The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 24, 1998, Page Page 7, Image 7
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Michelle Davison, a sophomore diver
at USC, won the 3-meter springboard
event at the U.S. Senior National
Diving Championships in Atlanta, Ga.,
at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center on
Aug. 15th. In addition to winning the
3-meter title, Davison was named the
best all-around athlete of the Senior
Nationals meet.
Davison won the 3-meter event after
competing in the 10-meter and 1meter
events the previous two days.
Her high scores throughout the threeday
meet landed her the best all-around
athlete award. She finished fifth in the
1-meter event and ninth on the 10-metor
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"Michelle is a tough competitor,"
USC Head Diving Coach Todd Sherritt
said. "Not every diver in the championships
competed in all three events
like Michelle did. When she won the 3meter
she was really tired and sore, but
being the true champion that she is,
Hokies'
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Five-step drops and sprint-outs were
the furthest thing from A1 Clark's mind
a few months ago. Virginia Tech's senior
quarterback longed more for a
return to normalcy in everyday life than
a return to football. The pain he felt getting
in and out of a car or climbing a
flight of stairs gnawed at him. He wondered
when ? or if ? his left knee
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But that pain ? which finally
subsided enough to allow Clark to open
practice with the Hokies last week ?
was nothing compared to the pain he
felt two years ago when his brother,
Sean Leo Clark, committed suicide.
"It was one sudden thing," Clark
said. "I talked to him one day, and then
two days later you get a phone call." On
Clark's left bicep is a tattoo of a tombstone
with the inscription "RIP Leo,
1970-1996."
"I put it on there the day he passed,"
said Clark, the fourth of five brothers
and one behind Sean in the birth order.
"He couldn't get a tombstone because
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she really sucked it up and pulled out
the win."
Davison also won the Phillips Performance
Award at the Senior Nationals.
The Performance Award is voted
on by all of the coaches as an award
to the most outstanding diver of the
meet.
"This win marks a big turning point
in my career," Davison said. "I've been
up there, and now I finally proved to
myself I have the ability to beat some
the country's best divers."
Davison's coach at USC, Todd Sherritt,
also won the United States Diving
Coach's Award of Excellence at the meet
That award was also voted on by all
of the coaches.
With Davison's win at the Senior
National Championships, she advances
to the World Diving Cup in Wellington,
New Zealand on January 12-16.
Davison won the SEC 3-meter Diving
Championship this past year while
setting a new conference record in the
event.
QB Clai
we didn't have enough money, so I got ?
him one." c
Clark said he thinks of his brother ?
whenever he catches a glimpse of the \
tattoo in the mirror, or when someone j
asks about it. Clark said Sean was born t
without an esophagus, and the resulting
health problems made it difficult to i
hold on to a job. He moved away from C
home, then moved back when money t
ran short. He had a child on the way c
and pressures mounting. ?
"But he never told me; I didn't know
he wasn't all right," Clark said. "He t
could have come here and stayed with r
me. Sometimes he gave me money. I c
could have let him live with me and he ?
could have got a job here." >
Clark said it's still hard to fathom ?
that his brother is gone and the cir- t
cumstances that led him to take his life. S
"I'm pretty sure one day it will hit me," e
Clark said. "I still don't know all the (
details." ?
The details about Clark's knee have
been a taboo subject for him much of ?
the summer. But at Tech's media day i
last Wednesday, he obligingly withstood c
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college press EXCHANGE
If Dennis Franchione was certain
of anything when he took over the
Texas Christian University football
program, it was that changes would
have to be made. After all, the Horned
Frogs went 1-10 under Pat Sullivan
in 1997.
The most important difference he
could make, though ? a major tal
ent upgrade ? might take years to
achieve. So Franchione dipped into the
coaches' bag of psychological tricks and
made a move unquestioned for its simplicity
or its brilliance.
He changed the color of the helmets.
Out with the silver, in with the purple.
Off with the TCU logo, on with the
Spirit Frog.
He also redesigned the jerseys, going
to a darker shade of purple, and
reconfigured the locker room into a
single, open space.
It's not that Franchione's become
a dedicated follower of fashion.
Rather, Franchione explained, "Its
a piece of the whole attitude change
I'm trying to develop here.
*k fights
i blitz of reporters' questions. "I i
lidn't think Fd be able to come out here t
ind play again," Clark said. "Football 1
vas way in the back of my mind. I (
ust wanted to get healthy first.... It \
ook a long time."
Time will tell just how healthy he f
s. As Tech opened practice this week, s
Slark said his knee felt fine. He will be s
reated as delicately as fine china 1
luring practices leading up to the Sept. s
i opener against East Carolina. i
Three weeks ago, Clark's left leg ?
ested 10 to 15 percent weaker than his
ight, a vast improvement over just a 1
:ouple of months ago. "They say that t
it 90 percent you're pretty much good, f
rou're pretty much healed," said Clark, t
i senior from Washington. "Just around
he corner and you'll be right there." (
Since he tore the meniscus cartilage \
sarly in last year's West Virginia game,
Dlark has had a litany of leg problems {
ind lots of self-doubt. 1
He missed one game, then was a
jimpy quarterback the final three reg- s
liar- season contests. On Dec. 1, he un- i
lerwent arthroscopic knee surgery that \
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"This team," he said, "needs to gain
confidence, self-esteem, put last year
behind them. Cleanse their minds. I
can't change the players a great
deal, but I can change how they think.
