Brandon Justice is an all-around great athlete, but you truly are not going to believe what he is planning on doing once school starts.

Brandon is at Hardin-Simmons attending the National Cheerleading Association camp being held here this week. What will surprise you is the uniform he plans to wear when he cheers.

In the Mabee Complex gym there is a sea of girls and a handful of guys. Brandon is part of a four-member team learning the basket toss.

There is no doubt about who is in command as he says in a succinct voice, "Ready, one, two, down, up, down, up." In response to his instructions, one brave girl is lifted until she stands at arm's length above the others. Brandon then instructs, "Cradle, one, two, down, up." The young lady is tossed into the air just before gravity takes hold and she falls safely into a group catch.

Brandon is one of about 220 cheerleaders from 25 schools around the West Texas area. This is Brandon's first year as a cheerleader at his high school in Claude, TX,--just east of Amarillo. He says he got a lot of encouragement from many of the girls to try out for the squad. "I have always thought this looked like a fun sport. It gives me something to do in the summer," says Bandon. "But it's a lot harder than I thought."

While Claude is a 1A school in a town of about 1300, the cheerleading squad at the high school seems huge--ten girls and two boys.

Jana Lemons is the cheerleader sponsor and, in her ten years, this is the first time the school has had male cheerleaders. "They bring a tremendous amount of strength to the team.They are also loud," Lemons says, yelling to be heard above the noise in the gym.

William Daugherty is the head instructor for the camp. Since it is raining outside, he is sitting on the first row of the bleachers in the gym as he makes notes during the maneuver the students are practicing. He was a cheerleader at Texas Tech and also at Levelland High School. He says this is a drill the campers have to master in order to move on in the program. "Usually we practice this in the grass outside," he says, "where it feels safer, but the rain has driven us indoors."

During the basket toss, he says, the number one thing is trust. "A girl can go about 20 feet in the air, depending on her reach and the strength of the toss. She truly has to trust the people catching her." And that is the point of this camp: "Safety," he says is number one, "but we also teach the campers techniques and how to interact with the crowd."

Brandon will most likely have no trouble interacting with the crowd in Claude after they see what he is wearing. The crazy part about Brandon--he is also a football player! So now, are you getting this picture?

How do you play football and be a cheerleader? Brandon doesn't really know exactly how it will work either, but he anticipates being on the sidelines cheering in his football uniform! Pads and all.

Brandon also runs track, and plays baseball as well as basketball. He says something has to give, so he may have to drop basketball to have time to be on the cheering squad.

Lemons says she thinks the student body is really excited about the guys being on the squad this year. But a football player--cheering for the football team . . . well, that will a game to see!

Posted by Janlyn Echols Thaxton · July 2, 2009 10:25 AM · Comments (0)

"I heard about this camp last year, but I didn't think I was advanced enough to come," says Blake Copsey with a bit of a shrug. But this year, the red-haired, soon-to-be a high school junior is one of an exclusive group of students at Hardin-Simmons University.

Only 15 students are allowed to come to the summer piano camp says co-director Lauren Puckett. "That's the maximum amount since we have to make sure each student has a practice room with a piano and an opportunity to perform in a master class."

"When they apply," says Puckett, "they are required to submit a recording of a performance and a letter of recommendation from their piano teacher."

Puckett and husband, Dr. Mark Puckett, both on the faculty in the HSU school of music, started the camp five years ago. "We want serious piano students to experience a week of intensive study and enjoy the company of others who share their love of music," says Puckett, working late into the evening. Students are preparing for a morning recital their parents will be attending.

When Blake was little, he watched and listened as his mother sometimes taught piano to as many as 18 students per day in their home near Flower Mound. At age seven, he says, he was tired of only listening. "I wanted to play!"

"I think I was one of her youngest students," says Blake. "But when friends saw how well I was doing at such a young age, they wanted to play too -- and many did."

