When it comes to giving back to his community, former CU alum, All-American offensive lineman and current Dallas Cowboy Andre Gurode gets creative. As founder of the Center of Attention Foundation, which funds organizations that provide a safe environment for underprivileged children, Gurode is hosting a celebrity-filled fundraising weekend centered around a classic childhood sport: kickball.

“Dre,” who graduated from CU in 2001 and is now a center for the Cowboys with four Pro Bowls under his belt, could easily claim to have no time for community service. Still, he knows how much influence he has as an NFL player and how big of a difference he can make through a foundation with his name attached to it. In addition to COA, Gurode is involved in breast cancer awareness initiatives, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas, and Lowbow Athletics, “a youth foundation inspired to give young men a better education by playing basketball” (dallascowboys.com). Even with a tough and time-consuming pro football career, Dre spends what little free time he has helping people less fortunate than himself.

The kickball tournament, chosen because of its childhood appeal, is scheduled from June 4-6 at The Sportsplex at Valleyview in Dallas. Members of the competing teams will include Cowboy teammates Martellus Bennett, Bradie James, and Patrick Crayton, along with several other NFL players and celebrities. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children and can be purchased at: https://the-center-of-attention-foundation.ticketleap.com/buy-tickets/sports-fundraiser/andre-gurodes-celebrity-kickball-game/dallas/D2A0F07F-B89F-45FF-84E6-A6A47D7E0DC. Besides the tournament, the weekend will also include a black-tie gala, Sunday brunch, and “Kid Zone Fun Day,” in which children will get to meet, get autographs from, and play games with celebrities.

The Center of Attention Foundation concentrated on helping children in foster care this past year, and soon it will be switching its focus to children with asthma. Why “Center of Attention?” Says Gurode, “Because the children are the center of our world.”

It was about to be the same sad song for the University of Memphis Tiger baseball team down 2-1 with one on and one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Tyler Huelsing had other plans. The senior left-fielder blasted a two-run homerun to give the Tigers a 3-2 win in their third and final game of the Conference USA Tournament. East Carolina had a chance to earn a berth into the championship game with a win and got ahead early 2-0 on a two-run shot from Kyle Roller in the top of the first inning. The Tigers closed the gap with three hits in the second inning, including a line drive down the middle from senior first baseman Trey Wiedman to bring Rick Russell home. The Tigers had multiple opportunities throughout the game to get ahead but missed a great deal of them leaving a total of 11 runners stranded. Redshirt Sophomore Chad Zurcher was big for the Tigers batting 3 for 4 with a run and a stolen base with the only at-bat in which he did not have a base hit saw him reaching first base on a fielding error setting up Huelsing’s game-winner. Martin Brennon was credited with his fifth victory of the season for the Tigers who finished the season with a record of 28-30 (15-12 in Conference USA), which is an eight-game improvement from last season.

The University of Memphis baseball team came into today’s game against Marshall needing a win to keep any hopes of winning the Conference USA Tournament in pod play. However the Thundering Herd made sure that it was not to be holding off the Tigers 10-7 Thursday afternoon at Cougar Field in Houston, Texas. The Tigers got behind early in the game with a barrage including an RBI double by catcher Thor Meeks as Marshall took an early 5-0 lead. However the Tigers kept it close early when Chad Zurcher blasted a solo homerun followed by an RBI single from Rick Russell to help the Tigers cut the deficit to 5-2. Marshall showed signs of pulling away during a stretch which saw Marshall put up 3 runs in this next four innings making the score 8-2 in favor of the Thundering Herd. The Tigers would once again answer back with five hits in the fifth inning including an RBI single from Alan Mathis bringing home Rick Russell to pull within 8-5. The Tigers continued to fight when Jacob Wilson drove in two more runs in the sixth inning to come within one run. However Marshall’s late inning pitching and defense ensured the Tigers would do no further damage all the while possibly ending all hopes for the Tigers reaching the Conference USA championship much less survived pod play. The Tigers will conclude pod play with a win friday morning matchup against the Pirates of East Carolina University at 11am.

University of Cincinnati men’s head soccer coach Hylton Dayes named eight players who will join the team for the 2010 season Friday, May 21.

“I think [the recruiting class] has the qualities to be special, because it has the right amount of transfers and freshmen players with the potential to contribute right away,” Dayes said.

The class includes six transfers, three hometown players and three foreign players.

Central mid-fielder Danny Dwyer and defender Mike Brizzi — both tri-state players — played for Houston Baptist University and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College last year, respectively. Dwyer and Brizzi were both heavily recruited out of high school, but chose to take different paths before eventually committing to UC.

