Coach seeks funding for MVSU Delta Devils

Head Football Coach Karl Morgan

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.



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Livingstone College band alum establishes elementary band camp

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.

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Kentucky State signs Northmont’s Burke to run track and field

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.

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The Washington Post's Eric Prisbell talks Howard Athletics with Coach Kevin Nickelberry and Athletic Director Louis Perkins

Clark Francis, (Hoop Scoop) recruiting analyst labeled the recruiting class that Howard men’s basketball coach Kevin Nickelberry signed as a top 40 class.

Long-suffering Howard basketball pulls in heralded recruiting haul

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 and George 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.

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NFL lockout puts life on hold for free agents, ex-SCSU Bulldogs

Former Bulldogs Marshall McFadden

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...

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Kaleidoscope of HBCU Football: Get Your Seasons Tickets--Now!

Former SCSU lineman’s future in MMA continues to look up

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.

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