Page 8
The Behrend Beacon
Calendar of Events
Behrend
Sporting
Events
September 1
Men's and Women's
cross-country
@ Buffalo State Invitational
10:00 a.m.
Women's Volleyball
@ Cortland Tournament
TBA
Men's Soccer
Herb Lauffer Tournament
Behrend vs. Moravian
10:00 a.m.
Hiram vs. Hobart
12:00 p.m.
Women's Soccer
Herb Lauffer Tournament
Behrend vs. Olivet
2:00 p.m.
Keuka vs. Moravian
4:00 p.m.
September 2
Women's Volleyball
@ Cortland Tournament
TBA
Men's Soccer
Herb Lauffer Tournament
Consolation Game
10:00 a.m.
Championship Game
12:00 p.m.
Women's Soccer
Herb Lauffer Tournament
Consolation Game
2:00 p.m.
Championship Game
4:00 p.m.
NATIONAL SPORTS
Earnhardt probe calls for changes
by Liz Clarke
The Washington Post
ATLANTA - In the wake of a $1 mil
lion investigation into the death of
seven-time champion Dale
Earnhardt, NASCAR officials an
nounced Tuesday that they would
mandate the use of "black boxes" in
cars next season, but stopped short
of requiring their drivers to use head
and neck restraint devices.
Such devices - which have been
proven to give drivers a better chance
of surviving violent crashes - will
continue to be "recommended" by
NASCAR, the governing body that
oversees stock-car racing in the
United States. Many drivers are us
ing them voluntarily; 41 of 43 driv
ers in last Sunday's race in Michi
gan - including Earnhardt's son, Dale
Jr. - used a restraint device.
NASCAR also will hire a full
time "medical liaison" to work with
local physicians when drivers are
injured at events. But officials will
order no specific changes in the way
its race cars are designed or con
structed, nor any changes in the con
struction of its racetracks.
"It's not a quick fix," NASCAR
President Mike Helton said. "There's
not a resolution tomorrow that (race
officials) can go forward with be
cause we're not going to react just
for the sake of reacting. We're going
to understand all the ramifications of
a change before we make it."
Earnhardt's death in February at
the Daytona 500 in Florida was the
fourth in the sport in less than a year
- Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony
Roper were the other drivers who
died of head injuries - and prompted
a six-month investigation.
Five days after the crash,
Diehl and Cooper among new coaches hired this year
by Mike Bello
sports editor
As the fall sports begin their
practices in anticipation for the up
coming seasons, many new faces
can be seen running those prac
tices. From soccer to volleyball
to cross country, new coaches and
assistants will be guiding
Behrend's teams this year.
The athletic department first
filled two voids, hiring Kellie
Diehl as head women's softball and
volleyball coach. Diehl, who
graduated from Behrend in 1992
with a degree in business manage
ment, was a starter on both the vol
leyball and softball squads all four
years she was here. Diehl went on
to earn her graduate degree in 1995
from St. Cloud University for
sports management.
Diehl was an assistant volley
ball and softball coach at Mt.
Union College before becoming
head coach of the volleyball and
tennis teams at Heidelberg College
in 1996-1997. After her stay, Diehl
went on to become the head coach
of the softball and volleyball teams
at Wilmington College, located in
Wilmington, Ohio, for three sea
sons before landing her job here at
Behrend.
During her four years as a
starter for the Lion squads. Diehl
set several records, including most
Newly hired women's softball and volleyball coach Kellie Diehl
stands outside the Junker Center (formerly the ARC)
NASCAR had officials announce
that his lap belt had been found
"separated," suggesting that equip
ment failure was to blame. Tuesday,
their experts said the separated belt
was a factor in his death, but not the
sole cause.
During a presentation that lasted
more than 90 minutes, the NASCAR
assembled team of medical experts
presented its conclusion: that
Earnhardt died from a blow to the
head, which fractured his skull at its
base. That contradicts Duke
University's Barry Myers, a doctor
who concluded based on a review of
the autopsy photographs that the vio
lent whipping motion of Earnhardt's
head caused the fatal skull fracture.
(NASCAR's experts said they were
not allowed to view the autopsy pho
tos, which have been sealed by a
Florida court.)
Bill Simpson, who founded the
company that manufactured the belt,
did not attend the invitation-only
news conference in the Hyatt Re
gency ballroom, but, flanked by a
pair of attorneys and two advisers,
he held his own news conference to
rebut its findings. Simpson's chief
complaints: that NASCAR failed to
make clear that Earnhardt's seat belt
had no structural or design flaws, and
that NASCAR didn't make clear that
the belt broke because it was in
stalled improperly.
According to NASCAR officials,
54 engineers, doctors and scientists
took part in research. The findings
were presented by James H. Raddin
Jr., director of the San Antonio-based
Biodynamic Research Corp., which
studies the evidence of accidents to
determine the cause of injury and
death; and Dean Sicking, director of
the Midwest Roadside Safety Facil-
APO IIIP
,
Friday, August 24,2001
aces in a season and in a career for
volleyball and the record for high
est fielding percentage by a catcher
in softball. As a senior, Diehl was
an instrumental part of the softball
team that won the Eastern College
Athletic Conference title in 1992.
"The approach I'll take from
both programs is to build on what
has already been started. I plan to
work with both teams and incor
porate old successes to my experi
ence and successes," said Diehl. "I
do not plan to come in here and
change everything. I believe these
girls have a good base and we'll
continue together to reach our
goals. I plan to build on the records
they have and shoot for AMCC
championships; both programs are
capable of achieving that goal."
Another coaching change that
took place was the hiring of Dave
Cooper as head coach for the men's
and women's cross country and
track and field squads. Cooper,
who earned his degree in health
and physical education from
Franklin College, is well known in
the Erie area for his many accom
plishments at the high school level.
The Erie Times News last year
even named Cooper as one of the
"Coaches of the Century", which
includes many of the centuries'
best coaches in the Erie area. Be
fore being hired by Penn State,
Cooper worked for the Union City
ity at the University of Nebraska.
As they spoke about the sequence
of events that caused Eamhardt's seat
belt to break (likely when the car
slammed into the concrete wall at
roughly 160 mph), photographs of
the belt, its frayed webbing clearly
smeared with blood, were projected
on a giant screen behind them. They
also showed a photograph of
Earnhardt's contorted steering wheel,
its right side bent five inches from
the impact of the driver's torso or
head.
Based on the twisted steering
wheel, fabric burns in the seat and a
bent head restraint on the driver's
right side, the researchers concluded
Earnhardt's body was flung violently
forward and to the right in the crash.
Injuries to Earnhardt's left side - in
cluding numerous broken ribs - con
firmed that.
Using a full-scale crash test and
computer-simulated crash, they con
cluded that no single factor caused
the fatality, but rather a confluence
of events.
Earnhardt's car was headed to
ward the wall at a relatively gentle
angle as he regained control of his
car, but a collision with driver Ken
Schrader "redirected" the car, turn
ing its nose into the wall at an even
sharper angle. When the seat belt
broke, Earnhardt's torso, head and
neck traveled even farther in the car
than it would otherwise, contribut
ing to his death.
"It was a worst-case scenario,"
Sicking said
Researchers theorized that the
blunt-force injury to the base of his
skull occurred when his head twisted
to the right and hit the steering wheel,
or when his head slammed into the
headrest on the rebound.
Newly hired men's and women's cross-country and track and field
coach Dave Cooper
School District for 31 years, 28 of
them as head of the cross-country
programs.
It's not hard to see why Coo
per was named a coach of the cen
tury. He guided the boys' cross
country teams to state titles in their
respected class division in 1996
and 1997. In 1990 he led the team
to a second place overall finish in
the state. Over his many years at
Union City, the boys' cross-coun
try teams have won 19 league titles
and piled up 249 wins against 32
losses.
Cooper was instrumental in
starting a girls' cross-country pro
gram at Union City and led them
to 10 league titles. Cooper also
coached the track and field team
for 6 years there and was a teacher
of physical education and health
classes for 31 years.
Along with Cooper, the Lions
hired Garrett Arndt as the assistant
cross-country and track and field
coach. Arndt was a member of the
track and field team for his four
years at Behrend and holds down
third place in the record hooks with
three other players in the 4 x 400
meter run with a total time of
3:24.97. In 2000 Arndt received
his bachelor's of science degree in
Psychology from Penn State
Behrend, and is currently pursuing
a master's of business administra-
tion degree here.
Two other programs named as
sistant coaches during the first
, PeA
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week of classes. The baseball and
women's soccer teams now have
help behind the head coaching ex
periences of Paul Benim and Dan
Perritano, respectively. Patrick
O'Driscoll has been named as as
sistant women's soccer coach and
Ryan Smith as men's baseball as
sistant coach.
O'Driscoll played and started
for National American University
of South Dakota the past four years
after immigrating from Aberdeen,
Scotland. At National American
University O'Driscoll led the team
to a national tournament bid and a
11th national ranking, as well as
being named team MVP his senior
year on the soccer team. O'Driscoll
graduated from there in 2000 with
a bachelor's of science degree in
business administration. He cur
rently working on his master's of
business administration degree at
Behrend as well as working with
the women's soccer team.
Smith graduated from Behrend
in 1998 with his bachelor's of sci
ence degree in Management after
transferring from Ohio Valley Col
lege following his sophomore year.
During his two years on the base
ball team, Smith played first base,
third base, and was a standout
pitcher who went 8-4 with a 2.90
ERA with a .307 batting average.
Smith, just like O'Driscoll and
Arndt, is pursuing his master's of
business administration degree
here at Behrend.
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Mike Bello, Sports Editor
behrcolls@aol.com
Athletic
center re
named after
longtime
trustee
by Mike Bello
sports editor
Many Penn State Behrend stu
dents came back to find that a
class or two of theirs had been
moved to the Junker Center, or so
one would think.
Except that their classes were
never moved anywhere and it was
not a misprint on their schedule.
Behrend's brand new athletic
center, formally called the ARC
(Athletic Recreational Center),
which was completed last semes
ter, has been given a new name in
honor of Edward P. Junker 111 and
his wife Barbara F. Junker.
The Board of Trustees voted in
late July to name the new athletic
center after Junker, who was
chairman of the board from 1998-
2001. Ted Junker has been a uni
versity trustee since 1986. In
1997, Junker and his wife gave
Behrend a $2 million donation
that was given to the athletic de
partment.
Junker is a Penn State graduate,
having earned his degree in 1959
while his wife Barbara graduated
from Penn State in 1957. Junker
retired as vice chairman of PNC
Bank Corp. in 1997 but is still ac
tive as chair of Penn State
Behrend's campaign committee
and director of the Council of Fel
lows at Behrend.
The Junker Center, which
opened in March 2001 after con
struction delays pushed the date
hack from fall 2000, was a $10.2
million project that essentially re
placed Erie Hall, one of the 0h..-
est facilities at Behrend. The cen
ter has an eight-lane swimming
pool, a 1,600-seat gymnasium,
three courts, an upgraded
weightlifting room, and class
rooms and offices for the athletic
department..
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