The Michigan Doily - Wednesday, January 25, 1989 - Page 13
Prep star Lester: At
'M' next semester?
THE SPORTING VIEWS
Riots overshadow
Miami's progress
BY MICHAEL SALINSKY
Wagner Lester goes to St.
Catherine's, a small high school in a
small town called Racine, WI, out-
side of Milwaukee. He goes to class
every day, and is in the process of
choosing which college to attend. He
thinks he may like to go to law
school, or maybe get into business.
But, in addition to the student-to-
faculty ratio and pre-law classes,
Lester has to consider football
coaches, practice facilities, and ath-
lete graduation rates.
Wagner Lester is over 6-foot-3
and 200 pounds - a tailback who
ran for 1,495 yards this season. He
also plays on defense and is a
bruising, blitzing, inside linebacker.
He runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5
seconds. He is considered far and
away the best football player in the
state of Wisconsin.
And if you thought a 1300 on
your SAT brought you a lot of mail
from colleges, try rushing for 270
and 250 yards in the first two games
of your junior year.
"THE NOTORIETY came so
fast," Lester's coach Jim Welsh
says. "It was hard for him. He
became a big head for a while -
you know, the way he walked
around."
It wasn't a picnic for Welsh
either. Last May, when colleges
could come in and talk to Lester,
Welsh estimates there were two or
three every day.
Lester's senior year wasn't a big
improvement over his junior season.
The team was 5-5. Lester sprained an
ankle. The offensive line was
smaller.
"It was a pretty mediocre year,"
Lester says.
His coach just laughs at that
assessment. "He carried the ball 30
Mmes a game and tackled every play.
One game, he had a severely sprained
ankle. Two other running backs
went down. He said, 'I'll play."'
With no cutting ability, Lester
gained 90 yards.
THIS EXPLAINS why
recruiters saw nothing at all
mediocre about Lester. Basically, he
had his choice of schools. And the
final five were... Michigan, Mich-
igan State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin
and Illinois.
Coach Welsh stresses that its
Wagner's decision to make and tries
not to push for any school. Not
everybody is that way.
"My parents want me to go to
Notre Dame," Lester says. "They're
always saying Notre Dame, Notre
Dame, number one."
Meanwhile, many people in
Wisconsin are pressuring Lester to
attend his state's school. The
Badgers' success in the future de-
pends on getting players like Lester
to "stay home".
If that weren't enough, Lester has
an older brother who played for
Michigan State.
So what are his final two
choices? "Michigan and Illinois,"
says Lester. "Right now Michigan is
number one." Never underestimate a
17-year old's desire to make up his
own mind.
LESTER visited Ann Arbor a
couple of weeks ago. Players get to
make paid visits to five schools, and
stars like Lester usually take all five.
His foremost memories of his
visit were meeting Mark Messner
and Glen Rice and being shown the
law school ("I was excited about
that," he says).
Oh yes, and a private audience
with a Mr. Schembechler. "He told
me what they thought of me, what
they think my role should be."
Lester seems to be handling the
whole thing exceedingly well -
now. Sure, he got a big head for a
while last year, but who could blame
him? 16 years old and he was getting
letters from every big-time football
Schembechler
...waiting on Lester
program in the country, saying how
great he was.
BUT there's still a decision to
make which Lester expects to have
by the end of the month. He was at
Illinois earlier this week. He
couldn't make the regular weekend
trip because he was busy averaging
20 points for St. Catherine's
basketball team.
Welsh thinks Lester will make
the trip to Wisconsin, but not to
Notre Dame. So, it looks like the
Big Ten can still hold its own
against the Irish. "I watched almost
the whole Rose Bowl game," says
Lester. What about the Fiesta Bowl?
"I didn't catch too much of that
game."
Today Wagner Lester is from a
blue collar family in a small city
between Milwaukee and Chicago.
Today, he'll go to classes and
probably head to basketball practice
afterwards. And if he isn't visiting
Madison or South Bend on Friday,
he might be out on a date. Steady
girlfriend? Nah. "He likes to play the
field," Welsh says.
