Winston-Salem, N.C. – Dino Gaudio has taken over for Skip Prosser before.
More than two decades ago, Gaudio replaced Prosser at a parochial high school in West Virginia and eventually led that basketball team to a state title. On Wednesday, Wake Forest chose Gaudio to again take Prosser’s place, this time to replace his late mentor at the Atlantic Coast Conference school.
Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman, who signed Gaudio to a five-year contract, praised the 50-year-old coach for his strength during the two weeks of grieving that followed Prosser’s July 26 death from an apparent heart attack. While making such a long-term commitment to a coach with a career record of only 68-124 (at Army and Loyola of Maryland) might appear unusual, Wellman hired Prosser’s longtime top assistant.
BOXING
Castro concerned about defections
Fidel Castro might bar Cuban boxers from competing in the world championships in Chicago and other qualifying events leading to the 2008 Beijing Olympics to prevent possible defections.
Castro wrote in a column in official newspapers that two Cuban boxers who disappeared during the Pan American Games in Brazil last month, only to be arrested and sent back to the island, “had reached the point of no return” with the national boxing team.
Guillermo Rigondeaux, a two-time Olympic bantamweight champion, and Erislandy Lara, a welterweight world champion, arrived Sunday in Cuba. They were sent to state guest houses for more than two days, then released while the communist government decides what to do with them.
GOLF
Youngsters advance at U.S. Amateur
In the first 106 years of the U.S. Women’s Amateur, no preteen had reached match play.
Now there are two and they will face each other today.
Alexis Thompson of Coral Springs, Fla., and Pearl Jin of San Gabriel, Calif., ousted older opponents to set up a second-round showdown between 12-year-olds at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind.
Jin, who took up golf at age 8 – after earning a black belt in taekwondo – beat 20-year-old Ashley Tait of Littleton 2 and 1 in the first round while Thompson beat 17-year-old Evan Jensen of Belleair, Fla., 3 and 2.
COLLEGES
New coach takes over at Ball State
Billy Taylor was introduced as the Ball State men’s basketball coach, giving him about three months to prepare while the program deals with possible NCAA violations and claims of a “racially hostile work environment” by former coach Ronny Thompson.
Taylor was 81-69 in five seasons at Lehigh, including a Patriot League championship in 2004. Now he takes over a team that went 9-22 in Thompson’s only season.
Former Florida A&M basketball coach Willie Booker, who had just started a new job as athletic director at Palm Beach (Fla.) Community College, died. He was 65.
Elmer Gross, who coached the Penn State basketball team to the 1954 Final Four and reached the NCAA Tournament as both a player and coach, died. He was 90.
Texas freshman defensive tackle Andre Jones, arrested on a felony robbery charge, has posted bail and been released from jail.
FOOTNOTES
Staal brothers offered plea deals
Carolina Hurricanes star Eric Staal and his brother Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh Penguins have been offered plea deals stemming from their arrests at Eric Staal’s bachelor party in Minnesota last month.
Their agent said the prosecutor in Cook County, Minn., offered to settle the case by having the Staals plead guilty to a petty misdemeanor for disorderly conduct.
Veteran Luke Richardson signed a one-year contract with his hometown Ottawa Senators.
Another Kazakh rider from the Astana cycling team has tested positive for blood doping. Andrej Kashechkin tested positive for a banned blood transfusion during an unannounced check on Aug. 1 in Belek, Turkey, the team said. He has been suspended from the team pending an analysis of his backup “B” sample.
The Milwaukee Bucks signed guard-forward Awvee Storey to a multiyear contract.
Gato Del Sol, the winner of the 1982 Kentucky Derby and the second-oldest living Derby champion, died at 28 of age-related infirmities.
