Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 19, 1990 TAG: 9005190204
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
John Rivers, a forward on Tech's basketball team who made the Metro Conference's all-rookie team in 1989, said he plans to play football for the Hokies beginning in the fall. A 6-foot-5, 211-pounder from Moncks Corner, S.C., Rivers was a highly touted receiver at Berkeley High School and said he received football scholarship offers from Clemson, Southern Cal, Florida State, South Carolina and North Carolina State before accepting the Hokies' basketball grant.
Rivers said he hasn't lost his football savvy.
"I wouldn't call myself unstoppable," he said, "but it'd be hard for a defensive back to stop me.
"[Football coach Frank Beamer] said he'd love to have me out there and bring that alley-oop play into effect."
There's one hitch. Under NCAA rules, if Rivers plays football, his scholarship must be counted as a football scholarship. A school can give no more than 25 initial football scholarships each year - grants for incoming freshmen, transfers and two-sport athletes. Until this year, any walk-on who was given a scholarship counted against the number of initial scholarships. Now, however, a walk-on who has been in the program at least two years can be given a scholarship without counting against the 25-grant limit.
Tech has promised 24 initial scholarships to recruits and transfers. That number does not include E.C. Glass High lineman Chip Ferguson, who has not met Proposition 48 requirements yet and whose coach, Bo Henson, said may attend Fork Union Military Academy if he doesn't qualify. It does include Nassau (N.Y.) Community College defensive back Mark Scott, who intends to transfer to Tech but must first graduate from junior college, and high school recruits Mike Tennant and Stacy Henley, both of whom have yet to qualify under Prop 48 standards.
"If everyone qualifies, we would not have a spot [for Rivers]," Beamer said.
Beamer said he plans to meet with Rivers during the summer to discuss the basketball player's desire to join the football team. There is little doubt that Beamer would relish having Rivers on the squad.
"Being a wide receiver, having not been here for spring practice, that's a position you still can come in in the fall and play," Beamer said. "If you've got a guy who's 6-5 who can jump and has got good hands, it makes sense to me."
"I wanted to play both sports when I got here," said Rivers, who started 25 of 30 games for the basketball Hokies and averaged 6.2 points and 7.1 rebounds per game during the 1989-90 season. "[But people] were telling me how hard it was. The only thing I regret is not playing football when I first got here."
If Rivers joins the football Hokies, he will be eligible to play three seasons in football and two more in basketball. Under NCAA rules, an athlete has five years in which to use four years of competition in each sport. Rivers said he plans on finishing his basketball career at Tech in two years, then using his final year of eligibility to play his third year of football.
Rivers probably will miss a lot of basketball time if he plays football. Basketball practice starts in mid-October, and football season doesn't end until late November. Tech's last football game next season is Nov. 24 in Lane Stadium against Virginia; that night, the Hokies' basketball team opens its season against VMI.
Tech basketball coach Frankie Allen said he and Beamer may work out an arrangement that would allow Rivers to practice on a limited basis with the basketball team during October and November. But Allen said he has told Rivers it would not be easy to play both sports.
"He's going to be behind. He's going to have to play his way into basketball-type shape and realize that nothing's going to be there waiting on him," Allen said. "John would be ready to make an impact maybe in January." Rivers said he had no problem with working his way back into playing time, but said if he plays football, he expects to play.
"With me playing basketball, my [football] moves never left me," Rivers said. "I just kind of put them away while I was playing basketball.
"I expect to go out and get playing time. I'm the type of person who doesn't really like to sit on the bench and watch everybody else play. If everything goes right [with the scholarship situation], I'm going to work hard at it."
by CNB