riday • August 29, 1997
S The Battalion
_> P (J R i S
icking up the pieces
larrell football players dedicate season to fallen teammates
JARRELL, Texas (AP) — Jarrell quarterback Ernest Vi-
ure looked at the white cloth tape stuck to the back
his blue helmet.
In black marker was written: “John R., Michael R., Erik
.,Ryan M., John L, Michael C. In loving memory.’’
Then he looked around at the fatigued, sweaty faces
his teammates on the bench and began stomping his
eats into the dried brown grass on the sidelines.
"Erik (doesn’t) get to get tired anymore. Suck it up,”
[yelled with an intense look on his face, slapping his
:lmet for emphasis.
It was just a preseason scrimmage against Navarro
preparation for the season opener Sept. 5 against
Bruceville-Eddy.
Maybe a couple hundred people filled the five rows
of wooden bleachers on either side of the field. But it
was much more than a scrimmage.
It was the first chance for Jarrell players to pay trib
ute to six of their teammates killed along with 21 oth
ers in a May 27 tornado.
John Ruiz and Erik Moehring would have been play
ing on the varsity for the first time, both contending for
a starting position at wide receiver.
Michael Ruiz, John’s brother, and Ryan Moehring,
Erik’s brother, as well as John Igo and Michael Car
mona would have played on Jarrell’s junior varsity.
■ ' :
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j
FILE PHOTO/Associated Press
ixJarrell High School football players were killed when tornadoes ripped through the community on May 27.
Sixth-ranked soccer team set
to get season off and running
gie Soccer Complex plays host to team’s first night game
By Kristina Buffin
Staff Writer
For the first time in the Texas
i&M Soccer Team’s five-year histo-
y, the Aggies are staring a majority
f new people in the face. The ini-
ialnine recruits, who built a pro-
fam from the relative unknown to
itop 10 team, have graduated and
0 freshmen have arrived to fill the
ootprints left at the Aggie Soccer
Complex.
The test of how the program will
ntegrate these new faces comes
iaturday night as the sixth-ranked
iggies host conference foe, the
Jniversity of Oklahoma at 7 p.m.
^ putA&M Head Coach G. Guerrieri
ays this new crop of freshmen
oll 5 fluid possibly be more talented
han the 1994 harvest.
“We knew coming into this sea-
'2^ ion that losing nine seniors would
' ai liotbe easy,” he said. “But it is nev-
r easy. It is difficult losing the ex-
lerience but these freshmen may
>e more talented.”
Among the new faces are Eliza-
)eth Pavlas, Michelle Remington,
Jthough she will not see action this
ieason because of a torn ACL,
laire Elliott, Katie Offutt, Heather
Wiebe, Nicky Thrasher, Gillian
Gandy, Amber Reynolds, Alison Pe
ters and Stefani Chaney.
One of four seniors, forward
Bryn Blalack, said it is up to the up
perclassmen to help the freshmen
adjust and become an integral part
of a winning program.
“Being a senior puts the leader
ship role in our hands,” the presea
son All-American said. “It is our job
to show them the ropes. But they
are doing great.”
Last season ended on a sour
note for the Aggies, who were ex
pected to contend for the national
championship. A&M finished sec
ond in the Big 12 after losing a
heartbreaker to the University of
Nebraska 1-0 in overtime. Then, in
the first round of the NCAA Cham
pionships, the Aggies lost 5-3 to San
Diego, in a game many thought
they would win.
However, the past is the past for
the Aggies and they are looking at
the prematurely-shortened season
as a learning experience.
“G. (Guerrieri) will bring it up
every once in a while but that’s it,”
said senior midfielder Diana Rowe.
“But we have learned from it.”
The Aggies’ motto for the 1997
season has been take it one game
at a time. Guerrieri pointed out
that being in the top 10 in the pre
season polls is expected but it is
the team’s job to maintain that
ranking.
“Both inside and outside of this
campus were are expected to be
highly ranked,” he said. “We have a
talented team but my main con
cern is that we have a lot of inexpe
rience. It is up to the rest of the team
to set the pace for the freshmen.”
Inexperience or not the Aggies
are expected to make an impact
on the national map again in 1997.
A&M is 3-1 in season openers and
2-0 in conference openers. This is
the first and last time the Aggies
will open with a conference game.
Next season, the Big 12 will begin
scheduling conference games for
the latter part of the season.
The last time A&M faced the
Sooners, the Aggies blanked OU,
4-0. However, Guerrieri said Okla
homa has a defensive, hard work
philosophy that will force the Ag
gies to be prepared.
Saturday’s game will be the first
night game held at the Aggie Soc
cer Complex thanks to the addi
tion of permanent lights.
