It’ll get students hook, line and sinker.  It’s the new campus fishing club.

A fishing club was officially added as a chartered organization, said Elizabeth Shorts, coordinator of leadership and greek life. After passing both the Student Government Association and a student activities committee, the paperwork was handed to Joyce Jones, vice president for student services, and William A. Bloodworth, Jr., president of Augusta State University, where it passed with both signatures in December.

Shorts is adamant about the potential for the club to succeed, noting the desire from the president of the club, Wesley Steinmeyer, chemistry major.

“Wesley came in at the beginning of the school year and was really excited about it, and he’s really the first one who has actually done it,” Shorts said. “He’s been great through the process and really engaged and really excited about it. They have a good number of members who are interested in it, so I think it will be a really productive club.”

Steinmeyer said for the first month the club will likely be based on those with previous tournament experience, while the club will start fresh in the spring semester with mini-tournaments at Clarks Hill Lake to determine who travels.

Steinmeyer said dues will be $25 a semester, with additional fees going toward travel and getting a shirt with a sponsor and the school’s name on it. Membership for FLW Outdoors, the collegiate tour Augusta State will be a part of, is an additional $35 a year for those expecting to travel to compete.

Prize money is there for those competing. Winning a qualifying event nets the team $7,500, and $2,500 for the school. A regionals win is $12,500 for both the team and school, and a national championship earns the team and school $25,000 each, Steinmeyer said.

The club is open to anyone interested in not just competing but learning the sport of fishing, said Shane Wyatt, vice president of the club.

“There are two goals: We want to get people who have never tried it and have an interest in it, give them the opportunity to come out there with us and learn the do’s and don’ts of fishing, and we want to learn to be successful in tournament fishing,” he said.

Steinmeyer and Wyatt agreed their reason for starting the club had to do with their passion for fishing brought about early in life. Both want to learn more about becoming successful and advancing further in competitions, but they also want to introduce their passion to others in hopes they will pick it up, as well.

“I want to win, go far and advance,” Steinmeyer said. “I hope everyone gets a good experience from it. It’s not only fishing; it helps with sportsmanship (and) time management skills.  Life lessons can be learned through tournament fishing. You talk to a lot of people and learn a lot.  If people have a passion for fishing and want to interact with others who have the same passion and want to have a chance to advance in the sport, let the club know.”

Following two straight national championships, the Jaguars golf team faced the expectations that come with such success this fall.

The inexperience of a new lineup showed in the four fall events for Augusta State University, as the group finished outside the Top 10 in three of them.

The Jaguars started with a 10th-place finish at Olympia Fields in Illinois. Alex Wennstam put together a 23rd-place finish at +9 after shooting a 2-over 72 in the final round. Brendan Gillins finished in 30th for the only two Jaguars in the Top 30 individually.

After starting in 14th, Augusta State rebounded in the second round to end the day in seventh. However, the team fell back in the final round to fall outside the Top 10.

It was a similar story in the second tournament, the Brickyard Collegiate Championship in Macon, Ga. After starting in fourth and seventh in the first two rounds, the Jaguars slipped to 12th in the final round.

Taylor Floyd finished in a tie for 31st as the highest individual position for a Jaguar. Gillins and Cody Shafer tied for 43rd while Derek Chang finished 56th.

The third event on the schedule proved to be the toughest challenge for Augusta State, as the group played in what head coach Kevin McPherson considered “the Masters of college golf.” Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Fla., played tough for three days and the Jaguars finished 11th, the third straight event in which the Jaguars ended outside the Top 10.

Petersson led Augusta State with a 35th-place finish, while Floyd finished 40th and Devin Komline finished 50th.

The Jaguars rebounded in the final tournament of the fall at Royal Oaks in Dallas, as they finished fourth to earn their first and only Top 10 showing of the semester.

Floyd and Chang tied for 13th place at -2, while Komline and Petersson finished in a tie for 30th.

Despite dropping one position at Royal Oaks, it was the only tournament among the four in which the Jaguars did not fall from within the Top 10 to outside of it in the second or final round. However, McPherson dismissed the notion of inexperience or pressure.

