Guess he ain't going to the pros. (another sad sports story)

[radek2166]

The first suspension was a warning of things to come I guess. When He got suspended last season everyone was outraged.




Arizona State Running Back Held in Slaying


MEL REISNER, AP Sports Writer

TEMPE, Ariz. - Arizona State running back Loren Wade was arrested Saturday on suspicion of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a former ASU football player.



Police said Brandon Falkner, 25, of Tempe was shot in the head about 2:30 a.m. Saturday as he sat in his car outside Club CBNC, a Scottsdale nightspot.


Scottsdale police detective Sam Bailey said Falkner and Wade exchanged words before the shot was fired.


Wade was driving a car with three others inside when he went to the club to pick up his girlfriend, Haley van Blommestein, who played soccer at Arizona State until 2003.


Bailey said Wade saw her standing next to Falkner's car, got out of his car, exchanged words with Falkner and fired once.


Falkner tried to drive away, but crashed into another car, then hit a tree. He was pronounced dead at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn.


"From everything I've heard, they didn't know each other," Bailey said. "He may have been in the wrong place, at the wrong time, talking to the wrong person."


Wade was arrested by Maricopa County sheriff's deputies who were working as security guards at the club.


"We have more than enough witnesses," Bailey said.


Football coach Dirk Koetter canceled the team's first spring practice in pads on Saturday.


"This is a tragedy that has shocked and saddened our entire community," university president Michael Crow said. "ASU has made its counseling services available this weekend to the entire football team and to any other student who feels that he or she needs to talk about this situation."


Practice had been under way about 30 minutes when Koetter learned why Wade was missing. He called the players together, told them what happened and dismissed the team.


"I think shock is the best word," he said about their reaction.


"Our next scheduled practice is Monday," Koetter said. "We're going to have a team meeting at 7 o'clock where we can touch base with the players and, again, have a crisis team on hand. There's going to be new developments, obviously, between now and Monday.


"Everything moving forward on our spring practice is up in the air at this point, because there's not a precedent here."


Smith equated the slaying to a death in the family.


"You're trying to get somewhere I'm not at emotionally," he said about questions on screening recruited athletes. "I'm not there to sit back and reflect and say, 'OK, we're going to do this in the future.' We're just dealing with this, and we have feelings."





Falkner, a defensive back, was a three-year letterman who saw action in 26 games for the Sun Devils from 1999 to 2001.

Wade, 21, from Los Angeles, started the first three games for Arizona State as a sophomore last season, then was suspended for the remainder of the schedule while the school investigated whether he received improper benefits from a university employee.

The university found that an assistant in the school's compliance and recruitment department put her name on a line of credit to pay an overdue utility bill for Wade. The compliance officer was fired.

Wade was cleared to return to the team and participated in all three non-pads practices last week. Koetter arrived at practice Saturday morning knowing that Wade was in trouble but not having full details.

As a redshirt freshman in 2003, Wade broke the school freshman rushing record and finished fifth in the Pac-10 with 773 yards and an average of 5.7 yards per carry.

[radek2166]

Loren Wade (http://thesundevils.collegesports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/wade_loren00.html)

ASU: Had an exceptional year in 2003 as a redshirt freshman...broke the 48-year-old school freshman rushing record...hard worker who should figure even more prominently in the offense this year...earned the starting tailback job heading into the fall.

2003: Played in 11 games, starting five...was named to the Sporting News Pac-10 All-Freshman team...was the co-recipient of the Bill Kajikawa Sun Devil Award given to the most outstanding freshman...co-recipient of the Benjamin Goo MVP trophy for his performance Nov. 28 against Arizona...broke the freshman rushing record and led the team in rushing with 773 yards on 136 attempts, shattering Leon Burton's mark of 694 yards in 1955...finished fifth in the Pac-10 at 70.3 rushing yards per game...led all rushers with five touchdowns...also caught three passes for 19 yards and one touchdown on the year...his average of 5.7 yards per carry was the best mark by a Sun Devil back since J.R. Redmond averaged 5.9 yards per carry in 1997 and tied for first among the Pac-10's rushing leaders...finished fourth on the team with 55 points scored (six TDs)...had four 100-yard rushing games in 2003, including three straight...caught an eight-yard pass for a touchdown and rushed for 64 yards on 11 carries in his college debut Sept. 6 vs. Northern Arizona... made his first start Sept. 13 against Utah State, catching two passes for 11 yards and gaining 58 yards on the ground... carried the ball 10 times for 26 yards and a touchdown Oct. 4 against USC... against Oregon on Oct. 11, gained 77 yards on nine carries and scored a touchdown...led the team and set a career high with 130 rushing yards Oct. 18 at North Carolina...recorded his second of three straight 100-yard games Oct. 25 against UCLA on 19 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown... also had the team's long run of the season a 61-yard touchdown rush vs. the Bruins...collected 107 yards on the ground with a TD on a career-best 22 attempts Nov. 1 vs. California to become the first Sun Devil to notch three consecutive 100-yard games since Delvon Flowers in 2001... recorded his fourth 100-yard rushing game of the year vs. Arizona on Nov. 28, gaining 120 yards and a TD on 18 carries.

