Mallory Carra – Newspaper Clips Page 1

Summer Vacation

By MALLORY CARRA, Staff Writer It doesn't matter that it's 7 a.m. during summer vacation and two days before her wedding - Michelle Crocker wants to run. She sprints down N.C. State's Paul Derr Track along with 10 fellow Wolfpack athletes as part of a voluntary strength and agility session with Wright Wayne, State's director of strength and conditioning for varsity sports. After all, Crocker has a soccer season to prepare for in the fall, and this just makes it easier. "I know Wright will push us harder than we can push ourselves," Crocker said. "I find it a lot easier to run with people who are going to push me than running by myself." Working out with fellow athletes is one of the many reasons more of the Triangle's college athletes are staying on campus during the summer and taking classes. Greg Gatz, director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports at North Carolina, said that around 60 percent of Tar Heels athletes are working out on campus during the summer. He said that number has grown in recent years. "We like them to stay and work out here," Gatz said, "but if they say they want to go home, we can't stop them." Wayne said about 25 percent of N.C. State's athletes have remained on campus to work out and take classes, and the numbers are increasing. "They have seen that ... several positive things come out of it," Wayne said. "No. 1, of course, is resistance to injuries ... You develop a discipline and a work ethic." Duke has athletes from each of its sports working out on campus this summer, but Blue Devils officials could not provide specific numbers. A Shaw official said more basketball and football players are working out on the Raleigh school's campus this summer, including four basketball players who are playing in the Chavis League, an NCAA-certified summer men's recreational league. St. Augustine's has 10 athletes on campus to work out. The benefits of the summer work can be clear, as Duke basketball guard J.J. Redick found last summer. "I felt at the end of my first two seasons, I never fully committed myself to getting in great shape," said Redick, a rising senior. "Last summer, I worked hard enough to get into the best shape of my life, just working out, getting to bed early and eating right all summer." Redick is staying at Duke this summer to take an Italian class and work out three times a week. Many athletes said being on campus is an advantage because of the proximity to weight rooms and the ability to work with strength coaches. Being on campus also gives athletes a chance to work with their teammates. Carolina rower Laura Rock had the option of renting a rowing machine from UNC and taking it home to Cary for the summer, but that wouldn't compare to training on a boat in the water, which she can do in Chapel Hill with her teammates. "Rowing on the water is completely different than rowing on a rowing machine," she said. "The rowing machine is purely physical, like trying to train our mental and physical game, whereas rowing on the water you have to worry about your teammates, the coordination and technique part of it." State volleyball senior Adeola Kosoko said staying on campus and having her coaches around makes working out easier. "It's better to take summer classes here because here you're able to have your teammates, coaches and strength coaches accountable and making sure you're doing what you need to be doing," she said. "You have everything at your fingertips and don't have to go out of your way to do workouts." Kosoko learned two years ago that working out at another college campus can be difficult. Before her sophomore year, she spent the summer at Kansas for a two-month pre-med program. However, she was not allowed to work out with the Kansas volleyball team, so she had to improvise.

Mallory Carra – Newspaper Clips Page 2 "I would make a makeshift course with cones and a patch of grass for short-distance sprints and then just run all over campus for long distance," she said. "Lifting was difficult because I'd have to walk 20 minutes to get to the gym. Then, in order to use the gym, I had to buy a membership for the gym for three months even though I was only there for two months." This summer, Kosoko is balancing two physics classes, working at N.C. State's volleyball camps and, with seven of her teammates, using the gym to work out five days a week. "I am here for summer school, but I'm also taking advantage of the workouts," she said. "You can work out anywhere if you make the effort, but it's easier to do it here." Staff writer Mallory Carra can be reached at 829-4560 or mcarra@newsobserver.com

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Trigger Savvy Young shooters learn marksmanship, safety in Triangle club's junior program

