National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - Briefly in the News

February 9, 1998

Coach 'dieting for dollars'

The softball coach at Roanoke College hopes to lose a lot -- of weight, that is. Alan Bayse is shedding pounds while raising funds for the team's spring trip.

"We have two big problems," Bayse told The Roanoke Times & World News. "We need $2,700, and we have a very obese coach standing next to third base."

When Roanoke athletics director Scott Allison asked Bayse for a budget for the college's second season of softball, Bayse included $6,000 for a spring trip to begin the season. The team was $2,700 short of the necessary sum, but when the 248-pound Bayse began thinking about fund-raisers, he didn't need to look far.

"People sponsor others for good causes, I thought," he said. "So, why not sponsor me to lose weight, and get rid of my gigantic equator at the same time?"

While the Maroons are preparing for the season and looking to improve on last year's 10-26 record, their coach dutifully appears every afternoon at the campus fitness center to whittle away his 43-inch waist. Bayse says he's making progress toward his goal of 210 pounds.

Interested parties can pledge by the pound or by the inch.

Shooting out the lights

Myndee Larson, a senior center on the Southern Utah University women's basketball team, recently established an NCAA record for consecutive field goals made in a season.

Larson hit 28 consecutive shots from the field over a span of four games, breaking the previous record of 23, which had been shared by three players.

Larsen's 14-of-14 field goal shooting against Youngstown State University is also the best effort by a Division I player this year.

In another category, Brad Dubois from Knox College recently rewrote the school record book when the senior guard went 19 for 19 from the free-throw line in the Prairie Fire's win over Grinnell College.

While this feat doesn't break the Division III record of 30 consecutive free throws set in 1988 by Rob Rittgers of the University of California, San Diego, it is this season's high for consecutive free throws in a single game in men's Division III basketball.

Dubois finished with 46 points, also a school record.

Yielding to the people

Even the governor stood up and took notice. Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson rescheduled his State of the State address to allow lawmakers to attend the sold-out University of Wisconsin, Madison, women's basketball game against the University of Iowa.

The team opened the new Kohl Center Arena January 20 to a paid-admission crowd of 16,296, a Big Ten Conference record. The game with Iowa was declared an advance sellout, so Thompson forfeited his prime-time coverage, moving the speech up to 6 p.m. so legislators could make the 7 p.m. tip-off.

The Badgers' attendance figure is the fourth best women's collegiate mark in the nation this year.

Scholarships awarded

Eight student journalists have been awarded $3,000 scholarships through a program administered by the NCAA Foundation and the Freedom Forum.

The winners were selected from 81 entries from across the country.

Those selected were Mary Jo Almquist, University of South Dakota; Ryan Frank, University of Oregon; Richard Bryan Hammond, University of Southern California; Mike Harrity, University of Kansas; Lee Jenkins, Vanderbilt University; Pete Thamel, Syracuse University; Shirley Wang, Princeton University; and Christopher Yasiejko, University of Delaware.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes

Division I notes

Sports sponsorship: The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, announced the addition of women's golf as a varsity sport this fall. The addition will create 10 more scholarships for female student-athletes. Maryland-Baltimore County men's golf coach Pat Kotten has been named the program's first coach. Kotten will guide both the men's and the women's teams on a full-time basis. The team, which will compete in the Northeast Conference, will become the only Division I women's golf program in the Baltimore area as well as the only squad in the Maryland state university system.

Conferences: The Mid-Continent Conference will begin sponsoring women's soccer as a championship sport in 1999-2000. This addition brings the number of Mid-Continent championships to an all-time high of 19. In fall 1999, Oral Roberts, Valparaiso, Western Illinois, Youngstown State and Oakland Universities and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis will compete for the championship.

Milestones: Coaches -- Don Haskins, University of Texas at El Paso, 700 victories in men's basketball ... Rich Hill, University of San Francisco, 300 victories in baseball ... Dick Davey, Santa Clara University, 100 victories in men's basketball ... Bob Lindsay, Kent State University, 150 victories in women's basketball. Lindsay is just the fourth women's basketball coach in Mid-American Conference history to reach the 150-win mark.

Miscellaneous: Pennsylvania State University's $3.5 million gift from head football coach Joe Paterno and his family may be the most generous gift ever made to a university by a collegiate coach. The Paternos earmarked $2 million to establish and support faculty scholarships, graduate fellowships and undergraduate scholarships. Another $1 million will build an interfaith spiritual center, and $250,000 will help build an All-Sports Hall of Fame. Both buildings will be on the University Park campus.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes