Former lawman has student-athletes making the right calls

Athletics administrators who are looking for a good way to address the delicate subject of student-athlete behavior have found a friend in Mickey DeHook.

A law-enforcement veteran and longtime trainer, DeHook has begun offering a seminar to student-athletes about the choices and consequences of their actions.

"A student-athlete is in the spotlight and in the proverbial glass house," said DeHook. "How the student-athlete behaves affects the athlete, the team and the school. If the student-athlete crosses the line, it could cost him or her a scholarship, it could let the team down, and it also could create enormous liability for the school. One incident could become a financial and public relations nightmare."

"On the Line: You Make the Call" is an interactive program that uses a variety of role-playing techniques and real-life scenarios to discuss activities such as misusing credit cards and fraud; fighting; date rape; stealing; gambling; and binge drinking and drug use.

DeHook has received rave reviews from student-athletes and life skills coordinators at universities and colleges where he has offered his program, and many have mentioned his entertaining and interactive approach. Because of his law enforcement background, DeHook also is able to discuss the real-life consequences of individuals' actions.

For more information, see DeHook's Web site at www.youmakethecall.org.

Title IX seminar slated for Washington, D.C.

Mark your calendar now to attend the 2002 NCAA Title IX Seminar. This year's seminar will be conducted near Washington, D.C., May 9-10.

The seminar will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal in Crystal City, Virginia, which is just across the Potomac River and only a few minutes' drive from Washington.

Once again, the seminar will be free to administrators from NCAA member institutions. It also is open to the general public, which may attend for a fee.

All attendees are responsible for travel expenses.

Keep an eye out for further information, which will include registration information. For more information, e-mail Rosie Stallman, NCAA director of education outreach, at rstallman@ncaa.org.

An NCAA Diversity Workshop will be available to interested participants May 8 at the same location, but separate registration is required. See the NCAA Web site at www.ncaa.org for more information.

Her lucky number is three, of course

Kim Mac Millan, a junior guard at Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus, hit a three-point shot in her 54th consecutive game earlier this month to establish a Division I women's basketball record.

Mac Millan broke the record in the Blackbirds' 62-60 loss against University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, earlier this month. Mac Millan previously had shared the record with Sandy Brown of Middle Tennessee State University, who set it during the 1998-99 season.

Mac Millan began her streak January 29, 2000, and she has hit from beyond the arc in 69 of her 70 games as a Blackbird.

"I think it's great, but I've got to thank my teammates for letting me take so many shots and for giving me the opportunity to accomplish this," Mac Millan said of the record. "It means a lot because I was not a three-point threat in high school, and I have made changes in my approach since entering college."

Mac Millan already is the school's all-time leader in three-pointers with 246. She also holds the top two single-season marks for three-pointers at Long Island and in the Northeast Conference with 108 last season.

Not bad for someone who didn't require guarding beyond the arc just three years ago.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes

Number crunching

Looking back

Recent discussions regarding reform in intercollegiate athletics have raised the issue of whether freshmen should be eligible to compete. The age-old argument is about whether first-year student-athletes would be better prepared for academic success with a year away from the rigors of competition.

Indeed, freshmen were ineligible until the 1968 Convention voted them eligible in sports other than football and basketball. A similar decision on those two sports followed at the 1972 Convention, and that landmark decision had athletics administrators talking afterward. Here's some of what they had to say:

John Wooden, UCLA men's basketball coach: "I'm very much against it. I simply think it takes a boy a year to get used to the adjustment and orientation of college life."

Bill Yeoman, Houston football coach: "You won't see any freshmen on the varsity at the University of Houston. I do not feel that freshmen are mature enough physically or emotionally to compete on that level at their age."

Vince Gibson, Kansas State football coach: "There sure won't be many freshmen playing in our conference."

Roy Skinner, Vanderbilt men's basketball coach: " I've pushed for such a move for a long time. I feel like we waste our players who don't get to play on the varsity. I don't buy this business that competing for a varsity position will create undue pressures and take up more of a freshman's time than in the past."

Adolph Rupp, Kentucky men's basketball coach: "I see no reason why a freshman can't play varsity basketball. It means one thing -- you never get caught with a bad team. You can rebuild any time, and that's a wonderful thing."

Frank Broyles, Arkansas football coach: "I really need a kicker, as anyone who followed our season last year knows. I'm pretty sure I have the best one in our state lined up to come, and he's a freshman."

Johnny Orr, Michigan men's basketball coach: "It's a revolutionary thing and I think it's wonderful. I don't see why freshmen should sit down. I think a lot of freshmen will play."

Bill Musselman, Minnesota men's basketball coach: "There will be more pressure in recruiting the top 20 kids in the country -- fighting for them like we never had before."

Ted Owens, Kansas men's basketball coach: "I can't see any way it will hurt a freshman. He'll progress much faster playing against the varsity all the time."

John Bateman, Rutgers football coach: "If freshmen can play on your team, you don't have a very good varsity program."

Russell "Sox" Walseth, Colorado men's basketball coach: "If a young man is old enough to go into the service or to vote, he should be able to play varsity basketball."

(The NCAA News, February 1, 1972)