Hope College - Milestone Yearbook (Holland, MI)

Page 20 text:

After the reel in and stretch period. Pull team members wail while the rope is marked Armor clad n loam padding and tape, Pete Wrnte prepares to settle into his pit A moment long awaited. Pull coach Pat O'Sullrvan gives one of the final signals, with his arms, and with the look on his face 16 The Pull

Page 19 text:

Heaving with neck-vein popping tenacity. John Paul tries to make all the training pay off All are important in a team etlort Substiluto Bill Godm assists anchorman Paul De Young in Pit a 18 We weren't overly confident, or frightened .ve hadn’t been cocky at all we were prepared Coaches Steve Scott and Isaac Myers discover just how much preparation was needed The Pu 15

Page 21 text:

II s 1 (continued) ously at out the “comtorts of home of each pit And with a gun's shot it began: the reel in and stretch period, the hands off and marking period Then the fight: The rope, like the thread of something more than friendship, bound us together and gave us courage and strength. The pink marking tape travelled back and forth with heaves. Sometimes it held with a strain-back and sometimes it moved. Long after the pink marker had been ten feet away from the knot it gradually made its way toward it. The anchor and each team member ahead of him fought valiantly. But the pink marker moved again and suddenly the anchor pop- ped a pit and a man stood alone with his morale girl beside him feeling he wanted to do something, but not knowing how or where, and struggling to calm a rising fear Anxious coaches hovered everywhere wondering what was amiss with the strategy or what was missing from the form of the lock-ins. strains, and heaves. No time existed; minutes and movements blended while the other team seemed so strong. We found anchoring doesn't work in a shorter pit and in a flash we'd popped two more. Then there were two men to a pit and the anchor was off the knot and in a pit And still we pulled. Blisters and tears appeared but no one gave in. instead all gave extra; set and determined faces, straining muscles and hoarse morale girls belied the fact. And through the struggle things were revealed about the inner people who had made a commitment to work together toward a common goal. The team didn't give up and didn't give in until the judges told them to fall off. and then they still didn't want to quit In the aftermath there was a jubilant yell from the other side as the rope burned by swiftly, and then there were tears and a silent letdown of a sad loss But not really a loss, because you can't go through three weeks of practice, and two hours and fifty-six minutes of stressed life and not get something out of it Pull is not just stinking pads, shorts and shirts, grimy pits and blisters and wasted time, it's the intangible feeling you get when you work together — pulling toward a common goal It's a sense of accomplishment, to say I have pulled is a feat and an experience It is memories of hard work and sharing a close odd-affection friendship Pull is an event that teaches about life, not like in a classroom, but about cooper- ation. unity and struggle — for real And Pull is winning, even when some say you've lost Winning is when you find out that you didn’t give in even when the going was tough on the rope, or in life Keeping a stiff upper lip, Lou Rietkohl strains early m the contest Grips The Pull 17