GENERALX.2-B001-GVU-11152012

B1 | Thursday, November 15, 2012 | The Union

SPORTSNATIONAL

Olympian Franklin signs to swim for Cal

Missy Franklin pranked California women’s swimming coach Teri McKeever when it came time for the five-time Olympic medalist to announce her choice of college.

The 17-year-old led McKeever into thinking she had lost out on arguably the most decorated recruit to enter college swimming.

“My heart sank for about 30 seconds until she cleared it up,” McKeever said by phone.

Franklin made it official on Wednesday, signing a national letter of intent to swim for the Golden Bears starting next September. The Centennial, Colo., resident plans to swim collegiately for two years and then turn pro before the 2016 Rio Olympics.

McKeever said the plan is for Franklin to earn her college degree and continue training with the Bears as part of their post-graduate ranks, which have included Olympic champions Natalie Coughlin and Dana Vollmer.

Franklin joins a Cal team that is the two-time defending NCAA champion. She was part of a recruiting class that included five other swimmers and a diver.

Franklin’s signing capped a busy week for the teenager who won four gold medals and a bronze at the London Olympics under McKeever, who was the U.S. women’s coach. Franklin swept the backstroke events in London, with her other three medals coming on relays.

She won five events at last weekend’s Minneapolis Grand Prix, her first meet since the games, and then was in New York on Tuesday night to be honored at Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year awards.

“She’s very talented, she’s done some amazing things,” McKeever said. “I’m impressed with her character, drive, and perspective of the sport.”

Basketball wants more teams, 3-on-3 event at Rio

GENEVA — Basketball’s governing body will ask the IOC to add four men’s teams for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and introduce the 3-on-3 game as a medal event.

FIBA says its ruling board will request a 16-team men’s competition being played in two arenas instead of one.

FIBA says a natural bracket of four-team groups, rather than six, means fewer matches and keeps players fresher.

Even phone calls stop between NHL and union

NEW YORK — Now the NHL and the locked-out players’ association aren’t even talking by phone.

With the lockout about to enter its third month, communications between the fighting sides have come to a halt with no clear sign of what the next step will be or when it will be taken.

“No, we have not communicated today,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press on Wednesday in an email. “No meetings scheduled, and no plans to meet.”

After four straight days of negotiations in New York last week, talks broke off angrily Friday night. Discussions resumed on Sunday, solely regarding player contract terms, but that meeting ended after only 90 minutes.

The union contends that the NHL doesn’t want to get back together yet.

“The players remain prepared to resume negotiations at any time,” NHLPA special counsel Steve Fehr said.

UCLA files appeal of Muhammad ineligibility

LOS ANGELES — UCLA has filed an appeal with the NCAA regarding freshman basketball player Shabazz Muhammad being ruled ineligible.

Coach Ben Howland said Wednesday that the appeal is expected to be heard on Friday and the school hopes to have a resolution shortly thereafter.

The NCAA ruled last Friday that Muhammad was ineligible to play basketball after violating amateurism rules, leaving the Bruins without their highly touted recruit to start the season.

— Associated Press

BRIEFS

Two key ingredients in Nevada Union’s deep run into the boys volleyball playoffs last season are taking their talents to Southern California.

Seniors Trevor Bryant and Bobby Curtis signed letters of intent Tuesday at Nevada Union and will be playing Division I col-lege volleyball after graduation.

Bryant accepted a partial scholarship to play at California State University, Northridge, and Curtis will be considered a pre-ferred walk-on at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“The team, the coaches, every-body is just really close (at CSU Northridge),” said Bryant on his reason for choosing Northridge.

Bryant will be joined at Northridge by his NCVC club volleyball teammate, Justin

Beskeen from Bear River, who plans to sign his letter of intent today.

As a preferred walk-on, Curtis will have a spot on the Santa Barbara team but was not of-fered a scholarship. Curtis said he hopes his play during his fresh-man year will land him a scholar-ship in his sophomore year.

“I’m going to fight for a

Headed southNU volleyball players sign letters of intent

■■ GET INTO GOLF

Frost or frozen?

That is the question

There’s a difference between frost and fro-zen. In these almost-winter days (we’ve

got a few weeks before it becomes official) when mornings are cold, it’s a good idea to call the pro shop before you head to the golf course on a clear day.

These brisk early-morning temperatures will likely bring on a condition known as “frost.” We’ve all heard of it, but we’re not sure how it relates to the golf course. Then when we arrive at the course, we’re disappointed to find out that our tee time is an hour later than we planned.

Here is the situation. As opposed to frozen, when the ground and turf are continually be-low freezing temperatures, frost (ice) forms at a specific low temperature point. So it doesn’t require consistent low temperatures, it just needs some moisture and a freezing point.

This window might not last more than minutes, but that’s all it takes. Even with warmer daytime temperatures in the 60s, early

mornings can have just the right conditions for frost to form.

Ironically, when everything is frozen, it doesn’t cause the same damage. Frost, how-ever, is freezing only the plant. When stepped on, the grass may break at the root and the plant could die. This is not good. Of course, we don’t see the damage right away, but in a few days, the evidence is seen in brown footprints.

As they should be, golf course superinten-dents are very sensitive to frost damage and will delay play until the ice has melted and the golf course is ready for play. It is impor-tant to note that the superintendent does not know exactly what the temperature will be in an hour and, as a result, cannot determine precisely when the frost delay will be “lifted.”

The superintendent will, based on experi-ence, project a time to allow the pro shop staff to communicate with players and make adjustments to the day’s starting times. Depending on the location and type of golf course, the start after a delay will manifest itself in different ways.

A private club might gather all of the folks who had tee times and start them all at once, in a “shotgun” format. A daily fee (public) course will generally handle the change in one of two ways. First, the course could start everyone later based on their original starting time. In the event of a one-hour frost delay, a group that planned to start at 9 a.m. would start at 10 a.m.

■■ BEAR RIVER VOLLEYBALL

The Bear River girls volleyball team has been here before. The Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV

title game that is.“Last year, we were just happy and

content to be in Davis,” Bear River head coach Matt MacDonald said Tuesday af-ter the Lady Bruins semifinal win. “This year, it’s time to finish the job.”

Tonight the No. 2 seeded Lady Bruins (29-12 overall, 9-1 Pioneer Valley League) will look to avenge last season’s section championship loss to Union Mine by defeating No. 4 seed Ripon

Christian at UC Davis.“We have our work cut out for us,”

said MacDonald. “It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a battle.”

Ripon Christian (27-6 overall, 15-0

Southern League) is coming off five straight Division V section champion-ships, won before being moved up to

Lady Bruins return to section finals

■■ SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS ■■ MLB AWARDS

SANTA CLARA — Alex Smith insists it’s too early to guess whether he will return from a concussion in time to start at quarterback in San Francisco’s key Monday night NFC show-down against the Chicago Bears.

Smith went through position work with the NFC West-leading 49ers (6-2-1) in a non-contact black jersey Wednesday, his status still unclear after he sustained a concussion in the second quarter

Sunday against the St. Louis Rams.

“I feel good, better,” Smith said Wednesday in his first com-ments since the injury. “I’m just going along with the process right now. Nothing’s been decid-ed. It’s a whole long process that’s up to the doctors. I just kind of do what they tell me. Contact obvi-ously is the final straw.”

NEW YORK — David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays and knuckleballer R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets won baseball’s Cy Young awards on Wednesday.

Price barely beat out 2011 winner Justin Verlander for the American League prize in one of the closest votes ever. Dickey was an easy choice for the NL honor in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

The 38-year-old Dickey

became the first pitcher who re-lied predominantly on a knuck-leball to win the Cy Young Award, an achievement men-tors such as Hall of Famer Phil Niekro are quite proud of.

Runner-up two years ago in the Cy Young race, Price was the pick this time for the AL’s top pitching prize. He received 14 of 28 first-place votes to edge Verlander, chosen first on 13 ballots.

Other than a 1969 tie be-tween Mike Cuellar and Denny McLain, it was the tightest race in the history of the AL award.

Rays closer Fernando

Rodney got the other first-place vote and came in fifth.

Price went 20-5 to tie Jered Weaver for the American League lead in victories and winning percentage. The 27-year-old lefty had the lowest ERA at 2.56 and finished sixth in strikeouts with 205.

Verlander, also the league MVP a year ago, followed that up by going 17-8 with a 2.64 ERA and pitching the Detroit Tigers to the World Series. He led the majors in strikeouts (239), innings (238 1-3) and

Smith practices for 49ers in non-contact jersey

Price, Dickey win Cy Young awards

Walter Ford, Sports Writer, (530) 477-4232, [email protected]

BY WALTER FORDSports Writer

Photo for The Union by John Hart

CALLING ON CLARK: The Lady Bruins’ Amanda Clark sends a kill over the net during a Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV quarterfinal win over Colfax Nov. 8 at Bear River.

BY JANIE MCCAULEYAP Sports Writer

BY MIKE FITZPATRICKAP Sports Writer

BY WALTER FORDSports Writer

Photo for The Union by John Hart

SOUTHBOUND AND DOWN: Nevada Union volleyball players Bobby Curtis, left, and Trevor Bryant sign letters of intent Tuesday at Nevada Union. Curtis will attend the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Bryant will attend California State University, Northridge.

Alex Smith

KNOW & GOWHO: No. 2 Bear River vs. No. 4 Ripon Christian

WHAT: Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV Championship

WHEN: 8 p.m. today

WHERE: The Pavilion at UC Davis

DIRECTIONS: Travel west on I-80 until reaching turnoff near UC Davis campus

for Highway 113 (toward Woodland). Exit Hutchison Blvd. and stay right until coming to stoplight at intersection of LaRue and Hutchison. Go left on LaRue and take right at next stoplight, which is entrance to Parking Lot 25. The Pavilion is on the right with Aggie Field and James M. and Ann Dobbins Stadium located adjacent to The Pavilion.

See SIGNING B3

Finishing the job

See RENSLOW B3

BY JOHN RENSLOWGolf Columnist

(E)arly mornings can have just the right conditions

for frost to form.

See FINALS B3

See CY YOUNG B3