Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Monday December 8,1997
Section:
Attendance for the Kansas women's basketball team has been low this season. See story on page 4B.
B
Basketball website
The "Kansan" basketball website will be updated and redone at semester. Don't miss it at http://www.jhawkkball.com/3.0
College Football
Page 1
The alliance bowls made their selections and Kansas State is headed to the Fiesta Bowl to face Syracuse.
SEE PAGE 8B
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Terrapins trip Kansas
Rael LaFrentz leaps above Maryland players. Photo By Steve Puppe/KANSAN
By Kristie Blasi
Kansan sports editor
WASHINGTON — In the nation's capital, the No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks could not overcome their largest deficit of the season any better than Congress on Capitol Hill can reduce the national deficit.
No. 23 Maryland, 4-2, outlasted a second-half surge by the Jayhawks, who lost yesterday 83-86 for the first time this season in the first round of the Franklin National Bank Classic.
The defending-champion Terrapins built a 13-point lead in the first half and extended it to 15 in the second half.
The first was a 28-20 gap against Florida State in the semifinals of the Preseason NIT.
Kansas committed 16 turnovers in the first half — 12 of them steals by Maryland — which led to the Jayhawks' second halftime deficit of the season.
"We flat-out turned the ball over too much," said guard Ryan Robertson. "It was more or less us not being ready to play. We just didn't play very well."
Kansas recovered after the intermission with
five straight points after Maryland scored on its opening possession. The Jayhawks cut the lead to four on a basket by forward Raef LaFrentz, who scored 26 points and grabbed 16 rebounds.
"We showed a lot of poise and character in the second half," LaFrentz said. "It was anybody's ball game with two minutes to play."
Kansas tied the game at 79 with two minutes to play when forward Paul Pierce rebounded a LaFrentz miss and scored. After Maryland missed two free throws, LaFrentz was called for a foul.
Fourteen seconds later, Pierce was called for his fifth foul. He and LaFrentz led all scorers with 26 points.
Maryland made all four free throws that resulted from those two plays and led 83-79. A basket by guard Kenny Gregory pulled Kansas within two points with 26 seconds to play.
The Jayhawks regained possession trailing 84-81 with 19 seconds to play after a Maryland turnover.
with 19 seconds to play after a Maryland turnover. LaFrentz scored after a missed three-pointer by Robertson, and Maryland led by one with 3.8 seconds remaining.
"There has been an explosion in youth soccer, and as those kids become high school kids their parents begin to insist that those programs be added."
See JAYHAWKS on page 3B
Don Sparks assistant director national federation of high school associations
Don Sparks
"I see it as a potential threat to football as we know it,"
Terry Allen
kansas football coach
"A lot of people still go to football games. But student bodywise, we have more fans than football."
Duane Desmarteau
emporia high school soccer coach
"It's an unfair comparison. Football will do no more growing, it's already a big kid."
Rick Bowden assistant executive director kansas state high school activities association for football
"Soccer is easier. If you had the choice of going out in August and putting on a helmet, pads and practicing in the heat two times a day or putting on shorts, it's easier equipmentwise. There is a
difference in the sports."
Bob Miller freshman football coach emporia high school
More high school students are shunning football and choosing to play soccer. This creates problems for college recruiting and threatens high school football programs. It has left many wondering why there is a
For football coaches across the nation, their fastest growing headaches aren't from difficult schedules, injuries, recruiting problems or NCAA sanctions.
It's soccer, the fastest growing sport in the United States, and the biggest sport in the world.
Soccer, Kansas football coach Terry Allen says, is a national problem for football.
Both high school soccer and football are played in the fall, forcing students to choose between the two. And increasingly, coaches say, students are choosing soccer. Allen says the state and nation are experiencing a decrease in the number of high school students playing football. Others argue that football numbers haven't taken a nose dive yet. But soccer is beginning to cool the gridiron.
"I see it as a potential threat to football as we know it." Allen says.
Soccer surges
David Cherry, assistant executive director of Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSH
"This generation is one that is growing up with soccer and wants to continue it at the high school level," he said.
Don Sparka, assistant director for the National Federation of High School Associations, agreed soccer was growing from the top down and bottom up.
