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Thursday, May 15

High school baseball

[MAY 15, 2003] 

At Ashland

Illini Central     101 323 0 - 9-11-2

AC Central      200 400 1 - 7-10-2

Trevor Scott (W, 1-0), Matt Birch (6), Chris Norton (7) and Travis Scott.  Josh Leinberger (L), Mahoney (6) and Puppes.

Record - Illini Central 14-7.

At Mount Pulaski

Argenta-Oreana     320 000 0 - 5-6-5

Mount Pulaski        321 000 x - 6-8-3

Kerr (L), Pruett (4) and Tibbs; Brian Clements (W, 5-0), John Foley (6), Colton McClellan (7) and Cameron McClellan.

Hitting star - Mount Pulaski - Justin Anderson (2 RBIs).

Records - Argenta-Oreana 12-9; Mount Pulaski 17-5.

Jay Price added to Illini hoops staff

[MAY 15, 2003]  CHAMPAIGN -- Illinois head coach Bruce Weber announced on Wednesday the hiring of Jay Price as an assistant coach on the Fighting Illini basketball staff.

Price comes to Illinois after spending the past 10 years as an assistant coach at Purdue under Gene Keady. In addition to his normal coaching and scouting duties, Price served as Purdue's recruiting coordinator and oversaw summer basketball camps, team travel and scheduling. During his time at Purdue the Boilermakers compiled a record of 220-105 (.677), winning three Big Ten championships and earning eight NCAA Tournament berths.

Weber and Price worked together as assistants on the Purdue staff for five seasons, from 1994-98.

"I'm extremely excited to have Jay Price join our staff and look forward to working with him again," Weber said. "He's one of the most experienced coaches in the Big Ten and knows what it takes to be successful in our conference. Jay is a very hard worker who will prove to be quite an asset at Illinois, as he has experience in every aspect of helping run a college program, including recruiting, scheduling, travel, summer camps, scouting and player development."

Price began his coaching career with a two-year stint as an assistant at Oklahoma under former coach Billy Tubbs before going to Purdue. During that time, he also served as manager for the U.S. Olympic men's basketball "Dream Team" while the squad practiced in the United States during the summer of 1992.

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A native of Oklahoma City, Okla., Price was a basketball manager at Kansas for four years under former coaches Larry Brown and Roy Williams, serving as head manager for Williams as both a junior and senior. During his time at Kansas, the Jayhawks won the national championship in 1988 and finished as national runner-up in 1991.

Price, 34, received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Kansas in 1991. He and his wife, Beth, have a 1-year-old daughter, Katherine.

Born: March 30, 1969

Hometown: Oklahoma City, Okla.

High School: Casady Prep

College: University of Kansas; bachelor’s degree in journalism, 1991

Family: Wife, Beth; daughter, Katherine, 1

Coaching experience:

1992 -- University of Oklahoma, volunteer assistant coach

1993 -- University of Oklahoma, assistant coach

1994-2003 -- Purdue University, assistant coach

[Kent Brown, assistant athletics director
and sports information director,
University of Illinois]

Articles from the past week

[MAY 12, 2003]  The first Cards-Cubs series ended in a push. The Redbirds set the tone by winning the first game 6-3. However, the Cubbies came back in dramatic fashion to take the second game 3-2 on a walk-off homer by Alex Gonzalez. Then on Sunday, with St. Louis leading 11-9 in a pitching duel and defensive struggle, the rains came and washed the Cards' victory away. But that's NOT the bad news.

While Chicago was flailing with the Brewers and the Cards were collapsing in Cincinnati, the Houston Astros as well as the Reds moved right back into the race. So, instead of Chicago and St. Louis pulling away from the pack, they've let the pack right back into the race, which is something that this amateur reporter thinks that both teams will regret.

The Cubs now start a brutal two-week road trip. They will need to go about .500 if they have serious title intentions.

We believe that A-Gon's long tater was his third of the year in like fashion. What's up with this guy in the clutch situations? And why not save some of these heroics for the Reds and especially the Astros?

To former Cub Rafael Palmeiro, who became just the 19th player in baseball history to reach the No. 500 home run plateau! He may reach the 3,000 career hits mark too. So, why all the negativity and the hate towards Raffy? All these sports shows say he doesn't deserve the Hall of Fame. In my book, if someone reaches baseball's magic numbers -- and 500 homers and 3,000 hits are surely some of those numbers with mystic -- they deserve to be in the Hall!

Feeling like St. Louis didn't have enough injuries, Eli Marrero went down with a severely sprained ankle in the rain-postponed game on Sunday. Before that incident J.D. Drew was pulled from the contest with a stiff back. He will see the chiropractor today and expects to be ready for Tuesday night's home tilt with the Reds.

If we're reading the calendar correctly, the Cards play 20 of their next 26 in the friendly confines of Busch Stadium. Winning 15 or more of those could go a long way in giving the Birds a chance to fight it out among the leaders all summer. However, if the injuries continue to mount and they continue to find no answers from the pen, they may be able to scratch their playoff invitations by the All-Star break.

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Lakers win one for Phil

The Los Angeles Lakers won one for their coach and the Sacramento Kings won one for themselves  as A.I. put his 76ers on his back and all three teams evened their playoff marks to 2-2. In the last remaining series, the Nets have the Celtics on life support as Boston trails New Jersey 3-0. It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, can win some road games and maybe steal a game or a series.

While his soon-to-be-graduated Railers ink college deals, Lincoln Railer coach Neil Alexander has already turned the page to next season. In an early morning interview, the LDN has learned that the Railer summer schedule is already set. The highlight of the vacation months will be the annual trip south for the HUGE tournament that Lincoln always fares well in. Through the years this tourney has been in Tennessee or Kentucky, but this year the event moves to Evansville, Ind.

Coach "Al" also reports that it is his feeling that the CS8 will be very competitive next season. He says that many have already ruled the Railers out with the loss of nine seniors. Not so fast, my friend, at least for the Lincoln coach. He thinks the Railers will be gritty and fight their way to success. This is one reporter who's not going to argue with 12-13 years of success! Good luck, Railers!

[Jeff Mayfield]

• Last week: How 'bout those Cardinals

• Archived columns

Announcements

Basketball camp dates announced

[MAY 14, 2003]  NORMAL -- First-year Illinois State head basketball coach Porter Moser has announced his camp dates for the summer of 2003.

Moser and his Redbird staff will host three camps this summer, with a pair of day camps and one team camp.

The first day camp runs June 16-19 and is for boys entering grades 1-12. The second day camp is open to boys entering grades 1-8 and is scheduled for July 15-18. The day camps are designed for commuters only and focus on the basic fundamentals of dribbling, passing, shooting, rebounding, defense and game play.

The cost for either day camp is $170. Each camper receives a basketball and a T-shirt.

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The team camp, which caters to high school and junior high teams with boys entering grades 6-12, will be June 20-22. The camp format is round-robin and tournament team play.

The cost for the team camp is $170 for commuters and $205 for resident campers. Each will receive a camp T-shirt.

For more information about the basketball camps, call the Redbird men's basketball office at (309) 438-8681 or click here for an application form.

[Click here to download the Adobe Acrobat reader for the PDF file.]

[Todd Kober, director of media relations,
Illinois State University]

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