Scott Proshek, formerly the Tommies’ assistant coach since 2006, was named head coach this summer after Dave Lepp resigned due to additional duties as St. Thomas’ athletic facilities manager.

Sophomore John Young drives the ball at Highland National Golf Course. (Katie Broadwell/TommieMedia)

“Dave Lepp, the former coach, left me with a great group of talented players,” Proshek said.  “We basically have the same team but are more focused and returning players who are more experienced. Others who made the team are either sophomores or juniors with some experience.

The team has only one freshman, Scott Hird, and he’s impressed the entire team, Proshek said.

With a strong returning team, Proshek chose a new style of tryouts by inviting players to participate, instead of keeping tryouts open. This method was used not only to find the best players, but also to give players an idea of the kinds of courses they would play on throughout the season.

Returning seniors Sean Barrett and Grant Shafranski are team captains this year. Barrett, an All-MIAC honoree, hopes the team can stay consistent this season.

“One thing we need to work on is staying more focused and committed throughout the whole season, especially when school starts to become busier,” Barrett said. “Also, since we have a new coach there will definitely be a new attitude and expectations for the team.

The Tommies began the season last weekend, taking second place out of 22 teams in the Edgewood Invitational in Janesville, Wis. While each individual competition is important, the team’s main focus is on the MIAC conference tournament.

“All fall matches are big, but the biggest is our conference tourney,” Proshek said. “The MIAC champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA [tournament], and this is our goal. If not, we hope to be seeded by Golfstat’s rankings high enough to be considered for an at-large bid.”

The Tommies will participate in five fall tournaments, ending with the MIAC Championship on Oct. 2-4 at Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids. The team will also participate in four more tournaments in the spring.

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

The Tommies hosted the Loras College Hawks, a team ranked seventh in the nation, in a non-conference game on St. Thomas’ south field Saturday.

“This is our second game so you come into it wanting to learn things and we learned a lot of things about a lot of our players,” said head coach Aaron Macke. “Like who can step up and play in a big game and who still has a little ways to go.”

Loras’ Tom Stumpf scored a goal midway through the first half, leaving the Tommies the rest of the game to try and catch up.

St. Thomas goalie Alex Benson was able to stop a penalty shot with 18 minutes left in the game, but the Tommies were unable to get a goal of their own and lost 1-0 to Loras.

“The first half we played them pretty tough, but we made one big mistake by streaking center-mid in the middle and they scored a nice goal on us,” said senior and team captain Reed Moser-Bleil. “In the second half we really started attacking them. We got caught a little bit on counter attacks but things worked out well. We got several opportunities, but we just couldn’t capitalize and that was the difference between us and a top 10 team.”

However, even after playing such a tough opponent, Moser-Bleil is ready to take what the Tommies learned during the game and use it in upcoming practices.

“We created a bunch of chances against a No. 7 team in the country, so the opportunities were there, but we’re just not quite as good as them right now,” he said. “So we’ll go back to practice on Tuesday, work hard and hopefully catch them on our heels next time.”

St. Thomas was ranked No. 2 in preseason MIAC polls and the team mainly consists of veteran players, including eight seniors.

“We have great team chemistry, especially with a bunch of returners,” said senior and captain Jeff Frank. “So returning most of our team makes it easier to build on this year.”

With so many returners, St. Thomas hopes to post its fifth consecutive top-four conference finish. But a tough schedule will make this a challenging season for the Tommies.

“There are legitimately six or seven teams [in the MIAC] that have a shot at first place, so anything we do out of conference is really to set ourselves up for the conference,” Macke said.

He said last year’s season was a good one for the team.

“We reached the playoffs again, and I thought we did very well in light of a lot of situations with injuries and illness early in the season,” he said. “It was a tough finish, but Carleton is the best team in our conference. They worked at it better than us and everyone else so they deserved to win that game.”

“Every year is a new year in its own way,” Macke said. “We’re really excited about this year’s team and I think the guys are too.”

The Tommies begin MIAC conference play Sept. 18 at home against Augsburg.

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

The Tommies faced the University of Wisconsin-Stout Blue Devils in St. Paul Wednesday on St. Thomas’ south field. Team captain sophomore Callan Faulkner said the players had high hopes for their first home game.

“Our goals for this game were organize, communicate and possess,” Faulkner said. “I think the first half we didn’t possess as much as we wanted to but second half we came out, swung it around a lot in the back, possessed the ball, made them tired and I think it went really well.”

