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9 GAME SCHEDULE ALL GAMES POSTPONED OR CANCELED Check www.dailygamecock.com for continued updates _ 1 '■ -■ -- " — ■ ■■= SPORTS WORLD ON HIATUS . A record number of fans attended USC’s first home game against Boise State. Because of the recent tragedies In New York and Washington, D.C., Williams-Brice stadium will sit empty on Saturday for what was supposed to be USC’s second home appearance, a game against Bowling Green, photo by aaron hark TIMEOUT Gamecocks, country postpone games in remembrance of fallen BY PRESTON BAINES THE GAMECOCK ) On Friday morning, the NFL decided to shut down, and most other sporting events followed suit. At about 11 a.m. Friday, USC’s ad ministration was finalizing game-day ceremonies for Saturday’s non-confer ence matchup against the Bowling Green State Falcons. USC had planned to celebrate the American spirit and remember and hon or the victims of Tuesday’s attacks. The crowd was to hold hands and sing “God Bless America” in place of the usual “2001” entrance. The Gamecocks were also going to provide a chartered plane for Bowling Green because of concern about com mercialized flights. ► But less than 30 minutes later, the Kentucky-Indiana had been canceled and BGSU decided to forego the trip to South Carolina. These cancellations provided a domino effect for the rest of college sports. The SEC was the last of the confer ences to make the decision not to play any athletic events this weekend. “The conference continues to believe this country must begin the healing process following the horrendous events of the past week and will evaluate all fu ture schedules at an appropriate time,” a SEC statement said. Major League Baseball also decided to postpone action until Monday after they learned the NFL had canceled. Base ball originally planned to return to the diamond today, but it had second thoughts when every other sport in the country — and even European soccer — called it quits for the weekend. When games resume Monday, Amer ican flags will be distributed at all Ma jor League Baseball stadiums. “While I recognize that the suffering from Tuesday’s horrific tragedy contin ues, I believe that in the spirit of nation al recovery and return to normalcy, Ma jor League Baseball, as a social institute, can best be helpful by resuming play at the most appropriate time,” baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. Mark McGwire, of the St. Louis Cardi nals, said he wasn’t happy with the amount of time it took baseball to make the decision. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out sporting events are absolutely meaningless compared with what’s go ing on in Washington and New York,” McGwire said. “For people to think it’s OK to play sports this weekend is absolutely asi nine. This is the worst thing that can ever happen to the country, and people are worried about making decisions on playing sporting events,” he said. Though all professional and major college sports were canceled, games at some high schools will still be played Fri day. Division I-AA and lower divisions of collegiate athletics will also go on as scheduled. Ticket holders for the Bowling Green USC football game should keep their tickets, which will be honored if the game is rescheduled. Carolina has already started looking for an opponent to take the place of the Falcons on Nov. 3, USC’s only open week end. Bowling Green is scheduled to play Miami (Ohio) that weekend. Likely candidates for that weekend “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out sporting events are absolutely meaningless compared with what’s going on in Washington and New York.” MARK MCGWIRE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS’ FIRST BASEMAN are East Carolina, Texas Christian, Ok lahoma State, Syracuse, Boston College, Alabama-Birmingham, Louisiana Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe. East Carolina is the leading candidate — the Pirates played USC eight times in the 1990s, defeating the Gamecocks in five games. Because of the college football cancel lations this weekend, USC’s next game will be the first since the tragedies. Car olina is set to play the No. 17-ranked Mis sissippi State Bulldogs Thursday night on ESPN. In addition to football, four other sports were canceled on campus. About 1 p.m., women’s soccer rescheduled a canceled game against Tu lane for Sunday and replaced them with Duke. Less than three hours later, all events were canceled by each college conference. Volleyball and men’s soccer also will be out of action this weekend. As of now, the Men’s golf team is scheduled to play at the Inverness Inter collegiate in Toledo, Ohio, on Monday. , Cancellations - % justified, says soccer team Players feel sports can wait in light of recent events BY KYLE ALMOND THE GAMECOCK * USC has canceled all its sport ing events this weekend because of the recent terrorist attacks, and Tim Glowienka, captain of the men’s soccer team, agrees with the decision. “After seeing what happened, it makes playing seem kind of triv ial,” said the defender, a thmfyear student from Oak Ridge, Tenn. “Innocent people died. Families were broken up. “I love to play, and I know the guys enjoy playing, but I think this time it’s good that we’re not going to be playing.” The Gamecocks were supposed to have a home match against Elon on Sunday, but the athletics department decided against it ThnrcHflv af+prnnnn USC head coach Mark Berson said he was also pleased with the decision but wouldn’t have had any problems if the game went on as scheduled. “If the decision was to have gone the other way, we would say, ‘OK, we’re playing this game to do our part to try to eliminate some of that tragedy and try to put America back on its feet again,”’ Berson said. Sports organizations around the nation, both collegiate and pro fessional, have been wrestling with the same issue as USC this week—to play or not to play? Berson said he can identify with feelings on both sides. “It’s very easy to understand and recognize both sides of the is sue,” he said. “You can make a strong argument for returning to normalcy.... On the other hand, you can certainly see the signifi cance and the importance of rec ognizing and showing respect and concern for the people involved in this tragedy.” The coach said he wouldn’t look down on those who decided to play this weekend. “No