Former Demons land in Denver

Talk about a Rocky Mountain High for Bill Johnson and Brian Lawrence.

With their pro sports futures unsettled, they each have found new homes in Denver.

Johnson will be the defensive line coach for the Denver Broncos. Lawrence will be pitching for the Colorado Rockies.

The Broncos hired Johnson, 51, last week. The Rockies signed Lawrence, 30, on Sunday.

Johnson had spent the last six years doing the same job for the Atlanta Falcons, hired by Dan Reeves and retained by Jim Mora. While with Atlanta, the Falcons had 242 sacks, seventh-best in the NFL during that span.

“Smilin’ Bill” was a center for the Demons while playing from 1975-78, and began his coaching career by spending five seasons working under both A.L. Williams and Sam Goodwin at NSU. He went on to coach collegiately at Miami, Texas A&M and Arkansas before getting into the NFL. He already has coached for 27 years.

Lawrence left Northwestern as the 1998 Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year and worked his way to the major leagues in 2001. He pitched four seasons for the San Diego Padres, twice being their Opening Day starter, and has a career 49-61 record with a 4.10 ERA in 162 games, including 146 starts.

Brian’s No. 27 NSU jersey was retired in 2005. Last year, he was a free agent signee with the Washington Nationals, but missed all of last season with an injury to his right (pitching) shoulder that required major surgery. In October, he said he was ready to return to the mound and felt better than he had in 2-3 years.

The Rockies beat out Pittsburgh, Seattle and San Diego to sign Lawrence, who had more money on the table from the Pirates but liked the idea of pitching for the Rockies. He was on the losing end of the first, and only, 1-0 game at Coors Field in his last season with the Padres, whose bats seemed to take the night off when Brian took the mound. A good number of his 61 losses could have been wins with better run support.

He is expected to compete for a spot in the starting rotation as a pitcher who has chewed up 200-innings plus in three of his four full seasons in MLB.

Doug Ireland, SID

Watch closely, you’ll like it!

Tomorrow (Friday) should be the day that we can enjoy the feature story on NSU Demon basketball on www.ESPN.com with the classic Doug Daniels photo of the game-winning shot in last year’s NCAA Tournament featured, at least, on the college basketball page. The story is also supposed to be featured on the main page – of course, breaking news could change the plan at the last minute. But keep checking one of the world’s hottest sports websites for extensive coverage of the NSU Demons basketball team.

The writer is Kyle Whelliston, whose incredible website www.midmajority.com is a masterpiece for college basketball fans and especially those who appreciate “mid-major” basketball. Take time to surf the site, and between the witty writing and the caverns of information updated daily, you’ll be back and you’ll bookmark the site.

Follow up on the KSLA TV story on our friend “Coach Black” who today is heading to Lake Charles hoping to help the Lady Demons beat the McNeese Cowgirls tonight … you can view sports director Mike Dirmann’s wonderful story on Harris Ray Wilson Jr. at this link, by watching the 1-16 sportscast:

http://ksla.com/Global/category.asp?C=2802&nav=menu50_4


Doug Ireland, SID

Watch closely on KSLA TV, ESPN.com

Tonight, 6:20 and maybe 10:20, on KSLA-TV Channel 12 in Shreveport, sports director Mike Dirmann is doing a feature story on our friend “Coach Black,” not as well known as Harris Ray Wilson Jr.

Dirmann interviewed members of the Demon basketball team, Mike and Connie McConathy, coach Scott Stoker and the man himself.

Don’t worry, if you missed it, we will try to put the piece in this space assuming we get clearance from the station’s legal team.

Sometime within the next two days, the Demon basketball team will make a big splash on www.espn.com with a Kyle Whelliston feature story on the impact of Jermaine Wallace’s game-winning shot.

-- Doug Ireland, SID

Friendly faces, different places

Flashes from the past…

… Friday, a drop-by from Sam Goodwin, the winningest football coach in NSU history, now the athletic director at his alma mater, Henderson State. Sam was en route to his hometown of Pineville for a reunion of his high school football team; actually, for the 80th birthday celebration of one of the Rebels’ coaches. On Feb. 23 in Little Rock, Sam will be among the 2007 inductees in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, chiefly for his playing career at Henderson State and for his incredible run of five state championships in seven years in the mid 1970s at Little Rock’s Parkview HS.

I was able to tell him a story he didn’t know about those years. When we were driving up on a Friday to play a 1991 game at Arkansas State, we made a pit stop and I bought the Little Rock paper. The sports section’s big story that day was a feature on an undersized offensive lineman for one of the Little Rock high school teams.

The lead paragraph went something like this: “When Sam Goodwin was at Little Rock-Parkview, the Patriots made a living with undersized, overachieving players like Hall High School’s Johnny James.”

The rest of the story, no mention of Sam. That impressed me. Think about it: the sportswriter assumed that if you followed high school football in Arkansas, at all, you automatically KNEW Sam Goodwin and what he had done 15 years earlier at Little Rock-Parkview. That’s just how good he was.

… Nice to see former two-time Demon Academic All-America baseball star Terry Joseph, the 1995 SLC Player of the Year and one of our all-time greats, finally break through into college coaching – in football.

T.J. worked as a graduate assistant coach at LSU this past year after a few seasons in the high school ranks in New Orleans. That proved to be a heck of a springboard. Last week, he was hired at Southeastern. Two days later, former LSU assistant coach and new Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley plucked T.J. away from the Lions. Now Terry’s office will be just down the street from J.C. Love Field, the Bulldogs’ baseball stadium where I am sure he launched a few shots in to the trees behind the short left field fence from 1992-95.

….Last week, it was wonderful to see plenty of Demons on the road at NSU games in Texas. In San Marcos, there was the effervescent John “Lil’ Snack” Smith, who is off to a roaring start in his professional life up I-35 in Austin.

At Arlington, what a thrill it was to reunite with Wayne Waggoner. The sharp-shooting Demon guard in 1980-82 was the best shooter I’ve seen wearing the Purple and White. He averaged 17.6 ppg in his senior year, 1981-82, on a balanced team. He was a NBA Draft pick and made it to the last cut with Dallas.

Wags is married with two cute little boys. He’s in the trucking business and has moved back to the DFW metroplex after several years in Charlotte, N.C. He and coach Mike McConathy are old friends, going back to the friendship their dads, Bernard Waggoner and John McConathy, formed while they were two of the greatest players in Demon history in the late 1940s.

Also at UTA, awesome to reunite with Jill Cantrelle, a former student worker in the athletic administrative offices in the early 1990s. She’s engaged and brought her future hubby to say hello and learn how to cheer for her Demons. She, the former Angela Hennigan, the former Heather Hanners and many others were part of a good-sized group of NSU alums in the stands.

Also there – former Demon guard Brent Shropshire, who was invited by coach McConathy to speak to the team. He played on coach Mike’s first NSU team and was a red-hot scorer down the stretch as the Demons surged to the SLC Tournament finals. He’s back home in the Metroplex.

-- Doug Ireland, SID

You want me, coach?

It was a first for me here in San Antonio as the Lady Demons prepare for their game against UTSA Saturday afternoon.

Prior to Friday evening’s practice, I was informed by assistant coach David Aguilar that my services may be needed during the offensive set drill.

Wanting to be a team player, I politely agreed, thinking I was just going to have to shag balls or something to that effect.

Nope… not this time.

I was put into full-speed action to play defense against Ashli Barnum then Brittaney Isom.

Now basketball is not my cup of tea. I’m the one who will pull a 3-pointer from 40 feet or try, on occasion, uncontested layups. Now ask me to do any ball handling or straight up defensive pressure, you may as well sub in Louis Scolnick from Revenge of the Nerds.

However, I think I held my own. I didn’t allow any buckets, and actually pulled down a couple of rebounds. Barnum did school me a couple of times, but luckily for me, the shots didn’t fall.

The evening practice wrapped up an eventful day that had us leaving Corpus Christi at 10 a.m. for the 2-hour journey to San Antonio.

Once we arrived, we had lunch at Fuddruckers – perhaps the place that serves the best burgers ever. Then the team spread out on their own to visit the shops along the Riverwalk and also visiting the famed Alamo.

It’s been quite a trip. A first-ever trip to Corpus Christi and first-ever action in the college game.

-- Matthew Bonnette, assistant SID