The Michigan Daily-Friday, December 9, 1977-Page 11
SHORT IN STATURE, HIGH IN HOPES
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Blue
By BRIAN MARTIN
The crowds never storm Crisler
Arena to watch them play, yet their
ame is the second-most popular sport
n the Michigan campus.
Michigan's Varsity Reserve basket-
f7cagers debut aturda
ball team opens its season Saturday The team opens tomorrow against maize-and-blue rooters (except maybe sity players who don't see much
morning at 11:45 prior to the varsity Owens Technical Institute, but Fife's Van De Wage, familiar for his father's the court to come down and pla
contest, but coach Dan Fife doesn't ex- team is yet untested in any type of local sports shops). However, they varsity reserves. This will de'
pect a throng of followers in the 13,609 game situation, not even a scrimmage. never give up the idea of making the the season progresses.
seats. "I'd like to get a scrimmage in before varsity sometime in the future. Sophomores George Chang (5
"If you are there at 11:45, you'll the game because practice gets pretty "The chances are 100 to 1 for most of Mike Damkin (6-4) should see
probablybealne,.boring for the players" Fife said. the .nc to km* it t " T?4E,'it1M.varsity-11Fif; - r,.,,.
time on
y for the
velop as
5-11) and
a lot of
Tankers alter tactics
for Oakland tonight
By TOM STEPHENS
When the Wolverine men's swim
team takes to Matt Mann pool tonight
against the Oakland Pioneers, the
results should be an education for
Blue swim fans. Although he con-
tends that Michigan has a distinct
advantage, Coach Gus Stager is
planning a few novel twists to justify
his promise of "an interesting meet."
Stager admitted that he was "go-
ing in blind" regarding the quality of
the OU swim team. "In the past
they've had several good swim-
mers," he said. "But I'm sure we can
win; we're more powerful. We'll try
to use the meet as a good tune-up."
He also admitted that Oakland
might present a problem of the kind
the tankers encountered last week in
Toronto, that is, that they might have
trouble psyching up for the meet. But
Stager says that this disadvantage
will be overcome by the fact that this
is his team's home opener.
TO ADD SOME spice to the meet
and to make it, a, more effective
tune-up, the Michigan mentor is
planning a couple of interesting
moves designed to help improve
'ndividual performances, rather than
imply winning the meet. Stager will
onsult with Oakland Coach Corey
an Fleet on the prospective match-
ps and try to determine what would
e most helpful to the swimmers on
ach team.
"We'll try to do a little experiment-
'ng," said Stager. "And secondly, we
ill stack some races."
His objective in "stacking" two
trong swimmers in one event is to
est them against each other and
rovide stiffer competition, leading
o faster times. This should help
void repetition of the Wolverines'
ifficulties in Toronto last week,
here few swimmers were pushed to
heir best times.
ONE EXCEPTION to this last rule
s freshman freestyler Fernando
anales. Canales won both the 100-
nd 200-meter freestyle events in the
ual meet with Toronto last Friday
nd when the competition got tough
n Saturday in the Olympia Club of
tobicoke (OCOE) Invitational he
urned in his lifetime best of 51.7
econds in winning the 100 and pro-
iding Michigan's only first place.
his weekend he may well be stacked
gainst fellow freshman Kevin Wil-
ON YUR XAMS!!
From the Daily
liamson in the 500 meter free. This
event pairs the two promising sprint-
ers in a race longer than either spe
cializes in.
Canales, a native Puerto Rican, is
optimistic about both the meet and
the season because "the whole
freshman team this year is very
strong." However, he praised the Big
10 as "one of the best conferences in
the country" and said that the league
meets this year would be "very
hard."
Stager echoed his swimmer's con-
fidence, pointing also- to the strong
freshmen and "at least one good
swimmer protecting us in every
event." With the exception of breast-
stroker Rick Peper who has a pulled
groin muscle, the team is healthy.
Meet time is 7:30 p.m.
Fife should know. He played basket-
ball here under Johnny Orr for three
varsity years after his initial season
with the reserves in the years when
freshmen were unable to play with the
varsity.
"In those days, we only played three.
games in our entire season," Fife rem-
inisced.
The JV's enjoy a somewhat better
situation this year with a ten-game
season (they had 12, but Central
Michigan canceled its JV program this
year), three of their games being on the
road.A
"We have a pretty small team this
year, all basically freshmen and sopho-
mores," Fife said. The front line con-
sists of freshman center Karl Shultz (6-
7), and junior forwards Chris Fielder
(6-2) and Rick De Pasquale (6-4).
Running the offense at the guards are
the only two returners, Ray Owens (6-1)
and Bud Van De Wage (5-11).
"Owens and Van De Wage are ahead
of the others because they played for
me last year and have played very well
in practice," Fife said.
None of these players are household
names, not even to the staunchest of
te guys to mae it o varsity, rie
said, referring to those entertaining
such aspirations. But the dream is not
impossible. "Cornell Williams played
real well for me last year and got a shot
at the varsity. It can be done," Fife
said.
"These players are in a strange situa-
tion," Fife said. "Most have played in
high school as regulars, and want to
play in a more disciplined structure
situation than IM basketball.
"They don't get any aid from the
athletic department; they just want to
see if they can play college basketball.
A lot of the guys in the past could have
played for smaller schools, but they
chose the education over basketball. In
the long run, it's better for them."
Fife admits that there are many good
players around who haven't come out
for the team. Forth people tried out for
the squad with ten surviving the final
cut. A few spaces are saved for anyone
from the football team who wants to try
out, as was the case with John Wangler
last year.
"I don't want to tell someone they're
off the team just because a football
player decided to come out," Fife said.
The situation also lies open for var-
praying time tomorrow. Damkin has
had his arm in a sling for the past week,
but should be available.
"I don't know how well we'll do. I only
want the kids to play hard," Fife said.
"I'm concerned about bad shots and
stuff like that, but they should have fun.
I want to teach them what I think as op-
posed to what their high school coaches
taught them."
The JV's are rounded out by three
remaining freshmen guards Eric
Hamlar (6-1), Bill Prael (5-11) and
Craig Willaism (6-1).
1977-78
Varsity-Reserve Schedule
Date
Dec. 10
Jan. 5
Jan. 19
Jan. 26
Feb. 2
Feb. 6
Feb. 9
Feb. 11
Feb. 23
Feb. 25
Opponent Time
Owens Tech......11:45 a.m.
Monroe CC ........5:45 p.m.
EMU .............. 5:45 p.m.
Albion ............5:45 p.m.
at MSU...........5:45 p.m.
at EMU............8:00 p.m.
St. Clair Shores CC .5:45 p.m.
MSU ..............11:45 a.m.
Adrian............5:45 p.m.
Mott CC ..... ..11:45 a.m.
Coach Dan Fife
G'ET PAID
WHILE LEARNING
A
LIFETIME ACTIVITY
MEN & WOMEN
INTRAMURAL
SPORTS
OFFICIALS
NEEDED
Basketball, Volleyball,
Hockey, Soccer
Contact: SANDY SANDERS
Dept. of Recreational Sports
763-1313
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