THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2008
SPORTS 7B
BASEBALL
Price to coach for National Team Kansas gains recruits, recognition
BY SHAWN SHROYER sshroyer@kansan.com
Anyone who says it's better to give than to receive never received as much good news as the University of Kansas baseball team did during the holidays.
On Dec. 7, it was announced that Kansas catch Ritch Price would join the USA Baseball National Team staff this summer as an assistant coach.
National Team head coach Rob Watton picked the candidates for three
assistant positions himself, so Price was flattered when he received a phone call from the National Team.
"I was really excited and honored when they
Allman
called me and asked if I was interested," Price said. "When you're a college baseball coach, that's one of the greatest experiences in our profession.
"I can't tell you how humbled I was by the invitation to be on that staff. It'll
be one of the biggest experiences of my career."
But before Price could officially join the National Team staff, he had to receive permission from the Athletics Department.
Price
which turned out to be a cinch
The real challenge for Price will come this summer when he will have to balance his responsibilities with both Kansas and the National Team.
Price, who has compiled a 173-142-1 record in five seasons at Kansas, said he hoped to get as many verbal commitments as possible from recruits before leaving with the National Team for North Carolina in June.
In July, Price and the National Team will head to Europe to play the Czech Republic National Team before defending its gold medal in the IV FISU World Collegiate Championship in Brno, Czech Republic. Then, when he returns in August, Price will hit the road for in-home visits with recruits.
Along with Price, Old Dominion coach Jerry Meyers and San Francisco coach Nino Giarratano complete Walton's staff.
KANSAS LANDS 10
RECRUITS FOR 2008-09
On Dec. 11, Price unveiled his recruiting class for the 2009 season - his best yet at Kansas.
In particular, Price said this was the strongest group of pitchers hed signed at Kansas. The pitchers he landed were right-handers Kevin Burk, Warrensburg, Mo., Jared Megison, Grimes, Iowa, Thomas Taylor, Overland Park, and left-handers Travis Blankenship, Lawrence, and Kelson Boyer, Eudora. Blankenship graduated from Free State High School and will transfer in from Johnson County Community College.
The position players in the class were outfielder Jason Brunansky, Poway, Calif., first baseman Zach Egie, Minot, N.D., third baseman Jake Marasco, Maize, second baseman Colton Murray, Olathe, and Lee Ridenhour, Lenexa. Murray and Ridenhour may also see time as pitchers.
One look at the class and it becomes clear Price is no longer dependant on finding recruits from his old stomping grounds of California, with only Brunansky coming in from the "Golden State."
Although seven current Jayhawk baseball players hail from California, Price has always emphasized in-state recruiting. This year's class, with six commitments from in-state recruits, is evidence of how much progress Price has made in Kansas.
"From the time we got here, we've tried to win the state first and that's been hard for us to do. In our first four years, a majority of the best players in our state were going to Nebraska or Wichita State", Price said. "It's the first time we think we've won the state. We feel like, of the six best players in the state, we signed four".
Price said a number of factors, including Kansas' Big 12 Championship in 2006 and the $2 million clubhouse that will be completed later this year, have helped Kansas compete with other schools in the area for top recruits.
One of the players Price signed who had no shortage of suitors was Marasco, who was also recruited by Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Wichita State. However, Marasco chose to add his name to the growing list of players from Maize High School to play baseball at Kansas.
"I think it's on its way up and going to keep up going, so it'd be a great time to get involved with that kind of program," Marasco said of Kansas.
Other Maize baseball players to come to Kansas include freshman right-hander Jordan Jakubov, who signed with Kansas last year, and the famous Baty brothers, Ryan and Matt, who are two of the greatest players in program history.
Marasco said he was close to all three, having played with Jakubov and watched his older brother play with Matt. However, it was Ryan who gave Marasco the most encouragement to sign with Kansas.
"Ryan just talked about how great it is up there?" Marasco said. "They definitely helped out and they had nothing but great things to say"
And it just so happens that Price insists Marasco will remind Kansas fans of Ryan Baty.
"That's one of the best compliments I can get. He's a great player, but until I perform like it, it doesn't mean too much." Marasco said. "I'll try to live up to it."
And Marasco knows he'll have a chance to live up to expectations. He said the Kansas coaches told him they'd find a place to play him if he earned it.
