Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 17

INSIDE In the zone Woods comes off five-stroke win at Medi-nah and will go for his fourth consecutive win at Bridgestone PAGE C8 CCMIXSUP Lake Land volleyball season set to begin FRIDAY MATTOON (ILL.) JOURNAL GAZETTE WWW.JG-TC.COM SECTION 3 nnn mm luii NIELSEN nl I 01 to 1 a as he feels ready." Meanwhile, the reigning Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year still has his presence felt at the start of his 20tn season at Eastern. The 68-year-old Spoo had missed practice earlier this preseason for medical reasons before returning. "It's a bad thing," linebacker Clint Sellers said of the coach being away, "but you saw how much of a fighter and a warrior coach Spoo is. You've just got to fight through it. Whenever he gets back, it's going to be great." But Spoo, who has a 119-98-1 SP00C4 head coach was to be away from the team with surgery scheduled for ruesday in St.

Louis. "Based on privacy issues, coach Spoo or Eastern Illinois will not comment further on coach Spoo's medical treatment at this time," Rich Moser, EIU's sports information director, said in a press release. "We are hopeful that coach Spoo will be able to address the media sometime during his recovery period." Athletics Director Rich McDuffie said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with coach Spoo and his family at this time we are confident this will be a successful surgery and anticipate coach to return to team as soon BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor CHARLESTON News that head coach Bob Spoo would miss 4-6 weeks of the football season stunned Eastern Illinois' football team Wednesday. Then the Panthers began fighting back. "The coaches told us in every good season there are going to be four or five crises," senior running back Vincent Webb said.

"This is our first one." Assistant coach Mark Hutson, filling the head coaching role in Spoo's absence, told the team before Wednesday 's practice that their EIU football coach Bob Spoo, left with assistant coach Mark Hutson, foreground. cT' ft tP" In 2 With coach in mind, Panthers move on Music blared through O'Brien Stadium's loudspeaker during Tuesday's practice not long after Eastern Illinois' football team learned its head coach would be missing for a while This was not mice playing when the cat was away and certainly no celebration of news that Bob Spoo is expected to miss 4-6 weeks following surgery scheduled for Tuesday. It was the-show-must-go-on, business as usual, the way Spoo wants it. In fact, the coach had already ordered the loud music in preparation for the Sept. 2 season opener at Illinois where Memorial Stadium's crowd noise will be more than an NCAA Division I-AA challenger like the EIU usually faces.

And annoying music at practice making it difficult for players to hear quarterback's signals almost certainly was not first on Spoo's to-do list as game time approaches. "Coach Spoo knew he was going down to St. Louis (Tuesday), and we made preparations for practice in case something like this did happen," assistant head coach Mark Hutson said. "We are now into the Illinois game plan, so we will follow the practice schedule coach Spoo helped prepare prior to his absence. Practice will go on.

We will be in constant contact with him on what's happening in practice. I had a long visit him last night to tell him about (Tuesday's) practice and will do the same thing tonight." Hutson is to take over day-to-day operation of the program in Spoo's absence as the assistant head coach in addition to his offensive coordinator duties and working specifically with the of tensive line. Even before this shake-up, quarterbacks coach Jorge Munoz was to serve as the play-caller on game day just as Steve Brickey did last season while Hutson served as the coordinator. "We're fortunate that Jorge Munoz has been a coordinator in the past," Hutson said. Handling coordinator duties at Anderson College in 2001-02 before coaching wide receivers at Charleston Southern for two years and then last year at Eastern, Munoz now is ready to help this offense by committee.

"With Mark being busy, we told him you've got to trust in the offensive staff," Munoz said. "When he has things like a teleconference, Mark will put a little more in our hands. Everything is going to be checked with him. With him coaching the offensive line, everything has to go through him anyway." Helping this coaching transition is that last year Eastern administration allowed the football staff to add a special teams coordinator position. Justin Lustig, who joined the staff as special teams coach this year when Jeff Choate went to Boise State, is now to also coach the running backs segment that Spoo was handling.

"Coach Spoo is the man, but we have so many coaches that coach each area that he will be missed but we have great coaches that will help us prepare and get ready for every game," senior safety Tristan Burge said. Spoo had already provided plenty of working space for his defensive staff. So the changes are not in diagrams on a board just the overall feeling of having the head coach. The X's and O's part of it, probably not," defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said. "I love the guy and just having him in the office means a lot.

He's the rock and the foundation of the program. His presence is something the team needs. He'll be back as soon as he can. In the meantime, the coaches and players are going to do everything we can to make him happy." Brian Nielsen is sports editor of the Journal GazetteTunes-Courier. Contact Nielsen at or While wishing Spoo well, Romo has his own battles BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor IRVING, Texas Tony Romo seems to have a better feel for what will happen hundreds of miles away rather than his own Dallas Cowboys quarterback battle.

Four years removed from his days starring at Eastern Illinois, Romo answered quickly about the Panthers' season that is to start with head coach Bob Spoo away from the team because of surgery. "Guys will rally around him, and (assistant head) coach (Mark) Hutson will do a good job, Romo said. "Coach Spoo does a good job of players getting ready to go no matter what happens." Sounds good. Then comes the next question. Has Romo, biding his time the past three years not throwing a pass in an NFL regular season game, now reached the point of creating a quarterback controversy in Dallas? Starting with a friendly laugh, R0M0C4 Injured Sellers on Buchanan watch list BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor CHARLESTON This was not exactly the way Clint Sellers wanted to celebrate being one of 16 players on the Buck Buchanan Award watch list.

Not only was the Eastern Illinois linebacker's preseason selection as a candidate for the NCAA Division I-AA's top defensive award to be announced in Decern- ber overshadowed by news that coach Bob Spoo would miss 4-6 weeks with surgery, but Sellers missed Wednesday's practice with an ankle injury. The Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year figures to be back in action maybe as early as today and for sure by Eastern's Sept. 2 opener at Illinois. "Everything hurts a little bit less on Monday (of game week)," EIU defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni said. "He'll be fine.

He's just got a little bruise on his ankle. You're not going to keep him out of there. If he can walk, he'll play." Certainly Sellers does not sound like a guy resting on Ail-American laurels from last season or this year's preseason recognition. Submitted photo Jim Chandler, a starting guard on the Green Wave basketball team, parlayed a conference title in the 800 meters during the 1983 track and field season into a state berth. He Is to be Inducted into the Mattoon Hall of Fame today.

Chandler rode Green Wave to state track tournament berth advanced to the sectional in cross county and was a starting guard on a Green Wave basketball team that came within seconds of what would have been a regional title And long before then there is a memory that still stands above them all: a seventh-grade state basketball championship. "It was the first year Mattoon junior high had been one (school)," Chandler said. "I don't know that as a player the expectations were to go that far. Anyy time you get 12-year-old kids together, you need a good coach CHAHDLERJC4 ly RICK DAWSON Staff Writer CATLIN All-weather tracks had still barely been introduced when Jim Chandler ran at Mat-toon High School. When he got to see one at the Big 12 meet, in the 1 midst of a steady downpour, he made the most of it.

His eventual conference title in the 800 meters during the 1983 track and field season was just the start. He eventually parlayed that success into a state tournament berth, one of the reasons he is being inducted into Mattoon's Alumni Lettermen Hall of Fame today at Gunner Buc's. There are others, too. He FMocnAhrri Letterrccn's Banquet Schedule: 6 p.m. huddle, 7 p.m.

dinner today at Gunner Buc's Pub and Grub Tickets: $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and $5 for ages under 21 available at First Federal Savings Loan or at the door Hall of Fame Inductees: Richard Kirk and Jim Chandler Honorary Paul Cornwell Also to be honored: 1970 Mattoon baseball team (See page C5) To be auctioned: emblems made from the entrance of the old Central streak to six nine runs in that one, and he gave up nine runs in this one, too, his ERA ballooning to 6.77. Mulder, coming back from a strained left shoulder, lasted just three-plus innings, giving up nine hits and four walks. Trachsel wasn't much better, allowing six runs, six hits and three walks in five-plus innings. Billy Wagner pitched the ninth for his 32nd save in 37 chances. New York, which didn't have a hit after the fourth, extended its home winning streak to 10.

CARSSC4 Mulder, increase Mets batter NEW YORK (AP) After battering Mark Mulder for nine runs in his first major league game since June, the New York Mets hung on and stretched their winning streak to six. Jose Reyes hit a three-run homer and Chris Woodward had a three-run double as the Mets built an eight-run lead Wednesday night, then nearly gave it back in a 10-8 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. It was almost a mirror image of Tuesday, when the Mets fell behind 7-1, then rallied for an 8-7 win capped by Carlos Beltran's two- run, ninth-inning homer. Steve Trachsel (13-5) and his bullpen nearly squandered a 10-2 advantage, but Trachsel managed to win his fourth straight decision.

He gave up a two-run homer in the fifth to Jose Vizcaino, signed by St. Louis earlier in the day, and consecutive solo shots in the sixth to Scott Rolen and Preston Wilson. Then in the eighth, Wilson hit an RBI double off Chad Bradford and scored on Ronnie Belliard's single. Mulder (6-6) made his first appearance since June 20, when he was chased after 2 1-3 innings by the Chicago White Sox. He allowed.