Around the Ohio Valley- May 4

Austin Peay: APSU completed the sweep of Morehead in their three game conference series. The Govs currently sit on top of the OVC standings and are obviously enjoying a great season. However, the true story is that Head Coach Gary McClure completed his 700th win in the process. McClure has been with the Govs for 24 years now, truly a great run in modern day collegiate sports. The Leaf Chronicle has an article and video interview with the coach.

Eastern Illinois: EIU clinched at least a share of the OVC Regular Season Championship by defeating JSU Sunday. Amber May picked up her 20th win of the season during the series. She now sits No. 5 all time on the EIU single-season win mark. Elsewhere on campus, EIU announced four new members to EIU hall of fame. The 2011 consists of Craig DeWitt, Nick Ricks, Jason Thompson and Vanessa Wells. You can see the detailed write up on the contributions of these inductees and the recent success of the softball team at the Panther's website.

Eastern Kentucky: EKU recently caught up with former offensive lineman Dereck Hardman. Hardman has been chasing his dream of playing in the NFL. He made the practice squad for the Buccaneers in 2010 before being called up to start the final four games of the season at right guard.


Jacksonville State: Last week saw a extended amount of time devoted to the now former Athletic Director Oval Jaynes, who retired after 3 years in the position. This week sees Greg Seitz announced as Acting Athletic Director until the position is filled. Seitz has been with JSU since 1993, and has achieved many accolades since that time such as becoming the first SID elected as President of the Alabama Sports Writers Association, media and press box coordinator for several NCAA tournaments and has served as SID and Associate Athletic Director in his time at JSU. See his quotes on the announcement and his sentiments towards Oval Jaynes in the article here.

Morehead State: Student-athletes were recognized at Honors Banquets hosted by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on Monday evening. Michael Brown and Emma Keough received the Male and Female Scholar of the Year awards, respectively. Both students posted a 4.0 GPA, with Brown majoring in physics and Keough in learning and behavioral studies, I think I can speak for everyone is saying, "WOW!" Holly Evans received the Laughlin-Miller award while achieving All-American status on the volleyball court and maintaining a 4.0 GPA in health promotions (double wow). Many more awards were received, and to not do the other recipients an injustice I highly recommend checking out the article...Is that Faried back there?

Murray State: Casey Brockman was named to the Sports Network FCS Top 10 Quarterbacks list that was released today. Brockman started only six games last season but managed to pass for 2,442 yards and 15 touchdowns. Brockman is a 6-2, 205 lb. junior and is expected to put up big numbers in Chris Hatcher's spread attack. Should be interesting to watch his season unfold, but in the meantime read about the recent announcement here.

Southeast Missouri: Former SEMO football player and athletic director John Schneider passed away last Wednesday in Cape Girardeau. He was 82. Schneider was an inaugural member of SEMO's Athletics Hall of Fame. He was named to AP Little All-America team in 1955, served as an assistant football coach, became the university's director of athletics and later was chairman of the department of physical education. Our sympathies go out to his family and the SEMO community, he will surely be missed. You can read more about his life in the Southeast Missourian.

SIU Edwardsville: SIUE baseball withstood a three-run ninth inning by JSU Sunday. It took some big time hits and solid pitching from the Cougars to pull off the victory, but they took the win and improved to 19-22 on the season. Head Coach Gary Collins had a few quotes in the siuecougars article, so I will leave most for you to read about but I will share his statement of, "They'll (JSU) will be at the top of the league. This proves we can play with them."

Tennessee State: The picture to the left, courtesy of Espn.go.com, features a young Sean Foley kneeling to the left. Foley went on to become Tiger Woods swing coach, but this story isn't just about Foley. It is about the former golf coach in the middle, Dr. Cantana Starks of TSU. I mentioned Dr. Starks and the movie made about her journey "From the Rough" a few weeks ago in the blog, but I can't help myself. The movie is expected to hit the big screen in the fall, and the excitement and impact it will create could be huge. Starks quoted, "I just think there is an opportunity to try to get more African-Americans in professional leagues to challenge these positions that are available in high school and college. I hope people can take the initiative to develop these young ladies to become head coaches somewhere. It's not just basketball. I think there are so many other opportunities for them." Read the ESPN article that has some former players' sentiments and more quotes from Dr. Starks.

Tennessee Tech: The TTU football team wrapped up their spring season off the field. They chipped in and helped out with the Putnam County Habitat for Humanity. "One of the main reasons I wanted to get out here was to teach our guys to learn to give," Coach Brown said. "Coach Brown told us that we had a great spring as a team, and working on these Habitat for Humanity Houses is letting us get to know the community and helping us become stronger as a team, a better team," one player said. Read about how this effort benefited the community in the TTUsports write up.

UT Martin: UTM announced a few award recipients at the Sixth Annual Senior Athlete Night on Monday. Cody Terry was named the Outstanding Sportsmanship Recipient and Bob Carroll Male Athlete of the Year. On the women's side Lauren Montague was named the Bettye Giles Female Athlete of the Year. Montague will go down as one of the all-time volleyball greats at UT Martin while Terry sports a 3.86 GPA with an impressive career as a shortstop. See utmsports.com to read about what it takes to receive such awards.