Sports
Sprinter’s
performance
frustrating
By Tony West
Staff Reporter
As Mark Graham quit running and walked
the last 10 meters of the 400-meter run at Ed
Weir Track on Saturday, it was obvious some
thing was wrong with the sophomore All
American.
He finished last in the event with a time of
52.55.
And Comhusker coach Gary Pepin wasn’t
pleased with how Graham handled the situa
tion.
“It shouldn’t be done,” Pepin said. “You
always teach the athlete to run through every
event.”
Graham agreed that he didn’t handle the
race appropriately.
“One of the things I have to leam, not only
as an athlete but also as a person, is to handle
my frustration better,” he said.
And in this past year, Graham — who
competed in the 1992 Olympics for Canada —
has had to deal with a lot of frustration.
Last season, as a true freshman, Graham
finished seventh in the 400-meter run at the
NCAA Indoor Championships and was a mem
ber of the eighth-place 1600-meter relay team.
Graham also was a member of Canada’s
1600-meter relay team in the Commonwealth
Games, where he pulled up short with a ham
string injury last summer.
But Graham was still considered one of the
best in the world in the 400-meter run with his
top time of 46.16. He was ajso named
Nebraska’s most outstanding newcomer.
But this past indoor season, Graham’s best
400-meter time was nearly three seconds slower
than last year. And he didn’t qualify for the
NCAA Championships meet.
In this outdoor season, so far, his best 400
meter run time has been 49.94 in the first meet
at North Carolina on April 1.
“With those results, you can’t help to think
that something that you love to do is slipping
away,” Graham said. “I’m just lacking the
confidence right now.”
Nebraska assistant coach Steve Rainbolt,
who works with the sprinters, said that the
hamstring injury may be one of Graham’s
problems this year.
Rainbolt said the coaches were being cau
tious in training Graham because of the ham
string. But now Rainbolt realizes that caution
may not have been the best tactic.
“The bottom line is that we haven’t got him
ready,” Rainbolt said. “We needed to train him
harder.”
Graham said he was just going to have to
keep working hard and hope for the best.
“I just have to get over the mental fear of
comnetine aeain ” he said.
Reaching out
T ravis Hey ing/DN
Former Nebraska linebacker Trev Alberts shows his appreciation of his role model Charles Barkley while speaking
to students at the “School is Coot” Jam Monday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Alberts accepts, uses role-model status
By Todd Walkenhorst
Staff Reporter
Trev Alberts saw a disturbing trend when
he returned to his former high school re
cently.
When Alberts — a former Nebraska All
American who now plays for the India
napolis Colts — visited Cedar Falls North
ern University High School, he said some of
the 56 students had green hair and earrings
in strange places.
And Alberts understands what students
go through, he said.
“Kids nowadays have it really tough,”
Alberts said. “It’s strange; our society is
pretty nuts.”
When Alberts was in high school, it was
different, he said.
“When I went there, there just wasn’t the
problem with drugs,” he said. “The kids are
into some weird things.
I’ve been blessed in so many ways. Coach Osborne gave a
little kid out of Iowa a chance to come and play football.
TREV ALBERTS
Former Nebraska linebacker
“There were kids the size of me that were
not interested in playing football or any
sports.”
But Alberts was interested in playing
football, and that interest led him to being
named a Butkus Award winner at Nebraska
in 1993. That interest also led to Alberts
being drafted into the National Football
League.
After his first season with the Colts,
Alberts was back in Lincoln reaching out to
children by speaking at the fourth annual
School is Cool Jam at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center on Monday morning.
“When I played football,” Alberts said,
“I didn’t want to play unless I was having
fun. School is fun. I never took it as a job.”
Alberts said he realized the success he
had achieved in both football and school
was the result of good fortune and luck.
See ALBERTS on 8
Loss for Husker baseball could be trouble for coach
inc rseorasKa oaseoan team was
on the edge of collapse this
weekend in Stillwater, Okla.
The Huskers were humiliated in
the first two games of the three
game series with No. 1 Oklahoma
State.
Nebraska hitters were shut out
for just the second time this season
in the first game, managing just
three hits while losing 9-0.
In the second game, it looked
like the Huskers would rebound,
scoring four runs in the first inning.
Then the nightmare began.
Cody Winget walked five,
allowed five hits and gave up 11
runs in 1 2/3 innings. Gus Castro
relieved Winget but walked five
more and allowed nine hits and 12
runs in 1 2/3 innings.
The walk-fest and slug-fest
continued for the Cowboys for
more than four hours until it ended
at 37-18.
The Huskers spent a day in hell.
Before the Oklahoma State
series, die Huskers thought they
were impruvmg. i ney inougni mey
were coming together. They
thought they were going to chal
lenge the Cowboys.
Instead, the Huskers tottered on
the brink of collapse.
The Huskers stumbled into the
final game of the series looking for
hope, but the Cowboys continued
to tee off on the Nebraska pitching
staff.
In the first inning, Oklahoma
State scored five runs off starter
Bob Courter.
The collapse appeared complete.
The Huskers would give up and be
swept under the Big Eight rug by
the Cowboys.
But the Huskers came back.
They rallied with three runs in
the third inning. Then a single run
in the fifth gave the Huskers a 7-6
lead in the seventh.
The Huskers finished off the
Cowboys with four runs in the
eighth inning to seal an 11-7 win.
The Huskers absolutely needed a
win, and they got one.
Jeff Griesch
Without a win, Nebraska would
have been in disarray entering the
series with intrastate rival
Creighton.
The Bluejays are 22-9 and in
first place in the Missouri Valley
Conference with a 12-2 record.
They are building their best season
since going to the College World
Series in 1991.
More than a MVC champion
ship, an NCAA Regional bid, and
maybe even a CWS berth, the
Bluejays and their fans in Omaha
want to beat John Sanders and
Nebraska.
i ne past weeK, tne umana
World-Herald’s “Voice from the
Grandstand” has been filled with
letters criticizing John Sanders for
not recruiting enough Omaha
players, for poor coaching at third
base and for playing favorites with
his son, Craig.
If Nebraska entered the
Creighton series flat, the Bluejays
would have pounced. Two losses t(
Creighton would mean a flood of
anti-Nebraska, anti-John Sanders
letters in Omaha.
Sanders tries not to let the
criticism bother him, but since
Nebraska reported violations at
Creighton two seasons ago, the
scrutiny has been continuous.
Creighton supporters called
Sanders jealous.
They said he was a whining
wanna-be.
They said he was a loser.
Like Nebraska’s day in
Stillwater Saturday, Sanders’
coaching life during the past two
years has been bordering on a
pcibuiiai iicu.
He tries to be strong, but he is
only human, especially when the
criticism starts to involve his
family.
The win against the top-ranked
Cowboys gave Sanders a chance to
forget the critics. It also gave the
Huskers confidence before playing
the Bluejays in Omaha today.
The only way for Sanders to
silence and forget the critics for
another year is to sweep Creighton.
A split of the two-game set will
allow the fires of criticisms to keep
burning.
If the games are rained out, the
baseball fans in Omaha will say it
is Sanders’ fault.
If Nebraska gets swept, the
letters will flow and the flames in
Sanders’ hell will grow. Fans in
Omaha will not only call Sanders
names, they will call for his job.
Grtescb is a senior news-editorial major
and a Dally Nebraskan senior reporter and
colnmnlst
