My Gratitude

I have enclosed a list of things I am thankful for, as well as my last Sports Beast Column.

Allen Hanson
What I’m Thankful For
11-17-08

My girlfriend was recently dared to compile and write down a list of the things in her life that she was thankful for. I was relieved to read she mentioned me on her list. Then she challenged me to write a list of my own. So here it is.
I’m thankful for Peggy, Ashleigh, Amanda, Joshua, and Jeremy. I’m also thankful to be able to spend part of my Thanksgiving Day holiday with them. (Of course this is the first one on the list! I may be ugly, but I’m not stupid!)
I’m thankful for my dad, my sisters, and my brother. They are always there for me, and I appreciate all they do for me. I’ll miss them when I move away at the end of the semester.
I’m thankful for all the people at the Pathfinder, especially Bryce, Loren and Beez. Bryce and Loren have done a great job pulling the paper out of the toilet. It is now an excellent publication that deals with issues the students care about. I’m thankful they allowed me to have a small part in this endeavor.
I’m thankful for the radio station, KLCZ-FM 88.9. Matt, Sam, Dani, and Tate have done a great job getting the station off the ground, and creating a place for people like me to play songs we like and broadcast our views to the world.
I’m thankful for LCSC. Lewis-Clark State College has been a great place for me to try my hand at many things. Most colleges are too big to allow a person to discover and develop his talents, especially if his talents are multicurricular in nature. It’s a place where one can try and fail until one finds his talents; then the people here provide a place to hone those talents.
I’m thankful for President Dene Thomas. She’s a great leader, and the person most responsible for LCSC’s great reputation in the community, in academia and in the State of Idaho.
I’m thankful for my fellow students. As a non-traditional student, it’s so cool to see my classmates grow and change. They have rubbed off on me and kept my viewpoint from getting stale and crusty.
I’m thankful to the entire faculty. These people, even the ones outside my major, have always been eager to help me hone my skills. The LCSC faculty are here because they love to teach; believe me, they could be making a lot more money teaching someplace else.
Mostly, I’m thankful to God. He has brought me into contact with people who challenge me while caring about me. He has taught me how to deal with conflict in a courteous, classy manner. He has given me the opportunity to disagree with others while still valuing them as fellow travelers created in His likeness and image.

Allen Hanson
Sports Beast
November 17, 2008

Last week seemed to be Tourney Week here at LCSC. Five different Warrior teams were involved in some sort of tournament action this week. Three fall sports teams were playing for Frontier Conference championships, and both basketball teams were traveling for early-season tourneys. Here’s how they all did.
The volleyball team skunked the Conference, winning all three of their games to take the Frontier title at the tournament they hosted last weekend. However, the tourney wasn’t a cakewalk: LCSC put away its first-round game against cellar-dwelling Montana-Western on Friday pretty easily, but the team took all it could handle from Carroll College and Rocky Mountain College on Saturday. I was present for the Carroll game, and thought it was the toughest three-set game I had ever seen. I had to go to my other job before championship match with Rocky Mountain (being The Sports Beast, despite the glamour, doesn’t pay all that well), but I was told by trusted sources that the later match was even closer. On a side note, I got to meet the young men from Carroll College who comprised the team’s cheer section, and they seemed like nice guys. They painted themselves up in team colors with letters that said SAINTS. They were only a little less pleasant when I pointed out that they could also spell out STAINS. It’d be nice if we had something like that for our teams.
The volleyball plays a home match against Shawnee State of Ohio Saturday as a play-in game for the NAIA National Tournament.
The men’s and women’s cross-country teams also won the Frontier Conference Championships, which they hosted last weekend. In fact, the men’s team pulled off a rare perfect score. For those of you not in the know, cross-country meets are scored in this manner: Every runner is assigned a point value based upon his race finish, i.e. the winner is assigned a score of one, the runner-up gets two, and so on. The team’s score is the sum of its first five finishers, and the team with the lowest score wins. Based upon this formula, the best a team can do is score 15 points, by virtue of its members win all five of the top spots. This is akin to pitching a perfect game in baseball, or winning a tennis match 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, and it’s just what the men’s team did. The women’s team also won, scoring 21 points and winning all but third place on their bid for a perfect score. They will participate in the NAIA nationals in Wisconsin this Saturday. A cross-country race over the frozen tundra? Doesn’t the NAIA watch the Weather Channel? Hope the team takes some snowshoes and wears leggings. It’s not about fashion; it’s about survival.
The men’s basketball team won the Walla Walla University Tournament over the weekend, beating both Bethany College and Northwest University by substantial margins. It’s great to see coach Tim Walker pulling his team together so quickly. Usually, the men’s team takes a little while to get used to playing together, but Walker has a strong returning core this year and is integrating the new players into his system rapidly.
The women’s basketball team didn’t do so well. They dropped both their games in the Lynda Goodrich Classic, played at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. on Saturday and Sunday. However, both the schools they played are NCAA Division II schools: NCAA Division II is considered a tougher classification than the one the Warriors play in. So it’s not too surprising that the Warriors had trouble in the tournament. On the plus side, the women came out of their road trip with no injuries and some badly-needed experience against tough foes.
It’s great that we have so many great teams and student-athletes to root for at LCSC. However, I still wish we had a football team.