Sports Monday
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BRETSTRELOW
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Mack Brown
Should Have
No Regrets
Jump on any Internet browser and
type in mackbrown.com.
Go ahead, don’t be afraid. There
won’t be any audio clips of Mack
Brown complaining in a nasal tone
that more fans should have come to
see North Carolina’s home finale
against Duke in 1997.
You will quickly be routed to a dif
ferent Web page, but it is one that ulti
mately represents who Brown is.
That site is the Texas Longhorns
football page, presented by
TexasSports.com.
A thumbnail of Brown pops up in
the left comer of the page, and the
look on Brown’s face makes you think
Mack Brown and Texas football are
one and the same.
They are, you know.
Brown has become as synonymous
with the program as the white helmet
with the burnt orange longhorn silhou
ette.
That wasn’t the case when Brown
took over as the Longhorns’ head
coach two years ago.
Texas Longhorn football meant
Ricky Williams breaking long runs for
touchdowns. It also meant expecta
tions being swept to the wayside by
memories of past glory.
The Longhorns struggled before
Brown arrived in Austin, Texas. They
went 4-7 in 1997 under former coach
John Makovic.
Williams played for Brown for one
season before he went on to greener
artificial turf in the NFL after the 1998
season. His departure allowed Brown
to focus on building his legacy at Texas
around a team, not one dreadlocked
individual.
Brown is well on his way. The
Longhorns have gone 18-8 in his two
seasons at the helm, including a 9-5
record without Williams a year ago.
Texas has played in the Cotton Bowl
each of the last two seasons.
Brown was hired with the intention
of turning the Texas program back into
the football power it was during the
19605. He temporarily took North
Carolina into the doldrums before mak
ing six consecutive bowl appearances.
He didn’t coach in the final game of
that streak because he had accepted
the coaching position at Texas. That
paved the way for the debut of new
coach Carl Torbush, who watched
from the coaches box as UNC beat
Virginia Tech in the Gator Bowl.
Torbush has gone 10-13 since that
game. That record looks draw-drop
pingly impressive compared to the
mark Brown had in his first two years.
The Tar Heels went 5-6 in 1987
under Dick Crum, who was replaced
by Brown after the season. Brown
went 1-10 in each of his first two sea
sons at UNC before breaking through
in 1990.
The Tar Heels went 6-4-1 and pro
vided the only blemish on Georgia
Tech’s championship season with a
13-13 tie in Chapel Hill.
Six wins aren’t exacdy what Brown
has in mind for his third season with
the Longhorns. ESPN analyst Beano
Cook thinks Texas will play in the
Orange Bowl for the national tide.
The Longhorns might just fulfill
those expectations. But even if they
don’t, Texas fans don’t need to reach
for the panic button.
Brown has stockpiled enough talent
in Austin that the Longhorns will
return next year with similar hopes.
And the next year. And the next one.
That is why Brown can look back
and smile at the decision he made to
leave UNC.
The Texas program needed just a
litde fine tuning. He has the talent to
resurrect it into a tide contender in the
matter of a few seasons.
In contrast, the 10 years of hard
work Brown put in at UNC were
never enough to convince fans or poll
sters that North Carolina should be on
the football map with Florida State or
Nebraska. Not even Texas.
See STRELOW, Page 12
Field Hockey Blanks Blue Devils in Opener
I ... . _
DTH/KATHERINE EAKER
UNC forward Abbey Woolley tries to take the ball away from Duke during the Tar Heels' 3-0 victory against the
Blue Devils at Henry Stadium on Saturday. Woolley earned her first assist of the season on a Jana Toepel goal.
Returning to Form
Former UNC track star Allen Johnson, who
won four ACC titles, looks to repeat in the
110-meter hurdles at the Olympics in Sydney.
By T. Nolan Hayes
Sports Editor
Allen Johnson has never been a man interested in telling
the world how good he is. He’d rather just show everyone.
That philosophy fits Johnson, who is quiet by nature, but it
also might be the reason the world forgets about him.
Johnson is the best in the world at what he does - the 1 lO
meter high hurdles -but he fails to get the same kind of
respect that other stars in track and field receive.
