Christopher "Dumma Boy" Gholson is a well-known music producer from Memphis, Tenn. He has worked alongside top Hip Hop artist such as Young Jeezy,
T.I. and Two Chainz.

He is the founder of Drum Squad Foundation and an activist in his community. Recently, Drumma presented a grand opportunity for Shelby County School (SCS) students to participate in a contest and have a chance to win $2500. 

The "Dream Summit" was a competition that served as a way for Drumma to give back to his community and provide young entrepreneurs a chance to showcase their talents. 

The event was held Saturday, April 26, 2014 at the University of Memphis in the FedEx Institute of  Technology. 

SCS students, parents and teachers attended the event to learn more about opportunities in the music and sports industries from a panel of industry leaders.

Ron Highsmith, Executive Director of Drum Squad, detailed the importance of the event is to expose the youth to understanding curricular development and gain knowledge about the business side of multi-million dollar industries.

"It is important to present more opportunities and careers they may not learn about in school,"
  said Highsmith, "This is such a broad and diverse industry, and they will benefit tremendously from this summit."

The objective for the contest required students to create and present a business plan of their choice, including branding, budgeting and other market strategies that strive to benefit the
community.

By Akilah Speaks

U of M students participated in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament on Saturday, April 26. The proceeds were donated to Best Buddies, a non-profit special education program that pairs individuals with learning disabilities with high school and college students. The mission of the organization is  to bridge the gap between normal and indifferent by building friendships. 

David Specht, a U of M graduate, coordinated the event for a fundraising competition called Champion of the Year. The location of the event was held in the Recreational Center intramural field from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"I knew alot of people in the Frisbee community and I feel this will not only be good for people with special needs but also a benefit to the community by spreading the word and contributing," Specht said.

Program manager, Brian McNulty, attended  the event and provided UDistrict with more information regarding the organization and how this event was beneficial to the program.  

By Courtney A. Smith

The University of Memphis men's basketball team is already taking shape for the 2014-15 season. Coach Josh Pastner is losing four senior guards (Joe Jackson, Geron Johnson, Chris Crawford, and Michael Dixon Jr.) but is looking to replace them with a 2014 recruiting class that features Helen Cox High standout Dominic Magee.

Magee and 17 other top high school seniors participated in the Fifth Annual Jack Jones Shootout at Lausanne Collegiate School located on 1381 W. Massey Road in Memphis, Tenn. Before Magee took the floor to participate in the Jack Jones Senior Showcase, he was busy receiving handshakes from the fans while doing interviews with local reporters.

Dominic recognizes that he will be looked at as only a basketball player by many in Tiger Nation, but he wants to achieve things both on and off the court.

"I want to be taught things that I never been taught," Magee said. "I think I want to major in business because I want to learn more about business in college. I just want to have fun in college, but do my work on the court and do what I've got to do to get minutes."

Before Magee's arrival to Memphis, he was already living the life of a star athlete. He's accustomed to people coming up to him for autographs and pictures, but tries not to allow the fame to throw him off of the opportunity he has in front of him.

"Not to be cocky, I been having that spotlight since I was young," Magee admitted. "That's just being blessed. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a hard worker and I be in the gym a lot. I take basketball serious and people (have) got to understand that I have a 1-year-old son and we've got to eat. I promised him that we're going to be rich one day and I can't let my son down."

By Darnesha Cotton

Danielle Boothe was told jobs in her chosen field were difficult to find, so she created one to benefit not just herself, but youth as well.

Empress and Emperor Mentoring Inc. is a program designed to help middle school students gain confidence through sports and health education.

Boothe, 24, is the Chief Executive Officer and creator of the nonprofit organization. She said was inspired to create the mentoring program upon graduating from the University of Memphis.

“I was a sports and leisure management student,” Boothe said. “When I graduated, everyone kept telling me, ‘you know sports industry is such a hard field to break into.’ But before I entered my career, I wanted to give back to the community and our youth to share with them what I have learned.”

Boothe said she felt like today’s youth are labelled as troubled and many may not have proper guidance, so she created Empress and Emperor Mentoring Inc. to help with the need.

Her nonprofit uses sports and the students’ Physical Education class to address character, good sportsmanship and living an active healthy life.  

“We talk about team work, hygiene, sex, how to respect themselves, how to not let media depict how they act and self-love; the type of subjects pre-teens need to know about,”Boothe said. “We do three separate sports for the guys and three different sports for the guys.”

By Courtney A. Smith

University of Memphis Tigers basketball coach Josh Pastner expected a smooth transition into the off season, but it's already off to a rocky start. 

Pastner and his team were in danger of heading into next season without one of their 2013 signees, Pookie Powell. Powell, former Dr. Phillips High standout, had plans of transferring to another school after a disagreement with Pastner about wanting to train with Frank Matrisciano, a former conditioning coach at the U of M, in California over the summer.

Pastner was not on board with Powell's training with Matrisciano, which made the shoot-first point guard think twice about staying at Memphis. However, the player's father, RaShawn Powell, contacted local newspaper The Commercial Appeal on Thursday to inform them that Pookie will stay at the U of M.

Before the final decision was made on Powell’s future, RaShawn and the family talked Pookie's decision over on Wednesday, along with assistant coach Robert Kirby, who flew to Orlando to meet with them.

By Courtney A. Smith

Basketball season at the University of Memphis is wrapping up, which means that the coaches are moving onto prepping for the next season.  Recruiting players is one thing, but there are other duties when it comes to being a head coach for a Division I basketball program.


Coach Josh Pastner of the Memphis Tigers is currently focused on the team’s structure for next season but will have to also focus on hiring a new assistant coach to his blemished coaching staff.

Hiring a new assistant coach is an old tune for Pastner as he has had to replace assistants for the past three seasons.

Athletes in college basketball are considered to be one-and-done, but coaches are following the same path.

A prime example would be assistant coach Jason Gardner, who has decided to take the head coaching job at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Gardner was brought in alongside Robert Kirby prior to the beginning of the 2013-14 basketball season.

Before Gardner came to Memphis, he was an assistant at Loyola University Chicago from 2011-13. He will replace Todd Howard, who went 26-70 in three seasons as the head coach.

Before Gardner’s career as a coach began, he was a star basketball player at North Central High School in Indianapolis, Ind., in the late 1990s and in Arizona from 1999-2003.

During a press conference, Pastner talked about the possibility of losing an assistant coach.

“I got great assistant coaches. I love my guys. I never want to hold anybody back,” Pastner said. “They obviously want to be head coaches so I would always fight for them to be a head coach. So obviously if they have an opportunity to be a head coach somewhere, then obviously they will take the opportunity.”

This will be the fourth straight season that Pastner will have to replace an assistant.

By Courtney Smith 

The Memphis Tigers (24-10, 12-6 AAC) basketball season is officially over after their 78-60 loss to No. 1 seeded Virginia Cavaliers (30-6, 16-2 ACC) of the Atlantic Coast Conference in the third round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday.

With their dreams of playing in the Sweet 16 crushed, what’s next for coach Josh Pastner and the team as a whole?

Pastner started his press conference Tuesday with how he will run his rotation of players for next season and mentioned that nothing will be handed to his players. Everything will have to be earned by hard work and dedication to the program.

“Playing time is to be earned. No one is bigger than this program that includes myself, that includes my coaches, that includes the players. Nobody is ever bigger than this program,” Pastner said to the media at the final press conference of the season. “I have never promised anything in recruiting, never promised a minute or a starting spot. As long as I am coaching, I will not do that.”

One of the reporters present at the press conference did not hesitate to ask Pastner about some of the players who didn’t see the floor that much this season such as freshman forward Kuran Iverson and freshman center Dominic Woodson.

