Posted on November 23rd, 2013
By HOWARD MANN
Coach Shaun Kupferberg’s initial season at Howard got off to a bad start and got worse. Match after match and week after week, his volleyball team ended on the wrong side of the score. The Lady Bison lost their first 22 matches before finally cracking the win column in their next-to-last contest.
The season finale left them with a 1-23 record. But they went from one win to 21 this year, one of the biggest NCAA turnarounds in two decades.
Believe it or not, the foundation was laid last year. Progress was imperceptible from the outside, but “Coach Kup” saw steady improvement.
“Every single week we got better,” he said, basing his assessment on in-depth analysis of wonkish statistics that don’t show up in box scores. “They put in a lot of work and showed what kind of focus they had as players. To keep that focus while losing that many matches was impressive on their part.”
The Bison fell last week in the MEAC tournament semifinals – their deepest run since 2004 – to finish at 21-11. It marked the team’s best season since 1995 and showed how far the Bison have come since Kupferberg was named coach in July 2012.
Best of all, much of the success was achieved through holdovers. MEAC Rookie of the Year Katherine Broussard obviously stood out among Kupferberg’s initial recruiting class – the conference’s first-ever to earn national recognition – but four of the seven top players suffered through the 1-23 carnage last year.
“When we met some of the recruits he had coming in, we knew we had to start working in the spring,” junior setter Stephanie Shultis said. “We knew they were going to be really good. We just improved a lot from last season, working out and practicing together.”
One newcomer, junior libero Allyson Lods, transferred from Antelope Valley College (Lancaster, Calif.). She was sold after looking at Kupferberg’s track record in stints at Jacksonville University, Northwest University and Miami (Ohio) University.
“He talked to me about (Howard’s program) and explained the changes that were going to be made,” said Lods, a second-team all-MEAC performer. “You could tell he had a lot of experience building teams. When he takes over programs he does really well.”
Kupferberg was upfront when he interviewed for the job, telling officials that wins would be infrequent in his first year. But he believes Howard is a great institution and building a winning program shouldn’t be tough “because of the name and the quality of education,” he said. “I thought it was possible to turn it around quickly.”
The biggest challenge was changing the culture from one where losing was OK and expected, to one where contending for conference championships was the standard. Perhaps his biggest thrill this year was watching players who were sick and tired of losing during 1-23, having a chance to celebrate and enjoy the game again.
“The whole chemistry was different this year,” said junior middle blocker Assata Conway, who like Broussard and Shultis was named to the all-MEAC first team. “Last year we were more like playing because we had to, not because we wanted to. Winning does make everything a lot better.”
And there’s no need to worry about complacency, either, not with talented reserves pushing the starters… while both groups keep watch for the next wave of recruits.
Kupferberg doesn’t believe in guaranteed spots, whether you’re a highly-touted freshman or a returning all-conference player. One of the latter at Northwest was beat out by a freshman during spring practice. The all-conference player tried another position and won the same accolades at that spot, too.
“My job is to bring in the best possible talent,” he said. “The players job is to learn and compete. Everybody gets a ring. I keep friendships and my personal feelings for players separate from the competitive aspects of the program. Practices are intense and focus is intense and everyone knows they have a shot. No one is brought in here to sit the bench.”
But everyone has to hit the books. Six Bison were named to MEAC’s all-Academic team, including Conway and Shultis. A Howard education is one of Kupferberg’s biggest selling points. “I tell recruits they’re not going to be playing volleyball in 20 years,” he said. “They’ll need a good degree from a good place and a good education. They can have athletics and academics here.”
Kupferberg didn’t have any hesitation about taking the job. “Not really,” he said. “It is a little underfunded compared to other schools, so funding was probably the only reservation. I don’t have any paid assistants or anything like every other school in the conference. But it’s that whole ‘Hoosiers’ mentality where you deal with the players on the floor and you compete.”
It helps to have someone like Broussard, an outside hitter and three-time all-America in high school who won Louisiana’s Player of the Year as a senior. Kupferberg called her “a rock.”
“I definitely wasn’t expecting all of the awards,” said Broussard, who won MEAC Rookie of the Week accolades five times. “I also wasn’t expecting such a winning season, going from 1 to 21. That was a big surprise. But we all worked hard during preseason and throughout the season to get better.”