"So, I guess it's kind of on me now" Marasco said.
Price said Marasco – along with Elgie, Murray, Ridenhour and Taylor – would contribute his first year. But Price cautioned he could lose Marasco and Elgie to the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
Senior outfielder John Allman was named to the 2008 Brooks Wallace Player of the Year Award Watch List, concluding Kansas' string of good news over break.
ALLMAN EARNS PRE-SEASON RECOGNITION
Based on his performance in the fall, Price expects Allman's final season at Kansas to be his most productive.
In 2007, Allman led Kansas with a .333 batting average, hit four home runs, drove in 44 runs and tallied a career-high 10-game hit streak.
"He was absolutely phenomenal in the fall," Price said. "He was better at every phase of the game and if he plays like he did in the fall I'll be absolutely thrilled."
"It's a tremendous honor for him," Price said. "It's a great statement about his first three years at KU."
— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird
>> FOOTBALL
Angry fans, missing files afflict Rodriguez
BY TIM DAHLBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rich Rodriguez might have gotten an inkling that this was not going to end well when, less than 24 hours after leaving for Michigan, the folks in tiny Grant Town had removed the highway signs advertising the West Virginia hamlet as the football coach's hometown.
Hell apparently has no fury like a state scorned, and the people of West Virginia are especially furious with Rodriguez, a native son who always proclaimed his fidelity to his alma mater. On the verge of playing for a national title one moment, the school was left standing at the altar the next when Rodriguez succumbed to the lure of coaching the Wolverines.
If that wasn't enough, some unhappy fans gave him more clues when they hung disparaging signs on a fence at his home and tossed a mailbox into the yard. There were death threats against some of his relatives, and online communities were formed simply for the pleasure of being able to write expletives in front of his name.
People heckled him at the airport, the governor expressed outrage, and the state filed suit asking for the $4 million Rodriguez promised to pay back if he should ever leave the University of West Virginia.
Now things are really starting to
The revelation by the Charleston Gazette the other day that files kept in Rodriguez's private office disappeared after he signed with Michigan adds a new level of intrigue to a story that already encompasses angry fans, baffled boosters and a coach who can't understand why an entire state should be unhappy when he was just trying to better himself.
get nasty.
Details are murky, but the paper cited anonymous sources as saying the missing documents included personal information about players, including strength and conditioning charts and records of their class attendance. The documents went missing about the same time Rodriguez cleaned out his office, and cleaned West Virginia out of the remaining assistant coaches he took with him to Michigan.
Just what happened to the documents will be the subject of debate for some time among the taxpayers of West Virginia, who live in one of the poorest states in the country but still managed to scrape up $1.78 million a year for their football coach.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rich Rodriguez, former football coach at West Virginia, is introduced as the new Michigan football coach, Monday in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Maybe he was just looking for Taylor Hill's cell phone number. Hill, a highly regarded linebacker from Youngstown, Ohio, was all but signed to go to West Virginia but announced a few days ago that he would follow Rodriguez to Michigan.
Rodriguez mess is a classic case study about all that is wrong in college football these days, where play
Missing files aside, the whole
TRACK AND FIELD
ers get by on room and board while the coaches who lead them become multimillionaires.
Muslim runner penalized for custom-made uniform
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — A high school track star has been disqualified from a meet because officials said the custom-made outfit she wears to conform to her Muslim faith violated competition rules.
Juashaunna Kelly, a senior at the District of Columbia's Theodore Roosevelt High School, has the fastest mile and 2-mile times of any girl runner in the city
for religious reasons and that he offered her several options to conform to the rules while still respecting her faith, including placing a plain T-shirt over her unitard and then wearing her team uniform over it.
Kelly's mother, Sarah, and
"It wasn't a problem last year, and it's a problem this year? Make me understand why."
Rogers said that he knew Kelly was wearing the uniform
TONY BOWDEN Coach
But meet director Tom Rogers said Kelly's uniform violated rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which sanctioned the event. Uniforms are required to be "a single-solid color and unadorned, except for a single school name or insignia no more than 2 1/4 inches," he said.
this winter. She was disqualified from Saturday's Montgomery Invitational indoor track and field meet.
