wiw qw v w V w 68 nsdv Setme 4,21/ Te ttmn Wednesday, September 24, 2014/ The Stateent3B Personal Statement: Life after skating By Stephanie Shenouda 0 C 0n D , __ d,.s --. \ Six hours before Michigan is set to kickoff against Miami University (Ohio), Roland Jersevic sets up his tent where the i"ffoad tracks intersect Hoover Street. His truck is backed in, the tail- gate is down and a 60-inch TV is set up in the back. His TV stands out, with a satellite and a pair of speakers that face out to the street. The table is there, near the grill, with chairs that form a semicircle around the truck. A former timer for the track teams, Jersevic sits alone now, adorning a blue vest over a yellow sweater on an abnor- mally chilly September Saturday. Jersevic has done the same thing for decades. He's been com- ing since he was a freshman in 1970. His friends will join him later, as they always do, and he'll head to his section in the stadium because "a Michigan Man sticks by his team," he says. Fans will walk by, watch his TV and maybe strike up a conversation. And Jersevic wears a smile on his face as if it's new to him every Even as ticket prices rise, com- mercials spread, schedules dis- appoint and records fluctuate, Jersevic - a Saginaw, Michigan native - returns to his spot at Hoover and the railroad tracks. He'a £one of many, who despite changes to the Football Saturday experience, renew their season tickets every year and show up, ready to tailgate. "This is a way of life," Jersevic said. "We came here to Michigan because it's a great school and this is what makes it part of it." There are people from all around who have a similar view as Jersevic, who are motivated to return to a struggling program because it's as engrained in them. The program, after all, revels in tradition. Yet to many fans, the game day experience at Michigan Stadium has become more like a business and less like an experience. But does it need to be? The parking lot at Ann Arbor Pioneer high school fills up slow- ly before Miami (Ohio) comes to town. The RedHawks haven't won in their last 18 games. There are people like Lisa Neitzer who tolerate the repeated losses. She's been coming to games with her family since she was a young child. She parks her RV at Ann Arbor Pioneer's parking lot. It's decorated with block 'M's' and the Big House and Wolverines and the yellow striped helmets. "This is something, instead of going on a vacation with the fam- ily, wherever Michigan goes, we go," she says. "This is fun." EVOLUTION OF She sets up with her family out- side the RV - paying the $225 to park it kitty-corner from Michi- gan Stadium. Neitzer will travel to Piscataway, New Jersey in a few short weeks to watch the Wolver- ines game against Rutgers. And later, she'll go to Evanston, Illinois to see them play Northwestern. Neitzer remembers watching Bo Schembechler, Lloyd Carr, Rich Rodriguez and now Brady Hoke carry on the Michigan coaching legacy. She went with her father to the games when she was young, a tradition which "brainwashed in her," she described. 100 feet away from Neitzer, Jackson resident Tyler Sebastian throws a football back and forth with his brother. "There's just nothing else I would rather do on a Saturday," Sebastian says. "I'll watch them even if they do play smaller teams or have rough weeks." He shows up early because these opportunities don't come around often. He shows up early because that's what he's done since he was 13. "The biggest thing that brings fans to the Big House is the need to be together, to have BY GREG GARNO, shared values, to have that bar- riers that are all too present too often - race, religion, nationality, age," said John U. Bacon, Univer- sity lecturer and New York Times best-selling author, in an inter- view with The Michigan Daily. "All of these things, whether you're pursing poetry, engineer- ing or Law - it's the one time of the year when none of that mat- ters where the second you walk past the turnstile, all of it breaks down." Across Ann Arbor-Saline Road, the Ann Arbor Country Club golf course also fills up with fans who begrudgingly pay the high price to park heir car. Eric Rife of Temperance, Mich- igan;still shows up hours before kickoff, setting up a grill with venison wrapped in bacon. Since the beginning of this season, he's been coming to the games and gets "chills" every time he walks into the stadium. For all the fans that return to Ann Arbor for the game day expe- rience, every year brings a whole new set of Michigan fans to the nation's biggest stadium - Rife included. "New fans are experiencing Michigan Stadium that have never experienced it before and we are confident once they attend a game, they will want to come back in the future," said Hunter Lochmann, Chief Marketing Officer within the Athletic Department. This season, Michigan's seven- game home slate includes one team with more than seven wins - Minnesota, who fell to Michi- gan last year, 42-13. The better games are on the road, and ticket prices, despite not rising, are still more than a $1,000 investment for regular season-ticket holders. According to ticket data from Craig Barker, a long-time fan and blogger at the Hoover Street Rag, ticket prices have increased by $30 per game since 2000, averag- ing to $65 per contest in the 2014 season. The Athletic Department hasn't raised prices since 2012, but the price per ticket is still at its I don't remember the moment I fell in love with figure skating, but I'm positive it wasn't the moment I first stepped on the ice. My mom and one of her friends