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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1996)
The Battalion THURSDAY April 11, 1996 Sports Page 9 GLANCE Plan proposed to dome Cotton Bowl DALLAS (AP) — As much as Dal las considers itself a major player on the pro sports scene, it's really out of the loop. The Cowboys play in Irving, the Rangers in Arlington and the Mavericks and Stars may be sub urb-bound. When the Cotton Bowl was left out of the rotation to host the col lege football national championship game last year, several local busi nessmen decided it was time for Dallas to do something big. They knew all about the stadi ums going up around the country and figured their city needed one, too. Considering the $200 million to $300 million price tag, the group came up with a cheaper idea: Why not put a dome on the Cotton Bowl? The idea finally took off Wednes day with the announcement that Coca-Cola has donated $500,000 to figure out whether it can be done. Holmes: Two more fights and I'm through NEW YORK (AP) — Former world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes, unable to get his dream bout with another former champ, George Foreman, will fight twice more and retire, he said Wednesday. The 46-year-old Holmes has a fight against Quin Navarre April 16 at Bay St. Louis, Miss., on USA Net work. He said he would fight once after that and quit after fighting 70 times in his career. "I've been messing around while everybody gets my hopes up and then I get let down," Holmes said. "Everybody is saying, 'George will fight you,' and then it never happens. "It would have been one historic fight, two guys of the ages, the geezers of Caesars, or whatever you want to call it," Holmes said on a conference call. "I thought it would be good for George and me." SCORES ROUNDUP NL St. Louis 4, Montreal 1 San Francisco 11, Houston 5 Philadelphia 7, Pittsburgh 6 Colorado 10, Chicago 9 New York at Cincinnati (n) Atlanta at Los Angeles (n) Florida at San Diego (n) NBA Washington 122, Boston 108 Orlando 116, Cleveland 104 Miami 116, Charlotte 95 Detroit 92, Philadelphia 76 L.A. Lakers 111, Minnesota 90 Utah 103, Phoenix 79 San Antonio 105, Vancouver 82 Seattle 108, Sacramento 89 NHL Washington 4, New York Rangers 1 Buffalo 5, Ottawa 2 Tampa Bay 2, Florida 1 New York Islanders 6, Pittsburgh 2 Philadelphia 5, New Jersey 1 Detroit 5, Winnipeg 2 Anaheim at Colorado Dallas 4, Edmonton 2 San Jose at Los Angeles AL Minnesota at Boston, ppd., snow Detroit 7, Seattle 3 California 2, Toronto 1 OlympicAspirations Texas A&M senior Joe Wilmoth is one of eight choreographers for the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympic Summer Games. By Lisa Nance The Battalion or most people, a chance to participate in the Olympics is a dream that is never obtained. For Texas A&M senior Joe Wilmoth, that dream is becom ing a reality. This summer, while most stu dents are taking classes to get ahead, Wilmoth will be in Atlanta, Ga., choreographing the opening ceremonies for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Wilmoth is one of eight main choreographers who was chosen from the National Cheerleader Association by the Olympic Committee to put to gether and perform in the opening cere monies which will be watched by four bil lion people worldwide. Wilmoth, who is in his sixth year with the NCA, said that he is still overwhelmed at the opportunity. “I remember in 1984 when Mary Lou Retton won the gold medal,” Wilmoth said. “I remember where I was sitting, I remember what I was do ing, I remember that feeling. I’ve been in gymnas tics since I was six and watching the Olympics and watching competitions; I was always like I will do that someday. “Then I graduated from high school and got really burnt out so I quit, and then I thought, well, I’ll go watch the Olympics someday, I never dreamed I’d be a part of it in the opening ceremonies.” While the world will be tuning in to the opening cere monies, Wilmoth is no stranger to performing in front of crowds. In his six years with the NCA, he has performed in the 1993 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland, partic ipated in the Cotton Bowl Halftime shows the two years that the Aggies went, performed at the Aloha Bowl in ’94 and ’95 and in the Hula Bowl this year. The NCA has been in operation since 1940 and was the first cl^erleader/gymnastics company in the country to pro fessionally focus on coaching the sports of cheerleading and gymnastics. The organization has over 800 people on staff and is re sponsible for summer camps all over the nation. Its mem bers coach over 150,000 every summer. Not only are they responsible for the camps, but the NCA is also in charge of many professional organizations including the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, the Chicago Bull Cheerleaders, the Laker Girls and the Kansas City Chief Cheerleaders and they also host the NCA National Championships. Kristy Schimpf, regional director of staffing for the NCA, said that Wilmoth is very respected in the organiza tion. “Joe is very highly looked up to within the company,” Schimpf said. “We have over 1,000 staff members all over the country, and he is the head instructor. He brings cre ativity, he’s multi-talented and he’s a great leader. He’s ab solutely incredible. All you have to do is mention his name and everyone