Game One

Team is warming up for their matchup with Northwood University at 6:00 PM CST. Listen live on winonastatewarriors.com

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.0

Day Two

Another great practice this morning!! The team is ready for their matchup with Northwood University. Reminder that tip off is Wednesday at 6:00 PM CST.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.0

Men's Basketball

Men's Basketball practice this morning at Northwood. The team is preparing for a game Wednesday vs. the Seahawks. Tip off is set for 6:00 PM CST, fans can listen live on winonastatewarriors.com.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.0

Soccer Trip: Day Four

7:30 AM EST- Wakeup call
8:00 AM EST- Breakfast
9:30 AM EST- Depart for Ferris State University
10:00 AM EST- Warm up
11:00 AM EST- Game Time (Warriors Defeat Bulldogs 1-0)
1:00 PM EST- On the bus for the 9 hour ride home

The team should be back in Winona around 12 PM CST this evening. Thanks to the soccer team for allowing me to come along this weekend and to all who have been following my blog. Stay tuned next week as many of our fall programs will have their home openers. GO WARRIORS!!!

soccer: Game two

warriors lead the Bulldogs at half 1 to 0.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.8

Soccer Trip: Day 3

Today was an off day for the team and a chance to recover from yesterday’s matchup with Grand Valley State. The team just finished a meeting and scouting report on Ferris State University. Tomorrow should be another good match as the Warriors will play the Bulldogs at 11 AM EST. Stay tuned for updates throughout the day tomorrow!!

Here is a brief recap of today’s events:

8:00 AM EST- Coaching Staff and I go for a run to talk strategy (Brisk fall morning in Michigan)
10:00 AM EST – Eat Breakfast
11:00 AM EST- Depart for Big Rapids, Michigan and Ferris State University
12:00 PM EST- Arrive and check into hotel
1:00 PM EST- Training Session (Cancelled due to rain and poor weather)
1:30 PM EST- Eat Lunch
2:30 PM EST- Team rests and works on homework
5:00 PM EST- Dinner
6:30 PM EST- Team meeting and scouting report
7:00 PM EST- Team dismissed to rooms

I really enjoy the opportunity to travel with our teams and the chance to get to know the coaches as well as the student-athletes better. I truly love Division II athletics and Winona State University because of the camaraderie. The minute I jump on the bus I’m instantly welcomed into the group. There are no egos at this level; there is simply a desire to play the game that they love. Each student-athlete is here for the right reasons and that is to get an education and participate in athletics. On these road trips I can see the makings of lifelong friendships and relationships among many members of the team. I feel extremely fortunate to see what happens behind the scenes…. I see the blood, sweat and tears…. I see the hard work that happens, I see the long hours, late nights and long bus rides. Most of all I see a group of talented individuals coming together to form a team and work towards a common goal. Needless to say Winona State is a special place with outstanding people. Thank you for following our soccer team this weekend, look for updates tomorrow.

Game One

The Winona State soccer team got its 2010 season underway in Michigan, falling 1-0 to Grand Valley State. The Lakers scored in the 65th minute, a goal by Erin Mruz in a game played in 35 mile per hour winds.

Coach Omar had the following comments about the game.

“Grand Valley State was fast and big, but we were able to do everything we wanted to do,” Omar said. “I hate losing, but when the game is over you have to find some positives and the positive is we just have to tweak a couple things before our next game.”

Soccer Trip: Day 2

8:00 AM EST- Wakeup call
8:30 AM EST- Breakfast
9:15 AM EST- Depart for Grand Valley
10:00 AM EST- Training Session on the practice field at GVSU
11:00 AM EST- Lunch
12:00 PM EST- Team rests up for big game today
2:15 PM EST- Departing for the game
4:00 PM EST- Game Time

The team had a good walk through and training session today. Everyone is excited to take the field this afternoon to face the Lakers… stay tuned.

Soccer Trip: Day 1

Here is a brief overview of the trip to Michigan, things are going well and the team is ready to battle Grand Valley tomorrow!!

10:30 AM- Depart Winona

12:00 PM- First movie of the trip- Cop Out

2:00 PM- Members of the team entertained the bus with their musical talents (see pictures) Also, Coach Omar warms up with a snuggie (see picture).

3:00 PM- Stuck in Chicago traffic

4:00 PM- Pit stop at Subway just over the border into Indiana

5:00 PM- Second movie of the trip- Little Giants

7:30 PM- Arrived in Grand Rapids (8:30 EST)

8:00 PM- Team dinner (9:00 EST)

9:30 PM- Team Meeting (10:30 EST) See Picture

Lights out… tune in tomorrow!!

