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j__Gamecock Sports _f_ Gamecock team triad defines moment, odds throughout year Charlie Wallace j Senior Writer As dusk approaches for the spring semester, the current academic year quickly fades into only a memory. For Carolina sports, the year has been a roller coaster in respect to the three main sports that 1 follow closest: football, men’s b;tsketball and base ball. I can’t think of a year in which these tliree teams have had so little in common in terms success on the field or court, yet were also so close in per sonality. A fraternity brother of mine is famous for quot ing the movie “Tin Cup.” In the film, Kevin Costner delivers a speech in a way that only Costner can; he talks about “defin ing the moment.” His point is that there are times in a person’s life that represent a defining point. You can either define the moment or let the moment define you. For the above-mentioned teams, they each en countered certain plateus of defining moments. When it was time to choose which road to take, they all chose to define the situation. Imagine losing 21 straight games. Imagine prac ticing all week, giving up the majority of your free time and knowing everyone around you is ashamed to talk about you. Such was the case last season for the Carolina football team. Game aftergame, it came up short on the score board to the competition. Each loss tasted more bit ter then the last. It would have been so easy to throw in the tow el and quit. It would have been so easy to go through the motions and get the season over with. But, for this team, compromise wasn’t an op tion. The team would define the moment. So, instead of the 1999 football team being re membered as bunch of failures, anyone who fol lows the team knows it gave 100 percent every time it suited up. And, as a result, they defined them selves as a team that never quit. The men’s basketball team’s season started out almost as frustrating as the football team’s. Game after game against nationally ranked op ponents, the team came up short. They could have blamed it on their young te;un, their inexpe rience, or even the referees, but the players kept quiet. Instead, they kept trying and eventually put to gether a winning streak and came up one game short of playing in the SEC championship game, a feat never imagined by fans. The team, however, knew it was good enough. Sure, they could have quit half way through die season and hitched a ride on the quitter bus. But, die team eventually started reaping what it sowed. It defined the moment and now will be remembered as the team of the future. The baseball team won die SEC Eastern Divi sion last season. Amazingly, it didn't qualify for the NCAA tournament, every team's goal. Instead of crying and complaining, the team worked hard in the off-season and now is the No. 1 team in the nation. Surprise, NCAA tournament selection com mittee! Those players now have a chance to win the national championship and to be die best team ever in Carolina Athletics. They defined the moment and have a’ chance of being remembered as the best. To steal an idea front Robert Frost, the road tak en by these three teams is the one least often tak en. So many times in life when a person is presented with a situation in which he or she has to choose between right or wrong, whether to compromise his or her morals, or whether to give up or to keep plowing forward no matter what, one usual ly takes the easy way out. Doing what is right or what we believe in is harder than we think when we’re presented with a challenge. For these three teams, however, each passed the test of defining the moment. Each team might have been cheated or “screwed,” as society has termed it, but each team, in the end, became the better man, so to speak. They became the better men, not because they won all their games, not because they broke the rules, and not because they got all the breaks. They stepped up to the challenge and defined the moment. And as a result, they each ride off in to the sunset of the school year on a road that’s not too well-traveled. Indeed, it will make all the difference. Farewell to Carolina sports? David Cloninger I Who Else? Yes, the rumors are true. After three years of yours tru ly, The Gamecock has announced that my column will be retired effective today, due to the au thor’s impending graduation. No more Who Else? for my loyal contingent (both of them). A friend of mine ;isked if I felt sorry about leaving dear old USC, and if 1 had any regrets about things I might have done differ ently. I replied, “Of course not.” I love everything about USC. Everything, including tailgating before the football games and throwing the old apple around on the Horseshoe and watching the boys (and girls) beat Clemson and seeing a procession of garnet car flags parading down Assembly Street on Saturday afternoons and the view of Sarge Frye Field as the sun goes down with the pitch er silhouetted against the dusky sky and the way that lady at basketball games always says, “MaylHelpYou?” all in one word and the Cockpit being the first to grab Antonio Grant when he nailed that 3-pointer against Cincinnati and shutting up the volleyball crowd at Geoigia when Heather Larkin spiked the ball off the top of Becky Dady’s head and Eddie Fogler yelling at the media in the press conferences and Bfad Scott spilling Heinz ketchup all over his stupid orange slrirt at the Clemson football game and hearing Charlie Mac say “Touchdown, Carolina!” and standing in the pouring rain at N. C. State for five hours and a seven-hour drive home from Lex ington in the middle of the night and Rick Pitino getting tossed . from the game as the Gamecocks won the SEC