Simpsonian

Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Sports

Junior Sampson Shnurman has been working with athletic trainers to improve his raquetball skills. Justin Wells/Staff Photographer

Junior Sampson Shnurman has been playing racquetball for over 10 years, constantly working to improve his game. With some help from the strength and conditioning program, he has taken his game to a new level.

Shnurman, a transfer student from Des Moines Area Community College, has been playing in racquetball tournaments for quite some time now and recently began competing part time on the professional tour.

Shnurman says he mainly competes in the tournaments in the Midwest. He has competed elsewhere, but said the tournaments in the Midwest are the easiest for him to attend.

"I've been to tournaments in Florida and California," Shnurman said. "But that's a long way to travel to play racquetball. The competition in those tournaments is extremely stiff. The bigger the tournament, the tougher the competition."

Shnurman has even been approached by two manufacturers of racquetball equipment, Head and Gearbox. The two companies sponsor athletes competing in professional racquetball tournaments.

Shnurman said neither company wants to sign him to a very big contract, though, because he can't compete on the tour full time.

"Since I have to go to school and I can't compete full time, they don't want to sign me to anything huge," Shnurman said. "I only make it to about half the stops and there's 22 stops on the tour."

When Shnurman arrived on campus, he quickly developed a relationship with Justin Snyder, head strength and conditioning coach, and Nate Seberg, assistant strength and conditioning coach. Shortly after they met, Shnurman asked Snyder and Seberg if they could help take his game to the next level.

"After he found out we were strength coaches he just popped in and asked us if we could help him with a program," Snyder said.

Snyder said Shnurman was working out quite a bit even before he sought his and Seberg's help.

"He was working out pretty hard," Snyder said. "He didn't have an organized approach, so we organized his approach and he really felt the differences immediately."

Shnurman echoed Snyder's statements, saying he felt the effects of his workouts in the very next tournament he competed in.

Continued...

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