Xavier Nation - The Official Magazine for Xavier Athletics - Spring 2018 by Cincinnati Magazine

XavierNation THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE FOR XAVIER ATHLETICS

18 FUN FACTS

ABOUT XU’S 18TH MEN’S BASKETBALL COACH

HOOSIER HIGHWAY

XAVIER VALUES PIPELINE TO PLAYERS FROM INDIANA

WILL ROBERTS TRACK STAR’S ROOTS IN GHANA REFUGEE CAMP

DONNELLY’S STORY

THE CHICKEN RUNS AT MIDNIGHT

MEN OF STEELE GO BEHIND THE SCENES OF TRAVIS STEELE’S HIRING

Contents X AV I E R N AT I O N

SPRING 2018

26 | One Wild Week Xavier Nation takes you behind the scenes from the time Chris Mack accepted the Louisville job until the official announcement of Travis Steele’s hiring at Xavier.

NAVIGATION HERE

WARMUP

WARMUP 14 Special Season

Relive the 2017–2018 campaign through these photos.

16 What to Do in Maui?

Join Xavier in Hawaii in November, and check out these fun spots while you’re there.

17 Hall of Fame PH OTO GR A PH S (F R O M TO P) BY GL ENN H A R T O N G / GL ENN H A R T O N G / D O U G CO C HR A N / PHOTOIL LUS T R AT ION BY DA NIEL L E J O H N S O N / PHOTO GR A PH BY PAUL GIA NN A M O RE

Learn about Xavier’s trophy from the 1978 Volunteer Classic.

32 | Magic Number 18 We set out to discover 18 things you might not know about the 18th men’s basketball coach in Xavier history. See how we did.

18 Jeff Fogelson

The former XU athletic director, who died in February, left quite a legacy.

20 Feel the Beat

Matt Singleton compares playing in the pep band with being a walk-on.

22 Conquering Hurdles

Will Roberts was born in a refugee camp in West Africa. Now he’s a Xavier University track dynamo.

36| Silver Linings There were some highlights to remember from the women’s basketball season, including a victory over crosstown rival Cincinnati.

COOL DOWN 50 What Basketball Means To Us

Xavier fans explain their deep connections to the Musketeers. Hint: It often involves family members.

54 Remembering XU’s NIT Title

38 | Hoosier Highway New head coach Travis Steele plans to continue the strong recruiting pipeline from Indiana to Xavier that has brought several Musketeers to Victory Parkway.

Take our quiz to see how well you recall that magical season.

56 Where Are They Now? Former NBA standout Aaron Williams likes the idea of coaching. Amy Siefring Meyer teaches, coaches, and raises ﬁve boys on a farm outside of Coldwater, Ohio.

58 Highlights

44 | The Chicken Runs at Midnight This is a compelling story about how former Xavier baseball player Rich Donnelly has endured tragedy through his unshakeable faith.

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A look at all 18 Musketeer teams.

64 Post Game Interview

Chuck Geschke, who cofounded Adobe Systems, is a Xavier graduate who at one time considered being a priest. Yep, you read that right.

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WARMUP

FROM THE EDITOR

CONTRIBUTORS JACK BRENNAN

HIS IS WHAT EDITORS DO WHEN A COACH NAMED TRAVIS Steele is hired. They Google things like “phrases with steel” and “sayings with steal or steel.” And we read all sorts of idioms and consider how each might work. It’s a sickness. We’re not proud of it. But we must prepare to write all sorts of cute headlines, like: • “Steele Yourself” • “He’s a Steele” (see above) • “Man of Steele” (used often on social media already) • “Nerves of Steele” • “Steele the Scene” • “He Steeles the Show” Need I continue? So, we welcome Travis Steele as the new head coach. We’re looking forward to seeing how clever we can be so we can, uh, Steele your heart.

I must take a moment to mention my friend and colleague Rodney McKissic, a reporter for Xavier Nation magazine since the ﬁrst issue. Rodney passed away Nov. 28, 2017, at the age of 50. I found out about it on Facebook just hours after I e-mailed him with story assignments for this issue. Rodney was a good guy with a good sense of humor, a family man, a man of faith. A former Xavier beat reporter for The Cincinnati Post, he was laid off from The Buffalo News in 2014 just as we were planning to launch Xavier Nation. We immediately got him involved. He mostly wrote the “Where Are They Now” features. I’ll miss working with him. RIP, my friend.

And congrats to another one of our reporters, Shannon Russell, who is now a full-time college basketball reporter for The Athletic, an online subscription-based sports publication. It’s been great having her write for Xavier Nation. We’ll miss her expertise but look forward to reading her work at theathletic.com.

Sincerely,

Michael Perry, Editor-in-Chief musketeers@xaviernationmagazine.com

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RORY GLYNN Former Xavier beat reporter and former assistant sports editor of The Cincinnati Enquirer. Also worked at Cleveland Plain Dealer and Atlanta Journal Constitution.

TABARI McCOY Former CinWeekly arts, entertainment, and news reporter. Professional stand-up comedian. Also worked at Community Press papers and was a Bengals intern. @tabarimccoy

RODNEY McKISSIC The former Cincinnati Post and Buffalo News sportswriter died suddenly in November 2017. We dedicate this issue to his memory.

MICHAEL PERRY Former Xavier beat reporter and former sports editor of The Cincinnati Enquirer. Author and publisher of Xavier Tales: Great Stories from Musketeers Basketball (2008). @mdperry14

MARK PURDY Award-winning columnist who recently retired from the San Jose Mercury News. Former Cincinnati Enquirer Sports columnist and News columnist. @MercPurdy

SHANNON RUSSELL Covers Xavier sports for TheAthletic.com. Former Xavier beat reporter for The Cincinnati Enquirer for eight years and then for WCPO.com. @slrussell

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P H O T O GR A P H C O U R T E S Y V E H R CO M M U N I C AT I O N S

HE’S A STEELE

Former Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post reporter and long-time Cincinnati Bengals public relations director.

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XAVIER NATION MAGAZINE 700 Walnut St., Suite 450, Cincinnati, OH 45202 513.381.8347 • www.XavierNationMagazine.com

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Bob Las bie Ster ting ne’s Leg a by KA cy IL EI GH PE Y TO

TO GET STARTED VISIT CINCINNATIMAGAZINE.COM S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 | X AV I E R N AT I O N

BUSINESS AT XAVIER Expanding our offerings to meet your needs • ONLINE, PART-TIME AND FULL-TIME DAY MBA • MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ACCOUNTANCY • MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CUSTOMER ANALYTICS

With our ﬂexible scheduling, online, evening and weekend classes, and new program choices, there’s even more reason to enroll in a business program in the Williams College of Business.

Learn more at xavier.edu/business.

Before they excelled in the business community, these former athletes earned their MBA at the

XAVIER UNIVERSITY WILLIAMS COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

ANGELA FASSBENDER

THOMAS M. POWERS

MATT STAINBROOK

BSBA 2004 MBA 2009

BSBA 1978 MBA 1982

BSBA Finance 2014 MBA 2015

Swimming 2004

Soccer 1975

Basketball 2015

• Lives in Hebron, Ky.

• Lives in Cincinnati

• Lists home as Cincinnati

• Senior Client Lead with 84.51 LLC management consulting company since 2015.

• Executive Managing Director at Cushman & Wakeﬁeld, a leading global real estate services ﬁrm, for 15 years.

• Employed by Crailsheim Merlins in Germany as a professional basketball player from August 2015 to August 2016.

• Owner TM Powers & Associates, Cincinnati

• Professional Basketball Player at CB Breogán in Spain: Club Baloncesto Breogán de Lugo, since August 2016.

• Former client lead with dunnhumby USA from 2014-2015. • Former Senior Category Manager, Category Manager and Sales Analyst with HJ Heinz from 2006-2014. • Former analyst with Daymon Worldwide 2004-2006. • Former management trainee with First Financial Bank in 2004.

• Formerly Executive VP of Cassidy Turley from 2002-2014.

ON A ROLL // Xavier’s bench reacts as the Musketeers build a 12-point lead against Florida State in their second NCAA Tournament game. The Seminoles marched back to win 75–70. From left, graduate assistant Ricardo Johnson, Matt Singleton, J.P. Macura, Naji Marshall, Elias Harden, Kerem Kanter and Leighton Schrand.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVE WEGIEL

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LOVE THE LEAD PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

IT LOOKED SO PROMISING. XAVIER WAS AHEAD 58–46 WITH 9:48 LEFT. BUT FLORIDA STATE FINISHED WITH A 7–0 RUN IN THE LAST 68 SECONDS TO KNOCK THE MUSKETEERS OUT OF THE TOURNAMENT.

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GRAB THAT BALL 8 X AV I E R N AT I O N | S P R I N G 2 0 1 8

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

PAUL SCRUGGS GETS UP IN THE AIR FOR A REBOUND AGAINST THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI AS THE MUSKETEERS SURROUND THE BASKET.

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BOARD CONTROL // Xavier outrebounded the Bearcats 44â&#x20AC;&#x201C;27 with 13 offensive rebounds in its Crosstown Shootout victory. Scruggs was one of nine Musketeers with at least two boards. PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG COCHRAN

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EXIT THRU FANS 1 0 X AV I E R N AT I O N | S P R I N G 2 0 1 8

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

THE MUSKETEERS LEAVE THE COURT SURROUNDED BY A GIDDY CROWD THAT JUST DOESNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T WANT TO GO HOME AFTER A VICTORY OVER CINCINNATI.

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OH HAPPY DAY // Xavier fans celebrate the

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

team’s 89–76 victory over rival Cincinnati in the Crosstown Shootout at Cintas Center on Dec. 2, 2017. The Musketeers defeated the Bearcats for the fourth time in the past ﬁve meetings. PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG COCHRAN

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S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 | X AV I E R N AT I O N

Appointment TV For a look at the Cincinnati Business Courier’s top stories from this issue and from web stories throughout the week plus a special feature, don’t forget to tune in (or record!) U.S. Bank Business Watch, which airs each Sunday at 6:30 a.m. on Local12 or 10 a.m. on the CW Network. Think your business should be featured on the show? Contact editor Rob Daumeyer at rdaumeyer@bizjournals.com. Tune in!

Miss last week’s episode? Watch all US Bank Business watch videos on the Courier’s Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheBusinessCourier

Warmup// SPECIAL SEASON PG. 14

MAUI PRIMER PG. 16

. 20

JUST TO GET YOU STARTED

FOGELSON TRIBUTE PG. 18

and MORE

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY TORONTO FC/MLS

TROPHY TIME // Former Xavier star Nick Hagglund is now an MLS Cup champion. His Toronto FC team won the title last December with a 2–0 victory over the Seattle Sounders. It was a nice end to a tough season: Hagglund tore his left MCL in May, returned to the lineup, then reinjured his knee in August, keeping him off the pitch until the playoffs. Hagglund, 25, was a ﬁrst-round draft pick in 2014.

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S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 | X AV I E R N AT I O N

WARMUP

2017–2018 SEASON

SPECIAL SEASON // XAVIER SETS RECORDS, WINS BIG EAST TITLE, GETS NO. 1 SEED IN NCAA

1 IT’S A CELEBRATION With confetti

falling from the Cintas Center rafters, the Musketeers proudly hold a banner claiming their ﬁrst BIG EAST regularseason championship. 1

2 CROSSTOWN VICTORY Paul Scruggs

(1), Kerem Kanter (11), and Naji Marshall (13) celebrate the Musketeers’ 89–76 victory over rival Cincinnati in the Crosstown Shootout on Dec. 2, 2017. 3 DYNAMIC DUO Trevon Bluiett and J.P

Macura ﬁnished as the top scoring pair of four-year teammates in Xavier history. They combined for 3,752 points. 4 ELITE COMPANY Bluiett became

Xavier’s ﬁfth 2,000-point scorer in an 89–70 victory over Marquette at Cintas Center on Jan. 24, 2018. Bluiett ﬁnished No. 2 on XU’s all-time scoring list.

6 VETERAN Senior Sean O’Mara had

10 points, including this dunk, and six rebounds in just 15 minutes against Providence on Senior Night. 7 CAREER NIGHT Xavier, a No. 1 seed in

the NCAA Tournament for the ﬁrst time, knocked out Texas Southern 102–83, getting a career-high 29 points from senior Macura. Bluiett added 26 and Kanter 24. 8 LATE HEROICS Bluiett converted an

unlikely four-point play against Georgetown, sending the game into overtime. Xavier won 96–91 at Cintas Center. 9 ON POINT Quentin Goodin, who will

be a junior in the fall, is Xavier’s assist leader and top returning scorer for the 2018–2019 season.

1 4 X AV I E R N AT I O N | S P R I N G 2 0 1 8

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

hugs the BIG EAST Conference trophy after the Musketeers clinched their ﬁrst regular-season title with an 84–74 victory over Providence on Senior Night.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRANK VICTORES / BOB STEVENS / DOUG COCHRAN / GREG RUST

5 LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT Tyrique Jones

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5 6

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WARMUP

TRAVEL PLAN

WHAT TO DO IN MAUI?

// THERE’S MORE THAN BASKETBALL GOING ON IN MAUI. FOLLOW XAVIER TO THE INVITATIONAL, THEN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE SIDE TRIPS. — S H A N N O N R U S S E L L HE SURF. THE SEAFOOD. AND OH, THE SCENERY. IF YOU’RE HEADED TO THE MAUI JIM MAUI Invitational, Nov. 19–21, 2018, at the Lahaina Civic Center, you’re in for quite a treat. It’s a historic year for the basketball tournament, which will feature eight Division I teams for the ﬁrst time in its 35-year history: Xavier, Arizona, Auburn, Duke, Gonzaga, Illinois, Iowa State, and San Diego State. Hoops are just part of the appeal of this trip to paradise. There are plenty of things to see and do while you’re 4,367 miles from Cincinnati. Here are three can’t-miss side trips.

This 64.4-mile journey from Kahului to Hana features 620 curves and hairpin turns. Dramamine will cure your motion sickness and the views will make your jaw drop, so bring your camera. Lush foliage, spectacular waterfalls, hikes, and black sand beach views abound. Don’t miss the Seven Sacred Pools at Ohe’o, which offer a perfect opportunity to stretch your legs. If you drive past Hana and back to Lahaina, you’ll see where Haleakala Crater meets the sea and stunning, uninhabited vistas unlike any other place on earth.

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SUMMIT SUNRISE AT HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK This bucket-list activity is a feast for the eyes. An early wake-up is worth it as you travel by tour or on your own to the volcano’s peak. Dress warmly for this ascent 10,000 feet above sea level, and then prepare for a majestic show as the sun comes up. The good news is that you’ll still have most of your day to watch basketball, snorkel, zip line, sunbathe, eat, or shop.

ALI’I KULA LAVENDER FARM Sojourn to another world on this 13.5-acre farm situated 4,000 feet above sea level. Trade the sun and heat for the crisp, cool feel of this fragrant nirvana. Whether you take a guided tour or explore on your own, you’ll be surrounded by 55,000 lavender plants. Enjoy a gourmet picnic lunch or take in the sights of the ﬂora on one of the benches scattered throughout the farm. A gift shop sells all things lavender, but your best mementos will come from photos of the vistas and meticulously-kept gardens.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGES

THE ROAD TO HANA

HALL OF FAME

WARMUP

LEA DIN G THE WAY //

P H O T O G R A P H S (F R O M T O P) C O U R T E S Y X AV I E R AT H L E T I C S / B Y G L E N N H A R T O N G

Gary Massa once called Nick Daniels, right, “the most talented guy that I played with.” Daniels, now known as Rashid Abdul-Rahim, scored a game-high 22 points against Tennessee and was tournament MVP.

1978 VOLUNTEER CLASSIC MEN’S BASKETBALL TROPHY

// THE UNDERDOG MUSKETEERS SPOILED THEIR HOSTS’ PLANS, WINNING THE TOURNAMENT AND BRINGING HOME THE HARDWARE. — T A B A R I M c C O Y

AY BAKER IS A CINCINNATI BASKETBALL ENCYCLOPEDIA— and why shouldn’t he be? After all, he spent three seasons (1948–1950) as a player and 13 years as either an assistant or head coach for Xavier’s rival, the University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team, before serving as the head coach of the Musketeers from 1974 to 1979. So, as the crowning achievement of his Xavier tenure approaches its 40th anniversary, you’ll have to forgive the spry 91-year-old if he takes a moment to humbly celebrate the memory. Coached by Baker and led on-court by eventual Most Valuable Player Nick Daniels (now

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known as Rashid Abdul-Rahim), the 1978–1979 Musketeers were the surprising winners of 1978 Volunteer Classic. Taking place Dec. 15 and 16, 1978, the event saw Xavier beat heavily-favored and 12th-ranked University of Southern California 75–68 before taking down host Tennessee 51–50—the Musketeers’ fi rst holiday tournament win since 1955. In addition to Abdul-Rahim, the team’s roster also featured the likes of Gary Massa and Joe Sunderman. Massa, a co-captain and member of Xavier’s 1,000-point club, now serves as Xavier’s Vice President for University Relations. A Xavier Hall of Fame inductee in 2006, Sunderman has been a part of the Xavier men’s basketball broadcasting team for more than 25 years. Sunderman recorded a doubledouble in the team’s win over USC with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Like Baker, Sunderman says he believes the tournament was likely set up to allow USC and Tennessee to meet in the final, which is why Xavier’s role as spoiler for both teams made the weekend “one you remember for the rest of your life.” “It demonstrated in some way that Xavier could compete on a pretty high level,” Sunderman says. “It was important for Xavier. They were in a period of making decisions of whether or not to emphasize basketball and take the journey they went on and bring it to the point they are at now. I think the win gave hope to anybody in the situation that it could be done.” Baker, who “hasn’t missed a Final Four since 1958,” says knowing the trophy is on display at Cintas Center is a fitting tribute to “the best talented team I had by far” during his time at Xavier. “It was the highlight of my coaching career over there,” he says. “I can’t say anything but good things about Xavier.… Those particular players and that particular team deserve it.”

S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 | X AV I E R N AT I O N

TRIBUTE

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND // FORMER XU ATHLETIC DIRECTOR JEFF FOGELSON HELPED POSITION THE MUSKETEERS FOR GREAT SUCCESS. — R O R Y G L Y N N

IRING PETE GILLEN AS COACH WAS A HUGE STEP IN THE ASCENT of Xavier basketball, and so was hiring Skip Prosser to replace him. Moving XU’s home games to the Cincinnati Gardens was a significant step in the process toward prominence; so was leaving the Gardens to come back to campus to play in a glorious new Cintas Center. Playing BIG EAST basketball? It wouldn’t have happened if nobody had first helped position Xavier to join and thrive in the Atlantic 10. It’s been said that success has many fathers. A great many have had a hand in the success of Xavier athletics, particularly men’s basketball. But don’t overlook the contributions of former athletic director Jeff Fogelson, who died in February at age 71. “He’s sort of an unsung hero in the story of the development of Xavier basketball,” Gillen says. “He was very shrewd. He didn’t get rattled and he always looked at the big picture.” Fogelson, Xavier’s athletic director from 1984 to 1998, passed away as the Musketeers were amid a remarkable season that included their first BIG EAST men’s basketball championship and first No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed in program history. When Fogelson arrived on campus in 1983—as assistant athletic director, to take some of the administrative load off basketball coach Bob Staak, who at the time also served as AD—those kinds of achievements seemed unfathomable. Xavier’s basketball homes had been aging Schmidt Fieldhouse and the low-profile Midwestern City (later Midwestern Collegiate) Conference. By 1984, with Fogelson as full-time AD, XU moved its MCC home games to the Gardens. The move paid immediate dividends when XU hosted and won two National Invitation Tournament games, including an overtime win over Ohio State.

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“Jeff Fogelson oversaw that move,” says Andy MacWilliams, former Xavier play-by-play broadcaster and WLW-AM sports director. “And those NIT games were watershed games.” MacWilliams said Fogelson helped XU secure its first substantial local TV contract and entrench the Musketeers on 50,000-watt WLW-AM, its radio home to this day. “Perception is reality, and Xavier really expanded its footprint,” MacWilliams says. Xavier’s momentum could have stopped in its tracks when Staak left for Wake Forest. But Fogelson hired Gillen, a Notre Dame assistant who in nine seasons would take Xavier to seven NCAA Tournaments and leave with the school record for coaching wins (since supplanted by Chris Mack). “Jeff was a good man, always honest, always a straight shooter,” says Gillen, now a TV analyst for CBS Sports Network. “You might not always like what he said, but he’d give it to you from the hip. I appreciated his candor.” When Gillen moved on to Providence, Fogelson kept XU moving forward by hiring Prosser, a former XU assistant who had taken Loyola University Maryland from 2–25 to an NCAA Tournament in his only season as head coach. Prosser would lead the XU program into both the Atlantic 10 and Cintas Center. From fund-raising to networking, scheduling to support, Fogelson checked many boxes while ruffling few feathers. “He was like a good basketball game official in that he made really good decisions and didn’t make it about himself,” MacWilliams said. “He wasn’t out there looking for plaudits. He worked behind the scenes and he did his job well.” Less than a week before he died, Fogelson met Gillen and MacWilliams for breakfast. Gillen was in town to work the UC–Houston game, and the three met at a Frisch’s near Northern Kentucky University. “We had some fun,” Gillen says. “He was upbeat. He didn’t look robust, but he looked like he was OK. He was a great guy, and I miss him.”

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P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E S Y X AV I E R AT H L E T I C S

WARMUP

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ROLE PLAY

FEEL THE BEAT

// IT’S NOT OFTEN A PLAYER MAKES THE LEAP FROM PEP BAND TO WALK-ON, BUT MATT SINGLETON DID IT. HERE, THE FORMER PERCUSSIONIST AND 2017–2018 FORWARD OUTLINES SOME KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HIS ROLES. — S H A N N O N R U S S E L L

BASKETBALL

“There really wasn’t one,” says Singelton. “We just kind of showed up and played.”

TRYOUT

Three weeks of physical tryouts and an interview.

“Laid back, fun. Wild. The people in pep band have a crazy amount of passion for Xavier sports.”

PRACTICES

“Pretty intense. Competitive. Very focused.”

“Wake up whenever, go to the caf about three hours before the game and show up an hour before the game.”

GAME DAY

“Up at 8:30 a.m., breakfast at Cintas Center— and it’s healthy, no junk food—class, shoot-around, pre-game meal, pre-game lift, game time.”

Sticks.

GEAR

Shoes, socks, jersey, shorts, compression gear.

An hour before.

ARRIVAL TIME

Five hours before.

“Nothing usually. I might hit a few notes on a practice mat.”

WARMUP

Shots, lay-ups, stretching, more stretching, dynamic stretching, lots of stretching.

“No one. My neighbors were my drums.”

SEAT NEIGHBORS

Walk-on Nick Vanderpohl and grad assistant Ricardo Johnson.

“Pride as a drummer, knowing that you go to the school and they just won a game.”

THRILL OF VICTORY

“Hunger for the next game.”

“Not really that much. You’re still going to play the next game.”

AGONY OF DEFEAT

“Got to ﬂip the page.”

“The Elite Eight was huge, and the Sweet 16. About half the group went to San Jose, California, for those games.”

HIGHLIGHT

“I would say practice, actually. I really looked forward to it. It’s where we got better, and it’s something I liked being part of.”

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WARMUP

MY STORY

CONQUERING HURDLES

// FRESHMAN TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETE WILL ROBERTS FLIES OVER OBSTACLES ON THE TRACK. BORN IN A REFUGEE CAMP IN GHANA, HE’S HAD SOME PRACTICE GETTING OVER THE THINGS THAT STAND IN HIS WAY. —J A C K B R E N N A N

ALL IT FITTING, OR COINCIDENTAL—OR BOTH—THAT WILL Roberts has found the 400-meter hurdles to be the best outlet for his promising athletic talent. Before even thinking of a college track career, the Xavier University freshman had already cleared real-life hurdles, ones that could have kept him from ever reaching the safe spot he found four years ago in high school in Greensboro, North Carolina. Roberts was born in a refugee camp in Ghana, in West Africa, in 1999. His family roots are in nearby Liberia, but

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Liberia was ravaged by civil war for nearly 15 years, from 1989 to 2003. As Reuters has reported it, “Liberia became for many a byword for savagery, and hundreds of thousands died.” Roberts’s family managed to avoid the very worst of it. “But my mother’s and our family’s houses got burned down,” he says. “They decided to migrate to Ghana, and they were allowed to stay in the camp.” Roberts’s mother, Fanete, was pregnant with him when they arrived. Until around age 5, the camp was the only life he knew. “We had a little house,” Roberts says, “but it didn’t have a TV and it barely had a kitchen. And it didn’t have showers. I would shower outside, butt naked, with a pail.” In hindsight, Roberts is glad he wasn’t born sooner. He didn’t have to endure

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIC SUCAR

UP AND OVER Will Roberts competed in the 60-meter hurdles at the BIG EAST Championships in February. He ﬁnished 10th in his preliminary round in 8.84 seconds.

being an older child in the camp and better realizing its conditions. “I looked it up once, when I was older, and it just looked horrible,” he says. “I just couldn’t imagine having been born there and living there.” Roberts still isn’t clear on the mechanics of how he and his mother got to the United States. “My father got here ﬁrst, with my brother,” he says. “Family helped him out. They were sprinkled around the U.S., coming here little by little. And my father did some kind of a process and was able to send for us.” But early life in America, in Staten Island, New York, was no star-spangled affair. “We lived in the projects,” Roberts says, “and the middle school I went to was ranked No. 1 among the most

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dangerous schools in New York. People would literally die right outside the school. And I always got in trouble. I remember once being in handcuffs for something stupid. And then my mother sent me to Greensboro to live with my aunt. It was an adjustment, but in the end it was so much better.” Roberts attended T. Wingate Andrews High, a well-regarded magnet school, and thus began the process of his making it to Xavier, where he’s regarded as one of the top young track prospects in the BIG EAST. “The coaches at my high school saw me playing basketball and suggested I run track,” he says. “And every meet I seemed to be doing better, and by the time I was a senior, my coach told me, ‘Your times are good enough to run in college.’ ”

“I GREW UP NOT WANTING TO BE AFRICAN AND NOT WANTING ANYONE TO KNOW IT.”

—WILL ROBERTS

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WARMUP

MY STORY

With his coach’s help, Roberts marketed himself to college track programs. He made a number of campus visits, including Ohio State, North Carolina, and North Carolina State, but he quickly settled on Xavier after visiting the campus and meeting coach Ryan Orner. “I loved it here from the first minute,” he says. “It was a smaller school, but with a bigger name, you might say. It just felt like a place I could all home.” Roberts joined the track team as a “preferred walk-on,” guaranteed a place on the squad. “He first came with a group of five or six others,” Orner says, “and he immediately stood out for his poise and how he carried himself. It was clear he was a kid who had seen a lot, done a lot,

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and been through a lot. And his talent is excellent. We expect him to be at least one of the top two or three hurdlers in the BIG EAST before he’s done.” And on March 31, at the Oliver Nikoloff Open, hosted by the University of Cincinnati, Roberts won the 400 hurdles with a Xavier-record time of 55.06 seconds. He smashed the old record, beating by more than one-andone-half seconds the record of 56.65 that had stood since 2009. Roberts puts no ceiling on his track potential. He smiles with a conﬁdent gleam in his eyes when asked if he thinks he can leave Xavier as a school recordholder, and he says he dreams of the Olympics. But he is also serious about pursuing a mechanical engineering degree,

and he is an accomplished young poet. He has traveled to poetry festivals and has won a poetry slam with his signature work, a long and introspective piece titled “I Am African.” “It took me years to write it,” he says. “It took me years to accept who I was. Once I got here [to the U.S.], I was being called an ‘African booty-scratcher.’ I grew up not wanting to be African and not wanting anyone to know it. But when I finally finished it, it was one of the best things for me. It made me more confident in myself. It’s about knowing who you are and accepting who you are.” Should the occasion ever arise, Xavier Nation, ask Roberts to recite it for you. It’s as moving as his fleet trips over the hurdles.

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P H O T O G R A P H S C O U R T E S Y T H E R O B E R T S F A M I LY

LEFT: Will Roberts celebrates his 2nd birthday in Africa. BELOW: During Roberts’ junior year of high school, he competed at the 2016 North Carolina High School Athletic Association 2A Indoor State Championships. He won the bronze medal in the 500-meter dash in his ﬁrst year of competing indoors.

“I AM AFRICAN” I have always worn an American disguise

My father

But it’s crazy people always seem to tell me I look like an African

He found us a new home and introduced us to America, where we have to learn history or should I say her-story?

And the times I really had the guts to tell them “I am one” they had trouble believing me When you think of Africans you think of rebels You see, ignorance is a common disease that a lot of people refuse to get cured from so when I tell you that we are not all the same and you still just so happen to label me as a rebel I will respond back with “I am one because I am ﬁghting against stereotypes that just don’t know when to stop.” Being an African has always been a joke And I remember all of the times that I was too weak to stand up and embrace it So, I found myself being distant from my heritage like a free man’s wrist and a bracelet

And I never once thought of going back to Mother Africa which makes it crazy how I know more about my stepmother’s background than my motherland I remember crying when I was leaving but all of those tears I shed were for nothing because when I got here I never once picked up the phone to call But you can’t blame me though, I was young But I do blame myself because I grew up lacking knowledge of simple facts about where I originated because I never asked And it’s crazy one thing I always do is ask questions

It is like I was Miley Cyrus living in the best of both worlds

Sometimes I think I hear my mother’s family back home calling me “Blessing, don’t forget us oh” “Make sure you come back to see us oh”

But because of my insecurities I lacked interest in my African side

Or maybe it’s just my conscience reminding me that I’m guilty

So Kente cloths and Dashikis were never a part of my attire

Like all of the times I sat in a room puzzled meanwhile my family was speaking something other than English

I never liked writing nor telling my middle name but by the way

Yes, I am guilty!

It is Blessing

Es loco, sé más español que el dialecto de mi familia

And other than my family I never told anyone what I ate at home Even if they asked, but if you ask me now I would tell you that African foods are the best things in the world and I wish I knew how to make them

It’s crazy, I know more Spanish than my family’s dialect I’m growing up so I rarely use my disguise anymore So, when they say that my lips are too big to hide the African in me

I left Africa when I was four

I’ll take that as a compliment

Maybe ﬁve

Because at least I can still be described by what I really am

I have a good memory but I just can’t seem to remember because I’ve been taking trips through negativity and it has been a very long ride

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An African —WILL ROBERTS

S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 | X AV I E R N AT I O N

ONE WILD WEEK 2 6 X AV I E R N AT I O N | S P R I N G 2 0 1 8

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NEW DIGS From outside his new office, Travis Steele surveys the Cintas Center court before heading off to the news conference where he will be announced as Xavier’s men’s basketball coach. (Below, right) Steele meets with the team for the ﬁrst time as head coach April 3 and is immediately greeted in the locker room by guard Quentin Gooden.

TRAVIS STEELE NEVER GOES TO THE

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY GLENN HARTONG

Final Four even though it’s an annual gathering spot for college basketball coaches. His goal was to go only as part of a team participating. Instead, he typically heads to the beach in Naples, Florida, with his family. But Thursday, March 29, he found himself bound for San Antonio, site of the 2018 Final Four—and site of Xavier Athletic Director Greg Christopher’s interviews to ﬁnd a new men’s basketball coach. The day before, Chris Mack was announced as head coach at the University of Louisville. The news became official that Tuesday, when Mack informed the Xavier players he was taking that job. The Musketeers immediately met with Christopher. He explained to them the process that would take place, and then he had a similar conversation with Steele. “We’ve got to get the best head coach for Xavier,” Christopher told the players and Steele separately. “I told Greg that I thought I was that guy, but I do want him to validate me,” Steele says. Thus began a wild week for the 36year-old Steele.

CHRIS MACK LEFT. TRAVIS STEELE WAS HIRED. WHAT HAPPENED IN BETWEEN ALL THAT? BY MICHAEL PERRY XavierNationMagazine.com

S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 | X AV I E R N AT I O N

LET’S CHAT

THURSDAY, MARCH 29 As fate would have it, on Steele’s ﬂights from Cincinnati to San Antonio via Atlanta, there was a familiar passenger: Mack, Steele’s friend, mentor, and former boss who coached the Musketeers for nine seasons. Naturally, they talked. “It was good to catch up with him,” Steele says. Mack, too, was a proponent of Xavier hiring Steele and made that known before he left. In San Antonio, Steele checked into the Historic Menger Hotel, downtown and right next to the Alamo. While he never attends the Final Four, Steele always reserves a room the previous fall just in case. Good thing he did.

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He had dinner Thursday night with his brother John Groce, a former Xavier assistant and now the head coach at the University of Akron, and John’s wife, Allison. After dinner, Steele got together with two assistant coaches he knew he’d be interested in should he get the Xavier job. One was Jonas Hayes from the University of Georgia, whom Steele hired April 9. “I was trying to work ahead,” Steele says matter-of-factly. “Obviously I didn’t know if I was going to be the next head coach, but I wanted to be prepared.” Steele was scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. Friday with Xavier ofﬁcials for his interview. Christopher called Thursday night and said they had to move it to 11 a.m.

because of a conflict another coach had. “We have a good list of candidates,” Christopher told Steele. “You’re going to have to bring your A game.” “I told him I bring my A game every day,” Steele says. Steele says he slept well. “No nervousness,” he says. “I had a very quiet confidence. I felt like I was the guy for the job. “Over the years I’ve interviewed for a lot of head jobs, and I know exactly how I want to run my program. I know the exact vision that I have. I felt confident going into the interview that I could communicate my vision in a very clear and concise way—how I would take Xavier to the next step, just like every coach before me.”

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ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY GLENN HARTONG

Paul Fritschner interviews Steele for GoXavier.com in the student-athlete lounge after the April 4 news conference. (Opposite page) Sitting in his new office, Steele jots down notes before that news conference.

FRIDAY, MARCH 30 Steele had breakfast at Starbucks next to the hotel with Groce and Kent State University coach Rob Senderoff, a friend. “I used John as a sounding board,” Steele says. “I really didn’t talk to a lot of people throughout the process.” Steele avoided going out on the popular Riverwalk and instead maintained a low proﬁle in a generic gray Nike ballcap and no Xavier gear. “I didn’t want to be recognized,” he said. He took an Uber for a 15-minute ride to the San Antonio Marriott Northwest. He wore a light blue button-down dress shirt and gray slacks—no suit and no tie, per instructions from Christopher, who didn’t want coaches to look like they were going to an interview. Steele’s interview was in the same location as everyone else’s, so that every candidate was treated the same. Steele arrived early to sign forms related to background checks and privacy laws. He waited in the lobby for 30 minutes before going up to a suite where Christopher, Associate Athletic Director for External Relations Brian Hicks, and Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance Jeff Poulard were waiting. Seated at a small table for four, Steele answered questions and laid out his vision over the next two and a half hours. They discussed strength and conditioning, academics, discipline, recruiting, style of play, what Steele wanted to keep the same, and how his program would be different.

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At the end, Steele handed each interviewer a piece of paper with a map—a list of 10 things he would do differently. “I’m different than Chris,” Steele says. “Not that I’m better than Chris, but I am going to be my own person.” The paper was titled “2%” and conveyed Steele’s mantra throughout the interview. Xavier basketball has climbed the mountain for a long time but has 2% left to get to the top. “It’s not just national championship boom or bust,” Steele said later. “We’re not going to be judged by one game. We’re going to be judged by our holistic program: Are we graduating guys? Are we developing men? Are we competing for BIG EAST championships in the regular season and the tournament? Are we playing a national schedule? I do want us to get to a Final Four, national championship level. Absolutely I want to do what we’ve never done before at Xavier. But our program shouldn’t be judged based on that one game.” He left the interview conﬁdent. “But you never know,” he says. Steele said he was unsure who the other candidates were, but everyone advised him to just focus on himself and his path for the program. Various news reports and tweets mentioned candidates including Pat Kelsey, Winthrop University coach and former Xavier player and assistant; Mark Schmidt, St. Bonaventure University coach and former Xavier assistant; Villanova University assistant Ashley Howard;

Northern Kentucky University coach John Brannen; University of Buffalo coach Nate Oats; College of Charleston coach Earl Grant; and South Dakota State University coach T.J. Otzelberger. Christopher would not confirm who he interviewed. STEELE HAD A FLIGHT BACK TO CINCINNATI ON Friday night and expected to return home. But Christopher asked him to stay in San Antonio. So, he booked the last flight out the following day. Steele then had dinner with University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, who had just arrived in San Antonio, and his wife, Karen. Sampson was Steele’s boss at Indiana University, and the two remain friends. Around 9:30 p.m., Christopher called and asked to meet that night. Christopher went to the Menger Hotel and he and Steele went to the upstairs bar, a more private setting where Teddy Roosevelt once recruited his Rough Riders cavalry. Christopher told Steele he was one of two finalists and that he was soon going over to see the other candidate. They discussed terms of a potential contract. “I was obviously going to take it,” Steele says. “It was my dream job.” Christopher said a decision would be finalized the next morning. Again, Steele slept well. “I had a fiveyear interview with Greg,” he says. “That was my advantage. They knew exactly what they were getting with me.”

S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 | X AV I E R N AT I O N

“EVERY COACH HAS MADE XAVIER A BETTER PLACE THAN IT WAS BEFORE. AND THAT’S MY RESPONSIBILITY.”

FAMILY AFFAIR Joining Steele at his introductory news conference were (from left) his mother Barbara, son Winston, and wife Amanda.

SATURDAY, MARCH 31 Steele woke up early, around 7 a.m., and went for a 5-mile run. Then he went to Macy’s near the hotel to buy new clothes; he had only packed enough for one night. “I had to buy everything,” he says. He also went to CVS to get shaving gel. On Steele’s walk back to the hotel, Christopher called. It was about 11 a.m. “We need to meet up. Can I come to your hotel room?” Christopher asked. Steele said yes, but he got a little nervous. Not because of the job, though. Late Friday night, there was a leak in the ceiling in his room. Water was dripping onto his bed. The hotel staff moved him to a new room that happened to be a suite with a living room. “It looked like I was living very, very plush,” Steele says, laughing. “I didn’t want Greg to think I was paying for a huge suite.” After cleaning up, he peeked out the window and saw Christopher, Hicks, and Poulard walking up to the main en-

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trance. “Oh, no,” Steele thought. “I had been very confident the entire time. That was the first time, for that spilt second, I thought, ‘This isn’t going to be good.’ ” He called his wife, Amanda, quickly and said, “We’ll probably know in the next 10 minutes what’s going to happen.” He hung up. Christopher knocked. He had come up alone. “Here we go,” Steele thought. CHRISTOPHER WALKED INTO THE SUITE AND took it in. Steele quickly explained. Christopher laughed, sat down, then said: “I want you to know that you knocked the interview out of the park. You’re the guy. We want you to be the next head coach at Xavier.” “My first reaction was it was really surreal,” Steele says. “Pure elation.” They hugged. Then they went to work. Christopher already had a checklist of what needed to happen next.

THEY WENT BACK TO THE BAR THEY WERE IN the night before, and Poulard took a photo of the two. Steele called his wife, who was with her friend Abbey MacWilliams, daughter of legendary XU fan and former announcer Andy MacWilliams. “Please keep it quiet for 30 minutes,” Steele pleaded. He and Christopher called Tom Eiser, associate athletic director for communications, and shared the news. Christopher sent texts to Xavier players. They texted or called recruits and their parents. Steele called Xavier University President Fr. Michael Graham and Administrative Vice President John Kucia to say thank you. He called his parents, his brother John Groce, and Amanda’s family. He called some of Xavier’s biggest supporters to thank them for their support: the Sedlers, Josephs, Kohlhepps, and Crawfords. He called Mack; University of Arizona and former XU coach Sean Miller; former Xavier and former Ohio State University coach Thad Matta; and Steve Witty, former Ben Davis High School coach who ﬁrst hired Steele. “They all had a huge impact on my life professionally and personally,” Steele said. “Without them I wouldn’t be where I am today. I’m just so appreciative of all those guys.” Mack told Steele: “I’m so happy for you. Hey, we’ve got to ﬁgure out a staff now.” Miller advised Steele to keep his priorities straight in all the hoopla: “Worry

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PHOTOGRAPH BY GLENN HARTONG

—TRAVIS STEELE

about your current players, recruiting, and hiring a staff. Nothing else matters.” The photo from the bar was tweeted out at 1:22 p.m., effectively making an official announcement. It was less than 72 hours since Mack was announced at Louisville. Christopher worked quickly, efficiently, and diligently. Steele did phone interviews with Shannon Russell from The Athletic and Patrick Brennan from Enquirer Media, both of whom regularly cover the Musketeers. As he sat in his suite by himself, the calls and texts went on for more than three hours. Players. Recruits. Their families. In roughly that same time span, Steele received more than 1,100 text messages from friends and family, players and recruits, and coaches—some looking for jobs. Around 4 p.m., he realized he was famished. He went to Lone Star Café on the Riverwalk with Sampson and Sampson’s father, and they mostly talked about staffing. “I was at the point that I didn’t really want to be in San Antonio anymore,” Steele says. Later, he left for the airport and took his flight back to Cincinnati via Atlanta, making calls and texting almost the entire time. “It was insane,” he says. When he got to his Hyde Park home around 1:30 a.m., Amanda and his 5-yearold son, Winston, were sound asleep. Steele was up jotting down ideas on his notepad. Around 2:30 a.m., he finally crashed.

SUNDAY, APRIL 1 Winston was up by 7 a.m. and ready to roll. Steele made more phone calls and sent text messages most of the day. He had Easter dinner with Amanda’s family in a private room at Stone Creek Dining Company in Montgomery. Brothers. Grandparents. Aunts and uncles. “A big crew,” he says.

MONDAY, APRIL 2 More phone calls and texts. A workout in Xavier’s weight room. A meeting to map out a Wednesday news conference.

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TUESDAY, APRIL 3 At 3 p.m., Steele met with the players for the first time since he was announced as coach. He and Christopher walked into the locker room together. The team applauded. Steele and every player embraced as he made his way around the room. They offered congratulatory messages as he passed through. “Two things I want to start us off with,” Steele said to open his first team meeting as head coach. “No. 1, I’m going to be the same person. Even though I may be changing a position, I’m going to be fair, I’m going to hold you guys accountable, I’m going to push you guys, but I’m also going to be that same guy who loves you guys and cares about you guys. And I think you guys know that. My door is always going to be open. It doesn’t matter whether I’m the head coach or not. That’s first and foremost. “The second thing I would say is, nothing against anybody else that’s ever stood up here before in front of you guys, there’s not going to be a guy that’s more invested in you guys than me. And that’s on the court and that’s off the court. Your dreams or individual dreams, that’s what I want for you guys to happen. In order for that to happen, though, I’m going to give you guys the path of how we’re going to get there as a program. If we can accomplish what I think we can accomplish as a team, you’ll get out of it individually what you want.”

