Once upon a World Series

Fairy tales have happy endings, and sometimes they also feature magic dust and long-held promises. One story at this year's College World Series had all the trappings of a fairy tale -- including the magic dust, the promise and the happy ending.

T. J. Soto, now a senior at Louisiana Tech University, was a volunteer at the College World Series' Youth Education through Sports (YES) clinic his freshman year. He was so impressed by the championship, the experience and the stadium that he asked a University of Miami (Florida) player to fill a vial of dirt for him from the field.

Soto took the dirt and made a vow then, as heroes in these stories often do, to one day return the dirt to its home in Rosenblatt stadium. He hoped to return as a competitor in the College World Series, but this year was his last chance -- and his team went 24-28 in the regular season.

However, this year also was the inaugural year of a Rawlings-sponsored home-run derby at the College World Series, and Soto was determined to be there. Soto, who holds the Sun Belt Conference record for homers in a season (21) and in a career (72) was chosen for the contest, as were the best home-run hitters from all three NCAA divisions.

Soto hit three homers in the first round, and had to endure a five-out playoff with Derek Bell of Sonoma State University and Jeff Haase of Cleveland State University. Soto sent two into the stands in the playoff, advancing to the semifinals, where he launched two more out of the park.

At some point during the contest, a couple of onlookers noticed that Soto was sprinkling dirt onto his wooden bat in the dugout between at-bats. When asked what he was doing, Soto told the story and told the onlookers, "It's good-luck dirt. It's magic dust."

In the final, Soto hit eight homers into and over the left-field bleachers -- at one point belting four out of five over the fence -- defeating Joe Densmore of New Mexico Highlands University.

Soto's accomplishments probably were attributable to all those years of practice rather than magic dust, but it certainly didn't hurt to have that goal in mind for four years.

"I have always wanted to get to Omaha for the College World Series," Soto said after his win. "This isn't the way I had hoped to get here, but I will settle for it."

Soto recently was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 31st round of the Major League Baseball draft. Perhaps the fairy tale isn't over yet.

Diving into books

The Regis College (Massachusetts) women's swimming and diving team spends a lot of time in the pool -- and a lot of time in the library. For the 22nd consecutive semester, the team has won the All-Academic Team Award, sponsored by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.

The Regis team is the only women's team -- among all three NCAA divisions -- to win this award every semester since the award's inception in the fall of 1989. A team needs at least a 2.800 overall grade-point average to receive this award. The Regis team's average for the spring 2000 semester was 3.19.

Official improvement

Leaders in sports officiating gathered recently in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for a national three-day conference to address a growing concern in athletics -- how to train and improve sports officials.

"There is a need to develop practical and technologically up-to-date training programs for every level of sports officiating, and that's why we've brought together the absolute crèmè de la crèmè of the industry," said Barry Mano, president of the National Association of Sports Officials.

Officials from all over the country -- including representatives from the collegiate ranks -- attended the gathering, as did the directors of officiating for the professional sports of baseball, basketball, football and ice hockey.

Attendees participated in specific educational sessions, including those identifying the most important challenges in the training of officials; analyzing the value of national training programs; teaching character and applying its principles in daily officiating responsibilities; dealing with the complexity of training volunteers; and identifying the characteristics critical to developing quality officials at all levels.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes

Number crunching

Final 2000 Division I Baseball Trends

The final 2000 national totals and per-game averages for Division I baseball:

Avg. No. games

played per team 54.9* 32.0 54.8

Batting

Pitching

Fielding

Fielding pct. .952 .952 .954*

Averages are per game and per team. *Record high for a completed season.

Statistical Trends 1970-2000

Year Teams Batting Scoring HR per ERA

avg. game

^First year of aluminum bat. #Record low. *Record high. -Year most record highs were set.