ASQ issue 4 final

Quarterly

august 2016

Highlighting the Spirit of Building Winners for Life

Welcome to the ASUN’s new head Coaches!

realized potential

Training others to Make a Difference

GRAB, GRIP & LIGHT IT UP SUPERIOR GRIP from thousands of micro-pebble touchpoints ENHANCED CONTROL through moisture-wicking channels EXCEPTIONAL FEEL by a Cushioned Core

THE OFFICIAL

BASKETBALL OF @wilsonbasketball © 2015 Wilson Sporting Goods Co.

WINNING MOMENTS BEGIN AT WILSON.COM

CONTENTS

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New Faces among head coaching ranks

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A total of 11 ASUN teams begin the season with a new head coach.

Learn more about them here.

training others to make a difference

USC Upstate Asst. AD for Sport Medicine Sandy Sandago joined the Spartans 11 years ago because he believed he could make a difference.

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realized potential The ASUN’s representative to the NCAA Division I SAAC has grown right along side the ASUN’s own SAAC

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commissioner’s corner

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professor supports veterans at lipscomb

Lipscomb University Professor Tom Seals’ new book shares “God’s Words for Warriors” while supporting veterans

institutional news

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Who’s hot/ watch list NJIT’s Four-Star Alum

From ROTC to the Pentagon, the HighFlying Career of NJIT’s General Ellen Pawlikowski

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a-sun news

22 a partnership’s evolution A new office location is the latest in the expanding partnership between the ASUN and LakePoint Sporting Community

Connect with the ASUN ASUNConference @ASUNSports @ASUNBSB @ASUNMBB @ASUNWBB @ASUNXCTF @ASUN_Golf @ASUNWLAX @ASUNSoftball @ASUNSoccer @ASUNTennis @ASUNVolleyball ASUNSports

@ASUNCommish @ASUNCompliance @ASUN_Patrick @ASUN_Johannes @ASUN_Kat @ASUN__Mark @ASUNPR

Atlantic_Sun

ASUN Conference

Commissioner’s corner In collegiate athletics, as well as in business, solid partnerships often serve as catalysts that raise organizations to unparalleled levels of success. As the ASUN continues its pursuit of excellence, we are thrilled to share the new and enhanced partnerships built in recent weeks. These relationships, with organizations that share our passion for student-athlete success in the classroom, in competition and in the community, will contribute significantly to the ASUN in both the short and long term.

The ASUN, together with the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the American Athletic Conference, announced the formation of a men’s basketball officiating consortium. The three conferences will work collaboratively to improve all matters related to recruitment, education and training, assigning and evaluation of men’s basketball officials. This announcement extends the ASUN-SEC officiating partnership which already includes shared leadership with joint coordinators of officials in baseball, softball and women’s basketball.

Another expanded partnership includes the recent announcement of a new ASUN office location in the Champions Center at LakePoint. Already an official ASUN partner, the LakePoint Sporting Community boasts multiple world-class facilities on its expansive campus. The ASUN will house its media relations department at LakePoint, providing significant connection with the college coaching population which recruits and competes there, the prospective student-athletes who are showcased there, the Atlanta media covering events there, and with the LakePoint team that serves as host for ASUN Championships and meeting events.

Finally, Baron Championship Rings is partnering with the ASUN to provide another enhancement to the championship experience for its student-athletes, coaches, and institutions.

Ted gumbart Commissioner @ASunCommish

By keeping our student-athletes at the forefront of what we do, connecting in common objectives, and setting out to impact lives together, each of these relationships will support the ASUN’s continued rise to a brighter future.

Conference Staff Commissioner Ted Gumbart

Associate Commissioner/SWA Meredith Eaker Associate Commissioner John Roberts Associate Commissioner Mike Hagen Assistant Commissioner Patrick McCoy

Director of Business Services Pat Bush

Senior Director of Championships Craig Threlkeld Director of Championships Keith Hendrix

Director of Media Relations Johannes Schneider

Director of Broadcast Services Olivia Walter

Executive Assistant/Office Manager Melody Battle Media Relations Intern Katherine Malcolm Media Relations Intern Mark Pinkterton

SINCE 1978, the ASUN Conference has supported its member institutions in Building Winners for Life through vibrant intercollegiate athletic experiences.

ASUN members maintain the highest standards in academic and athletic achievement, creating balance between “student” and “athlete.”

With emphasis on sportsmanship in the competition and fostering transformative leadership experience through community service, ASUN student-athletes, administrators and member institutions aim for a complete educational experience that is successful in Building Winners for Life.

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Compiled from staff reports

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ue to excellent and enhanced performance, Florida Gulf Coast University is expected to receive $17.8 million in performance funds for the 2016-17 year, which reflects net new funding of more than $3 million. The funding is subject to confirmation by the full Board of Governors.

The amount is FGCU’s latest award for excellence or improvement on the metrics put forward in 2014 by the Board of Governors, which oversees the State University System of Florida (SUS). FGCU received $8.1 million in performance-based funding for 2014-15 and $13.1 million for 2015-16.

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aculty and students from a variety of disciplines at Jacksonville University are conducting a research study to assess the impact that standing has on students’ health: physical; mental; neurocognitive; and academic performance and classroom behavior.

To do that, Oristand “standing desks,” will be used by students during classroom lecture time, in order to determine their benefit. The goal is to find a strategy to reduce sedentary time for college students who spend about eight to nine hours a day sitting.

The project is part of “Collaborate JU,” a program in which students and professors from multiple disciplines have joined forces with industry experts to solve challenging problems, all with the goal of helping students become actively engaged in their educations and be better prepared for the workforce.

set up group texts or get rid of malware.

The students share their computing and technical knowledge with a generation attempting to embrace the digital era.

Students and seniors alike enjoy the interactivity, and students do more than simply fix their problems. They teach the seniors citizens what they need to do in the future and help them write down step-by-step instructions, if needed.

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ipscomb University has once again been honored as a College of Distinction for the 2016-2017 school year. The Colleges of Distinction designation is given to select schools to honor their excellence in studentfocused higher education.

Lipscomb is one of only 336 universities across the nation named to the list. According to the Colleges of Distinction website, a College of Distinction is nationally recognized by education professionals as an excellent school, strongly focused on teaching undergraduates and whose students are taught by credentialed professors, not by graduate students or teaching assistants, home to a wide variety of innovative learning experiences, an active campus with many opportunities for personal development and highly valued by graduate schools and employers for its outstanding preparation.

rofessionals from NJIT’s New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), were recently part of a team that conducted the first ship-to-shore drone delivery in the United States.

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The flights demonstrated the capacity of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to provide lifesaving aid to victims of a disaster, NJIT spokesperson William ennesaw State computing students recently took their digital Marshall said, “The use of this disruptive technology in supporting humanitarian knowledge into the community and emergency operations is a major to help senior citizens overcome their technology dilemmas during the “Geeks paradigm shift and significantly enhances the ability to support field Giving Back” event. medical operators and first responders in remote or otherwise inaccessible During these free tech sessions, disaster sites.” senior citizens ask students from the Association of Information Technology Professionals chapter for help, such as how to sync passwords across devices,

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institutional news

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niversity of North Florida students will soon have an opportunity to earn a master’s degree in a new form of communication management.

Moving beyond the traditional tracks of journalism, public relations, etc., the program expands the leadership component in a media-centric environment. It is a result of input from students and media professionals, along with examination of how job opportunities increase with the skills that the program provides. The broad-based degree will enable students to specialize in a myriad of fields such as business, public health, leadership and nonprofit or public managment.

The non-traditional program is the first of its kind in Florida, allowing students to put their own curriculum together along with common core subjects and other requirements. The program’s first classes begin January 2017.

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ary Anne Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., University of South Carolina’s vice president for system planning, began serving as the interim chancellor of the University of South Carolina Upstate on Monday, August 1.

Fitzpatrick, an Educational Foundation Distinguished Professor of Psychology, has served as vice president of system planning for nearly a year, responsible for ensuring the improvement of quality, coordination and effectiveness and long-range planning for the statewide system, which has nearly 50,000 students across eight campuses.

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tetson University College of Law’s Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication launched “Teaching Legal Writing: Out of the Box Ideas Inside,” an educational service project with legal writing experts around the country.

“The Box” was introduced in July and features a boxed collection of idea cards for teaching legal writing as well as online teaching materials to accompany the idea cards. The project launches with a box that includes a half-dozen legal writing teaching idea cards organized by topic and created by Institute. “The Box” will be updated annually with new teaching ideas in categories ranging from writing organization to research and attribution.

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student-athletes | ASun quarterly

Who’s hot?

Kayla Ostrom and Amanda Carroll Lipscomb’s Ostrom, the 2015 ASUN Scholar-Athlete and Setter of the Year, and FGCU’s Carroll, the 2015 ASUN Freshman of the Year, recently competed for the U.S. Collegiate National Team as part of the USA Volleyball Girls’ National Championship in Indianapolis, Ind. Ostrom and Carroll were two of 36 collegiate players selected for the fourday tournament in late June. The Bisons and Ostrom enter the 2016 season in search of their third-straight ASUN Regular Season title, while Carroll hopes to push the Eagles on top after finishing second last year.

Tabby tindell The two-time ASUN Player of the Year returns to Fort Myers hoping to deliver FGCU’s seventh-straight ASUN Regular Season title. Tindell enters the season on pace to break the conference career record for points and goals. She could become the first-ever ASUN Women’s Soccer student-athlete to earn three conference POY accolades.

Daniel Murphy Murphy, a twotime MLB All-Star, appeared in his second midsummer classic in July as the 2006 ASUN Player of the Year is enjoying the best season of his career.

The Jacksonville alum owns one of the top batting averages in the majors and has belted a career-high in homers. Playing for the Washington Nationals, the 2016 ASUN Hall of Fame Inductee looks to appear in his secondstraight playoffs.

ASun quarterly |

Student-Athletes

Who to watch Brooke Sweat A 2007 Second Team ASUN All-Conference member from FGCU, Sweat turned her sights to the beach following her career with FGCU. Currently a teammate to Lauren Fendrick, Sweat qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics in Beach Volleyball. From August 6-18, Sweat and Fendrick aim to collect an Olympic Gold Medal.

seamus power A two-time ASUN Championship Individual Medalist, Power joins Sweat as a former ASUN student-athlete at the Rio Olympics. The 2009 Golfer of the Year represents Ireland as golf returns to the Olympics for the first time since 1904. Ranked 51st, Power is one of 60 golfers in the world set to compete in the 72-hole tournament from August 11-14th.

ryan cornfield, stoney crouch, chris guglielmo, Phillip knowles At least four current or former ASUN Men’s Golfers will be teeing it up in the upcoming USGA Amateur Championship at the Oakland Hills Country Club on August 15-21. USC Upstate’s Ryan Cornfield, Lipscomb’s Stoney Crouch, Kennesaw State’s Chris Guglielmo and North Florida’s Philip Knowles all qualified at local tournaments over the past few weeks for the event. More could follow with qualifying wrapping up in the next two weeks.

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real passion real dreams real GAME.

join us at

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Trademarks owned by Molten Corporation or Molten USA, Inc. ©2015 Molten USA, Inc.

ASun quarterly |

ASun news

Inside story

by the Numbers

ASUN Selects 2016 Hall of Fame Class

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The ASUN Hall of Fame Class of 2016 boasts another impressive collection of individuals who made an incredible impact on the conference. Bill Bibb, Willie Jackson, Daniel Murphy, and Cindy Russo will be inducted on October 17 at the Sawgrass Marriott in Jacksonville, Check out some of their credentials below.

Bill Bibb Former Commissioner of the conference, Bibb is one of the first founding members of the ASUN. His more than 50 years of experience in collegiate athletics encompasses several roles from student-athlete, assistant coach, head coach, and athletic director to commissioner. Bibb is the winningest coach in Mercer Men’s Basketball history and served as Commissioner of the ASUN for 15 years. During his tenure he oversaw the conference expansion to include women’s sports, started the Presidents Council and negotiated a Friday Night Basketball deal with CSS. Willie Jackson Jackson, a three-time TAAC Player of the Year, left an incredible mark on the conference, program and NCAA during his career at Centenary College from 1980-84. He capped his four years as a Gent with 2,535 career points and 1,013 rebounds. He remains one of 20 players in NCAA history to score 2,500 points and grab 1,000 rebounds, joining all-time greats Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson and David Robinson.

Daniel Murphy Murphy is a two-time MLB National League All-Star and was named the 2015 NLCS MVP after leading the New York Mets to the pennant. Murphy has played 1,003 career games in the majors, with most of them coming at second base. The 2006 ASUN Player of the Year and First Team AllConference selection played his first seven seasons in the majors with the Mets before signing with the Washington Nationals this past offseason.

Cindy Russo Russo turned FIU into a TAAC/ASUN women’s basketball powerhouse winning nine regular season titles, that included seven straight. She guided the Panthers to six conference championships, boasting four consecutive from 1992-95. Several of Russo’s student-athletes earned individual accolades, consisting of three Conference Players of the Year, five Tournament MVPs, seven All-Americans and 26 All-Conference selections. calendar

Fall Events Oct. 29 Cross Country Championship Spartanburg, SC (USC Upstate)

Oct. 29; Nov. 4-6 Women’s Soccer Championship Campus sites ESPN3

Nov. 4, 6, 12 Men’s Soccer Championship Campus sites ESPN3

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The total number of FGCU current/former studentathletes participating in the upcoming Rio Olympics.

Former volleyball star Brooke Sweat will represent the U.S. in beach volleyball on the famous Copacabana beaches. Recent graduate, Lani Cabrera, will be in the pool as she represents Barbados, while current junior swimmer Evita Leter will be swimming for her native country of Suriname.

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Record percentage of ASUN student-athletes who received academic honors by earning a 3.0 GPA or better during the 2015-16 academic year. Lipscomb University claimed its third straight Presidents’ Academic Trophy as nearly 84 percent of its studentathletes earned a 3.0 GPA or better.

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Percent of increase in 201516 over last year’s record amount of broadcasts provided via ESPN3.

Nov. 17-19 Volleyball Championship Nashville, Tenn.

(Lipscomb) ESPN3

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asun saac | ASun quarterly

Realized Potential

KSU’s Brittney Reed has grown along with her responsibilities with ASUN SAAC

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relevant to NCAA student-athletes.

s a freshman student-athlete at the University of Florida, Brittney Reed was a bit unsure as to how to begin plugging in as she made her way on campus. Her shallow understanding of what the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) existed for was not unlike many in her situation, and so in her first year in Gainesville she participated very little.

“It is important for student-athletes to speak on behalf of student-athletes,” said Reed. “You are representing your team on the campus level, representing something greater than yourself.”

Reed’s fulfilment from SAAC originates from her enjoyment of serving others, being involved, and meeting new people through networking. Reed is thankful for her previous SAAC advisor who saw in a freshman who lacked confidence, the potential that she is now realizing.

“I had gone to one meeting, but I wasn’t as involved as I am now,” said Reed. “A lot of people don’t know what SAAC is about and are intimated to go at first, but going to one meeting can totally change your outlook. One of the things that I have learned since then is that SAAC is a great way to get involved and to make a difference.”

Reed says that often student-athletes begin participating in SAAC as simply another activity to put on their resume. While that is certainly a beginning point to an experience that is much greater, she encourages student-athletes to move beyond that self-centered initial step, of which she speaks from first-hand experience.

“That is not the best way to go about things,” she adds. “In all honesty I began participating in SAAC once I transferred to Kennesaw State. I went to apply for a job and the manager looked at my resume and said, ‘you have nothing on your resume.’

“That opened my eyes because I realized that I wasn’t doing anything as far as community service or in any form of leadership. He made me realize how important that is, how when you go to get a job after college your prospective employer will look at all of that.

