Great Story On A Future Wolfpacker

General Non-Revenue21

Tennis has become SFN’s favorite olympic sport at NC State. Head Coach Jon Choboy has done an amazing job getting the Men’s tennis team moving in the right direction. This season, the Men’s tennis team reached the Final 8 in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Baylor.

It is always great to see a new coach make great strides in an olympic sport that has never had much success. It is also great when some of the athletes come from the state of North Carolina. Meet, Dejon Bivens from Charlotte, NC. The Charlotte Observer wrote a great article on Bivens, who overcame troubled family life to become one of top tennis players in NC. We enourage SFN readers to take a couple minutes to read the Charlotte Observer article.

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General Non-Revenue

21 Responses to Great Story On A Future Wolfpacker

  1. TNCSU 05/23/2007 at 7:16 AM #

    Great story! I hope he does well with the Pack!

  2. PapaJohn 05/23/2007 at 10:25 AM #

    Wow, wonderful story. And what a smile! He’ll be a great ambassador for NCS atheletics.

  3. BJD95 05/23/2007 at 10:33 AM #

    Very inspiring. Glad he’ll be representing NC State.

  4. SuperStuff 05/23/2007 at 10:47 AM #

    I’m so glad to see more kids from the NC getting a chance to play at NCSU. And seeing them succeed as well.

  5. Frank 05/23/2007 at 11:58 AM #

    Very good story. Great job of recruiting.

    Now, I just hope we can keep this coach. Seems like he is bound to get offers.

  6. CaptainCraptacular 05/23/2007 at 1:17 PM #

    *Now, I just hope we can keep this coach. Seems like he is bound to get offers.*

    Send him a congratulatory email at [email protected]

  7. vtpackfan 05/23/2007 at 3:39 PM #

    The tennis teams run was a great story, but this one is the kind that sticks with you. Thanks for sharing it, and I hope to hear more in the future about Dejon and the rest of Chos’ Boys.

  8. c.jackson 05/23/2007 at 7:00 PM #

    Wow. Great story!
    I can’t wait to see him represent NCSU.

  9. Primewolf 05/23/2007 at 7:34 PM #

    Great story!

    I have been a follower of NC State Tennis for many years and knew JW Isenhower personally when he coached at State. It was amazing what JW did and the talent he helped developed in the 1970s and early 80s. But our AD back then would not give tennis sufficent money for recruiting, team travel to significant tournaments, and continuing to build the program. He quit as the coach.

    State has always lacked athletic leadership and/or finances to support minor sports until, say, the past 5 years or so. I am not sure if we have leadership in Jed, but the tennis situation now will give Jed an opportunity to show if he is going to be a leader.

    We should increase Choboy’s pay to some astronomical level suitable of an exceptional coach. Look at what he has done in a few short years with a program that was the pits for 20 years since JW quit.

    We should build stadium seating at the varsity courts and generally enhance the site.

    We should add 4 more indoor courts to the center. As part of that addition, we should add a real lplayers lounge and tennis memorabilia area with new and larger locker areas. We should make it the best or close to the best facility in the ACC.

    That might cost us $2-3 million, but it would likely help keep our coach and help us lead in a sport where we have been almost always last in the conference. In the long run such an investment could enhance the university significantly. It is a cheap investment compared to the revenue sports.

    Come on Jed and John, show some leadership. In how many sports do we have one of the best coaches in the country. Let’s keep the momentum going.

  10. Mr O 05/24/2007 at 11:55 AM #

    For all of you who have never been to a tennis match, then I highly recommend them if you are looking for the most exciting non-revenue sport to watch.

  11. redfred2 05/24/2007 at 1:29 PM #

    O, it’s a great sport to play and also great sport to watch. It’s a shame that it’s popularity has waned so much since back in the Conner’s/McEnroe days.

    I think some of it has to do with the lose of those great personalities for sure, regardless of whether you really liked them at the time or not. But I also think that a major part of it is that sports reporters, and sports reporting in general, is nothing but short attention span theatre nowadays. Nobody takes the time anymore to report on the athletes themselves, so that the fans can develop a real like, or dislike for them.

    That is of course unless you’re suspected of steroid abuse, or a TO, Lattrell Sprewell, Ron Artest, Vick, or involved some other off-court behavior that becomes public like Kobe’s incident. They don’t report about the athlete’s attitudes towards the sport they’re paid to pay anymore, the headlines focus now on just how much street mentality one individual might possibly be able to get by with, and still be allowed to play the game. Or, still become eligible for the HOF whether with, or without, a big ol’ * beside your name.

  12. redfred2 05/24/2007 at 1:41 PM #

    ^I should have added Ricky Williams, and the Duke kid from just this morning, and on and on… But you know what I’m talking about.

