Monday Cardinal Couple - 2015-2016 Comes to a Close

2015-2016 Finishes On a Heartbreak

Baseball finishes out the NCAA competitions for the school year with the College World Series in Omaha.  The Louisville Baseball Cards won't be making the trip this year after a heartbreaking loss to The University of California, Santa Barbara.  There were echoes of last year, with a walk-off grand slam to win the game by a California team to make the trip to Omaha, and the crowd to make a frustrated trip back to their homes.

That puts a wrap on UofL sports for the 2015-2016 season, though a number of UofL student athletes will still be competing over the summer months in individual events and representing their country on various national team in multiple competitions.  The biggest, of course, is the Olympics centered in Rio de Janeiro where UofL will have a number of swimmers competing, both current and alumni.  Of particular interest on this site, Kelsi Worrell, still has to win her spot on the squad in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials from June 26th to July 3rd, which will be held in Omaha, Nebraska.  Other swimmers, on the men's side of things, have already punched their Brazil tickets through their affiliation with other countries, including host Brazil, and Venezuela.

Emmonnie Henderson will have one more chance to punch her ticket to Rio as Paulie mentioned yesterday, so look for coverage of that.  Other sports that will be active over the summer in non-collegiate efforts will be tennis and golf.

Summer Series

Last summer Paulie and I laughed about, and lamented, the challenge of writing an article every day
about UofL women's athletics through the slow summer months as well as co-hosting an hour long talk radio show on Saturdays.  These are news outlets that we are committed to and will, of course, continue this summer as well.

One thing that we're working on that I'll tease you with now, is a series of guests on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour over the summer.  Several months ago, we had a guest in-studio, Clay "Point" Barnes, who is a videographer with UofL Athletics, and that show, where we talked a lot about what it's like to work "Behind The Scenes" was so well received, we decided to make a bit of a series of it this summer.

Already lined up for in-studio appearances are Lori Korte with UofL Sports Information, who Paulie and I interact with a lot throughout the year in covering Field Hockey, Women's Tennis, and Softball.

We also got a commitment, and just have to work out scheduling, from Nicole Lowry, who worked in Sports Medicine as a trainer for Volleyball and Lacrosse this year.  We'll be working on lining up other guests throughout the summer to give you a glimpse of the various departments of UofL Athletics that all work together to support the student-athletes and put on all of the sporting events we all enjoy.  We'll be trying to get guests from Academic Services, Marketing (Point is in this department, but it's a department that has many diverse roles, so we may end up getting several guests from this group), Compliance, and other departments.

We may also take the opportunity to speak with some less "up front" people involved in some of the various sports programs to explore what all it is that someone in the position of "Director of Operations" actually does (hint: a LOT) and maybe hear from some assistant coaches while we're at it.

Summers can be a bit slow in the collegiate sports world, but I think we've got ideas lined up that should keep you all excited to open your browser and tune in WCHQ throughout these warm months.

- JMcA