Saturday, April 29, 2006

SHSU Benefitting From High School Sporting Events

The Huntsville Item reports (Apr. 29, 2006) that university facilities have become quite popular - with the high school crowd:
Each year, high school athletes get a chance to take advantage of the same fields, courts and track that the Kats compete on. Over the last few weeks, SHSU has hosted tennis regionals at the McAdams Tennis Center, and this weekend, Bowers Stadium is full of young athletes competing for a chance to advance to state at the Class 4A Region III track and field meet.

And if that’s not enough, the new Bearkat Baseball/Softball Complex is being used for high school playoff games.

So, with all this exposure to high school kiddos that have the potential of making the jump to the collegiate level, how does all this benefit the SHSU athletic department?

“Definitely the exposure part of this gives Sam Houston State the chance to show off our top-notch facilities,” said Bobby Williams, SHSU director of athletics. “That’s a big positive for us. We have always done a good job bringing in high school playoff games, but the new baseball and softball complex is a major factor. Everybody wants to play there because it is such a beautiful facility.

Beginning this weekend, and going well into May, high school baseball and softball playoff games will be played under the lights at the new complex.

Friday, April 21, 2006

SHSU at One Hundred Twenty Seven

On April 21, 1879 Texas Governor Oral Roberts singed legislature to set up an institution named after the hero of San Jacinto, Sam Houston Normal Institute. Only Texas A&M and its associated Prairie View campus had been established earlier, in 1876, as state-supported institutions of higher learning, making SHSU the third-oldest university in Texas. The Normal received top students that were recommended on a quota basis from each Texas senatorial district.