Latest news with #Young
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
178-year-old scroll denouncing slavery found in Groton
Advertisement Then last month, long after Rev. Badger's pandemic-induced history craze ended, she found the five-foot-long scroll proclaiming the American Baptists' opposition to slavery while clearing out the back room of the office. 'I kept saying to everybody, 'this is the holy grail, this is what I really want to find,'' Badger said. The document was signed right after 'We do therefore, in the fear of God, declare ... that we disapprove and abhor the system of American Slavery,' the ministers wrote in 1847 in the document titled 'Declaration and Protest.' This Saturday at 2 p.m., ministers from American Baptist churches across Massachusetts will gather at the denomination's state headquarters at 189 Prescott Street in Groton to commemorate the scroll and Juneteenth. Advertisement Rev. Kenneth Young, leader of Calvary Baptist Church, the oldest Black church in the Merrimack Valley, is attending the event and said that it's important that people even outside of the American Baptist Church know about the scroll. He said that the scroll could '[It would] help repair some of the brokenness that we've seen in this country and reclaim those stories … of black erasure," he said. Dr. Deborah Van Broekhoven, former head of the American Baptists' historical society, said that back in the early 1800s, most Baptists in the North felt that slavery was wrong but felt that it was the job of slaveholders in the Southern states to fix it. However, after the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), Van Broekhoven said, the American Baptists probably felt they needed to take a stand because Southern politicians began to argue that the Bible endorsed slavery. 'That was much more than a lot of Baptists could swallow,' Van Broekhoven said. At the time, Massachusetts did have some American Baptist churches set up by freed Black people or white abolitionists like the African Meeting House and the Tremont Temple. However, Van Broekhoven said that most of the scroll's signatories were white ministers, because of segregation in Boston at the time. 'I think Blacks were a little bit wary of involvement with this because it still wasn't a popular cause in the North,' Van Broekhoven said. Advertisement Nowadays, the denomination prides itself on being diverse and having racially mixed congregations including Nepalese, Ghanaian and Burmese Americans. Most majority-Black American Baptist churches in Massachusetts are concentrated in southwest Boston, but there are some other Black-centered churches in other parts of the Commonwealth like Rev. Young's congregation in Haverhill. Young said that though Black people are a minority in the denomination in Massachusetts, ministers in TABCOM, the statewide American Baptist association, have attempted to 'understand narratives not centered on whiteness.' 'I think that the sense of feeling welcomed into those spaces like TABCOM has made the difference between the American Baptist of the Commonwealth versus Southern Baptists,' Young said. Rev. Dr. Mary Day Hamel, executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts, said that the discovery of the scroll, right before Juneteenth, and in the context of this presidential administration had come at a 'serendipitous time.' 'In our current climate it's good to remember that early Baptists had an important role in taking a stand against slavery,' Hamel said, 'and just to celebrate that American Baptists as a denomination are very diverse.' Angela Mathew can be reached at
NBC Sports
an hour ago
- Sport
- NBC Sports
2025 Carolina Panthers Fantasy Preview: Crunch time for Bryce Young
Panthers head coach Dave Canales had one job as Carolina's head coach in 2024: Fix Bryce Young. He made the decision to bench the former No. 1 overall pick by Week 3, seemingly sealing the fate of the Bama passer. Young eventually returned to the lineup after Andy Dalton suffered a thumb injury, giving him a second lease on life as the starter. Young's time on the bench served him well and he finally started to turn the corner at the end of the year, giving Panthers fans hope for the 2025 season. 2024 Carolina Panthers Stats (Rank) Points per game: 20.1 (23rd) Total yards per game: 298 (29th) Plays per game: 58.4 (31st) Dropbacks per game: 39.2 (17th) Dropback EPA per play: -0.04 (26th) Rush attempts per game: 24.1 (27th) Rush EPA per play: -0.04 (11th) Bryce Young gets on track Young was a disaster out of the gates in 2023. He ranked 22nd in completion percent over expected and 29th in EPA per play among 30 qualified quarterbacks. Frank Reich was fired midseason and the Panthers landed the first overall pick… which was in the hands of Chicago via Carolina's trade up for Young. The meltdown continued into the 2024 season and Young was benched after two games. Canales was put in an impossible situation, choosing between losing the locker room with more dreadful Young starts or cutting bait on the player he was tasked with fixing. He went with the former, granting Andy Dalton five starts before he injured his thumb in a car accident. Young came back better than ever, went 4-6 to close out the year, and took both Super Bowl participants to the brink with one-score losses to Kansas City and Philadelphia. While the Panthers didn't solve all of their problems on offense, Young and Canales made herculean strides by the end of the season. The same can't be said for DC Ejiro Evero's defense. Carolina ranked dead last in EPA per play allowed. They ranked 32nd against the run and 31st against the pass. Evero was a rising star in the coaching ranks and Canales chose to retain him from Reich's staff after the latter was canned. To Evero's defense, the Panthers didn't spend one of their first two picks on defense for three consecutive drafts before this year. Their investments in free agency have also been focused on offense, leaving the cupboard bare for Evero. Still, if his side of the ball doesn't improve in 2025, he will be looking for work elsewhere next offseason. Passing Game QB: Bryce Young, Andy Dalton WR: Tetairoa McMillan, Jalen Coker WR: Adam Thielen, Hunter Renfrow WR: Xavier Legette, David Moore TE: J'Tavion Sanders, Tommy Tremble Young's late-season resurgence was the story