Daily
Nebraskan
Tuesday, Fabrvary 1,1M4
SPORTS
Huskers get
commitments
from four more
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter_
With only two days remaining until recruits
sign their letters of intent, the Nebraska football
team hauled in four of the bluest blue-chip
athletes in the nation Monday.
Grant Wistrom, a USA TODAY All-Amer
ican and Super Prep Midlands defensive player
of the year from Webb City, Mo., said he had
chosen Nebraska over Michigan.
W istrom played defensive end in high school
and will likely be an outside linebacker at
Nebraska.
In addition to Wistrom, the Comhuskers
also got a commitment from Shevin Wiggins, a
tailback from Bradenton (Fla.) Manatee High
School, the same school that Huskers Tyrone
Williams, Tommie Frazier and Justin Stephens
attended.
Brian Knuckles, a highly touted running
back from CofTeyville (Kan.) Junior College,
also committed to Nebraska, CofTeyville coach
Skip Foster said.
The Daily Nebraskan has learned that the
Huskers also received a commitment from Amp
Campbell, a USA TODAY All-American de
fensive back from Sarasota (Fla.) Rivervicw
High School.
The four new commitments bring the num
ber of players expected to sign Wednesday with
the Comhuskers to 19. Tight end Sheldon
Jackson from LaVeme (Calif.) High School
also committed this weekend.
The Huskers are allowed to give out as many
as 25 scholarships, but recruiting coordinator
Dave Gillespie said Nebraska would probably
offer 23.
Wiggins, a 6-foot, 168-pound tailback, ran
for 2,265 yards in his senior season at Manatee.
He was named the Class 5A player of the year
in Florida and was Florida’s all-class player of
the year. Manatee coach Joe Kinnan said.
“He’s as good a runner as Tommie Frazier is
a quarterback,” Kinnan said. “He is the best
tailback we have ever had here, and he is for
real.”
Kinnan said Wiggins was still awaiting his
entrance exam results.
Knuckles—who was the No. 2 rusher in the
nation among junior college running backs in
1992 — gained more than 3,000 yards in two
seasons, Coach Skip Foster said.
“If he’s not the top tailback in junior college
football, then he’s in the top two or three,”
Foster said of the 5-foot-11 -inch, 200-pounder.
“He has 4.5 speed and was a two-time junior
college All-American.”
Campbell, a 6-foot-1-inch, 175-pounder,
scored 23 touchdowns in four years as a kick
returner for Riverview High School.
“As far as getting a high school athlete. Amp
is as good as they come,” Riverview coach John
Sprague said.
W istrom led Webb City to the 1993 Class 4A
state title in Missouri by making 122 tackles and
eight sacks and causing nine tumbles.
“I can’t say enough good things about Grant,”
Webb City coach Kurt Thompson said. “He’s as
good as any player that we have ever had. I think
if things go right for him, he can have a very
good career at Nebraska.”
The 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound W istrom, who
carries a 3.95 grade point average, said he was
impressed with Nebraska.
“The coaches were great,” Wistrom said.
NU gymnast hopes to return to NCAAs
Duval wants trek
to be with team
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter _ _
For the past two years, junior gymnast
Nicole Duval has seen her name placed on
numerous individual awards.
This year, she’d rather see her name
alongside the names of her teammates at the
NCAA meet.
As a freshman, Duval finished in a 29th
place tie with fellow Husker Martha Jenkins
by scoring a 37.60 in the all-around at the
NCAA meet.
“I would like to get back there—but as a
team,” Duval said. “It was hard as an indi
vidual. You don’t have a team behind you. I
think this is the year we can get there.”
Comhusker coach Dan Kendig said he
knows Duval will do her best to get the team
to the championships.
In fact, she might try too hard.
“Nicole is such a good team person,”
Kendig said, “that she is sometimes a little
tough on herself because she feels like she is
letting the team down. Sometimes it takes
her a little while to get over a mistake. She is
so motivated and intense. And all that shows
is that she cares.”
Duval said she used to care almost too
much. When she made a mistake, she said,
it wore on her.
“Now I’m focusing more outward on the
team than on myself” she said. “If I fall,
there is nothing I can do except go on.
“If I mess up, all it does is make me want
to get back up there and hit it even harder. It
makes me mad.”
The 5-foot, 3-inch native of Lincoln hit
her routines as often as any Husker gymnast
during her first two seasons.
After qualifying for the NCAA meet her
freshman year, Duval, who was named Big
Eight gymnast of the month for January
1993, set five personal records — including
two school marks last season. On Feb. 5, she
shattered the school record with a 9.9 in the
floor exercise and one week later broke the
record on the balance beam with a 9.9.
