As Old Gold & Blog enters its second school year covering Wake Forest athletics, it seemed a fitting time to update the look and layout of things. Hopefully you like the new design and don't have any problems using it, but if any issues arises please let me know. Don't worry, the header images will change on a seasonal basis; other sports will have their chance in the spotlight later in the year.

I also recognize that many of you have become new followers of Old Gold & Blog in the last few months, and I want to point you towards the subscription options over to the right. If you subscribe via RSS you'll be updated every time there's a new post. Subscribing via email puts Old Gold & Blog in your inbox once per day. There's no better way to keep track of the latest Wake Forest news and analysis.

On to the news...

Yesterday was the first day of practice for the Demon Deacons. Besides my report, the Nenon report, and this report from the official website there wasn't a whole lot of specific practice coverage.

Still, yesterday produced plenty of other Wake Forest links. I asked my three questions a couple days ago, but Heather Dinnich finally asks hers. The Raleigh News & Observer has a few questions as well. Dinnich also names Alphonso Smith and Sam Swank as two of the top five clutch players in the conference, and Swank makes it into the nation's top ten.

The previews keep pouring in, this time Dan Collins for the Sporting News.

Want to take a look inside Deacon Tower? Done.

Want to be amazed by Aaron Curry? He can power clean a lot of weight. 374 pounds to be exact. Check it out:

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It's hard to believe 364 days have come and gone since the passing of Skip Prosser. Tomorrow, July 26, will mark the one year anniversary of that unfortunate day, and Wake Forest fans will never forget the impact he had on the university.

One of the most amazing things about Skip was that his presence was not felt only at Wake Forest. He had a positive effect on every campus, every coach, every player, every media member, and every person who spent considerable time with him.

Though time may have dulled the pain for many of us, an anniversary like this is never easy. Many tough memories return, and many happy ones seem to hurt, too.

My path didn't cross Skip's for very long. I only spent one season paying close attention to him: my freshman year, his 2006-2007 season. Though it wasn't Skip's most successful season on the court, that brief glimpse provided all I needed to see the strength of his character.

Because I had spent such little time around him, I did not anticipate the effect his passing would have on me. I hadn't been around Skip long enough for him to have a huge personal effect on me, but seeing the impact he had in the lives of those who had been around him longer, I couldn't help but feel the pain of losing a great man.

Just yesterday, when listening to senior guard Harvey Hale and current head coach Dino Gaudio talk about Skip and the anniversary, I was reminded of the tremendous impact Skip had had on the lives of everyone around him. Not only did Harvey share how much Skip had meant to him on the basketball court, but he also expressed how much Skip had contributed to the development of his character. Coach Gaudio expressed similar sentiments, and talked about how difficult parts of this summer have been as he has traveled the country recruiting in all the same places Skip used to recruit.

There is no doubt about it; Skip was a great man who passed long before anyone on this earth would have liked. His presence is still felt in the Wake Forest basketball program and in the Wake Forest community as a whole. The Demon Deacons he touched will never forget him.

Although I will be unable to attend, I encourage all who are able to head to campus tomorrow night at midnight to throw a roll for Skip. I would love to see this become a yearly tradition, as it is exactly the type of memorial I believe Skip would enjoy.

Furthermore, in honor of Skip, Old Gold & Blog will be silent tomorrow, save for a single image. Feel free to leave your thoughts, memories, or anything else Skip-related in the comments section of this post today or that post tomorrow.

Coach Prosser, you are missed.

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Many of you may have been following the coverage coming out of the ACC's Football Kickoff, essentially a three-day event for the media to talk to conference officials, coaches, and players (and of course play some golf).

It is an event I would have loved to attend, but wasn't able to because of my summer job (and I'm not sure they would let me anyway). I've tried to do my best to keep up with everything coming out of all the interviews happening there, but to be honest I haven't been able to read everything.

Nonetheless, I have noticed (and I've seen many Wake fans point it out) that there haven't been many features on Wake while most other schools have gotten more coverage. The one notable exception to that is this great piece Gregg Doyel did on coach Jim Grobe.

I've seen plenty of people complaining about the lack of coverage (most specifically on the Scout boards regarding ESPN's ACC blogger Heather Dinich) and I think people are losing perspective in their complaints.

Yes, Wake should be one of the best teams in the ACC this season, but I haven't seen anyone in the media say otherwise.

The fact is, a national media outlet like ESPN has to cater first and foremost to the teams that bring the most readers to the site. Just because Wake is going to be good this year doesn't mean the general public wants to read about it. Florida State could go 7-7 every season and there would still be more people interested in them in the preseason than a great Wake Forest team.

Why are the Red Sox and Yankees on TV all the time when they aren't the best teams in the baseball? Obviously because the most people want to watch them.

There is a reason Old Gold & Blog is the only independent site covering Wake Forest when every other ACC school has more than one. Even so it's a pretty good day when a few hundred people visit the site. There just isn't that large of a fan base who are interested enough to constantly follow the Demon Deacons.

If you're interested in the ACC at-large then I think Heather and the others at the Kickoff did a great job of covering everything being talked about there. Many stories about various issues in the conference included Jim Grobe's thoughts and comments, but when it comes to stories specifically about Wake, it just isn't always practical.

Wake is getting plenty of preseason respect, and I look forward to seeing the team prove that respect is deserved on the field. I'll do my best to keep providing good Wake coverage between now and August 28, and hopefully I can make it to the 2009 Kickoff to give Wake the coverage it deserves.

Right now I'm just going to enjoy the excitement surrounding this 2008 season.

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I intended to write a couple of posts so that I could put one up today and another tomorrow, but things got crazy and it just didn't happen. I'm leaving this morning for a four day church retreat. Feel free to discuss the Deacons if you feel like it, or just dissapear until Monday if you prefer.

I know it isn't really the weekend yet for most of you, but I hope you all have a good weekend!

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I hope this finds you all begining an excellent long weekend!

I'm guessing most of your plans don't include Old Gold & Blog, and that probably good since most of mine don't either.

I'll be taking a break from the preview until Monday, so unless there's some sort of breaking news this should be it until then. Enjoy the time with family and friends and I'll see you back here in a couple of days.

Happy Fourth!

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Change of plans. In the last 24 hours I've been informed by my boss that he lost several leaders for his high school mission trip and needs me to come. I'm getting on a bus this morning and headed to New Orleans until the night of the 30th. I also have a quick middle school trip the 1st through 3rd of July.

It will definitely be an awesome trip, but it's going to make it more difficult to get parts of the preview up every day as I had originally planned on doing. I'm going to do my best but we'll just have to see how it works out. I love getting new content up every day for you guys but you'll have to bear with me if it doesn't quite work out that way. I'll do my best, and I would expect to see a post previewing the defense up on Monday.

Prayers for the high schoolers I'll now be with and the middle schoolers I'm leaving behind are much appreciated!

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I'm back home in Houston having completed our mission trip to Tecate. It was a successful trip and we did a lot of good work in a local neighborhood. We added a room to a house for a young mother and her children, as well as rebuilding two playgrounds and a soccer/basketball court for local kids. The middle schoolers we brought with us had a great time, worked hard, learned a lot, and we got home without any injuries or other problems. Thanks to all of you who were praying for us while we were gone.

I've done my best to catch up today on everything that's been going on Wake-athletics wise and I'm pretty sure there hasn't been much. What I would like to do over the next couple of weeks is preview the football season ahead of us. I've been saying I wanted to do this for awhile but haven't really made it happen, so I'm going to lay out a bit of a schedule so that we can get this done.

What I don't want is for this to be just me spouting off some thoughts and that being that. I'd love for it to become somewhat of a conversation with input from all of you in the comments section and a discussion of some kind.

The way I'd like to do this is to start by taking three days to talk offense/defense/special teams, then 12 days going through the schedule and talking about each game. I'll offer my thoughts and then solicit yours. I'm not going to promise that this will happen in 15 consecutive days due to the variability of my schedule right now, but we'll try to get through it in a reasonable period of time. If we want to spend some time talking about the rest of the ACC at some point then we can do that too. We can play it by ear.

Hopefully you all like this idea and will participate, because this will be much more interesting and insightful if there is lots of participation. If you have any ideas or recommendations to improve the plan, let me know.

I expect to be back tomorrow with our first installment looking at the offense. See you then.

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Later this morning I'm leaving with 55 middle schoolers for Tecate, Mexico. We'll be down there on a mission trip serving the community in various ways and I'm confident it will be an awesome experience. Any prayers for our trip would be much appreciated!

I will not have any kind of internet access, however, so things will be dormant here until the 17th. Hopefully no big Wake-related news will occur and I'll pick things back up when I return. Until then be safe and enjoy the summer.

