Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 1978)
john harris pg1 Rally squad: does anyone care? Dianna Hovick, the adviser of the Oregon rally squad, poses some legitimate questions for Duck football fans. “Do people even want cheerleaders? Are we wasting our time? What does it take to get you involved?” Although she won’t admit it, Hovick has to be somewhat frus trated. Since she took charge Hovick and her rally squad have heard few cheers of encourage ment as reward for their hard work. In fact, they have aroused overt hostility at times. At all three of Oregon’s home football games this season they have been showered with both verbal and physical abuse. “At the USC game (the first home contest of the year) a fan brought a head of lettuce to throw, and he hadn’t even seen us yet,” Hovick tells. Hovick and her rally squad are in a position not unlike that of Rich Brooks and his football team. Both squads have unremitting support from the athletic department and both are struggling to establish themselves as successful prog rams. The football team has im plemented a new offense and de fense, but is not yet winning games. The rally squad is per forming new cheers, but is not yet arousing support. Hovick was hired two years ago by Lew Cryer, then associate ath letic director. The athletic depart ment was interested in getting away from the school’s dance troupe, whose primary purpose was to entertain, and move more to traditional cheerleaders, whose job it is to arouse the vocal en thusiasm of the Duck followers. The philosophy is simple enough, but the transition has been quite difficult. “There are so many versions of what people want out of cheerleaders, but we re just going to stick with the direction we’re goin,” says Hovick. “The main thing right now is to get crowd involvement, but there is no tradition here,” she says. “It’s going to take five years to get where I want to be, and people are going to have to be patient.’’ In the meantime, though, stop ping lettuce and other refuse with their heads has proved to be a trying period for the members of the rally squad. “They’ve taken a lot of abuse which has intimidated them, and you can’t blame them for that,” Hovick says. “They’re frustrated because of the lack of support at the games, but they just say ’lets work hard; let’s show 'em.' ” The group, which includes Betty Christensen, Cindy Wheeler, Casi Baranga,Tammy Fleming, Kristi Kvistad, Tori Craig, Todd Knight, Darius Mckonic, Barry Olsen, Cary Erickson, Jeff Hough, Mark Hogard and Chuck Koch as the Duck, do, indeed, work almost mercilessly. They practice six days a week for two hours, and during the month prior to the opening of the football season they worked out eight hours a day seven days per week. The effort paid off when they were one of 10 teams to re ceive a superior rating at a camp in Santa Barbara which included squads from 76 schools. As a further attempt to gain cre dibility the group is going to enter the national cheerleading compet ition, which last year was shown on television. To qualify for the fin als the squad must prepare a five minute video tape of actual game performance and send it to the na tional association to be judged. Hovick and her crew are not en tering the competition as much to prove themselves to local fans as to be compared to other rally squads; an accomplishment that would go a long way to self preservation if nothing else. Injuries hamper volleyballers By JOHN HEALY Of the Emerald Injuries spelled disaster for the women's volleyball team last Fri day and Saturday at the Montana State Invitational, as Oregon dropped three of its last four matches to finish in a tie for fifth with a 3-4 tournament record. Front-line starters Christie McFarlane and Sue Stadler were both sidelined with ankle injuries Saturday after the Ducks had posted a 2-1 mark in Friday’s competition. McFarlane didn’t play in the tournament at all, and Stadler went down Friday against Western Washington. Those two injuries proved dis astrous for Oregon, as they were pummeled in three straight matches after opening with a 15-4,15-12 verdict over Montana. Washington State defeated the Ducks 15-10, 13-15, 15-6; Port land State whipped Oregon 15-3, 15-5; and Washington edged the Ducks 15-12, 14-16, 15-8. Oregon coach Chris Voelz wasn’t satisfied with the Ducks' play in the tournament, but in light of key injuries to two of her star ters, she remained optimistic that Oregon would be able to do much better in the next Region Nine seeding tournament scheduled for Nov. 10-11 in Seattle. “I think we can do better when we are at our full strength. We played a little backwards this weekend. We had problems with our transition from offense to de fense, and with picking up the other team’s offensive strategies.” Oregon opened the tournament on Friday with a 15-2,11-15,15-3 thumping of Montana State, drop ped a 4-15, 14-16 loss to Oregon State, and then beat Western Washington 15-12, 8-15, 15-12. Saturday was all downhill, though, as the Ducks’ season re cord dropped to 8-13-2. Portland State won the tourna ment with a 7-0 record, while Washington State finished in a tie for second with Washington, both having identical 5-2 marks. Oregon State posted a 4-3 record for fourth, and the Ducks tied for fifth with Montana State, followed by Western Washington (1 -6) and Montana (0-7). According to Voelz, the results of the Montana State Invitational and the next Region Nine tourna ment in Seattle will determine the seedings at the Region Nine tour nament in Pullman, Wash., on Nov. 24-25. The higher a team is seeded, explained Voelz, the easier schedule the team will play. ‘‘Everyone’s getting better,” said Voelz, “and they really caught us off guard. We still lack cohesion, but I would rather be beaten at our weakest if we are going to lose at all. “Shawna Baxter had a fine tournament — her blocking was very good,” praised Voelz. “Mary (O’Brien) was very aggressive on the front line, and Anita (En nsworth) came back to play con sistently.’’ Oregon heads up Interstate 5 to Portland today to take on Portland State. $1000 REWARD For information leading to the recovery of a STOLEN Antique Mahogany Music Box circa 1890-1900, 24x24x16" with inlaid drawing of a woman and bike inside iid. Missing side crank. Respond in writing to Dept. R-101, P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 or call Judi or Ron at 484-0617. Replies kept confidential. THE SEVEN WEEK COURSE BEGINS WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25 AND RUNS THROUGH WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6 FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 484-0457 or 345-6328 or 484-9627 INTERESTED PERSONS MAY ATTEND ANY OR ALL CLASSES 1754 PATTERSON - 7:00 pm WEDNESDAY NIGHTS ALL WELCOME, NO FEE Sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy Centre 4th Congressional District Candidates Debate the Issues Rep. Jim Weaver, Democratic Incumbent vs. Jerry Lausman, Republican Challenger In a ‘Meet the Press’ format debate with -Henny Willis, Eugene Register-Guard -Fred Webb, KATR Radio -Kevin Harden, Oregon Daily Emerald -Bryce Zable, KVAL-TV as questioners. Issues to be discussed: * Foreign Affairs * Defense * Public Lands - Wilderness or Timber? * Economy and Taxation TUESDAY OCTOBER 24th NOON DAD’S ROOM - EMU Presented by ASUO State Affairs
