10B
SPORTS/The Charlotte Post
Thursday, April 4, 1996
Benedict opens spring drills
Continued From 8B
crowds — 40,000 to 50,000 peo
ple at each game.”
Benedict athletic director
Willie Washington headed the
effort that finally put together
a five-year plan for football.
On May 31, 1995, the official
announcement was made that
football was returning to
Benedict, but the school wasn't
going to wait a year to kickoff.
Harold Jackson, a standout
wide receiver at Jackson State
and in the NFL, was named as
head coach in June. He
brought along with him two
other former NFL players,
Julius Adams and Robert
Weathers, as defensive and
offensive coordinators.
NFL names meant positive
publicity for the reborn pro
gram but it had a few prob
lems along the way.
"A lot of folks said you've got
to be crazy to take on a task
like that in a short period of
time. We had to order equip
ment, get the coaching staff
and all that stuff together,"
Jackson recalled.
Spring practice ends on April
27 with the Purple and Gold
game at Bolden Stadium.
Whatever value of holding
drills some five months before
the season starts at Johnson
C. Smith, one thing is certain -
football is really back at
Benedict.
Johnson wins at homecomini
Continued From 8B
Georgia, Johnson was near
perfect from the field, hitting 7
of 10 shots for 16 points. She
also hauled down five
rebounds, part of Tennessee’s
54-39 advantage over the
smaller Lady Bulldogs. Every
time Johnson scored, her
orange-clad personal cheering
section stood and shouted.
“I told the team, ‘hey, this is
my home. What's my home is
your home,’” she said. “We had
the home court advantage.”
Johnson parlayed that home
court advantage into selection
on the all-toumament team,
along with teammates
Michelle Marciniak, the Final
Four MVP and freshman
Chamique Holdsclaw.
Georgia's La'Keshia Frett and
Saudia Roundtree, the nation
al player of the year and
Anderson, S.C. native, also
made the team. Johnson said
the Vols’ defense on Roundtree
was the key to winning.
*The difference in the geime I
think, we took Saudia out of
the game early, she started
looking for other players, ver
sus coming down and taking a
shot herself and being that go
to player, like she normally
does," Johnson said.
This was an unexpected
championship for the 32-4
Lady Vols. Coach Pat Summitt
cautioned the team before the
season they would have to
overachieve to, do it. They did,
which makes the title even
tastier.
“Unless you've been in that
postion and coached and
played in a national champi
onship game when everyone
expected you to win, you
expected to win and compare it
to today, you just can't appreci
ate how much more fun this
was,” Summitt said. “This was
a lot of fun."
Next year, the Final Four
moves to Cincinnati and the
Lady Vols could be back again.
That means a roadtrip for the
Johnson clan. That wouldn’t
be a problem.
“I don’t let my friends and
family get to me,” she said. “I
just stay mentally focused. I
couldn't let them distract me.
They knew that I came here to
do one thing and that was to
win a national championship.”
Now she has it.
Huntley checks out the draft
Continued From 8B
amazing how this thing has
taken off.”
Huntley says he's tried to
keep a low profile. There is a
premium on time these days.
“I have to find time for every
thing,” he says. “I have a
daughter (Affiron) that I love
and care about. I have to
make time for her. Then I
have a fiance who I have to
make time to spend with her.”
Other priorities in his life are
staying on top of his studies at
WSSU and working out.
“I'm taking 12 hours right
now and that will leave me
nine hours short of graduat
ing," he says. “That degree is
something that I definitely
want. That's something that
my mother has always
stressed and I want to get it
for her.”
Whenever he gets away from
everything else, Huntley
works out. He is on a program
that has helped him get his 40
yard time down and also
increased his strength and
weight.
Huntley was invited to the
NFL combine in Indianapolis,
but he didn't work out. He
said he hadn't gotten over two
nagging injuries at that time
and didn't want to hurt his
chances.
“Coming from a small school,
the pros are already hesitant
to draft you,” he says. “They
look for anything to keep them
from giving you a high rating.”
So Huntley sat back in hotel
room, worked on his academic
work and sorted through other
things that were going on in
his life. He has picked an
agent, Los Angeles-based
Robert Caron, and is trying to
rely on his advice for the draft.
Although some observers
thought that by not working
out Huntley would hurt his
chances in the draft, it turned
out to be a real plus for him.
He had some 45 scouts come to
Winston-Salem for his person
al workout on March 17. What
they saw pushed Huntley's
stock up tremendously.
They were particularly
impressed with his agility,
jumping ability and speed. He
also tipped the scale at 221,
heavier than his playing
weight in ‘95. His first timing
in the 40-yard dash, 4.42, real
ly got scouts' attention.
“They really had no idea that
I had that kind, of speed,”
Huntley said. “Some of them
even thought that they had
gotten a bad reading on my
time.”
So Huntley was asked to run
again. This time he turned in a
4.43. Since then, Himtley has
moved up considerably in pre
draft analysis.
“The word that I'm getting is
that Richard has moved up
into the early second round
and possibly into the first
round,” Manns says.
Huntley says between his
agent and the scouts, he
thinks he’ll figure into the
plans of a lot of NFL teams.
"They say that I've changed
some people's minds about the
draft.”
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