THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200292
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: 38 lines
Virginia Tech will establish a uniform code of sanctions for athletes who violate rules, a system that will replace allowing coaches to handle such matters, according to athletic director Dave Braine.
Braine made the disclosure following a meeting with the school's Faculty Senate on Tuesday. The meeting was in preparation for next Monday's unveiling of a report designed to revamp athletic practices to halt such problems as the football team's string of arrests.
Since November 1995, 19 current and former Tech football players have been charged with offenses ranging from attempted malicious wounding to rape. Thirteen players have been arrested since last July.
Braine declined to comment on specifics of the report other than the code of sanctions. The report was compiled by a 12-member committee that included Faculty Senate president Paul Metz.
Braine said the committee found that alcohol is a problem at the school. Of almost 400 arrests of Virginia Tech students last year, 82 percent were alcohol-related. Eighty percent of athlete arrests were related to alcohol use, he said.
Virginia Tech president Paul Torgersen, concerned about the behavior of the school's athletes, asked Braine to start working on the report in mid-December. It was delivered to the president last week.
``It's a shame we had to come to this,'' Braine said of the new code. ``Only four or five universities in the country have something like this. We are going to have to hold our student-athletes to a higher code.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
``Only four or five universities in the country have something like
this.''
Dave Braine, Virginia Tech Athletic Director