South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 24

6C Sun-Sentinel, Tuesday, May 12, 1992 3 PRO FOOTBALL Former steroid user regains promise, has another to keep By RANDALL MELL Staff Writer Former University of Miami defensive tackle Dan Sileo woke up crying in a hospital three years ago and asked for a second chance. He vowed he would never use steroids again if only God would keep back to the NFL after a nearly tragic three-year absence. A promising prospect when the Tampa Bay Bucs chose him in the third round of the 1987 supplemental draft, Sileo never blossomed. Shortly after the Dallas Cowboys cut him in 1989, Sileo fainted in his Dallas home. He was rushed to the emergency room with a temperature of 106 degrees and an enlarged heart.

He believed he was dying. At first, doctors didn't know what was wrong. "They thought I had Lou Gehrig's disease," Sileo said Monday night from his Orlando home. "Then they thought I had AIDS." It was finally diagnosed as meningitis. Sileo can't prove steroids caused it, but he is convinced it contributed significantly.

"I was in danger of dying," Sileo said. "My doctor told me to get off the steroids or die. It was affecting my immune system." Sileo took 18 months to recuperate, part of that in a wheelchair. He lost 75 pounds. "I'm only 26, and I'm completely healthy again," Sileo said.

And he says he's keeping his promise to God. Sileo is tested for drugs every two weeks by the Thunder. He's up to 286 pounds, 11 more than his playing weight at UM. He says the Packers and Steelers have contacted him. "When I came out of Miami, the steroids were drawing me down," Sileo said.

"I wasn't the player I was in college." tigation by the school's private counsel. Sileo said he got steroids not from UM coaches or trainers but from his own gymnasium connections. However, he had all the signs of a steroid user while at UM. He benched an unheard of 585 pounds, a UM record. He had steroid acne.

"Coach Jimmy Johnson knew the rumors about me," Sileo said. "He confronted me, but I pulled the wool over his eyes. "When you are playing next to guys like Jerome Brown and Kevin Fagan, you've got to push yourself to the next level. Steroids helped me like they have Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson and others, but it was one of the biggest mistakes I could make. I nearly got wiped out.

I regret using steroids 100 percent." Sileo said he was introduced to steroids when he was 19 in a gym back in his home in Connecticut. After transferring from Cincinnati to Miami, he continued to use. He said he took anabolic steroids on a six-week cycle, swallowing the Dianabol daily and injecting testosterone once every two weeks. Sileo said other UM players used: "It wasn't prevalent, but there were a handful of guys. The testing wasn't very good back then." Sileo said he never tested positive at Miami, but in the '86 season he was was tested only once.

"I was only tested at the beginning of the year, so I'd go off it four weeks before the test," Sileo said. UM implemented a stricter testing program in the fall of '87 after an inves i nr- mill auve. i Sileo, who says he 1 2-i swallowed daily doses i 1 i hum a immvm' I ed testosterone while playing for the Hurricanes, is getting a sec Sileo ond chance at life and football with the Orlando Thunder. He's excelling in the World League as he fights to make it EXPERIENCE AMERICA'S CUP FISHING UPDATE Dolphin wasn't too little: 70-pounder was too late rt. I or, i FROM PAGE 1C If assistants talk, even head coach will stop to listen said Hardy, who coaches the tight ends.

"It's only been a few days, but it's been fun." While the players remember Hardy and Giesler, most can't recall Nottingham's playing days. Nottingham, known as the Human Bowling Bowl as a fullback with the Baltimore Colts and Dolphins, left the NFL in 1977. "They look at me as just another dad out here coaching," Nottingham said. Not necessarily so, according to players. When Giesler, Hardy or Nottingham speak, they tend to listen a little closer.

"Nobody talks when they talk," Greco said. "They've been through it all. It's a great honor to be coached by them. It even makes you look forward to practice." Some of the players admit they were intimidated by the ex-Dolphins the first day. Even King said he felt a little shaky addressing the team.

"Looking at them, I felt such a sense of football knowledge among them that I didn't feel comfortable," King said. "I certainly don't know as much about the game as they do. But that's going to make me a better coach." Giesler is enjoying coaching so much that King has had to send him home a couple of times. Otherwise, Giesler will hang around the football offices until hours after practice. "They tell us stories about playing in the Super Bowl and what Don Shula is like," said Jon Luehrs, Chaminade's quarterback.

