Georgia Tech Buzz Magazine - Summer 2017

GOING NATIONAL

TECH’S BASKETBALL TEAMS TOOK NEAR MIRROR-IMAGE PATHS ALL THE WAY TO THE TITLE GAME OF THE NIT AND WNIT

IDEATION AND

I N N O VAT I O N New AD Todd Stansbury begins building a team to tell Tech’s story through the success of its student-athletes

SUMMER 2017

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SUMMER 2017 • VOLUME 10, NUMBER 4

SUMMER 2 017

EDITOR Mike Stamus ASSOCIATE EDITORS Lauren Rupert Mike Flynn

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T H I S

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WRITERS Jon Cooper Simit Shah Adam Van Brimmer Matt Winkeljohn PHOTOGRAPHERS Bryan Savage Clyde Click Danny Karnik ESPN Images DESIGN & LAYOUT Summit Athletic Media www.summitathletics.com ADVERTISING – IMG COLLEGE General Manager – Dave Bouteiller For information on advertising, please call (404) 733-1330

4 | IDEATION AND INNOVATION

In his assessment of Yellow Jacket athletics, Todd Stansbury begins building a team to tell Tech’s story through the success of its student-athletes

10 | GOING NATIONAL

Georgia Tech’s basketball teams took near mirrorimage paths this season all the way to the title game of the NIT and WNIT.

14 | TECH TRILOGY

For all three Schniederjans brothers, the challenge of succeeding as a student-athlete in the Georgia Tech environment carries great appeal

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18 | FINDING HER BEACH

Former Yellow Jacket volleyball All-American Teegan Van Gunst had a wide range of post-graduate options before deciding to stay in Atlanta.

THE TOTAL 22 | ADVANCING PERSON

Former gridder Sam Bracken bent on reviving the bedrock initiative of Tech athletics

26 | STILL SLUGGING

Mark Teixeira, Tech baseball All-American and MLB All-Star, has always taken the long view toward planning for the future

31 | A-T FUND | GIFTS AND COMMITMENTS Listing of major gifts and commitments over the past year

32 | A-T FUND | SCHOLARSHIP FUNDING

Georgia Tech’s athletics budget contains about $77 million in annual expenses, with one of the biggest segments going to fund student-athlete scholarships

33 | A-T FUND | ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP FUND BENEFITS AND TIMELINE

The Georgia Tech Athletic Association strives to fully endow all scholarships allowed by the NCAA for every sport.

35 | COMPLIANCE CORNER

Modernizing aspects of Division I football legislation

ATHLETICS

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The Buzz

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IDEATION AND INNOVATION IN HIS ASSESSMENT OF YELLOW JACKET ATHLETICS, TODD STANSBURY BEGINS BUILDING A TEAM TO TELL TECH’S STORY THROUGH THE SUCCESS OF ITS STUDENT-ATHLETES

BY MATT WINKELJOHN

Stansbury’s top priority early on is to build Tech’s brand in a way that goes beyond marketing and promotions.

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ATHLETICS | IDEATION AND INNOVATION

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FACT

Todd Stansbury’s first official day as his alma mater’s director of athletics was Nov. 28, 2016 – two days after Georgia Tech football defeated Georgia, 28-27, in Athens.

FACT

Georgia Tech will be the second school where Todd Stansbury has introduced an ideation team. He instituted the nation’s first ideation team as athletics director at Oregon State.

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included stints as AD at East Tennessee State, odd Stansbury has long held a golden UCF and Oregon State, officially began his view of Georgia Tech, what it is about new job on Nov. 28, but was in attendance two and how the Institute incubates days earlier in Athens where the Yellow Jackets greatness in its prospects-turned products. rallied to beat Georgia.

Now that he’s nearly half a year into his sweet Not a bad start. But he wants more success, spot as athletics director on The Flats, he has and for the world to know about it. distilled a crystal-clear vision for how to help So, Stansbury is creating a couple of new Tech help itself. departments within the GTAA, promoting In a way, it’s about going backward in order two Tech graduates, Simit Shah and to push forward.

Doug Allvine, to head teams He wants the of ideation and innovation, Georgia Tech Athletics respectively, in order Association and all of to better spread its programs to tap the word. on the capital So, Shah, a 1999 of graduates Tech graduate both to (CE), has been recruit future elevated to studentassistant athletic athletes director for and grow ideation after fan interest, serving as a while in digital consultant every sport, for five years with “we need to the GTAA and 13 be knocking on years at CNN/Turner, the door for ACC which included championships.” time as director of The greatest —TODD STANSBURY web operations and takeaway from his “State development for CNN.com. of Athletics” address in late Allvine played football at Tech from 1987April to key donors in the Callaway Club 89, and graduated (IE) in 1992 before earning at McCamish Pavilion was that Stansbury wants an MBA from the Institute in 2011. He’s spent Tech to tell its success stories, to make better known that Tech student-athletes so often go on 12 years as an assistant athletics director for special projects in the GTAA, and is now to achieve so much after graduating. assistant athletic director for innovation.

A Tech degree, he’ll argue, is worth millions Together, they’ll be tasked with spreading the of times its weight in gold. word not only of what Tech is about, but what “What typically happens in athletics is you have marketing in charge of elevating the brand its graduates become.

“Having [the ideation team] focused on that and telling the story, but they get so inundated will give us as a department the discipline to stay with the day-to-day of running events and focused on refining the brand message and then games that it’s so hard for them to ever really elevating it to the point where people in Atlanta step back and look from the 30,000-foot level,” and outside the region and nationally start to make he said after his address. the connection between long-term life success, “What do we represent? Who are we? How do we show people that that’s who we are, what and what Georgia Tech does,” Stansbury said.

In his address, the athletics director flashed we are? At a number of other places I was at, several slides showing Tech as the only school we would hire ad agencies to help us with those types of things. But who’s better equipped to tell in the nation consistently ranked in the top 10 in each of several rankings that measure the your story than your own people?”

Stansbury, who graduated from Tech in 1984 success of graduates.

That’s a selling point, or a recruiting tool, and later worked as an academic advisor at and Georgia Tech, Stansbury believes, can the school before launching a career that has

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WHAT DO WE REPRESENT? WHO ARE WE? HOW DO WE SHOW PEOPLE THAT THAT’S WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE ARE? AT A NUMBER OF OTHER PLACES I WAS AT, WE WOULD HIRE AD AGENCIES TO HELP US WITH THOSE TYPES OF THINGS. BUT WHO’S BETTER EQUIPPED TO TELL YOUR STORY THAN YOUR OWN PEOPLE?

be, ought to be, and should be looked at more like Stanford.

For that to happen, the word needs to get out, and the word wraps as much around the stories of former student-athletes as it does those presently on campus.

A primary goal is to better tell the tales of success that former Georgia Tech studentathletes have beyond their playing careers.

Stansbury, for example, noted former Tech quarterback John Dewberry, who’s now a prominent real estate developer in Atlanta.

He mentioned his former Tech teammate,

linebacker Pat Swilling (1982-85), who’s a successful developer in New Orleans after making five Pro Bowls playing for the Saints, Lions and Raiders.

He also spoke of former volleyball player Jaime Weston, who is the NFL’s senior vice president of marketing, creative and branding, and Sammie Huntley, a former Tech football player who’s now a vice president with Under Armour.

“I’m actually going to emphasize 5-, 10-year former student athletes because I think that the current student-athlete and what they’re engaged in, and what they’re doing, is almost a given at Georgia Tech,” Stansbury said. “The story that doesn’t get told necessarily is Pat

A PRIMARY GOAL IS TO BETTER TELL THE TALES OF SUCCESS THAT FORMER GEORGIA TECH STUDENTATHLETES HAVE BEYOND THEIR PLAYING CAREERS. Stansbury wants to focus Tech’s storytelling on former athletics standouts like Pat Swilling, a successful real estate developer following an All-Pro NFL career in New Orleans; John Dewberry, a successful real estate developer in Atlanta; volleyball star Jaime Weston, now the NFL’s senior vice president of marketing, creative and branding; and Sammy Huntley, a vice president with Under Armour.

Swilling (bottom left), Dewberry (bottom right), Weston (top left), Huntley (top right)

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ATHLETICS | IDEATION AND INNOVATION

Stansbury honored the next class of Tech student-athlete graduates on May 5.

BY THE NUMBERS

10 MILLION

In his State of Athletics address, Todd Stansbury says that Georgia Tech athletics needs to generate an additional $10 million per year to raise its annual budget from $77 million to $87 million.

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The Buzz

Swilling’s been a heck of a lot more successful as a business person than he was as an AllPro linebacker, and he was about as good as it gets (at football).

“That’s where we’re going to really focus on the Jaime Westons, the Pat Swillings, the John Dewberrys, the Sammie Huntleys . . . and the beauty of it is we’re not creating it; the stories are out there. There’s a million of them.”

Defining the Georgia Tech brand is just one of the four priorities that Stansbury laid out.

Others include: • Define the Georgia Tech brand; • Aligning the internal structure, which includes Shah’s promotion to assistant AD for ideation and moving Allvine from assistant AD for special projects to assistant AD for innovation; • Generate new revenue Stansbury said for the GTAA to operate peak, the annual budget of about $77 million needs to grow to about $87 million.

That extra $10 million will be ear-marked for scholarships, brand development, recruiting, and facilities improvements.

Specifically, he wants to spruce up the academic and nutrition centers, the football locker room, and the Edge/Homer Rice Center

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where the GTAA is housed. That building, which he said is something akin to the GTAA’s front porch, is outdated both in décor and layout.

He hopes to spend $3 million to $5 million on the locker room after the 2017 season, and begin incremental improvements on Edge/Rice Center as money is solicited.

Stansbury sees telling Tech stories as an incredible sales tool, not only in fund-raising but in selling the Institute to the next great student-athlete.

That won’t be limited to the student-athlete legends of the past.

He referenced a story last winter about basketball center Ben Lammers, who blossomed into one of the best players in the ACC last season after two quiet years coming off the bench. There’s more to Lammers than long arms. He’s a mechanical engineering major who studies a lot, and loves to take naps.

“The Ben Lammers story went viral, and his story is so unique to the normal [Power 5] basketball program,” he recalled. “By elevating our brand and that aspect of it (Tech’s distinct position at the very highest levels of athletics and academics), We’ll be able to smoke out those student-athletes that we normally wouldn’t have access to.

Stansbury believes that more wide-spread story-telling about the Tech brand, the success that graduates achieve and specific tales about past and present student-athletes will arouse interest in Tech and attract recruits in all sports.

“One of the examples I like to use, when I was at Oregon State, our women’s team went to the Final Four [in 2016] and our starting center [Ruth Hamblin] was a mechanical engineer with a 3.95 [GPA] doing rocket research on the side. While I was glad she was at Oregon State because she took us all the way to the Final Four, in the back of my mind I was always thinking, ‘She should be at Georgia Tech.’

“And not that we would have found her in a small town in British Columbia, but she should have found us. I hope that by elevating the brand, we have those kinds of studentathletes contacting us, saying, ‘I’m 6-6, I play women’s basketball and I want to be an engineer.’ At least then we can follow up with a conversation.”

In addition to the success of its former and current student-athletes, the GTAA’s history as a birthplace for innovation in college athletics will be central to the Yellow Jackets’ brand going forward. Stansbury says that Georgia Tech athletics will constantly be on the lookout for the next “Gatorade,” referencing the world-famous sports drink’s roots within the University of Florida’s athletics department.

The GTAA has been at the forefront of many athletic innovations over the years, including the creation of the nutrition department, the use of virtual reality in recruiting and the implementation of the Homer Rice Total Person Program, all of which have become standards in athletic departments across the nation.

“Most people think we’re in the entertainment business,” Stansbury said.

“We’re actually in the education business ... having a team that’s devoted to that, and telling the stories about our history of success and innovation will be what is charged to the ideation team.”

FACT

Two Georgia Tech grads will head up the GTAA’s new innovation (Doug Allvine) and ideation (Simit Shah) teams.

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BASKETBALL

GOING NA MODERN MIRACLE

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he notion of the Yellow Jackets – having lost roughly 80 percent of their scoring and rebounding players to graduation from an NIT quarterfinal team – beating four teams that would wind up in the NCAA Tournament, including eventual national champion North Carolina, a sixth-ranked Florida State team and a No. 14-ranked Notre Dame team, was nearly unthinkable.

Running through four wins to reach the NIT title game, punching a ticket to Madison Square Garden with a big road

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win at sold-out Ole Miss ... is this fiction? No, it was real, and head coach Josh Pastner didn’t see it coming last summer, after he was hired after seven years helming Memphis, and not even as the season got underway.

“I had a college coach who saw our two practices in September.

He told me, ‘Coach you will not win four games. You’ve got to prepare yourself.’ He said today after the (Indiana) game when he saw me, ‘that is a modern miracle, what has happened to you guys,’” said Pastner, who was named ACC Coach of the Year.

NATIONAL SEASON OF MEMORIES

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asked with the challenge of blending several new faces to the squad last summer, one might have envisioned competing for a national championship as quite unforeseeable. But that’s exactly what happened as the Yellow Jackets opened the 2016-17 season with the best record since 1995 and knocked off five opponents en route to the WNIT title game in April.

Along the way, the Jackets defeated an archrival, took home a tournament trophy, surprised a nationally-ranked squad and

honored its seniors. Guided by 14th-year head coach MaChelle Joseph, Tech put together an impressive season.

“This was a season of transition and growth for our program. I thought we developed our chemistry and leadership as the season progressed. It was great to watch our players’ growth on and off the floor as we navigated through the season,” commented Joseph. “We ended with tremendous confidence and are very excited about the 201718 year.”

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MEN’S BASKETBALL

BASKETBALL | GOING NATIONAL

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Barely three days after a near-loss to a North Carolina A&T team ranked No. 350 out of 351 in the RPI, and in front of a partisan Tar Heel crowd in Tech’s own building on New Year’s Eve, the Yellow Jackets stunned ninth-ranked North Carolina, 7563, behind 26 points from freshman Josh Okogie and a double-double from Ben Lammers.

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Head coach Josh Pastner has never lost three straight games as a head coach, and that would be tested again when No. 6 Florida State came to McCamish Pavilion on Jan. 25. But the Yellow Jackets left no doubt this night, again stirring the home crowd by taking a 41-15 halftime lead and crushing the Seminoles, 78-56. Okogie scored 35 points with 14 rebounds, a signature performance that led to his being named to the ACC AllFreshman team.

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3

Three days later, the Jackets upset their third top-15 team, capturing a 62-60 win over No. 14 Notre Dame in dramatic fashion at McCamish Pavilion.

Jackson was the star of the day, scoring a careerhigh 25 points, but it was Okogie who provided the last-minute heroics, bolting down the floor to take a pass from Jackson and lay in the winning bucket just before the horn sounded.

4

Tech remained under consideration for an NCAA Tournament bid late into February, in part thanks to a big Sunday night, nationally-televised, 71-65 victory over Syracuse, another team fighting for post-season play. Center Ben Lammers was the star on this night, scoring 23 points with seven rebounds and seven blocked shots. Lammers would go on to earn second-team AllACC honors and be named ACC Defensive Player of the Year.

5

In the last home game for three Tech seniors, Quinton Stephens scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds, leading the Yellow Jackets past Belmont, 7157, in the second round of the NIT. The win was Tech’s 17th at home this season, setting a program record, and Stephens would finish his Tech career having played in a school-record 135 games.

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Only a road win at Ole Miss stood between the Yellow Jackets and their first NIT trip to Madison Square Garden since 1971.

After falling short of that in its previous three opportunities, Tech made sure this time after Lammers scored 20 points with eight blocks, and Okogie scored 26 as the Jackets led wire-to-wire for a 74-66 victory.

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2

Meeting their third top-25 team in four games, the Yellow Jackets stunned then-No. 24 Syracuse in McCamish on Jan. 15. After jumping on to the scene just a few games before, Kaylan Pugh posted a 28-point contest as the Yellow Jackets upended the Orange, 75-66. The win marked the first in program history over Syracuse.

3

Senior day is always a bittersweet moment, but the Jackets helped send out seniors Katarina Vuckovic and Cha’Ron Sweeney in style on Feb. 23, rolling to a 72-58 win over Clemson on Senior Day. Vuckovic totaled 12 points and six rebounds in the win as both seniors earned the start in their final regular season home contest.

4

Tech made its 10th postseason appearance in 11 years in 2017, earning an at-large bid to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. The Jackets hosted UCF in McCamish in the second round on March 19 and clinched a ticket to the round of 16, defeating the Knights, 63-51.

The ACC Rookie of the Year, freshman Francesca Pan led the Jackets with 21 points.

5

The Yellow Jackets hosted five rounds of the WNIT, winning each contest and then headed to Michigan to compete for a title. Playing in Calihan Hall on the campus of Detroit Mercy on April 1, the Jackets and Wolverines battled through three overtimes in the championship game.

Junior Zaire O’Neil posted 21 points in the game, while Elo Edferioka added a double-double.

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WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Just four games into the season and with both teams standing undefeated, one of the biggest rivalries in program history came to McCamish Pavilion. On Nov. 20, the Yellow Jackets kept their unblemished record perfect and handed Georgia its first loss of the season, while picking up their first win over the Lady Bulldogs in six meetings. Zaire O’Neil led the charge against Georgia with 20 points in the 5245 victory.

Riding the high of a win over Georgia, Tech headed to paradise to take part in the Junkanoo Jam in Bimini, Bahamas.

The Yellow Jackets cruised to an 81-68 win over Dayton in the first game to meet Missouri in the title contest. After setting a new personal best in scoring against the Flyers, junior Imani Tilford then topped that mark with 20 points against Mizzou as Tech claimed the Freeport Division title with a 72-70 triumph over the Tigers. Tilford was named to the all-tournament team, while Francesca Pan was named tournament MVP.

GOLF | BASEBALL

TECH TRILOGY FOR ALL THREE SCHNIEDERJANS BROTHERS, THE CHALLENGE OF SUCCEEDING AS A STUDENT-ATHLETE IN THE GEORGIA TECH ENVIRONMENT CARRIES GREAT APPEAL

BY MATT WINKELJOHN

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hey don’t clobber each other anymore, as when younger, but Ollie, Ben and Luke Schniederjans – together, a Georgia Tech trilogy – are no less competitive with one another. It’s just not so physical any more.

When three brothers play sports as Yellow Jackets, there are bound to be connections.

Mostly, they’re now via text or call, and, yes, occasional grudge matches – without bruises.

No blows.

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The Buzz

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Growing up in Kennesaw, Ga., there was no master plan for the children of Linda and Oliver Schniederjans to head to The Flats. Mom and Dad graduated from Merrimac College, in Boston, and their boys to this day share a love of New England sports teams. Yet, once Ollie landed at Tech, an Atlanta pipeline opened.

And now, Mom and Dad pinch themselves regularly at the thoughts of Ollie graduating in 2015 as a three-time All-America and All-ACC

IT’S OBVIOUSLY A BIG DEAL IF YOU GRADUATE FROM HERE, STAY ALL FOUR YEARS, AND GO THROUGH THE RIGOR OF WHAT THIS IS WITH ALL THE ACADEMICS AND ATHLETICS.

Once Ollie Schniederjans (right) landed at Georgia Tech, a pipeline opened.

FACT

Ollie earned All-America honors three times and was twice named ACC Player of the Year.

history (Bryce Molder, golfer, Ben now pitching 70.69), and he won five as a fourth-year junior, tournaments as a junior and Luke wrapping up and one as a senior. his freshman year as Twenty-seven times golfer already with he finished in the top two tournament titles.

10 of tournaments, 17 “Pretty much on times in the top five. a daily basis,” said In 2014, he tied for Oliver. “It’s just like, the lead in the NCAA Wow! ... When they Tournament before were really young, I —BEN SCHNIEDERJANS falling in a playoff. knew they were going to Ben joined the baseball be good athletes ... pretty team as a preferred walk-on in remarkable. It all started with the fall of 2013, made 13 appearances Ollie. He was very highly recruited. as a reliever in 2014, missed most of 2015 and When we started talking about it, [former all of 2016 after surgery on his pitching elbow, Harrison High School and Tech teammate] and this season has appeared in 13 games, James White was his good friend, and they eight as a starter. The righthander has allowed talked about it. opponents a meager .201 batting average.

“He kind of fell in love with it right away, and just Luke won his inaugural college golf wanted to be done with [recruiting]. He wanted to tournament last fall, the Carpet Capital Collegiate be local, near his swing coach, and at home.” near Dalton, and took honors at the Puerto Rico Ollie’s decision to attend Tech, beginning a Classic in February. Twice he was tabbed ACC semester early in 2011, set wheels in motion.

Golfer of the Month, and he made the All-ACC He took a degree in management in 2015 team as a freshman – a year earlier than Ollie. having twice been named ACC Player of the To the younger brothers, Ollie’s word was gold.

Year. Two years after arriving on The Flats, “It’s obviously a big deal if you graduate from big brother began recruiting Ben. Three years here, stay all four years, and go through the later, he went after Luke. rigor of what this is with all the academics and “Based on the things I was able to share with athletics,” Ben said. “Hearing from him and what them, playing golf, experiencing four years as a he was going through, and him telling me I could student-athlete, I felt like I was an advocate of get through it, and how much better a person it Georgia Tech,” Ollie, 23, said recently while on would make me really made me want to come.” campus taping a video segment for Inside the The decisions of Ollie and Ben made Luke’s PGA Tour, as he’s one of golf’s hottest rookies. choice almost obvious in 2016. Like Ben, he “I felt like I was gaining from my experience. majors in business administration.

“I shared that with both Ben and Luke. With “It was kind of already in the family, and they Luke, I could give him more details about what he strive to do the same things I do so it was in was going to be able to expect, and with Ben it my best interests to come here,” Luke said. was all about being a student-athlete . . . and we “I kind of knew what the school had to offer all love the city of Atlanta.” and how good coach [Bruce] Heppler was ... I Tech surely is fond of the Schneiderjans. knew more about Georgia Tech than any other Ollie’s career scoring average of 70.96 colleges. I wasn’t really super, highly recruited per round remains second-best in program WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

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GOLF | BASEBALL | TECH TRILOGY

MORE FREQUENTLY, THE my technique, and Luke has more natural, better BROTHERS KEEP TABS. technique. He hits the ball better than I did at OLLIE ATTENDS BEN’S his age. He’s not quite BASEBALL GAMES WHEN as powerful, but he’s toward that.

HE CAN, AND HE’S SEEN I working hit a lot lower, but we LUKE PLAY A FEW both get it done in our own way. We attack a course ROUNDS. completely differently, and we

By the time Luke graduates in 2020, a Schniederjans will have been on campus for nine straight years.

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... Coach Heppler gave me an opportunity, and it was pretty easy for me.”

Once Luke made his decision, Oliver recalled that, “His mom said, ‘Oh My God! We’re going to have three boys at Georgia Tech.’ We were kind of pinching ourselves ...

Luke was kind of the smallest of the three, very skinny, and all the sudden he grew like five or six inches his senior year ... There were two or three schools looking at him, and I think Bruce got wind. Ollie had constantly updated him, and Luke used to hang around the program.

“The thing I like about Bruce is he didn’t look at where [Luke] is today. He said, ‘I look at Ollie and Ben, and I’m going to give Luke a shot.’”

For a while, Ben rocked basketball. All three were outstanding youth baseball players, each playing travel ball, often with their father as coach. Same in basketball.

Ollie didn’t hit the links until he was 12 or so, and neither did Luke.

Eventually, they zeroed in on golf.

“I loved that I could practice on my own, independently, and get better,” said Ollie, who has four top-10 finishes as a PGA Tour rookie.

“I felt like the ball was in my hands at all times.

I liked team sports, lots of positives, but at one point in time I didn’t like the fact that I only get to hit three times and maybe get one ground ball. Ben’s got the ball in his hand every time when he’s throwing on the mound. That’s a role I didn’t even consider at that age.”

It was kind of funny recently as the three gathered at Tech’s new Noonan Practice Facility while taping the Inside the PGA Tour segment, Ollie and Luke chipping balls across the pond, Ben throwing the little things. A few of his lobs stopped closer to the pin. They gigged each other. Ben plays a little golf, but, “Not competitively,” he said. “I don’t think I have the patience that these guys have.”

Luke and Ollie suggest they take similar approaches to some aspects of golf, like the way they moderate their emotions and flush disappointments – “the mental parts” as Luke says. Their games, however, are not alike.

“Luke hits it high. He’s got a longer swing,” Ollie said. “He’s got better fundamental golf ability than when I started. I had to work a lot harder on

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have good competitions.”

Indeed, they still go at each other. When Ollie’s in town, they’ll gather for dinner at their parents’ Alpharetta home for, “video games and ping pong,” Ben explained. “I think growing up, we were more physical. We grew up in a cul-desac, played every sport there was, and that’s when all the pushing, rough-housing happened.”

Gone are the days where the loser of a pingpong game would raise his shirt, and the winner would whack a ball into his brother’s back.

“Sting ball or red dot. We did that when we were younger,” Luke said with a smile. “I wish our team would do that, but nobody on our team would do that.”

More frequently, the brothers keep tabs. Ollie attends Ben’s baseball games when he can, and he’s seen Luke play a few rounds. They stay in touch religiously after competitions. Like his father before him, big brother is careful not to preach.

“I get a text from Ollie after every one of my outings, ‘How did I feel? What did I learn?’ the mental side of things,” Ben said. “It’s very applicable with golf and pitching . . . it’s kind of more a conversation than a lecture.”

Luke and Ben follow Ollie on television or the PGA app on their phones.

“If I’m practicing when he’s playing, I’ll have it recorded and watch later,” Luke said. “I’m sure subconsciously I model my game after his in ways that I’m not aware of, but I ask him for a lot of advice and what he does for certain things -- definitely mental. We’re friends, brothers. He doesn’t come off lecturing. He’s like a close friend . . . ” Ollie doesn’t want it any other way, nor for his brothers to be anywhere but at Georgia Tech.

“I felt like it prepared us the best,” he said of his alma mater. “The challenges that are some of the reasons why some guys don’t want to come here, I kind of felt like those were things that made me want to come here.”

VOLLEYBALL

EVEN AFTER FOUR YEARS OF GRINDING IT OUT FOR GEORGIA TECH AT O’KEEFE GYM AND AROUND THE ACC, VAN GUNST DIDN’T WANT TO STOP PLAYING. BUT SHE FOUND HERSELF AT A CROSSROADS.

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FINDING HER BEACH FORMER YELLOW JACKET VOLLEYBALL ALL-AMERICAN TEEGAN VAN GUNST HAD A WIDE RANGE OF POSTGRADUATE OPTIONS BEFORE DECIDING TO STAY IN ATLANTA. FACT

BY JON COOPER

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eegan Van Gunst loves the game of volleyball.

Even after four years of grinding it out for Georgia Tech at O’Keefe Gym and around the ACC, Van Gunst didn’t want to stop playing.

But she found herself at a crossroads.

She could pursue playing professionally.

She had the resume. In her years on the Flats, she compiled 1,453 kills (10th in Georgia Tech history), improving every season, including nailing 507 (4.19 per set) her senior year (10thmost in a season in school history). She twice earned honorable mention All-America, AVCA All-Region and first-team All-ACC, and became the school’s first ACC volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Last season, Van Gunst led the Jackets to a third-place tie in the ACC and their best season (24-8, .750) and ACC season (15-5, .750) since 2004.

Continuing playing indoors could fast-track an opportunity of trying out for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as she was already on USA Volleyball’s radar, working out with the U.S. Collegiate National Team last summer in Indianapolis. But playing professionally also likely meant moving overseas and playing internationally.

The other option was following an academic route, pursuing her Master’s.

At Georgia Tech she proved as much of a star in the classroom as on the court. She twice was named CoSIDA Academic All-America, on three occasions being named Academic AllACC, and last season being one of four Georgia Tech student-athletes (including teammate Lauren Pitz), 54 throughout the ACC, and only 29 female student-athletes to win the 2017 Weaver-James-Corrigan Award, which provided a $5,000 postgraduate scholarship.

Her life was up in the air -- it was the reallife version of having to choose how to play an

oncoming set -- slam it down the line, blast it crosscourt or dink it just over the block.

As on the court, Teegan made just the right move.

“Right now I’m thinking an MBA is what I would want to pursue next,” she said. “So not necessarily continue in the higher-ups of engineering but kind of get that balance of an engineering degree from Georgia Tech plus an MBA for whenever I decide to go into the workforce.”

The Weaver-James-Corrigan Award especially meant a lot to her.

“That was super-exciting,” said Van Gunst, whose academic excellence was part of Georgia Tech volleyball’s commitment, which earned a top-10 national ranking in Academic Progress Rate (APR) for the second straight year. “It’s a testament to how hard I’ve worked in the classroom, and the other athletes here that

Teegan earned a post-graduate scholarship from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Twin sister Annika (left) is joining Teegan at grad school and beach volleyball at Georgia State.

WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

19

VOLLEYBALL | FINDING HER BEACH

Teegan rose to No. 10 all-time in kills during her Tech career.

20

The Buzz

have gotten it and want to move on and pursue graduate school.”

Ever-resourceful, she found a way to have her cake and eat it, too. She could pursue her Master’s AND keep playing volleyball. But there would be a twist.

She’d have a potential year of eligibility -you’re permitted a fifth calendar year -- but would have to do so in a different sport -- so she decided to try her hand at beach volleyball.

Adding an extra layer of icing to this cake is that of the 73 schools that have beach volleyball programs, one of them is Georgia State, part of the 10-team Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA). Pursuing her Master’s at GSU would allow her to stay close to Atlanta and her family.

The cherry on top of the cake is that she could take part of her family with her, twin sister Annika, her teammate for four years at Tech who also would be the perfect partner in the twowoman game.

“We were hoping we could stay together and pursue this as a team,” said Teegan, “Beach is the way that Annika and I, wanted to prolong our playing careers.

“We contacted a few schools out west and Florida schools. We were looking for schools that might have some scholarship money for us, just to help with grad school financially,” she added. “Just like any recruit coming in as an

| SUMMER 2017

undergrad, you have to look at what the school offers. In-state, obviously, the tuition is lower so the part that isn’t covered for scholarship, that type of thing.”

“Georgia State did offer us and it was very appealing because they are here and a lot of our family is here,” said Annika. “We knew that we could have a similar experience as what we had at Tech, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We were looking at some other schools down South Florida, but it came down to location and the level of the team that we would be competing on. We were going to go as a pair just for the opportunity to play as a pair. That was our main goal.”

As the Van Gunsts were doing their due diligence in narrowing their choices, they also got advice from Georgia Tech volleyball head coach Michelle Collier, their coach for three seasons.

“She’s definitely been a great resource,” said Teegan. “We just kind of picked her brain about the two different options and what the benefits are of both of them. She grew up playing beach, too, so she’s good at the game. We had a couple of workouts a couple of springs ago, we played some beach with her so she’s definitely a great resource that we’ll continue to use in the future.”

While beach volleyball presents a new challenge, Collier has no doubt that Teegan and Annika will be up to the task.

“I think that Teegan is smart enough that she’s going to make a quick adjustment,” she said. “She’s a good all-around player. I think that when players go from indoor to sand, that’s one of the biggest things they struggle with, having to do all parts of the game well, from passing to setting. You have to do everything. There’s only you and someone else there. I think that fits her game really well -- her’s and Annika’s. I have no doubt they’re going to be successful.”

The twins displayed their all-around excellence while with the Jackets, as they’re two of only nine players in program history to record 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs. That commitment to both sides of the game bodes well, even with all the differences in going from inside to outside.

“Obviously, there’s the physical aspect of not jumping as high as you’re used to jumping indoors. It’s a lot smaller steps because in the sand you can’t take huge lunges or else you’re not going to be able to get very far,” Teegan pointed out. “The approach is a little different also in beach. It’s a lot shorter and compact in your spacing. It’s more of the agility and movement on the court that changes a lot. But beach is a great

all-around game. You have to be able to do all facets of the game to be able to be successful, so that’s kind of what I’m looking forward to.”

Then there’s the extra 34 percent of court coverage for which she’ll be responsible.

“There are just two people, it’s you and your partner and you have to figure it out,” she said.

“There’s not a lot of coaching that happens during the course of the match. It’s figuring out how to work with your partner well and just problem-solve as you’re playing.”

The duo expects to be quick studies and continue to make each other better as partners, the same way they did at Georgia Tech.

“Teegan and I both are extreme competitors and just knowing the sibling rivalry in general, whenever we were split and we were facing each other there was always extreme competitiveness,” Annika said. “You always knew she would bring her highest level and I also wanted to bring my highest level of play. We’d try to one-up the other one, just like you would in any sibling relationship. No one ever wanted to lose.

We did compete against each other in practice a lot but I think it only made us better.

“Of course there would always be bantering,” she added, with a laugh. “You have to let (the other) know you won that day but the next day if you talked too much she’d whoop up on you and then you get it right back in your face. So it kind of went back and forth the whole time.”

It seems that the stars have aligned and Teegan plans to follow those stars, wherever the road may go. She hasn’t ruled out going back to playing indoors once she’s gotten her Master’s and still harbors that Olympic dream.

But for now, she’ll just hit the beach, grateful for where she’s been and optimistic about where she can go.

“It’s definitely been a journey the past four years,” she said. “It’s just doing what I do. Just keep progressing and becoming a better player and person then all that stuff will take care of itself and I’ll end up where I’m supposed to be. So it’s definitely exciting times. I’m a little nervous with the unknowns but I’m excited to see what’s ahead.”

IT SEEMS THAT THE STARS HAVE ALIGNED AND TEEGAN PLANS TO FOLLOW THOSE STARS, WHEREVER THE ROAD MAY GO. SHE HASN’T RULED OUT GOING BACK TO PLAYING INDOORS ONCE SHE’S GOTTEN HER MASTER’S AND STILL HARBORS THAT OLYMPIC DREAM.

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21

ATHLETICS

ADVANCING THE TOTAL PERSON FORMER GRIDDER SAM BRACKEN BENT ON REVIVING THE BEDROCK INITIATIVE OF TECH ATHLETICS

BY ADAM VAN BRIMMER

H

omer Rice’s Total Person Program has changed many young lives over the better part of the past four decades. Ask Sam Bracken, a Georgia Tech offensive lineman among the first participants in the early 1980s, and he’ll tell you the initiative literally saved his life.

