Florida Sentinel Bulletin

It seems like the apple doesn’t fall far from the Woods’ family tree.

Cheyenne Woods, the niece of golf superstar Tiger Woods, won the ACC women’s individual title on Sunday.

Following her win, the 20-year-old junior at Wake Forest University said, “Today, I really felt confident all day and knew I could hit the shots that I wanted to.”

“My niece, Cheyenne, just won the ACC golf title by 7 shots! That’s awesome, I’m so proud of her,” Tiger Woods tweeted to congratulate his niece.

Cheyenne Woods is the daughter of Tiger Woods’ half-brother, Earl Woods Jr.

If anyone has the right to offer advice to troubled celebrities like Chris Brown and Charlie Sheen, NFL player Michael Vick does.

In a recent interview, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback discussed a range of topics from rebuilding his public image to the struggles he faced after serving 18-months in prison on dogfighting and conspiracy charges.

As words of encourage for R&B singer Chris Brown, Vick said, “Just put your faith in God. Don’t worry about what people say about you.”

“Words will never hurt you. The things that people can say out of their mouth can cut you deep. And sometimes a tongue can be sharper than a knife. But at the same time, you should never allow that to push you over the edge. You should have more self-control. You control your own destiny. You’re still admired by so many people.”

In 2010, Vick earned Pro Bowl honors and was named the Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year.

BOSTON — Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai won the Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 seconds — the fastest anyone has ever run the 26.2 mile distance.

The previous best of 2:03:59 was by Haile Gebrselassie in Berlin 2008. But because Monday’s race had a strong tailwind on a downhill course, Mutai’s run is not recognized by track’s international governing body as a record.

But Mutai was almost three minutes better than the course record set just last year by Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot.

Caroline Kilel won the women’s race to complete the Kenyan sweep, outsprinting American Desiree Davila to win by two seconds, in 2:22:36.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will return to “Monday Night Football” this year, against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4 of the regular season.

The Oct. 3 game at Raymond James Stadium will be televised on ESPN, with former Bucs coach Jon Gruden in the role of analyst for the network’s “MNF” announcing team

The latest embarrassment for the former No. 1 overall pick: JaMarcus Russell’s “life coach” John Lucas told Russell he would no longer work with him and asked Russell to leave Houston.

A man who is getting paid to help Russell, a man who makes a career out of rehabilitating athletes, gave up on the kid.

Russell reportedly worked hard after starting to work with Lucas last Sept-ember, but he quickly lost focus.  He showed up to NFL workouts last November and December out of shape, and his work habits “continued to deteriorate.” Lucas grew tired of trying to get Russell to care.

LOS ANGELES — Lakers forward Lamar Odom won the Sixth Man of the Year Award as the league’s top reserve Tuesday.

“This has been a long time coming,” said the 31-year-old Odom. “I just kept at it.

“At the end of the day, I’m blessed. Some people call it luck, I call it blessed.”

Odom averaged 14.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and three assists per game while shooting 53 percent from the field, the highest shooting mark of his 12-year career

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky freshmen Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones and junior DeAndre Liggins are heading to the NBA. Maybe.

The school announced Wednesday all three players have declared for the NBA draft but will not sign with an agent, clearing the way for them to return to school this fall if they change their minds by May 8.

Jones and Knight are considered mid-to-high first-round picks; Liggins is a defensive stopper who hopes to play his way into the first round after being evaluated by scouts.

BYU suspended basketball player Brandon Davis, after it was discovered that he had sex with his girlfriend, an action that violates the religious university’s “Honor Code.”

In a research report written by Darron Smith, the Black Moran and assistant professor at Wichita State writes:

“Since 1993, according to our research, at least 70 athletes have been suspended, dismissed, put on probation, or forced to withdraw from their teams or the school after running afoul of the honor code. Fifty-four of them, or nearly 80 percent, are minorities. Forty-one, or almost 60 percent, are black men.

Yet a majority of the honor code violations involve Black athletes. Do these numbers mean these athletes “sin” more than everyone else? Hardly. Several former BYU football players told us that their white teammates routinely broke the honor code and got away with it, either because they didn’t get caught or because their violations were covered up.”

In the piece entitled “The Truth About Race, Religion, And The Honor Code At BYU,” Smith, who taught courses on race and ethnicity in BYU’s sociology department from 1998 to 2005, documents a history of BYU’s racism towards Black athletes.

The article also takes in accounts from former BYU African-American athletes Tico Pringle, Ray Hudson, and Thomas Stanci, who also faced punishment for violating the school’s “Honor Code.”

The issues at BYU go deeper than the recent suspension of Brandon Davis, and further investigation of the university on grounds of racism might be needed.

Former Mets and Yankees star Dwight Gooden was sentenced Friday to five years of probation for driving under the influence of cocaine and sleeping pills while taking his 5-year-old son to school.

Gooden, 46, faced three years in prison under the terms of a plea agreement he struck with prosecutors several months ago. But Superior Court Judge Donald Venezia said the former pitcher deserved another chance to rid his life of addiction. Gooden, he said, is a decent guy who had a good chance of “finishing the game.”

The judge told the 1985 National League Cy Young Award winner that he should think of himself now as a fourth-inning pitcher who is getting walloped by the opposing batters and whose coaches are contemplating whether to take him out of the game.

In this game-of-life analogy, Venezia said, failure could mean ruining his legacy, embarrassing his children or even dying at a young age.

Gooden, agreed in an interview after the hearing in Hackensack that his life is on the line.

“I just have to take it a day at a time, and sometimes an hour at a time,” Gooden said. “I can’t look at it like I have to do this for 10 years. I just have to look at it like I have to get through today and then deal with tomorrow when it comes.”