Atlantic Sun Quarterly Issue 1

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Highlighting the Spirit of Building Winners for Life

november 2015

A CELEBRATION OF A-SUN LEGACIES

The Sporting Life

making great strides

INAUGURAL ISSUE!

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GETTING STARTED

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WHO’S HOT?

Check out the latest news and success stories from A-Sun member institutions

These student-athletes are some of the hottest around this fall

06 Q&A: NJIT AD LENNY KAPLAN

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STRIVING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE A-Sun SAAC strengthens its voice in the community through benefiting others

Making Great Strides With repeat A-Sun Championships, Lipscomb cross country coach Bill Taylor has the men’s and women’s programs poised for another run at nationals

Kaplan talks A-Sun membership, growth opportunities for NJIT, the NCAA and more

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THE SPORTING LIFE

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enjoying the view

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A CELEBRATION OF A-SUN LEGACIES

Former Stetson student-athlete turned professor, Dr. Matt Wilson is now sharing his passion for athletics in the classroom

The A-Sun’s relationship with ESPN3 has Olivia Walter living a dream

The A-Sun celebrated Winners for Life as it inducted its inaugural Hall of Fame class

SHOP talk building winners for life. the goal FOR ALL ATLANTIC SUN CONSTITUENTS.

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or 37 years, the collaboration of studentathletes, coaches, administrators, faculty, staff and supporters has resulted in resounding accomplishments in the classroom, in competition and in our communities.

We are in the midst of an exciting period in our history, and I am proud to join all of you in building a stronger A-Sun every day. This publication is the first of its kind for us as we share stories of the impressive and impactful work that is being done on behalf of the conference and its membership. Beyond the studentathlete performance, it is the faculty, coaches, administrators and boosters who truly make the A-Sun student-athlete experience unique.

Within these pages you will discover how the A-Sun produces winners. Read about the unwavering commitment to excellence by a special handful of individuals that led to their selection into the inaugural 2015 A-Sun Hall of Fame. Get to know the A-Sun’s newest athletic director, and glimpse into the great work that student-athletes are doing as part of the A-Sun Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). See how a former A-Sun student-athlete now uses his experience and insight as a subject matter expert and professor to train and prepare students for their careers. Discover how one coach personifies the mission of the A-Sun in his approach to success and learn about the conference’s role as a leader in a growing, cutting-edge partnership with ESPN. Thanks for reading more than 140 characters. The stories in the Atlantic Sun Quarterly are worth it.

Ted gumbart Commissioner @ASunCommish

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Institutional News | Atlantic sun Quarterly

From program rankings to investment in community and fund raising success, A-Sun members continue their good work.

Compiled from staff reports

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he part-time MBA at Kennesaw State University’s Michael J. Coles College of Business was recently named 50th in the nation by Bloomberg BusinessWeek in their 2015 business school rankings.

The Lipscomb University College of Business’s Master of Business Administration program is ranked 43rd out of the top part-time MBA programs in the nation by Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

University of South Carolina Upstate is using its on-campus Child Protection Training Center, housed at the George Dean Johnson, Jr., School of Business and Economics, to lower rising numbers of child abuse and neglect. The center consists of a mock house and a mock courtroom that addresses the critical need for simulated training in investigations and child safety.

The intent is to impact the wellbeing of children by training child protection professionals to improve their skills in detection, reporting and responding to child abuse and neglect in a realistic setting.

The mock facilities, whoich opened last month, will be used for trial preparation, as well-prepared court testimony is often the key that puts offenders behind bars.

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he New Jersey Institute of Technology NEXT comprehensive campaign surpassed its $150 million goal to become the largest philanthropic fundraising effort in university history. According to New Jersey Institute of Technology officials, the 10-year campaign raised $153,700,251, 102 percent of the goal, two years ahead of schedule, to support a campus transformation that has received national attention.

Engineering and physical therapy students at the University of North Florida are helping children with disabilities better enjoy their play time. Through the Adaptive Toy Project, UNF students learn to modify toys for young children. Since its inception in 2014, the program has included the development of 10 customized, batter-powered ride-on toys. The children’s toys are made to fit their own particular set of needs that may even include a ventilator.

Once the children outgrow the toys, they can be returned and cleaned and prepared for other children.

Jacksonville University’s Executive Master of Business Administration program is expanding to offer the Southeast’s first Consumer Goods and Services concentration. The program begins in February and has collaborated with companies such as Pepsico and Southeastern Grocers to create the curriculum for those selecting the concentration.

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tetson University has launched a $150 million comprehensive campaign, its first in six years. The Beyond Success — Significance campaign begins as Stetson celebrates unprecedented growth: it recently welcomed its largest incoming class in its 132year history, and its DeLand, Fla., campus is in the midst of significant construction and renovation projects.

Funds raised will be used for facilities, $50 million; student support, $40 million; faculty support, $40 million; and current use resources, $20 million. To date, more than $80 million has been raised.

The 24th Annual Founder’s Cup Golf Tournament hosted by the Florida Gulf Coast University Foundation broke previous records for participation (220) and fundraising, netting more than $120,000 for scholarships and programs that advance the university’s mission.

Since its inception, the Founder’s Cup has raised more than $1.45 million for programs that support academic excellence, scholarships, student success, intercollegiate athletics and FGCU’s community and regional impact. These five initiatives form the foundation of the university’s $100 million campaign, which launched in 2014 and is set to conclude in 2017.

