Panther Spotlight
Marc O'Leary is a senior from Terre Haute, Ind.
I'll start my first blog by giving a little background on myself. I was born and raised in Terre Haute, Ind., which is about a two and a half hour drive from Hanover. My faith in Jesus Christ comes first in my life and my family is by far the next most important thing to me. I have an amazing and close-knit family and enjoy every moment spent with them. I have three younger brothers, all of whom play basketball as well. My girlfriend, Amy, and I have been together for almost a year and a half and I have been lucky to have developed long-lasting friendships both with my friends back home and with the people I have met while at Hanover.
I chose to attend Hanover College for a number of reasons. First, the school got my attention when the coaches recruited me to play basketball here. After I looked into Hanover more, I found out that it had a strong academic background and a reputation as one of the best liberal arts colleges in America. On top of all these positives, my decision to attend Hanover was finalized once I visited campus. Hanover's campus is one of a kind. It is spacious and abounds with traditional architecture and beautiful scenery; better yet, each and every person I met on my visit was friendly, including students, professors, and administrators.
Since arriving on campus, fall 2004, I have been a member of the men's basketball team. Hanover has had a strong basketball tradition, which includes winning six of the last twelve HCAC conference championships and making two trips to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen since 2003. The past two seasons have been somewhat of a letdown for us; we finished 16-10 my sophomore season, and 14-11 last year. Therefore, this season is full of high expectations and our goal is to make it back to the top of the conference. This is especially important to me, considering it's my last season of playing organized basketball. We began practice last Wednesday and the team is looking strong so far.
Throughout this blog I will write about my life as a collegiate athlete at Hanover College, including the perks and unique opportunities afforded to me, and will also provide tips on how to overcome the challenges that all student-athletes face. Finally, I will throw in any other information outside of basketball that I believe is interesting. Make sure to check back each week to read what is new, and feel free to send me suggestions what to write about via Facebook or my email address, blogs@hanover.edu.
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Marc's Blog - February 18, 2008 Updated
To say the least, the basketball team has had a very disappointing past week. We got beat on our home court by rival Franklin. After tying the score at halftime, Franklin went on a 16-4 run, and we could not catch up the rest of the game. I hate losing games and losing to your rival makes it even more bitter. On top of that, we had a great turnout of students and other fans at the game and we couldn't pull out the victory for them. I think it is safe to say that it was the biggest home crowd we have had all year. The pep band was playing and the students painted themselves up; they were great.
We traveled to Bluffton Saturday with an opportunity to clinch a spot in the conference tournament. That didn't happen. We came out flat, and, like has been the case in most of our losses, we could not seem to put the ball in the basket. At halftime we were down 30 – 21. After fighting hard the second half, we got the game within two points. However, we made a few turnovers on consecutive possessions and Bluffton held on to win. Personally, I have played pretty poorly the last two games. There is no excuse for my performance and I am ready to get back on track against Transylvania on Wednesday.
Well, here is my challenge for all of you that were at our game against Franklin last week: come out for our game against Transy Wednesday night. It is senior night for us, and more importantly, we need to win to keep our chances alive of making the conference tournament. See you there.
Marc's Blog - February 14, 2008
First and foremost, I just want to say how relieved I am to have finished my comprehensive exam paper. I know most of the seniors finished their comps this weekend, which is a huge weight off of everyone's shoulders.
After a bye weekend, we played Anderson (winner of four straight at the time) last Wednesday night. In hindsight, I think the weekend off actually hurt our team. We came out the first half against Anderson and seemed really out of sync. We entered halftime down a few points, but came out in the second half and opened up a fairly large lead. With just seven minutes to go, we had a seven-point lead and felt fairly confident. That was when Anderson went on a 10-2 run and took a one-point lead with just under a minute to go. We made a defensive stop with six seconds to go and called timeout to set up a play for the winning shot. The play worked and we ended up getting a good look, but as close as the ball was to going in, it just didn't fall. It was a disappointing loss; we should have won the game, but didn't. A win would have put us in second place in the conference, but the loss let Anderson slide ahead of us in the standings.
At practice on Thursday, our team was still down after the previous night's loss and it showed. After a few sloppy drills, Coach Beitzel stopped us and said, "It's easy to work hard when things are going your way and you are winning. Your real character comes out when you face adversity. We can't just quit because we got beat last night. We have to refocus and get ready for Saturday's game." Our practice seemed to go a little better from there on out.
Saturday was prospective student-athlete day at Hanover. Jake Inman, Mitchell Meyer and I had a chance to answer questions for the basketball recruits. Hopefully we see some of them here next year.
Later that night we played Manchester College. We came out and opened a big lead, holding on to win by 10. Jake played a great defensive game on their top player and Brock Dawson came out on fire and helped us to our fast start. The win kept us in control of our own destiny. While Defiance seems to have first place wrapped up, we can finish second in the conference if we win out. That is our goal now, because the second seed gets a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
After the game, I went out to eat with my family and girlfriend and the rest of the senior basketball players. It was a little crazy to think that we only have a couple of more weeks left in the regular season; for us four seniors, this is our last stand. The past four years here have gone by fast, but we are ready to go out with a bang.
