Draft Choice

Katrina Price, who caught Coach Maura McHugh's eye at a college all-star game during the women's Final Four in March, was the Long Beach StingRays' top pick and the seventh overall in Tuesday's ABL draft. The 5-foot-10, 150-pound guard from Stephen F. Austin brings three-point shooting and tough perimeter defense to Long Beach, McHugh said. "She has a pro-style body . . . strong, yet she's quick and agile," McHugh said. "She drives well and I like her passing skills.

The Washington Redskins believe this might be the kind of draft class that coaches and general managers dream about. The kind of draft class that gives a franchise a supply of fresh legs and a burst of enthusiasm. The kind that can provide a team with a core of talent for a decade. At least, that's what the Redskins hope as they prepare to open the 1997 regular season Sunday night at Carolina.

Seven-year minor league ice hockey forward Tracy Egeland was the No. 1 pick for the Bullfrogs Thursday in the annual Roller Hockey International winter draft. Egeland is playing for former Bullfrog Coach Grant Sonier at the Huntington (W.Va.) Blizzard of the East Coast Hockey League. Sonier is now director of player personnel for the Bullfrogs. Egeland has spent the bulk of his ice hockey career bouncing among teams in the International Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

After making history Monday by voting to allow student-athletes to work during the academic year, the NCAA seemed content to bask in the glow as its convention concluded Tuesday with little drama.

The Petr Klima experiment did not even make it past the first month of the season, as the Kings traded the lethargic forward to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday for a conditional draft pick in 1997. Klima, who had no goals and four assists in eight games, was acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning in August for a conditional draft pick in 1997. And he didn't come cheaply, making $835,000 this season.

The Mighty Ducks owned up to a mistake Tuesday when they traded center Bob Corkum to the Philadelphia Flyers for prospect Chris Herperger and a seventh-round draft pick in 1997. Corkum, 28, was one of the players the Ducks decided were "keepers" from the 1993 expansion draft after he had led them with 23 goals in their first season. But he scored only 10 goals in the lockout-shortened season last year and had only five this season. The Ducks moved him to make room in the lineup for J.F.

After a day of medical exams and another of skating with the Mighty Ducks, first-round draft choice Chad Kilger passed the eye test Monday, which has nothing to do with his vision. It means that Kilger, who won't turn 19 until Nov. 27, looks ready to play in the NHL. Listed at 6 feet 3 and 204 pounds when the Ducks selected him with the fourth pick overall in July, Kilger estimates he has grown half an inch and gained 10 pounds. "You don't want to put too much burden on Chad Kilger.

The few remaining original Mighty Ducks have noticed that their pictures on the dressing-room wall are attached with Velcro. Stu Grimson's portrait came down Tuesday when he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings, and it leaves a blank spot the other players wonder if anyone else can fill. Grimson scored only one goal in two seasons, but more than any other player he was the heart, soul and fist of the Ducks.

The late-summer sun burns down on a father and son playing tennis behind a high school. They can hear the crash of pads from football practice across the way. Two-a-days. "This time next year, you'll be over there, going through that with them," the father says to his son, a tall eighth grader. "Not me," the son replies. "I'll be over there, in the air-conditioned gym, shooting baskets." Calvin Hill smiles as he tells the story.

Charles Jordan knew a wide receiver had to go. With Tim Brown, Alexander Wright, James Jett, Rocket Ismail and Daryl Hobbs also in contention for the five wide receiver spots, Jordan knew the Raiders' final cutdown to 53 players was going to affect one of them. He just didn't know who. On Sunday morning, Jordan found out the player was him. "Hello, Charles?" said George Karros, the Raiders' scouting director, when he telephoned Jordan. "You've just been traded to Green Bay. Keep your head up.