Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • 37

Albuquerque journal HEADING MY WAY Going up for a header is Sandia 's Eric Dean, right, and Eldorado's Brandon Moss during the Matadors' 3-1 high school victory DO no YOUTH SPORTS Dax'id Mclntyre, the 2000 national men's trot vaulting champion, knows his horses 5 BASEBALL rn Hv NFL Movies RICK WRIGHT Lobos Remember Bitter Feeliii Sports Aggies Rallied At End of 1998 Game 7-'- Assistant Sports Editor Rivalry? That's Up to the Lobos Saturday New Mexico at New Mexico State. Aggie Memorial Stadium. 6:07 p.m. TV: KRQE Radio: K0B-AM (770) take the lead. The Lobos tied the score at 28 and had the Ags pinned deep to force a punt What happened next was unthinkable to UNM.

All-American Brian" Urlacher entered the game as a punt returner and promptly fumbled, giving NMSU the ball UNM's defense stiffened, bufthe Ags faked a field goal. Quarterback K.C. Enzminger threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Lane Grady that proved to be the difference. "I hate to say things that people might use as bulletin-board material," Baxter says, "but that's one of the games where we lost They didn't beat us. We lost that game." See LOBOS on PAGE D8 return with 57 seconds left in the game but missed the extra point The Aggies drove 80 yards in just 37 seconds, scoring on Ryan Shaw's 50-yard reception to take an improbable 28-27 victory.

"Down there was my worst feeling as an athlete in college," UNM senior offensive lineman Jon Samuelson says. "I'd had some similar experiences in high school, but that was by far the worst feeling I've had since I've been here." Last year, the Lobos were determined to redeem themselves, storming out to a 20-7 lead at-the half. However, NMSU scored 21 unanswered points in the third quarter to By Greg Archvleta Journal Staff Writer Never mind the fact that the University of New Mexico football team is 0-3 or that its offense is struggling. The Lobos are returning to the scene of the crime Saturday, and they'll have no trouble getting ready for New Mexico State in Las Cruces. "That first year, I was sick," UNM junior fullback Jarrod Baxter says BAXTER: Two kwsestoAgges Losing at NMSU gnaw at him "worst feeling" of a 28-27 NMSU victory at Aggie Memorial Stadium in 1998..

"New Mexico State! That's the rival!" The Lobos broke a 21-21 tie on Dion Marion's 88-yard kickoff 1 ony Samuel says he loves Las Cruces and would like to stick around a while as football coach at New Mexico State University. Woman of many gifts Indiana Looks To Assistant Davis Given the Job On an Interim Basis 'S 'i, 1 But the more games he wins, the less- likely that will be. Rocky Long says he loves Albuquerque and would like to stick around a while as football coach at the University of New Mexico. But the more games he loses, the less likely that will be. Now, these are two quality guys, well worth having around the kind of people you want representing your school or your state.

Thus, is it in the best interests of football in New Mexico that the Lobos beat the Aggies on Saturday night? Well you'd have a tough time selling that point of view to Samuel, just as I had a tough time selling the reverse of that theory to Long a couple of years ago. On that occasion, a few days before Long's first game against NMSU as head coach at UNM, I asked him if he didn't think it would be good for football in the state if the Aggies losers of 19 of the previous 21 games between the two could get competitive in Jie series. He looked at me as if I'd arked him for a loan. No, he said, he didn't think that was a good idea at alL "I hope we domic jte the series," he said. 'It's better for our program." Two years later, Jt still would be better for Long's program if the Lobos were dominating the series.

But they're not. Ask Long now what he thinks of a competitive Lobos-Aggies series, and his take is a little different. Shelia Burrell showed her versatility in becoming a top U.S. heptathlete By Rick Wright. Journal Staff Writer Shelia Burrell in a nutshell Sharon Burrell talks of the time some 17 years ago when her pre-teen-aged niece rode hellbent down a steep hill on her bicycle and crashed breaking both arms and both legs.

"Shelia's never afraid of anything," -Sharon says. "Or, if she is, you don't see it." Jiivanii Dent talks of the time about 12 years ago when a certain student stubbornly delayed the start of a junior English class at Rio Grande High School. "Shelia would come into my class still working on some problems from math class," Dent recalls. "She'd say, Wait, I finally understand this. Let me Coach Cliff Rovelto talks of the time 10 months ago when Burrell moved from By Steve Herman The Associated Press BLOOMLNGTON, Ind.

Indiana University headed off a possible player revolt over Bob Knight's dismissal by hiring assistant Mike Davis on Tuesday as interim men's basketball coach. "There was no way I could turn this job down," said Davis, surrounded by the team at a news conference. "I'm sad by the i "I'd love to see it get like some of the way it happened. Everyone coach Knight is the reason I'm here and why the' players are here." But, he added, "Indiana basketball is bigger than anyone." John Treloar, another Knight assistant backed by the players, DAVIa: Takes over for Knight this season Southern California to Manhattan, looking for a hew coach with new approaches to an old, familiar undertaking: the heptathlon. "Shelia's been doing the heptathlon a long time, and she's worked with good coaches," Rovelto says.

"It would be understandable if she were very set in her ways. "But she's just been fantastic, very receptive. She's totally bought into what Jl'm trying to do. It's a very special quality to be so trusting." Actually, there's no nutshell big enough to define Burrell, 28, the former Rio Grande star and 2000 United States Olympian who's as multi-faceted as the seven-discipline track-and-field event in which she excels. Her aunt, her teacher and her coach paint her portrait as equal parts athleticism and intellect, boldness and introspection, pride and humility and as a KRISTOPHER PARRAJOURNAL ALL THINGS CONSIDERED: Former Rio Grande High School and UCLA track-and-field star Sheila Burrell looks at the heptathlon as much as a mental exercise as a physical contest.

vn wanderer who's never far removed from was appointed interim associate coach. "We're so pleased they're willing togo- forwardUhs.Lthletic director Clarence Doninger said. "We're presenting a unified front today. We're looking forward to the future. We know this team has great potential." The announcement came two days after Indiana fired Knight for repeated misconduct and a day after play told Doninger that Davis or Tre ad to be hired as interim coacii that players would defect en masse.

