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the Chronicle Sportsweek _ Winston-Salem Greensboro High Point SECTION D MAY 1, l??7 Drama builds as Roseboro's final days draw near at WSSU The drama is beginning to mount. The future of the athletic pro gram at Winston-Salem State is hanging in the balance. , Here we are less than two months before A1 Roseboro leaves his position as athletics director at WSSU and from all indications there is no one lined up to assume the leadership of the Rams' athletic department. Early on, it looked like Dr. Alvin J. Schexnider, WSSU's chancellor, might have someone lined up for the position because he said that he would personally conduct the search, i Now, it looks like either that per son has backed out of coming to Winston-Salem or there never was anyone previously identified by Schexnider to head the program. So, where does that leave WSSU? Right now it looks like the pro gram is up the creek without a pad dle. Not only that, but who's guiding the ship. Roseboro said recently that he is conducting business as usual. He said that he's in control of the WSSU program and nothing has changed. But how much stock would the chancellor put into a lame duck athletic director? If things were rolling along smoothly, like Schexnider, Roseboro and others at WSSU want to paint the picture, there would not have been a need for Schexnider to seek Roseboro's res ignation in the first place. Schedules and budgets have to be made for the next fiscal year and without knowing which way the program is headed the school is set ting itself up for failure. Let's hope that its just short term. If the school moves quickly and puts the right person in place the athletic program could recover in a few years. But if Schexnider and his "informed panel of admin istrators" fail, it might take a decade for the program to bounce back. Looking at the search itself, there seems to be several mistakes that have already been made. More than two months after the closing date for applications there still seems to be no movement afoot. There have been no interviews conducted at the school thus far and it doesn't appear that individu als who have applied for the posi tion have been contacted. That leads one to believe that perhaps Schexnider isn't satisfied with the quality of candidates for the position. Or is he still wrestling with a prospective candidate over job responsibilities or salary? Is there someone already pre pared to take the job, but Schexnider wants to wait until the last minute before announcing the appointment? Even so, there are a host of con siderations that have to be taken into consideration. After all, it is going to take sorrie time to physically put someone in place. Even a local person would need to give a proper notice before taking the job. But in the case of someone from out of town there might be a host of other problems that could arise. These and other question marks will not go away anytime soon. WSSU has missed the boat by not moving quickly to solidify its athlet ics program. What it does now will Dr. Alvin J. Sthexnider only lend itself to other questions. Just how it answers those questions will determine whether the Rams move back into the upper echelon in CIAA sports or become just another also-ran in the battle for sports supremacy. NFL draftees becoming common occurrence for NCA&T, Bill Hayes BY KENNETH M GRIFFIN. JR Chronicle Sports Intern . . Coach Bill Hayes of North I Carolina A&T admitted he was a ' bit surprised when he found out he had three players selected in ' the NFL draft, which was held April 19-20. The way he looked at it, Michael Hamilton and Cedric White both had an excellent chance of being picked by one of the teams in the draft. After those two, he figured there would some others who had a chance of being picked up as , free agents. But to his surprise Toran James, who had played in only four games during the season because of an injury, was also selected, giving the Aggies three players in the seven-round draft. Hamilton was the first MEAC league player taken. He was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the third round as the 74th overall selection. Hamilton, a 6-4, 245 pound linebacker from Greenville, SC., was an All-MEAC second team er. The Chargers, using the 218th pick in the seventh round, also selected James^a defensive end outside linebaclfcr. James, a 6-3, 255-pbunder from Ahoskie,N.C., was the team's leading tackier before suffering his season-end ing injury. When White was selected later in the seventh round by the St. Louis Rams, it gave the Aggies three players on the board, the only Black College team to accomplish that feat. White, a 6-2, 280-pound defense tackle from Los Angeles, aver aged 5.4 stops per game and added six sacks on the season. Having NFL-caliber players on his team is nothing new for Hayes. Since taking over as the head coach at A&T he's had his See NFL Draft on S3 'Mike Hamilton (034) wag one of A A T'g leading tackier ? during the 1996 geaeon and hig performance helped catapult him into a glot in the third round of the NFL draft. Mrmrwtkl A UTOMOTIVE