Inside Sports
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Sports
Tuesday
September 21, 1999
Section:
B
Page 1
Pro Football
Mark McGwire broke up Jon Lieber's perfect-game bid and hit his 59th homer of the year in St. Louis' 7-2 win.
SEE PAGE 4B
Kimble Anders had surgery on his Achilles' tendon yesterday and will miss the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs' season.
SEE PAGE 2P
Pro Football
The Dallas Cowboys beat the Atlanta Falcons 24-7 at Texas Stadium in a Monday night matchup.
SEE PAGE 3B
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Kansas forward Hilla Rantala shoots against goalkeeper Laura Rhode during practice yesterday. Rantala, who has not played since the Jayhawks first game, has started practicing and is expected to give the team a powerful offensive boost. Photo by Melissa Thornton/KANSAN
Player's return may end scoring drought
Kansas hoping Rantala's return will bring goals
By Chris Wristen sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
She's back
Sand.
And that's good news for the
Knicks, women's soccer team.
Krissas won the Highly-touted transfer Hilla Rantala injured her right ankle in the opening minute of the season and hasn't played since. She has rehabilitated her ankle, completed full workouts in practice and will make her return to the field today when the Jayhawks battle Southwest Missouri State in Springfield, Mo.
"That's huge for us." Coach Mark Francis said. "The last two days she's been able to practice 100 percent, which she hasn't been able to do up to this point. You can already tell a difference offensively in the stuff we've been doing just by having her in there."
by having two seasons at South Rantala, who scored 27 goals and had 27 assists during the past two seasons at South
Alabama, had never missed game action because of an injury during her college career and was frustrated with sitting out.
with strings "I absolutely hated it," Rantala said. "This was the first time in three years this has happened to me. I'm actually happy the games have been away and not here because it would be so much harder to see it and not be able to help the team."
She is aware that the return may be a slow one, but hopes to make the transition as quickly as possible.
"I'm not expecting a lot because I've been sitting out for three weeks." Rantala said. "It's going to be hard. I know it already, but I just hope that I can prepare myself for the weekend."
But Kansas won't be taking the Bears lightly.
The Jayhawks, 2-4, lost their last two games, both against top-20 teams. The Bears will bring a 7-2 record into today's game. Their impressive record, however, may be deceiving. Southwest Missouri State has defeated only one team with a winning record, and the combined record of the teams they have beaten is 7-32.
"Any time anybody has won a lot of games, you've got to look at who they've beaten. They've beaten some good teams," Francis said. "They haven't been playing top-20-inthe-country teams, but you have still got to go out and get the job done, and they've obviously been doing that."
The primary concern for the team today will be scoring goals, something it has not done in its past two games.
Francis said Rantala should help the Jayhawks get out of their scoring slump.
"That's the game plan right now, and we'll see how it works out." Francis said.
Edited by Matt James
Kansas golfer Ryan Vermeer pitches the ball onto the green. The Jayhawks battled the weather and tough greens yesterday finishing the first round one stroke behind Missouri 292-291. Photo by Lucas Krump/KANSAN
Men's golf rattled by crowd home course expectations
By Doug Pacey sports@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
The top-ranked Kansas men's golf team was a little upset after the first day of the Kansas Invitational at Alvamar Country Club.
"We probably could have done a lot better," golfer Brad Davis said.
"They know that it's kind of a temporary ranking," Randall said. "Even if they won this tournament, some of the very best teams haven't played yet and (the ranking) is based on those who have already played. That wasn't a problem. The only pressure they have is playing at home; sometimes it's not easy to play well at home because your expectations are very high."
BRAD DAVIS
The men finished with a score of 587, trailing Missouri by five strokes.
The pressure of playing on their home course, not the team's No. 1 ranking, was what turned up the stress, coach Ross Randall said.
Golfer Ryan Vermeer said even though Alvamar was the team's home course, it
Kandall said even though the team shot some high scores yesterday, they should do better today with better weather.
"It it made it cool and damp, so you had to hold onto your club a little better and keep your towel dry," he said.
"But basically it made you real patient because there wasn't a whole lot you could do about it."
played differently today than in practices.
"They set the greens) up a little bit longer than what we normally play at practices, and it was wet. So it played long," he said.
"This morning we finished a little bit suspect on the last couple holes, so we ended up shooting four over, which was not what we had in
Kansas finished the first round of play yesterday trailing Missouri by one stroke 292-291.
Davis said that the team could have putted better.
Vermeer, the top-ranked collegiate golf player, said that the weather played a part in the jayhawks' disappointing finish yesterday.
Vermeer was tied with David Suggs and Cory Ewert, both of Missouri, for the lead two-under par 70 after the first 18 holes.
"I hit the ball well today. I didn't make very many putts, but I usually don't make too many putts on these greens, and I've been playing here for four years," he said.
Vermeer said that he didn't feel much added pressure of being the No.1 ranked golfer in the country.
Suggs lead all golfers in the tournament after shooting a 140 yesterday.
mind." Vermeer said.
in the country.
