After a long hot summer of offseason reconditioning, you may have missed the following items that are shaping up at the Univ. Dayton. Here’s this year’s first installment of our Quick Hitters…

Sammy Smith coming back…

Univ. Dayton sophomore wing player Sammy Smith has decided to come back to the university after all in 2001-02 and play hoops for the Flyers. Not long after the season ended, Smith decided to leave Dayton and transfer to Cedarville because of disagreements with the players, but later changed his mind and has already been seen around campus with Head Coach Oliver Purnell. Smith responded to his initial transfer in a local paper and took to task some of the attitudes and behaviors of his Flyer teammates, but has since apologized and is looking to returning to his friends and teammates. Smith was a Div-IV star at Worthington Christian HS and chose the Flyers over Ohio State after his junior season in high school, and made the A-10 All Academic Honor Roll as a college freshmen last year.

Father-Son Basketball Camp goes well…

UDPride features writer John Churan attended the Oliver Purnell Father-Son basketball camp recently and has a full report in the works — with a twist. This report will be told by his seven-year-old son Jason. Stay tuned to hear everything that went on told through the eyes of the youngest Flyer fan.

Gregg a preseason 1st Team All-American…

Junior forward Missy Showtime Gregg has been named a preseason 1st Team All-American by CollegeSoccer.com, one of 11 players to make the 1st team. No players from traditional power Notre Dame were named to either the 1st or 2nd team. CollegeSoccer.com will release their preseason Top-25 media poll sometime next week, along with their finalists for the Hermann Trophy — the college soccer equivalent of the Heisman. Gregg was a Hermann finalist last season.

Dayton players dominate W-2 League…

In an unprecedented showing, three Dayton players took home nearly all of the hardware in the W-2 League postseason awards last week. Missy Showtime Gregg won the W-2 League MVP after capturing the goal scoring and point scoring titles on the season. She was also named to the W-2 League 1st Team after a banner year with the Memphis Mercury. Junior Flyer goalkeeper Steph Weisenfeld of the Chicago Cobras won the W-2 League Top Goalkeeper Award given to the keeper with the lowest league GAA (goals-against-average). Finally, former Flyer defender Jen Davin helped the Cincinnati Ladyhawks to a W-2 division crown and was tabbed W-2 Defender of the Year. The W-2 League is a semiprofessional league consisting of top college and international stars that allows players to retain their amateur status. The league consists of top players from schools like North Carolina, Maryland, Missouri, West Virginia, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and others.

Out with Fila, in with Nike…

The clothing wars continue and this year you’ll see the UD mens and womens soccer teams sporting Nike uniforms after a 2000 season consisting of Fila apparel. Last year brought with it blue road jerseys for the first time in recent years, but there’s no word yet on whether the traveling Nike jerseys will be red or blue in 2001. Nike has a strong history in the soccer apparel business and is the current outfitter of the US mens and womens national teams.

Mens soccer looking good…

UD mens soccer earned a preseason ranking of #29 by Tallahassee, FL.-based CollegeSoccerNews.com recently, the highest-rated team in the A-10. CSN also ranked the Flyers incoming class as the 22nd best in the nation. Chris Rolfe, Jesse Faily, and Tye Stebbins join a veteran team that finished 14-4-2 a year ago and captured the A-10 regular season title.

Kissell interviews at Colorado State…

Ted Kissell, UD athletics director and VP, has recently interviewed for the AD position at Colorado State University in Colo. Springs, CO. Kissell is among three finalist for the job, the other two consisting of associates ADs at the Notre Dame (Lawrence Cunningham) and UConn (Jeff Hathaway). Kissell is largely responsible for the athletics renaissance at Dayton since he came in from the Univ. Arizona, and has moved Dayton basketball back to respectability. Along with securing more financial commitments to womens sports and upgrading facilities, Dayton is now among the top schools in the country in gender equity. Kissell did not actively pursue the opening and has indicated he may turn it down even if the position is offered. A CSU decision is likely before football season begins.