NetJraskan
Wednesday, March 15,1989
William Lauer/Daily Nebraskan
New Nebraska linebackers coach Kevin Steele relaxes in his office.
New coach ready for NU
By Steve Sipple
Staff Reporter__
Former Tennessee assistant Kevin
Steele needed just one reason to join
Nebraska’s football coaching staff:
Comhusker coach Tom Osborne.
“It was the opportunity to be ex
posed to his program. That's exactly
why I’m here,’’ said Steele, who
replaced former Huskcr coach John
Melton as the team’s linebacker
coach. Melton announced his retire
ment March 3 after having quintuple
bypass surgery Feb. 14.
Osborne announced Steele’s hir
ing early last week and Steele said
Tuesday he was been working to get
acclimated with Nebraska’s defense.
Spring football practice begins April
3.
Osborne wasn’t the only Nebraska
coach on Steele’s mind during his
decision-making process to become a
Nebraska assistant, he said.
“The coaching staff had some
thing to do with the decision,” he
said. “(Nebraska defensive coordi
nator) Charlie McBride is one of the
premiere defensive coaches in the
country. Being exposed to Coach
McBride will be a benefit, too.”
With the abundance of coaching
talent at Nebraska, Steele said, his job
w ill be to simply coach the lineback
ers - and nothing else.
“I’m not here to change the de
fense. I’m here to coach linebackers
to the best of my abilities,” said
Steele, a 30-ycar-old who coached
the secondary and inside linebackers
the last two seasons for Tennessee
coach Johnny Majors. “Whether it’s
high school, college or pro football,
basically you got the same type of
things that need to be done.”
Steele, who’s also made coaching
stops at Oklahoma State and New
Mexico State, said the transition from
teaching the Volunteer’s defense to
Nebraska’s defense has been smooth.
“Except for a few variations, the
only difference is in terminology,’’
he said. “Both teams run odd-man
fronts. There’s change-ups, but noth
ing too drastic.”
One constant every college pro
gram shares is in the difficulty in
recruiting. It was lough to recruit at
Tennessee and it will be just as diffi
cult at Nebraska, Steele said.
Steele served as linebacker coach
and recruiting coordinator at New
Mexico State in 1982 and 1983. He
will also handle recruiting duties at
Nebraska.
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For me, it’s one of the most enjoyable
things,” Steele said. ‘‘I enjoy the
challenge of helping a high school
senior make a decision that will affect
him the rest of his life.”
Steele made a decision that af
fected his life well before his senior
year in high school — the decision to
coach college football. He said he
realized as early as 1971 -- after
watching Nebraska beat Alabama .38
6 in the Orange Bow l as a 12-year-old
- that he wanted to coach football.
”1 knew' then that I wanted to be a
coach and I was impressed with the
Big Red,” he said.
INU bowling teams quality tor nationals
By Mike Andreasen
Staff Reporter
Describing the Nebraska men’s
and women’s bowling teams per
formance at the sectional qualifying
tournament as dominant may be an
understatement.
Both squads won their respective
divisions last weekend at Leisure
Lanes in Omaha, earning automatic
berths for the national competition
April 19 through 23 in Las Vegas.
The top-two teams from the competi
tion earned national berths.
Nebraska bowling coach Bill
Straub said he was pleased with both
team’s performances. He said he was
especially pleased with the perform
ancc of the 4th-rankcd Cornhuskcr
women.
The Nebraska women won their
title by tallying 13,178 pinfalls. Wis
consin-Whitewatcr finished 2nd with
12,397, followed by Mankato State
(Minn.) with 12,375. Wisconsin
LaCrosse finishcd4th in the women’s
competition with 12,230, pinfalls,
followed by Northern Illinois with
11,795 and Illinois-Urbana with
11,636.
The Nebraska men, behind the
performance of All-American Mike
Shady, won their title with 14,009
pinfalls. Illinois Slate finished 2nd
with 13,518, followed by Northern
Illinois with 13,289, Wisconsin
Oshkosh with 13,248, Iowa with
13,129 and Wisconsin-LaCrossc
with 13,005.
Mankato State finished 7th in the
men’s competition with 12,994 pin
falls, followed by Wisconsin-White -
waterwith 12,902, Wisconsin-Madi- 1
son with 12,895, Madison (Wis.) ;
Technical College with 12,713, Illi
nois-Urbana with 12,577 and Con- :
cordia College of Seward with
10,488. 1
Straub said the pressure was on the ;
Nebraska women. (
‘ ‘They’ve been successful all year
long,” he said. ‘‘The pressure was I
definitely on the ladies to keep their
success going, and they have never i
made it to nationals so this is extra '
special.”
The Nebraska women swept the
tournament’s top three to win the
earn title. Nebraska’s Michelle
Kelly won the individual title by re
cording a 203 average over 12 games.
Nebraska’s Rachel Fleming finished
£nd with a 194 average, while Kim
3erkc was 3rd with a 193 mark.
Nebraska’s Jennifer Wilson finished
>th with a 188 average.
Straub said youth benefitted the
Nebraska women. Four of the Husk
;rs six team members are freshmen.
‘‘Sometimes nervousness can af
ect older players,” Straub said.
‘Fortunately, in this ease our inexpe
ienced freshmen performed well and
vere not as nervous.”
Shady paced the 6lh-rankcd
Husker men by compiling a 215 aver
age. That mark placed him 2nd to
Wisconsin-LaCrossc’s Tim Da
mcrow, who finished with a 216 aver
age.
Straub said Shady’s senior status
had an emotional ploy on the team.
“This was his last go around and
we wanted him to go out in as much a
bla/.e of glory as humanly possible,”
Straub said.
Straub said Nebraska will prepare
for nationals by competing in an
exhibition tournament this weekend
at Sun Valley Lanes. He said the
competition will feature Nebraska
and five professional bowlers.
Three students represent Nebraska in 'Super Bowl’
By Mark Derowitsch
Senior Reporter
There’s one Final Four that will
definitely have a team from Nebraska
in it.
Three students represented Ne
braska in the final four of “Board
walk and Baseball’s Super Bowl of
Sports Trivia’’ in Orlando, Fla. But
you won’t be able to find out how
they fared until next month.
Steve Eckman, a sophomore from
Lincoln, Joe Ryan, a sophomore from
Omaha, and David Thompson, a sen
ior from Lincoln, competed as the
Nebraska team in January. ESPN
(Cablevision channel 23) will tele
vise the tournament beginning April
3. Nebraska will face UCLA in the
tournament’s first match at 6:30 p.m.
“We really can’t say how we
did,’ ’ Eckman said. “They told us we
couldn’t tell anyone because they
want people to watch the show on
TV.”
But Eckman said the Nebraska
contingent made it “pretty far in the
tournament.”
“Butwedidn’twinit,” he said. “I
can say that we at least made in into
the Final Four.”
Eckman, an undeclared major
from Northeast High School, said
Nebraska was the only school from
the Big Eight in the tournament. This
was his first trip to the Super Bowl.
‘‘They had a lot of guys who had
been there before, though,” Eckman
said. “I was pretty amazed at how
fast they could answer the questions.
It was really tough.”
Eckman said the show’s filming
took place from Jan. 3 through 10. He
said participants had weekends off
because the show’s host, Chris Bcr
man, had to go to the ESPN studio to
tape the National Football League’s
Primetime telecast.
“We had a couple of days off and
had a dress rehearsal the night be
fore,” Eckman said. “We had the
weekend off and went to Boardwalk
and Baseball a lot. We also went to
the Epcot Center.”
Eckman said Berman, who is a
regular on ESPN’s SportsCenter,
made the experience fun.
“He’s great,” he said. “He’s the
perfect host to do the show.”
Eckman said getting to the touma
mcnt was as tough as competing on
the show. He said contestants in Lin
coln had to fill out a 40-question
questionnaire. The top three repre
sented the university on the show.
“It was a pretty tough test,” Eck
man said. “It was pretty much like
the show. The questions covered a
wide variety of sports, but mostly
included questions about baseball,
basketball and football.”
He said other teams in the tourna
ment included Boston College, Geor
getown, Columbia and several other
East coast schools.
UNL guard reluctant to play European pro-basketball
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Senior Reporter
It would take a pretty big offer for Nebraska
guard Amy Stephens to leave school and play
basketball professionally in Europe.
Stephens, a senior from Alliance, said a few
teams in Europe have made inquiries about her
to Nebraska women’s basketball coach Angela
Beck.
“I wouldn't say I’m interested-at least not
right now,” Stephens said “Coach Beck has
mentioned it to me, but I ’m not sure of all the
details.”
Stephens said Beck was contacted by a team
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sional basketball is popular in some countries
in Europe.
“I’ve read a couple of articles about it, and
in Italy and West Germany, it’s a pretty big
deal,’’ Stephens said. “I suppose if I received
a really good offer, I might be interested. Some
teams even pay for an apartment, spending
money and a car.”
Stephens said a lot of former All-Americans
play in other countries. The most famous one is
former Old Dominion standout Ann Donovan,
Stephens said.
“She makesa lot of money over there,^ she
said. “If you’re a big name in America, you’re
going to do real well playing over there.
Stephens said if she had to make a decision
now, she would remain in school and get her
degree in physical education. She expects to
graduate next May and will student teach next
spring.
“Right now, I guess it’s too soon to really
say that 1 might play again,” Stephens said.
“Maybe in a month, I may want to get back
into it, but for now, I jusl w ant to lake it easy for
a while.”
Stephens deserves the relaxation. She
played all season with init^>.s that forced her
to wrap her ankles and sit through whirlpool
treatments after each game.
But despite the injuries, Stephens still
managed to average 22 points per game this
season and became Nebraska’s 2nd all-time
leading scorer with 1,958 career points. She
also averaged 4.3 rebounds per game and to
taled 115 assists this year.
Stephens said she still doesn’t know the
extent of her injuries. She said they do not
require surgery, at least for now.
‘‘I haven’t been hack to the doctor since the
season ended, hut I don’t think surgery will be
necessary,” Stephens said. ‘ They can’t tell
without X-rays, and I’ll have them X-rayed
soon. I just think I need some lime to rest. That
would help a lot.”