Page 16-Friday, June 9, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Tangled
UpIn
_ Blue
by Henry Engelhardt
The Eisner edge...
... making work fun
Brian Eisner relaxed in his office chair and smiled as he talked about
the Michigan men's tennis team he coaches. He smiled like the winner he is.
Nine Big Ten championships in as many seasons here at Michigan. Four
MAC championships at Toledo before that. He's lucky his "winning smile"
isn't in direct proportion to his string of championships or nobody'd see the
rest of his face.
A boyish face at that. Eisner could easily be mistaken for one of his
players. Maybe great quantities of winning keeps the hair on top of one's
head. Bjorn Borg still has his hair. Jack Nicklaus has all of his.
Maybe it's just the opposite, maybe Eisner wins so much because he
isn't going bald. Or maybe he wins so much because all the best players
enroll at Michigan. Or maybe Eisner sneaks a trick ball into matches and
only coaches who sneak ina trickier ball can beat him.
Work is answer
Or maybe all those victories (Eisner has a 137-29 dual meet record)
stem from a philosphy that attracts quality players and makes the mediocre
strong.
"Hard work is not just a means to an end, hard work is an end itself,"
Eisner says.
This is not the most momentous statement of the century, but it holds a
lot of truth. Trying to explain his team's domination of the Big Ten, Eisner
says: "We just work harder than everybody else."
Work hard and you'll win. How many countless numbers of coaches put
that bribe under their athletes' noses (rather a rhetorical question)? And the
only reply they get is a sneeze.
Well, Eisner's theory is a little different. Hard work not only leads to
winning, but hard work IS winning. There is much to be gained from working
hard, whether or not you win the game or even put your seat socks on.
Eisner says his players thrive on hard work. He says some have already
come up to him, the season just ended, and expressed a desire to return-to
the grueling afternoon practice sessions. These guys must've jumped one
net too many, huh? Return to practice? '
Sweat is satisfying
But that's where it's at. Self-satisfaction is a great feeling, and it's this
feeling that a tennis player gets after a tough practice. A feeling of con-
tribution, maybe not to anyone besides him/herself, but nonetheless, a sense
of pride in a job fiendishly attacked.
This "Miller time" feeling makes for happy players. Also for happy
secretaries, professors, automobile workers and even sportswriters. It's a
pleasant feeling to work hard, to your potential and beyond, to sweat your
brains out and know you've done as much or more than you thought you
could.
Brian Eisner understands this and preaches such doctrine to his players.
Asa result he wins and wins and wins some'more. He gets the best players in
the area to play for Michigan, he makes decent players into good ones, decent
teams into Big Ten champs. When you do it nine times in a row there's more
involved than the serve that got away.
His brown hair, mixing well with his deep tan, bounced across his
forehead as he spoke. Eisner was in his element, talking tennis. "Our people
just want to work," he said, "and they look back and hey, the work was ac-
tually fun."
AP Photo
Captain Crunch
Defending champ Guillermo Vilas smashes a backround return in quarterfinal
action in the French Open in Paris. The Argentine won to advance to the semi-
finals.
Abraha-ms tops in
AAUV dash
LOS ANGELES (AP)-Guy Abra-
hams, who finished sixth in the Mon-
treal Olympics, closed with a burst
yesterday to lead qualifiers for the
finals of the featured 100-meter dash as
the AAU Track and Field Champion-
ships opened at UCLA.
A native of Panama who attended
Southern Cal, Abrahams raced to a
10.16-second clocking for the fastest
time in the semifinals.
Eliminated in the semis of the 100
MAJOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP
Cubs overpower eds
By The Assciated Prss a one-hitter and Andre Dawson hit a Pete Vuckovich, 3-3, who checked the
Rick Reuschel scattered seven hits three-run homer off Don Sutton as the Braves on seven hits before giving way'
and Bobby Murcer ripped a three-run Montreal Expos beat the Los Angeles to Mark Littell with two out in the
homer as the Chicago Cubs remained Dodgers 4-1. eighth.
in first place in the National League ROGERS, 7-5, gave up a first inning IN THE American League the Texas
East with a 10-1 victory over the Cin- homer to Reggie Smith, his 10th of the Rangers, backed by Doyle Alexander's
cinnati Redsyesterday. year, then retired 19 batters in a row strong early inning pitching, withstood
Reuschel, 7-4, retired the first 11 bat- until Steve Garvey led off the eighth by a late rally and defeated the Kansas
ters he faced, struck out 10 and walked reaching second on a two-base throwing City Royals 5-4 last night in the first
none. Cs error by third baseman Larry Parrish. game of a doubleheader.
THE CUBS extended their division Ken Reitz drove in both runs with a SCORES
lead to one game over Philadelphia, pair of two-out singles to give the St. NaonalLeague
which was idle yesterday. The Reds, Louis Cardinals a 2-0 triumph over the s Aona g
who entered the contest with a half- Atlanta Braves yesterday afternoon, Chicago. CiLcinuis at
game lead over San Francisco in the tagging pitcher Preston Hanna with his Houston s.Pittsburgh,ppd.
National League West, fell %~ game first loss of the season. Monlreal4. LosAngeles1
behind the Giants, who also were idle. The 23-year-old Hanna, 4-1, lost a pit- American League
In other action, Steve Rogers pitched ching duel to St. Louis right-hander Texass. Kansas City 4 (first game)
Chicago 2. Minnesota )
qualifying
meters were Houston McTear, Eddie
Hart, Harvey Glance and Delano
Meriweather.
Steve Williams and Clancy Edwards
ran two-three to qualify for the finals in
the first heat, won by Abrahams. Don
Coleman, James Gilkes and Rey
Robinson were the qualifiers in the
second heat while defending AAU
champ Don Quarrie, Steve Riddick and
Hugh Fraser were 1-2-3 in the third
heat. The 100 final will be run today.
In the men's 400-meters, Maurice
Peoples, the AAU champ in 1973 and
1974, posted a time of 45.65 seconds in
qualifying, best of the day.
The men's 400-meter hurdles was ex-
pected to provide one of the meet's
highlights and a possible world record,
but those possibilities evaporated when
Edwin Moses failed to show. Moses,
who rewrote his own world's record in
this meet last year with a 47.45 effort,
phoned from Atlanta to say he had a
cold and could not compete.
BILLBOARD
..Men's tennis coach Brian Eisner runs
summer tennis camps in the Ann Arbor
area. Those interested should call 313-
665-7114. The adult camps are on
weekends, while the junior sessions last
either one or two weeks.