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(03/11/05 5:26am)
IU crew was cheerfully afloat when the fall season ended. A win against Notre Dame, Michigan and Northwestern while sharing a bronze medal with Purdue in October was IU's best-ever performance.\nThe Hoosiers, still buoyant and full of muscular enthusiasm, are raring to go this spring. They said they know they are faster, stronger and smarter. Racing will tell them by how much. \n"It's not nervous, like, 'Oh, man I don't know what's going to happen," said junior and Indiana Daily Student employee Laura Lazaridis. "It's nervous like 'Man, I want to get the season going.'"\nThe team heads today to Lake Hartwell in Clemson, S.C., for a week of warm-weather training followed by the season opener against the University of Clemson, Marist College, the University of Buffalo and Purdue March 19. \nSpring break training typically ends with a scrimmage, but Clemson invited IU to race. IU coach Steve Peterson saw a chance to further his goals. \n"Why not?" Peterson said. "Clemson is a team we have to be competitive with if we're going to move forward as a program. It seemed like a perfect opportunity."\nClemson finished third in the Atlantic Coast Conference last spring and started its 2005 schedule last week by sweeping Eastern Michigan in five events. \nPeterson thinks Clemson might have a technical edge in the race because the Tigers have clocked more time rowing on the water. The Hoosiers, however, are as tough as any of their opponents, Peterson said.\n"I don't think we'll be outpowered by anybody, but we'll have to make sure we're rowing technically better," he said. \nStill, Peterson realizes that no team can be overlooked, particularly the Boilermakers. \n"Purdue is somebody we have to respect," he said. "They're a big team and should be pretty good."\nThe Marist College Red Foxes have won six of the last eight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships, while the University of Buffalo contend with stiff competition in the Mid-American Conference.\n"It's not going to be an easy race," Peterson said.\nBefore departure, the Hoosiers will complete their last hard week of practice in the winter training cycle. Peterson drilled the rowers in "lots of short pieces in good, healthy competitive racing situations" during the past five days, in addition to their three weight-lifting sessions. \nThe team will practice twice a day at Clemson at high intensity and low volume so it can recover from the demanding winter program and prepare for the race. Rowers will concentrate on technical aspects, work on starts and refine their overall race strategy, which includes preparing how to sprint the final segment of the 2,000-meter race. \nAssistant coach Fran O'Rourke said the novice crew, while experiencing the typical jitters that come with a first collegiate race, has been getting ready for racing conditions.\n"We're preparing them to pull hard with another boat next to them," O'Rourke said.\nIf all goes as he plans, and with some luck, Peterson thinks it's realistic that the Hoosiers can finish the season in the top half of the Big Ten and hopes to see his team in the finals of the Big Ten championship, to be held April 30 at Lake Lemon in Bloomington. \n"That would be huge," he said. "That'd be really big for a program like ours that's young and inexperienced. But it would mean knocking off some pretty solid programs." \nDoing that will keep IU rowers floating a little lighter, a little longer. \n-- Contact Staff Writer Bill Meehan at wmeehan@indiana.edu.
(02/23/05 5:36am)
Every mile can feel like two for rowers in the winter. They pine for the graceful feel of flinging a boat over the water, but winter also means a showdown with the rowing machine, or erg.\nThe erg, short for ergometer, is essential to crew team training in January and February, along with running stadium stairs and pumping iron. It approximates the real thing, without the water. Although it does not require balancing a boat and finessing an oar, it makes rowers better at what they do.\nRowers dread the erg, however, because it measures their output on every stroke. That is fine on a good day. But on a bad day, the monitor lets a rower know she is giving up. \n"The erg is honest with you, and it's hard to accept that," said sophomore Laura Stebbins. "The numbers don't lie."\nIn a boat, a rower contends with wind or choppy water. Sometimes a rower "catches a crab," when the blade gets stuck in the water at the finish of a stroke. And no matter how hard a rower thinks she is cranking an oar, she never really knows. \nNot on the erg.\nIU rowing head coach Steve Peterson said the erg is valuable to coaches because a rower cannot hide when it passes judgment. He learns a lot about rowers from how they respond to the monitor's unwelcome news.\n"Do they keep battling?" he said. "If so, that's who I want in the boat."\nMuch ado surrounds a rower's 2K erg time, or the time it takes her to race 2,000 meters on the machine. The mark is a touchstone for crew team data and a criterion used in recruiting and selecting a lineup.\nPeterson likens the 2K erg time to the SAT score: It does not say everything about a person, but it says something. \n"The erg score tells a lot about a person's mental toughness and physiological capabilities," he said. "It won't tell me about her technique in a boat."\nCrew teams can become obsessed with the rowing machine, and rowers often psych themselves out when they have to "empty their tanks" for the 2K. So Peterson does not announce the 2K test. He wants it to be "just another day."\nTraining on the erg ultimately is a measure of a rower's tolerance for agony. Suffering on the erg instills a conviction that carries onto the water. \n"You know once you hit a certain level of pain (in the boat), it's like, 'I've been here before. I felt this on the erg, and I kept going,'" explained Stebbins.