ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607290028
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HAMPDEN-SYDNEY
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
No school has ever won three consecutive Old Dominion Athletic Conference football championships. The ODAC's coaches think Emory & Henry's 1996 unit will be the first.
The Wasps were picked to win the league Friday in a vote of the league's coaches. Emory & Henry received five of six first-place votes. Randolph-Macon and Guilford were next in the poll, followed by Hampden-Sydney, Washington and Lee and Bridgewater.
The Wasps won't have an easy time, however. Coach Lou Wacker, who doubles as Emory & Henry's athletic director, scheduled perennial South Region power Washington and Jefferson (Pa.) for the season opener. The Wasps have won their past eight openers.
``I had an athletic director become brain dead for a while,'' Wacker said.
Washington and Lee lost 22 seniors from last year's third-place team, but welcomes back a pair of top-notch offensive starters in quarterback Brooks Fischer and tailback Seth McKinley.
``All the scribes and pundits are calling for major doom,'' said Frank Miriello, the Generals' coach. ``I've seen some articles pick the Generals seventh, which is a concern since we're a six-team conference.''
WINGIN' WALT: Joe Bush, Hampden-Sydney's coach, has found a quarterback in sophomore Walt Bondurant after trying out three passers last season. Bondurant led the Tigers to victories in two of their last three games.
``Prior to that, our quarterbacks were colorblind,'' Bush said jokingly. ``They also thought all completions counted on their pass efficiency, no matter who got it.''
ODAC ODDITIES: Miriello's inaugural season guiding the Generals was the best for a first-year coach at W&L since 1922, when James DeHart guided the Generals to an identical 5-3-1 mark. ... There are 56 former Timesland athletes on preseason ODAC football rosters. ... Jack Ginn has left Emory & Henry's coaching staff after six years to work in the school's admissions office.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB