News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 37

QUICK WORK rn Helio Castroneves' crew was the SECTION fastest at the Indianapolis 500 pit stop competition. SATURDAY, MAY 26, 2007 THE NEWS-PRESS I i Mahoney wins Navy award Estero grad honored for football prowess 66 Of all the athletes at the Academy, I got QQ picked. David Mahoney, former Naval Academy outside linebacker that he's the best player I've Mahoney said this award ranks high on his list. "The other awards I've gotten are just for football," he said. "I'm happy.

I like it." Mahoney said the sword has a gold handle with ivory around it. His name is engraved on the blade. "It's a real nice design," he said. Matt Hall, a Bishop Verot High graduate, was part of Mahoney's graduating class at the academy. After he committed to the academy, Hall told Navy coaches about his buddy.

See MAHONEY C4 BY CRAIG HANDEL David Mahoney has a lot of great memories to take with him from his five years at the US. Naval Academy. And one nice-looking sword. At Navy's annual Prizes and Awards Ceremony at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, on Thursday, Mahoney was named the winner of the Naval Academy Athletic Association Sword for Men, presented to the man in the graduating class who is considered by the association's athletic council to have excelled in athletics during his years of varsity competition. The 5-foot-9, 216-pound Mahoney was an outside linebacker for Navy's football team.

He's a graduate of Estero High School. "Of all the athletes at the academy, I got picked," said Mahoney, who was celebrating his graduation with classmates Friday. "I guess all the head coaches have a luncheoa Each coach gets up and submits one player from their sport. "(Football) coach (Paul) Johnson said, All I can say is HP 4 ft jr "When it came down to it, it was something I wanted to do lor the rest of my life. You have to give up one love for the other." Jeff Samardzija, Daytona Cubs pitcher Federer bids again to grab title in Paris Swiss player adjusts pre-tournament routine 2007 FRENCH OPEN Where: Roland Garros in Paris When: For the second year in a row, the tournament will be 15 days, with play beginning on a Sunday instead of Monday.

The women's singles final will be June 9, the men's singles final June 10. 2006 men's singles champion: Rafael Nadal of Spain. 2006 women's singles champion: Justine Henin of Belgium. Prize money: At the current exchange rate, the total is about $20.53 million (15.265 million euros), with about $1,345 million (1 million euros) each to the men's and women's singles champions. Sunday TV: Noon ISSZa i i I I 4, i The Associated Press PARIS For all of Roger Fed-erer's titles at Wimbledon, the U.S.

Open and the Australian Open and there are 10, and counting his career very well may be defined eventually by how he fared at the French Open. Federer is well aware of that. It's why he tweaked his schedule and his practice routine in the months before heading to Paris. It's why he ratcheted up his commitment to fitness training, knowing what a grind playing on red clay can be. "There's more focus on the French Open, and it would be just so nice to win it," Federer said, "so I'm going to give myself the best possible chance." He also knows that his success elsewhere might in a way be a result of his lack of success in the past at Roland Garros, where the year's second Grand Slam tournament will begin Sunday.

Pretty much everyone expects to see Federer face two-time defending champion Rafael Nadal in the men's final, just like last year. And just like last year, Federer will head to the French Open hoping to complete a career Grand Slam and a non-calendar Grand Slam. "I've been working a long time for the French Open goal," See FEDERER C4 JOHN DAVID EMMETTTHE NEWS-PRESS Former Notre Dame wide receiver Jeff Samardzija turned down the NFL to join the Daytona Cubs as a pitcher. PURSUIT TDREAM Two-sport college star Samardzija chooses baseball career I TONIGHT'S GAME IT i vi v- vf i Ml 1 and he has some of Jackson's charisma But unlike Jackson, Samardzija, 22, has decided against playing professional football, despite projections that he would be a first-round NFL Draft pick following four seasons as a wide receiver at Notre "It's what I wanted to do" Samardzija said of focusing on See SAMARDZIJA C5 by Jackson of the Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Raiders in the mid-1980s. Samardzija (pronounced suh-MAR-jah) will start on the pitcher's mound for the Daytona Cubs at 7:05 tonight at Hammond Stadium against the Fort Myers Miracle in a Florida State League game, with a laser light show scheduled afterward.

Samardzija has his own Web site BY DAVID DORSEY Jeff Samardzija knows football and baseball, just like Bo Jackson before him. A shirtless Samardzija, a two-sport start at the University of Notre Dame between 2003 and 2006, wore shoulder pads while holding a baseball bat over his shoulders in a poster made in college an ode to a similar poster made What: Fort Myers Miracle vs. Daytona Cubs When: 7:05 p.m. Where: Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers Starting pitchers: Jeff Samardzija (Cubs), Zach Ward (Miracle) Tickets: $8 for box seats or $6 for reserved Parking: $3 Post-game: "Laser Light Spectacular," a laser light show THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Florida State's Jack Rye, right, beats the tag of Miami's Jemile Weeks as he steals second base Friday. UM sends FSU to loss, looking for outside help ALSO MAKING THE TOUGH CHOICE: GLOVE OR HELMET AND PADS Here's a look at some other football baseball stars who chose baseball: BY BEN JACOBS The News-Press sports bureau Joe Mauer.

The Minnesota iwins caicner, len, lumea aown a JACKSONVILLE Florida I scholarship offer to play quarter-. back at Florida State University, vlnsfaujd signing with the Twins out 3n-0erham Hall high school In rsota. Chad Hutchinson: The second-found pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1998 draft, he did not do so well in baseball. The pitcher gave up nine hits, six walks and 11 earned runs in four innings, good for a 24.75 career ERA.

Turning back to football, the former Stanford University quarterback played for the Dallas Cowboys in 2002-03 and the Chicago Bears in 2004-05 before being released. He's out of football. David Dorsey quarterback at the University of Michigan in the fall in 1998-2000. In 2001, Henson accepted a $17 million offer from the Yankees, deciding against returning for his senior year at Michigan. But he appeared in just eight major-league games for the Yankees in 2002-03, collecting one hit in nine at-bats.

He then decided to return to football, going from the Houston Texans to the Dallas Cow- boys, to NFL Europe and to his current team, the Minnesota Vikings. day, but Wake rallied for a 3-2 win and the Hurricanes took advantage of the second life by rolling to a 9-3 win over the Seminoles at the Baseball Grounds. "You always like to be able to control your own destiny," FSU coach Mike Martin said. "We got beat soundly, so therefore maybe we don't deserve to control our own destiny." SeeUMC8 State's Atlantic Coast Conference title hopes took two blows Friday night, and now the Semi-noles will need help to reach Sunday's championship game. Miami could have been eliminated from title-game contention before Friday's game had Clem-son beaten Wake earlier in the 3 Drew Henson: This outfielder ini- played both sports, toiling in the minor leagues for the New York 1 "Yankees in the summer and playing NOW LEASING DRY AND WET STORAGE 239-489-2969 SANIBEL HARBOUR YACHT CLUBS OF THE AMERICAS 260933.