Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Big 12 Football
Save the Old Ballparks! Chip visited Fenway on the last weekend of the regular season and offers his observations.
Things have changed since Bob Simmons arrived at Oklahoma State and first played Nebraska.
SEE PAGE 3B
SEE PAGE 5B
Wednesday
September 30,1998
Section:
B
Pro Football
Page 1
The Steelers hope Kordell Stewart will begin to live up to the nickname he earned last season. Slash.
SEE PAGE 6B
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Super Target Field's soggy saga
Heavy rains force soccer tournament's change of location
By Brad Hallier
Kansan sportswriter
Kansan sportswriter
Last weekend was supposed to be big for the Kansas women's soccer team
The Jayhawks held the inaugural Kansas Tournament, and the four-team, fourgame tournament was to take place
at Kansas' home field, Super Target Field
The tournament was played, but not at the Jayhawks' regular field.
Hours before the tournament's first game between Western Illinois and Drury College at 2 p.m. Friday, Super Target Field was deemed unplayable because of the rain during the week.
Super Target Field has a clay-based soil, meaning that it will remain soaked following rain. Amy Perko, associate athletics director, said the field's soil does not drain properly.
"It was unfortunate that we couldn't play at home," Perko said. "As an administrator, I was embarrassed. Our women deserve a home field for their own tournament."
Angie Kuhn/KANSAN
"Obviously, the last thing you want is injuries. The officials and ourselves decide if the fields are safe to play on."
The Shawne Mission Complex, Olathe District Activities Center and Blue Valley District Activities Center in Johnson County were called,
but all were booked for the weekend, Kansas coach Dan Magner said.
Perry-Lecompton High School finally allowed the Jayhawks to stage Friday's matches at their field.
"Perry-Lecompton was extremely supportive." Magner said. "They were very helpful on such short notice."
Had an alternate site not been found, Magner said it would have been possible, if unlikely, that his team would have had to forfeit their games.
"The prospects of forfeiting was slim," he said. "We made the right choice to change the venue. The other teams were cooperative, and we appreciated that. They understood that you can't control the weather."
Magner said that he and Perko are working with the three Johnson County venues to arrange for a backup site.
Perko said the athletic department is continuing to discuss the soccer field's problems.
"It's been in a master planning process," she said. "Ultimately, any solution with the soccer field is going to require a lot of money. We would need new soil and drainage. It's an issue of money at this point."
Top hitter for volleyball works hard
Twin joins sister at University also plays on basketball team
By Laura Bokenkroger Kansan sportswriter
The first sport Amanda Reves played wasn't volleyball. It was soccer.
Middle blocker Amanda Reves goes up for a spike during practice. Reves has developed into one of the volleyball team's stars. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
In fact, she didn't even start playing volleyball until she was a freshman in high school.
Reves, a junior, has been named to seven All-Tournament teams in the last two years. She was named Big 12 Conference Player of the Week after their first tournament in 1998, and she leads the Javahaws with 172 kills and 65 blocks.
The Denver native came to Kansas because she wanted to go to college out of state. She tried out for the volleyball team and received a scholarship her freshman year.
Only one thing was missing: her twin sister, Brooke.
"Our coaches knew the best way to get us to go or hard as we could was to match us up against each other," Amanda said. "There were definitely days when we were walking a tight rope of competition, but once we stepped off the court, we were always close."
The sisters grew up competing with each other. They played the same sports, and competitions kept them motivated.
But after high school, Brooke took a basketball scholarship to Wichita State University, and the twins were separated for the first time.
"We were all right apart, but I was really happy when she decided to transfer." Amanda said.
Brooke, who was encouraged as a high school senior to walk on the Kansas basketball team, realized she didn't belong in Wichita and relocated to Lawrence last year.
"Wichita State wasn't the right place for me," Brooke said. "The team wasn't committed, and the school wasn't what I thought. I knew I still had the opportunity to play at Kansas, and I was excited to be with my sister again."
Amanda said her sister was her greatest athletic influence and her arrival at Kansas was exciting.
Brooke said the sisters attend each other's games and are proud of each other's accomplishments.
"She's always there to shoot hoops with or to offer me advice after games, like what went wrong or what I should focus on." Amanda said.
"I'm Amanda's biggest fan." Brooke said.
But Amanda said that the record isn't enough. She said the Jayhawks have higher aspirations, including a trip to the NCAA Tournament this year.
Amanda is leading the volleyball team to its best record in three years. The Jayhawks are 10-3 and are playing better than they were at their peak last year.