Zach

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On Thursday Street & Smith’s announced Ron Wellman as the A.D. of the Year. As previously mentioned, Wellman had been nominated along side Connecticut’s Jeff Hathaway, Kansas’ Lew Perkins, and Ohio State’s Gene Smith.

One of the cool things about an award like this is that it really is an award that says as much about our school and our entire athletic program as it does about Wellman. Obviously he’s been an incredible leader and has found the right people for the right jobs, emphasized the right things, and led the program to highs it hasn’t previously known. Still, he could make all the right decisions and not seen these kinds of results. Everyone in the program has done their part to make Wake the success it is.

All of us who are members of the Wake Forest family should take great pride in having Wellman leading the program. Anything is possible, but Wellman truly seems to be a “Wake Forest Guy,” who doesn’t seem to be the type that will leave. He has never given any hint that he would want to ride success like this to a job at a bigger school, but rather remains committed to this program. Whatever his reasons, the fact that he does this makes me like him that much more.

The 2007-2008 athletic season, for which Wellman won the award, has had both good and bad moments, yet Wellman’s leadership has been evident throughout. It started with Wellman’s excellent handling of Skip Prosser’s tragic death, and continued into a successful fall that included a 9-4 football campaign and a good run in field hockey. The month of December included the retention of football coach Jim Grobe, a National Championship in men’s soccer, and a Meineke Car Care Bowl victory. The spring has included the end of an exciting basketball season (which could have been more successful but was not a terrible disappointment all things considered) and some very good performances in golf and tennis.

I hope and expect Ron to stick around for the long haul. It’s an exciting time to be a Deacon fan, and he has a lot to do with that. Thanks for all your hard work, and keep it up.

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Hopefully you all had a great Memorial Day! I happened to notice, as I went to write this post, that it is the 300th post I've made to Old Gold & Blog. As fun as it has been to write, I don't think I would have been able to keep it up the way I have were it not for the support I've gotten from all of you, the readers. Big thanks to all of you!

This summer I'm working with middle schoolers in a church youth group. It's going to be a lot of fun, but we're going on several trips that will keep my away from a computer for several days at a time. I'm leaving tomorrow and won't return until Friday afternoon, so there won't be any updates until then.

With the baseball team having been knocked out of the ACC tournament their season is almost definitely done, leaving only a bit of golf and tennis left to be played for this year. We'll probably spend the rest of the summer talking about the upcoming football season. Either way, I'll be back this weekend to get back at it.

Enjoy your week!

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The voice of the Demon Deacons, Stan Cotten, has suggested giving a name to the Demon Deacon mascot. You can read the full article here, but basically he thinks the Deacon needs a name other than just "the Demon Deacon."

I hadn't ever thought about it or really even noticed it, but Wake does seem somewhat unique in not having a name for the mascot. Just about every other mascot that I can recall off the top of my head does have a name.

I know that a change like this would be somewhat unpopular to our school's community, who seems to balk at just about any change, but I think I would actually support a name for the Demon Deacon.

The options presented by Stan are: Deac, Preacher, Bones, Peahead, Pic (for Brian Piccolo), Arnie, Skip.

I'm running a poll over in the right column (those of you who read the site via RSS or Email are encouraged to come visit the site and vote) to see what everyone thinks about this.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or a name that isn't one of the given options please leave them in the comments section below! If any additional option gains any steam I'll try to add it to the poll.

Final Results (171 votes):

Deac - 7 (4%)

Preacher - 5 (2%)

Bones - 67 (39%)

Peahead - 2 (1%)

Pic - 3 (1%)

Arnie - 2 (1%)

Skip - 33 (19%)

Shouldn't be named - 52 (30%)

Some of those percentage calculations seem a bit fishy to me, but those are the final results.

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Pretty awesome, check it out.

This is certainly a great honor for Ron Wellman, the athletic department, and the school as a whole. I don't know a whole lot about the award, but given the type of year Wake athletics have had, and the general progress of Wake Forest in this realm, Wellman is certainly deserving.

The other finalists are Jeff Hathaway of Arkansas, Lew Perkins of Kansas and Gene Smith of Ohio State.

Let's see...Hathaway couldn't beat out Wellman for Jim Grobe, and Smith couldn't put a soccer team on the field that could beat Wellman's. Kansas has certainly had a good year - impressive success in both football and basketball (I don't know much about their other sports). In my mind it's got to be down to Perkins and Wellman, but then I again admit to knowing very little about the criteria for this award.

It would be great to see him win, but it's a great honor either way.

