Dacre puts Olympics ahead of gridiron

Press, 13 March 1987, Page 20

Dacre puts Olympics ahead of gridiron

A dream of competing in the sprints at the Seoul Olympic Games has prompted the Pacific Conference Games representative, Rhys Dacre, to put his American gridiron career on a back burner and return to New Zealand.

Dacre, who has been on a football scholarship at the Utah State University for the last two years, was persuaded to return to the track after a series of startling 40-yard sprints and a secret time trial over 200 m in 20.795. He is now back home in Christchurch and his former track coach, Jeff Bailey, has willingly decided to end his own “retirement” to assist Dacre realise his Olympic aspirations. “I am back for a year to see if I can make the track team for Seoul. I wouldn’t have come home if I didn’t think I could do it,” he said.

Dacre, aged 20, has a few minor football injuries he wants to clear up. He did not get a lot of play for the Utah team as a receiver, and his request to run on the track was declined by the Utah football coach. .The alternative was to seek a transfer, but under the university football rules a player has to sit out for a year after a transfer. In spite of the refusal of the team coach to allow Dacre on the track, he did slip away for a “workout with some of the track guys.” The result was his personal best 20.79 s run, achieved with no athletics preparation whatsoever. His thoughts of a track comeback were also encouraged by the 40-yard dashes which were part of his football training. Dacre ran a series of very fast sprints, his best of 4.29 s ranking him as the second-fastest man in the United States over this distance.

“This opened a few doors,” he said. Two professional football teams put out their feelers in his direction. He did not encourage them at that stage because he wanted to retain his amateur status. The Olympics were already starting to loom large in his mind.

On his return to Christchurch, Dacre admitted that he was tempted to run in the New Zealand championships at Wellington but sensibly decided against this.

memory of his Can-

terbury 200 m record run of 21.26 s in his first outing of the season two years ago still remains strong. His ability to run remarkable times without proper preparation is well known.

Dacre will now get into a solid winter buildup and prepare hinjself for next season. One of his first tasks will be to regain the New Zealand 100 m championship he won in Dunedin two years ago.

At Utah, Dacre was studying media communications. He is unconcerned at the prospect of cutting this short. “I have only completed half my degree, but the sporting life of an athlete is so

short. I can spend the rest of my life getting an education.” Dacre’s ambition is still to play American football at the highest possible level, although he feels he can afford to take a year off from this quest. If he does well at the Olympics this could add $200,000 to any professional contracts he might be offered in football.

In a sense, he is gambling his football future on the Olympics. Success at Seoul could result in footballing fame. Failure will make his ambition that much harder to achieve. ROD DEW