“That experience created a desire in me to get involved in something that involved leadership, but that was the initial reason that I got involved.”

Once Reed took that initial step, she came to a clear understanding of the importance of SAAC to the studentathlete. Members of a campus SAAC have the opportunity to address issues affecting student-athletes at their institution; furthermore, members have the opportunity to offer input on issues which may be national in scope.

The campus committee is meant to serve as a local student-athlete voice in addressing issues of student-athlete welfare at their respective institutions.

Campus committees can facilitate better communication among studentathletes from various athletics teams to address issues common to all.

The campus SAAC may also serve as a conduit of communication among student-athletes, coaches and athletic administrators on issues to improve the student-athlete experience and promote growth and education through sports participation. Concerns can be voiced and solutions offered regarding any issue that may be

“My SAAC advisor at the time is the one who encouraged me to apply for the National SAAC position,” said Reed. “I didn’t really know what SAAC was and she helped me understand it and I got more and more involved.

She believed in me and so that helped a lot, because I wasn’t very confident my freshman year coming in. I applied for our campus president position and the national SAAC position at the same time, and I ended up getting the national SAAC position.

Along with her involvement in KSU’s campus SAAC, Reed also serves ASUN student-athletes at large as the conference’s representative to the Division I National SAAC which consists of one student-athlete from each of the 32 D-I conferences.

The mission of the Division I SAAC is to enhance the total student-athlete experience by promoting opportunity, protecting student-athlete well-being and fostering a positive studentathlete image. Specifically, Division I SAAC fulfills its mission by soliciting student-athlete responses to proposed NCAA legislation, reviewing and commenting on the governance structure, suggesting potential NCAA legislation and actively participating

ASun quarterly |

in the administrative process of athletics programs and the NCAA. Reed attends the regular Division I SAAC meetings and reports back to her peers at biannual ASUN SAAC meetings in January and October. During those meetings she leads discussion to educate her peers on the latest relevant issues and how they affect studentathletes, shares the temperature of the national SAAC on those issues and solicits feedback in order to accurately provide the ASUN’s perspective.

She has also encouraged ASUN participation in a number of initiatives, such as the “It’s On Us” video campaign to stop sexual assault on campus, and ASUN-specific projects including a conference-wide blanket and food distribution initiative last November/ December. Brittney is also the oncampus ambassador at KSU for Team Impact, a non-profit that works with children who have long-term illnesses.

That experience stands out to Reed as one of her most meaningful.

“I was really close with a little boy that worked with our baseball team, “ said Reed. “Also, his mom had breast cancer and my mom had breast cancer, so I became close with the family. I went over to the house with the baseball coach and some of the players, and she and I began to text and it was really cool to see how she appreciated it. Taking dinner over there was the biggest thing to them, and I also set him up to throw out the first pitch at one of the KSU games. It is so rewarding to see a smile on their face at the end of the day.

Reed has also taken a leadership role in establishing and conducting monthly ASUN SAAC leadership calls, and she attributes a large part of her growth to her time at KSU and her involvement with SAAC at the campus, conference and national level.

“I have gained a lot during my time in the ASUN. I have grown personally and professionally. I have grown on the soccer field and in the classroom.

And I will take a lot of professional development for sure away from my involvement with SAAC,” said Reed.

“I have learned how to run business

“It is so important that studentathletes speak up and that they understand why things are the way that they are. The athletic department staff are trying to work for us and to enhance our student-athlete experience, so if they can get our feedback and really understand where we are coming from on certain issues, they are willing to help change them.

But they are not going to know unless we say something.”

meetings, how to lead conference calls, develop agendas, and build relationships with many different types of people.“ Reed recently graduated and interned with the KSU athletics department this summer, spending time with each of the different departments. She is preparing to begin work toward a master’s degree in applied health and exercise science with a concentration in sport management this month, with the ultimate goal of a career in intercollegiate athletics. She is excited that she has been able to continue in her growth as a leader just as the ASUN SAAC is also growing in momentum.

“I think it is really exciting how the ASUN SAAC has grown over the past couple of years,” said Reed. “When I first came in we were like, ‘what do we say, how is this run?’

“Now when we go to meetings everyone is talking, everyone wants to be involved, everyone is asking questions.

The conversation is such that we often have to make the group move on to the next item because people are engaged.

They want to understand why things are the way they are and how they will impact all student-athletes, not just from their sport. It has been exciting and a privilege to be a part of that.”

The hot topic for Reed and her peers concerns time demands of the studentathlete. For more than a year the

ASun saac

NCAA has been examining how college athletes spend their time via surveys.

Nearly 50,000 Division I college coaches, athletics administrators and studentathletes responded to ensure the demands of academics, competition, practice and travel are managed fairly.

Reed has taken the lead on the issue with ASUN student-athletes, and via a time demands task force the conference is equipping Reed with a set of best practices and recommendations.

As she goes about her work at the national level and with the ASUN SAAC, Reed is bolstered by the assurance that the ASUN is truly a student-first organization.

“One of the things that I love about the ASUN is that it is more than just your sport. In the ASUN academics come first, then your sport, and we also focus on community service, leadership, character development.

“Plus, it means a lot that the ASUN is truly a student-first conference,” said Reed. “I feel like it is a huge investment that the conference and its membership puts that much faith in us as student-athletes. In turn, that is a huge responsibility for us, whether it be revealing our new logo or educating ourselves as to what the conference is all about.

“Getting feedback from us on the logo was huge because obviously we are the first conference to do that. I think it was cool for our conference to take the initiative and show others what can be done by student-athletes.

Hearkening back to the basis of SAAC existing as a voice for the studentathlete, Reed’s exhortation to her peers is to be a part of what is affecting them.

“It is so important that student-athletes speak up and understand why things are the way that they are,” said Reed. “The athletic department staff are trying to work for us and to enhance our studentathlete experience. If they can get our feedback and really understand where we are coming from on certain issues, they are willing to help change them.

But they are not going to know unless we say something.”

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Coaching | ASun quarterly

Who’s Who?

new head coaches will lead 11 asun teams into their respective 2016-17 seasons

Chris Hayes Baseball

• JU Assistant Coach 201315; 2003-2008 • Helped Dolphins to eightyear batting average of .288, scored 5.95 runs per game and averaged 78 per season in his tenure as an assistant coach • Mentored four AllAmericans, two freshman All-Americans, 19 ASUN All-Conference selections, 12 ASUN All-Freshman selections, three ASUN Player/Pitcher of the Year award winners • Helped coach the Dolphins to back-to-back ASUN Conference titles and NCAA Regional appearances (2006, 2007) • Four-year starter at JU (1992-95), drafted twice by MLB’s Seattle (1994) and Toronto (1995) • Led the Dolphins to consecutive NCAA Regional appearances (1994, 1995) and ranks among JU’s alltime leaders in RBI, at-bats, hits, doubles and total bases.

