The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 5, 1995 - 11A
Wolverines satisfy early spring
fever with Sunday exhibition
The Michigan
Hockey team began
official practices
October 1st and will
take the Ice
tomorrow night at
Yost for the annual
Blue-White Intra-
squad game.
JOE WESTRATE/Daily
fy
cers skate i
the an
John Lerol
y Sports Writer
For most people concerned,
ichigan's hockey season starts Oct.
4 with a date with Guelph. But for the
layers, the games start tomorrow.
The Wolverines will play their an-
ual intra-squad scrimmage - known
cross Ann Arbor as the Blue-White
ame - at 7 p.m. tomorrow night at
ost Ice Arena.
The game is billed as an exhibition
r the fans. For $3, fans get a chance to
e the 1995-96 Wolverines before they
ep onto the ice for a regular season
ame. Plus, kids are invited to skate
ith the team after the game, take pic-
res with the players and get as many
utographs as they can.
But the players insist that the Blue-
hite game isn't just an exhibition. In
ct, they take the game pretty seri-
usly.
"It's not just a scrimmage," team
ptain Steven Halko said. "It's a game
mosphere. Most ofthe guys really get
p for it.
"It's the first time we get a chance to
lay hard and show what we can do for
0 minutes."
Michigan coach Red Berenson also
lnowledges how important the Blue-
hite game is. Tomorrow will be the
rst time the coaching staff can see the
By Brian Sklar
Daily Sports Writer
It's not spring, so why is the Michi-
gan women's softball team compet-
ing in a round robin scrimmage Sun-
day against Wayne State and Bowling
Green?
The Wolverines, who won the Big
Ten title and their region on way to
their first NCAA World Series ap-
pearance in 14 years, are preparing to
duplicate their success of last season.
Michigan hopes the early scrim-
mages will help the team get a feel for
what to expect in the spring.
With a new crop of freshman and
the experience of the veteran players,
the Wolverines hope to work on dif-
ferent lineups and see how they com-
pare to last season's team.
The Wolverines play Wayne State
at 10 a.m. and Bowling Green at 2
p.m. Wayne State will face Bowling
Green at noon.
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins
feels that the outcome of the scrim-
mages are not as important as how the
team competes as a unit.
"We want to see how we look now,"
Hutchins said. "We have a lot of good
talent. The key to our season is mix-
ing in the freshman and combining
the talent with experience."
The team has been practicing for
over three and a half weeks and so far,
the four newest members of the team
- Traci Conrad, Cathy Davie, Lisa
Kelly and Tammy Mika - have been
a welcome addition to the squad.
"We all get along great," senior
center fielder Cheryl Pearcy said. "The
freshmen work hard, are good listen-
ers and are easy to get along with.
"We have a lot
ofgood talent. The
key to our season
is mixing in the
freshmen and
combining the
talent with
experience.'
- Carol Hutchins
Michigan softball coach
They're also great athletes."
Pearcy and the other veteran play-
ers are doing their best to initiate the
newcomers onto the team.
"We hope to be role models to them
and help them out," Pearcy said.
"We're teaching them Hutchin's way
of playing softball."
The team has been focusing on in-
tensity, which can be difficult to keep
up in the fall because the team only
plays exhibition games. However, the
Wolverines are confident that their
team will gel by February and is very
optimistic about the season.
"1 think the team will be great,"
Pearcy said. "We know we are ca-
pable of another World Series ap-
pearance since we (made it) there last
year."
toward onset of season
nual Blue-White game
team in game action.
Berenson regularly sits in the press
box to get a better look at the players'
performance while assistants Billy Pow-
ers and Mel Pearson take the coaching
reins.
"This is a time for players to start
getting back into the groove," Berenson
said. "Players cans see what they can
do. They're playing at game speed for
the first time."
Berenson said the game can be very
beneficial to the coaching staff. The
season opener with Guelph is only four
practices away and a game-type atmo-
sphere acts as a barometer for the
progress of the squad.
Only a week into practices, the game
will also give Berenson the first opportu-
nity to see this year's crop of freshmen at
their best. The Blue-White game will
give the incoming class their first taste of
playing in front of a large crowd at Yost.
"A lot of the younger players don't
realize how many people follow Michi-
gan hockey until after the Blue-White
game," Berenson said. "But a lot of
people are interested in hockey."
