Story by Greg Brzozowski
DURHAM, N.C.
All across college baseball, February represents a rebirth. It ushers in hope, excitement, and anticipation as new cleats are laced, fresh hats lack sweat stains on their brims, and records and stat lines are as clean as the first chalk lines laced down the diamond.
Fans file in to follow their favorite teams for the next four months. Experienced seniors are set to lead naïve freshman through the highs and lows of what’s about to come, but excitement is easy to come by on Opening Day. This past weekend, hundreds of teams took the field for the first time in 2022.
But all sits quiet in a city, at a stadium, synonymous with this sport.
Baseball and Durham are forever linked to each other. It was through Hollywood’s lens where historic Durham Athletic Park was captured and cemented in the minds and memories of fans all over the world. Bull Durham showcases a story based on the lives and struggles of minor leaguers trying to make it – whatever “it” was for each of them. But since the Bulls blew up into one of the most recognizable brands in baseball, now playing in a crown jewel of a stadium miles away, a college team took over that turf, and North Carolina Central had called it home since 2007.
Jim Koerner had called this program his own since 2012. Yet when describing what was the most tumultuous time in his life, the Eagles head coach picked another baseball classic to describe his path.
“There’s a quote from one of my favorite movies, ‘The Natural’. Robert Redfern’s girlfriend says “I believe we have two lives: the life we learn with and the life we live with after that’”
“I wish I would’ve known more of what I know now 20 years ago.”
For the first time in over a decade, Koerner has no lineup to fill, no opponent to scout, no role to play on this sports holiday. NC Central baseball is now no more, the latest in a line of Historically Black Colleges and Universities to cut ties with the game.
11 years ago, Koerner and his family moved to North Carolina to start a brand-new chapter in their lives and at their new school. A Western New York native, Koerner’s first head coaching gig was a part-time position at Division III Medaille College. He was 24 years old, working retail at a paint company in Buffalo, fresh off being cut from an independent ball team.
11 years later, after working as a D-I assistant with stops at Monmouth, Marshall, and the University at Buffalo, he saw potential at Central. He first saw the stadium that spring while traveling with UB, facing his soon-to-be team. The very first thing he did the day he moved to the Triangle was return to the DAP with his family to soak it all in.
“This place is magical. We sat right up there on the third base side. My son was four years old at the time. My daughter was just an infant. I remember me and Sam just sitting there saying ‘Hey, this is gonna be home’. And my son looking at me and he’s like ‘This is where we’re gonna play our games?’ And I was like ‘Yeah, right here, Sam! This is our home field and this is where all the magic’s gonna happen.’”
Sam grew up in maroon and grey, standing by his dad’s side in uniform in the dugout for years. Koerner and his wife, Kylie, have watched their family grow up here. Coach’s parents moved to Durham a year ago as roots have only grown deeper.
“There’s just been so many great memories over the last 10 years,” Koerner says, surveying these now familiar grounds. “I can name off every win, every loss, every magical moment we’ve had and they’re gonna be with me forever.”
Those memories are now capped; there will be no new ones to make. After losing almost all of their 2020 campaign to COVID-19, eight days before their 2021 season began, the players and coaches were told by the NC Central Department of Athletics that due to increased expenses over the past four years and the impact of the pandemic, the University would have to discontinue one single sport – theirs.
The church of baseball lost a parish in Durham.
“Alumni, Friends, and Family,
It is with great sadness that I report the 2021 season will be the last for NCCU baseball. I was informed yesterday that the program will be eliminated. This news has left me stunned and heartbroken. For the last ten years it has been my honor to lead, coach, and mentor so many tremendous student-athletes. I will forever be proud of the accomplishments that our players have earned over the years.”
More times than he’d like to count, Koerner tried to put a shared grief and sadness into words. His statement from February 12th, 2021 was the second time he was faced with that task. The first was a day prior, followed a team meeting called by Central’s Department of Athletics.
“It blows my mind still to this day that February 11th, they come into the gym and tell us,” said pitcher Austin Vernon. “And we’re like ‘Maybe they don’t have the money to afford this season, maybe they’re saying they have to have a budget cut or something?’ And then they hit us with ‘You’re done.’”
The Eagles were just coming off of a two-week stoppage due to a positive COVID case in their program. They were trying their best to prepare to host Army and play their first games since last spring when 2020 became – well - 2020.
“For us to sort of just get hit by a MAC truck and be stunned out of nowhere – nobody expected it and we just got blindsided,” said Vernon.
Koerner’s statement included plenty: alums who built the program, incoming recruits who had committed to continuing it, his roster who would soon have to leave it. His staff, their fans, his family all were thanked, commended, and cared for by his message.
The university and its staff were not mentioned.
"This is a challenging day for our baseball student-athletes, coaches and the NCCU Athletics program, and certainly one of the most disappointing days in my career. I sincerely understand how much time and dedication has been put into becoming a college student-athlete and I empathize with our baseball student-athletes, parents, and families. There is never the 'right time' to make an announcement such as this; however, this decision was made after a rigorous internal and external review of our long-term financial model to improve the overall sustainability of our athletics program.”
NCCU’s Director of Athletics Dr. Ingrid Wicker McCree released her statement after the team learned their fate. Existing and new scholarships would be honored for the student-athletes for this 2021-22 academic year, no further.
In their press release, athletics stated that at the start of the pandemic, they cut operational costs by 30 percent, reduced staff, and implemented furloughs. A task force was put together this past fall to “determine the sustainability of each program”.
NCAA rules state D-I schools must have 14 sports, with either at least seven male and seven female sports, or eight female and six male sports. NCCU has the minimum seven female teams, so a men’s team would have to go if they chose to cut costs while avoiding the loss of revenue, conference affiliation, opportunities, and overall benefits that would come from a drop to Division II.
After all, it had only been 15 years since the school called on baseball to help open that door in the first place.
