Tuesday
Best Bet
MLB: Texas at Seattle
7 p.m., Fox Sports Net
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
The NCAA Championships: a look back in pictures
Left: Oregon’s
Santiago Lorenzo
celebrates
a successful attempt
in the high jump.
Below: Florida’s
Geno White takes off
in the 400-meter
final on Saturday.
Inside
The NCAA Track
and Field
Championships
photo essay
continues with
athletes preparing
before and
exhaling after
their races.
PAGE 12
UO club
dance is
aiming to
be known
■The club dance team is
a relatively new sport with high
expectations toward becoming
more established in the future
By Jessica Richelderfer
Oregon Daily Emerald
When Sarah Taft wears her Oregon
Club Sports dance team jacket around
campus, she receives many curious looks.
“People have approached me to ask
what the dance team is all about,” said
Taft, a junior.
Some may re
member watching
them perform at the
Moshofsky Center
during halftime of
home football games
or at McArthur
Court during basketball games.
But they are not cheerleaders, nor are
they associated with the flag team — two
of the groups sponsored by the Oregon
Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Rather, this team is funded through the
Club Sports department and is held to
gether solely by its members’ dedication
and shared love of dance.
The Oregon dance team, formerly
known as Dance Force, was started three
years ago by a couple of disgruntled Uni
versity students. After being barred from
the flag team, the two girls decided to form
a dance team of their own. With the help
of Club Sports, they managed to acquire a
budget and recruit a large enough group
to form a squad.
Today, the team’s roster has grown to 13
members, but it still has no coach and a
limited budget.
“It’s really difficult not having a coach,”
Taft said. “We have 13 girls, all with differ
ent opinions and ideas, throwing them
out there at the same time.”
Freshman Laura Kizer agrees that the
hardest thing about being on the team is
the lack of organization and the lack of
Turn to Dance, page 10
Cash back for sports? The Fire are on to something
TWO MINUTES FOR
CROSSCHECKING
PETER HOCKADAY
This column is guaranteed to make
you laugh, or we’ll give you your
money back.
Where is sports advertising go
ing? If you were lucky enough, you read
an advertisement in last Thursday’s Ore
gonian for that city’s WNBA team, the
Portland Fire.
The ad proclaims a Fire game is: “A
blast! Guaranteed.” The word “guaran
teed” had an asterisk, so naturally you
i^ead the fine print.
“If you are not enjoying your game ex
perience, bring your ticket stub to the
Rose Quarter ticket office immediately
following the game and we will gladly ex
change your ticket for another one of
equal or greater value to the game of your
choice, while supplies last.”
If only this revolutionary idea could be
applied to other sports. Fans of the Ore
gon softball team would flock to the ticket
office, because there was nary an exciting
game to be found this spring. Those who
attended the chilly Oregon Preview track
and field meet March 17 would finally get
their dues for sitting in sub-50 degree
temperatures for four hours, watching a
not-very-exciting meet.
But Oregon sports aren’t the only ones
that could use money-back guarantees.
We could finally get cash back for
watching Anna Kournikova on a cold day,
for seeing the Lakers demolish another
opponent or for attending a mid-season
matchup between the Montreal Expos and
the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
No longer would we pay for attending a
golf tournament without Tiger Woods.
You would get a free ticket if you mistak
enly blundered into a Major League Soc
cer game between the Kansas City Wiz
ards and the Columbus Crew. A John
Rocker outburst after an Atlanta baseball
game would be worth two free tickets.
If only there were guarantees on yacht
races, cycling and figure skating. Minor
league basketball, power boating and pro
fessional water-skiing would all provide
opportunities for cash back.
But don’t you really wish you could get
time back for watching worthless sporting
events on television?
You could get two hours back for that
Saturday morning you were hung over
and watched pro bass fishing. You could
get infinite hours for the times you’ve ac
cidentally landed on a NASCAR race,
wondered if it was cool and then changed
the channel when you finally realized
what was going on.
The Cardinals-Reds game on ESPN Sun
day night? Two hours. The final quarter of
76ers-Bucks, game seven? Half an hour.
The final eight rounds of the NFL draft?
Twenty-four hours.
All that time, back in your pocket, to
watch worthwhile sporting events! Go
ahead, watch game six of the Stanley Cup
playoffs. Go hog wild and sit down for a
Mariners game as Alex Rodriguez and the
Texas Rangers enter the unfriendly con
fines of Safeco Field.
Best of all, go see a Fire game. That is
the only sporting event, of course, where
you can actually get your money back. For
now.
Peter Hockaday is a sports reporter for the Emerald
He can be reached at phockaday@yahoo.com.