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Show fejTTDODIPIls Park Record Thursday, April 10, 1986 Page B7 p.C. boy chosen for Wor bv JENNIFER MADGIC Record contributing writer There are few people who can say they are members of the Junior florid Cup Freestyle Team but in Park City there is one. At H years old' Park City resident Beau Brinkerhoff admits that he is a little surprised at being chosen as he youngest member of the World Cup team for junior skiers (19 years and under). He earned the honor last week in 0,e national freestyle ski competition competi-tion at Winter Park, Colo., where he finished first in ballet, third in moguls, and fourth in aerials for a second-place overall finish. Brinkerhoff, who normally competes com-petes in the J-III category for 12- to 14-year-olds, stepped up to the J-IIs (for 15- to 17-year-olds) in Winter Park because of the lack of competitors com-petitors in his age division. Brinkerhoff and 13-year-old Park City Ci-ty teammate Craig Rodman were the youngest competitors in the national na-tional freestyle contest. An eighth-grader at Rowland-Hall St. Marks in Salt Lake City, Brinkerhoff won a spot on the junior World Cup ballet team and will travel with that team during the 1986-87 season. Rodman, an eighth-grader at Treasure Mountain Middle School, placed fourth in moguls. He was the youngest competitor in the nationals. na-tionals. "Other coaches were asking our coach what we were doing competing com-peting so young," Brinkerhoff said. "Our coach just answered that he thought we were ready and I guess we proved we were." Id Cyp bal Set team ...v---- V 1 Craig Rodman was youngest competitor in freestyle national competition. com-petition. Freestyle skiing hasn't always been in Brinkerhoff's repertoire. He started out racing with the Park City Ski Team. But he found that racing wasn't for him. After watching a friend in a mogul competition at ParkWest, Brinkerhoff got hooked. In his first competition, Brinkerhoff pulled off a first place win in ballet and finished 17th in moguls. During his second year he joined coach Jon O'Brien and his ParkWest freestyle team, with which he has competed for the past three years, along with Rodman. Rodman said his father first got him interested in the sport. "My dad thought it might be Beau Brinkerhoff will be traveling with World Cup ballet team. something I'd be good at, so I gave it a try," he said. "I was really surprised to find out I had made it to nationals. I didn't think I'd ever go." Rodman says the moguls are his favorite, but he also enjoys the thrill of aerials. "I'm not really interested in ballet." Both boys agree that O'Brien has brought the team a long way in the past couple of years. "Without Jon's help we wouldn't be anything," Rodman said. Brinkerhoff shared the some of Rodman's the elation and apprehensionwhen ap-prehensionwhen he heard he was on his way to nationals as a combined-events competitor. Dakin (Land)cruised to town with load of luck, experience by KURT KIDMAN Record staff writer John Dakin wouldn't be in Park City Ci-ty today if it wasn't for a combination combina-tion of good luck, Bill Marolt and his 1?!6 Landcruiser. Dakin is the information director for the United States Ski Team, headquartered at the Treasure Mountain Inn at the top of Old Main Street in Park City. Marolt found him the job, Dakin could take the job and his Toyota Landcruiser got him to the job. Apparently, Ap-parently, it is an unbeatable com- bination. A long time ago, Dakin put on a pair of wooden skis with cable bin-flings bin-flings and awkwardly made his way down a sledding hill in Evergreen, Colo. He became good enough at get-ling get-ling down snowy hills to be a member of the Golden Buffalo ski team at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1971. "After one year on the college 'earn, I decided that I should go to school for an education so I quit the team but stayed involved with it n tne administrative end," Dakm, said. "I eot mv first colleee degree in 1975 in the always-in-demand field of history with an emphasis em-phasis on Russian history." me history degree led Dakm "to a completely related field, loading trucks." K was then that Bill Marolt first adjusted Dakin's life. Marolt was e coach of the Colorado ski team aod he decided the school needed mebody to work on the informa-end informa-end of the team. At that time, w sports information office at Colorado Col-orado was most involved with foot-(remember foot-(remember Eddie Crowther Waking players run wind sprints ?fter each game?), basketball and baseball. So Dakin went back to school and orked with the team to organize "e 1976 National Collegiate Athletic ociation skiing championships at "inter Park. From 1972 until 1979, yworado won eight straight NCAA Sluig championships. While back in school, Dakin earn-a earn-a degree in journalism, and in '8 he was back out on the streets again. . And then, the odyssey begins," axin says. "I was hoping to get a Z t Colrado in the sports infor-3on infor-3on department but they had just ry ,a football coach by the name of Fairbanks." or those who don't recall Fair- d'hhe Was hired by Colorado t0 shin h"1 t0 3 national champion-Cp champion-Cp k Was given a larSe salary, a budget and was allowed to turn lv 0I"ce into a castle. Unfortunate-,; Unfortunate-,; Colorado, Fairbanks never e money into victories. U a lnt r n : tha ui uie money ui ""Kin sairi "t ctuni thp sum mer uir team, w 8 to colleges and pro lectio ' aU 1 got was te a col hick f letters sayng 'sorry, no He n heard about a job as i ' - 1 atki .. 1. eUC denartmonf Voir- 1S. SnA T . ., ... . job " n . as Dasicaiiy oui 01 Sports have taken John Dakin around the country. graduate assistant sports information informa-tion director at Nicholls State, in Thibodaux, La., about an hour outside out-side of New Orleans. Dakin had been back loading trucks for about four hours when he heard Nicholls State had hired him. Now enters the Landcruiser. Dakin packed up the trusty vehicle and headed off to the deep south. "I spent a year in Thibodaux and it was quite an experience," Dakin says with a smile. "I don't know if I'm cut out for the South. I don't like to sweat that much, and the state bird of Louisiana is the mosquito. It was a completely different lifestyle so it was quite an education. I got to see the Mardi Gras, which everybody should see at least once but I decided that I really didn t want to stay in the South." So the Landcruiser was packed up and it was back to Colorado. "I spent another summer writing letters when I got a call from Dean Thelma Cook at Lincoln Umversi-Jv Umversi-Jv " Dakin recalls. "I was about at S'nic time again, wondering what I waT going to do, so I decided to drive out there for an interview. This time before the Landcruiser could be packed up, Dakin had to Sdout juSt where Lincoln Universal Univers-al went to the library and found t it was a historically black university n Jefferson City Mo," university thefe m 'bSi-.tSbletimelobe juiy, wUU wohraska and Kan- S have to do some dooe.i.ythingtke'ha'ta'or. the interview was preuj school was over it was about 95 percent per-cent black on campus. The football team would go on the road, and there would be 50 guys on the bus and four of them white me, the trainer, the punter and the place kicker." Once again, Dakin was in charge of the athletic teams, getting press boxes organized, and making sure everything ran as smoothly as possible. possi-ble. And then Marolt entered his life again. As Dakin was getting ready for a drive to Pine Bluff, Ark., for a football game, he got a message that Marolt, then alpine director for the USST (now athletic director at the University of Colorado) was in need of an information director. "I've known Bill long enough to know he wasn't calling about the weather in Jefferson City," Dakin said. "He basically offered me the job, but I needed to take the weekend to think about it. I'd been to Utah a couple of times and I knew basically I wanted the job. As I was driving to Pine Bluff I decided if they offered me the job, I'd take it." Back in the Landcruiser, Dakin went and on Nov. 9, 1981, Dakin stepped step-ped into the Treasure Mountain Inn. Sometimes he feels as if he hasn't left it yet. "When I got here, there was no place to stay so I ended up taking a place in the TMI," Dakin said.f'It got to the point that I would get up and drive around the corner to work just so it seemed that I had gone somewhere." The information director job will never be confused with a regular 9-to-5 job. From Thanksgiving until about this time of year, Dakin can expect to work up to 12-hours a day, seven days a week. "It has been a lot of work, I can't figure out why I keep doing it, I guess I'm real stupid," Dakin joked. "Actually, it is a real rewarding job. I know I'm not going to make millions working in amateur sports, but I've been lucky enough to share in five gold medals and some world championships." Every time a USST racer wins a World Cup event, Dakin cracks open a bottle of champagne, or the occasional occa-sional bottle of tequila. With the poor performance of the team this year, Dakin feels he has been much too sober. "The team had a tough year, and our budget was cut so that made it tougher, but things go in cycles." Dakin explained. "We are usually on the down side of things in the non-Olympic non-Olympic years. During Olympic years we have more sponsors and more money." Dakin's Landcruiser is still parked park-ed outside his home in Park City, "I don't what I'll be doing in the future, sooner or later I guess I'll pack up the Landcruiser and leave," he said. "I would like to do something related with sports, it's got to the point now that I don't kw if I know how to do anything else " You can bet that if Dakin needs to be in the right place, his Landcruiser will take him there. "I was really surprised to hear that I was going to nationals. It was great being able to go. I was a little scared at first. It was a weird feeling being in the starting gate with some of the best in the world. "I guess ballet is my favorite event," Brinkerhoff said. "I like aerials a lot also. Getting air like that is great it makes you feel like you're floating." Ballet skiers perform a routine to music with short skis on. Routines typically include a series of spins, twists and flips that flow together, like a dance. Ballet skiing can best be described as a combination of gymnastics, ballet and skiing. Brinkerhoff has worked a great deal with world-class freestyler Jan Bucher. He attributes much of his success to Bucher's help and to the help of friend John Hocking. Brinkerhoff uses four songs for his ballet routine: Howard Jones, Miami Vice, and music from the soundtrack of Beverly Hills Cop. He said it took him about eight hours to put the 2 12-minute composition together. Although ballet skiing has won him the most awards, Brinkerhoff doesn't hold back in the other two events: aerials or moguls. However, he admits he has had some problems in the past convincing his mother that they are safe. "She thinks that I might get hurt. They are dangerous sports, but if you are careful and train right you'll have less chances of getting hurt." Brinkerhoff's training includes skiing with the team at ParkWest every weekend and using the Inter-mountain Inter-mountain dryland training center in Salt Lake once or twice a week. "Dryland training helps a lot. We "v " .. - I ' 3 4 m ,1 -fig. FrsL$ly V us t Craig Rodman (left) and Beau Brinkerhoff enjoyed the sunshine in Winter Park, Colo., the day before the national freestyle championships last week. The competitions were held in a blizzard. work on the trampoline doing flips and stuff. We also practice pole flips into pits and use a revolving ski deck to help with ballet. I've spent a couple cou-ple of summers in Mt. Hood at a freestyle training camp," Brinkerhoff said. But for now, Brinkerhoff says he needs a vacation. He would like to take the next two weeks off before starting a rigorous training program. pro-gram. "I'm pretty burned out. I need a break." The freestyler contends that college col-lege will come first in his life, but he plans to stay with skiing as far as it will take him. "I'd kinda like to make the regular World Cup some day," he admitted with a grin. Rodman dreams of competing in the Olympics. But in the meantime, they'll both be out skiing with O'Brien and his ParkWest team next season. PCHS tennis team wins season-opener over Lehi Fred Birch dispatched Lehi's Court P.aker 7-0, in No. 1 singles to help the Miners to victory in their first season tennis match. The Park City High School tennis team ventured into the great unknown Tuesday afternoon, and the players liked what they saw. The Miners played their first region contest of the season against Lehi at the Park Meadows Racquet Club. The first three matches to finish were all Miner wins, which assured them of the team victories. It was the first meet for the defending defen-ding 1-A champion Miners in the 2-A ranks, where they are to play this year. Coach Bob Burns was a little worried before the match. "We just had no idea of how good the 2-A teams are," he said. "Obviously, the competition will be a little tougher and Lehi is certainly a very good team." Lehi was good, but not quite as good as the Miners. In high school tennis there are three singles matches mat-ches and two doubles matches played in each contest. Whichever teams win three of the five matches wins the contest. The first match to finish was the No. 1 doubles where the Park City freshman team of Bnxlie Pollard and Darren Bean beat Lehi's Bret Nakagawa and James Stewart, 6-1, 6-4. "It was our first high school match, but we weren't too nervous," Bean said. "We did OK until we quit playing our game and started playing play-ing theirs. I think we'll do real well this year." The next match off the courts was the No. 1 singles, in which Miner sophomore Fred Birch was able to beat Lehi's Court Baker, 7-6, 6-1. The finishing touches to the region win were applied by freshman Kevin Wood, who had no problem with Lehi's Darrin Atkinson, winning 6-0, 6-0 in the No. 3 singles match. Lehi's effort left one of the Cowboys coaches muttering, "We're going to have to go out after school tomorrow and practice." Lunch and Dinner on "The Balcony" overlooking Historic Main Street Lunch Special Daily Plus French Dip SsnJwich, Fish Z Chips and more Live Entcminment from 7:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat. Dinner 649-7922 Take-Out Bakery 2nd Level Main Street Mall Top Of Historic Main Street |