November 11, 2011-Veterans Day.

This is a day that many take to thank the veterans they know in their lives. I, myself took the time to reflect before saying thank you and realized that I am surrounded by a multitude of men and women who have served and are still serving. I have never been stopped in my tracks before by this thought, but for me personally, the number of servicemen and servicewomen is much higher than I had ever considered many are family, close friends, and a professor or two.

I wanted to more than just thank the veterans that I know. I wanted to honor them. Never having served, I cannot fathom the sacrifices that they bravely chose to make in their lives and often the words “Thank You” do not seem like enough.

I think that for me it hit home when I watched my newly married daughter, with her newborn daughter clutched to her chest, began sobbing at the deployment ceremony. Marco, her husband, bravely took his orders to leave for Afghanistan, leaving his new wife and weeks old daughter behind. My son-in-law wasn’t even 21 years old, and he was being sent to a war-torn country away from everything that he knew.

For me and my family that year of deployment was the longest year of our lives, sometimes going weeks without hearing from him, and then having news blackouts. Praying for that 3 a.m. call from him just to know that he was alive and alright, sending off care packages to make sure that he knew we loved him when we couldn’t talk to him, and holding my family and his together was heart-wrenching during those tough times .

The one thing that my son-in-law told me was, “We didn’t want to die and neither did they, so we did what we had to do to make sure that everyone went home when our shift was done.”

At the tender young age of 21, Marco has seen more in his life than I will ever in mine, but what he will tell you is this, “I remember being six-years-old and running around with a belt on so I had a place to put my guns, this is what I have wanted to do all of my life. I wouldn’t change it for the world. It’s who I am, it’s what I do.”

My soldier came back home. Some were not that lucky, however. So even though “Thank You” is all that I have to give and I hope that it is enough, it seems so empty considering all the servicemen and women sacrifice so willingly.

So to honor the men and women of the armed forces, I asked them what it meant to serve to them, and this is what they had to say.

“To me the service that I did means a lot because I can know that it was just me taking things from my country and my people throughout my life but I actually gave something back. Being a veteran signifies that you went somewhere and had opportunity to do something that many of your peers do not. And I also think it’s about remembering why you did it. I’m glad that I served my country and I wouldn’t take back that time for anything.  I’m never going to forget the sacrifices that those who came before me had to make and the ones who came or will come after me will make in the future.”
—Jamie Holz, Loras Graduate

“My Time Serving” sounds like I was in the joint (sorta was). I never really considered it “serving.” It was just my job, except it kept me away from my family months, if not years, at a time in places where people wanted to kill me, beer was cheap, the temps were hot and the women were not. The first time someone thanked me for my service, I was blown away. All I could say in response was “It’s a labor of love.” Still to this day, I adhere to that analogy. The only bad day of my navy career was the last one. I felt like I was losing a loved one.”
– Glen Gassman, Veterans Employment Specialist at Iowa Workforce Development

“What it meant to me to serve? I served and endured 22 years of a very hard life and spent three years of that time in foreign countries. I lost three close friends and three acquaintances to enemy actions and I thank God every day that I was given the honor and privilege to know these great young men. I go to bed at night knowing that I earned the right to my personal freedom and the right to be called a veteran. If I was 18 again, I would turn around and do it all over again.”
– Todd Sharkey, Iowa Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention NCO, Dubuque, Iowa

“The real reason why? It ain’t that good I was bored and wanted to be apart of something great.”
– Will Hammel, Iowa Army National Guard

“Why did I serve? My opportunity to step up and do my part for my country. The torch was passed to me from my father and to him from his father.  Being a veteran is nothing more than being one of the people who stepped up to answer the call.”
– John Crews, Former US Navy Reserve, Loras College Campus Safety Officer

