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News Nuggets, 06.10.05
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Godwin leaves JUCO powerhouse to join Mazey

East Carolina didn't have to look long or far to find a new mentor for its stable of pitchers, turning to Louisburg College baseball coach Billy Godwin to fill the position vacated earlier this week with the resignation of Tommy Eason.

Godwin, a Rocky Mount native with an ECU graduate degree, was announced Thursday as the Pirates' pitching coach by head coach Randy Mazey.

Louisburg, long a power in the junior college baseball ranks, compiled a 262-85 record during Godwin's six-year stretch at the school, a span marked by multiple postseason appearances, including a 2002 trip to the JUCO World Series.

Godwin was named Region X coach of the year after his 2005 team finished the regular season with a 49-13 mark and ranked 6th in the nation, winning the region's regular season and tournament titles.

After taking the helm at Louisburg in the fall of 1999, Godwin kept the school's baseball program in the national spotlight, averaging 43 wins a season.

Perhaps his best team was in 2002, when the Hurricanes finished 51-11 and made their 10th trip to the College World Series in Grand Junction, CO. Godwin was selected North Carolina College Coach of the Year after the school-record 51-win season.

Prior to his tenure at Louisburg, he spent two seasons (1998-90) as an assistant at N.C. Wesleyan under current UNC-Chapel Hill coach Mike Fox. That period included the Bishops' 1989 Division III national championship.

Godwin served as athletic director and head baseball coach at Enfield Academy from 1991 until accepting the same positions in 1997 at Cary Academy, where he was responsible for setting up the then-new school's athletic programs.

A prep baseball star at Northern Nash high school, Godwin signed an athletic scholarship in 1982 with Atlantic Christian, where he compiled a stellar pitching career under Bulldogs coach Dave Jauss, who has since served stints as a Major League coach and scout.

Godwin was Atlantic Christian's team captain in 1986, his senior year, and was honored with the Kiwanis Award for the school's most outstanding male student athlete.

Godwin, 41, is married to the former Sharon Smith of Rocky Mount. They have a daughter, Mallory.

From staff and ECU Athletics reports.

Recruiting scandal trial sidetracked by new twist

MEMPHIS — A federal judge delayed sentencing for a businessman convicted of paying a high school coach to steer a football player to Alabama following a newspaper report Thursday that the player's family got a big cut of the payoff.

The sentencing hearing for Logan Young, a longtime Crimson Tide booster, began Thursday afternoon but will continue Monday so new testimony can be received from his chief accuser, former high school coach Lynn Lang.

Defense lawyer James Neal said an article in The Commercial Appeal of Memphis casts doubt on whether defensive lineman Albert Means, the player at the heart of a recruiting scandal, was a helpless victim or a payoff recipient.

Federal sentencing guidelines could call for stronger punishment for Young if he was the prime architect of a payoff conspiracy and Means was a ``vulnerable victim.''

``You cannot be a vulnerable victim if you're a willing participant,'' Neal said in asking U.S District Court Judge Daniel Breen to continue the hearing.

The Commercial Appeal quoted Lang as saying the Means family got about $60,000 of the $150,000 he says Young paid to have Means sign with Alabama five years ago.

Breen gave Neal permission to call Lang into court to say if the newspaper article was accurate. Defense lawyers also filed a request for a new trial based on the article. No date was scheduled for a hearing on that request.

Neal said prosecutors portrayed Means as a victim at Young's trial and evidence that Means got a large amount of money from Lang could have changed the jury's verdict.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Godwin said Means was a victim of the recruiting conspiracy even if his family got some of the money. Godwin described Means as a naive teenager from a low-income, broken home who trusted his high school coach.

In its article, The Commercial Appeal quoted Lang as saying he was tired of talk that he kept all of the money for himself.

``I took care of that family,'' Lang told the newspaper, ``and I took care of Albert all through his senior year and up until he went to Alabama.''

Means, who has consistently refused to talk about the scandal, declined comment on Lang's allegations.

Young was convicted in February on money laundering and racketeering charges. Godwin indicated in court that sentencing guidelines call for 24 to 30 months in prison.

The judge can deviate from those guidelines, and defense lawyers can seek a sentence that does not include prison time. Such a sentence could include a fine, probation or house arrest.

At the beginning of the sentencing hearing, the defense called medical witnesses who said Young suffers for kidney disease and needs a transplant.

The government countered that Young could get dialysis and other medical care in prison.

Lang was the main prosecution witness at Young's trial. Lang said then that he helped the Means family financially but did not indicate that large amounts of money were involved.

Prosecutors and the NCAA said Means was unaware Lang was shopping him around to college recruiters.

Lang testified that other universities, including Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Memphis, Mississippi, Michigan State and Tennessee, offered him money or jobs to get Means.

No charges were filed against anyone from those schools. Three former coaches, Rip Scherer of Memphis, Jim Donnan of Georgia and Ivy Williams, an Alabama assistant, testified Lang was lying.

Means' recruitment became part of an NCAA investigation that led to sanctions against Alabama in 2002, costing the Crimson Tide scholarships and bowl appearances.

After the scandal emerged, the NCAA allowed Means to transfer from Alabama to his hometown school, Memphis, without having to sit out a year. Means finished his career with the Tigers last season.

Lang, former head coach at Trezevant High in Memphis, testified against Young while waiting to be sentenced on a guilty plea to crossing state lines as part of a racketeering conspiracy.

Lang later was sentenced to two years probation and 500 hours of community service work after prosecutors supported his request to avoid prison.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically based on material supplied by staff members; data published by ECU, Conference USA and its member schools; and reports from Associated Press and other sources. Copyright 2005 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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