I was honored to be the emcee for the Douglas Freeman High School Athletic Hall of Fame inductions Monday night at the Hilton Short Pump.
There was a great crowd!! Here was my view from the podium.
The class of 2013 included several great for athletes and contributors. You can find out more at www.dsfhof.com
A new athletic program is coming to Blacksburg!!! Here is press release....
Virginia Tech to add Women’s Golf
Team will begin play in Fall of 2015 as school’s 22nd intercollegiate sport
May 13, 2013
BLACKSBURG, Va. – Virginia Tech Director of Athletics Jim Weaver has announced that the school will start a women’s golf program, which will begin to compete as a team in the fall of 2015. Women’s golf will become the school’s 22nd intercollegiate sports program.
“I believe that adding women’s golf at Virginia Tech is a natural progression in our athletics department,” Weaver said. “Our new women’s golf program will fit nicely into the scope of our other teams and will only enhance the overall unit. Women’s golf in the Atlantic Coast Conference is played at the highest level in the nation and we aim to have this program among the best in the league in the very near future.”
The school will immediately begin a national search for a head coach. It is hoped that the new coach will be named by July 1, 2013. The coach will begin work in the summer of 2013 and will take the 2013-14 academic year to recruit student-athletes and build the program.
“We have been working toward this day since joining the ACC, but wanted to make sure that eveything was in place for this program to succeed before starting this process publicly,” Weaver said. “Our men’s golf program has proven that golf at Virginia Tech can be highly successful.”
Recruited student-athletes will start in the fall of 2014 and will redshirt in the 2014-15 academic year. The Hokies will commence team play in the fall of 2015 and become eligible for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship that spring.
“This program will start with all the advantages available to top-level student-athletes,” Weaver said. “The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech is one of the truly great courses on college campuses in the nation and the included practice facility, with its state-of-the-art components, is the finest in the country.”
The women’s golf program will share the Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech and the included Virginia Tech Golf Team Complex with the men’s team. The practice facility already includes a women’s golf locker room and it features indoor hitting facilities, outdoor covered and heated tees and a full practice range. The facility also includes state-of-the-art video equipment and other modern instructional modes.
Women’s golf will be the first new sport added by the Hokies since the school joined the ACC in the 2004-05 academic year and the first new sport at Tech since softball was added in the 1995-96 academic year. Virginia Tech will become the 11th ACC school to compete in women’s golf.
Reigning State Open champ Jay Woodson from Powhatan is going to be on The Golf Channel's Big Break Mexico.
Here is the press release from TGC.
Richmond Resident Jay Woodson to Compete on Golf Channel’s Big Break Mexico Reality Competition Series
More than $100,000 in Cash and Prizes on the Line – Including PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour Exemptions –
12 Professional Golfers – Six Men and Six Women – to Compete in a Mixed Team Format at IBEROSTAR Playa Paraiso Golf and Spa Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico
Meet the Cast on Big Break Mexico Preview Show, Wednesday, May 1 at 9 p.m. ET
11-Week Series Premieres Monday, May 13 at 9 p.m. ET
Big Break Mexico Website: Big Break Mexico Showpage
Jay Woodson Video Bio: Jay Woodson Video Bio
Big Break Mexico Series Trailer: Big Break Mexico Trailer
ORLANDO, Fla., (May 8, 2013) – Richmond resident and professional golfer Jay Woodson will attempt to realize his lifelong dream of playing on the PGA TOUR when he competes in Golf Channel’s 19th season of its popular reality competition series, Big Break Mexico, premiering Monday, May 13 at 9 p.m. ET.
One of seven players in history to win both the Virginia State Amateur (2002, 2003) and the Virginia State Open (2012), Woodson, 31, has been competing on the mini tours for the past nine years. He endured an eight-year drought between professional wins in full-field events prior to capturing the Virginia State Open July of last year. Married and expecting his first child in June, Woodson is competing on the NGA Tour in 2013 with a renewed sense of passion and confidence.
Produced in partnership with the Mexico Tourism Board and filmed at IBEROSTAR Playa Paraiso Golf and Spa Resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico, Big Break Mexico will feature a cast of six men and six women competing as three mixed-gender teams and will include a new series format, new challenges, twists and surprise guest appearances. The teams will compete in a variety of golf challenges per episode, with the ultimate goal of knocking the others out of the competition. In a new format twist for this season, eliminations will not take place every week. Losing teams at the end of early episodes will earn “strikes,” with a surprise elimination showdown taking place during the course of the series. The series eventually will shift to single eliminations, with the last person standing – male or female – being crowned Big Break Mexico champion.