KEEPING UP WITH THE A-SUN Thursday, Nov 19 Volleyball First Round 5 pm & 7:30 pm CT (ESPN3)

Saturday, Nov. 14 Men’s Soccer Final 7 PM EST (ESPN3)

Friday, Nov. 20 Volleyball semifinals 5 pm & 7:30 pm CT (ESPN3) Saturday, Nov. 21 volleyball final 3 pm CT (ESPN3)

AtlanticSunConference

@AtlanticSun atlantic_sun

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Atlantic Sun quarterly |

Who’s hot?

Tabby Tindell FGCU A-Sun Player of the Year for the secondstraight season and just the third player in A-Sun history to do so in back-to-back seasons. She leads the conference and ranks fifth nationally with 38 points through 16 games played this season. She has scored 15 goals for the sixth-best mark in the nation and adds eight assists with six gamewinning goals to lead the conference in all offensive categories.

Madi Talbert Lipscomb Won the A-Sun individual championship for the second-straight year, only the seventh time a women’s cross country runner has accomplished the feat in conference history.

Talbert’s time of 17:09.59 was the fastest 5000m cross country time in school history and the third fastest time in A-Sun history.

Student-Athletes

gordon wild USC Upstate Wild led the A-Sun with 14 goals and added an assist for 29 total points for the season. He earned four A-Sun Player of the Week awards, including a run of three straight in September.

He was ranked second nationally in total goals as of Nov. 2 and leads the nation in four other offensive categories.

carlyle nusbaum, lipscomb After missing the Bisons’ non-conference action due to injury, Nusbaum is currently one of the hottest players in A-Sun volleyball. Earning Freshman and Player of the Week (11/03/15), she set and improved her personal best of 23 and 29 kills in successive matches and helped the Bisons clinch their spot in the A-Sun Championship.

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logan poteet North florida Became the first UNF cross country athlete to earn Atlantic Sun Runner or Freshman of the Year. The freshman posted a PR of 24:38 at the A-Sun Championship to top the field by six seconds. His time marked the fastest for an Osprey runner at the conference championship and his was the best finish at the event in program history.

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A-Sun Administration | Atlantic Sun Quarterly

Q NJIT AD &A Lenny Kaplan New jersey institute of technology AD Lenny kaplan has the highlanders ready to gain ground in their new home, the atlantic sun. kaplan shares his thoughts on conference membership, growth at NJIT, the NCAA and more.

What does NJIT do well?

As a university, we are a nationally recognized engineering and architectural school and we are very proud of that.

As one of the 34 technological universities in the country we usually wind up in the top five with some pretty impressive names, so academically it speaks for itself.

We started out as a very small school and we have been here for 125 years, so academically we stand on our own.

We just had some recent rankings on pay scale and return on investment, and as a university regarding return on investment we are one of the top in the country. That rates starting salaries versus what you paid for your degree, so we are thriving as a university.

I think as an athletic department one thing that we do is adapt. We have grown in so many ways in my 16 years here. Growing from a small Division II program with seven teams to 19 teams in fully funded varsity sports with more than 300 athletes. We have had our ups and downs in many things. We have had great tennis in the last couple of years, and more recently in joining the A-Sun we have tried to raise our level a bit. I think one thing that you will see over the next year is how competitive we will get as we move forward. I do think that we tend to produce great student-athletes – with the emphasis on student – as our kids go out and do really well. I think we have done a good job here of balancing tough academics with Division I athletics.

What are the biggest opportunities ahead this year and beyond for NJIT athletics?

Last year was a career year for this department. People always look for those one or two “great moments,” and we had a bunch of them. Men’s soccer beat a nationally ranked team, fencing finished 12th in the national championships, men’s basketball of course is the one that everybody knows. We beat Michigan, we were trending on Twitter, and we had two All-Americans. Then the cherry on top was getting accepted into the conference, because that was a long-term thing.

I do think that the sky is the limit here. Our location nearby New York City, combined with a great academic

program and the final two pieces: the Atlantic Sun and our new facility give us opportunity to be competitive in most of the sports in the A-Sun within the next two years. I have set some high standards for my coaches. There are three or four teams that I am hoping will make their respective postseasons in the league, and next year I am anticipating that they are all going to make the postseason because we are really going to push some buttons to make those things happen.

Give us an update on the impressive new Wellness and Events Center.

Groundbreaking is November 12. We are putting some of the final touches on the designs that will include: a 3,500seat basketball arena, a two-court basketball/volleyball practice facility, an eight-lane natatorium with seating for 250 spectators, nearly 15,000 square feet of turf, a stateof-the-art strength and conditioning and training room for the athletes, a state-of-the-art general fitness center for the student body, racquetball courts, a store and plenty of multi-purpose space with meeting rooms and office and locker room space for all of the teams and coaches.

It is a $100 million project that will end up being about 200,000 square feet, which is a large building. Also attached to that will be a new soccer field. Being an inner city school we are not blessed with a lot of open land, so the new building has to go vertical. When the old building comes down a new soccer field will take its place and should be able to seat at least 700. Right now it is on time for a Fall 2017 opening. The President has said that he would like the opening year convocation to be in that building, and that is usually the first or second week of September, so if all goes according to plan then women’s volleyball will be the first competition in the new building.

What stands out most about your first three months of A-Sun membership?

Truth be told, I forgot how much work it is being in a conference. Being an independent, we did a lot of things on our own and didn’t really have to report to anybody.

The general reports that we made were mostly all internal.

