October
99
pages
Varsity Soccer
battles the Alumni
Jacob schonberg
Several weeks ago,
on Saturday, August 29,
the NCSSM Varsity soc
cer team played a game
against a group of alumni.
It was a close game, with
a final score of six to four
in favor of the alumni.
Senior Peter
Robichaux, the team’s
sweeper, said “There was
good communication,
good leadership, but I
thought we were out of
shape.”
Throughout the
, game only one varsity
player was injured, and he
spent most of the game on
the bench. Though when
asked around, no one was
able to identify this in
jured player. Overall it was
a fairly rough game.
Junior Doug
Whitfield, who changed
positions throughout the
game, agreed very
strongly with this. “I
mean, most of them were
bigger than us, except for
Alex Hawkins, of course,”
he said.
Those who know
Senior Alex Hawkins un
derstand this. For those
who do not, he happens
to be the biggest player on
the Varsity team.
In addition to how
physical the game was,
some players were sur
prised when a young
woman joined the alumni
team. The spectators, in
cluding Senior Burke
Foley, were also surprised
when a somewhat older
man joined the team that
was mostly made up of
recent graduates.
"There was this tall
white guy playing,” said
Foley, “And it seemed like
he was the only older guy
playing. 1 was a little sur
prised to see him out
there.”
After the game,
the team seemed a little
frustrated about the loss.
They had worked hard and
had wanted to win.
“The team played
well,” said midfielder and
Junior DJ Dore, “but there
are a lot of areas we could
improve in.”
There were many
theories as to why the var
sity team lost, including
the fact that, as Whitfield
said, “We were left with
out a coach. Also, we kind
of gave up in the second
half We came out fired
up, but then the game
turned around and we
gave up.”
Although it was
a devastating loss, there
were some good things
that came from the game
as well.
“I thought it was a
bonding experience when
we came up with a team
fight cheer,” said
Robichaux.
Overall, the Sci
ence and Math team
played well, and had great
enthusiasm for the coming
season. And as Dore put
it, “We were out to win.”
Anyone
up for
some
ultimate?
nigel kirby
The longtime tradi
tion of Ultimate Frisbee is
already an evident part of
student life at NCSSM.
The game not only can be
a good forpi of exercise,
but it is also "said to take
one’s mind off of work, if
not just for a short time.
The popularity of
the sport can be traced
back through the genera
tions here at NCSSM.
Robert Powell, class of’86
remembers playing the
popular game in his free
time.
“Yeah, we would
play pick-up ultimate, but
we didn’t have the soccer
field. We would just play
in one of the lawns or on
the road between Watts
and Hill,” said Powell, who
pan still be found playing
with youth volunteers at
the Museum of Life and
Science.
While unorganized
Frisbee is very common at
school. Senior Alex
Yockey and Senior Eric
Hawkins have been work
ing on the organized side
of the sport. The first an
nual coed ultimate tourna
ment was scheduled for
the weekend of Septem
ber IS* and 19"’, but was
cancelled due to hurri
cane Floyd. The tourna
ment was rescheduled for
the third weekend in Oc
tober; there will still be free
admission and authentic |
S & M Frisbees will be for!
sale.
The Ultimate
Frisbee team, which is led
by Yockey and Hawkins,
is another idea for the
more serious players. The
team has been a part of
Science and Math for
about three years. They
meet to play on the ath
letic field from 6:00 until
about 8:00 every night. It
is open to anyone, so prac
tices can have anywhere
from 10 to 42 players.
“The great thing
about Ultimate is that
there is not a coach, so we
are out there because we
want to be. Not because if
we were not we would
have to run laps” said
Yockey.
~Ultimate continued
p5
Formula
for
success
nigel kirby
NCSSM’s women’s tennis
team has high aspirations this
season. Equipped
with new coach Ri
chard Alston, these
young women at
tend mandatory
practices for two
hours a day, four
times a week. Alston
works with the team
on conditioning,
drills, and match
simulations. He
feels that practice
should be a time for
“pressure relief.”
Junior Kat
Satterfield, who has
played tennis for two
years now, said, “I
think we have a re
ally great team, everyone works
together and we have great team
spirit.”
The team seems to be dif
ferent in a couple ways to Senior
Suzanne Robbins. Not only have
they gotten new uniforms and
warm-up suits, but the team is
also very structured this year.
