12 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 9, 2005
'M' lights create new atmosphere
By Anne Uible
Daily Sports Writer
It takes time to develop an empire. Michigan coach
Steve Burns anticipates that his empire will begin to
thrive immediately after being implemented.
Tonight, under the glow of the soccer stadium's
radiant new lights, the Michigan men's soccer team
will unveil its new student section, The M-Pire, at
the first annual Michigan Invitational. The Wol-
verines will kickoff against Louisville (1-2) at 7:30
p.m. in hopes of making its commemorative game
under the lighits an auspicious one.
"The atmosphere at our games is just way too
polite and dull," Burns said. "We need that stu-
dent energy to create a home field advantage.
We've built a family base, but we haven't done a
good job at bringing the students in. We're mak-
ing a real concerted effort to try and create this
cheering section that's similar to Yost - but
without the vulgarities."
During key situations, Burns already pushes his
bench players to stand and offer words of encourage-
ment to the teammates on the field in order to get
them more fired up during play action. With the addi-
tion of the student section, Burns is hopeful that the
students will take on the bulk of that responsibility.
His goal for the section is for it to become similar to
The M-Zone for the volleyball team and the Maize
Rage for and basketball.
"Hopefully we can get the fans to help get under
our opponents skin and get more of a home-field
advantage like in Crisler or the Big House," Burns
said. "We want to organize cheers throughout the
student section and get our players more up for
big plays."
Burns plan to have a student section added to the
stadium came with the arrival of the new lighting sys-
tem this summer. The Wolverines have had a tough
time getting fans to come out to the games during the
day due to time conflicts. The program is confident
that more fans will come out for night games.
"It'll be nice to have more fans come out because
we got the lights," forward Bobby Trybula said.
"Since we have night games, more people can come
out to watch because the games won't be during
class times."
The actual addition of the stadium's lights came
in early August, but its legacy has to be credited to
the senior class members of 2003 who appealed to
the athletic administration in hopes of improving
their home field.
"Those guys put together a presentation to show
that, if we were to charge for games, when the
break-even point would happen (where we could)
pay for lights in the stadium," Burns said. "Planting
those seeds helped our administration recognize
that we do have a viable product to have a nighttime
environment that kids can come out and watch."
The new lighting system, the Musco Light Struc-
ture Green, has four poles that are lit to 70-foot
candles. Considered the top-grade lighting product
on the market, the lights will create a new feel for
the stadium.
"I like the lights a lot,", Trybula said. "I'm so
appreciative of being able to get them on the field.
There's definitely something special about being
able to play under lights at night."
Burns didn't fully anticipate the addition of the
lights this season, so he didn't schedule as many
night games as he would have liked. But he is plan-
ning on making changes for the 2006 season to take
advantage of the power of the lights.
"There is definitely something magical about
playing under the lights," Burns said. "It's a new
energy that will hopefully have an affect on the
team and give us that true home-field advantage
that we've been lacking."
0
ALEXANDER DZIADOSZ/Daily
Junior Bobby Trybula is anticipating a heightened atmosphere with the new seating
arrangement.
PROCRASTINATION
Before every football game this season, two of
the Daily football writers will take the weekend's
matchup to the PlayStation 2 and then let you
know what happened.
* Play of the game - With his team trailing 17-
14 with minutes to play, Michigan WR #15 ran a
short hook, broke a tackle and took it 79 yards.
* Player of the game - Michigan RB #20 had 11
carries for 105 yards and 2 TD's.
STATION
PRESS
CONFER ENCE
QUOTES:
Notre Dame coach Ian Herbeit
"I think next week we'r
going to have to get into ti
double digits in rushing yard;
Twenty carries for one yardi
NOTRE DAME
[7
MICHIGAN
unacceptable for a program as
good as ours."
"I didn't think a college team
could prepare for my pro-style
offense in just one week, but
I guess coach Venegoni is a
defensive mastermind."
"That diving interception by
Michigan linebacker #99 just
shows what kind of an athlete
that guy is. We just don't have
athletes like that here."
Michigan coach Matt Venegoni:
"I know that Notre Dame is the
new flavor of the week. But you
28
know what, tradition is tradition.
Those guys can cock off at the
mouth as much as they want.
When we come to play, we win."
"I wanted to make some changes
-on the defensive line, so I decided
to make #78 a captain. I think he
did well with the coin toss."
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STAFF PICKS
Predictions against the
spread for 9/10/05
No, 20 Notre Dame (+7) at No. 3 Michigan
No. 2 Texas (+1) at No. 4 Ohio State
No. 5 LSU (+1) at No. 15 Arizona State
No. 8 Iowa (-9) at Iowa St.
South Carolina (+18) at No. 9 Georgia
Akron (+35) at No. 13 Purdue
Louisiana Tech (+30) at No, 10 Florida
No. 16 California (-9) at Washington
No. 22 TCU (-15) at Southern Methodist
The Citadel at No. 11 Florida State (off)
Weber St. at No. 24 Fresno State (off)
Florida Intl. at No. 21 Texas Tech (off)
Tusa (+31), at No. 18 Oklahoma
No. 7 Virginia Tech (-20) at Duke
Army (-27.5) at No. 19 Boston College
Best Bet
Gabe
Edelson
Ian
Herbert
Notre Dame
Ohio State
LSU.
Iowa
South Carolina
Akron
Florida
Washington
TCU
Florida State
Fresno State
Texas Tech
Okahomah.
Virginia Tech
Boston College
Iowa
Notre Dame
Ohio State
LSU
Iowa
South Carolina
Akron
Florida
Washington
TCU
Florida State
Fresno State
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Virginia Tech
Army
Washington
Michigan
Ohio State
Arizona State
Iowa
South Carolina
Purdue
Louisiana Tech
California
TCU
Florida State
Fresno State
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Virginia Tech
Boston College
Iowa
Stephanie
Wright
Michigan
Ohio State
LSU
Iowa
Georgia
Purdue
Florida
California
TCU
Florida State
Fresno State.
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Virginia Tech
Boston College
Virginia Tech
MSA President
Jesse Levine
Michigan
Tex as
Arizona State
Iowa
South Carolina
Purdue
Florida.
California
TCU
Florida State
Fresno State
Texas Tech
Oklahoma'
Virginia Tech
Boston College
Oklahoma,
Levine pushes sports
agenda in celebrity role
Jesse Levine, current
president of the Michigan
Student Assembly,
led the newly formed
Students 4 Michigan
Party to an overwhelming
victory last year by
recruiting a culturally and
ideologically diverse slate
of candidates that left
little room for a serious
challenge from either the
right or the left. A onetime
Republican who says
he came to support
liberal politics due to
his experiencesaththe
University, Levine has
come under attack from
the left wing of MSA for
failing to support the
funding of a campus
chapter of Public
Interest Research
Group.
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