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6 • The Red and Black • Wednesday, January 10. 1990
Men’s tennis team earned
many honors during the 80s
Al Parker: One of top-ten in 1988
By RANDY WALKER
Sports Writer
Editors note: This is another in
a series of articles looking back over
the 80s. Today, Randy Walker ana
lyzes the men’s tennis team.
In sports, as in politics, culture
and science, the passing of a de
cade usually represents more than
the transition to a new ten year
time period. The 80s for Georgia’s
men's tennis signified their vault
into the upper echelon of college
tennis. Six SEC and two national
titles, the best of any sports team
at Georgia during the decade, was
due mainly to the coaching of Dan
Magill, now director of tennis, and
to current head coach Manuel
Diaz. However the players on the
court, in particular: a tall, skinny,
curly-haired, left-hander; a
Swedish junior college transfer; a
blond, good ole’ boy from tobacco
country and the son of a fruitcake
manufacturer played the impor
tant roles in Georgia’s rise to na
tional prominence.
Allen Miller, Georgia’s only four
time All-American, came to “Dan’s
Dogs* as an innocent southpaw in
1982. In his freshman year, Miller
teamed with Ola Malmqvist to give
Georgia its first ever national title
winning the National Indoors and
virtually gave Georgia its first ever
NCAA title, but succumbed to
Peter Doohan and Pat Serret of Ar
kansas in the NCAA doubles final.
Miller, Malmqvist and Magill
would have to wait another year
for their first NCAA title as the “M
& M boys" knocked off Southern II-
linois-Edwardsville’s Ken Flach
and Robert Seguso to win the 1983
NCAA doubles title.
"Winning our first NCAA title
was a great elation,” Magill said.
“Allen was a genius at doubles and
had a sixth sense for the game. Ola
was a very steady player with a
3trong volley and a cannonball
serve.”
As Miller lost his Swedish
partner Malmqvist to graduation,
a junior college transfer from that
same Scandinavian country came
onto the Bulldog squad and joined
Miller as his new doubles partner.
In two years, Miller and Mikael
Pernfors won seven doubles tour
naments together, reached the
NCAA semi-finals twice, finished
No. 1 in the rankings in 1985 and
led Georgia to its first NCAA team
title in 1985.
Without question, Pernfors was
the greatest Dog to stroke on the
courts in Henry Feild Stadium. In
his first year at Georgia he cap
tured five tournaments capped
with a NCAA singles
championship. In his senior year,
he won six tournaments including
the Volvo Tennis Collegiate
Championships, the SEC Indoor
and Outdoor No. 1 singles titles
and defended his NCAA crown,
knocking off teammate George Be-
zecny in the finals.
*The first day I saw Mikael work
out I told Manuel, This boy is
going to be our No. 1 player,’ ”
Magill said. “The second day I saw
him work out I told Manuel, *He’s
not only going to be our No. 1
player, but he is good enough to
win the NCAA’s.’ ”
Coach Magill lost four seniors in
1985, which left him to train a
team of puppies for the seasons
ahead. A blond freshman from
Greensboro, N.C., armed with a
slice backhand similar to Ken
Rosewall, joined Magill’s re
building squad of 1986 and kept
the Dogs on top for the remainder
of the decade. Stephen Enochs’s 4-
0 singles record in the 1987 NCAA
team tournament played a signifi
cant part in Georgia claiming a
second NCAA team championship.
Enochs, an 1989 NCAA singles
semi-finalist and two-time All-
American, helped the Dogs to three
SEC titles and a NCAA runner-up
showing.
“Stephen is somebody you have
to take your hot off to, Diaz said.
"He’s everything you want in a
player. His work ethic is conta
gious. His sportsmanship is tops.
He’s simply a class act.”
The path paved by Miller, Pem-
fors, and Enochs contributed to
Georgia’s recruiting program. The
Dogs attracted three of the top ten
juniors in the country in 1988 and
turned them all into All-Ameri
cans. Two of the three, Chris
Garner and Francisco Montana,
have since left the team for the pro-
circuit, Al Parker has remainea.
While the Magill era ended in
1988, the Parker years began as
the prince of the Claxton Fruitcake
Empire helped the Dogs win SEC
titles in 1988 and 1989. Parker
reached the 1988 NCAA singles
singles semi-finals after fighting
back from a near career-ending
back injury in mid-season. He gave
the Dogs another national title
winning the Volvo Tennis Colle
giate Championships in Oct. of
1989.
“With the recruiting class of
Parker, Garner and Montana we
were able to continue the tradi
tion,” Diaz said. "We’ve been able
to continue from the Pernfors era
and the 1987 NCAA championship
era.”
