Monday, May 6, 1985
Page 14
Daily Nebraskan
Former West Point athletes
take a shot at the 'big time'
By Suzanne Teten
Staff Reporter
It's not easy making dreams come
true, It takes hard work, determination
and guts. And even then . . .well, some
times the difference is ever so slight,
an inch or two maybe.
Ask Jeff Sellentin.
Or, betteryet, ask Keith Kreikemeier.
They know a thing or two about
dreams.
Both had excellent high school foot
ball careers at West Point. Sellentin
lettered three years for West Point
High School. Kreikemeier lettered two
years at Central Catholic. Both served as
team captains during their senioryears.
And both had the same dream.
They wanted to play Big Red football.
The dream started in grade school. And
it lasted.
But dreams are hard-won. Sometimes
they work out. Sometimes they don't.
That seems to be the case with Sellen
tin and Kreikemeier.
Sellentin, a junior center and the
son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Sellentin, is now
on the second team, according to the
spring depth charts. His dream seems
to be coming true.
Kreikemeirer's dream has faded. He
checked in his uniform in late April.
Kreikemeier had decided before
spring practice that if he didn't make
the traveling squad, he would quit the
team. Spring ball was going very well
for him. Kreikemeier earned a 1.9 aver
age on a 2.0 scale after three scrim
mages. But he wasn't moving up on the
depth charts. A 6-foot-l 235-pound of
fensive guard just isn't big enough, he
was told, when the competition weighs
260 to 265 pounds.
Kreikemeier could have stayed on
the team. The coaches wanted him to
stay. But the struggle "just didn't really
seem worth it to me anymore," he said.
"When your goal's taken away from
you already, it's kind of tough to keep
going . . .to keep trying . . ." Kreike
meier said.
Coach Milton Tenopir urged him to
"stick with it" so he could qualify for
the benefits lettering, a senior
-watch, going to the bowl game. Kreike
meier decided against that.
But it wasn't easy. It took more cour
age to quit before his last season, he
said, than it took to stay on the team for
four years.
"I think there's always a time when
you have to face reality . . .decide
what's best for you in the long run and
not in the short run."
Kreikemeier said he felt he had
accomplished a great deal by making
the team and working his way up.
That's why he doesn't feel any sense of
failure now.
"All along . . .there was always just
that little voice in the back of my mind
saying 'you've still got a chance' ... And
then that voice wasn't there anymore."
There are few regrets, Kreikemeier
said. Seeing the inside of a top-rated
football program is a "pretty neat"
experience, he said.
"If I . .had to do it all over again, I'd
do it," Kreikemeier said.
His teammates haven't said much
about his decision. Mostly, he said,
they want to know what it's like not to
have to go to practice every afternoon.
His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert
Kreikemeier, were fairly stoic. His father
told him he had to please himself, no
one else. His mother, Kreikemeier said,
was a bit upset, until . . .well, he had a
surprise for her.
Graduating seniors are allowed to
keep their helmets. Kreikemeier asked
the equipment manager if he could
have his helmet since he had gone so
far through the program.
"I sent that home, so that bright
ened mom up a little bit. She called to
say that was pretty neat."
11 wa
Kreikemeier said if he were two
inches taller and 20 pounds heavier, he
would still be playing football.
But that's the way it is, he said.
Height, weight and strength are impor
tant aspects of Nebraska football.
So are competition, pressure, frustra
tion and regimentation. But the athe
letes learn to live with them.
The competition is hard to deal with
sometimes, Sellentin said, especially
during spring practice when players
are vying against close friends for posi
tions. The 63" blond said that situa
tion causes friction sometimes, but it's
not hard to get over it.
"People get in fights . . .out there (on
the field)," Sellentin said. "It doesn't
last very long, but you just kind of blow
up once in a while. You've gotta expect
that, I guess."
He has had "a few words and a little
pushin around" himself. But Sellentin
said the next play "is like nothing
happened.
"If you'd get rid of the competition,"
he said, "you'd get rid of the good
team."
Kreikemeier agreed with Sellentin.
Kreikemeier said competition is pro
bably the best part of Nebraska's foot
ball program. It brings out the best in
players, he said.
Cletus Fischer, Cornhusker offen
sive line coach, said competition must
be "strict and tough." He said the
coaches want athletes who know what
they want and who work to achieve it.
Part of the desire can be measured
in the program's strict regimentation.
From the day freshmen walk on the
field for two-a-day practices in August,
they enter a four-year cycle of never
ending repetition.
Practices last about two hours, Sel
lentin said, but then the players have
to lift weights. That takes about Wz
hours, he said. Each player has a com
puterized weight-lifting routine. The
player does the workout and two super
visors sign the card before he returns
it.
If players don't lift weights, Sellen
tin said, they must do 50 "up-downs"
hitting the floor flat, jumping back
up and doing it again. Players don't
skip lifting very often, he said.
Team members must take all their
classes in the morning or be finished by
1:30 p.m., Sellentin said, because the
players have hour-long meetings before
each practice. The meetings, practice
and lifting mean that players aren't
finished until about 6 p.m. That's 4 12
hours the players spend each day on a
one-credit class.
"You do get relieved when you hear
that final whistle," Sellentin said. "You
just know another day's over.
"It just gets tough sometimes," he
said. "You just get sick of it 'cause it's
all year round . . .You just kind of need a
break from it once in a while."
No matter how much players might
need a break from football, they rarely
skip practice.
If players miss practice without a
good excuse, they are penalized. Kreike
meier said he missed once so he could
go to Kansas with his brother to buy a
bull for the family's herd. The coaches
told him that wasn't a reasonable
excuse. He had to ride an electronic
bicycle.
For Sellentin, the threat of three
laps around the field for an unexcused
absence is reason enough not to miss.
"It's not all serious," Sellentin said.
"It's a lot of fun. You screw around a
lot. It's serious when it has to be, but
it's a pretty loose atmosphere."
Sellentin has two years of eligibility
left. He wants to start in his senior year,
if not before.
And that's the dream, of course.
Starting. The cheers of 76,000 fans.
Public acknowledgement for all those
hours of work.
fe-oms
Kreikemeier said non-starters may
not get the same press attention as the
starting players, but that isn't the case
inside the program. He said the coaches
"never run you down." They make every
player feel "just as much (part of) the
program as the starters are."
It's hard sometimes, Sellentin said,
not getting that public recognition
because all the players work hard.
"People don't really see what you
do," he said. "They think its just all
them (the starters). But, you know
you'll have your day, I guess."
If you want to play, Sellentin said,
you have to work. Such determination
has served the two men well in areas
other than football. Both point to their
grades with pride. Kreikemeier set a
goal of graduating with a 3.0 grade
average on a 4.0 scale. He's right on
mark. Sellentin, an architecture major,
earned a 3.58 during the fall semester,
squeezing homework in between the
heavy practice schedule.
"If you got the willpower to stick
with football, you know you've just got
to realize that 'if I can do it for that, I
can do it with my studies also,' " said
Kriekemier, an animal science major.
Sellentin said football taught him to
have confidence in himself and his
abilities.
"If you set your mind to it," he said,
"you can do anything."
Getting good grades hasn't been
easy.
And playing football can have some
distinct disadvantage sometimes,
Kreikemeier said.
"Sometimes certain professors will
go out of their way to talk to you," he
said. "You also can get the professors
who hate athletes and make your work
extra tough."
Sellentin said going to school while
playing football is the most difficult
part about being on the team.
"You're putting more time into foot
ball than you are in . . .schoolwork," he
said.
At first, Sellentin said, he "didn't
really do so hot." He went to the ath
letes' study table during his freshman
year for help with calculus, but he
hasn't been there for help for a long
time.
Sellentin said he is doing a lot better
in his classes now, probably because he
likes what he's doing. When he was a
freshman, he majored in engineering.!
That didn't work out, so Sellentin
switched his major to architecture and
he said he really likes it.
Kreikemeier said he wishes he had
studied harder in high school. His first
two years at the university were tough,
he said, because his study habits wer
en't the best.
Sellentin works until 1:30 am. Thurs
day nights and one night each weekend
clearing tables at The Fizz.
Kreikemeier feeds livestock on the
university's East Campus for about 20
hours each week. Sometimes he vaccin
nates cattle at the university's feed
yard at Mead.
The pressures of football, school and
jobs aren't all either. Kreikemeier and
Sellentin said they have an extra burden
that players from Omaha or Lincoln
don't have. They both feel the pressure
from hometown fans.
Kreikemeier said he thinks players
from small towns are under a lot more
pressure to do well than those from
large cities. Each player has the pres
sure of relatives wishing him well, but
players from small towns have entire
communities behind them he said.
People he doesn't even know ask his
parents how he's doing in Lincoln.
At first, people are "really for you,"
Sellentin said, but "they expect every
thing to happen so fast.
"If they knew more about it, I think
they'd understand," he said.
Many people do understand. Sellen-
fight mpMH battle
in
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Jeff Sellentin (top) and Keith
walk-ons.
tin said some would "just do anything
to help." But their understanding does
n't necessarily make things much eas
ier. He sometimes gets discouraged
because he's not where wants to be.
Some people just play better than he
does, he said. And he gets tired of the
whole ordeal.
But the hard work pays off on the
turf and in other ways.
Kreikemeier said he has more confi
dence in himself now than before Big
Red football. Some of that is just grow
3
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Dan Du!aneyDally Nebraskan
Kreikemeier . . . a tale of two
ing up, he said, but some results from
football's added responsibilities.
"Playing football . . .develops you
into a better person," he said.
Sellentin agrees. Football has taught
him to take pride in himself. And if je
doesn't make the starting lineup, he
said, he'll still be glad that he played.
"Even if I don't make it, at least l
tried," he said.
And-maybe that's what matters most
dreaming the dreams and going
after them. Even if they don't come true.