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Show /port/ MONDAY* OCTOBER 10*2005 Extramural teams battle budgets and the competition SeeEXTRAMURALS-B4 mitment is also a factor, considering the heavy academic load and other jobs many of experience of winning it all. them already have to support "If the equivalent of what we themselves. did were to happen in colOn the volleyball team, for lege basketball, it would be example* each member pays the biggest sports story of the between three and four hunyear." dred dollars apiece once they Because of Title IX ismake the squad. They pay sues, collegiate men's soccer for their own travel and most is confined primarily to the of their own equipment, and West and East coast, with a have to practice between six few programs scattered inand eight in the morning just between; but Valentine and to have access to the gym. other soccer enthusiasts see The rodeo team, which is UVSC one day thriving withactually the first sport ever in the NCAA circuit. Like to be adopted by UVSC, rewrestling, they would be the quires that participants are all only programs in the state. full-time students, working "Inside the soccer comtoward a degree and are pullmunity, our name has gone ing at least a 2.5 GPA. Though up from almost nothing to a they receive about $10,000 a whole lot in nearly one year," year from the school, they Valentine said. spend $50,000. Volleyball and rugby have "This job has dominated my also contributed to this pipelife since I took it on in Febline. Joe Hillman, who won ruary," said Valentine, who as the MVP for the Wolverines well as men's soccer coach, after the volleyball team's acts as the team's manager, 2001 crown, later helped lift involved in all the organizaBYU to a national championtional aspects of making the ship a couple years later. team function. "We've come "I've never seen a team a long way as a program and at BYU in the last ten years made huge strides, but it's a that didn't have one of our lot of work." ex-players as one of their top "It's a pretty small proporplayers," Earls said. "The tion, the amount of money team finishes in the top 20 they're getting compared to every year, if not the top five what a D-l program gets, but or ten and they're competing you have to consider it's a club against two and three hundred team," Earls said. "It's other teams, including D"~ a club team in essence, 1, II and III schools." "" because it's a group of "A lot of our success has players and they enjoy to do with how successful "Our vision is to grow a program what they do, they're just BYU has been," said volleyball coach Bob Ward that is quality. We just want to be competing at a higher level than most." on the same note. "A lot good reps and not give the school Racquetball is the newof students aren't yet able est sport to be labeled exto get into the program a black eye in any way" tramural on-campus, just there, and so UVSC is the getting elevated this year. next best thing. But we've And though others, such sent eight players there in Matt Beaudry as women's rugby may the last several years." question the choice, the The Wolverine's success UVSC Men's Hockey Coach racquetball club has been includes a second place competing and earning finish in 2000 and a third ~~ top ten rankings for the place finish in both '99 "™ last decade, fully funding and '02. They've been themselves in the process. ranked in the top 16 nine ber against Weber St. "If hockey is continuing to The team hasn't had any times in the past 12 years. do what they're doing right slow stages at all," Earls said. Rugby has always been a now already, they will defi"They've been consistently popular sport in the State of nitely be looked at for exwinning and practicing and Utah with both BYU and the University of Utah making it tramural status," Earls said. playing and competing at that to the final four last season. Right now they're doing ail level, so they were overdo." There will be an intramural/ In recent time, UVSC's rug- the right things." Right things that include: extramural promotional proby team has sent several on gathering outside sources of gram scheduled to take place to play for both division one funding, recruiting great talin the next couple of weeks, programs. "We've been feeding some ent, competing at a national though a specific date has yet good talent out to other level, and adopting a positive to be set. The purpose will schools, which is kind of attitude that should eventu- be to make students aware of what's available to them rare," said Jon Moore, rugby ally help get them there. through the program, and t"Our vision is to grow a advisor. shirts and other things will be But the program here isn't program that is quality," Bewithout its share of problems audry said. "We just want to given away. You can follow and complaints from some. be good reps and not give the event on their website at: Moore, who is also over the the school a black eye in any uvsc.edu/intramurals/extramurals/. women's rugby club on cam- way." pus, has worked effortlessly "Really the only thing be"Right now we're very to also get them in. As of yet, tween them and extramurals happy with where we're at," he's had no such luck. is time," Earls said. Earls said. "Though in the "The school's done a very But it's hard to imagine the future, we hope to add more good job at supporting men's program's prosperous tradi- teams and add to our funding rugby, but I've got zero re- tion despite the heavy sacri- so we can host more of our sponse from people in stu- fice that is required of most own tournaments and raise dent life that are supposed to of these athletes. The school more of our own money." be helping out women's rug- is so far behind its growth, Though they may continue by and other different clubs," everything, including the in- to get overlooked, extramural Moore said. "The school sup- tramural/extramural program athletes will continue to comports extramural sports very is under-funded. Though pete in the name of UVSC. well, but for other groups to each program is given some But accomplishment is acget in is very difficult." money, players must pay complishment; and there's Earls insists they continually offsetting costs out of their little doubt that effort should look at making new additions, own pockets. The time com- be respected. but that there is also a strict policy in place, and interested clubs must meet all of the requirements. The guidelines are as follows: you must be a club for at least two or three years, have a good standing during that time, competing at a high level, and must be actively engaged in different acts of fundraising. Still, Earls says women's rugby is' the only club currently being considered. "I would say (women's) rugby is about one to two years away from being pulled up. As far as keeping in touch with me and letting me know how they're doing, they're doing a superb job of that." Hockey is another team that will certainly be talked about in coming years. They won't be considered for extramural status for at least a year or two, but have quickly emerged as one of the most exciting and popular clubs on campus. Head coach Matt Beaudry and his first year team is just fresh off winning a tournament in Illinois. Their hope is to reunite hockey with UVSC for good this time after several failed attempts in the past. So far, it seems to be working, even drawing a nice fan base. Nearly 700 showed up for their home opener at Peaks Ice Arena in Septem- B5 Just Chatt'n with Bioko le/zczyn/ki Blake sits down cross-country machine Joe Bendoski BL: Don't mind if I jump right into the hard questions, but why would anyone in their right mind want to run cross-country? JB (laughing): I've always loved to run, ever since I was a little kid. It's kind of an escape from everything. BL: What kind of things do you think about when you run? JB: I think about running. I think about projects I'm working on at school, and I think about my future and my career. BL: How did your experience at Ricks College aid you now that you're running at UVSC? JB: At Ricks I felt a lot of pressure to perform well. I learned that no matter how much is expected of you, just do what you can and enjoy it. BL: I hear a lot of strange stories from people that run cross-country. What is the most interesting experience you've ever had? JB: I was working construction way out in Santaquin and I was supposed to catch a ride home with my friend, and he just never showed up. It was about six o'clock in the evening and I was just sittin' there trying to figure out how I was going to get home. And I looked over and saw the sign on the freeway that said "Provo 20 miles" and I was like, *I can do 20 miles.' So I jumped on the freeway and started heading to Provo. As I was Chad Cla passing Springville, I passed a cop who had pulled someone over. About 20 minutes later I ent songs that I use during races, but it changwas about to the exit for Provo when that cop es up quite a bit. pulled me over. He told me that it was illegal to run on the freeway. So I hitched a ride with BL: What is your current song? him and drank all of his water because I was so thirsty. JB:'"You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet." I'm not sure who sings it. BL: Bendoski is not a typical Utah County last name, what's its nationality? BL: No one does. JB: The structure of the name looks Polish but I think it's actually Prussian or Hessian. BL: Oh good, I thought my editor set up the only two polocks in the school for an interview. JB: I like to get out there, throw down a great workout or a great race and then just look around and be like, "you know what, you haven't seen my best yet. there's more to come." BL: Speaking of music, what are you listening to right now? BL: You've been described as one of the more consistent runners on the team. What is the key to that consistency? JB: Because I've ran for so long I've learned the value of pace. It's comfortable for me to hit a steady pace. JB: I mostly listen to mellow stuff. I learn that I function much better when I'm relaxed and layed back. When I get really tense or worried about anything, I can't focus as much and my thoughts get really scattered. Not even just in running but in life in general. BL: If you weren't running cross-country, is there any other sport you'd like to be involved in? BL: What's the last movie you saw? JB: Yeah, but I've never had the coordination for anything else. JB (laughing): It was probably almost a year ago, I think it was "The Incredibles." It's the only movie I've seen since I've been back from my mission. BL: Like what? BL: So what do you do on the weekends? JB: I played football in high school. I didn't really play, I just wore the uniform and watched from the side. I think they'd put me in for the last five seconds of a game that we dominated. That's the only action I ever saw. BL: So you were like the. "Rudy" of your school? JB (laughing): Maybe, I don't know. I just sucked so they never played me. BL: Are there any words that you live by? JB: Homework. I work. That keeps me busy. BL: If you could sum yourself up in one or two words, what would you say? JB: I would say determined or driven. In high school they used to call me "The Machine." BL: 'The Machine?' JB: Yeah, they didn't think I got tired or worn out. I just kept pushing myself. So if I had to pick a word I'd use that. JB: I wouldn't say so. There's several differ- Vance rants about playoff baseball From RANT-B5 ballpark of 1500 to 1. Either way, you know New York remembers the fuming feeling of being the ones on the sour end of that stick, and are revengefully ready to make sure something like that never even comes close to happening again. And really, what better rivalry is there in all of sports? The Big Apple and the city of Sports Desk (801) 863-8603 Cheers have been at each other's throats for years including the last presidential election (where Kerry and Bush both strategically chose to host their respective conventions). Overall, the Yankees own the rivalry, including the last 15 years. But at this point, all that's remembered is 2004. New York with a payroll (206 million) exceeding the cost of five other Major League franchises combined, 2000. But if non-existence is expected to win all the includes making the playoffs time. And they will all be the every year since 95, and earnfirst ones to tell you that last , ing trips to the World Series year's debacle was (to put it two out of the last four years, lightly) un-called for. Having the organization deserves said that, probable MVP, Alex anything but such a title. Rodriguez and others plan on Just like with the NBA's letting their over-priced sala- Lakers and the NFL's Philaries start talking for them. delphia Eagles, what would Some will tell you the the world of sports be like Yankee Empire is non-exis- without its version df Days tent for the moment because of our Lives? The Yankees they haven't won a ring since are Major League Baseball's soap opera. Many love to hate the Evil Empire, while others have been passionately rooting for them ever since the 9/11 attacks, which made the organization a symbolic flame of national pride. The Chicago White Sox were the year's biggest surprise; and even though they finished up with the American League's overall best record, they're certainly not the favorites going into this year's playoffs. Vegas odds-makers are much too smart not to consider the past and weigh the Yankee's traditional September momentum into their predictions. Whoever happens to run away in the National League, I think the worlds gonna be watching the Sox and Yanks (if both indeed come out victorious after round one). I know that's my World Series. |