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4 Less than a half-hour before the 3 p.m. news conference was to start, Steele was in his new office in Cintas Center jotting down talking points. “I already knew what I was going to talk about,” he says. “I know Xavier. I know the people. I wanted to be able to show that I have great appreciation for the tradition that we have and for all the people who have played a role in that and also give a vision for what’s to come.” The official “introduction” was in the second-floor lobby in Cintas Center. Father Graham and Christopher spoke. Then Steele took the stage and talked for roughly 14 minutes. “Every coach has made Xavier a bet-

ter place than it was before, and that’s my responsibility,” he said. The news conference was attended by Steele’s mother Barbara and brother David Groce, who came from Danville, Indiana; Amanda; Winston; Amanda’s parents Mike and Candace McCaw; her brothers Matthew and Jason; sister-inlaw Layne; Matt Dugan, one of Steele’s best friends from high school came in from Indianapolis. Steele’s father Jerry was in the hospital with a serious back issue. After the news conference, there were quick media interviews on the ﬁrst ﬂoor of Cintas in the student-athlete lounge, then a donor reception in the Courtside Club. Afterward, Steele drove with Eiser to the iHeartMedia studio in Kenwood, where Steele went on-air with sports talk show host Lance McAlister. “It was a blur,” he says. That night was also the XSPYs, an awards show celebrating Xavier’s student-athletes and teams. “It was a long day,” Steele says. “But I stayed for the whole event. We want to make sure that our men’s basketball team is visible, and we’re not any different than any other sport.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 5 Steele left early on a ﬂight for Big Rapids, Michigan, where he met with Zach Hankins, a transfer from Ferris State and the Division II Player of the Year. The 6-foot-10 Hankins committed to Xavier that day. Recruiting continued in Indianapolis and Bloomington, Indiana, before Steele ended the day at the Indiana Pacers– Golden State Warriors game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, where he got to visit with former Xavier star David West, now with Golden State. “It was great to see David,” Steele says. “He was great. He’s excited. He’s Xavier through and through. He embodies Xavier basketball. “I’d like to say that it was the perfect end to a crazy week, but it wasn’t the end to anything. It was just the beginning. I still had to recruit players—the lifeblood of our program—and put together a staff. I don’t think it’s going to slow down any time soon.”

S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 | X AV I E R N AT I O N

MAGIC NUMBER AS “THE MAN OF STEELE” BECOMES XAVIER UNIVERSITY’S 18th MEN’S BASKETBALL COACH, XAVIER NATION GOES DEEP TO FIND OUT WHAT HE’S REALLY LIKE. BY RORY GLYNN 3 2 X AV I E R N AT I O N | S P R I N G 2 0 1 8

XavierNationMagazine.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

COACH ON COURT Travis Steele played point guard in high school and AAU ball.

doubt about that,” Steele says. “He’d beat me in H-O-R-S-E, though. He could shoot the ball better than I could. But I was a little quicker than him.”

He met his wife with an assist from a Xavier Hall of Famer.

Speaking of Amanda’s family…

Steele’s wife of nearly six years, the former Amanda McCaw, is the daughter of Mike McCaw, a prominent Cincinnati businessman whose holdings include Legendary Run Golf Course. It was there, at a 2008 Christmas party, that Amanda struck up a conversation with Xavier Hall of Famer Steve Thomas, who mentioned that the Musketeers had a new, young assistant basketball coach. By chance, Amanda had noticed that herself during a TV broadcast of XU’s buzzer-beating win over Virginia Tech in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Classic. Thomas mentioned Amanda’s interest in Steele to Dan Cloran, who at the time ran Xavier’s All For One Club; he talked to Steele, who found Amanda on Facebook, secured her phone number and texted her “within a minute,” Amanda says.

On March 31, Director of Athletics Greg Christopher tapped Travis Steele, 36, to succeed Chris Mack, the culmination of a 10-year stint on Victory Parkway that had seen Steele rise from director of basketball operations to associate head coach to the corner office with the sweeping view of the Cintas Center court. We set out to ﬁnd 18 things you might not know about Xavier’s 18th men’s basketball coach.

PHOTOGRAPH BY GLENN HARTONG

As a kid, he had his own indoor basketball court.

Well, an Indiana kid’s indoor basketball court: a barn in Danville, Indiana, Steele’s hometown. While growing, it’s home to fewer than 10,000 people, a McDonald’s, a Pizza Hut, and “ﬁve or six” stoplights, Steele says. “Danville’s very country. Your nearest neighbor is probably a halfmile away. We had a half-court, basically, outdoors, and then we had the hoop in the barn, so we could shoot if it was cold

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or wet out. The whole town gets behind basketball. It’s just the way it is there.”

He would beat his brother, John, in one-on-one.

Steele’s half-brother is University of Akron head coach (and former Xavier assistant) John Groce, who’s 10 years Steele’s senior. Back in their Danville days, Groce coached Steele’s AAU team and presumably had the upper hand in competition. But now? “I’m winning one-on-one. There’s no

Her grandfather Ralph Anderson was also a prominent local businessman and philanthropist who started Belcan Corp. in 1958. His daughter, Candace (Amanda’s mother), took over the business. Mike McCaw was Belcan CEO. Belcan was acquired in 2015 by Floridabased AE Industrial Partners LLC. Spinoff sister company BelFlex Stafﬁng Network was not part of the sale and is run by Amanda’s brothers and father. Amanda leads the family’s philanthropic efforts via the McCaw Charitable Fund. Some aspiring grooms ask their girlfriend’s father for her hand in marriage; Steele took his girlfriend’s mother to shop for the ring.

“We went to Schwartz Jewelers, and Marty Schwartz took care of us,” Steele says. “I’m not what you’d call a diamond expert.” Amanda said yes, of course, so the story’s happy ending survived a shaky

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start. When he decided to propose, Steele hatched a plan where he would stall the beginning of a weekend getaway by telling Amanda he had forgotten something at the ofﬁce and had to retrieve it. Instead, he sped over to the Indian Hill home of Amanda’s parents to ask for their blessing. Naturally, he said, he was pulled over for speeding. But when Travis explained the reason for his haste, the ofﬁcer let him go without a ticket. “I decided I was going to use that excuse from that day on,” Steele says.

“He made me dinner one time,” Amanda says. “It was chicken and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. He told me it was his mom’s special recipe.” Another time, she brought home burgers for a barbecue. When she checked on Steele at the grill, he had his iPad open to a YouTube video on how to grill meat. “Now when we grill out, we invite her brother Matthew over to do it,” Steele says.

…or Chip Gaines.

Why Hyde Park is home.

If something needs ﬁxing around the Steeles’ Hyde Park home, he’s OK if Amanda makes the appropriate service call. “I do have a screwdriver,” Travis said.

The venerable Cincinnati neighborhood’s coffee shops and restaurants aren’t just close, they’re walkably close. So is school for their 5-year-old son, Winston. Travis and Amanda’s ﬁrst real date, not a go-out-with-other-couples date, was at Fuji’s House in Hyde Park Plaza. And the proximity to Xavier makes it easy to come home or meet somewhere for lunch (Wild Ginger is a favorite). And the Steeles are looking forward to opening their home to XU players.

He might not cook, but he likes to eat.

Other favorite local eateries of the Steeles include Sotto, The Precinct, China Gourmet, Boca, Maplewood. Also, Skyline and LaRosa’s. “We’re not too fancy or anything,” he says.

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SHOOTAROUND (Clockwise from above) Steele plays basketball with 5-year-old son Winston in his in-laws’ basement. The Steele family: Amanda, Winston and Travis. Steele was live on 700-WLW with sports talk radio show host Lance McAlister (right) just hours after being announced as Xavier’s new head coach.

His grandfather grew accustomed to losing basketball.

That’s because Steele’s grandfather, Melvin Steele, played for the Washington Generals, for decades the foils of the Harlem Globetrotters. The Generals once lost 2,495 consecutive games to the Globetrotters.

The last time Steele was angry…

That would be after Xavier’s upset loss to Florida State in the NCAA Tournament. “And it’s not that you’re angry with the players,” he says. “You wonder what you could have done differently. The ﬁnality of your season comes so abruptly. You feel so bad for [seniors] Trevon [Bluiett], J.P. [Macura], Kerem [Kanter], Sean [O’Mara]. You’re angry at yourself, the refs, everybody, because you want to advance, and you

want to keep coaching those guys.” Perhaps Steele would have had trouble playing for the Washington Generals.

He’s not a movie buff.

Before he was a coach, he was a coach on the ﬂoor.

Neither is Amanda. The last film they saw in a theater was…they don’t remember. “Chick flick,” Amanda says. “It was raining outside,” Steele recalls. “I think Kate Hudson was in it,” Amanda says. He hadn’t heard of Netflix until a couple of years ago and doesn’t use it now. “Blockbuster,” he says. “That still around?”

Point guard was Steele’s position in high school and AAU ball, and he thrived at it. “I could run the offense, pass the ball, make guys better,” he says. “When John coached me

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ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY GLENN HARTONG

He’s not Bobby Flay.

Says Amanda: “When you walk in that door, his smile…but he’s starting to be at the age where he knows you’re not always coming back right away.” Steele smiles: “FaceTime is good, though.”

Lightning round: FAVORITE VACATION SPOTS:

Naples, Flaorida, where Amanda’s family has a home, and Chicago. “Anywhere we can be active,” she says. “We’re not sit-on-abeach-for-eight-hours people.” FAVORITE APPS: Twitter, Uber, Waze. “But I’m not a super high-tech guy,” Steele says. LAST SONG DOWNLOADED: “Meant to Be,” Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line—a favorite of all three Steeles.

Dateline, 20/20, 48 Hours, almost always on DVR. If Amanda falls asleep during playback, Travis stops watching so they can resume together. “But then you creep out of the room,” she says. Steele’s response? “I get a lot of work done between 9:30 and 12:30.”

APPOINTMENT TV:

IF NOT BASKETBALL, WHAT? “Maybe something in business?” Steele says. “Maybe I could be a CEO. I like competition.”

in AAU, that’s how he wanted me to play, how he molded me to play, to be a guy who could make other guys better.” That’s been said of point guards before, but as one of the 17 XU head coaches before Steele, the late Skip Prosser, used to say, “Clichés become clichés for a reason: They’re true.” And that’s why Steele values efﬁcient point guards. “If you have a guy who pounds the ball 20 times and then jacks up a bad shot, there’s no togetherness,” he said.

His summer camp was better than yours.

When Travis was in high school, John was coaching under Herb Sendek at North Carolina State. So, when Travis would spend time with John in the summer, he had sort of an all-access pass to the Wolfpack program: workouts with the players, meetings with the coaches, the perfect immer-

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sive experience for a kid who already knew he wanted to be a coach. “Looking back, there was nothing better,” he says.

Best advice he received since taking the Xavier job…

Best part of fatherhood:

It came from Arizona coach Sean Miller, another ﬁgure from the N.C. State days and the man who brought Travis to Xavier in 2008. “It was, ‘Be you,’ ” Steele says. “ ‘People are going to try to compare you with Chris [Mack], but you have to stay true to guiding principles and remember what’s important, and that’s those guys in the locker room.’ ”

“He’ll love you no matter what,” Steele says. “It’s unconditional. You may lose out on a recruit or lose a game, but he’s gonna treat you the exact same.”

Ready for the challenge.

Steele’s early moves, from building his staff to bringing in spring recruits, have won plaudits, and that’s partly because he was prepared. Steele drew on something he learned from Shaka Smart at a Nike consortium for assistant coaches: “You have to know A to Z what you’re going to do if you get [a head coaching job], because if you wait until you get a job to try to figure it out, you’re not going to be successful.” Another factor: He knew he was ready to coach at Xavier because he was already coaching at Xavier. “A lot of people say what they’re going to do in their first 30 days on the job; for me, and for me only, it was going to be the next 30,” he says. “I had all the relationships. I know our compliance director. I know our admissions office. I know our provost, our athletic director. I know all the players in that locker room, and I know all their parents. I didn’t have to try to form a relationship quickly.”

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2017–2018 SEASON REVIEW

SILVER

T WAS A SEASON OF YOUTHFULNESS AND NEAR-MISSES FOR

Xavier’s women’s basketball team, but fifth-year coach Brian Neal was encouraged by the progress made by the 2017–2018 group despite its losing record. The Musketeers finished 10–20, 3–15 BIG EAST, enduring two long skids along the way. They dropped six straight games in January and nine in a row later in the season, but the scores didn’t always tell the complete stories of the outings. “I think most of the players realized that brighter days are ahead, and we were taking our lumps at times,” Neal says. “When we didn’t have strong leadership or strong upperclassman play on a day, we were getting our butts kicked. There were too many of those. But when we played well, we were competitive. We played single-digit games versus DePaul, Creighton twice, Georgetown, St. John’s. There were some real wars in there.” Seniors Jada Byrd (9.5 points per game) and Anniina Aijanen (7.9 points, 4.2 rebounds) helped lead a team comprised largely of freshmen and sophomores. Late in the season, that youthful contingent played 60 percent of the Musketeers’ minutes. Factor in injuries that briefly altered the team’s complexion and then throw in new offensive and defensive schemes, and suddenly a team picked by league coaches to finish last in the BIG EAST

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preseason poll fulﬁlled that prophecy. The Musketeers finished the regular season with a victory over Butler but dropped their ﬁrst conference tournament game against Seton Hall. Still, Neal saw promise. “When you take out the emotion, the competitiveness of wanting to win, and you analyze things, I’m very happy with the way the season went,” says Neal. “I know you look at the BIG EAST record and wonder how a coach can say that, but considering our youth, considering our players that were playing new roles, and some of the adversity and injuries and things like that—up until the end, I was very happy with everything.” Xavier tested its mettle against a rigorous schedule; the majority of its opponents received postseason bids to the NCAA Tournament or Women’s National Invita-

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P H O T O G R A P H S B Y D O U G CO C H R A N A N D DAV I D W E G I E L

BY SHANNON RUSSELL

LININGS P H O T O G R A P H S B Y D AV I D W E G I E L A N D M I C H A E L M I L L AY (C I N C Y R O O T E D)

EVEN IN THE HEART OF A DIFFICULT SEASON, THERE WERE MOMENTS TO BE PROUD OF. AND THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT.

tion Tournament. Freshman guard Aaliyah Dunham thought the Musketeers showed potential in spurts, perhaps none so well as in a game against BIG EAST leader DePaul. Well before DePaul won its ﬁfth straight BIG EAST regular-season title and captured the conference tournament crown, Xavier took it down to the wire at Cintas Center in a Feb. 11 thriller. The Musketeers led for 28 minutes in a game that featured four ties and nine lead changes. “Just the communication on the court, the energy, the motivation, the atmosphere that we had—it was unbelievable,” Dunham says. “Everybody was focused. Everybody wanted the same thing.” Kindell Fincher hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have sent the game to overtime. But ofﬁcials reviewed the shot, determined her foot was on the line, called

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it a two-point basket, and DePaul escaped with a 73–72 win. “Of course we were a little heartbroken,” says Dunham. “But at the same time were happy and pleased with our performance. We knew we could play with anybody in the BIG EAST. We played with them and had them shaken up a little bit,” says Dunham, who was named to the BIG EAST’s All-Freshman Team in March. Most of the Musketeers return next season, where they’ll be joined by a ﬁve-player recruiting class: guards Maddy Johnson, Lauren Wasylson, Carrie Gross, Ka’lerra Reed, and forward Ayanna Townsend. The players’ ability to mesh with some of more productive members of the Musketeers’ squad—like Dunham and fellow guard Na’Teshia Owens—could set up Xavier for growth in 2018–2019.

