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B
The University Daily Kansan
Yesterday in sports
Despite rumors of his retirement, longtime CBS golf analyst Ken Venturi will call six events for the network in 2001, including the Masters and PGA Championship.
Sports
Inside: The rivalry between Kansas and Kansas State still has a strong presence when the two teams meet. SEE PAGE 6B
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2000
Inside: Columnists from the Kansan and K-State's student newspaper, the Collegian, square off in preparation for tomorrow's game. SEE PAGE 10B
For comments, contact Melinda Weaver or Jason Walker at 864-4858 or e-mail sports@kansan.com WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
Soccer team approaches home finale
By Yoshitaka Ebisawa
Kaisan sportswriter
This weekend's games at SuperTarget Field will be daily doubles for the Kansas women's soccer team — especially for the seven seniors on the team.
The first reason for the extra incentive to win is that winning those two conference matches-against Texas Tech at 4 p.m. today, and Colorado at 1 p.m. Sunday would bring Kansas closer to the Big 12 Conference tournament, for which the top eight finishers in the conference qualify.
Another reason is that victories would provide life-long memories for the senior Jayhawks, who will make their final appearances before a home crowd Sunday.
"It will be very emotional. I will think about all of the memories, both good and bad," senior defender Kyle Watts said. "My greatest memory is beating Missouri 1-0 at SuperTarget Field our sophomore year. I scored the goal on Haven's cross. We relive that moment all the time."
Senior forward Colleen Colvin also said this weekend would be emotional.
"It's the last time playing at SuperTarget Field and the last time we play in front of our fans. It's definitely going to mean something." Colvin said. "I'll miss playing at home, Kansas fans are best."
But as in the game show, Jeopardy!, scoring a daily double won't be easy for the Jiahwaks.
High noon for Hawks
The other seniors are defenders Johanna Larsson and Emma Di Cesare, midfielders Katie Lents and Meghann Haven and forward Lindsey Horner. The senior players will be recognized in a short presentation prior to the 1 p.m. kick off.
Texas Tech (4-8, 2-1 in the Big 12) is heading into the game after beating two conference foes — Oklahoma (2-1) and Oklahoma State (4-0) — last weekend. Junior goalkeeper Brittney Peese gave up only one goal during those two games and was the co-defensive player of the week in the Big 12.
Sunday's bee, Colorado (5-7, 1-3 in the Big 12), has beaten Kansas in each of the past two seasons. Senior forward Melissa Cartmell leads the Buffaloes with five goals and two assists.
"There'll be two tough games. The two teams have been playing well lately," Francis said. "I think (our) players are very excited this week end playing on own field again. After this, our next four conference games will be on the road. So it's going to be very important for us to make the most these two home opportunities."
More Information
Edited by J. B. Mendoza
For a statistical breakdown of tomorrow's match against Texas,
Sea narc 7B
By Jason Franchuk sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
o understand the Kansas-Kansas State showdown, think cowboys.
Dream about the wild west. Envision stare downs, gunslingers and riding off into sunsets. Imagine John Wayne and the Lone Ranger.
K-State can be John Wayne. Rough, durable and long-lasting. Kansas is the Lone Ranger. It's a recognized name, but the question for the Jayhawks in tomorrow's Sunflower Showdown is whether they will have enough horsepower.
The showdown between the Wildcats and Jayhawks tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Memorial Stadium will be no different than the showdown between the cowboy hero and the villain who rides into town to take the loot. In cowboy movies, the fights are about women or territory. In the Sunflower Showdow, the motive is the desire to be the top team in the state. The top cowbys want to be in your corral. The winner is the talk of the town at the local saloons.
"A lot of people already have the score set," said senior linebacker Dariss Lomax. "And we're down 200-0."
Think about the two coaches. Imagine them beginning back-to-back, anticipating the shootout about to happen. The theme
from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"
starts.
They walk ten paces in the opposite direction before turning around. Kansas coach Terry Allen and K-State coach Bill Snyder would say something heard in those old westerns.
This place isn't big enough for the both of us ...
"I've always said that you can't have two ten-ten teams here." Allen said.
The simple fact is Kansas is not a hot bed for recruiting compared with California, Florida or Texas. Getting two premier teams in one state could be difficult. There is not enough talent in the area to feed both programs.
The obvious solution would be to recruit out-of-state. Both teams, of course, do this. But the number of football players make that concept tougher than usual. Kansas has as much reliance on Texas as George W. Bush — 32 players hall from the Lone Star State. The Jayhawks have 37 Kansans, but only four of those start. The Jayhawks also have tried to make inroads with Kansas junior college players.
"The numbers game in this state catches up with us." Allen said.
K-State has seven native Kansan starters. Snyder, however, said he was impressed with how Allen had strengthened in-state recruiting.
classes," Snyder said. "They have some guys over there we were very interested in."
The two teams have similar roster numbers, but this series has almost always been lopsided. The only exception to this rule came when the two teams both happened to be bad, which was common in the 1980s. And when one team has enjoyed national status, it usually has been at the other's expense. Five years ago, however, was glorious for both programs. Both teams were ranked in the top 15 when they met in 1995.
The 98th meeting tomorrow might not show what the total series proves. In the series, Kansas defeats the Wildcats by an average score of 18.7 to 12.1. The Jayhawks have won 61 times. But Kansas State has won the last two games by a combined score of 104-15.
"I think he has had some fine recruiting
Before John Wayne, there was Will Rogers. After John Wayne, there was Clint Eastwood.
The Sunflower Showdown is no different than westerns.
One cowboy at a time.
— Edited by Shawn Hutchinson
More information
For a statistical breakdown of tomorrow's game and more Big 12 football news.
See page 38
Sports Columnist
Derek Prater
sports@kansan.com
Biases exemplify competitive spirit
Imagine my horror (well, at least my highly exaggerated facsimile of horror) when I recently learned that one of my colleagues was — gasp — a Pinko!
In Wednesday's letters to the editor, a hypervigilant reader revealed the liberal — perhaps even communist — conspiracy under way at the Kansan. In a sharply worded, callow bombast, the reader pointed out that the insidious liberal plague had spread all the way to the Kansan sports page.
Fellow sports columnist Seth Jones, it would seem, has taken to subverting the competitive nature of capitalism in the United States. The evidence?
When he wrote a column about the Kansas-Southern Illinois football game, Seth chose not to interview the football players. Instead, he focused on pregame parking lot activities and even went so far as to give a good-natured ribbing to some George W. Bush supporters. Thus, our reader asserts, Seth infused political and social distortion to his column and managed to eliminate themes of competition and aggression — which liberals like us here at the Kansan despise.
Call me naive, but I don't think that undermining the American way was Seth's intention. In fact, I think this is just another case of confusion about what it is that sports columnists should do.
Our quurulous reader, who purports to represent the majority of sports fans on campus, believes that our job should be to simply relay the their feelings and thoughts.
For example:
"We've just got to go out there and make plays ... take it one game at a time... come together as a team ... etc."
Here at the Kansan, we'd like to think that readers enjoy an alternative to the conventional sports platitudes. So our columnists try to find different, interesting angles on sporting events and personalities. Admittedly, we sometimes miss the mark completely. But on occasion, we provide insight, humor and maybe even a little wisdom (or at least a few new words to step up your vocab).
Another misconception often associated with sports columnists is that we should abide by the journalistic ethic of objectivity. On several occasions I've received emails (usually with subject headings such as "Your stupidity") which berate me for my obvious biases.
But here's the thing — sports columns are meant to have bias. They are meant to agitate. They are meant to provoke. That's part of the fun, and — I would argue — that's part of the competitive spirit of sports.
Well, I wouldn't want to let a whole column go by without at least one mention of actual sports (it might be misconstrued as un-American).
So check out this little tidbit: Despite the amazing tenure of Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder, the Wildkitties still have lost 158 more games than they're won in the history of the program. Next time some hick from Manhattan compares their football program to our basketball program, drop that one on him.
And to all my fellow travelers... um, I mean sports columnists — fight the power.
Friends to tangle in volleyball match
By Sarah Warren
Prater is a Lawrence graduate student in Journalism.
By Sarah Warren
sports@kanson.com
Kansas sportswriter
Danielle Geronymo really wants to play Texas.
A lot is at stake for the Kansas senior middle blocker when the Longhorns storm the court tomorrow night at Horejsi Family Athletic Center. Not only has the volleyball team failed its last three matches — fighting more than two hours before losing each heartbreaker — but it has fallen to ninth place in the Big 12 Conference standings. one place below the Longhorns.
And besides the team's sliding standings, Geronymo has a more personal wish to beat Texas; her best friend is Katia Lara, a junior outside hitter for the Longhorns.
She really wants this one. She wants to win
—big,
Geronomy and Lara have known each other for six years, meeting when Geronyo joined Lara's club team in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Sao Paulo on the same team," Geronymo said. "It was only my second year, but she had been playing for a long time."
"We won the championship of the state of
The pair played together as middle blockers in Brazil with aspirations of doubling up later for a career in professional beach volleyball. That was, until 1987, when Geronymy was scouted by coach Ray Bechard and given a scholarship to attend a school in the United States — Barton County Community College in Great Bend.
"We played together and even went to school together for two years," Lara said. "Then I didn't get to see her for another year because she came to the United States."
inneed, Lara began playing in junior high.
"I started playing early because all of my sisters played." Lara said. "I was 12."
That was until Lara received a call one day early in 1988 from her best friend.
"Coach Bechard said at the end of the season, 'Danielle, do you want to bring a friend from Brazil to play volleyball?'" Geronymy said. "So of course I called her."
Lara enrolled at Barton in 1986 and moved in with her best friend. Geronymo had decided
However, at the end of that 1998 season, Geronymo left Lara for Kansas and her former coach Bechard, and her two-year community college stay came to an end.
ed to stay at the community college rather than follow Bechard, who had been given a coaching job at Kansas that year, so she could play alongside Lara. During the '98 season, which Barton finished 66-4, Geronymo played middle blocker and Lara flanked her as an outside hitter. That year, the pair led the Cougars with .389 and .355 hitting efficiency, and Lara led with .361 kills per game and Geronomyo followed with 2.91.
Only three and a half hours away, the girls would only see each other twice during the
See FRIENDS on page 7B
More information
For a statistical breakdown of today's match against Texas.
See page 78
Kansas senior middle blocker Danielle Geronymo taps the ball post her Wichita State opponent Sept. 6. Geronymo will be up against her long-time friend, Texas outside hitter Kata Lara, when the Longhorns battle the Jayhawks tomorrow night. Kansas file photo
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