Don’t look now; the Bearkats are 8-0!

They say to the victor goes the spoils and the Kats are two games away from cashing in on the treasure. The Kats have been burning up the polls this season tightening the grip on the number one spot in the KatFans.com Power Poll after a 66-0 beat down of the Lamar Cardinals. The Bearkats head out east to face the Southeastern Louisiana lions this Saturday in a 2 pm contest. The Lions are coming off of a 55-29 loss to Central Arkansas last Saturday and will be looking to avenge the loss they suffered at the hands of the Bearkats last season at Bowers. The Kats next home game will be on Nov 12th at 3pm. The game will be televised on the Southland Television Network and could have major conference title implications. Tickets for the game can be purchased at gobearkats.com and as always you can follow the action at katfans.com, the home of the Bearkat Nation.

Team        Votes       First Place Votes

HSU           80                    (10)

UCA          65

NWST       62

McNeese   48

SFA           45

SLU           27

LU             19

Nicholls      15

Interview with Brad Hagen - SHSU Bowling

Interview with Head Women's Bowling Coach Brad Hagen

Coming off of a huge win against SFA, how did that feel?

I hear it's a good thing, the rivalry between the two schools. Its a nice bragging rights. Something we wanna continue to see and see this as an ongoing trend as long as possible.We don't like to loose against powerhouses- so we definitely don't wanna loose against our rival.

Yall are heading out to a tournament this weekend. How do you think we will do?

I feel pretty confident. Optimistically, confident we should say. The fields a little bit smaller than anticipated- there is only 8 teams competing. However, 6 out of the 8 teams are pre-season ranked, so it'll be a positive in regards to strength in schedule. We are optimistic that we will do just as good as we did last year if not better. Last year we took second. Last year we prepared for the tournament to the best of our knowledge and we didn't have all the right equipment.Keeping the things in mind that we learned last year from this event we are gonna go up there much more prepared and hopefully the results will show that we did so.

How do you feel the team is coming together after the one match against SFA?

The experience and depth of the team has definitely increased. With Michelle and Elise, the newcomers to the team, the dynamics have grown even stronger. We have started some new traditions and overall the dynamics of the team are positive. We have actually increased some of our goals and standards on the team and that's promising. We just have to keep ourselves straight and see that we don't second guess ourselves and stick to what we know we are capable of. This weekend will be our first true test and we are staying optimistically positive and hopefully things will go our way this weekend.

During the Oral Roberts Press Conference, one of the things mentioned was the student athlete ease of travel throughout the season. Your team, by far, travels farther than any other SH team. How hard is that on the girls and how much does it impact school schedules?

It's not as bad as it may appear. Its nice to add Oral Roberts to the Southland Conference and we welcome them if they decided to have a bowling team. The biggest thing is, we know what we have to do to get to where we want to go. To get to the bigger tournaments we have to travel, we have to have the strength of schedule and quality opponents. The athletic department as a whole understands that. They bought into it prior to last year and they saw the results of it at the end of the year. So, its even more important this year that we continue to do the same. With my team I emphasize accountability, integrity and staying on top of our academic obligations. We do have the proper protocols and steps in place to see that nobody gets behind. I think that it helps us on the road that we also have access to the internet and other things. They do have full access to academics when we are not bowling and that's the biggest thing. We start things off right at the beginning of the year and that carries forward because we are the most traveling team in the athletic department, if not in the country, in regards to our sport. Its important that we manage the academics first and the bowling second..

Preseason Poll has you guys ranked at number 7. Are you satisfied with that ranking or are you a little disappointed?

I'm ok with it. By far we are not the 7th ranked team in the country and I think things do still get overlooked, including us. I feel that individuals overlooked our team and just looked at the numbers from last year. However, there are a lot of positives to being number 7 and not being something higher. We have a lot of goals this year and I feel that the pre-season poll is just extra fire to fuel us and push the girls to prove ourselves and that we are worthy of a higher ranking. We are firm believers in "actions speak louder than words." Long term, the heart and fire of this team is going to set precedents over anyone's opinion. Preseason poll doesn't matter as much as where we end up at the end of the year. It really helps us and only shoots the other teams in the foot who are ranked higher than us when we beat them. We are really going to use this to our advantage as a positive as we work up the food chain with our ultimate goal of being in Cleveland.

Photo Credit: gobearkats.com

For Bearkats, 2011 Has a Different Feel

For Bearkats, 2011 Has a Different Feel

KatFans.com Writer - Joesph Healy


There was no doubting the fact that there was cautious optimism around the Bearkats’ football program heading into the 2011 season, but some of the Bearkat faithful were understandably hesitant to buy in. After all, we had felt that way before only to have our hopes dashed mere weeks into the season.
Six week into the season, I think it’s safe to say that this team is worth buying into.

The results speak for themselves. The Kats are 6-0 and with the exception of their win over New Mexico on the road, they have yet to be pushed to the final whistle.

Their conference wins have come by a combined score of 145-34. When compared to their 45-10 and 44-7 wins over Stephen F. Austin and Nicholls State, respectively, their 22-7 win over UTSA seems like a nail-biter.

But the excitement around this new-look program goes far beyond the on-field results. There is a palpable buzz around the program that hasn’t been felt in several years.

The success of the Bearkats has worked its way into conversations all around town and the presence of Bearkat football posters and flags can be seen as you drive around Huntsville. It would be nice if some of these same locals would show up on Saturdays at Bowers Stadium with a little more regularity, but that’s a conversation for another day.

More importantly, the buzz has extended beyond the Huntsville area. The win in the annual Battle of the Piney Woods game against SFA was huge in this regard. Houston-area alumni came out in droves and they were treated to a dominating win over their biggest rival.

Sam grads that are likely used to hearing all about the successes of UT and A&M at work and in their circle of friends now have a little something to crow about.

Who, then, do we have to thank for this success?

That conversation has to start with head coach Willie Fritz. Fritz has done a lot to improve the talent level on campus, but the improvements he has made have as much to do with attitude and effort  as they do with talent.

Gone are the listless performances of the past. Without indicting anyone in particular, seeing the Bearkats look all but apathetic toward the game at hand became all too common there for a while.

At least as far as I’ve seen, that has yet to happen with Fritz as the head coach. Even last season when the Bearkats were a little over-matched at times, they were nothing if not scrappy and hard-working.

On the field, you have to look at Brian Bell. The sophomore quarterback from China Spring has been a leader from the first time he stepped on the field.  Bell isn’t the biggest guy or fastest guy on the field. He doesn’t have the strongest arm or even the most accurate arm. But he’s a tough kid and a field general above all else. He went through the growing pains expected of a freshman quarterback last season, but he continued to fight and proved to be the best man for the job.

To put it simply, Bell is just what the doctor ordered for the Bearkats. He avoids costly mistakes, plays within himself and always puts his team in a position to win.

It’s also not like Bell is out there by himself. It’s always nice when you have a stud running back like Tim Flanders. After rushing for 989 yards and 13 touchdowns last season, Flanders has already rushed for 638 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2011. His appearance on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays for his “Flanders Flip” into the end zone against SFA certainly doesn’t hurt the excitement level around the program.

On top of it all, the defense has been spot-on. They have yet to allow more than ten points to any FCS opponent.

There is still a lot of football to be played, but things have broken right for the Bearkats in the conference race. They already control their own destiny, as they are the only undefeated team left in the Southland Conference.

This Bearkats team is much different from the teams we have seen over the last several years. They are playing well, they are playing hard and you can feel their confidence.

I’ll say this much. If you aren’t already on the bandwagon, you had better get on it soon. It’s getting crowded and it promises to only grow from here.

Photo Credit: David Barfield

Katfans.com Week 5 Power Poll

Team	Points	FPV
Sam Houston State	77	(7)
McNeese	73	(3)
Central Arkansas	59
Northwestern State	44
Stephen F. Austin	43
Lamar	28
Nicholls	18
Southeastern Louisiana	18

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