Column 2--Where in the world is Katie-Mary Outhwaite?!

Four years ago, she was in Kojonup, Australia. A year after that, Perth, Australia. She entered her first year of college at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tenn. just short of two years ago. Now, feeling like this is where she belongs and thanking her lucky stars for bringing her here, she resides as a student at the University of Nebraska Kearney (UNK) in Kearney, Neb.

Saying good-bye to all she knew was one of her toughest moments in her life. Katie-Mary Outhwaite, then a newly 18 year-old, was ready to set out on a life-changing journey. Leaving friends, family and her way of life in Australia behind, Mary chose to keep one thing she knew close to her—the game of tennis. Deciding to further her tennis years growing up and pursue her dreams of playing tennis at the collegiate level in America, Mary arrived in Memphis, Tenn., luggage and racquet in hand.

“I knew absolutely no one! When I got to that city [Memphis] I thought ‘ok here we go, what do I do now,’” Mary expressed.

Soon she was well acquainted with the girls of the Memphis tennis team and ready to compete. It was concluding her first season of competition that the head tennis coach was to be replaced with someone new. Mary soon discovered that the new coach hired on had decided to cut her, as well as three other girls from the team.

“It was a huge slap in the face after finding out that news. I had no clue where to turn or what to do. I was on scholarship and when I was cut that was taken from me,” Mary said as a tear began to form in her eyes. Thousands of miles away from home and Mary thought she was left with nothing but shattered dreams.

Realizing the new coach hired had made a mistake, he contacted Mary and offered her a spot back on the team. “I turned down his offer. I guess my pride just got in the way and I didn’t want to play for him,” she said.

It was at that moment where her next biggest decision, her most pivotal moment in her life, came to be. Mary needed to decide whether she was going back to Australia or search out other possibilities in the United States.

An unexpected offer from the University of Texas came to her soon after she had heard of the devastating news. Then another from a friend of her previous coach at Memphis, wanting her to check out Kearney, Neb. Each option created a plethora of opportunity that she was forced to weed out.

Option one was to pack up her dreams of being in the States and playing college tennis and go home. “At the time, this choice seemed to be the one that sounded the best. But then I thought, I’ve come this far and surpassed many obstacles that have been in my way so why give up now?” she said.

Her second and third options would bring her to new surroundings, seeming to place her back where she was when she first arrived in Memphis. The thought of being able to continue playing collegiate tennis and fearing the let-down of not sticking to this new adventure excited her to seek out option two or three. “If I chose to attend the University of Texas that fall I would have remained playing Division I tennis. Playing for UNK, I would have stepped down to Division II and a smaller university,” Mary said.

With no ounce of emotion left in her body due to the triumph of the past months in Memphis, Mary decided against going home and focused on whether she would be attending UT or UNK in the fall of 2007. “I was so emotionally exhausted from everything I went through in Memphis that I don’t really remember feeling anything as I went about making my decision as to what school I wanted to attend,” she said.

When the 2007, fall semester convened Mary walked to class on UNK’s campus! “Before I even got to Kearney, the girls on team that I would soon be joining were already calling to see if I wanted to get together and meet everyone on the team. I felt so incredibly welcomed by everyone I had met and I just knew that I had made the right decision,” Mary said.

Now, almost a year and a half later, Mary looks back at her experiences in Memphis as stepping stones for helping her become an emotionally strong individual. “Looking back I guess I am thankful for what I had to go through there. It definitely helped shape me into the person I am today and because of those experiences I am the Katie-Mary Outhwaite I am,” Mary said, laughing. Coming from a girl who has been there and knows, Mary is convinced that, “Our experiences really can build character.”

Google and Twitter

It is evident that there is a growing popularity of social networking sites popping up all over the internet. We’ve seen Facebook, MySpace, and Wayn. Now site known for other purposes than social networking are choosing to jump on this band wagon and go with it! As the popularity increases, adding these functions seem to have more positive outlooks than negative.

As with Twitter and Google, two powerhouses in their select industries, it seems right that the two combine, enhancing each others functions.

For consumers this move is great. Because of Twitter’s microblogging service, consumers are able to post brief text messages on this site. This has amounted to consumers obtaining and sending information concerning their topics of interest such as how the feel about specific goods. From this, advertisers are able to get a better idea of the products and services consumers are most likely interested in, raising an overall awareness of these products. This then aids the marketers in developing, improving and producing these products based on the customer feedback. Afterall, as we have encountered time after time in our text and of course throughout our marketing classes, pleasing the customers and giving them the best possible services/products possible is the goal of any company or business.

