The McKenzie Banner, McKenzie, Tennessee, Tuesday, April 17, 2012 • www.mckenziebanner.com - Page 8

Sports

MCKENZIE (April 16) The mo-tor coach rolled onto the cam-pus at Bethel University as the Division I national champion in-line hockey team exited to an appreciative gathering.

In only its second year, the in-line hockey team claimed the national championship with a 4-3 win over University of Nevada-Las Vegas in Salt Lake City.

Matt Swinea introduced his team as fans gathered for the 9:00 p.m. “welcome home” celebration in the Dishman Gymnasium.

Swinea said the win belongs to the players, who persevered. “I didn’t score one goal, make one block, or make one assist. They did,” said the coach.

The team finished with a sea-son of 43 wins, 21 losses and two ties and took significant wins over Tennessee’s two largest universities, the University of

Tennessee and Middle Tennessee State University. Twenty-three teams completed in the national tournament.

Jim Steele served as emcee for the event. Steele said Swinea was dreaming about an in-line hockey team as early as seven years ago when he was a student at Bethel. Last year, Dr. Bob Prosser and the school administration allowed Swinea to pursue his dream.

Steele said Swinea had shirts printed with “Bethel Hockey” and started his recruiting. He traveled the states and Canada recruiting players. Swinea recruited players to a college, where there was no practice or playing rink.

“Some people thought I was crazy,” said Swinea. Some said I wouldn’t get three people to come,” he recalled. He looked toward the trophy and said, “It is a tremendous honor for us to

bring this trophy home.”Swinea introduced each of the

players and support staff. He had emotional moments as he related how some of the players sacrificed so much to be a part of the team. One player had served tours of duty in Iraq, another worked full time, attended Bethel, and played hockey.

Team members include: Bart Hatton of Paducah; Evan Reams of Mt. Juliet; Cory Roberts and his brother, Chris Roberts of Barlett; Lance Shavchuk of Paris; Josh Foote of Canada; Josh Martin of Southhaven, Mississippi; Ryne Potts of Chicago; Andrew Ball of Spring Hill ; Markis Cardwell of Murfreesboro; Cole Sonstelie of Canada; Bill Neville of Sharon; Austin Comperry of Clarksville; Kevin Amalong of Milledgeville; Even MacPherson

National Champions Welcomed Home

By Ernie Smotherssmothers@mckenziebanner.com

KEARNS UTAH (April 14) In only its second year of ex-istence, Bethel University’s In-Line Hockey Team, fueled by the stellar offensive play of Josh Foote (three goals, one assist to Cole Sonstelle), phenomenal goal-keeping of Ewen MacPherson (37-40 shot-on-goal rejections) and coaching of Matt Swinea, de-feated the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Running Rebels 4-3 (UNLV) to win the 2012 National Collegiate championship.

Although UNLV attempted 40 goal shots to Bethel’s 20, Wildcat goalie MacPherson bested the Rebel challenge. Bethel University 4, UNLV 3

Following early-tournament losses to West Chester and University of California-Santa Barbara, Bethel surged to claim a third-seed placement in pool play.

Deter mined, the Wildcats defeated Ohio State, defending national champion Long Beach State and Eastern Michigan to set up the historic 4-3 national championship victory over the Running Rebels.

The Bethel In-Line Hockey team is coached by Matt Swinea of McKenzie.

Attacking early, Bethel took a 1-0 lead over the Rebels at the 4:11 mark of the first stanza as Foote collected his shot attempt on goal and netted the puck.

Moments later at the 2:41 mark of the first period, a wrap-around goal by Wildcat Sonstelle was waved off as the large contingent of Bethel fans in attendance rose to their feet.

Bethel struck again at the 8:41 mark of the second frame as Sonstelle scored via power-play assist from Foote to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

Digging deep, Bethel controlled the ice for the remainder of the second frame to lead 2-0 at the start of the third period.

Battling back, UNLV scored at the 8:18 mark of the third pe-riod as Andrew Temure swished the net via power-play assist by Anthony Robone. Despite Bethel goalie MacPherson’s arguing that the net had been knocked free from its mooring prior to the puck’s crossing the line, officials allowed the goal to stand.

Wasting no time, UNLV tied the contest 45 seconds later as Temure scored via assist by Eddie Davis.

Continuing to press Bethel’s defense, UNLV maneuvered the puck in front of the Wildcat goal before Foote took control of the puck and led the break toward the Rebels goal. At the 3:58 mark of the third period, Foote scored via Sonstelle assist as Bethel re-captured the lead, 3-2.

Answering, UNLV knotted the score at 3-3 at the 2:29 mark via Nick Robone score.

With 1:37 left on the game clock, Bethel scored the decisive goal via Sonstelle assist to Foote to lead, 4-3.

Going for broke, UNLV emptied its net to gain a man advantage as two Bethel players sat in the pen-alty box with 41 seconds to play.

As the large crowd inside the Olympic Oval cheered wildly, Bethel won the final face-off with six ticks remaining to skate into history as the 2012 Collegiate In-Line Hockey National Champions.

A l a r g e c rowd o f B e t h e l University In-Line Hockey fans, students, school administrators, sponsors and the school’s pep band welcomed Coach Swinea and his national championship Wildcat team home via a late-Monday night celebration at Dishman Gym.

A large crowd of Bethel University In-Line Hockey fans, students, school administrators, sponsors and the school’s pep band welcomed Coach Swinea and his national championship Wildcat team home via a late-Monday night celebration at Dishman Gym.

