WAXAHACHIE – Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) announces the resignation of head football coach, Ryan Smith, who has indicated a desire to pursue other coaching opportunities. In the previous four years, SAGU football holds an 18-21 record and finished 9-3 in 2021 while winning the National Christian College Athletic Association’s Victory Bowl.

SAGU will begin the process of finding a new head coach immediately. SAGU Athletics has a mission to pursue spiritual formation in student-athletes, prepare student-athletes to be servant leaders, and provide an atmosphere of athletic excellence.

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The first time the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens ever faced off against Loyola University (La.) wound up being an historic occasion for the home team.

The winningest collegiate women’s basketball program in the nation picked up its milestone 1,700^th win Thursday night in Hutcherson Center, coming away with a hard-earned 76-71 victory over the Wolf Pack on the first day of the 2021 Queens Classic

A strong finish by the eighth-ranked, undefeated Flying Queens (5-0) secured the triumph as Wayland used a late 10-2 run to break a 65-65 tie against No. 23 Loyola, which was making its season-opener. 

New Flying Queen Fapou Semebene hit both of her two field goals during the win-clinching run, while all-Americans Jenna Cooper and Kaylee Edgemon added a pair of clutch free throws apiece. Another new face, senior point-guard Angel Hayden, came up with numerous key offensive rebounds in addition to a bucket down the stretch.

Edgemon ended with 22 points while Cooper got 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Hayden, meanwhile, produced 13 points and 13 boards (eight offensive) in addition to her five assists. Ashlyn Shelley tacked on eight points, Semebene six, Taryn Shultz five and Lara Mason two.

Wayland didn’t have a particularly strong shooting night, hitting just 33 percent (22-of-66), and suffered 23 turnovers. But the Queens nailed 10 3s, sank 20-of-23 free throws and, maybe most importantly, out-rebounded the Wolf Pack, 52-35, including 24-14 on the offensive end.

Loyola was led by Tay Cannon, who got 22 points and nine rebounds. Kennedy Hansberry added 15 points.

The Queens Classic – featuring a single game each day of the three-day, three-team event – continues Friday when Loyola takes on Our Lady of the Lake at 4 p.m. The Flying Queens are back on the floor at 2 p.m. Saturday to face OLLU.

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OKLAHOMA CITY – Arizona Christian garnered the No. 1 position in the preseason Sooner Athletic Conference football poll.

Conference coaches chose Southwestern Assemblies of God’s Jordan Barlow as preseason SAC offensive player of the year.

Riley Tucker from Arizona Christian took preseason league defensive player of the year, and Austin Bohn of OUAZ picked up preseason SAC special teams player of the year.

Barlow, a senior quarterback from Van Buren, Ark., piled up 1,539 yards through the air while topping the SAC in touchdown passes (13), completion percentage (59.7 percent) and passing efficiency (136.6) last season. Barlow landed second-team all-conference acclaim in 2020-21.

Tucker, a junior defensive back from Burleson, Texas, ranked No. 1 among the NAIA with six interceptions and seventh nationally in passes defended per game (1.40). Tucker provided the Firestorm with such game-turning plays as a 59-yard interception return for a touchdown against Lyon on March 13 and a 40-yard fumble return for a score at OUAZ on March 6. Tucker became the SAC defensive player of the year and two-time SAC defensive player of the week while accumulating 59 tackles the past season.

Bohn, a senior punter from Erie, Colo., finished second in the nation with 44.1 yards a punt with a long punt of 59 yards last season. Bohn snagged conference special teams player of the year and first-team all-SAC.

Arizona Christian assumed the preseason favorite role after reeling in seven top votes and 76 points in the poll of the SAC head coaches. The Firestorm (9-2, 6-0 SAC) captured the league title and went to the NAIA Football Championship Series for the first time in program history.

OUAZ (4-1 last season) grabbed 71 points and two first-place votes in the voting. Langston hauled in the other No. 1 vote as well as 64 points.

Southwestern Assemblies of God (56 points) came in fourth, while Panhandle State (41 points) held the fifth spot in the survey of SAC coaches. Lyon nabbed the sixth spot, and Texas Wesleyan had seventh.

Wayland Baptist drew the eighth slot with Louisiana College and Texas College coming next. The SAC expanded this season to include Louisiana College, which joined the NAIA for 2021-22.

