JOCK CITY Westlake's the choice for Cleveland athletes

More than two dozen professionals own homes in the Cleveland suburb.
WESTLAKE (AP) -- In this Cleveland suburb, you might just run into Tim Couch at the gas station or C.C. Sabathia at the grocery store.
Westlake has turned into the suburb of choice for Cleveland's professional athletes, despite being 16 miles from Browns Stadium and 15 miles from Jacobs Field and Gund Arena.
More than two dozen current and former Browns, Indians and Cavaliers players and coaches own homes in Westlake, and many more rent there.
Many of them say the area's tranquility and the people are the main draw.
"It's quiet here. I can sit in my back yard and listen to the birds and the squirrels," Browns defensive tackle Orpheus Roye said.
"No," Roye added, "I'm not kidding."
Cavaliers guard Bimbo Coles said his neighbors in Westlake are the best he's had.
"They even brought us cookies and chicken dinner when my wife and daughters and I moved in," Cole said.
Others who own houses in Westlake besides Couch, Coles, Sabathia and Roye are: Robert Griffith, Corey Fuller and Gerard Warren of the Browns; past and present Indians Ellis Burks, Einar Diaz, Charles Nagy, Paul Shuey and Danys Baez; and Jumaine Jones and Carlos Boozer with the Cavs.
Nice place to live
Former Browns cornerback Hanford Dixon, who is now a real-estate agent and has worked with many of the athletes, said of players' homes, "None of them are shacks."
One of Dixon's clients was Fuller, who bought a house in Westlake not long after he came to the Browns in 1999 from the Minnesota Vikings.
"It's real convenient, and I've got a nice neighborhood," Fuller said.
His four-bedroom colonial measures 4,345 square feet, almost twice the size of the average U.S. house built in 2001, and is often the site of "Monday Night Football" get-togethers with teammates.
"Money is no object," says Joan Reynard, an agent in the Westlake office of Realty One. "I've had them sign blank contracts. They say, 'Joan, you work it out.' "
Reynard said some clients have had builders widen stair treads to accommodate big sneakers and make door frames taller so the homeowner doesn't bump his head walking from room to room.
"They can usually afford the special features," Reynard said.
And, Reynard said, Westlake's growing athlete population may be a chain reaction.
"When a new player comes to town, he naturally asks where's a good place to live," Reynard said. "Others who already have houses here and like it will tell him to look in Westlake."