Coaches
gearing up
for future
BASEBALL from page 6
stands to L. Dale Mitchell Park
this season. Next year, the Sooners
will build a national championship
room on the third base side of the
ballpark, OU Coach Larry
Cochell said.
But some coaches in the Big
12 feel that no matter how many
stadium improvements are made,
the schools in the northern half of
the conference will still be com
peting at a disadvantage with the
southern schools because of the
weather.
Although Nebraska and other
northern states have experienced
above-normal temperatures the
last couple of days, the weather in
the south is still much warmer. The
National Weather Service forecast
a high of 49 degrees in Lincoln on
Friday, while in Austin, Texas -
home of the Longhorns - a high in
the lower 70s was forecast.
“I would like to see the season
pushed back,” Kansas Coach
Bobby Randall said. “We all strug
gle with weather through March.
We need to finish the basketball
season first so we can promote
baseball the way it should be.”
The weather also affects team’s
schedules, Iowa State Coach Lyle
Smith said. The Cyclones play
their first 24 games on the road
this season, which will wear the
students and on the institution
financially, Smith said.
Moving the season oacK
would allow die HbrfKetn' febtiodts
to get off to a solid base,” Smith
said. “Obviously, it is easier to win
at home.”
However, Texas A&M Coach
Mark Johnson said moving the
season back three weeks probably
wouldn’t accomplish the goal
coaches have in mind.
Johnson said if they move the
season back, it should be moved to
summer - but even that would
generate problems.
“I don’t see a great attendance
increase at the end of the year,”
Johnson said. “There is never a
level playing field in any sport,
and weather certainly will play a
factor when talking about base
ball. But moving it back three
weeks is like barely fixing a flat
tire.”
nu’s r. j
swing
By Darren Ivy
Assignment Reporter
Watching from the stands at the
1996 Olympics, Heather Brinkcouldn’t
help but be proud of Shannon Miller,
Kerri Strug and
the rest of the
United State’s
gold-medal gym
nastics team.
“I was happy
for them because
I knew what they
had been
through,” said
Brink, the 1997
Ml* Big 12
Newcomer of the Year.
But in the back of her mind were the
“what if” questions.
What if she wouldn’t have gotten
hurt at the 1995 World Trials when she
was ranked 1 inh among American gym
nasts? What if she wouldn’t have gotten
burned out (Hi gymnastics and quit after
the world trials? Could that have been
her out there winning a gold medal?
“I couldn’t blame anyone but
myself,” Brink said. “I had just had
enough of everything and didn’t want to
deal with (gymnastics) anymore.”
One could hardly blame Brink for
being exhausted.
She started tumbling on the mats
when she was 4 years old. Brink said her
parents sent her to die Nebraska School
of Gymnastics because they thought
she had “too much energy and was ruin
ing the house.”
After eight years of gymnastics in
Lincoln, Brink said she had learned all she
could from her coaches. But she wanted
more - she wanted to be an Olympian.
So she left her family in Lincoln and
moved to Oklahoma City, 'where she
trained with Miller and six or seven
otherehte gymnasts at the Dynamo
'though it was hard at first being
away from her family, she said the six
days a week of eight-hour practices kept
her busy.
But after her last of four knee surg
eries in 1995, the eight-hour days and
five years away from her family proved
too much for Brink, and she quit gym
nastics altogether.
She graduated a semester early
from Santa Fe High School and
returned to Lincoln.
“I had been away from home for so
long and I realty missed my family and
friends,” Brink said.
She said the extra time at home and
year off from competition helped her
regain her love for gymnastics. Once
she got her love for the sport back, she
decided to stay at home and attend the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“I made up my mind before looking
anywhere else,” Brink said.
Coach Dan Kendig was glad she
didn’t lode anywhere else.
“Each year there are a handful (of
recruits) that are program makers, who
can help take a program to the next
level, and she was one of them that
year,” Kendig said.
As a tresnman at uinl, crime nn
ished 12th in the all-around and eighth
in the vault at the NCAA
Championships.
Looking back on her gym experi
ences, Brink doesn’t regret moving
away from home and training at die elite
level because she knows that experience
has helped her at the collegiate level.
However, four-hour college prac
tices and training in a team atmosphere
make college gymnastics more enjoy
able, she said.
“Dan and the team have taught me
how to make it fun again,” Brink said.
Now that she’s having fun, Kendig
said, Brink’s semes could go up.
Another reason Brink’s scores
could improve is because of the
increased difficulty of her routines,
Kendig said
Saturday at a 7:30 p.m. dual with
Missouri at the Bob Devaney Sports
Center, Kendig said, Brink will become
only the second Husker gymnast lo do
the double layout on the floor eadnaseu ni
Brink said she is finally regaining
the form that made her one of die best
gymnasts in the country as a teen.
“It has taken a year to get back to
where I was,” Brink said. “I am just
starting to add more skills.”
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