ADVENTURE ENDED WHEN SNOW BEGAN TO PILE : HUDDLESTON LEFT SCHOLARSHIP FOR THE SUNSHINE OF CANYONS.Byline: Lee Barnathan Daily News Staff Writer Amanda Huddleston felt like a caged animal. So she fled. The College of the Canyons College of the Canyons is one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the state. According to the National Junior College Research Association, College of the Canyons consistently ranks in the top 50 community colleges in the nation. catcher grew tired of 40-below temperatures while attending the University of Mary The university is the largest degree granting institution in Bismarck. It also operates accelerated degree programs at satellite locations in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, and Missouri. History The University of Mary was founded in 1955 by the Sisters of St. in Bismarck, N.D. She is back with the Cougars and is hitting .389 in five Western State Conference games with a team-best six RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in . The team is 6-15, 2-3. In last weekend's Ventura Tournament, Huddleston batted .650 with two doubles and two triples. ``I'd never been in a snowfall,'' the 21-year-old native of La Crescenta said. ``I'm much more of a beach person.'' She knew she was going to be far from a beach when she accepted a scholarship to play at Mary, an NAIA NAIA abbr. National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes school. In fact, she went there sight unseen because neither the school nor her family had the money to pay for a visit. ``I thought I'd try it to have an adventure,'' she said. Some adventure. After she arrived Aug. 31 to 80-degree weather, the temperatures dropped about 10 degrees every week. The snow first arrived in October, and after Thanksgiving it rarely stopped. ``I had 8 o'clock classes four days a week and I dreaded it,'' she said. ``I would sprint (to class) as long as I knew I wouldn't slip. My nose hairs would freeze, and my eyelashes, the water would freeze on your eyelashes.'' Wind chills made it especially unbearable, and the wind blew about five days a week. Temperatures dropped to 40 below zero. And lower. When it got that cold, the school and town shut down. Huddleston said she went crazy not being able to leave her apartment. ``What else was there to do? Might as well do your homework,'' she said. Her grades improved, but she missed the simplest things - taking a walk down two flights of stairs to the mailbox A simulated mailbox in the computer that holds e-mail messages. Mailboxes are stored on disk as a file of messages, a database of messages or as an individual file for each message. The standard mailboxes are usually In, Out, Trash and Junk (Spam). , or driving. And she hardly practiced or played softball softball, variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Invented (1888) in Chicago as an indoor game, it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground ball, kitten ball, and, because it was also played by women, ladies' . Fall ball began in September and stopped in November. The basketball team used the gym, so players worked out on their own. ``We had the worst winter in 80 years,'' said coach Brad Walsh, a native North Dakotan North Dakota Abbr. ND or N.D. or N.Dak. A state of the north-central United States bordering on Canada. It was admitted as the 39th state in 1889. . ``Something like 103 inches of snow. I went to New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded in December, and when I got back, I said, `When is this going to end?' This is a joke. I equate it to an earthquake. This is not supposed to happen.'' On Dec. 19, Huddleston returned home. It was 3 a.m. when she walked out of the airport. ``She looked up in the sky,'' said Huddleston's mother Sally. ``It's about 50 (degrees) and she said, `Mom, I don't think I could go back.' '' She never did. Canyons coach Ray Whitten was only too happy to have Huddleston back. He didn't have another catcher. ``From that standpoint, her coming back is invaluable,'' Whitten said. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Back from North Dakota North Dakota, state in the N central United States. It is bordered by Minnesota, across the Red River of the North (E), South Dakota (S), Montana (W), and the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba (N). , Amanda Huddleston has shined in her return to Canyons. She's hitting .389 in five conference games. Shaun Dyer / Special to the Daily News |
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