The University of Missouri and its multimedia rights holder, Mizzou Sports Properties, signed a five-year deal with Cumulus Media, Inc. to keep the Tigers on Cumulus radio affiliates in mid-Missouri.

Missouri football and basketball games,Retro Football Shirts, along with “Tiger Talk,” will continue on KFRU 1400 AM and KBXR 102.3 FM in Columbia through 2010.

Missouri athletics in Columbia have been on Cumulus stations since 1926, making it one of the longest affiliate relationships in the country.

ROCK BRIDGE TENNIS: The Bruins’ boys’ tennis match at Hannibal was rained out Tuesday.

Rock Bridge held the lead in every singles match, but they were called due to the weather conditions. The doubles matches were not played.

Rock Bridge coach Ben Loeb said it’s uncertain whether the dual meet will be completed.

HICKMAN GOLF: The Kewpies placed second in a triangular golf meet at Rockhurst on Tuesday.

Rockhurst shot a 293 to win the meet, and Hickman finished with 308. Blue Springs shot 328.

Kyle Kovar’s 75 led Hickman. Other Kewpies included D.J. Chung (76), Chris Johnson (78),Sevilla shirt, Josh Brady (79) and Drew Wier (80).

Patrick Roth from Rockhurst was the medalist with a score of 72. The schools played 18 holes with par at 71.

STEROIDS: The NBA and NHL were among six groups that turned over documents about their drug-testing policies to the congressional committee looking into steroids in sports.

The House Government Reform Committee had set Tuesday as a deadline for getting information about drug programs and test results. Major League Soccer, the ATP, USA Track & Field and the U.S. Soccer Federation responded in time, while USA Cycling asked for and was granted an extension because of a snowstorm near its headquarters.

The NFL was given until last Friday and turned in its documents then.

“Committee investigators are reviewing these documents,Bayern Munich shirt, and they are continuing to examine the documents received from the NFL on Friday,” committee chairman Tom Davis of Virginia and ranking Democrat Henry Waxman of California said in a statement. “We will withhold comment until our review of documents is complete.”

In letters sent to the various sports,Santos shirt, the committee asked for information such as the number of drug tests each year, the number of positive results and which substances are tested for.

COLUMBIA Nebraska men’s basketball coach Doc Sadler is no stranger to Marcus Denmon’s scoring capabilities.

“He creates so many problems for you because he can really shoot the basketball,” Sadler said in Monday’s Big 12 media teleconference. “But he’s really not just a one-dimensional player.”

Tuesday’s game

No. 22 Missouri Tigers (22-7, 8-6 Big 12)
at Nebraska Cornhuskers (18-10, 6-8 Big 12)

WHEN: 7 p.m.
WHERE: Bob Devaney Center,Football shirts, Lincoln, Neb.
RADIO: KTGR 100.5 FM/1580 AM
TV: KZOU Channel 17

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Denmon lit up the Cornhuskers when they lost to the Tigers in Columbia earlier this season. His 27-point performance tied his career best. But Sadler is also aware of Denmon’s other strengths,Sevilla shirt, the same strengths that Missouri coach Mike Anderson says he thinks qualify Denmon as a Big 12 Player of the Year candidate.

Sure, Denmon can score. As of Monday, the junior guard is seventh in the conference in points with 484 (16.7 points per conference game).

But what sets Denmon apart is his accuracy. He is fifth in the Big 12 in shooting percentage (50.7 percent). Take into account that the four players ahead of him are forwards and centers, and that makes Denmon the most efficient guard in the conference.

When he escapes a defender and sets his feet firmly behind the 3-point line, the result is usually points added to the scoreboard. That is if he decides to take the shot.

Denmon seems to select his shots like a picky shopper searching for a perfectly-ripe piece of produce. If it’s not there,Kaizer Chiefs shirt, he won’t take it.

Missouri fans often let out audible groans when their leading scorer passes up a shot. They wouldn’t complain if he pulled the trigger twice as much. Even Denmon himself has said he reigns in his offensive production at times.