Travel with Warrior Soccer

Join me!! I’m headed out on the road and will be providing updates for the upcoming Women’s Soccer trip. I will be updating my blog with information about the trip, pictures, scores and much more. We will be departing Memorial Hall on Thursday, September 2nd and returning on Sunday, September 5th. I’m looking forward to traveling to Allendale, Michigan to play the defending NCAA DII National Champions in Grand Valley State. That game is set for 4:00 PM EST on Friday. Then we will make the trip over to Big Rapids, Michigan to face Ferris State. That competition is set for 11:00 AM EST on Sunday, Sept. 5th. I will be updating my blog throughout the trip, stay tuned!!

From the Desk of the Assistant AD

The Integrated Wellness Complex

We just completed our move to the IWC as this blog is sent out. It is very exciting for all of our students, student-athletes, coaches, support personnel and most importantly for you our fans! The Integrated Wellness Complex is certainly the best in the NSIC and highlights improvements to campus wellness, classroom space, support services as well as the soon to be dedicated Winona State Athletics Hall of Fame (Homecoming 2010). Our special thanks to all supporters of Winona State who took on this renovation project and have made this a first class home of the Warriors.

Winona State is looking forward to showing off our recent addition so please join us the following dates!! The dedication ceremony for the Integrated Wellness Complex will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, in the IWC Atrium. The Hall of Fame dedication will be held at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, in the Hall of Fame area of the IWC.

Season Tickets

Don’t wait till the Sept. 1st deadline to get your season tickets. We have some great packages available for you this year. You can purchase football season tickets for $100 and Basketball for $150. We also have a new All-Sports Pass for $250 – what a deal!

For Tickets and Ticket Information just call 1-877-725-8849 - they can take your order right over the phone or you can purchase your seats on the web at tickets and click on ticket alternative. If you have interest in the All-Sports pass you can call me directly at 507.457.2705.

Fly With The Warriors

If the home events on our beautiful campus are not enough for you – why don’t you join us with our inaugural Fly With The Warriors promotional trip package. You can join the basketball team and support staff on the trip to Florida this November. Hurry – seats are limited! Call Classic Travel at 800-657-4578 and ask for Renee.

APR and Academic Awards

Academic Success has always been very important to our athletic program and individual student-athlete development. I want to take this time to congratulate the recent academic awards based on the 2009-2010 academic year.

The Women’s Basketball team placed 20th in the WBCA Academic top 25 team honor roll for NCAA Division II. During the 2009-10 academic year the women’s basketball team had a team GPA of 3.446. This is the 4th year in a row that the Winona State Warrior Women's Basketball program has obtained this honor from the WBCA.

Winona State University's Marcus Greatens and Lauren Brown received the respective Dr. William Britton and Willis R. Kelly awards as announced by the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The awards are considered the top scholar-athlete awards given out by the NSIC.

Caitlin Dhein, Brittany Rynda, and Lauren Brown from Track and Field were selected by the USTFCCCA for their outstanding academics during the 2009-10 year and were named to the 2010 Division II All-Academic team.

We also wanted to let you know that your Warriors placed FIRST in the NSIC in graduation rates. We graduated 77% of our student-athletes. This is a great testament to our coaches, and Academic Support Staff. Also, the average GPA for student-athletes in 2009-2010 was 3.2. Congratulations to all!

Etc.

One more thing – student-athletes at Winona State participated in over 1,800 hours of community service. We thank the Winona community and surrounding areas for working with us!!

We are looking forward to making history again in 2010-2011, join us for the ride….Thanks and GO WARRIORS!!!

Toughest Place to Play

Q. I was wondering where you thought the toughest place was to play when you were on the road?

A. That is a great question thanks for asking. The NSIC has developed into one of the most difficult and balanced leagues in the country. Teams that come out of the conference and region typically have an opportunity to win a national championship. Literally, each team needs to perform at the highest level every game in order to win. Road trips in the NSIC are extremely taxing and include long hours on a bus. Many times the team will have to leave immediately after a Friday night game and travel two to three hours to the next institution. With that being said I believe the most difficult stretch is Northern State and UMary. Northern by itself is the most difficult place to play with their 8,000 seat arena and tremendous fan base. Then you have to hop on a bus and drive three hours to Bismarck, ND. This has become a very difficult venue in which to play. They have a small gym with fans right on top of the court. This really makes it difficult to communicate and play as a team.

