Geocaching
Hockey
Looking for something to do this extended weekend? Geocaching is a GPS treasure hunt spanning the globe. Page 9
UCO Hockey faced the OU Sooners last weekend for two very tough matchups. Page 11
OCT. 18, 2011 uco360.com twitter.com/uco360
THE VISTA
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA’S student voice since 1903.
WIND IN THEIR SAILS So far this season, the UCO sailing team has been in the habit of winning. The team opened the season with a victory at the Blackwell Blowout Regatta in Stillwater, which was the first time the school had ever won a sailing regatta. The team followed up their performance with a first place finish at the Kilpatrick Regatta Oct. 8. Although the team is off to a tremendous start, it did not always appear as if the team could be this successful. A year ago, Dr. David Bass, a professor of biology, was asked to resurrect the school’s sailing team, a program which had previously been absent from the school’s athletic offerings for four years. Bass, who has more than 40 years of sailing experience, accepted but knew the challenges the team would face after their first organized practice. “Imagine you were given the task of putting together a hockey team to play the University of Michigan or something. You have three weeks to get ready, and nobody knew
how to skate,” Bass explained. “That’s where we were last year. No one had ever been on a sailboat before except for one person and they were out racing against big schools like Texas, [Texas] A&M, OU, OSU.” Michelle Powell, treasurer of the sailing team, also recalls the struggle that was the first team practice. “It was a hot mess,” Powell said. “Like, before you start practicing you have to do a capsize drill, and I’m afraid of heights so it was hard for me to get from the dock into the boat at first. I had a terrible, terrible fear of that, and then I can’t swim, so they’re asking me to flip over a boat and try to recover it. It was awful.” Though they started almost literally from square one, Bass says the team learned fast, and was able to finish in the middle of the fleet at most regattas, progress the team’s coach was more than pleased with. “We have a good group of kids. They’ve worked hard, they’re very coachable, they do what we ask of them, they pay attention and they want to do better,” Bass said. If the team’s first season could be described
as taking baby steps, certainly some would compare the second season to leaping great bounds. After only a year of training, the team has sailed its way to the status of best college sailing team in the state. To an outsider, the club’s sudden success may seem sudden, but team members see their current prosperity as part of a slow and steady process. “It’s a new program, so last year we had one person who knew how to sail, and then this year we now have that one person plus four or five more, so all of their experience is built off that one person,” team member Charles Shafer said. “This year, we’ve added in about five or six more people, and they’re building
WEATHER
By Ben Luschen / Staff Writer
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off the people that learned it last year. We’re building from a central point out.” Though he is new to the team this year, with over a decade of sailing experience Shafer is far from a rookie. Upon finishing high school in 2004, Shaffer joined the Navy. Though his time in the Navy did not directly improve his sailing skills, Shaffer says it did improve his navigational skills and general self-confidence.
Continued on page 6 Photo: Members of UCO’s Sailing Team practice at Arcadia Lake, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011. Photo by Garett Fisbeck, The Vista
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DID YOU KNOW? The Super Soaker was invented by a NASA engineer. It was originally called the Power Drencher.