Homecoming sightings

Olympian Kenta Bell and his wife, former Lady Demon sprinter Lakeisha ... Demon basketball players Dexter Grimsley, Chris Trailer and Herman "J.R." Whitaker ... football players Carlos Treadway and Carlos Jones ... volleyball alumni Kim Hand and Stephanie Todd, among others ...

... That's just in my office or outside the fieldhouse, all here for the weekend from out of state.

The Bells regaled us with observations of the world, since they've been to China and Europe ... Dr. Charles Pellegrin, the husband of administrative assistant Ronnette, has his history specialization in "modern China" so he and the Bells had some lively conversation about the 2008 Olympic hosts.

Grimsley, Trailer and Whittaker all are in law enforcement or related fields. Trailer recently returned from a year in Iraq and says it was a great experience, but he is happy to be home. He and Grimsley are south Alabama residents while Whitaker lives in Clayton, Mo.

Jones is back near home in Grand Prairie, Texas, after spending time in Lincoln, Nebraska. The former Demon wideout and NSU athletic staffer is proud to be one of the trailblazers from Ruston who came to compete for the Demons.

Treadway, who played high school football and college ball with Demon football coach Scott Stoker, is in Detroit working as an executive for Ford Motor Company.

They gave Stoker a lot of grief about what they thought was a 90-minute Friday workout. He told them it was actually 65 minutes.

Kim and Stephanie came by as they were getting ready for the first-ever Lady Demon volleyball alumni game Friday evening. About 10 former players were getting ready to play, but not Stephanie, who is expecting in February.

In fact, as Kim ran down the list of her former teammates in the late 1990s, much as Lakeisha Bell did earlier, it seems a BUNCH of Lady Demon volleyball and track competitors from that time frame are about to become mommies, some for the first time.

I now am looking forward to the next trip to Corpus Christi, which for me doesn't figure to be until 2010, because that's where maybe the greatest Lady Demon volleyball player of them all, Tiffany Cronin, lives with her husband and two kids, says Kim.

Cronin was invited to train with the USA Olympic Team. I'd say she was pretty good!

Volleyball coach Brittany Uffelman breezed in from the alumni golf tournament, where she spent some quality time with 2008 Graduate N Club Hall of Fame inductee Robyn Justin, the first Lady Demon spiker to earn Hall of Fame recognition. A lot of folks remember Robyn as a tremendous golfer at Demon Hills and Coach B says she can still grip it and rip it.