The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

June 24, 1996

• Yellow Jackets find a new hive
• Grappling grapplers
• Buckle up!
• Sports sponsorship

Yellow Jackets find a new hive

The far-reaching arms of the Atlanta Olympic Games have pushed football operations at the Georgia Institute of Technology literally out of the way and down the road.

Because the Georgia Tech campus is being transformed into Olympic Village in preparation for the Games next month, the Yellow Jackets packed up the football office, weight room, equipment room and training room and sent them on a truck to North Georgia College, about 60 miles away from Georgia Tech's Atlanta campus, in Dahlonega.

North Georgia is a 123-year-old military school of 2,800 students that has become the athletics home for Georgia Tech until after the Games.

The football operation has taken over North Georgia's Memorial Hall Gymnasium, using a locker room as the training room, physical education classrooms as coaches offices, and dormitories as the home-away-from-home for the coaches and players. Telephones will be programmed so that calls to the Atlanta offices will be routed to North Georgia.

Another obstacle Georgia Tech has had to overcome is summer-school scheduling. Because of vacating the Atlanta campus, the start of Georgia Tech's summer quarter will be delayed until August, which means it will not conclude until October.

That would have created an eligibility problem for some Yellow Jacket football team members who had planned to attend the summer quarter to earn the credits they needed for eligibility in the fall. Georgia Tech applied for and obtained a waiver from the NCAA allowing the players to take classes at North Georgia for the summer.

As for North Georgia, there is some concern about the use of its drill field, normally used for military drills and ceremonies, for football practice.

"The drill field is like sacred ground here because North Georgia is steeped in tradition," Larry Mitchell, North Georgia's director of public services, told the Atlanta Constitution. "There is concern about it, but we're glad to have Georgia Tech's football team."

George O'Leary, Georgia Tech head football coach, said the upside of the whole endeavor is that the players likely will appreciate the location once two-a-day practices begin because it is cooler in the Dahlonega part of the state.

Grappling grapplers

The wrestling team at Western State College of Colorado used grappling hooks and ropes to promote a team concept for what is perceived as an individual sport.

In conjunction with students from the Western State recreation department and members of the community, wrestlers and coaches spent a day climbing the face of Taylor Canyon near Gunnison.

With the help of Leo Malloy, director of outdoor education at a Gunnison school, and recreation majors from Western State, many of the athletes left the safety of the ground and put their trust in their own ability -- and that of the person at the other end of the rope -- to hang on.

After the climb, the team participated in a ropes-course session designed to teach the team members to work together to reach goals such as getting to the other side of an elevated log while blindfolded.

Greg Waggoner, head wrestling coach and athletics director, said the experience taught his team to take chances in the face of losing with the support and encouragement of fellow team members. He said what a wrestler does alone on the mat is actually a result of hours working with team members and coaches.

Waggoner was sufficiently impressed by the experience that he is working to get a ropes course on the Western State campus.

Jay Helman, chair of the Western State department of kinesiology and recreation, said fear and doubt prohibit people from becoming what they want. By taking well-calculated risks in relatively frightening situations, people learn to overcome both of these inhibitions.

Buckle up!

A full-color poster featuring University of Connecticut basketball all-Americans Jennifer Rizzotti and Ray Allen with Gov. John G. Rowland is being distributed in Connecticut to promote seat-belt usage.

The program, coordinated by the Connecticut campus police, attempts to encourage seat-belt use by everyone in the state, especially youth and college-age students.

Funding for the poster campaign was made available through a $27,000 federal grant awarded to the Connecticut police by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Distribution of the poster will be coordinated by the university police in cooperation with the Connecticut State Police, the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, the Connecticut Department of Transportation, and the University of Connecticut athletics department.

-- Compiled by Sally Huggins

Sports sponsorship

West Texas A&M University announced the addition of men's and women's golf. The West Texas A&M program brings to four the number of Lone Star Conference schools sponsoring men's golf. No other conference institution sponsors women's golf.

The men's and women's indoor track programs, changed to club sports four years ago, have been reinstated as varsity sports at Towson State University. The programs will resume intercollegiate competition for the 1996-97 intercollegiate season.

The University of Dallas announced that women's cross country is being reinstated as an intercollegiate sport. It was dropped from varsity status after the 1989 season due to a lack of participation.

La Roche College has added golf to its athletics program, effective in fall 1996. The golf program will be a full-year sport with a fall schedule, winter workout and spring schedule.

Lander University is adding three varsity sports, effective during the 1998 calendar year. Baseball will begin in the spring with women's volleyball and women's soccer beginning in fall 1998.

Women's ice hockey will become Hamilton College's 26th varsity sport, effective with the 1996-97 academic year. The club program completed its 21st year with the 1995-96 academic year.

Tennessee Technological University elevated women's soccer to varsity status and will begin competition this fall. According to associate athletics director Marcia Borys, the addition of women's soccer was based on a recommendation of the NCAA peer-review team for athletics certification.

Women's water polo has been added to the athletics program at San Jose State University, making it the 10th NCAA sport for women and the 17th overall. Competition will begin in the spring of 1997.

The West Coast Conference added two women's sports to its list of championships with women's rowing and women's golf beginning competition in the 1996-97 academic year. The new sports bring the conference's sport sponsorships to 13 -- seven for women and six for men.

The University of South Carolina, Columbia, announced the addition of women's equestrian as a varsity sport.