IN BRIEF

LOCAL SPORTS

Injured prep player to rehab in Sacramento

A Green Valley High School football player is scheduled to leave Sunrise Hospital today to begin his rehabilitation from a bruised spine suffered during a game on Sept. 5.

LaQuan Phillips, 17, will be transported to Shriners Hospital Northern California in Sacramento, said Phillips' aunt, Delphine Lakes.

Phillips, a senior linebacker, was injured in a collision during the second quarter of Green Valley's 24-20 home loss to Centennial. He successfully underwent surgery on Sept. 7 to alleviate swelling on his vertebrae, and has remained in the trauma intensive care unit at Sunrise Hospital since.

Also: UNLV's women's soccer team (6-1-1) broke into Soccer America's Top 25 poll at No. 25 on Monday.

It is the Rebels' first-ever appearances in the weekly rankings.

Former Coronado High School basketball player Mike Kale has signed a contract to play professionally in Europe.

Kale, a 6-foot-8-inch, 240-pound forward who played in college at Idaho, signed with Siroki Prima of the Bosnia First Division. In his first two games, Kale averaged 12.5 points and 9.8 rebounds.

Laurie Johnson shot rounds of 76-76 at Silverstone Golf Club to win the Women's Southern Nevada Golf Association Amateur Championship. Jane Johnston was the overall net champion with rounds of 70-66.

In the Senior Amateur Championship, Janet Weber was the overall gross winner, while Johnston took top net honors.

Foster Parnell, 19, placed third in the 265-pound category of the North American Strongman National Amateur Championships in Provo, Utah, on Sunday.

The Las Vegan was trying to become the youngest to win the title and earn his professional Strongman card. He placed 16th out of approximately 80 competitors.

MISCELLANEOUS

Gretzky won't manage Olympic hockey team

Wayne Gretzky will not manage Canada's hockey team again at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, although he is expected to be involved in some capacity.

Gretzky was the executive director for the team that won the gold medal at Salt Lake City in 2002 and failed to medal at Turin, Italy, in 2006.

"It's best for Wayne Gretzky not to be GM given his focus on his job as head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes," Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson said.

Also: John Force returned to the site of the worst crash of his illustrious drag racing career nearly a year ago.

Force, 59, arrived at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, in an Air-Evac Lifeteam helicopter manned by the same crew that took him to the hospital on Sept. 23, 2007.

"This was very emotional for me," Force said. "But I'm glad I did it."

Force, a 14-time Funny Car champion, had been driving his Ford Mustang at 300 mph, when it split apart, leaving him with a compound fracture of the left ankle, broken bones in his hands, fingers and toes and ligament and tendon damage in his right knee.

Force will compete in the NHRA Fall Nationals in Ennis this week.

The University of Arizona has reported a possible NCAA recruiting violation by men's basketball coach Lute Olson, who called it "an unfortunate and regrettable error."

Athletic director Jim Livengood said Olson had sent a letter to basketball boosters asking for a donation to Jim Storey's Arizona Cactus Classic prep basketball tournament, held in May at Arizona's McKale Center. NCAA rules prohibit institutional representatives or boosters from arranging financial assistance for potential recruits.

The Denver Nuggets signed guard Sonny Weems.

The Chicago Bulls selected Weems out of Arkansas in the second round of the 2008 NBA Draft. He was traded to Denver for a 2009 second-round draft pick.