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Sports Notebook
11/18/2004 7:20 AM

Dan Coleman

By Chris Coughlan-Smith

Q&A with Dan Coleman
Freshman Dan Coleman, a 6-foot 9-inch forward from Minneapolis, will carry a lot on his shoulders this season. After sitting out last year—ineligible to play because he transferred from Boston College just before school started—he is expected to play a major role on a Gopher men’s basketball team that returns only two key reserves (senior guard Adam Boone of Minnetonka, Minnesota, is out with an injury and could miss the entire season). Despite never even playing in a college game, Coleman was chosen as Minnesota’s representative on the Big Ten’s "Foreign Tour" team, made up largely of non-seniors from Big Ten schools, which played in Europe this summer.
Minnesota caught up with Coleman after a September practice.

Q: Was it tough to sit out last year?
A: Of course, but it was also good because I grew a lot. I got to adjust to college basketball in practice and work on a lot of aspects of the game. It also took some of the pressure off my books.

Q: What was your favorite part of the foreign tour?
A: There were a lot of things. Meeting guys I’ll get to play against will give us a little extra intensity, you know, something to talk about when we’re out there going against each other. We also went to Venice and a lot of historical sites. We went to the beach at Nice, and I’d never really seen the ocean before.
But I’d have to say playing in the games was my favorite part. It was nice to get out in a real game again and to get into a flow and to have refs calling fouls and everything. When you play nothing but pick-up games, you don’t call fouls because it just turns into a big argument.

Q: Minnesota has a lot of change this year. Do you think you’ll surprise some people?
A: Definitely. This is a chance for redemption [after a disappointing season in 2003–04]. Everybody is working really hard and has a great

Bruininks leads the band

attitude. I’m really excited to get out there.

Bringing Football Spirit Home
President Bob Bruininks led the University of Minnesota Marching Band at a Touchdown on Campus rally before the Gopher football game against Northwestern on September 28. Touchdown on Campus is a new effort by several University organizations to bring game-day spirit back to campus. Food and Gopher merchandise were available at the rallies before each home game on the Coffman Union Plaza and free shuttles carried fans to the game.

Roethlisberger Retires
Fred Roethlisberger, whose last name is synonymous with the greatest moments in Minnesota gymnastics, retired as men’s gymnastics coach in August. In 33 years leading the Gophers, Roethlisberger’s teams won 11 Big Ten titles, missing a national title by one-tenth of a point in 1990. He earned four national coach-of-the-year awards and coached 51 Big Ten–title winners and 22 all-Americans, including his son, John (B.S. ’94), a three-time NCAA all-around champion, and four-time single event national champion Clay Strother. Roethlisberger’s daughter, Marie (B.S. ’91, M.D. ’96), is the most decorated female gymnast in University history, having earned a national title among her four all-American citations. John and Marie are Olympians as well.

Roethlisberger says his favorite part of coaching was the interaction with student athletes, pushing them to succeed both in the gym and the classroom. "Since the announcement that I was retiring I’ve had all kinds of guys call me up and say, ‘You know, I never thanked you for what you did for me,’" Roethlisberger says. "When you’re caught up in preparing for meets and recruiting and assembling the team, you don’t really notice how much of a difference you’re making. But now, reflecting on it, that was really rewarding."

In April 2001, University officials announced that the men’s gymnastics program, along

Fred Roethlisberger, center, and John Roethlisberger, right

with men’s and women’s golf, would be dropped for financial reasons. But Roethlisberger insists he was not overly worried. "Nonrevenue sports are always on edge, always threatened," he explains. "I knew we’d be back at least one more year, and when we got a few months into the [fund-raising] campaign, I could tell we’d be alright."

The 1968 Olympic gymnast says he’ll support new coach Michael Burns, who was an assistant coach at the University of Michigan, however he can, perhaps even competing in the annual alumni meet held in late fall. "I can still do a giant swing on the high bar and front and back handsprings on the floor," he says. "That’s not bad for a 63-year-old."

