Eagles Preparing For Glick Classic

First and foremost, I want to ask you to please keep Tim Meyers, our assistant men’s basketball coach and his family in your thoughts and prayers as we mourn the loss of his wife Diane Meyers this past Friday (Dec.3, 2010).

I hope all of the BC Family members had a happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday. Our basketball team had a Thanksgiving dinner together at Traditions Restaurant (thank you H M Apartments).

We then traveled to Newport News, VA to participate in the CNU Invitational with CNU, Wesley (DE) and York (Queens, NY). We lost to CNU the first game. Then the team bounced back and won by a point on a Rick Maloney jump hook with a few seconds remaining on the clock, against York (Queens,NY) University on Saturday. Kyle Hammond was named to the All –Tournament team. In our win vs. York we had four players (Cody Griffith, Kyle, Drew Maynard, & Rashad Moore) score in double figures.

Our first ODAC conference game was on Thursday, Dec.2 vs. Randolph College. This was a tough loss to a very good and gritty team that shoots the ball very well from the perimeter. We lost by one point and on paper we had four guys in double figures, shot 52.7% from the floor and had an even total in the rebounding column.

Saturday, Dec. 4 we played against Guilford College and unfortunately had a long drought of 7 minutes where we did not get a basket. The guys are continuing to work hard to become better. We have showed glimpses that we could be a really good team but in the best D3 basketball conference in the country you have to play 35- 40 minutes of “good “ basketball to get the win. As guys began to accept and learn their new roles we will surely get to playing quality basketball for more than 35 minutes.

We have the prestigious Don Glick Classic coming up on December 11-12, 2010 at Nininger Hall.
On Dec. 11th at 6 pm EMU plays Averett. The Eagles will play Bluefield College at 8 p.m. Bluefield is coached by former University of Virginia standout player Richard Morgan.

On Sunday. Dec. 12 EMU and Bluefield College play at 2 p.m. followed by Bridgewater vs. Averett at 4 p.m.

A CANNED FOOD ITEM will get you in FREE to these games. Items will be given to the local Food Bank for the Holidays. Last year we were able to provide food for more than 50 families in the local area. I hope to be able to increase that number to 70 this Holiday season. With your help we can.

We hope to see you at the Don Glick Classic.

Congratulations, to the women's basketball team as they are playing very well and compiling some very good wins this season. Keep up the good work.

Eagles Season Underway

It has been a while since my last blog. We are playing in the EMU Classic tonight at 6 p.m. vs. Southern Virginia University. SVU is a team of very talented aggressive scorers who do not get rattled. They always have 3-4 3-point shooters on the floor at all times and each one of their players can attack the rim off the dribble to score. Please come out and cheer us on tonight. We will play on Saturday at 6 p.m. vs. Penn St.- Brandywine in the EMU Classic.

Our team had a tough loss on the road at Averett University. Averett had several quick guards who posed a problem for us as they repeatedly got to the rim to score. With the loss however, we did do some very nice things which we can build on but giving up 90 points is not one of them. I told the team “we scored enough points (76) to win a lot of games this season yet we gave up enough points to lose a lot of games this season.” We spent a considerable amount of time in our next practice working on our defensive principles.

Rick Maloney with 14 points and 11 rebounds played exceptionally well in the paint. Kyle “Hornacek” Hammond finished with a career high 27 points and 4 assists. He hit his first 4 of 5 from the 3-point line – we need him to consistently score for us this season. Freshman reserve Rashad Moore came off the bench to score 21 (going 9 – 10 from FT line). I am very excited to coach this particular team because each practice and each game someone is coming into their new role for this team. We have returners who are being asked to do a lot more things which they were not asked to do in the past (score & rebound) and we have a handful of freshman who are needed to produce early in their college career to help this team. When all of these new roles become more familiar and more comfortable to each player then we will become a better team throughout the year.

Our program “Read with an EAGLE” has been receiving very strong and positive feedback from the students, parents of the children and BC student-athletes Our men’s basketball student-athletes visit John Wayland Elementary School at least twice a month with the Kindergarten classes and read to the kids (4 -5 kids per BC student-athlete). Also, we visit with the 4th graders and a 4th grader will read 8-10 minutes to a player. This is very beneficial to both parties because of the relationships which are being formed while we emphasize the importance of reading.

We have received a few more requests from other elementary schools who want to adopt our “Read with an EAGLE” program. We will have pictures of each of our players on future blogs.

