My family is very sports oriented. Both of my parents played college sports. My Dad played quarterback for Arizona State University. My Mom played volleyball at University of Redlands. They’ve always been hard on my sister and I about being leaders. We always had to finish our schoolwork before we could go to practice or go outside and play. At a young age, my sister and I learned early what it takes to play at the next level. We both dreamed about getting scholarships since we were little. My sister is a freshman now. She just signed for San Diego State. She’s starting as a true freshman. I am very proud of her she’s worked very hard. I attribute my sister and my success to my parents and how hard they pushed us to not only be leaders on the field but also off…. and present ourselves in a manner that would not hurt our family name, or disrespect people. I had a grandpa, my Dad’s dad, he played for USC. He played running back. He was one of the main reasons I played football. He was my idol and so is my Dad. My grandpa passed away two years ago it was very hard for me. I think about him every day and I practice hard. When I am on the field, I‘m thinking about him and what he would want me to do. I always picture him watching me. I never try to take plays off.
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Home for me is on the north side of Chicago, …Niles, Illinois. It’s about twenty miles north of downtown Chicago. I have a Mom, Dad, and little sister. My Dad works for Northwest Airlines, which is now Delta airlines. My Mom works with a financial company Morgan-Stanley, Smith, Barney. They have been great. They have been great with me getting me through the years. I love them to death. My sister is a freshman at Illinois State. So there’s some rivalry there. She picked the redbirds, but I am at the real ISU, so that’s good. She’s great, she’s going to be an English teacher and go from there. My Dad played some high school basketball. For the most part, he always had me out there throwing the ball around. Make sure I was an athlete. I just ate a couple too many burgers growing up, so the offensive line was perfect for me. I was a three sport athlete. I played baseball, basketball, and football. I was a bigger guy, so in baseball first baseman and pitcher. Basketball … center. I played three sports through my sophomore year. I decided football was the route I wanted to go and try to pursue a college career. I went down to one sport… football for junior and senior years. Basically, I really liked the area being only three hours away from Chicago. I saw a good atmosphere here. I like the campus. I like the school. I want to bleed blue. I love ISU. I study business administration with a minor in insurance and risk management. That’s a mouth full. Who knows what I will have with the economy the way it is right now. I am happy with taking a business degree. I couldn’t be happier. The things I was expecting last year, any player would expect… to win every year. But this year, it just seems a little bit more realistic. Just because, we got a quarterback in, that started in big time PAC 10 games. He brought in a lot of leadership and challenged our receivers. He’s got a lot of different receivers. A lot of junior college receivers that helped us out on the perimeter. Having a passing game more opens up the running game. It’s helping our offense out a lot. Offense is finally doing a better job. The offensive line coaches, Coach Etheridge and Coach Simmons, they came in and changed the culture from the old lines perspective. Those are two great coaches that are here because they want to be here. They could be at big time schools, coaching, and it’s a blessing they are here. Wanting to be here when they don’t even have to be. Coach Simmons played here. The type of coach he is, I think, he is giving out charity and giving out community service by being here. He should be somewhere big time. So it’s a blessing he came here. He helped our offensive line out a lot. The offensive line mentality is way different, now that those two coaches are here. It feels great to have a hole to run through. I don’t have to worry about those big defensive linemen every play. So I can finally focus on getting past the linebackers and the defensive backs. It’s a better situation than going up against linemen in my face, as soon as I get the ball. It’s a good feeling. Western Springs, Illinois is in the Chicago area. It’s about 20 minutes west of Chicago. I always say Chicago. I say Western Springs, I get a lot of where is that. I, get tired of answering that, so I say Chicago. I have a wonderful Mom and Dad, Joan and Dan. One older brother Michael, who just graduated from Missouri. A younger brother, Mark, who is a senior in high school. He also plays football, looking to play in college. Maybe we will get him here, which would be nice. I also have a sister, Kathryn, who is just a freshman in high school. My Dad played football at Ball State. He was a running back. My Mom was in cheerleading and track when she