Thomas Nelson CC Launches Athletic Program with Baseball SIgnings

With a dozen strokes of the pen, the Thomas Nelson athletic program was formally launched last Friday, as twelve (of 14) baseball players signed their letter-of-intent to play for the Gators during the upcoming 2015-16 fall and spring seasons.
The Espada Room at TNCC before Friday's letter-of-intent
signing event

The ceremony, held in the Espana Room of Moore Hall, marked the first time since its opening in 1967 that Thomas Nelson held an event to introduce a new class of student-athletes.

“Today really is a special day for Thomas Nelson Community College,” noted Dr. Daniel Lufkin, vice-president for student affairs. “Many years from now, you will be able to say that I was in the pioneering class that started student athletics at TNCC.”

However, Dr. Lufkin also reminded the student-athletes of the responsibility that comes with their new commitment.

“As student-athletes, you will be held to a higher standard. You are setting the standard of Thomas Nelson athletes for years to come, at the local and national levels.”

One by one, Perry Woods, public address announcer for the Apprentice School and baseball’s Peninsula Pilots, introduced each athlete. As the player reached the front, he was directed to a table where he signed a letter-of-intent and was given a TNCC pen, as well as a Gator baseball cap. After the signings, coach Chad Smith presented a brief slideshow, which featured all 14 signees.

For many of the new Gator players, just having the opportunity to continue playing a game they love was the reason they signed on with Thomas Nelson.

“It’s awesome! I’m excited,” exclaimed Dylan Bartells, a Grafton HS graduate of 2013 who waited two years for the opportunity to play organized baseball again.

“I’m excited that I’ll be able to go to school and still play,” said Michael Ivers, a 2015 graduate of Deep Creek HS, who will be playing third base for the Gators. Former high school teammate Corey Barker agreed.

“I love playing baseball. I thought that my career might be over. But, Coach Smith came to see us at the (VHSL) regional tournament and asked if I wanted to play for Thomas Nelson. I was sure he was kidding because I thought, they don’t have a team.”

With Friday’s signings, and the addition of several players from last year’s club squad, now they do.

2015-16 Student-Athlete Baseball Recruits

Angel Colon – Green Run HS (’14)
Brett Hogge – Mathews HS (’15)
Chris Phillips – Summit Christian Academy (’15)
Christian Rivera – Hampton Roads Academy (’15)
Corey Barker – Deep Creek HS (’15)
Devin Williams – Smithfield HS (’15)
Dylan Bartells – Grafton HS (’13)
Glen Warren – Bethel HS (’15)
Kristin Hurst – Phoebus HS (’15)
Michael Ivers – Deep Creek HS (’15)
Robbie Edwards – Kecoughtan HS (’15)
Taylor Woolard – Lancaster HS (’15)
Travis Hargrave – Bethel HS (’15)
Willie Fernald – Mathews HS (’15)



Thomas Nelson to Enter NJCAA in 2015-2016, Hosting Signing Day Ceremony Aug. 14

(From official press release)

HAMPTON, Va. -- With the inclusion of baseball, Thomas Nelson Community College will take its first steps into National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) competition in spring 2016.
Coached by Chad Smith, the Thomas Nelson CC Gators
baseball squad will begin play in the National Junior
College Athletic Association (NJCAA) next spring.
Coached by Chad Smith, the Thomas Nelson Gators have operated as a club baseball team to date, but will move to the NJCAA’s Region 10, Division III next year.  Acknowledging its new NJCAA membership, the College will host Signing Day Ceremony on Friday, Aug. 14 at 2 p.m. in  Moore Hall’s Espada  Room at the Hampton campus.    
Smith said the Gators will welcome 12 new players to the squad.  The recruit class includes athletes from Hampton, Chesapeake and Mathews.
He said the upcoming season promises to be highly competitive. The team has a tentative 34-game schedule in place, followed by the Region X Tournament, which will take place May 14-15 at Dan Daniel Park in Danville, Va.   In its home opener on Feb. 27, the team faces Maryland’s Montgomery College at Heritage High School in Newport News, Va.  Other opponents include Southside Virginia Community College, Maryland’s Prince Georges Community College and the Apprentice School.
Region 10 opponents will include Rockingham and Danville community colleges.  The winner of the Region X tournament will compete against the champion from Region 20 to determine a single District D champion, which will compete in the NJCAA World Series.
Smith said Thomas Nelson’s transition to the NJCAA is a great benefit as it raises the College’s profile as well as that of student athletes.  The NJCAA recently made national news as 10 of its former baseball players, including Albert Pujois (MCC-Maple Woods-Missouri) and Bryce Harper (Southern Nevada) participated in the 86th MLB All-Star Game in Cincinnati.
For more information about the Aug. 14 Signing Day event or to RSVP, contact Smith at 757-825-2887.


Lolo Jones' Comment About Ronda Rousey Almost Backfires..Should She Be Surprised?

