Latest news with #CoastalCarolinaUniversity
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
‘Big fan': Braves legend Chipper Jones lauds Coastal Carolina baseball coach
The Coastal Carolina University baseball team, and its current run toward the College World Series, has caught the eye of an Atlanta Braves legend. Chipper Jones, the switch-hitting third baseman who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018, praised the team and its coach Tuesday in a social media post that was critical of other teams vying for playoff spots. Advertisement 'Spent quite a bit of time watching college baseball this weekend,' Jones wrote on 'I will only watch a select few teams from here on out. Reason? They have coaches that respect the game and their opponents and demand the same of their players. Any team that doesn't wear the uni correctly, taunts the other team, and has a coach that condones this behavior, is a disgrace to the game. 'Big fan of coach Schnall at Coastal Carolina! Him and his team represent what college baseball should be like. Well done, sir! U stand for proper behavior.' Kevin Schnall, in his first year as CCU head coach, made headlines this week criticizing the actions of University of Florida baseball coach Kevin O'Sullivan, who was caught on video berating staff at the NCAA Regionals in Conway this past weekend. Advertisement 'I have to say this, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to or not, but I believe in standing up to for what's right, and what transpired this morning on our field, another coach disrespected our associate AD, who works as hard as anybody in our entire program, he disrespected our field crew, who are the salt of the earth, these guys would do anything for our program, it's not okay,' Schnall said. 'And this needs to be brought up. Absolutely disrespectful.' O'Sullivan has since issued a statement apologizing for his behavior. CCU advanced out of the region that included Florida, East Carolina University and Fairfield University. They will play Auburn University beginning Friday in a best-of-three series to determine which team advances to the College World Series.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Emotional testimony heard in murder trial of man charged in shooting of CCU student
David Roldan-Dimas spent the first day of summer break at Coastal Carolina University working a 13-hour shift at his job. It was June 19, 2023, a Monday, and after work he met his girlfriend and her brother at the Planet Fitness in Carolina Forest. Minutes later, as he drove away from the gym in his black Camaro, the 20-year-old student was gunned down in the Planet Fitness parking lot, where he died. The man accused of killing Roldan-Dimas, Abdullah Seifullah, is on trial nearly two years after the student's death. Seifullah, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, is charged with murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and criminal conspiracy. The prosecution and defense gave opening arguments in the the 45-year-old man's trial. The state also called five witnesses. Branden Huertas, 43, also of Bridgeport, was scheduled to stand trial Tuesday for his role in Roldan-Dimas' killing but pleaded guilty to accessory to murder last week, court officials said. Huertas' sentencing will be set at the end of Seifullah's trial. Horry County Police found the body of Roldan-Dimas with multiple gunshot wounds that evening, according to a police report. Roldan-Dimas, of York, was inside a black Chevrolet Camaro that had crashed into a Nissan SUV in a Planet Fitness parking lot, 1049 Glenforest Road, in the Myrtle Beach area. Roldan-Dimas was studying business administration at CCU and was taking summer classes so he could graduate earlier, The Sun News reported. 'David. Remember that name,' Assistant Solicitor George Henry Martin said to the jury. 'He was in the prime of his life, and unlike many of his peers, woke up at the crack of dawn to work when he wasn't studying at Coastal Carolina University.' Martin continued his opening statement, preparing the jury for the testimonies they were about to hear. 'June 19, 2023 was the day his life ended,' Martin said. 'The day his life ended and changed his family's life, the lives of people all around him. And there's only one way to serve justice, and that is to find Abdullah Seifullah guilty.' County Council Chairperson Johnny Gardner is representing Seifullah in the trial. He said that in his 19 years of working murder trials, he had never heard a prosecution open with an appeal to emotion. 'It's always sad, we feel for the victims,' Gardner said. 'But we're not here to work on emotions, you took an oath and have to make a decision based on the law.' Witnesses included Selda and Berbarin Letaj, who were at the gym when Roldan-Dimas was killed. They called the police, telling the dispatcher they saw a man being shot and killed in a black Camaro. Daryl Detrick, owner of Detrick's Car Wash across the street from the Planet Fitness, walked the jury through security camera footage from his business. The video showed an unidentified Black man run across the field between his car wash and the gym after the two gunshots. Prosecutors also called girlfriend Isabella Lima and her brother, who were with Roldan-Dimas the night he died. They went to the gym together and after they left, Roldan-Dimas was shot and killed, prosecution said. Her brother testified that a silver Dodge Charger swerved around his truck and a Black man with a mask on was chasing after it. He asked the man if he needed help. 