THE STORMIN’ PETREL NEWS BLOG IS UP AND RUNNIN’ AGAIN (JUST LIKE THE STORMY PETRELS)

PRACTICE HAS FINALLY BEGUN...

And the 09/10 version of Stormy Petrel Basketball is taking shape and it will definitely be a different shape. As you probably know we graduated our starting six from last season, which is the bad news, but we have 12 new faces plus four returners and Senior Taymah Jones returns after two years of knee rehab. So where does that leave us? We are going to depend a lot on new faces for our success this season and I think we have the players to make it happen.

The four returning players are also young, with Chelsea MacDonald being the only Junior. Kelley Reeves, Jamie Maxie and Rena Crossland are all Sophomores.

Our new faces include four transfers from D-II schools: 5’9” power forward Junior Kristin Zipkin; 5’6” Sophomore point Morgan Loughrey; 5’7” Sophomore 'two' guard Katie Weeks; and 6’1” freshmen post Kaci Palmore.

The talented Freshmen class is a whopping 7: 5’8” play-maker and shooting guard Sarah Jones (Gilmer Co., Ga.); 6’2” post Sarah Giles (Kennesaw Mountain, Ga.); 5’9” power forward Mareva Bone ( Wheeler, Marietta, Ga.); 5’4” point guard Riley Cerone (Blessed Trinity, Roswell, Ga.); 5’6” shooting guard Katie Lynn (Buford, Buford, Ga.); 5’6” point guard Morghan Brandon (Von Steuben, Chicago, Il.); and 5’5” shooting guard Megan Miles ( White Station, Cordova, Tn.).

So this year we have point guards and posts to go along with our great supply of shooters. With all the new faces it is going to be very interesting to see how fast we can come together as a team.

SEASON OPENER – A SPECIAL NIGHT...

Opening night will be:

November 17, 7 p.m. at home against Emory

Prior to the tip we are going to hang our Sweet Sixteen Banner, honor last year’s graduating class and retire the jerseys of our two All Americans Katie Kulavic and Anna Findley from that class. And then you will be treated to some fine bball as we play Emory who upset us last season.

Come early to help us honor this great group of graduates who gave so much to Oglethorpe and really thrust the Petrels into national prominence.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING NOW?

Katie Kulavic: New asst. coach at Berry College, Rome, Ga. under new head coach Stephanie Dunn who coached Katie at St. Pius X H.S.

Anna Findley: Executive assistant at the Muntzing-Sattele Company in Atlanta.

Biz Richmann: Asst. Coach at OU and also attending Graduate School at Georgia State University.

Jamie Osmanson: Events manager at Windermere Country Club, Duluth, Ga.

Hannah Brooks: Veterinary assistant while waiting to begin Vet School.

Tina Grace: Back in Pensacola working with a physiologist (can you imagine that!)

(and apparently they're poised to fight villains too?)

WHAT ELSE IS NEW THIS SEASON?

As I mentioned above Biz Richmann (’09) joins our coaching staff along with returning asst. coach Fallon Rehmert. Together they provide an excellent team to help our athletes on and off the court. Both had stellar careers in college, both in the classroom (each had 3.75 GPA’s) and on the court. Just can’t tell you how excited I am to work with these assistants!

And we welcome them to the blog-o-sphere as they will both be contributing tidbits to the Stormin' Petrel Hoop News. Stay tuned...

GAME BROADCASTS

Our home games will again be webcast on the Petrel Sports Network. Go to our webpage for directions on how to listen to our home games and the Coach’s Show (available via iTunes podcast - search "oglethorpe university") on your computer.

SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS

As usual, the SCAC will be difficult. DePauw and Centre have been getting most of the press in the East, and Trinity in the West. BSC brought in a slew of new players and I hear Matt Dean at Rhodes has loaded up.

Our out-of-conference schedule will be extremely challenging with National power Hope coming to our Holiday Tournament (stay tuned for some awesome tourney t-shirts again)! We also travel to Thomas More for their Thanksgiving Tournament... and you know they want revenge after we beat them twice. We also play Manchester, from Indiana in the tournament. Emory is always difficult for us, as well as Piedmont. We have added Agnes Scott and East Texas Baptist from the very competitive American Southwest Conference. Last year’s NCAA opponent, Maryville, comes to town, as does LaGrange College.

