TAMPA — In a few weeks, once the procession of collegiate and high school graduations staged within its walls conclude, the Yuengling Center will segue from commencements to chaos.
Pomp and circumstance will be supplanted by picks and rolls. High-schoolers and high-tops and high screens will converge, as will passing drills and the peal of coaches’ whistles. The joint will brim with tykes and teenagers, hubbub and bustle, maybe even a dash of bedlam.
And Bryan Hodgson will be snugly embedded in his element, the one that hearkens to the days of his wholly unconventional youth in rural western New York. Nothing that transpires at this four-day camp in late June will faze USF’s new men’s basketball coach. Unruly middle-schooler on Court 1? Please. Brooding 15-year-old in the corner? Hodgson’s got this. That 7-year-old wisp who’s wired for sound? No sweat.
Bryan had learned to pretty much cope with every variation of adolescent — the timid, the talkative, the introverted, the conniving — before getting his learner’s permit. His melting pot? A Victorian-style home in Bolivar, New York, built in the late 19th century, with six bedrooms, 1 ½ baths and the constant clamor of humanity.
Larry and Rebecca Hodgson didn’t stop with their four biological children. They adopted three others while housing foster and foreign-exchange kids, too. Over the years, they even brought in “Fresh Air” kids, working with a New York nonprofit that allows at-risk youngsters to spend a few weeks with families in the country.
“I think the record for the number of people living there at once was 17,” said Bryan’s older brother, Garrett.
Hence the reason no recruit’s living room will seem too cluttered, too cramped or too culturally ambiguous to the 12th men’s basketball coach in Bulls history, a foster child ultimately adopted by a couple with a boundless capacity for caring.
“Think about it. I was around kids from Brazil, Spain, Portugal, New York City, extremely impoverished rural communities — any community you can imagine,” said Bryan, 38. “We all lived at home together. So you learn every walk of life. By the time I was in middle school, there wasn’t anybody you could put me in a room with where I was going to be uncomfortable.”
Neglected, then nurtured
New USF men’s basketball coach Bryan Hodgson, far right, was adopted by a couple that served as foster parents to more than 100 children. He is pictured here with adoptive parents Larry and Rebecca and (clockwise from top) sisters Beth, Alicia and Rachael. [ Courtesy of Bryan Hodgson ]
It’s hardly coincidental that Bryan’s stints as an assistant at Buffalo and the University of Alabama — both under Nate Oats — coincided with the national ascension of those programs.
During his and Oats’ Buffalo tenure (2015-19), the Bulls won two Mid-American Conference tournament titles and reached three NCAA tournaments. While at Alabama (2019-23), the Crimson Tide won two SEC regular-season titles and made two Sweet 16 appearances.
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He was pivotal in helping Alabama land top-15 recruiting classes each of his four years. In both of his seasons as coach at Arkansas State (2023-25), the Red Wolves had the Sun Belt Conference’s top recruiting class, according to 247Sports.
He also led Arkansas State to consecutive 20-win seasons, despite inheriting a team that had gone 13-20 the year prior to his arrival.
“I think the main message, the thing that kind of keeps coming through, is that he has the kind of highly uncanny ability to meet people wherever they are, really kind of find the connection to relate to them,” Bulls athletic director Michael Kelly said.
“Obviously his unique background allows that he’s experienced so much in his young life as well. I think he has a great way of finding a connection, and then being able to find that way to relate. And I think it makes everyone feel comfortable and want to be a part of his vision.”
But long before evolving into a recruiter or visionary, Bryan first had to be a survivor.
He was born in poverty in western New York to a 14-year-old mother who named him Brandon David Kreamer. They existed in a mobile home with an old-style black stove fueled by firewood. Even at 18 months, Brandon was permitted to accompany his mother to a nearby school where she was attempting to obtain her GED, but one day he was left at home in the care of “the man that we thought was my father.”
When Brandon soiled his diaper, the man placed him atop the stove as punishment, causing third-degree burns on the back of his legs. More than 36 years later, scars the size of 50-cent pieces remain on the back of his thighs.
“To this day, I can feel them,” he said. “They’re there.”