National champs sign a memento of the season during a late evening celebration Monday in the Dishman Gym. The team had just returned from Salt Lake.

2012 Division 1 National Cham-pionship Trophy.

Bethel President Dr. Bob Prosser and wife, Toni congratulate Matt Swinea for winning the national Division I in-line hockey championship.

of Canada; Chaz Dachenhaus of South Carolina; Dylan Kimbro of Lexington; Taylor Lachance of Canada, Matt Sikes of Jackson, and Kekoa Latimore of San Diego.

Head coach is Matt Swinea, John Thompson is the graduate assis-tant/assistant coach, J.D. Russell is the manager, and Brittany Burkett is the athletic trainer.

Bethel In-Line Hockey Nets National Championship

MCKENZIE–Kayla Kirkland of McKenzie High School signed w i t h t h e B e t h e l U n ive r s i t y Swimming program.

She was a member of the Spanish Club, FCA, FFA, FTA

and DECA at MHS.K ay l a i s t h e d a u g h t e r o f

Hank and Julia Kirkland of McKenzie.

Bethel Coach David Duncan was pleased with the signing.

“Kayla is a great student who will help us as we continue to grow. She has very good work habits and a desire to get better. We are pleased she has decided to come to Bethel.”

McKenzie Swimmer Signs with Bethel University

Friday and Saturday April 13th & 14th Crappie USA held a two-day $10,000.00 Super Event on Kentucky/Barkley Lakes at Paris, Tennessee. Nearly 200 anglers from 10 different states were competing for not only the $10,000.00 in cash and prizes, but a chance to advance to the pres-tigious Cabela’s Crappie USA Classic. This year’s classic will be held October 24th-27th, 2012 on the Barkley/Kentucky Lakes at Cadiz, Kentucky. Semi-Pro Division Results

Taking first place was the team of Tony Hames of Trezevant, Tennessee and Tim “Skeeter” Ayers of Idlewild with a two-day weight of 25.26 pounds and earning $2,500.00. Tony and Tim were vertical jigging one pole in the Big Sandy River over 8-10 feet of water using gold/chartreuse jigs to catch over 60 fish in the two days of competi-tion. Each team was allowed to weigh in their top seven crappie each day of the event. Second place went to Wade

Hendren of Ripley, Tennessee and his par tner Roy Lo g an of Troy, Tennessee weighing in 24.47 pounds and ear ning $1,100.00. Wade and Roy were also hitting the waters of the Big Sandy River using live bait in 10 feet of water to catch over 150 fish for the 2 days.

In third place was Shane Moore of Milan and John Eubanks of Trenton weighing in a 2-day to-tal of 26.67 and earning $800.00. Shane and John were fishing the south end of Kentucky Lake vertical jigging manmade cov-er in 7-12 feet of water using red/chartreuse and black/char-treuse jigs tipped with live bait. Amateur Division Results

First place in the amateur division was Doc Holladay of Paducah, Kentucky with a 2-day total weight of 24.45 pounds and earning $1,400.00. Doc was fish-ing the north end of Barkley Lake in major bays. Doc was ver tical j igging one pole in hand over manmade cover us-ing Southern Pro tube jigs. Doc

was using glitter/chartreuse on Friday and brown/chartreuse on Saturday. Most of the 120 fish he caught were in 10 feet of water.

Second place went to Dave Carpenter of Paris and Ron Ivey of Springville with a weight of 23.74 pounds and earning $800.00. Dave and Ron also captured big fish of the event with a 2.37 pound crappie which netted the team an additional $700.00. Dave and Ron were fishing in 8-12 feet of water in Big Sandy vertical jigging one pole over manmade cover with red/chartreuse and pink/chartreuse Southern Pro tubes to catch 50 fish for the 2-days of competition.

Taking third place was Ronald Taylor of McKenzie and Ronald Keel of Cedar Grove with a weight of 23.27 and ear ning $500.00. Taylor and Keel were fishing the Cain Creek area south of Paris Landing using black/chartreuse jigs vertical jigging one pole at a variety of depths. The team caught over 50 fish for the 2-days of the event.

Trezevant Man Wins Fishing Tourney

WEST TN (April, May) Area high school football athletes have already started looking forward to the 2012 season as spring training and scrimmages are underway, but will soon have additional opportunities to improve their skill sets as several “Got Hands? University” (GHU) camps will be visiting West Tennessee high school campuses over the next several months.

GHU is a three-day, intensive football fundamentals and tech-nique training camp for quar-terbacks, wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, lineback-ers and defensive backs. Though the organization’s main focus is developing football players from sixth to twelfth grade, it is also searching for football players at all positions with the “Best Hands in Tennessee” as well as in the country. These camps give every attending student-athlete the op-portunity to showcase their talent and to provide these student-athletes with exposure to Colleges and Universities as Coaches from the state of Tennessee NCAA DII-DIII, NAIA DI-DII, USCAA and NJCAA DIDIII levels will be invited to all of GHU’s camps.

In addition, several former NFL players including Joe Horn, Kelly Holcomb, Kevin Dyson and Corey Harris may be making appear-ances at the camps as part of the GHU staff to assist in training camp-goers.

Upcoming camps include April 27-29 at Henry County High School in Paris, May 4-6 at Lake County High School in Tiptonville and May 18-20 at Saint Mary School in Jackson. Cost of attending any of the three-day camps is $75 for students of the host school and $150 for all other student-athletes. To register for any of the camps or for more information, contact GHU founder Terrell Beene at (615) 942-5606, (615) 715-0932 or via email at tbeene@ugothands.com.

Football Camp Coming to West Tennessee

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