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Backers try to save Olympic training center
April 30, 2003BY JOANN BARNAS
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Most of the guys were still at dinner when David Clark returned to his dorm room at Meyland Hall. He pulled out his study guide for Tuesday morning's final exam in psychology and began reading the most important sections, the ones he already had marked with an orange highlighter.
"Right now, I'm reading on medical students and disease, about emotions and stress," Clark said.
Clark, 18, is a freshman at Northern Michigan in Marquette. He hasn't declared a major, but he told his parents back home in San Diego that he would like to go into business management.
But Clark isn't at Northern just for an education. He has an improving left jab and a goal of representing his school and country someday as a member of the U.S. Olympic boxing team.
For the past nine months, Clark, a light flyweight, has been a resident-athlete in the boxing program at the U.S. Olympic Education Center -- one of four Olympic training centers nationwide and the only one designated for the education of athletes.
But the center is in financial trouble.
The program could close its doors if Northern Michigan, the center's primary sponsor, adopts the recommendations of a budget committee to reduce the university's commitment by about $600,000 within two years. That's roughly half of the center's annual operating budget.
The training center serves as a full-time resident-athlete program for four sports -- short-track speedskating, Greco-Roman wrestling, boxing and biathlon. If the budget is cut, the center hopes to secure alternative funding.
"There's no other place in the country that has a program like this," said Jeff Kleinschmidt, the center's director since 1991. "The foundation of the program has been the direct link between the university and the athletes. I believe it would be an absolute tragedy not to continue supporting and educating our Olympians."
Around the state, universities are facing cutbacks. Northern Michigan is no exception.
Thursday in Marquette, the board of trustees will consider a plan to cut nearly $10 million from Northern's budget in the 2003-04 fiscal year. The recommendations were made by a budget alternatives committee, appointed by school president Judi Bailey in December to find ways to reduce costs while preserving academics.
"We started out looking at all areas -- and areas we were higher than our peers -- and public service was one of them," said Mike Roy, vice president for finance and administration and co-chair of the budget alternatives committee. "Then we looked at areas in public service, and that included the USOEC, our public radio and TV station, some economic development that we do and labor education programs. We take a great deal of pride in them, but we're forced to make some difficult choices."
Trustees will vote on a proposal to cut $150,000 from the Olympic education center in the next fiscal year. An additional $440,000 in cuts for the following fiscal year will be considered in the fall, Roy said.
The center's annual budget is about $1.1 million. Of that, Northern Michigan provides $592,000. The rest comes from the U.S. Olympic Committee ($125,000) and the sale of $25 tax-deductible Michigan license plates (about $150,000 a year). An additional $210,000 covers room and board for athletes who qualify for Olympic scholarship money under a federal program spearheaded by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee.
"I should mention, we do still have some time to find some alternative funding," Roy said. "We hope to go back to our board in October with some plan or update as to what the future might hold for the USOEC."
That's good news to Cathy Turner, a four-time Olympic medalist in short-track speedskating, who graduated from Northern in 1991 with honors in computer systems. A three-time Olympian, Turner, now a 41-year-old mother of two girls, works as a computer technician and coaches speedskaters in Rochester, N.Y.
"I hope it doesn't go down, because being an athlete and a student there was a big part of my life and my success," Turner said. "It was the most perfect environment for school and sport."
Attorney Keith King of Toluca Lake, Calif., is the center's first graduate from Northern Michigan (in 1989) and a former member of the U.S. men's speedskating team.
"Athletes in sports such as speedskating don't have NCAA opportunities," King said. "The USOEC provides what nothing else can: top-notch training and the ability to pursue your education."
Since 1985, there have been 561 full-time resident athletes at the center. But the number swells to more than 22,000 if you factor in short-term athletes, those who train periodically at the facility or during camps in the summer.
The Olympic education center has sent 69 resident-athletes to the Olympics since 1988, 17 of whom returned home with Olympic medals.
Other Olympic training centers are in Colorado Springs, Colo., Lake Placid, N.Y., and Chula Vista, Calif.
In addition to its four full-time resident programs, the Marquette center has trained athletes in more than 30 sports. USA Weightlifting is proceeding with plans to start a resident-athlete program there in July, Kleinschmidt said. And if USA Wrestling establishes a women's freestyle program in 2004, that sport and weightlifting would bring "an additional 35 full-time students to the university," he said.
John Smyth, the training centers director for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said he hopes to see the Marquette program continue. So does Stupak.
"This is something that Bart holds near and dear to his heart, and we want to make sure we explore every avenue of possible funding," said Scott Schloegel, Stupak's chief of staff.
In the interim, Kleinschmidt is urging Michigan drivers to purchase Olympic education center license plates.
"If one person out of every 200 bought a license plate, that would generate $750,000 a year for us," he said. "The people of Michigan could step up and save this program."
Sounds like a good idea to Clark, who, by the way, thinks he did pretty well on that psychology exam.
"My boxing gym back home is in Chula Vista, right next to the (Olympic) training center," he said. "But they don't have boxing there. This is where I need to be."
For questions on the license plate program, call Kleinschmidt at 906-227-2888. Contact JO-ANN BARNAS at 313-222-2037 or barnas@freepress.com.
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Apr.30, 2003
Nikki Darrow: Usually the All-Eagle team consists of only one person per weight class, but Darrow's outstanding performance put her among the county's elite this year.
Darrow was excellent throughout the regular season, the highlight of which was her second straight title at the Mountie Invitational. The sophomore also handed Wolfe his only county loss of the season on Feb. 8, when she beat him 5-1 at the county duals.
Darrow's runner-up finish at Western Mass. was the highest ever for a female competitor.