"There has been an explosion in youth soccer, and as those kids become high school kids, their parents begin to insist that those programs be added." Sparks said.
Interest in World Cup soccer and the recent success of the U.S. men's and women's national teams have contributed to the sport's popularity.
Cherry said KHSAA wanted to capitalize on that popularity and add a state soccer championship for smaller high schools.
The present state tournament is in its 12th year. Schools classified as 6A have their own tournament, and 5A through 1A have a separate tournament.
"There could be a six, a five and a four-three-two-one championship," he said.
Sixty-nine schools in Kansas have soccer programs sanctioned by KSHSAA. Approximately 15 of those began in the last four years.
Reason to worry
So far, soccer's popularity hasn't inflicted major damage to football numbers in Kansas. But what will happen in three or four years when the legions of children playing soccer enter high school? Will football's numbers drop dramatically?
At several Kansas high schools, soccer already is knocking down football numbers.
At Emporia High School, freshman football numbers are down this year, said Bob Miller, freshman football coach.
"We have 23 kids out this year," Miller said. "I've been here 13 years and we've had anywhere from 50 to 25 kids try out. But yeah, it's down a little."
Soccer is a more appealing sport, he said.
"Soccer is easier," Miller said. "If you had the choice of going out in August and putting on a helmet, pads and practicing in the heat two times a day or putting on shorts, it's easier equipmentwise. There is a difference in the sports."
See FOOTBALL on page 3B
SOCCER FACTS
A regulation international soccer game has two 45-minute halves.
3,007 boys play high school soccer in Kansas. 14,349 play football.
The University does not have a male varsity soccer team.
Kansas makes clean sweep of Dial Classic tournament
By Penny Walker
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
"It was a great win for us," said coach Marian Washington
The Kansas women's basketball team gave Grambling State a final sudsing in the championship round of the Dial Soap Classic yesterday and won 68-51.
The Jayhawks also scored 100 points for the first time since Dec. 10, 1994, when they defeated Creighton 101-84. Forward Lynn Pride had a career-high 24 points, and guard Shandy Robbins scored a career-high 18 points.
The Jayhawks had a weekend of great wins. They defeated Coppin State Saturday 100-57, tied team records for assists and three-point shots and set career-highs for individual players.
Washington:
Pleased with her
team's performance
Grambling State defeated Southern California Saturday and advanced to the championship round against Kansas.
Kansas took the tip-off against Grambling
In the second half,
Grambling State
matched Kansas
nearly point-for-point
but never recovered
from its first-half
State, and center Nakia Sanford scored two points in the first 14 seconds. The Jayhawks kept Grambling State to less than 10 points in 15 minutes until the Lady Tigers scored nine points, bringing the score to 33-18 at halftime.
Pride: Scared a career-high 24 points on Saturday.
deficit, Kansas Guard Suzi Raymant had a game-high 20 points, and Sanford had 12 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
Pride and Sanford made the all-tournament team, and Raymant was voted the Most Valuable Player. Raymant made the Dial Soap Classic all-tournament team last year.
Kansas had the opportunity to play much of its bench. Walk-ons Lindsey Horner and Ashley Pyle played
Raymant: Named Dial Classic MVP.
eight and five minutes respectively during the tournament. Guard Casey Pruitt also played 20 minutes this weekend, scoring her first six points for the Javahinks.
"It was a fun tournament because we got everybody to play." Raymant said.
Washington said she was pleased with the team's performance in the tournament.
"We are playing overall with great enthusiasm," Washington said. "I think our intensity level overall is very good. We can build on that, no question about it.
"We're a step up from where we were," she said. "I think that we're shooting the ball a lot better. We're still struggling from the free throw line, but I think from the field we're doing a pretty good job."
One area that didn't please Washington, however, was rebounding. Raymant agreed.
"It's obvious our rebounding is hurting us," Rayman said. "A lot of times we're caught standing, just watching the ball instead of boxing out and going after it."
WOMEN'S GAME NOTES
The team scored 100 points or more for the first time since December 1994.
Kansas Guard Suzi Raymant scored a total of 40 points in the two games played and was named the tournament MVP.
Against Grambling State, Kansas Center Nakia Sanford pulled in 14 rebounds, tying her career high.
1.