XavierNation THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE FOR XAVIER ATHLETICS
THE MANY FACES
of TYRIQUE JONES
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Contents X AV I E R N AT I O N
FALL 2018
30 | Game Face P H O T O G R A P H S ( F R O M T O P) B Y G L E N N H A R T O N G / J O E R O B B I N S / B R E T T H A N S B A U E R , 4T H F L O O R C R E AT I V E / C O U R T E S Y W I S C O N S I N - G R E E N B AY / C O U R T E S Y X AV I E R AT H L E T I C S
Junior Tyrique Jones is not one to hide his emotions on the court, whether he’s pounding his chest or shouting in jubilation.
36 | Military Precision Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia, has proven to be a good training ground for future Musketeers, including sophomore Naji Marshall.
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WARMUP 12 Career Review
Upon his retirement, it’s all David West all the time.
14 The Players
Zac Lowther honored by Orioles; Ashley Gomez helps children in Brazil; Allbry Major can pitch, hit, and play the field; with her team, Laura Grossman visits her home in San Juan; Damien Richard comes back from Tommy John surgery; Samson Sergi: “They told me my blood was toxic.”
22 Getting to Know You
Learn more about the new men’s and women’s basketball players.
26 Hall of Fame
Learn about Sidney Liggins’ tennis racket.
40 | Picture of
Perseverance
When he was 4 years old, Kyle Castlin’s father was shot and killed during a robbery. His mother was pregnant at the time. And that’s not even the beginning of his story.
28 Meet the Assistants
Meet Travis Steele’s new assistant coaches, one of whom you may remember fondly.
COOL DOWN 54 Off the Court
46 | Extra Time The Musketeers are finding success supplementing their roster with graduate transfers. “It’s almost our one-and-done,” says coach Travis Steele.
Commissioner Val Ackerman talks about her first five years at the helm of the league and addresses its future.
56 Where Are They Now? Michael Davenport owns a business in his hometown. Former P&G exec Jodi Allen now works with Hertz.
60 Outlook
A look at all 18 Musketeer teams.
50 | Champions Center Xavier unveils plans for a complete rebuild at the site of the current O’Connor Sports Center.
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64 Post Game Interview
Xavier graduate and former tennis player Aylin Seyalioglu Wheeler gets to be around the sport she loves—and help train top-20 player Madison Keys.
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FROM THE EDITOR
CONTRIBUTORS JACK BRENNAN
DO YOU REALLY KNOW THEM? OU SEE THEM ON TV OR LIVE ON THE COURT DURING games. Maybe you interact briefly—a high-five or an autograph. Perhaps you run into them at the mall or on campus. Players come and go. And you very much want to know them. Or, at the very least, feel like you know them. One of my favorite aspects of this magazine is that it does help paint pictures of your favorite Musketeer players and provide some insights into who they are and why. That’s been the case with guys like: • Matt Stainbrook. “There are two Stainbrooks, see. There’s the guy who identifies as a basketball player and student, and the guy who doesn’t. The guy who identifies as an athlete and student takes himself very seriously—and the guy who doesn’t…doesn’t,” wrote Gregg Doyel in our very first issue in 2014. • Jalen Reynolds. “People who don’t know me probably think I’m angry because they watch me play basketball and think that I’m a guy who doesn’t like the world. That’s not true at all,” he told Xavier Nation in a 2015 story. • Edmond Sumner. “I’m not shy, but I’m quiet,” he said to us in 2016. You can still read those stories at xaviernationmagazine.com. Inside this issue, you’ll learn more about the backgrounds of junior Tyrique Jones (our cover story) and newcomer Kyle Castlin, among others. You will read about events in their lives that contributed to who they are today. Their stories will help you know them just a bit better.
Sincerely,
Former Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post reporter and long-time Cincinnati Bengals public relations director. @JackBre44922800
JOHN ERARDI Former Xavier beat reporter for The Cincinnati Enquirer. Award-winning writer and author of several books, including Tony Perez: From Cuba to Cooperstown. @johnerardi
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.
KEVIN GOHEEN Former reporter for The Cincinnati Post, Fox Sports Ohio, and Landof10.com, covering professional and college sports. @CincyGoGo
JEFF GOODMAN Basketball analyst at WatchStadium. com. Former college basketball reporter for ESPN and former senior basketball writer for CBS Sports and FOXSports.com. @GoodmanHoops
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
Michael Perry, Editor-in-Chief musketeers@xaviernationmagazine.com
Former Xavier beat reporter and former sports editor of The Cincinnati Enquirer. Author & 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 and news columnist. @MercPurdy
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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
MICHAEL PERRY
XavierNation T H E O F F I C I A L M AG A Z I N E FO R X AV I E R AT H L E T I C S
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Cincinnati Magazine (Ivy Bayer, Publisher) The Cincinnati Enquirer (Eddie Tyner, Midwest Region President) Xavier University (Greg Christopher, Vice President for Administration and Director of Athletics)
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Perry (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Kara Renee Hagerman (Cincinnati Magazine) Amanda Boyd Walters (Cincinnati Magazine)
ART DIRECTOR Danielle Johnson (Cincinnati Magazine)
REPORTERS Jack Brennan, David Driver, John Erardi, Rory Glynn, Kevin Goheen, Jeff Goodman, Tabari McCoy, Michael Perry, Mark Purdy
PHOTOGRAPHERS Travis Bell, Nick Brown, John A. Carlos, Doug Cochran, David Dermer, Brett Hansbauer (4th Floor Creative), Glenn Hartong (Photo Editor), Joe Robbins, Greg Rust (Xavier University), Bob Stevens, Erik Schelkun, Frank Victores, Sam Wasson, David Wegiel
SPECIAL THANKS Brendan Bergen (Xavier University) Tom Eiser (Xavier University) Brian Hicks (Xavier University) Greg Lautzenheiser (Xavier University) Mario Mercurio (Xavier University) Hayley Schletker (Xavier University)
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Vu Luong (Cincinnati Magazine)
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Missy Beiting (Cincinnati Magazine)
BUSINESS COORDINATOR Erica Birkle (Cincinnati Magazine)
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GROUP HUG // Xavier players
celebrate Kenadie Carlson’s game-winning goal in a 2–1 victory over the University of Toledo on August 17 at the XU Soccer Complex.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
PHOTOGRAPH BY NICK BROWN
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JUMP FOR JOY I PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
XAVIER GOAL COMES AT THE 78:46 MARK AND COMPLETES A COMEBACK FROM A 1–0 DEFICIT.
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ALL SMILES // The Musketeers
won the second set of the match 28–26, but they lost to then-No. 19 Purdue University 3–1 on September 7 during the Stacey Clark Classic in West Lafayette, Indiana.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID WEGIEL
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JUMP FOR JOY II
PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
SENIOR SETTER McKENA ESTES (16) AND JUNIOR MADI KUTRUFF (12) GET FIRED UP AFTER A XAVIER POINT.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
SENIOR CAMERON TAYLOR STRETCHES FOR A XAVIER THROW-IN AGAINST THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY.
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DEADLOCK // The Musketeers tied the
then-No. 6 Wildcats 0–0 at the XU Soccer Complex on September 11. Both teams remained unbeaten after that match. PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIK SCHELKUN
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Warmup// WEST TRIBUTE PG. 12
O’S HONOR LOWTHER PG. 14
NEW PLAYERS PG. 22
JUST TO GET YOU STARTED
MEET THE ASSISTANTS PG. 28
AND MORE
HONORABLE // Allbry Major
PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG RUST
was named the 2018 BIG EAST Conference Freshman of the Year and a 2018 Collegiate Baseball All-American.
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CAREER REVIEW
DAVID WEST
// THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED XAVIER ALUM TO PLAY IN THE NBA RETIRED AUGUST 30 AFTER 15 SEASONS. WE WANTED TO CELEBRATE HIS PRO CAREER.
1 INDIANA: West joined the Pacers in
2011 and was a four-year starter in the Hoosier state. He helped lead Indiana to three playoff appearances and was often praised for his leadership.
1 2
4
2 ALL-STAR: West was selected to
compete in the NBA All-Star game in 2008 and 2009. He is pictured here with former Wake Forest star Chris Paul, who, like West, was coached by the late Skip Prosser. 3 SAN ANTONIO: In search of a champi-
onship ring, West joined the Spurs for the 2015–16 season, turning down far more lucrative opportunities for the league veteran’s minimum $1.4 million. The Spurs lost in the conference semifinals to the Oklahoma City Thunder. 4 NEW ORLEANS: The Hornets selected
title, West joined the loaded Warriors in 2016 and spent two seasons as a role player coming off the bench. 6 INDIANA: West signed a two-year con-
tract with the Pacers worth $20 million in December 2011. 7 CHAMPION: In his final two seasons,
West achieved his ultimate goal: He won NBA titles. He retired with not one, but two championship rings with Golden State.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
5 GOLDEN STATE: Still searching for a
P H O T O G R A P H S C O U R T E S Y T H E N B A , P R O V I D E D B Y X AV I E R AT H L E T I C S
West with the 18th pick of the 2003 NBA draft. He played in New Orleans for eight seasons, averaging more than 20 points twice (2007–2008, 2008–2009).
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THE PLAYERS
Zac Lowther posted an 8–4 combined record with a 2.18 ERA with 151 strikeouts in 23 games for a pair of Single-A teams.
BIRD IS THE WORD
// FORMER XAVIER PITCHER ZAC LOWTHER IS FLYING HIGH IN THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES’ MINOR LEAGUE SYSTEM. — D A V I D D R I V E R
ZAC LOWTHER SAYS HE WAS DESTINED TO PLAY IN THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES’ MINOR league system. Now that he is, the former Xavier pitcher could one day play at the major league level for the franchise. He pitched for Xavier in the BIG EAST Conference tournament in 2016 in Aberdeen, Maryland, home of an Orioles affiliate in the short-season New York–Penn League. The following year, he was drafted by Baltimore. “It was almost like it was predicted,” he says. “We came to Camden Yards [for a tour in 2016]. I was excited because I knew where everything was.” The lefty pitcher was a compensatory pick by the Orioles out of Xavier in 2017 and played for Aberdeen that season, then had a stellar year in 2018 at two stops in the Baltimore farm system. He was named the Orioles’ Jim Palmer Minor League Co-Pitcher of the Year this season after going 8–4 with a 2.18 ERA with 151 strikeouts in 23 games (22 starts) combined between low Single-A Delmarva of the South Atlantic League and high Single-A Frederick of the Carolina League. “He didn’t miss a beat when he went up to Frederick, which is a really tough ballpark to pitch in,” says Dan Duquette, general manager for the Orioles. Lowther shared the honor with Keegan Akin, who was the Double-A pitcher of the year in the Eastern League with the Bowie Baysox. The two pitchers were recognized on the field at Camden Yards before the Orioles hosted the White Sox on September 15. Brian Graham, director of player development for the Orioles, was also impressed with the year Lowther had. “He’s a striker-thrower with a good delivery,” Graham says. “His fastball has a real high spin rate. It seems to be one of those pitches that hitters have a hard time seeing. He throws three pitches for strikes.” Another Xavier product with the Orioles is infielder Rylan Bannon, who was traded
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by the Dodgers in late July in the deal that sent all-star shortstop Manny Machado to Los Angeles. Bannon and Lowther were roommates while playing for Xavier. “I texted him right before the trade. I wrote ‘Are you coming over?’ as a joke,” Lowther says. But it wasn’t a joke, as Bannon was part of the package sent to the Orioles. “I got my roommate back. I was happy about that,” Lowther says. Bannon, drafted in the sixth round in 2017, was a third baseman in the Dodgers system but saw a lot of time at second base for Double-A Bowie with the Orioles. He hit .275 with 20 homers in 89 games in the high Single-A California League with the Dodgers this year, then batted .204 with two homers in 32 games with Bowie. “He was solid defensively,” Graham says. “Offensively he got off to a slow start and then got hot at the end. He handled [the trade] well.” Lowther gives a lot of credit to his coaches at Xavier. “As a freshman, all I had was a fastball,” he says of his first year at XU. “My coaches really worked with me. I started my sophomore and junior years. The development we put in each winter and fall gave me the opportunity in the Northwoods League and Cape Cod League in the summer.” David Driver has covered the Orioles minor league farm system for 25 years. He can be reached at davidsdriver.com
Zac Lowther was named the Orioles’ Jim Palmer Minor League Co-Pitcher of the Year this season.
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THE PLAYERS
WARMUP
BRAZIL ADVENTURE
// BASKETBALL GUARD ASHLEY GOMEZ PLAYED HOOPS AND HELPED UNDERPRIVILEGED KIDS. —J A C K B R E N N A N
P H O T O G R A P H S (O P P O S I T E PA G E ) B Y K Y L E H U S O N / C O U R T E S Y B A LT I M O R E O R I O L E S / ( T H I S PA G E ) C O U R T E S Y A S H L E Y G O M E Z
While in Sao Paolo, Ashley Gomez worked with the Samaritan’s Feet Foundation.
BEFORE JULY, ASHLEY GOMEZ HAD NEVER TRAVELED OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES. But the Xavier basketball guard took a real plunge, spending 10 days in Brazil this summer as a member of the USA Team hoops squad at the International University Sports Federation’s “America Games” in Sao Paolo. “It was the most incredible experience of my life,” says the current XU junior, who gained the opportunity through her strong participation with the faith-based Athletes in Action organization (AIA). “I’ll remember it the rest of my life.” The basketball was great, too. USA Team, featuring players chosen from colleges across the country, easily rolled to the gold medal against competition from Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. But given AIA’s faith-based mission, the journey involved much more than just basketball and sightseeing. “We worked there with the Samaritan’s Feet Foundation,” Gomez says. “We went to a center for underprivileged children. We’d sit with kids for 10 minutes each, and literally wash their feet. And we’d talk [with assistance from a translator], and since they teach the kids to play rugby at the center, at the end we’d give them a new pair of socks and new rugby shoes.”
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The experience gave the Oklahoma City native new perspective on her own relatively privileged life. “We were supposed to ask each kid about the happiest and saddest moments of their lives,” she says. “And given the poverty level there, it was really surprising to me that the worst thing I heard about saddest moments was a kid who said, ‘My friend pushed me down the other day.’ Just to see how naturally happy the kids are and to know all the things they don’t have, it just made me realize that when I think things are going bad in my life, they really aren’t so bad at all.”
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THE PLAYERS
BOTH SIDES NOW
// BIG EAST FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR ALLBRY MAJOR IS A THREAT AT THE PLATE AND IN THE FIELD. —J . B .
There doesn’t seem to be anything Allbry Major can’t do on the baseball field. He can pitch, play the field, and hit.
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IF YOU WERE ALLBRY MAJOR, HOW would you pitch to Allbry Major? Or, if you were Allbry Major on another day, what would be your best hitting strategy against Allbry Major? They’re questions that can’t be answered and might sound a bit silly, but they do come to mind when pondering the profile of one of Xavier’s most promising baseball players, a true two-way performer. Last season as a freshman, Major played in 47 of 55 games, and his 16 pitching appearances included eight as a starter. In his other 31 games, as noted in his official XU bio, he “established himself as the team’s primary centerfielder.” The Indianapolis native batted .291, with two home runs and 21 RBI. He didn’t make an error in the outfield. And his 3–5 record as a pitcher, with one save, was notable in a down year for the team overall. His slew of stats led him to being named BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and only the second player in Xavier history to earn Freshman All-America honors. “What Allbry was able to do last year is fairly unusual across the board,” says Xavier coach Billy O’Conner. “There are other guys going both ways to some extent, including on our team, but not many who have done it as fully as he did. It’s a challenge when you can’t concentrate fully on either role, and he does it really well.” Major says he was recruited by Xavier to be primarily an outfielder. “But I told ’em I also wanted to pitch,” he says, “and they said, ‘We won’t count it out. We’ll see what happens.’ And as the season went on, I got a few chances as a reliever and then moved into some starts.” The impressively built Allbry (6-foot5, 200 pounds) aspires to be drafted into pro ball. His grander visions include becoming another Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Angels phenom who recently has taken two-way excellence to a new level in the majors. (Ohtani won’t pitch in 2019, however, due to elbow surgery.) “But it’s two years before I’m even draft eligible,” Allbry says, “so I’ve got a lot of work to focus on. If I get drafted, maybe I’ll have to choose [between pitching and position playing]. But for now, I just want to ride this as long as I can. I like both aspects. If you asked me to pick one, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREG RUST
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THE PLAYERS
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Goodbye IOUs. Hello U.
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THE PLAYERS
WEATHERING THE STORM
// HOW HURRICANE MARIA TOUCHED VOLLEYBALL PLAYER LAURA GROSSMAN. —J . B .
LAURA GROSSMAN IS FROM PUERTO RICO, AND HER ROOTS ON THE HURRICANEravaged island run deep. The Xavier junior was born in San Juan and attended Academia Maria Reina High School, where she was recruited by XU. Her mother and both sets of her grandparents still live in Puerto Rico, along with uncles, aunts, and cousins. “My father and my sister live in the states now,” Grossman says, “but Puerto Rico will always be home in my heart.” And though Grossman assures that “everybody’s good back home now,” she means it in a relative sense. Her family has endured considerable hardships since Hurricane Maria struck in September 2017, including a period when it was impossible to connect with loved ones. “I didn’t hear back from anyone until five or six days after it happened,” she says. “I didn’t know about my mom, and I was even more worried about my one grandfather, who’s 85. I know now that he didn’t have water for a while and that it had been very hard for my mom to go to his house and get some necessities to him.” Grossman made her first post-hurricane visit at Christmas. “My whole beautiful island just looked old and worn out,” she says. “Fallen poles and trees were everywhere. My mom had not had electricity since September. She didn’t get it back until New Year’s Day.
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“And I remember looking at my mom and saying, ‘How can you have endured this for so long?’ It was very hard for me to see my family going through all this and knowing I had been just having my normal days at Xavier.” Grossman has been back to Puerto Rico twice more since then. She went for spring break, and returned with the entire XU volleyball team from August 31 to September 2. “Our coach [Christy Pfeffenberger] pulled that off,” Grossman says. “She got us into a big tournament on the island for NCAA teams, the Puerto Rico Classico. It was mostly all her effort to get that done.” Grossman looks at life through a different lens since the Maria experience. “I realize I used to just worry so much about little stuff,” she says. “I’d be stressed out about school or volleyball and be ungrateful for things, but this has shown me there’s more to life than that. I’m more grateful just that I’m here and have the opportunity to play volleyball and go to a great school. Things could be a lot worse. I’ve seen that now.”
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P H O T O G R A P H B Y X AV I E R G A R C I A
Laura Grossman with her family in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
THE PLAYERS
ROAD TO RECOVERY // STRANGE MEDICAL SYMPTOMS MAY HAVE SIDELINED SAMSON SERGI, BUT NOW HE’S BACK ON THE SOCCER FIELD. — J . B .
PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIK SCHELKUN
Samson Sergi sprints to the ball during a 0–0 draw against No. 6 Kentucky on September 11 at the XU Soccer Complex.
SAMSON SERGI WAS A PLUM RECRUIT FOR XAVIER MEN’S SOCCER. A HIGH-SCORING first-team all-state selection from Ashburn, Virginia, he was also courted by Penn State and West Virginia, among others. And now he’s among XU’s top players, a mainstay again in 2018 after leading the 2017 team in goals (9). But Sergi’s road from prep stardom to major college success was literally a trail of tears. Not only was he unable to play as a freshman in 2016, for months he wondered if he’d ever function normally again, much less pursue soccer. “It started during summer workouts [prior to the ’16 XU season],” Sergi says. “I knew something wasn’t right. Just warming up, shaking my legs out, it got to a point where I could barely stand up. My chest was so heavy, and I just didn’t feel like myself.” That was in late June, and it didn’t pass over like a bout of summer flu. “It wasn’t just that I didn’t feel good,” he says. “My personality was not the same. My mood would change on the dime. Sometimes I’d just wake up angry. I had always been a happy kid, but I started just staying in my room. I didn’t want to associate with people.” It wasn’t as if others—Sergi’s family and Xavier’s coaches and medical staff—weren’t trying to help him.
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“It seemed like I saw dozens of doctors,” he says. “One thought I might have Lyme Disease. Another said maybe food allergies. One told me just to get some rest. Another one said maybe I should see a psychologist.” But the misery and mystery went on through September. “Eventually,” he says, “one of my doctors back home said he thought I should get tested for aflatoxins.” Aflatoxins are poisonous carcinogens produced by certain types of mold. Humans can be afflicted through eating contaminated plant products, eating meat from contaminated animals, or by inhaling spores from mold. There was no way to know how Sergi could have been exposed, but the family was urged to travel to the Riordan Clinic in Wichita, Kansas, a facility whose mission statement includes “finding success stories with patients who have a variety of long-term symptoms but have been unable to get a diagnosis.” “My mom flew out to Cincinnati to take me to Kansas,” Sergi recalls. “I took a blood test, and a few days later my dad called and told me the tests were positive. He said, ‘It’s very serious, it could even be fatal, and we need to get a hold on this as soon as we can.’ ” In early October, Sergi left Cincinnati again, for a two-week stay at the Riordan Clinic. “They told me my blood was toxic,” he says. “They said my immune system had basically shut down. They would take out my blood every day and put it through something that included ultraviolet light, and then they’d put it back in my body. I went through that process for five or six hours a day at the clinic with my mom. They did every test possible to find out every detail and what they could fix. It ended up being more than the mold—they found food allergies, too.” And they helped get him well again. “I left there feeling like a completely different person,” he says. “My joy and my personality were back. I am so grateful to the teammates and coaches, and of course my family, for supporting me through it all. I am really happy to know I’m at a university that cares so much about its students.”
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THE PLAYERS
PITCH PERFECT // PITCHER DAMIEN RICHARD BOUNCES BACK. —J . B .
THE INJURY SEEMED TO COME OUT OF NOWHERE. “I WAS PLAYING 2016 SUMMER ball in the Northwoods League in Wisconsin,” recalls Xavier pitcher Damien Richard. “I’d had a pretty decent sophomore season [in spring of ’16 XU], and I was starting my fi fth or sixth game.” Richard’s fi rst inning went smoothly. “But five pitches into the fi rst batter in the second, something didn’t feel right in my arm,” he says. “I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve never felt that before.’” Several days later, after undergoing an MRI in Cincinnati, the Musketeers juniorto-be got dispiriting news: He had suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his pitching elbow. “It was fully torn,” he says. “My heart defi nitely sank.” At the same time, Richard knew that a UCL tear was not the career-ending injury it had been for pitchers of an earlier generation. Today, “Tommy John surgery” is successfully performed at all levels of baseball, with excellent results. Richard’s surgery was performed by Dr. Timothy Kremchek, Cincinnati’s nationally
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noted expert in the field. The one ingredient needed from Richard was perseverance. “I knew I had a long road ahead of me,” he says. “I had come back from an ACL [knee ligament] tear in high school, and I knew the time and rehab was going to be similar.” Richard was out just about a calendar year. He started 12 games for XU in 2018, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in the spring, in marketing. He’s set to pitch again in 2019 as a grad student. “It’s exciting to be back for another season,” says the 6-foot-4 240-pounder from Versailles, Ohio. “I feel good about getting through it all with the injury, and for the rest of the way I hope I can stay out of the training room.”
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PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG RUST
Damien Richard, a right-handed pitcher from Versailles, Ohio, is 6–7 in 34 appearances for Xavier with 91 strikeouts and a career 4.87 ERA.
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GETTING TO KNOW YOU
MEET THE NEW KIDS
// SPEND SOME TIME WITH XAVIER UNIVERSITY’S NEW BASKETBALL PLAYERS. —TA B A R I M c C OY
#2
Kyle Castlin
Carrie Gross
Favorite movie? That’s tough. The first movie that came to mind is The Blind Side. I like the story of Michael Oher and how through all his trials and tribulations he still made his football dream come true.
You’re from Maryland, which is known for its seafood. Cincinnati is known for its chili. Have you tried Cincinnati-style chili and, if so, what do you think? I haven’t yet, but I will because I love to eat.
Least favorite food? Any meat. Meat and dairy are my least favorite because I’m vegan.
When did you first realize you were good at basketball? I’m not going to lie, I used to think I was trash and did not think I was good. But that’s when people were like, “No, Carrie, you’re actually good.” I was never a trash talker, but as I got older I was like, “I guess I am good!”
Where do you want to go on vacation? Turks and Caicos. Just the water—you can see how beautiful the water is and how clear it is and the beach.... I feel it’s a getaway spot from reality, and it’s somewhere I’ve never been. I’m pretty sure I saw a video of Steph Curry and his family there, and it looked like they were having fun. If you could guest star in anyone’s music video, whose would it be? Jagged Edge. That’s some old school R&B; that’s what my parents used to listen to while I was growing up, and I just feel like they were some cool dudes. They were also on one of my favorite shows, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and I think I can sing. I can’t, but I think I can, so I’ll be in the background singing for sure. Who do you compare yourself with on the court? Probably the person I try to emulate the most is [Toronto Raptors forward] Kawhi Leonard because he’s a two-way player. He dominates on defense, offense. I think I can say Kawhi because over the course of his career his offensive game has expanded, and for me, especially as a freshman in college, I think my offensive game is much farther ahead than it was when I got to college four years ago.
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#25
Who would you say you’ve modeled your game after and/or taken inspiration from on the court? I don’t know if I model my game after him, but [Houston Rockets guard] James Harden because he’s left-handed like I am. Most embarrassing on-court moment? I shot at the wrong basket. Basically, I got the ball on the opposite side of the court and started dribbling and made a layup for the wrong team. Everyone was like “Carrie!” and by that time it was too late. I thought they were cheering me on. If you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be? Love & Basketball. That’s my favorite movie. I know every line, every scene. That movie is great. What made you say, “Xavier is the school for me?” For one, they have small classrooms. Second, they are very family-oriented and I knew I had to get away from home. I’m a big baby; it was just time for me to grow up and it’s impossible to fail here. If you fail, you’re just not doing anything.
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GETTING TO KNOW YOU
#35
Zach Hankins
How often do you get asked how tall you are? I’m 6-foot-10, and I’ve gotten asked so often that my sister got me business cards I carry around that have all the answers on them! Honest to God, if I’m out in public all day, it’s five-plus times people stop—they don’t even ask you sometimes, they just go, “Wow you’re tall,” and it’s like, “Really? No way bro, that’s crazy, you just blew my mind!” Are you a big video gamer? Yes and no. I don’t have a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, so I don’t have any of the newer games, but if I play with my buddies I’ll beat every one of my teammates in NBA2K. I’ll put hours in on Skyrim, which is a fantasy game. I’ve always loved fantasy movies and things like that, so it’s just really fun to play it. What is the tattoo on your inner left wrist and what does it symbolize? I need to get it touched up, but it is a sunrise. My mom’s name is Dawn, so it’s a sunrise over water. I just got this a week before I got to campus, so it’s only a week and a half old. The guy who did this one did better work on my shoulder. My shoulder tattoo, there’s a lot on it. It has the Bible verse Isiah 20:18. I broke my foot in high school, and that verse helped me get through not being able to play all but two games of the basketball season. The cross breaks the chain because God breaks every chain. My sister had stillborn twins, so [the wings] are my nieces. They were third trimester and we were all ready for them, and each one of the wings represents the girls.
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#34
Myles Hanson
If you could chat with anyone in the world, who would it be and why? Kobe Bryant. I think that the mentality he has, not even just for basketball but the way he lives his life, that he gets his work done and gets the things done that he needs to get done, that’s something I think is super helpful (to be successful) and that a lot of people should strive to do. It’s his whole “Mamba Mentality” thing, not letting anyone stop you from what you need to do and always being true to yourself. I think being able to talk to him and pick his brain a little bit would be super interesting. When people say, “Do you know who you look like,” who do they mention the most? [University of Missouri forward and Denver Nuggets draftee] Michael Porter Jr., 100 percent. I’ve had people walk up to me with his Team USA picture on their phone like, “Is this you?” And I’m like, “No, it’s not. I’m not him.” We had a youth camp here last week and at least eight to 10 kids told me I look like Michael Porter Jr. The closest I’ve come to being near him was when we both played in Las Vegas in the same AAU tournament. You’re a transfer student, so you’ll have to sit out a year. What do you imagine your first game will be like? I can’t even imagine; I’m sure it’s going to be like something I’ve never experienced. Last year, we played at Villanova in the Wells Fargo Arena that first game of the season. That was sold out, and it was mind-blowing. I never thought in a million years I’d be playing on a stage like that, but to go out and play in front of a crowd that big or one like Xavier has with crazy fans that love the game and love the team, I can only imagine. It’s something I’ve never experienced before.
