Flythe ends time at Savannah State University

Dr. Claud Flythe ends 40 year career in higher education at Savannah State, Virginia State and Shaw Universities. Flythe is credited with SSU Tigers successful entry into the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

Claud Flythe's three-year term as Savannah State University's Vice President for Administration - and his 40-year career in higher education - ended Wednesday. "Relaxation will be No. 1 on my agenda," said Flythe, who has residences in Savannah and Virginia but is moving to Charlotte, N.C. When SSU President Earl Yarbrough began his tenure July 1, 2007, hiring Flythe was first on his agenda. He created a position for Flythe to oversee SSU's athletic program, facilities operations and public safety.

Yarbrough, who worked with Flythe at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Va., convinced Flythe to come out of retirement. Athletically, Yarbrough charged Flythe with three primary tasks:

-- Get the athletic department fully certified by the NCAA.

-- Get the football team through its NCAA-imposed three-year probation.

-- Get the Tigers into a conference.

Flythe accomplished all three goals, crowned by SSU's admittance to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference on March 10, 2010. "We," Flythe said, deflecting credit. "We did all three of those things."

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Winston-Salem State to play home game in High Point

HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Winston-Salem State University is bringing college football back to High Point for the first time in 60 years. The 2010 Furniture City Gridiron Classic will feature the WSSU Rams against the Virginia Union Panthers Saturday, Aug. 28, at Simeon Stadium, the largest stadium in High Point. High Point College played its last football game in 1950, but the Panthers played at Albion Millis Stadium.

Simeon Stadium is usually host to high school football and soccer games. But 15 years ago, WSSU Athletic Director William "Bill" Hayes, then head football coach of North Carolina A&T State University, worked with High Point community leaders Ed Price and Ray McAllister to bring an Aggie game to High Point. "I worked with Price and McAllister to build the strongest Scout Reach program in America right here," Hayes said. "We tried to get a game here because young people were always interested in sports, but we never could make it happen."



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NCCU settles into MEAC

DURHAM, N.C. -- For the past three school years, the N.C. Central athletic program has been like a one-man band, traveling wherever it could to get a gig while just trying to make ends meet. Today, however, the Eagles have landed. NCCU officially is now among the 14 members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, a league the school left in 1979 when the conference moved up to Division I. Savannah State also joins the league today as a provisional member. NCCU is rejoining the MEAC as a part of its continued effort to become a full-fledged Division I athletic program. NCCU was accepted into the conference on Sept. 10, 2009, but actually becomes a MEAC member today.

"It occurred in September, but for the actual day to be here, it's even more exciting," NCCU athletic director Dr. Ingrid Wicker-McCree said. "Finally, we maybe can all take in a big breath of fresh air." The Eagles certainly can use some fresh air, having bounced around for three years as an independent, looking for games anywhere and everywhere. With the move to the MEAC, they join a conference with the likes of North Carolina A T, Winston-Salem State, Hampton and Norfolk State.



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USC, UCLA Recruit Signs With Texas Southern

Houston,Texas - Defensive end Marquis Jackson, who had verbally committed to play college football at USC, told FOX 26 Sports Tuesday he signed scholarship papers to play at Texas Southern University. Jackson, who played junior college football at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California in 2008, did not play last season. By choosing to play for the Tigers Jackson will not get the opportunity to be reunited with his twin brother, Malik, who has played defensive end for the Trojans for the past two years.

Jackson said the fact that USC has been placed on probation by the NCAA had nothing to do with his decision. "I just signed to Texas Southern University, I signed my commit letters," said Jackson. "The things that are going on at SC had no influence on my decision. I felt like TSU was the best place for me." Jackson had originally committed to play at UCLA before switching to USC and then ultimately signing with TSU. "It felt like home," Jackson said. "I felt the love. I felt the family connection. I'm from Cali and I thought it was time for a change.

Jackson has three years of eligibility left to play college football. He is a 6-4/222 Rivals 2-star DE transfer from College of the Canyons/Birmingham Senior H.S., Van Nuys, CA.

