DSC Notebook: Roadrunners reflect

Published 10:28 pm Thursday, April 2, 2015

All of the confetti has fallen and the parade is over.

Now there is time for members of the Dalton State College men’s basketball team to reflect on their accomplishments from the past season — most notably winning the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division I national championship in the team’s first season of tournament eligibility — and truly appreciate what was done.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind for the Roadrunners, who won five games in seven days from March 18-24 to bring the title home from the 32-team tournament in Kansas City, Mo. When interviewed after a parade and celebration in front of the Dalton Depot restaurant last Friday, most of the players were still adjusting to the reality of reaching the NAIA’s top spot in the second season since the school re-launched athletics.

“It hasn’t really hit us yet,” senior Preston Earle said. “It’s just great to feel all this support around us. The fans and everything, it’s just unbelievable.”

During the team’s tournament run, Dalton State coach Tony Ingle said he always knew the program could get to this point this quickly, saying, “If I didn’t believe we could get here, then where were we going to go?”

Another senior starter, Anthony Hilliard, said he also knew the team had national championship potential early in the season — but definitely not as soon as Ingle.

“Coach Ingle told me when I first came on a (recruiting) visit that I could be a national champion,” Hilliard said. “I looked at him like he was crazy. But he was right … After (a 99-96 overtime win at Life University to open this season), I knew then we could do it.”

The Roadrunners, who won 71-53 against Westmont College of Santa Barbara, Calif., in the NAIA title game, reached the national tournament via their Southern States Athletic Conference regular season championship. They finished the year with a 32-4 record, pushing their victory total in just two seasons to 58.

But now all of that is behind them, and for the four senior starters — Earle, LaDaris Green, Hilliard and Sean Tate — who played such key roles for this team, their playing careers with the Roadrunners are over. Green, an NAIA Division I All-American First Team member who Ingle said was the centerpiece of his plan in re-launching basketball at the school — Dalton Junior College had a team from 1968 to 1978, with Ingle among the first-era players — will graduate this May.

The other senior starters have plans to graduate after fall semester or next spring. While all four of the departing senior starters professed a desire to play professional basketball anywhere they can, including overseas, Ingle said that no matter what lies ahead, there is one thing his players must accomplish first before they receive help from him.

“I’m more than encouraging them to finish their degrees, I’m expecting them to,” Ingle said. “They came here to get an education. If they want any help from me as far as helping them move on to the next level or to get jobs, then they have to graduate first.”

Green and Earle are pursuing degrees in interdisciplinary studies. Hilliard’s major is business with a focus in sports management, while Tate is studying business management.

With Ingle having described Tate, the team’s point guard, as a coach on the floor, it wasn’t surprising to hear that he has mentioned to Tate — an NAIA Division I All-American Third Team member — the possibility of a future in coaching.

“Coach Ingle asked me about it,” Tate said. “It may be an option for me later on. But I’m only 21, so I think I still have some other things I want to do first.”

Each of the four seniors said the Roadrunners were as close as any team they had ever been a part of. That bond is one of the things they believe made them so successful on the court.

They all know they have formed a connection and made memories they will carry with them away from Dalton State.

“It’s a bond forever,” Green said. “These guys and everything we did together. This school will never be the same. We will never be the same.”

n FINISHING ON TOP: In a result that should have surprised no one but gives Dalton State one more feat to add to the list, the Roadrunners were No. 1 in the final NAIA Division I men’s basketball coaches poll of 2014-15.

It’s the highest ranking ever for Dalton State, which rose to fifth during the season and was sixth entering last month’s national tournament. According to a release from the NAIA, the Roadrunners claimed all eight first-place votes and 188 total points in the postseason poll. They’re the sixth different team to hold the top spot in the poll this season.

Dalton State was tied for 15th in the preseason poll and was never ranked below that spot in any subsequent poll.

Alabama’s Talladega College was No. 2 in the final poll, the same position the Tornadoes — who lost in a national tournament semifinal — held in the regular season’s final poll. Westmont, which was unseeded entering the national tournament, was ranked third, while Hope International University of Fullerton, Calif. — which entered the national tournament No. 1 and reached the semifinals — ended up fourth.

Joining Dalton State among the top 25 teams was fellow SSAC program Martin Methodist College of Pulaski, Tenn., which was ranked seventh. The SSAC’s Bethel University of McKenzie, Tenn., was not ranked but received votes for the poll.

n LISTEN UP: In the latest edition of “After Deadline,” The Daily Citizen’s podcast focusing on local sports, sports writer Chris Hillyard catches up with Tate to get his thoughts on the championship season and how the Roadrunners got there.

Tate also shares his superlatives for the team, such as “Best Dancer” and “Most Likely to Give the Pregame Pep Talk.”

n BOUND FOR FLORIDA: Dalton State’s men’s golf team will tune up for the SSAC championship tournament with next week’s Golfweek NAIA Spring Invitational.

According to a release from Dalton State, the Roadrunners will play Monday and Tuesday in the 54-hole tournament on the par-72, 7,001-yard El Campeon Course at Mission Inn Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., near Orlando. The SSAC tournament is April 13-15 at Montgomery (Ala.) Country Club.

The 13-team Golfweek field will include what is expected to be some of the NAIA’s best teams, and that includes 10th-ranked Dalton State. Other ranked teams in the field are No. 1 Oklahoma City University, No. 3 College of Coastal Georgia, No. 7 Johnson and Wales University, No. 9 University of South Carolina-Beaufort, No. 11 Grand View University, No. 13 Northwood University, No. 14 Webber University and No. 19 Mount Mercy University.

“This is a very important week for us,” Roadrunners coach Ben Rickett said in the release. “We’re playing against another national championship-caliber field, and the guys need to be ready to play. We have to get off to a better start if we are wanting to challenge this week. I was proud of the way that the guys responded last week and hopefully we can carry the momentum into this week.”

Dalton State finished second among a dozen teams earlier this week in the Tennessee River Rumble. The Roadrunners ended up nine strokes behind champion and host Lincoln Memorial University and as many strokes ahead of third-place Brevard College. Dalton State finished the opening round of the 36-hole tournament in fourth place, but just six strokes out of the lead.

n CLOSER TO HOME: Dalton State’s women’s golf team will also be tuning up for SSAC championship tournament play, but the women won’t be traveling nearly as far.

According to a release from the school, the Roadrunners will play Monday and Tuesday in the inaugural Chattanooga Classic. The 54-hole tournament — 36 holes will be played on Monday — is at Council Fire Golf Club, with the course playing to a par of 72 and 6,070 yards for the tournament.

The SSAC women’s championship tournament is April 18-19, and like the men’s event, it will be played at Montgomery Country Club.

The Chattanooga Classic will feature eight NCAA Division I programs — including the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga — and NCAA Division II program Lee University from nearby Cleveland, Tenn. The field will have a total of 63 golfers, with some individual representatives from two more NCAA Division I schools, Vanderbilt and Alabama’s Jacksonville State.

“We are excited about having the opportunity to play in a great tournament at one of the area’s premier golf courses,” Dalton State coach Jim McGrew said in the release. “This will be our last tune-up before (the conference tournament) and will give us a chance to experience great competition. We are really close to being where we want to be as a team. It is now a matter of getting everyone firing on all cylinders. We hope the Chattanooga Classic will give local fans a chance to come watch us play.”

Play begins at 9 a.m. each day.