of the season for Panthers fans, and it was just as real in the spreadsheets as it was on tape. He was PFF's No. 7 graded passer from Week 8 onward. He had the second-highest Big Time Throw rate over that stretch and scored five rushing touchdowns in his final six games. Bryce Young knew it. Young was not making throws with this kind of confidence as a rookie. His top receivers down the stretch were 34-year-old Adam Thielen and UDFA rookie Jalen Coker, both of whom missed three games. Despite drastically increasing his ability to create explosive plays, Young didn't concede more turnovers or sacks amidst his breakout. His pressure to sack rate of 14.9 percent and Turnover Worthy Play rate of 2.3 percent were both below his career averages. The sample of Young turning the corner is small, but the impact was massive and earned him a spot at the back of the QB2 ranks in early fantasy drafts. Tetairoa McMillan was brought in with the eighth overall pick to be a true alpha for Young. As a true junior, McMillan ranked second in the country in receiving yards (1,319) while averaging 2.9 yards per route run. He earned 472 yards on deep targets in 2024, the third-most for a Power Four wideout. As a sophomore in 2023, McMillan racked up 533 yards on intermediate targets (10-19 yards downfield), the highest mark among P4 wideouts. McMillan finds himself in contested situations more often than you would like to see from a target dominator, but he wins those high-leverage looks at a high clip, giving him the 'always open' factor. The aforementioned Thielen missed seven games with a hamstring injury but was as good as ever when on the field. He rebounded in 2023 after a few stagnant years in Minnesota and upped the ante in 2024, averaging 2.1 yards per route run with a 17-game pace of 82 catches for 1,046 yards and nine scores. Thielen isn't a fun click, but he's the perfect WR4/5 for fantasy managers who want to load up on rookies and other high upside bets. With Thielen penciled in for a heavy dose of slot work and McMillan guaranteed a starting role, Coker and Xavier Legette are fighting for the final position in three-receiver sets. Carolina was counting on Legette to be an immediate playmaker after spending the No. 32 overall pick on him. He labored through toe, wrist, and shoulder injuries en route to 497 yards at a dreadful 1.2 yards per route run. Legette's stiff route-running was an issue and he failed to show anything after the catch. He was a high-risk prospect who showed only the floor as a rookie. Coker was a hidden gem in Charlotte, nearly matching Legette's yardage output on 139 fewer routes. PFF graded him as their No. 5 rookie. The UDFA status will follow Coker into his second season, making Legette a better bet for routes early in the season, even if the former is a more exciting bet heading into year two. There isn't much happening at tight end on this roster. Rookie J'Tavion Sanders split work with Tommy Tremble as a rookie and will likely do so again this year. Sanders will also have to keep fifth-round rookie Mitchell Evans at bay. Sanders is worth a dart throw in deep best ball leagues but isn't near the redraft radar. Running Game RB: Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle, Trevor Etienne, Raheem Blackshear OL (L-R): Ikem Ekwonu, Damien Lewis, Austin Corbett, Robert Hunt, Taylor Moton Carolina entered the 2024 season expecting Chuba Hubbard to hold down the starting job until second-round rookie Jonathon Brooks was ready to take over. Brooks was coming back from the torn ACL he suffered in his final season at Texas and was expected to be the team's future at running back. Instead, he tragically suffered another torn ACL after just nine carries. The injury paved the way for Hubbard to see the bulk of the backfield work for the entire season. Hubbard was one of four backs to see over 80 percent of their team's running back carries last year. He made good on the role with a 250/1,195/10 rushing line and strong efficiency marks. Pro Football Focus graded him as a top-10 runner with an equally impressive 3.5 yards after contact per attempt. He was even more dominant in NFL Next Gen's data with an NFL-high 51.2 percent success rate and 1.16 rush yards over expected per carry. Hubbard did it all on the ground. He was explosive, elusive, and consistent. The Panthers rewarded him with a four-year, $33.2 million contract midseason. Brooks has already been ruled out for 2025 and the Panthers are returning all five starting offensive linemen from last year. Hubbard isn't much of a threat as a pass-catcher out of the backfield, but his rushing workload and efficiency should put him in the RB1 conversation this summer. Carolina signed Rico Dowdle off a breakout season in Dallas and drafted pass-catching specialist Trevor Etienne on Day Three to round out their backfield. Dowdle stepped up last year with 1,000 rushing yards and solid peripherals, but the NFL didn't buy into the breakout on the open market. The Cowboys let him walk and Carolina only gave him a one-year, $2.75 million deal. Dowdle averaged a measly .88 yards per route run and was a good but not great runner. He was likely viewed as a two-down backup by GMs, including Dan Morgan of Carolina. Etienne peaked at 131 carries and hit 20 carries in a game once during three years of college ball. He did, however, catch 32 passes in 10 games as a junior at Georgia. Etienne could work himself into a role on passing downs as a rookie, but fantasy managers shouldn't expect to see much of him early in the season. 2025 Carolina Panthers Win Total DraftKings Over/Under: 6.5 Pick: Over (-125) The Panthers are doing all the right things to turn their franchise around. After their No. 1 overall pick flopped as a rookie, they went out and got him one of the league's best offensive minds as his next head coach before bolstering the line in free agency. When Young showed promise at the end of his second season, first-year GM Dan Morgan doubled down on his ascent by spending the No. 8 overall pick on a wide receiver. If any team was going to make the leap from basement dweller to .500 this year, it would be the Panthers. Matthew Berry looks at Tetairoa McMillan joining the Carolina Panthers and breaks down why the former Arizona receiver is entering a favorable fantasy setup in Dave Canales' offense.
