The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 16

NO 1 i TENNIS i 6C Martina Hingis gets the top seed for the US Open which begins Monday COMING WEDNESDAY I MOTORSPORTS Complete coverage of the report on Dale death wwwcharlottecomobserversports TUESDAY AUGUST 21 2001 SECTION 3 COMMENTARY PANTHERS Lewis promises improvement against Ravens Stag ataoices to Eaisft fnousiOs Charlotte finishes Cleveland to win best-of-3 series Poor showing against New England haunts starting quarterback By Pat Yasinskas Staff Writer Coming off perhaps the most disappointing performance of his career Carolina Panthers quarterback Jeff Lewis is making a promise going to totally throw myself into football for the next three Lewis said Monday all going to do going to know the game plan inside out and I guarantee when we come out Thursday (in a preseason game at Baltimore) going to see a different If guarantee comes true it would be wonderful news for the Panthers The of- HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL One gain is a loss McMurray brings Just do right' spirit from Lewisville to Waddell By Langston Wertz Jr Staff Writer RICHBURG SC There a stoplight in this town about 40 minutes south of Charlotte There many restaurants Want to go shopping? You go to Chester or Lancaster But what they do have here is a strong sense of family of pride Here high school sports particularly football are the Hornets and Panthers all rolled into one Scott Fowler safe to say NASCAR needs change There are news conferences and there are NEWS CONFERENCES and NASCAR holds one of the capital-letter variety today in Atlanta The irresistible subject: What killed Dale Earnhardt and going to do something about it? If life were a movie unspooled in two-hour dollops at your local multiplex today would provide us with every answer we could ever want We would get someone from NASCAR acting like Jack Nicholson in Few Good Men" screaming in the hushed hotel ballroom handle the before finally telling us exactly what went wrong inside car Following that we would see the prototype of a car design with new seat restraints new crush zones new crash-data recorders new new side mirrors and less horsepower This car will be our standard NASCAR would say Plus we have decided that every track must install soft walls Plus all the teams will band together to work on safety constantly Cue the swelling applause Over the closing credits this phrase appears: the safety initiatives introduced Aug 21 2001 no NASCAR drivers have been killed or seriously Life unfortunately is much messier We will get information by the boatload today but we get a magic wand Death ever be erased from racing Drivers are killed or hurt mostly because the cars go 200 mph and the men driving are human and that combination makes bad things happen Drivers understand the terrible risks of their sport But those risks exist in a vacuum They can and must be gradually lessened All we can really hope for today is that NASCAR finally gets it time for NASCAR to stop cashing the big TV-mon-ey checks with one hand and hiding the other behind its back That 41 of 43 drivers in the race Sunday at Michigan wore some head-restraint device is a positive sign Only Tony Stewart and Jimmy Spencer still need to wise up But much more can be done The old unwritten rule of letting a driver die or be badly hurt and then tweaking something in the cars work anymore Today belong only to Earnhardt although his No 3 has loomed like a monolith over the season It will be a referendum on the sport itself How far will NASCAR go to try to make a dangerous sport less so? How much legal exposure will NASCAR risk to make life on the circuit safer? not a movie We would all love to pretend the last lap of this year's Daytona 500 never happened We Today is extremely important to NASCAR The most defensive organization in professional sports must finally understand that secrecy the best policy Honesty is Scott Fowler (704) 358-5140 sfowlertjLcharlotteobserver com 1A I NASCAR's long awaited report on Dale Earnhardt's crash is due today 2C I David Poole fitting that three things this weekend were precursors to today RON SCHWANE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO Sting center Tammy Sutton-Brown (55) pulls a rebound away from Cleveland guard Helen Darling during the first half of Monday's game at Gund Arena in Cleveland Lewis fense be much worse than it was in 23-8 loss to New England Lewis started and played into the second quarter without leading the Panthers to any points He completed 5-of-9 passes for 37 yards and was intercepted once The Panthers managed 37 yards of total offense when Lewis was in the game and he finished with a 259 quarterback rating Rookie backup Chris Weinke also struggled completing 5-of-13 passes for 52 yards with two interceptions and an 1L2 quarterback rating SEE PANTHERS I 5C Each Friday the town goes out for its powerhouse small-class football team And for the past 18 years the biggest celebrity in town the voice of Lewisville High has been head coach Bennie McMurray McMurray 51 now coaches at new Waddell High which debuts Aug 31 against the other new school Hope-welL But he forget this town and make no mistake this town will not forget him you go everyone knows Coach says Lewisville principal Keith McAlister so personable and such a positive role modeL Everywhere he and I go SEE WADDELL I 5C to Rangers trade of six-time NHL All-Star Eric Lindros to the New York Rangers was announced Monday ending a 15-month ordeal for the former MVP Story on 2C PRESS PH0I0 nity comes make the most of it were poised You looked at a group down the stretch that was poised and confident It was very physical down the stretch of that bench outscored 30-14 and after being outrebounded badly in Game 2 the Sting dominated the boards 35-19 humbled us Saturday on the boards so it was time for Edwards said Merlakia Jones led Cleveland with 13 points but the Rockers get the big rebound or defensive stop in the final two minutes and watched their season end with another postseason loss talked about it going into the game the backboard was go-SEE STING I 2C and Tammy Sutton-Brown and Shalonda Enis added 12 apiece as the Sting won the best-of-3 series 2-L Charlotte was 1-10 after a loss to Sacramento on June 24 but has won 19 of 24 had been confident all season Edwards said was just a matter of us the little things The Sting built a 13-point lead in the second half and held off the Rockers whose season ended with just their third loss in 18 home games this season had talked going into this game and knew the three times we had beaten Cleveland this season they were all close ball Sting coach Anne Donovan said two times we lost to Cleveland we lost by 15 and 18 points We knew we had to stay in the game and when the opportu STING 72 ROCKERS 64 Rebounds key as 35-19 advantage on boards tough play down stretch keep Rockers at bay By Tom Withers Associated Press CLEVELAND The Charlotte Sting which saved its regular season with a remarkable turnaround extended its postseason Monday night with a 72-64 victory over the Cleveland Rockers to advance to the Eastern Conference finals Reserve Tonya Edwards scored 15 points Andrea Stinson had 14 Digest Azinger Verplank fill out US Ryder Cup team GOLF 3C ATLANTA Curtis Strange the US captain completed his 12-man Ryder Cup team with the selection of Paul Azinger 41 who beat cancer in 1993 and rookie Scott Verplank 37 who overcame career-threatening elbow surgery The event will be Sept 28-30 at the Belfry in England Another gem lifts Bronx in Little League series BASEBALL 2C SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT Pa Luilly Vinas pitched a three-hitter as the Rolando Paulino team from the Bronx beat Davenport (Iowa) East 7-4 at the Little League World Series effort followed Danny perfect game in the opener against Apopka Fla Jaguars expect Tony Boselli back for opener I 5C COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEW I Duke Duke has more talent but little depth SAGA OVER Lindros traded JEFF ZELEVANSKY ASSOCIATED Index Motorsports 2C Golf 3C Baseball 4C Minor Leagues 6C Reach Sports News Fax mail www charlotte Coming This Week The two weeks of college football previews continue: Wednesday: Wake Forest Thursday: North Carolina MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL 3C I Florida State wide receiver Anquan Boldin will miss the season Likewise when was the last time Duke had a pair of big fast receivers like sophomores Reggie Love and Jeremy Battier? Ryan Fowler and Jim Scharrer give the Blue Devils a solid core at SEE DIKE I 3C gathering of sportswriters Total confidence gave way to brutal honesty for you Then the confidence was back wanting to show you guys and everyone else what we Hill said What the Blue Devils have is young if inexperienced talent in some places but quality depth in very few places Junior Bryant has just seven career starts and 1448 passing yards but is an athletic double-dangerous quarterback the likes of which Duke had in perhaps ever Chris Douglas had 1311 all-purpose yards per game last year tops among NCAA freshmen He is a breakaway threat with speed the likes of which Duke had at tailback in a long time Devils have quality skill players but must overcome 0-11 season By Gregg Doyel Raleigh Bureau DURHAM BJ Hill was talking about Duke football which made sense because a Duke football player But he was talking about optimism heading into the 2001 season which make a lot of sense Duke win a game last season Hill was asked if there was a good reason to believe Duke would be significantly better think he said then looked around the table at the The Observer (704) 358 5125 (704) 358 5110 obsports(acharlotteobserver com comobserversports 13 lilt L-tRUnll it'ft-iii.