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Inside the Pan Am Games

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Posted: Monday August 02, 1999 06:34 PM

U.S. team handball has its own citadel

By Brian Cazeneuve, Sports Illustrated

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Pan Am athlete Wendy Anderson could talk to you all day about what a great place the Citadel is, about the way "women receive the same respect as men," or the fact that "over 95 percent of the professors have their doctoral degrees,"while throwing in the "94 percent rate of immediate employment" for graduates and mentioning, "the first-class education and discipline that you learn." Why, she's giving a regular public service message for the oft-maligned university. And Anderson is sincere about all of it.

Anderson doesn't fit the mold of a Citadel instructor. She's a tall, soft-spoken black woman, but when she isn't playing on the national team handball squad, she is also the coach of the Citadel's women's volleyball team. Yes, they have women's sports teams. Just three years after Shannon Faulkner , the first female cadet at the Citadel, left ahead of schedule, the graduating class is up to 40 females with an additional 50 due in next year among the student body of 1600 .

The volleyball team is a work in progress. When Anderson took over this year, she inherited a squad that was 0-24. She hopes the new recruits will take to volleyball in her first season this fall as quickly as she did to handball four years ago. Anderson was coaching at Converse College in South Carolina when she first came upon this new game. "I didn't know what team handball was," she recalled , "but I liked the quickness of it. I just didn't like getting hit."

Within two months, Anderson moved to Atlanta to be part of the U.S. squad's Team 2000, whose members often scrimmaged with the national team. Despite lingering effects of a torn ACL she suffered in college, Anderson emerged as the team's starting center back, even though parts of the game still feel unnatural to her. "It's hard to throw the ball," she says. "I can throw a softball pretty well, but you can't really grip this ball and you need to use more shoulder." Anderson blocked several shots and anchored a steady defense in the U.S. team's 24-16 victory against Uruguay on Sunday. Though the Americans' hopes of winning the tournament and earning an Olympic berth seem like a long shot, long odds don't bother Anderson.

Defecting criticism

The trappings of capitalism are never more than an overthrow away from the Cuban baseball players. Outside the fences of their practice facilities shiny cars pull in and out of the parking lot much faster than their 50s Mustangs, 70s Trabbies and 80s Ladas. Just hop over one of those fences, they understand, and an American agent will make you a rich man. All you'll leave behind is your heritage, your family and your homeland.

"The decision (to leave Cuba for good) is (to be made by) each athlete," says Jose Ramon Fernandez Alvarez , the president of Cuba's national Olympic committee. He complains that the lures are everywhere. "Why are these people with money trying to drain our muscles and our brains?" he asks. Apart from the agents, one sign outside a storefront near CanWest baseball stadium reads: "Two-for-one with your defection." Another simply says: "Cuban defectors welcome."

When Cuban officials have allowed reporters to speak to their athletes, interviews have been halted at the first question of defections. In the ninth inning of Cuba's semifinal baseball victory against Canada a protester ran onto the field carrying a sign demanding that Fidel Castro carry out human rights reforms. When security in the stadium did not respond quickly enough, several Cuban players ran out and attacked the man.

So far only three team members and one journalist have asked for asylum in Canada. Security officials at the village housing the Cuban team say reports of passing cars shining lights into players' windows are not true. Yet there are some who believe the delegation's defections will mount as their events end. The total number? It's anyone's guess. But if you hit it on the nose, you can get a free dinner at either of two local restaurants holding a contest to guess the right number.

0-fer the century

The most infamous slump in Olympic history is safe until at least the 2004 Athens Games. The U.S. men's field hockey team still has one match to play in Winnipeg, but cannot advance to the gold-medal match and a chance to earn a berth in Sydney. The United States has never won a game at the Olympics in men's field hockey, and its 0-28-1 record is a bit like an upside-down view of the men's basketball mark over the years. The U.S. did scam a bronze medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Games, losing both matches in a three-team tournament. In 1996, the Americans, who received an automatic bid as host nation, refused to fire their coach, Jon Clark , even after he fessed up to fabricating his resume in applying for the job.

The U.S. women are not nearly as bad. Since women's field hockey became an Olympic medal sport in 1980, U.S. teams have gone 5-8-4, capturing a bronze medal at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. The women would earn a spot in the Pan-Am final against Argentina with a victory against Chile in their final game on Wednesday night.

Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Brian Cazeneuve is covering the Pan Am games for the magazine. He will file periodic Insiders for CNNSI.com.

 

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