Plati-'tudes
June 5, 2000
A weekly notes column penned by David Plati, who is in his 16th year as Colorado's Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations.
I'm back after the Memorial Day break and the working of the Bolder Boulder that went with it...
TRIVIA QUESTIONS... CU -- Colorado has five track athletes who have qualified for this summer's Olympic Trials. Who is the only Buff to have won a gold medal in Olympic track and what was it in? Godfather -- Who played one of the FBI agents that guarded Frankie Pantangelli in Godfather II? Hint: he also played Molly Ringwald's father in Pretty in Pink.
WHEELER DOUBLE... No, not the Buff football player Damen Wheeler who wore No. 2 during his CU career, but Buffalo junior Kara Wheeler who was crowned the NCAA outdoor champion in both the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs over the weekend. She became the first CU woman to ever win an individual NCAA track championship (indoor or outdoor), and is only the second to win both the 3,000 and 5,000 in an NCAA outdoor meet (joining Villanova's Carrie Tollefson). Kara joins a very select group of CU performers who have won two or more NCAA track titles in their careers: Gil Cruter (the high jump in 1937 and 1938), Don Meyers (the long jump in 1961 and pole vault in 1962) and Adam Goucher (the 3,000 indoor in both 1997 and 1998 and the 5,000 outdoor in '98).
Kara was CU's female athlete-of-the-year for 1999-2000, and subsequently is the nominee for the Big 12 athlete-of-the-year, which will be voted on this week and announced June 14. I happen to be one of the 16 or so voters (that's what holding the same job for 16 years gets you), so it's safe to say Kara will likely get my vote. Off hand, I can't think of a female athlete in the conference that can match her accomplishments or what she's meant to the team. And the tiebreaker would be the fact that she's battled back from painful surgery on both her calves as well as anemia this winter. But as a voter, I have to be impartial and obviously weigh the nominations of the other 11 schools. (Andy LeRoy is our men's nomination, but it's hard to imagine someone topping Iowa State's Marcus Fizer and what he accomplished in basketball last year; but as of now, I don't know if he's ISU's nomination).
SCHOLARSHIP INQUIRY... A fan wrote in with a few inquiries about athletic scholarships, so I talked with Dave Burton, our Associate Athletic Director for Student Services, and have listed his answers below for all to know:
Q: If a student signs a
letter-of-intent with CU as a freshman, is he/she guaranteed a
scholarship for four or five years as long as he/she agrees to
remain with the team?
Burton:"Yes and no. If we're, or any NCAA school for that
matter, is going to pull a scholarship, we have to provide both
notice and reason. But basically, if a student-athlete remains in
good academic standing and contributes to the program, their
scholarship is guaranteed."
Q: If a walk-on is
offered a scholarship, is that on a year-to-year basis or is it
guaranteed for the remainder of the student's eligibility?
Burton:"It depends on what is offered the walk-on by the
head coach of that program. If it's for the remainder of his
eligibility at CU, then the answer above applies. But often,
coaches will put a walk-on on scholarship for a semester to help
defray some expenses and serve as a reward. And in some non-revenue
sports, the original agreement would cover a range of partial
scholarships. Men's golf, for example, has 4.5 full scholarships it
can award; let's say that coach Mark Simpson offers two full
"rides," leaving him 2.5 to dole out. He may award .75 to one, .50
to another player, .33 to someone else and so forth until he has
used his 4.5.
Q: If an athlete
suffers a career-ending injury, does he/she continue to receive
financial aid?
Burton:"If a student-athlete suffers such an injury, they
will remain on scholarship for the remainder of their eligibility,
regardless if they are injured in the first practice of their true
freshman year or their final game as a senior, or any point
in-between. In such instances, schools petition their conferences
and thus the NCAA for a medical hardship ruling, and if granted,
that scholarship no longer counts against the maximum for the sport
involved.
Q: Also, you might
explain the role of the "graduate assistant" coach. It used to be
that these were generally people who helped out while working on a
graduate degree at the university. But I sense that has changed. I
know their pay scale is much lower, but do they work
full-time?
Burton:"Graduate assistants are only required to be
registered in at least one class. It's their option is they utilize
the time to earn a graduate degree, some do and some don't. As for
their workloads, that's up the head coach of each sport, but they
all know what is expected of them in advance of accepting the
position."
