ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: College Notebook
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
Virginia Tech won't have to worry about facing Boston College quarterback Mark Hartsell again next season and it's anybody's guess who will be behind center for the Eagles when Tech visits Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Sept.7.
Hartsell announced he was leaving the team after the second day of spring practice, the first in a chain of events that resulted in BC winding up spring practice Saturday with a part-time baseball player and a walk-on at quarterback.
Sophomore Scott Mutryn, considered the heir apparent after redshirting last season, suffered a broken right thumb in practice Friday night and underwent surgery that will prevent him from throwing a football for the next eight weeks.
Junior Matt Hasselbeck was Hartsell's back-up last season and actually started one game. However, Hasselbeck was diagnosed with hepatitis-A after visiting Jamaica with a Jesuit missionary group, and the whole BC team had to be inoculated.
Perhaps no Division I program would be better equipped than Boston College to survive the loss of its top three quarterbacks. BC has three All-America quarterbacks in its freshman or redshirt freshman classes, including 1995 recruit Eric Olson, who spent part of the spring with the baseball team, and February signees Tim Hasselbeck (Matt's brother) and David Robbins.
What isn't exactly clear is why Hartsell chose not to return for his fifth year. Although coach Dan Henning said the quarterback race was wide-open, Hartsell was working with the first team when he quit. Hartsell may have had his best game of the 1995 season in the opener against Virginia Tech, when he was 24-of-38 for 273 yards and three touchdowns in the Eagles' 20-14 victory.
LOOKING AT TECH: Lamont Pegues, who was the leading rusher for Clemson in 1994 as a freshman, has been given a release from his scholarship and is serious about transferring to Virginia Tech. Pegues was in Blacksburg on Saturday for Virginia Tech's spring game.
Pegues, a SuperPrep All-American as a senior at Thomasville, N.C., High School, rushed for 268 yards in the last three games of the 1994 season to finish with 390. He rushed for 309 yards this past season despite losing his starting job to Raymond Priester after the second game.
Pegues, listed at 5 feet 11 and 205 pounds, was the No.5-rated prospect in North Carolina as a senior in high school and finished his career with 6,232 yards rushing - third on the state's all-time list. He is still enrolled at Clemson, but did not participate in spring practice.
IN THE PROS: The latest wave of free-agent signees from Virginia Tech includes outside linebacker Hank Coleman with the Detroit Lions and place-kicker Atle Larsen with the Arizona Cardinals.
IN THE BIG EAST: It is unlikely that Pittsburgh football player Demale Stanley will walk again after suffering a broken neck in spring practice. Stanley was injured when he fell head-first into a padded wall while running a pass pattern in practice.
Stanley can move his left arm and has experienced feeling in his right arm, but is unable to move from the waist down. Stanley was moved this week to a spinal-cord clinic near his hometown of Belle Glade, Fla.
DYER TO CONCORD: Kristi Dyer a three-year starter on the girls' basketball team at William Byrd High School, has accepted a grant-in-aid to Concord (W.Va.) College. Dyer, who was on the varsity for four years, was named second-team All-Blue Ridge District as a junior and senior.
RECRUITING: James Madison has signed Ossie Jones, a 6-foot-4 guard from Alexandria and Hargrave Military Academy, to a men's basketball letter-of-intent. ... Old Dominion's third signee and first of the spring was 6-2 Chris Haskin from Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College. Haskin had committed to Southern Mississippi before Golden Eagles coach M.K. Turk resigned.
LOCAL UPDATE: Bridgewater College senior Betsy Boardwine from Craig County and sophomore Stacy Clark from Rockbridge were named to the All-ODAC softball team, as was Lynchburg College junior Kelly Fackler from Fieldale-Collinsville.
Boardwine made the team at second base, Clark was one of the outfielders and Fackler was the shortstop. Bridgewater College sophomore Joanne Harris from Liberty High School was named to the second team as a ``designated player.''
BRILL CITED: Bill Brill, the former executive sports editor of The Roanoke Times, has been elected to the Duke Sports Hall of Fame. Brill earlier was named to the United Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame.
Brill, a 1952 Duke graduate who managed the men's basketball team and served as sports editor of the student newspaper, has written books on the history of Duke basketball and current coach Mike Krzyzewski. Brill will be inducted with former Duke All-Americans Mike Gminski and Johnny Dawkins, among others.
Brill, who has lived in Durham, N.C., since his retirement in 1991, is convalescing from long-overdue surgery to correct a snoring problem. ``I just hope that word about that procedure doesn't get back to my wife,'' Blue Devils football coach Fred Goldsmith observed.
MORE MEDIA KUDOS: In major-league baseball, batters want to stay above the ``Mendoza Line,'' the .200 batting average with which utility infielder Mario Mendoza annually flirted. At Radford University, the sports information staff refers to the ``Ralph Barrier,'' named for Roanoke Times sportswriter Ralph Berrier, a .166 hitter for the Highlanders in 1985.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 linesby CNB