It seems to East Carolina outside hitter Sydney Kleinman that conference opponents have been sleeping a bit on the Pirate volleyball team, even if ECU is 4-1 in the conference coming off its most successful season in 35 years. A sophomore transfer from the University of Minnesota, Kleinman is hoping they don’t wake up. “I… [ Continue Reading ]

I am a hopeless optimist, as illustrated by the nickname my coworkers had for me at one of my earliest newspaper jobs. I wrote so many happy, positive feature stories at The Shelby Star in the early ‘90s that I was dubbed “Lite Brite.” Someone even brought the glowing peg board toy into the office… [ Continue Reading ]

David Blackwell knows that his defense is more highly ranked this season, and he likes much of what he has seen from his players in East Carolina’s past two games. But Blackwell can’t dwell on the good news when plays like South Florida’s 80-yard fourth quarter touchdown run in Saturday’s 20-13 defeat are still lodged… [ Continue Reading ]

Natural disasters like hurricanes might strike every socioeconomic class equally, but it’s a fact that those with more resources are better equipped to weather the wind and rain and recover from their effects. The same was true for intercollegiate athletic teams that found themselves in the path of Hurricane Florence last week. Consider a team… [ Continue Reading ]

Among other atypical aspects of East Carolina’s opening football weekend was the fact that an unexpected Sunday game robbed the Pirates of a day of preparation for UNC-Chapel Hill. But since everyone in purple seems to agree that the chief adjustments this week need to be mental, the abbreviated week might not be a major… [ Continue Reading ]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Column has been updated to provide correct information about available donor opportunities for access to the three club levels of the south tower of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. East Carolina athletic officials know that the Pirate Nation will have to exhibit extra patience since its team’s home stadium is also an active construction zone. But… [ Continue Reading ]

East Carolina head volleyball coach Julie Torbett knows that a Purple-Gold game isn’t likely to produce any earth-shattering revelations about her team. After all, her players have been competing against each other for months. But the intra-squad scrimmage on Tuesday — staged with fans, uniforms, music in Minges Coliseum and all of the other game-day… [ Continue Reading ]