SRU Ranked 23rd in National Poll

SRU earns No. 23 ranking in final D2Football.com national poll

LIBERTY, Mo. – Slippery Rock University was ranked 23rd in the final D2Football.com national poll released Monday.

The Rock, who finished the season with a 9-3 win-loss record, had the fifth-highest ranking among the 49 teams that competed for the Super Region 1 championship. Region champion West Chester (13-2) led the pack with a No. 8 ranking, followed by Shepherd (11-1) at No. 13, Winston-Salem State (10-2) at No. 15, Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champion Bloomsburg (10-2) at No. 16 and The Rock.

SRU was ranked 20th in D2Football.com’s final regular-season poll before losing its final two games. The Rock wound up at the No. 21 team in the American Football Coaches Association Division II Coaches’ Top 25 Poll.

The final two Rock losses came at the hands of teams ranked above them in both the D2Football.com and AFCA final poll. SRU dropped a 42-38 decision in the PSAC championship game at Bloomsburg (No. 16 in AFCA final poll) and fell by a 27-20 score at Winston-Salem State (No. 14 in AFCA poll) in first-round action of the NCAA Division II national playoffs.

The NCAA postseason appearance was The Rock’s first since 1999. The Green and White won the PSAC-Western Division championship for the second time in the last three seasons before coming up short in the conference championship game.

The Rock’s 2013 squad featured 18 seniors, headlined by second-team All-America performers Quindell Dean (linebacker) and James McCombie (punter) and PSAC-West Offensive Athlete of the Year Nigel Barksdale (quarterback).

Rock head coach George Mihalik will welcome back eight offensive starters and five defensive starters for the 2014 season. Included in that list are all-region offensive tackle Cory Tucker, first-team All-PSAC-West safety Austin Miele and second-team all-conference performers Teddy Blakeman (running back), Jaimire Dutrieuille (wide receiver), Shamar Greene (running back), Julian Harrell (tight end) and Matt Peacock (defensive end).

The Rock’s 2014 schedule features an Oct. 18 date with Mercyhurst at “The Big House,” Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

Bob McComas
Sports Information Director
Slippery Rock University
1 Morrow Way - Room 201 Old Main
Slippery Rock, Pa. 16057
Office: 724.738.2777
Fax: 724.738.4761
Cell: 724.421.5658
Email: robert.mccomas@sru.edu
www.sru.edu

A ROCK SOLID Education

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Pgh to Host Youth Arts Showcase

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Shaunda Miles, Director of Public Relations, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
412-471-1578/Miles@TrustArts.org
Diana Roth, Communications Manager, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
412-471-8717/Roth@TrustArts.org

PITTSBURGH SELECTED TO HOST ANNUAL
INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS SHOWCASE FOR YOUTH

PITTSBURGH, PA – December 30, 2013. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is pleased to announce that Pittsburgh International Children’s Theater will host the International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY) Showcase being held January 22–25, 2014, at venues throughout Pittsburgh’s downtown Cultural District.

The IPAY Showcase is in its 37th year and will bring artists from around the world to Pittsburgh to perform in eighteen productions from seven countries, including four from the United States and three from Canada.

The IPAY Showcase is presented in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival.

Photo Credit:  Cindy Marie Jenkins

The seventeen productions represent a wide range of work including theater and musical theater, dance, circus and physical comedy, puppetry and installation. Productions range from small intimate performances to large-scale spectacles and have been created for young audiences ranging in age from babies to teenagers.

Photo Credit:  Harley Stumm

“We’re constantly amazed at the diversity of our field and so proud to be showcasing an amazing list of artists and productions from the United States and Canada, as well as from Australia, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Spain,” says Boomer Stacey, IPAY Executive Director.  “We receive more and more applications each year, continuing to raise the bar on outstanding, innovative performing arts for young audiences.”

“Pittsburgh is pleased to host the IPAY Showcase for the third time in the Showcase’s history,” shared Pam Lieberman, Executive Director of Pittsburgh International Children’s Theater and Festival.  “This Showcase is an extraordinary opportunity to see professional and quality theater created for kids.  Pittsburgh is a city that values family, art and culture.  Our city is the perfect host site for this Showcase, and I am thrilled that we were selected.”

Artists included in the Showcase will include Terrapin Puppet Theatre (Australia), Tout â Trac (Canada), Teatergroep Kwatta (Netherlands) and Teatro Paraiso (Spain) returning to Showcase with new work, and we are excited to experience productions by artists new to our event such as Cirque Alfonse (Canada), arch 8 dance group (Netherlands) and Cahoots NI (Northern Ireland).

Photo Credit:  Brant Brogan

A full list of performances scheduled for the 2014 Showcase can be found online at www.ipayweb.org/showcase.

TICKETS
Registration rates for the 2014 Showcase are available online.  Schools have access to free tickets, but capacity is limited.  Please contact Group Sales at (412) 471-6930 for information about tickets for families and schoolchildren.

