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Just a year into its existence, Heritage High School(Palm Bay, Florida) is looking for a new leader for its football program. Mike Davis, who came to coach the Panthers from Bayside High, has taken an assistant coaching job at Clark Atlanta University, Heritage athletic director Greg McGrew said. Heritage has less than a month to find a replacement before football workouts begin. Phone messages left for Davis went unreturned Tuesday night.
"We're looking for a head coach with some experience. If anybody is interested, they should call me," McGrew said. "We want to go ahead and get the process going and see if somebody is interested in the county." McGrew was the athletics director at Bayside and brought Davis with him to begin the Panthers' program. In five years at Bayside, Davis led three teams to winning seasons. His 2006 and 2008 teams became the first in the school's history to make the playoffs.
Heritage went 0-9 in its first season, but the team consisted of only ninth- and 10th graders. In the coming season, the older of those will be 11th-graders, and there will be three classes available for the roster.
An arrest was made in the shooting death of an Alabama A&M football player.
According to the Birmingham News, police arrested and charged Terry Towns with murder and attempted murder. He's accused of shooting Alabama A&M football standout Maurice Thomas and injuring two others. The shooting happened last Friday inside a night club in Bessemer. Police say it started as a fight.
Towns, a 34 year old black male booked on July 3, was being held Friday night on bonds totaling $195,000, according to the Jefferson County (AL) Sheriff's Office. The shootings occurred on July 2, 2010.
Family and friends held a candlelight vigil outside Thomas' visitation Friday night. They leaned on each other for support while remembering the life of Thomas. His cousin said Thomas was more like a brother to her. She remembered when she learned about his death.
The funeral for the 23 year old Thomas will be held at Roosevelt City Church of Christ in Bessemer. Saturday morning.
FAMU officially launched a campaign on July 8, 2010, to raise $750,000 to add artificial turf to Bragg Stadium in time for the Rattlers' first home game Oct. 2. The immediate goal is for 1,454 supporters to donate $516 each. Head football coach Joe Taylor (left) and vice president Carla Willis is leading the fundraising.
After running non-stop through a long list of new constructions or renovations projects that will take place on the campus of Florida A&M, university president James Ammons finally took a breath. Then, he went on with another list that's just as important. The swimming pool, baseball field, tennis courts and Bragg Stadium. All of them need upgrading, and Ammons doesn't want it to be patchwork. The multimillion-dollar Lawson Center, where FAMU's basketball and volleyball teams play is his benchmark.
"All of those facilities need attention," Ammons said during an interview with the Democrat. "As we look at where we're going in athletics, that next mountain to climb is the facility mountain. We've got to bring all of the other facilities up to the Lawson Center." Improving the facilities is a must-do project because they could translate into championships in the long run, Ammons said. "We want to make sure that every program leader has a chance to win," he said.
ESPN Regional Television (ERT) has announced that tickets for the 2010 MEAC/SWAC Challenge football contest between Delaware State University and Southern University (La.) on Sep. 5 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, are now on sale through Ticketmaster and Anthony Travel.
Individual game tickets are $20 (plus tax and fees), and can be ordered by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or logging on to www.ticketmaster.com. Fans can also purchase travel packages through Anthony Travel's web page at www.anthonytravel.com or by calling 1-800-736-6377.
Delaware State University is also working with Anthony Travel on MEAC/SWAC Challenge packages for students, alumni and other Hornet fans. Information on the DSU packages can be obtained by logging onto http://www.desu.edu/meacswac-challenge or www.DSUHornets.com. The DSU travel packages include admission to Disney attractions.
The MEAC/SWAC weekend will include step shows, a career fair, parade and battle of the bands. Delaware State University will also host a tailgate and "fan center" in Orlando.
This will be Delaware State's first appearance in the MEAC/SWAC Challenge, which pits a top team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference against one from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Southern will be making its second appearance in the challenge. The Jaguars defeated the MEAC's Florida A&M 33-27 in 2007 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Delaware State is 2-0 all-time vs. Southern. The Hornets, led by first-year head coach Bill Collick and All-American John Taylor, defeated the Jaguars 46-8 in 1985 in Baton Rouge, La. The teams met again the following year in Shreveport, La., with the Hornets coming out of top, 21-14.
The 2010 MEAC/SWAC Challenge will air on ESPN/ESPN HD and ESPN3.com. This will mark the first time this event will be televised on ESPN.
For more information about the MEAC/SWAC Challenge and for access to its Facebook page, please visit the official website: www.meacswacchallenge.com. Fans can also stay up to date on the event via Twitter: www.twitter.com/MEAC_SWAC.
Quintarius Hutchison (right) was a starter on Anniston High School Class 4A state-title team from 2008/09.
Former Anniston High basketball standout Quintarius Hutchison didn’t look at all like a man who had any intentions of resting on the laurels of his impressive resume Friday morning. Instead, the 6-foot-5, 190-pounder appeared primed to press on at the signing ceremony held at his alma mater’s media center, where he signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville.
Hutchison was named The Star’s Class 4A-6A Calhoun County Player of the Year during his senior season. He averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds in leading the Bulldogs to a 24-10 record and a trip to the state semifinals, just a year after they captured the Class 4A title. A&M began recruiting Hutchison after seeing him play in a Thanksgiving tournament in the Rocket City. The A&M coaches told Hutchison’s coaches they were “really interested” in him.
However, talks between Hutchison and the school fell off for months. He became a first-team all-state selection and was one of only 12 players in the state chosen to play in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic in Pelham. When A&M, which shares a mascot and color scheme with Anniston, came calling again long after the season ended, everything seemed to come together. Hutchison chose A&M over an offer from Faulkner University and interest from Miles, Lane College (Tenn.) and Lawson State Community College.
On its athletic website it reads, "LeMoyne-Owen College ... Undefeated since 1951," along with a picture of the Magicians' 1950 football team. That streak could be in jeopardy. LOC has formed a committee charged with studying the viability of reinstituting a football program that has been absent from the historically black college since 1951.
"What they're doing right now is looking at the feasibility," said Robert Lipscomb, chairman of the school's Board of Trustees. "No decisions have been made. We've got to get some data first. They're still doing their investigation."
The committee chairman and other members have not been announced. William Anderson, the school's athletic director, said LOC president Johnnie B. Watson could have an announcement regarding football in the near future. There are indications the startup costs for football could be in the $2 million to $3 million range. It is believed the team would initially play as a non-scholarship club sport, before eventually growing into a Division 2 scholarship team that would participate in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, of which it already is a member for its other sports.
For all the things that made Southwestern Athletic Conference football fans shake their heads over the years — suspect leadership, lack of direction, noticeable drops in talent — die-hards could always take heart in one thing: On the field, their teams were innovators. You remember the 1980s and early ’90s, don’t you? Long before the explosion of the spread offense and five-receiver sets, SWAC schools put on a pretty good show.
Willie Totten. Fred McNair. Steve McNair. Eric Randall. They all aired it out.
Five years ago, Grambling’s Bruce Eugene threw 50 touchdowns in one season.But take a deeper look at the league today, and you’ll come to a startling conclusion. The trend has reversed. Everything old is new again. In the modern SWAC, championship-caliber teams play old-fashioned football. They establish the run, and they play good defense. This from a league that gave us Sammy White and Harold Carmichael and Jerry Rice? Believe it.
The ninth annual Palmetto Capital City Classic is set for Aug. 28 and it will be Tigers vs Tigers as Benedict hosts Morehouse College from Atlanta. The game will kick off at 4:00 p.m. at Charlie W. Johnson Stadium. For Benedict head coach Stan Conner, the Classic is like a bowl game for his players because of all the festivities leading up to the game.
The game will also give Conner a gauge as to how his team will stack up against a proven opponent. Last year in Atlanta, Morehouse defeated Benedict 34-13. The Tigers would get hot down the stretch and finish with an 8-3 record, thanks in part to stellar play by quarterback Pat Riley. The Maroon Tigers from Atlanta ended the year 7-3. Conner says playing Morehouse to open the season, followed by games against Tuskegee and South Carolina State is like "going from the frying pan into another hot skillet".
Florida A&M University president Dr. James H. Ammons.
If indeed it takes a village to raise a child, then Florida A&M President James Ammons might be on to something to help his athletic program get out of the red. While FAMU has made great strides during the past year to reduce its athletic department's deficit by almost $1 million, Ammons believes that if coaches recruit more local athletes they'd eventually help gate receipts that could put more bodies in the Lawson Center and Bragg Stadium on game days.
"I think there is some merit in looking at local athletes, especially when you have a 10,000-seat facility," Ammons said during a recent interview with the Tallahassee Democrat. "The family, the church, the community — I think everybody would come to watch local athletes play." Meanwhile, FAMU's athletic department continues efforts to cut into a budget deficit that totaled $5.3 million a year ago. Ammons said the gap is now at $4.6 million and the goal is to make the department profitable within the next three to five years.
Johnson C. Smith University has hired four-time Super Bowl champion Donnie Shell to launch a mentoring facility on campus. JCSU's Center for Spiritual Life will facilitate spiritual and religious outreach on campus and the surrounding faith community. Shell's consulting firm will also help the university develop responsibilities for the center's director. School officials will review his findings and implement them in the fall.
“In my conversations with Mr. Shell, I have been impressed with his approach to mentoring young people spiritually,” Johnson C. Smith President Ronald L. Carter said in a statement. “I have asked him to develop a similar mentoring program on campus.”
Shell, a South Carolina State University graduate, won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers and retired with 51 interceptions. A five-time Pro Bowl selection, Shell has been nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was named to the Steelers' all-time team, the College Football Hall of Fame, and the NFL's silver anniversary Super Bowl team. He was director of player development for the Carolina Panthers from 1994-2009, where he mentored players in their education and post-football activities.
Donnie Shell is one of our all time favorite players...this is a funny Roast of Shell.
Three years ago Larry Bastfield couldn’t wait to get away from home for college. Today, the former Towson Catholic standout couldn’t be happier to be back. A second-team Baltimore Sun All-Metro selection in 2008, Bastfield signed with Toledo in the fall of 2007 and completed his sophomore season with the Rockets in the spring. When Toledo coach Gene Cross left the university in March, however, Bastfield decided to head home to Baltimore and finish out his college career at Morgan State.
“It’s for the better,” said Bastfield, who is already taking classes this summer at Morgan. “It really hit me when I came home. I was really ready to come back when I was in Toledo. I was ready for a better situation and ready for the next step.” Bastfield’s college career got off to a rocky start before he had even enrolled at Toledo. Stan Joplin, the longtime Rockets coach who recruited him, was fired after the 2007-08 season. Bastfield stuck with his commitment and played two years for Cross.
Duggar Baucom has crunched the numbers and planned the itineraries. If anyone knows how to stretch a buck on the July recruiting trail, the VMI coach does. He'll drive where he can and fly only if he must, using tickets purchased far in advance to get the lowest fares. If plans fluctuate - if an event is canceled or a player he wants to see is a no-show - he'll think long and hard before paying expensive fees to change his ticket. "You just try to spend wisely," Baucom said.
He has no choice. VMI's basketball recruiting budget for fiscal 2009, the last year figures are available, was $17,954. By comparison, Virginia spent $171,045, Virginia Tech $146,607 and Old Dominion $90,191. By U.Va. standards, that was a frugal year. The Cavaliers spent an average of $228,563 chasing players over a four-year period, including $294,000 in 2006. VMI's four-year average was $28,000, Norfolk State's just $17,122.
The disparity in recruiting budgets is another example of the gap between college basketball's haves and have-nots. Big and small schools don't necessarily target the same players, but in the summer, most everyone turns up at the same events. Even schools like VMI and NSU that recruit mostly regionally must travel far from home to see the guys they're pursuing.
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Saint Augustine’s College men’s basketball coach Lonnie Blow Jr., has accepted an assistant coaching job at Old Dominion University and has left the Falcons’ program after two seasons. Blow, who this season guided the Falcons to its first CIAA conference tournament title since 1997, received an offer this week and decided to join head coach Blaine Taylor’s staff.
Lonnie Blow, Jr., previously coached for 11 seasons at Maury H.S., led Granby H.S. to a state title and served as an assistant coach at Norfolk State and Hampton University. Last season, he led the Saint Augustine's Falcons to a 27-5 record in his second year and was named CIAA Coach of the Year. The Falcons also compiled the highest GPA in the CIAA.
“I can confirm that,” Old Dominion senior associate athletic director Debbie White said in phone interview on Thursday. St. Aug’s athletics director George Williams said he learned earlier in the week that Blow had an offer and tried to make a counter-offer. He said he certainly tried to keep one of the best basketball coaches to lead their NCAA Division II program. “I try to bring the best people in and put the best package together for them,” he said. “But D-I, financially, we can’t handle those guys.”
Dantavious Parker, 5-11/208 quarterback from Columbus High School (Miami, Florida), narrowed his choices to TSU and Florida A&M, Coach Blakeney said.
Rising junior quarterback Dantavious Parker is transferring to Texas Southern University, Troy University head coach Larry Blakeney confirmed Wednesday night. But Blakeney left the door open for Parker, a dynamic threat at quarterback, to return. “He has the opportunity to come back if he gets there and doesn’t like what he sees,” Blakeney said. “I told him that.”
Parker played as a reserve for the past two seasons behind Levi Brown, but broke his right (non-throwing) collarbone in Troy’s first scrimmage this spring on a running play. He was competing with juniors Jamie Hampton and Greg Jenkins and redshirt freshman Corey Robinson for the starting spot, but the injury knocked him out for the spring. Coaches said they have narrowed the race down to two with Hampton and Robinson as the frontrunners.
“I met with him and talked to his mama more than once or twice about this,” Blakeney said. “We talked about his education and what he means to this team as a leader and a player, but he couldn’t get past the chance of wanting to be a starting quarterback. Texas Southern and coach (Johnnie) Cole told him he had a good chance to compete to be a starter. “We couldn’t guarantee him that he had that chance, but I’ll say this. He is a special kid and I hate to lose him.”
For Grambling's ageless Eddie Robinson, Melvin Lee was a constant.
Over nearly five decades, Lee either played for Robinson or coached beside him. Yet he remains a shadowy figure in his old boss' march to a still-standing Division I record of 408 career football victories.
Lee, unassuming and fiercely steadfast as an offensive assistant, was most comfortable outside of the spotlight. But his fingerprints are all over the Robinson era. He was there for more than 300 of the College Hall of Famer's wins, and every league title Robinson ever claimed -- eventually earning such profound respect from Robinson that the two would collaborate on playcalling.
It's fitting, then, that Lee has claimed a spot in the Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame, a collection that already includes a trio of those whom Lee credits with propelling him into a life around football.
"It started at the top, of course," said Lee, who still lives on Martin Luther King Drive in Grambling. Former school president "R.W.E. Jones set the stage and then (longtime sports information director) Collie J. Nicholson gave us so much attention in news print. That helped Coach Robinson focus on being a consistent fundamentalist. They allowed us to learn and progress as the years went by."
The 2010 Legends induction ceremonies will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, July 17, at the Monroe Civic Center. Admission is $60 per person, and $500 for a table of eight, with all proceeds going to the non-profit Legends group for distribution in support athletics at Grambling. Tickets can be purchased at the Monroe Civic Center box office. Call 329-2837.
Lee attended Clark High in New Orleans, where he said he earned a spot on the All-City district football team, and planned to play football at Dillard -- until a friend convinced him to enroll at Grambling. He tried out for the Tiger football team in 1952, meeting a lasting friend and mentor in Robinson. Undersized at 175, Lee nevertheless played both ways for Grambling -- as center and linebacker. In 1955, Lee would be part of a group that earned the program's first black college national championship.
"To the individuals on the team, we remember it like it was yesterday," Lee said. "We're proud the fact that we didn't allow more than 24 points in any game that year. The offense was based around the tailback; there was never a question about passing. We ran to the right most of the time. We more or less came right at you." In going 10-0, Lee and a group of talents that included future Pro Football Hall of Famer Willie Davis would establish just the second undefeated record in Grambling's history, and still its most recent.
"As we played for that championship, Coach talked about giving your best effort and that, looking back, you would see this as your finest hour," Lee said. "I'm sure most of us look back and realize that was a fantastic time. It can only happen to a few individuals, and not very often."
Two years in the Army followed, and Lee ended up back in New Orleans, where he was offered a job as a cement finisher. Then Robinson called.
Photo by Darryl D. Smith
Returning to the piney hills of Lincoln Parish in 1960 was a dream come true. "We gained so much from our time with Coach," Lee said. "We got a chance to see the country and a portion of the world. It was something that being in a smaller school, you never thought would happen."
Thoughtful and precise, Lee will never be confused with the stair-stepping assistants of today. Rather than looking for the next great job, he was looking for the next great play. "Being in charge wasn't the most important thing to me," Lee said. "Seeing things work well was."
The consummate players' coach, Lee was the first one they turned to when things went awry. That created an almost familial bond. "Coach always took up for his linemen, no matter what happened," said former Grambling quarterback Doug Williams, a fellow 2010 Legends inductee. "Coach Rob would say: 'Hell, Melvin, you've got to stop taking up for them.'" "I've heard that a few times," Lee admits, with a chuckle.
The milestones and memories were many: 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference championships, most for any program. Celebrated trips to Japan, to Hawaii, to Yankee Stadium. The formation of the Bayou Classic game against in-state foe Southern at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
By the mid-1970s, after fellow Grambling assistant Douglas Porter had launched his own College Hall of Fame head coaching career, offers began arriving for Lee, as well. He stayed. "Back then, we were going everywhere -- Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York -- and I knew I'd have to give that up if I left," he said. "There was always something new and entertaining going on at Grambling."
There would be many more memories, and many, many more milestones: The opening of Robinson Stadium. Advancing past Paul "Bear" Bryant's mythical mark for career victories, then the unfathomable 400-win plateau.
Lee continued, all along, quietly tinkering with Grambling's familiar Wing-T offense, something that endlessly entertained the professorial assistant. Lee somehow found time to return to school, as well, earning a master's degree at nearby Louisiana Tech in 1969.
"We called him 'Silent Lee,'" Davis said. "But he has one of the very best football minds."
At practice, Lee kept a pencil behind one ear, and pieces of paper either in hand or stuffed in his pockets. He was always ready to scribble down what Robinson said, to update their plan. During the game, he'd break down the opponents through a trusty pair of binoculars, looking for the tiniest opening. "It would be impossible to describe how much Melvin Lee meant to me over all these years," Robinson said, late in their career together. "It was his genius that helped make our Wing-T offense so effective for so long."
They walked out of the Superdome, one last time, after the season finale in 1997 -- the legend and the right-hand man. Lee has spent the ensuing years, unsurprisingly, largely unnoticed. Most days, you'll find him working in his yard with wife Pauline. He's also been tending to another relationship that's never wavered, refurbishing a property that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina back in his hometown.
Lee makes only rare public appearances, as when Robinson was honored upon his passing in 2007 with an all-day memorial in Baton Rouge, something typically reserved for heads of state. There, Lee found himself, suddenly, in the middle of this maelstrom of memory. It seemed every Grambling generation wanted to take a photograph on the Louisiana State Capitol's imposing granite steps alongside the former assistant. He carefully moved the conversation, then as now, back to Eddie Robinson -- back to the time they shared together.
