12 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 6, 1995 Lacrosse looks to harvest Wheaton Saturday. Wolverine laxers confident heading into final home game of the season at Oosterbaan By Dorothy Chambers For the Daily A sweep of the Big Ten Regionals and a strong performance in the Pitts- burgh Invitational has the Michigan men's lacrosse team riding a wave of confidence. And with the Big Ten champion- ships right around the corner, the Wol- verines would like to continue riding the crest of that wave. Wheaton pays avisittoOosterbaan Fieldhouse 10 p.m. Saturday for the Wolverines' final home game of the year. Michigan is a little unsure of what kind of team Wheaton will bring to Ann Arbor, but according to Wolver- ine coach Bob DiGiovanni, the Chi- cago-area club team shouldn't be too much trouble. "I don't like to under cut another team," DiGiovanni said. "I just have not heard that they're strong, so I'm assuming that we'll be able to play a fairly strong game against them." Sunday, Michigan travels to Western Michigan for an afternoon matchup with the Broncos. The Wolverines haven't had much of a problem with Western in the past, and DiGiovanni doesn't want to look past the Broncos. "I don't ever want to take anybody lightly, because you never know," DiGiovanni said. "They could have a couple players you're not aware of and they could really give you a lot of problems." If Wheaton and Western Michigan don't put up much of a fight, Michigan would just as soon use the weekend as a tune-up for the Big Ten Champion- ships. DiGiovanni is pleased with the way the team has been playing lately, but a few little things remain to be cleaned up. Since the championships are an outdoor tournament, the Wolverines are especially intenton using the West- ern game to practice their play~on natu- ral grass. The ball bounces diffrently on the artificial turf atOosterbaan. This rare chance to play on the grass gives the Wolverines an opportunity to prac- tice scooping ground balls. In addition, Michigan will also look to improve its play with the extra man. "We have not been able to turn that power play the way we should," DiGiovanni said. "We play really good defense and we also can score a lot but unfortunately you get into atight game and whether you can score on man-up or not often makes the difference." The Wolverines also want to keep the ball under control this weekend and concentrate on clearing the ball and avoiding turnovers. "We've been working on some@ clears," seniorJohn Kolakowski said. "We've been having a little trouble getting the ball up and down the field, so we'll try to work on that some." However, DiGiovanni stressed that he would only use this weekend to fiddle with the team's small problems if they found themselves sitting on a big lead. "If we can get up in these games we're going to kind of use them as practice games," DiGiovanni said."But you can't do that unless you get up and stay up." The Michigan men's lacrosse team takes on Wheaton Saturday. DiGiovanni fights through injury-plagued career ..r By Chris Carr Daily Sports Writer Last spring, then junior attackman and co-captain of the Michigan men's lacrosse team Tony DiGiovanni, was returning to the field after having mi- nor arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, which forced him to sit out his sophomore campaign. After working hard in rehabilita- tion, DiGiovanni was looking forward to the start of the season. But it all would be extremely short-lived. In the first game of the year, DiGiovanni tore his anterior cruciate ligament and put his equipment away for yet another season. "Even though we won the Big Ten Championship, I felt empty because I could not contribute on the field," DiGiovanni said. "This year, I put it (the injury) out of my mind and just played." In this, his final campaign, DiGiovanni has switched positions hoping to avoid re-injuring his knee. "Before this season, I drove to the goal more," DiGiovanni said. "Now because of my knee, I play on the crease so Idon't have to run around as much." Although he is no longer a team captain, DiGiovanni still plays an inte- gral role in the Wolverines' quest for their sixth-consecutive Big Ten Cham- pionship. "Tony has been a real inspiration for us this year because he plays so hard," senior co-captain John Kolakowski said. "His leadership and presence on the field motivates every- one on the team. "In a huddle during the champion- ship game at the Pittsburgh Invitational this past weekend, coach (Bob DiGiovanni) told us,'Ifeveryoneplayed as hard as Tony we'd be winning by 20 goals,' and it's true." 10l felt empty because I could not contribute on the field" - Tony DiGiovanni Michigan lacrosse player Tony DiGiovanni's lacrosse back- ground is not as deep as other players' because of the lack of support for the game in the midwest. He only played one year before coming to Michigan because his high school did not have a team. "I played lacrosse with my broth- ers, but we never had any organized games," DiGiovanni said. "In high school, though, a bunch of us started a team." DiGiovanni has stayed involved with lacrosse at his old high school, Ann Arbor Pioneer, by coaching the school's freshman team. "Lacrosse is a great game," DiGiovanni said. "It is a growing sport and once kids start playing at younger ages, maybe it will be as big as it is in the east." However, the new gender equity philosophy might curb the growth of lacrosse. With this mind set, uni- versity administrations are focus- ing on increasing female involve- ment in sports by creating more women's varsity teams. "When ho Schembechler was athletic director, lacrosse was at the top of the list to become a varsity sport. But with the new gender eq- uity program, it doesn't look like that will happen now." Despite the lack of a varsity label, Tony has enjoyed his years on the club team. "Besides lacrosse being an awe- some sport, the guys on the team are great," DiGiovanni said. " It's a lot of fun because club sports have a lighter atmosphere. "We have also won Big Tens every year I've been here, so we've consis- tently done well." DiGiovanni's involvement with the lacrosse team at Michigan has been enhanced because of his unique rela- tionship with the coach, who happens to be his father. "I enjoy having my dad as my coach because our relationship has become closer," DiGiovanni said. "I don't see him as my father on the field because he interacts with me in the same way as the other players." The pair works hard trying to downplay their father-son relation- ship on the field. "We honestly try to keep our rela- tionship like any other player and coach," Bob DiGiovanni said. "It is tough sometimes, but it is better for him, me, and especially the team." Michigan men's lacrosse team moves closer to losing one of its most inspira- tional players to graduation. DiGiovanni is the heart and soul of the Wolverines and he will be difficult to replace next year. "The sens Af camaraderie that he fosters among the team will be missed," Kolakowski said. "He is a great guy and everyone looks up to him." "I always give that extra effort, hoping that it will be contagious and make my teammates play harder," Difiovanni said - K Standing tall at short MICHAEL Detroit Tiger shortstop Alan Trammell helped out at Michigan's baseball practice yesterday, instructing infielders and hitters. Trammell has had some time off due to the major league players' strike and was asked by his friend,@ Michigan coach Bill Freehan, to give some pointers to the Wolverines. "I just think it's great for the kids," Freehan said. "I think they were pleasantly surprised." Dance your way to the Olympics? This This is your is your brain. brain after taking summer courses at GVSU. If you're coming home to West Michigan for the summer, consider this: Grand Valley State University provides expanded course offerings at campuses in Allendale and Grand Rapids, and Centers in Holland and Muskegon. Need more credits? Schedule yourself out of a course? Want an elective not offered by your college or university? You don't have to be an Einstein to see the opportunity this presents. You can: Register as a GVSU guest student, enroll by phone, and take the classes you want because tuition is affordable. And you'll be taught by uni- versity faculty, not graduate students. You cannot: Transfer credits your school won't recognize, so please, once had a girlfriend who wanted me to take ballroom dancing. I didn't, of course. I thought it was dumb. Now, it turns out that if I had, I could have been training for the Olympics. Earlier this week the International Olympic Committee's executive board gave provisional approval - the first step towards becoming part of the Olympics - to RYAN ballroom WHITE dancing. White on Yep, you Target read that right. Ballroom dancing. It could, one day, become part of the summer games and join speed walking atop the list of events that NBC will put on pay-per-view, and no one will watch. The IOC has done dumb things in the past, namely ice dancing, curling, svchronized swimming and ning' Ballroom dancing isn't a sport, it's not a game, I'm not even positive that it's legal in some parts of the country, but you might be able to win a gold medal in it one day. There is a possibility that the International Dance Sports Federation could gain recognition in two years. Dance sports? Isn't that an oxymoron? Maybe, just maybe, however, I'm looking at this the wrong way. Someone, somewhere obviously saw something in ballroom dancing that made them think, "I want to see this at the international level." Perhaps they saw marketing potential and endorsement opportunities.- Nike could introduce the Fred Astaire Air Wingtips and Reebok could issue the Ginger Rogers Pump pump. In an attempt to attract a younger crowd, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird could have a dance-off with the winner getting a Big Mac, and the IOC could draw in Generation X by Betting Beavis and Butthead to waltz as quickly as possible. I can hear the commercials now, "Gatorade is thirst-aid, for that deep down dancing thirst." After all that, it wouldn't take long before the kids in the cities were putting down their basketballs and footballs, leaving the playground and heading to the ballrooms of America - wherever those are. But what about television? Would people actually watch ballroom dancing? Well, they watch bowling. It would actually fit nicely into * ESPN 2's programming. Before long we'd be hearing, "That ... that's a spin," on SportsCenter. The next logical step would, of course, be the NBRDA (National Ballroom Dancing Association). And at that point, I think we would all begin to hope that money doesn't ruin the dancers love of competition. Maybe the IOC is right after all. Francois Carrard, the director general of the IOC, compared ballroom dancing, in terms of physical activity and training, to synchronized swimming and ice