Blake says he has spent all summer practicing, participating in recitals, and doing some piano competitions. "I practice at least two hours a day. I haven't really had a summer break, but that doesn't matter, if it has to do with piano, I love it," says Blake.

One of the things the students do for fun is to go to First Baptist Church in downtown Abilene to play the Shelton Organ, a multi-million dollar pipe organ that was donated to the church and recently refurbished. Puckett says, "An organ has a much different feel and it can be a little intimidating. Many of these very serious keyboard students have never played an organ."

Blake says one of his favorite activities is composing a piece of music. Students leave with a compilation of everyone's compositions and they vote on their favorite one during a dress rehearsal.

In the usually formal setting of Woodward-Dellis Recital Hall, students cheer and wildly applaud their fellow campers as they play their compositions. Students practice a deep, sweeping bow to their audience, both before and after their performance.

Blake says his composition was inspired by the quick rhythms of Carol of the Bells. "I've had the beginnings of this piece in my head for several months, but when it was finalized, it was something completely different than I had imagined it. I like it better."

Shirley Anderson, a long-time church pianist and part of the camp faculty, says one of the things they discuss during the week is performance anxiety. "Musicians do some of the same things to conquer fear that athletes do in sports." Anderson continues, "We talk about putting your performance in perspective--recognizing this is just one of many performances. We also talk about foods you should avoid, like caffeine and sugar which hype you up."

"One of the coolest fun things," says Blake "is ensemble. In my group, there were seven of us all playing together, each of us on our own piano. That was a new experience for me."

Puckett says, "Several of the students who have attended past camps have since come to HSU for their degrees - in piano performance, theory/composition, and music education. It's a wonderful way for students to experience HSU and get to know some of the music faculty."

Blake says that's his plan. The camp was a way to check out the university. "I know this is where I would like to be in a couple of years. Each of us got so much personal attention. We were not just numbers. I know a lot more theory and we worked on techniques, I feel a lot more confident now."

Blake's parents will be at the concert Thursday morning at 10:00 in the recital hall. "I'm excited for them to hear what we all have done," he says with a mix of excitement and anticipation.

The recital is free and open to anyone who would like to give support to the week-long efforts of students whose summer break is dedication to their love of music.

Posted by Janlyn Echols Thaxton · July 2, 2009 12:24 AM · Comments (0)

Luke Luttrell sports a bandage that's close to three-quarters of an inch thick on his calf. His leg seems to bother him a little, but you might expect that after three full days of football camp.

On both sides of Simmons Street, which runs through the campus and by the playing fields, there are football players literally everywhere. Most have on white or gray tee shirts with the arms cut out. The players' names are printed across the shoulders; some scribbled in Marks-A-Lot, others a little neater with iron-on letters.

The Air It Out passing camp at Hardin-Simmons University has grown to be so large that offensive coordinator and HSU assistant coach Alan Wartes decided to split it into three separate groups over 12-days.

Luke is just about to finish with the first group of campers, all juniors and seniors in high school next year. He will be the quarterback for Irving High School this fall and did not want to miss his third year at the popular Air It Out overnight camp.

Tooter Draper, who is a football coach at Cisco High School, is one of many coaches who spend the last half of June each year coaching players from all over the state. In fact, Draper's son Ryan will be playing football for the first time in the fall and will be among the youngest group of campers here next week.

In one of the drills, twelve-player groups, split into two lines with the receivers running a gauntlet of imaginary defensive players. Jared Simpson of Hallsville is in the quarterback line. He says this is his second year for the camp and it has definitely helped with building strength in his throwing arm.

This year is Trevor Owens seventh summer. The tight end from Monohans says it's great conditioning and it has helped him to run crisper routes.

Meanwhile, since this is the last day for the older players, parents have begun to line the perimeter of the fields. Rebecca Lance stayed in Abilene during the camp. Her son Zachary will be a junior player for the Sudan Hornets. "Zachary gets so much out of this camp," she says. "He really enjoys coming here to see friends from past camps."

