East Chapel Hill Athletic Director Ray Hartsfield interviewed candidates Tuesday for the men's soccer job at ECH. He needs to find a replacement for Joe Burger, who told Hartsfield earlier this year he did not plan on returning.

Burger, a technology teacher at ECHHS, has been accepted into the Masters of Business Administration program at the University of North Carolina, Hartsfield said.

Burger took over the Wildcat program while still a UNC undergraduate in 2007, rebuilding it after the abrupt departure of Michael Ingram. East Chapel Hill men's team went 25-18-4 overall and 16-8-1 in the PAC-6 under Burger.

FOOTBALL

Pop Warner registration
Walkup registration for Orange County Pop Warner football and cheerleading can be done in person June 21 and July 12 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Cane Creek Baptist Activities Center, located at 6717 Orange Grove Road.

Orange County Pop Warner provides youth tackle football and cheer programs for youth ages 5-12. More information and registration forms are available online at www.orangecountypopwarner.com. For more information, please contact orangecountypopwarner@yahoo.com or 967-7912.
GOLF

NCSU soph wins Am
N.C. State sophomore Mark McMillen fired a 5-under-par 67 Sunday to claim the North Carolina Amateur Championship at Old Chatham Golf Club with a 10-under par total of 278. His neighbor Derek Wallace, who attends UNC-Wilmington, finished in second at 7-under along with David Watkins of Hamlet. McMillen and Wallace are both from Smithfield and have been friends for years.

University of North Carolina teammates David Holzworth, a former East Chapel Hill golfer, and Jack Fields of Southern Pines, were part of a five-way tie for fourth at 5-under-par 283.

James Madison's Rich Leeper, a member of Carrboro High's class of 2009 that graduated Saturday at the Smith Center, made the cut and finished tied for 54th.

The champion had not played the challenging Old Chatham Golf Club course prior to last week's practice round.

"Smithfield is not known much except the home of Neal Lancaster (PGA Tour Player) and Ava Gardner (movie star)," said McMillen. "So it is nice to add a little something to that."
A first at Pinehurst
Pinehurst No. 2 is set to become the first and only course to host the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open, U.S. Senior Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women's Amateur. The USGA will hold the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women's Open at Pinehurst No. 2 a week apart in 2014, making for the first time they will be on the same course in consecutive weeks. The USGA announced the doubleheader Monday, confirming reports initially broken by Golf World magazine.

The 2014 U.S. Open will mark the third time in 15 years the USGA's premier championship has been played on the Donald Ross course in the sandhills of North Carolina and the first since Michael Campbell edged Tiger Woods to win the 2005 Open. In 1999, the late Payne Stewart sank an 18-foot putt on the 72nd hole to edge Phil Mickelson by one stroke at Pinehurst.

The U.S. Women's Open has been held at Pine Needles, but never at Pinehurst No. 2. To put both events a week apart would save the USGA money in setting up the course, building grandstands and erecting concession, media and hospitality tents.

"We are very excited to have the U.S. Open and the U.S. women's open in back-to-back weeks," said Pinehurst owner and CEO Bob Dedman. "It's like what (Chicago Cubs great) Ernie Banks used to say: 'Lets' play two.'"
COLLEGES

Bad start in CWS
A bad break for the Tar Heels and a good swing of the bat by the Sun Devils' deadly Kole Calhoun decided the outcome of Carolina's opening game in the College World Series on Sunday. Calhoun's three-run homer off Brian Moran in the top of the 10th, coming after Carolina right fielder Garrett Gore's error, led to the go-ahead run and carried Arizona State to a 5-2 victory.

Jason Kipnes reached when his one-out fly ball to the warning track nicked Gore's glove and dropped in play. Carlos Ramirez followed with a base hit up the middle, scoring Drew Maggi from second to break a 1-1 tie. Calhoun, who had grounded out to the mound his first three at-bats and struck out looking on his fourth, sent a 1-1 pitch by Moran four rows into the stands in left-center field for a four-run lead.

"I wanted a better at-bat than the last four, and that wasn't hard to do," Calhoun said.

UNC's Alex White, who worked nine solid innings in his fourth CWS start, matched his career-high with 12 strikeouts. That's a UNC record for a CWS game. The Cleveland Indians' first-round draft pick was touched for three doubles in the first two innings, but he allowed only four singles the rest of the way over 131 pitches. Colin Bates (4-3), who faced one batter in the 10th, took the loss.

Arizona State starter Josh Spence and reliever Mitchell Lambson (9-3) stymied a Carolina offense that had been batting .400 in the NCAA tournament, well above its regular-season mark of .301. The Heels came in averaging 10 runs in the postseason and had scored 45 in the previous four games.

Carolina's loss was its first in an opening-round game in the College World Series since the Tar Heels dropped their CWS opener in 1989.

UNC fell to 2-4 in extra-inning games this year. Carolina last went extra innings in the College World Series in a 13-inning win over Cal State Fullerton June 16, 2006.

CWS games resumed in Bracket 2 on Tuesday, with Southern Miss (40-25) trying to stay alive against North Carolina (47-17) in the afternoon and Texas (47-14-1) meeting Arizona State (50-12) at night. See today's News & Observer or www.newsobserver.com for results and coverage of the double-elimination tournament.
Williams' book coming in autumn
Coinciding with the start of the 2009 basketball season, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill will publish UNC basketball coach Roy Williams' autobiography, "Hard Work: My Life On and Off the Court" on November 24. We use the term "autobiography" advisedly, since Sports Illustrated writer and UNC lecturer Tim Crothers will share writing credits with Williams. Crothers is the author of the definitive book on UNC women's soccer and head coach Anson Dorrance. Novelist John Grisham will pen the foreword of Williams' book.

Williams, 58, from Asheville, is a hot commodity this year, coming off a second NCAA championship.

He has the third-highest winning percentage in NCAA history: better than records posted by Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, Bobby Knight or even John Wooden.

Founded by Louis Ruben, with an eye towards publishing first-time authors, Algonquin Books is a publisher of national bestsellers and is still known also for its championing of regional writers.

"I liked the idea of having a publisher with both national prestige and local roots," Williams said in a press release. "Algonquin's passion, vision, and work ethic won me over from the beginning."

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