Matt Miller/DN
BILL MONCE, a senior secondary-education major, rolls the ball during practice at
the Nebraska East Union Thursday afternoon. Monce is the team’s No. 3 bowler.
UNL bowling teams aim
at striking out stereotypes
By Josh Funk
Staff Reporter
The only two Nebraska athletic teams
that have not dropped from the top five since
1990 are ready to reach for another national
championship. ~
They’re guaranteed a bowl game, but it’s
a whole different ballgame—a bowling ball
game.
The UNL men’s and women’s bowling
team wiH begin their season with a tourna
ment Oct 18 in Denver.
.torcpeatfi
Yet back on campus, bowlers risk obscu
rity and fight the bowler stereotype —
middle aged, overweight and beer-drinking.
Rob Renko, a senior criminal justice
major and team member, wants to change
that image.
*T am an athletic guy who works out regu
larly and enjoys other sports,” Renko said.
“But when people learn that I am a bowler,
they don’t believe it.”
UNL has a strong bowling program,
which attracts the top bowlers from across
the nation, Coach Bill Straub*sud.However,
the program lacks recognition in Nebraska.
Every year, about 75 bowlers send in
video tapes and resumes to apply for the
team. Fifteen of them are invited to try out
with current team members for one of the
24 spots (Hi the team.
Straub, a former professional bowler and
coach, has coached foe Nebraska teams since
1983. “
“We’ve never been out of the top five
with foe men or women,” he said, “and I
don’t think that will change this year.”
Bowling is now a club sport at UNL, but
that could change in the future. The women’s
team is scheduled to be brought under foe
t Athletic Department
hronght into help balance foe gender gap hi
spoits, and hopefully the men’s team will be
included later,” Straub said.
The move to foe Athletic Department
could help build recognition and respect for
foe teams as well as ease budget concerns
and improve travel conditions, he said.
“The change would allow us to^ust be
players, not fundraisers,” senior elementary
education major Brenda Edwards said. “We
should be able to hire another full-time
coach. How many other sports have one
coach for both foe men’s and women’s
team?”
BtChad Lorenz
Senior Reporter
University of Nebraska-Lincoln police made
two arrests Thursday in connection with at least
six on- and off-campus thefts, including the theft
of a student’s car from campus last Friday.
In addition to the 1986 Buick Regal, police
recovered three bicycles, a cellular phone and
43 pieces of car-stereo equipment, Sgt. Bill
Manning said.
Police started on the case late Wednesday
night when Community Service Officers spot
ted the car, which was stolen a week ago from a
remote parking lot at 17th and Holdrege streets,
Manning said.
Police found the car parked at a house and
assigned two officers to watch it overnight,
Manning said. Officers discovered the plates on
the car were stolen from a different vehicle.
At 1:45 p.m. Thursday, officers saw a man
get into the car and drive away, Manning said.
They later pulled over and arrested 19-year-old
Brian Green for possession of stolen property.
Green is not enrolled at UNL.
An interview with Green led officers to sus
pect a juvenile was also involved, Manning said.
Green was taken to Lancaster County jail.
Officers went to the juvenile’s house, and
his mother gave them permission to search it,
Manning said.
At the house, officers found bicycles and
stereo equipment, Manning said.
More property was found at other locations,
Cpl. Carl Eastman said, but he declined to say
exactly where.
The juvenile was also arrested for posses
sion of stolen property and sent to the Lincoln
Juvenile Attention Center, Eastman said.
UNL officers were busy Thursday night log
ging the property and matching it with larceny
repeats from UNL and Lincoln police depart
ments, Eastman said.
The recovery could clear at least five lar
ceny cases as well as the auto theft, he said.
Book targets abuse victims
Susan Koppelman is a survivor of domestic
abuse.
She knows firsthand that abusive relation
ships are a dead end.
She is using her experience to help battered
women escape violent relationship though her
book, “Women in the Trees: U.S. Women’s
Short Stories of Battering and Resistance, 1839
1994”
Koppelman shared her experiences and
these of 30 other women who have survived
domestic abuse in a speech at die Nebraska
Union Wednesday afternoon.
“My collections make available women's
experiences, history, metaphors, and visions of
reality as they have been recorded and portrayed
in our short stories from 1826 to the present,”
Koppelman said.
Koppelman said women neverdeserved to.
be battered and violence was never their fault.
“Victims are not responsible for the choices
criminals make,” she said.
Domestic violence is not a problem confined
to any particular class, race, ethnic group or
lifestyle, Koppelman said, but occurs in all sec
tors of society.
*'T Although domestic violence is a universal
problem, it isn’t always evident because abuse
is emotional as well as physical, she said.
bccausc you don’t see abuse doesn’t
mean it isn’t there,” she said. “People don’t
wash their dirty linen in public.”
* In me second part of the speech, Barbara
Harman, author of the book’s final chapter, read
her short story “Happy Ending.”
She combined her experiences of physical
mid emotional abuse throughout her life.
“Women in abusive relationships have all
the responsibility and none of the control,”
Harman said.
She gave advice for people who have a
friend in an abusive relationship.
“The most important thing you can do is
believe her and support her,” Harman said. “She
needs to realize that she can survive.”
Currently 20 percent of women undergradu
’ ates in a coed university have been battered,
Koppelman said.
“Many parents are so naive when they send
their daughter off to college. They think they
are sending her to a safe place,” she said.
Christina Brantner, associate professor of
; modern languages and interim director of
Women’s Studies, saidUNL’s ability to be forth
right about safety was a good step toward a safer
campus.
“The next step is offering proper awareness
to deal with safety issues,” she said.
Koppelman also encouraged men to read her
book so they can see that there is no justifica
tion for battering a women.
The author’s speech was co-sponsored by
the Women’s Studies Program and the Rape/
SpouseAbuse Oisis Center.
awhile. There are tilings out there that we can’t
help.”
Thosecnraeajie said, are known as crimes
of opportunity—thefts that didn’t require much
the opportunities,” be said. "You do tH^best
possible.”
Officers say they do what they can in stop
ping thefts, but as is the case in stopping many
crimes, students, faculty and staff need to help.
Sgt. Mylo Bushing said common sense
would prevent many crimes, especially thefts.
Locking residence hall rooms, locking car
doors and taking loose items — including re
movable car stereos — out of cars are a few
things people can do to prevent theft, Bushing
said.
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