The last item of business on the agenda is a speech from coach Wartes. A sea of football players began to form a 350-man semicircle around Wartes. "I want you to be great at playing football," Wartes tells the players. "More importantly, all of us here want you to be a good person. There are 50 or 60 Christian coaches who are here to help you. If you need help, call us."

"Luke 2:52 says 'Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.'"I want you to be like that," instructs Wartes. "Be a good studier in school, grow intellectually, spiritually, and take care of your body." Wartes continues, "Don't drink and drive. Make good decisions and learn to interact with people."

"We get a kick out of watching you be successful football players. But what thrills us the most is to see you be successful in life."

As for Luke, he expects his leg will be better in a week or so. The bandage he wore throughout the camp was to protect a leg full of 16 stitches. Luke is quick to point out that the injury did not happen at camp, "I walked into a license plate a week and a half ago." Luke says, "I just couldn't miss the camp. It's the best one I've been to. I get more one-on-one coaching time here and it has improved my mechanics. We also get to practice with players on all levels in all divisions. It really makes us better."

There is one more camp to go for Wartes and the other 50 or so coaches. The youngest group arrives on campus beginning next week. Upcoming seventh and eighth graders will check onto Behrens and Lange dorms on Tuesday for a camp they are likely to attend for many summers to come.

D.J. Betik, a senior from Ennis, has been coming to the HSU camp since his seventh grade summer. "It's a great workout, a great atmosphere, and a great refresher course before the start of the season."

Posted by Janlyn Echols Thaxton · June 26, 2009 8:36 PM · Comments (0)

After every tough workout Andria Whitley goes back to her dorm room at Ferguson Hall and soaks her fingers in tea. She looks down at her hands and then thrusts wiggling fingers, palms first, forward so you can see the blisters and calluses better.

Andria is part of a growing number of students who make it a regular part of their summer to attend a June camp that includes about eight hours of practice every day for almost a week.

Sound like misery? It's not for Andria and about 150 others students who want to be better at what they may do for the rest of their lives.

Andria is a harpist who has been coming to the Abilene Summer Music Festival at Hardin-Simmons University since she was in the sixth grade.

Whitley has now graduated from Poteet High School in Mesquite and plans to major in harp and business in college this fall. Andria is already a professional musician, and she says she makes pretty good money for herself. Counting events on her fingers, "I play harp for churches, musicals, weddings, receptions, a whole lot of things," she says. In fact, that's one of the reasons she keeps coming to the orchestral camp. "We play really professional music here--music like it is in the real world."

There is no kidding around about that. Director Jason Lim succinctly taps his baton on a metal stand in front of him. "You need to feel this music," he says forcefully. "Right now I am not hearing that. Let's try it again."

Lim says he doesn't mean to sound scary. "I just want the students to be in the moment. They learn when they are alert and focused," he says in a friendly voice. "Students learn by being involved; my job is to involve them."

Hardin-Simmons assistant professors of music, Dr. Peter Isaacson and Dr. Peter Neubert, run the Summer Music Festival camp. When asked how students from so many different schools are able to jell into an orchestra in just a few days, Isaacson says, "It really is very intense. There's always a breaking-in period. We do that by putting them into sectionals--smaller components according to their instruments," he explains. "Then, we start putting the sections together so students can hear how the parts of music work with each other."

In the Cowboy Band Hall, the high school-aged students have gathered to form one of three orchestras. Lim has them play a little of the piece and then stops to work with a flute and some string-plucking violins. "I don't think you are feeling this part!" he says as he instructs them to play it over again and again.

"Now let's take it from the top." Lim raises his baton bringing on a quick snapping sound as mouthpieces fly to lips and violins to chins. Andria raises her blistered hands, placing them on both sides of the strings. A collective breath is heard on the upbeat of the baton, and then...

The sound is like, well, it is a lot like how a creamy strawberry smoothie tastes in the shade of a tree at a picnic. (Seriously, great orchestral music is difficult to describe, okay. Noise is easier.)