TIDBITS

’05 Grads Julie Colantoni and Katie Michalezyk now have "MD" after their names. Congrats!

We will have one additional ball girl this season: Madelyn Bickel, formally a west-coaster, now living in Hotlanta.

My daughter, Gerri DiCarlo, will be helping us keep up with the Stormin’ Petrel Blog again, in between working her graphic + web design and photography business, Art Elastic, and being a Stormy Petrel super fan (she's the one who stands up most of the game and loses her voice).

If you would like to contribute a tidbit or anecdote... please feel free to contact her at GerriDiCarlo [at] gmail.com

IT'S OVER... BUT IS IT???

THE TOURNAMENT SEASON

Our season came to an end in the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Big Dance. After winning memorable first and second round games at Dorough Fieldhouse, we traveled to Crestview Hills, Ky. and lost to George Fox University from Oregon. We fell behind and were losing by 8 at the half but pulled even at 44, seven minutes into the second half. 

But the Bruins pulled one of our tricks on us and ran off 18 straight points. We made another run but had to foul in the end to have a chance, but GF made their shots and went on to the victory. 

GF won the next day against Hope and they move on to the Final Four this weekend.

This game marked the end of our SUPER SENIORS' careers at OU and what a mark they left: W/L record of 96-26, 44-12 in the SCAC, 4 straight appearances in the NCAA National Tournament, 1 Sweet Sixteen, 1 Final Four, SCAC regular season champion plus this year's conference tournament champion. 

To try and put this into perspective, so far we have not found a college team ever that a single class produce five players with 500+ rebounds each and four players scoring over 1,000 points each. Do you think this group has made a statement for the Petrel Nation?

I have been trying to give this group a tricky handle (like the Michigan Fab Five) for a couple of years now, but to no avail. 

How about some suggestions from the Petrel Nation?

THE NCAA TOURNAMENT COMES TO DOROUGH FIELDHOUSE

For the first time ever, OU hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA D-III Women's Basketball Tournament. The first round games were Greensboro College vs Mississippi College followed by OU vs Maryville College. Spiffed-up Dorough looked great thanks to the efforts of the OU faithful and the standing room only crowd was treated to some exciting basketball. Our game was extremely exciting coming down to a last minute 3 point shot by Anna Findley to win the game. The next night the Stormy Petrels were hitting on all cylinders, especially on the defensive side, and ran away from the Greensboro Pride 67-40. To see and feel the atmosphere in Dorough will be long remembered by all in attendance.

INDIVIDUAL HONORS

Over the past four years, our players have received many individual honors (both on and off the court) and they continue to mount. The awards have been well-documented here on the Stormin' Petrel Hoop News (peruse the archives and marvel at the accomplishments of these young ladies if you haven't already), D3 Hoops, The Atlanta Journal Constitution (thx to Mr. Hummer), community newspapers like The Dunwoody Crier, the SCAC site, the Oglethorpe Athletics webpage, and so on. But these players have always considered our success a team effort. Therefore, in this closing chapter of the season, I am not going to list the LONG list of individual honors but just say "job very well done" to a group of superior individuals that came together to form an outstanding TEAM.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

We will always miss our Seniors but we must now look to the future. Instead of the #1 bullseye on the Stormy Petrel's back, we'll now be wearing the revenge bullseye on our back. Let me say right now, we will be ready with our group of excellent returning players, plus an exceptional group of incoming players. I doubt if we will go into next season with lofty pre-season rankings, but just wait until March rolls around and let's see what happens. 

WE ARE NOT REBUILDING. WE ARE RELOADING!

THX TO ALL (AND THE LIST IS LOOOOOOONG)... 

AS YOU ALL ARE IMPORTANT TO OUR GREAT SUCCESS!

That's All Folks!

At this time I'd like to cross sports and quote a baseball favorite, Bull Durham.

The wise Crash says: "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." 

Pertaining to the Petrels tonight... IT RAINED!

We were sad and there were tears. 

We didn't win.

But by no means can I say we're walking away from this season with a loss.

The four EXTRAORDINARY years that came from this Senior class will always be a WIN in my book.

Night night.

GO PETRELS!!!

TUNE IN TO THE SWEET 16!

Step 1: Click here to listen to Oglethorpe's own Hoyt Young call the game.

Step 2: Click here to watch streaming video while you listen to Hoyt.

Step 3: Cheer repeatedly "GO PETRELS"!

