Beautiful Day in NOLA

One of the best things about New Orleans is the great weather. Anytime I can get warm weather, I’ll take it. Now I do like seeing seasonal changes throughout the year but its extremely nice not practicing out in the cold. Today it is a cool 70 degrees and makes for a pretty nice day. Fortunately I had practiced today so I was not confined to my room studying all day. Finals week is always a hectic time for college students though I have a good schedule this week. My last exam is on Saturday then I’m heading back to Fort Worth. After the break we have are first outdoor meet in March so until then training everyday to get better. Days like these allow you to do anything you want and combine the weather with New Orleans culture; it makes for something unique. 

Front of Tulane Campus

Another tough loss

Man oh man its tough to be a Cowboys fan these days. I was able to watch the game since it was on NBC and it was rough. First Demarco Murray left the game with a ankle injury and then they give up a 12 point lead in the end of the fourth quarter. Cowboys missed another game winning field goal for the second straight week. However, there is a small consolation that the Tebow and the Broncos won again. I'm not a huge fan for how the media covers the Tebow thing way too much, but I am a big fan of the guy. I love his style because its refreshing and I hope they make a run if they get into the playoffs. Here at Tulane its finals week and I have two more. One on Thursday and another one on Saturday, I feel pretty good about them and I've had a pretty good semester. Training has gone well and looking forward to keep that momentum into the Christmas break. I'm heading back to Fort Worth on Saturday so I'll get in the day after my Grandpa's birthday. Tulane Basketball is also off to a great start having only lost one game and their next game is at Syracuse. During the break I'll finish my application to UT at Austin for my masters in Sports Management. Also side note on the Rangers, hate to see C.J. go wish he could've stayed in Texas but he's in a pretty good spot in LA.

Big Day for Tulane

Today Tulane announced its plans for an on-campus football stadium. Its going to hold 30,000 fans and create a much needed home field for the Tulane football. Two days ago Tulane named Curtis Johnson its new head coach who recently was the Saints' Wide Receivers Coach. It seems to be a great fit and has everybody excited. If there is one thing that I wish I had during my time as a Tulane student I would most definitely say an on-campus stadium. It is not only great news for Tulane but also for the city of New Orleans. The new stadium will add a great dynamic to Tulane as well as New Orleans. More students can develop a passion for their university and New Orleans schools can also use the new venue. However, I do have one nag any promotional tool for the stadium needs to get rid of the color lime green. Lime green is not intimidating, at least the last time I checked. This is a exciting time for Tulane and hopefully a catalyst of support for Tulane athletics. I recommend visiting tulanestadium.com to read more about it especially the history behind the whole process.

President Cowen with Head Coach Curtis Johnson

Checkerboard Endzones

Night Vision

Grand finale

Thanksgiving went well as usual. Before that I was able to meet up with some friends that I had not seen in awhile. Thanksgiving is always a great time for football and I got to go to the last Texas-Texas A&M game since the Aggies are going to the SEC. My little brother goes to Texas A&M and he was able to get us tickets for the game. Hopefully the rivalry will pick up sometime soon and if not the matchup will make for a great bowl game. The game was crazy and it was my first time to go to a game at Kyle Field. Texas ended up winning on a last second field goal making for an exciting finish to the rivalry. The Cowboys also ended up winning that day by a field goal. It was nice to spend some quality time back home and about to be on break again. We have two more weeks of school then we start finals. Took some pictures of the game…

Thanksgiving and why Tim Tebow is the man...