Also, I want to get the information to everyone that for our game on November 24th at 7 pm at Nininger Hall. We will be recognizing the Rockingham County Recreation Department Football players and Cheerleaders at halftime of our game. ALL fans are invited to come to this game admission is FREE to everyone. We invite all friends , family and fans to this game. This is just a small way that our men's basketball program can say THANK YOU for your support just before Thanksgiving. Please spread the word.

Thanks to the ALUMNI team which we played on Oct. 23rd. The Alumni Roster : Jay Strotman, Matt Drewer, Andrew Cathlin, Dominic Trawick, Michael Oblitey, Matt Ross, Jake Johnson, Rob Rice, Justin Reavis & Michael Jenkins. I look forward to having this game each year so the fans and community can reconnect with our former players. I want to establish an alumni game for ALL former players to play against each other EVEN YEARS vs ODD YEARS – yes all ages are welcomed to participate.

Congrats to the women’s basketball team with a good win last night. Come and cheer us on this season – GO EAGLES!!!!

A New Season Is Upon Us

We have had one week of practice with our team. We had tryouts on October 15-16 during fall break and we had a large turnout. Having tryouts mean you have to have “cuts” which are always one of the most difficult parts of my job.

The guys have been working hard and our practices have been very competitive. It is a unique situation with is having five seniors who are eager to increase their production collectively (12 ppg & 10 reb) from last season and freshmen who are eager to earn substantial minutes for us this season. As a coach you love to see “healthy competition” because that is what makes a competitor want to compete. Also, I am very grateful for my two assistant coaches (Alvin Green and Tim Meyers) who will return for another season at BC.

On Thursday we will have our ODAC media day in Salem. I am curious to see where we will be selected because we did lose are top three scorers (Dominic Trawick 22 ppg, Jake Johnson 12 ppg, & Segar Jordan 8 ppg) from last season.

Our current team has been very busy not only with practice but also with different community service projects. I spoke to the students (Grades 5 – 8) and staff at Skyline Middle School to “kick off” their Character Week at the school on October 18th. Our entire team went to John Wayland Elementary School to read to all of the Kindergarten classes on October 21st. We have a program intact called “READ with an EAGLE” and we will visit different elementary schools throughout the year. Below are two different web links from Oct. 21st.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKn6bw878TA

Here’s the link from WHSV TV 3

http://www.whsv.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5213223&flvUri=&partnerclipid=

This Saturday is a BUSY weekend for ALL Bridgewater College fans.
NOON – Women’s Soccer is hosting ODAC playoff game vs W & L
1 pm - Football vs Emory & Henry (Senior Day)
3:30 pm – Women’s Basketball Spaghetti Dinner in Nininger Hall
Men’s Basketball vs ALUMNI team in Nininger Hall
Please come out and support your Bridgewater College Eagles

Alumni Roster : Jay Strotman, Matt Drewer, Andrew Cathlin, Dominic Trawick, Michael Oblitey, Matt Ross, Jake Johnson, Rob Rice & Justin Reavis.

Have a GREAT Day and I look forward to seeing you this weekend.
Go EAGLES!

Graduation Wrap-Up

I have attached a picture of graduation from May 16, 2010. My wife and I were in attendance to congratulate all of our BC graduates as they are about to enter into the “Real World”. In our two short years on campus we have had an opportunity to get to know a lot of the graduates – are very proud of you ALL. We had 5 of our guys walk across the stage and receive their diploma which is one of the most gratifying moments for a coach to watch. Throughout my years in the coaching profession “Graduation Day” always puts a big smile on my face to see young kids come to a quality institution such as Bridgewater College and then to see them mature over the years into quality young adults as future leaders of our society.



Dominic Trawick, Segar Jordan (Cum Laude and Flory Fellow), Jake Johnson, Matt Ross, and Michael Oblitey will be deeply missed on our beautiful campus. They will always be welcomed to come and visit with the current MBB team. I hope that each one of them will have much success with their future endeavors.

Our guys finished the spring semester in the class room with six of them posting over a 3.0 GPA and three of these members were on the NABC Honors Court list (3.2 GPA or higher ). We all know how difficult it is to be a student-athlete with the time constraints to juggle both academics and athletics –GREAT JOB!