AJC: "Once-in-a-Lifetime Class"

(click to view larger)

Here's an article from today's Atlanta Journal Constitution. 

Another Day, Another Honor!

Katie Kulavic has made the Russell Athletic/WBCA (Women's Basketball Coaches Association) First Team All-Region (there are eight regions total)!

Aside from the immediate honor, Katie is also in the running for the Russell Athletic/WBCA First Team ALL-AMERICAN to be awarded at the end of the season!

Coach Sattele has been awarded the Coach of the Year for our Region (there are eight regions total)!

With this award, he is also in the running for Coach of the YEAR to be awarded at the end of the season!

If you'd like to check out the full list of honored athletes and coaches, here are some links:

Athletes by Region

Coaches by Region

Atlanta Tipoff Club Player & Coach of the Year!

Katie Kulavic has been named 

Georgia Women’s College Player of the Year 

for all levels by the Atlanta Tipoff Club!!!

Coach Sattele has been named 

Whack Hyder Georgia Women’s College Coach of the Year 

for all levels by the Atlanta Tipoff Club!!!

These are huge honors that will be celebrated at this year's 

Naismith Awards on March 23rd!

And of course, humble Katie's reaction when Coach gave her the news...

a quiet "wow".

CONGRATULATIONS KATIE AND COACH SATTELE!!!

Coach Sattele on Hoopsville last night

In case you missed the live broadcast, here's a link to hear Coach Sattele on D3Hoops weekly Internet/radio broadcast "Hoopsville":

Hoopsville Broadcast

He's one of the last two guests if you want to skip ahead.

Ain't it Sweet?

Well, the Stormy Petrels have done it again and we're off to Kentucky to play undefeated George Fox (#3 Nationally) at Thomas More this Friday. If you'll notice, the foursome from the "bracket of death" playing in Kentucky this weekend are #'s 2, 3, 5, and 7 in the National Rankings! Yikes!

In addition to their undefeated season, George Fox, from Portland, OR, boasts a 6'4" post player and has held their opponents to under 60 points per game.

But we've got THE SUPER SENIORS who are looking to give it their all this 

Friday the 13th!

Stay tuned for more details about this weekend's matchup from Coach...

It's difficult to keep Up with all these records!

(to view any article larger, simply click on it)

For all the Petrel Fans out there who are having a hard time keeping up with all the honors and record-breaking (myself included), here are a few articles from the SCAC you may have missed. But try to keep up, because the season ain't over just yet...

SCAC Champs' Interviews

Compliments of the SCACSports blog, here are the post-game interviews with the starting five and with Coach Sattele:

To hear Anna Findley, 1st Team All SCAC player, 

plus All-Tournament Team member 

(for a record 4 years straight), 

click here.

To hear Hannah Brooks, SCAC Defensive Player of the Year, 

click here.

To heart Biz Richamann, Honorable Mention 

SCAC Team of the Year, 

click here.

To hear Katie Kulavic, 1st Team All SCAC player, 

All-Tournament Member, and current leading scoring in 

SCAC history for both Men and Women, 

click here.

To hear Tina Grace, MVP of this year's SCAC Tournament, 

click here.

D3Hoops Has Put a Bull's Eye on the Petrels!

Check out D3Hoops... Pat Coleman has put the bull's eye on the Petrels.

Starting Friday, we will try to exceed his expectations.

TROPHY IN HANDS

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

SUPER SENIORS

A MOTELY CREW

THE SCAC CHAMPIONS!!!

(Images courtesy of Chelsea's Dad)

March Madness is Coming to OU!

For the first time ever, Oglethorpe University will host the first round of the NCAA Tournament! We play Maryville (Tennessee) Friday at 8 on our home court.

Take a closer look at the bracket here.

If you'll notice, our region is stacked with three of the Final Four teams from last season, plus an undefeated George Fox.

We've got our work set out for us, so...

COME SUPPORT THE PETRELS!

Making History: SCAC CHAMPIONS!!!

This is an un-official post from the Coach's too-excited daughter, but I'm sure Dad will have more detail to write later. For now here's some exciting news:

Oglethorpe has won their first SCAC Championship, 

beating the tenacious Trinity Tigers 82 to 66 this afternoon in Conway, Arkansas. 

Yesterday Trinity pounded DePauw (98 to 80). 