By MALLORY CARRA, Staff Writer CREEDMOOR -- It's an early Saturday morning and Christine Mallia, 16, of North Raleigh is staring 50 feet into the distance, past the grass in front of her but before the trees. That's where her target is. She lines up her sights with the target, slowly pulls back the trigger of her rifle, then takes a breath and fires. A few seconds later, she's ready to do it again. For Mallia and the 22 other young people at the range, it's just another meeting of the Sir Walter Gun Club's smallbore junior program, in which youths age 10 to 20 train in the National Rifle Association's four-position smallbore rifle qualification program. Meetings are held in the morning of the third Saturday of every month at the club's outdoor range in Creedmoor. Mallia and her dad, Lou, have shared a love of shooting since he bought her a BB gun, targets and bright purple ear protection for her 12th birthday. Lou Mallia has been a member of the gun club since 1992 and has been the junior shooting coordinator for the three years his daughter has been a member. Since then, the program has grown to 60 members, and Christine Mallia has advanced to the distinguished expert stage, the highest level in the program. "This is our father-daughter thing, and I like it a lot," she said. "Right now, since I'm so comfortable with [a rifle], it's no different than a tennis racket. It's just a sport to me, but a fun sport. ... "I would never do anything to hurt someone else with it because I have so much respect for it, and I know it could really hurt someone." The program uses Anschutz model 1451 .22 rifles with aperture sights. The rifle is well- suited for teaching because of its minimal recoil, Lou Mallia said. Use of the club's rifles, shooting jackets and ranges is included in the program's $30 annual membership fee. After paying the fee, but before setting foot onto the range, Alexander Brown, 12, of North Raleigh took the NRA First Steps rifle course in March, a one-day safety class required of each member entering the junior program. The course's lessons are repeated in a safety briefing before each meeting, which further emphasizes safety to members new and old. Attending his second meeting, Brown is lying on his stomach in prone position and looking up, aiming for a target score to advance to pro-marksman, the first of seven in the program. His dad, Dan, who grew up hunting with his own father, stands a few steps away, watching his son enjoy the first of four relay shooting sessions. "Shooting is one of my hobbies, and I just love it," Brown said. "I like it because it's exciting. You have to concentrate real hard. It's a good feeling." Competition isn't the focus of the program, though members have been successful in smallbore matches. Five of the six medalists at the recent State Games of North Carolina's metric smallbore competition were involved in the junior program. Among them were Matt Davis, 16, of Raleigh, winner of the gold medal in the boys' match, and sister Sarah, 17, winner of the silver medal in the girls' competition. Both are three-year veterans of the junior program and were competing in their first competitive match. "I learned most of the fundamentals and basics here," Matt Davis said. "Shooting camps helped me hold onto that. I hadn't shot at 50 yards before, but I decided I was going to go the distance, and I learned how to do it." The junior program doesn't hold matches itself, but junior members are invited to compete at the monthly matches of the Sir Walter Gun Club, which was founded in the 1940s in Knightdale. The club, now with more than 300 members, moved to its 143-acre location in Creedmoor in 1985 to cater to the majority of its members, who tend to live in North Raleigh. The junior program built its own range on the site two years ago with a grant from the NRA Foundation. The program also has used NRA Foundation grants to pay for the rifles and safety equipment. In addition to the smallbore rifle junior program, the club runs a high-power rifle junior program, which meets every weekend and is more demanding, said Mark Nations, 15, of Raleigh, who is a member of both junior programs and is a junior NRA-certified coach. His father, John Nations, is an avid target-shooter and an NRA coach himself, but he enrolled his son in the junior program because he believed coaching his son would be a conflict of interest. The son appreciates the help.

Mallory Carra – Newspaper Clips Page 5 "They have some high-caliber shooters out here to help you out, and it's really nice to have that," Mark Nations said. "I wouldn't be where I am without them. They've helped me with the entire thing -- executing the shot, steps, position, persevering through it -- all of that. They've always been there." William Tickel of Raleigh also appreciates the coaches, along with the program's laid-back nature. Attendance at meetings isn't mandatory, allowing his children, Aaron, 14, and Rebecca, 12, to skip a meeting in May because of prior commitments but to pick up where they left off in June. "Nowadays kids have all sorts of activities that can beg for their attention," he said. "And so this has been another activity. ... It's kind of difficult, but hopefully they'll continue to have an interest in it, and maybe next year we'll be back here." Staff writer Mallory Carra can be reached at 829-4560 or mcarra@newsobserver.com

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Thousands flock to Cary for State Games

By MALLORY CARRA, Staff Writer Barney Baxter, 47, of Raleigh was already a winner, but he was preparing for more. He won the masters 45 and older cycling competition and was preparing to take on the masters 35 and older race later in the day. Even after 32 years of cycling and 15 state championships, this course still challenges Baxter and his bike. "This is a really technical course," he said. "It's got some good turns and it goes uphill into the finish. It's a good, hard course." Of course, the cars that randomly drive through the course on Academy Street might just make it a little bit tougher. It's not the Tour de France, but the cycling criterium was held all day Sunday around Cary Town Hall as part of the 19th annual State Games of North Carolina, wrapping up Cary's first year as host of the event. About 14,000 North Carolina athletes competed this year in the 23-sport, Olympic-style games, which have held preliminary contests around Cary since June 4. The opening ceremonies at SAS Soccer Park on Friday night kicked off the championship weekend with a parade of 2,000 competitors and an inspirational speech by 1996 Olympic gold medalist swimmer Sheila Taormina. The opening ceremonies are traditionally held during the last weekend because more people are in town for the event than any other weekend, said Chuck Hobgood, president of the N.C. Amateur Sports commission. Cary will make an estimated $3 million by welcoming between 10,000 and 13,000 visitors for the games, said Scott Dupree, director of sports marketing for the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau. Cary welcomed many first-time visitors. Gymnast Cali Oehman, 9, had family support from all over, including grandmother Vicki Wright of Pfafftown and great-grandparents Donna and Kelly Chadwick of Winston-Salem, who were impressed while driving into Cary to see Oehman compete at Impact Athletics gym. "It's so clean here and the people are so friendly," Wright said. "They really make you feel like you're at home. I was impressed with how clean and well put together everything was when we came off the interstate." The state's amateur sports commission last year awarded Cary the bid to host the 2005 and 2006 games because of the town's strong athletic facilities, ranging from SAS Soccer Park to Bond Park and the nearby RecZone in Raleigh, Hobgood said. And it was one of the things that impressed Moscow native Sergey Chalov, 30, winner of a gold medal in table tennis. He said competing at a gym like the one in the Herbert C. Young Community Center would not be possible when he competed in Russia. "It's a real pleasure to play here," said Chalov, who has lived in the United States for a year. "In Moscow, there's only one gym like this and only the Russian Olympic team can train in it. Here, you have a great universal gym that everyone can use." The Cary venues, which will share revenue with the amateur sports commission, have handled the games well this month, said Dwayne Jones, Cary recreation programs manager, though the town had to improvise with some of the event's competitions, such as shooting and disc golf. Next year, Cary will host the 20th anniversary session of the state games. Staff writer Mallory Carra can be reached at 812-0014 or mcarra@newsobserver.com

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