His maternal grandmother took him to the emergency room, which in turn called child protective services. Little Brandon was placed in the care of the Hodgsons, arguably the area’s most well-known foster couple, who already had four biological kids, an adopted child and two foster children beneath their roof.
“Everyone that came to their home, it wasn’t just a foster child, it was their child,” Bryan said from his new second-floor office inside the Muma Basketball Center.
“You can talk to the people where I’m from about my parents, they would almost tell you that social services and the foster-care system — not in a negative way — took advantage of my parents. They just knew my mom and dad wouldn’t say no. If there was a child in need, they wouldn’t say no. And a big part of that was, my mom grew up in an orphanage.”
Rebecca, who still works as a school nurse, was 12 when her mother answered a knock on the door in the middle of the night, thinking it was her nephew coming home from Vietnam for a visit. She opened it to find two apparently drunken strangers who abducted her.
“And as they were leaving, I’m going to say it was a good 6 or 7 miles down the highway, they were involved in an accident with a tractor-trailer, and she was killed,” Rebecca recalled.
Because her father already was physically debilitated due to an accident at work, Rebecca and her four siblings were sent to live in a children’s home. That ordeal spawned an empathy for children in need that, combined with a profound Christian faith, prompted Larry (a drafting and design engineer) and Rebecca to bring 114 foster children into their home over the years.
“My motivation was, yes, I want to introduce many children — who don’t know what a Bible is — to the Lord and (bring) faith into their lives,” said Rebecca, whose older sister also took in foster kids. “And that was part of my reasoning for wanting to be a foster parent. But that’s wholly my husband’s reasoning. He was an ordained Baptist minister and that was his cause. He wanted to show Christ to children.”
Larry and Rebecca Hodgson, adoptive parents of new USF men’s basketball coach Bryan Hodgson, brought more than 100 foster children into their home in rural western New York. [ Courtesy of Bryan Hodgson ]
Generally, foster care can be a complicated process. Ideally, the goal is to provide safe, nurturing environments to children until a court determines they can be safely returned to their birth parents, or be connected with adoptive ones. Periodically, overcrowding issues can require some foster children to be placed in multiple homes.
When little Brandon — with the wavy auburn hair, bright blue eyes and perpetual smile — crossed the Hodgsons’ threshhold, he’d never leave.
“He was Mr. Bright Eyes,” Rebecca said. “And he was just a character from the day he arrived in our home, and he’s still a character. And he’s always been a kindhearted person, always.”
Because his situation was so dire, he became eligible for adoption while living with Larry and Rebecca, becoming one of their three adopted kids and being renamed Bryan Andrew Hodgson.
“They didn’t want me to leave their home; I was their son,” Bryan said. “And I think that’s what’s so special about them, they treated everyone that way.”
His new digs featured bedrooms with bunk beds, an elongated dinner table with benches on both sides and traditional seats at the ends for mom and dad. Smaller children sat at an old-style Playskool table in an adjacent room. Kids had to jostle for time in the 1 ½ bathrooms.
In lieu of restaurants, the family made monthly excursions to the nearest Sam’s Club — roughly 100 miles away — to load up on groceries.
“And my mom would cook like she was cooking for a cafeteria,” recalled Garrett, the oldest biological child. “Everything in huge portions, big, catering-size pots and pans. Lots of what she calls the papa-bulk style meals; stews and casseroles and things like that. We never went hungry though.”
The environment forged by Larry and Rebecca was lifted straight off Norman Rockwell’s easel: church every Sunday, Boy Scouts, Little League, cheerleading. Practically everyone in the family sang in a church choir and learned to play an instrument. Bryan, who played the trombone and piano, recalls singing with two girls in a church trio.
School, meantime, became his respite. So did the basketball hoop behind the house.
“I loved school,” he said. “I go to school and I’m away from all the craziness at home. … That’s what ultimately led me to (coaching), the basketball court behind our house and school.”
Bryan finally got his first bedroom to himself as a middle-schooler, when the family moved to Jamestown, New York, and his parents’ foster-care duties tapered off. By then, he had long since become enamored with college hoops through Garrett, who attended nearby St. Bonaventure and took his younger brother to Bonnies games at the 5,480-seat Reilly Center.
