SOCCER
Earthquakes Announce Move to Houston
San Jose
– The San Jose Earthquakes will relocate immediately to Houston,
Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber announced Thursday.
SOCCER
Earthquakes Announce Move to Houston
San Jose – The San Jose Earthquakes will relocate immediately to Houston, Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber announced Thursday.
Garber said the team’s owners were attracted by the chance to play in their own stadium and for an ethnically diverse population willing to support a soccer team.
San Jose officials had worked to keep the team from leaving, and even considered subsidizing a new stadium.
The Earthquakes’ current owner, Anschutz Entertainment Group, had expressed previous interest in moving the team to Houston. It is unhappy with the condition of the Spartan Stadium on the campus of San Jose State University and with the team’s share of proceeds from parking and concession fees.
– The Associated Press
TRACK AND FIELD
Still Maintaining Innocence, Sprinter Says He’s Through
Disgraced sprinter Tim Montgomery is done.
The former 100-meter world record holder has retired, rather than waiting out a two-year suspension and returning under a cloud of suspicion.
“I don’t want to be looked upon as a cheat,” he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.
Although he did not test positive for drugs, Montgomery was banned for doping based on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of BALCO, a San Francisco-area lab that served many high-profile athletes.
“It’s like getting a whipping for something you know you didn’t do,” Montgomery said.
He maintains he never knowingly took steroids or any other banned substances, and worries about his legacy.
“That’s the main concern because I don’t know what to tell my kids,” Montgomery said. “I don’t know what to tell my mother and father, even though they say they love me and don’t worry about it.”
Montgomery said he and three-time Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones have split, although they remain in regular contact. They have a 2-year-old son, Monty.
– The Associated Press
PREP FOOTBALL
SoCal Football Coach Banned for Life for Cheating
Los Angeles – A high school football coach who was videotaped cheating during a game will be banned for life from coaching, athletic officials decided.
The videotape showed Paul Bryan, a 23-year assistant coach at San Pedro High School, improperly moving a marker to help his team gain a first down on a critical fourth-down play late in an Oct. 28 game against rival Gardena High. San Pedro, which is in the harbor area of south Los Angeles, scored on the drive and won the game, 13-12.
The rules committee of the California Interscholastic Federation’s L.A. City Section announced Wednesday that it had slapped Bryan with a lifetime coaching ban.
– The Associated Press
NBA
Artest, Lakers Fined by NBA for Comments
New York – Ron Artest’s trade request will cost him $10,000, and the NBA also fined the Los Angeles Lakers $25,000 Thursday for coach Phil Jackson’s comments about Toronto forward Chris Bosh.
Artest was penalized for “making public statements detrimental to the NBA.” He expressed his desire to be traded from the Indiana Pacers in a Dec. 11 story in the Indianapolis Star, and said he wanted to play for either the New York Knicks or Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Public trade demands by players was a subject discussed at length during collective bargaining negotiations this summer,” senior vice president and general counsel Rick Buchanan said in a statement.
