Multimedia Reporting (Bradford-Utsler)

Rundle's life a year after coming out to Lawrence residents and family

When Mike Rundle announced he was gay during his State of the City Address on April 12 a year ago, he had yet to tell everyone in his immediate family about his sexual orientation, including his father and two of seven siblings.

“It is with dignity and pride that I acknowledge that I have been Lawrence's mayor and, in all likelihood, Lawrence's first gay mayor,” Rundle said in his address.

Rundle, who was ending his second term as the mayor of Lawrence, was in fact Lawrence’s first gay mayor. He has been involved in Lawrence politics as a city commissioner since 1987. Rundle had wanted to serve as an openly gay mayor, but planned to come out to his family first, he said. Only after coming out to some of his family near the end of his term as mayor did Rundle publicly announce his sexual orientation.

Source: www.lawrenceks.org

Mike Rundle, city commissioner

“It’s a matter of knowing someone who’s gay,” Rundle said about reactions to homosexuality. After his announcement on April 12, Rundle wrote his father a letter and e-mailed the last of his siblings to tell them what all of Lawrence knew. One of Rundle’s main concerns was his brother and sister-in-law’s reaction though.

“We have one sibling who is really conservative religiously,” said Kate Van Zandt, one of Rundle’s sisters.

At the same time none of the siblings would stop loving another one, because he or she is gay, she said.

Van Zandt had been one of the first of the siblings Rundle told he was gay. It was not long before Christmas, she remembered.

“He said he wanted to give me an early Christmas present. ’Actually, I want to give myself an early present,’” she recalls her brother saying. “He wanted to be who he was and not hide anything,” Van Zandt said.

To Rundle’s relief, his brother and sister-in-law’s reaction was a positive one, like the applause and congratulating e-mails he received from the community after his public announcement. As a matter of fact, his brother’s nephew had come out months before.

While Rundle doesn’t believe his announcement will affect his re-election in 2007, it echoes a note of personal change in his life.

“I felt fairly free, but I didn’t realize what really free was,” Rundle said. “It’s frustrating to not have your whole being expressed or recognized.”

Even with his completed freedom, he said the announcement was never something he agonized over.

After his announcement media outlets from in and out-of-state wanted a word with Rundle. Radio stations from Kansas to California called to talk to him. He walked in gay pride parades in Wichita and Lawrence, and gave speeches on his personal story.

“I became a focal point for a lot of people who were interested in equal rights,” he said.

Source: The University Daily Kansan

Mike Rundle, Lawrence city commissioner, listens to a Lawrence resident during a city commission meeting on April 19 in City Hall. Rundle announced he was gay at his State of the City Address the week before.

Click here to see Channel 6 News' video on Rundle's State of the City Address in 2005.

At one point though, some people thought Rundle’s sexual orientation could be used against him. Rumors were whispered in Lawrence about Rundle being gay as he ran for city commissioner in 2003. These “whisper campaigns,” as Rundle calls them, had little effect on the election results. Rundle was re-elected as a city commissioner with the highest number of votes of the six candidates running for positions on the city commission. He received 8,659 votes, a thousand more than Dennis “Boog” Highberger, who had the second highest number of votes at 7,582. Rundle was later appointed vice-mayor in 2003, before becoming mayor in April 2004.

People realized that sexual orientation has no direct relations on how elected officials work, Rundle said.

“People look at how you run the city,” he said. “That’s more important than your private life.”

Rundle remembers one elderly couple that went out of their way to tell him they supported him as they came through his cashier line while he was working at The Merc, a grocery store at 901 Iowa St. He also received e-mail from people around the community who said they supported him and his announcement at the State of the City Address.

He doesn’t think the acceptance of his sexual preference and positive reaction was a result of Lawrence and its liberal label though.

Rundle said he doesn’t even think Lawrence is as accepting as its liberal label might suggest.

“Lawrence has a perception of being a liberal haven,” Rundle said. “That’s not entirely true.” Even if Rundle had served openly as Lawrence’s first gay mayor, he said it wouldn’t have made a difference on how he chose to use his time as mayor. He said this was mainly because so much comes at the city commission. According to Rundle the city commissioners are not paid well enough to quit their other jobs. Each city commissioner makes $9,000 a year according to Lori Carnahan, the city’s personnel manager. The mayor makes $10,000 a year. Rundle estimated that city commissioners work 20 or more hours a week, on top of other jobs. This equals out to about $8.65 per hour. City commissioners often have second jobs, like Rundle. Having several jobs leaves Rundle straining for time though.

“I haven’t spent the time I feel is necessary with the city commission,” Rundle said.

City commissioners could easily work about 40 hours on city issues a week. City Commissioners and the mayor meet every Tuesday night for city commission meetings. Each month the commission holds one to two study sessions to go over specific city issues more in-depth. Commissioners might also attend meetings with trade boards or the city planning commission. Rundle said he has sometimes worked up to 40 hours a week for the commission, even with his other job as a head cashier for The Merc. As a cashier he works about 40 hours a week. Between the two jobs and Rundle's personal life he often feels pressed for time, he said.

If Rundle has to decide right now whether he wants to run for re-election in 2007, to be a part of the vision making process for Lawrence he said his answer would be yes. Scheduling in personal time weighs on him though.

Rundle has personal goals for himself outside the city commission. One of these personal goals is spending more time with his father, who is over 80 years old.

“I don’t have forever to spend with him,” Rundle said.

Barn dancing is another personal item on Rundle’s list to make more time for. He has been involved with barn dancing for about 25 years. Originally he began dancing to develop a better relationship with his grandfather. Rundle even received a Folk Art Apprentice Grant for about $500 from the Kansas Arts Commission to work with his grandfather on barn dancing. Shortly after, his grandfather experienced a heart attack, weakening his health.

Even after the death of his grandfather, Rundle continues to make barn dancing a part of his life. Barn dancing, the city commission and being gay are all part of Mike Rundle’s life.

“[Being gay is] part of my… a small part of my identity, my experience,” Rundle said.

Posted by Rachel Seymour at 01:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Act One

The lights come up on Tamara Falicov in a dark room filled with a handful of students. "Machuca", the movie Falicov, professor of theatre and film and Latin American studies at the University of Kansas, brought back from Chile has just finished playing. The film portrayed the social and political climate of Chile after the Pinochet military coup, and Falicov is ready to discuss the deep emotions brought across the screen. In the minutes that follow, she mediates an intelligent, poignant and arousing discussion with her students.

