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Sacks, lies and videotape
Rosamond High School has been disqualified from the California football playoffs and assistant coach Dan Steen probably won’t win an Oscar for film editing.
Steen admitted to intentionally altering game videos exchanged with opponents for scouting purposes. Orange Lutheran complained that scoring plays had been deleted and two other schools Rosamond defeated - Cathedral and Serrano - also claimed to have altered tapes.
“It’s an ethical issue,” said CIF Southern Section commissioner Dean Crowley. “When a coach makes a mistake under our rules, the kids seem to get penalized. But those kids had an advantage.”
Even after Steen’s confession, Rosamond principal Dick Stockton maintained: “I don’t believe the coaches intended to give any tape that was not a complete tape.” Coach Lon Boyett could not be reached for a similarly boneheaded comment.
“He’s done here,” booster club president Tim Schank said of Boyett. “I’d like to see his head on a silver platter. A mediocre coach could have taken this team and walked through the playoffs.”
Who’s driving the getaway Carr?
After one of his nine blocked shots against the Celtics last week, Heat center Alonzo Mourning mimicked pulling a trigger. He was called for a technical foul and the fans started imitating the gesture.
Celtic coach M.L. Carr pulled Mourning aside on the sideline and told him how inappropriate that was in an age in which children are shooting each other.
“He said, ‘You are absolutely right,”’ Carr said later. “And that showed class to do that.”
The Heat led by 12 after three quarters, when Mourning flexed his right biceps, pointed to it and yelled to the Celtic bench. Boston promptly rallied to beat Miami for the second time in a week.
Proving there are few moral imperatives in the NBA next to winning, after the game a delighted Carr did Mourning’s trigger-pulling gesture.
Captive audience
Winnipeg Jets center Mike Stapleton’s jaw has been wired shut since it was broken by a flying puck a few weeks ago. He’s getting nourishment through a straw.
“You wouldn’t realize how many commercials on TV have to do with food,” he said. “You start to notice.”
Just goo it
Converse Inc. said it would replace pairs of its new RAW Energy basketball sneakers after receiving close to 300 complaints, mostly from athletes who reported slipping on fluid leaking from the soles.
The complaints involve the RAW Energy and RAW Power shoes, more than 400,000 pairs of which have been sold in the United States. The shoes have two silver fluid-filled windows in the forefoot of the sole.
Five people reported being injured from the leaks.
“Nothing is more important to us than the safety, comfort and satisfaction of those who wear Converse products,” said Gib Ford, chairman and chief executive officer.
Especially if they’ve retained lawyers.
The last word …
“I shot so much I’d be in and out of a slump in the same game.”
- Pistons coach and former gunner Doug Collins
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo