Winston Salem State Rams will have experienced team for 2010-'11

Rivals N.C. Central, N.C. A&T not on this season's schedule

Bobby Collins, the men’s basketball coach at Winston-Salem State, found it tough to schedule nonconference opponents for the coming season, but there’s a reason.

The Rams will have a front line that measures 6-10, 6-11 and 6-8 and most likely will also have five senior starters. Not many Division II programs can match the height.

“It was very tough finding games, and we didn’t have many choices,” said Collins, whose team will play a full Division II schedule after four seasons of playing mostly Division I opponents. “We tried to get some Division I programs to play us, but it just didn’t work out.”

HOMECOMING: Rams will have extra motivation

Winston-Salem State will play a key CIAA game at Fayetteville State on Saturday, and three WSSU coaches will focus on what lies ahead, not their pasts.

Coach Connell Maynor of WSSU, assistant head coach John Eder and assistant Duane Taylor will be returning to Luther “Nick” Geralds Stadium, where they helped build Fayetteville State into one of the CIAA’s best programs.

Taylor will be making his first trip back since graduating in 2005 after starring at quarterback, leading the Broncos to CIAA titles in 2002 and 2003 and setting more than 25 school records.

Rams Dismantle Hawks; Winston-Salem State Defeats Chowan 48-7

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Nothing went right for the Hawks of Chowan University on Saturday evening at Bowman Gray Stadium as the Rams of Winston-Salem State rolled up 499 yards of total offense and put 48 points on the scoreboard to defeat Chowan 48-7 at Bowman Gray Stadium as WSSU improved to 4-0 in 2010.

The Hawks started the game with a five-yard delay of game penalty before the opening kickoff and it would only get worse for visiting Chowan as WSSU would need less than five minutes to jump out to a 14-0 advantage.

Tehvyn Brantley got the Rams on the board only 1:09 into the contest as he reeled in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Kameron Smith to give WSSU a 7-0 lead as the true freshman wide receiver scored his fourth touchdown of the year.

Rams rout hapless Hawks

Winston-Salem State made it look easy against undersized and overmatched Chowan last night at Bowman Gray Stadium.

The Rams rolled to a 48-7 win to remain unbeaten. The Rams (4-0, 2-0 CIAA) rolled up 499 yards of offense on their way to their most lopsided victory of the season. It was also their widest winning margin since a 47-0 victory over N.C. Central in 2003.

Running back Nic Cooper did much of the damage, with 11 carries for 149 yards and a career-high four touchdowns. The offensive line established itself early and Cooper took advantage with his best run, a 74-yard touchdown burst right up the middle in the second half.

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WSSU Rams Score With Under One Minute To Play As They Down North Carolina A&T 21-14

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The fifth-annual I-40 Showdown between the Rams of Winston-Salem State University and the Aggies of North Carolina A&T State University would come down to a drive dominated by a player with virtually no knowledge of the long-standing rivalry. Redshirt sophomore Kameron Smith, a transfer from the U.S. Naval Academy, accounted for 65 yards and the game-winning touchdown on the Rams final drive en route to propelling WSSU to a 21-14 victory over the rival Aggies on Saturday evening in Greensboro, N.C.

The contest would prove to be a matchup of two staunch defenses as both the Rams and Aggies used a physical style that generated a total of eight fumbles and two interceptions and held the two powerful offenses to a combined 464 total yards.



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WSSU ready for rivalry game against NC A&T

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — With just 33 miles separating Winston-Salem State from North Carolina A&T, the two HBCU schools have had a long-standing rivalry for 49 years. To win the fifth annual I-40 Showdown has implications reaching further than just a "W." in the record books. Fifth-year senior linebacker, Juan Corders said that it is all about the bragging rights which brings the entire community into this rivalry.

"Bragging rights... bragging rights living a whole year to the next game. That's what the whole community loves: the rivalry; that's all they remember is the rivalry," said Corders. Winston-Salem State Head Coach Connell Maynor knows all too well about the rivalry. In 1987 as the starting quarterback for the Rams, he won a CIAA championship.




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WSSU: 47-13 Winning Debut over VUU Panthers

HIGH POINT, N.C. - Winston-Salem State came home to the CIAA and looked quite comfortable, routing Virginia Union 47-13 last night in front of about 9,000 at Simeon Stadium.

Playing at their home away from home, the Rams (1-0, 1-0 CIAA) dominated in their first game as a Division II program since 2005. It was such a festive atmosphere that those four previous lost seasons in transition trying to go Division I seemed like a distant memory.

Coach Connell Maynor did something not even Bill Hayes had done. Hayes, the school's athletics director who hand-picked Maynor to replace Kermit Blount, lost his first game as head coach of the Rams in 1976. Maynor was all smiles after opening with an easy victory.

"We can't live in the past," Maynor said. "These are the 2010 Rams and we have a great defense with Coach (Kienus) Boulware and we just have to keep scoring points every week."




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WSSU Rams will turn to Hawkins, a transfer‎

And the winner is…. Octavius Hawkins.

Coach Connell Maynor, who has been oscillating for the last two weeks about who would be his starting quarterback for Winston-Salem State's opening game on Saturday, made the decision after practice yesterday.

"We're going to go with Octavius," said Maynor, whose Rams will play at Simeon Stadium in High Point on Saturday against Virginia Union.

Hawkins, a transfer from UMass, signed as a quarterback but never played that position at UMass in a game. Maynor originally was recruiting another player at UMass who was thinking about transferring and that player told Hawkins about WSSU.

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Four-way QB battle at WSSU: Season opens on Saturday but still no starter

Coach Connell Maynor of Winston-Salem State was hoping to have named a starting quarterback by now. But after going through the team's final scrimmage yesterday, none of the four players vying for the job has done enough to please Maynor.

"I'd like to name a starter on Monday," said Maynor, whose Rams will open the season on Saturday against Virginia Union at Simeon Stadium in High Point.

The four players who saw action in the scrimmage were all first-year players in the program. Three of them are transfers and one is a freshman, Vernon Brandon, who actually started the scrimmage that lasted about 90 plays. Transfers Jamie DeGeare (Appalachian State), Cameron Smith (Navy) and Octavious Hawkins (UMass) have all been battling it out with Brandon for the starting job.

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WSSU football player exemplifies 'student-athlete'

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- You hear many times of the prototypical "student-athlete." Khendra Reid, a strong safety at Winston-Salem State, exemplifies that term.

Despite nursing a pulled hamstring, Reid is a threat on the gridiron. "He goes the extra mile," said WSSU Head Football Coach, Connell Maynor. "He gets his weights in with everybody else and I see him in there some days when everybody's finished, he's there doing extra. Or he'll come in early and do some extra. He's a tough guy, he's a big hitter, so them wide receivers better be looking out."

Khendra's discipline on the field and in the weight room carries over to the classroom. The sophomore computer science major studies and designs search and rescue robots. "When I was in middle school, I had to choose between being in the band or learning more about computers because I wanted a computer," said Reid. "So my parents gave me that ultimatum of choosing one or the other and I chose computers. I took one class and I fell in love with it since then, and I try learning more and more about it everyday."

Khendra takes part in the ARTSI program, which stands for "Advancing Robotics Through Social Impact." Winston-Salem State is among eight Research I schools, like Carnegie Mellon and Brown, and 15 other historically black colleges and universities taking part in the program.

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WSSU Rams are excited about return to CIAA this season

As Winston-Salem State tries to settle into a groove in the early days of preseason football practice, Coach Connell Maynor is leaning heavily on veteran players. Linebacker Shawn Kearney and defensive back Marvin Bohannon, both redshirt seniors, are leading an 88-man roster that has plenty of new faces -- a move that Maynor calls natural because of their experience.

Kearney, a starter most of his career, said that there have been changes in attitude since Maynor, in his first season, and his new staff took over. "We have a different outlook with the new coaches, and they are talking about CIAA and winning the title, and winning the national championship in future years, and we've never heard that here before," Kearney said. "So we can't wait, and it excites us, especially the veterans on this team."

Despite last season's 1-10 record, the defense was a constant bright spot for the Rams and kept them in most games. Although the core of that defense -- a talented line -- is gone, some key parts remain. I

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WSSU Defense to have familiar style under Boulware

Winston-Salem State hasn't changed its style on defense much, said new coordinator Kienus Boulware. Mike Ketchum, now the defensive-line coach, was the coordinator the past five seasons. "What Coach Ketchum's defense was based on last year is very similar to what we have this year," Boulware said. "He had more three-man fronts, but in the package we are running now, we have some of the same stuff."

