Gamedays filled with triumphs, trials for athletes
GAME from page 1
And for K),000 fans awash in red,
their eyes are popping out of their
heads. Nebraska, somehow, has
squandered a 27-3 lead to Colorado.
Good Lord - just 20 minutes ago, a
snowball fight between the mascots
was Folsom Field’s main attraction.
And now, a mad CU dash to the
finish.
On the sideline, Nebraska defend
ers suck in air. They’re tired, out of
their groove, on their heels. And NU’s
offense isn’t helping.
Opposite is Colorado’s bench,
jubilant at its sudden fortune and a
27-27 tie. Volatile CU quarterback
Mike Moschetti bounces up and
down the sidelines, screaming all the
words Mama told us never to scream.
Moschetti can feel this victory;
he’s suddenly hot, and just in time to
save the Buffaloes’ so-so season. CU
Coach Gary Barnett fiddles with his
headset; he barks orders out, awaiting
another Husker drive.
***
Her clap serves as a metronome
for the crowd. Normally, it’s the
crowd that starts the clap, the three
second beat that marks the big jumps
into sandy pit down the runway.
But today is a smaller meet. So
triple jumper Dalhia Ingram will have
to do it all on her own.
***
It sounds like an aviary in the Bob
Devaney Sports Center’s swimming
pool. Nebraska only hosts a few
meets a year, and quite likely they all
sound like the adidas shoot-out does:
hoots, whoops and hollers from team
mates, coaches and fans.
The aviary effect comes from the
limited attention span of swimmers in
the water. Maybe, at best, they’re
. above water for a second or two every
few seconds.
So, in terms of encouragement,
only the shortest phrases or catcalls
need apply.
“Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!
Gooo! Goooooo! Gooooooooooo!”
one coach from North Carolina State
screams.
“Yee, yee yee, yee, yee, yee, yee,
yeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” another from UC
Santa Barbara shrieks.
Most of the fans - mostly swim
ming aficionados - don’t say much.
On this particular night, members
of the Omaha Westside High School
team are nearby.
“What a turn,” one girl says to
another.
“Oh, she’s good,” says another,
referring to two-time Big 12 swim
mer of the year Shandra Johnson.
Johnson does well on this night,
as she usually does, and directly after
she touches the finish wall, she
shoots around to glance at the clock -
at her time.
Swimming, like track, is a sport
where numbers speak volumes. There
is winning, and there is speed. The
term world record holder has a place
here, unlike football or other team
sports.
Timex must love these people.
All the coaches wear watches, and
they have a big scoreboard timer to
look at in addition. Some have a stop
watch in their hands on top of that.
Johnson’s facial expression tells
the time, too. It doesn’t change much
when she glances - probably what she
expected. She waits for the time that
will be transcendent.
***
Erin Aldrich inspects her arm as if
something has gone drastically
wrong.
The senior outside hitter for the
Texas volleyball team isn’t having
quite the night she had in Austin a
month before, when the Longhorns
upset Nebraska in five games.
Tonight, with the Big 12
Championship on the line, things are
not going quite as well.
She looks at her arm, rotating it
around and around. Then she pulls up
her sleeves, tucks the hair behind her
ear and begins to witness a UT break
down that’s not entirely her fault, but
it happens nonetheless.
***
Nebraska was forced to punt,
again, when the football gods gave
them a gift - a good bounce, pinning
Colorado near its end zone. Then CU
and Moschetti, his guns still blazing,
trot out on to the field and promptly
give the game away. Buffs running
back Cortlen Johnson fumbles,'and
NU recovers at the 16-yard line.
“Shit!” Johnson yells loud
enough to hear 30 to 35 yards away.
He tugs at his facemask.
NU rover Mike Brown, who had
most of the big defensive plays all
season for the Huskers, recovers the
ball. He doesn’t celebrate too much,
but the game should be in hand. All
Nebraska has to do is run the clock
down and finish it off.
***
Danny Nee is standing, slightly
crouched, exhorting his team in a
place that has normally been a den of
death for the Nebraska coach. Phog
Allen Fieldhouse is a place NU has
won at only once in Nee’s career, and
that was last season, a year that fea
tured the worst Kansas team in a
good, long time. This time, the
Jay hawks are better. And the Huskers
are not as good.
But they’re hanging in, thanks to a
Jamaican beanpole whose name
looks like a misprint, and who moves
quicker than a pretty lady in rain.
Kimani Ffriend, this super-gifted
enigma of a player, has found a
mighty fine time to have his breakout
game.
He’s twisting and turning around
KU players. His blocks are more like
snatches out of midair.
But he’s having problems with the
free throws. The KU fans wave then
keys wildly as an attempt rolls off the
rim. Ffriend turns around in disgust
before making the next one.
But still, NU trails by only two
with 4:20 left in the first half. Nee’s
into it, the crowd is subdued and
every KU fan hates this dirty No. 31,
this guy whose name must be mis
printed in the program because
there’s two F’s.
But this will all change.
***
“Chicago! Chicago! Chicago!”
the big man yells.
He ain’t Sinatra, and he ain’t talk
ing about his hometown.
Paul Sanderford leans against the
basket support at the Bob Devaney
Sports Center. The place is empty,
save for about 15 women’s basketball
players and 14,200 unfilled seats. An
empty arena can be almost as tough
as a hill one - all that emptiness and
red bearing down on you.
“Chicago” is a play of some sort,
a play you’re not supposed to under
stand once the game rolls around.
You are supposed to smile and
nod, appreciate a good shot and have
little to no idea on how it’s done.
When a play’s run right, that’s how it
looks. And on gameday, it ought to
run perfectly. It is in practice where
things occasionally stink.
Practice is what separates the
spectator from the player, the sports
writer from the coach. Because, in the
end, most laypeople only know a little
about what’s really going on out there
- the strategy behind it.
And even though a lot of what
athletes do in a game comes down to
an educated guess (like everything
else in life), some would make you
think game strategy is akin to quan
tum physics.
“Now, what are you doing there?”
Sanderford asks a freshman, Paige
Sutton, after the play is over. Then he
explains what she should have done.
He speaks in low, confident tones, a
lot unlike his hurried growl during
games. Sanderfprd’s style plays out a
lot like other good coaches: defense,
rebounding, good inside play.
His is a classic coaching style;
This time, the
Jayhawks are
better. And the
Huskers are not
as good. But
they ’re hanging
in, thanks to a
Jamaican
beanpole whose
name looks like a
misprint, and
who moves
quicker than a
pretty lady in
rain.
he’s no slickster, no insurance sales
man. When something goes wrong,
you know it.
Texas lost game one, but is coast
ing in game two, ahead 13-4, and
Aldrich is doing it a t least a little bit.
Her athleticism is sort of con
founding - she’s the nation’s best high
jumper - so when she jumps to spike
a ball, she simply rises and rises and
rises. And she rises quicker than any
body else on the floor. At times she
shoots off the ground for a kill, seem
ingly out of nowhere.
But Nebraska counters with a
great player of its own, junior Nancy
Meendering. Meendering can’t jump
as high as Aldrich - hardly anyone
could. But she hits harder, like a
Walter Johnson fastball, that makes a
thwmop sound when she hits it. And
Meendering can do everything else -
defense, serving - as well as anyone
in the nation.
Plus, Meendering has a better
supporting cast, which Aldrich and
Texas are about to find out.
*♦*
In another world, at another time,
Frank Solich would take back his call
after Nebraska recovered the CU
fumble.
But he called an option left. And it
failed in the most drastic of ways.
Quarterback Eric Crouch ran to
his left and simply waited too long.
He should have eaten the ball, but it
wouldn’t have been Crouch’s style to
take a loss. So he tried a desperate
pitch, which would have worked, had
Dan Alexander not dropped it.
But he did. And Colorado recov
ered. And down the field, in the end
zone, receiver Matt Davison looked
back to survey the damage, turned
back around and laid on the grass,
looking skyward, knowing the ftunble
bug had just bitten Nebraska again.
