NCCU Eagles' eye squarely on Aug. 31 Bull City Classic, Duke

DURHAM, North Carolina   —  N.C. Central coach Henry Frazier III is big on continuity, and he has said one of the reasons the Eagles have turned a corner is because his coaching staff has largely remained intact since he arrived for the 2011 season.

This will be Frazier’s third campaign at NCCU, which is coming off of its first winning season since 2007, finishing 6-5 in 2012, 5-3 in the MEAC.

The Eagles ended the season with a share of third place in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

At the conclusion of sanctioned spring football practice, Frazier said he’s looking forward to seeing the eventual results of off-season, non-supervised training by his players.

“They won’t be here with me on the field, but they’ll still be doing football-related activities in terms of working out,” Frazier said. “Attacking the workouts. You’re just not showing up to lift or showing up to run. You want to attack the workouts.”

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FAMU, FGCU men's basketball team to play in Las Vegas

Rattlers going West for 2013 Las Vegas Classic with FGCU, Radford and Sacred Heart.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  -- The FGCU men’s basketball team will play in the 2013 Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic, scheduled for Dec. 22-23 at Orleans Arena.

As part of the tournament, the Eagles head to American Athletic Conference (formerly the BIG EAST) member USF on Dec. 17 before going to SEC foe Mississippi State on Dec. 19. FGCU will then go west to Las Vegas where it will play two games against a field of FAMU, Radford and Sacred Heart. The Green and Blue’s first round matchup on Dec. 22 with one of the three opponents will be announced at a later date with the winners and losers from the two contests meeting the next day.

“We are very excited to be part of the Las Vegas Classic,” said Dooley, who was named FGCU head coach on April 17 after 10 seasons as an assistant at Kansas. “It’s a great opportunity for our team to play tough road games against good programs in USF and Mississippi State, as well as a pair of neutral site games in a great venue out west.”

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Albany State on hunt for new offensive coordinator

ALBANY, Georgia  — Albany State football coach Mike White is back where he was two years ago: in need of an offensive coordinator.

The job became vacant Wednesday when Uyl Joyner officially submitted his letter of resignation and accepted the offensive coordinator position at Dougherty High to coach alongside his brother, Corey, who is the head coach of the Trojans.

Joyner, a former star quarterback at both Dougherty and Albany State, coached at ASU for the past four years — his first two as the QBs coach and his last two as both the QBs coach and the offensive coordinator.

“I knew it was coming,” White told The Herald on Thursday. “I can’t say I didn’t expect it.” 

White, who is entering his 14th season as head coach at ASU and is sitting on 99 career wins, had talked with Joyner several times in the past month about a possible move to the high school ranks, but White didn’t get official word of the resignation until Wednesday afternoon.

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Louisa football star Jackson signs with Virginia State

LOUISA COUNTY, Virginia  --  On the final Friday of the high school football regular season last fall, Zack Jackson and Louisa County traveled to face district-leading Western Albemarle for a matchup of two teams on completely different paths. Western was looking to wrap up an undefeated regular season while the Lions came in with a modest record of 3-6.

Leading the underdog Lions that Friday night, Jackson ended his high school career on a memorable note.

With his team trailing by three with less than two minutes to play, Jackson punched his way into the end zone from two yards out on fourth down, capping off a memorable five-touchdown night for the senior as the Lions held on to hand Western Albemarle its first loss of the 2012 campaign.

Jackson accumulated more than 200 yards of total offense by himself in his last game as a Lion. After the game, Jackson gathered his teammates on the field for final time to express how proud he was of their growth and development in the team’s signature win of the season.

“The last thing that I said on that field after the game was ...

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Manego, 1958 XU grad and two-sport athlete, dies at 77

Cirilo Manego,
   

NEW ORLEANS — Cirilo Manego, a 1958 Xavier University of Louisiana graduate and a member of the XU men's basketball and baseball teams, died Sunday (April 28, 2013) in New Orleans after a brain hemorrhage. He was 77.
    
Manego was a native New Orleanian. At Xavier he was a 6-foot-3 forward on coach James Hawkins' basketball teams, and he played baseball for coach John Crowe. As a senior he scored 19 points in an 80-61 home victory against Tuskegee on Dec. 16, 1957, and he scored 17 points in a 65-57 home victory against Southern on Jan. 18, 1958. In his final collegiate basketball game, Manego scored 21 points in a 72-68 home victory against LeMoyne (Tenn.) on Feb. 13, 1958.
    
Manego received a bachelor of science degree from Xavier and a master's in education from Southern University at New Orleans. He spent more than 40 years as an educator and coach, including 14 seasons (1974-89) as the men's basketball head coach at SUNO. His 1982-83 SUNO team was the NAIA District 30 playoff runner-up and was 3-0 against the Gold Rush, including a 68-67 victory in the district semifinals.
    
Manego was a teacher and coached basketball and baseball at St. Augustine High School in New Orleans from 1961-74. He was a U.S. Army veteran and a graduate of Joseph S. Clark High School.
    
Survivors include his wife, Vicki M. Manego; six children, Nelita Manego-Ramey, Cindy T. Manego, Richard D. Manego, Cirilo R. Manego III, Alana N. Manego and Rebecca A. Manego; 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Vicki Manego said her husband suffered the hemmorhage the day after he attended an April 17 Tulane baseball home game against the University of New Orleans.

 Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend the Funeral Mass of Christian Burial at St. James Major Catholic Church, 3736 Gentilly Blvd. in New Orleans (zip code 70122), on Saturday (May 4) at 11 a.m. Visitation will begin at 9:30 a.m. Burial will be at Mount Olivet Cemetery. Rhodes Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

(pronunciation:  sear-RILL-oh muh-NAY-go)

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

JCSU Golden Bulls aim for higher standard

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina  --  Johnson C. Smith football has improved its offensive capability, but the defense has enough moving parts to be an unknown when fall practice opens.

JCSU, which wrapped up spring drills on Saturday with the Gold-Blue game April 27 at McGirt Field, return 15 starters from last year’ 6-4 team. The goal was to give last year’s backups and newcomers a chance to make an impression on coaches.

“We’re already short on numbers and we wanted to get some good film on these guys,” Golden Bulls head coach Steve Aycock said. “We’ve got a lot of returners (on offense), a lot of new guys that came out and a few walk-ons who came out. We got accomplished the things we wanted to get accomplished.”

JCSU showed off its firepower in the Gold-Blue game with ...

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Judge won't throw out hazing lawsuit against FAMU

ORLANDO, Florida  --  An Orange County judge, rejecting FAMU's argument that drum major Robert Champion should be viewed as a voluntary "participant" in the illegal hazing that killed him, will not throw out a wrongful-death lawsuit against the university.

Circuit Judge Walter Komanski issued his ruling in a 21-page order Thursday that allows the lawsuit to move forward against Florida A&M University and three other defendants, including the Rosen Plaza hotel in Orlando.

The drum major's parents, Robert and Pamela Champion of Decatur, Ga., sued FAMU, Fabulous Coach Lines and a bus driver over the fatal hazing of their son, Robert, 26. He was beaten to death Nov. 19, 2011, on a bus in the hotel parking lot.

At a hearing in November, Richard Mitchell, an Orlando lawyer for FAMU, outlined the university's position that Champion ignored Florida law and school and band policies by voluntarily submitting to the hazing, known as "Crossing Bus C," after the Florida Classic football game at the Citrus Bowl.

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