DEVILETTES OPEN NCAA SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT PLAY FRIDAY The six-time defending SWAC Champion Mississippi Valley State softball team opens NCAA Tournament play this weekend in Tuscaloosa, AL.
Valley will take on the host school Alabama at 6 p.m. Friday. This season the Devilettes posted the best record in school history at 37-14 and are no strangers to the Crimson Tide, having played them twice this season on March 12.
Mississippi Valley State, which won the SWAC Tournament Championship on April 26, tuned up for this week's regional by playing a double-header last Friday against another SEC foe, Mississippi State, which earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.
The Devilettes will look to post NCAA Tournament wins for the first time since 2004 and advance to the Super Regional for the first time ever. Five seasons ago, MVSU bounced back from a game one loss to UCLA to defeat both Missouri (4-3) and Cornell (6-3) to become the first HBCU school and only SWAC school to win in the NCAA Tournament. Valley nearly made it three tournament wins that year, as they were in a scoreless tie for six innings against Long Beach State before the 49ers scored in the seventh inning en-route to eliminating the Devilettes from the tournament.
Texas and Tennessee-Chattanooga are the other teams in this year's Tuscaloosa regional.
Conference Softball Umpires to Work NCAA Tournament games Seven SWAC softball umpires have been assigned to work the NCAA Softball Tournament on both the Division I and Division II levels.
Conference umpires David Erwin, Walter Hill and Rodney Smith will work games in the Division I regional round, while Emerus Addison and Eddie Dade have been assigned as alternates.
Addison, Dade, Gregory Dismuke and David Erwin will umpire Division II tournament games in the regional round.
Addison, Dade and Mike Hall will umpire games in the Division II Super Regionals, and Hall will work as an umpire in the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament in Salem, VA.
GOLF - SWAC Men's Golf Champs compete in NCAA Tournament this weekend Jackson State's SWAC Champion Men's Golf Team will play in the NCAA Golf Tournament in Austin, TX.
The University of Texas Golf Club will host the regional Thursday-Saturday on the par 71-7,412 yard layout. The Tigers will compete against 20 other teams.
John Montgomery of Alabama State, the SWAC's low medalist, will compete as an individual in the NCAA Regional Tournament in Bowling Green, KY.
Hosted by Western Kentucky, The Club at Olde Stone will host the regional, also Thursday-Saturday on its par 72-7,200-yard layout. Montgomery will contend against players from Purdue, Eastern Kentucky, Xavier (Oh.) and Marquette.
Conference schools fare well in PGA Minority Golf Championship The SWAC had strong representation in this past weekend's PGA Minority Collegiate Golf Championship in Port St. Lucie, FL.
In men's team play, Alabama State finished eighth and Alabama A&M ninth. The Hornets had a team score of 949, seven shots better than their archrivals. Kyle Demeester led Alabama State with a two-over par score of 218 (77-69-72), ahead of teammate Montgomery's 227 (81-72-74). Alabama A&M was led by Andrew Chase Kennedy's 222 (73-75-74) and Cody Calvert's 232 (76-78-78).
In individual men's play Grambling State's Jonathan Coleman tied for fifth with a score of 232 (80-76-76). Jeremy Williams of Prairie View A&M finished 13th with a score of 243 (85-74-84).
In women's individual competition, Peni Sanjoto and Aziza Glass of Prairie View A&M finished seventh and tied for eighth, respectively. Sanjoto shot 250 (83-87-80), nine shots better than Glass' 259 (85-86-88). Danielle Robinson, Ericka Ware and D'Andrielle Robinson finished 12th, 15th, and 16th respectively.
FOOTBALL MEDIA DAY SET The 2009 SWAC Football Media Day will be held Tuesday, July 21 from 9-11 a.m. at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, AL.
Head Coaches and players from all 10 Conference teams will be in attendance. The Grambling State Tigers are the defending Conference and HBCU National Champions.
A pair of SWAC football products sign pro contracts Former Prairie View player Jermaine McGhee and Univ. Arkansas-Pine Bluff standout John Keith have recently signed pro football contracts.
McGhee signed a free agent contract with the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday. The Oakland, CA native who ended his Prairie View career in 2007, spent part of the 2008 season on the Kansas City Chiefs' practice squad.
Keith signed with the Canadian Football Leagues' Toronto Argonauts. The Palmdale, CA native was the anchor on UAPB defensive unit that ranked fourth in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in total defense. In 2008, he amassed a total of 119 stops in the 12 games in which he competed ranking first on the team in tackles and second in the SWAC overall.
LADY HORNETS' RELAY TEAM IN TOP 20 The SWAC Champion Alabama State women's 4x100 meter relay team ranks in the Top 20 among fastest times in the nation.
The foursome of Tokeyah Jones, Jamie Brooks, Asha Tavernier, and Dawn Hemanes clocked a time of 44.84 seconds in the SWAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Houston to rank 18th in the nation.
WILL RECENT BASEBALL TOURNAMENT TREND CONTINUE? A recent trend has started to form among the teams that have earned the SWAC Baseball Championship.
From 1959-2003, three teams dominated the Conference baseball championship ledger. During those 45 seasons, only Grambling State, Jackson State and Southern had won or shared the conference title. In fact, from 1986-03, only Jackson State or Southern won the crown.
However in 2004, Texas Southern became the first school outside of the SWAC's Big Three to win the baseball championship. Southern bounced back to win the title in 2005, but for the past three seasons the champion has resided in Texas.
Prairie View A&M won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. Last season, Cinderella showed up in Baton Rouge in the form of Texas Southern. The Tigers earned a berth in the SWAC Tournament in the final weekend of conference play, winning the final two games of a three-game series over Univ. Arkansas-Pine Bluff to claim the #4 seed in the Western Division.
Catching lightning in a bottle, TSU went undefeated in the SWAC Tournament, defeating Jackson State, Mississippi Valley State and J-State a second time to reach the title game against archrival Prairie View A&M. In the deciding game, Texas Southern rallied from an 11-6 deficit with a single run in the seventh and five runs in the eighth to take an improbable 12-11 championship game win, the 2008 Conference title and the NCAA Tournament bid that goes with it.
In 2009, Grambling State earned the final spot in the tournament, rallying with two runs in the ninth to force extra innings at Prairie View A&M. In the 11th, the G-Men scored eight times to win 17-9 and clinch its ticket to Baton Rouge.
For three consecutive years, the SWAC Baseball Champ has resided in Texas. In 2008, an unlikely champ emerged from the field of eight. What will this year's tournament yield? Stay tuned!