Hornets Finished the Job When It Counts

Doing the Hornets 24-21 victory over VMI (Virginia Military Institution), DSU accomplished two goals: one, to make plays when it counts to score espically the red zone and second, to hold on to the lead to win the 4th quarter.

Lets start with the swarming defense of the Hornets, they kept the Keydets at bay swatting down balls left and right, stalling drives, and even forcing four turnovers. They very key play of the game came late in the 4th quarter when VMI went on a 4th and 10 from their own 20 yard and forced the Keydete to turn the ball over on downs. Despite only one sack, the defense was solid but need to clean up the defensive penalties and giving up over 300+ yards. Other than that, defensive coordinator Michael Ketuchum did a good job of not letting defense stay on the field for a very long time allowing the offense to score points.

On the offensive side of the ball, the game belong to the preseason MEAC Player of the Year Justin Wilson. He finished with six catches for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Just like in training camp and practice from last year, Nick Elko's chemistry with Wilson was clicking on all cylinders making plays including a 47 yard touchdown catch late in the 3rd quarter. Also I can't forget Travis Tarplay who also made a diving touchdown catch back in the 1st half to help out the scoring. Nick Elko made great throws without making a turnover (remember Anthony Galud's turnover problem from last season).  The running game was okay but made big 1st downs late in crunch time to run out the clock because VMI were out of timeouts.

The offense don't need to be pass happy, just balanced out the offense with running the football and then pass the football. Try over 100 yards running and 250-300 yards passing. Also catch the football because there more than five drop passes from our wide receivers. Secure the football or it will  come back will to bite you.

Special teams were average today because on the opening kickoff Tarplay fumbled the football and lost it. Punter Michael Kano first punt only went 11 yards and coach Kermit Blount gave Kano an earful. Since then, Kano calm down punted the football deep into VMI territory. My biggest concern was the field goal kickers. In the first quarter, the extra point was missed and I was saying to myself, "Oh no here we go again." After that DSU used two place kickers to get extra points and freshman Mitchell Ward made a huge 24 yard field goal early in the 4th quarter to extend the lead.

Overall Blount and the Hornets played very but remember its only the 1st game of the season and with a little stuff to clean up, expect some positive results coming from the Hornets football team.

Track & Field Finished in the Top 10

Even though Norfolk State has won the 2011 MEAC Track & Field Championships, the Delaware State Men's and Women's Track & Field was impressive finishing in the top ten on Mother's Day weekend. The ladies finished eighth and the men finished seventh during the three day event. 

On the ladies side, Kendra Myers finished fourth in the long jump with a leap of 5.91 meters, her teammate Kristen Johnson finished sixth in the heptathlon. The highlight of the event belong to Tracey Fan Fan who set a career best of 1:00.63 in the 400 meter hurdles, good enough for a fourth place finish.


On the men's side the Hornet team of Tyquan Brown, Ryan Carter, Tarqi Devore, and Leslie Murrary won their third straight MEAC Title in the 1600 meter relay with a time of 3:08.42. Murray also capture the 400 meter title with a time of 50.29 seconds.

Now the that the MEAC season is over lets see how the Hornets will do individually in their respective meets between now and June. Also we are still keeping an eye out for the hornet men's track & field to move in the national rankings.

Men's Track & Field Moving Closer to the Top 10

For the first time, as far as I know in Delaware State sports history, the DSU men's track & field are ranked #13 in the mid-Atlantic Region of the NCAA Divison I Outdoor Track & Field. I must say I am pretty impress because Delaware State has been working hard everyday 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year including Leap Year.

This year besides Lesile Murray, Ryan Carter, Tyquan Brown, and Tariq Devore have helped the Hornets bring records this year and these are underclassmen. If this keeps up after this weekend's MEAC Championship, the Hornets might moved up to the top 10 before the they compete in the NCAA Championships.

