The Grinnell Scarlet and Black, February 13, l976—P- ‘2

Wrestling
' booming

by Bob Meyer

This past weekend the Grinnell
wrestling team looked sharp at the
Knox invitational by tying with
Ripon for second place. The
Pioneers' record now stands at five
wins. one loss, and one tie, a
tremendous advancemen| over
past seasons. There were eight
colleges competing in the Knox
meet.

Eight Pioneer wrestlers placed
in the meet taking five seconds,
two thirds, and one fourth. Fresh-
men David Greenwald £118) and
Gordon Stacey (134) continued
their winning ways by both taking
a second. Sophomores Rick
Grayson (152) and Bo deRosa (190)
pummeled their opponents and
also finished with strong seconds
The fifth member of the team to
finish second was senior Dan
Mosby \vho wrestled well at a
hefty 177 pounds.

Freshman Chris Ladd, coma
petiiig for the first time at 158, \\'on
a third. Captain Hosea Engram
(167) also finished [bird in his
weight class. The final Pioneer
pointsgetter was freshman Tom
Hawbaker who took a fourth place
at 142 pounds.

Joining the wrestling squad this
semester is sophomore Scott Beers
who, while not placing at Knox, is
working himsell into shape and
looking better each time out at 126
pounds.

The matmen are wrestling better
than they have in several years
and offer the college community a
chance to view their improvement
and competitiveness when they
battle William Penn at home
February 18, Tomorrow the
grapplers travel to Simpson to
wrestle Cornell, Central, and
Simpson.

Captain llosea Engrani has his Kirkwood opponent fighting for his life in “restling action held earlier this
month in the PEC.‘ Last Weekend Grinnell took second at the eight team Knox Invitational.

Referees foul out

By Tom Ai-ciihcrg

About ten minutes after the
Grinnellsﬂipon basketball game
last Friday night had ended,
Redmen Coach Kermit (“Doc”)
Weiske walked across the empty
gymnasium to get help from
Grinnell head man Ron Mitchell.
The lights in the Ripon locker room
were off and Weiske needed
someone to turn them on. As the
two men came together, Weiske
explained what had happened,
“Ron,” he said, “I think the refs
blew |hem out.”

That was the attitude many
people had toward the contest,
which Ripon won, 108-91. The
center of discussion during and
after the game was the per
iormance of referees Roger Aceto
and John Van Why, The two men
we criticized and even laughed
at lor what coaches, players and
most fans thought was unr
satisfactory officiating But
whatever the quality of the of

Hoopers rattleand roll

by Toni Arcnbci‘g

The Grinnell varsity basketball
team lost to the Ripon Redmen,
108-91, and then beat the Lawrence
Vikings, 94.32. in two home games
last weekend, The Pioneer's record
is now 5-7 in the conference and 5'
11 overall.

Tomorrow, the Cagers travel to
Carleton for their last game on the
road, The Carleton team owns a H!
mark this season. It is the first
time Grinnell has played the Carls
this year. Next week, the same
teams square off in Grinnell.

Throughout most of the Ripon
game last Friday night, both teams
were upset by what they cons
sidered poor officiating The two
squads, as well as most of the fans,
believed the referees not only
missed obvious calls on occasion
but also that they called the game
too tightly at other times. “I don‘t
think you'll find anything as bad as
this (the otiiciatingl,“ said
Grinnell Head Coach Ron Mitchell.

With about seven minutes lefLin
the first half, Pioneer Assistant
Coach Edd Bowers received three
technical fouls for criticizing the
officials. After Ripon sank all three
technical foul shots, it held a 16»
point lead, the largest of the game,
and it appeared that the Redmen
might blow Grinnell off the court.

But the Pioneers slowly cut thé
lead and a jump shot by forward
John Haigh with 46 seconds left in
the half fled the Contest at 41,

However, Ripon scored four
more points that half and held the
lead for the rest of the game.
Throughout the last
minutes‘of the contest. the visitors

twelve '

owned at least an it point. margin.

Grinnell‘s biggest headache,
beside the officiating, was Redmen
center Tom Malone. Who did not
score a lot but used his tremendous
leaping ability to control the
boards and block three shots,

The Lawrence game followed
nearly the same script, except that
Grinnell held the lead The home
team reeled off the first nine points
of the contest as the Vikings blew
their initial nine shots.

Halfway into the lirst stanza, the
Pioneers held a 13~point ad-
vantage, but in the next three
minutes the opponents outscored
Grinnell 16-4 to pull within one
point. Yet, the Scarlet and Black
retained their small lead and the
high-scoring half ended seer.

’l‘he scoreboard read 80-80 With
5:34 to go, but tough Grinnell
detense caused the Vikings to come
away empty-handed their next
seven times down the court and the
Pioneers put the game in their win
column. As it. turned out, Lawrence
never had the lead in the affair

Haigh fired in 28 points and Scott
Lewis, who has won the starting
center spot, hauled down i2
rebounds Haigh now trails Coe's
Leonard Cooper by three-tenths of
a point in the Midwest Conierence
scoring derby. The forward’s
average is 21.3 points per game,

Grinnell‘s offensive outputs
against Lawrence and Ripon are
the two highest totals registered by
the Pioneers this season. The
Redmen's production of too is the
rhost the Scarlet and Black has
allowed in‘1975-76.

iiciating, the game was the wildest
and most entertaining contest in
Darby all season.

“This is a circus," Weiske said in
the middle of the action. Mitchell
later commented, “It was like
watching a comedy."

