Thursday Grab Bag

Brownlee Continues Quest
Former Maverick men's hockey defenseman Chad Brownlee had a go at the professional ranks following graduation from Minnesota State in 2007, and as has been documented recently, the Kelowna, B.C., native has embarked on a new career as a country music musician and has been doing quite well. His first single - The Best That I Can (Superhero) currently sits 25th on the Canadian country singles charts. Brownlee, who was back in Mankato for a visit a couple of weeks ago after spending several days in Nashville working on songs to fill out an album expected to be released in the spring, sang the national anthems at a Vancouver Canucks game and a video featuring depicting his appearance is located here.

Lenton Named Preseason All-American Honorable Mention
Signalling that we're not that far away from the official start of the spring sports season (even though it's so cold out side you've gotta open the fridge to heat the house), senior righthanded pitcher Patrick Lenton has been named Preseason All-America Honorable Mention by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. The Maverick baseball team is scheduled to open the 2010 season Feb. 19th in Lakewood, Colo., vs. Colorado Christian. The MSU softball team, meanwhile, will also open its season Feb. 19 in Colorado with a doubleheader vs. Metro State (Colo.).

Former MSU Graduate Assistant Coach Gets Extension at Northern Arizona
Northern Arizona University recently announced that it was extending the contract of women's basketball coach Laurie (Trow) Kelly. Kelly, a Rochester, Minn., native, served as a graduate assistant with the MSU women's basketball program for two years back in 1996-98. Kelly's news brings to mind the success of several former MSU men's and women's basketball assistants and graduate assistants including Scott Trost (head men's coach at Lewis), Jim Whitesell (head men's coach at Loyola), Aaron Roussell (head women's coach at Chicago), Chris Johnson (head men's coach at the University of Sioux Falls), Kelly Boe (head men's coach at Concordia-St. Paul), Suzy Venet (head women's coach at Mount Union), Brady Larson (assistant coach at Concordia-Moorhead) and Austin Hansen (assistant men's coach at SDSU).

And they call Miami of Ohio "the Cradle of Coaches."