The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 37

SPORTS DAILY 8AS CITY STAR wwwkcstarcom Friday February 26 1999 After a stellar career as a player Steve Alford is having an impact as a coach at Southwest Missouri 4 Coach Lou Henson wins his 700th college game 5 Plenty of limelight The new stars Alexi Lalas and Tony Meola (right) are fitting in well 6 Spring is in the air And that means baseball as Royals open full-squad workouts SPRING New lace had some cattle stolen last Muser said eyes twinkling he spotted one of them down Later Muser learned that King had a "bug" King came to the complex and said he been able to eat since Tuesday looked a little said trainer Nick Swartz who sent King home Grab a cup of coffee oil up your glove open that box of bats Royals spring training was gearing up with the first full-squad workout at the Baseball City Sports Complex Just 39 days to go before the April 5 opener against the Boston Red Sox at Kauffman Stadium Only first baseman Jeff King was absent No he been traded to the Atlanta Braves or anywhere else Yet So where was the noted Montana rancher? By DICK KAEGEL The Kansas City Star BASEBALL CITY Fla Manager Tony Muser arrived at 6:45 on Thursday morning to fine-tune his schedule Outfielder Steve Gibralter went into the weight room a few minutes later to turn muscle into rock Pitcher Jeff Montgomery popped in and the clubhouse population was growing toward 69 players Pitcher David Swartzbaugh spent 10 years in the Chicago Cubs' minor-league system before joining the Royals More D-6 TRAINING MARCH) JOSE SANCHEZThe Kansas City Star Jermaine Dye (from left) Johnny Damon and Carlos Beltran hung around the batting cage waiting their turns to hit in the full-squad workout Thursday in Baseball City Fla See ROYALS D-6 just something different about him He has a competitive heart and a natural instinct for Bobby Douglas wrestling coach at Iowa State where Zach Roberson will wrestle next year LaFrentz out for season top choice injures knee in loss to Dallas The Kansas City Star DARON BENNFTTThe Kansas City Slar In the last four years Zach Roberson of Blue Valley Northwest (top) has showed dozens of opponents that they afford a false move as St Thomas Aquinas' Nolan Cisper learned In a recent match Roberson enters the state championship today intending to become only the second Kansas wrestler to go unbeaten through four years of high school Denver Nuggets rookie Raef LaFrentz the former Kansas forward who was the third pick in the NBA draft will miss the rest of this season after tearing a knee liga ment in the 90-81 loss Thursday night against the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas LaFrentz was driving to the basket with 7:4 1 left in the first quarter when he appeared to twist his left knee after Shawn Bradley blocked Iris shot LaFrentz was on the court for several minutes before being taken to the Denver locker room After the game the Nuggets reported that LaFrentz had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee He is expected to undergo surgery though no date has been set Doctors are scheduled to evaluate LaFrentz today someone is playing as well as he was and goes down for the year Nuggets coach Mike Antoni said we feel sorry for ourselves We have to have a couple of guys step Though LaFrentz played forward at Kansas the Nuggets have used him as their starting center Through the first 11 games LaFrentz had been averag ing 149 points fourth among NBA rookies in scoring InFrentz was also averaging 8 1 rebounds In two games against the Lakers' Shaquillc O'Neal LaFrentz scored 24 and 20 points The Mavericks also lost a player when No 2 scorer Cedric Ceballos fractured his right wrist and will miss six weeks Ceballos hurt the wrist when he was knocked to the floor on a layup in the first quarter LaFrentz isn't the first layhawks first -round pick to suffer a knee in jury early in his NBA career Dan ny Manning led the Jayhawks to a national title in 1988 and then tom his anterior cruciate ligament dur ing his first year in the NBA Manning has had three knee surgeries since and is now playing for the Phoenix Suns More NBA news D-3 As good as they get BY Northwest wrestler intends to finish career undefeated Zach Roberson year by year homa finished 130-0 If he wins his weight class Roberson will join eight other Kansas wrestlers who have won four successive state championships A state final victory would also give Roberson 153 straight victories which would tie him for the second-most consecutive wins among high school wrestlers in the nation according to the National Federation of State High School Associations Mike Kendall (Albemarle NC) won 153 matches during 1987-91 Lance Ellis (Indianapolis Cathedral Ind set the record 177 during 1986-89 bid seems in reach This season he has beaten eight of the other 15 wrestlers who are in his weight class at state go undefeated and be a state champion for four years is quite an Blue Valley coach Scott Bacon said By MATT WEEKS The Kansas City Star Four years ago Blue Valley Northwest wrestling coach Tim Serbousek stopped to ask a simple question of a quiet 90-pound incoming freshman in the weight room said to him 'What are your goals for Serbousek recalled he said going to be a four-time state Serbousek chuckled kind of patted him on the the coach continued said you want to do that buddy you better stay in the weight room the rest of your Since then Blue Valley Northwest senior Zach Roberson has accumulated 149 straight victories four East Kansas League titles four regional titles three Kansas 6A championships and one junior national Through Thursday championship Starting today in Wichita Roberson will try for his fourth straight Kansas 6A championship hoping to end his high school career the way it started: perfect Roberson who wresdes at 125 pounds is trying to become the second wrestler in Kansas to finish undefeated in four years of high school competitioa Last season former Salina South standout Bo Maynes who now wrestles for Okla DARON BENNFTrThe Kansas City Star Ten minutes before a match at the EKL Championships Roberson appeared calm and relaxed and joked with a few of his teammates On the mat though he was all business See ROBERSON D-9 KC keeps coining up in NASCAR talk Negro Leaguers share history with students By STEVE ROCK The Kansei City Star By JIM PEDLEY The Kansas City Star to a group of Hogan Preparatory Academy students Thursday afternoon in Kansas City The assembly a celebration of Black History Month featured a handful of former Negro League stars: Mason Connie Johnson Jesse Rogers and Herman Horn Quite simply they talked about baseball Negro Leagues style they were active today" Mason said of some of the better Kansas City Monarc hs teams he pitched for could join either league city The forecast for the near future however is brightening The word that Winston Cup racing is coming to Kansas City picked up steam this week and from some people very hooked into NASCAR And as people in sports market ing will tell you there is not a bigger league anywhere right now than Winston Cup racing Mike Helton who was recently put in charge of day-to-day opera- There he stood in a well-worn gymnasium decorated with paint-chipped walls and addressed fewer than 130 high school students He didn't have a microphone and instead found himself battling the overhead buzz of gym lights The Rev Henry Mason has seen better pulpits But this was not a sermon Not really Mason along with three other former Negro League stars spoke The subject was major-league cities and Kansas City was not faring well Radio talk-show callers were pointing to the decline of the Chiefs the fluctuating state of the Royals and the absence of the NBA and NHL There was much gray and gloom on the airwaves that day last autumn The consensus was it would be hard to call Kansas City a major- BEVERLY BYNUM Th Kansas City Star The Rev Henry Mason and other Negro Leagues veterans talked Thursday at Hogan Preparatory Academy Mason Connie Johnson Homan Horn and Jesse answered students' questions See NASCAR D-10 See BASEBALL D-7.