4C
SPORTS/Xtt Clarlotte $ot
Thursday, February 9, 2006
Family affair for coaches
Joyners make their mark at home, bench
N.C. Central assistant Steve
played for JCSU head coach
Paul's.
By Chcris F. Hodges
rhtnshfjJgef^lhechorUitupost com
Oh. oh, oh, CIAA basketball
is the Joyner family show
Once upon a time Steve
Joyner and his older brother
PHOTO/WAOE NASH
Joyner Jr. and J.C. Smith assistant Edward Joyner Jr. both
Steve Joyner Sr. Edward Sr., not pictured, is head coach at St
Bye
works
for
Bulls
Extra day off
gives JCSU
time to prep
for Va. State
Continued from page 1C
what weVe done in our
preparations will give us an
advantage ”
Smith, which beat Vu*ginia
State 108-98 on Feb, 7. is
placing to seenre a spot in
the Division II national tour
nament as well. The Bulls
are ranked sixth in the
South Atlantic Regies this
week, their hipest of the
season despite rising as high
as No. 15 in the coimtry last
month. Tlie only other CIAA
team in the top six ~ which
advance to the postseason
tournament — is last year’s
national champion Virginia
Union, the country's No. 1
team.
“We’ve moved up to No. 6
this week and the final poll
will come out on Monday.”
Joyner said. “You want to be
in the top five to assure >our-
self a spot in the plavofis. We
hope we're doing the right
tilings to be there next we^,
but the only sure way to get
in is to win I think well
have to win at least one
game.
Tliat s not a foregone con-
dusion at the CIAA, where
the top four seeds have
taken turns beating each
other Smith, fio* examine is
2-1 against the East's
seeds, earning a split against
defending CIAA champ
Union and a 68-56 win
against Bowie State on Jan.
17
“I think there are a num
ber of teams capable of win
ning.” Jo>‘ner said “You have
to be concerned about your
team, that they're emotion
ally comfortable to go out
and play their best.”
{^specially this week.
Exlward kept count of who
was beating who on the coiut.
Then things got a little lo|>-
sided
“(Steve) has taken total con
trol of that situation," said
Edward, 56, head men’s coach
at St. Paul's.
Steve Joyner, 55, is the win-
ningest basketball coach in
Johnson C. Smith history, and
by his side is his nephew
Edward Joyner Jr, who also
coaches on the women’s staff
Up 1-85 about 150 miles is
Steve Joyner Jr, a women’s
assistant coach at rival North
Carolina Central. He got his
start with his Edward Sr.
when he was the head coach
at Livingstone.
And Edward Joyner Sr. is no
slouch. He’s won 10 games
with St. Paul’s this year. Last
year the Tigers didn't win any
“I inherited that team and
they weren’t very talented,”
Edward the elder said.
So he reached out to his
brother to motivate St. Paul’s
players.
‘Tt didn’t help,” said Edward
Sr.
But that’s just how their
relationship works. The
Joyners talk five times a day,
keeping the close relationship
they developed as kids on the
basketball court
“Growing up in Winston-
Salem, basketball was not
only a community event , it
was a family event,” Steve Sr.
said “Wnston-Salem has an
outstanding recreational
department.”
Playing with his older
brother in the parks and
recreation centers of the Twin
Cities instilled a passion for
basketball in the Joyners. It
must have seeped through to
their DNA because the next
generation of Joyner coaches
are waiting in the wings.
The juniors played for their
fathers and worked on th^
staffs of their uncles,
Steve Jr, 26 and a graduate
of Smith like his dad and
cousin, started his coaching
career at Livingstone when
the elder Edward was head
coach there
“I catch myself thinking
and saying things that I
heard my dad and my uncle
say” Steve Jr said “It’s a
weird moment in time for
Steve Jr. said he now
understands what his cousin
was talking about when he
began coaching with the elder
Steve when he played for the
Golden Bulls.
“Steve does a wonderful job
for us,” said NCCU head
women’s coach Joli Robinson.
“He’s just like his father. I
remember seeing him as a lit
tle boy growing up and I told
him when the position
became available, I’d look
him up,”
Robinson said because he
knows the game so well when
the time comes for Steve Jr.
to be a head coach, he’s going
to make a great one.
Don’t be surprised to see
Edward Jr, 33, in a head
See FAMILY/5C
I
CIAA
PHOTOA3URTIS WILSON
Shaw guard Jenna Bradford drives around Shaw’s LaConya Polk in the Bears’ 69-47 win Tuesday.
Shaw is looking to win a ClAA-recoid fourth straight women’s tournament championship.
Date with destiny
analyst a
fan first
ESPN’s Lewter
hooked on tourney
from childhood
By Cheri.s F. Hcxlges
cherishcxiges^ thedk3rloaeposl.com
One of ESPN basketball analyst Stan
Lewter’s first CIAA memories came when
he was barely out of diapers.
“My parents would take me to games
and we would go to the tournament and
get out of school and all of that,” he said.
“I got a program for the 25th annivCTsary
My dad was always big on history and he
said they're going to ask you about that
one day and you need to know that.”
Lewter put his knowledge and love of
the league to good use when he left coach
ing (he was head men’s basketball coach
at Livingstone for three years) for TV; the
CTAA was just lining up its television
deals. He’s been the voice of the CIAA
tournament for nearly a decade and he
calls most of the regular season TV
games.
“I was at the right place at the ri^t
time and we grew together,” Lewter said.
Though he may have a smile plastered
on his face and laughter in his voice,
Lewter takes his job seriously
“It’s my job to entertain and inform peo
ple,” he said.
Historically black college sports haven’t
gotten a lot of television time in the past.
But that changed for the C!TAA in 2005.
Urban Sports and Entertainment Group,
the league’s longtime TV partner helped
broker a deal with ESPN to broadcast the
tournament’s quarterfinal, semifinal and
final games.
Urban Sports is also the company that
puts on Lewter’s show, “Inside the
Game,” a weekly half-hour hi^ili^ts
See TELEVISION/5C
Shaw women going for record fourth straight title
By Chens F. Htxlges
cherahodftes0i thecharhOeposl rent
TTie smiles on the faces of the
Shaw women’s basketball team
while they’re beating CIAA
opponents aren’t arrogant
taunts
TTieyre staying loose so that
they can continue their winning
ways. The Bears have a 74-game
league winning streak That
translates into a three->ear gap
between the last time the Bears
lost to a confeence rival.
TTie Bears don’t change their
game when they play Ealeigh
rival Saint Augustine's or Elast
Division foes, but those teams
play harda* against them, said
guard Nastassia Boudcault.
*Tliey play harder and we get
fouled harder,” she said.
Still, Shaw wins. Even on a
ni^t less than stellar shoot
ing, a ni^t head coach Jacques
Curtis calls a bad one, Shaw is
closer to a fourth CIAA champi
onship.
Are the Bears arrogant?
Not at all.
“The girls play hard every
ni^t and that’s what they did
toni^t, they kept pluming and
plugging,” Curtis said after
Shaw’s 67-49 victory over St.
Augustine's in the tournament
quarterfinals Tbesday
Thou^ Shaw shot only 40 per
cent, they f(HTed the Falcons into
21 turnovers, which turned into
15 points fcH* the Bears.
“We cune out and we l^ay
hard and we j^ay together,” said
Boudcault. “Tm not going to say
we re unstoppable because any
thing can happen on any night.”
But in the last three years
unstoppable, at least in confer
ence play describes Shaw per
fectly
Guard Leslee Anderson said
the team has ftm and keeps the
goal erf" winning in the forefixmt
of their minriq when they’re on
the floor.
“We’re a pretty silly team. We
stay focused and we have fun at
the same time ” she said
Elizabeth City State’s Vikings
are the only team this season
that came dose to beating the
Bears.
SeeSHAW5C
PHOTO/WADE NASH
Stan Lewter, right, talks basketball with
Terry Peterson before the start of the
CIAA tournament MorKlay. Lewter is an
analyst for CIAA football and basketball
games on ESPN.