SPORTS digest

Mathews’ Koehler signs with Tiffin

Emily Koehler, a golfer for Mathews, signed a national letter of intent to play golf and attend Tiffin University. Koehler participated in this year’s Vindicator Greatest Golfer Junior Tournament. She shot a low score of 77 in a qualifier at Mill Creek Golf Course in the girls 17-U division.

Wake Forest probing game plan breach

winston-salem, n.c.

Wake Forest says it has begun an internal investigation after documents related to the team’s game plan for playing No. 3 Louisville were found at the Cardinals’ stadium.

Athletic director Ron Wellman said in a statement Wednesday that he notified Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford and Louisville AD Tom Jurich after the documents were discovered by a member of the school’s travel party.

Speaking on the ACC’s weekly media teleconference, coach Dave Clawson did not accuse Louisville of taking the information and when asked if it affected the outcome of the game responded, “I’m not going there.” The Cardinals won 44-12.

Cardinals coach Bobby Petrino said in a statement he has “no knowledge of the situation,” and that his philosophy “has always been to play the game with sportsmanship.”

NFL Hall of Fame semifinalists released

First-year eligibles LaDainian Tomlinson, Hines Ward, Jason Taylor and Brian Dawkins are among 26 semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2017.

Joining them as first-time semifinalists is tackle-guard Chris Hinton, who retired in 1989 but has made this cut for the first time.

Two coaches, Don Coryell and Jimmy Johnson, have made the semifinals. So has placekicker Morten Andersen, the NFL’s career scoring leader.

The 2017 class will be selected on Feb. 4, the day before the Super Bowl. Between four and eight new members will be chosen.

NFL teams in Mexico told not to leave hotel

houston

Houston Texans players are being advised by the team not to leave the hotel and not to order room service during their trip to Mexico City for Monday night’s game against the Oakland Raiders.

The game is part of the NFL’s international series and the first game in Mexico City since 2005.

The Associated Press was given a look at a memo distributed to the team on Wednesday that included a page of information concerning the trip to Mexico, including those two rules.

A section of the memo under the heading “safety” had a bullet point with: “DO NOT leave the hotel.” It was followed by a line advising players to leave all “expensive jewelry at home,” not to bring large sums of money and not to use ATMs.

A second section titled “health and performance” has basic tips like drinking only bottled water and avoiding the consumption of ice. It also warned: “Eat all meals in the meal room. DO NOT order room service” and “DO NOT eat outside of the team meal room.”

Van Gundy admits he’s used the word ‘posse’

new york

Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy says he has used the term “posse” before, and it was always in regards to minorities.

A day after LeBron James criticized Knicks President Phil Jackson for using the word in an interview to describe James’ friends and business partners, Van Gundy was reflective Wednesday when thinking about his own words, calling on people to be aware of their language and attitudes.

“I’m going to be perfectly honest here, I’ve used that word before, OK,” Van Gundy said, “and when that all came out I had to ask myself, have I ever used that word before with a white player, and the answer is no. So, I think, look, you have to be aware of the language and you have to be aware a little bit of your own biases if you’re going to overcome them and so I took that seriously.”

Staff and wire reports