XU's Cassiere to speak at National HBCU Media Summit

ED CASSIERE

NEW ORLEANS — Ed Cassiere, Xavier University of Louisiana's sports information director, will be one of the first-day speakers at the 2014 National HBCU Media Summit, to be held next week at Dillard University in New Orleans.
    
Cassiere — recipient of approximately 70 awards for sports information and sports
    
Cassiere joined XU athletics in July 2006. He publicizes Xavier's nine intercollegiate teams, which compete in the NAIA's Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.
    
The National HBCU Media Summit is presented by the HBCU Digest, the national news resource of record for historically black colleges and universities. The three-day event engages the national HBCU community in media literacy and development and provides best practices in media culture building for HBCU communities from around the nation.

Former AD, coach weigh in on FAMU athletic cuts

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  --  Florida A&M University Athletic Director Kellen Winslow is facing tough times that call for making difficult decisions in reducing costs in the department, a former FAMU football coach and athletic director said Monday.

But, at the same time, former Athletic Director Ken Riley and former head football coach Joe Taylor weren't sure that the recent firing of an assistant football coach and the suspension of two sports will make much of a dent in the $7-million deficit that Winslow must address.

"It's tough times and I do think some changes are going to have to be made," said Riley, who coached the Rattlers football team from 1986 to 1993 and later was athletic director from 1994 to 2003, during a telephone interview with the Democrat.

"Some people are going to have to make sacrifices and then you've going to have to evaluate all the way to the top. You're going to have to make some bold moves but you kind of have to do it slowly.

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Former Hylton hoops standout chooses Alabama State

BEL AIR, Maryland  --  Chidozie Omile, a 2012 Hylton High School graduate, has committed to Division I Alabama State for men's basketball.

Omile played this season for Harford Community College (Md).  He was an all-Maryland JUCO Honorable Mention selection after averaging 20.9 points along with 5.9 rebounds a game.
                                                       
Omile scored 40 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in Harford's regular-season opener.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound guard/forward spent his freshman year at Division II Lander University where he averaged 4.0 points and 1.8 rebounds a game in 25 games.

Alabama State, which plays in the SWAC, went 19-13 this season and lost in the first round of the CIT.

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SU Director of Bands Lawrence Jackson takes final bows on a 38-year musical career

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana  -- Drawers are empty and memories are sealed in boxes.

The Southern University Human Jukebox Marching Band’s performance in last year’s Super Bowl? A photo is somewhere in the stack, as well as photos of Director of Bands Lawrence Jackson with late director and mentor Isaac Greggs, who recommended Jackson for the job.

Now it’s time for Jackson to say goodbye. After 38 years of band directing, eight of them as Southern’s director of bands, Jackson, 60, will officially retire on July 1.

Jackson removes yet another stack of folders from his desk drawer in his office in the Tourgee A. DeBose Music Building on campus. All are a part of his record at the university, where Jackson was able to achieve so much with so little.

His retirement, he says to set the record straight, wasn’t based on how much he was getting paid or how much was allotted to the band in the university budget.

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The Struggles of Historically Black Colleges and Universities: What must they do to survive?

FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY INCOMPARABLE MARCHING 100 BAND

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Elizabeth City State University faced a brief existential crisis last month when North Carolina lawmakers toyed with the idea of closing the historically black institution. The lawmakers backed off, but the episode was just one in a series of challenges facing the country’s 40 public historically black four-year colleges and universities.

Enrollment declines, cuts to government financial aid, leadership controversies and heightened oversight are working together to threaten some HBCUs in new ways and perhaps even jeopardize their existence, according to people who study, work with, and have led HBCUs. Some private black colleges, like other tuition-dependent private institutions, are also struggling, but public HBCUs are being tugged at by a variety of forces, old and new.

Some of the problems are, of course, historic. Public black colleges were created as part of segregated higher education systems, were starved for resources for much of their history, and generally lack the academic facilities, faculty salary pools, and other features found at top public universities. In an era when state leaders are talking about degree completion and speeding up graduation times, many public HBCUs remain proud of historic missions that include taking chances on students who went to poor high schools and who may face long odds.

When Tiffany Jones, an analyst at the Southern Education Foundation, visited one public HBCU to talk about the effects of performance funding on the university, officials there told her that it was “because of race that they were being targeted by the state system of higher education and their history of limited resources had provided them with limited ammunition to fight back.”

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Southern awaits fate from NCAA

PHOTO COURTESY SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana  -- All Southern University can do now is wait to hear its fate from the NCAA.

Jaguars officials appeared before the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance on Wednesday in Indianapolis, making a case to have lifted a ban on all its teams from competing in the NCAA postseason.

The hearing ended at mid-day and it’s unclear just how long it will be before a decision is made. Southern Athletic Director William Broussard texted that he and the Jaguars’ eight-person delegation to the hearing “are embargoed (from commenting) for 21 days or until a decision is rendered.”

He directed all questions to NCAA spokesperson Michelle Hosick, who wouldn’t speculate on when a decision would be forthcoming. On Tuesday, Hosick responded to an email by saying APR data for all Southern teams will be made public “later this summer.”

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Delaware Lawmakers Honor DSU Softball, Baseball Teams

DOVER, Delaware  --  The successful 2014 Delaware State University softball and baseball seasons were applauded by state lawmakers during Wednesday’s General Assembly session at Legislative Hall.

The Hornet softball and baseball teams were presented resolutions in the House of Representatives and State Senate in honor of winning Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Northern Division championships this season.

The resolutions were sponsored by Representative Donald Blakey and Senator Brian Bushweller in their respective chambers.

The DSU softball team was 35-17 overall (15-3 MEAC) and finished third in the MEAC Tournament during the 2014 season. Head coach Janice Savage was named MEAC Coach-of-the-Year, while outfielder Nicole Gazzola (so.), catcher Sandy Hawthorne (so.)  and outfielder Jessica Madrid (so.) were selected to the All-MEAC First Team. In addition, pitcher Tara Tursellino (fr.) was named MEAC Rookie-of-the-Year and to the All-MEAC Second Team.

The Hornet baseball team captured its third straight MEAC North title this season with a 17-7 league record (30-16 overall).

Four players - outfielder Aarron Nardone (sr.), catcher Mike Alexander (sr.), shortstop DJ Miller (sr.); and pitcher Matt McClain - were named to the 2014 All-MEAC First Team.

Delaware State was tops among all NCAA Division I baseball teams in batting average (.336) and on-base percentage (.435) during the 2014 season.  





COURTESY DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS