Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 9, 1990                   TAG: 9005090069
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOKIES SEEK DELAY AS HOST/ TECH WANTS METRO BASEBALL IN `92

Athletic director Dave Braine said Tech, which is scheduled to get the tournament next year under the league's rotation plan, will ask Metro officials if it can switch with Tulane. The New Orleans school is tentatively scheduled to serve as host in '92.

Tech associate athletic director Danny Monk had been proceeding with plans to move the '91 tournament to Salem from English Field in Blacksburg, which may not have lights in time for the event. But Braine said on Monday that Tech wants to hold the tournament in Blacksburg and said he doesn't want the school to have two Metro events in the same year. The Hokies are the host school for the '91 Metro basketball tournament in Roanoke.

Metro commissioner Ralph McFillen said the conference athletic directors will discuss Tech's request and the rotation plan at the league meetings May 23-26 in Destin, Fla.

Monk said the relocation plans were spurred by Tech's concerns about losing its turn in the rotation if it couldn't use English Field in '91.

"Obviously, you want to host it when you have the chance," Monk said of the tournament.

A crowd of more than 5,000 in Salem for a Tech-Florida State game Tuesday night, however, may give Tech officials something else to think about.

"We're thrilled with the turnout," Monk said. "We'll have to take all this into account as far as where we play the tournament."

Braine did not attend Tuesday's game. He was out of town on a fund-raising trip.

Before the game, Hokies baseball coach Chuck Hartman said he would rather have the tournament at English Field than at Salem Municipal Stadium and had no objections to a Tech-Tulane switch.

But Tulane may not be able to hold the '91 event. Tulane athletic director Chet Gladchuk said a $1.8 million renovation project on the Green Wave's field begins at the end of the month, and though he thinks the improvements will be completed by May 1991, the work may not be done in time.

Tulane's field adjoins a residential neighborhood, and Gladchuk said some residents have complained about the school putting up lights at the stadium. Gladchuk said he fears the neighbors may take legal action that will delay the installation of the lights and put the work behind schedule.

Gladchuk, however, said Tulane would be willing to take the '91 event "if I knew there was still a possibility we could fall back on a Florida State to take it."

McFillen said Florida State, which has been the host school 11 of the last 13 years, could take the tournament next year. Whether Tech would then lose its spot in the rotation probably would be determined at the league meetings. Tech expects to have lights at English Field no later than '92. The lights would be funded by donations to the school's $17 million fund-raising drive for athletics.

McFillen said he couldn't predict how the conference's athletic directors would vote.

If Tech discovered that it would lose its turn in the rotation and not have a chance to get the tournament for at least seven years, the school likely would pursue the Salem option, particularly in light of the large crowd at the Hokies' game Tuesday night.

"We'd definitely rather come to Salem, no question about it," Hartman said of that scenario.

Tech already has received permission from Salem Buccaneers general manager Sam Lazzaro to have the tournament at Municipal Field next year.