filtered searches

Hi all, I could use some advice, here is my problem: I need to run filtered searches on my database (mysql) and return records that fall within the bounds, not hard! I need to be able to select sporting stats of athletes (goals, assists, etc)in a table stats as well as their personal stats (height, weight, etc.) in a table personal. My biggest problem is that there is a different collect of stats depending on the sport. ie. hockey has different stats than football. Thus, I am finding it difficult to devise a method will allow searching different stats depending on the sport, but also keeping the search as abstract as possible (ie. I don't want to write different search routines for each sport). Any advice?? Merle