Aug. 23, 2002
Bowling Green, Ky. - Four Western Kentucky football athletes have been elected to captain the 2002 Hilltopper football team. Sherrod Coates, Peter Martinez, Jason Michael and Chris Price will lead the latest edition Topper gridders. Michael and Martinez also served as captains of the '01 Toppers.
Coates, a 6-2, 225-pound senior linebacker from Boynton Beach, Fla., has started for the Hilltoppers in each of the past three seasons. The 1998 product of Santa Luces County High School is a returning two-time All-American and a 2001 All-Gateway Conference performer.
Martinez, a 6-2, 180-pound senior placekicker from Nashville, Tenn., represents the special teams on the captains roster. A 1998 graduate of Hillwood High School, he was an All-GFC placekicker last fall. Martinez, who also served as a team captain last fall, enters his senior season threatening to break a number of Topper kicking records.
Michael, a 5-10, 200-pound senior quarterback out of Lawrence County High School (1998) in Louisa, Ky., heads into the final week of preseason practices as the odds-on favorite to lead the Topper offense. He has played an important role on both offense and the special teams since transferring to the Hill from Army in the spring of '99.
And, Price, a 6-0, 290-pound senior offensive lineman from Indianapolis, has lettered three seasons for the Toppers, earning a reputation as one of the nation's finest performers in the trenches. A 1998 product of Warren Central High School, he has been rated as the number-one returning offensive guard in the I-AA football ranks heading into the '02 campaign. He is a two-time All-America honoree and was a first-team pick last fall.
Coach Jack Harbaugh's 14th Hilltopper team, ranked among the nation's top squads by virtually every 2002 I-AA preseason poll, begins play Saturday, Aug. 31, at I-A Kansas State. The Toppers open the home portion of the '02 season at 5:30 p.m. (CDT), Sept. 7, hosting Kentucky State in non-conference. That tilt kicks off a three-game homestand for Western. The Hilltoppers begin Gateway Conference play the following weekend (Aug. 14), hosting Western Illinois at 1:30 p.m., in front of a regional television audience on the Gateway Television Network.
