Closing the drawer

April 21, 2005
By Dan Tomlin
Sports Editor

The sports drawer is about to close.  I’ve had this darn thing open for way too long, and after three fun filled years of filling pages with accomplishments and accolades, and now it’s time to give some gratitude for the people that have kept me busy and content.

Over the course of three years you get to know a lot about a place.  You also get to know a lot about the people involved in athletics here at St. Ambrose.  You find out real fast that it’s not as easy as it looks to get a team together and compete on the field or court.

It has been a remarkable four years here at St. Ambrose though with virtually every team advancing to the National Tournament in their respective sport at least once.  There have been highs as well as lows as sports tends to provide, but overall the success here at St. Ambrose over the past four years will be hard to match.

During that time we’ve been privileged to have two teams be recognized as one of the top four teams in the country in their sport (Basketball-4 and Golf-3), we’ve had courageous stories of athletes overcoming adversity all in the sake of athletics, and we’ve most notably had academic success with student athlete graduation rates almost as high as they can go.

Looking back at the list of All-Americans compiled through the past four years is daunting.  It’s a grocery list of memories as vivid as the first day of college.

Rob Firrell brought fame to the school by capturing a national title in indoor track in 2002.  This accomplishment trumps all others, as he was just the second Fighting Bee to ever win a national championship.

There were also stories of heartache.  Brenden Regan is confined to a wheelchair now after diving into a sandbar on spring break with the baseball team.  Regans baseball ability was never fully realized, but his fight to overcome adversity and return to St. Ambrose as a student in 2003 was amazing.

There’s also the story of the coach.

Coach Ray, a man who has won more basketball games at St. Ambrose than any other coach, finally got some recognition last year by advancing a team to the Final Four and coming just shy of knocking off the eventual national champions.

The football playoff runs have kept everyone entertained and in 2003 their overtime heroics vaulted our school to the forefront of the NAIA.  As Joe Schimmel pranced into the endzone on a two-point conversion the team that had been left for dead was all of a sudden one of only eight teams left playing football.

How too could we forget the epic battles waged at John O’Donnell Stadium, or Assumption High School where the diamonds stayed dusty all spring long and the baseball and softballers made us proud.

Chad Jones kept everyone on the edge of their seats as you almost felt he could change the outcome with one swing of the bat, and on more than one occasion did.

For as much success on the court there are still a couple stingers that need to be laid to rest and put to sleep.

Andre Childs.  Mt. St. Claire.  An underachieving team came into Lee Lohman Arena on what was otherwise a beautiful, unseasonably warm February day and knocked off the Bees at the buzzer on a half-court shot.  Mt. St. Claire isn’t around any more, Andre Childs probably rewinds it in his head every day, but other than that it’s time to slam the sports drawer on that one.  SLAM.

Besides, isn’t it much easier to remember Ryan Johnson’s turnaround jumper in the lane to capture the Midwest Classic Conference title this year?

Clint Bontempo. Andy Papagiannis. St. Francis, Ind.  The Bees had a late lead expire as Bontempo’s 17-yd. field goal was blocked back to him and he pitched the ball to Papagiannis who hustled 2 yards into the endzone as time expired.  St. Francis got knocked out of the playoffs two years in a row by back-to-back champions Carroll College.  SLAM.

That about does it for the sports drawer.  Everything’s cleaned out, most of the skeletons are out of the closet.

The main thing about sports is the same thing in life, keep it all in perspective.

SLAM.

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