USA Today
7 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Alabama lands top softball transfer from Big Ten program
Alabama lands top softball transfer from Big Ten program According to an announcement earlier this past week on social media, the Alabama Crimson Tide have landed a commitment from Iowa Hawkeyes softball transfer Jena Young. Young is the first transfer portal addition for the Crimson Tide so far this offseason. A rising junior infielder, Young appeared in 59 games for the Hawkeyes this past season in which she was one of Iowa's top hitters, slashing .359/.477/.545 with three home runs, 27 RBI, and seven stolen bases. This was only a year after Young appeared in 46 games for the Hawkeyes as a freshman where he owned a .373 AVG with four home runs, 18 RBI, and six stolen bases. Owning a career .366 AVG, Young was also a First Team All-Big Ten selection in both seasons, and is likely to make a significant impact for the Crimson Tide in 2026. Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion.
USA Today
12 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Dan Orlovsky makes bold prediction about Panthers QB Bryce Young
Dan Orlovsky makes bold prediction about Panthers QB Bryce Young "I would bet on Bryce Young this season.. I believe in Dave Canales and I love the addition of Tet McMillan.. This is a very good offensive line and I love the way Bryce Young bounced back last year"@danorlovsky7 #PMSLive — Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 18, 2025 A former NFL quarterback is ready to bet on Bryce Young. ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky joined this past Wednesday's episode of The Pat McAfee Show. When asked which young quarterback he thinks will make the biggest jump in 2025, he points to Young and the support system that the Carolina Panthers have surrounded him with. Take a listen: Despite some high hopes for his first season under first-year head coach and "quarterback whisperer" Dave Canales, Young got off to a miserable start in 2024. After throwing for 245 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions in a pair of blowout losses, the former No. 1 overall pick was benched for veteran Andy Dalton beginning in Week 3. Young would get his second chance in Week 8, and he didn't look back. Over the final 10 games of the campaign, he totaled 2,327 yards, 20 touchdowns and six picks while leading the Panthers to four wins. Carolina has since added more help for Young in the form of 6-foot-4, 219-pound Tetairoa McMillan, the eighth overall selection of the 2025 draft. They've also used the offseason to bring back their starting offensive line as well as few key depth pieces including Cade Mays and Brady Christensen. So if continuity is key, then Young and the Panthers will probably make Orlovsky look awfully good by the end of the year. Follow @ThePanthersWire on Twitter/X for more Panthers content.
South Wales Argus
15 hours ago
- General
- South Wales Argus
Nominations open for the 2025 Welsh Charity Awards
Nominations are open for the 2025 Welsh Charity Awards, organised by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA), which honour the contributions of charities, community groups, and not-for-profits. The deadline for entries is June 30, 2025. Dr Lindsay Cordery-Bruce, chief executive of WCVA, said: "We are fortunate enough at WCVA to regularly hear just some of the countless inspiring stories from every corner of Wales. "We're proud of our awesome everyday heroes, but many frontline charity services are facing increasingly high demand while at the same time financial pressures are putting them at risk of closure. "We need to share their stories and show the world what they mean to people and how we simply can't do without them. "These awards are a chance to recognise the tireless efforts and innovative approaches of those who go above and beyond to support others." The awards ceremony will take place on October 16, 2025, at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. Categories include Volunteer of the Year, Young Volunteer of the Year, Fundraiser of the Year, Champion of Diversity, Use of Welsh Language, and Organisation of the Year. Nominations are free and can be submitted through the Welsh Charity Awards website.