We had Sunday off from basketball like always, so I was able to spend a little time with my girlfriend. We headed up to Indianapolis with all of my roommates and their girlfriends for another 'date night.' After a couple of hours of ice-skating (don't worry, I didn't put my season at risk by skating), we headed to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner in downtown Indy. It was a lot of fun.
Well, we play Franklin at home on tonight. We need all the support we can get in the stands, so all you students and faculty reading this need to come out. This game is huge for us; a win would not only help us in our quest for making the conference tournament, but Franklin is our rival and this is our chance to sweep them in the regular season. For those who can't make it to the came, it will be broadcast live over the internet ( www.hanover.edu/live). Hope to see you at the game. Peace.
Marc's Blog - February 4, 2008
We headed into our game with Defiance College last Saturday with a perfect 4-0 road record in the conference, but despite a fairly well-played game on our part, we were unable to come away with the win. Our defense held their talented offense to only 58 points, but we were unable to hit enough shots to win. I did my part by going 0-5 from the field, including missing four wide-open three pointers. As both Coach Beitzel and Coach Neuman reminded us after the game and the rest of this week, we would have won if we had just hit a couple more shots.
We took that mentality into our game last night against Mt. St. Joe and came out shooting. After a close first few minutes, we made a run to end the first half and led 48-34. The main topic of conversation at halftime between the players was not to let our lead slip away. We have taken big leads into the locker room this year, but have seen them disappear in the second half. We wanted to make sure that didn't happen, and that is exactly what we did. We ended up leading by 28 at one point in the second half, and won by the final score of 85-63. One of the differences last night was our distribution of the basketball. We made the extra pass if our teammate had a better shot, and I think this is one of the things we have not been doing lately. It was a good feeling to win a game at home finally, which was another thing we haven't done much of recently. If you want to have a chance to finish at the top of the league, you have to win your home games. Hopefully, we are back on track now in Collier Arena. And I have to give a shout out to Coach Neuman for doing some extra rebounding for me before the game because it apparently paid off; I only missed one shot.
Our team got some support in the stands last night from a local elementary school. As we came out from the locker room prior to warm-ups, the students made a tunnel for us to run through and give them high-fives. They also had a bunch of signs made up for us. One group of students held up signs that read "Go," "Fight," and…"NIM." I got a huge laugh out of this; and in case you haven't figured it out, the kid was holding WIN upside down…haha.
I also had the chance to read to the kids in the campus daycare this afternoon. I read "Oh the THINKS You Can Think!" by Dr. Seuss. I figured this would be a fairly easy book to read, but Mr. Seuss throws some tricky words in his writings and I got caught in a tongue twister a couple of times. I enjoyed reading to the kids, and hopefully will get the chance to do it again.
Well, I've got a busy week coming up. I have a couple of papers due next week, as well as my Comprehensive Evaluation. For those who don't know, Comps are the final requirement of your major; I consider them the final exam of your major. As a communication major, I have a 10 page paper to write and then discuss with my professors. Let me just say that I'll be glad when I am finished with all of it.
We are off from basketball this weekend, so I will be heading home to watch my younger brother play a couple of games. Hope you all survive this cold weather…I am ready for spring. Peace.
Marc's November Blog Entries | Marc's December Blog Entries | Marc's January Blog Entries
Accomplishments, Goals, etc.
All four years I have:
• Been a member of the Varsity Basketball Team
• Participated as a representative on the Student Athlete Advising Board (SAAB)
First Year:
• Focused on completing many of my general degree requirements
• Set a strong academic standing for myself
• Worked numerous basketball camps during the summer
Second Year:
• Applied and was accepted to the Center for Business Preparation (CBP)
• Named to the Academic All-Conference and All-Conference Honorable Mention teams for basketball
• Worked at the Indianapolis Colts Training Camp during the summer
Third Year:
• Began taking courses for my communication major
• Named a captain of the basketball team
• Selected to the Academic All-Conference and All-Conference Honorable Mention teams for basketball for a second straight year
• Also chosen as the Team MVP and John R. Collier Mental Attitude Award recipient
• Completed an internship at MainGate, Inc., during the summer between my junior and senior years. MainGate is a sports merchandising and marketing company located in Indianapolis, Ind.
Fourth Year:
• Again named a captain of the basketball team
• Finishing up the final courses for my communication major
• Searching for employment in the sports marketing field after graduation
About Marc
Hometown: Terre Haute, Indiana
Major: Communication, Center for Business Preparation Scholar
Wants to be: Sports Marketing Director for a large college or professional team
Hobbies: Spending time with family, my girlfriend, and friends; sports; boating; camping
Where I hope to travel: All 50 states, Ireland
Where I've traveled: 22 states, mainly those in the midwest and southeast
Favorite Movie: Hoosiers, Signs, Shawshank Redemption
Favorite TV Show: College basketball games and most shows on Discovery
Scariest Movie ever: Unbreakable, just because of the 'let me in your house' scene.
Pet: Betta fish named Wil
Who would play me in the movies: Matt Damon
Mac or PC: PC
Myspace or Facebook: Facebook
Biggest hope or dream: To provide my future family with the same opportunities and experiences that my parents have given my three brothers and me.