Latest news with #BlueHens
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The results are in: Meet Delaware's newly elected school board members
More than 15,500 Delawareans turned out to vote in school board elections on May 13, according to the unofficial results from the Delaware Department of Elections. Even with rough totals, that's a nearly 176% increase in turnout compared to 2024, which also saw nine fewer contested races. This year, 11 school districts drew voters to the polls, totaling 16 contested elections for open seats. Only Colonial, Milford, Delmar, Laurel and Seaford had no elections. In Delaware code, any uncontested race won't reach the ballot. New Castle saw the highest turnout, with over 7,900 voters. Overall it was a comfortable night for many incumbents seeking re-election, but several new faces will also join Delaware school boards. Here are the preliminary results posted by the Delaware Department of Elections: Appo's open at-large seat saw a three-way contest. By a difference of just 45 votes, Tim Higgins bested both Sandhya Celestin-Brown and Chuck Boyce. While the Middletown businessman claimed 667 votes Tuesday, Celestin-Brown trailed with 622 and Boyce, 435. Higgins is a business owner of over 30 years and has served on several boards in the community such as the Canal Little League, Saint Margaret's Church, youth ministry groups and a former religion teacher. Incumbent Alexander Najemy won his re-election to fill the District A seat, by just 69 votes. The 46-year-old of Wilmington secured roughly 51% of 3,081 votes cast in this election, edging out his competition in Kenyon Wilson. The former U.S. Army captain works as an attorney in the global capital markets office for M&T Bank, after his military service. Now, he'll look to continue his work on the Brandywine board. In District B, Brian Jordan had a much more comfortable win with about 81% of the vote. The Wilmington attorney and father of two Brandywine students beat former New Castle County Council President Karen Hartley-Nagle by nearly 2,000 votes. Frank Livoy will fill the board's District E seat, beating his opponent Tracy Todd Woodson. The Wilmington-area resident secured nearly 63% of some 3,321 Brandywine voters on May 13. Today, Livoy coaches new teachers at the University of Delaware and Delaware State, while also teaching writing courses at Wilmington University. Shannon Troncoso secured the District A seat on Christina's school board. Incumbent and Vice President Alethea Smith-Tucker – a board member who has often joined a deciding four-person bloc – did not run for re-election. The Philadelphia criminal defense lawyer just about doubled votes over Janiene Campbell, at 876 to 414, in unofficial results. The Delaware mom of two BlueHens doesn't have any children in the school district, but she saw running for the Christina school board as a public service. Devon Hynson saw a deciding win over his competition for Red Clay's District B seat, with nearly 73% of the vote. He beat Martin Wilson to secure a four-year term. The 53-year-old of Wilmington has stated publicly that the top priorities for his campaign include increasing engagement between parents, community members and staff about decisions that are made for the district. Incumbent Joyce Denman won re-election for the at-large seat, 687-527, over challenger Amy Spampinato. A former teacher and director of special education, Denman, 72, received nearly 57% of the votes to fill this four-year term. Capital had two contests for at-large seats, one for a three-year term and another for a four-year term. One incumbent who's served since 2020, Anthony De Prima, didn't run for re-election. The other incumbent, Vickie Pendleton, took office in February to fill an open seat for the rest of the term, which ends this year. For the three-year term, Pendleton won 471-331 over her 18-year-old challenger Jordan Davis. A math teacher with over 40 years of experience, Pendleton, 65, received nearly 59% of the votes. For the four-year term, Donna Johnson Geist won 494-308 over Mozella Richardson Kamara. Geist, 54, is the vice president for policy and advocacy at Cognia, an education nonprofit. She was a nationally board-certified high school math teacher, district administrator, director of accountability and assessment at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education in Washington D.C. and executive director of the Delaware State Board of Education. She received just over 61% of the votes. Incumbent James L. Rau won 177-64 to keep his at-large seat in Lake Forest. He received just over 73% of the votes against challenger Darrell Hughes for a four-year term. Rau, 49, has been a legal administrator for 25 years and is a lifelong member of the Felton Fire Company. He has also coached 18 combined seasons of fall and spring soccer through Harrington Parks and Recreation. In a three-way race for an open at-large seat, Aaron Weisenberger won the four-year term with just over 49% of the votes. Incumbent Christine Malec did not run for re-election. Here are the totals: Weisenberger with 406 votes, Charlotte Middleton with 214 and Justine L. Flint with 202. Weisenberger, 50, retired in December 2024 as assistant chief of the Dover Air Force Base Fire Department, where he worked for 24 years after serving in the military. In the Cape Henlopen School District, incumbent Bill Collick kept his at-large seat, while Patty Maull was elected to the District C seat. Collick received 3,208 votes to opponent Chris Lovenguth's 830. Maull received 2,011 votes compared to Laura Parsons' 1,458 and Andy Lewis' 575. The winners will each serve four-year terms. Collick, 73, is a former Delaware State University football coach and educator. Maull, 42, is a cosmetologist. Both told the ACLU they support 'inclusive' education. Incumbents Lisa Hudson Briggs and Kelly Kline beat out Dereck Booth to keep their District 1 seats in the Indian River School District. Briggs received 87 votes and Kline 64, while Booth garnered 31. Briggs, a 61-year-old state retiree, and Kline, a 42-year-old library director, were both appointed to the board in 2024. They will now serve four-year terms. In the Woodbridge School District, Timothy Banks defeated Latoya Harris for the at-large seat, 192 to 56 votes, respectively. Banks, 60, is the senior pastor of The Life Center and co-owner of the Helping Hands Learning Center in Bridgeville. He will serve a four-year term. Looking at Delaware's uncontested races, some winners didn't have to join a ballot. Christine L. Smith, Phila Breeding and Christopher Piecuch Sr. will join Colonial's board in District B, C and D, respectively. Jason Bradley will fill Cape Henlopen's District B seat, while Ray Vincent fills Delmar's District B seat. Jerry Peden Jr. will serve on Indian River's school board for District 2, while Michelle Parsons represents District 4. Yanelle Powell is Milford's next at-large board member, while Jeffrey T. Benson Jr. will now fill the same role in Seaford and Moraima Reardon in Woodbridge. Got an education story? Contact Kelly Powers at kepowers@ This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: How Delaware's 2025 school board elections shook out
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Nick Maton's RBI groundout
'Off the charts': Blue Hens putting in work toward FBS climb Delaware players and head coach Ryan Carty concluded spring practices with the annual Blue and White Game April 18, 2025, saying afterward they "believe in the work they've put in." 2:14 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
Technical.ly
16-04-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Delaware's fintech moment: CAFE's 2025 spring cohort and more on the horizon
Delaware is having its fintech moment. Since the Center for Advancing Financial Equity — better known as CAFE — launched in 2023 at the then-new Fintech Innovation Hub at the University of Delaware's STAR Campus, it has quietly been building a name for itself. It's also been building a fintech brand for Delaware, something that has long seemed elusive despite the state being a major financial center since the 1980s. Even with prominent fintech companies like Delaware-based Best Egg, FairSquare and a PayPal presence, there was a certain kind of buzz that didn't seem to resonate beyond state lines. That may be changing. For its current spring cohort, CAFE held a three-day event from April 8 to 10 that drew fintech insiders, leaders and investors from all over the country to Delaware, including the Fintech Innovation Hub, sponsor Best Egg's North Wilmington headquarters, and, finally, the DuPont Country Club for an invite-only pitch and networking event that included the fintech portion of the Delaware Prosperity Partnership's Startup302 competition. 'I have really found a tremendous welcoming here in Delaware, so much so that I've adopted the Blue Hens as my own,' said Phil Goldfeder, president of the American Fintech Council, one of the many big names in fintech who came for the event. Speakers included Wilmington Mayor (and former Delaware Governor) John Carney; Ben du Pont, cofounder of Chartline Capital Partners and Zip Code Wilmington; Rob Habgood, CEO of Wilmington-based FairSquare/Ally Card; and CAFE founder Kristen Castell. CAFE startups from California, New York and Arizona made their pitches In the past CAFE cohorts, Delaware startups, including NESTER and Carvertise, participated among others from all over the country. This cohort's six CAFE startups are all established startups from out of state. Some are looking to do business in Delaware, but all are getting an exposure to Delaware's tech ecosystem to take home with them. The spring CAFE cohort is comprised of AI underwriting platform DubPrime (Los Gatos, California), smart estate planning platform Goodtrust (Palo Alto, California), ATM alternative Spare (Los Angeles, California), expense reduction platform Starlight (Brooklyn, New York), client management system TAZI AI (San Francisco, California) and predictive credit platform Trackstar AI (Chandler, Arizona). All six gave 5-minute pitches to cap off the event. Three Startup302 fintech finalist startups pitched early in the day, competing for part of $100,000+ in cash grants, mentoring and investor connections. Those startups are Roam, an Everett, Washington-based HOA management platform (first place), Wilmington-based Grad Village, a platform that connects college students with private donors to help them with tuition costs (second place) and Innocuous AI, a New York City-based data management platform (third place). There will be two more Startup302 finals competitions at upcoming exosystem events: environmental impact startups will pitch at the Clean Tech Ecosystem Summit on April 24, and life sciences startups will pitch at Delaware's DNA Life Science Conference on May 8. These events will feature finalists from Wilmington, Baltimore and Philadelphia. A spotlight on Delaware's talent Delaware's history as a finance and business center was held up as a major component of the state's brand identity, with Mayor Carney telling the story of how Wilmington became a center of banking for out-of-towners from places like San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles. 'When Ben's father [Pete du Pont] was governor, our economy here in our state was in really bad shape,' Carney said. 'One of the things that the administration did around 1980 was they passed important legislation called the Financial Center Development Act.' What it did, he explained, was bring a big New York bank to Delaware to set up its credit card operations, which was then followed by many others. Later, as banks consolidated, Bank of America bought MBNA, which had turned part of downtown to its own corporate campus. 'There was a lot of talent here looking for things to do,' Carney said, 'and that's where our Fintech sector came from.' That history continues to be apparent in the state's talent pool, said Habgood. 'What really drove the success of Fairsquare was being here in Delaware,' he told the attendees. 'Just finding ourselves in Delaware was a huge benefit because there's clearly more talent in the credit card space in this Wilmington area than anywhere else on the planet.'
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The difference between immigrants, refugees. Info on legal pathways to enter the US
Refugee resettlement and immigration are hot topics in the United States right now. As conversations about both pathways for entering the country continue, it's important to note the difference between the two. Policies, funding and executive orders impact those populations of people differently. The United Nations High Commission of Refugees defines a refugee as a person 'forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country.' Depending on their motivation for migrating, a person fleeing persecution, violence, conflict or human rights violations is categorized as a refugee, an asylum seeker, an internally displaced person or someone in need of international protection. An asylum seeker is a person seeking international protection from dangers in their home country, but whose claim for refugee status has not been determined legally in their destination country, according to International Rescue Committee. Asylum seekers must arrive at or cross a border to apply for protection in their country of destination. From there, they must prove to authorities that they meet the criteria to be covered by refugee protections. Not every asylum seeker is recognized as a refugee. Refugees resettled in the U.S. receive monetary support, resources and access to programs depending on what their specific situation is and if they meet certain requirements. Some classifications have shorter windows than others to capitalize on offered assistance. A refugee of any distinction has crossed an international border and cannot return home unless it is safe to do so, according to UNHCR. Afghan refugees become Blue Hens: 'The Taliban came, like, overnight': Afghan women flee Taliban to attend college at UD Immigrants, like refugees, are starting new lives in a new country. They go through a vetting process and intend to settle permanently in a new location. Unlike refugees, immigrants choose to leave home and begin elsewhere. They may decide to leave home to be closer to family, to pursue their education or for better economic opportunities, among other reasons. This means that they were not forced to leave and can return home if they want to, without risking their life or freedom. Due to this distinction, the term 'migrant' can be used to describe an immigrant but should not be used when referencing a refugee, according to Amnesty International. Education news: English-learning students discriminated against at this Delaware district, teacher reports Immigration and refugee resettlement cover many types of legal entry into the U.S., but there are other pathways available for certain groups of people to enter the country, too. One term you might hear is 'humanitarian parole.' This process allows an individual, who may be inadmissible or otherwise ineligible for U.S. entry, to be paroled into the country for a temporary period. A humanitarian parolee has not been formally admitted into the U.S. for purposes of immigration law, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Immigration and Nationality Act grants the secretary of homeland security the authority to temporarily parole any person applying for admission into the U.S., whether for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. Parole is typically granted for no more than one year but can be longer depending on the reason for the parole. People granted parole are typically not automatically allowed to work in the U.S., but it may be granted due to a person's circumstances. Examples of recent humanitarian parole programs, according to International Rescue Committee, are: The Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela parole program, which offered crucial assistance to people