S
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2002
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN • 13A
SPORTS
POLI
kansan.com If Bill Whitte more is out for
the season, who will take his
place as quarterback?
■ Jonas Weatherbie
■ Zach Dyer
■ Brian Luke
■ Kevin Long
Log on to www.kansan.com to cast your vote.
KANSAS BASKETBALL
Olson newest member of basketball team
Brett Olson, senior forward from Chanute, has joined the Kansas men's basketball team as a walk-on, school officials announced Tuesday.
Olson last played at Chanute High School, with an average of 26 points per game as a senior en route to earning All- State honors.
Jeff Boschee sign books in Kansas Union
Jeff Boschee will hold a book signing from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. tomorrow at the KU Bookstore in the Kansas
Union.
Jeff Boschee
Boschee recently published Long Shot: Beating the Odds to Live a Jayhawk Dream, in which he writes about his unlikely
journey from a small town in North Dakota to big-time basketball at Kansas.
Boschee played at Kansas from 1998 until 2002 and is now practicing with the men's basketball team while finishing his degree in sports management.
KANSAS CROSS COUNTRY Cross country runners get academic honors
Fourteen Kansas cross country runners have been named to the All-Big 12 Conference Cross Country Academic teams.
Kansas women who earned first team honors include: senior Eve Lamborn; juniors Lauren Brownrigg, Paige Higgins and Laura Lavoie; sophomores Megan Manthe, Julie Mullally and Arrah Nielsen. Lamborn and Manthe were two of 17 athletes nominated with a 4.0 grade point average.
Senior Courtney Deutsch earned second-team honors.
Kansas men named to the first team include: senior Mark Menefee, junior Brian Raggett, sophomore Chris Jones and freshman Joshy Madathil. Named to the second team were junior Steve Vorkrodt and sophomore Sean O'Grady.
The Conference honored 152 athletes----83 women and 69 men----from Big 12 schools.
— Kelly McNearney
Kansan staff reports
This Week in Kansas Athletics
TOMORROW
Swimming & Diving @ Missouri
Dual, 6 p.m.
Soccer @ Missouri 7 p.m.
SATURDAY
Cross Country @ Big 12 Championships, Columbia, Mo.
Women's team shows plethora of new faces
onships, Columbia, Mo.
Rowing vs. Kansas State 9:45 a.m.
on the Kansas River
Football vs. Kansas State 1 p.m. at
Memorial Stadium
Volleyball vs. Texas 7 p.m. Horejsi
By Jessica Scott
jscott@kansan.com
Kansan swimmer
Volleyball vs. Texas 7 p.m. Horejsi Family Athletic Center
DALLAS — A word of advice for the fans of the Kansas women's basketball team — get a roster.
With most Big 12 Conference teams bringing their top seniors to Media Day in Dallas, Kansas' Blair Waltz and Aquanita Burras two sophomores-marched into the press conference yesterday, representing the youth theme of this year's squad.
Waltz, the only returning starter from last year's 5-25 squad
that lost all 16 conference games, leads the team in scoring with 6.2 points. The rest of the Jayhawks will try to make up the nearly 80 percent of scoring lost from a season ago.
That task will not be easy for coach Marian Washington, as she has no seniors and eight newcomers - six of them freshmen with no collegiate playing experience.
But this fact does not worry Washington, and she expects this
group of teenagers to turn around her wounded program.
"We are very excited about our new players because they have the ability to step right up and challenge for a position on this team," Washington said. "We need to remind our players that our program is turning around and getting back to the way it should be, and to be very optimistic about the future."
One player expected to make an immediate impact is Burras, a transfer from Central Arizona Community College. The 5-foot-9 guard averaged 14 points and 6 rebounds last season en route to a
second team all-conference award.
Freshman Erica Hallman, another name among the long list of novices, earned Ms. Kentucky Basketball last year while averaging 21 points per game.
Washington said she mostly enjoyed the newfound athleticism on her roster, something that was severely missing from last year's team.
"The new players have a style more along the lines of my philosophy and it is going to be very exciting to watch them progress throughout the season," she said.
— Edited by Christina Neff
Transfers
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16A
Jones said, "and it kind of maybe lowered my confidence level a little bit, but I'm definitely glad that I did because it's been a good couple of seasons."
After last year, the team's first winning season and first trip to the NCAA Tournament, Jones is wrapping up her Kansas career as part of another winning team.
"It's awesome," she said. "It gives the opportunity for people to come watch me who are closer to home. We're doing well this year and had a good year last year so I couldn't ask for more to finish up."
