Coaching Factory 2012

Several years ago, a former SUU student and Salt Lake City newspaper reporter coined the moniker "The Coaching Factory" to describe Southern Utah University and the success of its alumni in the high school coaching ranks.

On January 21, 2012, SUU alumni coaches who competed for a championship in their respective sports during the 2010-2011 academic school year were honored, along with alumni who have made the transition from coach to administrator.

Two individuals, who epitomize all that is praise worthy about high school sports, were inducted into the Coaching Factory Hall of Fame. Each has a plaque mounted on the J.L. Sorenson Physical Education Building's Wall of Honor and Recognition.

After an all-state football career at Grantsville High School, Kevin Butler ('84) went on to further gridiron greatness at Southern Utah University, where he was a three-year starter on the offensive line for the Thunderbirds. He coached for a year at Tooele High School, then returned to Grantsville in 1984 as an assistant football coach before assuming the top job in 1987 and leading the Cowboys to glory, winning three state crowns, including the first in the school's history in 1992, and amassing a record of 117 and 54 over 16 seasons with each team progressing to the playoffs. He coached 50 first-team All-State players, seven Utah MVPs and was three times named coach of the year for the state. Beyond that, he was largely responsible for upgrading Cowboy Stadium, making it a site that instilled pride in the school and community. He also was the initial coach for Grantsville High School's wrestling and golf programs in the mid-'80s and coached girls track and field as well. Additionally, he instituted the little league wrestling program in Grantsville in 1985 and the little league Ute football program in 1987. In 2009, he joined the staff of one of his formers players when Clint Christiansen became Stansbury High School's first football coach and aided the Stallions on their road to becoming another dynasty in Utah 3-A football. For his quarter-century of outstanding service, Kevin Butler is indeed a fitting inductee into the Southern Utah University Coaching Factory Hall of Fame.

 Eric Houle ('81), who has mentored the cross country and track and field teams at Southern Utah University since 1992, has become one of America's most respected coaches. Previous to returning to his alma mater, he turned in a stellar 11-year run as cross country coach at Salt Lake City's Judge Memorial High School, producing three state championship teams along with five runner-up squads. He was three times named coach of the year in Utah. At SUU he has led his teams to 38 conference championships and can boast of an NCAA Mountain Division cross country championship as well, a feat for which he was named region coach of the year. He has won conference coach of the year honors an impressive 32 times, coaching both men's and women's teams in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field. Along the way, he has coached 736 all-conference athletes, 252 individual conference champions, 25 conference athletes of the year, 27 conference newcomers of the year, 24 NCAA national qualifiers, 75 NCAA West regional qualifiers and four NCAA All-Americans. His teams have excelled in the classroom as well over the years, garnering two academic national championships and a runner-up honor while nine athletes have been named academic all-America. Coach Houle earned two bachelor's degrees from SUU in 1981 as well as a master's degree in 1998. Honoring his remarkable career as a leader and teacher, Southern Utah University is pleased and proud to induct Eric Houle into the Coaching Factory Hall of Fame.

Cedar Bridal Showcase

The Cedar Bridal Showcase will be Saturday February 25, 2012 at the SUU Alumni House from 11 am until 4 pm. Admission is free, so stop by and check out the fabulous Cedar City wedding vendors. The first 50 Brides through the door will win a two-nights stay. Mark your calendars to be at the Cedar Bridal Showcase.

Terrific Gift for SUMA

Beverley Taylor Sorenson

Southern Utah University is one step closer to construction for the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA), thanks to the Sorenson Legacy Foundation who recently granted $1 million to the SUMA project. This gift brings fundraising for the museum to nearly $9 million in cash and pledges. As the University nears its $12.5 million goal, University officials hope to break ground for SUMA in the near future.

“We are incredibly grateful to Beverley Sorenson and the Sorenson Legacy Foundation for this terrific gift,” stated SUU President Michael Benson. “Beverley’s commitment to arts education and her tireless efforts on behalf of school children everywhere will be evidenced in the daily activities of this magnificent facility.”

SUMA, currently in its final design phases, will be free and open to the public. Its backers see thousands of school children taking in all the museum has to offer on a daily basis. It will also be the only art museum of its caliber in southern Utah.

SUMA is truly unique in its vision, relative to its educational scope, explains dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts, Shauna Mendini. “SUMA will be the first nationally accredited art museum operated by students in an environment mentored by faculty and museum administrators.”

