LSU Fans + Bama Fan + Alcohol + Pistol + Shotgun = Double Murder

EGADS:

Investigators said witnesses told them that Dennis Smith, an LSU fan, called Williams, a fan of the Crimson Tide, after the game Saturday evening and an argument ensued.

Officers said Donna Smith was a relative of Michael Williams' girlfriend.

Soon, the Smiths arrived at Williams' home and the men wound up in a physical altercation, officers said.

Smith retrieved a pistol from his vehicle, and threatened Williams, who armed himself with a shotgun and fired two blasts, striking and killing Dennis Smith, officers said.

Donna Smith then threatened Williams, who shot and killed the woman, they said.

Investigators said alcohol was believed to have been a factor in the killings, and the investigation was ongoing late Sunday.

What a shock. . .

Failed Drug Tests, Shoplifting Charges, and Deferred Justice

Failed drug tests in the North Texas football program do not indicate a drug problem, says their coach:

Fifteen University of North Texas football players failed a drug test conducted this fall at the request of head coach Todd Dodge, according to documents obtained by the Denton Record-Chronicle through the Freedom of Information Act.

Drug tests were conducted on a pool of 86 football players selected by the coaching staff. UNT tested members of the team who were contributing on a regular basis. Fifteen of those tests, or 17 percent, were positive.

The university did not release the names of the players or what drugs they tested positive for.

“I don’t think we have a problem with drugs, but I will say that it’s every coach’s prerogative to test his team,” Dodge said. “It’s a great tool to help players stay away from drugs and temptations. When I talked to my team about drug testing all of them, I told them that if there was one young man on our team who secretly needed help, if it saved one young man from getting in trouble or ending up dead, then it is worth it.”

Two of the Nevada basketball players arrested for shoplifting earlier in the month have plead not guilty:

Nevada starting guard Brandon Fields and freshman forward Ahyaro Phillips have pleaded not guilty to a shoplifting charge stemming from an incident earlier this month at a Sparks sporting goods store.

In the same case involving a Scheels store, freshman point guard London Giles pleaded guilty Wednesday to petty larceny, and was fined $350 plus court costs of $107.

All three players have been suspended indefinitely by coach Mark Fox.

Charges have been filed in the hit-and-run accident which killed Jayson Ray, a UNC mascot, last spring:

A Paramus man was indicted today on charges that he struck and killed a University of North Carolina mascot with his SUV last year.

Armen Hovsepian’s driver’s license was suspended when the Mercury Mountaineer he was driving hit Tar Heels mascot Jayson Ray in March 2007 as he walked along a shoulder on Route 4 East, Bergen County prosecutors said.

Ray, 21, and his team were staying in a nearby hotel for the NCAA East Regional finals.

Hovsepian’s 52-year-old father, Gajik, told authorities that he was the one who was driving the SUV, and based on his statements, investigators ruled the crash accidental, police said at the time.

Several months later, investigators received a tip from a witness that it was the son who was the driver, they said.

Virginia Tech: Remembering the 32

But enough scandal already. I have commented in the past how sports events can serve as a focus point for healing communities. At Virginia Tech, the wounds are still raw and fresh, but Saturday's home opener in football will hopefully provide an opportunity for some of those wounds to be be healed:

Beamer, Hokies strive for emotional balance in opener

By Mark Schlabach
ESPN.com

Updated: August 29, 2007, 4:56 PM ET

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer knows Saturday's opener against East Carolina at Lane Stadium will be as emotional as any game he's coached in two decades at his alma mater.

Tears will be shed. The 32 victims of the horrific April 16 campus shooting will be remembered.

But at the same time, Beamer knows his No. 9 Hokies have to win a ballgame, too.

"We assume that just because there's going to be a great atmosphere in the stadium that everything is going to be OK," Beamer said. "I don't think we can assume that. We've got to make sure we take care of our business as a football team."

The Hokies have tried to find a delicate balance as they prepare for the beginning of a season filled with such great possibilities. While the Virginia Tech campus is filled with the excitement and potential of a new football season, the damage done by a lone gunman on that cold, blustery April morning is still fresh in the minds of everyone here. . . .

"We're playing for somebody else, not only ourselves," linebacker Vince Hall said. "We're playing for the victims and their families. We're playing for everybody."

Other schools have looked to athletics as outlets of recovery in the past. In 1966, Texas played Southern Cal only 47 days after Charles Whitman, a former Marine, stood atop the observation deck of the University of Texas Tower and shot 47 people with his rifle. Whitman killed 14 people before he was shot and killed by police.

Four years later, on Nov. 14, 1970, while the Marshall University football team was returning to campus in Huntington, W.Va., its chartered Southern DC-9 jet crashed into a hill near the airport. All 75 passengers were killed, including 37 players and eight members of the Thundering Herd's coaching staff. It was the greatest tragedy in the history of the American sports. . . .

More recently, Texas A&M and Tulane looked to sports for healing or, if nothing else, a distraction.

Building a massive bonfire before the Texas game had been a tradition at Texas A&M for 90 years. But on Nov. 18, 1999, a week before the bonfire was to be lit on Thanksgiving night, the 40-foot high stack of nearly 5,000 logs collapsed while it was being constructed by students. The accident killed 12 students and injured 27 others. The school's football team and Corps of Cadets helped emergency workers remove logs to rescue the injured and remove bodies.

A week later, on the night the bonfire was to be lit, more than 40,000 people gathered at the accident site and observed more than two hours of silence. The crowd then walked to Kyle Field for the traditional midnight yell practice, where the crowd spontaneously relit their candles to honor the students who died. The following morning, the Aggies upset the No. 5 Longhorns 20-16 in what was perhaps the most emotional game ever played in College Station, Texas. . .

