Wednesday, May 1, 1985
Daily Nebraskan
Page 9
Student opens Omaha
By Bob Asmussen
Staff Reporter
Many thoughts enter the minds of
graduating seniors buying a car,
getting a job, getting a place to live
away from home. Something that's
probably not high on the list of things
to do is to open a business, especially
an expensive business.
Jeff DeBoer, a 23-year-old business
management major from Omaha has
opened a business and he didn't even
wait until graduation. DeBoer and Chris
Vacanti, a recent UNL graduate, have
opened an Omaha chain of the famous
Gold's Gym.
Gold's is a franchised business that
got its start in Venice,- Calif. World
champion body builders Arnold
Schwarzeneger and Lou Ferrigno have
helped to bring the Gold's name to the
forefront of body-building establish
ments. The Omaha version of Gold's Gym is
at 96th and L streets. Besides Omaha,
the closest Gold's had been in Kansas
Rugged schedule takes
ByJeffApel
Staff Reporter
The Wichita State baseball program
might be a victim of its own circum
stance. Shocker Coach Gene Stephenson
scheduled a rugged non-conference
schedule including today's double
header against Nebraska in order to
"toughen his team up" for Missouri
Valley play. He said his team is "exhausted"
after playing its last 12 games in only
10 days.
"We've been on the road for our last
three series and I, along with the rest of
the team, am exhausted," Stephenson
City. For DeBoer, the April opening was
a dream come true.
"We started a gym in a friend's
basement and had eight members,"
DeBoer said. "It was just kind of a fun
thing and we said someday we'd own
our own gym."
DeBoer said he was able to raise the
money for his 25 percent ownership in
the gym with the help of his family and
banks. He said the first thing people
want to know when they find out he's
the owner is how he was able to get the
money.
"Anybody can do a Gold's if they can
come up with the finances," DeBoer
said. "We pooled our family resources.
We thought for a long time that we
might have to sell stock to come up
with the money."
DeBoer said his and Vacanti's par
ents were skeptical at first about get
ting involved. He did a feasability study
to see if Omaha would support Gold's
and what the break-even point would
be for the business.
said. "We're so sick of riding on buses
we see them in our sleep at night."
The effects of the long bus rides and
playing in foreign ballparks has taken
its toll on Wichita State. They have
managed only a 6-7 record in the last 13
games after a 49-6 start.
"We're not playing good at all right
now," Stephenson said. "Sometimes it's
our pitching that lets us down, some
times it's our hitting, sometimes it's
our defense, and sometimes it's a com
bination of all three, which lets us
down and causes us to lose."
In the Shockers' most recent series,
they had "no hitting, pitching or field
ing," Stephenson said. They were swept
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"Both our fathers took off work to
help us," DeBoer said. "They helped
make this all possible. They were our
slaves you might say."
DeBoer got his experience with weight
training as an assistant manager at 24
hour Nautilus. He said for his business
to be successful in Omaha it would
have to cater to more than just power
lifters and body builders.
"We set people up in programs that
will fit their particular needs," DeBoer
said. "Obviously Gold's Gym will attract
your body builders. But we couldn't
survive if we just concentrated on body
building."
Gold's Gym has aerobics and nautilus
like equipment called David. DeBoer
said he wanted the aerobics to get
female membership and the David
equipment to get businessmen to join.
DeBoer estimated that 100 of Gold's
members are body builders. He said
another 50 to 60 come in and work out
before going to work in the morning
and 150 use the aerobics and David
its toll on Wichita State
by Bradley.
Before the Bradley series, Wichita
State was swept by Illinois State
because of a "lack of hitting," he said.
"These last two weeks have been
dismal," Stephenson said. "We've got
to find ourselves or Nebraska will blow
us out of the ballpark."
Even with all these woes, Nebraska
Coach John Sanders isn't about to give
up on the nation's No. 9-rated team.
"We're not ready to feel sorry for
them yet," Sanders said. "We're sure
they can still play hard."
The Cornhusker's Roger Webb, 7-1,
and Mark Davis, 2-4, will pitch against
the Shockers.
Softball team seeded first
Nebraska pitcher Lori Sippel was
named the Big Eight's "Pitcher-of-the-Week"
for the second consecu
tive week Monday as the Huskers
prepared to earn a regional tourna
ment invitation at the Big Eight
Championships this weekend at
Norman, Okla.
The Huskers are 30-8 and ranked
first in the Midwest Region and
eighth nationally. A conference
tournament title will give Nebraska
an automatic bid to the regionals.
Winners will go to the College World
-tim
Calling themselves the "mud puppies," a group of Selleck residents wrestle in the mud of
their "backyard."
"We started offin a regular mud volleyball game," said Dawn Kelley, one of the participants.
"But it got so slippery we ended up plsying in the mud, kind of mud wrestling."
Left, Becky Spawn, one of the mud frolickers, tries to clean her glasses with a muddy hand.
equipment. Gold's is open from 6 a.m.
to 10 p.m. It offers three month, six
month and one-year memberships, with
the three-month membership costing
$35.
One thing DeBoer said he and Vacanti
will avoid is an overcrowded weight
room. He said they have decided to
limit memberships to 1,000. They have
half of that many already.
Because he is so young, DeBoer has
had the problem of a skeptical clien
tele. He said he gains credibility with
the customers when he shows them he
has a knowledge of weight-training. He
said he is putting in 80 to 100 hours a
week at the gym and going to classes at
UNL as well.
"Any business you open up, it always
looks good if your owners are there,"
DeBoer said.
Because Vacanti's father-in law is in
the construction business, DeBoer said,
they were able to get the remodeling of
the building done at a lower cost. He
said most of his and Vacanti's invest
ments are the weights and equipment.
Earlier this season in Wichita, Kan.,
where the two teams split a double
header, Davis was charged with the
Huskers' 8-5 loss in the first game. He
gave up eight runs on only five hits in
nine innings.
Jeff Mays started the second game
for Nebraska, but lasted one inning
before needing relief help from Bill
McGuire. McGuire pitched the final six
innings to pick up the win in Nebras
ka's 11-8 victory. It snapped the
Shockers' 29 game home winningstreak.
"We've been getting good pitching
so I'm hoping it's contagious," Sanders
said. "We'll need it, because Wichita
State is going to be tough."
Series in Omaha May 22 through 26.
Sippel threw a total of 23.7 innings
in action against Creighton, Iowa
State and Oklahoma with three vic
tories and 28 strikeouts. The fresh
man from Canada has a 12-3 record
with an earned run average of 0.33.
She is Nebraska's single-season
strikeout record holder already with
a fallspring total of 244.
The Huskers led the Big Eight
with a .260 team batting average,
more than 30 points ahead of second
place Oklahoma State. Nebraska
NFL takes
Nebraskans
in round 2
Former Nebraska center Mark
Traynowicz and former Cornhus
ker tackle Mark Behning were
both second-round selections In
the National Football League draft
Tuesday.
No Nebraska player was chosen
in the first round.
Traynowicz was the first pick
of the second round. The Bel
levue native was taken by the
Buffalo Bills.
Behning was the 19th pick of
the second round and 47th player
chosen overall. Behning was
selected by four-time Super Bowl
champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
The last time no Nebraskan
was chosen in the first round was
in 1981. In that season, three
Huskers, Jarvis Redwine, Andra
Franklin and Russell Gary, were
all selected in the second round.
The first pick of the draft was
Traynowicz's teammate at Buf
falo, Bruce Smith. Atlanta traded
for Minnesota's second pick and
tabbed Pittsburgh tackle Bill
Fralic. The Vikings had traded
for the second pick in hopes of
getting Miami quarterback Ber
nie Kosar. Kosar decided to wait
for the NFL supplemental draft.
Houston, as expected, chose
Texas A&M's Ray Childress with
its third pick. Minnesota then
took Fralic's teammate at Pitt,
Bill Doleman. Indianapolis con
tinued the linebacker trend with
its selection of USC's Duane
Bickett. Detroit then took Flor
ida lineman Lomas Brown, Green
Bay selected USC's Ken Ruettgers,
Tampa Bay took Washington's
Ron Holmes and Philadelphia
drafted Indiana's Kevin Allen.
in regional
had the league's best earned run
average at 0.72, allowing just nine
earned runs in the league and regis
tering 87 strikeouts in 87 innings.
Sippel led the league in earned run
average and strikeouts, averaging
9.4 per game. Donna Deardorff was
second in ERA at 0.60. Peg Richard
son was second in the league in
hitting at .348, Ginger Cannon was
sixth at .321 and Lori Richins, ninth
at .296. Amy Love's nine runs and
Wendy Turner's eight runs batted in
also were league leaders.
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