Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1989)
Sports Weight room and study area to expand By Chris Hopfensperger Staff Reporter A renovation project that was pri marily funded through private dona tions will expand Memorial Sta dium’s weight room and increase services for student-athletes. A1 Papik, the assistant athletic director for administrative/academic services, said the $1.7 million reno vation of the west stadium will im prove the Hewitt Academic Center and the weight room by creating additional space. The renovation, which is scheduled to be completed in mid-December, was financed through donations and from Ne braska’s participation in the 1988 Kickoff Classic. “No student funds or taxes were used,” Papik said. “We had all funds in hand before we opened the bid letting.” Papik said the renovation was divided into three phases, with the first phase involving the weight room. The weight room was ex panded to include individual areas to work out different parts of the body. The second phase of the project involved the Hewitt Center. Papik said additional study areas were added, and a computer room was built. A combined dining area, which will allow male and female student athletes to eat at the same place, also is included in the second phase. Male athletes currently eat in the Hewitt Center, while their female counter parts eat in their residence halls or at private residences. The second phase also will com bine the academic support center for female athletes, which currently is located in Smith Hall, with the male athletic support center in the west stadium. “This will allow us to provide all academic support in one area,” Papik said, “and eventually have study tables and tutorial areas for the men and women together.” Papik said the project’s final phase is an expansion of the athletic depart ment’s fund-raising offices. The ex isting offices will be enlarged and a new reception area will be added. “These improvements will allow for a more centralized system for all of the athletes and the athletic depart ment itself,” Papik said. Papik said he is optimistic about the project’s completion even though it is two weeks behind schedule. “We’re hoping to be done by the middle of December,” Papik said. “We want to move into the new fa cilities prior to the beginning of the second semester.” Papik said the facilities will con tinue to be exclusively for student athletes and the athletic department’s support staff. Columnist gives predictions based on WO OPS method Welcome to Hype Week, when the media tells everything you need to know about Saturday’s Nebraska Colorado football game. For Hype Week each columnist is obligated to present a glorious pre diction for the game, using the em pirical formulas of the wonderful, oblivious objectivity for predictions by sportswriters, which is better known as WOOPS. For WOOPS, we gather what the coaches think, what coaches for other teams think, what the players think, what players for other teams think and even what grandmothers think. We compare and analyze the of fenses, defenses, quarterbacks, sec ondaries, kicking games and the hot dogs at Folsom Field. All this information is calculated to come up with the without-a-doubt result, obvious to Neanderthals and gerbils, or WRONG. The WOOPS process started in October, when, after the Nebraska Missouri game, reporters asked the Tiger players which team, Nebraska or Colorado, was better. Next reporters asked Missouri Coach Bob Stull which team would win - as if Stull is supposed to have the answer. Well, if any coaches would know, it would be Tom Osborne and Bill McCartney,and they don’t. Certainly they have as much information for WOOPS as anyone, but if the coach always had the answer, Pete Rose would be rich. So when all the information was collected, added, subtracted, multi plied and squared, my answer was three. Since that is not a score, I changed my information - legal in WOOPS since no one can gather all pertinent info -- and received a 21 -17 tie. WOOPS was working at peak effi ciency, so it was thrown away in favor of a gut feeling. No matter how much a sportswriter analyzes scores, films, statistics and match-ups, pre dictions still come down to gut feel ings. Besides, everyone should have known from the start that WOOPS is wrong. You don’t ask a four-year-old whether Faulkner was better than Hemingway, and you don't ask Mis souri’s second-team left guard about See HYPE on 18 Iowa Stata’a Tim Baker grimaces as he pursues Nebraska running back Leodis Flowers. NU to compete in prominent swim meet By Jeff Apel Senior Editor Mixed results will await the Ne braska women’s swimming team when it competes in the Iowa quad rangular. Nebraska women’s swimming coach Ray Huppert said he is looking forward to the meet because it will give his team an opportunity to face some quality competition. The meet, which will pit Nebraska against Brigham Young, 6th-ranked Michi gan and 26th-ranked Iowa, will be scored in dual and invitational fash ions. Huppcrt said the scoring system means no