For some strange reason, I got a kick out of this one.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/page/instantawesome-LoloJonesRondaRousey-150803/lolo-jones-joked-last-least-minute-ronda-rousey


It started out innocently enough. After watching Ronda Rousey destroy her latest opponent in 34  seconds, hurdler Lolo Jones took to her Twitter to post the following:


How much are these chicks paid to get knocked out in seconds? I cant fight but I'll prolong it and run circles for least a minute
Lolo Jones (top) said that she could possibly last a minute in the
Octagon against undefeated UFC women's bantamweight champ
Ronda Rousey. While the comment was made as a joke, Jones
caught a tidal wave of cyberheat for the comment. Was it deserved?



Don't Want to Earn a GED? Consider the Career Readiness Certificate

            Maintaining a balance between learning and working, the WorkKeys and Career Readiness Certificate (CRC) programs have been used as a means of helping students obtain the core learning and skills needed to obtain meaningful employment in a career field. American College Testing (ACT), best known for giving a college entrance exam, oversees the program.

               According to its website, WorkKeys is a job skills assessment system that helps employers select, hire, train, develop, and retain a high-performance workforce. Their series of tests measures foundational and soft skills and offers specialized assessments to target institutional needs. (ACT website, 2015) It is used in community colleges, career centers, as well as in the Department of Corrections as part of its adult education program. Locally, Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton, Virginia is one of the schools that offer this program.


But ACT has expanded far beyond the scope of simply testing pre-college students. As part of 

ACT's Work Readiness System, the ACT WorkKeys program has helped millions of people in high 

schools, colleges, professional associations, businesses, and government agencies build their skills to 

increase global competitiveness and develop successful career pathways. Completing the ACT 

WorkKeys assessments in Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information 

can lead to earning ACT's National Career Readiness Certificate (ACT NCRC), a credential earned 

by over 2.3 million people to date, across the United States. Students may earn a platinum, gold, 

silver or bronze certificate, which can be taken to a future employer to prove work readiness. 

DeeDee Trotter & Running 4 The People to Host Gifted Locks Relay on 9/26

Deedee Trotter was part of the gold
medal winning women's 1600-meter
relay at the 2012 London Olympics.
Since then, her pursuits have expanded.
My friend, and Olympic track gold medalist, Deedee Trotter has been busily working on her off-track pursuits. When I interviewed her two years ago, she took great pride in talking about the work she had put into forming a non-profit of her own, including filling out the proper forms and developing a business plan. In fact, the advice I received from my editor at TrackSide magazine was simply - "Ask her about her nonprofit?" Forty-five minutes later, I had a story, without even reaching question two on my sheet.

Suffice it to say, Deedee is passionate about her endeavors. Here's an event that will promote her newest organization "Running 4 The People." Her event will entail.... well, here's a note from Deedee to tell you more about it!

"As you may or may not know, I have been working tirelessly on and off the track to create an organization that sets out to make an impact in the lives of people in need. Now it is time to see if all I've been working towards will be everything I dreamed it to be! 

My new nonprofit organization "Running 4 The People" will be hosting its first event in Atlanta, GA on September 26, 2015. It is an encouraging and uplifting cancer benefit entitled "Gifted Locks Relay"! This event will be donating 50 custom made hair pieces to 50 women who have lost their hair to cancer treatments, and will also include a day dedicated to showering these brave women with support, love and encouragement. 


I would like to ask you to be one of our 50 for $50 sponsors or your consideration to contribute towards one of our other sponsorship options! I also wanted to see if you would be interested in helping to bring awareness to our event by doing an interview or story on us! Your sponsorship and involvement will be a great help towards making a difference in the lives of 50 amazing women and will also assist us in the battle against cancer. Please see the attached sponsorship kit and event info or you can simply visit our event web page at  www.running4thepeople.org/events "




An Unwise Man Looks at Turning 50


Oh no!! Goodbye 40's -- Hello AARP!!!
So here I am -- sitting in my correctional center classroom at 6:35 in the morning, planning what will be the last day that I spend as someone in his 40’s. And it is a bit nerve wracking, but gives great reason to take pause for a few minutes.

Here’s what is scariest. Like many people, when I turned 40, there was a feeling that perhaps my life was now half over. At 50, that fraction has jumped to 2/3. How did that happen in a decade that felt like it took three years to finish?

As I look back on my first half-century, it is hard not to notice the ironic twists that have made up my life so far.

Here’s a good example. My wife Elizabeth and I have been married for almost 12 years. It’s a well-known fact that we don’t have any children, as measured by the endless number of times I am asked, “Don’t you wish you had kids?”

Selfie taken today - the last day
of my 40's. At least I learned how
to take a selfie during this decade!
I have an answer. We’re both teachers. For the purpose of my personal argument, I started scribbling numbers last night. Between coaching cross-country and track (at five different schools) for 17 years, I estimated that there have been about 800 young athletes who have called me “Coach.” Granted, some of these “youngsters” are now well into their 40’s! As far as teaching for 12-13 years, among the middle school, high school, alternative, college and current correctional classes under my watch, the number of students probably exceeds 2,500. Heck, during my nine years at Centura College, I got new students every five weeks, and had as many as 160 at a time. Adding on the students that I have tutored, or administered SOL tests to at home, or any other variation of educational experiences, my sum total comes up to almost 3,500 young men and women under my guidance. Do I still miss not having kids????  

