10A
1982
Texas A&M
The Battalion
ports
September 16, 1982 Page 11A
'antagel
there®
is that if
3 of com
upoi
o studei
udenthj
hepartrr.
A&M’s Paine confident
about new starting: role
o
nation ; L by Joe Tindel Jr.
•leges m Battalion Staff
Lutes sail N°t until the third quarter of
t the end e Aggies’ opener with Boston
trationil )llege were Jeff Paine’s three
another ars of determination and hard
y coulds| >rk tested seriously.
lassronniB As junior tight end Mark
and rJwis lay on the turf, Paine rettl-
d the duty of filling some big
aes might befall him. But
line had no butterilies.
think
dbacktol
1 realistid
she said]
ent
> also shi
er said
uses mi
current
e the con
re fault is
1 deanssB a § arne s i tuat i° n ' y° 11 i ust
n’t think about it,” said Paine,
6-2, 218-pound senior from
hardson. “I think the butterf-
come before the game. Once
ball is kicked off, whether
’re on the sideline or on the
Id, you’re ready to go.”
[Such a reaction would seem
from a player who
ted out as a walk-on line-
ker his freshman year,
u I I fought through many workouts
i without a number for his name
n ami adapted to an alien position
he saidB 1 ’^ enc ! — before seeing any
stem hp P e of P la y in S-
mniw t JPanie is just as calm about the
fait that he is now the Aggies’
™rter at that once-alien posi-
n, and that he will indeed
to fill those big shoes left by
Iwis, who’s out for the season
i an oni dth a knee injury.
? titnei|« I But the new starter said he
irocess. pays believed if he worked
t of theiJrd enough for something he’d
ndon eei it.
V
ait until
mistake
“I guess there’s some exc he
ld ‘ ‘
Fe
.■ed witli
lespie
see a
the aiM
istering
due’s sys
'ibom! The Aggie Ladies ’ vo,le y ba ' 1
' im defeated the University of
■xas-Arlington in three games
dnesday night to raise its sea-
1 record to 6-0.
exas A&M, ranked No. 15
d No. 17 in the country by two
tional polls, won by scores of
-7, 15-6, 15-12 in remaining
defeated for the year.
In other Aggie sports action,
men’s soccer club defeated
2 Sam Houston State Bearkats
at Krenek Tap Park
ednesday afternoon. Carlos
itierrez scored two of the
gies’ goals to lead the victory.
Led by Utah State transfer
ey Vrazel, a two-time All-
uerica, the volleyball team
ilized all 12 players on the ros-
during the course of the
atch. Linda Clausen
occupy 11 eshman Sherri Brinkman also
an 0‘
the norf*
he 0#
roducef
Aggie tight end Jeff Paine
starts Saturday against UTA
ment,” he said. “It’s just some
thing that I’ve been working real
hard for for a long time.”
That long time included most
of his college football career — a
career that wouldn’t normally
have a chance to begin. Fear one
thing, Paine wasn’t even a start
ing linebacker until his senior
year in high school.
“I was not highly recruited
out of high school,” Paine said. I
had a chance to go to a couple of
small schools. I didn’t have a lot
of experience.
“Most guys that are in college
usually started at least two years
on their high school team,” he
said.
Size was another mark
against Paine’s chances as a ma
jor college player, he said.
“I played at about 185 or 190
pounds,” he said. “For a high
school linebacker that’s not too
small, but the collegesjust aren’t
interested in linebackers that
aren’t 210.”
Despite such indications that
major college ball wouldn’t be in
his future, Paine opted to give
Texas A&M a whirl. He said de
fensive coordinator R.C. Slocum
heard of his interest and asked
Paine to visit the campus.
Paine said Slocum’s offer of
an eventual full scholarship if he
made the team as well as a recol
lection of a childhood visit to
Texas A&M prompted his deci
sion to join the Aggies.
“I’d been to A&M one time
when I was in sixth grade for a
spring game, and you know how
A&M is,” Paine said.
“You can’t really describe it
but you just get a neat feeling
when you’re around here, and
that feeling just kind of stuck
with me over the years.”
But Paine’s next “neat feel
ing” no doubt came his sopho
more year wh£n then-Head
Coach Tom Wilson put him on
full scholarship just prior to the
Houston game.
Paine said being a walk-on
makes the fight for a spot on the
team a much tougher one men
tally as well as physically.
“Mentally it’s hard,” he said.
“There are a lot of things that
just have to be the way they are
as far as your treatment when
you come in. You feel a little dif
ferent.
“Just the fact that you’re set
apart a little bit I guess has a little
mental effect,” Paine said. “I
think in my case I just tried to
use that as a motivator — a posi
tive thing to make me work har
der and eventually reach that
goal of getting a scholarship.”
The next goal for Paine was to
play.
It was last spring when Paine
experienced his debut at tight
end, and to reach his next goal
he would have to perform well
among tight end candidates
John Kellen, TJ. Carmody,
J.W. Henderson and Lewis.
By the end of spring, Payne
said, he was listed as third string,
behind Lewis and Kellen. By
fall, with the help of 19 more
pounds, Payne became Lewis’
back-up.
Now the hard work has paid
off for Paine, who will start at
tight end Saturday evening
against the University of Texas-
Arlington in Kyle Field.
Paine said he was feeling
comfortable with the position in
the Boston College game, but
he’ll still need the playing time
of the next two non-conference
games to work out the rough
spots.
See PAINE page 12
College ball an easy
transition for Cooper
ie volleyball team triumphs
5.
a stream
lore tk
save a
eling onj
involved
lire stude
, a very ft
row at l<
'Stem hai
■ hard"’
leecl,”
steading
i nation 1
lent l 011
amnesty
Jgers a
.hey c 0 !
perfoi
jlieservi
jay: An#
Lorist"" 1
nens) s Jli
jod P r(,t f
ion buttl*
^0
h
contributed greatly to the Texas
A&M effort.
Coach Terry Condon cited
several substitutes, including
Cheryl Johnson, Maureen
Dunn, Cathy Frederick and
wajk-on Kim Leach for their
performances,
“The team played much bet
ter and was more consistent,”
Condon said. “There weren’t as
many letdowns, and teamwork
and coordination are impro
ving. An area we need to work
on more is our blocking.”
Condon said the team would
spend the rest of the week going
through lighter workouts in pre
paration for Friday’s match at
Lamar in Beaumont. That
matchup will start at 7 p.m.
The Aggie Ladies will partici
pate in the Nebraska Tourna
ment, slated for Oct. 24-25.
Playing in the tourney will be
Nebraska, ranked No. 20 in the
nation, No. 7 Cal-Santa Barbara
and the No. 17-ranked Aggie
Ladies.
Texas A&M will open the
tournament against Nebraska
Oct. 24 at 2 p.m.. with Cal-Santa
Barbara and Southwest Mis
souri being the team’s next two
opponents.
In the latest poll of die top 20
teams in the country, USC held
down the No. 1 spot while, the
Hawaii Rainbows were No. 2 in
the nation.
by John Wagner
Battalion Staff
Cindy Cooper is not unlike
any other 18-year-old freshman
at Texas A&M. She lives in a
dorm, enjoys all kinds of sports,
most kinds of music, talking to
people, and eating her favorite
food — pizza.
But Cooper has been doing
something special since she was
9 years old — something that
sets her apart from most of her
classmates.
Cindy Cooper plays softball.
Not your average Sunday
afternoon-in-the-park softball,
but real live big-time college
athletics fast pitch softball. And
she does it well enough to start,
as a freshman, at third base for
the 1982 AIAW national cham
pion Texas Aggies.
Cooper, from Bartlesville,
Okla., is one of six freshman re
cruits that Aggie coach Bob
Brock signed during the spring.
Those six represent a kind of
changing of the guard for Aggie
softball — newcomers pushed
into service, replacing the five
seniors from last year’s team.
So far, the transition has been
smooth. The Aggies are 10-0,
and Cooper is holding her own
on third base.
“College softball isn’t really
that much different,” Cooper
said, “Other than getting into a
new program with a different
way of doing things. You have to
learn how this program works,
because you’re used to doing
things your own way. It’s a little
frustrating, but it’s something
you have to do, otherwise,
you’re not playing as a team.”
Cooper began playing softball
when she was 9 years old, in a
local slow-pitch league. When ‘
she was 13, she played her first;
fast pitch softball on a summer
team that was made up of girls
ages 16-18.
From there she went on to
star at Sooner High School in
Bartlesville, playing third base
all four years, and winning the
Most Valuable Player award '
three of those years.
The list goes on. Cooper was
Washington County Athlete of
the Year once and Washington
County Softball Player of the !
Year twice. She received scho
larship offers to Oklahoma,
Oklahoma State, Creighton, j
See COOPER page 12
FINALLY,ATIMBERLAND
SHOE THAT GOES WITH
A BERMUDA BAG, A
BUTTON-DOWN SHIRT AND
A STRING OF PEARLS.
For years, Timberland has built a
reputation for building quality shoes for men. And now
they’re doing the same for women.
Take the classic boat shoe, for instance. Timberland’s
comes in a variety of colors and styles. The uppers are made
of oil-impregnated leathers that won’t dry out or crack. The
eyelets are made of only solid brass. And, most important,
the sole is long-lasting, rugged Vibram.
The preppy style is going to be around for a long time.
And thanks to Timberland, now ^
there’s a boat shoe that will be too. IIIIMNmT&IiO
Compare elsewhere to $75.95
TRI-STATE $ 54 95
(2 eyelet style shown)
Both Men’s and Women’s Sizes and Styles Available
TRI-STATE A&M
SPORTING GOODS
: ‘i 3600 Old College Road E3
^6-3280 mail 84-6-3570
*
*
*
¥
¥
¥
¥
¥
¥
¥
¥
¥
¥
¥
¥
Don't Be Shy Bachelors ....
Especially You, Faculty And Staff! !
You could win....
1st Runner Up
•WH9
WBS7BBH WflUB
Lizard Boots
Resistol Hat
Leather Vest
Wrangler Jeans
Western 5hirt
Suit Bag
Grand Prize
CUSTOM
SOUNDS
3806-A OLD COLLEGE RD. 846-5803
Sherwood Fully Remote
Control Stereo
With 2 Acculab
Speakers
Worth $1,500
2nd Runner Up
World ,
of Golf s
3601 East 29th Street Bryan
693-GOLF
Spalding "Executive
Golf Clubs"
3 Woods/8 Irons
Just come on out to Graham Central Station
fill out an entry form and let us take your picture.
and
W1AIY 92FM
Present
’THE MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR CONTEST
with
FREE BEER from 6 to 8!
PRELIMS Tues. Sept. 21 FINALS Tues. Sept. 28
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★•A"**
vd'
Free admission and
your first Drink is on us!
With any college I.D. until 9:00