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Mangino speaks to fans
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2009
Football coach asks students to begin the season responsibly LETTER | 6B
VOLLEYBALL
Senior defensive specialist Melissa Grieb bumps a ball in a game last year. Grieb is preparing for her final season, and is expected to be a leader on the team this year.
Weston White/KANSAN
Senior ready for final season
Melissa Grieb hopes to nab more victories with her leadership skills
ZACH GETZ
zgetz@kansan.com
The Kansas volleyball team hasn't made it to the NCAA Volleyball Tournament since 2005. Senior defensive specialist Melissa Grieb wants to break that streak this year.
But she knows that she won't be able to achieve her goal of making the tournament without her teammates. Grieb hopes to use her leadership experience on and off the court in order to get to the tournament.
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"Being a senior there is obviously the leadership role," Grieb said. "I feel like you have to earn respect of everyone on the team, but you also get a little bit of respect because you are a senior and people look up to you."
Grieb has been playing volleyball since the 8th grade. She decided on going to Kansas after it went to three straight post-season appearances. But she said she would've probably chosen Kansas no matter what. Even though she was recruited by other schools in basketball, softball and volleyball. But she ultimately chose Kansas for
its location and good reputation.
"If there was any opportunity to go to Kansas I would've gone," Grieb said. "It wasn't a hard decision. I really feel like there would be no better place to go to be a student-athlete because all the support we get."
Grieb was coming off her own success from her senior year in high school, leading her team to a Kansas Class 6A state championship her senior year at Olathe South. She still calls it the greatest moment in her volleyball career but hopes to change that this year.
Grieb said she doesn't want to make the tournament just for herself, but also for her teammates. Only one player on the current roster has ever been to the tournament. Feeling the close bond between the team members is what might ultimately boost them to the elusive post-season berth.
Junior outside hitter Karina Garlington said Grieb will be a great leader this season because of her mindset and her approach during practices.
"She works really hard in the gym and demands a lot out of the team, which is something we
"Our team this year is closer than has been in the past and it helps us play for each other more," Grieb said.
She hopes her well-rounded skills will help the team in every aspect of the game. Forming stronger emotional ties with the team can propel them to a better outing this season.
"When my hitters get a good kill, I want to be the first one jumping up and down and celebrating and making them feel like they did something good," said Grieb. "I think it's important for them and makes them play better."
need," Garlington said. "We need our seniors to step up and be leaders that we've been missing the last few years."
Coach Ray Bechard said Grieb has good work ethic and could be a key factor in the team's success because of her communication skills.
"She comes to work every day ready to go and is very consistent with her efforts," Bechard said. "She's not one of those raw-raw leaders, but a leader in her own way behind the scenes communicates with everyone on how things ought to go."
Kansas started the season 2-1. It's trust in Grieb and determination could push it to grab the opportunity of adding three more victories this weekend as it hosts the Jayhawk Invitational.
Edited by Anna Kathaqnarath
Ryan Waggoner/KANSAN
Senior linebacker Arist Wright battles against sophomore lineman Michael Martinovich during a drill Tuesday morning at the Anderson Family Football Complex practice fields. Tuesdy morning's practice was open to the media as the team prepared for the first home game.
FOOTBALL
Linebackers compete for starting roles veterans left
BY JAYSON JENKS
jijenks@kansan.com
Freshman Huldon Tharp didn't grow up in Mulvane a Kansas football fan. Not when the Jayhawks consistently ended seasons with disappointment and losing records.
But as coach Mark Mangino transformed Kansas' losing past with victories and bowl games, Tharp started following the Jayhawks more closely. It's at that same time when a gritty linebacker from western Kansas earned Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2005.
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"Success on the defense, especially at linebacker, was an eye opener for me." Tharp said. "I was just thinking that I could be in those guys' shoes and have the opportunity to be the next Nick Reid."
His name was Nick Reid.
Bill Miller, first-year linebackers' coach and co-defensive coordinator has a different take.
Miller has worked at perennially competitive schools Florida and Miami. He's tutored future pros Jason Gildon, Dan Morgan and Ray Lewis.
So it's fair to say, then, that Miller understands the workings of the college linebacker—a point he reiterated with a hint of bluntness when discussing Kansas' current unit.
"We really can't worry about where they were in the past," Miller said. "I mean, this is where we are right now. We're moving forward. Hey, players graduate. That's college football. Somebody
After losing three veteran starters at linebacker, Kansas enters this season with plenty of questions surrounding its cast of unproven replacements.
has to step up, come along and do the job"
And that's exactly what Miller and the rest of Kansas' staff searched for this offseason.
The linebacker position hasn't been a serious concern for Kansas in six years, a time before the starting days of Reid, Kevin Kane and Banks Floodman.
PAGE 1B
Now, the position finds its players under scrutiny entering Saturday's game against Northern Colorado.
"Everyone has to start somewhere," junior linebacker Drew Dudley said. "And we start this Saturday. Hopefully we can prove that we're not incompetent in that area. We don't have a lot of game
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 4B
COMMENTARY
Memorial Stadium or H1N1 pool?
of ways.
Memorial Stadium, in all its 89-year-old glory, could be described in a number
It could be called a bowl. A horse-shoe maybe. Heck, if you stood along 11th Street and distorted your depth perception a bit you might dare to be able to call its north facade coliseum-esque.
Alas, this fall it may elicit another comparison: a Petri dish.
With each day, the H1N1 virus — or "swine flu" — grows in prevalence. This college, largely in part because of the earlier start date of classes and relative openness of the University Relations, has been at the forefront of stories detailing the virus' impact on college campuses.
CNN ran a story on its cable programming and online. For a moment, The Drudge Report linked that story at the top of its page.
"We'll advise what we've been telling everybody all along and that is to follow your basic common sense procedures," Todd Cohen, director of university relations, said. "If you go to the game wash your hands, avoid touching your face and eyes and just be smart."
The college's stance on the matter mostly echoes anyone overseeing the swine flu's spread.
Of course, Cohen also advises those sick or those that suspect themselves to be sick to avoid going to the stadium altogether.
And with the start of football season brings considerable risk of contracting a virus that has already taken advantage of lecture halls and communal living. Add a 50,000-plus seat stadium and the regularly scheduled flu season and the concern grows.
In a nationally broadcasted interview Wednesday in which lanet Napolitano, homeland security secretary told the country to expect a "big influx" of H1N1 cases, washing one's hands and coughing into one's sleeves was the glut of her counsel.
The simple things are all anyone can offer regarding preventative measures. It's all they really know what to do at the moment.
The University's Web site, as of Wednesday, has 200 students — or less than one percent of the student body — reporting flu-like symptoms, which is a decrease from Monday, when the Kansan reported 313. That number will rise and it will happen far more rapidly if we don't take great care when taking in rames this year
When the virus first spread across the headlines this spring, rash measures were taken. Schools closed and Latin American soccer stadiums were empty for the week's games.
Cohen told me that such a stance is unnecessary and would actually do more harm than good.
"Canceling events didn't necessarily help," Cohen said. "In doing so, you just have more people out and about which is not as effective. Isolating the cases is more effective and less disruptive."
The thought of a Memorial Stadium filled with surgical-mask-clad spectators or a game conceived in an empty venue certainly provides plenty of fear-mongering fodder.
Let's hope we can keep it a thought.
— Edited by Alicia Banister
Follow Kansan sports editor Stephen Montemayor at www.twitter.com/smontemayor
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