Sports Editor:
Hank Hager
hankhager@dailyemerald.com
Thursday, April 15, 2004
-Oregon Daily Emerald
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Filling the mold
Justin Phinisee knows he needs to step up in the 2004 season for Oregon to be successful
By Hank Hager
Sports Editor
Justin Phinisee sits in the lounge area of the
Casanova Center, intently listening to questions
and firing back with what he thinks he must
to do for the Ducks to be successful in 2004.
Then a question shocks him slight
ly. It doesn't surprise him, doesn't
catch him off guard. Instead, it makes
him think and remember what it's
been like to play for Oregon head
coach Mike Bellotti.
"Is it scary to think you're going to
be a junior?"
Phinisee takes a second to laugh.
Then he answers as confidently as he
has every other answer, day in and
day out, since he came to Eugene
from Downey, Calif.
"Time flies," he said after Oregon's
sixth practice of the spring. "But I'm
looking forward to it. As a junior, I've
got a year under my belt, some expe
rience, some confidence. When we
get that (team) chemistry, I'm look
ing forward to some big things."
Big things have always been expect
ed of Oregon's secondary. In 2001,
when the Ducks defeated Colorado
in the Fiesta Bowl and the ended the
season No. 2 in the nation, they had
the likes of Rashad Bauman and Steve
Smith, both drafted into the NFL.
Since then, as Oregon has finished 7-6 and
8-5, players such as Keith Lewis, who is expect
ed to be chosen in the 2004 draft, have graced
Autzen's surface.
But now comes another era. As Oregon loses
Lewis and Steven Moore, a starter for two seasons
at comerback, the focus falls on who will step up
and replace the duo in talent and leadership.
Phinisee, along with senior Marley Tucker, has
been mentioned by many in those roles. Not
only is Phinisee a returner who saw plenty of
action in 2003, he started eight games, with a
majority of those coming late in the season.
1
i ne
ball
starts
over
again,
Phinisee said.
"Just like the last
year and a half
when we were
looking for a
comer to play
with Stevie. With
Stevie gone, we're
looking for another
comer to step up and that's
probably the biggest thing.
To be a good team in the Pac
10, you've got to have good cov
er comers."
If anything, credit Phinisee with
being confident. By his own admis
sion, he began the 2003 season slowly.
More than once he was burned for
touchdowns, and even though they did
n't ultimately decide the outcomes of
games — the Ducks started off 4-0 —
they weighed heavily on him.
So he made up his mind. He wasn't going to
get beat anymore. He wasn't going to let his
team down; he wasn't going to show the fans in
the stands anything less than his best.
And it paid off.
"Justin's a great athlete," Tucker said. "He's a
great comer, he's a great return man. He's devel
oped. His senior year, Justin's going to be the
one to watch."
Phinisee ended the 2003 season with 59 tack
les, two interceptions and two sacks. However,
the statistics don't quite hide the fart the he
is the poster boy for the generalized mem
ber of Oregon's secondary.
Of the 14 rovers, corners and
safeties listed on Oregon's 2004
spring two-deep chart, just two,
Tucker and redshirt freshman
Ryan DePalo, are listed at 6 feet
1 or taller. Phinisee, listed as the
No. 1 at the right corner posi
tion, is 5 feet, 10 inches.
Height be damned.
Phinisee demands physical
play. He wants it, and in
most cases he gets it.
"1 think a true cor
ner can play with the
best of them," he said.
"If you bring Jerry Rice in,
I'm going against him and I'm go
ing to talk to him just like the cats I prac
tice against."
Want an example? Phinisee is quick to point one
out. It comes in the shape of California senior Ge
off McArthur, who emerged as one of the Pacific
10 Conference's most productive wide receivers
in 2003, pulling in 85 passes for 1,504 yards.
Against Oregon, McArthur had just five recep
tions for 42 yards. The Ducks capitalized on
that, taking the game, 21-17.
"I think (Phinisee) is a lot like Keith Lewis,"
Tucker said. "He does things sometimes and
you're like, 'lustin, that's not part of the defense.'
But when he does it, sometimes he capitalizes
on it and sometimes (he doesn't). It's part of the
game. It's part of being a corner."
That's the hook. As much of a mark as
Phinisee made in the latter part of the 2003 sea
son, he isn't even close to being guaranteed a po
sition as a starting comerback. Oregon's second
ary is in flux as much as it has ever been.
Sophomore J.D. Nelson is penciled in as the
starting free safety on the team's two-deep. He
could, however, just as much move to corner.
Rodney Woods has shown himself as a prime
candidate to start at the other comer position, and
with time, Ryan Gilliam could very well be more
than competent on the outside. Marc Walker,
Marques Binns and Sam Hughes would all like to
have something to say about the situation as well.
As much as Phinisee would like to stay at cor
ner, he's also open to a spot at safety.
Just as long as he gets a chance to help the
Oregon secondary.
"Justin is a football player," Bellotti said. "He's a
returner, he's a good special teams player, he's a
good comer. I think he can be a good rover or
safety, too. If we have a couple comers we have
confidence in, we'd love to play Justin inside. If
not, I'd feel very comfortable with him at comer."
Phinisee, much like Bellotti and the rest of the
Ducks, is quick to point out that it is just spring
practice and as much as it can make or break a
player's season, it won't act as the final answer.
So with that in mind, Phinisee will be
i content to get repetitions at corner, safety,
|| and the punt and kick return teams. He'll
try to act as a veteran. He'll watch tape,
Turn to MOLD, page 14
Track gets respect
from this dummy
"Track and field sucks."
Those four words amount to blasphemy
in the city of Eugene, aka "Tracktown,
USA."
Those four words also came out of my
mouth roughly two months ago when I
was assigned to the men's track and field
beat. I was a firm believer that a sport was
n't a sport unless a ball was in play.
Being the epitome of a track dummy, I
struggled to find the reasoning behind
jumping into a sand pit, vaulting over a
bar with a flexible pole or chucking a spear
as far as your shoulder would allow. How
people could sit in the stands at Hayward
Field and be entertained by the long jump,
pole vault or javelin baffled my mind.
When it came time to cover my first
track meet during spring break, I walked
into Hayward Field sure of two things: I
would be bored for the next five hours,
and I would leave with a nice rosy sun
bum.
After five hours at the Oregon Preview,
however, it turned out that the only sure
thing was the sunburn.
After watching Tommy Skipper win the
pole vault and Brandon Holliday win the
400-meter hurdles, I was astonished by the
amount of athleticism that went into com
peting in the sport of track and field. An
Jon Roetman
Roughing the passer
expected five hours of boredom had
turned into five hours of being intrigued.
Watching Leonidas Watson compete in
the long jump gave me a different perspec
tive of track athletes: They're not just com
petitors, they're entertainers.
As Watson stood at the beginning of the
runway, preparing himself for the jump,
he looked to the Hayward crowd and sig
naled for fans to start clapping. Oregon
fans responded with a rhythmic clap that
filled Watson with a noticeable increase of
energy. The St. Louis native responded
with an event-winning mark on his fifth
jump, leading to plenty of "oohs" and "ah
hhs" from the crowd.
Skipper competed with the same kind
of flair in the pole vault. The freshman
Turn to ROETMAN, page 14
Club dance takes home
15th place at nationals
The Ducks competed in the National
Collegiate Dance Championships
in Daytona Beach, Fla., earlier this month
By Kirsten McEwen
Freelance Reporter
Club
•ports
Bringing together art and athletic ability, Ore
gon's Club dance team has made its mark on the
national scene.
Thirteen members of Ore
gon's dance team traveled to
Daytona Beach, Fla., to partici
pate in the National Collegiate
Dance Championships on
April 2 through 4. The prelimi
nary round of the tournament was held in Peabody
Auditorium, while the finals were at the Band Shell,
located on Daytona Beach.
Oregon finished 15th in the nation, and team mem
bers said they felt confident about the performance.
"We were excited about the performance, and I
think we are all proud of how we competed as a
team and how much work we put into it," co-cap
tain Robin Badstubner said.
Leading up to the event, the team practiced six
hours a week. The Ducks stayed in Eugene during
spring break to perfect the routine.
"We stayed here during break and practiced in the
Rec Center," Badstubner said. "We spent over 35
hours in just one week preparing for Florida."
The Ducks performed a routine that "was a little
edgier" than their normal style, Badstubner said.
"We tried to use music and movements that made us
really want to go out there and dance," Badstubner said.
Oregon began to plan for nationals in the fall. The
team had to submit a video entry by Dec. 1 to quali
fy for the championships, she said.
A breezy weekend
Windy weather and tough competition are what
Oregon's Club sailing team searched for last week
end when the team traveled to San Francisco to com
pete in the St. Francis Intersectional.
The Stanford-hosted event was a chance for Ore
gon to sail at a high-class venue against top West
Coast schools.
Sailing coordinator George Yioulos said winds
were blowing 15-20 knots, "supplying perfect wind
for the participants who had views of the Golden
Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island."
"It was cold, it was windy, it was foggy, there was
tons of chop and it was ... awesome," Yioulos said.
In preparation for the St. Francis Intersectional, Ore
gon's Club sailing team hosted a clinic at Fern Ridge
Reservoir on April 3 through 4. Blaine Pedlow, the sail
ing coach at California, came for the event and ran
the clinic for 20 boats. The Ducks took advantage of
having a coach nearby and used the weekend to fine
Turn to NATIONALS, page 14