News about Mormons, Mormonism,
and the LDS Church

By Kent Larsen

Sports: Football Coverage Includes Coaches, College

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- Football season has arrived, and so has Mormon News' expanded coverage of football. We have combed through the rosters of the NFL teams, which start their season this weekend, and discovered many additional Mormon players. In addition, Mormon News has added coverage of the four Mormon coaches in the NFL and coverage of Division I NCAA football, and AAA minor league baseball. In all, Mormon News is currently covering more than 60 active professional athletes, as well as numerous coaches and college athletes. And we have identified many more who may be Mormon.

As our baseball coverage expands into the AAA, a subscriber identified Phillies pitcher Brandon Duckworth as a probable Mormon (we would like confirmation, if anyone can verify Duckworth's religious background). Duckworth was brought up from the minors in early August, and has so far won two games in six starts with a respectable 3.26 ERA. We also discovered two additional pitchers, Ryan Jensen and Scott Eyre, who were brought up from the minors during the season and who may be Mormon. In the minors, Brian Banks and McKay Christensen are both playing for minor league teams, while six other possible Mormons are playing in AAA.

Among those in the majors, Jeff Kent again had a lower than usual batting average for the week, hitting just .250, but scoring three runs on six hits. Among starting pitchers, the Blue Jay's Roy Halladay gave the best performance, coming in with a 2.57 ERA and a win for 7 innings work, while the Orioles Johnson had a disastrous outing, giving up six earned runs over just 4 1/3rd innings for an ERA over 12. Relief pitchers Kyle Farnsworth and Omar Olivares both shut out opponents in their few innings of relief, while the Cardinal's Veres struggled, giving up 4 earned runs in two one-inning appearances.

In golf, all Mormon golfers were active during the week, including recent pro Jeff Quinney, who used one of his exceptions as 2000 US Amateur Champion to play in the Air Canada Championship along with Jay Don Blake, Keith Clearwater, Dan Forsman and Mike Reid. But only Blake and Forsman made the cut. The best performance of the week came from Senior PGA Tour member Bruce Summerhays, who tied for fourth in the Kroger Senior Classic.

[If the listings below aren't clear, try looking at them with a mono-spaced font, such as courier - Ed.]

Baseball

Major League Baseball

Position Players:

Jeff Kent

Second Base

San Francisco Giants

	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	Avg
This Week	6	24	3	6	0	2	2	3	0.25
YTD	133	506	71	149	18	86	54	78	0.294

Pitchers:

* Brandon Duckworth

Starting Pitcher

Philadelphia Phillies

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	0-0	0	2.84	6.3	8	2	2	2	3
YTD	6	2-0	0	3.26	38.7	32	14	14	15	25

(MH) Shawn Estes

Starting Pitcher

San Francisco Giants

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	0	0-0	0	0.00	0.0	0	0	0	0	0
YTD	24	8-8	0	3.96	145.3	136	71	64	76	94

Kyle Farnsworth

Relief Pitcher

Chicago Cubs

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	2	1-0	0	0.00	2	2	0	0	0	3
YTD	63	4-3	0	2.42	67	49	18	18	23	92

Mike Fetters

Relief Pitcher

Los Angeles Dodgers

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	0-0	0	9.00	1.0	1	1	1	0	1
YTD	44	2-1	5	5.73	37.7	41	27	24	18	31

Roy Halladay

Relief Pitcher

Toronto Blue Jays

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	1-0	0	2.57	7.0	8	2	2	0	7
YTD	11	3-1	0	4.05	66.7	71	32	30	20	58

Jason M. Johnson

Starting Pitcher

Baltimore Orioles

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	0- 1	0	12.46	4.3	6	6	6	4	2
YTD	27	10-10	0	3.66	167.0	160	88	68	59	93

* Omar Olivares

Relief Pitcher

Pittsburg Pirates

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	1	0-0	0	0.00	1.0	1	0	0	0	2
YTD	38	6-7	0	6.32	104.0	113	78	73	39	66

(MH) Garret Stephenson	Starting Pitcher	St Louis Cardinals
[On the Disabled List - out for the season]

(MH) Dave Veres

Relief Pitcher

St Louis Cardinals

	G	W-L	S	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
This Week	2	0-0	0	18.00	2.0	5	4	4	0	3
YTD	64	3-2	15	3.77	59.7	53	27	25	25	54

Need to Verify Mormon:

Scott Eyre	Relief Pitcher	Toronto Blue Jays
Ryan Jensen	Starting Pitcher	San Francisco Giants

Minor Leagues

AAA

Brian Banks	1B	Calgary Cannons (Florida Marlins)
McKay Christensen	CF	Las Vegas 51s (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Reed Secrist	1B	Nashville Sounds (Pittsburg Pirates)

Please help us find out if the following are Mormon:

Nate Tebbs	SS	Richmond Braves (Atlanta Braves)
Ron Wright	1B	Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Devil Rays)
John DeSilva	Starting Pitcher	Las Vegas 51s (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Jared Fernandez	Starting Pitcher	Louisville Riverbats (Cincinnati Reds)
Jeremy Lambert	Starting Pitcher	Memphis Redbirds (St Louis Cardinals)

Basketball

NBA

The NBA' season has concluded.

WNBA

The WNBA's season has ended for 2001.

Football

NFL

The NFL season begins September 9th. Exibition games for the NFL began several weeks ago.