Agnus Berenato Women’s Basketball

• Winningest coach at University of Pittsburgh (10 years) and second all-time at Georgia Tech (15 years) • Led Yellow Jackets to 1992 WNIT title and firstever NCAA Tournament appearance in ‘93 • Took Pitt to five straight postseason berths including the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2008 and 2009 • Totals 444 wins in 29-year coaching career that also includes four years at Rider University • Mentored five AllAmericans and 37 AllConference selections • Coached Pitt’s first -ever WNBA selection in Shavonte Zellous • Named an ACC Women’s Basketball Legend in 2014 • Two-time Atlanta Tip-Off Club Division I Coach of the Year • Member of three halls of fame

Laura Maness Women’s Lacrosse

• Led Detroit Mercy to four straight ASUN Championship game appearances • Winningest coach in UDM history • Served 11 years as head coach across all three divisions of the NCAA (Detroit, Lake Erie College and Waynesburg University) • Coached an ASUN Player of the Year, one ASUN Defensive Player of the Year, one ASUN Freshman of the Year, 12 ASUN AllConference First-Team selections, nine SecondTeam selections and the last two ASUN Scholar-Athletes of the Year • Led Detroit to the first ASUN victory over perennial power Jacksonville en route to the program’s fourth straight ASUN Championship game

Benji Walton Women’s Soccer

• Has coached at Division I, II and III levels • Spent last three years as an assistant at Indiana, where he helped the Hoosiers to a 2013 NCAA Tournament appearance and the best winning percentage in program history • Also coached at Birmingham-Southern and Limestone College • Helped Indiana establish program single-season records for goals, assists and wins • Mentored two NSCAA All-Region players, one All-Big Ten Conference second team honoree, 45 Big Ten All-Conference All-Academic selections and four Capital One Academic All-District V selections • As head coach, BSC shared the SCAC regular season championship in 2012 and became the program’s alltime wins leader • Helped four players to NSCAA All-Region honors, five to All-Region Scholars while at BSC

ASun quarterly |

Fernando Barboto Men’s Soccer

• Takes over NJIT’s most decorated team over the years, with the school’s only national championship in any sport and 12 different players recognized as AllAmericans between 1960 and 1983 • Built Iona College into one of the top Division I men’s soccer programs in the Northeast and a perennial contender in the MAAC • Led Iona to double-digit wins in five of last eight years with only one sub.500 record that included two close losses to Top-10 teams • MAAC Coach of the Year as Gaels went 14-2-3 in 2009 • Gaels also went 15-4-1 in 2011 • Helped mold several players who play professionally including three straight MAAC Offensive player of the Year selections in Franklin Castellanos, Ignacio Maganto and Victor Munoz • Coached numerous conference award winners including five All-MAAC honorees, three NSCAA AllRegion selections and 12 MAAC All-Academic picks in 2013 alone • Four-year letter winner and NSCAA All-American as player for Montclair State

Brian Kennedy Men’s Basketball

• Served as assistant coach at NJIT since 2012 • Family’s involvement with basketball includes Dad, former college and high school coach Bob Kennedy, and uncle Pat Kennedy, former D-I head coach at Iona, Florida State, DePaul, Montana and Towson • From 1990-97 and again from 2009-2012, led the family business, the Hoop Group, which became the largest basketball instructional organization in the world • Served as an assistant under Pat Kennedy at Depaul, helping the Blue Demons to the NIT quarterfinals in 1999 and the NCAA Tournament in 2000 as a Top 25 team • Widely respected in basketball recruiting circles, including compiling the class that helped NJIT topple #17/#16 Michigan in 2014 and in the defeat of St. John’s in 2015

Ally Nick Women’s Soccer

• Product of La Salle University, where her teams won 39 games and tied six in four seasons • In five years as an assistant coach at La Salle, the teams went 70-27-11 • First four seasons as an assistant were the program’s best, reaching the NCAA Tourmament four straight years and capturing the Atlantic 10 regular season title three times and the tournament title twice • Honored as a NSCAA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year (2012, 2014) • Coached a back line at La Salle in 2011 that was not scored upon for 11 games and maintained a .58 goals against average that also led to an 18-game unbeaten streak • Responsible for La Salle’s academic progress, during which time the team had the highest GPA of any of the University’s 23 teams in eight of nine semesters and claimed 31 academic awards

coaching

Laurie Merian Women’s Lacrosse

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• Spent last two seasons as assistant coach for the Titans • Helped the team set program records for victories (10 in 2015, 12 in 2016) • Helped the Titans to the ASUN Championship final in 2015 and 2016 • Helped coach the Titans to the first conference victory ever against Jacksonville • Has been a part of teams setting program records in six statistical categories • Coached the Titans to the 28th-best scoring offense in the nation in 2016 and the 26th-best in 2015 • Coached Kaitlyn Wandelt to ASUN Freshman of the Year honors as well as the NCAA Division I leader for freshmen in six statistical categories • Coached a pair of MidMajor All-Americans, four ASUN All-Conference First-Team selections and an ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year • Spent three years as head coach for Division III Alma College, building the program from scratch • In second and third seasons had Alma competing for a conference championship and coached 12 All-League recipients

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Coaching | ASun quarterly

Tyson John Women’s Soccer

• Former Martin Methodist women’s soccer head coach, compiling a 74-23-4 record in five seasons • Led Martin to four consecutive NAIA Tournament appearances and two straight visits to the NAIA Quarterfinals • TSAC Coach of the Year in 2011 and 2012 • Coached 13 NAIA AllAmericans and two NAIA Scholar-Athletes • Also spent two seasons at Lyon College, posting a 226-3 mark during the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

• Total coaching record of 96-29-7 (seven seasons) • Began in coaching as an assistant coach with United Soccer League (USL) W-League FC Fredericksburg Gunner Women from 2007-09 • Three-time NAIA AllAmerican student-athlete at Ottawa University and Southern Wesleyan University from 2005-07 • Earned three AllConference selections as well as three NAIA AllRegion First Team awards • Also garnered NSCAA South Region Player of the Year honors in 2006 and 2007 • Played professionally for five seasons in the USL/ PDL as well as the PASL

Bryan Harmon Cross Country

• Coached 36 all-conference runners and an AllAmerican during his two seasons as an assistant coach for men’s and women’s cross country and track and field at Florida A&M • Mentored four athletes to individual MEAC Championships in 2016 • Helped guide the women’s track and field program to its second straight MEAC Outdoor Track and Field team championship in ‘16 • Has head coaching experience, with eight years as the head coach for men’s and women’s cross country at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio • Also helped launch the school’s men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field programs, serving as the head coach for those programs over the next seven years • Had athletes represented at each indoor and outdoor NCAA Division II National Championship from 201013 • Coached Lake Erie’s first ever National Championship winner in 2012.

Jared Vock Men’s Soccer

• Begins his third season with the Hatters • Experienced in developing talent, particularly in his eight years prior to Stetson with IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. • Trained players aged 12 through 18 and worked with the Under 14 & Under 18 U.S. Soccer Development Academy Teams • Also served as an assistant coach with IMG’s USL PDL team the Bradenton Academics in 2014 • Played collegiately at both USF (2001-2003) and LeMoyne (2004) • Conference USA AllFreshman team selection, as well as being named allconference as a freshman and sophomore.

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winners for life

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Four-Star Power: the High Flying Career of NJIT’s General Ellen Pawlikowski

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t a ceremony last June at the Women in Military Service Memorial, Ellen M. Pawlikowski ‘78, was promoted to the rank of four-star general in the U.S. Air Force. Just the third woman in the branch’s history to receive a fourth star, Pawlikowski directs the 80,000-person Air Force Materiel Command, whose stated mission is to “equip the Air Force for world-dominant airpower.”

As she puts it, “We make sure everybody’s got food, but we’re also deciding on the look of the jet my granddaughter’s going to fly when she’s 25 years old.” Did Pawlikowski, a chemical engineer urged by NJIT professors to pursue thermodynamics research at Berkeley, ever imagine she would become a fourstar general? “Absolutely not!” she replies.

In the interview that follows, she touches on her unusual path to the Air Force, the highlights of a fast-moving career that led to work on nuclear weapon monitors, airborne lasers and chemical and biological weapons defense, what it’s like to manage town-sized Air Force bases and the experiences of women in the military.

How did you choose a career in the Air Force?

I had no military background whatsoever before I got into college. My only real exposure was living through the Vietnam War as a child. So I joined Air Force ROTC when I got to NJIT, more out of curiosity, and ended up staying for two reasons: I liked the atmosphere and I liked the camaraderie. When I got to NJIT in 1974 it was a total commuter school, and there were fraternities, but no sororities. There was very little of that collegiate social environment, particularly available to women. It wasn’t that we were excluded – it just wasn’t there.

So my affinity for ROTC came from knowing that it was a place to go and socialize. We loved the lounge. It was a single room in the basement of Eberhardt Hall, and it served as our office for conducting ROTC activities, but also as a place to relax and study between classes. Since NJIT was at that time a commuter school, a place to hang your hat on campus was a precious commodity.

