OVAC qualifying meet postponed

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Class 4A and 5A qualifying track meets were postponed Tuesday due to the stormy weather.

They have been rescheduled for this afternoon at St. Clairsville High School with East Liverpool, Beaver Local and Oak Glen competing in Class 4A.

Action will start at 2:30 p.m. with the boys discus, long jump and pole vault and girls shot put and high jump.

The running events will start at 3:30 p.m. with the shuttle hurdle relay and the 3200-meter relay, followed by the high hurdles at 5 p.m.

The top four in each event advance to Saturday’s OVAC finals.

South Range needs girls coach

GREENFORD — South Range High School is seeking a girls basketball head coach.

Applicants should send a letter of interest and resume to athletic director Don Feren at Dferen@southrange.org.

No ball game for Bears, Beavers

WHEELING, W.Va. — Tuesday’s Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Class 4A softball tournament slate was postponed due to weather.

Weir will play Harrison at 5:30 p.m. and Oak Glen will play Beaver Local at 7 p.m. today at the I-470 Complex.

Belichick makes an impact

It’s on to fall camp for the Atlantic Coast Conference and new North Carolina coach Bill Belichick.

Belichick was the buzziest offseason addition for the ACC when the six-time Super Bowl championship-winning head coach agreed to take over the Tar Heels — his first time as a college head coach.

Belichick has had plenty of personnel issues to handle. Two of North Carolina’s best pass rushing threats in defensive end Beau Atkinson and linebacker Amare Campbell entered the transfer portal. But Belichick landed South Alabama quarterback Gio Lopez, who threw for 2,599 yards and 18 touchdowns as a sophomore last season.

UNC hired Belichick in December in a sign of a stepped-up investment in football. The Tar Heels opened spring drills in early March and had a practice that media was permitted to observe for about 20 minutes, then closed last weekend with a public workout in Kenan Stadium. It was hard to pick up many specifics with players working out with no jersey numbers.

North Carolina general manager Michael Lombardi said long before spring practices that the goal was for Belichick to create an NFL team.

“We want to play to the strengths of our players and that’s what we’ll do,” Belichick said in March. “That part takes a little while to figure that out, but nevertheless we’ll run a pro system on both sides of the ball and the kicking game. That’s where the foundation of it is.

“And all the training videos that we’ve shown them on how to do things, how to do certain techniques, how to run certain things are really from NFL players – the guys who are great at it, the guys who did it better than anybody. I think that’s still a great way to teach, because our players are seeing some of the best guys who have played do what they do.”

UNC’s opener is a Monday night affair, with the Tar Heels hosting TCU on Labor Day to open Belichick’s tenure.

Rodriguez and Frost new to Big 12

Rich Rodriguez and Scott Frost are new to the Big 12 Conference, but not to the schools that have welcomed them back.

Rodriguez at West Virginia and Frost at UCF are the only new coaches in the 16-team Big 12, and now have been through their first spring since getting back to their old schools.

West Virginia has gone through 13 seasons in the Big 12, but were still in the Big East when Rodriguez led the Mountaineers to three consecutive 11-win seasons from 2005-07 before his departure for Michigan.

Frost was the coach for UCF’s undefeated season out of the American Athletic Conference in 2017, when the Knights declared themselves national champions before he left for Nebraska.

Things did feel different for Frost than his first spring with the Knights in 2016, when they were coming off an 0-12 season.

“Our first scrimmage out here in the spring, I was discouraged coming off that field. … We didn’t do anything good, or at least it felt that way,” Frost said, recalling 2016 before turning to this spring. “We’re doing some good things. There’s just a level of speed and precision to execution that has to happen on every single play to make it work, and we’re not there yet.”

The Knights were 10-15 in their first two Big 12 seasons under Gus Malzahn, the former national champion who left UCF after four seasons to become offensive coordinator at Florida State. The back-to-back losing records to open their Big 12 era followed a school-record six winning seasons in a row, which began with the 13-0 season after Frost’s 6-7 debut.

The second stint for Rodriguez at West Virginia comes 18 years after his first one ended. He will have to make wholesale changes in the name, image and likeness era — along with the transfer portal and pending roster limits — if the Mountaineers are going to compete for a Big 12 title.

The offense lost its entire line and top three receivers. Four receivers return who combined for 524 yards last season.

“We just don’t have enough for our system … We just don’t have enough bodies,” Rodriguez said. “We want somebody obviously who can be that 1-on-1 guy that you can rely on. And our guys are getting better, getting some confidence in them. But we literally don’t have enough bodies to run the way we want to run it.”

Hockey death won’t result in charge

LONDON (AP) — A man arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following the death of former Pittsburgh Penguin Adam Johnson has been told he will not face any charges, British prosecutors said Tuesday.

Johnson played for the Nottingham Panthers and died shortly after his neck had been sliced in a collision with Sheffield Steelers defenseman Matt Petgrave during a game on Oct. 28, 2023.

A man was arrested two weeks later and though South Yorkshire Police did not publicly identify him, Petgrave himself said in a crowdfunding appeal for legal fees that he was the subject of a police investigation.

On Tuesday, the Crown Prosecution Service announced it would not bring criminal charges against the man arrested following what it described as “a shocking and deeply upsetting incident.”

“The CPS and South Yorkshire Police have worked closely together to determine whether any criminal charges should be brought against the other ice hockey player involved,” Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor Michael Quinn said.

“Following a thorough police investigation and a comprehensive review of all the evidence by the CPS, we have concluded that there is not a realistic prospect of conviction for any criminal offense and so there will not be a prosecution. Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Adam Johnson.”

After his arrest, Petgrave had been re-bailed several times while the investigation took place. His representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

During the game, Johnson had skated with the puck into Sheffield’s defensive zone when Petgrave collided with another Panthers player nearby. Petgrave’s left skate elevated as he began to fall and the blade hit Johnson in the neck.

The native of Hibbing, Minnesota, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The death of the 29-year-old former Pittsburgh Penguins player sparked debate across the sport about improving safety for players.

Petgrave, a 33-year-old Canadian, had support from some of Johnson’s teammates. Victor Bjorkung had told a Swedish newspaper there “isn’t a chance that it’s deliberate.” Bjorkung had played the pass to Johnson and said he was traumatized by what he saw.

Johnson — one of the “import” players in the Elite Ice Hockey League — was in his first season at Nottingham after stints in Germany and a handful of games for the Penguins in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.

Johnson was living with fiancee Ryan Wolfe and studying at Loughborough Business School.

The English Ice Hockey Association, which governs the sport below the Elite League, reacted to Johnson’s death by requiring all players in England to wear neck guards from the start of 2024.