Despite the departure of star guard Jeremiah Hill, the Blazers are better equipped to make a tourney run this time around. At 26-3, the Valdosta State Blazers are currently ranked No. 14 in the NABC Coaches Poll and find themselves ranked No. 3 in the South region.  The ranking, as well as the national perception of the team, seems to ...

The Spectator, VSU’s campus news organization, earned nine state-wide journalism awards at the Georgia College Press Association’s annual conference and ceremony on Friday, Feb 16. GCPA hosts a conference every year in February. This year it was held at the University of Georgia in Athens at the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library. “The trip to GCPA is always a ...

In an already divided country, race became a topic of discussion during NBA All-Star weekend. LeBron James had an interview with ESPN’s Cari Champion where he expressed his displeasure for Donald Trump and gave his take on experiences of being a black man in America. Those comments were met with, comments by someone who is unaffected by the hardships of ...

Mike Helfer’s fiery passion and cool confidence make him one of the most respected coaches in the country but his success never came overnight. Helfer was born in Newark, Ohio, where he attended Newark Catholic High School. During his teenage years, Helfer was heavily involved with athletics. He was a tri-sport star, receiving All-State honors in basketball and football, while ...

Born in Tallahassee, Florida and raised in Suwanee, Georgia, Christopher Thompson splits up his jam-packed days between work, school organizations and classes. However, his real passion is helping people better themselves, and he somehow finds ways to incorporate that desire into everything he does. “There’s a drive in me that always pushes me to be a little bit better,” SGA ...

People love to speak their minds, especially on their “private” social media profiles. But what if the content that is posted is troubling, or, like in some recent news, racist? Even though we are not a full month into 2018, incidents of prejudice and hate speech have flooded the media. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 19-year-old Harley Barber, a ...

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia has approved Valdosta State and nine other institutions to extend in-state tuition to eligible residents of Tennessee starting this spring semester. Starting the academic year of 2015, VSU offered the Border States Waiver for all residents of Alabama, Florida and South Carolina. “We are very excited about this announcement,” Ryan ...

Star prospects, Derwin James and Deshon Elliot, of Florida State and Texas declaring for the 2018 NFL Draft and skipping their team’s bowl games, the question has been posed if players should sit out their team’s finales. Yes, we were always taught to finish what you start, but this is a different matter. These players have millions waiting on them ...

The No. 23 ranked Lady Blazers basketball squad is prepared for their first major test of the 2017-2018 season, as they will travel to Pensacola, Florida to take on the West Florida Argonauts in a rematch of the 2017 Gulf South Conference championship game last year. The Lady Blazers came away with a 91-79 win over the Argonauts. Senior Madi ...

Jayla Flournoy, VSU’s new homecoming queen, is ready to make some changes around campus. Flournoy is a Thompson, Georgia native who plans to graduate with a degree in communication sciences and disorders. She won’t stop there, though. She wants to continue her education to obtain her master’s degree in speech pathology. “The reason I want to become a speech pathologist ...