Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
The Kansas women's softball team hope to continue its will ways this weekend against Nebraska and Iowa State.
SEE PAGE 3B
Friday
April 30,1999
Section:
B
Page 1
Intramurals
Intramural sports provide relaxation, recreation and fun for KU students.
SEE PAGE 4B
College basketball
Two Kentucky players announce they will leave the university for other schools.
SEE PAGE 5B
Contact the Kansan
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Sports Desk: (785) 864-4810
Sports Fax: (785) 864-0391
Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com
After a life-threatening attack, a talented baseball player is ...
Taking a second swing at the plate
By Ryan Perkins sports@kansan.com Special to the Kanson
Four years ago, Brad Harker lay in a coma in a Columbus, Ohio, hospital, the right side of his skull fractured into hundreds of pieces, fighting for his life after someone attacked him with what police think was a metal tire iron.
Today, Harker, a Lawrence native and one-time varsity baseball player at Kansas State, is attending the University of Kansas, teaching youngsters how to swing the bat and rebuilding his life after his near-death experience.
His attacker remains unidentified and may never be punished.
Harker had major league potential. In 1993, he was drafted as a first baseman
by the Chicago White Sox in the 36th round. But he turned down a small contract and took his 3.98 grade point average and 6-foot-5, 210-pound frame to Kansas State University with two goals: get a degree and pursue whatever avenues baseball might bring.
Harker's work ethic earned him immediate respect from K-State head baseball coach Mike Clark.
Top right: Brad Harker, Lawrence junior, looks over the right field fence at a Douglas County Amateur Baseball Association field. Above: John Sneegas, 11-year-old Lawrence resident, receives batting instruction from Harker. For two years, Harker has helped coach the Cubs, a Douglas County Amateur Baseball Association team composed of 11- and 12-year-old kids. Photo by Augustus Anthony Piazza/KANSAN
"Brad went out and did his job every day and continually improved as a first baseman," Clark said. "Brad represented KSU the way you would want your own kid to."
During the summer of 1995, Harker was preparing for his junior year at KState, playing in a wooden bat league in Ohio with the Columbus All-Americans, a college-level team.
On July 16, 1995, Harker's dream of playing professional baseball came to a brutal end. Harker and most of his teammates were staying at the Triangle fraternity house at Ohio State University. After a long night of playing pool in the fraternity with teammates, Harker decided to leave about 2 a.m. The team had a doubleheader the next day and would be leaving for the field in the morning.
But when morning came, Harker's teammates realized he was missing. One went to check on Harker and found him unconscious in his bed, blood covering his face, which was swollen to the size of a basketball. The shrill alarm clock that was supposed to waken him still echoed throughout the room.
Harker was rushed to the Ohio State University Medical Center's intensive care unit where he underwent 14 hours of surgery to repair head injuries.
Sue and Jay Harker, his parents, arrived in Columbus as soon as they could.
See FORMER on page 3B
Team aims to end year with win against'Cats
K-State comes to town riding April hot streak
By Matt Tait
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
This is it: the final Big 12 conference series of the season for the Kansas baseball team is this weekend, closing out what has been a less than memorable season for the team.
The Jayhawks have struggled in the powerful Big 12. Competition at times, they have mostly been dominated, carrying a 4-23 record. 0-12 at home.
Kansas biggest rival.
"At this point in the season, it's a little something extra for us to shoot for," catcher Shane Wedd esd. "To knock off your rival in the final
What better way, however, to close out performance play than against the
Kansas State Wildcats — Kansac' hisoect rival
series would put a nice touch on the end of our season."
Finishing the season with a "nice touch" is something that the entire team is focusing on right now.
The Wildcat pitchers have pitched brilliantly at times this season, throwing complete games and shutting down powerful conference opponents. However, they have thrown equally as poorly at other times, losing games they might have won.
"The important part is for us to finish strong," shortstop John Nelson said. "If we come out with intensity and ready to play, I think we will."
The challenge: to knock the Wildcat starting pitchers out of the game. The plan: to return to the hot hitting that the Jayhawks enjoyed during the recent Texas A&M and Oklahoma State series.
"Their starters are good, and we need to get into their bullpen to have success." Randall said.
"It's a little odd to come back and play them right again away," Coach Bobby
Randall said, "But we saw them the other night, we know what we need to do, and we'll take it as a challenge to that."
But to do that, the Jayhawks will have to erase the memory of a recent shelllacking at the hands of the Wildcats. Wednesday night in Wichita, K-State pounded out 12 hits and cycled through six Jayhawk pitchers, dismissing the Jayhawks 13-3.
Led by senior starter Jason Wells and
Part of the reason for their vitality is the fact that their offense has come alive lately. Led by left fielder Kasey Weishaar's, 442 average, K-State's offense has scored, and scored often, in its past few Big 12 contests. In the past nine games K-State has outscored its opponents 103-52, managed 116 hits and compiled a 7-2 record.
The Wildcats have won the past six meetings between these Sunflower State rivals in Lawrence, but still trail 160-138 in the 298-game series. 'Tonight's and tomorrow's games will begin at 7 p.m. Sunday's finale will start at 1 p.m.
and final spot in the conference tournament.
Edited by Keith Burner
The women's rowing team practices on Clinton Lake. The team features its own two-sport star in Ali Brox a sophomore, who also plays for the basketball team. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
Wins at regionals could push team to national competition
The Jayhawks travel to Madison, Wis., this weekend for the Midwest Association of Rowing Championships. A top-five finish would be a step toward qualifying for the NCAA Women's Rowing Championships in Sacramento, Calif.
By Matt James
Kansan sportswriter
A trip to the championships May 28-31 would top off what has been the most productive season in the four years women's rowing has held varsity sport status.
The bags are packed. The boats are ready. And for the women's rowing team, the stakes have never been higher.
mjames@kansan.com
by man james
mjames@kennpp.co
"This is obviously our most important weekend of the season," said Coach Rob Catloth. "I believe that this region can get four varsity eight boats into the NCAA's. That means we'll have to unset a couple of schools."
Pulling off upsets is something Kansas hasn't really had to worry about this spring. The team has been ranked in the National Collegiate Rowing Coaching Poll the entire spring. Landlocked in the Midwest, though, the Jayhawks haven't faced a ranked opponent since a March 27 showdown with 28th-ranked Boston and 22nd-ranked Massachusetts. The Jayhawks' first varsity eight boat is only tied with Cornell at No. 23 in the most recent rankings.
With only 15 teams receiving bids to the championships in Sacramento, a final ranking in the 20s probably won't be good enough. The Jayhawks need a large field of talented schools to prove themselves. Enter this weekend.
Fifth-ranked Michigan, eighth-ranked Michigan State and ninth-ranked Wisconsin highlight a talented field of more than 20 schools.
"We need to keep focused throughout the entire weekend," Catloth said. "With a potential of four races, it is extremely important that we keep our enthusiasm and motivation in every race."
Ironically, what may have helped prepare Kansas for this weekend was a loss to Sacramento State April 23. The two second loss to the Hornets provided a rare nail-biting finish.
"Most of the races we've had haven't been that close," said junior co-captain Becky Valburg. "Having a close race will be a great benefit in Madison."
—Edited by Kelli Royberm
Commentary
Graduate gives parting advice: Drink beer, respect seniors
Ladies and gentlemen of the University of Kansas: Drink beer.
Enjoy the power and strength of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and strength of your youth until you've blown out a knee.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, drinking beer would be it. The short-term benefits of beer have been proved by bar goers, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Don't worry about life after graduation. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to beat Michael Jordan one-on-one. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that break your arm at 1:30 on some idle Sunday afternoon.
Trust me, when you're graduating, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you at the University and how goofy you really looked as a freshman.
Do one thing every day that makes you sweat.
Karaoke
Run.
Don't waste your time on golf.
Don't spill other people's beer.
Don't waste your time with
others who spill yours.
Don't waste your time on go!.
Sometimes you putt long;
sometimes you putt short. The
game is long and, in the end, it's
only against yourself.
Remember the games you win.
Forget the ones you lose. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Erin Thompson
sports @ kansan.com
Get plenty of exercise.
Keep your A-papers. Throw away your F-papers. Stretch
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what sport you're best at. The best athlete I know didn't know at 22 that they were athletes. Some of the 40-year-olds I know think they're athletes.
Be kind to your roommates. You'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll have a date, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll get a dog, maybe you won't. Maybe your dog will bite your date, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken in your underwear at Fatgo's.
Whatever you do, don't talk up your game too much, or berate it either.
Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
Enjoy your body. Use it any way you can. Don't be afraid of injuring it or of what other people can do to it.
It can be the best instrument you'll ever own to score goals with.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but on the bar at Sandbar.
Read the Kansan, even if you don't agree with it.
Do not leave your phone in the owner's
it will only make you feel inadequate
Call your parents. You never know when they might feel like sending you money.
Do not read Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd." It will only make you feel inadequate.
Be nice to your siblings. They're your best bet at a pickup basketball game, even if you didn't even make the Thompson B team as a child.
Understand that teammates come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the teammates who can still hall.
Live in Johnson County once, but leave before it makes you conceited. Live in Wichita once, but leave before it makes you listen to country music.
Take road trips.
Accept certain inalienable truths. K-State has a good football team. Kansas will break your heart in March. You, too, will graduate. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were a student, K-State stunk, Kansas won the NCAA tournament and freshmen respected seniors.
Respect your seniors.
Don't expect anyone else to win a game for you. Maybe you have an NBA future. Maybe you'll marry Kenny Gregory. But you never know when a knee will blow out.
Don't be too hard on your lungs, or by the time you're 40 they will feel 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
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But trust me on the beer
Thompson is a Wichita senior in journalism.