Annual tournament has helped Paine College's golf program

AUGUSTA, Georgia - The Paine College Golf Tour­nament started in September 2009 in response to a travel fiasco. The golf team had qualified for the PGA Mi­nority Collegiate Golf Champ­ionship and was ready to go, then found out at the last minute that there wasn’t enough money in the budget to cover expenses. The team stayed home.

Thanks to the Paine tournament, that problem was quickly solved. Plus, the money raised the past three years has helped turn around the program.

Proceeds from the tournament – $71,000 so far, according to the college – go to the golf program. That money played a role in the Lions’ first Southern Inter­collegiate Athletic Con­fer­ence golf title last season and their sixth-place finish in the Division II portion of the PGA Minor­ity Collegiate Golf Champ­ionship.

The fourth edition of the Paine College Golf Tour­nament will be Aug. 27 at Gordon Lakes Golf Course.

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Passion for game brings Mays south to FAMU

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  -  Frank Mays was so convinced that a high school janitor was onto something when he mentioned football as an extra curricular that he practiced an entire season without playing a single down.

When he got his opportunity to play in his senior year of high school, he simply showed out. Mays recorded 96 tackles, enough to catch the eyes of coaches at Minnesota Central Lakes College, although he was shunned by bigger programs.

FAMU is the next stop for Mays, a 6-foot-10, 285-pound defensive end. Coming to Tallahassee to play at FAMU is much farther than he thought he’d go after his high school janitor told him his size could get him somewhere in the game, Mays said.

“I figured I’d give it a shot,” Mays said Monday during a break between strength and conditioning drills. “I really wasn’t looking for anything bigger than high school (but) I fell in love with the game.”

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North Carolina A&T Bowling Announces Recruiting Class

GREENSBORO, North Carolina - The North Carolina A&T bowling program announced the signing of five talented bowlers to join the Aggies for the 2012-13 season.

"All in all, the coaching staff is really excited about this year, really excited about what [the recruits are] bringing to the table, and knowing that this is the first step in returning A&T back to winning MEAC championships, which is what we used to do quite often," said A&T head coach James Williams, referring to the Aggies previous four MEAC titles, the last one occurring during the 2003-04 season.

Joining the Aggies this fall are freshmen Najah Owens (Sanderson, Knightdale, N.C.), Briana Jackson (Davie County, Winston-Salem, N.C.), Emily Strombeck (Kestrel Heights School, Durham, N.C.) and Khadijah Clark (West Johnston, Garner, N.C.) and junior college transfer Courtney Crook (GTCC, Jamestown, N.C.)

Three of the recruits-Owens, Strombeck, and Crook-have qualified for the 2012 North Pointe Junior Gold Championships, a national tournament for the top youth bowlers in the country which was held July 14-21 in Indiana. Youth bowlers have an opportunity to earn a spot on the USA Junior Team at the tournament as well.

"For this coming season, we were looking for spare consistency, we were looking at approach consistency as far as if you are able to reproduce the same thing over and over again, and just basically overall talent with the releasing of the ball, generating revolutions and just making sure that you are able to make a quality shot and leave yourself a makeable spare," Williams said. "We were able to get that with each one of the girls. But each one also brings her own special piece to those things."

Each of the ladies has competed in state youth leagues and travel leagues because of the lack of organized high school bowling in North Carolina, Williams said. He added that his recruits have run across each other in these tournaments as opponents. Now they will join forces in an effort to lead the Aggies back to MEAC dominance.

Owens earned plenty of accolades in competition over the last two years. She earned a top-10 finish in the 2012 N.C. State High School Bowling Championship in individual play for Sanderson High School. She also helped her league team garner a first-place team finish in the All-Stars Interstate Tournament, and as an individual she earned first place in the High Game at the Sectional Pepsi Tournament, a third place finish in the 2012 State Pepsi Tournament, and a second place finish in the 2012 N.C. State Youth Championship Tournament with a 2,010 score. She also earned a first-place finish in the 2011 Premier Junior Gold Tournament, which allowed her to compete in the Nationals and North Point Tournament in Las Vegas in July 2011. She also had a strong high school career in varsity golf as well.

"With Najah, she has a quiet assassin-type demeanor. She's very focused, very raw in talent and just has a tremendous upside," Williams said, adding that she'll be a major asset in bakers play with her accuracy.

Williams is also excited about Strombeck's accuracy. She took first place in the 2012 N.C. United States Bowling Congress Association Pepsi Youth Championship Finals, and finished fifth in the 2011 N.C. USBC Pepsi Youth Championship Finals. She also finished ninth in the 2012 N.C. USBCA Youth Championship Tournament with a 1,786 score. At home, she has a collection of rings that the North Carolina State Association of the USBC gave her commemorating her 300 game performances. She also played women's basketball in high school.

COURTESY NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

Former Grambling coach Eddie Robinson rises in record books after fall of Penn State's Joe Paterno

GRAMBLING, Louisiana - The fallout of the devastating NCAA sanctions laid on Penn State on Monday spread around the country, from coast to coast and North to South.

Louisiana wasn't spared. In fact, the sanctions had a direct link to one of the state's own coaching legends: Grambling's deceased coach Eddie Robinson.



As part of the unprecedented sanctions, Penn State will vacate 112 victories gained from 1998 to 2011, 111 of those by Nittany Lions icon Joe Paterno. That allows Robinson to regain his title as the winningest Division I college coach in history with 408.

Robinson's son, Eddie Jr., was hardly gratified by the reordering of the names in the history books.

"I can't find anything to be happy about," said Robinson Jr., a Grambling assistant for 16 years. "It's not a win-win situation for anybody. He and my dad were good friends.

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Frazier back as NCCU head football coach

DURHAM, North Carolina - Less than two weeks away from its first day of practice, the N.C. Central football team has back its leader.

"When a university hires a football coach, they hire the entire family," NCCU head football coach Henry Frazier III said. "And in a million years, I never would have thought something like this would have happened to me or my family. This has been the toughest period in my life, thus far."

NCCU athletics director Ingrid Wicker-McCree expressed confidence in Frazier while announcing his reinstatement on Monday in a conference room in NCCU's Leroy T. Walker Complex.



Frazier since May had been on paid leave from his $225,000-a-year job while his wife's allegation of assault made its way through the Wake County court system.

Shortly after midnight on May 14, police responded to Frazier's house on Bending Branch Court in Morrisville after being notified that a domestic assault had occurred. Officers found evidence of an assault, but Frazier wasn’t there.

Police later caught up with Frazier in his car not far from the house. The coach was charged with assault on a female and jailed at the Wake County Detention Center, where he was released the same day under a $1,500 secured bond.

Frazier signed a court document on which he admitted to getting into an argument with his wife before praying for her by rubbing anointed oil on her, but that's not something she wanted to occur.

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SWAC Reacts to NCAA Sanctions Against Penn State

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - With the announcement of sanctions against Penn State University on Monday, the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) acknowledges the decision by NCAA President Dr. Mark Emmert, and the NCAA Executive Committee. The SWAC expresses its condolences to the victims and their families who had their lives so deeply affected by this entire situation. It is the hope that with today's actions by the NCAA, the victims can begin to heal. While closure may be far away, perhaps this small measure of justice will aid in moving those affected in a positive direction.

The SWAC and its leadership continue to uphold the highest standards among its member institutions and promote exemplary behavior by its administrators, coaches and student-athletes.

While the SWAC recognizes the fact that former Grambling State head coach Eddie Robinson is now the NCAA All-Time winningest football coach overall in Division I, the focus remains with the pain suffered by the victims. Coach Robinson's 408 wins came through many years of hard work and mentoring generations of student-athletes.

The SWAC is deeply saddened by the turn of events which led to today's actions. The conference reiterates its heart-felt sympathies to the victims and families of these terrible acts.

"The NCAA, President Emmert and the Executive Committee sent a clear message today with their decision," said SWAC Commissioner Duer Sharp. "It is our hope that going forward, all member institutions in the NCAA will take proper steps to ensure that nothing like this happens again in the future."

COURTESY SWAC.org

Three Selected Preseason All-OVC; Team Picked Fifth

NASHVILLE, Tennessee - Tennessee State University had three student-athletes selected preseason All-Conference and the team is picked to finish fifth in the Ohio Valley Conference as voted by the coaches and sports information directors on Monday.

TSU's guard Kadeem Edwards, defensive end Antonio Harper and return specialist Weldon Garlington all garnered preseason accolades.

Edwards, a native of Sanford, Fla., earned a preseason selection after posting second team honors a year ago. Last season, the junior played in 10-of-11 games, grading out at 85 to 88 percent with five pancakes per contest.

As a junior defensive end, Harper returns as one of the most lethal tacklers in the OVC. In 2011, the Memphis product racked up 44 tackles, 9.0 tackles-for-loss and 8.5 sacks in 11 starts. His sack total ranked 52nd nationally as Harper garnered second team All-OVC.

Garlington, a sophomore for the Tigers, returns as one of the most prolific kick returns TSU has seen in the past decade. Last season, Garlington returned a kick (100 yards) and a punt (91 yards) for touchdowns. Garlington averaged 20.9 yards per kickoff return and 19.4 yards in punt returns. Earlier this month, Garlington was named to the College Football Performance Awards (CFPA) Punt Returner Award watch list.

These young men deserve these preseason accolades because they put the time and effort on and off the field," said third year head coach Rod Reed. "It's an honor that is richly deserved, but it's just the preseason. The real test will see if these young men can translate this into the season and come out with the honors at the end of the year."

In the preseason poll, the Tigers were slated to finish fifth with 69 points behind Eastern Kentucky (124 points), Jacksonville State (117), Murray State (85) and Tennessee Tech (83). The Tigers edged out UT Martin (67), Southeast Missouri (44), Eastern Illinois (42) and Austin Peay (47).

In 2011, the Big Blue finished the season with 5-6 record and a 4-4 mark in the OVC. TSU earned the coveted Sgt. York Trophy after winning the tie-breaker over rival Tennessee Tech.

"The guys that were voted at the top are teams that beat us last year," said Reed. "It's just on paper. You still got to play the games. You got to go out there and play week-to-week. We are higher than we were a year ago, so we're making progress."

TSU opens the 2012 season in the 14th Annual John Merritt Classic at LP Field on Sept. 1 against rival Florida A&M.


COURTESY TENNESSEE STATE SPORTS INFORMATION