A senior volleyball player made her debut in the game against UMKC.
4B
The Cornhuskers look to make a comeback this season with their experienced team.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2006 WWW.KANSAN.COM
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
LAKERS
SPORTS
PAGE 1B
》 SERENITY NOW
NCAA can't deny joy of being a father
BY FRED A. DAVIS III
KANSAN COLUMNIST
FDAVIS@KANSAN.COM
The NCAA has done it again.
The NC-double-a-holes, the Sopranos-like organization that runs college athletics with an iron fist, denied former KU defensive lineman Eric Butler an extra year of eligibility earlier this summer and has also denied Butler's subsequent appeals.
So why does Butler need the extra year of eligibility? His eligibility clock started in 2001 when he enrolled at DeVry University in Kansas City, Mo.
According to NCAA guidelines, an athlete has five years to play four seasons. Butler's eligibility ran out last year despite only playing football for two seasons: last year with Kansas and in 2003 for the NAIA Avila Eagles out of Kansas City, Mo.
But there's a reason — a valuable, legitimate, manly reason — Butler was unable to play any football in 2001; he had to take care of his newborn daughter.
Under Title IX, the NCAA allows a one-year extension of the five-year rule if a female athlete becomes pregnant. Butler has argued that he should be entitled to paternity leave, thus granting him a one-year extension. He's filed a lawsuit stating that the rule is unfair because it only applies to females.
Now, before I get myself into any trouble with feminists or mothers out there, let me say this: there should probably be an interpretation in Butler's case, because, let's face it, we men have no argument when it comes to pregnancy.
We helped, but the baby-carrying experience is exclusively a woman's, and all I can say to that is, God bless ya, ladies.
But as far as taking care of the baby after birth, well, that's a different story. A story I can attest to because I have been there and done that. See, I have a little girl myself, and as Eric Butler can certainly relate to, raising a newborn child, taking classes and playing college football is downright exhausting.
Because here's the deal, newborns don't do homework, they don't go to class, and they really don't care much about football. My daughter was two days old for Super Bowl XXXVII between the Bucs and Raiders in 2003, and while I tried to get her excited about the biggest game in sports, she was more excited about the whole, "Hey, I'm getting used to being out of the womb, let me scream a little bit." I'm just glad the game wasn't close.
game night.
And if not caring about football isn't bad enough, there's the sleep, or not getting any sleep, factor. College kids reading this are saying, "So what? I pull all-nighters all the time." But you do it at your convenience. Newborns don't know about convenience. Convenience to them is their mother's nipple or a rubber nipple in their mouth. And a dry diaper.
SEE NCAA ON PAGE 3B
Newborns are hard work. Raising a child is hard work. Being a parent and trying to balance, maintain and prepare for a career to support that child? Incredibly difficult, but not impossible. Plus, there is nothing
VOLLEYBALL
Megan Hill, senior outside hitter, spkies the ball at UMKCs Liz Pollock, sophomore redshirt, and Jacqui Wood, sophomore middle blocker, during the second match of Tuesday's game at Horejsi Family Athletics Center. The Jayhawks swept the Kangaroos 3-0.
Amanda Sellers/KANSAN
Volleyball girls win with 3-game sweep
Night before, motivational speaker pumped up girls for game, motivated them to victory
BY DREW DAVISON
A motivational speaker helped the KU volleyball team sweep UMKC during the home opener Tuesday night at Horejsi Family Athletics Center.
"We were all really excited to play the game," Megan Hill, senior outside hitter, said. "We had a speaker last night, and she just got us ready to go."
The Jayhawks had little trouble defeating the Kangaroos in three games, 30-21, 30-18 and 30-16.
Everybody on the team contributed to the victory, and five players had nine kills or more.
"That's always a fun part. When
everybody gets their chance and everybody does well" Hill said. "It's nice to share a win with everybody."
Coach Ray Bechard said the team played well overall, but serving was one area the Jayhawks needed to improve.
"The less we talk about serving right now, like free throw shooting, the better," he said.
Kansas committed 17 serving errors compared to UMKC's six.
"It just gets contagious, when you're serving well and when you're not serving very well," Bechard said.
Beachard said serving is the area that has the most pressure when the
team is playing at home.
Despite the added pressure on serving, Brittany Williams, freshman middle blocker, said she liked the home atmosphere and was able to feed off of it.
