For the fourth straight year, supporters and fans of the University of North Carolina baseball program will have the opportunity to kick off the upcoming season with a memorable evening at the Diamond Heels’ First Pitch Dinner, scheduled for Jan. 28 at the brand new Loudermilk Center For Excellence on the UNC campus.

This year’s event will feature five Tar Heels that made their Major League debuts in 2011, including Seattle Mariners Player of the Year Dustin Ackley. Joining Ackley will be fellow Mariner Kyle Seager, Colorado Rockies right-hander Alex White, Oakland Athletics right-hander Andrew Carignan and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Tim Federowicz.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to meet the 2012 Tar Heels and this year’s senior class will preview the upcoming season.

North Carolina looks a lot like the 2009 team that won the national championship. That team was also favored at the first of the year after all the players elected to return. It’s unusual for a top team to return all its players but Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller – potential first round NBA picks last year – all decided to return to go after a national championship.

For Tar Heel fans, probably the only good thing about losing to Kentucky in the NCAA Elite Eight a year ago is that they’ll have another entire season to enjoy watching these players.

Sadly, no matter how good this team is, anything less than a national championship will be a disappointment. That pressure, along with integrating new talent into the chemistry of the team, will be the keys to the success of the 2011-2012 Tar Heels.

To read more please click here.

“Well, after last week’s ballgame, watching tape, we felt like obviously the most important thing is that we were getting turnovers and winning the turnover margin. I think that will be the case going out the rest of this season.” UNC coach Everett Withers said to begin his news conference today. “If we can win the turnover battle, win the explosive play battle, score 28 points off of turnovers, I think you got a chance to win games. We need to continue to build on that going into a week that’s an emotional week for a lot of people in this state. A lot of NC State fans in this state that want to beat the mess out of the Tar Heels and vice versa. I really believe this is good for college football and good for college athletics. I’m looking forward to it this week.”

QUESTION: Coach, since Giovani Bernard did not play at all last year and was limited in the spring. At what point could you see you had a really talented running back on your hands?

COACH WITHERS: Well, he came into camp two years ago and early in camp hurt that knee. Even in the first day or so in camp, you went like, Wow, this guy is going to be something, even in shorts. You knew the guy had special running skills, ability, that type of deal.
Going into the fall, we wanted to take care of him a little bit because we knew of his history with his knee, his hamstring. We really try to take care of him because we knew that the guy could be special just because of his work ethic and because of how he carried himself. When he played on the football field, he really gave a hundred percent.
Our deal is we know he can make plays. We just have to take care of him, make sure he’s with us at the end.

QUESTION: How would you characterize him as a runner? How much better do you think he can get?

COACH WITHERS: Well, he reminds me a lot of just guys that you see in the NFL, the little guys in the NFL. People don’t realize how powerful he is. He can go and hit it up inside, get two or three tough yards. He reminds me a little bit of Barry Sanders the way he can bounce the ball, the way he can do some things on the edges, he catches the ball well. He has some things that we think he can get better at as far as pass protection, those type of things. Those usually come with experience and age.
We’re just happy he’s on our team.

QUESTION: Based on the way you played this past weekend, what you’ve seen and heard from the players this week, do you get the sense that everybody is ready to turn the tables around on NC State?

COACH WITHERS: Well, I believe we thought we were ready each year we played them before. I think my biggest challenge to our team is being committed to each other. I felt like last week we were committed to each other and wanted to play the best for each other. We’ve challenged them with that this week with practice and preparation. We’re at Wednesday still in a work week. We’ve got some work to do to continue. I think we’re headed on the right track. Making this thing a rivalry, this thing has been a rivalry for a long, long time. It’s not that I have to sit here and make it a rivalry, make it important to these kids. They know these guys on the other team.

QUESTION: Can you speak to the importance to it of the program for recruiting to start to even it back out?

COACH WITHERS: Well, I think anytime you have in-state rivalries that are as close as we are, I think it’s always important to your program to win those, compete well in those. Hopefully you win more than you lose.
I think our biggest challenge going into this thing is that we play to our capabilities. I want to see us get better this week than we were last week. We’ve got some areas we can do that. That’s my biggest challenge.
The importance of it? Yeah, it’s important to the fans, the alumni base, the people at the university, the faculty, administration. It’s important in those aspects. But it’s important for us to get better as a football team, too.

QUESTION: Your secondary, can you address some of the issues you’ve had in terms of injuries and moving people around. Do you feel that is solidifying now or is it still kind of in flux?

COACH WITHERS: I think the more we play together back there in a consistent group, the better we’re going to be. I think last week was a by-product of having guys back there that played together for a couple weeks.
People, they want to look at the secondary. I think you got to look at the entire structure of your defense. You got to get pressure on the quarterback. I think that was the biggest issue last week. We got around the quarterback, hit him a few times. That affected to me how he managed the game the rest of the way, throwing the football, those type things. Those are the type things you have to do to help your secondary. I’ve never seen a good secondary that didn’t have a good pass-rush, okay? So I think we have to continue that up front. I think, yeah, we do need to continue to improve and get better and play more cohesive back in the back end, but I think that’s common each week.

QUESTION: Is there anybody emerging back there that is starting to stand out in your mind?

COACH WITHERS: I don’t look at one guy back there. I think they all need to continue to get better. I’m not going to single out one guy back there that’s playing heads above everybody else. But I do think we need to continue to improve in that back end. The more we improve, the better defense we’ll have.

QUESTION: On a personal note, how tired are you coming out on the wrong end on this one?

COACH WITHERS: How tired I am?

QUESTION: Yes, answering questions about the last four years, the overall result.

COACH WITHERS: I haven’t answered many questions on it because I haven’t been the head coach. I’m looking forward to my first opportunity to come out on the right end of it.

QUESTION: But just in terms of how it sat with you through the last four years, is it something that grinds on you?

COACH WITHERS: No. I usually put losses behind me pretty quick. I’m looking forward to having success, winning. Again, I’m one of those guys that tries to move on pretty fast on wins and losses.

North Carolina has lost two games in a row and Coach Everett Withers says that the way to get back on track is to secure the ball. The Tar Heels turned the ball over six times in a 59-38 loss to Clemson last weekend.

“The main thing is just taking care of the ball,” Withers said. “I think if we take care of the ball, we can be as good as any
team in this conference, if we take care of the ball.”

Withers said that his Heels have a good running game and that helps QB Bryn Renner in the passing game. “If we
can keep the ball, we don’t have to play as many snaps on defense,” he said. “It helps our young secondary on defense. It’s just been a matter of turnovers, not turning it over and giving our defense a chance to make some, and that’s been a big emphasis for us.”

North Carolina hosts Wake Forest on Homecoming this Saturday. One of the first times, if not the first time, that Carolina played Wake on Homecoming came in 1975.

While the Occupy Wall Street crowd isn’t as large as the anti-Vietnam War crowd and there isn’t the same attention that was paid to Watergate, there are similarities and differences between the eras.

There was much cynicism between young people and “the establishment” through much of the 1970s. This cynicism led to some students thinking traditions like Homecoming were corny.

Perhaps partly as a result of that cynicism, one male student (Delmar Williams) ran for Homecoming queen in 1975 – and won. Many said it made a farce out of the tradition. While UNC Athletics Director Homer Rice called it an “embarrassment,” his office reached a compromise where Williams was called Homecoming king (and received all the honors the queen would receive) and the second place vote getter (Paula Long) was named Honorary Homecoming queen. Carolina lost the game to Wake Forest 21-9. Each team wound up the season with only three wins.

The system for electing a queen has been changed dramatically where it is tough, if not impossible, for someone to pull shenanigans such as that. Plus, there is a Homecoming king today as well. I have written a piece on the history of Homecoming at UNC which will be used by the UNC General Alumni Association so keep an eye out for it.

There was an article in the Charlotte Observer a couple of years ago about the life of Delmar Williams, the Homecoming king of 1975. If you’d like to read it, please click here.