Manhattan gives Laue his chance

Scattershooting the sports world while reporting that Fork Union Military Academy’s Kevin Laue will be playing Division I basketball next season ...

Readers will remember our feature on Laue last basketball season, the 6-foot-10, one-armed center. He lost his left arm about an inch below the elbow at birth when circulation to the arm was cut off by the umbilical cord.

“It’s another unbelievable story,” said FUMA postgraduate coach Fletcher Arritt. “It took a FUMA guy to find (Laue) in California. It took Fork Union to get him in position to where he needed to go, and it took another FUMA guy to offer him his first scholarship.”

That’s all Laue wanted — a chance.

Near season’s end it appeared he wasn’t going to get one, at least not at the Division I level. Laue had pretty much lost hope before Arritt started calling around to some of his friends in the basketball world.

One was Mike Young, a former FUMA guy, now at Wofford.

Young told Arritt that he liked Laue, but that the kid would have to walk on. However, once Young and some Wofford folks came up and watched Laue in action, they offered him a scholarship.

Meanwhile, Colgate came in and offered him three years of financial help for its Patriot League basketball program.

However, the best was yet to come.

Manhattan College president Brother Thomas Scanlan had seen articles about Laue and asked coach Barry Rohrssen to give the Fork Union player some consideration. Rohrssen, who lost his top four rebounders off of last season’s 16-14 team, decided to offer Laue a full scholarship with the Jaspers.

Since stories came out about Laue last basketball season, he has been contacted by approximately 100 people with disabilities somewhat similar to his or worse and he has reached out to inspire them.

Now, with a scholarship and even more visibility as a Division I player, he believes he can help even more folks with disabilities.

The Silver Bowl

Following up on another feature story from the spring, former Virginia football player Brennan Schmidt finished off his coaching debut in grand style by leading his Briganti Napoli team to the Italian League championship.

Schmidt, who played for Al Groh, finished an undefeated season with a 34-14 rout in the 17th Silver Bowl championship game.

“Completing our perfect season and the club’s first ever championship since its beginning in 1982 was quite a big deal,” Schmidt said. “We celebrated for about a week straight.”

The game was carried on live television and the city of Naples celebrated as well, having not experienced a championship in any sport in a long time. The mayor invited the team to City Hall for a champagne toast.

Riding the wave of success, the franchise had an open tryout in order to get more players involved next season and 35 new players came out.

“None of these guys had ever played football before, but were eager to learn,” Schmidt said. “It is definitely the biggest challenge yet because we have to start from the very basics of the game.”

More Vinny

One of the stories told by coach Red Pulliam the other night about Vinny Testaverde during the Fork Union Sports Hall of Fame induction dinner wasn’t about football, but rather track and field.

Pulliam said that when Testaverde was through with football season, the Fork Union folks asked him to join the track team because they needed a javelin thrower.

Testaverde, known for his rocket arm, had never thrown a javelin before but was willing to try.

He went out and set the school record with a throw of 212 feet, 1 inch — a record that still stands.

Testaverde said that is still his favorite memory as an athlete at Fork Union.