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VOLUME 85 ISSUE 10
Gilbert wearing 1 crown too many? p. 6
THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA AT MONROE
www.ulmhawkeyeonline.com
October 31, 2011
WIPED OUT Controversy drowns water ski leaders; 2 dismissed from team
Campus celebrates Homecoming festivities p8
Football devastated in overtime loss p. 19
by Cole Avery and DeRon Talley
Two leading members of the national championship water ski team were dismissed Monday for breaking curfew the night after winning the title. Skiers Zach Worden and Claudio Koestenberger, who finished first and second respectively in the jump competition at nationals, have been removed from the team and are forced to forfeit their scholarships for the spring semester, according to statements given by the two skiers. Wordon said head coach Treina Landrum kicked the two skiers off the team for missing curfew because the two were celebrating winning the national title. But Wordon said the judgment was unfair because assistant coach Heather Reilly gave the team permission to be out later than the stated curfew. “We stay at a different hotel from the other schools, and all year we follow the strict guidelines,” Worden said. “Then our last night we wanted to let loose after winning nationals.” Wordon said he and Koestenberger went out with Wordon’s parents to Mike’s Bar in Tigerland, a cluster of bars in Baton Rouge near where the team was staying, assuming they had permission from the assistant coach.
After returning to Monroe, Wordon said Reilly denied to Landrum she gave them permission, but she later apologized to Wordon with a phone call while addressing the team. Wordon’s father, John, said he did not hear with his own ears Reilly give permission to be out past curfew, but he said “that was the understanding that was prevalent in the lobby among the team and parents.” The Wordons said their biggest complaint about the whole incident was the lack of clearly defined rules on the team and the heavy judgment passed on the team’s top two skiers based, on what they say, are no defined guidelines. “She just dropped the hammer on Zach, and she dropped it hard,” John Wordon said. “[Landrum’s] rules set everyone up for failure. She just gets worse each year.” They also said the team abided by a strict curfew the night before the competition while other schools were out partying. They said they felt celebrating after winning was appropriate.
See WATER SKI, p.16 photo by Srdjan Marjanovic
Left: National champion Zach Worden celebrates his victory at the homecoming football game Saturday.