Thursday, March 25, 1993 Seniors Tim Cook by Keith E. McFall Spoils Editor Their relationship started out a little shaky, but eventually blossomed into a beautiful friendship. Who am I talking about? None other than Stephen Respress and Tim Cook, the only two seniors on the men's basketball team, who played their last game for the Lions last month. "I came up here on a visit in the a good chance to win it, but failed. spring of 1991, and I met Tim. I "When we did get there, I believe didn't like him at first because he we could have won it all, but was a little cocky guy. But, over Steph's ankle injury halted a lot of a period of time we got to knoviAjngs and we lost the each other a lot better, and startalcharrlpionship game," said Cook. Bradley Excels from BRADLEY on page 20 Bradley hopes to be able to "contribute more in the field." She credits her incredible output in Florida to the players batting ahead of her, "with teammates like those who bat in front of me, it's not hard to get slot of RBl's." Athletics aside, Brady.. still shines, as is evident by her ambition to go to a graduate school of dentistry after she graduates this spring. Eventually she wants to be an orthodontist and is looking at Pitt, Connecticuit, and other universities as graduate school options. - One of the few gripes Bradley has about student athlete rights is that of housing. Although student athletes get discounts at the Wintergarden Pizza Shop and scheduling priorities, next Tramptimion to hang out more and more," said Respress. In fact, Cook was deciding at the time if he wanted to play basketball his last two years. "I think I had a lot to do with Tim playing. I came to the team, we became friends, and he decided to play," said Respress. "Yeah, Steph plays the type of game I like, and that helped in my decision to play. I said, 'l'd like to play with him' because he plays the same style of game, and I knew we could play well together," said Cook. In their first season together the then juniors knew that they had a good shot at going to the ECAC tournament. "We most definitely knew that we had a chance. We had that spark and we believed in each other, so that carried over into a productive year," said Respress. Eventually the team did get a bid to the tournament and they had year's sophomores will no longer be able to get into the Behrend apartments. Bradley states, "Dobbins does not provide those of us who need to maintain a certain diet for training in our sport, so we need to be able to cook our own food." Even though it is doesn't affect her, Bradley believes that the new NCA regulation will hurt more than help. She believes that since honors students get a housing privilege so should student athletes. When May rolls around and Darcie Bradley's collegiate athlete career ends, she will have every right to look back and say that she made a substantial contribution to Behrend. Hopefully, future female student athletes will foliw Bradley's exemplary example. Sports say "It blew my mind to lose that game...lt was so hard on all of us. I wanted to play so bad, but I was on the bench with my injury. I wanted to go back in but Coach (Paulsen) wouldn't let me," added Respress. When asked what their expectations were for the 92-93 season after the success of the 91- 92 campaign, the two players said they had even more expectations than for the previous year. "Since we were returning eight players I thought we would have a real productive season again and go far," said Cook. Commenting on the season, Respress said, "At the early part of the season we lost a lot of close games by one or two points and that hurt. That dropped our confidence level. I think if we had won a few of those games, the season would have been totally different. With me, Tim, Byron (Thorne), and Rob (Hunt) all stepping up we shouldn't have had any problems, but we did." Many of the best times Cook and Respress had together were during road trips and overnight stays. "We used to take my Sega Remember when... Help make Penn State-Behrend's Fall 1993 new students feel welcome, become an... Orientation Leader If you are Applicaticins are available in the Student Activities Office and are due on April 9, 1993. goodbye on the trips to play in the hotel rooms to relax our nerves. It brought all of the team together. Everyone would be in one room and we would hold tournaments and just enjoy the evening," said Respress. Cook added, "I remember one time five of us, who refer to each other as the 'dinner thieves', wanted to induct a new member one night on the road. I'd like to leave him anonymous, and I don't want to get into what happened, but it was in categories like steals and free something to remember, I'll tell throw percentage. It gave us you that." something other than the game to Both seniors have a different talk about and enjoy," said view of what effects the home Respress. crowd has on their play. "There is We really started competing the a big difference between the road last eight or nine games. I would and home. At home you have the say 'l'm going to catch you in fans and they support you and that this category by a certain time,' pumps you up," said Respress. and then we would both step it Cook said, "I'm different than up," said Cook. Steph in that regard. He feeds off "We always hung out together the home crowd, but I'd rather in practice and on the bench during play on the road because then you games and goofed off. It got us in don't have any pressure to trouble a lot, because Steph's a perform." funny guy and he always made me Throughout the season the two laugh at the wrong time," laughed players had a rivalry going in k certain categories. "We competed - You moved away from home? - You had to make new friends? - You were a freshman? Enthusiastic Energetic Creative now! Stephen Respress Photos by Amel Balcita Page 19