By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director

It won’t be long now.

Centenary’s first official NCAA Division III football season kicks off Sept. 7 and the Gents begin practicing this Friday.

Watch for more information on preseason practice later this week. Coach Byron Dawson is putting the finishing touches on preparing, including recently hiring a receivers coach with ties to a couple of Arkansas college program.

Cody Kent, a native of Marysville, Ark., received a bachelor of science degree from Southern Arkansas and a master of science from Arkansas State. Kent enters his ninth season coaching and has coordinated for seven seasons at the high school and European professional levels.

“Cody is passionate about football and the former marine sergeant will bring high energy and discipline to the wide receiver room,” said Dawson. “This fall, the focus will be building team chemistry and implementing the culture and systems of our program.”

Prior to coming to Centenary, Kent was the QB/WR/TE coach and offensive coordinator for the Graz Giants in Austria. Under Kent’s guidance, the Giants made two playoff semifinal appearances, ranked in the top three in offense in consecutive seasons. The Giants had an international win last season against the Serbian champion Kragujevac Wild Boars. In Kent’s tenure, the Giants were 18-6 overall in two seasons after posting an 8-12 record the previous two seasons.

In 2023, Kent was the offensive coordinator for Jacksonville (Ark.) High School and helped develop an all-state quarterback who amassed 2,090 total yards and 24 touchdowns. Jacksonville had a 55 percent increase in scoring.

Kent was the WR/QB Coach and OC for the Winterthur Warriors in Switzerland for two seasons (2021-22) and coached the QBs for the Swiss National Team against Russia in 2021. From 2019-2021 Kent was the QB/WR/RB/TE coach and OC for Lafayette County High School in Stamps, Ark.

The Gents will stage a “Fan Day” event on Saturday, Aug. 24 on campus before hosting Louisiana Community Christian in a scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 31. Further details on those upcoming events will be released soon.

SOFTBALL:   The National Fastpitch Coaches Association released the 2023-24 Easton/NFCA Division III All-America Scholar Athletes last week, and eight Ladies were among 72 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference student-athletes recognized.

A remarkable 8,054 collegiate student-athletes captured Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete honors for the 2023-24 academic year. The rankings and honors recognize the academic prowess of softball teams across the Association’s seven membership categories (NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, NAIA, Junior College and High School – both weighted and unweighted). 

The 72 SCAC athletes recognized are the most in softball league history. NCAA Division I led the way with 2,573 student-athletes earning a 3.5 grade-point average or higher for 2023-24, while Division III followed with 2,285.

Eight Centenary student-athletes earned a spot on the list:  Alyssa Akers, River Boultinghouse, Mackenzie Cox, Emma Crow, Mandy Hoback, Abigail Hodgson, Viviana Rivero and Emma Shepherd.  

MENTAL HEALTH FOCUS:  Centenary personnel participated in the first SCAC Mental Health Symposium recently in Dallas.

Made possible by the NCAA Division III Strategic Initiatives Grant, the symposium was open to student-athletes, coaches and administrators from all 12 SCAC institutions and was put together to provide an opportunity for attendees to connect with their peers around shared experiences, interests and the challenges of being a student-athlete or a coach in today’s ever-changing environment.

Over the course of the two-day event, more than 55 individuals attended multiple sessions that focused on a variety of topics, making it one of the more important non-championship events in the league’s 33-year history.

Facilitating the two-day event was Koomba, an organization consisting of former student-athletes who saw the need to create a network for student-athletes to work on their mental health and well-being while on-campus. 

Koomba team members, including former SCAC and Colorado College student-athlete Sam Buxbaum, led this historic event and conducted multiple interactive sessions exploring ways to support and nourish mental health and well-being.

Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu

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By JASON PUGH, Northwestern State Sports Information

NATCHITOCHES – Shreveport native Kevin Robinson made plenty of memories on the mound in his first season in a Northwestern State baseball uniform this spring, while another recently unfolded off the field and will send him in street clothes onto a national platform.

It came via word from the Southland Conference, which selected Robinson as the league’s male representative for the 2024 NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event takes place Nov. 21-24.

Robinson is a member of Northwestern’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and NSU’s Presidential Leadership Program and spent his summer coaching high school age baseball players.

He was surprised by his selection, just as much as his quick success on the diamond was unexpected, he said.

“It’s nothing that I thought would happen in the first year or so,” Robinson said. “I’m excited to get to meet a bunch of people from around the country and expand my network.”

Robinson went from a walk-on to the Demons’ midweek starter as a freshman, posting a 3-1 record and a 2.73 ERA that ranked second on the team. His 5-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio led the Demons as did his 1.09 walks per nine innings number.

A C.E. Byrd graduate who was the Outstanding Player on  the 2023 Shreveport-Bossier Journal All-Metro Baseball Team, Robinson became a focal figure in his true freshman season at Northwestern.

He gave the Demons stability in midweek games and his nine starts were third most on the roster. The son of former Louisiana Tech player Daniel Robinson was the starting pitcher in the Demons’ 11-5 win against the Bulldogs on March 12 at Brown-Stroud Field.

He was the winning pitcher in the Demons’ first shutout of the season against LSU-Alexandria on April 16 and was the winning pitcher in both games of a season sweep of state rival Grambling.

His off-field impact in his SAAC role and as a leader on campus, coupled with his baseball success, earned him nomination for the Southland honor.

“This is a very special opportunity for Kevin as an individual,” head coach Chris Bertrand said. “His selection shows he represents all the characteristics we stand for. It shows we are on the right track of bringing in incredible student-athletes into the program and into he university. Once they’re here, we put them in an environment that helps them thrive. To have that recognized by the Southland Conference and the NCAA, there is no better compliment to Kevin and to the program.”

The NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum provides a diverse representation of student-athletes, coaches and administrators with an opportunity to build a leadership toolkit and develop self-awareness. Participants leave the program with leadership skills, an exploration of values, beliefs and behavioral styles and an understanding of the NCAA as a whole and the value of Student-Athlete Advisory Committees.  The forum also creates a network of like-minded peers for continued connection and dialogue.

It also reinforces Robinson’s success and impact on and off the mound.

“Nothing that has happened is anything I thought would have expected coming in here 12 months ago,” said the well-traveled Robinson, who will visit North Carolina for the first time in November. “It’s really cool. It proves to me the work I’m putting in off the field is coming to fruition.”

Contact Jason at pughj@nsula.edu

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By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

BATON ROUGE – Spring football practices have no sense of urgency.

There’s usually a load of returning players sitting out recovering from off-season surgeries. Head coaches experiment with position changes. New coordinator hires are installing their offensive and defensive schemes while patiently expecting growing pains.

With the start of the regular season 4½ months away, you’ll rarely see any coaching staff member so exasperated they start yelling.

“Spring is more about technical work,” LSU head coach Brian Kelly.

And now after the first four LSU preseason practices with the Tigers’ Sept. 1 season-opener vs. USC in Las Vegas looming?

The LSU practice field, especially from its new defensive coaching staff charged with executing a miracle makeover responsibility of one of college football’s worst units a year ago, is filled with volcanic expletive-filled eruptions.

Maybe it’s because a heat index edging towards 110 degrees – a virtual furnace – greets the coaches and players each morning after they exit the cool-climate-controlled indoor facility.

Or maybe it’s because there’s a smoldering anger among returnees on defense not to be ranked 103rd or worse nationally in six stat categories as they were last season.

“Being able to adapt to our coaches and learn how they want things and how they yell and stuff like that is good, especially early in fall camp.,” LSU senior linebacker Greg Penn III said. “They are bringing the intensity. We (the players) have to match that intensity.”

It’s up to veterans like starting fifth-year senior defensive tackle Jacobian Guillory to explain to incoming freshmen not to take it personally if an assistant verbally unloads on them.

“I listen to the message and apply it to my game or whatever I did wrong,” Guillory said. “It’s not that they’re yelling at you. They’re yelling at the problem. It’s not an F-you or F-that.”

New defensive coordinator Blake Baker and new assistants Bo Davis (D-line), Kevin Peoples (edge rushers), Corey Raymond (secondary) and Jake Olsen are priming the pump daily in their daily individual position pre-practice meetings.

LSU junior All-SEC first-team offensive tackle Will Campbell, a projected 2025 NFL top 10 first-round draft choice, said there’s a noticeable attitude change in the 2024 defense.

“It’s night and day the difference between this year and last year with the juice that they come out to practice with,” Campbell said of the defense. “They come out ready to fly around, they’re ready to hit. They’re violent, ready to fight, ready to go. And that’s what we need at the end of the day.”

That’s a credit to Baker, LSU’s linebackers coach in 2021 who was Missouri’s defensive coordinator the last two seasons where his pressure defenses were known for creating turnovers and huge yardage losses.

“Pressures can come from a lot of different looks, but playing fast is really the essence of what has made Blake’s pressures so difficult,” Kelly said. “The teachability of Blake’s system allows our guys to play really fast without paralysis by analysis.”

Penn, who was a true freshman during Baker’s previous one-season stint with the Tigers, loves Baker’s defensive philosophy.

“He (Baker) wants to attack all the time,” Penn said. “He wants to be aggressive, be physical. If we’re watching film and he sees us playing timid, he’ll say `We don’t want no poodles.’”

Guillory said Baker wants the LSU defense to be “juiced up” every day.

“Even when our defensive backs make a play downfield, I want to run downfield, high-five him and pick him up,” Guillory said. “It’s about being a group and not individuals.”

On the defense’s back end in the Tigers’ secondary which ranked 115th nationally last season in passing yards allowed (255.6 yards per game), LSU senior wide receiver Kyren Lacy said he already sees improvement.

“Coach Corey got those guys right,” Lacy said. “They’ve changed everything. They come up with something new every day.”

CAMP NOTEBOOK

LSU sophomore tight end Mac Markway, a former 4-star recruit who played in 12 games last season, told Kelly Monday night he’s leaving the program. “He made a decision he’s not going to play,” Kelly said. Markway announced through social media he intends to transfer. Kelly is quite pleased sophomore Ka’Morreun Plimpton (6-6, 242) and true freshman Trey’ Dez Green (6-7, 237), the Tigers’ backup tight ends behind starter Mason Taylor. “KP’s run-blocking consistency and catching assignments have been really good,” Kelly said. “Trey’ Dez has assimilated as well as we could have expected for a true freshman. They’re both going to play.”. . .Returning defensive lineman Bradyn Swinson and Jalen Lee haven’t practiced with the team because they are finishing a morning Spanish class to graduate. “That class ends Monday,” Kelly said. “We’ve been bringing both of them here in the afternoons with an assistant coach, a strength coach and a trainer so they can stay on track.”

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

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JOURNAL SPORTS

NEW ORLEANS — LSUS basketball coach Kyle Blankenship’s amazing double duty in the 2023-24 season earned him a prime spot in the annual Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Sports Awards show this weekend.

Saturday evening, he was officially presented the Jimmy Collins Award by the organization for the likely unprecedented feat of coaching both the women’s and men’s LSUS teams to outstanding seasons, and most notably, national tournament victories on the same day in March.

The honor was prompted when Blankenship collected 65 percent of public votes cast earlier this summer on the Sugar Bowl’s website, while Jay Clark, who steered the LSU women’s gymnastics team to the NCAA championship, was a distant second at 30 percent. Down the list of public voting were Jeff Willis, who coached the LSU Eunice baseball team to a junior college national championship, and McNeese basketball coach Will Wade, the former LSU coach who led the Cowboys to 30 wins, the NCAA Tournament, and the biggest single-season turnaround in NCAA Division I history.

A week after the online voting closed, Clark was a deserving choice of a selection committee for the Sugar Bowl’s Outstanding Collegiate Coach for Louisiana in 2023-24, getting the nod over Blankenship, Wade and Willis. The top collegiate coach award has been presented since 1961 and is among eight annual honors issued by the organization, highlighted by the Jim Corbett Awards for the best male and female amateur athlete of each year in the state.

During Saturday’s ceremony, LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels and Tigers gymnast Haleigh Bryant were recognized for winning the Corbett Awards. Former Saints guard Jahri Evans – a 2022 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame inductee – former Duke basketball standout Chris Duhon from Salmen and a trio of Tulane athletes — football’s Matt Forte (a 2023 LSHOF inductee), and basketball’s Carmen Jones and Paul Thompson — were inducted into the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

The Jimmy Collins Award is not presented annually, but only in remarkable cases, named for the New Orleans sportswriter who launched the Sugar Bowl’s awards in 1958. Blankenship’s recognition began with a video feature package produced by KTAL-TV sports director Tim Owens.

Blankenship, coach of the LSUS men’s team since 2012, stepped into an interim head coach role with the women’s program last October. The Pilots had another superb season, going 28-5 and reaching the NAIA Sweet 16. The Lady Pilots had an even more impressive regular season, going 22-0 in the Red River Athletic Conference and 30-3 overall, upset in the second round of the NAIA Tournament. Each team had only one first-team All-RRAC selection.

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By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

BATON ROUGE – On the first day of preseason training camp opening his 35th season as a college head football coach, LSU’s Brian Kelly felt a range of emotions.

First, there was surviving a heat index of around 100 degrees as the Tigers finished their Thursday morning workout.

“I was lightheaded today out there,” Kelly admitted afterward in his post-practice press conference.

Secondly, Kelly still eagerly anticipates watching his program develop from year to year, finally getting to a point where he can teach the Xs and O’s rather than first developing a disciplined winning culture.

“It’s the development of your team, what they look like and how they handle themselves,” Kelly said. “For instance, we don’t take our helmets off (in practice) for water breaks.

“In my first season as a head coach (in 1991 at Grand Valley State), I had guys taking their helmets off and throwing them each other.”

Finally, it bolstered Kelly’s confidence when Matt Mauck, LSU’s starting quarterback on the 2003 national championship team, gave the current-day Tigers high marks after he attended Thursday’s practice.

“I was really impressed,” Kelly said, “when a guy like Matty Mauck come up to you and say `Coach, that was impressive for day one in terms of the way your guys looked.’ He’s being honest with you. He’s not going to blow smoke.”

Thursday was the first of 19 practices before LSU enters game week preparation for the Sept. 1 season opener vs. USC in Las Vegas. Kelly was reasonably happy after practice No. 1.

“The (player) leadership understanding of how important it is to compete even when you’re not in a full equipment situation really resonated for me today,” Kelly said. “I was really, really happy about the speed. I was really happy about the execution.

“I was pleased with the competitiveness, the focus of how they went through each and every drill.”

Graduate student running back John Emery Jr. and senior starting cornerback Zy Alexander, who sustained season-ending knee injuries in 2023, are slowly working back in the mix.

“John’s (medically) clear for everything,” Kelly said. “When you have a knee, you need to experience some things like getting tripped up in the hole or cutting off of it and feeling the scar tissue.

“Alexander’s got to go through planting (his foot) and cutting, so he’s full go. But he’s in the process of getting back into football activities. It takes time before you feel real comfortable.”

Kelly announced sophomore defensive back Javien Toviano has been re-joined the team after being reinstated by the university. He had been suspended July 12 on a video voyeurism charge for recording him having sex with a woman.

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said Toviano’s case remains under review.

“He’s back in football activities, and we’ll kind of get him going again back in the mix as he works through his legal matters,” Kelly said of Toviano.

Among the Tigers’ true freshmen class, 6-foot-7 inch, 245-pound tight end Trey’Dez Green is one Kelly said could made an immediate impact.

“He certainly looks the part, right? He controls his body really well and has a great deal of confidence. He doesn’t look out of place, in any shape or form, from a physical standpoint, but he’s picked things up very well for a guy that has not played this game very long. It’s coming to him.

“I don’t want to stand here today on Day 1 and say he’s gonna play in the first year. But my experience has told me that guys that transition quickly with his kind of physical attributes tend to show real quick.”

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

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By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director

As the calendar has turned to August, the anticipation and excitement continues to build for the Centenary football program.

The Gents will play their first official NCAA season in over a half-century this fall. Centenary will face the Hendrix College Warriors at home on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. at Mayo Field in its season opener.

The preparation has been ongoing since an exhibition campaign last fall. That was all prelude.

The real on-field work gets going on Aug. 16. Preseason practice begins.

“We are so excited about the upcoming season,” said Centenary head football coach Byron Dawson.

“This year we will continue to build on the foundation that was laid with the class of 2022 and 2023. This time last year, we didn’t have a locker room, practice field or even a goalpost on campus – but what a difference a year can make.”

Those facilities have been established since preseason began last summer. While that was ongoing, the Gents got creative and made the most of it.

“We will enter this season with brand new facilities and field equipment and that is so important to the growth of this program. Last season we practiced every day on a grass intramural field on campus. We dressed out each day in the basketball locker rooms and we didn’t have an off-season to assist in the development of our players,” said Dawson.

There was no magic wand, just a lot of vision, commitment and support that has transformed Centenary football – and the entire athletic program – with completion of a new fieldhouse, artificial turf practice field and the finishing touches on the game field for football and soccer.

“We are so grateful for the leadership of the Board of Trustees, (president) Dr. (Christopher) Holoman, (athletic director) David Orr and his staff and the entire Centenary community for their support,” said Dawson. “Coming to work each day in our new locker room overlooking the new turf field, me, my staff and our student-athletes feel so blessed and honored to represent this city and this great college.