“I don’t really know the reasons behind it,” he said. “In years past, we’d always get off to a bad start and fight from behind. I think it was just coincidental. Only playing four events, it’s hard to measure stats, it’s just small samples. It’s hard to make an assessment on that. I think it’s just coincidental that we just got off to a better start and didn’t finish the race.”

Chang, a junior who finished within the Top 50 individually once in the four tournaments, chalked it up to pressure.

“I feel like we put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” he said. “Falling back like we did is often the result of putting too much pressure on ourselves in the final round.”

A factor McPherson considered was the strength of schedule the Jaguars faced, which, according to the coach, was the toughest of any team in the country this fall.

McPherson said he hopes to see improvement from Chang and Wennstam in the spring when there is expected to be an increase in competition among the lineup. He further said he offered a scholarship to a player from Australia who is expected to make a significant impact in the spring once signed.

“I’m hoping I get this kid into the school that’s from Australia,” McPherson said. “I sent him a scholarship (Tuesday), and starting in January he could make an immediate impact right out of the gate. He is a very good player that should come in and start in the lineup immediately, and that’s what we need.”

Aside from an addition, McPherson said he is excited to see what Petersson has to offer in the future, including this spring.

“The kid has some game, and he’s got a good head on his shoulders,” he said. “I’m excited to see where this kid is going to take his game in the next couple years.”

A possible increase in competition has the spring lineup up in the air right now, and McPherson said the competition could continue until March.

Augusta State has five tournaments in the spring before NCAA Regionals May 18-20. The Jaguars’ hosted tournament at Forest Hills is March 31-April 1.

Men’s golf finishes fourth at Royal Oaks

In their best showing of the fall season, the Jaguars posted a fourth-place finish at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate between Oct. 31-Nov. 1. The team totaled a 4-under 848 to finish behind Texas A&M, Duke and Oklahoma.

Derek Chang and Taylor Floyd led the Jaguars at -2 apiece, tied for 13th. Chang stayed consistent over the three rounds, posting scores of 70, 70, 71. Floyd was one of three Jaguars to register a 69 in the event, recording consecutive rounds of 69 in the second and third rounds after carding a 73 in the opening round.

Devin Komline also reached 69, doing so in the second round. He had rounds of 74 and 73 in between to finish +3 at T-30. Robin Petersson also finished T-30 at +3 with rounds of 69, 72, 75.

Brendan Gillins tied for 43rd at +5 despite having the lowest single-round score of the tournament for the team at 67 in the second round. He posted scores of 73 and 78 in the other rounds to fall out of the Top 40.

Volleyball wraps up conference schedule with losses

The Lady Jaguars were defeated 3-2 by UNC Pembroke on Nov. 4. The largest scoring margin in any set was six, while three of the five sets had a difference of only two points. In the fifth and final set, the Braves knocked off the Jaguars, 21-19.

Kristen Koch, Jessica Hanson, Alex Rohlfing and Mandy Irizarry each had double-digit kills, with Hanson leading at 15. Irizarry recorded a double-double with 12 kills and 17 digs. Collette Richards led with 27 digs, while Krystin Wahlig added 23 digs and 54 assists.

Rebecca Morgan led the Braves with 24 kills and 17 digs.

The Lady Jaguars were unable to rebound in the final conference match of the season Nov. 5, dropping to Francis Marion, 3-1.

Irizarry led with 17 kills, while Rohlfing notched a double-double with 12 kills and 12 digs. Paige Tuttle added 10 kills.

Cross country teams finish season at regionals

Both cross country teams ended its seasons Nov. 5 in Charlotte, N.C., with sixth-place finishes in the NCAA Southeast Regionals.

Dustin Ross led the men’s team with an 18th-place finish, while Robert Blackwelder followed in 23rd, both earning All-Region honors. The Jaguars posted the second-best time among Peach Belt Conference schools behind UNC Pembroke.

The Lady Jaguars were led by Alicia Connolly‘s 23rd-place finish, also earning All-Region honors. The squad also came in second among Peach Belt schools behind Montevallo.

Athlete of the Week:

Mandy Irizarry
Junior
Volleyball

The Lady Jaguars volleyball squad lost two straight over the week in conference matches, but Irizarry put forth her best effort. She had 12 kills and 17 digs in the 3-2 loss to UNC Pembroke on Nov. 4, and a team-high 17 kills in the 3-1 loss to Francis Marion on Nov. 5.

Three consecutive Peach Belt Conference Championships and two conference tournament wins in the last three years is quite an accomplishment for any team at any level of any sport. But as the preseason Peach Belt basketball poll shows, past performance is not taken into much consideration.

The Augusta State University men’s basketball team is picked third in the conference in the preseason poll, tied with Clayton State. But when looking at the roster turnover for the Jaguars this summer, one has to be open-minded to the drop in rankings right now.

The Jaguars received one firstplace vote and 115 total points in the coaches poll, the same as the Lakers. Georgia Southwestern was picked to finish first with 10 firstplace votes and 141 points. UNC Pembroke was picked second with one first-place vote and 118 votes.

The Hurricanes were ranked as high as No. 16 nationally last season, going 20-9 and 12-5 in conference play. The record was good for first in the West Division, and their preseason No. 1 ranking is the team’s first. They return three of their Top 4 scorers, including conference player of the year and All-American Phillip Brown. The Jaguars defeated the Canes in their only matchup last year, 68-59.

Georgia Southwestern is also the only team to have two preseason All-Conference players in Brown and Colin Slotter.

The Braves reached the conference championship game for the first time last season, losing to the Jaguars, 76-59. The duo of Shahmel Brackett and George Blakeney are returning for Pembroke. Along with that win, the Jaguars defeated the Braves twice in the regular season by scores of 72-54 and 73-54.

After Augusta State and Clayton State at third, Montevallo is behind in fifth with 97 points. Jaguars rival USC Aiken is picked sixth, followed by Georgia College and State, Francis Marion, conference tournament host Columbus State, and Armstrong Atlantic State to round out the Top 10. Lander, North Georgia and Flagler are the three outside the Top 10.

Georgia Southwestern is the clear favorite of the conference based on the returning duo of Brown and Slotter. The lack of confidence in Augusta State shows when the voters give Pembroke the edge for second, even though the Jaguars beat the Braves three times last season and Brackett appears to be playing alone again this season.

Perhaps even more questionable is the fact that the Jaguars are tied with Clayton State. The Lakers have an even greater turnover than the Jaguars, as they brought in three Division I and one Division II transfers, while the Jaguars brought aboard two Division I transfers. The strength of these transfers may have played a role in sizing up the two teams, but they are also unproven, and the Lakers only had 10 conference wins last year compared to Augusta State’s 15.

However, it must remembered preseason polls are more about entertainment and bulletin board material than actual analysis. Excusing one of the most overused cliches in sports, games are not played on paper or computers. If Augusta State is strong enough to overcome a third-place preseason ranking, the team will do so on the court. If Georgia Southwestern has the talent to prove worthy of a firstplace ranking, the team will do so on the court.

You could say the national poll is a different matter, though. The NABC Division II preseason poll has Georgia Southwestern at No. 21 as the only PBC team. Montevallo has the second-most votes for a Peach Belt team with 10, followed by an unknown number for Clayton State. (They failed to list the number of votes for the Lakers for some reason.)

The Hurricanes? Sure. Clayton State? Maybe. Montevallo? No. The fact that Montevallo has 10 votes while Pembroke and Augusta State have none shows a lack of knowledge by the voters. This is a Falcons team that dropped out of the conference tournament in the first round last season to Augusta State, and in the first round of regionals to Anderson. They did play both games tough, and they are known to play tough defense, but the talent does not match the number of votes.

As I said, preseason polls mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, but regarding the Peach Belt’s representation in the national poll, putting teams in their proper places should not be this questionable.

Perhaps the furthest behind of any major sport in advanced statistics is rightfully the sport that can’t manage to get its players on the court.

Basketball is a bit behind the times when it comes to statistics. Whether this is due to a lack of acceptance or fans just not caring enough to study them is not known, but finding resources to dig into advanced basketball numbers might seem a tougher task than baseball or football stats.

The traditional stats for basketball are not necessarily faulty because of variables like in baseball or football. This is likely due to the individual nature of the sport. A star basketball player can throw up more than a third of his team’s shots in a game, which may rival a starting pitcher in baseball as the most valuable figure in sports. But the difference between the two lies in the basketball player’s ability to do more than just shoot and score; he can also lead the game in rebounds, assists, steals or blocks.

Basketball’s advanced statistics have more to do with the idea of per possession. Traditional stats are all of the per-game variety, but teams do not all run in the same fashion. Watching a game featuring the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs is a lesson in this idea. The Suns will run the court much faster, resulting in more possessions over the course of a season, while the Spurs run slower, leading to fewer possessions.

This is why per-possession statistics are important in determining the true value of a team’s scoring ability. The two basic ideas to come from this involve the number of points a team can get per shooting opportunity, and field goal and free throw attempts per possession. These are basic in that they boil down to shooting efficiency, offensive rebounds and ball handling, three crucial parts of a game.

True Shooting Percentage is an important stat in determining a team or player’s performance. It records points scored per shooting opportunity. When put next to shot-frequency numbers, it gives a solid indication of a player’s performance in a game by determining how many shots a player attempted in per-possession form while counting the number of points attributed to that player.

Shot opportunity numbers are important in that they determine offensive rebounding and turnover rates for a team in per-possession format. Simply, the more shot opportunities a team has per possession, the better the offensive rebounding and ball handling a team has.

Effective Field Goal Percentage (eFG%) is a specific stat dedicated to field goal percentage, but it gives more weight to 3-point shots made. It’s essentially field goal percentage with 3-pointers counted twice. The more efficient a player is behind the arc, the more valuable he is to a team.

Turnover Percentage (TO%) is important simply because turnovers can make or break a team. Coughing up the ball means fewer scoring opportunities. TO% counts the number of turnovers in per-possession format.

Offensive Rebound Percentage (ORB%) is another per-possession stat that counts offensive rebounds. Rebounding your team’s own shot is such a valuable tool to winning a game that players make a career of focusing on it and defense.

Free Throw Rate (FT/FGA) is simply free throws made per field goal attempts. For it to count as a successful trip down the court, a player has to make the free throws, hence the stat only using free throws made while using field goal attempts instead of free throw attempts. Winning teams make the freebies more often than not.

As was the case with the baseball and football editions of this series, this is only meant to open eyes to something other than the usual numbers. Looking at sports in an objective manner may not seem like everyone’s cup of tea, but giving it a few minutes of study may lead to a new passion and new outlook on sports.

Following their third straight Peach Belt Conference Championship and second tournament title in three years, the Jaguars lost the bulk of their scoring to graduation. The effects are seen in the preseason coaches poll released Tuesday, as Augusta State was picked to finish tied for third in the conference.

The Jaguars received one first-place vote and 115 total points, tied with Clayton State for third. Georgia Southwestern was picked to finish first with 10 first-place votes and 141 points. UNC Pembroke was picked second with one first-place vote and 118 votes.

The Hurricanes were ranked as high as No. 16 nationally last season, going 20-9 and 12-5 in conference play. The record was good for first in the West Division, and their preseason No. 1 ranking is the team’s first. They return three of their top four scorers, including conference player of the year and All-American Phillip Brown. The Jaguars defeated the Canes in their only matchup last year, 68-59.

Georgia Southwestern is also the only team to have two preseason All-Conference players in Brown and Colin Slotter.

The Braves reached the conference championship game for the first time last season, losing to the Jaguars, 76-59. The duo of Shahmel Brackett and George Blakeney are returning for Pembroke. Aside from that win, the Jaguars defeated the Braves twice in the regular season by scores of 72-54 and 73-54.

After Augusta State and Clayton State at third, Montevallo is behind in fifth with 97 points. Jaguars rival USC Aiken is picked sixth, followed by Georgia College and State, Francis Marion, conference tournament host Columbus State, and Armstrong Atlantic State to round out the Top 10. Lander, North Georgia and Flagler are the three outside the Top 10.

The season begins Nov. 11, but Augusta State’s season begins Nov. 16 at home against Paine College. The conference tournament is slated for March 1-4 in Columbus, Ga., with Clayton State hosting for the first time since 2003.

Following consecutive tournaments that left the men outside the Top 10, the Jaguars golf team put together a season-best fourth-place finish at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate in Dallas between Oct. 30-Nov. 1.