We have identified the following Mormons in the NFL:

Quarterbacks

Detmer, Ty	Detroit Lions
Germaine, Joe	St Louis Rams
Mitchell, Scott	Cincinnati Bengals

Offense

Clark, Greg	San Francisco 49ers
Heap, Todd	Baltimore Ravens
Lewis, Chad	Philadelphia Eagles
Manumaleuna, Brandon	St Louis Rams
Mili, Itua	Seattle Seahawks
Sitake, Kalani	Cincinnati Bengals

Offensive Line

Dixon, David	Minnesota Vikings
Mulitalo, Edwin	Baltimore Ravens
Tait, John	Kansas City Chiefs
Turley, Kyle	New Orleans Saints

Defense

Bell, Marcus	Seattle Seahawks
Bowers, Andy	Arizona Cardinals
Boyer, Brant	Cleveland Browns
Frank, John	Philadelphia Eagles
Frisch, Byron	Tennessee Titans
Gali, Setema	San Diego Chargers
Hall, Travis	Atlanta Falcons
Hoke, Chris	Pittsburgh Steelers
Ioane, Junior	Oakland Raiders
Kehl, Ed	Green Bay Packers
Morris, Rob	Indianapolis Colts
Olevao, Kautai	Tennessee Titans
Smith, Derek	San Francisco 49ers

Special Teams

Johnson, Lee	New England Patriots
Clark, Mike	Oakland Raiders

Coaches

Reid, Andy	Head Coach	Philadelphia Eagles
Henshaw, George	Assistant Head Coach	Tennessee Titans
Campo, Dave	Head Coach	Dallas Cowboys
Bevell, Darrell	Offensive Assistant/Quailty Control	Green Bay Packers

Cut since last season/draft:

Andersen, Jason	Miami Dolphins
Ofahengue, Tevita	Arizona Cardinals
Olsen, Hans	Indianapolis Colts
Pochman, Owen	New England Patriots
Pupunu, Alfred	Detroit Lions
Unutoa, Morris	Tampa Bay Buccaneers

We're trying to confirm that the following are Mormon:

Moore, Larry	Indianapolis Colts (BYU)
Seals, Richard	New Orleans Saints (Utah)
Knorr, Micah	Dallas Cowboys (Utah State)

CFL

The CFL season began June 20th. We still have identified only two Mormon players!

Ben Cahoon	Montreal Alouettes
Sefa O'Reilly	Winnipeg Blue Bombers

While we are compiling a list of Mormon players in the CFL, that league doesn't make available player by player statistics.

We have also identified the following possible Mormon players, based on the 2001 Rosters:

Chris Ellison	Saskatchewan Rough Riders	BYU
Curtis Marsh	Saskatchewan Rough Riders	Utah
Omaar Morgan	Saskatchewan Rough Riders	BYU
Rob Hitchcock	Hamilton Tiger-Cats	Weber State
Trevor Shaw	Hamilton Tiger-Cats	Weber State
Kevin Alexander	Montreal Alouettes	Utah State
Darnell Arceneaux	Montreal Alouettes	Utah
Anthony Calvillo	Montreal Alouettes	Utah State
Josh Cochran	Montreal Alouettes	Utah
Neal Fort	Montreal Alouettes	BYU
Chad Folk	Toronto Argonauts	Utah
Profail Greer	Toronto Argonauts	Utah State
Errol Martin	Toronto Argonauts	Utah
Morgan Welch	Toronto Argonauts	Weber State
Brandon Dyson	Winnipeg Blue Bombers	Utah State
Moe Elewonibi	Winnipeg Blue Bombers	BYU

College

NCAA - Division I

We plan to begin limited coverage of NCAA Division I football players and coaches who are Mormon. Here is a list of the players OUTSIDE OF UTAH we have identified to date:

Blackhurst, Cooper	DE	Stanford
Bowen, Jake	LB	Navy
Brinton, Spencer	QB	Michigan
Chambers, Kirk	OT	Stanford
Dunn, Marc	QB	Kansas State
Flores, Jeremy	P/PK	Colorado
Giles, Scott	OLB	Stanford
Hoover, Adam	QB	Cincinnati
Kay, Russell	LB	Colorado State
Mailo, Faaesea	OG	USC
McLaughlin, Derek	P	Washington
Parkhurst, Matt	OL	UNLV
Parkhurst, Scott	LB	UNLV
Ralph, Brock	WR	Wyoming
Tafuna, Sione	OL	Hawaii
Wallin, Kurt	DT	Arizona State

Coaches

Afoa, Ulima	Assistant Coach	San Diego State
Chow, Norm	Offensive Coordinator	USC
Crowton, Gary	Head Coach	BYU
Holmoe, Tom	Head Coach	CalState
Leach, Mike	Head Coach	Texas Tech
Mallory, Rick	Offensive Line	Memphis
Uperesa, Keith	Offensive Line	USC

Hockey

NHL

The NHL's preseason games begin September 15th. Regular season games begin October 3rd.

The only Mormon player we know of is Aaron Garvey, who plays for the Minnesota Wild.

Golf

PGA Tour

Buy.com Tour

Playing on Exemption

Senior PGA Tour

Soccer

WUSA

The WUSA's season has ended for 2001.

* Mormon News has enough information to make it likely that this athlete is either Mormon or has Mormon heritage. But we have so far been unable to confirm this suspicion.

(MH) - Mormon Heritage - This athlete is either an inactive LDS Church member, or has Mormon heritage.

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