Banks Named MSL Rookie of Year

David Banks can start concentrating on the playoffs now. Speculation was put to rest Monday when he was named the MSL’s Wilson Rookie of the Year.

He is the first Socker to win the award.

“I’m glad it’s over with,” Banks said. “It has been on my mind. A lot of people keep asking me, ‘So when are you going to win the rookie of the year award.’ ”

Banks wasn’t so sure he would. But then again he wasn’t so sure he would even make the team back in October. Then once he did, he worried if he’d be around past the 12th game, after which all players on a roster must be paid for a full season.

“I remember at the beginning of camp (assistant coach) Erich Geyer said he didn’t see any George Fernandezes or Ralph Blacks around,” Banks said. “I thought I was doing pretty well at the time, but when I heard that statement, I was really shocked. A couple rookies were already signed and there were only a couple spots left.”

Banks, 23, has fretted over such matters ever since he was 18. He had worked his way up to apprentice for his hometown team, Wigan, England, and was scheduled to be upgraded to professional when the club cut him.

“That was a devastating thing to happen,” Banks said. “I had planned my entire life to be a professional soccer player. When you put your whole heart into it and then you’re told ‘Sorry, son, you just don’t have it,’ well, that really hurts.”

Banks led all MSL rookies in goals (11), points (21) and blocks (39). He was also the first Socker to play in every game his rookie season and the only Socker to do so this year.

The MSL announced it has granted an expansion franchise to Pittsburgh for the 1991-92 season. The team will be owned by several Pittsburgh investors, including Bernie Mullin, who spearheaded the effort.

Mullin said Pittsburgh “will be the ninth team in the league and a 10th will soon follow.”

Such a scenario is predicated on a number of question marks being straightened out by a league which operated with eight franchises the past two years:

--Dallas folded at the end of the regular season, but Commissioner Earl Foreman and others say it will be back as soon as debt payments to a previous owner can be rescheduled.

--Kansas City, which in March announced a May 1 deadline to attract three more investors to contribute $170,000, still is three investors short of that goal. Ownership has extended the deadline indefinitely since the Comets remain in the playoffs.

--Wichita is conducting its annual Save the Wings campaign and ownership has refrained from commenting on plans for next year.

--Tacoma has also been teetering, but is expected to announce Saturday that it will return.

In the midst of it all, the league has been talking to potential ownership groups in Buffalo, which Mullin referred to as the 10th team.

FOOTBALL

UCLA kicker Brad Daluiso, formerly of Valhalla High and Grossmont College, signed a free-agent contract with the Green Bay Packers.

Daluiso played soccer at Valhalla and didn’t begin kicking until his second year at Grossmont College. He will report for a minicamp this weekend in Green Bay.

COLLEGE SIGNINGS

Desiree Weimann, a Times’ All-County selection from Santana High, has signed to play women’s basketball at Adams State College, an NAIA Division I school in Alamosa, Colo. Weimann, a 5-foot-4 point guard, averaged 22 points, seven assists and five steals last season for the Sultans.

MEN’S TENNIS

San Diego State swept six singles matches from Colorado State and won, 6-0, in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference team championships at Texas El Paso.

SDSU, the top-seeded team, did not lose a set and dropped only 17 games in those six matches. Ricardo Herrera, Joe McDonough, Michael Sass, Kerry Safdie, Jeff Belloli, Chris Numbers were the winners.

SDSU plays fourth-seeded UTEP today in one semifinal. Utah and New Mexico play in the other.