Edited by Larry Harris

Morgan Back On Hoops Map, Thanks To Holmes, Bozeman

Why Morgan State?

Reggie Holmes (Sabina Moran/PressBox)

That’s a question asked plenty of times when Baltimore native and St. Frances star Reggie Holmes chose to ply his hoops trade at the small school on Hillen Rd.

As a senior at St. Frances, Holmes helped lead the Panthers to a 2005-‘06 Baltimore Catholic League Championship, earning the tournament MVP award in the process. Meanwhile, Morgan was coming off a 4-26 year, the Bears’ 16th straight losing season.
So, again, why Morgan State?

"99.9 percent was Coach Bozeman," Holmes said.

Holmes played for a handful of AAU teams while growing up in Baltimore's rough Cherry Hill neighborhood, and played high school ball at Southern and St. Frances. His SAT scores weren't up to par for Division I, so Holmes headed to Michigan's Eldon Academy prep school, but a lack of funds caused that school to close. The 6-foot-4 guard found himself back in Baltimore, working at a Home Depot.

Then Todd Bozeman was hired to coach at Morgan in 2006. The two found each other and have worked together to breathe life into a dying Bears basketball program.

"Coach did a lot to help my game,” said Holmes. “He beat me up when I did good things and when I did negative things. A good game or a bad game, he's always on me.”

In his four years at Morgan, Holmes has been instrumental in the Bears’ resurrection as a mid-major basketball power.  

"It feels very special to be able to put Morgan back on the map," Holmes said.

He didn’t just get them back on the map, last season he helped get the Bears to college basketball’s biggest stage -- the Big Dance. "Ah, man, that felt good -- real good."

Morgan is making a return trip to the NCAA tournament this year. The Bears are a No. 15 seed in the East Region and will travel to Buffalo for a tough matchup with the Big East tournament champion West Virginia Mountaineers.

“Getting Reggie Holmes as a freshman was big for us because now he’s the first four-year player that I’ve had,” Bozeman said. “He’s a leader and he’s a kid that the city loves.
“He’s a great kid, he goes to class, he doesn’t miss weights, he’s not late for anything, he works hard and those are the kinds of things local kids see him having success; that helps.”

On March 4, Holmes celebrated Senior Night in style, pouring in 36 points to lead the Bears over cross-town rival Coppin State, 76-56, in his final game at Hill Field House. Before the game, it was announced Holmes was named the MEAC Player of the Year. His offensive outburst against Coppin earned him the all-time scoring title at Morgan, surpassing Marvin Webster, “The Human Eraser,” who played a decade in the NBA after scoring 1,990 points at Morgan and leading the Bears to the 1974 NCAA Division II national championship.

"It's very special (to get the scoring record) being a Baltimore cat and being in my hometown at a Division I program," said Holmes, who finished his career with a 35-6 home record.

That the scoring record came against Coppin made it even more special.

"Knowing Coppin and Morgan State was a rivalry, I knew there'd be extra juice," he said. "And knowing it was my senior night ... the shots were just falling. I was on fire."

He didn't know The Human Eraser personally, but Holmes has heard plenty about Webster and his importance to Baltimore hoops history. He hopes one day to see his retired No. 11 hanging on the wall of Hill Field House next to Webster's famous No. 52.

Holmes has already cemented his place in Morgan's record books. The Bears' all-time leading scorer with 2,049 points and the only player in school history to reach 2,000 points, also ranks first in three-pointers made (305) and points scored in a single season (784). He sits in the top 10 nationally in scoring average at 22.8 points per game, and his 784 points is the second-highest total in the country.

Holmes, who laments that too many Baltimore ballers head to greener pastures after high school, wants to be remembered as "a person that never gave up, and took advantage of opportunity. Once I got the opportunity, I made the best of it."

The man his friends call "Regg" hopes to get the opportunity to play in the NBA. But before he worries about that, there's one more goal to accomplish at Morgan -- to have the Bears' date to the Big Dance last longer than one song. 

***
When teammate Anthony Anderson was diagnosed with leukemia in October, Holmes' final college season took on a whole new meaning. Anderson, a redshirt freshman from St. Charles, Md., didn't get his chance to contribute off the Bears bench, instead undergoing chemotherapy at Johns Hopkins Hospital. But "Big Ant" still played a big role in Holmes' successful season.