Cathedral Mountain by Jim Jones

Beyond its anticipated role as “a landmark, harboring paintings by southern Utah’s beloved artist, Jim Jones,” Mendini projects “SUMA will serve to inspire and engage our entire community.” Given its unique educational mission, it can also be presumed that SUMA’s success will set a new model for arts administration and museum studies education across the nation.

SUU’s campus is currently home to the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery, which has served the campus well for the past 35 years. However, as the University’s arts programming is central to the success of the arts across the community, expanded exhibition areas and learning spaces will go far to more deeply engage arts enthusiasts across the region.

Such an undertaking would have been impossible without the support of forward-thinking arts advocates, such as Beverley Sorenson, who has stepped forward to expand the region’s exposure to and appreciation for the arts.

Reece Summers, director and curator for the Braithwaite Gallery, adds, “This accredited facility will allow us to borrow art from other museums around the world, host major traveling exhibits, as well as showcase art from our permanent collections. Five exhibition galleries and the large educational space will provide year-round changing exhibits and educational programming. In this, this gift truly helps fulfill our vision for SUMA to bring the art of the world to Cedar City.”

With education as its central purpose, the 28,000 square foot Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA) promises to become a major regional cultural attraction in Cedar City by providing space to exhibit, collect and preserve historic and contemporary works of art significant to the interior American West. The museum will also host art exhibitions that represent the principal artistic styles and periods of world cultures.

Southern Utah Museum of Art

This state-of-the-art museum will be home to approximately 7,000 square feet of exhibition space composed of several individual galleries. These galleries will host exhibitions from around the world, be home to a special collection of the work by Utah artist, Jim Jones, and feature rotating exhibits from the permanent collections. SUMA will also regularly exhibit work of Southern Utah University’s Art and Design students and faculty, and provide a venue for displaying regional artists and juried shows.

Approximately 6,000 square feet of the museum building will be dedicated to collection storage, care, and research. The building design will have windows into the working collection spaces answering the natural curiosity of visitors about where the Museum’s collection is housed and how the art is preserved. Another 3,000 square feet will provide indoor/outdoor classroom and studio space for hands-on educational activities for K-12 school groups emphasizing the current exhibitions.

Through engaging exhibits and ongoing educational programming, SUMA will be a significant cultural resource for the people of Utah and the many visitors to our area.

Alumni Spotlight: Mark Morman

Mark Morman (’86, Communication) credits the mentoring he received in the Southern Utah University Communication Department as the difference that allowed him to become the director of graduate studies and full-professor in the department of communication studies at Baylor University.

A great deal of his SUU mentoring came by way of the forensics team, of which he was a member from 1984-1986. His two years of training and experience in one of the top programs in the nation built a strong communication foundation he still stands on today. He still appreciates the coaching, knowledge and skills he learned through debate at SUU.

Mark has received numerous awards for his teaching and scholarly research and is proud to have been promoted to full professor. “Earning my Ph.D. in communication studies was a huge accomplishment and being promoted to full professor is truly fulfilling,” says Mark.

SUU professor Sage Platt had a huge impact on his success by being a coach, mentor, big sister, and most importantly a friend. He explains that, “Sage was tireless in providing me with love, support, encouragement, strength, wisdom and confirmation. I owe her more than I ever can repay.”

He enjoyed serving as a student government officer during the Stuart Jones administration (1985-1986) and loved the unique opportunity of traveling the nation with the forensics team representing SUU. One favorite memory occurred each time he won a contest at a forensics tournament. “The tradition at the awards assembly was always to call out the first and second and third place winners by the school they represented and then the person’s last name. So every time I placed at a tournament, I got to hear, ‘From Southern Utah—Morman.’ The audience would break into spontaneous laughter.” Making it even more interesting was that he is not LDS.

Mark is married to Donna, is wife of 23 years. Trent, their 22 year-old son, just graduated from Baylor University with a BA in Communication Studies.

The Morman family resides in Waco, Texas.

Alumni Spotlight: Regan Parker

Regan Parker (’01 Communication) is the Business Development Director at Thomson-Shore, Inc., a full service publishing services, book manufacturing and distribution/fulfillment facility. She directs the planning and implementation of all marketing and promotions strategies, and leads the market research and business development for all new products and service initiatives.

She credits SUU with teaching her important concepts in marketing and business that have supported her career endeavors. “I was lucky to have a couple of great professors and mentors in Jon Smith and Art Challis”, she says. “They both challenged me intellectually, but also taught me to love what was really valuable about me to be professionally successful.”

When Regan arrived at Thomson-Shore, despite being new to the industry, she was “thrown into the deep end and told to swim.” Drawing upon experiences as an athletic marketing intern at SUU, Regan went to work learning the industry and its new technologies. She jumped in head first, took risks, assembled a good team, provided effective leadership and implemented a sound business model which resulted in Thomson-Shore’s successful print-on-demand distribution and fulfillment program.  

Prior to working at Thomson-Shore, Regan worked for seven years with the University of Michigan Office of Medical Development where she was involved in major fundraising efforts. She participated in the largest fundraising effort to date resulting in the $100 million Cardiovascular Care and Research Facility and the first-ever fundraising effort for the physical medicine and rehabilitation department. It remains as one of her most rewarding experiences.

As a student, Regan enjoyed her time outside of the classroom and was actively involved with Alpha Phi. In fact, her greatest Southern Utah memories were made with the women she met there. “Through my time with Alpha Phi, I learned the incredible importance of working as a team, trusting your peers and following through on commitments,” she says. “The lessons I learned from that group I carry with me into every intense professional project I become a part of.”

Regan is a board member with the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority and is loosely involved with the Greek Community at Eastern Michigan University. She has also served with local organizations including 826Michigan, Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Area Chamber of Commerce, Women’s Center of Southeast Michigan and the Hands on Museum for Children.

She earned her MBA in 2008 from Eastern Michigan University, and enjoys spending time with friends, cuddling with her cats and reading. She loves the gym and is obsessed with cycling and spinning.

Regan lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Alumni Spotlight: Jeff Peterson

Jeff Peterson (’96, Science & Engineering) is a physical scientist with the Department of Defense at Dugway Proving Ground, where he develops complex computer models and simulations used to supplement actual field tests of military equipment.

Dugway is a remote military installation that provides testing and evaluation services for all branches of the military. The testing done by Jeff and his team is always influenced by current environmental conditions (wind, humidity, temperatures). Jeff explains, “While the results of these tests are important, it is also crucial to know how the equipment will perform in windy, humid and cold conditions. We are able to to use the models and simulations we develop to help us predict how equipment will perform in conditions we cannot test."

Upon graduating from SUU, Jeff completed his doctorate in physical/analytical chemistry at the University of Utah. He credits SUU with preparing him for graduate school. “While many of my fellow grad students went to significantly larger schools, they were not any better prepared for the rigors of grad school than I was. I credit this to the great professors at SUU and their ability to prepare students for educational opportunities beyond undergraduate studies,” he explains.

One of those great professors was Jim Cotts from the math department. “I had calculus from him and I have never worked harder for a grade in my life. His method of teaching was entertaining, demanding and surprisingly fun,” he states. “Dr. Cotts was known as an incredibly tough exam writer and I think he took pride in that because he offered his students a pretty great deal. If you got an A on his final, he would give you an A for the entire course, regardless of what your grade was up to that point. I was lucky enough to cash in on that deal and it saved my GPA that semester.”

Jeff’s favorite SUU memory is the annual Culture Bowl that he entered with friends Wes Baker (’97), David Blanchard (’98) and Paul Shirley (’96). The College Democrat team was favored to win and Jeff’s team saw that early prediction as a challenge to them to win. The team picked up a packet of sample questions the night before the bowl and found one question focused on the Philippines, a country with which they were not familiar. So Paul went home and learned all he could about the Philippines, including a bit of Tagalog. The next day, one of the questions asked the team to count to ten in Tagalog. To the astonishment of his friends, Paul could do it and the team advanced to face the College Democrats and ultimately won the entire bowl. “It was a fun memory of SUU and my friends, and I still talk about it today,” he says.

Jeff met his wife Joy while both were attending SUU and working at K-Mart. They are the parents of four children and reside in Saratoga Springs, Utah.

Alumni Spotlight: Art Challis

Art Challis (’72, Communication), otherwise known as the “Voice of the Thunderbirds,” is a full-professor of Communication, chair of the SUU Communication Department and has broadcast Thunderbird Athletics for nearly 40 years.

It was while working for KSUB radio in 1970, that Art broadcast his first game - a Cedar High vs. Parowan High baseball game. Three years later when Ernie Riedelbach (who was then the voice of the Thunderbirds) became ill one night before a game, Art was asked to call the SUU vs. Grand Canyon game, and the rest is broadcast history. He had a brief stint broadcasting sports in St. George before landing permanently in Cedar City and being hired to do all SUU broadcasts, which included football, basketball and baseball at the time.

“My education was totally valuable in the broadcasting area. I learned about sports casting, newswriting and broadcasting, as well as editing, and have used those skills for nearly 40 years now,” he says while reflecting on his time as a student at SUU. “I also had a valuable education in Communication Theory from Frain Pearson.”

