January 21, 2010 Sports page 11, campus carrier

Vikings and Hawks renew heated hardwood rivalry

Ashley McIntyre
Sports Editor
& night’s matchups?
Megan Benson
Asst. Sports Editor
May the toughest team win.
On Monday, Jan. 25, the Rotary Classic will
be held at Shorter College. Even though the
Hawks and Vikings are no longer competing
against each other for a conference title, the
rivalry threatens to be as fierce as ever.
“Well, it’s not hard to motivate players for
this game,” Hawks’ head basketball coach
Chad Warner said.
The Lady Vikings will tip off at 6 p.m. and
the Vikings’ game starts at 8 p.m. Both games
will be held in the Winthrop-King Center at
Shorter.
Since 2004, the Lady Vikings have a record
of 9-1 against the Lady Hawks, outscoring
them 613-534. Going into a home game against
Columbia College on Thursday night, the
Lady Vikings have a 6-6 overall record and are
1-3 at home.
In their last game against Brenau Univer-
sity, the third-ranked Lady Hawks improved
their record to 12-5 and are 7-1 on the road.
Head coach of the Lady Hawks Vic Mitch-
ell said he has had a difficult time keeping his
team from looking too far ahead. He said he
is focusing his efforts on the two games they
have left before playing Berry.
In the past five years, the Vikings have gone
6-4 against the Hawks, winning both contests
last season. Going into Saturday’s home game
against Southern Wesleyan University, the
Vikings are 5-8 overall and lost their last game
against Emmanuel, 87-52. The team commit-
ted 15 turnovers and suffered from a 34-23
rebounding deficit.
The Hawks started their season in record
fashion. They won their first nine games of the
season until they suffered a loss to Faulkner
University on Dec. 5. In their last game, the
Hawks blew out Johnson Bible College in an
out-of conference game by a score of 92-51,
and all 14 roster players got in on the scoring.
The Hawks play host to Southern Wesleyan on
Thursday night.
So how do the Hawks feel about Monday
“I’m sure they’ll come at us hard again this
year; they usually do,” said red-shirt sopho-
more Corey Edmondson, a guard for the
Hawks.” The tougher team is going to win.”
“Jeff [Haarlow, Vikings’ head basketball
coach] does a great job with them,” said War-
ner. “I’m sure they’ll play their guts out.”
The Hawks have lost seven of their last 10
games. Junior Marquise Wright said he hopes
his team can get back on a winning streak after
Monday’s game and he still plans on treating
it like a conference game.
“It feels like the Duke-North Carolina
game,” he said.
“If we play like we have been, it’s going to
be a tough game for us to win,” senior captain
of the Hawks, Jamie Walker said, “But if we
play like we can, there’s a good chance we can
win.”
Walker said the Hawks play a fast-paced,
MEREDITH MCDERMOTT, Photo Editor
aggressive game and aim to make their oppo-
nents uncomfortable on offense and defense.
“We try and make it hard for other teams to
mess up with us,” Edmondson said.
Mitchell said the atmosphere is “unique”
and “special.”
“We won’t discuss Berry until this week-
end, but we’ve seen Berry play and it doesn’t
look like they’ve missed a beat,” Mitchell said.
“Coach Dunn has done a great job there in her
first year. It looks to be a typical Berry-Shorter
game; very close and very tough.”
Above: Junior Holly Compton directs traf-
fic during last year’s Rotary Classic. The Lady
Vikings defeated the Lady Hawks 52-48.
Below: Senior Lee Trebotich plays offense
against the Hawks, who lost to the Vikings by
a score of 57-52.

Schedule of Athletic Events Viking Fury revamps club, spirit

Jan. 21
Women’s Basketball vs. Columbia (6 p.m.) Matthew Stokes
Jan. 22 Sports Reporter
CC/TF @ Niswongers (All day)
After the 2008-2009 school year it appeared that
Jan. 23
Berry’s student spirit club, Viking Fury, would
Women’s Basketball vs. Southern Wesleyan(2 continue its downward spiral, but new leadership
p.m.) has righted the once-sinking ship.
Director of Student Activities and Viking Fury
Men’s Basketball vs. Southern Wesleyan(4 p.m.)
faculty adviser Cecily Crow said she remembered
Jan. 25 Fury early in its existence. The group, which
Women’s Basketball @ Shorter (6 p.m.) began between 2002 and 2003 as Nordic Nutz,
lasted for less than a year due to issues within the
Men’s Basketball @ Shorter (8 p.m.)
organization.
After several years of inactivity, a student
approached Crow in the fall of 2005 about restart-
ing the spirit club, which would be called Viking
Fury.
By the spring of 2006, Viking Fury had become
an official student organization, and helped KCAB
with Hoop Madness, spirit tailgates and other
events. With a core leadership group in place
Viking Fury prospered, Crow said.
Go Vikings!! However, there were still issues that needed to
be dealt with, Crow said.
“The group never quite got their membership to
grow,” Crow said. “So once these members gradu-
ated in 2008, they really had not built a foundation
for the group to continue.”
The president of Viking Fury for 2008-2009
transferred during the summer of 2008, which seri-
ously hampered the efforts of that year’s group.
Without solid leadership, membership decreased
and what was left was a group that was trying to
“gain a sense of purpose,” Crow said.
Eager to point the group in the right direc-
tion sophomore Lindsay Cope, current president,
approached Crow during the spring of 2009 with
new ideas and continued to stay in touch through-
out the summer.
“[My peers and I] really wanted to get the stu-
dent body involved, especially with the change to
Division III,” Cope said.
By the 2009 fall semester, Viking Fury began
showing signs of reestablishing itself. Fury hosted
the spirit tailgate that coincided with the Berry
swim team’s inaugural meet on Oct. 31. The event
was a success, drawing about 200 people, Crow
said.
Viking Fury is sponsoring Berry’s “blue out,”
where the group hopes that students will come to
the games decked out in Berry Blue. “Blue-out”
games are scheduled for Feb. 6 and 16, the latter
being a rivalry game against nearby Shorter Col-
lege. Another event planned to help connect stu-
dent-athletes with the rest of the student body is a
bonfire scheduled for Monday, Feb. 5.
Having seen the group since its founding,
men’s basketball head coach Jeff Haarlow said he
is excited by the prospect of a group garnering
support for the men’s basketball team and the rest
of the Berry athletic teams.
“Any type of student-run spirit group is going
to be a ton of fun for the fans and will grow a lot
in the future,” Haarlow said.