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
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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
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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
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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.