\nRowing hurts unlike any other sport, and erging prepares those muscles that scream the loudest in the final sprint of a race. \n"Quads. My quads kill," said senior and Indiana Daily Student employee Laura Lazaridis, whose 2K time of 7:11.6 is the fastest on the team. "Everything hurts, but the burning stuff happens in the quads."\nPersisting under these conditions transforms erging into a mental game, and senior captain Elizabeth Benoit said rowers have ways of coping. Some tune in to the blaring music. Benoit counts strokes or time. Sophomore Stacey Young computes splits, whereas classmate Elaine Deppe thinks of long pieces to get through short ones. \nPeterson likes to create erg workouts that help turn the misery into fun. He said a little excitement in the erg room at the University Gymnasium fosters a positive mindset that gets the team working harder toward the goal: to improve each day. \nFourteen Hoosiers set personal bests during the first 2K test last month. \nErging "encourages camaraderie through competition," said sophomore Courtney Valerious. Rowers support each other but also try to win, even against best friends. \n"You'd want blood with them in the erg room," said Valerious, who owns the team's second fastest 2K time. \nFacing the unmerciful numbers on the erg monitor comes down to "you and your machine," according to senior captain Annie Lawson. \n"It's a love-hate relationship," Lawson said. "You hate the erg because it hurts. But when you kick ass, you say, 'I'm liking this.'"\nSome days a mile seems like a mile. Or less.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Bill \nMeehan at wmeehan@indiana.edu.
(01/19/05 4:56am)
IU rowing head coach Steve Peterson likes to find new ways of doing things in his tradition-laden sport. But sometimes serendipity brings him back to the tried and true. \nPeterson realized the importance of a winter training trip this time last year by not taking one.\nIt was the first winter in Peterson's 15-year rowing career that he did not take a crew to Florida for a week of warm-weather training. He thought the trip might be overrated and decided not to take the Hoosiers south. \nBut when the team embarked on its three months of cloistered weight lifting and rowing machine workouts at the beginning of the spring semester, Peterson noticed that his rowers were not as exuberant as they should be -- he knew why. \n"We didn't take a winter trip last year, and I could see the difference when we started training on land," Peterson said. "The team wasn't demoralized but they were a little depressed." \nPeterson had pulled down the doors on the boathouse around Thanksgiving to close the fall season. Two months later it was evident that rowers need another source of motivation. \n"Rowers need to be on the water, and they need to remember why they are doing what they do," he said.\nSo on New Year's Day, Peterson, his two assistants and 24 members of the crew headed to the rivers of Tampa, Fla., for the IU rowing program's first winter training trip. \nThe goals for the week were to crank out high mileage on the water and to concentrate on the technical aspects of pulling an oar and making a boat go fast. The team rowed five hours a day divided into two sessions. \nIn morning practices, Peterson put the team through what he calls "grueling beat-'em-up" workouts in fours that highlighted seat racing and distance. In afternoon workouts, he placed the crews in eights for drills and steady state rows that emphasized technique and mental toughness. \nPart of Peterson's plan was to determine his team's mental stamina because he believes that the sport's most challenging component is rowing well when fatigued. \nControlling the body and blade, and moving in synch with the crew so that the boat stays set when rowers are physically and mentally exhausted, he believes, can reveal a great deal about a rower. \nThe IU crew showed him the right stuff. \n"It was fantastic," he said. "They were able to step up mentally and row well when I know they were physically exhausted." \nSenior tri-captain Annie Lawson thinks the team's technical improvements during the week will help most when competing against Big Ten rivals like Michigan and Ohio State. But she also acknowledges the training program required the team take rowing to the next level. \n"Everybody needed to step it up a notch in Florida, and we did," Lawson said. "That's how we need to row." \nThe week's focus on technique corrected what senior Laura Lazaridis calls a common problem in rowing: missing water at the catch. She thinks that the team developed most by getting the blade in the water at full compression and pulling a full stroke. \n"Connection with the water made everything more fluid and everything more powerful," she said. "You can feel when the other people in your boat are connected." \nPeterson says the team met his objectives and notes that it was "fired up" when departing Tampa. He expects to see a change in frame of mind and performance in the gym over the coming weeks, but he knows that the real test lies ahead in competitive racing. \nAs he continues to build the IU program around the long-term goal of becoming a national championship contender, the winter training trip probably will remain a permanent part of Peterson's confident expectations. \n"We're as fast now as we were last spring," he said. "I'm psyched."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Bill Meehan at wmeehan@indidana.edu
(11/11/04 5:04am)
He is one of the smallest players in Division I football at 5-foot-5 and 167 pounds, but Lance Bennett plays big. Against Oregon this year, the sophomore's 98-yard kickoff return for a TD shifted the game's momentum and helped IU upset the ranked Ducks. It was the second-longest return in school history. Against Michigan State, his 94-yard punt return for six-points broke a 14-year-old Hoosier record. Bennett, who also is a top songwriter, ranks first in the Big Ten and fourth in the nation in yards per kick return at 31.41.\nRecently, the Indiana Daily Student sat down to talk to the college football star and budding musician.
