Hit the road The women's basked) dam travels to take on I Dominion, Page 1 T DAILY COLLEGIAN Sport 'possesses' Nittany Lions soccer star 5 By Jeff Frantz COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER I jbfl42@psu.edu Ileople that regularly attend Penn St.* women's soccer games have seen . .christie Welsh scowling , dour, looking ming her best Allen Iverson mug to re& after she's absorbed yet another brpise or felt a few more stitches give wgy in her jersey. They saw her toss a cup of Gatorade after a disappointing 54 half against Bucknell in the Nov. 19 opening round of the NCAA tourna mtopt. • - ‘ o lf people looked at me just on the soccer field they would think I'm weird, crazy" said Welsh. "You can say a mil ,liop things, nasty... There are times wlign I'm saying stuff or yelling stuff, 37N can tell but that's when the game takfls over me." Qpposing regimens fighting for superiority Edftor's Note: This is the fourth stay in a six-part series about the Penn State weight program. By Jeff Frantz and Chris Korean 41 COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITERS I% jbfl42@psu.edu, ckorman@psu.edu The will to believe is as powerful a human characteristic as the is: It is i right held sacred in every accord as not , %. • . •• . •buhmenntial b2l the - very • Awe live as humans. . trength and conditioning coaches • generally men of strong convictions w I believe unabashedly in their cho s:- , system. They are left no other • ice, as what goes on in their weight m is the ultimate reflection of their t p osophies. ut such definitiveness mars lines n systems and prevents commu ni tion between not only coaches from • rent systems, but from the academ ic *de of the argument . In other words, th discourse on whether or not HIT or 0 pic-style mainstream lifting tends to •• - nter on the distinctiveness of each p v •ii rather than trying to reconcile th ,i , or come up with concrete scientif ic • • ts. K i q don't care what anyone says, nei th side has established superiority" sa Michigan State strength coach Mannie. "It hasn't been established in e literature. I don't care who says it:, I e's right, and the very problem with th debate right now is that, despite fail in for well over 20 years, parties on eah side continue to promote their techniques as the superior method ra er than trying to reconcile the two. tromising steps have been made in that direction by both Mannie and NeOraska strength coach Boyd Eply in re4ent years, who are both generally co sidered the top football minds re • g the HIT and Olympic-style m, respectively t happened was, Ken Mannie ~,,,- fl flue all fil * Srunii il 11:e. • Fbr Welsh, this athletic possession has worked out well. The forward has led the Big Ten in scoring in all three of her seasons while piling up 69 goals in 73 games, an almost unprecedented pace. With yet another season remain ing in her collegiate career, Welsh already awns all school and conference offensive records. Fbr many elite players, this progres sion to almost demigod status doesn't begin until they reach high school, when their ability begins to really stand out. However Welsh showed glimpses of what was to come from the first time she stepped on the field at age five, when she scored four goals. "When her older brothers scored, we would take them out for ice cream," said Welsh's mother, Nancy "That would happen maybe twice a year. With Christie it was a lot more." lacking a consensus Brandon Short, pictured here chasing down Arizona's Ortege Jenkins, uses a modified version of Penn State's training program now that he has moved onto the NFL Pro players generally have more leeway in their training and often combine systems. came in and spoke to us about HIT at the national strength coaches conven tion," said Eply. 'We wanted to under stand HIT and to have a mutual under standing and respect for all the sys tems. But the first thing he shows is a guy doing squats, and we were all pret ty surprised." The consensus from the meeting was that there were more similarities between the two systems than most coaches had realized. Eply, for his part, worked with Ham mer Strength, a company specializing in exercise machines mostly affiliated with HIT-style workouts, to develop ground-based machines (players stand while training). One such machine, known as the jammer, is currently used by Penn State. Yet falsities abound about the meth ods and goals of HIT programs. "There are a lot of misconceptions about HIT," said Thomas, whose own program does not use traditional squats s to restore shine to Wolverines basketball program In 1989, the Michigan and Seton Hall men's basketball teams both met their peaks. They met in the NCAA champi onship