Bracken came to Georgia Tech a broken young man, one abandoned by his single mother three years earlier and carrying the baggage of a “primal, primitive background” marked by neglect, abuse, drug and alcohol use and a dearth of adult role models. He found his center on The Flats thanks in large part to the influence

22

The Buzz

| SUMMER 2017

of his coach, Bill Curry, and Rice’s initiative, which promoted a balance of excellence in academics, athletics and personal well-being.

“I really should be dead, in prison or insane,” Bracken said. “Georgia Tech and Dr. Rice’s program are the reason I’m not.”

Bracken found incredible success in life instead. He’s an inspirational speaker, author and professional development consultant who spent a decade as an executive with FranklinCovey, the acclaimed training and leadership organization.

And now Bracken is back at Georgia Tech, hoping to change—maybe even save—lives by

Bracken is back at Georgia Tech, hoping to change lives by leveraging the same principles that put his life on track.

BRACKEN’S STANDING AS A LIVING, BREATHING TESTIMONY TO THE POWER OF THE TOTAL PERSON PROGRAM REPRESENTS THE FUTURE OF GEORGIA TECH ATHLETICS. STANSBURY FORESEES THE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PIECE OF THE YELLOW JACKET BRAND ATTRACTING MORE TOP-LEVEL TALENT.

leveraging the same principles that put his life on track. He’s helping one of his old Yellow Jacket teammates, athletic director Todd Stansbury, in an effort to make Rice’s Total Person Program the core of Georgia Tech athletics again.

“The Total Person Program is still part of our DNA,” Stansbury said. “It hasn’t been the focus, but it’s still a part of our history, our story and what we stand for, which is the overall development of the student-athlete. Sam and I were fortunate to be among the first to go through the program. My freshman year was Homer’s first year, so I was literally in the first class. To be the ones who bring that back is a great honor.”

Bracken, meeting recently with Tech’s senior administrators, has worked with Todd Stansbury on implementing principles of the Total Person Program at Central Florida and Oregon State, and is doing so now at Georgia Tech.

FULL BUY-IN

‘GO-TO GUY’

Stansbury is new to his job. Hired in September and on campus only since late November, he’s spent much of his early tenure “fact finding.” He found a department full of passion and pride in the Georgia Tech brand.

“They realize Georgia Tech is unique, a place that represents excellence,” he said.

“Everything we do is at such a high level and by hanging our hats on the development of the student-athlete—a belief that already exists— we are going to differentiate Georgia Tech from the other schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference and around the country.”

Enter Bracken. He’s teamed with Stansbury to instill the Total Person Program principles in Stansbury’s previous career stops, including Central Florida and Oregon State. Stansbury had to rebrand the program “Everyday Champions” and he’s evolved it along the way, but at the core, what Bracken and Stansbury have built elsewhere is the Total Person Program.

The first step to re-emphasizing the initiative at Georgia Tech is to educate and secure buyin from the administration, coaches and staff.

Bracken is leading workshops and projects to foster that culture. His passion quickly wins over skeptics, just as it did in his FranklinCovey days, when one of his big successes was to deliver leadership principles to prison populations.

“His personality is so infectious because of the fact he truly cares about what he’s trying to accomplish and the people he’s working with,” Stansbury said. “They know he’s not making it up or just repeating stuff he’s been told to say.

This is what he believes. This is what he stands for. It’s hard to come out of a meeting with Sam and not be pretty energized and enthusiastic.”

Bracken’s given off that energy and forthright attitude since the day Stansbury met him at a Georgia Tech football practice. Bracken was far from a household name with fans during his Yellow Jacket tenure—he was an offensive guard on a team that featured stars like Pat Swilling and John Dewberry—but he was the “go-to guy” when a teammate was struggling with life off the field.

Such a role would seem appropriate, given all that Bracken had overcome. Only no one knew about his background, even his roommate Stansbury.

“I didn’t know until I read his first book,” said Stansbury of Bracken’s memoir, ‘My Orange Duffel Bag, a Journey to Radical Change.’

“Back then, he was just one of those standup guys who, when you are 18 or 19 years old, kind of stands out.”

Bracken’s book outlines his personal journey, which was troubling from the start: He was conceived when his mother was raped. He was abused by his stepfather and stepbrothers, who introduced him to drugs and alcohol.

As a teenager living in Las Vegas, his friends included a mobster’s son.

His mother moved in with a motorcycle gang and abandoned Bracken when he was 15, leaving him homeless. Only then did his life take a positive turn: He was taken in a by a friend’s family, and a stable home life allowed him to excel academically and athletically, leading him eventually to Georgia Tech and the program that would save his life.

BUILDING A REPUTATION Bracken’s standing as a living, breathing testimony to the power of the Total Person WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

23

ATHLETICS | ADVANCING THE TOTAL PERSON

As an offensive lineman at Georgia Tech in the early 1980s, Bracken was among the first participants in Dr. Homer Rice’s Total Person Program.

Program represents the future of Georgia Tech athletics.

Stansbury foresees the personal development piece of the Yellow Jacket brand attracting more top-level talent. As the culture takes hold internally, with the staff and student-

athletes, it will begin to project outward.

The plan is to target letterwinners, staff and students beyond the athletic department and ultimately the public.

Once prospects and their families around the country begin to associate Georgia Tech with producing leaders, innovators and ready-made professionals, that reputation will raise the Yellow Jackets’ profile.

“Georgia Tech is going to make you proready, market-ready and life-ready,” Bracken said. “If you are among the few who get to the pros athletically, you are going to be a better pro because you are driven by character, passion and purpose. That has the potential to be a huge strategic advantage for us.”

Stansbury has the time and devotion to Georgia Tech to make it happen. He’s just 55 years old, is the first “Tech man” to lead the athletic department since William Alexander, and he makes no bones about the fact that this is his dream job.

“To be back where it all began,” Stansbury said, “is awesome.”

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The Buzz

| SUMMER 2017

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BASEBALL

STILL SLUGGING MARK TEIXEIRA, TECH BASEBALL ALL-AMERICAN AND MLB ALL-STAR, HAS ALWAYS TAKEN THE LONG VIEW TOWARD PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

BY ADAM VAN BRIMMER

M

ark Teixeira’s Atlanta homecoming was brief. Parts of two seasons with the Atlanta Braves, little more than a layover between the franchise that drafted him out of Georgia Tech, the Texas Rangers, and the franchise that would pay him $180 million over the last eight years of his baseball playing career, the New York Yankees.

His work on the diamond led him to the Bronx. His pursuits away from the field, meanwhile, set him up for another future homecoming.

During his time with the Braves, Teixeira joined a group of investors and real estate developers interested in a blighted urban corridor west of Georgia Tech’s campus in midtown. The City of Atlanta was developing plans to develop the closed Bellwood Quarry and surrounding land into a large greenspace, a project now known as Westside Reservoir Park, which would be part of the Atlanta Beltline.

Teixeira’s group saw the potential to make the area near the park—which has the added advantage of being home to the Bankhead MARTA station—a highly sought-after place for professionals to live and businesses to locate.

They initially bought parcels

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The Buzz

| SUMMER 2017

between the MARTA station and the quarry property then began to invest farther west along Hollowell Parkway, in the Bankhead, Grove Park and Center Hill neighborhoods, all the way to the Atlanta Perimeter.

“The beautiful thing for me was I was still playing baseball, so I could take the long view,” Teixeira said.

“The way I figured it, the area was a diamond in the rough, the next place in Atlanta for people to go as the Beltline became more and more a reality. That it was a community right next door to Georgia Tech that needed to turn around, that needed jobs and activity, made it all the better.”

Developers will break ground on the first project involving Teixeira’s property this fall. The Beltline is currently carving a spur through the parcel. Once that’s done, a mix of condominiums, apartments, townhouses and commercial storefronts will gradually emerge on the site, with an expected opening in the fall of 2019. Single-family homes and multi-family development will follow.

Teixeira foresees a “city within a city” as seen elsewhere in Atlanta, such as Atlantic Station or the area around Ponce City Market.

“Except it will be on the park, on the MARTA, and on the Beltline,” Teixeira said. “It’s going to be unlike anything Atlanta has seen before.”

The project has created another new interest for Teixeira: ecology.

Appearing on ESPN-related programs keeps Teixeira close to baseball, but it occupies a small slice of his postretirement activity.

HIS WORK ON THE DIAMOND LED HIM TO THE BRONX. HIS PURSUITS AWAY FROM THE FIELD, MEANWHILE, SET HIM UP FOR ANOTHER FUTURE HOMECOMING.

Teixeira attended Tech’s recent baseball game against Georgia at SunTrust Park and the Jackets’ NIT championship game in New York.

WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

27

BASEBALL | STILL SLUGGING

Teixeira sees his one or two days a week in the studio as a way to stay close to the game.

BY THE NUMBERS

409 Number of home runs hit by Teixeira during his 14-year major league career.

He’s helped found a nonprofit group bent on cleaning up Proctor Creek, a polluted waterway that runs through an area near Teixeira’s project on its way to the Chattahoochee River, a major source of drinking water.

“Part of real estate investing is looking at all the public assets in and near your properties,” Teixeira said. “Proctor Creek is a complete untapped resource. By cleaning it up, we bring an amenity back to the community, and we help clean up our drinking water.”

As if building the next big place to be and saving a creek weren’t enough for an independently wealthy 37-year-old, Teixeira is also working as a baseball analyst for ESPN. He considers that work preparation for yet one more homecoming: this time to baseball.

STAYING CLOSE TO THE GAME Teixeira doesn’t miss baseball. Not yet anyway. He and his wife have three school-age children, and after years of living the baseball life—more than half of his nights away from home between February and October each year—he’s enjoying his dad time.

He is staying connected to the game through part-time analyst work with ESPN. Teixeira lives in Greenwich, Conn., a 90-minute drive from ESPN headquarters in Bristol. Teixeira sees his one or two days a week in the studio as a way to “stay close to the game and be around people who enjoy the game.”

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The Buzz

| SUMMER 2017

His college coach, Danny Hall, is not surprised to see Teixeira making such a smooth transition from one part of his life to the next.

“Even in college, where he was literally the best player out there, baseball was what he played and what he did but not who he was,” Hall said. “He’s the type who knows where he wants to go, and more importantly, how to get there.”

“There” ultimately is in baseball management, Teixeira acknowledges. He was a business major at Georgia Tech and the rare studentathlete who was both an All-American and an Academic All-American. Hall foresees Teixeira “running a team” in a front-office capacity, and Teixeira admits he’s been approached about scouting and talent evaluation roles already.

But just like in real estate, Teixeira takes the long view on baseball. He will stay involved on the broadcasting side and evaluate management opportunities as they come along. He’s both patient and content, an approach he similarly applies to his goal of one day completing his Georgia Tech degree.

“I probably won’t do that until my kids get out of the house, and my youngest is six years old,” he said. “Maybe we could go to school together, like Rodney Dangerfield in that movie.”

The film, “Back to School,” featured Dangerfield as a self-made entrepreneur.

Teixeira, in both baseball and soon in real estate, can certainly relate.

A-T FUND NEWS AND EVENTS

GIFTS & COMMITMENTS NEW GIFTS AND COMMITMENTS OF $25,000 OR MORE RECORDED BETWEEN JANUARY 1, 2017, THROUGH APRIL 30, 2017.

KENNETH E. ADAMS, IM 1967, a $25,000 commitment designated to establish the Harris Alan Folmar Athletic Scholarship Endowment Fund ROBERT A. ANCLIEN, IM 1969, MS IM 1970, a $37,500 gift designated for the intercollegiate athletics men’s basketball program KATHY T. BETTY, Friend, a $50,000 gift designated for the intercollegiate athletics men’s and women’s basketball programs THOMAS BRANCH, Friend, a $25,000 commitment designated to establish the L. Guyton Branch Athletic Scholarship Endowment Fund MARY ELLEN AND R. STEVE BUFFINGTON, IMGT 1977, a $250,000 estate plan provision designated to establish the Mary Ellen and R. Steve Buffington Athletic Endowment Fund BARBARA AND JOHN H. BURSON, III, CHE 1956, MS MET 1963, Ph.D. CHE 1964, gifts totaling $45,000 designated for the Baseball Grand Slam Club and the intercollegiate athletics men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs ROGER A. CAMPBELL, Friend, a $100,000 commitment designated for the intercollegiate athletics men’s basketball program ESTATE OF DIANA F. COUNCIL, Friend, distributions totaling $301,772 designated to establish the James Edwin Council and Diana Fulcher Council Scholarship Endowment Fund KARL F. DASHER, IE 1993, a $80,000 gift for purposes to be determined in the Alexander-Tharpe Fund

EDWARD H. GUILBERT, JR., CE 1965, CE 1966, a $25,000 commitment designated to establish the Guilbert Swimming and Diving Alumni Scholarship Endowment Fund STEPHEN R. KENDALL, IM 1965, a $50,000 gift designated for the Academic Support Fund ANDREA L. LALIBERTE, IE 1982, MS IE 1984, a $45,700 gift designated for the intercollegiate athletics softball, men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, and men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs HENRY H. LONG, JR., IE 1972, a $100,000 retirement account provision designated for the Athletic Scholarship Fund JAMES T. NOZAR, BC 2001, a $25,000 commitment designated to establish the Nozar Athletic Scholarship Endowment Fund PETER E. QUINONES, MBA 2008, a $125,000 commitment designated to establish the Quinones Family Athletic Scholarship Endowment Fund SUE I. STEELE, $50,000 commitment designated to establish the James H. Steele Athletic Scholarship Endowment for Football JERRY D. WARSHAW, IM 1967, IM 1968, a $25,000 commitment designated to establish the Warshaw Family Athletic Scholarship Endowment Fund ESTATE OF ETHELENE P. WHITTLE, Friend, a $126,079 distribution designated for the Donnie and Ethelene Whittle Scholarship Endowment Fund AN ANONYMOUS $196,000 GIFT designated for the Russ Chandler Baseball Stadium Renovation

DAVID C. GIBSON, CHEM 2004, MS CHEM 2006, a $30,000 commitment designated for the Athletic Scholarship Fund

WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

31

A-T FUND NEWS AND EVENTS

SCHOLARSHIP FUNDING The Georgia Tech athletics budget contains about $77 million in yearly expenses, with one of the most prominent being the financial support returned to the Institute for student-athlete scholarships. At approximately $10.6 million in 2016-17, student-athlete scholarships are the vehicle by which we fulfill our mission to recruit and retain the young men and women who can excel academically at Georgia Tech, compete for ACC and National Championships, and then go onto successful lives in their chosen careers.

