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February 19, 2014 • Volume 36 • Issue 2 • $1.50

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Gamecocks get into theswing of things quickly in season-opening series

Signing DayReportMeet the excitingclass of 2014

2 • Spurs & Feathers February 19, 2014

by mike [email protected]

It is that time of year again when the players roll out the baseballs, get out the spikes, bats and gloves and the fans come to crowd Carolina Sta-dium to watch the Gamecocks play.

Saturday, Feb. 15 was Opening Day for the Gamecocks and despite being delayed by a day due to wintry conditions the fans came out to support South Carolina as they played host to Bucknell for a doubleheader.

Before game one of the doubleheader the opening day festivities kicked off with a cer-emony dedicating the home bullpen to former Gamecock All-American pitcher Michael Roth. Roth had a taped message to Gamecock fans play on the videoboard thanking them and apologizing for not being present, but he is in Arizona preparing for the 2014 season with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Roth said that he was both honored and humbled to receive such recognition in his message.

South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tan-ner, Cocky and longtime supporter of the Gamecocks Billy Moore and his fam-ily unveiled a plaque beside the home

bullpen officially naming it after Roth. Moore then threw out the first pitch and his daughter, Mary English who is a new recording artist with MTV, sang the national anthem.

Another Opening Day celebration planned before the second game of the doubleheader was the dedication of the new playground at Caro-lina Stadium to lifelong Gamecock fan Hay Fant Sparks by the Athletics Department. Tan-ner, Cocky, Sparks and his family were planned to take part in a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially dedicate the playground shown on the videoboard.

The fans were extremely excited to come and support the Gamecocks as a good crowd filed in to fill the stands.

Tim Eyler of Goose Creek, S.C. met his daughter, Jennifer, who attends the University to take in the Gamecocks’ Opening Day. Eyler said that he has tried to come to Opening Day each of the last four years.

“It’s not snowing anymore so we had to be here,” Jennifer Eyler said. “We’re excited about

the team every year, happy to be here and ex-cited to see them name the bullpen after Roth. They should; he’s my favorite.”

Paul Matheney and his son Matt from Co-lumbia, S.C. said that they get to come to many games, but it was their first Opening Day.

“It’s always good to come out here, but this is the first Opening Day so we’re really excited about it. We’re absolutely excited about the new season and this team … we’re just really glad to be here today,” Matheney said.

The players were just as excited as the fans to get out on the field to face Bucknell with some saying they wished they could have played on Friday. Despite the delay, they were chomping at the bit to get on the field and face the Bison.

“I think we’re all really excited. A little angry we didn’t’ play (Friday), but you can’t control weather. We’re all happy to just get out there and play against another team,” junior relief pitcher Joel Seddon said. “I’m sure all of the guys are sick of facing the same pitchers, facing the same hitters so we’re ready to face Bucknell.”

Sophomore second baseman Max Schrock said that he still experiences the butterflies that Opening Day brings and was extremely excited to get out on the field.

“It’s Opening Day. All those little jitters come from being so excited. Ever since the last game last year you’re looking forward to this one. It’s a long time and a lot of buildup,” Schrock said.

Joey Pankake agreed with Seddon and Schrock saying the delay of a day to start the season just made the excitement level grow for the Gamecocks saying that he knew it would be a good day.

The Gamecocks came through on Pankake’s prediction by plating a pair of runs in the first inning to take an early lead. The conditions in Carolina Stadium at the time of the first pitch of the season were 49 degrees and fair with 17 mph wind from the northwest. There were 8,015 fans in attendance for game one on Opening Day at Carolina Stadium.

Gamecocks open the baseball season in style

photos by allen sharpe and jenny dilworth

All Gamecock baseball coverage sponsored by

DiPrato’s


The seventh-ranked South Carolina baseball team swept Bucknell to begin its season 3-0 behind a potent offense and a pitching staff that gave up only six runs over three games.

The Gamecocks won the Opening Day doubleheader by scores of 17-4 and 12-2 before claiming the series sweep on Sunday, 12-0.

One of the aspects that head coach Chad Hol-brook said he likes most about the team is the age and experience level he is able to put out on the field.

“We can be pretty old with the lineup that we put on the field as far as experience. Coach Tan-ner always told me you win a lot more games with 21- and 22-year-olds than you do with 18- or 19-year-olds and that’s true,” Holbrook said. “We can put some 21-, 22-year-olds out there and you need to be old in this league.”

The Gamecock offense was clicking on all

cylinders in the season-opening series as they plated 29 combined runs in the doubleheader before putting up 12 in Sunday’s victory. South Carolina was able to score early by pushing across runs in the first inning in all there games.

Kyle Martin led the Gamecock offense by going 7-for-9 over the weekend, including a career-high four hits in Sunday’s finale. Gray-son Greiner and Connor Bright each drove in seven runs during the weekend and Tanner English drove in a career-high five runs in Sat-urday’s second game. The Gamecocks hit three home runs in Sunday’s series finale from Max Schrock, Joey Pankake and Greiner.

“I did think that we had a chance to have some pretty good offensive players in the lineup. When I put the starters on the team last weekend I think we scored nine runs both of those scrim-mages against our guys. I do feel good about our offensive team,” Holbrook commented on the 41 runs the offense scored over the weekend.

South Carolina’s starting pitching showed well

to open the season with Jordan Montgomery and Jack Wynkoop each going five innings and earning a victory in Saturday’s doubleheader. Holbrook said that he was spoiled and had seen them pitch better, but he was pleased with their efforts in the first outings of the year. Freshman Wil Crowe had an excellent showing in his col-legiate debut, throwing 6.1 innings of no-hit ball with five strikeouts. Crowe retired the final 13 batters he faced in the game. Four Gamecock pitchers combined to throw a one-hit shutout while striking out 10 Bison in Sunday’s finale.

Holbrook lauded Crowe’s skill and composure in his debut outing along with the other starters, but one of the things he noted he learned about the team was the bullpen’s skill and versatility.

“I think the thing that kind of stood out to me was that I was very impressed with the way that our bullpen threw the ball … I think that you see that we do have some depth and do have some balance in our bullpen,” Holbrook said. “I like the depth of our bullpen and what I take

away as a coach from these three games is that makes me feel pretty good.

“We’ve got a number of guys that we can go to after our starters hopefully get us to the sixth inning to help us finish the game. Who knows, sometimes you might see (Joel) Seddon, we have to go to him in a big spot, you might see him in the seventh. Now I feel comfortable go-ing to (Cody) Mincey later. We can pass the ba-ton from kid to kid depending on the opponent and having a versatile bullpen makes me feel good as a coach,” Holbrook continued.

Schrock said sweeping the opening series reinforces the team’s confidence in themselves and they hope to continue the high level of play.

“I think it just gives us confidence. We had somewhere around 40 runs and 40 hits prob-ably which is boosting our hitters confidence,” Schrock said after Sunday’s game. “That’s al-ways good to be boosting the hitters confidence and we just need to take that into our game on Tuesday and into next weekend.”

Gamecocks sweep Bison to open season

February 19, 2014 Spurs & Feathers • 3


South Carolina baseball welcomed home some Gamecock greats for a professional players reunion at Carolina Stadium on Fri-day, Jan. 31.

The program was coordinated by South Carolina Athletics Special Assistant to De-velopment Clyde Wrenn and Tommy Moody, analyst for Gamecock baseball, served as the emcee for the event. Athletics Director and former baseball head coach Ray Tanner and current Gamecock head coach Chad Hol-brook were in attendance to greet and catch up with the former South Carolina players.

Tanner thanked the 14 profes-sional players in attendance for returning and allowing the program to become as successful as it has. He also credited these players with putting the pro-gram in the position it is now, including the beautiful stadium that is packed with fans every time the Gamecocks take the field.

“I love the opportunity that you guys cre-ated in having a facility like this and that’s one reason that I’m in this position today. I want to help all the other sports to have the kind of facility that gives them a chance to compete at the highest level,” Tanner said. “I appreciate all of you guys and I miss you … it was an honor and pleasure to coach you over the years and follow your careers now. It’s why we do what we do.

“What you guys have done, and many of you guys were serious about the foundation here, is that you changed the mindset and you changed the culture in this baseball pro-gram. It lives on in a big way … that’s a way that you left a mark on this program that is indelible,” Tanner continued.

The 14 players in attendance were Jackie Bradley, Jr., Mike Cisco, Reese Havens, Evan Marzilli, Whit Merrifield, Matt Price, Michael Roth, Justin Smoak, Steven Tolle-son, Christian Walker, Tyler Webb, Adam Westmoreland and Scott Wingo. The players played in all levels of professional baseball from the minor leagues up to Major League Baseball. Each of the players separately said that they were extremely excited to be wel-comed back into the program and catch up with former teammates and coaches.

Havens said that he was planning to help with a local high school team after he decid-

ed to retire from baseball after last season. He expressed joy at being able to get togeth-er with the other former Gamecocks.

“It’s awesome. I always enjoy coming back and seeing the guys that I played with and guys that have made this program what it is. It’s good to see everybody,” Havens said. “I hadn’t seen these guys since last year so it’s good to be back and catch up with every-body.”

Bradley, Jr. echoed Havens, saying that it was a pleasure to be back together with some of the guys that he played with and he is looking forward to another season. He said that his goal for the year was to stay healthy and work hard which would take care of the baseball side of things if he did both of those. He also noted that it was great go have some more Gamecocks in the majors with him.

“It’s great to see the talent that South Caro-lina can produce and for them to make it to the big leagues,” Bradley, Jr. said. “My expe-rience here really helped me a whole lot with the maturation not only as a player, but as a person as well.”

Roth said that it was a lot of fun to see not only his former teammates, but also guys that he didn’t play with because they shared a unique bond of being Gamecocks. He said that he is proud to continue the Gamecock baseball tradition as a professional and add-ed that he hopes to face more former Game-cocks in the big leagues in years to come.

“We’re still ambassadors of the University no matter where we go. We still carry the University of South Carolina with us … that’s where we played our college baseball. It brings us together and we still represent the University and hopefully we do that in a positive way,” Roth commented.

Smoak was also glad to return to Columbia and credited the program with helping him to reach the heights in his career that he has.

“It’s good to be back, see a bunch of these guys and shoot the bull,” Smoak said. “Coach Tanner and the guys we’ve got here helped me a lot. He kind of set this whole thing up as a big league practice and big league workout every day … I think this is the best program in the country and when you get to play day-in and day-out for a pro-gram like this it teaches you a lot and helps you in the future.”

Walker was appreciative of the chance to reconnect with some of the players that he has not seen recently and renew the bonds of friendship.

“You don’t ever lose contact with those guys, but it is good to see them in person and talk to them somehow other than through a text message. It’s good to see them, be around them and keep those friendships go-

ing,” Walker said. “It just shows what kind of players they produce and what kind of people they produce. It’s awesome. On the field or off the field you can’t beat the char-acter that these guys have.”

Marzilli said that he and Walker have been working out together in the Columbia area to get ready for the upcoming season and thanked the University for allowing them to all get together for the event. He said that it is their job as former Gamecocks to take that positive tradition with them into the next level.

“I think that’s our job to do that. The school gave us the opportunity to play in a stadium like this, in front of fans like this and put you on the stage in front of scouts like that. It’s almost your duty to carry on that tradition afterward so the coaches can use it as a recruiting tool also,” Marzilli commented.

Former second baseman and current color commentator for the Gamecock baseball ra-dio broadcasts Moody said that it was amaz-ing to see the Gamecock tradition that was present at the luncheon.

“You can talk National Championships and

that’s what you think about and then you see this group of guys and think ‘no wonder we won the National Championship. Just look at the talent in this room.’ Just the magnitude of talent in this room makes you appreciate this Carolina baseball program … it’s just fantastic having them here,” Moody com-mented.

After everyone enjoyed lunch in the First Base Club at Carolina Stadium, Moody read a short piece of history about each player in attendance with some personal memories as they were recognized. Then Tanner and Hol-brook each took the time to thank the players for their service to the University and the program and even reminisced about a few game stories that brought about some laughs.

Tanner and Wrenn closed the program with thanking the former Gamecocks for re-turning, setting up a photo opportunity and inviting them all back any time they could make it.

“I know that your lives take you in a lot of directions, but we want you to always come back whenever you can. This is your school, this is your team and this is your place,” Tan-ner concluded.

Professional Gamecocks return to roost


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What’s Inside? - Table of Contents

Future Gamecock Club member ...............................6

Recruiting Roundup with Phil Kornblut ................ 7

“Inside the Chart”....................................................... 8-9

Tie Us Together breaks world record ....................10

#WBBTweetWk .............................................................11

Former Gamecocks optimizingMajor League opportunities ..................................12

Martin preparaing Gamecocks for success both on and off court ...............................13

Football appreciation luncheon ............................14

Football’s 2014 signing class ........................... 14-19

Men’s soccer 2014 signing class ............................20

Women’s soccer 2014 signing class ......................21

Born & Bred positive about Gamecocks ..............22

SEC Network ........................................................... 24-25

George Rogers Atlanta Sports HOF induction ..25

DC/NYC Gamecocks ...................................................27

Gamecock Club: Upcoming Events .......................28

Camp Debbie Lou providesfun, love and laughter ...............................................29

Unique views from Edsponsored by Uniqe Expressions ...........................31

Something to crow about!Once again South Carolina student-athletes top all on

SEC Fall Academic Honor RollFor the eighth-consecutive fall, South Carolina’s student-

athletes topped everyone on the Southeastern Conference Fall Academic Honor Roll.

A total of 66 Gamecock student-athletes earned the list-ing, based on grades from the 2013 spring, summer and fall terms, besting Kentucky’s 59, Georgia’s 58 and Vanderbilt’s 54. Overall, the league honored 655 student-athletes on the listing.

South Carolina boasted student-athletes from each of its teams with fall competition. Student-athletes must have a grade point average of 3.00 or above for the preceding year (two semesters including any summer classes), must be on the varsity team for at least two seasons, successfully com-pleted 24 or 36 semester hours of non-remedial credit toward a degree and must have been a member of the varsity team for the entire championship season to be eligible. The foot-ball team boasted 25, men’s soccer had 17, women’s soccer had 17 and volleyball had seven student-athletes honored to the SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll.

Two Gamecocks named to Community Service TeamSenior swimmers Taylor Josserand and Jay Warner were

named to the 2014 Southeastern Conference Swimming and Diving Community Service Teams.

The SEC sponsors Community Service Teams for all league sports. The SEC Community Service Team looks to highlight an athlete from each school who gives back to his community in superior service efforts.

Both courtesy of South Carolina Athletics Media Relations



Austin Solheim is a junior at the Uni-versity of South Carolina studying global supply chain operations management and finance, but his true love is Gamecock ath-letics which he will carry on after gradua-tion.

A love of college athletics was instilled in Solheim early in his life as his father went to the University of Maryland and his mother went to the University of Tennes-see.

He explained that he grew up going to Maryland basketball and Tennessee foot-ball games which made him fall in love with college sports.

“Then I came here to USC and now I am in love with Gamecock sports. I love col-lege sports a lot more than the professionals and I watch a little bit of everything,” Sol-heim said. “I go to volleyball, soccer and everything that is going on on campus.”

Solheim serves as secretary of athlet-ics for student government and has been involved with the sports marketing depart-ment of South Carolina athletics in assist-ing to develop the Gamecock Rewards program.

“I wanted to be part of student govern-ment and my roommate freshman year was a part of student government and kind of pushed me to be a part of it, so I have been involved that way,” Solheim said. “It’s re-warding to be a part of that. It’s nice to see the hard work pay off like at the women’s basketball game with so many people out here wearing the neon shirts (for the ‘There’s no place like home’ game against Missouri).

“I go to the events because of my love of sports, but the Gamecock Rewards pro-gram definitely helps. I help with (market-ing director) Josh Waters in trying to make it so it is one and the same and working to keep track of the points. I love being involved and you can see the work come to fruition easier with athletics because events are happening every week,” Solheim said.

The experience of working with the ath-letics department has been beneficial for Solheim and he has enjoyed being able to engage fans and increase support among the students as well.

“I think it’s a good learning experience

to see how different parts of the Univer-sity works; seeing how athletics is very different from your traditional University department,” Solheim explained. “It has been a pretty easy road working with Josh Waters, (associate AD for marketing) Eric Nichols and (senior associate AD for exter-nal affairs) Charles Bloom. They’re very receptive to ideas and always very helpful so it has been great to be a part of it.

“It’s really awesome to see the support … seeing how little things can definitely make a big difference in getting students out here. Having them support the teams, see-ing the players be very receptive to that and playing a lot better when there is a home crowd,” Solheim continued.

Solheim’s involvement with athletics is not all in student government and attending games; he has friends on many of the teams which leads him to come out and support them and their teammates. Like many col-lege students Solheim enjoyed the recent winter weather. He joined up with many student-athletes over in the Athletics Vil-lage for some wintry fun.

“I went to the Dodie hill … there were a bunch of athletes out there and we were hanging out and sledding down the hill. That was a ton of fun,” Solheim said. “Then we made our way over to the Co-lonial Life Arena and caught the guys get their first SEC win so it was an awesome day.”

When picking his favorite sport to at-tend, Solheim chose football as many fans would, but he did not stop there. He said that he likes to have attend any of the sports and wants to build the foundation to continue being involved in Gamecock Ath-letics and the Gamecock Club.

“I like women’s soccer; that was a lot of fun this year. They went really far. Base-ball should be big and softball is starting too. I’ve got season softball tickets trying to rack up those Gamecock Club points,” Solheim commented. “Most people don’t realize to get football tickets later in life you’ve got to get Gamecock Club points.

“I hope that I will be somewhere that I can come back and go to games; buy sea-son tickets for football and basketball. I want to try and stay involved and keep up with the Gamecock Club so I can get points to get these seats right in the front row later in life,” Solheim said.

Future Gamecock Club member: Austin Solheim**Note from the editor: We are starting a new feature where we profile current University of South Carolina students who are prime candidates to be Gamecock Club members upon their graduation.**

photo by allen sharpeSolheim (right) is pictured at the South Carolina women’s basketball win over Missouri at the Colonial Life Arena on Sunday, February 2.


South Carolina Gamecocks

ReCRuitinG Round-upBy phil Kornblut

USC quarterbacks coach GA Mangus has been busy checking out future prospects for the Gamecocks and he has handed out two more offers, one for 2015 and one for 2016. Mangus’ most recent offer for a 2015 quarterback went to Lamar Jackson (6-2 185) of Boynton Beach, FL. Jackson also has offers from Clemson, Nebraska, Florida State, Syracuse, Utah State and Akron. He is one of four 2015 quarterbacks claiming USC of-fers at this point. The others are Brandon Wimbush of Jersey City, NJ, Kelly Bryant of Wren and Kevin Johnson of Atlanta. Last season Jackson passed for 1688 yards and 25 touchdowns and rushed for 1401 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Mangus has also offered sophomore Brandon McIlwain (6-1 195) of Newtown, PA. Boston College and Temple have also of-fered McIlwain. His father attended USC.

Though he is committed to Florida Atlantic, RB Jordan Scar-lett (5-11 205) of Fort Lauderdale will take an official visit to USC. He has offers from USC, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Miami, Georgia, Georgia Tech and Nebraska among others. “The only schools I’m interested in out-of-state are South Carolina, Ohio State and Wisconsin,” Scarlett said. He also plans to visit USC for a junior day in the near future. “I’m building a good relationship with (USC assistant) Everette Sands and he is telling me a lot of good things,” he said. “It’s a good program and there is an opportunity to play early there.” As far as in-state schools that Scarlett is interested in, he named Florida Atlantic, Florida, Florida State and Central Florida.

DB Mark Fields Jr. of Cornelius, NC went to Clemson’s junior day and plans to take other visits, including one to USC. “I talk to coach Grady Brown a lot,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll go there for a junior day but I may just go down with my mom to look around.” He is also planning a visit to Tennessee. His offers are from Clemson, USC, Tennessee, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest and Ohio State with interest from Florida State, Auburn, Alabama and Georgia. Fields does not have any favorites.

DL Albert Huggins of Orangeburg-Wilkinson picked up an offer from Mississippi State last week. That’s the 15th offer for Huggins. His others are USC, Clemson, Florida State, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisville, Georgia, NC State, North Carolina, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech and SC State. Huggins said he has not scheduled any visits for this spring and doesn’t have any favorites at this point.

RB Ty’son Williams of Crestwood (6-1 195) will be one of the state’s best in 2015. He’s coming off a season of 1516 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns. As a sophomore

he rushed for 1008 yards and 17 scores. “He has great vision and feet,” said his coach Keith Crolley. “He stops on a dime and cuts well. He’s got some wiggle and he’s got great hands. He’s not the fastest guy but he’s fast enough to get away from people. Wil-liams attended Clemson’s recent junior day and he now holds offers from the Tigers, USC, Florida State, North Carolina, Georgia, NC State, Duke and Appalachian State. Williams said his next visit probably would be to North Carolina. He also wants to visit Georgia again. He’s been there for a football game. Right now Williams has a top five of Clemson, Georgia, North Carolina, NC State and Duke. Clemson, Georgia and North Carolina are evenly matched at the top he said. Williams would like to make his decision before his senior season if he can.

USC has offered sophomore DL Javon Kinlaw (6-7 265) of Goose Creek coach Chuck Reedy said Thursday. The offer is the first for Kinlaw who is expected to be a heavily recruited prospect. Last season Kinlaw was in on 40 tackles with 2 sacks and 3 pass deflections.

DE Chauncey Rivers of Stone Mountain, GA this past weekend announced he had flipped his commitment from USC to Georgia. “I have officially flipped and became a Dawg,” Rivers put on his Twitter account. Rivers tweeted out his change of heart after taking an unofficial visit to Georgia Saturday. He had committed to USC last July. Earlier this month Rivers said he would take in some junior days at other schools but he called his commitment to USC a strong one. He also has offers from Clemson, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Missouri, Tennessee and Georgia Tech. Rivers last vis-ited USC for the Clemson game.

Basketball News:6-6 Shamiek Sheppard of Fishburne Prep, VA now favors USC after taking an offi-

cial visit with the Gamecocks last week. Sheppard said he plans to make a final decision by the end of February. “It was a great experience, a beautiful campus and the fans are just phenomenal,” said Sheppard who is a native of New York City. “The coaching staff is just wonderful. They really care and support their players.” Sheppard attended USC’s game with Auburn and got a good look at the coaching style of Frank Martin. “Going to the game and seeing him in action and in practice, coach Martin wants players who are ready to play hard and bring the toughness to the table. Players that actually get after it in everything they do and that’s something that connects to me very well.” Sheppard said he has no other visits planned and that’s something his coach handles, and he’s not aware of any other offers. His coach said he has also has another SEC offer and some Big 12 offers. Sheppard is averaging over 17 points and 11 rebounds per game this season.

By MIKE [email protected]

The Lexington County Gamecock Club re-cently hosted Chad Holbrook and his coaching staff to discuss the upcoming season.

“This is one of our favorite events. The tickets for this sold out really quickly because we all love Gamecock baseball,” Lexington county president Steve Gunter commented.

After a dinner and some mingling, Holbrook took the stage to talk about the upcoming sea-son.

“We want to thank you fans for coming out not only to events like this, but coming out and fill-ing the stands when we play. You give us a spe-

cial environment and it makes the kids excited to get out and play in front of a good crowd,” Holbrook said. “We are looking forward to this season. We’ve got a lot of good returning play-ers, a lot of talent and we hope to make you fans happy and proud.”

Holbrook discussed the team a bit, then passed the microphone to his coaching staff. Each coach also took the time to open with a thank you to the fans for providing support and a great baseball atmosphere in Carolina Stadium on gamedays.

Holbrook then held a question-and-answer before closing the time with another statement of gratitude to the fans before some meet-and-greet and photo opportunities for those in attendance.

Baseball coaches visit Lexington County Chapter

Phil KornblutContributing

Writer


Frank Martin needed a topic for his first college paper, an English 1101 course at Miami-Dade Community College.

The professor asked his students to write about a person they respected. Martin chose the first person who came to mind: a former high school basketball team-mate.

“Writing has never been one of my favorite things, but I do remember this. It was one of the few papers where my thoughts rolled off,” Martin recalled.

Plenty of coaches call themselves friends. The word gets tossed around so casually, so cloyingly, it makes you won-der how genuine some of those friendships really are. Yet few coaches share a tighter bond than Martin and the subject of that English paper, Alabama head coach Anthony Grant. The two met again February 15, when South Carolina hosted Alabama at Co-lonial Life Arena.

Their friendship has unfurled over three de-cades, from the time they met as 14 year-olds in a Miami classroom. Their background only enhances their brotherhood. Martin and Grant rose up in the coaching ranks together, taking a path rarely traveled anymore, from high school assistant to high-major head coach. Their memories are full of wins and

laughs – like the time Grant won a car on a Spanish-language variety show (more on that later). The SEC has turned them into com-petitors, but it has done nothing to diminish the fierceness of their friendship.

“We’ve shared so many experiences in our journey as college coaches, and everything that life brings,” Grant said.

“It’s been a long 30 years of history there.”Teaming UpHe had seen him play in church and park

leagues. He knew his reputation as one of Miami’s budding basketball stars, a power guard from Overtown with a permanently serious gaze.

Those players sometimes carry an ego as outsized as their talent. But if Frank Martin had any reservations about Anthony Grant when he transferred to Miami Senior High School, they melted away in Martin’s sopho-more English class. It was there that Martin first gained insight into his new teammate.

“He cared about people, his school, his friends. He walked the hallways, and teach-ers and students all respected him. That’s something I never forgot,” Martin said.

A fast friendship ensued, one that grew stronger once Martin and Grant started play-ing basketball for the Miami Senior Stinga-rees. On the court, they were worlds apart. Grant was the 6’4,” All-City forward, bound for a Division I scholarship. Martin was the benchwarmer, a devoted gym rat who was acutely aware of his athletic limitations.

“He was a guy who worked hard and was very intelligent, but [had] limited talent. What else can I say,” said Martin’s coach, Marcos “Shakey” Rodriguez. “He was the kind of guy that was always hanging around

the office. We always suspected a coach was in there.”

Despite their differences as players, Martin and Grant bonded over their burning love of the game, and their desire to outwork anyone else to succeed. Miami Senior sits on three city blocks on SW 1st Street in Little Havana, its Mediterranean Revival buildings rising grandly over the urban bustle that surrounds it. Under Rodriguez’s watch in the early 1980’s, Miami Senior became a city hoops power. Martin and Grant played in front of packed houses at “The Asylum,” the school’s un-air conditioned gymnasium. With no NBA or NCAA Division I team - the Univer-sity of Miami disbanded its program from 1971 to 1983 - high school basketball was a city-wide obsession.

“You couldn’t get a ticket to a game. Every time there was a game it was a packed gym. The media played up the rivalries, so the average fan who had no ties to high schools, they’d want to go see those rivalries,” Martin said.

Martin and Grant’s teams were often at the center of the madness. Miami Senior started 22-0 their junior year. They won 23 games as seniors. Martin still remembers the night Grant poured in 32 points and 21 rebounds against rival South Miami. He was more impressed by the way Grant carried himself as a leader.

“He was the best player, but he was the hardest worker,” Martin recalls. “He was the star player, yet he treated everyone like he was the bad player and you were the good player.”

Back to SchoolTheir paths split after graduating from Mi-

ami Senior in 1983. Grant earned a scholar-ship to Dayton University, where he starred on a Flyers squad that reached the Elite Eight his freshman year. Martin stayed in Miami, enrolling as a student at Miami-Dade Com-munity College. He tried out unsuccessfully for the basketball team. He was preparing to try out again when he tore his ACL in a pickup game. His playing days over, Mar-tin came back to Miami Senior, where he latched on as a JV volunteer assistant.

“Frank would always hang around. He would always come back to the gym and work with the kids,” Rodriguez said.

The following season, the JV head coach -- Sergio Rouco, now an Ole Miss assistant -- left to take another job. The man who replaced him no-showed a couple of summer practices. Fed up, Rodriguez fired him. He called Martin into his office, and installed him as the new JV coach.

“I told him that’s your team now. He was in a real panic, still 19 years old, still the same age as the kids on the varsity pretty much. I remember distinctly, he said, ‘Who me?’ I said, ‘You’re the only guy I’m looking at,’” Rodriguez said.

Grant joined Martin a few years later. Af-ter getting cut in training camp by the Boston Celtics, Grant played one season with the Miami Tropics of the United States Basket-ball League. Unbeknownst to Rodriguez, he decided to embark on a coaching career.

“He was on his way to being hired by someone else. He came by my office for a recommendation. I said, ‘Just a second, young man. Come with me,’” Rodriguez recalled.

Please see FRIENDSHIP, page 9

Andy DemetraContributing

Writer


FRIENDSHIP, cont. from page 8

He walked Grant into the principal’s office. Five minutes later, Grant walked out with an offer to become a math teacher and varsity as-sistant coach at Miami Senior.

Start of the JourneyMartin and Grant were reunited again, this

time as assistants under Rodriguez, their former head coach and program patriarch at Miami Senior High School. Grant coached the Stingarees’ post players. Martin coached the JV, then stayed around to help the varsity. On game days, Grant would sometimes sneak into the locker room to eavesdrop on Martin’s halftime speeches to the JV.

“We’d know at halftime, hey, this is going to be a pretty good one once he walked into that locker room. He never failed us. It either fired you up or gave you a pretty good laugh,” Martin said.

“After the game we’d go out to eat. They’d be making fun of the whole deal,” Martin said.

Their closeness extended beyond the side-lines. Martin and Grant played on a Miami rec league team together. Martin tore his knee – again – when Grant whizzed a pass to

him. “He never passed me the ball. So I’m still [ticked] at him,” Martin said.

Another time, Martin persuaded Grant to join him and some friends at a taping of Sába-do Gigante, the wildly popular Spanish-lan-guage variety show on Univision. Grant was chosen from the studio audience to participate in a Price Is Right-style guessing game. To everyone’s astonishment, Grant kept guessing correctly. He wound up winning a car.

“He had a smile on his face like ‘I can’t believe I’m standing here.’ He had to stand up there, live on television, and speak Span-ish. You should’ve seen him try to say, ‘This is awesome’ in Spanish. It was hilarious watching him stand on stage, trying to say the words, ‘Qué fantástico!’” Martin joked.

As coaches, though, they were all business. Like their playing days, their styles differed – Grant was the calm onlooker, Martin the flinty-eyed taskmaster. But their personalities were identical beneath the surface. “A fire in the belly,” as Martin described it. For five seasons, Martin and Grant sat side-by-side, their philosophies on basketball slowly tak-ing shape. Martin still uses practice drills he learned from Rodriguez.

“They were students of the game. We had great talk sessions. They were very reliable. I trusted them fully,” Rodriguez said.

“Believe in who you are, worry about what you got, and don’t back down from anyone. That’s all Shakey. The style we play – fast on offense, aggressive on defense – that’s all him,” Martin said.

In five seasons as assistants, Martin and Grant’s teams won three Florida state cham-pionships. Their teams played several times

in front of 15,000 fans at Miami Arena. The Miami Heat would only draw 11,000 the night before. Coaches like Rick Pitino, Dean Smith, Jim Valvano, and Bob Knight visited frequently, looking to scout Miami Senior’s next wave of prospects.

Not long after, Martin and Grant became prospects themselves.

The College YearsAfter five years at Miami Senior, Grant

took his first head coaching job, at nearby Miami Central High School. One year later, he accepted an assistant coaching position at Stetson University. Martin spent eight years as Miami Senior’s JV coach and varsity as-sistant. Head coaching stops at North Miami, Miami Senior, and Booker T. Washington High School followed. In 2000, Martin joined Grant in the college ranks, taking an assistant job at Northeastern.

As head coaches, they’ve molded winners the same way they did at Miami Senior: by demanding discipline, toughness, and ac-countability. Grant has taken the Crimson Tide to the postseason in each of his last three seasons. Before coming to South Carolina, Martin reached the NCAA Tournament four times in five years as head coach at Kansas State.

Despite the distance and demands of their jobs, the two remain close. Martin asked Grant to be the godfather to his oldest son. Grant was one of the first people to text Mar-tin after he accepted the South Carolina job.

Rodriguez knows that affinity well. When Kansas State advanced to the Elite Eight in 2010, knocking off Xavier in double over-time, Rodriguez’s phone stirred him awake at

three in the morning.“It was Ant. Not even a hello. Just, ‘Can

you believe Frank [bleeping] Martin is one game away from the Final Four?” he said.

He continued. “After everything is said and done - and I’ve won five, six state champion-ships, sent out 80 Division I players - I don’t think anything in my career has been as gratifying as seeing these guys succeed at the level they’re at right now. It’s one of the great sources of pride that I carry,” Rodriguez said.

And on February 15, his protégés met again, the latest stop in a journey that began in a gym in Little Havana, and now plays out on the biggest stages of the SEC. Now, as then, Frank Martin and Anthony Grant are doing it together.

All Gamecock basketball coverage sponsored by

Yesterdays

bY mIkE [email protected]

The South Carolina softball team posted a 3-1 record in the Carolina Classic to kick off the 2014 season at Carolina Softball Stadium at Beckham Field.

The Gamecocks opened the 2014 season with a 1-0 victory over Iowa on Friday, Feb. 7 to start the season. On Saturday South Carolina split its two games, first falling to Ohio, 5-2, but notching a 9-0 victory over Presbyterian in five innings to garner the split. The Gamecocks con-tinued the hot hitting and posted a 13-0 win over UNC Greensboro in five innings on Sunday to close out the weekend on a high note.

As with the fall season, the Gamecocks were able to win games in multiple ways which head coach Beverly Smith said was exciting to see since the games count now.

“I think we have a potent offense and that’s going to be our strength. I thought our pitching showed well this weekend, throwing a few shut-

outs which is going to give us a lot of confidence in our pitching staff for sure,” Smith said. “I think just having the games, getting the experi-ence and really just giving the girls the at-bats against different pitching helped. The really good thing about the weekend is that we really did see some different pitchers so we’ll be able to make some adjustments quicker now as we get in the flow.

“There is nothing like playing games to figure out what we needed to work on. I think we grew from the weekend. There are certainly some things that I think we’re going to address in practice this week, but I’m certainly still excited about this team that we’ve got. They’re going to be a fun group to watch,” Smith said.

The Gamecocks got big contributions from many of their newcomers, particularly freshmen Nickie Blue and Kaylea Snaer. Blue went 3-0 from inside the circle in the opening tournament by throwing 14.1 innings without giving up an earned run. Snaer leads the offense with five RBIs on a 4-for-9 performance at the plate dur-

ing the weekend that included two home runs.“They certainly had a great weekend and I ex-

pect that from them. They are talented softball players and they’re going to do big things for us. For both of them to come in and have the com-posure they did over the weekend, I was proud of them,” Smith said of the freshmen.

Smith added that she was pleased with the contributions throughout the lineup over the weekend which gives the coaching staff confi-dence going forward. Junior Sarah Mooney had a home run and four RBIs while batting .400 in the first weekend and freshman Taylor Williams hit a monster three-run home run during Sun-day’s route of UNC Greensboro as well.

“We’re a talented group and I think for us as coaches it’s going to be finding the right spot for people, putting the right names in the lineup. We’ve still got a lot of competition going on up and down the lineup. So I think it’s exciting that we can make changes. The substitutes that we have put in have gone in and performed well,” Smith explained.

The confidence that Smith had in the team coming into the season this year was confirmed by the Gamecocks’ showing during the opening weekend.

“Honestly our play confirmed how I feel about this team. I think this is a special group and we’re deep. That part for me has been exciting as a coach - this is the deepest team that I’ve had and I love our ability to make changes in the lineup. I have enjoyed that from this group,” Smith concluded.

Gamecock softball has successful opening weekend

photo by allen sharpe



The Tie Us Together event in the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center set the GUIN-NESS WORLD RECORDS® achievement for the most bow ties tied simultaneously at 823 on Sunday, Feb. 9.

The event was a collaboration between Brit-tons of Columbia, the University of South Carolina Dance Marathon, Palmetto Health Foundation the city of Columbia and the Colum-bia CVB to benefit Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital. The event was an effort to raise contin-ued support and funds for Palmetto Health and Children’s Hospital.