As with consumers, marketers will too benefit. Like I mentioned, the marketers will be able to see what customers are discussing in dealing with certain products. This allows them the ability to improve products/service based on the form of feedback they receive. Word of mouth is the fastest growing segment of the media industry (Marketing VOX). With consumers utilizing this medium through Twitter, marketers will be able to get a better idea of what’s in, out and desired.

Google will certainly benefit as well. Twitters microblogging mechanism has emerged as the ‘custodian of a valuable online index of real-time facts, comments, musings and announcements, information that is clearly valuable for Google's search engine index’ (Perez). Google’s way of collaborating with major web sites to determine the best possible way to index one’s site content for its search engine (Perez), would stick with that same consistency of Google’s purpose should Google and Twitter choose to do the same.

Finally, this move would benefit both Google and Twitter financially. Google selling the ads to marketers and Twitter being used as an advertising mechanism will increase their incomes greatly. The awareness of Google is obviously very strong now but this also gives Twitter a chance to become better known allowing more users to jump on as they hear of Twitter and its functions.

Social Networking

The idea of Hulu, an up and coming video company, adding social networking functions is, in my mind, a key to the success of the company and I completely support this effort. The more interactive users can be allows marketers a greater plethora of consumer information in deciding how to better target specific groups. Marketers have seen a trend in the popular social markets such as MySpace (myspace.com) and facebook (facebook.com). Through these networks word of mouth, the best way to simulate messages, is the main way users communicate with one another. Like facebook’s feature of adding a friend because you have common interests with that person or because you know someone they know, is similar to the concept Hulu is considering. Connecting with each other and sharing video preferences is Hulu’s way of adding this concept and customizing its product.
With this idea of building user loyalty and mining data to attract advertisers, marketers can get a better idea of what products to promote/advertise because they will better know what kind of groups they are targeting. According to the article, Social Networking Gets a Sanity Check, the number of dollars spent on advertising on facebook and MySpace together is $1.02 billion. Obviously from these numbers, it is evident that advertisers believe social networking sites are great places for advertising. Though assumptions may still be made about certain users, overall this is a great concept. The article, Hulu Embraces Social Networking, stated that users would be able to create their own profiles for this particular site. Seeing the success that has come from social networks like facebook and MySpace, even Google, Amazon and eBay, I believe Hulu is heading in the right direction. Allowing users to create their own profiles, puts them in the driver’s seat, as they are the ones who choose what goes on and what is left out. Overall, adding social networking functions is a great idea that will help capture consumers, build brand loyalty, and better fit advertisements to specific target groups.

Taken--Movie Review

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you do. But I will find you. I will kill you." Ah, the famous line many of us heard during the promotional commercials for the thrilling movie Taken. That line alone, sparked my interest and plunged me into the set of Taken.

Bryan Mills, who is played by actor Liam Neeson, is a retired X-CIA spy. Overtime he has acquired a certain set of special skills in which he can fight, investigate and kill. His daughter Kim, played by Maggie Grace, lives with her mother. Dad and daughter have a drifting relationship due to the fact that previous years in the CIA has kept him busy and on the road. Mills decides to retire in order for him and his daughters relationship to rekindle and so that he can be close to her. Kim approaches her father with a question asking to go on an international trip with her friend Amanda, played by Kate Cassidy. Still being in high school, her father is reluctant to let two young girls travel overseas alone. Finally, he agrees to letting her go but only after Kim agrees to daily phone calls and of course one letting him know she arrives safely.

When the girls arrive at the airport in Paris, they grab their bags and walk out to the streets where they try to get a cab to take them to Amanda's cousins house. A cute boy that the two meet, who happens to be a recruit for a sex slave ring, offers to share a cab with the girls in hopes of getting some information from them. They make the mistake of telling him where they are staying and that they are in fact there alone. After saying good-bye he makes a call informing the person on the other line of the information he has obtained.

