AVP announces tour without star
Five-time Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings has not committed to play in AVP events this summer, leading the domestic beach-volleyball tour to announce its 2017 schedule — including a return to San Francisco — without including the game’s top draw.
“We’re in contract negotiations and we’re pretty far off right now,” Walsh Jennings, who grew up in San Jose, said in a text message.
A three-time Olympic champion who won the bronze medal with partner April Ross at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Walsh Jennings has been vocal in arguing for athletes’ rights in the national governing body and the domestic tour. Last summer, she staged a one-woman boycott of the season-ending event in Chicago over rule changes she said were made without consulting the athletes.
The San Francisco Open will be held July 6-9 at Piers 30-32. NFL: The New Orleans Saints are bringing back tight end John Phillips on a one-year contract. Phillips joined the Saints during Week 10 of last season, when he was claimed off waivers from the Denver Broncos.
College basketball: Jim Hayford, a Berean Christian High-Walnut Creek alum, was hired as the head coach at Seattle, leaving Eastern Washington after six seasons. EWU replaced Hayford with Shantay Legans, who had been Hayford’s assistant. Legans played guard at Cal for three seasons (1999-2002).
Other head-coaching moves: Massachusetts hired Matt McCall, 35, who spent the previous two seasons at Chattanooga, and Miami (Ohio) hired Purdue assistant Jack Owens.
Colleges: North Dakota athletic department officials said that budget cuts ordered by the school president have forced them to eliminate three sports, including a women’s hockey program loaded with Olympians. Also cut were men’s and women’s swimming.
Ken Sparks, who won 338 games as football coach for Division II Carson-Newman to rank fifth on the NCAA’s all-time list, died at 73 at his home in Jefferson City, Tenn.
Golf: Gary Woodland says he withdrew from the Match Play event last week because his wife had complications with her pregnancy that resulted in the loss of one of their twins.
Tennis: In the Miami Open, four-time Key Biscayne runner-up Rafael Nadal advanced to the semifinals by beating American Jack Sock 6-2, 6-3. Nadal’s opponent Friday will be Fabio Fognini, the first unseeded player in 10 years to reach the men’s semis at Key Biscayne . ... Venus Williams moved a step closer to her first Key Biscayne title since 2001 when she beat top-ranked Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.