I did not join ROTC for the money. In fact, I was not a scholarship recipient in my first year, because ROTC scholarships were not available for freshman women. You could only get a scholarship if you were a pilot, and women couldn’t be pilots then. At that time, during what I call ‘the last great energy crisis,’ I was a chemical engineer and I had three different scholarships my sophomore year from chemical companies. After working during the summer and then part-time for a private company – which I really enjoyed – I nevertheless decided I didn’t want to spend the rest of my

life making money for somebody else. I liked being part of something connected to a cause, and I wanted to use those talents for other greater purposes. I didn’t have any grand ambitions for Air Force service. I wanted to be a development engineer and learn as much as I could. I didn’t look past the first four years. That’s why I signed an ROTC contract my sophomore year, and I received a scholarship the next year.

Did you ever imagine yourself rising to the level of fourstar general?

Absolutely not! You have to remember the circumstances back then. Women couldn’t be in operational career fields, and the environment was not conducive to women staying in the military long-term. It was a time when women in uniform could be discharged from service if they became pregnant or even adopted a child. However, I kept getting opportunities.

The Air Force just kept connecting me with opportunities that offered me something new and interesting to do.

My early assignments were driven by the Air Force’s needs for B-52 radar navigators. So my assignments more or less followed my husband’s (Paul Pawlikowski ‘76) assignments.

My first job was in a laboratory that analyzed samples of materials from around the world monitoring for nuclear weapon materials. I started designing equipment for gas separations. But before long, the laboratory director promoted me to be in charge of the mass spectrometers and microbeam instruments. I didn’t have a lot of technical depth in these areas, but the director recognized my ability to learn quickly and to lead people. It was a real challenge to get up to speed on the technology while also leading young Airmen who were our technicians. It was in this job that I realized how much I enjoyed the combination of challenging technical

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problems and leading people at the same time. Opportunities like these are what kept me in the Air Force.

Can you describe a typical day on the job?

For me, it’s been very eye-opening to understand the full scope of the command to ultimately make sure our Air Force is ready when we need it. I’ve been a part of Air Force Materiel Command, off and on, for about a third of my career. Every time I see and notice different pieces of it. The other thing that’s amazed me is the talent and capability of the command’s personnel.

They are so smart and so dedicated, and it’s very heartwarming to me.

One of the things you’ve got to realize is when there are 80,000 people in your command, you have to entrust a few jobs to others. You can’t do it all yourself. On a typical day, there are meetings where I’m collecting data – the information I need to fit into my strategic thinking or get things done. At another set of meetings, I’m asked to make a decision to go in direction A or direction B.

I spend a third of my time on the road. For example, during the week after Thanksgiving last year I went down to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. This is a base within our command, which means that we own the little city on it, if you will. We’re responsible for all of the roads and even the commodes there. But the Air Force Research Lab is there, too. That’s where they’re doing research on new weapons and flying test aircraft at our center there. So I met with leadership, took facility tours, and did a commander’s call, meaning I go out and talk to the Airmen about what’s happening in the Air Force and where the command is headed. You might say a good portion of my day is framing information and making decisions based on it. The other portion of my day is spent communicating to the workforce what those strategic decisions are.

We are in the process right now, for example, of improving the way we manage the workforce. I recently decided to transition the command from one type of civilian personnel management system to a new one, and we’re in a kind of demonstration phase. Building up to that decision we had a lot of discussion about the challenges, because we believe we need to better develop and mature our civilian workforce to ensure they have the right skills in the future. This system provides more flexibility with personnel processes, so that people are in assignments that are the right fit and can be compensated accordingly for those contributions. Like most things, there were folks not in favor of it and folks who were,

so I had to be the one to make the decision. It’s a big decision because it impacts roughly 60,000 people – about 20,000 of us in AFMC are military personnel and the rest are civilians.

Another kind of decision I make is how to provide the support for a new aircraft, like the F-35A (Lightning II), for example.

The F-35 is the Air Force’s fifth-generation fighter aircraft, and it’s supposed to replace other aging fighter aircraft we’ve been using for more than 20 years or so. We need to figure out, for instance, where to do the repairs and provide other logistical support.

What future technologies are we investing in now?

We have what we call game-changer technologies. One of these is hypersonics – the ability to travel at extremely fast speeds of Mach 5 or 6.

This will enable us to get a weapon on a target very quickly from a long distance. Right now, if we had a threat in Syria, we would have to have airplanes close enough to be able to launch an attack. With hypersonics, we would be able to launch from the United States and get there in a matter of minutes.

Another game-changing technology is directed energy. This is lasers and high-powered microwaves. For those of us who grew up with Star Wars and Star Trek – it’s not quite the hand-held thing you saw – but a technology that again allows us to get power, if you will, on a target from a very long distance. Autonomy is a third game-changer. This allows us to have devices like robots that can not only operate on their own and think, but also interact as a human. So, you might have a jet with a drone, and that drone flies like a wingman would in the plane. I’ve talked about using swarming drones as a weapon. But to swarm, you still need some level of autonomy. Those are the three big areas we consider the game-changers that we’re investing in right now.

There is one other area I see as a game-changer: additive manufacturing. It relates directly to how we support our installations and weapons systems. If you look at what I have to do as part of this command, it’s getting supplies all over the world and making sure we have the right things in the right place and at the right time. I wouldn’t have to be shipping parts if I could just manufacture them in place where they’re needed. Say I have a bunch of aircraft, like C-130s, at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and there are parts I need to replace on a periodic basis. Instead of buying them and stockpiling them, I could just have a 3-D printer and all the materials on-site to make the parts I need.

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Can you name a couple of peak experiences in the military?

The one I highlight the most is when I spent five years as laser program director of the airborne laser, which I know sounds like something out of science fiction. It was a 747 model that had a chemical laser in the back, and it fired the laser through a set of very sophisticated optics via a special nose on the airplane. We were going to use it to blow up missiles like Scuds, which were used against the U.S. in Desert Storm.

The airborne laser allows you to go long distances with a very high-energy laser. It was an extremely challenging program and also extremely challenging from a political perspective.

The political challenges stemmed from differing opinions between the President and Congress on how to approach missile defense. As that debate continued, we would often find the program budget cut or funds added, depending on whose opinion carried the votes.

I was no longer on the program when we were finally able to shoot down the missile, but I was there when we fired the big laser test at that first target. So after four-and-half years of daily work on the project, it was very rewarding to see that happen.

The other career highlight was when I spent three years in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In that role, I was responsible for chemical and biological defense after Desert Storm broke out. We were trying to figure out what we needed to do to protect against biological agents, and one of the answers was to vaccinate people. This was a very difficult decision for the military to make because there were concerns about the vaccine’s side effects. My job was to make sure we had the right technical information to guide the decision. I was with the Undersecretary of the Navy at the time we made the decision – ‘we’ being the Department of Defense, as the decision was made at the highest level with the Secretary of Defense involved – and we were able to lay out a strategy that enabled us to vaccinate people to ensure their safety. So, when I think about contributions, there were literally thousands of lives potentially saved by providing a solution to protect against a biological weapon.

Can you describe your experiences as a woman in the military?

To a degree, some of my experiences as a woman in the military are hard to distinguish from those of being an engineer. When I started at NJIT, I was part of the largest women’s class to ever come in, but even then – throughout

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most of my ROTC career, as well as my career at NJIT – I was the only woman or one of only two women in any class. Many of the attitudes that made it challenging were as much prevalent in society as they were in the military. In the military, there were more direct institutional barriers concerning, say, becoming a pilot, a navigator or a missileer.

On the engineering school side, it was less spoken but more understood that there were certain obstacles. We lived with, for example, one physics professor who started every class with, ‘Gentleman, this is what we’re going to do today.’ For the most part, even though we like to say engineering is a maledominated field, I can tell you that I’ve met very few engineers who cared whether you were a man or a woman.

They just cared about your capabilities. People asked if I had a hard time in class. I will tell you, whether it was at graduate or undergraduate school, I never had trouble finding a lab partner.

