By Paul Meara
Swimming and diving takes hard work and preparation. That hard work and preparation has been paying off so far for the Bobcats lead after day three of the Mid-American Conference Championships. Football takes hard work and preparation. Two straight bowl games has shown the hard work of the football team.
While the ear-piercing noise that echoed in the Ohio University Aquatic Center Friday night came predominately from parents and friends of the swimmers and divers, I couldn’t help but notice a few members of the football team who were just as energized in support of their fellow athletes..
“Swimming gets my respect, it gets hype in here,” said redshirt sophomore wide receiver Bakari Bussey. “Between swimming and football, this is way more rigorous I would think.”
“It’s real intense and competitive and I like that.” said linebacker Jelani Woseley.
What about the crowd, the atmosphere?
“It’s real intense,” said Woseley. “The parents are loud, the crowd is real into it so I like that.”
“I’ve never seen parents go crazy over a sport, not like this,” added Bussey. “Seeing all these parents, it’s exciting really.”
Winning a MAC title is always one of the major goals of any Mid-American Conference team so when I asked the guys, “Is there something you can learn from the swimming and diving team to maybe get you guys on top of the MAC?” They started laughing and gave me a typical response:
“You can’t really compare the sports.” said Bussey.
So is Ohio bring home this title?
“Yeah, we bring stuff home to Athens that’s what we do.” said Woseley.