The NAIA Football Championship Series kicks off Nov. 20 at host school sites throughout the nation. The national title game takes place Dec. 18. Arizona Christian, Louisiana College, Lyon and Panhandle State each open play Aug. 28. Arizona Christian faces Lincoln (Calif.) at 11 a.m. MST (1 p.m. CDT) Aug. 28 in Glendale, Ariz.

2021 SAC Preseason Football Poll

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced that Dr. Lester Newman, president of Jarvis Christian College, has been elected as the new chair for the NAIA’s Council of Presidents (COP), effective July 1.

Dr. Newman has been the president of Jarvis Christian College, located in Hawkins, Texas, since April 2012 and a member of the COP for five years, as well as the Executive Committee for four years. As a COP member, he served as chairman of the audit review committee and represents the Red River Athletic Conference. He is the first president from a Historically Black College and University to serve as chair of the COP.

“Lester’s insight and thoughtfulness have already made a positive impact on the COP over the last five years,” said NAIA President Jim Carr. “I look forward to working with him in this leadership role.”

Prior to becoming President of Jarvis Christian College, Dr. Newman served as President of Mississippi Valley State University and in several other senior-level administrative positions at Wiley College, Lane College and Johnson C. Smith University.  He also served in administrative posts at Kentucky State University and Southern University. An academician and political scientist, Dr. Newman rose up through the ranks from professor, dean and vice president to College president.

Dr. Newman is a native of Shreveport, La., and received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in political science from Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta University.

The COP is composed of 23 institutional presidents who represent the 21 NAIA conferences, plus two at-large members. As part of the NAIA’s shared governance model, the COP is designated as a governing body and has authority over membership, all fiscal matters, and conference operations.

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PLAINVIEW – Veteran Wayland Baptist volleyball coach Jim Giacomazzi will take on the added duties of coaching the Pioneer women’s golf team.

“Coach Giacomazzi is an experienced motivator and coach of volleyball and golf at the collegiate level. We are fortunate to have a coach that can move into this golf position who understands the sport and the program,” said Dr. Claude Lusk, WBU senior vice president of operations and student life. “Coach Giacomazzi will pursue excellence with a passion and our team will be better for it.”

Giacomazzi, who has more than 400 career volleyball victories and will begin his 15^th season coaching WBU volleyball in the fall, also is no stranger to coaching golf, having overseen the Pioneer women’s program on two previous occasions, most recently in 2017-18.

An avid golfer for the past 25 years, Giacomazzi owns a 2.1 handicap and has won the championship at Canyon Country Club “seven or eight times.” He formerly played USGA events.

Giacomazzi said he is looking forward to sharing his knowledge of the game.

“I enjoy golf, and I enjoy teaching it. I especially enjoy the mental part of the game. Once you have the skills, it’s how you can handle the pressure you put on yourself so you can perform to your abilities.”

He added, “The challenge always is to get a team to work as one. In golf, individual hard work matters and then you have to have enough concern and care for your teammates to encourage them to be successful, too.”

Giacomazzi, who replaces Andy Ellis after he accepting a coaching position at NCAA Division II Angelo State, has guided the WBU women’s golf team to three of its five NAIA National Championships appearances, including an all-time best eighth-place showing in 2013. Also under Giacomazzi, Wayland finished 19^th in 2011 and 10^th in 2012.

The 2015 Pioneers matched the program’s all-time best eighth-place nationals finish then tied for 11^th the following year. Wayland just missed qualifying for nationals in 2019 and again this past spring when the Pioneers finished third in the Sooner Athletic Conference and were ranked the equivalent of 27^th in the NAIA. (The 2020 NAIA National Championships were cancelled due to COVID-19.)

Wayland returns three golfers from last year’s squad, including senior Chante van Zyl, an all-conference player. She’ll be joined by junior Brooklyn Nix and sophomore Morgan Rutledge.

“We have a solid core that gives us a chance to go back to nationals again,” Giacomazzi said.

The coach said he is “heavy on the recruiting trail.

“I’m working hard to find that fourth and fifth players on our team that can get us to the national championships.”

Wayland’s women’s golf program began in 2008-09. That season, Charlotte Guilleux tied for third place at nationals, the best individual showing at the national tournament for a Wayland golfer.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The NAIA’s Council of Presidents Executive Committee met Wednesday and voted not to charge fall and winter student-athletes a season of competition for the 2020-21 academic year.

This decision was based on a survey of conferences and reflects the majority feedback. Of the 19 conferences that responded, 12 were in favor of removing the 50 percent rule, four were in favor of keeping the 50 percent rule, and three were divided in their position.

