Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemercild.com
Tuesday, October 29,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NBA opening night:
San Antonio at Los Angeles
7:30 p.m., TNT
Taking advice
from the coach,
getting off couch
Comfort is overrated.
Settling is for the lighthearted.
It’s the single worst thing to do in any sport and in life.
“Don’t settle.”
My high school cross country coach would tell me those two
words before every single race I ever ran.
The man taught me almost all I know
when it comes to sports. He taught me
for six years of my adolescence and al
though I haven’t been under his supervi
sion for almost three years, he is always
still ‘coach.’
Those two simple words can be related
to anything. In a race, if you settle, you
get caught. Plain and simple.
Settling means becoming comfortable
with a certain position and only being
satisfied with the present. It is giving up
on the chance to be great and only allow
ing for simply average performance.
Settling is too easy. It’s easy to get caught. To be satisfied
with the present is not hard, because you don’t have to wor
ry about pushing a little bit more.
We have all been prisoners of it at one time or another. Some
times there is just no avoiding it. And for those who seem to
never get comfortable, they are the victims of greatness.
Could the Anaheim Angels settled for a loss in Game 6, af
ter being down 5-0 in the seventh inning with the Giants on
the verge of a World Championship? Sure. But that would
have been too easy.
The Rally Monkey emerged and the Angels found their
magic. They were not about to watch their first World Se
ries Championship opportunity in 42 years stare them
down without a fight.
And look at them now. They are World Champions. They
found greatness in small places and didn’t settle for anything
less. Who would have thought a 24-year-old who moved up
from the minors at the beginning of the season — John Lack
ey — would win Game 7 of the World Series? I didn’t.
Comfort and greatness do not belong together. They just
don’t go belong in the same sentence. And to settle is to take
second place, or worse.
Will Emmitt Smith settle now that he has the NFL career
rushing record? No, he’ll probably just utter a sigh of relief. My
guess is he will rush one more season, if not two, and will hit
18,000 yards.
Could the Oregon football team settle for another Pacific-10
Conference loss after two in a row and thinking that the per
fect season is over? Yes. Will they? Of course not.
These are examples of greatness. Examples of never settling
for anything less than the best.
Settling doesn’t relate only to sports, but is a matter of
everyday life. Relaxing is great and comfort every now and
then does no harm. But if you settle for too long, you will
miss out.
Accepting a current situation in life is simply a cop out. I
don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense to me. It is simply an act of
the weak at heart.
We can always become better than we are. Chances for
greatness arrive at our doorstep everyday. Do you open the
door to accept the challenge? Or do you settle down in the
couch and get comfortable?
Settling relates to the sport you play, to the grades you
get, to the relationship you are in and to the life you live. It
is too easy to settle for average when anyone has the chance
to be great.
People like Emmitt Smith, John Lackey, Troy Glaus, Walter
Payton and the Oregon Ducks all tested greatness. They got
off the couch and opened that door and took the challenge to
become what they are.
It relates to us all. For me, I have taken my warm-ups off
and am making sure the laces on my spikes are tight as coach
comes over to remind of those two little words. I am reminded
that I have to push the entire way to the finish line.
If you remember just one thing, remember this.
Don’t settle.
Jesse
Thomas
Go the distance
Contact the sports reporter at jessethomas@dailyemerald.com. His
views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald.
Pac-10 race gets top heavy
Five Rac-10 teams are within two
games of first place, but history
shows it’s hand to win a
championship with two losses
Pac-10 Notes
Adam Jude
Senior Sports Reporter
Nothing is ever guaranteed in the Pa
cific-10 Conference, except when it
comes to the meaning of two losses.
The last time a team with two losses
won the conference crown was 1993,
when UCLA, Arizona and USC each
went 6-2 in the Pac-10. In fact, only four
times since 1958 has a team with a pair
of losses shared the conference title.
The odds, then, are stacked heavily
against the Ducks (6-2 overall, 2-2 Pac
10), who lost their second straight game
Saturday for the first time since 1999.
With conference play half completed,
Washington State (7-1,4-0) and Arizona
State (7-2,4-0) are in the driver’s seat for
the Rose Bowl. USC (6-2,4-1) is behind.
“It’s a special year already,” WSU head
coach Mike Price told The Seattle Times.
“It’s a special team, a special year, and
I’m proud and honored to be on the side
lines with this football team.”
The No. 8 Cougars would like to make
it even more special with a trip to the
Rose Bowl. And an advantageous sched
ule could help make that happen.
When the teams meet in Pullman,
Wash., this week, either Washington
State or Arizona State will be knocked off
the undefeated pedestal. The Cougars
then host Oregon the following weekend,
Washington on Nov. 23 and round out
the regular season at the Rose Bowl
against UCLA.
Turn to Pac-10, page 10
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
USC's Kareem Kelly and the Trojans are third in the close Pac-10 conference race.
Everybody's gone surfin' ...surfin' U of O
Courtesy Oregon Club Surfing
An unidentified surfer hits the waves on the Oregon coast.
Despite cold water and
less-than-perfect
conditions, surfing in
Oregon is alive
Scott Archer
Freelance Sports Reporter
Forty-seven degree water
is cold. The Oregon coasts
ocean
waves are
cold.
Oregon
itself can
be cold.
Get
over it and
get out in
the water — that’s the idea
that coach Paul Griffes is
trying to convey about the
Oregon club sports surfing
team.
“The quality of surf in
Oregon is excellent,” Griffes
said.
Griffes is crazy enough
about surfing that he’s try
ing to revive the once
defunct surfing team and is
pitching the idea to people
that the sport is alive and
well in Oregon. Griffes is
another California trans
plant attending Oregon,
and like other Californians,
surfing is one passion that
just won’t die in him.
“I started surfing 11 years
ago,” Griffes said. “I just
love it. I did it very regular
ly when I was in northern
California.” Staying true to
form, Griffes is again back at
the beach once or twice
every week perfecting a
craft in not-so-picture-per
rect condi
tions.
“It’s
very cold,”
G r i f f e s
said. “The
tempera
ture
-I ranges
from freez
ing cold to very cold. I go
online, look at the forecast
to figure out the conditions,
the swells and the wind fac
tor.”
Taking Griffes seriously
can be hard at first. Surfing
in Oregon?
“There are lots of good
places to surf in Oregon,”
Griffes said. “Locally, it's
often possible to find good
waves right out in Florence.
“We go all over the place,”
Griffes said. “With surfing,
there are many variables to
consider when choosing
Turn to Surfing, page 10