The Paladins showed up in the NFL Draft. Micah Robinson and long snapper Julian Ashby were selected in the seventh round.

Both played four years for the Paladins, graduated from Furman and played their final years elsewhere.

Robinson was selected by the Green Bay Packers as the 21st pick of the seventh round (238th overall), and Ashby was selected by the New England Patriots as the 35th pick of the seventh round (251st overall).

 Robinson, from Atlanta, Ga., was a four-year letterman for the Paladins from 2020-23 who saw playing time in 42 games and made 22 starts while registering 103 tackles, five interceptions, and 21 passes defensed during his Furman career.  As a senior he tallied 34 tackles and two pickoffs in helping the Paladins to a 10-3 record, Southern Conference championship, and quarterfinal round appearance in the FCS playoffs.

 After securing his undergraduate degree in communications from Furman, he played the 2024 season at Tulane, where he totaled 33 tackles and a pair of interceptions.

 Ashby, a product of Lilburn, Ga., was also a four-year letterman for Furman from 2020-23 and one of the school’s most highly decorated student-athletes.  He received the Dr. John M. Block Academic Award, which is presented to the male senior with the highest grade-point average, and the Dr. Gary Clark Student-Athlete Achievement Award that “recognizes a senior, female or male, who has embodied throughout their entire Furman career what it truly means to be a Paladin student-athlete through academics, athletics, campus involvement and community service.”

Ashby played the 2024 season at Vanderbilt, where he saw action in all 13 games and collected the second CSC Academic All-America citation of his collegiate career.

 Robinson and Ashby are Furman’s first NFL Draft selections since offensive tackle Dakota Dozier was taken by the New York Jets in 2013 in the fourth round.  The last time Furman had two graduates selected in the same draft was 2000 — safety John Keith (4th Round, San Francisco 49ers) and Desmond Kitchings (7th Round, Kansas City Chiefs).

Furman University prides itself in a mix of academic and athletic achievement. Recent developments check all the boxes.

For instance, Furman athletics is ranked among the nation’s more successful NCAA Division I programs, particularly when one considers its size, in Learfield Directors’ Cup Division I competition for the school year.

Updated standings place Furman 112th among the 260 schools that have registered points for teams qualifying for NCAA Championships.  The Paladins’ rank first among Southern Conference institutions, topping  Mercer (158th) and Wofford (174th).  Other ranked SoCon programs include UNC Greensboro (T217th), Samford (T217th), The Citadel (T255th) and Chattanooga (T255th).
Furman has paced all SoCon schools in the competition six times over the last eight years and was the league front runner in March of 2020 when the Covid pandemic halted competition.
Furman’s current tally of 107 points has been earned on the merit of two sports — men’s cross country and men’s soccer — qualifying for NCAA Tournament play this year.  Cross country claimed its 12th SoCon Tournament championship and finished 17th at the NCAA Championships, and soccer rode its SoCon Tournament crown into NCAA Tournament play, where the Paladins advanced past 14th-ranked North Carolina on penalty kicks in the first round before falling to eighth-ranked Marshall in second-round action.
The Paladins will add to their points tally this spring after recently claiming SoCon Tournament Championships and qualifying for NCAA Tournament play in women’s tennis and women’s golf.
The Learfield Directors’ Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution’s NCAA Tournament participation.

Women’s lacrosse wrapped up the regular season on Saturday afternoon with a 22-9 victory over Winthrop at Paladin Stadium to clinch a share of the program’s first-ever Big South regular season championship.
Furman claimed its third regular season title in program history and first since 2021.
Furman set new school records for both wins and home wins in a season, improving to 13-3 overall and 7-1 in the Big South. The Paladins also finished the regular season undefeated at home with a 9-0 mark. With the loss, Winthrop dropped to 6-10 on the year and 4-4 in conference play.

Ten different Paladins scored in the victory led by Anna Roser’s eight points on five goals and three assists. Lily Toole also finished with five goals.
Goalies Madigan Brewer and Sailor Henderson combined for seven saves. Brewer improved to 10-0 in goal after contributing two ground balls.
Scarlet Cifarelli paced the Eagles offensively with four points on two goals and two assists. In goal, Mikaylah Lindsay and Emma Calhoun combined for 10 saves.
The Big South Women’s Lacrosse Championship starts with the first round on April 29 and is being hosted by the higher seeds. The semifinals and finals are slated for May 2 and May 4 at the site of the league’s number one seed.

Western Carolina tallied six runs in the bottom of the third inning on Sunday en route to a 10-1 victory over Furman as the Catamounts claimed the best-of-three series versus the Paladins at the Catamount Softball Complex.

 With the win on Sunday, the Catamounts improved to 22-28 overall and 6-12 in Southern Conference play. Furman dipped to 15-33 overall and 5-13 in the league.

Western Carolina broke the scoreless tie with two runs in the bottom half of the second. Sydney Dirks opened the frame with a single and Imara Harrell put two runners in scoring position with a double down the left field line. Dirks scored on Mattie Mentel’s groundout and Tate Stewman followed with an RBI single to left to double the Catamount lead.