Baseball was their first sport founded by the school in 1910-11, the inaugural year of what was then called the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race. But in 1975, the program was dropped, then brought back 32 years later when NCCU jumped from D-II to D-I. It took two years to build towards that first Division-I season; the Eagles struggled instantly. NCCU went 22-148 until Koerner took over as the program joined the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 2012.
Step-by-step, part of a plan, the rebuild had been working. They’ve won 20-plus games every year since 2016, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020. Two players prior to the news of the program’s end had been drafted by MLB teams. Others had received numerous conference, national, and academic awards. By the end of the 2021 regular season, a program-record 10 Eagles earned All-MEAC honors. Koerner himself was welcomed into the USA Baseball family, coaching both youth and collegiate national teams in nearby Cary while running NCCU.
Yet progress and growth aren’t in a fair fight against dollars and cents. When it came to cuts, roster sizes, schedules, and expenses of baseball were compared vs. their other teams.
Football and basketball have long been the flagships of not only the Eagles, but the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. In 2019, NCCU’s football team averaged 6,335 fans a game. The conference was second nationally in average attendance (9,782) at the FCS level. The 2019-20 basketball season drew 1,165 fans a night to Durham, just under the MEAC’s average league-wide (1351). In 2019, across 29 home games, less than 3300 total fans made their way through the gates at Durham Athletic Park all season, averaging about 114 people in the seats.
With football and basketball safe, baseball was left to compete with cross country, golf, tennis, and track and field, all sports that historically make little to no revenue, but cost much less and have smaller rosters compared to a 2021 baseball squad that was 38 players deep.
These kinds of decisions are being made by athletics departments all over the country. Since the pandemic began, Boise State, Furman, Chicago State, and LaSalle, all Division-I programs, all have folded. Boise’s team had just returned from a 40 year hiatus after being cut in 1980 only to not even last a full season. Furman, playing across state lines from Central in Greenville, SC, shocked their current staff, players, and alums when they axed an institution that had been around since 1891.
When Ed Porcelli was in college, he pitched for Florida State at the College World Series in 1986 and 1987. He was one of two unpaid Eagles volunteer assistants, whom make up half of Koerner’s coaching staff.
“We were not given any inkling of what was going on, we were not given any idea that they could cancel this program,” said Porcelli. “I know that talk was ‘Well our hands were tied. There was nothing else we could do. We try fixing the budget.’ Look… it all comes down to one thing: if you really want to keep the program, you could keep the program and no other reason other than that.
Apparently, in somebody's eyes who makes the decision, it's not important enough to keep us here.”
When reached, NCCU’s Department of Athletics said they had no further comment to add beyond Dr. McCree’s statement.
When they came to a decision in Durham, baseball was out at home – a similar decision seen around HBCUs in NC.
When you watch a game for the first time at Durham Athletic Park, it feels like you’ve been there before. Because in a way, you have. Gone is the “Hit Bull Win Steak” sign in right, as are the empty tobacco warehouses. They’ve been since replaced by an arcade bar with a centerfield porch and a blues lounge where live music could be heard from beyond left. But there’s the same field where Crash Davis tipped Nuke LaLoosh’s pitches. The same dugout where Annie Savoy sent mid-game tips to Bulls is the same place Eagles cheer and chant. The Bulls’ grounds crew still maintains the field for the city, keeping it up to pro standards daily. Jordan Varela-Payne says it’s known throughout the entire MEAC that they had the best facility in the league. He dreamed about playing on it for years growing up.
Varela-Payne was one of 26 North Carolinians on the final roster, one of nine from the Triangle. He went to Rolesville High School, located about 40 minutes away from the DAP. “This is exactly what my goal was: I wanted to come to an HBCU, I wanted to stay close to home, I wanted to stay close to my family, so I got the job done. Central did everything I asked them to and more.”
There was a time where Tar Heel residents had access, opportunity, and options to play the game at a historically black college and university. There are nine co-ed HBCUs in-state. Eight of these schools, all which are currently either Division I or II, have sponsored baseball teams over their athletic histories. Only one HBCU squad remains - Central’s former conference rival, North Carolina A&T. And even those Aggies are making changes.
A&T is one of five schools to cut ties with and leave the MEAC in a four year span. Last July, they joined former conference rival Hampton in the Big South. When the Pirates left in 2018, they became only the second HBCU at the time to play outside a historically black conference and will now move again to the CAA this summer.
Savannah State left the league when they dropped to D-II in the SIAC. Florida A&M, the top ranked HBCU in the country, and Bethune-Cookman, the 19-time MEAC Baseball Tournament champions, moved to the SWAC this off-season, the only other Division I league made up of HBCU institutions.
In 2021, University of Maryland Eastern Shore joined Bethune-Cookman sat out all spring semester sports due to the pandemic. In 2022, they have just four.
Varela-Payne wanted to play at a school like Central because most players don’t want to make that choice.
“You have a lot of guys, a lot of athletes going to these bigger schools. And I just wanted to be a guy to do great at an HBCU and just pave the way for players not to be afraid to go to a school for them. To show them they can get to the next level by going to an HBCU, and that was my main goal, and that’s what I’m still instilled on doing.”
According to the NCAA’s Demographics Database, in 2019-20, less than five percent (1,662 total) of college baseball players from D-I through D-III were black. 79 percent (28,703) of the players were white.
Those numbers mirror the makeup of the last NCCU baseball team. On campus, the student body at Central per Fall 2019 numbers showed 74 percent of the campus is black. 11 percent is white - the next highest percentage. On the 2021 baseball team, close to 75 percent of the Eagles were white.
Varela-Payne says over the course of his collegiate career, he and his teammates have routinely debated which roster in the MEAC was the “blackest”.
“My freshman year, I looked around, coming to an HBCU, and seeing mostly, predominantly white people on the baseball team was a shocker to me. Over the years, I had just kinda gotten used to it.”
“It was a culture shock getting to Central, because it was black everything. Cafeteria workers, janitors, professors, it was a lot of black faces you see. But once you go to practice, it’s completely opposite.”