Elsewhere, Southern Methodist University is one of the many schools who also be remembering the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre on Saturday:

SMU athletes to accept donations for Virginia Tech during game

Associated Press

Updated: August 29, 2007, 6:52 PM ET

DALLAS -- Southern Methodist University student athletes plan to accept donations during Monday's football game to give to Virginia Tech to distribute to the survivors and families of those killed during a mass shooting last spring.

The athletes will be stationed at each of the gates of Ford Stadium during the game with Texas Tech to accept donations and distribute white balloons to be released following a moment of silence before the game.

Virginia Tech president Charles W. Steger said he was thankful for the support.

"Such expressions of care and compassion during our darkest hours have lighted our road to recovery. We are forever grateful for your support and kindness," Steger said. . . .

The school has received more than $7 million in contributions that are to be distributed among the injured and families of those killed.

Sports, Community, and Healing

During moments of incomprehensible loss, sports events can become powerful focal points for healing communities:

BLACKSBURG - On a perfect football afternoon at Virginia Tech, Lane Stadium sat empty.

But thousands of fans who had booked hotels with plans to attend Saturday's annual spring game kept their reservations. Even after the scrimmage was canceled following the deaths of 32 victims here, Hokie fans simply showed up to pay respects and show support.

There were overflow crowds at Virginia Tech's baseball and softball games, which went on as scheduled. There were passers-by who posed for pictures in front of the castle-like football stadium.

There was a single crew of tailgaters, refusing to stop doing what Hokies do, in a parking lot where there should have been hundreds of grills going and coolers crammed with cold ones.

In Pennsylvania, at one of the country's most storied stadiums, there was a stunning display of love for Virginia Tech.

This is not a tale of what people didn't do Saturday. It's a story of what they did. . . .

Solidarity and support has extended into all levels of intercollegiate sports, perhaps most notably at Penn State’s annual blue and white game:

UNIVERSITY PARK – Penn State’s annual rite of spring – the Blue-White Game – became more a tribute to Virginia Tech’s Chicago maroon and burnt orange on Saturday.

Students spell out VT in colored T-shirts in the stands at the Blue-White Game to show their support for the victims of the mass shootings at Virginia Tech. Approximately 71,000 were on hand at Beaver Stadium to watch Penn State’s spring football game.

And Joe Paterno couldn’t have been prouder.

A large portion of the estimated 71,000 fans on hand at Beaver Stadium wore some form of Hokies’ school colors as a way of honoring the 32 victims of Monday’s tragic shootings on the Blacksburg, Va., campus.

“To see all these kids and all these people around campus,” Paterno said, his voice filling with emotion, “there’s something about intercollegiate athletics that’s special. You’re almost fascinated by it and proud to be a part of it.

“It’s a better world than we think it is.”

NUFF SAID

Michael Pohle 1984-2007

Among the victims of the Virginia Tech Massacre was senior Michael Pohle, of Flemington NJ, who played football and lacrosse at Hunterdon Central and on the Hokies club Lacrosse team. The following article is a touching and tragic look at one of the lives cut short on Monday:

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 17 There was a trivia game Mike Pohle and his fiancee, Marcy Crevonis, liked to play called Imaginiff, where they took turns posing silly questions: Imagine if you were a circus performer, what would you be? Imagine if you were a car, a color, a movie. They had their own version of the game, too, where they imagined the life they planned to spend together. Mike already had named the five children they would have.

He was 23 when he was killed in his Monday morning German class at Virginia Tech.

She is 19, left trying to imagine a life without him.

Michael Stephen Pohle Jr. was due to graduate with a degree in biochemistry in just three weeks, worrying about finding the right job and staying close to Marcy, a freshman who graduated from Langley High in McLean and met him at a mutual friend's party last fall. They argued over their favorite sports teams, and were inseparable from then on. She gave him a Phillies jersey last Christmas, and he slept in it every night. Yesterday she went back to his apartment and put it on, inhaling the lost scent of him as she lay on his empty bed and wept. . . .

Four Notes

I. There was a tragedy in the basketball world on Monday which was, naturally, eclipsed by the massacre at Virginia Tech. Guy Alang-Ntang, a forward from Cameroon who currently plays at New Hampton High and was recruited by Wichita State, collapsed on the court during a pickup game, and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Keep him and his family, friends, teammates and classmates in your thoughts and prayers.

II. SportsProf made an excellent post yesterday on how St. Louis University provides an excellent example of how NOT to play on the coaching carousel.

III. A search warrant filed in Hennepin County District Court has revealed a few more details in the case of the three University of Minnesota football players suspected of raping an 18-year old woman last week. Evidence seized included bedding, cell phones, couch cushions, mattress pads, and used condoms. It was also revealed that the victim had drank heavily at a party in the players’ apartment, and that the players sent her text messages after the incident which may very well be crucial evidence. The investigation remains open and any DNA evidence will likely be available in June.

IV. I praised Steve Spurrier several days ago, but, as fair is fair, I must rip him today. On early Sunday morning, several South Carolina football players were involved in a confrontation with gang members. This ended with running back Cory Boyd firing shots into the air, and gang members returning fire. Boyd was suspended for the 2005 season for violating team policy. This news breaks on the same day that Spurrier reinstated freshman quarterback Steve Garcia. Garcia was arrested on February 17 and charged with drunkenness and failing to stop for a police officer. He was suspended, reinstated shortly afterwards, and then arrested on March 3 for malicious injury to personal property (he keyed a Professor’s car). Insufficient and ineffectual discipline appears to be a pattern in the South Carolina football program Steve, and it is time that you cleaned things up.