0f i °: {{ 1 { J; } L t1 s Si Back' to Glory Berenson returns Michigan hockey to greatness by Matt Rennie Looking back to his first season as head coach of Michigan's hockey team, the things Red Berenson remembers most are the road trips. Road trips with a college hockey team are not exactly vacations. Most college hockey budgets are tight, and Michigan is no exception. The team travels by bus and leaves right after games to save another night's hotel fare. The destinations of these trips are often obscure places such as Sault Ste. Marie and Big Rapids. However, the things that Berenson remembers are neither the cities his team has visited nor the overnight accommodations. What sticks out most in the coach's memory is riding home on the bus after another loss. Perhaps this memory is particularly vivid because it was reinforced so many times. During the 1984-85 season, Berenson's first, the Wolverines lost 17 of the 21 road games they played. Yet it seems that Berenson recalls the losses not collectively, but individually - as if each one caused him a particular pain which the others didn't. "That team had no road presence at all," Berenson said. "We didn't even hope to win then. "It meant a lot of long bus rides home for me." Somehow, even during that brutal first campaign, Berenson knew that his trip was only beginning. He knew that his Ac don Spwt's ar HOCKEY SKATE BLOWOUT 419 E. Liberty 2 BIKS OFF STATE 663-6771 SPORTS INFORMATION Smiles were the order of business when in May 1984, Red Berenson slipped on the Michigan cap and took the reigns of the school's hockey team. Red immediately announced that he would retain Mark Miller (left) as his assistant coach. Former Athletic Director Don Canham (right) made the decision to hire Berenson. Blue. The Wolverine players had settled into a bare minimum mentality in which they went through the motions in practice, in games and in the classroom. The commitment to the program was not present. "We had a lot of guys who didn't understand what it meant to be playing for Michigan," Miller said. "Once they got their scholarship, they took everything for granted. That bothered Red and it bothered me, too." What added to the frustration of both Miller and Berenson was that Michigan was more than just their employer. It was their alma mater. They could not distance themselves from the emotions and the memories of their playing days at the University. They knew personally of the respect the program once had. They knew how far it had fallen. "I remember when we used to skate out against other schools when I was playing," Berenson said. "We had this look that we knew we were going to win, and we knew we had the better school. We were Michigan. That alone made us special." Consequently, rebuilding the program was more than a way to earn a living. It was much more personal, a passion to right a wrong. "I felt down deep that I owed Michigan something," Berenson said. "The only reason I came to college hockey was that it was Michigan." Frank Downing, who would go on to become the co-captain of the 1985-86 team, remembers Berenson during that first year. "He wasn't the rah-rah guy that (Giordano) was," Downing remembers. "He was very hands- off with the players, but you always could see his commitment." Although Berenson's philosophies were new to the program at the time, he still doesn't view himself as doing anything original. He considers himself to be continuing in the Michigan tradition as he knows it - not writing an entire book, but rather his own chapter of a much larger volume. Among Berenson's first acts as coach was to weed out the players he felt did not exemplify the Michigan attitude. During the first few weeks of practice, he cut several scholarship players and replaced them with walk-ons. The players were mortified. They believed that once they And the by Tony Silbertre mts For better or for worse, the no Academy Awards have established Ii themselves as an integral part of American popular culture. As a result, they have acquired a degree su of prestige in the film community. ma Each February, the Academy of no Motion Picture Arts and Sciences pro announces its nominees for the Oscars, and as that March 25 date approaches, film critics everywhere gr put their opinions on the line and pr try to predict the winners. (19 The Best Picture award is the Ra most revered of the prizes to be co given out during the seemingly rel endless night at the Shrine Civic di Auditorium. Many Americans wait re' out the three-hour plus parade of R glitz and accounting rules to hear W what film has won the year's A cinematicpice de resistance. do Out of the goodness of my; heart, I will spare all of you the m horrors of watching another snoozer sy of an Academy Awards show, and Ac tell you the winners right now. fil Although only Price Waterhouse iss knows for sure, I'll give it my best al shot. I began a streak in 1984 when oft I picked Amadeus to win Best Picture and because of my infinite knowledge of Academy voting be An Inside envelop, ends (and a lot of luck), I haven't ssed since. For Best Picture of the year, the minees are: Awakenings, Dances ith Wolves, Ghost, The Godfather 'art III), and Good Fe/las. One of the best ways to predict ch an unpredictable thing is to ake a case for and against each minee before choosing the obable winner. Awakenings The case for: This film has a eat deal in common with evious winners Midnight Cowboy %9), Ordinary People (1980), and ain Man (1988). These films ncentrate on the evolving ationship between two very fferent characters. The Academy wards excellent acting, which obert DeNiro and Robin illiams certainly provide in vakenings. Terrific scriptwriting esn't hurt, either. The case against: Awakenings ay be hurt by the Rain Main ndrome - it is unlikely that the cademy would reward another m dealing with mental illness ues just two years later. That, ong with the predictable nature the story, will take its toll. Dances With Wolves The case for: The film features eautiful filming, effective acting, Look at s ' leas e.. and powerful storytelling. Costner's one-man film project (he starred, produced, and directed) is a triumph for him, proving to Hollywood and the world that he is much more than a pretty face. Lt. John Dunbar's struggle for justice in the 19th century conflict between the white man and the Sioux Indian looks and feels like an epic, and the Academy loves a good epic. Recent selections of The Deer Hunter (1978) and The Last Emperor (1987) prove that is still the case. The case against: The length of the film (three hours) may turn off some, and the recent criticism regarding Costner's portrayal of Native Americans can't help its chances, either. Finally, with a long career in front of him, the Academy may wait and reward Costner later. Ghost The case for: The 1990 box office champion has a large public following. The simplicity of the film's story and the meager budget with which it was made may force the Academy to "believe" in this unlikely success story. The case against: This was certainly not the best picture of 1990 and it seems to be the sentimental nominee, as Field of Dreams was last year. It is difficult to evaluate the seriousness of RWL's Ghost's chances, but here is one reviewer who will fall off his seat if this one's announced. The Godfather, Pt. III The case for: Parts I and II won, so why not make it a clean sweep for Francis Ford Coppola and the Corleones? Like the first two installments, this film is exceptionally well made. In Part III of Hollywood's most famous family saga, there are some terrific performances, especially Andy Garcia's. Coppola's serial-like, action-packed, highly emotional storytelling is as strong as ever and he could bring home the gold again. The case against: Part III falls slighty short of the standards set by the first two Godfather films. Confusion with the story and unanymous condemnation of Sophia Coppola's performance will also affect Academy voting. Good effort, Francis, but two out of three ain't bad. Good Fellas The case for: Many of the qualities that made the first two Godfather films so legendary are here in this "modern" gangster saga: powerful acting, incredibly interesting characters, and a hell of a story with plenty of action and nostalgic flavor. Robert DeNiro, Secret Punctuational Agenda associated with Revolutio Fortunately, there is an has been infiltrated by th exclamation points in the tend to sound like this: Victory to Iraq! EndU. socialism! After the Revoluti Following January's Si member Paul Carmouche to deny any grammatical I pro-exclamation point tha it my way, we would use e J u Ii e a I g 0 d b I a s c r. v r r a itinerary would take him much farther than Big Rapids. He knew that his road would prove to be the road to success. "I remember one time, after we had lost another road game, we were on the bus coming home," Berenson recalls nostalgically. "I looked over to Mark [Miller, an assistant coach} and I said, 'You know, Mark, someday we're , going to come into these places and kick the shit out of these teams.'" Even then, Berenson knew. As the Wolverines prepare for the NCAA tournament tonight - their first appearance since 1977 - it would appear that "someday" is now. The difference can be seen in all aspects of the Michigan program. For example, during the first road trip of Berenson's inaugural season, Michigan split with Miami, 6-4 and 4-3. This year, the Wolverines opened the season by sweeping the Redskins, 11-1 and 9-3. The Michigan hockey team's trip back to the top is complete. The Wolverines have arrived at their destination, with Berenson providing the direction. But the journey was a long one. After taking one look at the Michigan program, Berenson knew he had his work cut out for him. The championship Michigan program that Berenson remembered from his playing days was a distant memory, nothing more than a page in some dust-covered history book. The look of confidence which the Wolverines of the glory years always wore was no longer present. Opponents were loving every minute of the Wolverines' fall from grace. Schools which could not compare to Michigan in any other aspect - athletic or scholastic - were taking out their frustrations on the ice, laughing as the once-proud Wolverines floundered. Inevitably, Michigan searched for someone to blame, and that someone turned out to be head coach John Giordano. One player's parent wrote a letter, which 22 players signed, to then- Athletic Director Don Canham, asking that Giordano be relieved of his coaching duties. The players' complaints ranged from general coaching ineptness to specific threats by Giordano to take away the scholarships of players who did not perform up to his expectations. Ultimately, Canham asked Giordano to resign, and when the coach refused, he fired him in May of 1984. Canham hoped to restore some stability to the program. With this in mind, he looked to Berenson, who, despite rumors that he was a top candidate for several NHL coaching positions, looked forward to returning to his alma mater. "This, to me, was a challenge," Berenson said. "Things weren't well. The team wasn't doing well. There were a lot of negatives associated with the program. But I really believed in this type of coaching. It's not just coaching; it's educating. I believed in the system." The system in which Berensor believed featured players who took advantage of the opportunities which Michigan hockey provided, appreciating the education as well as the athletic training they received. In other words, he believed in his system, the system he had learned in his playing days. Berenson quickly found out that times had changed since he had last donned the Maize and . There is a common misperception on this campus that the Revolutionary Workers League is a radical communist group. This is completely false. The RWL is actually a highly disciplined, CIA-organized, right- wing organization which poses as a gaggle of drooling communist lunatics in order to subvert and discredit the Left. RWL's basic technique can best be compared to that of a bacteriophage. What bacteriophages do is latch onto an innocent, God-fearing bacterium and inject bacteriophage DNA into the bacterium's nucleus. This DNA "reprograms" the bacterium to produce more bacteriophages instead of begetting more members of its own species. Eventually, the bacterium bursts and releases the bacteriophages. The ACT-UP split provides a fine example of the RWL using this method to destroy an activist organization. Its members joined ACT-UP and disrupted the meetings with "communist" rhetoric until finally ACT-UP expelled them. This, of course, was part of RWL's plan. They proceeded to form their own chapter of ACT-UP, claiming that they were the real ACT-UP. For a while there, nobody knew who the hell ACT-UP was. (The original ACT-UP solved this by qualifying its meeting announcements with the footnote, "Not associated with Revolutionary Workers League.") Then the two groups printed opinion pieces in the Daily, each claiming to be the real ACT-UP and accusing the other of being racist. My basic impression from this situation is that either: 1) ACT-UP consists of hysterical, ultra left-wing McCarthyists who accuse anyone who disagrees with them of being racist, even if the issue has absolutely nothing to do with racism, or 2) ACT-UP really is racist. So either way, they look pretty bad. If the RWL really were communist, it would not be subverting fellow left- wing organizations. Instead, it would try to go after conservative groups. The only problem with this strategy is that, as far as anybody knows, there - 6 1 r are no active conservative groups in Ann Arbor. This is because conservatives shun political activism, prefering instead to sit in their rooms, getting drunk and complaining about the Daily. So RWL would probably take the next best step and infiltrate the Greek System. I don't know about you, but this would make fraternity life a lot more appealing to me. I would rush every house. I can see it now: "Welcome to Delta , . r f A, 4 i '' . e V u8 NO Q b RWI- :the ea~rk1lyyeas Alpha Nu, Jon. Our house stresses academics, social life, and revolution of the proletariat." Inevitably, of course, the RWL would be booted out, and would form a rival house using the same name. We would start seeing posters saying, "Rush Sigma Chi. Not fact is, RWL is dangerous organization which threat I think it's great! We r capitalist system!! Power RWL!! March 15, 1991 WEEKEND Page 4 Page 9 WEEKED M