WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Two-time Olympic decathlon bronze medalist Floyd “Chunk” Simmons was inducted into the North Carolina High School Track & Field and Cross Country Hall of Fame on Tuesday, January 6. 

He is the seventh University of North Carolina track star to be elected to the Hall of Fame after Jim Beatty (2020), Joan Nesbitt (2020), Karen Godlock (2020), DeAnne Davis (2020), Tony Waldrop (2022), and Earl V. Patterson (2023).

The Central High School graduate originally came to Carolina to play football as a tailback, but he switched to fullback as Tar Heel legend, Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice held down the tailback position. 

Simmons won  the bronze medal in the decathlon as the United States claimed the gold and bronze in the 1948 London Olympics. Simmons followed up his Bronze with another bronze medalist performance during the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, as the US swept the competition for the “World’s Greatest Athlete.”

Simmons was also a World War II veteran and received both the Purple Heart and Battle Stars while serving in the 10th Mountain Division.

Simmons had a seven-year career in film and stunt work (1956-63), first with Universal and then with MGM. He played Commander Harbison, USN, in the 1958 musical “South Pacific,” which prompted him to move to Tahiti for a brief stint. He moved back to Charlotte, where he was a professional artist and photographer.

Simmons passed away in April of 2008 in Charlotte.

The induction ceremony will be Jan. 31 in Winston-Salem during the Mondo Elite High School Invitational at the JDL Fast Track. Each elected class has been honored at the meet.

 

For Ashley Miller, this was a dream come true.

The state champion volleyball player for Mount Carmel knew before she graduated in 2011 that she wanted to someday come back to her alma mater and coach her favorite sport.

Her chance has arrived, as Mount Carmel on Wednesday announced Miller as the new volleyball coach after she coached the past seven seasons at Haynes Academy, where she guided the Yellow Jackets to their first state title in 2024.

“I’m really happy at Haynes,” Miller said. “Haynes is a great school. It’s tough to leave Haynes and the work family, and the players here and everything we have built here. But it always has been a dream of mine to come back to my alma mater and build a program there.”

At Mount Carmel, Miller will coach at the school where she starred as a setter and six-rotation standout, ultimately earning the LHSAA outstanding player award following a four-set victory over Dominican in the 2010 state final.

Miller, who will continue at Haynes as a P.E. teacher for the remainder of the school year, is replacing former coach Taylor Ricaud, who left after three seasons and is now the head coach at Pope John Paul II.

Mount Carmel has won 14 volleyball state championships, including six in a row from 2014 to 2019. The Cubs, who last reached the state finals in 2023, lost in the quarterfinals last season against Chapelle.

Mount Carmel athletic director April Hagadone coached eight championship teams at the school.

Miller said she “fell in love with volleyball” when she was a freshman, and she was a junior or senior when she told Hagadone at practice one day that she would like to come back to the school and replace her as coach.

“I knew I wanted to be a P.E. teacher and coach because both of my parents were P.E. teachers and coaches in multiple sports,” said Miller, who remembered thinking, “Man, this would be awesome, to come back here and run a program at a school that I love and be surrounded by an amazing community.”

At Haynes, Miller replaced her mother, Dollie Lala, as the head coach and lifted it to unprecedented heights, reaching the state semifinals for the first time in 2022, two years before the five-set triumph over Hannan in the Division III state final.

Miller comes from a family of coaches and teachers. Her father, Larry Lala, coached football at Bonnabel in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and later coached baseball and football while at Grace King.

Haynes has played the last three seasons at the former Grace King campus, following the closure of that school in 2023.

“We’ve never lost a game in this gym yet,” Miller said, adding that the teachers and students at Haynes “are very understanding, and everyone has been really kind to me about the move. They are happy for me, which helps a lot.”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University volleyball coach Jen Greeny has announced the addition of Lucie Šmardová, a libero from Brno, Czech Republic, to the 2026 spring roster.
 
“Lucie is a libero who will immediately give us solidity in the back row both in reception and defensively,” Greeny said. “She has played against high level competition in Europe, with experiences with the National Team, Champions league, not to mention the Czech league. We know from experience that Czech volleyball is quality and rising in the world of volleyball on the international stage. 
 
Lucie is athletic, moves well, and is a great person, which is something we always look for. She chose us over one Top 25 team, two NCAA Tournament teams, and three B1G Ten teams. We are so excited Lucie believed in us and will be joining us this January.”
 
Šmardová competes for VK Královo Pole under coach Erik Nezhoda. The 5-foot-9 libero has represented the Czech Republic on the international stage as a member of the U21 National Team, competing in the CEV European Championships.
 
At the club level, Šmardová helped lead Královo Pole to a Czech Women’s Extraliga Championship, while also earning multiple podium finishes in the U18 and U20 Czech Extraliga, including a U20 national title. She has competed in both the CEV Champions League and the CEV Cup, gaining experience against some of the strongest professional teams in Europe.
 
Šmardová’s accomplishments include a Czech Women’s Cup championship and runner-up finishes in both league and cup play.
 
The daughter of Petr and Hana, Šmardová plans to major in sport management at West Virginia, with aspirations of pursuing a career in the business side of the sports industry, focusing on marketing and organizational development.
 
For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUVolleyball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

 

TALLAHASSEE – Florida State volleyball head coach Chris Poole is stepping down from his position, he announced Wednesday. Poole, who led FSU to 15 NCAA Tournament appearances in his 18 seasons, chose not to seek an extension of his contract following the 2025 season.
 
Poole leaves the sideline following a distinguished career marked by competitive success, program growth, and a lasting impact on student-athletes both on and off the court. In 18 seasons with the Seminoles, Poole tallied 405 wins and led the Garnet and Gold to four ACC championships. Poole led FSU to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament five times and became the first ACC team to reach the National Semifinal in 2011. The four-time ACC Coach of the Year led the Seminoles to 12 20-win seasons and 36 victories over ranked opponents. Poole is the seventh-winningest coach in Division I history with his 955 career wins in 39 seasons as a head coach.
 
“This university, this department, and this program have meant everything to me,” Poole said. “After thoughtful consideration, I believe this is the right time for me to step aside. I am excited to pursue my next goal in life of working in athletics administration. I am incredibly proud of what we’ve built in Tallahassee and am fully confident in the future of Florida State volleyball.
 
Florida State Vice President and Director of Athletics Michael Alford praised Poole’s legacy and accomplishments.
 
“Chris Poole is one of the most respected coaches in Florida State’s entire athletics history,” Alford said. “His decision to step down allows the volleyball program to take its next step forward, but his legacy of consistent competitiveness will always be remembered. We are grateful for his leadership, his integrity, and the foundation he has built.”
 
Florida State will conduct a national search for its next head coach.

 

DEKALB, Ill. – A transformative year for Northern Illinois University Athletics, 2025 will be remembered as a year when Huskie Athletics charted a new path for the future, while achieving numerous on-field accomplishments and raising the bar in fundraising as NIU continues to adapt to the changing landscape of college athletics.

A new era for Huskie Football was announced in January as NIU accepted an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference for football beginning in the fall of 2026. A month later, it was announced that 14 of NIU’s athletic programs will join the Horizon League beginning with the 2026-27 school year.

With those two moves, NIU secured a future for competing at the highest level, both nationally and regionally, to ensure that Huskies Athletics continues to thrive.

NIU completed its conference alignment for 2026-27 in October as the Huskie gymnastics team accepted an invitation into the Mountain West while the NIU wrestling team became a member of the Pac-12. 

As the landscape of college athletics continued to evolve with NCAA House settlement requirements, transfer portal and revenue share in 2025, the need for financial support became even more important and Huskie alumni, fans and friends continued to do their part in contributing generously to that effort. NIU Athletics move to this new national model continues to be innovative in its efforts to reduce expenses while increasing revenues.

The amount of unrestricted dollars raised by the Huskie Athletic Fund (HAF) rose by 285 percent in 2025, with unrestricted donors increasing by 38 percent. The overall number of donors to the HAF increased by 64 percent while the total dollars raised grew by 18 percent during the calendar year. 

Huskies Invest, NIU Athletics’ annual week of giving, continued to set records in 2025, generating $1.2 million from over 1,000 gifts as the all-time contribution to Huskies Invest eclipsed $5.5 million.

In June, NIU Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation Sean T. Frazier began his one-year term as President of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) in this role he is involved in shaping the future of college athletics.  He sat down with Tai M. Brown for the One Question Leadership podcast to explain how the new financial models can help sustain athletics while highlighting your institution. 

On the field of play, the NIU men’s soccer team captured a share of the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title, its second conference crown in five years and also scored a memorable victory over Notre Dame in the first-ever visit to DeKalb by an ACC school in men’s soccer.

Women’s tennis capped a remarkable season with its first-ever postseason appearance as the Huskies competed in the UTR Sports NIT Championship. The women’s tennis team set a new school record with 22 dual match victories and reached the final of the Mid-American Conference Tournament for the first time in program history.

Blake West of the NIU wrestling team captured a MAC Championship at 125 pounds and, along with Landen Johnson, extended NIU’s streak of sending wrestlers to the NCAA Championships to 54 consecutive years. This fall, West made more history as he became just the sixth wrestler in program history to reach the 100-career win mark.  

Kamiya Dendy also captured a MAC Championship for the NIU track and field team during the outdoor season, becoming NIU’s first-ever high jump champion at the MAC outdoor meet. Kiera O’Shea of the NIU gymnastics teams qualified for the NCAA Regionals for the second consecutive year in 2025 while, this fall, Nikola Puntaric from the Huskie men’s tennis team earned a bid to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Masters Championship after claiming the top flight singles title at the MAC Indoor Championship.

Along with their successes on the fields of play, Huskie student-athletes had a banner year in the classroom in 2025, culminating in a fall semester that saw all 16 programs achieve a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better, with a department GPA of 3.274, which included 303 student-athletes at 3.0 or above and 50 student-athletes achieve a 4.0 GPA.

As the winds of change continue to blow in collegiate athletics, NIU’s achievements in 2025 have Huskie Athletics well-positioned for more success in 2026 and beyond.