The two men remain inseparable, connected in memory as they once were on the field. Lee, ever the loyalist, doesn't mind. "We all looked up to him, and the country would recognize how special he was in later years," Lee said of Robinson. "As individuals, we were really impressed by his leadership. He always inspired you. There was always something that was different and unique and very stimulating."
For the past three years, the North Carolina Central University football program has undergone a transformation, from back-to-back conference champions and NCAA Division II playoff participants to new Division I-FCS members experiencing the harsh realities of a team in transition. Heading into their fourth year as a Division I competitor, the fledgling Eagles, who have endured thousands of miles of travel to road contests against nationally-ranked opposition, are now battle-tested, mature, experienced and ready to soar.
The 2010 edition of the gridiron Eagles welcomes back 61 returning letterwinners, including 17 starters (9 offense, 8 defense), consisting of 10 seniors, six juniors and one sophomore. “It’s going to be different,” NCCU head coach Mose Rison said about the upcoming campaign, his fourth as the program’s head mentor. “We have been a team in transition. We have played a lot of road games, and played with a lot of youth. Now we have seven home games and we are going to have experienced depth.”
NCCU Offense Looking to Regain Scoring Output from 2006 Championship Season
During the first three season of the Division I reclassification process, NCCU averaged 18.3 points per game against Division I opposition, compiling a 7-16 record in those contests. With nine returning starters, Rison sees the potential for the 2010 offensive lineup to return to the form of the 2006 squad that scored at a school record pace of 30.9 points per game under his direction as offensive coordinator.
Ole Miss Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs, Derek Horne is a finalist for the FAMU Rattlers athletic director position. The Quitman, Georgia native is a grad of University of Mississippi (1987) and is in his 14th year with the Rebels athletics department
James Ammons knows exactly what he's looking for in the two finalists for Florida A&M athletic director. And, it's not someone with a strong coaching background. Interim AD Mike Smith interviewed Wednesday for the position that has been vacant since December when Bill Hayes resigned. Ammons didn't disclose the name of the second candidate during an interview Tuesday, but sources have named University of Mississippi associate athletic director for external affairs Derrick Horne as that person.
Horne is expected to meet with athletic department personnel this morning before Ammons makes his choice. That decision will be made before the start of the football season, Ammons said. FAMU also is faced with having to fill five coaching vacancies within the next two months. Baseball has been without a head coach since Robert Lucas was fired in May, and the search also is under way to find head coaches for swimming and men's track and field. Men's and women's basketball have vacancies for assistant coaches.
NCCU Teams Have Won 41 Conference Championships, Two National Titles
This video is a look back at some of the history of NCCU, compiled as a tribute during Trailblazers Weekend. Images provided by NCCU Archives and Records, along with NCCU Public Relations (Robert Lawson).
DID YOU KNOW? North Carolina Central University sports teams have won 41 conference championships in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), including 10 conference titles in its final three seasons of NCAA Division II competition (2004-07).
In addition, two NCCU teams have captured national championship titles. The Eagles won the NCAA Division II men’s basketball national championship in 1989, while the men’s track & field team won the NAIA national championship in 1972.
NCCU has competed in the NCAA playoffs 21 times in the sports of football, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, softball and women’s cross country.
As part of North Carolina Central University's Centennial celebration, the NCCU Department of Athletics posted sports history facts from the institution's first 100 years to its official web site, http://www.nccueaglepride.com/, every week during the year-long observance.
His hands folded, his posture tall and towering, Greg LaFleur surveyed the carnage inside his office last Wednesday afternoon. Old books, stacked high on a chair, formed a dusty skyscraper. His computer took up residence on the couch. Files covered bookshelf after bookshelf. LaFleur, who enters his sixth year as Southern’s athletic director, had tough decisions to make. What does he need to keep? What can he afford to scrap?
Stuff was everywhere — and when you move from one place to the other, that’s the best word for it: stuff. This summer, members of the athletic department are bailing out of old Jesse Owens Hall, a building grimy and battered beyond salvation. Some personnel will head back to the F.G. Clark Activity Center. LaFleur is moving to a seldom-used room in the new A.W. Mumford Field House. “Definitely a move for the better,” he said. “For everyone involved.” This offseason marks another crossroads for the SU athletic department. All at once, it’s an exciting and stressful time.
Last week, on a grim, humid late afternoon in the dead of summer, scores of people drove to an otherwise still campus at Southern University. They packed an oversized suite in the A.W. Mumford Field House. Politely and patiently, they listened as Stump Mitchell’s assistant coaches told stories and answered questions about the status of their beloved-but-battered football program.
Then, to the sound of warm applause, Mitchell himself walked to the lectern. This was the man they’d come to see. Yet again, Mitchell vowed his staff and players will work hard, and good things will come from that. Again, he stressed Southern will win championships. Soon. “We don’t have a daggone three- or four-year plan,” he said. “We want to win it all right now.” The crowd erupted. This was the way it used to feel.
Almost six months have passed since Mitchell came to SU, replacing the once-revered Pete Richardson. Not everyone in the suite had wanted Mitchell. Most dissenters had preferred a favorite son, former SU safety and Prairie View assistant Heishma Northern. Some of them still aren’t sure. Yet there they were last week, in the suite, now willing to listen. “I know I’m not the man for all of you right now,” Mitchell said. “But I’m going to be the man before long.”
As a player, Barvenia Wooten-Collier helped lift the Virginia Union women's basketball team to the pinnacle of NCAA Division II competition. Now she will try to lift the school's once-proud women's program back to respectability as a coach.
Wooten-Collier, the linchpin of Virginia Union's 1983 NCAA championship team, was hired last month to replace Bryan Underwood as the Panthers' head coach. VUU's administration chose not to renew Underwood's contract after the Panthers stumbled badly in 2009 and 2010, winning only 16 games overall -- and only seven in the CIAA.
The new coach intends, eventually, to install an up-tempo, emphasis-on-conditioning philosophy. But she said her first goal will be to instill a sense of ownership and responsibility in athletes who won only two of 20 CIAA contests last season. "I get the feeling that the players, right now, think of basketball as just another thing they have to do," Wooten-Collier said. "I don't see excitement and enthusiasm. I want these kids to understand that the opportunity to play basketball at Virginia Union is a gift. I don't want them to be content merely to play. I want them to perform."
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Graduating as the all-time leader in career receptions and yards at South Carolina State got Oliver "Tre" Young noticed by the Carolina Panthers. At least that's the opinion of his college head coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough. "You know, that is always going to be one of the factors, the statistical information that people gather," Pough told PanthersInsider.com. "That's what they sometimes use in the evaluation process. I think they also look at his size, strength and athletic ability. I think it's a combination of things along with stats. When you look at him play, you think this is a guy who might have a shot at being good."
#3 Oliver "Tre" Young
The 6-2 undrafted free agent also understands those school-record numbers (135 receptions, 2,156 receiving yards) alone will not allow him continue his NFL career within proximity of his port city hometown. "We pretty much know that we have to prove ourselves," Young said. "For me, coming from a small school, I'm a little bit behind the 8 ball so I think that my level of play will have to be above and beyond."
Strength and conditioning coach Antonio Wallace left a new contract from Florida A&M on the table instead of re-signing on the same terms that he had for the past three years without benefits. His last day on the job was June 30 as an assistant to head football coach Joe Taylor. Wallace said Monday he would have stayed if the new contract with FAMU's athletic department gave him an increase in his salary of more than the $50,000-plus that he was making, with the addition of benefits.
"It was in my best interest and in my family's best interest to move on because anytime you get into a situation like that it's very hard to continue to grow within the program," Wallace said, without saying exactly how much he would have signed for. "I was presented with a contract and I was unwilling to be subject to those terms. I didn't feel good about it."
