Davis Has Earned Her Stripes

MSU women's basketball and volleyball
alum Vicki Davis serves as the coordinator
of women's basketball officials for the
Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference

Vicki Davis admits that officiating runs in her blood.

A 1971 graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato, she owns three degrees from the school. After completing her undergraduate degree, she finished a master’s degree in 1978 that was in physical education and health, and then in 1983 she received an administration degree.

Davis’s schedule is anything, but free. Her calendar is consistent for month long periods filled with: scouting out new talent, attending NCAA clinics to relay information to coaches and officials, understanding new rules and regulations, watching and attending women’s basketball games, reviewing previous calls on games making sure they were correct and legal, and setting up meetings with coaches to discuss how the season went.

Davis first attended college the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, before transferring back closer to home to attend MSU.

She played women’s basketball for three years in Mankato, with primary position was forward center during the years of 1968-1971.

It is no surprise that her passion lies within women’s basketball.

Having been inspired by by her father, who served as a basketball official, Davis was first introduced to officiating while she was participating in practice, as the classes ran at the same time. She understood what officials were looking for and then learned the rest through listening during practice.

Her first job officiating was at a junior varsity basketball game. The coaches liked what they witnessed and then asked Davis to officiate the rest of the season.

Besides working the JV games, she also worked with volleyball and basketball at the college level. Furthermore, a great moment of her officiating career was in 1972 when she was asked to officiate the national volleyball tournament, which was held in Miami, Fla.


Davis now serves as the coordinator of women’s basketball officials for the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

“They (official) are both a part of basketball, to make basketball better together," she said when asked what she liked about the officiating profession, stressing the importance of her position in watching coaches and officials work together.


As a long-time official, Davis said she understood that one of the most important qualities an official can have is gaining the coaches trust. “Basketball is a game of trust and without being on the same page challenges can arise.”

She mentioned the difference from her past experiences in women’s basketball to her now future experiences as “night and day.” The major differences are more players on the court, and the name of women’s basketball as a whole being more respected.

“It has been fun to watch the game grow. Players need to appreciate what they have, as things can be taken away very quickly.”

“Hopefully kids are going to school to get a good education, and I worry about what the kids choose to participate in, as they should enjoy the ability to play basketball at a university, and not be forced to do so.”

Inducted into the Minnesota State Athletics in 1983, Davis served as the ssistant Athletic Director and Volleyball Coach at Hastings (Minn.) High School and served as the President of the Minnesota State girls high school coaches association.

A lasting piece of advice that she can give to college level athletes is “stay involved, and gives back to the sport. Attend games and volunteer to be a scorekeeper or timer for high school or college teams. Most importantly be a good fan, come to the alumna games and be a huge supporter to women’s basketball or any sport that you may have previously played in.”

                                    Liz Anderson, Minnesota State Athletic Communications intern

Carew's Been a Hit With Maverick Athletics

Alex Carew has served as an undergraduate
intern for Shane Drahota in the Minnesota
State Athletics Compliance & Eligiblity
Office

Alex Carew, a fifth-year senior at Minnesota State, is a sport management major with an athletic coaching minor.  Toiling behind the scenes in the Minnesota State Athletics Department, Carew has spent the last couple of years working with Shane Drahota in the Maverick compliance and student services office.

Born and raised in Wisconsin in a family of five (he is a triplet with his two sisters Lauren and Caitlin), Alex was a three-sport athlete in high school and played the trumpet in the band. After beginning his post-high school education at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, he transferred to Minnesota State prior to the 2015-16 school year because UWEC did not have a sport management program.

When Alex got to Minnesota State he started digging into the sport management program right away and before long started a work study job manning the front desk in the main athletic department. The following year he trained in as Drahota’s undergraduate student assistant. Drahota, who serves as the school's Assistant Athletic Director/Compliance & Student Services, is a Jackson, Minn., native who is in his second stint in his current role with the Mavericks, rejoining the department in January of 2016 after spending two and half years as the Assistant Athletic Director for Internal Affairs at Wayne State College (Neb.).

The compliance and student services department handles Minnesota State’s athletic compliance and elibility, ensuring that Maverick student-athletes, coaches, recruits, administrators, boosters, and alumni are in line with the rules and regulations of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. A monumental task that involves providing oversite for Minnesota State’s 20 sports and its 500+ student-athletes, making sure they are in progress to graduate on time, their financial aid scholarships are accurate, and to make sure that they are ultimately eligible to play.

After Alex’s first day of training in the office, Jeremy Christoffels (who was working with Drahota as a graduate assistant intern at the time and now serves as the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Assistant Commissioner for Compliance.) mentioned to Drahota that he thought “Alex is going to be great.” Observing that Alex "learned very fast and was good at so much of what he was asked to do," it wasn't long before the protege was taking on additional responsibility.

“Whatever I do, Alex is capable of," said Drahota, adding that Carew is involved with virtually every facet of his operation.

"It's been a blessing working with Shane," said Carew. "One of the best experiences I've had in college. It's fun working with him and I've learned a lot.  He's a bright guy and it's been about more than just compliance and eligibility, so not just sports, but outside of this realm, too."

In addition to working with Drahota, Carew has made the most of his collegiate experience at Minnesota State, playing the trumpet in the Maverick Marching Machine, the school's athletics band. He also coaches squirt hockey.