NETWORK CHEVROLET * GEO ? TOYOTA OlISSAN ? SMARTCABS Carver picks Poe, long-time coach, to replace Wynn as athletics director BY SAM DAVIS Chronicle Sports Editor Carver High School didn't have to look very far to find its new ath letics director. Alfred Poe, who has served as the schools boys basketball coach for the last 25 years, will replace Robert Wynn as the athletics direc tor at Carver effective Aug. 1. Daniel Piggott, Carver's princi pal, said that he informed Poe of his decision early this week after conducting interviews with four finalists last week. uiir i 1.. a I J * : we nave maue ine uccimun and I feel very confident that we have the right man for the job," Piggott said. "He (Poe) has been at Carver for 25 years and during that time he has been very successful. He also knows sports up and down and we feel that he can lead us to higher ground." After Wynn announced his decision earlier this year, Piggott said he formed a search committee to find Wynn's replacement. "The committee basically nar rowed it down to two people and we talked about the pluses and minuses for each. They left it up to me to decide which way we were to go with it. After going through and evaluating it Alfred Poe surfaces as the person who was best suited for Carver. He didn't inherit the job because of the time he's been here, but he possessed a lot of the quali ties that were important for Carver moving on in the future. Poe, a High Point native said he was excited about accepting the position. "It's another stepping stone, but after 25 years (coaching) you have to have mixed emotions," he said. "It has always been a goal of mine to become an AD before I retire. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity. "I feel good about having the chance to do the job," Poe added. "I hope that I can be successful at it. Coach Wynn did such a good job and I hope to continue it." Alfred Pom Poe. a 1966 graduate of North Carolina Central, coached two years on the collegiate level before coming to Carver. Poe served aS the head tennis coach and assistant football coach at ? Livingstone College. Poe, who never lost a ten nis match during his career at NCCU. was named to the schools Sports Hall of Fame in 1967. Carver was a 9-10 grade high school when Poe arrived to head the Yellowjackets' basketball pro Su Pot ON S3 Individual development more important than winning to Dodgers' Rice Robarto (Clam) William*, a for mat playar undar Rica ha* coma bock to tha laogua to a**i*t Rica In coaching tha Dodgar*. c BY SAM DAVIS Chronicle Sports Editor Charles Rice tries to practice what he preaches. That often results in him being misunderstood by those around him. Rice, coach of the Dodgers in Twin City's Little League, believes there is more to partici pating in youth sports than just winning and losing. Because he doesn't over emphasize winning, his players and their parents sometimes don't understand his mission. But to him it is crystal clear. "I want to see my kids grow up and be somebody," Rice says. "I try to teach them good moral val ues and if they grow up and say 1 that I was a part of that, then that's when I get my satisfaction." Rice has been a permanent fix ture in Twin City since the 1984 season. He took over a Dodgers team that hadn't won a game in two years and in two years turned the team into the league's cham pion. He hasn't been fortunate enough to capture a league crown since, but that hasn't been one of his goals. "My goal each year is to make each one of my kids a better play er and a better person," Rice says. "I feel that if I have gotten them to do that 1 have had a good sea son." There is never any pressure for Rice's players to achieve on the baseball field. i "I tell them that I want them to have fun," he says. "Whenever they go out on the field I want them to have a good time. I feel that God has blessed me to be around these kids and be able to spend time with them and 1 don't want to put any pressure on them to do anything." During the course of their bat tles on the field. Rice says a lot of people lose sight of the league's purpose. "When that happens some times you wonder whether it's worth it," Rice says. "Sometimes its hard to understand why peo ple do the things that they do, but, when I look at myself and see some of my imperfections I just thank God for strengthening me. Rice has been in baseball for the better part of his life. After high school he began a long career in semi-pro baseball. He spent most of that time with the Winston-Salem Indians and the Pond Giants. He was once given an opportunity to try out for the Chicago Cubs but turned it down. He says he's learned a lot over the years around baseball. But the biggest thing that happened in his life came when he accepted Jesus as his personal Savior. "That taught me how to look beyond the things that people do and realize that we have to love one another," Rice said. "I try to Sf t Rici on K3 V Chart** Rica taid h* trim* to too tha good in whof hi* ptayor* accompli*h off tho fiold. I
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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