SOME SEASON HIGHLIGHTS (Opposite page, clockwise from left) Xavier poses with the Crosstown Shootout trophy after defeating Cincinnati 53–50 in the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout on Dec. 10, 2017. The Musketeers won their fourth straight game in the series and have won 11 of the last 14 meetings between the two teams. XU guard Jada Byrd (12) drives to the basket past Seton Hall’s Inja Butina (5) in a 66–42 loss at Wintrust Arena in the BIG EAST Tournament on March 3. Byrd, a 5-foot-9 senior, led the Musketeers in scoring this season, averaging 9.5 points per game. Anniina Äijänen looks to score against Seton Hall’s Shadeen Samuels. Äijänen, a 6-foot2 senior forward from Finland, was Xavier’s No. 3 scorer (7.9 ppg) and No. 2 rebounder (4.2 rpg). (This page, from left) Freshman guard Princess Stewart (5) with a layup against Seton Hall in the BIG EAST Tournament on March 3 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. Sophomore Na’Teshia Owens (20) brings the ball up the court against Providence on Jan. 19. The Musketeers defeated the Friars, 68–59, at Cintas Center.

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HOOS ER HIGHWAY XAVIERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S RECRUITING CONNECTIONS TO THE STATE NEXT DOOR ARE STRONG, AND NEW COACH TRAVIS STEELE PLANS TO ENSURE THE RELATIONSHIP ENDURES.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

BY SHANNON RUSSELL

X AV I E R N AT I O N 3 9

High to a 4A Indiana state championship and nabbing tournament MVP honors in 2009, sophomore point guard Dee Davis became a hot commodity on the recruiting trail. Xavier, Purdue, and Ohio University offered him scholarships. Several other schools, including Butler, showed interest. Davis—an AAU star for Indiana Elite with a burgeoning basketball reputation—doused other programs’ hopes when he committed to the Musketeers the summer before his junior year. Extracting a Hoosier from his home state was a coup for Xavier’s staff. It wasn’t an isolated experience. The pipeline from Indiana to Cintas Center has become a popular conduit during the last decade. Former coach Chris Mack signed players from 16 states in his nine years at the helm, but none so frequently as Indiana: Davis, Jeff Robinson, Justin Martin, Trevon Bluiett, and Paul Scruggs. While Indiana historically produces high-level talent and a deep well of players, Xavier’s place as a contender over the last decade also has been driven by the recruiting strides of new head coach Travis Steele.

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The Danville, Indiana, native graduated from Butler University and coached high schoolers and AAU players in his home state. He brought a wealth of connections to Xavier in 2008 as Director of Basketball Operations under Sean Miller. Steele was promoted to assistant coach the next year and eventually became the associate head coach before replacing Mack at the helm March 31. Davis, who has played professional basketball internationally since graduating from Xavier in 2015, says the attentiveness of the coaching staff—Steele especially—and the bond he built with teammates factored heavily into his college decision. Although he dreamed of playing for Indi-

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PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB STEVENS

SHORTLY AFTER LEADING BLOOMINGTON SOUTH

PHOTOGR APHS (C LOC K WISE FROM TOP LEF T) BY GREG RUST / GREG RUST / FRANK VICTORES / FRANK VICTORES

INDIANA GROWN Clockwise from far left: Dee Davis (11) started 92 of 133 career games at Xavier and is the No. 5 all-time assist leader. Justin Martin (20) started 60 of 94 games in three years at XU before transferring to SMU after earning his undergraduate degree. Jeff Robinson (21) started 35 of 108 games over four years. Trevon Bluiett (5) ﬁnished his career as Xavier’s No. 2 all-time scorer. Paul Scruggs (1) appeared in 34 games as a Xavier freshman, averaging 16.8 minutes.

ana University as a kid, he took his talents to the Buckeye State. Brian Snow, a national recruiting analyst for 247Sports.com, expects that Indiana-to-Xavier trend to strengthen under Steele. The 36-year-old coach reinforced the notion in his introductory press conference, insisting that in recruiting, the program will continue to encompass a “bread basket” area, or ﬁve-hour radius from Cincinnati. “Steele is a coach who genuinely enjoys recruiting and knows its importance to a college basketball program,” Snow says. “In my opinion, Steele will be as personally involved with recruiting as any head coach in the country, and I don’t expect Xavier to miss a beat.”

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XAVIER BRAND TRAVELS WEST X i ’ recruiting Xavier’s i i philosophy hil h iis simple: i Find the best players possible. The Musketeers’ NCAA Tournament success and BIG EAST Conference afﬁliation have opened more doors than ever before. The entire country is a potential recruiting ground, but Xavier’s ideal range is close enough for recruits and families to hop in their cars and drive to campus. Although former assistants Mike Pegues and Luke Murray prospected in regions based on their own backgrounds and relationships, the coaches were not limited to one area. The goal was to cover as much ground as possible. Location is only part of the equation. Xavier identiﬁes needs for each recruiting

class, so if the program seeks a shooting guard, coaches target the best ones available whether they’re in-state or not. It’s worth noting that the Musketeers had just three Ohio scholarship players in the last nine years: Semaj Christon and transfers Matt Stainbrook and RaShid Gaston. Christon was the lone signee from a Cincinnati-area high school (Winton Woods). Snow attributes the greater number of Xavier commits from the state to Indiana’s robust grassroots basketball presence. “It’s is just a basketball-centric area,” he says. “Whereas the best athletes in Cincinnati typically play football, the best athletes in Indiana play basketball. With that it’s going to produce a lot of high-level players.”Other considerations include

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PAUL SCRUGGS, from Indianapolis Southport High School, averaged 4.9 points per game as a freshman and will be one of the top ﬁve returning scorers in the fall. ESPN.com ranked Scruggs as the No. 5 point guard in the country coming out of high school.

Xavier’s brand, which diminishes north of Dayton. Columbus is Big Ten country and Cleveland can be distance-prohibitive. Recruiting is inherently fragile anyway, swayed by any number of reasons—a recruit’s parents’ ties to a school, a program’s style of play—but Xavier has come up empty in Ohio more times than coaches would have liked. Last summer in particular was difﬁcult for Xavier in the recruiting realm. Many potential signees became near-misses. “It is frustrating,” Steele says. “I think a lot of kids look at your roster and they’re going to say, ‘Hey, where do I ﬁt in?’ When you have Paul Scruggs, Elias Harden, and Naji Marshall in the class ahead of you, they start saying, ‘What about me? Where do I fit? Where’s my opportunity?’ Nobody wants to just come in and be seen as ‘depth.’ ” When Xavier coaches sit down with kids and their families, their presentation extolls the university’s strong academics, big-time basketball, winning tradition, and location. None of that matters for a kid who wants to study, say, engineering, a program Xavier does not offer. (And Xavier has lost out on players for that reason.) For players like Davis, though, Xavier checked all the right boxes. He ultimately was sold on the feeling of belonging. “Seeing the bond the guys had with each other while on visits and coming to games was [something] I wanted to be a part of,” Davis says. “The coaching staff at Xavier did a great job at making me feel wanted and needed.”

SCRUGGS CARRIES TORCH

DON’T FORGET Before 2009, there were other Musketeers players from Indiana. A snapshot:

Stanley Burrell (2004–2008): The

Joe Hughes (2007–2011): After

Justin Cage (2003–2007): A starter

Will Caudle (2002–2006): This

Indianapolis native scored 1,612 career points but was well-regarded for his defense. He was named the 2008 Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year.

two years as a walkon, this Indianapolis resident was awarded a one-year scholarship. He helped Xavier amass a 107–32 record during his tenure on the team.

on Xavier’s 2004 Elite Eight team and a threetime member of the Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team, this player from Indianapolis played in 131 games.

Skip Prosser signee from Indianapolis played in 118 games at Xavier, starting 13 times and averaging 11.2 minutes, 4.3 points, and 2.1 rebounds.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANK VICTORES

T Trevon Bluiett Bl i lleft f IIndiana di as one its most decorated high school players in history. He scored 2,568 points at Park Tudor High, etching his name in sixth place on the state’s all-time scoring list and winning three Class 2A state championships.

The guard from Indianapolis was recruited hardest by in-state schools Indiana, Purdue, Butler, and Notre Dame and outof-state contenders Michigan State, Memphis, and Xavier. Bluiett threw coaches a curve when he committed to UCLA on his ﬁ rst ofﬁcial college visit. It wasn’t long before he realized California was too far from his family. Xavier rose to the top of the list when Bluiett reopened his search. The university’s closeness to home was a huge draw, and its small enrollment suited him more than the Bruins’ 45,000 students. “I think you’ve got to know what a kid is looking for in a school,” Steele says. “For example, Trevon went to Park Tudor High School. It’s a private school. And he grew up in Pike Township. Pike High School has a phenomenal basketball program, but there was a reason why he went to Park Tudor. He wanted a smaller environment. I felt that gave us a good niche or a good shot with Trevon.” Steele and Mack started recruiting Bluiett in eighth grade and the long relationship mattered. Bluiett knew them well and trusted them, and he was assured he had a chance to impact the Musketeers as a freshman. He followed his intuition and inked his National Letter of Intent. “I just wanted to go somewhere where I feel like somebody’s going to use me to my advantage,” Bluiett says. “They’re going to use me the right way. And with the style of play that I saw that they played and what the coaches were telling me, I felt like it was the best move for me.” Scruggs will represent for Indiana after Bluiett’s graduation, as the 2018 freshman recruiting class did not include a Hoosier. They were 7-foot center Jake Walter (Kentucky) and 6-foot-8 forward Dontarius James (South Carolina). Because recruiting remains an eternal grind, Xavier’s staff will continue to strengthen its connections in its targeted area and beyond. “It’s all about selling the opportunity and selling Xavier and this great place that we have,” Steele says. “Obviously, having the season we had last year—winning the BIG EAST regular-season championship and having a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament—the exposure that our program got was incredible. We reached coast to coast. Not that we’re going to start recruiting coast to coast, but our brand is continuing to strengthen.”

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CROSS COUNTRY

BREAKDOWN OF RECRUITS DURING THE NINE YEARS STEELE HAS BEEN A XAVIER ASSISTANT OR ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH:

CALIFORNIA

FLORIDA

NEW JERSEY

Brandon Randolph,

Malcolm Bernard,

Myles Davis,

Inglewood

Miami

Plainﬁeld

Naji Marshall, Atlantic City

Travis Taylor, Union

CONNECTICUT

KENTUCKY

Tyrique Jones,

Remy Abell,

Bloomﬁeld

Louisville

Quentin Goodin,

NEW YORK

Campbellsville

Kamall Richards,

Jake Walter,

Brooklyn

Alexandria

GEORGIA Kaiser Gates, Alpharetta

Elias Harden, East Point

NORTH CAROLINA

MARYLAND

Jay Canty, Jameston

Jordan Latham,

Dez Wells, Raleigh

Baltimore

Isaiah Philmore, Bel Air

ILLINOIS

OHIO

Larry Austin Jr., Springﬁeld

Semaj Christon,

James Farr,

Cincinnati

Evanston

MICHIGAN

Sean O’Mara,

Brad Redford,

Warren

Glen Ellyn

Frankenmuth

Matt Stainbrook,

Jalen Reynolds,

Bay Village

RaShid Gaston,

Detroit

Edmond Sumner, Detroit

INDIANA

SOUTH CAROLINA

Trevon Bluiett, Indianapolis

Dontarius James,

Dee Davis, Bloomington

MINNESOTA

Justin Martin,

J.P. Macura,

Indianapolis

Lakeville

Kershaw

Jeff Robinson, Indianapolis

Paul Scruggs, Indianapolis

TENNESSEE Makinde’ London, Nashville

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Family Rich Donnelly shows

PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL GIANNAMORE

off photos of his children. Amy died of cancer in 1993 at age 18. Michael died in January 2018 at age 38 in a hit-and-run accident in Dallas, where he had stopped to to help a stranded motorist. According to news reports, he and a woman who also stopped to help were pushing the stranded motoristâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s car off the road when they were struck by a passing car. The woman pushing the car said Michael Donnelly pushed her out of the way and saved her life. (Right) Daughters Leighanne, 38, and Tiffany, 40, who remained on the scene in the October 2017 Las Vegas shooting and provided aid and comfort to people injured.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

THE CHICKEN at RUNS MIDNIGHT It was his familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inside joke, but after the joke became real in a World Series victory, a silly phrase led this former Musketeer baseball star to deepen his unshakeable faith, which has helped him endure tragedy with grace. BY MAR K PUR DY

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More speciﬁcally, Donnelly was a catcher on the Musketeers’ baseball team. He was pushing toward his physical education degree. He was a kid from Steubenville, Ohio, who was still a bit awed by his fellow athletes on campus—especially his buddies on the basketball and football teams. “They all wore these beautiful blue letter sweaters with a big white X when they walked around campus,” Donnelly remembers. “Man, I wanted one of those. I wanted to be known, to be accepted, to wear it out on a date.” Slight problem, however. “Back then, the baseball team didn’t pass out the sweaters,” Donnelly says. “We just got the letters. Only the football and basketball players got those sweaters. So, I saved up $25 and went down to Shillito’s, the big department store, and bought one. I took

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it to my girlfriend—Peggy, who I later married—and she sewed on the letter. It just made me so proud to wear that sweater and that X.” A dogged man will not be denied. On the ﬁeld, Donnelly was just as determined to make an impression. He was drafted by the Minnesota Twins and played four minor league seasons before ﬁguring out that for a .230 hitter, coaching could be a better ticket to the Major Leagues. He made it there in 1980 as the bullpen coach for the Texas Rangers. Six years later, he was hired by Pittsburgh manager Jim Leyland to join the Pirates staff. And that’s where Donnelly’s narrative took a heartbreaking turn, with a spiritually unexpected conclusion. He has spent the last 26 years processing it all.

