The Southern Highland Reader

CULLOWHEE – L. Douglas Wilder, the first African-American elected governor in the United States, told a group of Western Carolina University students, faculty and staff that there is still progress to be made in terms of race relations, despite the historic election of Barack Obama as president in 2008.

Recent controversy over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comments that a light-skinned, articulate black was more palatable to white American voters provides evidence that America has not advanced as far as many may think, Wilder said Wednesday, Jan. 20.

In a talk titled “The Movement: Past, Present and Future” that was part of WCU’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration week activities, he spoke about the irony of Reid’s comments coming 20 years after Wilder’s own election as governor of Virginia – a state that once was the seat of the Confederate South.

“That election in 1989 seemed to signify that voters were ready to judge candidates not by the color of the skin, but by the content of their character,” Wilder said, borrowing a phrase from King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. “Here today, Reid is saying that, 20 years later, we really haven’t crossed that threshold.”

Although Reid has since apologized to Obama for private remarks that were made public in the new book “Game Change” about the 2008 presidential election, he still needs to apologize to the rest of the country, Wilder said, calling the embattled politician’s statements among “the most dreadful comments in American political history” and “a slap in the face of the American people.”

Wilder reminded the audience that, throughout American history, progress typically has not been made through big, permanent changes. “It’s about small, consistent steps forward achieving that dream,” he said.

Wilder urged attendees to become aware of the false hopes and false steps that can derail efforts to strive for the American dream. “Don’t ignore your problems, hoping they’ll just go away,” he said. “Don’t think that if you just be patient and wait your turn, you’ll eventually get your time at the front of the line. And don’t think that only insiders know what’s best.”

He also warned against the impact of an increase in selfishness, violence and acceptance of mediocrity on the ability of today’s young people to continue to make progress. “What we need to do next is to not stop dreaming,” he said. “Barack Obama’s election has elicited the need for new dreams.”

Too many people today are quick to blame their problems on others, he said, telling the crowd that his mother constantly reminded him that he could do anything he set his mind to, and that his teachers never complained about a lack of resources.

The WCU event was sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Martin Luther King Jr. planning committee.

CLEMSON–Trailing 56-51 with eight minutes to play, Western Carolina looked to be in a decent spot to make a run Tuesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum. Instead, the Catamounts went stone cold from the field and gave up a 23-6 run down the stretch to lose 79-57 to the 24th-ranked Tigers.

The loss was Western’s first in ten games, and drops the Cats to 10-2.

WCU was without the services of last week’s Southern Conference player of the week Mike Williams, a guard who scored 24 points in Western’s win at Louisville Dec. 12. Williams twisted an ankle in practice over the weekend.

Read more here from ESPN
Read more here from WCU
Read more here from Clemson
Asheville Citizen-Times staffs the game

The New York Times asked a panel of columnists, including Western Carolina professor Bruce Henderson, just how parents should deal with the “Santa question”.

Henderson, whose research has largely been on the development of children’s curiosity and exploratory behavior, wrote, in part:

[In observation studies conducted at malls, my students] found that all too frequently parents, in their determination to give their children the Santa experience or to get a photo for the scrapbook, were insensitive to their children’s wariness or outright fear of the big man in the red suit. Smiling was rare, crying was not. Parents may act the Scrooge without realizing it.

Other columnists on the panel are psychologists and novelists, including Gregory Mone, author of “The Truth About Santa: Wormholes, Robots and What Really Happens on Christmas Eve.”

He writes, in part:

I don’t plan on supporting the notion that reindeer can fly or that Santa is immortal. Of course not. Both ideas are absurd. Instead, I’ll suggest that the reindeer are actually great jumpers, and that Santa probably has his organs replaced with artificial substitutes every decade to extend his lifespan far beyond the average human.

Read the Times piece here.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina’s men’s basketball team rose another two spots to number six in the CollegeInsider.com mid-major poll this week  — despite having had the week off for finals — and resumes action tonight at AP no. 24 Clemson.

According to the Asheville Citizen-Times the Catamounts will be one player short, due to a practice injury over the weekend, but the WCU coaching staff did not divulge which player would likely miss tonight’s game.

Western has been off since its Dec. 12 win at Louisville.

Sports Network preview here.

Football

2009-12-19 – WCU coach Dennis Wagner announces mid-term transfers: defensive back Reggie America (Coffeyville, Kan., CC/Junction City, Kan., HS); defensive lineman Walt Woolwine (Garden City, Kan., CC/Ashland, Kan., HS); offensive lineman Dan Polaski (Hargrave, Va., Academy/Long Meadow, Mass.; HS); and quarterback Casey Turner (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge HS). Turner is a transfer from Connecticut.

2009-12-19 – Wagner turns down Kansas.

2009-12-15 – 2010 schedule includes NC State, early date with Appalachian. Story here.

2009-11-29 – Cats sign Tuscola fullback/linebacker John Austin Chambers.

2009-11-29 – In an interview at halftime of last week’s Duquesne game, Coach Dennis Wagner told Catamount basketball broadcaster Gary Ayers that he and his staff planned to try former North Buncombe star quarterback Randy Pressley, who redshirted this year, on the defensive side of the ball in the spring.

2009-08-20 – Veteran Charlotte Observer sportswriter Tom Sorenson has climbed the stairs at E.J. Whitmire Stadium many times during his career. Here he writes about Brad Hoover, who used to run those very stairs (A hint; it’s the Observer’s annual “remember Green Bay” piece).

2009-07-24 – Former WCU standout Darius Fudge was named the Indoor Football League rookie of the year last week. Fudge, who plays for the Wichita Wild, was also a first-team all-league running back selection in the 20-team league. Fudge ran for 936 yards and 31 touchdowns this year. Also honored was Lamont Reid, another former Catamount who was a first-team linebacker for the Wild. A quick look at the Wild roster shows five former Catamounts; in addition to Fudge and Reid, there are Carlton Bailey, Kevin McAlmont and Andre Brown.

2009-07-16 – More on Bumpus from the Muskogee (OK) Phoenix:

“I’ve talked to him and he’s excited,” Muskogee coach Matt Hennesy said. “He had some injury problems at Oklahoma and was pushed back on the depth chart. He wants to get on the field. Jonte also had an offer from Cal-Poly.”

Hennesy said Bumpus, who had 92 tackles and nine sacks in his senior year (2007) at Muskogee, has three years of eligibility left. He was signed by WCU assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Andy Follett, who was at Missouri State.

“(Follett) signed Jaryd Horn and Andre Anderson to Missouri State,” Hennesy said. “He recruited (Muskogee) hard and that’s how Jonte knows him.”

2009-07-14 – The Catamounts have bolstered their defensive line by bringing in Oklahoma Sooner transfer Jonte Bumpus. Story from the Oklahoman. High school info (from OU): Recorded 92 tackles and nine sacks as a senior in Oklahoma’s 6A Class … also recorded 10 tackles for loss, nine forced passes, and three fumble recoveries … named first-team all-state by The Oklahoman and Tulsa World … defensive lineman of the year in district 6A-4 … collected 96 tackles and four sacks as a junior … also a track and field athlete … coached by Matt Hennesy.

• Three-star Rivals.com
• No. 32 defensive end in the nation (Scout.com)
• No. 30 weakside defensive end in the nation (Rivals.com)
• No. 8 in Oklahoma top 30 of 2007 (Rivals.com)

2009-07-10 – Ja’Quayvin Smalls here and here.

Notes: Among the players who won’t return in the fall are a couple of very familiar names: Quintin Phillips, a senior linebacker with a nose for the ball, and Adam Hearns, an athlete who has seen time at quarterback and wide receiver. A source close to the program says that “nobody is gone that the coaches wish was still around”. More evidence that Coach Dennis Wagner’s my-way-or-the-highway philosophy applies regardless of talent level.

CULLOWHEE–The Asheville Citizen-Times’s Keith Jarrett reports that Western Carolina University head football coach Dennis Wagner has turned down an offer to join new Kansas coach Turner Gill as an assistant coach.

Wagner said he was offered the job as offensive line coach and assistant head coach by Gill, the former Nebraska quarterback who left the head coaching job at Buffalo to take over the Jayhawks.

“Turner offered me the job Saturday night and I turned it down Tuesday morning,” Wagner said.  “I told him it was in my best interests to stay at Western Carolina.”

Blog post here.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina University transitioned to the next generation of its web presence last night, as it launched a revised version of its website.

According to Dirk Herr-Hoyman, Western’s Director of Web Services, and a release from the university, the site now offers “revamped news and events sections featuring a feed from a live campus events calendar; links to WCU social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter; a lighter color scheme; a less cluttered page header intended to make the page easier to navigate; and an improved WCU site search engine.”

“It’s a tuneup, something that on the web you get to do every few years if you want to keep up,” Herr-Hoyman said.

More from Teresa Killian Tate at The Reporter:

The modifications addressed in the first tune-up were driven in part by the need to improve online publicity about campus events.

