Sports
With five goals in the Jayhawk's first two soccer games this season, sophomore Caroline Smith earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week honors. PAGE 9A
P
12A
The university Daily Kansan
Thursday, September 4, 2003
sports commentary
Jason Hwang
jhwang@hansan.com
Daughter coach share court space
A volleyball coach loses the starting setter due to injury. He inserts the backup setter who played sparingly last year. The setter and the team perform well to make it to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history.
It sounds like a decent movie script. Actually, it's the 2003 Kansas volleyball squad.
Max Falkenstien sats at his desk in 1971. He has been doing commentary for Kansas athletics for more than half a century.
Sophomore Andi Rozum, coming off a fabulous freshman campaign, suffered nagging injuries during the summer to keep her out action, so coach Ray Bechard put in the backup setter Ashley Bechard. Fans, this is not a coincidence: Ashley is coach Bechard's daughter.
Before her first start of her career against Western Kentucky, Ashley had only 59 assists in 15 matches over a two year span.
Last weekend in the Dekalb, Ill. tournament, Ashley tabulated 115 assists, including a career high 44 in the lose to Northern Illinois. Despite the transition, Ashley said her teammates have supported her unconditionally.
"I've played pretty well so far. I rely on my teammates a lot. Right now everyone's getting settled and we've worked pretty well and hope to continue this season," Ashley said.
Coach Bechard said hitters must execute to make every set look good, regardless of who plays setter. Ashley has many options to distribute the ball to explosive hitters like All-Big 12 Conference first-teamers Josi Lima and Ashley Michaels, senior Sarah Rome and freshman Janaina Correa. Replacing a setter like Rozum on the court isn't the only obstacle that Ashley must hurdle.
The coach said he tried to strictly manage a coach-player relationship on the court. But he and Ashley are human, and when you combine parents and kids on the same playing field, there can be some difficult moments.
"It's an interesting balancing act. Even that is hard because I've been as hard on Ashley, if not harder, since she's come here," he said. "But I don't know anybody that's been working any harder at being the best one can be than Ashley, that's all we can ask her at this point."
Ashley said that there have been moments where she irritated her father and vice versa.
She said she felt sorry for but credited her mother for coming to all the matches and acting as a mediator when needed.
needed. Especially at a time where the coach/father and the player/daughter will interact a lot more on the court, it will be important for someone close to them to help them experience a new dimension in their relationship.
"As you interact while travelling to road games and other off-court occasions, you get to experience something special," coach said.
special, coach, achley and coach Bechard will continue to reach for the goal of going to the NCAA tournament, but they will also see their relationship go through an uncharted but rewarding chapter in their lives.
Jason Hwang is an Overland Park senior in communications.
Radio voice reminisces
by John Domoney
Kansan staff writer
idomoney.kansan.com
Archive Photo
After 58 years as a broadcaster for University of Kansas athletics, not even the possibility of retirement makes Max Falkenstein want to trade his seat in the press area for one in the stands.
press area for one in a crowd. "In fact I think it would be frustrating for me to hear comments from fans about certain players." Falkenstien said.
certain players.
Falkenstien leaves the commentary up to himself he and Bob Davis team up on the jayhawk Radio Network to bring every Kansas football and men's basketball game to fans over the radio. The Falkenstien and Davis combo has been on the air since 1984 when Davis joined Falkenstien to play-by-play for the games.
On the air is where generations of Jayhawk fans have grown accustomed to hearing Falkenstien's analysis of athletics events. From the 1947 Orange Bowl appearance for Kansas to this spring's Final Four run by the men's basketball team, Falkenstien has been right in the middle of the action.
"Bob is a really nice guy." Falkenstien said. "We seem to complement one another, and we have fun on and off the air."
After thousands of games, he has always tried to keep an objective view of the game.
the game. "I wouldn't say I'm non-partisan," Falkenstien said. "I credit opponents for entertaining plays and good players. If you're too much of a homer it takes away from the quality of the broadcast."
on the quality of the shoots.
Few Kansas fans doubt the quality of
Falkenstien's broadcasting abilities. The veteran announcer has been inducted into a host of hall of fames including the College Football Hall of Fame in 1998 and the University of Kansas Athletics' Hall of Fame in 1995. For his outstanding service to the University, Falkenstien was honored with the Ellsworth Medallion, the highest honor bestowed by the KU Alumni Association.
Still, after all of the honors and awards Falkenstien most treasures the relationships he has formed through his profession.
sion. "I've enjoyed tremendously my relationships with outstanding athletes and coaches." Falkenstien said. "I've also been on hand for many of KU's greatest sports moments in history."
As an announcer for eight Kansas bowl appearances in 57 years, Falkenstien most remembers the Orange Bowl losses in 1948 to Georgia Tech and in 1969 to Penn State. The 1964 victory over Oklahoma at Memorial Stadium also proved memorable after coach Jack Mitchell's Jayhawks scored on the first and last plays of the game to defeat the Sooners.
