 | Sports Notebook
9/20/2002 | | Joel Maturi, photo by Michelle King |
By Chris Coughlan-Smith
Meet the New U of M Athletics Director
Who: Joel Maturi, 57
Born and raised: Chisholm, Minnesota
Family: Wife of 28 years, Lois; children Mark, 26, Katie, 25, and Ann, 22
Education: B.A. ’67, Notre Dame; M.A. ’85, University of Wisconsin–Platteville
Experience: High school coach and administrator; assistant athletic director at University of Wisconsin; athletic director at Denver University, 1996–98; athletic director at Miami University of Ohio, 1998–2002.
Challenges: Combining and streamlining the men’s and women’s departments into a single unit; reducing budget shortfalls; saving the threatened golf and men’s gymnastics programs. "I don’t want to eliminate sports at the U of M," Maturi says. Although optimistic that revenues and fund-raising will grow, "would I rather eliminate sports than water down the whole department? The answer to that would probably be yes."
Emphasis: Maturi says he wants each sport to have the resources to compete with the best in the Big Ten but will not compromise academics or integrity to get there. The athletics  | | Cassie Busse, photo by Eric Miller |
department, he says, "has to live by the same values as the University as a whole." His goal for every student athlete is "to get them a degree and a positive and meaningful athletics experience."
Style: Can delegate administrative detail, but is " hands-on" with coaches and athletes. In four years at Miami, he missed one home game among all 19 sports. Extremely energetic, he says he only needs four hours of sleep a night.
Another opinion: St. Paul attorney Joe O’Neill, who worked with Maturi organizing conference hockey tournaments when Maturi was at Wisconsin: "When [Maturi and his wife, Lois] walked into a room, integrity walked in with them."
Quote: "My son is 26 years old and he still hasn’t beaten me in HORSE. Most people let their 5-year-old beat them, but not me. I’m too competitive."
Volleyball
The popular belief this summer was that the Gopher volleyball team might fall on hard times this season after three straight trips to the NCAA tournament. Don’t count on it, says head coach Mike Hebert, who relishes the chance to start the season as an underdog. "I think by the middle of  | | Lindsey Vander Well, photo by Eric Miller |
the season, we’ll be a team that is feared," he says. "They won’t want to play us anymore."
The Gophers have a talented but inexperienced team; for the first time since 1997, they don’t have a returning all-conference player. But they do have a player who should step into the long line of great Minnesota setters: sophomore Lindsey Vander Well of Prinsburg, Minnesota. She’ll be setting to front-line players like juniors Cassie Busse of Prior Lake, Minnesota, and Bethany Brafford of Mansfield, Ohio, both preseason all–Big Ten selections. Hebert also has three athletic sophomores who will work to cut down on errors and secure an outside hitting spot.
A major rule change creates an opportunity for the Gophers to improve as well. A new "libero" position has been created to aid in the defense. The libero can substitute into the back row at any dead ball without waiting for the referee’s signal or counting against a team’s substitution limit. Hebert has two excellent candidates for the position, sophomore Lisa Reinhart of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, who showed great improvement over the spring and summer, and incoming freshman Paula  | | Will McComb, photo by Eric Miller |
Gentil, a Brazilian who went to high school in Orlando, Florida. The one who does not start at libero will become the first defender off the bench in key situations. "The libero is going to be very exciting for fans and be a real key for us," Hebert says. "Our libero will probably play 80 percent of the game. We think our [defensive] weakness from last year will become a strength."
Although the Gophers were ranked sixth in a Big Ten preseason poll, Hebert says the conference’s strength and the balance in the top seven teams means anything could happen. "I wouldn’t be surprised if we won the conference and I wouldn’t be surprised if we finished seventh."
Editor’s Note: From the time this column was written until Sept. 20, when the magazine was mailed, the Gophers had roared to an 8-2 start to the season, beat two top-10 teams, and themselves moved up to number eight in the country. It looks like "by the middle of the season" came a bit earlier, as Minnesota was already a team no one wanted to play anymore.
Men’s Cross Country
Senior Will McComb of Port Elgin, Ontario, leads a squad that
 | | Rachael Roth, photo by Eric Miller |
returns intact after reaching the NCAA championship meet for the fifth consecutive year. Junior Andrew Carlson of Fargo, North Dakota, and sophomore Eric Grumstrup of Rapid City, South Dakota, were consistent top finishers last year, followed by juniors Neil Hanson of Granada, Minnesota, and Toby Henkles of Worthington, Minnesota. The team also returns senior Andy McKessock, a Big Ten track champion from Bogner, Ontario, after a redshirt year. "We’re very deep this year," says head coach Steve Plasencia. "But we can’t just have a bunch of interchangeable parts. . . . I’d like to see some guys really step it up from where they were last year."
Soccer
The Gopher soccer team scored just nine goals last year in 17 games, but the good news is that the player who scored seven of them returns: sophomore Rachael Roth of Wayzata, Minnesota. The Gophers will get an infusion of new players this season: eight new freshmen and junior transfer Amanda McMahon of Stillwater, Minnesota. At Marshall University, McMahon was an all-conference player and scored 22 goals in two years. The Gophers hope this new group can propel them
 | | Lisa Dyer, photo by Eric Miller |
back to the NCAA tournament, where they played every season from 1995 through 1999.
Women’s Cross Country
A young Gopher women’s cross country squad managed to reach its fifth consecutive NCAA championship meet thanks in part to the emergence of sophomore Lisa Dyer, of Moorhead, Minnesota. Dyer was an all-region runner, along with juniors Darja Vasiljeva of Jelgava, Latvia, and Laura Bjork of Colfax, Wisconsin. Senior Anita Menden of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and junior Krista Anderson of Deerwood, Minnesota, also return from last year’s top seven.
Spirit on the Road
Football fans who reside in or plan to travel to Gopher road-game cities have an extra opportunity to get in the maroon-and-gold spirit this year. In addition to pregame tailgate parties, the UMAA is organizing ’Sota Social gatherings the night before each game at the team hotel. Goldy, cheerleaders, University officials, and others will attend the socials to help get fans ready for the next day’s game. Cosponsors include the Goal Line Club and the U of M athletics department.
Gopher road-game dates, times, and opponents
 | | Ben Utecht caught five touchdown passes in the first three games of the 2002 season. Photo by Michelle King |
are: September 28, 5 p.m., at Purdue; October 19, 11:10 a.m., at Michigan State; November 2 at Ohio State, time TBA; and November 23 at Wisconsin, time TBA. Since kickoff times can be set or change as late as a week before the game, check www.alumni.umn.edu or call 612-624-2323 or 1-800-862-5867 for details.
Quotebook
"I don’t read a lot of that Internet stuff, especially when it’s about me. [It’s] better than being overrated, I guess."
—Gopher football coach Glen Mason on being named the most underrated college football coach by FanBoy, a columnist for an Arizona-based Internet news site.
Quotebook
"When I found out my scholarship was being revoked, I first thought, ‘I don’t want to deal with this.’ But when I saw how much [people] cared, I thought ‘OK, I’m going to fight for this.’"
—Gopher women’s basketball player Tanisha Gilbert, a former high school all-American from Champlin Park, Minnesota, who, after two years of academic and injury troubles, had her scholarship revoked by administrators in spring, only to have it reinstated in July.
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