Friday, October 3, 2008 A Behrend water polo player shoots for a goal. Water Polo update Behrend Men REBOUND FROM LAST WEEK’S LOSS continued from page 1. International. With two back-to-back matches, the Behrend team must have prepared by some type of physical warm-up or psychological preparing scheme, right? "Actually, we had a barbeque," recalls Yaegal. who would score two goals for Behrend in the sec ond match of the night. “We played frisbee and grilled some burgers; we just tried to stay as loose as possible." While the team still entered the game with the right mindset, the players knew that staying loose between the two games was the best way to enter their matchup. The Behrend Men's Water Polo team is scheduled to take their yearly trip to California this weekend, where they will engage teams in conference play. An annual occurance, this year’s trip will have the team driving to Buffalo and taking a flight to California. The pools in California's water polo matches are slightly larger than Behrend's, by regu lation in the state's play. To prepare, the Lions are swimming extra distances in practices and getting used to more endurance play. With sights set on a successful run at the champi onship, the men's team has a successful program to work from. Ranked fourteenth nationally amongst all-academic teams in 2006, a list including Penn State University and Harvard, the program has its sights set high for the remainder of their season. Behrend Intramurals in full swing by Connor Sattely managing editor Cisso6o@psu.edu This time of year, Intramurals Coordinator Rob Wittman is a very busy man. Over half of Penn State's on-campus students par ticipated in intramurals last year. After only a month and a half of the program, the number of students turning out to participate is steadily growing, and most sports are even more popular than they were last year. Ultimate Frisbee, which is brand new this year, has six teams enrolled that are currently engaged in matches amongst each other. Softball and sand vol leyball, also in the midst of their season, have expe rienced leaps in participation. Last year, 25 teams participated; this season there are already 32 teams playing. Flag Football, which is starting now, has many teams signed up, two of which will consist of stu dents who didn't have a team to play on. “Where’s the game j , ii-appointed to discover that the game was not televised. The day left many Behrend students wondering who decides which games are shown in a town with three sports loyalties. Gary Drapcho, current sports director of the CBS affiliate, WSEE-TV, recently sat down with me to discuss the issue of televised NFL games. Erie is located in a diverse area for sports fans. Erie, being centralized between Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, often brings about the question of which games hold precedence. "The scenerio is that we have to show Buffalo Bills away games. We have to show those because this is considered a Buffalo Bills market,” says Drapcho. “The NFL has declared Erie to be part of the Buffalo viewing area because of proximity. However, not all Buffalo Bills games hold prece dence over Steeler or Browns games. "We don’t have to show any of [Bills] games at Who decides what NFL GAMES ARE SHOWN IN ERIE? For NFL fans, ching their ivorite teams .ompete is a pastime that cannot missed. When ihe Steelers Jayed the Philadelphia Eagles, Steeler fans in Erie were dis- i ' I 'g ;: f i f "We don't try to make things hard around here." says Wittman. "I try to make any signups as easy as possible." E-mails sent out last week encourage students to simply reply to the e-mail with their name and a team name, and they can sign up for almost any- "Get in the system, get signed up. and you can get your people organized for the sport before it starts." says Wittman. The Behrend Intramurals program also includes several wildly successful recreational programs. The “I Lift Weights" club, which is brand new this year, has had 144 people join. The "KM) Mile" club, which rewards runners who reach a yearly 100-mile mark, has 210 individuals participating. Other sports are finding success as well. Bowling at Freeway Lanes was capped at 16 teams; some students were turned away due to space considera tion. Three-on-three basketball, says Wittman. already has around 20 teams. by Sam Curti sniff writer srcsl .11 <p pMi.edu home. We ask for games. When the Bills are play ing at home, we'll ask for a Steelers game, or we'll ask for a Browns game, something along those lines." says Drapcho. Often times. WSEE is blamed for the inconven ience of the game scheduling. In reality. WSEE has little control over which games can be aired. "The fans always seem to blame the TV station and never the NFL. when really, it's the NFL that is behind all of this. [Bills owner] Ralph Wilson won't give up on Erie being a Buffalo Bills market. If he ever did that, it would be easy." says Drapcho. " It's the NFL. not necessarily CBS or WSEE. we just kind of get caught up in the middle of it. " WSEE is not obligated to telerise Buffalo Bills home games because of NFL regulations and restrictions regarding marketing. "[The NFL] does n't want home games broadcast, because they was people to go to the home games. As a matter of fact, there is another NFL rule that states if the home game isn't sold out. it won't be shown in the Buffalo mar ket. Bills games, we could pick them up if we want to. But again, we understand we are in the middle ] here, so when the Bills play a home game, we ask for Steelers or Browns or both." says Drapcho. All of the games which will he tele vised in the Erie area are scheduled before the NFL season starts. When asked if W it. The Behrend Beacon I With deadlines approaching for the remainder of fall intramurals, and many sports still available, Wittman would encourage any student to get involved with intramurals as soon as possible. October Intramurals Deadlines Sport Dodgeball Bowling(full) 3v3 Basketball Oct. 24 4v4 Coed Indoor Soccer Oct. 31 the NFL can change the schedule anytime they w, Dra p c h ackn o w 1 • edged the league's power sions. "Pretty they can do is ask us to show a certain game. There have been instances in the we have wanted a Browns game and they havefteeil bad and the CBS will assign another game to our market and we have to say ‘Okay, we don't want that game. We still want the Browns game, we still want the Steelers game.' We try our best and we try to get as many games as we can, kind of equal.” The WSEE director also mentioned his releif in being able to talk about the situation. "It's nice being able to explain this, because a lot of people don't understand." he says. "They think we are just flipping around, when there is a lot of marketing involved. Register by Oct. 10 Oct. 24
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers