Tuesday, June 10, 1986
Daily Nebraskan
Page 13
ports
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By Jeff Apel
Sports Editor
Nebraska baseball players who planned on
spending their summer playing semi-pro baseball
with the Beatrice Brums lound tnemseives look
ing for a new team.
Beatrice, which had hosted a summer team for
the past 15 years, folded its' semi-pro squad
because of a sagging economy and a decline in
the interest level among fans.
Former Bruin coach Bob Steinkamp said that
although the Bruins were operating around the
break-even point during their early years of
existence, the Beatrice-based squad had been
losing between $3,000 and $5,000 yearly for the
past several years.
With the economic outlook being the way it is,
Steinkamp said he saw this year as good of time
as any to end his 15-year coaching stint and fold
the Bruins.
"It was a decision I completely made on my
own," Steinkamp said. "It was a tough decision
to make, but at this time it just is not feasible to
continue the operation of the Bruins."
Steinkamp said that the Bruins had been
relying on private donations, sales of a yearbook
and gate revenue to off-set their $15,000 a year
operating expenses.
Though Beatrice operated on a budget con
sistently lower than all of the other teams in the
semi-pro Jayhawk League, Steinkamp said that
he proved to himself that the Bruins could
remain competitive despite having only one-fifth
of the total budget a rival team in Clarinda, Iowa
had.
Beatrice finished among the top 10 semi-pro
teams in the country four of the last six years,
and also sent 65 players on to professional
baseball.
"We maintained one of the top programs in
the country," Steinkamp said.
Steinkamp said that he feels sorry for the
many college players who had hopes of playing
for the Beatrice Bruins this summer.
Semi-pro clubs still exist in Hutchinson, Kan.,
and the Iowa-based organization is still going
strong, but Steinkamp said that both of these
nearby organizations won't be nearly as con
venient as the Bruins were because of the
required traveling time for Nebraskans.
In hopes of making the transition to a new
team an easier one, Steinkamp said that he has
been in touch with other coaches from the
Jayhawk League in hopes of finding new homes
for the athletes who had hoped to play for the
Bruins.
But when the rival teams in the Jayhawk
League are producing such players as Von Hayes
. of the Philadelphia Phillies, Ozzie Smith of the
St. Louis Cardinals, Will Clark of the San Fran
cisco Giants and Pete Incaviglia of the Texas
Rangers, Steinkamp said that he is sure that
someone is going to get left out.
"More and more teams are folding," he said.
"There is just not the interest in amateur
baseball now that there used to be."
Steinkamp said that he will stay active in the
baseball field by working full time at his trophy
shop in Beatrice.
While he was still coaching the Bruins,
Steinkamp used to juggle his 50 hour-a-week
schedule with the Bruins around his job as the
owner of an insurance business.
When the Bruins future began to look shaky,
he sold his insurance business so that he could
pursue other interests.
That's how he opened his trophy shop, which
also deals in distributing awards and is expand
ing to include baseball cards.
Fall switch
likely for
By Chuck Green
! Senior Reporter
6 '
f Lorenzo Hicks, a Comhusker split
end, announced in a telephone inter
I view Saturday that he will move to the
defensive backfield next fall.
Hicks said the decision to move to
defensive back came during the final
week of Nebraska's spring football
practices. Hicks said that he made the
decision during that week, but decided
not to tell the coaches until after the
annual Red-White intrasquad scrim
mage had been played.
Hicks, a redshirt sophomore from
Kansas Citv. Mo., said he didn't know
V exactly what position in the secondary
he would move to, but hopes to play at
safety.
"I look at split end and see only one
senior graduating next fall," Hicks
said, "and then I look at safety. I think
my chances to play are better at that
position."
Three Nebraska safeties will gradu
ate following next season.
Hicks finished last spring listed as a
third-team split end on the final Husker
depth chart.
Though the Husker defensive system
will be new to Hicks, the position won't
be. Hicks played safety for Coach Walt
Thompson at Kansas City Southeast
High School. During his senior season,
Hicks intercepted 10 passes from his
defensive position, and caught 38 passes
for 560 yards from his wingback slot.
"He was an excellent player in high
school at defensive back," Nebraska
defensive backs coach George Darling
ton said of Hicks. "He was very heavily
recruited. He has excellent speed and
good size, but it's difficult to say any
thing more about him (as a defensive
back), because he spent the whole
spring at wingback and we just haven't
seen what he can do on defense."
As a freshman at Nebraska, Hicks
led the Husker freshman team in
receiving, snagging seven passes for 91
yards. He also returned three punts for
28 yards, another team high for the
1984 freshmen.
Hicks said he views the move to def
ensive back as starting all over again.
"It'll be tough at first," Hicks said of
the adjustment, "but once I learn the
system, everything should fall into
place."
Darlington said Hicks is likely to
begin next fall "fairly high" on the
depth chart at defensive back, so the
Husker coaches will be able to get a
good look at his defensive capabilities
early.
Through the adjustment of switch
ing from offense to defense will take
time, Hicks is anxious for his chance.
"I'm looking forward to it," he said.
"After playing wingback, I know how a
receiver thinks and what they have to
do. I think that'll help me a lot. on
defense."
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