Watauga High School's new volleyball coach has officially rounded out her coaching staff for the upcoming season. Kris Hagaman announced that Erin Flynn will coach jayvee volleyball and be a varsity assistant, and Robin Isaacs will be a varsity assistant coach. Flynn teaches fifth-grade at Green Valley Elementary School, and Isaacs is a business teacher at Watauga High School. The announcement comes just in time for fall practice which begins on Monday, August 2nd and ends August 4th.
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Well, some breaking news out of ASU, head softball coach Amy Herrington, who led the Mountaineers to a 64-91 record in three seasons, has resigned today to accept an assistant coach position at Chattanooga. Herrington was just the second softball coach in ASU history and had led the softball team to a 31-31 mark in Southern Conference play in her three seasons. Under her tutelage, ASU put together the first winning season in the 10-year history of the program with a 27-25 record in 2010 and claimed its highest SoCon finish when it tied for second in the league with a 14-9 mark in 2009. Herrington served at ASU for six years in all, with three seasons as an assistant coach (2005-07) and three as the program's head coach (2008-10). Appalachian has begun the search to find a replacement for Herrington.
Well, ASU football has definitely been in the headlines recently as football season creeps ever so close. But this time, it's not the team, but the uniforms that's making the news. The Mountaineer football team has unveiled its alternate jerseys for the 2010 season, and they are top-notch. The gold jerseys from the Nike Pro Combat line will be worn on occasion in 2010 in lieu of the Mountaineers' traditional black and white jerseys. This is the third-straight year that Nike has provided Appalachian with an alternate third uniform. Nike's Pro Combat line has also been worn by schools like Florida, Miami (Fla.), TCU and other prominent programs over the past year. Appalachian's version of the Pro Combat jerseys are gold with black tackle-twill numerals, black sleeves with white tackle-twill numerals and black ornamental stitching on the shoulder pads. The program's motto of "Trust and Respect" is stitched into the inside of collar. The Mountaineers are expected to debut the new alternate jerseys on Sept. 18 when they host North Carolina Central for Fan Appreciation Day at Kidd Brewer Stadium. As in years past, the alternate jerseys will be auctioned online to fans at GoASU.com following their debut. However, this season the jerseys will not be distributed to auction winners until after the conclusion of the season, leaving the Apps the option showoff the new uni's on more occasions throughout the year.
Well, the NBA mourns today after the news that missing former NBA player Lorenzen Wright's body was found Wednesday. Wright had been missing for 10 days, when police found his body outside of Memphis. At first, police were not sure of the identity of the body that was found 15 miles south of downtown Memphis, but after investigating, police made the call to Lorenzen's father to let him know that his son was dead. The 34-year-old Wright was last seen July 18 when he was expected to fly out of town. His family filed a missing person report on July 22nd. Wright played 13 years in the NBA for the Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings and most recently the Cleveland Cavaliers for 17 games in the 2008-09 season. Wright left the University of Memphis early for the NBA, and the Clippers selected him with the No. 7 pick overall. He averaged 8 points and 6.4 rebounds in 778 career games. Former NBA star Penny Hardaway, who played at Memphis two years before Wright, said he cried when he heard of the passing of Wright. Police are currently looking into homicide as a potential cause of death for Wright.
Disrespect won't be a word the ASU football team can use this year, after the media picked the Mountaineers to win the SoCon just one day after the SoCon coaches did exactly the same. ASU garnered 22 first-place votes and 259 points overall to get the nod, while Elon was picked to finish second after receiving six first-place votes. Furman came in third, and received one first-place vote. Chattanooga, a very improved team, was picked to finish fourth, and Samford, even though they were picked to finish sixth, still received one first-place vote. ASU begins the quest for a sixth-straight SoCon title and the quest to live up to those expectations when they open the season at Chattanooga on September 4th. ASU owns the Mocs, holding a 23-10 advantage in the series.
After their recent success on the diamond, the Hickory Crawdads were looking forward to their game on Tuesday night against the Augusta GreenJackets, but unfortunately for them, the weather would not comply. Tuesday's scheduled game between the two teams was canceled due to inclement weather and will not be rescheduled. Either way, the Crawdads will take it, picking up the series win, beating the GreenJackets two-games-to-one, and making the 'Dads winners of their last four series. The team will take an additional day off and then return home for an eight-game home-stand starting Thursday night against the Kannapolis Intimidators at 7 p.m.
As football season is ever so close to cranking back up, a group of ASU players already received a big honor before they even touched the gridiron this season. Headlined by first-team honorees D.J. Smith and Mark LeGree, ASU football led all programs with seven representatives on The Sports Network's 2010 preseason all-America teams. Other Mountaineers on the list included running back Devon Moore, wide receiver Brian Quick, and tight end Ben Jorden on the first-team, and defensive end Jabari Fletcher on the second team and defensive end Lanston Tanyi on the third team. All seven of the Mountaineers' preseason all-Americans also earned first-team preseason all-conference accolades from the Southern Conference's coaches. In addition to that, Smith, LeGree and Fletcher are among the 20 players on The Sports Network's official watch list for the 2010 Buck Buchanan Award, which honors the nation's top defensive player, while Devon Moore is on the official watch list for this year's Walter Payton Award, which recognizes the nation's top player in NCAA Division I FCS.
The Mountaineers have a new wide receivers coach, and it's a familiar face too. Trey Elder, who was a quality starting and backup quarterback for the ASU football team, is back with the Mountaineers. Elder had been the wide receivers coach at Byrnes High School, his other alma mater, this past year, after serving as a graduate assistant in 2008 for the Mountaineers. Elder posted a 7-1 record as a starter while at ASU from 2004-2007, winning three national championships along the way. He was most noted for guiding the Mountaineers to a 29-23 victory against Furman in the 2005 Division I-AA semifinal, which led to an eventual national championship. He was also a stellar signal caller for Byrnes, being named Mr. Football for South Carolina in 2003. He led the Rebels to an undefeated season and the 4A Division II state championship with a 40-14 victory against Conway that year. He will now be the position coach for his brother, Blake Elder, who is entering his senior season with the Mountaineers.
The Hickory Crawdads continued their recent solid baseball on Monday night, beating the Augusta GreenJackets 6-0. Hickory got on the board first with two runs against Augusta starter LHP Craig Clark (2-2, 4.50 ERA) in the top of the second inning. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Matt West was hit by a pitch to drive in Zach Zaneski for the first run of the game. Yefry Castillo then hit into an RBI fielder's choice to 3B Chris Dominguez, plating Vinny DiFazio from third to put the 'Dads up, 2-0. The 'Dads scored again in the third inning with two outs when DiFazio ripped a double off the wall in left-center field to put Hickory up, 3-0. Hickory then tacked on three more insurance runs in the fifth when Jared Prince lined an RBI double to the gap in left-center. After moving up to third on a sacrifice fly, Prince scored on an RBI double by 1B Jared Bolden, with Bolden taking third on a misplayed throw back to the infield. CF Guillermo Pimentel capped off the night's scoring with an RBI infield single to Dominguez at third to bring in Bolden and increase the Crawdads lead to the eventual final score of 6-0. Crawdads starter RHP Neil Ramirez shut out the Augusta GreenJackets through six innings, recording a team single-game high of 10 strikeouts while giving up 5 hits, and Sam Brown recorded the first out of the top of the seventh inning for the 'Dads, before the game went into a 36 minute delay due to inclement weather and was eventually called. Meanwhile, Jared Prince extended his hitting streak to 15 games.
Well, the Watauga Juniors suffered a tough end to their season, as they got bounced from the state tournament this weekend. On Saturday, Watauga got off to a slow start and couldn't overcome missed opportunities, as they fell to District 2 champion, King, 7-5 at the Brevard Sports Complex in Pisgah Forest, NC. King got on the board early with three runs in the first, and held on for the win after Watauga couldn't capitalize, leaving the bases juiced three times, and stranding 10 men in total. Watauga did collect nine hits with Clay Mizner accounting for two of those to go with two RBI, and Jeffrey Gainey had a hit, walked twice and scored two runs. Tyler Sturgell took the loss for Watauga after going five innings, giving up five runs on six hits and striking out two. Watauga then faced East Asheville in a consolation-round game on Sunday, but dropped that game as well 16-2. Matt Lambert took the loss for Watauga, but even with the early boot out of the state tourney, the Watauga Juniors are two-time defending District 7 champions.
