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GREENVILLE, MS – Second-year Mississippi Valley State University Head Football Coach Karl A. Morgan is a fighter and one who persevered through difficult times his whole life. In that regard, he has a common bond with MVSU.
“The school really needs help from our support groups, alumni, and the community,” said Morgan, a former NFL player and UCLA standout who has more than 20 years of coaching experience. Through a lot of hard-work and fundraising, we were able to raise enough money to get repairs done to the stadium.
“My message to others is to give and donate whatever it is you can,” he said. “I can say Willie Totten and others have been out trying to bring resources back into the university, but it needs to be better. We need for people to give more, the more they give the better things can be.”
Morgan said having additional resources is key to move Valley out of the lower tier. “It is simple as that,” said Morgan. “We need more resources, and that is our biggest problem. Resources are needed and that is number one here at Valley.” Morgan said he is confident that just like in the past, the community will respond and step up to the plate.
Morgan shared his story and his aspirations for MVSU at the Greenville Kiwanis Club meeting Tuesday at the Greenville Golf & Country Club.
SALISBURY, N.C. — By the end of the two-week band camp at Overton Elementary School, Anthony Johnson hopes students walk away with a lifelong love of music. Without music, Johnson said, he wouldn’t be where he is today, working as the school’s technology facilitator.
“I stayed in school because of band,” he said.
Johnson, a Livingstone College marching band alumni, set out to share his love of music with the students at Overton by launching the Mini Funk Factory drumline last November. Since then, the drumline has grown into a full-fledged band with more than 100 instruments including everything from saxophones to trumpets to flutes.
“The kids just kept coming,” he said. “And I believe that if a kid wants to do something at this age you should find a way to make it happen.”
After receiveing donated instruments, Johnson decided it was time to call in some backup. He approached Sidney Sessoms, the band director at Livingstone College, to see if they could form a partnership. “I was all for it, realizing that a lot of the budgets in the public school system have been cut and music programs have taken a hit,” Sessoms said.
Clayton, OH -- Northmont High School grad Aaron Burke has signed to run track and field at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Burke was a Division I regional qualifier in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter relays as a junior and senior. He owns PR’s of 50.9 in the 400 and 2:01.5 in the 800.
Burke most recently was named Northmont’s athlete of the month for this past May. He’s a 2011 graduate of Northmont.
Lorenzo and Pamela Burke looks on as son, Aaron Burke signs scholarship to run track and field at Kentucky State University, a NCAA Division II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) program.
Clark Francis, (Hoop Scoop) recruiting analyst labeled the recruiting class that Howard men’s basketball coach Kevin Nickelberry signed as a top 40 class.
Washington, D.C. -- Howard men’s basketball coach Kevin Nickelberry was never confident about securing a commitment from Prince Okoroh, the Eleanor Roosevelt forward who Nickelberry felt was good enough to play in the Atlantic 10 Conference and smart enough to thrive in the Ivy League.
As a Gates Millennium Scholar, Okoroh had his choice of schools. Would Okoroh want to suit up for a team that had won just six games this past season? Would he commit to a program whose basketball court was sprinkled with dead spots and whose poorly ventilated locker room was no bigger than a large storage closet?
The answer was yes. And when Okoroh called Nickelberry with the news in mid-April, a few days before he was named MVP of the preliminary game of the Capital Classic, the coach was “astonished,” Okoroh recalled. “He almost didn’t believe me at first. When I told him I was coming, it was almost like he fainted.”
This area’s already competitive college basketball recruiting landscape became more competitive in recent weeks with coaching hires at Maryland, George Washington andGeorge Mason. But an under-the-radar development has been the recruiting by success-starved Howard, which assembled an attention-grabbing class punctuated by Okoroh’s signing.
Orangeburg, S.C. - Josh Harrison went back to school, Semaj Moody took up working odd jobs and Marshall McFadden hit the links.
