Recordpub.com - Home away from home for KSU's Hamilton

Kent State's Kim Hamilton will have a special guest in the stands in Fayetteville, Ark. when she competes in the javelin at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
“My dad is going to be there,” said Hamilton, a fifth-year senior and former KSU softball star who has only been throwing the javelin at the college level for eight months. “He is an amazing person. My mom passed away when I was one year old, and he raised me and my two other siblings all alone.”
Marshall Hamilton, who will travel to Fayetteville from the Hamilton family home in Cave Junction, Ore., hasn't seen his daughter compete in the javelin since she was a high school athlete.
“Back then, we would often have a five-hour drive to our competitions in high school, and he'd be the only person in the stands,” said Kim Hamilton, who is working on her master's degree at Kent State. “I'm very excited that he is going to be there. he came out in December for graduation, then he came to a practice, but this will be first time collegiately he'll see me throw in competition.”
The NCAA champions run Wednesday through Saturday. Hamilton will be joined in Fayetteville by fellow Kent State NCAA qualifiers Matthew Pfleger (hammer) and Diana Dumitrescu (heptathlon).
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EAGLES LOSE QB ... For those Kent State fans keeping an eye on the Golden Flashes opponents in the upcoming 2009 college football seaso
n, take not – Boston College just lost its starting quarterback.
Sophomore Dominique Davis, who started three games last season when Chris Crane was injured, announced he would transfer following a recent academic suspension. The Eagles are expected to turn to either redshirt freshman Justin Tuggle or Codi Boek, a transfer from American River Junior College.
Whoever takes over as starter will have only one Division I game under his belt when Boston College hosts Kent State Sep. 12. Is that an advantage for the Flashes? It could be, but the Eagles handled KSU fairly easily (21-0) in last year's season opener behind a pretty green quarterback. Crane was a senior, but he had seen limited action prior to last season while he served as the backup to former star Matt Ryan.
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LITTLE RESPECT ... College football's national preview magazines are starting to hit the newsstands, and so far expectations are not high for Kent State.
Athlon picked the Flashes sixth in the Mid-American Conference's East Division and 111th out of the nation's 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. The only teams rated behind KSU were (in order) Florida International, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette, MAC rivals Miami University and Eastern Michigan, New Mexico State, Idaho, North Texas and Western Kentucky.
Lindy's has a slightly higher opinion of the Flashes. The magazine tabbed KSU to finish fourth in the East Division behind Buffalo, 0ABowling Green and Akron. It also rated the Flashes as the 101st best team in the nation. Despite that low ranking, Lindy's predicted a bowl spot “if (expected starter) Giorgio Morgan shows more than just a strong arm.”
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GOOD MORNING CAMPERS ... Registration has started for the summer camps run by the Kent State men's basketball program.
Team camp for high school and junior high school teams will run June 13-14. The cost is $500 per team with a $50 discount if more than one team registers from the same school. All teams are guaranteed five games plus a singe-elimination tournament over the course of the two days. Every game will be officiated by three-man crews of both college and high school officials.
Day camp at KSU runs from June 15-18 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Cost is $220. Special rates are available for siblings and for campers in groups of five or more.
“When I was young, I always went to Jim Burson's camp (at Muskingum College), and really every kid in our program grew up playing at camps in the summer,” said KSU head coach Geno Ford. “They all went to camp and improved their skills in the offseason.
“The biggest thing that camp does is it shows you how to improve your game when you are by yourself. A lot of kids would like to get better, but if they aren't working on the right things, they are not going to see improvement.”
The camp will be staffed by all of Kent Sta
te's coaches and players from the Flashes current roster.
“(Day camp) a great opportunity for our staff to interact with the kids in the community and also to give those kids a chance to be on the court with our players,” said Ford. “I think we've been able to help kids with their skill level and do it in an environment that is based on individual improvement instead of team success.”
For more information on either camp, contact KSU director of basketball operations Jaden Uken at 330-672-2470. Online registration is also available at www.kentstatemensbasketballcamps.com.