In game one, Kansas got off to a 3-0 lead and stopped any momentum UMKC tried to build. The Kangaroos were held to a-.125 attacking percentage, while Williams led the Kansas attack with five kills in the first match.
The Jayhawks punished the Kangaroos in game two, downing them 30-18. Brown led the team with five kills, followed by Savannah Noyes' four. Kansas' attack percentage also jumped from .343 in game
one to .469.
Fans got a little bit of entertainment when they were able to serve like the Hawks between games two and three.
KU basketball player Julian Wright tried serving, but will probably be keeping his position on the men's basketball team.
To finish off UMKC, Kansas got off to a hot start in game three, and won 30-16.
Bechard said game three was the "smoothest" game for the layhawks as their serving improved significantly, committing only two of their 17 errors in the final match.
Not only did the speaker get the team ready for the game yesterday,
but for the rest of the season.
"She got us fired up to play," Emily Brown, junior right side hitter/setter, said. "Everybody got together today and was like, 'let's prove this to ourselves; let's prove it to everybody that we're going to be a force this year.'"
Next up for the Jayhawks is the Temple Classic. The team plays Temple on Friday, then has a doubleheader with Maine and Rutgers on Saturday.
Kansan sportswriter Drew Davison can be contacted at ddavison@kansan.com.
Edited by Mindy Ricketts
FOOTBALL
Young players to start Kerry Meier, other freshmen will assume vacated roles Saturday
BY RYAN SCHNEIDER
While Mark Mangino was out recruiting players across the country, nearly every future Jayhawk told him the same thing; we want to play early.
The Kansas coach said there were at least 14 freshmen or red-shirt-freshmen players on the first or second-team roster as of Monday. Mangino said the decision to play that many younger players was not made because he needed a player to fill a spot.
It appears they'll get that chance Saturday night.
"We're not just grasping at straws here," Mangino said Tuesday at his first weekly press conference of the season. "We're putting kids on the field that are
Kansas v. Northwestern State Saturday, Sept. 2, 6 p.m.
probably going to be on the field at KU for four seasons."
Besides redshirt-freshman Kerry Meier, who will start at quarterback, it appears newcomers will be especially prevalent in the defensive secondary and at wide receiver. Between gradua-
SEE FOOTBALL ON PAGE 4B
KU dropout wins big with poker
POKER
Jensen, a 23-year-old from Los Angeles, is a professional poker plaver.
Michael Jensen dropped out of college, but he didn't need a college degree to land his job.
The former KU student landed in the money in the Texas Hold 'Em event at poker's biggest series: the World Series of Poker.
BY CLAUDIA ALTERMAN
There are multiple ways to qualify for the World Series of Poker, which has a $10,000 buy-in, or entry fee. Jensen qualified for the tournament through an online poker Web site's monthly tournament. He won, and the site paid his $10,000 buy-in to the famous tournament.
Jensen first began playing poker at the age of 6, after watching family members. At age 15, his grandfather taught him how to play Texas Hold 'Em. His career in poker then launched as he entered college at St. Mary's in northern California in 2001, and continued
at the University of Kansas, where he transferred in 2003.
"A family friend bought me a clay chip set, and I began to arrange home games," Jensen said. "That was how I met people in college."
"I primarily play online, and this is where I get the majority of my income. I have an overseas checking account that wires money over and then backtracks to take it out. I play 20 hours a week on average, which amounts to about an average of 12,000 hands," he said.
By running the games, he earned part of his income, and ultimately decided that it would be more beneficial to play poker full-time than attend school. Jensen remains at his residence in Lawrence, but in 2005 he left school behind to solely pursue his career in poker.
Sometimes he opts to travel to Las Vegas or Los Angeles to play. He feels more confident playing online, however.
*Playing online you can play a lot more hands in a shorter time frame,*
so if you're a winning player, you can essentially make more money and have a higher hourly wage given the number of hands you can play," he said.
Of the 8,773 players in the World Series of Poker this summer, a significant number of them qualified online. The event began July 28, with the final table ending Aug. 10.
The competitors were split into four starting days, beginning July 28. Jensen ended his starting day, July 30, up $63,000, which put him in the top percentage of players remaining in the field.
"The first day was especially intimidating and busy. They didn't allow any spectators the first 6 hours or so, but media was coming around taking pictures of everyone," Jensen said of the atmosphere. "Jennifer Tilly (2005 Women's World Series of Poker Champion) was sitting two seats to my right at my table. She
SEE POKER ON PAGE 3B