Opportunity for Advancement in 2009...

In this current economy, it becomes rare news to talk about anyone getting a promotion these days. But, several former Charlotte 49er baseball players have experienced promotion this summer as several guys have advanced through an additional level of professional baseball.

After an 8-0 run at Double-A Portland over the last almost two months, Adam Mills was promoted to Triple-A Pawtucket in the Boston Red Sox system. Though he was a postseason call-up to the International League club, where he pitched in the playoffs in 2008, he made his regular season Triple-A debut on Wednesday in Charlotte.

Mills’ First-Team All-Atlantic 10 pitcher and teammate, Spencer Steedley, also found success this season and was recently promoted. After a 4-0 start with six saves and his second consecutive All-Star Game appearance for Class-A Fort Myers of the Florida State League, Steedley was promoted to the Eastern League and New Britain in the Minnesota Twins organization.

After a long wait to start his 2009 season, former outfielder Brad McElroy headed back to the Gulf Coast League for six games before his promotion to the Florida State League’s Dunedin Blue Jays, where he hit the first home run for a former Niner this summer to tie the game in the seventh in an eventual win for his squad at Brevard County. He has an astounding .429 on-base percentage this season in his first 29 games for Dunedin. He is third on his team with just over a .300 batting average this season.

Former Niners shortstop Shayne Moody was in nearly the same boat as McElroy, having to wait for his assignment within the Atlanta Braves organization, but his patience paid off, earning a spot with the Rome Braves of the South Atlantic League, a level higher than he played last summer. He has played a lot of second base for the Braves, and has averaged nearly a hit per game in 2009.

Fans are awaiting advancements from the three other former Niners playing in the minors this summer. Pitcher Zach Rosenbaum and position players Aaron Bray and Rob Lyerly are still in the beginning stages of their pro careers, as they toil in the rookie leagues to improve and look for a move into full-season baseball next summer.

The pro off-season will be here as the fall semester begins at Charlotte, and that means baseball fans await the start of Charlotte’s spring season. This year, the NCAA schedule has added back a week to the front end, after dropping three weeks off of the traditional first weekend of February start time. Niners fans can return to Robert and Mariam Hayes Stadium near the midpoint of February of 2010.

49ers Women’s Soccer Begins Quest For Fourth Straight A-10 Title Today
The Charlotte 49ers women’s soccer team, which has captured three straight Atlantic 10 regular season titles and two straight A-10 Tournament titles, starts practice today (Wednesday, August 12) in preparation for the 2009 season which begins on the road at William and Mary, Sunday, August 23 at 4 pm. Head Coach John Cullen, a former 49ers men’s soccer players, begins his first season at the helm of the highly successful 49ers women’s soccer program.
Since the women’s soccer program is starting practice today here are some interesting notes and tidbits about the program.

* John Cullen is only the fourth head coach in the history of the 49ers women’s soccer program. The three previous coaches (Robbie Church, Neil Roberts and Jon Lipsitz) each guided the 49ers to a league championship as well as an NCAA Tournament appearance.

* Cullen is only the fifth head coach at Charlotte since 1990 to be an alum of the University. Cullen, who graduated from Charlotte in 1992 with a degree in English, lettered for the 49ers men’s soccer team from 1989-92. Current 49ers men’s basketball coach Bobby Lutz as well as his predecessor Melvin Watkins were both UNC Charlotte graduates. Recently hired cross country coach Ed Schlichter was a former all-conference runner for the 49ers earlier this decade. Former 49ers standout men’s tennis player Stan Cocke coached the 49ers men’s tennis program for one season, 1992-93.

* The 49ers women’s soccer program has had eight ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Americans which is the fourth most Academic All-Americans for any women’s soccer program in the country. All eight of the 49ers Academic All-Americans have been since the 2003 season. Former 49ers Lindsey Beam Ozimek (2004-07) and Nikki Labuda Czaplicki (2004-06, 2008) earned multiple ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American honors. Senior midfielder Hailey Beam was a second-team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American last season.

* The Atlantic 10 has only awarded the Midfielder of the Year award for two years and while two different people have claimed both awards reside in the same house. Ozimek was the first-ever A-10 Midfielder of the Year in 2007. While, Ozimek’s younger sister Hailey Beam claimed the honor last season.

* Perfection - the 49ers went a perfect 11-0-0 to claim their third consecutive A-10 regular-season title in 2008. This marked only the sixth time in the league’s history that a team posted an undefeated A-10 regular-season. Dayton went 11-0 twice in 2001 and 2004 which was the only other two times that a team went 11-0-0 in A-10 play.

* Charlotte has posted a 34-5-1 Atlantic 10 record in the four years that the 49ers have been a part of the A-10. Charlotte has been an impressive 28-2-1 in the Atlantic 10 over the past three seasons. Charlotte’s 34 Atlantic 10 wins in only four years has already surpassed Temple’s 31 All-time A-10 wins. St. Bonaventure has recorded 38 All-time Atlantic 10 wins. Temple and Saint Bonaventure have both been a part of Atlantic 10 women’s soccer since the 1993 season.
Don’t forget to catch the 49ers in their home opener against Appalachian State at Transamerica Field, Friday, August 28 at 7 pm.

FIRST DAY OF PRACTICE

It’s August. It’s warm. The air, like many an August day is still and heavy, even now in the morning hours. But, the players don’t seem to notice. At least they don’t seem to mind.

It’s the first day of practice. They feel light. Energized. Eager. It’s preseason and with it comes preseason hope, which makes those slight breezes that catch the stadium flags all that more refreshing.

Even though the first game day is still weeks away the excitement today is palpable. Several players came out to the field early, anxious to get the season underway. Others are just filtering in.

Balls fly through the air as the players start to loosen up. One player sprints down the sideline, trying to catch up to a long ball. Balls are zipped back and forth between players talking about the upcoming school year. They joke around, slapping shoulders.

From the top of the stands I can hear occasional shouts and break-out laughter. A set of camera people are gathered on the sidelines, near the water coolers that the training staff has set out.
It’s cool to watch to the balls fly through the air and see the players sprinting to and fro as they wait for the first practice to begin.

This isn’t a game day but fans are still on hand get a sneek peek at the upcoming season. They hang out in the stands with their coffees (me, with my Mountain Dew) and read a prospectus to try to learn the names and numbers.

The head coach and a couple assistants start to make their way from the office to the field. They stop for some small talk with a couple media guys and then join the players. More fist bumps and high fives as the team gathers together.

It always seems like a long wait for the start of a new season. This one particularly so. But now it is here.

The wait is over.

It’s August. It’s warm. And it’s the first day of practice.

2013.

You ready for some football !!

Norm's Top-5 Summer Highlights

Summer is almost over and I got to thinking…

When I look back on the summer of 2009, what will I remember? The economic downturn? Yes. Watching The Hangover four times in the movie theater? Yes. Rubbing my eyes as the US Soccer team was beating Brazil (2-0) in the Confederations Cup Final? Yep. The Bachelorette season finale? Not so much...

Join me as I countdown my Top-5 Niner highlights from the 2009 summer..

#5. For many businessman/woman summers in Charlotte just aren’t complete without fun times at Alive After Five at the EpiCentre after work on Thursdays. Anytime you can combine good food, good drink, good music and good people it’s a ‘good’ time. For the first time this summer the Niners made their presence felt at the after-work gathering as coaches and staff members convened on uptown hotspot to continually spread the work about Charlotte Athletics.

#4. Sometimes in sports the loser ultimately becomes the winner. Charlie Coley III lost the slam dunk contest in Detroit, but certainly caught the attention of many folks for if nothing else his insanely large head of hair. I always thought CC3 looked good in green. He is going to look even better in the red, white and blue. Getting drafted by the Harlem Globetrotters is quite an accomplishment. We will find out this fall if the man they call ‘go get it’ will be going to get a red, white and blue basketball instead of your run of the mill leather sphere.

