UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, September 20, 1995
38
Steve Puppe / KANSAN
Kansas sophomore Alisha Starnes passes the ball during practice. She joined the volleyball team last season as a walk-on.
Specialist sets'Hawks defense
By Bill Petulla
Kansan sportswriter
Kansas volleyball defensive specialist Alisha Starnes is a worker.
One can't tell by her polite smile or how she shyly looks at the floor when talking about herself. But the floor burn that covers her palm and the heat treatments that she receives on her back as often as twice a day tell a different story.
Since joining the team as a walkon last season, the Lincoln, Neb., sophomore has established herself as an integral part in the success of Kansas volleyball this season. But as a defensive specialist, Starnes' accomplishments on the court rarely are noticed in the box scores.
But for Starnes, this is just part of her blue-collar job.
"It's hard sometimes," Starnes said. "But I'm not in it for the glory. I know my teammates appreciate me, and I know the coaches acknowledge and appreciate what I contribute to the team."
The performance she has given to the Jayhawks this season has not gone unnoticed by teammates
and coaches.
"Alisha has been a wonderful surprise for us," Kansas volleyball coach Kareen Schonewise said. "She's a very intelligent player and has been a real pleasure to have on the team this year."
Starnes began playing volleyball in the eighth
"Alisha has been a wonderful surprise for us. She's a very intelligent player."
Karen Schonowise Kansas volleyball coach
grade. A year later, she played at Lincoln Southeast High School for volleyball coach Kathi Weiskamp. Through Weiskamp's tutelage, Starnes earned four variety letters and was an All-State selection.
"Coach Weiskamp taught me the basic fundamentals," Starnes said. "But she also showed me how much fun it was to play. I saw her desire and the enjoyment she got out of the game, and I try to model my life with volleyball on how she dealt with life and volleyball."
To Weiskamp, though, Starnes was the role model.
"Alisha was a very hard worker in high school," Weiskamp said. "She gave 100 percent on the court, and the other players reall y respected her." Starnes carries the 100 percent effort that she gives on the court to the classroom. As an architec-
rural engineering major, Starnes carries a course load that includes such classes as physics and differential equations. Someday, she hopes to open her own private consulting firm.
During the rare moments that she's not studying or playing volleyball, Starnes enjoys biking,taking walks, reading and listening to music, especially the blues.
While in high school, Starnes, who was also an All-State basketball selection, considered Southeast High School teammate and Penn State basketball and volleyball player Jennifer Reimers an influence on her playing career.
"We played volleyball and basketball together when I was a freshman, and she was a senior," Starnes said. "She was a very big role model for me."
Although she is now a regular player for the Jayhawks, Starnes' road to success hasn't been without some twists and turns.
"I started off last year as a redshirt," she said. "When spring came around, we had lost two girls ahead of me; Katie Walsh transferred and Lara Izokaitis took a medical redshirt, and that opened a lot of doors for me."
At times it would have been easy for Starnes to quit volleyball. She admits that the thought of leaving behind the long hot practices crossed her mind. But Starnes stuck with volleyball, and she has no regrets.
"When it's a gorgeous 75-degree sunny afternoon, you think about what it would be like just to be able to go out and sit on Campile hill," she said. "But I've made the decision, and that's not what I want to do. I love volleyball so much, and I couldn't give up the people and the environment."
Nebraska tailback pleads no contest
The Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska star tailback Lawrence Phillips pleaded no contest yesterday to two misdemeanor charges, and a third charge was dropped.
Phillips, who entered the pleas during an unscheduled appearance in Lancaster County Court, had been suspended from the No. 2 Cornhuskers since his arrest Sept. 10.
Police said Phillips climbed to the third-floor apartment of quarterback Scott Frost, a transfer player from Stanford, and found his ex-girlfriend Kate McEwen, a sophomore basketball player, inside the apartment. Police said Phillips hit McEwen.
He is scheduled to be sentenced
Dec. 1 on misdemeanor counts of assault and trespassing. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $500 fine, but Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey said his office would recommend that Phillips be given probation.
Lacey said prosecutors also would ask the court to require Phillips to receive counseling and to complete an anger-control program.
Lacey said a misdemeanor charge of damaging property was dropped because Phillips agreed to pay $130 for damages to mailboxes which he struck as he left the apartment building.
Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne said Monday he would consider allowing Phillips, a junior
who had been considered a leading Heisman Trophy contender, to return to the team if he learned to control his anger.
Osborne said Phillips' return also depended on the outcome of an NCAA investigation, his standing with team rules and the outcome of the legal case against him.
Osborne said Phillips, who rushed for 359 yards and seven touchdowns in the Huskers' first two games, could be reinstated within a month if those steps were taken. He said doctors would have to confirm that Phillips had made progress in controlling his temper.
"I told Lawrence that he definitely needs to have some sort of treatment where he can look at how to control his anger," Osborne said
during the Big Eight Conference coaches' weekly teleconference.
"There are several things he has to get ironed out. It's possible that in a month or so, in the best-case scenario, that he could return," he said.
The NCAA has asked Nebraska officials for information about the owners of a West Covina, Calif., group home where Phillips lived as a teen-ager. The home's owners said that they leased a car for Phillips and gave him spending money and airline tickets. The NCAA is trying to determine if the actions violated extra-benefits rules.
Osborne said some critics had characterized Phillips wrongly, since he was considered a Heisman Trophy contender before he was suspended.
"It's not as though Lawrence is an angry young man all the time and a threat to society. I don't believe that." Osborne said. "But there are occasions every four to five months where he becomes a little explosive."
Osborne also responded to those who said that Phillips never should be reinstated.
"I think it's important that he have football out there. Football is what holds everything together for him," he said.
Osborne said he was willing to accept at least part of the responsibility for his players' conduct.
"We recruit them," he said. "We deal with them every day. We do the best we can. I think most coaches do.
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