So from the time we started talking until the press conference it really has been a whirlwind. But as harried

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and disorganized as it may seem as we try to catch up, it is a calming feeling just knowing that there is going to be some consistency moving forward.

I think what stands out is where we have to catch up in order to move the bar and compete. I think the facilities will take care of themselves. What stands out is how the kids are handling some things, because it is not all about us, but about them. They are building new relationships when they go to meets; volleyball players are seeing the banners hanging when they go play, that is what we are here for.

Technically our first competition in the A-Sun was the mascot challenge, and we won that, so we had one competition and we became the champions! I am excited to ask my cross country team when they get back how that went and what they thought of their first team championship event.

Nancy and Lenny Kaplan at the ECAC Awards

For my staff, and myself we have enjoyed building and identifying these new relationships and the camaraderie with everybody. Obviously there are different factions within conferences whether it is ADs, SWAs, teams, and depending on the argument that you have in the room it is the good guys and the bad guys and they switch on every topic.

What is it about collegiate athletics that you enjoy?

I enjoy being with the student-athletes. I keep an open door policy; they come in and out all day long. There is a lot to enjoy about college athletics. In defense of the NCAA, that is a very difficult job. They are trying to coordinate 351 schools that are not alike whatsoever.

The problem is that we have legislated ourselves into dizziness and so that is what is not enjoyable.

Bringing in student-athletes and watching them develop, like the knucklehead freshman who gets in trouble the first weekend when they move on campus in the dorm, then as they graduate come and thank you and give you a hug. That makes our business the greatest business in the world. When you tell people you work in college athletics, people want to know what you do all day. They don’t want to know what the accountant does.

What attracted you to partner with the A-Sun? First and foremost you have to have a willing partner, and the A-Sun was one of several conferences that we had started looking at. One thing was geography, and another was academics. Plus the A-Sun has four schools in Florida, and we have almost 3,000 alums down there. Our alumni bases are in some of the weirdest places – California, Texas and Florida. Having the four games in Florida, I think you will see our fans show up. When you are a school like NJIT and not a liberal arts school, you can’t just start flying everywhere.

Continued on pg. 20

NJIT President Joel S. Bloom, A-Sun Commissioner Ted Gumbart and Lenny Kaplan

Kaplan with former NJIT student-athlete and coach Nicole Ballou

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A-Sun faculty

| Atlantic Sun Quarterly

the sporting life A pause.

sk Stetson professor Dr. Matt Wilson the question that if he was not working in a career related to athletics, what would he be doing, and you get a long

Then with uncertainty in his voice, he even follows that up with, “Not at all?” A fitting response considering that he hails from Bristol, Conn., the home of ESPN.

An assistant professor in sport management in Deland, Wilson spends these days helping students navigate their way into careers in sports, be it intercollegiate or professional. Back in the day (1990-91) he spent two years at Stetson as a baseball student-athlete and actually played for current Stetson Athletic Director Jeff Altier during his coaching career with the Hatters. Wilson transferred and finished his career at Georgia Southern and from there he played independent baseball and returned to Georgia Southern as a graduate assistant to earn his Master’s degree in coaching education.

Wilson has worked with Major League Baseball international, caddied at Augusta National, and worked the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. In his early career he enjoyed teaching classes such as Coaching Baseball, Coaching Basketball and Coaching Psychology.

He completed his doctoral work at the University of Georgia and has taught in higher education since 1998 at Georgia Southern, Central Florida and Southern Mississippi.

And as if playing, working, coaching and teaching in athletics wasn’t enough, Wilson’s wife, Lisa, has been the head women’s basketball coach at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University since 2013.

In 2008 Wilson took advantage of the opportunity to return to Stetson because he knew it would be a good fit for him professionally. “I knew the culture of Stetson’s open door policy and I knew I would be able to interact with students because it is more focused on the teaching side than the research side. That was more of the type of experience that I wanted to have for my career.”

When Wilson first arrived back in Deland, he took over the position that had been held by a Stetson legend, Coach Bob Weickel, who spent more than 50 years at the university. At the time, Wilson was a one-man show as the only full-time faculty member in the program, but he recalls when the program began to pick up steam.

“We moved over from arts and sciences into the business school, which better aligns us with the industry for which our kids are getting prepared,” said Wilson. “We hired a full-time director and at that time the university was at about 31 majors. We went from 31 to 87 majors in about 3.5 to four years, so we went through a phenomenal time of growth as a university.”

Wilson teaches a variety of courses including Intro to Sport Business, Sports Sales and a freshman seminar that serves as a study of intercollegiate athletics within the university umbrella. The sales class is an upper level class focusing primarily on ticket sales but also touches on sponsorships.

To succeed in the program and in an athletics career, Wilson says preparation is the name of the game. That is that mind set that has helped former students go on to get internships and jobs with the Golf Channel, the LPGA, and the Orlando Solar Bears, to name a few.

“We are fortunate that we have one of the few majors on campus in which you can take a major class in your first year here,” said Wilson. “We have our students working in the athletic department because they have to get volunteer hours right at the start to help them build their resume as they start to get ingrained into the industry.”

Wilson enjoys rubbing elbows with student-athletes but also notes that the program is not just for those involved in playing intercollegiate athletics.

“We do have student-athletes regularly in the program, but also have a nice mix of non-athletes, people who truly want to work in the industry,” said Wilson. “For a long time sport management and sport business programs got a knock, that being it was a place where athletes could go when they

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Photos by Nicole Frenette

couldn’t handle another program.