This is Professor Falicovs preferred medium, an open discussion on human ideas and emotions spurred on with a little help from the movies. Falicov believes the films of Latin America can change the human landscape and force adjustments in reactions and thoughts in the United States. The casual observer might not understand the importance of her work or the way it changes attitudes but perhaps if you are to understand Falicov and her work, first you must understand its relevance.

Rewind To Real Time

The United States is embroiled in a stanch debate over the future of illegal Latin American immigrants in the nation. Marches to state capitol buildings and other bastions of political activity have been popping up in cities across the nation, including Lawrence. Newspapers across the world report that the country is beefing up its borders anticipating a wave of immigration in the hot summer months. North America is poised to take a stand at a crucial time.

Falicov's Latin American studies come at a pivotal moment in North American society. She has spent years studying the political, social and artistic aspects of the U.S.'s neighbors to the South, in an effort to break down barriers and change stereotypes about the influx of Latin American people and culture in the country.

"I think that some of the stereotypes that people from the U.S. have of Latinos is that all Latin Americans are poor, uneducated, and do not want to speak English," Falicov said. "People here lump all Latinos into one group and think that all Latin Americans live in squalor and do not have modern conveniences."

Falicov has worked to change attitudes by bringing knowledge of Latin American culture to Kansas by opening the lines of communication with her students about a culture that has more vivid and artistic experiences than many of them first thought. Though her work is centered on the entertainment and artistic industries, she thinks these mediums are key to revealing the true essence of a culture. She said she hopes her work will have an even greater presence in changing attitudes amidst the immigration debate in helping people to understand that America was founded by immigrants.

"My hope is that with the ongoing controversy around immigration to the U.S. that people are sensitized to see that it is the most resilient and brave people who decide to uproot and come to another country," Falicov said. "Many people who live in the U.S. once came from somewhere else."

Flashback

If Falicov understands the plight of new U.S. citizens, it is only because she has lived it. She was born in Chicago, to immigrants from Buenos Aires. Growing up, Falicov and her family learned to assimilate to North American culture and customs, but she felt like she was even more in the minority because her family was Jewish and Argentinean.

"There was some idea of a conflicted identity," Falicov said. "There was this thought that you had to be either/or (one nationality) and not and. Being the child of Russian-Jewish Argentines has given me a unique window from which to feel like an outsider within a minority culture in the U.S."

Falicov learned to straddle both different cultural and a religious dichotomies. Her mother faced discrimination growing up Jewish in Catholic Argentina. While her parents were not strong practicing Jews, Falicov felt some sense of anti-Semitism and begged her parents for a Bat Mitzvah.

She was also required to examine her different identities when she entered public grade school and she was forced to forget the Spanish she spoke at home with her parents. Years later in graduate school at the University of California- San Diego she returned to her Latin American roots and picked up the language once again.

Talk to Falicov for any length of time and you will quickly discover that Spanish and Latin American culture is where her heart and work lies. Yet another seeming dichotomy of her life is the journey of discovery that led her there. A job in San Francisco, before graduate school, in the alternative film production industry sparked her interest in film and led her to study communications at UC-San Diego. Her multicultural background ignited her interest in Latin American studies, and she decided to fuse her two loves. She went on to write her dissertation on the contemporary Argentinean film industry. While she was living in Buenos Aires and working closely with film directors and actors, she came across a listing for a professor in film studies and Latin American culture at KU and immediately packed her bags for Kansas.

Her intent was to expose the culture and art of the Latin American film industry to the mainstream North American population. Her work has not only made her an advocate for struggling film communities in Latin America, but also for the perception of the country as a whole.

"Latin America has been perceived in a negative light," Falicov said. "Too many times the U.S. views Latin America as a Third World country."

Falicov invests time helping her students learn more about the influx of Latin American immigrants who have come to the United States.

Act Two

Many of Falicov's students say she effectively changes attitudes by conveying vivid Latin American experiences to those most unfamiliar with it, because she lived it herself. Stacy Lutsch, Oregon graduate student and one of Falicov's students in her political economy of Latin America class, said Falicov's personal teaching style best incorporates a wide range of students.

"She brings knowledge to the forefront in ways that are accessible to all," Lustch said. "She uses a lot of her own experiences to explain the understudied Latin American film industry."

After establishing a strong Latin American film studies program at KU, Falicov got the chance to pursue a longly held dream to study in Cuba when she led students and faculty from KU to the politically conflicted country. She said she was happy to see the students she took discovering what life was like in a different culture.

The learning experience in Cuba was full of its fair share of challenges though. Restrictions on North American travel into the country forced the groups to charter a private plane. While Falicov said that the group was welcomed with open arms on their journey in Cuba, they were hassled when they returned to the U.S. One of Falicov's students was even stopped in the airport and accused of trying to sneak into the U.S. illegally.

Act Three

Colleagues and students said that Falicov has no problem facing such challenges in order to foster a greater understanding of multiculturalism. Kathy Porsch, Grant Development Officer for the Hall Center for the Humanities, has worked with Falicov on developing many grants, including one to develop her book on the Argentinean film industry that will be released this fall. Porsch recognized Falicov's exceptional ability to delve full-throttle into her work.

"She has the ability to roll up her sleeves," Porsch said. "She has a genuine desire to help her students achieve. She is an example to her colleagues and students."

The End

Falicov herself prefers to stay mum about her many accolades and lets the true mission of her work shine through: a greater understanding and appreciation of differences. She prefers her work to play out like the movies she loves: to show and not tell. By working to bring experiences to her students and colleagues she hopes to bridge the gap between the known and unknown, especially with issues dealing with stereotypes of Latin American immigrants.

"It seems to me that this is one way to change people's hearts and minds--and this is through filming peoples' lives, experiences and struggles; and finding out a way to make this real for the students," Falicov said.

For now Falicov is happy for the lights to dim to watch another movie that will create another open forum.

Posted by Courtney Hagen at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

A breeze rings wind chimes, swings a hammock and blows in through the door that remains open. Birds sing merrily in the trees, a cat takes a nap on a bench and a neighbor plays Frisbee with her dog. These are how things go at Anne Burgess’s dream house six miles north of Lawrence.

Anne Burgess’ house is located six miles north of Lawrence. She arranged it uniquely. Photo by Michiko Takei

Anne Burgess, lecturer for the Applied English Center at the University of Kansas, and seven or eight of her relatives and friends started to build their dream house in 1974. They put all their money together and bought a piece of land. Twelve people lived there first, including Anne and a number of her friends and family.