2002: Redshirted...came on and played well for the scout team at the end of the year.

HIGH SCHOOL: A 2002 graduate of Serra High School in Gardena, Calif.... rated as the 53rd-best player in the Farwest during the preseason by SuperPrep Magazine...a PrepStar All-American who was rated as the No. 6 running back in the West...ranked 28th at his position in the nation by Rivals.com...rushed for 1,391 yards and 16 touchdowns as a senior...earned first-team all-state and all-league honors as a senior...was the Angelus League Player of the Year...earned first-team offense All-C.I.F. kudos by the Daily Breeze...was a member of the Long Beach Press-Telegram's "Dream Team"second team...SuperPrep and PrepStar preseason All-American...a Max Emfinger "Top 100" player...selected as Serra's Most Valuable Player as a senior...posted 1,469 yards rushing and 15 touchdowns in eight games as a junior...named first-team All-C.I.F. as a junior and earned all-state honors...was the Angelus League's Offensive Player of the Year as a junior...was a SuperPrep and PrepStar Junior All-American...was Serra's Most Valuable Offensive Player, running for 346 yards and four touchdowns in one game as a junior...earned first-team offensive honors in the Angelus League as a sophomore...rushed for 1,059 yards and was the league's running back of the year that season...also played basketball and ran track and field...captained his football team for three years...also played basketball...coached by Scott Altenburg at Serra.

PERSONAL: Majoring in elementary education...mother's name is Patsy...has two older brothers, Kevin and Kenny, and an older sister, Kassandra...enjoys sports and spending time with friends...lists his most exciting sports experience as running for 346 yards and four touchdowns in his high school's 50th anniversary game in his junior year...born in March of 1984 in Los Angeles, Calif....full name is Loren L. Wade.

CAREER HIGHS: Rushing Attempts: 22, vs. California (11/1/03). Rushing Yards: 130, at North Carolina (10/18/03). Rushing Touchdowns: 1, five times, last vs. Arizona (11/28/03). Receptions: 2, at Iowa (9/20/03). Receiving Yards: 11, at Iowa (9/20/03).


Wade's Career Statistics
Rushing
G/GS Att. Net Avg. TD Lg. Avg./G
2003 11/5 136 773 5.7 5 61 70.3
Receiving
Year G/GS Rec. Yds. Avg. TD Long Avg./G
2003 11/5 3 19 6.3 1 8 1.7
Wade's Game-by-Game Statistics
2003
Opp. Rush Net Yds. TD Long
Northern Arizona 11 64 0 19
Utah State 14 58 0 15
at Iowa 3 3 0 1
at Oregon State 2 20 0 14
USC 10 26 1 11
Oregon 9 77 1 56
at North Carolina 16 130 0 35
at UCLA 19 113 1 61
California 22 107 1 19
at Stanford 12 55 0 8
at Washington State -DNP-
Arizona 18 120 1 40

[wAzZu24]

Yea i showed this article to two of my buddies this morning that go to ASU and they both had responses equal to "jesus christ, ive seen that kid before"

[radek2166]

ASU player is arrested in murder
Former safety shot to death outside Scottsdale nightclub

Anne Ryman, Emily Bittner and Lindsey Collom
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 27, 2005 12:00 AM

Arizona State University football player Loren Wade is being held in the shooting death of former ASU player Brandon Falkner outside a Scottsdale hip-hop club early Saturday morning.

Brandon Falkner, 25, of Tempe, was shot in the head as he sat in his BMW outside the club CBNC near McDowell and Scottsdale roads.The shooting appears to have been over Wade's girlfriend, former ASU soccer standout Haley vanBlommestein.

Wade, 21, fired one shot after having "sharp words" with Falkner, whose vehicle then proceeded several hundred feet across the parking lot, struck another vehicle and hit a tree, police said. advertisement




Tyrone Bowers, 25, was in the BMW with Falkner and two other friends when vanBloomestein walked up to the car, Bowers said. She had said only a few words when Wade ran up and demanded, "Why are you talking to my girl?" Bowers said.

Bowers heard a gun cock.

"First he hit him with the gun on the back of the head, and then he shot him," Bowers said.

Falkner's foot hit the gas pedal, and the BMW took off across the parking lot.

Bowers grabbed the steering wheel and struggled to control the car, he said. The BMW smacked into a curb, an airbag deployed and Bowers lost his grip. Grabbing the wheel of the moving car again, he was unable to avoid hitting a sport utility vehicle and a tree just yards from Scottsdale Road.

Off-duty Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detectives working security at the club heard the gunshot and arrested Wade.

Falkner was taken to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn, where he was pronounced dead.

Wade, who is being held without bond at the Madison Street Jail, has a preliminary court appearance at 8:30 a.m. on April 4.

"The exchange was very brief. Everything happened very quickly," Scottsdale police Detective Sam Bailey said.

If it were an act of passion, Brandon's brother Jelani said, it was unwarranted.

"She was a friend of his," he said. "That's probably the conversation they were having. They hadn't seen each other in a while and were probably catching up."

VanBloomestein, he said, used to hang out at their house.

"They were never romantically involved. They were just friends. We've known her the last two or three years."

Police say vanBloomestein called Wade and asked him to pick her up at CBNC, a plush hip-hop club frequented by celebrities Lil' Kim and Britney Spears when they're in town.

Wade went to the club about 2:30 a.m. to pick up vanBlommestein. He parked his rust-colored Camaro and began looking for her in the strip-center parking lot where CBNC sits sandwiched between a furniture store and a mailbox-and-shipping business, police said.

He couldn't find her and called vanBloomestein's cellphone to ask where she was. She told him, and Wade saw vanBloomestein get out of a car and walk over to Falkner's BMW, which is when Wade walked over, police said.

ASU officials moved quickly Saturday morning after hearing the news. Coaches had been looking for Wade at the Saturday morning practice when they found out what had happened. They quickly canceled practice and in short order dismissed Wade from the team and then suspended him from the university, citing several team and university violations, including possessing a firearm (team violation) and being charged with a violent crime (university violation).


A feel-good story


Until his senior year at ASU, Falkner was one of those feel-good success stories college athletics are supposed to be about.

Their mother in a coma, Falkner and Jelani, who is one year older, dedicated their games at Peoria High School to her, writing her initials on their wrists and praying with their father before games.

They helped with the bills, fixed their own meals, cleaned the house, stayed out of trouble and did well in school.

After winning a playoff game that year, Brandon Falkner said: "I kept thinking the whole game 'I've got to get one (an interception) for my mom.' I finally got one for her."

Connie Clark watched the Falkner boys grow up in Peoria.

Clark keeps pictures of Brandon and his brother in a drawer. There's a picture from 1990 of Brandon, beaming in a soccer uniform.

Both he and his brother were good boys, she said, raised in a God-fearing home.

She recalled Brandon as being "very smart, very studious." There was never any trouble that she could see, not even as he grew older.

"Brandon would always sit here and answer all the questions I had," she said. "I always knew he'd do well."


Hard times


But in June 2002, Falkner was released from the Sun Devils for team rule violations.

He had been in court on charges of driving with a suspended license, no registration, failure to provide evidence of financial responsibility and violation of a promise to appear. He later pleaded guilty to all of those charges except the violation of the promise to appear. A warrant, at one time, had been issued for his arrest.

The family encouraged Brandon to go to Europe and play football there. He wore No. 11 as a safety for the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns of the German Football League.

"We all thought he should go," Clark said. "He had no more ties here."

Falkner was "very happy" in Germany until his tenure was cut short by an injury that affected his kidneys, Clark said.

A return visit to the States convinced Brandon that he wanted to be home with his family and to continue his studies. He re-enrolled at ASU.

"As an Afro-American young man, he was a very good example to other young men behind him," said his father, Bonnie Falkner. "He was very conscientious about reaching higher goals."


Wade's troubles


Loren Wade missed the final nine games of last season because of an internal investigation into him receiving illegal benefits from a former athletic department employee, Wendy Adams.

That internal investigation is ongoing, and ASU is awaiting a date for a Pac-10 hearing, said Athletic Director Gene Smith on Saturday.

Any sanctions from the Pac-10 then are forwarded to the NCAA for approval. It's unknown if the shooting will impact the future of the case.

ASU head coach Dirk Koetter did not know if the games that Wade missed ultimately would suffice as a penalty or if he would be required to sit out further games. But Wade was expected to play in the fall. He was the starting tailback for five games as a redshirt freshman in 2003 and the only three games he played in '04.

Wade redshirted in 2002 out of Serra High School in Gardena, Calif.

The two men never were teammates. Police wonder if they even knew each other.



Republic reporter Jeff Metcalfe contributed to this report.

[DesertCat]

Wade was the first stringer. The second string guy got seriously injured and is out. The third string played well, even with a broken fore-arm, but eventually got permanently kicked off the team, basically for an anger problem. He transfered to some little school in Iowa and got kicked off before practices even started.

The good news is that if you ever wanted to play running back for a Div I school, this is your big opportunity. Transfer to ASU now!