She was named All-Big Eight in the
balance beam, uneven bars and the all-around
competition. Duval, who has a 3.93 grade
point average, was also named a third-team
Academic All-American.
The recognition “is kind of icing on the
cake,” Duval said. “You see ‘Academic All
American’ and you sec your school there,
too. So it’s not just for you. It’s for your
school, too.”
Duval said the sixth-ranked Huskers have
more of a chance to represent their school at
Nationals this year because of the tough
competition between team members—some
thing that had been missing for the last two
years.
“This is the first year we have had to make
the lineup,” she said. “In the past, they just
—
—
Jon Waller/DN
Junior gymnast Nicole Duval performs her floor exercise routine
during Nebraska’s meet with Southeast Missouri State earlier
this year. Duval, who qualified for the NCAA Championships
during her freshman year, said she “would like to get back there
— but as a team.”
-it
Nicole is such a good team person that she is sometimes
a little tough on herself because she feels like she is
letting the team down. Sometimes it takes her a little while
to get over a mistake.
—Kendig
Nebraska women’s gymnastics coach
put you in if you were healthy. Now there are
so many people who can do so much.”
Duval has made the lineup in all three
meets for the undefeated Huskers this sea
son. Her best all-around score, a 38.45 on
Jan. 22 against Southeast Missouri State,
ranked her 17th in the nation in the latest
standings.
She said the closeness of the gymnasts
w w
should help the Huskers prepare for the big
meets, including the Big Eight Champion
ships in March, which could lead to the
Midwest Regionals and the NCAA Champi
onships.
“We set our goals at making Nationals,”
Duval said. “That’s the goal of any team. Wc
want to get there because it’s the big meet you
strive for every year. 1 think we can do it.”
Bills ’ determination in Super Bowl loss wins respect
Who cares about the repeat?
It seems like in this era of sports
dynasties, anyone can repeat.
The Buffalo Bills accomplished a
great deal more in losing Sunday to
Dallas 30-13 than the Cowboys did
with back-to-back Super Bowl wins.
The Bills secured themselves a spot
as one of the greatest groups of losers
of all time.
The Bills joined the Broncos and
the Vikings as the only teams to lose
four Super Bowls, but Buffalo was
able to accomplish something that no
other team in professional sports has
ever done — lose four straight cham
pionships.
Mayoe it’s not exactly an achieve
ment that all the Bills and their fans
will be particularly proud of, but they
should be.
After last season’s demoralizing
52-17 loss to the Cowboys, most peo
ple felt like they had seen the Bills in
the Super Bowl for the last time.
The Bills were aging. They had lost
some of their unity. And it appeared
that they had also lost some of their
fighting spirit.
But the Bills did something that
Nebraska football fans should be very
familiar with: They picked themselves
up after a crushing, season-ending
loss and started the season with fresn
hopes.
The Bills fought and scraped and
clawed their way back to the Super
Bowl one more time.
They put themselves in position to
win, even though it brought the possi
bility of heartbreak for a fourth straight
year.
So the Bills lost.
Don’t hate them because they wast
Jeff
Griesch
ed your Super Bowl Sunday in another
rout. Cheer them for their desire to
overcome the impossible obstacle. And
applaud them for their relentless pur
suit.
The Bills had three chances to prove
themselves in the eyes of millions and
failed, and all they wanted was a fourth
shot.
They got it and failed one more
time.
Now the question is, will they want
a fifth chance? Again, experts say
probably not.
The Bills didn't look as down after
this game as they had the three previ
ous losses, but then again these feel
ings aren't new.
The players are experienced in deal
ing witn the pain. Deep in their eyes
and their voices, the emptiness was
evident.
It was an emptiness all too familiar
to Nebraska football fans.
Big Red fans have seen their be
loved Huskers lose seven straight times
in bowl games, yet the fans and the
players just keep coming back for
more.
Why? Simple. Respect.
Nebraska gained a lot of respect
this year while losing to Florida State,
and the Bills probably gained some
respect just by returning to this year’s
Super Bowl.
Maybe it is cruel, but Buffalo vs.
NFC V has a certain appeal. The Bills
have proven time after time that they
are the best team in the AFC, which is
sad for a conference that has lost 10
straight Super Bowls.
If you’re a real sports fan or just a
real Nebraska football fan, you just
hate to see a team give up.
The essence of sports is to come
back and keep trying, even when it
seems hopeless.
Don’t scorn the Bills, Husker foot
ball fans. Help them.
Like it or not, the B ills and Huskers
share a common bond, so let’s hope
Buffalo can find a way to make it back
to the Super Bowl one more time.
Grleich Is aJunior aewi-edltortal major
and Is (he Dally Nebraskan assistant sports
editor.