Brooke and the women's basketball team is coming off a 23-9 season, topped by a Sweet 16 appear ance.
"We've raised our expectations since the beginning of the year," Amanda said. "Being 10-3 is great, but I think we definitely could be 13-0."
Coach Ray Bechard said that Amanda is an exciting player who has been the one to step up and make the big play more than once.
"She's one of those kids who shows up and works hard every day," Bechard said. "She has some God-given athleticism and natural ability, but her own training has made her an explosive player for us."
Amanda said it wasn't always that way.
"When I first got here, I was way behind," Amanda said. "I just had this base of athleticism, and when you're in an environment where everyone is better, you have to tuck your pride away and work harder."
"I tell my players that the ball is the best teacher," Bechard said. "I've seen dramatic improvement in Amanda, and I believe she won't top out here.
Bechard said her work ethic has paid off.
There are opportunities to keep playing after college, and if Amanda continues to improve the detailed, technical side, she definitely could do that."
Right now Amanda is focusing on this season. "Personally, I want to be a driving force in hitting and blocking," Amanda said. "As a team, we want to make it to the tournament and to go as far as we possibly can."
Commitments not set in stone until November
By Erin Thompson
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas basketball team has already received verbal commitments from two star recruits.
The significance of oral commitments and the degree of commitment they actually represent is debatable.
But last season the Jayhawks received an oral commitment from top recruit Jori Rush. Rush is now at UCLA.
Last December after giving his oral commitment to Kansas, Rush said it would probably take an act of God to keep him from becoming a Jayhawk.
Three months later on Feb. 10, Rush, then a senior at Pembroke Hill High School in Kansas City, Mo., told a reporter that Kansas head coach Roy Williams substituted too much for him.
"But I still might go there," Rush said. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
Two days later at a press conference, Williams said that Rush would never play for him.
"I've heard it takes an act of God to change something," Williams said at the news conference. "This is a lot stronger than that."
So how committed are this
Greg Swain, recruiting analyst at Midwest Basketball,
said that the commitments Kansas has received from Collison and Gooden are strong and there is no question that those players will play at Kansas.
So how committed are these year's commitments from forwards Andrew Gooden, El Cerrito (Cal.) High School, and Nick Collison, Iowa Falls (iowa) High School? And how binding is a verbal contract that still allows recruits to speak with and visit other schools?
"Oral commitments are not at all legally binding," Swaim said. "Just because a kid has committed does not keep any other coaches from calling them. Especially if they're good players like Gooden and Collison. I'm sure they're still getting calls from other coaches. But I do consider Collison and Gooden very, very strong commitments."
Recruits can give verbal commitments at any time before the early signing period in November. But in the aftermath of last year's Rush catastrophe, it is hard to know when a player has actually committed to a school.
Swaim said 95 percent of the players who gave commitments ended up at the schools they said they would play for.
"I don't consider a commitment a commitment until a player says he's not visiting any other schools." Swaim said. "I can't tell my wife, 'I love you but I'm going out with another woman tonight.' I'd probably get smacked over the head."
Roughly half of the country's top 100 players have already committed to schools, including Collison and Gooden. Top 15 player Casey Sanders has committed to Duke. And Kentucky has received commitments from 6-foot-4 Keith Bogans, 6-foot-10 Marvin Stone, and 7-foot John Stewart, all of whom are considered in the top 15 by most recruiting analysts as well.
The increase in high school players giving early commitments is due to many things, including the recent addition of the early signing period and the hope of having a seminormal senior year of high school.
"Coaches want to get it wrapped up before the season starts," Swaim said. "Players want to get it out of the way before season starts. Kids are getting 50 phone calls a night. It's messing with their academics, it's messing with their basketball."
Williams could wrap up his recruiting this weekend if he receives a verbal commitment from Kirk Hinrich of Sioux City, Iowa. Hinrich will visit Lawrence this weekend, and the Jayhawks hope to fill their final available scholarship with him.
Week No. 4 reader picks
It was a good weekend for our 20 student pickers. Four people predicted the winners in all the games.
Results not listed below can be found on sports page of the UDKI. The address is www.kansan.com/sports.
NAME
RECORD
1. Lewis Bowen, Richardson, Texas, soph. 11-0
2. Ricard Leaf, Los Angeles graduate student 11.0
3. Derek Olson, Portland, Ore., senior 11-0
4. Tom Swartz, Omaha, Neb., senior 11-0