{"id":2815,"date":"2008-12-29T21:19:01","date_gmt":"2008-12-29T21:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=2815"},"modified":"2010-12-13T10:36:14","modified_gmt":"2010-12-13T15:36:14","slug":"6776","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/12\/29\/6776\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings to Take On Division I Valparaiso Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL (December 29, 2008) \u2013 The North Park University Vikings men\u2019s basketball team<\/a> will experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when they take on Division 1 Valparaiso University at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday night in an away contest.
\n
\nDivision I teams rarely compete against Division III schools. The Crusaders more typically go against the likes of North Carolina and Purdue.<\/p>\n

A longtime connection between Valparaiso University\u2019s athletic director, Mark LaBarbera, and North Park made the unusual contest possible. LaBarbera graduated from North Park in 1981 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration and later served as the school\u2019s comptroller from 1984 to 1989.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an alumnus, I have continued to follow the school and the teams,\u201d LaBarbera says. \u201cI have been trying to get back to campus to see a game, but the timing has never worked out because of our game schedule,\u201d LaBarbera adds. \u201cIt seemed that if I couldn’t get to campus, maybe we could get the Vikings here. I talked to Coach (Homer) Drew and he was able to work things out with Coach (Paul) Brenegan to get the game scheduled.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his tenure at North Park, LaBarbera\u2019s primary duties were taking care of management, investment, distribution and accounting – he served as an accounting manager and as an accountant from 1981-84.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fortunate to be there during the stretch of three basketball national championships (1978-1980),\u201d LaBarbera recalls. \u201cThe student body was always talking about how the \u2018big schools\u2019 – the Division I programs – were afraid to play us. Maybe this is just my way of finally taking care of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no question, of course, where LaBarbera\u2019s loyalties lie today. \u201cI will be cheering for Valpo and rooting for North Park to play well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although a Viking victory is highly unlikely, Valpo\u2019s coach knows what it is to win a big-time game as an underdog. The Crusaders became part of NCAA March Madness lore in 1998 when Drew\u2019s son, Bryce, took a floor-length pass to put in a 3-point buzzer beater to upset No. 4 Mississippi in the opening round of the tournament. The team eventually made a Cinderella journey to the Sweet Sixteen.<\/p>\n

The North Park men\u2019s basketball team hopes to continue its seven-game winning streak, the longest under Brenegan, who is in his fifth year as the Vikings\u2019 coach.<\/p>\n

Valparaiso enters Tuesday\u2019s game after falling 59-45 to No. 15 Purdue University Sunday. The Crusaders are looking to snap a five-game losing skid.<\/p>\n

Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL (December 29, 2008) \u2013 The North Park University Vikings men\u2019s basketball team will experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when they take on Division 1 Valparaiso University at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday night in an away contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nVikings to Take On Division I Valparaiso Tuesday - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2008\/12\/29\/6776\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vikings to Take On Division I Valparaiso Tuesday - 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