Posts Tagged sport

Club sports full of action

I have to confess, I’ve never been an athlete, but I’ve always enjoyed going to sporting events — especially at the collegiate level. The fact that people are able to balance being a student and being an athlete constantly amazes me.

Yet there is a class of athlete at IU often overlooked in terms of its dedication and commitment. While it is one thing to watch Dane Fife and the rest of the Hoosiers tear up the basketball court in front of 17,000 fans, it is a far different story out at “The Frank” down by Bloomington South High School.

Each time the IU club hockey team plays a home game, attendance will never reach 17,000; it will never even reach 1,000, because the Frank Southern Ice Arena only holds 700 fans.

Participants in club sports are a far different breed of athlete from those intercollegiate athletes who perform at Assembly Hall or Memorial Stadium. Unlike intercollegiate athletes, club sport athletes don’t have the support network that members of the basketball, football or golf teams have.

Athletes of intercollegiate teams get academic counseling, funding and support from the IU administration. Athletes for club sports get little. Club hockey, for example, gets about $6,000 from Recreational Sports; a small percentage of the $50,000 it needs to run its sport each year.

Team members also have other grueling conditions to work under: antifreeze, for example.

Saturday night, about 7 minutes into the game against Michigan State, a pipe broke off of the ceiling and antifreeze poured onto the ice. Naturally, antifreeze and ice are a terrific combination if you’re talking about your car, but if you are trying to play a hockey game, troubled waters are ahead.

The game was delayed long enough that my friend and I went to Blockbuster and rented a movie instead, but not before we got into the hockey experience. It was disappointing to have an hour-long interruption in the game. Much of the crowd dispersed at the same time, wandering out the door and into the parking lot of the Frank Southern Center.

The athletes stayed behind to play the game.

Of course, this flood of antifreeze is another strong argument for the replacement of Frank Southern Center, an option that has been proposed for awhile, and had another delay, as announced in The Herald Times Feb. 5.

Bloomington announced in October it was going to build a new arena on the west side of town, off of State Road 37. It was supposed to open next fall, but because unexpectedly high infrastructure costs it has been postponed. The cost of building a road to the new facility could cost $1 million; accordingly, officials are trying to find alternatives, perhaps even a different site for the arena.

The goal is to open the new arena by September 2001.

In spite of all this, IU hockey has done well this year. The team is fourth in the Southeast American Collegiate Hockey Association rankings and is preparing to play host to the ACHA national championships at the beginning of March in Indianapolis.

IU has a number of club sport teams, for example; lacrosse, Water Polo and Jujitsu. All the players have to overcome a number of barriers to play and to be students at the same time.

Supporting these athletes is worth the time and effort. They appreciate fan attendance.

Check ’em out. Maybe even get involved, if you’re so inclined.

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IU not consumer-oriented

IU needs to focus on becoming more consumer-oriented when it comes to services on this campus. As an incoming graduate student, I have had experience at two other universities and, while neither was perfect, both were far better at providing parking, athletic tickets and student ID cards than IU has been.

Last summer I visited Bloomington twice to find an apartment and to become oriented to the IU experience. While visiting the campus, my greatest challenge was not actually parking, but getting the visitor parking permit. Once I got to parking services, I had to tell them my name and my license plate number, as well as which building I was planning to visit. In exchange for all the information I gave the folks in the office, I had to pay $3 for a visitor parking permit that was good for only one day.

One would think that IU would be interested in welcoming visitors to campus and to make a positive impression to those visitors. The current method of giving out visitor parking permits surely fails this test.

Another place where IU fails to be consumer-oriented, both to visitors and to students alike, is the athletic ticket office. When one of my friends and I decided that we wanted to see one of the upcoming football games, I called the ticket office. One minor hitch — if I wanted to buy student tickets, I had to go to the athletic ticket office. So I went to Assembly Hall and parked my car, only to discover that I had parked on the wrong side of the building.

After walking around the building I entered the north doors looking for the ticket office. The sign indicated that I needed to go to the elevators, but did not say what floor I needed to visit. It turns out the athletic ticket office is located in the basement of Assembly Hall. The elevator doors didn’t open for me when it finally creaked to the basement — I had to press the “Open Door” button.

To top it off, the athletic ticket office held an inquisition that made parking services look like a bunch of amateurs. In order to get two football tickets, I had to supply my name, address, phone number and social security number. I guess it was not enough for me to show my friend’s and my student ID cards.

Why does IU make its students go find some office in the basement of Assembly Hall, when they could sell student tickets in the Indiana Memorial Union? Wouldn’t that make a tremendous amount of sense? Perhaps a one-stop ticket office for all sorts of tickets could be put in the Union, thus making at least that aspect more consumer-friendly for both students and visitors alike.

I could rant and rave about the registration procedures, the worst I have encountered at the three universities I’ve attended, but I will not. Instead I want to say something about the inconvenience of the placement of the registration office vis-a-vis the campus ID office.

As a new graduate student, I got to register in Franklin Hall the Thursday before classes began. My next priority was to obtain my student ID at Ashton Center.

It makes absolutely no sense to put these two offices a mile and a half apart. Well, maybe they’re not quite a mile and a half apart, but it sure is one heck of a long walk on one of those hot and humid days that seem to characterize August in Bloomington.

