Defensive back Terrell Roberts scores in Fiesta Bowl win.

OSU scores another win with football recruits

The season may have been over for more than a month, but Oregon State felt it may have scored another win when football letters of intent were signed Feb. 8. The Beavers picked up 25 players - 17 from high schools and eight from junior colleges - and had what many recruiting experts viewed as one of the Pacific-10's top classes.

OSU head coach Dennis Erickson has been through this process enough times, though, to withhold judgment until the youngsters show they can perform at the college level.

"I don't get caught up with rankings and all those different things because everybody recruits differently," Erickson told reporters in the third floor of the Valley Football Center. "We went 11-1 with recruiting classes that weren't in the top 100 in the country, so it's really irrelevant. But what's happened to us because of the successes we've had, is that we've been able to get into some living rooms to talk to some athletes that Oregon State hasn't been able to do, and we've had success recruiting. The great thing that's happened too is that we've been able to compete and win battles with everybody in our league, and that's special, too."

That's not to say that Erickson wasn't pleased with the Beavers' signings.

"Obviously, we lose a lot of football players in certain areas and some of these junior college players can help us," Erickson said. "The high school group of 17 players is obviously the best group we've recruited since I've been here and probably one of the best groups I've ever recruited, even when I was at the University of Miami, so it's an outstanding group.

"The first year we were here, we never had to worry at the end of recruiting because it was us recruiting against nobody, and that worked out pretty good because we won that battle most of the time. Now, it's a little bit different story. But, again, it's just a tremendous year for us. We're very, very excited about it; very excited about these players."

Among OSU's recruits were two of the top high school players in Oregon: Derek Anderson, who quarterbacked Scappoose to the Class 3A state title and was generally ranked as one of the top 10 prep quarterbacks in the nation; and defensive end Bill Swancutt of Salem's Sprague High, who was ranked by several recruiting experts as one of the nation's top defensive linemen.

"That's the key," Erickson said of keeping Oregon's top high school players in the state. "As you look at it over the years, that hasn't happened. A lot of the players have left the state. To me, being able to sign the players that we did in the state of Oregon is the key to this program. When we can get the best and keep them here, then that's what this program is all about."

The Beavers also kept it all in the family, signing linebacker Trent Bray, son of OSU defensive coordinator Craig Bray, and punter/free safety Ryan Cozzetto, son of running backs coach Dan Cozzetto.

As would be expected, OSU's 11-1 season, 2000 Pacific-10 co-championship and Fiesta Bowl rout of Notre Dame attracted heightened interest from top recruits.

"That has a heck of a lot to do with recruiting," Erickson said. "But even more than that, I believe, is the commitment that's been made by President Risser and by Mitch (Barnhart, athletic director) ... our commitment down the road to continue to improve our facilities, as far as the stadium in the next couple years. And then the school itself - I really believe you see more parents being interested in students going to a school like Oregon State; getting out of the city and the populated areas. I really believe that's happening."

It's tough enough maintaining a ranking among the nation's top 20 softball teams. Now, try doing it without a home field.

That's the task that's been facing OSU head coach Kirk Walker and the Beavers since last summer. Ropes-Fetrow Field was demolished last summer to make way for the new indoor practice facility; Oregon State's new softball field would not be ready for use until mid-spring.

Construction has meant a disruption in the Beavers' practice routines during the fall and spring, but the difficulties have been eased a bit by the realization of what the new stadium will mean to the softball program.

"I don't know if we completely know how much it will impact our program," Walker said. "I think we're very eager to find out, because I think it's only going to be positive. I think the biggest thing is our athletes are going to be able to feel good about stepping on the field every day at practice, feeling like they're on a quality facility, a first-rate facility, feeling like they are a true member of the Pac-10 because of our facility and not just our work ethic. I think that's going to be a really positive thing."

The new ballpark should also help OSU attract some better ballplayers.

"Our field never hurt us recruiting, but it certainly never helped us," Walker said. "This fall, we're anxious to bring in some big recruits and see how that's going to play out and how we're going to be able to showcase that on our recruiting weekends."

For practices last fall, the Beavers used the Pioneer Park diamond near U.S. Highway 20/34. That was fine until the seasonal rains began; OSU cut practice a week short and began a week earlier in January.

This spring was a bit more frustrating, as dry weather would have allowed the Beavers more outdoor practice than during a normal winter. Instead of being on a real grass-and-dirt playing surface, OSU went through preseason drills on the artificial turf at Reser Stadium.

"Going out on the football field is nice but it's not being on the dirt. I think our kids have done a good job of dealing with it; I don't think it's impacted our level of play or what we're doing," said Walker, whose team won 10 of its first 12 games in February. "I think we could be in a little better place if we'd been on the dirt a little more."

Once the season began, the Beavers have opted for practices in their old winter home, McAlexander Fieldhouse.

"We don't gain as much by going outside on the AstroTurf now," Walker said. "Getting outside now isn't a big priority as much as making sure we have a quality practice. We're definitely getting the repetitions on our defense and ground balls on the weekends, so now it's a matter of just getting good quality practices. And we tend to get more done in the fieldhouse."

When the stadium opens sometime this spring, it will give OSU another indication that it has arrived on the scene in the nation's toughest softball conference.

"It certainly makes us competitive," Walker said. "It's not in the class of the top facilities in the country, but it will put us comparable to the top 20 percent in the country. The top five percent in the country are a whole other level. We're hoping we can expand as our growth goes and as our demand goes that we can expand this facility and build into that as we need to. But for now, it gives us a facility that will be in the middle of the Pac-10, a very competitive situation."

This wasn't a basketball season. This was a country-and-western song.

For four months, Oregon State's men's basketball team bounced its way from one bizarre circumstance to the next, slices of honky-tonk life dropped onto the hardwood.

In the fall, forward Phillip Ricci was lost for the season due to a knee injury.

On a December trip to Wyoming and Denver, the Beavers found themselves in a plane with landing-gear trouble, circling the Denver airport to burn fuel - "just in case."

After some road trips, players returned to their apartments to find them burglarized.

While in Berkeley for a January game against Cal, a man was shot just outside the team bus as the Beavers were waiting to depart for practice.

There were a few brief suspensions of players for violations of team rules.

A team manager was knocked unconscious by an errant pass during a practice.

Various injuries meant the Beavers generally suited up seven or eight players for games all the way through the season.

Even Mike Parker, OSU's radio voice, didn't escape. Following one game at Gill Coliseum, Parker's daughters were running around Miller Court; they collided and required stitches.

Welcome to Corvallis, Ritchie McKay.

Through it all, the first-year head coach somehow managed to keep his team from taking on the belief that it was cursed; kept them from simply deciding that the fates had determined this was to be a bad, bad year; kept them playing hard all the way to the finish. By late February, the short and shorthanded Beavers were still able to win at Washington, beat a Southern California team with postseason aspirations by 16 points, and take nationally ranked UCLA into overtime.

"I've been flattered by other coaches in the league saying what a great job we've done with such adversity, and that's a compliment," McKay said. "But it's our guys who deserve the credit. They've stayed together, they kept believing in themselves. And again, to win - even though we haven't won as much as we would have liked - but to win and compete with teams, even games we lost where we were on the floor often with four guards and sometimes even with five - I think it's a credit to their character.

"It's been a challenging year, but I've enjoyed it because I've seen some growth in our players that excites me. Before you can have a championship team or even a winning season, you've got to first build the program and build it to last. I think we've done that by the people we've added and by the ones we've inherited, maybe changing the work ethic or other things about them that I think will, consequently, eventually lead to success."

Putting future aspirations aside for a moment, McKay has seen success in the season just ended. Going through the tribulations will only make things easier when the Beavers meet whatever difficulties may lie down the road.

"No question," McKay said. "It's the true man that comes out in the face of adversity. Your character is tested, and who you really are is shown or revealed in the way you deal with it. I'm proud of our guys for playing with seven for the majority of the year and playing as hard as they could and still believing in us as a coaching staff, not allowing their non-winning record to determine who they are. I'm proud of them for that."

So, years from now, will you look back on the disrupted flight, break-ins, freak injuries and all the fun of the 2001 season and laugh?

"I've already laughed," McKay said. "When a guy goes down, we've started to think nothing's a real surprise anymore because of how much we've endured and been through. It's like, 'Aw, here we go again.' But I won't look back on this season with regret. If anything, it's challenged us to be better players, better coaches, and more together as a family. You need to go through a tunnel of chaos, because when you do, you're so refined when you come out that you're a better individual for that. I hope our tunnel only lasts a season."

Bill Harper enjoys an OSU home baseball game.

When Ryne Sandberg shows up to help honor you upon your retirement, you can figure you must have done all right during your career.

That was the case for Bill Harper, '51, who stepped down last fall after 30 years as a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies. The Portland Old-Timers Baseball Association made Harper one of its guests of honor at its annual January dinner, and Sandberg - one of major league baseball's best second basemen over the past quarter-century - was on hand to introduce the man who'd signed him to his first professional contract.

Sandberg, a Spokane native who later was traded to the Chicago Cubs, was just one of dozens of Pacific Northwest players taken by the Phillies upon Harper's recommendation. Pitcher Larry Christensen, shortstop Kevin Stocker and recent first-round draft pick Adam Eaton also were scouted by Harper, who said his favorite part of the job was just getting out and seeing young players in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and part of Canada.

"I get a great kick out of that," Harper said. "Just watching them progress, following them from their sophomore year of high school through college and so on. Just the progression of the players was the most important thing to me."

Harper was on OSU's Final Four basketball team in 1949 and also played baseball for the Beavers. After a few years playing in the National Industrial Basketball League, Harper became a successful baseball coach at Roseburg High before serving OSU as an assistant basketball and baseball coach from 1963 to 1970.

Going to work for the Phillies in 1970 meant adapting to a life of near-constant travel during the baseball season. Harper would drive 30,000 to 40,000 miles per year and see four or five games on any given weekend - more, if a tournament were involved.

Harper figures he went through 15 or 20 cars during that time - but only one wife, Anne Harper, who spent many years as the secretary in the Beavers' men's basketball office.

"She understood it," Harper said of his wife and his work. "I guess because I was in athletics most of my life. She was great about that. Fortunately, all our children lived in Corvallis (after they got out of school); that was a break for us."

Many times, Harper was making contract offers to high school players deciding between beginning their pro career or playing college baseball.

"When I sat down to talk to a player and his parents, I said, 'I don't want you to sign a pro contract for Bill Harper or the Philadelphia Phillies or whatever," Harper said. "'If you sign, sign it for yourself.' Then you tell them the things they have to do to progress in pro baseball.

"If they don't think they're ready to make that decision, then go to school. It's easy to handle success; the thing where we run into problems with 17- or 18-year-olds is the adversity they go through in the minor leagues. It's a very difficult situation. Some people with better ability than players who made the major leagues missed out because they didn't have the discipline and work habits to advance."