SPORTSVIEW

- RASAUN YOUNG EARNS NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

UB junior basketball standout Rasaun Young has been named one of six recipients of the N4A Achievement Award given by the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics.

The award goes to a student "who has overcome great personal, academic, and/or emotional odds to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics." He will be honored with five other winners on June 21 in Phoenix at the N4A's national convention.

Young is the third all-time leading scorer in UB basketball history, with 1,354 points with one year remaining. He led the Mid-Con Conference in scoring during the regular season and was named a first-team All-Conference member this past season. Earlier this spring, he was named the Most Valuable Player of the Big 4 (Canisius, Niagara, St. Bonaventure, UB). His 549 points this past season was the second-highest total in school history.

Young was given very little chance of succeeding in high school, having grown up in the housing projects of New Rochelle surrounded by, in Young's words, "drugs, sex and violence." He was given even less of a chance to attend college when he was diagnosed late in his high school career with dyslexia and dysgraphia. Not only did Young achieve a score on the SAT that allowed him to participate in collegiate athletics, but he has achieved a 2.9 GPA while majoring in sociology at UB.

In his first two seasons at UB, Young led the Bulls to an 18-10 record in the 1994-95 season while earning All-Conference honors. However, after being named the Mid-Con's pre-season MVP during the summer of 1995, things started to crumble around him. First he lost his father‹who had left his family when Rasaun was very young because of drug abuse‹to the AIDS virus. He learned that his girlfriend was pregnant and the two had a baby daughter, to whom Rasaun has dedicated all of his success. He suffered an ankle injury in fall workouts that caused him to medically redshirt the 1995-96 season.

Despite those hardships, Young returned from a year of inactivity to lead the conference in scoring this past season and help the Bulls to a 17-11 record while continuing to succeed in the classroom.

"Rasaun Young exemplifies all that is good about intercollegiate athletics," said Craig Howe, Young's academic advisor at UB who submitted his nomination. "He has succeeded because of his will, his drive, and his work ethic. "

Said UB President William R. Greiner, "Rasaun Young has confronted and conquered more problems than many young people can imagine. He has indeed been an outstanding success, as both an athlete and a student, at UB."

In the essay written for this award, Young said, "As long as I can remember, my life has been about a struggle to survive. About striving and being determined to reach my goals. About competing to succeed. About continuing to maintain. Most important, my life has been about making myself the best person I can be. I have always dreamed of becoming a college basketball player and one day to play professional ball. I plan to live the dream with passion."

- ROYALS FOURTH, BULLS FIFTH AT MID-CON TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS

Youngstown State captured its first-ever Mid-Con Conference Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 11 at UB Stadium. The Lady Penguins edged Western Illinois, while the Penguin men outdistanced Troy State and Western Illinois for the men's title. The UB women were fourth and the men finished fifth.

Buffalo got strong performances from Melissa Ryan, who won the 100-meter hurdles and finished third in the 400-meter hurdles. Amy Tabone was second in the 400-meter hurdles while Lisa Kragbe finished third and fourth in the 400- and 200-meter dashes. The Royals placed four on the first-team All-Conference list: Ryan, Shelly Hamilton, Ruth Conlon and Terry Scherne. Tabone earned second-team honors.

On the men's side, Omar Doyley finished second in the 400 meters. Dave Clabeaux finished fourth in the 800 meters. Ryan Candia finished second in the 400-meter hurdles. Neil Murray finished third in the pole vault and Matt Streng finished second in the javelin. Doyley, Candia and Streng earned second-team All-Conference honors.

Buffalo got outstanding performances from Scherne, Conlon and Hamilton. Scherne won the heptathlon and finished second in the women's long jump. Conlon won the hammer throw while Hamilton won the high jump. Ryan set a meet record in the 100-meter high hurdles. UB's Lisa Kragbe broke the meet mark in the long jump.

On Friday's opening day, UB's Gretchen Welch placed fourth in the 10,000 meters. On the men's side, UB's Chris Keenan was fifth in the 10,000-meter run.

- COLE JOINS VOLLEY-BAll COACHING STAFF

UB women's volleyball coach Bob Maxwell has named former Dowling College assistant and Long Island Power Volleyball Club coach Cathy Cole as a full-time assistant. Cole comes to UB after two seasons at Division II power Dowling, where she helped the Golden Lions to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

A 1991 graduate of Hofstra, Cole was the team's starting setter and earned all-conference honors.

‹Ted Wasko,
Sports Information Office