Sunday, August 12th, 2012
DAY 12 (Aug. 12): Out With The Old, In With The New
The Azusa Pacific athletics summer facelift began when the Dillon Recreation Complex gave the football team a brand new, fully synthetic practice field to match the Cougars’ home playing surface at Citrus field. The installation of a brand new set of lights at the Cougar Soccer Complex, which make way for night time soccer matches for the first time in school history, marked the second step of the overall athletics facilities upgrade.
And the overhaul continues as the athletics department adds a fully renovated weight room and training center, highlighted by indoor turf for agility drills and state-of-the-art weight lifting equipment. Along with new mats, dumbbells, medicine balls, and racks, there are numerous upgraded stations and improved pieces of training equipment to help the athletes in their first year of competition in NCAA Div. II conferences.
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Tags: Athletics, weight room
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Saturday, August 11th, 2012
DAY 11 (Aug. 11): Fans Wig Out For Lenhart
On Saturday, July 28, the San Jose Earthquakes gave away blonde wigs to the first 2,500 fans in attendance, honoring the competitive play and cult following of Azusa Pacific soccer alum Steven Lenhart.
Lenhart, who graduated from Azusa Pacific after leading the Cougars to the 2007 NAIA Men’s Soccer National Championship, is the third-leading scorer for the Earthquakes, who currently lead the Major League Soccer (MLS) Western Conference heading into Saturday night’s clash with third-place Seattle, and his aggressive style of play has turned the fifth-year forward into one of the league’s most polarizing players. Soccer Newsday’s Chris Enger hates him, and seemingly so do San Jose’s conference rivals, the Seattle Sounders. However, a style of play that has rewarded him with a team-leading seven yellow cards is also recognized as an element of San Jose’s success this season.
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Tags: APUinMLS, Athletics, Soccer, Steven Lenhart
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Friday, August 10th, 2012
DAY 10 (Aug. 10): Clay Passes The Torch
A misstep in the U.S. Olympic Trials may have cost Bryan Clay his chance to defend his decathlon gold medal, but it didn’t keep him from having a presence at the London Olympics. Clay spent the Summer Games as a journalist, reporting on all the action for Fox Sports and providing insight into the highlights of the 2012 London Olympics.
Clay also kept his Twitter followers informed of the Olympic track & field results with real-time updates throughout the games, and he made regular appearances on Fox Sports’ Inside Edge video series. In the video below, Clay offered a glimpse into the grueling decathlon event, gracefully passing the title of “World’s Greatest Athlete” to fellow American and decathlon world record holder Ashton Eaton, who claimed Olympic gold this week with an 8,869-point performance.
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Tags: Athletics, Bryan Clay, decathlon, London, Olympics
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Thursday, August 9th, 2012
DAY 9 (Aug. 9): Cougar hoops hosts inaugural PacWest championship tournament
While the first-ever Pacific West basketball championship tournament may not feature the Cougars (ineligible for postseason play), Azusa Pacific will still play a huge role in the conference’s inaugural postseason tournament in March of 2013. The Felix Event Center, home to the Cougars’ men’s and women’s basketball teams, has been selected to host the six-team event, with the winner of the men’s and women’s tournament receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
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Tags: Athletics, basketball, felix event center, PacWest
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Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
DAY 8 (Aug. 8): Football Introduces New Look
What do you do when your helmet is dubbed “the coolest helmet in NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association) College Football” by an independent blog?
If you’re Azusa Pacific, you introduce a brand-new alternate lid for road games, unveiling them for the first time on a Thursday night in August for a season-opening visit to NCAA Div. I UC Davis.
Azusa Pacific's new "stealth black" helmet (left) will be worn on the road, while the traditional brick red helmet seen on the right will continue to be worn at home.
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Tags: Athletics, Football, helmets, NCCAA, stealthblack
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Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
DAY 7 (Aug. 7): Volleyball Milestones Usher In New Era
Last year Azusa Pacific volleyball head coach Chris Keife recorded his 200th win en route to a 31-8 season and an NAIA tournament appearance, further cementing the ninth-year coach as the winningest coach in program history.
His program’s consistency in his near-decade at the helm is unmatched in school history, posting 20 or more wins in eight consecutive seasons to obliterate the program’s previous record of three straight 20-win campaigns. In 2011 the Cougars hit the 30-win plateau for just the fourth time in school history and first since 1991, putting together a 31-8 campaign after streaking to a program-record 12-0 start while setting the program’s all-time regular-season wins record (28). He needed just eight years to reach his 200th win at Azusa Pacific, and the Cougars posted a program-best runner-up finish in their final year of competition in the Golden State Athletic Conference (the superpower conference of the NAIA).
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Tags: Athletics, milestones, volleyball
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