By Courtney Smith

The Memphis Tigers (23-9, 12-6 AAC) are in a similar situation they have been in before since coach Josh Pastner has been leading the team. The media, especially the fans, are not sure if the team can make a deep run in this season’s NCAA Tournament.

All of the speculations started last week in the American Athletic Conference men’s basketball tournament when the Tigers suffered an embarrassing outing (72-53) in the quarterfinals round to the hands of the Connecticut Huskies (26-8, 12-6 AAC).

The four senior guards for Memphis (Joe Jackson, Chris Crawford, Geron Johnson and Michael Dixon Jr.) combined to score 29 of Memphis' 53 points on 26.3 percent (10-of-38) shooting from the field.

Pastner assured the media that the Memphis Tigers are prepared to face its first round match-up against George Washington University (24-8, 11-5 A-10).

“We will be ready to play. We will be ready to play,” Pastner said twice to one of the reporters present at Tuesday’s press conference. “I can’t sit here and guarantee the outcome, but we will be ready to play. I know I felt that going into the UConn game, but we will ready to play.”

By Courtney Smith 

The AP Top 25 poll in college basketball was released on Monday, giving fans a chance to see whether or not their favorite teams ranked in the top 25 or had vanished from the list.

Five teams were ranked in the top 25 from the American Athletic Conference: Louisville (11), Cincinnati (15), SMU (18), Connecticut (19) and Memphis (20).

The Tigers (22-7, 11-5 AAC) should be done celebrating their win over defending national champion Louisville Cardinals (24-5, 13-3 AAC), from Saturday. Now, the Tigers have another task on their hands as they are out to get revenge on the Cincinnati Bearcats (24-5, 13-3 AAC).

"As I told our guys after the Houston game, we can't have a hangover from that game going into Louisville, same thing from Louisville game going into Cincinnati," Pastner said. "We can't have a hangover meaning we now got to focus on Cincinnati."

In the last meeting between these two teams, the Bearcats had their way with the Tigers by not allowing them to get the easy transition points that the Tigers are so used to getting.

Senior forward Justin Jackson was effective for the Bearcats on both ends of the court. He added 13 points, eight rebounds, seven rebounds, and two assists to lift his team to an 69-53 victory in front of Tiger Nation.

The Bearcats' star player Sean Kilpatrick added 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting (45.4 percent) from the field.

"I think they're (Cincinnati) one of the very best defensive teams in the country," Pastner stated to the media.

By Kylcye Bolden

Memphis East High School has long been known for its outstanding athletic programs.  Almost two years go, the linebacker coach of the football team, Charles Smith, approached his administrators with an opportunity to provide the students with an option to participate in a different sport — wrestling.

Though the idea was well receive by administrators, it was too late in the year for the school to start a new wrestling program.  Administrators from Memphis East contacted Kingsbury High School about the possibility to form a co-opt team.  The schools agreed to allow Smith and his wrestlers to participate with the established Kingsbury program.

With Kingsbury, Memphis East was moderately successful. 

“Initially, I thought it would be good for my football players to wrestle,” Smith said.  “I ended up getting a lot of interest from the kids around the school.”  

The school was represented by Jimtarius Hampton at the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) Individual State Tournament for the 2012-2013 season.  This year the team ventured off on their own, grateful of the opportunity the head coach of the Kingsbury team, Ronnie Landau afforded them. 

“Coach Landau is a great guy,” Smith said.  “I learned a lot from Coach Landau.”

Prior to their time with Kingsbury, Smith had no previous experience coaching wrestling.  He wrestled at Fort Lauderdale High School for two years; qualifying each year and placing third his senior year at the Florida state tournament in 1993.  Establishing a new program nearly 20 years later, Smith eagerly anticipated the opportunity to implement his coaching philosophy and style with the Memphis East team.

With several programs throughout the Mid-South shutting down, the establishment of new programs garner a lot of attention.