I will also tell you from my professional experience that I believe the military is more open, more ready than other environments to acknowledge and recognize the value of providing opportunities to 100 percent of the population, rather than only 50 percent. Initially there were barriers, because there were limited places, and the attitudinal and cultural barriers that went along with that. When I was a young officer, for example, one of my instructors was giving us feedback and he said to me, ‘You did really, really well, far better than I ever thought any woman would do in this group.’

He then proceeded to tell me, ‘but I’m not going to make you a distinguished graduate because these other male officers need it more. They’re going to go off to be generals.’ Those institutional restrictions are essentially gone now. Over the years we have gradually eliminated most of those.

Click here to read the entire, 15-question interview in which Gen. Pawlikowski explains how a chemical engineer evolved into an acquisitions executive, opines on the importance of technical skills, reflects on women’s impact on military culture and describes how her forthright and determined mother’s early experience with health challenges shaped her own and the general’s lives.

– Tracey Regan, NJIT Communications

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administration | ASun quarterly

USc Upstate’s Sandy Sandago: training others to make a difference

What attracted you to USC Upstate from Oregon State?

I just started my 11th year at USC Upstate. Eddie Payne was at Oregon State and he and I had maintained a friendship and conversation from the time he left Oregon State. I was looking for a change and we were having discussions and he asked if I would ever consider leaving and I said that I hadn’t thought about it but the position here was open and he thought I could make a difference.

I don’t know that there are more important words in anybody’s life than that you can make a difference.

My wife and I talked it over and we thought we would take a look. When we got here we saw an opportunity and felt like we could come and see what happens.

What are some of the differences that have been made?

First and foremost came the commitment to having a facility to take care of our athletes in the manner that was needed. The space that we came into was less than half of what we have now. It was also a bit underequipped. We had just made the announcement that we were moving to Division I and along with that had to be the commitment to the well being of our student-athletes.

I was fortunate to get here at a time that we recognized as an institution our need for an upgrade in our abilities to take care of our studentathletes and in having the tools to do so.

We were able to take over a small visiting locker room and large shower area and incorporate it into the space that we have now. It is not ideal but it is far better than we had. We now have a dedicated wet area for our icemaker and polar pools. But we simply had conditions that I could understand

why we didn’t have a lot of kids coming in to be taken care of. The expansion and moving things a bit did help.

The staff that I inherited was phenomenal in terms of trying to get things done. In addition to myself another part-time person was added as well to give us another body. With anything, having an appropriate number of people to take care of the number of studentathletes you have is critical.

The need for bodies is recognized. In terms of continuity of care it is very difficult to have multiple assignments and travel multiple sports because when you are on the road with one group, the group that is at home doesn’t have you there. It is something that we all face in terms of athletic training. How we manage care for a large number of athletes is something that I am amazed in how we do it, not only here but in our conference overall.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing athletic training?

Everybody is talking about concussion aspects. The amount of information that is available for concussive events has exploded in the last 10 years and picks up more speed every year in terms of what we know. What we know now in terms of what we did 20 years ago makes it look like somewhat archaic.

What we know about head trauma and CTE should be enough to scare everybody from saying, ‘Oh it’s just

ding, go ahead and go back.’ As much as you read, there is more to be read.

As much as you learn, there is more to be learned about it.

We are trying to educate our studentathletes who still have the pervasive “warrior” mentality - ‘I can do this, it is not that bad.’ Or the use of Ibuprofen where one is the prescribed dose, most people take two, but I need four because nobody hurts the way I hurt.

If I can take jut a little bit more, then I can get through this.

We are trying to educate and help them understand that this is the only vessel they have for a 60, 80 or 90year trip. If we don’t take care of it now, at the end of the ride you don’t want to have to repair over and over again. The decisions that we make now are so critical. And they aren’t critical for the next 45 minutes of a soccer half or the next 40 minutes of a basketball game, but the next 45 years.

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Short-term answers for short-term results do a disservice to our studentathletes.

Does being an administrator help or hinder you in your job?

Well, actually both. Being an administrator and being able to weigh in on department wide initiatives and have good relationships with my athletic director is important. I have been able to speak openly about concerns and observations that I have had. Being in an administrative role and being able to talk about the health and well being and how it interacts with the academic aspects, I have been able to speak with professors and discuss what a particular injury, like a concussion, means to them in regards to a particular studentathlete.

It is advantageous to be a part of the administration and to see what challenges the university is facing to know how that is going to impact athletics and the student-athletes.

In terms of preparing our staff, it means that I am in a meeting periodically and unavailable to do treatments. That is where having a great staff picks up pieces for you.

Nothing happens in a vacuum, and that is what we try to teach our studentathletes all of the time. Decisions don’t just affect you; nothing you do is by yourself. Everything affects everyone.

We saw that last year when we had four student-athletes pass away. It wasn’t just those players and their families, or just those teams; it was every team, because all of our athletes know each other.

You are chair of the ASUN athletic trainers group. How has that been beneficial to the conference?

I think that seeing the things that we see with the perspective that we have and being charged with the role as primary caregiver with groups of student-athletes on campus, we are in a position to see things and hear things that administrators don’t get at the ground level.

We are at practice and treatment every day. Each group at every university probably interacts with at least 50 percent if not more, of their studentathletes on a daily basis.

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world. Luck first involved me, in that the individual who was supposed to work had a medical issue come up and couldn’t work. Because Nike was in collaboration with the event, someone with whom I had done work previously passed my name along and I was able to do it.

I worked with the world team and it was a fantastic experience. The next year I did not work the game, but the following year a spot opened and I took advantage of it and I have been there from 2013-2016.

It is really a neat group at USA Basketball.

I have worked with individuals who work with the national team, NBA scouts, and we come in take care of young men for a week and play a game and look forward to seeing each other the next year.

The concerns that we have are very real. We realize that we all have similar situations and similar stories; it is just that we wear different colored practice gear and uniforms. To be able to have conversation in regard to insurance, rule changes, changing scope of practice seasons, etc., and then take that information and decide whether or not to propose action to the conference office at that level. We have asked for a couple of things that we have presented for discussion in terms of health and well being for the student-athletes.

You have been involved with USA Basketball for a few years. Talk about that experience.

USA Basketball sponsors the Hoops Summit, in which the USA National Junior select team plays a group of under-19 youth from across the

The last three No. 1 picks in the NBA Draft are people I have taken care of - Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and now Ben Simmons. I developed a good relationship with Towns and communicate with him on a regular basis.

It has been a very neat situation.

What is the most rewarding part of what you do?

The day-to-day process of working with people to help them realize their goals. It is not always overcoming a physical situation. You develop relationships with them because you see them at their most vulnerable point, unfortunately, when they are hurt. But there are also times when there is also the mental or emotional that you may become involved in.

When I was a student in the late 1970s at Washington State, I did a summer internship at a hospital’s

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rehabilitation ward. There was a quadriplegic who was going through obviously an incredibly difficult time. He was fitted for braces and had just enough motor skill with the braces and crutches he was able to get out of a chair and to take a few steps. Watching that happen and being involved in that process was one thing, but watching his wife and kids see what he was able to do was beyond anything that athletics is really given.

On the other end of the spectrum, being at the Hall of Fame induction with Gary Payton was so special. Having worked with him through college and maintained a relationship with him through all of the years and get to see him receive the ultimate honor as a basketball player was really great.

What is the biggest challenge or frustration in your current role?

I think it is the same across the board for everyone - having enough time to do everything that you need to get done.

That is every athletic trainer regardless of administrative level.

I have an incredible group of people that work with me that pick up pieces while I am doing other things. I joke sometimes that I tried eating enough to be in two places at once and it doesn’t work.

The reality is that we are not on the same level of the Power 5 schools, but we will do all that we can with what we have and make that as magical as we can make it.

How do you manage to fit time in for family and things outside of athletics?

There are very few athletes here who do not know who my daughters are. My daughter who is in high school now has a different schedule than she used to, but my eight-year-old comes to the training room and hangs out with Dad and works behind our bench during games. The older one used to and now the younger one is taking over.

