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Texas A&.M
Friday, April 29, 1983/The Battalion/Page 15
Battalion Sports
Lining up
Ruel says experience, hard work
of offensive line will pay dividends
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'exas A&M offensive line coach Pat “Golden” Ruel
astructs athletes during spring workouts. Ruel says
staff photo by Frank L. Christlieb
he has high hopes for the 1983 Aggie offensive line,
and that he’s looking for leaders among his linemen.
VIcDonald s strong performance
las Brock, Aggies smiling again
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by Joe Tindel Jr.
Battalion Staff
HA little over a month ago, the
[Texas A&M women’s softball
team was struggling through an
Exhausting road trip. When it
|vas all over, the Aggies brought
ptme five losses and a pitcher
with a bothersome shoulder
jcondition.
■ Since their return home from
pat trip, though, they’ve over-
■me adversity. Shan McDonald
isregaining her form and giving
pitcher Lori Stoll some relief.
hitting has picked up and the
younger players have come
around.
The second road trip, more
successful than the first, will end
today in Ruston, La. The Aggies
will meet 13th-ranked Louisiana
Tech for a double-header which
could prove to be quite a battle.
“I think they have an excel
lent ballclub,” Aggie coach Bob
Brock said about the Lady
Techsters, “and I think they’re
going to be up for us, and would
love nothing better to do than
beat us in front of their home
folks. My team is well aware of
that. We’ve been talking about
that all week.”
Louisiana Tech’s coach is for
mer Texas A&M softball coach
Bill Galloway, which should add
to the intensity of the battle.
But Tech will have to deal
with Stoll, who despite having to
pitch considerably more than
her share while McDonald was
on the mend, still managed to
hold on to an amazing .326
earned run average.
But this time Tech also will
get to see McDonald, whose re
turn to action is a blessing to
Brock and the Aggies. For Stoll,
it spells relief.
“It’s awful hard to see some
body struggle and hurt,” Brock
said, “and I think it was a big
relief for Lori to see Shan get out
there and really have a good
game.
“I think that put a smile on all
of our faces, and I anticipate
that she’ll have a fine game
See SOFTBALL page 17
by Joe Tindel Jr.
Battalion Staff
One day during spring prac
tice, offensive line coach Pat
“Golden” Ruel summoned his
linemen to the blocking chutes
for a little one-on-one contact.
Ruel, brandishing that 3-foot
pine stick so well-known to fol
lowers of Aggie football, must
have seen something he didn’t
like.
Down over the chute came
Ruel’s stick. The stick broke.
But Ruel no doubt is hoping
for considerably more rigidness
from his offensive line this fall.
With spring practice over as of
Thursday, a broad view of the
prospects for a successful fall in
the trenches reveals two advan
tages and one disadvantage.
Advantages? Four strong
sophomores and one strong
junior from last fall will become
four stronger juniors and one
mammoth senior this coming
fall..
Returning will be sopho
mores Matt Darwin at center,
Greg Porter at left guard and
Ken Reeves at right guard.
Sophomore Nathan Steadman
probably will replace senior
Brian Dausin at tackle. And
junior Tommy Robison, a mon
strous tackle at 6-4, 275 pounds,
will return to that position.
“They got an awful lot of ex
perience last year,” Ruel said of
his linemen. “This really helped
this spring. They’re a lot more
cohesive and they’re communi
cating a lot better up front.
That’s probably the biggest
thing I think the offensive line
has to do.”
Perhaps communication is so
important to Ruel because he
considers the offensive line to be
a single entity — five acting as
Greg Porter sees progress
in A&M line during spring
one, playing one “position.” Or
maybe it’s because he’s looking
for his linemen to be the leaders
of the team this fall.
“I’m looking for the offensive
line to be a controlling force, to
hold the leadership role and to
be able to handle adverse situa
tions,” Ruel said. “I’m looking
for them to be able to lead our
offensive football team in every
way possible.
“They’re going to be juniors
next year. They’re going to have
a chance to be one of the better
offensive lines in the conference
if they will continue to improve.
So we want them to be the focal
point of our offense.”
Now the Aggies must await
autumn to see how much spring
practice paid off as far as pre
paring the offensive line for the
leadership role.
Darwin, who’s competing
with sophomore Joe Velasquez
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Aggie center Matt Darwin:
offensive linemen impro
ving
for the starting center role, re
flected on the offensive line’s
progress during spring practice.
“This spring has been very
intense,” Darwin said. “We’ve
done an awful lot more hitting.
We went one-on-one with the
defensive line, and that helped a
lot. The weight program defi
nitely helped us this off-season.
“We got a lot of things done
that we needed to get done. Our
pass protection has got pretty
good. We need to be able to get a
little bit better on our run
blocking.”
Porter was also positive about
the results of spring workouts.
“In the second week, we pick
ed up where we started off last
fall,” Porter said. “I think we’ve
progressed a lot more than we
did last fall. Just playing with
each other longer isjust natural
ly going to help.”
See LINE page 17