Here’s my story on the Pitt State football team that ran in today’s Eagle and at Kansas.com – the Gorillas are playing their spring game today and will return to camp Aug. 9 with a likely preseason No. 1 national ranking.
How hard is it to win back-t0-back NCAA Division II titles? Not very hard, as you might guess.
Eagle staff
Wichita State’s Geoffrey Young and Newman’s Georgia Drewes won titles at the USBC Intercollegiate Singles Championships on Saturday in Lincoln, Neb.
The WSU men lost in the final of the Team Championships, falling to Webber International 2 1/2 – 1/2. Webber won the best-of-3 series 179-167, 203-203, 194-184.
In the men’s singles final, Young beat Midland’s Joe Steiner 245-191. Young opened with strikes in six of the first seven frames.
“This is unbelievable because not in a million years did I think singles would be on TV, and I would be the one winning it all,” Young was quoted as saying at Bowl.com. “I was pretty nervous at first, but I calmed down and focused on what I needed to do.”
The event will by shown on tape on CBS Sports Network on May 4.
Young rolled a 242 in the semifinals to beat Calumet’s Anthony Fiorenzo.
Drewes beat Nebraska’s Elise Bolton 204-147 in the final, She reached the final by beating WSU’s Jazreel Tan 226-207 in the semifinals.
“I was more nervous when I was on the practice lanes, and I actually thought I would be sickly nervous when I got on the lanes, but it wasn’t too bad,” Drewes said. “My heart was beating pretty fast, but I just kept to my routine.”
First, here’s my article that is running at Kansas.com and in Sunday’s print edition of The Eagle.
The Jayhawk Conference is expanding its football rosters to 59 from 55 from 2012 – adding four out-of-state players to a “taxi squad” that can play in non-conference games (including bowls). During conference play, schools can still only use 12 out-of-state players but that group of 12 can be switched out week-to-week. In the past, you could only swap an out-of-state player in the first 3 games. Which also meant that if your all-star from Florida or Georgia or California or wherever got hurt in the 10th game, there went your season.
Hutchinson coach Rion Rhoades spearheaded this movement – big opposition came from Butler coach Troy Morrell, who wanted things to stay the way they were. His big beef? Cuts down on opportunities for Kansas kids.
Here’s a look at the evolution of football rosters in the Jayhawk:
1965 – 40 players on roster, 10 could be out-of-staters
1979 – 45 allowed on roster, 40 suit up for games, 10 -out-of-staters
1987 – 55 allowed on roster, 40 suit up for games, 10 out-of-staters
1988 – 55 allowed on roster, 45 suit up for games, 10 out-of-staters
1991 – 55 suit up for games, 10 out-of-staters
1999 – 12 out of staters
TA
Here’s my feature on Cowley College second baseman Haley Strawn that ran in Saturday’s Eagle and at Kansas.com. Strawn, a freshman from Oklahoma City, was recruited by coach Ed Hargrove to play outfield this year and then shortstop next season – her two natural positions. When Cowley’s second baseman left the team before the season started, Strawn stepped up. How she was able to learn the position was really amazing – read the article to find out how.
Oh yeah, she’s also one of the best hitters in the nation.
TA
DARIN SPENCE
By TONY ADAME
The Wichita Eagle
Newman has hired former New Mexico State and Barton Community College coach Darin Spence as its new women’s basketball program.
The school announced the hiring of Spence on Thursday afternoon.
Spence went 18-13 at Barton this season, his only year in Great Bend. He went 109-136 in eight years at New Mexico State.
Spence replaces Jaime Green at Newman after Green resigned earlier this month after two seasons to take an assistant coach position at Missouri Southern. Green led the Jets to their first NCAA Tournament berth and a Heartland Conference title this season.
Spence has extenive ties to Kansas – he began his coaching career at his alma mater, Marymount College in Salina, in 1987, then spent five seasons as the women’s coach at Butler Community College, two seasons as an assistant men’s coach at Cowley, two seasons as the men’s coach at Colby Community College and five seasons as the women’s coach at Cowley, where he won five Jayhawk East titles.
Spence’s best season at New Mexico State came in 2009-2010, when he went 25-9 and led the Aggies to the Women’s NIT.