All Austin Vernon was looking for was a place to play and a jersey that would fit him. But on May 7th of last year, all he was looking for was one more run.
The 6-foot-8, 265 pound junior right-hander from Raleigh is a dominating presence on the mound, and is taking up plenty of space in their small, outdated dugout. He watched on that night, up 9-0 on Delaware State, one run away from a mercy rule win. At that point in the season, the Eagles were on the outside looking in at the MEAC Conference tournament with just weeks to go in the regular season – and their program’s history.
But Vernon pitched the game of his life when his team needed it most. He allowed just one baserunner all game and when the mercy rule-clinching run was walked in, his teammates ripped his jersey off, poured water over him, and celebrated the first – and what would be the only no-hitter in Central’s history.
“Everybody out here on this team is just family,” said Vernon, one of the majority of white players on the roster. “That’s the biggest thing. We’re all family. We do it for one another.”
Family is the very reason why Austin is at Central, and playing college baseball anywhere.
“My brother (Andrew) went here, graduated in 2016,” said Vernon. “(He) Was the first (MLB) Draft pick out of Central actually. And they were the only school out of high school that gave me the opportunity to play college baseball. I didn’t get any D-II offers, no D-III offers, no JUCO offers. I mean, they were the only school I ever talked to… So I appreciate Jim Koerner for everything he’s done for me personally. And just giving me the opportunity to come out here and play baseball and do what I love. It means the world to me because nobody else ever gave me that chance, but he gave me that chance.”
Koerner saw what made the elder Vernon brother successful at Central, leading him to be coach’s first-ever pro pick by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 28th round back in 2016.
“He knew my brother’s drive and what my brother did, and I guess he kind of saw that in me - along with a decently live arm in high school. I could get up to like 90-91. Nobody took a chance on me because my weight. I was like 300 pounds.”
Jim had recruited Andrew in just his second season in Durham, helping shape the vision for his program. A Vernon brother was part of the maroon and gray for eight of coach’s 10 seasons in charge.
“Vern” got in shape, trained hard, and finished college with a fastball routinely clocks in at 98-99 MPH. He and fellow ace Ryan Miller, who was named MEAC Pitcher of the Year in 2021, formed the best 1-2 punch at any HBCU a year ago.
Vernon was focused on his personal dreams of pitching in the pros, but wanted to extend his Eagles career as far as it could go, win the conference tournament, and bring the program to their first – and last - NCAA Tournament.
“We’re playing with a chip on our shoulder, it’s like we ain’t got nothing to lose. (We can) Prove that we deserve to be looked at better than a cut program.”
“We just wanna prove everybody wrong and go out with a bang.”
In all, there were 12 Eagles players who transferred to NCCU to continue their baseball careers and get the chance to do so at the Division-I level. One switched from D-II, one from D-III. The other 10 from junior colleges. All of them left something they knew, for something they hoped for – the chance to show they belong at the top level of the NCAA.
Luis DeLeon and Kobe Phillips each arrived before the 2020 season and were roommates. “Sweet Lou”, a Rhode Island native, had grown tired of long New England winters and went looking for Southern springs. Speaking softly, but carrying a big stick, the outfielder hit over .300, had an on-base percentage north of .400, and showed plenty of signs of power in two seasons at Alabama Community College. Phillips, a catcher from Charlotte, came to Central and instantly became a leader in the locker room. Like Lou, a JUCO product, Kobe had just wrapped up two seasons at Spartanburg Methodist College in South Carolina.
DeLeon had never seen the campus, nor even met the coaches before he committed. Phillips had no offers of any kind, but was invited by Koerner to walk on the roster.
“It was getting close to the end of my college season and I received interest from a few schools,” said DeLeon. “But not enough where I felt I had found a home. It’s just a feeling inside. So I told my head coach at my junior college that I’m going to ride into the summer and see if I can get a commitment there... Actually a few days later, I received a call from coach Koerner. And he told me that he had been following me, that he had heard things about me. And I believe after we talked that night and the next day, he gave me an offer. And as soon as he gave me the offer, right on the phone, I committed.”
“I really wanna give a big shout-out to coach Koerner,” said Phillips. “He gave me a chance when nobody else did.
The transfer process is a normal part of college sports. It’s the dream for any student athlete willing to go the JUCO route in the first place. Starting at a smaller two-year program can provide the platform to reach the Division-I level and with well over a quarter of the roster scouted directly from junior colleges, NCCU is clearly a school happy to attract talent to campus that way.
It felt like I was wanted,” said DeLeon. “It felt like coach Koerner took a high interest in me when he was recruiting me. And that’s always a good thing when you’re coming in somewhere.”
“It’s been tough,” said Phillips. “Moving around schools is never easy. You never get to mesh with the guys as much because you’re not around them as much. We’re moving stage-to-stage in our lives. But when I got here, something was different about it, I guess. The comradery we’ve got - it’s a big family. Everybody loves each other. There’s a professionalism in it and everybody wants to do it for each other. And that’s what makes this team special.”
In the second-to-last game of the regular season, the team made history. Eight days prior, they were stuck on the wrong side left out of the MEAC Tournament. But with one last home game to go, Central clinched their first – and only - division championship. The team knew they had given themselves at leasr one more weekend and the path to pursue a conference title, an NCAA Tournament spot.
With one game to go, the pressure of advancing off, it gave the team, the program, and the fans a last chance to enjoy playing at home, being together. It also provided one last statement from the school’s athletics department.
“A salute to NCCU baseball.”
The headline made head waves through the entire Eagles locker room. Dr. McCree penned one last sentiment to the program on its last legs. It wasn’t warmly received by most wearing maroon and gray.
“Today is truly a bittersweet moment in the history of this athletics program. In the final home game of the NCCU baseball program, we salute our seniors who have worked diligently to accomplish their goals as students and athletes and we wish them the very best in their future endeavors. We salute this entire group of young men and coaches who have dedicated their time and energy in representing NCCU with great pride and excellence.”
