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TAZEWELL, Va. — Brandon Tatenever expected to play college football. Basketball was his game.
At least that is what he thought. Rick Trickett, who was West Virginia’s offensive line coach at the time, begged to differ. Trickett, who is now in the same position at Florida State, was at a Macon, Miss., high school to recruit a pair of athletes who wound up at Mississippi State.
“I originally thought I would be a basketball player and that changed toward the latter part of my high school career,” Tate said. “He was recruiting those two guys and we had a basketball game. “He was there to see them and he just happened to see me on the basketball court with them.” That was good fortune for both. Tate, a four-sport athlete, caught Trickett’s eye.
“He said, ‘Hey, if you can run and jump like that on a basketball court, I am pretty sure you can do it on the football field’ and he offered me a scholarship right there on the spot,” said Tate, the new head football coach at Tazewell.
Washington, D.C. - A dozen historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have formed a consortium to help rebuild the earthquake-damaged State University of Haiti, the Caribbean country’s largest institution of higher education.
Led by Florida A&M University, the consortium hopes to raise $12 million to construct a classroom building equipped to receive telecourses taught by the faculty from the black colleges.
The group also plans to raise money so the State University of Haiti can hire replacements for professors who died in the earthquake last year and to provide scholarships to 1,000 Haitian students to attend the public university, which has reopened despite extensive damage to its buildings in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
In the shorter term, the consortium intends to share faculty expertise to boost the university’s academic programs in agriculture and entrepreneurship, and research into renewable energy and alternative medicine. Administrators from the black colleges will help establish a campus office to generate donations from prosperous alumni.
“It was thought that black colleges have the resources and talent and were advanced enough in their own right they could offer assistance to higher education, particularly the State University of Haiti, to help them get back on their feet,” saysFrederick Humphries, former president of Florida A&M and the consortium’s coordinator.
While most of the dozen black colleges participating are public universities, including South Carolina State and Morgan State, federally-supported Howard University and private Miles College are also members. READ MORE MEMBERS OF HBCU CONSORTIUM: Florida A&M University, South Carolina State University, Morgan State University, Howard University, Miles College, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Central State University (Ohio), Virginia State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Fort Valley State University, Tennessee State University and Jackson State University.
Houston, TX - After months of waiting, Texas Southern interim football coach Kevin Ramsey knows closure is near.
Regardless of the outcome of an NCAA investigation, Ramsey is ready for a fresh start as the Tigers prepare to open defense of their Southwestern Athletic Conference title Sept. 10 against Prairie View A&M. TSU is coming off the first SWAC title in school history.
"We're looking forward ... we're not looking ahead," Ramsey said Tuesday during the SWAC football media tour. "We know we cannot change the path that was set before. But one thing we do know is we can run it with perseverance and endurance."
The NCAA is expected to release its findings of an investigation into the TSU football and men's basketball programs. TSU athletic director Charles McClelland, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday, has said he anticipates "major NCAA violations toward our football program with regard to recruiting, unethical conduct and academic inconsistencies."
Birmingham, AL — Colorful jerseys hung prominently on all 10 of the team tables at the Southwestern Athletic Conference's football media day on Tuesday.
If all the optimistic talk of offenses, defenses and special teams weren't enough, the jerseys of some of the prominent programs in black college football history, and all of college football, reminded how the coaches and players will soon be back on the field preparing for the 2011 season.
And no FCS conference is looking forward to footballs flying, and putting the offseason behind it, more than the SWAC.
Head coaching defections, the firing of last year's SWAC championship-winning head coach and NCAA academic sanctions have rocked the conference since Texas Southern won the 2010 title over Alabama State just seven months ago in December.
They were talking football again - more so than declining national prominence or Academic Progress Rate (APR) penalties - when Jackson State and Grambling State were installed as the SWAC's preseason favorites in the East and West divisions, respectively, and Jackson State quarterback Casey Therriault was named the preseason offensive player of the year and Prairie View A&M senior cornerback Moses Ellis the preseason defensive player of the year.
Tallahassee, FL - The use of social networks has changed a lot of routines.
Coaching is no exception, at least that's the feeling of Tony Trifonov who suggested that his Florida A&M volleyball players might have paid a little too much attention to what they saw on the Internet heading into the postseason last year.
All over Facebook and Twitter much was being made of the Rattlers' chances of winning their 10th MEAC championship in 12 seasons. What was being written on the social sites might have influenced the performance of his players, said Trifonov, adding that the Internet has added a new wrinkle for coaches and how they address the psyche of their athletes.
His players didn't get on track and were eliminated in the semifinals of the conference championship tournament, a first since 1998.
NEW ORLEANS — Two in-state guards — Renard Smith of New Orleans and Nick Haywood of Monroe — have signed men's basketball scholarships with Xavier University of Louisiana.
Both will be juniors at XU during the 2011-12 season.
Smith, 6-feet-3 and 180 pounds, averaged 15.4 points for Delgado Community College in New Orleans this past season and was All-Miss-Lou Conference. Although not a starter during the first half of the season, Smith finished the year as the Dolphins' No. 2 scorer.
Smith was All-District 10-4A in basketball and baseball (right-handed pitcher) his senior year at McDonogh 35 High School.
He helped the Roneagles reach the Class 4A state playoffs each of three varsity basketball seasons, and as a baseball senior he ranked among the metro New Orleans leaders with a 1.17 ERA.
As a freshman at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa., Smith started 22 of 24 games and averaged 11.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 steals and made 29 3-pointers.
Haywood, 6 feet and 175 pounds, is transferring to Xavier from NCAA Division I member Houston, where he averaged 1.6 points and 9.1 minutes in 50 games with two starts during the past two seasons. He was chosen Class 5A Player of the Year by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association and the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches as a senior at Ouachita High School. That season Haywood averaged 19.3 points, 5.1 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 2.7 steals and led the Lions to a 39-4 record and the 5A state championship. He also earned Academic All-State honorable mention from the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.
Haywood was a four-year member of Ouachita's varsity and started the final three years. The Lions reached the state quarterfinals in each of Haywood's four seasons and were the 4A runner-up his freshman year. In the 2009 5A championship game, a 70-53 victory over Hahnville, Haywood scored a game-high 21 points and made five 3-pointers.
At Xavier Smith will major in business administration, and Haywood will major in computer information systems.
"Renard and Nick will give our program an immediate boost," ninth-year Xavier coach Dannton Jackson said. "They're great basketball players, great students and great people. They both will bring a deep shooting presence, a defensive presence and leadership to our team. They come from two of the best high-school programs in Louisiana."
Smith and Haywood are the first two signees of the year for Xavier, which was 27-6 in 2010-11, ranked 17th in the final NAIA Division I poll and qualified for the Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I National Championship for the fifth time in seven seasons.
TAZEWELL, Va. — Brandon Tate never expected to play college football. Basketball was his game.
