New Internet site seeks to net young basketball enthusiasts

The NCAA recently unveiled a new section to NCAASports.com that caters especially to kids.

Launched earlier this month, the NCAA Kids section of NCAASports.com features basketball-related games, activities and contests for kids ages 6-13. The site also offers teaching and coaching resources for parents, teachers and coaches.

Initiated in large part to encourage kids to become lifelong fans of basketball, users may link to NCAA schools with basketball programs, view video clips, pick up practice tips and drills, and review a guide to basketball rules and officiating signals. Kids also can join J.J.'s Team Kids' Club and win prizes for participating in online activities and for practicing and playing basketball with parents and coaches.

In addition, the newly created section houses information about NCAA youth initiatives such as the Fast Break Classroom Curriculum and the Stay in Bounds program.

C. Dennis Cryder, senior vice-president for branding and communications at the NCAA, said the new venture helps to foster kids' love of basketball and emphasizes the importance of adult role models.

"Our research indicates the key to developing lifelong basketball fans is through participation and the new NCAA Kids section offers children numerous opportunities to do just that," he said. "NCAA Kids also encourages adults to get involved and provides parents and coaches with valuable resources to make learning and the game of basketball fun."

The section will be updated weekly throughout the college basketball season, and in the coming months, more games, activities and opportunities to win weekly and monthly prizes will be added.

Legendary swim coach 'Doc' Counsilman dies

James "Doc" Counsilman, legendary former head men's swimming coach at Indiana University, Bloomington, died January 4. He was 83.

In 33 years at Indiana, Counsilman led the Hoosiers to six straight NCAA Division I championships from 1968 to 1973 and 18 undefeated seasons. Squads collected 20 consecutive and a total of 23 Big Ten Conference crowns, and he coached 60 Olympians, including Mark Spitz, who earned a record seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics. He also guided the 1964 and 1976 U.S. Olympic men's teams to 48 medals.

Counsilman introduced new training techniques and pioneered the use of underwater photography and film as a way of analyzing and improving stroke technique. In addition, he authored "The Science of Swimming," which is still considered an essential text in competitive swimming.

Bucknell program builds faculty-athletics bond

A unique program at Bucknell University helps foster stronger relationships between the faculty and student-athletes.

The Sideline Coaches program allows faculty and administrators to spend a week with one of the school's 26 sports teams, including attending practices and games.

According to Amanda Backus, senior woman administrator, senior associate athletics director and program overseer, the goal is to have one sideline coach at every home game for each team.

Generally, student-athletes invite faculty members to participate, but Backus said that word of mouth and efforts to promote the program also have drawn participants.

In her three-year affiliation with the program, Backus said the level of participation has grown from about 50 to 95 participants last year. Some even participate in multiple sports.

Backus said the benefits extend to both the faculty and the student-athletes.

"I think the faculty has a better appreciation of what student-athletes are facing," Backus said. "There's also another really important component and that's for our student-athletes to meet a professor who they might not have known or to see their professors in a different light."

Number crunching

Looking back

Here's what was happening within the Association in January 1994:

The California Supreme Court upholds the legality of the NCAA's drug-testing program, overturning lower-court decisions that had found the program to be an unjustified intrusion into the privacy of student-athletes at Stanford University. In the 6-1 decision, the court says the NCAA's legitimate interest in ensuring fair competition justifies the program. The drug-testing program had originally been challenged by a member of Stanford's women's swimming and diving team in 1987.

A group of Division I-A commissioners presents a restructuring proposal that would change the way the division conducts business. The proposal would create a 15-member board of trustees, all of whom would be institutional chief executive officers, which would govern Division I. The proposal cites "a belief that the size and complexity of the governance structure and the Convention approach to government are outmoded and ineffective."

Proposal No. 42, which would have granted Division I men's basketball programs with a 14th grant-in-aid, is voted down at the NCAA Convention. The Black Coaches Association, in protest of the vote, announces plans to boycott men's basketball games. That threat is later diminished when the Justice Department agrees to act as a mediator in addressing the BCA's concerns. The argument for restoring the additional scholarship is that minorities are being disproportionately affected by the loss of the grant, which occurred in 1991.

Attendance at the 1994 Convention reaches a record 2,428 participants.

The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, a dominant conference in men's volleyball, announces it has signed an agreement with Ruffolo Communications to have 13 of its regular-season matches broadcast over KTNN radio. The pact is the first of its kind for a men's volleyball conference.

Heidi Caruso, a senior point guard at Lafayette College, becomes the NCAA's all-time leader in steals, breaking the record of 454 steals that was held by former University of Virginia player Dawn Staley.