It actually started during 1-23.
But who’s counting?
Posted on November 10th, 2013
By HOWARD MANN
UPPER MARLBORO, Md – ESPN journalist Chris Broussard was battle tested earlier this year when his comments on homosexuality caused a firestorm of controversy, sparking calls for his firing. That was just one example of what Broussard sees as the impending persecution of Christians unless the country experiences a spiritual revival.
“People who follow Jesus Christ and believe in the Bible are going to be tested like never before,” Broussard told attendees at the 15th annual Mighty Men of Valor National Men’s Conference. “America is becoming increasingly hostile to Christians.”
He cited examples of 10-year-old girl who was rebuked by her teacher for writing a school paper on God; a teenager who got in trouble for dressing as Jesus Christ for Halloween; and the cancellation of Donnie McClurkin’s scheduled performance at a March on Washington concert due to his personal testimony on deliverance from homosexuality.
Broussard said with so many ills affecting society, the body of Christ needs to be an alternative. “When the world sees our light shining, they should say ‘I want to get some of that,’” he said. ‘I need to get that power to have healthy marriages, good relationships with my children and walk in sexual purity.’ That’s our battle. For us to do those things we have to be get sharpened.”
He outlined three arenas for battle:
1) Ourselves. To win this fight we have to remember what happened when we got saved and realize it was no small thing. It was a powerful, phenomenal, mind-blowing, life-altering, family-generation-changing occurrence. We are no longer slaves to sin.
2) Society. The world will try to make you buckle and give up your beliefs. They don’t care if you go to church, say you believe in Jesus or carry a big Bible. They just don’t want you to really walk like Jesus because they don’t want the anointing. They’re afraid of that. We can’t let the world tell us what’s sin.
3) The church. The battle is for us to unify true, Bible-believing Christians and to unify across all racial, denominational and political lines. We should be able to get together and get behind a Kingdom agenda, where we’re against gay marriage and abortion, but also against mass incarceration and racial profiling.
Posted on November 10th, 2013
By HOWARD MANN
UPPER MARLBORO, Md – He has played Super Bowls and Orange Bowls and Fiesta Bowls and Sugar Bowls. But Michael Irvin, the NFL Hall of Famer and all-time great at the University of Miami, said none of those experiences rivaled what he felt in addressing more than 2,500 attendees at the 15th annual Mighty Men of Valor National Men’s Conference.
“I’ve played in front of hundreds of thousands of people and beat them down,” Irvin said. “There’s a power when you step on the field knowing you’re about to impose your will on another man. But there’s nothing like the power of standing here and being able to share.”
He didn’t hold anything back. Irvin shared his story of growing up as the 15th of 17 children in a Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) ghetto. He spoke of trying to find fulfillment through everything except God. He discussed the night he was busted in a hotel room with several women and loads of drugs. He reminisced on his final play in the NFL, which ended with him lying on the field unable to move.
Using I Samuel 30:1-8 for his text, Irvin read how David “strengthened himself in the Lord,” and entitled his message “Put Up Your Dukes.”
Once you stop doing those things and going to those places that you called fun when you were running with the Devil, now you have to put up your dukes,” he said. “Because now, the devil and all of his angels are fighting you. The devil didn’t have to fight you before because you were his buddy.”
Irvin tricked himself into thinking he was in control, enjoying football success each season while doing drugs and chasing women every offseason. He said he didn’t understand how people “get hooked;” he was just having fun. But when his career ended and football no longer filled half of the void, drugs and women took over fulltime.
“I was fooling myself all those years, thinking I’m controlling a controlled substance,” Irvin said. “There came a time when I said I’m going to stop ‘after this. This is my last week. My last Saturday.’ But I found myself back out there. I realized I’m not as strong as I thought I was. I had switched my addiction, trying to fill that hole.”
Irvin credited his wife for helping him finally yield to God. After his hotel-room escapade made national news in 1996, Irvin headed home. The news media was camped at his front door and helicopters hovered overhead. He was ready for a fight with his wife and planned to turn it against her, possibly walking out on the marriage.