“To me, it was Madison Square Garden,” Bryan said.
Fast forward roughly two decades, and Bryan was coaching at that arena, and staring directly at his forlorn past.
Coaching Love
New USF men’s basketball coach Bryan Hodgson, left, with dad Larry, who adopted him from foster care at age 3. [ Courtesy of Bryan Hodgson ]
After toiling nearly a decade as an assistant at the Division III and junior-college levels, Bryan was hired as an assistant at Buffalo when Oats was promoted to head coach in 2015. In early December of that year, the Bulls played at St. Bonaventure, fulfilling a dream for Bryan that became tinged with dread.
Across the floor, sitting courtside, was his biological father. The one he initially thought was his father, the one who burned him as an infant, had long since been killed in a domestic altercation.
Bryan had learned his real father’s identity at 18 and had tried to connect with him, only to be spurned multiple times. Days before this game, out of the blue, the father had reached out on Facebook, urging Bryan to look for him during the game. Bryan spotted him, but never spoke to him.
“He’s not my dad,” he said.
Yes, the semantics matter. Everyone has a biological mother and father; not everyone has a mom and dad.
“To me, (Larry and Rebecca) are the greatest people walking this earth,” Bryan said. “I would probably go as far as saying they saved my life.”
To honor them, and to assist children with similar backstories, Hodgson founded Coaching Love, a nonprofit designed to raise awareness — through basketball and other sports — for foster kids and at-risk youth.
“We try to give back,” he said.
In the process, he’s perpetuating the mantra created by his immediate predecessor. In his lone season as Bulls coach, Amir Abdur-Rahim orchestrated a program transformation on the philosophy that “Love Wins.”
In Bryan Andrew Hodgson’s case, it also rescues.
“I’m fortunate, and everybody’s not as fortunate as me,” Hodgson said. “A lot of kids often age out of foster care, and then they’re just thrown to the wolves. They don’t have mom, dad, an aunt or an uncle they can call after that for advice on college. And there are some programs that help bridge that gap, but they’re few and far between.”
“My thing is, if the story gets one family to be like, ‘You know what, let’s look into (adoption),’ That’s a win.”
Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.
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The Brenham Cubettes’ wait for a district victory came to an end on Friday night at A&M Consolidated.
Brenham earned a 45-41 win over the Lady Tigers to collect its first district win since Feb. 6, 2024.
The Cubettes broke a 15-game district losing streak that extended into last season. Brenham also collected its fourth win over A&M Consolidated in the last 17 head-to-head meetings, according to MaxPreps data.
Brenham trailed 11-10 after a tight first quarter, but fought back to take a 28-24 lead into halftime. After taking a 40-32 lead into the final period, the Cubettes held off the Lady Tigers despite scoring just five fourth-quarter points to secure their victory.
This story will be updated with more detailed stats from Friday’s game.
Brenham will return to its home court for a 6:30 p.m. Tuesday district game against Rudder.
Volunteers are needed to sort flags in need of repair. These flags were layed out to honor the laborers that built Fort Negley and other Federal fortifications. The activity is simple and open to volunteers of all ages. If you or your group would like to volunteer we welcome your help. An RSVP to [email protected] is requested but not required.
August 13 through December 7 marked the 160th anniversary of the construction of Fort Negley. Annually we plant flags at the entrance of the park in an effort to recognize and honor their labor and sacrifice.
GRAND FORKS– Faith-based schools in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks are seeing rises in enrollment in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, with increases ranging from 10% to 38%.
St. Michael’s Catholic School, Holy Family-Saint Mary’s Catholic School, Sacred Heart Catholic School and Riverside Christian School all have seen increases over the last five years. Different than their public counterparts, faith-based schools – according to their leaders – offer families and students more diverse environments: smaller, faith-driven, accessible and community-oriented.
“I think that there is something to be said about parents who are looking for a holistic education for their child, an education that addresses the whole person. … And I think there’s a desire for that in our community,” said Sarah Effhauser, chief of staff at Sacred Heart. “Our public school districts are great – so the education is there. I think it’s that community aspect of a like-minded group of people who are able to talk about their faith.”