Jones and Kaplinger have more in common than hometowns and transfer status. The two played together on the Alliance United club team for a year, winning the state championship in 1998.
Kaplinger, a junior who attended Shawnee Mission South High School, played her freshman season at Louisville after receiving little interest from Kansas.
who was recruiting my class at the beginning of my junior year wasn't the same coach, and he didn't really recruit players from Kansas."
After spending 1999 on a Louisville team that won just one game, Kaplinger returned to Kansas to be closer to her family and friends, and also to continue playing soccer.
She contacted then-recently hired coach Mark Francis at the end of her freshman year, and though he hadn't seen her play, Francis gave Kaplinger a spot on the team, providing she earned it.
"I wanted to go to Kansas," Kaplinger said, "but the coach
Kaplinger made the team and scored two goals in 18 games her first season, but redshirted last year after breaking a leg in an exhibition game. This season, she has eight points in 12 games.
"I was having a good season but that just happens sometimes," Kaplinger said about her injury. "This season's been good. It's the best I've played at Kansas."
The same season Kaplering transferred to Kansas, Scavuzzo, who graduated from Blue Valley Northwest High School, joined the Jayhawks after a friction-filled freshman year at Wyoming.
Unlike Kaplinger, Scavuzzo
was recruited by the Jayhawks but chose to join the Cowboys because she liked Laramie's scenery and the school.
"It was just really interesting to me," Scavuzzo said. "It was a small town, very different from what I'd grown up in."
"Both of our assistant coaches and seven or eight girls transferred that year," Scavuzzo said, "so there was a lot of conflict there, but there were a whole bunch of small factors that brought me back. I'm a big family person so that had a big influence."
After redshirting a year, Scavuzzo played 24 games for Wyoming in 2000 but was one of several players who had a conflict with the coach.
The youngest of five siblings, Scavuzzo is the sixth member of her immediate family to be a Jayhawk. Her parents, John and Pam, and three of her four brothers also attended the University.
Like Jones, Scavuzzo wasn't certain she wanted to continue her athletic career after transferring. The Kansas coaches suggested she see if she still enjoyed playing, a suggestion which paid off for the Jayhawks.
"It hadn't been a good situation in Wyoming," she said.
"and I wasn't sure I still wanted to play, but it's turned out to be the best experience ever and I'm really glad I came back."
Scavuzzo took advantage of a hometown connection soon after arriving at Kansas. Christi Posey, Scavuzzo's high school coach, was hired as an assistant coach a few months later.
"She's the one who basically got me to where I'm at right now," Seavuzzo said. "It's awesome to work with her again."
Posey echoed that sentiment.
Posey encohed that sentiment. "It was an extra plus because I got to be reunited with one of my all-time favorite kids," she said. "Molly's always been a terrific individual. She's obviously got a lot of athletic ability, but it's been fun because she's a happy kid and enjoys life."
Scavuzzo said she was sad to see her time as a Jayhawk almost at an end, but she was happy with her decision to return to her home state.
"I think I put a little bit of pressure on myself," Scavuzzo said, "because I've always been a Jayhawk fan, so I'm glad that I'm finally a Jayhawk. I’m proud to wear the crimson and blue."
-Edited by Christina Neff
'Proud to be a Jayhawk' Fund-raiser This week's spotlight: KU-KSU Phi Gamma Delta Run for Leukemia
The KU game-day experience includes responsible pre-game tailgating, made possible by "Proud to be a Jayhawk" fundraising. Fans can participate by purchasing football programs; $1 of every program sold this season will go to four beneficiaries; KU's Korean War Memorial Fund, KU Marching Band, KU/K-State Phi Gamma Delta Run for Leukemia, and KU sports clubs.
Please remember when you tailgate:
Alcohol may be consumed only during a three-hour pre-game period in designated parking lots. Alcohol may not be brought into the stadium. Underage drinking or unlawful conduct will not be tolerated
Manhattan, FIJJ's from KU and K-State will take possession of the game ball for the KU-KSU football game. Fraternity brothers from both houses will literally run the ball all the way to the KU football stadium, arriving just before kick-off.
On Nov. 2 at the Phi Gamma Delta chapter house in Manhattan, FIJIs from KU
a fund-raiser for the Kansas Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Over the years, the run has raised almost $450,000 for leukemia research.
So while you cheer on the 'Hawks and even if you don't tailgate -please consider supporting this worthwhile project. If you want to do more than purchase a copy of today's football program, please contact the KU Endowment Association, (888)653-6111.
The University of Kansas
KU Korean War Memorial Fund • KU Marching Band KU/KSU Phi Gamma Delta Run for Leukemia • KU Sports Clubs