Maybe most importantly, the game
will give Berenson an idea of who to
place on different lines. With the depar-
ture of All-American Mike Knuble to
graduation and the loss ofnational scor-
ing leader Brendan Morrison to a knee
injury, most of the line combinations
are in doubt.
A handful of walk-on hopefuls will
also get a chance to impress the coach-
ing staff in their debut at Yost. A couple
of players who have been trying out for
the past week will get at least a little
playing time tomorrow.
Michigan has only two goalies on its
roster and is looking to add a third.
There is also a spot left open after Rob
Gordon left the team at the end of the
summer to play in the juniors.
"We have a spot open because Gor-
don left," Berenson said. "But, we
played a whole season last year with
two roster spots open, so that doesn't
say anything.
"What we're looking for are guys
who can play on this level and people
we don't needto slow down practice for
- guys who can step in and play if we
need them."
But even though thoaplayers take the
Blue-White game seriously, they know
that they're supposed to have some fun
on the ice. And they realize how impor-
tant the post-game activities are to some
of the younger fans.
"It's fun for the fans and its fun for
us," goalie Marty Turco said. "We usu-
ally have helmets on and we're just
numbers, not faces. Now, they can meet
us up close."
Sophomore pitcher Sara Griffin and the Wolverines gear up for the spring season
with various fall exhibitions, including a round robin Sunday.
MississiPPi State at No. 11 Auburn
The game scheduled for 8 p.m. tonight, to be shown on ESPN,-has been postponed due to Hurricane Opal. It is
tentatively rescheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday.
Success is
-cali
Dan Twetten
y Northwestern
In the midst of the clamor and confu-
'on following Northwestern's upset of
otre Dame on Sept. 2, there was quar-
rback Steve Schnur.
Schnur stood outside the press tent
nswering questions from a dozen re-
orters about his performance against
e Fighting Irish and what it meant to
eat a team like Notre Dame in South
end.
What it meant was that Steve Schnur
ad arrived.
Schnur threw two touchdowns in the
ame, completed half his passes and
n the Wildcat offense almost flaw-
ssly.
Could this be the same guy whose
rformance in 1994 spring practice
arranted coach Gary Barnett's deci-
ion to pluck a starting quarterback
rom the junior college ranks?
Could this be the same guy who saw
is starting spot last season go to juco
sfer Tim Hughes for the first eight
aies?
Could this be the same guy whose
atus as a starter was in jeopardy as
cently as August?
Schnurhad clearly undergone a meta-
orphosis and ascended to a new plane
s a player.
But how did he get there?
Steve Schnur came to Northwestern
s an undersized 6-foot-1, 190-pound
eshman slated to carry star quarter-
here for Wildcat
er Steve Schnur
worked hard on his arm strength
:chanics."
ugh Schnur's physical talents
overwhelm anyone upon his ar-
Evanston, the St. Louis native's
tanding of the game impressed
-s immediately.
ould say his overall knowledge
game and his awareness on the
re his biggest assets," offensive
nator Greg Meyer said.
pite questions
his skills,
r said, the B.si$
n of whether,
Id compete in thinking,
me nig Ien never
bothered him.
"There's guy who
writes fora St. Louis
paper who writes a
story on me once
year, and it's always
a rags-to-riches
thing every time,"
Schnur said. "I don't
think of it that way,
but I think a lot of
people see it that
way. Obviously
there were some
obstacles there, but
I know what I can
Smany pel
country at
position?-#
'How man
would love
my positho
just be ar
compete'
Northwesterr
a year makes. Last year at this time I
was pretty miserable trying to cope
with all those things."
Schnur's 1994 season was a study in
inconsistency. Both his playing time
and performance were erratic.
In the season opener against Notre
Dame, Schnur played about half the
game and followed that up with his best
performance of the year against Stanford
the next week.
In relief of
Hughes, Schnur
went 11 for 24
and threw two
'H5Ow touchdown
passes in a 41-41
tie. Despite that
r in my effort, Barnett
re kept Hughes as
the starter, and
Schnur's playing
y people time all but dis-
appeared until
e to be in the Wildcats'
seventh game of
)n, to the year.
Following the
Illinois game, a
28-7 loss in which
Hughes threw two
first-halfintercep-
Steve SChnur tions, Schnur was
n quarterback. named the starter
for the rest of the
season.
"Last year helped me appreciate sim-
Schnur's evolu-
tion from backup to starter was sup-
posed to happen after the 1993 season.
, >
m