CBS will feature some NCAA XC athletes on December 30
Posted Thursday, 21 December, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS--For the fifth consecutive year, all 88 NCAA championships will receive television exposure, including nine fall sports to be featured in a one-hour special.
“CBS Sports Presents Championships of the NCAA” will air at 1 p.m. Eastern /10 a.m. Pacific Saturday, December 30, on CBS Sports. Highlights and stories from cross country, field hockey, soccer and volleyball will be featured in the program. For the 2006-07 academic year, CBS Sports will feature 40-plus of the NCAA’s 88 championships in the three seasonal shows.
Some of the student-athlete stories to be featured in the program include:
• St. Andrews Presbyterian College, a qualifier for the Division II Men’s Cross Country finals, is competing for more than a team championship. Junior co-captain Adam Vick was struck by a car this fall while running in practice, leaving him severely injured and his future questionable. He’s made it to the championship to cheer his team on and his difficult recovery has served as both a hurdle and an inspiration for this team.
• U.S. Coast Guard Academy has made it to its very first Division III Volleyball Championship. In a time of war and uncertainty for the armed forces, this last season together for the Coast Guard team is an emotional climax building towards a future serving their country.
• In the Division III Men’s Soccer Championship, Joe Bean is finishing his 38th and final season as the head coach of Wheaton College (Illinois). Bean will retire as the winningest coach in college soccer history and is hoping that his last tournament will also be his sweetest as he looks to add a final championship to his decorated career.
• Bowdoin College made it to its second consecutive appearance in a semifinal game at the Division III Field Hockey Championship this season. But this year the team would have to do it without all-American Taryn King. Taryn passed away suddenly last spring from an infection known as septicemia, the presence of bacteria in the blood stream. Bowdoin has struggled to continue forward without Taryn and reconcile personal loss with the team’s future.
•We first met Sarah Shepard of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs last winter in track and field. Struggling with a heart condition compounded by epilepsy, she has endured recent heart surgery to continue running. Now competing in the Division II Cross Country Championship, her dedication and ongoing struggle are an intimate portrait of what it means to be an NCAA student-athlete.
Through the NCAA-CBS 11-year bundled rights agreement, CBS Sports has aired 12 seasonal shows from the three NCAA sports seasons (fall, winter, spring) over the last five years. This Saturday’s show is the 13th edition. The seasonal shows typically feature highlights and unique NCAA student-athlete stories from the Division II and III championships.
CBS Sports’ Sam Ryan will make her debut as the host of “CBS Sports Presents Championships of the NCAA.” Ryan joined CBS Sports in June 2006 as a contributor to the network’s NFL pre-game show, “The NFL Today,” and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship and host of AT THE HALF®, the network’s college basketball halftime show. She also serves as weekend sports anchor and reporter for CBS 2 in New York.
CBS Sports’ Sarah Rinaldi is the producer of the show.
For more information on NCAA Championships, log on to www.NCAAsports.com.
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