Oregon daily emerald., November 16, 1978, Section A, Page 9, Image 9

^ john hcrris
3 Glory behind her, Strike looks ahead
Standing 6-2, Sheila Strike is a
fairly tall young woman, but there
was a moment in her life when
she felt quite small in stature. As
the starting center for the Cana
dian women’s basketball team in
the 1976 Olympics, Strike had to
guard Uliana Semanova, the 7-2,
285-pound center from the Soviet
Union. What was it like? “Beyond
description,” laughs Strike.
An attractive and articulate na
tive of West Vancouver, British
Columbia, Strike traveled to over
20 countries, including China and
Russia, during four years as a
member of the Canadian national
team. The experience both
broadened her horizons and
brought her not a small amount of
notoriety, but right now she’s
happy pursuing a master’s de
gree at the University and assist
ing Edwin Heiny as a coach of the
Oregon women’s basketball
team.
“I’m not Sheila Strike, center
on the Canadian Olympic bas
ketball team, but I’m Sheila
Strike, the student, and I like
that," she says.
Stnke became a member of
Canada's national team in 1972
at the age of 17. She was one of
the youngest members of the
team, but what she lacked in ex
perience, she made up in height.
“I was tallest in camp,” she says.
“I had very little high school ex
perience and I was by no means
a super player,." But when she
put her mind to becoming a suc
cessful basketball player, she
soon established herself as one
of the best in Canada.
“Basketball was about eighth
on my list of priorities in high
school. I was a typical adolescent
—into having a good time. But I
reached a point when I decided
that if I was going to play basket
ball I was going to shoot for
something,” she recalls.
In 1973, while playing college
ball for Simon Fraser in the winter
and internationally for the Cana
dian team in the summer she set
as a goal for herself playing in the
1976 Olympics.
Along the way she traveled
with the team for four summers,
playing 30-40 games in such
countries as Bulgaria, Yugos
lavia, Russia and China.
“We went to China in 1973,
and from a cultural point of view
that was the most interesting
place we went,” she says.
“We played in a gym not unlike
this one (Mac Court), and after
the game we went outside and
there were 15,000 bikes lined up
on the sidewalk.
“We tend to place value
judgements on things and say
that what we have is better, but
it’s just a different way of life.”
Strike is amused if not irritated
by the view Westerners have of
foreign athletes, in particular
women athletes of Eastern
Europe and Russia, as being im
personal to the point of being
robot-like. “I think that’s a
stereotype created by a com
munication barrier; perhaps it’s a
political ideology barrier as well. I
Heisman candidate Billy Sims
may be Sooners’ best back ever
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Billy
Sims finally appears to have
shaken off the injury jinx and, as a
result, Oklahoma's opponents
are feeling the pain.
When he came out of Hooks,
Texas, in 1975 with more than
7,000 yards to his credit as a high
school sensation, the projections
were that Sims might turn out to
be the greatest back ever to run
wild for the University of Ok
lahoma.
Finally, after three years of
nagging injuries, Coach Barry
Switzer says that Sims is “playing
up to our expectations... playing
the way we always thought he
could play.”
What Sims is doing is leading
the nation in rushing with an av
erage of 155 yards per game, in
cluding a national record-tying
three 200-yard-plus games in a
row which ended when he was
“held” to 153 in last week’s loss
Monroe back in lineup
and Knicks’ fans love it
Earl Monroe is back where he
belongs, working his magic for
the New York Knicks.
After missing the first 15 games
of the National Basketball As
sociation season because of a
contract dispute, the Pearl is
once again wearing No. 15.
“It’s great to be back,” said
Monroe, a four-time all-star and
the 20th leading scorer in NBA
history.
“I love New York. This is my
city and I never wanted to leave.
But it was frustrating not being
able to play. Three weeks ago I
had doubts about whether I'd be
back. You never know if they'll let
you sit out the season. But I
thought that if I didn't play in New
York, I wouldn’t play anywhere
else."
Knicks fans are lucky to have
Monroe around, and they showed
their appreciation upon his return
Oregon Daily Emerald
Tuesday night.
Chants of “Earl! Earl! Earl!"
urged Coach Red Holzman to put
Monroe into the game.
sasssasss
■552
to Nebraska, with 1,550 yards in
10 games, he needs 116
against Oklahoma State on
Saturday to break the school re
cord of 1,665 set by Greg Pruitt in
1971.
Obviously, the time has come
to mention Sims in the same
breath with Joe Washington,
Steve Owens and Pruitt, the three
leading ground-gainers in Ok
lahoma history.
“Earl Campbell and Billy Sims
are the two best running backs
I’ve ever seen,” says Switzer,
linking Sims with last year’s
Heisman Trophy winner from the
University of Texas.
“He has Ns own styte of run
ning. Joe Washington was prob
ably more elusive but Billy snakes
and slithers through there and he
breaks so many tackles with his
strength.”
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Upstairs in
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had some very positive experi
ences with some Russian women
in particular, she tells.
A group of Russian women ap
proached Strike’s roommate dur
ing the Olympics because they
were fond of her hair style and
wanted to get a haircut to match
it. Sheila and her roommate
helped by taking them to the hair
dresser. ‘They’re just like any
other people," explains Strike.
They brought us gifts the next
day. It was really sweet."
Spiritually and intellectually the
Russians were similar to Strike
and her teammates, but on the
basketball court it was another
story. Women’s basketball was
played in the Olympics for the first
time in 1976, and only six teams
participated. Canada entered the
competition automatically, be
cause it was the host country, but
the other five teams had to qual
ify. The Canadians opened with
the Soviet Union, lost and never
recovered, failing to win a game.
“We played absolutely atroc
iously and finished sixth,” re
members Strike.
Semanova posed obvious
problems for Strike (“She posts
low, they lob the ball into her and
she just tarns around and
shoots”), but Strike feels she has
played against tougher centers.
"The thing that is really important
to remember about her
(Semanova) is that she is by no
means the strength of their team.
What makes them able to dom
inate women’s basketball are their
6-5 forwards who are incredible
athletes.
“She (Semenova) must be the
tallest woman basketball player,
so that was a challenge, but it
poses a different challenge to
play the center from Italy who is
6-3 and is a tremendous offen
sive player.”
Despite the media play given
the United States’ center Lucy
Harris, Strike didn’t feel the
American was that extraordinary.
“Lucy Harris was a challenge be
cause she was so publicized,”
Strike says. “She was good, but I
would say there are equally as
good centers in the world.”
Strike “retired” from the Cana
dian national team after the
Olympics and probably would not
return to play even if Canada was
able to qualify for the 1980 Olym
pics.
"The most it did for me was re
ally broaden my view of the world.
I wouldn’t have traded the oppor
tunity for anything, and I think the
Olympics, despite the entangle
ment of politics, has got to be the
most exciting thing in the life of an
amateur athlete. But something
pretty drastic would have to hap
pen for me to tryout again,” she
says.
“That was a really neat part of
my life, but now I’m going to move
on and meet some new chal
lenges.”
Like helping Edwin Heiny build
a powerful basketball team at
Oregon.
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