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#12
Dontarius James
You’re a pretty animated guy. Did you have a favorite cartoon character growing up? I’m not even going to lie to you—I used to watch The Powerpuff Girls all the time! They were just live! What is something you are not good at but wish you were better at away from the court? I went ice skating and fractured the right side of my face, so that’s one thing I want to get better at. This was on a school field trip and my teammate, actually, was the one who pushed me, but I was only out for a week. I fractured my orbital bone around my eye. What is your least favorite food? Meatloaf. I don’t like the way it looks, smells, or tastes. Everything is just nasty about it. What will your major be at Xavier? Sports medicine, because I’ve always been an athlete who played all sports and there’s always been some person there to help me throughout my injuries and whatnot, so I want to be that kind of person, too. Who would you love to talk to about the game of basketball and why? Dr. J. I liked his style of game and the free flow he had to be able to do so many things on the court. I would like to talk to him because there’s so much for me to learn about the game and he could teach me. Do you have any nicknames? Chubbs! One day I went to Wendy’s and I went crazy. I got a Baconator, Baconator fries, a chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, a large Frosty, fries, and a milkshake. And that’s when my teammates started calling me Chubbs.
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GETTING TO KNOW YOU
#23
#11
#0
Maddy Johnson
Keonte Kennedy
Sarah Leyendecker
What’s the dumbest thing someone has said to you about your height? “Do you play volleyball?” Why do people always say volleyball first?
Who would you say your game compares to the most with your style of play? Professionally, I’d probably say [Toronto Raptors forward] Kawhi Leonard. I say that because I feel I can be a force both offensively and defensively. I think my height and weight give me an advantage over a lot of people I’m playing defense on, and at the same time I feel like I’m pretty quick and athletic for my size, so I think that gives me an advantage on both sides of the floor. That’s exactly how he is.
Your mother Connie played basketball at Xavier and you started off your college career at Akron. What made you decide to follow in your mom’s footsteps? I wanted to come closer to home, and Akron was too big. There were 25,000 people there. I went to private school kindergarten through 12th grade, and Xavier is closer to home and private, too.
What is your best memory from your high school days? Probably signing day. I went to Mater Dei High School in Irvine, California, and we had probably 50 athletes for three signing days, so just being there with the boys signing, the football players, it was really cool seeing all of us in our college stuff. They held a big lunch for all of us and we didn’t go to class the rest of the day, so it was cool. Do you have any pets? I have a cat, Nala—I don’t even really like her that much—and I have a husky named Chloe and she’s my favorite. She’s my first dog ever and she’s my baby. I miss her like crazy, and I’m always talking about her and always FaceTime her with my brother and sister. I FaceTime my sister just to show me my dog. (laughs) You’re from California. Are you prepared for winter in Cincinnati? No! I’ve never seen snow before. I’m going to see it one time and think it’s cool, but I hate the cold. It was 60 degrees outside here one morning and I was in sweats, a jacket, and a longsleeve shirt. What was it about Xavier that made you want to play and go to school here? I took other visits and the other schools were way too big; I like that this school is small but seems big. I like that it was away but still in the city and not the middle of nowhere. I also like the support they have for the athletes with the academics part. Meeting with the academic advisor, I know they really care for us. I’m not going to fail here.
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If you only had 24 hours to live, what would you spend your final day doing? I definitely gotta hit the gym and go hoop. I have to go see mom, pops, close friends ... I might listen to some good songs—“Dreams and Nightmares” by Meek Mill, I’ve got to hear that. I gotta listen to this new Drake album again because Scorpion was fire. And I’ve got to play Call of Duty, that’s my game right there, and some Fortnite with the boys. I’m good with that right there! What else should Xavier fans know about you? I’m a sneakerhead. I can talk about shoes all day. I like Jordan 4s, 3s, 11s—those are probably my favorites. I can’t pick just one! I have so many pairs of Jordan 3s. I also like 10s, so I just got the Russell Westbrook ones. I have like 80-plus pairs right now ... my mom has some at her crib! Do you have any fears or phobias? I don’t do spiders. I don’t do snakes. Heights used to be really bad, but it’s not as bad as it used to be. Being on a plane doesn’t worry me, but some roller coasters or tall buildings, I’m looking down like, Whoa – somebody grab me. (laughs)
Did you visit Xavier before you chose Akron originally? No. What happened was I committed to Akron and then, two days later, coach Brian Neal called my AAU coach and said, “I want to offer Sarah a scholarship.” But he didn’t go through with it because he found out I had just committed. What do you like about Coach Neal in particular? I like his coaching style. I like this year how we’re going to run a motion offense and spread the floor out. I just feel like it’s close-knit here, and I already feel like I’m closer with everyone here than I was at Akron. If you could have one superpower, what would it be? To be invisible so you could just listen to people like a fly on the wall. Flying would be cool, too. I just want them all. What makes this group of incoming players special? They’re just all fun! They’re always laughing and smiling. I live with Yanni and Carrie, and they’re a joy to live with. I think they’re all really hard workers and all contribute to the team. Ayanna can jump out the gym, Lauren can shoot, Maddy can post really well, and Carrie can attack the basket really well, too.
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GETTING TO KNOW YOU
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#44
#4
#32
Ayanna Townsend
Lauren Wasylson
Ryan Welage
You’re from Pittsburgh, which is Cincinnati’s top sports rival city. How aware are you of the rivalry between the two? Oh, don’t remind me. I’m definitely aware of it in football. I tell people, “Hey, I’m from Pittsburgh,” and they’re like, “I hate the Steelers,” and I’m like, “Oh OK, thanks.” That definitely defines Pittsburgh.
If they played a song for you walking onto the court the way they play atbat music in baseball, what would yours be? I like the song “No Hands” by Waka Flocka Flame! (laughs) In high school, we had that song as our pregame song and it was a big thing!
What made you choose Xavier? I did like the small campus. Other schools were so big and overwhelming, even on the visits. I went to a small private school my whole life, so it’s kind of what I’m used to. What was your first impression of Cincinnati? I guess I expected it to be like Pittsburgh, so it was kind of surprising. I thought all of Ohio was flat—I don’t know why. I was born in Youngstown and that was pretty flat, so I thought everywhere in Ohio was flat. What is your favorite book and why? The one book that I really liked was one we read in high school, Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie. She’s from Nigeria, and it was interesting to see her transition from Nigeria to going to school in America. She experienced some stuff that I experienced discrimination-wise. Do you use social media? I have a Twitter (@townsenda44) but I don’t use it. I only made it because one of my AAU teammates was like, “You need to announce your signing.” I like Instagram and Snapchat! With Snapchat, you can just see all your friends, and on Instagram I like to go and search and once it figures out what you like, they know what to show you and it draws you in.
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What was it like to win a state championship in high school? It was insane. It was unbelievable. It was the best feeling ever. We made history as a Mars [Pennsylvania] team never had won a WPIAL or state title—we obviously didn’t come through with the conference title, but we made history being the first boys or girls team to win a state title. It was a good feeling, too, as usually it’s all about the boys. Kudos to them since we were both in the state championship, but they lost and we won and it was a good feeling to achieve that goal. Do you ever worry about teammates saying they’re not getting the ball enough? The first instinct of any player should be if you have a shot, take it, but when you don’t have a good shot, work the ball around with one more pass to your teammates. I think our team, we play together very, very well. I could see that coming here this summer ... I think we all have each other’s backs. What attracted you to Xavier? The community and family-like atmosphere. Obviously, playing in the BIG EAST was huge. School-wise, I could get potential jobs after college in Cincinnati, so that can also help me. Do you know what your jersey number is going to be? Number 4. I love it. In middle school, I had the number 34 and my dad was like, “Oh, you should try a smaller number,” because guards are smaller numbers. I put it on and I was like, “Oh, I love this number!”
What’s it like going from being a big fish in a small pond at San Jose State to becoming one of many fish here at Xavier? (Laughs) It’s just good to be back in the Midwest. I’m from Indiana, a town about an hour north of here called Greensburg, so it’s nice to be in the Midwest and just get back to being closer to family, friends, and home. What is your favorite sports movie? Man, you know what’s one of my top favorites? The Sandlot—that’s a classic. It’s just a small town story. I can relate to going out and playing all day. We used to go play kickball and football in this big grass lot—of course I also played basketball—but I could relate to that a lot. What is your favorite piece of memorabilia from your basketball career? In high school, we won backto-back state championships, so I got two rings. There was a guy in town who was a carpenter and he made a really nice display case that had our high school engraving on it with both rings sitting in there. It’s definitely my favorite. What will that first XU game be like? Oooh, man, I’m looking forward to so many things. Just playing in front of a packed house. My parents haven’t been out to see me play in a long time and haven’t been able to see me play in that many games, so I’m just happy to be able to play in front of my parents and my family. Those are the two things I’m looking forward to the most. What would be your dream final game? Us winning the National Championship! No, really, that would be my dream final game!
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HALL OF FAME
2015–2016
BIG EAST TENNIS PLAYER OF THE YEAR RACKET SUALLY, WHEN SOMEONE SAYS “WHAT’S THAT RACKET?!” they’re not too happy. Sydney Liggins, however, has a different take on the phrase. Graduating with a degree in biology last year, Liggins, 22, is one of the most decorated student-athletes in Musketeers women’s tennis history–and Cintas Center has the racket to prove it. The 2014 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year, Liggins was also named to the All-BIG EAST team twice (2014, 2017) and was the BIG EAST Player of the Year/Championship Most Outstanding Player in 2016. The 2015–2016 season is why her racket is on display at the Cintas Center. That season, Liggins went undefeated in No. 1 singles (without dropping a set) in the BIG EAST. Also finishing No. 1 in doubles play with teammate Amina Ismail, Liggins led the Musketeers to the BIG EAST championship—the first ever for Xavier women’s sports after joining the conference in 2013. Liggins says she had a feeling the BIG EAST tournament that year could result in something historic, both for the team and for herself. “We had a group of girls who were great fighters and great athletes, so I knew we had a really good chance to win that year,” she says. “That was the greatest I ever played. I attribute that to a really good schedule. The coaches really were training us hard and really helped to prepare us. When your coaches believe in you, you realize, ‘Yeah, you can do it.’ ” Coming back to campus the next day wearing their championship shirts, Liggins
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says it was a “cool feeling to get a little bit of the sports spotlight.” Now back home in her native Grand Rapids, Michigan, working as a pharmaceutical sales rep, she’s currently taking a break from tennis and focusing on her career instead. “There’s still a competitive aspect to it, wanting to do well and hit your goals and numbers,” she says. Knowing her racket is on display, however, ensures tennis won’t be far from her mind. “It’s truly an incredible feeling,” she says. “I played tennis for such a long time, since I was 5 years old, so it really goes to show all that hard work and time I put in truly paid off. Xavier offers a student-athlete the perfect balance between your sports life and your academic life. That’s what I really loved about Xavier.”
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MEET THE ASSISTANTS
DREAM TEAM
// THE NEW FACES ON TRAVIS STEELE’S COACHING STAFF.
Xavier head coach Travis Steele told The Cincinnati Enquirer that Jonas Hayes, shown working with Tyrique Jones (0), is “just one of those guys who can light up a room.”
JONAS HAYES Hayes spent the past six years at the University of Georgia, five seasons as an assistant coach and one as operations coordinator. Prior to that he was at Belmont Abbey (five seasons), South Carolina State (one season), and Morehouse (one season). Hayes played as a freshman at Western Carolina before transferring to Georgia for three seasons. As a senior, he averaged 11.9 points and 5.3 rebounds. HAYES ON HAYES: “I would like to think I bring a lot to the table basketball-wise and
recruiting-wise. But at the end of the day, what’s most important to me is being around solid individuals. That’s what transcends a whole lot in this life. To my core and who I am, it’s about connecting with people, connecting with students, our administration, our fans, and making an environment that’s going to be conducive to success at all levels.” STEELE ON HAYES: “It’s hard to find a big man who played that position who can teach and recruit as well. I didn’t want to get Tyrique [Jones] and Zach [Hankins] a 5-foot-10 post coach. Jonas is 6-foot-6, 6-foot-7, and he’s played that position. He knows the footwork that it takes to be a really good low-post player. Another thing that stood out was his ability to connect with people. Jonas can connect with people from the country, the city, any walk
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of life. He has the ability to put a smile on people’s faces. And it’s contagious.” SNOW ON HAYES: “Jonas is one of the best recruiters in the South and the state of Georgia specifically. He played at Georgia and his brother Jarvis, who played in the NBA, is also very tied in in the state. Jonas is known as a good post coach and someone who really relates well to people. He should be able to positively impact the development of players at Xavier, as well as bring excellent players in on the recruiting trail.”
DANTE JACKSON Jackson has been an assistant coach at Robert Morris (one season), Air Force (one season), and Northern Kentucky (one season), with a brief stop at Kent State before returning to Xavier. He was a graduate assistant at Xavier and Ohio University. He is, of course, a Xavier graduate and played four years for the Musketeers, going to the NCAA Tournament four consecutive years, including an Elite Eight appearance and two Sweet 16s. JACKSON ON JACKSON: “I am totally loyal to Travis, the program, and the uni-
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY GLENN HARTONG
HERE IS A FRESH LOOK TO THE XAVIER MEN’S BASKETBALL STAFF, with three new assistant coaches, two of whom are brand new to Xavier. After becoming head coach, Travis Steele surveyed the landscape across the country and interviewed a variety of candidates as he sought to build a staff. The result: assistant coaches Jonas Hayes, Ben Johnson, and former Musketeer Dante Jackson. “The greatest thing that all three guys have going for them is that they can relate to anybody,” says national recruiting analyst Brian Snow. “It is a rare thing for an assistant coach to be able to walk into any living room no matter the demographic or area and be able to relate. Ben, Jonas, and Dante all have the ability to do that.” Here is a look at Steele’s staff from different perspectives.
MEET THE ASSISTANTS
Ben Johnson was a two-time captain as a University of Minnesota player.
versity. Because of my background, it was kind of a perfect fit with Jonas and Ben. Travis wanted someone familiar with the program and with the system he’s going to run. I can connect with the players differently. Everything we’re doing I’ve had to do at some point, whether it’s lifting weights or going to class in Alter Hall.” STEELE ON JACKSON: “I’ve been around Dante for a long time. I’ve coached Dante, and he’s been a graduate assistant here. No. 1, his passion for Xavier is unparalleled. He’s very invested in Xavier winning. Second, he knows our system. He played it. He’s coached it. He knows our terminology. He knows our drills. And I really respect his path. Dante hasn’t been spoon-fed anything. His energy level is through the roof. It’s how he was as a player. He is a great leader and communicator. He has a chance to be special.” SNOW ON JACKSON: “There isn’t much Xavier fans don’t know about Dante Jackson. He was a celebrated recruit out of Greenfield High School who went on to be a four-year contributor during arguably the most successful period of Xavier basketball. While Dante doesn’t have as
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Dante Jackson played on Xavier teams that won 107 games, one fewer than the school record (Jason Love, 108).
much experience as Jonas or Ben, he does bring a tremendous understanding of the game, and no one has more love for Xavier University than he does.”
BEN JOHNSON Johnson coached the past five seasons at Minnesota. Prior to that he was an assistant at Nebraska (one season), Northern Iowa (four seasons), University of Texas-Pan American (two seasons), and University of Dayton (graduate assistant, one season). He played two seasons at Northwestern, then transferred to Minnesota for his last two years of eligibility. He scored a total of 1,202 career points in his four seasons of collegiate basketball.
questions as he navigates this first year.” STEELE ON JOHNSON: “Ben has a ton of experience at this level. I wanted to hire a couple of guys who have recruited and coached at this level. He’s been at winning programs. He’s got a great reputation as a perimeter development coach. I felt like that fit with Jonas working with the frontline. And Ben’s personality fits well with Jonas. Ben is a little bit quieter, but he’s very well thought out. He’s extremely smart. He’s recruited primarily in the Midwest, and Jonas has primarily recruited in the South. I felt like Ben was a guy who could give us great experience and great character.” SNOW ON JOHNSON: “Ben has been con-
JOHNSON ON JOHNSON: “I bring the
experience of playing in the Big Ten, the ups and downs, the expectations. Everything the players are being asked to do, I’ve done. I played in the NCAA Tournament, went to the Sweet 16, have coached a lot of good players. I understand what it takes to build the right culture and win at a high level. This will be the third head coach I’ve worked for who had zero or one year of head coaching experience, so I can help Trav if he has any
sidered one of the better assistants in the Midwest for several years now. He was a star player at Minnesota and actually was an excellent high school football player. Ben has worked under guys such as Richard Pitino, Tim Miles, and Ben Jacobson, so he has been well-groomed in his time as an assistant. As a recruiter Ben has extensive ties in the Midwest, specifically Minnesota, and was a key cog in bringing in one of the most highly rated classes in the Big Ten last year to Minnesota.”
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PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
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PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
The many emotions of forward Tyrique Jones as he embarks on what could be his breakout season. BY JOHN ERARDI
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It could be a breakout season for Xavier Musketeer forward Tyrique Jones—junior years so often are—although there are no guarantees. If hard work in the offseason is any indication, though, there is ample reason for hope. Like an eager boot-camp recruit last summer, Jones dropped and gave us 20…pounds, that is, from his 6-foot-9-inch frame. Nine of those inches occurred between his seventh- and eleventh-grade years—a terrific if unorthodox way of building a high school program, yes? Jones dropped the weight under the watchful eye (weekly checks on Fridays and Mondays) of the staff of longtime strength and conditioning coach Matt Jennings and with the help of XU’s healthcare professionals. Not to mention by giving up fried chicken, ultimately pizza (well, most of the time), and most impressively his Jamaica-born mom’s beloved stew peas, rice, and rib-sticking dumplings.“That’s when I knew he was really serious,” says mother Petronia (Winnie) Bailey,
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chuckling over the phone from Connecticut. “Tyrique loves stew peas and rice.” Tyrique the Sculpted is a jaw-dropping sight, a buff 235 ready to deliver on the promise of that day in Omaha two seasons ago, when as a freshman he was unstoppable: 8-for-8 from the field for 16 points in an 82–80 conquest of Creighton. It was a breakout game of “what could be” but hasn’t yet proven to be (freshman average of 4.2 points and 3.1 rebounds in 11 minutes per game, sophomore average of 7 points and 4.5 rebounds in 15 minutes per game). Too often, Jones would get winded, his energy unable to keep pace with what was in his mind. He knew he had to get fitter.
WINNIE BAILEY IMMIGRATED TO THE United States with her family when she was 11 years old—the same age as, coincidentally, her future soulmate in high school (and
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PHOTOGRAPHS (PREVIOUS SPREAD & THIS PAGE) BY GLENN HARTONG
We have seen it before on the basketball court, but never in such a wholesome, joyful, unbridled way. Big smile, intimidating glare, pounding of the chest, flexing biceps, exuberant exhortations to his teammates.
PHOTOGR APHS (C LOC K WISE FROM TOP LEF T) BY JOE ROBBINS / GREG RUST / GREG RUST
HARD TO CONTAIN Tyrique Jones is a handful for opponents on the court. And when he’s on the sidelines, he goes all out in supporting his teammates.
they had hoped for life), Lester Jones. He was a basketball star. She was a star sprinter. Things apparently took a bad turn for Lester shortly thereafter. It’s a tough story as Tyrique tells it: Father goes to prison, gets released, finds a job, re-enters the lives of his two young sons, and dies less than two years later. “It wasn’t easy,” Jones remembers. “I don’t have many memories of my father. But my mom has kept his memory alive for my brother and me. I remember the day my dad came back for a short time. It was nighttime. We were living in East Hartford, Connecticut. A friend brought him back. I remember seeing the joy on my mother’s face when he came back. But then my father passed away.” I go looking for the obituary. It comes up right away. “Lester Antoni Jones, 29, of Fairmount St., Hartford, passed away Wednesday [May 1, 2002] in Hartford. He was born Nov. 24,
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1972, in Nassau, Bahamas, son of Arnold Jones of Jamaica and Ruth Brown of Hartford. He lived in Hartford the last 17 years and was a 1992 graduate of Weaver High School. He is survived by his two sons, Dajoun and Tyrique Jones of East Hartford [and] his fiance, Petronia Bailey of East Hartford [and] a host of other relatives and friends. Lester will always be remembered by his warm smile and unique personality.” Lester’s nickname for Tyrique was “Eighty-Eight,” homage to Tyrique’s birth weight of eight pounds, eight ounces, now proudly tattooed on Jones’s right shoulder. Lester died two days before Eighty-Eight’s fifth birthday. “I was raised by my mom and my [threeand-a-half-year-older] brother, Dajoun,” says Jones. “I’m a mama’s boy, I admit it. My brother and I stayed with my grandmother at night while my mom was working late. I couldn’t grasp it when my dad died, and then a
few years later my grandmother passed away and by then I was able to grasp it. Dajoun had to be the male presence in the family in his teenage years. He couldn’t even play a sport in high school. He had to go to work when he was 16. And that’s my family. We’re very close. And I cherish every moment of it, even the rough times.” Jones says he speaks about his father like he knew him his whole life, speaking softly as he drifts into reverie. “My mom gave us the details and the stories. She never says anything bad about him. I look like my mom, but I have my father’s competitiveness—and his calf muscles. Me and my mama are best friends. We talk about everything. Everything.” Before every game, Winnie calls Tyrique. “Do your best,” she says. “And God will do the rest,” he answers, repeating the verse his mother gave him as far back as memory goes.
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ALWAYS ON
FOR A PERSON PLAYING ON SUCH A national stage, it is hard to believe that Jones’s best individual sports moment came when he was in the eighth grade, and that it wasn’t even in basketball. It was in football. “I was a tight end and defensive end,” he recalls. He idolized Dwight Freeney, who graduated from the same high school where Jones matriculated for three years (Bloomfield) before transferring to a prep school, Vermont Academy. Jones was born only a year before Freeney graduated from Bloomfield, but for as long as Jones can remember he knew that Freeney had been a three-sport star at Bloomfield, an All-American defensive end at Syracuse University, and a seven-time Pro Bowler with the Indianapolis Colts. And so Jones set out to make himself into the next Dwight Freeney. He even copied the future Hall of Famer’s vaunted spin move, and couldn’t wait to play under the lights. Finally, he got the chance. The opposing team was driving for a touchdown when Jones, playing defensive end, intercepted a pass at his team’s 4yard line.
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“I broke a tackle and ran and ran and ran, 96 yards,” he recalls. “Just as I was crossing the goal line, I noticed my mom at about the 30-yard line, running down the sideline. She had been running stride for stride with me.” Jones thinks he would have been a really good defensive end. With that nine-inch growth spurt in his early teen years, there’s plenty of reason to believe he’d have been a lot more than really good. But he never got the chance. Jones remembers telling the Bloomfield football coach early in his high school career that he was going to miss a day or two of summer workouts to play in an AAU basketball tournament. The coach’s response? “He looked me right in the eye and said, ‘Don’t even come back.’ ” “I felt everything being crushed inside me,” Jones says. “I’m on good terms with that coach now, but it’s not something I’d ever say to a kid. You cut off a kid, you don’t know where he’s going to wind up. Hartford is a rough place to grow up. But it made me focus on basketball. I didn’t have football to go back to. It turned out that my cousin was
really good at basketball, knew a bunch of guys in town, and he’d call me for workouts and to play games. But it didn’t come easy for me.” Jones, you see, hadn’t picked up basketball until the sixth grade. He was a late bloomer. “My brother was always working, but on rare occasions he’d get to come to my games,” he says. “One time he said, ‘Ty, I’m going to change your name on my phone to Last Two Minutes. Because every time I come to one of your games, you don’t get in until the last two minutes.’“That motivated me. I started taking basketball more seriously, because I wanted to get in before the last two minutes.” In the end, it really didn’t really matter what sport Jones would have chosen, because what he craved above all was competition. Winnie had seen the same thing in her fiancé. Jones remembers being at the free-throw line in Wisconsin last November and hearing, “C’mon, Eighty-Eight!”“We [Xavier] were playing the Badgers, those guys in red,” he recalls. “My mom is the only one who calls me ‘Eighty-Eight.’ I didn’t even know
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P H O T O GR A P H S ( T HI S PAGE ) B Y F R A N K V I C T O R E S / (O P P O S I T E PAGE , F R O M L E F T ) B O B S T E V EN S / S A M WA S S O N
Whether he’s taking selfies with fans after a big win, celebrating with teammates after an official’s call during a Crosstown Shootout, or dunking on an opponent, Tyrique Jones does not hide his emotions on the court.
she was coming to the game. But I know I’m in good hands when I hear her voice.”
JONES’S PERSONALITY—CHURNING, voluble, demonstrative—is the most effervescent on the Musketeers squad. He comes by it honestly. “It’s what I saw every day growing up,” he says. “I’ve seen Mom get on me and my brother, but it never lasted. She never lets her having a bad day have an effect on the way she treats other people. She can brighten any room. There’s just something about her.” An air of “positivity” is the way big brother describes it. “There’s never a dull moment,” notes Dajoun. “Her attitude is ‘Be open with your feelings, be a catalyst, a spark, because people will feed off it.’ People ask me, ‘Why are you so happy?’ My mom taught us, ‘Every day is a new day, be grateful and thankful that God woke you up today.’ Tyrique’s attitude, especially with this being a junior-led Xavier team, is: ‘I am the rock of this team. I am going to get this team going. I have to bring this team along with me.’ ”
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Mat t Jennings, Xavier’s longtime strength and conditioning coach, cannot volunteer many specifics about Jones’s weight loss program because it would violate HIPAA privacy rules. But on personality, Jennings is a gold mine. “Loud, boisterous voice, distinctive laugh, great sense of humor,” says Jennings, football center in the early 1990s for the North Carolina Tar Heels. “The part that gets lost in all that is that Tyrique has a softer, more sensitive side. He’s aware of what’s going on around him. He has an eye for those in need of something. Very little gets by him.” Jones’s eye for what matters is extraordinarily keen, even things that go way back. For instance, he remembers the cheeseburgers that his dad made for him and his brother when he was 3 and Dajoun 7. “Dad whipped up some potato salad and a burger with white American cheese on it,” Jones recalls. “I’ve even told my mother, ‘Mom, you’ve got everything else in the kitchen, but that was one serious burger.’ ” Dajoun, being a few years older, recalls a bit more.
“Dad made it from scratch, put all the spices and veggies right inside it, pepper and onions. Tyrique’s right. They were really great, one of a kind.”
FRESHMAN YEAR, PARENTS WEEKEND, two years ago, Xavier University. “I want you to know you’re going to be in my performance tonight,” Jones tells his brother and mother. “What are you going to do?” Dajoun asks him. “Don’t worry about it, you’ll see,” he answers, grinning. Just before it’s Jones’s turn in the dunk contest at Cintas Center, he calls Winnie and Dajoun onto the floor, stations them in front of the basket, mother first, brother directly behind her, both facing the hoop. Running start, explosion, slam dunk! Right over the top of both of them. Metaphorically, Jones was climbing on their shoulders. They didn’t feel a thing. Neither did Tyrique. He was eighty-eight feet high.