And changing the helmet and the uniforms
and the locker room is all part
of that process."
Plenty of coaches and players agree
with Franchione. What might be cosmetic
alterations to outsiders can represent
a whole new and improved era
to a football team, especially one that's
been living on the dark side.
Money also plays a role in some
schools' decisions to change uniforms,
logos or color combinations. New and
different tends to sell more, and university
athletic departments rely on
sales of licensed merchandise as an
important revenue stream in a time
of tighter budgets.
But, for the most part, it's a mind
thing. Downtrodden programs at local
schools such as the University of
North Texas and Southern Methodist
University have made their own fashion
changes in recent years, particularly
when they've hired new coaches.
; throug
lormally requires about three weeks
;o heal, but a month later he was hobDied
and ineffective against North Car)lina
in the Gator Bowl before being
Dulled. ,
Clark still wasn't well by spring
>ractice. He played sparingly in the j
ipring game, and afterward the knee (
iwelled. Inflammation developed belind
the kneecap, and rest was preicribed.
When Clark did work out, pain 1
jrevented him from pushing himself, 1
ind his leg weakened.
"I don't think he was working as |
lard as he should have been," said or- i
hopedic surgeon Marc Siegel, who perormed
the arthroscopic surgery. "I don't ,
hink he was motivated."
Early in the summer, tests revealed
Clark's left leg was about 40 percent
veaker than the right.
"It showed him, look, Al, this is the
jroblem ? you just have to work your |
jutt off to get stronger,"' Siegel said.
Finally, Clark had enough. About i
iix weeks ago Clark he began work
ng out feverishly every day in Tech's
veight room.
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By contrast, traditionally successful
programs like the University of Nebraska
aren't as likely to make major
changes, such as dropping the
"N" from its helmets, even when a new
coach is hired. ^
"It's like we're starting over," explained
TCU punter and wide receiver
Royce Huffman, endorsing his
school's changes. "It's a whole new attitude:
getting rid of the past and starting
fresh. It's psychological. Yeah, I
think it's going to help us."
TCU linebacker Joseph Phipps calls
the darker purple color and the new
helmets "a nice change," but adds, "the
color of the helmet's not really going
to matter when you get out there
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Asked whether he would rather
play in the old colors of the NFL's Tampa
Bay Bucanneers, or in Tampa's new,
improved colors, Phipps laughed. He
chose the new look, but said that's not
the reason the Bucs are finally winning.
"The changes in their uniforms
didn't make them a better team,"
Phipps said. "It was their coaches' and
;h pain
"I was already experiencing setbacks
and swelling in my knee, so I figured I
didn't have anything to lose," Clark said.
"Just going in there and rehabbing every
lay and giving it everything you've got;
after two weeks or three weeks of that
tiard training I pretty much was getting
back to normal.
"We were just trying to find something
that works. I think we found something
that works and we kind of stuck
svith it. Right now I'm feeling pretty
good and the knee is probably the last
thing on my mind."
With his left leg just 10 to 15 percent
weaker than his right, he has reason
to be optimistic. For Clark, that's
a welcome emotion after months of uncertainty.
"He hasn't felt that way in
a long time," offensive coordinator and
quarterbacks coach Rickey Bustle said.
Tt's been very frustrating for him. He's
getting that spark back. I'm glad to see
A1 come back mentally as well as physically."
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oost morale
players' commitment to do better. We
changed our uniforms, but what we're
really tiying to do change is our commitment."
A change in commitment is what
Hayden Fry had in mind when he took
over the coaching job at the University
of Iowa in 1979. Fry, a psychology
student, gave the Hawkeyes black
helmets and mimicked the uniforms
of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who'd just
finished a run of Super Bowl championship
seasons. He also changed the
schobl logo to a meaner-looking hawk.
"The first thing he did when he
came here was change the uniform,"
recalled Phil Haddy, sports information
director at Iowa. "He didn't
want his team putting on the old
uniform, which was associated with
losing."
That was some of the thinking behind
the UNTs decision to emphasize
the "Mean Green" nickname and logo
over the "Eagles." '
"We've always been the Mean
Green and the Eagles. We just tried
to put more emphasis on Mean Green
because it represented a time when
we were more successful," said associate
athletic director Hank Dickenson.
"You're maybe trying to create a
new era."
There will be fewer such changes
at UNT this season, even though a new
coach, Darrell Dickey, is in place. Dickenson
said that's because there have
been many changes in recent years at
UNT, and consistency is needed.
Sometimes, coaches make more
subtle changes in fashion. SMU head
coach Mike Cavan added horseshoe
stickers to the helmets of top-performing
players. At practice, he has
his players wearing T-shirts that say,
"TEAM" in bold lettering. Underneath,
in small print, it reads "me." The Mustangs
also have moved away from blue
jerseys to red jerseys under Cavan,
who is in his second season. Academics
don't place much importance on a
team's change in colors or uniform design,
but some professors say they're
not surprised to see them.
"You move into a new house," said
Michael Katovich, a professor of sociology
at TCU, "the first thing you'do
is change the color."
"It's a bizarre notion to me," adds
RirharH Prpnpan a nrnfpssnr at thp
University of Central Florida, "to think
that there would be some psychological
impact. But coaches will do anything
to get an edge."
on
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5,26,31,Sept. 1,2
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21,22,23,0ct.5,6
Oct.5,6,7,14,15
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