Content about athlete
The Daily Texan sat down with associate professor Ben Carrington to discuss a variety of topics, including UT’s slow integration process to the Rooney Rule, to what the University athletic department can do to separate itself as a beacon of diversity. Carrington’s research interests include the politics of race and sport, African diaspora studies, masculinity and national identity formation and the nature of cultural resistance within the arena of popular culture.
Since Title IX’s inception, the landscape of college athletics has transformed immensely. The legislation, which prohibited sexual discrimination at educational institutions, has not only given female athletes the chance to play at the collegiate level, but has also opened doors for the rest of their lives.
Growing up, I was taught to work harder because I was a black female and things wouldn’t be handed to me. I knew that people wouldn’t want to see me succeed because of the color of my skin. My mom told me at a very young age that I was different because I was black, but I needed to be proud of my culture and my ancestors who fought so that I could have a better life.
1. Indianapolis Colts — Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford
Strong winds proved to be no match for the Longhorns’ determination as they surged ahead to claim seven titles in Saturday’s events at the Texas Invitational.
The windy conditions produced gusts reaching 20-30 mph throughout the day’s competition. But Texas simply decided to push all negative thoughts aside and power through it.
Several Texas distance runners made the trek to Palo Alto, Calif. to compete in the Stanford Invitational Friday.
The Longhorn trio of sophomore Ryan Dohner, freshman Craig Lutz and senior Brock Simmons finished within three seconds of each other in the 5000-meter run.
UT athletes are scheduled to take part in the 73-year-old tradition of the Florida Relays this weekend.
Once considered to be the first prominent collegiate track and field meet of the outdoor season, the Florida Relays have experienced a series of transitions. In 2007, the meet — which was, at the time, a four-day affair held at the end of March — was tailored to a two-day event and was moved to the first weekend in April.
Joah Spearman opens the door to Austin Java Cafe, brushes the late-afternoon drizzle off his leather jacket and wipes his limited edition Livestrong for Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop black and yellow Nike’s on the restaurant’s welcome mat. The back of the 28 year-old sneaker fan’s kicks proudly read “Austin” and “Texas” on the left and right shoe, respectively. Just minutes after he leaves the table with our photographer to shoot some photographs, complete with poses that scream confidence, a woman comes up to me and asks if he’s famous.
Freshman heptathlete Petter Olson sat down and talked about his journey from Sweden to Texas, and breaks down the key ingredients for success during a grueling seven-event competition.
The Daily Texan: How did you get involved with track and field?
Ups and downs are inevitable in a sport where the outcome often relies solely on the athlete’s individual efforts.
Just ask the five members of Texas men’s track and field who competed in the Last Chance Meets this past weekend.
Nick D’Innocenzo walked to the starting blocks in College Station three weekends ago with one thing on his mind: winning. As he broke down every stroke of the event, the race playing out in his mind like scenes from a movie. With the outcome already seen in his head, he dove in to realize the goal.
The Super Bowl capped off this Sunday and the New York Giants are world champions. Now football fans everywhere are panicking and wondering, what am I supposed to watch until football starts up again in August?
Well calm down NFL fanatics, here is a list of great sporting events, month by month, you can check out to hold you over until opening kickoff 2012.
February
Feb. 6-12 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
The Longhorns signed 28 recruits on Wednesday and were able to fill nearly all of the holes Texas had in 2011. Here’s our grade report on Mack Brown’s 15th recruiting class at UT.
On meet days, freshman thrower Ryan Crouser washes his shoes and weight belt and carefully re-inscribes his name on his discus. Then, sometimes, he gulps down a 64-ounce bottle of orange juice.
The Longhorns 2012 recruiting class swelled to 27 members with the verbal commitments of three more athletes this week. Texas picked up two defensive players in linebacker Dalton Santos and defensive end Bryce Cottrell as well as local athlete/flex back Daje Johnson.
When Noah Villalobos began his career at UT, his passion for rugby — a sport that had been inaccessible to him before coming to Texas — inspired him to seek out the UT Rugby team. Three years later, Villalobos, now president of Texas Rugby, is on a quest to find the most elite athletes on the UT campus to potentially join and play with the current Longhorn team in the 2012 Collegiate Rugby Championship, which will be a nationally televised event in June.
On a typical Saturday afternoon, as Texas takes the field, you can see the dedication of the orange and white clad Longhorns who battle through pain, intense heat and long practices day in and day out just to play a sport. What many don’t realize is that the dedication shown by the boys without helmets and pads is just as valuable and just as respectful. The underappreciated walk-ons who sit on the sidelines, many of whom realize they may never see the field, go through the same pain, the same intense heat and the same long practices as the rest of the team.
More often than not, the most a walk-on achieves is a position on the practice squad, helping the more highly recruited, more visible scholarship athletes put in the work to become stars on game day.
However, for Nick Zajicek, a spot on the scout team meant something more. It was an opportunity to continue playing the game he loved at the school he always dreamed of going to.
Sheldon McClellan averaged 26 points as a senior at Bellaire High School — he says he had to shoot a lot for his team to win games — but came to Austin this summer with a surprising reluctance.
During fall camp, head coach Rick Barnes would stop practice every time McClellan passed up an open shot and then make him run up and down the court.
Making the transition from high school to college can be tough. Making the transition from being a high school athlete to a college athlete is even tougher. Making that transition more than 5,000 miles away from home while speaking a different language can seem flat-out impossible.
But tennis player Soren Hess-Olesen hasn’t let those challenges, or the notorious Texas heat, affect his performance out on the courts in his first fall season in burnt orange.
UT Olympians earned 14 medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, enough to tie with Kenya for 18th in the national medal count.
Some of UT’s former and current Olympians returned to campus to share their stories.
Ashley Brewer is an emerging star for Texas, one who is probably most known for her decorated sports family. Yet Brewer, a sophomore and one of the key members of the Longhorns’ swimming team, walks a path all her own.
“I started swimming at five years old and just had a natural feel for the water,” Brewer said. “All of my siblings started with swimming but I was kind of the natural of the family and fell in love and stuck with it.”
I don’t imagine they award Pulitzer Prizes for short pieces in college newspapers. Nonetheless, Trey Scott’s article on the egregious discrepancies in punishment meted out to athletes in different sports for various infractions is a winner by all counts. It is a fact-based article that raises questions of justice, integrity and compassion — virtues that might have little interest to those whose chief concerns are the lucrative spoils of victory.
If UT’s new standard of discipline for an action such as peeing-and-fleeing is dismissal from the program, it’s a good thing the school doesn’t dish out retroactive punishments.
A different type of athlete is occupying the halls of Gregory Gym this week. They do not move or speak, but they still have the ability to stop the occasional passerby in their tracks.
