The News and Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina • B2

2B FRIDAY JUNE 15 2018Sports NEWSOBSERVER.COM AF portunities for King to achieve what she wanted most. But this spring, King watching practice through a gap in the fence. on the field. BE READY FOR OPPORTUNITY King, 33, arrived with- out fanfare to the Panthers staff for the orga- nized team activities and will stay through this minicamp, working mostly with the receivers alongside Lance Taylor and Jerricho Cotchery. She is the first female coaching intern ever hired in Carolina, but Panthers head coach Ron Rivera has known of her for a couple of years.

He has worked with the career development symposiums, usually held during the Pro Bowl. King has attended the symposiums for the past couple of years in an effort to wedge her foot in any door she could. went to the NFL Careers forum in Orlando in said King. single out some of the better candidates who might find opportunity, and we get a chance to meet a lot of executives. I met Coach Rivera there.

We kind of connected, and obviously right next Rivera held on to her resume, and she followed up, asking him to speak to some of her athletes in Charlotte. He also gave her some advice: Stay ready, in case the opportunity comes. And in her case, it did. think the most impor- tant thing I learned from him was to be she said. obviously given an opportunity to get a foot in the door.

But you have to be prepared when you get The job is not glamor- ous. King works from 7 a.m. to midnight most days to get all of her work done with the Panthers and with Johnson Wales, and keep up with her film study. But her efforts have made an impression on Rivera already. came in he said.

first week was for her to learn and grow and understand, and then she started to get a little bit more involved, then more and more involved each week. I think important. The more peo- ple you get involved in the game, no matter who they are, I think it really helps build the fan base, GROWING OPPORTUNITY Rivera said he wished he had brought King in earlier in the spring. He also indicated that like to have her stay on the staff through training camp, though he was not sure if that was a possibil- ity when asked this week. But if not now, another chance could come soon.

Women have begun to get more opportunities in the NFL. Sam Rapoport, the director of football development since 2016 and a former player in the Canadian flag football league, works to build pipelines to NFL front offices and in foot- ball operations for qual- ified women. efforts have started to make a differ- ence. A Jennifer Welter, a tackle football player and coach, made history in 2015 when she was hired by the Arizona Cardinals through training camp and the preseason to coach inside linebackers. AMinnesota hired two female scouts and a scout- ing intern in 2017.

AKathryn Smith, a spe- cial teams quality control coach with the Buffalo Bills, became the first woman in a full-time NFL assistant coaching position during the 2016-17 season. A In 2017, the San Fran- cisco 49ers hired Katie Sowers as an offensive assistant, making her the second female full-time assistant coach and the first openly gay NFL coach. AAnd this week, the Baltimore Ravens an- nounced they have hired three women to work in coaching and analytics roles for training camp. King and Rivera are optimistic opportunities for women around the league will continue to grow, through initiatives such as the Bill Walsh Coaching Diversity Fel- lowship, of which Rivera and Sowers are members. grown leaps and King said.

are doing some special things. think the cool thing about is not just that getting opportunity. that the people are actually qualified to be in the position that THE LITTLE GIRLS WHO LOVE goal is to be an offensive coordinator in the NFL. She coaches football where she can, at high schools and middle schools, balancing her tackle football schedule with her basket- ball and football coaching schedules. Just as Rivera advised her, King stays prepared.

And she sees the jour- ney as bigger than herself. so special to see someone in a position that you never thought you could be she said. kind of like (the movie) Black Panther. There never was a black superhero, and now there is. And like, I think this is for the little girls.

I want them to know that if this is what they want to do, they can do Maybe another little girl who loves football will walk past the Panthers practice fields one morn- ing and hear the pads clacking. And maybe that little girl will see King out on those practice fields hold- ing a whistle and a clip- board, and believe that one day, she can be. FROM PAGE 1B KING I THINK THIS IS FOR THE LITTLEGIRLS. I WANT THEM TO KNOW THAT IF THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT TO DO, THEY CAN DO IT. Panthers coaching intern Jennifer King at least $10 million per year, once the network is up and running to move it past the Pac-12 and even with the Big 12.

The ACC believes that, despite the widespread demographic and cultural changes that have seen viewers drop multichannel cable and satellite packag- es. ESPN alone has lost an estimated 16 million sub- scribers since 2011, when it had more than 100 million a massive fi- nancial impact since ESPN charges providers $8 per month for the channel. landscape contin- ues to change and, as said before, I think with the best partner you could possibly ACC commissioner John Swof- ford said last month. whatever all of that looks like, five years from now, 10 years from now, the numbers continue to be encouraging from our Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch, the current chair of the Council of Presidents, declined an interview request. The ACC distributed an average of $26.6 million per school in 2017, with total revenue up 12 per- cent and Notre Dame receiving a fraction of that.

The Pac-12 was at $31.5 million in its most recent financial state- ments, the Big 12 at an estimated $40 million (its official figure of $36.5 million include some tertiary media rights, including Longhorn Network) and the SEC at $40.9 million, while the Big Ten is ex- pected to exceed $50 million. Even beyond the Big 12, not all of those figures can be compared apples-to- apples the ACC include the expenses it reimburses for conference championships, about $1 million per school, while other conferences do but the broad strokes are ac- curate. So easy to see why the network is so impor- tant to the ACC, but what about ESPN, which has issues of its own? The money ESPN makes on the network, a profit-sharing venture with the league, can be used to pay the rights fees ESPN already owes the ACC $236 million in 2017. The better the net- work does, the more deal with the ACC essentially pays for itself. Disney is in the midst of a two-year cycle in which it will renegotiate almost all of its carriage contracts with cable and satellite providers as well as the new wave of online con- tent providers.

In all of those negotiations, the ACC Network has been a priority, both inside and outside the geographical footprint. In any particularly tricky negotiations, ESPN still holds a few trump cards. Back when it was trying to get carriage for ESPN2 in the ESPN moved one of the Duke- North Carolina basketball games to ESPN2. That took care of that. It could do the same now al- though the Clemson- Florida State football game probably carries more weight in football-driven sports universe, a shift the gambit illus- trates.

Last October, two weeks after was in Times Square, Altice and Disney announced a deal that included, among other considerations, full carriage of the ACC Net- work: a win for ESPN, and a bigger win for the ACC as it bets all its chips on the network to close the financial gap laid bare in its latest tax return. Sports columnist Luke DeCock: 919-829-8947, FROM PAGE 1B DECOCK CHUCK BURTON AP think with the best partner you could possibly ACC commissioner John Swofford said about starting the ACC Network with ESPN. him to stop, but he Prosecutors had initially charged Heimlich with two counts of molestation from incidents between 2009 and 2010, and be- tween September 2011 to December 2011, according to the Oregonian. But he ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of molesta- tion between February 2011 and December 2011. admit that I had sex- ual with the girl, Heimlich wrote in his guilty plea, according to the Oregonian.

In 2012, Heimlich re- ceived two years of proba- tion, took court ordered classes and had to register as a Level 1 sex offender for five years. He is no longer registered as a sex offender. The Oregonian revealed the conviction in June 2017 when Oregon State advanced to the College World Series. Heimlich left the team after the story was published. After the season, Ore- gon president said he would support Heim- lich if he decided to return to the team the following year.

Many on Oregon campus protested the decision to allow him to play. Oregon State Uni- versity, we are in the busi- ness of transforming lives and creating opportunity for each Oregon State president Ed Ray said in a statement last year. have always be- lieved that education is a path to a more meaning- ful, responsible and pro- ductive life for everyone. I believe that every indivi- dual should have the op- portunity to get an educa- tion. at OSU, Luke has been in good academ- ic standing, his participa- tion as a student-athlete has been positive, and his presence on the team has been in compliance with existing OSU The News Observer reached out to Oregon Sports Information Department Wednesday morning to request an interview with Heimlich.

A spokesperson said that player availability had ended for Oregon State, and they would have NCAA media availability on Friday. In recent interviews with the New York Times and Sports Illustrated, Heimlich denied he touched his niece. always denied any- thing ever he told the Times in a story published in May. after I pled guilty, which was a decision me and my parents thought was the best option to move for- ward as a family, and after that, even when I was going through counseling and treatment, I main- tained my innocence the whole Heimlich told Sports Illustrated that he pleaded guilty because it was sically a the court of law we really think I stood a fair chance; that was the advice we had been giv- he told SI. we thought that pleading guilty was going to give me the best chance at a normal life, and our family a best chance at recon- necting and being able to just kind of move past this whole The left-handed pitcher has succeeded on the baseball diamond.

Along with his 16 wins, he has struck out 139 batters, which ranks sixth in the country. In the two games he pitched so far in the NCAA tournament, he has pitched 15.2 innings and has given up only two runs. He went 2-0 and struck out 12 batters. Still, Heimlich, 22, and now a senior, was not drafted in last Major League Baseball draft. He was projected in mock drafts to be a first- round pick.

Much of the talk in the College World Series sur- rounding Oregon State will be around Heimlich and his past. When asked about how he approaches that with his team, UNC coach Mike Fox said Heimlich is a very pitch- er. faced some really good left-handed pitchers, throughout the course of the season, so hoping that experi- ence will help us Fox said. going to need to be ready for a pitcher who is really good and has got a wipe-out breaking ball. It will be a great challenge for us, if we face Alexander, 919-829-4822; MARK YLEN AP Oregon Luke Heimlich was a projected first-round pick in the MLB Draft, but went unselected.

FROM PAGE 1B UNC GOING TO NEED TO BEREADY FOR A PITCHER WHO IS REALLY GOOD AND HAS GOT A WIPE-OUT BREAKING BALL. IT WILL BE A GREAT CHALLENGE FOR US, IF WE FACE HIM. UNC coach Mike Fox on possibly facing Oregon State pitcher Luke Heimlich.