_
h -
Darren Ivy
Nebraska
home for
Canadians
Growing up in a country where
Monday night is National Hockey
Night, almost all children in Canada
are introduced to the sport at an
early age.
“Everybody plays hockey,” said
Mike Comiffe, a Canadian sprinter
on the NU track team.
With hockey in the national spot
light, other sports such as football,
soccer and track don’t have near the
same player, fan or financial appeal.
In Canada, collegiate athletic
scholarships and financial support
to youth programs aren’t there, but
athletes haven’t gotten discouraged.
So many of these athletes head to
the United States where they are
given athletic scholarships and good
training facilities.
1 here is a world or talent waiting
to be discovered (in Canada), and
Nebraska has found it,” Comiffe said.
Nebraska’s latest diamonds in
the rough are Dahrran Diedrick, a 6
foot-1 210-pound I-back, and Kevin
Grant, a track-and-field jumper.
Both athletes enrolled at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln this
semester.
Even though Diedrick is now a
Cornhusker, he won’t forget his
roots.
“I am playing for my country
down here,” Diedrick said. “Football
is football no matter where you go,
and I want people to know there are
good football players in Canada.”
While Diedrick is the Huskers’
first-ever Canadian football recruit,
he doesn’t have to look far to find
other Canadian Comhuskers. There
are at least 14 Canadians at UNL
competing in swimming, gymnas
tics, track and field and soccer.
Husker teams benefit from many
of the athletes’ Canadian experi
ence, while the athletes prosper at
NU’s state-of-the-art facilities.
£ Soccer heads the list with seven
players and two coaches from
: Canada. Gymnastics, track and
swimming have' two Canadians, and
-Ihe football team now has one. ^
K* Having other Canadians on the
soccer team was one reason Ahay
Walsh, a sophomore from Saint
Bruno, Quebec, transferred to NU -
but die still misses her home.
“I am a Comhusker, but I will
always be a Canadian.” Walsh said.
“1 learned die words (to “The Star
Spangled” banner) so I could mouth
them, but 1 am patriotic and have a
Canadian flag on my wall.”
If Canadian athletes continue to
migrate to UNL, we may have to fol
low “The Star-Spangled Banner”
; with “O Canada” rather than “Alma
Mater.”
Darren Ivy is a sophomore
news-editorial major and a Daily
Nebraskan assignment reporter
and copy editor.
Matt Miller/DN
NEBRASKA l-BACK DeAngelo Evans has been building back his strength using a program designed by NU
Gymnastics Coach Francis Allen and NU Head Athletic Rainer Doak Ostergard. Evans, from Wichita, Kan.,
injured his groin in 1996.
Evans pushes on
By Shannon Heffelfinger
Senior Reporter
A single drop of sweat glim
mered on DeAngelo Evans’ jaw
line, then slowly slid across his
cheek and up his foreheadJhefpre
gliding off and htttmg the bluB
mat underneath him.
His sweat-soaked T-shirt clung
to his body, which shook as he
tried to hold a handstand for the
one-minute goal determined by
Nebraska football team trainer
Doak Ostergard.
Evans squeezed his eyes shut
and held his breath as his legs
began to shake against the blue
mat on the wall of the gymnastics
room at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center - a place Evans has come
to know well this semester.
“Keep going,” Ostergard said.
But Evans’ legs kicked for
ward, falling to the mat below him
as he attempted to catch his
breath.
“How long?” Evans said.
“Forty-five seconds,”
Ostergard said.
Evans sighed as he focused on
the mat in front of him.
He shook his head.
“I’m so weak,” Evans said.
Afternoons like this aren’t
easy for Evans, an I-back on the
Nebraska football team who
rushed for 776 yards and a team
leading 14 touchdowns as a fresh
man in 1996.
But his on-field accomplish
ments now seem like distant mem
ories to the 5-foot-9 sophomore.
His troubles started two years
ago when Evans suffered a rare
stress injury to his pelvis that
became aggravated over time.
Evans, from Wichita, Kan.,
underwent surgery in Boston last
summer in hopes of returning for
what would have been his sopho
more season.
But after lingering soreness in
his adductor muscles led to a
failed comeback attempt, Evans
redshirted during NU’s 1997
national championship season and
had a second surgery in October.
“He made good progress when
he came back from Boston,”
Ostergard said. “He was running
straight ahead pretty well. But the
soreness never got better like we
thought it would.”
Now, instead of participating
in the Comhuskers’ winter condi
tioning, Evans works every week
day afternoon at the Devaney
Center on regaining the strength
he lost over the past four months.
He doesn’t lift weights. Evans
follows a program of gymnastic
exercises devised in part by
Please see EVANS on 8
NUyet
to reach
potential
mm
By Darren Ivy
Staff Reporter
Coach Paul Sanderford doesn’t like
to concentrate on the past.
“My teams historically have played
well in February and March, and I cer
tainly hope this team plays its best bas
ketball in February and March,” said
Sanderford, the Nebraka women’s bas
ketball coach. “We definitely haven’t
peaked yet” 5 ^ jle
Sanderford said he hopes lineup
changes in tonight’s 7:05 game with
Texas will get Nebraska primed for the
stretch run.
Injuries are one reason the
Comhuskers (13-5 overall and 3-3 in
the Big 12 Conference) haven’t hit their
potential. But Sanderford isn’t interest
ed in excuses.
“It’s that time of year where we’ve
got to wake some people up and give
some other players a chance to play
more minutes,” Sanderford said
' NU senior forward Jarm Kirfiik said
the ffusicersrhkve^wadced with1 different
player combinations in practice'&ffd
said she didn’t think it would be much
different in the game.
“It might be a different lineup initial
ly, but pretty much the same players will
be coming into the rotation,” Kubik said.
Sanderford was disappointed after
NU’s 76-71 loss to Baylor because he
felt it was a game NU should have won.
The Huskers, who are ranked 23rd in
the USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ poll,
fell out of The Associated Press Poll
released Monday.
“It’s been a long week since we
played at Baylor^’ Sanderford sa$d.
Although the longhorns (6-9 and 2
4) have struggled, Sanderford said UT
always has a strong winning tradition.
“I hope they don’t turn it around
against us,” Sanderford said. “It’s still
scary to me that they aren’t playing bet
ter than they are.
“We will have to be at our best”
«
I just want to work my hardest, ant/ /
don’t want to have a bad attitude”
DeAngelo Evans .
NUI-baqk, h • ./.VX'VfjX’X *m
A trip tO'Mailftttih;' Kan., and
a visit by the fifth-ranked team in
the nation. That’s what the
Nebraska men’s basketball team
has in storf this week.
With a win at Kansas State
tonight at 7:05, the Cornhuskers
(13-6 overall and 4-2 in the Big 12
Conference) will be off to their
best conference start since 1981
82. But it won’t be an easy chore.
The Wildcats (12-5 and 2-4) are
9-0 at the Bramlage Coliseum and
have defeated the Huskers in
Manhattan each of the past three
seasons.
NU Coach Danny Nee said the
Wildcats nave improved remark
ably since last season- Kansas
State finished IQ-17 and 3-13 in
league play/.^
TU‘ Wildcats shot just 37 per
cem irom the floor during coher
ence play and only tonned 70
point mark twice.
"You talk abo». »turnaround
team from a year ago,” Nee said. "1
really think they are a quality team.
Number one, Manny Dies might be
the most improved player in the
$eague; and he’s playing right now
^ close to all-confefence status.”
Dies, a 6-foot-8 junior forward,
leads the Wildcats in scoring, aver
aging more than 16 point* per
game. Nee said Dies has the ability
to finish and play physical against
any team in the league.
Winning on the road, historical
ly, is not easy in college basketball.
Nebraska is 1-2 away from the Bob
Devaney Sports Center in Big 12
play and will look for its first win
in Manhattan since Feb. 9,1994.
Junior guard Tyronn Lue
believes the recent woes in
Manhattan stem from a lack of
focus by die entire team.
"Last year, we knew it was a big
game for us, and they weren't play
ing so well," Lue said. "We thought
we could walk all over them, and
they beat us.”
Despite their road woes, Nee
said, the Huskers have played well
u
.
We thought we
could walk all over
them, and they
beat us.”
TyronnLui
NU point guard
both at home and on the road.
NU will return to Lincoln to
host Kansas Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
The game will be televised on
ABC.