The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - 17

Hoogie
Vo
Scombine s
 rhitecture
and sports
By Eileen Hengel
Daily Sports Writer
Water polo center Kristin Hoogenboom may
not have much in common with a middle-aged
woman. But Zaha Hadid - a 56 year-old Iraqi
woman - is who Hoogenboom admires most.
Hadid is not a starter for the United States
women's water polo team or a championship
coach working the motivational speaker circuit.
Rather, Hadid is a world-renowned avant-
garde architect, famous for works, including the
Cincinnati Contemporary Art Museum. And,
according to Hoogenboom, Hadid's personality
demands just as much attention as her buildings.
"(Hadid) is the most famous female architect
in the world," Hoogenboom said. "Because of her
talent, she commands the respect of her peers.
I've see pictures of her, and she's intimidating
just from the picture. I can only image how inti-
mating she is in person."
In fact, Hoogenboom's connection to Hadid
isn't all that distant. Hoogie, as she's known to
teammates, is in her final year at the A. Alfred
Taubman College of Architecture and Urban
Planning, majoring in architecture. She plans to
pursue a career in architecture upon graduation.
In the fall she will work with firms in her native
Portland, Ore., on large-scale projects such as
hospitals and schools. Eventually, she hopes the
experience will lead her to graduate school and a
career in either commercial or residential archi-
tecture.
Architecture students routinely spend 40 hours
a week in the studio. During her junior year, the
aspiring architect made her roommate, senior
Carly Strub, wonder where she disappeared to
every night.
"At first last year, I never knew where she
was," Strub said. "She certainly was never home.
I honestly don't know how she does it. She comes
(to the pool) after a full day of class and puts in a
solid four, four-and-a-half hours of practice and
then goes immediately back up to North Campus
and stays there until three in the morning."
On North Campus, Hoogenboom sweats over
sketches of everything from high-rises to dog-
houses. It's this focus on both big and small proj-
ects that correlates most obviously to her water
polo career.
Deconstructivism, the architecture school
Hadid subscribes to, requires designers to
approach the final product as bits and pieces.
Often her designs will look abstract or confusing
to the viewers but from the inside, they function
just as any other building would, with bathrooms,
offices and lobbies.
Hoogenboom find inspiration in Hadid's archi-
tecture. The architect's attention to detail easily
translates to Hoogenboom's playing style in the

il MEN'S GYMNASTICS
Rais steps up for''
By Colt Rosensweig
Daily Sports Writer
At the start of his gymnastics career, sophomore Dan Rais wasn't sure he'd
like it. After an experience with bad coaching, he switched gyms and gave
the sport one last shot.
Luckily for Michigan, his interest turned into a passion.
"I think we've got several team leaders, and (Rais) is definitely one of
them," Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. "I think he leads in the meet. You
can pretty much count on Dan. ... It's not a guarantee, but it's pretty darn
close to it, that he'll turn in a good performance (on floor and vault)."
The floor exercise and vault might be Rais's biggest strengths, but in recent
weeks, he turned in several clutch performances on the high bar as well.
Earlier in the season, his big release skill, the Jaeger, was problematic. But in
three of the final four meets of the season, Rais nailed his set.
"My teammates helped a lot, because they would just yell at me, so I had
to start catching (the Jaeger)," Rais said. "I wanted to stay in the lineup so I
worked harder to catch it, and spent a lot of time on it."
Rais's regular position in the high-bar lineup was the realization of one
of his individual goals for the season. After participating in the event in just
one meet last season, Rais participated on the high bar in every meet this
season.
In addition to his dependability in competition, the Livonia native acts as
one of many extra "coaches" in the gym during practice.
"One thing I like about Dan is (that) during practice - and I encourage
this, as much as I can - I hear him give other athletes, his teammates, some
advice and feedback, a little bit of coaching," Golder said. "I've always had
the philosophy that if you have 18 athletes in the gym, that should be 18 more
coaches. Everybody can help everyone else. Our theme this year was, 'Work
hard, work smart, help someone, or go home.' And (Rais) is a very helpful
guy."
One of Rais's strongest attributes is his excellent air sense, which came in
handy during his "afterthought" sport in high school, diving. Even though
diving always came second to gymnastics, Rais nonetheless lettered all four
years of his high school career. He became team captain and placed ninth at
the 2004 State Championships.
"The flipping aspect (of diving, floor exercise, and vault) of course is the
same," Rais said. "The only real difference is you can go in headfirst (with
diving). You just have to work on air sense for that one."
Rais came through for the Wolverines on the floor exercise and vault at the
team qualifiers for the NCAA Championships, even though the team didn't
advance to finals. He scored a 9.05 on floor, just missing the cut off for indi-
vidual qualifiers and advanced to vault qualifiers with a solid 9.25 score.
The sophomore seemed to be unaffected by the raised stakes of the Big Ten
and NCAA Championships.
"I don't normally think about meets until I'm there, so I don't really get
that nervous," Rais said. "I feed off it - the adrenaline and everything. I like
the pressure. It's fun."

DAVID TUMAN/Daily

Kristen Hoogenboom excels in the pool ... and in the studio.

water. Both choose to focus on the small ele-
ments in order to create a bigger picture.
For Hoogenboom, the final product was not
just her midterm assignment, but also a water
polo team that was chock full of inexperienced
freshmen. At the beginning of this season, Mich-
igan found itself with a completely new squad.
"The beginning of this year, we had to go back
to square one," Strub said. "We had to teach the
freshmen all of our defenses and offenses from
scratch."
From drawing lines in the classroom to con-
structing offenses in the poolthe two disciplines
that Hoogenboom practices leave her little time
to enjoy life outside of school and athletics.
"She's more important than she's been wanting
to expect," Michigan coach Matt Anderson said.
"At the beginning of the year, she lost her start-
ing job because I told her she wasn't playing at a
level I expected her to play."
After the first couple of games, Hoogenboom
began to question her commitment to her sport
and wondered if she could handle juggling her
hectic schedule for another year.
She realized she had drawn herself too thin.
She needed to focus on finishing out her final

season strong.
"Once the season started, I knew I couldn't
spend as much time on my work," Hoogenboom
said. "But I also knew that I couldn't abandon my
classes. I was really just taking my work with me
to practice"
Hoogenboom took what Anderson said to heart
and found the time to commit herself to both
causes. She realized she could only worry about
architecture in the studio and not in the pool.
So, Hoogenboom erased the thin line she'd
drawn and replaced it with a bolder, more defined
column - one that served as a support for the
rest of the team. Hoogenboom took the opportu-
nity to be a leader.
Since then, Hoogenboom has tallied 18 goals
on the season, including two hat tricks during the
Brown Mini Tournament on April 8-9 in Provi-
dence, R.I.
"She is a major force on our team," Strub
said.
Hoogenboom seems to have finally found in
herself what she sees in the pictures of Zaha
[ladid. She has taken chance to step up and be
a leader.
A leader that will terrify other teams.

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