“We thought, well, we can do it, why not?” Burgess said. “People used to do this and we just did it.”

In the 1970s, building houses, living together and sharing the houses was a popular movement called “back to the land.” Many people, especially hippies, who did not like the city and the old way, started all over by themselves. Anne Burgess just believed like many other people in those days. She also thought it would be fun to live in a commune because she had grown up in a big family and really liked each other.

“We just wanted to try to do it. We grew our own food, built our own houses, just trying to start over,” Burgess said.

Anne Burgess, right, sitting on a chair, and her sisters and friends started to live communally 32 years ago. This picture was taken by a photographer who worked at University Daily Kansas in those days. Photo contributed by Anne Burgess

According to Burgess, Lawrence used to have many places where people lived together. People called them “communes,” and a teacher at KU published a book about them, which was quite popular in those days, she said. However, it didn’t last for a long time.

“It had been a popular movement for a while, but it is not too popular any more,” she said.

It is not nearly as popular as it used be because it is hard to live together, make decisions with others and always get along. Burgess said she knew a lot of people who said so.

In her case, she used to have eight adults living with her, but most of the people moved away. Today, only three families live there, including Burgess and her husband, Mel Smith, and two families who are their friends.

Judy Bonifield, who lives with her family in the house, said she had once lived there but she moved to the city, and decided to live there again.

Burgess said, when the commune began, they discussed things until they could find a compromise. Although they did not have any formal rules, they met about every week during dinner to discuss things such as car problems and farm chores (milking goats, feeding chickens, cooking, taking care of the garden, shopping for food, keeping track of money, cleaning up and so on).

“We kept track of our decisions by writing stuff on a big calendar that everybody wrote dates, notes and so forth on,” she said.

Constructing houses without professionals requires a lot of money and work. It costs $1,000 for one acre in the 1970s, and they spent $15,000 for 15 acres total. Today, it costs about $3,000 for an acre, according to Burgess.

Burgess tried to get used materials such as wood, metal and doors as cheap as possible. Back to the 1970s, there was a place sold used materials, which is not in Lawrence any more, she said.

After gathering materials that they needed to build a house, they learned how to build from reading books, and getting some advice from a friend who was a carpenter. The carpenter helped them whenever they had a question. It was easy to find a book because it was such a popular movement. Many people were writing books about how to do it, Burgess said.

Anne Burgess works on building a house on a ladder. Photo contributed by Anne Burgess

At the beginning, they started to build only a bedroom, just enough space for everybody to sleep. Little by little, the house got bigger and bigger. Burgess said after five or six years, they got enough rooms for everyone, but with only three families left in the house. They decided to divide all available space into three segments.

According to Burgess, some lived in town, and some lived in a small tent during construction. They had to work fast because they could not live in a tent in winter. They started building the house in July, and finished the basic construction in four or five months. However, they did not install any water, electricity and gas because they did not know how to do it.

Burgess’ communal house was very simple in the early days. Photo contributed by Anne Burgess

“The first house was really simple, nothing fancy,” Burgess said.

Burgess said they had some challenges. First, they didn’t make much money. About 25 years ago, she was working at a vegetarian restaurant in which she earned only 30 cents an hour. She had two kids, and most of the people who were working on the house had kids.

“I needed a better job, so I decided to go back to KU to get master’s degree,” she said.

Burgess began to teach English as a second language at KU.

She said another challenge that they faced was a lack of professional knowledge, because none of them were a professional carpenters.

“Sometimes, we did not know what to do. We just guessed,” she said.

Burgess and others got water by buying it from a person who sold water before they got running water. They took a huge metal tank on the back of their truck and filled it with water at his house. Then, they brought it home and put it in a cistern, she said.

“We washed dishes once a week,” Mel Smith, her husband, said.

Smith said his neighbors bought a water pump, and he extended it to the house so that he could switch non-running water to running water.

They also got electricity by running a very long extension cord from the cabin down to their house. They heated their house with wood because they did not have gas in the early days.

“We made a lot of mistakes,” Burgess said. “It wasn’t perfect.”

After they made a lot of mistakes, they began to learn how to do it, she said.

By 1991, Burgess and Smith finished adding and arranging rooms, but their neighbors continued to add more.

“I’m very satisfied, happy,” she said.

Today, most people do not do as they did. People quit living communally because it is hard to live together, make decisions with others and get along with each other.

Photo by Michiko Takei

“I had a lot of people who said they don’t get along,” she said.

A few people, however, still do it in Lawrence. They enjoy the community and they do not want to live in a big city. Ad Aspera on Kentucky Street, and Sunflower House on Tennessee Street are two major collectives in Lawrence, Burgess said.

She also said it has become more challenging to build houses by yourself now because materials are so expensive.

She suggested that people who are going to do it remember that it is very important to think of what one will need, instead of what one need right now. She also said one should talk to a lot of people who have done it, go around and look at the houses, and get ideas from other people.

Burgess and her husband are still not sure what they are going to do with their house in the future. If their daughters want it, they can have it, Smith said. They are sure that they will live there until they die.

“Oh, no, I really do not want to sell it,” she said.

Related Links:
Home Design, Homebuilding, House Plan
House Building Guide
Boomers (Hippies Links)

Posted by Michiko Takei at 05:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As Katy Humpert parks her car in the driveway of her Lawrence home, she shows her nerves by fumbling with her keys and then with the door to her house.

Today is an important day. It is the first day that Humpert, Winfield senior, is bringing Adrian to her home for their bi-weekly tutoring session.

Adrian is a 24-year-old immigrant from Mexico who was paired with Humpert through Project Bridge, a city-wide organization that provides tutoring to members of the community who are learning English as a second language.

At the beginning of the semester, Humpert went to Project Bridge in search of volunteer work that would fulfill the requirement for her Spanish through service learning class. Today, after three months filled with countless sessions, the progress both have made is evident as they converse without a trace of a language barrier, switching easily between Spanish and English.

For Maria Alonso, the graduate teaching assistant of the course Spanish through service learning this spring, there is no better reward then witnessing a successful match of student and tutor as a result of the course’s two hour weekly volunteer requirement.

“The opportunity to interact with native Spanish speakers every week helps the student understand the dynamic of the Latino community in the United States because they are interacting with the people who form that dynamic,” Alonso said.