“It has been my honor and privilege to serve you and help you accomplish many of your academic and athletic goals during your tenure at NCCU. Continue to strive for excellence. Use all of the tools learned from your coaches and your experiences at NCCU, and continue TO BE GREAT!”
Coaches and players of past and present whom were well wished returned anything but. Replies and quotes tweets to the official NCCU Athletics account, from current and former players, alums, family, and more were coming from a place of hurt.
Fans file in to follow their favorite teams for the next four months. Experienced seniors are set to lead naïve freshman through the highs and lows of what’s about to come, but excitement is easy to come by on Opening Day. This past weekend, hundreds of teams took the field for the first time in 2022.
But all sits quiet in a city, at a stadium, synonymous with this sport.
Baseball and Durham are forever linked to each other. It was through Hollywood’s lens where historic Durham Athletic Park was captured and cemented in the minds and memories of fans all over the world. Bull Durham showcases a story based on the lives and struggles of minor leaguers trying to make it – whatever “it” was for each of them. But since the Bulls blew up into one of the most recognizable brands in baseball, now playing in a crown jewel of a stadium miles away, a college team took over that turf, and North Carolina Central had called it home since 2007.
Jim Koerner had called this program his own since 2012. Yet when describing what was the most tumultuous time in his life, the Eagles head coach picked another baseball classic to describe his path.
“There’s a quote from one of my favorite movies, ‘The Natural’. Robert Redfern’s girlfriend says “I believe we have two lives: the life we learn with and the life we live with after that’”
“I wish I would’ve known more of what I know now 20 years ago.”
For the first time in over a decade, Koerner has no lineup to fill, no opponent to scout, no role to play on this sports holiday. NC Central baseball is now no more, the latest in a line of Historically Black Colleges and Universities to cut ties with the game.
11 years ago, Koerner and his family moved to North Carolina to start a brand-new chapter in their lives and at their new school. A Western New York native, Koerner’s first head coaching gig was a part-time position at Division III Medaille College. He was 24 years old, working retail at a paint company in Buffalo, fresh off being cut from an independent ball team.
11 years later, after working as a D-I assistant with stops at Monmouth, Marshall, and the University at Buffalo, he saw potential at Central. He first saw the stadium that spring while traveling with UB, facing his soon-to-be team. The very first thing he did the day he moved to the Triangle was return to the DAP with his family to soak it all in.
“This place is magical. We sat right up there on the third base side. My son was four years old at the time. My daughter was just an infant. I remember me and Sam just sitting there saying ‘Hey, this is gonna be home’. And my son looking at me and he’s like ‘This is where we’re gonna play our games?’ And I was like ‘Yeah, right here, Sam! This is our home field and this is where all the magic’s gonna happen.’”
Sam grew up in maroon and grey, standing by his dad’s side in uniform in the dugout for years. Koerner and his wife, Kylie, have watched their family grow up here. Coach’s parents moved to Durham a year ago as roots have only grown deeper.
“There’s just been so many great memories over the last 10 years,” Koerner says, surveying these now familiar grounds. “I can name off every win, every loss, every magical moment we’ve had and they’re gonna be with me forever.”
Those memories are now capped; there will be no new ones to make. After losing almost all of their 2020 campaign to COVID-19, eight days before their 2021 season began, the players and coaches were told by the NC Central Department of Athletics that due to increased expenses over the past four years and the impact of the pandemic, the University would have to discontinue one single sport – theirs.
The church of baseball lost a parish in Durham.
“Alumni, Friends, and Family,
It is with great sadness that I report the 2021 season will be the last for NCCU baseball. I was informed yesterday that the program will be eliminated. This news has left me stunned and heartbroken. For the last ten years it has been my honor to lead, coach, and mentor so many tremendous student-athletes. I will forever be proud of the accomplishments that our players have earned over the years.”
More times than he’d like to count, Koerner tried to put a shared grief and sadness into words. His statement from February 12th, 2021 was the second time he was faced with that task. The first was a day prior, followed a team meeting called by Central’s Department of Athletics.
“It blows my mind still to this day that February 11th, they come into the gym and tell us,” said pitcher Austin Vernon. “And we’re like ‘Maybe they don’t have the money to afford this season, maybe they’re saying they have to have a budget cut or something?’ And then they hit us with ‘You’re done.’”
The Eagles were just coming off of a two-week stoppage due to a positive COVID case in their program. They were trying their best to prepare to host Army and play their first games since last spring when 2020 became – well - 2020.
“For us to sort of just get hit by a MAC truck and be stunned out of nowhere – nobody expected it and we just got blindsided,” said Vernon.
Koerner’s statement included plenty: alums who built the program, incoming recruits who had committed to continuing it, his roster who would soon have to leave it. His staff, their fans, his family all were thanked, commended, and cared for by his message.
The university and its staff were not mentioned.
"This is a challenging day for our baseball student-athletes, coaches and the NCCU Athletics program, and certainly one of the most disappointing days in my career. I sincerely understand how much time and dedication has been put into becoming a college student-athlete and I empathize with our baseball student-athletes, parents, and families. There is never the 'right time' to make an announcement such as this; however, this decision was made after a rigorous internal and external review of our long-term financial model to improve the overall sustainability of our athletics program.”
NCCU’s Director of Athletics Dr. Ingrid Wicker McCree released her statement after the team learned their fate. Existing and new scholarships would be honored for the student-athletes for this 2021-22 academic year, no further.
In their press release, athletics stated that at the start of the pandemic, they cut operational costs by 30 percent, reduced staff, and implemented furloughs. A task force was put together this past fall to “determine the sustainability of each program”.
NCAA rules state D-I schools must have 14 sports, with either at least seven male and seven female sports, or eight female and six male sports. NCCU has the minimum seven female teams, so a men’s team would have to go if they chose to cut costs while avoiding the loss of revenue, conference affiliation, opportunities, and overall benefits that would come from a drop to Division II.