Currently scholarships are funded by two primary sources – annual gifts to the Athletic Scholarship Fund and investment distributions from Endowments. Combined, these numbers account for just $4 million of the total scholarship cost. The remainder is covered from other sources.

Growth in both annual giving to the Athletic Scholarship Fund and new funding for Endowments moves us closer to fully funding our scholarships costs, relieving funding to be used for new and innovative initiatives within the Athletic Association.

Please consider including a scholarship gift in your philanthropy, or encourage your GT network to join you in your giving.

$10.6M SCHOLARSHIP COSTS $6.6M remaining to raise $2.7M Endowment Distributions $1.3M athletic scholarship fund

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The Buzz

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ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP FUND The top priority for annual gifts, the Athletic Scholarship Fund is essential to obtaining a winning combination of athletic and academic excellence.

The Athletic Scholarship Fund is the place every Georgia Tech alumnus, fan, and friend can make a direct impact on the lives of student-athletes, while earning unique benefits and inside access to the Georgia Tech Athletic Assocation.

Donors contributed more than $1.25 million to the Athletic Scholarship Fund in the 2016 giving year, and we ask for your support to beat that mark by June 30.

ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP FUND BENEFITS AND TIMELINE

Minimum Gift Amount

rsh ip Fu ll Sc ho lar sh ip

Ha lf Sc ho la

nd T mo Dia

lde nT Go

an He ism

Ale xa nd er

Me mb er

&1 (G T Ne Stud 0 w G en rad ts a ua nd tes )

1 st

(For annual gifts received July 1, 2016-June 30 2017)

on ati et on )

2017 Annual Giving Benefit Levels

TE (S CH ea F Se son un at d T D ick

Donations made to the Athletic Scholarship Fund

By Section

$15

$150

$500

$1,000

$3,000

$7,500

$15,000

$30,000

1 point

2 points

2 points

2 points

2 points

2 points

2 points

2 points

2 points

Buzz Memories Credits (with season tickets) A-T Priority Points (per $100) Priority Points for Consecutive Years of Giving Priority for Football and Men’s Basketball Tickets and Parking^ Buzz Magazine Subscription (4 issues per year)

#

A-T Fund Donor Level Window Decal Recognition in Game Day Football Program Invitation to Heisman Event

*

14K Gold Lapel Pin (one-time benefit)

*=1 diamond, **=2 diamonds, ***=3 diamonds)

**

***

GTAA Dining Hall Luncheon and Athletics Facilities Tour Invitation to Annual Endowed Scholarship Dinner Invitation to Athletic Director’s “State of Athletics” Luncheon Private Ride in the Ramblin’ Wreck ^ Includes priority for Season Ticket Relocation requests, Season Parking relocation requests, allocations for away games, bowl games, ACC Championships and postseason tournaments. # Buzz Magazine will be mailed to New Graduate 1st & 10 members with valid mailing address. Student members may attain a copy in person at the Alexander-Tharpe Fund office.

SCHOLARSHIP ENDOWMENTS The Georgia Tech Athletic Association strives to fully endow all scholarships allowed by the NCAA for every sport. Endowed scholarship funds help provide the perpetual financial resources necessary to attract talented student-athletes to Georgia Tech. An athletic scholarship to Georgia Tech enables

a young man or woman to match the full development of his or her potential with the mastery of a challenging academic major at a distinguished institution. Such a scholarship allows coaches to recruit elite studentathletes nationally as they seek those special individuals who will thrive at Georgia Tech.

Endowments may be established through a pledge and payments or bequest provision at the following levels: FULL SCHOLARSHIP • $500,000 or more

NAMED SCHOLARSHIP • $125,000-$249,999

HALF SCHOLARSHIP • $250,000-$499,999

NEW SCHOLARSHIP • $25,000-$124,999

WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

33

Make us your home for professional and college baseball!

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Monday: Taco Salad Tuesday: Burgers with Fries Wednesday: Wraps with Fries Thursday: Chicken Panini with Fries Friday: Boneless Wings with Fries All Lunch Specials are served with a complimentary Fountain Beverage

COMPLIANCE CORNER

BY LANCE MARKOS, ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR COMPLIANCE

MODERNIZING ASPECTS OF DIVISION I FOOTBALL LEGISLATION This past April, the NCAA Division I Council approved a number of measures during the annual legislative cycle that seeks to modernize the legislation surrounding various aspects of Division I Football at the Bowl Subdivision Level.

In particular, the following initiatives were passed:

LANCE MARKOS ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR COMPLIANCE

• Add a period for official visits that begins April 1 of the junior year and ends the Sunday before the last Wednesday in June of that year. Official visits can’t occur in conjunction with a prospect’s participation in a school’s camp or clinic.

• Prevent Football Bowl Subdivision schools from hiring people close to a prospective student-athlete for a two-year period before and after the student’s anticipated and actual enrollment at the school. This provision was adopted in men’s basketball in 2010.

• Football Bowl Subdivision schools are limited to signing 25 prospective and current student-athletes to a first-time financial aid agreement or a National Letter of Intent.

• Limits on the time for Football Bowl Subdivision coaches to participate in camps and clinics to 10 days in June and July and requires that the camps take place on a school’s campus or in facilities regularly used by the school for practice or competition.

• Permit coaches employed at a camp or clinic to have recruiting conversations with prospects participating in camps and clinics and requires educational sessions at all camps and clinics detailing initial eligibility standards, gambling rules, agent rules and drug regulations.

• Allow Football Bowl Subdivision schools to hire a 10th assistant coach (effective Jan. 9, 2018).

In addition, the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) approved a new early signing period for Football on May 8, 2017,

Shoshanna Engel Associate Director of Athletics for Compliance sengel@athletics.gatech.edu (404)894-8792

Lance Markos Assistant Director of Athletics for Compliance lmarkos@athletics.gatech.edu (404) 894-5507

creating an additional signing period for high school prospective student-athletes. Specifically, the CCA approved a 72-hour period for high school seniors to sign binding National Letters of Intent (NLI) and athletics aid agreements that will run from December 20, 2017 through December 22, 2017 this upcoming winter. This signing date will be in addition to the traditional signing date that begins the first Wednesday of February each year.

Thank you for your continued support and commitment to compliance. Please don’t hesitate to call the compliance office with any questions or concerns.

Thank you for your continued support and commitment to compliance as we continue to welcome our newest Yellow Jackets. Please don’t hesitate to call the compliance office with any questions or concerns.

Bret Cowley Associate Director of Compliance bcowley@athletics.gtaa.edu (404)385-0611

Shardonay Blueford Assistant Director of Compliance sblueford@athletics.gatech.edu (404)894-0416

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