Cleaning up Beaver Stadium more than just a job

October 2, 2018

They call it the greatest show in college football for a reason: it’s awesome. A record crowd of more than 110,000 white-wearing fans singing, cheering and chanting in unison for the Penn State-Ohio State showdown Saturday night: fireworks blasting, band playing and stadium rocking for the prime-time kickoff. But fast-forward a mere six-and-a-half hours from the end of Nittany Lion heartbreaker, and the scene is entirely different, as the stadium clean-up crew arrives to deal with the aftermath of that greatest show. Did you know? n Students involved in club sports, as well as ...

Observations on another rainy day

September 18, 2018

Weather is not a factor at Penn State’s Rec Hall, unless you count the rainstorm of women’s volleyball wins for as long as most of us can remember. Legendary head coach Russ Rose is well into his 40th season at the helm of the Nittany Lion program. He has taken his team, currently ranked fifth in the country, where none have gone before: Seven national championships (and appearances in all of the NCAA tournaments) and 17 Big Ten titles. He was inducted into the ACVA Hall of Fame more than a decade ago. The statistics are impressive, but perhaps what has set this program apart ...

Penn State women’s soccer celebrates 25th season

September 4, 2018

Looking back at 1994, Forest Gump, Pulp Fiction and The Lion King were big at the box office; computer zip drives and the George Foreman grill were new inventions on the market; a gallon of gasoline cost just $1.11, and the Penn State varsity women’s soccer team took the field for the first time in Happy Valley. This year, the program celebrates 25 years of trailblazing brilliance. Women’s athletics at PSU is more than a half-century old and the Jeffrey Field soccer stadium was built in 1972, but it took the university’s move to the Big Ten Conference to spark the soccer ...

By the numbers: NASCAR heads toward playoffs

August 21, 2018

With summer quickly winding down, NASCAR’S Monster Energy Cup Series is gearing up for what could be an exciting post-season. The only question will be — will anyone care? Two regular-season races remain with Kevin Harvick leading the playoff standings as one of a dozen teams whose spot is secured. Among them, five former series champions: Harvick, Kurt and Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and defending title-holder Martin Truex Jr. Resting on the bubble is seven-time champ Jimmie Johnson, who would just make the field if the playoffs went green today. Johnson and Harvick would be ...

Time for us to go back to school

August 14, 2018

It seems like fall comes a little earlier every year. Even as summer feels far from over, students throughout the region are getting ready to go back to the classroom: school supplies abundantly line the shelves of department stores, seasonal harvest spice cookies temptingly grace the bakery racks at Sheetz, and student-athletes are excitedly anticipating the opening week of high school sports in central Pennsylvania. Driving around the region the activity is obvious: packs of cross country runners in fluorescent vests making their way through the streets; football players reporting to ...

School bands important

August 7, 2018

They’re gathering on fields across central Pennsylvania and across America. A whistle blows. Students absorbing instructions and getting into formation: reviewing play books, performing drills, working toward perfection. Specific movements are repeated many times over in a quest for precision and synergy. It sounds like preseason sports camp, and certainly football teams and others are taking part in these kinds of activities in preparation for the 2018 season. But in this case, the rhythms and harmonies are found at band camp, and theirs is a different kind of “score.” ...