one that wpuld even think of practicing or playing in an ath letic contest (this weekend) is in any way wanting to diminish the effects of what’s going on,” Berson said. “Maybe it’s just a way of try ing to say, ‘This is what we in America stand for, and we need to get on with it.’” Glowienka was walking back from class Tuesday morning when his father called him and tokLhin; what had happened. “I was just in shock,” Glowien ka said. “Obviously, there’s no ra tional explanation for this. I’m still in shock. You never think that it could happen to you.” Forward Jordan Quinn, a third year student, was in the Russel) House eating lunch when he found out about the tragedies. “I noticed everyone crowded around the TV,” Quinn said. “I just asked somebody what hap pened, and they told me, and I was' in awe. It was so surreal; I didn’t believe it happened.” yuinn saia ne wouia nave UKea to get back on the field but under stands USC’s decision. “I want to play,” he said, “But say someone from Elon’s parents were in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon. How could we ex pect them to play?” As of now, USC’s next match will be Wednesday at Charlotte The Gamecocks (2-1) are hoping to build off their latest win, a 3-0 whipping of TCU last Sunday at s tournament in Charleston. Carolina lost its first match las? Friday in the same tournament, falling 3-2 to No. 1 SMU. Despite the loss, Berson said he was hap py with the team’s effort, coming came back from two goals down to tie the score before a last-minute strike from SMU ended any hopes of a win. “I thought we really had them on the ropes,” Berson said. “I’m thinking if we go to overtime, we’re going to be in real good shape here. And then they scored on a corner with a minute left.” No decision has been made yet about when the Elon game will be rescheduled. Wednesday’s game against Charlotte is scheduled for 7 p.m. “After seeing what happened, it makes playing seem kind of trivial. Innocent people died. Families were broken up.... I love to play, and I know the guys enjoy playing, but I think this time it’s good that we’re not going to be playing.” TIM GLOWIENKA MEN’S SOCCER TEAM CAPTAIN NCAA made the right decision about college sporting events CHRIS FOY GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM The decision made by Bowling Green to not play here on Satur day was the right one, even before the SEC called off all games. And it was right for a reason other than that travel was uncertain. In light of the terrorist attacks Tuesday, the entire sports world has been turned upside down. And many leagues have been consid ering their options on whether to play. There’s a very simple solution to all of this: Don’t play. People, we’re talking about games hefe. Entertainment. If the destruction that has occurred did anything, it should have given everyone a greater sense of per spective. I certainly hope Tuesday’s events have shown everyone that there are more important things in life than sports. And what many people are overlooking are the effects these incidents are having on people across the nation who are in volved in athletics. Think about how many players and coaches in the 117 Division I teams alone have been affected, first- or sec ondhand. And we want these kids to come out and play? USC offensive lineman Kevin Rivers has two cousins who worked at the World Trade Cen ter. He hasn’t been able to make contact with them. With the thousands of people missing or dead, imagine how many people across the nation are affected— fans, players and per sonnel alike. Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Tom Coughlin’s son worked in the World Trade Center. He was one of the fortunate ones that made it out alive. But the point is that these occurrences are affect ing people in every walk of life across the nation. If the NFL finds this a just cause to cancel professional football games, the NCAA should have done the same and prompted schools to cancel their games a whole hell of a lot sooner than they did. And I’m not talking about leav ing it up to the conference com missioners. The NCAA should have leaned more heavily on the conferences to make uniform de cisions on Wednesday. Their fail ure to do so has caused a lot of un necessary chaos in collegiate sports. What went on yesterday be tween the conferences was the race to avoid looking like the biggest jackass. After some con ferences pulled out, one by one, the other conferences were realiz ing how they would appear to the nation if they played. SEC com missioner Roy Kramer wasn’t helping his conference’s image by appearing on ESPN Wednesday night. Try ing to convince people that foot ball was a good way to move on wasn’t in his best interest because many were against the idea. Regardless of his true inten tions, his initial decision to con tinue playing would have ap peared as nothing more than greed for Saturday’s game revenues. Teams who had planned on con tinuing to play would have greatly hurt 'their image, considering so many sporting events were can celed. It’s the same situation as the NFL’s decision to play two days af ter President Kennedy was assas sinated. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle went on to say after his retirement that the decision to have the teams play that Sunday was the greatest regret he had in his career. Say you still don’t agree with the opinion that the country needs to take a pause of sporting events. Then think travel. What probably was the most highly anticipated match-up of the weekend, Washington at Miami, was canceled for obvious reasons. If Washington was going to trek all the way to Miami, the team would have probably had to leave on Tuesday to have a chance of making it there in time to play. Should we really expect Bowl ing Green to bust their tails to get down here, especially in a game they were so highly favored to lose? While transportation systems are still trying to regroup, unnec essary ventures should be avoid ed. And after all, we are talking about games. I know there’s an urgency in this nation to move on. And we should. But in moving on, we still need to be considerate to those who are so closely related to this horrid oc currence. In the wake of what is the worst terrorist act ever committed on American soil, a pause from nor mal life is justifiable. The NCAA will be here next week. The World Trade Center will not.