Congratulations to Bria Sanders!!!

Thanks to all of Bria's hard work and your vote,.... Memphis City School student Bria' Sanders (Cordova Middle School), won the inaugural Golf Digest Scholars Program contest, and has been awarded a four year scholarship to the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy (IJGA). Way to go Bria'! Scholarship includes tuition, room and board for the academic year.


Hank Haney IJGA is the only academy in the
world to combine training, academics, and competition for serious junior golfers. The primary
focus of the Hank Haney IJGA is to prepare students academically and athletically for the next
stage in their career. In 2009, 94% of students received a college golf scholarship.


Thank you for your help, and look for Bria' in the upcoming issue of ESPN Women Magazine. Thanks again for your support!


B. Brown
Business & Entertainment Consultant
Bar-Red Entertainment Group (BREG)

--- B. Brown

The letter below is from my niece, Bria Sanders. She is one of the outstanding Female Junior Golfers in the United States! I am very proud of her academic & golf achievements thus far in her young life, and I am very excited to see her develop even more during her high school career.

I take my hat off to her parents, Michael & Sharon, because they have worked very hard & sacrificed tremendously to propel Bria to a championship caliber level!

I cannot leave out Khia, Bria's younger sister, who supports and cheers for her older sister without fail! It is sibling love at its best!

Bria, Uncle Barry loves you and wishes you continued success in golf & life!

Now, a letter from Bria Sanders . . .

I am Bria’ Sanders and have the opportunity to be trained at an excellent Junior Golf Academy. Golf Digest has been searching for two highly-motivated junior golfers - one male and one female - with the drive and passion to excel in a highly competitive and unique private golf boarding school environment, known as the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy.

I have entered into this competition to attend the academy and am asking for your support with your vote. The contestant with the most votes wins this great opportunity.

I have loved and been playing golf since I was three years old. In addition, I am a Memphis City Schools honors student and the first African American to receive Player of the Year Awards on the Tennessee Golf Association Junior Tour and the United States Junior Golf Tour.

Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy (Hank Haney IJGA) is the only academy in the world to combine training, academics, and competition for serious junior golfers. The primary focus of the Hank Haney IJGA is to prepare students academically and athletically for the next stage in their career. In 2009, 94% of their students received a college golf scholarship.

Your vote in helping me reach this goal would greatly be appreciated!


The Voting period is between February 24 - March 24, 2010

Please visit http://www.golfdigestscholars.com to cast your vote.




Thank you!!!


Sincerely,

Bria J. Sanders


visit me at http://www.briasanders.org

In Support of Earthquake-Torn Haiti!!!

By: B. Brown

I would like to take my hat off to the people of the United States of America!!!

We have supported Haiti in record-breaking fashion and I am very proud of that fact.

We have Wyclef's "Yele'" Organization, The Red Cross, The Clinton-Bush Fund, etc. That is what has really tripped me out, Former Presidents Clinton & Bush have united for a cause. Unbelievable! President Obama has made it clear that his administration is going to help Haiti through its tragedy and help it rebuild. As one of the strongest countries in the world even during our recession, we are still committed to helping an ailing country that desparately needs help. I am very proud of that committment!

I have personally supported Haiti by donating to Wyclef's organization and you can too by texting YELE to 501501 to donate $5.00. Let's continue to show our compassionate side and do what we would want someone to do for us.

God Bless the people of New Orleans, LA & Mississippi that experienced Hurricane Katrina and God Bless the people of Haiti and all the workers who are there helping!!!

God is good!!!

One Love!

Sportsman of the Year!

By: Tom Verducci (Sports Illustrated; Dec. 7, 2009; pg. 60)


"He (Derek Jeter; Shortstop for the New York Yankees) was brought up to respect his environment and respect himself," Dorothy (Derek Jeter's Mother) says.

"When you like who you are, you're going to respect others. It's very simple."

"You've got to have strong values because there are people who don't want to see you attain or achieve," Charles (Derek Jeter's Father) says. "I don't think you magically get those values when you're successful. If you don't have it by then, you're going to be in a lot of trouble."

"I would be the same person regardless of what I was doing or where I was playing," says Jeter, who still talks to his parents each day. "It's not like I'm trying to act a certain way to make people happy. I'm just who I am. But again, it's something that I learned at a young age."


Coach Brown's Thoughts: Derek Jeter has always appeared to be a man of integrity and after reading this article, now I know where he got his wonderful values from. His Mother & Father made sure that their son & daughter received the love, knowledge & discipline to become strong, conscious & humble young people that would Prayerfully grow into successful adults. From what I have seen, it has worked. It is a beautiful thing!

Congratulations to Derek Jeter on being chosen as the 2009 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year!

Joe Peterno - Still has something to teach!

By: Joe Posnanski (Sports Illustrated; Oct. 26, 2009 pg. 61)

"I'm not going to embarrass this university," he says, not angrily but with an edge in his voice, as if he could not imagine how anyone could miss the point: He still has something left to teach these kids. Times have not changed that much. "I think kids today, they are confused," Joe says. "They long for some kind of discipline. They want something bigger than themselves, something bigger to be a part of. We can still offer that here [at Penn State University]."

Coach Brown's Thoughts: Joe Peterno is a coaching icon! At 82 years old and about to turn 83 around x-mas time, his coaching legacy has long been secured & established.

Young scholar-athletes today want to show-out as soon as possible. I went to two (2) recreation football Super Bowls last weekend and these young men were in the sixth (6th) to eighth (8th) grades. I actually saw them doing the same celebratory things that I see in college & in the pros. Now, I am the 1st person to celebrate and get pumped up, but I don't remember jumping around and showing out during my recreation, junior high & high school playing days; and trust me, I made a lot of plays during my career. I started show-boat celebrating when I got to college. Joe Peterno's teams are usually classy, respectful and play a hard-nosed brand of football. His teams usually exemplify a very disciplined group of young men that win in the classroom as well as on the field! That's why he is the winningest coach in the history of Division I-A College Football with 389 wins and counting.

Coaches, let's strive to be men of integrity & instill discipline in our players and let's continue to make a positive difference in the lives of young people that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives and start a positive cycle that will continue for a very long time!!!

Happy Holidays!!!

Levi Michael - New UNC Baseball Star!!!

By Andy Gardiner, USA TODAY (Spring 2009)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Levi Michael dreamed of playing baseball for the University of North Carolina from the time he was a boy. When the opportunity arrived to turn that dream into a reality in unprecedented fashion, Michael grabbed it.
Michael has done something rare at college baseball's elite level. He graduated from high school in January, enrolled at UNC three days later and was the Tar Heels' starting second baseman by the time the season began the third week of February.
With a week left in the regular season Michael, 18, has become a mainstay on a North Carolina team that has made three consecutive trips to the College World Series and is No. 1 in the USA TODAY/ESPN coaches' poll. Without a transition period, the switch-hitting freshman flourished.

"I probably shouldn't be, but I'm shocked at how this has turned out," said UNC coach Mike Fox. "I'm amazed when I watch what this kid has done. "
Freshmen have become increasingly important to the nation's top programs. Because many premier players sign pro contracts after their junior seasons, there is a constant need for schools to restock quickly.

Second-ranked California-Irvine starts three freshmen. No. 4 Rice's top hitter is first-year player Anthony Rendon. Daniel Hultzen is 6-1 on the mound and batting .338 as a first baseman for 14th-ranked Virginia. But all had a semester to become acclimated to college life and become familiar with new teammates and coaches.

Michael went from taking five final exams in high school on a Friday to moving into his dorm on Saturday and sitting in freshman English on Monday. Formal practice began three weeks later. "I thought it was going to be very challenging, and it has turned out to be even more difficult than that," Michael said. "But Coach Fox offered me the opportunity of a lifetime."

Early love for the Tar Heels --- Michael grew up in Welcome, N.C., a town of 3,500 just south of Winston-Salem and 90 minutes west of Chapel Hill. The youngest of Tony and Rhonda Michael's three children, he attended North Davidson High in nearby Lexington. His sister, Keeli, starts at second base on the Campbell University softball team. Rhonda, a technology specialist at North Davidson, said the family has always been UNC fans, and Levi was determined to become a Tar Heel from the time he began attending Fox's summer camps as an 8-year-old.
"When Levi sets his mind to something, that's it," she said.

Fox followed Michael's career closely. "We had seen Levi play more than any player we've recruited, and he accepted a scholarship on the first day possible," Fox said.
But that was based on a traditional timetable of Michael entering North Carolina in the fall of 2009 and beginning his baseball career in the spring of 2010. He still had his senior season at North Davidson. That schedule began to shift in late summer when six UNC recruits signed pro contracts.

"Going into the fall, we saw we only had one infielder at each position, Fox said."
A Tar Heels assistant coach wondered whether Michael was ready to play now. "It was said jokingly, but then we began to think about it seriously," Fox said.
Fox felt hypocritical for even broaching the idea.

"We talk a lot here about living in the moment and enjoying the journey," he said. "I had a ball my senior year and I don't think any kid should miss that.
"I visited Levi and his parents. I spent most of my time listing all the reasons why he shouldn't come early. Levi looked right at me and said, 'Tell me what I have to do to make this happen.' "Fox told Rhonda Michael he spent hours rehearsing his recruiting speech. It didn't take Levi 10 minutes to say yes," she said. "I was a little apprehensive, but Levi never was."

Move blessed by UNC players Fox polled his players on how they felt about a freshman joining the team at mid-year. "All we asked was whether he could help our team," said junior first baseman Dustin Ackley, a career .400 hitter expected to be among the first 10 players taken in the June draft. "Once practice started we saw right away that he could. But I can't imagine doing what he's done."
Michael struggled during the early weeks of practice, in part because he was shifted from shortstop to second base.

"I was so nervous I couldn't stand still. I was shaking the whole time out there," he said. That disappeared in the first intrasquad scrimmage. Michael homered, beat out an infield hit and played with poise. "It was clear to the coaching staff after a week of practice that Levi needed to be in the lineup somewhere right out of the gate," Fox said. "After that first scrimmage the rest of the team saw that he belonged."

Michael has started 51 of UNC's 52 games (he sat out against East Carolina after oversleeping and arriving late for the team bus) and is hitting .297 with 12 home runs, 45 RBI and a .574 slugging percentage. "He's hit some clutch home runs from both sides of the plate and done everything we've asked at second base," Fox said.

Michael is still a little startled at the turn his life has taken. "Last year at this time I was just playing high school ball," he said. "I never imagined being in this spot." Michael missed his senior prom, missed formal graduation. He came to UNC behind the rest of the team with no guarantees. "I did think, what happens if I come in and don't perform and have to sit my freshman year?" he said. "That wasn't too big of a deal for me because I felt that whatever happened, I would be part of the team. "I would learn more about the game being here than playing my senior season. Ultimately I would develop and become a better baseball player. But I'm blessed and grateful for how things have gone."

Coaches say they don't expect a wave of Levi Michaels. "Typically the jump and transition for a freshman is not an easy one, and it would be more natural that they not be a big success their first year," said Cal-Irvine coach Mike Gillespie. "You magnify those hurdles if you're talking about a mid-year freshman.

"I think Levi Michael is a case of a good player playing well. There is no reason to say this can't happen more frequently, but I don't see it as a trend."
Even with how well things have gone, Fox is still conflicted. "It has to be a perfect storm of conditions for this to work," he said. "You have to have the blessing of the parents and the high school coach. You have to have the right mix of maturity and leadership on your team. The kid has to have the maturity to make the jump. "I don't expect to see this happen again in my coaching lifetime."
Michael avoids thinking about all this too much. "It is a unique situation, but now I think of myself as just another college baseball player, no different from anybody else," he said. "It's definitely a lot to undergo, but once you make the decision, you can't second-guess yourself. Deal with what you have and stick with the process."

Castor Semenya - Gender Testing

Embattled track star Caster Semenya gets new coach, new look.
By Chris Chase (Yahoo Sports!)

It's been a week of change for Caster Semenya, the South African runner at the center of a gender controversy at last month's world track championships.
First, one of her South African coaches quit the team in shame for not telling Semenya that she was being subjected to gender tests. (Semenya had thought she was taking a doping test.) Then, Semenya appeared on the cover of South Africa's You magazine with a complete makeover designed to silence critics who insist she is a man.

For the shoot Semenya sported a less ambiguous hair style, a designer black dress, jewelry, makeup and nail polish. Despite what you think about the whole situation, it's safe to say that this is the first time that Semenya has truly looked like an 18-year old woman.

She says she likes the look too. Semenya told the BBC:
"I'd like to dress up more often and wear dresses but I never get the chance.
I am who I am and I'm proud of myself."

Let's hope this is what she wants though.