Linebacker Shawn Kearney, the top returning tackler from last season, said he's encouraged by what he has seen. "There's not too much of a difference because we have the same type of packages, but they have different names," Kearney said. "We are still going to be that fast defense you have always seen."

When new head coach Connell Maynor heard the suggestion that he might win the Rams' quarterback derby, he laughed, then said: "No, I don't have any eligibility left." Maynor -- an All-MEAC quarterback during his days at N.C. A&T -- is closely watching the competition between transfers Octavius Hawkins, Kameron Smith, Jamie DeGeare and freshman Vernon Brandon, and said he hopes to name a starter by late next week.

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WSSU Gaines Hall of Fame Class 2010 Features a Star-Studded Cast of Honorees

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The Winston-Salem State University C.E. "Big House" Gaines Hall of Fame will welcome its class of 2010 inductees when eight individuals along with the 2000 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Champion Rams football team will take their place among the WSSU greats.

The individual inductees will be inducted in a ceremony on Friday, Sept. 17 at the Grand Pavilion Ballroom located at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Winston-Salem, N.C. and will be honored at halftime of the Winston-Salem State versus Chowan University football game on Saturday, Sept. 18.

"To an athlete, being enshrined into your university's athletic hall of fame is reaching the mountaintop. There is no higher honor," WSSU Director of Athletics, William "Bill" Hayes said. "On behalf of the entire WSSU Department of Athletics, congratulations to all inductees for reaching this milestone."

The Clarence E. "Big House" Gaines Athletic Hall of Fame class of 2010 will include some of the top student-athletes in school history. The class will include two softball players (Kenisha Williams and Sheila Vanhook McDonald), one tennis player (Darrell Edmund Galloway), four football players (Masha Paul, Kelley D. Goodman, Gary Raiford and Antonio Stevenson), and one member of the Rams track & field team (George Dillard Macklin).

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WSSU 'officially' accepted back into CIAA

The NCAA has granted Winston-Salem State its re-admittance to Division II. WSSU, which spent four years in transition to Division I, decided to halt that process last September. WSSU was also granted re-admittance into the CIAA.

Jimmy Jenkins, the president of Livingstone College and the chairman of the CIAA board of directors, said: "I speak on behalf of my colleagues as I express our excitement about the fact that Winston-Salem State University has returned." The Rams spent 61 years in the CIAA before leaving following the 2004-05 academic year.

Gentlemen, you have to prioritize!!!

What I learned from Coach Kermit Blount

While playing football at Winston-Salem State University, I remember my head football coach Kermit Blount saying “Gentlemen, football is a metaphor for life. But this not pep rally, this is a pep reality." In those team meetings or so-called pep "realities", coach Blount would give us (players) a little dose of reality and a few lessons on life.

I can still hear him in his cool baritone voice like Billy Dee Williams in "Lady Sings the Blues" say: “Gentlemen, you are going to have to learn how to prioritize......and find out what's more important to you: school or girls, football or foolishness, coming to practice or playing video games." "But regardless of what you decide to do, you must prioritize...gentlemen."

Yeah, those team meetings or "pep realities" with coach Blount seemed more like church than a college football meeting. Because he rarely talked about the X's and O's, blocking schemes, or defensive assignments. He focused more on telling players to call their moms, staying out of trouble, and looking out for one another.

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WSSU trying to tweak its Stadium lease

AD Hayes, trying to trim costs, talks of purchasing Bowman Gray

There was much to celebrate in 2006 when the city-owned Bowman Gray Stadium began to build a state-of-the art field house that included two football practice fields.

Winston-Salem State University, the main tenants of the nearly 21,000 square foot complex, signed a 30-year lease then to begin paying off $3.3 million to the city. Most of the athletics department offices are in the field house, along with a weight room and a training room for the football team. However, the lease amount doesn't include the weekly rent that WSSU pays to play its home football games.

Bill Hayes, the athletics director since January, is talking with city officials to try to reduce the expenses for using the stadium on game days.