"I was already inspired for the season,” said Holmes. “Knowing it was my senior year, I wanted to go out with a bang, but when we heard the news that made me work even harder in the gym and dedicate the season to him."

It was Holmes' idea to put Anderson's No. 4 on every player's jersey, and his idea to have the team get haircuts with Anderson's number embedded for the final game against Coppin.

"I touched my '4' every day before a game," said Holmes, who pounded the '4' with pride March 4 after he erased Webster's scoring record.

***
Holmes wasn’t the only Bear to take home conference honors as Morgan swept the MEAC’s top individual season awards. Kevin Thompson (Walbrook) earned Defensive Player of the Year, freshman Dewayne Jackson (Bowie) was named Rookie of the Year and Bozeman was named Coach of the Year for the third straight season.

-- Kevin Heitz

Two More Join Courage Network

(Sabina Moran/PressBox)

In a media-driven world, the controversial and the titillating always top the wholesome and the inspirational. And so the 32nd annual Ed Block Courage Awards banquet was as notable for events transpiring outside Martin’s West as it was for the uplifting things going on inside.

About a hundred people, many who appeared to be middle-aged women from Philadelphia, conducted a sign-waving protest of an award going to Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, the convicted dog-killer who paid dearly for his crimes and is attempting to resurrect his career and his life. His levelheaded approach to atonement may not be appreciated by all, but his sincerity seems more genuine than ever.

Meanwhile, ten times that number gathered to welcome two more Courage Houses -- in Washington and Philadelphia -- to the roster of cities helped by the Block Foundation in the fight against child abuse. That brings the total of houses to 21 and takes two more giant steps in CEO Sam Lamantia’s long-established goal of putting a Courage House in each of the 32 NFL cities. That dream may never be fulfilled in his lifetime, but no one can ever doubt its purity of purpose and Lamantia’s boundless strength in fighting to sustain his vision.

As usual, the banquet program featured numerous stories of courage and resolution, especially moving were awards given to:
• Cincinnati Bengals assistant coach Mike Zimmer, whose wife died three days before the Bengals played the Ravens in Baltimore last season.
• Dallas Cowboys special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, who suffered a broken neck and back when an outdoors practice facility collapsed during a windstorm. Cowboys coach Wade Phillips was on hand to make the special presentation.
• Wheelchair-bound Richard Collier, playing as a Jacksonville Jaguar back in 2008 when he was shot 14 times, resulting in permanent paralysis and loss of a leg. He came with a smile and the knowledge he still is considered a team member.
• Crowd favorite Anthony Hargrove of the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, who battled back from a yearlong drug suspension to become a regular in the Saints' defensive line rotation.

They never give an award -- but somebody should -- to the TV and radio personalities and the huge list of volunteers who give so freely of their time to make the Ed Block program one of the finest in the country. Controversy or not, the show went on with 30 of the 32 recipients present and those on the interior of the building extremely approving.

--Larry Harris

Friedgen Makes Navy-Terps Plea

Ralph Friedgen (Mitch Stringer/PressBox)

The long history of the Maryland-Navy football rivalry is no secret. It has been filled with charges of unsportsmanlike conduct and unfair negotiations on both sides and many consider it a small miracle the two teams will actually open their schedules this fall (Sept. 6, Labor Day) at M&T Bank Stadium.

After all, there was once a 40-year hiatus after the Terps’ Jerry Fishman gave the bird to a bunch of admirals during the game in 1964. And it has been five years now since Terps quarterback Sam Hollenbach engineered a late drive to give Maryland a 23-20 victory in the resumption of the “Crab Bowl Classic” in 2005.

Present Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen has always been a campaigner for an annual Terps-Navy game and not long ago he was at it again. At the yearly awards banquet thrown by the Touchdown Club of Annapolis to honor players and coaches from both schools, he made another pitch.

“I have always been a big proponent of playing this game every year,” Friedgen said in an emotional talk. “You have two great institutions playing high-level Division I football in this state and it just makes sense to resume this rivalry on an annual basis.”

The schools’ athletic directors, Debbie Yow of Maryland and Chet Gladchuk of Navy, both agree with Friedgen -- at least on paper.

