Thursday, August 3,  2006

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     Most college prospects have one major announcement to made. Brooke Shepherd made two this past week.
     A two-year basketball standout at Virginia High before transferring to Grundy last year, Shepherd has announced her college choice. The high-scoring forward has verbally committed to the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
    The rising senior also announced that, for family reasons, she will return to Bristol to play for coach Barry Reed at Virginia High. Shepherd’s dad reportedly is taking a job in Bristol.
    UAB is one of several Division I programs which have scouted Shepherd, a three-time all-district star. It was, in fact, one of the first. UAB head coach Audra Smith, a former Virginia assistant, has followed Shepherd since the eighth grade.
     "I have a really good relationship with coach (Smith)," said Shepherd, while vacationing with her family in Myrtle Beach. "She’s a really good coach.
     "We get along really well. That’s why I chose UAB. (Coach Smith) saw me at a (Virginia) camp in the seventh grade, and she’s followed me ever since.”"
      Shepherd cannot sign a college letter-of-intent until the NCAA early national signing period in November. A verbal commitment and the early signing period frees college prospects up to concentrate on their senior year in high school.
     "I’m making my official visit Aug. 23," says Shepherd, who has scored over 1,100 points in three years.
      Shepherd will be either a small forward or power forward at UAB, where she hopes to earn playing time as a freshman in 2007-08.
      "I’ll be either a three or a four," she said. "I’m a ‘tweener. I’m a little too big for the wing. I’m really excited about the opportunity. Hopefully, I’ll get a lot of playing time down there."

East Tennessee State Alumni Group Trying to Convince School officials to Re-Start School's Grid Program

by Lloyd Combs
The Front Row
    An East Tennessee Sate alumni group is trying to convince school officials to re-start the football program.
   They may or may not talk ETSU president Paul Stanton and athletic director Dave Mullins into giving football another chance, but the program itself might fail again if both Stanton and Mullins stick around.
   The program lost millions under their watch, and, instead of trying to find out what went wrong, they simply axed it.
    As I recall, they put much of the blame for the program’s troubles on the fanaticism of Tennessee fans in the region and the multi-purpose Memorial Center, aka the Mini-dome.
    Mini-dome or no mini-dome, if Carson-Newman can win Division II national championships and run a successful football program in the shadow of Knoxville, East Tennessee State can have success at some level, even Division I-AA, if the program is put in the hands of competent administrators.
    In addition, the Bucs would need a coach who recruits in ETSU’s backyard, not some hot-shot from hundreds of miles away who brings in more kids from, say, South Carolina, or Georgia, than northeast Tennessee or southwest Virginia.
    Few ETSU athletic programs recruit that heavily in southwest Virginia, but football was always the worst.
    They largely ignored this area, even while it produced the likes of Heath Miller and Thomas Jones and Julius Jones and Mike Compton.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.  

   It's through the grassroot efforts of chapter members that the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) has become a leader in conservation. With their sweat, muscles, dollars and time, they have for several years been a force in conservation across this nation and to a lesser extent in other countries.
   The Turkey Federation raises money of which most goes into their Superfund. These funds are used for many local projects which include everything from creating wildlife patches, offering rewards, promoting safety and helping conseve the great American wild turkey.
   From January 2006 through May 31, 2006, Virginia Chapters of the National Wild Turkey Federation have invested $153,935 in turkey related projects. Since 1985, these chapters have raised and spent $1,260,625 here in Virginia alone.
   The National Wild Turkey Federation was founded in 1973, in Fredricksburg but later relocated to Edgefield, South Carolina. About the time NWTF was created, the wild turkey population began to increase.
   While nobody's saying the NWTF gave the turkey population its big boost, the Turkey Federation gave the big majestic birds the "shots in the arm" at just the right time when the support was needed. And NWTF has been supporting the wild turkey and the state wildlife organizations that have captured, relocated and protected the wild turkey all these years.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.

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