According to Bucky Dame, the director of Joel Coliseum and Bowman Gray Stadium, the rent for each game will be $3,785, plus operating expenses.

In 2006 the rent for each game was about $400 less, but Dame said that the gradual increase is because expenses are higher.

WSSU, which will play four home games at Bowman Gray Stadium this season, also pays operating expenses for each game. Dame said that those operating expenses vary depending on the size of the expected crowd and other factors.

When WSSU decided to leave the CIAA four years ago to begin transition to NCAA Division I, it decided to start charging for parking and tailgating at Bowman Gray Stadium. Dame said that the agreement, which is still in place, is that the city and WSSU split the revenue for parking.

The city receives all the revenue from concessions, according to Dame.



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Fitzgerald hopes to fit baseball into his schedule

Winston-Salem State University Interim Head Baseball Coach Kevin Ritsche.

Dominique Fitzgerald chuckled when asked if he might be the best baseball player at Winston-Salem State. Fitzgerald is a rising junior wide receiver on the WSSU football team. But he's also very interested in playing baseball next spring, when the Rams will field a team for the first time since 1973. "I've already talked to Coach (Kevin) Ritsche, so we'll just have to see what happens," Fitzgerald said in a telephone interview.

Ritsche, named the interim coach of the fledging baseball program last week, is trying to find players for a team that will play in the CIAA next spring. He'll have to do that without the benefit of a large recruiting budget, so any talent he can find that's already on campus can only help.

Fitzgerald, who played football and baseball at George Washington High School in Danville, Va., is playing summer baseball with the Virginia Marlins, a traveling team of college players based in Danville. He's plays the outfield, and he also pitched some in high school.

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Winston-Salem State Rams to bring back baseball‎

Winston-Salem State University is bringing back baseball, a sport it last offered in the early 1970s. The team will start play in the spring of 2011, a condition of the school's readmission to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA).

Leon Kerry, the CIAA commissioner, said: "We have a rule that was voted in by the CIAA Board of Directors that any school that comes into the conference had to have a baseball program. This was part of the deal with Winston coming back." Chancellor Donald Reaves of WSSU confirmed yesterday that plans to add baseball are in the works but said all details have yet to be worked out. Kerry said that WSSU is on the CIAA schedule for next season.

"I'm really excited about baseball coming to Winston-Salem State," Reaves said. "I think this will help raise the profile of athletics, and it's also great for the profile of the university.

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FAMU's Joyner Jr. will coach WSSU women

Winston Salem State University Lady Rams head coach Steven Joyner, Jr.

Steven Joyner Jr., an assistant women's coach at Florida A&M, has been named the new women's coach at Winston-Salem State University. Joyner, 30, is a former point guard at Johnson C. Smith and a son of Steve Joyner Sr., a hall-of-fame coach at Johnson C. Smith. A search committee helped Bill Hayes, the athletics director at WSSU, through an extensive search to replace Dee Stokes. According to several sources, Joyner and Keith Bell, a Winston-Salem native and the director of basketball operations for the Elon women's team, were both interviewed last week. Joyner, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, has extensive ties to WSSU and Winston-Salem. Joyner's father is a Winston-Salem native and Joyner's mother, Narell, is a graduate of WSSU.

Joyner is a 2001 graduate of Johnson C. Smith and was a four-year point guard for his father. He wound up with a 399 career assists (4.5 a game) and during his senior season helped the Bulls win the CIAA Tournament title. For the last two seasons he has been an assistant for the Florida A&M women's team, where he worked for Hayes for one season. Hayes is a former athletics director at Florida A&M and came to WSSU in January. Before coming to Florida A&M, Joyner was an assistant at UNC Asheville for a brief time, and he spent four seasons as an assistant at N.C. Central.

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WSSU Rams exit MEAC with strong promise for return to CIAA

The Rams 2009-2010 basketball season will leave a lasting impression as Winston-Salem State exits Division I and the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference play. WSSU began with a 0-3 start in Eugene, Ore. at the BTI Tournament Tip-Off in mid-November, but bounced back winning two of their next three games at home. The Rams defeated Atlanta Christian 94-57 Nov. 20 and Milligan 85-59 Nov. 30. The 76-52 loss came from Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse Wake Forest Nov. 24.

During the win over Atlanta Christian, the Rams recorded 12 scorers, five in double-digits, and three with double-doubles. By halftime, 10 of the 12 players to score had put points on the board. Junior Shelton Carter scored 17 points and snatched 10 rebounds. Junior Paul Davis added 13 points and 11 rebounds, as junior McIntoche Alcius tossed in 10 points and led the Rams in rebounds with 12. The contributions from the trio were the first time in five years that three WSSU players contributed a double-double. Senior Brian Fisher also added a personal mark to his collegiate resume earning his 1,000th point in the 37-point victory.

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Andrew Jackson lifts WSSU past A&T

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- President's Day was last week, right? Winston-Salem State's Andrew Jackson apparently felt like celebrating again Monday. Jackson, nicknamed "The Prez" for sharing the name and birthplace of the nation's seventh chief executive, scored 13 points in the final 7:05 to spearhead the Rams' comeback from a 15-point second-half deficit and a 79-74 win over N.C. A&T before 5,038 in the Greensboro Coliseum.

In earning its first sweep over the Aggies since Jimmy Carter was in the White House (1980), WSSU nearly duplicated its effort in the Twin City last month. The Rams wiped out a 14-point disadvantage in that one. Jackson, a junior from Wilmington, conspired with Brian Fisher's 25-point effort as WSSU made its sudden and shocking comeback. Winston-Salem State finished 12-for-20 from downtown. Or, to be more precise, from Kernersville or so it seemed. "This is the battle of I-40, and we're the champions right now," Jackson said.

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Stokes fired as coach of WSSU women

Athletic Director Bill Hayes releases Dee Stokes after completion of a 69-142 record in seven seasons as a head coach. Stokes compiled a four year record of 19 wins, 90 losses at WSSU.

Dee Stokes, the women's basketball coach at Winston-Salem State, was fired yesterday with seven games left in the season. Stokes had submitted her resignation in November but said she would finish this season to fulfill her contract. Athletics Director Bill Hayes decided not to wait that long, several sources said, after he walked into the Gaines Center on Monday night to see the WSSU women trailing Hampton 60-10. The Rams (2-21) wound up losing 67-26, their 19th straight loss.

"I am disappointed in the results of our season, obviously," Stokes said. "A couple of weeks ago I realized that I wasn't going to accomplish the goals that I set for myself here at Winston-Salem State and that's been troubling to me." Stokes had a 19-90 record in four seasons at WSSU. She was being paid $85,000 a year, with her original four-year contract ending March 31.

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Mounting Deficits Moves WSSU Rams Back to Division II

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) announced on September 11, 2009, that it would inform the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference (MEAC) that the university intends to remain a Division II institution for intercollegiate athletics. The process to remain in Division II will begin immediately, but the school will continue to compete in the MEAC at the Division I level through the 2009-2010 season.

At a special called meeting, the university's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to support the recommendation of Chancellor Donald J. Reaves to bring to a close the reclassification to Division I process that was begun in 2004. Reaves praised the vision of former WSSU chancellors who had supported the move to Division I, but stated that "in the final analysis the resources to complete the reclassification simply were not available, currently nor prospectively, in sufficient amounts".

News of dropping Division I goal stuns, perplexes WSSU athletes

The news that Winston-Salem State will be cutting scholarships in athletics was like rubbing salt into an already wounded football team. The Rams lost to Florida A&M on Thursday night 34-10, and in less than 24 hours, they took another punch to the gut. Julian Gray, an offensive lineman, sat slumped on a bench outside the Thompson Center, finding the news hard to believe. "I came to this program thinking I was playing for a Division I program," Gray said. "And you have other people on our team, like the younger guys, who turned down offers to play Division I to come here."

What really upset many of the players was that not even the coaches knew this was coming. "You can't blame the coaches because they just heard the rumors like everybody else," said Omar Kizzie, a junior wide receiver. "Now we have a bunch of guys that don't know what's going on, or even if they will have a scholarship next year. It's just a bad decision all the way around." Chancellor Donald Reaves, who spoke to the athletes in a meeting on campus yesterday afternoon, acknowledged that a lot of them were upset.

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