Writers are assigned stories weekly on all topics ranging from event coverage to in-depth stories and profiles. Examples are from Sooner 2008.
Cruising Forwardby Maggie TarwaterIt was 90 degrees inside the empty gym. The women of OU’s Crew team, exhausted after their journey to Kansas, curled up in the middle of the floor to try to sleep under the burning blaze of the fluorescent lights. In the morning they woke up, muscles aching from the hardwood floors, and without breakfast, continued on to the next leg of their journey: the race against Wichita State University.
The girls had spent weeks trying to raise money for this trip and many others like it. As members of a club organization, the Crew team is forced to pay its own way, including a $175 membership fee per member each semester. When they want to race, they pay out of their own pockets for entry fees, gas, food and a place to sleep. Those who can afford to go, do. Those who can’t are left behind.
“It gets really pricy,” said Chelsea Moore, club captain and public relations junior. “We try to find the cheapest way just so we can compete. Sometimes we have to alter our boat lineups, but the people who really have the heart to go will find a way.”
And heart is something the team has more than enough of. Time not spent on the water practicing is spent brainstorming ways to raise money. Sometimes standing in the freezing cold for hours at a time, the girls will go door to door selling tickets or stand in parking lots handing out brochures or fliers. They sell water bottles on the street before and after football games, which they buy in bulk themselves, and they participate in numerous fundraisers year-round.
“We have some really great, hard working people on our team,” said Teddi Dwyer, co-captain and health and exercise science senior. “We want it to be the most rewarding experience it can be. There’s no point if you’re not going to races, and having money is the only way we can do that.”
Money not only helps the girls get from race to race, but necessitates their ability to exist as a team. Because they pay out of pocket, they use old equipment for racing. Their boats and oars are used and sometimes tattered, but insurance on each is necessary to ensure racing eligibility. And while they might not be the sharpest looking on the water, their determination is what makes them fierce.
“We have some serious heart and drive and competitive spirit,” Dwyer said. “That is what makes us who we are.”
Teamwork, Moore said, is another of the most important aspects of OU’s crew team and is what has allowed them to come this far.
“It helps with performance a lot,” Moore said. “When you know the person on a boat in front of or behind you, you’re going to push yourself for them. Your heart gets into it, and when you know other people’s are too, then you know you will do well.”
In the spring of 2007 the girls participated in the Great Plains Championship race in Kansas after which, to the surprise of many, they were announced the victors.
“We were the under dogs,” Moore said. “No one expected us to win. It brought a lot of attention to our team.”
But the championship win brought more than just attention. Donations from all over the nation began pouring in, and soon after it was announced that they would become an official NCAA sport in the spring of 2009.
“We were jumping and screaming, we were so excited about it,” Dwyer said. “We’ve got some amazing girls and I can’t wait to see how high we can take it. It will be a really enriching experience.”
The girls will no longer have to pay to continue being a part of the sport they love so much. They will get funding along with brand new equipment and a professional training staff. Scholarships will also be available and tryouts held to choose the most qualified team members. Moore said she thinks great things are in store for the team.
“If we’re this good without professional training just imagine what we could do with professional training,” Moore said. “We could be really competitive.”
Leeann Craine from the University of Central Florida became the women’s head coach in March of 2008, and said she is excited to become part of the Sooner family.
“It’s a great opportunity to be the first coach at a program and to help to lay the foundation,” Craine said. “Oklahoma is known for having great athletic teams, and I am grateful for being given the chance to be part of such a rich athletic tradition.”
Craine said she is excited about the plans for OU’s Crew team, which include two new facilities, one on-campus facility with an erg room and rowing tank, and a new boathouse on the Oklahoma River. Craine said she is confident that with the new state-of-the-art facilities, OU’s rowing team will soon become an even greater success.
“It will take a couple of years to get the program off the ground,” Craine said. “But my goal is to field a team that is nationally competitive with the ultimate goal of winning a national championship.”
Both Dwyer and Moore agree, and said that other teams should learn to fear their talent and abilities on the water.
“We have a great team, we’ve got some great people on it, and I see some positive things in the future,” Dwyer said. “I’m ready to put some fear into those other teams.”
Breaking OutBy Jenny Cartmell Devan Benton used to lie in bed and pray that he could wake up the next morning and be attracted to women.
“I didn’t want to be gay,” Benton said. “If people thought I was gay, I didn’t want them to be right.”
But they were right. Benton, a freshman from Ponca City, first thought his attraction to men might be a phase. He soon realized the feeling wasn’t something he could change.
“[Homosexuality is] definitely not a choice,” Benton said. “If I was choosing to be gay, I wouldn’t be crying in my bed at night praying to be straight.”
Benton, who grew up very involved in his church, said his faith remains very important to him, though homosexuality goes against the fundamental beliefs of many Christians.
“People assume that because I’m gay that I’m not a Christian,” he said. “But I am a Christian. There was a guy on my floor who said, ‘I don’t agree with it. I think you’re going to hell.’ I told him I didn’t expect him to understand my beliefs or my personal relationship with God. I’ve prayed about it, and I feel good with myself that I know who I am.”
For students like Blaz Bush, drama senior, figuring out self-identity hasn’t been an easy journey either.
“I think that as homosexuals we’re handed a very tough card,” Bush said. “But a card that, in the end, makes us much stronger.”
Bush said it was hard for his parents to accept it at first when he came out as a senior in high school.
“My dad was very quiet,” he said. “At the end of the conversation, he said, ‘you are who you are, and I love you anyhow.’ My dad’s a football coach, by the way.”
Bush said he wanted his parents to be completely open with him about everything, and in the end it’s brought them closer.
“I told them I was going to make the decision that’s best for me,”
Benton had similar experiences coming out to his parents.
“It’s still awkward and something we don’t talk about,” Benton said. “My dad told me to go to counseling and disowned me for a bit.”
He found a lot of support through the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered and Friends organization when he came to OU, although it was hard to find the courage to attend the first meeting.
Though GLBTF is a group for support, Sam Griffin, religious studies senior and president of the organization, said it took him an hour to walk across campus to the first meeting when he was a freshman. Griffin, who hasn’t officially come out to his parents, decided the group was worthwhile despite his hesitation.
“[Being gay] wasn’t going to be this thing that I hid,” Griffin said. “In high school, it wasn’t something I told people.”
Griffin and Benton both said they find most people at OU to be accepting and tolerant, although there are still those who believe homosexuality is a habitual sin.
“I don’t care what other people think anymore,” Benton said. “We’re not all the stereotypes we’re built up to be.”
Shannon Behary, a freshman who came to OU from Idaho, said she was looking for new faces, which made it easier for her to come out.
“I was more than a little sure that I was going to end up coming out, and I didn’t think I would be able to do that if I was around the same people from home,” she said.
Behary said a lot of people have misconceptions about being gay, and that it’s a lifestyle that is much more common than a lot of people realize.
“I feel like arguing with people seems fruitless sometimes,” she said. “Gay people aren’t all about sex. It’s not a very sexualized lifestyle. It’s a lifestyle that’s defined by the person you’re attracted to.”
Bush said many people often overlook the adversity that homosexuals face, and that it’s something that must be taken down to a very emotional level.
“You’re dealing with a human being,” Bush said. “No matter what you understand about it or what you think you understand about it, you’re not them. You’re not living through it. I don’t think it’s fair to tell someone how they love is wrong. To be hated for something you feel like you can’t change is probably one of the most painful experiences.”
Sooner yearbook, produced by the Features area of OU Student Media, employs approximately 25 student editors, writers, designers and photographers. Features also produces other magazine-style publications throughout the year.