from these countries and significantly reduced border arrivals. This program was terminated on Jan. 20. Uniting for Ukraine, which provided a pathway to safety for Ukranians fleeing war in their country. Many Ukranians were granted parole status for up to two years before the program was suspended on Jan. 27. Operation Allies Welcome, which assisted vulnerable Afghans, including those who supported U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of people evacuated from Afghanistan after the withdrawal of American troops in 2021 were granted parole status. Another type of U.S. entry is the Special Immigrant Visa program, which is available to people who helped the U.S. government abroad. One SIV program is for those who worked with the U.S. Armed Forces or under Chief of Mission authority as a translator or interpreter in Iraq or Afghanistan. This program offers visas to up to 50 people a year, according to the U.S. Department of State. This program is distinct from two other programs granting SIVs for certain Iraqi and Afghan nationals who worked for, or on behalf of, the U.S. government in either country. Certain requirements must be met for program consideration. These pathways do not encompass every available process for U.S. entry, but they are some common examples showing the differences between programs and how they change based on global situations. Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys'tal Griffin at kgriffin@ This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Info on legal pathways for entering the US, what a refugee is
CNN
28-03-2025
- Sport
- CNN
The soul of college basketball – and the madness of March – is alive and well in the mid-majors
The NCAA tournament might be college basketball's most high-profile showcase of the desperate, win-or-go-home style of basketball that makes March one of the most special times of the year. But before those games, before millions of people fill out their brackets and start putting their faith in schools they've never heard of, potential Cinderella stories battle for their basketball lives. In front of loud crowds in small gyms, the madness is already spreading – and the soul of college basketball is wonderfully, mercifully, alive. Take, for instance, the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) tournament, contested over the last few days in Washington, DC's CareFirst Arena – the 4,200-seat arena in southeast Washington that is sort of the little cousin to Capital One Arena in Chinatown where the NBA's Wizards and NHL's Capitals play. The CAA is expected to send just one men's team to The Big Dance that tips off next week, the champion of the conference tournament that earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. That means after all these games, after all these months of ball, a tournament berth came down to how a team played on one long weekend in the nation's capital. What that led to is some of the most frenzied basketball in the college game, the kind of hoops that can only come from players who aren't sure they'll ever get to dribble a ball competitively ever again if they lose. Each foul is so hard it makes you cringe. Every loose ball is met by three or four bodies spilling onto the hardwood to try and capture it. The big fear about college sports these days is that the amount of money pouring into major conference sports is going to rob the game of the passion that makes it special, especially at these smaller schools. There are concerns that the best players from these teams will just go to bigger schools, chasing Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) dollars – and when they leave, those smaller schools' fans will go with them. Here, in front of a crowd of diehards that made a couple thousand people sound like a jet engine, those larger worries couldn't feel further away. The team that was expected to be the CAA representative in the NCAA men's basketball tournament next week was Towson. The Tigers finished their regular season 16-2 in the conference, two games ahead of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. They brought the conference's player of the year, Tyler Tejada – as well as its sixth man of the year and coach of the year, plus another all-conference player – into this tournament. A semifinal matchup against the conference basement dwelling University of Delaware on Monday evening seemed like a recipe for an easy path to Tuesday night's final – even if the Blue Hens had absolutely decimated William & Mary on Sunday to keep their season alive. Delaware finished third-from-last in the CAA, winning just five conference games. They lost their last regular season game to UNC-Wilmington by 30 points. Maybe that's why, as the Blue Hens jumped out to a 13-point lead early in the second half, the noise coming from the Towson end of the arena was tinged with disbelieving screams. The momentum swung wildly. First, it was Towson, making a little run to get back into the contest and injecting their fans with life. But the pesky Blue Hens wouldn't let the Towson crowd relax – a few big threes, some defensive stops and suddenly the lead was back to 11 with seven-and-a-half minutes to play. The diminutive Delaware contingent couldn't possibly muster the kind of noise the Towson fans were putting out. But when each shot went down and the Delaware lead stayed improbably