Scott Soltis, Sports Editor Lauren Packer, Assistant Sports Editor The Behrend Beacon Behrend A thletic Events Friday Men’s and Women’s Swimming & Diving, @ Grove City, TBA Saturday Men’s Tennis @ Baldwin-Wallace, 6 p.m Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track & Field @ Mount Union Invitational, TBA Wiomen’s Basketball @ Pitt-Greensburg, 6 p.m Men’s Basketball @ Pitt-Greensburg, 8 p.m Sunday Men’s Tennis vs. Waynesburg, 9 a.m Wednesday Women’s Basketball AMCC Tournament, TBA Men’s Basketball AMCC Tournament, TBA Inbwnunals Schedule Swimming Men’s, Women’s, & COED Entries Due Friday, Feb. 21 Meet Date TBA Volleyball 4 on 4 COED Entries Due Friday, Feb. 28 Games begin Tuesday, March 4 Men’s, Women’s, COED Entries Due March 7 Games begin March 18 V\E ARE EOXNSIME Earn $l,OOO-52,000 for your Student Group in just 3 hours! Multiple fundraising options available. No carwashes. No raffles. Just success! Fundraising dates are filling quickly. Get with the programs that work! A campus FUNDRAISER I Your Trusted Source for College Fundraising. 888-923-3238 • www.campusfundraiser.com 5 Reasons Wh Racing’s not just for rednecks anymore For a long time there was a stereotype that almost all NASCAR fans are ‘rednecks’ who wear camouflage Dale Earnhardt hats and drink Busch beer. Though racing was dominated by one class of people in the past, it is rapidly becoming more popular to all people. Here are five reasons why: 1. Speed. Most people with a driver’s license have sped at one time or another. Many do every day. Some push the limits as to how fast they can get away with driving, but this can be costly. Personally, 1 got caught going 100 miles per hour and it cost me a decent chunk of money and my license for 75 days. But I got off easy. Many people are involved in high speed Scott Soltis accidents and do not live to tell about it. This is where the fine folks at NASCAR come into play. You get to watch people go between 100 and 200 miles per hour with no risk of being pulled over and only a chance of being seriously injured. 2. Road rage. Nascar is also a good outlet to view road rage. Again, most Men’s tennis ready for a fresh start by Amy Frizzel staff writer With spring just around the corner the snow will melt and soon the campus will be full of people enjoying green grass. The Behrend men’s tennis team will certainly take full advantage of the nice weather to come this season, even though it may have to wait awhile. The team has been practicing three times a week at a local racquet club to prepare for the season kick-off against Baldwin Wallace on Saturday. "If our new players live up to the way they have played in practice we should do fairly well" said coach Jeff Barger ' “We’ve been able to improve in every position due to our new players. Five and six singles are better then last year, also our three doubles teams will be our strength.’’ “We’ve been practicing together for a while, we’re a pretty good team and I hope everyone plays up to their own level,” said newcomer, Ryan Deimel, of this weekends matches. BEACON SPORTS BRIEFS Men’s Basketball | James Curren averaged 25.5 I points per game and 5 rebounds I this past week. ■ Behrend is second in the AMCC ■ in shooting percentage, making j an average of 44.7 percent of its ■ shots. S-' ; P kPk ’ P pi yiiiMr ’ J ■ fr-T I Friday, February 21, 2003 BEHREND people experience road rage, some every day. When some idiot is going 40 in a 45 and you just can’t get around him, you're going to be angry. When you're on 1-80 and someone cuts you off, you're going to be mad. The same things happen in NASCAR, except they don’t get mad. they get even. If Dale Jarrett was to bump Sterling Marlin for not letting him pass, then Jarrett is going to get bumped later. If Bobby l.abonte is trying to pass low and Jeff Gordon comes down and cuts him off. Gordon is going to get hit. It has been a trend in recent years to even go after people once the race is over. Last year's points champion Tony Stewart got mad and slugged a lew people for various reasons. One driver even walked onto the track while the other cars were still driving, and threw equipment at the driver who wrecked him. Again, the drivers are doing what we w ish we could on the road. 3. Tony Stewart - Tony Stewart is following the road paved by Dale Earnhardt before him. lie has two huge groups of NASCAR fans follow him. After the team plays Baldwin Wallace on Saturday, they take on Wayneshurg on Sunday. "I feel we’re stronger then Wayneshurg, but