This semester, Alonso and Danny J. Anderson, professor or Spanish, began teaching a new course with the goal to educate students about problems and barriers Spanish speaking residents face daily and to employ students’ skills learned in the classroom to address these community needs. Alonso has used her personal experience as an immigrant from Spain as well as her professional experience as a volunteer within the Kansas Latino community, to guide her students through service learning. An educational experience in which students participate in a service activity that meets community needs, service learning is as a way to more fully understand the course curriculum. It is a teaching philosophy that 16 academic departments at the University of Kansas incorporated into their classes this spring.

Born in Galicia, Spain 28 years ago, Alonso was completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Santiago when she was presented with the opportunity to come to the University of Kansas through an exchange program. It was her uncertain employment future in Spain that prompted her to join the program as a full-time graduate student at the university and to teach classes in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

After completing her master’s degree in Spanish last year, this fall Alonso began taking classes in pursuit of a PhD in Education and this spring she began to develop and teach the course, Spanish through service learning. Alonso describes service learning as being based in the philosophy of education that in order to internalize what you are learning you must be able to experience it in real life situations.

“What would be the hope for the class is to learn the experience of being an immigrant and for them to become active in fighting discrimination in Kansas,” Alonso said.

The Center for Service Learning, opened at the university in September 2005, and this spring it offers more then 30 courses to students of 16 different fields of study. The recent influx of service-learning courses at KU and at universities nation wide indicates that professors and students agree with Alonso.

The KU Center for Service Learning is a member of the National Campus Compact, a coalition of more than 950 university and colleges and 5 million students dedicated to promoting community service, civic engagement and service-learning in higher education.

Linda Luckey, acting director of the KU Center for Service Learning, said the center was developed as part of the university’s initiative to encourage students in learning. The center works in conjunction with the global awareness program, which encourages students to gain an international experience.

When the Center for Service Learning opened this fall, its staff set out to determine if there were any existing service-learning classes at the university. They soon realized most of the faculty who were using service-learning components within their courses, had been doing so for years.

Luckey said that the center was funded to act as a resource and a support system for professors who elect to use service-learning within the classroom. There is no specific discipline behind the service-learning philosophy, but there is one specific goal.

“What we hope is part of every class is that they are engaging a real community need,” Luckey said.

As someone who emigrated to the U.S. from Spain only four years ago, Alonso remembers the hardships of having to learn English as a second language. But it are her roots in the Spanish language and her experiences that have made her effective in teaching service learning and helping other immigrants who were not presented with the same opportunities upon their arrival to Kansas.

“I think all people who speak Spanish here as their first language develop a global identity, but you lose the importance of your country’s origin,” Alonso said. “What comes first as your identity here in the U.S. is your linguistic origin, so that gives me a point of connection with people.”

Humpert, the student tutor, said that Alonso’s experiences as an immigrant and her connections with people in the Spanish speaking community has led to the appearance of countless native Spanish speakers in the Spanish through service learning course. They bring real life stories and accounts of concepts discussed in class. For example, what it is like to be a Spanish speaking immigrant in Kansas and in the U.S.

As Alonso continues her work with the service-learning course and her own course work toward the PhD in education, her end goal is to work with immigrant children. Last year she incorporated her linguistic experience with her interest of the social needs of immigrants. She worked as a social educator for the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, a Kansas City organization that works with the KU Medical Center, to improve area children’s developmental and educational experience and thus their academic and social achievements.

She worked extensively within the Latino community and performed interventions with pregnant teenagers. The interventions begin during pre-natal, where Alonso conducted problem-solving exercises with the mother to make sure she was prepared for the new baby. Visits continue until the child is three years of age, “so we can conduct a lot of assessments of speaking skills to see if the child is developing properly,” Alonso said.

As a graduate research assistant in the Education Administration department, Alonso is currently working on a comprehensive plan for the prevention of child abuse and neglect. “It will connect the school with the social services and school programs to join all efforts to prevent this,” Alonso said.

Alonso is a perfect role model for other Spanish speaking immigrants. She shows daily how one can overcome language and social barriers and assimilate into American society, without giving up his or her cultural background. It is these attributes that make Alonso an invaluable resource to the university and to the Lawrence community.

Play video here to see service learning in action.

Learn more about the Center for Service Learning at the University of Kansas.

Read about Campus Compact, a national coalition of more than 5 million students and 950 universities dedicated to service learning.

Posted by Elyse Weidner at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Bill Skepnek lectures every Thursday afternoon in the Student Union.

Bill Skepnek is both a successful lawyer and teacher in Lawrence.

Skepnek the lawyer owns his own law firm, Skepnek Law Firm, and handles mostly product liability cases. Skepnek typically charges around 250 dollars per hour.

Skepnek the teacher is a lecturer in the department of Western Civilization at The University of Kansas. At the University however, he hasn’t quite made the payroll. For Skepnek, who teaches an honors Western Civilization course, teaching is priceless.

Skepnek said he never wanted to be paid. “Teaching is my treat to myself,” he said.

Bill Skepnek is a full time lawyer in Lawrence and a father to four, yet he still finds time for a little volunteering. Skepnek volunteers to teach a Western Civilization course each semester at KU.

Skepnek spends numerous hours a week preparing for his class on top of his commitments as a lawyer. For Skepnek however, it is a labor of love. “Teaching is the best thing I do,” he said.

So, who is Bill Skepnek? This lover of Aristotle, Plato, and Descartes was once, as he described himself, “such a stud.”

Bill Skepnek was born on December 16, 1952 in Hinsdale, Illinois. The second of seven children, he grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. Skepnek began taking an interest to sports in high school, especially football. He went on to receive a football scholarship to KU and played all four years he attended.

Skepnek surprisingly did not take a Western Civilization class in college. “What they did was put all the jocks in the School of Education because if you were in the School of Education you didn’t have to take a foreign language or Western Civilization class, so I ended up not taking it,” he said.

Skepnek graduated from KU in 1974 and married girlfriend Susan Pearson who he met as a sophomore. Together they have four children.

Skepnek attended law school in 1975 at KU but said he can’t remember why he wanted to be a lawyer. “I think it was one of those things where my dad told me to go to law school, so I did,” he said.

After working at firms in Oklahoma City, Skepnek now owns his own firm on Massachusetts St.

Vada Devine, legal assistant at Skepnek Law Firm has worked with Skepnek for nine years and said she knows his true passion. “He likes the law but all these years it’s apparent to me his love is for teaching,” she said.

