SPORTSBEAT BY PETER JAKEY: Rewards of life on the road

Traveling to tournaments in other parts of the state have been part of the winter season for the Rogers City volleyball and wrestling programs for many years. The athletes, coaches, and parents conduct fundraisers in the off-season to pay for meals and hotel stays, all in an effort to go up against some of the more competitive schools in the state that they might see in the playoffs in March. For instance, the wrestlers will be at the New Lothrop Invitational Saturday and will go up against some of the top Division 3 and 4 wrestlers in Michigan. The trip is a total of about 300 miles. Addison, who defeated Rogers City in the state championship match at Battle Creek last March, will be there along with three-time state title holder Montrose.

For head coach Pat Lamb, traveling to the tournaments can be hectic, but it?s better than getting up at 4:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning. He said the wrestlers would rather stay in a hotel and get a good night?s rest and be ready to wrestle in the morning and not have to wake up two or three hours before dawn. The volleyball team will get in some added action by leaving a day early this week, as they?ll be scrimmaging Big Rapids High School Friday night.

Huron head coach Mary Fairbank?s daughter Karla Fairbanks, a standout volleyball player for Rogers City and Ferris State, is the head coach of the Big Rapids team. Fairbanks said playing the extra match is a terrific opportunity for her squad. The schools will compete Friday and again when Karla brings her team up north next month for the RCHS Invitational.

THE EXTRA TRAVEL doesn?t seem to bother the athletes. Technical advances make the time go by faster. ?Usually one of the kids will bring a portable DVD player and they will watch DVDs on the way down,? said Lamb. Fairbanks said, ?Somebody is in charge of movies for the weekend.? Other athletes bring CD players and listen to their favorite music.

Fairbanks said the volleyball team rents a van, which she believes promotes team unity. ?At the onset the girls looked at it more like it was riding on a bus,? said Fairbanks. ?As the season went on, traveling together as a team was one of the highlights.? The athletes have a good time, but the coaches don?t want them to lose focus of the main purpose of the trip. Lamb and Fairbanks both say that has not been a problem.

?They?ll get to the hotel and spend some time in the pool,? said Lamb. ?I don?t want them to swim in the pool a whole lot. Maybe 10 minutes in the hot tub, and a half hour at the maximum, in the pool. Then, basically, it?s relaxing. One of the kids will bring a Play Station.

?We generally don?t have any problems at hotels with the kids. They know it?s strictly business. At 11 o?clock I check all of the rooms, but usually most of them are in bed already.?

SOME HOTELS are leery about having sports teams stay with them, because of previous problems. I can personally attest to that. On a state finals trip to Kalamazoo, a group of wrestlers across the hall from my mine was up until the early hours of the morning, and kept slamming the door to their room. ?I?ve been to hotels with other wrestlers where they keep you up until three or four o?clock in the morning running up and down the halls,? said Lamb.

The Huron wrestling coach said if the hotel hasn?t had Rogers City stay with them before, he?s heard, ? ?Wrestlers, I don?t know!? Usually whe

n we check out, I always ask if there were any problems and I?ll hear ?Oh, no. As a matter of fact, they were great.? ? The hotels that Rogers City has stayed at in the past are more than receptive to having the Hurons back because of the behavior the athletes have displayed.

?I really appreciate that from our young men,? said Lamb. ?The veterans that have been there before, if somebody is goofing off, they?ll let them know. Our four senior captains are doing just an outstanding job. My hat is off to them.? Lamb said the boys know if they screw that up, they?ll be getting up at 4:30 a.m. the following Saturday.

Fairbanks said the girls ?know they have to get up and perform the next day, so they are pretty disciplined about it.? For people of the community who have supported either the wrestlers or volleyball players in their fundraising efforts to travel to these not-so-close tournaments, it sounds like it is money well spent.

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