Bethune-Cookman University names Craig acting head coach

Acting Head Coach Gravelle Craig

DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- Eight days after firing men's basketball coach Clifford Reed, Bethune-Cookman elevated assistant head coach Gravelle Craig to 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."

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Division II Virginia school cuts sports program

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."

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FAMU Football Keeps Fit in the Summer

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.

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Stillman's Logan wants senior season to be special

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.

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Patience pays off as Grady's Peters signs with Texas Southern

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.”

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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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