IN THE SPRING OF 1992, DONNELLY

was at the Pirates training camp. He received

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P H O T O G R A P H S (F R O M L E F T ) C O U R T E S Y P I T T S B U R G H P I R AT E S / B E N VA N H O U T E N , S E AT T L E M A R I N E R S / B E N VA N H O U T E N , S E AT T L E M A R I N E R S / S T E U B E N V I L L E H E R A L D -S TA R

A good man with a compelling story will demand ears and eyes. Rich Donnelly’s story demands yours. Long before any Hollywood producers proposed to tell his story of triumph and tragedy, Donnelly was not in Hollywood. He was at Xavier.

a phone call from his 17-year-old daughter Amy in Dallas, where she was living with her mom following her parents’ divorce. Amy had been diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer. Nine months to live. A strong man will bear up and do the ultimate for his daughter. Donnelly pursued the best doctors, sought the best treatment. When she seemed to be rallying and the Pirates won their division, he invited Amy to come watch playoff games in Pittsburgh. Amy relished every inning. In the box seats, she observed her father’s third-base coaching method up close. She was amused greatly by his distinctive waist-bending style of cupping his hands around his mouth as he screamed at Pittsburgh runners on second base. On the car ride back to his place after the game with her family, Amy joked that her dad must have been asking what the runners’ Chinese food takeout order was going to be—or wondered if he might be speaking

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in some sort of secret code. “Dad, what are you yelling at them?” she asked. “Is it something like: ‘The chicken runs at midnight?’ ” Huh? The car’s occupants, including Amy’s younger brother Tim, did double takes and head shakes. “We all started cracking up and asked, ‘What are you talking about?’ ” Tim Donnelly says. “The chicken runs at midnight? Where did she come up with that?” A my l au g he d , to o , a nd s a id she had no idea. But the phrase became a goto family expression that always brought a smile and sustained them throughout Amy’s ordeal. The Pirates picked up the saying, too, and began tossing it around to honor Amy, even as they lost the National League Championship Series in seven games. It was all too sad. By January, Amy was gone. The family put the crazy catchphrase on her headstone.

Quite a Career (From left, above) Former Musketeers baseball player Rich Donnelly, 71, has been a coach for The Pittsburgh Pirates and Seattle Mariners, in addition to the Texas Rangers, Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, and Los Angeles Dodgers. He won a World Series with the Marlins in 1997 and coached on the gold-medal winning U.S. team, which defeated Puerto Rico in the ﬁnal of the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

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A GRIEVING MAN MUST CARRY ON.

So must a baseball coach. Five years later, Leyland had moved on to the Florida Marlins. Donnelly followed. They helped guide the 1997 team to the World Series. Late that summer, the Marlins traded for a skinny inﬁelder named Craig Counsell, who possessed a unique batting stance with his arms splayed awkwardly in front of him. Tim Donnelly, by now a teenager, was a Marlins batboy and dugout presence. So was his brother. They loved Counsell. They loved his crazy stance. They began calling him “Chicken Man” or just “The Chicken.” Now came the transcendency. The Marlins and Cleveland Indians stretched that 1997 World Series into a Game 7 and played into an extra 10th inning, deep into the Florida night. Finally, with Counsell standing on third base, a Marlins batter swatted a base hit. Donnelly waved Counsell toward home plate to score the Serieswinning run. The stadium went nutty.

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Tim Donnelly and his brother sprinted from the dugout onto the ﬁeld to embrace their father. Tim then happened to look up at the centerﬁeld scoreboard and saw the giant clock atop it. “Dad!” he yelled at Rich Donnelly. “Look up there! Look! Look!” The clock was just a few minutes past 12 o’clock. “The chicken ran at midnight!” screamed Tim. The Donnellys all wept, happy and sad. “It was Amy,” Rich says, never doubting.

A SPIRITUAL MAN HOLDS ONTO

that feeling forever. Ever since that night, Donnelly has shared his experience with anyone willing to listen at his various coaching stops—in the clubhouses of the Rockies, Brewers, Dodgers, and Mariners—as well as with church groups and other willing gatherings. His story never fails to move an audience. An ESPN proj-

ect has immortalized the tale. Donnelly has appeared in a documentary about Catholics in the Major Leagues. Brad Holman, the bullpen coach of the Texas Rangers, wrote a touching song about the chicken’s midnight run. Book and ﬁlm offers arose. But here’s what Donnelly never saw coming: Amy’s divine intervention transported his faith to a different plane. It rebooted his mentality back to his undergraduate years when he attended Mass regularly and performed the daily readings at the request of Fr. John McElroy, who taught in Xavier’s Theology department. The priest, Donnelly is convinced, was quietly trying to help him overcome a stuttering condition. “Rich was a very dedicated person in college,” afﬁrms Tim O’Connell, one of Donnelly’s baseball teammates at Xavier and someone with whom he stays in regular touch. “He got the most out of his ability to be a friend. But being around the Jesuits at that time, in terms of form-

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PP HH OO TT OO GG RR AA PP HH SB (YF TR KO M L E F T ) C O U R T E S Y R I C H D O N N E L L Y / S T E U B E N V I L L E H E R A L D - S T A R

Giving Back (Clockwise from left) Amy Donnelly died of cancer in January 1993. Michael Donnelly died in a hit-and-run accident in January 2018. (Right) Rev. Ashley Steele of Urban Mission Ministries in Steubenville receives a $7,400 check from Rich Donnelly. The money was donated by friends and family in memory of Michael Donnelly.

ing your goals and your morals and your life…I’ve always said that you learned to be a winner.” Apparently so. With Donnelly behind the plate, the 1967 Musketeers spun out a 24–9 record and earned an invitation to the NCAA tournament. But school administrators nixed the invitation, complaining that the tournament would interfere with classes and exams. “We might have been the only team in history that declined a NCAA bid because of something like that,” Donnelly says. He got over it. To this day, he believes that Xavier was the perfect place for him. He rattles off the names of the friends and remarkable athletes he admired there— O’Connell, Danny Abramowicz, Steve Thomas, Jim Gruber, Joe Pangrazio, Bob Quick, Luther Rackley. And what about the year Donnelly spent as a student teacher and coaching assistant at Roger Bacon High under legendary coach Bron Bacevich? Invaluable, he says. “Anything I am today as a person, it wouldn’t have been the same if I’d gone somewhere else,” Donnelly says.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

AT AGE 71, HIS PACE HAS AT LEAST

slowed a bit. After his final MLB coaching stint three years ago, Donnelly served one more term under Leyland, who managed the Team USA coaching staff at the 2017 World Baseball Classic and won a gold medal. Donnelly then returned to his home outside Steubenville and settled into a happy groove with wife Roberta. Last year, Donnelly finally found time to cooperate on a Chicken Runs at Midnight book, which will be on shelves soon. Donnelly also sold the film rights to accomplished producer/director Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead). But mostly, Donnelly relished the chance to spend more quality time with his seven remaining children and their own families. He reconnected with old friends, feeling a great sense of peace. The peace was unfathomably interrupted in early January of this year. Donnelly received another horrible phone call. His 38-year-old son, Michael, had been killed in a hit-and-run accident while be-

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ing a Good Samaritan and trying to assist a stranded motorist alongside a Dallas freeway. A man of faith learns to accept signs that he can’t understand. Donnelly’s extended family gathered in Texas for Michael’s funeral service. Afterward, they returned to his home for more quiet sharing of memories. That’s when Michael’s mother and Rich’s ex-wife, Peggy, made a revelation. “You won’t believe what I found in Michael’s things,” she said. It was Donnelly’s college letter sweater. The beautiful blue one with the big white X. “I got teary-eyed,” Donnelly says. “I didn’t know where it had gone. It meant the world to me. But after that, I didn’t want to take it home. I gave it to my granddaughter.” Noticeably absent from any of Donnelly’s conversations, you may have noticed, is even a hint of him wondering, “Why me?” “He might have asked himself that many times,” says his son, Tim, himself a baseball coach at Middle Tennessee State. “But I’ve never heard him ask that.” The reason, Donnelly says, is simple. “You know, I was raised a strict Catholic,” he explains. “In the catechism, there’s a statement about the Seven Capital Sins. One of them is despair. To me, despair is giving up or feeling sorry for myself. At Xavier, I would get upset if anyone on our team felt sorry for themselves. And I have tried to carry that with me through my life.” In the aftermath of Michael’s death, Donnelly has received dozens of phone calls and messages from former Xavier teammates and classmates. “That showed me what those years really meant,” Donnelly says. “It’s why X was so special to me. For them to call me—after 50 years, in some cases—it was wonderful. I can’t imagine what my life would have been without those people.” A man who deserves those phone calls will receive those phone calls. The chicken runs at midnight. Rich Donnelly walks with remarkable graciousness. His walk, as a pious adult, began at Xavier. He believes it is no coincidence.

“Anything I am today as a person, it wouldn’t have been the same if I’d gone somewhere else.” –RICH DONNELLY

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PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

P H O T O G R A P H S ( F R O M L E F T ) B Y G L E N N H A R T O N G / C O U R T E S Y S C H U T T E F A M I LY

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WHAT XAVIER BASKETBALL MEANS TO US

// MUSKETEER HOOPS ARE ABOUT MORE THAN JUST THE BIG VICTORIES AND THE AGONIZING LOSSES. SOMETIMES, THE SPORT PROVIDES A CONNECTION THAT GOES BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF THE COURT. — S H A N N O N R U S S E L L

RYAN SCHUTTE

PHOTOGRAPH BY TK

This former Xavier cross-country runner and diehard Musketeers fan purchased men’s basketball season tickets right after his 2007 graduation and couldn’t wait to introduce the program to his girlfriend, Samantha, a couple years later. By the time Schutte started planning a marriage proposal, the location was a no-brainer. It had to be at Cintas Center. The date was Feb. 25, 2012. The opponent, Richmond. Schutte was nervous all night but managed to keep solid tabs on the game. (“Kenny Frease had a great day,” Schutte says, and indeed, Frease finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds.) Schutte’s time to shine was the under-four timeout. He’d arranged for Samantha to be the “Sweetheart of the Game,” a fan promotion featuring a D’Artagnan-delivered bouquet of flowers. Schutte covertly followed the mascot to Samantha’s seat and, after she accepted the flowers, got down on one knee and popped the question. “The spotlight was on us and my heart was racing. It was fantastic,” Schutte says. Samantha said yes. They married a year later and now have two sons: Jaxson and Alexander. Those Xs in their names are no coincidence.

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FAN STORIES

KATE ANDREWS Kate Andrews’s ties to Xavier run deep, and not just because she went to school at the university or because her husband, Shane, proposed at the Lehigh–Xavier men’s basketball game in 2004. This story is about her mom, Margaret “Peg” Stahl, who beat breast cancer at 62, only to learn she had terminal cancer in her liver less than eight years later. Peg and her husband of 47 years, Wally, had just purchased XU season tickets when she was diagnosed. A relative called XU director of basketball administration Mario Mercurio to see if the Musketeers could send a card. Mercurio did one better. He said coach Sean Miller wanted to visit. Accompanied by Xavier forward Brandon Cole, Miller talked to Peg for 45 minutes. He gave her a team-signed basketball and invited the entire family to a basketball practice. “Her mouth dropped open. She covered her face and just started crying. She was like, ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’ She was ﬂoored,” Andrews says. Peg was under hospice care at the time, and arrived at Cintas Center in an ambulance. She was made comfortable on press row and never spent a moment alone. Cole was excused from most of the practice to sit with her; when he participated in a drill, teammate Jason Love took his place. The family tried to quietly slip out near the end of practice to avoid being a distraction. Miller had none of it. He blew his whistle and ended practice so Xavier players could lavish T-shirts, bobbleheads, and hugs upon Peg. Peg died 13 weeks later, at age 70, in 2006. Andrews says the Xavier experience brought her mother so much joy. “She felt like a queen,” Andrews says. “I really and truly believe that she just thought it was the coolest thing that had ever happened in her life.” It was meaningful for Kate and Shane, too. After calling their ﬁrst son Conor, a name Peg loved, they named their second son Cole, after Brandon Cole.

Take a step back into 1984. Ed Gabis was a teen with an attitude, and he wasn’t interested in spending time with his stepfather, Mark Gabis. The 1968 Xavier grad with an afﬁnity for Musketeers basketball was too strict, Ed thought. He reluctantly attended a couple Xavier games with Mark but was eager to leave for the Army soon after high school. Four years later—more mature and more forgiving—Ed returned home and embraced those Xavier excursions. “A couple times before home games, we’d go to Skyline. The ﬁrst few times it was a pretty quiet meal. We’d go to the game and sit and enjoy it. The more we did, the more important it became to me,” Ed said. Bit by bit, their relationship strengthened. Ed eventually started phoning Mark just to discuss their favorite player, James Posey. The old anger disappeared as Ed watched his caring, friendly stepfather chat with other XU fans at games. Xavier basketball, Ed said, helped bring them together. They remained close until Mark’s death in 2012. Ed died suddenly in April at age 49. “The Xavier connection rekindled the love that was always there from Mark to Ed and Ed to Mark,” said Dr. John Gabis, Mark’s brother. “Xavier basketball gave them a common interest, something to unite them.”

