TECH’S FOOTBALL COACHING STAFF HAS REKINDLED FAMILY REUNION GEORGIA THE SPIRIT OF GENERATIONS OF FORMER YELLOW JACKETS
GENUINE
LEADER Once a star athlete in multiple sports, new women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner has been a leader on all levels of coaching
SUMMER 2019
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SUMMER 2019 • VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4
SUMMER 2019
EDITOR Mike Stamus ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andrew Clausen Mike Flynn Alex Keator Liz Ryan WRITERS/CONTRIBUTORS Jen Abrams Jon Cooper Lance Markos Brittany Sander Matt Winkeljohn Adam Van Brimmer PHOTOGRAPHY ESPN Danny Karnik Brad Malone Karl Moore Christine Shelby Michael Shroyer University of Texas DESIGN & LAYOUT Summit Athletic Media www.summitathletics.com ADVERTISING – LEARFIELD IMG COLLEGE General Manager – Dave Bouteiller For information on advertising, please call (404) 733-1330
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T H I S
I S S U E
4 | GENUINE LEADER
Once a star athlete in multiple sports, new women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner has been a leader on all levels of coaching
12 | FAMILY REUNION
Georgia Tech’s football coaching staff has rekindled the spirit of generations of former Yellow Jackets
16 | SWITCH-JUMPER
Injury forced Bria Matthews to switch to her opposite leg, and she recaptured her championship jumping form
20 | TECH’S MISSION CONTROL
Simultaneous live events and a plethora of other content are now being pushed out online, on television and to several in-venue video boards
24 | EVERYDAY CHAMPION
Having spent a lifetime in volleyball, Christine Shelby now serves her sport on a national level and is helping open opportunities for youngsters
27 | AROUND THE FLATS
Here’s a look at some of the activities Georgia Tech student-athletes have been involved in
28 | A LEXANDER-THARPE FUND pdates on AI2020, the State of Athletics U and sport-specific fundraising
31 | COMPLIANCE CORNER
The transfer portal and student-athlete summer employment explained
BASKETBALL
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GENUINE LEADER
ONCE A STAR ATHLETE IN MULTIPLE SPORTS, NEW WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACH NELL FORTNER HAS BEEN A LEADER ON ALL LEVELS OF COACHING BY MATT WINKELJOHN
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BASKETBALL | GENUINE LEADER
It was the right time to return to coaching after seven years in television and a strong appeal from director of athletics Todd Stansbury
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ell Fortner is once again in the game of women’s college basketball rather than talking about it and moving with a graceful air that makes it easy to wonder: Does she know what she’s getting in to as Georgia Tech’s new head coach, after seven years of talking into a mic rather than blowing a whistle? The game has changed on the floor since she stepped away from college jobs to take assignments to lead U.S. national teams that would win Olympic gold medals, first as an assistant in Atlanta in 1996 and then as the head coach in Sydney in 2000. And the world shift may be even greater since she left Auburn in 2012 for a job as a broadcaster at ESPN. There’s been explosive growth in social media since then, not to mention the arrival of the NCAA’s transfer portal, which has made it almost blindingly common for college student-athletes to transfer from their schools. Rosters seem to change by every storm cycle. You can count even athletics director Todd Stansbury among the surprised. One of his first questions for Fortner back in early April
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was, “Why are you interested in this job?” As he said later to others, “I knew she had a pretty good gig.” But yeah, Fortner knows. The 59-year-old coach has played for and worked with an amazing array of coaches and seen more women’s college basketball while at ESPN than she would have if she were coaching. In spending countless hours with multiple coaches and student-athletes, she’s remained plugged into the game’s goings on. She wants to fill a similar role again. “One of the biggest reasons I got back in is to be around the kids, help the kids both on the floor and off the floor. I want to make a difference,” Fortner explains. “With ESPN, studying teams, offenses, learning all what the coaches were dealing with off the floor because of social media was eye-opening.” But she’s not scared by any of that. Fortner may be uniquely qualified to relate to the more mobile nature of today’s game and its players, because her track record suggests that she’s more than an active soul.
She grew up in Jackson, Miss., playing multiple sports, mostly in recreational settings, before moving at age 15 to New Braunfels, just about in the middle of Texas. There, she picked up volleyball for the first time, quickly became top notch, and was instantly outstanding as a 6-foot-1 basketball player. For more fun, she high-jumped on the track and field team and was a cheerleader to boot. She tried, but could not fit tennis into her schedule. The coaches at New Braunfels High made a difference. In basketball, there was Karen Fredenberg, who recently retired as a professor from Baylor, and in volleyball Fortner played for Karen Chisum, now in her 39th year as head coach at Texas State. She’s the longesttenured volleyball coach in the NCAA. “My high school coaches were absolutely phenomenal, strong women, excellent coaches, and I was so taken by how they motivated and taught,” Fortner says. “I knew I wanted to be like them, because before I always thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, because I love animals. “From that point on I was going to be a coach. I knew I wanted to coach the Olympic team. I was wanting to coach at the highest level.” First, she kept playing. “She was long and lanky, with big hands, very coordinated and she could jump,” Chisum told the San Antonio Express-News a few years ago before Fortner was inducted into the San Antonio Hall of Fame. “She was a handful, but I say that with a grin on my face, because she was so active. “She liked to have a good time, very social, very likeable. She was spirited, a very positive person. I can’t remember Nell being in many bad moods.”
Nell wasn’t in a bad mood when she earned a scholarship to play volleyball and basketball at the University of Texas. As a volleyball senior, the Longhorns won the 1981 AIAW national championship, and in her basketball years, Texas went 127-26 under coach Jody Conradt, who’s now in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In Fortner’s senior year, the Longhorns reached the AIAW national championship game but fell to Rutgers, 83-77. “It was very unusual at that time to find someone with the height, agility and overall skill she had,” Conradt told the San Antonio Express News. “She was always very friendly, bubbly and fun. She was a leader and a great team player.” Not one to dawdle, Fortner became head girls basketball coach at Killeen High School shortly after graduating from Texas with a degree in physical education in late 1982. “They had an opening, and I applied,” she said. Her reputation as a star athlete in the state probably helped, and it took just three years to carry forward to the college level. Gary Blair, who’d been a successful high school coach in Texas while Fortner was playing at that level, was head coach at Stephen F. Austin, and he kept bumping into Fortner. “When I got into high school coaching, I’d see him at state tournaments and he’d say, ‘When are you going to get into college coaching?’“ Fortner recalled. “The third year, he said, ‘Why don’t you come be my graduate assistant, and I’ll try to get you a spot.’” So, in 1985 she did. Over five years as an assistant, Fortner took a graduate degree in education, and then got
FACT
Nell Fortner has been a successful head coach at every level – high school, college, WBNA and with USA Basketball
After putting her new team through spring workouts, Fortner is optimistic about the Jackets.
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BASKETBALL | GENUINE LEADER
In her term as an analyst for ESPN, Fortner stayed current on what coaches deal with on and off the floor in their programs.
professional league in the United States. It had the a call in 1990 from Louisiana Tech head coach NBA’s backing partnered with USA Basketball,“ Leon Barmore, another Naismith Hall of Famer. Fortner said. “We had a 20-game college tour to He was ruling women’s college basketball at the time. In his first eight seasons at the helm in see what kind of crowds we would have.” After the gold medal, Fortner became head Ruston, La., he had a national championship, coach at Purdue, and her team went 17-11, two runner-up finishes and three other Final shared a Big Ten title and earned an NCAA bid. Four appearances to his credit. She wasn’t a Boilermaker for long, as USA Blair was a previous assistant for Barmore, who Basketball called again and offered a dream: said, “I was very much aware of who Nell Fortner the chance to become long-term head coach of was, and you don’t have to meet her but one the national team in 1997, replacing VanDerveer, time to know she’d be a good hire, we needed who’d returned to Stanford. someone to help us get recruiting. I wanted “I was very familiar with all the international someone with a personality that was bubbly, game and my goal was to be the Olympic team who’d go into a home with me and be impressive. coach,” she recalled. “I could not say no to that.” “I got her more for recruiting, but she turned The U.S. rolled to gold in Sydney in 2000 with a out to be really good on the floor. Her X’s and roster similar to ‘96, and along the way O’s were so good.” she learned to manage up-tempo That’s saying something. On basketball staffed by big and that same Louisiana Tech staff athletic players with egos. was Kim Mulkey, now head “Those athletes are so coach at Baylor and one competitive that you’d of just three coaches better be ready every to win three NCAA day to help them championships. get better. They The time to move want to be pushed came again, though, still, so it keeps you when near the end on your toes to be of a 1990-95 spell at prepared,” Fortner Louisiana Tech, Fortner said. “They want to got a phone call that compete running to the would take her out of the —NELL FORTNER water fountain.” college game. Fortner spent three years Offered the chance to be an running and coaching the WNBA’s assistant coach for the U.S. national Indiana Fever from 2000-2003 (she hired team under head coach Tara VanDerveer Anne Donovan as interim coach while she was – who also is in the Naismith Hall of Fame tending to Olympic duties), before stepping with 1,067 career wins and counting, mostly away. She also worked for ESPN in the summerat Stanford -- and build toward the 1996 based WNBA offseasons. Olympics, Fortner jumped. “After three years, it just wasn’t for me. I She helped coach perhaps the greatest wasn’t enjoying it, so I stepped away and assemblage of talent ever with players like Teresa Auburn opened up. Several people said I ought Edwards and Katrina McClain of Atlanta, Jennifer to show interest,” she said. Azzi, Ruthie Bolton, Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo, Fortner got that job, and in her eight years Dawn Staley and Sheryl Swoopes. on The Plains, the Tigers made two NCAA It was a nearly year-long commitment, a tournament appearances, peaking in 2008-09 new approach, because USA Basketball was with an SEC regular-season championship and bruised from taking a bronze medal in the a 30-4 record. 1992 games. No more plucking players for a Andy Landers ran into her frequently in few practices weeks before the Games. That that time, while he was coaching at Georgia. team traveled the globe over about 10 months They became co-workers at ESPN after and went 52-0 before beating the doors off Fortner resigned from Auburn in 2012 and everybody to take Olympic gold in Atlanta. “Part of the reason they did that was they were testing the waters to see if there could be a continued on page 11
I WAS VERY FAMILIAR WITH ALL THE INTERNATIONAL GAME AND MY GOAL WAS TO BE THE OLYMPIC TEAM COACH. I COULD NOT SAY NO TO THAT.
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continued from page 8 Landers retired at Georgia in 2015 with 866 college wins. He’s convinced now that Fortner is a rock-solid hire for Georgia Tech, and that having worked fulltime for ESPN from 2012 until April will help her be a better college head coach than she was before. “The thing that is obvious when you meet her is that she is a genuine people person. She’s good people,” Landers said. “I think she’ll just jump in and figure out where it is and go with it. “We watch a lot of basketball. I’ve told some close friends that I’d be a lot better basketball coach if I had the privilege of watching people up close and all the tape that I’ve watched. And she has the experience of just stepping in and doing that.” Fortner will likely keep her home on the Florida panhandle along Highway 30-A, which first was her get-away place when she was at Auburn, but she’s all in on Georgia Tech. The vast majority of Georgia Tech’s team that went 17-13 last season remains intact, including a strong incoming recruiting class, but the Yellow Jackets have lost two key players as rising sophomores Elizabeth Balogun and Elizabeth Dixon – high school McDonald’s AllAmericans in 2018 – transferred to Louisville. That’s become a major part of the game, as more than 700 student-athletes were recently in the NCAA transfer portal. “It was too late [when Fortner was hired in the first week of April]. I had conversations with them, but that was already far, far down the road,” Fortner said of retaining Balogun and Dixon. “Would have loved to have had them,
but it happens in a coaching change, and I wish them well.” The Jackets have several key players coming back, including senior Francesca Pan and juniors Kierra Fletcher and Lorela Cubaj among starters. Veteran Chanin Scott will also return a senior. The Jackets cranked up limited summer practices in mid-May, although sophomore guard Lotta-Maj Lahtinen will miss the summer while playing with Finland’s national team, and Cubaj will miss part of the summer to be with Italy’s national team. The new coach is not sure yet what Tech’s playing style will be, but she’s already optimistic. “I don’t think I’ve seen enough yet to know, but I’ve sure liked what I’ve seen so far,” Fortner said. “The cupboard is not bare. I think we’ve got some talent here, and we’ve got some players who want to prove themselves who didn’t get the minutes that they wanted last year.” Fortner said she will resist the temptation to jump into the transfer portal, even as the Jackets stand at 13 scholarship players against the NCAA’s allowable 15. She’s more locked in on the here and now. Recruiting never stops. “It’s a different age where this profession is now, but you [still] treat kids honestly, and fairly and present the ability for them to see opportunity to grow and get more playing time,” Fortner said. “My intention is for the grass to always be greener at Georgia Tech. Choosing Georgia Tech was the best decision you’ve ever made, and it will remain the best decision to remain for your four-year career.”
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Olympic Gold medals won by USA women’s basketball teams with Fortner on the USA staff
Fortner was a two-sport star in basketball and volleyball at Texas.
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FOOTBALL
FAMILY REUNION GEORGIA TECH’S FOOTBALL COACHING STAFF HAS REKINDLED THE SPIRIT OF GENERATIONS OF FORMER YELLOW JACKETS BY JON COOPER
Tevin Washington (former QB), Kevin Cone (former WR), Nathan Burton (former DB), Will Glover (former WR), Tashard Choice (former RB), Brent Key (former OL) and Marco Coleman (former DE) have reunited to help Geoff Collins take Georgia Tech football forward.