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PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
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MILITARY PRECISION NAJI MARSHALL IS JUST THE LATEST IN A LONG LINE OF XAVIER BASKETBALL PLAYERS WHO REALIZED THAT SPENDING A YEAR AT HARGRAVE MILITARY ACADEMY WAS THEIR NEXT STEP ON THE ROAD TO COLLEGE SUCCESS.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
Byy K EV EVIN G O HEEN GOHEEN
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PIPELINE (From
TANLEY BURRELL HAD A PRETTY GOOD IDEA OF WHAT HE WAS getting into when he decided to attend Hargrave Military Academy for one year after graduating from Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis. Naji Marshall also had a pretty good idea why he chose to go to the tiny boarding school in Chatham, Virginia, after high school in suburban Washington, D.C. They had bigger goals in mind, and Hargrave was the place to help them achieve those targets. Even if it meant getting up at 6 a.m. every day and living the life of a military cadet. “You might think that it’s dummied down, that ‘military’ is just in the name,” says Marshall, Xavier’s 6-foot-7 sophomore forward, “but that’s not the case. I went through the whole nine yards.” Burrell was at Hargrave 13 years before Marshall, but his experience was the same, as it was for David West before him. Former Musketeers Dez Wells and Jordan Crawford are also Hargrave alumni. Xavier and Hargrave have enjoyed a successful relationship through the years. It’s not hard to understand why.
MIRROR SCHOOLS Lee Martin is the director of the Hargrave Military Academy basketball program and head coach of the postgraduate team. He’s also an alumnus of the school, with the perspective of being a cadet, a player, and a coach. “I think we recruit the same type of guy,” Martin says. “I think that Hargrave and Xavier have always taken the guy that’s cut from a different cloth. He’s willing to make basketball a big priority in what he does. The structure, routine, and discipline of Hargrave, being a military school, while that’s not Xavier, I think the way their pro-
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gram is run you have to have discipline, you have to have structure. You have to obviously be a talented basketball player on top of that, but the schools mirror each other very well.” Hargrave opened its doors in 1909. In addition to its varsity athletic teams, the academy offers a postgraduate basketball program. A new team is recruited every year from among the top players in the country. Players choose to attend Hargrave for a variety of reasons, but the bottom line is they want to become better at their craft on the court and more prepared for college life off the hardwood. That’s how Martin landed at Hargrave. He wanted to play college basketball but didn’t have a lot of offers coming out of high school in Mount Airy, North Carolina. One college coach suggested he research the prep school route. Martin made his decision after visiting Hargrave and touring the campus and basketball facilities with then-assistant coach A.W. Hamilton. Hamilton is now the head coach at Eastern Kentucky University, while former Hargrave head coach Kevin Keatts is the head coach at North Carolina State. “We passed the area where we have pictures of all our players currently playing in college displayed in the lobby of our gym,” Martin says. “That was one of the stops on the tour. [Hamilton] said, ‘Lee, all these players played at Hargrave and now they’re at their schools and hav-
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PHOTO GR APH S (PRE VIOUS SPRE AD) BY JOE ROBBINS / ( T H I S PA G E , F R O M L E F T ) B Y J O E R O B B I N S / C O U R T E S Y X AV I E R AT H L E T I C S
left) Naji Marshall, Stanley Burrell, David West, Jordan Crawford, and Dez Wells all spent a season at Hargrave Military Academy.
ing all these successes.’ ” Martin wanted his picture to hang in that lobby, and after he earned a scholarship to Catawba College, it did, for four years. Marshall’s picture now hangs in that same lobby.
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 X AV I E R AT H L E T I C S / B Y F R A N K V I C T O R E S / D O U G CO C H R A N
SAGE ADVICE Hargrave has won three national prep championships and twice been the national runner-up in the last two decades. More than 20 alumni have gone on to play in the NBA in that time, while hundreds of players have earned college scholarships. West retired from the NBA in August following a 15-year career in which he earned a pair of All-Star appearances and helped the Golden State Warriors win consecutive NBA Finals championships the last two seasons. Before he became the most-decorated player in Xavier basketball history, including being named the National Player of the Year in 2003, he spent a year at Hargrave, where he was teammates with fellow future NBA player Josh Howard. A total of nine players on that squad received college scholarships. “Their intention is to set you on course to be ready to play in college from day one,” West says. “Just what you go through with the system that’s in place, it’s one of the best prep systems in terms of culture, attitude, the approach that you have to have to be successful at the
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college level. If you do something wrong and break the rules, you’re going to be punished for it. There’s a certain level of discipline I developed there that I needed, particularly getting ready to go to college.” It was West who encouraged Burrell to give Hargrave a hard look. Burrell was on a visit to Xavier when West discussed the advantages of Hargrave with him, explaining that a year at a postgraduate prep school is essentially a redshirt season for a player without having to use a year of college eligibility. “David was telling me how beneficial it was to go there from an academic standpoint and also a physical standpoint,” Burrell says. “He said it would be really good for me to go there and be ready for Xavier right away, and he was right. I was able to go to Xavier and play right away. Academically it was good for me to get me on track, and it was also good for me to gain weight and strength too.” Burrell started 125 of the 132 games he played for the Musketeers from 2004 to 2008. He came to Victory Parkway with a scorer’s mentality, but by the time he graduated it was his defensive prowess that helped Xavier reach the Elite Eight in 2008 and elevated him to the 2016 Xavier Hall of Fame class.
‘ALWAYS WHERE YOU WANT TO BE FROM’ Hargrave isn’t for everyone. Some won’t
make it past the word Military in the school’s name. “We were going to bed early, getting up early, our bed had to be perfectly done when it was made up, and we wore our uniforms,” Burrell says. “We did all the stuff that the other guys in the military did. If you got in trouble, you had to walk around in a square holding a concrete-filled rifle above your head as punishment. We were part of it all, the military part as well. We weren’t there just playing basketball. It wasn’t easypeasy for us. We had to go through all the discipline stuff as well.” While the experience might not have been the easy route, it was the best one for these Musketeers. “My family could have come and got me at any time, but I knew I was there for a greater purpose,” Marshall says. “After two weeks, I still thought I was in a dream. It was an adjustment, but I’m glad I went there.” Martin watched the development Marshall, his former player, made as a freshman at Xavier. He started 18 games, including the final 11, and was named to the BIG EAST All-Freshman team. Martin knows that Marshall’s experience at Hargrave laid the foundation for that success. “David West said this and he probably said it best,” Martin says. “Hargrave is not where you necessarily want to be sometimes, but it’s always where you want to be from.”
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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY FCB BASKETBALL TEAM PHOTOGRAPH BY TK
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PERSEVERANCE PHOTOGRAPH BY TK P H O T O G R A P H (O P P O S I T E ) B Y B R E T T H A N S B A U E R , 4 t h F L O O R C R E AT I V E / ( T H I S P A G E ) B Y S H U T T E R S T O C K . C O M
NOTHING CAN STOP KYLE CASTLIN, WHO HAS OVERCOME CHILDHOOD TRAGEDY AND BASKETBALL INJURIES ON HIS PATH TO XAVIER. BY // MARK PURDY
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most interesting Xavier basketball player. It is a story of tenacity, an Ivy League education, vegetarianism, and unfathomable awfulness. Oh, and modesty. “I don’t think people are expecting much from me,” Castlin says. “I think he can be a great leader for us,” says Travis Steele, who on his second day as Xavier’s new head coach jumped on an airplane to convince Castlin he should become a Musketeer. “Kyle can do a little bit of everything on the court, and he’s a better person than he is a player. He can connect with just about anybody.” In other words, people are expecting a lot. Of course, no official rankings for the most or least interesting players actually exist. But if Castlin is not in the top tier of most fascinating personalities in his entire sport this season, well, those non-existent rankings might as well not non-exist. If that makes any sense. Castlin, a Georgia native who went to college in New York at Columbia, is more concerned about making sense of his new Cincinnati surroundings and making a mark as the Muske-
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teer program’s fi rst-ever graduate transfer player from an Ivy League school. He spent four years at Columbia persevering through a series of bad breaks and injuries, missing one entire season and chunks of others. When healthy, however, the versatile 6-foot-4 Castlin made an impact. As a senior in 2017–2018, he averaged 10.5 points and almost four rebounds per game while often guarding the opponent’s top scorer. But he could not return for a redshirt year. He had earned his degree, and an Ivy League rule stipulates that anyone with a degree cannot use a fifth year of eligibility.
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P H O T O G R A P H B Y B R E T T H A N S B A U E R , 4 t h F L O O R C R E AT I V E
IT’S QUITE A STORY, REALLY, HOW KYLE CASTLIN BECAME THE WORLD’S
PHOTOGRAPH BY GLENN HARTONG
That made Castlin available to any other basketball school looking for a graduate transfer. Xavier was looking. Steele knew about Castlin from some friends on the Columbia staff and had studied video of his games—and also knew that Ohio State, Virginia, and Wake Forest were doing the same. “The graduate transfer market is fastmoving,” Steele says. “If you blink, you’re done. We lost a lot of our offense from last season. I flew to New York and sat down with Kyle and talked about our program. He knew a lot about us. He had studied our team on video. At the end of our visit, he
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said, ‘I’m all in.’ That was before he’d even seen our campus.” Still, Steele covered all his bases. He flew with Musketeers special assistant to the head coach Jeremy Growe to Castlin’s hometown in Georgia. They spoke with his mother and answered her questions, which meant everything to Castlin. And it cemented his commitment to Xavier. Through the process, Steele was impressed with Castlin’s maturity and wondered where it had come from, how it had developed. Steele knew some of the back story, but not all. He soon learned.
EXPERIENCED ADDITION // Kyle Castlin started 48 of 76 games in three seasons at Columbia University. He totaled 616 points, 260 rebounds, and 75 assists. His older sister Kristi Castlin, now 30, competed in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2016 Olympic Games and won a bronze medal.
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FOLLOW THE LEADER //
The story began in suburban Atlanta, where Castlin grew up in a loving home. His mom, Kelley, was an educator. His dad, Rodney, was night manager at a local hotel adjoining nearby I-75. The couple endured a tragedy in 1999 when Kyle was 3 years old. Kelley gave birth to daughter Kennedy, who had a birth defect that doomed her to a short life. Kennedy survived just eight months. The family mourned together and held Kyle close. Kelley became pregnant again. A year later, on the evening of December 7, 2000, Kelley was eight months along. Rodney left for work. As always, Kelley called him before she went to bed and said goodnight. Shortly thereafter, two young men entered the hotel lobby. One had a handgun. He jumped over the front counter as his partner robbed a guest. The man with the firearm demanded money from the desk clerk. Rodney Castlin heard the noise and emerged from his manager’s office. The robber told Rodney, “You need to open your safe.” Rodney answered,
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“We don’t have a safe.” The gunman cracked the desk clerk on the head with the pistol before shooting Rodney once in the chest. The two robbers left with $304 they’d collected from the desk clerk and guest. Rodney, 36, was dead on arrival at the hospital. At that point, it was past midnight. Kelley Castlin was in bed when the doorbell cut through her sleepy haze. She awoke to see a policeman on the front porch. “The officer told me Rodney had been killed,” Kelley says. “One of my neighbors came over, and I asked her to take Kyle to her house. But it wasn’t long before she came back and said Kyle wanted to be at home.” And then the most remarkable thing happened. “I’ll never forget,” Kelley says. “I was on the sofa. Kyle came and looked me in the eyes and he said, ‘I have to take care of you and the baby now.’ I could not believe it.”
KYLE REMEMBERS THAT NIGHT, TOO. “I just tried to be the best I could be for her,”
he says. “I didn’t cry. A lot of people said later, ‘Maybe you didn’t really know what had happened.’ But I knew. I told her I was going to take care of her and my new sister.” Which he did. Ryan Castlin was born a month later. Kyle helped his mom with the baby chores. He kept his room neat, made sure to be dedicated in school as his mom wished. He also found time for sports, recalling fun basketball shoot-around sessions with his dad before the murder. When Kelley remarried, it turned out that Kyle’s new stepdad, Pedro Gacutan, also loved hoops. He coached Kyle in youth league teams and club teams. Kyle’s reputation grew. Colleges came calling. “He really wanted to go to a place where he could be academically challenged and play basketball, too,” Kelley says. “But when Columbia wanted him, my fi rst reaction was, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ You know, New York City and the Ivy League? But once we got to campus, he said, ‘This is where I want to be.’ ” Kyle Smith, Columbia’s head coach, also
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P H O T O GR A P H B Y B R E T T H A N S B AU E R , 4t h F L O O R C R E AT I V E
Despite being a newcomer to the program, Kyle Castlin was selected as one of the Xavier team captains for this season.
had no idea of Castlin’s family history until halfway through the recruiting process. “It was hard to wrap your head around it,” says Smith, who is now head coach at the University of San Francisco. “The family was so impressive to me. Kelley and Pedro were just the kind of parents you hope to find when you visit parents, focused on achievement and opportunity. I remember seeing Ben Carson’s book on their end table. And I remember that Kyle wanted to commit on his dad’s birthday. He was a home run for us.” At Columbia, Castlin’s interesting path took another tough turn. He started as a freshman, and as a sophomore he was en route to a big season when he suffered injuries that limited his playing time. This led to offseason foot ligament surgery that wiped out his entire junior year. “He was defi nitely on pace to be an allleague player until all of that,” says Smith. “But he retained his self-esteem. He is long and strong and willful. He finds a way to get the ball in the basket. He can play against anyone. We played Kentucky when he was a freshman. We lost but were up by 11 points and led in the second half. I remember Kyle going to the basket and drawing a foul at one point. He’s a guy who wants to be in that arena. He’s fearless.” Something else happened during Castlin’s sophomore season: Police finally caught the man who shot his father. The robbers had escaped unidentified, but law enforcement agencies kept the case open and continually ran one latent fingerprint they’d found in the lobby through a national database. Finally, in 2012, there was a hit. It pointed to a man who was arrested and charged. Kyle was in class when Smith texted him to come by the coaches’ offices. “His mom wanted him to be in a private space when he heard about the arrest,” Smith remembers. “She trusted me to be the one who told him. I felt a real responsibility to handle it sensitively. I had no idea how he’d respond.” Castlin, at long last, shed tears. A photo of his father had always been on display at home. Another was on Kyle’s cell phone. And now Rodney’s killer had finally been found, and a jury convicted him of murder and sen-
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tenced him to life plus 35 years. And during all that time, while awaiting justice to be served, Kyle had kept his promise to his mom. “He has every reason in the world to feel sorry for himself,” Smith says. “And he doesn’t. I get a little emotional talking about it.”
