The Michigan Daily-Friday, December 9, 1977-Page 11 SHORT IN STATURE, HIGH IN HOPES R.. .; { 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 ;. {; v I Now comes Miller time. "_Ali 'vim 4 i - a . t f cLi-'.