Former player, drug user '
to go on anti-drug tour
By Steve Sipple
Staff Reporter
They aren’t the kinds of things
Nebraska football fans like to hear,
but Travis Turner says they arc real
ity.
“I remember being high in team
meetings. (Comhusker coach Tom
Osborne) would never know it,’' said
Turner, a former Nebraska quarter
back who now is the college outreach
director for Athletes International
Ministries in Phoenix, Ariz.
Turner, v. ho started for the Husk
ers during most of the 1984 and 1985
seasons, said he has experienced
drugs and is now using that experi
ence to warn parents that their chil
dren aren't immune to drug prob
lems. Nobody’s immune, he said.
Turner, 25, is a case in point.
During his freshman and sophomore
years at Nebraska, he said, he was a
frequent user of drugs and alcohol.
Nobody expected a clean-cut foot
ball player to be a drug user - and that
naivete is a danger, he said.
I nai V. ill PC one ui imuci > mum
points (luring his anu-drug abuse lour
of Nebraska beginning April 18.
Turner will hold three anti-drug
abuse clinics and take his message to
nine Nebraska high schools and to
Fairfax, Mo.
Identifying a drug user is the most
important step in fighting the prob
lem, Turner said. But identification
isn’t always easy. He said parents
often don't expect drug use from their
children, and by the time parents find
out about the problem, it’s often too
late - their children are already ad
dicted.
"Drugs arc reality,” Turner said.
“It’s the reality of where many kids
are at. You can really mask a drug
problem. And it’s not just kids. It’s
your yuppie-type abusers of cocaine
who wear three-piece suits. You’d
never know they use drugs.”
A lot of people probably didn’t
know Turner used drugs -- he said in
a Sunday Omaha World- Herald story
that he had even tried LSD while at
Nebraska. Osborne said he didn’t
know of Turner’s problem, but that
he’s not surprised by Turner’s revela
tions.
"Nothing really surprises me
anymore,” Osborne said.
Osborne said football players
aren’t immune to drug problems.
“It’s just a part of life. There’s a
certain percentage of people who use
alcohol and drugs,’’ he said. “Foot
ball players are no exception.”
Osborne said Nebraska’s drug
testing program, which includes ran
dom urine testing, is thorough
enough to catch drug users.
‘You hear about people trying to
beat the system. We don't think it’s
possible right now,” Osborne said.
Turner said he didn’t have to
worry about Nebraska's drug tests.
By 1984 -- the year Turner said Ne
braska began random drug tests - he
had stopped using drugs. Nebraska
was among the nation’s first schools
to lest players for drugs.
“There's always ways to beat
drug tests, but I’m not going to tell
about them,” Turner said. “Then
somebody will read them and say,
‘Ah man, why didn’t 1 think of
that.'”
But Turner said “Nebraska docs
all they can do’ ’ to keep players from
using illegal drugs.
Turner said he stopped using
drugs when he started a relationship
with God.
I realized l was uniuiiiiicd witn
my life and I was kx)king for happi
ness in all the wrong places,” said
Turner, now a father oflwo. ‘T found
happiness in God.”
Turner’s turnaround off the foot
ball field resulted in improvement on
the field. He admits, ”1 was nothing
up to my junior year.”
During a drug-free junior year,
Turner scored a team-leading 60
points, scoring 10 touchdowns and
passing for four more.
He scored six touchdowns and
passed for three as a senior, helping
lead Nebraska to a 9-3 record.
After Turner stopped drug use
during the spring before his junior
year, he said “a huge weight on my
shoulders was lifted.
“All of a sudden 1 was a decent
quarterback -- not a great quarter
back, but 1 couid get the job done,”
he said.
Turner has a new job now. He and
a group of athletes will tour Ne
braska’s high schools, where they
See TRAV1STY on 14
Nebraska’s Patrick Kirksey competes on the pommel horse. Kirksey has been Nebraska’s
top gymnast this season.
Spanish gymnasts may decide team title
By Mike O’Malley
Staff Reporter
When the NCAA men’s gym
nastics championships take place
tonight through Saturday at the
Bob Devaney Sports Center, they
will have a foreign aura to them.
Houston Baptist enters the meet
with an international connection
that has propelled the Huskies to
the nation’s top ranking. Five of
the top six gymnasts for Houston
Baptist are from Spain.
Houston Baptist Coach Hutch
Dvorak said the acquisition of the
Spaniards “was a total accident.’’
But it's no accident that the
Huskies are competing in the
three-day meet, as they received
an automatic bid by compiling the
highest average team score in the
Midwest region.
Joining Houston Baptist as
automatic qualifiers are UCLA
from the West, Illinois from the
Mideast and Penn State from the
East. The six teams that received
at-large bids include Nebraska,
Ohio State, Stanford, Minnesota,
Iowa and Arizona Stale.
The meet begins at 7 p.m. to
night with the qualifying round for
teams and individuals. The top
three teams from that competition
will advance to the team champi
onships at 7 p.m. Friday.
Saturday’s session will be split
into 1 and 7 p.m. time intervals.
The early session will be devoted
to the all-around title, while indi
vidual titles will be determined in
the late session.
Dvorak said Houston Baptist’s
foreign connection began when
the Huskies’ soccer coach was in
Spain recruiting. The coach found
out about Jose Barrio, who became
a national champion on thevhigh
bar.