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PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY THE FAMILIES

ED GABIS

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BILL McCARTHY Few kids were into Xavier basketball like young Bill McCarthy. His dad, Bill Sr., spent lunch breaks playing rec basketball with Musketeers hoops coaches, and sometimes his mom, Jane, dropped him off to watch. McCarthy attended XU camps and adored the program so much that he considered the Crosstown Shootout “second only to Christmas.” Imagine, then, how he felt about forging a bond with assistant-turned-head coach Skip Prosser. McCarthy and his father caught Prosser’s eye during pre-game warm-ups at the Cincinnati Gardens one night and waved. Prosser waved back, and a tradition was born. McCarthy made a point to return to the same spot and repeat the greeting every game he could. Eventually Prosser invited McCarthy to sit on the bench during a game and join the Musketeers in the halftime locker room. To this day, the kindness of the late Prosser resonates deeply with McCarthy, 38, a husband and father of four. “Skip was a true testament of character when nobody’s watching,” McCarthy says.

P H O T O G R A P H ( T O P) B Y G L E N N H A R T O N G / C O U R T E S Y T H E K I L B A N E F A M I LY

MEGAN KILBANE Megan Humphrey had only been dating Xavier grad and super-fan Brian Kilbane for two months when the Musketeers won four Atlantic 10 tournament games in four days and locked up a 2004 NCAA Tournament bid. On Selection Sunday, the team was sent to Orlando. “Want to go?” Brian asked. Megan took a leap of faith, said yes, and embarked on one of the best weekends of her life. An engagement eventually followed, plus a marriage, several moves, and two kids. But a little more than two years ago, after undergoing routine bloodwork, doctors gave Brian a shocking diagnosis: leukemia. His health deteriorated rapidly and, after developing three infections, he died Dec. 28, 2016, at the age of 40. The family brought Brian home to Bellarmine Chapel for a funeral Mass. Coach Chris Mack learned about the Kilbanes’ loss through a relative’s friend and donated a signed basketball, which the family displayed at the funeral home. After Megan’s sister Tweeted a picture of the Kilbane kids—Kaitlyn, 10, and Brady, 8—with the ball, Xavier director of basketball operations Jeremy Growe invited the family and extended relatives to a game. Then he surprised the Kilbanes with a VIP trip to the locker room. No words could encompass the generosity and kindness of Xavier players, Megan says. “I cannot say enough about those young men in that room. Every one of them came and gave me a hug, said they were sorry and glad we were there. J.P. Macura followed my son around the locker room and took him to every player and had every player sign a ball for my kids. They took selﬁes with my kids. Just very, very amazing men,” says Megan. Brian, she adds, would have been so proud. And he sure would have loved that Xavier returned to Orlando months later to start another NCAA run. “Xavier is and always will be family to us,” she says.

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HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

REMEMBERING XU’S NIT TITLE // WE WERE THE CHAMPIONS, 60 YEARS AGO. SEE HOW WELL YOU KNOW YOUR XAVIER MEN’S BASKETBALL HISTORY WITH THIS QUIZ. — M I C H A E L P E R R Y

IX DECADES AGO IN MARCH, XAVIER UNIVERSITY WON ITS ONE AND

only national championship with an improbable run through the National Invitation Tournament, which was, at the time, the most prestigious postseason college basketball tourney. To commemorate the anniversary of that title, test yourself with these 11 questions about the 1957–1958 season.

1. Xavier started the season 10–1. The team lost only twice in the ﬁrst 15 games. To what opponents? 2. The day after a victory over Western Kentucky that improved Xavier to 15–9, NIT officials offered a bid to the tournament. What was the date? 3. Xavier’s No. 1 rebounder and No. 3 scorer was declared academically ineligible for the second semester. What was his name? 4. What did NIT officials do after Xavier lost seven of its last nine games? 5. In the 12-team NIT, what was Xavier seeded? 6. Which of these three phrases did not appear in newspaper articles about Xavier: a) The team was “unheralded and unwanted” b) The players were “cornfed hucksters” c) Xavier was “the laughingstock of New York”

8. That opponent had faced Xavier twice during the regular season. What was the result of those matchups? 9. Sport magazine called the final “one of the greatest upsets in basketball history.” What was the final score? 10. This final game notched three “firsts,” one for the NIT, one for Xavier, and one for Ohio universities in general. What were they? 11. Tournament MVP Hank Stein, who passed away last August at age 81, scored 23 points in the final and averaged 22.5 points in the tournament. What were his average points on the season?

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ANSWERS: 1. Cincinnati (with Oscar Robertson) and at St. Joseph’s (by four) 2. Feb. 27, 1958 3. Corny Freeman 4. Asked Xavier to give up its spot in the NIT field. First-year coach Jim McCafferty said no. 5. No. 12 6. B is not true. A and C appeared in articles at the time. 7. Dayton 8. Dayton defeated Xavier twice and was heavily favored in the tournament. 9. Xavier won 78–74 10. NIT: first final to go into overtime; Xavier: first nationally televised game; Ohio universities: first national championship from an Ohio school 11. 15.5 points

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P H O T O G R A P H S C O U R T E S Y X AV I E R A T H L E T I C S

7. The Musketeers defeated Niagara, No. 2 seed Bradley, and No. 3 seed St. Bonaventure to advance to the ﬁnal, where they faced the No. 1 seed. Who was it?

ALL FOR ONE FUND SPOTLIGHT: CAROLINE MELSON

Growing up the oldest of seven children, CAROLINE MELSON remembers her family having enough tickets to Xavier basketball games that everyone could go. Her father was a big fan. Those games produced memories that Melson cherishes today. TALK ABOUT YOUR CONNECTION TO XAVIER GROWING UP? My dad, Mel Kist, and several of

my uncles went to Xavier. My affiliation with Xavier today doesn’t happen without my dad’s example. He was passionate about Xavier and brought many fans to Xavier Nation beyond his family. Many of my friends and my sibling’s friends are fans today because of our dad. TALK ABOUT YOUR CONNECTION TO XAVIER FOLLOWING GRADUATION? Xavier men’s

basketball and the Musketeer Club kept me engaged. My dad was active in both and included his family in what was deﬁnitely his passion – and now is ours. My four children attended games at the Gardens and then Cintas Center from birth until today. They have memories with their grandpa and aunts/uncles that they still reminisce

about. I can never put a price on the memories and quality family time we had/have as supporters of XU. MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT AS AN ALUM?

I will never forget the game in 1990 in Indianapolis when we beat the Georgetown Hoyas to advance to the Sweet 16 for the ﬁrst time. My dad was so excited. He stood on his chair jumping up and down cheering. I thought for sure he was going to fall. My dad passed away in 2012, but to this day I can still picture his sheer joy in that moment. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO CONTINUE SUPPORTING XAVIER ATHLETICS? I once

worked in the non-proﬁt world as a development director so I’m keenly aware of the impact giving now and via my will have on Xavier athletics. When I look at the evolution of Xavier men’s basketball during my life I am in awe of the progress. I recognize that gifts I make along with many others will keep on making a difference beyond my time here. As a Christian steward it is my responsibility to appreciate my gifts, cultivate them, share them with others and then return them with increase to God. By giving to

Xavier and other charities I support I am fulfilling this important purpose. FAVORITE STORY? In 1989, we played Michigan in Atlanta in the NCAA Tournament. Before making the drive to the tourney, dad was adamant that Xavier needed a flag. All the schools we played had school flags, and we had nothing. Dad asked me to find a flag, which was not an easy task. He had one made for the cheerleaders, and we delivered it as they were boarding the bus on campus. Dad was so proud when they came running out with a Xavier flag. We lost. For dad, it was a win for two reasons: We gave Michigan a tough fight, and we finally had a school flag. FINAL WORDS ABOUT YOUR DAD’S PASSION FOR XAVIER? At the end of my dad’s life he had

some poignant things to share with each of us. He shared his wisdom and dreams for each of us once he left this world. He had three important things to share with me. He was very conﬁdent about each of these “predictions,” and one of them was that I will see Xavier in the Final Four. We will keep climbing – there is still 2% to accomplish as coach Travis Steele said at his introductory press conference.

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Aaron Williams with son A.J., left, and daughter Cameron, right, before the two attend their school Homecoming dance.

FEELING THE ITCH HE YEAR WAS 2011. THE MONTH, NOVEMBER. FOURTEENyear NBA veteran Aaron Williams received a call from his good friend and former Xavier teammate Chris Mack, asking if he’d be interested in ﬁlling in on the Musketeers’ coaching staff while another assistant coach recovered from health issues. Williams immediately said yes. It was a no-brainer for a guy who always wanted to coach, and the experience was even better than he expected. “I’ve been a player my whole life and a lot of times you kind of dread going to practice,” Williams says. “It was a totally different experience of really looking forward to going to practice, knowing that you’re not going to run, you’re not going to be sweating, but you’ll be involved in making the team better and helping players improve. It was a really cool experience to see things from a different perspective.” There were high points, like a trip to the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii, and low points, like the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout brawl. By the time assistant coach Kareem Richardson healed from surgeries related to a collapsed lung, Williams was smitten with the role. Fast forward seven years, and he’s considering coaching again. Williams, 46, isn’t particular about the level—NBA, G League, or college—but he’d like to share the expertise he learned while playing at Xavier, for 10 NBA teams, in the Continental Basketball Association, and overseas. In the meantime, Williams has enjoyed spending time with his three kids: Danyelle, 18;

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Cameron, 16; and A.J., 14. They live in the Chicago area, where Williams co-owns Foster & Williams Real Estate. When he’s not traveling to Northwestern to see Danyelle play volleyball or watching the high school basketball games of Cameron or A.J., Williams has felt the itch to rejoin a basketball family. He looks back fondly at his time at Xavier, where he amassed 1,073 points, 713 rebounds, and 197 blocked shots from 1989 to 1993. The ﬁrst-team AllMidwestern Collegiate Conference pick helped the Musketeers to three conference championships and three NCAA Tournament games, including a program-first Sweet 16. “Going to Xavier was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life,” Williams says.

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PHOTOGR APHS (THIS PAGE) COURTE S Y A ARON WILLIAMS / (OPPOSITE) COURTE S Y AM Y ME YER

// AARON WILLIAMS GOT A TASTE OF COACHING AND WOULD LIKE TO GET BACK INTO IT. — S H A N N O N R U S S E L L

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

RAISING KIDS, COWS, AND TURKEYS, OH MY // FORMER WOMEN’S BASKETBALL STAR AMY (SIEFRING) MEYER ENJOYS LIFE BACK HOME. — S H A N N O N R U S S E L L

MY MEYER IS A WIFE, A MOTHER OF FIVE BOYS, A COLDWATER

Middle School teacher, a varsity assistant for the Coldwater girls’ hoops team, and one of the most proliﬁc contributors in Xavier women’s basketball history. Known as Amy Siefring during her career, from 1992 to 1996, she helped the Musketeers to a program-ﬁrst NCAA tournament appearance and scored 1,340 career points. Do Andrew, 19; Zach, 17; Nathan, 15; Alex, 13; and Brady, 11, know how good Mom was on the hardcourt? “Probably not,” Meyer says.

Amy Meyer, and her family: from left, Nathan, Brady (front), Andrew, Alex, Zach, and husband Jerry, at Amy’s brother’s wedding in Tipp City, Ohio, last fall.

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Life is much different now for Meyer, 43, and her husband, Jerry. They live on a farm outside Coldwater, Ohio, where they raise cows and turkeys. Meyer starred there, in her hometown, a 5-foot-7 guard who helped the Cavaliers to two state championships. Xavier was the only Division I program that recruited her. She played for Mark Ehlen in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference for three years, then for Melanie Balcomb in the Atlantic 10 as a senior. Her averages expanded along the way: 6.3 points per game as a freshman, 9.8 as a sophomore, 13.1 as a junior, and 18.3 as a senior. Meyer started 113 career games and still ranks among the program’s recordsetters, from career free-throw attempts (481, seventh all-time) and free-throw makes (350, ranked sixth) to career 3-point ﬁeld goal percentage (.377, ranked eighth) and steals (162, ranked seventh). She was known as a tough competitor with utter fearlessness. “I was going to the hole and I was going to get to the hoop and I was going to create contact to get a foul,” Meyer says. “Plus, I battled inside. I rebounded pretty well for my size. I understood where the ball was coming [from]. I wasn’t really blessed with a lot of quickness, but I knew how to get to the basket.” She also was a dangerous outside shooter. Meyer scored 35 points against Illinois in 1995 because the Fighting Illini refused to abandon their zone defense. As fans in the stands implored Illinois to guard her, Meyer went 6-for-8 from the perimeter and helped the Musketeers to a 98–89 victory. The WNBA debuted several months after Meyer graduated. By then she was engaged and ready to pursue the next stage of her life, which she has enjoyed immensely. “I came home, got married, started a family, and I guess the rest is history,” Meyer said. “You always have that thought in your head, like ‘Oh, you know, I might have tried that.’ But that would have been a different path and a different way. I’m happy with what I did.”

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SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

BASEBALL COACH: Billy O’Conner (Xavier ’09), ﬁrst season NOTEWORTHY: As this issue of Xavier Nation was being completed, the Musketeers were in the hunt for a berth in the BIG EAST Championships under their new head coach. XU was coming off back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2017. The spring season was highlighted by a 10-inning, 3–2 win over No. 8 Kentucky

on Feb. 20. On April 23, team members shaved their heads in support of the Vs. Cancer Foundation, helping raise more than $16,000 to ﬁght pediatric brain cancer. The Musketeers were the top-earning college baseball team in the country. At the professional levels, Rylan Bannon and Zac Lowther were off to fast starts after being selected in the 2018 MLB Draft. Bannon (Dodgers) and Lowther (Orioles) were each ranked on the MLB Pipeline Top 30 prospects list.

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BASKETBALL MEN’S COACH: Travis Steele (Butler ’04), first season NOTEWORTHY: The Musketeers won their first BIG EAST regular-season championship with a 15–3 conference record. Xavier, 29–6 overall, earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. The Musketeers had two players earn

All-BIG EAST honors as Trevon Bluiett picked up ﬁrst-team honors for the third consecutive season, while Naji Marshall was a unanimous selection to the all-freshman team. Bluiett, a consensus Second-Team AllAmerican, ﬁnished his career with 2,261 points, the second most in program history. On April 4, Steele was introduced as the 18th head coach in program history after spending 10 seasons on the Xavier bench, most recently as associate head coach.