"A couple of years ago, they were our idols. Now they're our coaches." Other noteworthy catches: Mike May and Dominic Mon-talbano caught a 58.5-pound bull dolphin Saturday 1.5 miles off Boca Inlet. David Moore and Jamie Wright caught a 36-pound wahoo Saturday trolling a skirted ballyhoo south of the Port Evergades sea buoy. Guy Smith of Miramar caught a 45-pound wahoo Sunday trolling ballyhoo 10 miles off Fort Lauderdale. G.W.

DePauw III caught'a 278-pound blue marlin on 30-pound line fishing off Hollywood Sunday. John Paul Gerbino caught a 450-pound blue marlin off Juno Beach in 200 feet on a live bonito fishing with Capt. Elly Brown. Alan Ehmke, fishing with Jeff Spangler and Bob Perry, caught his first sailf ish Saturday. The sail hit a trolled ballyhoo 50 feet down on a downrigger off Boca Raton Inlet.

Paul DuJohn of Pompano Beach caught his first sail fishing with Tom Armillotto. Philip Brandner of France caught a 55-pound sailfish on Bahia Mar charter boat Robin's Song with Capt. Tom Young. Steve Wiley on his 11th birthday, caught a 35-pound king-fish 5 miles off Oakland Park. Ron Blake of Greenup, 111., caught a 71-pound, 12-ounce sail-fish Sunday to win the heaviest billfish division of a special two-day kickoff event to the seven-month Key West Fishing Tournament.

The catch was worth $1,000. Ross Baker Jr. of Big Coppit Key landed a 48-pound, 8-ounce dolphin to take honors in that division. Baker was the 1991 Junior Master Angler for the Key West Fishing Tournament. Dan Key of Sugarloaf Key took top honors in the permit division with 10 releases.

Tournament Coordinator Art Barton reported a record field of 225 partcipants fished the event aboard 84 boats. OTHER RESULTS (Division: Angler, Hometown, Boat, Captain) Barracuda: Robert Shorb, Chevy Chase, Debi Lou, Wally Albrecht; Bonefiih relaaaea: Gloria Rampfel, Sugarloaf Key, Out Cast, Capt. Tim Carlile; Tarpon releaaea: Tom Bishop, Akron, Ohio, Sea Breeze, Jim Brienza; Billfiah releases: Dale Bittner, Key West, Second Generation; Most barracuda releases: 41, Lou Varna. Key West, Bubbles. Bill William; Grunt: A.J.

Collar, Key West, Gullstream III, Walter Kirchner. ANDY NEWMAN By STEVE WATERS Outdoors Writer How good was the fishing this weekend? Look no further than the Pompano Beach Fishing Ro-, deo for the answer. The Rodeo produced a 77.2-' pound wahoo Friday and a 70-pound dolphin Saturday. In addition, the 600 anglers competing caught a Rodeo-record 215 sail-fish all but a handful released i a blue marlin and a spearfish. Hooper Cassidy of Pompano Beach caught the spearfish aboard Bahia Mar charter boat Sir Fish-A-Lot with Capt.

Clea Miller. Miller was after big dolphin or blue marlin Saturday. The spearfish, a rare catch, hit a trolled ballyhoo with a pink skirt in 900 feet off the Hillsboro Inlet lighthouse. Miller, who'd never caught a spearfish before, didn't know what he had at first. Mate Randy Johnson had caught four spearfish previously and instantly identified the fish.

Spearfish are not an eligible species for the Rodeo, but it did earn Cassidy the most unusual catch award. Walter Richterkess- of Coral Springs had the best and the worst catch, depending on your point of view. Richterkessing caught the 70-pound dolphin, but he didn't hook up until moments after lines out Saturday. He won the sportsmanship award for his honesty, as 'well as the hard-luck award: the dolphin would've boosted Rich-terkessing's Out Of Control from sixth to second in the boat standings, earned $1,000 as the biggest dolphin in the Rodeo and $100 as a Rodeo record (by 16.5 pounds). "I wanted to weigh it so whoever takes first place knows we were there," Richterkessing said.