'He stole my car!' the man told him. Lima's brother followed the car and reported the make, model and license plate number to police. Lima said she had been dating Roldan-Dimas for around two weeks. 'He was the most incredible man I have ever met,' Lima testified during the trial on Tuesday. On June 19, 2023, Roldan-Dimas had worked a 13-hour shift at his job. Lima said he was excited because he had been promoted from working on a machine outside to working inside — with air-conditioning. The then 22-year-old had plans to go to the gym with her younger brother, and Roldan-Dimas insisted on coming with. The three of them drove separately, with the couple arriving first at about 9 p.m. Lima and Roldan-Dimas finished their workout first and she planned to wait at Planet Fitness until her brother was done. Roldan-Dimas insisted on waiting with her, so the pair sat in her car and chatted. When her brother, who was then 17, finished his workout, Roldan-Dimas left Lima's car and went to his Camaro. '(Roldan-Dimas) kissed my forehead, said 'I love you, I'll see you Friday.' He got out, he hugged my brother, they talked and then he got in his car,' Lima said, her voice breaking as she finished her sentence. Within seconds, Lima and her brother heard a loud popping noise. Neither of them registered it as a gunshot. While her brother was driving home, he saw a silver Charger speed past him, he testified. Shortly after, he said he saw a Black man running in a nearby field. He slowed down and tried to speak to the man, who, he said, appeared agitated and yelled that someone had stolen his car. Lima's brother offered the man a ride, but he declined it. Lima's brother began to follow the silver Charger, called 911 and gave police the car's license plate information. As Lima was driving home, she called Roldan-Dimas three times, but he did not pick up. She found this odd, as he always picked up her calls. Worried about Roldan-Dimas, Lima and her brother, now both in her car, returned to Planet Fitness, where they found a number of police vehicles. Lima said she saw her boyfriend's body on the ground and thought he was asleep. Lima asked police to tell Roldan-Dimas that she was there when he woke up. His family was far away, so she wanted him to know he had someone there. 'I was insisting a lot to the cops to let me get close to him because I didn't want him to be alone,' Lima said. '(An officer) looked at me and was like 'Ma'am he's dead.'' Seifullah's murder trial will continue at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. The trial is expected to take a week.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
WVU President-elect speaks on his transition to Morgantown
BRIDGEPORT, (WBOY) — As the school year wraps up, West Virginia University President-elect Michael Benson is getting ready to step into the limelight. Benson, who was previously the President of Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina, will begin his term in July of this year. 12 News got to speak with Benson for the first time moments before the start of the 2025 West Virginia Business Roundtable, where he was one of multiple university presidents representing their respective schools. Benson said he and his family are excited to be becoming Mountaineers. 'It's a wonderful community, people have been incredibly warm and welcoming and we look forward to getting to work and making a difference.' As for his plans for the university, especially after it has suffered financially in recent years, Benson said that plans will be announced soon. WV Business Roundtable hosts dozens of state business leaders 'I'm a big believer that plans are important, but the planning process is even more important. So we're in that process right now, and we're going to roll out some ideas about the direction moving forward, but there's a lot to be excited about. There are a lot of blue sky opportunities ahead for the university,' Benson said. Benson said the way he's been acclimating himself to his new school has been by getting to know people and different communities around the area. 'I think the most important thing I can do as president is get to know people, relationships are key, and I want to know what's important to them and what's important to the university and see if we can get the two to come together,' Benson said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Once a Chanticleer, always a Chanticleer': Benson reflects on Coastal Carolina presidency
CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) — Coastal Carolina University President Dr. Michael T. Benson is entering his final days in the position before making the move to West Virginia University to be the Mountaineers' new president. Benson announced in February he'd be leaving Teal Nation. He sat down with News13 to discuss his nearly five-year journey in Conway and what it meant to be a Chanticleer. Going into his last commencement ceremony at CCU next week, Benson said graduation is one of, if not his favorite, time of the year. 'I love seeing our students succeed. That's my favorite part of it,' he said. 'I mean, we're all here because of students. In just a few days, I'll be able to shake every hand of every student that walks across that stage. And those will be the highlights. Seeing those students accomplish a really singular thing in their life, that they can now go out into the world and say they're a Coastal graduate. That, to me, is the most memorable.' Over the years, Benson has had many milestone accomplishments, including securing $40 million for library renovations and bringing in a record freshman class each year since 2021, and many more. Benson said none of it would've been possible without every faculty and staff member. With him being president of several different universities for roughly 24 years, he said his relationships at CCU were special. 