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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 18, 2003)
NEW! THE BATTALIO! June 20: exas A&M Association ional Support Staff will ; its Developnw !nce from 7:30 am Rudder Tower and | ial Student Center. ; speaker is Jeff ToIk of "Coloring Outside fti and he will speak from 10:15 a.m. For more info contact Pat I 52. ive a non-profit ei« d in The Bi ; Calendar, submit tion at least two dap 7 at 014 Reed McDoni estos iued from page Sippial, vice preside; linistration. “But way we would to stay in a place wlie; , they could get order from the state fe I required that chans in a timely manner, on't know that fa ave been a choice but e projects immediateh. d. project requires teann; iard plaster ceilings, lacing and touching ngs and installing • systems. •s to install sprin in the guest rooms 1 Hotel and the officeof ird of Regents wen in a $30 million repairs needed fc reach current fire codi >, Sippial said, of the repairs were pro- ■ by state funding, senhart, assistant se® e Board of Regents, said the money for n of the guest n at of the Universil; idget’s repair and® count. 1 said that some I money was six-year, $24 n maintenance proj :cent state budgeted rffect on the proj both projects \ and approved be tame into effect, I ler installation in of the MSC Hotel was i in six weeks g semester, and tk he regent wing fter commencement project is well ot ' Bush said, etely finished by tk gust.” 8:03 a.m. Major 04 Earl of pain. 11:47 a.m. Burglar) de, 1402 Holleman kpack, calculator. 2:36 p.m 04 Texas. Probatiof >r possession of 2:39 p.m. Burglary o! 600 University Oab player. 4:24 p.m. Theft, 150« e arrest. 5:13 p.m. Possessic" libited weapon, Jther. One arrest. 7:04 p.m. Theft, 1508 ) arrests. 9:15 p.m. Patton. 9:40 p.m. Harvey. 10:56 of marijuana da. One arrest. Sports The Battalion Page 3 • Wednesday, June 18,2 Franchione hosts first summer camp at A&M Students choose to spend their extra time off playing football By Dallas Shipp THE BATTALION Sometimes there is a Reggie McNeal or a Vincent Young who can pick and choose among several Division 1 col leges trying to recruit him. However, many high school football players have to work a little harder to grab the atten tion of college coaches. Many high schoolers, such as senior offensive lineman Tom Valliant from Senora, Texas, attend football camps that are put on by various universities in hopes of being recruited. “When I go to this camp, it just shows how much better (Texas) A&M is than all the other schools around,” Villiant said. “They have a great pro gram here, and you couldn’t ask for any better coaches.” Nearly 1,500 students ranging from third graders through high school sen iors will come to A&M for various ses sions of the first Dennis Franchione Football Camp at A&M this summer. Franchione, A&M’s head coach, said he hopes that the campers all leave with a better understanding of the sport, regardless of their age. “It’s a teaching camp,” Franchione said. “We want our campers to leave with a better fundamental understand ing of football than they came and to be better prepared for their upcom ing season. “It gives them exposure to Division I coaches and lets them come to a major university and see the facilities,” he said. “Hopefully it does a little bit to p football across our region.” Camp begins each day around 8 a.m. 1 includes chalk talks, stretching, practicing, lifting weight and scrim mages at night. Each day is scheduled with plenty of activities to keep {he campers busy and doesn’t end until around 10 p.m. Franchione said he enjoys watching i students work out, because it gives n a chance to see how hard they work at practice. “We get to work with them and coach them, and they get to be around our coaches,” Franchione said. “It gives us an idea of athletic ability and helps us find some diamonds in the rough and confirm our thoughts on some guys we thought were good players.” Franchione said that he has recruited many players whom he discovered at past camps, but he said one player in particular stood out in a camp a few years ago. “Several years ago there was a young man that came to camp and we really liked him,” he said. “He broke his ankle in the first game of his senior year, but we still recruited him because of what he could do.” Although he never attended one of Franchione’s summer camps, sopho more A&M quarterback Reggie McNeal said that the camps were a great way for players to get some extra publicity, regardless of how many schools are recruiting them. “Its great to get your name out there and get better as a player,” McNeal said. “The first step is going to camps and letting coaches see what you are able to do and being able to work with college coaches individually.” McNeal attended the A&M camp with his longtime friend Tydrick Riley, a sophomore wide receiver for the Aggies. “It was cool being able to come down here and know somebody when you get here,” McNeal said. “(But) we had a lot of fun meeting different athletes.” McNeal attended the camp hosted by Florida State as well but said he liked A&M’s facilities and it was much clos er to home so his family could watch him play. Since this is the first year for the A&M camp to run under Franchione, it, like everything else surrounding foot ball, has seen an enormous amount of energy encompass the camp. ( ' Valliant said Franchione is one of the biggest reasons he wanted to come to this camp and a big reason that he hopes to attend A&M. “A&M is definitely the school I want to come to. It is my number one choice,” Valliant said. “Coach Fran is going to turn the football team around and he’s going to make it great again.” PHOTOS BY BRIAN RUFF • THE BATTALION Top: A&M head coach Dennis Franchione strolls through his first summer football camp at the A&M practice fields on Monday. The 2003 Dennis Franchione Football Camp will host nearly 1,500 stu dents from around the state of Texas ranging from third graders to high school seniors. Right: A&M defensive coordinator Carl Torbush works with a group of high school students during the second of two high school camps this summer hosted by A&M. The campers are divided up into groups and work on various skills. Sosa asks for forgiveness from fans p.m. LION iring the fall and spring semes- / holidays and exam periods) at I. POSTMASTER: Send addi® 77843-1111. /eisity in the Division ofStudeiit McDonald Building. Newsroom /www.thebatt.com lent by The Battalion. For* ring, call 845-0569. AdvertisiiJ through Friday. Fax: 845-26T8, enttopick up a single copy of oer school year, $30 fortlie fall Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or By Joe Kay THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CINCINNATI — Sammy Sosa spent the final day of his suspension asking fans to forgive and forget that he used a corked bat. His manager knows it won’t be that simple. Sosa took batting practice with the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, then pre pared to sit out the seventh and final game of his suspension. He’s expected back in the lineup Wednesday against the Cincinnati Reds. He got a warm reception from fans during batting practice at Great American Ball Park, where he hit career homer No. 500 on April 4. There were no taunts or cork jokes. “I want to make it clear that hopeful ly they forget,” Sosa said during a five- minute media availability before batting practice. “I have to deal with that for the rest of my life, no question. But I’m only human. I’m not the only guy in this world that made a mistake. “I’ll say it again: Hopefully they’ll forget and just let me continue to make people happy.” Some won’t be as forgiving as the several hundred who watched batting practice Tuesday and let out a collec tive “ooh” when he sent a ball arcing toward left field on his second swing. Fans cheered and applauded when the ball landed high in the upper deck, an area that is rarely reached. Cubs manager Dusty Baker expects A&M tennis duo wins USTA Futures event SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Texas A&M's Lester Cook teamed with two-time All- American Ryan Newport to win the doubles championship Sunday at the 2003 United States Tennis Association Futures of Sunnyvale at the Sunnyvale Tennis Center. the reception to be less supportive in other ballparks. “It’s going to be tough, but it comes with the territory,” Baker said. “Hopefully it helps him focus even more, and makes him want to beat them even worse and increases his concentration.” a fll say it again: Hopefully they'll forget and just let me continue to make people happy. f — Sammy Sosa Chicago Cubs outfielder Baker is interested in seeing how Sosa reacts to the scorn that’s sure to come. “This is new territory for him,” Baker said. Sosa got a standing ovation when he hit homer No. 500 to right-center field at Great American, the ballpark’s first historic hit. That homer and oth ers came under question when his bat shattered in a game on June 3 and cork was found inside. Sosa explained that he used a corked bat in batting practice to put on a show for fans, but mistakenly took it to the plate during a game. The rest of AGGIE SPORTS IN BRIEF Unseeded in the field of 16, Cook and Newport followed their win over the No. 2 seeds in the semifinals with a win in the finals over top-seeded Nick Rainey and Brian Wilson in three sets, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. It marked the first USTA Futures championship for the pair. Their opponents, Rainey and Wilson, held several Futures doubles titles in addition to winning the NCAA his bats were tested, and no cork was found. His original eight-game suspension was shortened to seven, but his reputa tion took a beating. “At the beginning, it was very tough for me to see all the things that they put (in the media) about me because of a simple mistake,” Sosa said. “I mean, it was a mistake. I haven’t killed anybody. They got me up there like I’m a criminal.” Other major leaguers also won dered aloud about Sosa’s judgment in using a corked bat. Reds pitcher Danny Graves was one of the more outspoken, saying he was disappoint ed, disgusted and disturbed. “To me, it’s a dead issue,” Graves said Tuesday. “He served his time. There’s no need to dwell on it. I said all I need to say about it right after it happened. Some people believe him, some people don’t. I’m not going to say what I believe.” The Cubs went 3-3 in their first six games without Sosa, who was just starting to regain his stroke when he was suspended. He missed 17 games in May after having the nail removed from his right big toe, which was inter fering with his swing. He had a six-game hitting streak when he broke his bat. During his sus pension, he’s had to work on his swing in batting cages and pregame practice. “Hopefully the work he’s done at home will keep him on the same course,” Baker said. Doubles Championship during their respective college tenures. Cook, an All-American doubles play er is paired with his former teammate Newport in the professional circuit event sanctioned by the USTA. Newport just wrapped up his A&M career two weeks ago at the NCAA Championships. The USTA hosts futures and satellite events each week. Unknown football player hopes to make Texans By Michael A. Lutz THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HOUSTON — Antonio Rodriguez arrived from Barcelona, Spain last week expecting to spend a few days visiting rel atives and then continue his journey on to Monterey, Mexico. He’s still in Houston and hopes to stay. Through an intriguing chain of events, Rodriguez was in a Houston Texans uni form at the team’s mini-camp Tuesday, try ing to make the team as a linebacker, a long-shot at best, but at least with a chance. Rodriguez, who grew up in Houston and Monterey, drove another player to an interview with Texans general manager Charley Casserly last week and ended up getting a tryout too. Both players were returning from Barcelona where they played for the NFL Europe. “It was so weird, I was in shock,” Rodriguez said. The day after the tryout, Rodriguez noticed that an incoming phone call was from Reliant Park, where the Texans offices are located, and assumed the Texans were calling for his friend. ‘“The Texans want to sign you,”’ Rodriguez recalled the voice on the other end of the phone saying. “I told them, ‘You’re talking to the wrong person.’ I thought they were confusing me. Then they started talking about linebacker and I said, ‘Man, it’s me.’” It was another step forward for Rodriguez’s improbable football career. He was bom in Houston but his fami ly’s home caught fire when he was 2- years-old. They then moved to live with relatives in Monterey. The family returned to Houston when he was in the eighth grade and Rodriguez completed high school at Alief Elsik. Rodriguez delayed furthering his career after high school and worked the next two years as a construction worker for his father. His parents had separated and Rodriguez felt a family obligation — and a regret. “There were some days of frustration because Lfelt I wasn’t getting anywhere,” Rodriguez said. “Yeah, I was helping my dad, my family and my brothers. “Then, I told myself, ’If I don’t help myself first, I’m not going to be able to help them.’ So, I went to school over there in Monterey and I made it and they’re looking up to me now.” Although it seemed like happenstance to Rodriguez, Casserly knew more about Rodriguez than Rodriguez thought. “We knew about him,” Casserly said. “We had him on the radar screen and basi cally we liked what we saw. He’s got an upside as an inside backer. It’s a great story. He’s a young guy who’s got a chance as a special teams player. “He’s certainly good enough to be in training camp and once you get to camp anything can happen.” Rodriguez survived numerous cuts at the National Player mini-camp in Tampa, Fla. before he was assigned to the Barcelona’s team last February. He had five tackles and two special teams tackles with the Dragons before begin ning his trip home. “Antonio is truly an inspiration to all of us,” Casserly said. “He may be a long shot, but long shots have surprised us before. We’re thrilled to give him the opportunity.” Texans coach Dom Capers is support ive of Rodriguez’s effort. “He’s jumped in and done a good job on special teams for us,” Capers said. “Any young guy that comes in here, has the opportunity to contribute on special teams. Hopefully, he’s be able to come back into training camp and make his mark on special teams. “We’ll try to get him into some presea son games.” Rodriguez was shocked by his signing, as was his father. “It was funny. He was happy and screaming. He couldn’t believe it,” Rodriguez said. “I can’t say his exact detailed words.”