Jayhawks stress discipline to end the spring

Senior quarterback Dayne Crist was sitting down when he was handed a slip of paper. He wrote the name Tanner Hawkinson on it, folded it to shield his vote and turned it in.

“I didn’t want Tanner to know I voted for him,” Crist said with a smile.

The team chose its captains for the upcoming season on Monday. There was supposed to be only one offensive player and one defensive player named as captain, but, when it came down to it, the voting was just too close.

On Tuesday, Charlie Weis announced that Crist, senior offensive lineman Tanner Hawkinson and senior defensive lineman Toben Opurum will be the Jayhawks’ captains next season. There will also be a special teams captain named on a game-by-game basis, based on the top performers from the previous week.

“I couldn’t have handpicked three players any better than that,” Weis said.

Both Hawkinson and Opurum have already played three years at Kansas, and Crist is a highly touted fifth-year senior who transferred from Notre Dame.

Weis’ decision to hold the vote for captains this early in the season is an unusual one. In the past, Kansas has named its captains in August, not April.

“It definitely caught me by surprise,” Opurum said. “Usually, we wait until the beginning of the season, so we can see how guys perform during the summer and training camp.”

But after running back James Sims was arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence and both sophomore linebacker Collin Garrett and red-shirt freshman cornerback Chris Robinson were dismissed from the team for violating rules, Kansas football needed to reinforce its discipline.

So, in May, when most of the coaching staff will be recruiting and Weis will be campaigning to boosters and alumni, the Jayhawks will need some disciplinary leaders to grab hold of the team. The coaching staff won’t be able to do any coaching in June, so it’s up to the captains to make sure the Jayhawks stay on track.

“The next time we’ll be able to get our hand on them is when they report the evening of August 1, and August 2 we’ll begin our first acclimation period,” Weis said. “So I think it’s really important, especially for a team to go through a transition, to have some leadership that’s been documented.”

This will be Opurum’s second year as a captain for Kansas, while Hawkinson — who has started all 36 games he’s been eligible to play for Kansas — received the position for the first time.

“It’s great to think that your teammates vote for you as a captain for the team,” Hawkinson said. “It’s definitely an honor.”

A chance to show off

And the three captains are sure to be leaders for the Jayhawks on Saturday, April 28, as the Jayhawks will play in their annual spring football game. The free game will feature 15 minute quarters with a running game clock.

Kansas will play itself, as the blue team will face the white team  in a game that Weis said the Jayhawks won’t hold back in.

“I would not call it a glorified scrimmage,” Weis said. “ It is going to be more competitive than that.”

Saturday’s game will be the first opportunity for the Jayhawks to show off any improvement they’ve made since the conclusion of their 2-10 season in December. After season ended, the Kansas fired and hired a new football staff and added multiple key players to the team.

Dayne Crist and Sophomore Jake Heaps both transferred to Kansas — Heaps from Brigham Young University and Crist from Notre Dame —and were both ranked the top high school quarterback in their class.

Heaps is not eligible to play this season for the Jayahwks because of his transfer status, but he will be able to play in the spring game and give Kansas football fans a glimpse into the future.

Opposite Heaps will be Crist, who will have to answer to high expectations on Saturday. But meeting those expectations does not concern Crist, not yet at least.

“We’ve got to stay healthy,” Crist said. “The last thing you want to do is lose a guy in the spring game. It’s great to get out there and have fans around, but at the end of the day you just want to get out of that game healthy.”

And as the Jayhawks approach their final spring practice together, Weis said he’s encouraged with the discipline his remaining players have shown. He said along with the three captains, the players who remain are helping Kansas turn the corner.

“We have made great strides,” Weis said. “I think that there is still a bunch of questions, but there are also a lot of answers too. I have a lot better feel for our football team.”

Transcript:

Mike Vernon (Host): Following Tuesday’s practice, head coach Charlie Weis announced team captains for the Jayahwks’ upcoming season.

Charlie Weis: It was a landslide victory for Toben, so Toben will be the defensive captain. Offensively, in this election year, it was too close to call between Dayne and Tanner, so Dayne and Tanner will both represent the offense. It won’t be just Dayne, it won’t be just Tanner, so it will be tri-captains of Toben, Dayne and Tanner.

