The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 46

D8 SPORTS The Vancouver Sun, Tuesday, January 31, 1989 Seaiawlfis, McCoirmack part company Vi A month at reports McCormack was on his way out, saying, "There's nothing different." McCormack, 58, joined the Seahawks in 1982 as director of football operations. He McCORMACK ti iw in mi mifiTiiBin 1 1 Ir-T tMiiMnTMir RALPH BOWER LORI FUNG (centre) is surrounded by her rythmic gymnastic pupils at UBC gym Fung tries to put something back into the sport she loves was made president and general manager of the Seahawks in 1983. A member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as an offensive lineman and a former NFL head coach, he had said he intended to remain with the team. McCormack hired coach Chuck Knox, who has three years left on his Seahawks contract. Under Knox, the Seahawks have a 57-38 record and made the playoffs four times in six seasons.

Behring and Ken Hofmann, a pair of northern California land developers, purchased the Seahawks from the Nordstrom family, original owners of the franchise, for $80 million US. They also assumed about $17 million in debts and other long-term obligations. Former Toronto Argonaut player and assistant coach June Jones, the quarterback coach who was credited with building the Oilers' offence into the second-highest scoring team in the NFL last season, said Monday he was leaving to become an assistant coach with the Detroit Lions. Cincinnati running back Stanley Wilson, suspended from the Super Bowl for a drug relapse, appeared Monday in court and received an unspecified, non-prison sentence to settle an unrelated disorderly conduct charge. By WENDY LONG LORI Fung was demonstrating a peculiar manoeuvre that combined a sort of earthworm crawl with side rolls and excruciating splits.

The group of girls watched and snickered, not because Fung was performing the exercise poorly but because they were imagining how they were going to look attempting the same feat. They struggled bravely. Some followed their leader with a relatively accurate rendition of the routine. Others rolled off the mat and curled into giggling, elfin balls. One, perhaps, will follow her leader not only to the end of the exercise mat but to the top of the Olympic medal podium.

Lori Fung was there once, and is now spending part of her still busy days grooming proteges to get there, too. "When I retired I thought I would have time to myself," says 25-year-old Fung, who won a rhythmic gymnastics gold medal for Canada at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. "But I am busier now than when I was a gymnast. My days are completely full. If I was competing I would be at the gym in the early morning, and that is exactly what I am doing now as a coach." FUNG, 25, announced her retirement in August after a frustrating year of injury and illness.

Last spring her training was stalled by Epstein Barr syndrome a virus related to mononucleosis. She also suffered prolonged tendinitis in her arches, and has since had surgery to correct the problem. While many athletes must restructure their lives completely upon retirement, Fung carries on in my feet," she says. "It was better to finish off the way I did, on a high note. If I had gone to the Olympics there was a chance I could have done really well.

But who knows? If I had done badly I would have retired completely down you must always finish when you are feeling good and still loving what you're doing." She still does. COACH Fung is a virtual carbon copy of the athlete. Still lithe, perpetually smiling, the enthusiasm she has for the sport is infectious. But for her confident presence and advanced ability she could still be a young hopeful turning out for practice on a frosty winter morn. "Before, I put pressure on myself as an athlete," she says.

"Now I put it on myself as a coach. At competition I feel a little out of control once I give the girls a hug and send them out there it is up to them. In that respect the pressure of competition is still there." The retirement has had its social rewards. Fung has more time for her family, and boyfriend J.D. Jackson.

She met the former UBC basketball star while training in War Memorial Gym. He was slamdunking her competition balls. And there are other rewards such as seeing a student perfect a difficult move. Fung's athletes are, in many ways, mini carbon copies of herself energetic, talented and dedicated. "When you work on a move, over and over, and finally get it right that's what I like," says 12-year-old Megan Arnold.

"It's hard work, but it's fun." Laura Eward, also 12, began her gymnastics career as a bumblebee in a pre-school routine. "I always admired Lori I asked for her autograph a long time ago," she recalls. "Since I have worked with her I have learned a lot, not just about gymnastics. I can handle things better." FUNG'S students are the recipients of her own athletic philosophy that says you don't look for top marks, but rather to perform to your best ability. She was irritated by the liberal dispersion of perfect marks at the Seoul Olympics.