I was fortunate to play in some outstanding arenas during my career and my favorite place to play was Williams Arena as I grew up in the Twin Cities. Of course I didn’t mind the time spent at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield as well. Lastly, one of the most difficult stretches during my career was a road trip to Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, IN. The Richard F. Scharf Alumni Fieldhouse is a very small venue and it honestly felt like 100 degrees at tipoff. Again, much like UMary fans are fight on top of the court at Saint Joe’s. The Pumas beat us and were responsible for one of our four losses during the 2006 National Championship run. Thanks for the great question and I look forward to answering more in the future.

Men's Basketball

Q. The men's basketball team really looks like they are going in the right direction, landing two very solid D1 transfers in Anthony Tucker (Iowa) and Caleb Palkert (USC-Upstate). I really believe these two players will really give some versatility to the WSU lineup. Tucker is a pure scorer who will more than likely fill David Johnson's shoes and Palkert seems like a great guy we can implement into the lineup to give WSU a (2-big) feel with Vette. Especially with Vette's three-point shooting ability, it seems like we could use another big guy to crash the glass. With WSU already having two other D1 transfers in Vette and C.J. Erickson as well as a solid, veteran point guard in Ben Fischer, do you think WSU could make a possible Elite Eight run? If so, what do you think WSU needs to improve on to get back out to Springfield?

A. Thank you for another great question and a fan that has certainly done their research. One interesting fact is that the Elite Eight will open up for bids after this final year in Springfield, Mass. The NCAA has decided to seek a new venue for the Elite Eight thus moving from the current location of Springfield where it has been held for the past five years. The Warriors certainly will have a great group of student-athletes and as we all know a high caliber coaching staff. I do believe they can make a run to the Elite Eight and even the national championship… They have that type of talent. A couple of things I believe they can work on as a team will be chemistry and leadership. If they can master these two key components stay healthy and get some luck a run to Springfield is definitely possible. Lastly, I believe it takes buy in from all members of the team to play for a national championship. It’s imperative that everyone is working for the same common team goal. I’m really looking forward to basketball season as I believe this group is hungry to be the best they are capable of becoming.

Integrated Fitness and Wellness Center

Q. Hey Travis, I was just curious as to how the new Health and Wellness Center (along with the WSU Hall of Fame) will make game day more enjoyable for the fans?

A. Great question and thanks for emailing about this topic. We are extremely excited about the opening of the new Integrated Fitness and Wellness Center. Besides being an excellent facility for the entire student body population it will serve as a great venue for home athletic events. There will be dramatic changes in the amount of time you have to wait in line for tickets and concession stands. The concourse area will provide an enjoyable area for fans to wait for tickets or a place to go during breaks in the action. The Hall of Fame and digital kiosks will enhance the fan experience by providing the history of our storied programs. These are fully interactive and will capture historical moments that have shaped Winona State Athletics. The long hallway will also serve as a walk of fame displaying accomplishments from each of our 14 programs and various forms of digital signage. The digital signage will act as a source of information for upcoming games and contain a live video feed of the current competition that is taking place. All in all this new facility is sure to make the fan experience more enjoyable. I almost forgot the new state of the art restrooms that will provide ample facilities for fans to use. Take a look at some of the pictures attached and we look forward to opening the new Fitness and Wellness Center this fall.

Men's Track and Field

Q. Hi Travis, I saw on your website that Winona State does not have a men’s track program. Is there any time in the future when one will be started up?

A. I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer; things have not slowed down a bit here at WSU. Our next major event is the Warrior Club Golf Classic on Monday, July 19th. This is a great opportunity to support the warriors, socialize with alumni/supporters, interact with the coaches, and connect with current student-athletes. Of course all money raised by this golf outing will directly impact student-athletes in the form of scholarships. I hope to see everyone at Cedar Valley for a fun filled day of golf and socializing. We are also keeping busy with the new integrated wellness center project. The project is reaching completion and our athletic department will begin to move in July 12th. What a difference this new facility is going to make for our campus… we are so very excited.

Men’s track has a storied history here at Winona State along with sports like swimming and wrestling. Expansion of our athletic programs is in our three to five year plan. It’s important to have a robust offering of programs that will best serve our student-athletes and fans. We are trying to manage through the difficult economic times along with Winona State’s enrollment being at capacity. However, we are actively looking at bringing back such programs at WSU. This is a great question and I will continue to update you on the progress of initiatives like a men’s track team. Presently Winona State University offers club and recreational programs for men’s track which are great programs. Also, many WSU student-athletes run unattached at meets throughout the spring season.

Thank you again for following the Ask Travis blog and we appreciate your questions. Happy Fourth of July to everyone!!!

