ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512100008
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN AND JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITERS
Rowan cornerback Arnell Palmer is especially enjoying the pageantry that comes with a berth in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. Aside from getting out of school for two days, he's also getting some unusually pleasant shut-eye.
Palmer isn't really sleeping in, but compared to what he's used to, anything more than two hours of sleep is considered sleeping in.
Aside from playing football, Palmer's raising a 10-month-old son, Arnell Jr., progressing toward a degree in law and justice, working 32 hours a week at the Packaging Corporation of America in his hometown of Glassboro, N.J., and maintaining an apartment and life with his fiancee and Arnell's mother, DiNedra Clark.
Palmer doesn't have time to sleep.
``It's seriously tough,'' he said. ``It's all about focus. I know what my responsibilities are.''
He estimates that he gets two to three hours of sleep a night, usually coming when he gets off the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. graveyard shift at the packaging company. He finds it much easier now than he did when his shift was 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
``I get to get a little rest,'' said Palmer, who tied an NCAA playoff record with three interceptions in last week's semifinal game at Washington and Jefferson.
But isn't it tough to keep going? Palmer says no.
``You can if you know you've got to do it.''
BIG LOAD: Wisconsin-La Crosse coach Roger Harring didn't think anything of it when he made a bet with 300-pound right guard Erik Halverson over the summer.
``If we go undefeated,'' Harring told him, ``You can run the ball in our first playoff game.''
The Eagles were perfect in the regular season, so against Central (Iowa) on Nov.18, Halverson was allowed a rushing attempt. It just happened to be from the Central 1-yard line and it gave the Eagles their final touchdown in a 45-7 victory.
PERFECT: Wisconsin-La Crosse (13-0) enters today's Stagg Bowl as one of only six NCAA football teams still playing with a perfect record. Nebraska and Florida are unbeaten heading into the Jan.2 Fiesta Bowl national championship game. McNeese State, playing Marshall today in the I-AA semifinals is the lone unbeaten at that level. Perfect foes Pittsburg (Kan.) State and North Alabama play this afternoon for the Division II crown.
OLD CIGAR: When La Crosse won the 1992 Stagg Bowl in Bradenton, Fla., it wasn't the Wisconsin school's first bowl victory. The Eagles played in the Cigar Bowl in Tampa on Jan.1, 1951, beating Valparaiso 47-14. The Cigar Bowl was played only from 1947-54. Florida State won the Cigar after the 1949 season.
HAPPY RETURNS: Rowan is making its third NCAA Division III championships appearance in Salem in three years. The Profs played in the 1993 Stagg Bowl and the '94 women's softball championship. The school is picked for another Salem visit, too, as a preseason pick for the Division III men's Final Four basketball tournament, which invades the Salem Civic Center in mid-March.
STAGG STUFF: Gates open today at 11 a.m. for a 1:06 p.m. kickoff. ... Due to inclement weather, the YES Clinic will be held inside the Salem Civic Center instead of at the baseball stadium. ... There is an overtime format if the game is tied after 60 minutes. The NCAA's alternating possession rule, from the 25-yard lines, will be used. The only Stagg Bowl to end in overtime was Allegheny's 1990 triumph over Lycoming in a battle of Pennsylvania schools. ... Unbeaten teams are 10-9 in Stagg Bowl history. ... As the first football coach at the Springfield (Mass.) YMCA in 1890, Amos Alonzo Stagg recruited fellow student James Naismith to play center on the school's first football team. Naismith later made he and Stagg the team captains in the first basketball game in history in December 1891.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB