September 7, 2001

Players' Deaths Prompt Questions About 'Balance' in Athletes' Lives

By WELCH SUGGS

When is a practice 'voluntary,' and should playing sports crowd out other activities?

It's the last day of two-a-day practices for the Virginia Tech football team, and that's cause for a celebration. At the end of practice, about 5:30 in the afternoon, long tables of watermelon slices are set up for players to feast on as they strip off pounds of equipment and ease aching bodies into icy tubs of water on a hot day here late last month.

On the other side of Virginia Tech's

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