Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 165

DETROITT FREE PRESSTHURSDAY, March 12, 1987 WW 7A UM stresses quality not quantity Brciv Gharp By DREW SHARP Free Preu Sporti Writer The University of Michigan-Dearborn is attempting to strengthen Its sluggish athletic program by limiting the number of sports it offers. Last week, the university announced that former UM-D hockey assistant coach Tom Anastos would be elevated to head coach and former head coach Dave Rosteck was named, interim athletic director. The move was made to show that UM-D was taking the proper steps to have a credible athletic program. It came a month after the school dropped men's and women's basketball and fencing because of "limited funding," leaving only hockey and women's volleyball. The basketball teams were mired In mediocrity for years.

The school wasn't able to court, talented players because it didn't have enough money to offer better scholarships. Rosteck said the student activities fee increase would give the athletic program more money with which to work. The activities fee is a mandatory payment for every student. UM-D's student fee last year was $3, a pittance compared to U-M Ann Arbor's $72 fee. Last fall, UM-D decided to raise the fee to $19.

The rate! will jump to $25 in September. There will be a $5 Increase every year until it reaches $35 in 1989. BUT WHAT IS BAFFLING to some is why the school would drop three sports after getting a 600 percent increase in the athletic department coffers. Rosteck said the cuts were made for "administrative reasons." "It would be very confusing to go Into all of the details," Rosteck said. "The bottom line was that the sports program was an embarrassment in Its old state.

How can you build a quality program with limited funding? We're going to concentrate on running a first class hockey and volleyball program and work up from there." Rosteck is the first person to hold the athletic director's title at UM-D since the fall of 1985 when his predecessor, Gene Bolden, resigned. He said no timetable has been set on naming a permanent athletic director, but the position would remain part-time. Freshman Kevin Bonner thinks the "limited funding" excuse was just a smokescreen and the three sports were dropped simply because the administration didn't want them. Bonner was a member of the basketball team. He's also to Michigan standards with just a $200,000 increase," Devlin said.

"We would need at least one million dollars." Devlin said that figure was arrived at by combining equipment and traveling costs, along with a scholarship budget and funding to build housing for the athletes. Devlin said Oakland and Wayne State's figures probably did not include housing and scholarship costs. "I think the athletic revenue increase should go toward Improving the Intramural and club sports programs for the students," Devlin said, "rather than using it to maintain a weak intercollegiate program." Despite the dark cloud hovering over the athletic program, Rosteck thinks UM-D is taking the proper course. Rosteck said fencing will remain a club sport and a decision on returning women's basketball to the intercollegiate program next fall will be made by the end of March. "Our plan is that in four to five years, we'll be admitted into the GLIAC," Rosteck said.

"We're hoping that in that period the hockey team will join the CCHA (Central Collegiate Hockey Association). It may be an idealistic view, but that's what we're aiming for." sports editor of the student newspaper, the Michigan Journal, and has reported the athletic budget story the last several months. "FACCA recommended to the chancellor (William Jenkins) last fall that sports be dropped altogether," Bonner said. "They told the chancellor that It would take around one million dollars a year to maintain a competitive program comparable to schools such as Wayne State or Oakland. I contacted those schools and their athletic officials told me that it only takes to run their programs.

I really don't know how FACCA could come up with that figure." FACCA IS AN acronym for the Faculty Advisory Committee for Campus Affairs. It is a nine-member board of instructors that monitors campus activities. Chairman John Devlin said Bonner's information was Incomplete. Devlin, a physics instructor and second-year FACCA chairman, said Jenkins told FACCA last March that the student activities fee increase would provide the school with the added $200,000 Jenkins thought was needed to improve the athletic department's financial woes. "We later recommended suspending the athletic program because it could not be run up hamrocks run out of luck JOHN SOBCZAKSpeclal to the Free Press for the 138-pound state wrestling thinking.

I was kind of surprised." In overtime, Heaton picked up his second! consecutive extra session win, pinning Brown "I think I feel more confident going into overtime," Heaton said. "That's where my knowledge comes in. I try not to do anything stupid. Usually I also feel I'm in better shape. "When the season started I had no idea that I'd do this well.

I got a lot of paybacks on guys who beat me last year. I had a blast this year." Awesome dunk makes player instant celebrity Romulus' Billy Johnson is being called Darryl Dawkins by his teammates. "Let's see your gorilla dunk," chanted some players when Johnson drove to the basket during practice. He earned the nickname because of his backboard shattering dunk during the first' period of the Romulus-Taylor Center game; March 3 at Taylor Center. Only three minutes into the Johnson stole a Taylor pass and raced, toward the basket.

Johnson said he considered stopping just under the basket, leaping and slam-1 ming the ball with just one hand. But he; was being chased so he decided to jump on the run. He grasped the ball with both hands, raised it behind his head and clnmmeH It thrnnoh tho hnnn Instantly, the backboard glass crashed; down on top of Johnson. Amid the joyous! roar from the crowd was a sense of shock, from players, coaches and referees. John-! son said he stood motionless underneath' the basket for several seconds, mouth1 gaped looking up at the damage he had1 done.

He was completely ignorant of the particles of glass shining in his head. Fortunately, Johnson escaped serious injury. He said a couple pieces of glass scratched his face, but nothing got into his eyes. The game was postponed and made up last Saturday at Taylor Kennedy. Romulus won, 76-69.

Johnson, 6-feet-3, 180 pounds, is not the mammoth Dawkins-like player whom' people associate with wrecking back-: boards. Johnson said he just got lucky and1 "hit the rim at the right spot." The backboard shattering was inevitable. The Taylor Center facilities werei outdated. Its gymnasium was one of the1 few high school facilities that still had the non-collapsible rim; The collapsible rim limits the pressure placed on the backboard and reduces the! risk of shattering. Taylor Center also had! the old fan-shaped backboard, which is; smaller and structurally weaker than the! contemporary square backboard.

The collapsible rim can only be inserted on the' square backboard because the fan backboard's framework is not strong enough to support it. Taylor district athletic director Ken' Avery said the backboards were at least 20 years old and were ready to be replaced. "They were very old-fashioned and not! very sturdy," Avery said. "They were not unsafe. They w6re state approved and they; were checked regularly.

The backboards' were not structurally unsound, but they; weren't desirable." i Avery said the district had wanted to replace the backboards several years but because of budget restraints werei unable to justify spending the Avery said would be needed to Insert the; new backboards. Now, the district will be forced to spend the money. The emergence of taller, stronger high; school players with greater leaping ability forced many high schools to insert the collapsible rim to avoid what was happening in the NBA when Dawkins shattered two backboards with his forceful dunks. The dunk is an exciting part of the game! and adds to the crowd's excitement. Johnson said the Taylor Center fans; had an inclination the backboard was soon to fall.

He said the crowd shouted to him and teammate Juanray Street during pre-! game warmups to break the "They were saying things like 'They're! ready to go. Bring em down! jonnsoni said. "I think they knew it was going toj happen soon and they figured that since we were a dunking team we could be thei ones to bring it down. I guess their players don't dunk much." I Romulus coach Dan Henry said he had never heard of a high school player shat-l tering a backboard. Johnson accomplished1 something that former Romulus Terry Mills and Grant Long, both taller and stronger than Johnson, never did.

"We added the collapsible rim when Terry and Grant were coming along," said first-year coach Henry. He had been an, assistant to former Romulus coach Al Wllkerson for several years. "We figured if anyone would be capable of doing that It; would have been those two. I still can't! believe that Billy did that. I was in a state! of shock for a couple of minutes." So now Johnson is living the life of a celebrity.

He said he's gotten a lot of calls from friends. But he doesn't mind being teased about being the area's "Dr. Dunken-; stein." "People are telling me that the school is going to bill my father for the cost of replacing the backboard," Johnson "After I did it, my teammates were all congratulating me. But no one from Taylor, was that happy. I think they were upset that I came over and wrecked their gym." What about a nickname for the dunk? Dawkins modestly labeled his dunk "the Chocolate Thunder flying, Bill Roblnzlne crying, in-your-face disgrace" dunk.

"I don't know," Johnson said. "We're still working on it." How about calling it the "Death Defying, Taylor Center Crying, Earth Shaking, Backboard Breaking, Mouth Gaping, Ain't No Escaping Dunk." By DAVE BATTAGELLO Free Preu Special Writer They tried but they couldn't do It. Redford Catholic Central's youth finally caught up with it as Its attempt to capture the Class A wrestling title fell short. The Shamrocks were ranked as the state's No. 1 wrestling squad for the majority of the season and had seven wrestlers qualify for last weekend's championship meet at Lansing Eastern.

After it was all over, Catholic Central found Itself In third place with 90 points behind Lansing Sexton (99 points) and Lansing Eastern (90). "It Isn't what we as a team expected," said Catholic Central coach Mike Rodriquez. "I said along that we were very young. I was noping tor a little better performance from everyone. "Sexton worked hard like we did all year long.

They were the only team to beat us In a dual meet (by one point). They were up and we were down, but we'll be back." VCl 1 WITH ONLY two seniors on their Ham lAnlr hrloht fnr TobV HeatOII the Shamrocks. And Catholic Central did capture two Individual titles at the state tourney as Junior Toby Heaton (heavyweight) and senior Mitch Quint (138) handled all challengers. Quint's 6-3 win over Romulus senior Jim Schlener In the 138 final was most Impressive, considering that he lost to Schlener in last week's reglonals, 7-5. Quint also had to overcome a 7-0 deficit to Flint Carman's Dave Walt in grabbing an 8-7 decision In his semifinal match.

"I lost to those two guys before and I wanted to come back and beat them," said Quint, who was pinned by Walt (48-0 coming in to the state tournament) earlier in the year. "I think a lot of It had to do with it being my last year." Prior to his loss to Quint (55-4), Schlener was also undefeated In rolling to 53 straight wins a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Quint: "I wanted to beat him bad this time around," he said. "Before last week, I had never seen him wrestle before. I didn't know what kind of stuff he did or the competition he faced. "I knew he was undefeated.

This time I knew I could beat him. This time I didn't tie up with him." Schlener, a senior making his first state tournament appearance, said the capacity crowd of 4,500 during the final might have had an effect on his performance. "I didn't wrestle as well as I could have because I was nervous," Schlener said. "I was really tight. Still, I never thought I was going to lose until the bell rang." Schlener also refered to Quint's change of tactics In refusing to tie up with him: "Last time we tied up and this time he stayed away.

I definitely know I could beat him. Last week, I wrestled him a lot tougher. Any other day, I'm sure It would be a different story. I'd make him -wrestle my way. He made me wrestle to his Conference i i Redford Catholic Central's Mitch Quint (top) beat Romulus' Jim Schlener title.

Schlener had beaten Quint in the regional tournament. win over Lansing Sexton's bull-like lAlfonso Marin. "He just kept pushing me so the Iref kept calling stalling. The only way Alfonso (scored was for stalling. It was a tough one." i In the final, Heaton faced Oak Park's Gary jBrown.

Heaton trailed 2-1 until only 40 seconds remained and Brown conceded the tying point on an escape; it eventually proved to be a costly mistake. i "He must have thought that he could get a itakedown," Heaton said. "I don't know what he Pioneers confidence game plan. I just didn't slap out of it. "I'm real happy because I did everything I wanted to do except win state.

I never got any Injuries or anything so I'm pretty happy about everything." HEATON HAD TO work overtime to acquire his title needing extra periods in both his semifinal and final matches. "I thought my semifinal match was the toughest," said Heaton refering to his 3-1 win gives Makielski. Hume, who finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly last year, recorded one of the state's top times (52.9 seconds) in the same event at the conference meet. He's also qualified in the 200-yard individual medley VanAppledorn has recorded impressive times in the 50-yard freestyle (21.86) and the 100-yard freestyle (47.7). Corcoran is a standout in the 50-yard freestyle (21 .99) and the 1 00-yard butterfly (54.3).

Both VanAppledorn and Corcoran swam on last year's first place 200-yard medley relay team. Makielski won the conference diving competition with a score of 457.95, which qualifies him for All-America consideration. Makielski, who did not compete as a sophomore because of an injury, finished 13th at last year's state meet and has improved considerably this year. How well those three swimmers and Ward do will determine our success the state meet," Hill said. HOPES ARE ALSO high at Livonia Stevenson.

The Spartans were undefeated in the Western Lakes Conference and finished the regular season with a 13-1 record. Their only meet loss was to Pioneer. Stevenson is led by junior Joe Saunders. He has recorded outstanding times in the 100-yard backstroke (55.1) and the 100-yard butterfly (52.23). Saunders also swims the backstroke on Stevenson's medley relay team "He's a real hard worker and a good athlete," Stevenson coach Doug Buckler said.

"He's a good baseball player also. Joe is a pleasure to coach. "He should do well at the state meet," Buckler added. "We had a real emotional league meet and won by only six points. Joe did a super job of keeping the team up.

For only being a junior, he's a great team leader." Buckler is also hoping for solid performances from seniors Chris Morasky and Steve Taormina. Morasky will swim the 50 and 100- yard freestyle events, while Taormina will concentrate on the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard breaststroke. Taormina, who is the team captain, is the brother of Sheila Taormina, who set three state records in three events during last fall's girls meet. "Steve is a super leader and he's had a good year," Buckler said. "He and Sheila are super, super close.

Before our league meet. Sheila gave him one of her lucky caps and he just had a super meet. She will be there rooting for us at the state meet." Buckler is very pleased with the team's performance this year, but he knows the Spartans' balance isn't necessarily conducive to a top finish at the state meet. "We are a very good dual meet team," explained Buckler. "But, when you get to the state meet, you can have an 0-14 (dual meet) team with three outstanding swimmers and outscore everybody.

But, we have enough talent that if we do well, we will finish in the. top 10." .1 By JOE BALLOR Free Preu Special Writer Buoyed by a victory in last weekend's South Central Conference meet, the Ann Arbor Pio-' neer swim team is looking forward to a. successful performance at the state meet at! Michigan State University this Friday and' Saturday. i "We swam very well at the conference meet and I think we're set to go into the finals," Pioneer coach Dennis Hill said. "We've had 10 people qualify.

"Bloomfield Hills Andover is the favorite and it should be between East Kentwood and East Lansing for second place. We'll be fighting Monroe and Bloomfield Hills Lahser for fourth place," Hill said. "We were fourth last year and I think that would be a pretty good finish for us' this year. I'd be real satisfied (with fourth place). We graduated all but four kids that went to the state meet last year." Leading the way for the Pioneers will be seniors Dan Hume and Scott VanAppedorn, 'Junior Kevin Corcoran and senior dlvei Ward.