(11/03/04 4:24am)
After an NCAA-mandated day off, the IU women's rowing team is a little more buoyant at its Lake Lemon boathouse. \nSunday at the Head of the Elk, the IU Varsity Eight earned a bronze medal in a third-place finish tied with Big Ten and in-state rival Purdue. \nThe Hoosiers not only outpaced several notable rowing teams, including Michigan and Northwestern, they also topped Notre Dame, which finished the 2004 spring season ranked No. 11 in the country. \n"It was a really, really good day for us," said IU coach Steve Peterson. "It was a huge step forward for the team, especially beating Notre Dame." \nIU finished the 2.5-mile race against the clock in choppy waters and with a tailwind on the St. Joseph River in Elkhart, Ind., in a time of 15 minutes, 25.06 seconds, behind Wisconsin's 15:02.30 and Michigan State's 14:29.80. Notre Dame was timed in 15:30.05, good for fourth place. \nIt was the team's best showing at the Head of the Elk since its fourth place finish in 2001. IU finished seventh in last year's event.\n"This means we're doing things right," Peterson said. "It clearly shows we're improving and now able to compete with other nationally ranked programs." \nIn only its fifth year, the young IU rowing program has not been known for its prowess moving boats on the water. It finished seventh in the Big Ten in 2004. So capturing third place and beating the Irish hoists the Hoosiers' cheerfulness.\nJunior Ashley Airis, rowing in the six seat, said the race sheds a little sunshine on the team, which seeks to climb out of seventh place in the Big Ten.\n"It's nice to say, 'Notre Dame, we can beat you, and we did,'" Airis said. "It felt good." \nSenior coxswain Sarah Meyer explained that the race strategy was to attack from the stern and stay, as long as possible, ahead of Wisconsin, which started in the position behind IU. \nCombined with a stroke rating that reached 32 pulls per minute, the tactic worked well, although the Badgers rowed through the IU boat in the final 800 meters. \nThe third place finish raises awareness of IU rowing, Meyer said. \n"It throws us into the mix with a lot of powerhouse crews," she said.\nIU sent three other boats to the regatta. The second Varsity Eight -- facing the same 18 rowing programs as the first varsity boat -- finished fourth in its category with a time of 15:33.90, and the first Varsity Four placed sixth in its division in a time of 17:53.70. \nIn a boat filled entirely with walk-ons, the IU novice eight finished 12th with a time of 18:17.80. \n"It was a solid performance," novice coach Carmen Mirochna said. "These athletes have a lot of potential." \nThe bronze medal varsity boat was powered by six veterans and two newcomers. \nReturning from last season were senior Amanda Walker at stroke, junior Lauren Anderson in seven, Airis, junior Laura Lazaridis in five, senior Kelly Schuiling in three and junior Elisabeth Benoit in bow. \nSophomore Stacey Young, working her way from the novice program, occupied the four seat, while sophomore transfer Dana Lynn Powell completed the bow pair in the two seat. \nAfter scrimmages Nov. 6 and Nov. 12 at Lake Lemon, IU rowers will enter the lonely winter months cloistered indoors training on rowing machines and with weights. \nBut Meyer believes the results at the Head of the Elk will push the team to work harder and become stronger over the winter.\nPeterson, too, is encouraged.\n"We have some momentum that will help us continue to move forward," he said. "I am very excited for what the spring holds for the Hoosier women's rowing program."\n-- Contact staff writer Bill \nMeehan at
(10/08/04 5:46am)
In Bloomington it's never out of season to talk about "Little 5," the main attraction of what is known as the "World's Greatest College Weekend" on the last Saturday of April. Hollywood portrayed the bike race 25 years ago in "Breaking Away," and the film remains unofficial required viewing for IU freshmen. Dennis Christopher's role as Dave Stoller, the leading "cutter," brought the young actor three movie industry awards, including the Golden Globe's New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award's Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Role. The Philadelphia native is now appearing in the just-released drama "Nine Lives."
