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USC's first OPPO Techg Georgia Tech went into this football season with an extremely inexperienced team, but the Yellow Jackets went about gaining an education in perhaps the best way they could--by facing one of the nation's finest teams in their season opener with Notre Dame. Although Tech absorbed a 31-7 trouncing by the powerful Irish, the Yellow Jackets did not come away with the physical pounding many had anticipated for them. Tech did not sustain any serious injuries but Coach Pepper Rodgers, of Kansas and UCLA, fame, saw his team gain playing experience, something the Gamecocks do not yet have, as this weekend's match-up in Atlanta represents the opener for Carolina. The Saturday night game will Lettermt Good swi The Carolina swimming. team opens it season Nov. 26, but already the swimmers are going through the process of pre-season conditioning. The Gamecocks, who had a ranking of 25th In the nation and compiled a dual meet record of 5-5 last season, are excited and op timistic about many aspects of the forthcoming season. Carolina has a number of out standing lettermen returning and has signed nine freshmen, who should form the nucleus of a good team. The best description Qf the Gamecock's upcoming scedule Is probably challenging since 5 of the 11 USC dual meet opponents were ranked last year in the nation's top 20. They Include North Carolina State, sixth, Miami, seventh, and Florida, 10th, in the nation. The Gamecock swimmers and coaching staff can hardly wait to move from their antiquated pool Into the new pool under cons struction next to the Physical Education Center. ment ins edi start at 8 o'clock. In his first season as Tech coach, Rodgers has inherited a young team and has attempted to acquaint the youthful squad with a new wishbone offense. Rodgers' team appears suited for the wishbone attack-the of fense consists of an experienced line, big, strong running backs and two quarterbacks capable of running on a level slightly below that of Gamecock field general Jeff Grantz. The defense, a youthful squad, will be aided by the new offense, since the wishbone typically keeps defenses on the sidelines longer than do wide-open style offenses. Defense is the question mark of the Tech team, a similar situation to that of the Gamecocks. In terms of experience deSensively, Tech is Lining up for Tech !n. re-crut mmin Se Unfortunately the great amount of rain the Columbia area had over the summer, and is having now, has slowed the process (construction) considerably," Ed Miller, assistant swimming coach, said. If the pool Is completed by March, Carolina will be the host team of the National Independent Swimming championships. The USC coaching staff is op timistic about both returning swimmers and the nine recruits signed during the summer by Coach Al an Gentry. Tom Schmidt heads the retur ning swimmers. During the summer Schmidt was name an All America choice by the NCAA in the 1,650 free style. He is the first Carolina swimmer in history to be named AMI-America. According to Gentry, Schmidt's honor was well earned. "Tom Is a very deserving kid and is a champion in every sense of the work," Gentry said. Meanwhile, Gentry spent the suminer signing nine top-class high school swimmers. lcation' strongest at linebacker but only three of the starting four have seen any varsity action. The linebacking experience belongs dhiefly to Joe Harris, 6-1, 212, from Fayetteville, N.C., who is a senior. The Tech defensive backfield totals just two-and-a-half years' experience, with two of the years belonging to All-America Randy Rhino, a cornerback. Junior Steve Crawford is the only other player with any experience listed as a possible starter by Tech. Rhino's brother, Danny, is also a secondary starter. On the defensive line, Tech starts some juniors, representing some degree of experience, but a star ting freshman tends to counteract that experience. Please Turn.To Page 9 hint Lason Six of the nine recruits are freestylers, including Steve Breiter of Lafayette, Calif; Bill Ehrhorn of Philadelphia; Barney Giese of Columbia; Gary Jameson of Nashville; Randy Phipps of Los Angeles; and Mike Sullivan of Miami. Also signed were backstroker and individual medley performer Greg Midwinter of Little Neck, N.Y., and breaststrokers Mike Grissino of Athens, Ga. and Dave Gribble of Miami. Gentry said of the recruits, "All of these kids have excellent credentials and we hope they will keep improving and reach their full potential. This will give us a great deal more flexibility and depth, and we should have a much stronger team next (this) season." Breiter, one of the nine recruits, summed up the team's attitude when he said, "1 am really looking forward to this seaann FRvery time I go by thelnew poo) site I feel like yelling at tne top of my lungs, 'Get that thing done so we can get into it!' " ...A Rau Steve Parker Sports Editor Recruiting has not become any easier for America's college tennis coaches, despite the recent tennis boom which has swept the country, filling tennis courts across America but not increasing the number of quality players by any appreciable number. Ron Smarr, who took a losing Carolina team and has let it to three straight 20-game seasons, admits that the increase in would-be tennis players has not made his job of recruiting at USC any easier. If anything, Smarr says, the boom has made recruiting more difficult. "The result of the increased national interest in tennis is that you find more schools pushing the sport," Smarr said. "So, while you have a few more players, you have the talent spread out a lot more." "A lot of schools will become interested in a sport, like tennis, where you need only two or three good players to be ranked. A lot of smaller schools will try to get on the college athletics bandwagon. The same thing is true in basketball, where three or four top recruits can give a school a name," Smarr said. Smarr said some 100 schools probably offer eight full scholarships for tennis, and there are probably 40 or 50 of those which offer eight full scholarships and have large budgets appropriated to tennis. "But there are only eight, 10 or 15 blue chip tennis players to be recruited every year, and you've got 40 schools going after then," Smarr said. The lack of quality players available for recruiting has led the coaches of collegiate tennis abroad, seeking to find players in foreign countries and entice them to play in the United States. Smarr has recruited a few foreigners for Carolina. Andreas Hufschmid, of Geneva, Switzerland, is the current number two man on the Gamecock squad. Two native Frenchmen played for Carolina last year, as did South African Brian Desatnik the past couple. While Smarr has had to look abroad for some of his talent, his situation is not quite as bad as that of many other coaches in the nation. Carolina is located near an area acknowledged as playing respectable tennis as compared to the rest of the nation-the Georgia-North Carolina area. Notably missing from the name of that area is South Carolina, and the fact that USC does not have a scholarship tennis player from in-state may reflect why. South Carolina's absence from tennis prominence is somewhat strange in that the state enjoys warm weather, as do the top tennis regions of the country, and the local weather is nicer than that of many tennis areas better than the Palmetto state. California, Texas and Florida are considered the nations' best spots, with South Carolina's neighbors supplying the next best areas . "Columbia could stand to have three racquet clubs," Smarr said. "And USC could use at least 25 more courts with all the interest there is on campus in playing ten But neither Columbia nor South Carolina are yet equipped to develop top players and so Smarr must look elsewhere. "We do most of our recruiting in Florida and the New England area, and also New York and New Jersey." .Unfortunately for Smarr, the lack of regional talent gives the edge to Western schools for developing national powers. "But all coaches in all sports will tell you the best recruiter you have is the word-of-mouth recruiting you get from your own ex-players and alumni," Smarr said. "To get the real blue-chippers you need somebody to say 'go to South Carolina.' Which many quality tennis players across the nation would take as saying, "go to hell." Still, Smarr has enjoyed good success in his recruiting, guiding USC to a 73-16 record in his three years at Carolina by adapting to the situation he faces by coaching in an area pretty much void of quality tennis.