solid, they hollered all the same. They threw their hands in the air when senior John Camden, the second team all-conference forward fresh off scoring 36 points in the game of his life against William & Mary, kept hitting shots and staring daggers at his bench with intensity etched into his face. They screamed in bewilderment when Niels Lane, the University of Florida transfer, soared high above the basket to slam home an alley-oop on the stroke of halftime. And, as Towson went into a full court press after hitting a three to cut the lead to 10 points with less than three minutes to go, they moved to the edge of their seats to see if their school – the lowest-seeded team to ever get this far in the CAA tournament – could really pull this off. With just under two minutes left, Towson's pressing defense got them within eight, forcing Delaware into turnovers. A Tejada layup with 58 seconds left got them within six. Then the Tigers made it a five-point game with 38 seconds to go. But that's as close as they'd get. Two more free throws for the Blue Hens and a missed Tejada long-range three-pointer gave Blue Hens' guard Erik Timko a chance to ice it with two free throws – and he didn't disappoint, making it a nine-point game. Last-gasp threes by the Tigers went awry and reality set in. The Blue Hens' bench looked ready to explode; Towson looked stunned. 'Each game's different. We were the best team in the league for four months, we needed to be the best team in the league for three days and we weren't,' said Towson coach Pat Skerry in a somber postgame press conference. The dichotomy of March on full display. These tournaments are the places where basketball dreams either end or go into the stratosphere. They're also the kind of place where, in between games, the school-aged ballboy for the College of Charleston can get up some shots, alone on the court in front of bunch of paying customers who are waiting for the game between the Cougars and the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks to get started. Unlike the Blue Hens, both these teams came into this tournament with expectations. They're the second and third seeds, and Delaware's win made their path to the NCAA tournament a lot clearer. Both groups of fans could feel it – the arena was split almost perfectly in half between teal-clad UNCW fans and maroon-wearing Charlestonians. It was as if CareFirst Arena had a noise pendulum going back and forth. When the Seahawks made a run in the final minutes for the first half, it seemed like their fans might lift the roof off the arena; each rebound, each bucket, each steal was greeted by a giant roar. A tight game that saw eight lead changes and five ties in just the first 17 minutes suddenly broke open as the Seahawks ran to a 10-point lead at halftime, though a three-pointer at the buzzer from Charleston guard CJ Fulton gave the Cougars some hope going into the break. A rollicking start to the second half had both teams' fans standing, living and dying with every whistle and bucket. It took five minutes for Charleston to shrink the 10-point halftime lead to two, bringing Cougars fans to their feet. UNCW's Donovan Newby answered that rally with another three, restoring the two-possession lead and sending the Seahawks faithful out of their seats too. UNCW couldn't quite pull away and the Cougars stayed within striking distance through a cold stretch, eventually clawing all the way back to a 52-52 tie with a little more than seven minutes left on a huge three from guard Deywilk Tavarez. Suddenly, all the noise was being made by the maroon-and-black side of the arena and the rowdy North Carolinians had lost their voice. A three from senior guard Derrin Boyd – punctuated by a scream of 'NO!' from a UNCW fan – put the Cougars in the lead for the first time in what felt like ages. The Seahawks answered quickly to tie the game yet again, and the lead ping-ponged back and forth as the noise inside the arena reached a fever pitch. A missed layup by Charleston's Boyd with 90 seconds left with the Cougars up by a point gave UNCW a chance – and Newby took it with a massive shot from downtown that made it 66-64 Seahawks with 1:10 to play. The clock continued to run and the score stayed the same as both teams missed crunch-time shots. As the seconds wound down, Charleston had what seemed like one last chance. A quick foul stopped the clock with 10 seconds to play and put Fulton on the line with a chance to tie the game with two free throws – but the senior guard missed them both. However, in a stroke of luck for him, teammate Lazar Djokovic grabbed the offensive rebound and called timeout, giving the Cougars one more crack at it. The ball was inbounded to Boyd, who dribbled toward the top of the arc and tried to cross his defender over, but he lost the ball in the process. It rolled toward half-court and the Seahawks jumped on it, holding on as Charleston fouled. Montgomery stepped to the free throw line and, with 3.9 seconds to go, made both shots, giving UNCW a four-point lead and a berth in the final. Tavarez hit a three as the clock expired for the Cougars, but it didn't matter – the Seahawks had pulled out a 68-67 win to face the Blue Hens. 'It's hard when you ask your guys to compete and give the intensity and the effort and the energy and the togetherness at the highest level they possibly can and it doesn't work out for them,' said Charleston coach Chris Mack after the game. 