(10/06/04 5:21am)
Carmen Mirochna and Fran O'Rourke decided to join the IU rowing team's coaching staff this year for several reasons, but the main attraction was the man who would be their boss. IU rowing head coach Steve Peterson is so willing to look at new ways of doing things in the country's oldest intercollegiate sport that the two assistants did not want to pass up the opportunity to work with him. \nThe decision resulted in their being put in charge of the IU team's first ever walk-on clinic, held Sept. 13 through 18 at the varsity boathouse on Lake Lemon.\nThe purpose of the clinic, which attracted 49 participants, was to increase the awareness of rowing and to introduce women to the sport, said O'Rourke. \n"This was a chance for women to learn to row and to see if it is something they want to pursue," she said.\nThe event also resulted in Peterson's making another change on the IU crew scene: the formation of a competitive co-ed rowing club.\nCoaching clinics are not new to IU athletics. The softball and baseball teams hold one-day programs. But Division I women's rowing depends more heavily on walk-ons because of the lack of high school and junior programs due to the nature of the sport, explained Peterson.\n"We have to teach them about rowing, find out their coachability and see if the sport is a good fit for them," he said. "It also is a chance to look at good athletes who might not have had the opportunity to row."\nThe clinic served as an advanced course on competitive rowing. The aspiring rowers were divided into two groups, each attending daily 90-minute sessions. \nThe schedule included an introduction to the boats, or shells, in addition to rowing on the lake, where learning the parts of the stroke and the technique of pulling an oar were emphasized. \nRowing machine workouts, as well as sport-specific strengthening and stretching exercises, took up the balance of the program. One day's agenda was devoted entirely to NCAA compliance rules. \nAmong the women attending the six-day program were athletes accomplished in other sports who had never rowed and high school rowers who were recruited but not offered scholarships. A third contingent consisted of scholarship athletes, a few of them beginning rowers who excelled in other sports. \nJunior Laura Mills, a three-sport athlete in high school who took a needed break from competitive sports when she arrived at IU, is drawn to rowing because it encourages beginner involvement.\n"Rowing allows girls to come out fresh and without experience," Mills said. "It's a great sport." \nLaura Tuteral is a freshman non-scholarship athlete who was a coxswain for four years for her high school crew team in Virginia. Peterson told her it would be promising for her to try out for the IU team.\n"It reminds me of what I didn't know when I started rowing," Tuteral said. "It's been interesting and a lot of fun." \nThe program met the coaches' objectives. Thirty-six walk-ons will be invited this week to join the IU novice crew team after they have passed their NCAA-required physicals. \n"The clinic has done exactly what we want," Mirochna said. "We want to expose people to rowing, find some good walk-on talent for the team and help contribute to making fast boats."\nAnd it has done more. \nWith Peterson as the impetus, the remaining 13 women will combine with the floundering men's rowing club to form a co-ed organization. Like Big Ten rivals Ohio State and Michigan, IU's club will serve as a feeder system for the varsity women's program. \nThe direction of the IU crew program has inspired the varsity rowers. \n"We know the program won't die," sophomore Elaine Deppe said.\n-- Contact staff writer Bill Meehan at wmeehan@indiana.edu.
(09/08/04 5:55am)
When Steve Peterson took over the IU crew head coach duties in 2003, the collegiate rowing world took note. After all, he had spent two decades in an East Coast rowing establishment where, according to tradition, oarsmen stay for life. \nBut Peterson saw potential in the Big Ten, particularly at IU's young program. He set his sights on a national championship.\nBoosting that ambition is the hiring of assistant coaches Carmen Mirochna and Fran O'Rourke from the Ivy League's Cornell University. \n"Carmen and Fran bring outstanding recruiting experience and an excellent record of turning their recruits into very successful rowers," Peterson said. "They are two of the best assistant coaches in the country."\nMirochna will coordinate recruiting while working with Novice and Varsity boats. O'Rourke, in a position recently elevated to full-time from part-time to reflect the rowing program's growth, will handle Novice crews along with some recruiting responsibilities.\n"I couldn't have done better," Peterson said. "They are building the face of IU's rowing future."\nThe new coaches fill vacancies created when the previous assistants left to pursue graduate degrees.\nIn the past three years at Cornell, Mirochna's Novice Eight won second- and first-place finishes in the Petite Final at Eastern Sprints besides taking a silver medal in the Grand Final at Sprints. The second Novice Eight grabbed a gold and silver medals at Sprints, the latter capping an undefeated season. The Novice Four with coxswain outpaced the field by 12 seconds at Sprints this past season. \nAt Lehigh University in 2000-01, Mirochna's Novice Eight captured the Patriot League Championship and won the Grand Final at the Dad Vail Regatta in an undefeated season. At the Baldwin Girls School in Philadelphia the previous year, her crew took a silver medal at the Robert White Regatta and raced in the finals of the Stotesbury Cup. \nIn O'Rourke's two years as Cornell's interim coach, the Varsity Four beat all opponents her first season, winning the Petite Final at Sprints. This past year, the Varsity Four pulled its way to a gold medal at Sprints, while the second Varsity Four won gold to crown an undefeated season.\nOn the IU campus only a few weeks, Mirochna and O'Rourke already have sensed the administration's readiness to give the crew team what it needs to be fast. The institutional support is an appreciated difference from the Ivy League, they explained.\nThe two assistants also said they like what they have seen of IU rowers. \n"They're like, 'Let's go faster. Let's make this program fast,'" Mirochna said. "They're not afraid."\nThe new coaches know that reaching Peterson's goal will require hard work, but they join the quest with confidence and enthusiasm. \n"We plan on getting tough women who can get us to the NCAAs," Mirochna said.\nO'Rourke concurred with her fellow assistant's sentiments. \n"We're vying for a national championship," she added.\nBesides putting fast boats on the water, the new assistants contribute backgrounds as college rowers who could crank an oar.\nMirochna crewed for three years at Rutgers University and O'Rourke contributed to the Cornell crew team for four years. \n"Carmen and Fran have not only worked together," Peterson said, "but they also have been successful. We're lucky to have two great young assistant coaches come to Indiana, where their impact will be felt greatly."\n-- Contact staff writer Bill Meehan at wmeehan@indiana.edu.
