THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2006
SPORTS
9A
ACC FOOTBALL
Another tragedy in Miami
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Miami assistant coach Tim Walton, center, talks to safety Glenn Sharpe, left, and cornerback Brandon Meriweather after football practice in Coral Gables, Fla., on Wednesday. University of Miami lineman Bryan Pata was shot Tuesday at his apartment complex. His death was ruled a homicide. Miami-Odide police spokesman Roy Rutting said.
Losses, suspensions, death leave football team stunned
BY TIM REYNOLDS ASSOCIATED PRESS
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — A few minutes past noon Tuesday, Anthony Wollschlager was asked a simple question about the state of Miami's football season.
"Can anything else go wrong?"
The Hurricanes' center shifted in his chair and thought for a moment.
possibly reviewing all the issues that his team faced to that point, including:
A preseason shooting where a teammate was lucky to come away with only minor injuries.
— The suspension of a top receiver after
he was involved in a fight with a woman.
— Four disappointing losses that prompted speculation about coach Larry Coker's job security.
— Injuries to several key players, including many starters.
Wollschlager took a breath, looked up and began delivering his answer.
KIRBY FREEMAN Quarterback
"I really believe that the way things happened with our football team this year and the struggles we've had,this could have happened anywhere in the country."
to ask it."
— An ugly bench-clearing brawl that had some pundits calling for the elimination of Miami's football program.
"Usually when you ask that, something else usually does go wrong," he said, "so I'm not doing."
He laughed, as did everybody standing around him, all unaware that the Hurricanes would experience a true tragedy about seven hours later, when something else would go horribly — and unbelievably — wrong.
"If you coach very long, you're going to have all these things happen," Coker said. "They're all going
to happen to you. But not in the same year."
By all accounts, Bryan Pata was living out his dream at Miami.
campus, it seems, either knew him or knew of him — some because he was a local kid who played at Miami Central, others by recognizing his dread-locked look when he was near.
He had a girlfriend and was set to join the NFL ranks next year after graduating with his criminology degree. He wanted to work with the FBI one day.
All those plans ended Tuesday night.
Pata was gunned down at his apartment complex around 7:30 p.m., police said, about two hours after playing football for the last
time. The murder left his family devastated, his university stunned and his teammates in shock.
"I tell you, this is a tragedy. There's no doubt," said Miami quarterback Kirby Freeman, who'll make his first start Saturday when the Hurricanes — with Patas number 95 on their helmets — visit No. 23 Maryland. "It is unexplainable. We're such a strong family as a team and when you lose one of your family members, you're not sure how to react."
So they play on, having decided as a team to continue with Saturday's game as scheduled, a move Coker and the people who knew Pata best saw was the right one.
"We have strong kids here," Coker said. "But they're young. They're very young. So this is a tough experience for all of us, young and old. ... The decision to play is not so much about football. I wish I could have told them this would be the toughest thing they'll ever experience in their life."
The problems that have plagued the Hurricanes this season are unrelated, yet it's the cumulative effect that seemed to be adversely affecting the team's psyche at times.
And now, obviously, the collective mood of the team may be at rock bottom.
"Absolutely, it's frightening," Freeman said. "But I really believe that the way things have happened with our football team this year and the struggles we've had, this could just as easily happened anywhere in the country."
PRO SPORTS
Bay Area teams to relocate Oakland A's, San Francisco 49ers look at Silicon Valley
BY GREG BEACHAM ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Athletics have started a new gold rush, south to the open spaces and financial bounties of Silicon Valley.
The 49ers and A's each hope to build new stadiums in the southern reaches of the San Francisco Bay Area. Though the As yet-to-be-announced plan appears closer to fruition than the 49ers' move announced Thursday, both clubs seem determined to leave behind two
of their sports' worst stadiums for sparkling new ballparks in accommodating new hometowns.
The 49ers have abandoned their decadelong attempts to build a new stadium and a massive com-
The teams' intentions spotlight the geographical migration of money, power and influence in the Bay Area in the six decades since the 49ers were founded: Everything is going south, where the NHL's San Jose Sharks currently are the only major sports franchise.
The A's hope to open their park by 2011, while the 49ers have much more work to do to meet a selfimposed 2012 deadline to replace the NFLs oldest unrenovated stadium.
York insisted the 49ers never will leave the San Francisco Bay Area or change their name. But he cited several factors making it impossible to continue planning for a stadium and an accompanying commercial complex — which would help fund the arena's construction — on a thin strip of land in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.
home to the headquarters of Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple Computer Inc. and dozens of other marquee companies.
"Every time the city has been needed to secure the future of the team,the city has stepped up to the plate."
mercial-residential development on Candlestick Point, their San Francisco home since 1971.
GAVIN NEWSOM San Francisco mayor
"We truly wish that the results were different," said York, wrest-
The South Bay region is anchored by San Jose itself, already the biggest Bay Area city with more than 900,000 residents, and among the fastest-growing in the county. Its residents have the highest per-capita income of any big city in the United States, due largely to the region's role as the high-tech hub,
Owner John York has decided he wants a stand-alone stadium built on 20 acres across the street from the team's longtime training complex in Santa Clara, a suburb 30 miles south of San Francisco.
Meanwhile, the As have reached a deal with Cisco Systems Inc. to build a new high-tech ballpark in Fremont, about 25 miles south of Oakland. The field is expected to be the home of a Major League Soccer franchise as well.
"I think it's just an accepted fact that our fan base has grown out, and there are a number of our fans throughout the Bay Area," York said.
ed control of the edited franchise from his brother-in-law, Eddie DeBartolo, in the late 1990s. "We were the last to be convinced. We made this decision as a family, and in the end we were able to come to this conclusion
by thinking about the challenges from the fans" perspective."
Still, York said he wouldn't completely "slam the door" on the possibility of a stadium in San Francisco an indication the 49ers have years of planning to do before construction could begin.
"This legendary football team has called the Bay Area home for 60 years." York said.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said he hasn't given up hope that the city will be able to keep the 49ers. "Every time the city has been needed to secure the future of the team, the city has stepped up to the plate," he told reporters Wednesday.
Donald Strickland, a defensive back who grew up in Hunters Point and signed with the 49ers last week, is among the locals with bittersweet, emotions about the announcement.
"It's been there for my whole lifespan," Strickland said. "That's all I've known. It was always a place I wanted to play in, and that's what I used to train myself for. I used to run around the whole stadium and up the hill during my childhood, ever since Pop Warner. I really don't want to see it leave from that area."
The proposed move also jeopardizes San Francisco's quest to host the 2016 Olympics. The stadium was to be used for opening and closing ceremonies and track and field.
"We'll look at any and all options," said Joe Blout, San Francisco's director of economic development. "The mayor wants to win these Olympics."
The 49ers will meet soon with
santa Clara officials who seem surprised and flattered by the club's intentions — but wary of the plan's vagueness. The club provided few details of the project's potential financing but insisted no tax increases or city money would be necessary.
"The only downside is the unknown," said Steve Van Dorn, the president of the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce. "We still don't know how this is going to be financed, so there's still serious work to be done."
"The A's will make a formal announcement Tuesday of their plans for a stadium — dubbed Cisco Field — in Fremont. City officials there have many of the same questions about financing and resources.
>> NFL
Chiefs lose another player to injury Linebacker added to long list of starters on sidelines
BY DOUG TUCKER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Already out were Pro Bowl left guard Brian Waters, who injured his knee during last week's game at St. Louis, and right tackle Kevin Sampson. Johnson, Kansas City's best tackler and top playmaker at linebacker, hurt his ankle in the victory over the Rams and has not practiced all week.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson will not play against Miami on Sunday, joining several other key starters on an injury list that gets loner each week.
"I think the young guys we have in there are going to play well. But it's going to be a little bit new," coach Herm Edwards said Thursday.
"You find out about your players. You find the players who can step up to the plate and say, 'I'm ready.' There are some guys who don't handle it as well. But you find it out about your team, and that's a good thing."
Edwards said he did not know how long Johnson might be sidelined. He and linebacker Kawika Mitchell are tied for the team lead with 54 tackles.
Quarterback Trent Green, out with a severe concussion since the Sept. 10 season opener, will miss his eighth straight start, although he will suit up for the second straight game and be on the sideline.
Green, who will visit the doctor late Thursday, hopes to be ready for next week's game at home against Oakland.
Chris Bober, a sixth-year pro in his second stint with the Chiefs, came in for Waters last week and probably will start Sunday, although Edwards would not confirm that Thursday. Kyle Turley will start at right tackle for, Sampson and Keyaron Fox, a third-round pick in 2004, will get his first NFL start in place of Johnson.
"This is my first NFL start. I hate that it had to happen like this. But it's the chance I've been waiting for and I'm going to do my best to go out and take advantage of my opportunity," Fox said.
Safety Greg Wesley, another casualty in the Rams' game, was listed as questionable.
Fox has been a key contributor on special teams.
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