The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - November 30, 1992 - Page 3 THOMPSON Continued from page 1 both of which she describes herself as "just not being able to get into", Thompson devoted all of her efforts to volleyball at Michigan. She entered the 1989 campaign as one of five first year players, and today remains one of four seniors who will graduate in the approaching spring. Seniors Hayley Lorenzen, Kathy Richards, Chris White and Thompson comprise that group; junior Michelle Horrigan redshirted her rookie season. By virtue of their age similarities, as well as through situations requiring their undivided comradrie, Thompson describes her class also as a family. "We've been through the most changes, and we've shown everyone that it's alright to make those changes," Thompson said. "When (sophomore blocker) Aimee Smith came into the team, she said that she didn't even know it was a losing team. We've been able to put that behind them." Some of those changes Thompson refers to include the huge task of overcoming the many head coaching changes which have occurred in the volleyball program. During the course of the last four seasons, three coaches have taken he reigns; most recently former Olympic assistant Greg Giovanazzi. From her setter's position, which is notably the most vulnerable and sensitive position to a coaching change, Thompson has remained a pillar of consistency in her level of play. Under Joyce Davis, Thompson didn't receive substantial playing time, but was observant enough to note the Wolverines' unrelin- quishable suffering, derived from a lack of leadership at the helm. "The first year the coaching wasn't all that great, and the team reflected that," Thompson noted. Peggy Bradley-Doppes, now women's Athletic Director, replaced Davis and the team jumped from a 6-25 season under Davis to a 19-12 record under Bradley-Doppes. Giovanazzi, in his first season at Michigan, now directs the Wolverine attack, and according to Thompson, should take Michigan women's volleyball to the top. "One thing the whole team likes about Greg is that he is ' straight forward," she said. "If he doesn't like the way we are o playing, he tells you, then it is o over and out the door. At game :.time he is so calm. "And it is so calming for us to look over to him when you know : you aren't playing your best and ±. have him tell you to just play like you do in practice. Then, it's like 'o.k., I can do that, no problem'. b We play so much better that way." Giovanazzi does not hesitate issuing accolades, citing ;Thompson as invaluable and the team's most versatile player. "Tamisha has taken everything * I$ave said in my first season here with open arms, and for a setter to do that is pretty great," Giovanazzi .Wa k N said. "Her position is the most difficult to play in the midst of coaching changes, and she has proven to everyone that she can handle the job. "And there is no doubt that she is a big leader on this team. She has done a super job, and has made my job as a coach much easier. I can't say enough about her." Despite the coaching changes not improve without some personal sacrifices, though. Between her junior and senior seasons, Giovanazzi and his staff asked Thompson to alter her hitting technique, which frustrated her. However, with the help of assistant coach Mora Kanim, and her family upbringing, Thompson adjusted. "I think I was able to adapt to everything because of my 'The transition was definitely an easy one, because these people here are like a family to me. We came here two weeks before school started, and it was basically just our team on campus. We were our own family, and coming from a close knit family at home, I had no real pro blems.' - Tarnisha Thompson Thompson said. "One thing I learned from my family is not to quit. My family doesn't even know what the word means. Even though I didn't get much playing time my freshman year, I was alright, because I should have been alright. I had to learn to adjust to things. "When I first came in my freshman year, I couldn't feed off of (coach Joyce Davis) personality at all. I still had the personality of my high school coach, which was good. I think Peggy said it correctly when she called me a fiery player. "When Greg came, he was family. We just won't quit." Her experiences with training and working on her volleyball during the summer months has lent her an interesting insight into the process of women's athletics as well. And a rather timely insight, with the increasing prevalence of women's issues in the athletic realm. "While I have been here at Michigan, I have gone through some other changes, like gender equity. We've got a long way to go. But things are starting to change for the better. I am pleased with it as far as it has come. "As far as money is concerned, there is room for improvement. I leadership role is one which seems relatively new to Thompson. "As the years progressed, Peggy told me that people always look to me for direction on the court, and at that time, I couldn't understand it," she said. "I thought that because everyone was their own individual, they shouldn't have to look at others for leadership. "I think finally in the spring of my junior year I understood. Now I can calm people down and get the team back together, and excite them when we are playing well." Thompson has adopted this role with remarkable vigor, in leading Michigan through one of it's most successful seasons in history. In fact, during Thompson's stay at Michigan, the Wolverines completed their two most successful seasons in school history, last year, notching 10 conference wins, and surpassing that this season with 11, the most ever by a Michigan squad. This season's unit is also vying for its first postseason tournament bid since 1981. And Thompson's career assist record, a category which in itself is based solely on selflessness, fits her outlook concerning her role on this team very well, as it accurately reflects her disposition both on and off of the court. In a match earlier in the year against conference-leading Penn State, the sparkling senior suffered a potentially season ending shoulder operation. Diving for an unattended ball, Thompson careened into a row of chairs. After relocating her shoulder, Thompson finished the game, but following an examination of the injury, she was advised to sit out the remainder of the season. Thompson sees her role on the team as slightly, but not drastically, altered. Shagging balls and officiating matches in practice, Thompson hopes to remain an active member of the team. "Again, the word support comes up. Ever since the injury, I dress in my practice gear and go to practice. I want them to know that I am here, and I won't give up. That's not what a team player is. Just because I am injured doesn't mean I don't care." Her teammates concur. "We definitely look to her for motivation, as well as with all of the seniors," junior JoAnna Collias said. "She is an inspiration, since she's been injured we have tried to play well for her." And when asked of Michigan's postseason opportunity, Thompson's eyes light up. "If we get postseason play, I will not miss it. I've gone through too much with the team to miss it. The way I look at it is that I will have a lifetime to heal." Thompson will graduate in the spring with a double degree in sports management and communications, and is aspiring towards a joint degree in law and business. She hopes to attend either Michigan or Wayne State for graduate school, and pursue a career as a sports agent. Again, not too far from her families. John Niyo Racists like Schott should go to the dogs Baseball, when you stop and think about it, had a fairly decent year in 1992. When all was said and done, when the last pitch had been thrown, it came out looking not much worse for the wear. All the problems - with free agency, with the commissioner who was run out of town, with two cities fighting over the Giants organization -just seemed to disappear, fading into the background like a bad memory. In a way, baseball did what it has always done. It soothed. It provided an escape, an outlet - only this time baseball did it for itself. Baseball made everyone sit back and enjoy this thing we call our national pastime, for better or for worse. Extra innings. One-run games. Plays at the plate. Old heroes. New heroes. And a manager named Cito Gaston, a man who happened to be a Black man as well as a terrific coach, gave Canada its first ever World Series ring - all with a quiet smile. But the cheers in Toronto are just a distant echo now as December ushers in the winter. And we have gone from Cito Gaston in the limelight, as humble and deserving a man as there ever was, to Marge Schott, the owner of the Cincinnati Reds who refuses to hire "niggers' and keeps a Nazi armband at home. Time can be a rather nasty antagonist sometimes. Now, nobody has ever pegged Marge Schott as any sort of saint. Or hardly even a decent person, for that matter. No, mostly what she has been is an awful eyesore for the game. A woman with a lot of cash (too much, probably) and a very skewed take on reality. A woman whose players have always been second-class citizens to her monstrous St. Bernard dog, Schottzie, who seems to have the run of the place around Riverfront Stadium. Players have been traded away because they didn't like the dog, or because they said something they shouldn't have to the media about the dog. Love the dog, or you're history, pal. Schottzie gets a kennel that seats 60,000, Marge gets a cigar and a nice box seat, and the players get to clean doggie doo-doo from their spikes while the guys in the other dugout laugh and point. 'Who cares if you guys won the World Series a couple of years ago? At least we don't have to work for her.' In that way, it was kind of comical until now. But the laughter stopped last week and turned to gasps of disbelief when the story finally broke about the real Marge Schott. Next to her, Steinbrenner seems like an angel. The revelations were rather gloomy. They provided more evidence to support the complaints that baseball has constantly tried to dodge in the last decade. More evidence for those who feel that baseball has been unable to leave behind the bigotry that once was accepted, but now is dutifully frowned upon. Evidence that was laid out for us in all its ugliness by a woman named Sharon Jones. Thankfully, she had the courage to speak up. No one is naive enough to think that Marge Schott is the last bastion of racism, or of anti-Semitism, in this sport or any other. There are plenty of Marge Schotts to go around. People like Sharon Jones, though, are few and far between. Jones worked in the front office of the Oakland Athletics for 12 years, and last week told The New York Times about a telephone conference call convened in 1988 by then-commissioner Peter Ueberroth during which Schott allegedly had this to say: "I wonder what the commissioner wants this time," Jones quoted Schott as saying. "Is it this race thing again? I'm sick and tired about talking about this race thing. "I once had a nigger work for me. He couldn't do the job. I had to put him in the mail room and he couldn't even handle that. I later found out the nigger couldn't read or write." Later, Jones said Schott added, "I would never hire another nigger. I'd rather have a trained monkey working for me than a nigger." Jones, who is Black, said she ran into Schott some time afterward and reminded her she had been on the line during that part of the call. "She said, 'OK, honey, nice seeing you,"' Jones said. Thank you, Marge. Now everyone knows you're a bigot. Some examples: Of the Reds' 45 front-office employees, only one is Black. Schott often referred to two of her players, Dave Parker and Eric Davis, as her "million-dollar niggers." In a deposition released last week, she admits she keeps a Nazi armband, swastika and all, at home as some sort of twisted relic. Schott took control of the Reds in 1984. Certainly she didn't feel any different about minorities then than she does now. And certainly, Sharon Jones isn't the first person who has ever heard Marge Schott say something so outlandish. So why has it taken this long? See NIYO, Page 7 FILE PHOTO/Daily Tarnisha Thompson shows that her game isn't one-dimensional as she tips the ball over two blockers. at Michigan, Thompson feels her level of play has improved, in fact, and she attributes much of her success and court presence to her coaches, specifically Giovanazzi. "Actually, I think I have become a better player," more of a calm person, and I adopted that kind of personality. When we are down now, I stay calm, whereas before I would become frantic and excited. I think that helps my play, and the team's play overall." Thompson's level of play did think in order to have a successful women's program, you have to pay to keep your players here over the summer." This season has been somewhat of a trial for Thompson, in the sense that she has naturally taken on additional responsibility to the team, as well as to herself. Elected co-captain along with Lorenzen, Thompson has suddenly been thrust into the position of guiding the Wolverines throughout the Big Ten's tumultuous schedule. And this M* A, EIA DALY THE MICHIGNAL ' *. a« a i a a. f A , a. k 9 /4 a' T " r 9 . a n