Let the hype begin.

Street & Smith has come out with its annual college football edition and right there on pages 146 through 148, Catawba College is held in very high esteem.

Naturally, it would be. David Bennett’s Indians are coming off an 11-2 season that saw them advance to the second round of the Division II playoffs before losing to nemesis Carson-Newman.

Street &Smith has Catawba ranked 12th nationally, one of three South Atlantic teams in the top 25.

Offensive lineman Don Moore and defensive lineman DeVonte Peterson are preseason All-Americans. Quarterback Mitch Ellis got his photo in the magazine.

S&S writes: “Catawba is always poised, ready to take over for Carson-Newman as king of the South Atlantic Conference but never seems to be able to get over the hump. Quarterback Mitch Ellis could change that this year after setting school records for passing yards (2,830) and TD’s (23). Defensively, the Indians rank first in D-II against the run, third in scoring defense and fourth in total defense.”

Also listed were “Games To Watch,” which included the Oct. 28 matchup at Catawba between the Indians and Carson-Newman.

Wood, Owens out: Jackie Wood, a former North and South Rowan basketball player, who transferred to Greensboro Smith for her senior year, will not play in the East-West All-Star Game Tuesday in Greensboro, due to injury.

North Stanly’s O.J. Owens won’t play in Wednesday’s football game due to a summer school commitment.

That leaves Kannapolis’ Justin Hardin to represent the area in football, along with West Rowan’s Scooter Sherrill and Kari Schenk, and Davie County’s Duane Phillips in basketball.

And don’t forget that on Monday, Salisbury’s Jacob Pace is in the all-star soccer game.

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Catawba and Livingstone will each have a player in the football game. Rickey Haywood, a fullback who rushed for over 2,000 yards at High Point Central, is headed to Bennett, while Ragsdale’s Brian Dalton, a 308-pound whopper, will play offensive line for Greg Richardson and the Blue Bears.

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Want to know what’s really sad? Two East football players were replaced — not by injury, but because they didn’t graduate.

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Trivia Question: Ed Cota is only the third player named either first- or second-team All-ACC not to be drafted. Name the other two.

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It seems like Wimbledon is becoming less about tennis and more about gossip.

So let’s forget about what goes on at centre court and concentrate on whose courting who on the tennis circuit.

You know about the love affair between Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi but here’s the rest of what we call the Love waiver wire:

No. 16 Jennifer Capriati dates No. 173 Xavier Melisse of Belgium. No. 31 Kim Clijsters of Belgium dates Lleyton Hewitt of Australia. No. 1 Martina Hingis dates No. 2 Magnus Norman, only after breaking up with No. 10 Nicholas Lapentti and No. 18 Mark Phillippoussis. Andrei Medvedev dates No. 92 Olga Barabanschikov, only after breaking up with No. 11 Anke Huber. Got all that?

And just for the record, Anna Kournikova dates athletes in other sports and Pete Sampras dates an actress.

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Just thought you ought to know: Ila Borders, the only woman ever to play professional baseball with the men, has retired. Borders, 26, said, “I wasn’t out to prove women’s rights or anything. I love baseball. Ask a guy if he’s doing it to prove men’s rights. He’ll say he’s doing it because he loves the game.”

Borders made history May 31, 1997 when she pitched for the St. Paul Saints.

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Jeff Capel, the former Duke star, has joined his father as an assistant coach at Old Dominion.

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Speaking of Duke, the Devils will start their hoops season Nov. 14 against Princeton in the Preseason NIT.

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As the candidates fall by the wayside, the Carolina Family gets smaller and smaller as far as who to pick as UNC’s next hoops coach.

Does this mean King Rice is now in the running?

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Trivia Answer: Lefty Davis of Wake Forest (1970) and Butch Zatezalo of Clemson (1973).

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Here’s a little song about Yankees’ error-prone second baseman Chuck Knoblauch — to the tune of the Beatles’ “Nowhere Man”:

He’s a real Nowhere Man,

Throwing to some nowhere land,

Hoping that his throw will land near somebody.

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Obviously, Wake Forest’s football bowl win in Hawaii wasn’t enough to get it any more respect than usual.

In the first three polls out for the nine-team ACC, Wake was ranked eighth, eighth and ninth. Ouch!

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Daris Songaila of Wake Forest has been invited to try out for the Lithuanian national basketball team.

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Whatever happened to: Oscar Davenport.

The former UNC quarterback was cut recently from the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League and has joined the Greensboro Prowlers of arena2.

Davenport led UNC to a No. 10 ranking in 1996 after a bowl win over West Virginia.

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Only 54 more days until Catawba and Livingstone square off in football. It’ll be awesome, baby!

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And finally ...

I heard John Rocker has received an endorsement deal from Kelloggs. He’ll be the new spokesman for Special K-K-K.

Hey, it’s a joke, awright? And so is this column. See ya.

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