“I started to open my mouth and she stopped me,” he said. “She said ‘Baby, you don’t have to say a word to me. Don’t worry about me. You have to make your peace with God.’ I’ll never forget that.”
Irvin remind attendees that as men, “we’re natural born fighters.” So men need to put up their dukes and fight.
Posted on November 10th, 2013
By HOWARD MANN
UPPER MARLBORO, Md – In her “Breaking the Marriage Code” workshop, First Lady Audree Ashe told a room full of men that there’s really no secret to success in matrimony. Husbands just have to remember one simple rule:“It’s all about her.”Attendees who chose that workshop at the 15tth annual Mighty Men of Valor National Men’s Conference might have been disappointed in the message, which comes from Ephesians 5:25. But Ashe pointed out how most men love the preceding verses, in which wives are instructed to submit and husbands are deemed the heads.“Husbands get caught up in the ‘submit’ part, but they don’t have anything to do with that,” she said. “That’s between your wife and God.”
Instead, Ashe said, husbands need to focus on loving their wives as Christ loved church; giving up their lives for their wives.
“It doesn’t matter where she is,” Ashe said. “She’s the church. And she deserves mercy and grace just like God has mercy and grace for His church. She deserves to be loved unconditionally the way God loves us unconditionally. A husband is supposed to have a role in his wife becoming a healthy Christian.
Ashe said you have to look at your wife like she’s your church. And husbands have to understand that she’s a joint heir to Christ, just like her husband.
“He who loves his own wife loves himself,” she said. “If you’re not loving your wife you’re not loving yourself. You are to love your wife like your own body, and you don’t have the habit of smacking your own body verbally or physically.
“When you treat her the way Christ would,, she grows and develops rather than crashes,” she said. “She doesn’t become depressed. She blossoms and becomes responsive. But that’s not the case if you’re beating her down, demanding and controlling.”
Husbands are Christ in the marriage and wives are the church. And as Christ demonstrated, it’s all about His church. Which for husbands mean: it’s all about her.
Posted on November 9th, 2013
UPPER MARLBORO, Md – Ray Lewis knows pain, and not just because he’s a former All-Pro linebacker and future Hall-of-Famer who won two Super Bowl rings with the Baltimore Ravens.
Yes, running full speed and launching his body into other men for 27 years took its toll – “My neck would hurt, too,” he told attendees at the 15th annual Mighty Men of Valor National Conference. But he shared some of the hurt more common to the men gathered at First Baptist Church of Glenarden.
He talked about the pain of not having a father in his life while growing up. The pain of witnessing domestic violence during his childhood. The pain in his stomach and his feet, respectively, from not having enough to eat and wearing the same pair of shoes for nine years.
“I was carrying all that pain,” he said. “When was I going to let that go? When was I going to be strong enough to let that go?”
He was 33 years old when he reached out to reconcile with his father, telling him “Don’t ask me for nothing, just be my Dad.”
That was one of those “Necessary Endings,” the title of Lewis’ message. He said every man is fighting something in his spirit and every man has the opportunity to end something he knows is necessary before beginning something new.
“We have to let something go,” he said. “We have to end what we know has the ability to destroy us in the blink of an eye.”
NFL careers can cease that abruptly – or seem too. As Lewis returned from a career-threatening injury last season to rejoin his team in time for the Super Bowl run, he heard God’s voice. God said it would be Lewis’ final campaign and he wanted all the glory if it ended with another championship.
“The only words that would come out of my mouth when the man on TV asked me how I felt was, ‘When God is with you, who can be against you?’” Lewis said. “No matter what you’re going through, figure out what team you’re on and say you know it’s going to be alright. It’s a mindset, no matter the circumstance.
“Today is about ending necessary things in life.”
Posted on November 9th, 2013
By HOWARD MANN
UPPER MARLBORO, Md – More than 2,000 men were seated in the arena (aka sanctuary) at First Baptist Church of Glenarden and more were pouring in as Pastor Clifford Ashe opened the 15th annual Mighty Men of Valor National Conference, “Battle Tested.”
“All of us are in a fight of some kind,” said Ashe. “And we have to do battle against whatever it is. You might be a champion in the featherweight class, but you might have a middleweight fight coming up. And we have the trainers, cornermen and cut men – our conference speakers – to help you win.”
The “Battle Tested” theme was prevalent throughout the night, from the boxing ring and punching bags near the front entrance, to the videos of Roy Johnson on overhead monitors, to the pro boxers sparring and working out before the arena opened.
Once inside, attendees saw another boxing ring on the pulpit, banners of fighters in different poses and the overhead lighting found at bouts in Las Vegas. An announcer came forward and a microphone was lowered from the rafters.
“In this corner,” said the announcer, as the lights dimmed and a spotlight beamed on a boxer entering the sanctuary from the rear, “fighting for fear, frustration, anger, adultery, jealousy, hatred, envy and pornography is the master of disaster, the enemy of us all!”
“And in this corner,” said the announcer, as another boxer fighting for every man, every family and every future, is the undisputed, undefeated champion and representative of us all!”
The devil won the first round, knocking down the man. But the man got up and went into his corner. He got instructions and encouragement from his trainers, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. And then he went out and put the devil on the ropes, pummeling him until scoring a knockout.
He raised his hands in victory, which Pastor Ashe said is the goal for every man in attendance this weekend.
Posted on November 3rd, 2013
By Deron Snyder/For the (Orange County) REGISTER
LANDOVER, Md — Football has been called a game of inches. A half-dozen cost San Diego in a heartbreaking overtime loss Sunday against Washington.
After the Chargers settled for a game-tying field goal at the end of regulation – despite having first-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line – the hosts won the coin toss and drove the length of the field in a 30-24 victory.
For a moment, it appeared that San Diego went ahead when halfback Danny Woodhead caught a short pass and knocked over the right pylon with 21 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The play was ruled a touchdown on the field but overturned by the replay official.
Referee Jerome Boger spotted the ball at the “6-inch yard line,” and that’s where it remained after a Woodhead run and two not-very-close incompletions.
“We’re not going to second-guess ourselves,” said coach Mike McCoy, leaving that to everyone else who wondered why the Chargers (4-4) didn’t try to punch it in. “In this business it’s would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. If one of those three plays worked there’d be no questions asked. If they don’t work, the questions come out and they don’t stop.”
Rivers hit rookie wideout Keenan Allen for a 16-yard touchdown with 2:49 left in regulation, pulling San Diego to within 24-21. The defense forced a punt on Washington’s ensuing possession, positioning the Chargers for a win. Taking over at his own 8-yard line, Rivers led the offense all the way to… the 6-inch yard line.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win and that’s all you can ask for in this league,” Rivers said. “A chance to win from the half-yard line and we didn’t get it done. It was a heck of a drive to get down there and it’s just too bad we didn’t finish it.”
San Diego led at halftime, 14-7, but the hosts came out and scored 17 unanswered points. They rushed for 128 yards after intermission and converted eight of 11 third downs, keeping Rivers & Co. on the sidelines for most of the second half.
Washington halfback Alfred Morris carried 25 times for 121 yards, but fullback Darrel(CQ) had three short touchdown runs, including the game-winner from four yards out. When the Chargers weren’t gouged on the ground, they were shredded through the air. Wideout Pierre Garcon caught seven passes for 172 yards.
“It’s tough to win when you’re not able to get off the field on third down,” San Diego linebacker Jarret Johnson said.
The defense, which set a franchise record for consecutive quarters without yielding a touchdown (12), was responsible for the game’s first score. Defensive end Lawrence Guy, who blocked a short field goal on Washington’s opening drive, batted Robert Griffin III’s pass on the next series. The ball rolled off nose tackle Cam Thomas’ back into the arms of defensive end Sean Lissemore in the end zone.
“I was kind of suspended in the air between people and all sorts of stuff,” Lissemore said. “I looked down and something brown and held onto it. It was tough down there with people pawing at it and grabbing at it.”
Rivers passed for 341 yards but threw two costly interceptions. One was on a miscommunication with wideout Vincent Brown in the second quarter and the other when Allen (8 catches, 128 yards) was outfought for a ball in the fourth quarter. Both turnovers were converted into points, including the field goal that put Washington up, 24-14, with 6:59 left in regulation.
“We have a lot to learn from this football game,” McCoy said. “But we need to find a way to win these games.”
Posted on October 2nd, 2013
By HOWARD MANN
Stanford gets it. So does Notre Dame and Vanderbilt, Duke and Northwestern. Those schools are known for academics and proud of that fact.
But they also understand it’s not an either/or situation when it comes to athletics. They realize that academics and athletics can go hand-in-hand and live side-by-side, each feeding into the other’s success.
The same should be – and can be – true at Howard.
With the impending departure of President Sidney A. Ribeau, the next president should embrace the idea of Howard being an elite school in every aspect, including its athletics program.
A lot of people think big-time success in college sports comes at the expense of academic achievement, with powerhouse programs lowering the bar – or virtually removing it altogether – for incoming student-athletes. And that certainly happens at some places.
But it doesn’t have to be the case at Howard. Considering the school’s location in the nation’s capital and its legacy as “the Mecca” of black education, the Bison should draw the top scholar-athletes who can appreciate the HBCU experience.
All it takes it is the right level of commitment from the administration, athletic department and alumni.
The first step is realizing there’s nothing inherently wrong or evil with fielding championship-level teams. That can be a difficult concept to grasp, especially at schools known for academic excellence.
“I think there were a cadre of folks who were willing to say, ‘We can be excellent in some things and being mediocre in the others isn’t a problem,’” Vanderbilt vice chancellor David Williams told ESPN.com. Playing in the vaunted Southeastern Conference, the Commodores went 9-4 in football last season and won their final seven games.
“We really had to make sure that people understood being great in sports – winning a ballgame, winning a national championship, winning an SEC championship in ANY sport – does not dilute the academic reputation of the university.”
Last season, Stanford and Notre Dame went 12-1 in football; Duke (a perennial contender in basketball) went to its first bowl game in 18 years. Northwestern went 10-3 and won its first bowl game since 1949.
“Everybody is excited about where we’re at,” Northwestern senior QB Kain Colter told the Zanesville Times Recorder. “But we all believe there’s an even better place without compromising what we’re doing in the classroom and what academics mean at a place like Northwestern. At the heart of it is, we have a world-class academic institution, but we can also be excellent in athletics, just like in arts and science and medicine.”
Making runs at Mideastern Eastern Athletic Conference championships and academic All-America teams should be normal for the Bison. If there’s any doubt about the value of success in sports, just ask Florida Gulf Coast and Norfolk State about the exposure they received from recent triumphs in the NCAA men’s hoops tournament. Recognition, awareness and interest – not to mention applications – skyrocketed as a result.
“It really is about shining an awfully bright light on an institution in a way that’s hard to replicate in any other fashion,” Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips told the Recorder.
That’s something for all of us to keep in mind, including Howard’s next president.
Posted on September 9th, 2013
By DERON SNYDER/Special to The News-Press
WASHINGTON – With virtually everyone in town anxiously awaiting the return of Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III and Monday Night Football, a small contingent from Southwest Florida was relaxing in the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel. They were less than a mile from the White House but this was no sightseeing trip.
Instead, Lee County Manager Roger Desjarlais and Fort Myers City Manager Billy Mitchell, along with two other officials and two representatives from Rockford Construction had flown to the nation’s capital on a fishing trip. Using City of Palms Park as bait, they hoped to land the Washington Nationals as new spring training tenants.
“The goal for tonight is to come out of this and agree that a deal is possible,” said Desjarlais, about an hour before a scheduled meeting with Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner. “If everyone agrees, we’re going to set a pretty firm schedule to get work done leading up to the final decision making. I’d like to think we can have this thing settled in the next 60-90 days.”
Desjarlais described the meeting as a “fact-finding” mission, primarily for the Nationals and Rockford. Those two parties would have to work out the details of financing upgrades to City of Palm and the training facility a couple of miles away. Desjarlais estimates the deal would cost $40 million-$50 million.
“In order for this deal to work, it has to be a public-private partnership with all of the financing coming from the private sector – versus Lee County doing the financing like a lot of places are accustomed to,” he said. “Lee County simply doesn’t have the money.”
Desjarlais said the meeting was scheduled to last three hours. He intended to speak again afterward but changed his mind and opted to release the following statement:
“The meeting with Rockford Development and the Nationals was productive for Lee County and the City of Fort Myers. We were able to continue discussions about the potential structure of a public-private partnership that would make improvements to the City of Palms and have the Nationals here for Spring Training in 2015.”
The Nationals’ lease at Space Coast Stadium in Brevard County expires in 2017 and the team’s hopes for a new facility in Osceola County were dashed last month when commissioners there rejected a $98 million, tax-funded proposal. Desjarlais said Lee County called the Nationals the next day to revive relocation talks. Palm Beach County might be another option for the ballclub, but Desjarlais likes Lee’s chances.
Whatever the case, there will be no bidding war.
“We’re not in a position where we’re going to compete,” he said. “Either the Nationals are going to commit to Lee County or they’re going to negotiate someplace else. If they do that we’ll wish them the best of luck. Then we’ll get about the business of deciding what else might go in that property (City of Palms).”
Posted on August 16th, 2013
By DERON SNYDER
Keith Pough’s mother was a Bulldog. So were an uncle and a grandfather. A cousin played in the NFL after earning All-America honors as a Bulldog. Another cousin went from all-conference tackle to assistant coach and has been the Bulldogs’ head coach since 2002!
With all of that history and so much family in Orangeburg, S.C., and after growing up in the Bulldogs’ locker room, at their practices and on their sidelines, how on earth did he land at Howard University instead of South Carolina State?
“That’s the million-dollar question,” says Pough, a stellar linebacker who went undrafted in April but immediately signed a free-agent contract with the Buffalo Bills. “I’ve been hearing that since my freshman year.”
S.C. State took it for granted that Pough simply would follow his relatives’ trail. He wasn’t highly recruited by major colleges as he finished high school (a summer growth spurt before his junior season took him from 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds to 6-feet and 180 pounds), but S.C. State, Howard and every other member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference was interested.
He had offers to walk on at LSU and Clemson, but the combination of Howard’s prestige and academic tradition – not to mention a full scholarship while State banked on familiarity and loyalty – led him to the Bison. No one knew he would evolve into a bona fide NFL prospect. “This was never in the cards for me,” he says. “I had to be realistic and not focus so much on football and look at academics.”
As a senior last season, Pough was named the MEAC Defensive Player of the Year and won several other honors while setting a Football Championship Subdivision career record with 71 tackles for loss. He became the first Howard player invited to the East-West Shrine Bowl and captained the Bison to a 7-4 record, Howard’s best season since 1998.
“There was a change in mentality with Coach Flea and the new staff he brought with him,” Pough says of Gary Harrell, who returned to revive his alma mater in 2011. “Every coach on the staff either coached or played at Howard. They were part of the glory days and brought the pride back.”
Pough had plenty of pride as a player but grew immensely in other areas after his sophomore season at Howard. Former strength & conditioning coach Darryl Haley inspired Pough to mature and read books for enlightenment, beginning with “As a Man Thinketh.” An uncle, Jimmy Leach, instilled a love for health and nutrition. Pough began to expand his mind, push his body and study football film more than ever.
“The summer before my junior year was a turning point,” says Pough, who majored in physical education with a minor in secondary education and is one semester shy of his degree. “I was going through some very trying times and was involved in a physical altercation on campus. Some things happened to make me realize that’s not who I want to be or where I want to go in life. I had to make some changes from the path I was headed and I had an epiphany.”
The revelation has led him to Orchard Park, N.Y., where he’s a strong candidate to make the Bills’ final roster. There, just a short drive from team headquarters, Pough shares a two-bedroom apartment with a fellow undrafted rookie. Pough, now listed at 6-foot-3 and 236 pounds, has dived into his new profession, pursuing it like a loose football in a scrum.
“We pretty much just go back and forth to the facility,” he says. “On the weekend I might venture off and see town a little bit. I’ve been to see Niagara Falls.”
That awesome sight brings to mind his favorite Bible verse, I Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
Perhaps fate has directed his path from the start: The Bison and the Bills have virtually identical helmet logos. “I thought I was a Bulldog through and through, but I was looking at more than football,” Pough says. “I don’t think any other institution is better than Howard.”
Take that, S.C. State.
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By HOWARD MANN
