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Gay slur punished

HOUSTON DYNAMO midfielder Colin Clark was suspended for three games by Major League Soccer on Wednesday and fined for directing a gay slur toward a ball boy during Houston's 2-0 loss at Seattle last week.

Colin Clark (right) was suspended three games and fined for directing a gay slur toward a ball boy. (John Raoux/AP)
Colin Clark (right) was suspended three games and fined for directing a gay slur toward a ball boy. (John Raoux/AP)Read more

HOUSTON DYNAMO midfielder Colin Clark was suspended for three games by Major League Soccer on Wednesday and fined for directing a gay slur toward a ball boy during Houston's 2-0 loss at Seattle last week.

MLS commissioner Don Garber also directed Clark to attend diversity and sensitivity training.

"Major League Soccer will not tolerate this type of behavior from its players or staff at any time, under any circumstances," Garber said. "I believe that he will learn from this incident."

The incident occurred Friday.

"I am sorry about what happened during the Seattle match," Clark said in a statement. "I have personally apologized to the ball boy, and I want to take this chance to say I'm sorry to everyone that I've offended. I intend to never use those words again in any context. There is no excuse for them. What I said does not properly represent who I am or what I believe. I made a mistake that I truly regret. I accept the punishment that has been handed down by MLS, and I want to learn from this incident and move forward."

Colleges * 

The University of Pacific will return to the West Coast Conference more than 4 decades after leaving the league. Pacific formally accepted an invitation to leave the Big West and become the 10th school in the WCC. The Tigers will start play in nine sports in the 2013-14 academic year.

Lisa Love is out as athletic director at Arizona State, replaced by former NFL and NBA team executive Steve Patterson, who joined the school last July as chief operating officer of Sun Devil Athletics and managing director of the Sun Devils Sports Group. The football and basketball teams both are coming off losing seasons under coaches Love hired.

* Kansas assistant basketball coach Danny Manning has agreed to become the next head coach at Tulsa, sources told ESPN. Manning, 45, spent 15 seasons in the NBA. Tulsa fired Doug Wojcik after a 17-14 season.

* Ohio's John Groce has been hired as Illinois' head basketball coach, sources told the Chicago Tribune. Disagreement on terms of the contract had delayed the hiring, sources said.

Philly File * 

Wings team captain Brodie Merrill was named the National Lacrosse League Transition Player of the Week for the second time this season.

Sport Stops * 

Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka lost for the first time this year when she was beaten by Marion Bartoli, 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinals at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla. Azarenka had won 26 consecutive matches, a streak that began at the start of this year. Her start was the best on the women's tour since Martina Hingis went 37-0 to begin 1997. The No. 7-seeded Bartoli's opponent Thursday will be No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska, who eliminated Venus Williams, 6-4, 6-1.

Mikaela Shiffrin, 17, successfully defended her slalom title at the U.S. skiing championships in Winter Park, Colo.

* IndyCar officially scheduled a race in Houston for October 2013.

* Ice-dance Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, of Canada, took the lead after the short dance program at the figure skating world championships in Nice, France, relegating defending champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White to second place.