Even his opponents overlook him. He doesn’t engage in
the verbal sparring that’s become commonplace in the sprints
and hurdles, so some people take that as a lack of confidence.
“People think just because I’m not loud and boisterous that
I might be a weak individual or that it doesn’t take much to
knock me off,” Johnson says. “But I’m a very fierce competitor.”
Johnson’s demeanor hasn’t changed since his days at North
Carolina, where he starred as a four-time All-American from
1990-93. Johnson amazed UNC coach Dennis Craddock with
his behavior after he won the 1992 indoor NCAA champi
onship in the 55-meter hurdles.
“I never will forget it. He didn’t even do that,” says
Craddock, pumping his fist. “He just nodded his head.”
Johnson has needed that quiet confidence in recent years.
He was sidetracked by injuries during much of 1998 and 1999
and fell off the radar screen of elite track and field performers.
But he has returned with a vengeance this Olympic year. He
won the third U.S. title of his career at the Olympic Trials in July,
earning a trip to Sydney, Australia, for next month’s Games.
Johnson, who won the 110 hurdles in the 1996 Olympics in
Adanta, will be the favorite to repeat. Only two men in his
tory - Lee Calhoun (1956 and 1960) and Roger Kingdom
(1984 and 1988) - have ever accomplished that feat.
But Johnson doesn’t see the Olympic gold medal as some
thing he can defend.
“I don’t look at it as defending my Olympic tide,” he says.
“I just look at it as going to the Olympics and then trying to
advance each round. When it gets to the final, nobody else is
going to care that I won in ’96, and it doesn’t matter to me.
“In four years, careers are made and broken in that time.”
Until his performance at the Trials, there were doubts as
to whether Johnson’s career would be one of those. He had
endured injury problems since 1998, the year after he won his
second World Championships tide.
Johnson missed six months with a stress fracture he sus
tained in his pelvis and had trouble getting his rhythm back.
He lost his dominance.
But Johnson began finding his top form in the summer of
1999, when he experienced one of the strangest days an ath
lete can have, That day in July is still a vivid memory for
Johnson and his coach, Curtis Frye.
See JOHNSON, Page 12
UNC Returns Home With 2 Comeback Victories
Staff Report
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS -
The North Carolina women’s soccer
team staged a comeback for the second
consecutive game and defeated Texas
A&M 4-1 on Sunday.
Junior midfielder Jena Kluegel broke
a 1-1 tie with an unassisted goal from 22
yards out at 70:16. She then assisted on
a goal by freshman Alyssa Ramsey in
the 84th minute.
Sophomore Susan Bush put the fin
ishing touches on top-ranked UNC’s
LUp ■ .AmHHmK
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNC SPORTS INFORMATION
Allen Johnson celebrates after winning a gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles in the
1996 Olympics. He holds the American record in the event with a time of 12.92 seconds.
victory with a
goal at 87:21.
North
Carolina
improved to
2-0 with the
win, while
Texas A&M
fell to 1-1.
Women’s
Soever
UNC 4
Texas A&M I
UNC 9
Texas 2
The Aggies took a 1-0 lead when for
ward Nicky Thrasher beat UNC keep
er lenni Branam from 15 yards out at
25:16.
The Tar Heels tied the match on a
goal with 1:48 left in the first half.
Freshman midfielder Maggie Tomecka
fed Jordan Walker with a pass in the
midfield, and Walker passed to fresh
man forward Catherine Reddick.
Reddick deposited the ball into the left
comer of the net past Aggie keeper
Angela Barker.
Barker had four saves for Texas
A&M, while Branam made three saves
for North Carolina. UNC outshot Texas
A&M 20-12.
The Tar Heels opened their season
Friday night with a 9-2 victory against
.
North Carolina capitalized
on its sixth penalty corner
opportunity to start a string
of three goals in 10 minutes.
By Rachel Carter
Assistant Sports Editor
It was only a matter of time.
Duke goalkeeper Erica Perrier had
been doing her best in the second half,
deflecting shot after shot from the North
Carolina field hockey team.
But her
luck ran out
as the Tar
Heels got
their first goal
of the after-
”lv'*M rUvm,y
Duke 0
UNC 3
noon on a penalty comer conversion by
midfielder Jana Toepel.
