Truth Be Told, U-M Athletes Gained A Lot

JIM CNOCKAERT

The Ann Arbor News

Truth be told, U-M athletes gained a lot

Anyone arriving late to Monday’s 56th annual Bob Ufer Quarterback Club banquet at Barton Hills Country Club might have wondered if they’d wandered into the wrong room.

The theme for the evening appeared to be about lying, of all things. And, while any time the word was mentioned was cause for much laughter, it still seemed out of place.

“Lying” isn’t exactly the word people who have great feelings for the University of Michigan typically associate with the school’s athletic teams.

Football coach Lloyd Carr told how he had promised linebacker Victor Hobson he’d play him as a freshman, but instead encouraged him to sit out his first season.

“I lied to him,” Carr admitted. Softball coach Carol Hutchins picked up on the theme, explaining how she conned pitcher Marissa Young into attending Michigan. Young, a California native, made her official visit to Ann Arbor early in September. The weather that weekend was gorgeous. Hutchins assured Young that’s what Michigan weather was like.

Asked what she’d tell a talented high school softball player from California about Michigan, Young replied: “They lie.”

The line got the biggest laugh of the evening, even if Young was only half-joking. Michigan weather, she continued with a grin, has never been as nice as it was that visitation weekend.

On a serious note, however, the Michigan seniors honored during the banquet - Young, Hobson, LaVell Blanchard, Jed Ortmeyer, Delia Sonda, Rotulu Adebiyi and Abby Crumpton (who could not attend) - echoed a much different theme.

They talked about learning and growing up as people, about becoming a part of something much greater than themselves - the Michigan tradition - and about leaving Michigan with a whole lot more than that with which they’d come to the university four or five years ago.

The native Ann Arbor athletes - Sonda, Blanchard and Adebiyi - said they’d gained a greater appreciation for what the university meant to the community because they’d participated in athletics. All said they’d gained a greater appreciation of what it meant to be “Michigan” men and women, that their college careers were just the start of life-long relationships with their alma mater.

Repeating the question about what she’d tell a promising high school softball recruit about Michigan, Young continued: “I would tell them Michigan is far from home, but that they’d have a huge, wonderful family waiting here for them. And I’d tell them: ‘Don’t rush through it.’ I “I rushed through four years wanting to get back (to California). I’m not in a hurry to get back. My parents thought I’d be on the first flight back. You made me feel so welcome. I think this will be my home for a while.”

All seven echoed one particular sentiment: They’d forever remember the friendships they’d made at Michigan, not just on their teams but within the athletic department.

Hobson said his favorite moment as a football player came in the minutes immediately after the 2003 Outback Bowl, when he celebrated his last game (and victory) with his best friends.

Blanchard said: “You must cherish those relationships. Because you’re an athlete, you meet beautiful people whom you otherwise would not have met ”

That was one aspect of being a Michigan athlete about which the coaches never had to lie.

Jim Cnockaert can be reached at icnockaert@annarbornews.com or at (734) 994-6816.