Serving as the emcee for the event was “Voice of Gamecock football” Todd Ellis and there was a Gamecock feel to the event as Athletics Direc-tor Ray Tanner, USC Student Body President Chase Mizzell and Cocky were in attendance.

Ellis said that Children’s Hospital is a great cause that has been close to his heart for many years and it did not take much of a sell to get him to be involved. He cited personal family experi-ence with Children’s Hospital for making him a strong advocate with the cause.

“Ever since that time I have been absolutely dedicated to them anytime they call for whatever they need. I know there are a lot of great people in hospitals across the nation, but this one is re-ally special in a lot of ways,” Ellis said. “I’m so glad they did a fun event to benefit them which I think is neat as well. Between that and Perry (Lancaster) and Lucky (Levinson) at Brittons - good people and good sponsors of ours - it was easy to get involved.”

Taylor Foster of USC Dance Marathon said that she was extremely pleased by the turnout and interest shown from the community.

“We’re excited to see the interest from people of all different groups and ages come out to sup-port this awesome cause … Columbia has a lot to offer and I think this is a great chance to show what a great city this is, what a great community feel we have and this event really shows off Co-

lumbia,” Foster said.Many people came to participate in the event

from Columbia, but a family traveled from Washington, D.C. and a man from Puerto Rico came to take part in the event as well.

“This is a fun event to do while I’m in town here. After I read about it online I was sold on the event … I wear bow ties all the time and knew I wanted to come be a part of this,” Isaac E. McGraw, II from San Juan, Puerto Rico said.

The event featured performances from an a cappella group, a bow tie comic, a band Seventy Six and Sunny and the USC Dance Marathon members prior to the world-record attempt. Af-ter the attempt while numbers were being tabu-lated, Ellis led the crowd in what he called “the world’s largest simultaneous ‘Five-bomb.’” The crowd all held up five fingers to signify the fifth-straight victory over Clemson and cheered until the moderator came to announce the results.

Another raucous cheer arose from those in attendance when the final number of 823 was announced. The plaque for the record was given to Foster and USC Dance Marathon and Cocky then held it up in celebration to the delight of the crowd.

Adjudicator for Guinness World Records Michael Empric said that he was excited by the crowd and that this was one of the more exciting record-attempts that he had overseen.

“We do mass participation records a lot, but this one is different because there is a skill com-ponent with it. It’ not just so many people, but it’s so many people trying to do something that is challenging which is tying bow ties. This is a little challenging and it’s impressive to see the support come out to see this get accomplished,” Empric said.

Lancaster of Brittons of Columbia said that he was just happy to be able to be a part of such a great event.

“This is a great day to achieve the record, but even better it is for a great cause. I am extremely pleased that this could happen knowing that all the hard work has paid off,” Lancaster com-mented.

Tie Us Together sets World RecordPhoto by Mike kucharski

Cocky and Ricky Racoon celebrate World Record in Southern class at Tie Us Together event.


South Carolina’s sand volleyball team and head coach Moritz Moritz are into the thick of preparations for their inaugural season with competition beginning on March 8.

“The clock is ticking a lot faster than it seems that it was before. The cool thing is that we’ve based this whole program around kids that are passionate about doing what we do,” Moritz said.

He noted that they must be committed and passionate to train in the wintry condi-tions that have struck Columbia recently. The team missed a few days of practice due to weather, but Moritz said they have been enthusiastic in training even in the cold and rain to prepare to open the season.

Moritz said that the crossover student-ath-letes from indoor volleyball have now joined the sand team full-time as of Monday, Feb. 10. Prior to that the crossovers were training with the indoor team three days a week since the semester started while doing double-duty with the sand team the other days.

“They just bring a new element of competi-tion into it. They just bring a new excitement … here’s something new, something differ-ent,” Moritz said. “Again there are lots of firsts still happening that we’ve talked about … now this semester we’ve had our first practice with the crossover girls and we’re really starting to see that this whole group is going to push each other.

“For us it’s just the transition for them to bring the skill set that they have … we’re fortunate that we have a couple of girls on the indoor side that do have beach experi-ence,” Moritz continued.

He said that the student-athletes that have been training with sand only since the fall have done an excellent job of helping to lead and welcome the crossovers in.

“I think that I’ve said it on a daily basis that I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls to start this program with … you see that potential and the awesome thing is already with the relationships that they have with a lot of them makes for a pretty seam-less transition for them to absorb everything they need to from (assistant coach) RJ (Abel-la) and me,” Moritz said. “They really can push each other in the way that they need to be pushed in a competitive way, but they also are helping each other learn.

“It will be an interesting conversation with the crossover kids at the end of the year to say ‘how did this work when you are training three days a week with indoor and couple of days with sand?’ That will be the interesting thing to see how they continue to develop,

but I think that it keeps it fresh for them. There is a lot of tweaking that you have to do going from that side to this side,” Mortiz explained.

Moritz said that he and Abella plan to move the players around similar to the way they did in the fall to see what pairings work and try to figure out lineups for competition. The plan is to do the rotation for the next few weeks, then give a couple weeks of partners playing together to prepare for the competi-tion weekend and bolster communication and teamwork.

“Almost more importantly than anything else is the relationship and the communica-tion is kind of the paramount piece of the whole thing,” Moritz commented. “We’re still toying with in our head, ‘this looks like an interesting combination so let’s try this or try this’ and then tweak it again to see how everyone works together.”

Moritz said that with the countdown to competition winding down, the team is feel-ing “part nervous, part anxious and lots of excitement.” He said that even with the goal of the first competition out there, the team is focusing on getting better each day and keeping the goals short-term in nature.

“We’re still forging the way … we’re wor-ried about continuing to improve. How can we get better? What can we learn on a daily basis so that we do get better?” Moritz ex-plained. “That’s where we are right now … it’s ‘what are we doing today?’

“Today is the only thing that matters. It’s just breaking it down to how we can get bet-ter today and focusing on that incremental growth every day … it’s crucial for them to keep that perspective and they have absolute-ly been able to do that. They still show up to practice early and they hate it when we’re done for the day,” Moritz concluded.

Countdown to spring season dwindles for sand volleyball



The seventh-ranked Gamecock women’s bas-ketball team went on a week-long campaign to get fans involved with the program in coordina-tion with two conference home games against Mississippi and Missouri from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2.

The week was implemented by the South Carolina Athletics marketing department as an extension of the “Drive for 5” attendance cam-paign with a goal of reaching 5,000 Twitter fol-lowers for the @GamecockWBB account. The account started the week on Sunday with about 4,100 followers and jumped up to 5,250 follow-ers by 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning. By the end of the Missouri game on Sunday, Feb. 2 the @GamecockWBB account had gained about 1,600 followers during the week to over 5,700.

“Our goal as an athletics department is to be engaging and create a digital community for our fans. The Gamecock fans are really passionate at events but also really active on social media. The #WBBTweetWk idea came from wanting to engage with a really passionate fanbase,” Brittany Lane, assistant director of marketing/digital and so-cial media said. “We also want-ed to raise the followers for the women’s basketball ac-count. We had the ‘Drive for 5’ attendance campaign and we decided to match that up with a Twitter push for 5,000 followers on the @GamecockWBB account. We were blown away because we reached the goal in the very first day and it made the rest of the week really fun.

“We want all of our social media accounts to be very involved in conversations with fans and be very responsive. So the more fun things we can do on social media the better. That’s the beauty of a tool like social media,” Lane added.

The hashtag #WBBTweetWk was used to help publicize the efforts and included “exten-sive social media coverage, primarily Twitter, of the women’s basketball program, including daily unique content (Twitter Q&As, Instagram video messages), behind the scenes photos and videos with the team, coverage of marketing efforts (Greene St appearances, T-Shirt images), contests and giveaways, and a “Tweet Suite” at the game against Missouri on Feb. 2, where 14 lucky Twitter followers enjoyed free snacks and drinks while tweeting about the game,” accord-ing to a release from South Carolina Athletics Media Relations.

The plans for #WBBTweetWk had to be al-tered slightly due to snow and ice in the Colum-

bia area during the week, but that did not stop fans from participating.

“A couple of ideas got a little derailed by the ice and snow in Columbia, but we were defi-nitely still able to do it. We had a really good time engaging with fans and they seemed to really enjoy it. The team enjoyed it too; it was something that was really fun and different to promote having two really great home games,” Lane said.

In a teleconference Staley noted that she thought the weather played a positive role in get-ting fans to engage during the #WBBTweetWk.

“It worked out in our favor because people were home, responding and suffering from a lit-tle cabin fever. So I think it kind of helped break the day up. Our marketing department did an excellent job to come up with timely things for our fans to support. It also is an opportunity for us to give back because I know people want to ask us questions, they want to know more about our players from a personal standpoint and a basketball standpoint. It allows us to give back to the people that really have supported us since I’ve been here for six years,” Staley said.

Participating in the Twitter Q&A sessions throughout the week were Alaina Coates, Aleighsa Welch, Tiffany Mitchell and head coach Dawn Staley. Some questions included the origination of Welch’s nickname “Muf-fin,” the student-athlete’s goals for the year and if Staley knew when the episode of “Martin” in which she appeared would be on television again.

Staley noted in the teleconference that the sup-port and involvement from the fans was encour-aging for the program.

“It solidifies that we’re becoming the program that we envisioned. We create a home-court advantage. People are really seeing the product that we put on the floor and they’re enjoying it. They’re enjoying it by supporting it, by coming out. You know sometimes I get tweets about if we’re playing on a channel that they don’t get in

their selection, they’re buying it for a month just to see the game,” Staley commented. “So when you have that kind of support around your pro-gram, it does your heart good because you want more than anything - when I say you I mean us - you want more than anything to bring a national championship to the state of South Carolina, to the city of Columbia and also to our University.

“The way that you do that is you have to have the home court support or else it’s not going to work. National champions have a home-court advantage that they create night in and night out and they have people that they take on the road. They pack their support and they’re always in the gym supporting them. It always feels like a home-court advantage and we’re not there yet, but we’ve got some faithful that show up on the West Coast, some at Vandy. So we’re just look-ing forward to putting in all the pieces that cre-ate a National Champion,” Staley continued.

The Gamecocks saw more of that support by having crowds of 5,344 against Mississippi and 7,828 for the Missouri game.

Both games also featured promotional shirt giveaways, with special long-sleeve shirts for students against Mississippi and neon yellow

t-shirts for all fans with a “There’s no place like home” message for all fans for the Missouri game.

After the victory over Missouri, Staley was impressed by the atmosphere that Gamecock fans provided for Sunday’s game.

“You’ve got to believe that what happened out there in the Colonial Life Arena - the neon shirts, the crowd at the game, the play by the players, just the total atmosphere - if you’re not moved by being in the gym, then you probably don’t want to play high-level basketball. I think everybody that witnessed the game today heard from Gamecock Nation today and all the people who came from near and far. I got Twitter mes-sages that people were taking two-hour drives to come see us play knowing that a two-hour drive back, they may miss some of the Super Bowl. So that’s a wonderful thing,” Staley com-mented.

Missouri’s head coach Robin Pingeton lauded the home-court advantage and Gamecock pro-gram after the game and Staley said that it was an honor to be complimented by another coach.

“I think it’s wonderful to get compliments by your peers especially where South Carolina has come from. I hope to be one of the model programs that you can look to to see how we built it,” Staley commented. “I think we built it by putting a good product on the floor. I think we built it by great marketing opportunities that we’ve had for the past six years. We can’t do it over night.

“I think our program is continuing to move in the right direction. The fact that we can do things like this, we can do a women’s basketball tweet week and really see how our program has grown just from people enjoying seeing us play, enjoying hearing from our student-athlete, enjoying hearing the things that you may not hear if you don’t come to a basketball game. It’s a wonderful feeling but it’s one that we have to keep winning in order to hold people’s attention. Hopefully this team continues to do what got us here and hopefully we’ll see more and more glory days like now,” Staley said.

#WBBTweetWk publicizes Gamecock women’s basketball

photo by jenny dilworth


Yesterdays



Some of the former Gamecocks in Major League Baseball returned to Columbia this past weekend and all discussed similar goals for 2014, including enjoying the game they play for a living.

Justin Smoak, Jackie Bradley, Jr. and Mi-chael Roth were three of the 14 former South Carolina base-ball players that were pres-ent at Carolina Stadium for the profes-sional players’ reunion that also included current athlet-ics director and former head coach Ray Tanner and current head coach Chad Holbrook.

These three players had similar goals for the upcoming year none of which were statistical, but all were rather simplistic in nature.

Smoak has been on the Seattle Mariners and played in at least 123 games each of the last three seasons. Smoak did not lay out a bat-ting average, number of home runs or RBIs as a goal, but rather focused on what he can control.

“I just have to stay more consistent. I’ll have a good two or three weeks and then I’ll have a bad two or three weeks. So it’s more of not

falling in those deep valleys and just staying more and more consistent throughout,” Smoak said. “I’ve failed a good bit and had to learn from my failures. It came easy to me in high school, college and the minor leagues, but once you get up there you learn a lot about yourself. As of now I feel like I’m moving in the right direction.”

Roth split time between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and their double-A affili-ate, the Arkansas Travlers, last season, so he said it would be hard to set goals for the year.

“Obviously I want to play well, but I don’t set up statistical goals because that’s tough. I don’t know where I will be,” Roth said. “I could be in the bullpen, I could be a starter, I could be in the big leagues for a day, or I could not be in the big leagues at all … you have to go in there with an open mind and just go where the wind takes you. I think once they assign me to a team and figure out where I’m going for the year, then I will set some goals then.”

Bradley, Jr. of the Boston Red Sox and triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox last season said that he was only worried about being healthy enough to play this season.

“I just want to be healthy. As long as you’re healthy it gives you the best opportunity to be on the field,” Bradley, Jr. said. “Just going into spring training healthy and ready to compete and the rest will take care of itself. I’m looking to have some fun.”

Both Roth and Bradley, Jr. made quick trips through the minor leagues to get a shot in

“the show” last season, however they each spent time going between the major and minor leagues.

“It was a wild year. I don’t know how else to describe it. Making my major league debut, then getting optioned back down and coming back again. It was an up-and-down roller-coaster ride. I learned a lot and I think that it will help me in the years coming forward,” Roth explained.

Smoak said that this experience was some-thing that he could relate to as well. He also made a quick trip through the minors to make his major league debut, but then went back to the minor leagues before getting called up for good in 2011.

“Just keep working … you’ve got to learn from your failures. That’s one way to learn. I’ve failed a good bit and I feel like I’ve learned from it,” Smoak advised the other for-mer Gamecocks. “Those guys just keep work-ing hard and it’ll be better for you in the end.

“You just have to go out there and have fun. You’re playing with the best of the best; you’re up there for a reason. So you just have to have fun and when you have fun good things hap-pen,” Smoak added.

Roth said that having fun is something that he has done and added that a highlight has been being able to face other South Carolina players at the next level.

“I did face Smoak this year twice. I faced Whit (Merrifield) in Double-A a couple of times; one time I didn’t even realize that I pitched to him,” Roth commented. “It’s always

fun when you face each other … hopefully I get to face Jackie when we’re both with the big league teams, but we’ll see what happens.

“I would love to be up there doing that. If it’s a starter, if it’s a reliever, I don’t mind. I don’t care which way. I think that I could be a starter in the big leagues. Hopefully I get an-other shot, another opportunity. It’s just up to me to go out there and perform and see what happens. It’s up to me. I would love to that. Hopefully I can play for another 10-15 years, but if not I always have my degree and I can go from there,” Roth continued.

Bradley, Jr., who also received a World Series championship ring with the Red Sox this season, described being in Major League Baseball as a dream come true.

“Everyone who plays this game always dreams of getting to the big leagues and play-ing at the next level. I’m fortunate enough to be a part of a team that wins another World Series, not only in college but in Major League Baseball. It’s very exciting,” Bradley, Jr. said.

He was also married this past year - jok-ing that he “signed a lifelong contract” - and added that he is truly trying to enjoy all that life has thrown at him.

“It just seems like things have just come up one after the other. I just feel like I’m really blessed with opportunities. Just taking ad-vantage of them and enjoying it. I think that’s what I really try to focus on, just enjoying the moment and letting the future worry about itself,” Bradley, Jr. concluded.

Former Gamecocks optimizing major league opportunitiesphoto by jenny dilworth

The former Gamecocks at the professional baseball luncheon (another story on page three) pose with athletics director Ray Tanner and current head coach Chad Holbrook.


DiPrato’s


by brian [email protected]

Just as it takes time to become a well-round-ed individual with various interests, it also takes time to become a champion.

Second-year South Caroli-na head men’s basketball coach Frank Martin, his coaching staff and everyone involved with Gamecock men’s basket-ball readily understand this and this holistic approach to the program is starting to pay off. In fact, as Martin and his staff work hard to build the Gamecocks into a champion on the hardwood, in the classroom

South Carolina is flourishing. Currently, 13 of the 16 players on South

Carolina’s 2013-14 roster posted a grade point average above a 3.0 last semester. This includes graduated two-sport standout Bruce Ellington, who played a few games for the Gamecocks last semester before taking his talents to the NFL.

This is something in which Martin and his staff take great pride.

“If you’re winning, but we’re shortcut-ting people, then no one is doing their job,” Martin articulated. “They’re not doing their jobs, us as coaches aren’t doing our jobs, the University’s not doing their jobs. It’s about the whole growth. It’s about everything being connected. You can’t just have success in bas-ketball. You’ve got to have success in it as a human being before basketball and those kids (current team) are working at it. They’re com-mitted to the whole experience, they’re com-mitted to all responsibility, not just the one that involves the ball and I’m excited for that.”

Martin recognizes that the success of his team in the academic arena would not be plausible without the tremendous support system in place at the University of South Carolina.

“The school, the academic support people should be commended,” Martin pointed out. “This school has led the SEC in APR and graduation rate for a reason. There’s an unbe-lievable commitment to educating these kids.”

That commitment to the essence of being a true student-athlete is one of the reasons Mar-tin believes the future is extremely bright for these individuals in whatever avenue their life takes them.

“It’s all about improvement,” Martin com-mented. “It’s not about a finished product. We have a duty to these kids to continue to get them better prepared for life whenever college is done. Let’s say they played high school bas-ketball for four years and college basketball for four years, that’s eight. If they’re lucky and let’s say they play another 10 years of profes-

sional that’s 18 so they’ve played basketball for 18 years and they live a normal life expec-tancy what are they going to do for another 50 years? That’s our jobs to prepare them so they can succeed for the bigger number, not just the 18.”

This concerted effort for a well-rounded basketball player is one of the reasons going forward Martin believes the Gamecocks will be able to obtain a championship pedigree with South Carolina men’s basketball in the near future.

“Doc Rivers has a great saying,” Martin mused. “He says, ‘we want Rs not Ss,’ mean-ing we want character, not characters and that’s what it’s about. Characters might win on a Tuesday, but they’re not going to work for you the other six days. Guys with character, they work to win every day and that’s what you need; you need guys that work in every-thing and take on the whole responsibility that comes with their job title, which is student-athlete.”

Martin preparing Gamecocks for success both on and off the court


Yesterdays



South Carolina Athletics and the Gamecock football team held a luncheon of gratitude for all of those involved in the success in “the ultimate team sport.”

People from across the University of South Carolina, the Athletics department and others who assist the Gamecock football team joined together at 701 Whaley Street on Thursday, Feb. 6 as athletics director Ray Tanner, head coach Steve Spurrier and his staff reached out to thank those involved in helping the Gamecocks to put another successful team on the field.

In attendance were employees from the Uni-versity departments such as academics, the registrar’s office, housing, the office of the presi-dent and many others. From athletics were the members of media relations, development, sports medicine, facilities among others. Also in atten-dance were members of local and state law en-forcement, Centerplate dining, the Carolina band and many others who were involved in some way with the South Carolina football program.

Those in attendance also expressed gratitude for being recognized for their contributions to the Gamecock football program and assistance in helping to make Saturdays in the fall at Wil-liams-Brice Stadium a great success.

South Carolina Highway Patrolman Ricky Grubbs is one of the members that helps to coor-dinate safety for players and fans on game days. Grubbs said that there are over 100 Highway Pa-trol officers that participated in helping for South Carolina football games this fall.

“It’s great for them to thank us. We really ap-preciate it,” Grubbs said. “It’s very cool to be

involved with the team even when they are not doing well, but it makes it even better when they are as good as they have been the past few years.”

Wendell Benton of facilities said that he works on the crew that takes care of Williams-Brice Stadium and makes sure that things are ready for game days. He noted that it was “awesome” to be a part of a team that has been so successful of late.

“We were part of the team that was 0-11 also, so it’s much better to note that we’re on this crew now. We are just happy to be involved and there really is a lot of pride to see them do so well at home; it’s great,” Benton commented.

Eddie Thomson, the coordinator of undergrad-uate assignments in University Housing, said he helps to make sure all the student-athletes are as-signed a place to live and he was thankful to be a part of the recognition celebration

“Just knowing that we have a part in making sure that them being on campus is helping them

academically and athletically is wonderful,” Thomson said. “It’s pretty cool to be recognized. I think that it is awesome of them (the coaches) to recognize everybody that is involved with the program.”

Assistant registrar for degree audit and NCAA compliance Tara George said that she thought it was wonderful to be included and thanked for their involvement with the program.

“I think it’s an incentive for staff who aren’t necessarily centralized in Athletics … we’re a part of that but not necessarily as attached in terms of mingling or interactions with Athlet-ics,” George explained. “So we really look forward to being here, seeing more and hearing more from coach Tanner as well as coach Spur-rier. So it really means a lot to us just to be here.

“It’s instrumental to know that you’re a part of that (success), but really it’s not about us, it’s about the students and the mission of the University. One thing that I know about the Uni-versity of South Carolina is I consider us to be

a community and looking at the end result and knowing that we’re continuing to break barriers … and that we’re at the top tier, it means a lot,” George continued.

During the luncheon Tanner addressed the crowd thanking them for their dedication and participation. He noted that the team works hard on the field, but everyone present played a role in the success on and off the football field.

“What you do behind the scenes is so instru-mental to our success … many times ‘thank you’ doesn’t seem to be enough to show our ap-preciation of all the things that you do,” Tanner said. “You guys do your jobs so well that we’re so excited about the presentation that we have every single Saturday. I know they’re long days and long nights that you put in and we are very, very grateful.

“We appreciate you being here today. This lun-cheon is about you and another way that we can say that we are very appreciative and grateful for your commitment to put the University of South Carolina and our football program at a high level,” Tanner continued.

Spurrier was next to address the group and he also praised those in attendance for their assis-tance in another successful football season.

“Certainly we are really thrilled to have you and we do have the longest home winning streak in the country, so all of you out there can say that you have done it better than everybody in the nation,” Spurrier said. “We appreciate all that you do; we really do. It’s a complete team effort. I’ve said many times that football is the ultimate team sport because so many people are involved. It takes a lot of people to get 11 guys out there on the field and all of you have played your roles tremendously throughout.”

Football appreciation luncheon recognizes all contributors


Athletics Director Ray Tanner helps serve food at the special thank you luncheon.

He heard the news that day, oh boy.Excuse the Beatles reference, but 50 years

after their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, a few of us, includ-ing Steve Spurrier, still re-member those times, and just this week it seems we have another example of how much the world has changed.

Yes, we are discussing college football here, but last week’s 2014 signing day was not just another, ahem, Day In The Life for Spurrier.

It was considered to be a good class by the self-described experts who annually chronicle the influx high school talent into college, but let’s be honest and say most of the stuff these ex-perts provide isn’t all that exclusive.

Most of us could watch 100 high school foot-ball players run 40-yards dashes, lift weights and go through a series of agility drills and rank them right with the experts. Faster, stron-ger, taller guys step forward; out of that same group, the most efficient players in agility drills can take another step.

There’s your top recruits, all the others are average or below average. The trick to being an expert on high school talent is the ability to rec-ognize more subtle skills that reveal true talent. Yes, Russell Wilson, the outstanding second-year professional who just quarterbacked the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl Champion-ship, was a 2-star athlete out of high school.

You could make the argument that Wilson wasn’t the player coming out of high school that Connor Shaw was, and while this is not intended to project Shaw as an NFL product, it does point out that Spurrier knows what he wants.

His record at Carolina is a reminder that he

also usually gets what he wants.With 33 wins in the last three years, Spurrier

doesn’t need someone telling him he’s doing well at the job. Still, someone did.

“I got a call from a reporter going over the SEC recruiting classes,” Spurrier said. “He told me we were the only team in the conference that didn’t lose a commitment. I didn’t know that, but it tells you, I guess, about what we’ve been doing these last few years.”

The Gamecocks were able to pick off a few players that previously committed to other schools, but not one individual offered a schol-arship last summer changed his mind. Spurrier isn’t Tom Osborne or John Robinson, examples of championship college coaches most high school players today don’t know about.

They have heard about Spurrier, they’ve watched the Gamecocks win in the SEC and they know he won’t hold them back.

“A lot of these coaches say, ‘If you’re in the first round or the top-15 or something, you

should go (to the NFL a year early), otherwise you should stay in school,’ but I don’t do that,” Spurrier said. “If one of our guys wants to go, really wants to go, I’m not going to stop him.

“Tajh Boyd came back to Clemson this year and they say he would have got drafted higher last year. Then you have Gio Bernard from North Carolina, he came out early last year and he had a big time rookie season in Cincinnati.

“Things are changing fast these days,” Spur-rier said. “You have to change as you go. A running back like Bernard might only have four or five years in the NFL, so why eat up one of them in college if those guys want you?”

The more things change, the more the Head Ball Coach adapts and fits in.

Right now he has collected another talented group of players who want to be Gamecocks, want to play for the SEC Championship and think they can do it.

They all feel like they’re lucky men who made the grade.

A 2014 recruiting class like no other in the SEC

Bart WrightContributing

Writer



South Carolina football announced its 2014 signing class on National Signing Day, Feb. 5, 2014, with a press conference at 4 p.m. featur-ing head football coach Steve Spurrier and recruiting coordinator Steve Spurrier, Jr.

“A good day for the Gamecocks. We really believe that we have an outstanding group of players that have signed with us today,” Spur-rier opened. “Overall it’s a really good class. We’re thrilled with all these guys. We think that they’re going to fit in very well and we’ve got a chance to have continued success here at South Carolina,” Spurrier added.

Spurrier explained that seven defensive line-men were signed to help replace Gamecock greats Jadeveon Clowney, Kelcy Quarles and Chaz Sutton. Another area of need for the Gamecocks was defensive back with the losses of Jimmy Legree and Victor Hampton and five defensive backs signed with the Gamecocks.

The seven defensive linemen signed are de-fensive tackles Abu Lamin (who is already en-rolled at South Carolina), Taylor Stallworth and Dexter Wideman and four defensive ends in Blake McClain, Kalan Ritchie, Dante Sawyer and Jhaustin Thomas.

The defensive backs that inked to play for the Gamecocks are Wesley Green, Al Harris, Jr., Chris Lammons, Darin Smalls and D.J. Smith.

Spurrier noted that these areas have the poten-tial for the incoming freshmen to possibly see playing time right away in the fall of 2014.

“We’ve got a lot of good players here. You know last year we were the youngest team in Division I football. We only had four seniors on the team, so they departed plus the four others who left early. So there is some opportunity for these freshmen to play. They’ll have to earn it as they go and there’s a good chance some of them could play a bunch next year,” Spurrier commented.

Offensively the Gamecocks signed eight play-ers to join the team in 2014. Spurrier noted that there were fewer holes to fill on that side of the ball, but they did lose Bruce Ellington, Ronald Patrick and “maybe the best quarterback to ever play here” in Connor Shaw.

The eight players joining the offensive side of the football for the Gamecocks will be quar-terback Micael Scarnecchia, fullback Joe Blue and tight end Kevin Crosby. Three wide receiv-ers, Shaq Davidson, Terry Googer and Tyshun Samuel, will be joining the squad along with two offensive linemen in Donnell Stanley and Malik Young.

Spurrier and Spurrier, Jr. said that the offen-sive players would bring a lot of talent to the team and they liked Scarnecchia and the versa-tility of the wide receiver group.

Spurrier, Jr. said that the excellence that

Gamecock football has sustained over the past three years has been a tremendous benefit to the recruiting process for the coaches.

“Winning helps recruiting, recruiting helps winning. There’s a strong cycle in that … cer-tainly to have won 11 the last three years, the exposure we’ve gotten, players know that if they come to South Carolina they can play at the highest level. They want to know that and that’s important in recruiting,” Spurrier, Jr. said.

The Gamecocks signed nine players from South Carolina to play for the home-state Gamecocks next year. Blue, Crosby, Davidson, Ritchie, Samuel, Smalls, Stanley, Wideman and Young are all from the Palmetto State in the 2014 signing class. Spurrier and Spurrier, Jr. each talked about the importance of keeping in-state talent at home.

“I think it’s always important to try and get the best players in your state … which is really maybe one big reason we’re winning 11 games instead of seven games that we have in years back because when you get the best players to stay in state, then you’re able to go to the border states … and get some of their good players also. You need to keep the good ones in our state,” Spurrier said.

“That’s crucial. I can’t say enough about that. The biggest difference in our program is being able to keep those guys in state … some of the great players that we’ve singed in the state have made a huge difference and we know that we need to keep that up. If we can put up a fence around this state and keep the best players here, we should really continue our success,” Spur-rier, Jr. reiterated.

The Gamecocks were also able to sign 12 out-of-state players, six from Georgia alone. Spurrier, Jr. commented on the importance of attracting players from other states, particularly from the Atlanta area.

“It’s important. We’ve talked about the popu-lation of Atlanta and as big as Atlanta is they can’t all go to Georgia, Georgia Tech, wherever. There’s a lot of great players … there’s a lot of players in the state of Georgia. Coach (Lo-renzo) Ward has done a great job over there. There continues to be a lot of really good play-

ers there, but to out-recruit some of the team we out-recruited to get those guys certainly says a lot about our program and coach Ward. We need to continue a strong hold over there,” Spurrier, Jr. commented.

“The more you can get those guys, then you’ve got chances the next year obviously,” Spurrier added.

Spurrier, Jr. said that he does not recruit ac-cording to the “star system” that many recruit-ing outlets assign to prospects.

“We don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about stars, looking for stars. We hope that we

can find tough, intelligent guys that can come play the game. That’s the basis for our recruit-ing mostly,” Spurrier, Jr. said.

Spurrier explained that many of the the re-cruiting class was a team effort and he was looking forward to getting all the players on campus to begin their careers as Gamecocks.

“I also want to say that our coaching staff did an excellent job in recruiting this season as well as our players. Our players serve as hosts when the guys come. Also Robbie Liles our on-campus recruiting coordinator. Robbie does a super job of travel arrangements and so forth,” Spurrier said. “Our professors on campus, they really do an excellent job telling our players about our academics here … so it was a team effort and we’ve got a lot of good players.

“I think this group is a lot like most of our groups here. We signed a lot of good, solid players and our strength coach here Joe Con-nolly and his staff are as good as anybody in the country and I think our coaching staff is as good as anybody’s. So if the players come with a good attitude and want to be the best they can be, then certainly we can compete with any-body … what they do after they come to your campus is obviously most improtant,” Spurrier continued.

Gamecock football inks strong 2014 recruiting class

photo by brian hand

Steve Spurrier and Steve Spurrier, Jr. discuss the signing class at a press conference.


Abu LAmin: Junior college defensive tackle who en-rolled at South Carolina in January 2014... will have three years to play three for the Gamecocks... attended Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College, where he played for head coach Curtis Horton... racked up 34 tackles in 2013 with 7.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks in nine games for the 2-7 Greyhounds... also forced one fumble... redshirted in his first season at FSCC... originally from Trinity Christian School in Fayette-ville, N.C., graduating in 2012... coached by Chuck Webster... Rivals.com lists him as a four-star prospect and the No. 19 junior college player in the nation... Scout.com ranks him as a four-star prospect... considered a four-star prospect, the No. 18 junior college prospect in the country and the No. 6 JUCO defensive tackle, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN con-siders him a three-star prospect and No. 43 on its ESPNJC50 list... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star prospect and a JUCO All-American... selected the Gamecocks over offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Nebraska and Tennessee among others.

Kevin Crosby: “KC” saw action at a number of posi-tions for Bamberg (S.C.)-Ehrhardt High School... caught 43 passes for 571 yards and 12 touchdowns for the Red Raiders in his senior season... team finished with a 7-6 record and a spot in the semifinals of the AA-II playoffs... coached by his father, Kevin Crosby... earned a spot on the statewide all-state team as selected by the High School Sports Report... selected to the all-region team by the Orangeburg Times and Democrat... played in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas and in the Under Armour All-America game following his senior season... Rivals.com rates him as a four-star prospect, the sixth-best player in the state and the 11th-best tight end in the country... Scout.com ranks him as a three-star prospect

and the 19th-best tight end in the country... considered a four-star prospect, the ninth-best player in the state, and the eighth-best tight end in the nation, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a four-star prospect, No. 143 on its ESPN300 list, the fourth-best tight end in the nation and the third-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a four-star prospect and No. 116 on the Top 150 Dream Team... Kevin Crosby Jr. comes from the same high school that pro-duced A.J. Can.

DAnte sAwyer: Coached by Bob Sphire at North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee, Ga.... helped the Bull-dogs to a 13-3 record and the state championship game as a senior where he had an interception... logged 49 tackles, in-cluding eight tackles for loss and three sacks in his final cam-paign... earned first-team Class AAAAAA all-state acco-lades by the Georgia Sportswriters Association... also earned a spot on the AJC’s Class AAAAAA all-metro team... played in the U.S. Army All-America Bowl in San Antonio follow-ing his senior season... recorded three sacks in that all-star game... Rivals.com considers him a four-star prospect, the 13th-best player in the state, the seventh-best strongside de-fensive end in the country and No. 87 on the Rivals100 list... Scout.com ranks him as a four-star prospect, the 24th-best defensive end in the country and No. 231 overall... consid-ered a four-star prospect, the 8th-best player in the state, the fifth-best weakside defensive end in the nation, and No. 121 overall, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a four-star prospect, No. 88 on its ESPN300 list, the ninth-best defensive end in the nation and the seventh-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a four-star prospect and No. 60 on the Top 150 Dream Team... had numerous offers and also visited Missouri before choosing the Gamecocks.

D.J. smith: Played safety during his senior season at Walton High School in Marietta, Ga., after playing corner-back as a sophomore and a junior... recorded 77 tackles with a pair of interceptions in his final campaign while leading the Raiders to a 6-5 mark... coached by Rocky Hildago... Rivals.com considers him a four-star prospect, the 10th-best player in the state and the 26th-best cornerback in the country... Scout.com ranks him as a four-star prospect, the 16th-best safety in the country and No. 168 overall... considered a four-star prospect, the 45th-best player in the state, and the 36th-best cornerback in the nation, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a four-star prospect, the 12th-best cornerback in the nation, No. 108 on the ESPN300 list and the eighth-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a

four-star prospect and No. 95 on the Top 150 Dream Team... selected South Carolina over Tennessee and Clemson... had more than 20 offers... comes from the same high school that produced Gamecock assistant coach G.A. Mangus.

AL hArris Jr.: Defensive back at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla... tore his hamstring in the third game of his senior season and was not able to play the rest of the way... the Raiders finished the 2013 slate with a 10-3 record and went to the regional finals of the 7A state playoffs... helped his team to the 7A state title in his junior season... Rivals.com considers him a three-star prospect, the 74th-best player in the state, and the 44th-best cornerback in the country... Scout.com ranks him as a three-star prospect and the 46th-best cornerback in the country... considered a three-star prospect, the 78th-best player in the state, and the 49th-best cornerback in the nation, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a three-star prospect, the 83rd-best cornerback in the nation and the 228th-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star prospect and an All-Southeast Region pick... Alshinard Harris Jr.’s father, Al Harris Sr., is a two-time pro bowl cornerback who played 14 seasons in the NFL for Philadelphia, Green Bay, Miami and St. Louis and is currently a coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.

miChAeL sCArneCChiA: Two-year starter for the Golden Eagles of Fleming Island (Fla.) High School... coached by Frank Hall... led his team to a 10-1 record in his senior season while throwing 28 touchdowns and only two interceptions... earned a spot on the A.P. All-State team... as a junior, completed 101-of-156 passes for 1,553 yards and 18 touchdowns in his first year as a starter, earning honorable

South Carolina football signing day 2014

mention all-state accolades... team logged a 7-3 record... Ri-vals.com considered him a three-star prospect while Scout.com gave him a two-star rating... considered a two-star prospect, the 277th-best player in the state, and the 84th-best pro-style quarterback in the nation, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a three-star prospect, the 66th-best pocket-passing quarterback in the nation and the 239th-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star prospect and an All-Southeast Region pick... selected South Carolina over an offer from UAB... Michael Anthony Scar-necchia was born July 25, 1995... uncle, Sam Scarnecchia, played football at Miami (Fla.)... excellent student who was a member of the National Honor Society... interested in neurol-ogy... enjoys playing soccer and video games.

