O&B Home :The Great Unknown

As a kid, Carlos de La Rosa wanted to be
Zorro. Now he's a swashbuckling senior
at UF.
(Photo by Daniela Aguilera)

Carlos de la Rosa
fencing

Living out the dreams of his father, de la Rosa began fencing as a teenager growing up in Costa Rica. The elder de la Rosa had always wanted to become a fencer and would sit his son in front of the TV to watch swashbuckling movies.

“ I would watch a bunch of movies and I remember always wanting to be the next Zorro,” de la Rosa says. “I just loved watching the fight scenes and that turned me on to fencing.”
As the highest ranked fencer on the Epee squad on the UF fencing club, the senior learned his battling techniques from top Latin American fencers.

“ The first six months I worked with them I couldn’t touch a weapon,” he says. “Everything was about movement and foot work.”

Continually working on his foot work, even while in line at the super market, the transfer from West Virginia spends more than three hours per day training at the Florida Gym. It’s been time well spent as the club placed third at the National Collegiate Club Fencing Championships last year, and he placed fourth.

Joel Cahill
wakeboarding

Last year the members of the UF Wakeboard and Ski Club brought back to Gainesville what could be the biggest trophy at UF. As the top wake boarder on the team Cahill led the club to
first place at the Collegiate National Championship held in Panama City last spring. With the title came a MasterCraft X-2 boat.

“ When they were announcing the third and second place we thought ‘OK, we got fourth place,’” the sophomore says. “Then they announced us the winners and we just erupted and ran on stage.”

Wakeboarding for nine years Cahill has been competing on the World Wakeboard Association Pro Tour for the last couple summers. Consistently ranked in the WWA’s top 20, the Maitland native has appeared a nd been featured in publications such as Wakeboarding Magazine and Waterski Magazine. With sponsors like Flojos and CWB wakeboards, top-place finishes at WWA events, and a new boat Cahill has plenty of time and some extra money to continue his hobby. “I don't plan on making this my career, but I’ll never quit doing it,” Cahill says. “It’s just too much fun.”

Steve Belford, lacrosse MVP.
(Photo by Daniela Aguilera)

Steve Belford
lacrosse

With football and basketball dominating the Sunshine State’s attention span, Lacrosse is pretty far down the list of sports in this state. But Belford and his teammates at the UF men’s lacrosse club love their sport just as the rest of Florida obsesses between the hash marks.

“Lacrosse isn’t as big here as it is up north, but we take this as serious as any one else takes their sport,” Belford says. Belford has good reason to never miss the team's practices at Southwest field on the UF campus. Last year Belford led the men's lacrosse team to the Southeast Lacrosse Championship and earned tournament MVP honors.

Both titles only added to the midfielder's trophy case. At UF Belford has been named to All-Conference teams and is All-American for the club level. At the national level the men’s captain guided his team to the finals of the national tournament, eventually losing to No. 1 Santa Barbara. UF finished with the No. 7 ranking in the county.

Josh Walker
track and field

When Josh Walker was in fourth grade, people could already see that track and field was in his future. None of the other kids could catch up to him. Walker, 21, is UF’s star hurdler. Not a lot of people hear about him, but that doesn’t bother him.

“ The sport isn’t as well respected in the U.S.A. as in European countries,” Walker says. “But it doesn’t matter; it only helps me to want to be better.”

Walker loves UF, and wanted to be in an environment with an already well-established program, but his choice to attend UF was based on the weather as well.

“ I didn’t want to be the program, I wanted to be a part of it,” he says.

His favorite professional athlete is Allen Johnson, the American record holder for 1-10 hurdles.

Walker’s greatest accomplishment is being on the World Team three times representing the United States. There’s no hurdle too high he can't reach.

“ Every time I set a goal for myself, I do it,” Walker says.

Sophomore and Championship Fencer
Kelly Crandall.
(Photo by Daniela Aguilera)

Kelly Crandall
fencing

Kelly Crandall has guided the UF women’s fencing club a few steps further. Crandall, competing as the club’s top fencer with the foil, helped earn the 2003 National Collegiate Club championship for her team.

The sophomore has never been a sports nut, but knew she found something she liked after watching “The Princess Bride.” After that she quickly picked up the silver sword and white mask.

“ Fencing is completely different from the movies, but I was and am the big fan of the movie,” Crandall says. “It's really the only sport I’ve ever participated in.”

It wasn’t only watching Inigo Montoya fight. Crandall also has books on Cyrano De Bergerac. The reading eventually transformed into hours of training and now she hopes to qualify for the Olympics for either the summer games of 2008 or 2012.

Andrea Ferreira
water polo

Ferreira has accomplishments are superb considering she picked up the sport during high school and started playing the game as a field player. She later began playing goalie for UF after the women’s goalie at the time injured herself in the middle of the 2001 tournament.

“ When the coach asked who would play goalie, I raised my hand thinking it would be less of a physical effort,” she says. “Boy was I surprised!”

Everyone was surprised, delightfully surprised.

A long way from her home in Brazil, Ferreira has been part of both the men’s and women’s teams since her freshman year. During her time at both goals she has helped the women’s team come in second in the 2001 Collegiate Club Nationals, third in 2002 and fourth in the 2003 version of the tournament. While playing with the men's team she helped them place third in 2001. “It’s hard to play with the guys, the expectations are definitely higher,” she says. “But I get their respect.”

Keiawanna Hughes
rugby

A dislocated knee cap, a separated shoulder, a broken ankle or even four concussions can’t do it. No injury can take Keiawanna Hughes off the rugby field.

“ You get your normal bumps and bruises, but it's only just as physical as any other sports,” Hughes says. “Growing up I played soccer, track, basketball and probably everything else, but I decided to take up rugby my freshman year here and it’s now by far my favorite sport.”

It has to be her number-one hobby. She has never competed competitively in any sport for longer than three years until she saw her first scrum. Since then Hughes has quickly
become a top young rugby player in the country. The senior is an All-American and member of the under-23 United States national team. Starting on the state then regional teams the senior eventually was selected for the U-23 squad last year.

Hughes also helped the UF women’s club team win last October's Gator Invitational in Gainesville.