Sports

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Here’s another edition of Heatin’ Up. I finally landed an interview with Coach Fox who was as great of an interview as I hoped. Connor called in and we talked about the NBA draft a little and also his recent trip to Duke University.

Midway through my interview with Coach Fox we talked a bit about Dustin Ware and in retrospect, I wish I’d asked him if he also had a man crush the point guard. We’ll have to investigate that another time.

If you have any questions, thoughts, suggestions or free porn, send me an email at heatinuppodcast@gmail.com (don’t really send the porn there. Send that to jamescarr89@gmail.com).

Enjoy!

As well as our athletes performed on the field this past school year, it appears that they have done just as well in the classroom.

Out of the university’s 508 student athletes, 258 (just under 51%) of them earned a GPA of  3.0 or higher during the Spring semester. Overall, the student athlete’s set a post record cumulative GPA of 3.01.

Three student athletes (Drew Butler (football), Courtney Cripps (soccer) and Bridget Lyons (track & field)) were named Presidential Scholars for earning a 4.0 average and thirty-two others were named to the Dean’s List for having an average between 3.50 and 3.99.

For a full list of the 258 athletes that received a 3.0 or higher, check out the following link: http://www.georgiadogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8800&ATCLID=3746041

2nd Round Pick, 51st selection overall, Jr. 1B Rich Polythress

While the 2009 team did not finish the way many were hoping after the #1 ranking and 32-8 start to the season, the Dawgs did steal the show at the MLB Draft last week.

Leading the country with 11 players drafted,  the highest being 1B Rich Polthress by the Seattle Mariners in the 2nd round, UGA crushed the school record for players drafted (six picks, held by the ‘87, 2001, 2005 and 2008 teams).

In addition,  six signees from the upcoming 2009 class got drafted as well, with the highest being LHP Zach Dotson of Guyton, GA (Effingham County HS) in the 13th round (404th overall) by the New York Mets.

With that in mind, the 2009 team’s roster is relatively uncertain at this point. Out of the eleven players drafted, only three were seniors. So, with eight non-seniors along with the six signees making decisions on whether they will go pro or play at UGA next season, it will be very interesting to see how things shake out.

The good news is that out of the eight non-seniors drafted, as of right now only 1B Rich Poythress is expected to leave school early (though obviously he was the team’s best hitter). There have been some rumblings that junior CF Matt Cerione, drafted in the 13th round (#383 overall) by the Seattle Mariners could also be on his way out as well, but only time will tell to see if that is truly the case.

Here is a list of both the Bulldogs and UGA Signees drafted in the 2009 Draft:

Bulldogs in the 2009 MLB Draft
51st Rich Poythress (Seattle Mariners, 2nd Round)
81st  Trevor Holder (Washington Nationals, 3rd Round)
202nd Dean Weaver (Washington Nationals, 7th Round)
383rd Matt Cerione (Seattle Mariners, 13th Round)
506th Jeff Walters (Baltimore Orioles, 17th Round)
771st Michael Demperio (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 25th Round)
787th Alex McRee (Los Angeles Dodgers, 26th Round)
901st Bryce Massanari (Colorado Rockies, 30th Round)
966th Will Harvil (Arizona Diamondbacks, 32nd Round)
1232nd Joey Lewis (Kansas City Royals, 41st Round)
1405th Justin Earls (Pittsburgh Pirates, 47th Round)

Georgia Signees in the 2009 MLB Draft
404th Zach Dotson (New York Mets, 13th Round)
798th Miles Head (Boston Red Sox, 26th Round)
838th Eric Swegman (Atlanta Braves, 28th Round)
925th Zach Taylor (Pittsburgh Pirates, 31st Round)
958th Jake Montgomery (Atlanta Braves, 32nd Round)
1016th Malcolm Clappsaddle (Baltimore Orioles, 34th Round)

Another year, another Top 20 finish for the Men's Track and Field team

Last, but certainly not least, the Men’s and Women’s Track and Field teams wrapped up their seasons at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas last weekend. The men’s team finished 11th, its sixth Top 20 finish in the last ten years, while the women unfortunately did not place.

Junior Chris Hill led the way for the men’s team, as he won his 2nd consecutive NCAA javelin title with a school record performance. The men’s 11th place finish was their best since another 11th place finish in 2002.

By way of another Top 20 finish for the men’s track and field team, the UGA Athletic program’s 2008-2009 campaign has come to a close. With National championships in Gymnastics and Equestrian and numerous Top 5 (#2 Women’s Swimming, #3 Women’s Tennis, #3 Men’s Golf, #4 Softball), Top 10 (Men’s swimming, #10/#13 Football, #6 Men’s Tennis) and Top 20 (#15 Women’s Golf, #11 Men’s Track and Field Outdoor season) finishes throughout the athletic program, it was most certainly another great year for the athletic program.

Whenever 11 out of 19 (almost 58%) of your school’s programs finish in the Top 20 of their particular sports and nine of those eleven teams had Top 10 finishes (nearly half of your teams) that is a great year across the board for the athletic program.

If we made the qualification a Top 64 finish, the number would be 14/19 ( just under 74%,), which is pretty reasonable when you consider the fact that in some sports there are over 300 schools competing on the Division 1 level. Only one team (I think you can figure it out) had a losing record and another a .500 season (the women’s soccer team went 11-11-1).

Let’s hope that the 2009-2010 school year will be just as good/better.

The Softball team's run to the National Championship ended last weekend.

As summer classes start up throughout college campuses and high schools across the nation begin to wrap up the school year, it usually means one thing: college sports are about to end as well. Naturally this was the case for several of UGA’s programs.  With that in mind, I will chronologically recap the season’s end for some of the notable spring sports: (Disclaimer: the ranking to the left of the team is the program’s ranking before heading into postseason play)

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This is a new show I’m starting at WUOG which will only be available here and on iTunes. There are rules in the SEC which state that no athlete can do live interviews on-air, so since this show is recorded, we’ll be able to get any atheletes who are up to the task of coming on Heatin’ Up. This first edition is with Connor Nolte who will be walking on the UGA basketball team next fall. Enjoy.

You can subscribe to future Heatin’ Up podcasts by adding this URL to iTunes or an RSS reader: http://new.wuog.org/sports/feed/heatin-up/