Fast Break
Prep Baseball
Sharkey will coach Ferris
Jim Sharkey (above) will add to his coaching duties at Ferris this spring when the Saxons’ football coach takes over baseball.
He replaces longtime Ferris mentor John Thacker, who retired as coach following a 28-year Hall of Fame career.
Ferris activities coordinator Mike Syron said that Sharkey’s hiring was approved in late October.
“He coached baseball at Waitsburg and Woodland,” Syron said. “Waitsburg went to regionals twice and Woodland made its first postseason appearance in 10 years in 2000.”
Thacker became Ferris head coach in 1981 and compiled a 309-165 Greater Spokane League record with nine league titles. His teams qualified for district playoffs 26 times, made 13 regional appearances and had two top-three state places.
Colleges
Leaf quits amid investigation
Former NFL and Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf has resigned as an assistant football coach and head golf coach at West Texas A&M after police began an investigation of a minor drug allegation made against Leaf
Earlier this week Leaf had been placed on leave from his job at West Texas A&M. It had been reported that Leaf acknowledged he had asked a player for a pill to help him deal with pain in his wrist from an old football injury.
Canyon police Chief Bobby Griffin said the investigation is in its preliminary stages, but he confirmed the allegation was that Leaf obtained a controlled substance by fraudulent means.
“We are trying to determine whether anything like that happened,” Griffin said. “There is not enough information or facts to say we have a crime being committed or not.”
Leaf did not immediately respond to a message left by the Associated Press and Griffin said the police have not interviewed him.
College basketball
Some new executive orders
New Oregon State men’s coach Craig Robinson missed team practice Tuesday. Instead, he was in Chicago to play pickup, eat dinner and appear onstage with his brother-in-law, Barack Obama.
Here are some suggestions for the Beavers’ coach, now back in Corvallis as the First-Brother-in-Law-Elect, for resurrecting a program with only one winning season since George H.W. Bush was America’s First Fan:
•Recruiting icebreaker: “Want to meet Barry?”
•State of the Union shout out: “I’m a ‘Beaver believer!”
•Total deregulation of Duck hunting.
•NSA eavesdrops on opponent huddles.
•Presidential pardons keep “everybody” eligible.
•Work refs by murmuring “IRS audit” and “wiretap.”
•Newly nationalized NCAA selection committee based in Corvallis.