BYU Sports

Cougars earn All-America honors

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Six Cougar track and field athletes, led by NCAA 3,000-meter steeplechase champion Kyle Perry, earned All-American honors at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships last week in Fayetteville, Ark.

The honors were announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The six Cougars were among 22 athletes from the Mountain West Conference who were so honored.

In addition to Perry, Bob Low (third, pole vault) and Richard Nelson (10th, 3,000m steeplechase) earned All-America honors for the BYU men. For the BYU women, Cecily Lemmon earned All-America honors for her second-place finish in the 10,000m, with teammates Lacey Cramer (800m, fourth) and Ada Robinson (high jump, fifth) also earning honors.

Other MWC honorees for the men were Nick Frawley (AFA, pole vault, seventh), Chris Barnicle (UNM, 10,000m, 13th), Lee Emanuel (UNM, 1,500m, third), Anthony Fairbanks (UNM, javelin, ninth), Mark Barnes, Mychal Dungey, Otis McDaniel, Justyn Warner (TCU, 4x100m relay, eighth) and Jake Shanklin (Wyomng, hammer, 10th).

For the women other MWC honorees were Sara Neubauer (AFA, discus, shot put, seventh, eighth), Michell Corrigan (UNM, 10,00m, eighth), Katie Coronado (UNM, javelin, 11th), Karoline Koehler (SDSU, long jump, triple jump, second, sixth), Neidra Covington (TCU, triple jump, eighth), Jessica Young (TCU, 100m, second).

• Robison earns region honor: BYU men's track and field head coach Mark Robison was named Mountain Region Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

In his ninth year as head coach at BYU, Robison was also the 2009 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year, leading the Cougars to their 10th straight MWC championship title. The Cougars finished ninth overall at the West Regional meet, returning home with a regional champion in the 3,000m steeplechase by Richard Nelson.

Using that momentum, Robison built up his team advancing to the NCAA Outdoor National Championships where they tied for 13th overall.

• Nine BYU rugby athletes make All-America team: At Boulder, Colo., USA Rugby announced the 2009 Collegiate All-American selections, chosen from a pool of nearly 20,000 men's collegiate players.

For BYU, Shaun Davies (scrumhalf), Byron Folan (center), Paul Lasike (center), Dylan Lubbe (flyhalf), Vito Qaqa (wing), Manti Sua (wing), Apenisa Melani (flanker), Steve St. Pierre (flanker) and Mike Su'a (prop) were named to the All-America team. Cougar Kyle Sumsion (lock) was on the honorable mention list. The All-American program will likely be touring South Africa this summer, but details have not been finalized.

Hockey

Determined Balsillie not giving up

PHOENIX -- Jim Balsillie seems to have as much determination as he does money.

The Canadian billionaire is not giving up his quest to buy the Phoenix Coyotes and move them to Hamilton, Ontario, despite the rejection of his bid by a U.S. bankruptcy judge. While the NHL praised Judge Redfield T. Baum's decision and says it is pursuing a buyer who would keep the team in Arizona, Balsillie's representative Richard Rodier painted the ruling as nothing more than a minor setback.

"The process ebbs and it flows," Rodier said in a conference call on Tuesday. "This is a bit of an ebb, but so what? It's not a sprint, it's a marathon."

Rodier said Balsillie would either amend his bid or submit a new one, pending talks with Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes. Moyes issued a statement Tuesday and continued to align himself with Balsillie, whose offer would return the most money to the embattled owner. Moyes noted that the judge left open revisiting the relocation issue.

"Now the most important thing for us to do is work towards an open and transparent sales process that will result in obtaining the most money for the team's creditors," Moyes said.

• Welcome home: Wild unveil new coach: At St. Paul, Minn., Todd Richards represents the current NHL coaching trend: Inexperience is insignificant. Richards has returned home to coach the Wild, and the Minnesota native brings with him the promise that the team will play a more exciting, up-tempo style.

He also carries the humility of a playing career consisting of eight NHL games -- and a dozen years in the minor leagues.

"You always imagine yourself or picture yourself as a star in the NHL," Richards said. "I wasn't able to do that, but other avenues have opened up for me and this has been a great opportunity."

He's the latest hire with limited NHL coaching experience, a line on the resume that was far less important to new Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher than philosophy, intuition, and personality.

"I truly believe that talent is the most important thing. ... How you deal with people, how you communicate, how you get the players to buy in and execute, your understanding of the game, your integrity," Fletcher said. "I think your skill set and your overall talent takes precedence over experience."

Richards was introduced Tuesday as the second head coach in the franchise's nine-year history, completing a new power structure that began with Craig Leipold's purchase of the team 1 ½ years ago. Fletcher was hired last month, when Richards immediately became a front-runner for this job despite only one season as an NHL assistant coach with the San Jose Sharks.

"As I was interviewing people for the general manager's job, of the 12 people ... I would say eight or nine of them mentioned Todd as someone they would look very seriously at," Leipold said.

That included, of course, Fletcher, who as assistant general manager in Pittsburgh was in charge of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton team in the American Hockey League. Richards was the head coach there for two seasons before leaving for San Jose, so he's been through the tell-me-about-yourself process with Fletcher twice.

NBA

Donors to pay most of L.A. costs for Lakers parade

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday defended the decision to stage a victory parade for the NBA champion Lakers, saying it's important to celebrate even at a time of high unemployment and home foreclosures.

Villaraigosa said that some of the city's wealthiest power brokers have kicked in $850,000 of nearly $1 million in city costs for today's parade and rally. The Lakers and AEG, which owns Staples Center, are paying for another $1 million in production costs.

"We intend to do everything we can to minimize the cost to the city," the mayor said at a news conference on the Lakers' practice court in El Segundo. "If we hadn't had a parade, you've have a whole other bevy of people criticizing the city. How could we do that? How could we not celebrate this tremendous Laker victory?"

Villaraigosa identified the private donors as Casey and Laura Wasserman, Jerry and Margie Perenchio, Haim and Cheryl Saban, Eli and Edythe Broad, Joe and Sharon Hernandez of Melissa's Fruits and Vegetables, Ed and Gayle Roski and the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Highland, Calif.

Casey Wasserman is the former owner of the defunct Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League; Jerry Perenchio is former chairman and CEO of Spanish-language Univision; Haim Saban bought Univision from Perenchio and his entertainment company produced the "Power Rangers" children's television show; Eli Broad is a billionaire developer who supports the arts in Los Angeles and is trying to bring an NFL team back to the city; Joe and Sharon Hernandez's company is a major distributor of specialty produce; and Ed Roski is a billionaire developer whose Majestic Realty Co. helped develop Staples Center.

"We're going to come together as a city at a time when we need to come together," Villaraigosa said. "The reason why so many people from the private sector came forward is because they know this town deserves to revel in itself for a day. We need it."

• TV ratings for NBA finals down from last year: Television ratings for the NBA finals are down from last year. The five games on ABC between the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic averaged an 8.4 rating. That's down close to 10 percent from last season's 9.3 for the six-game Lakers-Celtics series, which was boosted by Boston's large market and traditional rivalry with LA.

It's still up 35 percent from the record-lo w 6.2 for San Antonio's sweep of Cleveland two years ago.

The five games averaged nearly 14 million viewers and were the five most-watched programs so far in June.

Ratings represent the percentage of all households with televisions tuned into a program.

College Basketball

Clemson, Purnell agree to 2-year extension

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Clemson coach Oliver Purnell has agreed to a two-year contract extension that will keep him with the Tigers through 2016.

While the deal hasn't been signed, Purnell and athletic director Terry Don Phillips have signed a memorandum of understanding dated June 1 that outlines the improved package.

Purnell's base salary jumped $50,000 a year to $275,000. His supplemental income improved to $1.075 million each year, up from $775,000 guaranteed in a two-year extension agreed to in 2008.

Purnell will also receive deferred compensation of $250,000 a year in 2015 and 2016, money the coach would receive unless he left the school voluntarily or was fired for cause.

The Tigers coach would owe the school $250,000 if he left after April 30 for another Division I head coaching job. That payback amount would increase by $250,000 each year until reaching $1.5 million should Purnell depart for a Division I job after April 30, 2015.