Vernon: The three seniors, Dayne Crist, Toben Opurum and Tanner Hawkinson were all named captains, and Hawkinson couldn’t of been more excited for his first term as a captain.

Hawkinson: It’s great, to think that your teammates vote for you as a captain of the team is definitely an honor. To know that they kind of look up to you and look at you as someone who gets the team going, gets them motivated, so yeah it’s a definite honor.

Vernon: Two time captain Toben Opurum said the team needs to focus on staying out of trouble.

Toben Opurum: First and foremost we’ve had a lot of off the field issues that have been happening, guys getting dismissed from the team and that’s one of the things that needs to be immediately addressed.

Vernon: Senior quarterback Dayne Crist, whose only spent one spring with the Jayhawks, said that being named a captain was just a title and that it wouldn’t change him as a player.

Dayne Crist: I’m goign to work every day the same way that I had been prior to being named a captain and it’s great hearing those things, but at the same time, we’ve got work to do.

Vernon: This has been Mike Vernon signing of for Journalism 415.

Source: http://www.thewallworks.com/product-catalog/football-player-outline-wall-decal Kansasathletics.com

Instant cooling technology and racism in hockey:

• Dwight Howard, Serena Williams and Sergio Garcia have come together to introduce a product that instantly cools athletes down. Marketwatch.com has the press release from MISSION Athletecare on their Instant Cooling Towel made of a revolutionary fabric that can help athletes of all levels and ages.
• The San Fransisco Bay Area is changing baseball once again. 10 years after the Oakland Athletics first implemented sabermetrics, or the “Moneyball” system to draft players, the Giants are using a revolutionary system to track their pitches, as highlighted by the New York Times. 
• Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber sat down with sports editor’s across the country, and the Kansas City Star highlights some of Garber’s main points, including how Sporting KC’s owners are very technology oriented.
• Hockey fans are often over zealous with their passion, and the worst of that passion came out on Thursday, April 26. The Associated Press and the Austin American-Statesmen review how Joel Ward was racially attacked on twitter.com following his game winning goal in the playoffs.

 

Wearable computers are on the way:

• As Major League Soccer continues to see its popularity increase, it needs to stay up to date with the best technology available. And that’s why the league is considering adding goal-line technology according to FoxSports.
• Wearable computers are coming. And a blog on ESPN.com highlights how the exciting technology change could alter the sports world.
• Nintendo’s 3DS is now offering sports content from the three-dimensional console. A YahooSports! columnist reviews why the added addition is a great move by Nintendo.
• Former NFL Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and former NBA All-Star Grant Hill have teamed up with MC10 to revolutionize the way Athletic Performance is monitored. Marketwatch.com takes a closer look at how the discreet technology can change the way we look at sports.

Fenway park stays fresh and the Dodgers get purchased:

• Fenway Park may be 100 years old, but that doesn’t mean it has fallen behind on technology. ITworld.com looks at how the historic ballpark has stayed with the times.
• Taken right out of field of dreams, All-Star Ballpark Heaven is an Iowa success story. The Des Moines Register reports that the baseball field was the overall winner at the Technology Association’s “Pitch and Grow” event.
• While DVR and Netflix have changed the television scene, the sports world is still all about watching games live. Mediapost.com looks at how sports fans have not changed their viewing preference when it comes to games.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers were just purchased for 2.15 billion dollars, and technology has played a big role in the value of sports franchises. TVTechnology looks at how technology is crucial in the sports world.

Zenger makes it past first round at KU

This story also ran in the Kansan April 13.

Click here for a timeline of Zenger’s first 16 months at Kansas. 

By Mike Vernon.

When Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger moved into his new house in Lawrence with his family last June, he put most of his belongings in their garage. To this day, he still hasn’t touched them.

There has been no time for Zenger to organize. From the very beginning, Zenger’s new job at Kansas required his full attention and that hasn’t changed.

“My wife tells me it was hard,” Zenger said. “I kind of got lost in it.”

Zenger was lost in his first year on the nonstop job at Kansas. He came to Kansas having to clean up the leftovers from a ticket scandal within the athletic department, handle a conference realignment situation that had Kansas fans sweating, fire and hire a football coach, and finally ride along as the women’s and men’s basketball teams had surprising NCAA Tournament runs.

“Your first year, an athletic director’s job is always busy, and you kind of sellout your family and everybody else,” Zenger said. “There are certain things you anticipate you’re going to be doing, but there’s no way I could’ve anticipated two or three of things that came our direction.”

On January 3, 2011, Zenger was officially introduced as Kansas’ athletic director. Zenger came at a time when the ticket scandal was something he didn’t have to deal with much. In fact, the scandal is something Zenger doesn’t talk about, even with his own employees in the Athletics Department.

However conference realignment directly affected Zenger. As the Big 12 began to teeter, Zenger moved to the basement in his house. He didn’t want to bother his family and he had to have his iPhone, iPad and blackberry charged, or charging at all times. His first phone call would come in around 6:30 a.m., and they wouldn’t stop until around midnight every day.

“I never thought the Big 12 was going to go away,” Zenger said. “In my heart of hearts I believed that the Big 12 would stand, and it did.”

Once conference realignment came to its conclusion, football season did the same. And once again, the workload never stopped for Zenger. On November 27, 2011, Zenger fired football coach Turner Gill. Three days later, Zenger took to the air, as he flew across the country for two weeks, looking to find the next football coach for Kansas.

“I did sleep from two to six every night and that was literally it,” Zenger said. “When you’re in that moment, you’re willing to sacrifice whatever. That’s what you get paid to do.”

While Zenger’s life appeared to be a huge blur in his first months at Kansas, the athletic director won’t look at it that way. He frequently says he’s not a victim, and what he did was just part of the job. But during that coaching search, Zenger did more than the usual parts of the job.

When he returned to Kansas on December 11, 2011, Zenger had Charlie Weis by his side as Kansas’ new football coach. And while Weis, the former coach at Notre Dame, has a resume that looks impressive, Zenger did not give the coach any breaks as he looked for the program’s perfect fit.

“It was a grueling, grueling day,” Weis said of the interview process as he was introduced as Kansas’ coach.

Soon after Weis got settled in, conference play began for basketball. Both times Kansas played Missouri, Zenger and company had to answer questions about if Kansas would ever play Missouri again. The answer, for the time being, is no, a decision Zenger said was made at his desk.

And then came the Sweet Sixteen run for the women’s basketball team, and the Final Four run for the men’s basketball team. Zenger said the experience was a shot of confidence in the arm of Kansas Athletics.

Kansas coach Bill Self had high praise for Zenger, as Self complemented him at the Basketball Awards Ceremony on Monday night.

“We’re on a serious uptick in our Athletic Department,” Self said. “And Sheahon and his staff deserve a lot of credit.”

Zenger, the man in charge of Kansas Athletics, started his career off on the high dive, dealing with experiences and pressures that he had never faced before.

“You just had to jump in and swim,” Zenger said. “And hopefully in the right direction.”

A golf helper and BMW jumps into sports:

• Always headed for the rough? There’s an app for that. Worldgolf.com takes a look at the iTrainerMini, a golf swing corrector that attaches to the golf club itself.
• As technology continues to improve, so do the toys that come with it. And Ray Maker from Slowtwitch.com answers questions on the newest electronics to hit the sports scene.
• A technology executive from southern California is trying to save beach volleyball. The Washington Post speaks with Donald Sun, whose current full time job is to revive beach volleyball.
• BMW is doing more than just making cars these days. The company has developed a technology that captures athletes in motion to help long jumpers. Marketwatch.com looks at the innovation that is now a mainstay at the U.S. Olympic training venue in Chula Vista, California.

Number crunchers vs. the experts: Who will be the next champion?

One of the sport’s worlds most cherished events, the World Series, doesn’t start until October, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start thinking about it. The Experts at ESPN and the statisticians at FanGraphs.com made their predictions of who will be the eventual World Series Champion. Here is how many times each team was picked by the both sites:

Jim Rome is back and new helmet’s protect:

• As players get bigger, stronger and faster, so do the hits, and the National Football League is taking measures to improve players safety. The Chicago Tribune looks at the NFL’s new helmet technology.
• With the Olympics approaching this summer, the U.S. training facility has established a much needed Physical Therapy Center. The Seattle Post takes a closer look at the facility’s addition for team U.S.A.
• Loud and proud sports personality, Jim Rome, is fresh off his stint at ESPN, and started a new chapter in his very public life. The Austin Statesmen and Dave Skretta from the Associated Press take a look at Rome’s new show for CBS.
• The light shines brightest on Augusta, Georgia., this weekend, as the Masters Golf Tournament is underway. The Toronto Star has a column featuring the technology changes of golfs greatest weekend.

