October 10, 2014 www.plaintalk.net Plain Talk: Heritage Edition A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A USD STUDENT By Angela Morrow The Plain Talk What is a University of South Dakota student? It is a mixture of classes and fun. It is a blending of homework and hanging out. It is being part of a community and having school pride. MacKenzie Stone is a junior majoring in English and History. She enjoys her classes and even some of the homework. “My classes are generally pretty fun,” Stone said. “It’s mostly made of reading, whether literature or historical texts, and then writing papers.” After class, Stone meets up with friends at the Muenster University Center (MUC) for coffee and a little down time. “I usually hang out until 4 p.m. and then I am back at the MUC at 7 p.m. to study and work on homework,” Stone said. “I find I spend more time at the MUC, whether it’s productive or not, than I do at home.” Being a student is more then just classes and homework. There are activities and events that lead to deeper connection in the community. Emme Barret, a sophomore majoring in history and art, says the excitement from these activities inspires you to become part of it. “It’s fun, because everyone is always excited about events, everyone I hang out with is involved and they want to be involved so it makes you want to be involved too,” Barret said. According to Stone USD’s community connection comes from the people. USD is the kind of place where a stranger will lend a helping hand. “Normally, you wouldn’t feel comfortable asking a stranger to watch your laptop while you go and grab a coffee, but at USD you can,” Stone said. School pride is another important factor in USD’s student life. Stone shows her pride cheering on the basketball team. “When I go to basketball games, I tend to freak out and cheer on our team a little too much,” she admitted. Emily Darveaux, a senior in the psychology department, talks about Dakota Days inspiring more people to wear their school colors to show their pride. “During D-days people are like ‘yeah its D-days let’s celebrate,’” Darveaux said. “You see a lot more of red and black and people wearing University of South Dakota’s colors.” Dakota Days is more then school colors. For some it is about the parade, for some it is about the game and for some it is the people that make Dakota Days special. “My favorite part of D-Days is freezing my butt off watching the parade in a lawn chair with my family, drinking hot chocolate,” Stone said. Darveaux is all about the pomp and circumstance. “You see a lot of excitement like yeah I can’t wait to go to the football game,” Darveaux said. “The parade is exciting for people too.” Barret also likes the idea of using the week as a way to socialize a bit more. “I’m deciding to do it (attend D-Days) because I know more about the campus and more about the people and I just want to be with them,” Barret said. What does it take to be a USD student? “I personally don’t think it takes anything ‘special’ to be a USD student,” Stone said. “That’s the great thing, because then we get all kinds of students.” B7 An SID’s Work Is Never Done By Alan Dale The Plain Talk The University of South Dakota has grown quite a bit over the years. For this, there is no argument. What academics may not recognize is that athletics play a big part in a growth spurt in a university’s student enrollment. Part of that process, the one that promotes a respective school’s sports teams, is what occurs behind the scenes of a university sports information department. These are the men and women who are tasked with cumulating statistics, getting players ready to interview with local press, and play liaison between their coaches and the media. It can be quite cumbersome. But for third-year Sports Information Director, Bryan Boettcher, the time with the USD athletic department has been a pleasant one ripe with change and growth. “It’s great, the nice thing is that all the coaches are in one place,” Boettcher said. “Just being in the same building with all the coaches and administrators is great. You can bounce ideas off of people. I share an office with track and cross country but you would be surprised how many conversations that can just spur up.” Boettcher took the helm of a role held notably by Mike Mahon (19771988), Kyle Johnson (1988-2000) and Dan Genzler (2000-2008), stopping a recent run of four different SIDs holding the post over a five-year stretch. Ironically, it wasn’t a job he intended on holding while finishing up his studies at Coe College in 2003. “I was working in the office when a girl left and they asked me if I wanted to do it so the second semester I started working and finished my degree,” Boettcher said. “I worked for Coe three years after that … Then David Herbster found me. “I was impressed with everything (at USD) and talking to David we hit it off really well. I was pretty open about my idea and philosophies and they seemed to match with his which is really exciting.” Boettcher stepped into a role that others before him enjoyed immensely. “… the environment was one of heavy work, humor, integrity and humility,” Genzler said. “The studentathletes were then and still make working in sports information special. The passion and energy and cooperation from the (student assistants) was special in my view. Trainers From Page 5B change from any other week. The only difference according to Fischbach is that starting about mid-week, former athletes start popping into the training room. “The preparation is just like any other week,” he said. “The difference is all the hoopla that comes with the week.” Does the mere idea that it is homecoming week have an impact on the athletes? According to Fischbach it does. “It’s a thrill to see the Dome come alive and seeing old friends during homecoming week,” Fischbach said. “The crowd is always energetic for Dakota Days. It’s what a homecoming should be.” Typical pre-practice routine for USD training room. Trainer Abby Mettler Photo by Mark Upward/For the Plain Talk described her role during Brian Boettcher “I will never forget the experiences that I shared with so many friends and colleagues. I treasure so much of those days.” Boettcher connected through Herbster’s time at Omaha and Boettcher’s boss at NW Missouri State being friends. Then he saw what the USD athletic department had in store. “They were just getting done with the transition to Division I and being a Division I SID would be a way to work my way up and it would be a nice progression,” Boettcher said. “I was also excited because this would be the first time I would have a fulltime assistant. Having one was an allure being a family man with two kids. “I had somebody who could take on some of the other sports and cut the load in half. In addition to having a graduate assistant so for personal reasons it was a good situation.” That assistant, Jerrod Tell, is also the video coordinator for the athletic department. “When I started to work here it finally dawned on me it was something I would like to do for a while if not forever,” Tell said. “The thing I like about it is this is my alma mater. I know the history of the programs so when I came in I felt comfortable and people are supportive of what Bryan and I do. I have enjoyed building some different skills and it has let me experience more of the video. “It’s given me a little bit more of a dynamic resume, because I hadn’t shot sports before and had only done news.” Tell, unlike Boettcher who lives in Sioux City with his family, has experienced the full effect of Dakota Days, as a student here and currently as a Vermillion resident. “Based on the time I was a student here from fall 2008 to spring 2011, the campus life is up so much more, Dakota Days as pretty much the same as any other week. “Every day starts with athletes coming to the training room for rehab, treatment, or further evaluation of an injury,” said Mettler. “Then after that, it’s on to the paper work to track it all. In the afternoon, we tape for practice, continue treatments, and then attend the practice to watch for injuries that occur during practice. “However, it is kind of fun during homecoming to have former athletes coming into the training room to tell stories about what happened when they were here.” Mettler, who has been an athletic trainer at USD for three years, feels that week of Dakota Days is business as usual. Her day is full of working with athletes so she is unable to attend many of the Dakota Day activities. The returning athletic alumni will have even more there is so much campus activity,” Tell said. “There is so much for people to do and it’s really fun and you will see how much more lively the campus is. “Now, my D-Days are spent here usually the entire time working on something or working at the Neuharth Center working on video. I don’t get to get too involved with DDays now.” Dakota Days and USD athletics are a marriage that bring two major campus elements together. “Sports are pretty important here because it gives the campus more of an identity,” Tell said. “Basketball is maybe a bit bigger here from the success of the Dave Boots era and the Chad Lavin era back in the 90s and early 2000s. I can’t think of many things that are much bigger than sports on campus. Football is the big attraction of Dakota Days and that’s when the two biggest things on campus intersect.” Boettcher was able to walk in and also see the program’s past, present, and future intersect. “They made the announcement before I took the job about building a brand new basketball arena, which is something we are all looking forward to,” Boettcher said. “We would have new offices for everybody and a new venue ready two years from now. It seemed a lot of good things were happening, it was growing, offices were expanding and they take care of you.” They have also allowed the program to grow. “I had the ability to run an athletic website,” Boettcher said. “I enjoy it and there is an instant audience. People who were relying on you to provide them information on the teams. It is a way to interact with a lot of people. The development of a website is enormous. The way it projects your campus and the information that is on it. “First it was photos and now it’s video. You want to tell the kids stories and now you have more tools to do that. Social media is a different animal that allows you to reach people.” He looks back at what the position used to require and believes he is in the perfect position now. “I don’t think I would have been an SID back then because one of my favorite things to do is to do statistics,” Boettcher said. “Stat crew was created in the late 1990s. Before that doing it all by hand and pen and paper … I don’t think I would have loved that. It doesn’t seem so efficient now. Today you can do so much more to promote your own players. “It’s really exciting.” room to wander around in when the new arena just south of the Dakota Dome is completed. The new sports arena will house another training room that will provide state of the art training modalities for the USD training staff. All USD athletes from the 17 varsity sports on campus will have access to both training rooms depending on the treatment needed. The new facility will have a weight room, both a cold and hot water plunge pool, and an underwater treadmill. “When the new facility is completed, it could very easily give us a step up on our competition in keeping our athletes ready to compete on game day,” said Fischbach. Fischbach, who received his training at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Nebraska, has considered the services that he and his staff provide to the athletes of USD up to the caliber of any D-1 school since his arrival in 1987. Whether it is Dakota Days or any athletic event at USD, the training room’s goal for the contest is the same. “We hope we’re healthy going in and healthy coming out,” said Fishbach. Currently, the athletic training staff at USD consists of three full-time trainers and six fully certified graduate assistants. The process to receive certification to be an athletic trainer has changed over the years. Trainers today must graduate from a 4-year curriculum college. An athletic trainer can receive their degree as an undergraduate or a graduate student. In order to work with athletes, athletic training students have to pass the national certification exam and then be granted the state certification to be allowed to practice in the state. 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