“Due to the constraints that COVID-19 has imposed on collegiate athletics, most of our conferences believed it was in the best interest of our fall and winter student-athletes to not charge a season of competition this year,” said NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr. “Many factors were taken into account, but the underlying consideration was relieving pressure on both student-athletes, as well as institutions, as they continue to navigate the fall and winter seasons.”

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Earlier this year, the University of North Texas at Dallas was accepted to be the newest member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). UNT Dallas will begin competition for the first time this fall and the Trailblazers will compete in men’s and women’s basketball, track and cross country.

After the University received outstanding support from students to have an athletics fee of $7 per credit hour (lowest fee in the state), which will help finance their sports. Students voted with a 63 percent approval rate for this fee, in order to complete the university’s scope, and enhance the alumni and student experience.

To learn more about UNT Dallas’ new sports program, we spoke with Sports Information Director Carlton Stowers.

Q: Which conference will UNT be participating in this fall?

A: Sooner Athletic Conference. UNT Dallas was just granted membership a few weeks ago.

Q: Why these sports?

A: To start off it will be easier to limit our sports, on the drawing board we have ideas to bring in other sports like Soccer, right now all sports will be played off campus, but soon the University will be building a facility that can hold their sporting events.

Q: Who will be coaching these sports?

A: We have some very high profile Coaches. For Men’s Basketball we have Josh Howard, a former All-Pro Player for the Dallas Mavericks. Rodney Belcher is the Women’s Basketball Coach, he is known for recently leading the Plano High School’s girls basketball team to the State Championship – the Dallas Morning News named him “Coach of the Year.” The Cross Country and Track Coach is also a product of the Dallas Independent School District, Kenna Royal.

Q: With the current outbreak of Covid-19, will there be a lot of changes with scheduling and current plans?

A: Everyone is in the process of looking over all of what the NAIA has put forward as far as testing and guidelines. It is a very complicated and extensive process with a lot of things that need to be considered, but as of now you must plan as if everything is going how you would want it to go. We have been busy with recruiting, and it is a day to day process right now. There is an awful lot of consideration that needs to be addressed, fortunately for us we are looking at starting a season in the winter and not fall.

Q: Being a new program, and with Covid-19, have you guys faced any difficulty with recruiting new players?

A: The big bonuses we have with recruiting is the background of the coaches who are doing the recruiting. Josh Howard has been successful due to his background as an accomplished athlete. You know that Coach Belcher knows what he is doing since he has a state championship under his belt. My impression is that they have been very warmly received by the kids.

It has been a very hard recruiting season for all schools, since it has to be done online through zoom, and other technology as opposed to in-person tryouts and conversations. They seem real positive about what they have been able to accomplish thus far. I think our track and cross country coach has wrapped up his recruiting, so if all goes well he will be getting his team ready by the time school starts. 

Nothing brings a university family together quite like getting to root for the home team. Now the city of Dallas can finally embrace a public hometown college team. The UNT Dallas Trailblazers have finally filled that void and now aim to make their city proud. Go Trailblazers!

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DAVENPORT – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics crowned cheer and dance national champions on Saturday in Iowa.

Concordia (Mich.) took the competitive cheer title for the first time, while Midland won its second competitive dance championship in three years.

The NAIA is the only national athletic organization to offer national championships in competitive cheer and dance as recognized sports and this is the third year for this event.

St. Ambrose University hosted the championships this Saturday in the first of a two-year deal. The SAU staff took care of fans, attendees and competitors and expedited well the business of the day each day. And the Lee Lohman Arena had plenty of space for the groups to warm up and get ready for performances. However, the competition venue did not.

Only the bleachers on the south side of the gym due to the way the court was set up for the competition. With seat-back chairs and bleachers, there was a seating capacity of 456. Additional temporary bleachers were brought in to seat another 126, bringing the total to 582. But there were more 800 fans in the gymnasium both Friday and Saturday. Add this number to the number of competitors, coaches and staff who were watching other performances, and there were many people standing or sitting crowded on the floor.

There were other issues which had much more impact on the competition itself involving the music played and the judges themselves.

Staff photo.

In a competition like this one, there is music that accompanies each performance. The total running time of the music played has to fall within a certain window – in this case, the minimum is 1:45 and max time in 2:15.

