Saban Back In Job Pool After Boot By Arena Team

Lou Saban is once again searching for a job after being fired as head coach of the Milwaukee Mustangs.

The first-year Arena Football League team has an 0-4 record.

"I thought if we catch it early, we've still got a shot at the playoffs, as strange as it might seem," said General Manager Chris Vallozzi, who named Art Haege interim head coach and defensive coordinator yesterday. "I was concerned, knowing what talent we have on this team."

Saban, 71, led Buffalo to consecutive American Football League titles in the 1960s and was named AFL coach of the year in 1966. He has coached 42 years at the high-school, college and pro levels.

COLLEGES

Five months before it recommended eliminating four varsity sports for costs and other reasons, the Naval Academy Athletic Association bought a $317,000 condominium for Athletic Director Jack Lengyel, and sent nearly 100 academy officials and guests on an all-expense-paid trip to the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. The annual budgets for the sports eliminated - men's and women's fencing, women's gymnastics and men's volleyball - totaled $250,000.

-- The Pac-10 Conference named USC sprinter Inger Miller and Washington State distance runner Josephat Kapkory track athletes of the year. Kapkory, a senior from Kenya, won the 3,000-meter steeplechase, 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the conference championships.

TENNIS

Top-seeded Steffi Graf will have a potentially dangerous first-round match against Lori McNeil when she opens the defense of her Wimbledon title. The draw was held today at the All England Club.

McNeil, ranked No. 20 in the world, is a serve-and-volley expert who won the warmup tournament in Birmingham on Sunday.

On the men's side, Pete Sampras will open the defense of his title against fellow American Jared Palmer.

-- Jennifer Capriati has agreed to enter a drug-counseling program to settle a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.

RUNNING

Peter Maher, the winner of the Toronto marathon, and runner-up Peter Fonseca will be reprimanded for agreeing to tie and split the purse, but they will receive their prize money. Maher will collect $24,000 for winning the May 15 race, while Fonseca will get $12,000.

MOTORCYCLE RACING

Doctors in Berlin pronounced British motorcycle racer Simon Prior dead and removed him from life support systems today. He suffered massive head injuries in a crash during a race Sunday.

LOCAL NOTES

Steve Birds, an all-KingCo soccer defender from Newport High School, and Interlake's Chantel Vinson have signed letters of intent to attend Seattle Pacific University.

Birds scored six goals and eight assists as a senior for the Knights, who finished 13-0-3 and won the conference title. Vinson was a standout in basketball and track for Interlake.

-- Team Shaklee cyclists, including 1994 national champions Rebecca Twigg, a Seattle native, and Clay Moseley, will be the featured speakers at a sports nutrition and training clinic tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Executive Inn, 200 Taylor Ave. N. The public is invited.

-- Doug Baldwin of Overlake Golf & Country Club shot a 36-hole total of 137 to win the Washington State Assistants' golf championship at Tumwater Valley Golf Course. Randy Fossum of Lynnwood Golf Course and Bart Turchin of Glen Acres Country Club tied for second at 140. Paula Weihe-Bensel of Lake Padden Golf Course in Bellingham won the women's competition with a 153.