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Southern’s return date to play a football game at McNeese State is finally in sight, though still a few years away. The Jaguars and the Cowboys are now scheduled to play Sept. 18, 2010, in Lake Charles.
Southern and McNeese State were to have played Sept. 3, 2005, in Lake Charles, but that game was called off in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which hit south Louisiana and the Gulf Coast earlier that week.
Southern University and Alabama State appear to be getting close to signing a four-year deal to play in the Gulf Coast Classic in Mobile, Alabama. That contract would begin this season, with a Nov. 15 game.
Southern has yet to sign the contract to play the Gulf Coast Classic, LaFleur said. “It looks like it’s 99 percent sure that it’s going to happen,” LaFleur said. LaFleur said the City of Mobile is organizing the game.
In order to accommodate the start of the contract, Southern is giving up its home date this season and in 2010. However, according to LaFleur, the payoff will come in a generous pay date as well as getting paid to play when the game is Alabama State’s home game.
Photo: South Carolina State University Bulldogs soccer coach Glad Bugariu.
By SCSU Sports Information
Glad Bugariu has been named women's soccer coach at South Carolina State University, athletics director Charlene Johnson announced Wednesday. Glad, who succeeds Amy Olson, takes over the S.C. State program after three seasons (2005-2007) as head coach at Belmont Abbey College in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In three seasons at Belmont Abbey, Bugariu compiled a record of 52-12-2. His teams dominated the Div. II Conference Carolinas, capturing two regular season championships (2007, 2005), two tournament titles (2006, 2005) and one runner-up tournament finish (2007).
Belmont Abbey was 18-4-1 this past season and earned the school's first NSCAA national ranking (#22) since 1999. His 2006 team compiled a 16-4-1 mark and garnered him Area Coach of the Year honorable mention from the Charlotte Observer. The 2005 squad was 18-4, a record which earned the college the nation's second-most improved team distinction in the NCAA following a 10-9-1 mark the year before.
"We are obviously very pleased that Coach Bugariu will be directing the soccer program here at SC State," said Bulldog athletics director Charlene Johnson. "He brings to our program extensive experience and a very successful coaching career."
READ COACH GLAD BUGARIU BIO, CLICK BLOG TITLE.
SCSU just hired a gem of a soccer coach in Glad Bugariu. This is the way it should be done--hire a proven, exceptional Division II coach with a successful history, seeking the opportunity to coach at the Division I level. Our programs should not be training grounds for rookie coaches--get your experience at Division III and Division II programs. Then move up after proving you have what it takes to be successful at the Division I level.
Great move athletic director, Johnson. We need to see more of this type of hiring across the board in the MEAC and SWAC conferences. The goal should be winning NCAA Championships, not just getting a .500 season record. Howard University did it in soccer (won NCAA national championship); so can South Carolina State University. Go Bulldogs!
Photo: South Carolina State Bulldogs head coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough.
As the rain slowly started to drizzle down to the artificial surface on the field at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium Wednesday evening, South Carolina State head coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough exploded.
Practice was just minutes away from wrapping up, but Pough didn't like what he saw when backup quarterback DeWain Clark took a snap in a drill in the Red Zone and was harassed by a defender that should have been picked up by a blocker out of the backfield.
"Blown assignment after blown assignment!" Pough scolded while mixing in a few colorful words to ensure his backs that he meant business.
Photo: Former BCU women's basketball head coach Francis Simmons
By: Bethune Cookman University Sports Information
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - After four season at the helm of the Bethune-Cookman University Women's Basketball program, head coach Francis Simmons has decided to resign effective immediately according to B-CU Director of Athletic Lynn W. Thompson. Simmons met with Thompson early Tuesday afternoon to discuss his plans for resignation.
"We are grateful for the work that Coach Simmons has done, and after meeting we both came to the conclusion that new leadership and direction would best serve the program at this time," commented B-CU Director of Athletics, Lynn W. Thompson.
Simmons, a native of Columbia, S.C., took over the program prior to the beginning of the 2004-05 season for now Assistant Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator at B-CU, Sandra Booker. In his four years guiding the Wildcats, Simmons amassed a record of 22-92 overall, including a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference record of 12-58.
The search for a new head coach will begin immediately.
BCU Pep Band -Let's Go Wildcats
Please, don't feel bad for Simmons. After four seasons and a career record of 22-92, this firing was long overdue. The BCU student-athletes deserve better coaching and mentoring. The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference deserves better performance from its member institutions sports programs.
Coach Simmons receives a retirement pension from the state of South Carolina where he worked for 32 years as a teacher and coach. He also served 17 seasons as an assistant men's basketball coach at South Carolina State University.
Simmons indicated that he has several offers on the table.
One offer is from BCU men's basketball coach Clifford Reed, who has invited coach Simmons to join his staff, as an assistant men's basketball coach. The Wildcat men's team finished 2007 with a 11-21 record. Clifford Reed needs to resign/or be fired, also.
Does Bethune Cookman know how to fire and retire non-performing coaches that continue to perform each year at extremely unacceptable levels?
Obviously not! Dang!
Did you notice how all the poor performing coaches and AAMU president were fired on April 1--(April Fool's Day). This is no joke.
One historically black institution can boast of a sports achievement that no other black university can. Indeed, as colleges have transitioned into spring sports, Hampton University has fielded yet another scrappy team that is raising eyebrows in the rarefied, and mostly white, world of competitive collegiate sailing.
Hampton is the only historically black college to have a sailing team, and two Hampton students from Maryland, Jason Major-Henson and Nicole Clark, have been part of the team’s success.
Halfway into the season the Hampton University Pirates have already qualified for the conference championship regatta, the America Trophy, on April 12-13 at Hobart William Smith College in Geneva, N.Y.
Photo: Seniors Ray Potter and Yasmina Beckles helped lead the Pirates to a second place finish in both the A-Division and B-Division at the annual MAISA/SAISA Intersectional (Mid-Atlantic Division vs. Southeast Division) on March 24-25 at the Strawberry Banks.
They qualified by finishing seventh out of 16 teams in the Old Dominion University Open/South No. 1 regatta in March. Besides the Pirates the field at Old Dominion included Georgetown University, Navy, Washington College and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, which finished first and always has a tough squad. Hampton managed to top the University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, William & Mary College and others.
Southern’s return date to play a football game at McNeese State is finally in sight, though still a few years away. The Jaguars and the Cowboys are now scheduled to play Sept. 18, 2010, in Lake Charles.
