2B - The MichiganDaily - SportsThursday - January 5, 2006

CLUBSPORTSWEEKLY
Roller hockey searches for home, goalie

ali t Mirbi au gui1
Athlete of the Week.

Name: Becky Bernard
Hometown: Stow, Ohio

Team: Women's Gymnastics
Class: Freshman

Dan Feldman
Daily Sports Writer
The club roller hockey team's motto may be "It's easy
to score when you go back door," but right now they'd
love to go through any door that leads to a roller rink in
Ann Arbor.
Currently, the team's home arena is in Canton - about.
15 minutes outside of Ann Arbor.
"This sport really didn't even exist 10-15 years ago,'
sophomore Paul Czarnecki said. "But before a potential
varsity status, one of the biggest things for us is a home
roller hockey rink on campus. We don't have one, and
other teams do. Yet we're Michigan, you know? And
having a rink on campus would help us draw attention
to the team."
Czarnecki's concerns are shared by senior Jeff Wheel-
er, who is the team's president. Wheeler feels the team is
in a catch-22, unable to get fan support because there is
no rink near campus and unable to get funding for a rink
because of a lack of fan support.
"Here's the bottom line: If we don't have a home rink,
on campus or near it, within 10 minutes of students, we
cannot flourish in any real way at this university," Wheel-
er said.
For now, though, the team has been successful behind
its strong depth at goalie.
All talk of the goalie situation starts with freshman
Adam Goldberg. The similarity of his name to the goalie
Greg Goldberg of the Mighty Ducks movie was not lost
on his teammates.

"It started right from day one at tryouts," Czarnecki
said. "Someone found out his name was Goldberg, and
the jokes started playing. 'Wait your name is Goldberg,
and you're a goalie? Goldberg the goalie.' "
Once the team got past the Mighty Ducks jokes, Gold-
berg won the No. 1 spot, posting a 3-4 record since then.
Czarnecki, who played club ice hockey last year but
switched to roller hockey in hopes of more playing time,
has gone 3-0 in the net.
"Well, the coaches told all of the goalies at the begin-
ning of the year that he thought we were all roughly equal,
and that he was having a hard time deciding who's gonna
play where;' Czarnecki said. "But that he was going to
kind of pick an order for us guys and try to stick with it."
Sophomore Ricky Winowiecki, the main goalie on the
B, or junior varsity team, won the only game he played
for the A team. Both Goldberg and Czarnecki have seen
time on the B team as well.
Throw in last year's No.1 goalie,junior Daniel Mooney,
who could start practicing soon after missing all of the
season thus far, and the goalie controversy just grows.
When the team travels to St. Peters, Mo., this weekend
to play in the Winter National Invitational Tournament,
Czarnecki expects to split playing time with Goldberg,
with a slight edge to Goldberg. But Czarnecki knows
what he must do to earn playing time.
"I always try to give it my best in practice, and cer-
tainly in games, because no one's spot is really guaran-
teed," Czarnecki said. "At least for me anyways, I know it
makes me work a little extra harder"
In front of whoever's manning the net for the Wolver-

ines, the rest of the team plays a conservative game.
"We are a puck control team, always looking to make
a pass back to the D rather than dumping the puck in the
corner," sophomore Scott Janowiak said. "If you get in
trouble getting out of the zone, send it back behind the
net and break it out again. Look for good shots or good
chances, not bad angle shots or long shots. Basically, our
philosophy is, if they don't have the puck, they won't
score."
Said Wheeler: "We have a very controlled game, very
systematic. We're definitely not a run 'n' gun team, which
is more common in the eastern conferences. We're a very
controlled team. We focus on bringing out the puck. Puck
control is key. We're a small team We have to rely on our
speed and our puck control."
The team's slow-it-down strategy has put them in third
place in the Midwest Collegiate Roller Hockey League
with a 7-4 record.
"We are a hardworking team;' Janowiak said. "We
don't have one person that will skate the puck the whole
length of the floor. We are a team. We pass the puck and
do what's best for the team."
Three of Michigan's losses were to its nemeses in the
green and white. Two were to Michigan State, and the
third to Eastern Michigan. Those two schools are nation-
al powerhouses combining for a record of 22-1 this sea-
son. The one loss came when the two teams met against
each other.
"We always step up for the games against State and
Eastern, and we play very well against them, even though
the score doesn't show it," Janowiak said.

Why: Just a freshman, Bernard led the Blue team to victory in the
intrasquad scrimmage this weekend. She won the beam (9.825)
and placed third on the bars (9.825).


'M' SCHEDULE
Date Event

1/5
1/6

W Basketball vs. Iowa
Ice Hockey vs. Alaska-Fairbanks

1/7 W Track and Field at Jack Harvey
at Jack Harvey Invitational
1/7 M Track and Field at Jack Harvey
at Jack Harvey Invitational
1/7 Ice Hockey vs. Alaska-Fairbanks
1/7 M Basketball vs. Purdue

Location
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor

7 p.m.
7:35 p.m.
9 a.m.
TBA.
7:35 p.m.
7:35 p.m.
2 p.m.
2 p.m.

