By Ronell Hugh
The BYU men”s athletic program remains hot amid the frigid season, creating an opportunity for indoor sports to blossom.
Winter semester 2004 opens the door for sports enthusiasts with the continuance of men”s basketball, tennis, hockey, and swimming and diving.
It also marks the beginning for Track and Field, and Volleyball.
“Those programs have been very successful, particularly the last five years,” said Duff Tittle, Associate Director and External Relations for BYU athletics.
Volleyball
The men”s volleyball team returns hungry for the 2004 season after ending last year with a loss to the Lewis Flyers in the National Championship game.
BYU was ranked No. 1 going into the championship, but was upset by a surprising Lewis squad. Now they”ll look to get back to the top spot.
“We can be a good team,” said head coach Tom Peterson. “It”s real hard for me to tell how good we are until we get going.”
One of the major concerns is the starting line-up, Peterson said.
“We know that we have a bunch of good guys,” he said. “[We have] good players and a very, very deep team.”
The Cougars lost three outside hitters in Rafael Paal, Luka Slabe, Jaime Mayol, but return 10 players from last year”s team.
However, middle blocker Michael Burke was lost in the preseason to an injury and may not be able to play until the final games of the semester.
According to Peterson, the deep bench of this year”s Cougar squad will be an advantage over most teams they play in and out of conference.
Like football, basketball and other sports at BYU, the Cougar volleyball team faces the problem of having players that leave to go on missions while also dealing with international players.
Led by All-Americans Carlos Moreno and Jon Alleman, this year BYU has seven seniors. However, many of them will be competing for spots as they have little collegiate playing experience, Peterson said.
Though the Cougars return four starters, the competition will be intense this year. Peterson also mentioned that previous national rankings over past season are also a concern and gives pressure to the team.
“For the most part, we”ve put [the pressure] on ourselves,” Peterson said.
Peterson also said that their expectations are to be one of the top teams at the end of the season.
The Cougars open play the 2004 season this weekend as they travel to Malibu, Calif. to take on Pepperdine in the Pepperdine Tournament.
The Wave”s are among the nation”s elite teams and a rivalry has grown over the years between the Cougars and the Wave”s, Peterson said.
“They”ll be one of the teams to beat in the country,” Peterson said. “They”re a very tall team and that”s what causes all sorts of problems.”
Pepperdine has international experience from Sean Rooney and Fred Winters that could prove to be a problem for the Cougars.
“I don”t have to spend a lot of time motivating our team,” Peterson said. “Our expectation of our self is to be one of the elite teams.”
The Cougars start play on Friday at 7 p.m. and play again Saturday at 8 p.m.
Track and Field
The Track and Field team begins its indoor season next week and opens outdoor events in March.
Last season the squad ranked 27th both in outdoors and indoors national rankings.
“We were disappointed a little bit last year,” said head coach Mark Robinson, referring to the rank the team received last year.
The Cougars had a good team last season, but did not perform as well as they could or as well as the coaching staff would have hoped, Robinson said.
“This year we have a much stronger team because we”ve got the addition of some very key people and then we almost got everybody back from last year”s team,” Robinson said.
Key additions to the team include Niklas (Nic) Arrhenius, Rodrigo Mendes and Josh Rohantinsky.
Arrhenius was ranked No. 1 in the discus among U.S. high school boys his junior and senior years.
He also placed second in the discus at the Junior World Championships in 2000.
“This is a very, very talented young man,” Robinson said, “And with him coming back off a mission, he is in great shape.”
Mendes comes from Brazil and returns from a mission to continue his triple jumping career at BYU.
“Before his mission he was ranked 17th in world in the triple jump,” Robinson said. “This is a young man who could win the NCAA in the triple jump.”
Mendes finished second in the triple jump in the 2000 Ibero-American Games, placed second in the long jump in 1998 at the Brazilian Junior Nationals, and finished second in 1997 in the high jump at the Brazilian Junior Nationals.
Rohatinsky, from Provo, recently returned from a mission.
Prior to his mission, Rohantinsky earned many accolades including winning Utah State High School Athlete-of-the-Year all four years of high school. He also won seven individual state titles, and competed in the Footlocker Cross Country National Championships three years in HS, taking 27th, 5th and 4th.
