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Show A7 WWW.NETXNEWS.NET MONDAY • JUNE 26 • 2006 ) * ] T 1 * f* J* Good star KaceyRobbins Sports Writer Webster's Wisdom For the home opener the defending back-to-back champs put on a show for the home crowd. After losing the night before to the Ogden Raptors, who are affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Orem Owlz put on a show for the crowd a got the win. The roster of the Orem Owlz is full of young kids in their teens and early twenties; all are rookies. Orem is affiliated with the Los Angeles Angels. Angels had their spring training in Arizona with the Angels organization. Coach Tom Kotchman who is scout for the Angels was in Florida scouting for players during the training. Coach Kotchman, stated, " That he is still getting to know the players and their faces." When asked what it felt like to play a home opener where none of the players had ever played before. Catcher Scott Knazek said, "It was great, it felt like home, after being away in Ogden and playing up there, and then to come down hear and to have so many fans and to hear cheer us on, it definitely felt like home." The Owlz took an early lead in the first inning; then with great defense and pitching. Sean O' Sullivan, who started the game, pitched four innings allowing no runs, 2 hits and 6 K's. They matched their defensive performance on the offensive end and had fun at the plate. Peter Bourjos ^ Ben Webster <.''X. ','--y,i They are hired to use their best judgment, but their best judgment is never good enough. That's right; referees, umpires and officials are always wrong in someone's opinion. Outraged NBA owners, soccer announcers, coaches and crazed fans across the globe criticize the people blowing the whistle. Referees are called upon to use their best judgment; and it's unfortunate that after a game, the ref's judgment is the subject most talked about. In game five of the NBA finals, a game the Miami Heat won in overtime, Dallas Owner Mark Cuban stormed on to the court after losing and yelled at the officials. After three very questionable calls, Cuban was reportedly most upset about a supposed missed backcourt violation that would have given his team the ball with under 10 seconds left and a one point lead. The call wasn't made. Dwayne Wade drove and with 1.9 seconds left, the refs called a foul. The foul was widely discussed after the game. Another challenging call for the refs in the same game: Dallas Forward Josh Howard purportedly signaled for a timeout that he actually didn't want to take. The officials were forced to give Dallas their last timeout, pressuring Dallas into attempting a desperation shot to try to win the game. These three calls were argued over on sports radio and television shows across the country. The fact is, whether we like it or not, officials have a great impact on sporting events. The World Cup match between the U.S.A. and Italy also spawned criticism aimed at the man with the whistle. A rare, three red cards were given in the game (one for Italy and two for U.S.A.), forcing three players to be ejected from that match and to miss both teams' final game of group play. We may not like the refs, but we have to get used to them. Most people aren't willing to put on the stripes, grab the whistle and take on criticism from everyone watching. We need them. Even John Ellinger, the usually mellow coach for Real Salt Lake, got after a referee after a loss to the Houston Dynamo. The referee whistled an offside when the Real scored an equalizer during the match when there "clearly" was no infraction. The day after the Super Bowl was also marred with discussion about the officials. Seattle Head Coach Mike Holmgren told Seattle fans, "I didn't know we were going to have to play against the guys in striped shirts as well." Holmgren coaches players who participate in the only sport that has instant replay. The replay system was put into effect to negate the factor of human error of officials. Refs are human. Humans make mistakes. Hindsight is 20/20 and it is impossible to eliminate mistakes made by the refs. It's become problematic that we can replay every play, shot and foul, and everything that happens during a major sporting event. On jumbo screens, we can view the mistakes that refs make. This magnifies negative reactions to the mistake; fans, coaches and players know when a mistake has been made. Also, people involved in sports are whiners. They cry when a call goes against their team and cheer when officials seem to be working for them. Fans cry too; it's why sports radio shows survive. Mark Cuban received a hefty $250,000 for his reaction to the refs following his antics after game five. His team eventually lost to Miami in the finals, giving him more reason to whine. Luckily for fans, they can say whatever they want to about refs and it won't cost them a thing. As long as we have sports we will have refs; as long as we have refs we will have controversy in sports. If you are sick of officials in sports, go watch golf. See OWLZ-A8 Chad Clark/NetXNews The Owlz got a solid four innings from starter Sean O'Sullivan, who struck out six and only gave up two hits. Alumni golf tournament Ben Webser Sports Writer II w The 14th Annual Alumni Classic Golf Tournament will be hosted by the Utah Valley State College Alumni Association June 28th, at the Soldier Hollow Golf Course in Midway. The tournament, started back in 1992, will help raise money for student scholarships at UVSC. Last year the event brought in more than $100,000 to go to student scholarships. This year, UVSC Eirector of Alumni Relations, Jeri Ahphin said the Alumni Association has set a goal to match what they got last year. "We had a goal of a lot more a couple months ago but expectations have lowered since we have the numbers in. We still expect to as good as we did last year," Aliphin said. The Alumni Association wanted to find a way to involve the community and the campus in raising funds for students. The Alumni started the tournament with UVSC employees over a decade ago with just a few golfers competing. This year there will be spots for 240 golfers, 60 teams paying $1000 each, competing in two 18-hole tournaments with some openings still available. The tournament began in Orem at Cascade Golf Course as a nine-hole day and nine-hole night golf scramble. It continues to be a four-person scramble but has grown into a huge event. "We have a terrific golf course to play on with a beautiful clubhouse and great sponsors," Aliphin said. Those See Golf • A8 Taking it to nationals Ben Webser Sports Writer The UVSC rodeo team competed against some of the stiffest competition from around the country in the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR), held from June 11-17 in Casper, Wyoming. The UVSC men's Rodeo team looked pretty good he* Jing in to the final day of the week-long CNFR with five cowboys set to compete in the finals and a third place standing early in the week. Jade Anderson and Jake Jarvis finished in fourth place of the third teg of the team roping competition. Jake Woolstehume showed well with a split third and fourth place for steer wrestling. Josh Adams also finished at 13 for the year for bareback riding. After the final region rodeo in April, Coach Lewis Field said, "I am sure we'll do good. We have experience, and it will be good for our guys to get to go against some tough competition from other parts of the country." After finals, things didn't play out as planned. *i hoped we would have done better," Coach Field said. "We have lost some of our best cowboys to the professional rodeo circuit and that hurt us. Some of our best cow- boys are finished with school and already making $100,000 a year." Even though UVSC didn't finish as well as they expected they would have, making it as far as they did was a major achievement for the Wolverine cowboys. "We could have done better, but just getting to Nationals was a huge accomplishment," Field said. "Most kids don't even get to be here and have a chance to go against this many cowboys." UVSC qualified for the CNFR after taking second place in their 11-team region earlier in the year. In April, UVSC went tied for second in to the final rodeo during region. Strong performances by Anderson, Jarvis, Riley Probst, Tyler Thomas and others helped UVSC to qualify to compete at the national level. Only two teams make the national rodeo from the II-team region. Ninety-six colleges had cowboys and cowgirls roping and riding for the top crown. West Texas A&M University walked away with the top spot for the men's team, and fellow Utah- school Weber State took the women's title. And over 500 student cowboys and cowgirls competed for scholarship prizes worth over $200,000 from the Smokeless Tobacco Co. Scholarship Awards Program during the event. |