Here in the New Orleans Airport right now getting ready to head back to Texas for the Thanksgiving break. Excited to be home and relax a bit. Have a lot going on over the break one of them being the last football games between Texas and Texas A&M. Track practice has been going well; I had a 350m time trial yesterday and it went well. Excited about using this time to get my legs underneath me to build on it going into the Christmas break. Saw an interview with Tim Tebow on First Take, love what he stands for and appreciate his refreshing perspective on life! His interview definitely put me in a good mood. Definitely pulling for the Broncos.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Time for Thanks

Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is almost here, I always love this time of year because it’s the start of my favorite two holidays: Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is always a great time to be around family as well as time to watch football. But before the break begins I have a presentation and a paper due on Monday where my team is analyzing the professional sports industry. You might be thinking does this guy ever talk about anything but sports?  Yes I do, but there is no doubt sports are a huge passion of mine. I am looking forward to being at home and catching up with friends and family. Right after Thanksgiving is pretty much finals time and crazy to think that I am almost one semester away from graduating college. Looking forward to using some of my time off to wrap up my applications for grad school. Definitely feel blessed to be able to spend my Thanksgiving at home. I hope that you will be spending it with the people that mean the most to you.

Semester Flying by...

With the Fall Semester comes football season so if you are not a big fan of football I’m sure many of my post do not really interest you. This past weekend featured one of the biggest match ups in college football with LSU (1) vs. Alabama (2) squared off in Tuscaloosa, AL. I watched the game with some track guys and next week plan on watching the Stanford-Oregon game this weekend.  LSU won by a field goal and Alabama had some missed opportunities on turnovers. Anyone who blames the game on Cade Foster is crazy and should be ashamed for mentioning it as the reason for losing the game. School has gone well and I am almost finished with the semester. I’m looking forward to being home for Thanksgiving and being back in Texas. Training has gone well and I definitely feel that things are coming along. I will most likely being in College Station for Thanksgiving and it is crazy to think that this will be the last time for Texas and Texas A&M will play each other for awhile. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks before I am back at home.

Don't count the last out...

There’s a lot going on in the sports world well at least for my sports world there is. Rangers are in the World Series and play a historic game 7 tonight in St. Louis. There division series between the Tigers was great to watch and the games have gotten even better in the World Series. Game 6 last night was extremely intense and the Rangers had two opportunities where they were one out away from winning it all. On top of that I had a 6:30am workout this morning. Another solid week of classes and I have a second round of tests coming up next week. Looking forward to a great sports weekend: Rangers, Horns, and Cowboys. I took the GRE last weekend and it went fairly well considering I didn’t have too much time to prep for it. Hoping to get my masters in Sports Management and hopefully I will be in Austin.

Go Rangers!!! 

Making History Tonight. 

Dallas for the Weekend

I was lucky enough to go back to Texas for the Texas-Oklahoma game in Dallas. It was a last minute effort to get to the game and it worked out. The Red River Rivalry had both UT and OU undefeated entering the weekend and College Gameday was covering the game. The game started out competitive then OU started to run away with it in the second quarter. Texas ended up losing the game and it was rough to watch, but they have another great game to recover from that lose by playing Oklahoma State this weekend. The State Fair is also that weekend, which is always a fun atmosphere to be apart of and the cotton bowl is still one of my favorite stadiums to watch games. Tulane also had a great game against Syracuse losing in the final seconds by a field goal. This week they play UTEP and looking to get back another win for the season. During my trip, I was able to catch up with family and be back in Texas for a bit. It also worked out that my high school had a football game that Saturday night as well but it ended up being rescheduled due to weather. I also was busy watching the first game of the ALCS. That game showing the Rangers vs. Tigers was postponed twice due to rain. Rangers came away with a crucial win against one of the best pitchers in baseball. Since then the Rangers have been nothing but exciting to watch with game two ending in a grand slam walk-off by Nelson Cruz in the 11th inning, first ever in postseason history. Game four was just as epic with Cruz hitting a 3-run homer in the top of the 11th inning. Rangers have put themselves in a great position not only to get back to the World Series but to win it all, which is exciting for everyone in Texas especially in the DFW area. Its Fall break for us so I am visiting my brother at Texas A&M this weekend. They play Baylor and its Parents weekend.

Beginning of the game...feeling great at this point

Priest Holmes and Joey Harrington for the LHN

Split of Texas and OU

"Don't count the days, make the days count"...

Been working hard on and off the track the past couple of weeks. First round of tests went well and now gearing up for fall break. Training has been going well and we are already seeing results in the weight room and on the track. Today was a long day: warm-up, hurdle mobility, running drills, hurdle drills, 200s and abs, being a decathlete isn’t for the faint of heart. I was also elected to serve as Co-President along with a buddy from the tennis team for our SAAC group, which represents all of our student-athletes. As for outside of Tulane, college football is still exciting as always. Texas is 4-0 and plays OU in the Red River Rivalry this weekend, going to be intense. Big news for my hometown Fort Worth, TX with TCU being invited into the Big XII today, going to be a great move for both sides. Also as a side note I'm not one to watch much TV except when it comes to sports but I do watch Modern Family and its gets me laughing every time. Great start to season three. 

Another week in Nola

Another great week in New Orleans. I love this time of year because its football season and right now its all about where are all these schools going to end up in all this conference realignment. Tulane had a big victory for their team winning 49-10 against UAB, which will hopefully create some momentum for the team. Texas also played UCLA this past weekend though not on many people games to watch list, its was no doubt on mine. Texas took care of business and really excited to see how the do this year and love what the new offensive coordinator from Boise State has already been able to do with the team. We had another great week of practice and have been hitting the weights as much as we can. School is starting to pick up and I'm about to enter my first round of tests.

ACL was this past weekend and a buddy of mine was one of the featured artists. If you're interested in some creative and original sound check out his website... hudsonmoore.net. Trust me he's good.

Sunday Morning Fishin

My Uncle was in town for the weekend with his company so I got to spend some time with him. In addition to that my grandparents also came in on Saturday and we all went to lunch. Watched the Texas-BYU game, which was exciting and nerve racking. Definitely glad its Football season again. I went fishing with my uncle this morning so got up around 4:30am but it was well worth it. The weather was great, caught some fish, and it was relaxing. We had a meeting for the Athletic department on Sports Nutrition and the speaker had some great points. Thankfully I had already started some of the habits she spoke about. After that caught the end of the Cowboy game, which was sad to watch.

My Biggest Catch of the Day

Marsh Lands

Keepin' the Fish Cool

Big Pile of Fish

Being the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, I am thankful for the U.S. and for everyone that protects our freedoms. That day will never be forgotten and it is great to see the resiliency of our nation

Start of Round 4...

Well Senior year hard to believe its already here. Its off to a pretty good start. Drove down to New Orleans for the first time in my new Wrangler so it will be nice having a car. Start practice tomorrow and getting ready for our off-season. Yesterday was the first Saturday of College Football!! It went well Tulane won and Texas won their opener as well. Preparing to take the GRE sometime this semester so wish me luck. We had some rain in Nola this weekend but not much else so luckily no real damage. I wish we could send some of that rain to Texas.

Colorado Pics

Summer 2011

Well a lot has been going on since I last wrote. For the first part of the summer I came back to Fort Worth and saw my cousin, the baby of the family, graduate High School! Soon after that I went to Missouri to work at Kanakuk. It brought back a lot of memories when I first got there. We had a lot of new staff and I loved getting to know everyone. It's amazing to see how God can bring people together, made some great new friends. I was a counselor again and I was with the older cabins. I'm not sure what I did to get the three cabins I got, but I absolutely loved every minute of it. It was neat to not only be able to grow, but also witness growth. My co-counselor was also from Texas and goes to the University of Oklahoma--great guy and it was a lot of fun hanging out with him. After Kamp I started working for an oil and gas firm in Downtown Fort Worth. I've enjoyed being back home getting to spend time with my family. I've also been able to go out the lake a couple of times as well as some of my friends from Kanakuk. In the midst of all that been training for track getting ready for the upcoming year. I have a new events coach so I am excited to getting back to work. Getting to got to Colorado with my mom and my brother here in a couple of weeks!

