Clarksville, Ark.-Nine University of the Ozarks students recently wrote feature stories on current student-athletes at University of the Ozarks. Under the direction of Professor Susan Edens, the students wrote the content and produced pictures/video of the featured student-athletes. The project was part of Edens' Fall 2022 Sports Broadcasting Class. The content was posted on the Athletic Department social media channels. 

A Champ Brings a Champ to Ozarks
By Denzel Sequeira 

It all started in Nebraska, when University of the Ozarks alumn Jeff Proctor '18 talked to Lane Klohn about becoming an Eagle. 

"During my time at Nebraska I was really impressed with Lane's natural ability with shooting sports" said Proctor. The New Mexican did not think about it twice when Proctor asked him about coming to Clarksville, Arkansas, "I would absolutely love to", answered Klohn. Klohn says another big factor was the atmosphere. 

"Nebraska wasn't a place that felt like home. The school (U of O) itself has a better dynamic, and there's a lot more stuff that we can go do as a team and create a more strong bound as a team." 

Proctor knew Ozarks would fit perfectly with Klohn. 

"I recommended that he come to the University of the Ozarks because I knew he would thrive in the classroom setting due to the smaller class sizes, and that he would be a great addition to] Coach Brown's team (U of O Target Shooting team)."

Klohn and his teammates Keaton Little, Wyatt McCaghren, John Wagner, and Cameron Ziarko won the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) National Championship in International Skeet last October. Additionally, in March 2022, Klohn was part of the ACUI Collegiate Clay Target Championships in International Trap/Bunker National Championship team. The U of O Clay Target Shooting team is filled with talented shooters giving the school a mini-dynasty by winning four national championships in the last two years.

"Coachable and a very hard worker" is how Proctor describes Klohn. 

Proctor goes on to further praise Klohn.

"He was usually the first one at practice and the last one to leave."

For his last year, Klohn is expecting more from the team and himself. 

"I would love to get out there and win some more team national titles, but my main goal for finishing up is I would love to come home with an individual national title." 

Coach Lance Brown is expecting Klohn to excel as he enters in his last years as an Eagle. 

"As his senior year is coming I expect him to perform as the competitor he is and believe (he) will bring another national title to Ozarks."

Behind The Mic: Bradley Witt
By Matthew Coleman

You may know the voice of Brad Witt, the Public Address Announcer for the University of the Ozarks athletic program, but do you know the man?.

Witt from Southern California - Orange County near DisneyLand - just might be considered the unofficial voice of the University of the Ozarks Eagles. He shows up to announce games whether, sunshine, rain, or snow he's there. Witt's love for announcing stems from his childhood. When he was in high school, his love for his brother led him to start a Bible study group at his old high school. Because he played basketball when he was in high school and the school needed an announcer for the sport, he was eventually asked to be an announcer by his old basketball coach. That's how he started. He continued for the next 20 years at different high schools until he eventually moved and retired. As a single dad to nine children, he decided to retire in Arkansas because of the lower cost of living. His involvement at the University of the Ozarks happened almost by chance. One day, during his daily walk on the Spadra trail, he met the men's basketball coach. He expressed his interest to the coach by saying, "If you ever needed an announcer, I'm available". The next day, he got his chance to be the PA for men's and women's basketball and then his announcing involvement picked up from there. He started announcing baseball and softball and then started announcing men's and women's soccer. Since there are so many sports to call, it might be possible that before the first time someone calls a sport, they may not know much about it. Witt recommends researching the sport rules.

"It's hard...but you have to kind of know what the sport is. Just go in Google...you can pretty much go on there and read the rules." 

Besides Google, Witt also recommends reaching out to coaches and other pros for advice. 

"I emailed the announcer of the Razorbacks for baseball to get some ideas and he sent me a big long email about what to say and what not to say." 

The key to announcing, Witt says, is to like what you do or call, "You have to like it. If you don't like it then you wouldn't want to announce it".

