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INSIDE MOREHOUSE, OCTOBER 2008
Streiff Gets a Big Kick Out
of Being at Morehouse
By ADD SEYMOUR JR.
Micah Streiff wakes up each
morning, makes breakfast for his
wife, Victoria, and then heads from
their home in Avondale Estates to
Morehouse for a day of classes
and afternoons on the football field
as a key member of the Fighting
Maroon Tigers.
After that, he goes back home each
evening, makes dinner for Victoria,
who is an Agnes Scott College
student, studies for a few hours, talks
with his wife a while before drifting off
to sleep to ready for another long day.
“Yeah, it is a pretty full day, huh?”
said Streiff, a 21 -year-old junior gen
eral science/mechanical engineering
major and one of the top kickers in
the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference.
His days aren’t typical for a col
lege student. But neither is the story
of his journey to Morehouse.
Streiff learned about kicking foot
balls while playing high school foot
ball at Southwest DeKalb High
School in Decatur, Ga., for legendary
coach Buck Godfrey. He decided to
kick at Tennessee State University in
Nashville. Victoria also went to the
Music City to attend Fisk University,
just down the street from TSU. They
married after their freshman year.
“But my wife and I decided we
wanted to transfer home,” said Streiff,
adding that they just missed Atlanta.
“I showed up on (Morehouse’s)
doorstep and some of the coaches
remembered recruiting me in
high school.”
Academics lured Streiff to More
house - as did the fact that head foot
ball coach Rich Freeman needed
a kicker.
“We didn’t have a punter,” Free
man said. “He pretty much fell in
our lap.”
Since transferring to Morehouse
in 2007, Streiff has been one of the
SIAC’s Players of the Week 10 times.
In the Maroon Tigers’ 38-35 win over
Fort Valley State this season, he aver
aged 37.2 yards per kick and kicked
three field goals, including the game-
winner in the game’s final seconds.
“He’s huge,” said Freeman. “He’s
just as good as having a receiver who
can run a 4.3 in the 40 or having a de
fensive tackle who can bench press
500 pounds. He’s definitely a weapon
for us.”
Streiff said the fact that he’s a
white football player and student at a
historically black college elicits stares
and comments on campus and on
the field.
“I’ve gotten that from people who
don’t know me,” he said. “People are
always curious and always wonder.
But people who know me know that
it doesn’t make a difference to me as
far as the color of the people I’m with
or the type of people I’m with, as
long as they are good people. I pretty
much get along with everybody.”
Streiff is hoping for a chance to
kick in the National Football Feague
someday. Butif not, he’s looking for
ward to a career in engineering.
Right now, he’s just happy to have
landed at Morehouse.
“I wanted to play at home and
play for Morehouse,” Streiff said. “I
feel at home. I love it here.” ■
2008-09 MOREHOUSE
BASKETBALL SEASON
Tips Off With Oct. 15
Midnight Madness
Basketball can’t start soon
enough for the Morehouse
Tigers Basketball squad. In
fact, the team’s first practice
of the 2008-09 season at
Forbes Arena will be at the
stroke of midnight on Oct.
15, the very first minute that
college basketball teams are
allowed to practice.
“I’m really looking for
ward to us getting back on the
court, getting back to the top
of the Southern Intercolle
giate Athletic Conference and
possibly getting an NCAA
bid,” said head coach Grady
Brewer. “That’s the goal this
»
year.
The first practice will be
festive as fans are invited to
Forbes Arena a few hours ear
lier-at 10 p.m. for “Midnight
Madness,” sponsored by Hy-
grade Magazine. There will be
music, T-shirts and More
house basketball parapherna
lia given away to fans.
“When we’ve been success
ful, it has all been because of
our 6th man - and that is our
fans,” Brewer said. “I think
they will be huge in us being
successful.” ■
Junior kicker Micah Streiff said he enjoys balancing football, academics
and marriage.
OLYMPIC SPOTLIGHT
Singleton Wins Paralympic Gold as Part
of World-Record Breaking Relay Team
Woods-Howze Becomes First U.S.
Master’s track and Field Athlete
to Rank in All Events
Morehouse’s Jerome Singleton,
who begins the final two years
of his dual-degree engineering
program at the University of
Michigan this fall, had one last
thing to do before he started
classes: win a gold medal.
Singleton took home a gold
medal as part of the winning 4x100
meter relay squad in the 2008 Par
alympic Games held in Beijing,
Sept. 6-17. The relay team not only
won a gold medal, but they won
also broke a world record, running
the race in 42.75 seconds.
Singleton added a silver medal
when he finished a close second to
famed sprinter Oscar Pistorius in
the men’s T-44 100 meters.
The T-44 division is for single
leg, below-the-knee amputees.
Singleton, who ran for the Flying
Maroon Tigers Track and Field
team, had his foot amputated as an
infant after being born without
a fibula. ■
Jerome Singleton (second from left) celebrates with his teammates on the
record-setting, gold-medal winning 4x100 meter squad after winning their race
in Beijing.
Ever since Lydia Woods-Howze
decided three years ago to compete
in a triathlon and take part in her
first Senior Olympics, she has con
tinually set goals and broken them.
Learning how to high jump? She
did it. Tossing a javelin? She’s done
that too.
In fact, Woods-Howze, a profes
sor in the Department of Health,
Physical Education and Recreation,
won 105 medals in a range of
events in 2007, her first full year on
the U.S. Masters Track and Field
circuit. But Woods-Howze. desired
more - she wanted to be the first
person to be nationally ranked in
the Top 25 in 22 single events. In
2008, she’s accomplished that, too.
“It’s pretty overwhelming,”
Woods-Howze said. “It’s been fun. I
did it. But now I’ve got so much more
to do. It’s always something more.”
“Now that I can high jump,”
Woods-Howze said her next goal is
to tackle the decathlon. ■
Lydia Woods-Howze competes in
one of the 22 events she is ranked
nationally in the Top 25.