SportsWeek
June 4, 2009
The legendary Clarence ?F'lcPho<n
Gaines died in 2005 House"
Gaines golf
tournament
approaching
Event benefits WSSU
scholarship fund
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
The Reynolda Rotary Club will hold its
fourth annual Big House Gaines Scholarship
Fund Golf Tournament on Friday, June 12 at
Salem Glen Golf
Monroe
& Country Club
in Clemmons.
There will be a 1
p.m. shotgun
start.
The tourna
ment raises
money to provide
a scholarship to
Winston-Salem
State University
for students who
have attended
Cook Elementary
School.
Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, the star of
Coach Gaines' 1967 National Championship
team, will be a special guest at the tourna
ment.
"We began the tournament in 2004 and it
just seemed a natural for Reynolda Rotary,"
said Mel Pearce, chairman of this year's
tournament. "The late Clarence 'Big House'
Gaines, beloved basketball coach and athlet
ic director at WSSU, was a founding mem
ber of our club. We have a program that
supports Cook Elementary School in the
areas of literacy, mentoring and financial
support, so, we felt strong that the best way
to honor the commitment Big House'
always demonstrated for helping young peo
ple and for our Rotary Club was to create a
scholarship program that tied together Cook
Elementary School, Winston-Salem State
University and Reynolda Rotary."
The first former Cook Elementary stu
dents to be eligible to compete for the
See Golf on B8
Teens head for all- star showdown
BY CHAD ROBERTS
THE CHRONICLE . '
The Twin City P.O.N .Y youth
baseball league is winding down
their season at Twin City field,
but one of the teams still has a
few ballgames left.
The Yankees, who play in the
division for 1 3- 1 5"-y ear-olds, will
soon compete in the Babe Ruth
State All-Star Tournament. The
winning team from the state tour
nament goes on to compete in the
national tournament.
Since beginning the season in
May, the Yankees have posted a
record of 5-1, with one tie.
Marlin Wilkins, the Yankees'
coach, said the team has a mix of
league veterans and newcomers
that has worked out well
"We had a good core group,
and we were fortunate to pick up
some good players that came in
and filled in the gaps and have
done well," Wilkins said.
Wilkins said he has a 15-year
history at the field as a player
and a coach, though 2009 is his
first year returning to coaching
after taking time off.
Photo hy Chad Roberts
Yankees players and team leaders.
"I played here as a young
ster." Wilkins said.
Darryl Gregory III is one of
the youths on the Yankees team
who has played at the field for
several years. Gregory s^id he
started playing T-ball at age 8
and credits his father, the late
Darryl Gregory Jr., nicknamed
"Pooh," with getting him and his
friends involved with baseball at
an early age .
Gregory III said the T-ball
team back then was called the
See Baseball on BX
Wake sprinter
poised for
a title sweep
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT ;
Two members of the Wake Forest University track
team have cleared their regional hurdles and will com
pete for national championships next week in Arkansas.
Senior sprinter Michael Bingham and junior hur
dler/jumper Caroline Vaughn each set school-records
and punched their tickets to the NCAA Championships
on Saturday at North Carolina A&T's Irwin Belk Track
on the final day of the 2009
Vaughn
NCAA East Regionals.
Bingham came into the final
with the fourth-best qualifying
time after cruising through his
heat of the preliminaries Friday
night. He got to the track
Saturday and was battling a case
of food poisoning but turned in a
gutsy school-record time of
45.05.
Starting in lane three, he
made up most of the stagger
down the back stretch and
grabbed the lead as the field made the final turn
Bingham turned it up in the last 100-meters to win
the race and not only broke his own school-record but
also set a new facility and East Region record.
"The race was a mental challenge," said Bingham.
"1 knew if I could stay with the guys until the 200-mark
I would be able to bring it home. That's what ended up
happening. I was right there through 200 meters with
people around me. I am a natural competitor and I just
fought down the stretch.
"I think being pulled out of the blocks may have
affected some people but it didn't get me too much,"
Bingham continued. "I am not a guy that has to get
hyped-up for a race but 1 know some guys are and they
were probably affected."
The Burlington, N.C., native now moves on to the
See Bingham on B8 Michael Bingham races to the finish line Saturday in the 400-meters.
Photo by Jeff Sides
Suiting Up
U.S. Air Force Photo by Tech Sgt Ja?on Schaap
Staff Sgt. Myrick Bell helps Wake Forest Head Football Coach Jim Grobe get fitted
with body armor at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas before Grobe heads around
the world as part of the troop morale-boosting Coaches Tour 2009. Grobe and six
other NCAA football coaches departed May 28 and will make stops in Germany,
Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait and the African nation of Djibouti.
MEAC Tournament
eyeing 2010 strategy
BY CHAD ROBERTS
THE CHRONICLE
Maybe it gets better the
second time around.
The Mid-Eastern Athletic
Conference, back in Winston
Salem from 2009 until 2011
after a previous run from
1980-82, is hosting a survey
on its Web site to get feed
back from fans who attended
the 2009 tournament in the
Twin City.
"We use that information
for our marketing efforts."
MEAC Media Relations
Director Patricia Porter said.
"We want to make it big
ger and better for the next
two ' years," Conference
Corporate Sponsorships and
Marketing Director Julius
Small said.
With its 1 1 historically
I ?_ 1
File Photo
Belhune Cookman takes on Norfolk State during the 2009
Tournament at Joel Coliseum.
black institutions as mem
bers, the ME AC Tournament
is often compared ? fairly or
unfairly ? to the tournament
held by the Central
Intercollegiate Athletic
Association (C1AA). which is
also composed of 1 1 HBCUs
and Chowan University, a
See MEAC on B8
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