Captain Kangaroo

Pittsburgh area.

Steve Swiech6-9 Jr. C Elizabeth ForwardNotable: Led the Warriors to first section title, averaging 26.8 points, 12.2 rebounds and 4.2 blocks a game before suffering a season-ending ankle injury in playoffs. Owns school records in career points (1,353), rebounds (687) and blocks (231). Akron and Duquesne have offered scholarships.

I'm all for CSU getting out of the crapper. When Akron, Can't and CSU were playng tournament-level ball in the late 80's it was a blast. McFadden vs. McLaughlin was an epic match up! We won't compete for players. either. CSU has their own niche, being a 100% downtown, 99% commuter school.I don't buy into the "we have football so we can't compete againt the Horizon league in hoops" statement that seems to be popular now a days. Our football program helps sell the basketball program. The exposure the University gained via last season, and via Charlie Frye and others is priceless. It is only going to grow.Overall, MAC schools will have to up their coaches salary level in all major sports. I do believe that's starting to cost us competitively. Does giving Dambrot $220K/yr vs. $125k/yr merit even the smallest discussion regarding abolishing football? No chance. Hell...there are scads of terrible basketball programs out there with no university football programs to use as their scape goat.

Gee, thanks. I didn't know. I really thought it was "Dean."

If OU overpays their crappy coaches, the remainder of the MAC shouldn't be held accountable. Based opon the "OU Scale," Dambrot shoud be making $600k per year and JD should be somewhere around $800k!

Nope. It's just the Beacon that sucks. Everyone knows it, so no use beginning a thread.

I agree, it is a different Brandon Anderson. If I recall correctly there was a Brandon Anderson recruited by Lee Owens in his last class. This must be him?Odd coincidence.

Cal U opens football drills By Brian HermanVALLEY INDEPENDENT SPORTS EDITORSaturday, April 1, 2006 CALIFORNIA - California University football coach John Luckhardt will start his fourth spring practice this morning at Adamson Stadium. And it's no secret what the biggest question he'll keep being asked as the Vulcans try to better last year's 8-2 showing including 5-1 in the PSAC West. It's who's going to replace two-time All-American running back Antoine Bagwell? "We don't have an answer," said Luckhardt. "We may never have a player as good as Bagwell." Bagwell was good enough to run for 1,588 yards and score 25 touchdowns last season and play in the Hula Bowl three months ago against predominantly Division I players. While runners like Bagwell don't come along very often, Luckhardt isn't ready to push the panic button. "We were trying to go hard to get guys in here for competition," noted Luckhardt. "Instead of one guy, we may go by committee to try to replace Antoine." The "committee" consists of two holdovers and four newcomers. The returnees are sophomore Brandon Lombardy, redshirt sophomore ReMaro Rush and redshirt freshman Stefan Brinson, who had to sit out the 2005 campaign after transferring from Pitt. The trio rate high with their coach. "Lombardy had a heck of an off-season, Brinson is solid and Rush is our waterbug with his quickness," said Luckhardt. "They'll start off at the top of the list." Staying there, however, may not be easy with Daine Williams, Wendell Brown and Brandon Anderson around. Williams transferred from Howard University after running for over 4,000 yards at Beaver Falls High while Brown, a Pitt transfer, had over 3,000 yards and 41 touchdowns at Duquesne High and Anderson, an Akron transfer who starred at Penn Hills High.

The new stadium will be a first class facility. What has Proenza done in the past 6 years that would make anyone think he's going to emulate anything related to K-ent football?I also don't want public opinion involved with the stadium design. Retards like Terry Pluto are clamoring for a 20,000 seat venue. That's a joke. Mack Roades is getting paid to do a job. I have 100% faith in him and Proenza that the stadium project will be 1st class all the way. My biggest fear: $500 parking fees to be in one of the handful of "exclusive" tailgate lots. I think a lot of us will miss the cost and flexibility of the Rubber Bowl lower lot once we upgrade to the new on-campus venue.

Wow...that's a H-U-G-E gun to jump.I saw her at the Cleveland airport two weeks ago. She was flying to Kansas to scout some JUCO players.