The outfit allows her to compete while adhering to her Muslim faith, which forbids displaying any skin other than her face and hands.
Kelly was wearing the same uniform she has worn for three seasons while running for Theodore Roosevelt's cross-country and track teams. The custom-made, one-piece blue and orange unitard covers her head, arms, torso and legs. Over the unitard, she wears the same orange and blue T-shirt and shorts as her teammates.
"It's not special," Kelly said. "It doesn't make me perform better."
Roosevelt Coach Tony Bowden disputed that account. He said officials made several demands of her daughter before Rogers made his decision.
"First, they said she had
to take her hood off" Sarah Kelly said. "Then, they said she can't have anything with logos displayed. Then, they said she had to turn it inside out. When I told them that there weren't any logos on it, they said she had to put a plain white T-shirt on over it."
Juashaunna Kelly has worn the same uniform for three years without any problems, including at last year's Montgomery Invitational. Rogers said officials must have missed the uniform last year.
"It wasn't a problem last year, and it's a problem this year? Make me understand why," Bowden said.
Kelly, whose 1,600-meter time of 5 minutes 17.49 seconds and 3,200-meter time of 12:00.81 are the fastest of any D.C. girl, was hoping to run fast enough at the Montgomery Invitational to qualify for the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York on Feb. 8-9.
Bowden said the team had no other meets scheduled that would allow her to qualify for the event, which attracts dozens of college recruiters.
Juashaunna Kelly, a senior at the District of Columbia's Theodore Roosevelt High School, runs to a victory in the DCAAA girl's cross country invitational at Fort DuPont Park on Oct. 13, 2007, in Washington. Kelly has been disqualified from an indoor track and field meet because officials said the custom-made outfit she wears to conform to her Muslim faith violated competition rules.
NFL
Chargers could block Patriots from playing in Super Bowl
Everyone assumed the Indianapolis Colts would be the last obstacle to New England reaching the Super Bowl.
It's the San Diego Chargers who go to Foxborough, albeit with their quarterback and two best offensive players banged up.
Sorry NFL. Sorry CBS.
may be a game-time decision — sprained knee ligaments can be very limiting.
Naturally, the spread is 14 points; it's almost never in single digits with the Patriots. But it's down from an opening 15, meaning some people have plunked down money on San Diego to at least cover.
Antonio Gates played last week with his dislocated toe, so assume he will play. LaDainian Tomlinson says he will. But QB Phillip Rivers
San Diego is not without talent. The Chargers have won eight straight, including two playoff games. No, that's not 17, the number the Pats have won without a loss, but it's pretty impressive after
That might be wise.
Remember that the Chargers were 14-2 last season, the top-seeded team in the AFC. They lost 24-21 at home to New England, but the Patriots needed a lot of breaks, notably a fumbled fourth-down interception by Marlon McCree in the fourth quarter that gave them new life.
1-3 and 5-5 starts.
The forecast for Foxborough on Sunday is for a high of 22 degrees and a low of 9 with a lot of wind. Yes, the Chargers are a warm-weather team, but even Tom Brady is likely to have trouble in conditions like that. The wind makes the
gap between Brady and Rivers (or Billy Volek) a lot smaller.
None of this says San Diego will win. But Jacksonville kept it close for three quarters last Saturday night. The Chargers can do the same.
New York Giants (plus 7) at Green Bay.
PATRIOTS, 24-17
If it's windy in Foxborough, it will be just plain cold in Green Bay, especially with this game starting at 5:30 p.m. local time. Single digits at least, with wind chills below
zero.
But for Brett Favre and Eli Manning, that may be preferable to wind.
They also don't want people to believe they are the same team that lost to the Packers 35-13 in the Meadowlands in Week 2, before
The Giants don't want folks jumping on the bandwagon after their wins as underdogs in Tampa and Dallas. With linebacker Antonio Pierce, their lead talker, in the forefront, they continue to play the "us against the world" card as they prepare for the title game.
their defense grasped new coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's schemes.
Like the Chargers, the Giants are no fluke — bad teams don't win nine straight road games, two in the playoffs.
But they do have injuries in a secondary that's nothing special to start with. Tony Romo and the Cowboys weren't able to exploit it. Favre should be able to do enough to get the Packers to the Super Bowl.
PACKERS, 20-17
1.
Associated Press