The winner of Big Break Mexico will earn the largest prize in the history of the series with a sponsor exemption to either the PGA TOUR’s OHL Classic at Mayakoba or the LPGA Tour’s Lorena Ochoa Invitational presented by Banamex and Jalisco (both Nov. 14-17) and more than $100,000 in cash and prizes.
In addition to the tournament exemption, the ultimate winner also will receive $50,000 in cash; an endorsement contract from Adams Golf, which includes an additional $10,000 in cash; $5,000 in cash from Dick’s Sporting Goods; $10,000 in car rental credit courtesy of Avis Car Rental, $15,000 in travel credit from Travelocity; and an all-expense paid return trip for two to the all-inclusive, adults-only IBEROSTAR Grand Hotel Paraiso in Riviera Maya, Mexico. The winning team on Big Break Mexico also will receive $30,000 in cash courtesy of Macanudo.
Joining Woodson on Big Break Mexico are:
Lindsey Bergeon (26, Sarasota, Fla.) – A professional since graduating from Florida Southern College in 2008, Bergeon has competed full-time on the Symetra Tour, Cactus Tour and CN Canadian Women’s Tour the past four years. She holds numerous high school golf records from Sarasota, including being named Sarasota Herald Tribune Women’s Golfer of the Year three times, a feat no other local female golfer has yet achieved. In 2013, Bergeon will compete on the CN Canadian Women’s Tour and Women’s State Opens throughout the country.
Taylor Collins (23, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) – One of the younger competitors on Big Break Mexico, Collins is currently in her sophomore season on the Symetra Tour, following an up-and-down rookie season that was highlighted by a fourth place finish in her third event. Collins is a long-time student under Hall-of-Fame instructor Bob Toski, who first met Collins when she was in elementary school and gave Collins her first set of lessons.
Matthew Galloway (27, Tampa, Fla.) – Former caddy for two-time U.S. Open Champion Lee Janzen, Galloway has competed on various mini tours all over the country during the past five years. A three-time Division II All American from the University of West Florida, Galloway is returning to the mini-tour circuit full time in 2013 with the experience, insight and guidance from walking the fairways on the PGA TOUR with Janzen and the game’s best players.
McKenzie Jackson (24, Scottsdale, Ariz. / Uniontown, Ohio) – Playing in her second full season as a professional, Jackson is competing on the Cactus Tour, CN Canadian Women’s Tour and Women’s State Opens with a fresh outlook on golf after a frustrating 2012 season that included a break from the game at the end of the year. A graduate of Kent State University – her assistant golf coach was Big Break III: Ladies Only competitor Jan Dowling – Jackson received the phone call that she was cast on Big Break Mexico two days after she began refocusing on her game after an extended break. “My dad always tells me, ‘Good things happen to good people,” said Jackson.
Stefanie Kenoyer (24, Lighthouse Point, Fla.) – The lone contestant on Big Break Mexico to have competed in a major championship – 2009 U.S. Women’s Open – Kenoyer is playing full time on the Symetra Tour with a refreshed sense of confidence and passion following a disappointing 2012. Sara Lynn Sargent – her former college coach and competitor on Big Break VI: Trump National – encouraged Kenoyer to apply for Big Break. Kenoyer will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Sargent, who earned her LPGA Tour card the following season after being on Big Break.
Liebelei Lawrence (29, Nideranven, Luxembourg / Nashville, Tenn.) – The first female from Luxembourg to compete on the Ladies European Tour (2011 and 2012), Lawrence credits her renewed passion for golf as a result of being cast on Big Break Mexico. She lost her status on the LET after the 2012 season and battled back injuries the entire season, causing her to consider hanging up her professional career. She enters Big Break Mexico finally healthy and with a refreshed outlook on the game.
Brent Long (28, Dallas, Texas / Carthage, Tenn.) – One of the more accomplished and talented players on Big Break Mexico, Long competed in 11 Web.com Tour events in 2011, including eight via Monday qualifiers. The first alternate on Big Break Greenbrier in 2012, Long had almost given up on the idea of competing on Big Break after multiple tries. One of the longer hitters on the series, Long is competing full time on the NGA Tour and select Web.com Tour events in 2013. His source of inspiration on and off the golf course is PGA TOUR Pro Kenny Perry, a family friend.
Chad Schulze (34, Cockeysville, Md. / Lebanon, Pa.) – A career that has featured a number of false starts on and off the course, Schulze is returning to competitive golf in 2013 after a few years on the business side of golf as a PGA of America Apprentice. A member of Pennsylvania’s Millersville University Hall of Fame, where was a Division II All American, Schulze is competing on Big Break because he – like all of his fellow competitors – needs that extra push to make it to golf’s highest stage.
Jason Seymour (36, Los Angeles, Calif.) – Seymour is returning to competitive golf full time for the first time in nine years, following a motorcycle accident that almost claimed his life. He hung up the golf clubs and turned to a successful construction business. Growing up in suburban Los Angeles, golf provided him a way out of “the bad things that surrounded me” and he has dreams of giving back to the game that has meant so much to him. He also is competing on Big Break Mexico with a heavy heart. His father, who introduced him to golf at an early age, passed away three weeks prior to the filming of the series.
Emily Talley (22, Boulder, Colo. / Napa, Calif.) – The youngest competitor on Big Break Mexico, Talley is one of two contestants on the series to have played in an LPGA Tour event – the 2012 CN Canadian Women’s Open via a Monday Qualifier. A graduate of the University of Colorado where she was an Honorable Mention All American – the first female golfer from CU to earn All-American status – she turned professional after graduation in 2012. She is competing full time on the Symetra Tour in 2013.
Rob West (41, Peoria, Ariz.) – The oldest competitor on Big Break Mexico, West is returning to competitive golf after a 10-year hiatus to work in the construction business and raise a family. A multiple winner on the various mini-tour circuits in the 1990s, West is giving professional golf one final push.
Golf Channel’s Tom Abbott and Stephanie Sparks return as co-hosts for the series.
Big Break Mexico will unfold on the resort’s P.B. Dye-designed, 18-hole championship course – IBEROSTAR Playa Paraiso Golf Club – a par-72 layout featuring breathtaking signature holes and distinctive rock work that are signatures of a typical P.B. Dye design. Carved out of the ancient Mayan jungle, the IBEROSTAR Playa Paraiso Golf Club features narrow fairways, deep bunkers and extreme vertical movement, along with untraditional hazards, such as a rock riverbed that make the course distinctively unique to the area.
Big Break Mexico also will feature a guest appearance from former LPGA World No. 1 Lorena Ochoa, who surprised the cast during the filming of the series and competed alongside the players in one of the challenges. Following the challenge, Ochoa also was given the opportunity to participate in Big Break’s signature challenge for the first time – The Glass Break – where she shattered the glass on her first attempt.
The Big Break show concept pits highly skilled golfers against each other in a variety of challenges that test their physical skills and mental toughness. Past Big Break champions have won tournament exemptions to compete on some of the world’s top professional circuits, including the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour, European Tour, LPGA Tour, Web.com Tour and Canadian Tour. Mark Silvers, Big Break Greenbrier champion, will compete in the 2013 Greenbrier Classic on the PGA TOUR as a result of his victory in 2012.
Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, Big Break VII: Reunion champion and PGA TOUR professional, captured his first PGA TOUR victory in 2012 at The McGladrey Classic and is playing full-time on the PGA TOUR. Several other past Big Break competitors are currently competing on the world’s top tours, including Matt Every (PGA TOUR), James Nitties and Mark Silvers (Web.com Tour) and Kim Welch, Nicole Smith, Gerina Piller, Kelly Jacques, 2011 Solheim Cup team member Ryann O’Toole and 2009 U.S. Solheim Cup Team member Kristy McPherson (LPGA Tour).
Become a fan of Big Break on Facebook at: facebook.com/GolfChannel.BigBreak
Follow Big Break on Twitter @BigBreak
Follow Golf Channel Communications on Twitter @GolfChannelPR
These out Wednesday from Jerry Palm of CBS Sports....