A quick search on gozips.com will locate all the recruits.

I voted Tuzze...I've never seen him play but I'm very interested to see him this spring.I used to love watching Rache Culler flatten people. Dan Basch, pre-injury, could knock some people down too. They also could get a yard when you needed it. I didn't see that power in McDaniel last season. Maybe he comes in to summer camp 20 pounds heavier and with a bad-ass attitude? I'm all for it if he does. If he really doesn't change much from 2005 to 2006 we will need an upgrade, and I'll take my chances with Tuzze. Or, Kiki Gonzales.

Glenn Mason used to coach K-ent. And, they have quite a few Ohio kids on their roster. I think Mason is helping out his former employer and also saying "Thank You" to some of his NE Ohio players by giving them a game near their home.

I did. I cancelled my subscription. That's the best I can do.I'm tired of bitching about the Beacon too. I realize it won't change. I have a Beacon sports section from 6 years ago. It was from Feb 2000's national signing day. HUGE story on some Charlie Frye kid. Huge story on Aaron Feller (OL). Big write up on the entire recruiting class, complete with nice photos. Also, the Zips played hoops that evening. Big picture of Marco Morgan ©. Very nice game write up. And, that was when the Zips weren't winning ANYTHING in hoops or football.Compare that to last month's atrocious signing day coverage. I'll never understand it...

Oh, I get it now. The Beacon can ignore The University of Akron Zips because they sell more papers covering Brady Quinn's sister's dates with AJ Hawk than who the starting Zips RB for 2006 is shaping up to be? It is funny that they can't do BOTH. The have to cover OSU's spring practices...but can't offer any insight regarding Akron's. Hey...as long as their making money hand-over-fist covering OSU, more power to them. I thought I heard something about the Beacon going broke a short while ago? I must have been mistaken...

High School Views: For Beaver Falls, Jeter was Mr. ClutchTuesday, March 28, 2006By Colin DunlapThe clock was winding down, the final few seconds were all that was left in the brilliant career of Beaver Falls senior guard Lance Jeter.For Jeter is a sort of paradox. He's nimble but bullishly strong. He's a great kid off the floor, but the kind of ferocious competitor on it that makes a person cringe at times. In fact, he finished his high school career as the 13th all-time leading scorer with 2,243 points.But most of all, he is unselfish, although when he needs to be, when his team calls for it, Jeter can be as selfish as a little bratty kid who hordes all the candy at Halloween.Against Quaker Valley in the PIAA Class AA semifinal last Wednesday, we saw all sides of Lance Jeter.And the constant that has been the calling card of this splendid young athlete shone through again.For it was Jeter who had the ball in his hands at the end of the game with the score knotted.It was Jeter -- the kid who has caused almost as much depression in Aliquippa as the closing of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation mills -- who seemingly has a homing device wherein the ball gravitates to him in waning moments of big games.But even I thought, sitting there on press row, that it was all coming to an end this time. Surely he couldn't do it again. Surely he's lived his nine lives and there was no way, no freaking way, he could do it again.As Jeter grabbed the ball, 90 feet from victory with the score tied at 70 with just under 10 seconds remaining, even I doubted him this time.I remember turning to the guy on my right and saying, "No way Jeter does it again."Just as the words finished leaving my lips, the echo of that whistle echoed through the building. Jeter was fouled; he would go to the line with 3.2 seconds left.As he launched the first one and it rimmed out, many in the gym -- particularly those Quaker Valley partisans -- had to be hoping for the second one to miss in much the same fashion.But anyone who has had even a passing interest in WPIAL basketball over the last few years knew this one was going to be true. Jeter doesn't come up short in big games, Jeter doesn't miss with the contest on the line.He could have airballed that first one and you just knew the second one was going to find the twine. This was Lance Jeter. He always comes through!Sure enough, the second attempt was pure and it was pure Jeter. It was the game-winner, the bail-out points for a team that, frankly, probably still shouldn't have even be playing.So often we look at size, we look at 40-yard dash times, we look at how much a kid can bench press .Those aren't the telling numbers .Time and again, Lance Jeter has proven that, no matter what happens throughout the course of a basketball game, it truly is what a player does at the end that makes the indelible mark.It is what he does, when faced with adversity and is asked to carry his team that is the litmus test for what kind of athlete he truly is.Unfortunately for him and Beaver Falls, a similar scenario didn't develop in the PIAA Class AA championship game Saturday against Philadelphia Prep Charter. Despite a heroic first-half effort in which Jeter scored 18 points and staked the Tigers to a 29-27 halftime lead, he couldn't prevent the inevitable.Using its superior size and athletic ability, Prep Charter routed Beaver Falls in the second half, outscoring Jeter and Company, 55-22, to win going away, 82-51. Prep Charter held Jeter to just five second-half points.But that doesn't matter. To me, Lance Jeter is, undeniably and unequivocally the greatest late-game player in WPIAL history.

High School Views: For Beaver Falls, Jeter was Mr. ClutchTuesday, March 28, 2006By Colin DunlapThe clock was winding down, the final few seconds were all that was left in the brilliant career of Beaver Falls senior guard Lance Jeter.For Jeter is a sort of paradox. He's nimble but bullishly strong. He's a great kid off the floor, but the kind of ferocious competitor on it that makes a person cringe at times. In fact, he finished his high school career as the 13th all-time leading scorer with 2,243 points.But most of all, he is unselfish, although when he needs to be, when his team calls for it, Jeter can be as selfish as a little bratty kid who hordes all the candy at Halloween.Against Quaker Valley in the PIAA Class AA semifinal last Wednesday, we saw all sides of Lance Jeter.And the constant that has been the calling card of this splendid young athlete shone through again.For it was Jeter who had the ball in his hands at the end of the game with the score knotted.It was Jeter -- the kid who has caused almost as much depression in Aliquippa as the closing of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation mills -- who seemingly has a homing device wherein the ball gravitates to him in waning moments of big games.But even I thought, sitting there on press row, that it was all coming to an end this time. Surely he couldn't do it again. Surely he's lived his nine lives and there was no way, no freaking way, he could do it again.As Jeter grabbed the ball, 90 feet from victory with the score tied at 70 with just under 10 seconds remaining, even I doubted him this time.I remember turning to the guy on my right and saying, "No way Jeter does it again."Just as the words finished leaving my lips, the echo of that whistle echoed through the building. Jeter was fouled; he would go to the line with 3.2 seconds left.As he launched the first one and it rimmed out, many in the gym -- particularly those Quaker Valley partisans -- had to be hoping for the second one to miss in much the same fashion.But anyone who has had even a passing interest in WPIAL basketball over the last few years knew this one was going to be true. Jeter doesn't come up short in big games, Jeter doesn't miss with the contest on the line.He could have airballed that first one and you just knew the second one was going to find the twine. This was Lance Jeter. He always comes through!Sure enough, the second attempt was pure and it was pure Jeter. It was the game-winner, the bail-out points for a team that, frankly, probably still shouldn't have even be playing.So often we look at size, we look at 40-yard dash times, we look at how much a kid can bench press .Those aren't the telling numbers .Time and again, Lance Jeter has proven that, no matter what happens throughout the course of a basketball game, it truly is what a player does at the end that makes the indelible mark.It is what he does, when faced with adversity and is asked to carry his team that is the litmus test for what kind of athlete he truly is.Unfortunately for him and Beaver Falls, a similar scenario didn't develop in the PIAA Class AA championship game Saturday against Philadelphia Prep Charter. Despite a heroic first-half effort in which Jeter scored 18 points and staked the Tigers to a 29-27 halftime lead, he couldn't prevent the inevitable.Using its superior size and athletic ability, Prep Charter routed Beaver Falls in the second half, outscoring Jeter and Company, 55-22, to win going away, 82-51. Prep Charter held Jeter to just five second-half points.But that doesn't matter. To me, Lance Jeter is, undeniably and unequivocally the greatest late-game player in WPIAL history.

Hand-in-hand By Bill Beckner Jr.VALLEY NEWS DISPATCHFriday, March 24, 2006Valley junior Toney Clemons already has four scholarship offers for football.Pitt, Mississippi, Akron and Connecticut have all courted Clemons, a wide receiver/defensive back, who has delicate hands and blazing speed.But Clemons doesn't think he'd be drawing nearly as much attention if it wasn't for track."Like coach (George) Webb says, track is a warm-up for football," said Clemons, who is the defending champion in the WPIAL Class AA long jump. "Track's always been my first sport, but football is my first love. But the two go hand-in-hand. You need one to be conditioned for the other."Track and field season opens today in the WPIAL, and Clemons heads a strong list of Alle-Kiski Valley athletes to watch. He is the only returning local athlete to win a WPIAL boys gold medal last season.Clemons, who said he may try to run track and play football in college, will compete in four events -- the long jump, 110-meter hurdles, 4x100-meter relay and either the 100- or 200-meter dashes -- "Wherever coach needs me to get us points," Clemons said.It could be another exciting ride for the Burrell boys team, which enters the season as the defending WPIAL Class AA champions.

Latest on Jeter:Now that Lance Jeter has qualified for freshman eligibility, the Beaver Falls' two-sport star is receiving interest from Akron, Detroit, George Mason, Marquette and Purdue for basketball and Cincinnati for football.The 6-foot-3, 200-pound all-state receiver, who was selected for the Big 33 Football Classic and is gaining Division I football interest, said he is leaning toward playing basketball in college."If that's the best opportunity to come around, that's what I'm going to do," Jeter said Thursday. "A lot more schools have come to see me since I qualified. It feels good to have that off my shoulders. Now, I can relax and worry about leading my team to a championship."

Are you serious? Since when does the school newspaper's coverage have ANYTHING to do with the Beacon's?Off the top of my head I can come up with 10 questions to ask regarding Zips Spring football, the answers of which 98% of the people on this board would find highly interesting. There are a lot of stories out there is if anyone was smart enough to realize it.The Zips are the reigning MAC champs. They brought 15,000 fans to Detroit. They've had the #1 ranked recruiting class in the MAC for two consecutive seasons. They're 3 blocks away from campus. Yet the Beacon focuses on OSU. I could care less if Brady Quinn's sister has half her panties with the ND logo and the other half with OSU's. I care about AKRON football. The Beacon and I don't care about the same things.

Since we're on the topic of the Feminization of the American Male...anyone seen Joakim Noah? My son doesn't believe me when I tell him Noah's male. You make the callWhich is Noah, and which is Monica Seles?Everyone's talking about Noah leaving early for the NBA. I say he's a sock-stuffed B-cup away from being a member of the WNBA's Charlotte Sting next season. Give him this jersey and no one would be the wiser!

What a slap in the face to the PD! The Beacon is The Plain Dealer NA(No Akron)

Like Boise State?BG will get killed in the Wisconsin game, just as they did vs. Boise last season. Take it to the bank. Whatever Urban Meyer had going on there a few years back has effectively eroded.

From a dominant, legit Top 25 team to a mess. Omar Jacobs essentially quits in mid-year 2005 to protect himself for the 2006 NFL draft, costing his team a possible NCAA bowl bid (this is debatable, since BG's defense couldn't stop Mineral Ridge High School in 2005...but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt).Thin at QB for 2006, we learn today:"BG quarterback Anthony Turner was arrested early Saturday morning for possession of Marijuana. He appeared with his attorney on Monday and is scheduled to appear in court again on April 3rd. He has been charged with drug abuse. Along with Turner, was defensive back Ryan Patrick. He was also arrested and charged with drug abuse. He appeared with his attorney on Monday and is scheduled to appear again on April 5th."BG opens the season in Cleveland vs. Wisconsin. I'm sure when that game was scheduled they figured to have a top 25 team with an NFL 1st rounder at QB. Now they're going to have a big freaking mess on display for all of Ohio to see. Will anyone pay to watch that slaughter? Wisconsin can only travel 65 players, so there's no 4th string they can even put in once things get ugly. I'm guessing 49-0 at the half. BG will know on September 2nd what Temple, Buffalo and Can't feel like every week. And...only 2 seasons ago...BG was arguably the most promising program in the MAC.