Regulation ended scoreless and brought the teams into sudden-death overtime. Sophomore Anna Strehlow scored an unassisted goal 3:21 in, giving the Tommies a 1-0 victory. St. Thomas is ranked third in preseason MIAC polls.

“It went really well for our first game,” said team captain and senior Lexie Fisher. “In comparison to our scrimmages, it was the best organization we’ve had so far.”

This is the second year in a row the Tommies beat Stout in overtime after remaining scoreless in regulation.

“We came out ready to play, and it was a really great game. We are going to get better and better which is exactly what you expect,” said team captain senior Kaitlin Denis.

Coach Sheila McGill was also impressed by how the team played.

“We made lots of things happen, created lots and lots of opportunities, just couldn’t put it away yet, but we haven’t worked on our attack yet so I’m okay with that having happened,” McGill said. “We worked a lot with our defense and we were successful. They made a conscious effort in order to put things in the back of the net and it worked, so it was fantastic and I’m really proud of how the girls played.”

Although the team has 12 returners this season, six of whom are seniors, 12 new freshman have also joined the team.

“Our challenge is going to be more bringing the team together quickly and making sure they are comfortable with each other right away,” McGill said. “Also, making sure the new players, all freshman, are ready to play at the college level.”

But McGill does not expect the Tommies’ winning history to change even with such a young team.

“We are going to be very young, and that is going to probably take other teams off guard in the sense where they are going to expect us to be big, strong which we always have been and we always will be,” she said. “But now its a matter of should those players step into those roles and fill those roles quickly. We definitely have our work cut out for us but we have to make sure we take one game at a time, but that’s something we have to do every season.”

The team is traveling to Tacoma, Washington to play Pacific Lutheran, ranked seventh in Northwest Conference preseason rankings, and Puget Sound, ranked first in Northwest Conference preseason rankings, in more non-conference play Sept. 3 and 4.

The Tommies begin MIAC conference play Sept. 14 at St. Catherine’s University.

“We have to take one game at a time because this is a strong conference,” McGill said. “If you don’t show up to play then you’re going to get beat, so every single game is strong.

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

The 20 solar panels on Brady Hall’s roof have been producing energy non-stop after being installed in February. The students who have been involved with the panels from idea to installation are happy with how the panels are working so far.

“As of now, they have produced over 1.5 megawatt-hours averaging 20 kilowatt-hours per day,” said senior David Dahl, a member of the student group in charge of putting up the panels, in an email.

But one major question remains: Have the panels saved St. Thomas money? The goal when the panels were installed was to reduce energy costs by $500 a year.

However, it is almost impossible to determine how much money is actually saved from the panels because all electricity on north campus is in a giant loop, Dahl said.

“It’s hard to accurately determine what kind of impact the panels are having on campus because Brady Hall has no students in the summer and sees the most sunshine during those months,” Dahl said. “This means that it has a larger impact in the summer than in the winter. Regardless, the impact is positive.”

He explained the complex process the panels use to convert light into energy.

“The sun sends photons, the basic unit of light, to solar panels which creates a flow of electrons….This flow is known as a direct current,” Dahl said. “The direct current goes into an inverter to turn it into an alternating current…..almost all appliances use alternating current because it can travel great distances. Then it goes into the grid and is used through Brady Hall.”

Student group starts phantom power strip project

The student group that put up the panels is also working on new projects to make St.Thomas more green. The students received a second grant from the Pepsi grant program at St. Thomas and wanted to find a way to effectively use the energy the panels create.

About 100 phantom power strips were purchased to be used in the residence halls. These strips help stop appliances from using energy even when the appliances are turned off. Televisions and computers are the main appliances that use energy even when switched off.

“We want to distribute the strips to volunteers who are interested. This way we can be assured that those who are passionate about going green will use them,” Dahl said.

Dahl has been working with Director of Residence Life Aaron Macke to distribute the power strips to students.

“We want to give interested students the opportunity to receive these free of charge,”  Macke said. “They will be available to any hall, and each student will be given instructions on how to make the strip work to its highest potential. This is an entirely new program, so we really have no idea what the reaction may be.”

The strips have already been ordered and cost about $35 each. A mass e-mail will be sent in the next week or two and any student can sign up to receive one of the 100 strips on a first-come-first-serve basis.

