OCR Text |
Show THE DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Friday, February 9,2007 In the line of Shire Red Rock freshman has climbed a tall hill to get to the U ; Swingin' Utes back in the great outdoors vs. New Mexico State Tony Pizza Chronicle Asst. Sports Editor : Growing up, Ute gymnast Sarah Shire did not have much of a shot living a life without sports. Her dad, David Shire, has been a high school teacher for 27 years. During that time, he coached practically every sports team, except the chess club and synchronized swimming. Sarah's Shire's mom, Robyn, was also a coach and a teacher for seven years before changing her career path in 1990. Needless to say, Sarah Shire was going to do something athletic. Sarah Shire got her start in softball. Robyn Shire even taught her only child to bat lefty, despite being right-handed, so she could be an effective drag-bunter and make it to first base faster. It didn't take long, however, for Sarah to be introduced to her obsession. Sarah Shire loved gymnastics so much, it was easy for people to accuse her parents of pushing her involvement in the sport, when it was actually Sarah dragging her parents to practice every day. - "As high school coaches, we've seen parents . mercilessly drive their kids into a sport...and we didn't want to be like that," David Shire said. "We tried not to be pushy parents." ; Sarah Shire, who was born near. St. Louis, Mo., was also the one-who dragged her parents halfway across the state of Missouri to pursue her gymnastics dreams. ' She started getting heavily involved in gymnastics under the instruction of Chris Clark. But when Clark moved to California while Sarah Shire was in eighth grade, she was left without a coach, and the Shires had a pivotal decision to make. Would the family pack up from their newly built house and move closer to an elite gym in Kansas City, or would Sarah Shire have to face the fact that her gymnastics career had come to an end? "Sarah said, Tm not done yet,' and we kind of agreed with that," her dad said. Shortly after, the family moved to a small town in central Missouri called Sweet Springs, but the move didn't exactly make life easier for the Shires. David Shire found a teaching job 70 miles west of the family's home at Archbishop O'Hara High School—where Sarah attended high school, in Kansas City—while Robyn maintained her restaurant management job 150 miles east in Columbia. The reward for the 90-minute daily commute was that Sarah got to attend Great American Gymnastic Express (GAGE), which is one of the top gymnastics facilities in the nation. At GAGE, she practiced six hours a day, six days a week to become one of the best gymnasts in the country. But she quickly found that her daily commute wasn't the only obstacle she would have to overcome. Terin Humphrey and Courtney McCool were both Sarah Shire's teammates at GAGE, and both eventually went on to earn silver medals in Athens, Greece, as members of the 2004 U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. Sarah Shire, who was one of the last girls to be left off the roster, had a hard time swallowing the disappointment of being the odd person out. "We always use the 90-10 rule," David Shire said. "Life is 10 percent what happens to you, 90 percent how you react to it." Sarah Shire proved what kind of person she was by the way she handled those rough times. "Seeing my two teammates go all the way was both good and bad," she said. "I tried three sumSee SHIRE Page 8 Seeing the light of day Chris Bellamy Chronicle Sports Editor CHRISTOPHER PEDDECORD/ Tit? / W v Utah Chieniclt Utah freshman gymnast Sarah Shire has been Involved in athletics throughout her life, and has found a niche in gymnastics. After attending the Great American Gymnastic Express, she moved 1,300 miles from home to attend the U and compete with the fourth-ranked Red Rocks. Making history again Ute women to retire Kim Smith's jersey Saturday Natalie Dicou The Daily Utah Chronicle MWC "player to pull down at least 1,000 -rebounds in her career. During her senior year, Smith and When picking jersey numbers at the fellow standout Shona Thorburn beginning of future basketball seasons, willed their team all the way to the no Ute women's player will ever be NCAA tournament's Elite Eight, where able to call dibs on No. 4 again. they lost in an overtime heartbreaker That's because Utah legend Kim to Maryland. Smith wore that number, and on SatThe tournament served as a nationurday—in the greatest honor a team al showcase for Smith's talents. If the can bestow upon a player—Smith's No. women's basketball community didn't 4 jersey will be retired and hung from know what Smith was capable of bethe rafters at the Huntsman Center, fore, it knew now. forever memorializing her remarkable Shortly after her college career endcollegiate career. The ceremony is un- ed, the Associated Press named Smith precedented—no Ute woman's jersey a third-team All-American. No Ute had has ever been retired in the history of ever eclipsed the "honorable mention" the program. plateau on the wire service's All-AmerSmith was the type of one-of-a-kind ica team. player that doesn't come around too Smith was selected No. 13 in the often. 