The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 210

The Palm Beach Post wc Brower wins fourth state women's amateur title, 8C Mourning deemecK healthy enough to: resume career, 9C SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2003 PaimEeachPost.com 'I plan to give this thing the best shot I've ever given anything in my MIKE SHULA, after his introduction as Alabama's new football coach T-1 1 I 1 I i i hoping for Tid V.VY' I magic UJL1U1U j. i triMgH in mm I But as Shula showed during the state high school playoffs in 1982, he can make miracles happen on a football field. Shula's team was trailing Vero Beach by eight points in the game's waning moments. Thinking it was fourth down, Shula intentionally fumbled as he was being tackled and the ball rolled more than 20 yards into the end zone, where a Columbus player fell on it for a touchdown. Shula added a two-point con-See SHULA, IOC ROBERT SimONTuscaloosa New Shula's resourcefulness could an even bigger asset at Alabama thanliis coaching pedigree or his to Tuscaloosa, where he quar-terbacked the Crimson Tide from 1984-86.

The school is one year into a five-year NCAA probation and reeling from the firing a week ago Mike Price. Shula has less than three months to prepare for the start of pre-season practice and four months to get ready for the season opener against South Florida. i I rv Mike Shula and his wife, Shari, greet reporters at a news conference to announce his hiring in Tuscaloosa, Ala. nal down and pulled off the impossible. The University of Alabama hired Shula, the Dolphins' quarterbacks coach the past three seasons, as the school's new football coach Thursday to work some magic again and raise the Crimson Tide from the ashes of scandal and NCAA sanctions.

"He would do anything it took to win a game," said Marc Buoni-conti, a childhood friend and high school teammate of Shula's. "That was the kind of player he was." LATE HEROICS: Juan Encarnacion ended the Marlins' six-game losing streak with a game-winning leadoff home run in the nin.th inning. ALAN DIAZ The Associated Press i i 4 be ties of MARLINS 5, ROCKIES 4 6 1 "I ti Alabama's new coach must erase the stigma of scandal and sanctions. By EDGAR THOMPSON Palm Beach Post Staff Writer It's fourth-and-long in Tuscaloosa, and Mike Shula is being brought in to save the day. As a star high school quarterback at Miami-Columbus, Shula once thought he was facing his fi Charles Elmore Another missed chance for blacks Alabama's hiring of Mike Shula as its youngest and least-experienced football coach since pre-Bear Bryant days has critics asking anew if the school and the Southeastern Conference just don't want a black coach, period.

The SEC is the last major college football conference that has never had a black head coach, and the excuses are getting thin, said former NFL star Kellen Winslow. "I've studied this and it still amazes me that people try to brush this off," said Winslow, who researched racial issues in the SEC for a conference at the University of Mississippi last year. "One wonders what has to happen before we see a person of color as a head football coach and before the SEC becomes the last conference to fully integrate." Alabama hired Shula, 37, a r)olnhin5 assistant with nn head coaching experience, over longtime Alabama and Green Bay Packers assistant Sylvester Croom, 47, who is black. Both were popular former Tide players. Croom issued a state-f ment Friday thanking those who supported him.

"To the numerous Alabama fans and former players who expressed their desire to see me return to Tuscaloosa, I express my sincere gratitude," Croom said. Alabama Athletic Director Mai Moore said, "we were fortunate to have very qualified candidates and these decisions were never easy." Activist Jesse Jackson denounced the decision. "The SEC maintains a culture of excluding blacks beyond the playing field," Jackson said in a statement "White players, beyond the playing field, can expect to become coaches, athletic directors and college dents. Blacks have no life beyond the playing field." University of Alabama officials, including President Robert Witt, have not been insensitive to the matter of race, a university spokeswoman contended Friday. The school made it clear in the selection process it would talk to minority candidates including Croom.

"(Witt) did talk with Jesse Jackson by phone and he certainly has addressed the issue," spokeswoman Cathy Andreen said. Other voices questioned whether the hiring of a football coach should become mixed up with a social agenda, even a worthy one. "Alabama's obligation is to refuse to discriminate on hide nf rifo nnt tr ra a black coach," said Roger Clegg, general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Washington-area group that opposes affirmative action and other racial preferences. "I don't think it advances the cause of race See ELMORE, IOC 1 1, Mm ALUN EYESTONEStaff Photographer debut. 'It's fun to watch a guy come up like said reliever Braden Looped Rookie pitcher Dontrelle Willis allowed three runs in six innings and struck out seven in his Marlins' Rookie upstages Encarnacion Marlins, to get on pitchers need the same page Greg Stoda better get everyone involved in medical matters on the same wavelength before things reach a point at which nobody trusts anybody.

Because it doesn't get much more important than See STODA, 5C if. By TOM D'ANGELO Palm Beach Post Staff Writer When Joyce Harris, the mother of Marlins pitcher Dontrelle Willis, arrived in South Florida for her son's major-league debut Friday, she offered to watch the game in a sports bar fearing she would be a distraction. "You see what he's like," she said about the lanky, animated, emotional pitcher. "I'm 10 times worse. I have been a nervous wreck." Willis, though, convinced her to sit behind the Florida Marlins dugout at Pro Player Stadium "He said, 'Mom, this is not a high school she said and Harris was thankful she listened.

Although Willis was not the winning pitcher in the Marlins' 54 victory that Marlins vs. Rockies When: 6:05 tonight TV: FSN Penny downplays sore back, 5C snapped a six-game losing streak, he dominated the conversation in the clubhouse, even more so than Juan Encarnacion, whose leadoff solo home run in the ninth inning, was the difference. Willis gave the decimated Marlins six strong innings, showing poise and resilience uncommon for a 21-year-old. That kid is something," manager Jeff Torborg said. "He was in much more control of his emotions than he was in the spring when we saw that whirling der- See MARLINS, 5C The Marlins live in a sooner-or-later world when it comes to their star starting pitchers.

It's sooner for Josh Beckett, who has nothing worse than a sprained right elbow and likely will be pitching again in less than a month. It's later for A.J. Burnett, who recendy underwent surgery for a torn ligament in his right elbow and might not pitch again until 2005. But it's the Marlins who sooner rather than later had must deal with expansion opponents ACC officials Only four schools appear solidly in favor of adding UM and two others. By JORGE MILIAN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer CORAL GABLES -The University of Miami may end up in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but it could take plenty of back-door dealing to make it happen.

ACC officials still are working to get the iseven votes necessary to to proceed with expansion. League officials would like to grow from nine to 12 teams with the addition of Miami and two others probably Boston College and Syracuse, with Virginia Tech having an outside shot. North Carolina and Duke officials have publicly voiced their opposition expansion. North Carolina State was believed to be a third school against the plan, but Athletic Director Lee Fowler denied that report. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday that Virginia Tech alumni in the state legislature are pressuring University of Virginia of ficials to oppose expansion unless the Hokies are included.

But it is unlikely seven ACC schools would agree to bring in Virginia Tech, which provides a tiny television base compared to Boston College or Syracuse, one of which would be left out if the Hokies were added. "Being in favor of expansion is like being in favor of marriage," Wake Forest President Thomas Hearn said. "It depends on whom you're talking about whether you would be interested in the proposal." tlemson, Florida State, Mary land and Georgia Tech appear to be the only strong pro-expansionists There has been talk that the ACC could decide to add only one team -i Miami but league commissioner John Swofford said this week thai expansion would have to include three teams. That would give the ACC 12 teams, the minimum re quired by the NCAA for a football championship game. 2 Miami is unlikely to agree to a move if it is the only new team.

"I think we will continue to get stronger whether it's nine (merrjF SecUM, lOCJ.