Four high school softball players have signed national letters of intent, KU coach Tracy Bunge announced Thursday.
The future Jayhawks are: outfielder Cyndi Duran of Flowing Wells (Ariz.) High, catcher Elle Pottorf of Washburn Rural, left-handed pitcher Christina Ross of Valencia (Calif.) and outfielder Jackie Vasquez of Catalina (Ariz.) Foothills.
“I’m extremely pleased with the quality of the players and people in this class,” Bunge said. “By landing this class we have solved some depth issues in the outfield as well as improved our overall team speed. It will be fun to watch Elle and Christina work together in the future, and I’m looking forward to having a different look with the lefty on the mound.”
Anna Jackson, a senior at Milton High in Alpharetta, Ga., has signed with the Jayhawks, KU tennis coach Amy Hall said Thursday.
Jackson, who finished the season ranked 15th nationally, should help KU replace its three seniors.
Luke Axtell isn’t the only Kansas basketball player, past or present, to possess some artistic ability.
Axtell, Kansas University’s 6-foot-10 senior guard, who has recorded, but put on hold the sale of his country compact disc — “The River Runs Dry” — can play the guitar and sing.
Teammates Jeff Carey and Eric Chenowith can play electric guitar, as they demonstrated at last year’s Late Night With Roy Williams.
On the acting front, ex-Jayhawk center Greg Ostertag had a speaking role in the movie, “Eddie.”
And on the writing front, former KU guard Jerod Haase penned the book, “Floor Burns” — an account of the Jayhawks’ 1996-97 season.
Haase’s book, which has had five printings, remains on sale and will be available soon at kustore.com.
Unlike Axtell, who has been told by the NCAA he can’t sell his CD until after the upcoming season, Haase didn’t run into any problems because all promotion and sales of the book came after his eligibility had run out.
“I remember we had to receive permission from KU to use the uniform on the cover,” said Haase, an administrative assistant on Roy Williams’ staff. “Everybody was OK with that.”
He said he had some concerns initially about the NCAA, but, “I didn’t do anything until after the season so there was no conflict. I was able to write it during the season. I had a red-shirt year, so by my fifth year I was on top of things (academically) and didn’t have a lot of classes.”
Haase said if he had it to do over again, he might write something about recruiting in his book, but otherwise, he’s satisfied with his venture.
As far as Axtell’s situation, the family has been hit with several media requests since the J-W’s story on the CD appeared in Tuesday’s paper.
“We’re going to comply with the rules whether we like them or not,” Axtell’s parents said in a statement.
That means not selling any copies of the CD during the season.
Anderson’s list: Alan Anderson, 6-5, 210 from Minneapolis, Minn., tells Insiders Report he’s sliced his list to five schools: Minnesota, Michigan State, Kansas, Iowa and Louisville. He’s eliminated Connecticut, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, and Purdue.
Anderson told analyst Mike Sullivan he would set up his official visits after in-home visits with coaches from the five schools.
“I am just going to see what they have to say and then make up my mind on whether I will take an official visit there,” Anderson told Sullivan. He’s unofficially visited MSU, Minnesota and Iowa.
Hayes’ list: Chuck Hayes, 6-6 from Modesto, Calif., who has said he’ll visit KU on Sept. 22-23, tells Pac West Hoops he’s headed to UCLA Sept. 8 and Kentucky for Midnight Madness. He’s also planning trips to UTEP and St. Louis and likely make an unofficial visit to Pepperdine.
Patterson a possibility: Andre Patterson, 6-7 from Los Angeles, told recruiting analyst Marc Maggard he wants to schedule an official visit to Kansas. He’s also considering Kentucky, Michigan, UCLA, Iowa and North Carolina. Michigan and Kentucky are believed to be the leaders. Patterson’s father lives in Indianapolis, his mom in Los Angeles.
KSU recruit: Nick Williams, 6-4 from Mansfield, Texas, has committed to Kansas State. He averaged 14 points and four boards last year at Mansfield High. He picked KSU over Texas A&M, Rutgers, USC, Vanderbilt and SMU.
