Page 8/The Battalion/Friday, March 8, 1985
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Ag men spikers beachcomb for fans
By MARYBETH ROHSNER
Reporter
While most of us are cruising to
the beaches with Coppertone in
hand, the Texas A&M men’s volley
ball team is trading beach towels for
bump shots and suntans for setups.
Instead of starting spring break
on Saturday, the team will travel to
Houston to represent A&M in the
first of a string of United States Vol
leyball Association tournaments.
Team vice president Paul DeVries
said this weekend’s tournament is
just a “warm-up.”
“We have three or four new guys
just starting out,” DeVries said,
“And this will give them practice be
fore the next few tournaments.”
Though three starting players
graduated in December, DeVries is
pleased with the new members’ per
formance.
“The new members are doing well
to fill in the vacant spots on the
team,” he said.
Even with the loss of three start
ers, DeVries isn’t sweating it. A&M
ended last semester with a 33-5 re
cord, guaranteeing the team a spot
at the USVBA regional competition
in April.
Although interest in the 30-man
team has grown since the 1984 Los
Angeles Summer Olymics, DeVries
doesn’t foresee an NCAA men’s
team at A&M in the near future.
“In the South, there are not too
many NCAA (varsity) teams,” DeV
ries said. “I guess football is number
one down here.”
Although only one college in the
Lone Star Region — the University
of Texas at San Antonio — has an
NCAA team, DeVries said that the
Pac-10 and Southeastern confer
ences have well-established men’s
volleyball programs. Therefore, if
A&M was a full-fledged NCAA
team, it would have to do a fair bit of
traveling out-of-state to play the bet
ter teams.
“There are not enough teams in
the conference, and it’s just not eco
nomically feasible to travel to Cali
fornia (and Florida) to play in a tour
nament,” DeVries said.
Since the team is not part of the
A&M Athletic Department, the in
tramural department provides travel
and equipment funds for the team.
The A&M women’s volleyball
team, which is a member of the
NCAA, receives funding from the
Athletic Department. And Aggie
fans have started supporting the na
tionally-ranked team.
“The women's team is really pop
ular,” DeVries said. “It’s strange that
we can’t get more people to come
out.”
But DeVries doesn’t seem to
mind. The team has more freedom
than it would if it were part of the
Athletic Department.
“As things are, anybody can come
out to practices,” he said. “All they
have to do to join is pay the USVBA
fee. »
He said most of A&M’s players
never played in high school. They
simply came to a practice and de
cided to join.
Granted, the recruiting methods
are casual. Even so, the team is far
from disorganized. The men prac
tice three times a week with the
coaching of faculty advisor Noel
Orr. The hard work has paid off —
the team had four first-place finishes
and two second-place finishes in last
semester’s tournaments and came in
fourth in regional competition.
And, though last semester’s hot-
shot spiking and blocking earned the
team a bid to this year’s regional
competitions, the battle is far from
over.
The team is still looking for a few
good fans.
—
•—V
Photo by DEAN SAITO
The A&M men’s volleyball team’s hard work led to four first-
place finishes, two seconds and a fourth last semester.
Greene 'lifts' herself into record books
By DOUG HALL
Reporter
At age 23 and 114 pounds, Laurie
Greene is attractive, engaged and
can dead-lift almost three times her
weight.
Greene, a senior health and physi
cal education major from Lake
Charles, La., is a member of the
Texas A&M Powerlifting Team and
holds nine national records.
“I got started in lifting about S'A
years ago,” Greene said. “A friend of
mine was interested in it, so I went
with her. I liked it and stayed with
it.”
Greene transferred to A&M in
December after two years of lifting
for McNeese State University to con
tinue her training under Chad De-
Rousselle, a strength coach in the
athletic program who is also
Greene’s fiance.
Powerlifting is composed of three
events — bench-press, squat and
dead-lift. It is similar to boxing by its
division into various weight classes
and federations.
The United States Powerlifting
Federation (USPF) has sponsored
the National Collegiate Champion
ships as well as the state and regional
meets since its formation in 1964.
However, three years ago, the
American Drug-Free Powerlifting
Association (ADFPA) was organized
and began sponsoring their own col
legiate competition. The ADFPA
does not condone the use of steroids.
“National drug-free collegiate has
tried to break away from the other,”
Greene said. “They have tried to
make it more fair for those who do
not choose to use drugs.”
In addition to the great physical
strain powerlifting requires, Greene
said there is also a large amount of
mental preparation involved.
“I’m a national champion,”
Greene said, “so you always have to
give 100 percent. But just like any
body else, I have hard days. Some
times it’s hard to get motivated.
“I’d say more than 75 percent of
the sport is mental. You nave to go
through things in your mind all the
time and think positive.”
Greene spends five days a week
working on the 25 percent of the
competition she attributes to
strength. She alternates days work
ing on both her upper and lower
body and devotes Saturday’s to her
dead-lift under the direction of De-
Rousselle.
The work is hard and time con
suming, but Greene said there are
many oenefits that make powerlift
ing worth the effort.
“Trophies don’t mean that much
to me anymore,” she said. “They are
nice to show, but there is always a
personal record to break. You show
yourself you are achieving some
thing. It makes you feel good about
yourself.”
In most meets, women’s powerlift
ing is not broken down into weight
divisions, but divided on a weight
system called the Malone formula
which determines the sflrongest
pound for pound lifter.
“Most meets, except for nationals
and state, do not have enough girls
to compete in weight classes,”
Greene said.
“It’s hard to get girls involved in
powerlifting. They think of The In
credible Hulk and big, muscular
girls.”
Greene said women’s powerlifting
and body-building are very diff erent
sports.
“I can appreciate the art (of body
building),” she said, “but it is some
thing I could never do. There’s only
a certain extent to which your body
should go.
“I think powerlifing has enhanced
my appearance. It’s added more
muscle tone and definition. Not
really muscular, but you can tell a
difference. You can still lift for
strength and not get real big, unless
you use drugs.”
Greene said this is her last year to
lift in college so she can concentrate
on two national meets. The USPF
Collegiate Championships are being.
held at West Point, N.Y., on March
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A&M’s Laurie Greene
22-23 and the drug-free meet will be
held at A&M bn April 13 and 14.
Greene, who has won national col
legiate titles in the 105 and 123
pound weight classes, hopes to re
peat her performance at West Point,
to qualify for the World Champion
ships this summer.
Is there a future for women in
powerlifting? Greene thinks so.
“They have been trying to push it
(women’s powerlifting) into the
Olympics,” Greene said. “I think it
will be in there by 1988. It’s being
pushed and made more of a specta-'
tor sport.”
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