pictured in the graphic, above: Scheduled to participate in the January 7th Cactus Bowl senior all-star game are (l to r) Colorado School of Mines' defensive lineman Marc Schiechl, Delta State running back Trevar Deed and University of Central Missouri quarterback Eric Czerniewski. Schiechl, a 6-3, 260-lb. All-America defensive lineman, was runnerup for the 2010 Gene Upshaw NCAA Division II Lineman of the Year Award. Deed helped lead Delta State into the 2010 DII Championship Game while Czerniewski claimed the Harlon Hill Trophy as the 2010 Division II College Football Player of the Year.
pictured below: Newberry College All-America safety Ron Parker
This week, the Texas A&M-Kingsville athletics department again serves as host for the 2011 Cactus
Bowl, the annual Division II football all-star game, to take place Friday, Jan. 7. The game begins at 7 p.m. (Central) from A&M-Kingsville's Javelina Stadium. The Cactus Bowl Committee invites the top 88 senior Division II players to the Bowl game, and they are then divided into two 44-member rosters.
The Cactus Bowl has been a boon for Division II football standouts looking for pro football career opportunities and is the nation's most high-profile DII All-Star game. Hundreds of DII players have signed pro contracts following this all-star classic.
In a new development for the 2011 game, the Texas A&M-Kingsville athletics department and the school's Communications Department and their students will jointly produce a live webcast of the event. This will be a complete production with anchors, sideline reporters, and pre- and post-game interviews.
The 2011 Cactus Bowl week is in full swing with practices, team meetings, interviews, banquet, "Taste of South Texas" pre-game event and many other activities occurring. The Bowl website for all this information is
www.cactusbowl.org.
The live webcast will be produced by the Texas A&M-Kingsville Communications Department and their students and is available through the
Cactus Bowl website or directly at
www.tamuk.edu/southtexan. The game also will be broadcast on the radio at Sports Radio Corpus Christi 1230 AM and streamed at
www.sportsradiocc.com, again courtesy of the Javelina communications and athletics department. Live Stats will also be available through the Cactus Bowl website.
According to Shane Meling, Texas A&M-Kingsville's Sports Information Director, the Cactus Bowl webcast will be coordinated by Meling and a few other athletic officials along with Dr. Manuel Flores, Associate Professor in the Communications and Theatre Arts Department. Flores is the point person for the live webcast production.
"Over the past year, the communications department has partnered with our athletics program and has webcast baseball, softball, basketball and football games on their own via the
www.tamuk.edu/southtexan website," noted Meling. "Dr. Flores has done a very good job of getting his students involved in the production of sporting events over the past 12 months and they have
shown the ability to handle a football game. We are hoping to turn over all of our webcasting needs to them in the future and believe they can put together high quality broadcasts."
Flores will serve as the chief broadcaster for the webcast as well, handling the play-by-play duties while student assistant Mark Molina will do color commentary.
When asked about the actual Cactus Bowl video equipment and production needs, Meling noted that "This will be a four-camera operation that will also involve our large video board. We generally outsource a production person for our normal football games and that person will be here to oversee the event, but it will be our A&M-Kingsville students doing the majority of the work."
Meling also manages a staff of student workers that also helps produce live webcasts for football, volleyball and men's and women's basketball. He also is the host of the Hog Calls Radio Show during the football season and is a weekly Saturday morning radio show that runs the entire school year.
More on the Cactus Bowl
The Cactus Bowl all star game has gone through drastic changes since its inception in 1994 at Fargo, North Dakota where it was (formerly) known as the Snow Bowl. On January 12, 2001, the Snow Bowl - and a subsequent name change - moved far south to the Kingsville, Texas location.
The Cactus Bowl's mission is to bring together the finest football athletes from the 150-plus universities which comprise NCAA Division II. During the years as the Snow Bowl, a hundred players signed NFL contracts. Then, during the inaugural Cactus Bowl game, 25 players signed NFL contracts which solidified the slogan “The best players you’ve never seen”.
The Cactus Bowl Committee is responsible for all aspects of organization for the contest and net profits from the Cactus Bowl are donated to Shriners Hospitals for Children throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The Al Amin Temple of Corpus Christi will be involved in the Cactus Bowl pre-game preparation and game-day operations.
Photo galleries of the practices, events and game will be available on the
Cactus Bowl website as well as an opportunity to purchase pictures and other memorabilia.