Even if they don't make the top 10, they will be recognize throughout the nation as the best track and field team ever. Hampton, UMES, and Norfolk beware DSU is coming to make statement in the years to come.

March Madness Sports Wrap-Up

March has come and gone, however there were plenty of madness for Delaware State Sports Athletics. So without further or due lets recap the March Madness of DSU.

Men's and lady hornets basketball
It was one and done for the men's and lady hornets basketball as they both lost their respective games during the 1st round. One the women's side Brittany Washington had a double-double (12 points, 16 rebounds) but it wasn't enough as the lady hornets miss their last 13 shots, committed seven turnovers in a 52-44 lost to UMES.

On the men's side the free fall continued when the Hornet men lost to the same team that eliminated them from the MEAC last year, South Carolina State. During the Hornets 64-59 lost to the Bulldogs, Jay Threatt scored 20 points, to go along with four assists and five steals in a losing effort. Once again the Hornets were getting out rebounded by SC State 34-23, finished the season losing eight straight games. Both the men and lady hornets finished with the same record of 9-21 with a lot of rebuilding to do for the new season coming up in November.
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Lady Hornets Softball
Coach Fred Savage and the lady hornets softball team are on a roll finishing the month of March with a record of 13-8 batting .324 and averaging over six runs a game. They have been making a lot of hit and attempting to steal bases to try and score runs. Lets see if the lady hornets can keep up the momentum in the month of April as they prepared for the MEAC Tournament in May.
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Hornets Baseball
This was a baseball team that has some trouble fitting the right notes with a 10-9 record in March, the reasons pitching and defense. There were two home games that the Hornets blew the lead and lost: a winless Hartford team and University of Delaware. The Hornets need to calm down on errors and the pitchers need to have better command on their pitches so they can get the outs they need to win games.
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DSU Student wins her Boxing Debut
Congratulations to Melinda "The Gem" Levasseur for winning her Delaware boxing debut back on March 19. Levasseur is a accounting sophomore major made a TKO in the 1st round on Tisha Himes of York, PA. Melinda was going to play soccer here at Delaware State, but instead she chose boxing as her passion. No wonder her boxing record is 8-1 so far, and she's just getting started.

 

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Lady Hornets Bowling
The Lady Hornets bowling team were unable to defend their MEAC Title by losing to Morgan State in the semi-finals of the MEAC Bowling tournament. No worries though the lady hornets will be back better than ever.
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Equestrian
The lady hornets equestrian team are heading to the 2011 Varsity Equestrian National Championship later this month after competing against three tough school: Georgia, TCU, and South Dakota.
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Lady Hornets Tennis
The lady hornets tennis team are making impress start for the month of March and looking to do more in April as they prepared for the MEAC Tournament in May.
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Now that we are in the home stretch of April, Lets see if the DSU Spring Sports teams can continue to be on winning track as we head into the final month of the regular season.

Spring Football Practice Begins

Today maybe April Fools Day as we make safe jokes and pranks, but today the "new" Delaware State Hornets football team will begin spring practice as they prepared for their red/white spring game on April 16.

New hornet head Kermit Blount told dsuhornets.com that their coaching staff will introduce some new play systems to share with his players and everyone has a clean slate heading into spring camp.

I guarantee you that everyone on that football team will be fighting for their jobs because Coach Blount believes that this team will not only impress, but to make every minute count.

Here are the keys for the Hornets spring camp:
The Hornets will have four veteran wide recivers: Justin Wilson, Travis Tarplay, Donnell Dixon, and Darrius Jackson. Will they impress their coaching staff will good drills and make good catches with their speed?

Most of their defense will return including linebacker Brandon Harvey, Matt Spicer, and others but the defensive line will have a big gap to fill to replace Andre Caroll as leader of the defense. Can the defense improve better than last year?

The two headed monster: The Hornets might play with two running backs with Jaashawn Jones and James Rosseau, but who wants the job more to carry the load?