“The ribbon cutting ceremony held on May 9 was a testament to the commitment and vision of so many that made that great day possible,” he said.

The final steps are just ahead.

“In the next few weeks, players will move into their dorms and we will begin fall training. We will have a tough challenge entering the season with the youngest team and roster on our 10-game schedule. We will lean and rely on the experiences from last football season and our spring training.

“We are optimistic about several key returners and a solid group of incoming freshmen. We expect a very competitive fall camp.”

Dawson said the Gents will host a scrimmage against Louisiana Community Christian on Aug. 31 in their final tuneup for the kickoff of NCAA Division III competition.

Season and single-game tickets are on sale now.

Direct link to ticket purchases: https://fan.hudl.com/usa/la/shreveport/organization/69826/centenary-college-of/tickets

See the complete Gents’ season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/fball/2024-25/schedule

Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu

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By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

NEW ORLEANS — April Hagadone never imagined she’d be perched in front of her television set viewing one of her former players play Olympic volleyball matches with the Eiffel Tower as a scenic backdrop.

But must-see TV this week for Hagadone, now athletic director for Mount Carmel Academy in New Orleans after 16 years as head volleyball coach for the private all-girls Catholic school, is watching Kristen Nuss introduce herself to the world as the best pound-for-pound female beach volleyball player on the planet.

Nuss and Taryn Kloth, who went 36-0 in 2021 as seniors when they led the LSU Sandy Tigs beach volleyball team to the NCAA Final Four, are repeating in Paris as U.S. Olympians what they’ve done since turning professional just weeks after concluding their college careers.

Nuss and Kloth, the No. 2 rated beach duo in the world known to their growing fan base as “TKN” and winners of eight pro tournaments, are 2-0 after a pair of straight-set wins over Canada and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medal-winning duo from Australia.

“You can see the world falling in love with these two,” said Hagadone, now the Mt. Carmel athletic director. “They’re like sisters.”

The 6-4 Kloth, a South Dakota native who transferred to LSU in 2020 after playing two seasons for Creighton, quickly discovered two things becoming Nuss’ partner.

The New Orleans native, the winningest beach player in NCAA history with 139 career victories, rarely loses and always improves her partner’s game.

And she’s built a career in the most non-traditional ways, measuring a stumpy 5 feet, 6 inches and insisting on training in Louisiana instead of California beaches where almost everyone is tall, tan and blonde like Kloth.

“I like my 5-6,” said Nuss, inspired by the determination of her late grandfather Ralph “Putsy” Caballero who debuted in 1944 at age 16 as the youngest player in Philadelphia Phillies’ history.

“When I’m walking with Taryn, people look at Taryn and say `You must play volleyball.’ People don’t expect me to play beach volleyball. That’s why I’ll forever play with a chip on my shoulder.”

Nuss’ game is as physical (because of her acrobatic diving digs of opponents’ kill shots) as it is cerebral (dissecting in mid-air at the net where she can find an open space to tap a touch return over taller players for a point).

“She can see the court so beautifully,” Hagadone said. “She’s always been capable of making something out of nothing when you thought maybe a play was over.”

LSU head coach Russell Brock used to repeatedly replay video of some of Nuss’ most impossible plays, attempting to understand how she got it done.

“Kristen was created to play beach volleyball,” said Brock, who started LSU’s beach program in 2014.

He didn’t know she existed until Pete Nuss, one of Kristen’s three older brothers, sent a text to his occasional beach volleyball partner Brock that suggested “You should take a look at my little sister.”

Brock didn’t have to do much investigative work to discover he stumbled onto a hidden gem.

“Kristen played in seven state championship games in three sports in high school and won five of them,” Hagadone said. “She won three in volleyball and two in basketball.

“She was just a competitor who wanted to win all the time. She was the kid you always wanted to shoot the game-winning free throw. She had that something you can’t teach.”

Because Nuss was always in-season playing one of three sports for Mt. Carmel – soccer was the other – she never got a chance to play in club volleyball tournaments that would have exposed her to college recruiters.

So, Nuss and Megan Davenport, a friend, began playing beach volleyball as high school sophomores. They entered a local doubles tournament and were badly beaten.

“But I fell in love with beach from the first time I played it because you have to do everything,” Nuss said. “You have to be able to pass, set, hit, serve play defense. If I had played indoor (volleyball) for a Division 1 school, I would have strictly been a defender.”

Nuss credits LSU volunteer assistant coach Drew Hamilton for “teaching me everything I know about beach volleyball,” she said.

Kloth learned her sand volleyball education from Hamilton and Nuss, who initially made Kloth nervous when they became playing partners in 2020 after COVID shut down the college season.

“I was just starting to learn beach and I freaked out because Kristen was playing on a whole other level,” Kloth said. “I relaxed when I realized she makes everything simple.”

Like Nuss choosing for her and Kloth to live and train in the off-season in Baton Rouge rather than the California beach volleyball mecca.

It made sense and cents to Nuss to train where their coach lives, where the cost of living is considerably cheaper and where they can give back to the community.

Every December through the Kenner Community Center, Nuss and Kloth organize a beach volleyball tournament called “Santa in the Sand” at the Coconut Beach complex in Kenner to raise funds to pay for Christmas gifts for needy families. Last December, Nuss and Kloth raised $20,575.

“Kristen has never changed as a person,” said Hagadone, who’ll be tuned in Thursday for Team TKN’s next Olympic match vs. China at 3 p.m. CT. “She’s so humble and has always been a giving teammate. I’m so proud of her, watching her grow and seeing how much fun she’s having out there.”

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

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By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director

Right around the corner is one of the biggest stories in the history of Centenary College Athletics – the official restart of football.

The Gents kick off their first season of intercollegiate competition this fall since World War II, while other established fall sports on campus resume action as well.

The final step before turning the page to the 2024-25 athletic year takes place next week for Centenary Athletics.

Two Centenary senior competitors are among the finalists for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference man and woman of the year awards to be issued next Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

The awards recognize the conference’s senior student-athletes who have best distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence and service and leadership. Member schools were permitted to submit two nominations for each gender, if at least one of the nominees was a man of color or international student-athlete. One winner is chosen for each gender.

Senior Chrys Jackson, a member of the Centenary basketball team, is one of the four finalists for the 2024 SCAC Man of the Year award.

The other three finalists are James Settles of Colorado College, Maxwell Mims of Southwestern and Michael Kohl of Trinity. The 2024 SCAC Man of the Year will be announced next Wednesday by the league office.

Jackson is an English major with a 3.78 GPA and a member of the Dean’s List. He served as a team captain for the Gents twice, was recognized as the SCAC Character and Community student-athlete of the week once, and is a two-time member of the SCAC Winter All-Sportsmanship Team.

The Gentlemen won the SCAC Tournament played at the Gold Dome, and reached the NCAA Division III Tournament. 

Centenary junior Madeline Vacula, a member of the swimming team, is one of the seven finalists for the 2024 SCAC Woman of the Year award. She’s eligible because she graduated a year ahead of her class.

The 2024 SCAC Woman of the Year will be announced next Thursday.

The other six finalists are Samantha Thiele of Austin College, Kendall Accetta of Colorado College, Johnna Campbell of Southwestern, Mallarie Munson of St. Thomas, Sydney Ouellette of Texas Lutheran and Brette Thornton of Trinity.

Vacula, a biochemistry major with a 4.00 GPA, graduated with summa cum laude honors, the highest possible. Her many accomplishments include:

• Centenary College Dean’s List (2022-24)

• Academic All-District, Women’s Swimming (2024)

• Three-time All-SCAC Honoree (2022-2023)

• SCAC Champion (1,650-Yard Freestyle, 2023)

• SCAC Swimmer of the Week (2022)

These two seniors represent the top qualities that any college or university seeks to celebrate in its student-athletes. They are the cream of the crop for Centenary’s 2024 senior class.

Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu

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By T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT, Lincoln Parish Journal

DALLAS — Louisiana Tech’s football program has a revamped mindset heading into the 2024 season.

The Bulldogs finished 3-9 overall last year — their third straight three-win campaign — and have been predicted by Conference USA and league media to finish seventh in CUSA rankings. However, third-year Tech head coach Sonny Cumbie believes a new way of thinking for his Bulldogs can help his team pull off some positive surprises this season.

And as they appeared at the Conference USA Football Media Day Tuesday in Dallas, Cumbie, new full-time starting quarterback Jack Turner and senior defensive end Jessie Evans talked about how vital the mental aspects of the game being a key part of their philosophy has been.

Turner, a redshirt sophomore, played in eight games last season backing up Hank Bachmeier, receiving key snaps while completing 84-of-148 passes for 1,017 yards with five touchdowns and five interceptions.

