Idaho State Journal from Pocatello, Idaho • Page 9

As I See It POCATEILO, IDAHO, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, STATE JOURNAL SECTION A PACE 5 Changing of the Guard By GEORGE GREER Journal Sports Editor The big surprise Monday came as no surprise-Joe Pascale had been fired as neao. football coach. The only suspense before the meeting was the question whether or not Pascale had resigned under pressure or had been fired. To the credit of Pascale, he stuck to his guns. Unfortunately the time did not seem right for a Joe Pascale at Idaho State.

In another time under different conditions he probably could have survived a 1-9 season. But too much had been expected of this year's team and something had to give. it did. I have contended and still contend that a coach deserves more than one year to prove himself but I'm afraid I would havebeensittingwithmy convictions in a nearly empty Minidome next season if Joe had been rehired. The attitude of the fans at the Boise State game made it apparent that Pocatello had given up on football.

I have never seen as many disgusted fans in my life. It's the gate considerations which probably dropped the ax on Pascale and all of his staff, except defensive line coach Tom Jewell, who survived the bloodletting. "Probably the largest contributing factor to our decision was economics," ISU Athletic Director Milton "Dubby" Holt told me Monday after the Pascale announcement. "The way fans left this game (Boise State) and homecoming (Portland State) I doubt very much we would sell as many tickets for the same program next year. It was obvious the crowd was disenchanted." "Disenchanted" is a mild description for what the fans felt Saturday as they watched Boise State boot the Bengals 36-0.

"The big thing that happened this year is Joe got left with a group that had played very well the year before. It's true they lost a couple of good quarterbacks, but they ended up with 17 seniors and most of them were starters," Holt said. "It was evident by the coaches' selection, the SID's (Sports Information Directors) and press and everyone else who picked us to win the league. The fact we were rated so highly and finished in the cellar in a total collapse was a factor we had to do something about. "I thought we looked worse this season than any since I can remember." I got periodic feedback from fans and players themselves on player discontentment with the ISU coaching staff.

They felt they had not been treated fairly. However, most of the criticism I heard was over one of the assistant coaches and not so much Pascale. Pascale declined to be interviewed. He feels nothing would be gained by it and he's probably right. So I'll say something in his defense.

The Bengals did not have a losing season for the lack of effort on Pascale's part or lack of concern for his team. All one had to do was be in the Bengal dressing room after the Boise State game. I saw a man walking around with tears in his eyes as he apologized to his senior players for their going out on a losing note. That's called character. And one thing which members of the press especially appreciated was that Joe never ducked a question.

That's saying something, considering the type of season he had to endure. Okay, like I said, the "big" surprise is over. Now there is even more suspense hanging over the picture. Who will be the next Bengal grid boss? Personally, I don't know but I think we have a dandy candidate right here in Pocatello: Highland High School's Jim Koetter. He has good backing from the population here.

With this in mind, I went to HHS to see if Koetter was in fact interested in the position. "This week my attention is going to be to finish the job I have here," he told me. "I would like to say I would like to be considered for the job but until I finish this week, I won't be involved in it at all." What he is involved in happens to be the battle for the state championship. The Highland Rams will play the Borah Lions Saturday in the Minidome and my nod goes with the Rams. "This ball game is a goal we all set out to accomplish at the beginning of the season.

Before we accomplish that, I don't want any distractions. The kids have given a total effort and I think I should not give any less as a coach," Koetter explained. Speaking of character, there's another man who has it. He also has great rapport with his players, a valuable asset indeed, and would be a great drawing card in recruiting, at least in Idaho. 1 And I like what I have seen in Highland's style of football.

Whether it would bring success on the college level I think would depend on the personnel playing but I'm sure it would have more punch than the fizzling offenses I have seen at Idaho State ever since I first arrived in Pocatello nearly four years ago. The biggest question that the selection committee, which will recommend the new coach for final approval of the State Board of Education, must ask itself is can a high school coach successfully make that giant step to the head coaching position at a university. In other words, will the committee even be interested in Koetter? I have seen other successful high school coaches try to make that step ami fail but I think Koetter could make it. Again there's character, the contagious ingredient which can motivate players to excel beyond their own expectations "I think they should give him every consideration-that's my opinion, Holt said. "He's done a great job.

I'm jurejjejjJE given every consideration if he applies for the job." But, on and hig DISCUSSES fIRINGS Holt: We Had to Make a Change' By GEORGE GKEEK Journal Sports Editor "It was a hard decision to make," Milton "Dubby" Holt, Idaho State athletic director, told the Bengal Foundation luncheon Monday of his announced decision earlier in the day to fire head football coach Joe Pascale and his coaching staff. "They are real class people but they weren't getting the job done," Holt explained. "Fortunately it was one year and not a situation like Weber State where it has been four years. They have real problems with their program. reached a point where we felt there was very little chance of recovery in the near future and we had to make a change." The Bengals' 36-0 loss to upstate rival Boise State seemed to have brought things to a head.

Little more than 36 hours later Holt and university president Myron Coulter had made their decision and it was announced at a special press conference lhat Pascale, Larry Pasquale, Walt Posadowski and Mike Murphy would not receive new contracts for 1977. "That was the sorriest exhibition of an athletic event I've been at in 31 years," Holt said of the Boise State game. "1 don't think 2,500 people were left at the end of the ball game, which is ridiculous." A selection committee representing faculty, students and alumni will screen candidates and recommend a replacement for Pascale after the 30-day period required by the federal affirmative action law. "I know everyone has a candidate and they are welcome to apply," Holt quipped. The ISU athletic director said lhat he hopes the ISU football program will be competitive in another year.

Jo-Ann Garavaglia, coach of ISU's women's volleyball team, also spoke to the group about her team's conquest of the Intermounlain Conference championship over the weekend. The Bengals were undefeated in the two-day tournament and earned a berth in the national tournament on the campus of Pepperdine College in Malibu, Calif. Dec. 911. The regional encompassed eight or nine states, Ms.

Garavaglia noted. The women's title was the first for ISU in any sport, men's or women's this school year. ISU's cross country and track coach Bob Beeten presented a slide show of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal in which he was the head trainer for the American team. He revealed aspects of the Games which were often overlooked in the televised coverage. For instance, on its journey from Platlsburgh, N.Y.

to Montreal, Canada, the American team's bus caravan traveled at speeds "ranging from 5 to 90 mph as police tried to foil any would-be terrorists who might attempt to attack the group. The team's living quarters were located a long distance from the dining hall. "It was about a mile walk. The weigh! lifters were complaining that they were losing a pound a day and they only ate seven limes a day," Beeten laughed. Other events and observations included: -Coach Dean Smith, Ihe head U.S.

basketball coach from North Carolina, stopped one of his practices when Wilt Chamberlain strolled in talking and had guards bodily remove Chamberlain from the building. "He said, '1 don't care who you are, you aren't going to talk during one of my Needless to say, that had quite an impact on the players," Bitten said. --In another episode involving Smith, the hoop team kepi the Americans waiting before their game. After five minutes, "Smith said he smelleda red herring" and took his players back to the locker 20 minutes to make sure the Czechs would waiting lor the Americans. That delay came during prime TV time.

--The torch carriers who brought the Olympic torch in to begin the Games reportedly were married after the Games. "It's amazing what carrying a torch 15 miles through Montreal will do for a young couple," Beeten chortled. Cowboy Burns Buffalo Dallas Cowboys running back Preston Pearsen (26) goes into the end zone from the two-yard like for a touchdown in the second quarter after taking a handoff from Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach (12). Bills' defensive end Marty Smith (79) hits Pearsen but too late to prevent the score. Dalls won the Monday night NFL game in Irving, Tex.

17-10. (AP Wirephoto) ISU Women's Hoop Club Solid By JOHN MCDONALD Journal Sports Writer Greater depth, added height, a fast-break offense and a full- court pressing defense are four factors that could spell success for the Idaho State University women's basketball team over the 1976-77 campaign. With four returning starters and a taller crop of recruits, the Bengal's distaff hoop squad stands a good chance of improving upon its 13-5 1975-76 season, and 6-2 conference marks. The ISU women would also like to improve upon their second-place Intermountain Conference finish of last season. "Last year defense was our main strength," recalled coach Nancy Shay.

"This year I hope lo have better balance on offense. Our main thrusl will be toward a fast break offense and a pressing defense." Last year Idaho Slate also had a problem with height, but Shay thinks she has solved thai problem through recruiting. "We picked up some more height in recruiting," she pointed out. "And I think with the people we had and the new people we have a lot of quickness." And quickness she'll need as Shay plans to operate both a fast-break offense and a full- court press on defense. "I hope we'll be more offensively oriented this year," Shay said.

"We have plenty of depth and should be able lo run." To lhal end Shay has been emphasizing conditioning in her workouts so far. Shay will trim her Iroops lo 15 from the current turnout of 22 within a week. And she'll make a final cut lo a Iraveling squad of 12 after the holiday break. The four returning starters include Karen Tharp, a junior guard.from Pocatello; Ginger Reed, a senior guard from Firth; Shawna Hansen, a senior guard from Nampa and Rhonda Bulcher, a junior center from Kimberly. Tharp and Reed specialize in playing the point in Shay's 1-3-1 offense.

Hansen plays the wing and Bulcher will one of two posts. On defense Ihe Bengal gals will to doubleteam and trap as oflen as we can," Shay said. The learn will play an 18- game schedule prior to the regional tournament beginning Dec. 16 at the College of Southern Idaho. The first home game will be a preliminary to the Idaho State vs.

Boise State men's game Jan. 1.4 in the Minidome. The Bengals have three such preliminaries scheduled Ihis season. Shay feels her team may face a sliff conference schedule as well. "We should be one of the stronger learns," she predicled, "but everybody will be improved.

I don'l know how much. II depends on recruiting." Meanwhile, Shay will be working on team play in preparation for the season opener. "We'll mainly be working as a unil in fives on gelling the rebound down, getting the ball oul and working the fast break. And we'll work on the pressing defense," Shay said. average (Olympic) cyclist can make as high as $50,000 a year plus all the free bicycles he can gel," Beeten said.

--Beeten had a fine collection of Olympic pins from other countries which he had traded for and displayed in his hat. But someone stole his collection. could get three bottles of Russian vodka for one American T-shirt," he said. "It seems the Russians were overstocked because they were not having as many victory celebrations as they had expected." -The practice track "was where everything happened," Beeten claimed. "You got every quack in the country there trying lo give the athletes advice." event you never could gel lickels for was gymnastics, which television has made so popular." --While some of Ihe other Americans were putting down the U.S.

organization and the Games themselves, Bruce Jenner, the Olympic decathlon champion, was busy in his quest of a world record. His effort in parl was to repay his country and the people who had supported him. "He said that the only thing different from the Olympic track meel and every other meet is 70,000 people are here every day to watch," Beeten said. Cowboys Keep Rolling, 17-10 DALLAS (AP) Wide receiver Drew Pearson of the Dallas Cowboys had just caught nine passes for 135 yards, but he displayed a hang dog look on the sidelines as the final seconds ticked away in a 17-10 victory Monday night over the Buffalo Bills. "Boy, he's going to chew us out this time," Pearson said to a teammate.

The other player nodded. "He" is Dallas Coach Tom Landry, who has a 9-1 team that is playing bad and winning. In fact, the Cowboys are off to their finest start in their IS-year history in the National Football League. Pearson said later; "We are professionals and if we don't play up to our level than we should expect to be chewed out." He was told that Landry says he never chews out players. Pearson answered with a smile, "If he says he doesn't chew us out then he doesn't." Landry did not sound like the Cowboys were in for too severe of a tongue-lashing.

