SPORTS
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesdav, June 23, 1992
11
arman jika, Salina junior, takes control of the ball at Lori Black, Oksaikoa junior, and Tony Stanislav, Omaha, Neb.
reshman, watch. Since there is no official in-line hockey league in Lawrence, pick-up games are the only places to play.
Blades but no ice
Lack of a league doesn't put roller hockey on ice. This new sport offers fun and exercise to players.
It is easy to miss the pick-up game on the tennis courts just southeast of Memorial Stadium.
On the Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights they play, there are no bleachers full of fans, no officials blowing whistles or announcers calling names.
Plastic and wooden hockey sticks scrape the pavement. The players pursue a small orange plastic ball, as the smooth sound of fast-moving roller blades mingles with the rocky sound of the players. Background rock music booms from a nearby car.
The game, in-line roller hockey, is the latest twist on the old game of ice hockey.
The World Roller Hockey League made its national television debut on ESPN Monday afternoon, but this sport is nothing new to some athletes in Lawrence.
The Lawrence group, numbering 12 to 15 players, is polite but aggressive while maneuvering the orange sphere through a pair of tennis shoes marking the edges of the goal line. If the right person comes, players shoot at a pair of portable goals.
Other times, it is a combination. Monday night it was orange cones at one end and a net at the other.
Matt Rose, Shawnee graduate student, said skates — the same ones used in casual rollerblading — cost between $60 and $300. Sticks cost about $14 and knee and elbow pads are about $18.
He said the sport had less physical contact than ice hockey, but the fast pace of the game caused body collisions that often leave a player on the hard court. Sometimes, sticks brush against heads. Minor scrapes and bruises are just part of the action.
Stanislav said new people show up almost every time the group plays.
The game follows the basic rules of ice hockey, but unlike its predecessor, an apology always follows any hard physical contact.
"When we first started, everyone was a little wobbly on their skates, but it's gotten more aggressive," said Tony Stanislav, Omaha, Neb., freshman.
Not bad for a game originated as a training exercise.
"The game started as a cross-training method for ice hockey in Minnesota." Rose said. "That's how I got into it. It's a new sport, and it's relatively cheap in comparison to ice hockey."
But Lon Black, Oskaloosa junior, does not use the game for cross training
Richard Hu, Leawood junior, said someone suggested inline roller hockey to him as a cross-training method when he was on a cycling team as a kid.
"I use it as a tension reliever." Hu said.
"I wasn't trying to follow any fad," she said. "I saw some people doing it and thought it looked fun, so I just got out of there."
Black is one of three women who play with the group,but
"It's a cool form of exercise. Anyone can do it. You don't have to have an ice skating or skiing background."
Geoff Davis Roller hockey player
she said her sex was not an important factor.
Since 1990, rollerblading has been outlawed on campus along Jawahray Boulevard and in downtown Lawrence as a part of an ordinance prohibiting skateboarding. Campus students have also been allowed a skateboard hit a RU student on the head by Wesco Hall.
But the rollerbladers said they have not had problems playing on campus, and that policemen sometimes stop to watch.
Some players disagree with the law.
"I'm really trying to get this law changed," said Geoff Davis, Lawrence resident and roller hockey player. "It should be separate from skateboarding. It's a totally different philosophy, a totally different sport, especially now that so many people are doing it as a form of transportation as well as a recreation. It's just two different things. Skates are attached to your feet."
Davis said his obsession is with cycling, but that he became interested in rollerblading after he saw so many people buying skates at the Sunflower Bike Shop, 804 Massachusetts St., where he works.
"It's a cool form of exercise," he said. "Anyone can do it. You don't have to have an ice skating or skiing background, but you can tell the people who do."
"No one has felt run off like they didn't belong. That's the great thing about this group."
There are no roster hockey leagues in Lawrence. Davis said he would join a league immediately if one opened up close to Lawrence. He said that he had heard rumors that a league may start in either Overland Park or Olathe, but nothing is certain yet. As of now, the closest in-line hockey league is in Independence, Mo.
Some of the Lawrence players watched the WRHL game Monday. Their reviews of the game were critical.
"They played like pansies," said Eric Huckersmith, Lawrence graduate student. "They used a puck instead of a ball. It was like ice hockey on cement. That's not the point. It's a different game."
Story and Photos by Heather Lofflin
Left: Eric Hockersmith, left, Lawrence graduate student, and Tony Stanisland, Omaha, Neb., freshman, square off during a pick-up game Monday.
Above: Michael Javi, Lawrence senior, plays in his first pick-up game. Javi, who plays in a Kansas City ice hockey league, played Monday.
Team USA headed to Spain for Under 22 championships
Williams, Woodberry help team to victory
ROSARIO. Argentina — Two Kansas Jayhawks played key roles as the United States clinched a berth in the Under 22 World Championships for basketball
Kansas played Argentina last night for the gold medal in the Under 22 qualifying tournament. Results were not available before deadline.
Kansas guard Steve Woodberry and Eddie Jones of Temple each scored 15 points Sunday night to lead the United States to a 107-6 victory against Canada.
Rowan Barrett, who plays for St. John's, and Deon George each scored 13 points for Canada.
Team USA, coached by Kansas coach Roy Williams defeated
Steve Woodberry Rov Williams
Parks was 9 for 12 from the field and had six rebounds as the U.S. team shot 60.7 percent, 34 of 56, from the field and out-rebounded Basketball 82-24.
Cherokee Parks of Duke had 23 points Friday night to lead the United States to a 93-90 victory over Brazil in the opening game of the medal round of the Under 22 qualifying tournament.
of Arkansas each had 10 points for the United States, which committed 29 turnovers.
The United States, which swept its three preliminary games by an average of 39 points, will be one of three teams advancing to the Under 22 World Championships next month in Valleadillo, Spain. Canada and Brazil played last night for third place and the final qualifying spot.
Woodberry and Corliss Williamson
Williams said he would not coach the team in Spain because he wanted to devote more time for his family and other commitments. George Washington University coach Mike Jarvis will lead the team.
Brazil, which lost to the United States 105-90 in the first round, led 42-38 at halftime.
Rogerio, who was 3 for 11 from 3-point range, had 23 points to lead Brazil, which had 16 steals
Kansas track adds four new athletes to team
Kansanstaffreport
The Kansas track and field team has added four more members, three from the state of Kansas
Kerry Bolze joins the Jayhawks from Seaman High School in Topeka. Bolze placed in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes this year at the Kansas State High School Championships.
The two other athletes from Kansas are hurdles. Derby's Phillip Veach was ranked No. 1 in the state last season and won the 110-meter hurdles at the state meet Travis Perret from Concordia finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles and third in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles at the 1963 Kansas Relays.
Eric Richard from Tulsa, Okla.
will compete in both track and
cross country for the Jayhawks
state cross-country champion.
New assistant coach added to women's team
The Kansas women's basketball team has hired a new assistant coach
Kansan staff report
Maggie Maboond joined the Jayhawk staff Monday. She filled the opening created when former Kansas assistant Kevin Cook left in May to become coach
Mahood, a graduate of Chadron State College in Nebraska, joins coach Marian Washington, who finished her 20th season with the Jayhawks in March, and assistants Renee Brown and Lu Sweet.
"This is an opportunity of a lifetime." Mahood said. "Coach Washington is truly one of the finest people in women's basketball, and the University of Kansas is a great institution with an incredible athletic tradition."
Mahood does not come to Kansas as a stranger. Last season, Mahood served as a color analyst for Jayhawk women's games on the MGA Network on TV.
Her coaching experience includes a season at Weber State in Utah, where she served as recruiting coordinator as well as assistant coach. Before that, Mahood was a graduate assistant at Nebraska under coach Angela Beck from 1989-1991.
Mahood was the coach at Northeast High School in Lyons, Neb., for five years. Her teams won two district titles during that span.
The team missed last season with a 21-9 record and won the Big Eight Conference Women's Basketball Tournament. Kansas lost in the first round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship to California. It was the Jayhawks second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament.