8 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, September 19, 1994 GOURMAN Continued from page 1. views are the most important criteria: Practicality of majors As Gourman mentions in his re- port, there is no point in giving an athlete a degree if it can't promise a respectful job with earning power upon graduation. Hence, allowing an athlete to scrape by with a degree in fry-cooking technology is a disser- vice. "What the Gourman report does is judge whether athletes at these schools are taking solid disciplines" Gourman said. "If you have athletes majoring in primary education or physical educa- tion, you have to look at that realisti- cally as a negative. We recognize majors like biology, languages, jour- nalism." At Michigan, the five most popu- lar degrees for athletes who enrolled in 1988 were Liberal Arts and Sci- ence, Sports Management, Business Management and Administration, Engineering and Visual and Perform- ing Arts. "For 95% of the student-athlete population, or even greater, this is it - they are not going to play pro," Doppes said. "The reality is that they must be here to get a degree, just like any other student. Sure you can have a great time, but in four or five years you better have a degree that means something." And most of Michigan's athletes do. "Is our biology degree market- able? Is it competitive on a national basis? I certainly think so," said Phil Hughes, the director of Michigan's Student Athlete Support Program (S.A.S.P.). "But I also feel that our kids are marketable because of the notoriety of the Michigan athlete, because they have been through a pressure-cooker, and they have com- peted in the classroom with all the other Michigan students with four or five hours less per day to devote to academics." Academic Success of Athletes: Despite the fact that many of Michigan's student-athletes devote over 20 hours a week to their sport, their overall grade-point averages show they are as committed to aca- demics as non-student athletes. The Big Ten awarded 105 of the 358 Wolverine athletes receiving ath- letic aid in 1993-94 with Academic All-Big Ten honors (athletes with a GPA above 3.00). The Michigan sports with the most Academic All- Big Tens were women's track and field (15), women's swimming and diving (11), field hockey (10), women's cross-country (8) and base- ball (8). Men's and women's basket- ball were the only sports at Michigan that had no Academic All-Big Ten athletes. "That's the tough part about com- ing to Michigan - we expect excel- lence at both ends of the street," field hockey coach Patti Smith said. "There is a time when you really focus on your sport and there is a time to really buckle down on your academics. "Balancing academics is an ex- pectation that you live with day after day. Sometimes it is more grinding, (like when) you're on the road. But everyone seems to do a pretty good job taking their books on the road, or taking time out to do that. Obviously the players need to make those tough decisions - they can't always find time to procrastinate and hang out at coffee shops." Graduation Rates Despite the tendency of a few Michigan athletes to leave school before graduation to turn pro, the graduation rate of student-athletes (76 %) enrolling at Michigan in 1988 is comparable to the graduation rate of regular students (85%). "I find the fact that our student- athletes graduate near the same rate as other students outstanding," Hughes said. "We are doing a pretty good job given that many of our kids leave for any number of rea- sons. "Jalen Rose will count against our basketball statistics. If Tyrone Wheatley left early he would count against football. There are a number of schools doing the same job (gradu- ating student-athletes). It is not about being number one, it is about being among a elite group." Indeed, Michigan's student-ath- lete graduation rate compares favor- ably with Stanford (81 %), Duke (94%) and the top Big Ten schools, North- western (84%), Penn State (78%) and Wisconsin (66%). At the bottom end of the Big Ten picture is Ohio State (59%) Minnesota (52%) and Michi- gan State (52%). "In a number of schools across the country you may not find any athletes involved in any (specific) departments or majors whatsoever," Gourman said. "They are just sliding through and their names are on the roster. That is notorious in the South. They have more 'D' and 'F' students down there than you can shake a stick at. "You've got more people down at Michigan