Report: Ecks likely won't return in 2008

USF pitcher Cristi Ecks, who collapsed during a practice last week, won't likely return to playing softball this season, her father Doug told the Potomac News of Virginia.

A report in Friday's News updates Ecks' recovery following surgery to implant a defibrillator that monitors her heartbeat. Doug Ecks told the newspaper that his daughter cannot raise her left arm above her shoulder because she might tear the stitches from her surgery. She'll be re-evaluated in six to eight weeks, the paper reports, but is unlikely to pitch again this season. Doctors haven't ruled out her returning to softball down the road.

The story also details the support Ecks has had, not only from her teammates but from the rest of USF and even other schools that learned of her collapse last week. We'll work to find more updates on Ecks as her progress continues.

-- With the spring football game set for Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium, I found an interesting morsel on one of the newest additions to USF's roster: walk-on kicker Jamie Clark, who will participate in Saturday's game. Two things that make Clark unusual among Bulls football players: first, that he never played football at the high school or college level, and second, that he's a graduate student.

Clark went to Bloomingdale High and played soccer there and has already earned an undergraduate degree from USF. He's worked for the past two years with Tom Feely -- that's NFL kicker Jay Feely's father -- with the hopes of making a college football roster. Feely said Clark has a strong leg, capable of hitting field goals from 55 yards out. Check out this link to a combine workout that Clark participated in last summer, and you'll see he had better numbers that day than Justin Brockhaus-Kann, who will come in this fall as a punter on scholarship. Again, he's five years older, so it's not quite apples-to-apples.

USF's coaches are normally hesitant to add a walk-on in the fall with limited eligibility left, but coach Jim Leavitt hasn't been happy with his kickers this spring, giving Clark an opportunity to make an impression with a strong game Saturday night. Leavitt said Wednesday that he'll give a long look this fall to Maikon Bonani, the talented Lake Wales kicker who signed with the Bulls in February.

-- Got to talk Friday morning with Joe Wootten, who is the coach at Arlington (Va.) Bishop O'Connell, where 6-foot-11 center Frank Ben-Eze plays. Ben-Eze, once a Harvard commitment, has re-opened his recruitment and has been targeted by the Bulls. Wootten -- son of legendary prep coach Morgan Wootten -- named USF as one of Ben-Eze's top four schools and said he's working to line up an official campus visit later this month. He's visiting newly-crowned-Cinderella Davidson in North Carolina this weekend, with a visit scheduled for Georgia Tech next weekend. UCLA has shown interest but hasn't offered; Wootten said Villanova and Pittsburgh has also expressed interest but not enough to be in his top four right now.

-- Before you go making "Faber College" signs for the spring football game, my understanding is that no men's basketball recruits will be making campus visits this weekend. There had been talk that Los Angeles center Krys Faber might come to town, but the Bulls will continue to try to get him in at a later date. Again, this isn't a recruiting class that will be wrapped up when the signing period opens Wednesday, but will continue to develop over the next month and even into summer, potentially.

Comments

[941]

Would Ecks be likely to get a medical redshirt?

[G.A.]

No. She played too large a portion of the season before she was sidelined. The NCAA has limits on how far into a season an injury can take place and still award a medical redshirt. If she needed to, Ecks could sit out the 2009 season using a traditional redshirt and still have a year of eligibility remaining in 2010.

[AGW]

Who is in Ben-Eze's final four as of now b/c before it was Stanford, UCLA, Pittsburg and USF right? I hope he comes ASAP. We need him badly even if Faber commits on the 16th. We get them and Akol and USf will be set up pretty nicely in the post for the next four years. Coach Heath has to give him the full court press. As does everyone else when he comes to T-town. GA keep us posted on the most recent developments in BBALL recruiting and transfers.

[The Champ]

Faber is suppose to be here for next weekend, so this gives usf fans more time to be creative and come up with something that he won't forget when he heads back to Cali.

Remember Faber has been Minnesota's to loose since the fall of last year, so if USF is going to get him they have to blow Faber away when he comes here.

It doesn't take 1000s of fans, because I seen where just 20 or so students have really helped make a prospect commit to a school.

Also I now know why UK fans where blaming Hansen for Tubby's problems in recruiting.If we loose a certain key recruit you can point the finger at him just like UK fans use to.Won't say anymore but the thought of it just pisses you off.

THANK GOD we have Dan Hipsher because without him there would be no quality assitants on Stan's staff, worthless!

[Josh]

Hey what ever happened to Goins? Of course it would be excellent to land a Brumbaugh or a Faber but I can only assume that USF isn't at the top of their list of options. Goins isn't going to be equivalent to Gransberry next year but with our roster so thin I'll take what I can get. Plus, even if we do get someone like Faber...having Faber, Teague, and Goins sounds pretty nice. Oh yeah....and let's all hope Simmons decides to play for us...kid has mad skills!

[reality]

I saw Ben Eze's final 6, and USF was not on it......

Wow Champ, you are calling out Hansen....

If I was him, I would worry about my job, if Stan's kid is upset with him.