“From the time I set foot on campus there has been a mission to change that philosophy. We have really raised the bar as to the vigor of our program. It is a challenging program because you have to be able not only to handle our classes, but you have the business general education curriculum on top of it. Plus we have some great students.”

One aspect of Wilson’s classes that is also reflective of today’s society is the insertion of social media into the discussion. While much of Wilson’s professional research involves coaching contracts and incentivation, he also understands how the world of sports, particularly intercollegiate athletics, has changed.

“I think the way collegiate athletics has changed boils down to a simple thing – money,” said Wilson. “With the level of money that has come into intercollegiate athletics from media rights and television contracts, along with the advancements of social media, basically you see an industry that was a strong industry in the 1980s and early 1990 just absolutely blow up into a multi-billion dollar business.

“A lot of my research is done on coaching contracts and incentivation in the contracts. Not only are they reaping the benefits of the television money and how the market has exploded for their level of income, but also at the same time what the social media has allowed for the student-athlete.

He or she now gains more of a voice along the lines that they are not just a piece of meat, but they truly are in it to get an education and to have services provided to them that not only benefit them during their four or five years at the university but for the rest of their life.”

One of the latest ways that Wilson has been able to share in his expertise is through analysis of the argument about daily fantasy football leagues and the ire that they have drawn from the NCAA and professional gambling establishments. Wilson sees this as yet another way to help his students learn how to understand the world in which they wish to work.

“We are constantly trying to have our students understand environmental scanning,” said Wilson. “What are the next big things coming out? It is about taking little pieces of evidence, putting those pieces together to see where something can be going and trending in society.”

As his passion, Wilson has immersed himself into sports, and in particular intercollegiate athletics. He has served on coaching search committees and currently is the Chair of the University Athletics Committee. He learns not only from whom he interacts with and what he researches on a daily basis, but from his wife and how she handles her interactions as a coach.

“You have to understand the importance of balance. We are both doing what we are passionate about, at a high level, but we don’t have to do it with significant sacrifice.

My wife’s job is not 9 to 5, but watching the impact that she has had on her athletes is amazing,” Wilson said.

“Ladies that she coached 15 years ago are still reaching out to her, wishing her happy birthday, and texting her.

Those are long-term relationships in which she has been able to make some connection. Being able to mirror what I do along those lines, even to this day if I get a phone call from a former student and keep up with them, shows that we are in the right industry.

“Teaching is a very unique profession because you are not getting into it for the money. No matter who you are as a person, if it weren’t for teachers, you wouldn’t be where you are. Obviously, as a society, we don’t pay our teachers as others do, but if you asked other teachers why they got into it I believe there would be a common denominator there - the ability to have an impact.

“I teach because of the impact that I get to have on a daily basis on the 18 to 22-year-old age group because it is such a pivotal time in their life. If I am able to impact them in any way possible positively, that is why I got into the business.”

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A-Sun SAAC | Atlantic Sun Quarterly

STRIVING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE by: Megan Tobias

USC Upstate has begun its canned food drive, collecting cans for votes for carved pumpkins at a recent event.

Junior Megan Tobias is the Chair of A-Sun SAAC and captain of her Kennesaw State women’s lacrosse team.

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n a rainy weekend in September, student-athletes and administrators of Atlantic Sun institutions and conference staff members convened for a two-day in-person meeting on the campus of Kennesaw State University (KSU).

During these two days, institutional representatives of the StudentAthlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) participated in discussion regarding ways to enhance the total student-athlete experience, to promote student-athlete welfare and opportunity, to foster a positive student-athlete image, to encourage community service on an institutional and conference level, and to become involved with topics included within NCAA legislation.

This is a crucial time for studentathletes to be involved within their conferences and institutions, and we, as a SAAC, strive to provide

and promote opportunity for each individual to share their opinion, and for their voice to be heard.

Each student-athlete matters and what we do has an effect on our conference, institutions and in the communities around us.

There are several community service projects currently in the works throughout the A-Sun right now. Conference-wide we are conducting two projects: a canned food drive and a blanket distribution.

As the holiday season is quickly approaching, SAAC was looking for

a way to contribute to their local communities. We decided to host a canned food drive event within each institution.

Although each school has their own spinoff and ways of collecting cans, these include competitions within their athletic department along with getting other campus organizations involved such as Greek life. In the end, the conference as a whole is going to tally all of the cans and

“I think it’s (community service) very important for the A-Sun as a whole, because it sets us apart. It’s also very important because we love to give back as a conference, and secondly, because it portrays a positive image in the community.”

– Mario Leon, FGCU Baseball

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discussed were student-athlete time demands, mental health, financial literacy and cost of attendance.

Understanding the NCAA legislation is important for student-athletes because it is the regulations and expectations that we are held to everyday of our collegiate careers. The time is now for the student-athlete voice to be heard, and the SAAC is here to listen.

There are many ways for anyone to get in touch with the A-Sun SAAC aside from the student-athletes who are involved on your campuses. As the A-Sun SAAC, we have several social media outlets including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and our newest addition, Snapchat.

As SAAC gathered on the campus of Kennesaw State University, a major point of emphasis from this year’s group focused on community service.

donate them to each school’s local food bank.

place, but also invest in learning legislation and procedures of the NCAA. After they learn this information, they can go back to their campus SAAC and educate their fellow student-athletes.