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omecoming Weekend is one of the most special of every college football season. In 2019, every weekend will feel like Homecoming Weekend for Georgia Tech assistant coaches Brent Key (assistant head coach/run game coordinator/offensive line), Tashard Choice (running backs/offensive recruiting coordinator), Marco Coleman (defensive ends/outside linebackers), and Nathan Burton (co-defensive coordinator/safeties). It should. Key, Choice, Coleman, and Burton were all brought home, hired by first-year head coach Geoff Collins. A Conyers native, who frequently
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talks about the Saturdays of his youth spent at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Collins made a conscious effort to bring back those responsible for glory days of Georgia Tech football. “We wanted to make sure we re-energized, re-engaged our former student-athletes, the legends that played here. We wanted to bring them back into the family,” said Collins, who also added former Tech standout Will Glover and retained former Jackets Kevin Cone, Rod RookChungong, Errin Joe and Tevin Washington on his support staff. “Being a lifelong Georgia Tech fan, I knew how important that was. I tried to hire somebody from every generation of
Georgia Tech football. All of those moves were intentional, so everybody would have somebody that they could connect with.” Collins, who attended Western Carolina, also has Tech ties, as he returned to Atlanta twice before as a member of the Yellow Jackets’ staff. He worked as a graduate assistant and tight ends coach for three seasons under George O’Leary (1999-2001), then was Chan Gailey’s recruiting coordinator for a year (2006). Over the years, his career frequently became intertwined with former Yellow Jackets. Key (class of 2001) is one of them. The Clay, Ala., native, started at guard from 1997-2001, serving as captain his senior year, when he was named All-ACC. They met when Collins joined the Tech staff at the start of Key’s junior year. Key would get his biggest coaching break from Collins as a birthday present in 2004, after a foray into “the real world.” “It took me about six weeks of waking up every morning and tying that tie to realize I was a football coach,” recalled Key, who actually followed Collins as a G.A. at Tech in 2001. “What I didn’t realize was how hard it is to get back in once you get out.” Collins, then head coach at Western Carolina, eased the path, hiring him as running backs/ tight ends coach. They worked together again at Central Florida under O’Leary in 2008 and ‘09. They stayed in touch, and Collins was able to lure Key away from Alabama, where he was offensive line coach -- something that should serve him well as far as animosity toward Clemson, as the Crimson Tide and Tigers have met four straight years in the College Football Playoff, splitting the meetings. What was the deciding factor in coming back to Georgia Tech? “It’s home,” he said. “I can guarantee you this. When we’re done changing the culture under the
vision of what Coach Collins wants to do, no one will ever ask that question again. “I get more energy walking out on (Grant Field) than I do walking out in front of 110,000 people anywhere else,” he added. “I see the lights of the city. I feel the energy.” Coleman felt a similar yearning to come home to Georgia Tech, where he earned induction into the GT Athletics Hall of Fame (class of 2001). From 1989-91, Coleman spearheaded the Jackets’ defense and helped them win the 1990 National Championship, while earning a pair of first-team All-America honors individually. He was selected 12th overall in the 1992 NFL Draft by Miami and played 14 years in the league before leaving football in 2005 to spend time with his children. In 2017, he got the itch to come back to the game. Over the past two years, he gained coaching experience with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and Oakland Raiders, as well as defensive coordinator at Madarin H.S. in Florida. So what magic words did Collins use to convince him to come back to school? “All he had to say was, ‘There’s an opportunity to be here. Come coach at Georgia Tech,’” said Coleman, adding, with a laugh, “It was probably the easiest sale he’s ever had to make” Coleman not only brings a championship pedigree and knowledge of how to get to the quarterback -- he’s fourth all-time in Tech history in career sacks (27.5) and tackles for loss (50.0) -- but, maybe most important, humility about himself and great pride in the Institute. “I’m not one that really toots his own horn,” he said. “I go into recruits’ homes as Marco Coleman, the Georgia Tech defensive end/ outside linebackers coach. I go in with the confidence of knowing that I’m representing a great institution, representing a great coach and representing an expanse that is going to be very hard to find anyplace else.”
KEY, CHOICE, COLEMAN, AND BURTON WERE ALL BROUGHT HOME, HIRED BY FIRSTYEAR HEAD COACH GEOFF COLLINS. A CONYERS NATIVE, WHO FREQUENTLY TALKS ABOUT THE SATURDAYS OF HIS YOUTH SPENT AT BOBBY DODD STADIUM, COLLINS MADE A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO BRING BACK THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR GLORY DAYS OF GEORGIA TECH FOOTBALL. Brent Key, who started at guard for Tech between 1997-2001, came home after serving on Nick Saban’s staff at Alabama.
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FOOTBALL | FAMILY REUNION
Marco Coleman, who spearheaded Tech’s defense from 1989-91, has recently gotten into the coaching profession, having served terms with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Oakland Raiders in the NFL.
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Coleman sees the same in the staff. “They bring a good understanding of what the program has been, the different experiences that each one of us has had and also a passion to want to see it be successful,” he said. “The experience that we’ve had brings a level of passion and seeing that the program continues to grow and the experience for the young men that come in is as good as the one that we had. You know that you’re working for guys that care.” Caring has always been synonymous with Tashard Choice. Choice, who’ll be part of the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame’s class of 2019, played with passion at Tech from 2005-07, after transferring from Oklahoma. He rolled up 3,365 rushing yards (fourth in school history), scored 28 touchdowns (sixth), had a record nine-straight 100-yard rushing games, and won two ACC rushing championships. He also exhibited that in five years in the NFL (2008-13). He cares even more now that he’s directing Tech’s running backs. “First and foremost, the players have to know that I love them -- more than what they can do on the football field,” said Choice, whose previous pupils included then-Cowboys’ rookie Ezekiel Elliott in 2016, and star backs Deandre Torrey and Loren Easley at North Texas, where the Mean Green recorded back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2017-18. “It’s about relationships. There’s no good coach without good players. The players make the coach, so I hold them accountable. I demand a lot out of my players, to push | SUMMER 2019
themselves to the brink because, ultimately, they’ll see success. That same attitude is what I have to do here at Georgia Tech.” Choice likes the attitude that he’s seen out of every assistant on the staff. “Coach Collins is big with energy, so every coach that he brought on the staff coaches with juice,” he said. “That’s the method to his madness. Every coach that he hand-picked was a guy that he knew had juice on his own. He lets you know how he wants it and the different things that he wants to get done. So when coaches do it, it’s not fake. It’s them being themselves. “That whole mystique and that whole Georgia Tech tradition, that’s what we all have in common and we want to bring back,” he added, “That rough and tough football player that’s smart academically but also on the football field.” Nathan Burton knows the type and has seen several variations of it. Burton played at Tech from 2001-04, then stayed on as a grad assistant from 2005-08. That allowed him to span coaches O’Leary, Gailey, and Paul Johnson. “You pick up little things from everyone,” said Burton, a walk-on and four-year letterwinner, who was hired by Collins in 2018 to coach defensive backs at Temple. “The consistency Coach O’Leary had day in and day out, how toughness mattered, being detail-oriented, you can tell Coach Collins picked that up from him. Coach Gailey was a great coach, a wonderful mentor and allowed his coaches to be
Nathan Burton, who played at Tech from 2001-04 and was a grad assistant from 2005-08, is now working with his fourth Yellow Jacket head coach.
Tashard Choice, who carried the ball at Tech from 200507, played five seasons in the NFL and has coached at North Texas and with the Dallas Cowboys. themselves. Coach Collins lets us do that. Coach Johnson was an in-game adjuster better than anybody I’ve seen. As a coach you appreciate that because on gameday, what you see in film preparation isn’t always what you get.
“It’s been great to see what’s happened over the course of the years,” he added. “Everybody’s been successful. The bowl streak that we had (18-straight bowl appearances from 1997-2014) was through those different coaches.” While several generations of Jackets football are covered, the staff spends little time in the past. “We really don’t sit down and reminisce of the old days,” Burton said. “We’re looking to the future, about what we’re trying to create and what we’re trying to build here.” Collins does encourage his staff to tap into their past and channel their Georgia Tech pride and display it however it might manifest itself. “The personalities may be different, but at the core of who they are, they’re good people, they’re caring people, their competitors, they have great energy,” Collins said. “That’s the hallmark of Georgia Tech football that we want to start building in our culture. The guys that are on the staff embody that.” With just a few months on the job and one spring practice in the books, the group has already left its imprint on the program.
7 BY THE NUMBERS
Former Georgia Tech football players on the current full-time staff
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TRACK & FIELD
SWITCH-JUMPER INJURY FORCED BRIA MATTHEWS TO SWITCH TO HER OPPOSITE LEG, AND SHE RECAPTURED HER CHAMPIONSHIP JUMPING FORM BY JON COOPER
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here’s a unique bond between champion athlete and coach. It’s a bond that creates a special trust, allowing the coach to push the athlete, sometimes pushing the envelope in the process. Ideas that might sound crazy make perfect sense to them. Bria Matthews and Georgia Tech’s jumps and hurdles coach Nat Page have that kind of bond and that kind of trust. Together, Page, whose resume includes developing more than 40 ACC champions and All-Americans, and Matthews, one of them with a desire to return to that level, put their heads together, shook things up and shook off what had been an unshakable injury, with an idea that sounded unfathomable yet one they made reality, and with championship results. Matthews, a computer engineering major, who recently graduated with a 4.0 GPA, reprogrammed
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the jumping scene from the jump. As a freshman in 2016, she set Georgia Tech’s indoor and outdoor records in the long jump and the outdoor record in the triple jump. She earned gold at that year’s ACC Indoor Championship in both events and also won the Outdoor triple jump. Following the Outdoor Championship, she competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in both events, finishing 12th (42 feet, 9.5 inches) in the triple. The accolades kept coming in, being named ACC Freshman of the Year while also making the Academic All-ACC team. But that grand freshman season took a toll on her right leg, her takeoff and landing leg. Page estimated that with her running at approximately 14-to-15 miles per hour, her takeoff and landing put her in the neighborhood of 700 to 900 pounds of pressure on the leg every jump. The extended competition proved too much for the leg to take.
Bria Matthews completed her comeback from injury by winning the gold medal at this spring’s ACC Championships.
FACT
Page estimated that with Matthews running at approximately 14-to-15 miles per hour, her takeoff and landing put her in the neighborhood of 700 to 900 pounds of pressure on the leg every jump.
That October, recurring pain in her right leg forced her to cut back on training, and she redshirted the entire year. After competing in three indoor meets in 2018, she again had to shut it down because of her right leg. This time, she had surgery and had a rod inserted in the leg. Heading into training for the 2019 indoor season, Matthews’ jumping was still hampered by that stubborn bone. But this time, that stubborn bone would meet its match in something even more stubborn -- Matthews’ determination. In September, student-athlete and coach decided on a new, more radical strategy -jump off the left leg. In an event some athletes don’t master with their natural leg, Matthews was determined to not only re-learn how to jump, but compete and win. “It’s kind of like having been a right-handed batter your whole life and now, for some injuries, you have to start all over, batting on the left side,” said women’s track and field head coach, Alan Drosky. What sounded like an impossible dream looked like a practical solution for Matthews. “I just didn’t feel I could jump off my right leg, and I really wanted to jump,” she said. “I thought this was a way that I would be able to jump without hurting myself. “It was a lot of building strength in my left leg. It was also getting the coordination and technique right, because I learned everything off of my right leg. I had to re-learn musclememory in my left leg.” She had an advantage of the coach in her corner. “(Coach Page) is pretty open to what I feel like I can do,” she said.
Assistant coach Nat Page, who has helped produce a number of All-Americans and Olympians from Georgia Tech, and Matthews came up with the idea to have her begin jumping off her left leg after she sustained an injury to her right leg.
Page feels what she’d already done worked in her favor. “A lot of the drills cross over,” he said. “Because you do alternating bounds, and then you’re doing hop-hop-step, the other side of the body is learning also throughout the process. Her left leg got to do some of the stuff that her right leg was doing throughout the years she’d been triplejumping. That makes it a little easier, but you still have to deal with the strength and the timing of doing the hop on the other side of your body. “She would never give up,” Page added. “She never has throughout the whole time.” Not knowing when to give up -- or even stop -- actually became an issue as Bria got stronger. “The hard part was backing her off of training,” he said. “Once she started practicing, she was like, ‘Hey, I can start to do some of this.’ She wanted to do more and more. She’s a competitor and was ready to get back to jumping again.” On Jan. 11, 2019, she did, long jumping at the Clemson Orange & Purple Elite, recording a 17-11.5. The following week she debuted in the triple jump at the Vanderbilt Invitational, going 38-5.5. Matthews returned to Clemson the following weekend for the Clemson Bob Pollock Invitational, where she broke 40 feet in the triple and hit 18-2.25 in what would be her final long jump of the indoor season. WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM 17
TRACK & FIELD | SWITCH-JUMPER
Matthews, who holds Tech records in the long and triple jumps, graduated this spring from Tech with a 4.0 grade-point average in computer engineering.
BY THE NUMBERS
13.77 Matthews’ new school record in the triple jump, set this spring at the ACC Championships
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Hitting 40 at that meet was a big moment. “I said, ‘We are scoring at conference!’” Page recalled. “Within the same week I said, ‘We’re going to jump 42 feet. We are going to be on the podium. I don’t know which order, but we will.’” Page proved prophetic about her scoring, but actually underestimated Matthews’ distance, as she went 43-4.25, to take home gold. Matthews was back, but she wasn’t done. Two weeks later at the NCAA Championship, she earned All-America honors with a fifth-place finish, going a personal-best 44-3.5. That jump topped her previous high, set in her freshman year, by 4.5 inches. Matthews qualified for the finals on her final jump of preliminaries, then set a personal best on her final jump of the finals, which allowed her to leap from 10th to fifth. “It felt really good,” she said. “At the start of the season I didn’t expect to jump this far. I didn’t think I was going to triple jump this season and then I did and I did well.” “The bigger the stage the better she tends to perform,” said Drosky. “She had a goal she had hoped to accomplish and wasn’t going to be denied. I don’t know that you can script it up better than that.” Results notwithstanding, the script wasn’t universally lauded. “Coach Page doesn’t like that,” Matthews said, with a laugh. “No, I don’t,” he said. “She wants to build up to her best jumps. Let’s just do this early, and we don’t have to worry. It would be so much | SUMMER 2019
easier on you. We’re going to figure this out.” Matthews figured it out throughout the outdoor season, starting at 38-5 in the season-opening Yellow Jacket Invitational, then never finishing below 40 feet, topping out at the Tiger Track Classic, at 43-3.75. She heads toward the future with confidence and, more important, health. “For me, with Matthews, I just want to make sure she’s healthy,” said Page. “She knows that I’ll send her off the track any minute. With what she’s gone through, I want to make sure she’s feeling her very best every day.” While she’s the school-record holder in the long-jump indoors (21 feet) and outdoors (212.75) and the outdoor triple jump (45-0.5) -- all from her freshman year -- and ranks second at the indoor triple (behind Brandy Depland’s 2006 jump of 44-9.75) Matthews has plenty to shoot for and two years of eligibility to do it. Interestingly, any records she sets would mean her actually breaking records going off her left leg that she set going off her right. That would be quite a legacy -- one that’s not only hard for her to wrap her head around but impossible for her to put into words. “To be the best triple-jumper the school’s ever seen,” Page stage-whispered. “She’s extremely modest, so she won’t say it, but that’s what we’re shooting towards,” he continued. “When she comes back here in five, 10, 15, 20 years, she’ll realize how much work she’s done, how many lives she’s impacted while she was here, or what kids may want to come here because she left such a jump legacy here. I think everybody should know who she is, what she’s done, what she’s gone through and what she’s going to get.” “I hope her legacy involves more scoring at nationals and before she’s done, winning the nationals, but it will be a legacy of jumping far when it counts the most and bringing great enthusiasm to her sport and to competition,” Drosky said. “Her comeback story, in the end, may be her legacy, as well. Just to never give up, the ability to overcome great obstacles. It’s certainly a valuable lesson and a great story for a lot of people to come.” Matthews admitted there is a chapter to come, one she’d like to write as soon as 2020. “I want to go to the Olympics,” she said -- a declaration Page greeted by exclaiming ‘Yay! She finally said it!’ “I think I can make it to the Olympics.”