After bolting to a 18-point first half in Missouri’s win over Texas Tech in February, Denmon added only two more in the second half. He said he was trying to get his teammates more opportunities.

“I was trying to be a little more passive in the second half just because I felt like I could help get some other guys involved,Santos shirt,” Denmon said after the game. “A lot of teams around the country, they have just one key player, and if you can key on him, you can stop the team.”

As much as Missouri’s fans wish he would fire away, Anderson thinks Denmon’s scoring is just where it needs to be.

“He’s playing the game the right way,” Anderson said.

In fact, Anderson said focusing on Denmon’s shooting and scoring is an injustice to the other aspects of his game. To understand what Denmon brings to the table, you have to look at the big picture.

“Everybody gets so caught up in scoring,” Anderson said. “What’s the impact he’s having on our basketball team? To me, that’s what you look at when you are talking about someone that’s a player of the year candidate. I think he’s been playing at that level all year long.”

Anderson pointed out that Denmon is second in the conference in steals (53), as well as a strong rebounder for his size.

On Tuesday, Sadler will likely be more focused on stopping Denmon’s scoring than his steals or rebounds. After the last meeting between the two teams, he is probably hoping some of Denmon’s scoring stays in Columbia. That wasn’t the case when the Tigers came to town last season. Denmon scored 24 points after starting the game on the bench.

COLUMBIA — On any given weekday during the basketball season,Juventus shirt, Kevin Bryant walks into Douglass High School about the time most students are leaving. On days after a Douglass game,Sevilla shirt, he brings a tape of the game with him for the coaches and players to review. Bryant has been taping the games for the Douglass Bulldogs for the past four seasons. But his involvement with the team goes beyond just filming.

Bryant is the father of Douglass senior Landon Boone. He is the security director at the Mid-Missouri Mental Health Center, and he usually stops by basketball practice on his way home from work.

“I’m there to do whatever the coaches need to have done,” Bryant said.

He has certainly been true to his word by helping the program in the offseason. Bryant has coached many of the Douglass players in various summer basketball leagues since they were in middle school. Alsohe has coached them in AAU competition, the Sturgeon summer league and he even had them play in the adult division of the Moonlight Hoops league in the summer at Douglass Park because he thought it would make the team better.

“I try to push them to give 100 percent all of the time,” Bryant said.

His players agree.

“He just doesn’t give us a break when he coaches us in the summer,” Brandon Gleeson, a Douglass junior, said.

However,AS Roma shirt, Bryant’s efforts to help the team aren’t limited to coaching in the summer.

“He is our biggest fan,” said Boone, who says that Bryant is a catalyst in building a sense of community around the team and within the team.

At last season’s senior night game, Bryant had shirts made that read “Douglass Bulldogs” on the front. On the back they read “Family Grows, Plays and Stays Together.” Every two weeks or so, Bryant will have the team over to his house for dinner and to watch game tapes or play video games.

“To me, Douglass Basketball is like a big family,” Bryant said.

Bryant has also done a lot of one-on-one training with his son, especially in Boone’s first three years of high school. He admits, though, he has backed off the personal training with his son a little this year.

“I figure that if he doesn’t have it by now, he isn’t going to get it,” Bryant said.

It is safe to assume that Boone does, in fact, have it. He has scored more than 1,000 points in his high school career.

Bryant plans to see his son go on to play college basketball,Paris Saint Germain shirt, but he also wishes to see the other Douglass players and the team as a whole succeed. He is sure to be found filming games from the stands, just to lend a hand at the rest of the Bulldogs’ games this season.

COLUMBIA It was one of those nights where everyone had their
faces buried in the record book.

Season and career highs were falling left and
right for the 13th-ranked Missouri womens gymnastics team Friday night
at the Hearnes Center. Missouri used a high-scoring fourth
rotation to put away 17th-ranked Iowa State for their fifth
victory of the season.

