Michigan catcher Melissa Gentile isn't a nervous per- son. But on a cool April day at Northwestern the butterflies ad been unleashed and acre flying freely in her stomach. They shouldn't have been. The at bat was like any of the other hundreds she had taken before. DANA INNANE Da But every at bat is unique in its own way, and this at bat's distinction was a rare one. It was Gentile's first at bat since she had back surgery in November. She was walked and immediately eplaced by a base runner. The end- of-the-game at bat was meaningless to everyone but Gentile. "That first time I stepped in the box against Northwestern and all the fans gave me a standing ovation. It was incredible," Gentile said. "I got the chills - and it was like, 'This is why I came back.' Five months earlier, Gentile ssoke 100h more than the usual soreness in her back from sleeping. She couldn't get out of bed or move laterally. So Gentile laid in bed all day until the next day when the soreness had reached its previous low. But from Monday, May 10, 1999 - The Michigan Daily - 13 GENTILE'S BACK BY JON ZEMKE - DAILY SPORTS WRITER Nov. 6 on, she didn't go to classes because of the pain. After going to see the doc- tor a few days later, Gentile was on a confer- ence call with her coach Carol Hutchins, team trainers and her doc- tors when the diag- noses came. She had several y bulging disks in the lumbar region of her spine and would require surgery. "I really wasn't expecting that at all," Gentile said. "We were all just in shock." According to doctors, her career was over. Normally, such prognoses didn't bother Gentile. The 'your career is over' speech had been given to her before, but she had always played again. "I've been told three times in my career that I was completely done and couldn't play anymore,' Gentile said. "This time, I kinda bought into it _ I didn't think I was going to be back." Gentile had a lot of other things to consider. What would be the long term effects? Would she be able to walk when she was 40? What about arthritis? Her late November surgery was her second to remove the remainder of the disk between her fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae. She'd already had half of it removed when she was 16. Gentile also had some bulging disks repaired on her third and fourth lumbar verte- brae and her first spinal column ver- tebrae. With all things considered, Gentile had conte to grips with not playing again. Fortunately for Gentile and her coaches, she began seeing Kristin Walters. "She's in the spinal program and she's been the best thing," Gentile said. "I've tried pretty much every- thing to get my back better - she's been great. I feel better now than I did before the surgery." Walter discovered that the muscles in the right side of Gentile's back were much tighter than the ones on her left, forcing her back to twist. They began a rehabilitation program that consisted of Walters pushing Gentile's sacrum into place, stretch- ing her muscles and basically mak- ing the adjustments that chiroprac- tics and acupuncture couldn't. Gentile began to believe that she could come back, yet again. After starting out the season as primarily a coach and team leader Gentile began to take a few practice swings and slowly began to play again. At Northwestern in her second at bat back, Gentile hit a double off the right field fence that scored the first run in a 4-2 Wolverine win. "It just felt great," Gentile said. "After I hit it was like OK I got my first hit out of the way and now I can just settle in and get back into it." The hit has been her first of many so far this season. On a wet Saturday afternoon against Indiana, Gentile muscled out a three run bullet. It would have landed in center field of Ray Fisher Stadium, home of the Michigan baseball team, had it not been for a pine tree branch. Gentile has been playing the des- ignated hitter position since her return and has just begun running the bases. But she was starting to take a few practice catches last Saturday and has been cleared to catch again by team doctors. Not bad for catcher who has had chronic back problems since she was nine. "It feels incredible," Gentile said. "It's just how my roles have changed since the beginning of the year - 'OK, I'm playing in kind ofa leader- ship role. OK, you're done hitting. You're done playing. It's just a coaching role.' "Now just to be back and to go full circle and all that it feels so good. This is what I love doing. I love coaching. I love helping out the team, but this is what I love doing. I love being a player." All-Media Guide NOW HIRINC IN ' Ys ANN ARBOR 301 F.Libert,4tkFoe COIRNER Of LIBERT AND 5t5 1ledia Guide: Includes the il'l- ui (uide, Ai',Im ie Guide, the All-Book Guide, and IG - Award-winning entertainment database bnks, 13 CD-ROMs, many online sites)- ed te best music reference site onibhe rnet by Yahoo. Point your web browserto: MUSIC.COM or ALLMOVIE.COM or GAME.COM and check us out. iu love Music, Movies, Books, or Games, sider making a living working on something already love. We areanenthusiastic group, sionate aboutthese subjects. Consider ing us. LINE JOB DESCRIPTIONS i you have a bbrowser, you can read aboutthese lobs in ail by pointing your browser at >://alimusic.com/jobs/. Linksters struggle through invitational lichigan disheveled after eighth-place finish on home course By Raphael Goodstein Daily Sports Writer Teams are remembered for how well they perform at the end of the season. If the Michigan men's golf team is to be remembered, it will have to start excelling - Bd soon. GOLF - With the Big Comna Ten tournament Commentary starting later in ------------------ the week, the team is playing worse now than it was just a few weeks ago. The team finished tied for eighth place in the 18-team Wolverine Invitational held this past weekend at the Michigan Golf Course. "We beat some of the other teams that finished ahead of us earlier in the year, and you would think that on ur own home course you would have the advantage," Michigan coach Jim Carras said. "We didn't execute that, and that's the sad thing." The Wolverines face the tough task of placing the disappointing team results behind and preparing for the Big Ten tournament. A dejected captain, junior Mike a rris said, "We set our goal to fin- in the top four or five (in the Big Ten tournament) and unless some- thing miraculous happens, things aren't looking too good. I don't even know who's going to go next week." Harris's frustrations played a role in the team's lack of success as Harris's scores went up every day of the tournament culminating with a 76 yesterday. Harris shot a 220 for the tourna- ment. The Wolverines finished with 892 shots, 43 shots more than cham- pion Minnesota shot. "It's on your home golf course and you're letting teams that should not beat you, beat you. I don't even know where to start. It's almost gotten to the point of embarrassment," Harris said. "I'm hell-bent on making sure that this team is competitive," Carras said. Minnesota's James McClean set a course record 63 on Saturday. The record is particularly notable, con- sidering the adverse-weather condi- tions he faced. Send or hand deliver f resumes to: AMG, c/o Jobs, 301 E. 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