Issue: Winter 2018
The awe-inspiring story of SFA freshman cross-country runner Awet Beraki was highlighted in SFA Athletics’ “Behind the Axe” video series in September. Beraki, a native of Eritrea, Africa, was kidnapped in 2011, held captive and tortured for nearly a year before escaping and later fleeing to the U.S. to live with a foster family. Upon graduating from high school in Colorado, Beraki enrolled at SFA and is in the midst of his first season as a Lumberjack.
After a three-year run as the athletic director at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, Ryan Ivey was introduced as SFA's new director of athletics in July. At Austin Peay, Ivey helped amass more than $6.5 million in gifts and donations to athletics, which provided funding for facility improvements and enhanced the department's operating budget.
Following his selection by the Los Angeles Rams in the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, it didn’t take long for former Lumberjack John Franklin-Myers to make a name for himself. During his first six games in a Rams uniform, Franklin-Myers accumulated five tackles. It was his strip sack of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins that helped preserve a 38-31 victory for the Rams on Sept. 27.
In the midst of one of its best seasons in program history, the SFA Ladyjack volleyball team won the Southland Conference regular season and reeled off a nation-leading 26 wins in a row (as of Sawdust publication date). That winning streak — the second-longest in the history of SFA’s program — includes a perfect 16-0 record in Southland Conference action. SFA volleyball was the first NCAA Division I volleyball team to reach the 25-win mark this season. Junior Danae Daron became the first student-athlete in SFA history to be named Sports Imports/American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division I Player of the Week by AVCA.
Hunter Dozier, former Lumberjack baseball player and eighth overall selection in the 2013 MLB Draft, played first base for the Kansas City Royals during the vast majority of the 2018 season. Dozier took part in 102 of Kansas City’s 162 regular season games and finished the year with a .229 batting average, .278 on-base percentage and .395 slugging percentage. Dozier hit 19 doubles, four triples and 11 homers through the 2018 campaign and drove in 34 runs. The most memorable of those hits was a walk-off homer in the Royals’ 5-4 victory against the Cleveland Indians Aug. 24.
In late July, Lumberjack basketball seniors Shannon Bogues (left) and TJ Holyfield (right) embarked on a journey to São Paulo, Brazil, as part of a 96-member U.S. student-athlete delegation to compete in the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire America Games, which brings together student-athletes from 25 countries to compete in 26 different sports. The Lumberjack pair helped the 10-man Athletes in Action USA men’s basketball team capture a gold medal after victories against Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. “This (gold medal) is going on my wall,” Holyfield said. “It represents all the hard work and what we went to Brazil to do. There are a lot of memories inside this one medal.”