Friday, April 22, 1983/The Battalion/Page 15
Taking shape
12th Man team ‘impressive’ in alumni game
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by Scott Griffin
Battalion Staff
After some initial bumps and bruises,
he 12th Man Kickoff Team has
oughened up and is looking forward to
fall season, says 12th Man Coach
David Beal.
With the end of spring training
reaching, Beal says the special squad
looking good, and used the varsity-
dumni game to support his claims.
"In the game,” Beal said, “the team
:overed both kickoffs and punts, and
mly one return man made it past the
i-yard line.”
Still, not everything went smoothly.
“We did have some problems,” Beal
aid. “I thought some of them weren’t
irinting downfield fast enough. When
icy slowed down, too many people were
lunched up in the middle.”
But Beal did point out that the squad
ras hyped for the game, and that it
lelped their performance: “They were
«ally excited about the game — their
yes were bugging out at the opening
ackoff.”
Beal said the tackling and hitting drills
hat the players have been going through
,~v /21T7 ho helped on Saturday.
JLCV Th e surprising thing to me,” Beal
/ aid, “is that most of the players knew
iow to tackle ahead of time. Their foot-
is the firsuimti all knowledge really impressed me. Af-
to compete a: it the first week, most of the players had
It’s also the»te tackling form down.”
Atypical 12th Man practice starts 30
nent has indgj tinutes before the regular team prac-
and women'll ce ' At this time, the squad goes through
tckling drills and kickoff coverage drills,
tfter that, the unit joins the rest of the
dowell.Wemfr’tball team for the regular practice,
’re capableo« As far as motivating the players, Beal
er. Whatwereftys he’s had no problems: “We’ve tried
ingstohappe , 10 g° trough some drills at half-speed,
. We’re fired it
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but these guys are so pumped up that
they go full speed anyway.”
Beal said it’s special to work with these
guys because “they’re not recruited
athletes. While they may be less talented,
they work harder than the scholarship
athletes because they know they’ve got to
to play football. I expected them to work
harder.” Another advantage of working
with the squad, Beal says, is that “You
only have to tell them how to do some
thing one time.”
“After that,” Beal says, “they’ll do it
right every time.”
One of the more interesting aspects of
the squad is the pain they endured in the
opening practices.
“At first,” squad member Tom Bevans
said, “it wasn’t exactly fun. For the first
two weeks all I wanted was Bayer and
Deep Heat.” And Tom Bumgardner,
another member of the special squad
said: “It was a little hard on the body at
first, in fact, I could hardly make it.”
xiut these guys have made it, and they
have survived their first game without
any injuries.
Another good sign for the unit is the
reaction from both the regular team and
the fans. Bevans and Bungardner both
said they’ve received no negative feed
back.
“So far,” says Bevans, “there’s been no
negative reaction.”
Bumgardner agreed: “Everyone’s
been complimentary. I guess they’re for
it. Of course, they probably wouldn’t tell
me if they weren’t. They’re not going to
have anything to worry about, though,
’cause there’s a lot of good athletes on the
team.”
While both Bevans and Bumgardner
seemed confident, they weren’t alv
sure of themselves.*
mays so
“My roommate is the one who talked
me into this thing,” Bevans said. “At first,
I wasn’t sure it would work, but now I
do.”
Bumgardner has even more reason to
be confident. “At first,” Bumgardner
admitted, “I didn’t think I’d even make
the team.” Yet in addition to making the
kickoff squad, Bumgardner has been
working as a cornerback with the regular
defense.
What motivates one to endure such
punishment? Bevans said it was his love
for the sport:
“I’ve always loved football,” he savs,
“and this gave me a chance to play and to
do something for A&M.”
Bumgardner said: “Me and Dennis
Burns (another 12th man) just decided to
go after it as a last fling at trying to play
college football.”
So far, both have gotten their wish.
But what was it like to play against the
alumni, many of whom were excellent
athletes, after laying out a few years?
Were they nervous? “Hell, yeah,” Bevans
said, “what do you expect? I mean, those
guys weren’t just a bunch of high school
athletes.”
Bevans said his friends think he’s not
exactly normal: “They all say I’m crazy —
they can’t believe I came out for the
team.”