Rounds of 285, 275, 288 left Augusta State at -4 as a team, good for four strokes ahead of New Mexico. The Jaguars finished three strokes behind Oklahoma for third, while Texas A&M and Duke ran away with the tournament in a two-headed battle, with the Aggies winning by one stroke at -22.

Derek Chang and Taylor Floyd led the Jaguars at -2 apiece, tied for 13th. Chang stayed consistent over the three rounds, posting scores of 70, 70, 71. Floyd was one of three Jaguars to register a 69 in the event, recording consecutive rounds of 69 in the second and third rounds after carding a 73 in the opening round.

Devin Komline also reached 69, doing so in the second round. He had rounds of 74 and 73 in between to finish +3 at T-30. Robin Petersson also finished T-30 at +3 with rounds of 69, 72, 75.

Brendan Gillins tied for 43rd at +5 despite having the lowest single-round score of the tournament for the team at 67 in the second round. He posted scores of 73 and 78 in the other rounds to fall out of the Top 40.

Texas A&M’s Jordan Russell recorded the second-lowest 36-hole score in tournament history at -9, 133. Missouri’s James Ross tied the tournament’s 18-hole record with 64.

Lamar’s MJ Daffue won the individual scoring with rounds of 65, 70, 67 to finish -11. He played as an individual representing Lamar, giving Daffue the 18-hole tournament record as an individual with his opening-round 65.

Six of the Top 10 players represented Texas A&M or Duke.

For Augusta State, the fourth-place finish was the team’s second inside the Top 10 this fall. It also marked the end of the fall season. The Jaguars will return Feb. 13-14 in San Diego.

Men’s golf finishes 11th at Isleworth

Augusta State’s men’s golf team came in at +53 to finish 11th in the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational in Windermere, Fla., between Oct. 23-25.

The Jaguars finished 12 strokes out of 10th place following rounds of 295, 309, 313. They began the tournament in seventh place after one round, but consecutive rounds over 300 knocked them out of the Top 10 for the second straight event.

Robin Petersson led the Jaguars at +11, finishing tied for 35th. Taylor Floyd followed with a 40th-place finish at +12. Devin Komline finished tied for 50th at +17. Brendan Gillins followed at +18, good for 53rd. Derek Chang rounded out the team’s scoring at +20, good for 58th.

Women’s golf finishes fifth at Furman

Augusta State’s women’s golf team took home its third straight Top 5 finish by coming in fifth at the Lady Paladin Invitational between Oct. 28-30.

The Lady Jaguars finished +86, highlighted by a final-round +19, 307, the second-lowest round of the day. Casey Kennedy shot a +16 to tie for eighth individually. Natalie Wille tied for 14th at +19, and Christine Duschek-Hansen at +23 for 22nd.

Volleyball goes 1-2 in tough stretch

The Lady Jaguars were faced with the task of USC Aiken, Flagler and Armstrong Atlantic in a one-week stretch, and they came out with one win while being shut out in the two losses.

Augusta State defeated USC Aiken 3-1 on Tuesday. After losing the first set, the Lady Jaguars stormed back to take the next three and the match win. Jessica Hanson led with 16 kills, while Alex Rohlfing had 13 and Kristen Koch added 11.

The Lady Jaguars lost to Flagler 3-0 on Friday. After losing 25-16 in the first set, Augusta State took Flagler to the final point in the second set in a 26-24 loss before losing 25-22 in the final set. Koch and Rohlfing had eight kills each.

Augusta State had the task of Armstrong Atlantic on the road Saturday, and the undefeated Pirates handled the Jaguars with a 3-0 win. The Jaguars combined for only 21 points in the first two sets before losing the final set, 25-21. Rohlfing led with seven kills and eight digs.

Athlete of the week

Casey Kennedy
Sophomore
Women’s Golf

Kennedy earned athlete of the week honors for the second straight week. The sophomore finished eighth in the Lady Paladin Invitational at +16, leading the Lady Jaguars to a fifth-place showing. It was Kennedy’s second consecutive Top 10 finish following a third-place finish at the Lady Northern Invitational.

What some see as statistics are often not worthy of the label.

Rushing yards by a running back in a single game. Red-zone touchdowns by a running back in the second half. Touchdown passes by a quarterback while trailing.

These types of facts contain numbers, but they are not stats. They are called trivia answers based on underlying factors, and football is full of them.

