Nebraskan
Thursday, April 14, 1994
SPORTS
Jon Waller/DN
Nebraska safety Tony Veland warms up before Wednesday’s practice at Memorial
Stadium. Veland said he didn’t plan to make the switch back to quarterback anytime soon.
Playing it safe
Player changes positions to avoid injuries
By Derek Samson
Senior Reporter
Tony Veland had to try some
thing different.
After two straight season-end
ing injuries halted his chances at
quarterback, Veland decided it was
time to test his luck at safety.
“The opportun it ies I had at quar
terback were there, but there was
just something that wasn’t letting
me accomplish what I wanted,’'
Veland said. “It was a decision I
made on my own. I thought if I
started delivering the licks instead
of taking them. I’d stop getting
hurt.’’
Veland, who is silting out of
spring practice while he rehabili
tates his knee, said he needed a
change of pace. And, he said, he
could use a change of fate, too.
Veland, who will be a junior in
the fall, became the No. 1 quarter
back duringspring practice in 1992
as a freshman, after redshirting in
1991.
But Veland broke his collar
bone in an August scrimmage,
which took away most of his sea
son.
Last season, Veland injured his
knee in the fall, ending his sopho
more season as a Huskcr.
“I’m always in the thick of
things, battling for No. 1, and then
something happens and I’m hurt
for most of the season,” he said.
‘‘By the time I make it back, it’s the
end of the season, and I’m at the
bottom of the depth chart. I just
want to play now. I don’t care
where it is.
‘‘It’s been kind of hard, espe
cially when I’m by myself, not to
think of what’s happened in the
past.”
The Nebraska quarterback has
been an endangered species during
spring practices asTommie Frazier,
Brook Berringerand Matt Turman
See VELAND on 8
Coaches patiently
await spring crop
Nebraska still after
some post players as
signing period begins
By Mitch Sherman
Staff Reporter
The first day of the spring signing
period for basketball recruitshas come
and gone, and the Nebraska basket
ball team has nothing new to report.
“We haven’t signed anyone,”
Coach Danny Nee said Wednesday
afternoon. “But it is not unusual or
alarming to not sign anyone on the
first day.”
The spring period runs from April
13 to May 15.
Nee said the Cornhuskers, who
have three scholarships avail able, plan
to hand out one or two this spring.
The Husker coaches missed out on
a few big players they were reportedly
recruiting. John Jackson from Butler
County (Kan.) Junior College com
mitted to Mississippi. Jermaine Tho
mas of Tyler (Texas) High School
turned down the Huskcrs in favor of
New Mexico.
Despite failing to sign those play
ers, Nee said, the Huskers plan to haul
in a couple of post players.
One player Nebraska is still pursu
ing is Northeast Oklahoma A&M for
ward Ray Poindexter.
NEO coach Lonnie Spencer said
Poindexter, who will visit Nebraska
this weekend, may not be the answer
tothe Huskers’ need for a power player
inside.
Despite his height, the 6-foot-11
inch, 220-pound Poindextcr“docs not
have a post-man mentality,” Spencer
said.
— it
(Nebraska assistant
coach) Gary Bargen
has done an
excellent job of
recruiting Ray. Right
now, / honestly do
not think that he
(forward Ray
Poindexter) has
made up his mind.
— Spencer
Northeast Oklahoma A&M
coach
-99 ~
“I just don’t sec him banging in
side in the Big Eight Conference,” he
said. “If he is dedicated and he cats
well and gets stronger, he could. But
right now, he just isn’t that type of
player.”
Poindexter, who averaged 12.5
points and 7.3 rebounds per game last
season at NEO. will visit Tulsa next
weekend, Spencer said.
Tulsa coach Tubby Smith, who
turned down an offer to coach Okla
homa on Wednesday, has done a good
job of recruiting Poindexter, Spencer
said.
But so has Nebraska, he said.
“(Nebraska assistant coach) Gary
Bargen has done an excellent job of
recruiting Ray,” Spencer said. “Right
now, 1 honestly do not think that he
has made up his mind.”
During the fall signing period. Nee
signed four high school players: Chad
Idcus, a 6-foot-7-inch forward from
Adams; Andy Markowski, a 6-foot-8
inch forward from Ord;Chcster Surlcs,
a 6-foot-8-inch guard-forward from
Saginaw, M ich.; and Leif Nelson, a 6
foot- 10-inch center from Riverside,
Calif.
NU hires new football orhcial
From Staff Reports
The Nebraska athletic department
named a new associate athletic direc
tor for football operations on Wednes
day.
