South Alabama Set To Add Four To USA Hall of Fame
Four former Jags are set to be inducted into the South Alabama Athletics Hall of Fame. Three of them are former All-Americans and another is a nationally ranked women’s tennis player.
Former Jaguar baseball players P.J. Walters and Juan Pierre, former men’s tennis player František Babej and Cindy Summers will be the four added to the 57 former players who are currently in the South Alabama Athletics Hall of Fame.
The first weekend in November will be the school’s Hall of Fame weekend with a formal ceremony on Saturday, November 3 at 10 a.m. at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center on campus. They will then be recognized at Ladd-Peebles Stadium during halftime of the Jaguars game versus Florida International.
P.J. Walters lettered for the Jaguars from 2004-2006 and earned Freshman All-American accolades from Collegiate Baseball his first season with the Jags after posting a 10-1 records with 119 strikeouts in 117 innings. As a junior, Collegiate Baseball named Walters a second-team All-America while Baseball America named him a third-team honoree. He led the Sun Belt with 166 strikeouts, which was the second highest total in school history, as he earned an 11-3 mark. Walters owns the career record with 404 strikeouts and 410.1 innings pitched. He is also second all-time with 31 wins.
Juan Pierre’s only season as a Jaguar saw him lead the Sun Belt with 95 hits, 77 runs and 54 stolen bases and earning conference player-of-the-year and being named first-team all-league. The 54 stolen bases ranked 5th nationally. American Baseball Coaches Association named him to the second-team All-American team and was also named to the third team All-America team by both Collegiate Baseball and the National College Baseball Writers Association. The Jags won the regular-season title with a 42-19 overall record and went 2-2 at the NCAA South I Regional. Both losses were by one run to eventual National Champion USC.
Babej lettered for the Jags in 2004 and 2005 while earning All-America honors in singles from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association both of those seasons. In his first season with the Jags, Babej became the first Jaguar player to ever reach the semifinals of the NCAA Championships. He ended the season ranked 17th in the country in singles and 49th in doubles in 2003-2004. He would end his senior season ranked 16th in the final rankings after winning his first two NCAA singles matches. He would end his senior year with a 32-3 record with a 26-match winning streak.
Summers earned numerous Sun Belt Conference honors during her time as a Jaguar. She lead the Lady Jags to four consecutive league championships from 1994-1997. She was also included in the Sun Belt Conference 30th Anniversary All-Time Women’s Tennis Team. She was selected the MVP of the conference championships in both 1996 and 1997 while earning all-league honors in singles three times and doubles on three occasions as well. In 1996 she would finish ranked 34th nationally in singles and 40th in doubles. At the end of her senior year she was ranked 57th nationally in doubles and 65th nationally in singles.
Sports Round-Up For 2009-05-14
Football
Football keeps getting closer. With 113 days until kickoff of the first season in South Alabama history another small, yet historic mark creeps up upon us. Season ticket holders will begin choosing their seats at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Tuesday, May 19th. This process begins for 4,500 individuals who have already made the commitment for the 2009 season. The USA Ticket Sales Office is recommending that all season ticket holders select their seats over the phone. It can be done in person, however individuals who come to campus may experience a delay in choosing their location.
Baseball
Men’s Baseball has dropped their last four games, all at home. They dropped three over the weekend to FIU with scores of 1-9, 15-21 and 7-8. Then on Tuesday night they lost to Southern Miss at Stanky field, 5-7.
Starting tonight, the Jaguars, 11-15 in the SBC, have a three game home series against in state rival Troy to round out the regular season. These three games are crucial for the Jags because if they get swept then the Jags may not make it into the Sun Belt Conference Championship tournament in Troy.
So come out and help the Jags win some crucial games.
Softball
Unfortunately the Jaguars softball team were knocked out of the SBC tournament last week in Denton, Texas. The Jags beat #3 WKU in the first round but fell to #7 FAU in the second round to fall into the losers bracket where they lost the rematch with #3 WKU to be eliminated from the tournament. #1 seeded ULL lost their first round matchup with #8 ULM but ground out five consecutive wins to win the SBC Championship title.
USA Junior Beth Pilgrim became the first South Alabama softball player to be named to the Sun Belt Conference All-Tournament team for her performance at the SBC Championship last week. This is her third conference honor this year. She was previously named Pitcher of the Week on April 6th and second-team All-Conference on May 5th.