Summer

I honestly can’t believe its June already, time flies. I apologize for not posting or updating the blog in awhile, the end of the school year got extremely busy. Even though it was busy the spring was exciting!!! One of the highlights for me was traveling with the baseball team to Farmington, New Mexico for the regional tournament…. Had a great time with the guys, they are a very close group. Coach Poock truly runs his program first class. Everyone of our teams or an individual from the team competed in the NCAA regional tournament this spring (This is pretty neat and hard to accomplish, shows the strength we have within all of our teams) One of the many aspects I truly love about Division II Athletics is the amount of championship opportunities there is. In a recent study it was determined that Division II provides the best opportunity out of all three divisions to win a national championship. In my opinion that is another aspect that separates DII and enhances the student-athlete experience. As an entire athletic department we finished third in the All-Sports Award standings for the NSIC. Needless to say we have experienced tremendous success this year both athletically and academically. This was one of our strongest years academically highlighted by Lauren Brown and Marcus Greatens winning the Britton and Kelly Award (click here for the release) .

Also, I had a question in regards to the online store and when we can anticipate the launch. Again, I encourage questions and appreciate them because we want to keep our fans updated.

The vendor we are working with we had anticipated a launch in April. However, they had some issues in getting inventory with some of the product. We delayed the launch because we want to service our fans to the best of our abilities. We are hopeful to have this up and running this summer and at the latest for the start of the school year. Thanks again and look forward to hearing more feedback from you.

Website

Wow I can’t believe its March 23rd already, time flies. What a tremendous start to the spring season for Winona State Athletics. Not to mention the great weather that is helping our cause. We have already had a home baseball game this spring and have a softball game as well as two baseball games slated for later this week. Please note the baseball game on Saturday has been pushed back to a 1pm start time. I received a great question this week on some of the new features on winonastatewarriors.com and specifically the new “toolbar” at the top of the page. We created the “toolbar” and embedded into our banner on the main page as well as all the sport pages. Basically our goal was to help fans to reach all of our multimedia links. I just wanted to briefly describe what each of those icons is and where it will link. We are in the process of making the toolbar even more user-friendly with the ability to mouse over and have the name populate or highlight... I will keep you posted.

The first icon you will see is a mini TV and this will link you to the Warrior Sports Network. Once you are on the WSN page you will be able to watch live events we have going on as well as connect to Penn Atlantic and KQAL. A great feature on this page is our schedule; we will keep you updated on the events WSN will cover.

The next icon is for radio and this will take you directly to KQAL- the voice for warrior athletics.

Third you will see what looks to be a line graph. This is actually live stats and will take you directly to the page of live stats for every sport and all institutions in the NSIC.

The next icon is you tube and this will send you over to our warrior you tube page. Here you can find all of our multimedia programming and archived files.

The next icon is F, meaning facebook. This will bring you to the Warrior Facebook page.

Twitter or t is the next icon you will find on the toolbar. This will take you to our twitter page, be sure to sign up for Warrior tweets!!!!

Blogging or B is the next icon within the toolbar. This is the spot for all warrior blogs and features many In-Game blogs. Also, we have kept up with former WSU Student-Athletes who are in the professional ranks. Take a look these are great!!!

The second to last icon is RSS feeds and you can sign up to receive the latest Warrior information via this link.

Finally the cell phone, here you can request to get updates about warrior athletics on your mobile device. What a great feature!!!
Thanks and please call or email with further questions. GO WARRIORS!!!

NCAA Championships

On behalf of the Athletics Department I want to congratulate the men's basketball team on an outstanding season and a selection to the NCAA Tournament. Our fans play such a critical role in the success of the program and we thank you for your support. As many of you already know, we will be playing in the Central Regional this weekend at Mankato with a 2:30 PM tip-off on Saturday. I look forward to seeing all of you this weekend and cheering this year's team on to Springfield.

Please see ticket information below and let us know if you have any questions.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate three members of the Warrior Track and Field team. The following three student-athletes have had outstanding indoor seasons and have an opportunity to bring home a national championship: Rebecca Stier , Kelly Shaw and Mary Theisen . GOOD LUCK !!!!

Tickets went on sale at noon, Monday, March 8th and can be purchased at www.msumavericktickets.com.
Tickets ordered online can be picked up in the MSU Athletic Office located at 135 Myers Field House beginning Tuesday March 9th at 8am.

Office will be open for the claiming of ordered tickets Tuesday – Friday between 8am – 4pm.

Tickets can also be picked up the day of each game at the Bresnan Arena Ticket Office 90 minutes prior to start of each session (gates open 60 minutes prior to tip off).