Kim, forgetting to call her father when they arrived, noticed she had a missed call from him so takes her phone in another room and calls her father. Here's where it gets interesting...! Only moments after their conversation begins, Kim sees Amanda being taken out of the house by a group of men. Frantically informing her father of this, he tells her to enter another room and get under the bed. She does this and then goes on to say that what he tells her next is key. Kim is told that she will be taken. Once she is, her father instructs her to yell out everything she sees and then he will come find her. With only 96 hours to find Kim, we see her father's set of special skills released throughout the chase.

The action that unfolds kept me on the edge of my seat and I instantly developed a sense of hate for the men that had kidnapped Kim and Amanda. A father's love is so strong that when his precious joy is taken from him anyone can become invincible. The clues that Mills collected and his clever ways of obtaining them was an excitement in its own. Based on instances that have occurred in our world, with women being kidnapped and taken to other countries, Taken posed as a real eye-opener as to what may be going on when these women are captured. Families may rethink sending their students overseas, but if anything it should teach us that you can't be naive and never too careful. The determination Mills shows in getting his daughter back is a prime example of a father's divine love.

Spring Break Column

You hear grunts, and howls, squeaks and pounds. You see green and yellow, scorecards and crowds. It isn’t football, but it’s just as hard on your body.

For spring break, I got the privilege of going north, to the land of 10,000 lakes. A perfect place to spend spring break! Lakes are frozen over, snow piled high and due to the below freezing temperatures you can bet any activity will be done indoors. So, why was I there? I, along with the rest of the UNK men’s and women’s tennis teams, was there to compete.

The fortunate change of regions requires us to compete against division II schools in Minnesota, instead of heading a bit further south to Kansas and Missouri. The desire to contend at the NCAA Regional tournament in May is the drive that propels us forward.

Sitting about the very middle of our season, we have already faced numerous injuries. Though some good has come from it, like the addition of a wonderful, new teammate; some has not been in our favor. Playing two matches a day, a possibility of four or five in any given weekend, takes a great toll on one’s body. We need our legs, the lower body, to carry us from one side of the court to the other, lifting us up and down as we take each shot. Our arms, shoulders, abdomens and backs to control our swings, serves and power. Eyes help us make the judgment call as to whether or not our opponent’s shot was in or out. Our vocal cords, of course, enable us to call out the score and the hair on our heads, or perhaps lack thereof, holds in place a sweat band, head band, hat or bandanna. Each and every part of our body is working to allow us peak performance. When one limb goes down, the others must work twice as hard to keep up.

This spring break started out for me as any other weekend of match-play. As I began warming up, I could still smell my clean, just washed uniform and the strong scent of fresh linen dryer sheets. We pulled together and triumphed through both matches, defeating Augustana and Minnesota-Duluth, but a familiar pain underneath the big toe on my left foot began to show that my body had taken a pounding throughout the day.

Sunday night faded into Monday morning and soon enough we found ourselves back on the tennis court, not so fresh as the previous day. St. Cloud had one of the top seeds in our region so our biggest challenge of the week was about to get underway. Seeming to feel more and more pressure from my foot throughout my doubles and singles matches, I kept thinking, “pull through, this is the last one and then I’ll have a few days off.” My thoughts erased the pain even more as I finished my singles match felling pretty good. Another victory, only this one was a bit closer.

As soon as my head hit the over-stuffed pillow at our hotel, I was out. Should I have known the pain in my foot I would be feeling in the morning, the thought of ever falling asleep would not have crossed my mind. As I stepped out of bed the next morning, placing both callused-over and blistered feet on the floor, I took a step with my left and the agony that shot through my body was enough to sit me back down on that bed. “Could it be broken, again” I wondered as more and more thoughts developed in my head.

As athletes we sacrifice our bodies for our sport. When our mind is set and our goal is in focus, it doesn’t matter what sport we compete in, we go to great lengths to get to where we want to be, injured or not, and in the end, that defines who we are—athletes.