Basketball
Coach Arrow added two names to the list this week. USA announced Rob Phillips signed a national letter of intent to play at USA. He is a 6’2″ shooting guard who is currently attending Charis Prep School in Goldsboro, N.C. He averaged 23.1 points per game, 56.9% from 3-point range and 92% from the free throw line for Charis.
Also P.J. Reyes signed a National Letter-of-Intent to play for USA. Reyes is a 6’4″ wing from Lamar Community College in Lamar, CO. He will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. He started 33 games and averaged 20.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game while shooting 47%.
Tennis
As reported yesterday, the Men’s Tennis program was hit with the news that they were found guilty of major infractions on Tuesday by the NCAA.
The violations as stated by the NCAA include unethical conduct by the former head coach Scott Novak, the University’s failure to monitor, impermissible financial aid and loans, improper student-athlete certification and an impermissible decrease in athletic scholarships.
The penalties include placing the program on probation for three years, including a postseason ban in 2010, the loss of scholarships and the forfeiture of past wins and championships. The number of scholarships have been reduced from 4.5 to 2.72 per year through 2011. The full write-up about this can be found here.
Men’s Tennis Program Found Guilty Of Major NCAA Rules Violations
The University of South Alabama Men’s Tennis program was found guilty on Tuesday of major NCAA violations. The announcement at 2pm yesterday by the NCAA said that they have placed the program on probation for three years, including a postseason ban in 2010, the loss of scholarships and the forfeiture of past wins and championships. With the loss of scholarships, USA will only have 2.72 scholarships per year to offer through 2011 rather than the normal 4.5 per year.
The violations as stated by the NCAA include unethical conduct by the former head coach Scott Novak, the University’s failure to monitor, impermissible financial aid and loans, improper student-athlete certification and an impermissible decrease in athletic scholarships.
Also in the letter from the NCAA, the penalties included permanent disassociation of the former head coach Scott Novak and a four year show-cause order for the former head coach. Under the show-cause order, should the former head coach seek athletic related employment with any NCAA institution, he and his hiring institution must appear before the NCAA Committee on Infrations to determine whether his duties should be limited at the new institution for a designated period of time.
USA is considered a repeat violator since it appeared before the committee in 2001 for violations in the Men’s Basketball program. Since the University had a previous major violations case within five years of this violation, it was eligible to receive harsher penalties and as a result USA received the 2010 Men’s Tennis team postseason ban.
The violation stemmed from the former head coach providing more than $12,000 in impermissible financial aid to five international Men’s Tennis student-athletes over six years. Also on various occasions either before or during their enrollment, the former head coach promised four of the men more financial aid that he was able to award.
These four athletes believed they had received a full scholarship based on the representations made to them by this former head coach. In order to make up the difference, the former head coach either provided them with cash or made payments on their student accounts at the University and thus exceeded its financial aid limits for Men’s Tennis from 2000-2001 through the 2004-2005 academic years.
Additionally, this former head coach provided $3,000 cash to one of these students to allow him to obtain an international visa.
The former coach refused to furnish the NCAA enforcement staff with information relevant to the investigation and declined the enforcement staff’s interview requests on eight different occasions over about six months.
The University impermissibly decreased the financial aid of a Men’s Tennis student-athlete. The student was awarded a 71 percent scholarship for the 2004-2005 academic year, 35 percent of which was administered during the 2004 fall semester. Prior to the start of the spring semester, the University terminated the student’s scholarship for the remainder of the academic year and failed to notify the student of the opportunity for a hearing to contest the reduction.
Based on the violations, it was found that the University failed to monitor the conduct and administration of the Men’s Tennis program and further, the University failed to monitor certain aspects of its athletics program with regard to international student-athletes. This included the administration of financial aid award notification and failure to properly certify the amateurism of 27 student-athletes in 10 sports.
This is a tough hit by the NCAA and as Athletic Director Joe Gottfried said, its an embarrassment for the school. Gottfried further stated, “The penalties were pretty much what we expected or self-imposed. We have taken the proper steps to make sure that this will not happen again. It’s obvious that it sets our men’s tennis program back. There were many people that helped build this tennis program and we’ll get through this. We’ve got an outstanding coach now in Nick Brochu and we can get back to the level we were before these infractions took place.”
The whole athletic department had better stand a distance away from the line that is the NCAA rules because another investigation into majors rules violations would definitely not end well for the University.