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DeAngelo Benton had a once-in-a-lifetime experience when Auburn’s national championship football team was a guest of President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
“Never thought I would see the day that I shake the President’s hand, but I have now,” the junior-to-be wide receiver wrote on facebook.
Auburn wide receiver Kodi Burns presented the President with an Auburn helmet and national championship jersey.
President Obama commended the team on their undefeated season and for assisting tornado victims in Tuscaloosa, home of arch rival Alabama.
The Tigers were originally scheduled to visit the White House on April 29, but the trip was postponed due to a tornado outbreak in Alabama and the southeastern United States on April 27.
Benton, Bastrop High’s first Parade All-American, was listed No. 2 on the Tigers’ depth chart at the end of spring training.
COACHING OVERSEAS: “Join the Navy, see the world,” was once a popular recruiting slogan used by the U.S. Navy.
Kenny Natt hasn’t needed the Navy or the Harlem Globetrotters for that matter to become a certified world traveler.
A basketball lifer, Natt’s latest gig has taken him to Delhi (India, not Louisiana) as coach of India’s national basketball team.
Natt left Monday and will soon begin preparing his new team for the FIBA Asia Basketball Championship to be be played in Wuhan, China in September.
A member of Bastrop High’s 1974-75 state championship team, Natt went on to star at Northeast Louisiana University (now the University of Louisiana at Monroe). Since finishing out the 2008-09 NBA season as interim head coach of the Sacramento Kings, Natt had resided in Atlanta.
Natt’s basketball journey has included stints with the Indiana Pacers, Utah Jazz and Kansas City Kings as player, and assistant coaching positions with the Jazz (where he twice coached in the NBA Finals), Cleveland Cavaliers (where he was LeBron James’ position coach) and Sacramento Kings. In between, he played for several minor league teams, worked a year as an assistant coach at Youngstown State University, was employed as an NBA scout and worked for three years as director of basketball operations for the World Basketball League.
ALL-CONFERENCE: University of Arkansas at Monticello junior shortstop Jennifer Hickman has earned All-Gulf South Conference West Division first-team honors for the second straight year.
A Bastrop High product, Hickman registered a .271 batting average with a .348 on base percentage in helping the Blossoms to a 46-16 record and a runner-up finish in the NCAA South 2 Regional. Starting 60 of the Blossoms’ 62 games, she drove in 27 runs with a home run, three triples, 11 doubles and six sacrifice hits. She also scored 42 runs and stole three bases.
DeAngelo Benton had a once-in-a-lifetime experience when Auburn’s national championship football team was a guest of President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
“Never thought I would see the day that I shake the President’s hand, but I have now,” the junior-to-be wide receiver wrote on facebook.
Auburn wide receiver Kodi Burns presented the President with an Auburn helmet and national championship jersey.
President Obama commended the team on their undefeated season and for assisting tornado victims in Tuscaloosa, home of arch rival Alabama.
The Tigers were originally scheduled to visit the White House on April 29, but the trip was postponed due to a tornado outbreak in Alabama and the southeastern United States on April 27.
Benton, Bastrop High’s first Parade All-American, was listed No. 2 on the Tigers’ depth chart at the end of spring training.
COACHING OVERSEAS: “Join the Navy, see the world,” was once a popular recruiting slogan used by the U.S. Navy.
Kenny Natt hasn’t needed the Navy or the Harlem Globetrotters for that matter to become a certified world traveler.
A basketball lifer, Natt’s latest gig has taken him to Delhi (India, not Louisiana) as coach of India’s national basketball team.
Natt left Monday and will soon begin preparing his new team for the FIBA Asia Basketball Championship to be be played in Wuhan, China in September.
A member of Bastrop High’s 1974-75 state championship team, Natt went on to star at Northeast Louisiana University (now the University of Louisiana at Monroe). Since finishing out the 2008-09 NBA season as interim head coach of the Sacramento Kings, Natt had resided in Atlanta.
Natt’s basketball journey has included stints with the Indiana Pacers, Utah Jazz and Kansas City Kings as player, and assistant coaching positions with the Jazz (where he twice coached in the NBA Finals), Cleveland Cavaliers (where he was LeBron James’ position coach) and Sacramento Kings. In between, he played for several minor league teams, worked a year as an assistant coach at Youngstown State University, was employed as an NBA scout and worked for three years as director of basketball operations for the World Basketball League.
ALL-CONFERENCE: University of Arkansas at Monticello junior shortstop Jennifer Hickman has earned All-Gulf South Conference West Division first-team honors for the second straight year.
A Bastrop High product, Hickman registered a .271 batting average with a .348 on base percentage in helping the Blossoms to a 46-16 record and a runner-up finish in the NCAA South 2 Regional. Starting 60 of the Blossoms’ 62 games, she drove in 27 runs with a home run, three triples, 11 doubles and six sacrifice hits. She also scored 42 runs and stole three bases.
MALLORY HALL finished her freshman season at Hinds County Community College as the team’s third-leading hitter with a .275 batting average and a .326 on base percentage. Playing in 32 of the Eagles’ 37 games, the former Prairie View Lady Spartan collected 30 hits, scored eight runs and stole three bases.
ALL-STATE: Hanna Edwards, a junior shortstop from Bastrop, has made the Class 1A All-State softball team after helping Ouachita Christian to a 25-9 mark and a state quarterfinal appearance.
Edwards’ numbers included a .422 batting average, six home runs, three triples, seven doubles, 22 RBIs, 32 runs scored and seven stolen bases.
GRADUATE: LaMarcus Williams received his degree in general business administration from Mississippi State University in May.
A three-year starter and two-time All-State defensive tackle, Williams helped Bastrop High to state titles in 2005 and 2006. He lettered for the Bulldogs as a freshman and sophomore, before his career was cut short by an injury.
Williams has enrolled in graduate school at Mississippi State where he will pursue a degree in human resource management.
