MICHAEL MABE CONTINUES CAREER
Thanks goes to Andrea Horn who reproduced this article for the UNOFFICIAL BLUE TORNADO FOOTBALL HOMEPAGE!!!
BY: DAVE COX, January 20, 2004 from the Richlands News Press
It’s pretty obvious that Michael Mabe loves football! The personable
former Richlands High School standout’s eyes light up when he talks about
the sport.
But, Mabe, son of Jackie and Rita Mabe of Doran, has other outstanding
athletic talents as well. He was named to the All-Southwest District First
Team in basketball in both junior and senior seasons at Richlands and led
his team in scoring both of those years. Mabe was a Region IV Honorable
Mention honoree in basketball his senior season as well.
Mabe’s first love, however was football and when he graduated from RHS in
the spring of 2001, there was no doubt in his mind what he wanted to do! He
decided to continue his football career and he chose East Tennessee State
University as the school where he wanted to do it.
It’s small wonder that Mabe and his ETSU teammates were in a virtual state
of shock when his school decided to drop the sport during Mabe’s junior
season! Mabe was technically a walk-on at ETSU. He red shirted his
freshman season and saw duty on special teams as a sophomore and junior,
which were actually his freshman and sophomore seasons on the field.
Mabe eventually earned a scholarship at the school and seemed to be on his
way to an excellent college career when the bombshell hit that the school
would discontinue its football program.
“It was pretty tough, pretty hard,” Mabe said when he first learned that
his college football team would be dismantled. “One of our coaches
accidentally overheard someone talking about it and told us and it got into
the newspaper. They weren’t even going to tell anyone until May 8 (2002).”
The originally intention of the school was not to have a football program
for the 2003 season, but local supporters fought to keep the program alive
for one last season.
“The players were real mad that they were cutting the program and four
transferred over the summer,” Mabe said. “The reason I came back (for the
2003 season) was that a lot of my teammates were coming back for the final
season and I wanted to play with them again.”
Mabe said that the 2003 season at ETSU was, as would be expected, a very
emotional one for the Buccaneer players and coaches alike. “Everyone was
pretty sad, but excited at the same time about going somewhere else,” he
said.
Mabe decided that his “somewhere else” would be Pikeville College in
Kentucky, a NAIA college. It’s a smaller facility than NCAA school ETSU is,
but Mabe is looking forward to attending the college that borders his home
state and is even closer to Richlands than Johnson City.
Mabe lettered both seasons that he played at ETSU and won two Special
Team’s Player of the Week awards for his efforts on the field, so he takes
some impressive credentials with him to Pikeville.
Amazement crossed the face of Mabe when he talked about the lack of support
in Johnson City to keep the ETSU football program going!
“One thing is that it’s so close to Knoxville,” Mabe said.
“I mean, there are actually University of Tennessee stores in Johnson City.
That’s a smack in the face to me!”
Mabe will see some familiar faces at Pikeville.
Jerry Mynatt, Mabe’s former position coach at ETSU is now head football
coach at Pikeville.
Also, some of Mabe’s teammates at ETSU have opted to transfer to Pikeville.
Paul Hamilton, Mabe’s head coach at ETSU, is going to Elon University in
North Carolina, along with several of his assistants.
Mabe may miss many of his former teammates from ETSU, but one thing’s sure.
He won’t be missing out on his favorite sport-football, and ETSU’s loss
may just be Pikeville’s gain!
Email: wasris@netscope.net