And if you'll recall, Trinity had our number a few weeks ago when our shooting percentage dipped to unmentionable lows. 

But we came out ready to play today and never looked back on a lead that we earned just four and a half minutes into the game. 

_________________________________________

The Petrels played great all weekend beating Millsaps Friday 70-56, then Centre yesterday 71-51. Unfortunately I don't have the stats in front of me, but both games were amazing team efforts with some great performances from ALL our Seniors in their last SCAC showings, including some very important minutes from Jamie Osmanson and Carisa Mitchell.

The starters put on a clinic this afternoon, with stifling defense and shooting 59% from the field and over 50% from beyond the arc nailing 8 of 15...

Katie Kulavic (with 24 pts today) made the SCAC All-Tournament Team AND now holds the title of Oglethorpe Basketball's ALL-TIME Leading Scorer for the MEN & WOMEN'S PROGRAMS! Plus she made the First Team SCAC for the Year.

Anna Findley (with 27 pts today including FIVE 3-pointers) made the SCAC All-Tournament Team for her FOURTH CONSECUTIVE year (never before accomplished in the Men's or Women's Programs)! She also made the First Team SCAC for the Year.

Tina Grace (who had a tremendous weekend with 21 points in both games Friday and Saturday and 18 pts and 10 rebounds today), made the SCAC All-Tournament Team with an SCAC Tournament MVP performance.

Biz Richmann racked-up FIFTEEN rebounds against some super strong Trinity players, plus she had five assists today! In addition, she made Honorable Mention for SCAC Team of the Year.

Hannah Brooks nailed a rockin' 3-pointer and had six assists and five rebounds, with her usual defensive stronghold throughout 39 minutes of play this afternoon!

_________________________________________

Today is March 1st and the MADNESS has officially begun!

Tomorrow morning the NCAA will announce the tournament schedule and Oglethorpe is guaranteed a bid with their SCAC victory today!

But the big news will come when we hear whether our game next weekend 

will be played at home!

CONGRATULATIONS PETRELS!!!

Stay tuned... 

IT'S TOURNAMENT TIME...

SEASON RECORD: 22-3, 12-2 IN CONFERENCE

NATIONAL RANKING: #10, D3 HOOPS

Let's first talk about this season's body of work:

• Our best record and most wins - 22-3


• Most Conference wins - 12


• Top seed in the Conference Tournament


• First undefeated season at home - 14-0


• Beat 4 Nationally Ranked teams in a row (in just 24 days) in December


• Ranked in the Top 10 Nationally all season - as high as #2


• All 5 Senior starters join the 500+ rebound club


• Four Seniors join the 1000+ points in a career club


• We're checking to see if the above has ever been accomplished by a single class


• Many individual records: Kulavic - All time SCAC scoring and made shots, Findley -most career 3-pointers made


• Richmann, Grace, Kulavic and Findley either Player of the Week or made Team of the Week multiple times.

AND WE'RE NOT DONE YET!

This weekend we travel to Conway, Ar. for the SCAC Conference Tournament as the #1 seedafter narrowly beating Centre at Centre 79-75. Great game from start to finish - close all the way. During the game, Katie Kulavic became the All Time Leading Scorer in the SCAC, pushing her point total to 1,850 points. Katie scored 33 in the game going 14-17 from the field. Tina Grace poured in 19 and Anna Findley chipped in with 18, but the real story was how hard they all played knowing how much the game meant for conference tournament seeding. If we had lost the game we would go in as a third seed with a very difficult path to a Conference Championship, but if we won we would earn the top seed and the path becomes a little easier.

Last Friday we took our 3rd loss of the season at DePauw 92-86. We went down by 22 midway through the second half and were down 19 with 4:55 to go, but then we went on one of our patented scoring binges and scored 15 straight to pull within 4 with 1:40 to go. We got to 88-84 but no closer. They made their free throws down the stretch to hold on. Anna Findley just carried us for the majority of the game scoring 30 from all over the court. Tina Grace took it inside and scored 19,while Kulavic hit for 14 (12 in the second half) and Biz Richmann tallied10.

Our defensive stopper Hannah Brooks got into early foul trouble and in stepped Senior Jamie Osmanson who played great. As a matter of fact, Jamie gave us valuable minutes in bothgames last weekend, playing extremely aggressive on both ends of the court. We will definitely need her this weekend with the potential of playing 3 games in 3 days. In fact, we will need all available hands on deck with the potential of 3 games in 3 days!

TIDBITS

Injury Report:

Ari Brown - hyper-extended a knee, should be ready to go!

Kelley Reeves - aggravated an old ankle injury, out for the remainder of the season, surgery next Monday, 3-5 month recovery. She will be missed.

Regie Howell - still in the boot with foot injury, her return is doubtful.

Tina Grace - Quad pull, "not to worry", 19 pts per game last weekend

Katie Kulavic - Calf pull, "where's my calf?" 33 points Sunday

Hannah Brooks - hip pain, "what hip pain" as she says

Anna Findley - old ankle sprain and tight leg mustles, "how did I miss that last shot", 30 against DePauw

Biz Richmann - the knees of a 40 year old, "I'm just going to wear ice packs during the game",15 rebounds last weekend

The rest of the team... NOT TO WORRY, THEY WILL ANSWER THE HORN!!!!!!!!!!!

SCAC TOURNAMENT

Complete schedule available here on the SCAC website

Anyway, we play at 6pm on Friday, and 3pm on Saturday, 12pm on Sunday if we keep winning. This is Central time - 1 hour later Eastern time. Games will be broadcast on the Stormy Petrel Network and I think webcast for $$. Live Stats will also be available.

NCAA TOURNAMENT

Bids will be announced Monday morning around 10am, March 2 on www.ncaa.org

If we can win the SCAC Tournament we have a good chance of hosting the first two rounds of the tournament!

Katie Kulavic: SCAC Player of the Week

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Pictures From the Rhodes Game

Seniors Perform & Perfect Season on the Home Court

We had a great weekend of bball and special events to close out 

an UNDEFEATED Home Season (14-0). 

Special thx to Game Ops staff led by Coach Gio and JUDD.

Bested Rhodes 77-63 Friday evening and Katie Kulavic broke the Women's All-time Scoring Record. The previous record holder, Heather Francoeur Karvis, was on hand to present Katie with the game ball.

On Senior day, our Seniors made a special farewell by scoring 24 points in 5 minutes to open the second half and went on to a 83-58 win over Birmingham Southern. 

Biz Richmann became the 4th senior on the squad to break into the 1,000 pt. club. 

We also have 4 seniors in the 500 rebound club and 

Tina Grace is fast approaching this milestone. 

It is going to be hard to find, at any level, a single class that has produced four 1,000 point producers. Now add in five 500 rebounders as well? It may never have been accomplished prior to this team. We're checking... (Mr. Grace get to work!)

We are now 21-2, #4 in the country.

We'll finish the season on the road at DePauw Friday at 8 pm (WGRE, DePauw's school radio station will be broadcasting the game, go to their website for details) and 

Centre on Sunday at 3 pm.

THEN IT'S TOURNAMENT TIME...

Petrel Picassos at Starbucks

(1) Katie Kulavic

(2) Hannah Brooks

(3) Jamie Osmanson

(4) Anna Findley

(5) Hannah Brooks

(6) Hannah Brooks

(7) Jamie Osmanson

(8) Katie Kulavic

(9) Tina Grace

(10) Anna Findley

(11) Katie Kulavic

(12) Hannah Brooks

(13) Tina Grace

(14) Anna Findley

.....:::::::|||||||||||||||||:::::.....

WHO KNEW THESE GIRLS WERE SO MULTI-TALENTED!?!

Five Senior Petrels took a drawing class and their work is 

on display at the Starbucks near Blackburn Park right now! 

The artists are: 

Tina Grace

Katie Kulavic

Jamie Osmanson

Hannah Brooks

Anna Findley

(to view any image larger, click on it)

The first few images are still life drawings done in charcoal on paper.

The artists studied the relationship of various objects to one another including their size, shape and texture; as well as depicting varying highlights and shadows. 

The rest of the images are contour drawings that are very expressive and full of personality!

A few of these are self portraits where the artist looked at a mirror and NOT at their paper. Their eyes must find the lines that outline their face in the mirror... 

while their trusting hand (holding a pen to the paper) tries to record this same path without looking at the paper.

Often, the artist kept the pen to the paper without picking it up to move to another area or feature.

Feel free to post COMMENTS about these wonderful masterpieces!

Simply click on the yellow "Comments" link 

just below this post, 

and don't forget to include your name!