More about Ramon Miller
Read Sunday's story about Ramon Miller and his experiences at the Olympics in Beijing.
Ramon Miller had one heck of a time at the Olympics.
From seeing the Great Wall of China to standing in line in the Olympic Village cafeteria with Michael Phelps while he got pizza, the Dickinson State senior had quite an experience while running for the Bahamas in the Olympics.
But, it wasnt all fun and games.
Miller said he and his teammates trained intensely each day leading up to his race, which was on Aug. 22 the third-to-last day of the games.
He had a ground-level view of the Birds Nest several times, starting with the Bahamas national teams entrance into National Stadium during the Opening Ceremonies.
I wondered how those guys took the time to draw that, plan that, thats amazing, Miller said. Before the Olympics, I was watching National Geographic and I saw they were building it.
When he got to set foot in the stadium, Miller said he said only one word: Damn.
The Birds Nest wasnt the only big thing Miller saw.
He and his teammates visited Tiananmen Square and the Fobidden City along with the Great Wall of China.
As for athletes, Miller said he wasnt the kind of guy who went up and asked celebrity athletes for their autograph or for pictures.
However, he did get a quick shot of Yao Ming during the opening ceremonies and was able to get a close up with Phelps.
Hes a big fellow, said Miller, who stands around 5-foot-7.
Not only did he get to see Phelps and others. Miller had the chance to see how some of the worlds premiere athletes specifically for him, those in track and field, train and eat.
The experience was really great, Miller said.
Almost as if it was no big thing, Miller brought the silver medal he won as a preliminary sprinter for the Bahamas 1,600-meter relay team with him to Dickinson.
It currently hangs on his wall alongside some of his other awards.
When I walked into his house, Miller gave me the chance to hold the medal.
Although its nothing but a 2ﾾ-inch piece of silver and jade (a jade circle is part of one side of the medal, differentiating it from other Olympic medals), just holding it is amazing.
Once you realize that only a handful of these exist throughout the world and only a select, lucky few have them it does nothing but make you smile.
Sometime later this month, possibly at the Sept. 27 Homecoming celebration, DSU will hold a celebration honoring Miller as the schools first Olympic medal winner hes the third to compete from DSU, along with countrymen Derrick Atkins in Beijing and Aaron Cleare in Athens.
Still, Miller is shooting for more.
His next goal is to be ready to run in the 400-meter dash at the London Olympics in 2012.
Knowing that I helped them get the silver medal will look good on my resume, Miller said. But its a relay and a relay doesnt count that much in certain places. But, its a big motivator to me and makes me want to train even harder.
Posted by: monke on 9.06.2008 at 11:09 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Jason Ackerman is a beast
For those of you going to this weekend's Mixed Martial Arts fights at the Dickinson Rec Center, here's a taste of what former DSU wrestling standout Jason Ackerman is bringing to the table in the heavyweight main event.
I'm not a huge MMA and UFC fan, but I'm still pretty happy that these fights are coming to town. I've covered them before in my last job and it's a pretty fun time, especially if the place is full. So, with that in mind. Is there anyone out there coming to the DRC on Sunday night to the watch the fights? Or are you staying away, and if so, why?
Note: Ackerman is the dude outrightly winning this fight.
Posted by: monke on 9.03.2008 at 6:16 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
DSU-Rocky game blog
So it's about 50 minutes before kickoff here at Whitney Stadium -- and it's about 100 degrees with a roughly 20 mph south wind. ... Thankfully it's not humid, otherwise it might as well be the deep south.
I'll be up in the box all day watching the game. To listen to the game on the radio... go here.
FIRST HALF UPDATE
The first half is complete and to everyones surprises & its a battle of the quarterbacks.
DSU senior Brandon Bishop-Parise is 9 of 11 for 119 yards. He has a 25-yard touchdown pass to Blaine Berg the first catch of his career and put DSU ahead 13-10 at the half with a 1-yard TD sneak late in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Rocky QB Kasey Peters is 14 of 19 for 140 yards and has a 35-yard TD pass to Trevor Daer.
DSU looks pretty good. If not for Peters, theyd probably be ahead by a little more.
But, the transfer from Grand Valley State is making things difficult for the DSU secondary with quick routes and slants. Not to mention he has tons of time to throw.
Bishop-Parise, meanwhile, doesnt have much time to get the ball off and has made his best throws on the run.
Senior Jon Brietbach has come out of nowhere in this game to catch 3 balls for 45 yards, including a 27-yarder on DSUs opening drive.
If theres any indication of how improved DSUs offense is, its Brietbach, who caught two passes for 44 yards last season.
Again, its still damn hot KDIXs Rod Kleinjan just told me theyve been informed its an official record of 99 degrees and DSU has seen its share of troubles adapting to the weather.
TE Derek Pauley barely played in the second quarter, sitting on the sidelines with his pads off and an ice pack on his back. Pauley has diabetes so Im sure DSU coaches are taking care of that too
DSU has give four running backs carries and all but one has come out of the game cramping.
More to come ...
Posted by: monke on 8.30.2008 at 1:36 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Reminder: Kickoff hits doorsteps Wednesday
Here is the cover of our annual football preview, 'Kickoff' which hits your doorstep Wednesday as a part of The Advertiser. This year, we're featuring Dickinson High senior Sam Herauf on our cover and Dickinson State quarterback Brandon Bishop-Parise on the back page, along with previews of each area team.
We chose to highlight Herauf because he is a special athlete. He is a three-year starter at center for the Midgets and has become a impact player on the defensive line.
Posted by: monke on 8.20.2008 at 5:34 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Qvale story shatters hits record on Press site
So out of nowhere late Saturday night, I found out Williston standout offensive lineman Brent Qvale had verbally committed to play football for Nebraska. This wasn't shock, since I had heard he was leaning toward the Cornhuskers.
What has shocked me is the love for this small recruiting story. On Sunday, the story received the most single-day hits in the short history of TheDickinsonPress.com with 3,723 from midnight Sunday to midnight Monday. As of 3:22 p.m. Monday, the story is well entrenched as the top-read story in our Web site's history, easily surpassing the story I wrote when Dickinson native Kyle Steffes signed a free agent contract with the New York Jets.
Here is the copy from our site's admin (UPDATE -- noon Tuesday count):
| 1 | Qvale picks Cornhuskers | 2008-08-17 | 5076 |
| 2 | Steffes signs with Jets | 2007-05-01 | 2489 |
Mostly, we have Huskerpedia.com to thank for this. According to Google Analytics (which is awesome by the way), 4,311 hits on our site in the past two days have come via a link to the story they posted on their site. What's even more interesting is that only one-third of those hits are coming from the state of Nebraska, which tells you just how far love for the Cornhuskers spreads.
This is whole deal is simply amazing to me.
Posted by: monke on 8.18.2008 at 9:19 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink