Colonels volleyball adjusting to new coach

Nicholls State freshman Brooke Fonseca, a former Terrebonne High product, participates in a team practice on Wednesday.

Abby Tabor/Staff

Published: Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 8:48 a.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 8:48 a.m.

Transition is never easy, especially when there is a new coach involved.

That is the case for first-year Nicholls volleyball coach Patrick Hiltz.

Hiltz steps in to take over the Nicholls volleyball program, replacing former coach TeAna Tramel, who resigned in December after two seasons and is now coaching at Houma Christian School.

Hiltz, who has 18 combined years of coaching experience on the high school, college and club volleyball levels, said the transition has been a challenge, mostly because the players are still getting used to a new coaching style.

"The girls are picking up on a new offensive and defensive system," he said. "They are trying to break their old habits. They've had to change what they are doing, and they are adjusting real well and starting to get some chemistry. It's getting smoother and smoother. It's not a well-oiled machine yet, but I don't think we want to be there yet. We want to be peaking later on when we are getting ready for Southland Conference play and tournament season."

Hiltz is taking over a Nicholls team that went 18-14 last season, which was the most wins for any Nicholls team since 2002. Nicholls fell short of making the conference tournament last season.

But the Colonels will have eight players and four starters returning from last year's squad, including six senior players.

Hiltz said having veteran experience has made the transition easier.

"Mainly the seniors have been the ones to step up," he said. "What I expect of them is to set the example for everybody else. They seem to be very focused on what they want to accomplish this year. They know what it feels like to get to a conference tournament. It's clearly their goal this year. That's what we are set out to do, and that's what we are going to accomplish."

Nicholls will open its season at the University of Missouri Invitational on Friday and Saturday. The Colonels will play Michigan and Virginia Tech on Friday, and Missouri and North Florida on Saturday.

"We've got a good test this weekend in going up to Missouri," Hiltz said. "We get to play against some big girls, and playing against that speed and height, it's going to be difficult, but we'll be able to see where we are and where we need to get to."

Senior outside hitter Kathryn Stock, a former E.D. White Catholic standout, said the players are getting used to Hiltz's aggressive and faster paced playing style.

"Practice is going really well," Stock said. "We're having fun. It's good competition between us. I think we are adjusting well to the new system. We'll be able to test it out against some good teams this weekend, so I'm excited to see that."

Senior outside hitter Jennifer Brandt, who recently earned second-team All-Southland Conference preseason honors, said it is important for the Colonels to develop team chemistry this season.

"It's been good to get back in the gym and work so we can develop a good chemistry with each other," Brandt said. "As a team, we aren't trying to be individuals. We are trying to work together and help each other out so we can get a lot of things down."

Other returning senior players this season for Nicholls are setter Nancy Taylor, middle blocker Jessica Addicks, middle blocker Sarah Terry and middle blocker/outside hitter Amanda Newlin.

Several returning junior players are middle blocker Jasmine Harris, middle blocker Brooke Hopper and libero/setter Carley McInnis. Nicholls will also have three local products on its team in Stock, sophomore transfer player and former Terrebonne High standout Sierra Lyons, who played her freshman season at Xavier University of New Orleans, and freshman Brooke Fonseca of Terrebonne High.

Hiltz said the Colonels have experienced and talented players throughout their roster.

"We're not going to really have just one person we can rely on," he said. "It's going to be one of those things that any of the players we have can be the go-to person on any given night, which is going to make it interesting for other teams to figure out who they are going to stop. If they stop one player one night, somebody else is going to step up and beat them. I like the balance that we have."

As she prepares for her first season of college volleyball, Fonseca said participating in fall camp has been a learning experience.

"It's going very well," Fonseca said. "I've been working real hard. The transition has been a little rough, but overall I think it's going great. Coach Hiltz and the rest of my teammates have worked with me and pushed me, so it's coming together."

The Colonels were picked to finish ninth out of 10 teams in both Southland Conference coaches and sports information directors polls, but Stock believes they could shock some people with their play this season.

