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FOOTBALL

A Bowl-Worthy Season

BY MOST STANDARDS, it was one of the best seasons in Stanford football history. A 9-2 record. A top-10 Bowl Championship Series ranking. Wins over Oregon, USC, UCLA and Notre Dame. A seventh consecutive Big Game victory.

But the reward for Stanford’s impressive campaign didn’t seem to fit the résumé: a trip to the first-ever Seattle Bowl. How did the senior-laden team with the explosive offense end up in a bowl without a storied tradition (until 2001, it was known as the Oahu Bowl and held in Honolulu)?

Basically, it comes down to this: toward the end of the season, Stanford was locked in a tight race for second place in the Pac-10 with Washington and Washington State. Although the Cardinal finished with a better record than Washington, and ahead of both teams in the polls, it lost to both—and the bowl committees made their selections before the season concluded. The Holiday Bowl, expected to take the second-place finisher in the Pac-10, chose Washington. Then, the Sun Bowl selected Washington State.

Thus, at press time, Stanford was headed to the December 27 Seattle Bowl. It would face a surprisingly worthy opponent: Georgia Tech, a team with a 7-5 record making its fifth consecutive postseason appearance. Still, it was hard not to relive the losses to the Washington teams. One less turnover here or a couple more completed passes there, and Stanford could have had a hot date in Arizona at the Fiesta Bowl or even a Rose-tinted shot at the national championship. “We have a fine, fine football team that may have been, or should have been, or could have been a couple plays away from being down in Pasadena,” says head coach Tyrone Willingham.

Picked by most pundits to finish fifth in a talented Pac-10 conference, Stanford began its season with a win over Boston College, 38-22, on September 8. After a two-week break following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Cardinal returned to defeat Arizona State, 51-28, and USC, 21-16. At 3-0, Stanford was off to its best start in 15 years. But the Cardinal faced a four-game stretch against Washington State, Oregon, UCLA and Washington, a combined 18-0 at the time.

Senior running back Brian Allen’s 133 yards rushing and three touchdowns weren’t enough to overcome Washington State on October 13, and the Cardinal suffered its only home loss of the year, 45-39. But the next week, Stanford shocked then-undefeated, top-five Oregon in a thrilling 49-42 win at daunting, deafening Autzen Stadium, ending the Ducks’ 23-game, national-best home winning streak. Victory came at a price: senior quarterback Randy Fasani left the game in the first quarter with ligament damage to his knee, which would sideline him for four more games. Junior Chris Lewis stepped into his relief role ably, joining sophomore receiver Teyo Johnson to lead a 21-point fourth-quarter comeback, aided by two blocked punts.

Stanford manufactured another upset on October 27, fending off a late UCLA rally to defeat its second undefeated, top-five opponent in as many weeks, 38-28. The Cardinal catapulted to No. 6 in the BCS rankings, prompting talk of a second Rose Bowl trip in three years.

But Seattle held Stanford’s destiny, in more ways than one. In Husky Stadium on November 3, the Cardinal failed to capitalize on several scoring opportunities, losing to Washington, 42-28. In the process, junior running back Kerry Carter’s season ended with a separated shoulder and senior safety Simba Hodari sustained a severe concussion. And Stanford, winless at Washington since 1975, all but sealed its bowl fate.

Near the end of the Washington loss, an uncharacteristic grimace on Willingham’s face revealed his dashed hopes. “This [loss] does affect the things we started the season out believing that we could accomplish,” he told the San Jose Mercury News.

Wins over Arizona, 51-37, Cal, 35-28, Notre Dame, 17-13, and San Jose State, 41-14, put the Cardinal back on track to finish the season. And despite some disappointment over their postseason destination, the team members seemed proud of themselves. “We played our butts off this season,” senior defensive tackle Matt Leonard told the Mercury News. “We have nothing to be ashamed of.”