At the September meetings, we discussed several of the 86

The social media pages have been working very well and have created an environment where studentathletes feel comfortable posting pictures of games, community service involvement and what they do on a regular basis. These pages are also a great place for us to share our accomplishments and for the conference to recognize us. Our new hash tag for all social media outlets is #ASunBuilt, which really sums up our motto: Building Winners for Life.

As the days get a little shorter going into the fall and winter season, it also gets much colder outside!

A blanket drive is also another There is nothing better to a studentbig community service project athlete than when game for which plans are underway, utilizing a “It is important for student-athletes to be day rolls around and you’re pumped and surplus of approximately educated on the new NCAA legislation for ready to crush the team 2,500-fleece blankets the benefit of knowing what affects them that beat you last year. As made available by athletes, the competition personally and how they can directly be a the A-Sun. So, as a is what we live for; it conference we are going voice for student-athletes.” is why we get up at six to distribute the blankets o’clock every morning amongst our institutions – Brittney Reed, KSU Soccer, A-Sun NCAA to train, condition, and and donate them to our practice. division i SAAC Representative local homeless shelters and other need-based We compete to make each other organizations. legislative proposals that are better on and off of the field including going to be voted on in January in our communities, institutions, and We recognize how many people at the NCAA SAAC meetings in within SAAC. We can only learn and there are just within miles of our Indianapolis. grow from each other and it all starts own homes that need help, and we with the student-athlete voice. You want to find out ways to help in any These proposals are currently hot could be the difference, so speak out, way that we can. topics within the NCAA and for share your perspective, and be the many of us they could be game voice your SAAC has been waiting to The student-athletes of SAAC not changers as student-athletes, hear. only invest their time in trying to coaches, administrators, and make their communities a better athletic departments. Some topics

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A-Sun staff | Atlantic Sun Quarterly

Enjoying the view T

The A-Sun remains focused on its role as a leader with ESPN

he Atlantic Sun debuted its men’s and women’s basketball preseason shows on Wednesday, Nov. 4, adding to a list of “firsts” as the conference and its membership continues to benefit from the vibrant relationship with ESPN. Providing a professional look and feel, portions of the 30-minute shows were shot in the new Disney Wide World of Sports studio – the first of any kind to be shot in the facility, even ahead of the popular radio show “Mike and Mike,” which was scheduled to appear in the studio the following week.

This precedent is indicative of the growth that the Atlantic Sun’s video initiative has enjoyed in only four years. At its inception, the A-Sun’s campus video initiative began as ESPN expressed an interest in working with schools in providing expanded programming that included production from on-campus staff and equipment. Lipscomb was the first A-Sun member to step up in 2011 with the commitment to provide content for ESPN3. Early programming included a modest schedule of conference basketball games and volleyball matches. USC Upstate became the next to join, and soon an expanded menu of A-Sun basketball games appeared on ESPN3 along with the A-Sun Volleyball Championship in 2012.

From that point, the A-Sun’s video platform has flourished.

The A-Sun assumed a leadership role with ESPN, becoming one of the first conferences to provide significant original content via campus-directed production. Now all eight conference members provide ESPN-quality broadcasts from their campuses that include every men’s and women’s

regular season basketball contest, regular season and championship volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse, and baseball and softball championship action. In fact, more than 6.2 million minutes of original A-Sun content was viewed on WatchESPN in 2014-15, with exploration underway as to what A-Sun events could be next.

The A-Sun, like all sports properties, continues to battle for presence in today’s ultra-competitive media environment.

From the video initiative’s inception, the conference has assisted schools with the funding necessary to invest in the proper equipment, training and staffing to produce and air a broadcast that meets ESPN standards. The conference’s vision to commit to such a plan and to be able to leverage its growing partnership with ESPN will continue to pay growing dividends.

Given the growth of the video initiative and the realization of the need for expanded, innovative programming, the conference hired Olivia Walter as the A-Sun’s Director of Broadcast Services in May of 2015. Walter, a former women’s soccer student-athlete at Butler University, helped earn the Bulldogs a Horizon League title while off the field assisting in the production of video web streaming and highlight packages. She earned her degree from Butler in digital media along with minors in journalism and communications.

With Walter’s addition, an increased number of A-Sun public service announcements are now available for use

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in A-Sun productions, and she worked with the A-Sun SAAC on the NCAA’s “It’s On Us” video initiative. Walter created inductee videos and led production for the conference’s inaugural Hall of Fame ceremony on ESPN3.

She also led in the production of NJIT’s June press conference as the Highlanders joined the conference. Visit the A-Sun YouTube site to see these and other videos. Future goals include an increase in the number of A-Sun Championships available on ESPN, along with a new series that will highlight many of the A-Sun’s international student-athletes.

Walter formerly worked for the conference as the Assistant Director of Sports Information from 2012-14. She has also served stints in athletic communications at Middle Tennessee State University and as an intern for the Ohio Valley Conference, where she produced weekly video segments and assisted in multiple conference championships.

A photo from the A-Sun preseason men’s and women’s basketball shows. The shows aired on Wednesday, Nov. 4, on ESPN3. The A-Sun was the first to shoot in the new Disney Wide World of Sports studio.

Having previously been at the A-Sun during the video initiative’s early development, Walter is proud for how the conference and its membership embraced the vision for such an impactful tool.

“We have expanded our broadcasts, have more championships covered and can rely on the schools to help on different broadcasts. We are looking at experimenting with beach volleyball and our tennis championships. This is brainstorming we would have never had three years ago.”