(08/09/04 1:29am)
The Bloomington and IU community has long been exposed to the benefits of the bike racing scene courtesy of the tradition-rich Little 500. But a sect of local citizens and students don't confine their craft to just one late April weekend. Chris Kroll, a sociology major who graduated from IU in 1988, is vice president at the Old National Bank in Bloomington, has been racing with the locally-based Team Tortuga for two years and is the cycling group's director.
(08/05/04 1:56am)
As IU fans cheer on Hoosier athletes competing in Athens, they also might applaud two faculty members from the Department of Kinesiology in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.\nProfessor Phil Henson's research into the sprint start in track has led to a redesigned starting block. However, the professor's concern for the 2004 Summer Olympics is the size and expense of an Olympiad. \nHenson, a former IU assistant coach, is a track and field authority who worked as an official at the Los Angeles and Sydney Games and was commissioner of the U.S. Olympic Festival for 17 years. At the Atlanta games he was appointed competition manager for athletics and was in charge of all business within the oval track.\nHenson said the costs for the Olympics are "completely out of sight" and could become unfeasible for the organizers in Greece.\n"Costs could break the country if they're not careful," Henson said. "Security costs will kill them." \nThe Athens Olympics budget is estimated at $12 billion, with $1.5 billion for security. \nOne of the reasons Olympic expenditures are skyrocketing is the addition of what Henson describes as "frivolous, made--for--TV sports," among them tennis, basketball and beach volleyball. \nHenson recognizes the competitive sport over the artistic one and wonders why the Olympics need rhythmic gymnastics or synchronized swimming. He also questions the inclusion of soccer and basketball, which have their own world championships.\n"The Olympics should be the most important thing that happens in that sport," Henson said.\nThis summers games include more than 250 events and roughly 10,000 athletes, who arrive in the host city all at once. \nHenson suggests limiting the number of events to traditional Olympic contests, such as track and field, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling. In addition, spreading the games over the summer and finding a permanent home would eliminate some major costs. \nBut there's another reason Henson favors the historic Olympic sports. \n"I'm a purist who sees the Olympics as one person versus one person," Henson explained with a touch of nostalgia. "The Olympics should be the highest achievement for an individual in that sport." \nOne floor below Henson's office, a windowless laboratory occupies two rooms. Outside, a tiny sign near the entrance nook reads "Biomechanics." Taped to a wall inside are colorful, three-dimensional images of Dwight Stone doing the "flop" and Valeri Brumel's "straddle" that indicate the kind of research undertaken here.\nHPER professor Jesus Dapena has studied the mechanics of high jumping to determine optimum technique for two decades. His basic research analyzes aspects of the run-up, takeoff, bar clearance and twist rotation phases of the high jump. The results are intended to bring about corrected, improved technique. \n"I'm able to say that 'doing this and this is good, but doing that is bad for this reason,'" Dapena said.\nDapena's method is exacting. Using two high-speed cameras simultaneously at different angles, he films American high jumpers at their major meet each summer or, in Olympic years, at the U.S. team trials.\nOn a digitizing table, he transforms the film data one frame at a time into numerical coordinates matching 21 points on the body. The coordinates are entered into a computer, where three-dimensional images are generated.\n"It's nice," Dapena said with a smile, "but it's semi-science fiction." \nDapena's research, which has been supported by USA Track & Field, involves applying his findings. Dapena, a consultant to U.S. Olympic Committee who also studies the mechanics of the hammer and discus throw, writes detailed and illustrated reports for high jumpers and their coaches. Starting this year, instead of a video with voice-over commentary, athletes will receive a CD. The applied phase fulfills the purpose of Dapena's work. \n"I'm trying to help an individual do better by discovering what's there and applying it, not by coming up with a new invention," Dapena said.\nDapena points out that the Russian women dominate high jumping, and he grabs an issue of Track & Field News to count the world rankings. But Dapena notes that South African Hestrie Cloete is expected to win gold in Athens despite her poor technique. \n"She has this elaborate preparation of the arms, but it's all for nothing because she does not use it," Dapena said, walking to a roomier part of the lab to demonstrate the double-arm swing before takeoff. "Her arms go like this, over her head, at the same time. You see? That's inefficient. And she does it one step too early. You follow? That slows her down."\n-- Contact staff writer Bill Meehan at wmeehand@indiana.edu.
