Newspapers / St. Andrews University Student … / Sept. 23, 1983, edition 1 / Page 9
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September 23, 1983 The Lance “Let’s Go Coots!”: Echoes of Success By Kim Wallace “Let’s go Coots” echoes through the gym as the St Andrews varsity volleyball team winds up another prac tice and set their sights upon the upcoming game. While sitting in on the end of their practice, it was evident that this year’s team was a very tightly knit group of hard working girls that enjoy themselves both on and off the court. “It’s usually very difficult to get a group of 12 in dividual girls together as a team and not have problems . but these girls cooperate beautifully!” exclaimed Coach Williams. “This year’s team is very different from last year’s,” continued Coach Williams. "We lost three starters - all with height - as well as a few key players. In return we gained three very experienced freshmen, one of which is starting.” These problems are also going to affect the lineup of the team. The team has previously run on a 5-1 of fense, but in order to com pensate the loss in height, tiiey have switched to a 6-2 offense and have installed a new setter as well. This lineup worked well over the weekend where the Coots brought home the three out of four games and brought their 0-2 record to a firm 3-3 record. “One of our major goals I this year is to play more com- i petetively against the teams ' in the Dixie Conference thus hopefully improving our rank from fourth to second or first,” said Williams. They will have 36 matches this year instead of the usual 42. Among the games are two tournaments: Coastal Carolina on October 21-22 and Columbia Collge on Oc tober 7-8. “Columbia College’s tour nament is the one we are looking forward to the most,” said Williams. “We will be entering this tourna ment as defending cham pions which will make it an evern greater challenge.” As previously stated, she is very pleased with the general attitude of the whole team, but she b' been impressed by the pt.iormance of a few players in particular. “Eva has improved con sistently every year and is looking her best this season. But the player who has im pressed me the most this year is Kelly Aker.” Aker is ajunior this year and is enjoying her third year on the team. Although she has not seen much game time in the past, she has spent a lot of time taking notes and practicing what she has seen in order to utilize them on the court. “I could always count on Kelly in a crunch. If we ever needed a winning serve to get over the net, I always knew Kelly would pull through,” in putting what she has seen while on the bench together with her skills on the court -and it shows!” The Coots will have hosted UNC-Wilmington Tuesday, September 20 and will be on the road both Thursday September 22 and Monday September 26 against Dixie Conference teams. Coach Williams prepares the team Hawaii Trip Yields Success By Brigitte Tomasavic Jury Out On Knigiit Harriers ► By Brigitte Tomasovic The season started with a bleek outlook for the St. An drews Cross Country team. Having lost his top four run ners, Coach Floyd Blackwell is having to put more effects on training an inexperienced team. He said, “I have con fidence that these five young ■nen will perform well. Workouts have been a gradual build up; as well as informal opportunity for Coach Blackwell to see what ms new team is capable, of. He knew the team could do he just was not sure of how well. He was soon to learn that he has more talent than expected. The present team consists of team captain Drew Chaney, Brett Hanna, Dan Wetmore, Jim Montague, and Mike McIntyre. Later in the season the team is expec ting the addition of Dan Clark. He was the number one runner and All- Confei^e last year. With lots of hard work and determination the team will improve steadily. Coach Blackwell is very hopeful that as a team and as in dividuals the men will have a good and productive season. Jerry Acanfora, Director of Adapted P.E., first ap proached Tamara Pope with the idea of going to the Special Olympics early on in the Spring Term of 1983. He was interested in getting the handicapped more involved in sports. Dr. Acanfora soon became Coach Acanfora for six wheelies, including Tamara. The idea was immediately appealing to Tamara. As one who is afflicted with spastic cerebral palsy, she thought it would be one of her greatest challenges. The goal of com peting in the Spcial Olympics gave her a definite sense of purpose and something con crete to strive towards. As an added plus Tamara received extra credits for her par ticipation. At first. Coach Acanfora did not know what to expect from each of the par ticipants. Serious training was not heavily emphasized, hut rather a gradual development in individual! events. The workouts were more of a class activity. After several classes and experiments with various field events. Tamara finally decided to throw the shot put. She was amazed to find a sport she loved so. Tamara feh as if she was “born to throw the shot.” Tamara said, “The shot put fit so well in my hand, it gave me a real sense of power.” To train she alternated days bet ween lifting weights and throwing the shot. Tamara concentrated hard to develop proper techniques of shot putting. All her efforts paid off when a protion of the class went to compete in Regionals held at UNC Charlotte. Tamara won a gold medal in her class putting the shot 3.8 meters. She was also the first woman to compete in the weight lifting event. Even though she was disqualified for an incomplete lift, she believes she set a great prece dent for all women who may follow her. Having won the gold at Regionals qualified her to go onto Nationals held in Hawaii. This meant that for the next month and a half training workouts would be greatly increased. The in crease in the amount of pounds lifted seemed to rise quickly. She also added isometric exercises to the days she threw. All her train ing was done here at St. An drews under Coach Acan fora’s supervision. June 11 quickly rolled around and it was time for Tamara to go to Hawaii. Tamara was an independent representative of St. Andrews, yet sne traveled with the Charlotte Wheelchair team. While there, she stayed in a dorm at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. She went through the classifica tion test again, as she had for Regionals. This time, however, she was placed in a more difficult class. Tamara said, “I’m ashamed to say I only threw 1.96 meters.” Even so, this throw awarded her with a bronze medal. Tamara said the events in Honolulu were much harder Continued on Page 8 Tamara Pope wins bronze in Hawaii
St. Andrews University Student Newspaper
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Sept. 23, 1983, edition 1
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