2CSPORTS
E6 WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017
18 MORE WOMEN SUING
GYMNASTICS DOCTOR
Eighteen women joined a civil
lawsuit that names USA Gymnas-
tics, a high-profile gymnastics
club and Michigan State, claiming
the defendants failed to protect
them from sexual abuse by physi-
cian Larry Nassar. It’s the third
civil suit claiming sexual abuse by
Nassar, who worked for USA
Gymnastics for 29 years, includ-
ing at four Olympics. He left USA
Gymnastics quietly in 2015, say-
ing he was retiring. USA Gymnas-
tics said it fired him and reported
him to the FBI after learning of
“athlete concerns.” Last year,
Nassar was charged in Michigan
state court with three counts of
first-degree criminal sexual con-
duct with a person younger than
13 and in federal court with re-
ceipt, attempted receipt and pos-
session of child pornography. The
criminal charges came after an
investigation by The Indianapolis
Star revealed sexual abuse allega-
tions against Nassar by former
gymnast Rachael Denhollan-
der and an unnamed Olympic
medalist. The civil suit filed Tues-
day in federal court in Michigan
said USA Gymnastics was grossly
negligent for failing to notify uni-
versity officials or the public of
the reason Nassar left his posi-
tion. In a statement to The Star ,
USA Gymnastics said it “finds the
allegations against Dr. Nassar
very disturbing.”MISSED FG RETURN FOR TD
BY HOUSTON TOP PLAY CALL
Former Houston coach To m
Herman , who recently was hired
to the same position at Texas,
won the USA TODAY Sports Play
Call of the Year Award for the
game-changing touchdown re-
turn of a missed Oklahoma field
goal during a 33-23 win Sept. 3.
Houston led 19-17 in the third
quarter, and the Sooners were at-
tempting a 53-yard field goal.
Herman had Brandon Wilson
stand back deep in case the kick
came up short. It did. Wilsonhauled it in inches before it fell
out of bounds and sprinted 109
yards for a massive momentum
swing in the Cougars’ favor.
Houston went on to win 33-23.
uThe American Football
Coaches Association named Col-
orado’s Mike MacIntyre the
Bowl Subdivision Coach of the
Year and James Madison’s Mike
Houston the Championship
Subdivision Coach of the Year.ALABAMA RUNNING BACK
SUFFERS BROKEN LEG
Alabama tailback Bo Scar-
brough broke a bone in his lower
right leg in the national champi-
onship game. Coach Nick Saban
said Scarbrough wouldn’t require
surgery and was expected to re-cover fully. He was injured late in
the third quarter of Monday’s 35-
31 loss to Clemson. He had 93
rushing yards and first-half
touchdowns of 25 and 37 yards in
his second career start.PEPPERS LEAVING MICHIGAN
Jabrill Peppers ,Michigan’s do-
everything redshirt sophomore,
announced he was forgoing his
last two years of college eligibility
and declaring for the NFL draft.WORLD CUP FIELD HITS 48
FIFA will expand the World Cup
to 48 teams, adding 16 nations to
the 2026 event, which likely will
be in North America. President
Gianni Infantino ’s f a v o r e d p l a n
— 16 three-team groups, with the
top two in each advancing to a
Round of 32 — was unanimously
approved by the FIFA Council. It
meets Infantino’s election pledge
of a bigger, more inclusive event
going beyond European and
South American teams, which
have won all 20 titles. The conti-
nents should find out by May how
many extra places they’ll get.RAISMAN, BILES POSE FOR ‘SI’
Olympic gold medal-winning
gymnasts Simone Biles and Aly
Raisman are vaulting into a new
arena: the Sports Illustrated
swimsuit issue. The two stars —
who combined for eight medals
in the 2016 Rio Games — posed atseveral spots in the Houston area
not far from Biles’ hometown of
Spring, Texas, for photographer
James Macari. Biles, 19, who
captured the Olympic all-around
title as well as gold medals in the
team, vault and floor exercise,
does a handstand in one promo
shot provided by the magazine.
Raisman, 22, who has been an ad-
vocate for promoting a positive
and healthy body image for young
women, won six medals com-
bined between the 2012 and 2016
Games, including a silver on floor
exercise behind Biles in Rio.UCONN MAKES IT 90 IN ROW
Top-ranked Connecticut (15-0)
tied its NCAA record with its
90th consecutive win, routing
No. 21 South Florida 102-37. The
Huskies matched the streak Ge-
no Auriemma ’s women’s pro-
gram set between November
2008 and December 2010.NO. 1 BAYLOR MEN FALL
Nathan Adrian broke out of a
shooting slump with a career-
high 22 points and No. 9 West
Virginia (14-2, 3-1 Big 12) beat vis-
iting No. 1 Baylor (15-1, 3-1) 89-
on Tuesday in the Bears’ first
game as the top-ranked team in
program history. No. 5 Gonzaga
(15-0) is the only remaining un-
beaten men’s team in Division I.From staff and wire reportsIN BRIEF
BECKY SHINK, AP
Larry Nassar, once a doctor to gym-
nasts, also faces criminal charges.
JOHN DAVID MERCER, USA TODAY SPORTS
Bo Scarbrough had a huge start in
the national championship game.Leaders from 19 National Anti-
Doping Organizations have called
for the exclusion of Russia from
competing in or hosting interna-
tional events until the country
complies with the world anti-
doping code.
Meeting in Dublin, the group
furthered recommendations it
has made since August in calling
for Russia’s exclusion in the wake
of a second report from Canadian
lawyer Richard McLaren released
last month.
McLaren’s report, which was
the second investigation commis-
sioned by the World Anti-Doping
Agency (WADA), revealed more
details on a widespread system of
doping in which Russian sport
leaders worked in conjunction
with the government to subvert
anti-doping rules and cover up
positive tests.
“We know the expression ‘kick
the can down the street,’ and peo-
ple forget about the harm and it’s
out of the headlines,” said Travis
Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Dop-
ing Agency. “And this group is
committed to ensuring that
doesn’t happen because it’s too
important to clean athletes.
“Specifically, what the second
McLaren report raised is to re-
new the call that Russia should be
excluded from international com-
petition and no events being held
in Russia until and unless they’re
code-compliant and clean them-
selves up. Everyone is fully sup-
portive of that effort.”
The meeting, hosted by Sport
Ireland, was the third in six
months for a group that called for
stronger and more independent
governance for WADA among its
recommendations after a summit
in Copenhagen in August.
The NADO leaders called for
the international federations that
govern each sport to remove in-
ternational competitions from
Russia and put in place a morato-
rium on awarding new competi-
tions to the country.
Events in bobsled, speedskat-
ing and biathlon have been pulled
out of Russia for this year.
The recommendation for ex-
clusion would apply to two key
events in 2018 — the Winter
Olympics and FIFA’s men’s World
Cup — should Russia remain
non-compliant with the code,
NADO leaders said.
McLaren’s report revealed sub-
version of doping controls at the
Sochi Olympics in 2014 and a sys-
tem that tainted the results for
the London Games in 2012 as
well.
South Korea hosts the Olym-
pics in 13 months and Russia
hosts the World Cup in 2018.
In an interview with Germa-ny ’s Der Spiegel last month, FIFA
President Gianni Infantino indi-
cated that taking the event out of
Russia was not an option.
“There is time, but they need
to satisfy the world that they are
fully compliant and they need to
satisfy WADA that they are fully
compliant,” said John Treacy,
CEO of Sport Ireland. “From
reading that type of press, you
would anticipate they have an
awful long way to go.”
Russia has largely denied the
existence of a state-sponsored
system since revelations began in
2014.
WADA declared Russia’s na-
tional anti-doping agency non-
compliant in November 2015 and
brought in UK Anti-Doping to as-
sist with testing last spring.
The Russian Anti-Doping
Agency remains out of code com-
pliance, and WADA has detailed
continued attempts to obstruct
and obfuscate the testing process.
While the NADO leaders called
for the exclusion of Russia while
the country’s anti-doping agency
is out of compliance with the
code, they offered to help apply
standardized criteria that would
assess the anti-doping record of
Russian competitors and poten-
tially allow them to compete as
neutral athletes.
The International Paralympic
Committee and the International
Association of Athletics Federa-
tions have adopted such steps.
Reflecting concern about the
varied ways dozens of interna-
tional federations might handle
cases of Russian athletes from the
McLaren report, NADO leaders
called on WADA “to ensure evi-
dence is investigated and appro-
priate consequences are applied.”
McLaren identified 695 Rus-
sian athletes as part of the ma-
nipulations to conceal potentially
positive drug tests, leading to
concerns that some federations
might not have the resources or
expertise to manage a high vol-
ume of cases.
“We’re all very much of the one
mind, and I suppose what we’re
trying to do is work hard to en-
sure that sport is clean for our
clean athletes,” Treacy said. “We
all have rigorous programs in
place in our countries.
“We want to make sure that ev-
ery country has rigorous systems
in place that stack up to scrutiny.”ANTI-DOPING EFFORTSGroup: Russia
shouldn’t host
until compliant
Rachel Axon
@RachelAxon
USA TODAY SportsROB SCHUMACHER, USA TODAY SPORTS
The Russian flag is raised
during the closing ceremony
of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.lected with the No. 1 overall
pick. When Greene isn’t pitch-
ing, he plays shortstop, possess-
ing tremendous bat skills and
sheer, raw power.
He’s America’s amateur ver-
sion of Shohei Otani, Japan’s
two-way baseball star who will
become one of the sport’s high-
est-paid players once he comes
to the USA.