THE WORLD’S MOST INTERESTING BASketball player was at a crossroads at Columbia. With his recovering foot keeping him
“HE HAS EVERY REASON IN THE WORLD TO FEEL SORRY FOR HIMSELF. AND HE DOESN’T.” — KYLE SMITH, FORMER COLUMBIA COACH
away from basketball during his junior year, how would he use that extra time? Castlin’s choice was to lock into his academics—with a double major in psychology and African-American studies—and spent two summers working at a law firm in a quasi-paralegal capacity. At some point in there, Castlin also decided to give up eating meat. He hoped it would keep him healthier and injury-free during his senior season. If only. Against Villanova in the season opener, Castlin drove to the basket for a contested shot. An awkward collision put him out of action for 10 games and cost him his starting job. When he returned, his coach asked Castlin to come off the bench as a sixth man.
“He asked me to sacrifice for the good of the team,” Castlin says. “I said I would. I just wanted to win and make the NCAA Tournament.” That didn’t happen. The Lions fi nished 8–19, and Castlin completed his four years at Columbia with no postseason appearances. He knows the chances of reaching his goal with the Musketeers are far better. He will definitely be motivated. “I think I have a chip on my shoulder because of my injuries and all the games I missed at Columbia,” Castlin says. “I want to prove I belong here.” Steele read Castlin’s attitude the same way during his visit to New York last April. Castlin is one of the older players on the roster. He will be pursuing an MBA and serving as a role model for the kids on the team. A recent Twitter post by Castlin, for example, read, “The less time you spend logging on to social media, the more you’ll see your goals turn to accomplishments.” This makes him the rare athlete at any level who has used Twitter to campaign against the use of Twitter. “You have to be careful who you take with the graduate transfer spots,” Steele says. “If selfishness is any part of someone’s personality, you can’t have that. Kyle just says he wants to win and really wants to play in the NCAA Tournament. And he’s an absolute gym rat, which I love. He has been everything I expected him to be and more.” Castlin’s mere presence on the Musketeer roster, with his Ivy League résumé and survival of childhood tragedy and perseverance through the injury setbacks, creates a certain gravitas. His teammates are absorbing it all. His vegetarian proclivity is another matter. “On Kyle’s first visit to our campus,” Steele says, “we took him to Seasons 52 restaurant down the street, where the menu was perfect for his diet. But the next night, we were at Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse. That was more of a problem. I think he had a salad.” More meals lie ahead. More games, too. Castlin plans to be eating, playing, and carrying his story deep into March and April. The way he sees it, the world’s most interesting Xavier basketball player is just getting started.
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KEREM KANTER, WISCONSIN-GREEN BAY
ZACH HANKINS, FERRIS STATE
RYAN WELAGE, SAN JOSE STATE
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ANDRE WALKER, VANDERBILT
KYLE CASTLIN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 4 6 X AV I E R N AT I O N | FA L L 2 0 1 8
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P H O T O G R A P H S (O P P O S I T E PA G E , C L O C K W I S E F R O M T O P L E F T ) C O U R T E S Y F E R R I S S TAT E / W I S C O N S I N - G R E E N B AY / VA N D E R B I LT / CO L U M B I A U N I V E R S I T Y / S A N J O S E S TAT E / ( T H I S PA G E ) C O U R T E S Y S H U T T E R S T O C K . CO M
GRADUATE TRANSFERS ALLOW STUDENTATHLETES TO KEEP PLAYING AT ANOTHER SCHOOL AFTER THEY’VE EARNED A DEGREE. WHAT DOES THIS NEW KIND OF ONE-ANDDONE MEAN FOR COACHES—AND FOR XAVIER?
BY // JEFF GOODMAN
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HELPING HAND In his one season at Xavier, Malcolm Bernard averaged 6.6 points and 4.1 rebounds and added leadership and great energy.
VEN BEFORE TRAVIS
Graduate transfers are the latest mode of recruiting. Not just transfer athletes, students switching schools, who typically have to give up a year of playing time, but grad transfers: players who have graduated, still have eligibility remaining, and don’t have to sit at their next stop. In 2017, there were 104 grad transfers in men’s basketball, compared to just 15 back in 2011. Just days after Steele took the head coaching job, he landed Zach Hankins, an athletic 6-foot-10 forward who played his first three seasons at Ferris State and was Division II Player of the Year last season while leading his team to a national title. Hankins, who averaged 15.1 points and 9.7 rebounds
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a year ago, won’t have to sit after graduating from Ferris State and should give the Musketeers a big-time rim protector. Kyle Castlin, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound guard who averaged 10.5 points last season at Columbia, was forced to transfer out of the Ivy due to a league rule stipulating that student-athletes have just four years to use their eligibility. Castlin, who didn’t play in his junior year and has one year of eligibility left, should help Xavier with his well-rounded game. The third grad transfer is 6-foot-9 forward Ryan Welage, who averaged 18.1 points last season at San Jose State and has scored more than 1,200 career points in college over three seasons. The skilled Indiana native led the Spartans in scoring last sea-
son on 43 percent shooting from behind the three-point line. “We’d be in trouble without those three guys,” Steele says. “They’ll help make us competitive this year, and getting them was big for us. We’d be in a tough spot without them, especially depth-wise. “For us [graduate transfers are] a way to supplement our team. It’s almost our oneand-done. Kentucky and Duke have high school kids who come in for a year—this is our way of doing it.” Even Kentucky coach John Calipari has gone the grad transfer route this season, bringing in Stanford big man Reid Travis— one of the nation’s top returning frontcourt players—to give his young group a proven commodity up front that could wind up be-
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PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE ROBBINS
Steele was tapped by Greg Christopher to slide a seat over and replace Chris Mack, he was well aware that this Xavier team was in need of immediate help. The team’s top player, Trevon Bluiett, was gone, along with J.P. Macura, Kerem Kanter, and Sean O’Mara. Then Kaiser Gates decided to leave school early and turn pro. There were returnees who will see expanded roles—guys like Quentin Goodin, Naji Marshall, Tyrique Jones, and Paul Scruggs—but they needed help from players who could come in and contribute right away. As a result, Steele will welcome a trio of graduate transfers this year. He saw firsthand how they can help a year ago with Kanter. “Kerem was huge for us last year,” Steele says. “Without him, there’s no way we’re nearly as good.” Kanter was actually the third grad transfer that Xavier added since the rule allowing graduates with eligibility remaining to enroll and compete at another university went into effect, joining Andre Walker (Vanderbilt) in 2011 and Malcolm Bernard (Florida A&M) in 2016. Kanter was extremely productive when he was on the court, averaging 10.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in just 16.4 minutes per game.
P H O T O GR A P H S (F R 0 M T O P) C O U R T E S Y F L O RI DA A & M / CO L U M B I A U N I V E R SI T Y / F E R RI S S TAT E
ing the difference toward a Final Four berth and even a national title.
While Steele and many of the high-major coaches aren’t opposed to the grad transfer rule, the same can’t be said for the low- and even mid-major coaches who often find their team ravaged by the big boys. Fordham coach Jeff Neubauer fi nished 17–14 and exceeded all expectations in his fi rst season in 2015. Then he watched two of his top three scorers—Christian Sengfelder (Boise State) and Antwoine Anderson (UConn)—leave as grad transfers a year ago. This past offseason, his best returning player, Joseph Chartouny, left for Marquette. Samford’s Scott Padgett got hit as hard as anyone in the country this past offseason when he lost arguably his top three players to high-major programs. Point guard Justin Coleman left for Arizona, Wyatt Walker bolted for N.C. State, and Christen Cunningham went to play for former Xavier head coach Chris Mack at Louisville. “The reality is that the grad transfer rule has made our level the G-League,” Padgett says. “Let’s face it. Kids growing up don’t dream of playing in the Southern Conference. They want to play in the ACC or the SEC or for one of the big programs.” While Xavier and other big programs will continue to raid the lower levels, Padgett said it’s forced him to re-evaluate his recruiting philosophy. Now he’ll wind up going the transfer route himself, taking those who are in search of playing time at a lower level rather than loading up with high school players in hopes of developing them into all-league guys when they become upperclassmen. Some coaches have mentioned that they aren’t enrolling kids in summer school so they won’t graduate early and be able to transfer elsewhere with eligibility, though Padgett says he won’t go that route. Kanter came to Xavier in search of a better situation after spending three seasons at Green Bay. His numbers last season for the Musketeers were similar his junior year at Green Bay. While many detractors claim that the majority of those who utilize the rule aren’t being true to its academic spirit,
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“Kentucky and Duke have high school kids who come in for a year— this is our way of doing it.” —Travis Steele
Kanter says he made use of it both on and off the court. Kanter, whose father was a professor back in Turkey, achieved a perfect score on the math portion of the SAT. He wound up graduating in three years from Green Bay with a 3.5 GPA. “It was a great experience for me, and I would do it all over again if I could,” he says. “I had a great relationship with the players and coaches, the team was successful, and I felt like I was personally successful as well. I made the right decision, and I think the rule should stay in place.” But not all grad transfers are successful at their final spots. L.G. Gill left Duquesne after the 2016 campaign and was pursued by a bevy of high-major programs. He ultimately chose Maryland, where he wound up averaging just 3.5 points and was a nonfactor in his lone season. Jaaron Simmons thought he’d be the starting point guard at Michigan when he decided to transfer from Ohio, but he wound up taking a back seat and averaging just eight minutes per contest. “If a kid can graduate and go find a better situation, then it’s good for them,” Steele says. “It doesn’t always work out, but I think it’s a good rule for the most part.”
PAST LIVES (from top) Malcolm Bernard averaged 14.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 4.3 assists in one season at Florida A&M. Kyle Castlin totaled 616 points in three seasons at Columbia. Zach Hankins scored 1,232 points in three seasons at Ferris State.
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IMPRESSIVE UPGRADES The $10 million project will be named for Dr. Rob Heidt Jr. and his wife, Julia Heidt. Heidt is the former CEO of Wellington Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine. The Heidts are lead donors for the project.
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CENTER XavierNationMagazine.com
PLANS ARE IN PLACE FOR THE HEIDT FAMILY CHAMPIONS CENTER, A TOP-NOTCH FACILITY FOR STUDENTATHLETES THAT WILL ELEVATE XAVIER’S PROGRAMS. BY JACK BRENNAN
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OVERALL ATHLETIC EXCELLENCE, and its value to Xavier University and its students, is a pursuit well beyond the headline-making ways of the school’s high-profi le basketball teams. And striving for this goal in all XU sports encompasses much more than winning and losing. A top-notch “long game” is also required to keep a leg up on the competition, and XU has never played that game more effectively than with its plans for the Heidt Family Champions Center at the O’Connor Sports Complex. The Champions Center, a complete rebuild at the site of the current O’Connor Sports Center, will provide XU studentathletes with never-before-approached quality in terms of indoor space for sportspecific training, sports medicine facilities, and convenient team-specific locker rooms. It will also provide fi rst-class office space for coaches and staff, recruiting areas for all sports, and a renovated
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swimming pool. There are also long-term plans to refurbish the current soccer and baseball stadiums, all with an eye toward catching the eyes of top-quality high school student-athletes. The plan sounds so good that one could get impatient knowing construction won’t begin until 2020, following completion of the new Health United Building. But the HUB, already under construction, will also be a campus magnet, providing a new student recreation center. XU’s coaches are watching all the developments, playing that long game and anticipating benefits that will last for decades. “Not only will this facility immensely benefit student-athletes we already have, it will be the fi rst thing a recruit sees,” says men’s soccer coach Andy Fleming. “It’s the fi rst impression, and that’s key for a program like ours, which is national, Top 25, major conference. I think the
results speak for themselves with a lot of our sports programs, but what kids have seen in a fi rst visit hasn’t always matched up to that. Now we’re going to be able to check off that box.” Other sports seeing a transformed experience for student-athletes include women’s soccer, baseball (men), volleyball (women), and the men’s and women’s teams in swimming, tennis, cross country, and track-and-field. (Men’s and women’s golf are also part of the XU lineup, but those programs already have locker rooms and offices at Maketewah Country Club.) “The Champions Center will be the most impactful development for the sports it houses in the history of the department and the university,” says Greg Christopher, XU’s director of athletics. “It can’t be understated how much of a program-changer it will be for the entire department. The most direct effect will of
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A new weight training area and indoor field are just portions of the project.
course be on the sports it houses, but the indoor training space will also help the two basketball teams and the volleyball team [which play at Cintas Center]. And the entire facility will ease congestion problems that we currently battle. “Xavier has so many positives and great things to offer,” Christopher adds, “and this will bring our facilities to that next level, to match all our other assets.” Younger student-athletes currently at Xavier have hopes of enjoying the new facilities before they graduate. “We’re all excited about it,” says Grace Brauer, a freshman soccer player from Belleville, Illinois, scheduled to graduate in spring of 2022. “The older girls on our team tell us how lucky we are that we’ll have a chance to experience this. We’re not complaining about what we have now, but state-of-the-art facilities will really bring up the program and accentuate our strengths.”
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The $10 million project is being named for lead donors Dr. Rob Heidt Jr. and his wife, Julia Heidt. “Julia and I are excited to be a part of this transformative project,” says Heidt, a vice-chair of the Xavier board of trustees. “Creating an all-encompassing facility for these sports will give each team muchneeded space, and the proximity of training areas will improve the ability of the different arms of the athletics department to work together to serve the studentathletes.” Heidt is the former CEO of Wellington Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine. He’s a former team physician for the Cincinnati Bengals and has served as president of the NFL Physicians’ Society. Julia Scripps Heidt serves on the board of trustees for the Scripps Family Office and is a trustee of the Heidt Family Foundation, which serves a wide range of initiatives, including Bethany House Services and Lindner
Hope House. While the renovated facility will be renamed as the Champions Center, it was considered vital to retain the words “at the O’Connor Sports Complex” in the project’s official title. The Rev. Paul O’Connor, S.J., served as XU president from 1955 to 1972 and was a key proponent for varsity athletics. The best way to describe this future nerve center for XU sports might be “beautiful but functional.” “We are not trying to build the Taj Mahal,” Christopher says. “To use a football term, it will be about the basics of blocking and tackling, a basic for running a Division I athletic program. The indoor space we’ll have is particularly important because all sports today are essentially 12-month operations. Long gone are the days when basketball, for example, was finished in March and nobody did anything between then and October.”
