Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Throwing a change-up: FAMU's Lee now pitching a baseball instead of a football

A pitcher can get a little rusty when he hasn't stepped on the mound in three years. Tobias Lee is no exception, as he tries to regain the stuff he had during his four years as pitcher for Pike County High School in Alabama. The four-seam fastball is coming back. So is his curve and change-up. But as he tries to execute them for the Florida A&M baseball team, he's found one huge challenge in his two starts for the Rattlers.

"Out of all those (the variation of pitches), just getting used to the strike zone is the most challenging," Lee said. "It's just a matter of getting used to that." If the last name seems familiar, it is. Lee is the same mild-mannered, easy-going, lanky sophomore who played tight end on FAMU's football team last season. Baseball has been a passion since he began playing the game at the T-ball level. He played both sports until his senior year at Pike High when fatigue from quarterbacking his football team in the fall was too much for him to go out for baseball in his senior year.

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South Carolina State Coach Pough picks program progress over pay

Coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough and FAMU's Coach Joe Taylor shares the same attorney in Ricky Lefft. However, Coach Pough owns the MEAC championship crown.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Joseph “Ricky” Lefft and his family go back a long way with South Carolina State head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough. If anyone can attest to Pough’s coaching credentials, it would be his friend, attorney and agent. “People know that Buddy is not just a good coach, he’s an exceptional coach,” Lefft said. “So his record (67-26 overall in eight seasons at S.C. State) speaks for itself. They haven’t backed down from anybody. He’s got a real good coaching staff. They’ve done it the right way. They’re extremely well-organized. They do it very professionally.”

Such insight was apparently not a secret to other schools like Southern University where rumors surfaced about interest in hiring a coach -- potentially Pough -- at an annual base salary of $300,000. Pough and Southern denied discussing that school’s opening, and the school eventually settled on Citadel graduate and former NFL running back Stump Mitchell, who has a contract that pays $200,000 per season. At the same time, Lefft was finalizing a contract extension which would keep Pough on the Bulldog sidelines through 2015.

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JSU Title-winning coach is 73 - going on 40

Tevester Anderson, Jackson State's basketball coach, won't tell anybody how old he is. People constantly ask; he won't say. "We know he's on up there, even if he doesn't act like it," 20-year-old sophomore point guard Rod Melvin says. "Tell you the truth, I'm scared to ask him," says Jackson State athletic director Robert Braddy. "I'd just rather keep it to myself," Anderson says, chuckling. "Nobody else really needs to know." And this was after his JSU Tigers defeated his alma mater, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 52-46 on Monday night to claim JSU's first outright SWAC regular-season championship since 1993.

Perhaps nobody needs to know, but investigative reporting - that's Google in this case - tells us Tevester Anderson is 73. Monday night, he looked 73 going on 40, especially when he climbed the ladder to snip the last strand of a souvenir net. He took his hands off the ladder, grinned a championship grin, waved the net over his head, and then hung it around his neck. Anderson won two Ohio Valley Conference regular season championships when he was the head man at Murray (Ky.) State. "This one feels better,"Anderson said. "This one feels better because this is home. This is what I came back to Jackson to do."

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Monday, March 1, 2010

Jackson State Tigers on verge of SWAC crown

Garrison Johnson's mother, Rhonda, was the loudest person inside the Athletics and Assembly Center on Saturday night. That's anything but a surprise for the "team mom" who doubles as the most vocal Jackson State supporter at the few games she attends. But Rhonda didn't make the trip alone, or empty-handed. A handful of Johnson's relatives traveled from Georgia to see the team's captain and leading scorer play the final two home games of his career. Rhonda also brought her pots and pans to prepare a feast for the Tigers on Friday.

Johnson, who sported a muted smile while entertaining his entourage after a 63-51 win over Mississippi Valley State, hopes the celebration weekend goes beyond the Senior Day festivities. Jackson State will be crowned SWAC regular season champions with a win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff this evening. "Every day this week, I told (the team) there's no championship without two wins," Johnson said. "It's amazing to be in this position right now. "(But, UAPB is) coming to play. They're fighting for a championship just like we are."

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North Carolina A&T Aggies win A&T Invitational

GREENSBORO, N.C. – All the positive attributes people have come to associate with North Carolina A&T softball were on display during the three-day N.C. A&T Softball Invitational played at the Lady Aggies Softball Complex. Lillian Bullock hit for power. Yahamma White showcased her tremendous speed by constantly getting on base. Ryanne Hill produced runs, and pitchers Jennifer Luper and Sahsa Philpot were dominant. Throw in what was a career-best weekend for senior Bianca Alsobrook, and the start of the 2010 season has to be considered a success.

