1997_05 The Daily Collegian May 1997

              w
THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Thursday, May 1, 1997
Sports
Sports Editor: Luis Hernandez
Telephone: (209) 278-5733
Fresno State athletes to be honored
CORNER
Sports Illustrated
names best jock
schools
NEW YORK —
Nebraska's weight room is
the "envy of every other ath¬
letic department " Western
Carolina students play a mean
game of "flag floopball"
(football using a nerf ball).
And students with a talent
for strikes-and-spares can
earn a bowling scholarship at
Wichita State, a true "modern
American institution of
higher learning.'*
You're not likely to find
praise like that in the annual
ranking of top schools com¬
piled by U.S. News and
World Report. But when it
comes to the skinny on the
nation's top jock'.schools.
Sports Illustrated claims to be
the ultimate authority.
The magazine recently
ranked the best jock schools
ir\ America using a rather un¬
scientific set of criteria that
included the number of cam¬
pus sports teams, cheerlead¬
ers and sports bars.
The magazines notes that
even "egghead" schools-
prestigious universities such
as Stanford, which Tigers
Woods attended before going
pro, and Princeton, which
boasts a No. 1 men's lacrosse
squad-can make the list.
Receiving the top mark as
a jock school was UCLA,
which the magazine sug¬
gested should change its
name to University of Cali¬
fornia Loaded with Athletes
in honor of its star teams and
alumni. including
basketball's Kareem Abdul-
Jabbarand volleyball's Karch
Kiraly.
The nation's best jock
schools, according to Sports
Illustrated:
l.UCLA
, 2. Notre Dame
3'. Stanford
4. Texas
5. Florida
6. Michigan
7. North Carolina
8. Penn State   ,
9. Nebraska
10. Princeton
Fresno State student-athletes
will he honored May 5 for aca-
demic.achicvement during the past
year. «
Seven of the studeni-athletes are
on the Bulldogs Softball team:
Catalina Chavez, Jaime Maxcy.
Lindsay Parker, Trina Puckett.
Shelly Rude, Amanda Scott and
Rohyn Yorke. They will be joined
by about 175 student-athletes who
achieved a 3.0 grade point average
or better during the spring and fall
of 1996. They
/ will he recog-
( ni/.ed at the
"•Torch of Ex¬
cellence" din¬
ner which
will be held at
the Holiday
Inn Centre
Plaza in
Fresno. The
Banquet begins at 6:30 p.m. Former
Fresno State track and field All-
Amanda Scott
American
and 1996
U.S. Olym¬
pian Lacy
Berne's-
Milcham will
be the fea¬
tured speaker.
This
year's event,
which had
been a luncheon in the past, is be¬
ing co-sponsored by Fresno Stale
Lindsay Parker
and the 16 Kiwanis clubs of Fresno
and Madera counties.
Several awards will be given out
at the banquet, including All-WAC
Academic, WAC scholar Athlete
and Fresno State Scholar Athlete.
About 40 percent of Fresno
State's athletes achieved a 3.0 GPA
of better during 1996, and about 25
percent were on the Dean's List (3.5
GPA or better)
\    —Sports information
Should student-athletes at Fresno State
get preferential treatment in classes ?
Yes
Student-athletes have busy
schedules, deserve the help.
By Phil Kakligian
The Daily Collegian
If you have ever had a class
with one or more Fresno State
athletes in it, you may have won¬
dered if they were getting spe¬
cial treatment. You noticed that
during the week this athlete
missed class on Wednesday and
Friday. You wondered to your¬
self, where he or she was. You
were told that there was a base¬
ball game out of town. You also
wondered if this student-athlete
was getting preferential treat¬
ment.
Some students have men¬
tioned that the athletes should
not get preferential treatment.
On the surface, it does not look
fair. But. let's look a little deeper
into the issue. v
For example, let's say this
athlete is a Fresno State basket¬
ball player.
He attends school every day,
Monday through Friday. During
basketball season, after a day of
classes, he must go to practice.
The afternoon practice may run
until 6:00 p.m., maybe even
longer on some days. After prac¬
tice he showers and maybe cats
some dinner. Next, he must
study just like any other student.
Being tired from a hard physi¬
cal practice, this is not easy.
Also, he must do well in his
classes. From a typical student's
standpoint, think of all your after¬
noons being taken away, and no
lime to study. You can imagine the
problems this can cause.
If the team plays a game at
home that night, it means this
player will be playing basketball
until 9 or 10 p.m. Sure, he wants
to play basketball, but later he
begins to think about how he will
do all his assigned homework.
Some athletes may abandon
their school work, but the smart
ones know they must complete it
and try to graduate. Not all Fresno
State players will make the NBA.
If the team plays out of town, the
athlete will miss even more school
time.
Therefore some allowances
should be made. The student-ath¬
lete should be allowed to make up
a test, if he plays a game out of
town. He should be allowed some
leeway on homework assign¬
ments. Put yourself in an athlete's
position. How will you get all the
homework done? How will you
manage your time? It won't be
easy. <^
After all these athletes are rep¬
resenting Fresno State and the city
of Fresno. They are doing their
best to win for the same univer¬
sity you go to.
They are giving their all to win
for the Fresno State Bulldogs.
Some favorable treatment must be
Please see HELP page 7.
No
Student-athletes get scholarships,
that should be enough.
By Luis Hernandez
The Daily Collegian
At times, they look like they
don't care. At times, they look like
they want to care. But the rest of
the time, they spend it whining
and complaining lhat the whole
world is out to get them, that they
deserve a break and preferential
treatment from the people around
them.
That's the act that some of the
student-athletes that attend univer¬
sities all over the country put on
all year. Somehow, their act gets
tiresome and boring very quickly.
higher learning school, nobody
was threatening them or pulling
a gun out on them. They decided
10 go to such a school. It was
their decision.
Also, they say that school is
hard for them. But, that is only
the same thing that the rest of
the students already know. There
is no gain without struggle, they
should know that
They demand to get prefer¬
ential treatment just because
they can put a basketball through
a hoop or throw a football down
the field.
Just because they have more
But worst of all, they, and their agility and better than average
eye-hand coordination, that
should not entitle them to get a
act, are wrong.
It is difficult to understand the
student-athletes lhat behave like
that. Most of them gel a full schol¬
arship. In addition, they gel to do
something they are good at. To top
it all off, they get to travel around
the country for free. And they
want more?
At times, it seems incompre¬
hensible.
They arc getting a chance to get
higher education in exchange for
performing a sport. That premise
seems easy to understand. Hit,
throw or pass a ball, run fast and
jump high and the university will
take care of you. What is so radi¬
cal and hard "to understand about
that? ^>
Moreover, when they decide to
accept a scholarship to go to a
private tutor. But, what about the
rest of the students that also go
to the sameuniversity. The com¬
puter-science major that will
design the next 3-D computer
game. Or what about the civil-
engineering major that will de¬
sign the next rocket to get hu¬
mans to the moon. They do not
deserve a break, or they should
not ask for anything because of
the time they spend in a lab and
not on the basketball court.
Something is wrong.
They arc called student-ath¬
letes. They are students first, and
then they arc athletes second.
They should remember that.       ,
Maybe they don't want to.
Football player remembered in Sawyer Brown song
By^Diane Samms Rush
Knight-Ridder/Tribune News
With her son's Brittany spaniel,
Brodie. in the back yard, and his teal
green Chevy pickup either in her
driveway or being driven by her
younger daughter, Jan Berringer
sometimes forgets for an instant
that her son is gone.
Brook Berringer, 22, backup
quarterback for the University of
Nebraska during its championship
seasons of 1994 and "95, died April
18. 1996. in the crash of a
lightplane, along withTobcy Lake,
his friend and brother of his girl¬
friend, Tiffini Lake.
The past year has been one of
profound mourning for Jan
Berringer, an elementary school
teacher for 30 years who reared
Brook and his two sisters alone af¬
ter her husband, Warren, died 16
years ago. In January, her 89-ycar-
old mother died.
- "She just nevor recovered from
Brook's death," Berringer said in a
phone call from her home in
Goodland. Kan.
Berringer knew the anniversary
of her son's "accident." as she calls
it, would be hard. She spent the day
with her daughters, Nicoel and
Drue.
But she knew they wouldn't be
the only ones mourning. For the
past year, she has heard from
Brook's friends, as well as from
total strangers who came to know
him through
"One Final Pass," the book
about Brook that she co-authored
with An Lindsay. Most of her spare
time lately has been spent at book-
signings and speeches before chap¬
ters of the Fellowship of Christian '
Athletes.
The book emphasizes her son's
caring personality and strong reli¬
gious faith. He had many friends,
she said, and he loved to hunt.
Among Brook Berringer's
friends was the band Sawyer
Please see PLAYER page 7.