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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.
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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.”