Bowie State Looks to Finally Win the CIAA Championship Game

BOWIE, Maryland -- During the late 1970’s then Houston Oilers quarterback Dan Pastorini made a bold declaration after a second straight AFC Championship Game loss to the great Pittsburgh Steelers. “Last year we knocked on the door, this year we banged on it, next year we’re going to kick it in.” The Oilers never went back to that championship game and ultimately became the Tennessee Titans.

Bowie State finds themselves in the same circumstance entering this season. For the last two years they’ve lost to Winston Salem State in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Championship game which drives everyone in the program as they try to find the key to get that last victory and bring a football championship home.



“Our veteran leaders have had a lot of success and done all we asked of them so I would like to send them out with a championship,” head coach Damon Wilson told the AFRO.

Despite not having as many full scholarships or a complete full time coaching staff, Bowie State has dominated the northern division of the CIAA. The Bulldogs know what it takes to win the division but with Virginia State, Virginia Union and Chowan closing the gap nothing is guaranteed.

NCAA Division II rules state football teams can award a maximum of 53 full scholarships yet Bowie St. can only offer 11. Those same rules also mandate that programs can totally compensate seven full time staff coaching positions yet they can only afford two. The financial disparity that separates them from the other elite programs in the CIAA is not an excuse but a reality that hovers over the program every year.

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WSSU Rams gearing up for opener against UNC Pembroke

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina -- Coach Kienus Boulware of Winston-Salem State needed to get away from his phone and office and the usual distractions of a busy day before practice earlier this week.

He found his escape by lining the team’s practice field with red paint, and the results were pretty good.

“It’s a great way to kind of clear my mind,” Boulware said about the maintenance duty that’s obviously not part of his contract. “I don’t mind doing it every now and then.”



It’s a good bet not many head coaches would take the time to line the team’s practice field, but to Boulware it’s just another way of building his program.

The Rams have a few practices left before their opener at UNC Pembroke on Aug. 31 in a Thursday night game. They have lost to Pembroke in each of the last two openers.

Boulware’s Rams have experience all over the field having lost only six starters from last season’s 9-3 team that won the CIAA for the second straight season and went to the Division II playoffs.

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$8.4M for Edward Waters College? Controversy on Jax City Council

JACKSONVILLE, Florida -- This summer, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry proposed a $131M capital improvement budget — a cornucopia of one-time spending designed to take advantage of budget relief created by pension reform, fueled by the confidence created by Jacksonville’s strong position with bond ratings agencies.

And on Wednesday, the Jacksonville City Council’s Finance Committee — along with visiting Council members — took their pencils and erasers to the budget proposal, one which also included ramped up recurring budgets for maintenance projects — especially sidewalk construction and sewerage system rehab.

Those items didn’t prove so controversial. What did prove controversial: a priority spend of Mayor Lenny Curry opposed by one Council member, who said it might cause him to vote against the budget entirely.

Councilman Danny Becton proposing moving $8.4M away from Edward Waters College capital improvements (a community field and a dorm) to water projects that have been delayed.

Curry’s political ally Nat Glover is President of EWC, and was instrumental in helping market the 2016 pension reform referendum to local African-American Democrats.

Becton’s motion was not seconded. Discussion was robust nonetheless.

CAO Sam Mousa said the administration is “extremely passionate” about Edward Waters and the New Town area.

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These brothers from Miami are now kicking at two different Mississippi SWAC schools

JACKSON, Mississippi -- During the season, players from opposing teams don’t usually communicate. It’s an unwritten rule — let your play do the talking on the field.

But that doesn’t work for brothers Christian and Nicholas Jacquemin, who aren’t about to break their routine of talking every day just because the former kicks field goals for Jackson State and the latter for Mississippi Valley State.

That would make the car ride home for Christmas break pretty awkward.

“We’re really close,” said Nicholas, who goes by Nico. “We talk just about every day. We talk about how our competitions for starting spots is going, how we’re kicking and we joke around. Normal brother stuff.”

The duo had never competed in anything until they got to Mississippi.

The two brothers from Miami grew up playing on the same soccer teams, and both kicked for the same high school.



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NCAT Love Don't Live Here Anymore (Mix)

NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY BGMM MEDIA

FAMU looks to set tone with season opener against Texas Southern

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- For the first time since 2011, Florida A&M gets to open a football season within the confines of Bragg Memorial Stadium.

Also – for the first time since head coach Alex Wood took over prior to the 2015 season – the Rattlers aren’t opening the year with a money game against an FBS opponent.



FAMU opens its season with SWAC foe Texas Southern at noon on Saturday. The SWAC and the MEAC are similar in that they’re both populated with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In fact, they’re so similar, the champions of the two conferences meet in the annual Celebration Bowl in Atlanta.

So Saturday’s game, dubbed the Jake Gaither Classic and set to be broadcast live on ESNPU, is a chance for FAMU to set the tone in Wood’s third year at the helm.

“We’re excited about, one, opening at home,” Wood said. “And two, a chance to display what our team’s going to be about, at least initially for 2017 on ESPN.

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5 Most Important Games for GSU

GRAMBLING, Louisiana -- Head coach Broderick Fobbs won’t tell you Grambling State is trying to defend its Southwestern Athletic Conference football championship from 2016. It’s a new season with a new team, and this year’s group hasn’t won anything yet, is what the fourth-year Tigers coach would say.

So instead of the word “defend,” let’s just stick with repeat. The much-anticipated 2017 season for the G-Men faithful kicks off in 11 days and GSU hits the road to capture back-to-back SWAC and HBCU titles Saturday, Sept. 2 versus Tulane at Yulman Stadium at 7 p.m.

As the season draws near, here’s my list of the top five most important regular season games for Grambling State as it pursues the program’s 26th SWAC and 16th HBCU national championship:

5. Clark Atlanta (Chicago Classic), Sept. 30 at 3:30 p.m. at Soldier Field

The first of four neutral site contests on the 2017 schedule takes the Tigers to historic Soldier Field, home of the NFL’s Chicago Bears, to close out the first month of the season to play Division II HBCU foe Clark Atlanta in the 20th annual Chicago Classic.

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