Winter Breeze Formal (Friday, 31st January).

By Isabella Dale

University of the Cumberlands students attended the Winter Breeze Formal on 31 January, 2014 to help promote and raise money for Baptist Campus Ministries Missions trips across the country. The event was a semi formal dance at the Merry Jeffries Centre in Williamsburg where around 50 Cumberlands students participated. 

Credits to: Kelsey Day

The dance, which was held from 7-11 p.m, was sponsored by Baptist Campus Ministries and organised by senior students at UC. The organisers hoped to raise money and awareness towards Missions and their services to the community.

“It was a good night,” said Jay Sankakulchai, an international student and guitarist in the Marching Band at Cumberlands who attended with three friends. “Everyone had a good time and really enjoyed themselves.”

According to Ezra Anderson, an organiser, the money collected from a fee of $5 per person will be used for Mission’s member Leanne May to travel the country promoting the gospel. May is a senior at Cumberlands and also a member of the BCM. 

“There was a mixture of students, a lot were international and there were also many sports teams that turned up,” said Anderson. “I believe it was a great way to give back to the community.”

In-season sports postponed because of unexpected weather.

By Isabella Dale

University of the Cumberlands baseball and tennis teams experienced competition delays last weekend due to unexpectedly bad weather. Matches and meets were postponed to later dates, causing both teams to temporarily sit out their in-season sports. 

“The team got knocked back a little,” said John Campo, a pitcher on the UC baseball team. “Everyone prepared for a meet on Saturday but instead had to cancel.”

According to Coach Chin Tan, similar frustration ran through the tennis team with both practice and tournament schedules affected due to the recent weather forecasts.

“We were supposed to play Lincoln Memorial University on February 8th,” said Tan. “But because of the temperature over the weekend we have been forced to cancel. Instead, we are competing with Eastern Kentucky University the second time this season as they have indoor facilities that we do not.”

Sports at UC like tennis and baseball are greatly affected by the weather because of their limited outdoor facilities. Recent temperatures have dropped to as low as -10 degrees Celsius during meets and matches, where officials and coaches are simply not able to accommodate home competition. Scheduled competition that cannot be made up either tie or get discredited in the NAIA systems.

“Once something like this happens, we have to rearrange everything on the calendar,” said Campo. “It’s a very hard thing to do because we need to make sure the other team’s schedules are free for meets as well.” 

The Men’s Tennis team will be traveling to EKU Saturday, February 15 to play their first away match, while the Men’s Baseball team are rescheduled to play Brescia University Sunday, February 16.

Thirumalaichelvam as future assistant tennis coach for UC

By Isabella Dale

26 February 2014 (Williamsburg, KY) - Neesha Thirumalaichelvam, a senior and the number one women’s tennis player at the University of the Cumberlands is returning after graduation in May 2014 to assist Coach Chin Tan in developing future UC tennis players. 

“I want to remember my time here as a student,” says Thirumalaichelvam. “And leaving right now isn’t ideal for me, I want to stay on and help old teammates with their practices and matches.”
A native from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as well as a Sports Science Major, Thirumalaichelvam has a winning streak of over 20 matches for UC last season alone, having qualified for nationals and winning the ITA events in Florida in her Junior year. 

“Having her come back and assisting the sessions with me would be great,” says Coach Chin Tan. “Neesha has been here for four years and understands how I coach. She would be perfect for the job.” After careful consideration she has decided to return to UC to assist Tan in future match play.

Thirumalaichelvam’s tennis career sky rocketed as a junior player before college, having beaten players ranked in the top 10 of their own nations. She has also been around the world to different training associations and has learned a great deal about coaching at a high level. UC hopes to rein in her skills and target them towards new team recruits. 

Located in Williamsburg, Ky., University of the Cumberlands is an institution of regional distinction, which currently offers four undergraduate degrees more than 40 major fields of study; ten pre-professional programs; ten graduate degrees distributed over eight areas, including two doctorates and seven master’s degrees; certifications in education; and online programs. For more information, visit www.ucumberlands.edu.

Contact information:

Neesha Thirumalaichelvam 

Email: nthirumalaichelvam1609@ucumberlands.edu

Coach Chin Tan: 

Email: chin.tan@ucumberlands.edu

Cell: 606-344-3138