2008 Team retreat in Mt. Vernon, Ohio

2008 TEAM RETREAT

Dave & Emily Culbertson - the two that make this all happen! Ethan, the new addition to the Culbertson crew, sports the OSU gear with Junior Britt Bogart

Bowling is always a good time....We assembled 3 teams - Black, Orange or White and each team designed their "bowling shirts." The black team was stuck with Coach Durand and Coach Terrell (below) but we were the secret weapon in the end when the scores were tallied!

T-shirt judging....Orange came out victorious!

White (with Alisha Rinehart trying to sell their design) and the Black team describe why they should win the bowling t-shirt competition.

After bowling it was time to get to work on our assigned summer reading " The Ultimate Gift," by Jim Stovall. This lead to some good break out sessions and sharing about each other and goals for our upcoming season.

After the talks and dinner, it's time for karoke (coaches and newcomers were certainly in the mix). Dancing is also always involved....

Upperclassman serenading the youngsters....

When it's all over, it's bonfire time....

As we sat around the fire, we determined our team motto for the year:

DO WORK!

It's time to get to work for 2008-09 as we are looking forward to another great year of Polar Bear Basketball!

Our top bears for Spring quarter GPA

OUR TOP BEARS!

Heather Arbruster (Akron Hoban HS) and Erica Shoenberger (Riverdale HS) set the mark for top GPA after our Spring 2008 academic quarter. Heather came in at a 3.9 GPA and Erica a perfect 4.0. Way to go!

Our academics are a big priority here at ONU. We have 2 program goals: 1. Achieve a 3.0 or higher team GPA every quarter 2. Achieve national ranking for our team GPA. To help us get there, we have in place a program we call "AMP" or the academic mentoring program. Here's what we do:

FRESHMAN:

• Every 2 weeks meet with Coach Durand or Coach Terrell to do grade checks
  
• Every 4 weeks, obtain actual documentation from professors regarding course work - this is then submitted to the coaching staff
  
• During the fall quarter, they are paired with an older teammate in a like major who becomes her peer mentor. The mentor is responsible for arranging a study time that the 2 or 3 get together to work on coursework. Study sessions occur bi-weekly for 2 hours. This does 2 things - it puts a freshman with a peer teammate who understands what she is experiencing and secondly- it puts our mentor in a leadership role. We are all responsible for helping each other achieve our academic goals!