Dallas is playing well enough to lead St. Louis by one game in the National Conference Eastern Division. The teams meet in a Thanksgiving Day showdown at Texas Stadium. "It still all comes down to that game," said Landry. Dallas played good defense but had an almost non-existent rushing game.

Virtually the only offense was passes from quarterback Roger Staubaeh to his favorite receiver, Pearson. to Top-Ranked Pitt Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles has won 20 or more games in six of Ihe pasl seven American League seasons. NANCY SHAY Readies Hooptten I of Auburn, pins blanked 3 winner over No. 8 posi- luston jumped and Okla- two-time na- frose from 14th IMissouri 27-20. I Alabama were I but the Corn- .1 State 37-28, i Tide bowed 121-18.

en consists of 116th a week ago linner over Arwed by Nebras- he, Iowa State, (lahoma State, Alabama, with tied for Ten was iton, Arkansas, Florida, Texas AM, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Colorado and South Carolina. Iowa State, one of six teams from the Big Eight Conference in the latest Top Twenty, had been ranked only once before this season, but the surprising 82 Cyclones have the best overall record in the league following their triumph over Nebraska. Meanwhile, Penn State, No. 10 in the preseason ratings, had been out of the rankings for six weeks following a 1-3 start. The Nittany Lions boosted their record to 7-3, downing Miami, Fla.

21-7. Rutgers boasts a 10-0 record following a come-from- behind 29-20 victory over Tulane. Arkansas dropped oul by losing to Texas AM, while Florida was upset by Kentucky 28-9 and Wake Forest knocked off South Carolina 10-7. By The Associated Press The Top Twenty teams in The Associated Press college foolball poll, with firsl-place voles in parentheses, season records and total points. Points based on 20-18-16-14-12-10-9-8-76-5-4-3-2-1: 1 i 4 4 2.

UCLAU3) 3. a 1 4. Michigan(2) 5. a 6. Georgia i Maryland! 1) 8.

Ohio State 9. Houston 10. Oklahoma ll.Tex A4M11) 12. Nebraska 13. Noire Dame 14.

Iowa State IS.Cslorado 16. Okl Stale 17. Pcnn Slato 18. Alabama 19. Missouri i Rulgcrs 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 6 9-0-1 1,093 8 1 0 8 6 6 9-1-0 8 0 0 9-1-0 10-0-0 8-1-1 6-2-0 7-2-1 7-2-0 7-2-1 7-2-0 8-2-0 7-3-0 6-3-0 7-3-0 7-3-0 6-4-0.

10-0-0 Bengal Gals' Hoop Slate ISU Women's Basketball Slate DATE OPPONENT .5 p.m. Dec. 16 At College of Soulhern Idaho 5p.m. Jan. 14 (Minidomei 5:30 Jan.

15 Fort Lewis College H- 7p.m. Jan. 21 Al Soulhern Utah State College-l- 5:15 p.m. Jan. 22 A( Brigham Young University Jan.

26 Al Ricks College Jan. 28 University of Ulah Jan. 29 Weber State College Feb.4 Al Adams Stale 5p.m. Feb. 5 Al Western Slalc College-f 7p.m.

Feb. 11 Adams Stale Colleger (Minidome) Keb. 12 Ricks College 2p.m. Fob. 18 Western Stale Collcge-f 7 Feb.

19 SouthemUtah Slate 7p.m. Feb.21 College of Southern Idaho 7 Keb.25 AlForl Lewis College 9 Feb. 26 Al Mesa College 4 March 11-12 Conference Tournament iDenver University) 28 March 23-26 A1AW Malional Championship (Pomona, 26 Calif, i 26 --Denotes Inlcrmounlain Conference Game. 834 786 663 663 555 315 285 271 203 189 188 100 99 31.