Finishing the Semester

We had a good time in California and our flight did not get rerouted anywhere either. I finished my finals this past Friday, which is definitely a good feeling. My roommates’ mom and his brother came down that Saturday so I got to spend some time with them as well as help my roommate pack up some stuff. Then on Sunday my mom and my brother came down to New Orleans to help me pack up. It was great seeing them. We went to Parkway Bakery for lunch and it’s probably the one of the best po-boys I’ve had in New Orleans. We have our conference meet this weekend in Houston at Rice. I’m leaving tomorrow and I’ll be competing in the decathlon on Thursday and Friday. Excited for the meet and then afterwards I will have a week before I go to Kanakuk for the first half of the summer. Looking forward to being a boat driver and spending time with everyone there.

Easter

Its Easter Weekend and it was my first Easter here in New Orleans. We had a meet at LSU on Saturday where I competed in the long jump, 100m and the 4x100m relay. I had a personal record in the 100 running 11.06, which was good. We are traveling to California later this week to compete at UC-Irvine on Saturday and Sunday. The church that I have been going to here in New Orleans also held an Easter service at Tulane in the Dixon Hall Auditorium. I got there a couple hours early to help out by passing out doughnuts to people on campus telling them about the service. The service went really well and the music was awesome. As for classes I am finished. We have a reading week and then final exams will start. I have 2 finals and a presentation then I will be done with junior year…that’s hard to believe. I just got back from a bike ride and there was some crawfest going on at the fly by Audubon Park. I rode my bike through it and I saw some pretty interesting cars around there. After that I just rode around Audubon and stopped to check out the pond then right as I was about to get back on my bike a couple of ducks were right next to me. Hoping for a good end to the semester and a safe trip to California.

Knoxville, TN

We had a track meet in Knoxville, TN this weekend. My cousin is also on the Tennessee football team and they had their spring game this weekend as well. The team got into Tennessee on Thursday and I got to visit with my cousin for a little bit at the track after warm ups. My grandparents, aunt, uncle and my cousin’s grandparents saw me run the 100m on Friday. The meet was also streaming live online, but I forgot about the time change so my mom didn’t get to watch it. One of my aunts though did get to see it said she saw my grandma and my aunt in the background. I was able to spend the rest of the day with them and we went around the campus and into a couple of the athletic facilities. One of my aunt’s big sisters from her sorority lives in Tennessee so we met them for dinner. I had a blast and they were a lot of fun. It was a buffet and it had some great shrimp. I competed in long jump on Saturday and I had some great jumps but I barely missed the minimum measure mark, which was still a PR. It was unfortunate that they didn’t measure it, but I’m excited to take that momentum into the LSU meet this weekend. The spring game was that afternoon and I was able to watch most of it. My cousin is a quarterback and he got in for a series and we got to hear his name over the loudspeaker, which was cool. It was a good weekend and I am thankful I was able to be around family for a little while. Knoxville is a neat place. Our flight back from Knoxville was scheduled to leave at 6:45am but it was delayed until 1:00pm so we flew all the way to Minneapolis, Minnesota from Knoxville then flew from Minnesota to New Orleans. It was an interesting path back to Nola, but I got my boots shined during the lay over.

Home stretch...

We have a little over two weeks of classes left in the semester. We had a meet at South Alabama this past weekend and it went pretty well. We had a handful of personal records and came away with some good memories. I noticed that one my coaches had on two different shoes so I got a kick out of being the first one to notice that and my grandfather that lives in Pensacola also came to the meet. I threw the javelin, long jumped and ran the 100m. I did well in the long jump and missed the finals by a tenth of a meter. It was my best jump this year (6.5m) and a good improvement. Going to hit the 7-meter mark here sometime soon. We have a meet at UT-Knoxville this weekend and we are only taking a handful of competitors. My cousin also has his spring game this weekend so my grandparents will be in Knoxville. We have our last SAAC meeting tonight and we’ll probably be finish up planning for our banquet that is in a couple of weeks.

Rangers off to a great start 9-1!!!

