GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – When Atlantic Coast Conference teams kick off their football seasons later this week, additional sets of safety-conscious eyes will watch intently from on high.

As announced by Commissioner John Swofford at the ACC Kickoff on July 20, the 2015 season will include assigned medical observers from each team at every game. Each observer will occupy a specified location in the press box to monitor any visual indicators of potential injury to a student-athlete from his or her team.

Medical observers will have communication access to their teams’ medical staffs on the sidelines. Upon a medical observer’s notification of a visual indicator of an injury, that sideline personnel shall act upon that information in accordance with their institution’s athletics medical plan.

“The team-specific medical observer will have the benefit of knowing the medical history of the players,” Swofford noted. “Each game that we play, there will be two people in the booth – one from each school – that will have the sole purpose of observing what’s taking place on the field that somebody on the sidelines might not be able to see.”

The ACC initiative was unanimously approved by the conference’s athletic directors.  In recent years, ACC member schools have taken the lead in concussion research and other player safety points of concern.

“In the areas of health and safety, I can’t say enough about our institutions,” Swofford said. “As a league, and personally as a former player, we are supportive and an advocate for making the game of football as safe as it can possibly be.”

Jeffrey Allen has been named the director of student activities and athletics at Vance-Granville Community College.

Allen will oversee clubs, organizations and extracurricular activities that engage students on campus, as well as the college’s intercollegiate athletics program, which includes men’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams. He will also serve as the advisor for the VGCC Student Government Association (SGA). Allen was active in student government when he was an undergraduate, and feels passionately about involving VGCC students in such opportunities.

A resident of southern Granville County, Allen has been a member of the VGCC staff since May 2012, when he became coordinator of Basic Skills at the college’s Franklin County Campus. In January 2014, he was named VGCC’s Director of Leadership and Professional Development.

Allen earned a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at North Carolina Central University and a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction at Western Governors University. He had a 14-year career in education at the K-12 level prior to joining VGCC. Allen has served as a math teacher for Vance County Schools, a math teacher and dean of students at New Century Charter High School in Chapel Hill, and a math teacher and assistant principal at Christian Faith Center Academy in Creedmoor. During his last three years at Christian Faith Center, Allen also served as the school’s athletic director.

“In all of his roles at VGCC, Jeffrey has shown his commitment to the mission, vision and values of our college, as well as a passion for student learning, engagement and success. Now, we look forward to his leadership in providing exciting opportunities and experiences outside the classroom for all of our Vanguards,” VGCC Vice President of Employee and Public Relations Stacey Carter-Coley said. “Under his direction, we will also continue to develop our athletic program, which not only offers excellent opportunities for our student-athletes, but also serves and enriches our whole community of fans and supporters.”

Rougemont, NC

There was a time when stock car auto racing was so popular that a touring division known as the Hooters Pro Cup Series thrived at local short tracks across the east coast. However, in recent years, NASCAR and all of racing has taken a hit.

The CARS Tour that invaded Orange County Speedway on August 1^st is a little different. The CARS Tour was born from the remains of the now defunct USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, but they now use super late models, and late model stock cars like you would see at a short track on the tour. This allows the drivers more flexibility as to where they can run their racecar on a weekly basis.

Brandon Setzer, son of longtime NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Dennis Setzer, won the super late model race at Orange County Speedway on August 1^st. The CARS Tour super late models allow young drivers like Brandon Setzer to drive high horsepower racecars in preparation for future days in NASCAR.

Josh Berry, driver of the SPEEDCO Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, raced at Orange County Speedway the week before the CARS Tour came to town to dial in his machine. He won the late model stock portion of the CARS Tour Race at Orange County.

From JoshBerry.net, “I’m really proud of all our guys for working so hard this weekend. This series is really competitive, so to be able to get two wins in our first two starts is impressive. It really turned into a long race with a lot of cautions, so I just had to keep focus and get good restarts to keep the lead. The outside groove seemed to really work for us, so it was real important to stay out front to have lane control for the restarts. I feel like racing at OCS last weekend really helped me learn the track, and I was able to use it to my advantage in the CARS race.”

In the NASCAR racing we see on TV, those drivers do not get a chance to practice at the track that they’re racing at next week, and that is what makes the CARS Tour different and exciting to fans and competitors.