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MVC Homecoming to kick off with Torch Run from Canton; alums to be honored
Friday, October 6, 2006
The Missouri Valley College 2006 Homecoming festivities begin when the first team of MVC athletes kick off the 37th annual torch run when they leave from Canton at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12, headed for Marshall. This year's festivities include the homecoming parade, classic car show, bonfire, alumni banquet, and a full schedule of Viking athletics.
The college will host an alumni banquet from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 13, in the R. Wilson Brown Room of the Ferguson Center. In addition to recognizing the classes of 1966, 1976, 1986, and 1996, the class of 1956 will also be inducted into the MVC 50-Plus Club. The alums who will be honored this year include Outstanding Alumni David J. Ross, II; Outstanding Young Alumni Angel Gambino; and Service Award winners Hospitality Services, Inc.
Other alums who will be recognized include Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees including the 1996 MVC NAIA National wrestling championship team, the 1941-48 MVC football teams (41-game win streak), Reggie Palmer '93 of Marshall, Tom Venice '67 of Sea Girt, N.J., Larry Hall '59 of Willard, and Bill Lingenfelter '50, posthumously. The ceremony will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, in the MVC cafeteria.
A memorial service for longtime professor of the MVC biology department Reed Kepner is being held at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, in the Eckilson-Mabee Theatre.
An alumni social will take place at Stone Hedge Golf Club from 7 p.m. until close.
37th Annual Torch Run
Traditionally, the annual torch run begins at the town of the college that the Vikings will take on at Saturday's football game. This year, the Vikings face the Culver-Stockton Wildcats, so the first of the MVC athletes/torch runners will begin in Canton and will travel 153 miles carrying the torch in a relay.
The last leg of the relay is scheduled to arrive at a bonfire at 8:30 p.m. on the Burns Athletic Complex on the MVC campus. Participating organizations include the women's wrestling team, men's wrestling team, women's softball team, cross country team, baseball team, men's basketball team and the MVC Alumni Association.
The first Valley Torch Run was held during the 1958 season for Homecoming and later that same season the Vikings were invited to play in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla. --1,285 miles. A group of 58 Valley students ran the torch 1,285 miles from Marshall to Orlando. One of the students who helped organize and was a major participant in the 1958 torch run is now a faculty member -- Professor Ed Leslie. Leslie also organized the 364-mile torch run, which was held in August 1999 when the Vikings played in the Wheat Bowl in Ellinwood, Kan. Leslie still serves as the torch run coordinator.
MVC Parade and Car Show
The MVC Homecoming parade will take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14, beginning at North Odell (and North Street). The parade will begin forming at 9 a.m. on North Street between Brunswick and Odell. Parade entries should enter from the north.
The parade will start at 10 a.m. and will proceed west on North Street to Lafayette, south on Lafayette to Arrow, east on Arrow to Odell, south on Odell to College and east on College to Conway, and south on Conway to disband before reaching Morrow.
This year's parade will feature local high school bands, classic cars, and numerous campus and community floats.
After the parade there is a car show and inflatables on the MVC Quadrangle. For late parade entries, contact Deanna Wheeler at (660) 831-4238 or wheelerd@moval.edu.
For the safety of the public, no candy or items of any kind may be thrown from parade floats or entries. Participants wishing to hand out candy or other items may walk along the parade route and hand out items at the street curb line.
ATV's are not allowed on the streets of Marshall during the parade except for authorized parade officials, who must possess a valid Missouri driver's license.
Background on MVC alums to be honored
David J. Ross II, retired assistant chief scout executive, Boy Scouts of America, will receive the Outstanding Alumni Award.
Ross, MVC alumnus '67, became assistant chief scout executive of the Boy Scouts of America in August 1999. Ross was responsible for the Program Group, Development Group, Strategic Initiatives Group, International Division, and Learning for Life.
Ross began his Scouting career in 1967 as a district executive in Fort Wayne, Ind. In 1972, he was promoted to director of finance services, and in 1974 to director of field service in the Fort Wayne council. In 1977, he was promoted to Scout executive in Dubuque, Iowa. In 1983, he was promoted to Scout executive in Binghamton, N.Y. He went to the National Council in 1987 as director of Council Services Division. Ross then spent seven years as assistant chief scout executive until his retirement in the fall of this year.
Ross received his bachelor of science in human relations from MVC in 1967. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School/Not-for-Profit Strategic Initiatives Program.
Ross and his wife, Jane (Fey) '67, have three grown daughters and reside in Southlake, Tex.
Gambino, is Vice President of Commercial, Strategy, and Digital Media, MTV Networks and will receive Outstanding Young Alumni.
Gambino, MVC alumnus '94, is the vice president for commercial strategy and digital media for MTV Networks United Kingdom. She is responsible for creating and implementing MTV's business strategy across the 11-channel portfolio of MTV, VH1, VH2, TMF and Paramount Comedy brands, initially with particular focus on expanding MTV Networks position in digital media and activities in the interactive TV, gaming, VOD and SVOD, IPTV and other on-demand and interactive areas within the UK and Ireland.
Gambino is responsible for managing all non-advertising revenue streams including new ventures, affiliate relationships and mobile and other partnerships as well as collaborating with the Viacom Brand Solutions group on below-the-line commercial alliances.
Prior to MTV Networks UK Gambino was at the BBC.
Gambino resides in Nottingham, UK.
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Japanese journalist Higuchi picks most winners at World Championships with nine
Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
10/06/2006
In the annual TheMat.com “Pick the Champions” feature by international wrestling journalists, Japanese journalist Ikuo Higuchi of the Japanese Wrestling Federation website selected the most 2006 World Champions.
Higuchi predicted nine of the individual World Champions at the 2006 World Wrestling Championships held in Guangzhou, China, Sept. 25-Oct. 1.
Higuchi chose six of the seven women’s freestyle champions, as well as three of the seven men’s freestyle champions, to easily outdistance the rest of the journalists who made predictions.
The women champions he selected included five Japanese wrestlers: Chiharu Icho (48 kg), Hitomi Sakamoto (51 kg), Saori Yoshida (55 kg), Ayako Shoda (59 kg) and Kaori Icho (63 kg). He also selected the 67 kg champion, Jing Riu Xue of China. Higuchi got three of the men’s freestyle champions correctly: Sajid Sajidov of Russia (85 kg), Khadjimurad Gatsalov of Russia (96 kg) and Artur Taymazov of Uzbekistan (120 kg).
Placing second in the contest were Gary Abbott of TheMat.com and Al Bevilacqua of NYWrestling.com who had six individual champions.
Abbott selected women champions Icho, Yoshida, Shoda and Jing, plus freestyle winners Gatsalov and Taymazov. Bevilacqua selected women champions Sakamoto, Yoshida and Shoda, freestyle champions Gatsalov and Taymazov and Greco-Roman champion Hamid Sourian of Iran (55 kg).
Next with four correct selections were Bryan Van Kley of W.I.N. Magazine and Mikolaj Jarocki of Poland.
Click here to see all of the journalist predictions
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Japan Wrestling Federation
10/06/2006
TOKYO (October 5) - The Japan Wrestling Federation (JWF) announced that it plans to lodge a complaint with wrestling's world governing body FILA over a head butt by Bulgaria's Stanka Zlateva in the women's 72-kg final at the recently concluded wrestling world championships.
JWF executive director Yusaku Imaizumi told reporters that the federation would protest this kind of dangerous behavior and will issue a demand for stringent measures against this kind of wrestling to be put into place in the future. The JWF showed reporters a video of Zlateva head-butting Japan's Kyoko Hamaguchi in the final match of the world championships, which concluded October 1 in Guangzhou, China. Hamaguchi reportedly had her nose broken in four places by the head butt.
The JWF, which obtained the video from competition broadcaster Nihon Television, said it would send copies of the video to FILA and the Bulgarian wrestling federation. The action in question occurred moments after the start of second period in the final between Zlateva and Hamaguchi.
Hamaguchi had taken the first period 3-1 and as the second period opened, Zlateva appeared on the video to aim her head at Hamaguchi's nose, butting the former five-time world champion full-on in the face. While Imaizumi would not say that the action was "intentional," it did not appear on the video that Zlateva was trying to attack the legs for a takedown and that the contact was accidental.
Shortly after that, Zlateva appeared to be jumping for joy on the video. While not on the NTV video, another video from different angle also reportedly appeared to show the Bulgarian coaches smiling and laughing.
Video of the head-butting incident, 37 seconds
Before the championship final, Hamaguchi had won her first three matches of the competition by fall and in the semifinals defeated Ohenewa Akuffo 1-0, 1-0 to avenge a loss to the Canadian wrestler at the World Cup in May. In the final, Hamaguchi, seeking a sixth world championship title, appeared in good form in the first period, giving up the first point but rallying to come from behind for a 3-1 win.
After the butting incident in the second period, the match was interrupted for about 10 seconds, but was re-started quickly with Hamaguchi not showing any sign of being intimidated. About 15 seconds later, however, the bleeding from Hamaguchi's nose became worse and again time was called to mop the blood from the mat.
