MSUM Dragons Making History by Ending 28 Year Drought
The Bison are used to celebrating. The Dragons, not so much.
College
Football Players Tackle the Heat
The excessive heat wave is still baking the region.
Sweeney to Serve as UND Football Voice Next Season
University of North Dakota athletics director Brian Faison announced on Tuesday that veteran sports broadcaster Pat Sweeney will serve as the play-by-play radio voice for the football program during the 2015 season. Sweeney will join color commentator Mike Berg and sideline reporter Paul Ralston to form the team calling the games on the Home of Economy Radio Network.
UND Women’s Basketball Releases 2015-2016 Schedule
Fourth-year head women’s basketball coach Travis Brewster officially announced his team’s 2015-16 schedule, a slate that includes 31 games, including 16 at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. “We’ve got some quality opponents on our schedule again,” Brewster said. “Our non-conference schedule includes some teams that play an exciting brand of basketball.”The schedule opens with a pair of exhibition tilts at home against Mayville State (Nov. 1) and Minnesota Crookston (Nov. 8) before UND hits the road to Iowa for a tournament against the host Hawkeyes and Tennessee-Martin to lift the lid on the regular season. After a visit from Nebraska-Omaha on Nov. 17 in the regular season home opener, UND heads back to Iowa for a Nov. 22 contest against Drake before embarking on a Thanksgiving weekend trip to San Francisco (Nov. 25) and Oregon (Nov. 28). The month of December will see four straight home games, all against regional opponents. Northern Iowa opens the homestand Dec. 5 then three consecutive matchups against Summit League opponents begins Dec. 8 against Western Illinois. Rival North Dakota State invades the Betty on Dec. 12th with South Dakota a week later. The non-conference schedule wraps up with a Dec. 23 date at Minnesota. “Keeping a tough non-conference schedule helps us prepare for that Big Sky schedule,” Brewster said. “This schedule will test our team right away, newcomers won’t get to be newcomers for long. The team will need to keep their heads and stay together on the floor, this will test the leadership abilities of the upperclassmen. It’s an exciting schedule for our fans– that’s very important– while also trying to develop the team with eight new faces, to embrace the process for the long haul, which is the ultimate goal.”UND’s fourth season in the Big Sky Conference sees another challenging mix of games against the other 11 league schools. North Dakota will play host to all of the other schools except for Sacramento State and Portland State while making the trip to every Big Sky venue except Northern Arizona and Southern Utah for the 18-game league slate.The highlights include the opener on New Year’s Eve at Idaho in the first Big Sky Conference tilt played in Moscow, Idaho between the schools. The annual trek to the Montana schools comes Jan. 14-16 with the Bobcats of Montana State leading off the trip and the defending league champion Lady Griz the opponent on Jan. 16.”Each game we play is going to require three things that we can control: our excellent attitude, effort and concentration,” Brewster said. The Big Sky Conference has relocated its postseason tournament to a neutral site, signing a three-year agreement to bring both men’s and women’s championships to Reno, Nev. All 12 men’s and all 12 women’s teams from the conference will participate in the championship with dates and tournament format announced at a later date.”I’m excited about the tournament in Reno,” Brewster said. “Looking ahead, everyone’s in the same boat there. We need to keep progressing in the regular season right into the tournament.”Season tickets are on sale now and start at only $90. Fans can purchase tickets by contacting Paul Adelman, Director of Ticket Sales, at 701-777-4582 or emailing him at paul.adelman@athletics.und.edu.
