Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 16, 1995 TAG: 9506160051
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Perhaps the West team in the Virginia High School Coaches Association boys' all-star game should let the air out of the basketball - literally. Always an underdog, the West will be looking up at more than the score in the July 10 game at the Hampton Coliseum.
The West's big man is 6-foot-7 Northside center Dana Gibson. The East team has three 6-9 stars, two others 6-7, five Division I grant-in-aid signees and four other legitimate prospects who didn't predict academically, including Marco Harrison, the 6-9 Petersburg ace who was named the state's ``Mr. Basketball.''
The West's lone Division I signee is 5-10 Woodbridge guard Torrey Farrington, headed to Hampton University in its first season at college hoops' top level. If this were tennis or golf, the West would have a chance. Glenvar's Nick Varney, this newspaper's male athlete of the year and a bigger star in those sports, is a West point guard.
HERD MENTALITY: The 1997 move of Marshall's program to the Mid-American Conference isn't good news at VMI, which can't afford a financial hit in athletics. The Thundering Herd's biennial football visits to Lexington have produced the Keydets' best box-office days in the past decade.
The average attendance at the last two Marshall-VMI games at Alumni Memorial Field has been 9,670, and on both of those days it was tough determining which was the home team. VMI's average attendance for the other eight home dates in 1992 and '94 was 5,712.
That's a difference of about $55,000 at $14 a seat. Marshall's move will be felt at other Southern Conference stops, too, although not as much as at VMI, due to its geographic proximity to the Herd and numerous Marshall alumni in this region.
Losing one of the Division I-AA football powers also hurts the Southern Conference's image in that sport. The Herd's switch also will be felt at the box office for the league basketball tournament, which moves this year from Asheville, N.C., to the Greensboro Coliseum, where curtained-off upper sections will leave about 12,000 seats to be sold.
RUNNERS: So why did the Washington Redskins sign free-agent running back Terry Allen? How about to start him? Allen, who signed a one-year, $400,000 deal Wednesday, gained 1,031 yards last season at Minnesota, which cut him rather than pay the $1.13 million he was due in '95.
Washington, as a team, managed only 1,415 ground yards, the club's fewest in 27 years. Allen will battle with Reggie Brooks for the No.1 halfback job when the Redskins' transplanted training camp opens July 21 in Frostburg, Md. The club won't re-sign Rickey Ervins, and Brian Mitchell primarily will play return specialist again.
Among the likely starting backfield of Heath Shuler, Allen and free-agent fullback Marc Logan (ex-San Francisco), the second-year quarterback from Tennessee will be the veteran Redskin. Meanwhile, the Washington secondary lost a corner this week when A.J. Johnson signed a two-year deal with Kansas City.
OPRY ON ICE: Consider that should the New Jersey Devils win the NHL title then bolt the Meadowlands, the 4-foot, 27-pound Stanley Cup could spend the next year residing in Nashville, where the Knights ranked among the bottom five clubs in East Coast Hockey League attendance this season.
SNAKE PIT: In uniforms that should really rattle the ECHL next season, the transplanted Louisville franchise in Florida will play in snakeskin-colored jerseys as the Jacksonville Lizard Kings. The club's nickname for the Jacksonville Civic Center? The Reptilian Pavilion.
CHAMPS: The Charlotte Hornets won the NBA title. Not in basketball, in merchandise sales. The Hornets surpassed Chicago - despite Michael Jordan's return, number change and first-round playoff elimination of Charlotte - in sales since Aug.1. NBA champ Houston, which plans to change its logo and color scheme, placed ninth. Meanwhile, the expansion Toronto Raptors have yet to play a game, but the Canadian club ranked seventh in merchandise bucks.
HIDEOUS: Dodgers rookie Hideo Nomo fanned 16 Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night, but it should be remembered that half of those whiffs were by former Salem Buccaneers and another by ex-Redbird Mark Parent.
by CNB