“Darin will be an absolute great fit for Newman University,” Newman athletic director Vic Trilli said in a statement. “He has had success at every level of college basketball, including eight years (at Division I). He brings an experience factor and big-time family values that will provide some stability to our program.”
Reach Tony Adame at tadame@wichitaeagle.com or 316-268-6284.
KYLE BURKHARDT
Here’s my feature on the Newman University baseball team from Kansas.com – it will run in Thursday’s Eagle. Interesting to watch the evolution of this team over the last two years under coach Zane Ehling, a Hutch native who also played for Butler Community College and Newman. Ehling’s grass-root recruiting efforts are paying big dividends for the Jets – 26 of the 32 players on the Newman roster have Kansas connections either via high school, the Jayhawk Conference or both. And their top guys – pitchers Brandon Droge (Topeka Hayden/Johnson CC), Kyle Burkhardt (Topeka Highland Park/Highland CC) and catcher Ruben Marrero (Cowley) are all prime examples of that.
The Jets have a home game next Tuesday against Emporia State that should draw a pretty big crowd to McCarthy Field – where fans, for the first time, have real bleachers to sit in.
Also, here’s an article by Eagle correspondent Paige Feikert on the Newman women’s bowling team heading to the national tournament.
TA
AARON FLORES
First-year Coffeyville Community College football coach Aaron Flores sat down for a Q&A with us Tuesday morning – Flores is a familiar name in the Jayhawk Conference after spending 10 years at Butler Community College, where he was part of teams that won three national championships, played in six national title games and won nine Jayhawk titles. Flores took over after Darian Dulin, another former Butler assistant, was fired in November.
Flores, American Football Monthly Magazine’s offensive coordinator of the year in 2003, spent last season as the OC and QBs coach at Itawamba (Miss.) Community College:
MARK STANDIFORD
The Tabor College baseball team has become one of the best in the KCAC over the last two seasons, and a big reason for the Bluejays’ success has been fourth-year coach Mark Standiford, 46, who still holds the Wichita State career home-run record. Standiford was nice enough to sit down for a chat with The Eagle and Sunflower Slate.
Tabor, ranked No. 17 in the nation is currently 31-5 overall and 15-1 in the KCAC headed into this weekend’s 4-game series with Kansas Wesleyan – here’s the article I wrote on Tabor 3B Adam McCormick that ran in today’s Eagle. McCormick, a senior from Pittsburg, leads the nation with a .520 batting average.
Here’s our talk with Standiford:
CLARENCE ANDERSON
Here’s my article on Ottawa wide receiver/return specialist Clarence Anderson trying to make his way to the pro football ranks – closing in on draft day he seems like he’s put himself in a spot to get a training camp invite as a free agent with an NFL team or wind up in the Canadian Football League. Arena Football, in my opinion, would be the third option at this point.
Anderson dominated at the NAIA level – 6,799 career all-purpose yards, 53 touchdowns & 3 NAIA playoff bids – but the two biggest knocks on him so far have been the lack of competition he faced in college and his size. The Wichita Southeast product is 5-foot8 3/4 inches and 169 pounds right now, but had trouble keeping weight on during his career and usually played at 155-160.
But that speed? It’s world class on a football field, no matter who he’s playing against. And that’s why he’s probably the only guy out of the KCAC in the last 5 years, in my opinion, with a legitimate shot of making an NFL roster. He made his name on special teams before becoming a great wide receiver and there’s spots for guys like that in the league.
With a guy like this, we’ve written about him quite a bit in his time at Ottawa:
-A big win over No. 18 Bethany his senior year
-A Run ‘N Gun on Clarence from 2010 – “10 reasons this man is smiling”
-Clarence torching Friends in Wichita for the 2009 KCAC title
-…and doing it again in 2010
-Here’s a link to his highlight film – it’s about 14 minutes but you can get a good idea of everything the guy can do… mainly that speed I was talking about.
TA
PS. Oh yeah, there’s this. He sang at Carnegie Hall.
QUENTIN BENNING
Here’s my feature that ran on Friends University track-and-field star Quentin Benning that ran in today’s Eagle and at Kansas.com. Benning is one of the best all-around throwers in the nation and also a two-time All-KCAC fullback for the Falcons. (MORE)