THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
WEEKNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2009
SPORTS
5B
BIG 12
Kansas State athletics director to leave for new campus
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Less than a year after taking over as Kansas State's athletics director, Bob Krause announced Tuesday that he was leaving that job to direct fundraising for a new K-State campus in Olathe.
Krause's resignation is effective March 31. He took the job as athletics director in April 2008 after
serving as the university's vice president for institutional advancement and wasn't expected to serve in the A.D. post for long. He has been with Kansas State for 23 years.
University President Jon Wefald said deputy athletics director Jim Epps would serve as interim athletics director until a replacement was selected.
"For almost a year now, I have worked with the athletics department since this has been a high priority for the university as it makes a transition of leadership in the president's office," Krause said in a written statement released by the university. "I believe the department is in very good shape."
Wefald, who is retiring after the current academic year, added that the new A.D. would be chosen by the school's next president.
Wefald said the announcement
was all part of the plan to have a "seamless transition."
"Bob is so looking forward to his new duties," he said in a telephone interview. "It's the sort of thing he's done before and he enjoys it greatly. The new president would name his own A.D. anyway."
In his new position as director of development for Kansas State's Olathe Innovation Campus, Krause will lead fundraising efforts
for the suburban Kansas City facility, which has been in the works for about a decade.
"Over the last 10 years we have worked hard to establish a campus in the Kansas City area related to developing food safety and security as the university's top academic and research priority," Krause said.
He said that although funding was in place for the first building on the new campus, more money was
needed fund the rest of the project.
"I enthusiastically look forward to this new assignment," he said.
Since joining the Kansas State staff in 1986 as director of student affairs, Krause has worn many hats and been closely associated with athletics.
Among the most noteworthy events of Krause's one-year tenure were the firing of football coach Ron Prince.
Mano-a-mano
Poland's Bartosz Jurecki throws in front of Norway's Bjarte Myholt during the main round Group II handball match between Norway and Poland at the Men's Handball World Championship in Zadar, Croatia, on Tuesday.
HIGH SCHOOLS
The court ruled that a former high school cheerleader cannot sue a teammate who failed to stop her fall while she was practicing a stunt. The court also said the injured cheerleader cannot sue her school district.
Associated Press
BY RYAN J. FOLEY
MADISON, Wis. High school cheerleading is a contact sport and therefore its participants cannot be sued for accidentally causing injuries, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a case being closely watched in the cheerleading world.
The National Cheer Safety Foundation said the decision is the first of its kind in the nation.
Cheerleading deemed contact sport
At issue in the case was whether cheerleaders qualify for immunity under a Wisconsin law that prevents participants in contact sports from suing each other for unintentional injuries.
It does not spell out which sports are contact sports. The District 4 Court of Appeals ruled last year cheerleading didn't
quality because there's no contact between opposing teams.
But all seven members of the Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to overturn that decision. In the opinion, Justice Annette Ziegler said cheerleading involves "a significant amount of physical contact between the cheerleaders."
As an example, she cited stunts in which cheerleaders are tossed in the air.
The lawsuit was brought by Brittany Noffke, who was a varsity cheerleader at
The decision means cheerleaders can be sued only for acting recklessly. The court said Nofke's
"I think it's groundbreaking, but I'm disappointed in the result."
Most state athletic governing bodies do not regulate cheerleading. Those that do make a distinction between "competitive spirit squads" and sideline cheerleading, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. The group writes voluntary rules for cheerleading that do not have the force of law.
insurance policies if the lower court decision stood.
Because of the increasingly difficult stunts, injuries among high school cheerleaders are a problem. Researchers at the University of North Carolina have found that two-thirds of the roughly 100 cases of "catastrophic" sports injuries among high school girls since 1982 have involved cheerleading.
TRACY TOOL Cheerleader's attorney
teammate only made a mistake or showed a lack of skill. As for the school district, Ziegler said it cannot be sued for the coach's behavior under a Wisconsin law that shields government agencies from lawsuits for the actions of employees.
Tool would not elaborate on Noffke's injuries or say if she has fully recovered.
She sued a 16-year-old male teammate who was supposed to be her spotter but failed to catch her; the school district; and the district's insurer.
Many observers had warned that families of cheerleaders would be forced to take out big
Ziegler rejected Noftke's argument that "contact sports" should mean only aggressive sports such as football and hockey. She wrote they should include any sport that that includes "physical contact between persons."
"I think it's groundbreaking,
but I'm disappointed in the result," said attorney Tracy Tool, who represented Noffke.
Holmen High School in western Wisconsin. While practicing a stunt in 2004, Noffke fell backward off the shoulders of another cheerleader and suffered a serious head injury.
More than 95,000 female students and 2,100 male students take part in high school cheerleading every year, according to the North Carolina researchers.
"There's a lot of gray area about whether it's a sport or an activity," said spokesman Bruce Howard.
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