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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994                   TAG: 9411090034
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM STAFF REPORTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NEW LEAGUE COURTING METRO TRIO

Six schools are in line to form a new all-sports league, with some other universities waiting to join, says the executive director of the College Football Association.

Chuck Neinas said a Monday meeting in Chicago of the presidents of Metro Conference members Southern Mississippi, Louisville and Tulane, as well as Great Midwest members Memphis and Cincinnati and Southwest Conference member Houston was ``very productive.'' The new league would begin play next year in all sports but Division I-A football. That would begin in 1996.

Neinas said other schools have been invited to join, but refused to say who they were. Reports indicated they were Marquette, DePaul, Alabama-Birmingham and St.Louis.

In other sports in the region:

Radford University guard Damian Ingram will sit out the basketball season so he can return next year as a redshirt senior, coach Ron Bradley said Tuesday.

Ingram, of Charlotte, N.C., transferred to Radford before last season from Hiwassee Junior College in Tennessee. He averaged 7.7 points and led Radford with 3.7 assists per game as a starter.

Bradley said Ingram's decision was based on the loss of the Big South Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The conference lost the bid when Campbell left after last season, making the five-team Big South too small to receive an automatic bid. Next year, Liberty will enter its fifth year as a conference member, allowing the Big South to regain its automatic bid.

``As a junior college transfer, Damian has only had one shot at making the tournament, and we came up short last year,'' Bradley said. ``He wanted the opportunity to try again to realize that dream.''

The Virginia men's basketball team will play host to the Polish National Team at University Hall at 7:30 tonight. The Cavaliers defeated Court Authority 99-85 in their first exhibition game Friday. Tickets are $4 for adults and $2 for fans 18 and younger.

Unbeaten Franklin County (21-0) will be home at 7 p.m. today against GW-Danville in a Group AAA Northwest Region volleyball match.

GW-Danville was the runner-up in the Western District, while Franklin County won the Roanoke Valley District championship.

Patrick Henry (10-5), the other RVD representative, will be at Albemarle. PH lost an early-season game to Albemarle in an invitational tournament in Charlottesville that was won by Franklin County.

Tonight's winners advance to the semifinals and finals, which will be held Saturday at C.D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge.

by CNB