Friday, November 12,2004 NCAA tournament now fair game By Sara Kamber co-sports editor Behrend athletics has the good for tune to have some talented coaches who have turned their respective programs in to top-notch Division m contenders. Our teams have generated tremendous excite ment in past years by earning NCAA post-season bids. But more often than not, one of our AMCC regular season champions and tournament champion ship teams have been ignored. Finally, this season, winners of the AMCC championship title will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs. The new rule means big things for our men’s and women’s soccer and basket ball programs, along with the Behrend baseball team. Three of these teams made it to the NCAA tournament last season, but it has been a long road to the type of success our present teams enjoy. For example, the 2002 and 2003 base ball seasons were the best in team his tory. The blue and white finished 2003 with a 33-10 mark and were AMCC regular season and tournament champi ons and ECAC southern region champi ons. This team had the 16 lh best winning percentage in Division 111 baseball. And yet, no NCAA bid. Under the new rule, the 2003 men’s baseball team would have been awarded the bid they clearly deserved. “This is great stuff for our programs,” said head baseball coach Paul Benim. “Our pro grams have been building towards this. Our facilities, support staff, and players are top-notch. The NCAA Tournament Intramural dodgeball a hit in second year; more than 50 teams turn out By Brooke Dodds staff writer Intramural sports are one of the best ways to re lieve stress here on campus. They are fun and a great workout all at the same time. There is one sport in particular that will bring out the grade school child in even the toughest of college students and that is dodgeball. Dodgeball is the sport that everyone either loved because they dominated at it or despised because they were the ones running around like a chicken with their heads cut off as a child. Now playing at a col lege level, it’s a whole new experience when stu dents play as if they were olympians. The sport of dodgeball consits of two teams throw ing balls at each other. A basketball court sized space is used, and five balls are set up at center court. The objective is for the two teams to get as many peole out as possible before being tagged themselves. You would be surprised by how difficult this could really be! On Monday night there were a few lucky dodgeball players to make it on WICU and WJET news sta tions for a few seconds of fame. One of those play ers was Isiah Meek who said, “Some people don’t see dodgeball as a competitive sport, but I think it is very competitive, I really get into it.” There are hundreds of students who love the in tramural program here at Behrend. This year there Show your receive FREE shoe Bring this a Eastway Lanes 4110 Buffalo Road 814-899-9855 ipu .ig.. title. The team went 33-10 overall and had the 16th best winning percent age in Division 111 baseball. is a realistic and obtainable goal for our programs.” As this new rule is being celebrated, we can’t ignore the fact that the empha sis is on play during a three-day tourna ment rather than on a teams overall per formance. One would assume the best team would win the tournament, but our men’s basketball team learned last year this is not always true. After having a stellar season, the men’s basketball team was knocked out of the AMCC tournament by the fourth-seeded team, La Roche. The elimination disap pointed the Behrend squad, but it would have been even more of a jaw dropper had La Roche then been offered an NCAA bid. What about the 22-4 record FREE Student G Qu mates watch on were over sixty teams, both men and women, who played dodgeball compared to last year’s thirty-six teams. Each year Rob Wittman, the intramural di rector, gets an even bigger turn out than the year be fore as the intramural program gains popularity. Thirty of the men’s teams worked their way to playoffs, where the last two teams to duke it out were the Terror Squad and the Bad Butts, both were fresh- SPORTS our men had earned? What about their AMCC regular season championship title? Head women’s basketball coach Roz Fomari is no stranger to the post-season; her teams have earned three NCAA bids. While excited about the new goals the automatic qualification brings, she ad mits to the double edge sword this pre sents. “The automatic bid kind of di minishes the regular season,” she said. “We’ve won five of the last seven regu lar season titles. I feel that is more of an accomplishment that winning the AMCC tournament.” Yet no one can deny that the automatic bid is likely to work to the advantage of our home teams. Men’s basketball head HOE today for your event, ons may receive a discount. men teams. The Terror Squad took the victory for the men along with Alpha Sigma Alpha for the la dies. “I didn’t realize how much strategy can go into the game. It’s not just hitting people with balls; you have to think,” said Megan Brophy. Students find intramurals a great way to make friends and have a ball with the ones they already know. For the intramural men’s team Fockers, Chris Ober feels “they are a great way to blow off some steam and have fun at the same time.” Jermey Blum points out that “you win some, you O lose some.” With these students, it seems to be more O about getting away from the books for a while. lntramural Supervisor Stephanie Muchow points uj out for some stand-out high schoool athletes, intramurals take the place of weekly practices and intense games. “You can tell some people are out g for blood and can sometimes go a little overborad,” ° said Muchow. “But all in all, it’s usually a relaxed and fun time where everyone can just cool out for a little while before they have to go back to being se rious.” We hope to see more people joining the intramu ral program and there are still many sports to play this year such as: ping pong, volleyball, soccer, arena football, swimming, team triathlon and badminton. All you have to do is sign up at the front desk in the Junker Center or check out the intramural website online. coach Dave Niland has turned the men’s program into a Division 111 pow erhouse, Nevertheless, his teams have seen only two NCAA bids. Men’s head soccer coach Dave Perritano, who was also the women’s coach until this sea son, has also seen only two post-sea son bids. Under his reign, Perritano’s women’s teams were four-time AMCC champions, and earned a bid in 2000. The men have been three-time AMCC champions and went on to the second round of the NCAA tournament last season Perritano points out, that the auto matic bid puts a new emphasis on league games. “Every single game counts, it’s all about the league,” said Perritano. This is one fact all of the coaches agree on. Athletic Director Brian Streeter sees another plus, many observers might not ordinarily think of. With the hope of an NCAA bid, Streeter believes our home teams will draw in more fans. An AMCC tournament game will be for more than just the title now. “It’s one more thing to get kids excited,’’ said Streeter. “We don’t have football, so this one more thing to create spirit on campus. It makes it more impor tant to the kids.” Our teams have always fed off of the energy surrounding the end of the sea son. They work hard all season long, but there is no denying they step it up when the time comes. Now with the heightened stakes, be sure not to miss the upcoming battles. NTAL till 2pm The Behrend Beacon 111 Men’s soccer AMCC all confernce teams announced Sports Information Release The Behrend Lions had another strong season under the direction of 12th year Head Coach Dan Perritano. The team went 12-5-1 in the regular season. The defending AMCC Cham pions then faced Frostburg State in the conference playoffs, losing a hard fought game 3-1, to finish the year with a 12-6-1 record. Throughout the course of the season the team utilized a balanced attack on offense while putting together an of ten times impenetrable back line. The defense was led by first-team All- AMCC performer Dan Bash (Pitts burgh/Thomas Jefferson). Bash, a junior, has been named to the all-conference team in each of his first three seasons, and helped the team post shut-outs in 10 of 19 games. Fellow first-team performers were sophomore Herbert Obeng (Colum bus, OH/Sayreville) and junior Justin Reese (Pittsburgh/Thomas Jefferson). Obeng led the Behrend Lions with eight goals on the year, while Reese led the team in assists with five and points with nineteen. Earning second-team honors were junior defender Bryan Blaszczyk (Erie/ Mercyhurst Prep) and sophomore goal keeper Matt Zimsak (Butler/Butler). Blaszczyk started every game for the blue and white for the second year, while Zimsak stepped in as a first-year starter and collected seven individual shut-outs. DODGEBALL CHAMPIONS Terror Squad ASA IQNTRIBUTED PHOTOS . a rice of 2! sions.
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