ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 10, 1996 TAG: 9609100063
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
THE INVESTIGATION of an Aug. 31 brawl is ongoing, but Blacksburg Police Chief Bill Brown expects charges to be filed.
The next move in an alleged brawl involving Virginia Tech football players and a Hokies track and field athlete is up to the Blacksburg Police Department, Tech athletic director Dave Braine said Monday.
Braine said he and Tech head coach Frank Beamer have interviewed more than 20 football players and forwarded their findings to police Monday.
``We have given [the police] everything we know,'' Braine said. ``Now it's up to them.''
Braine and Beamer spoke with the players Sunday upon the team's return from Saturday's 21-18 victory at Akron.
Braine met with Blacksburg Police Chief Bill Brown late Monday afternoon. The police investigation into the Aug. 31 incident is ongoing. Brown has said he expects charges to emanate from the melee, which left Hokies sprinter Hilliard Sumner III of the Bronx, N.Y., with a broken collarbone.
Sumner alleges he was attacked and beaten by a group of football players. Sumner gave his account of the incident to Beamer and Braine last week.
Although no charges have been filed, the accusations involving the football team are just the latest in a string of off-field incidents involving Hokies players.
Reports of the alleged brawl prompted school president Dr. Paul Torgersen to call a special meeting with Braine and Beamer on Monday morning.
``What worries me is not that we've had a specific incident, it's just that we've had a series of incidents,'' Torgersen said. ``It looks like a pattern and I don't think it's a pattern. I think it's an anomaly, if you will.
``Whatever, I think that Frank Beamer knows, that Dave Braine knows that I'm very concerned, the university community is concerned, the alumni are concerned and that it has to stop. I think it will stop.''
Torgersen said he was firm in his message without issuing any ultimatums.
``I told Frank I don't believe he's simply standing on the sidelines watching this happen,'' Torgersen said. ``I told him we've just got to see that it stops, and I'd like assurances that in his meetings with players that he's going to impress upon them the importance of their good behavior off the field.
``Frank did say that his players are very concerned now. And I suspect the discipline will be more serious than it's been in the past.''
Braine said any Tech player or players who ultimately might be charged and convicted for their part in the alleged brawl could face ``dismissal'' from the team.
``All of us are sick of this,'' Braine said. ``All of us are finding Tech football players' names in the paper and it's got to end.
``There's no way anybody can guarantee what an 18- to 24-year-old will do. But as I told the players they're at a stage in their lives where they know right from wrong. They know how to behave and we expect them to do it.
``Frank has been much stronger than that with the players.''
Braine said he had a problem with how various media reports about the incident have been handled.
``There were some 200 people at this thing,'' Braine said. ``There were more non-athletes involved in the situation than athletes.
``It's nowhere as severe as originally reported. There weren't 15 to 20 players beating up one guy. Some of those guys were good samaritans, trying to break up the thing.''
Beamer, as has been the case since the first reports of the incident, refused to comment on the matter Monday.
Beamer did say he will evaluate Marcus Parker's status for Saturday's Big East Conference opener at Boston College. Parker, who if reinstated would replace injured Ken Oxendine at starting tailback, missed Saturday's game at Akron because of an indefinite suspension stemming from a shoplifting incident, to which he pleaded no contest.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB