Air Force scrambles to replace its open date with Tennessee St.

Tennessee State Tigers Head Coach Rod Reed

Colorado Springs, CO - It wasn't quite like searching for a needle in a haystack, but for Jim Trego at Air Force, there was a big sigh of relief when his call to Tennessee State proved fruitful.

During February and March of this year, Trego, a senior associate athletic director, was telephoning, e-mailing and contacting everyone he knew to find an opponent to fill the Sept. 24 date on Air Force's 2011 football schedule.

The combination of BYU and Utah departing the Mountain West and only one school, Boise State, coming in left Air Force in need of a game.

"I shut my office door and started going through the phone directory trying to find a game," Trego said. "I just kept looking and looking and finally found Tennessee State with an open date. I've been involved in scheduling for 24 years, and that was the biggest challenge I've ever had."

In Nashville, officials at Tennessee State also were looking for a game. A matchup in the Atlanta Football Classic against Florida A&M had fallen through. The telephone call from Trego proved a blessing.

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FVSU Sprints Past Benedict Tigers for 1st Win

Columbia, SC - Fort Valley St. dropped to 0-3 Saturday, with starting quarterback Antonio Henton on the bench. Don Pittman's team got back on the field on short rest Thursday in a SIAC road test, and came away with a 40-23 win.

Peach Co. grad gave the Wildcats a 7-3 lead on his first collegiate touchdown. FVSU then ran away from the Tigers, leading 40-3 in the 4th quarter. By game's end Benedict made the game look far less one-sided.

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WSSU's offensive line playing extremely well

Winston Salem, NC - "The Block Squad" wanted to look its best for the big moment.

That's why all members of the group — Winston-Salem State's starting offensive linemen — showed up Wednesday at coach Connell Maynor's media conference well dressed and wearing ties. Keenly aware that offensive linemen rarely get exposure, they also were ready to talk.

The Rams are 3-0 and averaging 503 yards a game, and production like that requires more than just talent at quarterback, running back and wide receiver. It also requires talent on the line.

Starters Winston Hill, Markus Lawrence, Darrell Billiott, Devan Gray and Terrence Thomas — and reserves Chris Beardon and Corey Morris — acknowledge that playing in the trenches isn't glamorous.

"I've been playing offensive line since I was 13," said Lawrence, the center. "I would love to score touchdowns and all of that, but you just have to love it when your running back scores or your quarterback throws for a touchdown."

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WSSU needs plenty of support at home games

The powerful Bill Hayes, who is WSSU’s energetic athletics director, can control a lot of things as a top-flight administrator. But the one thing he can’t control is the weather, and he’ll be watching the forecast with keen interest for Saturday’s 6 p.m. home game at Bowman Gray Stadium against Fayetteville State (0-3).

The Rams fans have traveled in bunches for their first three road games. They traveled so well, in fact, that I estimate the Rams had more fans in the stands at all three games at Elizabeth City State, Virginia Union and Chowan.

Hayes made sure to seek me out last week to let me know that for the program to truly be successful seats have to be occupied at home games. That’s one of the ways the athletics program generates money and it’s a big resource.

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B-CU wins after refs nullify last-second Hampton TD

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- Hampton players swarmed the field and jumped on their hero. They didn't bother to listen to the referee announce that David Legree's touchdown pass with no time left would be reviewed.

But after several minutes the replay officials decided that receiver Isiah Thomas did not maintain possession as he fell to the ground on the apparent 12-yard TD pass, and Bethune-Cookman came away with a 35-31 victory in a bizarre Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game Thursday night at Municipal Stadium.

Backup quarterback Jackie Wilson threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Eddie Poole with 2:50 left in the game for the final margin of victory.

Legree, who passed for 225 yards and a touchdown and ran for two touchdowns, appeared to lead the Pirates (2-2, 1-1 MEAC) to victory with no time left.

But it was B-CU (2-1, 1-1) that got the final chance to celebrate in the back-and-forth contest that started nearly an hour late because of lightning in the area.




YOU BE THE JUDGE!! TD or NOT?

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XU wins 10 of 11 in singles at HBCU Championships

JONESBORO, Ga. -- Xavier UniversIty of Louisiana's men's and women's tennis teams won 10 of 11 singles matches Thursday in the HBCU National Championships. Five players -- Jordyn Goody, Kourtney Howell and Amanda Materre on the women's team and Loic Didavi and Viktor Svoboda on the men's -- opened their XU careers with victories.

Xavier, an NAIA member, won all eight of its matches against NCAA Division I.
Howell defeated Alcorn State's Keti Mebuke 6-2, 0-6, 1-0 (10-3) to reach the A-flight quarterfinals. Materre beat Hampton's Tabita Daolo 7-5, 6-0 in the B-flight, Goody beat Savannah State's Ge'Anne Hilton 6-2, 6-0 in the C-flight.

Didavi and Taylor, both second-team All-Americans this past season, both reached the men's A-flight semifinals. Didavi defeated Bowie State's Piotr Kruk 6-1, 6-3 and Alcorn's Ernesto Santillian 6-1, 6-2. Taylor beat North Carolina Central's Jack Waissen 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 and
Bowie's Shikhar Kapur 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (12-10).

In the men's B-flight, Amir Rahbar defeated Prairie View A&M's Trenton Johnson 6-2, 6-4, and Steffen Giles-Osborn lost 6-3, 6-7, 1-0 (10-6) to Bowie's Conner Pickering. Svoboda won 6-0, 6-0 in the C-flight against Hampton's Isaiah Stewart, and Sean Richardson beat Prairie View's Jamaal James 6-2, 6-1.

Svoboda, Richardson and Materre all were up one set in their second matches when rain halted play.

The tournament, Xavier's first of two in the fall semester, will continue through Sunday.

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS
VISIT: GULF COAST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

Gary joins Xavier staff as athletics trainer

Tiffany Gary

NEW ORLEANS — Tiffany Gary has joined Xavier University of Louisiana as athletics trainer.

Gary's position is funded through an agreement between Xavier and Ochsner Health System's sports medicine division. She works primarily with the women's volleyball, women's basketball and men's and women's tennis teams.

Gary, a native of New Iberia, La., joined XU on Aug. 1 after working the past six years for Willis-Knighton Health System of Shreveport and Bossier City, La. During that time Gary was the athletics trainer for Bossier Parish Community College and the high school teams at Calvary Baptist Academy.

Gary also worked five years as assistant athletics trainer at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette — there she handled women's soccer, women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, football and baseball — and was a graduate assistant trainer at Clemson University, where she received a master's degree. Gary received her bachelor's degree from UL Lafayette.

She is certified by the National Athletic Trainers' Association and the Louisiana Athletic Trainers' Association.

Xavier's other athletics trainer, Melvin Wallis, remains on the staff and is in his fifth year at XU. Wallis will work primarily with men's basketball, men's and women's cross country and men's and women's tennis.

By Ed Cassiere, Sports Information Director
VISIT: XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
VISIT: XULAATHLETICS
VISIT: GCAC

HU's new offensive coordinator opens up Pirates' offense

HAMPTON (2-1, 1-0 MEAC) at BETHUNE-COOKMAN (1-1, 0-1)
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Municipal Stadium, Daytona Beach, Fla.

TELEVISION: ESPNU (7:30 P.M.)
INTERNET: ESPN3

HAMPTON, VA — Donovan Rose first met Willie Snead at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting in Michigan in September 2010. Rose, Hampton University's head football coach, was in the audience as Snead, fresh off a 2009 state semifinal appearance at Muskegon Heights (Mich.) High, delivered a speech.

Neither man knew it at the time, but that speech also was a job audition.

After Rose's Pirates went 6-5 in 2010, averaging just 17.5 points per game, Rose found himself in the market for an offensive coordinator. One of the names that surfaced was that of Snead, a native of Belle Glade, Fla., who had made an impression on Rose.

"He had a way with people," Rose said. "(He's) a guy that is not easily thrown off track. He's just a very kind of mellow, consistent guy about getting things done. His resume was very impressive."

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