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OFF THE COURT
sense of purpose. In its signature sport, men’s basketball, six of the 10 schools earned NCAA Tournament bids last season, led by two No. 1 seeds in Xavier and Villanova, and for the second time in three years the national champion in ’Nova. With five years in the record books, Ackerman, who in March agreed to a contract extension through 2021, looks back and to the future for five questions with Xavier Nation.
Val Ackerman was the first president of the Women’s National Basketball Association (1996–2005) and was a standout player at the University of Virginia in the early 1980s.
Xavier Nation: In what ways has the inclusion of Xavier benefitted the BIG EAST?
// COMMISSIONER VAL ACKERMAN SPEAKS TO THE CONFERENCE’S RECENT SUCCESSES AND GIVES A NOD TO ITS STORIED HISTORY. — R O R Y G L Y N N
HEN VAL ACKERMAN BECAME THE FIFTH COMMISSIONER
of the BIG EAST on July 1, 2013, the conference was emerging from months of transformation: seven traditionally basketball-centric Catholic schools had pulled away from their increasingly football-focused brethren to go their own way, and three new schools similar in mission and vision—Xavier, Butler, and Creighton—had agreed to join them. Five years later, the BIG EAST is moving forward confidently, with midtown Manhattan offices, stable membership, a strong TV partnership, and a shared
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XN: Five years in, what are your thoughts on where the conference is positioned now? Ackerman: When the seven schools made the decision to separate, which was the handiwork of those presidents at the time, they were able to negotiate to keep the BIG EAST name, the history, and the statistics. We kept the relationship with Madison Square Garden that is so important to men’s basketball. Fox Sports was about to launch FS1, and we would be a big part of their program-
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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY BIG EAST CONFERENCE
BEHIND THE BIG EAST
Val Ackerman: Xavier has been a tremendous addition. Their values are very much in line with the values of the conference, as a basketball-focused league with broad-based programs in other sports, strong academics, and a focus on service. As a basketball program, of course, Xavier has made important contributions to the strength of the BIG EAST brand. They’ve had great success, and I’m certain more is to come with coach [Travis] Steele. Xavier also has very strong leadership in Father Graham and Greg Christopher, who have not only guided Xavier to great heights but have provided strong voices within our conference. Finally, I would say Xavier nation has brought us tremendous fan support. Every time I see a game at the Cintas Center, I’m reminded of that great atmosphere and the passion of Xavier fans.
ON THE COURT
ming. So when I joined, all that work was done. But we had no infrastructure. I had no staff. We had no office space, no website, no benefits plans, no checking account. Georgetown managed our finances. We had no [NCAA Tournament revenue] units; those went [to the schools of the American Athletic Conference as part of the separation agreement]. We had no e-mail. I used my Gmail account for months. So, a normal conference year, but with the startup of a new company on top. The first year was really like drinking out of a fire hose. It was exhausting. Now we’re in great shape. We’re solidifying the successes we’ve had following the re-launch. Certainly we expect to compete for championships each and every year in men’s basketball. Last year, we had four schools in the NCAA women’s tournament, which is the best we’ve had [since the reboot], and we’d love to continue to have deep runs on the women’s side. Since our schools are very cohesive in terms of values, we can continually look to apply the BIG EAST brand to other projects in ways that make sense. [Ackerman cited the Student-Athlete Well Being Forum hosted by the conference and Butler University in June; the Mental Health Summit hosted by the conference, the NCAA, and Georgetown University in June 2017; and Sport at the Service of Humanity, a follow-up conference to a Vatican initiative focusing on how sport brings people together and can bring about social change.] This year we had competition in esports for the first time, the BIG EAST Esports Invitational. The BIG EAST Digital Network [a branded channel on the Fox Sports Go app] is growing, and BIG EAST Shootaround [a weekly basketball show on multiple platforms] helps build the identities of our schools on and off the court. We’re keeping a good thing going and growing.
XN: The BIG EAST has two major men’s basketball partners in Fox, its television partner, and Madison Square Garden, site of the BIG EAST men’s
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basketball tournament. How are those relationships? Ackerman: They are the conference’s two most important business relationships in terms of the revenue and exposure they provide. We have very collaborative working relationships with both. Fox has been with us since day one. [The BIG EAST and Fox Sports forged a 12-year deal in 2013.] We work very closely together on everything: scheduling, programming, mar-
“IT WOULD BE OUR HOPE TO BE IN THE GARDEN FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.” — VAL ACKERMAN, BIG EAST COMMISSIONER
keting, digital, you name it. They give us a great platform and exposure, and we provide them with strong programming for Fox Sports 1. It’s a win-win relationship we couldn’t be prouder. The BIG EAST tournament has been at Madison Square Garden for 37 years, the longest unbroken relationship between a conference and a venue in college basketball. [The league’s agreement with the Garden runs through 2026.] It’s the Mecca of basketball for a reason: the lighting, the sound, the aura. It’s iconic.
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XN: Other conferences that rotate their tournament sites, like the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten, played in the New York market last season. Could you ever see a day when the BIG EAST tournament extends to other markets? Or is New York too important to the schools, their fans, and the conference as a whole? Ackerman: Our schools would prefer to be in New York. Obviously now we have a very strong presence in the Midwest, with five of our 10 major media markets in the Midwest. But I think that’s outweighed right now by our history and tradition. Even our Midwest coaches point to that. It would be our hope to be in the Garden for many years to come. It’s very satisfying to see how the tournament has grown. Some of the schools that traditionally brought loads of fans are no longer in the league, but we’ve more than answered the naysayers. This year’s tournament was our best ever [since the re-launch]. Three of the five sessions were sellouts. Xavier and Villanova were on their way to No. 1 seeds. The championship game between Providence and Villanova went to overtime. I’m very optimistic we’re going to continue to see great crowds. Fans in New York know a good basketball game when they see it, and they know when the BIG EAST comes to town they’re going to get good basketball.
XN: Where is the BIG EAST in terms of membership? What can you share regarding possible expansion? Ackerman: Right now, we’re set at 10. Who knows what the future holds? Ten has turned out to be a very workable number. It allows us to do the full round-robin schedule in men’s basketball, for example, and that’s very favorable in terms of developing rivalries and ensuring that every student-athlete gets to go to every city and every school’s fans get to see every team. Ten works for a lot of reasons.
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Michael Davenport scored 1,172 career points at Xavier and finished with 151 three-point field goals.
RENAISSANCE MAN
// FROM LAW SCHOOL TO COACHING TO BANKING AND NOW OWNING A BUSINESS, MICHAEL DAVENPORT’S UNEXPECTED PATH SINCE HIS XAVIER DAYS. —J A C K B R E N N A N
ICHAEL DAVENPORT WAS A VERSATILE CONTRIBUTOR ON the groundbreaking Xavier basketball teams of the late 1980s and early ’90s, and he hasn’t stopped multitasking since. “I remember one time looking at my résumé and thinking, ‘There’s really no rhyme or reason to this,’ ” Davenport says. “What does come to mind is that I just have done things that seemed like fun.” Today, the 49-year-old Davenport spends a lot more time looking over résumés than sending them. He’s among four coowners of Jireh Metal Products, a major stamping company with two plants near his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He had only minimal experience in manufacturing when he and his partners bought the firm almost four years ago. “But it just seemed like a great opportunity,” he says, “a solid company that just needed some new attention on the sales side.” Davenport was a standout guard for Pete Gillen–coached Xavier teams for four seasons (1987–1988 through 1990–1991). He majored in psychology at XU, then secured admission to law school at the University of Cincinnati. Moving through the UC law program in the normal three years was not for him, however. A basketball coaching opportunity beckoned after two years, and he suspended his studies to go to the U.S. Military Academy as an assistant under Dino Gaudio, one of
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his coaches as a Musketeer. Then it was back to UC to finish law school. He passed the bar in 1996. Then it was coaching again, for one season (1996–1997) at Xavier under head coach Skip Prosser. The Musketeers went 23–6 (Atlantic 10 champs) and beat Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament before losing to UCLA. Next up was his first job in manufacturing, with the Batesville (Indiana) Casket Company. Following that he did 15 years in Cincinnati as an executive in banking, working in community development and also with the tricky world of federal and state regulations. He worked at U.S. Bank, then Fifth Third Bank, and finally First Financial. Which all was great, until the chance to go home as a major business owner presented itself. In basketball, Davenport was an explosive offensive player, particularly from three-point range, and also contributed significantly as a defender and two-year co-captain. His teams won more than three-quarters of their games (97–31), forever removing the “mid-major” tag from the XU program. Davenport cites his junior season, when XU reached its first NCAA Sweet Sixteen, as the obvious high point of his career. But his more personal highlight dates to his sophomore season opener, when the Musketeers beat fourthranked Louisville in an 85–83 thriller in the Preseason NIT at Riverfront Coliseum (now U.S. Bank Arena). “Louisville was huge, with Denny Crum, and we were known as an upand-coming program,” Davenport recalls. “The stands were half blue and half red, and it was a really cool atmosphere. And I remember thinking, ‘This is big-time college basketball.’ ” Davenport’s wife, Heidy, is also a Xavier grad (1992). They have two sons, Michael and Maxwell. Michael is a sophomore at Miami University in Oxford and is on the football team. Maxwell is a high school senior who plans to play baseball in college.
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TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS // JODI ALLEN HAS TAKEN THE CORPORATE WORLD BY STORM SINCE HER DAYS AS AN XU TENNIS PLAYER. —J A C K B R E N N A N
won both my singles matches and my doubles match.” The former Jodi Jordan has been married for 29 years to Chris Allen, a business coach who himself worked at P&G for 24 years. The Allens have one son (Jordan, 27) and three daughters (Kelsey, 25; Madison, 23; and Shawn, 22).
ads featuring bright college athletes who aren’t big names but have big plans for careers outside their sports. Jodi Allen, a former scholarship athlete in tennis at Xavier, is emblematic of what those kids are supposed to look like when they’re all grown up. Though the 1987 grad was not in such ads herself, she has moved on from her XU experience to huge success in the business world. Since October 2017, Allen has been executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Global Holdings, Inc., a car rental company featuring the iconic Hertz brand, along with Dollar and Thrifty. She was lured to the post from Procter & Gamble, where a career of more than 30 years ended with her in charge of P&G’s $1.8 billion portfolio of hair care brands, a division with 2,500 employees. And despite her heady climb, you bet she still remembers XU. “I loved Xavier,” she says from her office in Naples, Florida. “I loved everything about Xavier, so I don’t even know where to start. I’ve kept in touch with friends I made, and I learned values and skills which I think have proven very important in the business world.” Global Holdings saw Allen as the executive needed to put more marketing life into Hertz, which reported significant losses for the 2016 year. And in her first quarter, the fourth quarter of 2017, Hertz ended a streak of nine consecutive quarters of decline. She’s led the way toward introducing new taglines for Hertz (“We’re here to get you there”) and Dollar (“We never forget whose dollar it is”). A native of Toledo, Allen earned her bachelor’s degree in management information systems. Athletically, she followed the college footprints of her father, Joe Jordan, who was a running back for the Musketeer football program in the late ’50s. “My dad’s experience at Xavier was a huge part of it for me,” she says. The other big part was Jim Brockhoff, her coach. A Xavier Athletic Hall of Fame member, Brockhoff served 45 years as men’s tennis coach and 34 as women’s head coach before retiring in 2007. He died in 2013 at age 78. “I loved Coach Brockhoff from the very beginning,” Allen says. “And we had good teams. Not as good as the Jodi Allen officially joined the Xavier University Board of Trustees in September ones today, but I remember very clearly as a sophomore after being approved in May. She is shown here with a tennis ball signed by Billie Jean King beating UC, which I’d say was unusual at that time. I at the Global Business Travel Association convention, where Allen was a guest speaker.
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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY JODI ALLEN
F YOU WATCH MAJOR COLLEGE SPORTS ON TV, YOU’VE SEEN THE NCAA
JOIN XAVIER IN NYC 2019 BIG EAST MEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP MADISON SQUARE GARDEN • NYC MARCH 13-16, 2019 For ticket, fan travel, hospitality and entertainment information, please visit GoXavier.com/BIGEAST
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OUTLOOK Women’s basketball players get together for a team photo shoot. Back, from left: freshman Lauren Wasylson, freshman Carrie Gross, junior Ashley Gomez, sophomore Aly Reiff, and freshman Maddy Johnson. Front: sophomore Aaliyah Dunham and sophomore Princess Stewart.
PROGRAM UPDATES
BASEBALL COACH: Billy O’Conner (Xavier ’09), second season NOTEWORTHY: Following the 2018 season, Allbry Major was named the BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and a Collegiate Baseball All-American. The Indianapolis native is just the second XU baseball player to achieve those honors (recent graduate Nate Soria was the first, in 2015). Returning junior Conor Grammes and incoming freshman Kody Darcy were both selected in the 2018 MLB Draft, but opted to remain with the program. XU has had at least one player drafted in three straight seasons
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and 17 total selections since 2005. Soria went undrafted but signed a professional contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. Xavier baseball alum Zac Lowther was recently named the Baltimore Orioles’ Jim Palmer Minor League Pitcher of the Year after putting up a 2.53 ERA in 17 games (16 starts) for the Delmarva Shorebirds and Frederick Keys. The lefty struck out 100 batters in 92.2 innings and allowed just 74 hits in his first full season of professional baseball. Lowther and Rylan Bannon, the 2017 BIG EAST Player of the Year and a California League All-Star in 2018, are both ranked among MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 prospects in the Orioles system. Bannon
was traded to the Orioles in July as part of a deal for MLB All-Star Manny Machado.
BASKETBALL MEN’S COACH: Travis Steele (Butler ’04), first season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier lost the top three scorers from last year’s BIG EAST Regular Season Champions, but despite the losses XU has some quality experience returning. Junior Quentin Goodin is XU’s top returning scorer (8.7 ppg) and was third in the BIG EAST in assists at 4.9 apg and assist/turnover ratio at 2.14 as a sophomore. Junior Tyrique
Jones (4.5 rpg) is the top returning rebounder for firstyear head coach Travis Steele, who was on the XU staff for 10 years previously. Sophomore Naji Marshall, a unanimous selection to the 2018 BIG EAST Conference All-Freshman Team, is the second-leading returning scorer (7.7 ppg) and rebounder (4.4 rpg). Sophomore Paul Scruggs played in 34 games as a freshman, averaging 16.8 minutes a game. Five newcomers, including three graduate transfers, are expected to be key contributors this season.
