News Scrapbook 1989

•1 have to do both. og school to play bas- ketball and I have to play basketball to be able to go to school.

I enjoy both.' -DondiBe/1

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Tribune photo by Bill Romero

ups. Bell was di appointed. "I defimtely was prepared for the qui " h said From Monday through Thursday, I tudi d about 6½ hours, about four hour of t on accounting. In his rush to pack for the road trip to Los Angel , Bell forgot to take his boo and only studied about another half an hour the rest of the week. Bell practiced approximately 13 hours during the week. In addition to the team's 2½-hour workouts each mormng. Egan a the players to put in individual practice time on their own. Bell showed up twice for about half an hour to work on drills. The team also had a 40-minute walk- throu h practice one evening and also had 45-mlnute walk-throughs on game day against Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount. Throw in 14 hours for the team's two games (including pregame meal and time pent focusing on the game lll the hotel) and another five hours for travel, and Bell spent a minimum of 32 hours during the week on basketball. He studied about seven hours and attended class for 71k hours Does ha ketball take up too much time? "Th re i time to do both," said Bell, "but you r octal life is limited." Bell id that Egan is demanding of the players ho cademically and atblet C Uy. "There's mental pressure from the coach Just to do the best you can do," said Bell. a week Egan talks to the lndlVldually about how they're doing in class. About every two or three weeks a member of the basketball taff contacts each of the playe • teachers to see how the player is progr ing. If a USD player is caught skipping cl , the entire team pays the price. Before the on started, before t e players began etting their alarms for 5:30 a.m., Egan discovered on two occa ions that players had missed class To provide them a preview of what it would be like durmg the sea- On player

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It's a tiring schedule But Bell plans to reap the rewards By Don Norcross Tribune Sportswriter D ONDI BELL didn't get in until 3 a.m. one Sunday. Partying? Not quite. U D had played at Loyola Marymount the night before. Bell, IISD's wirting center, visited some friends after the game, then made the drive home from Los Angeles. By noon Sunday, Bell's nose was in his accounting book. By 12:30 his head was against a pillow, the 6-foot-9½ sophomore having fallen asleep. He wouldn't awake for 2½ hours. For Bell, one of the toughest aspects of balancing academics and athlet- ics is the physical demand. Sometimes bis bead and his heart tell him to sit at the desk and study, but bis eyes wander to that comfortable bed. The eyes sometimes have it. Getting up at 5:30 four mornings a week for USD's 6o'clock practices might be a factor. "It is tiring," said Bell. Bell says there is time to be both student and Division I athlete at USO. During the season, though, there isn't time for much else. "You concentrate on those two things," said Bell, a Crawford High product. "Everything else is secondary." In the week The Tribune followed Bell, except for relaxing in his on- carnpus apartment, the only socializing Bell did was when he and teammate/roomm~te Efrem Leonard went to Mission Valley to check out ol. = ' =-::_=---_ -~ -~ -_ -~ -_ -_ -~ - ea~ses~ee~BE~'LL: t<1-6:- , ll::-

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ics. "People know it's difficult to do both," he said. Asked if he feels the time basket- ball demands is fa ir, Bell said, "Well, I think so. I guess the only way to truly know is when ypu start reaping some benefits from r hard work."

Once given an athletic schol hi opportunity to earn a degree? ars P, do college athletes receive a fair A study completed for the NCAA Research showed: recently by the American Institute for • Most athletes in all sport fl d - 1 top priority. s n ' difficult 10 make academic work their • Football and basketb II J college than comparison g~oiip:yers have lower grade-point averages Jn st:d:~~~~tes generally have less money for personal expenses than other • Many student-athletes say it' h d f opportunities for personal growth.s ar er or them to take advantage of By any standard it's agreed th I d . . college athletic pr~rams don't ~egra uatron rates'" most of the nation's Sportswrit Don No f Tasure up. demic and athl rcross o he Tribune recently monitored the aca- NeaJ Steinly of s~r:u:t~~ tsketball P1 layers Dondi Bell or USO and a student who s nt · orcross a so monitored the schedule of playing basketb:. equivalent hours working a part-time Job Instead of These students' stores d th them ler.d perspective t~ ana:sue ~f ~J°g~epsriffllethien Ainstrulctors who teach mer can sports. Graduate rate • 1s under study By Don Norcross Tribune Sportswriter B ILL PENFO~D heard about life as a Division I basketball playefrf. Skippmg classes. Late-night parties Under-the-table payo s. · rt~t of that scenario u~folded during Penfold's career at IlSQ e oreros would practice at night three times - - a~st every evening workout the partying would co;:e~! After stud 1:1r:ine wouid,,or~er a pizza, we'd crank open the books and '84 .; wasm 10 t~ 1,d said Penfold, who played at USO from 1982 to · surprise how much everyone studied " None of Penfold's teammates made it to the NBA b t th f!!i 0 :~~~Ida::S ~~:Pnci:!s!dna1_1nyssts aDn_d Penfold is'th~ co~~u~: USO' . •• an 1ego. s emphasts on acad · · In the last four years nin~U::f J;~fl~ted ~n its graduation rates. Please see DEGREE: C-~ Col. 3 _ s semor basketball players

