10 GRAEME PORT sports@technewsiit,com TechNews I Tuesdayjanuary 18, 2010 Men's and Women's Soccer players scoop national awards By Graeme Port SPORTS EDITOR Over the winter break, a number of IIT Men’s and Womens soccer players were hone ored with national academic awards. In the Men’s team, sophomore striker Liam Barrett won national recognition for his academic and athletic achievements throughout the year when he was made a member of the ESPN Ace ademic Alermerican 3rd Team. In addition to this, Barrett, a Business major who currently holds a perfect 4.0 GPA, picked up a second award for his athletic performance during the fall semester when he was named to the 2010 NAIA Men’s Soccer All American 3rd Team. In the Women’s team, seven players were recognized as Daktronics NAIA Scholarr Athletes. In order to qualify for the award, a student athlete must maintain a minimum 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and must have achieved ajunior academic status. The ladies were lead by senior captain Emily Kunkel, a Chemical Engineering major with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She was joined by seniors Meagan Sarratt (Psychology) and Stephanie Salem (Busineserinance). And by juniors, Emily Tilton (Biology with a minor in Military Science), Samantha Cosenza (Mer chanical Engineering), Diana Otero (Biologir cal Engineering) and Noel Deis (Electrical En gineering). Clockwise from top left Diana Otero, Emily Kun- kel, Emily Tilton, Liam Barrett Stephanie Salem, Samantha Cosenza, Noel Deis, Meagan Sarratt [Images courtesy Illinois Tech Athletics] Keating Sports Center has something for everyone By Jason Neal HEAD OF INTRAMURALS AND RECREATION I am excited about this semester. In addi tion to a full schedule for recreational fitness and dance classes, indoor soccer and basket ball leagues are starting up again. Track & Field season is upon us, and I expect the throwers to make significant improvements over last year. IIT Rock Climbing, a club that existed in the past, has been reconstituted, and had its first meeting last week, and they will be planning an indoor climbing outing soon. New Velocity, an innovative new dance organization, has its first meeting this week, Ibelieve. Union Board and the International Student Organization are working together to plan a ski trip, and my ofiice is corsponsoring that event One new program that starts the first week in Februr ary is the Intro to Strength fitness class, which will use body bars, barbells, medicine balls, and kettle weights. Intro to Strength will be a smallrgroup fitness program that will meet one hour three times a week for twelve weeks. Other initiatives that begin after Spring Break include a 5K training program for firstrtime runners, archery classes, and a powerlifting contest There have been a few changes to the weekly recreational fitness schedule. Pilates has moved to Wednesday at 5:30pm, and be gins on Ianuary 19th. Argentine Tango, a popular dance class, has moved to Thurs day at 7:30pm, and begins Ianuary 27th. Salsa with El Caobo (aka Earl Hall) has moved to Friday at 6pm. Based on stu dent feedback, this class may soon be relocated to aballroom in either MTCC or HUB. Cored Plyometrics will be of fered on Tuesday night at 9pm, led by Tony Saddy. The times for Yoga remain unchanged, with Tuesday Yoga classes at 1pm with Helen Lee and at 7:30pm with Natasha Holbert and Katrina Ryan starting on Ianuary 18th. Thursday ever ning Yoga class at 5:30pm with Katrina Ryan begins on Ianuary 27th.There are still a few programs that we are working to bring back this semester, including Cardio Kickboxing with Suzanne Ko, Tai Chi with Paul Channic, and Belly Dance/ Zumba Fusion with Viraj Dhebar. Once we have confirmed days and times with these instructors, I plan to add them to the lineup. Our students do a great job of expressing interest in most of our programs, although many are afraid to commit. Some classes start with huge crowds and lose participants to oth er activities in the same time slot. This is true not only for fitness classes, but also for intrar mural sports. Last spring. we had nine teams start the season for the basketball league, but only seven played the whole season. In the fall, three of the teams that played in the in door soccer league just disappeared halfway through the season. Sometimes people just get busy, and have to prioritize in order to get their grades up or work a parttime job. We under stand thatwe fill “free time" that people have in their schedules. I am a big believer in creating opportunir ties for our alumni to remain involved with the university. This semester, the intramur ral basketball league will be run by a come mittee of stur dents, and the referees will b e distinguished IIT alumni, lLLlNOlS lNSTITUT Ioe Kirsch and Harry Tran. Our students felt this would help bridge the gap between cur rent students and former students. Everyday, alumni return to Keating to work out, to play pickup basketball, to swim, and to use our lowr er courts for squash, handball, and racquetball. The handball players in particular have been coming to Keating for over thirty years, and we welcome them back every week My hope is that current students will return when they are alumni, and that they will remain physically active throughout their lives. As the facility rental manager for Keating Sports Center, I try to balance the needs of our students with the needs of the commu nity. We have positive relations with several groups who have no gym of their own, and we do our best to share the space in a way that fosters goodwill. Roosevelt University continr ues to practice and playbasketball at Keating Sports Center. Their schedule can be found posted at Keating and on Roosevelt’s athletic website. Other basket ball teams using the facility this semester include Perspectives TECHNOLDGV 't l lI 7 , 7» ./ .3 ’ “\ii . l . i is Charter School, Ada S. McKinley School, and YCLA School. Keating is a popular choice for largerscale communityrbased activities, and in the past year we have hosted a science fair for In Search of Genius, a robotics competition for Chicago Knights, tumbling/ gymnastics clinics for the Chicago Training Academy, and sports clinics for Swish Basketball. With so many use ers, it is important for us to continue to offer our peak hours and plenty of nonrpeak hours to our own students, and this is the case the majority of the time. This is why we offered gym hours over much ofthe Winter Break, and why we will keep the fitness center open dur ing Spring Break We realize that not everyone plans to leave campus, and we do our best to accommodate those who remain on campus. In all things, we strive to achieve balance. From a programming standpoint, that means offering enough activities to get people move ing and keep them engaged, without trying to offer too much. It’s better for us to have ten programs that are well attended than fifty pro grams that nobody has time for. There are only so many hours in a day, and we know that our students spend quite a few of those in class, in studio, in lab, and in study groups. Your free time should be used to help you relieve stress. Physical activity is an excellent way to do that I encourage you to come to Keating Sports Center. We have something for everyone! Keating offers badminton, salsa, plyometrics, floor hockey, zumha, basketball, Cardio kick- boxing, tai-chi, yoga and morel