News and Notes from East Carolina, Conference USA and Beyond

PREVIOUS NUGGETS

12.15.06: Boone booming with football success ... All-America: Rice's Dillard and UTEP's Higgins ... Miami offensive coordinator moving to ASU

12.14.06: Grobe gets national recognition for coaching ... ECU soccer duo receives honors

12.13.06: Pirate baseball competes to get in shape ... Holy Toledo! Green Wave's search over ... Arizona State fills football coaching void

12.12.06: Garrard not complaining after Jags win ... Rutgers' Schiano named coach of year ... Wolfpack dominates Lady Pirates in Raleigh

12.11.06: Watson Brown heads home to Tennessee Tech ... Boston College names Spaziani interim coach ... Georgia Tech's Johnson wins Biletnikoff award

12.10.06: Junior Smith involved in Cox commitment ... WVU's Rodriguez says no to Bama's big bucks ... Boykin leaves Blue Devils hoops program

12.09.06: Garrard named AFC player of the week ... C-USA players of year: Kolb, Bunting, Higgins ,,, Miami elevates Shannon to head coach

12.08.06: Rivers tips off conclusion of coaching search ... Orioles' Roberts serving FCA baseball camps ... Hoops: Lady Pirates defeat UNC-Wilmington

12.07.06: Nine Pirates named to all-conference teams ... League honors four ECU freshman gridders ... Recruiting thumbnail: Rodney Cox ... ECU's Norris named to All-South 2nd team

12.06.06: UTEP's Higgins named AFCA All-American ... Memphis thumps Herd in C-USA hoops opener ... C-USA names top cross country performers

12.05.06: First-ever Gators- Buckeyes match-up a big one ... Boise State crashes BCS party in Fiesta ... Seminoles top Lady Pirates for tourney title

12.04.06: New recruiting thumbnail: Tyrell Worthington ... McFadden leads Independence into title game ... Bearcats bound for new bowl in Toronto

12.03.06: Paper: Hudson among Cincy coaching targets ... UAB ousted from NCAA volleyball by UCLA

12.02.06: Witter wins minor league baseball honor ... Millican in position in LPGA qualifying ... ECU announces challenging softball slate

12.01.06: C-USA announces football players of year ... Rice's Graham gets coach of year award ... ECU's Krug lands All-America honor

11.30.06: T.H. issues direct appeal to fans for ticket sales ... New recruiting thumbnail: Maurice Mercer ... Dougherty, Johnson first team All-Conference ... Five from ECU on C-USA All-Freshman team

11.29.06: C-USA bowl slate sends ECU to Birmingham ... SMU's Needham a finalist for Hermann Trophy ... Bearcats coach bolts for Michigan State

11.28.06: ECU's Roach on
C-USA academic team ... Wager on Clemson-South Carolina turns deadly ... Shula era comes to end at Alabama

11.27.06: C-USA title game features UH-USM rematch ... Bunting farewell to press a succinct one ... ECU announces swimming, diving signees

11.26.06: Pirates add Lugo to 2008 baseball class ... VCU prevails over ECU in women's hoops ... Tulsa gains momentum for postseason trip

11.25.06: ECU-bound Herlocker paces Charlotte Catholic ... Miami enters search mode for football coach ... BC out of ACC title contention

11.24.06: Herd takes ECU hopes to Hattiesburg ... Gonzaga has a Garden party in NIT semis ... Iowa State search eliminates two candidates

11.23.06: Yow taking leave of absence for treatment ... Marshall's Bradshaw nabs
C-USA weekly honor

11.22.06: Pirates face Houston if Marshall wins ... Former teammates push Raye for MSU coach ... SMU's Wideman named academic player of year

11.21.06: Duke, Wake athletes named Rhodes scholars ... UAB captures Conference USA volleyball ... Old Dominion stuns Georgetown on the road

11.20.06: Ohio State-Michigan rematch possible ... Video helps inspire Tar Heels to beat State ... Cords stepping down as AD at Marquette

11.19.06: Cougars to host USM or ECU in C-USA title game ... ECU falls in women's hoops to Vermont ... Pirate swimming teams in seventh place

11.18.06: ECU baseball bringing in 10-man class ... UTEP edges Pirates in C-USA volleyball ... West Virginia steamrolls Pitt

11.17.06: Pirates reschedule hoops contest with NCCU ... ECU volleyball places 3 on all- league team ... Top-ranked SMU goes down in NCAA soccer

11.16.06: Paterno's hall of fame induction postponed ... Tressel downplays his dominance vs. Michigan ... ECU softball announces pair of signees

11.15.06: Pirates control their fate in East Division ... Pinkney in star game, playing for Buddy Ryan ... ECU's Lee named special teams player of week

11.14.06: ECU-NCSU kickoff moved to 7 p.m. for TV ... Butch will succeed Bunting at UNC- Chapel Hill ... Conference USA coaches make debuts ... Pirates seeded sixth in C-USA volleyball ... Lady Pirates drop hoops opener to JMU

11.13.06: Houston clinches
C-USA championship berth ... ECU volleyball slips in regular season finale ... Grad rates: Athletes outperform student body

11.12.06: ECU announces women's hoops signees ... Miners extinguish Blazers' bowl hopes ... Mustang duo in contention for Hermann Trophy

11.11.06: Rutgers kicks Cards out of title picture ... Roach selected for district academic honor ... Krug getting it done on court, in classroom

11.10.06: Pirates prepare for Saturday hoops opener ... Houston's Kolb makes cut on O'Brien award list ... UNC-CH officials mum on Davis' status

11.09.06: Former star QB to represent N.C. in Congress ... Homicide unit probing death of Miami player ... Krog's 73 puts her in top five at Augusta

11.08.06: UK's win over Payne's charges not flawless ... SMU, UAB gain NCAA men's soccer berths ... Three C-USA women's teams get NCAA slots

11.07.06: Two Marshall players get C-USA honors ... UAB women capture C-USA soccer title ... Punter faces attempted murder charge

11.06.06: Pirate volleyball takes down Memphis ... Denny O'Brien's Harris Poll ballot ... ECU swimmers, divers perform well ... Paterno recovering from fractured leg

11.05.06: Promotions aplenty for ECU-Marshall game ...
Ex-Tulsa great Largent gets humanitarian honor

11.04.06: Dougherty a semifinalist for Ray Guy Award ... Butch Davis deal with Tar Heels imminent? ... Cardinals talking national title, again ... Honors abound for ECU women's soccer team

11.03.06: Boise State rolls past Bulldogs ... Reale, Pirates earn seconds at Kitty Hawk ... ECU softball's Kozlowski promoted

11.02.06: Mustangs a win away from bowl eligibility ... Hunt, Icenhower lead East Carolina divers ... ECU's Moore earns academic honor with 4.0

11.01.06: Kragthorpe curtails Tar Heel speculation ... Pirates in C-USA women's soccer tourney ... Backup QB Lee to start for FSU against Cavs

Kevin Richardson ran for 179 yards and scored all four of Appalachian State's touchdowns as the Mountaineers defeated Massachusetts 28-17 Friday night to capture their second straight Division I-AA national championship.

The game, played in Chattanooga, TN, was tied 14-14 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, when Richardson's third touchdown gave the Mountaineers the lead for good. He added another touchdown with 1:51 left that gave him the I-AA record for rushing touchdowns in a season with 30.

A standing room only crowd of 22,808 — the largest for the I-AA title game since it moved to Chattanooga in 1997 — included a large turnout of Appalachian State fans. ASU is located in Boone, a Western North Carolina town within relatively convenient driving range of Chattanooga.

Georgia Southern was the last team to win back-to-back I-AA football titles, in 1999 and 2000.

The Mountaineers closed out the season 14-1, while the Minutemen finished 13-2. UMass won the national championship in 1998.

Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry has announced his retirement, ending over a quarter-century at the service academy.

DeBerry just completed his 23rd season as the head football coach and 27th overall at Air Force. DeBerry has guided the Falcons to 17 winning seasons since taking over in 1984. In three of those seasons, his team won conference championships.

Air Force won the Western Athletic Conference title in 1985 and again in 1995. In 1998, DeBerry steered the team to its first out-right title and a championship game win over Brigham Young. That 1998 team matched the school record with a 12-1 season while earning him his third coach of the year award.

The Cheraw, SC, native has done it all at Air Force. He is the winningest coach in school history with a 169-107-1 mark. He stands second in Mountain West Conference history in career wins with 100, trailing only close friend and former BYU coach LaVell Edwards. He has also beaten Notre Dame three times, including a 20-17 overtime thriller against the eighth-ranked Irish in South Bend in 1996.

DeBerry has dominated service academy football. In 1999, DeBerry became the winningest coach in service academy football history when AFA knocked off Washington in Seattle. He is 35-11 against Army and Navy in his career and has led the Academy to 14 of its 16 Commander-in-Chief's trophy titles.

DeBerry is a 1960 graduate of Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC, where he lettered in football and baseball. After six years of coaching and teaching in the South Carolina high school ranks, DeBerry returned to Wofford, where he stayed two years as an assistant football coach when the school won 21 consecutive games and was ranked No. 1 nationally.

It was during a nine-year stop at Appalachian State that his work with the option offense began to blossom. Appalachian State ranked in the top 10 nationally three times (1975, `78, `79) in rushing, total offense or scoring offense under DeBerry.

Former Air Force head coach Ken Hatfield hired DeBerry in 1980 as the quarterbacks coach at Air Force. DeBerry was promoted to offensive coordinator in 1981. When Hatfield left Air Force after the 1983 season, DeBerry became the school's fifth head coach.

The arrest this week of a teenager in Boston has drawn the interest of Miami-Dade homicide detectives investigating the shooting death of Miami football player Bryan Pata, according to The Boston Globe.

The newspaper reported this week that Jerome Brody, 19, was arrested by Boston police and is considered a ''person of interest'' in the slaying of a local gang leader.

Brody is the twin brother of Jada Brody, the live-in girlfriend of Pata, who was shot in the back of the head Nov. 7 outside his Kendall apartment. She discovered Pata's body and notified police.

The Boston Globe, relying on an unidentified law enforcement official, reported that Miami authorities want to speak with Brody about the killing because he believed his sister was being mistreated by Pata. Miami-Dade police on Thursday would not discuss whether anyone from the department was being sent to Boston to interview Brody.

Police pulled over Jerome Brody after he sped through a stop sign. They found two handguns and 10 rocks of crack cocaine, according to the Miami Herald.

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 electronic services and other sources. Copyright 2006 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.