'Everywhere I've gone, I've tried to emphasize that I may have a nice office and I may have a title, but I'm no more important than the person that helps keep our campus beautiful, or the engineer in the boiler room or the junior faculty member or anybody else,' Benson said. 'I would like to say thank you to the board that gave me this chance back in 2020 when I was hired. I told a group of students the other night, I want you to call or text or email somebody who's taken a chance on you and thank them.' CCU faculty and staff say they're going to miss Benson's vibrant personality and the kind person he was to all. Dean's on campus said he was a president who fully immersed himself with the student body and community and made the university a better place, adding that the next president has big shoes to fill. 'Under his leadership, we developed our new strategic plan 'CCU Reach,' and that is just been, I think, the legacy that he'll leave is this new strategic plan that we've begun implementing. We could not have done that without him and his leadership and his insight,' College of Education and Social Sciences dean Jamia Richmond said. 'He'll do great wherever he goes because he's really intuitive, and he pays attention to the environment where he's going. His personality, the way he connects with individuals, you know, he helps students, faculty, feel seen and heard.' Students on campus who knew Benson closely said that since their freshman year he was a president to look up to since the very beginning. They said that he would always be out at every event and interacting with the students. 'I just think that Coastal is going to miss President Benson, but we're all really proud of him,' CCU Student Body President Gabrielle Ryder said. 'Accomplishments and the growth that has happened through Coastal under President Benson's leadership, I think that it creates a lot of hope for the future of what Coastal is going to become in the next 5 to 10 years.' Ryder said it's full circle to be in a way graduating together from Coastal alongside Benson and is excited for him to be chasing his dream job at WVU. But at the end of the day, Benson says: 'Once a Chanticleer, always a Chanticleer.' * * * Gabby Jonas joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in April 2024. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2023. Follow Gabby on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and read more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘It's a big loss': Coastal Carolina, Coker communities mourn FSU shooting victim
CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) – The Coastal Carolina University and Coker University communities are mourning the loss of Tiru Chabba, one of the two people killed in the Florida State University shooting last Thursday. Chabba was a CCU and Citadel alum. He worked with both CCU and Coker dining services during his career. Shawn Phillips, Chabba's former co-worker at Coker, says he had a beautiful smile that lit up every room. 'If you were having a bad day, he would always come up to you and give you that smile and a little joke, or something that makes you feel better, and your day would go by fast,' Phillips said. She says she worked with Chabba for about four years. They were both supervisors for Aramark Collegiate Hospitality, the company that once ran Coker's dining services. Phillips says she saw articles about the Florida State University shooting and recognized Chabba's smile from the photos. 'I actually pulled up the article, and I went like, 'This is Tiru. Oh my goodness,'' she said. 'The tears just started flowing from my eyes.' Most recently, Chabba was the Regional Vice President at Aramark, which currently runs Coastal Carolina University's dining services. He was on the FSU campus as part of his job when he was killed. Sandy Baldridge-Adrian, associate vice president for Auxiliary Enterprises and Chabba's co-worker at CCU, says she met Chabba when both were students at the university. They ended up working together for about 20 years. 'He always had a, 'We'll figure out a way to do it,' instead of a 'No, that's not something we could do,' attitude,' Baldridge-Adrian said. 'He was always thinking about our students, the Aramark staff, and the university staff, and how we can make this place better.' Baldridge-Adrian says her two decades working with Chabba felt like both a lifetime and not long enough. 'I feel upset, frustrated, mad, heartbroken,' she said. 'It's a big loss, and it's going to take a while.' Baldridge-Adrian was emotional when she talked about how Chabba was not only a great friend, but also a great husband and father to his wife and two kids. 'He'll be missed,' she said. 'We're here for his family, both his work family and his actual family. I can't imagine what they're going through right now.' You can donate to Chabba's family's GoFundMe here. * * * Skylar Musick is a multimedia journalist at News13. Skylar is originally from Long Island, New York. She joined the News13 team in June 2024 after graduating from Villanova University in May 2024. Follow Skylar on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and read more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
