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8A - Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Walk-on impact felt under Rodriguez

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By COURTNEY RATKOWIAK
Daily Sports Editor
Rich Rodriguez remembers
exactly where he was when he
heard the news. He was an incom-
ing sophomore at West Virginia,
stretching at two-a-day camp two
weeks before his football team's
opening game against Oklahoma,
when Mountaineer coach Don
Nehlen called him over.
"He said, 'You can tell your
mom and dad that I'm going to
give you a scholarship, but it's only
going to be one year, and you'll
have to earn it again next year.' I
said, 'That's good, Coach, I'll be all
right,' "Rodriguez recalled. "But I
can remember it like yesterday."
Current Wolverine redshirt
sophomore Kevin Leach's story is
almost identical to Rodriguez's -
and just as poignant. About two
weeks before this year's opening
game against Western Michigan,
Leach was lifting in the Michi-
gan weight room when Rodri-
guez called the linebacker into his
office to tell him he had earned a
scholarship for the 2009 season.
Leach immediately called his
father, Mike, who put the phone
on speakerphone so his whole
family could hear the news at the
same time.
Redshirt junior wide receiver
Jon Conover's scholarship was a
long time coming. He had already
earned two varsity letters and
played in 18 games before the start
of the 2009 season, mainly on spe-
cial teams. As the team's seniors
were about to leave this year's
end-of-camp senior dinner, which
was held at Rodriguez's home in
Saline, the coach asked Conover to
hang back. After three years, Con-
over received a scholarship and a
hug from his coach.
Both Leach and redshirt junior
Jon Conover had similar begin-
nings - they attended Catholic
Central High School (Leach in
Grand Rapids, Conover in Detroit)
and came to Michiganas preferred
walk-ons. Both have difficult
majors - Leach is a mechanical
engineering major and Conover

In last Saturday's 45-17 win
against the Eagles, Leach started
at linebacker after usual starter
Jonas Mouton was suspended by
the Big Ten for one game. Leach
finished with a team-high 10
tackles.
Though Leach's start was a sur-
prise to many, it shouldn't have
been - he is listed second on the
official depth chart at the posi-
tion, behind Mouton but in front
of rivals.com four-star recruit
and redshirt freshman Brandon
Smith.
"If the walk-on's good enough
to play, then he'll play, and man,
that's huge," Leach's father, Mike,
said. "Whether he was a walk-
on or the first guy they signed on
Signing Day, it didn't matter. That
says a lot. It says a lot about Rodri-
guez's character and the way he
runs his team, just a message of
fairness like that."
Since Leach was a "school-
start" walk-on, he didn't partici-
pate in spring or summer practices
with the rest of the team before
coming to Ann Arbor in the fall of
2007. He made friends with a few
of the scholarship players early,
after getting to know them while
regularly giving them rides home
after football practice, but Mike
Leach said it wasn't until two-
thirds of the way through Leach's
freshman season before he felt
like "one of the guys" on the team.
Last season, although Leach was
high enough on the depth chart
AALAH/Daily to potentially have a chance at a
ll team. scholarship, he learned after fall
uch he's camp it wasn't his year.
he's got Judging from his performance
f a walk- against the Eagles, this year clear-
ly is.
s a walk- "He's grown quite a bit," Mike
guez has Leach said. "His first game at
ate of the Michigan was at Appalachian
came to State, and he sat in the stands
ars ago, with a ticket borrowed from a
commit- girlfriend. Last Saturday, he was
tball try- in because a guy punched another
ne every guy, but nonetheless, he's gone
2008 - from sitting in the stands in the
hesitate first game to starting at line-
f a schol- backer. So that's pretty good for a
h chart. walk-on, I'd say."

.a.dSAID ALS
Redshirtjunior Jon Conover (No. 83) earned a scholarship this year after t wo var sity letters, 18 games, and three years of being a preferred walk-on for the footbal

is applying to the Michigan Law
School this year.
(While talking about Conover's
future career plans, Rodriguez
joked, "If anybody has any influ-
ence on helping him get in there,
I think he would be terrific. I
know enough about lawyers now
that I think he'd be a great one. I'd
probably be employing him some
day.")
The news that Conover received
a scholarship this year, which will
be his last on the football field
though he has one year of eligi-
bility remaining, was especially

sweet for him after he suffered a But Conover was back on the
freak throat injury in fall camp. field just six days later, and heard
Conover was hit in practice and the news of his scholarship around
his helmet was jammed down with the same time. Conover was able to
so much force that it fractured his play in the season opener against
hyoid bone, a horseshoe-shaped Western Michigan and earned the
bone in the throat held in place team's Special Teams Player of the
by ligaments above the Adam's Week honor for his play against
apple. Eastern Michigan last Saturday.
Conover was taken to the hos- "Jon's mom and I wrote Coach
pital immediately after practice Rod a letter after he was awarded
and spent the night there, and was the scholarship, and I thanked
released after being told he could him and I also mentioned the fact
only eat soft foods for a few days that I know he had a soft spot in
and likely couldn't practice for his heart for walk-ons because he
three weeks. was one," Conover's father, John,

said. "I have seen how m
talked about them since
there, and ... as a parent o
on, I appreciate that."
Given his background a
on college player, Rodrig
been an outspoken advoca
walk-on program since he
Michigan almost two ye
The proof is both in his
ment to holding open foot
outs - there has been o
semester since February
and the fact that he won't
to put a walk-on ahead of
arship player on the deptl


4

4

The Michigan field hockey team celebrates after a goal in Michigan's win over Stanford last September.
Field hockey coach returns to A2
with NCAA Championship as goal

By AMY SCARANO
Daily Sports Writer
Two Olympic appearances.
It soundslike an accomplishment
most athletes would dream about,
but it was Michigan field hockey
coach Marcia Pankratz's reality.
Pankratz was a Big Ten field
hockey player at Iowa before play-
ing in two Olympic games in 1988
and 1996. She went on to coach the
Wolverines from 1996 to 2004.
Then, she left to start her own
company, which she has since run
successfully.
"It's always fun to take on new
challenges and kind of push your-
self outside your comfort zone,"
Pankratz said. "You only get to live
once. ... I'm a bit of a risk taker."
After a four-year hiatus at Four
Goals, the consulting business she
founded to help high school ath-
letes with the recruiting process,
Pankratz ached to be back coach-
ing and teaching student-athletes.
Before this season, Pankratz
hired an associate to run the busi-
ness for her because she could no
longer stay away from Ann Arbor.
She returned to coach at Phyl-
lis Ocker Field in January after
former head coach Nancy Cox
resigned. Back at the helm of the
Michigan field hockey program,
Pankratz hopes to help the Wol-
verines win their second NCAA
Championship in school history.
In 2001, during Pankratz's first
coaching stint at Michigan, the
field hockey team picked up the
first NCAA title for any female
sport at Michigan.
"I remember when I used to be
the assistant at North Carolina
years and years ago, back in the
early 90's, we were talking about
coaching," Pankratz said. "I said
the only coaching job I would e r

look at would be the University of
Michigan.
"It's a phenomenal institution
and has great potential to be a
national power, and I'd like tobe a
part of that and to be back in the Big
Ten where I was a student-athlete."
When Pankratz got the call that
the job was open, she packed up as
soon as the 1996 Olympic games
were over, left Atlanta and headed
to Ann Arbor, where she earned a
reputation to expect the best from
her players at all times.
"Marcia brings a certain
level of intensity to practice and
games, and she's a little bit more
outspoken," former Wolverine
and current assistant coach Kristi
Gannon Fisher said.
A natural athlete, Pankratz
played ice hockey until high
school, when the closest equiva-
lent they offered for girls was
field hockey.
"I found out who the best team
in the country was," Pankratz
said. "So I called up (Iowa) and
went outthere. I loved the Big Ten
atmosphere and how they treated
the student-athletes."
And that was that. Pankratz
played at Iowa for four years
before making her two Olympic
appearances, and she was induct-
ed into the U.S. Field Hockey
Association Hall of Fame in 2004.
The same year, she left Ann Arbor
to start Four Goals.
The Wolverines turned their
record upside down the first time
Pankratz arrived in Ann Arbor.
They were 7-11 in Pankratz's first
year in 1996 but won their first
Big Ten title in 1997, got an NCAA
tournament bid in 1999 and won
the NCAA title two years later.
For Pankratz, the success was
more of an expectation than a
surprise.

"I think all of the young
women, including the team that's
here now, came here because they
want to be a leader, they want to
be the best," Pankratz said. "They
want tobe champions."
But this year's team (2-6) is off
to a less-than-exceptional start,
and with the Big Ten opener this
weekend, they are hoping to fit
the pieces together and perform.
Pankratz isn't concerned though.
She welcomes failure - what she
calls "new paths on your journey"
- and claims it is a contributing
factor to where she is today.
"It's okay sometimes to all of a
sudden have some bumps in the
road because it helps focus you in
the direction you want to go in,"
Pankratz said. "You learn a lot
from it.
"Especially when you are
coaching a team and you lose a
game. You are going to learn a lot
from not winning the game. So
that makes you better."
Gannon Fisher recalls the 2001
season leading up to the champi-
onship.
"We weren't expected to win,
by any means," Fisher said. "We
won because we had a great team
and not just great players on the
team.We allalways have (the 2001
title) in ourback pocket as a great
experience and something that
we use every day in our lives."
Luckily for everyone involved,
Pankratz has set high standards
for this year's team while simulta-
neously embracing adversity. She
brings a level of intensity through
her vocalization and expectations
of the girls that, in the past, has
brought them a championship.
"That's why we are here,"
Pankratz said. "We are trying to
bring another national champion-
ship back t Michigan."

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