University of Maine senior linebacker Stephen Cooper was named to The Sports Network’s 2002 preseason All-America team, the Atlantic 10 conference announced Tuesday.

The Black Bears also received preseason attention as a team. They are ranked 13th in an informal preseason top 40 list compiled by Tony Moss, The Sporting Network’s executive director of Division I-AA football.

William & Mary was ranked seventh, which makes Maine the second-highest Atlantic 10 team. Montana was ranked first.

Moss wrote that “a favorable schedule and a bevy of veterans has [coach] Jack Cosgorve’s team primed for the school’s first-ever back-to-back playoff appearances.”

The Bears were 9-3 in the 2001 season. They garnered a share of the Atlantic 10 title and an NCAA postseason victory over McNeese State.

Cooper, the 2001 Atlantic 10 Co-Defensive Player of the Year, was one of seven players from the conference named to the preseason all-star team.

Cooper registered 115 tackles and six sacks last season and was a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, which is presented to the top defensive player in Division I-AA.

Cooper was joined on the first team by William & Mary senior offensive lineman Dwight Beard and junior defensive lineman Valdamar Brower of UMass.

Hockey regional sites chosen

The NCAA has selected Providence, R.I., and Minneapolis as regional sites for the 2003 men’s ice hockey championships.

Previously chosen to host regional games were Worcester, Mass., and Ann Arbor, Mich. The games will be held March 28-30.

The additional sites were needed because the tournament is expanding from 12 to 16 teams next season.

The sites selected for the 2004 tournament were Manchester, N.H., and Grand Rapids, Mich. The two cities join Albany, N.Y., and Colorado Springs, Colo. The 2004 tournament games will be March 26-28.