BCSP Notes . . .

Dr. Joseph Ramsey, current assistant to President Fred Gainous in charge of athletics, leads the list. Ramsey is a professor of physical education at FAMU and took over as interim AD following the resignation of J.R.E. Lee in February. Ramsey has been an assistant dean at FAMU and a department chair at FAMU, Valdosta State and Florida Atlantic. He served as assistant AD at FAU from 1992-94.

The four other finalists are Lin Dawson, Eugene Marshall, Fritz Polite and W. Curtis Williams.

Dawson is an instructor and consultant at Virginia Commonwealth University. He was AD at North Carolina Central for three years and associate AD at N.C. State for five years.

Marshall has been athletic director at Ramapo College of New Jersey since 1998. He came to Ramapo from the College of Staten Island (N.Y.) where he was AD.

Polite is an assistant professor in the College of Business at Central Florida. He also worked at Florida State directing am after-school mentoring program.

Williams is chairman of the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Prior to coming to Pine Bluff four years ago, he served as professor and/or AD at Alabama State, Albany State, Texas Southern, and Elizabeth City State.

The eight-member search committee is headed by Dr. Ebenezer Oriaku, a professor in the FAMU College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Following interviews with the candidates, the committee will narrow the list to three and submit the names to Gainous for the final decision.

MEAC Tennis
MEN
South Carolina State, the number two seed, avenged its regular season loss to top seed Florida A&M with a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Rattlers in the finals of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Championship in Altamonte Springs, Fla. The Bulldogs (16-4) captured their first title in 17 years. They won three consecutive titles in 1984-1986.

This was the sixth straight championship final for Florida A&M (21-8), who beat out SCSU for the top seed in the tournament by virtue of their win over the Bulldogs in the MEAC Tennis Round-Up. The Rattlers last title came in 2000.

The match would come down to the number one duel between the FAMU's Pfungwa Mahefu and SCSU freshman Dragan Bisercic. Down 3-2 in the third set, Bisercic won three straight points to go up 5-3. Mahefu won on serve, hitting his second ace of the game to pull to 5-4. Bisercic served out the match with a love-game to win the set (6-4) and the title for the Bulldogs.

"He (Bisercic) lost to Mahafu 6-0, 6-0 in Orangeburg (S.C.) earlier," SCSU head coach Hardee Judge said. "He came through for us today. For a freshman to do that, he just had a lot of heart out there."

Bisercic was named the championship's outstanding performer. Judge was selected the outstanding coach.

WOMEN
Top seeded Hampton ended Bethune-Cookman's turn-around season with a 5-1 victory in the finals of the 2004 MEAC Women's Tennis Championship in Altamonte Springs, Fla. The Lady Pirates, under head coach Robert Screen and led by Outstanding Performer Kristyna Pesatova, became only the second team to win three straight titles in women's tennis. Florida A&M won in 1987-89.

Pesatova defeated B-CC's Zora Gyoreova, 6-4, 6-4 in the number one position to give Hampton their fifth point overall and their fourth singles points of the afternoon. Pesatova finished 3-0 in the tournament.

The loss was bittersweet for Bethune-Cookman and head coach Trey Bogue, seeded third in the tournament. The Wildcats had a remarkable turn-around in 2004, rebounding from a 0-22 finish in 2003 to a 14-9 overall record and 8-2 MEAC record.

East/West split in Atlanta
The East men and the West women won games Saturday at the 2004 Atlanta Black College All-Star Weekend event held in Forbes Arena at Morehouse College.

The East men's squad, made up of players from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference and the Eastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, prevailed 82-80 over their West counterparts who hailed from the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

N. C. Central guard David Young heated up in the second half, canning five three-pointers, finishing with 20 points to pace the East squad and earn game MVP honors. His NCCU teammate, center Melvin Whitaker tallied 13 points and pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds. CIAA Player of the Year, Desmond Peoples of St. Augustine's added 14 points.

Paine guard Yari Scott paced the West with a game-high 21 points. SWAC Player of the Year Attarius Norwood of Mississippi Valley State and fellow SWAC player Xavier Oliver of Alabama State added ten points each.

In the women's contest, game MVP Kim Cue of Benedict led the West to a 79-53 victory. Jackson State center Amie Williams added 12 points and Tuskegee's Chanel Kendall had 11. Kim Watson of Florida A&M was the only East player to score in double figures with 12.

Albany State guard Flem Tucker won the slam dunk contest staged before the start of the women's game.

Penn Relays Results
St. Augustine's 400-meter hurdler Bershawn Jackson and Lincoln sprinter Lerone Clarke were the only black college individual winners at the 110th Penn Relays held at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field in Philadelphia Thursday through Saturday.

A record three-day crowd of 112,701 included a record 24,613 that showed for Thursday's opening day.

Jackson clocked a time of 49.38 to win the College 400 Hurdles Championship. Teammate Adrian Findlay of St. Aug's finished third with a time of 50.58.

Clarke took the top honor in the men's College 100 Dash Championship with a time of 10.43.

Other top performances included Howard hurdler David Oliver who finished sixth in the College 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.99.

Norfolk State Track Club quartermiler Nick Brown got fourth in the Olympic Development 400 hurdles with a time of 51.82.

In the College High Jump Championship, Morehouse's Keith Moffatt finished in a tie for fourth with a jump of 6-11.

N. C. A&T's 800-meter relay team finished sixth in the College Championship event with a time of 1:24.64.

St. Augustine's finished fourth behind record-setting Florida in the men's 1,600-meter Relay College Championship. Florida broke the 27-year Penn Relays record of 3:01.9 held by Arizona with a clocking of 3:01.1. St. Aug's finished in 3:05.21.

Two veteran black college runners were part of winning relay teams for the USA.

Former St. Aug's and current world-ranked quartermiler Jerome Young ran the third leg of the men's Olympic Development 1,600-meter relay that clocked a time of 2:58.93.

Former Alabama A&M standout and veteran Olympic performer Jearl Miles-Clark ran the second leg of the women's 1,600-meter Relay Olympic Development team that finished in 3:23.82.

© 2004 Azeez Communications, Inc.

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