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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 2004)
'tali >f sell it Sports The Battalion Mohamed Dakki leader in Tennis Page 5 • Wednesday, March 10, 2004 Second Annual LMLHnr ®W weightlifting exhibition By Kyle Davoust THE BATTALION Two weeks ago, Texas A&M senior tennis player Mohamed ^ Dakki improved his singles record 1Csle I! to 13-1, earning him Big 12 Player t01 “lof the Week honors as well as a in the International Tennis Association’s top-75 rankings — a goal to which most collegiate ten nis players aspire. Dakki’s road to this position, however, has been anything but conventional. Simo, as friends and teammates call Dakki, sta ted his collegiate career five years ago at Western Michigan University, where he e i lcs ^established himself as the Broncos’ _. r player, winning Freshman of the Year honors for the Mid American Conference. All was well for the Moroccan Jnative, until he got news from * tae that would signal the end of his tenure at Western Michigan. At a young age, Simo was ^iforced to deal with his father’s , His mother was left to raise ^ him, his brother and his sister, while maintaining the family busi ness. The news from home was lat his mother needed help that ould ultimately come from Simo. After helping his mother with efamily business, Dakki planned return to the United States to continue his education. Daala Ammar, a friend of Dakki’s and a key Idoc al student at A&M, con vinced him to reconsider playing for the Aggies. He then took the ^ tyfinitiative and started e-mailing head tennis coach Tim Cass, had to start calling him if because he’s so good with the Internet." Cass said. “So much our correspondence over that time was simply through e-mail.” After months of this correspon dence with Cass, Simo was slated to ng iaspifi iasatt ihotte «oil Leap, tat it tit play for the Aggies in spring 2002. Sept. 11, 2001, changed those plans. “When 1 went to the American Embassy in Paris (to re-obtain a Visa), they told me that they had a new procedure and that the FBI has to search everything you do,” Dakki said. “They told me it was going to take four to seven weeks.” Through a process that was sup posed to take at most two months, the events of Sept. 11 caused it to take a little more than two years for Simo to re-obtain his Visa, effectively limiting his eligibility at A&M. “No one could predict September Nth, and when that happened the Visa situation really tightened up,” Cass said. “His country, Morocco, was one of the countries that was closely scruti nized, so it pretty much revamped that whole process and held up his entrance to the United States.” NCAA rules stipulate that once an athlete begins play, he or she then has a five-year window of eli gibility in which they are allowed to compete. Because Simo started his career back in 1999 with Western Michigan, this is the last semester he is eligible to play for A&M. Sadly for the Aggies, his first semester of playing tennis will be his last. “If I could have come here in January of 2002, like I wanted to, I would have had two years of eligi bility,” Dakki said. “Now, I have only this year to play.” The refreshing part of this story is that none of this seems to bother Simo. The senior management major made one thing clear: He is here for education first. “His attitude is amazing,” Cass said. “I’m super-impressed with his work ethic and his intensity, not only on the tennis court, but in the classroom as well.” Wednesday, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. G. Rollie White Colliseum Admission is free Returning events: • Bench press • Squat • Vertical jump • Incline Press Clean New events Aldo DeLa Garza will max-on-reps with 225 pounds on bench press Slam dunk contest Ruben DeLuna • THE BATTALION John C. Livas • THE BATTALION Former Big 1 2 player of the Week senior Mohamed Dakki is currently nationally ranked Cass said he is so taken in by Simo that he has offered him a job as a student assistant next year, which Dakki said he plans to take when he finishes his degree. “My whole goal in coming back to the U.S. is to graduate and get my degree,” Dakki said. “So that’s why I came back even though I knew I could only play one semester.” Men’s Tennis takes on LSU By Kyle Davoust THE BATTALION Louisiana State University and Texas A&M are not typical rivals. The two schools compete in dif ferent conferences and have had no history of bat tles on the football field — a must in these parts. All of this, however, has not stopped them from becoming major rivals in tennis. “They’re one of our top four rivals, even though they’re not in our conference,” said A&M coach Tim Cass. “We’ve had a lot of huge matches with them over the last eight years, and I look at this year as being no different. Jhey’re (17th), and we’re 13th in the rankings, so it looks like it should be a pretty good matchup.” The teams look to maintain their newfound rivalry Wednesday as the No. 13 Aggies (11-4, 2- 0 Big 12) travel to Baton Rouge to take on the No. 17 Tigers (8-1, 1-1 SEC) at the Dub Robinson Tennis Stadium. LSU coach Jeff Brown said his team is always ready to face the Aggies. See Tennis on page 7 Afw.brazospoi M cm -anfl .n Dol fie i ■se;i BC wants to be your college of choice.. CONVENIENT Choose BC for affordable academic COST-EFFECTIVE transfer programs, job skills training, and COMPREHENSIVE cultural enhancement. Our outstanding CUSTOMER-ORIENTED faculty and staff are ready to help make COMPETITIVE your choice of BC a choice for success. THE CHOICE A t) rs4 zofl 0 b & o CL CO 0 N CQ fe 979-230-3000 ^00 College Drive • Lake Jack son 77566 Register On-Line www.brazosport.edu BRHZOSPORT COLLEGE a • a* s • i • s ONLINE ACCESS STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS Thursday, March 11th 4ptn—6pm Sterling Clubhouse Come meet and greet members of The Real World/Road Rules Cast!! Call Today to find out how you can receive $100 when you sign your lease this week!! Join us and the cast for the After Party at Salty Dog from 6pm—10pm!! Mtv mM, _4l ; ' STERLING IIVERSIW 117 Holleman West An SUIT Community SUH 1 is a trademark ofSUH,Ine.