•STUDENTS and FACULTY/STAFF
•PLUS GUESTS*
RIDE THE SHUTTLE
BUSES TO KYLE FIELD
j The Texas A&M Athletic Department will be running student shuttle buses to .
home football games again this season! The buses will run on their normal routes.
Students and Faculty/Staff plus their guests may ride FREE!! Just show your game
ticket to board the bus. The Student shuttle buses will start their regular routes 2
hours before kickoff and depart campus for 1 hour after the game is over
RIDE THE STUDENT SHUTTLE BUS
FREll
TO HOME FOOTBALL GAMES
“This year, everybody is playing as hard as we can
because we have some friends who don’t get to play
anymore,” Vidaure said.
As the winds gusted and the sky turned a wet char
coal on May 27, the Ruiz brothers stopped shooting
baskets at the high school gym and returned to the fam
ily’s trailer home.
With a tornado warning in effect, they did what they
thought would be safe and went to the Moehrings’
home, a larger, two-story structure. The Moehring
home was destroyed and all four boys were killed. The
Ruiz trailer home was undamaged.
Before the scrimmage kicked off, running back Matt
Kitchens walked over to Vidaure and said, “The first
play we run is for John (Ruiz) and Erik (Moehring).”
When Jarrell went onto the field, Kitchens said the
same thing to the offensive linemen in the huddle,
telling them to hold their blocks and he would make
something happen.
He did, breaking up the middle for a 70-yard
touchdown run on
“After the scrimmage
was pretty tough. I
looked around and just
kept expecting them to
be there.”
JOHN MART0NE
JARRELL DEFENSIVE END
the first play.
As his teammates
celebrated, Kitchens
looked upward, be
yond the slightly bent
goal post in the south
end zone and point
ed his finger to the
sky.
“I told John that
was for him,”
Kitchens said. “I’ve
been playing for
John. He was a big
buddy of mine, the
funniest, nicest guy. It’s been really hard not having
him and the other guys around. They were supposed
to be here.”
“After the scrimmage was really tough,” said John
nie Martone, a defensive end. “I looked around and just
kept expecting to see them.”
Jarrell is a farm town of roughly 1,000, set on rolling
prairie about 40 miles north of Austin. Locals meet reg
ularly for lunch at Joe’s Country Barbecue and buy feed
FILE PHOTO/Associated Press
for their cattle at Jarrell Farm Supply.
Slowly, the 50 or so houses that were sucked into the
sky in May are being rebuilt, and the town is moving for
ward. Although the coaches had expected 50 or more
football players this year, the junior varsity and varsity
teams combined have 46.
“We are just carrying on as normally as we can,” said
head coach Tracy Burke. “It has impacted our players.
“These kids were very dear friends of our athletes,
and we knew them as coaches. We miss them not being
in practice and not seeing them around.”
Jarrell Superintendent Larry Hausenfluke said he
would like the media attention to end.
“We have had our memorial service,” he said. “We
have brought what we are calling an appropriate end to
the problems caused by the tornado, which is not to say
we are forgetting, but we don’t want it to be the center
of everything we do.”
Jarrell’s football team was 3-7 last year. Burke hopes
the team can contend for the playoffs this year.
Vidaure said the team is considering a formal hel
met sticker or jersey patch to memorialize its fallen
members.
“The past few years, Jarrell really hasn’t been a great
football team,” Vidaure said. “This season, we are lot
closer and we are playing a lot more like a team.
“We are looking to shock some people. But our
whole season is for the guys we lost, and they will be
right there with us every step of the way.”
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STEW MILNE/The Battalion
Senior Bryn Blalack and the sixth rankedTexas A&M Soccer Team will
start their season Saturday night in the team’s first night home game.
Ags go for
first win in
Georgia
Staff and Wire Reports
The Texas A&M Volleyball Team
(0-2) will continue its search for the
win column this weekend as the
Aggies take part in the Georgia In
vitational in Athens, Georgia. The
13th ranked Aggies will battle
Arkansas-Little Rock Saturday at 10
a.m., the University of Georgia on
Sunday at 12 noon followed by
William and Mary at 2 p.m.
A&M is fresh off a two game skid
after losing consecutive matches at
the State Farm/NACWAAVolleyball
Classic last weekend in Palo Alto,
California.The Aggies lost the sea
son opener against the top-ranked
and defending national champion
Stanford Cardinals, four games to
one. Sophomore outside hitter Sta
cy Sykora took match-high honors
with 21 kills and a .325 hitting per
centage.
Brigham Young University shut
out the Aggies in the consolation
match, winning all three games,
15-5,15-8,15-10.SykoraledtheAg-
gies with 16 kills. Cindy Vander-
Woude-Lothspeich chipped in
with 10 kills and a team-high .474
hitting percentage.
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