“We’re on the same page about wanting to play the game again,” Yow said by e-mail.
“Hope Navy feels that way later when the time comes to discuss it.”

And when would such a talk take place?

“Sometime after this next game during the 2010-2011 year,” Yow replied.

So when could another game reasonably be expected?

“Don’t know their schedule, so I am not sure,” Yow said. “Need to talk with their AD.”

For his part, Gladchuk sent along the following: “Navy is all for continuing the football series. We think the Navy-Maryland game is a featured matchup with great state-wide interest and support. It is a natural rivalry, and as far as we’re concerned … let’s continue to make it happen.”

Both sides seem to want to end the animosity that has marked the series, but it just isn’t that easy. Football schedules are made years in advance, and both schools have contractual commitments that must be honored. Securing a mutual time and date is about as easy as getting Congress to agree on any bill.

Navy, for instance, already has three rivalries the Midshipmen have every intention of continuing -- the games against service rivals Army and Air Force, and the historic matchup against Notre Dame. The Mids also have added Ohio State to their schedule and will meet the Buckeyes at M&T Bank Stadium in 2014.

Maryland, on the other hand, is heavily committed to the Atlantic Coast Conference and must give preferential treatment to those league games.

“We stood behind the Navy players as they sang their alma mater and the Navy players did the same when we sang our alma mater,” Friedgen told the Annapolis Capital during the Touchdown Club affair. “There was a high level of sportsmanship and a lot of mutual respect shown by both schools.”

Friedgen, reportedly on the edge of retirement, probably won’t be in his present position if and when the next Maryland-Navy game is played, but it’s refreshing to know he truly desires for ancient wounds to be healed and the game restored to an annual happening. It seems if all parties do indeed want the same thing, the scheduling difficulties could be overcome.

--Larry Harris

Kelly Gets ‘A’ On Bayhawks ‘Test’

Kyle Dixon  (Bayhawks)

David Gross, commissioner of the Major League Lacrosse League, recently announced a new captain is in town to right the Bayhawks ship. Brendan Kelly, CEO of Smartlink and Hometown Lacrosse LLC, can now add the title of president of the Bayhawks to his resume.

Gross got a feel for Kelly’s abilities last year when he gave the Annapolis staffing firm owner the responsibility of running Championship Weekend, a test drive for both parties.

“You often get a chance to test a market, but not the management,” Gross said. “We got to test Brendan Kelly last year when he and Smartlink were charged with running Championship Weekend. They utilized great grassroots efforts and any fan will tell you that the best experience they’ve had at Championship Weekend was last year when Brendan was involved.”

The grassroots effort is a staple to Kelly’s marketing plan for his new Bayhawks team. The lack of fan knowledge about the existence of a professional lacrosse team in Baltimore has prompted Kelly to take it back to square one. Utilizing the base of lacrosse fandom present in this area, Kelly hopes to draw as many as 6,500 fans to each of the team’s six home games.

A steady home helps. The Bayhawks team has already held two city names in front of their title, starting with Baltimore in 2000, replaced by Washington in 2006, and when Brendan bought the team in the beginning of March, he didn’t want to localize it to just one city.

“[We] made the name change to the Chesapeake Bayhawks, mainly for the focus on the entire Chesapeake Bay region,” Kelly said. “So instead of now calling them the Annapolis Bayhawks and doing something like that again, we decided on going with something that really encompasses the entire territory which would be the Eastern Shore, Maryland, D.C., Virginia.

“Everybody has a connection with the Chesapeake Bay obviously and knows this market on some level. So that was really important for us to make sure the team was a mid-Atlantic team and not just an Annapolis Bayhawks or Washington Bayhawks or Baltimore Bayhawks but we really feel that encompasses the entire sports territory.”

In addition to not having a consistent name, the Bayhawks also never had a consistent home, jumping from stadium to university to stadium, depending on what city they were in at the time, never playing in the same place twice. Kelly has already put a lid on that jumping bean by signing a three-year contract with the Naval Academy’s Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

“Our goals are to really get out on a grassroots approach, expose the game to the fan base,” Kelly said. “A lot of people in the last nine years didn’t even know the Bayhawks played here, and obviously moving from a different stadium every year was hard to follow. So one of our goals is consistency, to bring consistency to the team, bring consistency to the league and bring consistency to the market.”

--Krystina Lucido

Baltimore Stars Spark Seahawks

Camontae Griffin

Alex Franz

It isn’t unusual for a Division III basketball team to get small notice when tournament time rolls around, especially in an area that features programs like Division I powers Maryland and Georgetown as well as the numerous larger schools in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., communities.

This season, however, it is difficult to disregard the outstanding marks put up by St. Mary's College of Maryland, the little school of 2,000 in historic St. Mary's City merely designated by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top five public liberal arts colleges in the nation.

At press time the Seahawks were heavily involved in the national Division III tournament, but whatever the outcome, this was a basketball season that will long be remembered in a place where Fulbright Scholarships to teach abroad are more prevalent than athletic awards.

The architect of this winning season is Chris Harney, a St. Mary's alumnus (1997) who has strong ties to the Baltimore area. In his fifth season directing the Seahawks, the team posted a 24-3 regular season mark, handing the Harney Capital Athletic Conference Coach of the Year award.

"That's nice to get," said Harney. "But in all honesty, I have to give the credit to our players and my assistant coaches. In D-III, your assistants all have full-time jobs and it is a huge commitment for them, a lot of work. I'm just so happy that I can have a positive influence on my alma mater. We have great things to offer at this school."

Harney lived in Baltimore for five years and coached at Bel Air High School for three seasons, winning a Harford County Coach of the Year award. A history teacher, he never expected to wind up coaching in college or at his alma mater, but circumstances put him in place and he is making the most of his connections.

"I've been in Baltimore all week," he said a little while back during the annual frenzy of local high school tournaments. "I coached AAU ball in the city and I know a lot of youngsters there.

"We can't rest on our success this season, so I'm out recruiting. St. Mary's is a wonderful place for a Baltimore athlete. We're two hours away, so a player doesn't feel like he's at home, but he's not too far away to get back if he needs to. Families can come to see them play on a regular basis and our courses of study are well known.

"But the best thing about a Baltimore basketball player is that he reflects the attitude of an entire city. A Baltimore player just doesn't like to lose."

Harney's roster is chock-full of Baltimore players and two of them -- Camontae Griffin and Alex Franz -- were named to the CAC All-Star team.

Griffin is listed as 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds ("well, maybe 5-foot-9 on a good day," says Harney). A senior from Dunbar High School and Community College of Baltimore, he is an accomplished scorer, putting up 21.5 points per game. He threw in 51 this season against Hood College, and Harney has high hopes he can help land Griffin a shot at playing for a European team. “His quickness is astounding,” Harney said.

Franz is a 6-foot-1, 180-pound junior who Harney calls "the Bobby Fischer of basketball. Like those great chess champions, he's always eight or nine moves ahead of the game."

Franz, a product of Cardinal Gibbons, leads all of Division III in steals, scores 13.3 points per game and has teamed with Griffin to form a devastating backcourt for the Seahawks. He’ll be back next season as a team captain.

"It's a great ride," said Harney, "but if you don't have committed players and assistants it isn't going to work. Everyone has to do their part."

--Larry Harris
 
From The Cheap Seats

• Dream On: As far as research can discern, not one reporter, columnist or self-styled expert in “mock drafts” has ever made a single actual selection in the annual NFL meat market.

• Next Man Up: Gary Williams no doubt has some good young prospects to take over for Greivis Vasquez at point guard for Maryland next year, but he might consider giving the job to small forward Sean Mosley. The Baltimorean has all the tools to run a team.

• Zenith Reached: Kentucky coach John Calipari can go no higher. His picture is being pasted on 24,000 labels of a special edition of Maker’s Mark, the state’s popular bourbon.

• Cleaning House: The Carolina Panthers are taking this NFL uncapped year and possible lockout seriously. They have cut everybody over 30 years old from the roster except All-Pro receiver Steve Smith and the two kickers.

• Win The Bar Bet: What’s the record for rebounds in a single NBA game? Wilt Chamberlain once captured 55 against the Celtics in 1960, 31 in the first half. Bill Russell had 51 for Boston earlier that year.

• What’s In A Sobriquet:  They call Mississippi State’s Jarvis Varnado, who has crushed the NCAA career record for blocking shots, by the nickname “Swat."

Issue 147: March 2010