Friday, September 14, 2001

Some athletes face flying fears after attacks
By Colleen Casey
Skiff Staff

Senior golfer Jennifer Patterson has never liked flying on airplanes.

Now after Tuesday’s terrorist attack, Patterson said she’s even more nervous about flying.

“I’m a little apprehensive, but I will put my trust in the Lord, and let him take care of everything,” Patterson said.

Although an athlete’s perspective on air transportation could currently be considered a less important after-effect from Tuesday’s hijacking, it is still something that has hit close to every athlete that flies for competition.

For now, no known changes for transportation of TCU athletes have been made public.

At TCU, every athletic team will board an airplane to attend a competition at least once in their seasons.

Patterson said she understands that traveling is something that comes with her duty as a collegiate athlete.

“Opponents are not close, we have to travel to them,” Patterson said. “For some reason I’m more nervous flying, not driving, even though it’s probably just as dangerous.”

Just as Patterson is dealing with the thought of future transportation, men’s and women’s soccer associate head coach Blake Amos said he believes every athlete will individually determine his or her perception of air travel.

“Flying again will obviously be very nerve racking,” Amos said. “We haven’t made any official statement yet about future trips after this weekend, but I really don’t think we are very nervous about (flying).”

Amos also said he is more concerned with how much longer and harder the process of traveling will be for the soccer teams at airports.

“It’s going to change how we do things because of all the increased security,” Amos said. “I hope it won’t distract us (from playing soccer).”

Although not easy, men’s soccer midfielder Dustin Sitar said he is not allowing Tuesday’s events effect his soccer playing. Also, Sitar said he is not worried about future travel.

“If I was worried about getting on an airplane I’d be worried about going into a certain building or something like that too,” Sitar said.

For an athlete, it’s crucial to have mental peace of mind in order to perform well during games.

“You can’t be worried about it, especially with all the increased security,” Sitar said.

“It’s not a concern.”

Sitar said he thought about the possibility of him being on the plane with his teammates, and the possibility that perhaps the women’s soccer team could have been involved.

“We all talked (Tuesday) about how crazy it was and what the people on the planes must have been going through and what it would be like to be one of (those on one of the planes),” Sitar said.

As crazy as Tuesday was to some TCU athletes, worries of future air travel seem to exist, but are being dealt with by each athlete.

Colleen Casey
c.m.casey@student.tcu.edu