Wearing the same t-shirt and shorts that the rest of the runners are wearing, Jesus Campos ’04 (left) stretches with other members of the Wabash cross country team before they prepare for their daily training run. But Campos isn’t preparing for any of the meets that the Red Pack will compete in this season. It’s more of an opportunity to run.
Campos and Nikeland Cooper ’05 are back on campus after serving overseas as members of their U.S. Marine units in Kuwait as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Both students were called up in January 2003 and sent to serve as radio operators in Kuwait City. They returned to campus in the fall to continue their education.
"I couldn’t wait to get back to campus when I returned the United States," said Campos. "Finishing my education at Wabash was a goal I set as soon as my unit was activated. When I came home, I scheduled an appointment with Dean Bambrey to find out what I needed to do to get back in school this fall and complete my senior year.
"The whole school has been so helpful during this time in my life," Campos said. "I’ve learned so much from my experience overseas, but I’ve also learned what it means to be a Wabash man. It’s about finishing your commitments and completing what you’ve started. I’ve got the chance to do that. It really means a lot to me."
George Colakovic ’06 came to Wabash to major in music after earning a Fine Arts Fellowship and to play basketball after earning three varsity letters and Honorable Mention All-Conference honors as a member of the Munster High School team.
But in his freshman year at Wabash, Colakovic decided that his academic work needed to take precedence over his basketball skills.
"George came to me and said he really wanted to concentrate on his class work," says basketball coach Mac Petty. "I told him that I supported his decision. I knew it wasn’t an easy one to make. I also told him that the door wasn’t closed. If he found that he could make time for both, he could still come back and play for us."
Colakovic accepted that invitation this season. Returning to the team as a sophomore, he began the year as a member of the junior varsity team. After scoring 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds against Anderson in the first JV contest of the season, his time on the JV squad came to an end. He scored six points in his first varsity appearance against Kenyon, then earned a starting spot against Upper Iowa. He made the most of his opportunity, reaching double figures for the first time in a Wabash uniform after scoring 15 points.
Back on the Mat
Marcus Ellison ’04 won the first match of his senior season when he defeated Lycoming wrestler Al Fluman 10-6 at the Olivet Duals in November. It’s not surprising that Ellison, a state semi-finalist as a senior at Warren Central, would win his first match this year. What is surprising is that it was his first match in a Wabash uniform.
Ellison joined the Wabash wrestling team this season after two seasons of work with Wabash Athletic Hall of Fame wrestler and current Crawfordsville High School wrestling coach Chris Ervin ’91 as a volunteer assistant. Ellison came back to the mat as a participant after some prodding from his student charges.
"The wrestlers I worked with at Crawfordsville kept telling me to go wrestle for Wabash this year," said Ellison. "While they still wanted to work with me as a coach, they knew that I wanted to see if I could still compete. I’m coming into this season with something to prove."
Ellison doesn’t have to prove anything to his opponents. He picked up three victories as a heavyweight at the Olivet Duals, including his first career pin when he stuck Bethel College’s Zach Pierson to the mat 5:42 into their match. Ellison battled Purdue University’s Bryan Kapp to a 4-3 decision before falling to the Division I opponent in the Little Giants’ dual meet with the Boilermakers in December.
Not The Usual Pre-Game
Tony Warren ’04 got up on Saturday morning in the hotel in Meadville, Pennsylvania and prepared for a different sort of test than the rest of his Wabash football teammates faced. Tony wasn’t getting ready for the Little Giants’ game at Allegheny later that day. The senior political science and speech major was prepping for his LSAT examination.
"I looked at the schedule and realized the best chance I had to take the exam was the same day we were playing the Gators," said Warren, a special teams player and backup linebacker for the team. "I talked to Coach Creighton about taking the exam on Saturday morning, then meeting the team at the stadium before the start of the game. We worked out the transportation details and had everything ready to go."
Warren arrived at the testing site on the Allegheny campus, took the exam, then walked over two miles to the football stadium and prepared for the game. While the outcome of the game, a 7–6 loss by the Little Giants, wasn’t what he had hoped for, the rest of the day went well for Warren.
"I felt relaxed during the test and wasn’t surprised by anything that was on the exam."