[76lsjumb]

If Tara's program was bearing the cost of the scholarship, I can certainly see why she would resent a player missing the first six weeks of the season to play volleyball. And I really don't see the remotest parallel to Josh Nunes here. Nunes lost his job to a guy who was at practice all along, competing fulltime for a football job.

Moreover, it's not as if Tara made Folkl sit on the bench. She didn't start, that's all. And, I'd guess, in a number of those games she didn't start, she wasn't in basketball shape yet. I don't question that volleyball players train and practice hard, but it's a different sport with different demands.

The parallel I see with Josh Nunes is that Shaw decided to play the best player, even though it arguably wasn't "fair" to the player who was being replaced.  Going with the best player gives the team the best chance to win and, ultimately, I think a good argument can be made that what is best for the team is the preferable decision.

If Tara decided to go with another player over Kristin at the time because she thought that gave the team the best chance to win, that's great.  If she did it because she "resented" the fact that Kristin was playing volleyball while on a besketball scholarship, I'm not so sure. 

It wasn't Kristin's fault that the scholarship was counted toward b'ball -- that's simply an NCAA rule.  And it wasn't Kristin's fault that, at least to that point, she was arguably one of the [if not THE] most dominant volleyball players Stanford had ever seen and was instrumental in winning multiple NCAA volleyball titles for Stanford.  As a fan of multiple sports at Stanford, I'm a lot happier that we won 3 volleyball titles while she was at Stanford than I would have been if we hadn't, and I would have been happier still if we had managed to win a basketball title as well while she was here.

This is from the official Stanford Hall of Fame bio on Kristin:

Arguably the greatest women's athlete in Stanford history, Kristin Folkl earned first-team All-America honors in both volleyball and basketball during her collegiate career on The Farm. She joined the basketball team midway through the season of her freshman year in 1994-95 and earned a spot on the Pacific-10 Conference's All-Freshmen team. She did not play basketball as a sophomore in order to devote time to the U.S. Olympic women's volleyball team. After initially announcing she would not play basketball as a junior, Folkl rejoined an injury-riddled Cardinal team for the final 10 games of the 1996-97 season, helping Stanford to a NCAA Final Four appearance. As a senior in 1997-98, she earned a spot on the Kodak All-America team and was a finalist for Naismith Player of the Year honors after averaging 18.9 points and 9.2 rebounds a game.

That is consistent with my memory of things -- i.e., Kristin did a lot for the basketball team; it wasn't that Tara was doing a favor to Kristin to let her play.  And, while I haven't done [and don't really intend to do] the research to go back and try to figure out the specific games, I have a fairly clear recollection of at least a few games where there was a feeling [expressed by more than a few at the time, including, perhaps, the Stanford Professor referenced by 81alum] that, had Kristin started and/or played more, the team's overall performance in those games would have been improved.

More broadly, I think it is fairly well known that Tara frowns upon women's b'ball players being two-sport athletes.  Over the years, I think that attitude has negatively impacted some of the other teams [and, maybe even the b'ball team] by rendering unavailable some players who were in a position to make positive contributions to those teams.  That being said, I do agree that, more recently, as the concept of "season" seems to be disappearing for most sports -- i.e., sport-specific practice and training now seems to go on year-round and actual competition seasons overlap more -- insisting that a player devote full time to the scholarship sport seems more and more reasonable.

For Kristin, though, I don't think that it was matter of not playing due to not being in "basketball shape."  She was, quite simply, a phenomenal athlete who was clearly in shape to do whatever she was allowed to do -- and to do it well enough to be voted All-Conference and All-American multiple times in both sports.

[76lsjumb]

If Tara's program was bearing the cost of the scholarship, I can certainly see why she would resent a player missing the first six weeks of the season to play volleyball. And I really don't see the remotest parallel to Josh Nunes here. Nunes lost his job to a guy who was at practice all along, competing fulltime for a football job.

Moreover, it's not as if Tara made Folkl sit on the bench. She didn't start, that's all. And, I'd guess, in a number of those games she didn't start, she wasn't in basketball shape yet. I don't question that volleyball players train and practice hard, but it's a different sport with different demands.

The parallel I see with Josh Nunes is that Shaw decided to play the best player, even though it arguably wasn't "fair" to the player who was being replaced.  Going with the best player gives the team the best chance to win and, ultimately, I think a good argument can be made that what is best for the team is the preferable decision.

If Tara decided to go with another player over Kristin at the time because she thought that gave the team the best chance to win, that's great.  If she did it because she "resented" the fact that Kristin was playing volleyball while on a besketball scholarship, I'm not so sure. 

It wasn't Kristin's fault that the scholarship was counted toward b'ball -- that's simply an NCAA rule.  And it wasn't Kristin's fault that, at least to that point, she was arguably one of the [if not THE] most dominant volleyball players Stanford had ever seen and was instrumental in winning multiple NCAA volleyball titles for Stanford.  As a fan of multiple sports at Stanford, I'm a lot happier that we won 3 volleyball titles while she was at Stanford than I would have been if we hadn't, and I would have been happier still if we had managed to win a basketball title as well while she was here.

This is from the official Stanford Hall of Fame bio on Kristin:

Arguably the greatest women's athlete in Stanford history, Kristin Folkl earned first-team All-America honors in both volleyball and basketball during her collegiate career on The Farm. She joined the basketball team midway through the season of her freshman year in 1994-95 and earned a spot on the Pacific-10 Conference's All-Freshmen team. She did not play basketball as a sophomore in order to devote time to the U.S. Olympic women's volleyball team. After initially announcing she would not play basketball as a junior, Folkl rejoined an injury-riddled Cardinal team for the final 10 games of the 1996-97 season, helping Stanford to a NCAA Final Four appearance. As a senior in 1997-98, she earned a spot on the Kodak All-America team and was a finalist for Naismith Player of the Year honors after averaging 18.9 points and 9.2 rebounds a game.

That is consistent with my memory of things -- i.e., Kristin did a lot for the basketball team; it wasn't that Tara was doing a favor to Kristin to let her play.  And, while I haven't done [and don't really intend to do] the research to go back and try to figure out the specific games, I have a fairly clear recollection of at least a few games where there was a feeling [expressed by more than a few at the time, including, perhaps, the Stanford Professor referenced by 81alum] that, had Kristin started and/or played more, the team's overall performance in those games would have been improved.

More broadly, I think it is fairly well known that Tara frowns upon women's b'ball players being two-sport athletes.  Over the years, I think that attitude has negatively impacted some of the other teams [and, maybe even the b'ball team] by rendering unavailable some players who were in a position to make positive contributions to those teams.  That being said, I do agree that, more recently, as the concept of "season" seems to be disappearing for most sports -- i.e., sport-specific practice and training now seems to go on year-round and actual competition seasons overlap more -- insisting that a player devote full time to the scholarship sport seems more and more reasonable.

For Kristin, though, I don't think that it was matter of not playing due to not being in "basketball shape."  She was, quite simply, a phenomenal athlete who was clearly in shape to do whatever she was allowed to do -- and to do it well enough to be voted All-Conference and All-American multiple times in both sports.