ASU Braves up ante on coaches' salaries

AD Hamilton ushers in change as athletic budget goes from $3.1M to $4.5M

Alcorn State announced the hiring of its third new head coach since December on Tuesday. And for the third time, the athletic department made a significant financial commitment.

Tonya Edwards will make her Division I head coaching debut for the Alcorn State women's basketball program this fall. Athletic director Darren Hamilton signed Edwards to a four-year, $95,000-a-year deal. Alcorn football coach Ernest Jones was hired at $140,000 per year, a $55,000 increase over his predecessor, Johnny Thomas. Larry Smith received a $125,000 base salary when he was hired to replace Sam West in May.

Both Hamilton and Edwards repeated the mantra started when Jones was hired - that it's a new day at Alcorn State and the bar has been raised.

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Alcorn State names Tonya Edwards women's basketball coach

Photo: Coach Edwards comes to Alcorn State with superb credentials as a winner, including a high school championship, two national championships with the University of Tennessee Lady Vols in 1986 and 1987; was named MVP of the 1987 NCAA Tournament and named to the 1999 WNBA All-Star Team.

LORMAN, MS — After several weeks of searching, Alcorn State has found its new women’s basketball coach. ASU Athletic Director Darren Hamilton announced Monday that the school has hired Tonya Edwards as the new coach of the Lady Braves, pending approval of the board of trustees.

Edwards will be formally introduced to Alcorn fans at an 11 a.m. press conference today at the University Club in Jackson. Edwards comes to Alcorn State after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Detroit-Mercy. During her tenure she oversaw the budget, scheduled non-conference games and team travel, served as recruiting coordinator and coached the guards.

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Cooper prepares for presidency of S.C. State

Photo: Tallahassee, Florida native George Everett Cooper, Ph.D., earned his Bachelor’s degree from Florida A&M University; master’s degree, Tuskegee University; doctorate, University of Illinois, Urbana.

Dr. George E. Cooper will officially cement his name as South Carolina State University’s 10th president later this month. “I’m really excited about coming in. It’s just going to be an honor to serve,” Cooper said by phone Monday.

Cooper, the deputy administrator for science and education resources development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, emerged from a field of more than 40 applicants to be named the next president of S.C. State. He will officially take his position on July 16.

Cooper also touched on S.C. State’s athletic tradition, particularly in football. “I would hope we would be conference champs,” he said. But Cooper said the first mission of the institution is to provide students with a strong academic background and mold them into outstanding citizens.

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FAMU golf team records ace with latest recruit

So much was at stake on a day when Shepherd Archie III was playing one of his worst rounds of golf. He was seven strokes over par and his high school team needed just one good shot. He’d been the go-to guy for Augusta (Ga.) Richmond Academy so many times before. Even in his struggles that didn’t change.

Down to his last shot, Archie perfectly executed a 30-foot birdie to clinch the Georgia 4A championship for his team this past spring. “I had no idea that the putt that I made would have won the tournament for us,” he said. “I was playing real badly at the time but I just tried to find a way to get through the round. My driver was off but I just had to find a way.”

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Former SU Jaguar leaps his way onto US Olympic Team

Brian Johnson earns US Olympic Team Spot in Long Jump

Willie Davenport, Rodney Milburn, and now, Brian Johnson -- SU Olympians. Brian Johnson solidified his name in Southern athletic lore forever, as he finished second in the long jump today at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR.

Johnson had the leading jump on the trials heading into today's long jump finals. On Friday, Brian leaped 8.09m (26-06.50 ft), outdistancing eventual winner, Travell Quinley, by 3 inches.

On Sunday, Trevell Quinley lept 8.36m (27-05.25 ft) to take the win over Johnson, who had a second place jump of 8.30m (27-02.75 ft), while Miguel Pate finished third.

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2008-09 Alabama A&M Basketball Preview: #143

Alabama A&M Bulldogs
Overall Rank: #143
Conference Rank: #1 SWAC
2007-08: 14-15, 11-7, 3rd
2007-08 postseason: none

If Alabama A&M could only beat Arkansas Pine Bluff, their season would have ended much differently. As it was, the Bulldogs finished third in the conference and had a first round conference tournament exit at the hands of the Golden Lions. With a whole slew of talent returning, the Bulldogs will have the best back court in the SWAC and that should be enough for Coach Vann Pettaway’s squad to think about a conference championship.

Who’s Out: However, there is a huge, literally and figuratively, hole to fill in the front court. The 6-11 Mickell Gladness tallied 10.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Having a big guy like that...

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Choose Jackson State University

Meet JSU alumna Dr. Linda Johnson, a Mississippi Optometrist.

SSU's Jackson gets AD job at Lincoln Univ. in Missouri

Paula Jackson announced Friday that she has resigned as Savannah State University's assistant athletic director of compliance/senior woman administrator to accept the position as AD at Lincoln University, an NCAA Division II school in Jefferson City, Mo. Jackson, who joined SSU's athletic staff in May of 2005, also served as the school's interim AD from Oct. 2007 to May 2008.

"I want to thank Paula for all her hard work and dedicated service in a variety of roles at SSU," said new SSU AD Bart Bellairs. "She is going to be a big asset at Lincoln University and will be missed by many people at SSU. I appreciate what she has done during my brief time as athletics director."

Jackson came to SSU from Kentucky's Morehead State University, where she served as assistant AD and senior woman administrator. Prior to that, she held the same positions at Clark Atlanta University.

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New SCSU women’s basketball coach keeping busy, staying quiet

Since accepting the head women’s basketball job at South Carolina State in April, Doug Robertson has seemingly kept a low profile. The relative silence from his office should not be construed as inactivity, however. Over the past 2½ months, Robertson has worked feverishly to put the Lady Bulldogs’ program back on the winning track.

Step one was the formation of a coaching staff who could best maximize the talents of the current players while demonstrating an ability to recruit new talent from throughout the country. To that end, Robertson has hired Marcell Harrison and La’Nette Dillard, while retaining the services of Antonio Davis.

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Former Pirates Adams focuses on hoops for the moment

Maybe next summer at this time, Tommy Adams will decide he’s ready for a change and switch his loyalties from basketball to soccer once and for all. There are days when he thinks about it and wonders if he could step back out on the field and resume playing a sport he essentially gave up after a successful high school career at Hylton, where he earned all-state honors and scored 28 goals in leading the Bulldogs to a state and national championship.

He even considered talking with a minor-league professional soccer team near his home in Raleigh, N.C that included former Hylton teammate David Stokes on its roster and seeing where that might lead. But then a call came from his agent. The Indiana Pacers wanted Adams to attend a free-agent workout. And like that, Adams put a hold on any more soccer talk. Basketball still had the upper hand.

The NBA, a league that Adams had tried out for with at least four different teams since graduating from Hampton University in 2002, was beckoning again. “I can’t pass up on that,” Adams said.

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Tuttle shines for DSU Hornets

Frayser Tuttle has just completed her freshman year at Delaware State University in Dover Delaware. She is attending this predominately black university on a full scholarship. Those two facts do not make this 2007 Powhatan High School graduate’s situation in higher education particularly unique, however the activity which pays her tuition, books, food and housing most certainly is. Tuttle is a star on the Hornets’ equestrian team.

In just its second season competing in NCAA equestrian events, this small (3,800 students) university has gone head to head and hoof to hoof with some of the largest universities in the country and more than held its own. Competing against teams from the Universities of Georgia, South Carolina, Baylor, Auburn, TCU, Oklahoma State, Texas A and M and SMU freshman Tuttle helped to propel the Delaware State riders to a top ten national ranking and an invitation to the National Championships. “She never gets frazzled,” said her first year Head Coach Jennifer Ridgely. “Frayser rides consistently and does so against the best in the country.”

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A&M regaining indoor track teams

Two years after eliminating men's and women's indoor track, Alabama A&M athletics director Betty Austin said the school will bring back the sports. The sports were cut in an attempt to balance the budget, but Austin said a series of meetings with the student-athletes compelled her to put the sports back in place.

"I started a series of conversations with the students in April and asked them what we could do to strengthen their programs, and out of that, the track athletes requested we bring back indoor track," Austin said. "You can't do everything they ask you to do, but I thought the things that they said were legitimate."

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Brisco's drive on track leads him to chase his goals at DSU

Despite finishing in the top half of the field, recently graduated Cape Henlopen High hurdler Isaiah Brisco didn't perform as well as he would have liked in the Nike Outdoor Nationals, held June 19-21 at Greensboro, N.C. He finished 13th among 32 participants in the 400-meter hurdles, and finished last in a field of 22 in the 110 hurdles.

But Brisco will have plenty of chances to improve on his times in the next four years. Best of all, his friends and family won't have to travel far to see this year's winner of the Thomas H. Fort Award, given to the state's most valuable performer in boys high school outdoor track and field as voted on by Delaware high school head coaches.

After winning the 110- and 300-meter hurdles in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association Meet of Champions as a senior, Brisco will attend Delaware State University this fall.

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Runner Hyppolite commits to FAMU

Miami native anxious to be with Rattlers

Benedick Hyppolite doesn't intend to take too long to fit in on FAMU's men's track team. Hyppolite, who ran on the Miami Booker T. Washington High School's state champion relay teams, became the newest runner for FAMU this week. He's spent the last two years running with the same relay teammates that had the fastest time in Dade County this past season.

He is anxious to build a relationship with his new teammates that can produce similar results, Hyppolite said Thursday just after his signing was announced. "We're going to be the youngest team and I just want to help Florida A&M work its way back up," he said. "We've got all the talent so hopefully we can make it happen."

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