The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 16, 2003, Page 13, Image 13
_ , t THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, April 16,2003 13
* GAME SCHEDULE
«*•
BASEBALL vs. Wofford, 7 p.m. Wednesday
CONTACT US MEN’S TENNIS at SEC Tournament
in Oxford, Miss., Thursday-Sunday
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Terriers to meet Carolina in rematch
Wofford
South Carolina
/ p.m. today
Sarge Frye Field
BY MATT ROTHENBERG
THE GAMECOCK
When the Wofford Terriers
came to Columbia almost a month
ago, they left with memories they
would much rather forget. The
Gamecocks (22-14, 7-8 SEC) took
it out on the Terriers’ pitching
staff, piling on a couple dozen
runs in a 29-4 victory. But when
Wofford returns to Sarge Frye
Field tonight for a rematch with
USC, the outcome might be a lit
tle different.
The Terriers (6-25, 4-13
^ ithern Conference) come into
tonight’s game with some more
optimism, having won four games
since last playing the Gamecocks.
Their starting shortstop,
Columbia native Tony Carbone,
returned from an injury, and
Steve and Brian Casey continue
to lead the team in hitting.
USC head coach Ray Tanner is
also quick to not look past the
Terriers.
“Baseball is always a different
game on a different night, and I
think that will be the case”
tonight, Tanner said. “Wofford
had a pretty solid weekend
against Georgia Southern. They
(Wofford) lost a close game 4-1 and
then they beat Georgia Southern.
Georgia Southern is one of the
tougher teams in the Southern
Conference.
Tanner said the Gamecocks’
previous meeting with the
Terriers has no bearing on
tonight’s game. “They’re playing
better than they were when they
came here. They had a bunch of
injuries, but their shortstop is
back in the lineup. Culley Kline
is starting the game, and he
pitched against us the last time,
so they’re putting him out there
again,” Tanner said
Conor Lalor will get the start
for the Gamecocks, having not
pitched in a game in two weeks.
His last action was against
Clemson on April 1. Lalor also
started the game against Wofford
earlier this season, but this time
around, Tanner is confident Lalor
won’t be ineffective because of a
lack of playing time.
“He’s been up in the bullpen,
and he’s been getting his work,”
Tanner said. “I’m expecting him
to be outstanding, to be honest
with you, because I think he’s a
bit fresher than some of the oth
er guys. I think he’ll have a good
game.”
Following a weekend at
Florida where USC came up with
a pair of wins in a three-game se
ries, the Gamecocks are in a tie
with Florida at the top of the
SEC’s Eastern Division. The
Carolina offense appears to have
rebounded from some doldrums
it’s had in recent weeks. Second
baseman Justin Harris, for one,
has been one of the top hitters of
late for the Gamecocks with his
batting average of .356 and 12 hits
in his last four games.
“We’re swinging a little bit bet
ter now. We have never been a
poor hitting team, but at times,
we haven’t swung as good as
we’re capable. Down in Florida,
we had 42 hits, so that was a good
weekend for us,” Tanner said.
“Justin Harris is seeing it good
right now; he’s one of the hottest
hitters we’ve got. We swung the
bats well over the weekend, and
we’d like to continue that mo
mentum against Wofford and into
the weekend series against
Mississippi State,” he said.
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FILE PHOTO BY MARK SCHILUNG/THE GAMECOCK
Conor Lalor tosses a pitch during an appearance against
Clemson earlier in the season. Lalor will be the starting
pitcher for the Gamecocks when they play Wofford tonight.
Making a splash
at Carolina
*
BY BRAD SENKIW
THE GAMECOCK
The USC women’s swimming
and diving team didn’t magical
ly become 24th in the NCAA
Championships a few weeks ago.
To get the school’s best-ever fin
ish in the sport, it took the tal
ents and efforts of two of the div
ing team’s finest divers. Tracey
Richardson, who finished 10th
nationally and was an honorable
mention All-American, and
Lauren King, who placed sev
enth on the one-meter board and
made First-Team All-American,
0 helped Carolina gain its strong
finish. But to get to USC, the two
traveled down two entirely dif
ferent roads.
Richardson, a sophomore and
a native of England, has brought
international ex
penence and a
tough work ethic to
Carolina. She not only
finished well at the
NCAA Championship,
but won the school’s
first 2003 SEC championship
by claiming the three-meter
board title.
“I never thought about win
ning that,” Richardson said. “I
kind of went into it like, ‘Just do
your best; dive what you can.’”
USC head diving coach Todd
* Sherritt thinks Richardson ac
complished something special in
the SEC.
"Our conference is very tough
like it is in basketball and foot
ball,” Sherritt said. “It is the best
in what we do as well.
“For her to win the confer
ence championship is just huge,
and she really deserves it. She
did a great job.”
It hasn’t been an easy path for
the young British girl that left
her family and home two years
ago to join the Gamecocks.
Richardson has had to adjust cul
turally and physically.
“It was a bit of a culture shock
when I first got here, being down
South and coming from a more
quiet, reserved London side. It’s
obviously made me a lot more in
dependent,” Richardson said. “It’s
0 only been a good thing for me.”
But being in America has
only allowed her to grow as a div
er. Richardson trains now like
she never did before. When she
first arrived, strength was her
weakness, and Sherritt knew
Richardson could improve.
“Physically,
when she came
in here,
she
wasn’t
nearly
as
strong
as som
of th
other
kids,”
Sherritt
said.
“She has
a great
work ethic
and is very, very smart.”
Sherritt is not just the reason
that Richardson has performed
well but is also why she made the
trip across the Atlantic Ocean.
Richardson said she first met
Sherritt in 1999 at a diving
meet in the Czech
Republic and said that
when she looked
through the div
ing program,
“he was
_ the
best
choice." ^B
With all ^B
of Richard- B
son’s interna- ^B
tional experience, B
she has enjoyed 1
what she has ac- ’
complished in her
short USC career.
it s nice because you ^B
spend all year working so hard, 1
and finally, you get something I
out of it,” she said.
Now that the season is over, 1
Richardson is looking to make fl
the 2004 Olympics to represent I
England and is currently prac- ■
ticing for the World I
Championships in Barcelona, ■
Spain, in July. fl
King’s route might not have I
taken her around the world, fl
but it’s been an impressive fl
journey nonetheless. It would fl
seem that King’s path would «
be fairly short considering she
only had to travel down Interstate
26 for 10 minutes to
get to USC from
Mj&L her hometown of
Irmo. But, the sev
” enth-place finisher
in the NCAAs didn’t
think Carolina was the
place for her when she
graduated
high school
and instead
chose to
make a
quick stop
at Georgia.
“I went
to Georgia
just think
ing that
maybe get
ting away
from home
and having
a different coach and a different
aspect on diving would help,”
King said.
King, who has been training
with Sherritt for six years,
wasn’t getting the training she
was used to and decided that she
could always go home again.
“It’s helped out a lot, coming
back, and I don’t regret it at all,”
she said. “I didn’t think a coach
would affect your diving as
much as it does, and I realize that
it did. Todd’s a great coach.”
King thinks that her stay in
8 was short because of
living and just not ad
ng to the situation of a
erent place. The junior
happy with the deci
sion and said she is
“right back where I
was before, if not bet
tor ”
(Since King joined
the Gamecocks,
Sherritt has been
greatly impressed
with her level of
competition.
“Last year, I
don’t think she
placed on the low
boards, so she’s
gone from that to
HP seventh and be
[ ing an All
P American,”
bherritt said.
“She’s a really
good precision
diver and has
gotten a lot
better.”
King said
she didn’t feel
much pres
♦ SPLASH,
SEE PAGE 14
Ww Tracey
Hr Richardson, a
f native of
England, won
the 2003 SEC
Championship and
was 10th
nationally on the
three-meter board.
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE
GAMECOCK
Lauren
King
finished
seventh in
the nation
in the one
meter
board.
PHOTO SPECIAL
TO THE
,* GAMECOCK
Diving into
the USG
record books
BY BRAD SENKIW
THE GAMECOCK
When USC’s Andy
Bradley prepares himself for
a dive, he doesn’t cloud his
mind with too many
thoughts or put heavy pres
sure on himself. Instead,
Bradley jokes with team
mates, loosens up and gets
encouragement from head
diving coach Todd Sherritt.
Evidently, it works be
cause Bradley finished sec
ond in the nation March 30
at the NCAA
Championships in the one
meter board and seventh in
the three-meter board. The
Fairfax, Va., native had the
best finish in USC’s diving
history.
“I pretty much didn’t
know how I was doing at all
until right at the very end of
the meet,” Bradley said. “It
was a shock because I didn’t
keep track of how they were
doing. I knew I
dove well. It
was real-..
iy
fun and I
Andy Bradley finished ^
second In the one-meter
board and seventh In the
three-meter board at the
NCAAs. His second place
finish was the highest In
USC diving history.
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK
excited.”
Sherritt knows what
Bradley has meant to his
team and loves his work eth
ic.
“Andy is probably the
most talented guy we’ve ever
had here in terms his of pow
er, his acrobatic ability,”
Sherritt said. “He’s made
tremendous improvements
since he’s come here.