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D GREE: SDSUathletic director says rates must ~ P.~ 1

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letic ability out of them and then dismiss them without graduating," Miller previously told The Tribune. "That's pure exploitation." San Diego State is attempting to increase its graduation rate among athletes. Veston Thomas is the direc- tor of Student/Athletes Academic Support Services. His department consists of two associates who help counsel students another assistant who coordinates the program's study hall and a secretary. By NCAA mandate, Thomas or one of bis associates meets with all student/athletes twice a year to re- view their academic progress. The department also assists students m selecting a major and arranging tu- Thomas' department also monitors students' progress in class. Accord- ing to Miller, coaches do not contact specific teachers about their ath- Only 10 to 1 5 percent of the alb- letes are monitored. "The problem is we don't want to overburden an instructor in terms of sending him something for every ath- B~t Thomas said that if a coach deems it necessary, a student's prog- ress may be monitored as often as four times a semester. Those who have successfully com- bined academics and athletics say bard work and discipline are the keys. Chris Kilby, a former San Diego State defensive tackle, earned conference academic honors four straight years. His senior year l98 6 he was selected as the team'; out~ standing student-athlete. He graduat- ed magna cum laude, earning a 3.67 !ration major. He's now an inspector lete" said Thomas. He said he studied about four hours "I knew after the first couple of years that I wasn't going to be play- ing football the rest of my life,'' said Kilby. "The way I saw it, I wouldn't have been able to go to college with- out a football scbolaf·p. But I a day. tors. letes' progress. Coaches howeve do determine which athletes are monitored. The coaches make requests to Thomas' department, then a form is given to the student teacher. O delivers it to the • for U.S. Customs.

mghtclub, "How do you know if a kid doesn't have a chance if you don't USD's entrance requirements are more str_ict_than SDSU's. To qu~fy for admission at USD out of high school, students must have a 3.0 grade-point average on a scale of 4.0 and.score _at least 1,000 on the Sebo- lash~ Aptlt~d~ Test. There are few At SDSU, if a student bas a 3.0 grade-point average, be automatical- ly q_alifies for admission. ~lus, a maximum of 8 percent special ad- missi?ns may be a~lott':<1, G~~es. meanwhile, f_1gures coll~ge adm1rustrators are bemg hypocnll- cal when they deplore low gradua- lion rates among athletes. special admiss10ns. games, said Games. Don t ~ve me that ··· abo~t how many kids ~ou kids, why do they f~e the coaches a Yale, Harvard, Prmceton or Stan- graduate. If 1t wa raduatmg Gaines said that aft~r the Aztecs won the Wes~ern Athle~c C~nferenc_e Tournament m1985, umvers1ty pres1- dent Thomas Day told him that he needed to improve the program's graduation rate. Gaines said he wo~d begin ~e_cruiting more ac~- dem1cally qualified students, but said he cautioned Day that the team might struggle a couple of years dur- Gaines said Day to!~ him not to worry, that he had a five-year con- The Aztecs went 10-19 and_ 5-25 the n_ext two seasons and Garn~ re- signed under pressure late m the If y~u don~ ~lll,_ they_ get ~td, of you. Lets face 1t, said Games. Its a big business out there. A big, big No one denies that. Teams that the NCAA Basketball $250,000. Win one game and the pot doubles to $500,000. Advance to the Final Four and your athletic director will be grinning from ear to ear, thanks to the $1.25 million check the qualify for give him a chance?" "The,, ga!Ile to ~in ~as~etball fo rd ?" ing the transition. tract. 19~87 season; . . business."