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• MU gymnasts Allie Heizelman and Sandra Ostad sign T-shirts for Erica Mingus,Glasgow Rangers shirt, Katie Bagley, Sarah Bagley and Mia Hale. The four girls were part of a group from Fairview Elementary School that attended the Pink Out meet.

Leading comfortably after the first two rotations
of their Big 12 Conference opener, the Tigers found themselves up by just .05
of a point to a talented Iowa State squad.

They made the most of their fourth rotation,
posting a 49.400 on the floor exercise, the fourth-highest for the program for that event.

“When you start at a 9.825 instead of building
halfway through to a 9.825, everything after that, as
it gets better and stronger, you force the judges up into a tight hole,” coach Rob Drass said. “And we
like them to be right up there because then they’ve got to keep giving those
scores. Thats how you run it and score 49 and a half points.”

Career highs came for five of the six Tiger
gymnasts in the fourth rotation, and the other posted a season high. Senior
Sarah Shire recorded a 9.950 on floor and slid into third place on the Missouri
all-time list.

Shire, the reigning Big 12 Gymnast of the Week,
made it difficult for the conference to award the title to anyone else. She was
the highest-scoring gymnast in every event Friday, finishing with an all-around score
of 39.600. That put her in sole possession of third place on the schools all-time
list. Aside from setting a career high on floor, she also set new season highs
on vault and balance beam.

“We did not have a good floor rotation last week,Fulham shirt,”
Shire said, “and we worked really, really hard in the gym this week fixing
those minor details.”

Although the meet was close heading into the
fourth rotation, Missouri put up big numbers all night. Its final team total
of 196.400 was the 12th-highest in school history.

“When you have those kind of kids on your team and
those kind of performances they can deliver, that puts you up in
an upper echelon,” Drass said. “Thats what weve been fighting to get to, and I think we can
run with anyone in the country.”

It was a big night for senior Danielle Guider, who
set new season highs in all three events she competed in, two of which
were new career highs.

“When I hit my bars routine, I think that gave me a lot of motivation for the rest of the night,Werder Bremen shirt,” Guider said. “I
just kept my attitude up and just kept plugging away.”

Friday nights meet was the sixth-annual Pink Out,
with proceeds going toward breast cancer research. One dollar from each ticket sold
benefited Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia. It was the second-highest crowd in Pink Out history with 3,Sevilla shirt,227 people in attendance.

The Tigers kept their record unblemished with
Fridays victory, as they head into a tough road meet against ninth-ranked
Nebraska next weekend in Lincoln, Neb.

Columbia — It’s a cool fall morning, and senior Julia Hanson is stretching and preparing for an hour of cross country practice. A consistent jog begins what will be a lengthy day of class, practice and activities. Practice ends at 7:30 a.m., and she only has thirty minutes to get a shower in before her class at MU and the rest of her day begins. She has to hurry because, unlike all her other Stephens College classes, this one is off-campus.

Her MU class ends and the rush to class resumes as her next one is back at Stephens. Two hours of coursework later, Hanson takes a quick break for lunch and homework. Her schedule is just starting, though. There’s another class at 2:00 p.m., and an hour after that, she has to get to the writing lab where she volunteers as a tutor. The job is only supposed to be for two hours,Birmingham shirt, but she often finds herself leaving the lab at 6:00 p.m.. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, though, she has to leave at 5; she is a student-teacher at the Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center, where she teaches disabled kids and adults how to ride horses — a rehabilitating activity emphasizing joint, muscle and balance therapy. Depending on the day, Hanson’s first semester schedule ends at either 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m., and she spends the rest of the night doing homework and sleeping.

Next semester, her daily load will lighten a little, but only slightly. She replaces early morning cross country practice with mid-afternoon swimming practice, and her class schedule, currently 21 credit hours, drops marginally to 18.

“Yeah, I pretty much have class all day and do homework all night,” Hanson said.

Her schedule has never been empty, though. Hanson has been a part of at least one school athletic team every year since her freshman year of high school, and only while on soccer scholarship at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, did she play on only one.