Also, the team is getting a lot of ~Tennis continued p5
support from parents.
“We’re doing really
good this year, we have a
good attitude, a better coach,
lots of team unity and more
dedication,” said Robbins.
Alston, a staff member
with ITS, has been well re
ceived by NCSSM’s 2-4 la
dies. He has played tennis for
30 years now. He enjoys
coaching women’s tennis and
will also be the coach for the
men’s team later in the spring.
Before coming to Sci
ence and Math, Alston
coached at a
school in New
Orleans called
Ben Franklin.
Ben Franklin is a
specialized
school, like Sci
ence and Math,
except it special
izes in the arts.
He also coached
many profes
sional leagues
^ and was a pro-
fessional tennis
Hit the road Jack...
Kathy Benedict practices
her backhand at Oval
Park.
I umpire.
Alston’s
goal for the team
is to have every
one play to her
personal best and get through
the season injury free. He
wants the ladies to respect
their opponents and never
gloat when winning.
“We are not results ori
ented, instead we are perfor
mance oriented. I want them
jon dougherty
Any of you that have
been following the umpire situ
ation in Major League Baseball
knows that September 2”*' was
the day on which the umpires’
resignations went into effect.
The original plan was for
baseball’s management to pay
the umps S35 million a season
effective. Well, let me say one
thing. Whoever told the umps
that this was a good strategy
was taking them for a ride. A
very costly ride.
The umps have just got
ten obliterated in their assault
on MLB. Out of68 umps, 22 are
going to lose their jobs. The
sad part is that these are the
people who are the best at what
they do, and they got suckered.
They thought they had a good
position. Turns out, they had
jack. And the union leaders are
acting indignant.
Richie Phillips, head of
the imion said, “Baseball will
suffer from the loss of these
enormously talented people that
the commissioner’s office has
arbitrarily determined to hurt.”
What the...?! Oh, my
God! This is the biggest crock I
have ever heard. OK, yes base
ball will lose a lot of experience
in the umpiring department, but
“arbitrarily determined to hurt?”
I think not. One must remem
ber, the umps backed baseball
into a comer. They are the ones
who threatened a mass walkout
if their demands were not met.
And now they got
smacked around and canned.
Well, frankly, they deserve it.
They could have thrown the
post season into chaos if this
walkout had occurred.
And another thing. Has
anyone else noticed that the
people who are hurt the least,
the union leaders, are the ones
who instigated the entire situa
tion? They still have their jobs.
If you ask me, (and no one did,
but they should have) the
people who need to be sacked
are the union leaders. When
those 22 umps are sitting at
home sifting through the
classifieds, the union guys will
still be getting paid and screw
ing things up.
Anyway, the final settle
ment is that the union, not the
umps, will receive $ 1.36 million
in post-season bonuses, to be
divided up as the UNION sees
fit. This really boils my blood,
in case you had not noticed.
OK, so here is what the
umps did wrong. First off, they
scheduled this whole scheme
on July 14 in which 57 umps were
announced to resign September
2”". This gives baseball plenty
of time to come up with a coun
terattack. (Which they did pretty
dam effectively. I’d say.) Then
the union tried to go back on the
resignations and organize a con
tract negotiation instead. Base
ball said no dice.
Then it all just started fall
ing down around the umps’
ears. Out ofthe 57,27 rescinded
their resignations. MLB imme
diately hired 25 umps from the
minor leagues and accepted 22
resignations. The umps at
tempted to file suit against base
ball, but quickly pulled out when
they realized that they had no
chance. Anyway, when the
dust settled on September 1”,
22 were down. Some of these
stories were heart wrenching.
Take Ed Hickox, who
worked the minors for 17, count
‘epi, 17 years before getting
called up at the beginning of
this season. Seventeen years,
on the road, away from family,
in cheap Motel 6’s, and work
ing small, dirty parks, only to
have it snatched away by some
pompous idiot who thinks that
he has a really good idea. Sev
enteen years of your life, work
ing to that ultimate goal. Oh,
how endlessly enraging.
Take Drew Coble. Here is
a fellow who is taking some hits
from life. At this moment. Drew
is not only losing his job, but
his wife to cancer.
Anyway, I could go on
and on about this, so I am just
going to say that this has been
the Sport Guru and I am just
P.O.’d, I mean jeeze, c’mon
man...