Alumni Profiles
For the Love of Coaching
White runs World Race
Witt edits Film
Cuneo wins Wrestling Award
For the Love of Coaching
By Scott Rees
Nearly 20 years after rewriting the record books as a player for Anderson University’s women’s basketball team, Kelly (Spaulding) Packard BA’ 90 is back in Indiana and doing it again — only this time as head coach of Ball State University’s hoopsters.
In March 2009, Packard, 40, helped the Lady Cardinals make history by knocking off national powerhouse Tennessee, 71-55, in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
This was after leading Ball State to the program’s first ever Mid-American Conference Championship, posting the best MAC record in school history at 14-2. The effort earned Packard the Maggie Dixon Rookie Coach of the Year award and Ball State Women’s Basketball was named Pontiac GMC Game Changing Performance.
Packard says that defeating the University of Tennessee, widely considered one of the best programs in the nation, was bittersweet. However, she says she is trying to keep it in perspective.
“I don’t know that in my coaching career I will experience that type of a highlight again,” says Packard. “I hope I do and I don’t want to sound discouraging, but I know a lot of my coaching peers who have coached a significantly longer time than I have, and they have yet to experience something like that. I have tried to not only enjoy the accomplishment but to appreciate it.”
Coming into her first season, Packard faced the task of building on the program’s two straight MAC West Division titles.
“Obviously it is an understatement at this time to say that coming into a new situation for both me and the players with new leadership that we just weren’t sure about how good we were and how good we could be and everything in the middle,” she says. “So it was just one of those things — transition is always challenging, and you never know how players are going to handle that transition.”
Packard says she hopes to sustain this success by continuing to focus on her core philosophy of building relationships.
“I think (the players) understand that basketball is why we are all here and what we are all passionate about, but there is a foundation that must be put into place before you play that game, and that foundation is healthy relationships and all the work to keep them healthy,” she says. “Without a doubt that is way more important than all the scouting we did earlier in the season from a technical standpoint.”
Packard was a four-year letterwinner at Anderson and was inducted to the Anderson University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
She left Anderson in 1990 as the all-time leading scorer (1,275) and rebounder (723) in women’s basketball — both of which were broken by Rachel Miller in 2001.
“What I took away from Anderson was really maturing in my faith and that was something that progressed at a speed that I don’t think it would have if I wouldn’t have chosen Anderson,” she says. “There is such great leadership there and mentoring there from professors and coaches, from friends and teammates of mine who were older, and I was able to observe their walk with Christ and it really matured me. And I think I developed some leadership skills that now I am able to utilize in coaching and many other areas of my life as well.”
Packard came to Ball State as the former head coach of the Colorado Chill of the National Women’s Basketball League (NWBL) and a long-time assistant at Colorado State.
Packard says she never set out to coach at the Division I level. She just wants to coach.
“I enjoyed coaching elementary girls and since that time I’ve coached high school, college, and professional, and it hasn’t been the level — the core thing for me has been being a healthy, consistent leader for women in sports,” she says. “It really hasn’t mattered what level. You get a different enjoyment out of different age groups as you watch them learn the game and progress.”
White runs World Race
By Deborah Lilly
In January Andrea White BA ’06 began a race around the world. She started in New Zealand and will finish in November in Eastern Europe. In between times, she will spend a month each in Australia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, Kenya, Romania, and the Ukraine. An eleventh destination on the continent of Africa is yet to be determined.
White is journeying around the world through The World Race, an organization that takes travelers to 11 different Christian missions in 11 different countries over the course of 11 months. In the past, racers have spent a month working with AIDS orphans in Africa or teaching Vacation Bible School in Gypsy communities in Romania.
The desire to be overseas struck White while she was an elementary education major at Anderson University. She elected to do her student teaching in Australia. “Ever since I came back, I’ve had a desire to go back overseas,” says White. She looked into teaching overseas but couldn’t find a good fit. Then one night on the Web, she discovered The World Race. Joining a team would allow her to not only travel to 11 different countries around the world but also participate in mission work.
White left her job as a pre-school teacher at the end of last spring and began to raise money for her trip. On Jan. 3, she left the United States, landing in New Zealand and joining her team on Jan. 5. After training in Matamata, she and her six teammates boarded a bus for a 12-hour ride to Wellington, where the team worked with a children’s pastor.
White continues to raise funds for her year with The World Race. To make a donation, go to www.andreawhite.theworldrace.org.
Signatures will follow White throughout the year and update readers on her progress.
Witt edits Film
By John Tapley
As soon as I left AU, I made the move to Hollywood,” says Chris Witt BA ’03. “I knew that if I wanted to pursue the big leagues, I would need to get to Los Angeles immediately. I made getting to the West Coast my first priority after leaving school.”
Witt, who enrolled at AU in 1999, recently edited the film, Kavi, nominated for a 2010 Academy Award for “Best Short Film (Live Action).” The film also received a Gold Medal Student Academy Award in 2009. Kavi is the tale of a young Indian boy who is caught up in the modern-day slave trade and subjected to brutal working conditions while aspiring to one day attend school and play cricket. Through a mutual acquaintance, the film’s director, Gregg Helvey, chose Witt as editor.
During their work with Kavi, Helvey and Witt developed a strong friendship and the young editor looks forward to future projects together.
Witt’s most influential push to film editing appeared during his teenage years when he tinkered with video editing equipment in his family’s church. Over the span of an entire summer, the enthusiastic 15-year-old taught himself basic editing, eventually producing several works for the church.
“I brought my mom and the children’s pastor into the tech room to see my creation,” says Witt. When he saw that good editing choices could create emotional experiences for the viewer, he was hooked.
Drawing from the experiences of his adolescence, Witt decided to major in mass communication. Soon after, he spent a great deal of time working for Covenant Productions®. Under the guidance of David Armstrong, Mark Dawson, and Dr. Don Boggs, Witt obtained a substantial amount of expertise in his field. Whether shooting ministry documentaries in South America, editing for the Heartland Film Festival, or shooting a campus music video in an Anderson warehouse during a rainstorm, Witt ascribes his hard work with Covenant Productions® as the keystone to his success.
Another important facet of AU’s teachings that Witt retains is his spiritual resilience and relationship with God. He hopes that his work in the film industry will further God’s plan of redemption. “We are in a unique position at the very epicenter of the world’s culture,” he states. “It is our responsibility to keep pumping the Hollywood machine with product that is glorifying and uplifting to God.”
Another project Witt edited is the 20-minute film The Butterfly Circus. The film’s message is hope, and it won the $100,000 grand prize in The Doorpost Competition. To view the film, go to www.thedoorpost.com.
Cuneo wins Wrestling Award
By Cara Miller
After more than 45 years of service to the sport of wrestling at the high school level, Jim Cuneo BS ’54 has worked his way into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. In November, he received the Lifetime Service to Wrestling Award during the Hall of Fame Celebration at the Riches Wrestling Complex on the Arizona State University campus. This prestigious award acknowledges Cuneo’s many contributions to wrestling and the legacy that he has left for others to follow.
“I am humbled by the whole thing,” says Cuneo. “The kids are the ones who did all the work over the years, but it is nice that someone thought of me.”
Cuneo explains that he came into wrestling “through the back door.” Neither Anderson High School nor Anderson University had wrestling programs when he was a student. His youngest brother was on the first wrestling team ever at Anderson High School, and every night he would come home and show Cuneo what he had learned.
When Cuneo graduated from AU, he took a job in Michigan at Otsego High School, which also lacked a wrestling team. “Every year for five years at Otsego, I approached the school board to get a [wrestling] program started and was refused,” he says. He later found out that Otsego started a program the year after he left.
He took a job at Amphitheater High School in Tucson, Ariz., in 1960. Once more, Cuneo petitioned for a wrestling program, and he finally got one in 1963. The varsity coach of the team took a special interest in Cuneo’s son, who was an eighth-grader at the time but displayed promise. As a result of his personal interest, Cuneo began to help with the team and was asked to be the freshmen coach in 1966. “Thus began the career of my second son, who was among the top three 145-pounders in the state,” he says.
The following year, the varsity coach took a job elsewhere, and Cuneo took his place. He served as head coach until 1977, earning a record of 73 wins, 43 losses, and one tie. He was also inducted into the Arizona Hall of Fame that same year. After sitting out for a season, he says that he “couldn’t stand it and had to get involved.” He became certified as a wrestling official, which kept him busy for the next 25 years.
Though he never wrestled himself, Cuneo has always been fond of the sport because he says it “requires the most commitment and dedication.” Many of his wrestlers were also football players, and he believes that wrestling made them better athletes in general.
When Cuneo retired from officiating in 2002, he received a lifetime pass into any high school sporting event in the state. He continues to score at high school wrestling matches. And because of the good relationships he formed with his players, he continues to keep in touch with many of them. His love for the sport and his players has deeply touched the lives of his family, friends, athletes, and wrestling fans.