Teaching kind of fell in Skepnek’s lap when he met Matt Stein, a Lawrence Oncologist who was currently teaching a Western Civilization course at the University. The two men teamed up to teach the class for 12 years.

“I kind of learned how to teach while teaching alongside Matt,” Skepnek said. In 2003 he split off from Stein to teach his own class. Now, three years later, one can still find Skepnek effortlessly reciting the words of Dostoevsky and Machiavelli for his honor’s class in the student union.

For Skepnek, the obvious drawback for teaching is finding time in his busy schedule. “It’s a lot of work. I would say I spend between 10 and 15 hours a week grading papers, reading and preparing for class,” he said. “It’s definitely a lot of work.”

According to Whitney Devine, former student, Skepnek’s effort paid off. “He knew the material well and it was apparent that he had read everything numerous times,” said Devine.

Skepnek said wondering if he truly reached his students was one of the hardest parts of teaching. “I feel it’s a real responsibility. The students that I’m teaching, I don’t want to waste their time and I want to push the ball forward for them or help them push the ball forward,” he said.

Skepnek can rest easy that he atleast reached Jenny Hartman, former student. “I dreaded the thought of having to take Western Civilization, however to my surprise I found the course very interesting and I’ve applied what I learned to my other courses,” she said. “I left with such a positive impression of good’ol Bill.”

Skepnek’s hard work paid off in the fall of 2005 when he was asked to teach a class for the Humanities and Western Civilization study abroad program.

“My first reaction was how could I possibly take three months off? My next reaction was, how could I possibly pass up this opportunity?” said Skepnek, who accompanied 13 students to Paris, France and Florence, Italy to teach both Western Civilization I and II.

Teaching in Europe was the first time that Skepnek has been paid for his work at KU. Now Skepnek is back in the country and back to volunteering. He can be found lecturing every Thursday in Alcove B of the Student Union.

Skepnek said his future plans are to get his kids out of college and possibly coach high school football. He said, “I would like to continue teaching Western Civilization as long as they’ll have me.”

Posted by Rebecca Fritzel at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Angela Haar will hire the next Max Falkenstien. However, she will likely hire two of them, a color analyst for football and another one for basketball. Although the basketball analyst won’t be announced until the summer, a football analyst will be announced in the next couple of weeks, with David Lawrence as one of the top candidates.

Haar is the General Manager for ESPNplus at the University of Kansas and decisions like this one are part of her monthly agenda. “It’s not too stressful,” Haar said. “I love the challenge.”

Haar manages the Jayhawk radio and television networks and is charge of corporate sponsorships. An occupation as desired and coveted as Haar’s did not come easy to the 31 year-old, Illinois native.

Haar first began her path to success by attending Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. While most college students enjoyed their summers away from the demands of their studies, Haar spent each of her summers striving to find various employment opportunities, which would be beneficial to her future.

Haar sought after and eagerly accepted every internship opportunity that became available to her. “I highly recommend internships, they give you experience and tell you what you like and dislike,” Haar said.

Haar didn’t always prefer a degree in sports marketing. There was a time when any marketing degree would have sufficed. Spam changed all that.

One day while at Purdue, Haar’s marketing class had a guest speaker from Hormel Inc. “I was the first one to class and I sat front and center,” Haar said. The speaker didn’t motivate Haar into a career path, but he sure showed her what she didn’t want to do. “He talked about how he put Spam on nachos and it made sales triple,” Haar said. “I was like, no thanks, Spam isn’t for me.”

(The Weather Babe has come a long way)

At that point, she knew that she needed a more exciting focus. Soon after sports marketing became her path.

Her mother, Linda Haar, was surprised that her daughter chose sports. “She always liked sports, but she was more the cheerleader type,” Linda said.

Before ending up at KU, Haar made a couple of pit-stops along the way. After graduating Purdue with a sports marketing degree, she headed west to Wichita.

In Wichita she worked in the marketing department for the Wranglers. The Wranglers are a farm team for the Kansas City Royals. Haar only stayed long enough to acquire the nickname Weather Babe.

Then it was off to Tampa, Fla., where her ESPN career began. In Tampa she worked for the University of Southern Florida as an Account Executive. Haar was in charge of selling advertising for the athletic department.

After two years at USF Haar was recruited to the University of Kansas. “It was hard to leave the sunny weather,” Haar said. However, she knew that it was in the best interest of her career.

Climbing to the top was the hard part. Dealing with her profession being predominantly male wasn’t hard. Gaining the same respect men get was never an issue for Haar. "She has the desire to succeed and that has translated into respect," said Vince McKamie, Office Manager for ESPNplus.

More importantly then having the desire, is actually turning that into success.

And Haar definitely gets the job done. Since she was promoted to General Manager in 2004, sales have increased 25 percent. As a matter of fact, these increases impressed Lew Perkins, KU Athletic Director, so much that a deal was announced April 21, 2005, extending ESPN’s multimedia rights for seven more years. This $40.2 million deal insures that ESPN will be the only company to have media control over the University's athletics.

This was a huge accomplishment for Haar because the expectations were a huge challenge and they were able to greatly exceed them. “KU is a better place because we are here,” Haar said.

Posted by Nicole Braman at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Walk into a scientist’s laboratory and you’re bound to hear anything. Earthworm poop was the topic of discussion for two researchers Sam James and Steve Hasiotis last week. James the biologist and research associate at KU’s Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, and Hasiotis the geologist, were engaged in an exchange about the creatures burrowing habits and fecal deposits. A topic perhaps left untouched by most researchers.

“Most people concentrate on the front end and what type of grass worms eat. I thought, well what about all the grass that comes out the other end?” James said.

Photo contributed by George Brown. KU biologist Sam James specializes in earthworm taxonomy and ecology. He travels the world searching for earthworms to classify them and study their relationship with North American grasslands. He is responsible for the discovery of an earthworm called Fimoscolex sporadochaetus in Brazil that was declared extinct in 2003. There are about 4,000 named species. He has 400 un-named species in his laboratory now.

Hasiotis had to take advantage of James’ expertise while he was on campus, a place James rarely visits. Instead, he is digging in the world’s soils in places such as the Philippines, the Caribbean and Fiji. James recently re-discovered an earthworm called Fimoscolex sporadochaetus in Brazil that was declared extinct in 2003. The earthworm he found in Belo Horizonte no one had bothered to look at for years he said.

“Just because something is declared extinct doesn’t mean it is, it just means no one has gone to look for it,” James said.

His long-standing work partner, George Brown, researcher for the Brazilian Corporation for Agricultural Research, tipped him off on this search. Brown continues to seek James' help because there is not an earthworm taxonomist in Brazil.

Photo Contributed by George Brown. Sam James and colleague George Brown work with students from the State University of Lodrina in Belo Horizonte, Brazil studying earthworm taxonomy.

“George gets pissed off when people don’t look for something new before they start calling it extinct,” James said. “When you don’t see large animals anymore, then yeah they are probably extinct, but in a small forested area there could be hundreds and thousands of worms.”

Brown said that it is important to find representatives of all earthworm species because they have many effects on the soil and plant communities, which provide nutrition to crops, cattle and in turn human beings. He said that understanding what they do is just a step. Understanding who they are and how to classify them is the first.

There are over 4,000 species worldwide and James sets out to find representatives of each species and also collects worms that may not be classified. He has about 400 un-named worms in his laboratory now. Based on where researchers have already gone, he heads a different direction.

"Sam is one of those adventure type persons who is not afraid to go to far away places and walk to the middle of nowhere to dig for worms," Brown said, "something that is increasingly necessary to find new species."

James’ interest in the interactions between North America’s grasses and grazers led him down the dirty path of earthworm ecology. Earthworms are his link to understanding how the grasslands have thrived in the country.

As a child growing up in Iowa, he used earthworms for bait when he went fishing. He doesn’t mind people using them for bait but he does care if they are being over-exploited. Florida and Brazil have this problem and the earthworm’s there are in danger of extinction. The baiting industry is regulated in Florida now he said, but it is not in Brazil although it is illegal to gather wildlife without a permit. The baiting rebels pushing their luck are helping James in a way.

“We see signs on the road that say ‘We Sell Earthworms’ so we stop, look and we’ll buy them if they are interesting. And we preserve them,” he said. “We ask where they got them but they won’t always tell us.”

Mapquest James and Brown are responsible for classifying earthworms in much of southern Brazil. There is no earthworm taxonomist in the country so James' expertise is highly valued.

So James and his colleagues go on pursuits to find them. Where they may end up is on someone’s private property. This has stirred up more than just the owners land. The owners are fed up with people digging for fish bait so they want something to kill the worms to prevent people from coming at all. This scares James.

“I’ll have to think of something that could safely get the worms out. An old remedy of hot mustard and water may work,” he ponders.

Though earthworms can provide an abundance of help to further various research such as arthritis therapy, some people find it hard to believe anyone could make a living digging in the dirt. James recalls a trip to southwest Texas where he was met with such criticism.

Avoiding the dismal motel room, he found a construction crew outside with the same idea. Within minutes, James realized they were far from like-minded. After all, the crew was there to dig into the earth to put in a gas pipeline and James was there digging for earthworms.

The crew drank beer while James obliged them and listened to their hunting stories. This may have gone on until the question came up, “So what do you do Sam?” The conversation then quickly took a turn.

“One guy kept getting drunker and madder. He was mad that I could actually make a living digging for earthworms and that I work for a university,” he said.

“Maybe it is a rural male thing, but not one wants to seem like they are interested in formal education. It is almost taboo. And these guys were representatives of that,” James said.

He was asked “When are you going to get a real job?” To which James replied, “I hope I don’t have to.”

James was forewarned he would be met with skepticism when he went to a communal village in Fiji. Any village outsiders are traditionally considered bad. Fortunately, he was told to bring a peace offering of Kava roots, an ancient crop of the western Pacific. With another professor and guide, James went to the village chief’s home to present him and his son with the offering. The chief inspected the roots wrapped in colorful ribbon and sang a traditional chant to acknowledge the peace offering.

Villagers crush the root and boil it in water to drink and feel its narcotic effects. He said after they drank and passed it around for a while they started to sing, and then they stopped and it was silent. In the distance, the neighboring village began to gently sing like a lullaby and the two communities took turns all night he fondly recalls. He is now a permanent friend of the village and is not required to bring the Kava root if he returns, but he said he probably would just in case they forgot.

Aside from his Fiji friends, James finds support from 200 other worm researchers he visits every four years at an International Earth Worm Meeting. This year’s weeklong convention is going to be held in Krakow, Poland. The Eighth International Symposium on Earthworm Ecology

Within a week, James will be walking along the Louisiana coast for specimens before going to finish his work in the Philippines where he has worked extensively and intermittently over the past few years. His family of four accompanied him for six months during one of his visits in 2001. They assisted him in his search in the remote woods.

James' wife Joy said he is the best person to travel with because he observes more than the average person. Though they may not always get to share in the knowledge because James takes off on his wild worm chase. She said once he starts a project he just keeps going and doesn’t really need to stop to eat and drink. Eight hours climbing mountains in the rain forest without rest and food was a bit much for her and the kids however.

“My oldest daughter Pearl got in a bush that was covered with leeches and she screamed, ‘I’m covered with leeches’ and at the same time we could hear Sam up ahead yelling, ‘I got a worm! I got a big worm!’” she recounted. “It’s always like that in a way, there is always this kind of thing going on.”

If he had to do it all over again he said he would be a geologist and not a biologist.

“I would do geology and spend all day looking for rocks. Wandering for worms is pretty much similar in some ways though.”

For now, this KU researcher will continue trail blazing digging for earthworms, the link to the world above.

Posted by Erin Castaneda at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "Sharin' The Blues" »

Posted by Matthew Elder at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

e-mail Anna

Light-hearted laughter and dog barks greet visitors entering the doors of the Lawrence Humane Society. Bright green chairs along a wall covered with trinkets and dog and cat supplies welcome anyone who enters.

The air is full of the smell of puppy food and the sounds of animals anxiously waiting for visitors.

One sound cuts through the noise: Midge Grinstead’s laugh.

Playfully leaning on the counter, her eyes sparkling with gratitude and hope, the Humane Society’s executive director has a reason to laugh: Another brick was sold.

The bricks are a current fundraiser to build a memory wall outside the shelter. Each brick has sentimental value for the purchaser, and each can have a name of a loved one (human or animal) on it.

The construction of a new kitten room and puppy row will cost the shelter $80,000. Half of the profit will go to the renovations to the shelter. The other half will go to the wall’s construction.

