Sports
Tuesday, April 18,1995 Page 10
Oymnasts
confident
for NCAAs
By Trevor Parks
Staff Reporter
Not everyone on the Nebraska women’s gym
nastics team will be entering uncharted waters
at the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga.
Three Comhusker seniors—Nicole Duval,
Martha Jenkins and Jennifer Hawkinson —
have been to the NCAA meet.
But this year they will be going with the rest
of their teammates. This is the first time the
Nebraska team has gone; since 1990.
Hawkinson is the most recent qualifier for
the NCAA Championships, participating last
year.
Last year, Hawkinson competed with the
Michigan team, and she said the experience this
year would be better by having her teammates
with her.
“The individual is going last in the routine,
while the team is doing their team things, so it’s
hard,” Hawkinson said.
Jenkins and Duval each qualified for the
NCAAs in 1992, and each had the same feel ings
as Hawkinson.
Jenkins said her experience wasn ’ t that great.
“Going as an individual isn’t fun,” Jenkins
said. “It’s great to see the team finally get
there.”
See GYM on 11
NU’s Dillavou
to transfer to
Duluth school
By Jeff Griesch
Senior Reporter
Chris Dillavou is leaving the Nebraska
women’s basketball team and returning to her
home state to play for Minnesota-Duluth.
l he 3-toot-11 sophomore
forward from Rose Creek,
Minn., said she signed her
letter of intent to play for the
NCAA Division II school last
Wednesday.
Dillavou, who averaged
1.8 points and 1.1 rebounds
while playing 10.2 minutes
per game, will have two years
of eligibility left.
uiliavou I decided it was time tor
me to make a change because I want to play,”
Dillavou said. “I know I’ll have a good chance
there.”
See DILLAVOU on 11
c??lro. aP*tch toward a Wyoming batter during Monday’s game. Castro scattered three
nits dunng eight shutout innings on the mound.
By Todd walkennorst
Staff Reporter
Nebraska’s first four batters all scored
against Wyoming Monday.
But after that the bats went cold as Ne
braska defeated Wyoming 4-0 in front of a
crowd of 128 at a chilly Buck Beltzer Sta
dium.
The shutout was the second for the Husk
ers this season. Previously, Nebraska shut
out the University of Nebraska-Keamey in
the season opener 9-0.
Junior Gus Castro pitched eight innings
of shutout ball and had a no-hitter through 5
2/3 innings before giving up a hit to Cowboy
left fielder Jeremy Schied. He only allowed
three Wyoming hits. Junior Alvie Shepherd
worked one inning in relief to preserve the
Husker shutout.
The Huskers raised their record to 25-14
as Castro improved to 3-2. The Cowboys
dropped to 11-23. Cold weather and lack of
hits led to the game ended the game in one
hour and 52 minutes.
The Huskers rocked Cowboy starter
Bryant Fick for four runs on three hits and
three walks in 1/3 of an inning. Wyoming
reliever Gordan Williams came in and only
gave up one hit for the remainder of the
game.
Husker third baseman Jed Dalton led off
the game with a single, and Fick walked both
Darin Petersen and Darin Erstad to load the
bases. Mel Motley singled to score two runs,
Todd Sears singled to score Erstad and
Shepherd’s sacrifice fly brought Motley
home.
Nebraska coach John Sanders said he was
pleased that his team was able to take advan
tage of opportunities early in the game.
“It’s a kind of a day with the wind and the
cold when it’s tough to play,” Sanders said.
The Huskers will return to Big Eight
conference play after winning seven of their
last eight games against non-conference
“We have a chance to make
some noise with some home
games. ”
■
JOHN SANDERS
Nebraska baseball coach
teams. Nebraska will travel to Iowa State on
Wednesday and play host to the Cyclones
beginning Friday night at 8:30 pjn. at Buck
Beltzer Stadium.
Sanders said that with many home confer
ence games remaining, the Huskers had a
chance to make a move toward the end of the
season.
“We have a good opportunity with more
games at home,” he said. “We have a chance
tomake some noise with some home games.”
Softball games take on new meaning for NU outfielder
Bob Offenbacker spent last
Friday night at home and appreci
ated life while his daughter, Amy,
was away playing softball.
But this wasn ’t any normal
; Friday night for the Offenbackers.
i The date was ApriH4, and it
I marked the one-year anniversary of
j a day both he and Amy would rather
forget.
On April 14,1994,42-year-old
{ Bob Offenbacker stood at the NU
I Softball Complex during a rain
] delay as Amy was playing for the
Nebraska softball team.
Then Bob suffered a heart attack
during that fourth-inning play
stoppage against Missouri-Kansas
City.
“I remember falling over,” Bob
| said. “Then I told Amy to keep
playing ball before I went in the
! ambulance and not worry about me.
I The next thing 1 remember, I woke
i up the next morning after having
i six-vessel bypass surgery.”
Before the heart attack, Bob was
enjoying the thing he loved most in
life, watching one of his daughters
play softball.
Amy went 3 for 6 with 2 RBIs in
a doubleheader sweep, but that
wasn’t important that day.
Amy’s focus turned to her father
and whether he would recover.
Bob’s focus turned to Amy and
when she would return to playing
softball.
Amy missed four games, and she
heard about it from her dad.
“I got after her about it,” Bob -
said. “I wondered why she was not
with the team, and I gave her the
dickens in the hospital.”
Amy finished the season out, and
that seemed to help her dad until he
suffered another heart attack May
26.
Then a new obstacle entered the
lives of the Offenbackers.
On June 11, Bob got the news
that he was going to undergo a heart
transplant after he heard that a heart
was available from someone in West
Trevor Parks
Virginia.
This time both Bob and Amy
agreed it was good for her to leave
the softball diamond again.
She and her sister were playing
softball in Kansas City, Mo., and
came home immediately to be with
their dad as he prepared to undergo
the transplant.
Bob had one final thing to
overcome. He wanted to return to
where he suffered his heart attack
and put that first memory behind
him.
“It was quite an experience to
come back,” Bob said. “It took two
or three trips to go back to where it
happened.
“The first time back all sorts of
stuff went through my mind, and
then the memories of it hit me and it
was a weird situation.”
That memory still lingers on for
Amy, who goes by the NU Softball
Complex every day.
“There’s not a day that goes by
when I don’t think about what
happened to him and where it
happened,” Amy said. “As many
times as I’m out there, I don’t think
there’s one time I don’t walk over
by that foul-line fence and think
about it.”
Now, according to Amy, a year
later her dad is almost as healthy as
she is.
And things couldn’t be better.
The Comhuskers, 31 -15, are
having one of their best seasons in
years, and that is the best medicine
for Bob.
He is used to seeing Amy in
Nebraska Class A State Champion
ships, and now he is seeing her
trying for a Big Eight Champion
ship.
This weekend Bob will be there
when Amy and Nebraska take on
Iowa State.
He has been a fixture at Amy’s
softball games for the last 10 years,
but now his appearance is something
special.
Every time Amy steps on the
field, she knows she is not playing
for herself.
“Each time I play, it feels like
I’m playing for him.”
Amy Offenbacker spent Friday
playing softball at Northern Iowa,
and Bob Offenbacker wondered
how she was doing.
And Bob and Amy wouldn’t want
it any other way.
Parks Is a junior news-editorial major
and a Dally Nebraskan staff reporter and
sports columnist
