My first of many (hopefully) appearance on ESPN

Bryant Haines Piece

Here's the latest project from Ball State Sports Link. My partner for the project was Ken Sothman. Watch it here.

Happenings

Well...what can I say? I have really been slacking when it comes to my blog. I'm sorry for all of you who have checked this thing with any regularity for the past 5 weeks. Hopefully I've talked to you in the time span to at least let you know some of the things that are going on. It's been a very rewarding semester thus far. I am enjoying my classes and my sports link experience continues to be wonderful.

The Ball State football team is having a great season. They are now ranked 16th in the Bowl Championship Series standins and have an undefeated 8-0 record. Next up for the fighting cardinals are the huskies from Northern Illinois.

The Paoli Rams are also having a fantastic season with a 9-1 record. They face Mitchell on Friday night in sectional semifinal action.

I will try to write more frequently to keep you up to date on my life and happenings. Hopefully I'll have a link to some of my work from this semester as well.

Football Weekend Sweep!

My football teams pulled off an impressive 4-0 weekend. The rams rolled at North Harrison, Ball State trounced Akron, LSU demolished North Texas, and the Colts squeeked by Minnesota.

Ball State has a huge game this coming Saturday against IU in Bloomington. I would encourage anyone who can to get up to Memorial Stadium to watch this game. It's gonna be a great with with A LOT OF POINTS!! Hopefully my Cards can pull it out and move to 4-0 on the season. By the way, Ball State recieved some votes in both the USA Today poll and the AP poll this week.

I'm going to be heading home to Paoli this weekend and I'm excited about seeing my family and watching Caleb and Cody play football on Friday night.

Are You Ready??? Ball State Sports Link

As most of you know, this semester I am once again involved in an immersive learning experience, similar to what I did in the spring with Newslink Indiana. However, the program I'm participating in this fall is a little different. It's called Ball State Sports Link. (I know...I hate the name sports link but we had to please people like Dr. JoAnn Gora, the university president) Sports Link is a brand new program and the first of its kind in the country. In fact, it's already been featured in a few articles as a model for other universities. This semester I, along with 11 other students and 4 faculty members, are covering every facet of Ball State sports. Now...the program is anything but smooth yet. We're still trying to get computers with the needed software, cameras that will do what we need, and a million other things but it's off and running.

We had our first show last night. It was a 30-minute live show done from the basketball arena on campus. Now...live shows are very fun...and very stressful. This one was even more exciting and nerve racking because we were in the arena and the show was done completely out of a remote truck. Here are some pictures of the inside of the truck. Now let me explain that out of the 12 students in Sports Link one had any expereince on the truck. So we went through some training but for the most part we were all learning on the run. And the finished product was surprisingly good.

Now, I must mention that I was chosen as the producer for this first show. The producer is, in a word, the boss. I was in charge of making sure that everyone and everything was prepared and good to go. I'm not sure why the faculty chose me as the first producer. It was a very big responsibility considering that President Gora, the board of trustees, and Dean of Telecommunications, Roger Lavery were all eagerly awaiting the new program's first product. However, I couldn't be more pleased with how things turned out. And two of the faculty members have already told me they don't think they could have choosen a better producer for the first-ever sports link show. (I'm glad they think so)

I'll keep you updated on everything that I do with Sports Link this semester. Ken Sothman and I put together a piece of the swimming and diving coaches and I'll try to have it up to youtube soon.

Also, Cardinal Sports Live, a show that I'm talent for, will be attending the Emmy ceremonies in Cleveland, Oh this weekend. Unfortunately I won't be there because I'll be bringing the play-by-play of Ball State's football game at Akron on Saturday but it could mean the by Sunday I'll have an emmy award tacked on to my achievements!

Football Weekend

I have four teams that I really root for on every weekend of football. One is my home team Paoli Rams. In past seasons cheering for the rams has been about as enjoyable as sleeping on a hardwood floor without a pillow. However, last season changed that completely. For the first time since 1997 the rams had a winning record and they advanced in the state tournament. The sectional victory against clarksville was one of the most fun football games I've ever been a part of. This season the rams are picking up where they left off last season. Paoli has won its first three games this year and looks poised to continue that dominance for several more games. Going back to last season the rams have won 9 of their last 10 games. The rams won big over county rival Springs Valley this friday night by a score of 42-0. And what makes the season even more fun is that my brother Caleb and cousin Cody are intrumental in the rams success.

My second team I root for is my Ball State Cardinals. This team too has not been easy to root for in the past but after a winning record and bowl game appearance last season things are looking up for the cardinal and white. Ball State got a huge win Friday night in front of a sell out crowd at Schuemann Stadium and an ESPN national audience, beating Navy 35-23. The Cards are now 2-0 and they'll take on Akron this Saturday at 1 pm. You can listen to the game (as I deliver play-by-play action) at www.wcrd.net.

The thrid team I root for is LSU. Their game was postponed due to damage from hurrican Gustav so I didn't get to cheer them on.

The last team that I root for is the Indianapolis Colts. Now the colts are a team, unlike Ball State and Paoli, that have been so easy to root for in recent years. They're classy and they're really good. But last night the Colts got off to a very shaky start as they were dominated by the Chicago Bears and fell 29-13. I think the colts will be just fine this season but it's going to take a few games for the crew to get things going...and as long as Jeff Saturday is out I don't think Peyton will be the Peyton of old.

I guess I should also mention that it looks like Tom Brady is out for the season with a knee injury. Let me say that I couldn't be happier about that.

Ball State vs. Navy

A combination of a busy schedule and laziness has kept me from writing this week. I do have several things I want to touch on in the next few days though. However, first I must mention the excitment I have about tonight as Ball State takes on Navy in football. You can watch the game on ESPN at 7 PM but I would recommend you mute the tv and log on to www.wcrd.net and listen to my broadcast of the game. It should be an exciting game featuring two completely different styles of offense. (They combined for over 1100 yards in the game last season)

Once again, I'll try to write more often and keep you updated on what's going on in my life.

Football Season is Finally HERE!!!

I appologize for not writing for a while. I took a week or so off from my internship and teen mission before moving back to Muncie. This week is my first week of classes back at Ball State. I'll try to update you on each of my classes in the next few days. However, I'd like to take this space to invite you to tune in tonight at 7 pm and listen to me and the rest of my crew as we bring you the action of Ball State football in its season opener against Northeastern University.

To listen you can click here or go to www.wcrd.net and click listen live. Once again...game time is at 7 and this will be an exciting one to listen to as the Cards are expected to put up some major points.

UK Basketball Facilities

Before I met coach Gillispie I had a chance to just walk around a little bit in the UK basketball practice facility. I took some pictures...here they are.

Obama the Antichrist?

Some in the Obama camp claim that this ad, paid for by John McCain, portrays Barack Obama as the Antichrist. I certainly see where they are coming from. An article about the ad on Time.com also points out that many are drawing comparisons between Obama and Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist character from the popular 1990's book series "Left Behind." Personally, I think this is ridiculous but probably a good strategy for a desperate John McCain. Share your thoughts- camandry@gmail.com