Ticket prices are:

$15 reserved (limited number)
$10 adult general admission
$5 youth/student/senior general admission

Minnesota State University Athletic Office
(507) 389-6111

Courtside Seats

This is an exciting time of year as winter sports are winding down and spring sports are getting underway. Nothing like competing for a championship and we are right in the hunt with all of our winter sports. I urge everyone to come out and support our home events this weekend as there are some important contests to be played. Not to mention we are hosting a tremendous community event this weekend, Black Out Breast Cancer.

This morning we received another great question regarding courtside seats for Women’s and Men’s basketball. The question was how to obtain tickets for those seats? This is a great question because this year was the first season in which we made courtside seats available. Basically, we sold them out of the athletic office just as we used to sell season tickets. We opted not to list them on Ticket Alternative this season but it’s something we might look at for the future. If you have an interest in courtside seats for the 2010-2011 season please let me know as we have already formulated a list of interested parties.

Project Update

We have received some tremendous feedback in regards to the launch of the Warrior Sports Network (WSN). As mentioned in the release, the Warrior Sports Network is an internet based network dedicated exclusively to Winona State Athletic programming. WSN will serve as the umbrella for all of the Warrior multimedia platforms including: video streaming of live contests, radio, pre and post game press conferences, All-Access, Warrior Weekly, Warrior Week in Review, podcasting, blogging and much more. Warrior Faithful will find WSN on Winonastatewarriors.com and no costs are associated with any of the programming available.
What is really exciting is we now can provide coverage to all of our 14 varsity intercollegiate athletic programs. We have put a lot of thought and effort into this platform because of the importance to showcase all of our programs. Each one of our teams continues to establish themselves as the best in the country. We will continue to keep our fan base updated with progress and a schedule of programming as we move forward.

I’m also excited to update each of you on the progress of two other projects. First, we are a couple of days away from launching our online photo store. Fans will be able to look through our image galleries and purchase any of the actions shots available. The other project that is getting close to launch is an online apparel store. We are in the design stage of this project and have a target date set for next month.

We received a great question earlier today from a fan interested in purchasing more Winona State Athletic apparel. I can’t emphasize enough how great your questions are. If something is important to you chances are it’s also important to someone else. Keep the questions coming as we enjoy the chance to connect with our great supporters.

Where can I get the Winona State Under Armour hat?

The best place at this point and time to find apparel such as the Under Armour hat would be the Winona State Bookstore. However, Winonastatewarriors.com is in the process of launching its own athletic apparel website. In the near future Warrior fans will be able to buy anything and everything online. The part that is really exciting is each fan will be able to customize the apparel to their specific liking. For instance, a soccer fan will be able to create a polo that will be embroidered or screen printed with Warrior Soccer on the shirt. The Athletic Department is excited about this project and will keep you posted on the progress. Thanks again for another great question!!

NLI Signing

I received a couple of E-mails and a phone call yesterday from fans wanting to know more about the National Letter of Intent Signing Day. The overwhelming theme was this… Do we know who is signing prior to February 3rd? Or do most prospective student-athletes decide on February 3rd?

Some great questions and we certainly enjoy hearing from each and every one of you. For the most part I would say the student-athletes know which institution they are signing with prior to February 3rd. For many it’s days and weeks prior to signing day when they verbally commit to a scholarship offer. Of course, there are always some last minute additions or change of heart scenarios. Winona State has had good success in signing tremendous student-athletes because of the great balance we have to offer. When prospective students come on campus it’s easy for them to see that balance. They know that they will engage in campus/community service, create lifelong friendships, compete at the highest level and most importantly graduate with a degree. We are also very lucky in the fact that we have coaches who are among the best in the country and work hard to bring in quality student-athletes.

Student Rewards

We are very excited to have the ability to answer questions and interact with the best fans in collegiate athletics. Over the weekend I received an excellent question from a student at Winona State University. The question was in response to an announcement made by the athletic department last week. The announcement read “The Grand Prize for Student Rewards is a $500 scholarship provided by the Alumni Society. “

The question was: How do I receive this scholarship?

In order to obtain this scholarship you have to attend more athletic events than any other student on campus. Each time you attend an event you must swipe your student ID card at the main entrance. Each event is worth one point and there are different prizes available from two points all the way up to fourteen points.

I look forward to answering more questions and hearing from our fan base. Each and every one of you has been vital in the success of Warrior Athletics.

Welcome

Have a question about the Warriors, college athletics in general or just want to supply your feedback about WSU Athletics? Here's your chance to submit your question or thoughts to Warrior Assistant Athletic Director Travis Whipple.

Just send an email to twhipple@winona.edu

Some of the most pertinent questions and replies will be posted on this site.