Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
Christiansburg alum Donovan Richardson won the men’s Big South Conference’s triple jump this past week.
The Gardner-Webb freshman was scored with a mark of 14.74 meters, ahead of second place by just 0.03 meters to win his first Big South individual outdoor title.
Another Christiansburg High School alum, Tyrique Taylor, finished second in the Big South men’s discus throw with a mark of 50.95 meters.
Johnson named Ferrum coach
Ferrum University Director of Athletics Cleive Adams has announced the hiring of James Johnson as Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Ferrum College. Johnson comes to Ferrum after serving the past three years on the Virginia Tech athletic staff as Director of High School Relations for Football.
Johnson is a 1993 graduate of Ferrum and played four years for the Panthers under Coach Bill Pullen. He helped the Panthers win Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (now the USA South) regular-season and postseason tournament titles and earn Ferrum’s only NCAA Tournament appearance in 1992.
After graduating in May 1993, Johnson remained at Ferrum and began his coaching career, He served two seasons as Pullen’s assistant coach, helping the Panthers win the 1995 Dixie Conference regular season title.
Johnson served three years as Director of High School Relations for Football at Virginia Tech. Prior to that, he served as the Hokies’ Head Men’s Basketball Coach for two seasons from 2012-14 and spent five years as an Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach from 2007-12.
Johnson’s résumé includes nine other stops as an assistant coach, including Longwood, Hargrave Military Academy, Old Dominion, Elon, College of Charleston, Penn State, George Mason, Miami and NC State.
Duffy adds to staff
Virginia Tech women’s basketball head coach Megan Duffy announces the addition of Ke’Sha Blanton to her staff as an assistant coach. With the Hokies, Blanton will play a key role in recruiting, scouting and on-court player development.
Blanton joins the Hokies’ staff with 15 years of Division I coaching experience, including a successful tenure under Coach Duffy at Miami (Ohio). Her career is defined by a relentless commitment to player development, evidenced by the 30 All-Conference selections she has mentored.
Most recently, Blanton served as an assistant coach at Tulane for the 2025-26 season. During her time with the Wave, she was the recruiting coordinator and responsible for player development, program operations and support, and acted as the NIL liaison for the program.
Prior to her stint at Tulane, Blanton made history in her one season as the head coach at Air Force Prep Academy, leading the Huskies to the program’s first-ever undefeated campaign in 2024-25.
Sagnia joins Hokies
Mike Young and the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team announced the signing of 6-foot-10 forward Musa Sagnia Saturday. Sagnia spent his first season at the collegiate level at NC State where he played in 34 games averaging 12.4 minutes per contest.
For the 2025-26 season, he went 34-for-57 from the field and grabbed 96 rebounds, 2.8 per game.
Prior to NC State, the Bakau, The Gambia native played for Baxi Manresa in the Liga ACB, the top professional basketball division in Spain where he averaged 3.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game in 33 games in the 2024-25 season. He Averaged 4.9 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in 34 games in the season prior and was selected for the All-ACB Best Young Players Team.
Sagnia declared as an early entrant for both the 2023 and 2024 NBA Drafts before withdrawing. He also participated in the adidas Eurocamp in 2023 and 2024.
Hokies NIT tennis champs
The Hokies win the 2026 NIT Championship in exciting fashion over North Alabama, 4-2.
With a 3-2 lead and two three-set matches remaining, Blake Hilsen clinched the match with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory.
Hilsen won the NIT Championship MVP award after a 4-0 undefeated run in the tournament and winning the clinching match in both victories.
The Hokies took the doubles point to open the match, starting with a win from Hilsen and Eyal Shumilov, 6-2. With the doubles point evened up, Ilyas Fahim and Patrik Jurina combined to win a tiebreaker 7-6 (6) to clinch the doubles point on Court No. 2.
Moving into singles, the Hokies and Lions were evenly split across first sets. Freshman Drew Fishback tallied the Hokies’ second point of the match, breaking his opponent’s serve to a 6-1, 6-3 victory.
Fahim rounded out an undefeated week, notching a win on Court No. 1 for his third victory of the week, 6-4, 6-3.
Highlanders honored by Big South
The Big South Conference today announced that a league-record 14 student-athletes have been awarded the Conference’s prestigious George A. Christenberry Award for Academic Excellence. The award is given to a graduating male and female student-athlete who attain the highest GPA during their undergraduate collegiate careers. It is the 14th consecutive year at least SIX student-athletes have been honored, and the total surpasses the record number of 12 recipients achieved in 2019-20 and 2024-25.
The group included three from Radford University. Mady Cheney is a women’s lacrosse player with a 4.0 in Marketing & Economics, while women’s cross country/track & field runner Mia Farley completed a 4.0 in Allied Health Sciences and Macy Johnson from golf with a 4.0 in Economics.
ACC, CW agreement
The CW Network and ESPN have announced a new sublicense broadcast agreement for The CW to televise ACC football and men’s and women’s college basketball games through the 2030-31 season.
As part of this long-term relationship, The CW will air 14 regular season football games, 30 men’s basketball games, and 10 women’s basketball games each season.
All games will be available to watch nationwide live on The CW’s linear broadcast network, and for the first time, stream live on the ESPN App with the ESPN Unlimited plan.
Redmon all-region
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) announced Thursday afternoon that Radford University’s Dakota Redmon was named to the Mid-Atlantic All-Region Second Team, the second straight season collecting all-region honors for the sophomore.
The 2026 season was more of the same for the Highlander phenom as Redmon repeated as the Big South’s Pitcher of the Year, becoming just the third Highlander to ever achieve that feat. The Stokesdale, N.C. native also collected awards such as the all-conference first team, all-tournament, two conference weekly awards, and was named one of the top-100 mid major players by D1 Softball.
In the circle, she was Radford’s ace and led the Big South with a 2.79 ERA, including 1.49 in conference play. Nationally, she ranks in complete games (36th), hits allowed per nine (50th), shutouts (21st), strikeouts (125th), and WHIP (58th). In her first collegiate season at the plate, Redmon provided a much-needed boost mid-season slashing .322/.394/.556 in just over 100 plate appearances. Her five home runs ranked tied for first for the team and 21 RBI ranked second.