Time

1/8
1/8

W Basketball vs. Purdue
Wrestling vs. Lehigh


Captainless but confident

By Colt Rosensweig
Daily Sports Writer

January marks the beginning of more
than just a new season for the men's gym-
nastics team. It will kick off a new era,
with new rules, new routines and most of
all, new focus and camaraderie.
The veterans of last season's disap-
pointing sixth-place finish at the NCAA
championships are joined by a total of 11
newcomers - including eight freshmen.
"(This year's team) is a lot more
focused," said Michigan coach Kurt
Golder. "It's a whole different group.
It's a much younger team, and it's a very
eager team."
In the annual intrasquad meet, the team
and coaches could try out the brand-new
routines in a competitive atmosphere.
"We have to increase difficulty in a few
areas, but the main thing is increasing
our consistency, eliminating mistakes"
Golder said. "I think we have a pretty
darn good base established, but we made
mistakes (at the intrasquad meet), and we
have to eliminate them."

Perhaps just as important as the rou-
tines was the new sense of team unity
that was apparent at the first competi-
tion of the year. At each of the events,
all the Wolverines crowded around,
applauding each competitor. Senior Jus-
tin Laury - who did not compete due
to an ameliorating patella tendon - dug
out a cowbell and led his teammates and
the crowd in cheers.
"As a team, I think it will be the team
chemistry that's going to be the stron-
gest," said senior Gerry Signorelli, who
took home all-around honors at the
intrasquad meet. "That's going to help
overcome the weaknesses we have on
certain events."
Laury has high hopes for this team,
even though his injury may sideline him
until March.
"I'm ecstatic and elated by this team,
just because of all the freshmen that have
come in;' Laury said. "They're a great
group. There's great chemistry, and we
all love each other, and it's probably one
of the best teams I've ever been on"
The team works so well together

that choosing a captain wasn't even
necessary.
"Typically, we do have a captain;'
Laury said. "But this year because of
the way the chemistry worked, we didn't
need a captain. We have 20-plus guys on
the team who are all captains."
That's a positive sign for a squad that
will be missing the services of seniors
Laury and Andre Hernandez for much,
if not all, of the season. Michigan
ranked sixth in the preseason GymInfo
coaches poll, with the assumption that
Laury, last year's Big Ten all-around
champion, and Hernandez would both
be competing. Golder said he believes
that the team can exceed that finish
even without those two, because this
squad lacks many of the interpersonal
problems that hindered Michigan in
previous years.
"The last couple years, (the team)
seemed to have some fractures, divisions,
backstabbing and stuff like that going on
behind the scenes," Golder said. "I think
they have gone a long way to getting rid
of those problems."

ROSE BOWL
Continued from page 1B
revenge. On the night when he ran for
200 yards, and passed for 267 more, he
capped a performance that Texas fans
will remember forever by scoring the
final TD and running for a 2-point con-
version
"It's so beautiful;' Young said as he
received the MVP crystal. "Don't you
think that's beautiful? It's coming home
all the way to Austin, Texas."
With the two highest-scoring teams in
the country, many figured it would come
down to which team had the ball last.
It basically did, and Southern Cal was
denied its unprecedented third straight
title.
Texas players streamed onto the field
with the Longhorns' first outright nation-
al title since 1969. Young stood on the
sideline in a sea of falling confetti, arms
raised toward the crowd, and senior tack-
le William Winston unfurled a big, white
Longhorns flag.
The Longhorns (13-0) won their 20th
in a row, overcoming the 38-26 lead
Southern Cal (12-1) held with 4:30 left.
While the Longhorns' band blared
"The Eyes of Texas" in front of a sea of
burnt orange, the Trojans looked startled.
Some put their hands to their heads, oth-
ers took off their helmets.
"Well, we couldn't stop them when we
had to;' Carroll said. "The quarterback
ran all over the place.
"This is their night;' he said. "It's
wonderful doing what we've been doing.
We didn't get it done."

Said Leinart: "I still think we're a
better football team, they just made the
plays in the end."
They sure did.
Leinart, who won the Heisman in
2004, did his part in his final college
game while Bush was less than his best.
Leinart passed for 365 yards, and his
22-yard TD strike to Dwyane Jarrett put
Southern Cal ahead 38-26 with 6:42 left.
Earlier, Bush soared into the end zone
on a 26-yard run, part of his 82 yards
rushing. He also had 95 yards on six
catches - and a boneheaded lateral that
swung momentum toward Texas' way in
the first half.
"It's been a great run. We've done
some special things," Bush said. "I don't
think we should be ashamed about any-
thing."
In a game that produced more than
1,100 yards, amazingly, Texas' final TD
came after its defensive stand.
Southern Cal decided to try to seal the
game with its vaunted offense, dubbed
by many the best to ever play college
football, and keep the ball out of Young's
hands. But it came up inches short from
converting on the fourth-and-short, and
the Texas defense charged off the field as
Young trotted on.
"If you make that first down, you're
squatting on the football to win the
game;" Carroll said. "We just missed it.
By what, two inches?"
Southern Cal had one last chance, and
it wasn't a good one. On the last play
of the game from just beyond midfield,
Leinart's pass sailed high over Jarrett's
head around the 25.

*I

JUSTIN BASS/Daily
Freshman Joe Catrambone should help the
Wolverines replace last year's seniors.


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