Grinstead, now 48, is dedicated to her job as Lawrence Humane Society executive director and also as an animal rights activist. Her passion for animals began at an early age, when her father bought a farm, complete with livestock, cats and a dog.

Grinstead worked for seven years at the state Department of Health and Environment in disease prevention and control. Nine years ago, her career headed in a new direction.

She had volunteered at the Lawrence Humane Society and was on its advisory committee. When she heard there was an opening for executive director, she jumped at the opportunity.

“I knew I could do a better job,” Grinstead said. There were just lots of things I thought I could change.”

By making the shelter inviting to the public and increasing awareness through fundraising events, Grinstead has involved the community in the shelter’s activities like few other shelters.

“When I first got here, they hated us!” said Grinstead of the Lawrence public. “If I’m known for anything, it’s making the A HREF="http://www.lawrencehumane.org">Lawrence Humane Society a household name.”

The public hated them because the shelter had previously been run as if outsiders were the enemy and the shelter staff was the only one saving animals.

Now, with her open-doors policy, people can walk in and take a look at the animals freely. Visitors are not treated as enemies to animals, as they were before. The public and the shelter’s staff now work together to save animals’ lives.

Sue Novak, head of the Humane Society Board of Directors, said that Grinstead’s passion for and devotion to animals rubs off on others, even when they least expect it.

“Midge has taken on young people who absolutely resent having to do community service, yet by the end of their time working with her, they want to come back as volunteers,” she said.

Kristin Moody, Wichita, Kan. Sophomore, volunteers at the shelter whenever she can. She loves working with the animals.

"It feels good to know that I'm helping out homeless animals," Moody said. "I just hope that people realize that there is a pet here for anyone."

The Lawrence Humane Society works with many surrounding shelters during crises and emergency situations.

During the Hurricane Katrina cleanup, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) asked Grinstead for help. She sent 1,500 kennels to Gonzales, Lou., where the displaced animals were being housed.

The shelter also receives help from other organizations. When the microburst tore through Lawrence a month ago, the HSUS, the American Humane Association, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals all offered their help.

“She has connections with HSUS, and they are more than willing to assist us during crises because they know she is managing things so professionally,” Novak said.

Grinstead and her staff also take care of all animal cruelty and neglect cases in Douglas County. Grinstead said there are between 750 and 800 animal cruelty reported cases a year.

“We are considered the ‘go-to’ shelter in the state, and that’s entirely due to our staff’s hard work under Midge’s incredible leadership,” Novak said.

There are nine staff members and 300 volunteers, although Grinstead said with a smirk that, strangely enough, there are days when not a single volunteer shows up to help.

Grinstead operates the only full-service animal shelter in Kansas. The shelter holds stray, unwanted and orphaned animals. The shelter also strives to eliminate animal cruelty and neglect, reduce births of unwanted pets, and educate the community about humane animal treatment.

“[Other shelters] get a lot of credit for not a lot of work,” Grinstead said. “They only want the best of what’s out there, and anything else has to go.”

At the Lawrence Humane Society, animals are euthanized only if they are incurably ill or if they bite in a malicious manner.

The rate of euthanization at the Lawrence Humane Society is lower than any other shelter in Kansas. It is in the top 10 percent of all shelters in the country for low euthanasia rates.

Other shelters, such as the Topeka Humane Society and the Kansas Humane Society in Wichita, Kan. euthanize 80 percent of the animals they receive. Lawrence only euthanizes 20 to 25 percent.

Grinstead said 89 percent of the dogs and 79 percent of the cats were returned to the owner, adopted or transferred to rescue groups in 2005.

The shelter receives anywhere from two to almost two hundred animals a day. Around the Fourth of July last year, 1,001 animals called the Lawrence Humane Society home.

Grinstead said the summer months bring a large increase in animals in the shelter.

“January through March, we will normally adopt 100 to 200 dogs and 100 cats per month. May through September, you could double that.”

Animals are vaccinated on intake and health checked for fleas, ticks, and other parasites and diseases. When another shelter sends an animal, the Humane Society requires a state license and any information on the animal.

In addition to her work at the Lawrence Humane Society, Grinstead is active in nationwide animal legislation and lawmaking.

With the help of Mary Pruitt, Grinstead started HumaneKansas.org, a Web site that educates lawmakers about animal welfare issues. Humane Kansas proposes and opposes legislation. It also raises money to fund proposed legislation.

Grinstead and Pruitt formed Humane Kansas Legislative Network, and hired the Hurley and Associates lobbying firm to write Senate Bill 408.

It was opposed by two pieces of legislation: Scruffy’s Law and Magnum’s Law. Scruffy’s Law would make every animal cruelty act a felony, even mistakes such as forgetting to give a dog water. Magnum’s Law would make every animal cruelty act a misdemeanor the first time, and a felony the second time.

Neither Scruffy’s Law nor Magnum’s Law passed. Instead, Senate Bill 408 passed, after Senator David Hayley (who had previously supported Scruffy’s Law) and the HSUS endorsed it.

Senate Bill 408 makes intentional cruelty a felony, insists on mandatory jail time, and requires the convicted person have a psychological evaluation and counseling. Also, those convicted must pay a $500 to $5,000 fine, depending on the severity of the act. The convicted person also is not allowed to be around animals for the next five years.

Grinstead said that designing the law and getting support was difficult. But despite the obstacles, she feels that it is the perfect protection against animal cruelty and neglect.

“I am frustrated that others took credit for the work that Mary and I did, but overall I am just happy it passed,” Grinstead said. “It is a huge relief.”

The Lawrence Humane Society is always buzzing with noise and activity. Grinstead appreciates this, knowing that it means the shelter is alive and well.

She’s experienced everything from a kind gift from an appreciative volunteer, to a gun in the face and a demand for the return of a pet.

“Two days are never the same,” Grinstead said. “I stay very busy, and it’s stressful, but the animals are so worth it.”

Click picture below to go to Lawrence Humane Society's Web site

The Lawrence Humane Society is located at 1805 E. 19th Street in Lawrence, Kan.

---

LINKS:

Lawrence Humane Society
Kansas Humane Society
Humane Society of the United States

Posted by Anna Bassham at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the dugout, Kevin Tucker isn’t the type of baseball coach who lets his ego get in the way of how he works with his players. Instead, he often brainstorms with players and, with his guidance, his players are able to make adjustments and improve themselves as players.