“Last year’s interactive audit of the WCU Web site by Stamats consultants confirmed what many of us already knew – the Web is the first place many people go to find out what’s happening at the university,” said Bill Studenc, senior director of news services.

Laura Huff, e-marketing coordinator for WCU, said the tuned-up homepage will not only contain a link to a new comprehensive campus event calendar but also preview select upcoming “hot” events.

“This preview, a short list of events dynamically updated with fresh content, will better promote the wide variety of events offered to the region,” said Huff. “Visitors to the homepage will have easier access to information about all the public events happening on campus.”

Visit WCU’s site here.

CULLOWHEE–Ryan Fagan of the Sporting News has a long question-and-answer session with Catamount senior forward Jake Robinson.

Here’s a snippet:

SN: You guys received a couple of votes in both the AP and coaches poll after beating Louisville. Is that pretty exciting for the school?
JR: It is. The students and faculty are really buying into what we’re doing now. The last couple of days here at school, everywhere I go, it’s “Oh, what a great win guys, you guys are unbelievable,” or, “We saw it on TV.” It really is good for the school, for the recognition. It’s not historically a great basketball school or a great basketball program, so for us to get some recognition and some attention is good.

Here’s the piece.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina’s red-hot basketball team has ridden a nine-game winning streak and Saturday’s upset of Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals to a number eight spot in the most recent CollegeInsider.com mid-major poll, released Monday night.

The Catamounts are up from 15 the week before.

Western has also risen to number 10 in the national RPI rankings.

A variety of national polls are reflecting the success of coach Larry Hunter’s team. Read more here from the university’s sports site, catamountsports.com.

Read a feature from Tyler Norris Goode in Tuesday’s Asheville Citizen-Times here.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina built a 17-point second half lead, then fought off a strong rally from the Atlantic Sun Conference’s Campbell Camels to record a 66-59 win before some 2,700 fans at the Ramsey Center.

Junior college transfer Mike Williams, a guard, came off the bench to lead Western with 16 points.

The win was the eighth straight for WCU, which is ranked 15th in collegeinsider.com’s mid-major poll, and 23rd in the national RPI standings.

Western’s team, which was stuck in Peoria for a day-and-a-half after Monday’s win over Bradley because of weather delays, has played four games in eight days, and adds another — at Louisville on Saturday — before breaking for final exams.

Here’s a game story from the Asheville Citizen-Times’s Tyler Norris Goode.

An excerpt:

One of the flashy banners hanging above the pep band for the first time Thursday night listed off Western Carolina’s short list of success as a Division I men’s basketball program: Two Southern Conference division titles (1996, 2009) and a SoCon tournament title and an NCAA tournament appearance in 1996.

Thursday’s win won’t be commemorated on the banner, but WCU is off to its best start since opening the 1958-59 season with a 15-1 mark.

[Western's Jake] Robinson also reached a personal milestone with his 1,000th career point when his 3-pointer gave the Cats’ a 59-50 edge with 3:33 to go.

All the X’s and O’s here from catamountsports.com.

CULLOWHEE-Western Carolina hosts Campbell tonight in a clash of two teams off to banner starts.

Western (8-1) and Campbell (5-1) both moved up to Division 1 competition in the mid-1970’s, and both are off to their best starts since that move.

Campbell, which is 0-15 in Cullowhee over the years, has beaten East Carolina and North Florida this year, and lost by 11 to Virginia Tech.

Western jumped from 31st to 23rd in the national RPI ranking after its Monday night win at Bradley, and moved to 15th in the collegeinsiders.com mid-major poll Monday afternoon. In addition to the win at Bradley, the Catamounts have topped Duquesne and SoCon foes Furman and Wofford.

Western meets Rick Pitino’s Louisville squad Saturday in Louisville.

More on tonight’s game from the Asheville Citizen-Times and the Sanford Herald.

COLUMBIA–Wayne Tolleson, perhaps Western Carolina’s last two-sport star, played baseball and football for the Catamounts in the seventies.

He went on to a ten-year major league baseball career with the Rangers, White Sox and Yankees.

Tolleson, a Spartanburg native, has been named a member of the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame class of 2010.

2009-12-08 – Slam Online’s Joey Whelan’s take on Western’s win at Bradley:

Western Carolina out of the SoCon took down Bradley last night, significant because the MVC is looking stacked this season and because the Catamounts are now looking pretty at 8-1, their only loss coming to Texas. The rest of the early season schedule includes the aforementioned win over the Braves, solid victories over conference opponents Furman and Wofford and the win to hang your hat on for now, an 83-77 squeaker over Duquesne. This is an offense by committee with six players averaging between six and 11 points and five averaging been four and six rebounds. It’s always hard to gauge how these hot starts can carry over into the near year, but with the type of balance Western Carolina is showing, I like them in the SoCon to make some noise.

