Eric Peterman's 2008 Spring Blog
Throughout Northwestern's spring season, senior wide receiver Eric Peterman (Sherman, Ill./Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin) will share his thoughts on the Wildcat football team. Peterman starred for the 'Cats in 2007, leading the team in receptions (66 catches for 744 yards, 3 TD's) and earning the team's co-MVP honors. He also was named a second-team All-Big Ten selection by Rivals.com. Check back on this page throughout the month of April for Eric's updates.
April 22, 2008 Domination was the name of the game this past weekend for Wildcat Athletics. The softball team led a massacre over their competition this weekend downing Indiana twice, Purdue twice and the University of Illinois-Chicago. They have now mercy-ruled their opponents in their last five games. Lacrosse also remained perfect, improving to 15-0 on the season with wins over Johns Hopkins and North Carolina. With only one regular season game and the ALC tournament remaining, the Cats are looking good for the one-seed in the NCAA tourney (a spot they are familiar with having been ranked the one seed overall two of the past three years). The women's tennis team also knows a little bit about perfection as they made a clean sweep of Michigan State, beating them 7-0, for a final Big Ten regular-season record of 10-0. They look to capture a Big Ten Tournament title for the 10th year in a row next weekend in West Lafayette, Ind., before heading to the NCAA Championships. Finally, this spring-like weather makes it enjoyable to go out and support our fellow athletes. However, it acts as a double-edged sword at times. With midterms upon us it also plays as a major distraction as the beautiful spring weather makes it very hard to focus. When it's 60 degrees and beautiful out with the sun shining bright, the last thing you want to do is be trapped in a lecture hall listening to some professor talk about the amplitudes and resonant frequencies that make up a "high-pass" filter. Devoting the library time to studying for the P-median heuristic algorithm becomes much more challenging when you look out the window and see those communication majors sitting by the lake sprawled out reading "The Tipping Point." However, you find the motivation and get the work done because you know you will be sorry later if you don't. And finishing two problem sets while dominating my Intermediate Microeconomics midterm today is such a great feeling of satisfaction that it's worth all the hard work. Adding to the distractions of course is the much-anticipated NBA playoffs. My man Andre Iguodala balled out, having a huge game and proving to be clutch during crunch time. Iggy naturally had his highlight-reel dunks but also scored the last four points of the game, hitting his free throws to seal the deal and take game one over one of the best teams in the league, the Detroit Pistons. And then there is the consistently amazing Kobe Bryant who controlled the entire game and captured the win without much of a challenge. Although Kobe did have 32 points he also does the little things that don't show up on the stat sheet. Chris Paul is playing unbelievably, as well, for the New Orleans Hornets. He led the comeback charge over big Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks, now taking a 2-0 game lead. Steve Nash and Shaq of the Suns choked the game away thanks to a rare 3-pointer by super-Spur Tim Duncan. It's like March Madness in April. Well, the fourth quarter of Spring ball is finally upon us. With only one practice and the Spring Game left on the agenda you can feel the real season getting closer and closer. These will be our last two real football practices until preseason camp in August. Staying focused and finishing these last opportunities that we have to get better could prove to be a huge stepping stone for our football team. We have really worked our tails off this spring installing our new systems and getting back to work after the mediocre 6-6 season last year. We are excited to show off all that we have been working at for the past month on Saturday at the Spring Game. Building that momentum into the off-season is key and carrying it over into the season next fall will be crucial for the success of our team. - EP
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