Nothing Semenya has done in the past month has suggested that she likes to wear dresses, get manicures and let down her hair. After the controversy broke, she kept her cornrows, wore baggy clothes and pounded her chest in victory like a college football cornerback. When she returned to her hometown, she was dressed the same way. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. That seemed to be Semenya's natural inclination. This feels forced.

Hopefully I'm wrong. But if Semenya was pressured to do this to silence her critics, then this is a sad story rather than one of retribution. The opinions of a few jealous coaches shouldn't have an effect on how an 18-year old carries herself. If Semenya wants to wear dresses then she should. But if she wants to run around in track suits, what's the problem with that?

The coach who resigned wasn't Semenya's personal coach, but a middle distance supervisor on the South African team who was ashamed that Semenya was kept in the dark about the growing controversy. Wilfred Daniels said he was told the issue was supposed to stay private.

B. Brown's Thoughts: I wish Caster Semenya all the best as she awaits the results and decision from the World of Track & Field. I do believe that she is a female and I hope this type of testing doesn't start a witch hunt. When we as a people start testing for different chromosome combinations to determine gender for sports, bathroom usage, etc.; then we are headed into dangerous territory! Good luck Caster, and I hope to see you back on the track soon winning women's track events!

#1 Player in the Country!!!

Written by: Jerry Meyer

The recruiting process has been excruciating for John Wall, but late Monday night the 6-foot-4, 184-pound point guard from Raleigh (N.C.) Word of God Christian Academy decided he will play college basketball at Kentucky.

Wall headlines Kentucky's mega-recruiting class.

Wall is Rivals.com's No. 1 prospect in the nation, and he has been for more than a year.

"In the end, I just felt I wanted to play for Coach Cal," Wall said. "Coaches give different visions of what they can do for you when they talk to you. And all of those are impressive, but my long relationship with Coach Cal and what he can do for me in his program was the main thing."

There was concern in Wall's camp, primarily from advisor Brian Clifton, because Kentucky had already signed a quality point guard in five-star prospect Eric Bledsoe. Regardless of that fact, the Dribble Drive offense Calipari employs can accommodate two primary ballhandlers.

Wall actually relishes the opportunity to compete for his position.

"Being able to play against Eric (Bledsoe) is a big plus," he said. "I told Brian and my mom that I've always had to fight for my position. That's what I had to do when I first played for Brian. I'm used to fighting. It's another challenge for me to come to Kentucky and fight for my position."

Clifton felt the positives of the Kentucky situation outweighed the negatives.

"We had an at-length conversation last night," Clifton said. "[Wall] felt that the risks that were at Kentucky were acceptable risks for him."

Admitting that he took about as long as he could to make a decision, Wall acknowledged that his personal confusion and his desire to have everyone around him on the same page contributed to the lengthy decision-making process.

"I liked Memphis when Coach Cal was there, but the situation really opened up when he went to Kentucky," Wall said. "I had to look at the situation there and the people there. Plus I loved the other coaches and what they had to say to me.

"It came down to where my heart was, though. Every time I talked about schools, Coach Cal was the first thing that I always talked about."

Wall was also seriously considering Duke, Miami and Florida.

"Coach [Frank] Haith (of Miami) has been great. He did a great job recruiting me," Wall said. "And then the two coaches at Duke and Florida came in late, but made up a lot of ground in recruiting me. But mainly, it was Kentucky and Miami."

Kentucky adds its fourth five-star prospect to its 2009 recruiting class. Wall joins No. 2 ranked prospect DeMarcus Cousins, No. 22 ranked prospect Daniel Orton, Bledsoe (No. 23 overall) and four-star prospects John Hood and Darnell Dodson.

Wall is expected to receive his standardized test results next week, and he is hopeful that he scored a qualifying mark. At this point, he and Bledsoe are not qualified. It is also unclear at this point if Cousins has met the necessary requirements to play next season.

If all three players qualify, it could make the group one of the best - if not the best - recruiting classes off all time.

John Wall scouting report:

Blazingly fast with the basketball, Wall is an impeccable ballhandler with court savvy. The right-hander has a penchant for beating defenders with his left hand and can then counter with a terrific left-to-right, behind-the-back dribble. Finding teammates on the move is his forte, but he is also an excellent finisher at the rim. His jumper is still a work in progress, but it is good enough to keep the defense honest.