The Register, 1985-09-13

              by wade nash stoney is a good techni cian was well coached in high school and is self motivated pound for pound he is one of the top seven athletes on our team conditioning coach the key to polite's running ability is the hard work he puts in the aggie weight room i was looking at films of polite at his high school when this 5'9 kid walked in and called me shorty petty said we got along real well but i owe some of the credit for signing stoney to his high school coach and aggie alum nus rick jones i'm a biology major and enjoy going to class polite said the first two games caused me to miss my friday classes and i hate that but i'll work harder catching up even though polite enjoys playing football and lifting weights he realizes that his schoolwork cannot be neglected roy thompson said stoney lives on weights understands the principles on how he can benefit as an athlete from weights and leg presses 870 pounds execution will cure football team salem the aggie defense has caus ed a number of turnovers and riddick hopes that trend will continue against winston most of the points that have been scored on us mostly came on big plays riddick explained it wasn't as if the opposing offenses drove up and down the field on us defense has not been over powered in the season's first two starts gooden's career is even more astonishing than that of nba all-star michael jordan already gooden has been called the best pitcher in the game today the scary part about it all is that he is improving every day can you imagine that st louis pitcher jacquin andujar and san diego's lamarr hoyt are having good years but gooden should be a decisive winner for the cy young award gooden has even improved on his major weakness — holding runners on base last year the right-handed pitcher three out two base runners as they stole 47 bases out of 50 attempts with all star gary carter behind the plate this year base runners have only attempted 25 steals against gooden advancing 16 bases while gooden has picked off five while most teams have to score five to six runs to secure their starting pitcher a victory the mets only need to score two to three because gooden does not give up many runs his 1.68 earned run average is currently the longest in the majors gooden's six shutouts is second only to st louis pitcher john tudor who has seven also he has great poise the next time gooden is pitching on television notice how relaxed he looks on the mound when he releases the ball from his wind-up gooden seldom throws a bad pitch presently gooden leads the national league in strikeouts with 236 which makes him the second pit cher of all time to throw over 200 strikeouts in his first two years for one thing he possesses one of the deadliest fastballs in the game usually pitching between 93 to 94 miles per hour sometimes gooden throws as fast as 96 mph his best pitch though is his curveball when it is thrown perfectly it jumps and spins so much that the batter is completely confus ed at 80 mph gooden hurls the hardest curveball around the league it may be too early to say but if dwight gooden continues to break pitching records at a mercurial rate he will go down in history as the best pitcher who has ever played in the major leagues ever since gooden threw his first major league pitch for the new york mets he has been absolute ly phenomenal last year he led the majors with 276 strikeouts which set a rookie strikeout record as he was named national league rookie of the year by striking out 16 batters against pittsburgh and fanning 16 more the next night against philadelphia,gooden set a major league record by striking out 32 batters intwo consecutive games becoming the youngest player ever to appear in an all-star game gooden struck out the side in his first inning of pitching what's so amazing about this is that gooden came into the majors at the ear ly age of 19 with a year's experience under his belt he has vastly improved since may he had won 14 con secutive games his last victory against the san diego padres was very significant because gooden became the youngest 20-game winner in the history of the major league with only four losses gooden has the best record in baseball how did this man rise to the top so fast according to hooker the aggies do not plan to make wholesale changes in their of even though winston salem lost its season opener to virginia state 17-7 the rams are a veteran ball club and have dominated the series in recent years the rams won last year's game 35-21 the aggie offense has sput tered in the first two games on several occasions the ag gies had opportunities to score but a penalty or a mistake hurt their chances the aggies suffered defeats against tennessee state in their season opener and last week against delaware state tennessee state beat the ag gies 31-15 and delaware state almost matched the offensive total by winning 30-16 we have to execute against winston-salem hooker said the past two teams were not better than us we just beat ourselves that's the opinion of heralded sophomore quarter back alan hooker who will lead the aggies into saturday's pivotal game against winston-salem state in groves stadium the ag gies will enter the game winless after two previous starts there is nothing wrong with a&t's football team that a lit tle execution won't cure by anthony jeffries stopping teams from scor ing is something the a&t defense has not done so far but riddick believes the in order to stop winston salem we must contain them and stop them from getting to the outside riddick said their offense is not as com plicated as tennessee state or delaware state so i think we should be able to stop them the aggie offense knows it has to play hard if its going to be successful against the rams that also applies to the defense according to junioi noseguard ernest riddick consistency for an entire game hooker said we can't afford to be inconsistent and expect to win against them we need to maintain our fense a premium will be plac ed on consistency because of the intense rivalry between the two teams the outcome of the game hinges on the motivational skills of a&t coach mo forte and his counterpart bill hayes of winston-salem we need to create more turnovers so that our offense will have more of a chance to wear down their defense riddick said page 6 the a&t register friday september 13,1985 by anthony jeffries aj/s goat line stand polite is key in football system polite riddick hooker polite a standout tailback from east atlanta high school in atlanta ga at tracted attention from clem son morris-brown louis ville citadel morehouse and clark before signing with the aggies so far polite has been able to avoid injuries and is now starting to show what he can do against delaware state polite made an incredible run a&t trainer thomas bynum stated it was amaz ing how he avoided getting tackled hands stoney is a great football player that's got to get un packed he bench presses 400 pounds and runs the forty in 4.5 forte said if he needs to improve anything it's his with an experienced offen sive line returning this season aggie head coach mo forte expects big things from polite last season polite showed flashes of potential as a freshman he led the aggies in rushing and was one of the few backs to gain over 100 yards in a game against bethune cookman which the aggies lost 23-14 polite was at his best as he rushed for 121 yards on just 18 carries but more often than not polite along with the other backs could not get past the scrimmage line i was impressed with stoney's quickness strength and power and felt that he could contribute right away petty said 1 the first time that a&t assistant football coach rayford petty saw stoney polite carry a football he knew that polite would quick ly fit into the aggie system