March 29,2000
As spring continues, and several sports kick
into high gear, we at the paper are sometimes
finding it hard to keep up. With only one issue
coming out each week, and a Saturday afternoon
deadline for the next Wednesday’s stcries, it's hand
for The Seahawk to cover all of the sporting events
that happen on campus in a given week.
And with so many events that happen on other
campuses, even out of state, we find it hard to
write about each one due to budget limitations.
The point of it all is, your campus newspaper
is experiencing growing pains.
Our staff of writers are all students. They are
paid less than $ 10 per story published, and due to
the way our budget is distributed we cannot pay
writers to travel to other schools.
In addition, not all of our writers could just
“drop everything” - school, other jobs, social ob
ligations - in order to watch a track meet or bas
ketball game away from UNCW, even if the
money wete there to adequately compensate them
for their work.
It’s because of the help of individuals in
UNCW’s athletic department that we were able
to send a writer and photographer to Nashville
for the school’s NCAA game on March 17. And
the Sports Information Office, associated with
UNCW Athletics, has provided us information
and statistics for events that do take place out of
town on other occasions. They're the reason we
canpublish-for the first time in Seahawk history
- professional, complete box scores for UNCW
sports the way that other newspapers do every
day. But we still have to run with the scores and
information available by Saturday afternoon -
which makes it hard to cover late-bnsaking news.
Even with all of the information we are pro
vided, there is the issue of space. Out of our usual
24-page issue, five pages are reserved for sports.
Fifty percent of that space (on average) is sold to
advertisers.
The remainder is divided between topics of
interestto UNCW students: varsity athletics, stu
dent club sports, intramurals, and news from pro
fessional and other collegiate sports. When ap
propriate, we publish stories that deal with
t*Baking news or other events that affect sports
and recreation - such as the new Campm Recre
ation Center.
Not every sporting event can make it into the
pages of The Seahawk every week - not at our
present size, and not as long as we are only able
to publish once per week. One of our goals for
■he near future is to begin putting out two issues
every week, which will greatly improve our cov
erage not just of sports, but of campus and com
munity news as well.
We’ll do our best to make sure your favorite
sport is covered regularly and well - and we want
you to look forward to our school paper’s im
provements this semester and beyond.
UNCW Track fares well in CTS meet
by HUGH FISHER
& WES MELVILLE
The Seahawk
UNCWTrack and Field hosted the Collegiate
Track Series last Saturday at Gtwne Track. It
was their second home meet in two weeks, and
the last chance for the UNCW team to compete
in front of a home crowd this year.
The Collegiate Track Series pnssents a new
format for the team, one that is aimed at attracting
a larger fan base. “The meet is shorter and is
intended to attract more people to the event," said
first-year interim coach Jacquie Grimes. "It al
lows people to come and watch the events with
out having to spend their entire day at the track.”
The series also attempts to make track and field
more desirous of a television audience by short
ening the meet to a finish time within three hours.
While defending their home turf, UNCW
faced teams from Wmflirop. Mount Saint Mary’s,
Manhattan College, and University of Miami,
Ohio.
Manhattan College was their toughest draw:
“They’ve got a strong overall team.” said Grimes,
adding that each team has a different area of
strength.
UNCW’s team performed well. Both the men
and the women won their nrtmings of the 4x 100
relay. Tmi Jones, regularly a high jumper for
UNCW’s team qualified for IC4A competition
with a long jump of 23’ 10” on his first attempt
The men’s team had been competing against
tough odds following five of their ruimers receiv
ing minor injuries at the March 17 meet.
7>i«
Freshman Tim Jones automatically qualified for the IC4A with a long jump
of 23 feet, 10 inches in last Saturday’s meet at UNCW's Greene Track.
“A couple of hamstrings got pulled - ju.st mi
nor setbacks,” said Grimes, adding that the play
ers should be back in action after another week of
rest.
Jones pulled his hamstring on his third long
jump and was unable to compete in the high jump
later that afternoon.
EricaAndersoa who ran in the women’s 5000-
jneteM2ce,_consider^Jier£aiticy2ati^^
event a personal challenge. She normally runs in
shorter races.
“I wanted to try this,” Anderson said, “it’s
closer to cross-country and I’m used to that. I
need to work on my endurance."
The Collegiate Track Series is just another
contest for UNCW on route to their pursuit of an
unprecedented fourth straight CAA confererKe
JitL
New Recreation Center slated to open in April
by REBECCA LEWIS
Correspondent
Only six weeks behind schedule,
UNCW’s new Student Recreation Center is
projected to open on April 11.
Actual construction began in September
1998. Previously estimated as a 14-month
construction process, the University granted
extra time for completion after construction
was halted by hurricanes, snow, and a steel
shortage.
“From the very begirming we had a hard
time getting steel at a time when a lot of
building was occurring. The orders just
weren’t going in,” said Rex Pringle, director
of Student Recreation and Sports Facilities.
Although the building was completed in
February, finishing touches such as install
ing furnishings and fire alarms required more
time. Pre-final inspections were completed
Feb. 15 and 22. It was the first and second in
a series of three final inspections. After each
inspection the contractor has one week to fix
and adjust the building before the next in
spection.
Pringle said that most of the new equip
ment should have been moved in prior to
spring break.
$500,000 has been spent on state-of-the-
art weight machines, top quality free weights,
cardiovascular machines, sports equipment,
and aerobics equipment. The total cost for
the 64,000-square-foot building was approxi
mately $7.3 million. The center is paid for
with student fees because the state of North
Carolina doesn’t permit state dollars to go
into building recreation facilities or areas.
The increase in student fees that funded
the center has been augmented by a further
fee increase to support new recreational and
athletic programs on campus.
Other feamres of the new center include
an aerobics room, which is 33% larger than
the current one. It will be equipped with a
high-tech sound system and special spring-
cushioned flooring. A raised walking and
jogging track will be a safe exercising envi
ronment for students who like to run or walk
at night.
Another much-anticipated highlight is the
rock-climbing wall, which will have three
levels of difficulty. The wall is being built
by a top-quahty private company, but due to
comphcations beyond the University’s con
trol it will not be ready for use until a few
weeks after opening.
The new center will also be home to the
Discover Outdoor center, the Heart and Sole
Fitness Program, and the Hundley Wellness
Promotions Center, which will move from
offices in other campus buildings, freeing up
space for other programs to grow.
Once the new center opens, the current
student recreation center located in Hanover
Gym will be used for physical education
classes. The need for a new recreation facil
ity was evident to the University by over
flowing waiting lists in the weight room,
continual gridlock In reservation of facilities
by sports clubs, and complaints that week
end rentals take away any possibility of free
play during the weekends at Hanover Gym.
UNCW junior Kelly Meyers’ main com
plaint about the current recreation center is
that it never fits her schedule.
“The new center is an alternative, another
place to go,” said Meyers. “The weight room
is too crowded. 1 just got a membership at
Corey Everson's (a local women’s health
club).”
Another factor that will allow for more
free time is that students will not be compet
ing for time and space with student athletes.