ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 25, 1995                   TAG: 9505250074
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long


HINES CHOOSES FLORIDA JUCO

Derrick Hines, a first-team All-Group AAA selection and the Timesland player of the year, has decided to play basketball for Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Fla.

Hines averaged 18.6 points and 6.3 assists as a senior, when he led William Fleming to a 19-6 record and the Roanoke Valley District championship. The Colonels reached the Group AAA championship game when Hines was a junior in 1993-94.

Fleming coach Burrall Paye said Hines, a 5-foot-8 point guard, picked Gulf Coast over Independence (Mo.) Community College, Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College and Hiwassee (Tenn.) College. He also considered Fork Union Military Academy.

``At one point, that's where I thought I was going,'' Hines said Wednesday, ``but the military was a big turnoff.''

Moreover, there was no assurance he would meet NCAA eligibility standards after a year at Fork Union, which would prevent him from playing Division I basketball until 1997-98 at the earliest.

``Academic support and tutoring were very important,'' said Hines, who has a learning disability. ``I needed to go somewhere that they could watch over me.''

Hines, rated one of the top 50 prospects in the country after his junior year at Fleming, said his hope is to receive a scholarship from a Division I program close to his home. He described the selection of a junior college as ``pretty stressful.''

``There was a lot of pressure to make the right decision,'' he said.

PROMISING START: William Fleming alumnus William Fitzgerald averaged close to 20 points and 10 rebounds this season at Seminole Community College in Sanford, Fla., and was named freshman of the year in the Mid-Florida Conference.

Fitzgerald, a 6-7 forward, was one of Seminole's last recruits in the spring of 1994 and was not projected as a starter before the season. He ended up leading the team in scoring and rebounding.

RECRUITING: The mother of 6-10 Randell Jackson had written North Carolina in pencil on his letter of intent and was so sure he would sign with Carolina that she brought a Tar Heels cap to the news conference to announce his choice.

Jackson's decision to sign with Florida State also surprised his coach at Winchendon (Mass.) School, Scott Spinelli. Jackson took his final visit to Florida State, where he reportedly got the hard sell from the Seminoles' players.

Reports that 6-10 All-American Kevin Garnett would visit North Carolina proved to be wishful thinking on the part of his coaches at Farragut High School in Chicago. The Tar Heels are not recruiting Garnett, who has visited South Carolina but has applied for the NBA draft in case he does not qualify academically.

Venson Hamilton, originally from Forest City, N.C., has become the fifth player from Oak Hill Academy to sign a Division I letter of intent this season. Hamilton, rated one of the top 15 prospects in Virginia by the Roanoke Times & World-News, will be going to Nebraska.

IN THE ACC: Ishua Benjamin, second-leading scorer for North Carolina State as a freshman, has been placed on academic probation and will miss an undetermined number of games to start the season. ``Ishua did not take his academic responsibilities seriously,'' said Wolfpack coach Les Robinson.

LINEBURG GOES WEST: Robert Lineburg, a former Roanoke College basketball player and Virginia Tech coaching intern, has joined the staff of new SMU coach Mike Dement. Lineburg, from Radford, had been the restricted-earnings coach under Dement at North Carolina-Greensboro. Dement's successor at UNC-G is his former top aide, Randy Peele.

BASEBALL HONORS: Radford University shortstop Kelly Dampeer, a sophomore from Northside High School, was named second-team All-Big South Conference in baseball. Highlanders outfielder Duane Filchner and pitcher Jim Abbott were first-team selections.

Dampeer started all 54 games for the Highlanders (30-24) and led the team in home runs (16) and runs batted in (58). Filchner led the team in batting, with a .389 average, and Abbott was 9-2, with a 3.14 ERA.

Ferrum College senior outfielder Chad France from Franklin County batted .416 as a senior and was named first-team All-Dixie Conference.

France was joined on the first team by Panthers second baseman Chad Maddox, who had a league-high 60 RBI, and pitcher Keith Mayhew, who went 12-2 and set an NCAA Division III single-season record with 138 strikeouts.

ACADEMICS: Figures released by the Southern Conference on Wednesday were not favorable to VMI, which finished last in the race for the Barrett-Bonner Award, won by Davidson, which had the highest percentage of athletes (43.8) on the conference's academic honor roll.

VMI finished last among 10 schools for the Barrett-Bonner Award, named in part for longtime Keydets faculty representative John Barrett, with 15 percent. In another report, VMI ranked seventh in graduation rate for athletes, at 55 percent. The Citadel was first, at 88 percent.

The graduation rates were for the period 1988-93, but more recent data submitted to the NCAA shows VMI's graduation rates had improved to 83 percent for athletes during the period 1989-94.

Senior basketball player Tee Jennings from William Fleming and sophomore tennis player Jeremy Graybill from Northside are among Hampden-Sydney's representatives on the ODAC All-Academic team.



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