Sports briefs 2/9/04

College

Miami's top recruit will be charged with battery before his probation expires, his attorney said Sunday. Attorney Paul Lazarus expects the State Attorney's Office in Gainesville to charge Willie Williams before Wednesday, when the Parade All-American linebacker's 18-month probation on felony burglary charges ends. The new charges would result in a probation violation, and a warrant could be issued for Williams' arrest. Williams is on probation for felony burglary charges in 2002. He was named last week in three criminal complaints stemming from a recent recruiting trip to the University of Florida. If it is determined that Williams violated the teams of his probation, he could be sentenced up to five years in prison. Williams was less than two weeks from the end of his probation when he was named in the three complaints. He allegedly hugged a female student without her permission, hit a man at a bar and set off three fire extinguishers in his hotel - all in span of five hours during his recruiting trip that began Jan. 30.

Football

The New England Patriots did not exercise their option on running back Antowain Smith on Sunday, making the team's best runner an unrestricted free agent. A seven-year veteran, Smith signed a five-year, $22 million dollar deal with the Patriots in March 2002 after helping the team win the Super Bowl after the 2001 season. Smith played four seasons for the Buffalo Bills before signing with the Patriots as a free agent in June 2001. He was a first-round draft pick in 1997.

Hockey

Butch Goring joined the staff of the New York Islanders, three years after he was fired as the team's head coach. Goring won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders as a player and went 41-89-14-4 in one-plus season as their coach. He will now be an assistant to rookie head man Steve Stirling - the third Islanders coach since Goring was let go in March 2001.

Motorsports

A worker at Daytona International Speedway was struck and killed by a paraplegic driver going more than 100 mph during a race for compact cars Sunday. The worker, 44-year-old Roy H. Weaver III, was standing in the middle of the track picking up debris during a caution period when he was hit by a car driven by Ray Paprota of Birmingham, Ala., track spokesman David Talley said. Paprota, who doesn't have use of his legs and drives a car equipped with hand controls, was trying to catch up to the main pack of cars after a two-car crash at the opposite end of the track brought out a yellow flag. Several drivers said Weaver's body already was covered by a tarp as they continued to circle the track under a yellow flag. Eventually, the IPOWERacing 150 was red-flagged for about 1 1/2 hours, finally running to the finish under the lights after police investigated the scene and took pictures of Paprota's car in the garage.

Tennis

Opening and closing with record-tying 150 mph aces, Andy Roddick beat Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-2 Sunday to help the United States wrap up a 5-0 sweep of Austria in the first round of the Davis Cup. Robby Ginepri defeated Stefan Koubek 7-5, 6-2 in the last match. Sunday's singles matches were reduced to best-of-three sets because the Americans had clinched a quarterfinal berth by taking a 3-0 lead Saturday. Ginepri and Roddick won singles matches Friday, when U.S. Open champion Roddick broke the service speed mark of 149 mph he shared with Greg Rusedski. Twins Bob and Mike Bryan beat Melzer and Julian Knowle in doubles Saturday.

-- From wire reports