Sometimes, but not often.

But under the title of teacher or coach is only one way that people have known me. For most of my teenage years, I was “that runner.” The persona in my 20’s was probably “that guy that works at the Post Office.” In my early thirties, I was probably more of “that guy that sings,” late 30’s – “that real estate agent.” Even now, there are a few people that think of me as “that sports writer.” I’m very thankful for the last one.

The funny moments in life come when my colleagues from one generation become aware of the other “Jims” that exist. For example, I lived in Alexandria, VA from birth (obviously 1965) to 2003 and many people there have no idea that I started writing and have about 400 bylines, this blog, and the co-author title on a book. By contrast, many people in the Newport News/Tidewater area don’t know that I ran cross-country and track in high school and college (Division I, even!). I don’t blame them. I weigh about 207 now, roughly 60 pounds over my old “fighting” weight.

Looking back, there have also been some awkwardly memorable moments. Here are some quick ones. Back in 1989, I was listening to Sam Kinison on the Howard Stern radio show. Stern had just expanded his show back to the Washington, D.C. area, and I was an avid listener, especially since my job at the Merrifield P.O. ended at 6:30 AM. On one eventful morning, Kinison showed up to the show BOMBED!! Just “Light ‘em up” drunk! Since we had a fax machine in the house (home business), I sent a fax to the N.Y. studio of WXRK-FM and wrote that “I’m getting drunk just listening to Sam!” It was fairly true, and sure enough, five minutes later, Robin Quivers read the fax over the air. Kinison was beside himself.

"(Andrew) ”Dice” Clay sent that!! That was Dice!! OH!! OH!! OH-H-H-H!!!!"

It was a noteworthy enough event to garner inclusion into Stern’s “Private Parts” book. Look it up – I forget the page number, but it’s there.

Three years before that, at a business leadership seminar at New York University, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting former President Gerald Ford during the 1 PM hour, then the distinction of getting CBS News’ veteran journalist Mike Wallace in an argument with one of Wall Street’s most famous lawyers, Marshall Manley, because of something I asked during a Q&A two hours later. Perhaps the other significant event of this day was being followed to the bathroom by three Secret Service agents during lunch (Ford was speaking).

For the record, the question had to do with Janet Cooke of the Washington Post winning a Pulitzer Prize from a fabricated story. Manley didn’t think the journalism question was appropriate for the forum, and Wallace did. They verbally sparred for a couple of minutes over it.

I’ll end with a third, and it gets back to running. After my 1982 cross-country season with Wagner College, we finally arrived at the end of the season, and the chance to stay out real late and party on a Friday night because, for once, we weren’t going to have a Saturday meet. Given my penchant for keeping the saloon owners of Staten Island open as late as possible, I burned all of my midnight oil, and staggered back to my room from Brandy’s Place around 3 AM, totally unaware that four hours later, there would be an intrusive knock on the door.

“JIM!!!!,” yelled the voice through my dormitory barrier. “Get up! We need a fifth man!” The open Metropolitan Championships were going to be held that day at the fabled Van Cortlandt Park, and in spite of my intention not to run in this “optional” meet, I was now about to be kicked into play. To add insult to injury, this race would be a 10K (6.2 miles), as opposed to the regular five-mile college races.

There was a large gathering at the starting line, but I stumbled to a spot in the second row center. And why not? If I was going to go down in flames, I was going to go LARGE! As we readied to start, an old man on a megaphone began to make an announcement.

“We are honored and pleased to have one of the all-time greatest distance runners with us today. He was a standout at Villanova, and in his career has distinguished himself as one of our great milers. I would like to introduce the current world record holder in the mile.. EAMONN COGHLAN!!”

In 1982, Eamonn Coghlan, of Ireland, was the only runner in history to have broken the 3:50 mile indoors. I watched his races with admiration and awe, jumping up and down in my parents' kitchen when he broke the world indoor record. He was my running hero.

Feverishly, I looked around to see where Coghlan was. Nothing on the left, and nothing on the right. So it was surprising when I noticed that the runner two feet in front of me started waving to the crowd. In a moment of surrealism, I shook my hero’s hand, wished him luck, and waited for the gun to go off.

Our harrier duel was a short one. I managed to stay with Coghlan for about 100-meters, but ended up losing by about five minutes! In fairness, he beat everyone by well over a minute. Hell, I was just happy to place about 55th out of over 400 runners considering the condition that my condition was in.


Fortunately, it has been events like this that made me want to sit down and write about them. So, as I turn 50 tomorrow, I can finally, finally say that I know what I want to be when I grow up!! And, if you have made it this far, thank you for allowing me to indulge! CHEERS!