Championship at Rupp and seeing USC soccer de throne No. 1 UCLA and watch ing those last-inning home runs disappear over the fence and be ing swept up in the great cele bration and grabbing fistfuls of orange grass when Matt Padgett’s field goal went wide left and meeting Brad Edwards and say ing “Rodney, Rodney” to him as he grinned in remembrance of 1987 and getting my picture tak en with the Heisman Trophy and “Bullet” Bob Fulton all in one chance and listening to Tom Price talk about the legends of Caroli na athletics and seeing Terrance Trammell blow away the com petition and seeing all the great trophies and statues in all the dif ferent places around campus and seeing Melvin Watson burst into tears when he realized Richmond did indeed beat USC and ended his career and hearing “Go Cocks!” at least 100 times on gameday and blasting the fight song out of the window while dri ving through Clemson and get ting on the cover of the volley ball media guide with my chest painted and hearing Kim Christo pher specifically thank The Ball heads for our support and curs ing the vengeful heavens as the Tigers beat Carolina again and squaring off against those go dawful orange overalls and feel ing the ultimate low in Nashville as Vandy won and the ultimate high as the baseball team made ■■■■■■■■■■■■• No. 1 and knowing, just knowing the Gamecocks are the absolute best in the country and having such high hopes and beaming up stuffed mascots of the opposing teams and interviewing Duce Sta ley and getting a game ball front him and buying an autographed picture of Alex English on the night his record, was broken by BJ McKie and trying to direct the basketball team’s offense even though they can’t hear me and having Aaron Lucas run into me in the stands and gettting to shake Sterling Sharpe’s hand and catch ing Ryan Bordenick and Derick Urquhart as they leaped into the sjands on Senior Day and talking to all the future greats of USC sports and the ultimate joy of lay ing out the pages when you know you can give as much space as you want to the baseball team beating Clemson and reveling in the beautiful garnet and black draped over every object in site and looking at the way my class ring reflects the scoreboard lights and working with all the cool peo ple at The Gamecock and getting to pass on whatever limited knowledge I have about the news paper business to other people and hearing “2001” blare from the Williams-Brice tunnel and seeing all the Carolina fans’ in dex fingers raised to the sky. Thanks to everybody who helped achieve my dream of cov ering USC athletics, to everybody who influenced, prodded or showed me the way to a suc cessful journalism career. And as always, this is dedi cated to the memory of the late great Lewis Grizzard. Thanks, Lewis, from the 15 year-old kid you inspired. JDC 30 Tennis from page 10 Anne Plessinger’s hard-fought 8-6 win over Katarina Markovski and Cather ine Brown. Carolina was leading at No. 2 doubles 74 when the match ended. In singles play, Markovski and Ditty had another classic match at No. 1, with Ditty prevailing this time in the third set, 6- 4,5-7, 7-6. The two matched wits last Friday in a 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 win for Markovski. Sophomore Jennifer Radman won her third consecutive match, beating No. 97 Sarah Riske, 64,7-5. Freshman Kathy Boyanovich snapped her season-long four-match losing streak with a 64,5-7,6-0 win over No. 92 Jen ny Miller. Boyanovich had lost to Miller in their regular season meeting, 6-3,7-6. Also a winner for USC in singles was Lynn-Yin Tan, at No. 6. Tan won in three sets over No. 95 Anne Plessinger, 64,4 6,6-1. Tan, like Boyanovich, got revenge for an earlier loss. Plessinger downed Tan, 7- 6,6-2 in Columbia last week. kg | IUSTSMIIU TO DRUGS ■ I_-_J Check out GamecockCentral.com for message boards, chat rooms, football, baseball, basketball, and more!! off/ct^of--—- Based on survey data collected by the USC Office of Alcohol & Drug AY 1 vyyj J[ Programs from a random sample of USC students in November, 1998. jDRUG f » i'Wx.kams Funding by SC DAODAS Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Project. ♦ Graduate Assistantships I University Housing | The Community Advisor is a ten or fifteen hour, If live-in, graduate assistantship. • Community Advisors provide for the personal, academic, and social welfare of approximately 150 undergraduate students. 4 • The CA must possess strong organizational skills, be knowledgeable of the university, have a positive attitude and enjoy working with students. Prior residence life experience a bonus but not required. Remuneration: $2,100-$3,150 (dependent upon hours of particular CA position) per year. Private room in an apartment-style suite in Bates House, Bates West, The Horseshoe, East Quad or South r Quad fifty percent off with voicemail and data jack. Meal plan at fifty percent off (if you choose to enroll). The Resident Tutor is a live-in, ten hour, graduate assistantship. • Resident Tutors act as mentors to undergraduates and, in conjunction with Peer Coordinators, facilitate interaction between residents and Faculty Associates in Preston College. • The RT must posses strong organizational skills, a positive attitude and enjoy interacting with students and faculty. Remuneration: A stipend of $2,100 per year, plus tuition reduction, a private room with a 50% reduction in housing costs (this is a LIVE-IN position), four free meals per week in the Preston Dining Room during the academic year. TO APPLY l Please submit a resume and cover letter expressing interest for either the CA or RT position to Susan Prior, Residence Education Office, 1215 Blossom Street. Positions will be filled on a rolling basis.