Continued From C-I

have graduated, accordi~g to head coach Hank Egan. In football, a non-

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Ill program,

scholarship Division

eniors out of an estimat- t six ye~ have not l

only t~

d 75 m th

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earned a d gree, accordmg to head

coach Brian Fogarty.

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is as academ-

ot every university_

1cally suc~ul with its athletes as USD. Accordmg to an NCAA study, of all freshmen football players who entered an NCAA university m the fall of 19~1. ?nly 37.S percent gradu- atcd within five years, nearly 10 per- . t below the national average for low r In bas etba I, 33.3 percent. No non-athletes. Th figure was even At San _Diego State University, _of- f1C1als will not rel ase graduation 'Id Just as soon pass on the num- be_r ," ~,id athletic d1rC<;tor Fred Miller. Im not sure of their accura- ra!~ f~r a thl et · Of the statistics_ he's seen, which com~ from the unive~1ty's Stud~ 1 nt Affairs Department, Miller says, If those numbers are the numbers that I think I'm seeing, tho e are not good numbers in my judgment. We've got to do ometbing to ,correct them." gram m particular has been criti- cized for its low graduation rate. In the eight years that David "Smokey" Games coached at SDSU, f_rom 19~9- 80 to 1986-87, only one of his recnut- ed players, Eddy Gordon. graduated. "Smoke~ was the worst of ~II coaches Iv~ eve~ encountered m terms of hIS deliberate. effort t~ discou~age any academic effort, San Dt go State basketball pro- more recent y h ed cy." ly taught them that if they thought about academics they couldn't think Asked his reaction to Padgett's statement, Gaines said, "What's my reaction? To write m th paper? Can you put this m the paper1 My reac- lion to that statement is to tell i my .... I know how bard I tried to get those kids to go to Padg tt to thing that hurts me more that I wa n't able kid , to get them to know the importance of a degree. All I can t II you I w tried hard When than nything wa to deal with th about basketball." cl "Th id Vm~c Padg It, 65, httcal sci nee prof SDS~ po- or. He ba 1cal-

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Ex-

sors to give me a call. I would suspend guys because they didn't go Anthony Watson, who played under Gaines for four years, said be felt Padgett's criticism of Gaines "Smokey was very hard on aca- demics," said Watson, who finished playing at SDSU in 1986 and says he's 18 units shy of an industnal arts de- gree. "I think sometimes he came on too strong. When you're young, you don't really have your priorities in perspective. You don't know which to class." was unfounded. "Sometimes 1 think be forced aca- demics so much that some guys shied Watson still is pursuing a basket- ball career. He played for Athletes in Action this winter and hopes to play in Europe this summer. He said he does plan to return to school and Gene Lampke, chairman of SDSU's Recreation Department, didn't ques- tion Gaines' effort to stress academ- But, said Lampke, "I just believe the caliber of student Smokey Gaines recruited was so poorly prepared ac- ademically, they didn't really have a chance to succeed academically. When he recruited, I don't think he was looking for academics. He basi- cally was recruiting people who played basketball. They didn't com- earn his degree. ics. and therefore flunked out." Replied Gaines, now owner of "Smokey's," a Miss on Valley way to go. away from it."

IT'S ABOUT TIME A breakdown of hours during a week monitored by The Tribune: NEAL STEINLY ~SU Baiketball Cl111 Majoring in he~lth, taking 14 units21 hours• 14 hours •.Missed one practice because of the flu. First week of classes. Three weeks later, studying about 1 hour a night. DONDI BELL USO Baiketball Cl111 Studying M . I . , 32 hours 7 5 hours• 7 h aior ng 1n business administration, taking 12 units ours Missed each of four classes once because of a team trip. DAVE KNOPP SDSU · 33Jobt Cl111 Studying M I . . ' . hours 12 hours• 6 h onng '" recreation, taking 15 units. ours Missed one class and another was canceled. • Non-athletes face a job and an adventure Page C-6 • Instructors grade the student-athletes Page C-6 Studying 2 hours••

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Tournament this year will receive GPA as a criminal justice adminis-

school will be receiving. · Miller doesn't deny the emphasis on winning, but says colleges have a

pete academically, then withdrew moral obligation to see that athletes

graduate.

k advan-

"The thing we don't want to do is made it work f ~- I

in

ty."

tage of the oppo

youngsters, bleed their ath-

bring

I told the profes-

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kids m

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