Next year the field he'll be
playing might be in Michigan
Stadium. If you're a Wolverine, you
better hope so. Because Wagner
Lester is going to be a good football
player. He's also a concerned student
looking to find the best college for
himself.
This week, he decides. And his
life will never be the same again.
BY DAVID HYMAN
The Ickey Shuffle is slowly
dancing its way to the highlight
films. Joe Montana, unquestionably,
will enter the record books as one of
the best clutch performers in the
history of the NFL. And Super Bowl
XXIII is history.
However, the excitement and tur-
moil which surrounded the sunshine
city of Miami this past week will
not be forgotten by the people of
Miami nor the NFL.
Usually, the host city of the
Super Bowl is in hysteria the week
before the game with all the hype,
hoopla and commotion surrounding
it. But all this was diminished the
beginning of last week due to the
situation in Miami, which was not
exactly conducive to this annual
week of festivities.
The city of Miami was delivered a
blow last Monday night when a
white police officer shot and killed a
Black motorcyclist in the predom-
inantly Black section of Overtown.
The shooting led to rock throwing,
looting and setting fires to nearby
buildings and cars by Overtown
residents.
THESE RIOTS last week were
the first ones experienced since 1982
when a white police officer shot and
killed a Black man outside a pool
hall in Overtown. The riots of seven
years ago, and last week's, were
similar, but the recent riots seemed
to attract more attention and ex-
posure.
Over 2,000 media personnel were
down south to cover this event. Any
party, any practice, or any phot-
ograph which could be covered or
taken was.
People from Cinncinati were
calling Miami to see if it was safe to
come down for the game. The NFL
was worried that the game would not
be able to be played. The people of
Miami, though, were unhappy be-
cause the riots were splitting the city
apart, and downplaying the growth
and change which has taken place in
the last ten years, since the last time
the Super Bowl was in south
Florida.
AFTER THE 1979 game
between Pittsburgh and Dallas in the
Orange Bowl, the Super Bowl fin-
ally returned to Miami this year. The
NFL had been outraged by the price
gouging by the service industries in
the Miami area and decided to depart
Miami for a while.
In the ten years that passed
between the past two Super Bowls
in Miami, the city has grown tre-
mendously, not only in size, but
also in terms of prosperity and
culture.
The Art Deco district of south
Miami Beach, the new buildings in
downtown, and the expansion of the
Miami Beach Convention Center
show that the city has grown finan-
cially. And, by being one of the
cities on the international Grand Prix
circuit since 1983, the city has also
grown internationally.
The NBA recognized the strength
of Miami and awarded them an
expansion team two years ago.
Despite their 4-33 record, the Miami
Heat home games played at Miami
Arena, which ironically is a few
blocks outside Overtown, have near-
ly all been sellouts.
decide to leave Miami for some
time, just as they did ten years ago.
But all the league needs to do is
carefully examine what the situation
was and realize that it could have
happened anywhere. The situation in
Miami is no different than in many
areas throughout the nation, and,
unfortunately for the city of Miami
and the NFL, it erupted during one
of the biggest weeks of the year.
THE WEEK OF the Super
Bowl turned out to be a success. The
riots calmed down, the festivities
were able to continue as planned and
the whole city of Miami was
celebrating in one huge party.
The situation this past week in
Miami can be paralleled to that
which prevailed in South Korea,
leading up to the past Summer.
Olympics. People throughout the,
world were concerned that with all
the riots going on, the Olympics
would be marred and would not be
played in a peaceful environment,
However, the Olympics turned out
to be positive, with the boxing
venue's poor officiating and the Ben,
Johnson story leaving the biggest,
scars.
If the NFL were to look at the.
incident of Overtown last week and
decide to leave Miami on a onewayk
ticket, they will be making a
mistake.
SIX OF THE 23 Super Bowls
have been played in Miami, with at,
least four of them having memories
which will not be forgotten. Broad-
way Joe guaranteeing a Jet victory in
1969, Lynn Swann's leaping grab in
1976, Pittsburgh's third Superbo'wf
of the '70s in 1979 and San.
Francisco's two-minute drive In.
1989, not to mention the per-
formances of Montana and Jerry,
Rice.
The situation in Overtown did not.
provide a good beginning to the
biggest hype week in sports, but the,
situation cooled off and allowed the
celebration to continue - Michael
Jordan's first visit to Miami Arena,
Thursday, the Superstars com-r
petition, and the many Super Bo*L
parties. ,. ,
Miami,with the expected $4
million to spill into the soutb..
Florida economy this week, WA
undoubtedly expand and grow,,
Hopefully the situation in Overtowa;
will be corrected, because the NomLt
will miss out on all that Miami can,
offer if the Super Bowl does not,
return in the near future.
Rozelle
tanks we
BY ANDREW GOTTESMAN
In spite of the fact that the Michigan men's
swimming team did away with two of the top teams in
the country this weekend, if it were up to head coach
4on Urbanchek, this article wouldn't even be written.
You see, he downplays the importance of all comp-
etition except for the team's final goal: the NCAA's.
"Instead of concentrating on winning dual meets,"
Jrbanchek said, "the most important thing is to
concentrate on (the) NCAA's."
In spite of Urbanchek's ambivalence, however, the
Wolverines (7-0 overall, 2-0 in the Big Ten) did pull
off two impressive dual meet victories this past
weekend. They began their first-ever Western road trip
on Friday by beating No. 2 Stanford, 60-53. The
Wolverines followed that win up on Saturday, handing
No. 4 California-Berkeley a 61-52 defeat.
There were four achievements which did delight
Jrbanchek: the first NCAA qualifying times of the
season.
"Our very strong neonle swam un to their noten-
stern giants
tial," said Urbanchek. "When we needed the big points,
we got the big points."
Not surprisingly, Olympic gold medalist Brent
Lang came through with the biggest Wolverine per-
formance. He was the only swimmer with a double
victory, winning the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events
in each meet, and made an NCAA cut in the 100
against Berkeley (4-1) with a time of 44.36 seconds.
Lang was also the anchor leg of the 400 medley
relay team which qualified for the NCAA's against
Stanford (0-1) in 3:20.26.
First-year swimmer Eric Wunderlich qualified for
the NCAA's against Berkeley by winning the 200
breaststroke in 2:01.42.
Michigan's final qualifier of the weekend was Eric
Namesnik. His cut came in a third-place effort against
Cal in the 1,650 freestyle, which he finished in
15:21.38.
Urbanchek even took the NCAA's cuts calmly,
however. "By the end of January is when we start
making the cut." he said.
EXPERIENCING the Heat's
first home victory myself, I can say
the fans are ecstatic to be part of the
NBA even though their play is not
particularly hot. This fan support
helped award Miami the 1990 NBA
All-Star weekend.
However, now people in Miami
are worried that the Super Bowl may
not return for a while due to last
week's incident. According to Pete
Rozelle at the commissioner's an-
nual report on the league last Friday,
the riots in the Miami area will not
affect the league's decision of
whether or not Miami will be
awarded a Super Bowl in the near
future.
Despite Rozelle's statement,
many people agree that the NFL will
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PHONATHON
CALLERS
Part Time Employment
Folks here are still talking about
"The 1952 Incident." For some reason still
unknown, a certain graduating class at a
certain university missed what was cer-
tainly the opportunity of a lifetime.
The chance to meet with a recruiter from
the National Security Agency.
Maybe they were busy that day. Maybe
something else caught their eye. But the fact
remains, a meeting with NSA could have
meant a future full of challenging, exciting
projects.
The School of Education will interview students by phone who will
be hired to call alumni nationwide for an alumni fundraising
phonathon.
- Phonathon held Sunday through Thursday, February 14 - March 24,
search of talented mathematicians, com-
puter scientists, electrical engineers and
linguists. We're looking for people who want
to work on important hands-on assign-
ments, right from the start.
NSA is the agency responsible for produc-
ing foreign intelligence information, safe-
guarding our government's communications
and securing computer systems for the
Department of Defense.
And we're equally committed to helping
you make your future strong. So do yourself