After all, it had only been 15 years since the school called on baseball to help open that door in the first place.
Baseball was their first sport founded by the school in 1910-11, the inaugural year of what was then called the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race. But in 1975, the program was dropped, then brought back 32 years later when NCCU jumped from D-II to D-I. It took two years to build towards that first Division-I season; the Eagles struggled instantly. NCCU went 22-148 until Koerner took over as the program joined the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 2012.
Step-by-step, part of a plan, the rebuild had been working. They’ve won 20-plus games every year since 2016, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020. Two players prior to the news of the program’s end had been drafted by MLB teams. Others had received numerous conference, national, and academic awards. By the end of the 2021 regular season, a program-record 10 Eagles earned All-MEAC honors. Koerner himself was welcomed into the USA Baseball family, coaching both youth and collegiate national teams in nearby Cary while running NCCU.
Yet progress and growth aren’t in a fair fight against dollars and cents. When it came to cuts, roster sizes, schedules, and expenses of baseball were compared vs. their other teams.
Football and basketball have long been the flagships of not only the Eagles, but the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. In 2019, NCCU’s football team averaged 6,335 fans a game. The conference was second nationally in average attendance (9,782) at the FCS level. The 2019-20 basketball season drew 1,165 fans a night to Durham, just under the MEAC’s average league-wide (1351). In 2019, across 29 home games, less than 3300 total fans made their way through the gates at Durham Athletic Park all season, averaging about 114 people in the seats.
With football and basketball safe, baseball was left to compete with cross country, golf, tennis, and track and field, all sports that historically make little to no revenue, but cost much less and have smaller rosters compared to a 2021 baseball squad that was 38 players deep.
These kinds of decisions are being made by athletics departments all over the country. Since the pandemic began, Boise State, Furman, Chicago State, and LaSalle, all Division-I programs, all have folded. Boise’s team had just returned from a 40 year hiatus after being cut in 1980 only to not even last a full season. Furman, playing across state lines from Central in Greenville, SC, shocked their current staff, players, and alums when they axed an institution that had been around since 1891.
When Ed Porcelli was in college, he pitched for Florida State at the College World Series in 1986 and 1987. He was one of two unpaid Eagles volunteer assistants, whom make up half of Koerner’s coaching staff.
“We were not given any inkling of what was going on, we were not given any idea that they could cancel this program,” said Porcelli. “I know that talk was ‘Well our hands were tied. There was nothing else we could do. We try fixing the budget.’ Look… it all comes down to one thing: if you really want to keep the program, you could keep the program and no other reason other than that.
Apparently, in somebody's eyes who makes the decision, it's not important enough to keep us here.”
When reached, NCCU’s Department of Athletics said they had no further comment to add beyond Dr. McCree’s statement.
When they came to a decision in Durham, baseball was out at home – a similar decision seen around HBCUs in NC.
When you watch a game for the first time at Durham Athletic Park, it feels like you’ve been there before. Because in a way, you have. Gone is the “Hit Bull Win Steak” sign in right, as are the empty tobacco warehouses. They’ve been since replaced by an arcade bar with a centerfield porch and a blues lounge where live music could be heard from beyond left. But there’s the same field where Crash Davis tipped Nuke LaLoosh’s pitches. The same dugout where Annie Savoy sent mid-game tips to Bulls is the same place Eagles cheer and chant. The Bulls’ grounds crew still maintains the field for the city, keeping it up to pro standards daily. Jordan Varela-Payne says it’s known throughout the entire MEAC that they had the best facility in the league. He dreamed about playing on it for years growing up.
Varela-Payne was one of 26 North Carolinians on the final roster, one of nine from the Triangle. He went to Rolesville High School, located about 40 minutes away from the DAP. “This is exactly what my goal was: I wanted to come to an HBCU, I wanted to stay close to home, I wanted to stay close to my family, so I got the job done. Central did everything I asked them to and more.”
There was a time where Tar Heel residents had access, opportunity, and options to play the game at a historically black college and university. There are nine co-ed HBCUs in-state. Eight of these schools, all which are currently either Division I or II, have sponsored baseball teams over their athletic histories. Only one HBCU squad remains - Central’s former conference rival, North Carolina A&T. And even those Aggies are making changes.
A&T is one of five schools to cut ties with and leave the MEAC in a four year span. Last July, they joined former conference rival Hampton in the Big South. When the Pirates left in 2018, they became only the second HBCU at the time to play outside a historically black conference and will now move again to the CAA this summer.
Savannah State left the league when they dropped to D-II in the SIAC. Florida A&M, the top ranked HBCU in the country, and Bethune-Cookman, the 19-time MEAC Baseball Tournament champions, moved to the SWAC this off-season, the only other Division I league made up of HBCU institutions.
In 2021, University of Maryland Eastern Shore joined Bethune-Cookman sat out all spring semester sports due to the pandemic. In 2022, they have just four.
Varela-Payne wanted to play at a school like Central because most players don’t want to make that choice.
“You have a lot of guys, a lot of athletes going to these bigger schools. And I just wanted to be a guy to do great at an HBCU and just pave the way for players not to be afraid to go to a school for them. To show them they can get to the next level by going to an HBCU, and that was my main goal, and that’s what I’m still instilled on doing.”
According to the NCAA’s Demographics Database, in 2019-20, less than five percent (1,662 total) of college baseball players from D-I through D-III were black. 79 percent (28,703) of the players were white.
Those numbers mirror the makeup of the last NCCU baseball team. On campus, the student body at Central per Fall 2019 numbers showed 74 percent of the campus is black. 11 percent is white - the next highest percentage. On the 2021 baseball team, close to 75 percent of the Eagles were white.
Varela-Payne says over the course of his collegiate career, he and his teammates have routinely debated which roster in the MEAC was the “blackest”.
“My freshman year, I looked around, coming to an HBCU, and seeing mostly, predominantly white people on the baseball team was a shocker to me. Over the years, I had just kinda gotten used to it.”
“It was a culture shock getting to Central, because it was black everything. Cafeteria workers, janitors, professors, it was a lot of black faces you see. But once you go to practice, it’s completely opposite.”
All Austin Vernon was looking for was a place to play and a jersey that would fit him. But on May 7th of last year, all he was looking for was one more run.
The 6-foot-8, 265 pound junior right-hander from Raleigh is a dominating presence on the mound, and is taking up plenty of space in their small, outdated dugout. He watched on that night, up 9-0 on Delaware State, one run away from a mercy rule win. At that point in the season, the Eagles were on the outside looking in at the MEAC Conference tournament with just weeks to go in the regular season – and their program’s history.
But Vernon pitched the game of his life when his team needed it most. He allowed just one baserunner all game and when the mercy rule-clinching run was walked in, his teammates ripped his jersey off, poured water over him, and celebrated the first – and what would be the only no-hitter in Central’s history.
“Everybody out here on this team is just family,” said Vernon, one of the majority of white players on the roster. “That’s the biggest thing. We’re all family. We do it for one another.”
Family is the very reason why Austin is at Central, and playing college baseball anywhere.
“My brother (Andrew) went here, graduated in 2016,” said Vernon. “(He) Was the first (MLB) Draft pick out of Central actually. And they were the only school out of high school that gave me the opportunity to play college baseball. I didn’t get any D-II offers, no D-III offers, no JUCO offers. I mean, they were the only school I ever talked to… So I appreciate Jim Koerner for everything he’s done for me personally. And just giving me the opportunity to come out here and play baseball and do what I love. It means the world to me because nobody else ever gave me that chance, but he gave me that chance.”
Koerner saw what made the elder Vernon brother successful at Central, leading him to be coach’s first-ever pro pick by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 28th round back in 2016.
“He knew my brother’s drive and what my brother did, and I guess he kind of saw that in me - along with a decently live arm in high school. I could get up to like 90-91. Nobody took a chance on me because my weight. I was like 300 pounds.”
Jim had recruited Andrew in just his second season in Durham, helping shape the vision for his program. A Vernon brother was part of the maroon and gray for eight of coach’s 10 seasons in charge.
“Vern” got in shape, trained hard, and finished college with a fastball routinely clocks in at 98-99 MPH. He and fellow ace Ryan Miller, who was named MEAC Pitcher of the Year in 2021, formed the best 1-2 punch at any HBCU a year ago.
Vernon was focused on his personal dreams of pitching in the pros, but wanted to extend his Eagles career as far as it could go, win the conference tournament, and bring the program to their first – and last - NCAA Tournament.
“We’re playing with a chip on our shoulder, it’s like we ain’t got nothing to lose. (We can) Prove that we deserve to be looked at better than a cut program.”
“We just wanna prove everybody wrong and go out with a bang.”
In all, there were 12 Eagles players who transferred to NCCU to continue their baseball careers and get the chance to do so at the Division-I level. One switched from D-II, one from D-III. The other 10 from junior colleges. All of them left something they knew, for something they hoped for – the chance to show they belong at the top level of the NCAA.
Luis DeLeon and Kobe Phillips each arrived before the 2020 season and were roommates. “Sweet Lou”, a Rhode Island native, had grown tired of long New England winters and went looking for Southern springs. Speaking softly, but carrying a big stick, the outfielder hit over .300, had an on-base percentage north of .400, and showed plenty of signs of power in two seasons at Alabama Community College. Phillips, a catcher from Charlotte, came to Central and instantly became a leader in the locker room. Like Lou, a JUCO product, Kobe had just wrapped up two seasons at Spartanburg Methodist College in South Carolina.
DeLeon had never seen the campus, nor even met the coaches before he committed. Phillips had no offers of any kind, but was invited by Koerner to walk on the roster.
“It was getting close to the end of my college season and I received interest from a few schools,” said DeLeon. “But not enough where I felt I had found a home. It’s just a feeling inside. So I told my head coach at my junior college that I’m going to ride into the summer and see if I can get a commitment there... Actually a few days later, I received a call from coach Koerner. And he told me that he had been following me, that he had heard things about me. And I believe after we talked that night and the next day, he gave me an offer. And as soon as he gave me the offer, right on the phone, I committed.”
“I really wanna give a big shout-out to coach Koerner,” said Phillips. “He gave me a chance when nobody else did.
The transfer process is a normal part of college sports. It’s the dream for any student athlete willing to go the JUCO route in the first place. Starting at a smaller two-year program can provide the platform to reach the Division-I level and with well over a quarter of the roster scouted directly from junior colleges, NCCU is clearly a school happy to attract talent to campus that way.
It felt like I was wanted,” said DeLeon. “It felt like coach Koerner took a high interest in me when he was recruiting me. And that’s always a good thing when you’re coming in somewhere.”
“It’s been tough,” said Phillips. “Moving around schools is never easy. You never get to mesh with the guys as much because you’re not around them as much. We’re moving stage-to-stage in our lives. But when I got here, something was different about it, I guess. The comradery we’ve got - it’s a big family. Everybody loves each other. There’s a professionalism in it and everybody wants to do it for each other. And that’s what makes this team special.”
In the second-to-last game of the regular season, the team made history. Eight days prior, they were stuck on the wrong side left out of the MEAC Tournament. But with one last home game to go, Central clinched their first – and only - division championship. The team knew they had given themselves at leasr one more weekend and the path to pursue a conference title, an NCAA Tournament spot.
With one game to go, the pressure of advancing off, it gave the team, the program, and the fans a last chance to enjoy playing at home, being together. It also provided one last statement from the school’s athletics department.
“A salute to NCCU baseball.”
The headline made head waves through the entire Eagles locker room. Dr. McCree penned one last sentiment to the program on its last legs. It wasn’t warmly received by most wearing maroon and gray.
“Today is truly a bittersweet moment in the history of this athletics program. In the final home game of the NCCU baseball program, we salute our seniors who have worked diligently to accomplish their goals as students and athletes and we wish them the very best in their future endeavors. We salute this entire group of young men and coaches who have dedicated their time and energy in representing NCCU with great pride and excellence.”
“It has been my honor and privilege to serve you and help you accomplish many of your academic and athletic goals during your tenure at NCCU. Continue to strive for excellence. Use all of the tools learned from your coaches and your experiences at NCCU, and continue TO BE GREAT!”
Coaches and players of past and present whom were well wished returned anything but. Replies and quotes tweets to the official NCCU Athletics account, from current and former players, alums, family, and more were coming from a place of hurt.
A team-wide conversation before the game between players and coaches debates the idea of whether or not to play the final home game with black tape over every name, logo, reference, on their uniforms. Instead, the Eagles decide to let their game do the talking.
“It feels fantastic,” said Koerner after the 6-1 finale victory over the Rattlers. “The feeling is just indescribable. Everything that’s gone on from the beginning of the season until now, it’s been such a magical run. I’m so thankful that we still have more baseball to play, and I just can’t be more proud of the effort these young men have put in for this season.”
What they found out before the season they never could have imagined. What they found themselves with was maybe one last road trip together. They just hoped it wouldn’t be their last one.
Sports movies are easy for audiences to relate to because the script can’t go more than two ways: win or lose. Hope or heartbreak. Redemption or regret. It’s in these emotions where we fall in love with a protagonist. In their journey, we find inspiration to carry into our arenas as we walk our own path especially when they win, even when they lose.
If you’ve ever rooted for a team of any kind, you’ve probably heard the phrase “it’s not life or death”. But it can feel like it. No matter if NC Central fell short of the conference tournament or were charging the mound in celebration after the last out of the College World Series, when it was over, jobs, careers, chapters in life would be, too.
The double elimination tournament started well for the Eagles, winning their opener against Delaware State, only to lose a heartbreaker the next day, giving up a run in the bottom of the 8th, falling 1-0 to event host Norfolk State in game two. They end up outlasting Florida A&M that night in an elimination game straight out of a movie, as future Duke-transfer Caleb McCroy strikes out the side with the bases loaded to win 5-3 and extend his then-Eagles teammates time together for at least one more day.
More times than he’d like to count, Koerner tried to put a shared grief and sadness into words. This would be the last time he’d have to do so on the field.
In game one of a possible two in the Championship series, NCCU led by as much as three, but Norfolk State scored in the eighth and ninth to tie 4-4. In the 10th, Cam Norgren sends the Eagles into celebration with a two-run home run to put them three outs from a winner-take-all title game. But the Spartans not only tie in the bottom half, but win on a walk-off in the 11th. Just as the winning run comes home, the North Carolina Central program officially ended.
As NSU stormed the field, the Central side is in a deafening silence. The Eagles received a runner-up trophy that will never have a home on the campus they represent. As players embrace and trade “I love yous”, Coach Koerner’s son, Sam, kneels at the trophy on the ground as if it were a gravestone. His dad tries to find what 21 years of coaching will give him to say in this long-dreaded moment.
“You may have lost the game…” taking time before and after to slowly inhale and exhale, “… but you didn’t fail.”
In the final moment they all will share together on a ballfield, coach stresses one thing: “This team will be remembered forever.”
“It was gonna be special if it ended today or two weeks down the road,” said Philips. “This feeling is like no other and I will never take it for granted. I love these boys.”
In the moment, the loss hurt. But a wave of pain that had been building since February’s news mixed in the finality of everything.
I think it’s a little bit of BS,” said Vernon. “I never really think the athletic department cared for the baseball team. I think that was the biggest issue. I felt this since the day I got in. You could tell it was sort of a one-way street. They care about basketball, football, and it’s like we’re on our own. I feel like that’s the biggest part of it all. It would be different if we got that care and then they got rid of us. And then it’s like ‘Okay, maybe it really is a financial thing.’ The fact that I came in here freshman year, even since my brother’s been here, the athletic department hasn’t really cared. We’ve just been another team.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” said DeLeon. “Because what the program’s done the last 10 years and how much coach has turned the program around and the alumni that have came before us, it’s heartbreaking. Because this program was heading in the right direction. But at least… we’ll be remembered… in a good way.”
“We did what we stressed what we wanted to do,” said Varela-Payne. “We accomplished what we wanted to do – bring back hardware and we have. We won in so many ways – not just the trophy, not just the MEAC, we won more family, we won more everything. It’s hard to say… we lost but we won.”
“This might sound crazy, but I wish every coach can experience what I’ve been able to experience this year,” said Koerner. “And obviously, I don’t wish anybody to have their program dropped. But the opportunity to play a season, and know this is the last season, and to be able to appreciate every single day the way I’ve appreciated this season and this group of young men. It’s something that I will cherish forever and I wish my colleagues had the same opportunity to have that experience that I’ve had.”
When asked if he was ever given an answer as to why it had to end like this, Coach says “I was told by the dean and the board of directors that they did not want baseball.” Before the season had ended, he had already landed his next job – just a few minutes away in Cary – joining USA Baseball full-time as Director of Player Development.
He wasn’t alone heading to the National Team’s headquarters; Kobe Phillips went from catching to coaching, joining the staff of the USA Collegiate Team.
Austin Vernon became the first of only two players from an HBCU to be selected in the 2021 MLB Draft, going in the 10th round to the Tampa Bay Rays. He was the last player ever to be drafted out of the NCCU program, bookending his brother.
Luis DeLeon and Jordan Varela-Payne were among the group who transferred to continue their careers at other colleges. Lou stayed in D-I, but left the HBCU ranks to play at Longwood. For Jordan, despite the way it ended at Central, despite what’s going on across the sport, his goal remained to play for an HBCU. He and fellow Eagle, pitcher Shawn Runey, are together at Division-II Bluefield State College in West Virginia. Even with their distinction as a Historically Black school, more than 80 percent of the student body there is white.
