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From the moment he walked onto the field at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Shawn Bodtmann wanted to be a Cornhusker.
He’ll have to wait until 2009 to do it, but he will indeed wear the Red and White.
After being overwhelmed by the more than 80,000 raucous fans sporting the colors of the Cornhuskers at the annual spring game in Lincoln, Neb., over the weekend, the West Scranton junior verbally accepted a scholarship to play football at the University of Nebraska.
“I’ve never seen so many people in tune with a game,” Bodtmann said. “I mean, 80,000-plus for a spring game. It was crazy. I was ready to suit up right there.”
With his decision, Bodtmann becomes the second West Scranton athlete to commit to a Football Bowl Subdivision school in the last five months. Tight end Hubie Graham accepted a scholarship to the University of Illinois in November.
Tackle Eric Shrive, who currently has 30 offers from FCS schools, will make it three Invaders from the 2007 District 2 Class AAA championship team to accept scholarships, once he decides.
“For Shawn is this a great honor for a great kid,” West Scranton coach Michael DeAntona said. “It just shows you, when you put the time in and you listen to the coaches, good things can happen. Shawn did everything I asked him to do. He busted his butt in the weight room for three years. He’s a straight-A student. It’s well deserved.
“This is also a great honor for the West Scranton football program and the West Scranton football community. “
A three-year starter for the Invaders, Bodtmann and his aggressive, powerful running style began grabbing the attention of college recruiters who came in droves to see Shrive. In March, Nebraska and first-year coach Bo Pelini, the former defensive coordinator at national champion LSU, were the first to extended an offer to the 6-foot, 190-pound running back and linebacker.

thetimes-tribune.com

“Ugly Betty” has always been a major-network variation on the Spanish-language telenovela, equal parts soap opera and saucy satire. Yet when it returns today from the hiatus brought on by the writers’ strike at the head of a new ABC Thursday on WLS Channel 7, it finds itself out of whack: too much soap, and not enough satire.
Then again, “Ugly Betty” was already staggering a bit before the strike. When it debuted last season, it came across as a whimsical, stylish fashion lampoon, with America Ferrera as the enchanting title character, a well-meaning nerd trying to make it in a land of scheming fashionistas. As it got more sexy in an attempt to expand its audience, and the sex got more kinky — complete with Rebecca Romijn joining the cast as a transsexual — it alienated much of its family audience in the 7 o’clock hour.
This season it has remained stylish and sharp to look at, but it can’t seem to figure out how risque it wants to be, not with the sexcapades of Eric Mabius’ Daniel Meade and Vanessa Williams’ Wilhelmina Slater pulling the show in one direction, and the underdog Betty pulling it in another. Tonight finds the series refocusing on Betty and her love life, befitting its leadoff slot in the so-called family hour, but the only thing the writers can come up with to complicate the drama is to bring back the pregnant girlfriend of Betty’s would-be beau Henry, played by the equally nerdy Christopher Gorham. Yet they already leapt that obstacle last season.
The writers return from a 100-day hiatus, and the only thing they can come up with is a boilerplate reheating of last year’s story line? I call that disappointing.
In any case, in tonight’s episode, “Twenty-Four Candles,” Betty has literal dreams of a carriage-driven, fireworks-filled birthday with Henry, but when he has to cancel out it opens the door for Freddy Rodriguez’s Gio. Choosing between the two should occupy Betty for the remainder of the season, while Daniel and Wilhelmina tangle over his budding relationship with her sister, Renee, played by Gabrielle Union.

dailyherald.com