***
Ingram rocks back, like a fencer,
the crowd taking over the clap for her.
She’ll do this three times, after which
she will sprint down the runway
toward a length not yet determined by
her legs.
It has been said the triple jump is
one of the most physically demand
ing of all sports. It puts tremendous
stress on one leg, then the other leg,
then the first leg again, then both legs
when you land. And every inch of
Ingram’s body thrusts toward the
board, the starting point of her jump.
She’s timed out her steps and can only
hope she stays behind the scratch
line.
Ingram rocks back a third time.
And then she takes off.
***
It’s not lightning so much as it is
one of the patented Kansas Jayhawk
DN File Photo
NEBRASKA CENTER KIMANI Ffriend drives for the basket over Kansas’ Lester
Earl. Ffriend finished the game as the leading scorer with 23 points.
runs, the kind that starts with a steal,
ends with a 3-pointer and has nifty
passes in between.
Nebraska has battled against it all
half. But now, the Huskers are tired,
and Danny Nee is left with Danny
Walker and Matt Davison, two guys
who have never played at Allen
Fieldhouse, on the floor when the run
starts.
Once it starts, the points rain in.
KU guard Kenny Gregory nails a
floating jump shot in the lane, for
ward Luke Axtell pounds home a 3.
And with each basket, Allen
Fieldhouse rumbles. It is, in fact,
smaller than Devaney Sports Center
in size, but seats more, has no video
screen, no sponsored chants and more
noise than Devaney has ever heard.
lne run ends vyitn a 3-pointer
right at the half-time buzzer from
Axtell. The score: 49-32. The car
nage: a 17-2 run. The game is over.
All that’s left for NU is to watch
Ffriend prove himself some more.
* * * '
After practice, Sanderford might
watch them shoot. He might go back
to his office. He might check up on
the recruits he’s after. He might get a
drink of water. The possibilities are
limitless when no one is your boss.
It was once written by Pulitzer
Prize-winning sports columnist Jim
Murray that the coach is the last of
the true dictators - their worthis law.
And so it is true: Sanderford speaks,
his team listens. They don’t question.
And to be sure - because Sanderford
is human - he is occasionally wrong.
But, at all times, his word is accepted
as right.
All coaches assume the same role,
until they’re fired, which seems an
affirmation that all those times a
coach was right, they were actually
wrong. But Sanderford, well, it is
unlikely he will ever be fired.
He stands now, around midcourt,
sweats on, .gray adidas shirt hugging
his body, a coach who has paid his
dues, taking two teams to the final
Four after starting out at a dinky
junior college in North Carolina.
Sanderford has proven his worth
day two The All-Americans
-. - - - ■ —
Day THREE Athletes and their
tutors'
PAY FOUR :| Learning Disabilities
|iy,i<iyjVlii.i-M||jj)i'liiii,i .. ■ ■ —.-. . -.- -
• The Sports Major
day ax pNf Corruption in the
sj| System
Isolation and Its
Counterparts
V ' Athletes After Graduation
. The Social Scene for Athletes
" ‘ •5 l" v Athletes as Role Models
/,• -]'j • 'If A Day in the Life
l The Academic/
-! iri Athletic Tradeoff
—...
• DAY nine p Gameday
“agin and agin,” as he would drawl.
And it comes from these practice
moments, away from the game, where
the skills are honed.
“Git there, git there!” he yells in
no particular direction, his target any
number of women in ponytails. Then
he tells them to “Hoed up.” And then
he explains, “Chicago agin.” And
they run it, “agin.”
Until they get it right.
***
The subs come in, and that begins
the run.
Nebraska doesn’t normally go
this deep into the volleyball bench -
its offense prevents it from doing it.
But tonight, Coach Terry Pettit pulls
the trigger on reserve Katie Jahnke.
And not long after she’s in there, NU
begins to turn the 13-4 game two
deficit around. A few balls go NU’s
way. And suddenly, Aldrich is arguing
a call.
She’s right with her complaint - a
serve by the Huskers was long. But as
so often in a sports world without
instant replay, the call can only stand.
So frustrating for the^aging bull