Wallace graduated from Alabama A&M University in 2003 with a Bachelors of Science in the field of Industrial Safety Management and served previously as a graduate assistant under Dr. Johnny Thomas at Alcorn State, responsible for strength and conditioning and coaching defensive ends.
Former FAMURattlers' Quarterback Casey Printers plays turnover - free football in the B.C. Lions 25-10 road win over the Edmonton Eskimos in yesterday's Canada Day season opener.
EDMONTON, AB — The distance from where the Lions began their Canadian Football League season on Sunday and where they would like it to end up is not large. It is precisely 25 steps to walk from the visiting locker-room to the palatial new digs occupied by the Edmonton Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium, where this year’s Grey Cup game is to be played. And in relative terms, what the Lions did when they posted a 25-10 win on the strength of a turnover-free game in which they also forced the hosts into five giveaways, not to mention six field goals by Paul McCallum, was take precisely one step in that direction.
One step, nothing more. But with so much uncertainty as a result of the massive off-season personnel airlift, there is reason to think coach Wally Buono has assembled the makings of a team. And if there were doubts about the young offensive line, they were erased when Jon Hameister-Ries sprang Robertson with a block for his scoring run. Quarterback Casey Printers was only dropped behind the line of scrimmage once.
Thomas "Ray Williams" retired in 1987 without a college degree or professional skill, although he played at the University of Minnesota and San Jacinto Junior College, and was selected 10th overall in the 1977 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks.
Amid the ceaseless acquisitive frenzy that is NBA free agency, the Boston Globe dropped a harrowing profile of Ray Williams, a former captain of the New York Knicks and a reserve guard on the Boston Celtics' 1985 NBA Finals team who played for six teams during a 10-year NBA career from the late '70s through the mid-'80s. Williams' name might not ring out with today's fans, but he averaged 20 points per game in two different seasons (1979-80 and 1981-82), hung 52 on the Detroit Pistons as a member of the New Jersey Nets on April 17, 1982, and once drew (admittedly aspirational) comparisons to the great Walt Frazier.
Now, writes the Globe's Bob Hohler, he's homeless.
POMPANO BEACH, FL — Every night at bedtime, former Celtic Ray Williams locks the doors of his home: a broken-down 1992 Buick, rusting on a back street where he ran out of everything. The 10-year NBA veteran formerly known as “Sugar Ray’’ leans back in the driver’s seat, drapes his legs over the center console, and rests his head on a pillow of tattered towels. He tunes his boom box to gospel music, closes his eyes, and wonders.
Williams, a generation removed from staying in first-class hotels with Larry Bird and Co. in their drive to the 1985 NBA Finals, mostly wonders how much more he can bear. He is not new to poverty, illness, homelessness. Or quiet desperation. In recent weeks, he has lived on bread and water. “They say God won’t give you more than you can handle,’’ Williams said in his roadside sedan. “But this is wearing me out.’’
A former top-10 NBA draft pick who once scored 52 points in a game, Williams is a face of big-time basketball’s underclass. As the NBA employs players whose average annual salaries top $5 million, Williams is among scores of retired players for whom the good life vanished not long after the final whistle. Dozens of NBA retirees, including Williams and his brother, Gus, a two-time All-Star, have sought bankruptcy protection.
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The most sobering thing about Hohler's piece? Williams' decline into unemployment, poverty and homelessness appears to have just kind of ... happened. Williams, a former University of Minnesota standout who averaged 15.5 points and nearly six assists per game during his time in the league, adamantly tells Hohler that he's "never fallen prey to drugs, alcohol, or gambling," and he's never been arrested, so it's not like he's some shiftless sociopath whom we can easily vilify.
"We're looking for a head coach with some experience. If anybody is interested, they should call me," McGrew said. "We want to go ahead and get the process going and see if somebody is interested in the county." McGrew was the athletics director at Bayside and brought Davis with him to begin the Panthers' program. In five years at Bayside, Davis led three teams to winning seasons. His 2006 and 2008 teams became the first in the school's history to make the playoffs.
