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DURHAM, N.C. – In their first season as a full Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) program, North Carolina Central University will tackle a challenging 31-match slate against nine NCAA tournament teams (three Atlantic Sun, one Atlantic 10, four Big South, one Colonial Athletic Association, one PAC 10, three SoCon and one SWAC opponent), including 12 league matches.
In her fifth season as the NCCU head women’s volleyball coach, Georgette Crawford-Crooks releases the 2011 volleyball schedule on Friday, June 29.
“As we continue to strive for Division I excellence, our schedule has to remain competitive and challenging,” said Crawford-Crooks.
NCCU begins the season with three consecutive tournaments, beginning with the fifth annual NCCU Hilton/RTP Invitational on Aug. 26-27 in the McDougald-McLendon Gym. The mighty maroon and gray will host volleyball programs from Campbell, Elon and Florida Gulf Coast.
The Eagles will travel to the nation’s capital for their first appearance at the Georgetown Tournament on Sept. 2-3 in Washington, D.C. NCCU will face Central Connecticut on Sept. 2, and George Washington and UNC Wilmington on Sept. 3.
Daytona Beach, FL - C.J. Reed has played his last basketball game for Bethune-Cookman. The reigning Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Player of the Year has received his official release from the university, his father and former Wildcats coach Clifford Reed said Wednesday.
Other schools can now contact C.J., and his release essentially opens up a recruiting battle for the former Atlantic High standout.
The rising senior guard -- who averaged 18.8 points and 4.9 assists per game as a junior and led the Wildcats to their best season in 30 years -- received the release letter late Tuesday afternoon, according to Clifford Reed.
"Since the official release Tuesday, we have been in contact with schools in the ACC, Conference USA, Southern Conference, A-Sun and Horizon Conference," Clifford Reed said in a phone interview. "Some teams have shown interest. Some teams have already offered (an athletic scholarship)."
Clifford Reed said C.J. is definitely transferring.
Coach Horace Broadnax named
Interim Athletics Director at SSU
Savannah, GA - Savannah State University President Cheryl Dozier is making a change in leadership in the Athletics Department. Today, Dozier announced the appointment of an interim director of athletics and a national search to select the next SSU athletics director.
“I have appointed Horace Broadnax to serve as interim athletics director,” Dozier said.
“Mr. Broadnax is currently our head basketball coach, a position he has held since coming to SSU in 2005. His proven leadership as director of our successful men’s basketball program and his commitment to team building are assets SSU will need as it begins a national search for a director of athletics. Broadnax brings many years’ experience in Division I athletics as an athlete and coach. He has experience in the NCAA and MEAC to which SSU is currently a provisional member. I am grateful that he has agreed to serve in this interim capacity.”
President Dozier stated “We would like to thank Mrs. Stacey-Suggs for her dedicated commitment to SSU over the past 22 years in several different capacities. Mrs. Suggs served in the position of athletic director for six months, after serving in an interim capacity for a year.
ALBANY, GA — A 10-0 regular season, an SIAC title, a deep run in the D-II playoffs and being named the SBN National Black College Football Championship sure was nice last season for the Albany State football program.
But in 2011, the Rams plan to take it up a notch. With a super-competitive, extremely tough slate of games scheduled for the upcoming season — including at home against rival Valdosta State, a trip to Indiana for the 28th Annual Circle City Classic against Kentucky State and a chance to play in the inaugural SIAC East vs. West Championship game in Atlanta — the Rams hopes their fans are as ready as they are for this year.
And starting today, ticket packages will go on sale for what certainly could be another record-breaking Rams season. Season ticket packages for ASU’s home football games are $70. Tickets for an upcoming classic games — of which ASU will play in four (Circle City Classic, Fountain City Classic, South Georgia Heritage Classic and Music City Classic) — will also go on sale today.
Good for ASU home games only, the season ticket package includes...
DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- Eight days after firing men's basketball coach Clifford Reed, Bethune-Cookman elevated assistant head coach Gravelle Craigto acting head coach. Craig, 41, was appointed to the new role Tuesday.
Reed was fired for -- according to his termination letter -- "failure to cooperate and insubordination with respect to the university's investigation into allegations against the university and its men's basketball program."
