Athletics News
Athletic Teams Receive
Academic GPA Honors
Three Siena Heights University athletic teams
received a Scholar Team Award from the NAIA.
The women’s cross country, women’s basketball
and softball teams all received the honor after
they each earned better than a 3.0 grade point
average (on a 4.0 scale). Each team’s grade
point average must include all varsity studentathletes certified as eligible. The cross country
team had a team GPA of 3.57, while women’s
basketball and softball had GPAs of 3.28 and
3.20, respectively. Since 1997, Siena has had
eight teams qualify for the award. Cross Country
has received the award five times. This is the
second award for softball and the first award
for women’s basketball. These teams will be
honored with a plaque in the Fieldhouse.
The Team that Time (Almost) Forgot
The 1978-79 Women’s Basketball Squad Enters the Siena
Heights Hall of Fame after Recording Season for the Ages
I
It was a team time almost forgot. Heck, even some of
the players on that team have a hard time remembering
their accomplishments.
However, after more than 30 years, the 1978-79 Siena
Heights women’s basketball team finally received its due.
The Saints, who rolled up a 27-2 record that season, were
part of the 2010 class inducted into the SHU Athletic Hall
of Fame Oct. 2 during Homecoming Weekend.
That same team, which averaged 72 points per game and
scored more than 100 points twice, christened the then
newly constructed Fieldhouse with one of the most successful seasons in the school’s athletic history.
Mulherin was the tallest player on the team and played
for a championship high school squad in Mansfield, Ohio.
Schwark also played for a state runner-up high school
team in Three Oaks, Mich. In 1978-79, Mona White led
the team in scoring, averaging 11.6 points per game and
shooting an amazing 75 percent from the field. Point
guard Deirdre Driver from Wisconsin added 11.3 points
per game and had 46 steals. Carol Crissey also averaged
11.5 points per contest, with Mulherin chipping in 8
points and a team-high 9.5 rebounds a game.
“We really had a lot of girls with a lot of talent,” said Peg
Mulherin ’78 (below left), the SHU team’s starting center
and the only four-year player.
“The team was always really
fast-paced. And we played
with a regulation ball. Now,
these girls use a smaller ball.”
Siena Heights Launches
Online Sports Network
SHU launched a new online sports network
on Oct. 20. The Siena Heights Sports Network
(SHSN) provides free, live streaming broadcasts
via the Internet of Saints athletic events. The
new site, www.shsportsnet.com, also allows
fans to watch archived video and audio broadcasts of past athletic events.
“In an effort to maximize the coverage of our
rapidly expanding athletic programs, this network will allow fans to follow our teams wherever they are,” said SHU Athletic Director Fred
Smith. “With football on the way in 2011, SHSN
is another way to engage our alumni, fans,
friends, and families of our student-athletes.”
Siena Heights has contracted local radio personality Jerry Hayes to be the “Voice of the Saints.”
Hayes, a longtime talent for WLEN Radio in
Adrian, is the lead announcer for the “Game
of the Week” broadcast on the network. He also
will handle SHSN’s play-by-play duties for SHU
football, which begins in 2011. “We are thrilled
to have Jerry’s expertise and professionalism,”
Smith said. “Starting this online network is in
response to the growth and excitement our
programs are creating. This hopefully will generate even more exposure for Siena Heights
and our student-athletes.”
To see the complete SHSN broadcast schedule,
please visit www.shsportsnet.com. The network
can also be accessed from the Siena Heights
Athletics main website, www.shusaints.com.
Before the Fieldhouse opened,
the basketball team practiced
in the basement of Sage Union and played its games at
the nearby Piotter Center in town. Wendy Schwark of
Palmyra, Mich. (above right), the other member of the
team to attend the induction ceremony, said she has
“special” memories of the team’s first home court.
“To this day when I hear a basketball dribbling, I think
of salisbury steak and peas,” said Schwark of the “community center” playing environment. “At first, coming
(to Siena) was a downer. It was nice they caught up.”
“When I came here, we didn’t have the facilities. It was
just an opportunity to continue to play ball,” Mulherin
said. “It was great being on the ground floor watching
things grow and change in the four years I was here.
It changed a lot.”
The architect of that team was SHU Hall-of-Fame Coach
Sister Mary Alice Murnen. She assembled a talented
group of players from around the Midwest, including
Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Her steadying influence
and ability to get her players to work as a team was a
big reason for that successful season.
“She really pulled us together,” said Mulherin of her
late coach. “She was a calming woman. She brought
that to our team. She recruited people who filled in the
gaps where we needed them. We loved her. She was
a big reason why we came.”
“My main goal was to rebound,” said Mulherin, a longtime teacher in Benton Harbor and for the past seven
years at Caledonia (Mich.) schools. “They didn’t want me
shooting or dribbling. Everybody had to do their job.”
Schwark came off the bench that season to chip in 6
points and 7.7 rebounds a game. Most of the players on
the roster did not play basketball all four years because
many were multi-sport athletes, including Schwark, who
competed on the Saints’ volleyball and softball teams.
Women’s athletics