City Park meet will open schedule for Rush, Nuggets

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana's men's and women's cross country teams will compete at several familiar venues during 2017 en route to the postseason.

Joseph Moses, beginning his 13th season as head coach, announced Friday the schedule, which will begin Aug. 25 when the Gold Rush and Gold Nuggets play host to the Xavier Big Easy Opener at City Park, about four miles from the XULA campus. The women will run two miles starting at 5:30 p.m., followed by a 5,000-meter men's race at 6.

It will be third time in four years that XULA opens the season at home. The 2016 Big Easy Opener was canceled because of a waterlogged course.

2017 Schedule Pages:  Men   •   Women

XULA's second, third and fourth meets — the Mississippi College Season Opener Sept. 1, the Allstate Sugar Bowl Festival Sept. 9 and the LSU Invitational Sept. 16 — are repeats from last year.

The Sugar Bowl meet venue will be Lafreniere Park in suburban Metairie, La., giving XULA a second local appearance this season.

The Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Championships will be run in late October at Clinton, Miss. — the same site as the Sept. 1 meet. GCAC administration will announce details soon. XULA won the last 10 GCAC men's and women's team championships.

The GCAC team champions will qualify automatically for the NAIA National Championships Nov. 18 at Vancouver, Wash., which will play host to that meet for the fifth time and the first time since 2012.

XULA's returning letterwinners are Carlie Calais, Chinyere Jones, Dionysia Love, Brianna Pace, Taylor Price and Maliya Vaughan on the women's team and Oji Wells, Ammiel Williams and Darrick Williams on the men's. Price, a sophomore from Missouri City, Texas, was a GCAC individual champion in 2016.

Xavier University of Louisiana 2017 Men's and Women's Cross Country Schedule Friday, Aug. 25 XAVIER BIG EASY OPENER, City Park, 5:30 p.m. women, 6 p.m. men Friday, Sept. 1 Mississippi College Season Opener, Clinton, Miss., 5 p.m. women, 5:30 p.m. men Saturday, Sept. 9 Allstate Sugar Bowl Festival, Metairie, La., 7:50 a.m. women, 8:25 a.m. men Saturday, Sept. 16 LSU Invitational, Baton Rouge, La., 7:30 a.m. women, 8:10 a.m. men Late October Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Championships, Clinton, Miss., details TBA Saturday, Nov. 18 NAIA National Championships, Vancouver, Wash., 10:30 a.m. PST men, 11:45 a.m. PST women Home meets in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS      All times are Central except where noted      Schedules are subject to change

Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletic Director for Communications XULAgold.com XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA  twitter.com/xulagold www.facebook.com/xulagold

KSU FOOTBALL | Thorobreds Looking Forward to 2017 Season

FRANKFORT, Kentucky -- Last year, the Thorobreds finished 4-7 overall, and made it to the SIAC Championship Game, where they fell 33-30 to Fort Valley St. University.

This year, they are hoping to make it back to the conference title game, and win it.

KSU head coach John L. Smith, who is entering his second season with the team, says he hopes last year’s loss in the conference title game is used as motivation for this year’s team:

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For FVSU Wildcats’ offense, success is about the right mindset

FORT VALLEY, Georgia -- Demontay Jones is back for the Fort Valley State Wildcats, and there are five other returning starters on the offense.

But even after the Wildcats won the SIAC title in 2016, head coach Kevin Porter isn’t satisfied with his offense. He wants to see more productivity and balance from that unit during the 2017 season, which opens with the Wildcats traveling to West Georgia on Aug. 31.

“Offensively, it’s going to be a challenge,” Porter said. “We want to do a better job of running the football, obviously, but if we can go out and get the right mindset about what we’re trying to do, I think we’ll be OK.”



The Wildcats struggled to run the ball in 2016, averaging just 2.9 yards per carry and 139.1 yards per game. Jamari Clark led the way with 438 yards on 90 carries, while Chauncey Jackson added 304 yards on 95 carries.

