Sports shorts
Hockey Penguins’ scout leaving
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Greg Malone, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ head scout for nearly all of former general manager Craig Patrick’s 16-plus seasons with the team, has been hired as the Phoenix Coyotes’ head eastern pro scout.
Malone, the father of Penguins forward Ryan Malone and a former Penguins player himself, oversaw the Penguins’ U.S. and European scouting for 16 years. During his final draft with the team last month, the Penguins chose 17-year-old Canadian star Jordan Staal.
Football
Holmes pleads not guilty
MIAMI (AP) – Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes entered a written plea of not guilty Wednesday to disorderly conduct charges.
Neither Holmes nor his attorney were present at a brief hearing before Miami-Dade County Judge Darrin P. Gayles. A court date wasn’t immediately set.
Holmes, who was the Steelers’ first-round pick in the April NFL draft out of Ohio State, was arrested as part of a police crackdown on revelers who annually converge on Miami Beach during Memorial Day weekend.
Holmes, 22, also has pleaded not guilty to separate domestic violence and simple assault charges involving a woman in Columbus, Ohio. The woman, who police said is the mother of his daughter, has asked that charges against Holmes be dropped.
Tennis
Serena Williams to returnSerena Williams will play her first match in six months when she returns to the tour at the Cincinnati hard-court tournament next week.
Williams missed the French Open and Wimbledon because of a chronic left knee injury that’s prevented her from playing anywhere since a third-round loss at the Australian Open in January.
She’s played a total of four matches over the past 10 months, going 2-2. Next week’s event will be part of her effort to be ready for the U.S. Open, the year’s last Grand Slam tournament, which starts Aug. 28.
Once ranked No. 1 and the winner of seven Grand Slam titles, Williams is No. 140 in this week’s rankings.
She was sidelined by injuries for nine months after winning a second consecutive Wimbledon championship in July 2003.