Thursday, April 30, 2009

Alphonso Smith Video Clip

We posted a video interview with Alphonso Smith on WakeForestSports.com today. Alphonso sat down with the website following Wake Forest's pro day last month and talked about his time at Wake Forest.

You can check out the video here.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

New Video Clips Available

Yesterday we posted two new video clips on WakeForestSports.com. In one, sophomore Natalie Sheary talks about winning the ACC golf championship. In the other, men's tennis coach Jeff Zinn discusses the Deacons' NCAA Tournament bid.

Natalie Sheary Interview

Jeff Zinn Interview

Basketball Season in Review

I posted the 2008-09 men's basketball season in review on WakeForestSports.com this morning. The final PDF of notes include team and individual season highlights, final ACC statistical rankings, the top 25 polls and much more.

When you look back on the season and see all of the records and where the team's accomplishments rank in a historical perspective, you're able to realize how special this past season was.

You can access the PDF here.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Basketball Recruits Select Jersey Numbers

Wake Forest's three incoming men's basketball recruits have chosen their jersey numbers for the 2009-10 season. Guard C.J. Harris will wear #11, forward Ari Stewart will don #20 and guard Konner Tucker will sport #25.

The last Demon Deacon to wear jersey #11 was Cameron Stanley from 2005-08. Other notable #11's include Alley Hart (1959-61), Butch Hassell (1962-64), Jerry Montgomery (1967-69), Mark Dale (1976-79) and Joseph Amonett (1996-99).

The last Deacon to don jersey #20 was Mike Lepore, who finished his four-year career this past season. In addition to Lepore, who wore the number since the 2005-06 season, other notable #20's include Eddie Payne (1971-73), David Morris (1977-80), Danny Young (1981-84) and Alan Williams (2001-04).

The last Deacon in #25 was Jimmy McQuilkin who wore the jersey in his senior season last year. Other notable #25's include Jerry Schellenberg (1974-77), David Carlyle (1988-90), Marc Blucas (1991-94), Jerry Braswell (1995-98) and Darius Songaila (1999-2002)

The updated 2009-10 roster can be found here.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Recapping The Draft

Aaron Curry is certainly dominating the news. The Seattle media is in love with him, calling him "the right choice," "emotional" and a "flawless fit." One headline writer said that the Seahawks needed a "little Curry." During the draft in Radio City Music Hall, Aaron was a fan favorite .

The Seahawks are impressed with the passion that AC has for the game while Dan Collins writes about AC's dream come true. Pro Football Weekly says that there wasn't a better choice than AC to Seattle.

Down in Aaron's hometown of Fayetteville, NC, Sammy Batten with the Fayetteville Observer has been busy, writing from the perspective of those in Fayetteville while talking to Aaron's brother while Kent Babb spoke with Aaron's mom Chris.

Alphonso Smith was a second round pick of the Denver Broncos and spoke with the Denver media following his selection.

StanleyArnoux and Chip Vaughn, drafted by the New Orleans Saints, will not have to change color schemes. Coach Grobe spoke to the New Orleans media about Stanley and Chip.

Chris Paul, a resident of New Orleans, stopped by the PGA Tournament there to catch up with former classmate and Tour pro Webb Simpson.

When somebody tells you that their favorite school's signing class was highly rated, tell them that that signing class rankings do not mean a thing.

Finally, the New York Times takes a look at Wake Forest's defense in 2009 without these four drafted players.

Deacon Podcast #19 Available

The 19th installment of the Deacon Podcast was posted this afternoon. The new podcast is centered around the Diamond Deacs. ISP's Alan York was the trip to Tallahassee this past weekend and was able to collect a handful of interviews.

In this podcast, Alan talks with shortstop Dustin Hood, director of baseball operations Fred Worth and former Deacon pitcher Mike Buddie.

You can access the podcast here or check out the Deacon Podcast Center for the entire collection of downloads.

Friday, April 24, 2009

ESPN Player Remotes for NFL Draft

Yesterday ESPN released that it will have remote camera crews with 19 different prospects on Day 1 of the NFL Draft, scheduled to start on Saturday at 4 p.m.

In addition, ESPN will also have a crew setup at the Drew Rosenhaus gathering. Five players represented by agent Rosenhaus, including Wake's own Alphonso Smith, will gather together in Pennsylvania to watch the draft.

Demon Deacon and likely top-five pick Aaron Curry has been invited to attend the Draft in New York City. Curry's decision to invite a young leukemia patient with him to the Draft is chronicled here.

2009-10 Men's Basketball Roster

After the Demon Deacons held their annual team awards banquet last night at Deacon Tower, we can finally close the book on the 2008-09 season. With that said I have updated the roster on WakeForestSports.com to reflect the 2009-10 squad.

