The Southern Highland Reader

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina University’s Lectures, Concerts and Exhibitions Series will present an “Evening of Spoken Word” featuring poet, actor and musician Saul Williams on Tuesday, Feb. 16, at the Fine and Performing Arts Center.

The evening will begin at 6 p.m. in the center’s Star Lobby and Fine Art Gallery with a performance by DJ Brett Rock of Asheville and creation of live art. Local artist Kinjac and members of the Afromotive will perform from 7 to 7:30 p.m. in the FAPAC theater, followed by Williams from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. DJ Brett Rock will help close the evening as Williams hosts a book signing in the Star Lobby from 8:30 to 9:15 p.m.

Williams is best known for his debut performance and featured poetry in the 1998 film “Slam,” which he co-wrote. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998 and the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Williams has published three collections of poetry: “Said the Shotgun to the Head,” “She” and “The Seventh Octave.” His most recent work is 2006’s “The Dead Emcee Scrolls.”

Williams has performed with legendary poets Allen Ginsberg and Sonia Sanchez, and has released three albums: “Amethyst Rock Star” in 2001, “Not in My Name” in 2003 and “Saul Williams” in 2004.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information about the event or the LCE Series, call 828-227-7206.

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–In a letter published in this week’s Smoky Mountain News, Jeannette Evans, owner of Cullowhee’s Mad Batter and principal in the area transportation advocacy group Smart Roads, has a look at where the “southern loop” issue stands.

A clip:

A new bypass has enormous potential to drastically change our community’s traffic patterns, economy and landscape. Conversely, all the other projects located in the CTP are designed to improve and/or expand existing roads, thus improving current traffic patterns and preserving our landscape. DOT’s own modeling showed that the 107 Connector would not solve the congestion on N.C. 107 or at the intersection of Asheville Highway. It is primarily these congestion areas that are cited as reasons for building the 107 Connector.

Read her letter 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–When outfitter Burt Kornegay, owner of Slickrock Expeditions, got an email from a friend inviting him to a save-the-Dillsboro-Dam shindig, he fired off a pithy response. Naturally, it was immediately shared all around the interwebs, where by complete happenstance it filtered all the way down to me.

Here it is, with his permission:

First, the note from his friend:

Yo, read all about it….

Saturday night there is a benefit in support of saving the Dillsboro Dam. So, all you anti-establishment, anti-Duke Power people come on down and catch the 7:30 set of singer-songwriter Barbara Duncan. If you’ve not heard her, you owe it to yourself to check this out and to have a few beers in the process, not to mention to support a good cause. So, let’s make Sat. eve. a party night and fill up Guadalupe (that also serves great food).

Hope to see you there …

Then, Burt’s response:

Hey, Partner, Hold on there!

Why do you say that fighting to keep the Dillsboro dam is “a good cause”?  Because doing so spites bad ole Duke?  Let’s not forget that the dam plugs up and drowns the Tuckaseegee River, halting the travel of river creatures and backing up an unnatural mile-long trough of deadwater behind it. Also, from a human perspective now, the dam stands in the way of creating a real, honest-to-goodness “river park” in Dillsboro.  By honest-to-goodness river park, I mean a park with a river that actually flows, like at East LaPorte (probably the most popular public place in our county).  A real river park would make a pleasurable place for all of us to go, and it would be good for businesses in Dillsboro too.  Hundreds of old concrete plugs like the Dillsboro dam are coming down all across the US,  cheered on by river-loving and civic-minded people just like yourself, and I say, Right On!

As for your rebel claim that it is “anti-establishment” to fight for the dam, because doing so is anti-Duke, I say, wasn’t the dam built by the county’s moneyed “establishment” in the first place, back when other segments of the local “establishment” were as busy as beavers gnawing out railroad lines, felling the virgin forest, and turning the Tuckaseegee into flowing mud?  I mean, what could be more “establishment” than a dam?  (Well, perhaps a skyscraper or aircraft carrier.)  And what could be more “establishment” than to align yourself with the likes of county manager Ken “Dam or Die” Westmoreland, who doesn’t mind taxing us to the tune of more than a quarter-million-$ to pay lawyers, in his attempts to do  .  . . what?  Why, to milk still more $ from Duke! When it comes to the Dillsboro dam, the “anti-” lies in taking it down.

Kornegay’s longtime Jackson County business has been the focus of some media features lately. Here and here from the Smoky Mountain News, for example. The Sylva Herald has also written him up (you can search that story at their paid archives, here).

