Ft. Valley Men's and Women's
T racksters Impressive
Fort Valley State's men's and wom
en's track team turned in some outstanding
performances at the annual Southern Inter
collegiate Athletic Conference track and
field championship held in Albany, Geor
gia. The men's team finished in fifth place
overall, while the women scored the most
points ever in its history (8 1 ) in locking
down the third place slot.
For the men, a whole season of hard
work paid off for sprinter Tyrone Poole in
the 100 and 200 meter dashes. Poole was
edged by Alabama A & M's Wayne Wat
son in the 100 (10.55 to 10.70), finished
second for the second consecutive year in
that event. Later on in the day through,
Poole rebounded to claim his second
straight title in the 100, pulling away in
the final 50 meters and holding off A&M's
' ~Karsten Edwards (21.08) to 21.14). Also?
in that process; Poole qualified for the
NCAA Division II outdoor meet, surpass
ing the standard of 2 1 . 10 needed to get in.
"Tyrone has worked all season to
crack that qualifying barrier," stated head
coach Glen Turner. "It was a relief to get it
out of the way at this point in time. Now
he can concentrate on bettering his mark
so he can get a reasonable seating when
the invitations are sent out." Poole was
happy about finally getting the qualifying
standard, but was well aware that the sea
son is not over year. "I'm glad that I was
? able to qualify for tke nationals, but there
is still work that needs to be done. I know
that the belter my time gets, the more
competitive m be."
Poole was not die only male to walk
with a trophy. Stacy Baker ran away with
honors as he won the 400 meter dash with
a time of 48 seconds flat, edging out
Albany State's Shelton Spencer (48.06). "I
knew that I could turn in a pretty good
performance if I ran a smart race", said
Baker* who meLlhe_provisional standards
for getting into the Division II meet.
"Right now I have to better my time and
see if I can get to Texas as well." Turner
was also happy for Baker. "Stacy had the
potential all season long to turn in a terrif
ic time. New he must concentrate and sur
pass the provisional standard with a time
(at least 47.20) that will surely get him in."
Other Wildcats placed well in the meet
were Herman Williams, (5th in the
Javelin), who threw a season best 143' -
9.5" and Brian Watson, who did well in
the shot put (3rd at 46'- 1 1.5"). Women's
action ai^Hugh Mills Stadium was just as
intense. Fort Valley's Monica Hudson
established herself as a performer to watch
in the future as she captured the title in the
discuss with a toss of 1 22-3" . Hudson,
who is only a freshman, drew praise from
Turner. "Monica should get better with
each year she participates. Before her
career is over at Fort Valley, she would
have established herself as one of the bet
ter field event people in the history of the
SIAC. With a little more effort, she could
qualify for the nationals and break her
own school record." Hudson also came
away with a 3rd in tiie shot put (37'- 1").
Versatile Latrella Johnson placed 4th in
the javelin at 90'-6.5". Earlier in the com
petition, Johnson participated for the first
time in her career in the heptathlon, a gru
- eling event. Johnson did quite well, fin
ished third with 3817 points. "Latrella is
perhaps one of the more versatile athl.etes
around," says Turner. "Depending on our
personnel next season, she may be able t
concentrate on that event and do even bet
events proved to be a plus for the Lady
Cats this year. Ksacia Hill won the 1500
meter (5:02.55), and finished 2nd in the
300 meter run to LeMyne-Owens' Toni
Peterson. Peterson outkicked Hill in the
final lap ( 1 1 . 1 1 . 1 1 to 11:1 5.52) to win the
race Phyllis Pierce also had a good outing,
finishing 3rd in the 300 ( 1 1 :20.72) and
winning the 5000 meter run (19.32.00).
"Ksacia and Phyllis both turned in impres
sive outings," stated the Fort Valley coach.
"Going into the meet, they both had an
idea of what needed to be done in order
for success to come their way. In the end.
both -of them ran smart races and came?
away with championships." Hill was also
named the Most Outstanding Performer
for the women, an award given to the ath
lete who scored the most points.
The meet in Albany was the end of
the season for some schools, but not for
Fort Valley. "We are going to take some
of the top performers to the Spec Towns
Relay held in Athens at UGA) and see if
some more people can get qualified Since
the pressure of the S1AC meet is now off,
a relaxed atmosphere should result in bet
ter times on the track." The Spec Towns
meet will be held an May 1 .
Women Finish In Second Place, Ram
sley Named MVP and Martin Picks Up
Coach of the Year Kudos
Womens tennis ended the season on a
high note for Fort Valley State as the Lady
Wildcats finished in a second place tie
with Savannah State. Nevertheless, tennis
coach Curtis Martin pic^fld up "Coach of ?
the Year" honors.
In women's action, Mona Ramsey
was the lone Lady Cat to come away with
a title in No. 6 singles play, defeating
Clark-Atlanta's Jamilla Ivery 6-3, 6-3. "I'm
very happy to end the season and my
career, on suchajbigh note," said the
senior from Ai^nta- winning the confer
ence was good, but it was a fair and chal
lenging experience. However the longer T
played a match, the more my game suf
fered."
- ? Mona wa* jIso piuud uT ttarfact fHaT
--she -has tasted -success after -playing +hr -
game for a short period of time. "This is
only my third year playing tennis on the
collegiate level, so 1 feel fortunate about
doing so well."
Going into the season Ramsey felt she
had to step up and take some sort of lead
ership role. "I feel proud that I was able to
take my learning experiences on the tennis
court t and put them to good use. It helped
me take the good along with the bad.
Those facts along helped me to become a
better leader for the team."
Mona feels that next year's team will
be t ven better. "1 wish the team the best
lud next year. I know that they will be
bet er because a lot of good players are
coming back."
Mackey
From Page 5
But let's start from the beginning.
When Mackey graduated from ELiza
beth City in 1965, he got a try out with the
Dallas Cowboys. Mackey has always been
a big, agile fellow. Even today, he goes
about 6-2, 210. Mackey was college bud
dies with Jethrow
Pew, who went on to become one of
the Cowboys top defensive players ever.
Mackey had never played football in high
school or college, but he was big and he
was friends with Pew and the Cowboys
were interested in Pew. "Dallas thought
they could make a football player out of
me," Mackey said.
They did.
In 1965, Mackey played defensive
back for Dallas. He was released, though,
in the '66 preseason and wound up in New
York, where he got his certification as a
teacher and began to work in a local com
munity center in the afternoons.
Eventually, Mackey said he got tired
of the fast life and returned South, where
he began coaching and studying for his
doctorate degree, which he got from Vir
ginia Tech in 1987.
But a year earlier, in 1986, he'd
stopped going to school. He'd gotten tired.
He was so close but now he was going to
quit,
"1 had completed all my course work
but I hadn't done my analysis or my dis
sertation," Mackey said. "But then Galvin
Walker, a point guard on my '86 team,
died in an auto accident right after the sea
son. I was going to Seattle and when I got
to the desk to check in there was a mes
sage there to call my wife.
Mrs. Mackey told the coach that
Galvin Walker had been killed in an auto
accident.
Galvin had gone to visit his grand
mother in eastern North Carolina. She'd
sent Galvin to the store and as he was dri
ving around a curve, he hit a puddle of
mud. It was a freakish thing. The car
flipped over on top of him.
"Right there," Mackey said, "I decid
ed to finish school for Galvin."
Later that same year came the cancer
diagnosis. Even today, Mackey must visit
his doctor semi-annually for a checkup.
He's never had any chemotherapy . The
doctors did remove a piece of colon in an
operation, however. "I've been lucky," he
said.
Lucky? In 1990, he went out one
morning to ride his bike. Normal morning
thing. "I got halfway down the driveway
and I realized I couldn't push the pedal
down and I didn't pay it much attention,"
Mackey said. "I took a shower and came
to school. As the day passed, I noticed 1
was losing control of my body."
Ten (10) days later he was diagnosed
with Gullian Barre. Today, because of its
attacks, he walks with a^slight limp. To
treat the infliction after the diagnosis, doc
tors pumped the blood out of his body
nine different times, "they separated the
red cells from the plasma," Mackey said,
"they pump it out of one arm and into the
other. The vims is in the plasma. It was
kind of strange."
Yeah, Mackey sat on a table, connect
ed to machine after machine, with all
kinds of wires attached to him. He looked
like Steve Austin in one of those "we have
the technology, we can rebuild him"
shows. But this was real life. Very real.
"Vnii'rfi on thp tahlp anH thpy frrri
you hamburger, soda and cookies, all the
stuff you shouldn't eat," he said, "when
they take out the plasma, they take out the
cholesterol and everything. It's an expen
sive way to clean out your system."
Mackey is a good sport about all of
this. He realizes that he's been lucky. "I've
been blessed," he says.
Getting sick made me think about
what I should do with basketball." he said,
"try to win at all costs or use it as a vehicle
to push youngsters onto another level of
positiveness. I chose to use it as a motivat
ing force to help guys leave this place and
survive."
Like him.