A few minor things to note about it though. The three incoming recruits don't have jersey numbers yet, but it still is refreshing to see a few new names on the roster. Also, Jeff Teague is still on there since he has not hired an agent, but James Johnson has been removed after declaring for the draft and hiring an agent. We wish James the best of luck in the upcoming draft and his professional career.

Be sure to check the website for the 2008-09 season wrap-up on Monday. Lots of good material in my final notes package of the year.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Women's Golf Meets NBC

NBC correspondent Peter Alexander along with an NBC producer, Kevin Monahan, descended upon Winston-Salem Thursday to conduct an interview with freshman Cheyenne Woods. The intent was to film a piece with Cheyenne to air on a future NBC Today Show.

Kevin, along with an NBC camera crew from Charlotte, arrived on campus around 10:30 am this morning. Cheyenne was meeting with her tutor at the time so Kevin and his crew sat in my office as we looked through pictures of Cheyenne.

Thanks to both Ken Bennett and Brian Westerholt, we had a plethora of pictures to search through. The guys especially liked the photos of Cheyenne when she was first swinging a club as a young lady. Those photos, along with a couple of pictures of her with her Uncle Tiger and her Grandpa Earl, were sent to me by her mother Susan.

After I burned them a CD, we met Coach Dianne Dailey and Cheyenne and went over the schedule for the day. After the debriefing, we were off to the team's workout.

Strength coach Kelly Zarski put the team through what they called a "light" workout but to this out-of-shape SID, I can say my legs were sore just watching. The workout was full of squats, lunges, pull-ups, and hang cleans. Even though the workout only lasted 40 minutes, these ladies worked hard.

The carema crew was there to document the entire thing and had Cheyenne miced-up the entire time. I don't know how the microphone and transmitter stayed in place the whole time with all the movement but my guess is this wasn't the first time this sound crew has done this kind of thing.

After the workout, the crew followed Cheyenne to her Library Science class, which as you could have guessed, was in the library. The looks we were getting from other students as Cheyenne walked into Benson Hall to get a drink was priceless. Some people played to the camera, like the guy in who walked back-and-forth behind Cheyenne smiling with a "Hi Mom" smirk on his face. Others whispered to each other "Is that Cheyenne Woods?" and seemed to be nervous at the sight of a large camera and a big guy with a boom mic.

The crew got a little b-roll (a term I picked up today to make me sound like I know what I'm talking about) of Cheyenne as she sat in class. My guess was that was riveting stuff. The rest of us chatted outside of the classroom as we waited for the class to end. I don't think I have been in a library since I finished my masters last May and I can say, I don't miss it at all.

The class, which seemed to last half the day, was merely an hour long and once it finished, we headed to The Pit for lunch. Again, as we walked into the building, heads turned and people began to stare. Two students, even pulled up Cheyenne's bio page on their laptops and were glancing at the screen and then at her to see if it was indeed Cheyenne Woods.

We had a good lunch and it served as a good opportunity for Peter and Kevin to get to interact with teammates Natalie Sheary and Allie Bodemann, who had joined Cheyenne for lunch.

After lunch, the three athletes and crew headed out to the quad to get some shots of them walking around. I feel like every TV crew that comes to Wake Forest gets the "Quad Shot" but why wouldn't they. On an absolutely beautiful sunny day, I don't think you could have found a better spot.

A quick glance at his watch showed Peter that it was time to get moving. He and Kevin both had flights to catch and there was still a lot more to shoot.

We left the quad and all decided to meet over at the golf complex for some more b-roll of her hitting balls. Cheyenne headed to her dorm to change (which was not filmed) and the rest of us went to find our cars.

I stopped by my office to pick up a few things and by the time I made it to the golf complex, the crew already had the camera in Cheyenne's face (a familiar spot today). She was hitting balls with such ease despite a camera man and a boom mic dangerously close to her. The camera man got every shot possible -- low-angle, high-angle, 150 yards away, 2 inches away and even watched her hit a shot or two as he laid on the ground.

Everyone has seen the commercial with Tiger bouncing the ball on his club and then smacking it down the fairway. Of course, the crew asked Cheyenne if she could do the same and without missing a beat, she grabbed her wedge and immediately starting bouncing the ball between her legs, around her back and off the grip of the club. She then bounced it up and took a swing. The contact wasn't quite as smooth as Tiger's but it was still impressive nonetheless.

After about 20 minutes, it was time to head to the course. We pulled into the Old Town Club at about 3:30 pm and met up with Allie Bodemann, Natalie Sheary and Dolores White. The foursome hopped out onto the fourth tee and began practice as normal (as if anything was normal today).

The crew just wanted to watch a hole and see what they would be able to get as far as footage. On the par-4 fifth, the crew followed Cheyenne off the tee and down the fairway. They then watched as she knocked her second shot to within an 1/8 of an inch of the hole for a tap-in birdie.

