Newspapers / Mars Hill University Student … / May 12, 1978, edition 1 / Page 6
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Page Six, THE HILLTOP, May 12, 1978 Future of Spring Sports: Another Viewpoint i' By Barney Pannell Spring sports at Mars Hill College have been much maligned in the past. However, according to the college’s athletic department, improvements have been made even though problems still exist. The charges that have been leveled at the athletic department include lack of financial support, practice time and field availability, publicity by the yearbook and athletic banquets, and no full time coaches. In spite of this stiff criticism, athletic director Claude Gibson is optomistic about the future of spring sports at Mars Hill. The lack of scholarships is a pivotal point in the comments made con cerning the tennis, baseball, and track teams. Gibson stated that he repeatedly recommends additional funds be ap propriated for spring sports in each year’s budget request but has been turn ed down. The one year that additional funds were available was the year that Title IX of the Higher Education Act became law and women’s sports were given the extra funds. In comparing Mars Hill’s spring sports program to other schools comparable in size and budget to Mars Hill — includ ing Southern Atlantic Conference (SAC) schools and some other basket ball rivals — both Gibson and college president Dr. Fred B. Bentley admit that Mars Hill trails 60% of the schools men tioned. Of the ten schools considered, eight give scholarship support to base ball, three award scholarships in track, and six award scholarships in tennis. At Mars Hill, two-thirds of the total athletic budget is spent on football and basketball, with the remaining third is divided among tennis, track, and baseball. The football team receives 22 scholarships, the basketball team awards seven (women’s sports award seven also), and men’s spring sports has none. An additional reason for the lack of support for spring sports is, according to Gibson, the weather. Judging from the amount of events cancelled by bad weatner, only four to five weeks exist with acceptable conditions for compe tition. One solution that was mentioned to this problem is to schedule the first half of the season at schools where the weather is less severe and playing the remaining portion of the season at home in better weather. This has been done to some extent with the baseball team’s trek to several deep south states during spring break. Another crucial problem is the lack of full time coaches. Each coach for a spring sport is also a football coach, and spring is the time of year that they have to recruit new players and super vise spring practice. The teams involv ed in spring sports usually end up prac ticing on their own, and as one player state, “we aren’t as hard on ourselves as a coach would be.’’ An alternative to this problem is to , invite interested and experienced people to volunteer their time and help. Bill Atwill, who owns Mountain Sports in Mars Hill, is an example of this. He has been working with the track team and his help is greatly appreciated. Other improvements for the spring sports team include new practice fields on the area beside Fox Residence Hall which will relieve the use of the base ball field by the football team during spring practice. The new field will al so be used by the women’s softball team for practice. In addition the main gymnasium floor of Ghambers Gym will be rescheduled to allow the spring sports teams to have a place to prac tice during bad weather. The tennis team has been practicing occasionally at the Asheville Racquet Glub, but this has proven to be expensive. The Laurel’s support of spring sports will be improving. Because of the an nuals’ early deadlines, spring sports have received poor coverage and have even been left out of the annual in past years. This will change with the 1979 Laurel which will feature the 1978 spring sport teams in the yearbook, the support by the Laurel for spring sports will im prove. Mars Hill letter jackets were given to the senior basketball and football play ers last year while the seniors partici pating in spring sports were not given jackets. The money that paid for those jackets came from a donation, and yet it was an insufficient amount to buy jackets for all the seniors in every sport. But this year and in the future, accord ing to Gibson, the seniors in each sport will receive letter jackets. To provide an opportunity for ath letes in all sports (men’s and women’s) to be publicly recognized, an annual athletic banquet has been proposed. In the past, private dinners or back yard cookouts have been held for the spring sports teams, where — at times — team awards have been present6(^' At an annual banquet, all of the college® athletes can be given equal * recognition, which will improve •*' public support of all Mars Hill CoH^S sports. In conclusion, even though there aj® problems in the present spring spa®' situation, many improvements come about because of the chang'™ attitudes of the athletic department an^ the administration. Spring sports a not getting a “hum deal,” they are r not being emphasized. Needed ohaw es will occur when the emphasis sh' to equality in all sports. That will hap pen when more people get involved; II The track meet of April 27th against Milligan shows Bob Eddins in recent c tion. Photo by John Marshall. oiflP'’ 9Z8I ‘Zl -tBW dOXllIH 3HX »S^8Z 0 'N aSailoO IliH’ ZI ON ‘n lOA Pictured is the MHC Stage Band, which performed in the cafeteria successfully. Photo by Archie Jones.
Mars Hill University Student Newspaper
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May 12, 1978, edition 1
6
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