Toepel’s goal got the Tar Heels on the
board and led a UNC scoring charge of
three goals inside of 10 minutes to defeat
the Blue Devils 3-0 in front of 761 spec
tators at Henry Stadium on Saturday.
The goal came on UNC’s sixth
penalty comer attempt. And once UNC
managed to convert the comer, momen
tum swung firmly to its side.
Texas. UNC gave up a goal in the first
minute of the game, but it scored eight
second-half goals.
Texas midfielder Kati Mcßain scored
40 seconds into the match, and the
Longhorns held a 1-0 lead for most of
the first half.
Reddick scored in the final minute of
the first half, though, to tie the score.
Walker and Kluegel were given assists
on the play.
Ramsey scored 1:48 into the second
half to give UNC its first lead of the
night. Ramsey, Bush and Meredith
UNC Men’s Soccer
Tops Virginia Tech
In Exhibition Game
Senior forward Caleb Norkus
scored a goal in UNC's 3-0 victory
against Virgina Tech at the
Raleigh WRAL Soccer Center on
Saturday. The men's soccer season
kicks off for real Friday in
Birmingham, Ala. See Page 12
But UNC
coach Karen
Shelton was quick
to point out that
the score could
have been very
different.
“I told the team and (Duke coach Liz)
Tchou that they had four breakaways,
and had they capitalized a little bit
more, they could have won the game
4-3,” Shelton said.
One of those four breakaways was in
the first half, when Duke’s Robin Merritt
seized a loose ball and raced to get
inside the shooting circle.
UNC goalkeeper Amy Tran had ven
tured far out of the goal, watching the
traffic at the midfield. But suddenly,
with Merritt charging hard toward her,
Tran was closer to the edge of the circle
than to the goal.
Merritt shot, but Tran was able to
deflect the ball and prevented Duke
from getting on the board.
The first half had its share of Tar Heel
miscues, which some players chalked up
to opening-day nerves.
Toepel, who made her debut in the
UNC midfield, said it took her some
See FIELD HOCKEY, Page 12
UNC Alum
Makes Leap
For Sydney
UNC assistant Nicole Gamble
will try to reach the Olympic
'A' standard in the triple
jump at a one-event meet,
Staff Report
Nicole Gamble, an assistant track
and field coach at North Carolina, will
make one more leap for the Olympics
this week.
She will compete with some of the
best jumpers in the United States in the
“Jump for Sydney,” a special one-event
meet set up by UNC head coach
Dennis Craddock.
The event will take place Wednesday
at 6:30 p.m. at Belk Track. Admission is
free, and door prizes will be given out.
“It’s only going to be one event, but
I wanted the student body to get a
chance to see Nicole before she left for
the Games,” Craddock said. “Nicole
just means so much to us because she’s
an actual citizen of Chapel Hill, and I’m
not sure there’s another resident of
Chapel Hill who’s going to the Games.
She’s one of our assistant coaches, and
she’s one of our former All-Americans
and national champions.”
Gamble, who won the triple jump at
the U.S. Olympic Trials, is still seeking
to meet the Olympic ‘A’ standard, which
would automatically qualify her for next
month’s Games. Gamble won the Trials
with a personal-best outdoor leap of
45 feet 9 3/4 inches, but she needs to
travel 46-0 1/4 to secure her position.
If two of her competitors meet the
standard and she does not, Gamble
would lose her spot on the U.S.
Olympic team.
Tiombe Hurd, who placed third
(45-7 3/4) in the Trials, and Natasha
Alleyne-Gib, who placed fifth (45-4 1/2),
are among those scheduled to compete.
No U.S. woman has met the ‘A’ stan
dard. If no one does, only Gamble will
go to Sydney. If one person besides
Gamble makes it, she will join Gamble
on the team.
Florance - UNC’s starters at forward
each had two goals. Florance, Reddick
and defender Kalli Kamholz also had
two assists. The Tar Heels outshot Texas
31-5.
The eight goals North Caroline
scored in the second half were the mos:
by UNC since 1997, when it registerec
eight first-half goals agains
Pennsylvania.
The crowd of 5,440 set a Texas home
attendance record. It was also the third
largest crowd to watch a Tar Heel regu
lar-season game.
14