3-12-91

Passages

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. John Ault and Kristi Farver became all-Americans at the national indoor track meet. And the Lady Cobbers reached the "Elite Eight" in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in five years. But then they were beaten and their season was over.

Though other basketball tournaments were still raging around us, winter sports at Concordia came to an end. We are in that hopeful passage to the spring sports season, and spring itself.

Last week's endings, sad for some, joyous for others, marked another chapter in a month here that will stand out for its transitions.

With so many coaches departing or moving to other posts, and so many talented seniors ending their playing careers, March has filled us with anticipation. The fieldhouse is awash with good people seeking gentle passage from one huge phase of their life to the next.

It's hard to paint a picture that does justice to all those who are now caught up in these passages. The borders of a painting exclude so much. Each passage is a complex and touching story in itself. I can only note them here, and not all of them at that.

Part of our thoughts of spring focus on one of Concordia's living legends, Sonny Gulsvig. After 35 years of outstanding teaching and coaching, in football, basketball, baseball and who-knows-what else, Sonny will be retiring at the end of the upcoming baseball season.

As Bucky Burgau's assistant coach, this will be Sonny's last tour through the MIAC. It'll be a season rich in stories and tears and laughter between Sonny and some of the thousands of friends he has earned in his years here.

There are others making similar passages.

Dr. Ron Nellermoe's departure from the wrestling program will take time to get used to. The demands of teaching and research tugged him away from a lifetime passion for his sport. He'll miss wrestling and we'll miss his daily presence here.

Ron's replacement, Doug Perry, is making his own journey, having to part with the successful track program he's run for eight years. But he's returning to the wrestling world, a world that he always loved best.

Marion Strand, the much-loved women's cross country coach, is adding the role of women's track and field coach to her portfolio, while separating herself from some of her former work in sports medicine. She's making a passage from healer to leader and hoping it will be smooth.

Mike Paul, the men's cross country coach, is adding the head men's track job to a life that has taken him from pilot to artist, with much in between. He seems to handle passages well.

Duane Siverson and his wife, Bonnie, had their second child on Sunday, another boy. They've moved from having a child to having a family, a daunting passage. Bonnie's fine. Du is a wreck.

John Eidsness, our former men's basketball coach, is making the journey to whatever lies ahead, carrying with him the fond hopes of the staff that the trip will be full of blessings.

The Eidsness departure was another reminder to our students, as if they needed any, of the status quo's impermanence, and the need to look at life's inevitable passages with a sense of opportunity rather than dread.

For the Lady Cobber seniors, who played basketball so well that they nearly led us to believe winning was inevitable, the events of last week were mixed. Michelle Thykeson, Kim Fierke, and Rhonda Schneekloth completed careers in which their teams won 98 games and lost but 18. Each achieved more as athletes than they ever dreamed possible.

But their final season closed with St. Thomas serving notice that the Lady Cobbers' dominance of the MIAC had come to an end, at least for now. Another passage.

Because of that, it will take some time before they can fully appreciate the full scope of their remarkable achievements.

As they make their individual passages into professional careers, Michelle as an artist, Kim into business, and Rhonda into education, there will be some bumps and some longing for the simpler days at Concordia. But it's hard to imagine a trio of young women more likely to complete this passage safely and successfully.

For the three all-MIAC seniors who led the hockey team so long and so well, there is wonder as to the role of hockey in their futures. Mike Hassman, John Town, and Shawn McGurran would all like to play a little more, somewhere. But they've prepared themselves for other things if that doesn't work out.

(Hassman, Town, and McGurran are clearly going to handle their passage to a post-Concordia life with more clarity of vision than their coach, Steve Baumgartner. The prospect of losing such brilliant scorers has put "Baumer" into a denial phase. He's pretending with himself that they're still just sophomores.)
 
As we watch, and sometimes take part in, these passages, we should remember that they are the times when we grow the most. Passages, gut-wrenching as they often are, usually make us wiser, stronger, and more appreciative of the friends and family who make life worth living.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu. These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

Return to Perspectives Index Cobber Sports Home Page Concordia Home Page