(08/02/04 1:11am)
From the perspective of a character on the sports beat at a major magazine, novelist Richard Ford said that being a sportswriter is more like being a salesman than being a real writer.\n"In so many ways," wrote Ford in The Sportswriter, "words are just our currency, our medium of exchange with our readers, and there is very little that is ever genuinely creative to it at all."\nThat might explain why vocabulary on the nation's sports pages is typically the piggy bank version rather than the Swiss numbered account kind. Readers, it is held, prefer the ordinary word in their sports news. They want plenty of commentary about Barry Bonds smashing the ball outta sight but not in words with outta-sight prices. Perhaps, too, the writers at the majors do not have a high-interest bearing account at the lexicon bank.\nOne publication with its own vault of unusual words, however, is Sports Illustrated, the weekly magazine with a weekly readership of over 20 million. A recent issue contained several gems. There's pulchritudinous, caterwauling, obeisance, ignominious, nonplussed, even überteam and überfan, which require the international exchange rate for Deutsche marks.\nThe next week's number of Sports Illustrated included some truly precious words, such as bellowing, acrimony, churlishness and parrying. And from one article alone came taciturn, laconic, acolytes, quotidian, abject, palpable and palliative.\nContext, declares the unprompted whiz in freshman composition, will make known the unknown word. Maybe. Take pulchritudinous. \nThat word is used in an article about the hottest Russian tennis players on the pro circuit, who also happen to be savvy, hot-looking women. Specifically, the word is used to describe tennis pin-up Anna Kournikova: "History will probably recall Kournikova as an underachieving player, albeit a pulchritudinous one." \nThe writer alludes to Kournikova's evident attributes, but what quality exactly does pulchritudinous point to or describe? One thesaurus lists several synonyms for pulchritude, the noun. On the roster are loveliness, attractiveness, comeliness and beauty. Which one is it? Does the effort required to find out the denotative, and connotative, meaning of this five-syllable word cost too much? \nWhen it comes to the unusual word, there is only one person to turn to for coaching. William F. Buckley Jr. is known to use a big word or two, aside from the technical terminology required in his articles and books on sailing. He explains, in commercial terms, the genesis of the unusual word.\n"That word exists," Buckley said, "because there was what the economists would call, a 'felt need' for it, that is, no other word around did what this particular word does."\nAsking a writer to suppress the unusual word because the reader might not know its meaning is like asking pianist Thelonious Monk not to play some unfamiliar chords because the listener does not know them, according to Buckley.\nBeyond the big word, one of the recent issues of Sports Illustrated even asks its readers to have some awareness of the German preposition "über." Why should the magazine apologize or be criticized for using the foreign word or phrase? \nA.J. Liebling, the foremost writer on the boxing scene for years and perhaps the finest sportswriter ever, covered the sweet science not only for Sports Illustrated but also The New Yorker, with its discerning readership. \nIn a Sports Illustrated article about a boxing club, which is collected in the magazine's "Fifty Years of Great Writing," Liebling brings into play not only French but Latin, which is a dead language even the Catholic Church stopped using 40 years ago: succes d'estime, mouchoirs, in abstentia and a poetic transposition of non compos mentis. And he does so sans explanation, against the recommendation of journalism's leading style manual.\nSaving writers who use or want to use a foreign word, and soothing their readers who might gripe, again is Buckley, whose third language is English, after Spanish and French. "Delicately used," he observes, "(foreign words) do bring little piquancies and with them -- well, aperçus, which, because they are extra-idiomatic, give you a fresh view of the subject." \nThere's more to the foreign phrase. It has a tone that pleases the refined ear, which the best scriveners know. And that's probably what inspired Liebling over the years as he orchestrated his way with a world of words, scoring the loveliest rendition of all, then and now.\nSportswriters have an obligation to the public that transcends the journalistic principle of merely reporting all the sports news that's fit to print. As professional writers, their responsibility is the guardianship of words, even the unusual ones. Besides, readers just might appreciate learning the definition of an unfamiliar word and adding it to their own lexical ledger. \nThat's why using the big word when it is appropriate, even on the sports page, is priceless. \n- Contact staff writer Bill Meehan at wmeehan@indiana.edu.