They are both Girl Scouts and in late January when it is Girl Scout cookie time, you see that smiling face and it is tough to say no!

The girls have always been here and my wife’s work schedule allows her to attend home games. We have an environment in that not only is my family welcome here, but it allows our student-athletes to see that side of us a bit as well. We are not just part of the machine, but we have interests and we have a life outside of this. You can look at the artwork from my daughter on the wall and know that it means something to me.

You have been in the ASUN for a number of years. How have you seen the conference change for the better?

I think the conference is starting to assume its own identity. in terms of this is who we are and this is how we are going to do business.

We are at eight stable members and like with anything, stability brings benefits in being able to move together as a group. We went through the learning curve in our first year or two in the conference. How do we fit? What is it that we need to do? Do we do the things the way they need to be done within this group of people?

We all learn and grow through that, and I think that is another advantage of us meeting as athletic trainers. When you come to our place, here is what I can do to help make your life easier. Here is what each one of us can do for each other to make our lives easier.

Looking back and examining your time at Upstate, how have you made a difference?

I think I have helped create an environment in which our student-athletes can come to us to get problems handled.

I think we have fostered an environment in which our student-athletes are comfortable in coming to us regardless of what is wrong. I think that is the greatest thing that any one of us can hope to give our group of athletes.

The relationship that we have with our student-athletes is a special situation. I had another student-athlete pass away years ago in 1992 and it was devastating to me because of the relationship I had with him. I was extremely close to him and his family before he passed away and it does change you. It changes how you do things. It is not anything you would ever wish on anybody, what we went through as a department last year and what I went through some 20-plus years ago.

We do what we do for the little things, like him coming over to do homework at my house so that he could get away and listen to my jazz collection. A lot of people remember the championships and who their coaches were and all of that, but for me, I remember the journey along that way and the little things that helped make special things occur.

It is a bunch of details that come together in perfect alignment that allow you to have something magical.

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professor’s new book supports veterans at lipscomb To really understand a person, you have to walk a mile in his shoes … or combat boots.

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hen Tom Seals stands in front of his “Faith and Culture: God’s Words for Warriors” class each semester he sees the faces of men and women who have performed heroic deeds, seen unspeakable atrocities, been a part of harrowing combat missions and feel a strong sense of duty to their country.

He sees minds that are eager to learn, who need a framework for finding meaning in civilian life.

He sees a 17-year-old version of himself.

Seals joined the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17 — just ten days after he graduated from Hume Fogg High School in Nashville.

He recalls that, “I wanted to be a Marine so bad, and there wasn’t money for me to go to college.”

He served three years in the Marines and finished the final five years of his commitment working for a government agency that sent him around the world on a number of classified missions, which he continued for a few years after fulfilling his duty.

It was an experience that left a profound mark on Seals’ soul and shaped the way he viewed the world and others. He had no idea at the time how that experience would prepare him to connect with others who would “walk in his shoes” generations later.

Today, nearly 60 years later, Seals has a special place in his heart for the men and women who attend Lipscomb University through the veterans’ services program. He understands in a profound way the challenges veterans face each day as they reenter civilian life, begin a journey to earn a degree and to settle into the “new normal” of their lives.

A number of veterans have come to Lipscomb seeking a place to earn a college degree and to help them transition into a new chapter of their lives. Lipscomb University offers a unique opportunity for veterans who qualify for 100 percent of the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to earn a tuitionfree undergraduate degree through the Yellow Ribbon Enhancement Program. The university also offers qualifying student veterans a variety of graduate degrees tuition-free or at a greatly reduced tuition rate.

Since its inception in 2009, Lipscomb’s veterans’ services program has served more than 500 students and has been recognized nationally for its quality. This spring, Lipscomb was named a top 15 Christian college for veterans and in 2014 U.S. News & World Report ranked Lipscomb as the second-best regional university in the South for veterans.

“Faith and Culture: God’s Words for Warriors” has become a safe place for student veterans at Lipscomb to explore their military experiences and how they have shaped their outlook on relationships, faith and life in general in the days and months that have followed after they return home.

A labor of love Seals has used his experiences in this specially designed course for veterans and the conversations that have taken place in this class as the basis of a new book he released this spring — “God’s Words for Warriors: Returning Home Following Deployment.” The book was released this spring.

“There was a great need for a faith-based course focusing on spiritual development while addressing physical, mental and moral experiences that many veterans have faced,” says Seals, associate professor of Bible. “So we developed this faith and culture course designed specifically for veterans in mind. The lessons taught in this course and the often tough conversations we have led me to write ‘God’s Words for Warriors.’”

Seals says the book addresses several situations that American soldiers face in their goal of achieving normalcy in their post-deployment futures.

“In seeking to assist our veterans in reconnecting with their culture, this book begins with the principle that the first reconnection must contain a spiritual or faith component,” he says. “This book addresses many of the issues the returning veterans face. The designed purpose is to establish a growing and deepening relationship with God, family and fellow believers. The end goal is to bring a wholeness of life to each veteran-spiritually, socially and physically — a life that our Lord desires for all.”

Seals compiled the material he developed for his course and put it together in a study guide form. The book is

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designed for use by universities across the country as well as by church groups or others who want to offer a study targeting the needs of veterans. All of the proceeds from the sale of “God’s Words for Warriors” go to support the Endowed Chair for Veteran Chaplaincy/Bible at Lipscomb University.

“My mission is to raise enough money so we can fully endow a chair in chaplaincy in the College of Bible & Ministry targeted for veterans or training chaplains,” he says. “The need for chaplains in the military is great. My hope is that through this we can fund a professor, ideally a retired chaplain, who can work with our veterans and teach courses such as this.”

Chad Staggs, director of Lipscomb’s veteran services program, says the book and the course are much-needed resources.

“It’s difficult for veterans to transition to civilian life. There are a number of challenges we face,” says Staggs, a 21year veteran of the U.S. Air Force. “The things we have seen, done and overcome … everyone handles that differently.

What Dr. Seals does is take a raw look at this and peel back the layers. He has the perspective of a veteran, which makes this even more effective for our students.”

“Dr. Seals’ contribution as a chaplain, mentor, coach and counselor has made a significant impact on a lot of lives. He is passionate about veterans and about their faith. What he is doing is laying a foundation for programs not only at Lipscomb but at churches and universities across the country through his book and the course he has developed that will serve veterans and their families for years to come.”

A ‘safe place’ The need for courses that allow veterans to “be themselves,” to process their experiences in the field and to transition to a new normal is great.

“My Marine Corps experience gave me insight into what the military is all about,” he admits. “Being of the military and experiencing the things I did with my government work, I just have a heart for our service men and women. Since Lipscomb began the veterans’ services program, I have identified with the veterans that came on campus.”

I developed this as a course in faith and culture as a place where we can talk about these issues — a safe place. It’s a great class.”

Statistics show that veterans wrestle with these issues at alarming rates. Post-deployed veterans account for 14 percent of the total number of individuals experiencing depression, resulting in an alarming rate of suicide among veterans. The Tennessean reported in an April 3 article that the Pentagon stated that 265 active-duty service members killed themselves in 2015, continuing a trend of unusually high suicide rates among U.S. military men and women.

Seals understands that it often takes time for his students to open up to others as well as admit to themselves that there are issues they need to work through in order to successfully transition into life after the military. He has created a safe haven in the “God’s Words for Warriors” class.

“Veterans are able to go into this class to talk about tough things like marriages, depression, anger and anything they want to,” he says. “It’s like the old saying, what goes on in this class, stays in this class. It’s been enriching to me.

“This class is making a difference in the lives of these veterans. When they get in there they talk to each other. They don’t feel alone. The biggest problem our veterans face is that they withdraw. It’s just a good experience for them in the class.”

Each week students are asked to write a reflection paper on the discussion topic. One week the discussion turned to suicide.

