Paine baseball team expects to contend for conference title

AUGUSTA, Georgia  --  After losing the conference championship to a perennial power a year ago, Paine’s baseball team has unfinished business.

With coach Kerby Marshall entering his second year with the program, the team returns most of its bats from a solid offense a year ago, and additional pitching depth, Paine is coming together.

The Lions won 30 games and reached the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in 2012 before bowing out to Stillman, which won the championship for the fifth time in six years.

“It was a major process to go through without having a team of kids that I recruited,” Marshall said. “We had to learn how to work together to become a good team. I think it was a pretty good season, but it could have been a lot better. This year, we’re definitely going to make another run for it.”

Entering a new season, Paine is returning ...

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Searching for the next Kaepernick, Flacco

NEW ORLEANS -- Call this year's Super Bowl the battle of the QB Davids.

Delaware alum Joe Flacco and Nevada alum Colin Kaepernick were, in college, about as far removed from the glitz and glamour of big-time football as you can imagine.

Which could bode well for the following five quarterback prospects, who all hail from non-traditional football schools.

So, if one of these 2013 NFL draft candidates start in the Super Bowl one day, remember where you heard about them first.



4. James Stallons Specs: 6-6, 210 pounds
School: Shaw University (enrollment: 2,265)

Stats: Stallons' 3,101 passing yards last year shattered the Shaw record by nearly 1,000 yards. He also led the conference with 310.1 yards per game.

Fake scout says: Stallons is a big-armed pocket passer who will have to get rid of the ball quicker if he wants to sniff any playing time at the next level.

Potential Super Bowl puff piece: Stallons is the first white quarterback in Shaw history. A transfer who started his college career at Wisconsin, Stallons says he chose the small North Carolina school because it had won four CIAA championships since 2003.

Odds of playing in a Super Bowl: Slim. Sure, he's big, but unless Stallons develops a Marino-like release or goes to a team with a stellar O-line, he's toast.

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FAMU Alumnus Travis Williams to be featured in HBO Documentary ‘Gideon's Army'

Travis Williams, Esq.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida –  For Florida A&M University (FAMU) alumnus Travis Williams, growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and seeing how the poor were “abused by the criminal justice system” inspired the public defender to want to work to prevent injustices from occurring.

“I see this job as the best way to prevent (these injustices) even though it's only one case at a time in my small section of the world,” said Williams, a senior attorney at the Hall County Public Defender's Office in Gainesville, Ga.

Williams’ passion was recently noted in a documentary called Gideon's Army, which will appear on the cable network HBO later this year. A segment of the piece was featured on the New York Times website as part of an op-doc ‘True Believers in Justice’ (Video & NY Times Article)

Williams was approached after a few short interviews to be a part of the documentary, to which he admits he reluctantly said yes.

“I was a little nervous at first to have a camera crew invade my personal and professional life but then I reconsidered,” he said. “I wanted to make sure there was an enthusiastic voice for justice portrayed in the film.”
   
The documentary follows Williams and two other public defenders based in the South. The film focuses on the struggles of working as a public defender, and issues dealing with difficult cases, managing the workload and the act of balancing a personal life. Williams recently returned from the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where the film premiered.

“I was blown away,” he said of viewing the documentary. “It is weird seeing yourself on the big screen but overall, I was satisfied with the way I was portrayed.”
   
Williams earned his bachelor’s degree from the FAMU School of Business and Industry in 2005, and his juris doctorate from the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga. While at FAMU, Williams was a freshman and sophomore senator and served as an escort for the Royal Court during his sophomore year. During his freshmen year, he was awarded the Freshman Senator of the Year Award. In 2011, the Georgia Association of Circuit Public Defenders recognized the young attorney as the inaugural Assistant Public Defender of the Year. In 2012, he was also honored as one of 14 “Rising Lawyers Under 40” in Georgia by the Daily Report, a newspaper for lawyers in Georgia.
   
“I will always owe FAMU everything,” said a humbled Williams. “FAMU taught me that if I work hard enough, anything is possible.”

COURTESY FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS

Lincoln's Sims picks Florida A&M

Chole Sims
6-2/260 OL
2012 ALL-BIG BEND FIRST TEAM

Sims commits to FAMU over offers from B-CU and Tennessee State

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  -- The Earl Holmes effect continues to play out among local players for the FAMU football program, as Lincoln offensive tackle Chole Sims announced Tuesday that he’s committed to becoming a Rattler.

Just like the two previously disclosed commitments before him, Sims said he was impressed with the direction that Holmes would like to take the program. Holmes was hired earlier this month for his first collegiate head-coaching job.

Sims’ commitment came three days after he took a visit to FAMU.

“It’s like a family, like where I came from at Lincoln,” Sims said. “I like the coaching staff, really. With Coach Holmes, I feel like they have a good program going. I feel like they know what they’re doing.”

Bolstering the offensive line had been a priority for Holmes’ predecessor, Joe Taylor, and Holmes seemingly is continuing to add depth to the unit. Last season, FAMU played with a line that had Robert Hartley as the only senior and at points during the season had all freshmen around him.

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Apopka center Dazzie Morris commits to Bethune-Cookman

Morris commits to B-CU over offers from FAMU, North Carolina A&T, Charleston Southern, Presbyterian College and eight other FCS programs.

APOPKA, Florida  --  Apopka offensive lineman Dazzie Morris has committed to play college football at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, and he is excited about the opportunity.

“I’m feeling good about it,” Morris said. “It’s Division 1 [Football Championship Subdivision] football and they win … they’re the MEAC champions.

“Mostly I like it because it’s just like Apopka. It’s hard work, it’s discipline and they harp on family.”

Morris, who played center for the 2012 Florida Class 8A state champion Blue Darters, and has also played guard and tackle at Apopka, said he sees a little bit of his coach Rick Darlington in the way B-CU coach Brian Jenkins carries his authority.



“He’s cool. He’s really intense and that’s a good thing,” Morris said. “He asks a lot of his players on and off the field and that’s also a good thing.

“He talks about graduation his people and it’s the part that people don’t think about so much, but you gotta get your degree when you go to college, not just play football.”

B-CU has been on the Dazzie Morris wagon for a long time. The coaches saw him play last spring at Daytona Beach Memorial Stadium when the Blue Darters faced Seabreeze in the spring game, and BC-U coaches were on the horn with a scholarship offer the next day.

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New vibe at CIAA

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina  --  This isn’t your daddy’s CIAA.  The 12-member collegiate athletics conference is moving forward in its second century with a new commissioner, branding and a 21st century approach to its signature event – the annual basketball tournament. Commissioner Jacqie Carpenter, the first black woman to lead a conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, has overseen the transition in five months on the job. “Initially, it was a little difficult for me because I was a part of the old branding as a former student-athlete at a CIAA school, but this is fresh,” the graduate of Hampton (Va.) University said on Tuesday at a press conference in Charlotte. “It’s new, it’s exciting. We’ve got our membership on board, our presidents on board and I’m excited to talk about our brand and the new direction our conference is going in.” The tournament is Feb. 28-March 2 at Time Warner Cable Arena. Carpenter unveiled the new league logo at the Charlotte Convention Center. The double-circular seal incorporates the league’s acronym; five stars (for founding members Hampton, Howard, Lincoln, Shaw and Virginia Union universities) and two sheaves of wheat representing growth and education. The update replaces a brand that had been used since 1985. READ MORE

Gold Rush 10-1 on road after 57-53 OT victory at Mobile

Anthony Simmons

Wanto Joseph

Denzell Erves

MOBILE, Ala. -- Seniors Wanto Joseph, Anthony Simmons and Denzell Erves combined for all but three of Xavier University of Louisiana's points after halftime in a 57-53 overtime men's basketball victory against Mobile on Monday.

The Gold Rush (19-4), ranked 11th in NAIA Division I, completed a two-game season sweep of the Rams (11-9). Xavier has won eight of its last nine games. The Gold Rush are 10-1 on the road this season.

Joseph scored 17 points, Simmons 15 and Erves 12 for Xavier, which led 20-18 at halftime but needed a Simmons free throw with 15 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the score at 49 and force overtime.

Joseph's two free throws at 3:39 of overtime tied the score at 51, then he converted his steal into an assist to Erves for a basket at 2:54 to put the Gold Rush ahead to stay, 53-51.

Mobile missed two shots in the final 20 seconds which could've tied the score. Erves made two free throws with two seconds remaining to clinch the victory. Xavier is 3-0 in overtime this season, its best mark since going 4-0 in 1992-93.

Chris Richardson scored 13 points for Mobile, which had dropped three straight, and Julien Sargent had 12 points and eight rebounds.

Xavier missed all six of its 3-point attempts but outshot Mobile 44.2 to 34 percent from the floor. The Rams had a 36-30 rebound advantage, but Erves grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds in his 14th double-double of the season and 21st of his career.

Xavier has beaten Mobile seven consecutive times -- the longest Gold Rush win streak in the series -- and 10 of the past 11. Xavier leads the series 32-26.

Xavier's next game will start at noon Saturday against Gulf Coast Athletic Conference opponent Talladega at XU's new Convocation Center. Xavier and Philander Smith are 6-1 in the GCAC and share first place.

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