Eagle Wire

Dr. Darren Hamilton was announced as the new athletic director at EWU today. A 1:30 p.m. press conference tomorrow at Woodward Field will be the press' first chance to talk to the new A.D.

Hamilton was very impressive in his on-campus visit last month and was the favorite of most of the folks I talked to about who should be A.D. out of the three finalist candidates. He has an enthusiastic personality and should hit it off well with the EWU and regional communities.

Official EWU Athletics release

Here's a good background story from the Toledo Blade on Hamilton.

Toledo Blade

UPDATE: I just spent the past two hours with Dr. Hamilton and his family and they are fantastic. He was Jordan-esque in his enthusiasm for Eastern and I think people are going to very impressed with his intelligence and passion.

And if there was any concerns about his ability to make connections, he managed to flag down Seahawks president Tim Ruskell as Ruskell was zooming by on a golf cart on campus and quickly made a new friend. When I told him Ruskell was president of the Seahawks, he laughed and said, "Well what do you know..."

An opinion piece in the Cheney Free Press calls for Cheney and EWU police departments to cooperate to help police coverage in Cheney. The city and university are looking at possibly reworking their interlocal agreement to allow EWU police the ability to enforce the law outside the campus boundaries.

Cheney Free Press

Here's the Spokesman Review's coverage...

S-R

Eastern, UW and WSU are teaming up to expand medical and dental education in Spokane in hopes of attracting and keeping more health care professionals to the region.

Spokesman Review

A state OFM report examining the possible causes of this spring's decline in applications to the state's colleges and universities came up with no real definitive answer for the situation. Michelle Whittingham, EWU's associate VP for enrollment services comments on how it effects EWU.

Spokesman Review

Les Norton of Seahawks.net did a short piece for a few computer news outlets about the Seahawks' impact on Cheney and EWU. Check out the photo at the bottom of the page -- can our grounds keepers groundskeep or what!

Scout.com

Lee Watkinson -- a 1989 EWU grad -- pulled in some serious cash and earned his first World Series of Poker bracelet in a Omaha Hold'Em tournament last week in Las Vegas. The seven-high straight Watkinson unveiled to win the tournament netted him a cool $655,746.

Watkinson recently joined the team of professionals that provides online poker "tutoring" for aspiring poker bigshots.

Casino City Times, Poker News

Morihiko Nakahara, the director of the EWU Symphony and associate conductor for the Spokane Symphony is one of the finalists for the Missoula Symphony directorship.

The Missoulian

EWU econ professor Grant Forsyth sizes up the changes ahead for business as demographics change over the coming years.

Spokane Journal of Business

Mr. Walter sums up EWU in four words.

Spokesman Review

Several of the region's star writers contributed to the most recent incarnation of the Willow Springs literary journal, put out by the EWU Press -- read about what Dan Webster has to say about it...

Spokesman Review

Former EWU trackster Kyle Hummel won the Valley of the Sun Triathlon in Yakima on Sunday. Hummel was surprised by his performance and didn't even realize he had won the competition when he crossed the finish line. It was only his third triathlon and first win.

Yakima Herald Republic

EWU econ professor Grant Forsyth gives some insight into what the introduction of a Porsche sales outlet says about the local economy.

Spokesman Review

Luke Clausen, the greatest fisherman in Eastern Washington University history, is featured in another story, in today's Hartford, Conn. newspaper. He talks about how he used to skip class at EWU to go fishing -- seems that strategy paid off for him...

Hartford Courant

The defending NFC champions finally posted their official training camp schedule online this weekend. I'll be posting an EWU press release on the camp festivities very soon on the Eastern website.

Here's a link to the daily practice schedule: Seahawks Training Camp Schedule

Seattle Times