Greene will be the center-
piece this weekend at MLB’s
inaugural Dream Series in Tem-
pe, Ariz., providing exposure
to about 65 minority pitchers
and catchers, primarily African
Americans.
MLB, with its African-Ameri-
can population hovering around
8%, is trying to focus its efforts
on attracting more pitchers and
catchers. There were only 14 Af-
rican-American pitchers on
opening-day rosters last year —
1.6% of all major league pitchers
—and just
one black Ca-
nadian-born
catcher.
Consider-
ing every
team employs
12 or 13 pitch-
ers on its 25-
man roster
along with at
least two
catchers,
nearly 60% of
job opportu-
nities are un-
available if
you don’t play those positions.
Now with the help of Greene
and baseball’s Dream Series,
baseball is hoping to show that
it’s cool to be a pitcher or catcher
while inviting collegiate and pro-
fessional scouts to take a look for
themselves this weekend at the
Los Angeles Angels spring train-
ing complex.
“I love pitching, but there’s so
few African-American pitchers I
see out there,” Greene, a senior
at Notre Dame High School near
Los Angeles, told USA TODAY
Sports. “As far as catching, may-
be there’s only one or two Afri-
can Americans I’ve ever seen,
and none in our league. Maybe
there just hasn’t been as many
opportunities, I don’t know, but
hopefully that can change.”
Darrell Miller, director of
MLB’s Urban Youth Academy,
thinks a renewed focus on pitch-
ing and catching should make a
difference. It’s absurd that Cana-
dian-born Russell Martin of the
Toronto Blue Jays is baseball’s
lone black catcher. There hasn’t
been an everyday African-Amer-
ican catcher since Charles John-
son 12 years ago.
Perhaps if more African
Americans are funneled into
these positions, MLB reasons,
this spiral could end.
“I honestly have no idea why
it got to be like this,” said Miller,
who spent parts of five years as a
major league catcher in the
1980s. “I remember taking a (re-
cent) picture with Charles John-
son and
Lenny Web-
ster. I’m
thinking,
‘Wow, when
have we ever
seen three Af-
rican-Ameri-
can catchers
in the same
room at the
same time?’
“It’s a little
bit like the
quarterback
syndrome in
football. The
catcher is the quarterback, he
runs the game, and there has to
be a lot of trust in that regard.
“Maybe it’s our fault, too.
Maybe we haven’t sold it right.
These kids want to hit, want to
be an athlete and show athleti-
cism. We’ve got to show them if
you want to be in the big leagues,
maybe the best way is through
pitching or catching.
“That’s why this Dream Series
is really important, making
that message apparent to these
young, gifted African-Americanathletes.”
Just in case these kids wonder
whether there can actually be a
career opportunity on the pitch-
er’s mound or behind the plate,
there will be prime examples
this weekend serving as instruc-
tors under coordinator Jerry
Manuel. Former major league
pitchers Dave Stewart, LaTroy
Hawkins, Ken Hill, Marvin Free-
man and Darren Oliver will be
on hand, as well as Johnson and
Webster as catching coordina-
tors.
“I’m just ecstatic to see this
happening,” says Hawkins, a
catcher and pitcher throughout
his high school career in Gary,
Ind., before embarking on a 21-
year major league career as a
pitcher. “I haven’t seen a black
catcher since Charles Johnson.
And now to see these many Afri-
can-American pitchers and
catchers all together, it can give
them hope.”
Greene, who committed to
UCLA but is expected to turn
pro, says he relishes the oppor-
tunity to be a role model, no
matter if he’s a pitcher or a
shortstop. No offense to
Greene’s future employer’s de-
sires, but MLB would love to see
him make it as a pitcher.
“If you see a guy like Hunter
become a really high pick as a
pitcher, I’d be thrilled,” Miller
says. “Talking about it is one
thing, but seeing guys come
through the academies, and the
impact he could have on the
mound, it gives these kids a vehi-
cle, knowing there’s a chance.
That’s really what this is about,
giving kids the best opportunity.
And if you want to increase your
chances of playing in the major
leagues, you’d be foolish to pass
up the opportunity to be a pitch-
er or catcher. We have never
driven that message home be-
fore, but we sure are now.”
Perhaps, just in time.MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
CAYLOR ARNOLD, USA TODAY SPORTS
Hunter Greene, right, will be at MLB’s Dream Series event this weekend in Arizona.
Goal: More black pitchers
v CONTINUED FROM1C
FOLLOW COLUMNIST
BOB NIGHTENGALE
@BNightengale for breaking
news and analysis on baseball.“We’ve got to
show them if you
want to be in the
big leagues,
maybe the best
way is through
pitching or
catching.”
Darrell Miller , director of Major League
Baseball’s Urban Youth Academy