Columnist Ron Kantowski: Stokes became relevant right here

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 | 10:50 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

In that he played his college football at William Penn, an NAIA school in Oskaloosa, Iowa, tight end Andy Stokes may be the most irrelevant of all the Mr. Irrelevants, which is what they've been calling the last player selected in the NFL Draft for the past 30 years.

But it wasn't that long ago that Stokes was more relevant than the petrified logs and layered cliffs at the Valley of Fire in Overton, near where he played his high school ball.

Well, maybe that's overstating things a bit. But Stokes, who grew up in St. George, Utah, was quite the quarterback at Moapa Valley High School. The road to irrelevance also took a turn at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, and a most important detour at Sam Boyd Stadium, of all places.

There's a college all-star game known as the Las Vegas All-American Classic, a wannabe Hula Bowl without the grass skirts, that the local media mostly ignores. It's played here in January featuring a lot of backup players from big schools and a lot of front-line players from little ones. Stokes was one of those, but only after his father, Tom, talked Darius "Gator" Alton, the game's promoter, into letting Andy have the last roster spot this year.

It was in Las Vegas, Stokes told The Spectrum, a newspaper in St. George, Utah, where he first got noticed.

"I was fortunate to get into that game," he said.

In June, Stokes, 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, will be the guest of honor during "Mr. Irrelevant Week" during which he will be feted at a banquet, a regatta, a parade at Disneyland before being presented with the coup de grace, the Lowsman Trophy.

Then it will be on to New England, where he will be trying to become the fifth Mr. Irrelevant in the past seven years to make an NFL roster.

"(He's) kind of the all-time, small-school pick that I think we've had," Pats coach Bill Belichick told the Associated Press. "He's an athletic guy, a guy that we see a lot of upside potential with. He's a smart, hard-working kid."

But irrelevant no longer.

I went to UNLV's spring football game Friday night, hoping to see some of those sleight-of-hand option plays, double- and triple-reverses and outrageous downfield laterals that Utah used to befuddle Pittsburgh and cap its undefeated season in last year's Fiesta Bowl.

Instead, what I saw was half of Utah's offense -- let's hope it was the boring half -- being run by UNLV players.

Afterward Mike Sanford, the offensive coordinator for the wildly successful and entertaining Utes the past two years who inherits a Rebels program that was neither, said UNLV still has a long way to go before his new team is ready to play New Mexico in fall's season opener.

He won't get any argument here.

Sanford said he wouldn't announce UNLV's reasonable facsimile of Alex Smith until 10 days before the Rebels go to Albuquerque, adding that he prefers not to use alternating quarterbacks. But I don't see how he can avoid it because based on Friday, incumbent Shane Steichen isn't much of a runner and newcomer Jarrod Jackson isn't much of a passer.

There also seemed to be more players (18) on the sidelines due to injuries and other excuses, er, reasons than in shoulder pads, which is just one more reason for not having spring football.

Outside of John Guice, a hard-hitting junior college cornerback, not many of the newcomers who played Friday made much of an introduction. Erick Jackson broke a few tackles and made a couple of nice runs but again, I ask, where's the beef?

Jackson, like Dominique Dorsey and just about every other UNLV running back of note during the past decade, is a little on the small side at 5-foot-6 and 180 pounds. But it looks like he'll have to do, because it is now apparent that JaJa Riley (6-2, 210) must have stole those Buckeye leaves he received while caddying for Maurice Clarett at Ohio State.

Thankfully, one spring football session does not make a dynasty. A couple of UNLV insiders have told me that Sanford coaches as good a game as he talks. So the Rebels will certainly get better and, when you think about it, 2006 isn't as far off as it sounds.

Forget about major league baseball. Based on the crowds at the 2005 FEI World Cup Finals at the Thomas & Mack Center, what we really need around here is major league show horse jumping.

The seven dressage and jumping sessions attracted 90,221 spectators or an average of 12,888 per session. The Rebels and Colorado State would knock over at least three fences to play in front of a crowd like that.

"It was amazing to experience the energy and excitement that surged through the arena," said Las Vegas Events president Pat Christenson, adding that the event "surpassed all of our expectations."

For all you Mister Ed fans, NBC will televise the jumping finals at 2 p.m. May 8, while the Outdoor Life Network will replay the dressage final at 1 p.m. June 6.

