• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1996-09-12_Vol62_No05_06

h Thursday, September 12 1996 Sports 3tfi.e Itetmt Carolinian Cross-Country Team Off to Cood Start BRIAN CLARK STAFF WRITER The 1996 men's and women's cross-country seasons got started this past weekend as both teams competed here at home in the tenth annual WCU Invitational. The men's team got their season off to a great start as they finished second in the 13—team field. Clemson University won the meet with a point low of 30. The Catamounts were second (68) and East Tennessee State University came in third (92). ETSU is the defending Southern Conference Champion, and is the team to beat according to preseason polls. The Cats' defeat of ETSU has them riding high. Malone (108), Georgia State (152), Georgia (162), VMI (188), Furman (214), Campbell (221), UNCG (288), Radford (295), Georgia Southern (350), and Wofford (387) rounded out the rest of the field respectively. The Cats were led by senior Turner Norris. Norris turned in a great performance, finishing second in the race with a time of 26:16 for the 8000 meter (5 mile) course. Norris was only 5 seconds off the winning pace of 26:11 set by East Tennessee State's Declan Fahy. Junior Brian Clark ran number two for the Cats as he placed eighth in the race with time of 26:42. Junior Bill Baldwin placed 14th in 27:06. These three received individual awards for placing in the top twenty. The team also received an award for their second— place finish. The Cats fourth and fifth men scoring contingency barely missed the top twenty honors, as sophomores Jeremiah Buechner finished 21st (27:23), and Matt Lee finished 23rd (27:49) respectfully. Freshman Andy Ramos placed 32nd and sophomore Jeff Howard placed 36th. Volleyball Team Beats Campbell Again BRIAN CLARK STAFF WRITER The Catamount volleyball team chalked up their first victory of the season this past weekend against the Campbell Camels (16-14,15-12,15-7). Unfortunately, they also chalked up four losses, bringing their season record to 1-7. Last Thursday night thevLady Cats took to the court to face nationally ranked Georgia Tech. The Cats played them tough, but in the end was overpowered 10-15, 12-15, 9-15: The next day the Cats began their play in the Furman Invitational. Their day was slated full of games. At 10 a.m. they faced Mercer in a difficult match that took four games to decide. The Cats got out to an early lead in taking the first game, but then Mercer won the next three, dropping the Cats 15-11, 13-15, 815, 12-15. At 4 p.m. the Cats played Southern Conference foe and meet host Furman. Once again the Cats won the first game but to no avail, as Furman came back and won the next three en route to winning the match (15-10,12- 15,10-15,10-15). At 8 p.m. the Cats were able to turn their luck around. They defeated Campbell, and kept alive their undefeated streak against them. On Saturday thc Cats were dealt their second loss of the year to UNC—Asheville. The Bulldogs defeated them earlier in the year at the North Carolina Volleyball Kickoff Classic. The Cats had positive play this weekend from Catherine Sawyers. "She really did well throughout the whole weekend," said Head Coach Sara Martin. "She was able to maintain momentum in different matches." Other positive play came from Holly Poff and Tara Chadwick. Martin said that both . "showed signs of brilliance." When asked about her teams weekend performance, Martin replied that she was "very pleased with the difference between this past weekend and the weekend we started. There was a big difference in our focus, and our intensity was much better. We showed ourselves that we are a good team, and that we can play with anybody—that was obvious in the Georgia Tech match." This weekend the Cats travel to Cookeville, Tenn. to compete in the Golden Eagle Invitational. There they will face tournament host Tennessee Tech on Friday at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday they will play Xavier (Ohio) at 10 a.m., and Samford at 5 p.m. Martin commented about the upcoming weekend's tourney by saying that they are "looking to build on what we gained this past weekend. We have a tough tournament ahead of us." "Our men are off to a good start as it was our best opening meet performance ever," said Head Coach Danny Williamson. "We could not ask much more of Turner Norris and Brian Clark. We've got to get stronger in the third through fifth spots and close the gap between those finishers and our first and second runners." "I think we established ourselves as a solid contender in the Southern Conference championship race this season along with Appalachain State, East Tennessee State, and UT-Chattanooga," Williamson added. The Cats finished third in the Southern Conference meet last year behind ETSU and App. State. In the women's meet, Clemson University won with a 30—point total. Southern Conference foes ETSU placed second (71), followed closely by Furman (77). The University of Georgia was fourth (82), followed by the Catamounts in fifth with 132 points. Malone (163), Virginia Tech (191), Georgia State (205), Campbell (215) UNC-G (249), Georgia Southern (310), and Wofford (359) finished out the remainder of the field. In the women's 5000 meter (3.12 mile) race, Clemson's Tina Jenson won in a time of 18:36. Senior Kristen Savery and freshman Jenny Warford gave the Lady Cats' best performances. Savery placed 11th overall with a time of 19:34, and Warford was 16th in 19:54. Warford is a product of Jordan Matthews High in Siler City, N.C. Savery and Warford were recognized for their individual performances. Sophomore Anne Gardner ran number three for the Lady Cats by placing 31st overall (20:40). Three places back, junior Emily Redmon finished 34th in 20:45. Senior Lisa Karr finished out the Lady Cats' scoring contingency, placing 48th in 21: 10. "We got very good runs out of Kristen Savery and Jenny Warford," Williamson noted, "but the rest of the team has got to pick up the pace. I think this is going to be a better women's team than we had last season, but we must improve every week to be ready to make a serious run in the conference championships." WCU's women finished fourth in the Southern Conference championship meet last year. This weekend the Catamount teams travel to Clemson, S.C, to compete in the Clemson