"They started giving 10s almost right off the bat," she says. "Apparently the gymnasts started to figure that as long as they didn't drop an apparatus, they would be given a 10. They were taking out the difficulty in their routines. "By the time my girls get to international competition they will know marks don't count. They're not learning how to cheat the system but how to compete to their potential." The lessons start by learning to crawl.

many of the activities she held while competing. She models, she performs exhibition routines, and is represented in Los Angeles by agent Warren LeGarie, who handles other athletic notables such as Bruce Jenner. She has had several screen tests, and is being considered for a stand-in part requiring acrobatics. BUT she won't pack her bags for Tinseltown just yet. Fung made a commitment to put something back into her sport.

That means being at UBC War Memorial Gym at 5:45 a.m. to begin coaching her hand-picked group of 21 young competitors. "There wasn't a real transition period I went from athlete to coach very quickly," recalls Fung, who coached a small group of athletes as a competitor before taking on her current horde of seven to 19-year-olds. "There were 50 or 60 girls that I had to turn away. I had to make the criteria for getting in so hard.

I see a couple as potential Olympians." In retrospect, her decision to retire was correct, although it came as a surprise so close to the Olympics. Fung had earlier won the Four Continents championship and was looking in good form for the Games. But the pain, and the energy lost to the virus, put the writing clearly on the gym wall. "I am still struggling with pain Associated Press KIRKLAN Wash. Mike McCormack, Seattle Seahawks president and general manager for the last six years, has been fired, new team owner Ken Behring announced Monday night.

"I've tried every way possible not to make any changes," Behring told a news conference, but added, "it's the one financial position that you do want control over." Behring said the decision he made was difficult. He cited poor communication as a major problem with McCormack. In a prepared statement, Behring said, "Under new ownership we feel it is important for us to have our own general manager." He said he'd interview half a dozen candidates as possible replacements. McCormack's last contract, good for one year, expires Wednesday. Reached by telephone Monday night at his home, McCormack said he had no comment.

"I'm not going to hang up on you," McCormack told The Associated Press, adding, "but I'm not going to make a comment." Behring said no other major changes were anticipated in the team. Under questioning, he confirmed that two of the people he's talking to are Sam Jankovich, University of Miami athletic director, and Mike Blatt, a businessman and former NFL sports agent for several players, including the Seahawks' Kelly Stouffer. Behring, who became principal owner of the team before the 1988 season, had scoffed earlier this B.C. rugby players dominate By ARV OLSON B.C. players dominate selection of rugby teams that will represent Canada in three different countries in late March and early April.

National coach Gary Johnston will take 23 players, 19 from B.C., to New Zealand and Argentina March 19-April 6 for opening matches of a new international tourney organized by Otago, one of New Zealand's leading provincial sides, and a major brewery. Canada will play in Dunedin and (twice) in Buenos Aires and then face Waikato and North Auckland in tourney games in Vancouver in mid-April and early May. B.C. players chosen for the Otago tourney are: Mark Wyatt, Scott Stewart, Pat Palmer, Steve Gray, Andrew Heaman, Ian Stuart, Tom Woods, Gareth Rees, Chris Tynan, John Graf, Eddie Evans, Tony Arthurs, Mark Cardinal, Ross Breen, John Robertson, Norm Had-ley, Marius Felix, Gord McKinnon, Glenn Ennis and Roy Radu. They are joined by Rob Washburn of Alberta, Al Charron, Monty Heald and Karl Svoboda of Ontario.

All but Stewart, Graf, Washburn and Charron have earned senior international honors for Canada. Rugby Canada also announced Monday the nine choices for Canada's team at the annual Hong Kong Seven-a-side tournament, April 1-2. Manager-coach Keith Wilkinson's troupe includes B.C. players Paul Vaeseh, JeffHurford, Mike Holmes, Bruce Breen and Mike Tupper; Scott Armstrong of Quebec; Julian Loveday of Alberta; and David Speirs and Spencer Robinson of Ontario. The uncapped sevens selections are Kats' Tupper, U.

of Victoria's Hurford, Loveday, Armstrong and Robinson. Basketball in a wheelchair has become replacement sport BRIEFLY Kimball sentenced to 17 years Sun News Services Olympic diver Bruce Kimball was sentenced Monday in Tampa, to 17 years in prison for a high-speed drunken accident last summer in which he plowed into a group of teen-agers, killing two and injuring four. "You must suffer the consequences of drunken driving. We must stop it. We can't seem to get a hammer on it," Hillsborough Circuit Judge Harry Lee Coe told the 1984 Olympic silver medallist.

Coe revoked Kimball's drivers licence and said his prison term would be followed by 15 years probation. A model prisoner could expect to serve one third of his sentence, which means Kimball could be free in five or six years. Coach resigns Andrew Barron has resigned as head coach of the Canadian speed-skating team, pointing out shortcomings he sees in the national training program. "I feel my title as head coach is a misnomer since I have none of the rights or responsibilities of a head coach, yet when a situation arises, I am the one who should or is expected to do something about it," he said in a letter. Run for love U.S.

middle-distance runner Ray Wicksell, suspended for four years by track and field's governing body for competing in meets in South Africa last October, is moving from Phoenix to Pretoria and is marrying an African runner. Wicksell, 31, said he's set to marry 29-year-old llze de Kock on Feb. 18. She is the first South African runner to break two minutes in the half-mile. Robidoux advances Alain Robidoux of Montreal won his third-round match in European Open snooker play Monday in Deauville, France but Bob Chaperon of was eliminated.

Robidoux defeated Steve Newbury of Wales 5-0, while Chaperon lost: 5-3 to Craig Edwards of England. Star supsended Eric Canlona, 22, the enfant terrible of French soccer, was indefinitely suspended by his club Marseille on Monday after throwing his shirt at a referee and leaving the field during a weekend charity match. point. She is now honing her skills in the Wheelchair Basketball League, the only woman playing in the league that includes both disabled and able-bodied participants. The forced retirement from track has had unexpected benefits.

Rakiecki now has a relatively stable income as a substitute teacher in Richmond and Burnaby, and hopes to find a permanent position next year. She once had to shy away from playing basketball or tennis to concentrate on track. Now, basketball is her main sport and tennis her new hobby. "I can spend time doing sports that I enjoy. When I was competing I always had to consider whether any activity might jeopardize my track career." Rakiecki believes she will return to the track one day as a coach, but not until her disapppointment has waned.

"It was 10 years of training, learning and competing," she says of her track career. "It was my life." LONG Wheelchair athlete Diane Rakiecki was always a versatile competitor, with success coming in every distance from 100 metres to the marathon. That versatility has become more valuable than she imagined after undergoing emergency surgery to relieve an inflamed bursa at the base of her spine prior to the Seoul Olympics. The problem ended her track career and Olympic aspirations, but retirement ended as soon as she recovered from surgery. She now plays wheelchair basketball, and hopes to make the national team in time for the 1992 Olympics.

"Physically, I am fine but emotionally it still hurts to think I wasn't able to go (to the Seoul Olympics). What has helped me is finding a new sport." She will not compete in wheelchair track again. The problem was sparked by the constant pressure of sitting in one position in her chair, often for long periods of time, while racing. Basketball requires forward, back and lateral movement, allowing her to shift her weight away from the pressure DIANE RAKIECKI: aiming at '92 Games I S3 i'ii v)i. m-- Tyson signs divorce agreement Associated Press LAS VEGAS Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson said Monday his marriage to Robin Givens "turned out bad," and indicated the couple has agreed on terms for a divorce.

Tyson's adviser, promoter Don King, told talk show host Phil Donahue that the fighter signed a settlement agreement Sunday night to end his marriage to Givens. "Mike Tyson has signed and Robin says she'll sign," said King. "So there, you've got your divorce." Tyson had little good to say about Givens as he and King appeared on a Donahue show. "You can't stay married when you're in a situation where you're afraid to go to sleep because your wife may cut your head," Tyson said. Tyson had nothing good to say about his mother-in-law, Ruth Roper, either.

"I have no relationship with the woman," he said. "None at all." Donahue continually pressed Tyson about his marriage to Givens during the taping in a boxing ring in front of about 4,500 spectators. Tyson and Givens were married last February, but later separated after widely publicized battles. "This is a situation I got involved in and it turned out bad," Tyson said. "We both made a mistake.

We were young and got married." Tyson said there was no hope for a reconciliation, despite his trip earlier this month to Vancouver to see Givens. Royals fire Johnstone, eye 'high profile' coach The New Westminster Royals of the B.C. Junior Hockey League are searching for a new head coach after sacking former NHL player Eddie Johnstone last Thursday. "We were hoping to announce the name of the new coach before word got out," said Royals' general manager Roy Henderson on Monday. "We're talking to a very high profile individual but we've hit a few snags." The first-place Royals had a 33-12-1 record when Johnstone, a rookie head coach, was relieved of his duties.

But the team had lost seven of 13, including four of its last five, prompting the change. Dennis Pisiak is currently serving as interim coach. "The consensus of people who follow tier two hockey was we were the team to go all the way," said Henderson. "That's not the direction we were heading. When you go in the tank, something has to be done.

On-ice discipline was also a problem. We were taking a lot of stupid penalties." The Royals are 2-1-0 under Pisiak. EDDIE JOHNSTONE: fired i.