“At that time, my team was
really down and there weren’t any
•American gymnasts beating down
the door,” Dvorak said. “I said (to
Barrio), ‘Well, if you’re the great
gymnastics recruit gel me Al
phonso Rodriguez.’ I was kidding,
but as it turned out, Jose and Al
phonso had been buddies since
childhood. He was being recruited
by UCLA, and as luck would have
it, he decided to stay with his
buddy Jose and come to Houston
Baptist.
“Because they did so well,
Miguel Rubio decided to come
See NCAA on 14
Defensive imDrovement in scrimmage pleases Osborne
By Nick Hodge
Senior Reporter
Nebraska coach Tom Osborne
said he was pleased by the Com
huskers’ defensive improvement in
Wednesday’s scrimmage at Memo
rial Stadium.
‘Defensively, we played a little
bit harder today than we did last Sat
urday,” Osborne said. ‘‘I was disap
pointed at times Saturday by the de
fensive intensity. Today they played
pretty hard.
I think there was good effort and
A
pretty good hitting.”
Wednesday’s scrimmage, the
Huskers’ third this spring, was domi
nated by the defense. Nebraska’s top
offensive units only scored two
touchdowns and a field goal.
Osborne said the Husker defense
was able to exploit the offense be
cause the defense has more facets of
its game implemented than the of
fense.
“We’ve thrown a lot at them so
the defense has more in,” Osborne
said. “They’ve got a couple blitzes
and some different fronts, where of
fensively it’s a little bit confusing.”
'I think there was
good effort and
pretty good hit
Sophomore I-back Scott Baldwin
scored on a seven-yard run, while
quarterback Mike Grant hit I-back
Lamont White for a 27-yard touch
down pass.
Senior place kicker Chris Drennan
connected on one of two field goal
attempts. Drennan made a 23-yard
attempt, but failed to make a 32
yarder.
Osborne said he was concerned by
the amount of offensive penalties.
“The penalties really hurt the of
fense today,” Osborne said. “On
Wednesday, we have high school
officials. On Saturday, we have the
Big Eight officials. I think there’s a
little tendency sometimes for the
high school officials to officiate a
little closer. I’m not saying it’s nei
thcr good nor bad. That’s just the way
they work.”
Osborne said he was pleased that
the Huskers made it through the
scrimmage with only one significant
injury. He said junior wingback Brad
Devall suffered a severely sprained
ankle after making a short reception.
Devall shares the No. 1 wingback
duties with sophomore Nate Turner.
Osborne said he is concerned by
Devall’s injury because Turner has
been hampered by a sore quadricep
muscle that forced him to sit out the
scrimmage.
Nebraska to host round-robin tournament this weekend
By Darran Fowler
Staff Reporter
A tournament described as the next best
thing to the College World Series will be
staged when the Nebraska softball team com
petes in the Husker Power Matchup this week
end.
Nebraska Coach Ron Wolforth said he is
excited about the three-day competition be
cause of the caliber of competition it includes.
In addition to Nebraska, Florida State, Arizona
State and Kansas will compete.
The round-robin tournament begins at 6
P m. Friday at the Nebraska Softball Complex,
with Nebraska facing Florida State. Kansas
will square off against Arizona State at 8 p.m.
On Saturday, Kansas plays Florida State at
2 p.m., with Nebraska facing Arizona State at
4 p.m. Florida Slate will then battle Arizona
State at 6 p.m., with Nebraska facing Kansas at
8 p.m.
Four games will also be played on Sunday,
beginning with Kansas facing Arizona State at
10 a.m. Nebraska will square off against Ari
zona State at noon, and Kansas will play Flor
ida State at 2 p.m. Nebraska will conclude the
tournament by facing Florida State at 4 p.m.
Wolforth said the tournament field was
expanded from three to four teams this year
because lights were installed last summer at the
Nebraska Softball Complex. He said he hopes
to expand to eight teams in the future.
“We’re really trying to get a tournament in
here with caliber teams,” Wolforth said. ‘ ‘This
will be the best softball tournament north of the
sun belt ever. We arc hoping to expand that. It s
really going to depend on how this year s
tournament goes.
Wolforth said Arizona enters the tourna
ment as the favorite. But, he said, the field is
wide open especially since Nebraska, 18-20,
has won five of its last six games.
Arizona State gave the Huskers their fourth
and fifth losses of the season by scores of 5-4
and 9-3 at the Roadrunncr Invitational in Las
Cruces, N.M. in March.
“Our team can perform to the level of this
tournament,’’.Wolforth said. “It’s going to a
very good brand of softball. It’s not certain
who’s going to win this thing. It’s gonna be
interesting -- anybody can win it. It should be
exciting.’’
Wolforth said his biggest concern this sea
son has been Nebraska’s batting. The Huskers
arc hitting .227 as a team, which he said is 40
points below what he forecasted at the begin
ning of the season.
▼▼ v navi/ ii^vv/i nau a ivum uuu
struggled as much offensively as we have this
year, Wolforth said. ‘‘It’s always been the
case that the upperclassmen carried us and the
lower class usually comes along and peaks
around the Big Eight. This year, the upper class
players haven’t been able to carry us and get
the hits. That even puts more pressure on the
freshmen.”
Wolforth said he encourages students to see
the tournament. All University of Nebraska
Lincoln students who present their IDs will be
admitted free.
Wolforth said, that if the weather is nice the
tournament offers an excellent opporlunit> to
relax in the sun and watch some good softball.
“They (fans) do make a difference in any
sport,” he said. “We would definitely play
better.”
