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SPORTS
,, 0. ^/ iTHUPSDAY, APRIL 8, 2004
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Black College Sports/4C
For first time, football puts
down roots at Barber-Scotia
By Herbert L. White
herb, white® thecliarloTtepost.com
PHOTO/WADE NASH
Barbef'Scotia cornerback Darryi Smith
tries to break up a pass to receiver Wayne
Griffin at Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage.
CONCORD - There’s never been any
thing like this at Barbers-Scotia.
The Sabers wrapped the first spring
football sessions in school history
Saturday, with a couple of hundred fans
on hand for an intrasquad scrimmage at
J.N. Fries Middle School. And there’s a
very real sense students and faculty like
the idea of spending fall Saturdays
embracing football .
“In bringing in a football team, it has
absolutely given our kids more enthusi
asm than they have had in a while,”
Athletics Director James Stinson said.
“It’s been really excited about this new
venture of a football program and it’s
given us the pride back in Barber-Scotia.”
Adding football and baseball is part of
the school’s long-range athletics overhaul.
School leaders are looking to seek a move
fi-om NAIA to NCAA Division II and seek
Newman
Please see FOOTBALUSC
PHOTO/WADE NASH
Garinger High’s Cory Farmer hopes to solidify
his college basketball options at the Charlotte
All-Star Classic.
All-star game
offers second look
By James Hamlin
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
Saturday’s Charlotte All-Star Basketball Classic
offers the area’s best high school players a chance
to move closer to a Division I scholarship. .
Organizer Bill Shelton says Saturday’s games at
Queens is an opportunity for athletes to grab the
attention of recruiters, especially those from
Division I programs. The girls game starts at 1
p.m.; the boys tip off at 3 p.m.
“Some of these kids are right on the bubble of
being a Division I player,” he said. “This is a big
game. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a big
game.”
It is a big game for Garinger High’s Cory
Farmer. The guard was a key player in the
Wildcats’ run to the N.C. 4A semifinals, and is still
weighing his options. Farmer dreams of playing
for a major school like Cincinnati or Connecticut,
but he may have to make an academic pit stop
before that becomes a reality.
“I want to go to prep school or junior college,” he
said.
Division I coaches have been invited to the clas
sic to scout unsigned players who’ll play alongside
the likes of Georgia Tfech signee Anthony Morrow
of Charlotte Latin. But coaches from mid-major
and Division II programs, many of them histori
cally black colleges and universities, will be on
hand hoping to land a diamond in the rough.
“They’ve always supported this game and I
expect to see the same from them,” Shelton said.
“North Carolina A&T is looking at a lot of the kids
here; Johnson C. Smith and Winston-Salem State
are still looking at a lot of the kids here.”
Two of Farmer’s Garinger teammates, Marcus
Robinson and Nick Ledbetter, will also play. They
too have yet to commit to a school.
‘We had a good season and I had some good
games but people never came to see us play,” he
said.
Victoria Willis of Butler has a slightly different
stoiy. She ended her career as only the second
player in school history with 1,000 points. She
wants to major in education or pre-medicine.
“Right now I only have a couple of colleges talk
ing to me and I really want to play basketball,”
she said.
Willis said talks with some schools have cooled
for various reasons, with Newberry the only one to
show solid interest. At 5-3, Willis will be one of the
shortest players on the court. But size isn’t every
thing, she counters.
“I’m good at getting people the ball, but it’s hard
to tell because if your post players aren’t complet
ing the play you don’t get the assists,” she said.
Now Willis is hoping a college gives her an assist
so she can continue to play.
FASTEST COLLEGIAN IN 200 METERS
PHOTO/WAYNE JERNIGAN
Livingstone senior Jordan Vaden (left) owns the fastest time for collegians in the 200 meters
with a clocking of 20.63 seconds. He’s qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials this summer.
Livingstone’s Vaden
runs for Olympic berth
By Herbert L. White
herb.whiie@lhecharlonepost.com
Jordan Vaden may be the
best sprinter you never heard
of
The Livingstone senior has
the top U.S. collegiate time in
the 200 meters at 20.63 sec
onds and fifth in the 400 at
46.5. He’s qualified for the U.S.
Olympic trials in Indianapolis,
and expects to do more than
show up.
“My thought was to just qual
ify for the Olympic trials, to get
that feeling of being there,” he
said. “Now I want to do a bit
more than that.”
Vaden is the latest in a long
line of top-line sprinter to come
from the CIAA, which has pro
duced Olympic champions
from Lee Calhoun of N.C.
Central (1956, ‘60) to Johnson
C Smith’s Vince Matthews
(1968, 72) and St. Augustine’s
Jerome Young (2000). Vaden
wants to add his name - and
Livingstone’s — to that list.
“I guess you could say Tm the
best-kept secret,” he said. “We
don’t get a whole lot of publici
ty and stuff around here at
Livingstone. I just try to make
a good time for Livingstone.”
Please see VADEN/2C
Coach tries to revive Lions baseball
By Justin Crump
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
White
West Charlotte High
doesn’t have the baseball
tradition that its football
and basketball programs
enjoy.
That what makes
coaching the Lions the
kind of challenge first-
year coach Henry White
wants.
White, the former ath
letics director at Johnson
C. Smith and baseball
coach at St. Augustine’s,
has been at West
Charlotte since -February.
White is the fourth coach
in as many years.
Tfen Lions are seniors so
having new different
coaches is nothing some
thing new. But White,
who turned St. Aug’s into
a CIAA power, said
“everyday is a learning
process when we prac
tice,” said White, who
adds he had to “restruc
ture what I did on a col
lege level to this level.”
C. Jemal
Horton
Devils
get more
than due
Vaden, a Danville, Va.,
native, drew interest as a high
school runner, but lacked the
academic credentials or drive
to qualify for a Division I pro
gram. But time in the working
world after graduation con
vinced him to try college.
With some motivation from a
high school coach, Vaden
launched his search for a
school. He expects to graduate
in December with a degree in
business management.
“I was searching the internet
for the CIAA and I decided to
call and give it a try,” he said. “I
Mike Krzyzewski has it
half right: A lot of people DO
cheer against his Duke
men’s basketball team.
However, contrary to what
Krzyzewski alleges, the anti-
Duke sentiment hasn’t
evolved simply because the
Blue Devils have had so
much success over the past
few decades.
The cheering against Duke
goes much deeper than that
- and I’ll get into the reasons
in a moment.
But as the Blue Devils
entered their 10th Final
Four since 1986, it seems
Krzyzewski’s trying to con
vince us the world hates
Duke simply because of its
dominance.
Wrong.
“I understand that when
you win^ a lot, people are
going to want to see you
lose,” Krzyzewski told The
Washington Post recently.
“I’ve got no problem with
that. But this year, it really
seems to have gone to a new
level. People don’t just want
us to lose; they seem to want
us to get hurt. They take
their frustrations with our
success out on the kids.”
Whatever.
In reality, here’s what hav
ing Duke’s kind of success
does for you:
• Celebrities such as
Donald Trump, with no visi
ble ties to the program, sit
courtside in your home
arena.
• Every cynical basketball
analyst in America gives you
the benefit of the doubt
when you or your players get
out of line.
• Hardcore hip-hop artists
- the Cash Money
Millionaires, for starters —
sport your paraphernalia in
their videos. And whether
Duke likes that or not, it’s
saying something when rap
pers embrace a team suppos
edly comprised of goody-
goodies.
So this Krzyzewski notion
that the world disdains
Duke’s success is ridiculous
and careless.
Again, there are SOME
people who cheer against
Duke. But sometimes, I
understand.
For some reason, Duke
seems to have the patent on
doing things “the right way.”
What exactly does doing
things “the right way”
mean? Graduating players?
Producing men of character?
If that’s the criteria, plenty
of programs do things the
right way. When the gradua
tion rates of teams that
reached the Sweet 16 came
out last week, Duke wasn’t
in a class by itself. Kansas
led the way, graduating 73
percent of its players. Duke
tied Xavier for second (67
percent), while Vanderbilt
was third (62 percent).
When it came to graduat
ing African-American play
ers, though, Xavier led the
way (82 percent), followed by
Kansas (75 percent), Duke
(71 percent) and Vanderbilt
(67 percent). I applaud all
four schools.
What bothers me about the
academic thing is this:
Because Duke is a presti
gious university, too many
people assume the basket
ball program only signs a
bunch of Rhodes Scholars.
But the Duke program
See DEVILS/2C
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