10
WEdNEschy,
H ie CI ac I camas P rìnt
M ay
29, 2002
Sports not ready to come out of the closet
Kari Rissmiller, center, led all other Cougar athletes at the
NWAACCs with 20 points. Rissmiller earned those points
by winning both the 1500 and 3000.
Track and field
season ends on
good, bad notes
J.J. PEARSON
Staff Writer
The good news is that many
Clackamas.
athletes
won
Northwest Athletic Association
of Community College individ
ual championships. The bad
news? Neither the men nor the
women were able to win team
titles on the track May 23-24 at
Mt. Hood Community College.
Coach Jack Kegg has said it all
year long...the athletes in the
conference this year are very
good and his presumption proved
to be fatal to his teams. The men
were underdogs going into the
NWAACC Championships, but
Clackamas thought they would
have had a chance of winning.
Early in the final day, the Cougar
men were trailing by eight points.
However, the Spokane Sasquatch
squashed all hopes by putting
together a string of victories to
win the conference title for the
second
consecutive
year.
Corey Swim and Paul Etter led
the men’s team with 14 individ
ual points apiece. Swim had a
tremendous mark in the javelin,
tossing it 205 feet, 8 inches to
finish second behind Lane’s
Jonah Friedrich. Swim todk
fourth in the triple jump and
scored two points in the
decathlon, held April 29-30 at
Lane Community College, scores
of which are carried over into the
, Regional
and
NWAACC
Championships. Etter placed sec
ond in the discus (149-8) and
third in the hammer throw (174-
8
)
.
•
Steve Groff scored eight points
with his outstanding mark in the
triple jump (46-6 Vi), which was
one of his best jumps of the year.
Rusty Pruden also scored eight
points combined from the men’s
800 and 1500-meter runs. Kegg’s
prediction that Jonas Welsch
would surprise people in the long
jump came true. Welsch leaped
23-11 to earn first-place and 10
p
o
i
n
t
s
Individually, the women had
fantastic achievements, but they
did not have enough fuel in their
tanks to accomplish the feats of
the Sasquatch. Spokane, led by
Jennifer Kennedy, scored 194
points enroute to their second
consecutive
team
title.
Kari Rissmiller added two
NWAACC titles to her four
Southern Region trophies she
won last week and led all Cougar
athletes with 20 points with first-
place finishes in the 1500 and
3000. Sara Rowse had another
good performance with a first
place finish in the pole vault (12-
0) and second place finish in the
hammer throw (144-5) to earn 18
individual
points.
Rebekah Yancoskie won the 800
in dramatic fashion. After lead
ing the first lap, Yancoskie fell to
third place going into the last turn
of the last lap. She clicked into
high gear and blew past
Spokane’s Susie Rantz in the
straight away and barely sur
passed Celina Ingalls, also of
Spokane, at the finish line to earn
the victory by 0.08 seconds.
Tiana Setser leaped 37-4 V2 in
the triple jump—a school
record—but finished in second
place behind Kennedy. Setser
finished the meet with 14 points,
as she also placed third in the
long
jump.
Kegg vwas unavailable at press
time due to his recruiting Cam
paign at the state track and field
championships in Eugene. Kegg
is hopeful that Clackamas will
land some very good athletes that
will propel the team to the top
spot next season as the Cougars
will be on the hunt for Sasquatch.
To reach J.J. Pearson e-mail'
doublejay67@hotmail.com or
drop
by
B-104.
Somewhere Greg Louganis is
crying. The former Olympic
diver, most notable for banging
his noggin on a diving board in
the 1992 Summer Olympics, is
one of sports’ most famous, if
not
only,
homosexuals.
On May 21, New York Mets
catcher and All-Star Mike Piazza
announced that he was a hetero
sexual, ending the speculation
that he was in fact playing for the
“other team,” thanks to a gossip
column by the New York Post’s
Neal
Travis.
Travis wrote in the May 20
issue of the Post that “there is a
persistent rumor around town
that one Mets star who spends a
lot of time with pretty models in
clubs is actually gay and has
started to think about declaring
his
sexual
orientation.”
Speculation has it that Travis
ran the unfounded rumor, hence
he is a “gossip” columnist,
because of remarks made by
Mets manager Bobby Valentine
that major league baseball is
“probably ready for an openly
gay
player.”
First of all, Valentine is naïve to
believe that to be the case. Could
you imagine a major sports star,
whether it is in baseball or hock
ey, admitting to homosexuality?
Not only would that be an
“uncool” thing for a studly ath
lete to do, it would be a market
ing nightmare. Ellen DeGeneres
demonstrated that by having her
former hit of a television show
cancelled after her disclosure that
she
was
a
lesbian.
And that was in television, not
even a realm that exalts manli
ness and ignores homosexuality
like Michael Jordan dismisses
the flu in the NBA playoffs.
The second issue at hand is the
fact that our society forces a pro
athlete to state his sexuality to
the
public.
If Piazza is gay, and residing in
the closet, does it really matter?
All personal beliefs aside, Piazza
is paid to do one thing, and that is
to be the best competitor on the
field.
While the Mets slugger is strug
gling in the hit department this
season, the Pennsylvania home
boy has hit over 30 home runs
and maintained a .300 average
over the last two seasons.
Now imagine a world in which
every Tom, Dick and Harry
knows that Piazza is a homosex
ual. Would the everyday New
Yorker accept him as a role
model for their little leaguers?
Would Piazza jerseys be some
thing of pride to wear to the ball-
p
a
r
k
?
I think not. The sad and simple
truth is that even in this day and
age we associate sexual orienta
tion with certain things. Sports
fans do not believe that a gay
man can be a superb athlete.
There still prevails in today’s
America this belief that if a male
is homosexual, he throws a ball
like a girl and runs like a pansy.
If you are a lesbian, the stereo
type tells us that you must dress
and talk like a man, and can kick
most
guys’
butts.
It is a widely held, however
“underground,” belief that the
WNBA is full of lesbians. I have
heard
open
conversations
between guys about which
WNBA stars they think are
“switch hitters,” and every time I
hear it, I realize how much I do
not
care.
When the day arrives that I can
proclaim myself as perfect, then I
will start telling other people
how to live their lives. Until then,
I really don’t give a dam if Mike
Piazza or Tim Duncan or any ath
lete
is
homosexual.
The fact remains that if an ath
lete is gay or lesbian, or even
transsexual or bisexual and all
other different sexual orienta
tions that inhabit this planet, as
long as they produce when it is
game time, I could care less.
To reach Nick Barron e-mail
barronoru@hotmail.com
or
drop
by
B-104.
If you're planning to transfer, check out
Washington State University Vancouver.
Conveniently located just 10 miles north of the Columbia River,
WSU Vancouver offers 13 bachelor's and 7 master's degrees,
small classes and opportunities to work with Pb.D. faculty on research.
in-state tuition opportunities
exist for Oregon residents*.
For more information...
s Call the WSU Vancouver Office of Admissions - 360-546-9779
s Visit www.vancouver.wsu.edu
s Visit campus - Off of 1-5 or 1-205 just 10 miles north
of the Columbia River at 14204 NE Salmon Creek Avenue
* Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia,
Multnomah and Washington county
residents pay in-state tuition when
enrolled in 1 -8 credits.
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