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It’s been 10 days since I’ve posted anything, and I suppose I apologize for that, but I kind of needed the break. I guess I’m not really that sorry. I didn’t miss that much.

The summer will definitely be somewhat inconsistent around here. There will be a couple of stretches of about a week or 10 days where I’ll have pretty much no internet access so obviously there won’t be anything posted then. I’ll let you know when those are coming.

But still, even when I am around, I don’t anticipate there being a whole lot to report on (in fact I kind of hope there isn’t, because if there is I feel like it’s likely to be something bad).

I’ll definitely start doing some previewing of football season, but I don’t know how I want to do that yet or when exactly it will happen.

Also, I was thinking it might be fun to do some “reader editorials.” Basically, if you have an idea for something Wake-related you might want to write and have published on the blog, shoot me an email (oldgoldblog@gmail.com) and we’ll work on getting it done. Then you can tell all your friends to go read the article you had published on the internet (Just don’t tell them it’s on a site some guy started in his dorm room without any prior experience or knowledge and that you would have been just as qualified to start the exact same site—it might not seem as cool to them if you tell them that part).

Having said all that, I’m guessing there’s only about a 10% chance someone actually contacts me about it. I hope you prove me wrong.

I’ve got a couple of other things tentatively up my sleeve, so we’ll see what happens. No matter what happens this summer, though, come mid-August we’ll get back into the swing of things and you can count on reading new content on a daily basis.

On to a couple of specific notes: I highly recommend going to the official soccer page and reading about the soccer team's trip to Brazil. Sounds like a pretty cool deal.

Also, I believe that Wake's 3 game sweep of Duke over the weekend to close out Hooks Stadium means that they will make the ACC tournament, leaving them in position to potentially still make the NCAA tournament (I think it's a bit of a long shot, but it's certainly not impossible).

Someone posted this on the DeaconSports message boards and I thought it might be worth sharing just to get excited about the other sport that’s pretty fun to keep track of in the fall:

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Exams are starting up here on campus and, as is probably not surprising, my schedule is pretty swamped. I apologize for not being able to post more than I will over the next week. If anything big happens I'll make sure to get something up about it, but other than that things will be slow.

Don't want to worry about checking back every day? Subscribe to the RSS feed or email updates so that you'll always know when something happens.

To those of you joining me in taking exams, best of luck!

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There you have it. The new logo for the academic side of Wake Forest, scheduled to be released next Wednesday, April 30, was found today on the official Wake Forest website somewhat hidden (but not very well) in documents for next year's freshmen.

A couple of important things to mention:

1. This logo is not in any way affiliated with the branding of the athletics side of Wake Forest. It is for the academic side of things, replacing the logo that featured the university's name between black and gold bars.
2. I don't take credit for being the one to find this logo. Members of the DeaconSports message board community (WakeGal was first I believe) found the logo today by clicking on the 2008-2009 Undergraduate Bulletin link on this page of the school's website. I have also heard that it was on display today at the "All Access" event in Charlotte with President Hatch, Jim Grobe, Dino Gaudio, and new Calloway Dean Steve Reinemund.
   

This morning President Hatch sent an email out to the entire campus notifying us of the presentation being made on April 30. He called this the "Visual Identity Project," and said that "this project will strengthen the implementation of our strategic plan and includes a new logo as well as specific standards that will help all of us in developing printed and electronic communications. We are very enthusiastic about how this will help all of us communicate the many strengths of Wake Forest."

Although many on the message boards have been critical of the new design, I personally don't have a problem with it. I think it is a fine upgrade to the previous logo. I suppose it may evoke thoughts of the Volkswagen logo and some have said that finding an "F" in the shield is a bit difficult, but all in all I don't have any real problem with it.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure they were looking for it to look like a "WF." Some had said it looks like some of the arches on campus, others that it looks like trees, etc. "WF" may be the first thing people think of, but there may be more to it. I'm interested to hear what Hatch has to say about it next week.

I'd be interested to hear from those who do have a problem with it (as well as those who don't) about what really bothers them about it. When I imagine someone not affiliated with Wake Forest seeing this logo I do not imagine them thinking it looks bad in any way.

That's just one man's opinion. I'd love to hear what others think, so leave a comment below.

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Saturday afternoon, while many Wake Forest fans were on the practice fields watching the spring football game, another group of Deacons were busy honoring Skip Prosser’s legacy by playing a basketball tournament on the Collins Court blacktop.