knows who he is.” The NCA will be taking a group of 20 to Atlanta to take part in the opening cere monies. They are the only outside group that will be participating. Everyone else is located directly in Georgia. While the Summer Games are still a little over two months away, Wilmoth and his group have already started working. “I’ve been going to Dallas (NCA headquar ters) every weekend for little things here and there for it since December. It’s been a slow but quick — if that makes sense — process because it’s going to come up on us really fast. A lot of work is going to be put into it, lot’s of work.” "We kind of joined forces," Wilmoth said. "We gave them all of our ideas that we do off and on, and they said why don’t we take that and take it to an exotic extreme, because America is used to cheerleading, America is used to gymnastics, but the world is not.” The committee has given the group of chore ographers liberty in deciding on most aspects of the opening ceremonies, including the costumes that will be worn, but they were made to sign a confidentiality report saying that they would not disclose certain information, including this year’s theme and performers. “It’s like a secret until the day of the ceremony,” Wilmoth said. “The theme is always real hush- hush.” Even though he couldn’t disclose this year’s theme, Wilmoth said this year’s ceremonies will be worth the wait. “It’s like a competition every four years,” Wilmoth said. “When Seoul, Korea, had their opening ceremony, that was one of the best. Then four years later Barcelona did everything they could do to out do it. Now we’re going to do everything in our power to make this the best Olympics. “The Olympic stadium is four football fields, so we’ve got to fill that field up full of people and do something so amazing so that not only will that person sitting right there in that crowd be im pressed, but the world will go ‘wow’ and say ‘what a ceremony.’” While Wilmoth is one of eight main choreogra phers, he says he cannot take full credit for the ceremony. “I can’t take credit for 100 percent of it,” Wilmoth See Ceremonies, Page 11 Tyson in trouble again: Who would have W hile channel surfing be tween ESPN and the Home Sports Channel last night, I came across something quite amusing. As I put the remote down to lis ten to a short blurb of sports briefs, the words, "Mike Tyson strikes again’ were ceremonially an nounced. OK, so the words weren’t quite like that, but that is what I got out of it. Maybe some people are pretty fed up with all of Tyson’s screw-ups and allegations, but to say the least, I was really interested. For those of you who are inter ested as much as I am, I am happy to announce that Tyson may have just bought himself more jail time. Still on probation 13 months af ter serving three years in prison for rape, Tyson has been accused by an Indiana woman of sexual battery in a Southside Chicago nightclub. Even though there is substan tial proof that he probably didn’t do it, this allegation sure beats read ing about Michael Irvin’s newfound identity complex and professions that he is drug free. Anyway, back to Tyson. You would think that he would watch his every move after being accused of rape once already. Obviously, he forgot about the four years of probation he is on, or maybe the fact that he spent three years in prison slipped his mind. Despite the fact that the 25- year-old woman can’t really specify what Tyson did to her. If nothing happened, and if he didn’t show any interest in her, then she wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of filing charges. In my opinion, Tyson needs to find something to occupy his time a little better. This fighting thing once every six months is definitely not working for him. Yeah, the heavyweight title looks pretty prestigious on a resume, but there comes a time when a person needs to lay low for a while. I think Tyson’s time is now. Maybe he is innocent, but he is going to have a heck of a time try ing to prove to everyone that he is. Needless to say, the cards sire stacked against him. Not only has thought? he already been accused of rape, and has a police record a mile long. His first offense dates back to 1978, when he was picked up for purse snatching at age 12. It seems kind of ironic that something as trivial as that would make a direct impact on his repu tation, but hey, I can honestly say that every time I think of Tyson, I will picture a bully-like 12-year-old kid snatching a purse from a little old lady. Although I can’t really say if I be lieve he did sexually assault the girl, I hope things work out for the best. He has been through enough in his 30-year-old life to deserve this. ATTENTION ON-CAMPUS RESIDENTS!!! r * The deadline to cancel your housing contract for Fall 1996 and Spring 1997 and receive a $200 (100%) deposit refund is: Monday, April 15 by 5:00 p.m. Cancellation forms can be filled out in 101 YMCA. Letters of cancellation can be faxed (409-862-3122) or mailed to the Housing Assignments Office 101 YMCA Building College Station, TX 77843-1258. (409) 845-4744 Deadlines to receive a portion of your deposit: April 16-May 1 May 2-May 15 May 16-June 1 After June 1 $150 (75%) SI00 (50%) $50 (25%) Deposit forfeited ^oiun 2). “Very Personal Investments” 313 B South College Ave., College Station (409) 846-8916 An authorized TAG Heuer dealer.