Section B·Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, November 4, 1998
Commentary
University needs men's soccer team
Overlooked sport deserves attention
Let's discuss the issue closest to home: why Kansas doesn't have men's varsity soccer.
This is an issue that friends and I have discussed for four years. We had our thoughts, even suspicions, as to why this was the case. However, conjecture isn't good enough. So, to get the answers to this question right from the horse's mouth, I spoke with Bob Frederick, director of Intercollegiate Athletics for the University of Kansas. As I've suspected all along, he's a credit to his position and to this university's athletic programs.
For those of you who follow college sports (no, just following the Kansas men's basketball doesn't count), you will have heard some of this before. Bear with me.
in 1971, Congress passed the Title IX legislation for education reform and equity. Thrown onto the bill was a rider that applied educational equity to athletics. It was meant to make the bill so unpalatable, it would fail — boy, did that backfire! This languished for years, but in the 1990s, a major push has been made to strictly apply Title IX to intercollegiate sports.
This legislation has been interpreted to mean that men and women should receive the athletic scholarships in proportion to the ratio of male and female students on campus. Fair enough.
Here is the trouble: Football requires 88 scholarship, far more
than any other sport. The last time I checked, there weren't too many females at the University on football scholarships. Ergo, there have to be more female varsity sports (or, alternatively, fewer men's varsity sports). Several
Sam Pierron
sports /'sʌvə(r)z/ sports, including soccer, are all varsity sports for women, but not for men.
In addition, men's soccer is not a championship sport in the Big 12. In other words, if the University started a men's soccer program, it would have to be independent, which could be a tough task given the paucity of NCAA Division I varsity soccer programs in the area.
Frederick said the addition of
women's soccer as a championship sport was one of the first actions taken by the Big 12, which I agree, should be applauded. However, he thought it unlikely that men's soccer would attain the same status any time soon, mostly because of the financial restraints put on athletic departments by Title IX, which forces them to create what are largely non-revenue women's sports programs.
the other major problem Frederick mentioned was the lack of a facility. As men's and women's NCAA soccer are both fall sports, the teams would not be able to share their facility for both practicing and playing.
Frederick made a very encouraging remark. He said that in his 12-year era as University athletic director, he had received many letters asking him why the University didn't have men's varsity soccer. It was reassuring to know I wasn't the only one.
So, should those of us who wish to remedy this problem be bowed? Nay, nay, a thousand times nay.
First, I'd like to say I have a particular vision for Kansas men's soccer. That field south of Watkins would make a really nice place for a 3,000 seat stadium. I can see freshmen who had played the game their whole lives, drawn to watching a division I program at Soccerhawk Park.
Further, I see the program as a draw for students from strong soccer-playing countries helping to create the atmosphere at the games. Finally, I see the games bringing in kids from around the city, giving them a chance to see role models playing the same game that they play, only a few miles from home.
The essential point of this is that I see a KU soccer program as a potential revenue-earner, or at least revenue-neutral, which I am sure the people in charge of it wouldn't expect.
What will it take for this to happen? Well, that is an easy one. Want to know why the baseball team, which draws no crowds, has a newly refurbished stadium? Former KU baseball player and very rich alumnus Forrest Hoglund decided they needed one and paid for the whole thing.
So, soccer fans, go out there, get rich and give the money to the University for a stadium, funding for the team and funding for an equally endowed women's sport. It is as simple as that.
If you would like to make donations to a KU men's soccer lottery fund, contact spierron@ukans.edu.
Pierron is an Oleate senior in political science and international studies.
Oklahoma quarterback calls media unfair
The Associated Press
NORMAN, Okla. — Oklahoma quarterback Eric Moore defended his coach yesterday while lashing out at the media for what he called unfair treatment of the players and the program.
Moore, a fifth-year senior who has been through three coaches and four offensive coordinators, and about 10 other players gathered to support coach John Blake.
nim and taking a stand and saying coach is a good coach."
The gathering apparently was done without Blake's knowledge. He had concluded his weekly news conference and had left the room before Moore was interviewed.
Moore said he understood how the media could be critical of Blake, considering the Sooners are 10-21 in his three years and have shown no
e ear direction with the offense during that time.
As a team, we're tired of the media trying to get on coach Blake and trying to tell him that he's not a good coach and that they need to fire him," Moore said. "A lot of times, Coach Blake does so much for us. He stands up for us so much at times, it's time for us to start standing up for
He also said this year, Oklahoma (3-5,
2-4 Big 12) had hurt itself with mistakes that were not the
Blake: Received a show of support from 10 players.
coaches' fault.
"We've been killing ourselves," he said. "We've been shooting ourselves in the foot. You can't put the blame on Coach Blake or the coaches on the staff because
he's not out there playing."
Moore started every game as a redshirt freshman in 1995, under Howard Schnellenberger. He shared the job with Justin Fuente for the next two years under Blake, and by the end of last season both were taking a back seat to Brandon Daniels because Blake decided to switch to an option attack.
Answering a question about the offensive instability, Moore said the media had no idea what actually went on inside a football program.
"I know that y'all are trying to do what y'all got to do, but you don't know how much of y'all writing y'all's stories can tear up a team's focus, can tear up a team's attitude," he said. "Y'all just do not know what kind of damage y'all are doing to this university and this organization."
He said the players and fans were affected by what was written and said. Moore said he had been booed more than
"We've been killing ourselves. We've been shooting ourselves in the foot. You can't put the blame on Coach Blake or the coaches on the staff because he's not out there playing."
Eric Moore
Oklahoma quarterback
once during his career.
"We're humans, too," he said. "We've got emotions, too. We've got feelings, too, and it seems like y'all really don't even care about that. I understand that y'all want to move up on the ladder or whatever and be big time or whatever, but man. Y'all just ridicule people.
have nothing positive to say." Moore also had a heated exchange with a reporter who tried to explain why Blake had been criticized.
"I don't care if y'all don't like people. I don't even care what it is. I need to ask y'all, do y'all have God in y'all's life? Because it really don't make no sense. Y'all are just sitting up there tearing this university apart. Y'all are tearing it apart. Y'all don't
nave nothing positive to say."
"I'm just asking you, what gives you the right to take shots at us or our coach?" he asked. "Because what you say these players read, and it affects them."
Afterward, Moore sought out at least one reporter and apologized for getting emotional. He said his comments could be contributed to five years of frustration.
"I just wanted people to think about what kids go through," he said.
Running back's 525-yard night breaks 5A record
The Associated Press
DALLAS — Before every game, Irving High School running back Tyson Thompson sets a statistical goal, usually between 200 and 300 yards. But for his first game after being held to 27 yards on 23 carries, Thompson wanted to do something really special, which he did.
Thompson had 525 yards and seven touchdowns on 33 carries in a 45-29 victory against Hurst Bell last Friday night. The yardage broke the state's week-old Class 5A record and it is believed to be the eighth-best performance in national high school history.
Thompson's performance is the third incredible outing by a Texan in two weekends. The previous Friday night, Houston Milby's Derick Arnold set the 5A record with 446 yards and Darryl Ellis of Class 2A Somerville gained either 602 yards on 48 carries or 52 on 47, depending on which team's statistics are accurate.
"It was something that you just don't see," Irving coach Jim Bennett said. "My girl's basketball coach said he sat down and figured that he's seen over 700 games and had never anything like it. It was just amazing to watch."
But Thompson's performance may be the most impressive because he had fewer carries, played against better competition and was trying to avoid being eliminated from the playoffs against a team that would clinch a postseason berth with a victory.
Bennett, nonetheless, had high expectations going into the game. Redemption for the previous week's off-game was one reason; the new, fast turf at Beford's Pennington Field was another.
Irving opened the game with a sweep to Thompson and he took it 74 yards for a touchdown. He scored six more times, including touchdowns of 80 and 99 yards on consecutive carries. The 89-yarder was his longest, while the shortest covered only 50 yards. The rest of the touchdowns were from 52, 66 and 53 yards, giving Thompson 464 yards on scoring runs alone.
"We just did not tackle very well," Bell coach Jack Gibson said. "One play, we would stop him for no gain. Then, they would run the same play in the same situation and he would go 80 yards."
Thompson, who went untouched on four of his touchdowns, said, "I have a lot of confidence in my offensive line and I knew that (Bell) was a little weak in the cutback lanes."
Bennett has two brothers who are coaches and neither believed Thompson's total at first. Jefferson high coach Jerry Bennet heard it on television and figured the announcer had bad information. Phil Bennett, a secondary coach for the Oklahoma Sooners, read it in the newspaper and considered it a misprint.
Bennett's wife was in West Texas when he called her with the news. Because of his hoarse voice, she expected to hear that Irving had lost.
"I told her she wasn't going to be believe it and when I started giving her the stats she didn't," he said. "She said, 'Now say that again?'
Thompson, a 6-foot-2-inch, 185-pound junior, leads the area with 1,985 yards and 19 touchdowns. With 137 yards in the season finale against Irving MacArthur, the defense in the district, he would break the 10-year-old city record of 2,121 yards.
But Bennett is concerned that his team (5-4) may not be prepared to play MacArthur because of the fallout from Thompson's feat.
"To be real honest, its' been a real distraction," the coach said. "We want the kid and the team to get all the credit they deserve, but at the same time we've got a big game coming up. We've got to get back down to earth and start thinking about that."
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