FORMER HUSKIE HOPING TO CATCH ON

By Joe Summins | Posted at 5:29 pm on Friday, July 17, 2009

Former Huskie wide receiver Justin McCareins is working out down in Florida in hopes of returning to the NFL. In Patrick Mooney of the Naperville Sun caught up with the eight-year veteran, who has had doubled the longevity of an average pro football player, about his plans after football in this story.

SILAS, KOWAL DEPART FOR SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY

Sean Kowal led the MAC in field goal percentage last season.

By Brett McWethy | Posted at 3:23 pm on Friday, July 17, 2009

Men's basketball juniors-to-be Xavier Silas and Sean Kowal, who were former teammates at Colorado before transferring to NIU, depart for San Francisco Sunday for Frank Matrisciano's summer training program.  Silas already attended Matrisciano's first summer session, and will be joined by Kowal for the final five week installment.  Read a summary of the program HERE, and become re-acclimated with Silas' previous experience in this June 12 DeKalb Daily Chronicle feature story.  

THE MAC DAILY'S MEN'S SOCCER PREVIEW

By Brett McWethy | Posted at 2:06 pm on Friday, July 17, 2009

The MAC Daily released its 2008 men's soccer preview Friday, and has the Huskies tabbed fourth in the preseason standings.  Check out the team-by-team capsules, as well. 

WORLD CLASS EXPERIENCE --- VOLLEYBALL STYLE

By Zach Peters | Posted at 11:44 am on Friday, July 17, 2009

For the third consecutive year, USA Volleyball has a shade of Huskie red with their white and blue. NIU head coach Ray Gooden has served as the director of support staff for the Men's World League for each Chicago stop.

The World League serves as the professional league for men's volleyball. 16 teams are divided into four pools that play a grueling home and home schedule. In the case of the USA their pool consists of the Netherlands, Italy and China. The top teams will advance to the final round in Belgrade, Serbia. Talk about getting your frequent flyer miles.

Gooden gave members of his staff and team the opportunity of a lifetime by hiring them as support staff for the teams' matches against Italy at the Sears Center in Hoffman Estates last week. The Huskies were part of a crew that assisted with opening ceremonies by presenting the flags of each country during the opening ceremonies. They also maintained the competition court during the matches. The stood within inches of some of the best volleyball players in the world.

 "I've been very fortunate to be involved with USA Volleyball in some capacity since 1994," said Gooden. "I'm glad that I can include NIU volleyball in the experience."

It's been an active year for Gooden and the Huskies with USA Volleyball. Last summer he and his volleyball group did the same job for World League vs. Bulgaria. In February, he brought four of his Huskies (Allison McGlaughlin (Morton, Ill./Morton), Meagan Schoenrock (Sylvania, Ohio/Northview), Kristin Hoffman (Batavia, Ill./Batavia), and Maddie Hughes (St. Charles, Ill./North)) to Colorado Springs for the National Team open tryout. Gooden served as a court coach and evaluator. From that tryout, Kristin Hoffman was selected to a Youth National A2 group currently training and competing in Europe. Gooden also served as co-head coach of a college select team that competed in the Global Challenge last July.  Follow Hoffman's progress through her journal entries on the team's website.

MOVIE TIME!

By Brett McWethy | Posted at 9:14 am on Friday, July 17, 2009

You've seen the 2009 season tickets commercial on cable television and through the flash player on NIUHuskies.com. Now, if you're on the fence on whether to see "The Hangover" or "Bruno" this weekend, you have another reason to hit the movie theaters. A new season ticket spot will be available in the local movie theaters beginning TODAY! Check it out!

MOVIN' ON

By Russell Houghtaling | Posted at 9:21 am on Wednesday, July 15, 2009;

Updated by Donna Turner at 3:05 pm on Wednesday, July 15, 2009.

With a 2 & 1 victory over Zahkai Brown of Arvada, Colo. on Wednesday in the first round of match play at the United States Amateur Public Links Championship, Huskie golfer Andrew Frame moved into the Round of 32 at the prestigious summer event.  Frame never trailed in Wednesday's match as he took a 1-up lead on the 12th hole, extended it to 3-up by the 15th and finished Brown off after 17.  The tournament is being played at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club in Norman, Okla.

Frame will take on Brandon Crick of McCook, Neb. in the Round of 16 beginning at 8:12 a.m. (Central) on Thursday.  Crick upset Nick Geyer of Albuquerque, N.M., 1-up. Geyer came into match play seeded second after shooting 140 in 36 holes of stroke play.  Check niuhuskies.com later today as we hope to talk to Andrew and get the scoop on his experiences so far in Norman.  And on Thursday, follow live scoring of Frame's match at www.usapl.org.

LAST BLOG TO BANGKOK

By Russell Houghtaling | Posted at 9:45 am on Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Head hoops coach Carol Owens had a casual conversation with a deer, nearly tripped on a snake, and got caught by Mother Nature. You can reall about it in her last blog before heading to Bangkok as head coach of the USA Women's Basketball U19 World Championship Team.

By Russell Houghtaling | Posted at 9:18 am on Wednesday, July 15, 2009

John Sahly, our man with the Daily Chronicle, has been running a Tuesday countdown over on his Huskie Wire blog.

No, no, John Sahly, not John Salley.

That's better.

I'm not really sure if the latest is a countdown... I think it's actually just a list. That said, it's a pretty good list, and you can read it here.

TWEET ALL DAY, TWEET ALL NIGHT

By Brett McWethy | Posted at 9:07 am on Tuesday, July 14, 2009

As we teased last week, NIU Athletics is now on Twitter.  We have officially launched our address at twitter.com/NIUAthletics.  Follow us!

MORE ON MAC FOOTBALL

By Brett McWethy | Posted at 9:02 am on Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Oh yeah Russ, I'll take your Yahoo! MAC Preview, and raise you to themacdaily.com's version.  Peter Schinkai from the league's newest outlet gives team-by-team capsules in this season preview.  He's also got the Huskies picked second in the MAC-West in his preseason standings.    

YAHOO! MAC PREVIEW

By Russell Houghtaling | Posted at 8:55 am on Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Other than the fact that it doesn't even mention Northern Illinois (just CMU and WMU battling for the top spot in the West), this Yahoo! Sports MAC football preview isn't bad. It's got us third in the West, just out of bowl contention. I'm also going to link-jack it and share with you this 2009 Preseason Consensus page, which assigns points to each magazine preview (Phil Steele, Lindy, Athlon, The Sporting News, etc.), then adds them up. We're picked third there, as well.

MID-SUMMER CLASSIC

By Zach Peters | Posted at 4:17 pm on Monday, July 13, 2009

Two more Huskie baseball players have earned their way onto summer league all-star rosters.  Joining Alex Jones (Kansas City, Kan./Piper), who already participated in an all-star event this summer, will be Jordin Hood (Hawthorn Woods, Ill./Lake Zurich) and Chuck Lukanen (Lombard, Ill./North Iowa Area C.C.).

Hood will represent the Quincy Gems of the Prospect League in the league's all-star game on Wednesday, July 15 at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Ill.  Through 28 games Hood is batting .286 and slugging .455 with a .350 on-base percentage, 22 runs, 32 hits, eight doubles, one triple, three home runs (ranks in a tie for third in the league), 24 RBI (ranks second in the league), seven walks and 10 stolen bases (ranks tied for sixth).  Visit prospectleague.com for more info on Hood's summer action.

Lukanen will represent the Green Bay Bullfrogs in the Northwoods League All-Star game on Tuesday, July 21 at Port Arthur Stadium in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.  In his eight starts thus far he has surrendered just 10 earned runs, 32 hits and 23 walks in 47 innings with 41 strikeouts (ranks in a tied for sixth) and a 1.92 ERA that have helped him to a  league-best 6-1 record.  Visit northwoodsleague.com for more info on Lukanen's summer action.

IN ACTION TODAY

By Donna Turner | Posted at 11:30 am on Monday, July 13, 2009

Northern Illinois golfers Andrew Frame (Manteno, Ill./Manteno HS) and Tim Kay (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett HS) are in action today at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship being played at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club in Norman, Okla. The Public Links and the U.S. Amateur are considered the two premiere championships for amateur golfers each summer and two have two players in the field is a feather in the cap for the Northern Illinois program.

The tournament at the par 71, 7,289-yard Perry Maxwell-designed track began this morning with the first of two rounds of stroke play. Following Tuesday's round, the 156-man field will be trimmed to 64 and those players will advance to the match play portion of the event.  Fans can follow the progress of Frame and Kay at www.usapl.org

Frame and Kay qualified for the Public Links by finishing first and second at the sectional qualifier held at the Oak Club of Genoa in June. Both will be seniors on the Huskie team next fall.

THE LATEST FROM AFRICA

By Russell Houghtaling | Posted at 10:58 am on Monday, July 13, 2009

Kaylee Walters of the track and field team updated her blog from Senegal today. Included in the latest from Africa is her visit to a grand mosque, meeting someone's third wife (awkward...) and finally feeling some air conditioning.

MOVIN' ON UP

Kate McCullagh, 2006" src="http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/niu/sports/w-volley/auto_original/2430733.jpeg" alt="Kate McCullagh, 2006" width="450" height="680" />

By Zach Peters | Posted at 9:59 am on Monday, July 13, 2009

Former NIU volleyball standout (2003-06) and all-time kills (1,936) leader Kate McCullagh was recently promoted to head coach of the boys volleyball program at St. Charles East High School after she served as an assistant coach to Stephanie Gooden, current DeKalb High School girls volleyball head coach and wife of NIU volleyball head coach Ray Gooden. 

McCullagh is the last Huskie to garner national post season recognition from the American Volleyball Coaches Association as she was selected to the first team all-mideast region and was an honorable mention All-American in her senior season when she led NIU to the Mid-American Conference regular season crown.

Read this article in the DeKalb Daily Chronicle about McCullagh's new gig.

PURDUE-NIU FOOTBALL PREVIEW

By Brett McWethy | Posted at 9:13 am on Monday, July 13, 2009

OK, so the Huskies have Wisconsin and Western Illinois to worry about first, but we thought we'd enlighten you with this preview of the Northern Illinois vs. Purdue game (Sept. 19) from the Bleacher Report.  The prediction according to this writer is 35-6, Boilermakers.  Read on to see if you agree with the reasoning.  By the way, Purdue also takes on MAC-West rival Toledo, so you can read up on them, too.