decided to sign all of the kids up for group lessons at the local community rink because it was cheap, fun and, maybe, a good skill to have for potential dates later in life. Armed with a ladybug helmet, I took my first steps toward what I was certain would be Olym- pic fame. In my five-year-old mind, I knew that I wouldn't be Michelle Kwan on my very first day, but I expected at least basic proficiency. I was royally pissed when I face- planted after my first step on the ice. I decid- ed right then and there that I was done with this stupid sport, if only I could get back up. Fortunately, one of the instructors scooped me up and hand-delivered me to my class before I could make my escape. It was some- where around then that my love affair with ice skating began. Flash forward a few years later,iand things have gotten serious between skating and me. Group classes have been replaced with pri- vate lessons from several different coaches, all attempting to teach me the different disciplines of skating: freestyle, ice dance, field moves and synchro. Synchro - short for synchronized skating - meant more ice. time, more coaches and more pretty dress- es, as well as the opportunity to eventually travel the world with the U.S. flag embroi- dered on my jacket. What had started out as a fun hobby had taken over my life - and I my teammates and I would play "booty couldn't have been any happier. jams" to get pumped up, and once we were Skating was no longer cheap and my mom dressed in our costumes it was time to would regularly ask me if I was sure, abso- visualize our performance and get serious lutely sure, that this was what I wanted to do. again. Skating also wasn't making me into a well- Once I took the ice, everything melted rounded person, but rather a one-dimen- away and it was just me and the music. No sional one because I had completely thrown matter the competition, whether I was with myself into it. And just to throw the roman- my team or flying solo, time always used to tic notions out the window, I hadn't been feel like it was speeding by at twice or three ice skating on a date. Skating shouldn't have times the speed it was. My heart would been any fun at all. What was fun about get- pound and my body would be on autopilot, ting up ungodly early to hang out in the one knowing exactly what to do after hours of place that was colder than it was outside? rigorous training. In those moments, I felt There was nothing amusing about falling like I could fly, like anything was possible. and slamming into the boards so hard that Even when our music took on a serious you still have scar tissue to this very day, tone, I always had a big smile plastered on or having to respond "Sorry, I can't, I have my face because I was doing exactly what skating," to every invitation that was ever I loved to do. extended to you. Was it enjoyable to spend The program would come to an end and six hours a day learning choreography so I would gasp for air - beaming at the real- difficult it made your head spin, only to ization of another successful skate. You're have your coach yell and threaten to replace supposed to be professional and stand still you when you didn't do it right? until someone gives the count to release In a word: yes. you, but I would always smile knowingly While the grueling practices and chal at my family in the crowd, even as a col- lenging moments themselves weren't fun, legiate athlete. it was all part of the bigger picture. Skat- Years have gone by, and I'll never forget ing allowed me the chance to perform. I've my first Synchronized Skating Champion- got a big personality, and I loved being the ship - hitting the final pose in our long center of attention. I was always a nervous program at the Spring Cup in Milan, Italy, wreck leadingup to competitions, but there or the feeling of my first collegiate medal was something about putting on the make- hanging from my neck as a member of the up (copious amounts of glitter and red lip- University's team my freshman year. Each stick) that relaxed me. In the locker room moment, though they all seemed monu- mental at the time, was part of larger pic- ture that will never fully fade away; my life as a competitive skater. No matter what, those memories will never leave, and if I try hard enough, I can still recreate those pre- competition jitters in my stomach and legs like it was yesterday. Some of my happiest moments come from those years when I was missing school, surviving on four hours of sleep a night and skating was truly my whole life. What skating really gave me, from that very first day until the day I hung up my skates, was my identity. When people asked what I did, I said competitive figure skat- ing. When they asked who I was, it was the name of the team I was on. While I've found ways to fill the gaps in my schedule, there's noclub or meeting that will ever com- pare to a packed stadium or getting a stand- ing ovation from hundreds of people. People, tell me that I'll find something else I'll love just as much, but I'm not so sure. I died a little bit inside the first time I told someone that "I used to skate," but I'm accepting the reality of my first grown-up decision. In truth, my love affair with figure skat- ing never really ended, and I don't think it ever fully will. It taught me how to push myself to the absolute limit. My story is about a little girl who fell head over heels in love with figure skating, which gave me experiences that shaped who I am today, and will help me become the woman I hope to be 15 years from now.