“After two-and-half or three years, Jack Turner is ready to be the starting quarterback for our football team,” Cumbie said. “Jessie Evans is going to graduate at the end of this fall quarter, and he is really getting ready to impact our football team at defensive end.

“Their impact goes so much more than just what they do on the field and in our program and community. They’re heavily involved in our community and they’re heavily involved in our campus life, and they also just happen to both excel on the football field,” said Cumbie. “I think these two young men that represent our program and represent our players, and the city of Ruston and Louisiana Tech, I could not pick two guys who would better exude what we stand for in our program.”

Turner said the biggest thing he feels he needs to upgrade in his play is consistency.

“When you need to go a whole season playing at a high level, and ultimately winning, is big for us,” Turner said. “That’s a standard that we just have not met for ourselves over the past two years and is something that’s incredibly important for us.

“So that’s the big focus this year, just making sure that we win a little bit more.”

Cumbie believes Tech’s schedule has helped make his team’s mindset stronger.

“We’ve got a great schedule,” Cumbie said. “I am excited about our midweek contests that we kick off on a Thursday night. This year we have a Thursday, Tuesday, Tuesday game schedule that sets up really well from the standpoint of timing between our games, and then also our opponents’ (schedules). In our league, if you are a fan of watching close games and watching some great players, then I think the midweek games have been great for our league in terms of the close games you’ve been able to see and the talent out there on the field.

“This will be our third year as a staff and I’m very optimistic about the team we have on and off the field so I’m really looking forward to getting this thing started Aug. 31 with a home game against Nicholls State.”

Cumbie also believes new defensive coordinator Jeremiah Johnson is playing a role in his team’s upgraded mindset.

“As we went through the process to make a change on defense, I thought it was really important that we listen to our players and what were they looking for from a new defensive staff and defensive coordinator,” Cumbie said. “I think that from a schematic’s standpoint, I am really excited about the multiplicity of our schemes and what we’ll be able to do with Coach JJ and our staff.

“But the No. 1 thing our staff has done is connect with our players and I think that’s one of the cornerstones of our program — that connection piece. Schemes are very important on offense and defense, but the ability to connect with these young men and engage their heart and mind I think is the No. 1 thing and I think the players are looking for, so that’s what we try to go out and accomplish. 

“When you recruit players, you’ve got to have a certain level of talent to be able to recruit, and you also have to a certain level of knowing how we can stop the run, how do we read better in the red zone, how do we defend the pass well? And how we change up the looks for the quarterback. Ultimately, coach Jeremiah Johnson and his staff have done a particularly good job of dealing with our kids.  

“At Kent State he went in and in one year dramatically changed that team statistically,” said Cumbie. “Having guys able to play really good defense and I think we have the pieces in place in terms of the personnel that we have and I think the defensive staff we have will get the most out of those kids from a relationship standpoint and also on the field.”

Evans believes that a new clear-minded, fast-legs philosophy will help make for a stronger defense for the Bulldogs this season.

“On a day-to-day basis, I think it’s important that we don’t have to think about how we play, we just have to do, because our defense has a lot of great athletes out there,” said Evans. “So, now that we can just go out there and play free and make plays, I think that will make our defense way much better than it was last year.”

Contact Scott at tscottboatright@gmail.com

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By JONATHON ZENK, Northwestern State Sports Information

NATCHITOCHES — For new Northwestern State president Jimmy Genovese, playing tennis as a student-athlete at NSU was a stepping stone for being able to represent the university after graduation.

Genovese, who was formally introduced as the 21st president of his alma mater, was a four-year letterwinner in tennis, competing at the No. 1 position in singles and doubles.

A Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice, Genovese was selected last Thursday by the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors. He was introduced on the Northwestern campus Tuesday morning to an enthusiastic crowd that included some classmates and fellow former student-athletes.

Genovese was grateful for the response from alumni and others since he was announced as the next leader of the university.

“I’ve never seen support like I had for this,” he said. “I have had difficulty sleeping at night. Seeing the excitement of the students is great. They are the lifeblood of this institution.”

Genovese earned his bachelor’s degree from NSU in 1971 before earning a juris doctorate from Loyola (La.) University in 1974.

He began his judicial career in his hometown of Opelousas as a city court judge in 1975 and has been on a judicial bench almost constantly since. He has been an associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court since 2017.

Memories of his days playing for the Demons are vibrant, said Genovese, who despite a knee replacement several years ago remains an enthusiastic competitor on the tennis courts and is an avid golfer.

He made it clear Tuesday that one of his primary objectives is to help NSU Athletics succeed in the Southland Conference. He noted his own competitive fire and his admiration for today’s student-athletes. Two – football player Cadillac Rhone and volleyball’s Ashlyn Svoboda – delighted Genovese by presenting him with a letter jacket featuring the throwback block “N” mark after he spoke for about 10 minutes to a standing-room-only crowd of about 260 in the Friedman Student Union ballroom.

“It is great to have a former student-athlete as our new president,” head football coach Blaine McCorkle said. “Not so much what we are going through as coaches, but he understands our student-athletes and the demands on them and what they have to do.

“He put a little pressure on me to win football games and I am all for that. We’re on the same page. We came here eight months ago to do the same thing. I am excited for what he said and getting to work with him.”

Genovese noted what competition does for those involved, not only in sports but in life as well.

“One thing athletics teaches you is you learn how to win, you learn how to lose and you learn how to handle defeat,” Genovese said. “If you are playing sports with people, you get to learn their true personality.

“It teaches you lessons of life, because you know how to win and lose and handle it all. Not only does athletics bring money, excitement and exposure into the university, but it also builds character.”

Genovese quoted the great Vince Lombardi by saying “’I am not a loser and I don’t intend to be one now.’

“I don’t expect to win the championship every year,” said the new president, “but what I do expect is for us to be competitive every year.”

Prior to being introduced as the school’s 21st president, Genovese visited his old stomping grounds at the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex. While the venue looks a bit different from when he last played for the Demons, the memories came flooding back to him as soon as he stepped on the court.

“I wanted to re-live it one more time, walking off the court for the last time in May of 1971, all the sweat and blood that I left on the court for Northwestern,” he said.

“It was a wonderful experience and it gave chills up and down my spine, much like today.”

Contact Jonathon at zenkj@nsula.edu

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Guess who’s turning 100 this fall?

Tiger Stadium.

That’s me. Betcha didn’t know I could talk, did you?

I’m pretty chatty on a football Saturday, but you can never hear me over 102,321 mostly alcohol-fueled fans.

I question our head coaches a lot. I remember when Les Miles coached here. It seemed like every game, I’d start a sentence with “What in the hell is Les Miles doing. . .”

Like in the 2007 game vs. Auburn. LSU was well in range for a game-winning field goal with eight seconds left. That’s when I said, “What the hell is Les Miles doing throwing for the end zone?” Demetrius Byrd caught a 22-yard TD pass with one second left for a 30-24 LSU victory.

I’m like any other old guy. My waistline has vastly expanded from when I was born in November 1924. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve had some cosmetic work done over the years, such as this summer’s installation of new video boards you can view from Mars, new speaker towers that reach Defcon 1 level and new LED lights for in-game light shows.

Truthfully, I’m not much for bells and whistles. To me, the show is always the Tigers. They create the noise and the passion, not recorded songs on a soundtrack. They’re why they are 451-156-18 in my Cajun cathedral of pigskin.

I’m exceptionally excited this season because four of seven games I’m hosting are first-time visitors – Nicholls State, UCLA, South Alabama and Oklahoma, one of SEC’s two new members.

Just last week, Oklahoma starting quarterback Jackson Arnold said the stadium he’s looking forward most to visit for the first time is me.

“Never played there, never been there at night, so I’m super pumped about it,” Arnold said.

Jackson, I appreciate the respect and your anticipation. But I’ll do everything to make your life a living hell for three hours.

I can be the loudest place on the planet, like when the crowd noise registered on a seismograph on the LSU campus when Eddie Fuller caught the game-winning TD vs. Auburn in 1988.

My favorite quote about me was from South Carolina receiver Bruce Ellington. He said, “It was barely so loud I couldn’t read the signals (from the sideline). My eyes were vibrating.”

I really LOVE that.

Something else that makes me unique is I am one of three major college programs (Florida State and Washington State are the others) that have old-school H-style uprights anchored two goalposts rather than one.

My goalposts have been torn down a few times by our fans celebrating a monumental victory, like our only home win ever vs. a No. 1 ranked team in 1997 vs. defending national champion Florida.

I was told late in that game LSU’s game operation manager John Symank went to athletic director Joe Dean’s press box suite with concerns students would rush the field and tear down the goalposts when the game ended.