Since Witt has seen and announced for so many sports throughout the years, he has seen some crazy plays. 

"Well, I've seen some crazy last minute shots in basketball that either go in or they don't." Beyond just crazy stories in announcing, Witt also had a crazy experience in his childhood.

"When I was younger, I actually got into the California Angels stadium. I was taken down to the field by a photographer for a newspaper, and for ten years I would get onto the field any time I wanted without a press pass because I looked like a photographer. I saw some crazy things down there." 

Along with just the experience being unique, Witt also got to see many teams and famous players, "I saw Hank Aaron play; I saw the Yankees play; I saw the Kansas City Royals play. I just saw all the teams play in Angels Stadium."

Because he has been involved in announcing for the Eagles, Witt developed a love for the college. Witt expressed his support for the university and the communication department by saying, "it's a great college here. I really like what they are doing for students that are learning to do this at a young age. I think it is pretty special."

Zane Sims
By Melvin Mendoza

Zane Sims is an outstanding athlete because...

"He is one of the few to make it through college wrestling from Arkansas. We are proud of that accomplishment for him. He has been a great addition to our team/program and has grown into a guy you can always count on in our room. You always know you are going to get Zane's best in all that he does," said Vinny Barber, Head Men's Wrestling Coach at University of the Ozarks.

A season performer cannot learn everything from his best outings and accolades. He garners great lessons in life from his near misses and even outright failures. For University of the Ozarks

Senior wrestler, Zane Sims, wisdom on the mat is not pain free, but it is priceless. As Sims approaches graduation, his unparalleled and determined passion for wrestling grows. There are still a few months to go, but he is taking advantage of every opportunity that comes his way to quietly set records and bring pride to his family and to his college. Originally from Bentonville, Ark., Sims, a political science major, and a wrestler at 157-165 pounds, says his interest in the sport began thanks to his parents. 

"It first stemmed from me and my brother being very active and hyper as kids," he said. "My parents needed to give us something to burn all that energy on, so they enlisted us in a club for wrestling. From there we have just stuck with the sport." 

His family members are proud of his success as an athlete and as a person. "My family loves that I wrestle. They love to watch and support me, as well as see how it has worked upon me to better myself as a person." 

A college athlete's life is difficult; it takes a lot of discipline and passion for the sport. Sims embodies this reality. To keep up his remarkable performance, he practices six times a week, for at least two hours each day. Apart from this, he makes time for the responsibilities of his classes, work, and of course, maintaining a social life with his closest friends and acquaintances. His discipline and persistence rewarded him with a 16-14 record at 165 pounds with 9 falls in the 2019-2020 season. In the 2021-2022 season he had a 5-4 record and made the Conference All-Academic Team. Sims is part of Ozarks' second class of Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athletic Honor Society. This merit highlights athletes who achieve a grade point average of 3.40 or higher and maintain good conduct in their higher education. For every athlete, one of the most emotional experiences to manage is defeat along with the mourning of not achieving victory over their opponents. For Zane, each result triggers a lesson, a call to doggedly work and chase goals. 

"With success you know the things you are doing and have done are right and it feels motivating and good to know that, but when you really learn is when you lose. With losses you can better understand how you can further improve and better yourself in the sport and that knowledge is incredibly valuable." 

He reflects further, "losing also kind of sets a fire in you and gets you really determined to improve so that you can avoid future losses like the one you just went through." For Barber, Sims has been an outstanding athlete throughout his path at Ozarks, adding a lot of value to the wrestling program.

"He is one of the few to make it through college wrestling from Arkansas. We are proud of that accomplishment for him. He has been a great addition to our team/program and has grown into a guy you can always count on in our room. You always know you are going to get Zane's best in all that he does." Coach Barber continues commenting: "He is doing a great job in everything he is doing now. If he stays on the course and continues pushing himself, he can excel this year. He has earned the opportunity to be a guy in our lineup, and we are really excited to have him perform."

With that air of optimism and ambition that has always characterized him, the young athlete prepares for his next goal, but without forgetting where he came from and how much he will miss his college life.

"After wrestling, I am graduating, getting my degree, and planning to go into the police academy. I will not really be continuing sports in a competitive sense, but I will surely still work out, just not for a definitive purpose. I think what I will miss most is interacting with all the people I have known and grown with over the years."

"He opened up a door for me and I couldn't ask for better," says Forbes. 

Even though Forbes had a strong desire to learn, she and her cousin wondered about her basketball career. Without hesitation and help, Forbes entered the Mabee Gymnasium as a walk-on with no promises for guaranteed playing time. While she was trying to prove herself on the basketball court, she lost one of her biggest motivators and supporters, her grandmother. Forbes hit another low point in her life, but this time it was hundreds of miles away from home. She began to isolate and deprive herself of things she needed, such as food and sleep. She tried to seek relief in basketball but wasn't given as much playing time as she wanted. She yearned to play more. She averaged less than 4 minutes per game in her first and second years but kept her faith.

"I left it all on the floor, it did not matter if I was out there for 50 seconds, 2 minutes, or 2 seconds; I gave it all I had even though I felt it went unnoticed".

Little did Forbes know, things were about to make a huge turnaround for her. In the beginning of the 2021-22 season, the Eagles welcomed a new head coach, Shauna Watson. With a new coach, came new opportunities for Forbes and her teammates. Coach Watson immediately let the team know that it is okay to make mistakes as long as you learned from them. 

"She [Coach Watson] gave me the opportunity to be who I am on the court," says a thankful Forbes. Forbes saw this as a green light and an opportunity to show her potential. 

"Now I have someone who believes in me," she says proudly. Going from less than four minutes a game to finishing last season with 455 minutes and 94 points is a huge turnaround for Forbes. For this, she gives all honor and credit to God. She appreciates her struggles "because they made me who I am today."

As she makes a difference in her life, she hopes to become a difference for her people back home. As Forbes enters her last season with the Eagles, she plans to go out with a bang. Her goals for each game are to block oppositions and rebound from negatives to shine on the stat sheet and in the eyes of her coaches, teammates, and fans. In the near future, she will be more than the accomplished basketball player that she has become; she will become Judy Forbes, Bachelor of Science in Psychology, with minors in Theater, Communication Studies, and Health Science.

"If it were a normal season I would have had the full time to recover and would have been back next season." 

As the summer passed and Hensley was recovering from his injuries, the next season went on without him. 

"Sitting on the sidelines, only being able to help with small details, trying to get the morale of the guys going, it was hard, I hit a point to where I did not want to get out of the bed for a while."

After coming off a championship season and with the eyes of the ASC on them, the Eagles soccer team had a split season, with only nine wins on the season, losing eight games, and tying once. They did not perform well that year. 

"The next season the expectation was so high that we turned towards each other. Our captains tried their best managing, getting it back the best they could but with so many people, with so many players wanting to be individuals instead of a team, it is hard to lead that." 

All the while, Hensley rehabilitated with Eagles Trainers. 

"I lost about fifteen pounds, my leg was significantly small, it still is a little smaller than my other leg, it was again just a really hard time." 

As time rolled on and the Eagles prepared for the next season, Hensley finally got to return to the field and it was clear: every game was a revenge game for him. The Eagles just finished their 2022 season with 10 wins, 5 losses, and 5 ties. A major improvement from last year with Hensley putting up his best seasonal stats of his entire career. With seven shots on goal, an assist, and a goal, Hensley was an impact players for the Eagles this year, and with the season over, this Eagle is about to fly into the sunset, never to be forgotten. 

Rankin's daily routine is to wake up an hour before practice time and make an athletic greens drink. Then make a double shot of espresso every morning. Rankin is a very systematic person and likes to keep to the same routine even on his days off. He gets treatment before lifting weights to prepare for it. Practice is an everyday grind but it doesn't just stop on the cross country course, Rankin spends the majority of his free time in the training room getting treatment for his soreness and stretching to prevent injuries. After finally being done with lifting, stretching and recovery, Rankin goes home and makes dinner and then does homework. When business is taken care of, he likes to get eight hours of sleep, and says "the goal is 9 pm to 5 am, if ever possible before 9 pm is idealistic." 

