Eric's Sports/Athletics Page

Eric's Sports/Athletics Page

Principal Sports/Athletics that I've participated in and enjoyed:

Basketball -- I played in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades on the St. Raymond school team. Due largely to being about two years younger (i.e., less physically mature) than my classmates (the result of skipping the 3rd grade, and even if I had not, I would have still been one of if not the the youngest in my class), I wasn't very good. I didn't play much.

Bicycling -- This is one of my current passions. Whenever I can, I go out on my 2000 Cannondale T2000 for 30-60 miles at a time. Unfortunately, I only can find time to do this once every two or three weeks or so, excluding the winter. I also often ride (recumbent) exercise bikes at my local gym, especially in the winter. In the past, I've ridden the (two-day) 210 mile TOSRV ride about ten times since 1978. In 1979, at the age of 15, my friend Rich Encelewski and I went on a 1,000 mile tour of Michigan that took two weeks. More recently, I completed a 3,365 mile, 61 day tour across the country (i.e., from San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL). It was a blast!

Canoeing -- In my teens and early twenties, I was quite a canoeist. I was certified as an American Red Cross Canoe Instructor in 1981. I was active in canoe racing from 1981 to 1985 with Boy Scout Explorer Post 1338. I enjoyed a fair amount of success, with the highlights probably being twice winning the 19.5 mile Des Plains River Canoe Marathon. I also went on two extended canoe trips: In 1981, I went on a tour of the Dead River Basin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In 1984, I went on a fateful two week trip up the Missinaibi River.

Crew (i.e., rowing) -- In the 10th grade, I got involved in my high school's abortive effort to develop a crew program. It was fun. Later, I had the chance to try single skulls with my friend, Bob Binion. I'm proud to say that I managed to stay up for about a half hour before "going over" (it is not easy!).

Football -- I played starting offensive right tackle for the Wish-Egan Eagles "pony" team in 1973. In 1976, I started as defensive left tackle for the St. Raymond "Blue Rays". Defense was much more fun than offense!

Jogging -- I occasionally jog when so motivated. The longest I've ever gone was 15 miles, which I've done twice: once in 1988 (on Maui), and once in 1995 (along the C&O Canal Towpath in Virginia). My knees and back really hurt these days when I run, though, so I am becoming decreasingly interested in running.

Racquetball -- Since few people in the world play paddleball, I've been forced to migrate to racquetball. Most of the Racquetball that I've played was with the Duke University Racquetball Club. For a while, I was even a member of the US Racquetball Association.

Paddleball -- Most people haven't heard of Paddleball. It is played almost exactly like racquetball and in the same court (in fact, racquetball was an outgrowth of paddleball), but is played with a wooden paddle (not a stringed racquet) and with a hollow rubber ball with a pin hole in it (makes it bounce less). I got involved in paddleball at the suggestion of my friend, Roscoe Johnson, while at the University of Michigan. He taught me to play and I even beat him once. Most of my playing, however (perhaps as many as 5,000 games) was against or with my friend, Tom Woodside. We were very evenly matched. Paddleball is a superior game to racquetball because it requires more speed and more muscle.

Rugby -- I played "second row" forward for the Bangor, Washington Naval Submarine Base team in 1988. Rugby is a lot of fun. It is one of the only real team sports that adults can play.

Sailing -- I've been an enthusiastic sailor since being a regular passenger as a child on my father's CL-16. I also have extensive time logged in various Barnett Butterflys. The funnest sailboats that I've sailed are the racing 470 class and the old Walloon 17. In 1991, I became certified as an American Red Cross Sailing instructor. I also taught sailing for the University of Michigan Sailing club in 1984. These days, the only opportunities I usually get to sail are when visiting Rothiemay Cottage, my grandmother's cottage on beautiful Crystal Lake in Michigan and at Camp Michigania on Walloon Lake, also in Michigan.

Skiing -- I've recently gotten hooked on alpine skiing. Mostly, I go to the local ski place, White Tail. The most fun that I've ever had skiing was at Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia in March, 1996. I consider myself an intermediate skier. I'm willing to go down any terrain as long as it is groomed. I haven't mastered moguls or powder, so I tend to avoid them. Here's a photo of Eric the skier.

Here's my most interesting skiing story, which took place at Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia in March, 1996:
One day on Whistler, I was going up one of the few T-bars on the mountain. There were big signs there indicating when you were supposed to let go of the T-Bar at the top. It was quite specific that you weren't supposed to let go until you were adjacent to the "bull gear" (the big "pulley" that drives the cable). The next day, I was on Blackcomb and found myself on another T-bar (the "Horstman T-Bar"). This one didn't have any signs telling you when to let go, but given my experience the day before, I was confident in knowing the lay of the land, so to speak. I was riding the T-Bar by myself. I say this to convey that it is somewhat difficult to stay on a T-Bar by yourself. Unless you put the bar between your legs (which you aren't supposed to do), the T-Bar is constantly trying to slip off your butt to the side, so you are constantly having to hold it from slipping off you. The T-bar started pulling me up a fairly steep slope (maybe 40 degrees). The steepness of the slope made it that much more difficult to keep the T-Bar from slipping. After perhaps 30 yards of this 40 degree slope it started pulling me up a more severe (perhaps 50 degrees) slope for about four feet. Then it actually went down about a 45 degree slope. There was a guy standing there on the side, but he didn't say anything. I noticed that I wasn't adjacent to the bull gear yet, so I kept hanging on. Then it pulled me up a 75 DEGREE SLOPE for about ten feet into the air! This is almost straight up, you know. It was really all I could do to hold on. I was thinking how poor a design this was -- most people probably wouldn't be able to hold on under these circumstances, I thought to myself. At the top of the ten foot rise was ... NOTHING! The rise was a wooden thing with snow on it and it had no top or back. So at the top of this ten foot thing I was suddenly thrust into space and went splatttt! I fell face down from ten feet up. I'm pretty fortunate not to hurt myself. But I did get the wind knocked out of me. Cursing the poor design of this T-bar, I suddenly realized that I'd better get myself together and scurry away from underneath this ten foot thing I got pulled up and dropped off. I didn't want the next guy to plop down on top of me! Eventually, I realized that the 45 degree down slope was where I was supposed to let go and ski off to the side. But there were no signs telling me to do so and the person standing there didn't tell me to do so. I felt very foolish indeed.