Isaacson says of the camp, "We pull three full orchestras together in just six days. It's a very intense experience for them. When the students are in school, they have maybe two months to work on a program. This really is a taste of what it's like to be a real musician in the profession. You have to learn it quickly."

As for Andria's fingers, she says the tannic acid in the tea helps with swelling and makes her fingertips dryer. "My harp teacher here at camp told me about that trick the first year I was here."

The orchestras will perform on three occasions this week. Tonight, June 25, at 7:00, you will have a chance to hear the students at Art Walk in the Elks Art Center in downtown Abilene. Tomorrow night, you can hear a Chamber Music Concert in the Woodward-Dellis Recital Hall on the HSU campus. That is also at 7 p.m. Then on Saturday, the camp will wrap up in a Grand Finale Concert at 3 p.m. in Behrens Auditorium at HSU. Of course, all concerts are free.

If that is not a creamy strawberry smoothie, then what is?

Posted by Janlyn Echols Thaxton · June 25, 2009 5:38 PM · Comments (0)

The word "grunting" is always good for a few laughs. But there's a debate raging in the tennis world about that funny sounding word and some say grunting is really all about cheating.

Hardin-Simmons University Professor Dr. Dennis O'Connell is probably the world's foremost expert on grunting. It may sound like an odd thing to have expertise on, but O'Connell says if you want to power up your tennis serve, a good grunt will do it for you.

The debate over the escalation of grunts emitted by professional tennis players at Wimbledon was the subject of a radio program broadcast throughout Canada this morning. Dr. O'Connell was one of the guests on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation radio talk show called Currents. He revealed his study on the subject and he is clearly in favor of the vocalization if you want to increase the velocity of your serve.

The question at hand is, are sudden bursts of vocalized air from the diaphragm a legitimate way to blow off pent up energy and increase velocity, or is grunting a strategy of distraction and intimidation that amounts to cheating?

Dr. O'Connell told the radio audience about an intensive study he has conducted of college level tennis players in Division 2 and Division 3 of the NCAA. O'Connell, a professor of physical therapy in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program says, "A grunt increases the server's forehand velocity by about four to six miles per hour."

O'Connell says the practice of grunting is a very old theory, but until he conducted his research, it was still unproven and just a theory. In the study, O'Connell shows how a burst of air from the diaphragm increases muscle activity and supports the upward change in velocity. "It's a matter of more muscle recruitment," he says. "Let's say you have one-hundred strands of muscle, but just because they are there doesn't mean they are used. The grunt brings about that muscle recruitment. More recruitment of muscle fiber results in more velocity on the tennis ball."

O'Connell was supposed to present his study at the American Physical Therapy Association annual conference in Baltimore this month. However his flight was cancilled due to bad weather. Instead, he will make his presentation at the conference when it meets in Boston.

The show O'Connell appeared on is hosted by award winning journalist Anna Maria Tremonti. Also interviewed was famed tennis coach of Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova, Nick Bollettieri.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting website,"The Current is a meeting place of perspectives, ideas and voices, with a fresh take on issues that affect Canadians today. We bring new insight to stories that Canadians are talking about now, and we uncover stories they'll be talking about next week and next year."

They will at least be talking about it for another week or so. Wimbledon is currently in day three and will continue through July 5th.

O'Connell's interview can be heard at http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/200906/20090624.html beginning tomorrow.

Posted by Janlyn Echols Thaxton · June 24, 2009 5:29 PM · Comments (0)

On the soft green lawn in front of Hunter Hall on the Hardin-Simmons campus, students in Blake Jackson's group play a game they call Ninja Tag. They hold hands and make their circle as big as possible and then drop hands. Whoever loses their balance and falls has to get in the middle.

Over 1000 youth leaders from across Texas gathered at Hardin-Simmons University this week, prepared to learn and share leadership skills during five days of crazy competitions, buzz groups, and discipleship training.

Jackson is the leader of what is called the "Green School Team." Groups are divided up by ages and given a t-shirt to coordinate with the group's color. All of the shirts read "Property of Super Summer."

Affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Super Summer began in 1974 as a training opportunity for Christian young people who are interested in enhancing their spiritual growth and learning how to better share Christ with others.

The motto of Super Summer is "Send us your best and we'll send them back better!" For this reason, you'll see among Super Summer students some of the most dedicated, young men and women from across Texas and surrounding states.

The 2009 theme, "Called" is found in Hebrew 11:8, "Don't stay until the Lord calls you to go. Go until the Lord calls you to stay."

Hayden Murphy of Kingdom Prep Academy in Lubbock admits to being a little shy and sees Super Summer as a tool for helping him become more outgoing, "I love this experience. It gives me a good base for leadership and the ability to step up and teach younger kids about Jesus."

Jackson, who is also from Lubbock says, "All of the campers in my group are high school juniors about to be seniors. Pointing to several members of his group, "We have kids from Brownwood, Early, and Crandall. We even have students here from New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma."

To come to Super Summer, students must be nominated by their home churches as being especially motivated youth leaders. A typical day includes quiet time, family groups, a pep rally, Texas Olympics, wild and crazy games, more family groups, and a roof-raising Rainbow Celebration in the evening (rainbow referring to the specific color each school group wears).

Jackson says he has learned from the experience that to grow in God, you have to learn to listen. "We need to listen to what others say, instead of talking all the time," says Jackson. "Most importantly, I have learned that I should listen to God. All of us are always talking to God in our prayers, but we need to stop and listen and let Him talk to us."

Jackson says, "The game of Ninja Tag is just something our Green Team made up. We had just been talking in our circle about not losing the fire we have from this camp. Don't let this be just another camp high. Let this be something we carry with us throughout this next school year."

Photos: Blake Jackson (Lubbock), Hayden Murphy (Lubbock), Blair Burke (San Angelo); Super Summer campers play Ninja Tag

Posted by Janlyn Echols Thaxton · June 19, 2009 5:11 PM · Comments (1)

A university campus is an unusual place to see a kindergarten student, but a program this summer will address the learning needs of gifted students from kindergarten all the way to the tenth grade.

Registration has begun for Threshold 2009. The summer enrichment program for gifted children provides an opportunity for children entering kindergarten through tenth grade to explore topics with intriguing names like 'The Mysteries of Man" and "The Audacity to Change the World."

Hardin-Simmons University began offering this program some 30 years ago. The dates of Threshold 2009 are July 13-17 and July 20- 24.

Threshold has been recognized throughout the state as an exemplary enrichment program. It provides challenges for students whose abilities enable them to benefit from experiences beyond those provided by the regular school program. Few universities provide classes which enrich and challenge students beginning at such a young age.

Dr. Mary Christopher, Associate Professor of Education, is the director of the program. Dr. Christopher came to HSU in 1995 after having taught gifted children for fifteen years in Oklahoma and Kentucky.

Teachers for the Threshold Program have a wealth of experience in gifted education and most hold a Masters in Education.

During Threshold 2009, students will study world cultures, architecture, and human experiences. Students will have the opportunity to crack a secret WWII code, use famous soundbites to create a world-changing message, and roll the dice on a life-sized game board and solve the problem dictated by the dice.

Younger children get to travel around the world in 10 days, study the history of our nation by our monuments, and design and create architectural structures.

Session I is July 13-17 and Session II is July 20-24. Students may attend one or both sessions. The fee for the younger students is $90 for the five-day session and for the older students the fee is $150 per session.

Students who are not currently involved in a Gifted and Talented program with their school can be tested for eligibility.

A limited number of scholarships for students with demonstrated economic need are available each year. Interested students and/or parents can obtain enrollment forms and further information about the Threshold Program by accessing the website at threshold.hsutx.edu or contact Dr. Mary Christopher through the Threshold Information line at 671-2150.

Posted by Janlyn Echols Thaxton · June 17, 2009 9:41 AM · Comments (0)