Big Ten All-American Soldiers on Despite Physical, Emotional Pain

Big Ten All-American soldiers on 1 despite physical, emotional pain

USA Today folded, given up. I’ve tried to soldier on. I’m surrounded by great people. No mat- On and off the court, Katie Douglas has ter what life throws at you, you have to get been a soldier with the Purdue women’s up. No matter what life throws at you, basketball team. The All-American’s game there’s somebody who’s got it worse.” attire has included oversized ankle braces, knee guards and elbow pads—enough ar- The 6-1 senior and two-time Big Ten player mor to make her look ready for combat. of the year, averaging 14.2 points, 4.4 re- bounds, 3.5 assists and 2.7 steals, might be “I went through wars in games and came the most versatile player in the country. out standing,” she says. The senior has been Equally comfortable at point guard, on the through concussions, tendinitis and recon- wing or on the low block, she often plays structive ankle surgery, plus three coaches. every position but center for the well re- The injuries and coaching changes were the spected Boilermakers. easy part. The tough part is the emotional pain. In the last three plus years, Douglas It’s hard to imagine anyone experiencing a has lost her father to pancreatic cancer, a greater range of emotions than Douglas. As teammate to a drunken driver and her a sophomore, she had the ball in the final mother to breast cancer. seconds of Purdue’s win in the 1999 national title game before flinging it to the “I’ve lost three people really close to me,” rafters in a moment of exquisite exhilara- she says. “A lot of people would have tion. “It was an awesome feeling,” she says. “All the hard work, sacrifice, everything we’d been through was all worth it.”

After Purdue’s opening win in the big ten tournament last year, Douglas sat on the floor, head in hands, sobbing because her mother was too ill to attend the game in the family’s hometown of Indianapolis. A few weeks later, her mother died.

“Katie fell apart, just like the rest of us,” says Kim Rastrelli, Katie’s sister and the oldest of four children.

Sports Stories Packet #1 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. The recovery is ongoing for Katie and her three older siblings. They are applying lessons learned from Ken and Karen Douglas. “They were firm believers that life doesn’t come to a grinding halt,” Rastrelli says. “If you have something to do, you need to do it.”

When Katie’s father died on a Friday in June 1997, she was playing with the Indi- ana All-Stars in a two-game series against cult stretch began in March with Karen Kentucky. Katie wasn’t told about his death Douglas missing the early rounds of the Big until Saturday after the first game. Follow- Ten tournament but summoning the ing the funeral, she rejoined the team. In strength to attend the final, which Purdue the same spirit, Rastrelli and brother Scott won. For the first weekend of the NCAA Douglas continue the family-owned busi- tournament, Karen stayed at Katie’s apart- ness, Airline Fasteners, which distributes ment in West Lafayette. “I wouldn’t trade nailing and stapling equipment. Kim lives that time together for anything,” Katie says. with her husband and child in the house “It was mother-daughter bonding time. She where the Douglas children grew up. helped me get my new apartment organized, and decorated.”

Katie went 3-for-22 as Purdue got by Dartmouth 70-66 and then lost 76-74 to Oklahoma. Douglas received media and fan criticism for her uncharacteristic performance, though her trying circumstances weren’t known. “After we lost to Okla- homa, I wasn’t a pleasant person to be around,” Douglas says. “I felt I let a lot of people down. I had a lot on my mind. That wasn’t me out there. “We draw strength from our parents,” Rastrelli says. “We realize you still have “I didn’t want to go back to school to face your life to lead, and you can’t be unhappy. people. I was embarrassed. My mom told My parents wouldn’t want that for us.” me to use it as a learning experience, to use it as motivation.” Katie’s games are family events. But she wasn’t sure she wanted to return to school Karen Douglas also insisted Katie attend or play again after last spring. The diffi- the Final Four, where she received Kodak

Sports Stories Packet #1 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. All-America honors. It was the start of an she’s hurting. She’s got tremendous emotional roller coaster for the Douglases strength and courage.” in 2000. On April 15, Katie had reconstruc- tive surgery on her right ankle. On the 18th, Kim gave birth to a son, Drew, who, 15 hours later, was in his grandmother’s arms in a different hospital. On the 28th, Karen Douglas died.

Katie didn’t feel like resuming school. She took incompletes. She thought she should help care for her new nephew so Kim could return to the family business. But her mother, on her deathbed, had extracted a promise that Katie would return to school. Since her mom’s death, Douglas has been “I was probably a bum for a while,” says inundated with mail, offering condolences Katie, a communications major with a 3.6 as well as grieving suggestions: “It’s hard grade-point average. “I know I was a bum to read, but it’s been helpful.” for a while.” The basketball court has been a refuge. But she got her class situation straightened “That’s where I go to get away,” she says. out, baby-sat Drew, talked to teammates I’m not going to lie. There has been some and friends, including ex-teammates and hard days. But I love college basketball, WNBA players Stephanie White-McCarty love college and am trying to get the most and Ukari Figgs. “I can’t even imagine out of senior year.” what Katie’s gone through,” says White- McCarty, now with the Indiana Fever and For games she wears a self-designed sweat- a frequent quest at the Douglas home. band on her right elbow that contains her “Katie’s someone who’s internal. You’re parents’ initials and the number 23, worn not going to see a lot of emotion. You know by ex-teammate Tiffany Young, who died in a 1999 car accident. “I tough it a lot,” she says. “It makes me feel better.”

Her sense of humor, evident in her diaries for espn.com, remains intact. About her family nickname of Money Pit, she says: “I have a problem. I like to spend money, and I don’t have any.”

She might be drawing a WNBA salary

Sports Stories Packet #1 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. soon. “In the right situation, she could have or jumping ability. “She goes left; she a long career in our league as a utility doesn’t go right,” says Penn State coach player,” says Melissa McFerrin, general Rene Portland, who coached Douglas on manager of the Washington Mystics. the ‘99 World University Games team. “But she goes left better than anyone in the coun- Douglas can post big numbers; she led the try in that long, slow, lanky way. It’s been Big Ten in scoring last season at 21.1 points four years of saying, ‘If you stop her, you a game. She’s averaging seven less points stop them.’ this year, about what she scored as a sophomore on Purdue’s NCAA title team. “She was great to coach. She motivates people. Katie grabs you and says, ‘Cut the “I’m not looking to score as much (this crap. We’ve got to win this game.’ The very season),” she says. “I’m just trying to do next play, she leads the charge. That’s why the little things to make us successful. she’s so easy to follow.” She soldiers on. When the team needs a big basket, I still Says current coach Curry, who gave birth want to be the one to hit it.” to a daughter recently: “We’re blessed to have Katie. If my little girl can grow up to The lefty can take over games with a style be like Katie and I can be the mother based more on guile than speed, quickness Katie’s mom was, we’ll all be all right.”

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. What has Katie Douglas’ game attire consisted of as a basketball player?

2. What types of injuries has Katie Douglas had during her career?

3. List the playing statistics for Katie Douglas during college.

4. What family disasters has Katie had during college?

5. What was the promise that Katie’s mother got from Katie on her death bed?

6. What does Katie wear when she plays that makes her feel better?

3 Across: 4 5 2. “If you stop her, you stop

______.” 6

4. The family draws strength 7 8 from them

7. The only position that Katie 9 does not play 10 8. The number of coaches Katie has had at Purdue 10. Katie lost her father to this 11 disease 12 12. Died in a 1999 car accident 13. This is Katie’s hometown 13 14 15 16 17. Karen Douglas was Katie’s 17 18 ______

18. The basketball court has 19 been this for Katie

19. Penn State coach 20 20. Katie might be considered the most ______in the country Down: 1. Katie’s college major 3. The family-owned business sells airline ______5. The General Manger of the Washington Mystics 6. The type of surgery that Katie had 9. Katie’s game is this type of event 11. Katie Douglas’ college team 14. Katie shoots with this hand 15. The Final ______16. Katie thought she could take care of a new ______

By Nick Peters Manuel, 46, followed in Dusty Baker’s Bee Staff Writer footsteps as an outstanding all-around prep athlete, and he also continued the tradition CHICAGO — As a Texas schoolboy, Jerry of major-league managers with Sacramento Manuel naturally was attracted to football. roots. Then his father, Lorenzo, an Air Force cook, was transferred to Mather Field, and When he took over the rebuilding White everything changed. Sox in 1998, Manuel joined Stan Hack, John McNamara, Larry Bowa and Baker Manuel, now the successful manager of the as major-league managers from Sacra- division-leading Chicago White Sox, en- mento. rolled at Cordova High School as a freshman in 1968, and baseball suddenly be- He still has strong Sacramento ties. Mother came a higher priority. Mildred and sister Vivian live in town. Son Anthony attends Sacramento State, where “I immediately noticed the difference,” daughter Angela competed in the U.S. Manuel recalled over a recent weekend at Olympic Track and Field Trials as a Chicago’s Comiskey Park. “In Texas, we’d sprinter. play one or two good baseball teams as kids. Manuel didn’t neglect football at Cordova. In fact, he was one of the best prep foot- “In Sacramento, it seemed you faced a good ball players the city ever produced, a gifted team every day. Sacramento is a great base- athlete who attracted more than 100 major ball town. It was always a hotbed. There scholarship offers. should be a major-league team there.” “I played just after Dusty, and I was better than Dusty in football,” Manuel said with a smile. “I was a tailback, wide receiver, kick returner and defensive back.

“Schools like Southern Cal, UCLA, Ne- braska, Notre Dame and Oklahoma wanted me to play football. But I was a first-round draft choice in baseball, and that made my decision easier.”

Sports Stories Packet #2 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. Manuel, a Georgia native, was the Detroit Wallace Johnson remembers those days. He Tigers’ first-round pick in 1972, the 20th and Manuel were teammates in the player selected overall. But his dream of Montreal Expos’ organization. When major-league stardom went unfulfilled. Manuel joined the White Sox, Johnson was his first hire, as third-base coach. A switch-hitting middle infielder, he appeared in only 96 games with the Tigers, “You never know what lies ahead, but Jerry Cubs and Padres and batted .150 with three was always into the game and a great com- homers in 127 major-league at-bats, a long municator,” Johnson said. “You learn more cup of coffee at best. when you’re not a star because you sit a lot, studying the game.

“Jerry’s biggest strength is patience. He lets young guys evolve into playing the game. Confidence permeates this clubhouse. He has a no-fear attitude, so guys aren’t afraid to compete.”

Managerial success was instant. Manuel’s first job was with the Expos’ Jacksonville club in the Double-A Southern League in 1990, when he was named Manager of the Year. He moved to Triple-A Indianapolis But the game was in his blood, and Manuel in 1991 before becoming Montreal’s third- endured through 1,255 minor-league base coach that summer, and he remained games, batting .256 and soaking up the in that capacity under Felipe Alou until knowledge that would serve him well to- 1997, when he was Jim Leyland’s bench day. coach with the World Series champion Florida Marlins. “When you’re a young player, you think of playing, not managing,” he said. “But I was always managing to some degree. I always asked why a move was made.

“I’ve always played to win. I was on winning teams in the minors. I played the smaller roles, doing the little things. I almost got 1,000 hits in Triple A. That’s a lot of time.”

Sports Stories Packet #2 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. Consequently, Manuel was well-prepared the White Sox to an 80-82 record, includ- when his opportunity arrived, learning from ing a surprising 45-31 in the second half. two masters. Leyland imparted motiva- Last year, they finished 75-86, 21 1/2 tional skills. Alou taught him everything games behind Cleveland in the American else, including patience. League Central.

“I had good teachers,” said Manuel, who Today, the White Sox’s own a nine-game had a 112-82 record as a minor-league lead over the Indians, a remarkable 30 1/ manager. “Jim was a tremendous motiva- 2-game turnaround. tor. He had his teams ready every day, so you learned to push it to the limit. The revitalized White Sox had streaks of 6-1 and 10-1 and hit their stride by win- “I learned the most from Felipe because I ning 14 of 15 in early summer, including was with him the longest. He has a great back-to-back three-game sweeps at New feel for the rhythm of the game better than York and Cleveland. anybody I’ve seen. “We caught some people at a bad time, some upper-division teams who were limp- ing,” said the humble Manuel, a devout Christian. “We were playing well at the time and took advantage.

“It gave us confidence. We swept the Yan- kees when they were without (Derek) Jeter. But we still have a way to go now that teams are playing good baseball and intensity is building.”

“And he was patient. He managed 1,000 Manuel conceded the White Sox are a tad games in Class A and never sought a ma- ahead of schedule. jor-league job. He was going to wait till somebody came after him.” “We knew it would take awhile, but I figured we’d be ready to do something by the Manuel followed the same path. Like Alou, All-Star break in 2001,” he said. “Even he didn’t seek jobs. Manuel had only two with our youth, I figured we had a chance interviews, with the expansion Tampa Bay to compete. Devil Rays and the White Sox, after the 1997 Series. “We just had to address some areas — in- field defense, for one. We did that with As a rookie manager in 1998, he guided (Herbert) Perry at third and (Jose) Valentin

Sports Stories Packet #2 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. at short. We also improved our defense with “Jerry has been great,” slugger Frank Tho- (Carlos) Lee in left. mas said. “It really wasn’t that rough the last two years. We were just very young. “Last year, we just didn’t have enough His strength is his patience. He held up very championship-caliber players. We made well.” too many mistakes for the young pitchers to overcome, so we had to short-circuit some things.”

And Manuel, who lives in Illinois with his wife, Renette, is slowly gaining recogni- tion for reviving the White Sox. Manager of the Year honors and a postseason berth could destroy his anonymity.

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. When Manuel took over rebuilding the White Sox in 1998 what other major- league managers from Sacramento did he join?

2. What ties does Manuel maintain in Sacramento?

3. What positions did Manuel play on the football team while in high school?

4. What were some of Manuel’s strengths as a coach?

5. What mentor did Manuel learn the most from and why was this the case?

6. How did Manuel follow the same path as Alou?

4 5 6

8 9

10 11

12 13

14 15

Across: Down: 2. Manuel’s biggest strength 1. She is Manuel’s wife 5. Manuel’s father had this job in the 3. Where Manuel went to high school Air Force 4. According to Manuel this is a great 7. The name given to a new manager baseball town 8. Detroit ______5. Manuel was always into the game 10. A great slugger for the Chicago and a great ______White Sox 6. Dusty ______14. As a schoolboy, Manuel was at- 9. Manuel is a native of this state tracted to this sport 10. The number of hits he almost got 16. This person imparted motivational in Triple A skills to Manuel 11. Competed in the US Olympic 17. One of Manuel’s teammates in the Track and Field Trials Expos’ organization 12. As a player, Manuel always asked 18. Manuel’s first job was with this why a _____ was made team 13. The state where Manuel lives 15. Manuel’s mother

Associated Press On Thursday, when rain and unseasonable Cicero “Lefty” Warren was born Oct. 20, cold belied the near approach of another 1919, in Baltimore. Take that basic sen- baseball season, Warren sat and talked tence apart and a history of baseball spills about the season that never was. out. In the name, you can hear the echoes of great pitchers, Lefty Grove and Warren He doesn’t feel bitter about the way things Spahn. The World Series will be here be- worked out. He has enjoyed a full life that fore you know it. In the year is the Black includes a family of 11 kids. He made Sox Scandal. In the birthplace is the city money as a plastering contractor. One of where Babe Ruth also was born. his sons, Tony, played basketball for N.C. State. A daughter is a U.S. customs officer. Though he has outlived two of his children and his wife, Gertrude, he still has an athlete’s lean and fluid manner.

Give him a new baseball and his big left hand curls around it, his fingers instinc- tively fitting and refitting themselves across and then along the raised, red seams. His wrist rotates, seeming to remember on its own the spin that must have made batters flinch backward as the ball curved across the plate.

But the real story of “Lefty” Warren is Warren was a sandlot star in Raleigh; he about how he never reached the highest pitched in the first night game ever played level of the game he loved and mastered. in the capital. It was against a white team

Warren, who lives in downtown Raleigh near the fields where he first learned to make a curveball crack like whip, had a shot at being part of the big leagues, but several things blocked the way: war, seg- regation and the human frailty of his remarkable left arm.

Sports Stories Packet #3 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. from Pennsylvania. But when the battle and then the war ended, he played at Okinawa, too. He was the only Warren remembers how he struck out bat- black on the Army baseball team. He threw ter after batter until the visiting manager a no-hitter there. When the team played a got upset. “He was giving them a fit. He game for troops in a Philippines stadium, told them, ‘You can’t hit that kid?’ One of he said black soldiers in the stands saw him the players took a bat and gave it to him and said: “He must be good. He’s the only and said, ‘Now you go up there and see one of us.” what that kid is throwing.’ He was good. The world was beginning to “I’ll never forget that. I think I struck out open up for him. In the States, Jackie about 15 that night. I mean, I was mowing Robinson joined the farm system of the them down.” Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945. It appeared that the major league race barrier was about to Warren’s budding career was interrupted break. by the wartime draft. He reported to the U.S. Army and soon was on a troop ship Warren recalled that his fellow soldiers heading across the Pacific. None of the predicted, “Man, you got it made when you soldiers knew their destination until one get home.” Sunday morning when an officer an- nounced to a boisterous deck full of infan- Warren returned to Raleigh and played with trymen that they were going to Okinawa. the Raleigh Grays, a local black team. Then the big Negro League teams called. Sev- eral made him offers, but the Homestead Grays of Washington, D.C. — the winners of nine straight Negro National League pennants from 1937-45 — made the best: to double whatever the others offered.

Warren still has the contract from May 21, 1946, that shows he signed for $300 a month. But he said his real salary — delivered in cash at the end of each month — was much better. The soldiers knew that was trouble. “We had heard they had just hit Okinawa,” War- In Washington, Warren played with home- ren said. “So everybody got quiet and didn’t run king Josh Gibson and with Buck have nothing to say.” Leonard of Rocky Mount, two legendary players known as the black Ruth and Lou Warren saw action on the bloody island. Gehrig. Warren, who himself swung a good

Sports Stories Packet #3 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. bat, remembers being struck out by Satchel painful knot under his left shoulder blade. Paige. In the postseason, Warren played on The Yankees doctor examined him. His arm a barnstorming team that included a young was shot. outfielder named Willie Mays. The pain wasn’t only in his arm. Warren Though the black players admired felt a fortune slip away, too. “That hurt,” Robinson for his pioneering role, they he said. “I was counting the money before weren’t as impressed with the baseball I could get my hands on it.” skills of the former UCLA football great. In the Negro Leagues, they said, Robinson But he has no regrets. “I had a good time wouldn’t have been a big star. playing pro baseball,” he said.

“A lot people don’t know it, but the black As another season arrives, Warren sees a players didn’t think he was that good,” game that’s making the world better than Warren said with a smile. “We said he was the one he played in. “It seems like sports a heck of a football player.” brings the two races together more than all that talking they do in Washington,” he As the major leagues opened wide to said. blacks, the Negro Leagues crumbled. The New York Yankees were interested in pick- ing up Warren, but after years of throwing nine-inning games, he had developed a

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. What is the real story of “Lefty” Warren?

2. What blocked “Lefty” Warren’s shot at being part of the big leagues?

3. What was the first sign that the major league race barrier was about to break back in 1945?

4. When Warren returned home from the army with whom did he play baseball?

5. Who were the two legendary players known as the black Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig?

6. Why didn’t the New York Yankees pick up Warren?

3 4

Across: 4. These doctors examined 5 Warren and said his arm 6 was shot 7 5. Warren made this crack

like a whip 8 9

7. The first game in which 10

he pitched was here 11 12 8. Satchel ______13 11. The player who joined the 14 15 farm system of the Dodg- ers 14. Warren’s budding career 16 was interrupted by this ______17 16. Plays basketball for NC State

17. Where Warren went as a 18 19 soldier 18. Warren’s position 19. Babe ______Down: 1. “Lefty’s” sport 2. Warren was a ______star in Raleigh 3. Warren’s career ended with a ______problem 6. Number of children Warren has 9. The name of Warren’s wife 10. ______Grays of Washington DC 12. Warren was the only ______on the Army baseball team 13. Raleigh ______was an all black team 14. Warren claims sports bring races together better than the talking here 15. Where Warren was born

Associated Press do with any Duke bias. What they were seeing was the finale of a season in which There were hundreds of images that define officials made a pattern of calling border- the NCAA basketball season just past, but line fouls, many of them away from the one that isn’t being celebrated was the sight ball. of Maryland’s Lonny Baxter being called for his fifth foul late in a semifinal game This, of course, was the NCAA’s famous against Duke. “point of emphasis” in the 2000-2001 season. The NCAA basketball rules commit- Television replays showed what seemed tee asked officials to crack down on rough like common jockeying for position on play to restore fluidity to a game that had Baxter’s part. Maryland fans certainly turned into a shoving and bumping match didn’t think there was enough contact with under the basket. To open up the game, Duke’s Carlos Boozer to justify forcing a officials concentrated on reducing contact key player out of the game. Some non- in the low post, but they also called it tighter Maryland fans agreed. By the time Duke when it came to hand checking, moving played Arizona, many in the crowd were picks and bumping players cutting through booing the officials for a pattern of calls the lane. that seemed to favor Duke. It was that mandate of a year ago that put But what stirred the boo birds had little to the breath in the whistle that took Baxter out of the game and, perhaps, took Mary- land out of the championship.

Was it worth it? Is the game better? Did a season full of tight whistles detect more fouls and promote less contact?

Yes, according to NCAA survey of supervisors of officials, conference commission- ers, coaches and officials themselves.

Ed Bilik, secretary of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee, said the survey asked for an assessment of “the over-

The results? Nearly 75 percent thought there had been improvement, 22 percent said things had stayed the same and almost 3 percent said the situation had gotten worse.

“The perception was that it was cleaned up a good bit,” said Lee Fowler, the N.C. State athletic director and a member of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament committee. “A lot of the body checking was stopped.” hand checking was down. Despite the favorable reviews, Bilik said members of the basketball committee are “We made tremendous strides in off-the- unlikely to declare the job done when they ball contact and defending the player with meet soon. the ball,” Bilik said of this season of whistles. “In terms of defensive players “I imagine they’ll be pleased with the playing a man without the ball, we need progress, but will make it a point of em- improvement.” phasis for at least another year to make improvements in all aspects of rough play,” While the crackdown brought positive re- he said. sults, there was an inconsistency in how it was applied. When asked about specific areas, coaches gave uneven grades to the crackdown. John Guthrie, supervisor of officials who Nearly two-thirds thought things had im- jointly work the ACC and Southeastern proved when it came to contact by a de- Conference, said the number of fouls called fender on a player with the ball in the low spiked in the early part of the season, then post. But less than half saw progress in re- dropped off before increasing again dur- ducing rough play by offensive players ing conference tournaments and the NCAA without the ball in the low post. Tournament.

About half the coaches thought there was “Earlier in the year we probably took too less illegal contact by offensive players big a bite and then backed off a little bit setting picks and defenders fighting and then found the happy median,” Guthrie through them. About 60 percent thought said. “The whole secret is to get it defined

Bilik said the pressure on rough play wobbled during the season, and some officials were slow to enforce it.

“Was it as consistent as we would like to see it? No,” Bilik said. “But this was our first year as a point of emphasis. It will take some time to get all the officials to officiate the game in accordance with how the rule book was written.” called. He said several spectacular blocked shots in the NCAA Tournament were not Guthrie said the success of the rough-play called because body contact followed an effort could be seen in contact that wasn’t all-ball block.

“You’re going to have contact,” he said. “I don’t think anybody wanted us to do away with contact.”

The challenge now, he said, is to maintain the standards for contact set this season.

“I think the players adjusted, the coaches adjusted and the referees adjusted,” Guthrie said. “We’ve got to work equally hard to keep it where we have it.”

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. What stirred the boo birds against the officials?

2. What is the NCAA’s famous “point of emphasis” in the 2000-2001 season?

3. Did the NCAA think tighter whistles made for a better game? Why?

4. Why did coaches give uneven grades to the crackdown?

5. What did John Guthrie, supervisor of officials, say about the crackdown?

6. What does Guthrie think the challenge is now?

4 5 6

8 9

10 11

12 13

15 16

Across: 17 18 3. Low ______4. NC State athletic 19 director 7. It will take this to get all officials to call the game according to the rule book 8. Bilik said the pressure on rough Down: play ______during the season 1. Supervisor of officials 10. The players adjusted, the coaches 2. Some thought the crackdown adjusted and the ______adjusted brought these results 12. The number of fouls called 5. Number of images that define the ______in the early part of the past NCAA basketball season season 6. Called for his fifth foul against 15. Moving ______Duke 16. Coaches gave ______grades to 9. Secretary of the NCAA Men’s the crackdown Basketball Rules Committee 17. Bilik thinks more work is needed 11. The challenge now is to maintain in playing a man without the these ______12. Some officials were ____ to en- 18. According to Bilik, strides were force the crackdown made in off-the-ball ______13. Point of ______19. Boo ______14. The percent of the coaches who thought hand checking was down

Sports Stories Packet #4 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. Proposal could bring many returns 5 Among possible changes: Allowing athletes to test the pros without losing college eligibility

St. Petersburg Times can improve enough to earn another shot at realizing his dream. With the brashness of a dazzlingly gifted 18-year-old, Korleone Young was con- What if he instead could go to Kansas to vinced he could leap flawlessly from high mature as a player and a person, even for a school to the NBA. couple of years, as his mother had once hoped? Or Georgetown, his one-time fa- But unlike Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant vorite? before him, Young didn’t land with his feet firmly planted in the rich soil of stardom. Neither is an option. Instead of being a first-round draft pick in 1998 as he and his entourage of agents, Under NCAA amateurism rules, once he family and friends anticipated, he slipped signed with an agent, let alone played bas- to the second round. ketball for pay, he couldn’t receive a basketball scholarship.

But that could change soon if the NCAA enacts some radical proposals designed to re-open the door to college for youngsters who aimed too high, too soon — a group for which Young is, sadly, the poster child.

“This is a rule for somebody who had made an error in judgment and who really does not belong in the pros and does not realize it until he’s there,” according to members It was just the start of a free fall. of a subcommittee that studied the issue of amateurism for three years. Young’s NBA career with the Detroit Pis- tons lasted three games and a Warhol-like Another of the subcommittee’s recommen- total of 15 minutes. dations would allow a precollege youngster to accept prize money, to enter a pro- He’s now toiling away in relative obscu- fessional draft, to sign a pro contract, to rity with the Richmond Rhythm of the In- have a legitimate business relationship with ternational Basketball League, hoping he an agent, and to be a pro — not just in bas-

Sports Stories Packet #5 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. ketball but in any sport. If it didn’t work out, that person could elect to enter college. He or she would be required to sit out one year, like a transfer student, and would lose one year of eligibility for every year spent drawing a paycheck.

The rules also would apply to those who left college early.

The proposed legislation is expected to be nificant signing bonus and salary — and voted on soon. If it passes, it would go into still play collegiate football or basketball effect before the new season. Grant’s group without losing any eligibility. Florida State meets again in the near future, and she star quarterback Chris Weinke spent six hinted that it will further redefine amateur- years in the Toronto Blue Jays organiza- ism, addressing the red-button topic of pay- tion before returning to Tallahassee. ing for a prospective student-athlete’s prep- Weinke, who helped lead the Seminoles to school education. the national title in 1999 was a 27-year- old junior. “We’re talking about significant change,” NCAA president Cedric Dempsey said. The NCAA admitted such situations “Change is always scary within any orga- smacked of inequity, but the idea of rewrit- nization.” ing amateurism tenets that existed for a century seemed almost sacrilegious. Why study the issue of amateurism in the first place? Amateurism rules have been as “Three years ago when our (sub)committee sacrosanct to intercollegiate athletics as the started, we didn’t really want to talk about Ten Commandments to the Judeo-Christian radical change because it was so ingrained belief system. in all of us that this has always been what amateurism means,” Grant said. “We were But in recent years, the NCAA has had to so uncomfortable talking about concepts deal with as many as 1,100 requests to re- we never dreamed we’d ever talk about. instate a student-athlete’s amateur status. In looking at its rules, the NCAA couldn’t Can you imagine someone being able to help but see inconsistencies and inequities. take (prize) money? That takes a lot to get over the emotional trauma to even think If a teenager receives prize money from a about it.” golf tournament, he or she is ineligible for college golf later. But someone could play Grant and the other seven members of the professional baseball — and receive a sig- subcommittee realized they had to force

The world was changing.

The NCAA wasn’t.

Grant’s group was determined to create a more fair and more compassionate system.

“I get asked all the time now, “Are you just saying it’s okay to be a professional?” Grant said. “No, I’m not. What I am saying is when you’re enrolled at our universities for a four- or five-year period of time, the most important thing should be your fore entering school, critics said it’s naive academics and you should be playing sports to believe that would occur and monitor- as an avocation. That is a huge difference ing possible violations would be even more from the pros, and that’s what the NCAA difficult. Since the option to play a particu- should be concerned about. lar sport at a college wouldn’t be elimi- nated by turning pro, coaches insist that “We talk about the student-athlete. Well, safety net may encourage more and more that should be our concern. Student first, prep stars to test the waters. athlete second. Now if you want to go pro and forget about academics, fine. Go and If a youngster discovers he’s not ready do that.” physically and/or emotionally to be a pro and looks to refine his skills at college, he But let a youngster have an option, even is likely to bolt as soon as his stock rises, after an error in judgment. perhaps after playing just one year. That would affect graduation rates and perhaps That, she said, is only fair. jeopardize scholarships. The NCAA Board of Directors recently approved a rule that While acknowledging that Grant’s group would penalize a school one scholarship if has acted with the best intentions, men’s the men’s basketball graduation rate fell basketball coaches vehemently oppose below 50 percent. many of the proposals. They warn — and fear — that the changes would spawn new “It’s stupid,” Temple coach John Chaney problems: said. “They create a lot of variables which will never, ever be overcome.” Although the youngster would have to ter- minate his relationship with an agent be- The agent question is particularly bother-

Sports Stories Packet #5 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. some to coaches and administrators. Skep- about a manageable number” of young- tics say you’d have to be gullible to be- sters, not “thousands.” lieve that a player and agent would simply part company once the athlete enters or re- A generation ago, a high school star didn’t enters college, as the new rules would man- believe he could immediately shine in the date. NBA. In 1975, Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby tried it with mixed results. No “An agent to me is the purest form of the other prep phenomenon tried to make that free enterprise system in America,” said leap until Garnett in 1995. FSU compliance director Bob Minnix, who has put together a cutting-edge But as the number of early entry program to help cut down on il- candidates has risen meteorically, legal agent activity at the school. the number of high school players “Their bottom line is to maxi- hoping to be the next Garnett also mize dollars. If he’s got a player has increased. Ten have tried it the who has potential, he’s not go- past four years, including Bryant. ing to let him go because the NCAA says so. No way. He’s And Korleone Young. going to keep very strong contact with that kid, by hook or by “The worst possible scenario would crook. I guarantee you.” be if more kids go out because agents will be all over these kids Policing agent activity could be- saying, “If you come out and if it come even more unmanageable doesn’t work, you can go back,’ “ than it already is. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “Instead of three or four or five high “We think we have a lot of checking now school kids coming out, what if 30 or 40 on eligibility,” said Dave Thompson, the come out?” Atlantic Coast Conference’s assistant commissioner for compliance, “well, this (leg- Another pitfall, critics say, is that if a islation) potentially could multiply that youngster goes to college after a failed flir- checking two or threefold.” tation with the NBA, he’s not likely to stay in school long. His goal is another shot at Grant said that more education would help, the NBA, not a diploma. especially targeting youngsters who are most likely to be tempted by agents, as “We could be cutting out our own throats would another part of the proposal that in terms of the ability to graduate players,” would allow a student-athlete to take out a FSU coach Steve Robinson said. loan based upon his potential future earn- ings. To her, the key is that “we’re talking Added South Florida coach Seth

Sports Stories Packet #5 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. Greenberg: “I think it would encourage we redefine amateurism? Well, that’s the creating a more uneducated athlete. The $64,000 question. In my mind, the answer more kids that go out, the fewer kids have is probably yes, except I’m not sure how an opportunity to experience college. For- to do it. Maybe these proposals are exactly get about the degree for a minute. The ex- the right thing. My guess is that they’re perience of college, the commitment, the probably going in the right direction gen- maturing process is invaluable whether the erally, but it’s not exactly the right thing.” kid earns his degree or not.” Grant is more optimistic. Considering the vocal opposition from the basketball coaches, do the proposals have “Rather than say it’ll be a tough sell, I a chance to pass in their current form? would say it’s a slow sell,” she said. “You cannot approach a group that has never The ACC’s Thompson said he would rec- thought about amateurism and suddenly ommend that the NCAA take baby steps expect them in two hours to totally change instead of a Carl Lewis-like leap. their minds. That’s unrealistic. We have to give them time to mull things over and “The NCAA is an anachronism, at least in think things through because this is com- how we look at amateurism compared to plex.” the rest of the world,” he said. “But should

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. What is Young doing now that the NBA didn’t work out for him?

2. Why can’t Young go to college and mature as a player for a couple of years?

3. What are the NCAA subcommittee’s recommendations for a change in the amateurism rule?

4. Why is the NCAA studying the issue of amateurism in the first place?

5. How does the Chris Weinke situation illustrate the inconsistencies and inequities?

6. Why is the agent question particularly bothersome to coaches and administrators?

2 Across:

2. South Florida coach 3 4 5 6. Young can’t play col- 6 7 lege ball because of the NCAA ______8 9

rules 10

8. He is the basketball 11 coach at Temple 12 13 12. He spent six years with 14 the Toronto Blue Jays 15 16 15. Weinke’s sport after 17

baseball 18 19 18. FSU compliance director 19. The Detroit basketball 20 team 20. Some coaches warn and fear the changes would ______new problems Down: 1. The NCAA president 3. Men’s ______coaches oppose many of the proposals 4. An athlete making the leap from high school to the pros in 1995 5. Thompson said he would recommend the NCAA take these steps 7. Young is now playing for the ______Rhythm 9. The NCAA looked at its amateurism rule because of inconsistencies and ______10. Syracuse coach 11. The agent question bothers coaches and ______13. An agent is the purest form of the free ______system 14. This athlete was convinced he could leap flawlessly from high school to the NBA 16. Atlantic Coast Conference’s assistant commissioner for compliance 17. FSU coach

Cox News Service ceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. The company makes At first glance, the scene was the chemotherapy drugs that nothing out of the ordinary. A helped Armstrong win his battle young father, dressed in a gray against cancer. T-shirt and faded jeans, spent much of his Monday morning This day’s work for the teaching his toddler son how to Armstrong family - Lance’s wife skip stones across a creek. Kristin was mothering Luke between takes - included skipping Except this young father was Lance rocks, bouncing a red ball, and blowing Armstrong, resident of Austin, Texas, and giant bubbles as part of the shoot at two-time defending champion of the McKinney Falls State Park in southeast world’s most prestigious bicycle race, the Austin. Tour de France. “The more of these commercials you do, An Austin-based film crew and makeup the easier they get,” Armstrong said. “Some artist, a director from San Francisco, and of them are more time consuming. Some corporate executives from New York gath- just want me to ride my bike in front of a ered to watch Armstrong and Luke, his 17- camera 100 times.” month-old son, during a six-hour shoot to make a 60-second commercial for pharma- Armstrong has parlayed his extraordinary success in sports and his compelling personal story into an equally successful endorsement career.

Armstrong earned $2 million in salary last year riding for the U.S. Postal Service team. But he earns much more as a corporate spokesman for companies such as Bristol- Myers, Coca-Cola Co., and Nike Inc. His endorsement income is estimated at about $10 million, double what it was in 2000.

Companies pay a minimum of $1 million

Sports Stories Packet #6 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. a year to use Armstrong in their corporate in Paris as the 2000 champion of the Tour campaigns. The 29-year-old also makes de France. speeches for fees ranging from $150,000 to $225,000. He flew to Budapest, Hungary, in August to shoot a Nike Olympic commercial, which featured Armstrong giving mouth- to-mouth resuscitation to a circus elephant. In February, Armstrong filmed commercials in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe for Coke to promote the soft-drink company’s sponsorship of the torch relay for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Bristol-Myers, the nation’s fourth-largest pharmaceutical company, has used Armstrong as its spokesman for the past two years. The company produced the chemotherapy drugs that saved Armstrong’s life after he was diagnosed with advanced “We’re doing probably three of four of testicular cancer in October 1996. Last those [speeches] a year,” said Bill year, the company spent $40 million on a Stapleton, Armstrong’s Austin-based agent television and print ad campaign using and lawyer. “And we’re probably turning Armstrong in a commercial for Taxol, a down 10.” drug produced by Bristol-Myers for cancer treatment. Armstrong flew to Austin April 1, after finishing eighth in a five-day race in Spain. The newest commercial, with a waterfall Today, Armstrong will fly to Paris for a as a backdrop, used hope as its theme. news conference tomorrow before his training for the 2001 Tour starts in earnest. The “A lot of the commercial will tour starts July 7. be about the future and about hope,” said Sam Moed, a di- Armstrong’s week will be packed with vision president at Bristol- commitments to his corporate sponsors and Myers. “You look at the father to his Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Ride and then at the child, there’s a for the Roses festivities this weekend. lot of hope and opportunity for treatments in the future.” The commercial Armstrong shot was his fourth since July, when he rolled onto the Bristol-Myers is best known famed cobblestones of the Champs Elysees for its cancer drugs as well as

Sports Stories Packet #6 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. its number-one seller, the cholesterol-fighting Pravachol. But the company has been losing ground to bigger rivals, including Merck & Co. Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration delivered an unex- pected blow to the company, rejecting Bristol-Myers’ application to market the lucrative oral chemotherapy drug UFT in this country.

Armstrong rode his bike from his home in Tarrytown to McKinney Falls for the ad shoot. He had not seen his wife or child for a month, so spending time with them and getting paid to do so was a decided perk.

Armstrong stayed until 4 p.m., working on commercial voice-overs and extra takes. Luke was excused at 2 p.m. after he fell and scraped his forehead while playing near a field of bluebonnets.

But the production company was prepared. Leo Jolly, a 17-month-old Luke look-a- like, was on hand to finish the scenes of Armstrong lying on his back among the bluebonnets, lifting his son proudly over- head.

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. Who is Lance Armstrong?

2. Why did a film director and his crew watch Armstrong and Luke, his son, for six hours?

3. Why is Bristol-Myers Squibb an important company for Armstrong?

4. What is the message behind the newest Bristol-Myers Squibb commercial with Armstrong?

5. What drugs are Bristol-Myers best known for today?

6. What rivals has Bristol-Myers been losing ground to lately?

2 3 Across: 4 2. One commercial uses this as a backdrop for a commercial 5 5. Armstrong’s agent and lawyer 6 6. Armstrong turns down ten 7 of them a year

7. This 2002 event will be held 8 9

in Salt Lake City 10

10. The film crew is from this 11

city 12 12. Tour de ______13 14 15 16. A number one cholesterol- 16 fighting drug 17. Companies pay a minimum 17 18 of one ______dollars to use Armstrong in their 19 corporate campaigns 18. Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Ride for the ______19. Armstrong is a corporate spokesman for this sports wear company Down: 1. This Bristol-Myers drug was rejected by the Food and Drug Adminstration 3. Armstrong has a successful ______career 4. Champs Elysees is located here 8. The film director is from this city 9. Armstrong beat this disease 11. Bristol-Myers Squibb makes ______drugs that helped Armstrong 13. A drug produced by Bristol-Myers for cancer treatment 14. Bristol-Myers is the ______largest pharmeceutical company in the US 15. Armstrong’s wife 17. A division president at Bristol-Myers

Chicago Tribune partment, and they said I should go to the hospital.” On September 15, 2000, Rasul “Rocky” Clark became the starting tailback for the The game at Oak Forest that should have Chicago Eisenhower High School football been pressed in the annals of a 17-year- team. Blessed with good speed, the junior old’s athletic scrapbook instead became a emerged through hard work and unwaver- life-altering event. Even the play that led ing determination. And he grew into the to Clark’s injury, a pitchout that went for position, adding 30 pounds of muscle be- no gain, was deceptive to the naked eye. tween his sophomore and junior seasons. “I thought he had a cramp when he was initially down because it was a warm night,” Eisenhower football coach Greg Walter recalled, shaking his head at the memory. Clark had broken three vertebrae in his neck and sustained spinal-cord damage. He was paralyzed from the neck down, a cruel twist of fate for a vibrant young man who had been on the go since he was a toddler.

After a month long stay at St. James Hos- pital, Clark was transferred to the Reha- bilitation Institute of Chicago, where he has occupied a room on the fifth-floor pediat- ric wing for 8 months. It’s a paradoxical That same Friday night, Rocky’s mother, Annette, arrived home a little late from her job as a rehabilitation aide working with the elderly. Glancing at the clock, she realized her son would be walking through the front door soon. “He would tell me about how he played, whether he fumbled or not, and who won or lost,” Annette said. “But then my neighbor gave me a phone call telling me something had happened to Rocky. I called the Oak Forest Police De-

Sports Stories Packet #7 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. place to visit, feelings of hope gleaned from was much more violent,” Skowronski said. the departing young patients mixed with “It was a big linebacker who tracked him shock at the sight of a 4-year-old trying to down, and (Ewell) lowered down as he was master use of a prosthetic arm. hit.”

It would be easy, if not expected, for Clark The hit on Clark “just wasn’t vicious,” said to look back and say, “Why me?” But Walter, still mystified by the devastating there’s no room for self-pity in his life. He result. “But I remember driving home from attacks his six-days-a-week therapy ses- the hospital, saying to myself that there’s sions—three hours of working and stretch- no way my son will ever play football.” ing his arms, neck, legs and back—with the same drive he brought to the football Clark has also watched the tackle, but he field. “I can’t ask why or feel sorry for remembers everything about the play with- myself,” Clark said during a recent break. out the tape’s aid. First, he was grabbed by “I don’t have time to grieve.” the shoulders and driven to the ground. Clark blacked out for a second, but aside Walter and Eisenhower Athletic Director from a shooting pain in his head, he just Joe Skowronski have watched the Oak felt numb. “I was laying there, looking up Forest game tape over and over. They try for a minute, and then I tried to move,” to pinpoint what exactly happened to Clark, Clark said. “I realized I couldn’t. There but to no avail. It was the second time in were a lot of people around me and I had three years an Eisenhower player had sus- no idea what they were thinking. I didn’t tained spinal-cord damage on the football know what was going on. I was scared.” field. On September 4, 1998, Chuck Ewell was injured in a game against Feger at Nearly six months later, Clark’s feelings Eisenhower. Ewell, confined to a wheel- haven’t changed. It’s clear he would rather chair, has moved to Louisiana and is doing not remember. “It doesn’t bother me as long well, Skowronski said. as I don’t think about it.” Clark said. “I just try to keep going forward.” “The main difference is that (Ewell’s) hit That explains Clark’s claim, made with a wry smile, that he doesn’t talk to the doctors at the Institute because they are always giving him bad news. While the prognosis for Clark to regain use of his arms or legs is uncertain, his fight is well under way. He has lost his Halo neck brace and the g- tube in his stomach. He has been taken off a ventilator and has gained a little weight. His trachea tube has been removed, with a

Sports Stories Packet #7 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. plug in its place in the event of a sudden football team and is very close to Clark. setback. “He’s just a great kid,” Sue Muir said. “He’s very polite, very driven and has always There are still plenty of bad days. Clark wanted to go to college. I see no reason experiences strong shoulder spasms, and why he still can’t.” the medication he’s taking isn’t always able to ease his pain. The worst pain comes from She is seeking corporate support, having not being active.....and not being at home. sent out dozens of letters to area businesses, and she’s hoping Rocky will be able to at- Sue Muir, a special education teacher at tend. “It overwhelms me to see my son is Eisenhower since 1980 has recently orga- so loved,” said Annette Clark, Rocky’s nized a fundraiser to help Clark. “A lot of mother. “He is a very special child.” people visited Rocky when it first happened, but as time goes by, people move on and have their own lives to lead,” Muir said. “We want rocky to know that we still think of him as part of the high school.”

The connection between Muir and Clark goes deeper than a teacher trying to help an injured student. Muir’s husband, Ken, is an assistant coach for the Eisenhower

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences. 1. How did Rocky’s mother find out that something happened to her son?

2. Describe the play that led to Rocky’s injury?

3. What did Rocky’s football coach originally think happened?

4. What injuries did Rocky sustain?

5. Why doesn’t Rocky like to talk to his doctors?

6. Who is Sue Muir and what is she doing for Rocky?

2 3

4 5

6 7 8

10 11

15 16 17

Across: Down: 4. After Rocky got hurt Walter 1. What Rocky remembered about the tackle said his ______wouldn’t play 2. Rocky spent eight months in one football 3. A special education teacher at Eisenhower 8. The worst pain for Rocky 5. He’s the Athletic Director at Eisenhower comes from not being this 6. Rocky doesn’t talk to the doctors since 9. Rocky has been taken off this they give him ______news machine 7. Ewell moved here 10. Rocky broke three of them 8. Rocky’s mom 12. This tube has been removed 9. According the Walter, the hit put on Rocky from Rocky was not ______13. Rocky’s first name 11. This athlete was also paralyzed while 15. The prognosis for Rocky to playing for Eisenhower regain use of his arms or legs 14. Rocky said that he doesn’t have time for 16. This was Rocky’s position on this the Eisenhower football team 17. Rocky’s coach thought he had this prob- 18. The football coach at lem when he went down Eisenhower

Chicago Tribune they had a swagger. And the Oilers...I played against three dynasties.” You are David Duval or Phil Mickelson. You are considered a good golfer by ev- Montreal won four straight Stanley Cups eryone, great by some. You have length off from 1976, the Islanders won four in a row the tee. You have touch around the green. from 1980 through 1983, and Edmonton You have game. Even better, you are 29 or won four Cups in five years in the mid 30. You already have double-digit victo- 1980s. ries on the PGA Tour and you just now are entering your prime window to greatness. Duval and Mickelson are playing against This is when you pass go and collect ma- only one dynasty, but it might last for three jors. decades. Duval and Mickelson just finished second and third, respectively, to Woods There is a problem. There is a guy named in a Masters that one of them seemingly Tiger Woods. He is younger, and he is bet- would have won otherwise. But no one ter. He is not only the best of his genera- except Woods is winning anything big tion, but he might be the best of anyone’s these days. He has won the last four ma- generation. You are David Duval or Phil jors, the so-called “Tiger Slam,” the only Mickelson and you appear to be doomed time that has been accomplished. to settle for second place. You might be the Rolling Stones in the PGA scheme of When Woods won last year’s British Open, things, but you are up against the Beatles. he joined Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Can’t get no satisfaction, indeed. Hogan and Gene Sarazen as hold- ers of career Grand Slams. At 24, “We can relate to that in Chicago he was the youngest to do it. Now with the Edmonton Oilers, New 25, four years younger than Duval York Islanders and Montreal and five years younger than Canadiens,” said Doug Wilson, Mickelson, Woods already has the former great defenseman who won 27 tour events. When he won played in five conference finals se- the U.S. Open in 2000 for his 20th ries in his 15 seasons with the victory, he became the youngest Blackhawks. “My brother Murray player to win that many times on played for the Canadiens, and they the PGA Tour. Mickelson and knew they had the fastest go-kart Duval have yet to win that many, on the track. The Islanders had period. seven or eight of the best players in the world. They knew it and Duval and Mickelson appear to be

Sports Stories Packet #8 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. battling over who is the best player never money; it’s competition, winning.” to win a major. “You watch Tiger and he knows he has an extra bullet,” Wilson said. The comparison to Jordan is inevitable. A “The other guys know it, and he knows they generation of NBA’s best players repeat- know it.” edly fought to get to the NBA Finals, only to encounter Jordan. Orlando Magic coach How frustrating it must be for Duval and Doc Rivers thought about that as he Mickelson to charge near the top finally, watched the back nine of the Masters. only to find a guy who is younger and better. “They have to find a way around his “There goes Karl Malone and Patrick mystique, his aura, his presence,” said Ewing, trying to win a title during the Jor- White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson, dan era,” Rivers said. But that is not how whose nine years in the major leagues and Malone sees it. Athletes never see it as time on the PGA Tour give him an appre- impossible. “You keep trying,” said ciation of the mental strength the competi- Malone, whose Utah Jazz lost the NBA title tion demands. “He has the best presence to Jordan’s Bulls in 1997 and 1998. “That’s I’ve ever seen. He’s majestic.” why I keep coming back. You don’t ever quit. That’s why those guys keep coming “Michael Jordan dominated those guys up back. You don’t stop just because you lose. here (pointing to his head). Michael was You don’t stop because you lose one or two the most dominant performer I’d ever seen. or three times. That’s the sign of a loser, a But Tiger has blown right by him. I think quitter. I’m not a quitter, and I’m sure those he’s greedy—in a good way. He’s not after guys are not quitters. You just keep playing.”

If there is anyone who would know what it’s like to be in the final pairing without ever getting the trophy, it’s Marv Levy, the Hall of Fame coach from Chicago who got his Buffalo Bills to four straight Super bowls only to lose every time. If anyone could map out a plan for Duval and Mickelson to deal with the vexing despair of losing at the highest level, it’s Levy.

“You mourn the loss, you own up to what happened, then you ask, ‘How can I close the gap?’”Levy said. “Yeah, he’s an immor- tal already, Tiger Woods is, but you have to keep asking, ‘How can I beat this guy?’

Sports Stories Packet #8 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. That keeps you from lying there in the fe- tour, Mickelson 18. They have played on tal position.” If it’s not the fetal position Ryder, Walker and Presidents cup teams. for some, it’s a futile position for others. They have won millions of dollars and have Sox shortstop Royce Clayton remembers been there on the last day in majors. Heck, how the Texas Rangers he played with in Duval even shot a 59 and once displaced the ‘90s would bring a big, bad lineup into Woods atop golf ’s computerized world the playoffs against the New York Yankees, rankings. They would seem to have no only to get sent home meekly. It played on choice but to stick with what made them the Rangers’ mind to ridiculous extremes. good enough to get there in the first place.

“In spring training, the whole talk was “That’s the only thing you know,” Malone preparation,” Clayton said. “We’d take our said. “That’s what you fall back on. It’s easy whole team to play them in Tampa. It was, to lose. You lose two or three times (and ‘OK, this is the big day. We’re going to think), ‘It’s easy to lose this one.’ I’m not play the Yankees.’ This was in spring train- like that. Those guys aren’t like that. You ing. We go there and they’re looking at us just keep playing. I don’t think you allow like, ‘Are you guys holding tryouts?’ They yourself to think you allow yourself to think don’t change their routine for us. They just someone else is better than you are. When play a couple innings and go about their you do that, you’re beat already. Why even business.” go out there?”

The Yankees know what they do well, and And yet, it still comes back to this: You’re they know how to get themselves ready to David Duval or Phil Mickelson, you are in do it. That appears to be the advice for your prime winning years and you are Duval and Mickelson from those who have among the best there is. But you might be faced the same kind of daunting challenge. up against the best ever. What do you do?

Despite Woods’ mind-numbing greatness, “Maybe,” Sox coach Joe Nossek said, “you Duval and Mickelson remain an accom- try to be the second best ever.” plished pair. Duval has won 12 times on

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. Why would David Duval and Phil Mickelson be considered good golfers by everyone?

2. Why are Duval and Mickelson having problems rising to the top?

3. What is the “Tiger Slam?”

4. What did White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson have to say about Tiger Woods?

5. What did Karl Malone say about the importance of trying?

6. Who is Marv Levy and what is his advice to Duval and Mickelson?

2 3

4 5

7 8 9

11 12

13 14

16 17

18 19

Across: Down: 2. This hockey team plays in Chicago 1. A former great defenseman for the 5. Ben ______Blackhawks 7. The PGA ______3. Michael Jordan dominated guys in 8. The most dominant performer his ______Harrelson has ever seen 4. A rock group 11. This golfer has been the winner 5. He is a broadcaster for the White twelve times on tour Sox 13. Duval and Mickelson have won 6. “He has the best ______I’ve ______of dollars ever seen.” 16. A Sox shortstop 9. Jack ______17. One of the stars who plays for the 10. According to Malone, you don’t Utah Jazz ever do this 18. Considered one of the greatest 12. He’s the coach of the Orlando golfers Magic 19. He’s a Hall of Fame coach from 14. A Sox coach Chicago 15. At the time this article was written, Tiger had won the last ______majors

Chicago Tribune tion, having a Sutter as a member of the Blackhawks is as familiar as having a Hull, Brian Sutter just laughs when he hears he a Mikita or an Esposito. All of the Sutters and his brothers are described as intense. have had distinguished NHL careers. Five “I don’t know what intensity is other than of the six now either have played for or a deep passion to win and doing whatever coached the Blackhawks. Only Ron, who it takes to win,” the new coach of the just finished his 19th season in the NHL Blackhawks said. with Calgary, has yet to have a connection with the Hawks, but few would be surprised if he one day found his way to West Madi- son Street.

“I think they’re all special,” Hawks owner Bill Wirtz said. “All this stuff about how the Sutters are tough--of course they are. They will accept nothing less than the maximum. If that’s hard, fine.” For the six Sutters, arguably the first family of the NHL, being intense and passion- Three Sutters—Darryl, Brian and Duane— ate is not a conscious act or an emotion are coaches in the NHL. That’s 10 percent that can be turned on and off as needed. of a 30-team league. Darryl, a former It’s a way of life. “I don’t waste any time Hawks’ player and coach, is with San Jose. doing anything half-heartedly,” Sutter said. Duane and Brent also played for the Perhaps that explains the bond that has formed over the last 20-plus years between the Sutter family and the city of Chicago. The Sutters were raised on a farm in West- ern Canada that they still call home, a long way from the big city. The values learned on a farm, however, don’t differ much from the values found in a working-class neighborhood.

“I think it may have something to do with the blue-collar ethic that Chicago has,” Darryl Sutter said. Whatever the explana-

Sports Stories Packet #9 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. Hawks. Duane is coach of the Florida Pan- thers. Brent owns and coaches a junior team in Western Canada and Rich is a scout for the Minnesota Wild.

“Coaching is handling people,” Brian said. “It’s communicating and touching the right buttons. Knowing when to back off and when to push. Maybe we’re people per- sons.” Darryl believes he and his brothers bring to their teams the values they learned growing up in a large family.

“You try to create the same environment,” like that. Some people don’t like you be- he said. “Everyone has to pull their weight, ing honest with them and telling them they no matter what your last name is. It trick- have to be better and pushing people. That’s les down through a team. Sometimes it’s what success is all about. That’s what win- tough love.” Tough love means telling ning is all about.” people things they sometimes don’t want to hear. Being honest sometimes gets con- Like players, coaches are nomads, going fused with being too hard or confronta- where the jobs are. The fact that Brian was tional. a member of the Hawks’ most bitter rival— St. Louis—matters little today. Darryl said “Maybe there’s not enough honesty in the the only strange thing about Brian being world,” Brian said. “I’m firm and I like to the Hawk’s coach is that as a player, he look people in the eye. That’s the way the must have hated the Hawks. rest of my brothers are. Some people don’t “It was special. Chicago was a special city to come to,” Brian said of his feelings for the Hawks when he faced them. “I always rated men by how they played on Sunday night in Chicago Stadium. There was never a dislike (toward the Hawks). There was a sincere respect.”

Unlike Darryl and Duane, Brian didn’t have an opportunity to gain coaching experience in the minors. At 31, he was preparing for his 13th season with St. Louis in 1988 when he suddenly was offered the coaching job.

Sports Stories Packet #9 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. Until then he hadn’t even thought about better players and—here is the key—get- coaching. “I was in tremendous shape, I ting the maximum out of all of them. Like had just had a pretty good year, so there’s his brothers, Brian will accept nothing less. no question it was a surprise,” Sutter said. “I call it appealing to people’s pride and A year earlier, Brian had signed a new con- making people accountable,” he said. “It tract and planned to play a few more sea- proves you can take all the skill in the world sons. He suddenly found himself behind and it doesn’t matter.” the bench leading a young, financially troubled team. “I made sure I surrounded There may be a day when all six Sutters myself with good people, experienced are behind the bench of NHL teams. Brian people,” Brian said. “In coaching, you learn doesn’t spend much time thinking about something every day. I was a young man, that. In fact, he doesn’t spend too much but we built ourselves a pretty good hockey time pondering the how’s and why’s of the club there.” world. To this day, he doesn’t know how he came about ending his playing career Brian said the team he inherits is more ex- one day and beginning his coaching career perienced and has a more solid talent base the next. He was given a job to do and he than any of the other three teams he has did it. Now he has another job to do. coached—St. Louis, Boston and Calgary. It’s a matter of surrounding the base with “The special day is today,” he said. “Life is a challenge. I’ve learned to never take a minute of it for granted.”

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. Who is Brian Sutter?

2. How does he describe intensity?

3. How has the Sutter family distinguished itself with NHL careers?

4. Name three Sutters who are coaches in the NHL.

5. According to Brian, what is coaching?

6. What does Brian have to say about honesty?

2 3 4

6 7 8

9 10 11 12

Across: 13 14 2. New coack of the Blackhawks 5. He owns the 15 16 Blackhawks 7. Like players, coaches 17 18 19 are ______

9. Ron Sutter plays for this 20 NHL team 11. The city of the Blackhawks 13. Brian likes making people ______15. One famous Blackhawk player 17. This brother did not get a chance to coach in the minors 18. Brian has learned never to take a minute of life for ______20. The Sutters were raised on one Down: 1. Brian believes in getting this out of his players 3. ______love 4. Brian always made sure he surrounded himself with good and ______people 6. The home country of the Sutters 8. Chicago is this type of city to Brian 10. For the Sutters being intense is a way of ______12. Brian thinks that coaching is all about ______people 14. Where Brian likes to look at people 16. Brian doesn’t do much of this 19. In coaching, you learn something every ______

Chicago Tribune facilitates registration and scheduling, and the menu of sports has expanded to a smor- On TV, the elite student-athletes of college gasbord. Schools now offer the likes of sports are prime-time players. The student roller hockey, Wiffle Ball and Ultimate spectators with painted faces and placards Frisbee (a team game with passing). New are bit players. In another realm of sports, at Florida State this year: go-kart racing. non-varsity collegians by the millions play “You don’t have to specialize in one sport. in leagues of their own. Meet the athlete- I think this is more fun,” says Florida students of intramurals (IM for short). State’s Jenn Medgebow of Tampa. “It’s great. you can get out there, play some- A former high school varsity athlete, she thing you love, make it as competitive as competes for Kappa Delta sorority in soc- you want and meet a lot of people,” says cer, basketball, tennis, racquetball, softball Mike Bummer, a Cornell University senior and flag football. In the latter, she from Pittsburg. At his Ithaca, New York, quarterbacked a campus championship school, he’s played basketball, flag foot- team coached by her boyfriend. She played ball, floor hockey, ice hockey, tennis, soft- despite a broken toe. “I just wrapped it up ball and more. and played,” she says. “Our sorority takes it pretty seriously. We go out and really try Many schools estimate 30-50% of their stu- to win, but it’s not that pressure (to win).” dents take part in IMs. Such competitions date to the early 1900s at some schools, Players coach. Students officiate. No fancy but this is a new era. Fancy new facilities uniforms (it’s hard to find two pairs of are popping up on campuses, the Internet sneakers that match in an IM contest). The prize is an “Intramural Champion” T-shirt. But students get their kicks. “We’re running events for the umpteen million students on our campuses that aren’t the pre- mier, varsity athletes,” says Andrea Dutcher, Cornell’s director of recreational services.

At Cornell, 60 teams waged buoyant battles in a sport called “inner tube water polo.” Playoff competition recently was lively but

Sports Stories Packet #10 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. not sink or swim. “You’re sitting in an inner tube, so it kind of eliminates the swimming ability,” Dutcher says. “Students love to get in the pool and splash around.”

Harvard freshman Daniel Bergman of Potomac, Maryland, had a moment to remember last fall in touch football. A high school pal was at quarterback. “He threw a long pass to my roommate, who juggled it and caught it,” Bergman says. “Right before he got tagged, he lateraled to me, and I ran it in.” of student recreation centers, viewed by In basketball, Bergman tore a knee liga- schools as valuable in recruiting students. ment. He faces surgery and rehabilitation NIRSA says $1.25 billion in construction but already has begun to play some spring of new centers is underway at 66 schools. sports. “I definitely want to start back up Featured: lap pools, indoor running tracks again,” he says. Bergman lives in Weld and spacious exercise areas. Typically they Hall. His football team: the Weldabeasts. are financed by mandatory student activity fees. Many schools also have added fees, such as $2-$3 for individual events or $20-40 a team entered.

Washington State’s $29 million center new this year, has a 53-person spa. At James Madison University in Virginia, the $18.2 million center, opened in 1996, has an 11- lane pool. Texas A&M’s $36.4 million center, opened in 1995, has the floor space of five football fields and a 42-foot indoor Estimates of participation in IMs don’t in- rock climbing wall. clude students doing personal activities such as aerobics and weight training. The “A lot of universities are competing for stu- National Intramural-Recreational Sports dents, and administrators are finding, to Association (NIRSA) says 80% of 15 mil- their surprise, that recreation centers can lion students engage in intramurals or other really be an important component in attract- rec activities. ing and retaining students,” says Mike Waldron, IM director at Texas A&M. Texas This has prompted a boom in construction A&M with more than 40,000 students,

Sports Stories Packet #10 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. fields about 400 teams in both basketball IM norm. and flag football. It employs about 400 students a year as officals and supervisors. Player/coach Wesley Miller, a senior from St. Louis, says the name is a play on the At Florida State (34,000 work “illuminati,” those with enlighten- students) more than ment. “We put the K on there to make the 2,000 play flag football. team more warlike,” he says. The team was IM director Chad 13-0 this season, scoring more than 100 McKenzie and his staff points seven times. Last week it won the put out a top 20 poll. For championship, capping its 69-61 win with the All University two dunks. Championships, bleach- ers from four fields were The victory came a night after Duke won arranged around one. “I the NCAA basketball title, for Killuminatiz brought out speakers, Men, their victory also was “One Shinning and we did starting line- Moment.” Afterward, junior Jason Ayers ups and played music during time-outs,” of Chicago dedicated the title to Miller and McKenzie says. another senior - likening them to two Duke seniors. “We did this for Shane Battier and In partnership with NIRSA, a Baltimore Nate James right here. It’s their last go- firm called Campus Concepts holds intra- round,” Ayers said. mural national championships in flag football, basketball and a team event called the Miller: “Of course, they get more attention Training and Fitness Challenge. But unlike than we do. But it comes down to the same varsity and club sports (organized but not thing. If you love basketball, you love bas- affiliated with the NCAA), IMs basically ketball.” stay on campus. Leagues are divided by men’s and women’s, co-rec (men and women), sorority and fraternity and open (including grads, faculty and administrators).

At Howard University in Washington, D.C., the 26-team basketball league mixes them all. “This league gets pretty competitive because most of the guys feel like they should be in the NBA,” says Dexter Har- ris, coordinator of IMs. This season students lined the courts to watch Killuminatiz Men, undergrads with talents beyond the

Sports Stories Packet #10 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. In varsity sports, athletes brought together on teams become friends. In IMs, friends get together to form teams. At Cornell, Bummer is a prime organizer of the Wood505 Allstars, friends who play in nu- merous leagues. He manages the Web site of Wood505 (some members once lived in the Sherwood apartments; now some live at 505 Seneca St.).

If you ask my friends, they’ll tell you I don’t do any (school) work, but that’s not true completely,” says Bummer, who’s headed to medical school. Wood505 won the co-rec title in inner tube water polo. Howard has no women’s hoops league. Of- Roommates Kim Atkinson of Cleveland ficials cite lack of interest. A few women, and Marisa Huttenbach of Atlanta were on such as freshman Kelley Chatman of Los the team. Huttenbach played varsity soc- Angeles, played on teams with me. “If cer as a freshman. “Playing on varsity is they’re winning by a lot, I get playing more of a job,” she says. time,” she says. Atkinson: “I’m not usually a soccer player, However, most schools have special rules but I played on our team. I was like, ‘Whoa, in co-rec play to ensure that men don’t hog soccer is a lot of fun.” More than an “In- the action. In co-rec flag football at Iowa, tramural Champion” T-shirt, that’s the goal. teams must play four men and four women; TDs by women count for nine points. For inner tube water polo at Cornell, it’s three males, three females and a goalie of either sex. Female goals count for two. “It en- courages people to get the women involved,” Dutcher says. “Prior to the mid- 1970s, intramurals were pretty much for men. Then you had Title IX, and you had many more women.”

Males outnumber females by about 3-1 in Cornell IMs. In programs such as aerobics, women comprise more than 90%. Other schools report similar trends.

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. Who are the athlete-students of intramurals?

2. How is this a new era for intramurals?

3. What are the participation estimates for college intramurals?

4. What does the NIRSA and Campus Concepts do together?

5. Why did the Howard University basketball league get competitive?

6. What are some of the special rules by some college co-rec programs to make sure men don’t hog the action?

1 2

3 4

5 6

8 9

10 11

12 13

15 16

Across: Down: 1. In intramurals there are no ______2. In these programs women uniforms comprise more than ninety 5. IM director at Texas A&M percent of the participants 6. This title program resulted in more 3. Bergman tore this ligament females participating in athletics playing touch football 8. A Cornell University senior from 4. Offering intramurals is a good Pittsburg ______tool for colleges 11. The percent of students engaged in 7. Males outnumbered females intramurals or other recreational ac- 3-1 in IMs at this university tivities 9. IM for short 12. The name of Bergman’s football team 10. Campus Concepts is located 14. Coordinator for IMs at Howard Uni- here versity 13. At Cornell there is inner 15. She competes for Kappa Delta sorority ______water polo 16. Cornell’s director of recreational ser- 14. This university has no vices women’s hoops league 17. Bummer is headed to this type of 17. Prior to the mid-1970s, school intramurals were pretty much 18. Most schools have ______rules in for ______co-rec play to ensure that men don’t hog the action

Chicago Tribune The presumption is that Michael Jordan Jordan’s physical gifts, remarkable recu- could do whatever he wanted. If he wanted perative powers and six championships in to break down the triangle offense and fly eight years. So the question is: How good solo, then he would break down the triangle physiologically would a 38-year-old be offense and fly solo. after a three-year absence from a 13-year career?

“If you’re talking about biology, he’s like anyone in that we begin to lose our muscle mass,” Dr. Jay Olshansky said. “It starts early in life and progresses. Muscle tissue is something that you’re only given a certain If he wanted to break down the Bulls two amount of. You cannot guards until they stopped drafting them, increase the number of then he would break down Bulls two guards muscle fibers, you can until they stopped drafting them. If he only increase the size of wanted to make Knicks coach Jeff Van the muscles you have. So Gundy pay for calling him a “con man,” all of us, as we age, tend then he would make Knicks coach Jeff Van to lose our quickness and Gundy pay for calling him a “con man.” our stamina.”

Indeed, Jordan seemed to do whatever he Olshansky, 47, is a professor at the School wanted, and you can check with Patrick of Public Health at the University of Illi- Ewing, Karl Malone, a decade’s worth of nois-Chicago and a scientist at the Center other players and coaches or Phil Jackson on Aging at the University of Chicago. for confirmation. With Dr. Bruce Carnes, he co-authored the book “The Quest for Immortality,” a his- Now, Jordan is making noise about want- tory of efforts to alter the aging process ing to come back to the NBA. As always, through the centuries. it appears there is nothing to prevent him from doing whatever he wants. Nothing He says the portrait of the artist as an old except the one thing, Jordan has almost no man likely looks like this: control over: his own aging body. Age takes its toll on everyone, even someone with “He can’t jump as high, he has lost muscle

Sports Stories Packet #11 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. mass, his eyesight is probably diminishing, he’s not as tall as he used to be, he has lost bone mass.” Olshansky has not examined Jordan. He considers Jordan an “interesting case” and is rooting for him. “I want him to defy aging,” Olshansky said. But Olshansky’s body of work tells him there are big obstacles for Jordan to overcome, most notably his knees.

“If I recall correctly, what we saw on the sidelines after games was Jordan and Scot- tie Pippen icing their knees,” Olshansky “You can overcome the muscle problem, said. “One of the main problems we all face you can overcome problems with eyesight, when we get older are problems with our but if the knees go, you’re finished in bas- joints, and the ones that are in the worst ketball.” situations, especially for athletes like Jor- dan, are the knees. Whatever Jordan has lost to age, Olshansky said, could be compensated for partly “If he was icing up his knees after every through technology. “There might be some- game in his mid-30’s, the problem of swell- thing Jordan could do with equipment that ing can only get worse. So that may be the would help cushion some of the problems serious impediment he runs into fairly he might face with his knees while running quickly because athletes, especially basket- up and down the court and jumping,” ball players, use their knees so much.” Olshansky said. “I’m sure they’ve probably been doing that all along anyway, doing Immediately, we have whatever they can to protect the knee joints. identified Jordan’s Achil- That has to be his most serious concern.” les’ knee. “Tendinitis, for instance, will get worse,” And if anyone can get the perfect shoe Olshansky said. “There’s made, it’s Jordan, right? “You’d think so,” very little you can do. Olshansky said. There are some drugs you can take that will lessen the Next to his knees, Jordan’s most serious pain. But there’s nothing physical concern might be his vision. you can take at this time “Many people start having problems with that will increase the carti- their eyes in their late 30s, and early 40s,” lage you need to operate Olshansky said. “That’s going to be a ge- those knees as efficiently as when you were netic factor you have little or no control younger. over.”

Sports Stories Packet #11 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. And it’s not like he’s the incredible Shrink- assists during the regular season dropped ing Man, but “I’d be curious to see if he’s from an average of 5.9 to 4.1 in his come- the same height,” Olshansky said. “I’d back, and from 6.6 to 4.2 during the play- guess that he’s lost at least a quarter-inch offs. He averaged 2.72 steals during the because of the compression of the disc on regular season at his retirement, compared the vertebrae in his back that leads you to with 1.87 in his comeback in the playoffs, growing shorter. It happens to everyone.” that number dropped for 2.32 to 1.73.

A study of Jordan’s career averages at his Jordan didn’t handle the ball as much dur- first retirement compared with his second ing his comeback as he did the first time reveals the concessions Jordan had begun around, which underscores the idea that he making to his body, the difference between found ways to conserve his energy and re- a superstar leaving at age 31 and leaving main spectacular in shorter bursts. again at 35. Prime example: He might have averaged When he retired before the 1993-94 sea- fewer steals in the post season of his come- son, Jordan averaged 32.3 points a game. back, but none was bigger than his strip of His average during the three-plus seasons Karl Malone near the end of Game 6 in of his first comeback was 29.4. That drop 1998 that led to that championship shot and of three points a game continued in the dramatic final pose that remains his final playoffs, where he averaged 34.7 a game image. For now. at his first retirement compared with 31.4 during his comeback. He averaged about “Can he come back?” Brown said. “Look 38 minutes a game before and after his at his career: 32 points (per game), six re- comeback in the regular season and about bounds, six assists, 51 percent (shooting), 41 minutes a game in the playoffs both 33 percent on threes, and 84 percent from times. the line. When you hear all these impos- tors who are put in the same sentence with The biggest statistical differences by per- this guy, just give them that line. That shuts centage are in steals and assists. Jordan’s them up. Plus he was nine-time all-defense. That is a standard that will never be equaled.”

Though coming from the divergent worlds of hoops and medicine, Brown and Olshansky agree that Jordan’s knowledge and experience can make up for a lot of lost physical skill, perhaps even for that right index finger disfigured in a cigar-cutter mishap.

Sports Stories Packet #11 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. “I thought I heard him say this: ‘I may not be quite as fast as I used to be, but I’m smarter than I used to be,’” Olshansky said. “He’s abso- lutely right. The same principle ap- plies to the aging of the rest of us. We might not be able to do some of the things physi- “Who knows if it’s folly until he does it. cally that we were able to do when we were Don’t you remember the pure joy of watch- younger, but we can compensate for it ing him? If a guy like Kobe Bryant takes through our intellect. him to school, I don’t want to see that. It would tell me that there are some parts of aging that can’t be overcome.”

Don’t worry, doc. Jordan always has been as smart as he was great. If past is prologue, Jordan’s intellect during training for his potential comeback likely will prevent him from ever getting to that point.

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. What might prevent Jordan from returning to NBA basketball?

2. Who is Dr. Jay Olshansky?

3. What does Jordan’s portrait likely look like as an old man?

4. What does Dr. Olshansky say is Jordan’s greatest physical weakness?

5. In what way can Jordan compensate for what he has lost to aging?

6. How did Jordan conserve himself during his comeback?

Across: 1 2. Whatever Jordan has lost to age can be compen- 2 3

sated for partly through 4 5 6 this 7 4. Jordan’s knowledge and ______can make up 8 9 for a lot of lost physical 10 11 skill

7. He is considered to be 12 one of the best basketball players of all time 13 14 8. Jordan has remarkable 15 ______powers

10. Jeff Van Gundy coaches 16 this team 12. Jordan’s own ______17 18 body may stop him from 19 coming back

13. A person can increase 20 muscle ______15. Age takes its ______on everyone 16. Everyone loses ______mass with aging 17. Another Bull’s player who had to ice his knees 19. There is nothing you can do to increase ______in your knees 20. Professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago Down: 1. Co-author of a book with Dr. Olshansky 3. Jordan didn’t ______the ball as much during his comeback as he did the first time around 5. This is probably diminishing for Jordan 6. This finger was disfigured in a cigar-cutter mishap 9. Muscle ______is something you are only given a certain about of 11. Jordan is making ______about coming back to the NBA 14. As a result of aging we might not be able to do something physically but we can compensate for it by this

Chicago Tribune That bettered the 3:55.3 Over the last century, the mile has remained Ryun clocked as a Witchita, American’s most popular track event, even KS., senior in 1965. “I as fewer and fewer US milers were even wanted that high school remotely competitive with the world’s best. record,” said Webb, headed For more than three decades, US runners to the University of Michi- had been chasing memories of Jim Ryun, gan. the last US man to win an Olympic medal, a silver in 1968, in the metric mile. El Guerrouj, 26, world recordholder in the mile and metric mile, won the race in That began to change recently, when Alan 3:49.92, the fastest outdoor mile ever run Webb outran the past. Not only did Webb in the United States. Yet the four-time smash Ryun’s 36-year-old national high world mile champion and 2000 Olympic school record in the mile, but he held his silver medalist was almost an afterthought own in an international field led by to the sellout crowd of 11,211. El Guerrouj history’s fastest miler, Hicham El Gerrouj shared his victory lap with Webb, who then of Morocco. Alan Webb is a student from took another on his own. “An admiring South Lakes High School in Reston, Vir- crowd at Hayward Field seemed to pay al- ginia. most as much attention to Webb’s position throughout the race as they did to El At the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, OR., Guerrouj.” a meet named for Webb’s childhood hero, the 18-year-old high school senior stole the “Alan Webb can become my No. 1 rival if show from Olympic sprint champions he really works at it,” El Guerrouj said. Maurice Greene and Marion Jones by fin- “Obviously, he has a great future.” ishing fifth with a time of 3 minutes 53.43 seconds. Recently when he ran 3:59.86 indoors, Webb had become the first US high school miler to break four minutes since Mary Liquori in 1967.

Before now, Alan was shooting for something that hadn’t been done in 34 years or a record that lasted 36 years,” said ex-miler Craig Masback, chief executive officer of USA Track and Field. “He has now done

Sports Stories Packet #12 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. something that never had been done be- A national-meet finish fore.” in the top three would earn Webb a spot on Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic had the US team for the a similar achievement recently in Gotzis, Summer, 2001, world Austria, where he became the first person championships, pro- to top 9,000 points in the decathlon. vided he could make Sebrle’s total, 9,026, broke the record of the world meet quali- 8,994 set in 1999 by countryman and train- fying time of 3:36.20. ing partner Tomas Dvorak. Webb was clocked in 3:38.26 at the 1,500-meter point when he In less than four minutes, Webb went from broke Ryun’s high school 1,500 record of being the kid challenging high school 3:39. records to the favorite in the metric mile at the US championships next month. “I gave Webb’s mile was fastest by any US runner it everything I had today and I am happy since Richie Boulet’s 3:53.26 in 1998. with my time. It’s something special,” said Webb has run three seconds faster outdoors Webb. than any other US miler this season. As impressive as Webb’s final time was his tac- How big had tical mastery of the plan he set out in a race Webb become? In where the pace-setting was done for El the interview area Guerrouj. Webb was not discomfited by after the race, as running next to the last of the 16 starters at dozens of report- the midway point, which he reached in ers surrounded 1:58. Webb, only one was talking with “I think I ran great splits,” Webb said. “I Marion Jones, the played it pretty conservative for the first 2 world’s leading and 1/2 laps, but at the end of the third, I female track ath- pulled up on the pack. lete, about her victory in the 200 meters. “I think this is a great experience for na- “I got excited then. I was tionals,” Webb said. “I don’t want to make like, ‘I’m five meters predictions, but after today I’ve proved from El Guerrouj with a myself at that level. lap to go.’”

“Now I want to get to the next level, to put Alan Webb has erased a myself in position to win international legend from the record races.” books with his confident running at the Prefontaine Classic.

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. Who is Jim Ryun? What did he accomplish?

2. Who is Alan Webb? What did he accomplish?

3. What was El Guerrouj’s accomplishment at the Prefontaine Classic?

4. What did El Guerrouj say about Webb’s performance at the Prefontaine Classic?

5. Who is Craig Masback?

6. Who is Marion Jones?

1 2 Across: 3 4 1. Countryman and train- 5 6

ing partner of Sebrle 7 5. An athlete from the

Czech Republic 8 7. Webb wants to put 9 10 himself in a position to win ______races 11 12 13 14 15 8. America’s most popular 16 track event

9. Webb is a student from 17 South ______High 18 School 14. El Guerrouj shared his 19 victory ______with Webb 15. Webb was the first miler to break four minutes indoors since ______17. A national-meet finish in the top ______would earn Webb a spot on the US team for the World Championships 18. Webb is headed to this university 19. World’s leading female track athlete Down: 2. Webb is from this state 3. He smashed Ryun’s 36-year-old record recently 4. The last US man to win an Olympic medal in the metric mile 6. A runner with a record of 3:53:26 in 1968 10. History’s fastest miler 11. Webb thought he ran great ______12. The Olympic medal won by Ryun 13. An Olympic sprint champion 16. Where Hicham El Gerrouj lives 18. An ex-miler and chief executive officer of USA Track and Field

The Denver Post coaches because of her accomplishments in basketball, track, golf and tennis at August 15, 2000 - Sunday’s grueling Pikes Littleton’s Heritage High School. Peak Marathon, a 26.2-mile trail race, may be nothing more than a weekend challenge Van Deren was a tennis All-American at for Sedalia’s Diane Van Deren, who has Texas-Permian Basin, where she won the overcome epilepsy to lead an active AIAW doubles national championship. lifestyle. “I was always training for tennis, so run- “I had my first grand mal (large-scale) sei- ning was a part of my conditioning any- zure when I was 2,” said Van Deren, 40. way,” Van Deren said. “I won the Fort “It was caused by a really high fever, and Davis (Texas) Marathon in 1980, and then they called it a febrile seizure. I was on I decided I wanted to compete in the medication for nine months. When they Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii.” took me off my medications, I had nearly 30 years of no seizure activity.” Those intentions were derailed not by seizure activity but by parents who matched During those seizure-free years, life was the athletic young woman on a blind date good to Van Deren. She developed an ex- with Scott Van Deren, who played basket- tensive athletic pedigree, winning the Colo- ball for the University of Colorado from rado state junior golf championship at the 1978-79. age of 13. In 1978 she was named the Colo- rado state athlete of the year award by area “Scott was going to Hawaii on a sailing trip and took pictures and notes about the course,” Van Deren said. “But when he came back, he proposed to me and we got engaged. My priorities changed when we fell in love.”

The Van Derens have three children: Michael, 14; Robin, 12; and Matthew, 11. However, during Van Deren’s third pregnancy, the epilepsy came out of its dor- mancy.

“I’d never even seen a seizure,” Scott Van Deren said. “One minute, she’s in bed and

Sports Stories Packet #13 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. safe, and the next, the seizure happened. Scott Van Deren had several questions. And when you come to, you lose track of time and space, and you wonder, “Why are “At that point, I wanted to find some com- all those people in my house?’ mon answers for our questions,” he said. “I did a lot of research on the Internet and When Diane Van Deren had a second sei- even flew to the UCLA Medical Center.” zure six months into her pregnancy, she followed the doctor’s orders and took her The Van Derens discovered more than they medication. bargained for. Epilepsy affects about one in 100 people nationally, and about 40,000 in Colorado. Anyone can develop epilepsy anytime, though it is not a contagious disorder or a mental illness.

“Epilepsy is like a thunderstorm of activity in the brain,” said Leigh Holzberger, program director for the Epilepsy Founda- tion of Colorado, founded in 1964. “It’s just a huge burst of activity, which is why the body is so exhausted after a seizure.”

One of the tests they did before the sur- “Before the second seizure, I chose not to gery was to take Van Deren off her medi- take medication because of the side ef- cations. fects,” Van Deren said. “But at six months (pregnant), the doctors told me I had to be “They hooked me up to these machines and on medications, because a seizure could be wanted me to blow off a really good sei- very damaging to the baby. It cuts off the zure so they could see where they were oxygen supply and can be very stressful.” stemming from,” she said.

For two years, Van Deren’s physician, Dr. Fortunately, the results indicated the sei- Mark Spitz of University Hospital in Den- zure activity originated from just one point ver had been treating her with medications in her brain, and it was considered oper- that were marginally effective. able.

“After taking the medications for such a In 1997, she underwent a temporal lobec- long time, Mark said, “Hey, we might need tomy in her right, front temporal lobe. Us- to start looking at you as a brain-surgery ing a laser, surgeons removed a kiwi-size candidate,’- “ Van Deren said. “That was bundle of damaged tissue from the right when the networking started.” side of her brain.

Sports Stories Packet #13 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. “It wasn’t a tumor or cancer,” she said. “It medication. For the first time in 12 years, was just damaged tissue from the brain.” she has been seizure- and medication-free Any brain surgery creates the risk of stroke, for nine weeks. said Catherine Clayton, executive director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado. “It’s pretty unusual for someone to be able “Diane’s healthy lifestyle is really impor- to stop taking medication,” Clayton said. tant, and her determination. She definitely “The side effects interfere with really be- is a shining star.” ing competitive, but Diane was still able to play tennis in spite of all the medications. Through it all, she’s been just remarkable. She isn’t bitter and doesn’t hold any anger to anyone about it. She’s just a really positive person.”

“With this type of thing,” Scott Van Deren said, “you can either respond positively or negatively. Diane’s single biggest trait is that she’s high on life.” She’s about to get a whole lot higher. Will Van Deren’s buoyant spirit alone carry her to the finish of Van Deren also credited her balanced the Pikes Peak Marathon? Van Deren lifestyle and family and support of friends knows better. She has been training rigor- for enabling her to get through the surgery ously at 4 in the morning with her sister, relatively unscathed, though she admitted Kathy Roberg. her short-term memory remains a bit slug- gish. “Don’t ever tell me I can’t do something,

“I’m very grateful for Cathy Clayton,” Van Deren said. “She helped me a great deal and put me in the correct position to see the right doctors. I wouldn’t be here today without seizures if it wasn’t for Cathy.

“I really feel that my health and fitness, a positive attitude, my family, my knight in shining armor (Scott) and my faith were all important. I’ve definitely been blessed.”

After two years without seizures, Van Deren exercised her option not to take more

Sports Stories Packet #13 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. because I’ll prove to you that I can,” Diane The fund-raiser’s purpose is to provide sup- Van Deren said. “It’s what I’ve always be- port for programs within the foundation, lieved and what I’ve instilled in my chil- Clayton said. dren.” “We have a kids camp and an employment- Not everyone is so fortunate. Epilepsy referral service,” she said. “These are knows no cultural, economic or age-related among the biggest issues that come up for boundaries, Clayton said. people who have epilepsy.”

“Sometimes we call it an equal opportunity disorder,” she said.

Colorado Rockies manager Buddy Bell has been diagnosed with epilepsy, though his case is less severe than Van Deren’s. Bell will be the honored guest soon at the second Epilepsy Awareness Benefit Dinner, a fund-raiser at the Denver Marriott City Center sponsored by the Epilepsy Founda- tion of Colorado.

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences. 1. What were some of Diane Van Deren’s accomplishments during her seizure-free years?

2. How did Diane meet her husband?

3. When did Diane Van Deren’s epilepsy return?

4. In their search for answers about epilepsy what did the Van Derens discover?

5. According to Scott Van Deren what is Diane’s single biggest trait?

6. Why is epilepsy sometimes called an equal opportunity disorder?

Across: 1 2. He was Van Deren’s 2 physician for two years 3 4. Van Deren underwent a 4

temporal ______in 5 her right, front temporal 6 lobe 7

5. Diane’s biggest 8 9 ______is that she is 10 11 high on life

6. Program director for the 12 13 Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado 14 15 9. Van Deren had her first

grand mal seizure when 16 she was this old 10. When Van Deren 17 ______in love her priorities changed 12. Van Deren had nearly this number of years being free of seizures 14. Epilepsy affects about ______in 100 people nationally 15. Any brain surgery creates the risk of this 16. College sport played by Scott Van Deren 17. Anyone can develop epilepsy ______Down: 1. Epilepsy is sometimes called an equal ______disorder 3. Van Deren was a ______All-American 4. Surgeons used this to remove the damaged tissue 7. Pikes Peak is located in this state 8. Executive director of the Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado 10. Van Deren’s first seizure was caused by a high ______11. Epilepsy is like a ______of activity in the brain 13. Van Deren’s age when she won the Colorado state junior golf championship 15. Van Deren is from this city

USA Today mediate test comes in three two-minute rounds. “The longest three rounds of your The chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy life,” North says. houses the crypt of John Paul Jones, the Revolutionary War hero known for the epic words, “I have not yet begun to fight!” In that spirit, Midshipmen are r-r-r-r-ready to rumble against one another in the finals of the 60th annual Brigade Boxing Champi- onships.

“It’s awesome. You’re in front of like 4,000 people. It’s crazy. Everyone yelling and screaming,” says junior Ben Zuber of Cherry Hill, N.J., who’ll defend his 175- pound title.

Just the mention of these battles brings it all back to a one-time welterweight named Like swimming, boxing is a required part Oliver North, a 1967 Brigade champ who of Navy’s physical education curriculum. now pulls no punches as a conservative “It’s probably the best activity we have to radio talk host. “This is for the champion- put Midshipmen into an environment of ship. It’s a big deal,” says North, sounding controlled stress where they have to think as if he’s ready to lace on the gloves. “The and react under fire,” says Jim McNally, whole Brigade is there. It’s just a tremen- in his 15th year as Navy boxing coach. dous occasion!” Navy women and men take boxing class North became a decorated Marine officer in their second year. Women box women; in Vietnam but is remembered most as the men box men. There is no Brigade tourna- focus of national debate in the Iran-Contra ment for women at Navy - so far. “I’m not affair of the 1980s. His foe in the 145- going to say it couldn’t happen,” McNally pound final: James Webb, who also earned says. “Right now, the interest is not high decorations in Vietnam and became a best- enough.” selling author and Secretary of the Navy. Boxing, a popular collegiate sport in the The finalists in 10 weight divisions will 1930s and 1940s, was dropped by the move on to their own careers, but their im- NCAA in 1960 following a fatality in the

Sports Stories Packet #14 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. finals. About 30 club teams now make up says with a laugh. the national Collegiate Boxing Association, which holds its finals in Reno this year. Sophomore Rick Weil of Huntington Beach, California, a 156-pound finalist Navy’s Brigade champs go to regional. who was a champ as a plebe (freshman), Navy won three NCBA team titles from had a couple of amateur bouts in high 1996-98. Air Force won the past two. school. But he knows last year’s title will mean nothing when the bell rings this year: “If you’re not focused, it’s scary what can happen.”

From an initial group of about 120 hope- fuls, about 60 entered this year’s tournament. They wear headgear, groin protec- tion and mouth guards. Thumbless gloves are used for extra safety. But noses are ex- posed.

Junior Tommy Clarke of Coventry, Rhode Island, a finalist in the 165-pound class, has The hub of Navy boxing is the gym on the a little bend in the bridge of his nose that third deck of MacDonough Hall, where wasn’t there when he started boxing. “I wall plaques list past champs and heavy asked the coach, ‘How do you know if your bags hang from girders. Photos in the gym nose is broken?’” Clarke says. “He said, show the late Spike Webb, first Navy coach ‘You probably just got it bent a little. Some- (1919-47) and four-time Olympic coach. body will bend it back.’” “The story is that he haunts this place,” McNally says. “At night, people say they’ve heard speed bags and jump ropes.”

Not just any Mid can enter. They must have competed since at least the prior semester in intramurals, where they are matched by ability. “It’s not like a tough-man contest where they can jump in the week of the match,” McNally says. However, most get their first taste of the sport at Navy. Auber, a reigning champ, had never been in the ring until he got to the Academy. But he was a natural. “I fought a lot as a kid,” he

Sports Stories Packet #14 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. Senior Justin Hartfelder from Hickory, N.C., fought hard in a quarterfinal loss in the 165-pound class, despite blood stream- ing from his nose into his mouth. “It’s a lot of fun,” says Hartfelder, who lost a decision to freshman Tim Campbell of Hous- ton.

Campbell was cheered by fellow freshmen. Freshmen are the dregs of the academy, but in the ring, they fight upperclassmen as equals. Campbell and Hartfelder even hugged after the bout. “I met him (Hartfelder) like five minutes before the ter finals last year. “If you’re up against a match,” Campbell says. “He said he was tough guy, there’s no way out unless you going into the Marine Corps. He seems fight and defend yourself,” Lonero says. pretty cool.” Says North: “You can’t blame it on anyone else. It’s you and the other guys in the Campbell lost in the semifinals to senior ring.” Dustin Lonero of San Jose, California, a champ as a sophomore but loser in the quar- North tells the story about a time he was a guest referee and judge in the tournament. He gave a victory to a guy who knocked his foe down. The other judges agreed, except for one - former world champ Rocky Marciano. North questioned Marciano on his choice. Marciano’s response: “You don’t get it, do you, kid? You don’t give the fight to the guy that knocks him down. You give the fight to the guy that’s got the guts to get back up.”

John Paul Jones would approve.

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. What does the U.S. Naval Academy chapel house?

2. Who is Oliver North?

3. Who is James Webb?

4. Why isn’t there a boxing Brigade tournament for women?

5. Who was Spike Webb?

6. What were the famous words spoken by John Paul Jones?

2 3

4 5

6 Across: 7 8 3. “I have not yet begun to ______” 4. A Revolutionary War hero 9 10 11 7. A former world champ 9. A finalist in the 165-pound class 12 11. He is a 156-pound finalist

from Huntington Beach, Cali- 13 14 fornia

13. A 1967 Brigade champ 15 16

14. Once Secretary of the Navy 17 15. Freshmen are the ______of the Academy 18 18. There is no Brigade tournament for this group 19. The hub of Navy boxing is the 19 gym on the third deck of ______Hall Down: 1. Boxing is the best activity to put ______into an environment of controlled stress 2. The Air Force won the past ______NCBA team titles 5. He is the boxing coach at the academy 6. Boxing was dropped as a collegiate sport after one of these 8. Reigning Navy champ 10. Boxing is a ______part of the Navy’s PE curriculum 12. Plebe 13. Won three NCBA team titles from 1996 to 1998 16. Navy women and men take boxing class in their ______year 17. Spike Webb was the Navy’s first boxing ______

Chicago Tribune those without trust funds or wealthy bene- factors. Trouble was, Molly took to horses With her patrician features, her perfect pos- the way all child prodigies take to their re- ture and a soft-spoken intellect, Molly spective disciplines, and there was no turn- McAdow certainly looks the part of the ing back. young aristocrat. Even her name suggests a blue-blood heritage. But not for a minute First on family camping trips, then after a does McAdow allow herself to be caught handful of lessons under her current trainer up in a world where she clearly is an out- Lorrie Canady, who was working for a lo- sider. cal carriage company downtown at the time, it became obvious 7-year-old Molly had a gift. “She wasn’t afraid,” Canady said. “You’d tell her to do something and she just got it.” The question was where to go with it.

As a city kid, Molly knew the rules. “Until she was 15, she wasn’t allowed to play outside,” her dad said. “There was always someone shooting at each other,” her mother said. “I was always afraid something would happen to her.” Accomplished though she is as one of the top young equestrians in the country and a All things considered, Galway Farm in show jumper of Olympic potential, Long Grove, Illinois, where Canady is an McAdow, 18, is reminded daily that her city owner, wasn’t a bad alternative if you didn’t roots and working-class background are mind driving 45 minutes on a good day or obstacles she is beginning to think may be up to 2 and one-half hours in bad weather insurmountable. or rush hour three to six days a week. Growing up in the shadow of the Chicago After Molly’s first few shows yielded United Center, the younger of two daugh- wildly successful results, taking Canady’s ters of mother Linda, who works at the advice seemed wise. It has been a great arena as a concessionaire, and father Bob, experience, they all concur, Galway agree- who does rehab work for real estate coming to subsidize Molly’s training with panies, Molly just happened to pick a sport Molly agreeing to work on the farm and as incompatible to inner-city life as it is to

Sports Stories Packet #15 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. help train the horses. It is a successful re- jumps, but their horses do it for them.” lationship, albeit unorthodox to the world of show jumping, where the hired help are Molly, meanwhile, has been a “catch- the ones in the fancy riding gear. rider,” riding whatever horse the barn staging the show offers, generally not the tam- “When I do a show, I get up at 3 a.m. and est in the bunch. If that has made Molly a work on other people’s horses,” says Molly, better rider—she is currently the top jun- a B student at Von Steuben who somehow ior show jumper in the Midwest—it has not fits soccer and basketball around her riding. put her in better position for the Olympics. That means grooming them, braiding their manes, working them out and preparing “In order to make the Olympic team, you them for competition—for her competitors, need a horse,” Canaday said bluntly. “You who pay Canady the trainer’s fee. After the need to say, ‘I’m going to try out for the show there’s cooling down, more groom- Olympic team and I’m bringing you this ing and further training or “schooling” to horse.’ You and your horse make the team.” work on the horse’s weaknesses. Last summer Canady bought a horse imported from Germany. Molly was to ride it for a year, then Galway would sell it for an estimated $100,000 to $150,000. All agree Molly has brought out the best in the horse, nicknamed Ben, and vice versa. “She’s hooked,” her day said. “It’s going to be a hard day, the day Lorrie sells Ben.”

A horse, however, is the least of the McAdow’s concerns. “Every spring when the shows start, frankly, we don’t know what we’re going to do,” Bob McAdow said. “Of the 25 shows on the schedule, we can usually only afford to go to maybe six or seven.” In competition Molly rides against the children of entertainers and moguls, riders who In a political sport not unlike ice skating, compete on horses worth $1 million or Olympic-caliber riders must get around the more. “Kids who own six horses and pick country so judges can see them. In addi- whichever one they want that week,” Molly tion to travel expenses, the McAdows have said with a smile. “Horses like that you can to cover entrances fees to the shows, which ride blindfolded. Some of these kids can’t average $600, plus equipment for the horse ride and shouldn’t be jumping the bigger and outfits for Molly.

Sports Stories Packet #15 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. “We just got one that was on sale, 30 per- be over. “When your child has a special cent off, and it was still $575,” Bob said. gift, how do you deny her?” Bob McAdow “And she has to wear two or three each said. “We wanted her to have every oppor- show.” Helmets and boots push the total tunity.” beyond $1,000. Bob recalls a conversation he once had with a horse show judge who “I want to go to the Olympics,” Molly said. knew of the McAdow’s financial limita- “I think it would be great to represent my tions. country, and I think I could do it well.”

“He watched Molly and Unfortunately, that may not be enough. then he told us flat out, ‘You two can’t do what this kid deserves to have done for her,’” he said. “Molly was 10 at the time. He meant no offense. He just wanted us to know we had something here we couldn’t handle.”

Linda McAdow has a folder full of rejec- tion letters to requests for sponsorships. They also have no regrets, although it is clear that if a sponsor does not step up soon, Molly’s Olympic dream will most likely

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences. 1. Why does McAdow consider herself an outsider in a world she adores?

2. What is McAdow’s background?

3. Why wasn’t Molly allowed to play outside until she was 15?

4. How does Molly help pay for her riding expenses at Galway Farm?

5. Explain what being a “catch-rider” means. Why has this made Molly a better rider?

6. Why is being a show jumper athlete costly?

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8

9 10

12 13

17 18

19 20

Across: Down: 3. You are this when you ride 1. The current trainer for McAdow whatever horse the barn staging 2. You can ride horses worth one million the show offers or more ______7. McAdow has perfect ______4. Representing a person on horseback 8. McAdow’s age 5. Linda McAdow does this job 9. McAdow looks the part of the 6. McAdow wasn’t allowed to play young ______outside until this age 14. McAdow wants to make this 10. Linda has a folder full of these letters team 11. In competition Molly rides against the 15. She is currently the top junior children of ______show jumper here 12. Soccer and ______are fit 17. The McAdows have to cover around riding by McAdow ______fees to the shows 13. Galway Farm is located in this state 19. Purchasing boots and ______16. Last summer Canady bought a horse push total expenses over $1000 imported from this country 20. McAdow picked a sport that is 18. When she does a show she is up at ______with inner-city life ______AM

USA Today experienced pressure, but this is a whole different animal. I don’t want to be afraid Gabrielle Reece mutters to herself as she to try for fear of failing. You have to be muscles an out-of-sight shot into a spec- willing to put your head on the chopping tacular Nevada sunset. She jokes that she block.” Someday she hopes to tee it up in never used to swear as much as she does competition with Annika Sorenstam and now. Blame golf for her new blue vocabu- Karrie Webb. lary. “Sad but true,” she says, smiling. “The game of golf is uncharted water for me. I’m “I don’t know Gabrielle, and I’ve never trying to condense so many years into such seen her play, but I know she’s a great ath- a short time.” lete,” Sorenstam says. “I know she’d be an asset to our tour if she makes it. She’s well- known, tall and pretty, and I think it would lead to great exposure for the LPGA. I hope she does well.”

Some LPGA players are supportive but puzzled. They know how humbling golf can be. “She could have picked an easier sport, like bowling or curling,” Helen Alfredson quips. “Golf isn’t like hockey, where you can go whack somebody if you get frustrated. If you hit the ball in the water, you just have to stand there.” Her goal is the LPGA tour. She’ll shoot for her playing card at qualifying school in The statuesque Reece, 6-3, fully under- 2002, a lofty ambition for someone who stands her golf goal is a long shot. But she’s took up golf little more than a year ago at been trying to stretch her horizons for most age 30. She’s learning the ropes at the of her 31 years. Challenges are nothing Butch Harmon School of Golf. Reece’s new. friends always have called her Babby. Now some of them also are calling her crazy. Her lucrative modeling career, now mostly They wonder why the former volleyball past, featured her face on the covers of star would embark on this great golf ex- magazines such as Elle and Harper’s Ba- periment. zaar. She was a TV host for NBC’s Grav- ity Games, participating in risk-taking en- “It’s good to get squeezed,” she says. “I’ve deavors such as skydiving and drag rac-

Sports Stories Packet #16 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. ing. She hosted MTV Sports and The Ex- In California, she’s a member at Mountain tremists with Gabrielle Reece. She por- Gate Country Club, near the Getty Museum trayed a personal trainer in the 1997 movie in Los Angeles. Assistant pro Annie Gattaca. Markowitz is a mentor to Reece, who plays regularly when she’s in town usually shooting in the high 80s.

Golf has become Reece’s passion and her job as she grinds toward her date at Q School. To that end, Claude’s famous father, Butch, keeps a close eye on her progress. “It’ll be interesting to see if it’s possible to take a world-class athlete in another sport and make a good golfer out of her,” Butch Harmon says. “The mechanics can be taught, but because she’s never played, she doesn’t have golf creativity or imagination yet.”

Reece acknowledges she’s at the beginning of golf’s learning curve. She has a tendency Now Reece brings to golf the single- to hit balls too quickly. That’s a result of minded dedication she brought to becom- her background in volleyball, where she ing a volleyball star, first at Florida State slammed spikes in rapid succession. Claude and then as a pro. “I don’t know if she can Harmon is trying to slow down her swing, do it, and I don’t think she does, either,” but it’s tough. There’s still a volleyball teacher Claude Harmon III says. “But she’s player inside her golfer’s body. made remarkable progress. She’s done everything I’ve asked. She’s a heck of a lot Reece is learning there’s a big difference more than a pretty face.” between beating golf balls in practice and scoring well on a course. “I’ve never seen Harmon handles Reece’s day-to-day in- struction at the Butch Harmon School of Golf in Henderson, where she practices 3- 4 days a week for hours on end. She spends so much time there, she bought a place to live. Reece splits time between the Las Vegas area and her home in Malibu, Cali- fornia.

Sports Stories Packet #16 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. her swing, but she was very successful in volleyball, so she’s competitive,” LPGA Hall of Famer Juli Inkster says. “But it’s different in golf. You can hit thousands of balls a day - learning to score takes time. I hope she gets here. It would be great for women’s golf.”

There is precedent for a star in one sport switching to women’s pro golf. Babe Didrikson Zaharias, an Olympic track and field great, won 41 times on the LPGA tour. She was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1951. African-American tennis pioneer Althea Gibson, a two-time Wimbledon singles winner who captured five major tennis championships overall, played pro golf from 1963-77. “Those are two pretty compelling examples, LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw says.

“She has an unbelievable work ethic,” Butch Harmon says. “She’s a great kid, honest and straightforward. No arrogance. I’d like to see her get to the point where she has a chance, and I think she will. Give it a year.”

“If Gabrielle succeeds, it would be enor- mously empowering to women who want to take up golf. She’s a good story. We wish her well.”

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences. 1. Where is Gabrielle Reece learning how to play golf?

2. What do some of her friends think of her switch from volleyball to golf?

3. What risk-taking adventures has Gabrielle participated in during her lifetime?

4. How much is Reece practicing to become a professional golfer?

5. What is one of the mistakes that Reece makes as a beginning golfer?

6. What is the precedent for a star in one sport switching to women’s pro golf?

1 2

5 6 7

9 10

11 12 Across: 13 3. Golf teacher 14 15

6. Reece understands that 16 17 golf is a ______shot for

her 18 19 9. This is Reece’s goal 10. Golf mechanics can be 20 ______12. Reece’s friends have always called her this 14. An LPGA Hall of Famer 15. The city in which Reece’s home is located 16. Some LPGA players are supportive but ______17. Claude Harmon’s famous father 18. Babe Didrikson ______20. According to Reece you have to be willing to put your head on the ______block Down: 1. Reece is at the beginning of golf’s ______curve 2. The city in which the Butch Harmon School of Golf is located 4. Before golf Reece was a ______star 5. The game that is new to Reece 7. A museum in Los Angeles 8. Elle and Harper’s ______11. Reece is trying to ______so many years into such a short time 13. Golf can be this 19. Claude Harmon is trying to slow this down

USA Today The Honda Classic was Tryon’s first Tour event. He looked like the Pied Piper as he Ty Tryon is a poster boy for amateur golf’s attracted large, enthusiastic galleries at TPC brave new world of baby-faced young guns at Heron Bay at Coral Springs, Florida. Ty whose dream is to trade shots with Tiger shot 10-under-par. He stole the spotlight Woods on the PGA tour some day soon. and became a media darling. “I was amazed Tryon works with a swing coach, a sports at first that people wanted my autograph,” psychologist and a fitness trainer. He’s Tryon says. “I thought they were joking. I talked with a media consultant. He’s only was happy and excited and trying to enjoy 16. the moment and soak it all up. It was a dream come true.” “There’s a big difference between being Highly regarded David Leadbetter, who a 16-year-old golfer teaches Tryon and oversees his develop- in 2001 and in the ment, has been involved with him since he 1970s,” says Tour was 8. Leadbetter, whose clients have in- pro John Cook, 43, cluded Nick Faldo, says Tryon always had a Tyron family a gift for golf. He remembers the first time friend. “These kids he watched videotape of Tryon as a young- learn techniques and ster hitting bunker shots, feet dug into the mechanics at an sand just like a pro. early age. Ty is a great player for 16, and he’s only going to “He had that look,” Leadbetter says. “I get better.” The high school sophomore think it’s in the cards for him to be on Tour. from Orlando is so talented he tied for 39th He has the qualities to become a top player, at the Honda Classic recently, becoming probably sooner rather than later.” Sports the youngest player to make a PGA Tour psychologist Jim Fannin, who prefers to be cut since Bob Panasik (15 years, 8 months) at the 1957 Canadian Open.

“What Ty did at the Honda Classic didn’t surprise me,” Woods says. “Kids today are getting better sooner. There’s better instruc- tion and better equipment. Kids are also getting bigger and stronger. That’s why you see so many golfers being successful at a young age.”

Sports Stories Packet #17 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. called a performance coach, considers Tyron one of the most disciplined athletes he counsels. His clients include Texas Rangers’ slugger Alex Rodriquez.

“Ty is the real deal, but he’s young,” Fannin says. “Some little girl might sashay into his life and knock him for a loop. He’s a good-looking kid. He’s very charismatic.” Tyron isn’t likely to lose his focus because of romance anytime soon. “I love girls, but I don’t have a steady girlfriend,” Tyron says. “One girlfriend takes too much time. You have to call them all the time. I’m a Mickelson’s AJGA record 272 established pretty normal kid, except for golf. That’s in 1987. my passion.” “He’s definitely on track to play the PGA His love affair with golf started when he Tour,” says coach Kevin Smeltz, who trains was just a toddler in a walker. His father Tryon at the Leadbetter Golf Academy in bought him a plastic club and big plastic Orlando. Now, Tryon’s priority is to play golf balls, which Ty whacked around the as many pro and major amateur events as house with great gusto. He was good from possible. This year, he’ll try to qualify for the get-go, but he burst onto the national the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open. scene when he won the 1999 AJGA Boys Junior Championship in Dallas. It is an At 5-11, 162, Tryon is strong. He can drive American Junior Golf Association major. the ball with the big boys. And he’ll prob- Tryon shot 66-65-76-65 for 272 (12 under) ably go through another growth spurt. His at Gleneagles Country Club, tying Phil father, Bill, is 6-3. His mother, Georgia, is 5-8. “I’ve worked with him since he was 12,” conditioning coach David Herman says. “He should be world-class fit in another 2 years.”

Tyron probably will have his pick of colleges when the time comes. But he might turn pro after high school, just as Spain’s Sergio Garcia did. Tryon will make that call after he graduates. If he pursues his PGA Tour dream right out of high school, it won’t be because he can’t handle college

Sports Stories Packet #17 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. academics. He is an above-average student golf team. “You wonder about some kids who tests well toward college placement. burning out before they’re 18 or 20,” Cook And it won’t be because his parents are says. “You hope kids can be kids and have pushing him. Both graduated from the the experiences teenagers should before University of North Carolina, so they know they go on to bigger things.” the value of education. They’re giving Ty every opportunity to succeed without be- Cook believes the Tryon family will make ing overbearing. the right decisions. “It’s a good family.” Cook notes. “Bill has a bead on things. And Woods, 25, one of Tryon’s golf heroes, says Ty has a good head on his shoulders. Ty is he favors education first, generally speak- an all-around good kid, which will take him ing. “Enjoy high school and college before a long way.” you turn pro,” advises Woods, who played 2 years at Stanford before leaving in 1996 Tryon is confident without being cocky. for the PGA Tour. “Work hard in school. He’s proud of his Honda Classic accom- Academics are important. The key is not plishment, an experience to be savored and to forget to enjoy life.” used as a stepping stone to greater glory. “Golf has become a more athletic sport,” Cook agrees. He knows Tryon and his Tryon says. “Tiger changed everything. game well. Cook’s son, Jason, played with Young players can come out and shine right Tryon on Orlando’s Lake Highland Prep away.”

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences. 1. What is Tryon’s dream?

2. What three professionals does Tryon work with to improve his game?

3. How talented is Tryon?

4. According to sports psychologist, Jim Fannin, how might Tryon get side- tracked with his golfing career?

5. What advice does Tiger Woods give Tryon about going pro too soon?

6. What does John Cook have to say about the Tyron family making the right decisions?

1 2

3 4

6 7 8

10 Across: 3. Where Tyron lives 11 7. Spain’s Sergio ______12

turned pro after high 13

school 14

10. Tyron’s age 15 16 12. Tyron is a high school ______17 18 13. Poster boy for amateur golf’s brave new world of 19 young guns 15. Tyron is ______with- out being cocky 17. Tyron thinks having a girfriend take too much of this 18. A conditioning coach for Tyron 19. Cook’s son Down: 1. Cook says some kids ______out before turning 18 or 20 2. Tyron has the ______to become a top player according to Leadbetter 4. This person teaches Tyron and oversees his development 5. Sports psychologist 6. The Honda Classic was Tyron’s ______Tour event 8. A Tour pro and a Tyron family friend 9. Jim Fannin prefers to be called a ______coach 11. Tyron is trying to qualify for the US Amateur and US ______this year 12. Kids are getting bigger and ______14. He played two years at Stanford before leaving for the PGA Tour 16. The Classic in which Tyron recently tied for 39th

USA Today On this night, coach Dan Leman - a mem- On this full-moon night on the shores of ber of one of the village’s founding fami- Cook Inlet, the only sounds in this old fish- lies - is preparing his team for a tough road ing village are the hissing flow of icy tidal trip against achrival Seldovia that begins waters and a steady, thumping drumbeat. the next morning. Ninilchik is accessible The beat comes from the gymnasium in the by road, but Seldovia is reachable only by village’s modern concrete school building, plane or boat. In the three-month basket- where girls in blue and gold shorts and T- ball season, the Lady Wolverines will log shirts dribble a dozen basketballs up and more than 3,000 miles by van, plane and down the court. Ninilchik’s Russian and boat, traveling to towns such as the sea- native founders wouldn’t understand the port of Homer and Yakutat on the Inside game, but they would surely savor the war- Passage near Juneau. rior spirit of the Lady Wolverines, winners of two consecutive Alaska Class 2A cham- What might seem like exotic travel to out- pionships - for schools with 51-100 stu- siders is a way of life in Alaska, where there dents - as well as three out of the last five are just 5,000 miles of highways. Only state titles and eight consecutive regional 160,000 of its 365 million acres are popu- championships. lated; more than one-third of the state’s 650,000 residents live in villages such as Ninilchik, home to 450 year-round residents.

But the road-trip tradition is endangered. Alaska’s energy gravy train has slowed in the last decade, along with the billion-dol- lar oil company royalty checks that kept the state government coffers full. The school system is under pressure to meet Rural Alaska is mad about basketball, the mandated standards of learning, so funds perfect game for a society hemmed in by that schools had earmarked for activities winter storms and long nights. The game now are funneled into academics and test- transcends sports to become the thread that ing. binds isolated villages and extended families, a cultural link that goes back to the “We can’t turn our backs on academics,” days when visitors arrived by dog sled or says Gary Matthews, executive director of seal-skin kayak. the Alaska School Activities Association.

Sports Stories Packet #18 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. Yakutat earlier this season cost the school an additional $5,000. Yakutat chipped in $2,000, but the players had to hold fund- raisers to pay off the balance. On this 165- mile round trip to Seldovia, the girls varsity and junior varsity teams will travel with the boys teams. While the Lady Wolver- ines are a star-filled dynasty, the boys have been struggling. They don’t mind giving the girls their due, however, as the Ninilchik boys won the state wrestling championship in the fall.

“But we also know that school activities After a mandatory check to ensure the kids such as basketball can be valuable learn- are properly outfitted for the brisk, 20-de- ing experiences, especially for kids in bush gree weather, the caravan of blue team vans communities. We’ve got to find a way to and parents’ cars heads south on the Ster- keep it going, but the taxpayers aren’t will- ling Highway toward Homer, 40 miles ing to pay more.” away at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula. The road skirts the bluffs above the wide Cook Travel doesn’t come cheap in the 49th state. Inlet, passing moose in the woods and a Matthews estimates that his association lone wolf sauntering across an open field. will spend more than $1 million this year just to bring teams to Anchorage for state Across the expanse of cold gray water is championship tournaments. Schools in far- the Aleutian Volcanic Arc, a snow-covered off places such as Barrow in the bleak Arc- range of active volcanic cones that are part tic north must pay the expenses of visiting of the tumultuous Pacific ring of fire. In teams’ otherwise their players would be on 1964, the cataclysmic Good Friday earth- the road every game. quake ripped the peninsula and scoured the shoreline. Quakes are still felt in the area. Even in Ninilchik, which is fortunate to be A small tremor went bump in the night on the Sterling Highway and can reach before the road trip, but the jolt was so fa- many opponents by van, students pay ac- miliar the players didn’t bother to talk about tivity fees of $100 a sport with a family it. maximum of $350 a year. The school will Anticipation of the coming boat trip from spend about $6,000 on travel for the Lady Homer to Seldovia has the girls recount- Wolverines this basketball season. ing a gut-churning return voyage on the ferry two years ago. “We really shouldn’t Special trips aren’t included in that bud- have left,” senior Jessica Russo says. “The get. A 1,570-mile road and air trip to waves were really high, and the boat next

Sports Stories Packet #18 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. to us took on water and began to capsize. are warm, and the Seldovian parents ea- It was scary.” gerly load up kids and bags and take off for the gym. Seldovia houses visiting teams As the vans reach the high ridge overlook- in the school. The girls sleep in the music ing the inlet, whitecaps on the waves send room, the boys in the science room. a shiver through the group. “Looks like we’re going to have some green Wolver- When the girls varsity game begins at 5 ines tonight,” Coach Leman chuckles. p.m., the gym is packed. Snowmobiles, “Seasickness is part of Seldovia’s home SUVs and battered pickups fill the park- court advantage.” ing lot. Several thick-furred dogs slumber out of the wind near the gym doors. The game is close, but the Lady Wolverines can’t overcome Whitney Leman’s absence and fall 37-30. As the boys varsity game begins, some of the crowd filters out. The girls shower and head to dinner, where their emotions concerning the defeat disappear in the consumption of massive quantities of spaghetti.

Once at the Homer dock, the teams and It is Seldovia’s night, and the Sea Otters families crowd into the Rainbow Connec- take the boys game, too. Players of both tion, a vessel that appears to have more in genders and schools spend the rest of the common with Gilligan’s S.S. Minnow than evening socializing by shooting baskets in the Staten Island Ferry. As the boat leaves the locked-down gym. By midnight, the the Homer Spit, dozens of bald eagles line girls have pumped up their air mattresses the rocky jetty. “At least they’re not vul- and pulled out their own home pillows and tures,” quips a parent. settle in for the night.

Inside the crowded cabin, the girls hunker Despite their many hours of travel and hard down with textbooks. This trip will take play, the players stave off sleep and talk up Friday and Saturday, but away games quietly. They are no excuse for missing exams or home- never seem to work. The system works: 10 of the 12 var- run out of things sity players are honor students. to talk about. “Every day is a When the Rainbow Connection arrives, the new day,” wobbly Ninilchik contingent navigates an Whitney Leman equally wobbly floating walkway glazed says. “That’s ex- with ice. But the waiting SUVs and vans citing isn’t it?”

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences. 1. Why is rural Alaska mad about basketball?

2. What makes playing basketball in Seldovia unique?

3. Why are basketball road-trips endangered?

4. What type of basketball record have the Lady Wolverines earned?

5. How have the Ninilchik boys done in sports lately?

6. What is the Aleutian Volcanic Arc?

1 Across: 2. Where state championship tournaments are 2 3

held in Alaska 4 4. Alaska’s ______gravy 5 6 train has slowed 7 5. ______8 9 10 11 12 Leman was absent from the game 13 6. A home court 14 15

advantage for 16 the Seldovia’s team is 17 18 ______8. These people aren’t willing to pay more for activities 13. This town is home to 450 year-round residents 14. Native founders of Ninilchik were ______16. The Seldovia Sea ______17. Visitors to rural Alaska used to arrive by ______sled or seal-skin kayak 18. He is the coach for the Lady Wolverines Down: 1. The road-trip tradition is ______3. Rainbow ______6. The highway that goes through Ninilchik 7. What might seem like ______travel to outsiders is a way of life in Alaska 9. The name of a Volcanic Arc 10. Executive director of the Alaska School Activities Association 11. The Ninilchik girls sleep in this room while in Seldovia 12. This game transcends sports and is a thread that binds villages 14. ______Alaska is mad about basketball 15. This town is only reachable by plane or boat

USA Today Under Bischof the Eastside boys team (26- 3) is positioned to win its third consecu- At night, tiny Eastside College Prep’s bas- tive small-school sectional title. Recently, ketball gym glows like an oasis in a city the boys wrapped up their fourth consecu- that has been rocked by poverty, violence tive Christian Private Schools Athletic and drugs. Largely bypassed by the League title: the girls (21-5) claimed their dot.com boom, it is a city whose land only second in a row. Central Coast Section recently has become attractive to the rest playoffs begin for them soon. of prosperous Silicon Valley. Basketball first lured Bischof, Eastside’s 31-year-old founder and principal, to East Palo Alto when he was a teenager looking for a game. Soon, he would use the sport to entice area students to study. It was that same core of kids who led Bischof to dedi- cate his life toward preparing area students for college. “Very shortly, it became much more than just basketball,” Bischof says.

Yet the standing-room-only crowds for recent Eastside games reveal how the school and sport have brought the community together. Parking was so scarce fans walked nearly a mile to get to a campus built on a But for 20 years, East Palo Alto didn’t have site that once included a dirt lot with bro- a high school to call its own. Education- ken glass. This though the school has only ally, the area was noteworthy only for its flawed desegregation busing attempts that wound up as the genesis for the 1995 Michelle Pfeiffer film, Dangerous Minds. But in 1996 - just four years after East Palo Alto recorded the highest murder per capita rate in the country - Chris Bischof and a small group of parents and teachers founded a daring prep school and named it Eastside. And it is Eastside, with the help of a championship boys basketball team, that has returned pride to the community.

Sports Stories Packet #19 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. 81 students, grades 6-12. An Eastside par- player (barely) over 6 feet tall. But just as ents group ran a family-style concession important as the wins are what happens drill as impressive as the home team’s play after - it’s the postgame scenes that are most inside “The Panther Dome.” The $1.7 mil- telling. The court turns into something of a lion gym was built last year and funded by community center, with families and anonymous donors, ending a three-year friends from the neighborhood staying long stretch in which teams practiced outdoors. after the final buzzer. Children play in the landscaped courtyard as older siblings bee- line toward the computer lab, all under the parents group’s watchful eye. Every now and again, a car can be heard screeching down the street or police lights seen flash- ing in pursuit. It seemingly is worlds apart from the trendy Palo Alto night life a 10- minute drive to the west.

That same divide had Bischof in a rage upon learning his recreation league bud- Eastside, an all-scholarship private school dies were not prepared for college. So he where most students cannot afford their got fellow Stanford students to help start a own lunches yet often study on campus program called “Shoot for the Stars” in until 9 p.m., last year graduated its inau- 1991. “No books, no ball,” was the unoffi- gural class of eight seniors into four-year cial motto. universities. Half the graduates were starters on the boys basketball team. Eastside’s Eastside was hatched because Bischof success spawned a replica to the south in could not fathom watching those same stu- San Jose, and gave city officials impetus dents bused away like the rest. “It’s been to open a charter high school this fall. tragic results,” Bischof says. “You have a dropout rate of 65% in the community - “When you come here, you get ideas, what 65% of the kids not even finishing high you want to do in the future,” says sopho- school, let alone going to college. Espe- more Jeremiah Williams, who turned his cially here in Silicon Valley, it’s a stagger- grades around to become co-captain of the ing statistic. It’s pretty scary to think, ‘How basketball team. “It’s just like a dream. And can a community be self-sustaining when it’s there. And there are people helping you. the majority of the students don’t finish You just have to want it.” high school?”

Under Bischof, Eastside has certainly be- But now donors, including Bay Area sports come a perennial small school power. This stars, make it possible for Eastside students year the team has done it despite just one to visit colleges in cities such as Washing-

Sports Stories Packet #19 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. ton and New York. New laptops are avail- says Haynie, one of the first bused to an- able for checkout during the day. Refrig- other high school. “They were looking at erators in the Eastside rec room and ad- East Palo Alto as a wasteland. And they ministrative office kitchen also are filled didn’t care actually what happened. Until regularly. Parents from the neighborhood they actually saw value in East Palo Alto drop in regularly, often with hopes of get- for it being centrally located. Before, they ting a child admitted. Many use the post- felt like they had no need to develop in East game basketball setting to introduce them- Palo Alto. “In a subtle way, it was a form selves. of racism. They were coming here, taking our best players for their programs, not re- “In my family, I’m the first one to go to ally concerned whether they graduated.” college,” says senior forward Nakelia Pickrom, who hopes Haynie sits on the end of the Eastside bench to get into Tufts, be- during games, the outward emotion to come a pediatri- Bischof’s ever-present calm. It shows that cian and study Bischof and his assistant coach, former chemical en- Standford quarterback Steve Smith, have gineering. worked with these boys since they were “So, this is young. like a really big They have game and speed yet play funda- thing mentally sound defense. They have depth, for my too, as just about anyone in the commu- fam- nity will tell you when recounting ily.” Eastside’s thrilling 60-58 double overtime win against St. Lawrence Academy re- One of the recent concerns surrounding cently. East Palo Alto is that there will be no community left when this new generation of The Eastside boys practice above the rim, college students returns, that Silicon Val- yet rarely dunk during blowouts and are ley money will entice many of the approxi- never told their individual statistics. “We’re mately 15,000 residents to sell their homes. the smallest school around,” says senior co- But you get the feeling many of the captain Elias Chavez, Eastside’s leading Eastside regulars will always be around. scorer at 5-7, who wants to study business Especially for basketball games. There is administration. “We “Grandma” Muriel Bradley, who is rais- beat the odds ev- ing nine of her grandchildren yet still finds ery time.” time to stock the Eastside refrigerators from Costco.

“They didn’t want us to have an identity,”

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences. 1. Who founded the prep school named, Eastside?

2. What is East Palo Alto noted for in the area?

3. What type of school is Eastside?

4. How does Jeremiah Williams describe Eastside?

5. Why was the Eastside school hatched?

6. Who makes it possible for Eastside students to visit colleges in cities such as Washington and New York?

1 2

3 4

6 7

9 10 11

14 15

Across: 16 17 18 1. Hopes to get into Tufts 4. Eastside’s 19 founder and principal 7. ______of Eastside’s graduates Down: were starters on the boys basket- 2. They are filled regularly ball team 3. East Palo Alto is known for its 10. Eastside is an all-scholarship flawed ______busing attempts ______school 5. The ______Dome 11. “Shoot for the ______” 6. New ______are available for 12. Silicon ______checkout during the day at 13. Turned his grades around to be- Eastside come co-captain of the basketball 8. Number of Eastside graduates last team year 14. East Palo Alto has been rocked by 9. She’s raising nine of her grandchil- poverty, violence and ______dren 16. The gym was funded by ______13. Fans had to do this to get to the donors school 18. The name of the new prep school 15. Bishof’s assistant coach 19. Eastside and basketball have 17. “No books, no ball,” was the unof- brought the ______together ficial ______

This information was used to help the 1. Controlled Breathing - essential in Vancouver Island Girls under 16 volleyball learning to relax team win the British Columbia Summer Games Gold medal. Mark Lindal was the 2. Self Talk head coach of that team and discovered the 3. Concentration or attention span benefits of mental visualization with his 4. Imagery or visualization players. Controlled Breathing:

There are a few different techniques to this area of mental preparation but all have the same goal—to help an athlete relax so that they can a.) overcome a mistake and re- focus, b.) improve concentration, c.) begin a visualization session.

The technique I like is the counting method where you start at 5 and count to 1. With each number you take a deep breath “The players found they were more relaxed through your nose and focus on the num- and focused” said Lindal. “By the end of ber. Exhale and feel the tension release the tournament we won because we were from your body. Say to yourself “I feel the toughest team mentally and that really more relaxed,” “I am breathing in relax- showed when the games were close.” ation and exhaling tension.” Do not rush this exercise. Mental preparation is the most important aspect of the game of volleyball. It can be Self Talk the difference between playing well and playing your best. Each element of the Self talk are those words we say to our- game can apply the principles of mental selves in our day to day lives - on and off preparation and an athlete can see its ben- the court. The words we say to ourselves efits in only a couple of practices. can have a profound impact on how we perform. Improvement in this area is a great There are four areas of Mental Preparation life skill for young athletes to learn.

Sports Stories Packet #20 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. For instance - after we make an error what example, on Serve Receive a check list do we say to ourselves? Is it negative? What might be 1) pass the ball, 2) swing to power, are better words we can use that can get us 3) hit the ball down the line to one, 4) ready and our team ready for the next play. I am to block and key on player number X. not a big fan of players going to a person who just made a mistake (i.e. service er- When we are serving it is important to look ror, hitting error, shanked pass) and saying at the other team and run the check list of nice try. This actually can be a very nega- who we have to block, where we play on tive effect as the person knows they made defense, where the hitter is going hit, and a mistake and is better left alone to re-fo- what are we running on transition. cus on what the team has to do next. What a person can do is run a quick movie of the Another aspect of concentration is being result they wanted on the play, then get into able to finish a team off when we get a lead. position and say to themselves “the next What we need to be successful is an atti- ball is going in.” You can even be more tude that increases concentration after 10 aggressive and say to yourself, “give me points. Some teams I have coached have the ball because I’m going to make the had a set play that we would switch to at perfect pass and then hit back at you!” 10 points. The players found this fun and that it helped them focus in on the win and finishing strong.

Scouting the opposition is an important part of mental preparation and concentration. If you know who the team will set and where the players are going to hit or serve, you have gained a big edge in the game. It also give you something you can focus on. Scouting and game plan are a whole other chapter.

Imagery and Visualization

There have been several studies done that show that all the best athletes and even top Concentration: people in business have one major thing in common. They visualize. I like to emphasize a check list to help players improve in this area. Every play and Imagery is the pictures you see or feelings every position has a check list that needs you get. Visualization will put it into prac- to be done before the ball is served. For tice. In talking with many young athletes

Sports Stories Packet #20 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. the common concern is lack of attention Here is a template for running mental mov- span, other thoughts or dreams come into ies or visualizing: play. That’s OK, but the more you practice visualizing the more it becomes routine and 1. Do your control breathing with the more benefit you gain. your eyes closed. 2. Picture yourself inside an elevator (some people like to picture being on the top of a hill). 3. As you go down the elevator (hill) count slowly from 10 to 1 going down each floor. 4. As you hit each floor say I feel more relaxed, breath in relaxation, exhale tension. 5. At the bottom the doors open and you see a garbage can. Picture you putting any left over garbage, ten- sions, problems at school, home or relationship in the can and close the The first thing is to clearly picture the re- lid. There is a lock on the can. Lock sult you want and relate it to something. it for safe keeping. For instance what describes the feeling we 6. See a room with some big screen get when the team is playing well. This TV and stereo equipment and in might be strong, harmony, in tune, in the the middle is a soft chair for you groove, powerful, unstoppable, etc. Now to sit in. Go sit in it and turn on the what color would relate to that performance TV. and the mood they feel? This can be prac- 7. On the screen is your visualization ticed to the point where the color can trig- channel. You have 2 views. One ger the images you want. with you on the screen performing the skills, one with you actually in Visualization puts this into practice. It in- your body performing the skills. volves first controlled breathing to relax Choose the view you want. yourself then going through a series of images or mental movies. Visualization can 8. If it is before practice or a game be long term goal setting or short term skill visualize the goals you want to improvements and check lists. I like to have achieve at the practice. Go through athletes visualize during each stoppage in the skills you want to improve, or play. position you play. How are you

Sports Stories Packet #20 Questions & Puzzles ©2001 Advantage Press, Inc. going to contribute and make this Before each play in a game take one deep a fun and rewarding practice for breath and run a quick mental movie of you and the team? your check list for that play. For example: See exactly where the serve is going. See 9. If it is after practice - reinforce the the hitter hit the ball to your right and move skills and team play you went over. to the ball making a perfect pass. See the Remember the strong plays that set come to you and picture where you hit you like. What did you learn and the ball. how did you contribute to the team. 10. Turn off the TV. One final point is that the body cannot tell 11. Go to the elevator and start going the difference between when you are up from 1 to 10. dreaming and actually physically doing the skill. No one but you will know whether 12. This time feel more energy and you are doing mental visualization but if breath faster as your body comes you keep practicing it you and your team- to life at floor 10. mates will see your improvements.

Use the space provided to write answers to each of the questions. Make certain your answers are in complete sentences.

1. According to Mark Lindal what were the benefits of mental visualization with his team?

2. What are the four areas of mental preparation that need to be incorporated?

3. What is the goal of controlled breathing?

4. What is self-talk?

5. What is the one thing that studies have shown that all top athletes and business people have in common?

6. What is imagery?

3 4

7 Across: 8 2. Mental ______is the most 9 10 11 important aspect of volleyball 12 3. Self ______are the words 13 14 we say to ourselves in our daily lives 15 6. An athlete can see the benefits of mental preparation in a 16 17 couple of ______

7. When serving, it is important 18 to look at the other team and

______the check list 19 10. The first thing in visualization

is to clearly ______the 20 result you want and relate it to something 13. Controlled ______is essential in learning to relax 15. This is the picture you see or the feelings you get 16. Do controlled breathing with your eyes in this position 18. The body cannot tell the difference between when you are ______and actually physically doing the skill 19. Top athletes and business people have this in common 20. Lindal likes to have athletes visualize during each ______in play Down: 1. This can be practiced to the point where the ______can trigger the images you want 4. Every play and every position has a check ______that needs to be done before the ball is served 5. ______the opposition is an important part of mental preparation 8. The words we say to ourselves can have a profound impact on how we do this 9. Before each play in a game take ______deep breath 11. To be successful you need an attitude that increases concentration after ______points 12. The Vancouver Island girls under 16 volleyball coach 14. Lindal isn’t a fan of players going to a person who just made a mistake and saying “nice ______” 17. Picture yourself inside this