As you see from the picture above we will lose over 80% of our scoring and rebounding due to graduation which should serve as motivation and give a sense of urgency for our returning team members and incoming freshman to work diligently in becoming a better basketball player/teammate. What these guys do over the summer (off –season) will be a direct indicator for our success during the season. We have to get stronger in the weight room and better on the court, over the summer. It is not a hard recipe to follow – “players at any level are made in the off-season!” The returning guys will be expected to step up their level of play and the incoming freshmen are expected to come in and compete for quality minutes this season. We had four teams from our conference make it to the Final 8 and two to the Final Four. Our schedule last season was ranked #10 in the NCAA.

I hope everyone will have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. Summer is about to officially begin for college athletics as the first session of summer school begins next week.

-Coach Burgess

EMU, Senior Day

I want to say “Thank You” to all of our fans which came out to support us last night over at EMU. As always when we (BC and EMU) play each other it is a “packed house” on either campus. It was an outstanding college basketball atmosphere which all student-athletes enjoy playing in.

Our team played hard but unfortunately we came up short. If we make a few FT’s, box out and get one or two more defensive rebounds, or if we make one or two more of our missed layups – who knows what the outcome may have been.

Our record is not a strong indication of our team’s growth and development throughout the year. We have the #10 toughest schedule of ALL NCAA Division 3 teams. We have competed against Top 25 teams and unfortunately lost, but kept it close to the end. If we continue to play hard and yet smarter then hopefully we will make a run in the ODAC tournament.

This Saturday we host Lynchburg College at 2 pm. They have an All –Conference guard (Steven Echols) and a Division One transfer, post player, Nathan Campbell who have been putting up strong numbers all season long. Please come out and support our team for our last HOME Regular Season game. We will have a ceremony at the beginning of the game to honor our Seniors (Dominic Trawick, Jake Johnson, Segar Jordan, and Matt Ross). Everyone knows about Dom, Jake, and Segar but Matt (Matty Ross) will be missed just as much around our program. Matt, is a young man who wants to become a basketball coach and he will be a successful coach in the future. He has sacrificed much of his social life as a college student to be in the trenches with this program for 4 years. Because of his work ethic, passion for the game, and his outgoing personality he has a bright future in the coaching profession.

Once again, thank you for your support thus far and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Mark your calendar MBB ODAC tournament begins on Tuesday Feb.23rd at 7pm. We will host our 1st round game at 7 pm.

The Sixth Man!

Well, we just completed our first day of classes for the spring semester and we just completed our first “wave” of conference games – wow how time sure does fly past us. It is hard to believe that after we play at Averett University on Saturday we will have only 6 conference games remaining.

In the always competitive ODAC conference ( 4 teams ranked in the Top 12 NCAA) we are sitting on a 5–5 conference record. Yesterday, I found out from our student-assistant coach (Matt Ross) that our game schedule is currently ranked the 10th toughest schedule in all of Division III. With us losing our two games from the San Juan Classic, because of the DC Blizzard, it set us back somewhat as a team. Not playing those two games over the December break cost us the opportunity for our players to get valuable experience as a team in game situations. We played Dec.17 and then did not play a contest again until Jan. 2. As a former student-athlete in a team sport, that long of a break without having a competition allows your team to take a step backward instead of forward because of the little things, especially the intangibles (speed, timing, and competing) of the game.

I would like to thank all of you who have been supporting this team throughout the season. We had two good home wins over the Christmas break (Roanoke and H-Sydney). Then we went on the road to Guilford (#2 in NCAA) and battled hard vs. a very good team. We came up short and lost by 12 points in a very strong effort by our team. Then we returned home for a game at home vs EMU (#7 in NCAA) – what a GREAT college basketball atmosphere. Our guys played together and played hard throughout the game. It was good to see so,many fans cheering for their teams as well as several fans in attendance just to experience the excitement of the “Poultry Road Rivalry”. We then headed down to Emory and Henry (Wed. night) and battled a very tough team that has a record that is no indication of the talent which they have. They made 14 three-pointers against us and have multiple scorers on the floor at all times. We were able to get a very good and needed “road win”. We will be back in action at Averett University on Saturday at 3 pm. Then we return home to play Va. Wesleyan on Feb.3 (next Wednesday). Please come out and be our “6th MAN” at Nininger Hall.



Above is a photo of the canned goods which were received at the Don Glick Classic. We received over 600 items which were donated to the Inner Church Food Pantry for the holidays. From L to R: Matt Ross, Segar Jordan, Roscoe Burgess (Inner Church Food Pantry representative), Don Burgess, Russell White, Cody Griffith, and Alvin Green) Thank you for your support and enabling us to help local families.