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Yoculan says the gym team
was hungry and now is ‘best’
8y CHRIS LANCETTE
Sports Staff Writer
Ed. Note: The Georgia gymnas
tic! team opens its season Jan. 13
in a quadrangular meet at West
Virginia. This is a team preview.
Last year at thie time, Georgia
gymnastics coach Suzanne Yo
culan aaid that her team was the
hungriest she had ever coached.
Yoculan’e superlative for the
1990 defending national
championship team is even more
simple ... “best.”
“We have the best team we’ve
ever had at Georgia," Yoculan
said. “In terms of the difficulty of
routines and depth of squad, this
is definitely the best team.”
Georgia’s brightest star is se
nior Corrinne Wright, considered
one of the nation’s premiere tum
blers and best known for the se
ries of three double-backs she
uses in her floor routine. Wright
has racked up eight All-American
awards in her first three years
and this season hopes to repeat
her all-around championship.
Along with Wright, senior An
drea Thomas will play a key role
in Georgia’s attempt to repeat.
Thomas holds the Georgia bal
ance beam record (9.95) and is a
three-time All-American. The
Canadian and former Olympian
also plays a key role in the floor
exercise.
The group has no seniors, but
five experienced sophomores. All-
American Chris Rodis returns, as
do Missy DePaoli, Kathy Dwyer,
Sophia Royce and Julie Ponstein.
Yoculan says Ponstein is the
biggest surprise in camp this
season because she has a more
aggressive attitude and a will
ingness to work a little harder.
“She had alot of hampering in
juries that discouraged her last
year,” Yoculan said. “She has an
improved attitude and in the last
two weeks, she has really come
on strong."
Despite their wealth of talent,
the Gym Dogs aren’t likely to be
dominating early in the season.
“My general feeling about the
season is that everybody better
buckle their seatbelts because
we’re going to have another roller
coaster ride,” Yoculan said.
Georgia’s five-member
freshman class will play a critical
role in Georgia’s success. The five
Bimply must stick to their rou
tines consistently if the team is to
repeat ae champion. Three
freshmen — Sandy Rowlett*,
Heather Stepp and Jennifer Car
bone, are expected to compete for
the second all-around spot and
score in the 38-plus range.
The Gym Dogs’ last season also
had a large freshman class, one
that struggled to gain its collec
tive collegiate feet until midway
through the season when it
began paving the team’s way to
nationals.
The performance of this sea
son's freshman class will be espe
cially critical aa Georgia loat
eight of 24 routines to graduation
or career ending injury. The most
glaring loss is of Lucy Wener, a
three-time uneven bars national
champion.
Will there be life after Lucy?
Assistant coach Scott Bull says
that while no one performer can
replace Wener’s scoring and flair,
the coaching staff hopes to ac
commodate her 9.9 bar average
by improving several individual
scores in the lineup.
“We have routines that are as
gymnastically spectacular, but I
don’t know if well ever see one
performer whose routines are as
aesthetically pleasing," Bull said.
“On bars, our hope is not to re
lace Lucy’s 9.9 with one scorer
ut with several 9.7s.”
Judging from fall practice,
Wright, Rodis, Royce and Row-
lette will lead the bars team and
make apparatus the Gym Dogs’
best event this season.
Rowlette, in particular, is at
tempting to become the first gym
nast in U.S. history to complete a
new bar-release move — a giant
reverse hect with a full pirouette.
“Well be very strong on bars,”
Wright said. “And it’s going to be
a dogfight for starting positions
on all events.”
On the balance beam, Yoculan
says the team is easily capable of
repeating last year’s national
beam championship. Staying on
the apparatus has proven to be
the key to winning the two na
tional titles.
The preseason verdict on the
floor and vaulting exercises is
still out.
Andrea Thomas
Wright leads the team on the
event and is changing her second
tumbling pass to a full-in, double
back. (She would become the
second collegiate gymnast to per
form the trick.)
Ponstein will start on floor, as
will Stepp when she recovers
from injury. Stepp is also making
a bid for entry into the gymnas
tics history rooks by becoming
the first college gymnast to com
plete a double back, punch front
(two backward flips in the air,
landing and immediately flipping
in the reverse direction).
On vault, Rodis, Rowlette and
Stepp will be the core of the
lineup. Dwyer, an inspirational
story on last year’s squad, should
also make the vaulting lineup.
ACNE
VOLUNTEERS
NEEDED
The University Health Services
will be conducting a study on
acne . If you are a
student between the ages
of 13 and 30, in good general
health and have facial acne
please come by The University
Health Services on January
10th, 11th or 12th between
the hours of 9:00 a.m. - noon
or 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
For further information
you may call
404-542-5512
(Beginning January 10)
Qualified participants completing
the study will
receive $100