2008 Woodie Awards
Sports can help ease pain at VT
Matt Sohn
Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: Sports
Nobody's quite sure what to expect when the Miami University football players don the Red and White for Friday's annual spring scrimmage. On the one hand, injuries have continued to decimate a team still smarting from its 2-10 campaign of 2006, but on the other hand, the RedHawks return the core of the fastest team in the MAC.
The question of whether they're reeling or ready will soon be answered.
No such questions exist for the football team of Virginia Tech. Led by one of the nation's elite defenses, the Hokies stand as the overwhelming favorite to win the ACC next season.
Thousands of fans were expected to pack Lane Stadium for Saturday's spring game in anticipation of a banner season in Blacksburg, Va. But, because of a cascade of bullets that ripped through the heart of the Hokie nation, no such game will be played.
Shouts of "Hokie Hokie Hokie High!" have been replaced by the tearful hysteria of a campus coming to grips with the fact that their lives will never be the same.
When looking back at my college career, the one constant I could always count on was change. Midway through my first year, I was assigned a new roommate. I've switched my major. I've fallen in love and have had my heart broken. I've been praised for my writing and have received hate mail.
Nowhere has the concept of change been more pervasive than in the world of sports.
As a wide-eyed first-year in 2002, I was among the tens of thousands in the Yager Stadium bleachers as Miami was just a few minutes shy of toppling an Iowa team that would go undefeated in Big Ten play. Two years ago, I was one of just a couple hundred to witness Bowling Green pound the RedHawks in a 42-14 romp in tornado-like conditions. I've seen the North Dakota hockey team shut Miami out in the opening game of 2005, only to watch Miami climb to No. 1 in the polls later that season. There was the nostalgic farewell to Goggin, the groundbreaking of the Steve Cady Arena and hard times on the hardwood followed by Doug Penno's heroism.
The question of whether they're reeling or ready will soon be answered.
No such questions exist for the football team of Virginia Tech. Led by one of the nation's elite defenses, the Hokies stand as the overwhelming favorite to win the ACC next season.
Thousands of fans were expected to pack Lane Stadium for Saturday's spring game in anticipation of a banner season in Blacksburg, Va. But, because of a cascade of bullets that ripped through the heart of the Hokie nation, no such game will be played.
Shouts of "Hokie Hokie Hokie High!" have been replaced by the tearful hysteria of a campus coming to grips with the fact that their lives will never be the same.
When looking back at my college career, the one constant I could always count on was change. Midway through my first year, I was assigned a new roommate. I've switched my major. I've fallen in love and have had my heart broken. I've been praised for my writing and have received hate mail.
Nowhere has the concept of change been more pervasive than in the world of sports.
As a wide-eyed first-year in 2002, I was among the tens of thousands in the Yager Stadium bleachers as Miami was just a few minutes shy of toppling an Iowa team that would go undefeated in Big Ten play. Two years ago, I was one of just a couple hundred to witness Bowling Green pound the RedHawks in a 42-14 romp in tornado-like conditions. I've seen the North Dakota hockey team shut Miami out in the opening game of 2005, only to watch Miami climb to No. 1 in the polls later that season. There was the nostalgic farewell to Goggin, the groundbreaking of the Steve Cady Arena and hard times on the hardwood followed by Doug Penno's heroism.
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