Since going undrafted in April's NFL Draft, the trio of former S.C. State Bulldogs have put their life in a holding pattern working out, waiting, hoping, passing the time and mortgaging the immediate future for a shot at their dream, an NFL contract. Needless to say, with their fate still undecided as the NFL lockout rolls into July with no end in sight and contact with free agents prohibited, there is a bit of restlessness.
"I can't wait until it gets over," Moody, a former star at Denmark-Olar High School said. "I want to know what is going to happen ... whether I get a job or get a call. I'm just hoping everything falls into place really fast."
Moody, who had 22 tackles and two interceptions for S.C. State last season, has been...
Mt. Pleasant - Joe Council is just 2-0 as an amateur mixed martial artist, but word is getting out about the ability of the former S.C. State defensive tackle.
Council (6-3, 255) was featured on a segment on Channel 4 News out of Charleston, a segment that can be viewed on the station's website, Thursday night. That segment comes on the heels of his impressive victory over 6-6, 230-pound Thai Boxer Nick Hollis at last week's "Fight Night at the Point," in Mt. Pleasant. Council hammered Hollis, who landed little more than a second-round knee out of a clench, supposedly an illegal strike in the fight, forcing him to tap to strikes in the second round.
Next up for the former Bulldog is a July 15 fight against David Speas in Hendersonville, NC.
Manning Architects' rendering of Xavier's Convocation Academic Center, which is under construction and is expected to be completed in late summer 2012. The facility will include a 4,500 seat arena suitable for athletic and other large-scale events.
New Orleans, LA - Following 35 years in the Saint Tammany Parish school system, Dennis Cousin said when he accepted the job as Xavier's athletic director in July 2004 he never expected to last this long.
"Honestly, I came here with the intention of staying maybe two or three years, and you look up and now all of a sudden, it's been seven years," Cousin recently said. In six seasons of competition under Cousin's stewardship -- the 2005-06 season was lost because of Hurricane Katrina -- Xavier's seven sports squads have combined for 27 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference or NAIA unaffiliated group championships and 20 appearances in NAIA Division I championships, an unprecedented run of success for the Mid-City school with an enrollment of 3,200.
That level of consistency is a point of pride for Cousin.
"When I took over, I wanted to elevate the status of our athletic program to that of our academics," the 65-year-old Cousin said. "When you think of Xavier, you think of the medical doctors and the pharmacists. My goal was to make athletics a part of our reputation."
While Xavier athletics were far from inadequate before Cousin's arrival, he has expanded the program's reach, leading the athletic department through Katrina's aftermath, reinstating women's volleyball in 2009, and acting as a key force in getting the new arena approved.
Elizabeth City, N.C. - It was a good day when I heard that Michael Bonner would be able to play basketball for Elizabeth City State next season. I had been championing Bonner’s cause for quite a while, but it seemed like nothing was going to change and he would have to sit out another season because of other people’s mistakes.
Bonner, a former Perquimans standout, transferred to ECSU from Winston-Salem State last summer. Normally, this would not be an issue and he could play right away, but Winston-Salem was making the transition back into the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association and league rules say a player moving between CIAA schools must sit out two years. That rule was waived for that year since Winston-Salem, as well as Lincoln which was entering the league at the same time, if players enrolled in summer school. But Booner was not...
Tallahassee, FL - Whenever Angela Suggs sits in front a potential corporate supporter of Florida A&M athletics, she seldom goes by the routine marketing script. She lets her on-campus background set the precedent. John Burt didn't grow up on FAMU's campus like Suggs did, but he understands the culture of an HBCU.
FAMU clearly is banking heavily on Burt and Suggs. He is a representative of the mega collegiate marketing firm IMG. She is FAMU's associate athletic director for marketing. Together, they have the task of helping the school's athletic department raise millions of dollars, and at the same time get fans back in the kinds of numbers that will have its teams performing in front of packed or near-packed arenas regularly.
It is the first time in at least 20 years that FAMU has made such an intense effort.
So the obvious concept is this: Increase attendance to make the work of Burt and Suggs a little easier. In the meantime, the duo believes FAMU's past success, such as its victory in the first Division I-A championship game in 1978 and its past history of winning titles along with academic achievements and social involvement, make the school recognizable.
Columbus, Miss. - Leslie Frazier is accustomed to heat. After all, he was raised in Columbus and grew up beneath the glare of the Mississippi sun. If the suffocating temperatures or the stranglehold of a media gaggle perturbed him Saturday afternoon, he didn't let it show. Instead, the Columbus native turned Minnesota Vikings head coach trotted easily up the steps of City Hall, ever the picture of grace and restrained Southern charm.
If anything good can be said of the NFL lockout, it is this: At least it gives a man a chance to spend a holiday with his family and old pals, away from the fishbowl. Well. Sort of.
Frazier arrived in Columbus Friday evening with his wife, Gale, his daughter, Chantel, his son, Corey, and a notebook-wielding, tripod-laden entourage that included a television crew from Minneapolis-based ABC affiliate KPTV and writers from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Outside City Hall on Saturday, beneath a shade tree on Main Street, Frazier insisted that the lack of privacy doesn't bother him, even when it turns a holiday weekend down home with the family into a media circus. It comes with the territory, he said. You can accept the exposure or wilt beneath it, but if you remember who you are and whom you represent, somehow things work out according to God's plan.
His unshakable faith has imparted to him an almost unflappable confidence, and it guides his every step.
Baton Rouge, LA - Chadwick Germany said when he took over as head coach at Capitol High Academy, he hoped it would lead to a college job. He got what he wanted.
Germany said Friday he has left Capitol to become quarterbacks coach at Southern University, where he’ll try to improve the Jaguars’ passing attack and strengthen their recruiting efforts in Baton Rouge, where they failed to sign a single recruit this season.
“(Friday) is my first day at Southern. Thursday was my last day at Capitol,” Germany said.
“When I got the job at Capitol, my plan was to stay five years, and I wound up staying six. The goal was to have a chance to coach on the college level, and I’m getting that Southern. I’m excited about it. I’ll also be recruiting the Baton Rouge area, and hopefully I can find a niche there.” That’s what Stump Mitchell has in mind.
Fairfield, AL - Former Talladega County Central standout, Reginald Virges is excited about what the upcoming season holds for the Golden Bears of Miles College. After two solid seasons, Virges believes the changes they have made in the off-season will help them to reach their goal of making it to the postseason.
“My first two years up there were good,” Virges said. “I came in as a freshman and I didn’t know that I was going to get the starting spot like that. When I came in I got the starting spot and started playing. I feel like this year is going to be a better because we have better coaches that can help us go somewhere this year.”
Last season, Virges recorded 81 tackles, 15 tackles for a loss of 87 yards and six sacks for a loss of 46 yards. “I was the leader of the defense last season,” Virges said. “I am trying to make this team into a better team, we are trying to get to the playoff this year. We haven’t made the playoffs the last couple years and our goal is to make it to the playoffs and to turn this program around.”
New Orleans, La. - The Southern University at New Orleans Lady Knights will open their 2011-2012 seasonon November 5th in Dallas, Texas against Paul Quinn with the home opener on November 12th against Concordia-Selma. SUNO's women will also play two exhibition games, one at Southern on November 11th and the other at Nicholls State on November 30th. SUNO will also participate in the University of St. Thomas Tournament in Houston, Texas on December 19th and 20th.
SUNO's women finished the 2010-2011 season 18-5 and 3-4 in conference. A team made up mostly of underclassmen, Coach Elston King is licking his chops at the prospect of taking his young team's performance to the next level after a record-breaking season.
Forward Christine Conner, who will be a senior, was named an NAIA Honorable Mentiona All-American. She and former standout guard/forward LaTiondra Smith both made the All-GCAC team while guard Lydia Ross grabbed GCAC Co-Freshman of the Year honors.
Coming off the most impressive one-season turnaround in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference, the SUNO Lady Knights are preparing for what promises to be an intense season. After finishing their inaugural 2009 season with one win, SUNO achieved the improbable by reaching the finals of the GCAC Tournament in 2010. The season features matches against NCAA opponents the University of New Orleans and Alcorn State University.
The Lady Knights will also renew acquaintances against former conference rivals. The season opens in The Castle against Loyola on August 27th with Spring Hill College also on the docket. SUNO's conference schedule will consist of three in-season tournaments at Philander Smith, Talladega, and Dillard.
For Coach Naomi Washington the name of the game will be hustle and communication on the court. Washington feels that freshman signee, Christal Hollins, will add an athletic spark to the team. Plus she brings championship experience from the high school level. The Lady Knights also promise to be a more diverse team, which Washington feels will add an air of professionalism on the court. German setter Stephanie Bruhl will add to the mix in addition to players from two other countries.
The Knights' 2011-2012 schedule features the season opener at home against Florida Memorial University on November 4th. Other non-conference match-ups include former GCAC rivals Loyola, Spring Hill, and William Carey. SUNO will also get a visit from Johnson & Wales (North Miami) on September 11th in The Castle.
Having finished 11-14 and 4-3 in conference, SUNO will move forward inspired by individual contributions. Former point guard Brent Leduff was an NAIA Honorable Mention All-American and a Louisiana Sports Writers Association Honorable Mention All-Louisiana team member. He, former center Andre Davis, and former shooting guard Ricardo Porter were all named to the GCAC All-Conference team.
Although all three players have played their final games in Knights uniforms, Coach Dale Valdery, will be looking to refine the current talent on the roster in addition to bringing energy to the team with new blood.
Lynchburg, VA - Virginia University of Lynchburg plans to launch a football program this fall, more than a half-century after disbanding the team in 1954. The team will begin practice on Aug. 1 and play its first game against North Carolina A&T State University on Sept. 3.
The revival of the football program is part of a large-scale effort to bring back sports to Lynchburg’s only historically black college. This year, VUL will launch a total of 13 men’s and women’s sports teams.
“The time is ripe to bring it back,” said Willard Bailey, head football coach and director of athletics at VUL. “Not just football but the entire arena of intercollegiate athletics … Our students are calling for more than a library, a good meal and a classroom.”
VUL president Ralph Reavis spearheaded the effort to revive the sports program in response to demand from students, alumni and community members, Bailey said. The move coincides with an enrollment surge and the addition of a new dormitory on campus. The college expects an enrollment of more than 800 students this fall, up from about 550 last year.
All Hail the Queens! After over two million votes were cast during the period of May 23 -29, 2011, the people's choice for the September 2011 Ebony Magazine Campus Queens feature will include:
All queens chosen in voting order:
1. Desiree Williams, Hampton University
2. Ashley N. Graham, South Carolina State University
3. Tiffany Sorrells, Benedict College
4. De'Jonique Garrison, Clark Atlanta University
5. Jasmine Gurley, North Carolina A&T State University
6. Ashlee Thomas,Howard University
7.Charnee' Pearson-Starling, Bennett College
8. Charlena Kennedy, Bethune-Cookman University
9. Neshaszda Brown,Albany State University
10.Breana Watkins, Tuskegee University
It's alright that the list may not contain your favorite(s) as ALL the campus queens are WINNERS! Congratulations to the selected queens and for each of you that participated and supported this endeavor. Again, here are the video presentations of the 2011 EBONY Magazine's HBCU Campus Queens Top 10.
Raleigh, N.C. - Madison High School graduate Darnell Evans continues to shine on the football field. The cornerback for Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. has been named to the Consensus Draft Service Preseason All-American First Team. Evans is one of only four sophomores on the first team.
The 5-8, 181-pound Evans in 2010 led the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association with six interceptions and was the only freshman named to the all-conference First Team as he helped the Bears to their third CIAA football title in four years. He was also tabbed as the 2010 Defensive Rookie of the Year by the CIAA, an NCAA Division II conference of historically African-American schools.
Evans made 34 tackles in 2010, 22 of them solo. He led the CIAA in passes defended (17) and pass break-ups (10). He was also named the CIAA Defensive Back of the Week once during the season.
Grambling, LA - There wasn't much of an attempt to hide the consensus opinion regarding Lin Dawson's resignation from his duties as Grambling State's athletics director. GSU alumni and fans are glad he's gone, and they've made the message loud and clear.
Usually when a coach or administrator leaves an athletic department, his departure is met with some boring comments about the hard work he put in for the betterment of the university.
Dawson's departure was met with brutal honesty. Head football coach Doug Williams — arguably the most important living figure in the Grambling family — said Dawson's departure was "in the best interest of the university." It seemed that Williams wanted to say more, but he chose to hold his tongue.
Jackie Hamilton, a GSU alum and the head football coach at Carroll, said, "I know ain't nobody gonna cry about it."
GRAMBLING, LA— Following the resignation of J. Lin Dawson, Grambling State University President Frank G. Pogue has asked Aaron James Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, Sport and Leisure Studies, to serve as Interim Athletic Director, effective immediately.
James, a 1974 graduate of Grambling and first round draft pick up of the Utah Jazz, has also served Grambling as assistant Women's Basketball Coach, Head Men's Basketball Coach, Assistant Director of Athletics and Athletic Liaison for the Office of Development.
“I would like to thank Dr. Pogue for his confidence in me and I feel that as a Gramblinite and a former athlete it's a great opportunity to head the department,” said James.
Dr. Pogue announced that a search committee will be named very soon to conduct a national search, assisted by an executive search firm for Dawson's replacement. This search committee will be chaired by Dr. Steve Favors, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Promotions, Marketing and Advancement.
Kristina Frahm
Professional Bowler
UMES Class 2011
EULESS, Texas - In the largest field ever to bowl the United States Women's Open, former University of Maryland Eastern Shore standout Kristina Frahm (Oswego, Ill.) kept pace, finishing 37th overall in the 286 woman field, collecting her first professional payout of just over $1,000.
"It is a different experience than NCAA's, that's for sure," said Frahm. "You're on your
own now, making moves by yourself, there is no team support or team to help you. It
was exciting."
All bowlers bowled 24 games, three each, Saturday through this past Monday. The top 32 bowlers advanced to a semi-final round Tuesday of eight qualifying games to determine the top 16 for round robin play. The final five bowlers will bowl in Cowboys Stadium Thursday night. First place pays out $50,000 dollars but if a perfect 300 game is thrown in the finals the event pays out one million dollars. There have been several 300 games to date among the field, but none by the three former or one current Lady Hawks in the field.
Missing the cut by just five bowlers, Frahm was disappointed but humbled by her showing.
Augusta, GA - It makes sense for Oliver "Buddy" Pough to keep coming back to Augusta.
The South Carolina State football coach continues to see the benefits of trips to the area, and Thursday night was a chance for Augusta-area students and families to see what the Bulldogs have to offer. About 150 people interacted with South Carolina State alumni, representatives and officials as the Greater Augusta Alumni Chapter of South Carolina State University held its 15th annual Bulldogs Nite Out in the CSRA at Julian Smith Casino.
"We've got some good players from here. Any time you seem to have success somewhere, you tend to come back, so here we are," Pough said. "It's almost like an in-state area for us. These guys are only about 90 minutes away so there's a good recognition of South Carolina State here. We got a lot of alumni in the area. It's just a great place to come."
Local students -- most coming from Aiken, Columbia and Richmond counties -- had the chance to meet members of the South Carolina State family, even getting time to walk around to different tables in a 30-minute information sessions period.
Jackson, MS - Gone will be that ancient video board towering over the field and that puny broken one atop the opposite end zone. Upgrades are coming to those rickety elevators and that paint-chipped press box, too.
Jackson State fans will see a few noticeable differences at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium this fall, the first year the university is in control of the 60-year-old venue. Today, JSU takes ownership of the stadium from the Department of Finance and Administration for at least three years, according to a legislative bill passed in March. University officials said earlier this year they will pour $1.5 million to $3 million into the structure - most, if not all of those funds, coming from a legislative bond bill.
The worn press box will get a new paint job and the elevator to the press box and club levels will be renovated. But more importantly, JSU fans will see two new scoreboards when they enter the 60,000-seat stadium on Sept. 3 for the team's opener against Concordia College.
The stadium's outdated jumbotron is to be replaced with a massive virtual scoreboard that will more than double the size of the current video screen.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia State will open its 2011-12 men's basketball schedule against a pair of CIAA programs in a West Virginia Conference arena.
The Yellow Jackets, facing a rebuilding year after losing five starters from a second-place WVC club (20-10), will play Bowie State then Virginia State in the Clarion Hotel Classic at Shepherd to open Coach Bryan Poore's 13th season at the Institute school.
Those Nov. 11-12 are two of the four non-conference games for State. WVSU also has a home-and-home deal with Johnson C. Smith of the CIAA. The Jackets' schedule is completed by the league-mandated 22 WVC games.
"Our non-conference schedule is complete with (Atlantic) regional games against quality CIAA teams that should help us in the regional rankings," Poore said. "We also are fortunate to only have one of those actually on the road, with the two neutral site games in the Shepherd classic.
"The Conference portion of the schedule is a flip-flop of last years in the two-year cycle adopted by the WVC. We have an early home stretch and a late road stretch, so I guess it balances out."
Durham, N.C. - Henry Frazier III knew he was taking on a pretty tough challenge when he left his head coaching job at Prairie View A&M to become NCCU’s new football coach.
But Frazier has spent most of his life overcoming obstacles. As an African American youngster raised in a single-parent household with two older sisters, he not only graduated from high school but became the first man in his family to finish college and even has a master’s degree.
He became quarterback at Bowie State and took the longtime CIAA doormat Bulldogs to a conference championship in 1989.
He took over a long-losing high school program at Central High in Capitol Heights, Md., and made it respectable before returning to Bowie as head coach and turning the program in the right direction again.
And in he went for the 2004 season as head coach at Prairie View A&M - which had just a few years earlier suffered through a record 80-game losing streak - and by 2009 had long-suffering fans crying tears of joy after a SWAC championship.
NEW ORLEANS — One feature story has produced three awards for Ed Cassiere, Xavier University of Louisiana's sports information director.
Cassiere's story — "McDaniel, Douglas Made July Memorable for XU Athletics" — received first place for features in the NAIA's Dr. W. Jack Bell Writing Contest. It also received first place in District 6 — which comprises Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas — in the College Sports Information Directors of America's coach/administrator profile/historical feature division. In the Louisiana Sports Writers Association's sports information contest, the story placed third among best releases.
The feature described the accomplishments of XU standouts Jimmie McDaniel (men's tennis) and Herb Douglas (men's track and field). McDaniel in 1940 played Grand Slam winner Don Budge in what has been called the first important interracial tennis match, and Douglas in 1948 long-jumped 24 feet, 9 inches in London to win bronze and become Xavier's only Olympic medalist.
It's the second time in three years that Cassiere received a best-in-the-NAIA award. He's earned nine awards the past three years in NAIA contests. Cassiere was the only Louisiana entrant to place first in CoSIDA District 6 this year.
Cassiere has won more than 60 awards in a sportswriting career which he started as a 10th-grader in 1974. The 2011-12 academic year will be Cassiere's sixth as Xavier's SID.