'I thought they matched our toughness, I thought they matched our physicality,' said Seahawks head coach Takayo Siddle, 'and it came down to us being resilient.' The resilience of Delaware and UNC-Wilmington wasn't done being tested just yet. Yes, after all that emotionally draining, back-and-forth basketball, the Blue Hens and Seahawks still had to play one more game. March is mad, but it's also relentlessly demanding. At some point in the 20 hours or so between the win over Towson and the final on Tuesday, the word got out among the Delaware faithful: 'You gotta get to DC.' The one-man student representation suddenly blew up into a mostly full section of bucket-hat clad fans. The pep band expanded too, taking over most of section 101 after needing about three rows the night before. Cinderella had a strong wall of noise behind them for the first time in this underdog run. The teal end of the arena matched the newly arrived Blue Hens' energy, and CareFirst Arena was a cauldron of noise before tip-off. In the opening stages, it looked like it was almost midnight for Delaware. The Seahawks were making all the hustle plays, forced four turnovers and held the Blue Hens to just 21% from the field in the first 10 minutes. The Seahawks' lead grew to 10 and the Delaware contingent – arms crossed, eyes staring blankly at the court – looked shell-shocked. When the lead grew to 15 with five minutes to play in the first half, Seahawks fans all came to their feet. The game felt like it was teetering on the edge of the blowout before it even got to halftime. But contests in this of all months can turn on a dime. Two layups and a three-pointer later, the Blue Hens shrunk the lead to eight. Electricity surged through the blue half of the arena. The Seahawks blunted the run somewhat, but it took only five minutes of the second half for Delaware to come all the way back. With 15 minutes to go, John Camden hit yet another huge three-pointer that brought the Blue Hens – improbably, again – all the way back into the lead, 41-40. The shots were starting to fall in a way they just hadn't in the first half. Still, amid the onslaught, the Seahawks wouldn't fold. The teams traded small leads over and over, the game feeling like it might come down to the last possession. Over the next 10 minutes, it was a classic tournament basketball game. Neither team could hold on to the lead for more than a few minutes, and it was rare that more than three points separated them. The back-and-forth contest eventually settled into UNC-Wilmington gripping a small lead, nearing a championship and playing spoiler. The Blue Hens were going to need one last miracle. For a second, it seemed like they were about to get it. Once again, it was Delaware's Camden hitting the shot that the Blue Hens needed. Taking the ball from freshman standout Izaiah Pasha in the corner just in front of his bench, he tossed up a three that found nothing but the net as he flew out of bounds. But the hope didn't last long. A defensive breakdown on the next possession cost the Blue Hens. Somehow, Newby snuck away from two Delaware defenders and got himself wide open amid the scramble. The senior guard had ended Charleston's season the night before with a dagger three and, in the biggest game of his life so far, he did it again with a long two, turning Delaware's carriage back into a pumpkin. There were 34 seconds to play and UNCW was up by five. The Blue Hens tried to claw back into it, but Newby would not be denied. He hit two free throws off a quick Delaware layup and then did it again a few seconds later to send his team dancing. The final free throws came after Newby had to stand at the free-throw line, waiting for both coaches to finish drawing up a play for the final seconds. He stared at the rim and never wavered. 'I was just telling myself, 'You're built for this,' and then I just talked to myself through my free throw routine,' Newby said after the game. One more missed Blue Hens shot, and it was all over. The Seahawks rushed the floor in joy, tears streaming down some of their faces as Delaware fled the scene. It was the first time UNCW booked a place in the dance since they won the CAA tournament in 2017. As his team celebrated at center court, Newby found his parents. His mom reached over the rope line separating them and he sank into her arms, crying as the emotions finally let loose. A few minutes later, he was named tournament MVP. 'It just meant so much,' Newby said of that moment with his family, 'because my parents put so much work and so much dedication – so much money traveling – into this craft of mine that I fell in love with. They just did it all for me. So, to be able to feel like I'm paying them back for that by winning this, it just felt really good.' The Seahawks ended the night cutting down the net and holding an oversized ticket to the NCAA men's basketball tournament, grins plastered on their faces. Maybe, they'd get stuck in a play-in game next week. Maybe, they'd get run out of the building by one of college basketball's blue bloods in an opening round game. But maybe – just maybe – they'd bust some brackets. Maybe, they're next week's David to some top-seeded Goliath. Maybe, they'd be the real deal Cinderella. That, beyond anything, is the promise of March.