“WE’RE GONNA BEAT THE NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE COUNTRY,” Dean roared. “I WANT THEM TO TEAR THE DAMNED THINGS DOWN.”

I’ve hosted visiting teams that included 13 Heisman Trophy winners, 8 eventual national champions, 4 future Super Bowl MVPs and 12 future NFL No. 1 overall draft picks.

The list of memories runs deep.

I’ve seen a grown man (LSU QB/DB Y.A. Tittle) get his belt buckle ripped off when he made an interception vs. Ole Miss in 1947 and attempted to hold up his pants while running. Ole Miss defender Barney Poole later said, “I was never told how to tackle a guy with his pants down.”

I’ve seen a dapperly dressed head coach (Ole Miss’ Johnny Vaught) with two huge mud spots on his suit pants after he sunk to his knees in the mud when LSU’s Billy Cannon ran past him on his famous Halloween Night 1959 game-winning 89-yard punt return.

Twice, I hosted the head coaching debuts of Paul Dietzel in 1955 (as LSU’s coach) and in 1966 (as South Carolina’s coach). Guess which game he was welcomed with a crescendo of boos?

I saw an LSU receiver (Carlos Carson) catch five TD passes in his college starting debut in 1977 vs. Rice on an offense that would finish the season with just 12 TD passes.

I witnessed a Tigers’ center (T-Bob Hebert) win a football game in 2010 by prematurely snapping the ball over the head of his quarterback just before time expired ending the game drawing a too many men on the field penalty from Tennessee’s defense. LSU scored the game-winning TD on the extra play it received due to UT’s penalty.

I teared up watching my season-ticket holders greet each other with extended hugs and tears of relief at my rescheduled Monday night 2005 season opener vs. Tennessee following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hitting South Louisiana in a 26-day span.

I saw LSU’s perfect 15-0 national championship team average 48.3 points in six home games. A year ago, I was dazzled when LSU’s eventual Heisman winner Jayden Daniels’ torched Florida in a 52-35 win with his SEC record 606 yards total offense.

Starting my 100^th year, I’m hoping for the only wacky thing I have yet to see.

The Tigers win with a drop-kick field goal as time expires.

Hey, it COULD happen.

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

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By JASON PUGH, NSU Sports Information Director

SAN ANTONIO – Belief is a simple word that carries a much larger impact, especially for the Northwestern State football team.

That concept – and an atmosphere of excitement – permeated the Demons’ time at Monday’s Southland Conference Opening Drive event at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in the Alamo City.

“I wouldn’t say it came quickly,” junior linebacker Cadillac Rhone said. “We grew that belief through spring ball and the offseason, going to work each and every day, being around each other each and every day. That belief started to grow, and you started to see more and more confidence in each of the players.”

That confidence will be paramount for a Demon team that first-year head coach Blaine McCorkle pointed out has gone “625 days as of today” between victories.

“They’ve been through as much as any college football player should ever have to go through,” McCorkle said. “They’re still reeling and hurting from missed opportunities last year. One of the best things these guys can do is go out and play some football. That’s the best medicine for them.”

Northwestern’s 2023 season ended after six games last season, with four remaining games cancelled by the university in the wake of the off-campus shooting death of a player.  McCorkle was hired several weeks later and began to piece together the program, which suffered heavy attrition.

Monday, Northwestern was chosen ninth in the nine-team preseason poll, but that talking point was simply that.

“That’s exactly where we belong,” McCorkle said. “We haven’t done anything to be in any other position with the history of the last few years and the unknown of players coming back. To be picked anywhere other than last would be a shocker. It helps us realize how far we have to go to earn respect, and the best way to do that is by putting wins on the scoreboard. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

As much as the Demons’ trio who attended the two-day affair put on by the Southland Conference talked about belief, they shared also enjoyed a shared sense of excitement for a season that is less than six weeks away from the Aug. 29 kickoff game at Tulsa.

Senior athlete Chance Newman joined Rhone and McCorkle in San Antonio, part of the byproduct of the premature end of the 2023 season, which extended the senior’s college career by a season.

Like his teammate and his new head coach, Newman spent the two days soaking up the excitement of the upcoming season and trading good-natured meetings with the players he and the Demons will see on the field in 2024 – all of which served to whet his appetite for NSU’s 12-game schedule that quickly is drawing near.

“Going through the day to days we’ve gone through and will go through with fall camp, getting one percent better every day is the goal,” he said. “Two seasons ago, we were 4-0 in conference and if we win either of our last two games, we’re co-champions or outright champions depending on who beat. Tulsa is our main focus, but the ultimate goal is to win a conference championship by going through the process with (strength and conditioning) coach (Jason) Smelser in the offseason and the summer.

“You see the leaders of some of the other teams and meet the coaching staffs. It’s a great experience, and Cadillac and I are grateful to be here. It means the season’s right around the corner.”

Contact Jason at pughj@nsula.edu

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DALLAS – No matter the site hosting the SEC Football preseason Media Days for the last 17 years, Wednesday was always reserved for Nickfest.

From 2007 through last season when none of us in the media suspected it would be Nick Saban’s last year as Alabama’s head coach, every SEC Media Day Wednesday was like a Mardi Gras parade when Saban and three Crimson Tide players arrived.

The crush of Tide fans wanting a glimpse of the Sabanator or an autograph caused the league to put up velvet ropes to hold back the worshiping mob.

Even the guy who showed up dressed as Bear Bryant from head to toe whenever media days were held in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover.

The Nicktator always concluded his 30-minute appearance in the main media room full of print and internet journalism by thanking us for what we did to create interest in college football.

The statement was usually met with wry smiles and smirks from a room full of cynics, knowing it wouldn’t be long before he was railing about the “rat poison” spread by us who usually considered his team the favorite in 99.9 percent of the games they played.

Since retiring in January – Saban finally decided winning seven national championships was enough and didn’t care to annually re-negotiate with returning starters seeking more NIL cash – his transformation to life after the greatest coaching career in college football history has been a revelation.

First, the 72-year-old Saban is learning the basics of doing things himself and does not have an army of support personnel at his beck and call.

“He has started responding to texts,” said pleasantly surprised Georgia head coach Kirby Smart, who served 11 seasons on Saban’s Alabama, LSU and Miami Dolphins staffs. “I told people the other day, that’s the first time ever. Either somebody has his phone, or he learned how to text. That makes all of us in his circle of friends proud because we get to reach out to him.”

Even Saban showing up at this week’s 39th annual preseason media days here in the Omni Hotel in his new job as an ESPN football analyst was eye-opening.

When he was coaching, Saban and his players would fly or drive (when media days were in Hoover just 53 miles from Tuscaloosa) on the day Alabama was required to appear.

He would have his usual bodyguards flank him as he whizzed past the security checking credentials to enter the interview areas. He’d do his day’s work and immediately return home.

On Monday morning, Saban checked into the Omni at 7:30 about 90 minutes before the SEC Network’s wall-to-wall coverage started. His room key didn’t work.

He discovered his room was already occupied by longtime Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Wally Hall who checked in Sunday night. Hall cracked open the door just enough to see a confused and perturbed Saban.

“They told me this was my room,” Saban told Hall, who listened to Saban read the room number on his key.

“That’s what they told me when I checked in yesterday,” Hall said.

“I think this is supposed to be my room,” Saban said. “They told me this was my room number.”

“I think there’s some confusion here,” Hall said. “You are Nick Saban and I’m Wally Hall, and I don’t see us sharing a room.”

Saban eventually gave up but was flustered enough to leave his media credential in his reassigned hotel room. Without it, he was denied access by a security guard to the media interview where the SEC Network set was located.

After Saban’s rookie mistake, he retrieved his credential, and it was smooth sailing the rest of the week.

Saban has been nothing short of brilliant in his new gig, which is no surprise. He’s taking his coaching strengths – unequaled preparation and concise communication – and applying them to the airwaves.

For instance, he said he prepared 200 hours for his three-round appearance on ESPN’s NFL draft coverage.

The job was right up his alley, which is player assessment. Saban didn’t win those seven nattys and 11 SEC titles with blind luck.

This week, Saban quickly addressed new SEC member Texas and its history in the Big 12 and Southwest Conference of bullying the league’s other members and being placed on a financial pedestal above them.

“What kind of tickles me is all these people asking questions about how Texas always ran the conference they were in,” Saban said. “They’re not gonna run the SEC.”

Which infuriated Texas fans.

Then, he predicted Georgia and Texas would play in December’s SEC championship game.

Which ignited Alabama’s fan base.

“Nobody has told me I have to be critical,” Saban said. “I don’t want to be critical. I want to be objective, but I don’t want to be controversial. You can take any decision that anybody makes and make it controversial.”

ESPN has made numerous dumb personnel moves in the last several years, but it would be wise to make Saban the centerpiece of its live College GameDay show and send tank-top-wearin’ jackleg goofball Pat McAfee back to anonymity.

No one in college football, on and off the field, has more street cred than Saban.

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

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JOURNAL SPORTS

The Bossier Parish Community College basketball team collected a couple of impressive national academic honors this week.

Freshman Ajang Tong was awarded NJCAAA All-Academic Third Team honors after posting a grade point average between 3.6-3.79. The 6-7 forward from Calgary, Canada, was among 12 student-athletes from Region XIV to earn the distinction.

Tong is the third men’s basketball student-athlete from BPCC collecting All-Academic honors in the last four years under coach J.A. Anglin.

The Cavaliers also have earned one of the 2023-24 National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Team Academic Excellence Awards.

BPCC finished the 2023-24 academic year with a 3.1 team grade point average. The Cavaliers were one of only eight NJCAA programs to receive the NABC Team Excellence Award and the lone representative of Region XIV for the second consecutive year.

The awards recognize men’s basketball programs that completed the 2023-24 academic year with a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. The NABC’s academic awards recognize teams and athletes from all levels of college basketball.

“The NABC is proud to celebrate these accomplished student-athletes, along with the coaches and staff who champion success in the classroom,” said NABC Executive Director Craig Robinson. “Education is a core value of the NABC, and the teams and athletes who earned these awards are proof that academic achievement remains a priority across every level of our sport.”

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By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Sports Information Director

Keeping an eye on Centenary sports has never been easier than it will be in the 2024-25 athletic year.

The Gents and Ladies will be sharply in focus as part of a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference multi-year, seven-figure media rights agreement with FloSports, a global sports media company.

The SCAC becomes the fourth Division III conference to be featured on the upcoming FloCollege platform. The agreement will also fuel productions for the new SCACtv Network beginning in the 2024-25 academic year.

The SCAC is coming off one of its most successful seasons in league history as seven of the conference’s nine institutions placed in the final 2023-24 Division III LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup standings. This season also marked the third consecutive year the SCAC has placed five or more schools in the final rankings, the first time such a feat has occurred since the league posted a streak of six straight years from 2007-2012.

The SCAC follows the Landmark Conference, the New England Men’s and Women’s Athletic Conference and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to land on FloCollege, which will be the essential media platform for D-II and D-III athletics.

Over the length of the five-year partnership, FloSports will stream all live and on-demand SCAC events from participating members Centenary College, Colorado College, Concordia University (Texas), University of Dallas, McMurry University, University of the Ozarks, Schreiner University and University of St. Thomas, including the conference’s 18 championships on FloCollege. On-demand access will last for a period of 72 hours following each contest, after which video will be archived on the SCACtv Network and member institutions will be able to provide access free-of-charge through their institutional platforms. FloSports will also leverage the local, national and international brands of SCAC member institutions by producing original content and social media programming.

With 100 percent of revenue generated from the partnership being reinvested into SCAC member institutions, the agreement promises to create a more equitable standard across the conference for all broadcasts and further enhances production capabilities and quality of coverage across all sports.

FloSports college programming reached more than 38 million people in 2023 with more than 51 million live minutes watched for NCAA conference partner events in the 2022-2023 season. The company has committed $50 million into supporting its FloCollege platform, which will debut with more than 10,000 total NCAA events in 2024 in partnership with leading national conferences including the BIG EAST, Coastal Athletic Association, Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Landmark Conference, New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference, South Atlantic Conference, Gulf South Conference, California Collegiate Athletic Association, and Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, with more on the horizon.

FloSports is available on the web and for download on mobile devices (iOS and Android) as well as smart TVs and streaming devices Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more. Founded in 2006, FloSports is a global independent sports media company delivering live events, award-winning original content, always-on social experiences, and comprehensive sports data solutions to passionate and underserved sports communities interested in more than 25 different sports.

Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu

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JOURNAL SPORTS

NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State’s annual Long Purple Line induction ceremony will have a distinctly athletic feel in 2024.

Of the six inductees into the university’s Alumni Hall of Distinction announced Wednesday, four have direct ties to the NSU Athletic Department.

Former Demon student-athletes Jack “Britt” Brittain Jr., Dr. Chris Maggio and Robert “Skeeter” Salim along with legendary  sports information director Doug Ireland make up two-thirds of the induction class, which will be honored with a 12 p.m. luncheon Oct. 25 at the Natchitoches Events Center. Tickets are available at https://nsulalongpurpleline.eventbrite.com.

Bossier Parish businessman and former state Rep. Henry Burns, and former NSU professor and current Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts director Dr. Steve Horton are the other two 2024 inductees. Brittain passed away a year ago.  This year’s class pushes the number of Long Purple Line honorees to 152.

“The Northwestern State Athletic Department sends its congratulations to all six inductees, especially the four who have helped shape NSU athletics,” Director of Athletics Kevin Bostian said. “No one loved NSU and the Demons more than Jack Brittain – and few if any did more to celebrate our university and community. Chris Maggio has been a part of just about every piece of this university possible. His dedication and versatility are second to none. Doug Ireland is a Natchitoches and NSU institution. His tireless promotion of our student-athletes, coaches and staff in three decades put Northwestern State in the regional and national spotlight. Skeeter Salim’s on-court record as a tennis player speaks for itself and his generosity and largesse toward both the university and our department is indicative of his loyalty and his legacy.”

Brittain was a four-year football letterman who spent another 18 years as the sideline reporter for football games on the Demon Sports Network, conveying reports in a unique but passionate style.

A relentless promoter of Northwestern State and Natchitoches, Brittain was named the N-Club Distinguished Service Award winner in 2013 and was the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s Mac Russo Award winner in 2017. The Russo Award is given to an individual to “contributes to the progress and ideals of the LSWA.” Following Brittain’s death in July 2023, the LSWA renamed the honor the Mac Russo-Jack Brittain Award.

Following his playing career, Brittain was Northwestern State’s foremost advocate on behalf of his NSU teammate Joe Delaney, following Delaney’s 1983 drowning death while trying to save three children. Brittain became a fixture at Kansas City Chiefs’ events honoring Delaney and represented NSU at the 2004 Chiefs’ Ring of Honor ceremony where the organization honored Delaney.

Maggio, who served as NSU’s 19^th president from 2017 until his retirement in 2021, has seen Northwestern State from every angle beginning with his time as a student in the 1980s where he was a member the Demons’ cross-country team.

He later served as coach of the women’s track and field/cross country team and assistant athletic director before transitioning to roles in academics that included positions in admissions, enrollment services, alumni and student experience before leading the university as its president.

During his tenure as president, Maggio drove NSU to a record enrollment of 11,447 in the fall 2020 semester while also pushing private funding to the highest level in NSU’s history.

Salim was a four-year letterman on the Demon tennis team before becoming one of the top trial lawyers in the country.

A founding member of The Class Action Trial Lawyers Association, Salim also was named to America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators.

His decades-long support of Demon baseball has been pivotal, resulting in significant enhancements to Brown-Stroud Field. He also has been a significant supporter of NSU men’s and women’s basketball. His fundraising efforts and promotion of Northwestern State athletics netted him the 2019 N-Club Hall of Fame’s Distinguished Service Award.

Salim has established four $100,000 endowments across the past two years, including three that honor those with athletic ties at NSU – Jerry Pierce, Richard Ware and Brittain.

Ireland served his alma mater for 30-plus years as the assistant athletic director for media relations and sports information director before retiring in May 2019.

In addition to spearheading publicity efforts 14 NCAA Division I teams at Northwestern, he was an instrumental part of the efforts leading to the opening of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum in Natchitoches in 2013. Eight years later he was enshrined into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame as a winner of the LSWA’s Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism and has served as the chairman of the LSHOF since 1990.

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By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

DALLAS – Retired college head football coaches might be envious of their successors and the successors of their successors.

Twenty years ago, just 23 head coaches were making $1 million or more annually topped by Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops $2.2 million yearly.

As of last season, 84 head coaches made $1 million or more annually, including 36 coaches banking $5 million annually led by now-retired Alabama head coach Nick Saban’s $11.1 million.

The head coaches of the newly expanded 16-team Southeastern Conference will deposit a collective $126.7 million in salaries this season.

But listen to each of them for a few minutes this week here at the league’s annual media touch on navigating the constantly changing climate of college athletics. And you realize they earn every bit of their mega-salaries facing new, unexpected off-the-field challenges.

Conference expansion has re-arranged traditional leagues. New rules such as coaching staffs now with no hiring limits on the number of assistants and support staff have added layers to each school’s organizational setups.