#3. Baseball is a funny sport. The baseball first year player draft is a funny process. So many rounds, so many players, so many places to choose guys from. That’s why when a guy gets selected in the top six rounds it’s a truly special accomplishment. Atlantic 10 world-beater Rob Lyerly becomes the highest 49er to be drafted since John Maine, who other than a recent bout with injuries has had a very solid professional career. Lyerly was selected with the 195th pick and almost immediately signed and shipped up to Staten Island to play ball. Through 20 games he hasn’t hit any homers, but has seven RBI and 27 total bases. Lyerly was joined by Aaron Bray (Astros/27th rd) as the only two Niners to be selected in this years MLB draft.

#2. I hadn’t seen 5:30am in over four years. Typically when you roll out of bed in the morning some resemblance of the sun is suppose to greet you almost lifting you up out from the covers and straight to the coffee pot to start the brew process. Well, that WASN’T the case last week. But you know what, I didn’t mind it. An intimate gathering of 49er football fanatics parked themselves at Hendrick Acura off Independence Blvd. to rally and tailgate along with Wilson from Fox News Rising. I never knew Fox had a morning show, but again this goes back to my unfamiliarity with the pre dawn hours of the day. Though I was so jacked up I probably could have kicked the football through the oversized billboard goalposts we were rallying beneath. All morning long we cheered, chanted, ate, drank and even danced for 49er Football. Don’t believe me? Check out the vid.

#1. The headline could have read, “Former Charlotte golfer qualifies for 2009 US Open” and that would have been exciting enough. To watch a 49er compete at Bethpage Black against the best in the world was special enough. Then Trevor Murphy, member of the Niners 2006-07 NCAA 3rd place squad, goes out and fires a 2nd round (69) the included a birdie-birdie-birdie finish amidst the congenial New York faithful to make the cut and play on the weekend. (Due to rain delaying play, he actually finished his 2nd round on Saturday so technically played on the weekend, but work with me here.) Murphy’s weekend was less than desirable as he finished tied for 58th, but that one run in the 2nd had all the announcers gushing.

Thats the list. Golf at #1. Oh what a summer it was!

Honorable Mentions: Globetrotting Jon Busch makes presence felt in MLS and on US Soccer team, Lutz jumps to other side as member of media/color commentator on ESPN’s coverage of ASA softball, Tweeting. Follow me on twitter at @Charlotte49ers.

Mills to AAA, Pitches in Charlotte Wednesday

Former Niner Adam Mills (Class of 2007), was this weekend, promoted to AAA Pawtucket. The PawSox begin a four-game series at the Charlotte Knights, and Mills is now slated to pitch on Wednesday.

Mills, who led the nation in ERA in 2007 with Charlotte, at 1.01 for the season, has won his last eight games, a team record, and nine of his last ten for his former team, Portland, of the Eastern League. He was the first Sea Dog to win six games in a month when we went 6-0 in July.

Mills was drafted by Boston in the eighth round of the 2007 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft and was a consensus first-team All-American for the Niners. He leads all Charlotte pitchers in career wins, starts and shutouts.

Spears hopes to point 49ers toward success - CharlotteObserver.com

Spears hopes to point 49ers toward success - CharlotteObserver.com
Photo courtesy of Charlotte Observer

Busch's Busy Week

Charlotte 49ers 1996 first team all-America goalkeeper Jon Busch will be with the US National Team, Thursday July 23 for the USA-Honduras Gold Cup semifinal match (FOX Soccer, 7 pm) at Chicago's Soldier Field. The 2008 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year will then meet up with his MLS team, Chicago Fire, as they visit Seattle, Saturday on ESPN. If the US wins, Thursday, Busch will grab a red-eye from Seattle to join back up the US National team for the Gold Cup Championship at Giants Stadium in New York, Sunday at 3 p.m.

Pretty busy. Pretty amazing. Such has been Busch's career ever since he joined the 49ers and led Charlotte to the 1996 National Semifinals.