2006 WNBA draft by the Sacramento "She's the most incredible individu- Monarchs and became the second Ute al I've coached in my career," U head drafted into the WNBA—beat out six coach Elaine Elliott said. "She was such picks earlier by teammate Thorburn, an absolute joy." who had become a member of the MinSmith finished her career with a jaw- nesota Lynx at No. 7 overall. dropping list of accolades. She scored "(Smith) was a good leader but she more points than any player in the his- wasn't a vocal leader," senior guard tory of the Mountain West Conference, Heidi Carlsen said of her playing days led the league in scoring in both her with Smith. "She led by example." junior and senior years and finished Carlsen said Smith -was such a speCHRONICLE FILE PHOTO her career with 2,281 points—winning cial player because "she worked her Kim Smith drives to the hoop during a regular-season four-straight MWC Player of the Year butt off." Her desire to be a great player game last year. Smith's jersey wilt be retired Saturday awards along the way. was always there and she put in the efwhen the Utes face CSU, marking the first retirement of Along with her ability to put up big a Utah women's basketball player's jersey. offensive numbers, she is also the only SeeSMlTWSPageS It wasn't the new faces peppering the top of the lineup. It wasn't shaking off the rust after a long winter. And it certainly wasn't the bullpen, which shined all weekend. No, the problem for the U baseball team last week against Santa Clara was more circumstantial than anything else. "It was depth perception," sophomore shortstop Corey Shimada said. Every year, the Utes are in the same unfortunate spot as other winter schools, in that practically their entire preseason training schedule has to take place indoors. In the three weeks prior to their season opener against the Broncos last Friday, the Utes practiced in the Spence Eccles Field House, which helps them get all the requisite practice in when the weather gets in the way—which, in Salt Lake City in February, it usually does. By all accounts, the facility—used by most of the varsity teams on campus at some point during the year—is a hugely valuable asset. U head baseball coach Bill Kinneberg says his team is much better off for it. Still, the football-field-size dimensions are a far cry from playing on an actual baseball diamond in the great outdoors. In addition to fielding ground balls off FieldTurf rather than natural grass, the depth perception is a major adjustment when the team finally does take the field. "It's an adjustment for the eyes and the body," Kinneberg said. His Utes were able to get one day of outdoor practice in before taking on Santa Clara for a three-game set (the result of which was Ute losses), but the change clearly had an impact. Kinneberg said he "expected some of that" going into his team's opening series, but admitted, "I still thought we'd execute a little better than we did." In three games, the team managed just seven runs despite 26 hits. Shimada, who went i-for-11 in the series, said he and his teammates clearly adjusted over the course of the weekend. "It was better on Sunday," the sophomore said. "We were seeing the ball a lot better and we'd sorta gotten used to it." They certainly weren't seeing the ball last Friday, as they were shutout 8-0. But as Shimada said, they settled down as the weekend wore on, dropping each of the final two games of the series by one run. Once they were used to the sunshine rather than the dimmed-down lighting and static atmosphere of the practice field, it was basically back to normal. Of course, once the team returned home, it was back indoors...for the most part, at least. Returning to Salt Lake City for an uncharacteristically warm February week, the Utes got a chance to spend a few hours practicing outdoors at the nearby McCarthy Field, where the football team usually practices. Now, the Utes will be back on the road and back in the sun this weekend— and they expect their eyes to adjust a little quicker now that they have three games under their collective belt. The Utes will take pretty much the same approach this weekend as they did last weekend. Struggles like the ones they experienced last weekend are nothing to get too worried about this early in the year, according to coach Kinneberg. "I've always said it takes about 10 games to settle in," Kinneberg said. "We've just got to settle in at some positions. The positive is, our pitching (last week) was fabulous; it was great." He will send his same rotation this weekend, with Chad Cullers starting Friday, Lucas Trinnaman taking the hill Saturday and Eric King in the weekend finale Sunday. The Utes expect to use about 10 pitchers over the course of the weekend. One player who likely won't be making any appearances on the mound is Brad DeVore, who pitched 2.2 innings of nearly perfect ball but is still nursing some minor tendonitis in his throwing elbow. Kinneberg said that he and his coaches are going to "hold him back" for a week or two, just to make sure DeVore's health is preserved for the rest of the season. The Utes' opponent this weekend is New Mexico State, which dropped two of three games during its opening series last week against Northern Colorado. The Aggies were 19-36 last season—incidentally, the same mark the Utes had two seasons ago before improving into a .500 ballclub (2828) last year. The Aggies are breaking in a lot of new blood this year. Twenty new faces joined the 2007 roster, including nine freshmen. While a lot of the pitching staff remains intact, including returning No. 1 starter Jason. Conner, the team lost most of its offense from a year ago, including Luke Hopkings, a .403 hitter who drove in a team-high 65 runs in 2006. c.bellamy@chronicle.utah.edu |