Fast Break

NBA

Sonics rookie, coach toasted

P.J. Carlesimo will return to coach the SuperSonics next season and he will be coaching the reigning rookie of the year, Kevin Durant.

At an event introducing Durant as the NBA Rookie of the Year, GM Sam Presti declared what Carlesimo didn’t know.

“Will he come back?” the youngest GM in the league was asked.

“Absolutely,” Presti said.

Durant, the youngest player in the league at 19 was a bright spot during a dismal basketball season in Seattle. The Sonics won only 20 games, and team owner Clay Bennett recently got league approval to move the team to Oklahoma City.

Baseball

Sandberg has date at Wrigley

Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg will be back in uniform at Wrigley Field for the first time in more than a decade.

Sandberg, the Spokane native who last played at Wrigley with the Cubs on Sept. 21, 1997, will return on July 29 as the manager of the Peoria Chiefs when the Cubs’ Class A affiliate plays Kane County.

“It’s pretty ironic,” Sandberg said. “It just comes down to you never know what’s going to happen in this game if you stay in it long enough.”

Prep soccer

Have soccer ball, will (must) travel

University and Gonzaga Prep, left in the dark, went to extraordinary lengths Wednesday to complete their first-round District 8 4A boys soccer playoff match.

“It was probably the only GSL soccer game in history to take nearly three hours to play and two different sites to finish,” said Titans activities coordinator Ken VanSickle.

Originally scheduled for 7 p.m. at Joe Albi Stadium, the match was halted by darkness midway through the second half when it was discovered there was no power to the lights. After a long delay and discussion, it was agreed to move to G-Prep where the Titans finished a 6-1 victory around 10 p.m.

The District 81 maintenance department had turned off power over the winter and installed locks on switches at the main circuit breaker.

By rule, the match could have been declared official at that point with U-Hi ahead 4-1, but G-Prep coach Matt Kinder felt he owed it to his players to complete the contest.

Lights have been restored at Albi for today’s second round pitting Ferris against the Titans at 5 p.m. followed at 7 by the Mead-Central Valley title match.

Mike Vlahovich