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Slippery Rock University Athletics

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Sports information blog: 9/26/12

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The latest news and notes from the world of Rock sports:

• Congratulations to former Rock baseball student-athlete Jason Curry, who, as the team’s strength coach, he helped the Lynchburg Hillcats claim the Carolina League championship.

The Hillcats are the Class A Advanced affiliate of the Atlanta Braves.

The title-winning team was the second for which Curry was an integral part in the last two seasons. A year ago, Curry was strength coach for the Quad Cities River Bandits, the Class A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, who won the Midwest League title.

Thank you to Jason’s proud papa, Charles Curry, SRU’s vice president for finance and administrative affairs, for passing along the good news.

• A shout-out to Bruce Johnson, who earned his principal certificate at SRU and is the new athletic director at Green Local Schools near Akron, Ohio. Johnson had previously served as assistant athletic director at High Point Christian Academy in North Carolina where he also taught social studies courses.  Johnson “came home” to accept the Green job. He previously served as athletic director and coached both basketball and baseball in the Streetsboro and Howland Local school districts in northeastern Ohio. Johnson received his bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University and his master’s degree from Liberty University.

• We welcome Rock Men’s Basketball Coach Kevin Reynolds to our SRU athletic blog family. Click here to read Kevin’s first blog, in which he spotlights three former Rockers who have secured junior-college assistant coaching jobs.

• Closing thought: Like most NFL fans, I’m anxious for the referees’ lockout to end so professional officials like SRU’s own Tom Stabile and western PA products Gene and Tony Steratore can get back on the field and good officiating returns. It’s hard for me to accept the thought that NFL boss Roger Goodell and the team owners want to continue to have people officiating their games who are not even on approved lists for big-time college football conferences. As Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback/CBS-TV talking head Dan Fouts alluded last Sunday during the telecast of the Steelers’ game, you don’t want someone who has “Officiate an NFL game” on their bucket list impacting games that involve million-dollar athletes and multi-million dollars in game revenues.

Back to my previous point: Trust me, no one working in the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East or any other Division I conference, or even an Division II conference for that matter, would turn down assignments in those games for a part-time, could-end-at-any-time gig in the NFL. If they did, they very well would be looking at the referee unemployment line when the NFL “zebras” return, which we all know will happen sooner (hopefully) than later.

OK, time to climb down off the soap box and get ready for a very busy weekend.

Until next time …

ROCK PRIDE ... GO ROCK!!

Bob McComas
Sports Information Director