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P H O T O G R A P H S B Y D O U G CO C H R A N / DAV I D W E G I E L

LEAVING A LEGACY: Xavier Head Athletic Trainer Jody Jenike, who retired at the end of this school year, has been an institution at Xavier, having been a part of athletics for 29 years, tending to close to 3,000 student-athletes and overseeing an incredible transformation and growth of the Sports Medicine department. “I have been blessed with so many positive relationships with student-athletes and coaches,” Jenike says. “Those relationships will continue, and I have some amazing memories.” Director of Athletics Greg Christopher says: “If there’s a Hall of Fame for athletic trainers, Jody’s a ﬁrst ballot entry.” Pictured, from left: Athletic Training Intern Jordan Johnson, Athletic Training Intern Connor Gearhart, Assistant Athletic Trainer Nate Hoffmeier, Kayla Hoffmeier, Jenike, Assistant Athletic Trainer Breanna Cugliari, Corinne McIntosh, Assistant Athletic Trainer Connor Barnes, and Associate Head Athletic Trainer David Fluker.

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MADDIE BRITTON BECOMES ONE OF MOST HONORED RUNNERS IN XAVIER HISTORY; SCHOOL RECORDS SET IN SEVERAL SPORTS DURING 2017–2018 ACADEMIC YEAR.

(Left) Senior Madeline Britton gets one ﬁnal pep talk from her teammates and coaches before racing at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. The two-time All-BIG EAST selection was only the second athlete to compete at the championships in school history, placing 208th at the meet held in Louisville, Kentucky. (Right) Senior Damien Richard throws a pitch against Indiana State on March 23. The righthander recorded two strikeouts in four innings against the Sycamores.

WOMEN’S COACH: Brian Neal (Northern Kentucky ’91), sixth season NOTEWORTHY: Aaliyah Dunham was named to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team. She averaged 6.1 points per game and dished out a team-high 74 assists, while making a teamhigh 32 3-pointers. Her 74 assists rank fourth in XU single-season history by a freshman. Xavier knocked down 214 3-pointers, the second-most single-season

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total in school history. Xavier defeated Cincinnati in the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout for the fourth consecutive year. The Musketeers have won 11 of their last 14 meetings against the Bearcats.

CROSS COUNTRY COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson ’99), sixth season NOTEWORTHY: Senior Maddie Britton ﬁnished her career as one of the most decorated

runners in school history. The two-time All-BIG EAST selection competed at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, becoming only the second runner to compete at the national championships in school history. She was also named the All-Ohio Division I Female Cross Country Runner of the Year last fall and was tabbed to the USTFCCA All-Region Team. The Bay Village, Ohio, native was named a BIG EAST Institutional Scholar-Athlete Award winner and the Cincinnati USA

Women’s Sports Association Runner of the Year. Britton ﬁnished her career ranked ﬁrst in school history in the 5K and third in the 6K.

GOLF MEN’S COACH: Brian McCants (Ferris State ’94), second season NOTEWORTHY: Freshman Garrett Wood was named First-Team All-BIG EAST. The

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Mason, Ohio, native led the Musketeers in scoring average for the 2017–2018 regular season, posting an average round of 72.30 through 23.0 rounds and shooting just 1.22 over par on the season. Heading into the BIG EAST Championships, Wood had posted four rounds in the 60s and 10 rounds at par or better. Brothers Martin and Daniel Jaramillo headed into the BIG EAST Championship with matching scoring averages of 77.04. Martin, a freshman, posted his average score through 26.0 rounds in nine tournaments. Daniel, a senior, accumulated his average through 23.0 rounds in eight tournaments.

WOMEN’S COACH: Breanna Patz (Xavier ’13), third season

NOTEWORTHY: Junior Mikayla Smith led the Musketeers to a third-place finish at the BIG EAST Championships. Smith earned three birdies over the course of the tournament, two coming in the third round. The junior shot successive 77s for each day, ending the tournament 15 strokes over par. She also led the field in pars, earning 37 over the course of the three days. Mikayla Fitzpatrick and Andie Shukow posted top-15 finishes at the championship, as well. Fitzpatrick broke Xavier’s school record for 54 holes at the Palmetto Intercollegiate in October 2017. Fitzpatrick, the 2016–2017 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, shot 214 (-2) for the weekend and finished runner-up.

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SOCCER MEN’S COACH: Andy Fleming (Marist ’97), ninth season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier men’s soccer went 11–6–3 overall, 5–4 BIG EAST Conference to earn a No. 5 seed for the BIG EAST Championship, where the Musketeers advanced to title game for the second time in program history. The Musketeers have never ﬁnished below ﬁfth place or missed qualifying for the BIG EAST Championships. During the 2017 season, Xavier picked up a pair of wins over ranked teams, topping No. 22 Boston College 3–2 in double overtime and taking down No. 9 Georgetown 1–0 in extra time. Xavier had six players earn

All-Conference honors. Cory Brown was named to the All-BIG EAST First Team for a third straight season, while Simen Hestnes, Cam Taylor, and Matt Vasquenza all earned All-BIG EAST Second-Team nods. Samuel Buzzas and Zach Nelson were nominated to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team. Additionally, Vasquenza was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team.

WOMEN’S COACH: Nate Lie (Miami ’00), second season NOTEWORTHY: In Lie’s first season, the Musketeers earned the program’s first berth to the BIG EAST Championship, finishing 8–8–4, marking the first season at .500 or above since 2013, when Xavier fin-

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P H O T O G R A P H S B Y DAV I D W E G I E L / J O H N R E I D / N I C K B R OW N

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(From left) Xavier’s women’s soccer players celebrate the go-ahead goal in a 2–1 victory over Seton Hall on Oct. 19, 2017. The victory secured the program’s ﬁrst bid to the BIG EAST Championship. Alex Wolfred competes in the 500-yard freestyle at the 2018 BIG EAST Championships. Wolfred and Carly Alfano of women’s soccer were chosen as the 2017–2018 Michael Tranghese Postgraduate Leadership Award winners for the BIG EAST Conference. Freshman Garrett Wood, who was named All-BIG EAST First Team, ﬁnished eighth at the 2018 BIG EAST Championship.

ished 9–8–1. The Musketeers’ record of 4–3–2 in BIG EAST play was the first winning conference record for the program since 2005. Xavier had three student-athletes honored by the conference, including BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, Sydney Schembri. Tori Doss and Carly Alfano earned All-BIG EAST SecondTeam Honors. Additionally, Doss and Alfano were named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, with Doss earning firstteam honors and Alfano named to the second team. It marks the first time in the program had an Academic All-American since 1992.

SWIMMING MEN’S COACH: Brent MacDonald

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(Valparaiso ’03), 10th season NOTEWORTHY: Eight Musketeers earned All-BIG EAST honors at the conference meet, including four who earned honors in multiple events. Sam Johanns earned all-conference in six events, including a pair of individual events. Johanns collected a pair of third-place finishes, in the 50 free and the 100 back, breaking his own school record in the 100 back. Johanns also helped the Musketeers to a pair of second-place finishes and a pair of third-place finishes in relays. David Bunnell earned All-Conference honors in five events, including second place in the 100 fly. Matthew Dyer continued to lead the Musketeers in the breaststroke events, taking second in the 200 breast and third in the

100 breast, in which he set an NCAA B-Cut time.

WOMEN’S COACH: Brent MacDonald (Valparaiso ’03), 10th season NOTEWORTHY: Seven Musketeers earned All-Conference honors on the women’s side at the BIG EAST Championships, including four who earned honors in multiple events. Emily Conners was one of only four women at the meet to earn All-Conference honors in seven events, joining a trio from conference champions Villanova. The sophomore collected three school records (50 free, 100 free, 200 free), setting NCAA B-Cuts in the 50 free and 100 free. Conners also took part in four secondplace ﬁnishing relays. Senior Paxtyn Drew closed out her

final conference meet with All-Conference honors in six events, including a pair of third-place finishes in the 100 back and 200 back. In the 100 back, she also hit the NCAA B-Cut standard. Junior Caroline Gaertner earned All-BIG EAST honors in five events, including the 100 back, in which she finished second and set an NCAA B-Cut time. Gaertner also picked up a third-place finish in the 100 fly.

TENNIS MEN’S COACH: Doug Matthews (Xavier ’09), fourth season NOTEWORTHY: After opening BIG EAST play 2-0, Xavier earned the No. 7 seed in the BIG EAST Championships. Xavier

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Sophomore Sheridan Davenport sprints out of the blocks at the BIG EAST Indoor Track and Field Championships. The two-day meet was held at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island Feb. 23–24.

WOMEN’S COACH: Doug Matthews (Xavier ’09), fourth season NOTEWORTHY: The Musketeers opened BIG EAST regular season play 4–0 with victoriesover Butler, Georgetown, Villanova and Creighton. Xavier finished 6–3 against BIG EAST opponents after advancing to the BIG EAST Championship semifinals. The Musketeers have advanced to at least the BIG EAST Championships semifinals each of the five years

Xavier has been in the BIG EAST. Senior Lauren Ghidotti moved into the top 10 in Xavier history with 77 career singles wins after winning 10 matches at No. 2 singles. Ghidotti, partnered with Sophia Abelson in No. 1 doubles in 2018 and won 17 matches, including going 7–1 against BIG EAST opponents in doubles. The 17 wins bring Ghidotti’s total doubles wins to 69 for her Xavier career, 11th in the record book. Her 146 total wins is also 11th in Xavier history.

TRACK AND FIELD (INDOOR & OUTDOOR) MEN’S COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson ’99), sixth season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier posted four top-10 ﬁnishes at the BIG EAST Indoor Track and Field Championships. Chris Taylor (60-meter dash) and Zachary

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Polk (high jump) posted fourthplace ﬁnishes. Newcomer William Roberts set a school record in the 400-meter hurdles at the Oliver Nikoloff Open in April, posting a time of 55.06. Polk was looking to add to his medal count at the BIG EAST Outdoor Track and Field Championships in May as the senior had earned 17 medals during his Xavier career.

WOMEN’S COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson ’99), sixth season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier posted six top-10 ﬁnishes at the BIG EAST Indoor Track and Field Championships. Kara Robinson placed sixth in the 60-meter dash, while Madeline Britton paced a trio of Musketeers in the 5,000-meter run with a seventh-place ﬁnish. Robinson also set a school record in the 400-meter hurdles at the

Raleigh Relays on March 31 in preparation for the BIG EAST Outdoor Track and Field Championships in May.

VOLLEYBALL COACH: Christy Pfeffenberger (Dayton ’05), third season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier posted a number of record-breaking performances last season. Senior Mackenzi Humm ﬁnished her career with 2,028 assists to rank 10th all-time at Xavier. Classmate Alexis Newsome set a single-match school record for blocks on Oct. 7 with 12 against St. John’s. Junior Meredith Klare led the BIG EAST in digs (4.37 d/s), while ﬁnishing the season with 1,481 total career digs—ranking fourth in program history. The Musketeers also welcomed a new assistant coach in the offseason as Pfeffenberger added Katie Meyer (Memphis ’14) to the staff.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC SUCAR

was the only team to top No. 1 seed DePaul in the regular season, 4–3. Against DePaul, senior Gabriel Araujo picked up two wins, partnering with Jack Dykema at No. 1 doubles to win 7–6 after ﬁve tiebreakers. Araujo also picked up a three-set win in No. 3 singles. The senior’s efforts earned BIG EAST Player of the Week honors.

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POSTGAME INTERVIEW

CHUCK GESCHKE

// THE ADOBE SYSTEMS COFOUNDER, ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST HONORED SOFTWARE EXECUTIVES, HAS ROOTS ON VICTORY PARKWAY.

You considered being a priest? Yes. Favorite memory as a Xavier student? Meeting my future wife, Nan McDonough, at a sodality conference at XU in the spring of 1961. She was a freshman at Marygrove College in Detroit. We both lived in Cleveland, and we started dating that summer. We celebrated our 53rd anniversary on Dec. 26, 2017.

Francisco. Jesuits focus both on developing a student’s intellect and nourishing the student’s soul. Last game you saw in person? I took my oldest son, Peter, to the [2017] Elite Eight victory over Arizona in San Jose. I gave my son John the tickets for the game against Gonzaga. Sigh. When you cofounded Adobe Systems, did you have any idea you were essentially introducing a new category/industry? No, but we did feel that we had an idea that needed to see the light of day. Unfortunately, we failed to convince Xerox that it could create a new business opportunity for them.

When was the last time you were on Xavier’s campus? November 2012 for my 50th reunion.

What surprised you? We were shocked that within less than a decade we transformed the entire print and publishing industry from mechanical and chemical processes to an entirely electronic process.

Biggest takeaway from Xavier? I became a huge fan of Jesuit education. I went to a Jesuit High School, a Jesuit University, and my ﬁrst job was as a math professor at a Jesuit university [John Carroll University]. I have chaired the board of trustees at the University of San

What gives you the most satisfaction about having developed Adobe from scratch? My partner, John Warnock, and I decided that we wanted to build a company at which we would like to work. And we also wanted to build products based on new technologies and not to

compete with entrenched products. John and I never took a business course, but our instinct was that if we created something new and brought it to market before anyone else, we would have 100 percent market share and shame on us if we couldn’t keep it. Does being kidnapped for ﬁve days in May 1992 feel more like it was just yesterday, 100 years ago, or something ﬁctional? The kidnapping never disappears from my memory, but Nan and I decided that we could not let it impact our lives. We are so grateful to the wonderful agents at the FBI who freed me from my captors. I always thank God that my Jesuit training gave me the power of my faith to survive the ordeal. How often do you think about it? The hardest times are when I and my family need to testify at the parole board hearings. Did it change you? Not really. We do not dwell on it. But occasionally, when someone is reported to have been kidnapped, it comes back to haunt us because we understand what they and their families are going through.

Chuck Geschke, who gave Xavier’s commencement address in 2011, says, “I will always be a Musketeer.” He subscribes to DirecTV, which, he notes, broadcasts all Musketeers basketball games so he can watch them frequently.

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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY CHUCK GESCHKE

How did you end up attending Xavier? After graduating from St. Ignatius in Cleveland, I spent three and a half years studying to be a Jesuit. Fortunately, I and the Society of Jesus made a good decision and I left the seminary. The Jesuit novitiate was in Milford, Ohio, and I had done some social work in Cincinnati. So, I decided to complete my undergraduate degree at Xavier.

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