Glad to see you lay the groundwork for when Stan doesnt win next year, and he gets rid of his assistant,and everyone blames the assistant for the lack of recruits. Very good spin, you should get on the Hillary campaign...Pig SOooooooie..

Are you all starting to see, that we have NOTHING for next year?
NOTHING.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

Greg is quoting the Potomac News.

Ureal.

I grew up on that paper Greg Auman. I think the sports section is like 5 pages deep. Unreal.

Then you are talking about a coach from "Arlington."

Its like I am back in DC.

Greg... You stalking the Hinkelberger???

You did look a "stuuuper" last time I saw you.

[Herman Momart]

Cant believe we are throwing Hansesn under the bus now! Too funny!

I like Heath but if he dumps our whole team and doesnt replace them with Big East talent HE is the only one that will be held accountable.

[Josh]

Any chance of us landing that Mitchell kid from UF?

[The Champ]

Well then I guess I will just stop bringing some of the behind the scenes info about the USF basketball program now.

It seems reality and ole Herman prefer to be in the dark.I assume that they rather read a bunch of guess and madeup stuff instead of the truth.(shaking head)

It is going to be a long summer and once pro basketball ends it can get real boring fast.

Well no need to drop names of BE level players that Stan believes can be gotten by USF.No need to mention the roles the assistant coaches have or won't have in the future.

I'll just come on here whenever G.A. drops some info and post blindly and maybe foolishly like reality and ole Herman.

Well I guess I will just go check out some stats and maybe some videos of the guys USF will be recruiting this year.

[reality]

Champ, you are better than that. That was the worst, I am taking my ball and going home post of the year.

Champ,

In the late signing period, there are only so many Big East Level players, and I don;t see USF in the mix for too many of them.

[Scott Norwood]

Why does USF need another kicker?

Delbert Alvarado is a top-shelf kicker.

[Herman Momart]

Aw, Im so sorry to offend you Champ and your deep secret undercover USF basketball info. You just seem like a fan that will never hold the coach or University accountable for anything. Theres always a scapegoat, Im sure you supported McCullum to the bitter end as well.

Question: Who gets paid 750K a year to build a winning program? Who hires their assistant coaches, who, YES, do have a huge part of recruiting? If you know Tubby and UK fans hated Hansens recruiting tactics/style whatever insider stuff you claim to know, why doesnt Stan Heath know? Why dont we just pay you to hire our assistants?

Also, isnt recruiting season rumors, speculation and guess stuff? who are you kidding? Nothing is solid until the kid signs the X (see Eric Gordon). And who are you referring to writing the guess and madeup stuff, GA? I dont know, when I go to my guy for USF basketball recruiting I go to GA, not some anonymous guy named The Champ.

Didnt mean to offend you but see if you can find out what kind of conditioning workouts Heath and Hipsher are doing this week and I guess leave it to us to guess what Hansen is doing, instead of recruiting.

[Dave W]

Wow, I go to Tally for two days and one of the strangest threads I've seen pops up.

Ben-Eze would be a great get, he doesn't impress me as much as Faber, but that's certainly not a dig at Ben-Eze.

[The Champ]

Let's clear up one thing, G.A. shouldn't be a part of what we were talking about.Greg Augman does the best job of covering any university in the state of Florida.

Now ultimately a HC is held accountable for things that go wrong, but it takes a great coaching STAFF to get the job done right.

Like I said other then Hipsher, Stan doesn't have a great staff.Neither Hansen or Samuels were first choices btw, I promise you that both are very thankful to still have a job here today.

Put it to you like this, Stan himself had to take in more duties that his assistants are paid to be able to do.

Rumors and speculations come from those in the dark, I would much rather talk about the samethings the coaches are talking about.It is better to be a fly on the wall instead of a blind fool.

Here is an example, I knew long before the season started that Jones would be a special player and that Chin was a terrible practice player.Months later and now everyone sees that to be true.

As for the workouts going on I may be able to find out sometime next week if not sooner about that.

Btw I wasn't offended by you at all or by that foolish Pannone.

[mike]

"I knew long before the season started that Jones would be a special player"

so now the champ has ESP

[Nailz]

Herm, you may or may not remember this but it was reported Heath interviewed a lot of guys before settling on the current staff. The ones that come to mind right away were Oronde Talliferro, Greg Heiar, Chris Cheeks, Chris Ferguson and I know I'm missing a couple of guys. His Director of Operations left before the season started and even Hipsher was hesitant to plant his roots here. My point is that much like the head coaching search, theres a lot of people that ran from this job and Hanson and Samuels were far down Heath's list. It's not percieved as the toughest job in America for nothing. Now that the facility is on the way its no longer going to be that and Heath should dump one or both of these guys (provided what Champ is saying is true) and get the quality assistants that he wasnt able to get last year.

[The Champ]

Great post Nailz

[Ari Hinkelberger]

How can anyone talk smack about Hansen...

Guy was a freakin stud at Kentucky..

What the hell has hipsher done as a head coach.

Not much.

I think Hansen is one of the better assitants we have ever had.