"I think we definitely will make the conference tournament and make a run at the championship," said Stock, who won a high school state championship at E.D. White and a junior college national championship at Western Nebraska. "We have a lot of potential and talent on our team. As much as we choose to work and come together as a team, I think that will tell us how far we can go. As of now, the sky is the limit."

Source: http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20120823/articles/120829828

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Keeping The Ecosystem In Your Mind When ... - Fremantle Real Estate

Whilst most people don?t appreciate moving, many embrace the chance to start fresh and leave the clutter behind. Not many of us take into account the outcomes to the atmosphere our choice to move has. There are countless eco friendly relocation companies that can help you relocate and they come with a selection of services that will meet all your moving needs. If you decide to hire one, you have many great options to help keep your relocation strain free and kind to the environment.

But even when you have moving companies on your team, starting well before you relocate can make the whole experience less difficult. Finding eco-friendly moving services is a good first step, and one thing that you can achieve much less complicated and a lot more eco-friendly by using a site like http://www.movingcompanies.us. This way, you can get several moving estimates almost immediately without having to waste paper, gas, or using a phone book.

There are different ways to reduce what your environmental effect could be. Begin by creating individual lists such as; address changes, utilities to be switched, and records that need to be located. Start your more environmentally way of moving by creating that list on the back of a piece of paper you had been planning to throw away. If you are done with the list make certain that piece of paper makes it to the recycling bin. Whilst you?re still in the organizing phases of your relocation, begin going through file cabinets and drawers filled with paperwork and bills. Having these items at your fingertips will save many headaches. Eliminate sensitive records and recycle published material you no longer need and surrender it all to the recycling bin. When each cabinet or drawer is vacant, clean the area whilst you?re already there.

The more you are able to re-purpose before you depart, the less you may have to relocate, meaning the moving services you have employed will have to use up less gas moving your things. Find a spot for unwanted but still usable items. Tell friends & coworkers who might have a use for those items. Have a yard sale. Every time you find an unwanted object around the house, fix it, and price it right then and there. This will keep you from being overwhelmed the day of the sale. Countless local charities will happily pick up the leftovers when the sale is done allowing others to benefit.

Source: http://fremantlerealestate.net.au/keeping-the-ecosystem-in-your-mind-when-you-are-moving/

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Disability, relationship, autonomy, beauty, love ? Bridges and ...

Baroness Jane Campbell of Surbiton was on Desert Island Discs recently. You can listen here.

She was born with a degenerative condition and her parents were told she would not survive infancy. Now in her mid-fifties and a cross-bench peer, she?s spent her adult life campaigning for equality for disabled people and was one of the leading voices behind the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995.

There were some fascinating insights about living with a serious disability, and what it means for her as a person, and for society.

She was asked about the loss of privacy that comes through needing the help of a carer for everyday life. She said (I?m paraphrasing, and writing from memory) that privacy is not just about physical space, but much more about preserving your interior privacy ? keeping that inner space you need for yourself, one that can never be taken from you, whatever is happening on the outside.

And then this got her speaking more generally about the experience of having a number of people over many years help?her and care for her. It gives you an insight, she said, into what people are really like, much more than if you were on ?equal? terms with them in your physical abilities. You are ?being cared for?, and someone is coming into your private space, but being in a position of ?carer? exposes not just you to them but also them to you in a way that wouldn?t normally happen in everyday society. You see the reality of the person they are through the way they treat you.

I?m reading into her comments a little more than she actually said, but I think it is justified. She was saying, in effect, that your lack of autonomy, which might seem to isolate you and put you at a distance from the?autonomous development?of relationships that usually takes place, in fact allows a degree of communion between persons, of vulnerability, insight and even intimacy, that wouldn?t be possible otherwise. You see more and share more because of the relationship of need and dependence. Autonomy isn?t the only way in which people can freely share their lives with each other and be brought into a profound relationship. Autonomy, in other words, doesn?t define you as a person.