NELSON ON BOARD... Mark Nelson has joined the CU athletic department as the new assistant athletic director for academics. He joins the Buffalo staff from Utah State, where he had worked the previous five years as the assistant AD for student services. Nelson, who turns 36 this June 22, graduated from Bowling Green State in 1988, majoring in social work, and earned his master's from BGSU in rehabilitation counseling in '92. He was a two-time all-conference offensive tackle at Bowling Green. He replaces George Hoey, who moved to another position across campus last fall, with associate AD for athletic administration Bob Chichester had been overseeing the day-to-day operation of academics for the last eight months. Looking for a Plati-'Tudes tie in? Mark was at Utah State, where the SID, Mike Strauss, was a CU graduate who worked two years in the athletic media relations office in the mid-1980s.
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM... If two television or radio reporters got into a fight in a press box, it would be reported in the newspapers, don't you think? Or if two club employees, or for that matter, probably two fans if it spilled over to cause a distraction. But apparently, if it's two sportswriters, nothing gets written. At least that was the case last week following some trouble in the Colorado Rockies press box. In an actual fistfight between reporters from the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, both security and the police were called (though the parties involved declined to press any charges). I won't mention names because my point here is not to be the one to "rat out" who was in the fight. The point is through the years, newspapers, right or wrong, often play judge and jury in promoting the pitfalls of others. But apparently, the same rules do not apply to their own brethen. National media were calling the Rockies PR department about what happened last Wednesday night, but there was no mention (or obvious mention) in either Denver paper or any area newspaper for that matter through Sunday. Whether or not the public needs to know is debatable, but that sure can be said about a lot of transgressions that do get reported.
I personally know of a reporter early last decade who used to go drinking where he knew student-athletes would be hanging out, so he could see first hand if any incidents occurred. And on more than one occasion, I would see that reporter drive himself home. Ah, the irony; he surely would have written stories about anyone else getting a DUI, though his behavior was identical. I guess what I'm trying to say is a few reporters have a "holier than thou" attitude, and are often very smug when calling about the misgivings of others (i.e., why haven't we handed out discipline 12 hours after an incident occurred? What's wrong with us?). But apparently it doesn't apply to reporting about their own kind. One thing's for sure, the Denver newspaper war is alive and kicking...
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE?... I had an interesting conversation with a buddy last week about the question, "What's your favorite way to drive into Boulder?" Realizing that any way is going to be better than driving into almost all of the other 11 Big 12 Conference cities (though there is a cool way into Austin from the northwest), my pick was Arapahoe Road and the big hill between 75th and 63rd streets. His was coming down from Flagstaff Road into town. Of course the main drag, U.S. 36 into Boulder from the southeast, is the one we utilize to take the breath away from out-of-state recruits. And don't underestimate coming in from the north on Broadway, as you do come down a bit in elevation, or from the south on Highway 93 as the Flatirons come into full view. Then there's always the trip in from Longmont and Niwot on the Diagonal Highway (Colorado 119), and approaching from the west via Canyon Boulevard brings back one of the opening shots from Mork & Mindy (I guess I can now confess that the "Welcome to Boulder, Elevation 5316 ft" sign in that shot somehow made it to Sewall Hall my freshman year). So what's your favorite?
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER... 20. Kara Wheeler scored 20 of CU's 26 team points at the NCAA Championships, helping CU to a tie for eighth place. That bested the previous highest finish for the Buffalo women: 14th place ties in 1995, 1996 and 1997. But even more interesting, it accomplished a rarity in the world of college athletics. CU's tie for eighth in the NCAA meet was actually higher than its ninth place finish in the Big 12 Conference Championships. That's happened only one other time in CU track history, back in 1974 when the men finished third in the Big Eight but second in the NCAA meet. It's also rare in other sports across the board at CU. In 1971, the football team finished third in the Big Eight and wound up No. 3 in the final Associated Press poll, and in both 1989 (4th/3rd) and 1998 (2nd/1st), the ski team finished higher in the NCAA Championships than the NCAA West Regional.
TRIVIA ANSWERS... CU-Bill Toomey won the gold medal in the decathlon in the 1968 summer games in Mexico City. Godfather-Harry Dean Stanton.
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"Plati-'Tudes" features notes and stories that may not get much play from the mainstream media; offers CU's take on issues raised by those who have an interest in the program; answers questions and concerns; and provides CU's point of view if we should disagree with what may have been written or broadcast.
Have a question or want to know CU's take on something? E-mail Dave at david.plati@colorado.edu, and the subject may appear in the next Plati-'Tudes.