Hoops player Summerfield leaves academy

Air Force freshman men’s basketball player Mark Summerfield has left the team and the academy “for good,” he said Sunday.

“Things didn’t work out,” Summerfield said from his home in West Virginia. “More or less it was overall the military-type stuff and other personal reasons.”

Summerfield, a 6-foot-3 guard, is the third member of the original eight-player freshman class to leave the academy. Tom Parks left in early September and Tyler Burke left in mid-December.
In addition, three players on the Air Force Academy Preparatory School’s basketball team were expelled recently, and three others were placed on probation.

Air Force spokesman Brett Ashworth said because of the Federal Privacy Act and the fact that Summerfield has not yet withdrawn officially, academy personnel could not comment on his departure. Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds, who said on Feb. 21 that Summerfield was not practicing because of “personal issues,” could not be reached for comment.

Summerfield played six minutes in four games this season and scored three points.

“It was a typical freshman year, not getting too much playing time and stuff,” Summerfield said. “I think it might have helped if I had played more, might have given me a little more incentive to stay, but that’s not really the main reason. Basketball was some of it but not nearly all of it.”