The crowd at last Friday's Las Vegas Strikers semi-pro soccer home opener at the Bettye Wilson Soccer Complex was a modest 300 but still a record for the 2-year-old "franchise" which plays in the just-for-grins National Premier Soccer League. Alas, despite goals from Levi Parker and Joe Armstrong, the Strikers came up short against the Salinas Valley Samba, 3-2.

Local fans needing a live futbol fix will have two opportunities this weekend, as the Strikers will host the Albuquerque Asylum at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The Strikers are coached by longtime Bishop Gorman soccer coach Victor Arbelaez, whose son, Boomer, is a rookie with Club Deportivo Chivas USA. Chivas, a Major League Soccer expansion team, shares a home ground, the modern Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., with the LA Galaxy.

A defensive midfielder who starred at UNLV, Arbelaez has yet to set foot on the pitch for winless Chivas (0-3-1). But his time is coming, says his father.

"He's doing pretty good," Victor Arbelaez said. "He's playing hard and the coach (Thomas Rongen) likes him. It's just a matter of time until he gets in."

Well, so much for that budding rivalry against Fort Lewis.

The Rebels won't be playing Fort Lewis from Parts Unknown, Colorado (actually, the Skyhooks, er, Hawks, hail from Durango, which has a narrow gauge railroad that is a far better attraction than the basketball team).

UNLV also won't be playing Gardner-Webb, Florida Atlantic and Texas-Pan American, resulting in one of the most attractive nonconference basketball schedules since Jerry Tarkanian left town.

The dates aren't final, but the Rebels will play Nevada-Reno, Texas Tech, Pepperdine, Hawaii, Houston, Loyola Marymount, Long Beach State and Southern Utah at home and Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Hawaii and Minnesota on the road.

Even the exhibition schedule is improved. Instead of the EA Sports All-Stars or Marathon Oil, the Rebels will play actual Division II college teams in Bryant of Smithfield, R.I., and Washburn of Topeka, Kan.

Bryant is coached by Max Good, who did penance as UNLV's head coach after Bill Bayno got canned. I'm not sure who coaches Washburn but you've gotta love the nickname -- Washburn is known as the Ichabods.

He's now the biggest thing to hit the NBA since a Hummer with all the options, but a little over a year ago when he was looking for a job, the Nuggets' George Karl couldn't even get UNLV to accept his resume, according to his biggest coaching crony. And I mean that literally.

"It's weird," former Utah coach Rick Majerus told the Rocky Mountain News. "At this time last year, I was trying to get him the Vegas job. I called Vegas and said 'You should hire this guy. This guy is a great coach.' ... They just blew him off. Now he's the hottest coach in the NBA."

There was one game where Rebels fans who were likewise enamored of the idea of Karl as coach wore homemade George Karl masks to make their preference known. But while the idea was intriguing at the time and probably even moreso now, you don't draft players in college, you recruit them. And who's to say Karl wouldn't have done a reverse Rick Pitino after a year or two?

Besides, I still say there's nothing wrong with the guy (Lon Kruger) the Rebels got.

Former Lady Rebels star Linda Frohlich apparently has had a change of heart about saying goodbye to the WNBA, as she has signed as an unrestricted free agent with the WNBA's Charlotte Sting.

Frohlich, a two-year WNBA veteran who indicated last year she probably would be returning to her native Europe to play hoops full-time, is one of 20 players listed on the Sting's training camp roster. One of the inside players she may have to beat out for playing time and/or a roster spot is Janel McCarville, the highly regarded rookie from Minnesota.

When somebody dies and there's nobody around to confirm his age, it usually means the deceased led a lonely life or a colorful one.

With Jack Welsh, the longtime boxing writer who was found dead in his Las Vegas apartment Monday, it was the latter. Like Satchel Paige, the old Negro Leagues pitcher who also seemed to misplace his birth certificate, everybody in the local fight game knew Jack Welsh. He was like the smell of liniment, and I mean that in a good way.

The two things I'll most remember about Jack is how no matter how big the fight or fighters, he always made a long news conference even longer by asking about their amateur records. And how he always seemed to get under Bob Arum's skin by buzzing in to ask a routine question during a national teleconference.

"(Darn) it Jack," Arum would bellow, "you can ask your (darn) question when we come to Vegas."

Jack Welsh was believed to be in his early 80s. I'm not sure if he had an amateur record.

archive