Reed had been head coach for 10 seasons and directed the program's turnaround to three straight winning seasons. The Wildcats went 21-13 in 2010-11, won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular-season title and received a bid to the National Invitational Tournament to cap the school's most successful season in 30 years.
"We felt that we've been on the right track, and we've accomplished so much, that we decided to continue on with the existing staff," athletic director Lynn Thompson said in a phone interview Tuesday evening. "The program has been working. The elements are still there."
Saint Paul's College produced one NFL player-- DB Greg Toler of the Arizona Cardinals. Greg was
selected in the 2009 NFL draft, 31st pick
4th round, 131st overall. Toler is from
Temple Hills (Prince George's County), Maryland, Northwestern High School.
Lawrenceville, VA -- The grass on the practice field stood knee-high. A hawk that had been perched on the bleachers took flight and plunged in near the 30-yard line.
Nearby, Kevin Grisby waded through the weeds on his last day as St. Paul's College football coach.
Like most coaches and athletes at St. Paul's, Grisby prided himself on doing more with less. He fielded a team with just 7-1/2 scholarships that played home games at a high school stadium. He'd done without an adequate weight room and an air-conditioned office. He'd recruited players to a tiny rural school with a declining enrollment, many of whom came sight unseen based on his promises to their coaches and parents that he'd take care of them.
"If guys actually come to visit," he said, "it's tough to sell the school."
Tallahassee, FL -- 58 days until FAMU opens its season against Fort Valley State and the Rattlers are staying as fit as they can in the summer months.
"Last year at this junction we had 12 athletes here," says director of Strength and Conditioning for FAMU Russell Barbarino. "This year for the first summer session we had 42 guys here. Now that the summer session two has started we have about 75 to 80 athletes because that includes some of the freshmen that are coming on campus."
"They are empowering each other," adds Joe Taylor. "They are there in the numbers."
Four days a week players are lifting and conditioning under their own free will. These workouts are voluntary as coaches can not instruct their players until practice begins.
TUSCALOOSA, AL | Thomas (T.C.) Logan’s last season with the Stillman College football team coincides with Teddy Keaton’s first as the Tigers’ head coach, but they both want the same thing.
Keaton wants to build a winning program at his alma mater. Logan, who’ll be playing for his third head coach in four years, wants to close out his career with a championship.
“I really don’t have specific goals, statistics-wise, of how many catches or how many touchdowns, but I really do want to be an All-American in this game,” said Logan, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound tight end from Gulfport, Miss. “I want to bring home a conference championship because I’m more of a team person, rather an individual stat person.”
Stillman, which won three of its last four games, finished at 3-8 overall and 2-7 in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 2010. L.C. Cole, the head coach for two seasons, was dismissed and replaced by Keaton, who started coaching as a member of Theophilus Danzy’s staff at Stillman back in 1999.
New York, NY - Jabari Peters is an atypical New York City basketball standout.
He didn’t play AAU basketball until hooking up with New Heights just recently. He found a low-major Division I college that wanted him and didn’t opt for prep school to see if he could do better. He went to Grady, which hasn’t fielded a winning program in more than five years, yet never considered leaving.
“It shows it doesn’t matter where you go, it’s what you do where you are,” the Coney Island native said Monday night, hours after arriving at Texas Southern for summer classes to play for coach Tony Harvey.
Videographer: olabam; Jabari Peters averaged 27.1 points per game and put up 50 points on Brooklyn AA champion Lincoln as shown in this clip.
The reigning regular-season SWAC champions offered Peters a month ago and he signed two weeks later after passing the NCAA Clearinghouse, the result of his strong finish in the classroom.
“I spoke to the coaches and I felt it was a real good fit for me,” the 6-foot-3 shooting guard said. “When they told me I had the opportunity to come here and play right away, that was big. A lot of freshmen don’t get that opportunity. They won the conference last year; that was a big factor in me making my decision.”
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.
DURHAM, N.C. – In their first season as a full Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) program, North Carolina Central University will tackle a challenging 31-match slate against nine NCAA tournament teams (three Atlantic Sun, one Atlantic 10, four Big South, one Colonial Athletic Association, one PAC 10, three SoCon and one SWAC opponent), including 12 league matches.