Strength and Will
It’s hard to imagine that Janel McCarville has ever lost any athletic contest. With her muscular frame, the superbly conditioned 6-foot 2-inch senior from a farm outside Stevens Point, Wisconsin, is the unyielding force at the heart of the Gopher women’s basketball team. The center even earned the nickname "Shaq," after pro basketball star Shaquille O’Neill, perhaps the most powerful NBA player ever. As McCarville eases through the hallways of the Bierman Field Athletic Building, coaches, administrators, and fellow athletes greet the returning all-American: "Hey, Shaq, how’s it going?" She replies to each with a quick smile and a friendly word.
McCarville, a history major, is renowned for her toughness and tenacity, something she earned by mixing it up with her four older siblings, losing at everything except basketball, played under a hoop nailed to the side of the barn. "I got pummeled on when I was little," she says. "But when I got bigger and started playing basketball, I had to beg them to play. They didn’t like getting beat by their little sister."

Her family now inspires McCarville on the court. When her mother, Bonnie, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2003, Janel had Bonnie’s initials

Janel McCarville

tattooed inside her left forearm. (As of September 2004, the cancer was still in check.) This year, McCarville sports a larger tattoo inside her right forearm. The names of her parents and siblings encircle a large "M," for "McCarville." An outer ring reads, "Strength Lies Within." "For me strength lies within this," she explains, her soft voice growing intense as she taps the "M." "Within this is my family. This is where I draw my strength and my willpower."

McCarville’s strength and willpower helped the Gophers rise from seven consecutive losing seasons to three straight NCAA tournament berths, culminating in a Final Four appearance in 2004. "She’s a very confident and, in a good way, a cocky player," says head coach Pam Borton. "She carries herself with a little bit of a swagger. Most women would not like being so big and tall, but she likes how she’s shaped and she likes being strong."

But it isn’t just overpowering strength that has landed McCarville on every list of preseason all-Americans. "She’s also very agile, she sees the floor so well and makes great passes," Borton explains. "She makes everyone better when they play with her."

McCarville’s freshman year, new coach Brenda Oldfield unleashed the talent inside McCarville—who was named Big Ten Rookie of the Year—by letting the team run the floor, score lots of points, and have fun. Nine months later, Oldfield took the coaching job at the University of Maryland, and Borton came in emphasizing defense above all else. It was a difficult transition for the players. They felt burned by Oldfield, who had left abruptly, and were slow to trust someone who wanted to tamper with their success. No one struggled more than McCarville.

"When I came in I asked Janel to do some things differently, to play differently," Borton recalls. "She looked at me like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me; look at what I did last year.’ It took half a year for

Barry Tallackson, a senior forward from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, is one of just three returning Gopher men’s hockey players with more than 10 goals last year. Minnesota will seek to replace more than half its goal scoring as its top four scorers have either graduated or signed with professional hockey teams. Minnesota, ranked sixth in the preseason poll (third in the conference), does return a fine supporting cast and two experienced goaltenders to a team that won the WCHA conference tournament and made a trip to the 16-team NCAA tournament for the fourth consecutive year.

us to develop trust and for her to realize that she could be even better than she thought she could be."

This year the team has set its sights high: a Big Ten title and, Borton says, "getting back to the Final Four and finishing the job." To do so, McCarville will have to adjust her game again as she’ll face defenses specifically designed to stop her. But when star guard Lindsay Whalen, now playing professional basketball, was out with a wrist injury for eight games last year, her Gopher teammates had to play more minutes, take more shots, and fill more roles than ever. That experience will pay off this season when two other starters return: point guard Shannon Schonrock, a junior from Winnebago, Minnesota, and junior forward Shannon Bolden, of Marshall, Minnesota, the team’s defensive ace.

The Gophers also return three sophomores who played extensive minutes last year and an experienced junior center. Two Minnesota high school all-stars who started at guard for other Division I schools transferred to Minnesota last year and are eligible this season. Rounding out the squad are four highly touted recruits, including two 6-foot 3-inch high school all-Americans from the Chicago area, signaling Minnesota’s new national recruiting status.

"I think we’ll be a better team this year," Borton says. "We have more depth and experience and more players who can play multiple positions. . . . We’ll definitely be ready by the time March and April get here." (The NCAA Final Four is April 3 and 5.)

McCarville knows they’ll be ready. "Things happen for a reason," she says. "When Brenda left, it made us closer as a team. When Whalen got hurt, it helped us learn what we could do as players and as a team." But the players aren’t the only ones raring for the season to begin. "I think my mom is more excited than I am," McCarville says. "She can’t wait to get back here and see the games."

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