The first ever Skip Prosser 3 on 3 Classic was the culmination of many weeks of hard work by a dedicated group of students. “It started with the on-campus organization called L.E.A.D.” said one of the event’s organizers, Matt Six. “It’s for freshman and sophomores and it basically teaches you leadership traits, and in the process you put together this proposal; some way to improve campus.”

“We identified the problem that Skip was not adequately honored and we wanted to build his legacy. Yes, he was honored at the Fairfield basketball game and has been honored with a couple of awards here and there, but we really wanted an on-campus event to honor his legacy because he really was such a unique individual in the Wake Forest community.”

Wake’s director of basketball operations Walt Corbean, who played under Prosser at Xavier, opened the afternoon by saying a few words about Skip. Shortly thereafter the 27 participating teams got down to the business of playing basketball.

This year’s event raised about $500, which will be donated to the American Heat Association in memory of Coach Prosser.

The Skip Prosser Classic does not expect to be a one-and-done event. “The event has been very successful; we’ve got 27 teams,” said Six. “We hope to keep on expanding year after year. The goal is to get as many participants out here as possible. We’ve got a couple of local teams, teams from the law school and the MBA program. We want to get the whole community involved.”

The leadership of this project deserves a lot of credit for getting this event organized and making it a success. I hope to see it continue to thrive for years to come.

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About a week ago I was contacted about a very cool event being put on by a group of Wake Forest students who wanted to do something to honor Coach Skip Prosser. I thought it was a great idea and a great cause, so I decided to let all of you know about it.

The Classic is a basketball tournament being held a week from tomorrow (April 19) at noon on the Collins basketball courts, an all proceeds from the event will go the American Heart Association in memory of Skip Prosser.

The 12:00 tipoff of the event is one hour before the beginning of the spring football game, so I highly encourage all of you who are coming to the game to come one hour earlier and stop by the basketball courts. The basketball team and Coach Dino Gaudio will be there for the tip, and I believe Dino will say a few words. It should be a beautiful day and a great event.

One final thing: I need to check on the possibility of doing this (it may be student-only sign ups) but if there are people interested in playing in the tournament send me an email and let me know. I'd be happy to have the blog sponsor a team or two to play.

Details:
When: Saturday, April 19th at noon (Rain Date is Sunday, April 20th at 1pm)
Where: Collins Basketball Courts
Who: ANYONE AND EVERYONE
Cost: $15 per team
Sign-ups: Outside the pit starting Thursday, April 10th until Wednesday, April 16th, or in the Intramural Office in Reynolds Gym.

Come out and support this great event, and let me know if you want to play!

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First of all, I'd like to wish all of you a happy Easter. I hope it was an enjoyable and relaxing weekend spent with friends and/or family.

I've been in NYC with my family and have had limited Internet access, and unfortunately also limited time in front of the TV to see basketball. From what little I have seen it's been exciting, although I'm sure most of your brackets are as big of a mess as mine is. Next year we'll have to do an Old Gold & Blog bracket contest to see who's the best.

Wake sports news this weekend isn't too good. Baseball got their butts kicked at Miami, including a 23-2 l0ss today before having the 2nd game cancled due to weather (but they were already down 9-1 so maybe that was for the better). It's looking like it could be a long season on the baseball diamond, although they started pretty poorly last year and rebounded to make the tournament.

As we get into the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 (and as I get to see more of the games) I hope to do some analysis of those games when they're going on. That's about it at this point. I know I said there would be a bit more of a regular schedule around here after the break, but obviously that didn't quite happen. Hopefully I'll do a better job staying on top of things this time around.

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And there's absolutely nothing going on in Wake athletics.

Okay, I lied. The tennis team is playing in Chapel Hill. I really should try to get out and watch them at some point.

The baseball team was supposed to play Elon, but that's been postponed, I guess due to weather. We probably don't want to talk baseball anyway seeing as how they lost to App State 22-6 yesterday. Yeesh.

For you soccer fans, the spring schedule gets underway tomorrow out at Spry Stadium against Duke at 7:00. I was actually really hoping to be at that one, but I've got a club baseball game at NC State and won't be able to make it. If, however, any of you are going to be there and would like to write a quick recap I'd be happy to put it up. Just leave a comment or email me.

So that's about it for now. I need to do some sort of Basketball season recap, and I may actually turn that into a series of posts that grade players and such. Spring football starts next week so I think things will pick up a little bit then. If I'm feeling motivated I may write some about the tournament, but I'm going to be out of town for Easter Weekend so I may not post too much.

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