More information and a full schedule are online at ipayweb.org.  There, you can find a full list of selected artists, along with information on production, target age range and artistic genre. A preliminary schedule is available, which has additional productions incorporated as well as information on Showcase events such as Kindling, Exhibition Room and Membership Meeting.

ABOUT IPAY

The annual Showcase is the premiere event in North America, dedicated to promoting the best in international performing arts for young audiences. The event presents an opportunity for the community to gather together to discuss new trends and hot topics in the field, to view work available for touring in the United States and to promote the high quality and innovation of work being created for young audiences.
Showcase is produced and presented by IPAY, an arts service organization based in Philadelphia, dedicated to this field and to promoting, supporting and advancing the community of professional performing arts for young audiences in North America.

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Rock Quartet Earns Honors

Rock football quartet earns first-team Hansen all-region honors

BROOKFIELD, Ill. — Nine members of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference runner-up Slippery Rock University football team were named Monday afternoon as members of the Don Hansen Football Gazette All-Region Committee’s 2013 NCAA Division II All-Super Region One squad.

The Rock had the second-highest number of first-team selections and tied for the second-highest total number of student-athletes honored among the 49 Super Region 1 teams.

Region champion West Chester placed five players on the first team, while The Rock had four and regional runner-up Shepherd and PSAC champion Bloomsburg had three each.

Shepherd led the overall squad with 10 selections, Bloomsburg and Slippery Rock had nine each, New Haven posted seven and West Chester, Shippensburg and East Stroudsburg each had six players honored.

Senior quarterback Nigel Barksdale,

senior punter James McCombie, senior wide receiver John Schademan and redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Cory Tucker each earned first-team status to headline the list of Rock student-athletes honored.

Senior cornerback Anthony Saunders earned second-team all-region honors from the Hansen committee,

while senior linebacker Quindell Dean, junior safety Austin Miele, senior nose guard Tony Papley and senior defensive tackle Derek Walker were named to the Hansen committee’s third team.

The first-team and second-team All-Region selections advance to a national ballot from which the 2013 Don Hansen NCAA Division II All-America team will be named later this month.

The Hansen committee all-region honors were the latest in a long list of postseason awards presented to Rock football student-athletes.

All nine Hansen first-team all-region selections earned first-team All-PSAC-West honors, as did senior linebacker Gary Allen.

The Rock also placed five players on the All-PSAC-West second team. That group included juniors Teddy Blakeman (running back), Julian Harrell (tight end) and Matt Peacock (defensive line), sophomore wide receiver Jaimire Dutrieuille and redshirt freshman running back Shamar Greene.

All four of The Rock’s first-team Hansen committee all-region performers had previously received Daktronics first-team all-region honors in voting by sports information directors. McCombie subsequently earned second-team All-America honors in that competition.

Dean had earned second-team All-America honors from BSN and was also a second-team Daktronics all-region selection.

Barksdale, McCombie and Schademan also earned third-team All-America honors from Beyond Sports Network, while Tucker was named to the BSN’s honorable-mention list.

Rock head coach George Mihalik was named by his peers as both the American Football Coaches Association Division II Super Region 1 and PSAC-West Coach of the Year award recipient.

The Rock finished the 2013 season with a 9-3 win-loss record, claimed their second PSAC-West championship in the last three seasons and earned their first NCAA Division II playoff berth since 1999. The Green and White were also ranked 21st in the final AFCA Division II Coaches’ Top 25 national poll and 23rd in the final D2Football.com national poll.

Bloomsburg senior running back Franklyn Quiteh, the 2013 recipient of the Harlon Hill Trophy awarded to the top Division II football player in the nation, was named as the Hansen committee’s Super Region 1 Offensive Player of the Year, while Shippensburg defensive end Jake Metz was selected as the region’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Shepherd freshman return specialist C.J. Davis garnered the Special Teams Player of the Year honor, New Haven cornerback Najae Brown was named Freshman of the Year and West Chester head coach Bill Zwaan received the Super Region 1 Coach of the Year honor.

The Don Hansen team carries out the legacy of long-time small college football advocate Don Hansen, who passed away at age 75 on Aug. 29, 2010. Hansen started and published Don Hansen’s National Weekly Football Gazette for three decades, selecting NCAA Division II All-America teams for the first time in 1988.  Don Hansen’s Football Gazette began selecting Division II All-Region squads in 2003.

Super Region 1 is compiled of 49 football-playing universities from four conferences including the PSAC, Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Mountain East Conference and Northeast-10 Conference. A total of 40 teams and 130 players were represented on this year’s Hansen all-region teams.

Bob McComas
Sports Information Director
Slippery Rock University
1 Morrow Way - Room 201 Old Main
Slippery Rock, Pa. 16057
Office: 724.738.2777
Fax: 724.738.4761
Cell: 724.421.5658
Email: robert.mccomas@sru.edu
www.sru.edu

A ROCK SOLID Education

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh