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Elizabeth City, N.C. -- Saint Paul’s loss turned out to be Elizabeth City State’s gain as three athletes from the now defunct Tigers athletic program have transferred to ECSU.
Leading the way is women’s basketball guard DeAudra Brown, who was the Lady Tigers’ leading scorer last season.
“I had a couple of offers and ECSU was the first school I went to,” said the rising senior from Rocky Mount. “The environment was good. I met a couple of the players. I had played against them, but didn’t actually know them. They were excited to meet me and the atmosphere was really good. I didn’t feel any bad vibes from anybody that met there. It was an all-around good visit.”
Brown’s move, along with football players John Davis and Patrick Louther, was prompted when Saint Paul’s in a money-saving move, suddenly shut down its athletic program in...
Tickets, which range in price from $10 (students only) to $50, are available for purchase at KSU's Department of Athletics (in Bell Gymnasium) and the Office of Alumni Relations (in Hume Hall). The Circle City Classic is a joint collaboration between Indiana Black Expo. Inc. and the Indiana Sports Corporation. The net proceeds from the Classic help fund scholarships and support youth initiatives for each organization. Since 1984, over 1 million dollars have been awarded to deserving Indiana natives who pursue higher education.
For more information about purchasing Classic tickets, please call 502-597-6011 or visit www.ksuthorobreds.com's Fan Zone. To ensure you are seated with other Thorobred fans, you are encouraged to purchase tickets from KSU.
Savannah, GA -- Nearly a year to the date, Savannah State University broke ground on renovations for T.A. Wright stadium. Now, it's almost done.
SSU Vice President of Student affairs Irvin Clark confirmed a grand opening September 29th. The renovated stadium will include a turf playing field, specialized seating, along with an updated concession stand and press box.
"Everyone is absolutely excited about it," said Clark. "Not only for the faculty, staff, and students that are currently here, but for our incoming class of freshman, they're excited, our parents are excited, and we have a community that is very excited about this project."
For first-year head football coach Steve Davenport, the new stadium brings with it raised expectations.
The University of Arkansas Pine Bluff has issued a press release announcing the selection of current Hampton University athletic director Lonza Hardy, Jr., as the new leader of the Golden Lions athletics department. Mr. Hardy has resigned from the same position at Hampton University, effective September 6. Read it for yourself...
Press Release: UAPB, July 7, 2011
Lonza Hardy, Jr. will resign from his position as athletics director at Hampton University effective September 6, 2011. Hardy, who has held the post since 2007, will become Athletics Director at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
During Hardy's stint at Hampton, the HU athletics program has captured 11 championships, including titles in women's basketball, men's basketball, women's cross country, women's indoor track and field and women's outdoor track and field. The banner year for the program was in 2010-11, when four HU teams captured league titles and both the men's and women's basketball teams earned bids to the NCAA tournament after winning their respective Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournaments.
"We are very privileged to have been able to recruit someone with his qualifications and accomplishments," said Dr. Lawrence A. Davis, Jr., UAPB's chancellor.
In each of Hardy's years at HU, the athletics program captured the Mary McLeod Bethune Trophy, symbolic of having the best overall women's sports program in the MEAC. Last summer, the university's athletics program was ranked as the No.1 athletics program among the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by the Learfield Sports Group, which also ranked the program among the nation's top 150 programs overall. The HU Athletics Hall of Fame was also initiated under Hardy's guidance two years ago.
Hampton University is expected to release a companion announcement today of Hardy's resignation
New Orleans -- Last year at Dillard's athletic leadership training, student-athletes received pictures of what Gulf Coast Athletic Conference championship rings would look like. At this year's training, members of the GCAC championship track and field team will receive the real thing.
The track and field team joins the volleyball team, which already received its rings, as Dillard's first conference championship programs since Hurricane Katrina.Athletic Director Kiki Barnessaid they serve as examples the other athletes can aspire to match.
"Sometimes people need to see tangible things, like they need to see an actual ring," Barnes said. "Well, when our volleyball team won, that particular vision became a reality. So they're going to be walking around campus with rings. It's really going to provide a real-life visual for the other student-athletes who are still hoping and wanting to generate that. It's more of a motivation because it's real now, not paper."
Those teams' success shows the growth the Bleu Devils have experienced since Barnes, also the women's basketball coach, became the interim athletic director in 2006. Barnes had the interim tag removed in 2009 and set out to implement a plan that included hiring staff, increasing scholarships and improving facilities, steps that created a foundation for the program on which to build.
Prairie View, TX - The Prairie View A&M Department of Athletics has announced season ticket information for the 2011-12 athletic campaign. Once again, fans will have a variety of season ticket options to choose from ranging from all-sports to football-only packages.
The Panther Pack ($325) includes admission to all home athletic contests for the year, one ticket each to the Southwest State Fair (Dallas) and Shreveport Football Classics, reserved floor seating for men's and women's basketball games, a complimentary Prairie View A&M athletics gift, tailgate access for home football games (excluding homecoming) and a four-month subscription to Panthervision, Prairie View A&M's new live video stream which will debut in September.
Individuals who select the Purple Pack ($250) will receive admission to all home athletic events, one ticket apiece to the Southwest State Fair and Shreveport Football Classics, assigned basketball seating and tailgate access for home football games (excluding homecoming).
For $200, the Gold Pack allows admission to all home sporting events, one ticket each to the Southwest State Fair and Shreveport Football Classics and tailgate access for home football games (excluding homecoming).
Football fans that purchase the $140 Football package will receive admission to all home football games at Blackshear Field, one ticket each to the Southwest State Fair and Shreveport Football Classics and tailgate access for home football games (excluding homecoming).
The 2011-12 athletic season will be a memorable one as the Panther football team debuts a new head coach in Heish Northern coupled with the women's basketball team coming off an NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament Appearance under head coach Toyelle Wilson. The Lady Panther volleyball ranks as one of the elite teams in the SWAC as they're coming off a SWAC West Championship under the guidance of head coach Alicia Pete. The men's basketball team, led by Byron Rimm II, had an impressive recruiting season followed by strong performances from the baseball, bowling, golf, soccer, tennis, track and volleyball teams.
For the second straight year, fans will have the option of purchasing season tickets online at the newly created Panthers Market Place. The link, which is accessible via the Prairie View A&M University website or below, is a one-stop shop that offers everything from the ability to purchase tailgate options and tickets for selected athletic events.
For more information or to place your order for season tickets call (936) 261-9100. A PDF copy of the season ticket brochure is attached and also available for download on the season tickets link via the Prairie View A&M athletic website.
Savannah, GA --Marilynn Suggs, Savannah State University’s first female athletics director, was fired Wednesday after less than seven months on the job.SSU interim president Cheryl Dozierannounced her decision to make a “change in leadership in the athletics department” during an 11:20 a.m. news conference at Tiger Arena. Suggs did not attend.
Dozier appointed SSU men’s basketball head coach Horace Broadnax as interim athletics director.
“As the interim president, I wanted some changes in leadership and this is one of the areas that I wanted to see a change as we move forward in (NCAA) Division I and in the MEAC conference,” Dozier said.
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...
Elizabeth City, N.C. -- Saint Paul’s loss turned out to be Elizabeth City State’s gain as three athletes from the now defunct Tigers athletic program have transferred to ECSU.
