Bengals Coach Marvin Lewis

Georgetown, KY – The Cincinnati Bengals are reporting to training camp today at Georgetown College and fans can get their first look at the 2011 squad on Saturday (July 30) beginning at 3 p.m. The East Campus complex opens at 1:30 p.m.

There’s added buzz about this year’s camp with the NFL lockout ending earlier this week and the announcement yesterday that Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson was traded to the New England Patriots.  But, first-round draftee A.J. Green – the lanky, former Georgia Bulldogs All-American wide receiver – has been signed and will be here!

Admission to Toyota Stadium and the practice fields is FREE, but there are parking charges. For that and the practice schedule, visit our Bengals Camp website.

NOTE: At this posting, practice times are set only through Sunday, August 7. The August 8-18 schedule is still to be determined. REMEMBER – dates and times are subject to change, so check back frequently!

Browns signee Kyle Anderson

Georgetown, KY – NAIA All-American Kyle Anderson – last season’s Mid-South Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a Georgetown College Tiger – got the call he’d been “hoping and praying for” late Monday night after the National Football League lockout ended. The Cleveland Browns were interested in his considerable talents as a defensive lineman!

Anderson, one of 11 undrafted free agents signed by the Browns on Tuesday, essentially has two weeks to show his new coaches he can help the storied franchise that finished 5-11 last season.

Reached early this afternoon (July 28) at the Brown’s training camp facility in Berea, OH, Anderson said, “I have a smile on my face right now because this is every player’s dream to get a chance (in the NFL).” He had the Cleveland playbook and was awaiting his physical.

He said he thinks the Browns’ 4-3 defense (four down linemen, three linebackers) fits his talents. But, he added “I’m going to take this day by day, keep a level mind and stay focused on making this team.” If he does, the Browns’ regular season opener is against the Cincinnati Bengals on September 11 in Cleveland. Their first pre-season exhibition is against the NFL champion Green Bay Packers at home August 13.

Georgetown College Coach Bill Cronin said, “Kyle’s one of the hardest working kids I’ve ever had in the program. If anyone deserves to make it, it’s Kyle.”

Cronin only had the privilege of coaching Anderson for one season as the Minneapolis native played his first two years at Western Kentucky University and the next year at The Citadel before transferring to Georgetown College for his All-American senior season (he was also one of five Tigers named Victory Sports Network First Team All-American).

“Good defensive linemen are so hard to find and (for the Browns) to have someone with his character is in Kyle’s favor,” Cronin said. “I think it would be great if he could be a ‘practice player’ for a year or two and then have a real chance to make the (travel) squad.”

Anderson graduated in May with a degree in Sociology. Fortunately for him, his advisor was department chair Eric Carter, who just happened to write a book entitled Boys Gone Wild: Fame, Fortune, and Deviance Among Professional Football Players. Anderson allowed that he had a number of discussions in his professor’s office about avoiding potential pitfalls of the pro football life.

This summer, Anderson continued to work out – usually with GC Defensive Coordinator Shan Housekeeper ’03. “I just wanted to get myself prepared in case I got the call,” he said.

On July 2, Alexander married Britney Syler, a nurse in the neo-natal care unit at the University of Kentucky Hospital.

How can you compare the great national championship football teams of 1991 and 2001? You can’t…but you CAN see if any of these champs still have “game” on Homecoming Saturday as the Championship Challenge Flag Football Game pits players from the ’91 squad against those from ’01. Kick-off is 10 a.m., Sept. 24, on the Toyota Stadium field.

Players, you don’t have to pre-register to play; but we hope you will “Leave a Reply” on the website so that others will know you’ll be taking the field that day. (And, e-mail Austin_Sparks@georgetowncollege.edu with your shirt size. For more information, e-mail  or call Austin, GC’s Assistant Athletic Director, at 502-863-8222.)

If you have children with you (players and spectators), enter them in the free Punt & Pass Competition at halftime of the flag football tussle. Pre-registration would help us a lot, but don’t stay away if you aren’t able to.

Then at 11 a.m., join our champions for a Tailgate Tent event by The Rock at the base of the hill by that leads up to the conference center and stadium.

Stay for the Homecoming Game at 1:30 p.m. as our Tigers play host to Mid-South Conference rival Shorter University of Georgia.

Still in the planning stages is a 7 p.m. Champions Reception – with heavy hors d’oeuvres and cash bar – at Hilton Garden Inn, 100 Grandstand Drive, which is off Cherry Blossom Way. There will be a slight fee (TBD).

Please check the Homecoming 2011 Calendar of Events often for updates. See you September 23-25!

Terry Holliday

Georgetown, KY – The 208 teachers who “walk” at Georgetown College’s Graduate Education commencement on Sunday, August 14 will get to hear a leader in their profession and one from right here in this state. Terry Holliday, Ph.D., who was selected as Kentucky’s fifth commissioner of education in July 2009, will be the speaker at 3 p.m. in Davis-Reid Alumni Gym.

Lisa Gross, the Kentucky Department of Education’s Director of Communications and Community Engagement, wrote in an e-mail:  “Commissioner Holliday recognizes the direct links between the work of P-12 educators and those in the higher education field. Our public schools must prepare students to enter college or careers and be successful, and colleges and universities must prepare their education majors for careers in the teaching field, so that they, in turn, can prepare students to be successful after high school.”

Gross said, “His address is likely to focus on those interconnections and the effect they have on Kentucky’s future economic status.”

Holliday served as superintendent of the more than 20,000-student Iredell-Statesville school district from 2002 until 2009. During his tenure, he has received recognition in a variety of areas, including being named 2009 North Carolina Superintendent of the Year; receiving the 2009 Grayson Medal for Innovation in Quality from the American Productivity Quality Council; being named the 2008 North Carolina Music Educators Association Superintendent of the Year; and selection as a 2008 Friend of NCAAHPERD, a physical education and health award.

Under his leadership, the district received the 2008 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which was created by an act of Congress in 1987 to recognize companies, organizations, businesses and other entities that have shown long-term improvement in quality and productivity.

Holliday’s previous experience includes: superintendent of the Transylvania County school system in Brevard, North Carolina; associate superintendent and director of accountability for Rock Hill School District 3 in York County, South Carolina; principal, assistant principal and director of instrumental music for Fort Mill High School in Fort Mill, South Carolina; and band director at Northside Junior High, Parker High and Gaffney High in South Carolina.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Furman University; a master’s degree and education specialist degree from Winthrop University; and a doctorate from the University of South Carolina.

A native of Belton, SC, Holliday and his wife, Denise, are the parents of two children.

Mike Brown and Jesse Hines

Georgetown, KY – Jesse Hines ’09 and Mike Brown recently joined the Georgetown College Student Life staff as area coordinators and are hard at work preparing for the different “Directions” retreats they are involved with for incoming freshmen.

Mike, the new Area Coordinator for Judicial Affairs, is an Eastern Kentucky University graduate (’08) who received his Master’s in Counselor Education and Student Affairs from Clemson University. His family still lives in Erlanger, KY, where he went Lloyd Memorial High School.

Jesse, Area Coordinator for Leadership Development, will be the Resident Director of East Campus Apartments, overseer of the Harper Gatton Leadership Program and Emerging Leaders, and she’ll teach a Leadership Development course.   She recently received her Master’s degree from Baylor University in Higher Education and Student Affairs.

The 2008 Residence Life Staff Member of the Year while she was in school, Jesse held a number of leadership positions at GC. ). She was a President’s Ambassador, a Harper Gatton Medallion recipient, and she and Bethany (Byrd) Hughes resurrected the Georgetown Presidential Mentorship Program and coordinated this leadership training program for two years at Scott Co High School. She is also a member of Phi Mu.

Jesse is especially excited to be back to see her brother, Winston, play his last two years in a GC Tigers football uniform. From the Somerset area, they went to Pulaski County High School.