Mobile Home Sales in Kemper, SC

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Two University High School soccer players signed letters of intent on National Signing Day to continue their soccer careers collegiately.

Tristen Bright signed with the Fairmont State Women’s soccer program.

The second team All-State defender committed to the Falcons back in December after a successful season with the Lady Hawks.

Fairmont State was the first school that caught Bright’s interest and she didn’t need to look any further after her visit.

“That was my first school that I looked at. I fell in love with it as soon as I got there so it was really just one school,” Bright said.

Bright said Fairmont State University had everything she was looking for in a college.

“I literally loved everything about it. Everything that I wanted was in the school so that’s really why I chose it,” Bright said.

She also said she knew playing college soccer was something she wanted to pursue from a young age.

“My family has always pushed me to want to be there so pretty much all my life,” Bright said.

Drew Kemper signed with the Division I Robert Morris University Men’s soccer program.

Kemper liked the fact that RMU was in Morgantown’s backyard and he also already has made a relationship with his new head coach.

“It’s close to home so that way my family can come watch me play at the home games. I like the coach, coach O’Keefe, he’s new they just hired him. I really like him and I can’t wait to play underneath him,” Kemper said.

Kemper only played one season with the University boys soccer team, his junior season, where he helped lead the Hawks to a State Tournament berth in 2019. He played soccer for the Columbus Crew SC out of Columbus, Ohio in his first two high school seasons.

“My freshman and sophomore year I played for the Columbus Crew and then I moved up there, I moved from my family sophomore year and lived with a host family and that was basically like I’m doing this for college to have my college paid for,” Kemper said.

The center back knew he wanted to play high-level collegiate soccer early on in his career and jumped on the opportunity to play with the Colonials.

“That was the goal probably ever since going into eighth grade is when soccer really went serious for me. I started traveling across the country and started putting a lot of work into it,” Kemper said.

He’s excited to get back on the pitch and play the sport he loves.

“I just can’t wait to keep playing. Now the journey begins part two. So just excited to get better and try my hardest,” Kemper said.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Lexington’s American Leadership Academy, a new charter school set to open in the fall, announced the addition of a head baseball coach and football defensive coordinator for their inaugural teams starting next season.

Former Blythewood head coach and Newberry College pitching coach Banks Faulkner was named the first-ever head baseball coach at American Leadership.

Faulkner spent time as the head coach at Wando, Summerville and Blythewood. He experienced several successful seasons, including winning the 2016 5A state championship at Summerville.

Last August, he left Blythewood to take the position of assistant/pitching coach at Newberry College. In his one season in charge of the pitching staff, Newberry went 43-15.

“First and foremost, we are looking for good coaches, quality coaches, high character coaches. And Banks fits everything that we were looking for,” American Leadership athletic director Ray Canady told the Chronicle. “He’s a local guy from the area. He’s got a great track record with what he’s done at Summerville, at Blythewood and at Newberry College this past year. They had one of their most successful years ever at working with their pitchers. The opportunity to get him in at ALA is a big hire for us.”

For Faulkner, the position at American Leadership presents an opportunity to return to Lexington where he grew up and played high school baseball at Lexington High. That kind of homecoming is one of the only reasons he would leave the college ranks.

“I think it definitely is a special opportunity, just the right time and the right place,” Faulkner told the Chronicle. “You don’t ever know what the future holds but I really knew if I ever got back into high school it would have to be something really special.”

The more Faulkner learned about the school after talking with Canady, the more he knew the location of the school wasn’t the only thing that appealed to him.

“The more I learned about ALA and the more I thought the potential was at ALA to build a program and have it right here in Lexington,” Faulkner said. “It was just a chance to sort of come home and be able to get some really good coaches back together with me and add a few guys I have had relationships with and really put together an unbelievable staff.”

American Leadership head football coach Robin Bacon has wasted no time building his staff. On May 31, he announced on Twitter that he was bringing on former Columbia High School head coach Kemper Amick as the program’s first ever defensive coordinator.

The biggest reason Bacon wanted Amick on his staff was because his defenses always presented the biggest challenges to his teams.

“When I was the head coach at A.C. Flora, he was at Columbia High School and we had a really good team. He had three players that played at South Carolina who were on that team. It was just a great chess match. Every time we made an adjustment and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna hurt them here,’ he turned around on the next play and had an adjustment,” Bacon recalled. “As an offensive play caller, you want to get into a rhythm and the one thing I think he did and the one thing I’m most appreciative of as being an offensive guy looking at defensive guys was that he always had an adjustment.”

Bacon and Amick also spent time coaching together at the NFL’s Play It Smart program and at a junior player development program.

For Amick, the desire to coach again and his respect for Bacon during their time coaching against each other made it an easy decision to join forces with him.

“Robin and I are good friends. He’s one of my better friends in the coaching world,” Amick said. “I have been wanting to get back into coaching and the opportunity is fantastic. I’ll be working with Robin and it sounds like a few more fantastic coaches that have been around the area. I just felt like it was the right time and a great opportunity.”