Junior offensive lineman Julian Williams is excited about his head coach’s challenge to improve the running game, and Williams thinks his group is up to that challenge.

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Hampton Pirates football looking to bounce back

COURTESY: HAMPTON UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

HAMPTON, Virginia  -- The Hampton Pirates are trying to turn the corner for their football program. They're about a week into their pre-season practices under head coach, Connell Maynor who's in his 5th season at HU. They were 5-6 in 2016, but had a 5-3 record in the MEAC finishing third. The Pirates are picked to be 5th in pre-season polls in the conference. "You have to use it as fuel", Maynor says.

The Pirates come into 2017 as a team that's stout on defense. Among the players returning, senior safety, Brendan Cole who will help lead a squad that was second in total defense in the conference last season. "We like it when it's all on us", he says. They may have to shoulder more, while the offense tries to find its way. They're young in spots that includes wide receiver with the loss of Twarn Mixon and Rashawn Proctor to graduation.

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Morgan State player sues NCAA, school over weird five-year clock eligibility ruling

BALTIMORE, Maryland -- A Morgan State basketball player has taken his eligibility fight with the NCAA to the courtroom after he was ruled ineligible due to the way the NCAA determines a player’s eligibility clock.

First, some background. The way that the NCAA’s five-year clock works is pretty simple: An athlete has five years to use four years of eligibility as a student-athlete, and the clock starts ticking as soon as they enroll in college. Some exceptions can be made — like, for example, Jalan West of Northwestern State, who received a waiver for a seventh-year of eligibility after a pair of torn ACLs — but it requires the NCAA to determine the athlete should receive a waiver.

Enter Andrew Hampton. He’s currently a 24-year old accounting major and a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society, according to the Baltimore Sun, but he also happens to be heading into his seventh year in college. Hampton initially enrolled at Mount St. Mary’s in 2011 — as a student, not as an athlete — and also spent time at Montgomery College, a two-year school where he also did not play sports, before finally enrolling at Morgan State in the fall of 2013. He walked onto the team in 2013-14 and averaged less than 15 minutes per game in a total of 18 games in 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Hampton did not play season, however, as the NCAA ruled that his eligibility clock started when he enrolled at Mount St. Mary’s back in 2011.

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Quarterback battle not yet settled at FAMU

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- For the third year in a row under head coach Alex Wood, two quarterbacks are battling for the starting job in fall camp.

During Wood’s first year at the helm, it was Carson Royal and Kenny Coleman. Royal emerged as the Day 1 starter, though Coleman was the No. 1 quarterback by the end of the season. Last year, Coleman battled Ryan Stanley. Coleman was the Day 1 starter, but Stanley eventually took over.

This year, the battle is primarily between Stanley, now a redshirt sophomore, and senior JUCO transfer Vincent Jefferies Jr. Stanley, who led the Rattlers to four wins last season, wants to earn the job and buck the recent trend by staying the starter through the end of the season.

Both had their chances to work with the first unit during Saturday’s scrimmage, and both struggled at times. Stanley and Jefferies both threw interceptions – Stanley’s lone pick was the result of a receiver falling down and one of Jefferies’ was batted in the air.

Wood said those interceptions were “out of their hands.”

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A.C. basketball standout Ray Bethea Jr. headed to Howard U.

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey -- Ray Bethea Jr. committed this week to attend Howard University on an NCAA Division I basketball scholarship.

The Washington school probably had the inside track on the recruiting of the Atlantic City High School standout.

Bethea’s sister Natasha Rae Bethea graduated from Howard in 2011. Bethea attended his sister’s graduation.



“I think it would be a good situation because I have a family line there,” Bethea said. “My sister was telling me how I would like the school, and it was a really good school.”

As a junior last season, the 6-foot-5 Bethea averaged 18 points and 6.3 rebounds. He was a first-team Press All-Star and one of the Cape-Atlantic League’s and South Jersey’s most versatile players.

Bethea visited Howard twice this summer.

“I liked the atmosphere,” Bethea said. “Everybody was very supportive. I felt like the school could make me a better man.”

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