Beavers Already Realize A Benefit From Erickson

New football coach Dennis Erickson is already producing favorable results at Oregon State.

“In the first week we sold about 2,000 season tickets and about 1,400 of those were new,” ticket manager Joe Sharpe said. “Upon the announcement of Erickson, everything just flew off the handle. We were on the phones for 4 or 5 straight days from 8:30 to 4:30 every day.”

Erickson’s pull goes beyond Oregon.

“We’ve got people from Seattle, San Diego, Tampa,” Sharpe said. “We got a group of about 20 guys in Boulder (Colo.).”

OSU typically sells 7,500 season tickets. The school record is 8,800. Erickson has the Beavers setting higher goals.

“Anything less than 10,000 would be a disappointment,” Sharpe said.

Erickson replaced another popular coach, Mike Riley. But Riley didn’t impact ticket sales like Erickson, the former head coach at Idaho, Washington State and with the Seattle Seahawks.

“I’ve been here 25 years and nothing has happened, other than the great success of Ralph Miller’s basketball teams when we were ranked No. 1, to excite the whole populous since then,” OSU sports information director Hal Cowan said.

“It’s gone from almost despair from losing Riley to the (San Diego) Chargers - and people thinking the program is ruined - to people rejoicing.”

Panhandling

Tech. Sgt. Rich Visintainer, one of the four airmen killed in the KC-135 tanker crash in Germany two weeks ago, played baseball at North Idaho College in the early 1970s for then-coach Jack Bloxom.

After his playing days, Visintainer and Bloxom became close friends. In recent years, though, Visintainer’s career demanded most of his time. Bloxom’s wife and Visintainer’s wife went through nursing school together.

“It’s been hard on us,” Bloxom said. “That (flying) was his life. He thought it was absolutely the greatest.”

Visintainer was “a good ballplayer and an extremely aggressive player,” Bloxom said. “He was 22 when he came here because he’d been in the Air Force for four years.”

Bloxom said Visintainer, who was nearly bald when he arrived at NIC, “is the only guy ever on my teams that the waitress gave him the ticket for meals.”

NIC observed a moment of silence for the four crew members at a recent basketball game. Long-time P.A. announcer Dick Raymond was Visintainer’s instructor in an NIC biology class.

For NIC guard Jerry Petty, it’s not the shoes. It’s what’s under the shoes. Petty, bothered by a lingering foot injury, received a unique tape job from a specialist in town last week and he was able to play close to full strength.

“It’s still painful; nothing’s going to help it but rest,” Petty said. “The bones are separated. It’s a rare case, but the tape pushes the bones back in place.”

Petty didn’t remove the tape for three days on the road trip because it wouldn’t have been possible to retape it as securely. “I still had to take showers,” he cracked. “I didn’t want to mess up everybody’s day!”

NIC’s sweep last week brightened the Cardinals’ postseason hopes. It marked the first two-game conference road sweep in coach Hugh Watson’s three seasons.

The Cards, by the way, haven’t missed the Region 18 Tournament since 1982-83, according to stat guru Jerry Ryan. NIC was 19-10 that season.

Former Post Falls basketball star Chad Quesnell has quit the Walla Walla Community College team. “It just didn’t work out for him,” said his dad, Wade, Post Falls’ coach. “It wasn’t a good fit for him.”

Quesnell is sitting out this semester. Several coaches have contacted Quesnell about playing next winter.

“I hope he wants to, but that’s a decision he’s going to have to make,” Wade said.

The Idaho women’s basketball team could hardly be more middle-of-the-pack. The Vandals (9-8) are No. 153 in the RPI out of 304 teams. The UI men (9-7) were 174th prior to wins over Utah State and Nevada last week.

North coach Lloyd Carr generously gave Idaho’s Joel Thomas ZERO carries in the Hooters Hula Bowl Sunday. Nice. Thomas did catch one pass for 17 yards. Shockingly, Carr’s own running back, Michigan’s Clarence Williams, had a team-high nine carries.

Grad school

Former Lake City star Melissa Dodge, a senior forward at Vermont, is averaging 5.8 points and 4.6 rebounds. She started in roughly half of Vermont’s 17 games and averages nearly 20 minutes per game.

She’s shooting 48.1 percent - the best in her four years - and had a career-high 11 points against Siena in December. She scored in double figures five straight games in December, but hasn’t reached double digits in the last eight games.

Front row

It’s not just a game; it’s the battle for the Prairie Pig. Lakeland and Post Falls square off tonight in Post Falls with the school showing the most spirit winning a battery-operated pig. The girls play at 6, boys at 7:45.

Moscow and Coeur d’Alene play a key Border League girls game Friday at 7:45 p.m. at CdA. With two games remaining, the Vikings can earn a tournament seeding anywhere between first and fourth.

Also Friday at 7:45, North Idaho College entertains Ricks in wrestling. The Vikings won the first dual, 31-14, two months ago in Rexburg.