Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Around the Ohio Valley - April 20

This week's blog features some great stories, but make sure that you make it to Tennessee State's portion of the blog to see a true Hollywood story.

Austin Peay: APSU announced a few new signings on their website aspugovernors.com. ASPU women's head basketball coach Carrie Daniels had a lot to say about her new signing, Somalia McKenny, who was highly regarded across the nation and recruited by the likes of NC State and James Madison. Click the first link to read more. Baseball also announced a the signing of Brett Carlson, a 6-1 shortstop and pitcher out of Indiana. Read about the signing and how the Govs bested Lipscomb with some late heroics here.

Eastern Illinois: The Journal Gazette & Times-Courier has a great article describing why AD Barbara Burke's proposal for new facilities is a necessary elephant, but will be met with much opposition. Burke described the proposal as "Blueprint for Success". She went on to acknowledge that revamping facilities for football, soccer, baseball, softball and golf won't happen over night, but rather suggested it might be like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.

Eastern Kentucky: EKU has some excitement of their own surrounding their women's basketball program. Future student-athlete Carla Booth was selected to play in Kentucky/Indiana All Star Basketball series this summer. You can read more about the player who signed a National Letter of Intent to EKU here.

Jacksonville State: Laveeta Oliver has been dominate lately. She recently won Athlete of the Week honors for the third week in a row. Two weeks ago she posted an OVC best in the 100m and went on to win the 100m in Knoxville the week after. While we are on the subject of dominance we should speak of Tiffany Harbin. Harbin pitched the school's first ever nine-innings no-hitter for JSU softball against APSU. Find the articles that detail these student-athletes' success at jsugamecocks.com.

Morehead State: Volleyball looked impressive in spring action as they defeated Xavier in four sets. "Overall, this was the best performance of the spring," stated head coach Jaime Gordon. Elsewhere on campus, MSU future student-athlete Natilie Greenwell has been selected to play in the same All Star series mentioned earlier in the blog, the Kentucky/Indiana series. See her story here.

Murray State: A sad story coming out of Murray is former captain and starting quarterback Gene McDonald passed away in Lincoln, Ill. Saturday evening. McDonald helped lead Murray to three OVC championships during his time there, thus achieving a record for his freshman class. Gene is the father of current baseball coach Rob. We would like to extend our sympathy for his family and the entire Murray State community. See more of Gene McDonald's story here.

Southeast Missouri State: SEMO has recently jumped to the top of the OVC standings with some great conference play. They also have looked good outside of the conference when they beat Arkansas State yesterday. Trenton Moses homered twice and drove in six runs during that impressive win. SEMO softball got in on the act as they beat one of the nation's best pitching staffs and conference foes EIU. This snapped a ten game winning streak for EIU and a five-game losing streak for SEMO.

SIU Edwardsville: The past weekend saw SIUE track and field pick up numerous wins at the The Gateway Classic. The event also served as Alumni Day for the Cougars. Former coach John Flamer and school record holder Mike Grandcolas served as Honorary Captains. Leading the way was senior Ben Bishop who shattered the school record in the hammer throw. See siuecougars.com for a great write up on the event.

Tennessee State: Former TSU golf coach Catana Starks's story will be featured in the sports film 'From the Rough' starring Academy Award nominees Taraji P. Henson and Michael Clarke Duncan. Starks is the current head of the Human Performance and Sports Science department, and she was the first African-American female to have coached a men's golf team in the country. The story is truly amazing and I certainly don't want to spill all the beans here, but I highly recommend watching the trailer. Surely, more is to come on the promotion of this movie.

Tennessee Tech: TTU has a few great things happening right now. First they celebrated student-athlete day yesterday by treating their student-athletes to a picnic at the Averitt Express Baseball Complex during the home baseball game against Belmont. Student-athlete day is an initiative created by the NCAA and gives school's a chance to recognize their student-athletes. Visit TTUsports.com to see the goofy pictures of the fun that took place during the event, and vote for your favorite TTUsports event of the year while you are there.

UT Martin: Men's basketball announced Maretz Harris and Travis Daniels have signed National Letters of Intent to join the Skyhawks. Harris is a 6-3 guard out of Seneca HS where he was a two-time All-Region 7 selection and averaged 22.7 points per game. Daniels is a 6-8 forward from Russellville HS where he averaged 13.4 points and 10 rebounds a game. Elsewhere on campus women's soccer finished the spring season on a high note. Head coach Phil McNamara decided to give his team a fitness test during the 7v7 spring tournament held at Skyhawk Field Saturday. The Skyhawks won four straight matchest to reach the finals, but conceded an early goal in overtime and fell 2-1. Read about these two stories at utmsports.com.




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