Area digest 5/25/05

Southeast hires volleyball assistant

Southeast Missouri State first-year volleyball coach Renata Nowacki has announced the hiring of Jaime Burns as an assistant for the 2005 season.

Burns comes to Southeast after serving as head coach at Millsaps College last year. In one season with the Division III program, she led a squad that had gone 11-20 in 2003 to a 20-11 mark in 2004.

Burns spent 2003 as a volunteer assistant at Mississippi after finishing up her career as a four-year starter with the Rebels, where she played with Nowacki for three seasons. Burns led the Rebels in kills and digs as a junior and senior, and she made the Southeastern Conference All-Academic Team in seven of her eight semesters at Mississippi.

Burns will serve as Southeast's recruiting coordinator and assist in various administrative duties, while working with the Redhawks' outside hitters and the squad's defense.

"The hiring of Jaime is huge for the program," Nowacki said. "She brings experience as a successful head coach of a collegiate program and has great knowledge of the game after playing at one of the highest levels as a student athlete."

Williams scores first career hole in one

Mona Williams of Jackson aced hole No. A at Kimbeland Country Club on Tuesday.

The hole in one was her first. She accomplished the feat with a pitching wedge on the 102-yard par-3 hole.

Witnesses were Jackie Anderson, Bonnie Kinder and Janice Gilbert.

OVC names athletes of the year

Tennessee State football player Charles Anthony and Eastern Illinois volleyball player Erica Gerth have been selected as the Ohio Valley Conference Athletes of the Year for 2004-05 in voting by the league's athletics directors and sports information directors.

Anthony, a senior running back who was the 2004 OVC Offensive Player of the Year, was a two-time consensus Division I-AA All-American. He led the nation in rushing average as a senior while topping the 1,700-yard mark for the second consecutive season and recording the third-highest rushing yardage total in OVC history, breaking his own school record with 1,739 yards on 306 carries.

Gerth, a three-time All-OVC selection, was the 2004 OVC Player of the Year after helping lead Eastern Illinois to a 15-1 conference record and a share of the regular-season crown. She led the league in points while ranking second in kills, fourth in digs and 10th in hitting percentage. A first team Academic All-American, she became only the fourth player in OVC history to post at least 1,600 kills (1,774) and digs (1,666) in a career, setting school records in both categories.

Seven other males and seven other females received votes for OVC Athletes of the Year, including Southeast's Brian Knippen (track and field) and Brooke Woodruff (cross country/track and field).

Show-Me Kings now in hardback

The book "Show-Me Kings," Mike Mitchell's story of the Scott County Central basketball program's dynasty, is now available in hard cover.

The book, which retails for $30 plus shipping, can be ordered through the Web site, www.showmekings.com.