BLAKE MCCLAIN: Attended Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville... played defensive end for head coach Adam Geis... helped the Saints to an 8-3 record as a senior... began his prep career at Ponte Vedra (Fla.) Nease High School... considered a three-star prospect, the 53rd-best player in the state of Florida and the 19th-best strongside defensive end in the country by Rivals.com... regarded as a three-star prospect and the 64th-best defensive end in the country by Scout.com... 247Sports.com lists him as a three-star prospect, the 19th-best strongside defensive end in the nation and the 84th-best player in the state of Florida... ESPN.com ranks him as a three-star prospect, the 46th-best defensive tackle in the nation and the 85th-best player in Florida... originally com-mitted to Florida State and then to Nebraska before casting his lot with Carolina.

MALIK YOUNG: Offensive lineman who prepped for the Woodmont Wildcats in Piedmont, S.C... coached by Jason Farmer... team went 4-7 in his final year... earned a spot on the Division II-AAAA all-state team by the High School Sports Report... an all-region and two-time all-county selec-

tion... played in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas and the Offense-Defense All-American game... also lettered in track & field... Rivals.com considers him a three-star prospect and the 20th-best offensive guard in the nation... Scout.com ranks him as a three-star prospect and the 98th-best offensive tack-le in the country... considered a three-star prospect, the 23rd-best player in the state, and the 47th-best offensive guard in the nation, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a three-star prospect, the 36th-best offensive guard in the nation and the 19th-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star prospect and an All-Atlantic Region pick... Malik Shaqid Young was born January 18, 1996... in-terested in a business degree... enjoys playing basketball and reading.

JOE BLUE: Played on both sides of the ball at Dillon (S.C.) High School, seeing action at running back, fullback and linebacker for the Wildcats... was an all-region and all-state player... coached by Jackie Hayes... helped his team to a 12-2 record and the state title in 2013... named the High School Sports Report Division I-AA Defensive Player of the Year... played in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas following his senior season... logged six tackles with two tackles for loss and scored a rushing touchdown in the contest... had 17 carries for 96 yards and a touchdown to help Dillon win the 2012 state championship... logged 16 rushing touchdowns as a junior... Rivals.com lists him as a three-star prospect, the No. 5 fullback in the nation and the 16th-best player in the state... Scout.com ranks him as a three-star prospect and the 54th-best middle linebacker in the country... 247Sports considers him a three-star prospect, the 28th-best player in the state and the nation’s 36th-best inside linebacker... ESPN considers him a three-star prospect, the 29th-best inside linebacker in the nation and the 21st-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star prospect and an All-Atlantic Region pick... also offered by Auburn, Florida,

Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech... Joseph Hakeem Blue was born October 27, 1994... interested in sports medicine... en-joys reading about Malcolm X... was the first commitment in the 2014 recruiting class... comes from the same high school that produced current Gamecocks Bryce King, D.J. Park and Kwinton Smith.

TERRY GOOGER: Versatile athlete who played quarter-back, wide receiver and defensive back for the War Eagles of Woodward Academy in Atanta... played for head coach John Hunt, the former offensive line coach at South Carolina... team finished with a 9-3 record in his senior season and ad-vanced to the second round of the AAA playoffs... threw for 967 yards and 10 touchdowns and ran for 1,116 yards and 16 scores... also lettered in basketball and track... Rivals.com considers him a four-star prospect, the 26th-best player in the state, and the 19th-best “athlete” in the country... Scout.com ranks him as a three-star prospect and the 34th-best tight end in the country... considered a three-star prospect, the 42nd-best player in the state, and the 62nd-best wide receiver in the nation, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a four-star prospect, No. 260 on its ESPN300 list, the 33rd-best “athlete” in the nation and the 24th-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a four-star prospect and No. 238 on the Top 300 All-American Team... Corteries Cosea Googer (GOO-grr) was born December 12, 1994... interested in the sports management program at South Carolina

SHAQ DAVIDSON: Gaffney (S.C.) High School product... coached by Dan Jones... led the Indians to an 8-4 record as a senior... played quarterback, throwing for 1,539 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushing for 762 yards and seven scores... played in Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas and in the U.S. Army All-America Bowl in San Antonio... team reached the state championship game during his junior campaign... Rivals.com considers him a three-star prospect, the third-best player


in the state and the 56th-best wide receiver in the country... Scout.com ranks him as a four-star prospect, the 22nd-best wide receiver in the country and No. 120 overall... considered a four-star prospect, the sixth-best player in the state, the 36th-best wide receiver in the nation and the 241st-best play-er overall according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a four-star prospect, No. 146 on its ESPN300 list, the 17-best wide receiver in the nation and the fourth-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a four-star prospect and No. 102 on the Top 150 Dream Team... also visited Auburn.

JHAUSTIN THOMAS: Defensive end who originally signed with the Gamecocks in February 2012... spent the past two years at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas... coached by Brad Smiley... logged 55 tackles with 13.5 tackles for loss including a league-leading 12.5 sacks in 2013 for the Cardinals, earning first-team NJCAA All-Amer-ica accolades and the SWJCFC Defensive MVP... Rivals.com lists him as a three-star recruit and the 89th-best JUCO prospect in the country... Scout.com considers him a two-star recruit... considered a three-star prospect, the fifth-best strongside defensive end in the JUCO ranks, and the 59th-best JUCO player in the country according to 247Sports.com... considered a three-star recruit who ranks 37th on the ESPNJC50... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star prospect and a JUCO All-American... was a two-sport standout at Colum-bia High in Decatur, Ga... coached by Mario Allen... logged 55 tackles including 20 tackles for loss and three sacks as a senior... team went 6-5 in his senior season and 6-4 during his junior campaign... as a junior, made 83 tackles with 13 sacks... also played basketball where he averaged a double-double on the hardwood... helped his team to back-to-back state titles in hoops... was a three-star prospect, the nation’s 43rd-best strongside defensive end and the 73rd-best player in Georgia by Rivals.com... rated a three-star prospect and the nation’s 86th-best defensive end by Scout.com... a three-star recruit, the 38th-best defensive end and the 37th-best player in the state according to ESPN.com... a three-star recruit, the nation’s 36th-best strongside defensive end and the 43rd-best player in Georgia by 247Sports.com... recruited by Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia and Georgia Tech... born April 13, 1993.

KALAN RITCHIE: Played for head coach Chuck Reedy at Goose Creek (S.C.) High School... began the season as one of the top tight ends in the country and ended it as a defensive end for the Gators, who went 12-1 before bowing out in the second round of the 4A-II playoffs... recorded 41 tackles including 11 tackles for loss and three sacks... earned a spot on the Division II-AAAA all-state team as selected by the High School Sports Report... also was a Charleston Post & Courier all-region selection... played in the Shrine Bowl

of the Carolinas and in the Offense-Defense All-American Bowl following his senior season... Rivals.com considers him a three-star prospect, the No. 21 weakside defensive end in the nation and the eighth-best player in the state... Scout.com ranks him as a three-star prospect and the 50th-best tight end in the country... considered a three-star prospect, the 30th-best player in the state, and the 47th-best tight end in the nation, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a three-star prospect, the 17th-best tight end in the nation and the 18th-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star prospect and an All-Atlantic Region pick... also had offers from Clemson, Virginia Tech and NC State among others... comes from the same high school that produced cur-rent Gamecocks Brandon Shell and Gerald Turner.

TYSHUN SAMUEL: “Deebo” played for head coach Mark Hodge at Chapman High School in Inman, S.C.... helped lead the Panthers to an 11-4 record and to the semi-finals of the AAA playoffs as a senior... accumulated 166 catches for 2,751 yards and 36 touchdowns during his ca-reer... also rushed 133 times for 898 yards and scored 13 times on the ground... collected a school record 53 touch-downs in his career... racked up 94 tackles and 12 intercep-tions playing in the secondary... as a senior logged 61 recep-tions for 1,184 yards and 15 touchdowns... added 837 yards on the ground with 13 TDs... also scored twice on intercep-tions... named the High School Sports Report Class AAA Offensive Player of the Year... played in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas following his senior season... moved to wide receiver and also played running back as a junior... caught 78 passes for 1,246 yards and 18 scores...also had a kick return and a punt return for a touchdown... played mainly defensive back and some running back as a sophomore... Rivals.com considers him a thee-star prospect, the No. 53 wide receiver in the nation and the 17th-best player in the state... listed as a two-star prospect by Scout.com... considered a four-star

prospect, the fifth-best player in the state, the 35th-best wide receiver in the nation, and is No. 238 overall according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a three-star prospect, the 192nd-best wide receiver in the nation and the 32nd-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star pros-pect and an All-Atlantic Region pick... selected South Caro-lina over North Carolina, Vanderbilt and Appalachian State... the nickname “Deebo” comes from the neighborhood bully character played by actor Tiny Lister in the movie “Friday.”

TAYLOR STALLWORTH: Defensive lineman at Mobile, Alabama’s Murphy High School... the Panthers went 6-5 un-der head coach Ronn Lee in 2013... credited with 53 tackles including 12 tackles for loss, seven hurries and four sacks as a senior... played in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Classic following his senior season... tallied eight tackles and a sack in that contest... recorded 57 tackles as a junior including nine for loss and four sacks... Rivals.com considers him a three-star prospect, the 12th-best player in the state and the 30th-best defensive tackle in the country... Scout.com ranks him as a three-star prospect and the 124th-best defensive end in the country... considered a three-star prospect, the 20th-best player in the state, and the 49th-best defensive tackle in the nation, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a three-star prospect, the 107th-best defensive tackle in the nation and the 51st-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star prospect and an All-Southeast Re-gion pick... had offers reaching double-digits and also visited Mississippi State before selecting Carolina.

BRYSON ALLEN-WILLIAMS: Attended Cedar Grove (Ellenwood, Ga.) High School.... coached by Jimmy Smith... the Saints went 7-5 in his senior season, reaching the sec-ond round of the state AAA playoffs... earned Class AAA second-team all-state honors by the Georgia Sportswriters... earned a spot on the AJC’s Class AAA All-Metro squad...


played in the U.S. Army All-America Bowl in San Antonio, Texas following his senior season... collected 99 tackles with 22 tackles for loss including 16 sacks, three fumble recover-ies and an interception as a junior... was an AT&T Georgia Junior Bowl selection... recorded 64 tackles as a sophomore... Rivals.com considers him a four-star prospect, the sixth-best outside linebacker in the nation, No. 103 overall, and the 28th-best player in the state of Georgia... Scout.com gives him a four-star rating, is No. 12 on its list of outside lineback-ers and No. 138 overall... 247Sports.com lists him as a four-star recruit, the nation’s No. 6 outside linebacker, the seventh-best player in the state of Georgia and No. 96 on its Top247 list... ESPN considers him a four-star prospect, No. 162 on its ESPN300 list, the 10th-best outside linebacker in the nation and the 11th-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a four-star prospect and No. 208 on the Top 300 All-American Team... also visited UCLA, Alabama and Georgia and had offers from over 20 other major schools... was the second commitment in the Gamecocks’ 2014 recruiting class.

DARIN SMALLS: Played for legendary coach John McK-issick at Summerville (S.C.) High School... the Green Wave went 11-3 and reached the state semifinals in his senior sea-son... suffered a knee injury in his final campaign... logged 60 tackles and intercepted six passes as a sophomore, returning two for touchdowns... also competed in baseball and track... Rivals.com considers him a three-star prospect, the 11th-best player in the state and the 37th-best cornerback in the coun-try... Scout.com ranks him as a three-star prospect and the 53rd-best cornerback in the country... considered a three-star prospect, the 15th-best player in the state, and the 37th-best safety in the nation, according to 247Sports.com... ESPN considers him a three-star prospect, the 23rd-best safety in the nation and the 14th-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a three-star prospect and an All-Atlantic Region pick... had more than a dozen major college offers... Darin Herbert Smalls was born November 15, 1994... interested in the sports management program.

DEXTER WIDEMAN: Defensive line recruit who prepped at Saluda (S.C.) High School... the Tigers went 5-6 under head coach Wayne Bell in 2013... played in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas and in the Under Armour All-America game following his senior season... logged four tackles in the Shrine Bowl... credited with 64 tackles and seven sacks in 2012... logged 61 tackles with 14.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks in 2011... Rivals.com considers him a four-star pros-pect, the fifth-best player in the state, the 15th-best defensive tackle in the country and No. 237 on the Rivals250... Scout.com ranks him as a four-star prospect, the 22nd-best defen-sive tackle in the country and No. 266 overall... 247Sports.com lists him as a four-star prospect, the nation’s No. 7 de-

fensive tackle, the second-best player in the state and No. 64 on its Top247 list... ESPN considers him a four-star prospect, the 12th-best defensive tackle in the nation, No. 179 on the ESPN300 list and the sixth-best player in the state... origi-nally committed to Florida State.

DONELL STANLEY: Offensive lineman who prepped at Latta (S.C.) High School... the Vikings went 7-4 in 2013 under head coach Kelly Williamson... was a finalist for the South Carolina “Mr. Football” award... earned a spot on the statewide all-state team as selected by the High School Sports Report... played in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas following his senior season... also played basketball and base-ball... played for the baseball state title as a junior... Rivals.com considers him a four-star prospect, the 10th-best player in the state and the 16th-best offensive guard in the nation... Scout.com ranks him as a four-star prospect, the sixth-best offensive guard in the country and No. 105 overall... consid-ered a four-star prospect, the fourth-best player in the state, the fifth-best offensive guard in the nation and the 121st-best player overall according to 247Sports.com... ESPN consid-ers him a four-star prospect, the 14th-best offensive guard in the nation, No. 214 on the ESPN300 list and the seventh-best player in the state... ranked by PrepStar as a four-star prospect and No. 213 on the Top 300 All-American Team... selected Carolina over Clemson... Donell Lavon Stanley Jr. was born June 27, 1995... a member of the National Honor Society... interested in sports management.

CHRIS LAMMONS: Played defensive back for head coach Steven Davis at Plantation (Fla.) High School... helped the Colonels to an 8-3 record and to the second round of the 7A playoffs... played in the U.S. Army All-America Bowl in San Antonio following his senior season... Rivals.com rates him as a four-star prospect, the 45th-best player in the state and the 14th-best “athlete” in the country... Scout.com ranks

him as a four-star prospect, the 31st-best cornerback in the country and No. 265 overall... 247Sports.com lists him as a four-star prospect, the nation’s No. 22 cornerback and the 40th-best player in the state of Florida... ESPN considers him a four-star prospect, the 12th-best “athlete” in the nation, No. 86 on the ESPN300 list and the 15th-best player in the state... originally committed to Florida... also visited Wisconsin... Chris Lamar Lammons was born January 31, 1996...member of the high school honor roll... interested in a communica-tions degree... named is pronounced la-MONZ.

WESLEY GREEN: Defensive back at Martin Luther King High School in Lithonia, Ga... coached by Cortez Al-len... helped the Lions to a 7-4 record as a senior... collected five interceptions in his final campaign... Rivals.com consid-ers him a four-star prospect, the 17th-best player in the state, the 17th-best cornerback in the country and No. 208 on the Rivals250 list... Scout.com ranks him as a four-star prospect, the 21st-best cornerback in the country and No. 209 overall... 247Sports.com lists him as a four-star recruit, the nationan’s No. 15 cornerback, the 13th-best player in the state of Geor-gia and No. 185 on its Top247 list... rated a four-star recruit, the ninth-best player in the state, the nation’s 13th-best cor-nerback and No. 120 overall by ESPN... committed to South Carolina over Georgia and Ole Miss from among more than 25 offers.


All bios compiled through hard work of

South Carolina AthleticsMedia Relations


Trevor BaumDefender • Keller, TexasPRE-COLLEGE: Played high school soc-

cer for Adam Clementson at Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth, Tex-as, where he was a two-time state champion (2011, 2012) ... rated a three-star recruit by TopDrawer-Soccer.com ... concentrated his efforts on Solar Chelsea Develop-ment Academy for Adrian Solca

and Kevin Smith after two years of high school soccer ... team was a 2013 national finalist ... started every match 2012-13 and boasts the third lowest goals per game in the Development Academy ... also lettered in football.

PERSONAL: Son of John and Laura Baum ... sister Mallory played soccer at SMU ... father John was a student-athlete at the Uni-versity of Evansville ... a member of the Ro-bo-Vikes Nolan Catholic Engineering Team ... volunteered with Mission Arlington and Vacation Bible School ... regularly earned semester high honors or semester highest honors ... intends to major in computer engi-neering at South Carolina ... enjoys fishing, cycling and water sports off of the pitch.

Craig Duggan

Goalkeeper • Troy, Mich.HIGH SCHOOL: Played for Brian Za-

wislak at Troy High School in Troy, Mich.... rated a four-star recruit by Top-DrawerSoccer.com ... team went on to be league, district and re-gional champions his sophomore season ... named Freshman of the Year at Troy High

School ... also played club soccer with Vardar Academy for Demir Muftari (2006-11)... Vadar Academy was a Michigan State Cup finalist and semifinalist, Manchester United Premier Cup quarterfinalist and Region II finals participant during Duggan’s time with the team ... 2010-2013 US Soccer Training

Center participant ... selected to MI ODP ‘96 Team 2008-11 ... 2011 regional champion while playing up with MI ODP ‘95 Team ... 2011 Costa Rica Trip with Region II ODP ‘96 Team ... 2011 IMG Academy with MI ODP Team ... three-time Region II ODP ‘96 Team (2009-11) ... 2009 & 2010 Thanksgiving In-terregional with Region II ODP ‘96 Teams ... 2009 U14 National ID Camp ... also lettered in baseball and basketball.

PERSONAL: Craig Allen Duggan is the son of Steve and Kathy Duggan ... father, Stephen played soccer at Beloit College ... outside of soccer, Craig has served as a Peer Mediator, worked with a soccer Goalkeep-ing licensing course and junior basketball camps and participated in March is Reading Month at local elementary schools ... assisted with Special Olympics Basketball camp and Special Olympics State Soccer Finals ... has worked with Gleaners Food Bank as well ... member of Homecoming Court ... off the pitch, enjoys hanging out with friends, golf-ing and reading.

Martin Ramos

Midfield • Columbus, Ga.HIGH

SCHOOL: Played high school soc-cer for Billy Byrd at Brookstone School in Co-lumbus, Ga. ... Brookstone’s leading scorer his junior and senior seasons ... named Best Offensive Player and team captain his senior

season ... three-time Georgia All-Star (2011-13) ... All Bi-City 2012 and 2013 ... All-Area 2013 ... other honors in 2013 - Columbus and the Valley Athletic Award winner, Wendy’s High School Heisman School winner and Spotlight for Athletics award winner ... team played at the Disney Showcase ... played for CFC Red Star for Tony Frankovich ... was a member of the 2012 ODP Region III Pool ... Georgia ODP Team 2011 and 2012 ... trained with Real Madrid CF Select coaching staff in Madrid, Spain, in 2011...also lettered in cross country.

PERSONAL: Martin Ramos is the son of Jesus and Janie Ramos ... Martin was a schol-ar student and a mainstay on the honor roll and a member of the National Honor Society ... was a Service Council member and a team leader for the Boys & Girls Club ... intends to major in engineering ... off the pitch, enjoys

playing the guitar and piano.

Kevin Walker

Forward • Cincinnati, OhioCINCINNATI

STATE: During the 2013 season, scored 13 goals (five game win-ners) and collect-ed seven assists, despite missing five games with a wrist injury ... earned First Team Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OC-

CAC) honors, First Team All-Region National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) honors, National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) First Team All-Ohio honors and was an NCSAA All-American nominee ... named OCCAC Player of the Week in October of 2013 ... led his team to a No. 6 ranking nationally and an overall record of 18-2-2

NORTHERN KENTUCKY: Was a member of the squad in 2012, the team’s first season at the Division I level ... netted the game winner against Belmont for the program’s first Divi-sion I win, garnering Atlantic-Sun Player of the Week honors ... forced overtime with a late goal against Florida Gulf Coast for his second goal of the season.

PRE COLLEGE: Played for David Berry at Colerain High School ... named to the All-Greater Miami Conference team three times ... two-time Enquirer All-Star...scored 13 goals his junior year and 11 his senior season ... also played for John McGinly’s Cincinnati United Premier Gold CUP ... club team was a state runner up and received Disney Showcase gold ... scored 22 goals in his final club season

PERSONAL: Son of Linda Marcum and Kevin Walker ... has maintained a 3.7 or higher GPA since graduating high school ... intends to major in Exercise Science at South Carolina ... enjoys snowboarding, basketball, being outside and spending time with his fam-ily off the pitch.

South Carolina men’s soccer signing day 2014

All bios compiled through hard work of South Carolina Athletics

Media Relations


Dominique BabbittDefender/Holly Springs, N.C./Holly

Springs/’95 CASL ECNLPre-College: A four-star recruit … Ranked

as No. 41 prospect nationally by Top Drawer Soccer … No. 10 defender nationally and

No. 3 overall player in the South Atlantic region accord-ing to Top Drawer Soccer … Participated in 2009 and 2013 National ID ECNL Camp … At-tended 2009 US Club Soc-cer id2 camp … 2012 and 2013 ECNL

PDP invitee … 2009 ODP 95’Thanksgiving Interregional Region III Team … Club team won 2009 and 2011 North Carolina State Cup Championship … Reached 2010 State Cup semifinals … 2010 Region III Premier League East Champions … Reached USYS Region III semifinals in 2011 … Named to North Carolina All-State Team in 2012 and 2013 … Three-time Tri-9 All-Conference and All-Region.

Personal: Dominique Gabrielle Babbitt … Born December 15, 1995 … Daughter of Mary and Howard Babbitt … Plans on majoring in retail fashion merchandising … Hobbies include snowboarding, sewing and skeet shooting … Chose South Carolina over Clemson, Wake Forest, North Carolina State and Georgia.

Anna ConklinMidfielder/Randolph, N.J./Randolph/

PDA SlammersPre-College: A three-star recruit according

to Top Drawer Soccer … Won US National Championship, Region I championship and New Jersey State Cup championship in 2011

with PDA Slammers … Won 2013 ECNL Na-tional Cham-pionship … Reached 2012 ECNL semifi-nals … Region I ODP Team in 2009 and 2010 … Mem-ber of New Jersey ODP team from 2008-2010

… Named Player of the Year in 2014 in Morris County by the Daily Record, New Jersey Star Ledger, Mugs Media and Morris County Coaches Association … First Team All-State in 2014 … First Team All-Morris County in 2013 and 2014 … First Team NJAC from 2012-2014 … Totaled 56 goals and 48 assists at Randolph … Two-year Ran-dolph team captain … Morris County Cham-pionship game MVP in 2014 … Won Morris County and NJAC Conference champions at Randolph in 2012 and 2014 … Reached 2012 and 2014 New Jersey sectional finals.

Personal: Born July 16, 1996 … Daughter of Angela and Jack Conklin … Plans on majoring in education … Hobbies include fishing and swimming … Chose South Caro-lina over Rutgers, Delaware and College of Charleston.

Abbey CriderGoalkeeper/Pinehurst, N.C./

Pinecrest/’95 CASL ENCLPre-College: Enrolled in January 2014 …

North Carolina ODP member from 2007-2012 … Attended ODP region camp from

2009-2012 … Named to All-State, All-Region and All-Confer-ence teams at Pinecrest from 2010-2012 … Team reached fourth round of the state play-offs in 2011 and 2012.

Personal: Abbey Lynn Crider … Born

March 7, 1996 … Daughter of Terri and Chris Crider … Plans on majoring in media arts … Hobbies include doing anything mu-sic related and surfing … Chose South Caro-lina over College of Charleston.

Lauren JankowskiForward/Berkley Heights, N.J./Gover-

nor Livingston/PDA SlammersPre-College: A four-star prospect accord-

ing to Top Drawer Soccer … Won two na-tional championships with PDA (2011 USYS and 2013 ECNL) … Finished 2013 ECNL season undefeated … Three-time Region I champions and five-time New Jersey State Cup champions with PDA … Led U17 PDA Slammers in points … ECNL All-Texas Event Team … One of two players on 2013 PDA team to be with the team from U9-U18 … Three-year member of New Jersey ODP team … Member of ODP Region I team … Started every game during four-year high

school career at Governor Livingston … Two-time All-Union County first team … Three-time All-League and All-Area … Twice named team captain.

Personal: Lauren Shae Jankowski … Born May

31, 1996 … Daughter of Laura and James Jankowski … Sister Jessica plays soccer at Quinnipiac University … Plans on majoring in education … Hobbies include reading … Chose South Carolina over Marquette, Ten-nessee, LaSalle, George Mason, Rutgers and American.

Savannah McCaskillMidfielder/Chapin, S.C./Irmo/CESA ‘95

ECNLPre-College: A four-star prospect, ranked

No. 51 nationally by Top Drawer Soccer … Tabbed as the No. 5 overall player in the

South Atlantic region and No. 17 midfielder nationally by Top Drawer Soccer … Named MVP of the U16 Re-gion III Cham-pionship Team … Named to Top 11 U16 players at na-tionals … 2012 San Antonio All-Event

Team … 2012 and 2013 ECNL Southeastern PDP ... Team captain for CESA 95 ECNL … Totaled nine goals and seven assists during U18 season … Member of South Carolina ODP team from 2008-2012 … Member of Region III ODP team from 2010-2013 … Attended 2013 ECNL National ID Camp … Two-time All-State selection at Irmo … Named Region IV 4A in 2012 and 2013 … Won Irmo Golden Boot Award in 2012 with 33 goals … Named Irmo High Offensive Player of the Year and to All-Region team in 2011.

Personal: Savannah Elizabeth McCaskill … Born July 31, 1996 … Daughter of Tina and Greg McCaskill … Plans on majoring in exercise science … Hobbies include water sports (skiing and wake surfing).

Alexis PendergraftMidfielder/Raleigh, N.C./Millbrook/’95

CASL ENCLPre-College: A four-star prospect and No.

28 ranked player in the South Atlantic region according to Top Drawer Soccer … Attended 2013 ECNL Elite Player ID Camp … CASL team captain since 2008 … 2011 Region III Premier League and North Caro-lina State Cup champions

… Reached semifinals at USYSA Region III tournament … Member of 2013 USYSA ODP International Tournament Costa Rica Champions … Member of North Carolina and Region III ODP teams from 2010-2012 … Competed with Region III team against Costa Rica, Czech Republic and Germany … Cap 8 regular season champions in 2012 at Millbrook HS … Won both Cap 8 regular season and tournament championship in 2013… Three-year captain … Two-time all-conference … Named to All-Region team 2012.

Personal: Alexis Jean Pendergraft … Born June, 17, 1996 … Daughter of Yasmin and Brian Pendergraft … Father played basket-ball at Louisberg College and East Carolina … Chose South Carolina over UNC Char-lotte.

South Carolina women’s soccer signing day

All bios compiled through hard work ofSouth Carolina Athletics Media Relations



There is no doubt that many people have a unique passion for Gamecock athletics.

Gamecock Nation provides a grouping of fans like no other fanbase in the country. To this end, countless Gamecock message boards, websites and social media pages have popped up.

These places provide a valuable independent resource for all Gamecock fans.

One of the most popular social media pages that Gamecock fans have embraced is Game-cock Born & Bred.

Currently the Facebook page for Gamecock Born & Bred has almost 76,000 likes and their Twitter handle has almost 3,500 followers. Gamecock Born & Bred has almost 2,500 fol-lowers on Instagram.

The self described unofficial Gamecock fan page was founded in January of 2011 by fan Trey Asbelle. Since then, Gamecock Born & Bred has really seemed to hit a chord among Gamecock fans, particularly recently.

The Facebook page reached 20,000 likes in October of 2012. By April of 2013 they had reached as many as 35,000 likes. Since then they have picked up over 40,000 likes in less than a year.

One of the reasons that Asbelle and his crew have been so successful is that they have focused on keeping Gamecock Born & Bred extremely positive.

“That has kind of been the goal to keep it positive,” Asbelle noted. “So many of the sites, the forums you go on it’s just constant negativ-ity, downplaying over our (Gamecock) players. I feel like as a fan we’re supposed to have fun with it. I wanted to do something a little bit dif-ferent. It seems to be working for some people and for some people maybe it’s a little bit too positive for them. It’s got its plus and minuses, but I like the direction it’s heading.”

Part of the reason Asbelle is so devoted to keeping all things positive is that having grown up a Gamecock he fully understands that the current success of the athletics pro-gram has not always been the case.

“If they grew up back then (when football was not winning to the level it is now) and they are not enjoying it now, something is not right there,” Asbelle joked. “It’s just good times right now. (Some people) just want to argue about stuff and complain and there’s no need to complain. Spurrier kind of changed the whole character of the program as far as the athletes that he’s bringing in. I really believe that he’s turned a lot of these two and three star guys into premium players and I think it all starts with character. You can just tell because most everybody on the team is really positive for the most part.”

Asbelle first started formulating his idea for the positive fan page in 2009 when he was

serving as a moderator on GoGamecocks.com. “I was like let’s start something different

here and try to change the culture a little bit where it’s really not as bad as a lot of fans say,” Asbelle mentioned. “So we started the page up and it just kind of got going.”

To get people excited about what they were doing, Asbelle started tinkering with graphics in Photoshop. That tinkering at the end of the day is what has made Gamecock Born & Bred so popular, especially on Facebook.

“I started spending a bunch of my free time in Photoshop editing sports pictures,” Asbelle said. “The mindset in (doing this) was you treat coaches, players and fans like family. Won, loss, people shouldn’t go around personally trashing a kid who is in college playing … you have to be there when it’s tough for them, you have to be there when it’s good for them.”

To obtain the pictures to work with to make such great graphics, Asbelle became friends with Brandi Mills of TheBigSpur.com. The Big Spur allows Asbelle to utilize their photos for his graphics and lately to thank them he has been putting a TBS logo and a Gamecock Born & Bred logo on many of his graphics.

The graphics are not made as part of As-belle’s day job, but rather out of love. His love has allowed him though to start doing some work for Everett Sports Marketing.

“I started enjoying doing the graphics and people started liking them and I realized maybe this is something I need to jump into,” Asbelle relayed. “At the same time, I am do-ing something I love because it’s Gamecock-related and I felt it was something not really being done a lot … it’s really turned into some-thing kind of amazing. It’s not about me, it’s not about them or anybody else, it’s about the Gamecocks,” Asbelle said.

Asbelle has a grouping of people that help him out on the page that are rock-solid accord-ing to him. They all work on their off time for free and have the same common goal, which is to be positive about all things Gamecock.

Asbelle and his uncle Ronald Muckenfuss are the two owners of Gamecock Born & Bred and they both live in Walterboro, S.C. Other Gamecocks such as Cameron Coone, Chris Bright, Brent Driggers, Christine Taylor, Tracy Denkins and Sam Groen help him out with Gamecock Born & Bred. The grouping comes

from all over the Palmetto State.A true Gamecock, Asbelle and the Game-

cock Born & Bred crew take pride in the fact that they have had to ban a great deal of people from their page.

“Back when we first started, we sure didn’t have 50,000 people sharing our page,” Asbelle articulated. “There was a couple other ones out there that we kind of went back and forth sharing and got our likes up a little, but I can tell you we’ve probably banned more people than most people have likes because we don’t have to put up with it. I don’t have to listen to somebody trash Connor Shaw, Jadeveon Clowney or whoever they want to call out. I don’t have to listen to it. There’s plenty other places if they need to go and complain … but (we’re) not the one. I don’t mind a little bit of criticism, but we don’t have any time for the personal stuff.”

A man of faith, Asbelle has even been working with Gamecock quarterback Dylan Thompson over the past couple of years during the football offseasons to pass along weekly inspirations. Asbelle utilizes the inspirations from Thompson to hopefully have a positive effect on others.

That positive effect idea permeates every-thing that Asbelle and the Gamecock Born & Bred staff do on a daily basis.

“The goal is just to have fun as a fan,” As-belle said. “We only get to do this (life) one time. Instead of just getting so nervous, so up-set about everything, just try to have fun with it and be positive about it … if you want to talk bad about somebody just do it there in your house. Don’t do it on social media because at the end of the day you’re not helping the Gamecocks. If we want them to go out there and give us 150 percent every time, then that’s what we got to do for them.”

You can like Gamecock Born & Bred on Facebook and you can also follow them on Twitter at @GamecockBnB. Their Instagram account is Gamecockbnb.

Born & Bred and positive about all things Gamecock



The 2014 South Carolina football season open-er on Aug. 28, 2014 against Texas A&M will be a first for a couple reasons.

The season opener will not only mark the first-ever meeting between South Carolina and Texas A&M, but it will also be the debut football game for the fledgling SEC Network.

The Southeastern Conference, its institutions and ESPN are sparing no expense in making sure that the SEC Network is a top-notch experi-ence for all fans as you will be able to watch live football, basketball, softball, baseball and many other conference athletic events on the network. The network is set to launch in mid-August just before the Gamecock football opener against the Aggies.

The SEC Network will have the over the air channel as well as a digital component on the In-ternet. According to South Carolina Senior As-sociate Athletics Director/External Operations Charles Bloom there will be a combined 1,000 live events throughout the SEC.

“In addition, the University can produce games that are not selected on the network and put it on the digital side,” Bloom noted. “The contests that we will produce will move from our website to the SEC Network. The SEC Network will be the exclusive home of all our live game coverage.”

There are obstacles to overcome in the next six-plus months as the SEC Network prepares to launch with the most important being that not every provider presently has the network avail-

able. “Right now, the only major carriage agreement

is with AT&T U-verse. The league office, ESPN and the SEC schools are working hard to pro-mote the upcoming launch of the SEC Network and to let fans know to let their cable systems know they want the network,” Bloom added.

Right now the best way of finding out if your provider will have the SEC Network, or how to make sure your cable or satellite provider knows you want the network is by visiting www.Get-SECNetwork.com.

Once on the special website, follow the instruc-tions and put in your information. ESPN will then take that information and pass along to the platforms in their efforts to obtain an agreement with all providers.

Going to GetSECNetwork.com and showing you want the network is extremely important for not only Gamecock fans, but fans of the SEC in general. The network is going to provide unprec-edented coverage of the league and they want to

make sure nobody misses out. On South Carolina’s end there are many things

that they are having to do as they prepare for the launch of the SEC Network such as making sure they have talent for each event and making sure they are fiber connected at every facility.

To this end, South Carolina has made an ar-rangement with the journalism school to try and create curriculum. The J-School is even having a Maymester class this year focusing on teaching the students about producing live events.

Having ESPN on board according to Bloom will add to the quality of the broadcast for Gamecock fans to watch.

“The minimum standards that ESPN wants to set are multi-camera shoot, graphics package, talent and HD (high definition output) if pos-sible,” Bloom relayed.

Right now according to Bloom, South Carolina is right in the middle of the pack in regards to having everything they need to be ready for the August launch of the SEC Network.

“We have a great team of people helping us get ready for the launch at Carolina. I feel good about where we will be for the launch date,” add-ed Bloom. “You’ll be able to see the other SEC schools events. They’ll be tons of events you’ll be able to see. We know that day one it’s not going to be as good as day 366. It’s going to take some time and we’re going to learn along the way.”

The Gamecocks are only being asked to pro-vide coverage of the live events, but one of the things they are working on is making sure some of their in-house productions also make it on the broadcasts. For example, the SEC Network is going to have its own magazine show and if the Gamecocks have a great feature they want to make it high-quality enough to be included.

“I do think we’ll be able to help tell the stories of our teams by showing all these games and try-ing to get some feature content involved with it,” Bloom pointed out. “Every school is doing their own. For example, when we go play Kentucky in a softball game they’ll produce it so our fans can watch it and one of the things that they have told us is that they want to make it as neutral as pos-sible, an SEC branded game.”

Bloom is excited about all the possibilities that the SEC Network will provide for Gamecock fans in the very near future.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Bloom remarked. “It’s going to take a little time, but we are getting there. It’s exciting.”

Make sure you visit GetSECNetwork.com. The Aug. 28 season opener for Gamecock football against Texas A&M is right around the corner.

Make sure you visit GetSECNetwork.com


Gamecock legend George Rogers spent a few nights in Atlanta celebrating the Gamecocks and being honored as he was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame on Feb. 7.

The Atlanta Gamecock Club hosted Rogers, South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner and Deputy Athletics Director Charles Wad-dell for the induction ceremony on Friday night as Rogers joined the 2014 Class of the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame inductees.

Others in the class of 2014 were Cindy Brogdon (three-time high school basketball champion at Greater Atlanta Christian), Corky Kell (longtime Cobb County high school coach and athletic director), Antonio McKay (three-time All-American at Georgia Tech and Olympic medalist in track and field), John Smoltz (former Atlanta Braves pitcher) and Ted Turner (former owner of the Atlanta Braves and Hawks). Also attending were many of the for-mer inductees, including Gamecock basketball

legend Bobby Cremins. On Thursday night before the induction,

the Atlanta Gamecock Club hosted a football recruiting wrap-up meeting. Chris Clark of Gamecock Central was the featured guest speaker and discussed the Gamecock football team’s new members from the 2014 national signing day.

“He came up to tell us about who we got, whether he thought they would play or make an impact freshman year, all those statistical things. Then he gave us little inside stories about how close we came to getting or losing them, how we got the Nebraska guy at the last minute … and some of the local kids who will be going to Carolina,” president of the Atlanta chapter Carey Brewer explained.

Rogers was also present at the recruiting meeting, which was a great treat for the mem-bers who could not make it to the induction the next night.

“He talked with the fans, took pictures for his foundation … everybody got to hold his Heisman and the girls got to wear his rings. We

had a lot of fun with him,” Brewer said. “He’s just one of those feel-good guys when you give him a hug and his smile is just infectious … fans just still seem to enjoy him whether they remember him being there or not.

“He told a story at the recruiting meeting that the thing that won him over to play at Carolina was that coach (Jim) Carlen said that he could come in and play as a freshman … which they both said is still a draw today,” Brewer contin-ued.

For those that were able to attend the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Brewer said that it was a huge treat.

“He certainly thanked coach Carlen,” Brewer recalled. “He thanked the University so many times during his speech … he’s just a really humble guy that says ‘I could have gone so far the other way had it not been for the University, coach Carlen and some other coaches in my life.’

“George was as funny, sincere and endearing to everybody there as any of the others were … he got a couple of standing ovations. It just

made me really proud to be a Gamecock,” Brewer concluded.

Atlanta Gamecock Club hosts legend for busy weekend



Following the South Carolina women’s basket-ball team’s victory over Alabama on Sunday, Jan. 19, South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley was recognized for her induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

After the game as the players and coaches made their way up to the Frank McGuire Club in the Colonial Life Arena, highlight videos and Staley’s acceptance speech were played on the televisions as guests were able to view Staley’s Team USA jerseys, gold medals and trophies. Speaking on the highlight videos were former team-mates and competitors Lisa Leslie, Re-becca Lobo and Candace Parker to go along with the tribute vid-eos that were played through-out the game.

Once Staley arrived, Brad Muller “the voice of Gamecock women’s basketball” served as the emcee for the event and introduced athletics di-rector Ray Tanner to start the ceremony.

Tanner thanked those in the attendance for providing a good crowd for the home game and congratulated the players and coaches on the victory. Next he addressed Staley and her accom-plishments.

“Coach Staley has told me on several occasions that she is ready for the celebration to be over, but it’s not every day that you have the opportunity to celebrate and have a reception with a Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer,” Tanner said. “She was a high school National Player of the Year, a college National Player of the Year, a three-time college All-American, a three-time gold medal winner, five-time WNBA All-Star and a two-time USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year … Virginia Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2008, Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame 2011, Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame 2012 and you just saw the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2013. That’s a lot to celebrate.

“As a player she was remarkable and not too bad as a coach either,” Tanner joked. “In her 14th season as a college coach she has eight 20-win seasons, eight NCAA Tournament appearances, three Women’s NIT appearances and in 2012 (named) Black Coaches Association Female Coach of the Year.”

Tanner then discussed his relationship with Staley that began when he was a young head coach at North Carolina State watching her play for Virginia.

“I remember watching her and thinking as a young head coach, a player like that is what makes you become a really good head coach,”

Tanner recalled. “We are so very fortunate to have coach Staley leading our women’s basket-ball program not only for what she does on the court, but also what does off the court and in our community. (She displays) integrity, dignity, dis-cipline and commitment.”

Following Tanner and a congratulatory video from Governor Nikki Haley, Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin addressed the crowd.

“Dawn Staley has many, many talents, so she will go down in history as one of the great-est players to ever play the game. I believe that history will record her as one of the greatest coaches of all time, but I believe that her great-est contribution will come as a humanitarian,” Benjamin said. “She’s passionate about sports, she’s passionate about life, she’s passionate about children, people, equity and opportunity. She is a true humanitarian and we are so, so proud to call her a Columbian and hope that we can for many, many years.”

Next current player and one of the team’s tri-captains, junior Aleighsa Welch, addressed the group.

“I think a lot of people know the basketball side of Dawn Staley and what she has done for the game, but I think for a lot of us on the team it goes a lot deeper than just basketball. Back through our recruiting process coach Staley has always been someone who has cared and I think that is a big reason why a lot of us decided to come here and play for her,” Welch said. “I appreciate you, we appreciate you. What coach Staley does for people, being a mentor and being a pioneer, I can’t say it enough that we thank you.”

Next the honoree herself took the stage to ad-dress the guests and opened by thanking every-one for coming, the event organizers, Tanner, the players, the coaching staff and her family.

“It is an honor that I wanted to be a part of. I’m really selfless when it comes to wanting awards, but being a part of the Hall of Fame is some-thing that I strived for. It wasn’t something that I thought about every day, but at the end of my ca-reer I wanted to be seen as someone who played at a high level and gave to the game,” Staley said. “How I approach playing the game is how I approach coaching the game, just with sheer determination.

“I hope to one day stand before you as some-one who goes into the Hall of Fame as a coach. Not for me because I got it as a player and that’s enough for me, but as a coach you know that you’ve touched so many players lives in a way that will make them Hall of Fame people and great citizens of our country so they can go on and affect people’s lives the way that they’ve af-fected my life, the way that they’ve affected their teammates lives … hopefully I can be a part of their path to be Hall of Fame in whatever they decide to do,” Staley continued.

Staley closed her remarks by saying that she does not like to give speeches often, but she hopes that she can give one addressing a crowd celebrat-ing on a Sunday in April.

“As we celebrate today, I would like to be celebrating one Sunday in April (following the NCAA Championship),” Staley commented to cheers. “It can happen for us sooner than later, so keep coming in the Colonial Life Arena and creating a home atmosphere for us and I promise you that one day I’ll be standing at a podium - and though I don’t like speeches - I’ll look forward to that speech.”

After the ceremony, Welch said that she truly admired Staley and one of the most important lessons she will take away from her coaching is a sense of discipline.

“That’s one thing that she instilled in us. It’s been her calling card since she has been here … a disciplined person can do anything and that’s on and off the court,” Welch said. “I think it’s just a matter of time before coach Staley is hoisting a trophy as a Hall of Fame coach. She is just deter-mined and great in every aspect.”

Mayor Benjamin also shared about what a great ambassador for the state Staley has been.

“Dawn is just an incredible person. She works hard and works to be excellent in everything that she does … she’s always there, always willing to work hard and pay forward on the blessings that she has received. She’s a very special lady and we’re so proud to have her here in Columbia,” Benjamin said. “We’re just very proud to have somebody of her caliber here.

“I’ll say this anecdotally, a month or two ago when Bill Cosby was in town … the one thing he wanted to know is where Dawn Staley was and how Dawn Staley was. When you’ve got Bill Cosby asking about you, that’s pretty big stuff. So we’re very proud of her and honored to count her as a friend,” Benjamin added.

Staley repeated that she was very proud, but she wants to shift the focus to the Gamecocks on the court and their season now.

“I think it’s a wonderful and tremendous achievement … I think everyone is really excited about what we’ve been able to do with our basket-ball team,” Staley said. “I’m hoping that we can have more receptions celebrating our team in the future ... the fact that our team is doing so well on-ly highlights what we’re doing in the community and the achievements that we’re able to make.

“I think the percentage of most people becom-ing Hall of Fame basketball players is low, but they can be a Hall of Famer in so many other ar-eas in their life. Whatever profession they choose to go in, they can be Hall of Famers. The same type of adulation I get from playing basketball is the same thing they can have the effect on people in their profession. Hopefully I can be a small part of helping them achieve that so they can see that they’re important, maybe not through basketball but finding some way to touch people’s lives,” Staley concluded.

Staley honored again for Hall of Fame induction


Yesterdays



The My Carolina Club of Washington, DC recently held their annual Gamecock Gala on Saturday, Jan. 25 at Bobby Van’s Grill.

The special evening was held to celebrate the University of South Carolina and to also help raise money for the Big Brothers Big Sis-ters of America.

According to My Carolina Club of Washing-ton, DC President Andrew Gaeckle the 120 attendees, which included United States Rep-resentative Tom Rice and his wife, Wrenzie, on the described elegant evening were treated to an open bar and hors d’oeuvres throughout the event that lasted from 8-11 p.m.

Baltimore-based Rew Smith served as the band for the evening.

The night in general featured a lot of danc-ing and a great deal of support for the Univer-sity of South Carolina.

Gaeckle remarked that it was a “great Gamecock celebration and it is going to be a good building block for us to grow the event

in the future.”During the evening there was also a silent

auction to help raise funds for the Big Broth-ers Big Sisters of America. The silent auction featured a Steve Spurrier signed football, different collections of Gamecock football pictures, which included Jadeveon’s Clowney infamous hit in the 2013 Outback Bowl win over Michigan, and a picture from the fifth straight win over Clemson this past Novem-ber.

Other items included a signed baseball from the 2011 South Carolina baseball National Championship team, two nights at the Inn at USC, a golf package from Mount Vernon among many other non-sport related items included in the fundraising auction.

Through the silent auction the DC Game-cocks raised $2,000. Overall according to Gaeckle they raised over $3,000 for the Big Brothers Big Sisters in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

“It’s the first kind of event we’ve done to this scale … we saw it as a great success,” Gaeck-le, currently a Senior Certification and Pro-

gram Manager at WBENC, said. “The whole board was supporting it, including Jim Forbes, Director of Communications for the Congres-sional office of Rep. David B. McKinley (R-WV) and DC Gamecocks Service Chair, who is a National Board Member of Big Brothers Big Sisters. They were heavily involved and attended the event. Overall, everybody was really excited and had a great time.”

The Gamecock Gala is the first of two or three events the DC Gamecocks will do in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters throughout the course of the upcoming year.

“This is the first kind of fundraiser external to Carolina,” Gaeckle, the former Student Body President at the University of South Carolina (March 2008-March 2009), said. “A lot of times we’ll fundraise up here for the University, but we try to give back to our local organizations.

“I think it will continue to evolve as we have folks come and go from the board as we get some new Carolina grads up here and involved. It’s all about the teamwork and what we can do, but I definitely think it’s going to

grow in the future. It’s one of the many things we’ve kind of added to the agenda of stuff for the year,” Gaeckle concluded.

To learn more about Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, please visit the official website at: http://www.bbbs.org/

You can learn more about the My Carolina Club of Washington, DC by visiting their offi-cial website at: http://www.gamecocksdc.com/

You can also follow the DC Gamecocks on Twitter at @DCGamecocks. You can like their Facebook page at DC Gamecocks.

DC Gamecocks host annual Gamecock Gala

photo by AndreA rodwAy

Members of the DC Gamecocks at the an-nual Gamecock Gala on Saturday, Jan. 25.


The New York City chapter of the Gamecock Club has found ways to remain tied to the Uni-versity of South Carolina community despite the distance from campus.

Chapter president JR Buzzelli said the diver-sity of the group leads to different opportunities for the chapter. Most recently some members competed in a charitable frisbee football league in New York City and the Gamecock Club members’ team not only competed in this league, but they were able to emerge victorious.

“We’ve got about 193 Gamecock Club mem-bers up here and they’re all into doing different things in their own lives,” Buzzelli explained. “This is a frisbee football team that played in this charitable league in the city and they were playing on behalf of the Gamecock Club and they won … and I said ‘man that’s awesome!’

“Because it’s a charitable league and all the league entrance fees and all that go toward local community causes, the prize winner’s check can be donated to any charitable cause. We’re a 501(c)(3), so they chose to donate it to us,” Buz-zelli continued.

Once Buzzelli found out that other chapters buy Gamecock Club chapter memberships, the use of that check was simple to him.

“What I want to do is … take the money and we’re going to buy a Gamecock Club member-ship with this. I said ‘because of what you all did on the field and you all won; we’re going to use that money to buy the inaugural member-

ship,’” Buzzellli said. “We like to celebrate little successes and to us this is a little bit of success.”

Buzzelli said that the team was excited to be able to help out the Gamecock Club and that they all use the chapter as a rallying point in the big city.

“We’re just very excited about all the things that we’re doing, so no matter what we do, I think the people in our chapter are just con-stantly thinking back toward the Gamecock Club and the chapter … the things that all of us as individuals are involved in, well if we’re part of the Gamecock Club then we’re part of that community. We think about things like that. For us the community is really the group of people that we’re in and the fact that we share

the common bond. We don’t have the rally points of where we live or being able to go to the University for games, events or things like that, so we kind of rally around the things that are in our everyday lives,” Buzzelli continued.

The gift to the Gamecock Club is only one step of the NYC Gamecock Club and president Buzzelli’s plans to get involved, help the Uni-versity and show Gamecock pride in the Big Apple.

“We’re looking forward to a good 2014. We’re trying to close out our first year before April and hit a couple of big milestones,” Buzzelli explained. “We want to be the number one out-of-state chapter. That’s our goal. We want to be number one in philanthropy and number one in

members. Those are the two things we want to try to be number one at.

“We’ve got a couple of initiatives that we’re going to kick off this spring that are meant to really help on the philanthropic side with the athletics department. So we’re excited about getting those going,” Buzzelli added. “We’re having a lot of fun doing it, we’re excited about the future and we just keep building.”

For more information on the NYC Game-cocks, please visit their official website at www.nycgamecocks.com. You can also follow them on Twitter @NYCGamecocks and like them on Facebook at NYC Gamecocks.

NYC Gamecock Club celebrates success, community ties

submitted photo

Pictured is the frisbee football team, which includes Gamecock Club members and captains: Caitlin Stevens, Lauren Koch and Amanda Neel.


z March 1Equestrian vs. Auburn ................................................................................10 a.m.Baseball vs. Clemson (Greenville, S.C.) ....................................................2 p.m.Softball vs. Detroit (Tempe, Ariz.)..............................................................2 p.m.Men’s Basketball vs. Kentucky ................................................6 p.m.

z March 2Men’s Tennis at Texas A&M ...................................................................... 12 p.m.Women’s Tennis vs. Texas A&M ............................................12 p.m.Women’s Basketball at Tennessee ......................................................2:30 p.m.Baseball at Clemson .......................................................................................4 p.m.

z March 4Softball vs. Charleston Southern ............................................6 p.m.Baseball vs. Stetson..................................................................7 p.m.Men’s Basketball vs. Florida ....................................................7 p.m.

z March 5Men’s Tennis at Clemson ........................................................................2:30 p.m.Baseball vs. Stetson..................................................................7 p.m.

z March 7-9Women’s Golf Darius Rucker Intercollegiate (Hilton Head, S.C.)

z March 7Baseball vs. Brown ...................................................................7 p.m.Softball at Alabama ..................................................................................7:30 p.m.

z March 8-9Sand Volleyball vs. North Florida/FIU/Florida State/Jacksonville(Jacksonville, Fla.)

z March 8 Equestrian at Tennessee-Martin ............................................................. 11 a.m.

Women’s Tennis vs. Florida .....................................................1 p.m.Softball at Alabama ........................................................................................3 p.m.Baseball vs. Brown ...................................................................4 p.m.Men’s Basketball at Mississippi State .......................................................4 p.m.

z March 9Men’s Tennis at Florida ..................................................................................1 p.m.Baseball vs. Brown ............................................................. 1:30 p.m.Softball at Alabama ..................................................................................2:30 p.m.

z March 10-11Men’s Golf Palmetto Intercollegiate (Aiken, S.C.)

z March 11Softball vs. Eastern Kentucky .................................................6 p.m.Baseball vs. Furman .................................................................7 p.m.

z March 14-15Track & Field NCAA Indoor Championships (Albuquerque, N.M.)

z March 14Women’s Tennis at Georgia .........................................................................4 p.m.Men’s Tennis vs. Georgia .........................................................5 p.m.Softball vs. Texas A&M .............................................................6 p.m.Baseball vs. Ole Miss ................................................................7 p.m.

z March 15Softball vs. Texas A&M .............................................................2 p.m.Baseball vs. Ole Miss ................................................................4 p.m.

z March 16Men’s Tennis vs. Tennessee ...................................................12 p.m.Women’s Tennis at Tennessee ...................................................................1 p.m. Softball vs. Texas A&M .............................................................1 p.m.Baseball vs. Ole Miss .......................................................... 1:30 p.m.

Gamecock Club Upcoming EventsCalhoun County Business MeetingWhen: Tuesday, February 18, 6:30 p.m.Where: Sub Station II, Bridge Street, St. Matthews, S.C. 29135

Supper will be provided. Business will include elec-tion of officers. Please RSVP by Feb. 17 to [email protected].

York County Recruiting Wrap-UpMeeting/Dinner When: Thursday, February 27; 6 p.m.Where: Palmetto Room At Historic Old Town, 150 East White Street, Rock Hill, S.C. 29730

Guest speakers will be Tony Morrell from The Big Spur and Gamecock Club staff. There will be a social starting at 6:00 p.m.Cost is $15.00 for Adults, $5.00 children under 13. This includes a pasta buffet with all the fixings, sal-

ad, tea, and coffee. There will also be a cash bar. The food and program are scheduled to start around 7:00-7-:15 p.m.

If you plan on attending please respond to Chip Comer at [email protected], or 803-324-1180 x26. We must have a head count to plan for food.

Greenville County Football Recruiting Wrap-UpWhen: Thursday, February 27; 7 p.m.Where: The Hilton Hotel, West Orchard Park Drive, Greenville, S.C. 29615 - just off I-385 & Haywood Rd.

Chris Clark of Gamecock Central will be the guest speaker to discuss the 2014 recruiting class. Come join us to hear about the great class.More information will be available at a later date. Call Dan Drew at 864-244-3739 or T. Wayne Poole at 864-901-8462.

z Feb. 18-22Swimmng & Diving SEC Championships(Athens, Ga.)

z Feb. 19Men’s Basketball at Arkansas ............................9 p.m.

z Feb. 20Women’s Basketball at Kentucky ....................7 p.m.

z Feb. 21-23Men’s Golf Bayou City Collegiate Championships(Houston, Texas)

z Feb. 21Women’s Tennis vs. SC State ..................1 p.m.Baseball vs. Eastern Kentucky ...............3 p.m.Softball vs. Gardner-Webb .....................3 p.m.Men’s Tennis vs. USF ................................4 p.m.Softball vs. Boston University ................5 p.m.Women’s Tennis vs. North Florida ... 6:30 p.m.

z Feb. 22Track & Field Gamecock Invitational ... All DayEquestrian vs. Texas A&M .....................10 a.m.Men’s Basketball vs. Georgia ........... 1:30 p.m.Softball vs. Michigan State .....................3 p.m.Baseball vs. Eastern Kentucky ...............4 p.m.

z Feb. 23Women’s Tennis vs. William & Mary .... 11 a.m.Men’s Tennis vs. San Diego ...................12 p.m.Women’s Basketball vs. Florida .............1 p.m.Baseball vs. Eastern Kentucky ......... 1:30 p.m.Softball vs. UNC Wilmington ..................5 p.m.

z Feb. 25Softball vs. Western Carolina (DH) ........3 p.m.

z Feb. 26Men’s Basketball at Auburn ...............................9 p.m.

z Feb. 27Women’s Basketball vs. Georgia ............7 p.m.Softball at Arizona State ...............................9:30 p.m.

z Feb. 28Softball vs. Minnesota .........................................2 p.m.Softball vs. Ball State ......................................4:30 p.m.(Both in Tempe, Ariz.)Women’s Tennis vs. Missouri ..................5 p.m.Baseball vs. Clemson ...............................7 p.m.

z Feb. 27 - March 1Track & Field SEC Indoor Championships(College Station, Texas)

Home events are ...................................................... Bold

February/March South Carolina Athletics Events



Camp Debbie Lou is a unique place. En-tering its 10th year the lowcountry ranch in Latta, S.C. has been a safe haven for children aged 4-14 with cancer to enjoy quality time with their families over a four-day span.

“Our motto is fun, love and laughter and our goal is to make the kids forget they’re sick for four days,” camp director Dean Richardson remarked. “This (10th year) is kind of a big year because when we started we didn’t have any idea what we were do-ing or if it would be a one-time deal, but it has worked out great.”

The idea for the camp formulated in 2004 when Dean’s sister, Deborah Lou Richard-son, affectionately known as Debbie Lou, passed away after a long and courageous battle with central nervous system lym-phoma.

Dean’s brother, Jimmy, and the rest of an extended family that is extremely close created the camp in loving memory of Debbie Lou, who was the mother of five daughters.

Jimmy’s wife actually came up with the idea to do the camp and she along with ev-eryone else in the family felt that it had to be not just for children with cancer, but for the entire family

“So we got it started,” Dean Richardson noted. “We had no idea what to do, but some of the younger people in the fam-ily were pretty energetic and they started researching and we kind of modeled it after Camp Firefly (headed up by Kirk and Chelsea Cameron). We’re very similar to them, just with a much smaller budget.

“Right now, 95 percent of the families that attend Camp Debbie Lou are from North and South Carolina. Most of our re-ferrals come from the children’s hospitals in the two states. We work with most of the hospitals and every year they’ll send in re-ferral forms with the families and we give them a number of the families we think we can take and it’s based strictly on size. We have 16 bedrooms at the facility, some have two beds, some have four,” Dean Richardson continued.

Camp Debbie Lou is a Christian Camp and they stress that, but anybody can at-tend, whether they are Christian or not.

“That’s important to us … we do a devo-tion in the morning for about five minutes

and then one at night and then Sunday we do a chapel service. We do one for the kids and one for the adults,” Dean Richardson said.

Camp Debbie Lou itself is very struc-tured to make sure those in attendance re-ceive the optimum amount of fun possible. Every child has their own volunteer as well to give them that special one-on-one experience. Many of these volunteers are Debbie Lou’s family and friends.

“We start at 8 in the morning with break-fast, then we have a short devotional and then we start activities,” Dean Richardson commented. “We divide the kids into three groups based on age because we do three activities in the morning and three activities in the afternoon. The morning activities include go-kart racing, archery and horseback riding and as you can prob-ably imagine the go-kart racing is the most popular, especially among the little guys who don’t get to do that.

“They do each activity for about an hour and then at 12 they come in for lunch. We have two chefs, professional chefs, and

all day long they cook. We do three meals a day and then at night we always have an activity going on so they’re doing ice cream sundaes or something of that nature. After lunch we have what we call quiet time, which is for us old people. The kids are ready to go, but the volunteers need a little bit of a break. We start back at 2 and then do more activities. In the afternoon, we do pool, crafts and bumper boats. Then we come in and we have supper at six,” Dean Richardson said.

One of the unique activities they do at Camp Debbie Lou on Friday night is have a pool party in their pool, which was spe-cifically designed with children in mind at only four feet deep.

“After we eat and we get them all there, we cover the bottom of the pool with quar-ters and they all get a cup,” Richardson said. “We blow the whistle and they start diving for money and whatever they pick up they get to keep. It’s not much money for them, they get 10, 15 dollars, but they get really excited because these are kids.

“Another one of the cool things we do

with the pool party is we have what they call date night. While the kids are at the pool party we close the dining room and the chefs put out linen, tablecloths and can-delabras and they have a really nice dinner for the parents because most of the parents haven’t been able to have a date night since their child got sick,” Richardson relayed.

On Saturday night, they do a carnival with old-time carnival games where at the end of the night the children can turn in the tickets they won for prizes. Each one gets three prizes, regardless of how they did on the evening.

The experience is one that nobody for-gets.

“As you can imagine the saddest part of the week is when they go home,” Dean Richardson said. “The families are crying because they don’t want to leave, the kids want to stay and the volunteers are crying because they’ve made great new friends and they have to go.”

Camp Debbie Lou is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization and they rely on gifts and fundraisers to sustain.

“Every year we do somewhere between two to four sessions and that is strictly based on how well fundraising goes,” Dean Richardson said.

This year’s fundraiser will co-feature former South Carolina quarterback Con-nor Shaw and Austin and Ty Dillon of NASCAR. South Carolina Athletics Direc-tor Ray Tanner and former Clemson head football coach Danny Ford will also be in attendance.

This year’s fundraiser will be held at Sea-well’s on March 29, starting at 6:30 p.m. According to Dean Richardson there will be a big dinner and drinks.

There will also be a bevy of raffle items and a lot of silent auction items.

In addition to a plethora of Gamecock material other items such as a signed Pey-ton Manning Tennessee helmet and numer-ous NASCAR related packages, including driving packages in Las Vegas, will be available.

Last year, the Camp Debbie Lou fund-raiser had 35 tables. This year the Richard-sons are hoping to have 50 or more tables.

Tables are priced at $1,000 for eight seats. Individual tickets can be purchased for $125.

To learn more about Camp Debbie Lou, please visit their official website at www.CampDebbieLou.com.

Camp Debbie Lou provides fun, love and laughter for children with cancer


This year’s Camp Debbie Lou fundraiser on March 29 will feature Connor Shaw.


By Mike [email protected]

South Carolina’s equestrian team continues to hold on to the national No. 1 ranking since Dec. 2, for about three months now, in prepa-ration for the regular-season stretch run lead-ing up to hosting the SEC Championship.

“It says a lot for our student-athletes. I think they are putting in 100 percent. We are very lucky,” head coach Boo Major said. “They just keep rolling with the punches, they have a great attitude and I’m certainly thrilled. It never hurts to be number one for that long. It’s kind of a nice place to be, but then you realize that everybody is always gunning for you.”

The Gamecocks will next be in action taking on Texas A&M and Auburn both at their home facility at One Wood Farm in Blythewood, S.C. Texas A&M is currently the No. 10 team in the nation while Auburn is third nationally.

“We have the heart of our schedule com-ing up with Texas A&M and Auburn, but the good news is that we’ve got them at our place. That’s a positive for us … I think we’ve got three tough meets and at the end we play to UT-Martin and that’s going to be

a tough one because we travel to UT-Martin the first weekend of spring break,” Major said of the upcoming schedule. “That to me is one that I’ve starred as a place that we real-ly need to look out and be very careful about because everybody is thinking about spring break and thinking it might be an easy win. I’m not so sure that is going to be the case.”

University of Tennessee-Martin currently sits at ninth in the national rankings as well making for a gauntlet of an upcoming sched-ule for South Carolina. The Gamecocks have had to change their practice schedule around in recent weeks to accommodate for the win-try weather and school cancellations.

“We’re going to have to kind of crunch in a few extra workouts this week to make up for the days that we’ve missed this past week (due to wintry weather),” Major explained. “When it gets like this there is not a whole lot that you can do … you can’t turn the horses out in stuff like this because they could re-ally get hurt. We have a covered arena which is what we used to just put a couple of them out there at a time just to let time get a little exercise. It’s not good for them to stay closed up in a stall for multiple days. The barn staff did the best they could with what they’ve got and that’s all they could do.”

Major said that the team adapted well the last time they were affected by the snow, so she was confident that would happen again and thankful to not have a meet during the week of the bad weather.

The team remains positive and enthusiastic to get back out and prepare for Texas A&M in hoping to avenge a fall loss according to Major. South Carolina was able to exact a bit of revenge in its last competition by defeat-ing then sixth-ranked Georgia in Athens, 10-9.

“We had a good time. We’ve got kind of a strange relationship with Georgia in that when they come to our place they tend to beat us and when we go to their place, we tend to beat them. That’s been going on for the last three years or so. We made a lot of mistakes in the fall against Georgia and yes, we made a few mistakes against Georgia this time, but it was good to have the mistakes be minimal. You’ve got to expect there to be some mistakes and we didn’t have any mis-takes that were going to cost us the win. So I’m so proud of how well the girls did there and they kept their eye on the prize, stayed focused the whole day and I think we rode really well. I’m just really pleased with how well we did,” Major commented.

Major and the Gamecocks will hope to continue to avenge losses from the fall as they host Texas A&M at 10 a.m. on Feb. 22. Major said that the upcoming stretch will be extremely important for seeding purposes in the upcoming SEC and National Champion-ships later this spring.

“Texas A&M is the only team that beat us outright so far. Georgia beat us, but we were tied with them (and lost on a tiebreaker) in the fall, so I think that we have a lot of work to do to prepare for Texas A&M … I hate to sound so cliché, but we’re just going to have to take it one event at a time, one meet at a time. We’re focusing on Texas A&M right now and hopefully we’ll get through them and then look on to Auburn,” Major con-cluded.

Equestrian team weathers winter, prepares for final stretch



When I was in my late teens, my younger sister played basketball. The typical game was very exciting. It would consist of at least 100 jump balls and very little scoring. This was my first impressions of women’s basketball which stayed with me a long time. Later, I was able to call play-by-play for a few USC Aiken women’s basketball games. They were ranked in the top-10 of NCAA Division II and were very good. Coach Mike Brandt taught the spread offense (Princeton to some) and they ran it well. A new respect was found for women’s basketball.

Flash forward to 2013. With a new position with Spurs and Feathers, I felt it was my obli-gation to take in games, so that I actually might know at least a little of what I’m talking about. It did not take long. The University of South Carolina women’s basketball team is great basketball. These women can play. There may not be dunking, but I go back to the days when dunking was illegal (for those of you younger than 40, yes, dunking was once upon a time, illegal), so that should not bother anyone in the least. Basketball is so much more than that.

And this team plays basketball. They take it to the opposing team from the opening tip to the final seconds. Relentless defense and ef-ficient offense. They play both with excellent players. Aleighsha Welch is the core of the team. She can block out, rebound, dribble, pass and score. Tiffany Mitchell is the slasher. She can absolutely fly and take it to the hoop or dish it off and strong on defense in the back court. And freshman Alaina Coates has the poten-tial to be one of the best women’s basketball player in the history of the school. At 6’4” she is taller than most and she has great hands and great foot work. She can catch a pass and get it up and in as quick as with anyone she competes. And, yes, she can rebound with the best as seen by many double-doubles this sea-son and several awards as SEC Women’s Freshman of the Week.

And that’s just three. Time and space doesn’t allow to go over every-body. Needless to say, it takes a team to win and you’re allowed five on the court: Ibiam, Sessions, Dozier, Roy, Davis and Gaines, rounded out by Montout, Morrison, and Farmer, all good in their own right, as indicated by their highest rank of fifth on the season at the end of this past week. The excitement that is building around the team is evident at the home games. The crowds have gotten progres-sively bigger as more and more people buy into head coach Dawn Staley’s team with 7,500 on hand for the Sunday game in Columbia against

Arkansas. Following the game, the Razorbacks head coach Tom Collen called the Gamecocks “a Final Four-type team.”

If the USC Women can finish strong, they will put themselves in place to earn a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. Pretty heady stuff and certainly worth the effort to come out and support this team. You know, there’s 18,000 seats in the CLA. Why not fill them up?!

Legends WeekendOn Friday, January 15, 2014, a small group

gathered to honor legendary head coach Frank McGuire by topping the portion of Greene Street that passes the Carolina Colesium and Colonial Life Arena McGuire Way. Former players and coaches, along with fans, got to-gether and celebrated the career of McGuire and remembered “the good ol’ days”. In town were some of the stars of the 70s, Kevin Joyce, Brian Winters, Alex English and Mike Dun-leavy, along with many more.

On Saturday, they gathered again and signed autographs before the game with Ole Miss. The lines stretched way longer than could ever get through before the game, thus, the guys came back after the game and signed until all were served. From a personal point of view, it was great to see the guys who as a boy I idolized and just getting to talk and carry on a conversa-tion. Did you know that Kevin Joyce uses his number 43 as one of his lottery numbers? He has not won either. We decided to blame it on Roche. I asked Brian Winters about his last

second winning shot against Marquette. He remembered and said that a year later he was with the Lakers and scored the final shot to win a game very similarly to that one. He said he received a letter in the mail a few days later from his mom. In the letter were two newspa-per clippings, one from the game against Mar-quette, the other from the Lakers’ win. He said he pondered it for a moment before noticing the month and day were exactly the same. One year to the day he had made the game winner. I did not remember that and it really was great to sit there listening.

I was in college the final years of Coach McGuire’s time at Carolina and it was also great to see and talk to the guys I was in school with: Kevin Darmody, Kevin Dunleavy, Mike Doyle and Billy Gause. It was just as great to talk to them and find out what was happening in their lives. Darmody lives in Charolotte and has three kids all of which are great swimmers. Dunleavy is in New York. Mike Doyle was with his wife and son. And Billy Gause and I discussed intramural football. And the tie that binds us all together: the University of South Carolina.

Our current men’s basketball team lost a heartbreaker that day and that’s been the story of the season. Close, but no cigar until lately with the Gamecocks winning their last two SEC games over Vanderbilt and Alabama. I think it’s a good time to go back to a fact that I shared before the season started. In 1964, another head coach named Frank started his career at South Carolina. We won six games

that season. The second year 11. 17 total wins in the first two years. But the third year it started to roll and here in 2014 we celebrate a career that won 283 games while at Carolina, an ACC championship, multiple trips to the NCAA tournament and ranked as high as No. 1 in the country.

I’m not saying that is right around the corner, but Frank Martin is laying the foundation and it will happen again. Injuries and bad breaks, along with the growing pains have not panned out into wins this season, but if you have been to the games, you can see the growth and see that the team is getting better and is on the right track. Come out and support the team. Again, you can’t have a home court advantage without fans in the house and to our loyal fans credit, their have been some pretty good crowds on hand for home games. Let’s see it through and get some momentum going into next season for the men.

Gamecock BaseballAs I write this, there’s about two inches of ice

on the ground with the power off at my house and the office. Hard to believe that baseball sea-son started this week, but with this past week’s weather, it cannot come too soon. Spring is just around the corner and expectations are high. With returning stars like Greiner, Pankake, English and Montgomery, surrounded by a host of talent, there’s no wonder why there is great expectations and excitement in the air!

New AdvertisersIt has been a great first six months for us at

Spurs & Feathers! We thank all of you for your thoughts and comments as we have put this in motion. We also thank all of our advertisers who have made all this possible and without them this could not be done. This month we welcome for the first time Tight Lines Y’all Bow Ties, Birddog Apparel and Camp Debbie Lou. The “Tie Us Together” event sponsored by Brittons was great! And I was styling in my Gamecock bow tie from TYL! We set a new world record and I learned to tie a bow tie. Not too shabby. Birddog is new and you’ll be hearing more about this company started in Lexington by Scott “Birddog” Wilson. He’s got some great stuff. And it was nice to meet great Gamecocks Jimmy and Dean Richardson who put on Camp Debbie Lou, a camp for cancer victims and their families. Their event coming up which will star Connor Shaw, along with two NASCAR boys Ty and Austin Dillon, and feature Ray Tanner. It promises to be a great night and is for a great cause, so makes plans to come out and be with us. And thanks to Unique Expressions, my column sponsor for the first time this month! It’s a great day to be a Game-cock! And at Spurs & Feathers we would not want to be any other place!

Unique views sponsored by Unique Expressions

photo by brian hand

Ed Girardeau shows off the McQuire Way sign after the special street-topping ceremony.

Ed GirardeauContributing

Editor

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