Newspaper Page Text
Tuesday, January 27, 1998
THE MAROON TIGER
SPORTS
.
PAGE 15
—
Track Team Back in Action
By Marcus C. H. Bolden
Staff Writer
The Maroon Tiger Track
and Field team is back in
action for another successful
season. Under the direction
of Coach Willie Hill, the team
has won three consecutive
SIAC Conference
Championships and three
conference titles. This year's
team has not only made it a
goal to win the conference, but
also to capture the Indoor
Track and Field
Championship held in
Indianapolis, IN. Coach Hill
explains, "This years team is
built on leadership and very
experience athletes." . The
ambitious group returns a
host of highly awarded
athletes including three time
National Champion Greg
Roberts and two time winner
Charlie Thomas. Also, All-
American Seniors Nate Hill,
Greg Smith, -Quenton
Brennen.as well as All
Conference Kirwood
Newborn and Kenny Dove
provide a major spark to the
team. New recruits consist of:
Averd Moncar and Osbourne
Moxey, who were the top two
track athletes in the Bahamas
and Damean Pope, fourth in
Georgia in the high jump. .
The Tigers strongest
events are the high jump,
hurdles, long jump,
100 meters, 800 meters
and the 5,000. They
begin competition
January.15-16 at the
Gator Invitational in
Gainesville, FL and the
Razorback Invitational
in Fayetteville, "The
Razorback Invitational
will be the toughest
meet this year," says
Hill, "because were
competing against the
Division 1 National Champs."
The Tigers will face all
Division I teams in their
indoor track meets this season.
Despite challenging larger
schools, the track team
believes they have a possible
chance of winning the
National Championship.
To be successful team this
season, Hill's number one goal
is to prepare the track team to
be in the best condition. He
expects his athletes to come
out and work hard to put
themselves in a better position
for the later road. Early team
study hall meetings are
stressed every week. Hill also
prepares his athletes to be the
best people they can be , not
only in athletics, but in society
as well. The track program is
built up of 90 percent walk-
ons. There are no cuts and
everybody participates in
order to win," explains Hill.
"We are a family [that]
follow[s] the mystique." The
team will hold their first home
track meet, later on this spring
at B.T. Harvey Stadium.
Shaun Spearmon/STAFF
The Morehouse Track and Field
Team has an impressive records.
Morehouse Basketball Looks For A Return To Success
By Justin Greathouse
Staff Writer
Arthur McAfee, head
coach of the basketbal team,
had his fair share of
disappointments last year.
The Maroon Tigers lost to
Albany State University in the
first round of the SIAC
tournament, giving them a
subpar record of 14-11,
including a Morehouse no-no
of an 8-8 conference record.
"We didn't do what we
expected to do last year
because we had a lot of
problems last year, which were
not of our doing," McAfee
said. So the team did not do as
well as we normally do.
The team has already
received bad news. They will
have to play this season
without one of their top
freshmen Andrew Hill, who
suffered a fractured ankle and
broken toe in a scrimmage
October 23. However, the
good hews is that the team
returns 9 players, including
the starting backcourt of
leading scorer Michael Harris
and lead assist man Herman
Banks. Also expected to play
pivotal roles are Dadon Dodd,
James Teague, Justin Miller,
Darren Marshall, and
newcomer Kenneth Smith.
Coach McAcfee has also been
very pleased in the improved
play of energetic CoCaptains
Michael Santos, Corey
McBride, and Michael Bonner.
The lost of frontcourt
players Wallace Corker,
Ahmed Jenkins and Mustafa
Davis has the team unsure of
its strengths or weaknesses,
but it must improve on last
year's .817-to-l assist-to-
turnover ratio. The foul line
also remains an area of
concern; the team shot just
barely over 50% in games lost
last season compared to 73%
in games won. The trials of
last season also have many
wondering if the confidence of
the team is shaken due to the
previous season's ups and
downs.
The big question mark is
how well will our new people
respond to a lot of things, and
that we really won't know
until we play against some
outside competition, McAfee
said. Practicing against each
other is nice, but until you play
against someone else you
don't get the true barometer of
where you are.
If someone fills the huge
void left by All-conference
player Wallace Corker and
everything else runs smoothly,
the team should return to the
same success it enjoyed in the
early 1990's. The team
captured the Capital City
championship earlier in the
season by defeating St. Paul's
College 82-80 and edging
Claflin 88-87. Currently, the
Tigers realize their most
important game is the next one
they play: January 29 against
Clark-Atlanta University. '
“We didn't do what we expected to do last year
because we had a lot of problems last year.”
Arthur J. McAfee, Head Coach
The Maroon Tiger Basketball Team
The Liist Shot
The Departure of
Doug Williams
By Brian L. Thompson
Editor-In-Chief
Once upon a time eleven
years ago, a black man stepped
onto a football field and
created something special.
Against all odds, he made a
miracle happen by leading the
underdog Washington
Redskins to a Super Bowl
championship. His career
would end shortly thereafter
and he would go on to
promote Duke hair pomade in
Jet magazine advertisements.
But something still burned
inside him. He must have interpreted it as the urge to return to
the game he loved so much.
Fast forward to 1997. As an assistant coach for all of his
post-playing career, he sought to rise to the next level. Enter
Morehouse College: a Division II School with a poor football
history, a strange love /hate relationship with former coach
Maurice "Mo" Hunt and conveniently, a coaching vacancy. With
a 10-22 record over the three years before his arrival, our hero
claimed Morehouse as'an opportunity to create his own program
and leave his mark in the annals of Morehouse history.
Mark them he would. After recruiting top Florida prospect
Micah Mays, the Tigers roared to a 2-0 start and looked to
exorcise the demons that lingered after a 2-9 1996 campaign.
The man was praised for buoying a sinking ship, the fans came
for more than just the half-time show and the "pride" was back.
However, in week three, something familiar happened. Whether
it was. the colder weather, lack of effort or the reality of a
rebuilding year setting in that caused it, the Tigers began an
ignominious eight game slide that included an embarrassing
52-0 loss at Howard's Homecoming. The ship began to sink
once more. Fan interest waned after the half-time show. The
pride was gone. Again.
His last game as coach ended with a win, but by then, the
season had long been over and the Tigers had to settle for a share
of the AUC bragging rights. But this same man, Doug Williams,
asserted that Morehouse was not just a stop on his way to replace
Eddie Robinson at Grambling State. Just as Richard Nixon was
not a crook, George Bush would not raise taxes and Milli Vanilli
claimed they really did sing the songs on their album, Williams
proved to be a living contradiction. He exercised the escape
clause he had built into his contract and resigned as coach. By
the time we all returned from Thanksgiving break, Williams was
on the midnight train from Georgia. He could have been offered
a book of foodstamps and a jawbreaker to coach at Grambling
State University and he would have taken it. Why? School
loyalty. Imagine that...
Williams