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New Howard University coaches have local ties

A new coaching staff with a strong Prince George's County connection will try to reverse the fortunes of the downtrodden Howard University men's basketball program. The Washington, D.C., school, part of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, last month hired Kevin Nickelberry as its head coach. Last week, Nickelberry named former Laurel High School coach Keith Coutreyer and former DeMatha High star Travis Lyons to his coaching staff.

Coutreyer will be Howard's associate head coach after spending the past two seasons as an assistant at Hampton University. Prior to that, he spent 13 years at Laurel — five as an assistant and eight as the Spartans' head coach. He guided Laurel to the Class 4A state semifinals in 2008 before taking the job at Hampton that summer. "It's real exciting to have an opportunity to be back in the area you now, where you have your roots in terms of basketball," Coutreyer said. "You have ties in the basketball community that you've developed over time, and hopefully those ties can help get guys to come to Howard."

Coutreyer and Nickelberry have known one another for 20 years, going back to the early 1990s when Nickelberry was the head women's coach and assistant men's coach at Columbia Union College (now Washington Adventist University) in Takoma Park, while Coutreyer was playing there. Lyons, who grew up in Hyattsville, was one of the area's top players during his high school career. As a senior in 1993-94, the 6-foot-4 forward averaged 16 points, 8.7 rebounds and four assists per game. He went on to play at Manhattan College, where he had an experience his freshman year that has influenced his coaching career. He's spent the past 10 years as an assistant coach at Manhattan and Fordham University.

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Former FAMU's Printers serves up completions and contradictions

There is a wariness to Casey Printers born out of an unshakable belief that he's been plagued throughout his turbulent football career by the ill-formed perceptions of others. It's why, we suspect, that when approached after a long practice the other day by a reporter with whom he has no prior experience, he does not lay down his helmet and orange jersey-covered shoulder pads. No point it seems in conveying an "I've got time, ask away" message.

So he keeps shifting his equipment from hand to hand as the questions come and his arms tire. And even as he relaxes a bit and begins to let his guard down slightly as he surprisingly allows the minutes to tick on, he never does let the equipment drop. The 29-year-old Texan with the diamond stud earrings and engaging smile is about to embark on the first full season of his second stint with the B.C. Lions. And he remains as complex and contradictory, as puzzling and presumptuous, as ever.

Deciphering Printers is like peeling an onion. One layer gives way to another. The core of who he is remains buried. Few people in life get a second go-round as intriguing as the one Printers has been handed.

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Advice and thoughts by Casey Printers from his self-help book, "From High School To The Pros"

Casey Printers attended Texas Christian University (TCU) and Florida A&M University where he excelled as an outstanding college quarterback landing him in the CFL as the highest paid quarterback and later in the NFL with the Kansas City Chief as their back-up quarterback. While not attaining the marquise player for the Chiefs, Casey still took his role seriously as a member of the Chiefs and the Kansas City community as he began to participate as a volunteer in the public schools to inspire and encourage young students. Casey is once again the starting QB for the B.C. Lions and is poised to return to CFL stardom.

One of the more intriguing quarterbacks to play at Florida A&M University in the modern era is Casey J. Printers, a DeSoto, Texas star who transferred to FAMU in 2002 for his senior season. Printers, in his own rights had already achieved much -- leading the TCU Horned Frogs to three straight bowl games (1999-2001) and was on schedule to graduate on time.

But, the Rattlers' high-powered Gulf Coast Offense had been putting up monster numbers and making ordinary quarterbacks Division I-AA All-Americans and household names -- like Tony Ezell, Jose Laureano, Oteman Sampson, Mike Morand, Pat Bonner, Quinn Gray, JaJuan Seider and Ben Dougherty. The receiving corps became widely known as the 'RAC Boys' (Run After Catch), who re-wrote the NCAA record books with names like Jacquay Nunnally, Cainon Lamb, Demetruis Bendross and Tariq Qaiyim.

Nunnally was the best of the RAC Boys, going on to break Jerry Rice NCAA 1-AA record for most receptions in a collegiate career with 362. Nunnally also was a three-time football Division I All-American at Florida A&M, who led the Rattlers to the NCAA Division I FCS (formerly I-AA) playoffs in 1997-2000. He is second all-time in the NCAA Division I FCS football record books in career pass receptions with 317 for 4,239 yards and 38 touchdowns. The four-times All-MEAC first team selectee was inducted in FAMU's Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.

Belle Glades, Florida (Glades Central H.S.) product JaJuan Seider had passed for a total of 137 yards in three seasons at 1-A West Virginia University where he sat mostly on the pine on game days. Seider jumped ship to the Rattlers in 1999 and passed for 2,512 yards and 27 touchdowns. In Seider's first collegiate start for FAMU, he powered the Rattlers to an embarrassing 76-17 victory over the Bulldogs of South Carolina State University in the Orange Blossom - Palmetto Classic in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Bulldogs were coached by 2010 College Football Hall of Famer, SCSU Head Football Coach Emeritus, Willie Jeffries who won 60 percent (Overall career: 179-132-6) of the college football games he coached. But, not on that day. Seider, who was starting in place of an injured future NFL quarterback -- Quinn Gray (Jacksonville Jaguars), completed 20 of 26 passes for 238 yards and three touchdowns in the first half and the rest was history.

Seider earned All-America honors, won the Doug Williams Award for National Offensive Player of the Year and the Jake Gaither Award (considered the Heisman Trophy of black colleges). He was also named the MEAC offensive Player of the Year and went on to be selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers.

Today, Seider is the Running Backs Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at I-A Marshall University, in Huntington, West Virginia. More so, Seider has earned a B.S. in physical education in 2000 and a master's degree in athletic coaching in 2010.

After reading about the exploits of Bonner, Gray, Seider, Dougherty and other FAMU All-American quarterbacks and receivers, Printers could not resist. The Rattlers also became more attraction for Printers as future FAMU Hall of Famer and National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Famer, coach William "Billy Joe," was hitting his stride with D-IA transfers. Billy Joe, who had one of the greatest offensive minds in college football during that era, was striking fear in the minds of all opponents. For a time, no one could stop the Rattlers powerful offense but the Rattlers themselves through their own errors.

By no stretch of the imagination, Printers parlayed his injury prone FAMU senior season into a pro career starting with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and now, the B.C. Lions. The former Rattler rose from third-string quarterback in 2003 to being named the Most Outstanding Player in the league for the 2004 season -- leading the B.C. Lions toward an appearance in the 92nd Grey Cup game.

In his second stint with the B.C. Lions, Printers is once again the starter, with high hopes of another Grey Cup run and a return to super stardom, after sitting out of football most of last season. During that time, Printers was marketing his self-help book, "From High School to the Pros." His off-the-field activities have been outstanding in working with young people.

In this morning "The Province" newspaper are a few excerpts from Printer's book. One of my favorite Printers' quote that did not make the book is -- "Listen, skeptics are going to be skeptics, critics are going to be critics and haters are going to be haters. "

Some of the others are:

- The greatest enemy of progress is your last success. If you marvel at what you have done, it will hinder what you could do.

- If I can't applaud my accomplishments, who can?

- It's not about whether your coach likes you. It's whether he can trust you. ... If you don't get along with your coach, be a businessman or woman and talk. Deflate your chest and become coachable all the time.

- Over the years I have met people who hold onto life's downs. To them, I say "take out the trash." The trash is what's in your head.

- The more humble you are, the more people will want to help you.

- Service to others, there is no higher purpose.

- When I stopped worrying about what has happened and what will happen my life became more meaningful.

- Team, to me, means you submit to the goals of the club, but you need individuals to do more from time to time.

- Wake up, young athletes: Spending thousands in a [night]club to be noticed is not the smartest thing to do. If you feel like giving your money away, go to a shelter or a home for children and bless the lives of someone else ... There is this perception, particularly when it comes to African-American athletes, that you are a sellout if you don't come back to your neighbourhoods. How about you get involved in a business that allows you to employ people? You can then go back with something to give your friends, a job and a future.

Note: Coach William "Billy Joe" is currently the head football coach at Miles College, Fairfield, Alabama.

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