So I wrote this piece the evening of the day I woke up and thought it was broken. Since then, I have had some very generous family and friends help do what they could to get me back on the tennis court 3 days later. A day after this incident I saw a family friend who happened to be a trainer and without looking at x-rays he believed it to in fact be broken. His recommendation was to get in a boot or on crutches if there was any chance of me playing that weekend. You see, this was a big weekend for me as all my family live in MN so many were coming to watch our matches on Saturday. After doing some searching we were able to track down a walking boot, without being in Kearney and having the trainers there, I felt helpless due to my limited actions because I was not with the team and too far away. When Saturday came, I was determined to at least play doubles. When that went ok, I played singles and another round of doubles. Assuming my foot would be hating me in the morning, I was pulled out of our last singles match for precautionary reasons; that being because I was encouraged not to play at all by UNK training staff. To my surprise, the next morning it didn't feel too bad at all, in fact besides the inflammation, it felt pretty good. Still I have not gone to get another set of xrays done. The trainers are hoping that because it was not sore the day after I played that means progress. I was told just to continue watching it throughout the weeks and monitor and changes I may find. The week after spring break was filled with a lot of non-tennis activity except for a match last Sunday in which it seemed fine. The true test will be this week and those that follow as our competition increases and our weeks are jammed packed with tennis!

A Roller-Coaster ride...

We get tossed and turned, thrown in and out, told yes then no, first come then go. Yes, this is exactly how the lives of the players on the UNK tennis teams, both men and women, seem to be going this season. If it's not one thing its another. We get told we are playing at this place at this time and then it changes about 7 times, usually ending with what was said at the beginning. It has gotten to the point where parents just say call me right before you are getting ready to go on for warm up so I actually know what time you will begin match play. It's absolutely ridiculous to say the least! I feel like I am on some sort of over-thrilling, yet extremely annoying, never know what your going to get, roller coaster ride. And believe me when I say I do not recommend waiting in line for this one!

Believe it or not, its even happened again. We were scheduled to play in Hays, Kansas both Friday and Sunday. Well, due to the unfortunate weather Kansas was experiencing the past couple of days, it was decided that tennis may be difficult to play on a court full of snow; not to mention the fact that it would probably be freezing outside as well. So, Friday's match is canceled due to weather. Fine, we can handle that. However, Sunday's match was still to be determined. So we await all day Friday for an answer--nothing. We keep waiting into Saturday, only less than 24 hours until we would actually have to leave to play, and nothing until about 2:00p.m. What is the news we received?! We are leaving Kearney at 6:00 a.m. driving 3 1/2 hours and are now playing two matches, one of which wasn't even scheduled to begin with! Two matches, both women and men plus a total of 7 hours driving time = getting back to Kearney super late when each of us must get up and be in class the next day. On top of that, we have injury, sickness, and the bulk and most important part of our season begins next weekend. To top that off, instead of catching up on school work Monday we will most likely want to sleep and then all classes on Thursday and Friday will be missed for pretty much the remainder of the semester. Come on, is this really necessary?! Of course, I forgot to mention, the two matches we are supposed to play on Sunday do not count for anything other than our record because they are not conference or regional matches.

I am a little disgusted by this matter to say the least. It just seems so inconsiderate of those whom randomly decide to thrown in a match and expect us to all cheer and shout in an excited, over-joyed manner. Instead, we get 'the look' in our eyes and steam sprays out of our ears. The one who throws this on us and responsible for the disorganization that seems to come up numerous times a day, is also the one who sits back and watches, not having to put forth any physical effort whatsoever. Perhaps the ones who compete should deal with the matter of scheduling and rescheduling matches, after all they are competing and know how much their bodies, both physically and mentally can take.

I apologize that this post was basically my place to vent, but in doing so I got out what I wanted to and still don't really feel much better! I hope everyone else has had a wonderful weekend though!

It has its own website?!?!

So as I searched for some interesting stories concerning the topic of spring break, I came across a website that was strictly for the purpose of spring breakers showing information results for destinations, tips, and tours. Springbreak.com is the official website that I cam across in my search. As I began looking through the site, besides the hilarious YouTube videos that were posted, were actually some pretty informational pieces. The first that comes to mind was the news story, alerting travelers to Mexico to use extreme caution as they venture out of the United States. This of course coming from the State Department. Though this site is promoting vacation hot spots and offering luxurious places to stay, it is also getting viewers proper information to issues that may be a concern to this type of travel group. I was somewhat shocked to see this link on the website. There was also informative pieces on passports, a useful tool for those wishing to travel outside the U.S.

Those in search of that perfect tropical swimsuit, look no more, springbreak.com has numerous links to some of the most popular swim wear brands linked on to the site. This site is almost the only thing you need to get everything taken care of before spring breaking! I'm sure if any of you read this, you may be saying, DUH! where have you been?! But being on the tennis team has pretty much wiped away my dreams of planning any spring breaks so I really have never looked into anything like this before. I guess I thought it was pretty neat!