“I’m scared for (HBCU baseball programs),” says Varela-Payne. “It’s getting scary, but I’m hoping somebody steps in – MLB, or somebody that wants to see black baseball expand and still be alive and still thrive.”
The changes to college sports, as a whole and for certain schools, are far from over. The North Carolina Central program may itself be over. The memories still remain from the life they learned with. The life they’ll live after is a script still yet to be written.
“It feels fantastic,” said Koerner after the 6-1 finale victory over the Rattlers. “The feeling is just indescribable. Everything that’s gone on from the beginning of the season until now, it’s been such a magical run. I’m so thankful that we still have more baseball to play, and I just can’t be more proud of the effort these young men have put in for this season.”
What they found out before the season they never could have imagined. What they found themselves with was maybe one last road trip together. They just hoped it wouldn’t be their last one.
Sports movies are easy for audiences to relate to because the script can’t go more than two ways: win or lose. Hope or heartbreak. Redemption or regret. It’s in these emotions where we fall in love with a protagonist. In their journey, we find inspiration to carry into our arenas as we walk our own path especially when they win, even when they lose.
If you’ve ever rooted for a team of any kind, you’ve probably heard the phrase “it’s not life or death”. But it can feel like it. No matter if NC Central fell short of the conference tournament or were charging the mound in celebration after the last out of the College World Series, when it was over, jobs, careers, chapters in life would be, too.
The double elimination tournament started well for the Eagles, winning their opener against Delaware State, only to lose a heartbreaker the next day, giving up a run in the bottom of the 8th, falling 1-0 to event host Norfolk State in game two. They end up outlasting Florida A&M that night in an elimination game straight out of a movie, as future Duke-transfer Caleb McCroy strikes out the side with the bases loaded to win 5-3 and extend his then-Eagles teammates time together for at least one more day.
More times than he’d like to count, Koerner tried to put a shared grief and sadness into words. This would be the last time he’d have to do so on the field.
In game one of a possible two in the Championship series, NCCU led by as much as three, but Norfolk State scored in the eighth and ninth to tie 4-4. In the 10th, Cam Norgren sends the Eagles into celebration with a two-run home run to put them three outs from a winner-take-all title game. But the Spartans not only tie in the bottom half, but win on a walk-off in the 11th. Just as the winning run comes home, the North Carolina Central program officially ended.
As NSU stormed the field, the Central side is in a deafening silence. The Eagles received a runner-up trophy that will never have a home on the campus they represent. As players embrace and trade “I love yous”, Coach Koerner’s son, Sam, kneels at the trophy on the ground as if it were a gravestone. His dad tries to find what 21 years of coaching will give him to say in this long-dreaded moment.
“You may have lost the game…” taking time before and after to slowly inhale and exhale, “… but you didn’t fail.”
In the final moment they all will share together on a ballfield, coach stresses one thing: “This team will be remembered forever.”
“It was gonna be special if it ended today or two weeks down the road,” said Philips. “This feeling is like no other and I will never take it for granted. I love these boys.”
In the moment, the loss hurt. But a wave of pain that had been building since February’s news mixed in the finality of everything.
I think it’s a little bit of BS,” said Vernon. “I never really think the athletic department cared for the baseball team. I think that was the biggest issue. I felt this since the day I got in. You could tell it was sort of a one-way street. They care about basketball, football, and it’s like we’re on our own. I feel like that’s the biggest part of it all. It would be different if we got that care and then they got rid of us. And then it’s like ‘Okay, maybe it really is a financial thing.’ The fact that I came in here freshman year, even since my brother’s been here, the athletic department hasn’t really cared. We’ve just been another team.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” said DeLeon. “Because what the program’s done the last 10 years and how much coach has turned the program around and the alumni that have came before us, it’s heartbreaking. Because this program was heading in the right direction. But at least… we’ll be remembered… in a good way.”
“We did what we stressed what we wanted to do,” said Varela-Payne. “We accomplished what we wanted to do – bring back hardware and we have. We won in so many ways – not just the trophy, not just the MEAC, we won more family, we won more everything. It’s hard to say… we lost but we won.”
“This might sound crazy, but I wish every coach can experience what I’ve been able to experience this year,” said Koerner. “And obviously, I don’t wish anybody to have their program dropped. But the opportunity to play a season, and know this is the last season, and to be able to appreciate every single day the way I’ve appreciated this season and this group of young men. It’s something that I will cherish forever and I wish my colleagues had the same opportunity to have that experience that I’ve had.”
When asked if he was ever given an answer as to why it had to end like this, Coach says “I was told by the dean and the board of directors that they did not want baseball.” Before the season had ended, he had already landed his next job – just a few minutes away in Cary – joining USA Baseball full-time as Director of Player Development.
He wasn’t alone heading to the National Team’s headquarters; Kobe Phillips went from catching to coaching, joining the staff of the USA Collegiate Team.
Austin Vernon became the first of only two players from an HBCU to be selected in the 2021 MLB Draft, going in the 10th round to the Tampa Bay Rays. He was the last player ever to be drafted out of the NCCU program, bookending his brother.
Luis DeLeon and Jordan Varela-Payne were among the group who transferred to continue their careers at other colleges. Lou stayed in D-I, but left the HBCU ranks to play at Longwood. For Jordan, despite the way it ended at Central, despite what’s going on across the sport, his goal remained to play for an HBCU. He and fellow Eagle, pitcher Shawn Runey, are together at Division-II Bluefield State College in West Virginia. Even with their distinction as a Historically Black school, more than 80 percent of the student body there is white.
“I’m scared for (HBCU baseball programs),” says Varela-Payne. “It’s getting scary, but I’m hoping somebody steps in – MLB, or somebody that wants to see black baseball expand and still be alive and still thrive.”
The changes to college sports, as a whole and for certain schools, are far from over. The North Carolina Central program may itself be over. The memories still remain from the life they learned with. The life they’ll live after is a script still yet to be written.