>
> Here's the column from the St. Paul Pioneer-Press that I mentioned
> recently. Let the flames begin:
>
> By Tom Powers
> St. Paul Pioneer Press
>         MINNEAPOLIS -- At 1:29 of the first period Saturday, Andre
> Savage, from Ottawa, Ontario, scored off a pass from Jason
> Prokopetz of Esterhazy, Saskatchewan. The second assist was credited
> to Kyle Peterson, who hails from Thunder Bay, Ontario.
>         No, this was not Team Canada scoring a goal during
> international competition. It was Michigan Tech scoring against the
> Golden Gophers at Mariucci Arena. Our tax dollars at work.
>         I think more Americans were on the Coratian national team
> that played the Gopher hoopsters last week than play hockey for
> Michigan Tech. But this is how it is throughout the Western Col-
> legiate Hockey Association these days. If Minnesota isn't facing
> off against the North Dakota Maple Leafs, it is jousting with the
> Northern Michigan Canucks.
>         ``I have to take care of my own business,'' Gophers coach
> Doug Woog said. ``I make my statements with what I do. I feel pretty
> strongly about the Minnesota kids we have here.''
>         Woog won't even look for talent out of state, never mind
> scour the hinterlands of Canada. That's a bit extreme. Deep down,
> I don't think any Gophers fans would mind if Woog mixed in the
> occasional Iowan or South Dakotan. But nobody should have to show a
> passport to report for fall practice.
>         So it's time to beef up the border patrol. Those scholarship
> benefits should be going to U.S. youngsters. Where is Proposition 187
> when we need it?
>         Somebody tell Newt Gingrich about this matter. Or better yet,
> Jesse Helms. Jesse might personally show up at the border carrying
> a flintlock.
>         In legal disputes, judges look to the Constitution for answers.
> In religious arguments, theologians check the Bible. When it comes
> to hockey, John Mariucci should be the final word. And back in the
> `60s, Mariucci refused to allow his Gophers to play Denver Univer-
> sity's team, which consisted primarily of Canadians. John knew it
> wasn't right.
>         Woog shrugs. He found himself knee-deep in moose droppings
> a few years back after criticizing St. Cloud State for recruiting
> Canadians. This was right after the school opened its hockey
> facility, which was built, ostensibly, to provide more and better
> hockey opportunities for Minnesotans.
>         ``As long as their (coaches') jobs depend on winning, they'll
> go wherever they have to,'' Woog said.
>         On Saturday, Tech coach Bob Mancini, a native New Yorker,
> used nine forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender from the
> Great White North. That's not an exchange program, it's an
> immigration trend. Mancini's team, at .500 going in, played
> great and upset Minnesota 3-2 in overtime. The two teams square off
> again in another international battle royale this afternoon.
>         Listen, I love Canadians. I'm also aware, as are most people
> who occasionally cross the border, that Canada makes sure it takes
> care of itself first and foremost. Its citizens usually have two
> choices when shopping. They can buy Canadian, or they can buy
> Canadian. Foreign goods are very limited. Nothing wrong with that.
> They are taking care of their own people.
>         I'm not saying we shouldn't allow any Canadians to receive
> U.S. scholarships. But I'd be more than willing to slap on some
> limits. Call them quotas if you like. We might as well be up front
> about it.
>         Granted, it's easy to sit here in Minnesota, where there
> are a dozen hockey players on every street corner and dictate what
> out-of-state schools can and can't do. Yet this system eventually
> sould affect colleges in this state, too. Because it's not just
> about hockey. Other sports are guilty of primarily recruiting
> foreign athletes at the expense of U.S. athletes.
>         Think about it. With scholarship limits on foreign students,
> how would any school be able to field a soccer team.
> -----
>         Tom Powers is a sports columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer
> Press. Write to him at: St. Paul Pioneer Press, 345 Cedar St.,
> St. Paul, Minn. 55101.
>
>
> |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
> |                   Lynn Burke    Newport News, Va.                     |
> |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|
>
This isn't really directed at U Minn.  But maybe if the Gophers had one or two more Cannucks on their team they would have some more hardware in the trophy case.  Of course maybe a coach that can win the Big Games would help also.  I think that last point boils down to the fact that I don't think Woog is a very good coach no what the nationalities are that make up that team (WOOF!!!!).  He probably couldn't have won the gold medal with the powerful Soviet teams of the past!
 
 
later
 
jd
 
ON WISCONSIN!