THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 14, 1994 TAG: 9410140695
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
Jeff Capel can't wait for Old Dominion's basketball players to start their engines.
``It's like being on the starting line of a drag race,'' Capel said Thursday of the approaching start of basketball practice. ``You're sitting there with the clutch in and ready to let it go and roar down the track.
``The players are ready. They had a great conditioning program. If we were getting ready for a track meet, they'd do really good.''
The green flag drops on Capel's first season as coach at Monarch Midnight Madness tonight in the ODU field house. Capel welcomes nine returning scholarship players, plus newcomers Brion Dunlap and Duffy Samuels at point guard. ODU announced Wednesday that sophomore guard Corey Robinson has left the team and will transfer at the end of the semester.
Capel got to see his returning players on ODU's summer tour to France but has not been permitted to watch Dunlap and Samuels play during fall conditioning.
Admission is free to Monarch Midnight Madness, which begins at 10:30 p.m. with contests and more than $10,000 worth of prizes - including a living room set and airline tickets to the Caribbean. The band and cheerleaders will warm up the crowd for the introduction of the men's and women's teams at 12:01 a.m.
The two teams will run through a couple short drills once Oct. 15 - the official start of practice - arrives.
Although the real work starts with practice the next day, Capel said he's watched midnight madness at other schools on television and is eager to be a part of one for the first time.
``We've had midnight practices before, but no madness,'' Capel said. by CNB