2009-12-08 – WCU beats Bradley.

2009-12-07 -Western Carolina’s mens basketball team enters tonight’s game against Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, with six straight wins in its back pocket, and a 7-1 overall record.

The Catamounts rose today to 15th in the collegeinsider.com mid-major poll.

The Cats are coming off of consecutive league victories over Wofford and Furman, and Western is ranked 97th in the Sagarin college basketball rankings from USA Today. Bradley, which competes in the Missouri Valley Conference, is 93rd. On the other hand, the Cats are 32nd in the national RPI rankings, Bradley 86th.

Western is playing a steady — and luxurious — ten-man rotation, and has had six different high-scorers in eight games. The Catamounts have shown flashes of potential on offense, including a record-setting night from three-point territory in a victory over Duquesne, but have hung their hats on their defense. Western is forcing 21 turnovers per game, good for a nationally fifth-best turnover ratio of 7.8. The Catamounts are ranked eighth in steals.

Tonight’s game is the first of a three-year three-game series with the Braves; two in Illinois, one in Cullowhee.

2009-11-29 – WCU at #52 in the national RPI, one spot behind Bradley, who Western plays next week.

2009-11-29 – Western Carolina forced 29 turnovers in a comfortable 75-59 win Saturday at Gardner Webb. As the the Shelby Star reported, Western beat the Runnin’ Bulldogs at their own up-tempo game. Brandon Giles, a senior all-conference selection, had 24 points after a quiet start to his season. This was Larry Hunter’s first win in four tries against Gardner Webb.

2009-11-26 – WCU tops Duquesne (post)

Western Carolina’s men’s basketball team had a pretty good Monday — the Cats jumped ten spots to number 15 in the collegeinsider.com mid-major poll, then jumped all over Bradley in the second half for a 75-67 win in Peoria, Il.

Western got 21 points from Jake Robinson, and after trailing 56-46 midway through the second half, tore off a 23-4 run to secure the win.

Read the game story here from the Peoria Star-Journal

Read the game blog here from the Peoria Star-Journal

Another note or two here

CULLOWHEE – A career in nursing can be just a year away for individuals who enroll in Western Carolina University’s new 12-month Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program.

The ABSN Program allows those who already hold bachelor’s degrees, or higher degrees, in any field to transition to a career as registered nurse. The program is designed for nonworking full-time students who are willing to immerse themselves in a full year of intense academic study, said Shelia Chapman, assistant professor at WCU and coordinator for the program.

Previously, WCU’s School of Nursing admitted just one group of students into the ABSN program each May, and those students completed the program in 16 months. Beginning in 2010, new classes of students will be enrolled in both January and August, and those students will be able to complete the program in 12 months, making them eligible to take the state’s licensing examination to become a registered nurse.

WCU’s nursing faculty is currently interviewing candidates for January enrollment, and no new applications are being taken for that class, which will be full, Chapman said. However, an application packet for the August class will be posted online on Feb. 1. The deadline for submission of that application is May 15.

Course requirements for the ABSN are the same as those for a traditional bachelor of science in nursing degree, and prerequisites are required. Classes are held full time on the Enka campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, and there are no semester breaks, Chapman said. Students typically attend classes for eight hours a day, five days each week.

Earlier this year, WCU’s School of Nursing and the Charles George VA Medical Center in Asheville announced a new partnership designed to increase the number of nurses qualified to serve the region and its veteran population. A federal grant of $1.5 million is being used to increase the number of students in WCU’s ABSN program. The partnership is part of a five-year, $40 million federal program that began in 2007.

For more information about the ABSN, visit http://www.wcu.edu/10421.asp on the Web. The Web site includes information on scheduling an advising session. Information also is available by contacting Shelia Chapman at (828) 670-8810, extension 228.

Railsback

CULLOWHEE–Brian Railsback, dean of the honors college at Western Carolina, is a finalist for the newly-created position of Vice President for Student Affairs at Missouri Western State University, according to the school’s student newspaper.

Railsback was founding dean of WCU’s Honors College in 1997, resigned to be Department Head of English in 2000, and was called back to The Honors College as dean in 2004.

Missouri Western’s President is Robert Vartabedian, who served as Dean of Western Carolina’s College of Arts and Sciences between 1999 and 2005.

