NU announces game suspensions for six players

Grand Island Dispatch, October 13, 2006
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, October 14, 2006

Niagara University athletics director Ed McLaughlin announced this week that six Niagara University basketball players will face suspensions ranging from one to eight games as a result of their involvement in an off-campus incident on Aug. 31. In addition, McLaughlin announced a series of steps that will be taken within the athletics department to strengthen the code of conduct for student-athletes.

“We had hoped the court action involving the players would have been resolved by now,” McLaughlin said, “but since it hasn’t been, and with the start of practice only days away, we felt it necessary to act now in fairness to the players and the coach.”

Under NCAA rules, teams can begin practicing on Oct. 13.

Five NU players are due back in Niagara Falls City Court on Monday, Oct. 16, to face charges stemming from an incident outside a Niagara Falls bar involving NU baseball pitcher Jeffrey St. Denis. Charron Fisher and Stanley Hodge are facing assault charges, while Javonte Clanton, Kamau Gordon and Lorenzo Miles are charged with disorderly conduct.

As a result of the athletics department’s investigation, McLaughlin said that Fisher will face an eight-game suspension. Hodge, Gordon and Benson Egemonye will face two-game suspensions, and Miles and Clanton one game.

“All six of these student-athletes exercised a level of poor judgment that night, and we expect better of all of them,” McLaughlin said. “These men will be held accountable for their poor judgment as we have ascertained through our internal investigation, and not necessarily through the charges against them.”

McLaughlin said that with the exception of Fisher and Egemonye, the suspension dates will be staggered at random to ensure there are enough players to permit substitutions during games. Egemonye, a transfer, is not eligible to play until Dec. 16.

McLaughlin also noted that the players will still be subject to the university’s judicial review process once the court action is resolved. He said further sanctions from the athletics department could be imposed, depending on the outcome of court proceedings.

NU basketball coach Joe Mihalich called the department’s action a learning experience for the players. “It is a privilege to be a Niagara University student and it is a privilege to be a Niagara University basketball player,” he said. “Some of our players have abused that privilege, and they will pay the price. I am proud that at Niagara University student-athletes learn not only in the classroom and on the court, but they also learn to live and act the right way off the court.”

Miles, a senior guard, said he and his teammates accepted the sanctions. “On behalf of my teammates, I apologize for embarrassing Niagara University. We will accept the penalties like men, and learn from them,” he said.

McLaughlin said that he is in the process of developing a standard code of conduct to be signed by all student athletes. “We will do away with separate teams having their own team rules and have one comprehensive conduct code,” McLaughlin said. “This whole experience has taught us something about ourselves and how we can grow as an athletics department.”

Other initiatives planned by the athletics director include diversity training, alcohol awareness presentations and increased participation in community service for all student-athletes.

McLaughlin said that the athletics department staff and all student-athletes and coaches will meet with the university’s president, the Rev. Joseph L. Levesque, C.M., at the beginning of each school year to talk about various aspects of the program and the expectations the university has for its student-athletes.