Steve Pederson, who currently
holds a similar job at Tennessee, will
fill the hole left by Dave Gillespie,
who accepted an assistant coaching
job at Kansas on April 4.
Pederson will perform administra
tive recruiting coordinating duties for
Nebraska.
“We are glad to have him,”
Comhusker coach Tom Osborne said.
“I was a little surprised. I didn't know
it was going to happen until this after
noon.”
Pederson, who is from North Platte,
served as Nebraska’s recruiting coor
dinator and administrative assistant
under Osborne from 1982 to 1986.
He left athletics in 1986, only to
return two years later as Ohio State’s
recruiting coordinator in 1988.
Pederson then joined Tennessee’s staff
in 1991 as recruiting coordinator and
was named the Tennessee assistant
athletic director a year later.
“I think he is a very bright, very
innovative guy,” Osborne said. “He
can benefit the athletic department in
many ways. I’ve been impressed with
the job he has done at Tennessee.”
Grab a pop tart, as gerbil and gerbil-brains toast 1994
My gerbil Mookieand I were loung
ing around this weekend, wondering
about this summer and how we were
going to stay out of prison and stuff.
That’s when 1 realized this is my
last column for the year. The summer
— that robber of my expressiveness,
that thief of creative outlets, that six
letter word with two humpbacks in the
middle—is coming, and I’m a goin’.
Mook and I then got reflective.
We’ll miss so many things about
this wonderful, exciting and beyond
groovy year. Thus, I’ve compiled an
abbreviated list of the loves we will
soon leave behind.
So sit back, grab a pop tart and let
me take you for a stroll down neurosis
lane.
I will be reminded throughout the
summer of all my hopes that never
came to fruition.
There was my challenge of a one
on-one game to Nebraska women’s
basketball player Meggan Yedsena.
She failed to accept my offer.
But 1 understand. She’s a busy
student-athlete. Her life’s probably
too routinizcd to get a silly game with
me and Mookie in. I mean it’s prob
ably like: Basketball, study, basket
ball, study, wish Karen Jennings was
still here,cry,study(yougetlapictura).
See, the life of a point guard isn’t
so easy. But she’s still a wussy.
Mook just reminded me of the
marriage proposals I have out there.
Boy, will I miss those.
An update on my proposals: I cur
rently have marriage offers on the
table to Nancy Kerrigan, volleyball
player Ali Weston and golfer Kim
Lefler.
I also had one issued to gymnast
Jennifer Hawkinson, but 1 guess 1
can’t talk about that due to that... uh
... what do ya call it ... oh yeah ...
restraining order. The “Hawk” has a
Beau
Finley
strange way of showing affection.
Perhaps the toughest thing to say
goodbye to is women’s golf.
The Husker hacker squad epito
mizes everything good about college
athletics. They’re players, students
and campus leaders.
This team knows about adversity. I
mean, sometimes they make bogeys
and sometimes they’re in the sand.
But do they allow this to get to them?
Negatory, Daddy-O. They’re unflap
pable.
They look those three-footers in
the eye, unflinching, and drain the
putt like a cheap bottle of wine.
These Comstrokers know courage.
Oh, do they know courage.
Do you know why? (Its rhetorical,
so don't answer. I’m on a roll). It’s
because they’ve faced their fear and
domesticated it. In fact, they now call
their fear “Walter.”
MaybeChuck Barkley doesn’t want
to be a role model. I say let that tub of
goo with a little shooting touch go.
Players like Nebraska superpower
Heidi Wall are the real role models.
I tell you,just sitting here realizing
how special and privileged my cover
age of the Huskah Hammers was gets
me all misty. In fact, Mook is weeping
openly.
I want to throw a big hug around
the whole team. I just hope they put
their putters down first.
Finally, I’ll miss that Kevin
Ramackers. For the three of you who
actually have read my column for the
past year, you know that I’ve joked
around with Kevin on many occa
sions.
Sometimes 1 even went overboard,
especially the time I said he should ice
skate in the Olympics with Tonya
Harding. Or the time I joked that he
showered weekly. Or the time I
quipped that he scared his teammates
with his nakedness.
Or the time I imagined him getting
frisky while playing Husker Twister.
But Mr. Ramaekers has shown an
exceptional degrceofrestraint in deal
ing with my satire, probably more
than I would have shown in a similar
situation.
Ramaekers has demonstrated that
he’s not only a talented player but also
a tremendously good-natured man.
But I’m still prettier.
Flaky li a tint-year law student and a
Dally Nebraskan columnist.