Pope John Paul II touched on these questions in his Encyclical Evangelium Vitae:

[There is a] mentality which carries the concept of subjectivity to an extreme and even distorts it, and recognizes as a subject of rights only the person who enjoys full or at least incipient autonomy and who emerges from a state of total dependence on others. But how can we reconcile this approach with the exaltation of man as a being who is ?not to be used?? The theory of human rights is based precisely on the affirmation that the human person, unlike animals and things, cannot be subjected to domination by others.

We must also mention the mentality which tends to equate personal dignity with the capacity for verbal and explicit, or at least perceptible, communication. It is clear that on the basis of these presuppositions there is no place in the world for anyone who, like the unborn or the dying, is a weak element in the social structure, or for anyone who appears completely at the mercy of others and radically dependent on them, and can only communicate through the silent language of a profound sharing of affection [...].

At another level, the roots of the contradiction between the solemn affirmation of human rights and their tragic denial in practice lies in a notion of freedom which exalts the isolated individual in an absolute way, and gives no place to solidarity, to openness to others and service of them. [Para 19]

And in the following paragraph [20] he continues:

This view of freedom leads to a serious distortion of life in society. If the promotion of the self is understood in terms of absolute autonomy, people inevitably reach the point of rejecting one another. Everyone else is considered an enemy from whom one has to defend oneself.

Thus society becomes a mass of individuals placed side by side, but without any mutual bonds. Each one wishes to assert himself independently of the other and in fact intends to make his own interests prevail. Still, in the face of other people?s analogous interests, some kind of compromise must be found, if one wants a society in which the maximum possible freedom is guaranteed to each individual.

In this way, any reference to common values and to a truth absolutely binding on everyone is lost, and social life ventures on to the shifting sands of complete relativism. At that point, everything is negotiable, everything is open to bargaining: even the first of the fundamental rights, the right to life.

I?m not saying that Baroness Campbell would agree with all this ? I?m just following my own train of thought from Desert Island Discs to Pope John Paul II.

Another lovely story that came across later in the programme was this: She said that as a child with a severe disability, nevertheless her parents loved her with an unconditional love, and never tired of telling her that she was beautiful; and this knowledge of their love and of her beauty has sustained her throughout her life and given her the courage and confidence to overcome the huge difficulties she has faced. I like the two sides of this, equally important but sometimes separated from each other: being loved by another ? a subjective reality; and being beautiful ? an objective or a transcendent reality. Your dignity, your worth, your goodness, your beauty: in the eyes of another (because they happen to be there), and in the eyes of God (because he made you to be who you are). For the common good, and for the rights of each individual, society needs both the subjective and the objective affirmations of human worth.

Source: http://bridgesandtangents.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/disability-relationship-autonomy-beauty-love/

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PHT: Rockies' Cuddyer goes back on DL

Michael Cuddyer missed the first couple weeks of August while in recovery from a strained right oblique. Now he?ll also miss the final two.

Troy Renck of the Denver Post reports that Cuddyer re-injured his right oblique on Saturday night in the Rockies? 6-5 loss to the Marlins and was placed back on the 15-day disabled list Sunday morning after just three games on the active roster.

?It?s beyond frustrating,? Cuddyer told the Post on Sunday. ?I felt so good. Felt good on the rehab. Felt good the past two days. Felt good my first two at-bats. Then one swing? This is worse.?It really grabbed.?

The 33-year-old can be ruled out until probably mid-September. He?s batting .260/.317/.489 with 16 home runs and 58 RBI in 101 games this season after signing a three-year, $31.5 million contract over the winter.

The Rockies have recalled outfielder Charlie Blackmon from Triple-A Colorado Springs to fill the roster spot.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/08/19/michael-cuddyer-back-to-disabled-list-with-re-injured-oblique/related/

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Suicide bomber kills seven in Russian Caucasus

A suicide bomber killed seven policemen as they arrived Sunday at a colleague's funeral in the volatile Russian North Caucasus, hours after gunmen opened fire in a mosque, killing one and wounding seven.

The attack at the funeral in the region of Ingushetia left seven policemen as well as the suicide bomber dead, a spokesman for the regional emergency situations ministry told AFP.

Fifteen people were wounded in the blast that rang out as the mainly Muslim region celebrated the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, the spokesman said.

"A terrorist suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of people who had come to see off the policeman on his final journey," said the leader of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, in comments published by the local government.

Yevkurov told the Interfax news agency that a severed head found at the scene of attack was believed to be that of the suicide bomber.

"We are working on finding out whose head is lying at the scene of the explosion, and we will establish the identity of the bandit," Yevkurov said.

The policemen had come to pay their last respects to a fellow officer, Ilez Korigov, who had been killed in a shooting on Saturday evening in the Malgobek district in the north of the region, investigators said.

Russian television showed the taped-off crime scene guarded by armed soldiers in camouflage. The force of the blast had blown out windows from cars and tore apart metal gates in the street of neat red-brick houses.

Yevkurov speculated that the attack at the funeral, which was held at a private home, was planned by the organisers of Korigov's shooting.

"It's an attack planned in advance, directly linked to the murder of Ilez Korigov, by those who knew that all his colleagues would come to bid farewell to their comrade-in-arms," he said in his official statement.

The explosion came hours after masked gunmen opened fire in a mosque in the town of Khasavyurt in Dagestan on Saturday evening as worshippers celebrated the end of Ramadan, wounding eight.

One of the wounded subsequently died in hospital, a spokeswoman for accident and emergency admissions at Khasavyurt's central hospital told AFP on Sunday afternoon.

"There were eight wounded, one of them died," she said.

The two gunmen also planted an explosive device next to the mosque that did not detonate and was later deactivated.

The two attackers "left beside the mosque a gas cylinder packed with an explosive substance inside a bag. The device has been deactivated and destroyed on the spot by security services," Russia's Investigative Committee said.

It said it had opened criminal probes into attempted murder, weapons trafficking and preparation of explosives.

The attacks came as Russian Muslims hold mass celebrations for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, known as Uraza-Bayram in Russian, marking the end of Ramadan.

The Russian Council of Muftis estimated Sunday that in Moscow alone around 190,000 people took part in Eid al-Fitr prayers.

The attackers chose "a day holy for every Muslim," Yevkurov said.

The attacks were the latest in Russia apparently timed around the Ramadan period.

Just before Ramadan began in July, the most senior Muslim cleric in Tatarstan, a central Russian area that is around half-Muslim, survived a car bombing, while his former deputy died in a simultaneous shooting.

The attacks were deliberately timed to coincide with the religious dates, political analyst Alexei Makarkin told Moscow Echo radio station.

"They consider they are killing enemies and turncoats, and when that happens on a holiday, they consider they did something good on that day," he said.

Russia is fighting a simmering Islamist insurgency in the Caucasus, mostly in Dagestan and Ingushetia, which see regular attacks that officials blame on militants seeking to establish an Islamic state across the Russian Caucasus.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bomb-russian-caucasus-kills-six-police-072649701.html

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Ready Mix Concrete - Do it Yourself Home Improvement Projects

A building or construction worksite may need a continuous supply of concrete. If this concrete is mixed and produced at the site, a lot of time could be wasted on getting the right ratio for the mix and also in getting all the ingredients delivered to the site. The solution for this kind of problem is the use of ready mix concrete which is prepared offsite and delivered at the construction site with the help of large trucks with mixers or hoppers that are continuously turning to keep the concrete in ready condition until it is put to use.

What exactly is ready mix concrete?

Ready mix concrete manufacturers prepare concrete using cement, aggregates and the other materials such as sand and gravel for construction sites. But the only difference is that this concrete is prepared offsite and then delivered to the construction site using large commercial trucks. These manufacturers and suppliers can supply custom blends and bulk orders. They can also keep ready additional units of concrete, which can be delivered, as and when required.

Ready mix concrete manufacturers

Professional organizations have member manufacturers and suppliers who are into the ready mix concrete business. Hence, any new development or invention in the process can be quickly informed to other members as well. Since most ready mix concrete manufacturers supply concrete in bulk quantities; big construction companies for construction of huge buildings, roads, bridges and dams mostly demand their supplies. They usually supply in large hopper trucks that keep the concrete in continuous motion to prevent it from drying up.

Advantages of using ready mix concrete

Ready mix concrete saves a lot of time for construction contractors. Besides, a small mistake in determining the dry/wet ratio while mixing concrete can render an entire batch of concrete useless. Also continuous supply of clean water may not always be possible at the construction site. Ready mix concrete takes care of all these problems. Depending upon the requirements of the concrete contractors, ready mix concrete manufacturers may even add more aggregates or special curatives that speed up the drying process of the concrete.

Concrete Mixer

A concrete mixer, as the name suggests is a device that mixes cement with water and other additives such as...

Concrete Coating

Concrete is used for a wide variety of purposes in building construction. Concrete is a mixture of different substances such...

Concrete Steps

Concrete steps are built using concrete mix and a few other simple tools. This can also be an easy do-it-yourself...

Concrete

Concrete is more of a composite building material that brings together finer or coarse aggregates and any type of cement...

Concrete Angle

Concrete panels or large concrete surfaces may require support in the form of concrete angles. When the entire structure is...

Source: http://www.homeimprovementsuite.com/ready-mix-concrete/

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The 5 Coolest Pets Humanity Has Bred into Existence | Cracked.com

Scientists love themselves some genetic engineering. Like all uses of science, selectively breeding animals can result in creepiness -- we recently covered a handful of designer pets that seem specifically designed to haunt your dreams. But domesticated gene meddling isn't completely immune to awesomeness. Sometimes, just sometimes, what comes out of the test tube is less Cthulhu and more like the kickass pets you always wanted as a kid. For instance ...

#5. Big Jungle Cats That Won't Kill You

So Pets

Unless you're a circus performer or a member of a Vegas act, chances are your interaction with big cats is limited to visits to the zoo and the occasional tiger rampage. But let's be honest: Who among us hasn't dreamed about how awesome it would be to take your jaguar or cheetah for a walk around the neighborhood? Alas, we're all too aware that even normal house cats can do some serious damage when they really put their mind to it. A big cat could (and would) just straight up claw-slap your face to next Thursday as soon as look at you.

Take the wild-ass serval, an African wild cat that is ridiculously inappropriate for snuggling:

Wikimedia Commons
Seen here hungrily eying your liver.

But what if science somehow combined that thing with, say, a regular house cat? And then registered the ensuing hellspawn as an official cat breed and you could buy one and name it Mr. Claws and make it wear a wacky scarf and have strange adventures with it forever?

Funny Pet Wallpapers

Because that's what they totally did. The savannah cat, named to evoke its African heritage, was first introduced to the world in 1986 by Bengal breeder Judee Frank. In 2001, the International Cat Association accepted it as a newly registered breed.

Newspaper.li
Shortly thereafter, it was elected Emperor of Cats.

The fact that it's huge and ridiculously sweet-looking is just the tip of the awesome iceberg for the savannah cat. It's a lot more loyal than your average who-gives-a-shit tabby, to the point that it's comparable to a dog. And yes, you can absolutely fulfill the shit out of that "take the wild beast out for a walk" fantasy with them. What's more, the savannah cat doesn't have the aversion to water that most cats do, and some people actually take showers with them, because there is no possible way that will result in a hilarious emergency room story.

Oh, and they're also instinctively friendly toward children.

Animals Photos
Bullying was no longer a problem for Sally.

If for some reason you still don't feel like shelling out thousands of dollars for a serval hybrid, there's always the budget version: For between $500 and $1,500, you can pick up the Pixie-Bob, the result of what is claimed to be naturally occurring trysts between barn cats and American bobcats. Of course, it pays to remember that they're also known as "Legend Cats" because there is no proof that the above scenario has ever actually occurred. But whether the Pixie-Bob is in fact part bobcat or just the result of some spectacular breeding feats, the fact remains that it does look an awful lot like a bobcat, and it has many of the more appealing features of the savannah.

