October 26, 2009

HOOPS SEASON A MONTH AWAY

Rick Stansbury, MSU's winningest men's basketball coach, is today’s guest speaker. In 10 years, he has taken 8 teams to post-season play (5 NCAA and 3 NIT appearances).

GOVERNOR VISITS

Chuck Jordan, District 6820 governor from Greenville, makes his official visit to the Club next Monday.

LAST WEEK

Invocation and Pledge: Jim Ormon
Attendance: There were 99 members present and 93 absent. Three makeups were reported. We hosted 8 guests. A more complete report will be posted next week when Secretary Dave Boles and Past-Secretary Jeff Donald get computer glitches worked out.
Kudos: President-elect Tommy Tomlinson, subbing for President Martha, recognized Amy Tuck for her exemplary service in directing the Oct. 16 investiture event for Mark Keenum, MSU’s 19th president.
Thanking Nancy Hargrove for standing in for Dave Boles in introducing our guest speaker, he noted that her new book is out. T. S. Eliot's Parisian Year has just been published by the University Press of Florida.
Rotary Minute — Archives: Club Archivist Dora Herring explained her committee’s role. They have three major responsibilities, 1) maintain the Club scrapbook; 2) ensure that Club records, including the Rotogram, are filed with the MSU library; and, 3) catalog and display the Club’s exchange banners. The committee is working on banner display boards nine and ten.
Club remodeling: For the next two or three weeks, the Country Club will be remodeling. So, be patient with the bare floors and other projects.
New Rotarian: It was an appropriate day to introduce our newest member. Larry Otis, husband of our guest speaker, is a two-time Paul Harris Fellow and has the classification of Management and Administration.

GREEN BAGS FOR A GREEN STARKVILLE

Making Starkville a more inviting place for prospective businesses and residents is a key goal of Green Starkville.

Nick DiColandrea, the organization’s vice president, profiled Mississippi’s only free curbside recycling program. Through single stream recycling, where participants do not have to separate materials, the community bagged 20,000 pounds of material in the first two weeks.

Out of 6,500 eligible households 900 in town have signed up.

DiColandrea was available after the meeting to register people for the program.

MSU ROTARY SCHOLARSHIP WINNER

The second of our three annual $1,000 Mississippi State scholarship recipients for Oktibbeha County high school graduates was recognized by Larry Box, last year’s Scholarship Committee chair. Danielle Stallings, a Starkville High graduate, is a pre-pharmacy chemistry major. She graduated with honors from SHS where she was in the National Honor Society, played flute in the band and was a cheerleader. She was accompanied by her mother, Dianne.

TOUGH, BUT EXCITING YEAR AHEAD FOR LADY BULLDOGS BASKETBALL

Mississippi State’s women’s basketball team is hard at work preparing for the toughest schedule Coach Sharon Fanning-Otis has experienced in her 15 years as the Lady Bulldogs’ head coach. There’s no time to waste since the MSU ladies will be tested early by the likes of such nationally recognized teams as Maryland, Rutgers, Texas, and Southern Cal.

She told Rotarians the team’s goal is to build on last year’s highly successful season and keep improving and urged Rotarians to get season tickets and become fans of the Lady Dawgs.

“We’re coming off a season of 23 wins, getting as far as the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time in history,” she said. “Alexis Rack was named first team SEC; Chanel (Mokango) and Melie (Lumanu) made the all-conference defensive team. We swept both Ole Miss and LSU and beat Texas in the first round of the NCAA tournament. But we want to improve.”

She has the same staff – Assistant Coaches Greg (Coach G) Franklin, Franqua (Coach Q) Bedell, Sharrona Reaves; and Director of Operations Joey Burton.

“We’re a year older and with eight seniors returning, we have to be good. The strength of the team will be our guard group – they have a great work ethic.”

The returning guard group includes seniors Marneshia Richard, the speedy point guard who missed all of last season because of an injury in her junior year. Others include seniors Rack and Tysheka Grimes (who also plays forward); junior Mary Kathryn Govero (M-Kat also plays forward); and sophomore Diamber Johnson.
The coach is excited over the prospects of two new guards who have joined the team this year. Ashlee Billingslea, who the team has nicknamed “Smurf” (probably because she’s the smallest Lady Bulldog), is a transfer from Georgia and was last year’s national JUCO Player of the Year. Ashley Jones (“AJ”) is a freshman from Florida where she was the state’s top high school player and Gatorade Player of the year. She was a 4.0 student and is a very accurate outside shooter.

Other key returning senior forwards are Mokango (6-5), Lumanu (5-9), and Bethany Washington (B Wash 5-9). Rima Kalonda (6-3 ) and Channa Campbell (6-3) play at either forward or center as does sophomore Danielle Rector (6-3).

“We are a quicker team, we’ll run, we’ll spread people out to get to the sweet spot – the SEC logo in the paint is the sweet spot,” she explained.

“We’re a pre-season top 25 team, but we’ve got to work hard and get better. Fans make a difference and I want to see every one of you at The Hump,” she challenged.

General admission season ticket prices have been lowered to accommodate families, children and students can get into the games free.

The Maryland game November 22 will be the biggest game of the year. “We need you there,” she said.
The number of SEC games has been increased from 14 to 16 (8 of them at home) and there are many games scheduled for television. “We need people in the stands to show prospective students our fan support.”
She concluded by urging Rotarians to come and see the new women’s basketball locker room at the Saturday open house. The outstanding facility was funded entirely by donations. There will also be a ground breaking ceremony for the new $11.2 million basketball practice facility adjacent to the Coliseum. This badly needed facility will also provide new offices for the men’s and women’s basketball programs.

“We’re looking forward to seeing you at all our games – you are a special part of Bulldog basketball.” she concluded.

She was introduced by Nancy Hargrove, among the most loyal fans of Lady Bulldog basketball.

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