sports9
wingspan • february 25, 2011
Cheap Seats NFL considers increase to 18 games
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t the end of every NFL season the owners get together to work out new rules for the next season and discuss changes that need to be made to the league. This season the owners have got it in their minds that the regular season should be expanded from 16 to 18 games. This could be Kevin Robinson the worst thing to happen to pro football in years. With the schedule expanding, everything that happens from this point on will be tainted. Back when the NFL season was only 12 games, rushing for 1,000 yards meant something. When it was expanded to 14, it meant even less. Then it went to the current 16 game format, and 1,000 yards rushing now means nothing. If the proposed change expands to 18 games, people shouldn’t even recognize 1,000 yards as a milestone. Fans still say a running back is good if he goes over 1,000 yards, but when you take into account how many games are played, that is really only about 63 yards per game, which is average at best. Records become easily broken with the extra games played, and if it goes to 18, nearly every single season record ever set will be broken. This really isn’t right since most were set during a time when the season was 12 games. The best players in the game’s history will become irrelevant as unknown players break the long-standing records with the help of an extra two, four or six games depending on the record. It all comes down to money for the owners: more games mean more money. But for some reason, they don’t see that it also means there will be more of a chance for injury and fatigue for the players before they go to the playoffs. The players’ union opposes lengthening the regular season. Team owners don’t see how damaging this could be for the NFL. They need to think about the players’ well being and not about money. They need to worry more about winning the games already on the schedule.
Diving in
Taking a breath, junior Lee Reesor competes in the 200-meter freestyle at the Henderson County Championships at the Hendersonville YMCA in January. The men’s and women’s teams both placed first at the meet.
Pin it to win it
Junior wrestler Santiago Ortiz breaks down his opponent at the match against Hendersonville. The team won the meet, 49-20.
Swim team breaks five school records at state meet Weather forces
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Collin Armstrong Feature Writer
illed with anticipation, junior Bethany Grayson stepped up to the starting block and waited for the official to give the signal for the race to begin. As the horn sounded, she — along with her competitors — dived into the pool to battle for first place. “Being on the block is the best and worst feeling in the world all at the same time,” Grayson said. “It’s a mix of excitement, worry, determination and anxiety. I have a love-hate relationship with swimming.” The women’s team finished in first place in four out of 11 meets during the season. The men had an undefeated regular season, finishing with a win on Jan. 26 at Asheville School. “The team improved over the season,” Grayson said. “We had a lot of new swimmers that continually grew faster during the season as well as older swimmers who set personal records.” Grayson was undefeated in the county and also the county champion in the 200- and 400-meter freestyle.
She had two regional qualifying times. “I have been swimming for about six years, and my favorite part is swimming with my best friend,” Grayson said. “It’s always fun going to meets and practices and hanging out together.” The swim team has the difficulty of holding practices away from campus, resulting in unusual practice times. The team practiced late at night at two different facilities during the week. “I didn’t really like practicing so late,” Grayson said. “Usually I didn’t get home until around 10:30, so I was always dragging myself around in the mornings.” All-conference juniors Caleb Brown and Dylon Johnson led the men’s team at conference. At the conference swim meet at the Waynesville Recreational Center, the men finished in first place and the girls finished third. It was the 10th consecutive year the men had won their conference. “Conference was certainly a challenge because there were two teams with many swimmers that were very experienced and really fast,”
Grayson said. At the regional meet, sophomore Lee Fullam placed first in one-meter springboard diving. Senior Donovan Turner and sophomores Joseph Manzi and Taylor Morrow also placed at regionals. The four divers all continued to the state meet. Fullam placed second in the state meet, followed by Manzi in third. Johnson received a regional medal for third place in the 100-yard butterfly, as did freshman Garrett Hoce in the 500yard freestyle. For the men’s and women’s swim teams Hoce, Johnson, junior Bradley Haley, sophomore Nathan Hallock, senior James Loder, freshman Kylie Wooten, sophomore Jillian Heywood, senior Katie King and Grayson also qualified for the state meet. The women’s relay team, including Grayson, King, Heywood and Wooten finished 17th. The men’s team finished ninth overall and broke five school records, including the 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relays, the 100yard butterfly (Johnson), the 500-yard freestyle (Hoce) and the 200-yard individual medley (Hoce).