While Bevans and his buddies may be
confident, Beal still expresses some
doubt in their ability. “We want them to
be ready for anything, but in an on-side
kick situation, we might substitute two or
three players to handle the ball, but those
will probably be the only changes made.”
In the fall, Beal says he will work speci
fically with the kicking team about three
hours a week. After these practices, the
players will work out with the rest of the
team and will try out at various positions.
ijanzlik blocks out Phoenix’
01
•>un in Denver’s 113-99 win
United Press International
1 Hanzlik’s playoff role is
th'andlfai^ u make sure the Sun
snt shine.
Hanzlik was great out there
ght,” Denver Coach Doug
said Thursday night after
Nuggets evened their NBA
as thetopdoiii
Aggies withal
irmonofSML 1
dfern of Hoiii tern Conference playoff
:s at one game each with a
|99 victory oyer the Phoenix
singles seedsit:
le SMU is fart
fend its men's!
the pick to wia I
miens title,
lament will
linationpla
;h 6 singles and
“He was super on defense,
played against guards and
vards and he was helping out
rywhere.”
cot
doubles. Onep The deciding game in the
rded in then -of-three series will be play-
>r each indnit Sunday night in Phoenix,
y. Points 1 "
lointsacquiredi iiiki Vandeweghe scored 26
lar season tod* its and Dan Issel added 25 to
impions. te the Nuggets while Hanz-
■hipped in with 10 points and
.-5 shooting from the field,
was happy with the game
ght,” Hanzlik said. “We
>mplished what we had to do
and now we can go down to
Phoenix and win it.”
Denver jumped to a 14-4 lead
and was never headed. The
Nuggets spurted to a comfort
able lead by the middle of the
second quarter and were never
seriously threatened thereafter.
Phoenix, which got 31 points
from Walter Davis, suffered a
serious blow when Maurice
Lucas had to leave the game with
37 seconds left in the second
quarter with torn ligaments in
his left foot. Xrays for a possible
fracture were negative, but the
Suns’ forward is considered
doubtful for the Sunday finale.
Besides Davis, no Phoenix
player was able to score more
than 12 points.
In an Eastern Conference
mini-series, the Knicks elimin
ated the New Jersey Nets with a
105-99 victory at New York. The
Knicks open a best-of-seven con
ference semifinal Sunday at Phi
ladelphia.
Truck Robinson scored 22
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points and Bernard King added
18, allowing the Knicks to hold
off a frantic comeback by the
Nets.
The Nets closed to within
82-76 with more than nine mi
nutes remaining in the game,
but two foul shots by Marvin
Webster and two baskets by Sly
Williams upped New York’s lead
to 88-76. Albert King, who led
New Jersey with 25 points,
nailed a driving shot and a jum
per to bring New Jersey within
99-94 with 54 seconds re
maining.
Webster missed two free
throws 11 seconds later, but
New Jersey failed to close the
deficit when Darwin Cook mis
sed a driving shot. The Knicks
hit four foul shots down the
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In the Plaza
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Casa Tomas
stretch to ice the victory.
“We as a staff are just thrilled
with our kids,” said New York
Coach Hubie Brown. “They
answered the bell.”
The other two mini-series re
sume tonight. Boston, leading 1-
0, is at Atlanta and Seattle, trail
ing 1-0, is at Portland.
Not only have the Celtics
beaten the Hawks six times in
seven tries this season, including
three straight in Atlanta’s Omni
where Game 2 will be played,
but the Hawks have their best
player injured.
Power forward Dan Round-
field, who had 24 points and 20
rebounds Tuesday night in Bos
ton when the Celtics took a 1-0
lead with a 103-95 victory, has a
bad back
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Blues' sale nears NHL vote
United Press International
MONTREAL — Ralston
Purina of St. Louis hopes to set
up “an early meeting” with the
National Hockey League board
of governors to approve its sale
of the St. Louis Blues to a group
that will move the franchise to
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
An NHL spokesman said the
league had been notified docu
ments required by the gov
ernors to vote on the transfer
were on the way to league head
quarters from Ralston Purina.
NHL President John Ziegler
had not yet set a date for the
meeting, the spokesman said.
Some NHL owners have
vowed to vote against the trans
fer, notably Toronto’s Harold
Ballard, who predicted “80 to 85
percent” of governors would re
ject it.