The incident that started the
officials’ fall from favor occurred
with about seven minutes left to go
in the opening half. Grinnell’s Jeff
Fallon was called for fouling Ripon
center Tom Malone, who wore
number 53. Assistant Coach Edd
Bowers complained too
strenuously about the call and was
ejected.

Ripon’s John Muraski, who wore
number 23, then sank five straight
free throws—the three technicals
leveled for Bowers‘ ejection and
the two foul shots awarded for the
call against Fallon. Although any
member of a team may shoot
technical shots, Muraski should not
have taken the two foul shots
because Fallon had not fouled him.
Malone should havegone to the line
instead, but the reierees ap»
parently confused the two jersey
numbers, The officials appeared to
realize their mistake but not until it
was too late to be corrected.

From then on, in the View of
almost all the people in Darby,
nothing Aceto and Van Why did
was right. Enough incidents oc-
curred throughout the game to
prolong the officials’ trouble.

It. seemed to many that the of-
ficiating hurt Grinnell more than
Ripon. During second half play,
Weiske walked to the Pioneer
bench to talk to Mitchell. Mitchell
later commented, “Doc said to me.
‘Ron, I feel sorry for you, Your kids
are getting screwed out there,‘ "

However, of the 59 personal fouls
called in the game, 3i were against
Grinnell and 23 were on Ripon
Four technicals were given to the
Pioneers and the Redmen received
two,

Because Ripon won by 17 points,
it is hard to say if the officiating
cost Grinnell the game. Mitchell
said he thought that was a
possibility. He said the poor of»
iiciating “dictated our poor play.”

The Pioneer head coach thought
the officials tried to make up for
calling the game too tightly in the
first half by letting too much go in
the second stanza. Referring to
Aceto and Van why, guard foul
Delaney said, “They were so in
consistent. , . We couldn't adapt.”

Mitchell said the contest never
got malicious and added that he
was not worried about his players
being injured because of wild play.

Mitchell, ho has been unhappy
with the offi ating in several other
games this year, is critical of the
procedure for hiring referees in the
Midwest Conference. Before each
game, the home coach selects and
calls two officials from a master
list of referees. He must do so until
he finds two who are available The
secondsyear coach’s complaint
with this method is that it allows
coaches to call the same referees
each game and to develop triend.
ships with them. Eventually,
Mitchell thinks, the referees begin
officiating according to the home
team's personality.

Mitchell advocates hiring a
conference commissioner, who
would assign officials randomly,
He added that Grinnell will not hire
Aceto and Van Why again this
season.

710M lwasakerhe Scarlet and Black

Center Scott Lewis has the rebound and attempts to score despite
being cramped by several Ripon players as iorward Jeff Fallon looks
on. Grinnell dropped the game which was marred by atrocious oi.

iici g.

Woody a.
no goodie

by Toni Ai-enberg

Ohio State’s Woody Hayes is a
bigrtime football coach. On the
other hand, Grinnell head man Edd
Bowers seems, Well, a small'tinjf-
coach. '

When it comes to athletics,
Hayes has it, for [he most part.
better than Bowers. Woody ,
facilities, fan support, me ia
coverage and recruiting programs
that. Grinnell cannot match.

Yet, a coach's “status”7biec
time or smallrtimeihas little to
with a coach’s quality Of course,
the best coaches usually get the
most prestigious positions. But
that is not always the case, There
are many good coaches at places
that. athletically, are rather ob-
scure. And there are many notso
good coaches working in the sports
limelight.

'Take two‘

During the past Grinnell football
season, Bowers, in at least two
areas, exemplified a “smalH
goodie.” And over winter break, in
the same two areas, Hayes was a
”big-time baddie.”

The first area is giving credit
where it is due, and relates to l'
year’s Rose Bowl. Although some
teams look gallant in defeat, it was
said before the game that the
UCLA Bruins would be lucky to
look respectable in massacre, But
the surprising Bruins soundly beat
the then-top-ranked Buckeyes, 23.
10

Near the end of the game, Hayes
walked across the field to Bruin
coach Dick Vermeil, Did he
congratulate Vermeil, who \v‘
about to wrap up the biggest win'
his career? Or Bruin quarterh.
John Sciarra, who engineered the
upset? Or the UCLA defense,
which held Ohio State's explosigy
offense to just ten points? He gal
that his team had blown the gan. .
In so stating, Hayes showed little
class and little sportsmanship.

Bowers cannot say enough good
things about Grinnell opponents.
He knows it his team plays poorly,
but never fails to recognize the
other squad's performance Even
the obviously weak teams Bowers
calls “improving" or "good
enough to surprise."

Sure a complementary state-
ment was eventually releg '
by Ohio State, but that was long
after the game, not directed at
UCLA and done through a public 1‘!
man,

This brings up the second area':
press relations. Hayes dodged
reporters after the game by exiting
through a side door in the locker
room, leaving this with a PR mill :
“UCLA played a great game. ’rl y
simply beat us," Was that sup
posed to answer all the reporters’
questions? Hayes did not even
have the courtesy to say, in person,
“no comment.” And he allegedly
told his players to hush up,

Maybe Hayes does not realize
that reporters also have jobs it o,
Maybe he does not understand all
the responsibilities that come with
his coaching position. Or maybe
defeat affects him so much that he
cannot talk to people, ,

Bowers is helpful and poliﬁto
the press. He has time to talk and
addresses himself to all questions.

is Woody Hayes' coachigg
quality as great as his status?
Maybe at other times in other
cases it is, but hisconduct after the
Rose Bowl showed that some big»
timecoaches like Hayes can taL‘Ia
few lessons from some small-time
coaches like Bowers.

 

