The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, May 02, 1997, Page 11, Image 11

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    NY&has grown in one year J
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Staff Reporter
Gary Wyma took a big risk last
season when he invested thousands of
dollars in the fledging National Vol
leyball Association.
The women’s professional league
was suffering from bad management,
poor attendance and little media in
terest.
Wyma restructured the league,
buying out minority owners and re
cruiting new general managers,
coaches and players. He studied pos
sible new sights and placed teams in
high-interest areas.
Now, after a year away from the
West Coast, the NVA has resurrected
itself. Fan interest and media partici
pation are at an all-time high, and
Wyma’s risky venture has turned into
a profitable success. The league will
expand next season, fielding new
teams in Madison, Wis., and Austin,
Texas.
“We are tremendously happy,”
Wyma said from San Diego. “This
year, the frustrations are gone. We
have 20 times the media and triple the
attendance. And it’s all because we’ve
gone to the right areas.”
One of those areas is Nebraska,
specifically Lincoln, where the NVA
Championship Playoffs will take place
this weekend at Northeast High
School. The weekend’s matches will
fcfc
Because the fans are so knowledgeable, it
will raise the level of play for everybody
Joel McCartney
Tbmados volleyball coach
showcase the top four regular season
finishers in the league.
“Lincoln is the perfect place to
have the championship,” Wyma said.
“Because of (NU Coach) Terry Pettit
and all he’s done at Nebraska, the fans
have a real understanding and an ap
preciation for the game.”
On Saturday at 5 p.m., the Colo
rado Thunder (5-4) will face the un
defeated and first-seeded Iowa Bliz
zard (9-0). In the second semifinal
match at 7 p.m., the third-seeded Ne
braska Tornados (4-5) take on the
Utah Golden Spikers (3-6).
Tornado Coach Joel McCartney
said that although his team — which
includes several former Cornhusker
players—will have a home-court ad
vantage, the fan interest in Lincoln
will benefit the three other teams as
well.
“Because the fans are so knowl
edgeable,” McCartney said, “it will
raise the level of play for everybody.
Iowa will be a better team because they
are playing here. They’ll play well
knowing how supportive and inter- I
ested the fans are.”
The Tornados and the Blizzard I
both defeated their semifinal oppo- L
nents twice during the regular season,
but those matches cannot be consid
ered an accurate indication of how the
teams will fair Saturday.
Because of the nature of the league
— teams practice only once a week
and players are paid approximately
$ 100 per match—team members can
not afford to concentrate full time on
their NVA careers.
These outside factors have made it
difficult for many teams to compete
with a full roster during the season.
McCartney expects that to be differ
ent throughout the playoffs.
“What fans saw during the regu
lar season was not what they will see
this weekend,” McCartney said.
“There will be more parity, because
all four teams will be at full strength.
“The team that is successful will ,
win with a strong combination of work !
ethic and experience. It’s going to be ^
a real dogfight.”
F\
. ®
Goodwill can use your old stuff!
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Goodwill drop boxes are in dorms from:
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Or stop on the way outta town at:
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Road leads to stardom
TRESSA from page 9
things,” Thompson said, “and if I just
kdep getting stronger and my tech
nique keeps improving, there’s a lot
that I can do.”
Thompson, a junior in the outdoor
season although her indoor eligibility
expired after die wot her first NCAA
title in March, envisions the day when
she throws 65 feet. Last week at the
Drake Relays, she threw 58 feet, 3/4
inches, breaking a 10-year meet record
for college athletes. She’s topped 61 feet
several times this season, but never in
competition without scratching.
“She’s very proud of what she’s
done,” Colligan said, “and she wears
it well and projects it. She loves the
training, the discipline that it requires,
and she loves the attention, too. And
she deserves it.”
Syble Thompson knew long ago
that Tressa was different from most
little girls. When Tressa’s sisters slept
at night, they snuggled with dolls,
Syble Thompson said, but Tressa lined
up volleyballs, footballs and basket
balls beside her bed.
We always knew we had a little
tomboy in her,” Syble Thompson said.
“But we are very proud of what she’s
done. It’s kind of overwhelming, and
she handles it really well.”
Last summer, the Bloomfield Cham
ber of Commerce named Tressa an hon- :
orary member at a banquet in her honor i
after an eighth-place finish at the U.S.
Olympic Trials. Thompson’s mother ,
said she hears encouraging words from ,
townspeople daily during the track and ,
field season. ,
Support from the Bloomfield com- j
munity, TYessa said, is nothing new. !
While in junior high school, she \
played quarterback on the football
team, and as a high school freshman
and sophomore she played tight end
and safety, becoming the first girl in
Nebraska history to win a state foot
ball championship.
“I had this peculiar instinct that I
' liked to hit heads and make contact,”
Thompson said. “If you do that in bas- 1
ketbali, they catch you on all those fouls.
That’s how I am in the shot-put ring. I
release all my energy with a throw.”
Midway through her senior year of
high school, Thompson still held
tightly to her dream of playing col
lege basketball. But with the advice
of ho- father, she turned down basket
ball opportunities at Kansas State and
Iowa State to throw at NU.
The Husker coaches, however, had
their eyes on Crete’s Teri Steer, who
instead chose Southern Methodist and
provided Thompson with her primary
competition before a broken leg shelved
Steer prior to the Frank Sevigne Husker
Invite three months ago.
“When I came in my freshman
year,” Thompson said, “no one really
expected me to do that well. But I had
the determination, and I wanted to be
the best.”
Following a successful indoor season
as a freshman, Thompson redshirted in
the spring and switched from a glide
throwing motion to a spin technique.
“Watching her movements, I had
a sneaking suspicion she could ulti
mately achieve at a higher level,”
Colligan said, “even if we had to back
track a little bit. We were making good
progress, but we were making progress
down a road that eventually was go
ing to have construction points.”
Thompson endured a frustrating
stretch of months in which she tem
porarily lost five to 10 feet of distance
pn her throws.
I would go home and sit in my
oom and beat up my pillow and won
ier what the heck I was doing here,”
she said, “But I had the determina
ion, and I wanted to be the best.
“(Colligan) just hammered my ass.
t think he saw in me what no one else
saw. He saw that I have what it takes
o be the big dog.”
Three years later, Thompson,
hough still not the big dog of U.S.
rack and field, has nearly mastered
he spin technique and ranks among
he top three throwers in the United
States, along with former UCLA
standout Valeyta Althouse and long
ime star Connie Price-Smith.
After her NU career, Thompson
vants to remain in Lincoln and train
vith Colligan, she said, in prepara
ion for “at least the next two, and
naybe the next three Olympics.”
This summer, while she’s not in
Greece for the World Championships
)r in Sicily, Italy, for the World Uni
/ersity Games in August, Thompson
s content in Nebraska.
She wants to work in law enforce
ment after her days of international
competition. And she's secured an in
ternship with the Nebraska State Pa
trol, a job that may someday send her
cruising down State Highway 84, ex
ploring the path to Bloomfield she
t)lazed past on her way to stardom.
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