State that haven't gradu- ated. What about those athletes? Just stringing them along and after that they sell popcorn and peanuts at ballparks, is that all they are going to do? Do they sell drugs on the outside? There is no future for athletes like them." Quality of the Student-Athlete Although the admission stan- dards for big-time athletes are often embarrassingly low, Michigan does attract a quality body of student- athletes. For instance, the average high school GPA of men's cross- country and track athletes enrolling in 1988 was 3.18, with an average SAT score of 1126. For football players, the averages were 2.50 and 838; men's basketball players aver- aged 2.64 and 803. "What makes Michigan so at- tractive to student-athletes across the world is the fact that they have the ability to come to one of the most prestigious academic institu- tions while still being able to com- pete in an athletic arena at a very high level," Bradley-Doppes said. Most of the student-athletes en- rolling at Michigan expect the bal- ance between academics and athlet- ics to be a challenging experience, and prepare accordingly. Whether that means sacrificing a house party on a Friday night to catch up in a calculus class, or con- centrating your class schedule into four-hour blocks, Michigan student- athletes do it in order to succeed. "Athletically and academically, you have to step it up a level when you come to college," freshman women's soccer player Ruth Poulin said. "In order to do well in both, you have to balance your time ex- tremely well, and be able to cut down on your own social time." Support Systems It certainly helps a university trying to strike a balance between academics and athletics to have a strong student body, as Michigan does. But another part of the equa- tion is providing the athletes the academic support they need when their sport is in season. The Student Athletic Support Program serves this purpose to the benefit and raves of students, coaches and administration alike. The S.A.S.P. provides a number of programs to help student-athletes, including tutoring programs, sched- ule-advising, compliance programs that help athletes with NCAA and Big Ten regulations and general problem-solving. "The Student Athlete Support Program attempts to support ,and facilitate the academic side of the equation," Hughes said. "We have a support program that is designed for individual attention to kids. Ev- ery kid's problems are different, every kid's schedule is different and everyone has different needs at dif- ferent times. "Do I attribute Michigan's bal- ance to my program? Hell no. None of my people are going to class, none of my people are competing and none of my people are graduat- ing. We play a small, humble part, because the balance is a mosaic of things." Despite Hughes's modest assess- ment of the program's impact on the balance of academics and athletics, coaches point to the service as an invaluable tool in getting the most out of their kids athletically. After all, what a student-athlete can con- tribute athletically is canceled out if he or she is academically ineligible to compete. "They provide so much support to the athletes here that it justifies the (Gourman report ranking)," said first-year women's soccer coach Debbie Belkin. "They do a good job of keeping track of athletes and giv- ing them the opportunities for sup- port." Smith thinks the support systems are getting better. "I've been here six years, and I've seen it grow tremendously," she said. "It is a much more broad-based program to help all student-athletes. I think it is a necessary feature of our athletic department because the student-ath- letes are under a lot of pressure." That pressure is why the S.A.S.P. is so important, as it gives the ath- letes a sense of security and a valu- able tool against bottoming-out. "The support services have been great. It is great to know that some- one is out there that really cares and wants you to succeed in both aca- demics and athletics," Poulin said. "It gives you a whole lot of confi- dence to know that someone is be- hind you to give help when you need it." PITTS Continued from page 7 that we are at that level," Burns said. "We just want to keep working hard and slowly but surely the athletic department is going to have to take notice of us." Despite being a club team, Michigan can compete with other varsity programs. Think of what they could do with support from the athletic department. With scholarships, the team would be able to recruit and not just have to take its talent from the general student body. The great players from around the state of Michigan would look at coming to Ann Arbor instead of going down to Indiana or Ohio State as they do now. With that kind of support, it would be only a matter of years before Michigan would be a national soccer power. The new women's varsity soccer program already has shown how big the Michigan name can be in recruiting. Four players transferred to Michigan from other programs after the Wolverines gained varsity status. Coach Debbie Belkin also recruited the Michigan high school soccer Player of the Year for her team. It will only be a matter of years before the Wolverines will be near the top nationally. . . . The men's club team suffered a 2-0 loss this weekend to NCAA Division III opponent Kalamazoo College. Hardy Fuchs, who has coached at Kalamazoo for 24 years, still could not believe that the Wolverines are still just a club team. "I still cannot understand why they don't have a varsity program," Fuchs said. "It's a cheap sport, you have 40,000 students, lots of soccer people. I just don't understand the motivation at Michigan." The main thing stopping men's soccer right now at this university is gender equity. It is an issue that has been debated for some time and will continue to be contested for years. However, the University needs to find some way, even if it needs to add more women's teams, to fit men's soccer into the varsity athletic department. If Michigan wants to be known as one of the nation's best athletic programs, men's soccer has to be a part of the program. The time certainly has come. 0 London $399* Framkfut $639* Mexico Ciy $2"* Tokyo $849* Bangkok $1069* 'Frsae rud rp from Dett Retitonsapply taxes are not included and fares aresbect to change. Cal for oher woldwMde destinatons. 1220 S. University Dr. (Above McDonalds) BIG TEN Continued from page 7 ing 43 kills and 38 digs in the three contests. The 38 digs adds to her team- high total of 133 and improves her 3.39 digs-per-game average, now fourth-best in the Big Ten. "I was surprised that I was hon- ored on the all-tournament team," Miniuk said. "But I was happy that there were two of us honored," she added. In the Kansas match, Brownlee and Jackson led the Wolverines with 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Volstad contributed 10 digs in the Michigan victory, while setter Erin McGovern had five aces. Against William & Mary (7-3), Jackson and Brownlee blasted 15 kills apiece, and Brownlee also chipped in a team-high 18 digs in a losing effort. In the final tournament match ver- sus Virginia Tech, Miniuk added 15 kills, while Brownlee had 14 for the Wolverines. Giovanazzi was happy to win two of the three tournament matches. "We didn't close it out [in the William and Mary match]," he said. "I feel great going into the Big Ten season." Michigan opens the Big Ten con- ference season at Northwestern Fri- day night at 8:30 before traveling to Wisconsin to play Saturday night at 8:00. INTRAMURAL SPORTS PROGRAM " I- 8:00. r EXCITING!! UPCOMING ACTIVITIES TEAM TENNIS 3-on-3 BASKETBALL TENNIS (Sgls & Dbls) GOLF (Two person Scramble) Entry Deadline: Thurs 9/22 4:30pm IMSB Main Office Entry Fee: $22:00 per team Team Composition: Singles - A; Singles - B; Doubles Tournament Dates: Sat & Sun 9/24 & 9/25 (Palmer Courts) Instant Scheduling: Thurs 9/22 11am - 4:30pm IMSB Entry Fee: $35.00 per team Manager's Meeting (Mandatory): Thurs 9/22 6pm IMSB Play Begins: Monday 9/26 at the IMSB (Hoover Street) Entry Deadline: Thurs 9/29 4:30pm IMSB Main Office Entry Fee: $5.00 for Sgls; $9.00 for Dbls Tournament Format: Double Elimination (dependent on #s) Tournament Dates: Sat & Sun 10/1 & 10/2 (Palmer Courts) Entry Deadline: Thurs 10/6 4:30pm IMSB Main Office Entry Fee: $10.00 per team (excluding Course Fee) Tee Times: 9:00am - 3:00pm Tournament Date: Sunday 10/9 at U of M Golf Course tee soee 6 0 6 0 I its. * 0 The deadline for Pre-Season Flag Football entries is Thursday October 13 while Track and Field entries are due Monday October 17. Winners of the Pre-Season Flag Football tournament will be an.reiha nr thn saf ea ofRfithinan Flan Fnnthall Chamninnshins FACT: Bivouac carries over 100 styles of footwear for all kinds of outdoor activities: hiking, walking, trekking, climbing, kayaking, watersports, adventure travel.., and more! WHY: Our goal is to help you select footwear that has the best possible fit.