All four faith-based schools in Greater Grand Forks have grown in recent years, including:
Holy Family-St. Mary’s (K-5): Up 9.5% since 2020-21, from 115 students to 126.
St. Michael’s (pre K-5): Up 26% since 2020-21, from 167 students to 210.
Sacred Heart (pre K-12): Up 12% since 2019-20, from 473 students to 529.
Riverside Christian (pre K-12): Up 38% since 2019-20, from 159 students then to 220.
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics,
fall enrollment in public schools nationwide from 2019 to 2023 fell by 2.5%
, representing more than 1.2 million students nationwide. By 2031, the NCES projects that percentage will look more like 5% – meaning 5% fewer students enrolling in public schools in 2031 than there were in 2021. The decline in public school enrollment led to a subsequent enrollment growth in private institutions, according to
an article published by FutureEd
, which cites a U.S. Census Bureau study that shows a 22% increase in private school enrollment since the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Greater Grand Forks school leaders cite a number of factors that may have contributed to their schools’ growth, Amanda Carter, principal at Holy Family-St. Mary’s, said the pandemic highlighted the luxury of small educational environments.
“COVID brought a lot of changes. Our enrollment increased a lot during that time, and has continued that way,” Carter said. “COVID brought a lot of people because they were more comfortable with the small atmosphere. And then once you start, you have a hard time leaving.”
This school year, the Grand Forks School District has approximately 7,900 students and the East Grand Forks Public Schools District has 1,925. For comparison, all four faith-based schools have a combined enrollment of 1,085.
The difference in school size not only can affect students’ experiences in the classroom, but also families’ access, said St. Michael’s Principal Sara Dudley. She said parents who choose religious education often appreciate the individual relationships with school staff and the access to school leadership.
“I think another reason parents are choosing Catholic education is because they really want to feel connected to their school,” she said. “They want to be able to come in and have relationships with the teacher, be able to have access to the teacher, access to me.”
The close-knit educational environment, according to Carter, can allow for greater parental involvement and influence over their children’s curriculum.
“Families have the opportunity to be more involved in the schools. Not to say that they can’t in public, but there’s just more of an opportunity here, and more choice in what their children are learning,” she said. “There’s more collaboration here. There’s more input on what you’re teaching. There’s moretrust. It’s difficult because there are so many people that are telling the teachers what to do versus what the students really need, I feel like. That’s something that’s definitely different here.”
While all schools must follow teaching guidelines and requirements, religious institutions have more freedom in what they teach and their curricular worldview. The emphasis and infusion of faith into day-to-day lessons is a core reason why families are choosing religious education, the local faith-based school leaders said.
“Our education here, it’s based on the Bible,” said Sheri Moonen, Riverside Christian’s admissions, marketing and special events coordinator. “It’s based on that Christian aspect. And not only in their day when they’re able to pray, they’re able to talk about God and Jesus in our science classes and in our history classes.”
According to Effhauser, that faith can expand past the classroom to create a more unified community. She said many of the families switching over to faith-based institutions are doing so to find a community with similar values that they can raise their children in and around.
“The families that we’re encountering are ready to join a community of people who are like-minded, who strive to just build strong families,” Effhauser said. “The community is really what’s important. It’s the packed gyms on a Friday night, the youth sports that we offer, and the ability to worship together in common space — to have a common unifying factor of our families that Christ is at the center.”
Due to the increasing student enrollment, Greater Grand Forks’ faith-based schools have expanded.
In 2020, Riverside Christian School began offering high school classes, making the school K-12. It’s now in the midst of a capital campaign to build a new school on the south side of Grand Forks. Sacred Heart recently added seven classrooms and a commons area – allowing the school to offer two sections for each grade level, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Despite the expansion, Sacred Heart still has several grade levels at capacity and maintains a waitlist for a number of grades.
The newest expansion comes from a partnership between Holy Family-St. Mary’s and St. Michael’s. Last year, the schools combined to form the All Saints Catholic Schools Network, which unites the schools with a shared mission, curriculum and financial resources.
“The reason we looked into creating this network is really to build our capacity to grow Catholic education,” Dudley said. “So we wanted to combine our resources and then, by combining our resources, we thought we’d be able to have more professional development opportunities for our teachers. We thought we would be able to really share the mission of Catholic education more widely in Grand Forks.”
Made possible with the combined resources, the All Saints Catholic Network has opened the St. Carlo Acutis Middle School, currently hosted on the top floor of St. Michael’s. This year, the school is only accepting sixth-grade students. It will expand to include seventh grade in the 2026-2027 school year, with eighth grade being added in 2027-2028.
A fundraising project is underway with hopes to build a new St. Carlo Acutis Middle School building, to be built across from St. Michael’s. It’s expected to be open for sixth- through eighth-grade students for the 2027-2028 school year. The $12 million building will include five classrooms, a prayer room, gathering hall, media center, STEM classroom and administrative space.
“We’ve really been able to form it the way we want kids to be taught, and what we want for our kids going into middle school,” Carter said. “I would say my biggest hopes and dreams for this middle school is to have its own identity separate from the elementary schools. … Also to be religious leaders in our schools.”
St. Carlo Acutis, the saint after whom the school was named, was a 15-year-old boy who died from leukemia in 2006. Acutis was born in London before moving to Italy, where he was raised and is now entombed. He was canonized in September 2025 for his use of digital technology to promote Catholicism.
As enrollment continues to grow at faith-based schools across the country, school choice laws are being pursued by states nationwide. School choice is a term that encompasses a variety of policies that seek to shift public dollars from the public education system into the private education system, allowing students and families to choose a school that’s the best fit for their needs.
In North Dakota during the 2025 session of the Legislature, HB 1540, would have created an educational savings account program for students not enrolled in public schools. However, it was vetoed by Gov. Kelly Amstrong in April. Nonetheless, in Armstrong’s veto, he wrote in favor of school choice, stating that HB 1540 was not the right bill to deliver the message.
“In its final form, House Bill 1540 fails to deliver the school choice North Dakota needs, especially in rural areas where nonpublic school options are few and far between,” Armstrong wrote. “Passing a voucher bill that caters to only a small segment of North Dakota’s student population all but guarantees a voter referendum and threatens to derail the prospect of good school choice policy for years to come. We only get one bite at this apple, and House Bill 1540 bites off more than North Dakota citizens can stomach.”
If a school choice bill passes in North Dakota, Carter believes it will “dramatically” increase the enrollment numbers of the All Saints Catholic Schools Network in Grand Forks.
WASHINGTON – Trae Young’s tan outfit nearly matched the color of Washington’s uniforms. And although he couldn’t take the court and help his new team, Wizards fans showed their appreciation.
Young was introduced to the home crowd with a video during the first quarter of Friday night’s 128-107 loss to New Orleans. Earlier in the day, the trade that sent the high-scoring guard from Atlanta to Washington became official, and now Young can look forward to a fresh start after leaving the Hawks.
“For me, DC is overlooked as far as a big market,” Young said. “In the NBA, I feel like this is a big market, and I just feel like I’m going to be able to come into an opportunity to be myself.”
The first big question is when Young will play again. He missed Friday night’s game with knee and quadriceps issues and hasn’t appeared in a game since Dec. 27.
Big market or not, the Wizards lost 64 games last season and 67 in 2023-24. They were 3-20 around mid-December but had won seven of their last 13 entering Friday night’s game. Washington has plenty of young players, and the development of second-year big man Alex Sarr has been encouraging, but the Wizards could use a true point guard to play alongside the likes of Bub Carrington, Bilal Coulibaly, Tre Johnson and Kyshawn George, all of whom are between 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-8 and under 23 years old.
Enter the 27-year-old Young, who for his career has averaged 25.2 points per game and 9.8 assists. After the Wizards spent two seasons bottoming out, his arrival gives Washington fans a star they can pin their hopes on. General manager Will Dawkins suggested the move won’t alter the patience the team has shown with its less experienced players.
“As an organization, we have a long-term plan, and we’re not going to do anything to deviate from that,” Dawkins said. “I think Trae fits into what we’re trying to do based on the development of a lot of the younger players.”
Washington could lose its first-round pick this year if it falls outside the top eight, but aside from that, there was little obvious downside to bringing in a four-time All-Star like Young, especially since the Wizards gave up no draft choices in the trade. Washington sent guard CJ McCollum, who coincidentally has the same birthday as Young but is seven years older, to Atlanta along with reserve forward Corey Kispert.
Young has a player option for about $49 million for next season.
“When you have a four-time All-Star, All-NBA player available, who wants to come to DC and help make it what we want it to be, it was an easy partnership and an easy decision,” Dawkins said.
Although he led the Hawks to the conference finals back in 2021, Atlanta hasn’t even made the playoffs the past two seasons, and the light return for Young indicates where his stock was when the deal was made.
“On behalf of the Hawks franchise, I’d like to thank Trae for how he embraced the city of Atlanta and represented the Hawks during his time here, on the court and in the community.” Hawks GM Onsi Saleh said in a statement. “Over more than seven seasons, including four All-Star appearances, he cemented himself as a fan favorite and one of the great players in our franchise’s history. We wish Trae and his family all the best.”
Now Young will try to add to Washington’s recent history of dynamic point guards. After years with John Wall leading the way, the Wizards had Russell Westbrook for one remarkable season in which he averaged a triple-double and led Washington to its most recent playoff berth.
But that was back in 2020-21, the same season the Hawks peaked with Young. He was in only his third season then.
“It happened faster than I expected in my last place,” Young said, suggesting the Wizards could be capable of a similar rise.
___
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Two more former college basketball players testified Friday to being sexually abused as teens by the multimillionaire coach of New York’s esteemed Riverside Church basketball program, echoing the allegations of their boyhood teammate Daryl Powell, who’s suing the church in a state Supreme Court civil court trial in Manhattan.
Former Riverside players Byron Walker and Mitchell Shuler both took the stand on the trial’s second day, frequently choking up as they described their experiences with Ernest Lorch, who built the church basketball program into a model for the massive modern youth sports industry — but died in 2012 with a reputation tarnished by abuse allegations.
Walker described a pair of incidents in which he alleged Lorch forced himself on the player, ostensibly to discipline him. One of the alleged assaults Walker described, detailed in a joint Rolling Stone and Sportico investigation, resulted in a criminal indictment against Lorch in Massachusetts in 2010. (Lorch never stood trial in the case because of his failing health.) On Friday, Walker told the six jurors and three alternates that during halftime of a game in Springfield, Mass., in 1977, Lorch “tried to penetrate me,” ostensibly while punishing him for being late for the team van.
The former player also went into detail about a second allegation during a tournament in Arizona, where, Walker said, Lorch threatened to prevent him from talking to a college recruiter because he broke curfew and was drinking with teammates. After issuing that threat, Walker said on the stand, Lorch forced him to pull down his pants and sexually assaulted him. “There’s this back and forth motion,” the former point guard at the University of Texas-El Paso testified, “like I was being raped.”
Walker’s testimony followed that of Mitchell Shuler, who played on the same late-1970s Riverside elite high-school-age travel teams with Walker and Powell. Shuler, whose play with Riverside helped him gain a scholarship to the University of New Orleans, broke down several times when describing Lorch’s use of a paddle to punish him for indiscretions ranging from not working hard in practice to struggling in a high school French class. “I got down on my knees, like a dog, and got hit,” said Shuler, who last year retired as a project manager at Harlem Hospital after a 40-year career. “My bare butt was exposed.”
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Shuler also described being stared at by Lorch while showering and enduring “jockstrap checks” in which the coach groped his testicles.
Both players were called as witnesses by attorneys for Powell, whose case is the first of 27 lawsuits filed against Riverside to go to trial under New York’s 2019 Child Victims Act. He alleges that Riverside was negligent in supervising Lorch over his 40-year run at the head of the basketball program, which ended in 2002 after the first public allegations of abuse by a former player.
