The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - March 18,1991- Page 7
BOLES
Continued from page 1
any recovery at all has a minimum
one-year recovery and rehabilita-
tion period. According to Kohen, it
is over six weeks before the pa-
ent can even walk on his injured
"'nee, six months before the knee
can withstand the impact of run-
ning, and at least a year before he
can even think of subjecting it to
the twists and turns involved in
football running.
Nevertheless, many expected
Boles to try to return for the 1990-
91 college season, the season in
which he would have been a fifth-
*ear senior. Some, however, knew
better.
"We knew that coming back for
the team was going to be a long
shot," Chuck Gordon, Boles'
coach at Westland John Glenn
High School said. "At the same
time, that's a career-threatening
injury and you just don't know how
(the player is) going to respond."
Gordon mentioned a very im-
4ortant aspect of recovery from a
severe injury: emotional response.
The pressure on a college player in
Boles' situation is tremendous. He
had the torture of physical therapy.
Day in, day out. All this for an in-
credible length of time. Then, his
coach retires. The program he'd re-
turn to would be different from the
one he left.
*nHe had to worry about fighting
for a spot on the team when he re-
turned with two talented new run-
ners (Jon Vaughn and Ricky Pow-
ers). To top it off, as a student-ath-
lete, he had to think about com-
pleting his studies.
"But it's all right
We can't be forever blessed ...,
I'm jast tryin' to get some rest."
-Paul Simon
D An insurmountable load?
Maybe. It certainly seems that it
would take a "superhuman" effort
to manage it. Finally, sometime
last year under some combination
of circumstances, Tony decided
that enough was enough. He went
in to coach Gary Moeller's office,
that's the new coach's office, and
informed Moeller that he would
not be returning to the team.
At this point, many labeled
Tony Boles a failure. "Too bad,"
they said, "looks like its over for
him. And he was such a great run-
ner. Could've won the Heisman."
'(Boles) did some
pretty things (at the
Indianapolis scouting
combine). The guy had
*a pretty significant
injury, all right, and to
be able to do those
things, I think he's
come a long way'
-Ron Hughes,
Detroit Lions' director of
Player Personnel
At least they were half correct.
Had he not been injured, Boles
would have given even BYU's Ty
Detmer, this year's Heisman win-
ner, a 'run' for his money. About
the other half, we'll get to that
later.
While at Michigan, Tony Boles
had two of the most prolific rush-
ing years in Wolverine history.
Why two? Well, he was redshirted
his first year, and he missed most
of his sophomore year with a hand
injury. Certainly, this was not as
serious an injury as the anterior
cruciate tear, but you'll notice that
he did overcome it.
Boles first saw action at Michi-
gan at the end 1987 season. He
was a kick-return specialist in the
last four games. But Michigan did
not recruit Tony Boles to return
kicks. They recruited him to run.
To run like the wind. To run like
he did in high school, where he
gained over 3000 yards and be-
came the first All-American, in
any sport, in the history of John.
Glenn High School.
Tony Boles, the runner, debuted
in 1988. That year, he gained1408
yards, scored nine touchdowns,
had six games over 100 yards rush-
ing, and one over 200 yards. In.
honor of these achievements,
Boles was named to the All-Big
Ten first team, both AP and UPI,
and chosen as a second team All-
American.
from the sidelines.
Earlier, it was said that many
who commented on Tony Boles
were only half right. They correctly
lauded his brilliant playing career.
They incorrectly counted him out.
On April 21, Tony Boles will be
glued to ESPN, eagerly awaiting a
phone call. From an NFL team.
True, there was some reason to
doubt Boles' resolve. Aside from
leaving the team, Boles also left
the university. For a time, no one
could find him, not even his par-
ents. Rumors ran wild.
After a major trauma, just about
everyone has the same response.
Complete withdrawl. You sit on a
couch and watch soaps for a while.
But many times, there is a point
where you turn it around. At some
point in the last year, Tony Boles
turned it around. He went into
training. Serious training. Deter-
mined training. The kind of train-
ing comebacks are made of. And
even with anterior cruciate in-
well.
"(Boles) did some pretty things
(at the Indianapolis scouting com-
bine)," Ron Hughes, director of
player personnel for the Detroit Li-
ons, said. "The guy had a pretty
significant injury, all right, and to
be able to do those things, I think
he's come a long way."
How pretty was Boles' perfor-
mance? For starters, he passed the
Lions' required physical. We can
presume he passed the other
teams' exams as well. He weighed
in at 196 pounds, a mere six
pounds over his college playing
weight. His vertical jump was 33
inches, his broad jump 9.7 feet. He
performed the short agility test in
4.3 seconds - a key demonstra-
tion of his recovery, since agility
is usually the one area most af-
fected by an anterior cruciate in-
jury, For those not up on recruiting
specifics, these are good numbers.
Still, considering the serious-
ness of his injury and the fact that
he's been out of competitive foot-
7 ow
Christine Schmeidel, Michigan's No.1 singles player, was swept in her
match this weekend. The Badgers rolled over the Wolverines, 9-0.
M
women netters
aced out by Badgers
by Adam Miller
Daily Sports Writer
Pound. Pound. Pound
Such is the sound of a
college
Two years ago, former Michigan running back Tony Boles was breaking big runs for the Wolverines, like this
45-yard scoring play against Wisconsin. Today, Boles is hoping for the opportunity to duplicate such feats in
the NFL. He has been working to recover from a knee injury suffered at Michigan.
Tony Boles' continued to fly
through the Big Ten in 1989. The
eventual team MVP, his 870 yards
rushing led the team and ac-
counted for over one-third of
Michigan's rushing total for the
year (2499). One of his many high-
lights of the season was a 91-yard
scoring sprint against Indiana, the
second longest in school history.
Perhaps his finest performance
came at Illinois. On Michigan's
second offensive play of the game,
Boles silenced the 73,069 scream-
ing, pom-pom waving fans with a
73-yard dash to the Illinois one-
yard line. His final run of the day,
a snaking 13-yard TD run in the
closing minutes of the fourth quar-
ter, crushed the Illini and put the
Wolverines in the driver's seat for
a second straight outright Big Ten
Championship.
But the world of sports is full of
irony. Just one week later, Boles
injured his knee at Minnesota.
Tony Boles could no longer fly on
the field. While he would travel to
Pasadena with the team, he would
be forced to watch, on crutches,
juries, comebacks do happen.
"The reason (the players) go
through all this stuff (training and
rehab) is so that they can have a
chance to play again," Kohen said.
"If (Boles) had no hope at all of
playing, his doctors would have
told him, 'Hey look, don't bother."'
Kohen made sure to mention
that a player is always changed by
the injury and the reconstruction
involved. His knee will never be as
strong as it was before, and some
adjustment in running style -
usually less cutting and more
straight-ahead sprinting - is nec-
essary to maintain the ligament.
But several NFL players have
done it before. Curt Warner, the
All-Pro running back for the Seat-
tle Seahawks, and Icky "Shuffle"
Woods of the Cincinnati Bengals
are but two examples. You'd never
know it by watching them play.
You would never know watch-
ing Tony Boles these days, either.
He was recently rated by The Na-
tional as one of this year's top run-
ning back draft-picks, and he has
won praise from the NFL scouts as
ball for a year, some thought that
Tony would be, at best, a late-
round pick. Well, "The Rocket" is
still number one. But, Boles is
right up there too.
"I just think that he will go a
little before what a lot of people
think," Hughes said.
"Medicine is magical."
-PaulSimon
Perhaps medicine is not exactly
magical. If it were, Boles would
have recovered completely in time
for his senior year. But it just may
have enough magic to let Boles
give us more moments like the one
at the end of 1989's Illinois game.