The NCAA transfer portal celebrates its sixth birthday in October, allowing athletes to be paid through name, like and image turns four years old in June.

The transfer portal rules have been changed at least twice and no coach knows if there are any sustainable, standard rules governing NIL.

It’s no coincidence the number of Division 1 football players in the portal jumped since NIL began in June 2021 from 2,914 in 2021-22 to 3,284 in 2022-23 to 3,843 in 2023-24.

Even LSU’s Brian Kelly, who’s starting his 33rd year as a college head coach, is still learning the ins and outs of the transfer portal and NIL.

“You need to use the transfer portal to top off the tank so to speak,” Kelly said here on Monday when he led off the four-day media circus. “You can add to a particular position and almost one that’s not needed but becomes a luxury.”

Yet for the most part, Kelly has spent three recruiting classes filling a huge roster deficit left by previous coach Ed Orgeron. The gaps have mostly been in the defensive backfield where Kelly signed mostly Power 5 conference castaways to fill LSU’s needs.

It showed up big for the Tigers last season, especially when transfer cornerbacks Duce Staley (Syracuse) and Denver Harris (Texas A&M) were a waste of scholarships and JK Johnson (Ohio State) was hurt in the preseason.

“If you’re in the transfer portal for need-based, you haven’t done something right in the natural recruiting season,” Kelly said. “Last year, it was need-based and that’s never a good situation when it comes to the development of your football program. If it’s strictly need-based, you’re probably in for some rough seas.”

LSU’s ship would have completely sunk in 2023 (instead of finishing 10-4) if wasn’t for Arizona State transfer quarterback Jayden Daniels’ unfathomable leap of improvement to winning the Heisman Trophy in his second and final Tigers’ season.

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, supposedly college football’s “King of the Transfer Portal,” understands to proceed with caution when he’s mixing high school and transfer portal signees.

“It’s critical to have a really good balance,” Kiffin said. “With the evolving college football landscape of recruiting and portal changes and windows and now multiple transfers, you can’t be stuck and say we’re not going to take many transfers or this many percent of high school.

“We’re going to try to sign the best players, but we’re also going to really look at who they are. Especially in the portal, you’ve got to be really careful and do a good job of evaluating who they are, why they left where they left, and what do they want to do so that when you do hit some tough times they’re the right type of players that are there to help themselves but to help the team also.”

Georgia’s two-time national championship head coach Kirby Smart said he hopes recruits don’t make their scholarship signing decision solely based on how much NIL money he’ll earn.

“I’m happy that these kids get an opportunity to improve their situation or make money and give back to their families or in some cases their communities,” Smart said. “If it’s better for that young man because of a financial difference between us and another school, I respect that decision and opinion they have to make.

“But I don’t get to the finish line of official visits where that’s the primary objective. If it is, we’re probably not getting to that point. We’re probably not going to be in the conversation.

“As you go recruit a kid, staying power is important now. I don’t think there is a huge difference in the players we recruit. It’s a difference when they stay in your program. Retention is really critical.”

Ole Miss starting quarterback Jaxson Dart, who transferred from Southern Cal in 2022, feels like transfer portal recruiting is easier than high school recruiting.

“They (transfer portal recruits) want to understand the more business side of things and also understand what their role going to be and how they will be used,” Dart said. “There’s not as many things that come along with high school recruits.”

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

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By T. SCOTT BOATRIGHT, Lincoln Parish Journal

GRAMBLING — GramFam love.

Despite the steamy mid-July humidity, it permeated the air inside the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center Saturday night.

The Grambling Legends Sports Hall of Fame held its 2024 induction ceremony Saturday and love for the Black and Gold was the unmistakable theme of the night.

Representing football were Glynn Alexander, Aldrich Allen, Scotty Anderson, Herman Arvie and Arlester Brown. Elsie Dillard and Napoleon Johnson were basketball honorees, while Michael Cummings and Robert Williams represented baseball. Track and field contributions were celebrated through the induction of Ainsley Armstrong and Gail Emmanuel. Additionally, former Band Director Larry Pannell was recognized in the contributor category.

But undoubtedly, probably the biggest highlight of the night was the induction of the 100-year-old Brown, a member of Grambling’s undefeated and unscored team of 1941. The backfield mate of Tiger legend and NFL trailblazer Tank Younger  received multiple standing ovations.

Brown, who became a Shreveport educator and founded the still-functioning Shreveport Teachers Association Credit Union, was a football halfback alongside Tiger legend Tank Younger before being injured in World War II. He returned to Grambling and earned a bachelor’s and two masters’ degrees, then a degree in divinity, eventually leading him into the ministry along with later service as a security volunteer in the Clinton White House.

“God and Grambling State gave me these opportunities to help others,” Brown said. “God and Grambling State allowed me to be blessed to be a blessing to so many others.

“To my family, God keep you and God love you. Be the person God wants you to be. That is the thing the world needs more of today — more love. God bless you and God keep you.”

The last inductee of the night was Pannell, a Shreveport native and former member of the World Famed Grambling Tiger Marching Band who graduated in 1973 and became part of the band’s leadership in 1990 and moved into the director’s position soon afterward. He led an array of noteworthy performances, not only on the field but in movies, and in the 1998 Super Bowl.

“I never thought when I came to Grambling in 1969 that I would become considered one of the legendary figures at Grambling State University,” Pannell said. “I will not belabor you with a long acceptance speech. Let me just give a special thanks to my friends Doug Williams, Mr. James ‘Shack’ Harris (Grambling Legends founders) and all of the Hall of Fame induction committee members in making this such a memorable event.”

The first inductee, former baseball shortstop/outfielder Michael Cummings, was a four-time All-Southwestern Athletic Conference selection and was drafted in the sixth round of the 1969 League baseball draft by the Boston Red Sox.

Cummings played 10 seasons in the minors, logging 679 games in Double-A and Triple-A for the Red Sox and Braves organizations, batting .293 with 181 runs batted in.

“This is like a dream,” Cummings said. “I can’t even explain what I’m going through. God is good. God is good. Thank you all.”

Team captain and all-conference selection on the 1967 SWAC championship baseball team, Williams went on to a successful career as a railroad executive and public/motivational speaker.

“What I’m saying to you tonight is that 1967 was a great year,” Williams said. “I asked my wife to marry me in 1967. She agreed — that was 1967. And then all of a sudden, we found ourselves blessed with our first son, so it was a great year.”

Williams went on to say it was his children, grandchildren and wife were his biggest wins throughout his life.

“To each and every one of you here, I love you,” Williams said. “This is as great as it gets.”

Johnson was an All-American post player for Fred Hobdy’s Tigers, twice earning All-SWAC honors, before a lengthy pro career that began in the NBA as a 10th-round pick of the Dallas Mavericks but earned his most pro success in the international game in Italy.

After his playing career, Johnson served for 10 years for the Alexandria Police Department before becoming an insurance executive for the past 15 years.

“Here I am standing on Grambling’s basketball court, 40 years after taking the 00 (jersey) off my back, being honored as a Hall of Famer in front of the Tiger nation,” Johnson said.

“How did I get here? My mother once took me to visit her sister, the late professor Bessie Foster, who on the visit gave me eight Grambling yearbooks to look at —- 1959-67. And I saw one page in there with a headline that said ‘Jim Dandy (the nickname of late GSU hoops standout Howard Willis) to the Rescue!’

“That stuck in my head. In 1967 she took me to a Grambling basketball game when they were playing in (Shreveport’s) Hirsch Coliseum to go to (the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) basketball tournament in Kansas City and introduced me to coach Hobdy. Before that, I did not know that my mother had played for coach Hobdy in the 1950s. By that time that 9-year-old boy was already ready to come to Grambling.”

Arvie, an All-American offensive lineman, helped Eddie Robinson’s Tigers win the 1989 Southwestern Athletic Conference title and the 1992 National Black College Championship. A fifth-round 1993 NFL Draft pick, he played four seasons with the Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens franchise.

“I owe this honor to the support of many — to my family, my mom, my siblings, my niece and nephews, who have been my unwavering pillars of strength,” Arvie said.

Contact Scott at tscottboatright@gmail.com

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By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports

DALLAS – Man, it was fun to watch.

Rewind to the 2022 football season when LSU true freshman outside linebacker Harold Perkins Jr. was like a tornado dropping from the sky, carving a path of destruction through SEC backfields.

It took eight starts for the Texas Tasmanian Devil to earn All-SEC and freshman All-America first-team honors.

His 13 tackles for loss, including 7½ sacks, resulted from lining up a superb athlete in space and telling him to tackle anybody who had the ball as quickly and viciously as possible.

Don’t think. Just sic ’em.

Like when he destroyed Arkansas with three sacks and three forced fumbles.

