DATE: Thursday, July 24, 1997               TAG: 9707240616

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: FROSTBURG, MD.                    LENGTH:   48 lines

WAVY TRAIN IS THE TALK OF SKINS' TRAINING CAMP THANKS TO THE 8-SEAT GOLF CART, PLAYER INTERVIEWS HAVE NOT BEEN A PROBLEM.

The WAVY train is making waves at the Washington Redskins' training camp.

The eight-seat golf cart with the cargo platform arrived Monday. Players, fans, even rival television stations have tried to board her, buy her, even trade for her.

``People joked us when they first saw it,'' said WAVY chief photographer Jeff Myers. ``Now, they want to trade with us.''

That would be WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington, which offered a two-seat cart for WAVY's eight-seater. Myers just laughed.

Redskins cornerbacks Darrell Green and Cris Dishman, each comfortably seated and bumming a ride from the practice stadium to a team meeting across campus, offered to buy it.

``Darrell said he was tired of walking all around here,'' said WAVY's John Leiding, the station's field producer for camp.

Green isn't the only one tired of walking. So is WAVY sportscaster Bruce Rader.

``Why'd we get it? Because I've gotten old and fat,'' Rader joked. ``In my youth, I could walk it. But I got the idea from (broadcaster) Sonny Jurgensen. The only difference is he's got a fan. That's next year.''

Actually, Myers didn't set out to rent the eight-seater. But when he called the cart company that supplies the Redskins' training camp, he was told they were all out of conventional, two-seat carts. When the eight-seater was offered to him for the same price - $200 for the week, $195 delivery charge - he couldn't refuse.

The cart has a practical purpose. Television stations doing ``live'' shots are assigned to an area outside the Frostburg State library and two or three stories above the practice field. Players are much more inclined to give interviews if they're shuttled from the field to the camera, then to their dorm or the cafeteria.

Leiding was driving end Rich Owens to his live shot the other day when several players jumped onto the cart. Thus began a mini-parade, with fans tossing footballs to be autographed and the players waving as though riding on a float.

``It's good for one other thing,'' Rader said. ``We made $37.50 the other night giving tours of Frostburg. It's helping pay for satellite time.'' ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

WAVY field producer John Leiding takes the wheel of WAVY's

unconventional cart, the hottest thing on wheels in Frostburg, Md.

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