Johnson to Participate in NCAA Football Academy

Jack Johnson assistant football coach was selected to participate in the NCAA Men's Football Academy. This program is sponsored by the Diversity & Inclusion and the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC). The program is administered by the NCAA and receives support from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), the Black Coaches Association (BCA), and the National Football League (NFL).

The program held in Indianapolis is designed to improve and reinforce various aspects of coaching to help support minority coaches in their advancement in intercollegiate athletics. The workshops run June 30th to July 2nd this summer and participants were chosen from a competitive pool across all college divisions.

"In my dealings with the NCAA, I know how competitive these programs are to get into," BC Head Coach Michael Clark commented. "It is a credit to both Jack and the standing our program has in college football. I am aware that Ron Prince and Norries Wilson two recent graduates of the program are now Division I head coaches. I hope it benefits both Jack and our program," Clark added.

Coach Higgison Joins Tulane Coaching Staff

Grant Higgison is leaving his post as defensive coordinator to join the football coaching staff at Division I-A Tulane University. Higgison played for and graduated from Tulane, where he also worked as a student assistant for four years before coming to Bridgewater in the fall of 2002.

During his three years as defensive coordinator, Higgison coached 19 all-conference performers and two all-americans.

Head Coach Mike Clark had this to say about Higgison's departure;

"We will miss the contribution of Grant in our program. He has enjoyed a great run with us and we wish him the best of luck in his move back to Tulane. Having good coaches moving on to new opportunities speaks well of both them and our program. Although a late move, we are working to make the necessary staff adjustments and hires. I have told our players that by the end of May, I hope to have things reorganized as we prepare for the 2007 season."

Clark Says New Tailback Is ‘Blue Chip’

The Daily News-Record | By Matthew Stoss

When tailback Darrin McKenzie drives by Turner Ashby High School on his way to Bridgewater College in August, it will be a familiar landmark in a foreign place, as he starts his freshman year as a BC football player.

But the reason it’s familiar isn’t pleasant – even if it did land Eagles coach Michael Clark a potential stud running back.

"He would have been a kid we thought we couldn’t have recruited because we thought he would’ve been recruited at a higher level," said Clark, who has collected about 40 recruits thus far for next season. "I think we’ve got a blue chip."

On Sept. 2, 2005, McKenzie was playing for Brookville High School against TA in the first game of his senior year. As a junior, he rushed for 1,064 yards and nine touchdowns and drew interest from the University of Virginia and James Madison, but both schools wanted to see what he did next season.

They just never got the chance.

With two minutes left against the defending state champion, McKenzie tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on a counter play. It ended his season.

"That was it," McKenzie said by phone this week from his home in Rustburg. "[It was] upsetting. It just hurt me. The JMU coach came to see me play the next week, and I wasn’t playing."

A year later, however, McKenzie was playing again, this time for Hargrave Military Academy’s post-graduate team, and with a week before the team’s first scrimmage and his reconstructed knee healed… he dislocated his left shoulder. The injury ended not only another football season for the 5-foot-8, 190-pounder, but also his Division I-A or I-AA prospects.

"‘Not again.’ That was the first thing I thought," said McKenzie, who originally injured the shoulder in high school. "And then, ‘Why me?"’

Enter Clark. The 14th-year coach said he knew about McKenzie during his senior year, but figured he was out of BC’s league and didn’t actively recruit McKenzie. However, after the shoulder injury last August, Clark was waiting.

"At the time, I could see why he would take a gamble and go to prep school and try to recapture the senior year that me missed," Clark said. "Physically, he battled. It was a tough, tough situation."

And without that "tough situation," McKenzie said he wouldn’t be at Bridgewater, which finished 8-2 overall, 4-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference last season.

The Eagles missed the Division III playoffs for the first time in six years. Their two losses were back-to-back to Guilford and Emory & Henry, allowing Washington & Lee to become the first team other than Bridgewater to win an ODAC title since 2000.

BC graduated 12 seniors – including all-purpose yards leader Winston Young and leading tackler Craig Smith. Smith, a linebacker, totaled 69 stops, while Young averaged 130.7 yards a game. However, the Eagles do return senior running back Phillip Carter, who rushed for 716 yards on 117 carries.

And while Clark said the Eagles are thin in the secondary, McKenzie, who has played defensive back, will start preseason practice at running back, where BC has added Shippensburg University transfer and Broadway High School graduate Seth Hardesty. Clark also said that during spring workouts, he experimented with sophomore running back David Argaud at cornerback.

"I think he has the speed," Clark said of McKenzie, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.41 seconds. "He’s an athlete that’s going to have fresh legs when he gets here.

"We recruited him as a running back, but the thing is you never go wrong with speed. When kids can run, they find a way to be productive."

When asked where he’d like to play, McKenzie didn’t hesitate.

"Running back," he said. "[I like] that they run the ball. That was the biggest thing, and they were committed to it."

Bridgewater opens its season Sept. 1 at home against McDaniel College.

Ex-BHS Star Hardesty Heads To BC

The Daily News-Record | By Matthew Stoss

After a year away, Seth Hardesty is returning to the Valley.

Hardesty, who graduated from Broadway High School in 2006, is coming back to play football for Division III Bridgewater College after redshirting his freshman year at Division II Shippensburg University.

“There’s nothing bad going on,” Hardesty said by phone Wednesday night from Shippensburg, Pa. “It’s just a matter of what I want to do.”

Hardesty said he made the decision over the winter break and just finished his paperwork to become a Bridgewater student – including his admissions deposit, the Division III equivalent of a letter of intent, which he said he sent Tuesday.

Under NCAA rules, BC coach Michael Clark is prohibited from publicly commenting on Hardesty until the admissions deposit clears.

“I should be an official student there by now – at least I would hope so,” the 6-foot, 205-pound fullback said. “It should just be a matter of paperwork and ending my credits here in good standing, but that’s not going to be a problem.”

Hardesty said Bridgewater, which finished 8-2 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time in six years, recruited him out of high school along with Hampden-Sydney, Shenandoah and Elon. He said one of the reasons he chose Shippensburg, which went 5-6 last year, was its wing-T offense – an offense Hardesty was familiar with at Broadway.

But after a season, Hardesty said the Red Raiders’ wing-T didn’t fit him as well as he would have liked. If he had stayed, he expected to be switched to outside linebacker or halfback.

“I had Bridgewater on my mind,” Hardesty said. “I was pretty set on what they did at Bridgewater. I knew I would fit into their offense.”

Hardesty was the Valley District’s leading rusher in 2006, running for 1,771 yards and 17 touchdowns in his only season as the Gobblers’ starting tailback.