may not enjoy what you are doing in every class, but on the football field, you do it because you love it.”
Jones finds the UI the “best decision for me. I like my teachers; coaches are great as are teammates, players, atmosphere. It’s a great environment.”
Soccer—Adriane Kehl, soccer forward, began her senior season after chalking up 55 games, 6 goals and 7 assists. She’s “an unsung hero on this team,” says coach Peter Showler. At 5-8, the animal science major from Spokane “works her socks off and has an unbelievable fitness level,” adds Showler. “She can really change a game.”
For Kehl, the best thing about being a student-athlete is “playing a sport that you truly love and meeting new people.” The worst is missing so much school. As for lessons learned, “it is important to talk to your professors all the time, and don’t fall behind in your school work.”
Track—Yochai Avital, one of the top track and field athletes in his native Israel, chose the UI, “because of what I’ve heard about Coach Wayne Phipps’ program, and about assistant coaches Angela Whyte and Nikela Ndebele.” The freshman pre-vet major agrees student-athletes don’t have much discretionary time, and “what you do have may sometimes be used for rehabilitation.”
Volleyball—Erin Curtis launched her senior year with 138 kills in 111 Vandal games, including a career high 10 kills and seven blocks in the UI’s three-game win over UC Davis. And she has a perfect eight kills on eight attempts against Cal Poly. At deadline time, her team was 10 and 9. “With 10 more games to play, we’re hoping to pull out another NCAA tournament.”
The 6-2 Sacramento middle blocker, majoring in clothing, textiles, and design, hopes to be a buyer, or even a designer for Adidas or Nike. While Curtis, too, finds traveling and juggling athletics and academics hard, for her the best thing “is the people that you meet, the friends that you make with members on the team, and the opportunities.” Friendships form even with athletes in other sports because “we all take some classes together, and we meet in the dorms, and we just hang out together.”
Other college NCAA student-athletes include: Football—James Shawver, freshman, ag education and ag industry management; Men’s Track —Michael Jeske, senior, ag education; Women’s Cross Country/Track—Niki Barfuss, sophomore, nutrition, dietetics; Alexandra Lee-Painter, freshman, veterinary science (#19 in photo below); Women’s Golf—Jenna Huff, junior, animal science; Women’s Swimming—Mallory Kellogg, sophomore, animal science; Leia Spillman, senior, entomology and biology; Women’s Tennis—Tara Fielding, senior, child development, family relations.
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