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Northern Star

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The Student News Site of Northern Illinois University

Northern Star

The Student News Site of Northern Illinois University

Northern Star

NIU looks to get back on track

By Jarrod Rice | October 7, 2004

In a two-week span, the NIU women’s soccer team has dropped three of its last four games and has fallen from third to a tie for eighth place in the MAC. The Huskies (4-3-4 overall, 1-2-4 MAC) will try to use the comforts of home this weekend in order...

Athletics complex in the works

By Sean Connor | September 15, 2004

NIU football coach Joe Novak said he’s seen big donations of late toward an indoor athletic facility. “We’re still in the process,” Novak said. “It’s still the top priority for us.” There are no current plans to build an indoor practice...

McCullagh spikes the questions

By Nathan Lindquist | September 15, 2004

Editor’s note: Five minutes with is a weekly question and answer session with someone in NIU athletics. It is intended to show the lighter side of an athlete. Sophomore middle blocker Kate McCullagh has emerged as an offensive force for the NIU volleyball...

True freshman fills in, stars for absent Huskies

By Frank Rusnak | September 12, 2004

With usual starters Sam Hurd and Shatone Powers serving one-game suspensions, true freshman Marcus Perez didn’t miss a beat filling in. Out of high school, Perez, also a baseball and track star, said he didn’t receive any scholarship offers for football....

NIU track coach leaves for Nevada

By Sean Ostruszka | August 29, 2004

NIU track and field coach, Shantel Twiggs, has followed ex-NIU athletic director Cary Groth to the University of Nevada.

The announcement came Friday, to the shock of the NIU track and field team.

“We were all very surprised when she told us because she gave us no warning so we weren’t expecting it,” sophomore sprinter Latoya Friday said.

Twiggs was hired by Groth three years ago to resurrect a program that had not competed in 18 years. Since Twiggs’ hiring 14 school records have been broken.

Twiggs will now have a much different starting scenario as she inherits a Wolf Pack team that has won four conference championships since 2000 and has two individual All-American honors.

“I’m excited to be the next coach to carry the torch and to lead Wolf Pack track and cross country to greater heights,” said Twiggs in a Nevada press release.

Left behind is a NIU team with mixed emotions and no coach.

“At first we all didn’t want her to go, but now we are all extremely disappointed because we had a lot of future plans with coach Twiggs and now we don’t know what we are going to do,” said Friday.

Friday expressed her shock and said she doesn’t feel betrayed by the departure but stated that Twiggs’ credibility as a former college sprinter and coach had influenced her decision to come to NIU.

In the wake of the departure, new NIU Athletic Director Jim Phillips’ job will be to appoint a new coach to replace Twiggs. Until then the NIU track and field team will be under the guidance of assistant coaches Dave Jennings and Gretchen Folck.

New athletics director has Chicago background

By Frank Rusnak | August 23, 2004

NIU’s new athletics director Jim Phillips grew up as one of 10 kids on Chicago’s north-west side. A former University of Illinois student, he is happy to return to Illinois from South Bend, Ind. where he served as the associate athletics director...

Surprise, surprise: A look at some unexpected success

By Ian Waddick | May 2, 2004

From the success of the football team to the futility of the men’s basketball squad, NIU sports saw their share of surprises during the 2003-’04 school year. The remaining 14 NIU sports were no different, as there were many individuals who emerged...

Huskies’ own Superman revealed

By Sean Ostruszka | February 10, 2004

NIU Sports Information Director Mike Korcek considers himself an avid collector of comic books. So when Korcek’s co-worker, Associate Sports Information Director Robert Hester, was asked if one could compare Korcek to the comic hero Superman, he said,...

60-yard touchdown will live in infamy

By Mark Pickrel | November 18, 2003

In football, it is rare for one play to define a single season. But it happened on Saturday. NIU, bringing its best team in 20 years to Toledo, had a chance to break a nine-game losing streak against the Rockets and make things a lot more interesting...

Is blood thicker than water?

By Frank Rusnak | September 11, 2003

Riverside-Brookfield High School football coach Otto Zeman said Britt Davis is the No. 1 player in the state. Davis backs that up by saying he’s No. 1. Now, all NIU wants is for Britt to say the Huskies are No. 1. I The 6-foot-3 senior quarterback lists...

Track and field keeps breaking records

By Sean Connor | February 10, 2003

Coach Shantel Twiggs’ freshman class for the NIU track and field team has gone above and beyond expectations during the indoor season and was able to come away with a second place, 109-point finish at the Central Michigan Quadrangular Saturday. Freshman...

Track and field has no home

By Brian Kelley | January 28, 2003

There’s no place like home. However, the NIU track and field team is without a true home this year, even with the new track inside the $36 million Convocation Center. The Huskies have no scheduled home track meets. The problem is not because of the...