Credit cards for gambling and Michael Waltrip Jones make the weeks news:

• It was only a matter of time. Marketwatch.com reports that Cantor gaming will now accept major debit and credit cards for race and sports wagers.
• Michael Waltrip Jones is a legendary name, in NASCAR terms, and the popular figure has joined on with Motorsport.com, according to foxsports.com. The company is a go-to digital destination for motor sports fans.
• The horse racing series on HBO, Luck, which focused on the “seedier” side of horse racing, has been cancelled according to statesman.com. The show was cancelled after a third horse that she show centered around, passed away.
• Chances are, if you’re following the NCAA Tournament, you also have your hand in social media, and Visible Technologies is banking off the concept. The Wall Street Journal reports on the companies social analytic dashboard that is serving as a main hub for social media lovers during the NCAA Tournament.

Support boosts softball program

One by one, small groups of Kansas softball players walked out of their locker room and into Arrocha ballpark, all wearing red. Red jerseys. Red socks. Red grips. Red everything.

They even keep a frighteningly real, plastic shark head with them at all times, just to ensure that their theme of the season — seeing red — never escapes their minds.

“It just gives us that extra “umph” that we need, said senior infielder Marrisa Ingle. “Seeing red, it’s been pounded in our brains and pounded in our system, so literally when we see red, were almost foaming at the mouth.”

Kansas softball figures to be seeing plenty of friendly red, along with Kansas blue soon, as they play their first game in Lawrence this season on March 23, following a 27-game road trip lasting six weeks.

Head coach Megan Smith said the weather in Lawrence is just too unpredictable to schedule their non-conference games at home. Instead, they play every non-conference game on the road, and have currently won 20 straight games.

And as the girls are riding the high of their win streak, they’re also anxiously awaiting to get back in front of their supportive home crowd.

“At a lot of the preseason games, there’s not a lot of support for the teams that we’re playing,” Smith said. “Even in conference, we outdraw a lot of opponents, so we get great crowds and the fans here are really supportive.”

The crowds in Lawrence not only provide help for Kansas on the field, but the support also helps funding athletic facilities that are among the nicest in the Big 12 conference.

Kansas softball boasts some of the top attendance figures in the Big 12 conference, and the brand new additions they’re receiving to Arrocha Ballpark have just now caught the girls’ eyes.

So new that one player walked by her assistant coach Adam Roorbach, and asked a simple question, “what is that?” she said looking just above visiting team’s dugout.

Roorbach quickly explained that to her that she was looking at one of the new cameras that Kansas athletics installed to help both their pitchers and hitters. He said the new technology system will be implemented after this season, and will allow the team to see all angles of an at bat for their pitchers and hitters.

When sophomore pitcher Kristin Martinez was asked about the facilties, she could hide her smile while giving a confident nod.

“We’re stepping it up,” Martinez said.

Along with the camera upgrade, Kansas athletics recently installed a new press box, something that Arrocha Ballpark desperately needed. Before there was no press box, just a “press area” outside, that sat underneath a tent. If weather conditions were poor, business had an added stress to it for athletics employees.

The upgrades help ensure the softball players feel appreciated for their strenuous work, similar to when the team walks inside the Athletics Department.

“People notice how we do and they always congratulate us, and they congratulated us on our winning streak, and they always tell us, ‘good job,’ or ‘good game.’ and that they went to the game,” Martinez said. “There’s definitely a lot of support out there, and I feel included,”

As for Marrisa Ingle, the senior infielder who said she foams at the mouth when she see’s red, has spent her four years at Kansas riding this wave of support, something she will forever treasure.

“Its’ just huge,” Ingle said. “Being part of Kansas is one of the most amazing things that I will ever experience in my lifetime. It’s just an honor to be able to come out, even in our practice uniforms every day and wear Kansas and wear the colors. It’s just the most perfect feeling ever.”