It all culminated in the Aggies 12-3 win over Appalachian State in the championship game of the invitational Sunday afternoon. After losing to the Mountaineers 3-0 on Friday, the Aggies (4-1) won four straight games to win the title. Senior Channing Statham, Alsobrook and Bullock had three RBIs apiece for the Aggies. Bullock hit her 30th career home run in the fourth, and White added three hits and scored a run. Junior Jennifer Luper earned the win on the mound by striking out six over six innings to improve to 2-1 on the season.

Alsobrook hit an impressive .571 (8-for-14) for the tournament with two doubles and four RBIs to earn all-tournament honors. White was also an all-tournament selection after securing eight hits and scoring six times over five games. Philpot was the only other all-tournament selection for N.C. A&T. Philpot went 2-0 and did not give up a run over 10 innings pitched in the tournament.

All Tournament Team
Inde Whitehurst, UMES
Jade Dudley, CSU
Sasha Philpot, A&T
Katie Boyd, ASU
Caitlin Wainright, ASU
Yahamma White, A&T
McKenzie Phillips, ASU
Travonna Byrd, HAM
Bianca Alsobrook, A&T

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Alabama State dominates SWAC indoor meet

Sunday was a day of domination for the Alabama State track and field program as the Hornets swept to the men’s and women’s team titles at the Southwestern Athletic Conference Indoor Track Championships at LSU’s Carl Maddox Field House. On the men’s side, Alabama State took control after scoring 16 points in the 60-meter hurdles, and never relinquished the lead. The Hornets went on to score 124 1/2 points to outdistance defending champion Grambling at 86 2/3. Southern freshman Micah McCulloch placed third in the high jump, triple jump and long jump, and was named the outstanding field performer. His efforts helped the Southern men place third with 70 1/3 points.

For the Alabama State women, the only contest was to see who might collect the most individual wins as they rolled to victory with 220 points. Jackson State was the closest challenger with 104 points, well ahead of the Southern women who were seventh with 39. In defending their 2009 indoor title, the Lady Hornets picked up eight individual firsts to go with a win in the distance medley relay. Second-year Alabama State coach Richard Beene was almost too happy for words following the dual championships.

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Maryland (Morgan State, Towson) Football Act unlikely to pass

Morgan State University gets short end of the stick as Colonial Athletic Conference Towson University backs out of supporting Delegate Jay Walker's bill. TU dropped Baltimore rivalry game with the Bears this season to open at Indiana on 9/2/2010 in a money game. MSU and TU are located 4.8 miles from each other, and 31 miles from the University of Maryland.

AD Hermann blocks bill that would require TU to play Terps.

A proposed bill that would force the University of Maryland play both Towson University and Morgan State University in football at least once every four years will most likely not pass, following a hearing in front of the state appropriations committee. State delegate Jay Walker (D), author of the Maryland Football Act, is not optimistic about its fate.

“I think Maryland would like to say ‘Hey, let us do this on our own,’” Walker, a former NFL quarterback and Howard University star, said. “With Morgan State playing Maryland next year and Towson playing Maryland the following year, we want to ensure that it doesn’t happen once in a lifetime.” Towson athletic director Mike Hermann was present at the hearing but was not in support of the bill. Towson is scheduled to play Maryland in 2011 and is working towards doing so again in 2015, according to Hermann.

“For me and for Towson, it’s an awkward situation,” Hermann said. “We want to play Maryland on a regular basis and we are on a path to do so. We are not in favor of the legal requirement not because we don’t want to do it, but I don’t think it should be legally required or that the state legislature should be stepping into college football scheduling. We want to play Maryland regularly and we see great value in that for our fans, for the media buzz it would create and for our student athletes.”

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Morgan State University 2010 Football Schedule

9/4/2010 Bowie State University Hughes Stadium 6 p.m.
9/11/2010 University of Maryland College Park, MD 6 p.m.
9/25/2010 * Howard University East Rutherford, NJ 2 p.m.
10/2/2010 * Bethune-Cookman College Hughes Stadium 4 p.m.
10/9/2010 * North Carolina A&T State University Greensboro, NC 1 p.m.
10/23/2010 * Delaware State University (Homecoming) Hughes Stadium 1 p.m.
10/30/2010 * Florida A&M University Tallahassee, FL TBA
11/6/2010 * Norfolk State University Norfolk, VA TBA
11/13/2010 * South Carolina State University Hughes Stadium 4 p.m.
11/20/2010 * Hampton University Hughes Stadium 4 p.m.