North Carolina State University Athletics
The Weekly Blog (Aug. 14 - Aug. 20)
8/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
Friday, Aug. 18, 2006
According to Dick Christy, NC State’s Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs, and Brian Kelly, the Director of Ticket Operations, all mini-pack and season-ticket packages have been sold out for the sixth consecutive football season.
More than 38,000 tickets were sold for the season that begins on Sept. 2 against Appalachian State, including lifetime rights owners, mini-packs and seating in the Vaughn Towers. That includes some 7,000 new permanent seats that are part of the Red Zone in the newly closed-in north end zone.
Construction on those seats, and the new Finley Fieldhouse underneath, began shortly after last year’s regular-season finale against Maryland and is largely complete, according to NC State Associate Athletics Director for Outdoor Facilities Ray Brincefield.
“With all the changes that have taken place at Carter-Finley Stadium, the response for season tickets has been overwhelming,” Kelly said. “To sell out this year, with so much additional inventory of tickets, is incredible.”
The first season-ticket sellout was in 2001, which coincides with the beginning of more than $100 million in expansion, renovation and improvements to Carter-Finley Stadium, which this season will celebrate its 40th anniversary as the home of NC State football.
Tim Peeler, 9: 15 a.m., 8/18/2006
IF YOU HAVE EVER wondered why neither Mr. Wuf or Ms. Wuf has ever won the Capital One Bowl Mascot Challenge, the answer is pretty simple: until this year, neither had been invited to face off against the country’s other best mascots.
That’s different this year, as Mr. Wuf is one of 12 contestants for the annual honor. Beginning on Sept. 12 that’s the Tuesday before the Southern Miss game, for everyone already on Football Standard Time (FST) weekly challenges involving the 12 contestants will begin, with fans voting on the head-to-head matchups.
For more information about the contest, you can visit the official Mascot Challenge site.
We’ll remind you again later, but go ahead and bookmark the page for future reference.
Tim Peeler, 8:50, 8/18/2006
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006
Here are a few updates about NC State baseball that don't include junior pitcher
Andrew Brackman and his stint with USA Baseball.
- Junior pitcher Jeff Stallings, who will be the second half of what
Wolfpack head coach Elliott Avent hopes is a deadly one-two punch on the
mound next season, has been through some limited throwing sessions this
summer at Doak Field. Stallings, from Greenville's D.H. Conley High School,
had reconstructive elbow surgery on June 2, 2005, and missed the entire 2006
season for the Wolfpack while rehabilitating. He went to the Cape Cod League
this summer and appeared in three games for Brewster (MA.) Whitecaps, then
returned home to workout with catcher Caleb Mangum and to work Avent's
summer camps. - Be on the lookout in coming days for a wrapup of how current
Wolfpack players performed in the summer baseball leagues on the main page
of GoPack.com. - Former Wolfpack baseball player J.J. Picollo, who played two seasons
at catcher under Ray Tanner before transferring to George Mason, was
recently named the director of player development for the Kansas City
Royals. He was the former director of Minor League Operations for the
Atlanta Braves and moved to Kansas City in July when former Braves director
of player development Drayton Moore became the Royals general manager. Here
is a story from MLB.com about his hiring: http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060813&content_id=1608132&vkey=news_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc. Picollo joins two other former
Wolfpack players in similar capacity in the Major Leagues. John Mirabelli is
the assistant general manager of the Cleveland Indians and Doug Strange is
the assistant general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. - Finally, one of Wolfpack baseball's biggest contributors -- at least
in terms of talent -- recently passed away last week. Gerald "Jerry" Bark,
father of former Wolfpack players Brian and Robbie Bark, died of cancer Aug.
6 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 61. An extensive obituary is available here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bal-md.ob.bark09aug09,1,2694095.story?ctrack=1&cset=true. The Bark brothers played at NC State from 1987-93. Brian was one of the most successful pitchers in school history,
setting the school career record with 20 until Joey Devine came along, and
was a 12th-round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves in 1990. He appeared
briefly in the Major Leagues with the Boston Red Sox.
Tim Peeler, 7:05 a.m., 8/17/2006
Aug. 16, 2006
Here is an excellent story about former NC State national swimming champion Cullen Jones, from Associated Press feature writer Beth Harris: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060814/ap_on_sp_ot/swm_sports_showcase. This weekend, Jones will compete in the Pan Pacific Championships this weekend in Vancouver.
Pat Norris, 6:25 p.m., 8/16/2006
Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006 NC STATE WILL HAVE two former women's basketball players in 2006 WNBA playoffs, which tip-off on Thursday, Aug. 17. Tiffany Stansbury, who was drafted by the Houston Comets in 2006, is now playing with the Los Angeles Sparks, will help her squad face the Seattle Storm on Friday, Aug. 18 at 10 p.m. PST in game one of the Western Conference semifinals. Junior Jessica O'Rourke, a returning starter for the Pack at both midfield and defense positions, returns after spending her summer months in Peru as part of an academic studies program. When she wasn't busy taking two courses in Spanish literature and Spanish history, Jessica spent two weeks climbing the Inca Trail, while playing some fun pick-up soccer games with the local kids. Chennelle Miller, 8:33 p.m., 8/15/2006 Monday, Aug. 14, 2006 SUNDAY WAS A FUN day at the RBC Center, with the football team’s annual Day of Champions. It was also the preseason’s biggest day for publicity, as newspaper, television, magazine and Internet reporters from around the state arrived at 11 a.m. for media day. While this a pain for some of the older members of the team, there were also a handful of wide-eyed freshmen getting their first opportunity to be interviewed. Per school policy, first-year freshmen can’t be interviewed until media day, which is typically after the second week of preseason camp. There is a similar policy for men’s basketball. Redshirt freshman defensive end Willie Young was basking in being one of the more popular interviews, since so many people are interested in how the Wolfpack defensive front will fare without first-round NFL draft picks Mario Williams, Manny Lawson and John McCargo. One of the things he mentioned in one interview was how he watched Lawson and Williams handle themselves with the media, and how he wants to emulate them though he also learned enough not to get himself into head coach Chuck Amato’s doghouse, the way Lawson and Williams did during last year’s spring practice. The coach prevented his defensive linemen from participating in any interviews until the start of the season. But it was an informative day for fans and the media. Here are some of the things that were written from the state’s major newspapers.The Raleigh News & Observer did a story on tailback duo Andre Brown and Toney Baker as well as freshman quarterback Justin Burke. The Durham Herald-Sun did something similar on the tailbacks, in addition to a Frank Dascenzo column about junior quarterback Marcus Stone, The Greensboro News & Record was impressed with Burke’s vocabulary, while the Winston-Salem Journal did a nice feature on Winston-Salem’s Ced Hickman, who was recruited fullback but has been moved to linebacker since arriving on campus a few weeks back. Finally, if you didn't know about the new GoPack.com's weekly blog, check out the first installment, which began shortly after we relaunched our site.
Chasity Melvin, a 1999 NC State graduate and current member of the Washington Mystics, will start at center when her squad takes on the Connecticut Sun on Friday, Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. EST for game one of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Chennelle Miller, 8:12 p.m, 8/15/2006
WOMEN'S SOCCER BEGAN its preseason training on Friday, Aug. 11. The Pack began the day with annual "Gauntlet" run, in which the team has to run a series of intervals and finish within a specific time. Now well into its preseason training, the team is preparing for its only exhibition match, scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 19, at West Virginia at 1 p.m.