Art has received many awards for his broadcast work, including 5 UBEE awards from the Utah Broadcaster Association, the service award in 2002 and has been nominated as SUU Professor of the Year at least 10 times. From 1993 to 2006 he owned and operated KBRE AM-FM radio in Cedar City.

He began his SUU teaching career at SUU in 1987, earned a master’s degree from UNLV’s Greenspun School of Communication in 1992 and a PhD from UNLV in educational leadership in 1998. Art loves being a professor and enjoys his students, particularly as he sees them develop and grow in their professions after leaving SUU.

What is Art’s favorite SUU memory? His response will be of no surprise to those that know him, "Going to the NCAA Tournament with the basketball team in 2001 and broadcasting the Boston College game." SUU’s centennial celebration is another good memory, and he loves going to the Utah Shakespeare Festival, having seen most of the productions since 1972.

He is married to Vicki Jeff Challis (’70, Elementary Education; ’01, Master of Education) and they are the parents of four children and 16 grandchildren. Art loves reading, broadcasting, collecting items, playing games of all kinds and traveling.

Alumni Spotlight: Dawn Ann Bailey

Dawn Ann Bailey attended the BAC (now SUU) in 1944, graduated in 1946, and describes her experience here as “a good start to a long journey.”

During the 1944-45 school year there were less than 90 students enrolled at the BAC, the majority of which were girls. Dawn recalls, "We were all pampered somewhat because the school needed enrollment for its state appropriation." She also remembers snow sledding days at the college ranch, banquets at the El Escalante Hotel and has kept the BAC acquired tradition of a yearly trip to Zion.

In the 1945-46 school year, WWII service men began to return home and were anxious to continue their education. Consequently, that also brought more students and activities like dances and sports to the BAC. Dawn enrolled for the 1946-47 year so she could once again be in school with her brother, who had recently returned from serving in the Navy.

The BAC made a lasting impression on Dawn as she reflects on it being “a great experience in getting to know people from other areas.” She still has fond memories of the Phi Alpha Beta Sorority activities and friendships formed there, as well as outstanding teachers such as Dr. Wayne Driggs, Lee Liston, Burns L. Finlinson, David L. Sargent and Parley Dalley, who all taught her great things.

After graduating from the BAC, Dawn worked at Mountain States Telephone Co. in Cedar City as an operator and service representative, and with Dial Finance Co. in Salt Lake as a bookkeeper for 11 years. She then took a job as the staff assistant to the dean at the University of Utah’s College of Mines and Earth Sciences from 1963-1993. Dawn loved her work and association with the U of U faculty and staff, as well as with young scientists and engineers who have remained long-time friends. She was part of the Phi Kappa Phi Honorary society in 1981 and the president of the U of U Women’s Club from 1998 to 1999. After retiring, Dawn volunteered at Uintah School where she participated in a program whereby grandparents assisted youngsters with their reading.

Dawn grew up in an illustrious family of 10 children (she is the youngest), all of whom attended the BAC. She loves knitting, needle point, gardening, reading and traveling. While her travels have taken her all over the world to places like China, Japan, South Korea, Canada, England, France, Italy, Austria and Germany, she still loves travelling to the mountains above Cedar City and the parks of southern Utah.

Dawn is the mother of two “lovely accomplished women,” four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She resides in Salt Lake City, UT.

Alumni Spotlight: Eric Kirby

Eric Kirby (’03, Political Science) is an attorney at Murphy Decker Hensen & Cook-Olson, P.C.  in Denver, Colorado. His education at Southern Utah University taught him that with hard work and dedication he could accomplish his goals. 

He remembers Professor Roberds teaching him the meaning of critical thinking and to seek for truth. Eric carried and used those skills when he clerked for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and Utah Senator Orrin G. Hatch in Washington, DC, and later when he earned his master’s degree in administration (2005) and his juris doctor (2007) from the University of Denver. He later clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig B. Shaffer in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.  Eric was recently selected as a “2012 Colorado Rising Star” - an award that is presented to less than 3% of attorneys in the state of Colorado. He is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

Eric’s personal motto is, “It’s a great day to be a T-Bird”.  Some of his favorite SUU memories include the one-on-one interactions with the professors, the top-notch educational experiences (both in-class and out-of-class) and the many friends who have since become family.

Eric enjoys spending time with his family camping, travelling and rappelling. He and his wife Janae have four children - two boys and two girls.

The Kirbys live in Denver, Colorado.