The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 06, 2002, Page 12, Image 12
GAME SCHEDULE
WOMEN’S SOCCER vs. Florida in SEC Tournament in Oxford, Miss.,
3 p.m. Thursday
CONTACT I IS MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. Team Nike (exhibition), 7:30 p.m. Thursday
MEN’S TENNIS at ITA National Indoors in Dallas, Thursday-Friday
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E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com 7 p.m. Friday
#•
USC recovering from loss
BY KYLE ALMOND
THE GAMECOCK
USC head coach Lou Holtz
didn’t spend his entire time
Tuesday giving his team lessons
in the passing game.
He was giving them civics
lessons instead.
“We passed out ballots and had
our players vote for governor and
senator,” Holtz said. “I talked to
them about the obligation they
had to vote and the importance of
aligning themselves with people
who had the same core values as
they did.”
“It’s discouraging when you
hear that voter turnout is low.
People have a responsibility to
elect their leaders and take an ac
tive role in supporting their gov
ernment.”
After voting, it was back to
business for the Gamecocks, who
are preparing for this Saturday’s
game against Arkansas.
Team meetings started at noon,
and USC had an extensive prac
tice under wet conditions at the
practice fields.
There, it was back to the pass
ing game, which is in shambles af
ter last Saturday’s losg to
Tennessee. Carolina only com
pleted five passes in the game, for
45 yards, and key injuries can take
some of the blame for that.
Ryan Brewer, who plays tail
back, wide receiver and punt re
turner, is still out with a sprained
ankle, and he is joined on the in
jury list by receivers Andrea
Gause (ankle) and Michael Ages
(shoulder).
With a decimated receiving
corps, Holtz has moved Matthew
Thomas back on offense. Thomas
started the season at wide receiver
and was shifted over to corner
back after struggling to hold on to
the ball.
“Matthew had been playing
well at corner, but with Ryan,
Michael Ages and Andrea Gause
“The dentist called
today and asked me how
my bone was because
they had to rip off part
of it, but it didn't hurt
half as much as the
(Tennessee) game.”
LOU HOLTZ
use FOOTBALL HEAD COACH
out, we are running out of people
at wide receiver,” Holtz said.
“We knew we were facing some
problems at comerback at the be
ginning of the year, and that's why
we moved Matthew Thomas over
there to begin with. Now, the wide
receiver position has been deci
mated, so we need some immedi
ate help there.”
USQ’s injury troubles have
clearly frustrated Holtz.
“I don't think I've ever had a team
where we’ve had to plug holes like
□ we've had to with
this one,” he said.
“Some years, noth
ing seems to fit.”
The Tennessee
loss was a blow to
USC’s postseason
hopes. Carolina (5
4, 3-3 SEC) still
Matthew need one more win
has'been to be bowl-eligible,
moved was a diffi
back to cult loss,” Holtz
receiver said. “Any time
because of y0u want to win
injuries. something so bad
... and you don't, it
is very tough.”
“Yesterday, I went to the dentist
and had three teeth capped and one
pulled. It was a 4-hour ordeal. The
dentist called today and asked me
how my bone was because they had
to rip off part of it, but it didn't hurt
half as much as the game.”
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecocksports@hotmail.com
PHOTO BY TRAVIS LYNN/THE GAMECOCK
James Adkisson is one of the few Carolina receivers that is healthy now. Ryan Brewer,
Michael Ages and Andrea Gause have all suffered injuries over the past two weeks, and it has
translated into problems in the passing game.
I || R I MM I Kilt II [ini.lP II , PURL I. .-.Hull,
Jess Julin, a senior midfielder for USC, is also captain of
Finland’s national team. The Gamecocks open SEC
Tournament play Thursday in Oxford, Miss., against Florida.
Setting the example
Senior leaders steady the women's soccer team
USC vs. Florida
SEC Tournament First Round
3 p.m. Thursday
Oxford, Miss.