team should dominate the meet, which will be Friday and Satur day at Iowa City, Iowa. He said the format will make Michigan the heavy favorite in the invitational race, but will keep the Wolverines from domi nating the team race. Six places will be scored in the invitational race. The top three fin ishers will be awarded points in the team race, with no more than two persons per team allowed to score in one event. Huppcrt said the scoring limita ^ a lions in the team race will eliminate depth advantages that teams may possess. He said they also will help Brigham Young because the Cougars arc oringing a small contingent from Provo, Utah. ‘‘A lot of things could happen,” Huppcrtsaid, “so it’s nice to put it in a perspective of dual meets.” Huppcrt said he has taken a vocal approach in preparing his team for the Iowa quadrangular. He'said that approach represents a sharp contrast to the quiet stance he took toward last weekend’s meet. Nebraska opened its season by competing in the United States Swimming meet last Friday and Sat urday at the Bob Devancy Sports Center. Huppert said he was pleased with the Huskers’ performance even though the meet was a low-keyed affair. “I thought we did a fine job,” Huppert said. ‘‘We didn’t see any body dying at the end of races. That’s important - that’s something we look for.” Huppert said he isn’t worried about his team having to adjust from a relaxed, non-scoring meet to a competition that will feature national prominence. He said he welcomes the tough competition Nebraska will face. ”1 want to swim the best people we can swim all the time,” Huppert said. ‘‘I feel we need to challenge ourselves.” Huppert said he isn’t worried about his team getting burned out by its lough schedule. In addition to facing Michigan and Iowa this sea son, the unranked Huskers will square off against perennial powers Kansas, Clcmson, Colorado State, Minnesota and USC. We got a problem if our athletes get burned out going against good competition,” Huppert said. ‘‘It should keep us psyched up.” m a m Largest player aims high, remains optimistic By Chris Hopfensperger Staff Reporter To say Nebraska freshman offen sive tackle John Butala is big is an understatement. A huge understatement, that is. Butala is listed on the junior var sity roster at 6-foot-7 and 298 pounds, which makes him the largest Corn husker on the freshman and varsity teams. There is no one on either roster who is taller, and he outweighs the next closest player, starting varsity offensive tackle Doug Glaser, by three pounds - if you go by the roster. “I’ve dropped,” Butala said about his weight.4 ‘I dropped a lot of weight in two-a-days. I had a lot of water weight on.” “The first day I came here I weighed 303. Now I weigh about 282 or 284.” • Butala walked on at Nebraska af ter transferring from Springfield (Mass.) Technical College. He spent his year with the Rams trying to improve his grades and did not play football. Butala said he was surprised when Nebraska accepted him as a walkon. “Just for the hell of it 1 sent (Nebraska) my high school grades,” he said, “and they accepted me on that.” Butala, who attended Enrico Fermi High School in Enfield,Conn., was an all-conference selection at offensive and defensive tackle during his senior year. “I had a scholarship offer to the University of Maine from Buddy Teevens,” Butala said. “Later in the season I found out Teevens went to Dartmouth to become coach.” ‘ The new coach brought in all his own recruits,” he said. Butala then headed to Springfield Tech. ‘‘I sat the year out and had plans to transfer out here to one of these big schools,” Butala said. “I thought I had to go to a couple of years of j u nior college.” “It was basically a school to get your grades up.” Butala helped the freshman squad to a 2-1-1 record this season by step ping into the starting role at tackle. He replaced Lance Larson, who has been slowed by a thigh injury. “I got my chance when Lance hurt his thigh,” Butala said. ‘‘Lance’s thigh is feeling better now so it is going to be up to the coaches.” Butala said he has not been overly pleased with Nebraska’s perform ance. The Huskers opened their season by tying Snow Junior College and stomping the Bethany (Kan.) re serves. Nebraska then lost to the Air Force reserves before beating Iowa Central Junior College. The Husker junior varsity will close out its season Friday, when it faces Waldorf Junior College. The noon game, which is free to Univer sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln students who present their IDs, will be at Memorial Stadium. “Our last game the offense wasn’t really intense,” Butala said. “I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was our loss in Colorado against Air Force. “We weren’t fired up.” Butala is taking his playing time in stride, trying not to get his hopes up. “I just take it as it conies,” he said. “I’d love to play for the varsity some day, but I’m not going to set myself up for disappointment.” “I’d like to shoot for a starting position, but I’m not going to aim loo high.”
