PORTrS
TUESDAY
SEPTEMBER 18, 2001
9
Football team anxious to get back to normal
Michigan Stadium to be filled again; offseason workouts give 'M' a stronger defense
Dail Sports Waster::>: "..
JON
SCHWARTZ
In the aftermath of last Tuesday's terrorist attacks
on New York and Washington, football doesn't
seem like a particularly pressing issue.
Nevertheless, the season will continue this Satur-
day for Michigan (and every other team in Division
I-A). The Wolverines are in their second week of
preparations for Western Michigan - the postponed
game from last Saturday was rescheduled for this
week, with the Big Ten opener against Illinois
pushed back to Sept. 29.
The fact that a seemingly impenetrable building
like the Pentagon was attacked has heightened anxi-
eties amongst the Wolverines, and with good reason.
The thought of a plane crashing into Michigan Sta-
dium with over 110,00 fans packed in sent chills
through the spines of just about everyone associated
with the football program.
But the Wolverines sound determined to play on,
attempting to get things back to normal.
"With all that's going on, you've got to go out
there and play this game to kind of show everybody
that, as a whole, we're moving on," defensive tackle
Dave Pearson said at yesterday's media luncheon.
"With everything shut down last week, I think it was
good to mourn and remember everything that hap-
pened, but at some point, you've got to move on."
So on Saturday, Michigan Stadium will once
again be filled to the brim with fans. Although the
odds of some kind of attack on the stadium are
somewhere between slim and none, the fear of a
possible strike may be in the back of some people's
minds.
Pearson, for one, thinks that such fears aren't
worth losing sleep over.
"I don't think security is that big of an issue," he
said. "Sure, people wonder when you get 110,00
people in the stadium together. You know, I feel that
if you're going to cancel one game you might as
To help the healing, look
back to the sports world
Players return to the grass of Michigan Stadium this Saturday after an unscheduled week off.
well cancel them all, because the chances (of some-
thing happening) each week are just as likely."
GETTING DEFENSE: In Michigan's 23-18 loss to
Washington on Sept. 8, one of the many bright spots
for the Wolverines was the play of their defensive
line.
Washington tailbacks Rich Alexis and Willie
Hurst were largely ineffective against Michigan,
combining for only 91 yards on the ground. After
the much-publicized defensive struggles of a season
ago, the improvement along the front wall had to be
heartening for fans and players alike.
According to the Wolverines, the secret to their
newfound success on 'D' isn't much of a secret at all.
"It's the offseason workouts, going in with a good
attitude," defensive end Shantee Orr said. "Everyone
knows what kind of skills they need to work on to
become a better player."
The hard work in the offseason has started to pay
some dividends on the field, and Orr went on to
explain just how Michigan has stepped up its play.
"As a group, we've improved tremendously from
last year, as far as our pass rush and getting a jump
off of the ball," he said.
QUICK wrr: Athletic director Bill Martin -who
is always quick with a joke or a friendly barb --
provided one of the few moments of levity at the
media luncheon.
A reporter began a question to Martin by saying,
"Bill, you aren't the football coach ..." at which
point Martin interrupted the reporter and said with a
laugh, "Thank God for Michigan."
- ,
Soccer has:$
nRo merc
or Detroit ,
By Jim Weber
Daily Sports Writer P
Feeling concern for the events
which rocked our nation last
week, and for what is most like-
ly soon to come, I sit here today, ready
to get back to life.
I went to the weekly football lun-
cheon/press conference yesterday.
Before I went to sleep last night, I
checked the Mets score.
And it was reported yesterday that
baseball's all-around good-guy, Carl
Everett, had a run-in with manager Joe
Kerrigan over the weekend.
Ahhh ... sports are back.
From a sporting perspective, the last
week has been just about unprecedent-
ed. There was nothing. Baseball was
gone. Football was gone. A Saturday
came and went with nary a fight song
to be heard. Truly nothing.
(Please note, that even though there
was a CART race in Europe, I neither
live in Tennessee, nor have only one
tooth, and therefore, don't consider it a
sport. It is a stupid activity that often
gets people killed for no good reason.)
There is no question in my mind
that canceling the events was the right
thing to do. America needed time to
memorialize those who passed on
Tuesday.
And much in the same fashion, from
yesterday forward, Americans must go
back to being Americans.
That means the New York Stock
Exchange, located right in the warzone
of Lower Manhattan, was open yester-
day. That means that television is
returning to normal and will soon be
able to entertain again, rather than sad-
den and depress.
And that means that baseball stadi-
ums should be - and hopefully will
be - packed. Stop what you're doing,
and make it to a ballgame sometime
this week. I'm serious. It's going to be
hard because the Tigers are on the
road for the next week and a half, but
what's a trip to Minneapolis or Boston
if you're doing it to celebrate your
American heritage?
When you're at Michigan Stadium
this weekend and the band cracks into
the National Anthem, don't just get up
and wait until it's over. Stand up
straight with your hand on your heart
and think about the words that fill the
tune you're hearing. Think about the
fact that our flag is still there.
I've always said, often with a hint of
sarcasm, that sports identify us as a
united nation, more so than any other
institution that I know of. America is
not the only society to embrace athlet-
ic competition and its competitors -
not even close - but each country's
obsession with any particular sport is
part of what separates that country as
an individual society.
Think about it - baseball is played
in countries around the world. And
there are plenty of Americans who
can't stand the sport.
And yet it is still the "National Pas-
time." Not because we decided to call
it that, but because it simply is. You
can't see a baseball game and not
think of it as American.
When I next watch a baseball game,
I'm hoping to see a world that very
much resembles the one that I saw
before this madness started. It will be a
bit more somber, and there will cer-
tainly be acknowledgement of what
happened, but the game will live on. ,
Same thing goes for Saturday's foot-
ball game. For all intents and purpos-
es, it should be just like any other
football game.
Sports are a rock of stability. Hope-
fully, Americans can find a way in the
next week or so to stand on that rock,
to appreciate the fact that the rock can
hold the weight of a depressed nation.
n a side note, I think it is
important to point out that
when the sun went down last
night as the baseball games along the
East Coast were starting, nighttime
brought the Jewish holiday of Rosh
Hashana. The celebration recognizes
the start of the new Jewish year.
In a lot of ways, though, yesterday
represented the start of something new,
in America. These next few weeks will
be filled with confusion and nervous-
ness. And yet, there is great hope that
they can represent what could become
the proudest time in American history.
I share that hope.
So I see these next few days almost
as America starting over. It may not be
a new "year," per se, but it is certainly
a new era.
Hopefully, all American institutions,
including sports, will help lead us into
a new time that will never know the
hurt that we all felt last week.
Jon Schwartz can be reached at
jlsz@umich.edu.
Up until yesterday, the Michigan
women's soccer team struggled to
play consistently for an entire game
and paid for it. The team was 1-3
going into yesterday's game with
Detroit-Mercy. The game was added
after the team canceled last week-
end's games against Hartford and
Connecticut.
In the first two minutes of the
game it appeared that the Wolver-
ines hadn't fixed the problem as
they came out flat and allowed the
Titans to get two corner kicks. But
Michigan dominated the remaining
88 minutes and won 4-0.
"The first two minutes they came
out really hard and had a lot of pres-
sure on us but we settled down and
were able to get control of the
game," freshman Kate Morgan said.
On the afternoon, the Wolverines
out-shot Detroit 30-2. Sixteen of
Michigan's 30 shots were on goal,
with many of the misses bouncing
off the goal's frame.
"We missed a few opportunities,
but this is the time to do it," Morgan
said. "We're just getting it out of
our system."
Detroit was unable to challenge
Michigan goalies Suzie Grech and
Bre Bennett as neither of its two
shots were on goal. Both Grech and
Bennett played a half as the two
.continue to split time at the goalie
position.
After the Wolverines started the
game with a couple of close shots,
Morgan scored at 33:15 in the first
half on an assist from Amy Sullivant
and Abby Crumpton, who missed
the last two games with a strained
calf.
Crumpton scored on Detroit
Scholarships given
to three walk-ons
The Michigan men's basketball
team awarded full scholarships to
three senior walk-ons - Mike Got-
fredson, Rotolu Adebiyi and Herb
Gibson - yesterday.
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Michigan's Laney Rosin scored the fourth and final goal in the Wolverines' 4-0 win over Detroit-Mercy yesterday.
goalie Alisson Dube a couple min- By allowing only two shots, the trying new people," captain Laurie
utes later after a scramble in front of Wolverines also found a solution to Peterson. "I think we're finally
the goal. their problematic defense yesterday. starting to get more calm and more
With a 2-0 lead at the half, the "At the beginning it's always hard organized. Everyone knows their
team made a commitment not to let because we're trying new things, role on the team now."
another lead slip away.
"We went back out after the half
and got in our little huddle and we
were like 'Okay, the problem is we -
need to stay focused for the full 90 * - S *
minutes. We're halfway there, let's
keep focusing,' " Morgan said.
Less than three minutes into the
second half it was apparent Michi-
gan was not going to let up on
Detroit as Amy Sullivant scored on intellectu
a penalty kick. andc
With the game winding down,
Laney Rosin scored the final goal of
the game at 83:33 with a ball that or
snuck between the goalie's out-
stretched hands and the top of therlooka
goal. job-trainin
One of the keys to Michigan con-
sistent play was getting an early lead salary is
so that more players could get intoM
the game.
"Obviously we used a lot of dif-
ferent people so we had fresh legs,"
Michigan coach Debbie Rademacher
said. "So it was kind of different
than the other games we have had -
being able to sub."
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"We are excited and honored to
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are most deserving of this honor."
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