Hanson started filling her plate with activities a half an hour away from Coe in Mt. Vernon,Sevilla shirt, Iowa where she grew up and attended high school. During her high school career,Werder Bremen shirt, she played four sports and dabbled in a few others.

“I did soccer, volleyball for a year, and then I did cross country. I kind of did track, but they wouldn’t let me do track and soccer,” Hanson said. “And then I did softball for one summer.”

Of those four sports, Hanson excelled at two — cross-country and soccer. However, after she tore right ACL as a sophomore during soccer season, she was forced to sit out cross-country the following year. Still a team captain and present at all the meets, Hanson watched from the sideline as her team competed. For the first time since junior high, Hanson had a substantial amount of time away from sports. Incapacitated because of the injury, she grew frustrated with her inactive state.

“It was tough. I still went to all the events, but to not compete was hard.”

After a year of rehabilitation, Hanson regained her spot on the soccer team, and her talents would soon garner attention at the next level. Coe College saw enough potential in Hanson to offer her an athletic scholarship, but before leaving for school, she underwent another surgery on her knee. As a result, Hanson played her freshman year at Coe with some noticeable distress.

“I still wasn’t fully recovered from my injury. I had to wear a knee brace, and I wasn’t 100 percent.”

A year later, Hanson, still recovering from her knee injury, decided to transfer from Coe, opting for Stephens College. The draw of Stephens, though, wasn’t its soccer or cross-country programs — both nonexistent at Stephens at the time of her enrollment — but its equestrian program, which addressed a passion of Hanson’s since childhood.

“I started riding when I was five, and I’ve owned horses since I was six,” Hanson said. “I’ve been taking lessons up until now.”

Hanson had been participating in horse shows consistently throughout her time in Mt. Vernon, so when she came to Stephens, a school known for its equestrian program, Hanson thrived in the atmosphere, participating regularly in horse shows at the Midway Expo Center.

And while riding horses became the latest addition to her schedule, she also caught up on one sport and started a new one after coming to Columbia. Hanson took up swimming and restarted her career in cross-country. Because of her athletic ability, Hanson excelled at both. She started as the No. 2 runner her junior year — the inaugural season of the Stephens cross country program — but quickly moved up to No. 1 her senior year.

“She did a tremendous amount of work over the summer and transformed herself into a very strong No. 1 for us this year and ran times that were three minutes faster than last year,” cross country coach Dane Pavlovich said.

Hanson saw the culmination of her running talent senior year at the University of Evansville Invitational in October when she became the first runner in the program’s brief history to medal at an event and set a school record with a time of 20 minutes, 34 seconds.

In January,Celtic shirt, Hanson will start her final semester in collegiate athletics when she begins swimming, a sport she hasn’t competed in since middle school.

“Swimming has always come easy to me, but I’m not exactly the fastest swimmer on the team, I found out.”

Still, swimming coach Laura Wacker is eager to regain Hanson for the second half of the season after she missed the first half running cross country.

“I think (her running ability) can only help her this year,” Wacker said. “I’m looking forward to see how she does.”

When swimming ends, Hanson will see her collegiate athletic career come to a close, and the only activities she plans on pursuing are riding and the occasional jog. Ideally, she sees herself continuing her work in therapeutic horse-riding and plans to still participate in horse shows.

It won’t be the same for Hanson, though. The consistent competition she faced weekly will be gone, and similar to the rehabilitation of her high school ACL injury, it will not be easy.

“Basically every year of my life I’ve done a competitive sport, and I’ll be done, so it’ll be tough.”

That is unless she finds a new sport.

“I won’t be running for any particular reason. I mean, unless I decide to run a marathon or something.”

Carly Sullivan takes a breath during the women’s 200-yard butterfly finals at the MU Recreation Center on Sunday. Sullivan placed seventh in the butterfly, eight events after placing second in the women’s 1,Peru football shirt,000-yard freestyle. (SARA DEBOLD/Missourian)

Imagine swimming the last part of a 40-lap, 1,000-yard race. Your legs feel like they’re full of cement, and your body feels like it’s on fire. It’s not over yet, though. There’s still another race to swim later.