The big dolphin hit a live goggle- eye on a kite in 110 feet off Hills- boro Inlet. Tim Maddock of Pompano Beach, the Rodeo's top angler, fished from one end of South Florida to the other. Friday, fishing near Fowey Light, he got a kingfish and a 25.2-pound tuna. Saturday, fishing off Lake Worth, he caught four dolphin, including a 35.7- and a 29.4-pounder. The fish hit drifted goggle-eyes and pilchards in 150-200 feet.

AP photo Buddy Melges (that's tactician Dave Dellenbaugh he's hugging) is "the glue of that crew." Melges can't talk high-tech, but he steers 'quicklier' boat DOLPHINS BACK IN SCHOOL for the elements that make a boat go fast. "He's probably more at one with Mother Nature than anyone out there," says Stu Argo, sail trimmer on America3. Says Melges, "I have good eyes, a strong sense of smell. I used to have good hearing, but I guess I've shot too many ducks." Or perhaps it is from the shotgun blasts marking the finish of all the races he has won. Melges started sailing dinghies at 6 on Lake Delvin in Wisconsin.

One summer he sold sailboat rides for 10 cents apiece to buy a new mainsail. That prepared Melges for his first America's Cup campaign, the underfunded, Heart of America challenge in 1986-87. He not only steered the boat but peddled T-shirts to keep the project afloat. Quite a difference this time at the wheel of a $64 million, four-boat effort. While his sons look after the family boatworks back in tiny Zenda, Melges is having the time of his life in his first Cup final.

"My obligation is to be where I want to be, stick my nose in where it doesn't belong, and I get to drive the boat. So it's fantastic," he said. Melges is old enough to be the father of some of the young hotshot Cup skippers Paul Cayard, his counterpart on II Moro di Venezia, is 32. But he doesn't see his age as a detriment, noting that the crew conditioning program has enabled him to shed 16 pounds in 1 Vt months and reduce body fat to 11.5 percent. Melges likes to cite the advice of a fellow sailor who said, "Melges, never sail anything less in length than your age." The Cup boats are 75 feet, so there are plenty of races left in the Wizard of Zenda.

And he isn't daunted by the experts who have annointed Cayard the new superstar of sailing. Or, as Melges proclaimed in vivid Zendanese a year ago at the kickoff bash of the Cup campaign: "We're going to win this bugger. So for all you foreign guys, tough bleep." By CRAIG DAVIS Senior Writer SAN DIEGO Leave it to Buddy Melges, America's folksiest helsman, to cut through the high-tech aura of the modern America's Cup. "It is a lot of fun to talk to Heiner Melner," Melges said of the head egghead on the team of engineers that designed Cup defender America3. "I walk away more confused than when I walked in." The same often can be said of a conversation with Melges, the Zenda, native who speaks a homespun dialect dubbed Zendanese.

To Melges, a good boat isn't merely fast, it is quicklier, which may stem from sailing 60 mph ice boats as a boy. They don't talk the same language, but the success of this America's Cup defense depends on the unlikely collaboration of Melges and the scientists to make America3 quicklier around the course than the challenger from Italy. The best-of -seven series stands 1-1 with Race 3 today at 3 p.m. (live on ESPN). Millionaire Bill Koch is skipper of record and boss of the America-Cubed team.

But the destiny of the defense is in Melges' hands. He is primary helmsman and the leader on the water. "He is the glue of that crew," says ESPN commentator Gary Jobson, formerly Koch's co-skipper. "Buddy's a master, clearly the best sailor in the past 50 years in the U.S." Melges, 62, is bidding for a rare double in sailing. He already has an Olympic gold medal (1972, Soling class).

Even Dennis Conner hasn't won the Olympics and the America's Cup. But then Melges was already on his way to becoming a legend while Conner was pleading for his first boat ride. Melges has won more than 60 major championships in every type of boat imaginable. Having been a sailor and boatbuilder most of his life, Melges has a clear picture of the art of his sport, even if he doesn't grasp all the abstractions of the science. Similar to a fine painter, his genius is in an instinctive touch and a keen eye TENNIS JON GIESLER: Played for Dolphins from 1979-88; spent 1989-90 season on Dolphins' injured reserve list; coaches Chaminade offensive linemen; owns six Subway franchises in Broward County and is a partner in a construction company with Hardy; age 35; lives in Cooper City.

BRUCE HARDY: Played for Dolphins from 1978-88; coaches Chaminade tight ends; co-owns a Subway franchise and construction company with Giesler; made Sports Illustrated cover while in high school in Phoenix; age 36; lives in Miami Lakes. DON NOTTINGHAM: Played for Baltimore Colts from 1971-73; traded to Dolphins for Hubert Ginn in 1973 and played with Miami until 1977; one of four partners in an independent insurance company in Hollywood; age 43; lives in Weston. Judge blocks Lipton, but decision appealed BALTIMORE COLTS around," Buchholz said. "Regardless, we plan to be playing on Key Biscayne in 1993, in a new stadium or a temporary one. No one has ever ruled that we can't hold a tournament there." Construction on the new stadium, scheduled to be finished Feb.

1, was not interrupted by Friday's ruling, as the county filed an immediate appeal. The Matheson family, which donated Crandon Park to Dade County in 1940, has been fighting the Lipton tournament since it moved to Key Biscayne six years ago. The Matheson family claims its property was not meant to be the site of a tennis stadium. Dade County is confident that the decision will be overturned by the appeals court. No date has been set for an appeals ruling.

"The last time the appeals court ruled, it took 16 months," Buchholz said. "It's so costly, so time-consuming and so unproductive. And so unfair this place was a dump for 25 years, inhabited by rats and old refrigerators, unusable for anything. We turned it into a tennis park." By JIM SARNI Staff Writer Lipton dropped a set, but the battle to build a permanent tennis stadium on Key Biscayne continues. Dade Circuit Court Judge Jon Gordon ruled Friday that the sta-' dium project violates deed restrictions for the property, but -Dade County, which is building "the stadium, appealed the decision, leaving the fate of the stadium still in doubt.

The Third District Court of Appeal will now rule. "We're heading into the fifth set," said Butch Buchholz, Lipton tournament founder and chairman. "The county was surprised it lost the last ruling, but it thought the case would go to the appeals court all along." Previously, Dade County Circuit Court Judge Gerald T. Weth-erington ruled that the stadium did not violate the deed restric- but he then withdrew the ruling because he thought he -might be biased. "Everyone was stunned that after one judge ruled in our favor, anotjher judge would Jturn it training so good, if he's not on the board I'll be the most disappointed person in the United States." Pick Nine pays a million SHAKOPEE, Minn.

A man won $1 million for picking the winners in nine straight horse races at Canterbury Downs. Brent Gilbertson, 46, of Way-zata, won the free Pick Nine contest Sunday and will receive a lump sum paid by the track's insurance company. Track officials estimated that Gilbertson will clear $650,000 after taxes. The Associated Press contributed to this report. with the loss of Pistols and Roses and A.P.

Indy. Careful Gesture, winner of the Tampa Bay Derby, is trained by Calder horseman Ray Dixon. Third in the Preview Stakes, Careful Gesture was to arrive in Baltimore Monday afternoon. The colt skipped the Derby after running down and finishing fifth in Aqueduct's April 18 Wood Memorial. "After he healed, and after he trained so good a half-mile in :49 35 Saturday, there was no doubt in my mind where we were going," Dixon said.

"I'm trying to play it as cool as I can, but it's hard. This colt is Gesture and Alydeed. Alydeed, trained by Roger Att-f ield, was expected to run in the Derby before he bled in Calder's What A Pleasure Stakes March 29 and finished second. The colt easily won the Derby Trial, but Att-field refused to run him back six days later against an 18-horse field. Attfield was going to run Alydeed in Saturday's Illinois Derby or Sunday's Queenston Stakes in Canada.

The trainer didn't think Alydeed had earned enough to be among the horses who will run in the Preakness, which is limited to the 14 who have accumulated the most money. But Alydeed, who galloped Monday across Pimlico Race Course, now makes the cut FROM PAGE 1C Pistols and Roses, A.P. Indy bow out of Preakness field Tee. Among them are: Derby runner-up Casual Lies, third-place finisher Dance Floor, fourth-place finisher Conte Do Savoya, Florida Derby winner Technology, the Lukas Stable's Big Sur, Lexington Stakes winner My Luck Runs North and Arkansas Derby winner Pine Bluff. Those running in the Preakness who didn't run in the Derby: Agin-court, Speakerphone, Careful.