BY HOLLI ARMSTRONG
THE GAMECOCK
As a group, they have been
through a lot.
Most of them were members
of a successful 14-6 campaign,
and all experienced the horrific
4-16 slump that ensued. Then the
coach that recruited them was
out, and a new coach with a new
philosophy entered the mix.
That is the past.
Tomorrow, touting a 13-5-2
record, Gamecock seniors Jess
Julin, Becky Leeper, Melinda
“Bullet” Carter and Morgan
McIntyre will lead the USC
women’s soccer team out of the
SEC cellar and into its first
tournament berth since 1999.
“This season has been very
important to our seniors, and
they have made sure everyone
has stayed on track,” head coach
Shelley Smith said. “The entire
team has followed them and
done the work they needed to
win games.”
All four seniors set the stan
dard.
Take Julin, who is Carolina’s
most consistent and stable mid
field performer, as well as cap
tain of the Finland women’s na
tional team. The All-SEC per
former can be counted on to run
the entire 90 minutes, and more
if necessary. She is a fitness ma
chine.
“The day before a game, we
have to make sure she doesn’t
run too much,” Carter said.
Julin’s actions spurred the
whole team to pound the pave
ment between workouts and
practices.
Leeper believes that Julin’s
work ethic created an environ
ment in which “everyone start
ed taking pride in themselves by
trying to get better.”
As co-captains, Carter and
Leeper sought to unite the team.
But the pair credits the entire
senior class with keeping the
team together.
Leeper, a centr.al defender,
admits that her leadership role
was difficult at first. But Smith
“They have made sure
everyone has stayed on
track. The entire team
has followed them and
done the work they
needed to win games.”
SHELLEY SMITH
use WOMEN'S SOCCER HEAD COACH, ON HER
SENIORS
knew the players would feel
comfortable turning to Leeper
for advice.
“She leads by example,”
Smith said. “Becky has been the
one that has kept the defense to
gether, and she gives a complete
effort every game.”
Leeper devotes that same ef
fort to her studies, with a 3.89
grade-point average in chemical
engineering and demonstrating
that it is possible to succeed on
the field and in the classroom.
“It is tough balancing the
chemical engineering, which is
difficult, while playing a colle
giate sport at the same time,”
Leeper said. “It’s a lot of work
and not a lot of sleep.”
But sleep is something the en
tire team has sacrificed. In
♦ SOCCER, SEE PAGE 13
BRIEFLY
Cross country team
11th at SEC meet
The USC cross country team
came home with an llth-place
finish in Monday’s SEC
Championships in Gainesville,
Fla.
Arkansas ran away with its
fifth straight title, placing all sev
en runners in the top 17.
RazorbackChristin Wurth won
the 6-kilometer race with a time
of 21 minutes, 4 seconds.
USC sophomore Jenny Lake
wa^ the top finisher for
Carolina, placing 24th with a
time of22:43.
Gamecock senior Kinsey
Eschenburg placed 61st with a
time of 24:36. Freshmen Shay
Shelton and Lauren Paige came
in 71st and 73rd.
USC will head back into ac
tion Nov. 16 to compete in the
NCAA Southeast Regional in
Greenville.
Golfers finish third
in Hawaii tourney
Led by freshman Eirik
Johansen, the USC men’s golf
team finished third at the
Turtle Bay Intercollegiate in
Kahuku, Hawaii, on Tuesday.
The Gamecocks fired a three
round score of 863. UNLV won
the team title
with a 7-under
857.
Johansen,
who helped USC
post its highest
finish of the fall,
shot a 1-under
par 215 (72-72-71)
to tie for fourth Johansen
place overall.
Carolina’s Michael Maness
struggled i,n the first round but
recorded "two 70s after that to
tie for 10th.
West Streib and Alex
Hamilton shot 220, tying for 16th.
Sophomore Martin Rominger
rounded out the five-man squad
in 22nd place after shooting 221
(71-73-77).
