South Alabama Sports Update 2009-09-18
Baseball
Due to wet field conditions South Alabama head baseball coach Steve Kittrell has been forced to postpone the start of fall practice until Sunday afternoon at the earliest. The Jags were expected to start their 45-day practice period Thursday afternoon. Kittrell made the decision to postpone due to NCAA rules that only allow 45 days for team workouts during the fall, and those begin with the teams first official practice.
Depending on the weather, the Jags may start practice on Sunday at 2pm.
Basketball
Men’s
The matchups have been announced for the second annual South Alabama Thanksgiving Classic. Coach Ronnie Arrow announced that Utah Valley, Georgia State and Alcorn State will play in the tournament on November 25 and 26 at the Mitchell Center.
Wednesday, Georgia State and Utah Valley will begin the tournament at 5pm followed by South Alabama and Alcorn State at 7pm. On Thursday, the consolation game will start at 2pm and the Championship game will begin at 4pm.
Women’s
Dr. Joel Erdmann, South Alabama’s Athletic Director, announced on Tuesday that Lady Jag coach Rick Pietri has received a contract extension through the 2013 season. Last season the Lady Jags finished 21-11, which is the first back to back 20-win season by the Lady Jags in 21 years. They also advanced to the semifinal round of the conference tournament for the first time since 2003 and only the second time since 1989.
On February 14th, Pietri grabbed his 150th career win at the collegiant level and ranks second in overall wins in South Alabama’s all-time coaching chart with 154 and ranks first in Sun Belt victories with 75.
Soccer
Kickoff of Friday’s soccer match between USA and Georgia State has been moved up from 6pm to 3:30pm due to a change in venue. Originally scheduled for a 6pm kickoff at GSU’s home field, they have moved to Atlanta Silverback’s Park due to unplayable conditions. Siverback’s Park has synthetic turf similar to USA’s football practice field.
Coach Varga was very grateful to head football coach Joey Jones for allowing the Soccer team to also use the football practice field to practice this week. He said, “We were very fortunate Coach Jones allowed us to practice on their field this week. I’m very grateful he allowed us that opportunity.”
Volleyball
This weekend will be the final tournament of the regular season for the Lady Jaguars before they begin their Sun Belt schedule. They are traveling to Prairie View A&M for the Lady Panther Invitational and will take on Nicholls State at 1pm on Friday then will take on Prairie View A&M and Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday.
Coach Arrow Announces Promotions Within His Staff
South Alabama’s head basketball coach has announced staff promotions and changes for the 2009-2010 season.
Former associate head coach Andy Helton left the program to accept the head coaching position at Eastern New Mexico earlier this year leaving the position open. So today Coach Arrow announced that assistant coach Chuck Taylor has been promoted to associate head coach and assistant coach Michael Floyd has been promoted to first assistant coach.
Taylor came to South Alabama in 2007 after serving a year at North Texas and winning the SBC tournament and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. Prior to North Texas, Taylor was the head coach at Richland (Texas) Junior College where the Thunderducks was 24-8 under him.
Floyd is a Mobile native and was a two-year letterwinner at South Alabama under coach Arrow from 1994-1996. He was previously head coach at Alabama Southern Community College where his team went 18-12 in the 2005-2006 season. He then spent one season at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi with Coach Arrow and returned with him to Mobile in 2007.
Coach Arrow had the following to say about coaches Taylor and Floyd, “For what we’ve been able to accomplish as a program the last few years, I feel really good about promoting Chuck and Michael. They are not only good x’s-and-o’s coaches but they have been able to bring the players along and maximize their potential. Their efforts have been very much appreciated and noticed.”
The Jags will have an exhibition game against West Florida on November 5, tip-off time is yet to be determined. Then the season starts at Rice when they take on Houston Baptist on November 13 in the Rice Basketball Challenge. The Jags complete schedule can be found here.
South Alabama Sports Round-Up 2009-05-28
Baseball
The Jaguars baseball teams season ended early in the Sun Belt Championship falling first to Troy 4-10 then again to Lousiana-Monroe 8-13. These two losses to end the season leaves the Jaguars with a 25-30 overall record for the season.
Head Coach Steve Kittrell said, “It was a tough loss, I hate for our seniors to go out like this. We’ve just got to regroup and get South Alabama back on top next year.”
However David Doss was named a Louisville Slugger third team All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. Doss hit .378 with 20 doubles, 12 homeruns and 59 RBI’s as a senior. He was a four-year letter winner.
Men’s Basketball
Head Basketball Coach Ronnie Arrow announced on Tuesday that DeAndrae Ross and C.J. Garner will leave the program and transfer to another school.
Ross is a shooting guard that played in 27 games last season with six starts. He averaged 3.8 points per game.
Garner started 16 times as a point guard and appeared in 28 games last season. He averaged 4.7 points and 2.3 rebounds per game as well as 37 assists for the season.
Coach Arrows’ comments about them were, “Both of these young men contributed significantly to our team development last year and helped us get to the finals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.” He further added, “But they both decided it would be in their best interest to transfer and we wish them the best.”
Head Coach Joey Jones and his staff are teaming up with LifeSouth Community Blood Centers to help save lives in Mobile and Baldwin counties with the Community Champions Blood Drive.
On Saturday, from 10AM to 3PM, Jones and his staff will be at LifeSouth’s donor center at 967 Hillcrest Road to donate blood and to encourage others to do the same. Also they will be delivering a piece of history that one lucky Jaguar fan will get.
The entire coaching staff have signed a football that will be given away on June 27th. During the month of June, every donor has the opportunity to enter a drawing to win the ball in addition to a signed banner that will be displayed during the first ever USA Football game on September 5th, 2009.
Additionally, the incoming players are now on campus and taking summer courses and getting prepared for the Fall season.
Sports Round-Up For 2009-05-14
Football
Football keeps getting closer. With 113 days until kickoff of the first season in South Alabama history another small, yet historic mark creeps up upon us. Season ticket holders will begin choosing their seats at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Tuesday, May 19th. This process begins for 4,500 individuals who have already made the commitment for the 2009 season. The USA Ticket Sales Office is recommending that all season ticket holders select their seats over the phone. It can be done in person, however individuals who come to campus may experience a delay in choosing their location.
Baseball
Men’s Baseball has dropped their last four games, all at home. They dropped three over the weekend to FIU with scores of 1-9, 15-21 and 7-8. Then on Tuesday night they lost to Southern Miss at Stanky field, 5-7.
Starting tonight, the Jaguars, 11-15 in the SBC, have a three game home series against in state rival Troy to round out the regular season. These three games are crucial for the Jags because if they get swept then the Jags may not make it into the Sun Belt Conference Championship tournament in Troy.
So come out and help the Jags win some crucial games.
Softball
Unfortunately the Jaguars softball team were knocked out of the SBC tournament last week in Denton, Texas. The Jags beat #3 WKU in the first round but fell to #7 FAU in the second round to fall into the losers bracket where they lost the rematch with #3 WKU to be eliminated from the tournament. #1 seeded ULL lost their first round matchup with #8 ULM but ground out five consecutive wins to win the SBC Championship title.
USA Junior Beth Pilgrim became the first South Alabama softball player to be named to the Sun Belt Conference All-Tournament team for her performance at the SBC Championship last week. This is her third conference honor this year. She was previously named Pitcher of the Week on April 6th and second-team All-Conference on May 5th.
Basketball
Coach Arrow added two names to the list this week. USA announced Rob Phillips signed a national letter of intent to play at USA. He is a 6’2″ shooting guard who is currently attending Charis Prep School in Goldsboro, N.C. He averaged 23.1 points per game, 56.9% from 3-point range and 92% from the free throw line for Charis.
Also P.J. Reyes signed a National Letter-of-Intent to play for USA. Reyes is a 6’4″ wing from Lamar Community College in Lamar, CO. He will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. He started 33 games and averaged 20.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game while shooting 47%.
Tennis
As reported yesterday, the Men’s Tennis program was hit with the news that they were found guilty of major infractions on Tuesday by the NCAA.
The violations as stated by the NCAA include unethical conduct by the former head coach Scott Novak, the University’s failure to monitor, impermissible financial aid and loans, improper student-athlete certification and an impermissible decrease in athletic scholarships.
The penalties include placing the program on probation for three years, including a postseason ban in 2010, the loss of scholarships and the forfeiture of past wins and championships. The number of scholarships have been reduced from 4.5 to 2.72 per year through 2011. The full write-up about this can be found here.
South Alabama Sports Roundup – May 4th 2009
Coach Ronnie Arrow is looking for a new assistant coach as Andrew Helton has been named the new head coach at Eastern New Mexico University. He will be the 11th head coach in school history and inherits a team that went 4-23 last season.
Helton has been a member of Coach Arrow’s staff for the past eight seasons, the last two at USA helping to lead the Jaguars to two consecutive 20-win seasons. ENMU is a Division II school that plays in the Lone Star Conference. Us Jaguars wish him the best in his new position.
Coach Becky Clark and the Jaguar Softball team will go to Denton, Texas to make its second appearance in the Sun Belt Conference Championship. North Texas will host the SBC Championship from May 6th through May 9th. The Jaguars, 26-26-1 and 10-12 in the SBC clinched the #6 seed and will face #3 Western Kentucky (32-17 overall and 14-9 in the SBC) on Wednesday at 3pm.
The SBC Softball Championship matchups are: #1 Louisisana-Lafayette vs #8 Louisiana-Monroe, #2 Troy vs #7 Florida Atlantic, and #4 Florida International vs #5 North Texas.
The Jaguar Baseball team visited Tuscaloosa on Wednesday but could not come away with a second victory in a week agaist the Crimson Tide. They lost 14-3. Over the weekend the Jaguars travelted to Monroe, LA for a three game series against Louisiana-Monroe. The Jaguars got to play two of the three games with Sunday’s matchup being cancelled due to the weather. But the Jags came out on top in both games 12-9 and 11-9.
After five days off this week the Jaguars will have seven home games to conclude the season (unless the ULM game is rescheduled). Starting on Friday May 9th, Florida International will visit Stanky field for three games, then Southern Miss visits on Tuesday may 12th and then Troy comes to town for a three game series beginning on Thursday May 14th.
Currently the Jaguars sit at 23-23 overall for the season and 11-12 in the Sun Belt. The Jags are fifth in the Sun Belt standings 2 1/2 games behind Florida International and 7 1/2 game from first.
The Sun Belt Championship starts May 20th and will be in Troy, Alabama.
Coach Arrow has signed a pair of players for the Basketball team. Tim Williams from Pontiac, Michigan has signed a National Letter-of-Intent. He will be transferring from Motlow State CC in Lynchburg, Tennessee and will have two seasons of eligibility. He averaged 21.4 points per game, 8.1 rebounds and had a team high 55 3-pointers and 52 steals.
Raymond Sims is a 5′ 9″ guard from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He will be transfering from Paris Junior College in Paris, Texas and will have two seasons of eligibilty. He averaged 5.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game leading his team to a 25-6 record. Paris JC competes in one of the toughest Junior College leagues in the nation and has averaged 27.3 wins in the last two seasons and won a school record 30 games in the 07-08 season.
Previous signees include Augustine Rubit, Javier Carter and Andre Gowins. All three signed in November.