Such are the lives of Missouri distance swimmers like freshman Colleen Gordon and Dylan Lynn. Gordon won the 200- and 500-yard freestyle races Sunday morning in final day of the Mizzou Duel challenge. Her victories came a day after setting a school record in the grueling 1,650-yard freestyle in 16 minutes, 43 seconds Saturday evening against Iowa and Drury University.

Lynn placed second in the 1,000-yard freestyle Sunday morning, a day after finishing first in the 500-yard freestyle Saturday morning. Not surprisingly,Paris Saint Germain shirt, he was a little sore, but said he feels the worst after a long race.

“The second I hit the wall, it hurts really bad,” Lynn said. “My legs are burning and stiff and sometimes my feet go numb when I swim a lot.”

Distance wasn’t even suppose to be part of the plan for Lynn. He was recruited to Missouri as a short distance sprinter, but he said that all changed over the summer.

“I made the mistake of swimming fast in the 400 freestyle and the coaches moved me up to distance,” Lynn said with a laugh.

Despite the pain, the Missouri men’s and 25th-ranked women’s teams swept their opponents in individual dual meets against Louisville, Iowa, Drury University and Southern Illinois at the Mizzou Aquatic Center.

For Gordon and Lynn,Lyon shirt, the high level of endurance comes from an intense training regiment. During a typical week,Sevilla shirt, Gordon said she swims around 80,000 yards, while Lynn said he typically swims around 8,000 yards a day. Gordon said after frequently swimming long distance events in high school, she is use to the work.

“Distance is very mental,” Gordon said. “You have to hold the same pace. Some days you’ll be totally on it, and some days you won’t be.”

To help keep the right pace, swimmers in longer events look to outside help from coaches. Trying to catch glimpses of hand signals from the coaches serves as a good indication of their place in the race. Although Lynn said he normally uses how he feels as a good pace setter, he sometimes relies on seeing if his coaches have their hands above their head, which signals he is doing well.

Teammates also serve as good source of help. “Counters” at the end of every lane are responsible for dipping a sign underwater that shows what lap the swimmer is on so they don’t forget.

For Missouri coach Brian Hoffer, the weekend offered a good chance for his swimmers to compete in multiple events, and he was pleased the team did well against talented competition. With the various events his swimmers participated in, he said he noticed fatigue was becoming a factor toward the end of the meet. However, he added that his swimmers are extremely fit and will get some rest with a day off Monday.

“They’re very elite athletes, so they’ll recover pretty quick,” Hoffer said.

COLUMBIA — Lauren Borduin has done a lot of winning during her track and field career at Rock Bridge.

She won the state title in the 800-meter run as a sophomore,Villareal shirt, missing the state record by just two tenths of a second.

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• Emma Booth of HeliasHigh School performs a long-jump in the ninth annual Missouri Relays.

During her junior year, Borduin struggled with a hip injury, but finished the season strong by winning the state title in both the 800-meter and the 1600-meter runs.

But, paradoxically, Borduin’s winning has been a problem for her at times. She has won so often and by such large margins that she hasn’t needed to push her limits.

Then when she has gotten into more closely-contested races on the national level or at state, she hasn’t been comfortable running side by side with her competition. She was too used to running way out in front.

According to coach Neil Blackburn, over the past two seasons there has not been a single runner in the state of Missouri who could challenge Borduin in the 800-meters.

“We went out to the Nike outdoor meet last year, the championships, and she got in there and it was kind of like she didn’t necessarily know how to handle racing with someone on her shoulder,Napoli shirt,” Blackburn said.

Because she has had so much trouble finding someone to challenge her,Sevilla shirt, Borduin was thrilled that Cydney Ross from Villa Duchesne ran right with her in the 800-meters at the season-opening Missouri Relays on Saturday.

Borduin was so thrilled that Ross pushed her to do her best that she didn’t seem to mind too much that Ross won the race.

“It pushes you to your limits,” Borduin said. “When you are running by yourself you can get comfortable and then you don’t really know what you can do.”

Borduin came within three seconds of her state-title-winning time from last season on Saturday. It was the best time she has ever had at the Missouri Relays and would have been the meet record if not for Ross, who crossed the finish line 16 hundredths of a second before Borduin.

Blackburn said the close loss was much more beneficial to Borduin than an easy win would have been.

“(A blowout win) would have been the same thing that she has experienced kind of week-in and week-out for the last two-and-a-half seasons,” Blackburn said. “Having an experience with really and truly having to race and not just going out and running makes a difference.”

Blackburn wanted Borduin to focus on racing rather than her time, so he took her watch away from her just moments before the start of the race. It was a surprise to Borduin, but she said that it was not the first time Blackburn had forced her to give up the watch.

“Having my watch is sort of like a security thing,Kaizer Chiefs shirt, and sometimes I think he just wants me to not be so focused on getting comfortable as much as just running,” Borduin said.

Borduin won the 1600-meter run earlier in the day. She won that race by over eight seconds with Ross finishing second.

Borduin had a chance to become the first girl to win both the 1600-meter and the 800-meter at the Missouri Relays. She won the 1600 last year and the 800 as a sophomore in 2006.

Although they were not upset about the loss, Borduin and Blackburn said they look forward to a possible rematch between Borduin and Ross.

“I hope they see each other again,” Blackburn said. “I hope they get a chance to race and establish kind of that camaraderie through racing to continue to push each other to perform better.”

Rock Bridge also won the boys 4×100-meter relay and the boys 4×200-meter relay this weekend. Blackburn said the relay wins were a result of the commitment of his runners, who stayed in town over spring break to practice together.

Quinn Gray won the boys 200-meter dash for Rock Bridge. Matt Brummit from Hickman won the boy’s high jump.

Missouri had another good day in women’s throwing competition on Saturday. Shernelle Nicholls won the women’s discus, setting a new school record as well as the Barbados national record.

Nicholls also finished second in the shot put. Krishna Lee finished third in the shot put.

Nick Adcock finished second in the long jump, javelin throw, and 110-meter hurdles at the Relays.

ST. LOUIS The St. Louis Cardinals’ second base experiment made it to Opening Day, even if Skip Schumaker won’t be in the lineup.

The left-handed hitting Schumaker batted .168 against lefties last year and isn’t starting on Monday against the Pirates’ Paul Maholm, against whom he’s 0-for-3 with a strikeout. Brendan Ryan, a right-handed hitter who’s 1-for-7 against Maholm, instead gets the call at both leadoff and second base.

Still, the conversion will ease an overcrowded outfield heading into a four-game series starting Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Even without Schumaker in the mix, there are four outfielders who’ll share playing time Ryan Ludwick, Rick Ankiel, Chris Duncan and Colby Rasmus. Schumaker, who batted .302 in his first full season,Retro Football Shirts, was force-fed the job during spring training and got more comfortable and less mechanical as time passed.

“We’ll just have to let the season happen and if he can handle the day-to-day job, that’s great for us,” general manager John Mozeliak said Sunday. “There’s no reason to think he can’t handle it.”

Rookie David Freese expected to be the top fill-in for injured Troy Glaus at third base also will start the season on the bench in manager Tony La Russa’s unusual opening-day lineup. Khalil Greene has 15 career at-bats at cleanup, but that’s where he’ll be in the opener coming off a .408 spring average that was among the NL leaders. Another rookie, Brian Barden, is set to start at third and bat eighth.

The lineup is conventional in one regard, with pitcher Adam Wainwright batting ninth. La Russa had the pitchers batting eighth in every game since the final 56 games of 2007, with the No. 9 hitter serving as a second leadoff man to get more runners on for Pujols.

Wainwright (11-3, 3.20) gets his second try at a first opening day start last year’s start was postponed by rain against Pirates left-hander Paul Maholm (9-9, 3.71).

“We’re far from perfect,” Mozeliak said. “But I still think we’re a pretty good club.”

The Pirates are another story. They enter the season trying to end a string of 16 consecutive losing seasons, tied for the longest such slump in major league history, and with a roster that’s not appreciably different from the 2008 team that finished last in the NL Central at 67-95 last year.

Pittsburgh was 17-15 this spring, a bigger deal because of the struggles.

“You’ve got to start somewhere,Lazio shirt,” manager John Russell said. “In the situation we’re in, a younger team and a team that has a lot of questions from the outside, it is better to win in spring training than lose.

“I wouldn’t say huge momentum, but it’s a nice feeling knowing that we’ve played well.”

Whether they’ll get to play Monday is perhaps the biggest question,Sevilla shirt, with a forecast calling for temperatures in the 30s with snow flurries and high winds. There’s already a contingency plan, a day-night doubleheader on Tuesday in case the opener is postponed.

La Russa wants to avoid that at all costs because the compressed early-season schedule brought on by the World Baseball Classic leaves the Cardinals without a day off until April 20. Typically, the day after opening day is an off-day, but not this year, meaning the Cardinals could need a fill-in starter as early as Saturday.

The weather was much nicer, in the 60s, for Sunday’s workout.

“All I know is it could be zero and we need to play,” La Russa said. “I think we’ll play.”

Pirates manager John Russell, whose team is opening on the road for the fourth straight season, is aboard with that sentiment.

“I remember as a player on opening day, no matter where you’re at you get butterflies,” Russell said. “It’s the one day you do not want to get rained out. We spent the good part of 6-7 weeks to get here and it’s time to go.”

A key to a better start for the Pirates, 10-16 at the end of April in 2008,Wales football shirt, is more contribution early from Adam La Roche. The streaky slugger opened 2008 with two hits followed by an 0-for-25 slump and batted .174 the opening month with one homer and five RBIs.

He finished with 25 homers, 85 RBIs and a .270 average.

“I feel like all I can do is put the work in and give 100 percent on the field,” La Roche said. “I don’t know why it takes a while to get loose.”

The television inside the Jefferson City Country Club Wednesday featured golfers preparing for today’s Masters Tournament under a warm Georgia sun.

A peek outside the window of the same clubhouse,Villareal shirt, however, displayed high schoolers competing under slightly different conditions. It was a golfer’s worst nightmare: cold weather mixed with gusting winds.

“It was extremely cold,” Hickman junior Nick Wilson said. Though no one blamed the weather completely for poorer scores, many golfers admitted it was a detrimental factor.

“I almost feel like I complain about it too much,” Rock Bridge senior Mark Kollias said. “It’s really not that big of a deal, but I probably let it affect me too much today.”

Rock Bridge coach Doug Daniels said that the elements usually affect golfers more when they play poorly.

“It’s like if you’re a quarterback and you are playing fine in the rain, then it doesn’t bother you. But if you miss a few passes, all the sudden it’s in your head,” Daniels said.

Host Jefferson City appearedleast affected by the weather, finishing first with 161 strokes. Hickman was second,Sevilla shirt, shooting 169. Rock Bridge placed third with 170 strokes, and Helias finished last at 171 strokes. Jefferson City’s Will Nixon shot the best individual score with a 1-under par 35.

Daniels said that the course difficulty was another reason for inflated scores. He said that it is probably the toughest course that his players will see all year.

Hickman ace Chris Johnson agreed.

“This course is so hard, especially when there’s wind. If you’re a little off, you hit it in the trees,l.a.galaxy shirt,” Johnson said. “But there are no excuses. I didn’t play well, anyway.”

Hickman coach Clark Swisher created a positive out of the weather.

“What they have to learn from this is your expectations have to change on a day like today. The weather’s cold, wind’s blowing,Real Madrid shirt, ball’s wet…Your goal should be around 40,” Swisher said.

Wilson was the only golfer under 40 for Hickman or Rock Bridge. He shot a 39 which was 3-over par. Joe Neal, John Treche and Mark Kollias all shot 42 for the Bruins.

