After spending the past month with all my sporting attention dedicated to the Oregon football team, I finally got a reminder that there actually are other sports going on at the University of Oregon during the fall. So I spent an afternoon earlier this week at a cross-country press conference, the first of my Oregon Daily Emerald career, and I was humbled to meet a man by the name of Vin Lananna.
Obviously, I knew who he was from the moment he walked in the door, but for those of you who aren’t sure, he is the associate athletic director and the head coach for the cross-country and track and field teams here at the University. Needless to say, he is one of the premier leaders in track and field in the United States. Seven times he’s been named the NCAA Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year. He’s a living legend.
And as we all gathered at the Bowerman Building to talk about the upcoming Bill Dellinger Invitational, Lananna casually struck up a conversation with me while we waited. We chatted for a minute or so, not about anything in particular, mostly just about school, work and the fact that I am originally from the same town as Oregon legend Steve Prefontaine. We shook hands, and that was that.
Once the interviews began we picked right back up with the business side of things, but I had to stop and think about all the teams — and people like Vin Lananna — which I have overlooked so far this fall. So I started doing a little bit of research on what the other Duck teams have been up to this season.
So, believe it or not, the first thing I looked into was the women’s cross-country team. The Oregon squad is ranked second in the nation behind the Washington Huskies and features two All-Americans in Nicole Blood and Alex Kosinski. This year the team could add a third name to that list with the arrival of freshman star Jordan Hasay. Hasay will be getting her first chance to run in an Oregon uniform today, after she captured the hearts of so many of the Track Town faithful two summers ago at the Olympic Trials.
I had no doubt they would be one of the top-ranked teams in the nation, so I began to check out some other teams. Next on the list: women’s soccer. Now, I’ve been to a couple soccer games this fall, but I was never really sure where the team stood on a national level. And as it turned out, they fit right in with the rest of the Oregon sports teams as they came in at No. 14 in the nation according to the most recent Soccer America Women’s Top 25 Poll.
And if you haven’t seen a soccer game this year, I would actually recommend doing so. I don’t claim to be a person of great patience, but even I was entertained during the two games I’ve been to. They play just as hard, if not harder, than any other sports team I’ve seen since coming to school here. They’re gritty, and often times have to grind out a win, but they’re undoubtedly fun to watch.
Lastly, I checked into the women’s volleyball team. Continuing on with the same theme thus far, the Ducks come in at No. 7 in the nation. And statistically, they are a reporter’s dream. The Oregon volleyball record books are likely to be re-written several times over this season by the dominant foursome of Nevena Djordjevic, Neticia Enesi, Heather Meyers, and Sonja Newcombe — each of whom have their names in multiple Oregon top-10 categories.
And in a conference that features seven teams in the top 25, nearly every game should be nothing short of compelling.
So what am I getting at with all this? Well, I guess for me it took a real-life encounter with an Oregon legend to open my eyes to all the other incredible athletes who represent the green and yellow — even if their names aren’t Jeremiah Masoli or Ed Dickson. And just because you don’t spend Sunday evenings sitting by the computer hoping and praying that you can actually get a ticket to these types of games, it doesn’t mean they’re not worth looking into. Maybe I’m just an avid fan of competition, but I think there is a lot we as Ducks, and sport fans in general, ought to pay a little more attention to — myself included.
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There’s more than football at Oregon
Daily Emerald
October 1, 2009
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