Not only does Falkenstien have a collection of sports memories, he has accumulated his fair share of miles traveling to away games.
"I still enjoy doing it," Falkenstien said. "Getting home at three or four in the morning, it sort of wears you down, but after a day of rest and recuperation you're back at it."
Besides getting used to the travel, Falkenstein said he strived to prepare for a broadcast by learning a couple of interesting facts about each player in the game
"There is so much information made available to you," Falkenstien said. "The media guides have turned into fivepound encyclopedias. The trick is to develop a skill for finding everything you need in a hurry."
Although television has become the premiere media outlet in collegiate athletics, Falkenstien said radio had not lost any of its magic. His voice has become commonplace for Kansas fans watching or listening to a Jayhawk athletic event.
we just run into tons of people who
tell us they turn the sound off on the television to listen to us on the radio," Falkenstien said.
Kansas fans are likely receiving some of their final opportunities to cheer on the Jayhawks with Falkenstien's voice on the radio in the background.
Falkenstien said he was entertaining the idea of retirement.
"I'm thinking about it," Falkenstien said. "I'm not sure when it will happen but it won't be too much longer."
Course offers challenge, history
Edited by Katie Nelson
By Sean O'Grady
sogrady@kansan.com
Kansan Staff Writer
Rim Rock Farm has been the home of University of Kansas cross country for 30 years.
The rolling hills, trails, covered bridges and silhouettes of Kansas running legends have made Rim Rock the Midwestern Mecca of distance running.
Bob Timmons, who owns and maintains Rim Rock Farm, points to a specific area. Rim Rock is the host to the annual Rim Rock Invitational for the KU Cross Country event.
ring.
Chris Lear, author of *Running with the Buffaloes*, a book documenting the 1998 season of the University of Colorado men's cross country team, wrote as the team drove to the course for prenations: "The course looks fabulous, with gigantic 10-foot statues of former Kansas running legends like Olympic 10k champ Billy Mills and former mile great Wes Santee perched around the course. As CU arrived in their van yesterday, the first visible statute they saw was that of Jim Ryun. Seeing the immortalized champions was enough to get them all jacked."
Seeing the silhouettes of the former Olympians are enough to get any runner excited to race "The Rock."
"It's a place you'll never conquer," DJ. Hilding, Lawrence senior and cross country team member, said. "It can conquer you though."
Paige Higgins, Littleton, Colo., senior, said the course was the hardest she had ever run.
"I don't find the hills that bad, but the grass is long and the footing is uneven at some points. It's hard to get into a good rhythm," she said. "But the fact that it's our home course prepares us for any course we'll run on."
"It keeps our athletes mentally prepared for anything. If they can run that course and not have any problems then they can race anywhere with confidence,"he said."What makes Rim Rock special is the atmosphere."
course we run on C.
Cross country coach Stanley Redwine
said having Rim Rock as his athletes'
home course was a definite advantage.
special is the atmosphere. The atmosphere has been created by
judy. lawcowinwatson. Each year Rim Rock — nine miles northwest of Lawrence, across the bridge — hosts one college meet, a high school invitational and the Kansas high school state cross country meets. The course has been the site of three conference championships and the 1998 NCAA Division I and Division II Championship meets. The course will also host the National Junior College Athletic Association Championships in November.
Kansas Hall of Fame member and former coach, Bob Timmons. He and his wife, Judy, have owned the course for 50 years
and the spectators."
"We are constantly trying to improve the course," Timmons said. "We've done a lot over the summer to make the course better for the runners
The improvements include transplanted sod from the softball facility Jayhawk Field, which has been used to create better footing alongside a dam of Rim Rock's three ponds.
"The dam looks good," said George Barnes, University field supervisor. "It looks damn good."
looks damn good.
Timmons also cleaned up an area of pine trees near the Waste Sante Switchback so fans can cheer the runners up the hill.
said. 'Iran it wipers up,' Timmons' biggest obstacle preparing the course this summer has been the lack of rain. Cottonwood Pond, located just west of the finish line, is
"When the wind blows through there, you can here the trees talking," Timmons said. "I call it Whispering Pines."
now dry.
"This is the first year the pond has been dry," he said.
While some of the improvements have altered the layout of the courses this year, there are still the perennial landmarks such as Oak Holler Bridge, the Narrows, Jim Ryun Skyline, Billy Mills Ascent and the silhouettes runners have enjoyed for the past 30 years.
ners have enjoyed Assistant coach Doug Clark said the silhouettes helped give the feeling of the tradition all around the course.
"All those of those guys are world record holders or national champions and all from KU," he said. "It's a pleasure to coach there."
—Edited by Neeley Spellmeier