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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2001)
Wednesday V Best Bet NBA: Utah at Phoenix 7:30 p.m., TNT SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com ono ■Through hard work and technical refinement, John Stiegeler has thrown himself into the national spotlight By Robbie McCallum Oregon Daily Emerald In 1998, he was the No. 3 prep thrower in Oregon. In 1999, he was the No. 4 place kicker for the Oregon State football team. Last year, he was the No. 2 javelin thrower for the Oregon track and field team. Today, sophomore John Stiegeler is second to nobody in the javelin. Not to anyone on his team, in the Pacific 10 Conference, or even the nation. The redshirt sophomore from Coos Bay owns the country’s best mark in the javelin with a toss of 245 feet, nine inches — roughly the distance from an end zone of a football field to the opposite 19-yard line. Stiegeler has impressed many this season, including fans, coaches and even himself. “I expected to be among the top throwers,” Stiegeler said. “I didn’t ex pect to be at the top so quickly. I’ve never really been the top anything.” “I knew John was going to be throwing far,” said Dan Steele, Ore gon’s javelin and hurdles coach. “But I didn’t know he was going to im prove that much.” In his season debut on March 17 at the Oregon Preview, Stiegeler un corked a 15-foot personal best in his first competition of the year. His throw of 238-7 earned him the na tion’s top billing and the No. 2 spot on the Oregon record book. What has surprised his coaches the most this season is Stiegeler’s vast im provemeht from last season. During the 2000 campaign, Stiegeler strug gled to improve and failed to achieve his goal of 220 feet. After a disappointing performance at the Pac-10 Championships last sea Adam Amato Emerald Oregon sophomore John Stiegeler ranks second on the all-time school record book for the javelin with an impressive throw of 245 feet, nine inches. son, where he threw 203-10 for ninth place, Stiegeler took a month off to heal a recurring knee injury. In early July, Stiegeler decided to participate in the Summer Javelin Festival in New Haven, Conn. A rested Stiegeler exploded for a personal best 225-3, good enough for third-place out of 15 international competitors. “I didn’t start throwing as well as I’d wanted to until the summertime, which is a little frustrating,” Stiegeler said. “I’d been expecting to throw in the 220’s last year. I couldn’t really put it all together until the summer, then it started clicking when it was too late.” Since graduating from Marshfield High in 1998, Stiegeler’s career has taken a 180-degree turn. He began his collegiate career as a walk-on for the Oregon State football team. After a successful fall with the Beavers behind starting place-kicker Jose Cortez, Stiegeler thought he would stay in Corvallis and climb up the Oregon State depth chart. Then, spring football drills arrived. “After springtime came around I re ally started missing track again,” Stiegeler said. “I decided to transfer, but I wasn’t quite sure where. I called around to different schools and even tually found Oregon to be the best place for me.” Because Oregon State does not of fer track and field as a varsity sport, Stiegeler competed with the OSU Track Club, where he competed for the first time with a college imple ment. But it just wasn’t the same for Stiegeler. “I liked it up there, it was nice,” he said. “Had I stayed there I would have had the opportunity to be the starting kicker. It’s something I still have as an Turn to Stiegeler, page 8 Kent selected as member of NABC ■The Oregon head coach is honored with two prestigious positions that further propel the Duck name into the national spotlight By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald Oregon men’s basketball coach Ernie Kent is going through a relatively peaceful offseason compared to his counterpart in the women’s program, Jody Runge. Less than a week after securing a solid recruiting class, Kent has been appointed to two prominent positions that show the level of respect he is given nationwide. Kent was named to the National As sociation of Basketball Coaches’ board of directors Tuesday and also selected as an assistant coach for the United States’ 22 and-Under national team. Kent was appointed to the position in the N ABC by Kansas coach Roy Williams, who is president of the associ ation. Kent joins big-name college coach es such as Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Ken tucky’s Tubby Smith, Oklahoma’s Kelvin Sampson and Stanford’s Mike Mont gomery on the 15-member board. Santa Clara coach Dick Davey was the only oth er new addition to the board. “It was a very humbling recommen dation for me when I looked at some of the people on that board,” Kent said. The organization’s mission is to pro tect the best interests of the college game, coaches and student-athletes. The NABC includes nearly 5,000 members, mostly college basketball coaches. Another Duck is also involved with the NABC. Former Oregon head coach Jim Haney is the organization’s execu tive director. “With the knowledge of the game and the genuine concern for student-athletes that [Kent and Davey] possess, the board will benefit immensely from having them serve as directors to this associa tion,” said Haney, who was the Ducks’ coach from 1979-83. Williams also gushed over the new appointees in a press release. “Both Ernie and Dick have shown Turn to Kent, page 8 KENT CC It was a very humbling experience forme when I looked at some of the people on the board. Ernie Kent Oregon head coach Commitment not as hard as Pay-Rod thinks it is My roommates have something against television. Most of the guys (I have five roommates) don’t watch more than one or two episodes of The Simpsons a week and wouldn’t even consider paying $5 a month for cable. Furthermore — and to my dismay — the guys could care less about what Alex Ro driguez was doing Monday night. They have much better things to do with their lives. I, on the other hand, had to be in front of a TV. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a TV fanatic — I’m a sports junkie. Even more so, though, I’m a Seattle Mariners fan. Thus, if I couldn’t be at Safe co Field watching A-Rod come back to Seattle for the first time since signing a $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers, I at least had to watch him on the tube. So off to work I went to watch TV (don’t tell the boss). It’s probably just basic cable, but the Emerald newsroom at least has more than OPB to watch on its 30-inch Magnavox. There’s a nice little couch, beautifully high lighted by a light blue cover, which is more than suitable for me to watch my M’s kick some A-Rod ass. Wait. What am I thinking? There has to be a better place for me to watch my sports. The Emerald office isn’t exactly oriented for my viewing pleasure. There’s always this keyboard-banging, music-playing, peo ple-talking clatter in the Emerald news room, and it makes it hard sometimes for me to keep my focus on the game. Maybe the Oregon State newspaper has a better viewing area and a better couch. Now that I think about it, the Emerald couch is n’t that great. There’s always some sleep deprived copy editor sleeping there, and they’re starting to cramp my space. There must be something better some where (I hear Texas has some good couch es). Better yet, I could just find a home that already has cable. I could get fat and eat my potato chips in the comforts of my own place. But, wait, I’m forgetting about Mikey, West, Jimbo, Erin and Rusty. The guys may not have the same attitude toward TV and sports that I do, but I still have to respect them. It’s not like I’m just going to up and leave good ol’ 1456 because another house offered me premium cable with ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, HBO, Showtime and all that other good stuff (although that would be nice). It’s just not right. I couldn’t just up and leave the house like that. I have a bond with my roommates — one that keeps us to gether as a team. The 1456 team. And the Emerald isn’t so bad. There are some benefits. I have a flexible schedule that allows me go to classes once in a while. I also get to write about what I love. Honestly, things aren’t so bad for me right now. I’m pretty content, actually. The grass (or money) may be greener elsewhere, but I have made a commitment. And I’m going to stick to it. Oh, about that A-Rod guy. He was l-for-5 in his return to Seattle, a game that the M’s won 9-7. And in the second game, on Tues day night, he committed two errors in the Mariner’s 6-4 victory. I should know, I was watching the game on cable TV at my work (shhh!). Adam Jude is a sports reporter for the Emerald. He can be reached at ajude34@yahoo.com.
