UNCP Announces Associate Membership With Mountain East Conference
Officials at the Mountain East Conference (MEC) announced in August that they have unanimously approved an associate membership agreement with UNC Pembroke that will affect the sports of football, swimming & diving, men's and women's indoor track & field and wrestling. All five teams will now be eligible to receive conference awards associated with those sports, including conference team and individual championships, all-conference and conference weekly awards and recognition on their respective sport's all-academic team. The Braves will compete as early as the 2019-20 season in swimming & diving, as well as indoor track & field and wrestling, while football will begin MEC competition in Fall 2020.
 
UNCP Athletics Extends Partnership With Adidas
Athletics department officials at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke announced in early April that the Braves have renegotiated their shoe and apparel contract with Adidas and Johnson-Lambe in Raleigh with an extension through the 2023-24 athletic season. The partnership improves upon the foundation of the contract executed prior to the 2013-14 campaign (the first in UNCP's history) that tagged the German multinational company as the official apparel provider for all of UNCP's 16 varsity athletic sports. The agreement includes promotional merchandise for each team, incentives for postseason accolades, in-venue signage sponsorship and discounts off of retail pricing. Also included are internship opportunities to current or former student-athletes to further UNCP's primary strategic goal of developing successful adults.
 
UNC Pembroke Wins SunTrust Connecting Communities Award For Record Third Time
The University of North Carolina at Pembroke was named the winner of the 2019 SunTrust Foundation Connecting Communities Award at the Peach Belt Conference's annual awards dinner in Hilton Head. UNCP received the honor for its American Indian Heritage Day which was held in conjunction with the football team's home contest with Mars Hill on November 3. With the announcement, UNCP became the first school to win the honor for a third time. The Braves previously picked up the award following the 2013-14 and 2016-17 athletic seasons. Lumbee Tribe-inspired alternate jerseys were created for the event and unveiled to the Lumbee Tribal Council to a standing ovation.
 
UNC Pembroke Decorated With Six NACMA "Best Of" Awards
The National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) has honored the UNC Pembroke external operations team with six 'Best of Awards' for the 2018-19 athletic year, including a trio of gold medal commendations. The Braves earned a pair of gold medals for efforts during football's American Indian Heritage Day, while also picking up gold commendation for the video the culminated baseball's inaugural Bark In The Park event in April 2018. The department earned silver medals for promotion efforts geared toward football's Military Appreciation Night, as well as a digital advertisement that was produced for basketball's Social Media Night. The overall efforts to promote that event at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court were lauded with a bronze commendation.
 
Braves Match Third-Best Finish In PBC Commissioner's Cup
Boasting a conference crown in men's cross country, as well as runner-up finishes in golf, men's track & field and women's track & field, UNC Pembroke climbed into fifth place in the final 2019 Peach Belt Conference Commissioner's Cup standings. The performance matches the third-highest finish for the department in its 27-year membership in the league, and gave the Braves a top-5 finish among the league's 12 institutions for the third-straight year. Those finishes mark the best three-year performance stretch for the department since joining the league, as well as the NCAA Division II ranks, prior to the 1992-93 athletic season. Five of UNCP's 16 varsity athletic teams were represented in the NCAA postseason in 2018-19, including team appearances by the men's cross country and men's basketball squads.
 
UNCP Sends 164 To PBC Presidential Honor Roll Recognition
The work of UNC Pembroke's student-athletes in the classroom paid dividends in late June when 164 Braves were named to the Peach Belt Conference Presidential Honor Roll. It is the 10th-straight year that UNCP has sent 100 or more student-athletes to the distinguished listing – the longest stretch of any of the league's 12 member institutions – and the sixth time in the last seven years that the department has had 150 or more student-athletes earn the laurel. The Black & Gold has raked in a league-best 1,477 PBC (147.7/year) Presidential Honor Roll laurels over that span as well. The Braves sent a record 179 student-athletes to the listing following the 2014-15 athletic season.
 
Student-Athletes Register Another Record Performance In The Classroom
A solid year in the athletic arenas started in the classroom for UNC Pembroke's student-athletes as the 16 varsity athletic teams combined to post a department record 2.886 grade point average. Five teams – women's cross country, golf, soccer, softball and volleyball– registered a team GPA of 3.0 or better during the 2018-19 academic year, while three teams – baseball, women's cross country and swimming – saw their team GPA increase by better than 2.9 percent. An unprecedented 134 student-athletes were recognized on an institutional honor roll, while a record 52 individuals were honored for academic achievement (3.5 GPA or higher) by the Division II Athletic Directors Association (D2ADA).
 
60 Student-Athletes Earn Degrees At Winter, Spring Commencements
A total of 60 student-athletes earned their bachelor's or graduate degrees during the 2018-19 academic year, including 39 that took part in UNCP's spring commencement ceremony. More than 35 of those student-athletes were on hand to participate in the athletics department's bi-annual Student-Athlete Graduation Breakfast in May where head coaches, along with select members of UNCP's athletics administration, presented the graduation candidates with stoles to commemorate their time as a student-athlete for the Black & Gold. Two former student-athletes – baseball's Collins Cuthrell and track & field's Morgan Sheehan – have now earned both their undergraduate and graduate degrees from UNCP. Basketball assistant coaches Donald Bohannon and Tony Jones, as well as Director of Creative Services Lamar Courmon, participated in winter commencement as well.
 
Five Teams Make NCAA Postseason Appearances
Five of UNC Pembroke's 16 varsity athletic teams made appearances in the NCAA postseason this year, including the men's cross country team which made its first appearance at the NCAA Championships in 37 years. The wrestling team matched a school record by qualifying eight individuals for the NCAA Championships in Cleveland, while the men's basketball team made its third-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, as well as its sixth trip in the last seven years. Javon Graham represented the men's track & field team at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Championships – the first time a student-athlete has qualified for both events in more than 40 years.
 
Three Student-Athletes Combine To Earn Four All-America Laurels
Prolific performances by a handful of UNCP student-athletes paid dividends in the postseason as wrestling's Rodney Shepard and baseball's Ethan Baucom picked up all-America accolades, while Javon Graham earned all-America honors in both Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field for the Braves. Baucom became just the eighth consensus all-American in the history of the baseball program after leading NCAA Division II with 1.48 RBI per game, while also hitting .306 with 20 home runs. Shepard picked up all-America laurels for the second-straight year after advancing to the national championship match, while Graham became the first UNCP track & field student-athlete in 45 years to earn all-America nods to culminate both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
 
Baucom, Kipkoech (Twice) Rake In Conference Athlete Of The Year Honors
Baseball's Ethan Baucom and cross country/track & field's Silus Kipkoech both added impressive entries into their collegiate resume when they were both decorated with their respective sport's athlete/player/runner of the year honors. Baucom picked up PBC Baseball Player of the Year nods after hitting .306 with league-bests in both home runs (20), RBI (71) and runs scored (57). Kipkoech was named PBC Men's Cross Country Runner of the Year after winning a pair of events during the regular season, while placing second in one other meet. He doubled down at the PBC Track & Field Championships and picked up Men's Track Athlete of the Year recognition after scoring 28 points, including event titles in the 10,000-meter Run and the 3,000-meter Steeplechase.
 
Braves Second Among PBC Schools In All-Conference Awards
UNC Pembroke student-athletes combined to rake in 53 all-conference honors during the 2018-19 athletic season, the second-most of any of the league's 12 institutions. That tally included 35 all-PBC laurels by the track & field team alone, while the Braves also matched a league-best with their all-conference loot in men's cross country (4) and men's basketball (2). UNCP's student-athletes were the recipients of 26 weekly awards from the conference office this season as well, including six weekly awards in softball, and five more in both baseball and men's track & field. That number ranked second among the 12 league institutions in respect to sports in which the Braves compete in.
 
Five Former Student-Athletes Join Athletics Hall Of Fame
Student-athletes representing five different sports, including the first football player from the modern day era of the program, were officially inducted into the UNC Pembroke Athletics Hall of Fame as part of Homecoming Week in late October. All-American punter Justin Hinson (2007-10) was the first football player since 1986 to be inducted into the distinguished listing of former student-athletes, coaches and administrators. Two-sport (softball, basketball) athlete Lisa Mason (1980-84), wrestling's Curry Pickard (2000-05), track & field's Jerry Stancil (1972-76), and basketball's Dwayne Watson (1986-91) were also highlighted in UNCP's 40th Hall of Fame induction class. The newest members were officially inducted as part of the 2018 UNCP Athletics Hall of Fame Ceremony on October 19.
 
Seventh Annual Cash Bash Raises Nearly $90,000
Robeson County natives Vonta Leach and Brad Allen, as well as former NC State basketball standout Chris Corchiani and highlighted the night for the UNC Pembroke athletics department when the Braves hosted their seventh annual Cash Bash: A Night With The Stars in late April. The event welcomed more than 400 attendees and raised $86,000 toward the Braves Club general scholarship fund – the fourth-largest amount in the history of the department. To date, the annual event has generated more than $500,000 in seven years for student-athlete scholarships and the University's 16 varsity athletic programs. Former Louisville men's basketball head coach Denny Crum was represented by his wife and a former player at the event after falling ill on the morning of the Cash Bash.
 
Men's Cross Country Captures Peach Belt Conference Title
Three runners finished among the top 6 for the men's cross country team – including a 1-2 finish by Kenyans Joshua Chepkesir and Silus Kipkoech – to help lead the Braves to their second Peach Belt Conference title in four seasons in early November. Chepkesir covered the 8K course at Redcliffe Plantation in 24:22.3 on the way to becoming the second UNCP freshman in as many years to take home top honors at the conference championship. Kipkoech was 19 seconds back (24:41.4) in the runner-up position, while senior Logan Ward was sixth with a time of 25:07.6, and Matthew Martin crossed in 11th place in 25:49.0. All four runners were also lauded with all-conference honors.
 
Men's Cross Country Makes First NCAA Appearance In 37 Years
A phenomenal performance at the NCAA Southeast Region Championships proved to be even more fruitful for the UNC Pembroke men's cross country team in mid-November when the Braves received one of 10 at-large bids to the NCAA Division II National Championships in Pittsburgh, Pa. It was the first team appearance for the men's squad since it registered a 15th place finish at the 1981 event in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Sophomore Silus Kipkoech covered the 10K course in just under 35 minutes to lead the UNC Pembroke men's cross country team to a 32nd place finish at the event.
 
Chepkesir Dominates PBC Championships, Ormsby Named Coach Of The Year
Freshman Joshua Chepkesir made his collegiate debut a successful one for the Braves in 2018-19 by capturing the individual title at both the Peach Belt Conference and NCAA Southeast Region Championships. The Eldoret, Kenya, native crossed the finish line 19 seconds ahead (24:22.3) of teammate Silus Kipkoech en route to leading the Braves to the league championship in November. Two weeks later, the rookie turned in the fourth-fastest 10K time (31:09) in program history and out-paced the rest of the 151-man field at the region meet. The conference championship meet also produced a notable honor for UNCP's skipper as well when Dr. Peter Ormsby was crowned PBC Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year for the second time in the last four seasons.
 
Swimming Posts Program-Best Finish At SCSC Championships
The swimming team broke seven school records and accumulated 442 points over the course of the three-day event on the way to registering a third-place finish at the Sun Coast Swimming Conference Championships in February. The showing marked a program-best finish for the Braves under interim head coach Oscar Roverato who had the interim tag removed from his title just more than a month later. Freshman Bianca Bateman broke a pair of individual school records at the event, while Jaycie Knight and Victoria Brousseau each broke one of their own. School records were also shattered in the 200- and 400-yard Freestyle Relays, as well as the 400-yard Medley Relay.
 
John Sterling, Major Awards Highlight Student-Athlete Welcome Back Event
Former baseball standout Trey Jacobs was decorated with both Male Newcomer and Male Student-Athlete of the Year accolades, while soccer goalkeeper Gina Ryan raked in Female Student-Athlete of the Year laurels, as the UNC Pembroke athletics department welcomed back its nearly 400 student-athletes inside the Givens Performing Arts Center (GPAC). A presentation by John C. Sterling, a United States Army veteran, master resiliency trainer and Peach Belt Conference (PBC) behavioral health consultant, highlighted the night for the annual event which was sponsored by Wing Co. and attended by all student-athletes, coaches and department staff. Soccer forward Alexis Pittman was lauded with Female Newcomer of the Year honors, while soccer head coach Lars Andersson picked up the Dan Kenney Coach of the Year crown to put a wrap on the 2017-18 Golden Braves program.
 