WATER POLO

A Title for the Team, a Swan Song for the Coach

DANTE DETTAMANTI had a recipe for making championship water polo teams. He studied exercise physiology so he could understand how to get the most from his players. As a graduate assistant, he watched how his mentor, Bob Horn, led UCLA to a national title in 1969. And he focused on the piece of the game he thought was most important: speed.

Seven times, Dettamanti’s recipe had helped his teams win the grand prize—a national championship. On December 2, the eve of his retirement, the mix came together one final time when Stanford beat UCLA, 8-5, for the NCAA title. His players celebrated by dunking the 59-year-old coach in the pool at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center. “In the last two minutes, I really felt that we were going to take the game and I started taking my shoes and jacket off,” Dettamanti says. “I learned my lesson a couple years ago when I almost sank.”

A championship was the goal all season long, players said, but not because it would be a fitting tribute to Dettamanti. “He was careful all year to not make it about it being his last season,” says junior goalkeeper Nick Ellis, who had eight saves in the match. “We wanted to win this for ourselves.”

Rated No. 1 at the start of the season, Stanford never slipped in the rankings. Five early games were canceled after the events of September 11, so the Cardinal went nearly untested into away matches against powerhouses UCLA and USC. When Stanford managed solid wins against both, Dettamanti says, “that was my first indication that we were going to have something special this year.”

The Cardinal swam through the next 18 games undefeated, losing only its final regular-season match —the November 17 Big Splash against Cal. The loss “did us a lot of good,” Dettamanti says. “It made the guys say, ‘Hey, people aren’t just going to roll over for us because we are No. 1.’ They started listening to the coach again.”

That lesson proved especially valuable in the NCAA finals. Before a sold-out crowd of 2,226 fans huddled in the wind, Stanford jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first period, then extended its lead to 5-1 during the second. UCLA drew closer when Alfonso Tucay broke free from his defender and scored, cutting the Stanford margin to 5-2. A minute later, junior Brian Darrow answered with a Stanford goal, giving the Cardinal a seemingly insurmountable 6-2 lead.

But the Bruins scored twice more in the third period, winning back the momentum. Only when senior Onno Koelman scored off a lob pass from superstar teammate Tony Azevedo, bringing the score to 7-4, did Dettamanti’s dunking seem assured.

The win was a sweet way to leave a sweet gig. Dettamanti spent the last 25 years beside a brilliant teal pool, guiding some of the country’s best athletes. He ended his career with 666 wins—second-best all-time—and eight national titles, tied for the greatest number in NCAA history with Cal’s Pete Cutino. Dettamanti even has fond memories of his only losing season, in 1983. That year’s squad of mostly freshmen went on to win national titles in both 1985 and 1986.

One of this year’s redshirt freshmen—Azevedo—may be even more memorable. The so-called “Michael Jordan of water polo” played in the Olympics as a high schooler, led the U.S. team in scoring at the world championships this year, scored at least two goals in each game he played at Stanford this season and was the MVP of the NCAA championship.

But even though Azevedo has three remaining years of college eligibility—and NCAA all-tournament team selections Ellis, Jeff Nesmith and Peter Hudnut still have senior seasons to play—Dettamanti is ready to leave water polo behind. After 46 years as a player and coach, he wants the freedom to travel around the country in an RV with his girlfriend, Mary Jo Taylor, to ski at Lake Tahoe on weekdays and to attend evening jazz concerts. John Vargas, who led one of the nation’s top prep programs at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, Calif., will succeed him.

Meanwhile, Dettamanti plans to apply his recipe to another venture: winemaking. He already grows grapes—chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir—on a couple of acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains but, until now, has contracted for the wine production. In preparation for taking over, Dettamanti is studying wine chemistry at UC-Davis and finding a mentor in a more experienced vintner. If his success in the pool is any indication, the products of Dettamanti Vineyards will be worth a taste.

ROWING

They Call Them the Lightweights—But Watch Out

BEFORE THEIR DEBUT in November, rowers on the new women’s lightweight team were teasing coach Al Acosta about his sorry excuse for a game face.

“I told them, ‘Just get to the starting line on time and don’t do any damage to the boats,’” Acosta recalls. “They thought it was a pretty funny inspirational talk, until they saw boats hitting bridges and running into one another,” he says. “And two ‘eight’ boats finished with only six rowers because two kids ‘caught crabs,’ lost their oars and jumped out.”

One of Acosta’s two crews crossed the line in 10th place out of 25 boats at November’s Newport Autumn Rowing Festival in Southern California. Not bad, he says, for a group of walk-ons with virtually no experience. “At the first informational meeting in the fall, the coach had to show a video of what rowing looks like, because most of us had never done it before,” says junior Leah Brunski.

As an NCAA-designated “emerging” sport that will earn full-fledged varsity status at Stanford next year, lightweight rowing is attracting women like Brunski, who weigh less than 135 pounds, played sports in high school and miss team competition.

The learning curve has been steep. Unlike the women’s open-weight team, which has been a varsity sport since 1986 and has 12 scholarships to recruit high-powered specialists, lightweight crew depends on attracting wide-eyed newcomers. They have to enjoy getting up at 5:30 a.m., and they have to be tough. “We’re looking for athletes who have good endurance,” Acosta says. “We can teach them how to row, and it’s pretty easy to get up to a basic level. But after that, there are tons of nuances that determine how far you go.”

In landlocked training sessions, crew members “erg”—row mile after mile on ergonometer machines in the gym—and race up and down the stadium bleachers to increase their cardiovascular fitness. On the water, they have to figure out how to “set,” or balance, the narrow, tippy boats, and how to synchronize their upper body and legs, while sliding back and forth and handling oars—not too deep, not too shallow, not too angled. As for “catching crabs,” which happens when a novice strokes at the wrong angle and the water grabs hold of her blade like a crab, sucks it against the boat, and snaps the oar handle up into the air? A big, embarrassing no-no.

Monday through Saturday, the 24 team members pour out of a University van onto the Redwood Shores parking lot that, someday, will be the site of a spiffy new boathouse. Almost before the coxswains can shout “Hands on!” the women surround the racing shells and are ready to roll. “I think the trickiest thing has been learning to put the boats in the water without slamming them down,” says sophomore Lizzie Epstein. “Most of us aren’t used to carrying a 60-foot, $30,000 piece of equipment over our heads—and that’s pretty intimidating.”

But carry they do, and within minutes of launching off the docks, they are headed for a distant channel marker. As nine pelicans on a nearby mud bar watched the parade on a recent afternoon, Acosta putted past in a motor launch, shouting encouragement through his megaphone. “Reach more horizontally, not toward your toes, to get a bigger scoop of water,” he yelled. “Then crank it!”

Silhouetted against the sun in their sleek shells, crew members clock off the miles as they prepare for the spring competition season. “Now it’s a question of perfecting our technique and fine-tuning the stroke,” Brunski says. “The training is grueling, and while it’s beautiful to watch eight rowers and the cox all driving toward the same goal, we have no idea what [the spring racing season] is going to be like.”

Not only that, says Acosta, but with no lightweight crew alumni—yet—the boats are without donors to be named after. “We have one grad student on the team,” he says, “and when she leaves in June, we’re going to hit her up for oars.”

CREW

Setting the Pace

"ONE. BIG FINISHES. TWO. Into the body. THREE. Hit the legs.”

Coxswain Christen Young is growling into her microphone headset as she grips the gunwales, barking at the eight oarsmen facing her. Wired for sound à la rock stars, the sophomore leans forward and continues the in-your-face harangue, mixing it up with spicy asides.

Stars are piercing the gunmetal sky, and still the rowers stroke on. Although it’s only a practice, the two varsity shells, with Simona Chin at the opposing tiller, are racing for bragging rights as they slash through swaths of moonlight on the increasingly choppy bay.

“The women are the quarterbacks on these teams,” Craig Amerkhanian, director of rowing and head men’s coach, shouts above the roar of the motor launch. “It’s such a statement of their purpose and resolve that they know what buttons to push.” The two coxswains—and their counterparts on the women’s open-weight and lightweight teams—steer the boats, set the pace and coordinate the rowers’ strokes. They make sure the crew keeps 2,000 pounds of boat, oars and bodies balanced, and (because they are the only ones facing forward) the coxswains let the rowers know how far along the course they are—even though they can’t see the finish line over the big guys in front of them.

Weighing in at less than 110 pounds, the coxswains have to carry bags of sand in their boats to meet the required 115-pound minimum for races. But beware of unimposing, small packages.

“I’m one of those infamous Texas cheerleaders—a little person with a big, big voice,” says Chin, a senior who hails from Houston. “It may have been a temporary loss of sanity to become a cox, but now it’s what defines me at Stanford.”

Dressed in long underwear, ski pants, fleece jackets, mittens and multiple pairs of socks, Chin and Young maneuver their boats through nasty weather and around lumbering barges and tugboats. They sometimes attend team workouts—it’s a morale thing—and they race up Yosemite’s Half Dome with the guys each autumn. On the night before a race, they often lie awake, envisioning the course. “You think, ‘Crap, there’s a bridge, and then there’s a red marker as we come around,’” says Young. “It’s really nerve-wracking.”

On the water, however, the coxswains exude confidence. In November, Chin and Young led the varsity and novice boats to second- and first-place finishes, respectively, in Seattle’s Head of the Lake Regatta. “When they take a stroke that feels good, you yell, ‘That’s it!’” Young says. “Then it’s ‘Here we go—five more just like that!’”

Sports Notebook

In the End, Cross Country Gets Edged Out
After sweeping the Pac-10 championships in October, the men’s and women’s cross country teams took second and fifth place, respectively, at the NCAAs in November. “For a young group of runners, we certainly did a great job,” coach Vin Lananna said after the meet, noting that the Stanford men finished only 1 point behind the Colorado champs. Junior Lauren Fleshman, one of the premier young middle-distance runners in the United States, was the top finisher for both teams, placing third in the women’s race. Going into the championships, both squads were unbeaten for the season.

Men’s Soccer Captures Its First Conference Crown
The men’s soccer team captured the Pac-10 title for the first time in November, with a conference record of 6-1-1 (16-1-1 overall). Junior Roger Levesque, who led the conference in goals scored—10—was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year. At press time, the third-seeded Cardinal had advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, defeating Portland, 3-1, in front of a home crowd. In his first season on the Farm, coach Bret Simon has been handing out generous field time, using 27 of the 29 players on the roster in at least one game.

A Third-Round Exit for Women’s Soccer
Led by Pac-10 Coach of the Year Andy Nelson, who captured his 100th career win in his second year on the Farm, the women’s soccer team finished off the regular season 13-3-2, earning a fourth consecutive NCAA Women’s College Cup berth. The fifth-seeded Cardinal reached the third round of the NCAAs before losing to Texas A&M, 1-0. With eight returning starters bolstered by five freshmen and a sophomore walk-on, the squad has attracted a big, vocal following this year. The October 5 match against Santa Clara drew 2,103 fans to Maloney Field, the largest crowd ever to attend a Stanford women’s soccer game.

For Volleyball, Pac-10 Accolades All Around
Capping his first fall on the Farm with a Pac-10 championship—Stanford’s ninth—and a 27-2 regular-season record, women’s volleyball coach John Dunning was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year in November. Following his example, Olympian Logan Tom, who led the league in kills, points and service aces, was named Pac-10 Player of the Year; and freshman outside hitter Ogonna Nnamani walked away with Pac-10 Freshman of the Year honors. By early December, the team had reached the third round of the NCAAs, but Dunning said getting to the Final Four would take perseverance: “The key will be to not believe we are good enough now, and work very hard to improve each day.”