How has he been able to juggle all of this?  "That's a good question. I think prioritizing things is the key," said Carew.  "School work comes first. Then working with Shane. Then everything else."

Expecting to graduate in the fall of 2018 and taking a look into the future, Carew has applied to a few graduate schools and is waiting to hear back from them to decide where he will end up upon graduation. Ultimately he would like to get to the NCAA Division I level where he would continue to work in a compliance and student services office.

   contributed by Brooke Brower, Athletic Communications intern

Holiday Tournaments

Let's see.  There's shopping.  At some point, the decorations have to come down and the lights have to be put away. There's college football bowl games on TV. And fans looking for basketball and hockey tournaments will be happy this week with several events dotting the landscape this time of year.

Men's basketball teams in the North Central Conference used to participate in the popular NCC Holiday Tournament held annually in Sioux Falls, S.D. 

The event was a three-day, eight-team post-Christmas affair that drew good crowds at the Civic Center. The tournament enjoyed a successful 24-year run from 1965-89 before eventually coming to a halt after the NCC created a postseason tournament.

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference began its iteration of the Holiday Tournament in Sioux Falls in 2008, which ran around Thanksgiving for a couple of years, and not unlike the NCC vehicle, was discontinued due to league teams also faced with scheduling complications due to league postseason competition.

Since joining the NCAA Division I men's hockey ranks, the Minnesota State men's hockey program has played in Holiday tournaments hosted by Vermont (2000-01 and 2003-04), Ohio State (2004-05), Notre Dame (2010-11) and the University of Connecticut (2012-13).

Years before, as a member of Division II, the Mavericks hosted a holiday event of their own during the 1982-83 season when then-head coach Don Brose convinced teams from St. Olaf, Hamline and Alaska-Anchorage to venture to All Seasons Arena for the Mankato Schriners Christmas Tournament. Not unlike other college Holiday tournaments, this was a post-Christmas affair played on a Wednesday (Dec. 29) and Thursday (Dec. 30).

Alaska Anchorage, which joined the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in 1993-94, downed St. Olaf by a 6-0 margin to open the tournament and the host Mavericks followed by galloping to a 9-4 triumph over Hamline.  St. Olaf bounced back in the third-place game by beating Hamline 11-7 and the Seawolves emerged with the first-place hardware in claiming a 5-4 victory over MSU in the championship finale.

"It's one of those things where we were still trying to generate some notoriety for  the program here in Southern Minnesota back in the early 1980s," said Brose. who served as MSU's bench boss from 1969-2000. "Unfortunately it was only a one year deal when we tried it. But I thought it was a good idea at the time as people are always looking for things to do during the holidays."


It's great to be a Maverick!

And That's a Wrap

Minnesota State claimed seven conference titles in 2012-13

Yowser!

The Boys of Summer officially concluded the 2012-13 school year of competition for Minnesota State Athletics last weekend with their second-place finish at the NCAA Division II Baseball Championship tournament.

What a run for head coach Matt Magers and the Mavericks as they rolled to a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament title and captured the NCAA DII Central Region tournament championship en route to a 42-9 record. Magers, who owns a 215-66 record in his five seasons at the helm for the Mavericks, was named National Coach of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.  Senior right-handed pitcher Harvey Martin was named National Pitcher of the Year by the NCBWA, Daktronics and the American Baseball Coaches Association. Like Martin, junior pitcher Jason Hoppe was named an All American (Hoppe by the NCBWA, Martin by the other three organizations already mentioned). Hoppe also established a NCAA record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched at an incredible 55.1. Senior catcher Ben Keller, an Academic All-American, earned his second career Elite 89 Award, which goes to the student-athlete with the highest grade point average at NCAA championship events for their sport.

Today we announced that senior tennis player Brandi Dohmen has been named an Academic All-American. In doing so she becomes the eighth Minnesota State student-athlete to accomplish the feat this year. Since we began keeping track of such things, the most Academic All-Americans we've ever had in a season was four in 2004-05.

Back in December I did a blog post relative to the start of the year because it was a great beginning for our teams with football finishing third in the country, women's soccer claiming a NCAA regional crown and men's cross country placing 20th.

The success achieved in the fall continued on into the winter with men's hockey making the national tourney for the first time in ten seasons, men's basketball won the NSIC regular-season and post-season titles and hosted the regional tournament, women's basketball advanced to the NCAA regional tournament for the second consecutive year, men's indoor track won the NSIC title and placed fifth at NCAAs and wrestling placed eighth at the NCAA tournament.

And then onto the spring where the softball team claimed the NSIC title and hosted the NCAA subregional and men's track and field won the NSIC title and finished 12th at the NCAA championship meet. Baseball finished things up by playing in the national championship game June 1.

We'll wait until NACDA's announcement comes out, but it's expected that we'll have a top-five finish in the Directors' Cup final standings.  Not bad considering that there are more than 300 schools at the DII level and a healthy improvement on last year's 21st-place finish.

It should also be pointed out that it was a banner year academically with the aforementioned eight Academic All-Americans, six Myles Brand Award recipients (NSIC Award for student-athletes with cumulative 3.75 or better GPA), nine WCHA Scholar-Athletes (SAs with at least 3.50 GPA), 195 student-athletes named academic all-conference and 57 Maverick Achievement Award recipients (senior scholar-athletes).

By any measure, a tremendous year for Minnesota State Athletics.

Only 61 days until the first day our football team can officially start practicing!

It's great to be a Maverick.