HottyToddy.com is giving readers a roundup of all the commentary and information about the Ole Miss Rebels from various publications around the Web.
Readers will be able to check out the latest information in a single post every day throughout the year. Here at HottyToddy.com, we are doing all the leg work to find the information that people may want to hear about Ole Miss sports.
Today’s roundup features Ole Miss Sports and Ole Miss.247Sports.com
Lunderman Named Freshman All-SEC
Photo by Joshua McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics
Ole Miss softball shortstop Hailey Lunderman has been named to the All-SEC Freshman team, the league office announced Tuesday.
The Philadelphia, Mississippi native has made her case for one of the most prolific freshmen in the country, and for that was recently named a finalist for the Schutt Sports/NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year.
Lunderman led all freshman hitters in the SEC all season long, totaling 70 in the regular season which broke the Ole Miss single season record. She finished the 57-game regular season slate with a .372 average, which would rank in the top-10 in school history as one of the best averages of any player.
In 188 at-bats, the shortstop only struck out seven times, toughest in the SEC to strikeout and one of the toughest nationally as well. She’s also 19-for-22 in stolen bases helping the Rebels break that single season record, ranking top-10 in the country in the category.
Lunderman leads the team with 23 mult-hit games and at one point during the season carried an 11-game hit streak, which tied for fourth-longest in school history.
Among all of the Rebels’ offensive categories, Lunderman leads in average (.372), doubles (6), total bases (78), at-bats (188), hits (70), games played (57) and plate appearances (206). She also ranks second on the team with 40 runs scored, just three off tying the single season record.
Lunderman and the Rebels open up play in the SEC Softball Tournament Wednesday at 4 p.m. against No. 8 seed Georgia at Nusz Park in Starkville.
For all Ole Miss Softball news and information, go to OleMissSports.com and follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissSoftball, on Facebook at Ole Miss Softball and on Instagram at Instagram.com/olemisssoftball. Fans can also follow head coach Mike Smith on Twitter at @msmithsb16. Additionally fans can get a behind the scenes look at Ole Miss Athletics on Snapchat under the handle, @WeAreOleMiss.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
4-Star DE Bryan Jones Commits To Rebels
Photo by John Bowen
Ole Miss picked up its fourth commitment of the 2017 class last Sunday night.
Bryan Jones, a 4-star defensive end out of Madison Prep Academy in Baton Rouge, La., called Ole Miss defensive line coach Chris Kiffin around 9 p.m. Sunday night to deliver the good news.
“He was shocked,” Jones told Rebels 247. “He was excited and shocked. He had to ask me if I was serious. I was serious. I’m an Ole Miss Rebel.”
Jones is the second-highest rated commit thus far in the Rebels’ 2017 classbehind 4-star wide receiver D.D. Bowie. The 6-5, 240-pounder is rated as the nation’s No. 6 strong-side defensive end, the No. 8 recruit in the state of Louisiana’s 2017 class and the No. 215 player in the nation regardless of position, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite index.
Courtesy of David Johnson and OleMiss.247.sports.com
Another Award for Ole Miss’ Hansson
Photo by Joshua McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics.
The awards keep coming in for Ole Miss men’s tennis sophomore Gustav Hansson, who was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Southern Region Player to Watch Monday.
A native of Karlskrona, Sweden, Hansson becomes the fourth Rebel to earn the regional player to watch award and the first since three-time All-American Marcel Thiemann received the honor in 2011.
The Player to Watch Award recognizes a player who is expected to be one of the top returning players next year and possibly win the ITA Regional Championship event, but has not yet won this event or any other ITA National event.
“We are very happy for Gus to receive this award,” head coach Toby Hansson said. “He has had a great career so far and proven that he belongs among the best in college tennis. With continued hard work, Gus has a very bright future.”
Hansson, currently ranked No. 39 in the nation in singles, earned All-SEC first team honors and helped lead the Rebels to their 23rd straight NCAA appearance. He owns a team-leading 24-10 overall record, 16-6 at the top two spots in the lineup. Hansson posted the second best SEC record (9-3) among players in the top two in the lineup.
The regional award winners will be considered for the ITA National Player to Watch Award, which will be announced later this month at the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Rebels will face Denver in the first round of the NCAA Team Championships Saturday at 11 a.m. CT in Berkeley, California.
For more information on Ole Miss Men’s Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter @OleMissMTennis, on Facebook at OleMissMTennis and on Instagram at OleMissMTennis, follow Coach Hansson on Twitter at @TennisToby.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
Ole Miss’ El Kamash, Milutinovic Earn Prestigious ITA Awards
Photo by Joshua McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics.
Seniors Mai El Kamash and Marija Milutinovic have been an integral part of the Ole Miss women’s tennis team during their careers, and Monday both earned Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Southern Region Awards.
El Kamash received the Southern Region Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award, and Milutinovic earned the Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award. Both are now eligible for the national awards, which will be announced at the NCAA Championships later this month.
“This is a great honor for Mai and Marija to win these prestigious awards,” head coach Mark Beyers said. “Both Mai and Marija are much more than just good tennis players. They are outstanding students, teammates, leaders and great examples for our younger players.”
A native of Cairo, Egypt, El Kamash is the seventh Rebel and the first since 2013 to receive the Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award. The award recognizes players who excel on and off the court during their college careers.
El Kamash has been a constant for the Rebels in the top half of the lineup the past two years. This year, she helped the Rebels to their eighth straight NCAA appearance and also earned a bid to the NCAA Doubles Championship with Arianne Hartono.
Off the courts, El Kamash is an outstanding student-athlete with a 3.84 grade point average in Civil Engineering. She is a two-time ITA Scholar-Athlete, two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and has helped the Rebels earn the prestigious ITA All-Academic Team Award each year of her career.
A native of Stockholm, Sweden, Milutinovic becomes the fifth player from Ole Miss and first since 2011 to receive the Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship. The award goes to a player who displays inspiring dedication and commitment to her team, which has enhanced her team’s performance and exemplified the spirit of college tennis. It dates back to 1997 and is memory of the late and widely admired Penn women’s tennis coach Cissie Leary.
Milutinovic clinched the Rebels win against Pac-12 Champion Stanford and has been a steady contributor for the Rebels in singles and doubles throughout her career. A managerial finance major, Milutinovic is a two-time ITA Scholar-Athlete and three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member. She is set to graduate next week.
The Rebels will face Northwestern in the first round of the NCAA Championships Friday at 9 a.m. CT in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
For more information on Ole Miss Women’s Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter @OleMissWTennis, on Facebook at OleMissWTennis and on Instagram at OleMissWTennis. Also follow Coach Beyers on Twitter, @MarkBeyers.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
Long Road, Lasting Legacy for Ole Miss Sprinter Khadijah Suleman
Khadijah Suleman’s journey over the past four years has been filled with change and swift transitions. This standout athlete is coming into the final straightaway of her collegiate career, and her spikes are going to leave a lasting mark on the Ole Miss track & field program.
Suleman, a senior sprinter for the Rebels, says that when she left the sunny state of California and came to visit Ole Miss, she had no idea what to expect. She phoned a friend who was a student at the University of South Carolina and asked her about the Ole Miss campus.
Her friend encouraged her to go for a visit, and after that Suleman’s bags were packed and she was headed to Oxford, Mississippi.
At that time, then-assistant coach Lena Bettis was recruiting Suleman and assigned her a host for her visit. She was paired with Marci Morman, a 2012 graduate who placed third in the triple jump at the SEC Championships. Morman showed Suleman the ins and outs of life as an Ole Miss Rebel.
The University of Texas and Ole Miss were battling on the gridiron the weekend of Suleman’s visit.
“We lost, but I was pretty sold on the school,” Suleman said.
“I had never seen anything like this,” she added. “I loved the campus. I loved the facilities. (Then-head coach Brian) O’Neal told me all the opportunities I’d have, and how he would be able to make me a better athlete. By that time I just fell in love with this school, and I just felt that this was the school that I wanted to attend.”
Prior to her arrival at Ole Miss, Suleman competed at Laney Community College in Oakland, California, under coach Curtis Taylor. While there, she managed to be named four-time California Junior College State Championships runner-up in the 100 meters (twice) and 200 meters (twice).
“It’s been a really big transition,” she stated. “You’re always worried when you are going to have a new coach. Coming from a junior college and having such a great coach who is actually at the University of Oregon now, and then coming here I was kind of worried. I thought, ‘Am I going to reach my expectations? Am I going to do what everyone is expecting me to do?’”
She has had more than six different coaches during the course of her collegiate career and though she says it is a difficult adjustment, she has managed to produce great results for each one of them.
“You have to believe in yourself and stay positive, and know that if you are doing what you are supposed to do on your end, and if you trust in your coach then you’re going to be able to perform well as an athlete no matter what,” Suleman said.
First-year Ole Miss track & field head coach Connie Price-Smith agrees.
“One of my first meetings with her when I got here, she came in and told me what her goals were, and she has worked very hard to accomplish those and she’s almost there” Price-Smith said.
The passion and drive that Suleman and Price-Smith alluded to are driving forces for what has allowed her to be such a strong competitor in the rigorous Southeastern Conference.
“It’s really competitive, I’m not going to lie,” she said. “You never know who you’re running against, but I just try to clear my mind and remember that it’s my individual race.”
Last season, Suleman was named a USTFCCCA first team All-American after helping the Rebels’ 4×100-meter relay to a seventh-place finish (44.64) at the program’s first NCAA Championships final in the event. She helped the team qualify for nationals with a fifth-place result at the NCAA East Preliminary (43.89) and helped them to a school record with a time of 43.80 at the LSU Invitational.
Suleman, who currently ranks third in school history in the 100 meters (11.39) and fourth in the 200 meters (23.37), says that there is still hard work to be done by herself and the team.
Suleman’s teammates look to her for guidance not only on the track, but also off the track. She seeks to extend the same helping hand that was extended to her when she was trying to get adjusted to life as an Ole Miss Rebel.
“I’ll never forget it was my first year here and I was a junior and Fabia (McDonald) was a senior, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh I wish I could get one more year with you, your positivity is so awesome and it really inspires me and I wish that I had the traits that you had,” Suleman recalled.
As a senior it is Suleman’s responsibility to ready the team and warm them up for meets, keep track of her fellow teammates’ class progression, and generally make it her duty to see that things are going well.
This spirit of paying it forward and being the type of mentor that McDonald was to her does not go unnoticed by Coach Price-Smith.
“She is dedicated to being an Ole Miss Rebel and to being good at it and she takes pride in being a good teammate to her teammates, especially the 4×1. Those are like her little babies,” Price-Smith said with a smile.
Suleman and her Rebels will head to the SEC Outdoor Championships in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, this weekend where they will look to shatter records and put on a strong showing at what is widely considered the nation’s best conference track meet.
May 14 is a monumental moment for Suleman off the track, as she will graduate from Ole Miss with a general studies degree. She has been accepted into the University of San Francisco Sports Management program and is setting her sights on making the Nigerian Olympic Team for this summer’s Rio Olympics.
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissTrack, as well as Facebook and Instagram.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
Stefan Moody Signs with FW Sports Management
Photo by Danny Dickey
FW Sports Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Forman Watkins & Krutz LLP, recently welcomed former University of Mississippi basketball guard Stefan Moody as its newest client. Moody is a two time All-SEC guard who led the league this past season in scoring an average of 23.6 points per game. He has been recognized as a top senior, 2016 Men’s Most Valuable Rebel, and two-time All-SEC honoree. Moody is also a two-time Howell Trophy recipient, which is awarded annually to the top men’s basketball player in the state of Mississippi. Moody will graduate from the University of Mississippi in May.
“We believe Stefan is the best college point guard in the country,” said FW Sports founding member W.G. Watkins. “He is known for his three ball, but his ability to penetrate and create is just as good. Stefan is a crowd pleaser. He can put on a show and has that megawatt million dollar smile. He is the full package.”
“Playing in the NBA has been a dream of mine for a long time” said Moody. “I have worked my entire life for an opportunity and now I can see it right in front of me. I felt FW Sports offered me the best chance of achieving my goal. Their emphasis on a personal relationship and being part of a family was very important in my decision. I am happy to get this decision behind me so that I can focus on achieving my dream.”
Moody is expected to train in New Orleans and Oxford in preparation for the NBA draft.
FW Sports Management is a full-service international sports representation and legal group representing athletes and coaches in all major sports. Through its experience and the experience of its partners, FW Sports provides a complete array of services for all of its clients. FW Sports Management currently operates offices in Oxford and Jackson, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana. For more information, please visit formanwatkins.com.
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