Duke attorneys began their defense of the University in the Heather Sue Mercer case Friday, calling witnesses who testified to the kicker's limited athletic ability.
Fred Chatham, assistant football coach, said Mercer was never in serious competition to kick for Duke in a game. "Heather never had the potential to kick at this level," said Chatham. "Heather was never going to be able to help us as far as winning a football game."
Also testifying for brief periods Friday were Duke athletic trainer Robert Zarzour, head equipment manager Mike Hawley and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offensive coordinator Mike O'Cain.
Chatham said that when he first saw Mercer kick in the fall of 1994, he thought the team already had enough kickers and did not see the point in "upsetting the apple cart" by adding another.
"[Then-head football coach Fred Goldsmith] was probably the most sympathetic toward walk-ons," Chatham said. "I think he had a soft spot in his heart for walk-ons."
Chatham also described his disappointment at Goldsmith's decision to give Mercer the opportunity to kick in the 1995 annual Blue and White scrimmage and said he had hoped to put in kicker Ted Post, who he said was growing weary of football and needed encouragement.
The defense played a tape from the spring of 1996 of a barely audible conversation between Mercer and Chatham that Mercer had secretly recorded. In the tape's most audible parts, Mercer complained that she wasn't allowed to dress out for games, while Chatham argued that the media attention would be too great.
"They'll walk up the sidelines. They make a circus out of everything," Chatham said on the tape. Mercer argued that the attention would die down once the media realized she would not play.
The coach further argued Friday, though, that the attention was hurting the team and distracting top kicker Tom Cochran. "It was starting to affect the way he handled himself," Chatham said. "I wanted Tommy to settle down emotionally."
O'Cain, called as an expert witness on college-level football kicking, also testified that media attention might lead him to put a player in the stands as opposed to the sidelines, athletic ability notwithstanding. He added that sometimes football-like life-just isn't fair.
Duke attorney John Simpson described a hypothetical player with characteristics matching Mercer's qualifications and asked O'Cain to comment on such a player as a recruit. O'Cain said he would not consider such a player as a prospect.
"We would not recruit a kicker that had not kicked a field goal more than 30 yards," he said.
Although the bulk of Friday's testimony was devoted to Mercer's athletic ability, Duke attorneys tried to counter other allegations: Mercer said she was not invited to attend kicker meetings, was not coached and was not asked, as others were, to participate on the scout team-a group of players who simulate opposition.
Chatham said that in an attempt to be flexible, he did not require walk-on players to attend meetings and that because coaches were continually stretched for time, walk-on players were rarely coached, if at all.
Zarzour testified that Mercer had never been cleared medically to do anything except kick. She suffered from a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and complained of pain her freshman year.
But he responded to questioning by Mercer's attorney that he had never communicated any limitations to Mercer herself. "It never really came up to me. It was never asked of me," Zarzour said. He also said that by the spring of her sophomore year, Mercer was pain-free.
Hawley took the stand late in the day and argued that he had never denied Mercer equipment, noting that he had issued her a set of equipment in the spring of 1995. In the fall, Hawley testified, Mercer said she did not want the football pants but was issued other equipment.
But Mercer said Wednesday that when she tried to pick up equipment from Hawley that fall, he did not give her any. She also addressed the issue with Chatham in the tape-recorded conversation, who said it was the first time he had heard Mercer complain.
The trial will reconvene Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Greensboro. Federal District Judge James Beaty said he anticipates one additional day of defense, then a short rebuttal by the plaintiff and closing arguments sometime Wednesday.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.