Random thoughts while hoping Jim Schwartz won’t return as the head coach of the Detroit Lions,
even though it probably won’t make a difference, given the team’s frustrating history:FINALLY: The Bowling
Green Falcon baseball team recently learned it’ll have its own permanent locker room starting this season in
the Ice Arena, across from Steller Field.The Falcons have been using a locker room in the arena for years,
but it wasn’t their own and they often had to give up the room when scheduling conflicts arose.Having their
own locker room is a small but important step forward in helping BG recruit quality players.The Falcons were
the only team in the Mid-American Conference that didn’t have its own locker room, and were probably one of
only a handful of teams nation-wide that didn’t have their own locker room.Even though BG coach Danny
Schmitz and his staff have had one of the best programs in the MAC, their program was being treated like a
179th-class citizen.Despite losing three (or almost 25 percent) of its scholarships in the fall of 2009, BG
remained competitive and even won the MAC tournament last spring. Those cuts were made by previous athletic
department administrators.The Falcons are 612-581-5 overall under Schmitz, who will be in his 24th season in
the spring. But BG is 499-375-2 if you don’t count Schmitz’s first three seasons when he was rebuilding the
program and the last three seasons when the scholarship cuts really started to take impact the program.Under
Schmitz, the Falcons have won five MAC regular-season, six division and three tournament championships.In
addition to doing well on the field, BG has done well in the classroom, generally stayed out of the police
blotter, and Schmitz, and long-time assistant coaches Rick Blanc and Spencer Schmitz have been good
ambassadors for the university.Spencer Schmitz has since left BG to become an assistant coach at
Akron.Baseball clearly has been one of BG’s best men’s sports for quite a while and deserves to be treated
as such. It’s good to see BG athletics director Chris Kingston, who was hired in June, recognize that and
reward the team with a permanent home.LIGHTS: The Falcon softball program also received a facility upgrade
with the addition of lights to its field.Meserve Field – named in honor of Lee and Marge Meserve, whose
donation made the lights possible – already was a first-class facility before the lights were added.The
lights enable BG to play selected home games at night which should create a better atmosphere at the field,
assuming the weather cooperates.Now, it’s up to the Falcons to put a quality product on the field after they
were only 27-24 overall and 7-9 in the MAC last season.BG graduated its top two hitters from last season,
Paige Berger and Hannah Fulk, and standout pitcher Paris Imholz transferred to Iowa State.Next season
figures to be an important one for head coach Shannon Salsburg, who will be in her eighth season. The
Falcons were 36-22, 15-7 in 2012, ending a streak of four straight losing seasons.WCHA TIMEOUTS: The Western
Collegiate Hockey Association needs to tweak its handling of its three broadcast media timeouts each
period.The timeouts are on the first whistle with less than 15, 10 and five minutes left in a period, except
when the stoppage is for icing or during a power play.Icing is excluded because teams called for icing would
be allowed to rest their players When icing is called, the offending team isn’t allowed to change its
players, giving its opponents an advantage.The rule to not allow the offending team to change players after
an icing call was added to discourage teams from icing the puck.The power play was included since both teams
would be allowed to rest or change their players during the penalty.But the policy should be changed to
include no timeouts before a power play.Teams shouldn’t be able to gain a personnel advantage because of a
timeout going into a power play.