WOMEN’S COACH: Brian Neal (Northern Kentucky ’91), sixth season
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P H O T O GR A P H B Y B R E T T H A N S B AU E R , 4t h F L O O R C R E AT I V E
XAVIER UNIVERSITY HAS APPROXIMATELY 300 STUDENT-ATHLETES PARTICIPATING IN 18 SPORTS DURING THE 2018–2019 ACADEMIC YEAR. HERE IS AN UPDATE ON EACH TEAM.
OUTLOOK
NOTEWORTHY: Xavier returns point guard Na’Teshia Owens, who played and started in 27 games last season. She averaged 7.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game, while adding 59 assists and 24 steals. The junior also hit 40 percent (30for-75) of her three pointers to rank eighth in the BIG EAST. The Musketeers also return Aaliyah Dunham, who was named to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team. The guard led the team in assists (74) and three pointers made (32) and finished the year ranked fourth in Xavier single-season history in assists by a freshman. Dunham also connected on 39 percent of her three pointers (32-for-82), the ninth-best percentage in the conference. The Musketeers will play 18 games at Cintas Center this season and travel to crosstown rival Cincinnati on December 16. Xavier has won 11 of the last 14 meetings between the two schools, including four in a row.
Classic currently ranks fifth in school history. The women’s team has been ranked in the Top 15 of the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Regional poll every week of the season. The Musketeers opened the season with a third-place finish (out of 10 teams) at the Queen City Invitational, finishing ahead of rivals Dayton, Kentucky, and Cincinnati.
GOLF MEN’S COACH: Brian McCants (Ferris State ’94), third season NOTEWORTHY: Sophomore Garrett Wood returns to lead the team after finishing eighth in his first BIG EAST Championships last spring. Then a freshman, Wood was named All-BIG EAST First Team after leading the Musketeers with a 72.30 stroke average. His six top-25 finishes and four rounds
in the 60s led the team, as he was one of just two freshmen to earn an all-conference spot on either the first or second team. Xavier alum Jason Kokrak (’07) qualified for his first career British Open in July, making his eighth appearance in a major event as a PGA professional. It was the first time Xavier has been represented in the prestigious event. Kokrak has appeared in the U.S. Open three times and the PGA Championship four times. His 2007 U.S. Open debut was the first major appearance by an XU men’s golf alum.
WOMEN’S COACH: Breanna Jenco (Xavier ’13), fourth season NOTEWORTHY: Junior Mikayla Fitzpatrick, who was named All-BIG EAST after the 2017–2018 season, tied for fourth and senior Mikayla Smith set a new Xavier record
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with an 18-hole score of 66 (-6) as the Musketeers began their 2018 fall schedule at the William & Mary Invitational in September. Fitzpatrick led Xavier with a 75.59 stroke average last season and tied for 12th at the BIG EAST Championships. Over the summer, six golfers (Fitzpatrick, Smith, Grace Howie, Lindsey Murray, Andie Shukow, and Morgan Tinsley) were named Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholars. XU has had multiple players honored each year since 2010. Murray was the seventh Musketeer to earn the honor in all four of her collegiate seasons.
SOCCER MEN’S COACH: Andy Fleming (Marist ’97), ninth season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier was picked third in the BIG EAST
CROSS COUNTRY MEN’S COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson ’99), seventh season NOTEWORTHY: Grayson Jenkins led the squad to a thirdplace finish at the Queen City Invitational to open the season. The men placed ahead of Cincinnati for the first time since 2012 at the annual meet and defeated Ohio State for the first time in program history. Jenkins finished tenth in the 5K race (15:39.60). The Musketeers also placed fourth at the National Catholic Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, finishing ahead of BIG EAST rivals Creighton and DePaul.
P H O T O G R A P H B Y DAV I D D E R M E R
WOMEN’S COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson ’99), seventh season NOTEWORTHY: The women’s cross country team has been paced by sophomores Anna Kostarellis and Jenna Clayworth, who posted top-10 finishes in multiple meets this season. Kostarellis’s 5K time of 17:41.90 at the Commodore
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Anna Kostarellis placed 11th in the 1,500-meter run at the BIG EAST Outdoor Track and Field Championships on May 12. The two-day meet was held at the SPIRE DI Institute in Geneva, Ohio.
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OUTLOOK
(Clockwise from left) All-BIG EAST honoree Ahmeir Kyle during Xavier’s 4–3 win over Seton Hall in April 2018. Brett Winters competes against St. John’s in the 2018 BIG EAST Championships. Freshman defender Hayley Jakovich against Northern Kentucky in August 2018.
preseason coaches poll, the highest-ever prediction in the BIG EAST for XU, as senior midfielder Simen Hestnes and senior defender Cameron Taylor earned preseason All-BIG EAST honors. The Musketeers backed up that lofty prediction with an unbeaten start in conference play. After a 3–0–3 run to start the season, Xavier cracked the national polls at No. 20 in the College Soccer News Top 30. The Musketeers have been nationally ranked every season since 2011 under head coach Andy Fleming. XU battled No. 3/6 Kentucky to a scoreless draw in mid-September, giving Fleming another result against a United Soccer Coaches Top 10 opponent. The Musketeers are now 7–2–2 against the top 10 under Fleming. Xavier also
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won the annual Crosstown Derby against Cincinnati, 3–1, on September 7 at XU Soccer Complex and is unbeaten against the Bearcats since 2009.
WOMEN’S COACH: Nate Lie (Miami ’00), second season NOTEWORTHY: The Xavier women closed out the 2018 non-conference schedule with five straight shut-out wins, moving into conference play at 6–4–0. Freshmen Allison Klimkowski and Hayley Jakovich and transfer Grace Bahr anchor the Xavier defense that held opponents scoreless for more than 470 straight minutes. With four shut-out wins to her credit in the non-conference portion of
the schedule, junior goalkeeper Toni Bizzarro is second in the BIG EAST for the most clean sheets, behind top-10 ranked Georgetown’s goalkeeper. Preseason All-BIG EAST selection Samantha Dewey led the Musketeers on offense in nonconference play with 10 points on goals and a pair of assists. In Nate Lie’s second season, 11 Musketeers tallied in non-conference play, needing just seven games to surpass last year’s total of six goal scorers.
SWIMMING MEN’S COACH: Brent MacDonald (Valparaiso ’03), tenth season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier Swimming returns 17 letter winners
on the men’s side, including seven all-conference honorees: Sam Johanns, David Bunnell, Matthew Dyer, Alex Sironen, Enrique Hernandez, Nick Mahoney, and Jared Ritz. At last season’s BIG EAST Championships, XU men collected 10 top-three finishes, including an NCAA B-Cut time for Dyer, and finished in the top three in four of five relays. Xavier finished fourth in the team standings behind Seton Hall, Villanova, and Georgetown. In addition to the returnees, Xavier’s men also added a six-person signing class to the 2018 roster.
WOMEN’S COACH: Brent MacDonald (Valparaiso ’03), tenth season NOTEWORTHY: Xavier Swim-
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PHOTOGR APHS (C LOC K WISE FROM LEF T) BY NIC K BROWN / JOHN A . C ARLOS / DOUG COC HR AN
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OUTLOOK
ming returns 21 letter winners on the women’s side, including six 2018 All-BIG EAST conference honorees: Emily Conners, Caroline Gaertner, Abigail Garner, Becca Titterton, Tianna Vozar, and Samantha White. At last season’s BIG EAST Championships, Conners and Gaertner each hit NCAA B-Cut standards as the Musketeer women collected 11 top-three finishes, including four secondplace finishes in relays. XU women finished in fourth place as a team behind Villanova, Georgetown, and Seton Hall. In addition to the returnees, the Musketeers added a threeperson signing class on the women’s side.
wins in her rookie campaign, including picking up wins in singles against conference foes Butler, Georgetown, and Marquette. Included in those wins was a five-match singles win streak in February and March. Kyle also picked up 10 wins in doubles play, including eight in the No. 2 spot with Rachel Reichenbach. The pair won six of eight leading into the conference semifinal match with St. John’s, including helping the Musketeers pick up the crucial doubles point in a pair of matches against Seton Hall.
TENNIS
COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson, ’99), seventh season
TRACK AND FIELD (INDOOR & OUTDOOR) MEN’S
MEN’S COACH: Doug Matthews (Xavier ’09), fourth season
NOTEWORTHY: The men return four athletes who posted top-10 finishes at the
BIG EAST indoor and outdoor track and field championships. William Roberts returns after a standout freshman season that saw the hurdler set the school record in the 400-meter hurdles. In July, head coach Ryan Orner announced the hiring of former Olympian David Payne as an assistant coach. Payne won a silver medal in the 110-meter hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
WOMEN’S COACH: Ryan Orner (Towson ’99), seventh season NOTEWORTHY: On the women’s side, Xavier returns five athletes who posted top-10 finishes at the indoor and outdoor BIG EAST Championships. Senior Kara Robinson highlights the women’s squad, as she has earned all-conference honors twice while holding three school records. Sophomore
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Jenna Clayworth also posted two top-10 finishes (5,000-meter run and 3,000-meter run) at the indoor championships.
VOLLEYBALL COACH: Christy Pfeffenberger (Dayton, ’05), third season NOTEWORTHY: Senior Meredith Klare moved into third place all-time at Xavier in career digs (1,621) following the team’s match at crosstown rival Cincinnati on September 15. The libero will look to eclipse Beth Osterday (1996–1999), who ranks second with 1,728, before the season ends. The Musketeers also competed in the Puerto Rico Clásico from August 31 to September 2. Xavier competed in three matches over the weekend and spent time exploring San Juan, the hometown of senior outside hitter Laura Grossman.
NOTEWORTHY: With a roster that featured seven returning letter winners and two incoming freshman, Doug Matthews’s men’s tennis team opened up play for the 2018–2019 season at the Greater Cincinnati Invitational in September. Sophomore Brett Winters highlighted singles play for the tournament, taking the No. 1 flight with three straight wins, including a match over the No. 77 player in the country. Jan Vrba and newcomers Oliver Weaver and Dominic Macaluso also advanced to their flight championships. Freshmen Weaver and Macaluso highlighted doubles play by winning all three matches in a threeround round-robin format.
WOMEN’S
P H O T O G R A P H B Y DAV I D W E G I E L
COACH: Doug Matthews (Xavier ’09), fourth season NOTEWORTHY: XU women’s tennis looks to build on last season’s BIG EAST Semifinals appearance, adding a talented class of four to its roster with six returning letter winners. Among the returnees is All-BIG EAST selection Ahmeir Kyle, who jumped into the No. 1 singles spot as a freshman. Kyle collected nine singles
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Sophomore Moriah Hopkins celebrates a point against No. 19 Purdue on September 7 at the Stacey Clark Classic in West Lafayette, Indiana. The Musketeers lost the match in four sets.
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POSTGAME INTERVIEW
AYLIN SEYALIOGLU WHEELER // FROM PLAYING ON COURT DURING HER XU DAYS TO GOING BEHIND THE SCENES AS A PHYSIOTHERAPIST FOR THE PROS.
Why athletic training? Since high school, I knew I wanted a career in tennis and I was also very interested in the medical field. My interest was sparked during the time I spent with athletic trainers and physical therapists when I was injured. I wanted the combination of athletic training and physical therapy to be able to treat tennis players on court and off. Both professions offer a variety of skills that make me a more well-rounded physio. What was it like going from Xavier to Emory University School of Medicine? Xavier prepared me well to handle the academic rigors I encountered at Emory and to handle difficult situations with a positive attitude and cool head. I will say I did not miss the Cincinnati winters. Highlight of your Xavier tennis career? One of my favorite matches was against a UC player during a fall tournament. It was very close and toward the end of the match, a lot of people were cheering for me, including other teams that were competing in the tournament. It was definitely a memorable win.
How did you connect with Madison Keys? I was fortunate to work on the USTA Pro Circuit and make great connections in the professional tennis community. When Madison’s team was looking for a physio, I was referred by a few people whom I had the pleasure of working with over the prior few years. How often do you travel? This past year I have traveled roughly 30 weeks. What is your favorite place you have traveled to so far? I’ve been very fortunate to travel to many great places this year, and it’s hard to pick one. I did really enjoy traveling to Paris for the French Open. It’s a wonderful tournament, and my husband was able to come and enjoy the city with me. Do you prefer playing, teaching, or watching tennis? I think my heart races a lot faster when my player is competing than when I used to compete. Every victory is a huge thrill, and I get a great deal of satisfaction knowing I helped contribute. What were your playing aspirations? I knew that I wanted to play in college, and I’m glad I was able to do so. My tennis aspirations from an early age, however, were to be involved on the medical side of the game, and I feel very fortunate I’ve
been able to participate on both sides. Favorite memory as a Xavier student? I have so many, but off the top of my head I would have to say it was when a few friends and I painted ourselves blue for the Crosstown Shootout. It took a while for all the blue paint to come off. Favorite spot on campus? I always enjoyed the time I spent in Cintas Center as an athlete, student athletic trainer, and spectator. Favorite spot off campus? Graeter’s. Do I need to say more? It’s delicious. Last time you were on campus? I was back in August during the Western & Southern Open. It was funny—I was showing my husband around campus while Manresa was going on. We should have jumped in one of the campus tours since it was probably a lot better than my tour. Biggest takeaway from your time at Xavier? Even during times of adversity, if you work with purpose toward your goals and keep a positive attitude, great things will happen. Something your Xavier friends don’t know about you? I may be from Hilton Head, but I’ve never been to the Salty Dog Café.
Xavier University graduate Aylin Seyalioglu Wheeler is a physical therapist and athletic trainer based out of Atlanta, Georgia. She travels as a private physio for professional tennis player Madison Keys, who’s ranked in the Top 20 on the WTA Tour and was as high as No. 7 in the world in October 2016.
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P H O T O G R A P H C O U R T E S Y AY L I N S E YA L I O G L U W H E E L E R
What’s a physio? Physio is usually short for physiotherapist, which is a common term internationally for physical therapist.
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