“I think Danny [Dwyer] wanted an opportunity to go away,” Dayes said. “He played a lot, but he felt he needed to be closer to home. I think he has matured some.”

Dwyer appeared in all 15 team matches at Houston Baptist and started in 14. He was a second-team all-conference selection.

Meanwhile Brizzi fine-tuned his game locally at Cincinnati State. He started every game, was named team captain and was honored with first-team all-conference and second-team all-region recognition.

“I think [Brizzi] had an opportunity to play for Cincinnati State, did well and realized, ‘I want to challenge myself and see if I can play at UC in the Big East,’ ” Dayes said.

The two local talents are just 19 years old, but have already received significant playing time at the college level.

“Both guys bring experience to the table, but also are young enough where they still have a ways to go in their overall development,” Dayes said.

Andre Sharpe was invited to the Jamaican U-17 national team camp and made 13 starts last year as a freshman at Graceland University.

Dayes described Sharpe as hard working and a playmaker in the midfield with the ability to score goals.

Shamar Shelton appeared for the Jamacian U-20 national team and Roger Thompson from Ontario is another transfer. Shelton is known for his quickness, creativity and deadly left foot, while Thompson is more of an athletic player with size and quickness, Dayes said.

“They are all talented players,” Dayes said. “They all will fit in with our philosophy and with our university. They can contribute right away.”

Transfer Danny Mortemore from Western Michigan and freshmen Jeff Addis and Michael Millayround out the list of recruits.

“We have good returning core,” Dayes said. “I think the combination is really what is going to make it work for us. Those guys are really going to push for playing time.”

The University of Memphis Tigers baseball team struggle from start to finish en route to an 8-2 loss to Southern Mississippi in their opening game of the Conference USA tournament. The game was hard fought all the until the forth inning when Southern Miss began to dominate. It started off with Southern Miss first baseman Mark Ellis being walked which would spark a six run inning leaving the Tigers stunned. During the forth Southern Miss capitalized on Memphis mistakes including a wild pitch sending Dillion Day to third and on the very next at-bat Joey Archer delivered and RBI double. Unfortunately that was only the beginning of things to come as Travis Graves delivered a two-run blast to make it a 3-0 Southern Miss lead. Things did not get any better for the Tigers as they allowed three more runs increasing the deficit to 6-0. In the sixth inning Taylor Walker got to second on another wild pitch leading to another two-run home run but this time from Adam Doleac making it 8-0. The Tigers would not score until the top of the ninth inning when Adam McClain grounded an RBI bringing Memphis third baseman Jacob Wilson home. The Tigers would score again on an RBI single by Shawn Ablett allowing Rick Russell to score. The Tigers will return to action tommorrow against Marshall at 3pm needing a win to keep their championship hopes alive. The Tigers fall to 0-1 in the Conference USA tournament while Southern Miss goes to 1-0.

Yesterday, the all ACC honors were announced for baseball. Virginia Tech was represented only once for the first team all-ACC team. Outfielder Austin Wates, a likely first round draft pick in this summer’s Major League Baseball draft was the lone Hokie on the team. Three other Hokies, catcher Steve Domecus, starting pitcher Justin Wright and reliever Ben Rowen made the second team.

The name most noticeably missing from the list was not a player.

No it was Virginia Tech’s very own head coach Pete Hughes.

So who was the winner of the ACC coach of the year you might ask? None other then Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor.

Now I understand O’Connor is a great coach and has really turned the program around at Virginia and kept the team in the top five nationally all season, but I feel that many people are still suffering a bit of a hangover from the Wahoo’s trip to Omaha last season.

Hughes has done a remarkable job turning around the program down in Blacksburg. The team has made the ACC tournament for the first time since 2005. This also coincides with the teams reentry into the national rankings for the first time since 1992. The Hokies have been ranked for roughly half the season and were as high as #12 prior to a sweep at the hands of North Carolina.

Going into the ACC tournament which begins on Thursday, the Hokies have an overall record of 36-19. Compared to last season’s record of 32-21 and the 2008 season of 23-21, Hughes’ determination to turn the program around is greatly visible.

His hope one day is to generate as much excitement over baseball as football and basketball get in Blacksburg.

I truly believe that with a good run in the postseason tournaments this will happen. After all when I recently talked to Hughes he said the goal of the team was to make it to Omaha.

For now, let’s just shoot for winning the ACC tournament and making it to the NCAA regional portion of the tournament.

Then we can focus on Omaha.