FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2001
Water polo team
closes the gap
at tournament
by Bob Palivoda
staff writer
High spirits keep the women’s
water polo team from sinking as
it still continues to battle for its
first win. This past weekend the
women faced a tough challenge.
In a matter of only two days, they
played a total of four games. They
faced three different water polo
teams as they competed in the
Washington and Jefferson
tournament with Grove City,
W&J and Gannon.
After a tough loss to California
Hayward on March 20, the
Behrend women had an intense
week of practice. Over the week,
Coach Josh Heynes added in
some new defensive plays for the
women to try in the W&J
tournament. However, Behrend
departed the tournament without
a win, Coach Heynes believed
that the new plays worked well
and said he will keep adding new
plays to keep teams on their toes.
Playing Grove City for the first
time, Behrend fell 13-3.
However, in the second match
against Grove City, Behrend came
within five points losing by a
score of only 11-6. Lindsay
Spiegel led Behrend in scoring in
the first game with two goals
while Amanda Brown led the way
in the second game with three
goals.
PSU had a tougher time with
W&J and Gannon, losing to them
17-5 and 16-3, respectively. Mary
Good led the way with two goals
against W&J. Lindsay Spiegel
led Behrend in goals against
Gannon with two.
Overall, Heynes thought that
the weekend went well. “Passes
were better and the women
seemed to pen their eyes up to the
entire pool instead of having
tunnel vision on the goal and
making bad shots,” said Heynes.
So far on the scoreboard, the
season looks tough for the
Behrend women. However, the
women keep on building day to
day and week to week. Cassie
Harris, who is the water polo
veteran, had off-season shoulder
surgery to her rotator cuff.
Though she missed numerous
games at the beginning of the
season, she currently leads the
team in assists.
“Even though our record
doesn’t show it, we are improving
and growing every game.
Everyone is starting to understand
the game better and because of
that we are getting more
aggressive and involved,” said
Harris.
Now Behrend looks forward to
another challenging weekend, but
it will be another learning
experience for the rookie squad.
The Lions will travel to Grove
City for the first Grove City Invite
where they will play Bucknell, St.
Francis, SRU and Queens.
“This weekend is going to be
tough but fun,” said freshman
Amanda Tuscan. Tuscan also
believes the team has come a long
way and believes that it is only a
matter of time before it becomes
very competitive in the league.
NASCAR grows as true American sport
Two years ago, the thought of
writing about NASCAR to college
students in a sports column appeared
to me to be the best way I could
decrease readership by nearly 100%.
Today, more than a month after
NASCAR covered the front pages of
newspapers worldwide, my courage
to write about the sport has reached
its climax as a sense of pride for
being a true race fan is materializing
with every word that hits this page.
It used to be a common
misconception among racing critics
that the sport was a way for
Southern rednecks to spend a typical
Sunday afternoon. NASCAR heard
more “you might be a redneck”
punchlines than a Jeff Foxworthy
audience. Despite its popularity
boom throughout the 1980 s and 90s,
NASCAR has never been a sport
that communities in the northern
United States could embrace and
accept as headliners in their local
sports section.
Until now.
It could be argued that the reason
the Winston Cup circuit of
NASCAR has gained so much
popularity throughout the country as
of late is due to the tragic death of
Dale Earnhardt last month. A
grieving period that usually lasts a
couple weeks for most sports’
tragedies has extended well into this
second month of the young season
and doesn’t seem to be slowing.
To make the argument that
NASCAR's popularity is a result of
SPORTS
Out of Bounds
Jason Snyder
— record-
editor
watched “the Super Bowl ot racing'
than ever before. Word ol the
Intimidator’s death didn’t surface
until the record-setting telecast was
off the air.
So what is accounting for the
growth of this sport? Is it the speed,
the drivers’ personalities, the
creative paint schemes on the cars?
It’s probably a combination of all
these things. It might even be a
result of the decline of sports like
the NBA, NHL and Major League
Baseball. I think that NASCAR has
moved past all these sports in
America’s interest. Would anyone
have predicted that Richard Petty
would pioneer a more popular sport
than Wilt Chamberlain and Joe
DiMaggio took part in.
To understand a race fan, you
have to stand among the crowd.
You have to witness the speed of the
cars through your own eyes rather
than a TV screen that doesn't do the
sport justice. This is when one can
truly begin to understand the show
that these drivers put on lor crowds
exceeding 100,000 people every
week.
A weekend at a Winston Cup
event tells you more about the sport
than any FOX telecast can. Jt’s a
world unlike anything you've ever
seen before. Where else in the
world would you witness people
wearing clothes that advertise for
products such as Dupont Paint
Finishes or UPS Delivery Trucks? I
can definitely tell you I haven’t ever
seen anyone wearing a shirt and hat
promoting Viagra.. .until last
, - .
i/ K '
IlilSSiiiii?
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setting
ratings that
the Daytona
500 scored last
month. More people
Ull 1' .IgNir
Sussex
weekend
It was last weekend when I went
to Bristol, Tenn., to watch the
Cheez-It 250 and the Food City 500
(there’s some sponsors for you). It
wasn’t the first Winston Cup event
that I’ve attended. I'd have to say
the list is up around 12 or 13
spanning from Michigan to Virginia
But Bristol? It’s like nothing
you’ve ever seen before in sports
competition.
It’s a half-mile track with turns
banked at 36 degrees and stands
completely enclosing the racing
world in an area equivalent to the
size of Behrend’s parking lots.
Yeah, not big. More than 150,000
fans poured into the seats for the
Winston Cup event after more than
100,000 turned out to watch the
Busch Series race (racing’s “minor
league” series) the day before. That
would be like 100,000 people
showing up for an Erie Seawolves
game. Needless to say, minor
league interest isn’t as successful in
any other sport.
The dedication of racing fans
could be considered unrivaled as
well. I don’t know of any sports
team that could sell out a 150,000-
seat stadium in Bristol, Tennessee.
Bristol is a small town, which, from
how it looked, has a larger
population of cows than people.
Which means the people in the
stands that day came from all over
the country.
The emotions that poured from
the hearts of the fans and drivers
after Dale Earnhardt’s death had to
give some sort of indication of the
closeness of everyone associated
with the sport. It’s the only sport
where your opponents are with you
everyday. You spend nine months
out of the year with the people that
you compete against. About 99% of
that time is off the racetrack. These
drivers know each other’s families
and childhood stories.
SUMMER JOB OPPORTUNITY
Enjoy a helpful and rewarding
summer at Camp Sussex, located in
the beautiful mountains of Northern
New Jersey and about one hour from
New York City.
It’s a sport where fans are called
to cheer for an individual. They
aren’t for something as abstract as
cheering for the Yankees or the -
Bulls. In racing, you are cheering
for one man. You see one man as
your link to the sport. It’s personal,
something that eludes the
relationship between fans and teams
in team sports.
I could try to further explain the
closeness and “family" aspect of the
sport of racing, but this simple
example should speak volumes for
the fans, families and competitors in
NASCAR racing.
I was walking through the trailers
outside of the Bristol track looking
for souvenirs of my favorite driver.
I came upon the Dale Earnhardt
trailer, still selling that black #3
memorabilia. His four trailers were
the busiest ones out of the 50
trailers that were parked there that
weekend
And on those four large trailers
were signatures. There were some
people that had just signed their
names. Others who wrote short
messages. Some messages which
specified that other drivers’ fans
were hurting. I only caught a
glimpse of a couple of the
signatures on the trailers. But I can
tell you that those four trailers that I
saw were covered from top to
bottom, front to back with final
farewells to a man who was both
loved and despised in the sport of
racing
I can’t think of any other sport
where individual athletes mean so
much to fans. Racing gives that to
people. It’s indescribable and
unexplainable. It’s just something
that is the foundation for a sport that
will continue to live despite tragedy.
Because the close unity of the
racing “family” will never let a
legend be forgotten. Nor will they
let the true sense of competition die
JSppl
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