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Wednesday, January 14, 2009 | The Red & Black
6
Yoculan questions freshmen
When you’re a Gym Dog, the
words “Suzanne’s not happy” are
the last ones you want to hear.
Suzanne’s not happy.
After the Gym Dogs’ unim
pressive season-opening win over
West Virginia Friday, head coach
Suzanne Yoculan was less-than
enthused, especially JStfiL her
fresjTmen. The sentiment carried
ovee-io Tuesday.
“They don’t fight. They haven’t
figured out what it means. They
haven’t,” Yoculan said. “It’s not
club gymnastics where you prac
tice all week and there’s a meet
and you get to go in it even if
you’re missing your routines.
Club kids compete and go in the
meet even if you’re missing. It’s
not going to happen here.”
First-year Gym Dogs Kat Ding
and Gina Nuccio both made their
debuts on bars Friday, with Ding
falling and Nuccio making a few
key mistakes that resulted in a
9.775.
For Yoculan though, that
wasn’t the most disturbing part.
Ding was scheduled to do exhibi
tion routines on vault and beam
Friday, and classmate Amber
Trani was supposed to do an
Make millions and leave college a year early? Yes, please
You’ve been offered your
dream job. It’s what you’ve
been working toward
throughout your college
career.
It’s sitting at your feet,
and the only thing you
have to do is accept the
generous offer.
But there’s a catch:
You have to leave school
a year early.
What do you do? Follow
the example set by
Matthew Stafford,
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GYM DOGS NOTEBOOK
exhibition on vault. But Yoculan
pulled them from those after
poor warm-up routines, ques
tioning their “fire.”
“Not only didn’t I see the fire
in them, but they were a distrac
tion. They were a distraction,”
Yoculan said. “They were warm
ing up on beam and falling all
over the place ... It was a waste.
And they know it. They know I
wasn’t happy about it. They’re
not going to go up there again
and do exhibition and fall all over
the place. Or go up and even
take the time in warm-ups.”
Every freshman has been bat
tling injuries, and Yoculan gave
some credence to the notion that
a freshly-sprained ankle hindered
Nuccio’s performance. But even
they’ll admit that their minds
weren’t where they needed to be.
“I was not where I was sup
posed to be in my head,” Ding
said. “I was like there’s too many
fans, I want to compete, I want
to do good, I want to do this, I
want to do this, this and this,
and it completely bogged me
Rachel
Bowers
Knowshon Moreno and
now, Asher Allen.
Stafford, Moreno and
Allen all opted out of their
senior year to enter the
NFL draft. They will leave
Athens without a floppy
down. I was not there.”
Said Nuccio: “We now know
what the first meet is like and
the emotions we feel. I think we
can only get better from there
and as soon as our bodies are
getting better, I think we’ll pick
it up a little more and hopefully
make a better impression for the
freshmen.”
The opportunities are there,
Yoculan said, for them to make
an impact. They’re just not seiz
ing them.
“You’re going to see their char
acter come out,” she said. '‘You’re
either going to see them compete
for what they want, for a lineup
position, or they’re going to
crumble and you’re not going to
see them compete all year. It’s up
to them.”
Kupets named SEC
Athlete of the Week
Senior Gym Dog Courtney
Kupets was named the SEC
Athlete of the Week, as announced
Tuesday.
In her first meet since tearing
piece of paper with fancy
print telling them they are
smart folks who didn’t
crap out of college.
Football is what they
want to do for a living
it’s their hustle. Some
want to write, some want
to teach. They just so hap
pen to excel tremendously
at a sport that pays lucra
tive amounts of money to
toss a ball around. And
that, my friends, does not
require any floppy paper of
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When the news broke of
the underclassmen’s early
departure from Georgia,
especially now with Allen,
there seemed to be a great
deal of disappointment
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DANIEL SHIREY | The Red & Buck
A Freshman Gina Nuccio competes on the uneven bars
on Jan. 9. She scored a 9.775.
her Achilles last spring, Kupets, a
five-time national champion and
10-time All-American, took the all
around title with a nation-high
39.45.
Yoculan said she felt Kupets
may have been a little tight, trying
to prove something in her return,
but Kupets saw it a little differ
ently.
and despair.
But why is there such a
God-awful stigma associ
ated with college athletes
leaving early to pursue
their lifelong dream of
playing a professional
sport?
With all due respect
professors, the bottom line
is that listening to your
somewhat incoherent bab
bling about consumer eco
nomics or classical rhetoric
may not be soothing
“I don’t have anything to prove
to anyone in my opinion. It’s all for
me,” she said. “I was definitely
nervous. I was a little more ner
vous than normal, just hadn’t real
ly gotten into the flow yet, but
that’s what the beginning of the
season will do for you.”
Tyler Estep
enough for Stafford,
Moreno or Allen (especial
ly as the ever-so audible
cha-chings ring in their
ears).
And to all you “schol
ars” outraged that these
young men will not spend
another year working
toward that floppy piece of
paper, I’m pretty sure they
can withstand the scrutiny
for a cool seven-figure deal
with an NFL team on
Draft Day.
The guaranteed money
in their signing bonuses
will have them all pointing
and laughing at you while
they are driving their 2009
Ferraris all the way to the
bank.
What if these young
men returned for their
senior year, tore an ACL or
two and then had to work
at Chuck E. Cheese for a
living? Instead of suiting
up in pads, they’ll be suit
ing up as the mouse.
That could be the differ
ence of a house in The
Hamptons or a house in
Hampton, Va.
“Unforeseen occurrenc
es can come up and then
you won’t have a chance to
get there,” Allen said. “It’s
a risk staying and a risk
leaving, so I had to do
what felt right.”
While Stafford will hold
up his future jersey within
the first hour of the draft,
Allen will be twiddling his
thumbs a little bit longer
on draft day.
So maybe Allen isn’t
picked after Alabama’s
Andre Smith, but he could
possibly be a first-day pick
if he has a good NFL
Combine. And if that’s the
case, he will walk out after
day one of the draft with
enough guaranteed money
to fill Sanford Stadium
with red and black Jell-O
and use it as his private
swimming pool.
These players are privi
leged to be drafted, to suit
up and wear another
team’s colors, a profession
al team’s colors. And if
Allen falls too low in the
draft and doesn’t receive a
guaranteed contract, he
could still sign somewhere
and make a couple hun
dred thousand on a scout
team.
Not bad, huh?
Yeah, OK, so their fin
gers will lack some colle
giate ice. But their pockets
will be heavy and deep.
They will play professional
ly with grandeur and grace
and hopefully have a great
deal of success in the
country’s most publicized
and popular sport. Not to
mention, their certain suc
cess gives even more rea
son for Georgia to wag its
tail and bark in order to
win recruits over.
Stafford, Moreno and
Allen have a chance to kick
back and relax in their late
30s and be set for life, with
their dream cars parked del
icately in the driveway of a
gagillion square foot house
equipped with batting
cages, an aquarium that
rivals Sea World and a roof
top helicopter pad.
Stafford, go on and join
the “230-pound quarterback
with a laser rocket arm” list,
and Knowshon, hurdle on
into the NFL, on both your
legs, no crutches. Do the job
you were bom to do. You’ve
earned it.
Oh, and Asher, please
don’t forget about the Jell-O
idea.
Rachel Bowers is a
sportswriter for The Red &
Black. And she loves
Jell-G.