“One of my better performances,” said Perkins, who along with quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and tight end Mason Taylor represented LSU on Monday at the Omni Hotel for the start of the 39th annual SEC Media Days.

Then came last season, ending with a 10-3 record only because of the offensive brilliance of three first-round draft choices, including Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jayden Daniels.

But it was also one of the most colossal defensive horror shows in LSU football history, starting with then-defensive coordinator Matt House moving Perkins to middle linebacker.

It was as if Perkins’ natural talent was placed in witness protection. He looked slow and hesitant. He disappeared in a forest of 320-pound-plus offensive linemen. It wasn’t until after several games that House began moving Perkins around, getting him back in open space.

Perkins finished with 13 tackles for loss, including five sacks. Yet his only memorable play was an interception late in the first half at Missouri that led to a TD as LSU battled back from a 22-10 deficit for a 49-39 win.

“The decision to move inside wasn’t for me or anything else,” Perkins said. “It was the best decision that was needed for the team. You’ve just got to live and learn from it.”

Maybe so or maybe not.

One of the stunning revelations of LSU head coach Brian Kelly firing House and replacing him in January with Missouri D-coordinator Blake Baker was Baker immediately penciled in Perkins as a starting linebacker.

Huh? That’s like asking Perkins to break back into last year’s early-season prison.

“Harold was much more impactful as a pass rusher (as a freshman), somebody that was a situational player, and quite frankly maybe got a reputation as that,” Kelly said. “But that’s not who he is. He’s an every-down linebacker who can play inside and out, can run, obviously rush the passer, and tackle from sideline to sideline.

“The developmental process is coaches have to be able to see what he can do right now vs. what can he do as he develops, and then ultimately, what his position will be as moves to the next level.”

No one – Kelly, Perkins or Baker – has explained yet how Perkins will make a huge leap of improvement to suddenly play inside again among the behemoths who made him invisible.

Baker said in the spring he won’t anchor Perkins inside the defensive box for every snap.

“We’re not going to just put him in one spot and say `Hey, this what you’re gonna do,’’ Baker said. “We have to start him there and he’s got to get really good in the position. He also has the innate ability to come off the edge. He’s a really good blitzer. He’s really good in coverage. There’s not much that the guy can’t do.”

Perkins is counting on a slight weight gain, his increased film study and his copesetic working relationship with Baker to make his second shot playing inside a success.

“It’s football, so you can’t be a small guy running around,” said Perkins, who has raised his playing weight from 217 last season to 225. “I put on a few pounds of muscle. I like it. I feel bigger, faster and stronger.”

Perkins who admitted he “thought too much” last year as a middle linebacker, has realized knowledge is power. That’s why he’s been living in the film room.

“Every offense has an identity and has tendencies,” Perkins said. “You’ve got to know what you’re looking at. Once you lock into those tendencies, it’s easier to go out there and play. I’m trusting my instincts and what I’m capable of doing and trusting my teammates.”

Finally, there’s Perkins’ relationship with Baker, who served as linebackers coach on previous LSU head coach Ed Orgeron’s staff in 2021 but was not retained on Kelly’s first staff.

Baker had originally recruited for the Tigers when Perkins was rated the nation’s fourth-best high school player as a senior for Cypress Park (Texas) High.

“I fell in love with Coach Baker when he came to our first (LSU) practice wearing cleats,” Perkins said. “I liked that he was out there showing us what he wanted.

“He has that type of relationship with his players. He’s not talking about it. He’s being about it.”

Finally, Perkins believes he can shine as a middle linebacker.

“I’m confident Coach Baker can put me in the right position to make plays,” Perkins said. “At the end of the day, it’s a mindset thing. If you’re a dog, you’re a dog.

“When you play outside (linebacker), teams can run away from me. I love playing inside because they’re running at me.”

Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com

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By JASON PUGH, Northwestern State Sports Information Director

NATCHITOCHES – Sixteen top sports figures in Northwestern State’s history, the largest induction class ever for the N-Club Hall of Fame will enter the school’s athletic shrine in October.

Entering the Hall on homecoming day Oct. 26 are a pair of track and field All-Americans, a two-time All-American linebacker and Southland Conference champions across a range of sports.

Linebacker Jamall Johnson is the seventh of nine Demon football players to earn multiple All-American honors, doing so in 2003 and 2004. He is joined in the induction class by fellow linebacker Kurt Rodriguez, who owns the school freshman record in tackles (111) and topped the 400-tackle mark in a three-time All-Southland Conference career.

Sprinter Edgar Cooper helped lead Northwestern State to a pair of conference championships and earned All-American honors in 1987 as part of NSU’s 4×100 meter relay team. He is one of two track and field All-Americans entering the hall, joined by javelin standout Samantha Ford Hatten, a 2003 All-American who twice qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Inductees who captured Southland Conference team championships during their NSU careers are tennis’ Olga Bazhanova Moore, football wide receiver Nathan Black, men’s basketball’s Michael Byars-Dawson, women’s basketball’s Diamond Cosby, soccer’s Hillarie Marshall Coleman, softball’s Shannon Straty and baseball’s Troy Conkle and Brad Hanson. High jumper Janice Miller Moore, an individual Southland champion in her signature event, rounds out the 2024 competitive-ballot inductees.

That group will be joined by Distinguished Service Award winner Carlos Treadway, a standout football tight end, in the 2024 class. Joining them for the induction are 2023 electees Gene Tennison (football) and Matt Donner (baseball).

Johnson earned consecutive All-American honors in 2003 and 2004, collecting Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year accolades as a senior in 2004 when the Demons captured the conference championship. He played 10 seasons in the Canadian Football League after signing a free-agent contract with the Cleveland Browns in 2005.

A four-year letterman who made started all 46 of his career games from 1999-2002, Rodriguez is the program’s third-leading tackler with 408 career stops and earned All-Southland Conference and All-Louisiana honors six times in his career.

Black, a two-time All-SLC pick, helped the Demons reach the FCS Playoff semifinals in 1998 and another playoff berth in 2001 while leaving as the school’s leader in career receptions with 109, a mark that remains sixth in program history. His 944 receiving yards during his senior year of 2001 stood as a school record for 17 years.

Cooper was a four-time all-conference sprinter who helped the Demon 4×100 relay team earn All-American honors in 1987. He also helped the Demons capture the 1985 Gulf Star Conference and 1987 Southland Conference team championships.

Hatten added to the lore of NSU throwers by qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Championships on two occasions in the javelin, earning All-American honors in 2003. She also competed in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, finishing 11^th in her signature event.

Competing between that All-American pair, the then-Janice Miller was a decorated high jumper who nabbed the 1992 Southland Conference Outdoor high jump championship after a pair of runner-up finishes in 1989 and 1991.

Bazhanova Moore was a dominant piece of the NSU tennis program, captaining the team as a senior in 2012. A two-time All-Southland doubles player, Moore and her partner Adna Curukovic helped lead the Lady Demons to the 2010 Southland Conference regular-season and tournament championships and the first NCAA Tournament berth in program history.

Conkle was first-team all-conference in 1992 and 1993, hitting .343 with 11 doubles and 41 RBIs as the Demons captured the 1993 Southland Conference crown as part of a 40-14 season.

A career .374 hitter, which ranks second in school history, Hanson earned consecutive all-conference selections as an outfielder who also ranks fifth in school history with a .591 slugging percentage. After hitting .381 as a junior, Hanson batted .368 with seven home runs and 46 RBIs as a senior, helping NSU win the 2002 Southland Conference regular-season title.

Byars-Dawson earned All-Southland Conference honors in each of his two seasons at Northwestern State and was a leader on the 2000-01 Demon team that earned the school’s first NCAA Tournament berth. The Southland Conference Tournament MVP that year, Byars-Dawson led the Demons in scoring in both of his seasons, including a 15.8 points per game average in 2000-021.

Cosby, a Doyline product, was a two-time All-Southland selection, nabbing first-team honors in 2004-05, following a second-team berth for the 2003-04 league champions.  A prolific shooter who remains seventh in program history with 174 career 3-pointers, Cosby left as NSU’s all-time leader in free-throw percentage (82.3) – a mark that was sixth in SLC history and remains seventh currently.

Coleman was a four-time All-Southland Conference soccer selection, including three straight first-team nods to start her career.  Straty was the backstop and backbone of three straight Southland Conference softball championship teams in her final three seasons at NSU.  A three-time All-Southland pick – first-team in 1999 – Straty batted .302 for her career, which placed her fourth in school history at the end of her career.

A two-time All-Southland Conference tight end, Treadway has carried the NSU brand worldwide in his position as the Executive Vice President of Ford Credit and CEO of Ford Credit Europe.

Contact Jason at pughj@nsula.edu

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