The tournament was the last
fall event for the Gamecocks,
who will resume play Feb. 10.
Hufford leads way
for equestrian team
The USC equestrian team
traveled to Marion, AjJa., this
past weekend for two Western
competitions at Judson
College, and it finished fourth
on Saturday and third on
Sunday.
Junior Kyra Hufford led the
team with wins both days in
Intermediate Horsemanship.
On Sunday, the team won
five classes. Sophomore Kerrie
Reeves and freshman
Courtney Borton both won
their sections of Open
Horsemanship. Along with
Hufford in Intermediate, fresh
man Ashleigh Collins won her
section as well. Senior Margy
Myers won Beginner
Horsemanship.
Kilborn
talk show
epitome
of weak
KYLE ALMOND
GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM
Gamecock tribute was
one big disappointment.
What a waste of my time.
That’s what I was saying after I
stayed up last week to watch Craig
Kilbom’s late-night talk show.
“the Late, Late Show” was sup
posed to promote CBS’ college foot
ball coverage by giving tribute to
USC, the host team of the station’s
SEC game of the week. Instead, it
just made everyone fall asleep—or
turn the channel to Brooke Burke.
Now I know it sounds a little
ungrateful to knock a national
show that pays even the slight
est attention to us. But with that
lame excuse for publicity, I wish
Kilborn and Co. hadn’t both
erea.
For starters, there was abso
lutely no emotion out of Kilbom
whenever he plugged the
Gamecocks. Maybe he’s peeved
that CBS makes him plug a team
every week; I don’t know. But his
lack of interest clearly showed by
his monotone voice and “who
cares?” demeanor.
And the show itself didn’t make
us look special, either. Kilbom had
a Gamecock mug that you
wouldn’t be able to recognize un
less you went to USC. There was a
Kenny Irons (Derek Watson?) jer
sey hanging on a far wall, out of
the camera’s view and shown once
during the broadcast. They
showed an autographed picture of
Cocky for two seconds. And when
they came back
from commercial,
they showed a clip
of Irons’ meaning
less touchdown
scamper against
Mississippi State.
Shove in one
bad joke about our
degrees coming Kilborn
with Wendy’s
coupons (good one, Craig) and ran
dom, wasteful clips from sisters
wanting to get an early jump on
political campaigning, and it
added up to a disappointing por
trayal of USC.
I guess I was expecting too
much. Wasn’t Kilbom’s desk sup
posed to be covered from top to bot
tom with USC stuff? Wasn’t there
supposed to be a video of Chuck
Eidson and Ro Howell giving a
tour of the Carolina Center? Now
that would have been priceless.
If CBS really wanted to promote
the game within Kilbom’s show,
they should have tried a little
harder. Make Kilborn wear the
Irons jersey. Fly in Lou Holtz or
Cocky to do the monologue. Show
“The Fade.” Bring in President
Sorensen for a Q&A. Just do some
thing cool.
I should have been able to guess
that the show was going to be
weak just by looking at the guests
on the show — Frankie Muniz,
aka the annoying little bastard
from “Malcolm in the Middle,”
and “comedian” Graham Elwood.
How much do you want to bet that
Florida and Alabama would have
had better guests than that?
By the way, did anyone laugh
at Elwood’s routine? I swear that
was the worst comedic perfor
mance I’ve ever seen. I felt bad for
the guy as I watched his career
tumble right in front of my eyes,
and I cringed at each punchline
like it was a Dondrial Pinkins in
terception.
All in all, it was just a boring
show — there’s no other way to
put it.
Kilborn’s trademark through
out his talk-show career has been
his “5 Questions” segment, where
he puts his top guest on the spot
and asks them random trivia.
Well, I wish I could take over
for Kilborn and give him my own
“5 Questions.”
1. Couldn’t you have found some
♦ ALMOND, SEEPAGE 13