There certainly was magic in
WJR's Frank Beckman's voice as
he called Tony Boles' final flight
into the endzone of 1989.
"Handoff Boles, deep out of the
I. Takes it right off-tackle. Gets a
block, TEN, FIVE, TOUCHDOWN
TONY BOLES!"
So, sometime soon, check out
the endzones in the NFL. You'll
find that Tony Boles still has fur-
ther to fly.
To Honolulu. For the Pro Bowl.
while starring in the Ice Capades.
"I had no idea I would still be
skating 14 years after the
Olympics and loving it as much as
ever," Hamill said. "When I
trained for the Olympics, all I did
was eat, sleep and skate."
Both reserved ($8) and general
admission ($5) tickets for the
event are available at the Athletic
Ticket Office.
tennis match. Blistering serves.
Solid ground-strokes. Bullet
overheads.
Pound. Pound. Pound.
The Michigan women's tennis
team knows a lot about pounding.
The Wolverines (0-2 in the Big
Ten, 6-4 overall) travelled to
Madison Saturday morning, and
were pounded by the streaking
Badgers, 9-0.
The Badgers maintained their
perfect conference record with the
whitewash (5-0, 11-6), while the
defeat was the fifth in the last
seven matches for Michigan.
"Wisconsin is very good,"
Michigan coach Bitsy Ritt said.
"They have a good chance to win
the (Big Ten) Championship."
One only needs to look at the
final tally to realize the
completeness of Wisconsin's
victory. All but two of the matches
wete decided in straight sets.
Michigan's captain Stacy Berg,
playing at No. 2 singles, and sixth-
seeded Jennifer Love were the'
only two Wolverines to extend
their matches to three sets.
The eagerly awaited contest
between. the school's No. 1 singles
players, Michigan's Christine
Schmeidel and Wisconsin's Elaine
DeMetroulois was but one of the
seven Wisconsin sweeps of the
afternoon. While the three previous
matches between the two have
been tight, this one was anything
but. Utilizing a lethal serve-and-
volley game, DeMetroulois
dispensed of Schmeidel in straight
sets, 6-4, 6-1.
However, all is not lost for the
Wolverines. Last year, the team
started 0-4 in the Big Ten, then
proceeded to win its next four,
before finally succumbing in their=
final regular season match to
Indiana, the eventual Big Ten
Champion.
Furthermore, both of
Michigan's conference games thus
far have been on the road against
highly-ranked teams. Northwestern,
who the Wolverines faced in
Evanston last weekend, was
predicted before the season to
finish second in the conference.
Wisconsin was picked for third.
"It's just the way the schedule
worked," Ritt said. "That we
played two of the toughest teams
in the conference right off the bat.
And there is definitely a home-
court advantage."
Starting this week, Michigan
will get a well-deserved breather
in the schedule. This weekend, the
team has two non-conference
matches, at Notre Dame and
Oklahoma. Five of the remaining
seven matches are in the friendly
home confines of the Huron Valley
Tennis Club, including matches
against Purdue on April 5th and
Illinois April 6th. While it's been a
rocky start, Ritt feels the season
is far from over.
A&
Dorothy
H amill
coming to
Yost
from Staff Reports
For all of you who chopped off
your long hair after the 1976
Olympics in exchange for a Suga
cut, be prepared for an extra treat
Easter weekend this year.
Saturday, March 30, Figure
Skating Champion Dorothy
Hamill, who founded the famous
coiffure, will appear at Yost Ice
Arena. The show will also feature
a lineup of national-caliber skaters
and a comedy-on-ice routine by
Kevin Williams, a former member
of the Ice Capades.
Hamill is in her 15th year of
professional skating after garnering
the U.S. and World Ladies Figure
Skating Championship titles and
an Olympic gold medal in 1976.
After turning pro, she won the
World Pro Championships four
years in a row beginning in 1984,
along with numerous other awards,
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