On prelims day, when the University of Cumberlands performed its cheer team’s routine, the music was not quite right. But the team couldn’t just stop midway through. Once it had started, they continued.

The group did its entire performance with the audio accompaniment and then walked off unceremoniously at the end with no set ending. One of the girls who performed looked at the crowd and said, “That’s not our music.”

Corissa Dyer, head coach of the UC cheerleading program, expanded on that statement.

“I couldn’t be more proud of how they performed with the circumstances that were given to them,” Dyer said. “Their music actually documented at a time of 2:07 when it was turned in. But after (the prelim performance), I ran over to the D.J. real quick and it was a 2:27 routine. So the music was 20 seconds longer than it should have been.

“That’s hard to perform a cheer routine at that slow a pace. Luckily, they were all on the same page to go with their own counts and to keep going and hit a perfect routine with zero deductions. There were a few timing mess-ups at the beginning because that’s when they were realizing that wasn’t their music, but once they all got on the same page, it was good one.”

Dyer said she wanted to speak to the head judge because she was first worried about a time deduction, as the new time is 12 seconds beyond the limit.

“My second concern was that although we hit a solid routine, they were a little frazzled. They were all looking at each other like deer in the headlights. I don’t know if we were given the option, but I didn’t know if I wanted to push to do the routine again, gambling since we hit our first one.

University of the Cumberlands cheer team. Staff photo.

“Overall, my team is really proud of the way they performed. You know, they were a little let down. You work all year to come a national championship event and that’s a let-down. These teams have been working since August, and for that to happen in the prelims… Luckily we checked it (the music) twice before finals.”

UC was in 10th place after the prelims and finished sixth overall in cheer.

At least one more team had a similar issue. Oklahoma City University’s dance team’s music was altered as well. But it wasn’t slowed down.

OCU dance team coach Tasha Hinex confirmed that the music played during her team’s preliminary competition performance was more than six seconds shorter than the music that had been submitted. It had been sped up.

This means her team had to perform its routine in less time than that it had been practicing it for months.

OCU was in sixth place following Day One and finished the competition in fifth place.

It brings up the question as to how something like this could happen in that one team’s altered music was slower and another’s altered music was faster.

A side-by-side comparison of the two performances from the weekend with music at different speeds can be viewed HERE.

The judges were another point of interest during this event. Not the judging, necessarily – although because judging has a subjective tone to it, there will always be some difference of opinion as to how things are seen. No, not the judging in this instance, but the judges.

Baker University dance team. Staff photo.

Andie Stitt was listed as the head judge for the dance competition.

She choreographed the dance routine used by Baker University for this season. Baker competed as one of the 12 teams in the 2019 national competition.

She was a judge in the Southeast Region qualifying competition, in which Baker competed to get to advance to nationals.

The optics of this are terrible. One of the categories to be judged is choreography (Section D.1.g in the 2018-2019 NAIA Competitive Dance Rulebook). Here is a list of things that are now at play at the national competition. If:

• Stitt judges her own work in the choreography category for Baker’s performance, this is a direct conflict of interests.
• Stitt recuses herself from judging the choreography category for Baker’s performance, this is now a scenario in which BU can’t get the total number of points possible from this judge, hurting Baker’s score. (Unless a number is just placed there arbitrarily).
→ However even then, if she still judges other teams’ choreography, she is now judging it against her own work. Still a conflict of interests.
• Stitt recuses herself from judging the choreography category for all teams’ performances, then why is she a judge in the first place, if she can’t adequately fulfill her duties?

From her Instagram page:

View this post on Instagram

I only have the best things to say about this team!!! So fun to come in and work with you all for a short time last night! Y’all killed it and I’m so amped to see you do this choreography! Plus, I got to see my babies @ayyyee_keke and @g_chambers98 ! Missed y’all! ❤️❤️❤️ thanks for having me @bakerdanceteam

A post shared by Andie Stitt (@andiestitt10) on Jan 4, 2019 at 8:58am PST

This is not to formally say that something has been done wrong. But again – the optics. This is not a good look.

On her Instagram account, Stitt has pictures with other teams for whom she has done choreography. However, none are with any of the other teams at the 2019 NAIA national competition.

A last thought is that with four (or more) judges for cheer or for dance, it might be in order to have judges from each of the four regions.

In the dance category, the Southwest region was not represented by a judge from that region. And in cheer, neither the Southwest nor the were represented.

It was an exciting weekend to watch once again and there are opportunities to make this event better in the future.

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