You will notice a new feature on the right hand side of our front page, listing links video and “livestats” updates from in-progress action. It is quite the useful tool for those who like to track multiple games at once. LiveStats is a different kind of way to watch a game and for those of us who appreciate Division III so much, different is good.

However, it should come with a warning…”Staring at LiveStats for too long can cause symptoms such as pounding-heart, increased blood pressure, and significant bouts of impatience .”

I experienced all of those on Wednesday night, when the team for which I normally broadcast, had two playoff games going at once, and I chose to work the women’s game, since the men’s contest had LiveStats capabilites.

My women’s broadcast ended before the men’s game concluded, so I let my listeners know that I’d be staying on the air until the men’s game was done. This led to what essentially was a broadcast of a broadcaster watching LiveStats, which is entertaining if you know me, and rather silly if you don’t. Listening to it now, I find it rather comical. I’m glad no one had a video camera to catch my facial expressions.

The go-ahead basket late in this game was scored by a player who hadn’t scored a point in conference play all season. Surely, I thought, this had to be a misprint, and I mumbled a few choice words under my breath for the scorekeeper, who, it turned out, was correct all along. Trust in the printed word is critical to LiveStat enjoyment.

The final seconds came down to free throws, and there was a good, long pause, between the first and second makes, just long enough for me to check that my heartbeats weren’t being heard over the air. The previous week, LiveStats had caused me moments of great angst, as in one viewing, an opponent made four 3-pointers with less than a minute to play to rally and win. This time, there was jubliation. “I believe that’s it….I believe that’s it!!!” is how I explained to my listeners that the team had won.

LiveStats may zap some of the descriptive process that comes with listening on radio, or if you’re lucky, watching a videocast, but the entertainment value can be just as great. So I encourage you to give it a try and maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll get as wrapped up in “watching” as I did on Wednesday night.

Shirley you saw this coming – an entry about the La Verne Leopards who are the only team to officially seal an NCAA tournament bid so far.

(Go ahead and groan, but that pun killed me when I thought it up at 2 AM last night. Be glad we already had a headline.)

Since we don’t hear much from women’s teams in that corner of the country, here are some facts about the newly crowned SCIAC champs.

Head Coach Julie Kline has been at La Verne for 16 seasons but had to wait until 2003 to capture a SCIAC title. Since then the Leopards have finished in the top four every season. The Leopards were picked fourth in the preseason behind Cal Lutheran, Occidental and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

La Verne’s top player is Trenecca Jones, who entered the week averaging double figures in points (16.5) and rebounds (10.6) per game. But the most interesting name on the roster, phonetically at least, is Kayleen Kaaiai. Kaaiai is a 5-foot point guard from Hawaii who unofficially leads the conference in announcers induced to say “How do you pronounce that?”

La Verne’s home facility is very interesting in that it looks like a big top circus tent. Fittingly enough it’s marked on the map as “Super Tents.” Plus the dark green and orange color scheme makes for some sharp jerseys that are colorful but not too floral. Very cool.

And finally the University is the alma mater of former Kansas City Royal great Dan Quisenbery. Quiz was a spectacular reliever who inspired lots of young pitchers (myself included) to drop down on their delivery and give that funky sidearm thing a try.

Good luck to the Leopards in their NCAA future but enjoy the present first. As Quisenbery once said, “”The future is just like the present, only longer.”

Championship week may be the most exciting seven days of the Division III season since it involves so many teams and so many great games. But there is a bittersweet part to Championship week as it marks the end of a very special part of many players’ lives. That’s a large part of the desperation, one of the key ingredients to the week’s many exciting finishes.

Many seniors will never put on a jersey again after the final horn sounds, which makes for very emotional scenes. I never fail to find those scenes powerful, gripping and, in some cases, heart breaking.

One of the more wrenching scenes came in a Pennsylvania Athletic Conference final two years ago between Cabrini and Alvernia. The Cavs were trying to extend a season that was painful. Long time head coach John Dzik was leaving, close loses were mounting and the players were clearly feeling the affects. But the painful nature of the season didn’t make its preservation any less precious.

In the closing moments of an eventual loss, senior point guard Messiah Reames fouled out trying to make one more play to keep Cabrini’s season alive. As he realized that his college playing career was done, he flung his headband to the floor with tears streamed down his face and the famous “nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-hey-hey-hey goodbye” raining down on him. It was striking how much this brutal, train wreck of a season meant to him.

ATN’s lead writer took in Mike Hoyt’s last game last night in the Skyline Quarterfinals. If you haven’t read that entry yet, stop reading this right now and please go do so. Seriously. I’ll wait.

Hoyt isn’t the only Preseason All American who has already finished his career. Last night Zack Freeman played his last game for Illinois Wesleyan, notching one more double-double (18 points, 13 rebounds) for the Titans.

Zak Ray also finished his career at Bates College on Saturday, scoring 30 points in the Bobcats’ loss to No. 3 Amherst in the NESCAC Quarterfinals. Ray has been the consummate teammate, using his passing abilities to make his teammates better. Here’s what Ray told the Bangor Daily News earlier this year.

“A thousand points to me means I’ve been consistent since I’ve been here and I’ve given everything I have to give. It’s not just me who scored the 1,000 points. It’s my teammates and the guys who set screens for me…Rob [Stockwell] got 1,000 last year and the first thing he said to me was, ‘I couldn’t have done it without you’ and I feel the same way.”

Monica Johnson ended her career at Lebanon Valley relatively quietly in that her team didn’t qualify for the MAC Commonwealth Playoffs. But she went out with the heart and fight you’d expect from a Preseason All American, putting up 22 points and 17 rebounds against Susquehanna.

If you have a story about these players or any others who are finishing a very special part of their lives this week, please take a moment to share it below.