A day in the life...

The UIndy Athletic department was buzzing on Sat., Feb. 28-- a little more than usual. You see, while having multiple sportsr going on at the same time is no unusual occurance, this day featured a whole host of events going on in and around Indianapolis on a day that we'll attempt to chronicle here. The theme you'll notice throughout is "pitching in" and how the coaching staffs and athletic department help each other out.

8:55 a.m.- The UIndy tennis teams finish hitting in preparation for its 9:00 a.m. match with Franklin. The Greyhounds call the UIndy Tennis Center home and play all of their home matches there. The indoor facility allows the team the opportunity to host a lot more tournaments and the seven indoor courts can also be used in other ways, for example, the UIndy footballers find their way over there in the early morning to run sprints.

10:04 a.m.- UIndy men's soccer team members will be arriving soon to help facilitate the basketball games at home at Nicoson Hall. They are pinch-hitting for the baseball team, who usually performs the tasks of ticket-taking, set-up of the arena and manning the gates at each entrance. The baseballers are outside prepping Greyhound Park for the first home baseball game of the season, set to begin at noon.

11:35 a.m.- Things are in place at Greyhound Park for the baseball home opener so Assistant Athletic Director Scott Young turns his attention back to Nicoson Hall to help greet the officials for this afternoon's women's basketball game. As his "R-UIndy-Fit" pedometer would attest, Young will pile-up the steps on this day monitoring both baseball and basketball.

12:56 p.m.- National Anthem is being performed by Asst. Volleyball Coach Kyp Harasymowycz at the women's basketball game. Asst. Athletic Director Mitch Wigness is on the microphone for the games, helping out after the Hounds' public address announcer cannot attend the games with a death in the family. Assistant Sports Information Director Ryan Thorpe will be handling all of the media and statistics duties for the basketball game, which is being televised and is being covered by both Wisconsin-Parkside radio and WICR 88.7 FM on campus. SID assistant Jackie Paquette has the honor out at the baseball field and will handle the public address duties as well. There's really nothing an SID can't do. Really.

1:05 p.m.- Head tennis coach John Venter calls to report great news from the matches, a pair of 9-0 wins over Franklin.

1:34 p.m.- Word from Alabama is that it's still raining and the UIndy softball team, which was scheduled to play four games over two days there, will be forced to make another bus trip back home quicker than anticipated. Yuck.

2:46 p.m.- The Greyhound women are putting the finishing touches on a nice 77-70 win over Wisconsin-Parkside, who is ranked seventh in the Midwest Regional Rankings, just ahead of UIndy. That win will probably help the Hounds move up a spot before the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament, where they will face host Quincy in the opening round. The outlook is good for another Greyhound trip to the NCAA tournament.

3:10 p.m.- The UIndy men's team takes the floor for their game with the Rangers. The game will feature two of the league's best scorers in UWP's LaVontay Fenderson--who also leads all of Division II-- and UIndy's Keith Radcliff, who is fourth in the GLVC in scoring. They do not disappoint.

3:16 p.m.- After the Hounds baseball team dropped a close 2-1 contest in the opener to #6 Ashland, they find themselves in a slugfest again in game two. AU grabbed a 1-0 lead in the fourth, but UIndy has answered with a run in the sixth to tie it. 3:58 p.m.- The University of Indianapolis Athletic Department is honoring its Hall of Fame Class of 2009 in addition to recognizing some 25th and 50th Anniversary teams during halftime of the men's game. The Hall of Famers will be treated to a nice catered dinner and will get to address their cohorts following the game at Primo's.

4:28 p.m.- Fenderson and Radcliff continue to duel it out. Radcliff has found his stroke from deep and Fenderson has made a concerted effort to get to the line in the second half.

5:15 p.m.- The Greyhounds fall to Parkside, but Radcliff leaves the home crowd with a career-high six triples en route to 27 points. Fenderson makes 16-of-17 from the line to help record 38 points for UWP.

5:27 p.m.- Although the Eagles baseball team sneaked away with a 3-1 win, it took them 11 innings to do so. Chase Kittinger kept his hot stick going, garnering three more hits in game two.

5:57 p.m.- It's on to the Hall of Fame banquet, where Mark Bless, Walter Brenneman, Dennis McNulty, Andy Richardson and the 1973 baseball team will all be enshrined. Associate Athletic Director Matt Donovan and his staff have worked diligently for nearly the entire year to make this event come together and again come out with flying colors.

6:37 p.m.- The UIndy SID staff begins to populate the website with results from the day and send out releases and scores to local media. It's a three-preson effort on this day with all of the different sports involved.

8:05 p.m.- The track and field teams are wrapping up competition at the GLVC Indoor Championships in nearby Crawfordsville, Ind. The women look in good shape to take their first indoor title and third overall since 2002.

9:35 p.m.- CHAMPIONS! The women's team, indeed, did outscore Lewis University and captured the crown with the help of four first-place finishes. Coach Scott Fangman is named the league's Women's Coach of the Year and Kierra Allen is the GLVC Freshman of the Year. The Greyhound men also have a great showing, taking second as a team and grabbing five total first-place finishes.

11:15 p.m.- Another hectic Saturday can finally come to an end, but not without the help of numerous folks to help keep things in line. It'll all get cranked back up in the coming weeks with women's basketball poised for the GLVC tournament and NCAA playoffs, five teams headed to Houston, Texas for the NCAA Division II Winter Festival (men's and women' track, wrestling, men's and women's swimming) and Spring Break action from both tennis teams, both golf teams and both baseball and softball. For love of the game...