“I joined at the age of 18 for three reasons. I wanted to do something bigger than myself (just going to college didn’t seem like enough at the time), I wanted to see the world, and I wanted to help myself pay for college. Why did I stay? My family, to be a strong voice for women and younger airmen, and my allegiance to my military family (all who have served, all who are currently serving, and all who will serve). I will continue to serve because I see the work that has to be done, and I’m in a position to help those who cannot help themselves. I couldn’t do that as easily as a younger airmen, but as an inspector general (a lieutenant-colonel), I can make meaningful change quickly and effectively. I get paid to challenge the status quo. I typically don’t have to dig too deep to see the potential – in our military members and their families, our military processes, our air force missions, etc.
–Dedra Tentis, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, Loras College

“I am honored to be counted among those who served, not because I did anything heroic – I didn’t – but because of the company it put me in. I joined for job training and travel, and also because by that time (the end of the Vietnam War) this country had seen a lot of men forced to leave their lives at home to go to war; some of whom never returned. I did not feel that it was equitable that only males were drafted. I wanted to do my part. My fervent hope, however, is that we stop glorifying and supporting violence within our culture, and learn to work together in a global community that finds peaceful solutions to world problems.”
–Valorie Woerdehoff, Grant Writing Director, Loras College

Current Loras employees who are veterans.
Jeff Hamel, Melvin Hingtgen, James Jackson, David Koch, Roger Lowenberg, Donald Root, Paul Samples, David Shepard, Jacob Shireman, Lavern Spoerl, Matthew Saylor,  Valorie Woerdehoff, John Crews, Dedra Tentis, Donald Freyman

I leave you with this “Thank You” to all the men and women of the armed forces for honoring us with YOUR service.

The men’s cross country team qualified for Nationals after placing 4^th overall at the NCAA Division III Central Region Championships on Saturday.

The Duhawks finished the meet with an overall team score of 141 to put them eight places behind the third place finishers, Hamline University, and 20 places in front of conference foe, Luther College, as they took home a fourth place finish.

Led by Senior Dan McDermott, the Duhawks placed all five runners inside the top-45 of the field. McDermott, who has led the charge for the men all season, finished 9^th place overall with a time of 25:43. Sophomore Jerry Olp crossed the finish line next for the Duhawks with a time of 25:56 good enough for 21^st place. Junior Austin Steil (28^th) finished with a time of 26:10 and was followed closely by the last two scoring runners: freshman Rob Howe (26:21) and freshman Steve Loran (26:29) who finished 38^th and 45^th overall respectively.

“This is only the 2^nd men’s team in school history to advance to the National Championships,” said head coach Bob Schultz. “They worked so hard this season and I couldn’t be happier for them.”

The team has high hopes for Nationals and will look to build on their already impressive resume they have put together this season.

“We are looking to finish higher than we are ranked and to shoot for a top-15 finish, which is the highest Loras finish ever at the National Championships,” said Schultz.

The women’s cross country team also left Waverly, Iowa on Saturday with a top-ten finish as they finished 9^th out of 27 teams. The Duhawks placed five runners inside the top-85 and ousted Grinnel College by seven places to earn 9^th place honors.

Senior Genna Kinley led the way for the Duhawks with a 20^th overall finish and a time of 22:47. Sophomore Mary Rector finished 31^st overall with a time of 23:13 and Junior Katie Flogel finished 41^st overall with a time of 23:32. Rounding out the scoring for Loras was senior Katie Hemesath (77^th, 24:12) and Sophomore Kellie Wagner (84^th, 24:29). The 9^th place finish does not qualify the Duhawks for the National meet; however, Kinley will represent the team as an individual at the National Championships for placing in the top 20.

“Making it to Nationals is something I never imagined was possible for me,” said Kinley, “I’m so honored to represent my team.”

The 9^th place finish marks the end of a cross country season for the women which included: six top ten finishes and one first-place finish in seven races.

“My teammates have shown such growth this season and we owe that to Bob for his consistent and sensible training and to our assistant coach Mary Bridget Corken for pushing us every step of the way and never giving up on us,” said Kinley.

Jack Metz contributed to this story

The wrestling team was looking to rally and get a few wins this weekend when they traveled to the University of Wisconsin. While they may have been unsuccessful with a team win, they did have a decent number of individual wins.

The team was faced by two different competitors, the University of Wisconsin Whitewater and Wartburg College. The end result may not have been what they were hoping for, but the coaches found aspects of the teams performance worth praising.

The team was able to put up a few, well earned points. Against Whitewater the team scored a total of eighteen points; however the men from Whitewater ended up besting them by eleven, with a total team score of twenty-nine to our eighteen.

This was one of the better matches for the Duhawks as they posted their best score of the weekend against them. When it came time to compete with Wartburg, the team found a far more challenging opponent. Wartburg was able to defeat the team forty-nine to zero. And yet, although the team was not able to score any points, the time never stopped trying.

In the 149-weight class, Drew Salzman was able to win in decision 2-1 in the tough battle with opponent Brian Lewis. Chris Gansen came out the victor in his 157-weight class, defeating Warhawk opponent Cory Schmidt in a 6-2 decision.

Josh Kirkland defeated his opponent Justin Birschbach by fall at the 4:59 minute mark to give the Duhawks a total of 18 points in the match. Pat Pfantz received the benefit of the forfeit in the 125-weight class.

During the competition between Loras and Wartburg, things did not seem to go our way at all. The team seemed to stumble into a streak of bad luck against Wartburg. They had multiple tech fouls and major calls against them which would put them back a lot. They also had a few forfeits which only set them back further.

In the Duhawks final action of the weekend they took on the host and Division I opponent Wisconsin-Madison where they were able to find victory in one match, while keeping many others close.

Pfantz kept his match in the 125-weight class against Shane McQuade at hand before being defeated in a 9-7 decision. Following Pfantz, Brian Cullen beat his opponent, Austin Hietpas, in the 133-weight class in a 9-5 decision.

Throughout all of this, even though there were no team victories, the team will continue on and will keep training so when the most important matches of the season come they will be ready to claim their victory.

The Loras football team traveled to Storm Lake, Iowa to take on the Buena Vista University Beavers in the final game of the season, losing 28-0 with an injury-depleted roster making the trip across the state.

The loss ends a tough season for the Duhawks and their first under Coach Paul Mierkiewicz, finishing with a 1-9 record overall and winless in the Iowa Conference.

All the scoring in Saturday’s game happened prior to the halftime horn with Buena Vista (2-8, 2-6 IIAC) scoring seven points in the first, followed by 21 in the second quarter.

Buena Vista wasted no time receiving the ball to start the game and driving down the field 77 yards over 12 plays to take the early 7-0 lead on a 5-yard run by running back John Hill.

Loras’ first drive would result in a punt after a rush by Devin Kass and two more by Sean Brennan.

Duhawk senior Eric Meyer came up big on the Beavers second drive, intercepting Bo Darrow’s pass at the Loras 4-yard line. Loras was not able to benefit from the turnover with a mix of rushing from Kass and two passes from Brennan, managing 14 yards.

Buena Vista took advantage of all its possessions in the second quarter converting all three of its drives.

Beavers quarterback Bo Darrow threw second quarter touchdown passes of 10 yards to receiver Larry Marcel and 33 yards to Logan Lehrkamp, respectively, to make it 21-0 before Hill added the second of his two touchdowns on the day, a 14-yard scamper to close out the Beaver scoring at 28-0.

Loras’ best chances came in the second half when Brennan and the Duhawks moved down field thanks to two costly penalties by the Beavers, eventually giving Loras the ball at the Buena Vista 8-yard line. But it ended in a Brennan pass being intercepted on the 4-yard line.

Loras quickly forced the Beavers into a 3-and-out and came up with its second best chance of the quarter when Kass had two rushes of four and 16 yards along with a Brennan pass to receiver Bryce Ewan for 8 yards. The drive came to a halt when Devin Kass fumbled at the Beaver 15-yard line.