UNCP Hosts Sixth Annual Golden Braves Awards
The men's cross country team was lauded for winning its second Peach Belt Conference Championship in four years, while three other teams were recognized for runner-up finishes at their respective conference championship events, to highlight the night at the 2019 Golden Braves. Soccer's Carly Rochelle was decorated with Most Well-Rounded Female Student-Athlete, while basketball's Carson Mounce took home the award on the men's side. Luke Jackson (baseball) and Kaila Crowder (volleyball) were named the Athletic Performance Student-Athletes of the Year for their work in the weightroom. Pembroke native and long-time philanthropist Dr. Ben Hardin was awarded Braves Club Member of the Year honors posthumously, while faculty athletics representative Dr. Kevin Freeman was named the Changing Lives Through Education award recipient.
 
Locklear Earns Two Peach Belt Conference Postgraduate Scholarships
Basketball's Avery Locklear earned a pair of Peach Belt Conference postgraduate scholarships when she was named the recipient of both the SunTrust Foundation Minority Graduate Scholarship at the league's annual awards dinner in Hilton Head, S.C., while also being lauded with the Mike & Amy Wood Foundation Scholarship. It was the seventh time in as many years that a UNCP student-athlete has been presented with the SunTrust scholarship, and the first time a Brave has been awarded the Wood Foundation Scholarship. A four-time PBC Presidential Honor Roll selection, Locklear was earned a pair of PBC Elite 15 Awards during her career, and was named UNCP's Outstanding Senior prior to graduation. She will attend UNC School of Law in the fall.
 
Three Teams Recognized Nationally For Work Inside Classroom
The soccer, softball and volleyball teams all started their year by gaining national recognition for their work inside the classroom during the 2017-18 academic year. The soccer team continued a long-lasting tradition for itself by earning the United Soccer Coaches Association Team Academic Award for the seventh time under head coach Lars Andersson, while the softball team was one of just 75 NCAA Division II squads to post a 3.0 grade point average or better and was recognized by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. The volleyball team earned its first Team Academic Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association after posting a collective 3.39 team GPA during the 2017-18 academic year.
 
Men, Women Finish In Runner-Up Spot At PBC Track & Field Championships
The men's and women's track & field teams combined to capture nine individual event titles as both teams finished second at the 2019 Peach Belt Conference Track & Field Championships in mid-April. It marked the third-straight year that UNCP's men's squad has finished first or second at the postseason event, while the women's team matched its highest finish (2016-17) at the conference championships with their weekend performance. Both teams were tops among the five traditional league members competing at the event, and UNCP also picked up four individual meet awards as well – men's track athlete of the year, men's freshman track athlete of the year, men's freshman field athlete of the year and women's freshman track athlete of the year.
 
Javon Graham Makes Appearance At NCAA Indoor, Outdoor Championships
Junior Javon Graham registered a feat not seen by a UNC Pembroke student-athlete in more than four decades when he qualified to compete at both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Graham, a Fayetteville native, registered an 11th-place finish in the 60-meter Hurdles at the indoor event in early March, and then finished 11th in the 110-meter Hurdles at the outdoor event in May. He became the first UNCP student-athlete in 43 years to qualify for both championships, and, inevitably, became the first in school history to earn both indoor and outdoor all-America honors in the same athletic season.
 
Golf Captures Runner-Up Honors At PBC Championships For Second-Straight Year
Senior Alexandria Bare, freshman Parker Melting and junior Katy Flax all walked away with top-10 finishes on the individual leaderboard to lead the UNC Pembroke golf team to a runner-up finish at the Peach Belt Conference Championships for the second-straight year in April. The Braves have now finished among the top-3 teams at the PBC Championships six times in the 10-year history of the event, including team titles in both 2011 and 2014. Led by the play of all-conference standouts Bare and Maddy Corley, UNCP finished among the top three teams at five tournaments in 2018-19, including the team title at the Sunoco/Campbell Oil Classic in Wallace.
 
Men's Basketball Posts Another 20-Win Season, Earns Sixth NCAA Tournament Berth
Another 20-win campaign paid dividends for the men's basketball team in March when the Braves earned their sixth berth into the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament in the last nine years. The Black & Gold concluded its 2018-19 campaign with a 21-10 record – the fifth time in the last seven seasons that the Braves have registered 20 or more wins – to fuel its third-straight trip to the Big Dance. The fifth-seeded Black & Gold dropped their first round contest with fifth-seeded Catawba inside the Levine Center on the campus of Queens University of Charlotte.
 
Wrestling Finishes In Runner-Up Spot At NCAA Region Championships
Nick Daggett, Ronnie Pietro and Tyler Makosy all picked up region titles to pace a nonet of Braves to the podium and help the 13th-ranked UNC Pembroke wrestling team to a runner-up finish at the 2019 NCAA Super Region 2 Tournament on February 22 in Hartsville, S.C. Six Braves made appearances in the title bout of their respective weight classes, with Daggett and Pietro both tallying wins of the bonus-point variety, while Makosy won an overtime decision. Warner, Shepard and Sloop all fell on the wrong end of decisions decided by three or less points in their championship matches. Newberry (137.5 points) used a forfeit in the championship match of the 285-pound tournament to finish 3-1/2 points better than the Braves in the final team standings.
 
Wrestling Qualifies Program-Best Eight For NCAA Championships, Finishes 21st
Senior Rodney Shepard suffered his only loss of the 165-pound tournament in the championship match and led the wrestling team to a 21st-place finish at the NCAA Championships in early March. UNCP matched a program best by qualifying eight wrestlers for the NCAA's premier event – the most national qualifiers for the Black & Gold since it qualified eight for the 2003-04 NCAA Championships in Mankato, Minn. The 21st-place finish at this year's event placed the Black & Gold among the nation's top 25 teams for the 13th-straight season, while Shepard's run in Cleveland, Ohio, marked the sixth time in the last eight years that a UNCP wrestler has advanced to a national title matchup.
 
O'Neil Picks Up 600th Win As Baseball Skipper At UNCP
The baseball team pounded out 15 hits and scored three or more runs in three different frames to hand Paul O'Neil his 600th victory as the head coach of the Braves in mid-February. O'Neil, who has headed up UNCP's staff since the start of the 2001 campaign, has compiled a 613-392-1 (.610) record as UNCP's skipper and will head into the 2020 campaign as the 26th winningest active coach (by wins) in NCAA Division II. O'Neil, who headed up the program at Shenandoah from 1997-2000, needs just three more victories next season to reach the 700-win plateau for his career. He has led the Braves to a Peach Belt Conference title (2011), and a trio of NCAA Tournament appearances (2011, 2017, 2018).
 
Six Student-Athletes Ink Professional Contracts
The athletic careers of six former UNC Pembroke student-athletes continued over the course of the 2018-19 athletic season as baseball's Trey Jacobs and Jesse Stinnett, basketball's Nigel Grant and Brandon Watts, and football's B.J. Bunn and Lawrence Keys all inked their names to professional contracts. Jacobs and Stinnett signed free agent contracts with Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies less than a week apart in August, while Bunn and Keys both became the first football players in UNCP history to sign pro contracts when they joined the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul in March. Grant and Watts both made their professional debuts in October when Watts took the court with the UCC Demons (Ireland), and Grant was in the starting lineup for San Salvadore BC (El Salvador).
 
Department Adds New Swimming, Spirit Squad Head Coaches
Two new head coaches joined the UNCP Athletics family in March as Oscar Roverato officially took over the reins of the swimming program, while Pembroke native Kristen Freeman was named the third head coach of the department's spirit squad. Roverato led the Black & Gold to a pair of dual meet victories and a program-best finish (third) at the Suncoast Swimming Conference Championships as the interim head coach in 2018-19, and had the interim tag removed from his title in late March. Freeman, a graduate of UNCP and Purnell Swett High School, joined the department in May after a handful of stints as cheerleading coach in Robeson County schools.
 
Department Adds Four New Faces To Administration Staff
Athletics director Dick Christy continued to strengthen his administrative staff with four new hires during the spring semester with the additions of Christina Chow (Director of Compliance/SWA), Lamar Courmon (Director of Creative Services), Jessica Newton (Director of Athletic Performance) and Morgan Sheehan (Assistant Athletic Communications Director). A former volleyball player at Armstrong Atlantic, Chow treks to Pembroke after spending two years at Georgia Tech, while Newton returns to her alma mater after serving the last 2-1/2 years as strength coach at Pine Ridge (Fla.) High School. Courmon has worked the last nine seasons in various capacities on the athletics department staff, while Sheehan was a two-time all-conference selection as a member of both UNCP's tennis and track & field squads.