Quarterback Expectations?: Last season everyone expect Anthony Glaud to carry the Hornets to a winning season. Instead Glaud had a very tough season to begin the season but finished on a positive note. Now its up to Nick Elko to help the hornets offensive struggles. Are we going to expect good expectations or another struggling season for DSU quarterbacks.

Special Teams: Who will be the Hornets new kicker? Will it be be same kicker as last year or will it be someone else that can make extra points, field goals, and good kickoffs? Also can the Hornets special teams get good coverage and good kickoff returns?

Lets see how the two week spring camp will turnout. Also they will have summer camp before the real deal begins September 3 versus Virginia Military Institute (VMI).

Coming Soon To Delaware State Sports...

Doing the past few days I was looking for jobs to apply at Delaware State University and I saw two coaching positions for women's sports: Golf and Lacrosse.

So I refresh the page twice to make sure and looked at both job descriptions and my eyes did not deceived me at all. So coming soon to DSU Sports, lady hornets golf and lacrosse.

The question that puzzled me a bit was why would DSU have golf and lacrosse come to Dover? That answer was simple because the Delaware State Athletic Department tried to get rid of equestrian due budget concerns. We already know what happened next: the Equestrian team took DSU to court won the case, forced DSU to pay up for their mistakes on Title IX, keep equestrian, and find more female sports in order to meet the Title IX criteria.

Now with golf and lacrosse coming to Delaware State, can you imagine how many students will attend at DSU? Think about it lacrosse has been popular here in Delaware especially in the Delmarva region next to football and basketball. Now where will hornets golf will practice and compete at? Well, there is the Cavalier Country Club  in Newark, Delaware for the hornets  to play at.

I don't know when Hornets golf and lacrosse will start but I'm pretty sure there will more female athletics than ever before at Delaware State University. Hornet fans get ready golf and lacrosse is coming to DSU, it will be a fun experience and great way to expand hornet sports for females everywhere.

Hornet Football Schedule Release

Forget spring and summer, I'm so ready for the start of the Delaware State Hornets football season. This week I went to dsuhornets.com and found the 2011 Hornets football schedule and I'm saying to myself that its going another challenging season.

Think about it, new coach, new plays, new season, new attitude. The only question is will be the results be the same as it was the last three seasons?

It will be a tough season for new head coach Kermitt Blount as his new look Hornets begin the season on September 3rd on the road versus WMI (Virginia Military Institute), followed by a home opener versus Shaw University on September 10. Then the Hornets will be on a three game road trip starting with their in-state rival University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware on September 17, followed their MEAC opener versus MEAC co-champions South Carolina State (September 24) and Florida A&M (October 1).

The Hornets will return home on October 8 when they take on Norfolk State, then its back on the road to the Dawg Pond versus North Carolina A&T on October 15. After their bye week, the Hornets be back home starting with their Homecoming game versus Morgan State on October 29 (remember the fumble of 2007), and North Carolina Central on November 5.

Normally DSU plays their rival Hampton in either September or October, instead they play November 12 at Hampton followed by the final game of the season at home versus Howard.

The Hornets will not play co-champion Bethune-Cookman this season but they will meet again next season. Before I jumped the gun, I want to see how the new look Hornets will fare starting with their spring game on April 16 at Alumni Stadium followed by their summer training camp in August.
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2011 Delaware State Hornets Football Schedule

September 3 @ Virginia Military Institution (VMI)
September 10 Shaw University
September 17 @ University of Delaware (Route 1 Rivalry)
September 24 @ South Carolina State
October 1 @ Florida A&M
October 8 Norfolk State University
October 15 @ North Carolina A&T
October 22 Bye
October 29 Morgan State University (Homecoming)
November 5 North Carolina Central
November 12 @ Hampton
November 19 Howard

Note: All games will be played on Saturday, Home teams are bold. Times will be announced at a later date. Schedule is subject to change.