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Monday, December 7, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
SportsMonday
Valesente believed in academics
By ELAINE SUNG
Special to the Kansar
When Jason Shepherd was recruited by former KU football coach Bob Valesente last year, the Houston center had to promise two things: that he would attend classes, and that he would graduate.
"Academics have always been very important to me," Shepherd, a business major, said. "I felt that Coach Val had his priorities."
strage It was those priorities that made the Kansas football team more respectable in the classroom, even though their record on the field remained dismal.
Valesente was fired Nov. 23, but the values he instilled in his players and the improvements he demanded of the academic program at Kansas remain.
And although he is gone, both the tutoring and the mentor programs, the latter of which was started by Valesente, will go on.
we'll definitely keep on what has worked well for us," said Richard Lee, assistant athletic director of academic support. "Coach Val has done a tremendous job. He got the athletes to understand they need to perform in class as well as on the field."
That was not the case in 1985, when Valesente replaced Mike Gottfried as the coach. He found deficiencies in the football program that were directly linked to holes in the academic program.
One of those problems was academic ineligibility. Two years ago, Kansas lost 34 football players
because of substandard grades.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association requires that all intercollegiate athletes have a minimum of a 1.6 grade point average in order to remain eligible for competition.
we were losing too many players to academic ineligibility." Valesente said before he was fired. "We had to address that area first. To be successful, you must have them eligible and playing on the football field."
and playing in the programs also made recruiting blue-chip athletes difficult.
"When you have all the negative things being thrown in your direction, it makes it tough in recruiting," he said. "I knew it was a big challenge."
But problems arose when Valesente could not produce a winning record after two years at KU. He said he had a strong commitment to the program and had remained unconcerned about what others said.
"Whatever they say, they'll say. I'm very disappointed in our win-loss record, too. But I have priorities in coaching. Academics is 1. No. Football is a close second. The goal is to win — that's my job. But I attempt to do it in the framework of the University."
Mentor program
When Valenteis arrived in 1984 as an assistant coach, the academic support system was already there, but he improved it by starting the mentor program in spring 1986. It introduced many faculty members to the world of intercollegiate athletics for the first time. The result was a
more enthusiastic and supportive faculty, of which there are more than 35 members now involved in the program that covers both the football and men's basketball teams.
Transfer students, freshmen and academically borderline players are assigned mentors, usually a university faculty member from the field in which the student-athlete is interested.
These mentors assist in advising whether it be in academics or in everyday life.
"They got to talk to the players. Some got to go through a day's routine with them. It let them see what it was really like to be an athlete. They saw what these players go through." Valesente said.
Lance Suyder, a pre-medicine major, said he only went to see his mentor occasionally, but it was nice that there was someone there for him.
"He's really helped me academically, and he's excellent with figuring out schedules." Snyder, a redshirt freshman, said.
Valezente also required his first semester freshmen and transfer players, as well as any player with a GPA of less than 2.1, to attend
Studv Hall
nightly study hall and tutoring sessions, which are usually held in Learned Hall.
Before Valesente's coaching tenure, football players attended study halls only in the fall. Now, the sessions are required in both fall and spring.
"I hate the school halls," Shepherd said. "I know what I need to study. Not everybody needs it (study hall). Of the guys need it, but this isn't for me."
Therefore, the sessions are attended religiously, although unwillingly.
They are also enforced with a penalty few athletes like to receive. If a player misses his study hall session, he is forced to run at 6 a.m. the following morning.
As Snyder finished his session in chemistry, he said he did not mind the study hall, but the environment was sometimes hard to work in.
"It might be better if it was in a library," Snyder, a freshman, said. "Sometimes it's real hard to study. There's people walking by, and a lot of people don't know how to study."
Bong, who supervises the study hall, usually tries to keep general control of the area. On the day Synder was finishing his chemistry, there was a player hunched over his calculus book while several of his teammates were at the chalkboard drawing pictures.
Other players walked in the halls, poking their heads into rooms where groups of students were being
See ACADEMICS, p. 16, col. 1
Maddox and Masucci learn to juggle school work with playing basketball
Freshman center Mike Masucci.
Freshman forward Mike Maddox.
By DAVID BOYCE Assistant sports editor
The men's basketball team, though, didn't have that luxury.
For most students, last week was a time to prepare for finals or write term papers they had put off until the last moment.
Besides writing papers and preparing for finals, the basketball players spent much of last week traveling and playing basketball. And for two freshmen, Mike Maddox and Mike Masuci, last week was their first taste of preparing for KU finals. They did it while flying to and from Hawaii and North Carolina.
Although members of the basketball team missed classes Monday and Thursday last week, Maddox said the strain of juggling classes and basketball hadn't been too tough yet.
"Professors are understanding, and they have tried to help me any way they can," Maddox said.
Masucci, who had an English paper due Monday, was allowed to turn it in on Tuesday. He said playing basketball and trying to study had been a strain.
"At first I didn't think it was going to be this hard," Masuci said, "but once I saw the schedule I knew what I had to do."
Starting Nov. 27, Kansas played Chaminade, Iowa and Illinois on successive days in the Maui Classic; Pomona Pitzer at Allen Field House on Tuesday; Western Carolina at Culweille, N.C., on Thursday; and St. John's at Allen Field House on Saturday.
"Because of that schedule, I started studying a week early," Maddox said.
Maddox, whose 17 hours include economics and computer science courses, said he was taking a lighter screen, next semester because of college
the effects of jetlag and hard practices.
He said on Wednesday that he felt
"Right now I am tired, and it's hard to concentrate in class," Maddox said. "It's tough getting out of bed and going to class after road games, but Brown stresses that we do because of all the classes we miss because of games."
Maddox said he was lucky last week that he didn't have any tests or papers to write, but that he was preparing for his first final, which is Dec. 9.
masucci is just a little huckier than Maddox. His first final is Dec. 16.
Search continues for new football coach
Bv ELAINE SUNG
The search goes on.
But Gary Hunter, associate athletic director and head of the search committee, says it is unlikely that a recommendation will be made early this week because the committee must evaluate the candidates and then start the interview process.
Rumors about who the selection committee will choose to replace Bob Valesente as football coach at Kansas have been circulating since Valiente was fired Nov. 23.
And those rumors will not be quieted for some time. Applications to fill the vacancy will be taken until 5 p.m. today. Athletic Director Bob Frederick had expressed hopes that a recommendation would be made soon.
Members of the selection committee are Hunter; Maurice King, alumni representative to the KUAC board; Arno Knapper, professor of business, director of the KUAC board; Jason Krakow, student body president; Tom Mulinazzi, associate dean of engineering, member of the KUAC board; and Laird Noller, alumni representative to the KUAC
Committee members were reluctant to discuss the situation or the process. But three would say what they were looking for in a candidate.
Hunter said he was looking for an enthusiastic candidate who would know how to assemble a great staff and be able to create interest in the football program.
The only criterion for Valesente's replacement is a minimum of four years' experience coaching at any level in either collegiate or professional football.
Mulinazzi said he had talked to some of the players, but would not specify what they had discussed. He said, however, that he was looking for a dynamic person who would have respect for, and of, the players.
board.
Although there is no representative of the Kansas football team on the search committee, Hunter said the team will be playing a simulation with various football players.
"We're not limiting the search to any one particular group." Hunter said. "It's open to anyone."
"I'm looking for someone with character that can tell me," someone who must answer.
"The real problem is that some coaches don't want it known that they're looking for another job," he said. "We've got to be careful or he may turn us down."
Knapper, who was selected to replace Tony Redwood as KUAC board director when Redwood resigned, said his concern was whether a coach would place academics first.
Mulinazzi said he was hesitant to talk about the selection process. He said it might turn some coaches away.
he has to be trustworthy."
"That's how you establish a win ning team in the long run," he said. "You can't win if you don't have them eligible."
Billy Miller — 31, from Hutchinson College; Hutchinson Community College, University of Texas at Arlington
The following names are people who have expressed interest in the job:
Experience: He is in second year as secondary coach at the University of Minnesota.
coach
Billy Miller - 31, from Hutchinson
Comments: "I guess I'm stubborn and egotistical to think we can win games at KU. I think I understand where the University is right now and I know how to win.
Drake University — assistant coach
University of Nevada-Reno assistant coach
Oklahoma State — junior varsity
■ Richard Williamson - He is the receivers coach with Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Experience: Kansas City Chiefs,
recruits coach
Arkansas - assistant coach for five years
Memphis State — coach 1975-80
Alabama — assistant coach for seven years
seven years Could not be reached for comment
John Hadi — KU graduate, former two-time football All-American
Experience: Kansas — assistam
coach 1978-81
Los Angeles Express of USFL — coach from 1981-85
coach from 1961%
set SEARCH p, 16, col 1
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