LSU Relays

I have not been able to practice all week and we had a relay meet at LSU on Friday and Saturday. It was tough not being able to train like I have been but it was a good week. I got my stitches out on Thursday. My coaches didn’t think I was going to compete so they didn’t enter me into any individual events. All I know is that God answers prayers and I was able to run this weekend. We went to Baton Rouge on Friday early afternoon and my relay wasn’t until 7pm. Thanks to a friend, I went to Inga’s a local sandwich shop with a teammate…so good. I even went there on Saturday, too. I had never run in a sprint medley relay (200, 200, 400, 800) before so it was fun to do one. I ran the second 200 and it was nice to run again though we were in a pretty fast heat. Second day in Baton Rouge I ran in the 4x4 relay, which was the last event of the meet. I was the anchor and I got out really well, but still have to work on finishing stronger. We ran our best 4x4 time of the season, which was good. We are excited to work with it and see how we can improve. My knee also didn’t spilt open and I’m thankful for that. Unfortunately we are not competing at LSU this week like originally scheduled but a few girls are going to the Florida Relays. As far as school goes I had two tests last week that went well. I have a few presentations to give this week and I’m looking forward to it.

Start of the Outdoor Track Season

Outdoor season has finally started and we were able to have our meet at Tad Gormley. It went well and we had great weather. Tulane won the 4x1 and my friend Koplan won the 400 with a personal record time of 48.6. We had spring break that week and I went to Baton Rouge for the weekend. I had a good time visiting some friends and went to the LSU-Cal St, Fullerton game, which was a lot of fun. I went to Rice on Tuesday to compete in my first decathlon of the season. Drove down there with my coach and was excited about competing. My mom came to watch on Wednesday, which was really great of her to make the trip. I did well in the long jump and had a good first 400m of the season. Thursday my brother came to watch me compete and the first event was the 110 hurdles. After the race I noticed I had cut my knee. I’m not sure which hurdle did it, but man I need to work on my technique. I thought I would be able to just get it cleaned up and go back to competing. The trainer said that I needed to get stitches so I was finished competing for the day. Luckily the hospital was across the street but it took forever to get checked out and finally get my knee stitched up. I ended up with seven stitches and hopefully I will be back running shortly. The best part about the day was hanging out with my little brother so maybe God was just giving me some time with him. This week I have a couple of tests and then we have a meet at LSU. I’d love to compete at the meet but only time will tell…


Nola...
7 stitches...
Amazing Pecan Waffle...
LSU baseball game...
Mississippi River...
My two buddies back home.

Mardi Gras

Its Mardi Gras time here in Nola so it gets pretty crowded this time of year. It rained pretty hard on Saturday that a couple of parades were moved to Sunday. One of my buddies on the track and I were about to start a round of Tiger Woods Golf when the power suddenly went out during the rain on Saturday. Luckily it didn’t last long and the power turned back on. Tulane has the whole week off for Mardi Gras. My mom is coming in town for our track meet at Tad Gormely. It looks like there is a good chance of some storms on Tuesday and Wednesday, but hopefully they will pass through. My cousin and her fiancé are also in town for a wedding so I will get to spend some time with them on Thursday, which will be fun and then I think I’m going to Baton Rouge for the rest of the week. I’m definitely looking forward to the week ahead…

Beautiful weather in Nola

These past couple of weeks have been phenomenal. I went to see some friends in Baton Rouge this past weekend and I stayed with my friends from High School. It was fun to catch up and see how things were going with them. The weather has also been amazing and training in it has been great, too. Classes are going pretty well and my tests seem to be fairly spread out this semester, which is good for me. Tulane is hosting is first track meet since Katrina at City Park here in New Orleans on March 9th. It should be a fun meet and I’m looking forward to kicking off the outdoor season here in New Orleans. Hopefully I’ll fun fast…

