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NEWS, NOTES &
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The Bradsher Beat
Friday, August 15, 2008
By Bethany Bradsher |
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Preseason bonus finally
arrives
By
Bethany Bradsher
©2008 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
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It’s a portent of football season to diehard
Pirate fans, a sigh of relief to the sports information staff and a lifeline
to those of us who cover the East Carolina gridiron.
It’s the arrival of the official 2008 East
Carolina football media guide.
This 208-page tome is packed to bursting with
stats, history, facts and factoids about everything from opposing teams to
graduate assistants to redshirt freshmen and athletic office staff.
Comb through it thoroughly and all manner of
absorbing details seem to rise from its pages.
Today’s feature: The most fascinating
characteristics of ECU football players that have absolutely nothing to do
with football.
A Pirate by any other name
Want to really turn some heads when you see
players after games or around campus? Then educate yourself on the truth
that just because a name is on a roster doesn’t mean that anyone actually
uses it.
A number of players have nicknames so indelible
that they’re mentioned in the media guide, including Big Kat (DL Antonio
Allison), E (DB Emanuel Davis), June (DL Linval Joseph), Koda (DB Dekota
Marshall), Zo (LB Lorenzo Osborne), D-Rey (DB Darryl Reynolds), Moss (WR
DeMorio Waymon), Cobi (WR Jacobi Jenkins) and Scoota (DB Leonard Paulk).
What I like to do in my spare time
At least two out of three Pirate players list
“video games” as their only hobby or one of two. There’s certainly nothing
wrong with that; those games can be a great diversion when players not
consumed with athletics and football.
But if any of these young men ever decide to
make a profile on eharmony or match.com, they might want to take a cue from
their teammates who claim more appealing hobbies.
The pre-eminent ECU Renaissance man is DL Zach
Slate, who enjoys fishing, cars, drawing, music, bodyboarding and swimming
and doesn’t even mention video games.
Other Pirates with
diverse interests include LB Matt Thompson (cooking and art), Waymon
(working with children), DL Robert Jones (chess), OL Logan Kudlinski (metal
music) and DL Chris Atkins (cooking).
Then there’s the prospect
for a Pirate Nation musical ensemble, featuring a host of athletes who know
as much about tempo and dynamics as they know about dime coverage and
blocking. The band would include OL Fred Hicks on vocals, deep snapper
Wilson Raynor on drums and the dueling piano talents of defensive ends Leon
Best and CJ Wilson on piano.
Accolades and
accomplishments
It’s enough to make it to
the Division I level in football, but some ECU players have compiled other
impressive feats in a myriad of areas.
OL/TE Will Towery
represented the state of North Carolina in the 2005 and 2006 National
History Day competition and twice won the Senior Group Documentary events
for films entitled “Muhammed Ali’s Greatest Fight” and “Good Evening
Vietnam.”
Towery should pair up
with OL T.J. Harper, who has directed two short films, including a
documentary on the dangers of steroid use.
QB Patrick Pinkney was
named Pine Forest (Fayetteville) High School’s Most Outstanding Senior, and
LB Melvin Patterson had a 4.2 GPA at Santa Fe HS in Alachua, FL.
There’s more: DL Maurice
Mercer was class president in both middle school and high school; LB Steve
Spence was the president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at his high
school; QB Rob Kass logged more than 400 hours of community service while a
teenager in Central Florida; TE J.R. Kraemer was an Eagle Scout, and WR Alex
Taylor, who lived in Germany for his freshman and sophomore years, earned
All-Europe honors for running.
Random, but absorbing
Finally a few tidbits
that make these the guys you try to sit next to at a dinner party.
— DL Kwaku Danso is from
Kumasi, Ghana where he attended Opoku Ware High School.
— WR Dwayne Harris says
that he would love to go back in history and spend one day with Jackie
Robinson.
— Raynor is a special
education major, and his father Rhett is an NCAA Division I baseball umpire.
— Reynolds is a
family community services major, which is appropriate because he has 13
siblings.
— Paulk spent one summer
working as a recreational aide at the Boys and Girls Club in Columbia.
— TE Willie Smith was the
first ever Division I signee in the 40-year history of his high school,
North Johnston High in Kenly.
Returning to this space
soon: Stats and depth charts. For now, a few new dimensions to the names on
the jersey backs.
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Bonesville archives.
08/15/2008 07:45:10 AM |