“One of my students told me that he just couldn’t bring himself to write a reflection paper, because he once tried to take his own life. I told him not to worry about it,” Seals remembers. “Three weeks later he handed me the paper. He told me that was the best thing he had ever done because he got to write it down and express his thoughts. This is the kind of honest, safe discussions we are able to have.”

Knowing that many veterans are wounded physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually as a result of their experiences, Seals “decided that we need to help them heal.”

One veteran reported in a required paper, “I was always the one to help others out of their struggles. But, I had no help in my struggle with depression and thoughts of suicide. The people who should have known me best didn’t, and they suffered for my lack of control. I was depressed and didn’t realize the actions I was taking, nor did I care. I was numb. My friends didn’t see it.”

“So I started thinking if we could have a class just for the veterans where we could address some of the issues like PTSD, anger management, survivor guilt, depression, suicide.

“Family, friends and loved ones play important roles in becoming involved in the lives of veterans, and we are finding that when the spouses hear these discussions they suddenly have a greater understanding of why their husband or wife

“The best way to work with our veterans is to be able to identify with them … you know, where they are and some of what they’ve experienced. That helps them identify with you.

It just became a natural fit for me to reach out to this group of students. I was one of them so to speak,” he says.

Seals says spouses of the student veterans are also invited to participate in some of the class sessions so they can gain insight into the challenges facing their loved ones that will improve and strengthen those relationships.

acts and reacts the way they do,” he says.

A faith journey In addition to serving as a haven for letting their guard down for open discussions, Seals says the class helps veterans examine their faith, which can be a difficult endeavor.

“Our veterans are very interested in faith but they don’t like the church. I can understand that because the church doesn’t know what they’ve experienced and how to serve and understand them,” he says. “Churches often don’t know what to do with veterans and as a result say and do hurtful things.

At the same time we can treat and teach and help the veterans to know what the church is all about. We have to develop in their lives a better understanding of the church. The church isn’t the enemy.”

Seals’ own journey to becoming a theology professor at a Christian university began in an unlikely way that goes back to that 17-year-old boy all those years ago.

“My family didn’t go to church,” he recalls.

“I wasn’t raised going to church.”

One day as a young government employee on assignment, Seals encountered an American missionary located in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“He talked to me. We studied and he got me really thinking about my faith,” he says. “I was becoming very disillusioned with the things I had seen and done in my military and government career and I was looking for something more.”

At age 26, Seals was baptized in Switzerland. This missionary encouraged Seals to begin teaching and preaching. “About this time I was ready to leave my government job behind me and start a new journey.”

In Warrenton, Virginia, Seals saw the work of God in a “chance” encounter with a woman in a shopping center.

“She asked me where I went to church and told me there wasn’t a church in that city. She said that I should build a church,” he remembers. “So I helped build a church. Then I decided to make a change from my government job. I returned to college – to Lipscomb – to finish my degree in Biblical languages.”

After finishing his undergraduate degree, Seals returned to Warrenton while he worked on his master’s degree at Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C., and he continued to work with the church he helped establish there. After about five years, he returned to his hometown of Nashville where he was an adjunct professor in Bible while he worked on his Doctorate of Ministry at Memphis Theological Seminary, which he completed at age 59. He has been a fulltime professor at Lipscomb ever since.

“The Lord works in strange ways,” he muses.

Seals’ work also includes educating Lipscomb’s faculty and

ASun quarterly | faculty staff about how to understand the unique perspective of a veteran.

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“Sometimes a professor won’t understand why a veteran misses classes or has trouble paying attention or has to sit with their back against a wall,” he says. “Sometimes we have to find creative and innovative ways to work with our veterans, like offering alternative options for completing course work. We also have to make the Lipscomb community more alert about what the veterans bring to campus. At the same time we have to make our veterans recognize that they have a responsibility as well. It’s a two-way street.”

What does the campus need to know about veterans?

“They bring a maturity to our campus. They bring an outlook on life that we have been sheltered from. I haven’t had a bubbled life. I’ve seen and have been involved in things I just wish I hadn’t.

They bother me to this day. Same with many of our veterans,” Seals admits.

“They bring a life’s experience to this campus that typically the Christian culture does not see because we’re sheltered. We can learn what the world is about through their experience. They need from us the ability to be able to handle their experiences in a Christ-like manner. This class is educating these veterans three days a week and opening up their eyes. These veterans see 18-yearolds who walk onto campus as freshmen and think ‘they don’t know what life is like.’ At the same time, there are things in these young people that are veterans didn’t have. Again, it’s an educational process that will break down barriers.”

Seals is committed to making a difference in the lives of Lipscomb’s student veterans. He feels a sense of urgency to raise money through the proceeds of his new book and other fundraising efforts to endow the academic chair to ensure that future generations of student veterans will have a safe place to transform their lives and shape their faith. His inner 17-year-old boy drives him.

“There are people out there who can do what I’m doing and even better,” he says. “I’m hoping to lay a foundation, provide a framework, for others to reach out to veterans on other campuses. I wish I were only 20 years old so I’d have more time to devote to these veterans.”

“Those in these classes may be the ones who are on this campus making a difference to student veterans in the future.

This book is just another little step that will help promote the program. Lipscomb is doing something unique here. Others are coming to us to see what we are doing here. It’s in God’s hands, and we hope he promotes it.”

“God’s Words for Warriors: Returning Home Following Deployment” is available at Westbow Press by clicking here.

For more information about Lipscomb University’s veteran services program, visit veterans.lipscomb.edu.

– Kim Chaudoin, AVP Communications and Marketing, Lipscomb University

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asun staff | ASun quarterly

a partnership’s evolution

Growing relationship continues to be a win-win for the asun, lakepoint On August 1, the ASUN and LakePoint Sporting Community took another step forward in the growth of its partnership, as the conference announced a new office location on the LakePoint campus.

In the move, LakePoint’s Champions Center will now be home to the ASUN’s Media Relations staff of four that includes Assistant Commissioner Patrick McCoy, Director of Media Relations Johannes Schneider and Media Relations Interns Katherine Malcolm and Mark Pinkerton.

Two years ago the ASUN Conference and LakePoint Sporting Community announced its partnership with several goals in mind. The idea was that the relationship would effectively serve the interests of the ASUN’s member institutions and student-athletes and in doing so, the intercollegiate athletic and youth community as a whole.

Since that announcement two years ago, ASUN baseball teams have competed at LakePoint and the partners collaborated on a dual beach volleyball championship event for both the ASUN and the newly formed CCSA beach volleyball league in 2016. The successful event was LakePoint’s first collegiate championship on site, held at the Rally Volleyball Complex as it welcomed hundreds of fans for top caliber collegiate beach volleyball, clinics, family fun and more. The ASUN and LakePoint also worked to submit a proposal to host the 2015 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship that finished second to the eventual site of Gulf Shores, Ala.

For the ASUN, the advantages for the new location at LakePoint are varied. Having a conference presence at a facility in such demand provides the ASUN signifcant connection with the college coaching population which recruits and competes there. It also makes the ASUN recognizable with the prospective student-athletes who are showcased in LakePoint’s diversity of events. With Kennesaw State nearby as an ASUN member, the new location also provides a tremendous opportunity for the ASUN to develop its relationships with the Atlanta area media. And finally, the ASUN’s presence at LakePoint will bring it into regular contact with vendors and the LakePoint team that serves as host for ASUN Championships and other events in its world-class facilities.

LakePoint, the premier sports vacation destination, is home to several world-class venues, and has been building on its reputation as a must-visit location for travel sports since 2013. Welcoming millions since its inception, LakePoint features scout-worthy competition across multiple scholarship-based sports. The big picture of LakePoint is a stay and play tournament hub, complete with dining, shopping, entertainment and hotels for the ultimate sports and family experience. A project of this caliber has caused a shift in the tournament sports world, but also locally. With the new Indoor Facility now open, LakePoint will attract more tourism and continue its growth in the sporting industry. With the completion of ‘The Indoor,’ LakePoint further advances its mission to combine elite athletic facilities across multiple sports to provide the premier travel sports experience.