By
Chris Martin
Arizona Daily Wildcat
So Arizona didn't defeat Ohio State on Saturday. Big deal.
The game, which could have been dubbed "Penalty Bowl 2000," certainly wasn't the most exciting contest of the year by any means, and it confirmed the fact that I will not be spending New Year's at the Rose Bowl.
That the football team's loss, though, shouldn't overshadow some particularly strong individual and team performances by the other UA teams this weekend.
Football is the glamour sport of the fall, but anyone who happened to wander into McKale Center on Friday or Saturday could have seen the Arizona volleyball team dominating the competition at the Starwoods Plaza Wildcat Classic.
The No. 14 Wildcats provide Arizona fans the opportunity to see some of the best volleyball action in the country for FREE! Anything that is free must be good.
Another great reason to go is to see what head coach Dave Rubio is wearing. Is there another coach in America who dresses better than he does? I doubt it.
More importantly, these women deserve some respect.
The team, which is led by potential All-Americans Marisa DaLee and Dana Burkholder, has a chance to win the national title. It's time that UA fans support this team like they supported the football team against Ohio State.
Fan support will become imperative to the volleyball team when the Pac-10 season heats up and powerhouses like Stanford, UCLA and USC invade Tucson.
Another team needing support is the women's soccer team.
Though the team is struggling after being swept this weekend, I have yet to find a more entertaining sporting event on this campus than women's soccer.
The games are outside, the fans are boisterous and the guys sitting on the couch banging the drum are hilarious. Go, and you'll find out what I mean.
More importantly, the Wildcats are all over the field, throwing their bodies around while trying to resurrect a struggling program.
Head coach Cathy Klein has done an excellent job of changing the attitude of the program, and success will surely follow. So why not come and watch?
Two more teams worthy of attention are the men's and women's cross country teams.
Head coach Dave Murray's squad destroyed the competition Saturday at the Purdue Invitational.
Mike Cramer won the meet easily for the men, who placed five men in the top six. More importantly is the fact that - get this - Cramer is a walk-on.
A walk-on! That is unbelievable. Here is a guy winning the invitational for the fifth-ranked team in the nation, and he is a walk-on.
I am going to start pooling money together to get this man a scholarship.
Isn't there a clause anywhere stating that elite athletes deserve scholarships? I am going to check with athletic director Jim Livengood on that one.
Or what about Tara Chaplin?
She is awesome, but I am willing to bet that few people even know who she is. Chaplin, a women's cross country runner, won the women's portion of the Purdue Invitational by a landslide.
Is it fair that she doesn't get the recognition she deserves for being one of the elite distance runners in the nation?
No. So where is the respect?
I love the smaller sports. They train and play just as hard (if not harder) than the big sports like football and basketball, but get little media attention and fanfare.
So go support smaller UA athletic teams. They play the game right and they do it for two reasons - love of their sports and for the University of Arizona.
Nothing can be better than that.
