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The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, October 2, 1995 - 5B
Michi'ahockey ready to
start over as practice begins
By John Leroi
Daily Sports Writer
Last year ended in heartbreak. This season, the Michigan
hockey team has hopes to end a half decade of frustration in
the post season.
The Wolverines begin practice today at Yost Ice Arena in
preparation for their quest to defend the CCHA title.
After almost a full six months since dropping a thriller in
triple overtime in the NCAA semifinals to Maine, Michigan
is more than ready to begin anew.
"We're excited as coaches," Michigan coach Red Berenson
said. "I expect we'll have a few kids not used to the tempo,
but we look in real good shape after the summer."
Berenson has always had a talented team to work with. The
Wolverines have been in the NCAA final four three of the last
four seasons, but haven't advanced to the championship
game since 1977 and haven't won the title since 1964.
Since then, three other CCHA teams - Lake Superior
State, Michigan State and Bowling Green-have hoisted the
championship trophy at least once. And while no one in the
Wolverine lockerrom will come out and say it, it's obvious
that anything short of a national championship would be a
letdown.
Players have been lacing up their skates everyday for two
weeks in unofficial practices run by team captain Steven
Halko. Halko said the team looks good and healthy in the
early stages, but added that everyone was looking forward to
today.
During the off-season, the players stuck to a dry-land
training program and the coaches spent most of their time
either in the office or on recruiting trips. With only two weeks
of ice time, the Wolverines still have much more to accom-
plish - especially considering they haven't had the oppor-
tunity to skate with coaches since March.
Berenson and assistant coaches Mel Pearson and Billy
Powers will get their first look at the 1995 freshmen class that
includes a couple of blue-chippers.
"I'm looking forward to getting a chance to see (the
freshmen)," Berenson said. "I haven't seen them play for a
We're excited as coaches.
We look in real good shape
after the summer. "
- Red Berenson
Michigan hockey coach
while and I expect them to do some good work."
Berenson might want to focus most of his attention to the'
newcomers because Michigan's veterans don't need much
work. The Wolverines return All-CCHA goaltender Marty
Turco as well as a brilliant crop of junior forwards led by
national point-scoring leader Brendan Morrison.
Michigan has only four days to prepare for the Blue/White
game, the Wolverines' annual intrasquad scrimmage.
Berenson said that he treats the Blue/White game as an
opportunity to see his squad in game action and to test out
various line combinations.
The 11th-year coach may have to do a little juggling of
lines on offense. The departure of Mike Knuble, who led the
nation in goals last year, and Rob Gordon leave two vacan-
cies on the first'line.
But Berenson seemed more concerned with the fact that
Michigan had only 12 days before it kicks off the 1995 season
against Guelph. The Wolverines open up the CCHA regular
season Oct. 20 at home against Western Michigan.
"It's going to be tough because we can't fine-tune things
in a week," Berenson said. "We'll have to see how things go
week in and week out.
"Right now we'll be shuffling lines around, looking at
different combinations. It's hard to tell who is going to click
with who. But, I'll tell you, the lines you see in the Bluer
White game won't necessarily be the lines against Guelph or
Western."
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan sophomore goalie Marty Turco and the Wolverines begin practice today.
Prairie'V O
Prre's View: more losses
Prairie View A&M takes 51st setback in a row with no end anywhere in sight
The Washington Post,
PRAIRIE VIEW, Tex.- Michael Porter has it all mapped out in his mind. He'll
score the winning touchdown with a dive over the middle - no, check that, he'll
score it by hurtling over a defender to get into the end zone.
He'll have to celebrate then, a little high-stepping maybe, and who cares about ' :
the NCAA rules? He'll take the penalty, no big deal, not on this day.
The bus ride home likely will be long- at Prairie View A&M, Porter's school,
the trips are always on the bus, even the one to Montgomery, Ala., which takes
eight hours - and he probably won't get back to campus until the wee hours of
the morning.
So he'll take a quick nap before breakfast, then head to the dining hall to telli
everybody that they won, they won, THEY WON, and then the school would4
probably give them all a parade and maybe even cancel classes on Monday.
"They'd call off school," Porter said, "I'm sure they would."
At Prairie View, there would be cause for all this celebration. The school's
football team, which plays in the Division I-AA Southwestern Athletic Confer-
ence, has not won a game since 1989.
The losing streak hit 51 - the all-time mark at any college level - Saturday.
night in Dallas, when the Panthers, in their fifth game of the season, lost to
Grambling State, 64-0.
It is an ignominious distinction that has drawn a great deal of attention to thisF
historically black college just north of
Houston and has made a mini-celebrity
of Porter, the junior running back.
Porter is spectacularly gifted in ther
art of losing with grace and humor-heI
never won a game during his varsity
career at Houston's Jefferson Davis
High School, either. The last time he
won a game, he played for the junior
varsity in the fall of 1988. It was the
final game of the season. Afterward, he
went to watch the varsity game. His
team lost.
"Well, I don't exactly remember,"
Porter said, when asked whether he
A p could recall the thrill of victory, "but it
felt good, I guess."
It is easy to find the Prairie View I
situation almost tragically funny. They
have aNigerian kicker, Nsikan Udoyen,
whose only football experience came in
r ?a Moroccan flag football league in el-
AP PHOTO ementary school,and who was recruited..
out of swimming class by the special-
1995 Michigan hockey schedule
October
14 '
.
20
21.
26
3
4
10.11
1718
24-25
24
25
28
GUELPH4 (Exhib)
WESTERN MICHIGAN*
at Western Michigan*
at Maine
at Ferris State*
at Ferris State*
at Miami University*
ALASKA FAIRBANKS*
at College Hockey Showcase (Milwaukee)
vs. Wisconsin
vs. Minnesota
at Michigan State*
7:00
7:00
TBA
7;00
J P.M.
)p.m.
'
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
9:00 p.m.
6:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
December
b LAKE SUPERIOR STATE*
9at Western Michigan*
14 at Bowling Green*
29-30 at Great Lakes Invitational (Detroit)
29 vs. Northern Michigan
30 GU Consolation
30 GLI Championship
January
FERRIS STATE*
6 MIAM*
12-13 ILLNIS-.CHICAGO*
16 ALASKA-FAIRBANKS*.
20 at Notre Dame*
26 at Ohio State*
l 27. at Bowling Green*
February
2-3 OH10 STATE*
9 at Notre Dame*'
10 at llinois-Chicago*
16 NOTRE.DAME*
17 vs. MICHIGAN STATE* (@Joe Louis Are
23-24 at Lake 'Superior .State*
March
1 MICHIGAN.STATE*
2 BOWLING GREEN*.
8-10 CCHA Qu arterfinals (Campus Sites)
15 at CCHA Semi-finals (Detroit)
16 at CCHA Championships (Detroit)
22-24 at NCAA Regionals (East Lansing and
28 at NCAA Semifinals (Cincinnati)
30 at NCAA Championships (Cincinnati)
Home games In BOLD at Yost Ice Arena
*Denotes CCHA Opponents.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
4:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
8:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
ana); 7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m.
8:30 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
Albany, N.Y.)
I
1
I
i
I
I
teams coach, John Tankersley.
Last week, Udoyen was given his first opportunity to kick an extra point (Prairie
View had only scored two other touchdowns this season and went for two points
both times) and he kicked the ball off the back of his own teammate.
The players have ill-fitting equipment and hand-me-down practice uniforms
donated by the Houston Oilers.:Prairie View's budget is a fraction of its neigh-
bors', Texas A&M and Texas, and alumni are so disgusted by the state of the
program - and a financial scandal that occurred in 1990-that they rarely bother
to donate money to the school.
Indeed, the financial scandal (members of the athletic department were accused
of money mismanagement) forced the cancellation of the football program for the
1990 season and is a huge part of how Prairie View, once a football power, has
reached this state.
When Prairie View reinvented its football program for the 1991 season, it did
so without scholarships. Not one. Every other school in the SWAC has handfuls
to dole out, and the Prairie View program is left to fend for itself.
All its coaches have teaching jobs - as well as other coaching jobs in other
Prairie View athletic programs - and the entire athletic department budget is
$849,000 this year.
Hence, the bus rides to places like Montgomery, Ala., where Prairie View plays
Alabama State. Porter thinks maybe that's what the team needs to break this cycle
- dump the current bus company and pick a new one. They already have gotten
rid of the boxed chicken dinners they used to get for the ride home, figuring they
were bad luck. That didn't work. Neither did the "Lucky Blue Dot" Porter received
in the mail from the National Enquirer and wore in his helmet for one game last
season.
Of course, the problem also could be the uniforms. Orthe nickname. Porter wore
purple and gray in high school and played for a team nicknamed the Panthers. At
AP PHOTO
The win over Prairie View A&M was Grambling coach Eddie Robinson's 399th.
That Porter chose to play for Prairie View despite the recent losing tradition does
not come as a surprise once you spend a few minutes talking to him. That's the
remarkable thing, really - the remarkable thing about all the guys on the team,
and the thing that doesn't make this so tragic, or funny, after all.
Porter and the other players still have fun. They still enjoy playing football. They
still laugh andj oke and tease each other at practice, even last week, when they were
preparing to play a game in front of 63,000 people at the Cotton Bowl, a game that
would make them forever infamous for their losing streak.
"At a certain point, when we're really getting blown out, I stop looking at the
scoreboard and just start thinking about playing football," Porter said. "That's
what it's all about - playing football and being a man. Nobody's ever going to
say I quit."
Porter isn't a quitter. And he's not a loser, either, no matter how many
consecutive losses his football team manages to amass. He's simply a kid playing
a game that he loves to the best of his abilities. And if those abilities make it hard
to compete against the big-budget, scholarship-laden competition, well, so be it.
He's going to keep going out to the field every Saturday. And every Saturday
he'll be having that fantasy, the one where he gets to dance in the end zone.
I Get y ur Michian Job Hotline
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