With her background, Walter has a clear understanding and appreciation of the value of the A-Sun’s relationship with ESPN, not only for enhancing its own presence in the marketplace, but for each of the conference’s member institutions as well.

“The relationship with ESPN expands our brand, because

fans can access the Atlantic Sun on WatchESPN on devices all over the world,” said Walter. “In the past we had ASun. TV as a streaming video platform, but that was primarily for people who knew about our conference. Now we have more games broadcast in all different ranges of sports. You can have friends, family, fans and alumni watching a lacrosse or soccer game from across the globe. It puts more eyes on the A-Sun, which is a great advantage in partnering with ESPN.” With every campus online and producing its share of content, one focus for Walter now is finding ways to further improve the quality of the A-Sun content provided, both from an execution standpoint and including idea generation. A broadcast group was assembled comprised of each campus’ video coordinator. The group holds monthly calls to discuss upcoming programming, broadcast standards, and to share ideas.

“It is always good to get input from someone else in your field,” said Walter. “When you have eight schools and the conference that is more minds meeting up, sharing ideas and advice on how to make the product better. It has been a team effort.

”We know of ways to make our production better, but it only works if we can get everyone involved and committed to the process. If we can get the best out of each school, then we A glimpse behind the curtain as the video crew from Jacksonville University are heading in the right produces a live A-Sun event on campus from its mobile unit. Jacksonville and direction.”

FGCU now have mobile units from which to produce A-Sun action for ESPN3.

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A-Sun Coaching | Atlantic Sun Quarterly

MAKING GREAT STRIDES

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f you were searching for a program that personified all that is encompassed in the A-Sun’s mantra of Building Winners for Life, look no further than Bill Taylor’s cross country and track and field programs at Lipscomb University. Words like character, faith, commitment, academic excellence and being others-focused are cornerstones of how Taylor has led this program to its highest point in his nine years at Lipscomb.

Taylor is ambitious about his goals and is not shy of sharing his fervor, primarily because of something that he instills in his runners from the time they set foot on campus in Nashville – believe in yourself.

“Everywhere that I have gone I have always believed that I can create something amazing and set that goal for the program, wherever I have been,” said Taylor. “At my previous job I wanted to win a national title, and we accomplished that. That is what I have talked about here, and that has been our ultimate goal. Of course nine years ago we weren’t even close to being ready. I think at that point our best finish in A-Sun history was sixth.”

Now on the heels of consecutive A-Sun Championships for both the men’s and women’s programs, Taylor believes that nationals, particularly for his women’s team, are clearly in sight. The women have claimed five straight A-Sun Championships and the men now three consecutive, so goals that include talk of reaching nationals are certainly are considered within reach for

Taylor and his teams.

“Obviously we talk about repeating, and at the beginning of the year you don’t know what that is going to look like exactly,” said Taylor. “You don’t know what the competition is going to be each year. As far as the team goals, obviously we want to repeat as conference champions – that is a huge goal and that is very important to Lipscomb as it is to every school in the conference.

“But for both teams now we are talking about qualifying for nationals, getting to nationals and getting that experience. For the women that has been a really big goal, and we are expecting to eventually be a perennial national team who is always at nationals vying for top 10, top five and ultimately a national championship.

We have our best team by a fair amount and the South Region is the best it has been in 15 or 20 years. It is all coming together and I think we could run the best race of our entire lives and not make it, but we also have a legit chance to make it.”

Taylor recalls that when he first set out his plans to win a national championship at Northwest University, a variety of responses included laughter and a certain level of disbelief due to the fact that to that point, reaching success at that level was unheard of. But Taylor stuck to his process, taking the kids he inherited and convincing them that they could earn conference titles, contend in

Atlantic Sun Quarterly |

the region and ultimately go to and win nationals. He had the same conversation when he arrived at Lipscomb, and once again the process is well underway.

“This nine years here at Lipscomb has been that process,” said Taylor. “It took five years to win our first conference title, and not surprisingly that was about the time that all of the student-athletes who were on the team were ones that I recruited. Those were the ones who were a little more willing to believe it and who came here understanding that was one of the reasons I was bringing them here. “ While those on the outside look at Lipscomb cross country and assume that the transformation has occurred fairly quickly, Taylor admits that he would disagree. Perhaps some of that is due to the distinct differences between turning around a smaller Lipscomb program rather than a large program at the Power 5 level.

“Maybe we have turned things around quickly by some standards, but I am probably a little less patient,” said Taylor. “We are going to go about it a different way anyway, being Lipscomb, a smaller, strong Christian university. Also, the way I build a program is different and Lipscomb is really a perfect fit for me because we base everything on character, number one. We are looking for kids who have great character and are high in academics, and that takes a lot longer to build than just

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going out and getting the fastest kids you can get.”

In getting the right types of student-athletes that will fit and buy into his philosophy, Taylor admits that at times there are challenges that are always going to be tough. To many the very nature of the school means that Lipscomb isn’t going to be attractive to a good percentage of the kids out there, especially when you factor in what Taylor refers to as “the Christian aspect.” But given the upside, Taylor will take his way every time.

“The upside of how we approach building our program is well worth it to me,” said Taylor. “We probably are more attractive to some upper tier recruits that we never would have gotten looks from just because we are so different than any other Division I school in the country.

It limits the total number of kids available to us, but on the flip side it grants us access to a portion of kids because we are different and are exactly what they want and they can’t find it anywhere else.”

Taylor is clear from the get-go that if you are going to be successful in his program, you will certainly have good character. That has become the calling card for any team coached by Taylor, and the results of that approach have provided some of the most gratifying moments in his career.

“I think the number one hallmark of our teams is the character. Both within and outside of Lipscomb we are known for having some amazing kids,” Taylor said. “In the school we hear all of the time from instructors that they love it when they find out that they have a cross country runner or track athlete in class because ‘you have the best, nicest, highest character kids.’ I don’t think that there could be a better compliment than that.

“What would you want to hear more than that? It means you are bringing great kids here and you’re building great kids. Both from the academic aspect and from that of character, that makes us happier than anything.”

A-Sun Commissioner Ted Gumbart congratulates Lipscomb Head Coach Bill Taylor on another pair of Cross Country Championships in 2015.

“Winning is great, and we certainly have goals to accomplish that, but the reason I coach isn’t to win, it is to create incredible people.

To have them leave our program far better people, whether they know it or not, for having been here. Better to impact the world in amazing ways, better to be better parents, better friends.”

– Lipscomb Head Coach Bill Taylor

Along with character, Taylor highlights that he seeks potential student-athletes high in academics, and once again that methodology typically places Lipscomb in high cotton. Academically, the men’s and women’s programs continue to be national leaders. The 2015 women’s track & field program led the entire nation at the NCAA Division I level academically, with a 3.74 cumulative team GPA. The men finished fifth in the nation. Both men and women have finished in the top-5 nationally many times in Taylor’s eight years at Lipscomb, with the women finishing second two times previously, and the men finishing first in the nation and second in the nation previously.

Individually, five Lipscomb track and field athletes earned National NCAA Division I Academic All-American honors in 2015. Madi Talbert, Paige Stoner, Sally Larson, and Karly Hibbard earned the honor for the women’s team. Wayne Newman earned the honor for the men.

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A-Sun Coaching | Atlantic Sun Quarterly

Madi Talbert also was named an NCAA Division I Academic All-American for the 2014 Cross Country season. Talbert is the first female student-athlete at Lipscomb to have membership on all four A-Sun Championship teams and was the A-Sun Runner of the Year for the second straight year.

Outside of the competitive arena and the classroom, Taylor has also built a unique culture that emphasizes team environment, total person development and service.

The results are a team environment in which the athletes love to be around each other, motivate each other and take care of each other. From a pack running mentality to serving others outside of their team or Lipscomb together, the team environment is a large reason for the rapid success the program has achieved, as well as the impressive number of personal record rates.

“I feel quite certain that we have, if not the best team environment in the country, it is right up there with anybody’s in the nation,” said Taylor.

“It is all of those things coming together to create a unique thing. I expect a lot from the kids, but I am also patient with it.

That is a very important combination. You can’t expect everybody to make it there today, but if you believe in them and you keep showing them that you believe in them and keep moving them up the ladder, I don’t know if it is going to result in everything you want, but it is going to look good.”

Taylor’s total person development philosophy of coaching emphasizes academic success, spiritual development and personal growth in addition to high athletic success. This means striving to be the best in the world athletically, while keeping athletics in perspective. It also means that Taylor and his staff believe that athletics are a tool for growth, and that their job is to help their athletes grow in every aspect of their lives.

Taylor’s team also benefits from a unique situation as his wife, Tabetha, regularly shares her 20+ years of team building and leadership development training experience as part of the process. Exploring teamwork, as well as how to handle change and life’s challenges, is another way that the Bisons are developed as student-athletes.

“Being aware of how teamwork works and having that support from her to help our team do things in a different way than other teams do, to get through challenges better than other teams, just makes me a better coach by learning that,” said Taylor. “A lot of times it makes it an easier coaching situation because I have kids who understand those things a lot better than those on other teams.

“Probably one of the biggest changes that student-athletes face is coming in as a freshman. They have been with one coach and now they are faced with having to train differently, they have freedom and school is different in college than it is in high school. So giving them some ability to adapt and to deal with those types of changes is crucial their freshman year. For most people it is such a foundational year and it really dictates a lot of what kinds of success is going to happen for the next three years and then for after college.

“You see that every year, particularly with our freshman women, they run huge PRs and make big contributions to the team. They are coming into a program that is very, very good and yet every year we have one to three freshmen that make the top group and help us go to the next level,” said Taylor. “I don’t think that would be as likely if they weren’t being given some help in how to deal with change and how to adapt to college.

“Dealing with change is a part of life and the more successfully a person can understand how to deal with change, the more successful they are going to be and the less stressed they are going to be. That is just a given for all of life. That goes back to the fact that a lot of the skills that we are bringing to these kids are going to benefit them well beyond here. I think a lot of people don’t realize that there are skills to deal with change better.”

As a service culture, the cross country and track and field teams are active in the community on a regular basis.

Regular types of community service have included Habitat for Humanity and Special Olympics help, along with working with an inner-city youth organization.

Bisons cross country and track and field teams have also done six mission trips together in the past five years, to serve in locations such as inner-city Los Angeles, Belize, Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.

“I think our success is due to a combination of all of the things that we do. The team building and change training is part of it, recruiting the right kind of kids is part of it, and I think my biggest challenge is getting people to believe in themselves,” Taylor said. “Is that different than other coaches? I can’t really say because I can’t speak to what other coaches are doing. I do know that we are really good at getting people to believe in themselves. We train hard but it is nothing super secret or anything like that. It is just good, basic, sound fundamental training. We create an environment in which kids feel comfortable and they feel loved and they are a tight, family team.”

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Building Winners for Life | Atlantic Sun Quarterly

A celebration of The CLass of 2015 featured Six whose accomplishments in and out of the competitive arena provided wonderful examples of the continuing mission of the A-Sun. from thousands They were selected because of their unwavering commitment to excellence.

The Atlantic Sun Conference inducted its inaugural Hall of Fame Class on Tuesday, Oct. 13, a class that included six former standouts in Mercer’s Andrea Congreaves, Stetson’s Corey Kluber and Glenn Wilkes Sr., FGCU’s Chris Sale, Centenary legend Hal Sutton, and Jacksonville’s Monique Tubbs.

Representing former and current members of the conference from five different sports, the Class of 2015 was inducted at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina in Tampa, Fla. Along with the induction ceremony, the A-Sun also launched a virtual home for the new Hall of Fame that includes bios, photos and videos of each inductee, a description of the criteria for nomination and selection, information about the A-Sun, and up-to-date news stories about each inductee. Click on the image to the right to visit the virtual A-Sun Hall of Fame.

Visit the new virtual A-Sun Hall of

Atlantic Sun Quarterly |

Building Winners for Life

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A-Sun legacies They are All-Americans, national players of the year, a four-time MLB all-star selection, a cy young award winner, a champion at every level of golf and an administrator and coach whose commitment has him in eight halls of fame.

An eight-member Hall of Fame Committee representing each of the A-Sun’s member institutions selected its Class of 2015 from a final list of 19 nominees that was originally selected from thousands of potential names spanning the conference’s 37-year history.

The A-Sun Hall of Fame was created to annually honor former student-athletes, coaches, administrators and others whose collective accomplishments have contributed to the conference’s successful achievement of its mission of Building Winners for Life.

“This is an historic time in the life of the Atlantic Sun Conference, and we are so excited about introducing the inaugural class of A-Sun Hall of Famers,” said A-Sun Commissioner Ted Gumbart.

“From the exceptional success enjoyed in competition to the impact that each has made off the field in varying arenas of life, this class epitomizes the A-Sun mission of Building Winners for Life.”

Fame: www.asunhalloffame.org.

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Building Winners for Life | Atlantic Sun Quarterly

Kaplan Continued from pg. 6

Describe your leadership style.

I think I am a little laid back, not an inyour-face kind of guy. I think it is about looking at the whole program, I am very balanced that way. At a school like ours, and most in the A-Sun, basketball tends to ‘drive the bus,’ and you have to keep that in line with everything else. But you can’t let them necessarily do that; you have to show balance to the other student-athletes. I think I am on top of the latest NCAA stuff. We have not been blessed with unlimited budgets and unlimited facilities and so we have been creative, or as we like to say innovative, to get things done to where we are.

What is something that A-Sun fans outside of Newark should know about you? About the Highlanders?

We have a lot of history here in some of our sports and we are a tenacious bunch…we are from Newark! I think you want to know that we really value the student-athlete mantra – the kids are students first. I take that very seriously with our travel schedules.

We try to do things first class, we are a classy outfit and I take care of my student-athletes the best way we know. When the visitors come up here they will see that and we will take care of them the best we know as well.

What energizes you away from work?

I think in this industry you never really get away from work. Even when I am home and we have a team traveling to Minnesota, I have it in my head and I get a text from someone saying landed, all good.

Our industry is about keeping up because the guys with all of the money are ahead of us.

I think like all of us we have our favorite sports teams who we follow. I am a big Mets and Jets fan, and Islander fan in hockey. I think too you always enjoy what your kids are doing.

My son Michael is a sophomore at Lafayette

view Continued from pg. 13

and my son Josh is a sophomore in high school. The Lafayette guy is a little hard to keep up with sometimes but the younger guy is still into his high school sports, so he keeps us busy. My wife and I are both St. John’s graduates so we follow St. John’s and stay involved there. And then just the local stuff. I really don’t disconnect too often, unfortunately. So it is about community and family.

Olivia Walter A-Sun Director of Broadcast Services

Can you take us behind the scenes of the decision to join the A-Sun? What provided anxious moments and exciting moments for you and/ or the department?

There was a lot of Tylenol and Advil involved, among other things.

Truthfully, it is a painstaking process.

You always stay positive, but we have been left out before, so it was an anxious time through the whole process. Believe me, you would have thought that I was Waldo – my staff couldn’t find me.

“It is hard to say really which has been my favorite, because I like elements about everything that we have done. We have learned a lot. From different ways to make graphics and edit videos, to making the best use of all of the production elements, it is not just the game or an event that you are airing; you are telling a whole story about student-athletes, coaches and the institutions they represent.

We were very hopeful and positive, but there were anxious moments the whole time. Then you had to go from there to a press conference in the next 72 hours because it would have gotten out at that point, someone would have said something to somebody. I was on a high, obviously, after the “yes you can come in,” to the press conference.

“I like being able to be creative and explore new ideas, and I want to be the one to get something out that is new and progressive,” Walter said.

“I don’t want us to settle for just getting out a broadcast, but rather something in which we can feature our great student-athletes.”

We definitely worked the phone the whole time, and even as reassuring as Ted was during the process, until we went back in the room at the Presidents’ meeting, we didn’t know.

“We know how an ESPN-quality production should look and flow.

Our broadcast must tell a story from start to finish that is not just a game, because the game only lasts an hour and a half. The story you tell can make a lasting impression.

real passion real dreams real GAME.

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