“He’s a very hard worker,
and he’s really applied him
self to the areas he needed to
apply himself to in order to
perform like he did this
year. He’s really one of the
most improved on the
team.”
That hard work and de
sire to be the best has
brought the All-American
standout down the path he
has traveled. Bradley, a sec
ond-year biology student,
took the long route.to USC
with a brief stop at Brigham
Young University. Bradley
didn’t fit in with the coach
ing style there and thought
change was needed. He at
tended the Mormon college
because of his religion and a
sense of family pride.
“It was kind of always
where I was going to be,”
Bradley said. “All my broth
ers and sisters went out
there, so it was kind of like
family tradition.”
Luckily for USC, Bradley
wasn’t pleased with his BYU
coach’s older methods of
training and thought he
needed to be under the di
rection of an up-and-coming
coach.
“The main factor in me
coming here was my coach,
Todd Sherritt,” Bradley said.
“I’m always impressed with
his enthusiasm and his mo
tivation.
“Diving is a
lot ot tecn
nique, like
say, golf, and
so tech
niques change
and evolve.
^Todd
seemed like he was trying to
evolve as a coach.”
Sherritt attracted Bradley
because of his intense coach
ing style that combines tech
nique and motivation.
“Where I’m coming
from with my coaching is
I try to get a picture in my
head of where they’re go
ing to be,” Sherritt said.
“Then all they can do is
reach their full potential.
It’s really a lot of belief in
volved, and I think they
feed off of that.
“You can’t really drive
anybody in athletics. I pre
fer to try to lead them so that
they have the power of deci
sion.”
Now that Bradley is un
der Sherritt’s guidance, he
is working towards his ulti
mate goal: the Olympics.
Bradley is trying now to
qualify for the World
Championships, and if he
♦ BRADLEY, SEE PAGE 14
- •
Dynasty
not in the
making
at college
MATTROTHENBERG
GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM
The days of perennial
champions are gone.
The Merriam-Webster
Dictionary defines dynasty as “a
powerful group or family that
maintains its position for a con
siderable time.” Dynasty is a term
bandied-about quite a bit in sports
— just like franchise player, su
perstar or future hall-of-famer —
often to describe teams that dom
inate their league year after year.
Usually, this is the case in the
pros, especially if you consider
the cases' of the New York
Yankees of the late 1990s or the
Chicago Bulls dynasty led by
Michael Jordan. It’s rare to hear
the word dynasty associated with
college athletics and, perhaps, for
good reason.
It is very difficult in this day
and age to create programs that
will stay dominant and win na
tional championships one after
another. There are a number of
reasons one could explore, in
cluding the departure of high
schoolers and underclassmen for
professional drafts, improved
competition — both internally
and externally — a general shift
in attitude from team-oriented to
self-oriented, the comings and go
ings of coaches, or maybe just a
lack of desire.
Creating teams that are suc
cessful on a yearly basis is not
easy to do, but it is possible. Look
at the job Pat Summitt has done
with the Tennessee women’s bas
ketball program. She consistent
ly brings in top tal
ent to play for the
Lady Vols, but she
doesn’t bring home
a national champi
onship. Is it her
fault or her play
ers’ faults? Hardly.
But Tennessee
could surely win it summitt
all just about every
season.
There have been dynasties in
college athletics, but very few, in
deed. Under legendary coach John
Wooden, the UCLA men’s basket
ball team won 10 national cham
pionships in 12 years in the 1960s
and 1970s, including seven
straight. The North Carolina
women’s soccer team has won 16
national championships since
1982 and has been runner-up three
times. Southern California had
five straight hational champi
onships in baseball in the 1970s.
Is it impossible to build a dy
nasty in college athletics?
Challenging perhaps, but I
wouldn’t say impossible. The dy
namics of college athletics these
days place very long odds on the
chances of it happening. But it
would be nice. I mean, there are
plenty of teams out there that peo
ple don’t like simply because the
team wins all the time. Wouldn’t
it be great if there could be one
team that would garner the dis
gust of a large part of the popula
tion?
I doubt it’s go
ing to happen.
Heck, nowadays,
it’s difficult to
string two cham
pionship seasons
together, as head
coach Don Lucia
and . his
Lucia Minnesota
Golden Gopher
hockey team did Saturday. It was
the first time in 30 years that a
team won back-to-back NCAA
men’s hockey championships. It
hasn’t been done in football since
the Nebraska teams of the mid
1990s and not in men’s basketball
since the Christian Laettner-led
Duke teams in 1991 and 1992.
Connecticut could build a dynasty
in women’s hoops, but it’s too ear
♦ ROTHENBERG, SEE PAGE 14