Desert Hoosier: Bush Living Dream at IU after tour in Iraq

This is a feature story about Kevin Bush, a football player who maintained his dream to play football at Indiana through military tours in Iraq and South Korea. This story was published in April, 2010 during spring practice before his first year of eligibility. It placed first in the Sports News or Feature Coverage category in its circulation division in the 2010 Hoosier State Press Association Better Newspaper Contest.

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Kevin Bush isn’t supposed to be on the field for the 11-on-11 scrimmage drill, but he’s halfway out there anyway, standing at the numbers and making sure he low-fives every single defender who goes on or off the field.

New IU Coach Wilson Pulls No Punches

This is a profile on Indiana football coach Kevin Wilson, written before his first season on the job.

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Before Butch Parker agreed to an interview about Kevin Wilson, the new Indiana football coach and his friend of close to 40 years, he had a question.“Does everybody up there still have their panties in a bunch?”

It was obvious what Parker meant. The assistant football coach and assistant athletic director at Maiden (N.C.) High School in North Carolina wanted to know more about the reaction to the infamous radio tussle. He wanted to know if Indiana fans were afraid they’d hired a cantankerous hothead or elated that they had a straight-shooter with backbone who wouldn’t stand for jokes at the program’s expense.

Because he knows Kevin Wilson can be both of those.

So Far So Good at JMU, But Star Guard A Complex Figure

This is a feature story on Abdulai Jalloh, an enigmatic guard who transferred from St. Joseph’s to James Madison despite having led St. Joe’s in scoring and rebounding as a sophomore. This story ran as a two-part series. It is pasted in one.

HARRISONBURG — Monte Ross’ voice stalled as he pondered how to answer the question. There was a lot to say – some good, some not so good – and he hoped to be forthcoming but fair. After all, the question’s subject was someone his team would have to play against.

What is Abdulai Jalloh all about?

After a nervous laugh, he began.

“He was a very different type of individual,” said Ross, a former assistant basketball coach at St. Joseph’s and now the head coach at Delaware. “He was a really talented guy, and work ethic was second to none…”

Stop. Right there.

Brady Bred To Coach

This is a feature story on James Madison basketball coach Matt Brady, written before his first season at the helm.

 

HARRISONBURG – On the corner of Kings Highway and Third Avenue, tucked along the maple-lined streets and two-story houses in the upper-middle-class Philadelphia suburb of Haddon Heights, N.J., sits a modest outdoor basketball court in the fenced-off lot of a Catholic grammar school.

Far from regulation size, the court at St . Rose of Lima has a pebbled concrete surface with bumps, nooks and crannies that turn to puddles when it rains. The backboards on both hoops are about as small as possible while still being effective; one has a double rim and the other a single.

Rucker Park it is not.

Kent State offers Senderoff second chance

This is a profile on Rob Senderoff, the former Indiana assistant who was found guilty of several NCAA violations as part of the recruiting scandal of 2007. This story was written after Senderoff was named head coach at Kent State.

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Rob Senderoff got word of his promotion, sprung from the chair he was sitting in and bear-hugged his superiors.

Three-and-a-half years ago, when he was fired as an assistant coach at Indiana, he had braced himself to accept that news like this might never come his way. Even if it did, it certainly wouldn’t be this soon.

In the NCAA’s eyes, he was a criminal. In many athletic directors’ eyes, he was radioactive. So he imagined years, if not decades, would pass before he ever found this level of redemption.