Recent news from the legal struggle over the dam from the Sylva Herald here (link will expire in one week), and from the Smoky Mountain News here.

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.

Baseball

2009-12-09 – Baseball early signees.

2009-12-06 – The College Baseball Blog on Catamount team visit to Elida Home.

2009-07-10 – Asheville Reynolds standout picks Western.

2009-07-07 – Nice feature on pitcher Corey Martin (drafted by the Cubs) from the Yadkin Ripple.

2009-07-07 – Complete rundown of Catamounts in the minors from Catamountsports.com.

2009-07-07 – Former Catamount and recent Arizona Diamondbacks draftee Brent Greer jackin’ em in Yakima.

2009-07-07 – Ross Heffley, rising sophomore, recorded an odd stat line for the Orleans Firebirds in the prestigious Cape Cod League during a recent 9-3 win over Bourne. Heffley registered just one official at-bat, going 0-for-1. But he had three sacrifice bunts and a sacrifice fly with two RBI.

2009-07-07 – Western’s 24-23 win over Eastern Kentucky last season brought back memories of a 32-16 loss to Ohio State in Cullowhee almost three decades ago. I watched that one as a junior high kid, then about a decade later saw the Cats rally from about ten runs down with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to beat App.

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.

Ron Rash

CULLOWHEE – Ron Rash, the Parris Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Culture at Western Carolina University, is recipient of the 2009 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction for his fourth novel, “Serena.”

The award is presented annually by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association in recognition of works of fiction that exhibit “creative and imaginative quality, excellence of style, universality of appeal, and relevance to North Carolina and her people.”

Rash will pick up his award at a February meeting of the association in Greensboro. He also won the Sir Walter Raleigh Award in 2006 – that one for his third novel, “The World Made Straight.”

Published in October 2008, “Serena” tells the story of timber baron George Pemberton and his ruthless wife, Serena, who come to the North Carolina mountains to create a timber empire. The book drew widespread praise from critics across the nation after its release. A New York Times reviewer complimented Rash’s “elegantly fine-tuned voice” and listed the book as one of her 10 favorites of 2008, and “Serena” made the “best of 2008” lists of Publishers Weekly, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. The book also was No. 7 in online retailer Amazon’s list of the 100 best books of 2008.

A native of Boiling Springs, Rash teaches Appalachian literature and creative writing at WCU. His next book, a compilation of short stories titled “Burning Bright,” will be released in March.

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.

REGIONAL–Kay Byer, of Cullowhee, served as North Carolina’s Poet Laureate from 2005 until 2009.

Here, Brian Brodeur, poet and author of the blog How a Poem Happens, interviews Byer. They talk at some length about Byer’s poem “Precious Little”.

From the poem:

I seethed while my student poets,
all of them women, sat waiting for someone
to challenge his vision of literature,

belligerent canon
where warring tribes battle it out
in their epics and blood-spattered novels.
“Miss Welty,” I countered, “stayed

clear of the battlefield, if you recall.
She sat down every day at the same desk
and made language raise the world up
from the grave of our common amnesia.”

An excerpt from the interview:

Byer: “The fiction writer, made much younger and more successful in the poem, actually said that war was the story, expressing his regret that he had never experienced war first-hand. I countered with Eudora Welty’s never having been to war, yet being one of our greatest American writers. My students were appalled by his attitude, and over the next few weeks, we kept spiraling back to this incident in our discussion. The poem began out of my initial irritation and growing frustration at not having spoken more forcefully and eloquently that day.”

Read the post here.

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

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.

This Western Carolina men’s basketball team starts the season with the highest expectations in decades, but after a frigid start offensively and an absolute pounding at the hands of no. 3 Texas Wednesday, it’s clear that the Catamounts (1-1) have some work to do.

In fact, the early Southern Conference darling would have to be surprising Wofford, of the South Division, which has a last-second loss to Pittsburgh and a win over Georgia under its belt.

Western showed some defensive bright spots against the mega-talent at Texas — the Cats forced 21 turnovers — but Western shot an abysmal 26.2% from the floor. Even adjusted for Texas’s overwhelming defense, that’s bad. The Catamounts are a combined 6-of-39 from behind the arc, an area where Western expects to perform well.

WCU has the chance to work on its issues in a Thanksgiving week basketball intensive in Cullowhee: Western hosts Duquesne, Binghamton and Arkansas-Monticello next week, in the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts CBE Classic tournament.

Read about the Texas game in the Austin American Statesman here.

See highlights from ESPN here.