Away from the diamond, Tucker is a beach boy surrounded by an ocean of wheat and sunflowers. A San Luis Obispo, Calif., native, Tucker would love nothing more, than to return to coastal California someday as a head coach at the collegiate level.

Tucker is currently an assistant coach on the Kansas baseball team, but his background in coaching can be traced all the way back to Sweden, where he was a player/coach. He also spent three summers overseas as a Major League Baseball Envoy Coach in Africa, France and Germany.

“I got to see different cultures, views, people and be around baseball. It’s fun to network with people all over the world that just have one thing in common – baseball,” Tucker said. “It was a great experience, I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Click image to see where Tucker has played and coached in his career.

Tucker’s coaching career began before his playing days ended. While at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo in 1994, Tucker found out from his roommate that a player/coach position was available in Escosura, Sweden. With his playing days nearing an end, Tucker realized he needed to become a coach if he was to remain involved in baseball. Without hesitation, he took the job.

Tucker arrived in Sweden in 1995 and said the experience was unique in that he was brought on to be a coach, but was young enough that he played on the team, as well.

“I’m lacing them up and playing center field and then barking out first-to-third plays from center and calling the signs at third base when I wasn’t playing,” Tucker said.

Tucker’s first coaching gig in the States came in 1997 at San Luis Obispo High School as an assistant coach. Two years later, Tucker took an assistant coaching job at Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif., where he played from 1990 to 1991.

But for three straight summers from 1999 to 2001, Tucker coached abroad as a MLB Envoy Coach. As an Envoy coach, his duty was to help baseball grow in Europe, where baseball was about as popular as cricket in America.

In 1999, Tucker coached in Nigeria and Cameroon, Africa. The next summer his mainstay was Paris, France, but he said he bounced around to several surrounding cities to coach. Finally, in 2001, Tucker coached in Stuttgart and Hamburg, Germany.

Tucker said the experience was difficult because baseball was new to so many of the players he coached. What made his job easy was that everyone he coached was eager to soak up everything there was to learn about the sport.

His most memorable moment abroad came during his time in Africa. He said the country’s baseball resources were so terrible, his teams often practiced on old soccer fields with a limited amount of baseballs. But before he left, a catcher he coached in the All-African Games ended up getting drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers. Tucker said he not only felt good for the player for getting out of a third-world country to make something of himself in America, but also for the country, which “revolved” around the hopes and dreams of this single baseball player.

“To see a guy that came from nothing, but had the pure ability and the heart to finally get a shot for someone to take him was…I can’t even describe it,” Tucker said.

Despite his worldly travels, Tucker doesn’t claim to have mastered any foreign languages.

“I’ve always learned the basics and I always feel like I don’t want to be that stupid American that wasn’t trying to filter in or not learn the language,” Tucker said.

As much as Tucker enjoyed his travels as a coach, when he moved to Kansas to coach alongside head coach Ritch Price and assistant coach Ryan Graves, with whom Tucker coached at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, he had moments of doubt as to whether Kansas was the place for him.

Tucker said the offseasons were the hardest on him because he was so far away from the people he usually spent time with outside of baseball. To make matters worse, he could no longer take part in his favorite hobby – surfing. But during the season, he felt right at home.

“Once baseball season got going, it was where I wanted to be and I knew that’s what I wanted to do and I can’t ask for any better coaches to be around,” Tucker said.

As an assistant coach at Kansas, Tucker’s responsibilities are coaching hitters and outfielders. His maxim is he will help any player, at any time and when he works with them, he combines his coaching theories with what the player is comfortable with.

On several occasions after games this season, Kansas hitters gave Tucker credit for their performances. Senior outfielder Matt Baty said one thing Tucker stressed was for his hitters to try to go the opposite way when batting and not try to pull the ball all the time. Baty said once the team started taking his advice, it saw results.

Click image to see how Morrison has improved after 45 games in 2006 from his 2005 totals with Tucker's help.

Sophomore third baseman Erik Morrison batted .221 as a freshman with just three home runs and a .319 slugging percentage. Forty-five games into his sophomore season, Morrison is experiencing anything but a sophomore slump. Instead, with Tucker's help, Morrison’s batting average is up to .285, he's already hit 10 home runs and his slugging has increased to .544.

“He doesn’t really try to hammer too much stuff in your brain,” Morrison said. “He lets you make your choices, make your decisions at what you want to do, what you think you need to do.

“If we want to come down here and hit at one in the morning, that guy will be down here to hit with us. He’ll do anything for us.”

Morrison’s bond with Tucker is different than most players in that he, too, is from California. He heard about Tucker when he was 13 years old, but he never got to play for him. Instead, his most vivid memory of Tucker comes from his surfing days.

“When I was back home, I used to see that old man out in the water surfing with me,” Morrison said.

Tucker said success stories like Morrison are the most rewarding part of the job.

“When they flourish in a game and they get it done, they might give you a little wink or point at you to kind of say, ‘Hey, thanks,’ it makes it all worth it, knowing you spent boatloads of hours in the cages and boatloads of hours out on the field,” Tucker said.

While such experiences make the job worthwhile for Tucker, the times when a player tries, but doesn’t succeed are the hardest on him.

“I’ll never turn away a kid that wants to keep working,” Tucker said. “That’s the tough part, when they know they have the ability, but it’s just not sinking in mentally. It’ll drive you bonkers as a coach.”

Price has known Tucker for years and praised his dedication to his job. Price even said he thought of Tucker, 35, as one of the best young coaches in America. The main reason was how Tucker could get the most out of his players.

“He has a great personality for teaching hitting,” Price said. “He’s not overly intense, he’s not overbearing. He’s very calm in his demeanor and his approach. I think he’s a really good teacher.”

Tucker’s coaching days abroad appear to be over, but odds are he will be on the move again within the U.S. in the next few years. With the connections Tucker has made along with his lengthy résumé, he’s already considered where his next step up the coaching ladder might take him.

Price gave Tucker permission to coach Little Falls of the New York Collegiate Baseball League this summer and return to Kansas in the fall, but Tucker said he would ultimately like to return to the west coast to coach someday.

In exchange for the comforts of coaching in the Big 12 conference, Tucker would be reunited with family, friends and beaches. However, the chance to remove “assistant” from his job title might be the deciding factor.

“I know, wherever I go, it’s not going to be as good as it is here, but at the same time, I want to find my own identity at one point,” Tucker said. “Every coach wants to move on and be a head guy somewhere and that’s kind of my goal.”

Posted by Shawn Shroyer at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)