(07/26/04 1:04am)
R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. was an IU swimmer in the 1960s and received his bachelor's and master's degrees in history from IU. He is now editor in chief of The American Spectator, which he founded in a Bloomington farmhouse during his school days in 1967, originally called The Alternative. Named one of Time Magazine's 50 future leaders of America in 1979, Tyrrell also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column and has authored seven books.
(07/19/04 1:24am)
Former IU offensive tackle Phil Trinter played at IU from 1988-91, but after graduation his competitive spirit never died. The four-time letterman began sailing at the age of eight and took up racing in 1992. In addition to winning the 1993 Star World Championship and the 2003 Star North American Championship, Trinter won world championships in the 50-foot and Maxi boats. He also was involved in two campaigns for the America's Cup, a worldwide yachting competition that boasts the oldest trophy in international sports and competed in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Trials. More recently Trinter has been training over the summer in Athens for the upcoming 2004 summer Olympic Games.
(07/12/04 1:02am)
Lee Corso, IU's football coach from 1973-1982, owned a career highlighted by the school's first bowl victory in 75 years, a 38-37 decision over previously unbeaten Brigham Young in the 1979 Holiday Bowl. After 28 years of coaching football, Corso joined ESPN in 1987, where he serves as a game analyst for the Thursday night telecasts and as a studio analyst for College "GameDay" as well as the halftime and scoreboard shows. He also is director of business development for Dixon Ticonderoga in Florida. The following are excerpts from a recent phone interview with the famous coach.
(07/08/04 1:20am)
As a few more IU athletes enter the Olympic Trials, vying for a trip to the 2004 Athens Games, some sportive table-talk on the idea of "going for the gold" seems appropriate. \nOne view on the Olympic quest is the opinion of an author who himself was a world-class modern pentathlete and Olympic wrestling coach. His estate, Foxcatcher Farm, was a national training center for Olympic athletes in four sports.\nIn "Off the Mat: Building Winners in Life," John E. du Pont comments on the Olympic dream. Du Pont's life took an unpleasant turn a few years after the book's publication, but his understanding of the Olympian deserves a look. \nFor most Olympic hopefuls, the personal gratification that comes from attaining goals is the primary motivation, du Pont said. It's that plain. Set the goal, execute the plan, chart the progress. \nHitting marks that measure performance over time fulfills the athlete's hunger for purpose and instills confidence at the starting line, where another goal takes over. Goals promise the dawn of a new day, and athletes who achieve them walk a little taller into the sunset. \nGoals vary, though. One athlete told this journalist that merely getting to Barcelona in 1988 was her objective. \nFor other athletes, whether they admit it or not, the seduction of the "Olympi-drama" provides the inspiration, du Pont said. This isn't the stage version, though.\nThe Olympiad is now a charged media sensation that can turn a winner into an instant success. Or, since Lake Placid, can a miracle, on ice or off. \nGold medals lead to Madison Avenue, where behind Doors 1, 2 and 3 are commercials, endorsements and, maybe more. Especially when the golden medallion adorns the telegenic countenance. \nLook at Peggy Fleming, Bruce Jenner, Dorothy Hammill, Mary Lou Retton, Summer Sanders and Carl Lewis. \nThe victor's prize, and reward, has come a long way since the crown of wild olive.\nOlympic contenders can -- and do -- envision themselves as stars, as something more grand than life itself, according to du Pont. In turn, they can become stricken with "'Olympic Gold-itis' … which prevents their ever achieving the potential that could bring them real Olympic Gold." \nThe gods on Olympia aren't kind to mortals who yield to hubris.\nLook at Tonya Harding, starring in her own tragi-comedy. And who knows what took place in the opera bouffe leading up to the men's decathlon in Atlanta?\nAlready this year, a swimmer (male) and heptathlete (female) appeared, in action, on their very own credit cards (platinum), before they earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.\nStill, the duo should be cheered, even though the swimmer, Michael Phelps, is chasing the record seven gold medals set by IU's Mark Spitz in the Munich Games, in 1972.\nNot all Olympic athletes compete in high-profile sports that draw the media. Think of archery. Or rowing.\nThe first American intercollegiate sport, rowing remains an obscure Olympic contest. Much, however, has been written about rowing. \nAmong the entertaining accounts of Olympic oarsmen is David Halberstam's aptly titled "The Amateurs," a book about four men vying for the one and only spot in single-scull rowing in the 1984 Los Angeles games.\nHalberstam says that single-scull rowing is "a citadel of the true amateur," who brings a "demonic passion" to his sport, traveling to races by car and sleeping in motels, though often to the manor he is born. \nThis single-scull rower competes in a solitary world where glory comes from fellow oarsmen and rewards from knowing that he assails the frontier of exertion. \n"Perhaps in our society," Halberstam observes, "the true madness in the search for excellence is left for the amateur."\nHow true this is when an Olympiad approaches. No other athletic contest compares. It is the stuff dreams are made of. But achieving dreams is costly, except of course for the NBA Dream Team. And rare is the news that a dreamer on the balance beam is tossed a financial life preserver from a starlet. \nWhy, then, is the Olympic quest so enthralling?\nIn the words of John Biglow, who missed the bronze medal by 1.67 seconds on Lake Casitas in 1984, "The Olympian stands alone"