Wrestling team ends season in quarterfinals Camen Royse Sports Editor
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he Falcons needed to win only one more match in order to beat conference rival Tuscola. Junior Nathanael Littauer stepped up to the mat, felt the pressure of the crowd, and delivered. His victory in his match sealed the Falcons’ win and preserved the team’s hopes of making it to the state meet. “I knew that if I won my match there was no way Tuscola could win,” Littauer said. “I just had to go into the match with a positive attitude.” Head Coach Jeff Smith was happy to see his team grow because of a big win, even though Tuscola had much more experience. “The biggest match was Tuscola. They put seven seniors on the mat, and we put two. But we were able to beat them pretty handily. That said a lot for our seven sophomores going against their seven seniors,” Smith said. “We were young. We needed a lot of mat time, experience and growth. We grew throughout the season, We scheduled a lot of duel matches over Christmas break to try and pick up some of that experience with our young team, which we did as it showed in the Tuscola match.” Senior Joshua Armstrong agreed with his coach on the impact of the Tuscola match. “Our most important match was our conference match against Tuscola. At the beginning of the season they beat us
by a couple of points; then we turned around and beat them by quite a few points,” Armstrong said. “Our team had a good attitude. We became more confident about our abilities, and we went in looking forward to the matches.” The team finished its run in the playoffs with a loss to Fred T. Foard in the 3A quarterfinals. The Falcons lost, 35-28. The wrestlers finished the year with a 21-12 record. Junior Jesus Vera, who was named the player of the year in the Western North Carolina Athletic Conference, was the only Falcon wrestler to qualify for the state individual meet this weekend. The intangibles were critical for the team, Smith said. He added that the young group had what every coach wants his players to have: a drive to get better. “Attitude was the biggest strength of our team. We had a great group of guys with good attitudes who were hungry to learn and to keep getting better every week,” Smith said. “They were willing to take on any challenge you threw at them. Last season we had a much more experienced team and a bigger group of juniors and seniors. Our skill and experiences levels were a lot higher. The difference this season was that we were just young. It’s having to teach and have them learn a lot and having that mat time.” Smith said he hopes that this year’s playoffs gave the team experience to make a run next season. “Overall, our team balance was better than it was last year. We had a lot more team depth than last year as far as our quality went,” Smith said.
track team to run shortened season
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Michael Turlington Asst. Sports Editor
fter the first four meets of the indoor track season were canceled because of snow and cold weather conditions, the team finally had its first meet of the season on Jan. 19 at Polk. Meets were supposed to start in November. “The first part of the season was frustrating for our runners because they were not able to compete,” Coach Walt Fletcher said. “After the meets started, the mood of the team changed for the better.” The team only had three meets during the season and one “last chance” meet for people who were close to qualifying but had not qualified yet. “We needed to get in as many meets as possible so we would have more opportunities to qualify for state,” junior Tyler Ashba said. “The last few meets prepared the people who qualified better than practice could because they were able to run in a competitive environment.” Several West runners did qualify for the state meet despite having only a few meets. But at the state meet, no one placed higher than 10th place. “This year we were focusing on preparing for the state meet,” Fletcher said. “I wanted to focus more on how our runners did as opposed to focusing on placing high in a meet. Our goal was for the individuals on the team to improve and be able to qualify for state by the end of the season. I think that we reached our goal.” The state meet was on Feb. 12 at the Reid Ross Sports Complex in Fayetteville. The meet was a polar bear meet, which means that the meet was held outdoors. “The mountain teams actually had an advantage in this meet because we have run outside in the cold all season,” Fletcher said. “It was 50 degrees outside, which felt warm to us, but it felt cold to all of the teams from the eastern part of the state. Running in the cold actually paid off for us.” The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill usually hosts the state meet because of the indoor track facility there. “Chapel Hill is renovating their weight room, so they put all of their equipment in their indoor track facility,” Fletcher said. “The university’s track team can practice in their indoor track, but the school could not hold meets there. That is why we had the state meet in Fayetteville.” The team had a week and a half left to practice before the state meet. Fletcher did not make any sudden changes before the meet. “We worked on pacing in practice,” he said. “Our runners fine tuned their skills to prepare for state so they could place as high as possible.”
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