Sports
University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, November 10, 1987
7
Rob Newson, Kansas free safety and a member of the KU Navy ROTC, overcame his own doubts and those of others in his successful attempt to juggle football, marriage, classes and NROTC.
Jayhawk juggles classes, football, corps
By CRAIG ANDERSON Staff writer
The self-doubts and loneliness that often accompany freshmen at Kansas were no strangers to Jayhawk free safety Rob Newson when he entered college in the fall of 1884.
His feelings may have been the same as many of the newcomers, but Newton's goals and commitments set him apart. At a time when many fellow freshmen were trying to find the nightlife in Lawrence, Newton was adjusting to being a walk-on for the Kansas football team and being a member of the KU Naval ROTC program.
To make such a commitment, Newson would have to take a normal college class load of 15 hours, devote about 30 hours a week to playing football, and take part in as many ROTC activities as he could. Newson chose to try all three.
"I remember one of my (ROTC) counselors and his reaction when I said I was walking on to the football team," Newson said. "He said a lot of people walk off also."
The questions about the chances Newson had of playing major college football and training to become a Naval officer had surfaced before, and he wasn't discouraged. In fact, during his senior year of high school at Wellsville, Kan., Newson's coach told him that he didn't think Newson had a realistic shot at juggling all the commitments.
Newswire already had a Naval ROTC scholarship that would get him into any school having an ROTC program and pay his way through college. He said he knew the Navy would have to come first for him, but he couldn't
"I didn't want to look back in 20 years and wonder if I could have been a major college football player," he said. "I always loved playing football, and I couldn't imagine what it would be like without it."
give up the thought of not being a football player anymore.
With the help of Wellsville assistant coach Jim Wright, Newson gathered films of his best high school performances and sent them to Colorado, Southern California and Kansas. The Jayhawk coaching staff showed interest, and Newson was on his way to becoming a major college football player.
Newson soon saw that playing major college football meant starting out at the bottom of the heap. The success that the 6-foot, 185-pound Newson had found so easy to attain in his final season was a collection of athletes who were bigger, stronger and faster than any he had ever competed against.
"It was really frustrating for me the first couple of years because I couldn't just take over a game and control it like I was able to do in high school," he said. "At first, I kind of resented having been the high school star and then having most reporters walk by me and not even know who I was. That gave me incentive to work harder."
The life of a walk on was one of raggedly uniforms, baggy pants, only a smattering of playing time and the feeling that he was just serving to get the varsity ready to play on Saturdays.
Closing the gap
"There wasn't a day that went by
that I didn't think about quitting football," Newson said of his first three years on the team. "I kept telling myself, though, that I would be back tomorrow, and I wouldn't give up."
The lack of playing time that Newton had during his first three years as a Jayhawk football player began to eat at away him. He played a limited junior varsity schedule his first two seasons at Kansas and then redshirted last year. The redshirt season was especially tough on Newton because he had always been a participant, not an observer.
Newson had some support from fellow walk-ons and Naval ROTC members Mike and Mark Lesher, who are fraternal twin brothers. With the Lesher brothers playing, Newson said he felt more secure about what he was doing on and off the field.
"I remember hearing players complaining about how many repetitions they had to go through to get ready for a game," he said. "I would have just killed for those repetitions and a chance to play."
"We grew real close on and off the field," he said. "They're still my best buddies on campus."
The Leshers played the 1985 and 1986 seasons but decided not to play this season. Newson's past feelings of isolation and insecurity became real to him again.
“All of a sudden, I realized I was alone out there,” he said. “I was kind of upset when they quit. It made me realize that I was from the rest of the team.”
The gap between Newson and the rest of the team began to narrow as he moved steadily up the depth charts this season. Newson started the season as a fourth team free safety, but injuries and defections throughout the role moved him into a starting role against Colorado.
He responded by making an almost unheard of 23 tackles, the highest number of tackles by any Jayhawk since all-time leading tackler Willie Pless recorded 25 against Oklahoma State in 1984.
Kansas secondary coach Louis West said Newson played as well as he had expected he would.
"we gave him many assignments, and he followed through with them," he said. "his high number of tackles made of him being where he should be."
Along with the high number of tackles, Newson was banged and bruised all over his body. During the game, he hurt his leg and foot. Newson said that under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have contended for the depth in the Kansas secondary pushed him to play above his pain.
"If Clint (Normore) would have been there, there's no way I would have kept playing," he said. "We really didn't have anybody left (in the secondary)."
Newson recovered from the injuries and reflected on what his first major college start had meant to him.
"I had waited for a long time for my first start," he said. "There was a lot of satisfaction in knowing that I had started a Big Eight game. I felt all the work I had put in was worth it."
Tour of duty
The 1987 season began for Newswon in August just after he had arrived in the United States after having served a six-week tour of duty on a Philippine Navy escort ship. As part
of the ROTC commitment, members of the program are required to spend six weeks every summer working in some Naval capacity.
His summer with the Philippine Navy was something that he would never forget. He had heard rumors that the Philippine government could be overthrown, and he never knew what to expect.
"It it was like every day we had a feeling that something was going to happen," he said. "At the end of the six weeks, I was looking forward to getting back to the United States."
The overseas experience also helped Newton decide that he didn't want to serve in the Navy outside the United States after he graduated in the spring of 1989. Newton got married last year, and he has adjusted his feelings on traveling with the Navy and seeing the world.
Though he may not have known what was going to happen with the Philippine government, Newson said he sure of the food he would be eating.
Newson said spending time with his wife, Lisa, was his top priority. He said he had no desire to be away from his wife for extended periods of time, which would probably be the case if he was given an overseas commission.
"we ate rice and fish for six weeks straight on the ship," he said. "I was really sick of it by the end of the tour, gotten to where I can eat rice again."
"I've made it a point to spend more time with her," he said. "We've been loud and angry we've been together and that something I don't want to give up."
Lisa said she would prefer to stay in the United States with Rob when he returned. Her memorial of Rob's trip to the Philippines were anything but pleasant.
"While Rob was in the Philippines, I heard on television that a plane had crashed in Bagio City," she said. "I knew Rob was going to that city, and I was terrified. I tried to call and get in touch at several places, but I couldn't find anyone who knew about the crash. I spent the day with my mother, crying, until I finally found out he was all right."
Even with Rob back at home in the United States, Lisa remembered times when she missed him and felt lonely without him.
"With all his schoolwork and practice, that leaves very little time for us to be together," she said. "It's really frustrating at times, but I can't cry and whine about it. I look forward to the day when Rob's time will be his own and we will be able to plan more things together."
Sacrificing for the future
don't 'have any hobbies,' he said. In the end, though it will pay off
Newson looked toward the future when thinking about the commitments that he was living up to now. He said he knew he was sacrificing some time now to enhance his future.
The sacrifices Newton has made have begun to pay off, both on the football field and in the classroom, where the transition to college was easier.
Newson, a computer science major, has a cumulative grade point average of 3.39. But despite his success, Sumitomo students began to creep into his mind again.
Newson was studying to eventually
Future careers in Navy outweigh football in twins' options
Staff writer
By CRAIG ANDERSON
Staff writer
Mike Lesher weighed his options at the end of his sophomore football season at Kansas last year and decided the risks in continuing to play the sport he loved were too great.
The Paola junior feared that an injury on the football field would cancel any chances he had at pursuing his dream of flying jets for the United States Navy. Like his friend and former teammate Rob Newson, Lesher came to Kansas not as a defensive back for the football team, but as a scholarship student in the
Lesher decided to walk on to the Kansas football team before the 1965 season. During his first fall semester, he also pledged a fraternity, Triangle, and took 17 hours of classes.
"If I had it to do again, I probably wouldn't have tipped a frat and took
Kansas Naval ROTC program.
"I was going up against players that sometimes weighed 100 pounds more than I did," said the 5-foot-10, 170 pound Lesher. "My decision to quit was a career choice. I knew if I got hurt I would never have a chance to play. You've got to be in almost perfect physical shape to fly."
a full load of classes my first semester," he said. "I was only a freshman, and like all freshmen I was unsure of myself."
Lesher made it through his first semester, managing good grades in school and playing cornerback for the Kansas junior varsity football team, but he said it was a tremendous challenge for him to keep it up.
Lesher said he wondered if he was just wasting his time on the football field.
"I wasn't getting any playtime on Saturday," he said. "Sometimes, I felt like I was just someone for the varsity to go up against to get them."
ready. I wasn't bitter, but I would practice all week and then watch other players on Saturdays. I was real frustrated at times."
Lesher also had a desire to become more involved in his fraternity and the ROTC unit. Because of the time that football took up, he had to cut down on his hours in school.
"Playing football cut down on the social life a little bit because I couldn't really party the night before games," he said. "Sometimes, I would go to parties and just make an appearance and then leave. People had to understand that I had other commitments."
Since he decided not to play football, time on the practice field for Lesher has been replaced by activities in his fraternity and ROTC unit. He was vice president of his fraternity for awhile, but he stepped down to take over as its business manager.
In his ROTC unit, Lesher passed his Aviation Qualification Test/ Flight Aptitude Rating, which makes him eligible to attend flight school if he passes a physical fitness examination.
"Hopefully it will pan out for me," he said. "I kind of wish the movie 'Top Gun' wouldn't have come out because now everyone wants to fly.
There's a lot of competition.''
Lesher said he sometimes looked at the competition on the football field he would have faced this season in trying to get some varsity playing time. The Kansas secondary has been crippled this year by injuries and defections.
"I feel like I could have been able to start this season," he said. "I don't have any regrets about my decision, though. I didn't have any guarantees that I would be able to play a lot. For all I knew they could have turned the program around and been playing in the Orange Bowl this season."
Nagging injuries are common but still a pain
Staff writer
The plague of nagging injuries that has struck the Kansas basketball team are common for almost any major college team, but the fact that they're commonplace doesn't make them any less painful for the players
Senior forward Archie Marshall is the latest Jayhawk casualty, breaking his left thumb deflecting a pass in practice last week. After the initial pain, Marshall said the injury hasn't bothered him.
“It's no big deal,” he said. “I thought I just jammed it when I first did it, but it turned out to be broken.”
Because NCAA rules prohibit players from wearing any type of hard plastic or metal material on splints below the elbow, Marshall is questionable for Saturday's exhibition game against the Italian National team.
Freshman Mike Maddox was healthy at the beginning of the season, but he sprained his left ankle and broke the ring finger of his right hand at the Jayhawks' intra-squad scrimmage at Great Bend last weekend. The finger will remain splinted for two more weeks, and the ankle will continue to be heavily wrapped and taped until the beginning of the season.
"The finger is the hardest thing to
get over," said Maddox, a 6-7 forward from Oklahoma City. "It will probably just be something that bothers me all year and never really heals."
He said the ankle has been improving daily, but it is wrapped so tightly to prevent reinjury that he is somewhat restricted in running and jumping.
Marvin Branch, a junior transfer from Barton County Community College, has also been bitten by the injury bug. He turned his right ankle in practice early last week, slightly spraining it.
Senior forward Chris Piper missed a week of practice earlier in the
Otis Livingston, a junior transfer from El Camino Junior College in Torrence, Calif., developed patellar tendonitis in his left knee in a pick up game before the season started. He takes medication on an anti-sweat down, and he said the swelling and the pain is beginning to subside.
season due to a strained left groin muscle, but hasn't missed a day of practice since then.
"It's getting better," he said. "At first, I was afraid to jump because I didn't know what was wrong with it and I didn't know what it would do, but I'm getting more confident. It bothers me, but it doesn't bother me to the point that I can't play on it."
The Associated Press
The Jets, 4-4, are tied with Buffalo, Miami, New England and Indianapolis. Seattle fell to 5-3, two games behind San Diego in the AFC West.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — JoJo Townsend and Billy Griggs, a pair of seldom get Jets receivers, scored touchdowns last night as New York beat the Seattle Seahawks 30-14 and created an unprecedented fiveway tie in the AFC East.
Townsell broke a scoreless tie in the second period when he returned a Ruben Rodriguez punt 91 yards.
Townsell wasn't touched on the return and made a niffy move to speed past Rodriguez, the last man who could stop him.
Griigs, a third-string tight end who plays almost exclusively on special teams, caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Ken O'Brien in the fourth quarter. That score put the Jets in front 20-14 after they blew a 13-10 lead.
Johnny Hector added a 1-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter. Pat Leahy had field goals of 35, 36 and 26 yards.