Please, couldn’t IU at least put these two office in relatively close proximity? Now that would be consumer-friendly.

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New radio deal good for UW

By Adam Lederer
BI Columnist

Intercollegiate athletics are driven by money. No doubt about it, UW athletics director Lee Moon has been extremely aggressive in repositioning Cowboy athletics within Wyoming in order to increase revenues.

Take for example the new radio contract Moon has set up.

In the recent past the radio contract was held by Casper’s KTWO radio. The same contract also gave control of television broadcasts to the radio network.

Starting next year, the contract, without provisions for television, will be held by Cheyenne’s KFBC-AM. However, the station will not have the same power that KTWO radio had.

Moon has shifted control of the “major decisions” to the university.

In other words, the university will select the radio announcers, not the radio station. UW will also sell network advertising and produce the broadcasts.

Currently the network has 25 affiliates and Director of Sports Information Kevin McKinney does not expect to lose any with the transition next year.

McKinney told me that radio broadcasts of Cowboy athletics makes money, unlike television broadcasts.

Consequently, the television contract has been separated from the radio contract and will be going up for bid this spring.

McKinney said television broadcasts cost at least $12,000 to produce, and lose several thousand dollars each time.

However, the picture does not look bright for getting much on the air. Wyoming has only two in-state television bidders: Casper’s KTWO and the combination of Cheyenne’s and Casper’s CBS affiliates, KGWN and KGWC.

Neither potential bidder has the capability to produce the television broadcasts in-house and would be forced to hire an outside “truck” capable of putting together the broadcasts.

There is one other possible bidder: FOX Sports Rocky Mountain, the cable television network.

FOX Sports would be an ideal bidder, McKinney admitted. They have the necessary equipment to produce the broadcasts on their own and would be able to do everything while leaving only a check in Wyoming’s hands.

Any way you slice it, television broadcasts are going to be a trick for Moon to perfect. If he goes with the Wyoming television stations, UW will have to help the stations with equipment rental. But if he goes with FOX Sports, he’ll have to deal with the fact that FOX Sports does not reach nearly as many homes in the state.

In any case, Moon does have a winner with the new coaches’ shows on KTWO this year.

Produced in-house with an extremely low budget, the shows are breaking even.

The Larry Shyatt Show is at 10:30 p.m. Sundays and follows the Dana Dimel Show format.

I have to give kudos to athletics — the show is extremely well done.

–part edited out here–

Adam Lederer is a graduate student in political science minoring in environment and natural resources. He earned his bachelor’s from UW in 1996.

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Grading UW’s athletic staff

By Adam Lederer
BI Columnist

I have to admit, when it comes to intercollegiate athletics, I’m not even close to being the world’s biggest expert.

But I have to speak my mind about the current state of athletics here at UW.

While I could spend time telling you who I thought should have been named director of intercollegiate athletics, it would be pointless. Lee Moon is our Athletic Director and we have to deal with reality.

After 14 months, it’s not too late for a preliminary evaluation of Moon’s accomplishments both on and off the field.

Moon has done an incredible job at a time of tremendous change at UW both in athletics and the rest of campus. I’ll give him an A-.

Moon has been incredibly aggressive both on and off the field.

On the field, Moon took the football team to the first Eddie Robinson Football Classic against Ohio State, a game that proved to be a big pay off both in terms of finances and respect.

Off the field Moon brought Bull Riders Only to campus — helping to create excitement around the football team.

About his only misstep came in tangoing with the fraternities here on campus — he, and the administration, caved and moved homecoming to Nov. 1 against San Diego State instead of having homecoming in September.

I’m not sure what point the frats were trying to make, but the risk of a cold and snowy homecoming is a lot higher in November than in September. By caving, Moon and Co. have risked alienating a group of people important to athletics — the alumni.

But it’s also time to evaluate some of the coaches Moon has hired.

After a shaky start, football coach Dana Dimel has shown tremendous personal growth both on and off the field.

Dimel, for being a first-year coach who initially showed a bit of temper, has managed to pull together a team garnering national respect. I can honestly say that I’m proud of my football team and its showing against Ohio State University, as well as our other foes.

About my only objection comes from his interviews on television and radio. I watched the Dana Dimel show on K2 Television Sunday evening and got nothing out of it.

His comments basically fall into two different categories. The first category suggests that “we have to win home games because we spend half of the time at home.” His second category of quotes can be summarized: “Road games are important because we play seven of them.”

Maybe he’s already media savvy. If so, I feel sorry for my colleagues on the sports pages.

Overall grade: B+

Moon’s selection of Larry Shyatt to be head basketball coach was a great choice. Shyatt managed to get a respectable class of recruits with extremely short notice, demonstrating why Moon has such high confidence in the man.

Shyatt was a wee bit nervous stepping into the Bull Riders Only ring with a loose bull. Who can blame him?

He has been working wonders on other fronts, Shyatt and Co. have already made plans for Midnight Madness this fall after the Colorado State football game Oct. 18.

Last year, Midnight Madness never happened.

Shyatt earns an A for his early efforts.

Adam Lederer is a graduate student in political science minoring in environment and natural resources. He earned his bachelor’s from UW in 1996.

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