February 15, 1991 The Broncos' Voice Page 7
Soorts
Bronco
Spotlight
with
Down But Not Out
Lori Little
This week’s Spotlight is
on Gastonia’s Darrell Armstrong,
a starting guard on the Bronco
basketball team. Armstong,
better known as "Sky” around
, the FSU campus, is a Physical
I Education major and he plans to
; start out in his chosen field
upon graduation.
"I like working with kids,"
Armstrong stated. "A job is
much easier when you are. doing
something you like.”
Armstrong injured his
right shoulder in a recent game,
, but he returned Monday night
: (feauary 28th) against Winston-
• Sal^jti.State, University.
’"-"It is- very hard for me to
shoot," he said. "I’m having
trouble with my right arm.
When I played Monday night, I
suffered some swelling but I
hope to be well before
tournament time. I just have this
desire to win. I don’t want to
stop, I have to play hurt."
During January 19th’s
, loss to Livingstone College,
"Sky" scored his 1000th point as
a Bronco.
"I feel pretty good about it,
I didn’t expect myself to get
1000 points," he said. "(But)
it’s not that important if you
don’t win the game."
Continuing his playing
career is important to "Sky", but
if he never gets to play pro ball,
he is confident about his
education.
"If it comes, it comes," he
said. "If I never played ball
again because of an injury, it
would be hard for me to cope
with. But I will always have my
major to continue with."
Injuries Slow Broncos
by Lori Little
On Jan. 17, the Broncos
defeated St. Paul’s 95-73 in
Lawrenceville, Virginia. Darrell
Armstrong led the way with 28
points and Sherman Pride added
20
On Jan. 19 the FSU
downed Livingston College 91-
82, in Cumberland County Civic
Center. Armstrong paced the
Broncos with 17 points while
Emmanuel Calloway contributed
16.
The Broncos traveled to
Winston-Salem on Jan. 21 to
take, on the Rams of Winston-
Salem State University. The
result was a disappointing loss,
75-72. Armstrong and Pride
were the high scorers with 18
and 15 points, respectively.
The Broncos climbed to
ninth in the National Collegiate
Athletic Association’s rankings
of Division II teams for the
week of Jan. 17, However,
coach Jeff Capel does not put a
lot of emphasis on the rankings.
"It’s great for the university
and it’s great for the players,"
Capel stated. "I think that once
the season ends, rankings mean
a lot more to me. But it’s great
publicity for the school. It
should be a great recruiting tool
not only for the athletic
program, but for the admissions
office as far as bringing students
to the university."
On Jan. 24, the Broncos
hosted St. Augustine’s College.
The Broncos fell, 104-95.
Armstrong poured in 31 points
and Danny Muldrow contributed
18 to lead FSU.
The Broncos played at
Shaw University on Jan. 26. The
Bears defeated the Broncos 103-
92. Travis Spells was the top
scorer with 24 points and
Derrick Hawkins added 21.
On Jan. 28, the Broncos
were defeated by Winston-Salem
State University, 79-75.
Muldrow had top scoring honors
with 19 points, and Armstrong
contributed 14 in the Broncos’
third consecutive loss.
• ^
Darrell Armstrong (23) should be healthy by tournament lime (Photo : Kenneth Hawkins)
Starting point-guard
Emmanuel Calloway did not
play in the Shaw game on
January 26th due an injury.
Coach Capel said not having
him on the floor certainly had
something to’ do with the way
the Broncos were playing.
"Emmanuael is a very
important part of what we do."
Capel said. "He allows us to
extend our defensive pressure
and offensively he is the ’straw
that stirs the drink’, so to speak.
He gets us into our offensive
sets, and not having him
definitely hurt us. But this team
has lost players before and
responded well. I expect them
to do that again." |
Coach Capel does not feel
that the players lost their
confidence.
"I think what hurt (the
players) the most was the fact
that it seemed like a lot of the
student body turned on them
when they lost some games."
Capel stated. "That’s the time
when the student body should
put their arms around them and
say, ’Okay, let’s go’."
Coach Capel said that other
situations arose that caused some
problems.
"There were instances
where people would go through
our suites in the dorm and cause
some problems and say ’you
guys are not good’, and I think
that hurt us. It really hurt in the
heart. We are all supposed to be
one family here, and when
things are going well,
everybody’s hanging on and
wants to be around. But when a
little adversity comes, those
same people that were patting
you on the back now have a
knife in their hand."
After holding the top spot
in the Central Intercollegiate
Athletic Association’s Southern
Division for most of the season,
the Broncos were tied for 3rd
place with St. Augustines at
press time. But Coach Capel
said there are more important
things to worty about this late
in the season.
"The only thing that
(winning) the Southern Division
does is place you in certain
brackets for the (CIAA)
tournament," Capel pointed out.
"It would be great to win the
Southern Division, but you
really don’t win anything. You
don’t get a trophy. You don’t
get anything for winning the
Southern Division other than the
fact that you are the number one
team going into the tournament.
"We are more concerned
right now about getting healthy
and getting back to playing the
way we were playing earlier in
the year so we can be at our
peak during the tournament."
The Broncos will travel
to Livingstone on Feb. 4, Shaw
University, Feb. 9, and the last
home game of the season will
be against Johnson C. Smith on
Saturday, Feb. 16.
tW: