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Show I ;i I ! , 1 1 .1 - i JACKIE BEENE Tito Slesii? By DAVE WIGHAM With all due respect to the male athletes at the school, Clearfield's best all-around athlete just might be one of the gals. TRUE the boys have some great ones, Brian Johnson and Scott Wallace to name a pair, but there are very few who can compare with the record of one Jackie Beene. Jackie, now in her senior year, has been a big part in the Clearfield girls program for the past two years. The Falcons have come away with a lot of region titles and one basketball state title since Ms. Beene hit the school. SHE has competed in volleyball, tennis, basketball and track for the Falcons. Could she play others? According Ac-cording to the girls swimming swim-ming coach Sid Connely, "Sure she would have been a great addition to the squad." Jackie says she would have liked to have been on the swim team but she was already involved with the volleyball and tennis1 teams so didn't want to try to handle three sports at one time. Time is probably the only restriction restric-tion that this lady has, she has all the talent and desire needed to be a great athlete. THE obvious question to an athlete of her caliber is which sport she likes the best? "Everyone asks me that and I can honestly say I like them all the best. Although all you do in track is run." One gets the impression that Jackie' likes to do more than just run. Although she really doesn't know what sport she is best at, she admitted ad-mitted that the colleges are talking to her mainly for basketball, with one interested interest-ed in her volleyball ability. Jackie has a sister playing in the girls program at Weber StSHE would like to go to college but really doesn't know who will offer her what just yet, "I understand that they are going to have a meeting in January to decide just what the girls athletic department can offer an incoming in-coming athlete. Until then I'll 1 just do my best and see what they offer." One thing for sure whatever they can offer, Jackie will get. The Beenes moved to Clearfield when Jackie was in the seventh grade, which she claims is when she took up athletics. She didn't play basketball until the ninth grade. "It's kinda funny in a way, all I played in Michigan was Softball, that's all they had, and 1 don't play it here in .Utah." SHE went on to say that she could play Softball in the summer but by that time she is a little tired of competitive sports and likes to relax by playing golf. Many observers say that Jackie's best sport is the one just around the corner, the one with the roundball. Jackie says she really improved her game by attending three camps, a couple in Utah and one at the University of Washington. She emphasized the quality at the Washington camp. JACKIE and Denise Russell are the only two starters returning re-turning off of last year's state championship team but Jackie still feels this year's club has a good shot at defending that crown. Among her accomplishments accomplish-ments in sports, besides being be-ing on the state championship basketball team, are a first place finish in the 100 yard dash and a sixth place finish in the state 440 yard dash. SHE still has a little to say about the 220 yard dash last year. She had just run the 220 and they told her to report to the starting line for the 440, she was tired and failed to qualify for the finals. She was the region champion in the 440 so she was one of the favorites. Jackie has gained a lot of respect from the male athletes at the school. One noted, "She's down to earth and a very talented athlete. Some of the girls think people owe them something but Jackie is cool about it." ONE thing for sure, around Ms. Beene never call the women athletes 'jocks,' she is very clear on that "never call me a jock, I'm a woman athlete." With all that talent it's obvious ob-vious she's an athlete, and just to look at her one knows she is an attractive woman, so to me the title is well earned. ! |