"Not really, but to an extent, because people are going to expect you to play well," he said. "I've got a lot of confidence in my game right now, so I'm just going to keep playing."
to keep playing.
Jake Istnick and Andy Stewart are the only Jaywhakes who finished in the top 25. Istnick shot a 149 to tie at 16th place and Stewart a 150 for 23rd.
Vermeer finished the day a three-under par 141, and in second place overall.
—Edited by Mike Loader
Ex-Kansas standout strikes gold with 49ers
sports @ kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Dan Dercher misses Kansas
not that he doesn't like where he is now — he says San Francisco is beautiful and the ocean is great — but he misses the things that made Lawrence home for the previous five years.
Walking around campus and seeing the leaves change color are two of the little things he misses. Not being stuck in traffic every day, and living in a place where rent didn't cost an arm and a leg was nice too. The women most.
But he misses the women bloo. "The women out here are kind of gold-diggers," Dercher said.
tract with the San Francisco He wasn't picked during the NFL draft last May but that didn't mean teams weren't interested. More than a dozen teams contacted him, including the 49ers.
It must be the 49er in him that tips them off. Dercher, a two-year start on offense at left tackle for the Kansas football team, struck gold when he signed a two-year, $190,000 contract with the San Francisco 49ers.
So why didn't they train "Bill Walsh called me and basically told me that it was his fault they didn't draft me," Dercher said. Instead of drafting him, San Francisco focused on defense during the draft, but courted Dercher as a free-agent. He was told he would have a chance to compete for the second-string tackle
So why didn't they draft him?
positions, which enticed Dercher.
He signed, then beat out a second-year pro for the spot on the roster.
Not bad for a guy who played defense his first three seasons at Kansas.
"How about our boy Dercher?" said Kansas coach Terry Allen. Allen suggested Dercher switch from defense to offense two years ago and was pleased that the change worked out.
change work on the team. It was his experience on defense that helped Dercer make the team. He developed quick hands and feet, which is something not emphasized as much on the offensive line. His defensive experience helped make Dercer standout among other linemen.
"They like my quickness," he said. "But everyday you want to keep impressing the coaches. You don't have a guaranteed five-year plan like in college."
At first he was intimidated and in awe of the players, but then he settled down.
But he was happy to trade homework and going to classes for football as a full-time job. Plus, he gets to work with players he grew up admiring.
"The first time I was in the same huddle as Steve Young and Jerry Rice I was like, "Whoa." But they're human beings just like you, so I settled down and tried to focus," he said.
See DERCHER on page 2B
Area boxer contributed outside ring
I felt sick after I opened the sports section last Wednesday.
On Tuesday morning, 24-year-old Carver died.
I'd been checking it first thing each morning since Monday, hoping to find some good news.
The night before, Kansas City boxer Randie Carver lost consciousness after a fight at Harrah's North Kansas City Casino and Hotel. He was taken to North Kansas City Hospital where friends and family held a vigil, waiting and praying for Carver to regain consciousness.
It's strange to feel emotional about someone you've never met, but Carver was the type of person who could inspire feelings in those who never actually knew him.
after someone dies, we expect to hear about all the great things they did and what a special person they were.
But even while Carver was living, people who talked about Randie Carver the boxer couldn't help talk about Randie Carver the man.
I started following Carver's career a little more than year a year, after two of my friends told me about this boxer they had lived with in Kansas City during the summer. He's the real
I went to see Carver fight about this time last year at the Flamingo Casino. He was impressive —
Derek Prater
sports columnist
sports@kansan.com
ting they said up-and-comer In the boxing world. But there was more to him than that, they said. This was a really great guy — the type of person everyone liked.
great movement, nice technique. This guy's going to be a champion, I thought.
I didn't realize at the time that Carver was already a champion in an arena much larger than boxing.
Carver grew up poor with the lure of trouble all around him. Two of his brothers were sent to jail, and a third was murdered in his sleep.
That kind of life wasn't for Randie Carver, though. Instead of hanging out on the streets, Carver spent his time in the gym. His work ethic made people take notice — this kid had what it took.
When he was just hanging out, he
was hanging out with kids. Carver
worked at a recreation center for
inner-city kids and at dav camps
Steph Crane, who introduced my friends to Carver, knew him for about 12 years. In her mind, what made Carver special was simple.
Carver specializes.
"He's just a giver," Crane said. "He had so many friends. Everyone just loved him."
Now, everyone is wondering how this could have happened.
His promoter complained that he received too many head butts during his last fight. Others have said that he had been fighting too often (he had fought seven times in the last 11 months).
whatever might have contributed to Carver's death, the tragedy is the same — a young man is dead before his time.
Carver's story reflects the sad and familiar irony of boxing — a young man finds refuge from trouble in a boxing gym, only to have the sport ultimately become his undoing.
Boxing brings human traits into harsh conflict. Courage, dedication, violence and pride clash in the ring in what is sometimes a beautiful sport and sometimes a brutal travesty.
and so makes Perhaps the saddest irony is that Randie Carver, a man who represented all that is right about boxing, ended his career in a fight that demonstrates what can be very wrong about boxing.
Prater is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism.
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