Loras was held to 152 yards of total offense; contributions came from Kass, who netted 40 yards on 13 attempts, and Brennan, who completed eight of his 19 passes for 105 yards.

On the other side of the ball the Loras defense allowed 428 yards to the Beaver offense, 149 of those yards coming from running back John Hill.

Junior Brandon Ronan led the team with 13 total tackles, followed by Zach Myers with 12, while junior Mike Canevello and senior Eric Meyer each had one interception on Darrow.

For Loras the game completes the careers for eight seniors who were all recognized last week against Wartburg College during Senior Day — linebacker David Zoeckler, defensive back Eric Meyer, receiver Gavin Kaiser, quarterback Vaughn Gesing, linebacker Zach Myers, tight end Andy Brown, defensive lineman Frank Pereiro, and team manager Kevin Zack. Gesing, Kaiser, and Pereiro were among the injured Duhawks who missed the final game of 2011

Lake Delhi has had its fair share of troubles in the past years, but they are keeping one thing in mind-moving forward.

On November 6^th and November 8^th, two votes took place at Lake Delhi that would determine the future of the dam that collapsed in July 2010. The first vote, on November 6^th, transferred the title and ownership of the dam from the privately owned Lake Delhi Recreation Association to the public Lake Delhi Taxing District.

On November 8^th, the people of Lake Delhi also voted to authorize a bond of $6 million to be taxed to the citizens over the next 20 years, in order to build up even more funds to rebuild the lake. Both of these votes were approved by over 95% of residents of Lake Delhi.

“After these two elections, I heard nothing but, we’re on our way,” said Marcheta Cooey, a longtime resident of Lake Delhi. “I think 90 some percent of the people on the lake felt if we want a lake, we have to do this.”

But, the people of Lake Delhi have already taken initiative in bringing their dam back. Since the dam collapsed in 2010, many local citizens have hosted a variety of fundraisers, generating over $1 million total.

“What it’s done is it’s brought the community together in a way that I’m not so sure that’s ever really existed in a lot of different fronts,” said Steve Leanord, the President of the Lake Delhi Taxing District. “One is the support locally to get this dam restored but also the volunteering effort that has occurred in this area has really been extremely impressive

Now, their focus will turn to engineering plans. The people of Lake Delhi are looking into measuring water flow and will be including a spillway and additional capacity. Leonard has said they hope the rebuilding process will begin as early as next spring.

“There’s many jobs that are already lost, businesses starting to go out of business,” said Leonard. “We need to stop that and start going back into getting this economic engine rebuilt.”

After the men’s wrestling team rolled out the mats for the alumni meet, they were ready to start taking on the real competition. There is no better way than to start off at home for your first meet, and that’s exactly what they did.

Performing in front of the home crowd often pumps up the athletes to a higher level of competition, and this meet was no different. The matsmen came out ready to take on anyone that got in their way. Another thing that may have sparked their performance was the fact that for some of the wrestlers, this is their last year to really make it count, and this year gives them to leave their mark on Loras’ history.

With some performances from opponent schools that caught the team off guard, the team lost a few matches early, but there were some glimpses of brilliance from many of the men out on the mats wearing the Loras uniform.

Senior wrestler Pat Pfantz had a very impressive showing on this day. He was able to defeat two opponents in his bracket to make it to the quarter finals, where he was defeated by Jesse Delgado of UI who would go on to win their weight class.

While there were no victories, the team showed that they will be able to perform with the rest of them and even though it wasn’t the best outcome coaches were able to see where the team was at and able to find out what to do for the next tournament all of the opponents that it brings.

The matsmen now look forward to the meet at Elmhurst College and are preparing extremely hard to make the necessary improvements to get them closer to the top of the charts and make their name known among the people in the wrestling world. With sights set high on the season, no one is going to take this meet or any other meet lightly.

This team is led by many upperclassmen and they want this season to be the best. Coaches are always looking for a successful season and they will do whatever they can to make that happen for their team. This year is a year for big things and if they take a little longer to get where they are trying to get then they will be right there for it all. Team sports are called team sports for a reason, it’s the collective effort that makes everything happen.

The men’s basketball season will be underway next week as they square off at home against non-conference opponent Wheaton College. Wheaton got the best of Loras last year in a 79-63 victory but will be facing a much improved Duhawk team this season.

The Duhawks got off to a slow start at the beginning of last year’s season, which was detrimental to their playoff chances. Things eventually began to click with the the second half of the season, but the hole was a bit too deep.

In their last six conference games last season, the Duhawks went 5-1 to make a push for a playoff spot but found themselves on the outside looking in after a four-team tie break scenario denied them a spot. They finished the season on the heels of a three-game win streak.

This year, the Duhawks will be led by five seniors: Brian Gaughan, Jordan Harrelson, Zack Peterson, Tim Kelly and Dan Pawelski. Pawelski finished last season as the team leader in points and rebounds averaging 11.8 points per game and 7.5 rebounds and received second-team all-conference honors for his play.

Head coach Greg Gorton expects “great leadership” out of these five men, and they have all been elected captains. Kelly and Harrelson also return as two-year starters, and are no strangers to putting up big stats.

IIAC Competition looks to be tough this year. The team everyone hopes to beat this year will be Luther who took home the conference championship last season. The Duhawks were 1-1 against Luther last season.

“Our expectations are a conference championship only,” said Gorton. “We learned a lot about ourselves a year ago and have most of the team back. We have the talent to beat any team in our league.”

The women’s basketball team will be returning all players from their conference championship run a year ago where they came within three points of advancing to the title game after falling to the #1 seed and eventual champions, Coe College.

The Duhawks finished the regular season with a 14-11 record overall and an impressive 10-6 record in the conference and ended the season with a five game win streak.

The lone senior on the team is Lindsey LaBadie, who led the team last season in points, rebounds and steals on her way to receiving first-team all-conference honors.

Along with LaBadie, the Duhawks return a strong class of juniors who all made huge impacts last season: Brit Kent (2^nd team all-conference), Melissa Herrmann, Niki Rivera, Brittney Cato, Rachel Kerchefske, and Kelly Rogowski, along with Katie Wheeler who returns from knee surgery after a strong freshman campaign.

The advantage of returning all starters from last year’s team should bode well for Loras.

“Game experience is something you cannot replace and returning our entire roster with the addition of a very talented freshman class will be an asset on game day,” said coach Justin Heinzen.

Coach Heinzen calls the conference championship, “an achievable goal” especially after last season’s’ late run.

“Our league should once again be one of the top conferences in NCAA DIII with Simpson, Coe, and Wartburg being picked as the top tier of our league,” said Heinzen. “But we know we can compete with any of those teams.”

The team’s motto last year was to take it one game at a time. With a developed sense of familiarity and talent, expect the Duhawks to make a strong push for a conference title this season.

On a day that celebrated the senior players’ final game in the Rock Bowl, contributions by senior tight end Andy Brown and a blocked punt in the first quarter set the tone for Loras, but in the end, Wartburg College defeated Loras 23-14.

Before the game Loras recognized eight seniors: linebacker David Zoeckler, defensive back Eric Meyer, receiver Gavin Kaiser, quarterback Vaughn Gesing, linebacker Zach Myers, tight end Andy Brown, defensive lineman Frank Pereiro, and team manager Kevin Zack.

The Loras and Wartburg offenses traded three-and-outs to start the game, but a Nicholas Nunley punt following Loras’ first drive was accompanied by a 15-yard facemask penalty that set up Wartburg’s offense on the Loras 42-yardline giving Wartburg a short field to work with.

Wartburg quarterback Dan Stiefel completed two passes to receiver Donald Miller for 12 and 25 yards to set up a 2-yard run into the end zone by running back Conn Dahlstrom, giving Wartburg the early 7-0 lead.