  13. TNCSU 05/24/2007 at 3:03 PM #

    The other reason tennis popularity has waned so much is that there are no really good U.S. players at the top (besides Roddick). Connors, McEnroe, gave way to Agassi and Sampras. Sampras was, by his own admission, boring. Agassi was a “love him or hate him” type. Personally, I haven’t been a big fan of tennis since Bjorn Borg. His style and personality are something that was new for tennis, and I would credit him with the tennis boom more than anyone. As good as Federer is, he’s a little stale, too. He’s just too damn good, I guess. Again, I think the main thing is that the U.S. needs some top players again.

  14. redfred2 05/24/2007 at 4:54 PM #

    TNCSU

    I think I knew what Bjorg liked to eat, where he vacationed, what type of car he drove, and what his tastes were in women, back then. But I do not ever recall his personality coming over that strongly on the court, or in any interviews. The reporters are the makers or breakers of the sports and the personalities that they cover. Since they are all mainly hit or miss sensationalist these days, and if the story is not short, right there slapping them in the face without having to be creative, then they’d all rather just delve directly into the tabloids or the police blotter and be done with it.

    I don’t how old you are but do you remember: Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick, John Riggins, Bubba Smith, Carl Eller, Jack Lambert, Dick Butkus, Bart Starr…Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isaiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Kurt Rambiss,… Catfish Hunter, Johnny Bench, Willie Stargell, Mike Schmidt… Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Juan Chi Chi Rodriques, Sam Snead…Richard Petty, Cale Yaborough, Dale Earhardt…the tennis players we’ve already mentioned

    Need I go any further?

    Now, please give me some modern day equivalents to the feel that we have for the actual players and personalities, that are playing the games at present.

    Thug 1, thug 2, thug 3…

  15. redfred2 05/24/2007 at 4:58 PM #

    ^I’m not saying they all thugs at all, far from it. It’s just that that is the media’s constant focus these days, and not much else.

  16. redfred2 05/24/2007 at 5:13 PM #

    I couldn’t leave these names off:

    Bill Berge, Allan Paige, Walt Garrison, Randy White, Bob Lilly, Dandy Don Meredith, Ken ‘the snake’ Stabbler… George Brett, Pete Rose*, George Blanda, John Madden, Hank Strahm… and too many others to even mention. It wasn’t just PPG’s, RBI’s, Att/Comp, back then.

  17. Mr O 05/24/2007 at 5:26 PM #

    What I found so interesting about these matches was that it was team oriented. Three doubles matches all side by side on courts at the same time followed by six singles matches all going on at the same time. No one match is more important than the other so #6 singles is just as important as #1 singles. It was more exciting than professional tennis or even the old days of the Davis Cup.

  18. TNCSU 05/24/2007 at 9:55 PM #

    ^^Sorry about that — I think I meant persona, not personality. He was just a “cool” guy, and was very marketable. I think he’s really the first athlete that made “millions” on endorsements. Guys like Tiger and MJ were preceeded by Borg! I, too, knew everything about him back then.

    I still have an autographed picture of him that I got from one of his exhibitions in Charlotte — right next to pictures of Bob Griese, Roger Staubach, Joe Morgan, and several others that I wrote to when I was a kid. I would send a letter asking for an autograph, and they would send a signed picture back. I also have one from Wally Walker (UVa) and Brad Davis (Maryland).

    Not sure who I would compare any of those athletes from the 70’s and 80’s to today. Possibly, a guy like Pat Tillman – a real sad story – you just rarely see a pro athlete these days with that type of character, courage, and humility.

    Now it’s arrogance, irresponsibility, and contempt (i.e Vick or Clinton Portis):

    http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-nancyarmour-052307&prov=ap&type=lgns

    I will say that I do enjoy some of LeBron’s commercials.

  19. redfred2 05/25/2007 at 9:40 AM #

    TNCSU

    I think maybe my point was lost. There ARE many “pro athlete(s) these days with that type of character, courage, and humility.” There has to be, everyone playing on the highest level is not a wind-up, extraordinary athlete, straight out of the box. There are people in the professional ranks who’ve worked very hard to get where they are. People with likeable personalities and people who do great for kids and communities, professional athletes who still do goofy, funny, and harmless stuff like some of the charactors we were familiar with years ago. The same type of stuff that inammored us to those guys and is great to read, possibly uplifting and inspirational all at the same time.

    But, what are the young kids reading and internalizing about their idols in the professional ranks? What is being highlighted and continually pounded into their young brains by modern day sports journalists?

    It’s street, thugs, hip hop, criminal records, drugs, DAWGS, and on and on…skirt the rules and get by with what you can, if you’re good enough, you don’t have to follow anyone’s rules, just like TO baby.

  20. redfred2 05/25/2007 at 9:44 AM #

    innamored ??? where in the H did that come from ???

    ^enamored

  21. TNCSU 05/25/2007 at 9:05 PM #

    I concur — the good ones don’t get the “pub” because it doesn’t sell. Too bad Barry Sanders retired early. I don’t think we’ll EVER see another Ted Williams, though. Ace Fighter pilot AND one of the greatest baseball players of all-time. Athletes are put on a higher plateau than they ever were before, so you’ll just never that type of player again, IMO.

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