Long road traveled for seniors

— When Arkansas-Pine Bluff gathers at Golden Lion Stadium at 2:30 p.m. for its final home game of the season today, what happens against Prairie View A&M won’t mean much of anything.

Win or lose, UAPB will play in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game on Dec. 8 in Birmingham, Ala.

But there are 10 fifth-year seniors for UAPB who don’t want their final memories of their home field to be a regular-season loss, which would prevent them from obtaining a school-record 10 victories.

The fifth-year players, all among Monte Coleman’s first recruiting class as head coach, includes six who expect to play key roles today after they watched UAPB lose the first seven games of their 2008 redshirt years. The group then endured injuries and changes to the coaching staff before breezing through this season toward UAPB’s first SWAC Western Division title since 2006.

“We’ve been through the worst of times and the best of times, now,” center Chris Wilson said.

Wilson watched most of the 3-9 season in 2008, Coleman’s first as head coach, as a redshirt while trying to rehabilitate from a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

He hadn’t heard much from UAPB while a senior in high school in Monroe, La., until Coleman was named coach in December 2007. After that, Coleman and then offensive coordinator Jonathan Cannon sold Wilson on promises of competing for conference titles.

“He told me that we were going to win a championship,” Wilson said. “That’s been in our minds. ... Now we’re in a position to do that.”

UAPB eventually got there, but not before going 19-25 in Coleman’s first four seasons.

Wilson, a three-year starter, went through those years while building strength in his knee under three position coaches and three coordinators.

Wide receiver Thomas Winters missed 1 1/2 seasons after tearing an ACL. Cornerback Jamel Maxwell missed most of 2010 for the same reason. Defensive end Brandon Thurmond arrived on campus as an academic nonqualifier, but his 15 1/2 sacks now lead the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.

“It’s been hard on all of us,” Coleman said. “The guys stuck it out and never lost faith.”

When asked to pick out a senior who displayed the most growth, Coleman said he couldn’t do it. But he said he’s appreciative of what he’s gotten from Maxwell, who became a starter in 2010 because of an injury to Joe Brown, then tore an ACL in the fourth game of the season at Southern University of Baton Rouge.

“When I saw his leg in an ‘S’ shape, I thought he would never come back from that,” Coleman said.

This year, Maxwell has started every game, making 36 tackles and one interception while being described by Coleman as UAPB’s “unsung hero” on defense.

“They’re not throwing at him,” Coleman said of opposing offenses.

Winters’ career has played out similarly. He played as a true freshman in 2008 and as a sophomore in 2009, but he tore an ACL in the second game of 2010. He missed the rest of that season and all of last season before returning this year with a slightly slower time in the 40-yard dash.

He’s third on the team with 15 catches for 141 yards and 1 touchdown this year and plans to apply for a sixth year of eligibility after this season.

But he’s preparing as if today’s game will be his last at Golden Lion Stadium.

And if it is, he and the other nine who are closing out up-and-down careers can at least say they’re leaving UAPB better than how they found it.

“Hopefully it works out to where I have another year to play ball,” Winters said. “But if that’s what it’s got to be, then that’s how it’s got to go down. At least we’re going out trying to get that championship.”

TODAY’S GAMES

All times Central

Jackson State at Alcorn State, 1 p.m. Miss. Valley St. at Texas Southern, 1 p.m. Alabama A&M at Auburn, 1 p.m.

Prairie View at UAPB, 2:30 p.m.

THURSDAY, NOV. 22

Southern vs. Grambling St., 1:30 p.m.

Today’s game

PRAIRIE VIEW A&M

AT ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF

WHEN 2:30 p.m. WHERE Golden Lion Stadium, Pine Bluff RECORDS UAPB: 8-2, 7-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference; Prairie View A&M: 3-7, 3-5 COACHES UAPB: Monte Coleman (27-27 in fifth season); Prairie View A&M: Heishma Northern (8-13 in second season) RADIO KUAP-FM, 89.7, in Pine Bluff INTERNET uapblionsroar.com

Sports, Pages 21 on 11/17/2012

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