DALLAS – Parrish Hewitt began his career as a Pioneer by scoring a game-high 17 points and grabbing nine rebounds to lead Wayland Baptist to a 66-52 Sooner Athletic Conference victory over North Texas-Dallas here Thursday.

Wayland opened a 37-23 halftime lead then cruised in the second half as the Pioneers (8-9, 4-6 SAC) picked up a much-needed win over the Trailblazers (7-10, 3-7), snapping a four-game slide that include a pair of forfeit losses.

“I’m proud of how our guys have handled the adversity we’ve been through the last two weeks with COVID. We were locked in and had one of our best defensive efforts of the year,” Wayland coach Clint Galyean said.

Hewitt, a senior guard from Memphis, Tenn., who transferred from Northwestern Oklahoma State, spurred the Pioneers, who also got nine points from Thad Udoh and eight from Javorian Miller. Jaxon Recer pulled down nine boards and Jibrael Washington recorded half of WBU’s season-best 10 blocks.

The Trailblazers, in their second season and first in the SAC, were led by Vernon Johnson’s 12 points.

Wayland held a 44-35 edge on the boards and hit 16-of-22 free throws.

The 52 points by the Trailblazers represented the third-lowest output by an opponent this season, behind only 37 by Dallas Christian and 39 by Calvary Bible.

Both the Pioneers and Trailblazers struggled from the 3-point line, combining to go 0-for-11 in the second half. Wayland hit 4-of-9 from long range in the first half, the makes coming from four different players.

Next for the Pioneers is a match against 12^th-ranked Southwestern Assemblies of God University at 4 p.m. Saturday in Waxahachie. The league-leading Lions (12-3, 9-1) defeated Oklahoma-Panhandle State on Thursday, 86-68.

“Saturday is our biggest challenge of the year so far going to SAGU,” Galyean said. “We need to get some things cleaned up on the offensive side and play with the same intensity defensively.”

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Robert (Bob) Mong gets it.

As President of fast-growing University of North Texas at Dallas, the Ohio-raised and educated native surveys his responsibilities with a sweeping view.

His former career — overseeing the daily operation of the award-winning  Dallas Morning News — has now been replaced with a keen awareness of the need for — and importance of — higher learning and the broad social and economic impact UNTD has been designed to provide. Today, Mong keeps careful watch over the expanding array of programs the southern Dallas university makes available to its students. 

Seeing athletics – men’s and women’s basketball, cross-country and track & field – as a newcomer to  the curriculum is but one of the myriad boxes he was determined to check when he first stepped onto the campus.
     
And he needs only to look back to his personal history to judge the importance competitive athletics play in college life.  When recently advised that the Trailblazers had been formally welcomed into the NAIA and Sooner Athletic Conference, his smile rivaled that of Director of Athletics, Jack Allday. 

“It adds to what we’re building here,” he says. “By our offering sports at this level, we’re able to afford a lot of talented young women and men the opportunity to continue participating in activities they – and the entire student body – can enjoy.”

Mong knows. He’s been there.

Even before he established himself as a standout football and baseball player at Haverford College in Philadelphia, the son of a salesman dad and a mother who served as the county auditor had earned the reputation of one of his hometown’s premier athletes. He started young.

As a 12-year-old pitcher-first baseman in Little League in Eaton, Ohio, he homered twice in the last game of his final season to increase his total to a record-setting 12. His .734 batting average for that summer was also a league record.

By the time he entered Easton High School he was a four-sport performer. As a 175-pound running back, receiver, and defensive back, he was coached by the legendary Jack Harbaugh, father of NFL standouts Jim and John.     

“He was a brilliant, innovative coach who knew how to inspire a team,” Mong recalls. “I remember getting ready to play a team that had beaten us by 60 points the year before he came to Eaton High. He studied film and realized their quarterback wasn’t much of a passer. They relied strictly on a power running game. So, he decided we would take a chance and play a 10-man defensive line against them.”

The underdog Golden Eagles managed a 6-6 tie.

“Coach Harbaugh could be funny one minute and really intense the next. And he kept you on your toes. I was a four-year starter for him and never once felt secure that I would be in the lineup from one week to the next.  He made us work for it “

In baseball, Mong was among the premier players in the demanding Southwest Buckeye League. He became a basketball starter in his junior year and somewhere still pressed into an old scrapbook is a red second-place ribbon he earned as a sprinter in a 220-yard dash.

Though he reduced his athletic activities to football and baseball while majoring in English at Haverford (attending on an academic scholarship given by Scott Paper Company), it was the latter in which he excelled. An infielder, his .357 career batting average still ranks 10^th today on the Haverford’s  all-time career batting average list.

And, he was clearly a leader, named captain in football in his junior and senior seasons and in baseball as a senior.

In retrospect, it was that melding of athletics and academics he most fondly looks back on. The competitions, the camaraderie, the rivalries, the campus enthusiasm, all blended into his learning experience. “That,” he says, “is what we want to provide here at UNT Dallas.”

Athletics, he says, is a place where one learns valuable lessons in dedication, sacrifice, teamwork – and humility. In his day, among the opposition faced were young players like a rival shortstop named Mike Schmidt ,who went on to a lengthy major league career, and Mike Pratt, who later played basketball for the legendary Adolph Rupp at the University of Kentucky. And there were others with that rare talent owned by few. “In athletics,” Mong reflects, “you quickly learn to accept and deal with your own limitations and make the most of the talent you have.”

Today, his competitive spirit remains. He’s run the White Rock Marathon, puts in an average of 15 miles of roadwork weekly and lifts weights. Last fall, he was present at Trailblazers home basketball games, cheering his first-year team on.

“I love the atmosphere, the enthusiasm, the drive of the players and our coaches,” he says.

He gets it.

The post A Game Winner appeared first on Texas Sports.

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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