UPDATE: Railsback stays in Cullowhee; Esther Peralez, former vice president for student affairs at the City College of New York, is hired at Missouri Western.

Mike Williams

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina’s mens basketball team got 25 points from former Pisgah star Jake Robinson and broke a record with 17 team three-pointers en route to a 83-77 win over previously unbeaten Duquesne Wednesday at Ramsey Center.

The game was the third in three days for Western in the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts CBE Classic, a subregion of which the Catamounts hosted.

Western won convincingly over Arkansas-Monticello and Binghamton in games on Monday and Tuesday.

Duquesne came in with a win over Iowa under its belt, but needed overtime to put away the Boll Weevils of Div. II Arkansas-Monticello Tuesday.

Western’s Mike Williams, a junior guard who transferred from Jackson State, was named tournament MVP.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (staffed the game)
Coverage from ESPN
Duquesne athletics writeup
WCU athletics writeup

SYLVA–Ja’Quayvin Smalls, a Western Carolina University football recruit who died during an off-season team workout, passed away from “acute lethal cardia dysrhythmia due to cardiomyopathy” according to autopsy results released today.

Smalls also carried the sickle cell trait, according to Dr. Wm. Lawrence Selby, who performed the autopsy at Harris Regional Hospital.

In his report, Dr. Selby noted that Smalls had “a history of sickle cell trait, past positive PPD, and irregular heartbeat with PVC’s during fever approximately 5 years earlier.”

Selby told Tyler Norris Goode and Jon Ostendorf of the Asheville Citizen-Times that he had no clear evidence that the sickle cell trait played a role in Smalls’ death. At question in the national sports media after Smalls’ July death was whether testing for the sickle cell trait — which WCU did not perform — might’ve prevented the death.

Coverage from the Asheville Citizen-Times here.

CULLOWHEE–The online basketball publication SLAM features WCU sophomore Harouna Mutombo in this Sunday post.

Mutombo, nephew of NBA great Dikembe Mutombo, was named Southern Conference Freshman of the Year last year, as well as to the SoCon All-Conference second team.

Here’s an excerpt from the story:

Playing in a mid-major conference, Mutombo’s exploits were regularly outshone by the bright star that was Stephen Curry at Davidson last season. Regardless, Harouna made a huge splash in the Southern Conference leading the Catamounts in both points (14.4) and rebounds (4.6) while placing second in assists (68), steals (56) and blocks (16) and minutes (30.4).

And it didn’t stop there. After he finished up his college season, Canada Basketball invited him to train with the National Team as they prepared for the World Championship Qualifying Tournament where he would be under the tutelage of not only Team Canada’s head coach Leo Rautins but also Raptors’ Maurizio Gherardini and Cavs assistant coach Mike Malone learning the international game, even playing a few exhibition games in Spain for Canada.

In a related matter, a Texas blogger wondered last week whether Harouna would adopt his uncle’s famous finger-wagging “no-no” after blocking an opponent’s shot. That remains to be seen, we suppose.

No-no.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina University’s soaring pool of applicants is described as a “success story in outreach and marketing” by Smoky Mountain News reporter Giles Morris in this piece for the November 18 issue. News editor Becky Johnson adds, in a sidebar, that the quality of students could rise with the number of applications, and that the university’s student retention rate — often a problem in Cullowhee — has risen past the national average.

Here’s a clip from Morris’s story:

“What our staff is hearing — whether during an Open House, a campus tour or one of our regional recruitment events across the state — is that people are attracted by the affordability WCU offers and the dynamic, unique blend of academic majors available at WCU,” [WCU employee Mark] Anderson said. “Prospective students and their parents are very aware of all the new buildings and construction on campus, what a beautiful place Cullowhee is, and that the total student experience is possible at WCU.”

Here’s an excerpt from Johnson’s sidebar:

Despite a rise in applications –– tripling over three years –– enrollment at WCU has not risen significantly. The bigger pool has allowed the school to seek a higher caliber student, said Chancellor John Bardo.

The school has raised its academic standards, as measured by the average GPA and SAT scores of new students. The SAT went from 1023 to 1033 between 2003 and 2009. In 2003, the GPA was 3.25, compared to 3.48 this year.

“That’s a really, really big change in the nature of students,” Bardo said.

Left for future issues, maybe, is another number that is rising at Western: the student-to-teacher ratio. Traditionally one of Western’s calling cards, that ratio is rising quickly because of budget cuts, and those cuts are likely to worsen in the next couple of years. How will the school meet the challenge of teaching this growing pool of smart students?

Read the Smoky Mountain News story here.
Read the Smoky Mountain News sidebar here.