Hamaguchi was forced out of bounds twice in the period and Zlateva evened the match at one period apiece 1-2. Hamaguchi also lost the third period 0-6 and had to settle for the silver medal for a second year in a row. When asked if the head butt and bloody nose had any effect on the outcome of the match, Hamaguchi replied "Absolutely none."
Imaizumi stressed that "Hamaguchi has not protested or made any excuse at all for her loss. This is not a demand that the final places be reversed or Zlateva be disqualified and stripped of her medal."
"For the development of women's wrestling, we want to request that firm action be taken against this kind of behavior in the future." Imaizumi went on to explain the reasons behind the JWF's actions: "After being butted Hamaguchi appeared unaffected, so everyone in the arena thought it wasn't serious. But after learning how serious the injury was, however, we decided that we had to do something, we had to take whatever action we could."
Shigeo Kinase, JWF coach for women, delivered a message to the press conference from Hamaguchi. "I love wrestling. My injury in this last match was very painful and a very bitter experience for me. I do not want young boys and girls who aim to be wrestlers in the future to ever have this kind of experience. I am resting and relaxing now and hope that this injury will heal as quickly as possible. I further hope it will be an added incentive in the sport I love as I look ahead to the Beijing Olympics. I am very sorry that I have caused you all such concern."
Hamaguchi's mother, Hatsue, told the reporters in place of her daughter "Wrestling is a wonderful, not dangerous sport. We must not allow this kind of violent behavior to be accepted."
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Malik urges Govt to send wrestlers for training in Belarus and Japan
BALBIR SINGH
Sunday, 08 October 2006
CHANDIGARH: Dr Mahinder Singh Malik, vice president of the Asian Associated
Wrestling Committee and member of International Wrestling Federation (FILA) congratulated the Indian team for the 'marked improvement' in the World Wrestling Championship held t Guangzhou (China) from September 25 to October 1.
Keeping in view the wrestlers' fine display in the various recent international competitions, Dr Malik urged the Indian Government and the Sports Authority of India to send Indian wrestlers for training abroad for the coming Doha Asian Games.
Malik, who is also president of the Haryana Wrestling Association, suggested that the men wrestlers should be sent for six-week training in Belarus while the women grapplers should be sent to Japan. "The Indian Indian wrestlers should continue to train till the Doha Asiad. From Belarus and Japan, the Indian wrestlers should straight go to Doha. Wrestlers would be the best bet in the Indian contingent for winning medals in the Doha Asiad," Malik said.
Praising the performance of the Indian team, Dr Malik, said that India on the second medal in the World Championship after a gap of 39 years as Alka Tomar of Uttar Pradesh clinched bronze medal in the 55 kg category for women. She earned the distinction of becoming the first Indian woman wrestler for the podium finish in the World Championship. Geeta secured seveth position out of 27 competitors in the 55 kg class.
Appreciating the achievement of Yogeshwar Dutt who finished a creditable fifth in the 60 kg freestyle category, Malik said out of seven Indian participants in the freestyle competitions in various categories, three succeeded in securing among the first ten positions. Indians were 12th in the freestyle team championship. Rohit Patel (96 kg) and Vinod Kumar (55 kg) also gave good performance. Vinod got seventh spot out of 30 competitors from all over the world. Rohit Patel finished 10th out of 27 wrestlers.
Olympian Palwinder Singh Cheema (120 kg) obtained 11th position in the 120 kg class. There were 27 wrestlers in the fray in his category. However, in the Greco-Roman style, Indian wrestlers need to prepare themselves more hard. Mukesh Khatri (55 kg), Gurinder Singh (66 kg) and Rajbir Chhikara (74 kg) did their best but that was not enough.
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New weighty rules due for wrestlers
By John Vellante | October 8, 2006
New weighty rules due for wrestlers
Changes are in store for high school wrestlers this season following the passage of a rule change by the National Federation of High Schools, which governs school sports throughout the country. The new rule changes the way wrestlers are evaluated for minimum weight, and each state will be responsible for implementing its own program. Wrestling and crew are the only two high school sports that require competitive weight classes, and now each state must assure that no male school wrestler will compete below 7 percent body fat and that no female wrestler will compete below 12 percent body fat. The federation hasn't set any rules for crew. In addition, the rule mandates that each state sponsor a weight-management educational program. To comply, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association is sponsoring four regional workshops to help coaches, wrestlers, and parents understand the new guidelines. Topics will include how to best prepare, proper hydration, nutrition, conditioning, and weight management. Workshops will be held Tuesday at Duxbury High, Oct. 17 at Central Springfield High, and Oct. 24 at Lexington High. The fourth site is yet to be determined. All seminars run from 6:30-8:30 p.m.