 A six-run bottom of the third put Western Carolina in control.

Senior Tessa Juett (9-14) picked up the win after holding Furman to an unearned run on four hits over five innings. She walked two batters and fanned four.

First baseman Kiley Perry belted a pair of three-run homers to power Furman to a 4-5, 7-6 doubleheader split versus Western Carolina on Saturday afternoon

Pitcher Amanda Fulton delivered a walk-off single, her first career hit, to plate Lily Bell in the bottom of the ninth as Western Carolina rallied to defeat Furman, 5-4, in the opening game.

 After the Catamounts trailed 4-2, Maya McPherson tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center field in the bottom of the seventh to score Courtney Marks, who opened the inning by reaching base on a four-pitch walk.

 The Paladins opened the eighth with a pair of walks and loaded the bases on Sylvia Burroughs one-out base on balls, but Fulton struck out Kiley Perry and induced a fly out from Rachel Hawkins to end the threat.

Furman used a five-run sixth inning to erase a 5-2 deficit as the Paladins captured a 7-6 victory over the Catamounts in game two on Saturday.

 Trailing 5-2 after five innings of play, Goldwait and Burroughs reached on singles to set the table in the top of the sixth inning for Perry. The Alpharetta, Ga., responded with a towering three-run homer to left field to knot the game at 5-5. It marked her third three-run blast in the last three games and 27^th career home run.

 Hawkins followed with a walk and Katie Peeler singled to keep the Paladins’ rally going with one out in the inning. Marshburn’s base hit up the middle loaded the bases, but Fulton, pitching in relief of Makenzie Martin, got pinch hitter Madison Perry to foul out for the second out of the inning. With two outs, Kate Stoltzfus delivered a two-run double down the right field line to plate Hawkins and Peeler to give the Paladins a 7-5 lead.

Buzhardt, who tossed 4-1/3 innings of relief, earned the win to up her record to 6-11. The Saluda native surrendered just one earned run on four hits in her second relief outing of the day.

 Perry went 2/4 with a double, homer and three RBI while Burroughs went 2/4 with a pair of runs batted in.
Senior Dylan Schubert finished second in the 1,500 meters invitational to lead the Furman men’s track and field teams this weekend at the Charlotte Invitational at the Irwin Belk Track and Field Center.

A native of Loveland, Colo., Schubert posted a personal-best time of 3:42.33 in the event, while freshman Tripp Roemer placed sixth with a 3:49.12.

In the 5,000, sophomore Chris Knight finished fourth at 14:17.03, while sophomore Owen Shifflett crossed the line in 14:31.72 for seventh place. Senior Foster Wilfong recorded a personal-best time of 14:32.03 for ninth place.

Senior Gabe Montague finished ninth with a time of 1:56.74 in the 800, while freshman Alexander Friedli was 12th with a personal-best time of 1:59.03.

The Paladins will compete at the Southern Conference Championship, May 12-13, in Birmingham, Ala.

Three Furman student-athletes and a Paladin cheerleader are among 67 initiates into the university’s chapter of The Phi Beta Kappa Society for the graduating classes of 2025 & ‘26.

 The student-athlete trio includes women’s soccer’s Helen Gutierrez, women’s cross country & track’s Megan Marvin, and women’s tennis’s Grace Thomas.  Paladin cheerleader Ella Harrison was also among the honorees.

Founded in 1776 during the American Revolution, Phi Beta Kappa celebrates and advocates excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. Its campus chapters induct the most outstanding students at America’s leading colleges and universities, and only about 10 percent of the nation’s institutions of higher education have Phi Beta Kappa chapters.

 The Gamma Chapter of South Carolina was established at Furman in 1973.

 Students are considered for election to Phi Beta Kappa on the basis of scholarly achievements in the liberal arts and sciences, broad cultural interests and good character.

A team captain, Gutierrez, from Statesboro, Ga., played in and started 16 matches as a senior.

A senior standout in cross country and track from Chapel Hill, N.C., Marvin earned an All-American citation in the 1,500 meters in 2022. She holds the Furman record with 17 SoCon titles, including eight individual championships, four relay titles and five straight SoCon cross country team titles.

Thomas, a senior from Sunshine Coast, Australia, helped the Paladin women’s tennis team to the 2025 SoCon regular season championship and tournament title.  During her career, she earned All-SoCon citations in both singles and doubles after going undefeated in league singles matches as a junior and in league doubles matches as a senior. 

Marshall is a communications studies major from Morristown, Tenn., and holder of a 4.00 GPA.  She was recently accorded first place recognition for her video sports story, “Born To Fight,” which profiled the story of Anastasiia Savchenko ‘27, a Ukrainian national taekwondo champion who fled Ukraine with her family following the outbreak of war. 

As a member of Furman’s competitive cheerleading squad, Marshall helped the Paladins to a recent 10th-place performance in the Intermediate All Girl Division I at the 2025 NCA College Nationals in Daytona Beach, Fla.

I hope you’ll take a look at my books on Amazon. While my early books were non-fiction, recent years have seen me concentrate on works of fiction.