Coming from East Plano High School in Plano, Texas (pop. 288,000), a much different atmosphere than small town Clarksville, Arkansas (pop. 9,000). Rankin said "coming from a big high school was an adjustment." He said when coming to Ozarks, "The late Dr. Stewart Dippel and Dr. Bill Eakin both have made a major impact on my college experience and making classes more enjoyable. The smaller class sizes really helped me a lot academically". Ozarks has a 14-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio. 

Rankin has been on many different sports teams throughout his career and he said by far that the teams here at Ozarks have been his best experience and make it feel like a family environment. Rankin believes everyone at the University always wants to see him succeed. Rankin credits the athletic training facilities. 

"Having the training room and staff here to help whenever I had any injuries or aches or anything, and having the space to always go do stretching and recovery, which is very important, helped me continue to become a better athlete." 

Coming from a big high school in Texas especially, being the best athlete at that school is hard to do, which Nathan finds motivation in here at Ozarks. He never won any state titles for any sport he did.

During his time at Ozarks, Rankin has "accomplished goals that younger Nathan would be proud of". His freshman wrestling campaign in 2017-2018, Rankin ended the year 30-5 overall and qualified for the NCAA III National Championships after placing third at Regionals. He also captured the Southeast Conference title and was named to the National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Academic Team. Rankin also ran cross country as well that year, winning the American Southwest Conference (ASC) Championship beating 96 other runners, got named the ASC Freshman of the Year and earned First Team All-Conference. Rankin broke a school record with an 8K record time of 25:25:0 at the Regionals and earned All-Region honors at the NCAA III South/Southeast Regional. He was named to the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Academic Team. Rankin ended his freshman year campaign winning the highest athletic honor on campus, U of O Male Athlete of the Year.

Rankin was hungry for more in the 2018-2019 campaign. Opening up his sophomore cross country season he placed second at the U of O Invitational with a time of 27:45:6. He placed second at the ASC Championships with a 26:58:69 for the 8K. He also finished second at the Arkansas Division III Championships running a time of 17:52:90. Rankin ended up qualifying for the NCAA III National Championships, a program first. Rankin was named to the All-Region Team and First Team All-Conference. He was named ASC Runner of the Week twice during this particular season and named a member of the ASC All-Academic Team. After finishing cross country, he immediately began grinding for wrestling. In 2018-2019, Rankin had a record of 24-5, he placed fifth at the NCAA III Regional. Rankin also won the Southeast Conference Individual Title, as well as conference Outstanding Wrestler. Rankin also was named an All-American at the Greco-Roman U23 World Team Trials. He was once again named U of O Male Athlete of the Year in 2018-2019. 

Going into the 2019-2020 season, Rankin kept making a name for himself. Winning the ASC Championship for the second time in his career with a time of 25:53:9. He earned First Team All-Conference and qualified for the NCAA III Championships for the second time in his career. He finished eighth at the NCAA III Regional and earned All-Region. He as named ASC Runner of the Week four times and set a school record in the 8K with a time of 25:14:2 at the University of Louisville Greater Classic. In wrestling, Rankin's overall record was 25-4 at 125. He was named Second Team All-America from the National Wrestling Coaches Association which would mean Rankin would become the program's first All-American. He qualified for the NCAA III National Tournament but didn't wrestle due to COVID-19. Rankin helped the Eagles to a runner-up finish at the Southeast Conference Championship by winning the 125-pound individual title. There, he was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler and First Team All-Conference. Finishing off the year, he was named U of O Male Athlete of the Year and named a member of the ASC Academic All-Conference Team. 

Nathan Rankin has made quite the name for himself during his time at Ozarks. After graduating from Ozarks this coming spring, he has decided to move to a place with higher elevation to continue training for marathons in order to compete around the world. Rankin wants to pursue his dream of making it to the Olympics and feels very confident that he can do so. Rankin has written his way into the record books for each sport he's been a part of here and still isn't done until his very last meet next spring. Leaving a legacy was never the plan, but Rankin's athletic prowess has impacted the Eagle culture for the generations to come. 

"I was so scared if I am being honest. There was even a dive that I didn't do until the state meet. I kept thinking 'I don't want to do this.' 'I don't want to hit myself again.' There was a lot of fear there." She trained multiple hours a day until the day of the meet. She placed third in state. "After State, I took the summer off. I came to U of O with a completely different mindset. I wanted to build back into it slowly."

McPhillips is a sophomore diver for the University of the Ozarks. Last season, she placed eighth in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) and was only a few points away from qualifying for regionals. At Ozarks, she is currently working hard this swim season and it is showing. She is learning and working on new dives such as an inward one-and-a-half, forward one-and-a-half, and back one and a half with a half twist. McPhillips credits her success with how she pushes and motivates herself to work hard every day. She also credits the people in her life.

"I will say. I have the best teammates in the entire world. We bounce off of each other. If one of us dives, the other ones will want to try and beat that dive. If one of us has a bad day, the rest of us are too."

Being one of only four divers on the team, the bond that they have built is like no other. From a reporter's eyes, seeing them push each other to excel instead of the usual stereotype of breaking each other down is refreshing to watch during their practices. Her family support system has balanced her drive.

"I hold myself to really high standards and I can be really hard on myself. My parents come in handy and help me take a step back and have me look at the bigger picture."  

This season has yielded success for McPhillips thus far. In October, McPhillips placed first in the 1-meter dive in the last three meets with scores of 172.60, 181.75, and 179.88. In diving, each dive is rated from a zero to a ten by a panel of judges. The diver's highest and lowest scores are then discarded, leaving the divers middle scores. The remaining scores then will be added together, then multiplied by each dive's rating of difficulty. In the most recent meet, the McMurry University Dual, McPhillips took first-place in the 1 and 3-meter dives.

"After last season, I am just working on improving as much as I can. I am shooting for higher than eighth-place in the conference and qualifying for regionals. I was only a few points off last year and I think I can do it."

McPhillips and the rest of the Swim and Dive team will host Hendrix College in a dual January 9.

As a senior, Smith spent most of her time in the training room, which is how she became a student athletic trainer for her team. 

"I mostly enjoy being around, not the injuries, but the athletes and helping them because I want them to know I've been through it and that it's okay to be upset about it and that you will get through it."

Smith worked with her team even though she wasn't able to play. She still traveled with her team and made sure they always had a supporter. 

"I was basically their mom and cheerleader, trying to keep their spirits up, I helped with injuries they got. I assisted them in pregame preparation by taping ankles and repairing blisters. I looked at a lot of feet that I didn't want to see." 

Smith also coached the goalkeepers so that the other players would have both coaches instead of being split up. Every practice, she would run drills that she'd learned with both goalkeepers, and they would go from there.

Throughout the ups and downs, Smith always remembered she was a student before an athlete. She discovered that the only way to balance both is to not put off your work, especially on road trips, because being on buses for hours is the ideal time to do assignments rather than waiting because your body is tired after a road trip.

Smith encourages incoming freshmen athletes to communicate with their professors because they are here to help and can sometimes be more lenient to help you. Time management is also something Hannah emphasizes because she knows that sports can take a lot out of you, but you have to remember you're a student. As Smith reflects on her last four years at the University of the Ozarks, "Soccer has taught me so much; I've learned life lessons, met people, and traveled outside the country all because of it. I think I know my purpose and what I want to do with soccer." 

Smith wants to coach a club team or help in any way she can, but her career goal is to become a physical therapist. 

"I think I know my purpose and what I want to do with soccer."