in Seattle, and staged a spectac ular match that was decided by two last second free throws by Wolverine point guard Rumeal Robinson. Both programs maintained solid teams in the early 90's, and Michigan would continue to put out solid teams until 1998, but both schools fell off track, and both have looked to the same man to right the course. A man who is not a stranger to rebuilding projects. Tommy Amaker was at the Final Fbur in Seattle that year in his first sea son as an assistant coach at Duke, just - two years after his career as a point guard for coach Mike Krzyzewski had finished. His Blue Devils had fallen to Seton Hall in the national semi-final, but Duke was a team on the rise. lie joined the Blue Devils as a player just as Krzyzewski was starting to build the Blue Devils back to status as a national power. By Dustin Doplrak COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER I djd2l6@psu.pdu When Amaker arrived at Duke in The Dairy Queen in Massapequa Park, N.Y., must have done a booming business over the next few years as the young booter began to garner attention from local club teams. As she became more experienced, it became only a matter of time before Welsh would come into contact with the U.S. Nation al Team. Sure enough, two years later, she found herself invited into an under -21 camp. She found the time eye open ing. "The first time going into camp with the Mias (Hamm) and the Brandis (Chastain), we were in a room and there were a lot of new people, younger people my age," Welsh said. "You sit there and you're like `l'm in the same room with all these people and I'm so nervous and I don't know how I could talk to them.' " Nevertheless, Welsh made the adjust- buttreplicates the move on machines. "People think a codified program where everyone dogs the same thing." But it is not, a concept true of every regimen. Not all Olympic-style pro grams are organized the same way. In some respects, trying to qualify a sys tem as one or the other squeezes the issue into parameters it is simply not ready, or able, to fit into. Despite all the politics that surround the issue, and all the neceqsary political grandstanding that accompanies it, the two sides might not be as radically and unrecognizably different as it appears at first blush. "I still use the high intensity training (HIT)," says former Penn State line backer Brandon Short, who plays for the New York Giants. "But I don't go nearly as intense as J.T. (Thomas) has them going in there." Instead, Short arranges his program around some of the principals espoused in Olympic-style programs. He lifts four 1983, the Devils were coming off their second straight losing season, and their third straight year with a losing confer ence record. While there, he helped them to four NCAA tournament berths, including a national runner-up finish in 1986. While Amaker was an assistant, Duke reached the Ftnal Four four more times, and won two National Champi onships in 1991 and 1992. "I've always enjoyed being a part of something at the ground floor," Amaker said at Big Ten basketball media day in October. "And trying to mold and shape it and being a part of the process. "I was involved in a process that started as a player at Duke when Krzyzewski came off two losing sea sons, and I still wanted to go there because I believed in something there and I believed in him. It's the same thing I like to think about Seton Hall." Kicperience uutki Krzyzewski is the pest thing any assistant college basket ball coach can put on a resume, and it was no surprise that when the Pirates were struggling after the P.J. Carlesimo era ended, Amaker was their choice to get back on track Amaker didn't make the Pirates an ment and credits bizarre incidents such as members of the St. Francis soccer team posing for pictures with her after a game this season to the exposure. The national team has also given Welsh the opportunity to see the world, as it has taken her to France, Denmark, Sweden, Australia twice and six times to Germany. "It opened up a whole new thing just to see how those guys train, how they conduct themselves, everything," Welsh said. Armed With her new knowledge, Welsh would soon be forced to make what her mother would term an agoniz ing decision where to go to college. After whittling away places like Notre Dame, Clemson, Virginia and Connecti cut, Welsh's decision rested between North Carolina and Penn State. See WELSH, Page 16 days a week and employs some aspects of periodization. "The big difference between here and college is that they guide you along a lot more in college," says Short. "It's all up to you here." Even though his strength coach is a HIT advocate, players from a strict Olympic-style program are allowed to continue training in that manner. Short said there were no noticeable differences coming from a HIT back ground when he goes up against guys who use mainstream techniques. "It was one of the strongest guys here when I arrived," he said. "Maybe other guys were stronger on the flat bench, but you've got to have total body strength. You're a football player." LaVar Arrington, Short's mate at line backer who also left Penn State after '99, was named as having one of foot ball's best physiques by Muscle and Fit ness Magazine in 2000, becoming the See CONSENSUS, Page 16. instant superpower, but in his four years in South Orange, he took them to three NlT's and guided them to the Sweet,l6 two years ago. Last season, he brought in one of the top recruiting classes in the country, including the class's top freshman Eddie Griffin. However, some team chemistry prob lems threw Seton Hall into a midseason tailspin, and though they garnered four victories against ranked opponents, they finished just 5-11 in conference. They made a run for the Big East tour nament championship, but fell in the semifinals, then in the first round of the NIT to Alabama. Though his Pirates didn't climb all the way back to being a Final Four team and perennial conference contender, Amaker got Seton Hall back on the map. When Michigan came calling in March after firing Brian Ellerbe, who coached his teams to two 10th place fin ishes and a seventh place finish in the Big Ten in the past three years, Amaker set out to turn around another program. "I had a very good situation obviously at Seton Hall, and we were doing some pretty good things there and had some great kids," he said. "But Michigan INSIDE Scoreboard .../3 Football 14 Ice Hockey . .. .15 THURSDAY, Dec. 6, 2001 I 12 Nittany o Uons forward Jan Jagla lays two in against Lehigh at the' Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State won 61-48. Dunn's troops defeat Lehigh By Dustin Doplrak COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER I djd2l6@psu.edu They're not exactly shocking the world with upsets, in fact they're not even dominating the Patriot League teams they are beating, but the Penn State men's basketball team is happy with any wins they can get. The Nittany Lions (2-4) picked up their second victory last night at the Bryce Jordan Center with a 61-48 victory over Lehigh (0-7), conference mates with Lafayette, the only other team the Lions have beaten this sea- SOIL 'When you're young, it's important to win," Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry "These have been work- ing hard. The results, when it's positive I think it's very good for their confidence." The Lions found out early on that they wouldn't be able to blow out the Mountain Hawks. Lehigh ripped off a 10-3 lead early to take a 15-8 lead in the ball game, as they stifled Penn State with their zone defense. How ever, the Lions found the guy with the hot hand in sophomore guard Shad& Chambliss. After a solid shoot ing night against Temple on Satur day, Chambliss made four straight threes, creating his own 12-4 run to give the Lions a 20-19 After a jumper by junior point guard Bran don Watkins, Chambliss hit another three to increase the lead to six. They would never trail again. The Mountain Hawks got back within one before a first-half buzzer beater by Lion freshman forward Jan Jagla upped the deficit back to three points at the break. Lehigh kept the Lions from pouring it on early in the second halt In the first ten minutes of the second frame, the See LEHIGH, Page 16. doesn't come around every day, and I was very lucky and fortunate that they looked in our direction to ask us to be the new leadership of our basketball program. I was very honored to have a chance to try to bring our program back to where it belongs." Amaker inherits a squad with a mix of inexperience and youth with six sen iors. However, none of those players have seen the success the Wolverines had become used to. The most advanced round of post season play any of the Wolverines have experienced was a loss to Notre Dame in the first round of the NIT after the 1999-2000 season. Before the current seniors arrived in the 1998-99 season, the Wolverines had qualified for the tournament in 12 of the previous 14 seasons and reached at least the NIT in each of the past 15. There is talent to be worked with, however, especially in swingman LaVcll Blanchard, a preseason All-Big Ten first team selection, and the leading scorer among conference returnees with 17.8 points per game last season. To resurrect the program, Amaker is not trying to force his squad to take See AIIIAKIM, Page 16.
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