Pixie-Bob Kittens

#4. Silver Foxes: As Friendly as Dogs, as Independent as Cats

Dave Bezaire & Susi Havens-Bezaire

In the 1950s Soviet Union, a young man named Dmitry Belyaev became fascinated with the domestication of dogs from wild, ravenous wolves into the fluffy, couch-hogging companions of today. Belyaev set his sights on replicating this process, only A) much faster and B) this time instead of those fancy wolves, he went with the silver fox as his subject. And he nailed it.

New York Times
"Come to me, minions!"

Belyaev carefully selected the friendliest, tamest foxes and made them bone. In just a few fox-generations, the furballs were bonding with the scientists, craving any attention they could get. They wagged their tails more and more, started getting floppier ears and spotted coats and became more doglike in their behavior.

Scientific American

Today, this has resulted in a breed of foxes that is "as devoted as dogs but as independent as cats." And yes, they're totally selling these little guys as pets, with the price tag currently set at $7,000. Here, have a video of a pet silver fox pup:

Look at that thing go. Look at that little ball made of fluff and mischief and tell us you're not reaching for your wallet already.

Of course, like with every proper scientific experiment, there's a flip side to Project Silver Fox. See, Belyaev was never content with just creating cute, tame foxes. To prove that domestication and tameness were linked to a specific gene, he also sought out the meanest, most dangerous foxes and intentionally started breeding those. And that branch of his experiment was a roaring success as well. That's right -- even today, Russia is totally breeding a small army of genetically engineered, highly aggressive killer silver foxes. And they look exactly like your new, cuddly pet.

Animals Zone
Which leaves the owner vulnerable to a dangerous switcheroo.

#3. Part Zebra, Part Pony (Or Anything Else)

Andrenloreweaver

Is that ... is that mule wearing novelty pantyhose? No? Those are supposed to be his actual legs?

Hahahahaha, look at that thing! Look at his stripes, abruptly ending at the thigh! He looks so fake that even he can't believe it. James Cameron would've rejected him from Avatar for looking like far too silly a mix of two species. Yet he is completely real and absolutely awesome, and has a kickass name to go with his peculiar visage. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the zonkey:

Zonkey.co.uk
He's clocking in at nearly three times the legal limit for adorable.

You're probably familiar with the zebra, the most flamboyant member of the equine family. You might not know that it is, in fact, every bit as pimp as its striped coat implies. What we're saying is that the zebra loves his ladies. Also, he's not too particular when it comes to race: In fact, both male and female zebras can and absolutely will get down with pretty much all of their horsey relatives. This has produced some extremely curious offspring, their strange coloration only matched by their ridiculous names: Apart from the zonkey (zebra father, donkey mother), there's the zedonk (donkey dad, zebra mom) and zebrass (an alternate name for that extra mile in humiliation).

However, zebras have no concept of human language, and these zebroid hybrids are actually considered pretty awesome among their kin. They are effortlessly able to live among wild zebras and donkeys alike, and being sterile hybrids with no risk for procreation, they presumably have some pretty wild Saturday nights.

Funny Pet Wallpapers
They can score blow within hours of their birth.

Unsurprisingly, humanity has paid attention to the zebra's ability and willingness to create these various zebroids. Even less surprisingly, this has been put to use. This means that you can totally ride a zonkey:

imerald

And the breeders have ventured beyond zebra-donkey variations, too: There are any number of zebroids out there, from zebra-horse (zorse!) ...

Daily Mail
Why not hebra?

... to zebra-ponies (zonies!):

Spots 'N Stripes Ranch

There has even been a recorded case of a zebra getting lucky with a diminutive Shetland pony, the result of which has been dubbed the Shetbra:

Express.co.uk
Because "Zebland" sounds like a place Sacha Baron Cohen might pretend to be from.

What are the practical advantages of owning a tiny zebra-horse or zebra-pony instead of a regular one? Who cares? Look at it!

Source: http://www.cracked.com/article_19945_the-5-coolest-pets-humanity-has-bred-into-existence.html

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