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." PLA1#YTTIONAWO? DMLcYS-. ....0. s <:, v.. 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. # S I m m ml I