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Dave Wilson
Garth Brooks
excels at music,
falters at sports
When country music superstar
Garth Brooks decided to pursue
his career full time, he wasn’t in a
honky-tonk bar in Nashville.
He was in the pole-vault pit at
the Ed Weir Track in Lincoln after
failing to qualify for the Big Eight
finals.
“I thought my life was over,”
Brooks said, “and one of the train
ers walked by and said, ‘Now you
can get on to what you’re supposed
to be doing.’ And she meant the
music.”
A javelin thrower from 1981
84 at Oklahoma State, Brooks
made his first trip to Lincoln in
1984 for the Big Eight
Championships. Though he was a
decent athlete, Brooks didn’t have
an Olympic career ahead of him,
former Oklahoma State track
coach Jim Bolding said.
“It was not a strong event for us
N$t that time,” Bolding said. “He
was a good baseball player, and it
was an event he just tried out for. I
don’t recall him ever placing in a
meet. He was out there and he
made the effort.”
But as the most energetic enter
tainer in country music, the Yukon,
Okla., native never failed to dis
play his athletic ability on stage.
“He still appears to be pretty
stout,” Bolding said. “But he has to
be in pretty good shape. He defi
nitely had some natural athletic
While on partial athletic schol
- $ship at Oklahoma State, the ath
jptic department saw Brooks’ true
talent. Certain areas would be set
prior to football games and
other athletic events for Brooks to
play country music.
When he returns to his home
state, Brooks doesn’t forget the
people who helped him get started.
Just over a month ago at a show
in Tulsa, Okla., Bolding said he
had a chance to talk to Brooks for
the first time in several years. And
through fame and fortune, not
much had changed.
Brooks is still a good ol’ boy.
“He’s still pretty humble and a
guy that you feel you could talk
to,” Bolding said. “I think that’s
probably one of the things that
appeals to fans. Of course, we may
be a little biased here in Stillwater.”
Until Wednesday, I thought
Bolding was a little biased.
But after running into Garth at
the Bob Devaney Sports Center, I
realized that Bolding hadn’t
stretched the truth one bit.
Garth is one of the most down
to-earth guys I’ve ever had the
pleasure of speaking with. And
though he may not look it, Garth
was and is an athlete.
Wilson is a junior news-edi
torial major and a Daily
Nebraskan senior reporter.
Gill: Newcombe will play wingback
By Sam McKewon
Staff Reporter
Freshman Bobby Newcombe, who passed up a
redshirt season to play football immediately for
Nebraska, is being moved from quarterback to
wingback for the rest of the season.
The decision was announced by quarterbacks
coach Turner Gill at the Big Red Breakfast in
Omaha Thursday, where he told the crowd that in
order to get Newcombe on the field, he would start
catching the ball rather than passing it. Newcombe
is also one of NU’s top three kick-return men.
“He a talented guy that we want to get on the
field,” Gill said after practice. “We feel like that’s
the best place for him to be right now.”
Newcombe will practice exclusively with the
wide receivers, while sophomore Monte Christo
moves to third-string quarterback behind senior
Scott Frost and sophomore Frankie London.
Coach Tom Osborne said the move related to
the lack of depth at the wingback position as much
as it did to Newcombe’s ability on the field.
“We don’t have a lot of guys
there,” Osborne said, “We still
have Shevin Wiggins and Lance
Brown there, but we lost Sean
Wieting and John Gibson, so
Bobby gives us a little more
depth.”
Newcombe will come in as
the No. 3 wingback behind
Wiggins and Brown, respective
ly. Both Wieting and Gibson Hourcoinbe
went down with knee injuries *
earlier this year.
Newcombe said the coaches first expressed
interest in him playing wingback during two-a-day
practices in August. He added that he had been tak
ing snaps at wingback in practice, and started prac
ticing the position full time this week.
Newcombe said the transition has been made
easier with the help of receivers coach Ron Brown.
“Coach Brown has really helped me adjust to
playing the position,” Newcombe said. “It was
really an easy decision to make.”
Newcombe had a strong start in his first game
against Akron, rushing for 32 yards on seven car
ries and passing for 15 yards. He did not play in the
Washington game.
Osborne said Nebraska did not want to waste
Newcombe’s freshman season with mop-up duty
as a third-string quarterback.
“We didn’t want to waste his year of eligibility,”
Osborne said. “It’s our thinking that Bobby can be
a great quarterback, but we need to get him on the
field.”
Please see NEWCOMBE on page 8
Rugby teams
start season
with success
By Nate Odgaard
Staff Reporter
Though the Nebraska women’s
rugby team lacks the tradition the
men’s team has established for more
than 25 years, both teams have one
thing in common this year - early sea
son success.
After learning the game in its first
year of existence last year, the Husker
women’s club team taught Iowa State
a lesson, kicking off this year’s fall
season with a 47-5 route over the
Cyclones on Saturday.
Sophomore Cassie Ringgenberg
said Nebraska’s win was a sign of
good things to come.
“I think it helps that we have more
of an experienced team,” she said. “I
think this year’s team is much better
than last year’s.”
When the Husker women formed
the team last year, few players knew
how the game was played. It showed
on the field as NU failed to score in
any of its five fall-season games. They
managed to win two games, while los
ing six, in the spring.
- After starting 1 -0, Ringgenberg
and the team has good reason to be
' optimistic about this fall. -
“We have a lot of very good,
impressive rookies, and our returning
girls are doing a wonderful job,”
Ringgenberg said.
Mary Spicka has sparked the
Please see RUGBY on page 8
Sandy Summers/dn
SOPHOMORE SEAN LEWIS carries the ball daring a drill Tuesday afternoon in front of Harper- Schramm- Smith
Residence Halls.
KSU coach discovers challenging vocation
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Assignment Reporter
Jim McLaughlin spent the major
ity of his volleyball career coaching
the University of
Souther
California and the
USA Olympic
men’s teams.
But it wasn
until an interview
session with
Kansas State
women’s team
that McLaughlin
finally found the
opportunity for which uc was .uun.
ing.
“I knew I could help these women
differently than I could help the USA
guys,” McLaughlin said. “The chal
lenge there was to develop game
plans. With the women here, it’s
developing the qualities it takes to be
a great team.
“We’re developing commitment
and loyalty and trust, along with the
volleyball tactics. So far, its been a
great situation.”
McLaughlin stepped into the
Wildcat job vacated by Jim Moore,
who now coaches Big 12 Conference
rival Texas. Moore guided KSU to its
first-ever NCAA Tournament
appearance in 1996, leaving
McLaughlin with big shoes to fill.
With three starters returning from
last season’s 26-9 team, McLaughlin
hopes to follow in Moore’s footsteps.
Kansas State tied for fourth place in
the league last year, and Moore pre
dicts a similar finish this season.
The Wildcats (8-3) begin their
conference run tonight against No. 24
Colorado before playing host to fifth
ranked Nebraska Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Cornhuskers (9-2), who play
Kansas (7-6) Friday night, present
KSU with its toughest challenge of
the season so far, McLaughlin said.
“Nebraska is extremely talented,”
McLaughlin said. “They have a USA
caliber player in Lisa Reitsma and a
great setter. We’ll have our hands
full.”
The Wildcats will look to senior
setter Devon Ryning, junior middle
blocker Val Wieck and junior hitter
Kim Zschau for leadership during the
NU match. Ryning has already
earned one conference player-of-the
week honor this season, averaging
13.11 assists per game.
The experience of the three
returning starters has helped to ease
the team’s transition into a new sys
tem, McLaughlin said.
“Those three have helped the
Please see KSU on page 8