20 Questions: Holiday Edition

For this week’s edition of 20 Questions, SJSUSpartans.com asked 20 San Jose State student-athletes, coaches and staff members to tell us about the best holiday gift they have ever given or received.

1. Kelly Crow, Volleyball
I received a Pomeranian puppy from my boyfriend about two weeks ago. I named him Russell, so he’s Russell Crow.

2. Peter Gibbs, Golf
That would be the set of golf clubs I have now. My dad got me a set of irons two years ago. I always had hand-me-down irons and he finally got me a new set.

3. Katey Nelson, Swimming
A couple of years ago, I participated in a donation project back home where there was a tree at a stand in a mall, and you grab a namecard off the tree with the name and age of a child and you bring back a gift for them to give to that child.

4. Veronica Porte, Gymnastics
After my grandma passed away, my mom took one of her diamond necklaces and gave me two sets of earrings, which mean a lot to me because I was very close to her. That was last Christmas.

5. Jason Piraro, Director of Baseball Operations
I received an Xbox 360.

6. John Dormann, Women’s Golf, Head Coach
I think I was 12 or 13 years old, and my uncle gave me one of those table-top hockey games with the handles that you twist and turn to move the players. The whole neighborhood would come over and play. We would have tournaments. I think I still have that somewhere.

7. Tiffany Lofton, Director of Major Gifts
A 100-dollar Home Depot gift card (received), because I’m the do-it-yourself Home Depot chick.

8. Julie Stansberry, Project Coordinator
When I was four, I got a real Dallas Cowboys helmet from my dad. I would run around the house with it, crashing into things.

9. Doug Kelley, Maintenance
This year, I’m getting my nephew, Todd Seeley, back from Iraq. He just got to Fort Lewis in Washington, and will be here on the 24th for a family get-together.

10. Jennifer Miller, Compliance Coordinator
When I was eight years old, I got a puppy from my parents. She was a border collie and her name was Jolie.

11. Craig Winans, Women’s Soccer, Assistant Coach
It would have been a Johnny Reb Cannon when I was like five or six years old, except my dad and uncles put together a shooting gallery with bowling pins in the basement on Christmas Day and broke it, so I never got to use it.

12. Whitney Rotrock, Student Services Coordinator
When my mom was little, she had a book she would read called Little Brown Bear and His Friends. She still has it and would read it to me growing up. I found the other three books that were part of the series from various antique stores on-line and bought them for her.

13. Sage Hopkins, Swimming & Diving, Head Coach
The best present I ever received was my son, Gunner, two years ago on December 20.

14. Vicky Galindo, Softball, Assistant Coach
Last Christmas, I bought myself a 42-inch flat-screen television, wrapped it up and put a bow on it.

15. Wendy Dunn, Football Operations Coordinator
The best present I ever received was a framed Bo Jackson “Black & Blue” poster from my uncle, David. It’s currently still up in my guest bedroom.

16. Laurel DeMaria, Stewardship & Events Coordinator
My sister and I wanted our own phone lines, and one year the last present of the day was a box that we unwrapped with a phone in it, and a card with clues to figure out a phone number. But there were two possible numbers, and my dad couldn’t remember which one it was, so we tried the first number and nothing happened. Then we tried the second number and a phone rang in the back and we had our own phone line and our own phones.

17. Ken McDonald, Assistant Athletics Director/Executive Director of the Spartan Foundation
I took my wife, Terry, skydiving on New Year’s Eve three years ago. A friend of mine who I first skydived with 25 years ago, owns a drop zone outside of Woodland, Calif. It was a surprise. She didn’t know we were going to do it until we got up to the Cessna 162. Her eyes just opened up real wide. She went out at 13,500 feet and had 60 seconds of free fall. It’s all on video. She had a ball.

18. Michael Beaubien, Ticket Operations Co-Manager
When I was 10 years old, my parents got me a television with the rabbit ears and everything, and I could go into my room and watch television whenever I wanted.

19. Brent Brennan, Football, Assistant Coach
When I was in college, in 1994, I gave my dad a poster from that year’s Rose Bowl, because we (UCLA) played in it, and I had it autographed by the whole team.

20. Jeff Hammerschmidt, Football, Assistant Coach
I always get money from my mom, and that’s usually my best gift.

This week’s 20 Questions was brought to you by The Grill On The Alley.

Past 2007-08 20 Questions
August 22 - Colleen Burke, Women's Volleyball
September 12 - Nick Cukar, Men's Soccer
September 26 - Amber Silverstone, Women's Tennis
October 17 - Jillene Golez, Women's Swimming
October 24 - Kelly Crow, Volleyball
October 31 - Heather Oranje, Women's Soccer
November 14 - Richard Mann, Men's Soccer
November 21 - Amanda Carr, Women's Swimming
November 28 - Pam DeCosta, Women's Basketball
December 12 - Eileen Daley, Academic Services
December 19 - Holiday Edition