The Bruins and Kewpies will likely face the same conditions today as they tee off at 8:30 a.m. at Tanglewood in Fulton.

“This is good for us. We’re going to see who can persevere through this ugliness,” Swisher said.

It didn’t take Jennifer Mast long to realize her life ambition.

By the time she was playing as a sophomore first baseman for the Rock Bridge softball team in 1991, she had all but decided on a career.

“Growing up, I just really enjoyed the camaraderie I had with teammates and the impact my coaches had on my life,” Mast said. “By seventh grade I knew I wanted to be a coach.”

So in the spring of 1999, when then-Rock Bridge athletic director Jeff Moore offered her the head coaching position at her alma mater,Sevilla shirt, the decision to take the job was a no-brainer.

“I’m extremely loyal to Rock Bridge,Newcastle United shirt,” said Mast, who lettered three times as a catcher and first baseman for the Bruins. “I love the fact that the girls I coach are all Bruins. I mean, I wore the uniform, I played on the same fields, I got to play Hickman. It’s just real neat to think about stuff like that.”

Now in her sixth year as coach, Mast has used her background and approachable demeanor to develop into a favorite among players.

“The kids love her,” Rock Bridge athletic director Vicki Reimler said. “There’s just so much passion in her, because (softball) was part of her life as a player and now it continues on as a coach. I’d say she bleeds green and gold.”

This season, though, has tested Mast’s moxie. The Bruins, after starting the season 3-2, have sputtered recently, and enter today’s game against Hickman in the opening round of the Class 4 District 10 tournament with a 6-15 record.

The team returns one senior from last year’s team, and bothstarting pitchers, junior Kayla Turnbull and sophomore Kelsey Oerly, entered the season having never thrown a pitch in a varsity game.

“Sure,” Mast said, when asked if she finds it hard to stay motivated during a tough season. “There are definitely times when things aren’t going quite the way you’d like them to, but you just have to keep after it.”

What keeps her pressing for wins is the girls that show up day after day at practice with their trademark teenage optimism.

“The kids are just so good,” said Mast, who is also an assistant basketball coach. “They’re fun to be around and they like to be around each other, so you can’t stay frustrated for too long when you get to practice and see them.”

The Bruins have lost both games against the Kewpies this year.

Instead of dwelling on those statistics, though, Mast is trying to make the rest of the season, however long it might be, as enjoyable as possible for her players.

“We’ve only got two more days until that next game,” Mast said Monday. “And from there on out, you never know what’s going to happen. I just want to make sure the girls have fun. This is (the team’s only senior) Emily Lay’s last week of practice, I want to make it a good couple of days.”

This laid-back attitude has been a staple for most of the year. While players are quick to point out that she works them hard, they have appreciated the way Mast has alleviated the pressure to win.

“She takes things seriously,” Turnbull said. “But she doesn’t make things too stressful or make a situation bigger than it is. We’re always joking around at practice and games, making fun of each other. And that’s important. It’s important to have fun.”

In the world of high school athletics, Mast understands that people often get caught up in the importance of wins and losses.

“That’s how we measure success in sports,” Mast said. “And I’m not saying that’s wrong, but it’s pressure. I’d just rather take the pressure off and let the kids have a good experience than force them to worry about whether or not we’re winning every game.”

It is this philosophy that has also earned Mast the respect of the school’s athletic department,South Africa football shirt, including Reimler.

“She is truly a good person,” Reimler said. “She has the highest integrity, no matter what happens during the season, or what the situation is,Santos shirt, she’ll never take it out on the kids. She runs a very solid program.”

Mast hopes to take that program further next season, when the Bruins will return eight starters, all of whom have gained valuable varsity experience this fall.

While Mast isn’t sure exactly how long she would like to continue coaching, she says that, for the time being, it is something she is thoroughly enjoying.

“You know, I love it,” she said. “Seeing these kids develop and mature in the three or four years they spend in the program, that’s just a real rewarding experience.”