Past couple of weeks

Last weekend was the Super Bowl and it was played in Dallas/Fort Worth where I am from. It was cool to see all the ESPN preview shows in downtown Fort Worth and it was crazy to see how cold it was. It’s hard to believe the DFW was making news about the amount of snow they were getting because we hardly ever get it. The game itself was a pretty good game and even though my coach is a big stealers fan, I’m glad the packers came out with the win. I had a couple of tests and I think I did pretty well, but we’ll find out this week. I also started my stock trak assignment for my equities class and my portfolio has stayed in the top five of the class. On the athletic side, I submitted a form to be the Division I Conference-USA Representative and our girl’s team has had meets in Nebraska and Arkansas the past two weekends then they have another one at LSU on Friday. I’m thinking about running unattached at LSU since Tulane does not sponsor men’s indoor track, but I’m not sure if my coach wants me to compete yet.

4/30/11

It was my brother’s birthday this past Sunday so I had my one my friends on the Track team call my brother from his phone wishing him Happy Birthday from a random number. It was funny and we had a pretty good laugh at my brother’s expense. I’m about to start an investment in equities assignment where we have $1,000,000 in a mock stock trading account and I have to invest in at least 10 different companies then make at least one trade a week until April 15th. It should be a fun project so I contacted my inside sources (my grandmother) to see where I should potentially invest my money. Tulane has also started to have a department wide dinner every month for the student-athletes and tonight we had a few people speak to us about proper etiquette for a job interview. They fed us some great food and I enjoyed spending time with the different teams. I also had a minor calf injury at the beginning of the week so I did some rehab during the week and I’m now fully recovered and thankful that God led me to a successful and speedy recovery. Plus the Super Bowl is a week way...

Another week in the books

Another good week of classes have gone by and I have managed to stay on top of things. One of my assignments this week was to read an article about Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios, which was cool. I love Pixar movies so it was neat to do a homework assignment about it. Track practice went well, I had a long sprint workout on Wednesday and it was kind of rough, but I survived and hopefully stronger as a result. I had a pretty relaxing weekend. I did some schoolwork and read 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper on my nook. It was really good and other than talking about his experience in Heaven, he wrote an important message about pride and allowing God to work through a person’s life.

1st week of class and Baton Rouge

Last week was my first week of classes and they went pretty well. My schedule looks good this semester and I’m lifting at 9AM Monday, Wednesday, Friday; which is way better than the fall semester. The women’s track team started the indoor season with a meet at LSU. I went up to Baton Rouge with a couple of guys from the team to watch the girls compete and it was a good first meet. A few girls had their personal bests and all the new girls have now competed in a college track meet. I ended up staying in Baton Rouge with some friends that go to LSU. We had a good time hanging out and I met some new people, too. One of the girls I met that hung out with us on Saturday kept thinking I looked a lot like someone she knew. Later that night my brother’s name came up in conversation and she asked if I knew him and I replied, “Yeah sort of…he’s my brother.” She thought I looked exactly like Gaines, but had no idea we were brothers so that was entertaining. Sunday night I went to Refuge at the Chapel and it was great. The worship was amazing and the service was good, too. I’m starting a lot of my event training this week so I’m sure I will be exhausted, but it will be another great week. I’m glad the semester is off to a good start and I’m looking forward to learning more and more like every other semester.

End of the break

The past week has been great. All of my family was able to get together for Christmas and we had a great time. I got a Nook (B&N e-reader) for Christmas and I am really excited about having so many books in one place. Another one of my cousins got engaged over the break so we had a little engagement party at my Grandparent’s for both of my cousins. I had not met my other cousin's fiancé so it was nice to meet her. It was a fun time and nice to see some people I had not seen in awhile. I also went to a Campus Crusade Conference here in Fort Worth called the Winter Conference. It was a great time and I was able to spend some quality time with Lord, in addition to meeting some new people. My brother and I have also had a lot of fun watching season 1 of Modern Family, laughing hysterically at almost every episode. Overall I have had a great Christmas break. I have been able to hang out with some friends I have not seen in awhile and i was able to hang out with my family. Looking forward to going back to Tulane and starting back up again.