But Shuler and Walker are also suing Riverside, which Riverside attorney Phil Semprevivo pointed out to the jury. Earlier in the day, Powell faced tough questions on cross-examination by Semprevivo, who sought to poke holes in his case against the church — including differences in the plaintiff’s trial testimony Thursday and an earlier sworn deposition in the case in 2023.
For example, Powell testified Thursday that Lorch “stroked” the player’s penis as part of jockstrap checks and inserted his finger in Powell’s anus. Semprevivo pointed out that Powell never used those terms or descriptions at any point in his earlier deposition.
He also questioned Powell’s stated rationale for quitting basketball completely after a successful junior season at Marist College in 1982. On Thursday, Powell emphasized that he quit Marist with a year left on his full scholarship because he was “fed up” with the sport after his history with Riverside. Semprevivo pointed to other deposition testimony that Powell said he quit school to be with his future wife. Under questioning Friday, Powell said both reasons factored in his decision.
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The former player also said some discrepancies in his testimony were a result of his diminished hearing. But Semprevivo, pointing out several contradictions or inaccuracies on things like dates, said Powell had ample opportunity to correct the deposition record and failed to do so.
One such instance: Powell said in his deposition that he never mentioned being abused by Lorch to any Riverside assistant coaches, including Kenny “Eggman” Williamson, who died in 2012. But in his trial testimony, Powell gave a detailed account of telling Williamson that Lorch was looking down his shorts and paddling him. Powell testified that he remembered it vividly because, he said, he told Williamson on the day of the infamous, riot-plagued 1977 New York City blackout.
Powell said on Thursday that Williamson told him, “If you know what I know, you better not say anything, or you’re not playing for this team anymore.”
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Powell continued: “I was devastated. I shut my mouth up. I wanted to stay on the team.”
Semprevivo pointed out on Friday that Powell signed a statement in 2024 that corrected some errors in his deposition, but never amended his statement that he’d never said anything to Williamson.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Empowering girls through sports is the goal of News 4’s January community partner, Leveling the Fields.
The Charleston-area nonprofit offers after-school sports programs for elementary school girls, aiming to introduce them to athletics early and help build pathways to leadership later in life.
Girls in the Lowcountry are learning lacrosse, soccer and basketball through the program. Founder Melyssa Jaskiewicz said exposure to sports at a young age can translate into confidence and leadership skills as they grow older.
“Only 24% of C-suite executives are female, but 94% of them played sports,” Jaskiewicz said. “If we want more women in leadership, we need more girls playing sports.”
READ MORE | “Shifa Free Clinic: New 4’s December Community Partner.”
Jaskiewicz said cost, access and limited options often prevent girls from participating. To address those barriers, she launched Leveling the Fields’ Empower Play program in February 2024.
Through the program, coaches go directly to Title I elementary schools, eliminating transportation challenges. The nonprofit fully funds the nine-week program, which rotates through three different sports.
“The fact that we’re going onsite takes out access. We’re fully funding it, so that takes out cost,” Jaskiewicz said. “And by offering three sports, we’re taking out options as a barrier.”
The first pilot program launched in April 2024. Since then, the nonprofit has expanded into schools across Charleston and Berkeley counties, completing 11 programs in 2025.
Heading into 2026, seven schools are already signed up for spring sessions, with three additional schools on a waiting list due to funding limitations.
Jaskiewicz said the organization’s biggest expenses are coaches and equipment, but support from volunteers has been strong.
“Everyone really aligns with the mission,” she said. “Most of us played sports, some at the college level, and one even professionally. People understand how sports helped get them where they are.”
READ MORE | “November Community Partner: Charleston Habitat for Humanity Veterans Build.”
Looking ahead, Jaskiewicz said the nonprofit hopes to expand to all 39 Title I schools across Charleston and Berkeley counties within five years, with Dorchester County potentially next.
Long term, she envisions chapters in every state within 20 years.
She said one of the most important lessons sports teach is resilience.
“The biggest thing sports teaches us is how to lose,” Jaskiewicz said. “You learn it’s not the end of the world. You get up and you keep going.”
Jaskiewicz hopes those lessons will help set the girls up for success well beyond the playing field.
For more information on Leveling the Fields, click here.
