Wayne Walden is a man whose goal is to make his job obsolete.
Walden, 38, is in his 13th year as an academic coordinator in the Kansas University athletics department’s support services office. As such, Walden monitors volleyball in the fall, men’s basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring.
“If they were all 4.0 students,” Walden said, “there wouldn’t be any need for me.”
When the three KU sports teams he monitors go on the road, it is Walden’s job to go along and to conduct study halls and do tutoring when necessary.
“It’s not for entire teams,” Walden said. “It’s just for selected individuals.”
In men’s basketball, Walden works with assistant coach Joe Holladay to determine the best time to conduct study halls.
“We might give them a choice about whether to have the study hall before breakfast or before the shootaround,” Walden said. “If it were a 3 o’clock tipoff, pre-game begins at 11:15 (a.m) so we would probably have the study hall at 10:15.”
During the Big 12 Conference regular season, the Jayhawks played eight games on the road, but missed only 31/2 days of classes. That’s three full days for the three Monday road games and a half-day for a Wednesday night game at Kansas State.
All of the KU players were back in class on the Tuesday morning following those Monday night games at Baylor, Missouri and Colorado, even though the players weren’t in bed until after midnight each night.
While most people were watching the NCAA pairings on television last Sunday night wondering about the Jay-hawks’ seed and where they would be sent, Walden was more interested in whether Kansas would have a Thurs-day-Saturday or Friday-Sunday assignment.
“If it’s Friday-Sunday,” Wal-den noted, “that’s one less day of school they’ll have to miss.”
Thus Walden was happy the Jayhawks were assigned a Friday-Sunday slot in Dayton.
With the spring recess scheduled to start next Monday, this has been a hectic week for all KU students because of mid-term exams.
Consequently, Walden will be prepared if any of the KU players need to do last-minute work in Dayton. Typically, Walden uses the hotel conference room set aside for team meals.
“We have use of that room 24 hours a day,” Walden said. “Tables are already set up, so the room can be used for writing papers, working on math problems, reading or studying for exams.”
Should the Jayhawks advance to the Sweet 16 next week in San Antonio, there will be no study halls.
Not during spring recess. Yet Walden will be there, regardless, because he has another duty this one non-academic to perform.
At all road games, Walden is also in charge of manning the gate where parents and relatives of the KU players enter the arena.