Loras and Wartburg followed up with drives of eight plays that saw Loras quarterback Sean Brennan complete three straight passes and scamper for 11 yards before taking a hit, forcing back-up quarterback Andy Didio into the game.

With under three minutes left in the first quarter, Didio led a drive lasting three plays before a Nicholas Nuney punt got blocked and recovered by Andrew Putz of Wartburg at the Loras 12-yardline, which was returne to the end zone making the score 14-0, in favor of the Knights.

The second quarter provided limited action as both teams had three drives that resulted in punts before the final possession for the Duhawks with just two minutes left before half.

Two runs netted three yards, and Loras seemed to show a conservative play call for the final minutes, but a 12-yard run from sophomore Javan Aimable set up the Loras offense on the Wartburg side of the field. Sean Brennan followed the play with a 28-yard completion to first-year receiver Nate Even, who then fumbled and recovered his own error to go another nine yards to put Loras at the 11-yardline.

Two more runs by Aimable that totaled eight yards set up a 3-yard touchdown from Sean Brennan to tight end Andy Brown with two seconds left in the half.

Sean Brennan went 17-24 through the air for 159 yards, along with two touchdowns thrown. Nate Even stood out for the receivers with 8 receptions for 73 yards, senior Gavin Kaiser battled injuries throughout the whole game limiting him only to one catch.

The Duhawk’s offense was stagnant in the third quarte. They were able to muster three drives in total with their last one yielding the best results lasting nine plays for 28 yards before punting it back to the Knights.

Wartburg added a field goal in the third quarter and two more field goals in the fourth quarter to make the score 23-7 when Loras got the ball with five minutes to go in the game.

What would be Loras’ final drive began on its own 36 and started with a pass by Brennan that resulted in a pass a interference penalty on Wartburg, moving the ball to the Wartburg 49-yardline. Brennan followed up with another long pass to receiver C.J. Daniels for 31 yards to move the ball into the red zone.

One run and one pass that moved the ball two yards was quickly followed up with a pass from Brennan to the senior tight end Andy Brown who rumbled 16 yards into the end zone to make the score 23-14.

With three minutes left in the game, Tyler Wilker attempted an on-side kick that got through the first line of Knight return specialists and took a generous bounce, but no Duhawk was in the area to recover the ball.

“We’re getting close. We keep getting better, but we are not seeing things in the win column,” said coach Paul Mierkiewicz. “Our guys are playing hard and are well prepared. We are coming to work with the right attitude; we just have to get over the hump and get a win.”

The pair of seniors Eric Meyer and Zach Myers led the defensive charge for the Duhawks with a total of 13 and 9 tackles, respectively. Myers also added a fumble recovery while senior linebacker David Zoeckler contributed seven tackles and recovered one fumble.

Finishing the season as Co-Conference Champs would be something to celebrate for most programs across the country, but for the women’s soccer team, they are not satisfied yet. They will not be satisfied until they are sipping on their lemonade in San Antonio in December, and that journey starts now.

With their lone conference blemish coming as a tie to Wartburg, the Duhawks quite literally blew their competition out of the water. Only allowing four goals in conference play, they know that they are talented, but they feel they still have a lot to prove.

Senior captain Jess Kern is excited for the postseason because she knows that Loras has what it takes.

Leah Sedelle Chapman | My Duhawk

Hillary Wilson dribbles the ball against her Cornell opponent.

Total team play is what has gotten Loras to this point, and that is what they are going to lean on when it comes time for the NCAA Tournament.

After a slow start, the Duhawks seemed to heat up as the temperature went down. In the month of October alone, Loras owned a +34 goal differential, which is certainly a feat to be proud of. But none of that matters now, now it is time to play for the pride and glory that Loras is known for.

“We work for the entire year. It’s the best and most exciting time of the season. Every game we have to play our best and hardest because we never know when it could be the last time that we step out onto the pitch,” said senior captain Kate Young.

Loras took on the Luther College Norse on Wednesday evening with hopes to return to the Conference Championship match once again.

For the women, it’s “go time.”