was younger. I come from a pretty athletic family. We all play in sports so probably just going out and supporting each other was my favorite activity with the family. We’re always at sporting events whether its my football game, my brothers football or basketball games. For fun, I just like to chill with friends, hang out and listen to music. Work out. Play football obviously. Watch football on TV. Try to get better. Mainly, just hang with a lot of guys on the team just because we’re so close. We spend a lot of time together. I live with a few of my team mates. They’re some of my good friends on the team. Continue reading In His Own Words – ISU FB Player Alex Sewall My Dad, he works for the Indianapolis Airport. He was a basketball player coming up. He played in the army. My Mom is a beautician and an air traffic controller. Both are just regular hard working people. I played football, basketball and baseball at Pike. I just kind of got into baseball. Not too many played baseball in my family. My mom did a lot of softball. They didn’t want me coming home after school. They wanted me to stay active. So I picked up baseball. Actually coming up… basketball was my favorite. With my Dad playing in the army always had time to train me. Teach me different things. Football, it just kind of came about, like I said my parents didn’t want me coming home they wanted me to get involved in stuff at school. I picked up football and before I knew it, it was my best sport. Indiana State was a good pick for me. Coach Miles gave me the opportunity to go to school and get a degree while playing football. It was close to home. My family would be able to see me play. My brother loves to come to my games and watch me play. So I wanted to give my family the opportunity to experience the college athletics atmosphere. Like I said, Coach Miles gave me the opportunity so I took full advantage of it. I love everything about Indiana State. I would offer Indiana State to anybody. I think the professors are good, the coaching staff, the administrators. Everything’s going in the right direction. Everything’s positive around here. I really love it. I study psychology with a minor in African American studies. I plan to go to law school. I picked up philosophy and different things. I took a lot of political science and legal studies courses. Just working. I know law school is going to be heavy but those are my plans. My first comment was, “you people are crazy”. No, I don’t think it can get any better. You kind of go through your life working to a point you have goals and things you want to accomplish in life. And this has certainly been my goal my whole life. And, 20 years into coaching, it’s how I’m celebrating my 20th year… in my first head coaching job in college. I’m just really, really happy and feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to be the head coach at a place that means a lot to my wife and I. A line of very good men have coached mens’ basketball here. We’ve had Curtis, Wooden, Kluegh, King, Waltman and I’d certainly add Kevin McKenna there too. We had a lot of work to do when he got hired and hired us as assistants. And I think we did a really good job of building this thing and the talent level where we needed to. And if it hadn’t been for two or three injuries last year I think we’d have been talking about something a little more special than what it was. I don’t know. I’m not going to put any we have to win this many games or this is what I want to do. All I know is I’m going to want to win championships. I’m going to want to win the Missouri Valley every year. I’m going to want to play in the NCAA tournament every year. I’m going to recruit guys that would have the same types of goals. Granted we were pleased with how we survived last year with the injuries, but .500 in the conference isn’t good enough. It’s not what we’re shooting for. We want to be up there fighting for a conference championship every year. , putting a really good product out on the floor. You know, I’m a basketball junkie. I’m a high school coach’s kid. So it’s been from since I could walk and talk that I’ve been doing basketball stuff. My dad was a tremendous coach. He’s in the hall of fame in Iowa
by Tony Harper I’m originally from Louisville, Kentucky, a lot of people think I was born and raised in Bowling Green. Moved to Owen Valley, Spencer, whenever, I was 10. Loved the quietness. Loved the peacefulness. Real quiet out there Bowling Green, Indiana. Great place to live. People are nice. People welcomed me. Family of course Mom and Dad –love them both. Dad’s probably one the most hardest working guys or man I’ve seen ever in my life. I have three brothers Antonio, Jordan, Brandon and one older sister, Carolyn. All of us played basketball. Three of us still play basketball now. So a very competitive family and you know… we learned from each other and we back up each other. I think without family I really wouldn’t be here. I really wouldn’t be anything in life. |
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