“Because we can’t monitor the savings, this has to be more educational for students,” Macke said. “We hope to have students use them for the full year, survey their thoughts and how many students originally wanted one, and if things are positive, possibly look into buying more for future years.”

But students don’t necessarily need one of “these fancy power strips” to go green, Dahl said.

“Simply turning off lights, recycling, taking the stairs, and unplugging appliances will have a great[er] effect than anything else,” he said. “UST needs to come together as a community to commit to conserving energy. Only then will we see huge results.”

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

Students living on campus during the busiest construction summer in St. Thomas history watched as the metal frameworks of new buildings took shape, elevators were modernized, residence halls got exterior makeovers and sidewalks were torn up.

The completion of the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex, the renovation of McCarthy Gym and the start of construction on the Anderson Student Center were the most noticeable – and most expensive – projects undertaken by the university this summer, but there were also numerous other renovation and construction projects.

These smaller projects ranged from rebuilding the JRC greenhouse to replacing bricks in Brady Hall’s exterior wall to shutting down elevators in four buildings on campus for modernization and repairs. The Koch workout room was converted into extended housing to accommodate the largest-ever freshman class, sidewalks around campus were torn up and new concrete was poured, and residence hall rooms were painted.

“It’s an exciting, thrilling time to be on campus,” said Jane Canney, vice president for student affairs. “These [projects] are the culmination of hard work and lots of vision over the years.”

The new athletic complex will officially open in late August or early September, Canney said. Fall athletes have been able to use the athletic facilities for a week now but the rest of the St. Thomas community has to wait until final construction details are taken care of, such as waiting for the tiles to cure and filling the pool with water.

All students will be able to use the new athletic center for free. In addition, alumni who graduated in the spring of 2010 will also be able to use the athletic facilities for free for one year, Canney said, because they had to put up with the inconvenience of not having athletic facilities on campus their senior year.

The McCarthy Gym renovations will be completed sometime in September, Canney said. She also said construction of the student center, a building she described as “the living room of the campus,” is on track and expected to be completed in January 2012.

Students “so excited” for new buildings even after inconveniences

Sophomore Chloe Sershon took classes at St. Thomas this summer and she said the construction activity was “surprisingly quiet” and “contained.” The process of converting the Koch workout facility into student housing did bother her, however, since she used the facility at least twice a week.

“The Koch workout room closed suddenly early on during the summer, and I was planning on using it for most of the summer, so that was a real inconvenience,” Sershon said. “I wish St. Thomas would have put out some kind of notice that they were going to close the workout room at the beginning of June.”

Junior Hanna Greimel worked at freshman orientation this summer and she said she’s looking forward to seeing the results of the summer construction projects.

“[I’m] so excited for the new buildings,” she said. “St. Thomas desperately needed updated athletic facilities and a nice place for students to work out. It is definitely worth the hassle – the new buildings are unbelievable. They’re beautiful and students will get so much use out of them.”

The constant construction didn’t affect Greimel’s daily routine too much.

“Life was pretty normal [on campus], although I was a little sad that there was so much construction because our campus is normally so beautiful,” she said. “The only inconvenience was when the path between upper quad and lower quad was closed. You had to walk through Murray Herrick to get around.”

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

Katie Broadwell contributed to this story.

Senior Dan Fettig, who applied for at least 25 jobs, was able to find a summer position working for Youthworks in Washington DC. Although the job does not relate to his major, he remains positive.

“I just had to find something and hopefully another job will come out of it. I’m optimistic that if I’m flexible and go with it, then it will lead to something else,” Fettig said via e-mail.

Along with flexibility and optimism, another important skill for job hunters is persistence – something senior Bill Bergmann knows about. After asking around and setting up multiple coffee dates, Bergmann was hired as an executive team leader for Target in-stores.

“Ask people,” he said. “Just ask everyone you know if they can talk to people, that’s what I did. I was sitting in the back of a car and someone was like ‘Hey, do you want to look into this job?’ and I was like, ‘Sure, why not?’”

Senior Britteny Tegels always planned for a year of service between her years of education. She was hired by AmeriCorps for a year-long program working in the Minneapolis public school system.

Even with this new oppurtunity, Tegels still plans to work part-time for 3M and will continue her education in the fall of 2011 at the University of Minnesota, when she will begin working on her masters of public health courses.

Tegels believes her strong background in volunteering and tutoring students helped her get the AmeriCorps position. She also said it’s never too late to start working toward that final job.

“I would say for sophomores and juniors to start applying for jobs at places where you could see yourself in the future,” Tegels said via e-mail. “One of the biggest advantages when you graduate is if you have a few years interning at a company, they are much more likely to want to hire you on after you’ve completed college. The biggest thing for seniors is not to give up if you haven’t found a job yet, because things will work out how they’re supposed to so just live up all the free time you’ll have for a while.”

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

Red peppers can't be found in the Grill's sandwich line. (John Kruger)

The same freeze in Florida and other southern states that killed off St. Thomas’ tomato supply has also affected the supply of red peppers. The freeze caused the drop in the product, causing a great demand for the vegetable and prices to increase.

“Red peppers are very expensive,” Director of Dining Services Todd Empanger said. “They increased from around $30 per case to $80-90 per case. Green peppers are fairly expensive, $30-38 case, but we are still purchasing them.”

But unlike the lack of tomatoes, St. Thomas students have barely noticed the lack of red peppers.

“With the tomatoes it was a big deal, but I haven’t heard any complaints about the peppers,” freshman Tracy Johnson said.

Johnson and other student food service workers have not received as many complaints about the missing red peppers.

“The students seem to be less upset about them being gone than when the tomatoes disappeared,” senior Sarah Pikkarainen said. “It is really nice to not have to cut red peppers in the morning while I’m setting up the deli, however I’m a fan of the vegetable and I miss eating them. So even though it will take me longer to do prep work in the morning if they need to be cut, I’ll be happy to see that they’re back again.”

Sophomore Tim Speake isn’t so concerned with the missing peppers.

“It’s not really that big of a deal,” he said. Plus, people can still get green peppers.”

Red peppers will return to campus once the price decreases.

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

The men’s and women’s tennis team traveled Saturday to participate in the 2010 MIAC playoffs at Gustavus.

The No. 3 Tommie men lost to No. 6 Macalester 5-4. With a 7-2 MIAC regular season record, the Tommies were favored to win the match. The Tommies trailed 2-1 after doubles, but they later won the first set in five of the singles matches. But this wasn’t enough to secure the match against the Scots.

The Tommies ended their season 11-6, with Macalester going on to face No. 1 Gustavus.

“We got a little unlucky this year with one of our best players breaking his ankle, but we look forward to having him in the playoffs next year,” freshman Brendan O’Connell said.

The No. 4 Tommie women (7-3 MIAC, 11-6 overall) were upset by No. 5 St. Benedict 5-0. Because of the rain, teams were forced to play indoors. The Blazers took the doubles and then won a close first singles match to secure the win.

“We all worked really hard, especially not having courts,” senior Allison Bruflodt said. “That was the most difficult thing this year, but it made us all closer [as a team]. We were really successful; we had some really good wins. Obviously we didn’t end it the way we wanted to, but we all tried our hardest, so we can’t be too upset.”

The Tommie women ended their season 11-6, with St. Benedict going on to face No. 1 Gustavus.

“A lot of matches could have gone either way, so I’m just really proud of the team,” senior Hadley Syverud said. “It was a great last season, and I’m going to miss everybody.”

Senior Suzanne Brophy reflected Syverud’s sentiments.

“I’m really happy with the way the season turned out,” Brophy said. “We had a good year aside from this last match.”

As for next year, both St. Thomas teams have high hopes as star recruits plan to join the Tommies.

“We’re really young, but really good,” senior Drew Carlson said. “We got third in the conference, so we’re really looking forward to next year. We have a lot of good recruits coming in, so we’re going to be really strong.”

Although Brophy moves on after this season, she said her pride won’t.

“We will definitely be here to show our support and cheer on the rest of the team,” she said. “We have heard rumors of some pretty good players that want to join the team, so we look forward to see what the younger girls have in store for the future.”

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

Students are hanging shirts and jeans on clotheslines this week in the Lower Quad, but they’re not doing laundry.

The display is part of a nationwide project to help build awareness about domestic violence and sexual assault directed toward women. Students are encouraged to make their own designs on shirts with various colors, each of which represents a different type of gender-based violence.

The clothesline project was started in the 1990s in Massachusetts.

Meg Tvrdik can be reached at tvrd0386@stthomas.edu.

Murray-Herrick played host to this year’s Up ’til Dawn finale that came complete with sumo wrestling, henna tattoos, free donated Chipotle and more.