He has Hokies in Chick-Fil-A bowl vs South Carolina and the Hoos in the Independence bowl vs Mizzou
The champions of selected conferences are contractually committed to certain bowls, unless they are No. 1 or No. 2. (ACC: Orange; Big Ten: Rose; Big 12: Fiesta; Pac-12: Rose; SEC: Sugar). If a Bowl loses a host team to the title game, then the bowl gets first choice at a replacement team. The rest of the selection order for 2014 is as follows: Orange, Sugar, Fiesta. |
Jerry Palm projects all 35 bowl games each week throughout the season, including the BCS Championship Game. Follow Jerry Palm on Twitter at @jppalmCBS. |
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| Non-BCS Games | ||||
| BOWL | DATE | LOCATION | MATCHUP | PREDICTION |
| BBVA Compass | Jan. 4 | Birmingham, Ala. | American Athletic vs. SEC | South Florida vs. Vanderbilt |
| Cotton | Jan. 3 | Arlington, Texas | Big 12 No. 2 vs. SEC | Oklahoma vs. LSU |
| Heart of Dallas | Jan. 1 | Dallas, Texas | Big Ten vs. C-USA | Minnesota vs. East Carolina |
| Outback | Jan. 1 | Tampa, Fla. | Big Ten vs. SEC | Wisconsin vs. Georgia |
| Capital One | Jan. 1 | Orlando, Fla. | Big Ten No. 2 vs. SEC | Michigan vs. Florida |
| Gator | Jan. 1 | Jacksonville, Fla. | Big Ten vs. SEC | Michigan State vs. Ole Miss |
 Chick-fil-A |
Dec. 31 | Atlanta, Ga. | ACC No. 2 vs. SEC | Virginia Tech vs. South Carolina |
| Liberty | Dec. 31 | Memphis, Tenn. | C-USA No. 1 vs. SEC | Tulsa vs. Miss. State |
| Independence | Dec. 31 | Shreveport, La. | ACC No. 7 vs. SEC | Virginia vs. Missouri |
| Sun | Dec. 31 | El Paso, Texas | ACC No. 4 vs. Pac-12 | North Carolina vs. UCLA |
| Holiday | Dec. 30 | San Diego, Calif. | Big 12 vs. Pac-12 | Kansas State vs. Oregon State |
| Alamo | Dec. 30 | San Antonio, Texas | Big 12 vs. Pac-12 | TCU vs. Oregon |
| Music City | Dec. 30 | Nashville, Tenn. | ACC No. 6 vs. SEC | Georgia Tech vs. Arkansas |
| Armed Forces | Dec. 30 | Fort Worth, Texas | MW vs. Navy* | San Diego State vs. Navy |
| Russell Athletic | Dec. 28 | Orlando, Fla. | ACC No. 3 vs. American Athletic | Miami (Fla.) vs. UCF |
| Belk | Dec. 28 | Charlotte, N.C. | ACC No. 5 vs. American Athletic | Pittsburgh vs. Rutgers |
| Pinstripe | Dec. 28 | Bronx, N.Y. | Big 12 vs. American Athletic | Iowa State vs. Cincy |
| Buffalo Wild Wings | Dec. 28 | Tempe, Ariz. | Big 12 vs. Big Ten | Oklahoma State vs. Northwestern |
| Kraft Fight Hunger | Dec. 27 | San Francisco, Calif. | Pac-12 vs. BYU* | Arizona vs. BYU |
| Meineke Car Care | Dec. 27 | Houston, Texas | Big 12 vs. Big Ten | Baylor vs. Purdue |
| Military | Dec. 27 | Washington D.C. | ACC No. 7 vs. At-Large | Syracuse vs. Toledo |
| Poinsettia | Dec. 26 | San Diego, Calif. | MW vs. Army* | Fresno State vs. Arkansas State |
| Little Caesars Pizza | Dec. 26 | Detroit, Mich. | Big Ten vs. MAC | Illinois vs. Northern Illinois |
| Hawaii | Dec. 24 | Honolulu, Hawaii | MW vs. C-USA | Utah State vs. Rice |
| New Orleans | Dec. 21 | New Orleans, La. | Sun Belt No. 1 vs. C-USA | La.-Lafayette vs. La. Tech |
| Famous Idaho Potato | Dec. 21 | Boise, Idaho | MW vs. MAC | Nevada vs. Ohio |
| New Mexico | Dec. 21 | Albuquerque, N.M. | MW vs. Pac-12 | Air Force vs. Utah |
| GoDaddy.com | TBA | Mobile, Ala. | MAC vs. Sun Belt | Bowling Green vs. Troy |
| Maaco Las Vegas | TBA | Las Vegas, Nev. | MW vs. Pac-12 | Boise State vs. Arizona State |
| Beef O'Brady's | TBA | St. Petersburg, Fla. | American Athletic vs. C-USA | Houston vs. Marshall |