(07/01/04 1:03am)
Tom Brooks ran a personal best of 8 minutes, 36.3 seconds in the 3,000 meter steeplechase last week at the Cardinal Qualifier at Stanford University, allowing him to qualify for the U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials. \nThe days before the race, his second to last chance to qualify, Brooks said he was optimistic.\n"I'm super confident," said Brooks, heading into the twilight meet. "I'm not concerned. My times are coming down." \nAnd down they've come. Just three weeks ago Brooks clocked 8:44.4 in the Victoria International Track Classic. After coming in more than five seconds under the qualifying time of 8:42.0, he will toe up with at least two dozen other hopefuls at the Trials July 9-18 in Sacramento, Calif.\nRanked fifth all-time in the steeplechase at IU, where his best effort was 8:57.65, Brooks has been preparing for more than a year for a shot at the upcoming quadrennial test. But only after embarking on a career did he acknowledge that he had Olympic reveries.\nWith a business degree boosted by high-octane majors in accounting, finance and computer information systems, Brooks began a promising career as an accounting programs expert in the Chicago office of Deloitte Consulting LLP.\nBut Brooks was uneasy. He had left Bloomington after graduation in 2001 with a lump in his throat, thinking his racing days were over, and the tug of feats unattained was drawing him to an athlete's confident expectation that he could perform better. \n"I can run much faster than I have," Brooks said he realized after a few months on the job. "I have unfinished business in running." \nBut the view on the running horizon was obstructed by living in Chicago and traveling full time to Deloitte client sites around the country to implement computer programs. \nBrooks was logging 55-60 miles a week but needed to increase the distance and intensity of his runs to become competitive. He needed to be in a climate not only more suitable to year-round training but also associated with other elite athletes so he could benefit from group training. \nThe young systems consultant approached his boss and proposed a relocation to Santa Monica, Calif., and a reduced workload. \n"I told my boss about my passion for running and my dream of making the Olympic team," Brooks said. "He then said to me, 'We can make this happen.'" \nSo in June 2003, Brooks moved to Southern California, where he was reassigned to a non-traveling, part-time position that let him work at home and, more importantly, train full time. \nBrooks had been communicating with other IU runners in the Midwest who also had Olympic hopes including John Teipen, Dan Billish, Chris Ekman and fellow steeplechaser Tom Charney, who will race in the Trials, accompanying Brooks on his move to California.\nBrooks wasted no time getting down to business, sandwiching about five hours of office work between morning and evening workouts. For several months he put in 100-135 miles a week, over 15-16 runs a week clocking about 6 minutes per mile. During this time, he also performed daily stretching routines, yoga exercises and technique drills, as well as push ups, pull ups and sit ups, all with a focus on core muscles. \n"I wanted to push the envelope and to reshape my thinking about what hard work was," Brooks said by phone from Eugene, Ore where he is being coached by Dick Brown, mentor to Olympic runners for two decades. "I wanted to take the risk, to see how I could hold up."\nMore recently, he tapered his weekly distance total to 60-80 miles. \nSuffering only a slight upper quad soft-tissue strain during the intense training, Brooks' time has dropped from a previous best of 8:57.65, set in his senior year at the 2001 Drake Relays.\nBrown points to several attributes that Brooks brings to the starting line. Among them are his intelligence and discipline in balancing training and recovery, as well as "an incredible sense of pace" that has translated into a potent finishing kick. \nThe steeplechase is not a high school event, so Brooks arrived at IU as a reputable cross-country runner, miler and two-miler. But at 6-foot-2 he was ideally built for the track event that requires strong and agile runners who must clear four hurdles and seven water jumps while completing the 3,000 meters. \n"If you would have asked me five years ago, I would have made the odds of him making the 2004 Olympic Trials at 10,000 to 1," commented IU track and field coach Dave Chapman. "Tom had a clear vision of what he wanted to accomplish and the patience and grinding nature to make it a reality."\n-- Contact staff writer Bill Meehan at wmeehan@indiana.edu.