Davis will be the head coach through at least this season, but the school has said it also will look at other candidates for the following year. "We have a wonderful group of young men over here," Doninger said. "We know this has been a very difficult time for them." Pat Knight, son of the Hall of Fame coach and an assistant, considers himself fired as well. "I'm out of here," he said. "I wouldn't stay in this place after the way they treated my father." The storied basketball program has been in disarray since the firing of the coach who brought three NCAA titles to the school.

Dane Fife said he had decided to transfer. But when told Davis had been hired, the junior guard said he See INDIANA on PAGE D3 I ti ei. MEDAL COUNT: Charles E. Burrell, left; wife Essie C. Burrell, center; and daughter Sharon Y.

Burrell show off medals won by Sharon's daughter, Shelia. MARK HOLM JOURNAL SYDNEY 2000 999 Summer games Sydney, Australia, Seitur-day-Oct. 1. TV: NBC (tape-delayed) her roots in Albuquerque's South Valley. Athleticism? A three-sport all-state performer at Rio Grande basketball, volleyball and track Burrell's versatility made the heptathlon a natural.

The 1999 U.S. national champion and.Pan American Games runner-up, she's the sixth-ranked heptathlete in die world entering the Olympics. "I'm not at all surprised by what she's done," Sharon Burrell says. "Even before she was old enough to go to school, she 1 was just so athletic, so active." Intellect? Burrell, a passionate student at Rio and later as an English major at UCLA, views the heptathlon as much as a mental exercise as a physical See BURRELL on PAGE D2 other rivalries I ve been around (sjicffas UCLA-Southern Cal), where it means bragging rights." In other words, he'd like to see it competitive. Defining our terms Three years ago, when Samuel took the NMSU job, it was his responsibility to make the Aggies competitive with UNM.

With back-to-back victories, he has done that and more. Now, the immediate fate of the intrastate rivalry rests with Long and the Lobos. And, in this case, competitive doesn't mean coming close. It means winning your share; Samuel's Aggies' two victories over Longs Lobos were achieved by a total of eightyoints. UNM could have perhaps should have won both games.

All anyone really cares about now, however, is that New Mexico didn't and New Mexico State did. How important is the Lobos-Aggies really? 11 While Long and Samuel acknowledge importance of the intrastate rivalry, neither sees the game as a season-defining, event, For Samuel, it's the next game on the schedule. We play New Mexico on Saturday, so it's very important," he says. For Long, nonconference games serve largely as preparation for the league schedule. UNM opens Mountain West Conference play against Wyoming on Sept.

30. jrhe real importance of the Lobos-Aggies game, perhaps, is the snapshot-in-time that it iffers of the two programs. Relatively speaking Jhough there's not a lot of difference between Long's and Samuel's won-lost rejpbrd (Samuel is 11-23 in three-plus years, Long 7-19 in two-plus), the perception of the coaches and their programs is totally different. kn 1998, Samuel inherited a program that had won one game the previous season. In his third season in 'Cruces, he coached the Aggies to a 6-5 record.

NMSU fans were thrilled. Long, a year later, took over a program that had won a conference divisional title arid' gone to a bowl game in 1997. Now, in his; third season in Albuquerque, he's 0-3. UNM fans are restless. i Would a Lobos victory Saturday night make everything OK? No.

Would it obliterate the effect of Long's 19 previous losses? No. Would it give Long and his program a little breathing room, and at least a potential turning point? You bet NMSU's 35-28 victory over UNM last -season, in the second game of the year, didn't make the Aggies' season. But it sure Now, it's time for Long and the Lobos to help themselves. Panko Getting Another Shot at the NBA Ex-Slam Forward Has Laker Contract Although Panko started just six games this summer, he was instant offense off the bench. He was the Slam's second-leading scorer at 13.5 points a game last season.

However, Panko's scoring touch never was in doubt. It was defense that kept him out of the NBA last season. His ability to hunker down and guard some of the most athletic players in the league will determine whether his mailing address is Los Angeles or Albuquerque this season. "I told Andy that his defense is 100 percent better," says. "But it's still not very good.

It's only about average. I told him he needs to keep working on it." The problem, says Whisenant, is that Panko entered college NCAA Division III Lebanon Valley as a 6-2 guard. Over the course of the next several years, he put on seven inches, becoming a gangly forward that dominated the rest of the league. "He never had a coach that put much emphasis on defense," Whisenant says. "He never really had to play defense." To his credit, Panko never gqt down on himself, even when he wasn't playing much at the beginning of last season.

for coach Whiz was great for me," Panko says in a telephone interview from, his See PANKO on PAGE DS Thursday international Basketball League draft for second-round NBA picks and other noi drafted, first-year professional players, 5 p.m. Panko played last season with' the New Mexico Slam of the fledgling International Basketball League, honing the skills he would need to make another run at the NBA. "If the league had an award for most improved player, Andy would have won it," says Slam coach John Whisenant. By Glen Rosales JFor the Journal It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child. The same could be said about an NBA player, especially if Andy Panko realizes his dream of sticking with the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Panko, a 6-foot, 9-inch forward from tiny Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, was the last cut of the Lakers last season. He has signed a make-good contract with Los Angeles again this summer. JOURNAL FILE MOVING UP? Andy Panko has been working hard this summer trying to graduate, from the. New' Mexico Slam to the LA. Lakers..