You Can Say that Again

"The biggest plus for us is that they've never played us before."

-Pete Peterson

Head Football Coach

Oberlin's Crimson Thunder announce their football presence against Kalamazoo this weekend. Last season the Crimson Thunder took Thiel to school for a momentous victorty in their home opener. If the men's football team has anything to say about it, history will repeat itself.

So I heard you are an Olympian. What was your event?
I was a sprinter. I ran all the sprinting events from the 60 meter to the 400 meter and represented Trinidad and Tobago in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

It was like a new world to see how people can get together for a common goal. It was inspirational meeting people from different countries.

When did you realize you could run?
We had athletics in the school and at the age of eight a teacher recognized my talent and recommended I join a club. Then I wanted to play the piano, but my parents gave me a choice between the two and and I chose athletics.

Any regrets?
No. I got to travel throughout the world and met a lot of people. It was a great learning experience for me. I did work hard towards things women were not doing at that time. My parents did not know much about athletics, but I worked hard to accomplish my goal.

During that period, women athletics was not a big thing so I was teased a lot.

You worked in a prison system. What are the similarites to Philips?
The procedures for developing programs and forging connections between people are the same. Recreation is a good way to bring people together again. It didn't matter what crime they committed, once they were in there, recreation brought them together. There are a lot of positives in recreation and that's what I'm hoping to accomplish at Oberlin. There are a lot of pieces to it. Hopefully recreation can help mend those pieces.

I've seen some changes in the gym already. Why the sticker on your ID?
We're just trying to find out how many people are using the gym to help the recreation program develop.

How did you come to the United States?
I came on an athletic scholarship to Washington State University where I studied Physical Education.

What are your goals for Oberlin recreation?
I want people working together toward a common goal helping to build and promote the program.

Outreach always seems to be a problem for the gym. How do you plan to bring more people to the athletic facilities?

We are promoting a lot of communication with people. For example, we are issuing a monthly calendar for each intramural sport and we're allowing sign ups in dorms instead of making people come to Philips to sign up.

Have you done any coaching?
Oh yeah. I've coached all ages: elementary, middle school, high school, college and in the community. I've also developed track clubs in some of my communities.

Don't you have something you want everyone on campus to know?
By recreation reaching out, I hope students respond and let us grow to meet their needs. Students could help us by filling out the questionnaire they are about to receive in the mail. Differently disabled students are welcome too.

This Week's Events

Cross country

Friday vs. Wooster 6 p.m.

Women's soccer

Tuesday at Capitol

Men's soccer

Saturday at Defiance

Wednesday at Heidelberg

Football

Saturday vs. Kalamazoo 2 p.m.

Volleyball

Friday Oberlin/Country Hearth Invitational 6 p.m.

Saturday Oberlin/Country Hearth Invitational 12 noon

Wednesday vs. John Carroll 6:30 p.m.

Field Hockey

Saturday vs. Wittenberg 1:30 p.m.

Wednesday at Kenyon