FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2000
To The
Edge
Intramural Calendar
DEADLINES
September 29 - Cross Country
(Individual and team)
October 2 - Fantasy Hockey league
October 6 - Flag Football
The season continues to be played
for tennis, softball, and sand
volleyball. Remember that the
intramural seasons are very com
petitive, so be sure to check out a
game or two
gektend
Sp,aPtting
E,uenta
September 22
Men's water polo Vs. Washington
and Jefferson (at Grove City) 8:15
AM
September 23
Men's water polo Vs. Salem-Teikyo
(at Grove City) 8:15 AM
Men's water polo at Grove City
10:00 AM
Men's golf at Lake Erie TBA
Women's tennis at Frostburg 1:00
PM
Women's soccer at La Roche 1:00
PM
Men's soccer at La Roche 3:30 PM
September 24
Men's water polo at Slippery Rock
12:30 PM
JV soccer at Niagara 1:00 PM
Women's tennis at Penn State
Altoona 12:00 PM
September 26
Men's soccer at Carnegie Mellon
6:00 PM
September 27
Women's tennis Vs. Fredonia 3:00
PM
Women's soccer at Fredonia 4:00
PM
Women's volleyball at La Roche
7:00 PM
New sport
but coach
by Douglas Smith
sports editor
With the emergence of a new
facility comes the excitement of a
new sport here at Penn State
Behrend. The men's water polo team
got play underway early today.
Coach Josh Heynes was hired on
July 24 and began the process of
forming a team for this semester. The
season started this morning at Grove
City in an invitational. Behrend
played Washington and Jefferson
today and will play Salem-Teikyo
and Grove City tomorrow. However,
the task was daunting for Coach
Heynes as he has formed a team with
no experience in the pool, especially
for water polo. Washington and
Jefferson employed Coach Heynes
last year as assistant water polo coach
on a team that finished fourth in the
NCAA Division 111. Before that he
worked at the University of
Pittsburgh as assistant swimming
coach. Still, he knows this is a great
opportunity.
Last year Penn State Behrend
received a $60,000 grant from the
United States Olympic Committee
through the Eastern Collegiate
Athletic Conference. On top of the
10.2 million dollar Athletic
Recreation Complex, there is a lot of
commitment to the program.
Commitment does not mean
production though.
"There most definitely is a sense
of excitement on the Men's Water
Polo
Team. The first reason is that one of
the newest varsity sports on campus,
and second, it is new to the
individual team members
themselves. Most of them have some
sort of swimming experience but not
a water polo background
said Coach Heynes.
The players have to make a name
for themselves as they are
encountering a new sport. The
practices are forcing a lot of
information on these fresh players in
a very short time period. They all
seem to be standing out in their own
way, but a few have showed strong
potential. Among them are Mark
PHOTO BY BECKY WEINDORF
The players listen intensely.
Behrend Cross Country Festival brings many teams
Behrend finds promise in average finishes
together;
by Jason Snyder
Editor-in-chief
The Behrend men's and women's
cross country teams hosted their third
annual Penn State Behrend Cross
Country Festival this past weekend
with strong performances by both
teams. The men barely missed the top
ten with an 1 P h place finish in the 17-
team field, while the women ran to
an eighth place finish out of 15 teams
PHOTO BY NEIL MAKADIA
The Behrend women started out in the pack at the Behrend
Invitational.
e
1
A 3,
w..
facility brings promise and
maintains realistic goals for this season
any
Haywood.
As for the season, Coach Heynes
is keeping a down to earth
perspective.
"The outlook for the season is that
we are looking to build from each
experience and each game that we
play. Granted we would like to win
a few games, but you have to realize
all the teams that we are playing have
had programs for years and have
players that have a strong
background in water polo. However
Behrend will be there with the more
experienced players in a few years.
But first we have to establish
ourselves to our community and the
aquatic community as well," said
Coach Heynes.
Obviously Coach Heynes knows
exactly what he is talking about. He
came from a very successful program
at Washington and Jefferson, and it
seems to be very ironic that Behrend
kicks off the season against that very
team. Pride will also be on the line
in the season opener.
This is the first time many Behrend
students have experienced an
expansion team, if you will, in the
athletic realm. Many students have
no idea what is going on with the
team or what exactly water polo is.
This can create a huge feeling of
pressure with everyone involved in
the team.
"Do I feel pressure being the first
Head Coach for the program? That
is a good question. It is not pressure
from the outside but from within
myself to succeed and make this
program work. I always want to be
the best at everything that I do no
matter what it is, and I will try to do
the same here. I have been around
the aquatic community for some time
and I see how the best play, practice
and what their facilities look like. I
have also seen the how the worst is
also. I only want what is best for the
team, and I want them to have the
best experience with it as I had.
Being a new program and the
youngest Head Coach in the NCAA
puts me and my team under a
microscope a bit, which makes sure
that we can't and won't mess things
up and this program will both get
bigger and better. The real pressure
will come when we will dominate our
league and be expected to win the
Division 111 Eastern Championship,"
said Heynes.
The Athletic Recreation Center
(ARC) is heavily anticipated around
the whole campus. However, the
new sports teams are eagerly
awaiting this new facility. The new
in their race
Behrend's top five women all
crossed the finish line within 58
seconds of each oth'er, placing four
women in the top 50 runners in the
field. Coach Rich Hoffman
commented, "this was a fantastic race
by the whole women's team; the best
race I believe a women's team at
Behrend has ever run."
Lyndsey Boor and Andrea Sanko
led the Lion pack and were followed
PHOTO BY BECKY WEINDORF
Coach Josh Heynes looks on as his water polo team practices at Harbor Creek High School.
Olympic sized pool will be one of the
best facilities for water polo in the
NCAA.
"We are waiting with eager
anticipation for the ARC to be
completed. We need a pool badly!
With this new facility it will only
improve our recruiting and our
training of our players. Not only for
our sport but for all sports. This pool
is a great asset to the community and
to Behrend," added Coach Heynes.
Still all of this promise of
improvement has nothing to do with
this season. The team has eight dates
on the schedule, but a few are
tournaments and invitationals and
more than one game will be played
once the agenda for that particular
tournament is released. The Eastern
championships and Southern
championships are listed on the
schedule, but the team has to be
realistic.
Coach Heynes noted, "the most
realistic goal for the season is to
improve and get better and learn from
each game we play. I would like to
be competitive with some team and
I know we can do that as long as they
stick together and play to the
potential that they have. I set lofty
goals for them, some attainable,
others not so. But we will get there
some day."
by Deidre Garrity, Kathy Perry and a
breakthrough performance by Tina
Rubay. Rubay has knocked six
minutes off of her 5k time from three
years ago. "She's really setting the
tone for us," complimented Hoffman.
Rubay's emergence in the Lions'
top five is key in Behrend's success
as the top five runners are included in
PHOTO BY NEIL MAKADIA
The women's cross count
PHOTO BY NEIL MAKADIA
Seventeen men's teams and fi ft een women's teams took part in the
country
Behrend Cross Country Festival.
team had a well rounded effort
last Saturday.
scoring.
The Behrend men were at a
disadvantage with their top runner
Dennis Halaszynski held out of the
race. Mark Suroviec was also held
from competition. Behrend's Sohrab
Moeni ran into the spotlight for the
Lions with a 22"' place finish
followed closely by Kevin Ritzert
"We would like the Behrend
student body and administration to
be patient
with our team. We may not win a
whole lot of games this year, but we
will and soon. These men are going
to be the hardest working team both
in and out of the pool. Water polo is
not an easy game. For anyone who
has not seen the game it is like
swimming, hockey and soccer
combined. Of course you have to be
in the water but in the meantime you
Keep Dario Kis gets bombarded during practice
who crossed the line in 34'h. The men
continue in their attempt to chip away
at their time differential between their
top five runners. Chuck Orton and
Matt Grimmke aided in that goal by
both having good races. Clint Altman
also cracked Behrend's top five.
"This was a tough field, and they
ran equally tough," said Hoffman.
hope,
are getting beat up just like in hockey
and you have to pass and score just
like in soccer. Water polo is very
demanding sport. It is not only very
physical but also a mental game. We
would also like to let people know
about us and if they want to join the
team, if they have competitive
swimming experience. Many people
on campus don't believe we exist and
or don't know we are here," added
Heynes.
PHOTO BY BECKY WEINDORF
The Lions will have a week to rest
before they travel to Frostburg on
September 30.