Monday, August 6, 2001- The Michigan Daily - 15 erenson's 2001 recruiting class full of question marks ghusio ak y rts Edor f the Michigan hockey team is going to tinue at its current rate of success, it will d a little help from Lady Luck. After losing e seniors to graduation and two more first- players to the NHL, Red Berenson's club ers the 2001-02 campaign with more ques- than answers. e Wolverines are counting on a strong sming class to reload rather than rebuild. The unique thing about this class is all the stion marks," Berenson said. "How ready they, and how big a role are they ready to I'm hoping for some pleasant surprises." ut which players will emerge from the 10- nber class to become the future stars of the ize and Blue? Most of the freshmen have ady visited Ann Arbor this summer for ori- entation, and several local players - like Brighton native Dwight Helminen - have spent additional time on the ice in Yost. "Helminen has been a solid player for the U.S. Under-18 program along with Eric Nys- trom and Jason Ryzner," Berenson said. "Those kids might be a step ahead of kids like Mike Woodford or Brandon Rodgers coming out of prep school." But you never know. "Rodgers might come in here and be one of our top defensemen," Berenson said. "I can't say that I can judge their play relative to one another. "But everything that I am told from the coaches is that these guys can step in and play a lot of roles for our team." Those roles will not be determined until the fall. Until then, Wolverine fans can continue to wonder which freshmen will be able to play on a top power-play unit or kill a key penalty when Michigan is two men down. Who will be strong and consistent enough to keep the Wolverines with the national elite? The questions keep coming, while the answers lie in waiting. "I'm very high on all these kids coming in. I think that they will all be able to play," Beren- son said. "We made the decision that these kids can play at Michigan. So, now it is going to be a matter of us evaluating them once they all get here." Even after Berenson and his staff have a chance to see these freshmen and test them on and off the ice, the lineups will be kept in pen- cil - with eraser close at hand. "We may be switching lines every two or three days, and maybe even switching posi- tions for some of these kids as we try to fit them in," Berenson said. "It's going to be a big juggling act." When the dust settles, the Wolverines may have a couple freshmen playing on one of the top two lines. "That is what we need," Berenson said. "We need something positive like that because you are going to have the inevitable disappoint- ment. One guy is going to come in totally intimidated and overwhelmed or just not as prepared as he needed to be." But no matter what happens with the fresh- men, the nuts and bolts of Michigan hockey are still going to be the returning players. "It starts with Josh Blackburn, with Jay Vancek and Mike Cammalleri, Mike Romin- sky, Andy Burnes, and Mike Komisarek," Berenson said. "The returning experienced players are going to have an even bigger role than your normal returning experienced play- ers." Iweral reasons possible r drop in ticket sales Hall of Fame weekend mIn Singer y Sports Editor hen the Michigan Athletic tment announced its budget a ,pqe weeks ago for next year, it revealed basketball and hockey :et price increases. lockey games will cost an extra 2 and basketball and extra $2-3. football tickets already charged more than last year to students. thletic Director Bill Martin is og the added dollars to help the etic department out of its deficit. tin also points out that with the se in tuition, he needs extra ey from somewhere. artin called himself the "dad" of larship athletes. "I write a check roughly ten million dollars," Mar- said, who is responsible for the ions of students on athletic schol- ips. ith a jump in price came 3,200 tickets sold to students, drop- om roughly 22,000 to 19,500. thletic Director Bill Martin is the numbers not sure how direct the correlation is between ticket price and tickets sold. "It may have (affected sales), I don't know," Martin said. "It wasn't a big price increase for students. We J kept that as moderate as we could. AWPue HTO "There's probably ten reasons (why Halnductees W nfled and Puckett. someone didn't get tickets), and for each of those reasons there's a couplek hundred who didn't get them." Martin did not wager a guess as to the direction student ticket sales will go for hockey and basketball this sea- son. Michigan sets aside 22,700 seats for students at Michigan Stadium two years ago, and filled the student sec- tion to capacity. Last year, 700 seats were taken from the student section op soo for staff and faculty. The student sec- Former Steeler Lynn Swann. tion of 22,000 was again fully occu- pied. This year, Michigan did not get a student for every seat. "It allows other fans the opportuni- ty to see a game," Martin said. "It's a RECORDS good news, bad news story. We want USED CDS to make sure every student wants to go to a game." Baseball inducted its newest members last weekend in Cooperstown, and football did likewise in Canton. Here's a list of the newly enshrined legends: Baseball Football Bill Mazeroski U Nick Buoniconti Kirby Puckett U Mark Levy Dave Winfield U Mike Munchak Hilton Smith Jackie Slater et A NA A LynnSwann SA SE B A LL ERon Yary .eack Youngblood t Friday, the athletic department released its survey of football ticket ders. Below are some of the results. For complete results, check out vw.mgoblue.com/ticket/survey. 1% rcent of returned veys; over 40% re than a typical mer survey. 5% . alumni. ye held their sea- 1 tickets for more in 30 years. vel more than 200 s one-way to d games.M nd all home g es.. AB'Y gigENBAU.YDai y Iate.ABYRS'B_/ay 617 Packard Upstairs from Subway Paying $4 to $6 for top CD's in top condition. Also buying premium LP's and cassettes. Open 7 days 663-3441 The selection is ENDLESS aSeeking: Volunteers (paid) to work at MiElIERMAI.N ESS durin Welcome to Michigan 2001. When: Friday, August 31, 7pm-3am Compensation: $65 For more information or to sign up, e-mail pvachon@umich.edu by Friday, August 10.