Football is perhaps the most teamoriented sport. Baseball is largely controlled by the pitcher on the mound and the batter at the plate. A pitcher’s performance can almost exclusively win a game. Basketball teams can win games solely on one player’s performance. However, to be successful in football, a team has to have several components working together at the same time in order to produce a positive result. Think of it as a car engine.

This means separating players’ performances and rating them individually is difficult when they are often relying upon other factors. But there are advanced football stats that have accomplished much of this.

Win Probability Added (WPA) is perhaps the most identifiable statistic. As a team, WPA measures the difference between a team’s Win Probability (WP) at the beginning and end of a play. WP is defined as the probability that a team will win a game in progress based upon current circumstances at that time. As an individual player, WPA measures the WPA of the plays he was directly involved in, such as a throw for a quarterback, a catch for a receiver or a tackle for a linebacker. So, naturally, the more high-value plays a player is involved in, the higher the WPA.

Expected Points Added (EPA) is similar to WPA in that it measures the future expected net point average and gives the difference between expected points at the beginning and end of a play. The difference between WPA and EPA is EPA does not take game score and time remaining into account, giving the raw value of a play. So the higher the EPA for a player, the more value he provided during important plays.

The definition of Success Rate (SR) is found in its name. SR provides the number of successful plays a player is directly involved in. The more rushes for a running back that are deemed successful plays, the higher his success rate. It’s simple, yet effective as a tool for determining a player’s impact.

For a particular stat on the defensive side, Tackle Factor (TF) is a solid indication of a defensive player’s impact on his team. It’s a simple calculation of measuring the proportion of a player’s tackle total to his team’s total. When compared to the average TF at a player’s position, one can determine his impact as a tackler.

There are plenty of other statistics for specific positions worth checking out. Receivers have Yards per Reception (YPR), which measures the total yards on a pass reception, including air yards and yards after catch. Quarterbacks have Deep Pass Percentage (Deep%), which measures the percentage of pass attempts beyond 15 yards. Running backs have Fumble Rate (Fum%), which measures the percentage of fumbles per carry. Defensive linemen and linebackers have Quarterback Hits (QBHits), which measures the total amount of hits on a quarterback.

These are just a few of the many stats an avid football fan can find on websites such as advancednflstats. com. It’s a way of looking at what has been known as a team-based sport in a more individual way. After all, teams are made up of individual players, and acquiring the best individuals means acquiring the best team. Think about this next time you see that hyped running back score another touchdown.

The Jaguars men’s golf team finished outside the Top 10 for the second consecutive tournament as the men posted an 11th-place showing in the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational between Oct. 23-25.

Augusta State finished +53, 12 strokes back of Florida for 10th place. Texas took the title with an -8, 856, finishing 26 strokes ahead of second-place LSU.

The Jaguars opened in a tie for sixth place after posting a +7, 295. However, a second-round total of 309 dropped them to 11th. A third-round total of 313 kept them in 11th as the final scores were posted.

Robin Petersson led Augusta State at +11, finishing tied for 35th. Petersson carded a 73 in the opening round before dropping with consecutive rounds of 77. Taylor Floyd also opened with a 73 before dropping with rounds of 75 and 80 to finish tied for 40th at +12.

Devin Komline finished tied for 50th with rounds of 76, 79, 78 for +17. Brendan Gillins came in behind Komline at +18, tied for 53rd. He also started with a round of 73 before falling with rounds of 78 and 83. Derek Chang finished alone in 58th at +20, posting scores of 79, 79, 78.

Isleworth marks the second straight tournament the Jaguars have struggled down the stretch. In the Brickyard Collegiate Championship in Macon, Ga., Augusta State opened with a round of +4, 292 to begin in fourth place. However, a second-round total of +14, 302 dropped them to seventh, and a final-round total of 302 pushed them back to a 12th-place finish.

Floyd opened with consecutive scores of 72 before falling with a 77 in the final round at Brickyard. Chang posted a 73 in the first round before dropping with rounds of 78 and 76. Freshman Cody Shafer opened his collegiate career with a 73 before dropping with rounds of 77 and 74.

Augusta State wraps up its fall schedule with a two-day tournament at Royal Oaks in Dallas on Oct. 31-Nov. 1.