I wouldn’t play spades for Southern

Usually at colleges and universities that have prevalent football programs, a party, or bash, is held to commemorate National Signing Day, the official period when high school football players commit through the NCAA to a college program that has usually strived hard to recruit them.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, hundreds of high school seniors pledged their pigskin allegiance to the 10 football programs throughout the SWAC.
Perhaps the reason why Alabama A&M received 28 signees was because of the strong legacy Anthony Jones has for the Bulldogs in Normal, Ala. and let’s be honest: Who wouldn’t want to play with Nic and Kelcy Luke?
Of those 28, one was from Louisiana.
Twenty-eight signed on with Alcorn State. One of them was from Louisiana so were two of a whopping 51 signees committed to Jackson State.
Grambling State picked up 35 signees, but since Grambling State’s fate is up in the air, thanks to allegations of using ineligible players, just how many of those will play?
But the fact remains 35 young men still signed with Grambling State, Alcorn State collected 28 signatures and Jackson State — out of all schools — got 51 people to commit to its squad.
At Southern, 22 players committed, in which 10 were from Louisiana and seven from Baton Rouge.
Now the shocker isn’t that Jags head coach Pete Richardson finally recruited from the area, an action many of his critics say he hasn’t done enough. It’s not as if he had a choice. The putout from New Orleans, which is about 30 percent of recruits in the state, has dispersed. They just aren’t there anymore.
The shocker is the players decided to come here anyway, despite the deplorable conditions in which athletes have to train, condition and even compete.
Just what does a scouting tour around the athletic facilities include at Southern University? Are tours done during the beginning of the week so prospects can see how popular “Red Beans Monday” is on campus, or do coaches bring prospects on “Pretty Wednesday,” so student athletes can check out the ‘landscape?’
How is it that Richardson, head baseball coach Roger Cador, head men’s basketball coach Rob Spivery, track and field coach Johnny Thomas; along with women’s basketball coach Sandy Pugh and softball’s leading lady Nancy Marshall get such talent to come to Southern?
It damned sure ain’t through the facilities.
The most awesome sights when coming on The Bluff are when crossing “The Hump,” you see F.G. Clark Activity Center and then, you see A.W. Mumford in all of its glory. Lee-Hines Field comes in at a close third, but it’s still has a ways to go.
And that’s where the awe turns into aggravation.
People, we were in “FEMA trailers” long before Hurricane Katrina. Why anyone would want to train in a double wide trailer as if they lived in rural Iowa and listened to John Cougar Mellencamp is beyond me, but that’s the environment the “powers that be” seem to want Southern’s student athletes.
I don’t want to see another groundbreaking for the installation of stands in the north end zone of Mumford Stadium. Isn’t two is enough, without actually erecting something? I do want to see adequate facilities for the softball team. Contrary to popular belief, softball players do have to urinate and portable toilets just don’t work for females. WE LIKE SPACE! It’s the men who don’t have to squat. Besides, isn’t there a Title IX violation in there somewhere?
Why can’t our track and field team get a better track so we can have meets on The Bluff? How in the name of Pegasus do you have a SWAC Championship at LSU? Why do I have to go to Baker to watch the soccer team? And why in name of Lou Brock does Cador have to hustle for batting cages?
And don’t let me get started on intramural sports. That was over $2.6 million and 12 years ago I could have begun my questioning.
It’s trifling, yes trifling, the way our student athletes are being treated. It’s downright disgusting. And the only thing the SU System Board of Supervisors can do is extend promises because of “faulty planning” on the SUS Foundation’s part. No disrespect to Ernie Hughes, because I think he walked into some faulty mess. But the person who left him this mess didn’t do it alone.
I petition every supporter of Southern athletics to write, advocate and confront your chancellor, respective board member and alumni representative and ask them where is the money supposedly raised in part from the increase in the ticket prices two years ago. Ask them why an intramural facility is just a dream. Ask them why we can’t even get diligent media guides until we have a nationally recognized player. Furthermore, ask who is the real board committee chairman for athletics and why he didn’t show up at the recruiting bash Wednesday.
But don’t ask the athletic director. I think the board keeps him in the dark on purpose.
Those few athletes from Louisiana who went to Alabama A&M, Alcorn State, Jackson State and Grambling State could’ve had a home on The Bluff, red beans and all. I mean, committing to a school under investigation by the NCAA — a school who has been cited four times since 1978 — says a lot.
It says “screw Southern’s raggedy facilities.”
But it also shows how Southern has screwed it’s student athletes.