Bison Football Leads FCS in STATS Preseason All-Americans
North Dakota State led the nation with five players selected to the STATS FCS Preseason All-America team announced Thursday, July 9. Left tackle Joe Haeg and punter Ben LeCompte made the first team, fullback/tight end Andrew Bonnet and left guard Zack Johnson are on the second team, and long snapper James Fisher is on the third team. Haeg, a senior from Lake Shore, Minn., was a first team All-American and the Top Collegiate Offensive Lineman by the FCS Athletic Directors Association last year. He anchored a Bison front that ranked first in the FCS with only 3.38 tackles for loss allowed per game and rolled up a school record 6,916 yards of total offense. LeCompte, a senior from Barrington, Ill., was a second team All-American and FCS Punter of the Year by the College Football Performance Awards last year. He ranked second in the FCS with an average of 45.27 yards per punt and NDSU was ninth nationally with a net punting average of 38.37. Bonnet, a senior from Council Bluffs, Iowa, was a third team All-American last year. Bonnet was NDSU’s sixth leading receiver with 18 catches for 228 yards and two touchdowns, and he became a running threat in the playoffs averaging 7.2 yards per carry in four games. Johnson, a junior from Apple Valley, Minn., returns to the Bison lineup after a knee injury kept him out all of 2014. He was a second team all-conference pick and 15-game starter as a sophomore in 2013. Fisher, a sophomore from Bloomington, Minn., was NDSU’s long snapper in all 16 games last year for LeCompte and All-America kicker Adam Keller, who set school, conference and FCS records with 29 field goals made. The Missouri Valley Football Conference led the nation with 17 preseason All-Americans.
UND Hockey Incoming Freshman Boeser Drafted in 1st Round
Incoming University of North Dakota freshman Brock Boeser was selected by the Vancouver Canucks in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2015 National Hockey League Entry Draft on Friday night.Boeser will join UND in 2015-16 after having spent last season with the United States Hockey League’s (USHL) Waterloo Blackhawks. A native of Burnsville, Minn., Boeser had a league-leading 35 goals in 57 games and led the Blackhawks with 68 points. He was named to both the USHL First All-Star Team and the USHL All-Rookie Team.Earlier this month, Boeser was named to the 2015 U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp Roster by USA Hockey. He led the U.S. in scoring with points en route to a silver medal at the 2013 Ivan Hlinka Tournament.Boeser is the 163rd NHL draft pick in the history of UND’s men’s hockey program and the 18th to be selected in the first round. He is the first UND player to be drafted by the Canucks since current UND assistant coach Dane Jackson, Dixon Ward and Greg Geldart were all taken in 1988.UND’s First-Round NHL Draft Picks1968: John Marks (D), Chicago, 9th1981: James Patrick (D), New York Rangers, 9th1986: George Pelawa (F), Calgary, 16th1989: Jason Herter (D), Vancouver, 8th1993: Landon Wilson (F), Toronto, 19th2000: David Hale (D), New Jersey, 22nd2003: Zach Parise (F), New Jersey, 17th2004: Drew Stafford (F), Buffalo, 13th2004: Travis Zajac (F), New Jersey, 20th2005: Brian Lee (D), Ottawa, 9th2005: T.J. Oshie (F), St. Louis, 24th2005: Joe Finley (D), Washington, 27th2006: Jonathan Toews (F), Chicago, 3rd2010: Derek Forbort<http://www.undsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=58684&SPID=6405&ATCLID=204970001&DB_OEM_ID=13500> (D), Los Angeles, 15th2010: Brock Nelson (F), New York Islanders, 30th2012: Jordan Schmaltz<http://www.undsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=58684&SPID=6405&ATCLID=205679542&DB_OEM_ID=13500> (D), St. Louis Blues, 25th2014: Nick Schmaltz (F), Chicago Blackhawks, 20th2015: Brock Boeser (F), Vancouver Canucks, 23rd-UND-
Joerger to Headline MSUM Coaches Clinic
Minnesota State University Moorhead men’s basketball will hold a Coaches Clinic on Saturday, Sept. 12. The clinic, which is being sponsored by Sanford Health, will be headlined by Dave Joerger, the head coach of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies who also is a 1997 graduate of MSUM.
UND Football Releases Times for 2015 Home Games
– University of North Dakota athletic department officials announced the game times for the team’s upcoming 2015 home schedule, which will get underway with the 50th Annual Potato Bowl USA game on Sept. 12. The home opener against Drake will be the only evening tilt on the five-game home schedule as UND and the Bulldogs will kickoff at 5 p.m. CT at the Alerus Center.
UND Athletics Holding Open Tryouts for PA Announcers
The University of North Dakota Athletics Department is hosting open tryouts for public address announcers at UND football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball games for the 2015-16 season.
Brad Berry Named Head Coach of UND Hockey
GRAND FORKS, N.D. – University of North Dakota Director of Athletics Brian Faison announced today that longtime assistant coach and former UND letterwinner Brad Berry has been hired as head coach of the men’s hockey program.