Softball -- I've played softball ever since I was about 8. Except for 1982-1993 (during which I played a total of about six games), I've played regularly ever since then. The best game I ever played in was in August '97 at Camp Michigania. In the week's adult softball game, I had the game of my life. In five at bats, I got a single, a triple, and three home runs. I also made no errors and a few put-outs in the field. I've been a member of my office softball team for the past four years. Here's a photo of me at bat. Here's a story of the softball game from Hell (7/13/95) where no fewer than nine unfortunate things happened:

The game was to start at 7:00. I changed into my gear at my workplace at about 6:00 in preparation. I found that I had failed to bring shorts from home. My colleague suggested I play in my dress trousers. Well, I didn't want to ruin my $200 trousers. Then, fortunately, I realized that my building had a gym in it, so I bought a pair of shorts there and was good to go.
Only 9 guys showed up to play, so we had to play 1 man short (with 3 outfielders instead of the more typical 4).
In the first half of the first inning, we made 7 or 8 errors and the opposition scored 8 runs.
In our half of the first inning, we scored 2 runs, but our best player (Paul) tore his left calf when rounding third base on a home run. He played the rest of the game as pitcher, but could only move by hopping (during his times at bat, he stood in the batter's box on one leg with the bat on his shoulder and didn't swing at a single pitch).
We lost the game.
After the game, we had to get Paul to a hospital. Steve volunteered both to do that and to drop me off at the subway. He went to get his car while I helped Paul hop to the road. Paul and I waited for about 20 minutes, but no Steve. I wandered around the parking lot to try to find him and eventually found him sitting in his driver's seat. "Are you waiting for Paul?", I asked.
"Yes".
"Well, He's over there," I added.
He nodded, but didn't seem very responsive.
Bewildered, I went back to Paul.
"Is he there?" He asked.
"Yes", I answered.
"Is he coming?" He asked.
"I don't know", I answered.
We went over to him, Paul hopping the whole way with me supporting one arm. Paul told me that Steve had had seizures before. I realized that he must have had one in his car and was in a "dream world" kind of state. I went to get an ambulance. A police car arrived. Since both these guys were in need of medical attention, they put both Paul and Steve in there, and I followed in Steve's car.
At a Stop Light, the police car backed into Steve's car (which I was driving). There was no damage.
We transferred Paul and Steve to an ambulance and I followed it to the Hospital. Steve seemed OK by then. They did a blood test just in case. Paul got a compression bandage, some crutches, and a pain shot. Eventually his girlfriend came to pick him up. He was discharged and left with her.
About ten minutes later, I saw Paul getting wheeled back into the emergency room on a gurney. I asked his girlfriend what happened and she said that he fainted. Steve was eventually released and Paul's girlfriend was there to stay with Paul, so I left with Steve and I got home around midnight.

Swimming -- I enjoy long distance swimming in the summers. The farthest open-water swim I've ever done is nine miles, which I did at Crystal Lake in Michigan on August 5, 1999. It was the entire length of the lake and took me 6:27 to complete. I typically swim 1-2 miles at a time at a pace of about 1.5 miles/hour.

Weightlifting -- I've been interested in weightlifting since I was about 12 years old. I first saw Pumping Iron and met Arnold Schwartzeneggar in 1977. I started lifting seriously in 1981 at the University of Michigan. While at college, I regularly lifted with my friends Ben Dubin and Roscoe Johnson. My best ever day lifting was December 3, 1991. On that day, my all time maximum for the bench press went up 25 pounds, to 315, while my maximum on the incline bench went up 20 pounds, to 265. I got 315# up on three other occasions, most recently in the fall of 1993. Since then, I've stopped trying to lift so heavy due to various minor muscular injuries. Presently, I lift at the gym in my local aquatic center. Here's an early photo of Eric the hardbody.

Wrestling -- I wrestled in High School ('79-'80 and '80-'81 seasons) in the 198 pound weight class. I didn't actually weigh 198 pounds though. In my junior year, I weighed 175 pounds. The large weight difference, combined with the large age difference (I was 15 and wrestling some guys who were 19) conspired to only allow me to go 4-25 that year (the four wins were pins). My senior year (weighing 185# and now 16 years old, but still wrestling in the 198# weight class against several 19 yr. old monsters) I improved to a mediocre 10-12. I very much enjoyed wrestling in High School. In college, I tried to go out for the team, but was too late to do so my freshman year. I was the Intra-mural champion that year (1981) at the University of Michigan, pinning in 43 seconds in the final, but never followed up trying out for the college team.

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This page last updated 06/01/06