The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS Sitting Down With Women's Track And Field Coach James Henry On Dec. 2, the Michigan women's track and field team competed in the first-annual Joi Smith Intrasquad Meet, named in honor of the former Wolverine, who passed away from cancer in November 2007. Michigan coach James Henry sat down with The Wolverine to talk about the event and the charitable work of his team. The Wolverine: What did it mean to you and the team to be able to honor Joi that way? Henry: "First, the athletic department has been very cooperative in allowing us to do things in a very unorthodox manner. We're an institution of higher education and athletic sports, et cetera, and there are certain things they want us to do and not do, but they've been very good in let- ting me go outside the box to give the student-athletes the opportunity to realize there's more to our team than just athletic performance. "There are different forms of history, and Henry: "No, they actually had another fundraiser on Joi's behalf, to give money for a scholarship, to a student-athlete that epitomizes the philosophy and behaviors of Joi Smith. "They weren't there for the event, but they promised they will be back, to help the fundraiser." The Wolverine: How proud are you that your team was able to use the athletic plat- form to do so much good? Henry: "It takes the pressure of athletics off the kids and gives them a chance to relax and think about their future and think about other people that are less fortunate. "I am very fortunate here. I have some of Henry led his squad in the first- annual Joi Smith Intrasquad Meet on Dec. 2. PHOTO COURTESY U-M SPORTS INFORMATION part of that history is that, through the trag- edy of a death of a young lady on our team, we're hoping that we're continuing to stay on the forefront, with our minds, to become better individuals." The Wolverine: How did you honor her at the meet? Henry: "We held the meet in her name, and also we asked people to bring cans of food to bring to the homeless, and that's an important part for the young ladies. "And we also made a temporary tattoo, in her honor, that included a butterfly on it, and we wear that all the time when we compete. Our freshmen are unaware of it, so we wanted to give them a lesson as to what this is about, and it's about running in the spirit of Joi, and that's something I promised her parents that I would never forget. It's one way of not forgetting her, and making more people aware of who she was." The Wolverine: Were Joi's parents in attendance? The Michigan football team led the way with 11 Academic All-Big Ten recip- ients for the fall sports year while each of U-M's other six varsity sports were also well represented — women's soc- cer (10), women's cross country (nine), men's soccer (seven), volleyball (seven), field hockey (six) and men's cross coun- try (five). In total, 55 Wolverines earned academic excellence. To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten honors, student-athletes must be letter winners in at least their second academic year and carry a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or better. the best conditioned, the best academically prepared, student-athletes in the world, and even with that, you can succumb to something that is out of our control. So I'm very proud of our kids to be so very, very conscious of what we're doing, and that's just a part of the type of student-athlete that I want on the University of Michigan women's track team. "We've done things, like, last week, we each took a turn ringing a Salvation Army bell for an hour, and we put in 12, 13 hours and raised hundreds of dollars. We got a chance to give our time, and I tell them, 'Time is important, and it doesn't cost a dime.' "We also adopted a family, with three kids, to give Christ- mas presents to. Our kids went out and got the money amongst themselves, wrapped the gifts and delivered them. "Those are things you can't learn in books, and I want them to learn from life. Most of their time, they're learning from books, and learning through experience is always very important. We, as a team, believe we become better by help- ing others to become better. That's in practice and in life. Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something, and our kids take that to heart." — Andy Reid FOOTBALL LEADS WITH 11 ACADEMIC HONOREES A fifth-year senior, defensive tackle Will Heininger earned the prestigious academic achievement for the fourth straight year. Redshirt junior safety Jor- dan Kovacs and redshirt junior offen- sive lineman Patrick Omameh, mean- while, picked up the academic acclaim for the second time. While U-M's 11 football recipients led the entire athletics department, they ranked 10th among 12 Big Ten teams; Northwestern ranked first with 31 hon- orees, Nebraska second with 27 and In- diana third with 24. Only Ohio State, with 10, had fewer than Michigan and Illinois. The volleyball team's seven honorees, including senior outside hitter Alex Hunt and senior libero Sloane Donhoff, represent 58.3 percent of the team's 12 eligible — in their second academic year and a letter winner — student- athletes capable of achieving such dis- tinction. The women's soccer team did even better than that with 10 of 15 (66.7 per- cent) eligible student-athletes earning the honor, including three-time recipi- ents, and seniors, Kristen Goncalves, Haley Kopmeyer, Courtney Mercier and Kim Siebert. JANUARY 2012 THE WOLVERINE 15