Amick also told the Chronicle that his defensive coaching philosophy is to combat modern offenses with simplicity and aggression.

Keywords

American Leadership Academy, American Leadership Academy Baseball, American Leadership Academy Football, Ray Canady, Robin Bacon, Banks Faulkner, Kemper Amick

Science/TechnologySocial Impact

To think that girls are good at humanities and boys are good at science is a common stereotype.

Hoping to encourage girls to become interested in computer science and buck stereotypes, the Department of Computer Science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering offered a free all-girl coding camp during the first two weeks of June, an initiative directed toward girls from underserved groups and underperforming schools.

“There is nothing innate to men that makes them better at science than women,” said USC Viterbi Professor Jeff Miller, director of the programming camp. “The digressions between genders are often based on labels.”

The camp was made possible by the generous donation by Kathy Kemper, CEO and director of the Institute for Education, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. An advocate for girls in science, technology, engineering and math, Kemper believes that one of the keys to getting them interested in technology is giving them role models.

Along those lines, USC Viterbi’s coding camp was not solely focused on programming. It also aimed to break down stereotypes about female engineers, presenting its students with a group of tutors made up of seven women and only two men.

“If we want to get girls interested in computer science, we need to show them what women in the field can do,” Kemper said. “After all, any girl that wants to be in the board room, sit at the big table or run a company is going to have to know about technology.”

During camp, students wrote a simple computer program using basic programming constructs such as variables, conditions and loops. There were also spaces dedicated to discussions about all the importance of science and math in a variety of fields.

“Unfortunately, computer science is an alien world for many women,” said Shweta Pargaonkar, one of the USC Viterbi computer science master’s students who served as a camp tutor. “I believe that it is key to encourage girls to immerse themselves in technology and what better way to start than a coding camp dedicated specially to girls?”

Even though the camp had a strong focus on educating girls, it was also open to children belonging to other underrepresented demographics, such as African-Americans, Latinos and low-income families.

Focusing on demographics that aren’t normally exposed to computer science represents endless possibilities, camp supporters said. This can make the field more diverse and ultimately help it grow by taking new ideas into account.

Going forward, many employees will increasingly have to master technology. Future professionals will need much more than basic understanding of computers to succeed in the Information Age, which is why USC’s free coding camp was an empowering initiative that the department hopes to expand in the future.

“Programming Summer Camp is a very exciting initiative, and the fact that USC is exposing these children to an entirely new world will definitely influence their future,” Kemper said.

SERCER, June Esther (Kemper)

died peacefully in Tucson AZ surrounded by members of her family on July 12, 2016 at age 92. Beloved by her husband of 68 years, John W Sercer; her daughter, Susan (Sercer) Hooper (Craig) of Katy, TX and her son, Richard W Sercer (Alma Murphy MD) of Tucson, AZ, and her grandsons, Matthew W Hooper of Ithaca, MI and George E Hooper of Wilmington, DE. Born to Christian Charles and Mayme Belle (Shoop) Kemper, on June 20, 1924, she was raised in Chicago, IL, the youngest of eight siblings, Muriel May, John Carl Jacob, Lois Dorothy, Clara Nell, Frieda Marie, Charles Christian, and Walter Robert; all of whom preceded her in death. June graduated from Lindblom High School in 1942. After high school, she worked the airlines ticket counter at Midway Airport. She was married to John on October 3, 1948 by her cousin, Rev. Otto Arndt. June raised her two children, cared for her husband and lived a full life serving as Cub Scouts Den Mother, Brownie and Girl Scouts Leader, supporting school book fairs, and watching baseball games and tennis matches. She enjoyed bowling, knitting, and flower arranging. She supported her family's relocation to Atlanta, GA in 1967 in the heat of the summer entertaining her children in a new place without new friends until school started. She later worked for Southern Airways in Revenue Accounting retiring in 1987. She enjoyed watching and following Chicago sports. She traveled extensively with John and lifelong Delta Airlines friends from the Midway days. She also traveled to share milestones of DuPont with Craig and Susan in Texas, Delaware (200th Anniversary) and New Jersey as well as supported bringing their two sons home from the hospital in Delaware. She was a great cook especially awesome leftovers, baker, candy maker and inspired Susan to learn her skills. After John's retirement in 1990, they relocated to Tucson, AZ to be near Richard and Alma. She enjoyed her Arizona home, the cactus in her yard and the wildlife especially the quail migrating through every morning and evening. June was a lifelong Lutheran and brought her children up in the Lutheran faith serving in many capacities most notably Altar Guild service. June always had sage advice to offer others when they needed it. She was frugal and generous. June will be laid to rest in Elmwood Cemetery in Columbia, SC. A Memorial Service will be held at Lutheran Church of the Foothills in Tucson, AZ at a yet to be determined date. Arrangements by EAST LAWN PALMS MORTUARY.

Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion

Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community.