as always we will need to win two out the three doubles matches to take the win," said Barger. After this weekend the team will head to sunny Hilton Head. South Carolina for Spring Break where it will continue to work and bond as a team. "Our trip to Hilton Head is a good bonding experience" said Barger, “We play four matches down there, so by the time we get back and our conference matches start we’ll have played six matches. So, we’ll be prepared." The men play six conference matches against Pitt- Greensburg. Penn State Altoona and Frostburg State University. Their first conference match will be on March 22 against Pitt-Greensburg. Diemel will start at first singles, sophomore captain Mike Oey at second doubles, sophomore captain Jacob Hillmann at third doubles, freshman SCENE Women’s Basketball Carly Cochran averaged 16 points per game and 7.5 re bounds this past week. Behrend is third in the AMCC in shooting percentage, making an average of 38.7 percent of its shots Half of them think he is God's gift to racing, others feel he is the devil himself. As many watch Stewart race on Sundays to hope he wins, other wateh to see him lose or get wrecked. In this way NASCAR is popular for the same reason the WWh was immensely popular a lew years ago when it was still the WWF. Pro wrestling was popular because people loved the good guys and loathed the bad. I here w ere also those who pulled for the rebellious bad guys and so big fan bases were formed. Love him or hate him. Stewart is the defending Winston Cup Champion and this only adds fuel to the fire. He is a great driver and as long as he is near the top, the battle will continue. 4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Tennis has Anna Kournikova. NASCAR has 'Little I". The difference is Earnhardt is actually good and wins. Just as guvs love to watch Kournikova, many women are just as fascinated by Earnhardt. Despite the fact that Stewart won the Points Championship last year Earnhardt has been prominently featured on many of the 2002 season recaps and 2003 previews. Also, you have to admire his courage to race. How many people could NATIONAL Baseball Pittsburgh has signed outfielder Reggie .Sanders, The aquisition allows the Pirates to move Brian Giles to center New York lawmaker John Sweeney wants to ban ephreda from baseball. The drug is already banned in the NCAA, NFL, and by the International Olympic Committee. honestly work alongside their father, watch him die at work, and continue the profession'.’ You would have to be heartless to not feel bad for what has happened to him. Despite the tragic loss of his father at Daytona. Larnhardt Jr. continues to race his heart out showing virtually no fear. For that he deserves much respect even from his harshest critics. 5. The NHL and MLB - The weakness of our "national pastime" and pro hockey have given NASCAR a big boost. Forbes ranked the value of till of the pro sports teams of the NFL. NHL. MLB, and NBA. The bottom 20 teams on the list included 16 NHL teams and four from MLB. The hick of money flowing into these sports has left the door wide open for NASCAR. The NHL and MLB are both talking about contraction of their bankrupt teams. Those two sports are shrinking, and Nascar is growing. Drivers are getting younger and younger, attracting more and more female fans. Successful drivers are emerging from places other than the deep South, which attracts more fans from the North and West. As these trends persist NASCAR will continue to grow out of its redneck roots into the mainstream of sports eultur Jonathan Barber at fourth singles, freshman Jon Marini at fifth singles. Sophomore Aaron Whiting rounding out the line up at sixth singles, the team w ill be one of. if not the youngest in the conference. "With the team being so young it will be a definite confidence builder. Everyone will be here for a couple more years so this season w ill be a good building block" said Barrier. "I feel good about this season because w e have a good chance at winning the conference" said Hillmann. But to achieve this, the team will have to battle Altoona, Frostburg and Pitt-Greensburg on Saturday. April 19 at the AMCC Championships in Altoona. "We’ll battle with Altoona and Frostburg for the conference champs this year" said Barger. NEWS NCAA Basketball Memphis stunned No. 4 | Louisville, 80-73. Memphis I hit 13 of 17 from the stripe in I the final four minutes. • Duke made it 26 straight J victories at Cameron Indoor . Stadium, beating Maryland ■ Page 11 75-70