BC = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ONTHEHILL
MONDAY,AUG.20,2001
The way the ball bounces
After financial woes split up its family,KU men's tennis looks ahead
when the men's tennis program was cut last spring, the University of Kansas lost a net full of great players. But more importantly, KU shattered its link with players from across the southern border.
By Mark Hansen Kansan staff writer
The former men's tennis program welded a community beyond borders.
The link in the community was shattered when the men's tennis program at the University of Kansas was cut last spring. That loss as well as the loss of men's swimming and diving was the toughest decision he made in 14 years as athletics director, said Bob Frederick, former athletics director.
The tennis cut was projected to save about $250,000 next year and $1.5 million during the next five years — about 2 percent of the athletics budget
percent of the athletes who stay at the University will still have a scholarship. But less than half of the team's eight-man roster will stay.
Eleazar Magallan, who played No.1 singles for the Jayhawks the past two seasons, is transferring to the University of Florida.
Magallan said the cut blindsided the team.
"We were shocked. But what could we do," he said. "They had reasons."
The athletics department and coach Ross Nwachukwu promised to help the student athletes transfer. Those promises came through.
Team members Pete Stroer and Rodrigo Echagary will be together at the University of Texas, coached by a former KU coach, Michael Center. Alex Barragan will play for Texas A&M.
gam who play Echagary and Barragan have played together since they were 10-years-old in Mexico. Now they are rivals — Echagary will play for Texas and Barragan for Texas A&M.
Echagary already knew about his new coach through many friends from Mexico whom Center recruited and coached.
A half-filled football stadium may have been the men's tennis program's downfall. It may have been Kansas' winter. Or the downfall could have been the addition of four universities in Texas
when the Big 8 changed to the Big 12. It could have been the budget. It definitely wasn't the program. Tennis Circuit
KU's reputation persuaded Echagary to come here.
to come here.
"When you're international, you really don't know where you're going," Echagary said. "It makes it easier to know people where you're going. KU tennis has a long history with Mexican players."
Magallan decided to come here after Enrique Arbaroa beat him in a Mexican tournament, and persuaded him to attend the University.
Since, Arbaroa has represented Mexico in the Olympics and in the Davis Cup.
There were eight players from Mexico in the 1990s.
in the 1980s. Rafael Rangel was the first, from 1987 to 1991.
Rangel came because his father, a KU alumnus and president at a university in Mexico, brought his son for a visit.
A former KU tennis player and coach, Michael Center, then cultivated the link. Center went to Mexico with Rangel, Arbaroa and former player Paul Garvin, and laid the groundwork for an international program.
Xavier Avila, class of '97, met Luis Uribe, another Mexican KU tennis
player at a tournament in Japan and was persuaded to attend Kansas while in East Asia. He played Arbaroa three years before they would be Jayhawk doubles partners while in a singles tournament in the Dominican Republic.
Alexis McKinley, KU class of 1998 and Arbaroa's fiancee, was glad the University had a Mexican connection.
SEE TENNIS PAGE 7C