Invitational. The meet begins on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. PHOTO BY TERRY K. ROBERTS/WC Turner Norris races toward a second place finish. WCU Women's Soccer Club: Next Varsity SportP TONY J. TAYLOR EDITOR Two years ago, WCU students Ellen Houston and Kathy Brown approached Lenny Paoletti, a local high school coach and graduate student, about the possibility of starting a women's soccer club at Western. That meeting led to the formation of the WCU Women's Soccer Club, and may lead to a varsity women's soccer program in two years. Western has never had a women's soccer program, though other North Carolina universities such as UNC- Chapel Hill and Davidson, have successful ones. Houston and Brown both played the sport in high school, and they were stunned when they found out that Western didn't have a team. "It absolutely blows me away," Houston said. "When I was a senior in high school, I said that I was going to school down in North Carolina, and some of the girls that were younger than me said, 'oh, you're going to soccer country' And then I got out here and found out that there was no team." Houston played soccer for two years at Gardner-Webb. "That was the first year that they had a team," she said. "I practiced every day with the men and the women—that was about four practices a day." Houston's hard work paid off when she was named to the all-district team her freshman He graduated from the college and started working for the recreation department as a youth soccer coach. "In all my travels, even when I re-enlisted back in the Marine Corps, I always coached," he said. "There wasn't a year that I missed coaching, whether it be youth rec, or high school or junior high, I always coached soccer—every year." In all my travels, even when I re-enlisted back in the Marine Corps, I always coached. There wasn't a year that I missed coaching, whether it be youth rec, or high school or junior high, I always coached soccer—every year. Lenny Paoletti Women's Soccer Club Advisor year. She was moved to the field for her second season where she played the role of "hitman." "I guarded the Ail-Americans. That was my job, to be the rough player," Houston said. Eventually, she ran out of money and her husband got a job near Western; Houston started school here last fall. Paoletti's involvement in soccer began at the age of 12. He played thc sport as a youngster in rural Massachusetts. After high school, he joined the Marine Corps. He heard about upcoming tryouts for the All-Marine Corps Good Will Soccer Team and decided to try out. Paoletti said he made the second team as a goal keeper. "I played for them for three and a half years and we traveled," Paoletti said. "All we did was practice and play soccer. I was probably more fit than most Marines just from all the running we did. Then I got in a car accident and busted up my knee, and that started my coaching career." After leaving the Marine Corps, Paoletti enrolled at Cape Cod Community College and started a soccer program there. Paoletti has coached soccer for the last fifteen years, including nine years of high school coaching experience. When he enrolled at Western in 1989, Paoletti said the first thing he did was go to Smoky Mountain High school to ask if they had a soccer team. At the time, the school only had a boy's team, which had been in existence for only five years. Paoletti said that the team played in a conference with four other schools, and in their five years they had never finished higher than fourth. "I asked if I could help. I said I'll do it for free," Paoletti said. "And they said sure, so I was assistant coach and that year we won our conference. I don't want to take all the credit, but I think I had something to do with that," Paoletti said, laughing. As a reward, the principal asked Paoletti what he would like, since he refused money. He her that he would like to start a girl's team at the school. "But we got no money," Paoletti said. "So I went around in a business suit and got donations and bought all the uni forms. The boy's coach let us use their balls and stuff like that. But we didn't have a JV team. "The first year we had twenty-something girls come out, and in the beginning I kept them all," Paoletti continued. "Some of them came up to me and said, 'you can't keep us all because its not fair to those of us who are competitive.' So, we made cuts. "The next year we had thirty-some girls come out, and last year we had so many girls come out that we started a JV team," Paoletti said. Paoletti said he hopes that the Women's Soccer Club has the same success at Western. But that is in the hands of the Athletic Department. According to WCU Athletic Director Larry Travis, the school is looking at adding another women's sport in order to stay in compliance with the Title Vlgender program. "Our gender program calls for the '98-99 year for us to look at where we are at in possibly instituting a program possibly in the 1999-2000 year," Travis said. "That's sort of the timetable that were looking at right now. We're going to do all that we can to see that something does happen." Travis also said that a lot of this depends on the amount of interest that the sport generates on the local and state level. He said that it will cost approximately $100,000 per year to run the program. "No one is going to give us this money. Those are dollars that we are going to have to generate," Travis said. "You can raise money to start a program, but dollars have to be coming in every year to sustain it." Travis said that this was necessary in order to pay for coaches, trainers and travel expenses. You can support the Women's Soccer Club by attending their upcoming game against Brevard College in Brevard on Saturday, September 14, at noon. If you're interested in joining the squad, contact Ellen Houston at 586-4586 or Kathy Brown at 227- 4262.

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University's student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1996-09-12
  • Date digitized: 2019-12-04
• Extent
  • Dimension: 22.5" x 14"
  • Pages: 12 pages
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
  • Western Carolina University -- Periodicals
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1996-09-12_Vol62_No05
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library