* The Penn State volleyball team recently won its 6th national championship. Among those Nittany Lion players: Senior outside hitter Maddie Martin from Plant High, the daughter of Mike Martin and Gayle Sierens, the WFLA-Channel 8 news co-anchor. Martin, an Academic All-Big Ten selection, now has two national championship rings. She also chronicled an insider’s look online after being asked by ESPN to blog for them.
* Has one market ever had two pro coaches/managers any classier than Tony Dungy and Joe Maddon?
* A sign of the times. Congrats to Rays 3B Evan Longoria and longtime girlfriend Jaime Edmondson who recently announced their wedding plans: January 2016. Edmondson actually broke the news on her Twitter account that included a photo of their 1-year-old daughter Elle holding a sign. “My Mom & Dad Are Getting Married.”
* Speaking of Longoria, he’s the high-profile partner in the new Ducky’s Sports Lounge on Kennedy Boulevard, where the chef is Frankie Midulla. Yes, that’s the same Frankie Midulla who used to be the Valencia Gardens’ chef. Alas, there is no more VG, but a key part is still a presence on Kennedy.
* When a head coaching job–such as the one at deep-pocketed University of Texas–becomes vacant, rampant speculation and rife rumors are a given. Among those caught up: Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, whose Seminoles will play for the national championship on Jan. 6. He says it would be “unfair” to all parties–most notably his own team–to be commenting on the Texas opening. Therefore, he won’t be addressing any of those UT coaching rumors.
Actually, if Fisher were not at all interested in leaving FSU and those players he wants to be fair to, wouldn’t it be best to, in effect, say this? “I am definitely not leaving FSU for any other coaching job. It’s my call to make, and I’ve made it. I’m staying right here where I’m extremely well paid and successful. I trust that’s not too nuanced for you all. Now I have a team, the one I want to be fair to, to prepare for the biggest game of their lives.”
* Let’s hear it for standards. Notre Dame just re-admitted quarterback Everett Golson, who led the Irish football team to an undefeated regular season in 2012. Golson is being readmitted because he showed “poor judgment on a test” and was, consequently, suspended for the 2013 fall semester–the one that, of course, included this football season. Golson does get a second chance–but he didn’t get a football player’s bye for a first offense.
And this just in from Duke. Its leading rusher, Jela Duncan, was just suspended–for an undisclosed violation of academic policy–and will miss the upcoming Chick-fil-A Bowl against Texas A&M. Moreover, he won’t be eligible to return until the spring 2015 semester.
We all know universities with big time athletic programs where anything shy of a felony–if that–would never have resulted in disciplinary actions such as these. Win or lose, it’s one reason they are still Notre Dame and Duke, respectively.