Friday, February 26, 2010

Dewhurst to forgo final season as 49er

Charlotte 49ers junior forward Charles Dewhurst has decided to forgo his final season of eligibility to pursue post-graduate studies at another school.

Dewhurst, who starred at Charlotte Latin, is in the process of completing his fourth season with the 49ers and will graduate in May. Dewhurst sat out his first season as a redshirt.

Dewhurst, a business marketing major, hoped to continue his post-graduate studies in Charlotte’s Sports Management graduate program. However, the program has been suspended and no longer taking new applicants.

“This is nothing against the basketball program,” said Dewhurst, who will join the marketing office at The Basketball Times as an intern after this season.

“I’ll finish the season strong and I wish the team the best in the future. Unfortunately, the (graduate) program that I’ve been looking to isn’t being offered anymore.”

Dewhurst missed his first season due to an injury and missed the second half of last season after injuring his knee in a game at Maryland in January 2008. In between, has been one of the 49ers’ most athletic players and a strong rebounder.

“Charles has been a huge part of our program over the past four years and has overcome much adversity due to injuries,” Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz said. “I respect his decision and regret that his career choice is no longer offered at UNC Charlotte.

“While I wish he would stay, I understand and support his decision to choose what is best for his future.”

Dewhurst is averaging 3.0 points and 3.9 rebounds in about 15 minutes of play this season. He is the team’s fourth-leading rebounder and is third in assists (39). He leads the team in free throw shooting percentage (82.2 percent).

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

We will miss Charles, but I understand he has to do what's best for him. Good luck to him with his future and we all hope to see him visit Halton as a fan in the future.

Anonymous said...

How dumb is Mazzola (however you spell the Business dean's name) to drop a program that could have been very influential in a city where sports are a major way of life? I thought he hired teachers who are visionaries and not shortsighted managers.
Dewhurst is just one unfortunate loss. Many others have been screwed by the dean, too. And, I loved watching him play.

Anonymous said...

Luckily, Dewhurst will have some extra games this year, as the Niners are all but assured post season in the NCAA or NIT.

Anonymous said...

Good Luck to Charles. He is one of my favorite players on this year's team.

Post season for sure but it's a shame the Observer has intentionally kept the A10's successful season (6 projected NCAA bids) from the public while promoting the ACC almost daily. Why do they always try to keep the Niners a secret from the public?

Anonymous said...

Yeh the Niners are such a secret. Get over yourself.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear this. Best of luck to Dew. He did alot of the dirty work this year that won us many games.

Whose great idea was to drop the Sports Marketing program in a city that has an NFL team, an NBA team, the home of NASCAR and it's Hall of Fame, and minor league baseball and hockey teams.

I swear we continue to take 1 step forward and 2 steps back at this University.

Anonymous said...

I haven't been on campus in a long time so I don't know the ins and outs of how the Sports Marketing program got canned. It is a program that is needed, not only because of all the sports we have around here, but most of the big corporations have sports marketing departments. It would be smart to have this program at a local university to feed talent into the local sports marketing jobs.

This was a smart decision for Dewhurst. At least he understands that he's not going to play in the NBA and needs to prepare for a career (can't say that about a number of recent 49er players who also weren't good enough for pro ball).

Anon 9:16 AM - The reason is that every employee of the Observer is a UNC grad except Jim Utter. If Utter gets assigned to the NASCAR beat we'll never see an Observer article on the 49ers again.