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RMAC Senior Scholars Play Big Role at the RMAC Basketball Tournament
Those hoopsters who excel in the classroom and on the court are called student-athletes, an almost unheard term of the day in the Division 1 arenas. Fortunately, Division 2 can be proud of the RMAC's (All-Academic) senior scholar-athletes.
(PRWEB) May 5, 2006 -- The final score reads Nebraska-Kearney 71 - Metro State 68. Nebraska-Kearney wins the 2006 RMAC Basketball Tournament; however, the real winners are those senior athletes who have excelled in the classroom, as well as on the hard wood for over four years. They are called student-athletes, an almost unheard term of the day in the Division 1 arenas. Fortunately, Division 2 can be proud of the RMAC's (All-Academic) senior scholar-athletes. The rules are simple: Defend and get the degree! The outcomes far exceed any box score.
Four incredible outcomes can easily be shown, starting with three "old-school" Academic-All Americans that hailed from Princeton, Duke, and Southern Illinois. These men's names are Bradley, Spanarkel, and Glenn.
Bill Bradley was a Rhode's Scholar before winning two championships with the legendary New York Knicks. Following his playing career, he helped lead New Jersey as a two-term senator into the 21st century. Former teammate Phil Jackson tried to help Bradley reach the Presidency of the United States.
Jim Spanarkel led the upstart 1977 Duke team to the NCAA finals against post-Rupp Kentucky as team captain. Spanarkel, from the "urbs" of Jersey City, New Jersey, went on to play professionally in the NBA before returning to the Garden State as a first vice-president at Merrill Lynch Investments and color analyst for the NCAA tournament and New Jersey Nets.
Mike Glenn was known as "stinger" to his teammates because the former math major could flat out "shoot the lights out" with his mid-range jumpers. During his professional career, he went back to the classroom to take business classes to assist him in becoming a broker. Following a successful basketball journey, he became an announcer, accomplished author, and Camp Director for the Mike Glenn Basketball Camp for the Hearing Impaired. Like Spanarkel, he never lost sight of his roots.
A more recent scholar athlete from RMAC's Nebraska-Kearney, Nick Branting, is now accomplishing great things in his post-graduate career in medical school at Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Nick will be performing his post-basketball skills in a medical forum nearby. His coaches at Kearney, Tom Kropp and Kevin Lofton, helped pave the way to this success. Current junior classmen Chad Burger, Dusty Jura, and James Lane are following Nick's academic-athletic success in their own rights.
Finally, the senior scholars and their coaches deserve mentioning, because these men should be headed for great post college basketball careers: Chadron's Brandon Drake (Coach: Dan Beebe); CCU's Josh Galagher (Coach: David Daniels); Mine's Travis Test (Coach: Pryor Orser); CSU-Pueblo's Steve Raquet and Brian Wood (Coach:Pat Eberhard); Fort Hays State's Brian Gentry (Coach: Mark Johnson); Mesa's Darnell Jones and Adam Wall (Coach:Jim Heaps); Metro State's Greg Muth and Drew Williamson (Coach: Mike Dunlap); Regis's Fab Five: Slade Bigelow, Jason Deich, Logan Garvin, Jay Goral, and Ben Schaffer (Coach: Lonnie Porter). Also, (exponential) congratulations to Mine's Junior Davey Iverson who swatted away a 4.0 average in Engineering Physics.
By Stuart Klugler* (for permission to use this article contact the author at stuknicks@aol.com)
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