The par-3 sixth was just as impressive as she hit it to five feet and rolled the putt in for her second-straight birdie. Peter, who was also miced-up at the time, walked with Cheyenne from the tee and asked a series of questions. He did the same for the next few two and if I were coach Dailey, I may think about asking the crew to stick around for the regionals. Cheyenne, and the other three players for that matter, all seemed to be unfazed but the cameras.

Once the players got done with the ninth hole, Cheyenne, Natalie and coach Dailey all stuck around to do one-on-one interviews with Peter.

He asked Cheyenne a full range of questions from her first tournament win at the age of 10 to her relationship with Tiger.

He also asked her why she chose Wake Forest and what her future plans were. Of course she wants to play out on the LPGA Tour as I think her quote was "I can't think of anything better to do than play golf for a living." Don't we all want to play golf for a living?

Natalie Sheary also got her chance in the hot seat. Peter asked her about her relationship with Cheyenne and also about her winning the ACC Title last weekend. Cheyenne has obviously had experience in front of the camera but Natalie, despite what some may think, is a natural in front of the lens.

Coach Dailey capped the evening with a quick interview. All in all, it was a beautiful day, but a long beautiful day. Everyone was a bit exhausted at about 6:30 pm as trunks slammed and Kevin and Peter raced off to the airport.

Right now, I am still waiting confirmation as to when the final piece will air. It looks like we may do a live shot with Cheyenne Sunday morning sometime between the 8 and 9 am hour on the NBC Today Show. They would also show a short clip in the morning and the full package on the NBC Nightly News Sunday night. Stay tuned to WakeForestSports.com for official word on the air time.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Bring On the Boilermakers

The 11th annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge pairings were announced today, and Wake Forest drew a tough but exciting matchup with its game at Purdue.

The folks that create these pairings are apparently expecting next year's Demon Deacon team to be considerably strong in order to draw a matchup with what should be one of the most talented teams in the Big Ten next season.

Purdue is the defending Big Ten Tournament champ and advanced to the Sweet 16 last month. The Boilermakers will return six of their top seven scorers, including three players who earned All-Big Ten honors a year ago. Big man JaJuan Johnson was a first teamer last season, while forward Robbie Hummel earned first team honors as a freshman in 2007-08. Purdue also has guard E'Twaun Moore who is a two-time All-Big Ten honoree.

The Deacons have never played in Mackey Arena, where the Boilermakers have gone 47-5 over the past three seasons. Wake's only game played in West Lafayette came at Purdue's old venue, Lambert Fieldhouse.

One interesting storyline to note could be the return of Jeff Teague to his home state. If Teague decides to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and return to school, he will come back to play in his home state of Indiana for the first time in his collegiate career. Teague already beat a hometown team in last year's Challenge when the Deacons took down the Indiana Hoosiers at the Joel.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Deacon Podcast #18

The 18th installment of the Deacon Podcast was posted online today. The podcast features interviews with women's golf coach Dianne Dailey and football coach Jim Grobe.

Dailey guided the Deacons to the 2009 ACC title, snapping Duke's 13-year run at the top of the league. Sophomore Natalie Sheary also won the individual title for the Deacons. Congrats to Natalie and all of the Demon Deacon golfers for a fine performance last weekend at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro.

You can access the newest podcast here or check out the Podcast Center for a complete listing of Deacon Podcasts.

NFL Draft Week

The news will be filled with all kinds of draft scenarios and position rankings all week leading up to the start of the NFL Draft at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. We'll try and give you some links to the better ones.

Aaron Curry has certainly gotten a lot of media attention as he is considered one of the few players considered worty of being the number one pick. AC has appeared on Jim Rome, and talked to USA Today.

Various outlets are ranking the top linebacker prospects including the Baltimore Sun, Chicago Sun-Times and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Curry is considered the "people's choice" in Detroit. While folks in Kansas City are debating whether Aaron will be a Chief.

Spring football wrapped up on Saturday.

One of the contributors at The Bleacher Report likes the spring game on the practice fields.

Jim Grobe told Dan Collins of the Winston-Salem Journal that he liked what he saw in the spring game.

More from Dan Collins on Wake's Spring Fling.

A Chip Vaughn scouting evaluation courtesy of the Colts' site, Stampede Blue.

Ronnie Gallagher of the Salisbury Post talked to Tristan Dorty about the Deacon defense.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Welcome

Welcome to the brand new site for the official blog of WakeForestSports.com. With the launch of the new athletics website, we have moved the Deacons Direct blog to godeacons.blogspot.com. In addition to ease of use, this move will allow our loyal readers to subscribe to the blog via an RSS feed.

This new blog will still feature the same riveting updates and pertinent links from members of the Wake Forest media relations staff, as well as some other members of the athletic department. Once the 2009 fall seasons start up again, we will still have our regular Gameday Blogs that proved to be quite popular for football last season.

From all of us here in the media relations office, as well as the athletic department, we hope that you enjoy the re-launch of the Wake Forest Sports blog.