Volume 124 Issue 10
kansan.com
Thursday, September 1, 2011
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NOTICE
WHAT IT'S LIKE // TO FIGHT A MIXED MARTIAL ARTS MATCH > We know you're curious
| BY ALEX GRANDSOULT AS TOLD TO MATT GALLOWAY |
On Sept. 18, 2010, Alex Grandsoult, a junior from Derby, won his first and only mixed martial arts match by submission with a triangle choke 57 seconds into the second round. The contest was held at Arant Shrine Temple in Kansas City, Mo., and featured Kansas fighters against Missouri fighters. Grandsoult is also a member of the school's Jiu-Jitsu club and cheerleading squad.
When you're growing up, people always tell you never to hit anybody and to be nice. But there I was, in the middle of a ring with all my friends and family shouting, "Beat his ass! Beat his ass!" Every time I hit him, the crowd got louder and louder. It was kind of like a culture shock. It felt like a dream. Having your parents encourage you to hit someone in the face is weird. Really weird
The prefight feeling was awful. It really was. I wrestled all through high school and learned very early on that if you get hyped up before the fight, you will have no energy left for the fight itself. So, on the drive to the building, we listened to nice, relaxing music. When I got backstage I isolated myself and tried not to think about the match.
Before the bout — and this is the part that sucks — the dude that you're about to fight is right there in the same area as you warming up. There was a lot of tension in the room until the promoter called my name.
My opponent wasn't physically intimidating. I knew as soon as I saw him that I was going to win. You can tell by looking into somebody's eyes if they're trying to look
I took the headphones off and heard everyone screaming. I saw my opponent on the other side and started to think of all the evil things in the world and everyone who had pissed me off in the past.
The advice I was given was to listen to my headphones until I got down to the ring. I put on a really angry song, "Switchback" by Celldweller, and when I decided that wasn't angry enough, I switched to a Seventendust track.
I wrestled all through high school, and for some dumbass reason, my corner kept yelling, "Jab! Jab! Jab!" So I spent the first two-and-a-half minutes getting hit in the face. The kid hit like a kitten, but it was annoying. I had enough room in my corner so I just took him down. I grabbed his shoulders, stepped in front of him and threw him over my leg, which tripped him. As soon as the fight hit the mat, he had no right to be there with me. I trapped him early in the second round and made him submit with a triangle choke.
Half the crowd erupted and the Missouri半休edo. Someone told me if you win a fight, you have about 10 to 15 seconds to be the biggest douchebag on the planet. You can say and do whatever you want, so I did. I went up to the Missouri side and put on a shirt with a Jayhawk humping a Tiger and said, "Look at this!" They hated that. I stopped after 10 seconds; it was time for me to be a gentleman again.
Contributed photo
scary or if they actually are. The kid was shifting back and forth, trying to stare at me, and I just smiled. I said "You are going to hate this." Then the bell rang.
I still have a dent in my shin from kicking his hipbone so hard. I was sore for about a month. But I think I might do it again someday. Just not during the school year.
while, 11 of the top 40 recruits will be playing football in Austin, Texas this season.
A&M is making a move that will put them in the lower echelon of the top football conference instead of remaining in the upper echelon of one of the top conferences (albeit a very unstable one).
Quite simply, this is Texas A&M giving the finger to Texas for being better than them in nearly every way, shape and form. Instead of beating the Longhorns head-to-head, they decided losing more games in a better conference would be the proper form of revenge.
So now it's the Big 12's turn, as they can say goodbye to Texas A&M. You can be sure they will take pleasure in watching them get "vwhooed" more often than not.
Edited by Sarah McCabe
program joins the West Coast Conference.
Jan 19,2011
University of Texas president William Powers said Texas is
"firmly committed to the Big 12 and that league officials knew Texas was pursuing a network deal.
Aug 25, 2011
ATM
Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin sends a letter to Big
12 commissioner Dan Beebe explaining that Texas A&M is considering leaving the Big 12.
Aug 30, 2011
denies the muni-
New York Times report
that it notified the
Big 12 of its intention
to leave the athletic
conference.
become the 17th member of the Big East conference after
leaving the Mountain West
Jul 1, 2011
The Governors of Colorado and Utah deem June 30 'Pac-12 Day' as the Utah Utes and Colorado Buffaloes become official members
of Pac-12.
Aug 29. 2011
The New York Times reports that President R. Bowen Loftin informed Big 12 Board Chairman Brady Deaton that the Aggies
.
will officially withdraw from the conference as early as Tuesday.
Aug 31. 2011
Texas A&M officially notifies the Big 12 of its intention to withdraw from the conference.
Sara McClinton and Chelsea Albers may each be in their first season with the Jayhawks, but coach Ray Bechard is counting on both of them to contribute, and contribute early. McClinton started all three of the team's victories in the season-opening Georgia Bulldog Invitational over the weekend, and Albers started both of the Saturday sweeps.
"We're going to put the best six out there, and sometimes that's a bit of a stretch for freshmen to do that," Bechard said. "But we have a bunch of confidence in both of those young ladies."
McClinton finished the weekend with 11 kills, including seven in the finale against Georgia. To secure her role as a starter for the season's first three games, McClinton had to play catch-up with the upperclassmen who stayed over the summer.
"I knew we had a good opportunity to compete with some of the upperclassmen for the spots, but you can't come in and expect to start," McClinton said. "You have to
work to achieve it. That was my goal, to come in and start, but I guess I wasn't expecting it so soon."
work to achieve
"That is a tough call," Bechard said. "You need to kind of get a sense for where you think their progress will be within the first month and if this is a kid that can help us by mid-
Albers had an impressive first start on Saturday morning, recording six kills in the sweep against Liberty. She may have ensured her spot as a starter through a decorated high school career at Papillion LaVista, where she notched a state-leading 487 kills in 2009 was named the Omaha World-Herald's Girl's 2010-11 Athlete of the Year her senior season.
Starting so early is an unexpected perk for Albers, but it is one she said she plans on working hard to maintain. Both freshmen had to work hard just to avoid being redshirted by Bechard, who said the decision to sit and develop a player for a year is a difficult one.
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training in Italy, the freshmen were not permitted to tag along. Still, the upperclassmen have tried to make the Nebraska' natives feel at home, Albers said.
"They have worked hard to include us and not make us feel like freshmen," Albers said. "Speaking for myself, I feel like they treat us like volleyball players and not by our age."
Since Bechard was hired as the coach of the volleyball team 14 years ago, he has had a player from Nebraska on his roster every season. Albers and McClinton first met as opponents in the state's notoriously competitive high school volleyball circuit. They would later come to know each other better as teammates at the even more competitive club level.
"Growing up in Nebraska, I think it gave us a huge advantage," McClinton said. "High school volley-
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SEE VOLLEYBALL PAGE 8
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