THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150613
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
There may never be a better time for a Virginia Tech football coach to be traveling the state, asking boosters to open their hearts and checkbooks.
``People are in a good mood,'' Frank Beamer said the other day during a stop in Portsmouth. ``They're thinking good, positive thoughts about Virginia Tech.''
There's a new training facility to be built. It'll cost $8 million. The alumni, visions of the Sugar Bowl still dancing in their heads, are eager to support the effort.
It's the coach's job to raise funds and to make sure those good, positive thoughts are not interrupted by nettling concerns over the publicized extracirricular activities of a few players.
Like any good coach, Beamer will tell you that isolated incidents do not truly represent a program of more than 100 players. He's right about that.
But he also knows that there is a heightened awareness of the misconduct of college football players. We have Nebraska to thank for that.
Beamer worries enough about public perception that he recently took the unusual step of appearing before the Virginia Tech board of visitors to defend his program.
``They needed an explanation, kinda like I just gave you,'' Beamer said.
What Beamer gave me was the sort of complaint newspaper types hear all the time.
``In the media, anymore,'' he said, ``it's not, `You're innocent until proven guilty.' It's `You're guilty until proven innocent.' ''
In the world beyond the sidelines, there are the innocent and the guilty. And then there are those who walk away for lack of eye-witnesses.
It's a relief to Beamer that a judge last week dismissed the case against quarterback Jim Druckenmiller, charged with malicious wounding by mob stemming from a brawl outside a Blacksburg bar.
Still pending is a civil suit against three Virginia Tech players filed by a former Tech student who alleges she was raped.
``There is more media scrutiny today than ever before,'' Beamer said. ``But that's OK, just so long as you report both ends of the story.''
The problems at Tech are only part of the story. In recent months, 14 basketball and football players representing state schools have had run-ins with the law.
Twenty or 30 years ago, many sexual assaults and assorted hooliganisms stayed on campus and out of the papers. Many reasonable people argue that, today, the off-field transgressions of athletes are sometimes blown out of proportion by the media. That may be true. But, then, aren't their athletic accomplishments also blown out of proportion?
The fact is, athletes bear closer watching than other students. According to a study done a few years ago, athletes pose a greater threat on campus than the student population as a whole. They are more likely, for instance, to be involved in sexual assaults.
And just this year, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health produced data showing that the highest incidence of heavy, binge drinking was among men involved in intercollegiate athletics - 61 percent.
Experience tells us that football players make up the largest, meanest part of that 61 percent.
Under the circumstances, should we be surprised by those isolated incidents?
``I don't accept that,'' said Beamer. ``Players have a responsibility to behave correctly at all times.''
Keep thinking those good, positive thoughts, coach. ILLUSTRATION: Frank Beamer
by CNB