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ATHLETICS
TECH’S MISSION CONTROL SIMULTANEOUS LIVE EVENTS AND A PLETHORA OF OTHER CONTENT ARE NOW BEING PUSHED OUT ONLINE, ON TELEVISION AND TO SEVERAL IN-VENUE VIDEO BOARDS BY MATT WINKELJOHN
T
he ACC Network is coming quickly and Georgia Tech will share the stage in the first premier live event Aug. 29 when the Yellow Jackets will play football at defending national champion Clemson. Yet there have already been seminal moments on The Flats. On a busy Friday night on April 26, while using the equipment and new space that will plug into the ACC Network, Tech officials simultaneously televised the spring football game, a baseball game against Clemson and a softball game against Syracuse. They channeled/ streamed all of it through the new, $10 million control center at the corner of Fowler and 8th Street. At the same time, the video displays in Bobby Dodd Stadium, Russ Chandler Stadium and Shirley C. Mewborn Field were alight with real-time scores, statistics and highlights, while pushing the Georgia Tech brand as well. Every bit of video/audio feed ran through the four control rooms, 27 monitors, camera room and replay room on the southwest corner of McCamish Pavilion, where previously there was one control room and two monitors. “We were able to have four control rooms going at the same time,” said Andy Blanton, Tech’s assistant athletics director for video and broadcast. “[Control room] A was softball online on ACC Network Extra, B was taking care of baseball against
20 EVERYDAY CHAMPIONS
| SUMMER 2019
Clemson, C took care of the spring football game in terms of what you saw on the broadcast on the ACC Network Extra (ACCNE) platform through the ESPN app or internet provider, and D took care of the video board (in Bobby Dodd Stadium).” When the ACC reached agreement with ESPN in 2016 in to create the ACC Network, the deal mandated that every member institution build on-campus facilities to handle television production of athletic events on its campus. That signaled that ESPN won’t have to roll up production trucks (and staff) for events that it plans to broadcast on its “linear” channels – ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU – and ACC schools can choose what other athletic events they want to televise, or stream digitally, on ACC Network Extra to be distributed by ESPN technology. What does this all mean for Georgia Tech fans? A greater ability to consume the Yellow Jackets from the comfort of their living rooms (or anywhere that they have a cellular signal).
G
iven that ESPN is owned by Disney, ACC commissioner John Swofford is optimistic that by the time the linear ACC Network goes live on Aug. 22, just most fans will be able to see all the action in his conference on TV.
Every bit of video/audio feed runs through four control rooms, 27 monitors, a camera room and replay room in a renovated building at the southwest corner of McCamish Pavilion.
WHEN THE ACC REACHED AGREEMENT WITH ESPN IN 2016 IN TO CREATE THE ACC NETWORK, THE DEAL MANDATED THAT EVERY MEMBER INSTITUTION BUILD ON-CAMPUS FACILITIES TO HANDLE TELEVISION PRODUCTION OF ATHLETIC EVENTS ON ITS CAMPUS. PRIOR TO 2019 2 FULL-TIME STAFF 1 CONTROL ROOM 4 BROADCAST CAMERAS 0 WIRELESS CAMERAS 4 INSTANT REPLAY INPUTS 1 BROADCAST GRAPHIC LAYER 2 ROBOTIC CAMERAS 32 INPUT / 32 OUTPUT VIDEO ROUTER 2 STRANDS OF FIBER TO EACH VENUE 1 AUDIO MIXER - 16 INPUTS NO LENSES OVER 24X ZOOM 60 BROADCAST EVENTS PER YEAR 2 VIDEOBOARD VENUES 80 TERABYTES OF STORAGE 2 MONITORS
“Mickey Mouse carries a lot of weight,” Swofford said in early May at a regional Associated Press Sports Editors meeting in Greensboro, N.C. “You want to be as strong out of the chute at launch as possible. And based on our internal projections and what we expect the first year, I’m very confident that will be the case.” ACC Network Extra (the ACC’s online broadcast portal, via ESPN), is already available through the ESPN app and the WatchESPN tab on ESPN.com. If a consumer has a cable/satellite/digital provider who has contracted with ESPN, then he/she can watch any Georgia Tech home athletic event, because Blanton’s goal is to televise athletic event on campus. In addition to increased exposure for its sports, if the ACC Network hits its marks – league officials have been careful to make no public projections – the conference might bring itself up the list of annual payouts made by Power 5 conferences to their schools. In the most recent federal tax filings available, which covered the 2016-17 school and athletic year, the SEC – which launched its ESPNpartnered SEC Network in 2014 – sent about $41 million back to each school. The ACC distributed about $26.6 million to each school for athletics. Multimedia contracts have much to do with these payouts, and various projections by media insiders anticipate the ACC Network could bump per-school payouts by something in the ballpark of $10 million per year. The SEC Network and Big Ten Network (which is partnered with Fox) have been quite successful. The more recent Pac-12 Network, which the conference owns and operates on its own, has been comparatively less profitable with distribution issues. The Big XII does not have a dedicated network but member Texas has its own network with ESPN).
NEW VIDEO OPERATIONS 7 FULL-TIME STAFF BY AUGUST 2019 4 CONTROL ROOMS 17 BROADCAST CAMERAS 3 WIRELESS CAMERAS 36 INSTANT REPLAY INPUTS 14 BROADCAST GRAPHIC LAYERS 4 ROBOTIC CAMERAS 588 INPUT / 588 OUTPUT VIDEO ROUTER 48 STRANDS OF FIBER TO EACH VENUE - SOME 96 4 AUDIO MIXERS - 256 INPUTS 5 80X ZOOM LENSES 150+ BROADCASTS PER YEAR 8 VIDEOBOARD VENUES 280 TERABYTES OF STORAGE 27 MONITORS
Georgia Tech is all in. The video and broadcast staff has grown from two full-timers to six, and Blanton anticipates adding a seventh in July in a new fiscal year. Also, “We had four cameras [prior to the investment in the new video control center]. We’ve purchased 13 cameras, some unmanned, some man-able . . . “Any game that we choose or [the ACC Network] chooses ... there is a compensation for that. It’s opportunity to recoup some cost and pay the bills.” Many producers, assistant producers, directors, camera operators and broadcasters (primarily for Olympic sports events) will be brought in on a freelance basis per event, and Blanton is counting on students jumping into part-time job opportunities. Where the pool of available freelance media professionals is bigger in Atlanta than in some ACC markets, it’s easier at schools like Florida State and Virginia Tech to draw from the student body because those schools have full-blown media/communications programs. For example, Virginia Tech recently produced a linear baseball broadcast for ESPNU with every camera manned by a student studying for a career in sports media. At Georgia Tech, “We’ve learned some lessons that some students have no sports knowledge at all,” Blanton said. So, he’ll find a job that doesn’t require a student knowing how many balls and strikes come in a count, and train that person in something that doesn’t require such knowledge. Early this spring, he pushed a lever on one of the control boards and explained that was how an operator might “open the iris” on a camera to let in more light if darkness was beginning to fall at a certain venue. If there’s too much blue in the picture, turn down the blue button. “It’s a lot like a video game,” he said. “Right now we have about 20 students who are serving as interns. We kind of split it half-and-half, so we have freelancers who can mentor students, and ultimately we’ll try to create this engine where the students graduate up the ladder, take ownership of more complex roles, and tutor new students.” On campus, the consideration of video boards may be as important as the TV business. Last year, six high-definition Daktronic boards were purchased for about $1.2 million and erected at Russ Chandler Stadium (baseball), Mewborn Field (softball), O’Keefe Gymnasium (volleyball), the Ken Byers Tennis Complex, on the north side of Bobby Dodd Stadium over Callaway Plaza, and in the Edge Center. Those video boards are a high priority, and the idea of adding more around and/or near campus WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM 21
ATHLETICS | TECH’S MISSION CONTROL
that would run 24/7 seems sure to come up soon (the one aside the downtown connector is not currently under Tech’s direct control). All of that content is pushed out of the new control center. You might see new head football coach Geoff Collins up on the big board tossing a football while the Jackets’ regular-season schedule is imposed with a number to call for season tickets. Or you might see highlights from Tech baseball, softball, swimming ... anything.
The video and broadcast staff has grown from two full-timers to six, and a seventh will be added in July in a new fiscal year.
FACT
Construction began on the facility in July 2018 and was completed March 2019, a span of 9 months.
22 EVERYDAY CHAMPIONS
S
o what won’t Blanton and his team produce? Regular-season football broadcasts will continue to be produced by whatever network televises those games. At least for now. The sport of tennis is not lined up with the ACC Network, at least not yet, for sake of distribution difficulties (six playing surfaces going at once), and Blanton pushed the past season of Tech men’s and women’s home tennis on-line through YouTube. Golf may be problematic in part because events are rarely played on campuses, and even when they are, there may be no fiber optic cable run
| SUMMER 2019
from campus control centers to venues, plus golf is spread out over so much territory. Likewise, cross country meets are rarely staged on campuses, although some are on golf courses. But back to the bread and butter of Blanton’s team: live production. If you weren’t able to be on campus April 26, but happened to plug into the ACC Network Extra that evening, maybe you saw Collins up close and personal as he walked and talked viewers through what was going on in the middle of Grant Field. That was Blanton’s special moment. “If you would have ever asked me if we’d have a wireless camera on the field monitoring a coach through a drive, I would have told you no,” he explained. “I want to showcase what’s going on here. His idea was why don’t you come out (with a camera) that stays with me first drive of the second half and I’ll tell you everything that’s happening?’ “From a producer’s standpoint, that’s what you dream of: getting it from the horse’s mouth. It was a celebratory moment for us.” Now that Georgia Tech has the manpower and the hardware, there should be many more to come.
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VOLLEYBALL
EVERYDAY CHAMPION HAVING SPENT A LIFETIME IN VOLLEYBALL, CHRISTINE SHELBY NOW SERVES HER SPORT ON A NATIONAL LEVEL AND IS HELPING OPEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNGSTERS BY ADAM VAN BRIMMER
Shelby joined adidas in 2014 and is now the company’s director of volleyball, spearheading its partnership with USA Volleyball.
24 EVERYDAY CHAMPIONS
| SUMMER 2019
C
hristine Shelby has been a player in volleyball circles almost since she slipped on her first set of knee pads. A national-level club player as a teenager, she was a linchpin throughout her playing career at Georgia Tech and was a member of the 2000 Atlantic Coast Conference championship team. She parlayed her love for the game into a professional business career and currently serves as the director of volleyball for adidas, one of the world’s premier sporting goods equipment and apparel companies. Shelby is a Chicago native who was drawn to Georgia Tech in 1997 by the campus’ secluded feel amidst a large city landscape. She’s a 2001 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in management. She recently shared her story with Everyday Champions. Everyday Champions: Volleyball has been a part of your life since you were a little girl. Can you describe the passion you have for the sport? Christine Shelby: “I loved playing, competing and improving, from when I first began to learn the skills to playing club and high school and on to college. When it came time to figure out a career direction, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted it to be sports-related or sports-rooted. It just so happened that I was coming out of high school a year after the Olympics were held in Atlanta, and there was all this activity around the games, all these corporations in the Atlanta area that were involved. Seeing those opportunities convinced me I could stay involved in volleyball beyond my playing days.” EC: Sounds like you had your professional life all planned out. But I’m guessing it wasn’t that simple? Shelby: “No it wasn’t. I graduated late. I wasn’t prepared to go into the workforce. I hadn’t made any contacts. A month later is Sept. 11. I’m working three jobs, none of them with long-term prospects. I still was focused on continuing my life in sports in some way, but coaching is not my thing, and being a pro player was not an option. That’s when I started thinking about the sporting goods industry. So I cold-called Mizuno and took a customer service job in a call center, starting at the bottom but aiming to climb to the top.” EC: You’ve done exactly that. What was the key? Shelby: “My career arc paralleled everything athletes do in sports: You set a goal, work hard,
constantly analyze where you and where you need to adjust, and surround yourself with a positive support system. On a more granular level, working in customer service taught me a lot and helped me realize early on there were many holes in servicing volleyball customers. Nobody calls customer service to tell you that you are doing a great job. Still, everyone should spend time there because you learn where the real pain points are. You aren’t sitting around a conference room table trying to predict what the problems are -- you are hearing them firsthand from the customers. It motivated me to formulate a business plan for how to address the issues on the volleyball side. I bugged the heck out of a vice president until he listened to me. I became their first full-time employee dedicated solely to volleyball -- they created a position for me, a 23-year-old kid. I showed the courage and initiative to create that path.” EC: You use the word ‘create’ but it sounds more like you blazed a path, and not just at Mizuno. Your timing was good, as volleyball and female sports in general were in the midst of a tremendous growth spurt. How’d you stay ahead? Shelby: “I wish I could say it was intentional, but really it was about hard work, persistence and fortuitous timing. I built up my product management and marketing skills at Mizuno, but reached the point where I realized I needed to broaden my experience and education. I was contemplating getting an MBA when I was recruited to a startup, Nfinity, that catered exclusively to the female athlete. They built the business initially around cheerleading, but wanted
I LOVED PLAYING, COMPETING AND IMPROVING, FROM WHEN I FIRST BEGAN TO LEARN THE SKILLS TO PLAYING CLUB AND HIGH SCHOOL AND ON TO COLLEGE. WHEN IT CAME TIME TO FIGURE OUT A CAREER DIRECTION, I DIDN’T KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED TO DO, BUT I KNEW I WANTED IT TO BE SPORTS-RELATED OR SPORTSROOTED. —CHRISTINE SHELBY
Despite living on the West coast, Shelby has been able to return to campus on occasion, including this spring at a fundraiser for the volleyball program. WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM 25
VOLLEYBALL | EVERYDAY CHAMPION
very structured organization that starts at the grassroots level and extends all the way up to the national teams. Partnering with them means the most influential athletes in the sport are wearing your brand, as are the 10-yearold beginners. We pitched them at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and it took a year to get it done, but it really is a big win for us.
Shelby played volleyball for the Jackets and earned her bachelor’s degree in management in 2001.
26 EVERYDAY CHAMPIONS
EC: You are now a seasoned pro in the business, with 17 years of experience in product management, product development, sales and marketing. What is your greatest strength? Shelby: “You must have foresight, as brand loyalty begins with winning the heart of today’s to get involved in youth. And it’s no basketball and longer about just volleyball. So the product. What chance was there you mean to the to build a brand consumer and how from the ground up, you position yourself and I figured that was —CHRISTINE SHELBY in society is just as my MBA. I went from important. What is special the brand that was No. 1 about being relationshipin product share to a brand minded in this industry is that you with zero brand recognition in the can see it come full circle. That young girl volleyball space. I became fully immersed in starting to play is going to grow up to play high every single segment of the business. school sports, college sports, become a versatile adult female athlete, who eventually may become EC: You ultimately went from building a brand to that mother with athletic children. Finding new, joining one of the world’s most recognizable sports innovative ways to connect the consumer to equipment and apparel brands in adidas. Was and brand is one of my strengths. is the challenge at Adidas to refine the brand? Shelby: “Not initially. adidas volleyball was EC: You obviously retain a passion for really a startup within a big company. They were volleyball from a business standpoint. What in volleyball, but at a minimal level. They had about the game itself? apparel and equipment contracts with colleges Shelby: “Unfortunately, I don’t play to outfit all their sports teams, so they had to competitively anymore. The older I get, the less service those customers, but that was about the my body wants to cooperate. But not playing is extent of it. Fortunately for me, the global office okay, because what I am blessed with every saw an opportunity through volleyball to help win day is the opportunity to make a difference in the female consumer in the U.S. They tasked the lives of these young athletes through the adidas North America with making volleyball a sport of volleyball. Volleyball opened so many priority, and that’s when I stepped in. doors for me. At adidas we believe that through sport we have the power to change lives. How EC: Two years ago, adidas becomes the official can we increase access to sport? How can we partner of USA Volleyball. Did that validate the keep girls in sport? How do we bring parity to company as a major player in the sport? opportunity in sport? Making a difference in the Shelby: “USA Volleyball was our north star lives of young women through volleyball is my from the moment I walked in. Being their ‘new’ game and my passion. partner brings instant credibility. They have a
I BUILT UP MY PRODUCT MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING SKILLS AT MIZUNO, BUT REACHED THE POINT WHERE I REALIZED I NEEDED TO BROADEN MY EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION.
| SUMMER 2019
AROUND THE FLATS
65 STUDENT-ATHLETES PARTICIPATE IN SPRING COMMENCEMENT
Sixty-five Georgia Tech student-athletes that officially became Georgia Tech alumni this spring include:
BASEBALL - Micah Carpenter (business administration), Jacob Esch (civil engineering), Josh Heddinger (business administration) MEN’S BASKETBALL - Brandon Alston (master’s – economics), Abdoulaye Gueye (business administration), Sylvester Ogbonda (business administration) WOMEN’S BASKETBALL - Bre Brown (master’s – digital media), Martine Fortune (literature, media and communication), Kaylan Pugh (history, technology and society) FOOTBALL - Victor Alexander (literature, media and communication), Parker Braun (literature, media and communication), Kyle Cerge-Henderson (business administration), Tyler Cooksey (business administration), Nathan Cottrell (business administration), David Curry (business administration), Shawn Davis (business administration), Carson Fletcher (aerospace engineering), A.J. Gray (business administration), Cheyenne Hunt (master’s – civil engineering), Bailey Ivemeyer (mechanical engineering), Tre Jackson (master’s – building construction), Antonio Mallard (mechanical engineering), Andrew Marshall (master’s – building construction), TaQuon Marshall (business administration), Brant Mitchell (business administration), Brad Morgan (business administration), Brad Stewart (mechanical engineering) GOLF - James Clark (business administration) MEN’S TENNIS - Phillip Gresk (literature, media and communication) SOFTBALL - Kaylee Ellebracht (business administration), Katie Krzus (business administration), Sydney Stavro (business administration)
SPIRIT PROGRAM - Laura Fagan (civil engineering), Kyle Hosford (computer science), Hyewon Jung (mechanical engineering), Randy Liang (master’s – mechanical engineering), Annie Ni (industrial engineering), Manaka Sato (biomedical engineering), Kate ZahniserWord (civil engineering) SWIMMING AND DIVING - Lila Best (business administration), Laura Branton (business administration), Matthew Casillas (business administration), Sara Gilbert (business administration), Florina Ilie (business administration), Moises Loschi (mechanical engineering), Nolan Mallet (biomedical engineering), Joseph Portillo (mechanical engineering), Iris Wang (industrial engineering), Colton Williamson (business administration) TRACK AND FIELD/CROSS COUNTRY - Christian Bowles (business administration), Gabriel Darosa (computer engineering), Rebecca Dow (industrial engineering), Jag Gangemi (master’s – physics), Anna Hightower (business administration), Bria Matthews (electrical engineering), Alexandra Melehan (mechanical engineering), Daniel Pietsch (mechanical engineering), Mary Prouty (computer science), Amy Ruiz (electrical engineering), Mitchell Sanders (aerospace engineering), Nahom Solomon (master’s – electrical engineering), Haley Stumvoll (electrical engineering), Ryan Thomas (mechanical engineering), Andreas Ward (mechanical engineering)
JACKETS WITHOUT BORDERS RETURNS TO PUERTO RICO
Jackets Without Borders, Georgia Tech athletics’ awardwinning international service trip, returned to Puerto Rico during the week following spring semester to assist with continuing hurricane rehabilitation efforts. Twenty Georgia Tech student-athletes and four GT athletics staff members traveled to Villa Del Rio, Puerto Rico, an area that was devastated by Hurricane Maria in September 2017. Georgia Tech’s 2018 Jackets Without Borders trip was also to Villa Del Rio to assist with rebuilding homes that were damaged by the category five storm, which is regarded as the worst natural disaster to ever affect Puerto Rico. In April, the Jackets Without Borders program received the 2018-19 Atlantic Coast Conference Game Changers Award for community service. Jackets Without Borders was established in 2017 by Georgia Tech director of athletics Todd Stansbury, who envisioned an opportunity to build partnerships with communities outside of Atlanta, extend the reach of GT athletics and promote meaningful change in the world. In its inaugural trip, Jackets Without Borders traveled to Cartago, Costa Rica in 2017, where participants built a multi-use sports court for a K-12 school. This year’s participants included football student-athletes Djimon Brooks, Charlie Clark, Carson Fletcher, Hamp Gibbs, Keegan Hemingway, Jahaziel Lee and Wesley Wells, swimming and diving’s Kelsey Dekshenieks, Paige Gohr, Morgan Johnson, Macleary Moran and Aidan Pastel, volleyball’s Gabi Dolan and Lexi Dorn, women’s basketball’s Lotta-Maj Lantinen and Christina Darland, Cat Gross, Madison Hicks, Madison Moitoso and Jackson Wydra from the spirit program, as well as Georgia Tech athletics staff members Eric Avila (sports medicine), Brad Malone (ideation and branding), Maureen Tremblay (Total Person Program) and Tyler Wheeler (ideation and branding). Each participant is responsible for raising $2,000, which goes towards the approximate $60,000 cost of the trip, which includes flights, lodging, meals and supplies for building efforts.
VOLLEYBALL - Lauren Frerking (business administration)
WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM 27
ALEXANDER-THARPE FUND
AI 2020 UPDATE As we approach the halfway point of 2019, fundraising for Athletics Initiative 2020 has stayed on a successful track. The Alexander-Tharpe Fund has raised more than $85 million against a $125 million goal with just over 18 months remaining before our Dec. 31, 2020 deadline. Fundraising for Russ Chandler Stadium Phase II renovations has surpassed its $9 million goal thanks to the generous support of Georgia Tech baseball letterwinners and other donors. With fundraising complete, renovation and construction plans can now be finalized. The Fuller E. Callaway foundation recently made a $5 million gift earmarked for the renovation of Georgia Tech’s athletic hub, the Edge Center. There are still plenty of opportunities to support AI 2020 and be a part of this historic year. The largest component of AI 2020 is the $70 million goal for the complete renovation
of the Edge Center, home of Georgia Tech Athletics. The overarching goals for the project are to create a hub for athletics that can serve all student-athlete needs, such as sports medicine, dining and nutrition, academics and the Total Person Program. The renovation of the Edge Center will become an integral part in enhancing the image of Georgia Tech Athletics for a wide range of audiences. The addition of new facilities and expanded program areas create the ability to enhance recruitment efforts by showcasing Georgia Tech’s dedication to student-athletes and continue to develop Everyday Champions. For more information of Athletics Initiative 2020 projects and how to donate go to ramblinwreck.com/2020 or call the A-T Fund at 404-894-5414.
ATHLETICS INITIATIVE 2020: Jan 1, 2018 - Dec 31, 2020
AS OF 5/24/2019 4:02:10 AM
$86.89M
70%
TOTAL RAISED
$125M GOAL
46% PACE Progress to Goal vs. Time
587 DAYS REMAINING $70.0M
$39,484,370
Edge Center Renovation
66%
$58.39M Facilities
$88M
$9.0M
Russ Chandler Baseball Stadium Renovation Phase 2
$9,121,810
$4.5M
Basketball Locker Rooms
$2,753,318
Football Locker Room
$4,500,000
$4.5M
$5M
$10M
$20M
$50M
$100M $25M
$8,009,531
Scholarship Endowments
$8.51M
Endowments
34% Program Support
$25M
Unrestricted
$101,150 $400,000 $0M
$7.50M
Current Operations
$12M
$15M
$20M
$4.5M
$2,723,115 $3.0M
$2,212,675
Athletic Director's Initiative
$333,194 $12,389,219
TECH Fund $0M
28 EVERYDAY CHAMPIONS
| SUMMER 2019
$25M
$4.5M
Sport-specific
TBD
$10M
$2,229,731
Athletic Scholarship Fund
62%
$5M
$2M
$4M
$6M
$8M
$10M
$12M
$14M
ALEXANDER-THARPE FUND
STATE OF ATHLETICS 2019 Georgia Tech Athletics’ Annual State of Athletics address was held on April 17 in the Callaway Club at McCamish Pavilion. Director of Athletics Todd Stansbury spoke about the top project on his mind: the renovation of the Edge Center. Stansbury emphasized the impact the completion of the new building would have on Georgia Tech Athletics, and the importance of this visual representation to recruits. He expressed the importance of excellence and innovation at Georgia Tech, and how this new building could be the cornerstone for these ideals for current and future student-athletes. He hopes the new building will showcase programs like Jackets Without Borders, the recent winner of the prestigious ACC Game Changers Award, so that people can see the work being done daily at Georgia Tech. Stansbury also brought focus to his four strategic
priorities for the upcoming year: brand, revenue, culture and infrastructure. These priorities will distinguish Georgia Tech from other programs and entice recruits to choose Tech, and will ensure our ability to build a better studentathlete once they are here, ultimately equating to wins. Stansbury recognized the head coaches in attendance and the work those coaches are doing to build Everyday Champions. This included head football coach Geoff Collins, head men’s basketball coach Josh Pastner, and the most recent addition to the Georgia Tech family, head women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner. Stansbury closed his speech urging Yellow Jacket fans to show support for AI 2020 so that we can continue to create a culture of success at Georgia Tech, and help these coaches in their goal to create Everyday Champions.
To watch the full State of Athletics Address go to https://buzz.gt/state-athletics-19
SPORT SPECIFIC FUNDRAISING This spring has seen a variety of different fundraising efforts to support individual sport operations. On April 5, Georgia Tech volleyball held its first dinner and auction at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta that raised more than $30,000. The event sold out quickly and gave a chance for Tech volleyball fans to interact with the studentathletes and staff. The evening included a cocktail hour, silent and live auctions, and dinner where guests were able to bid on a variety of items, all donated for the event. The money raised will go
towards volleyball operations, minor renovations to O’Keefe Gymnasium, and to fund an international trip for the team. Georgia Tech’s track and field program held its own fundraising event on April 20, with almost 70 former letterwinners from both men’s and women’s track in attendance. The event was hosted around the Georgia Tech Invitational meet held the same weekend. This was the first reunion of this type for all Georgia Tech track and field letterwinners, and gave them the
Fundraising has been completed for Phase II of the Russ Chandler Stadium Renovation.
opportunity to reconnect, learn about the recent successes of the program, and to hear details on the ongoing needs to fully fund track and field scholarships. Sport specific fundraising is one piece of AI 2020, and money raised through these donations help coaches improve their programming beyond normal operations. For more information on sport specific giving or to donate, go to atfund.gatech.edu or call the A-T Fund at 404-894-5414.
Georgia Tech volleyball raised more than $30,000 at its spring auction at East Lake Golf Club. WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM 29
COMPLIANCE CORNER BY LANCE MARKOS, ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR COMPLIANCE
NCAA TRANSFER PORTAL In October 2018, the NCAA implemented what is now commonly known as the Transfer Portal. The creation of the portal was a result of a change in NCAA legislation regarding when students wishing to transfer may be contacted by other schools. Under the new rules, student-athletes simply must notify their current institution that they would like to discuss transferring with other schools prior to any conversations occurring. LANCE MARKOS The concept that a student-athlete needs a release to discuss transferring to ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR COMPLIANCE another school speaks to NCAA member institution’s desire to prohibit tampering, now a major violation going forward as part of the change in the transfer contact legislation. The institution must enter the student-athlete in to a newly created online database, the Transfer Portal, within two business days upon written request from the student-athlete. Upon entry in to the portal, other schools identify students who wish to explore transfer options and may start the recruitment process. The Transfer Portal, while created in conjunction with a change in NCAA rules regarding the initiation of the transfer process, is a more modern solution for schools to communicate to other institutions who may wish to transfer from their current institution. Previously, upon receiving a request by a student regarding their interest in transferring, the Compliance Office generated a letter and delivered via email (or even fax machine going way back) either directly to the student or to the other institutions. The Transfer Portal replaces that paperwork with a more modern solution better suited to the situation. STUDENT-ATHLETES AND EMPLOYMENT Now that the academic year is complete and the games are winding down, Georgia Tech student-athletes are starting to work at a variety of internships and jobs during the summer. And with student-athletes starting on these new undertakings, it’s important to know the NCAA’s rules regarding employment of current Yellow Jackets. First, the NCAA’s rules on any employment for student-athletes that must be adhered to are as follows: • Individuals may only be compensated for work they actually perform;
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
Compliance Office Phone Number: (404) 894-5055
• The pay rate is commensurate with the going rate in the locale for similar services; and • Payment may not be based on the value the student-athlete may have for the employer because of the publicity, reputation, fame or personal following that he or she has obtained because of their athletics ability. Provided the above is followed, Georgia Tech student-athletes may be employed at any time. In addition, it is permissible for Georgia Tech to assist in arranging employment for its studentathletes. In fact, Georgia Tech boosters are also permitted to provide employment to current student-athletes. All of these scenarios are permitted since the above measures are in place to ensure no extra benefits are provided through the use of jobs for student-athletes. Please note that Georgia Tech and its boosters are not permitted to arrange for employment of any family members of a current student-athlete. If you have any questions, you may contact the compliance office at compliance@gtaa.gatech.edu or 404-894-5055. Go Jackets!!
Former Georgia Tech pitcher Geoff Duncan, elected in November at Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, spoke at spring commencement.
Bret Cowley Director of Compliance bcowley@athletics.gtaa.edu (404)385-0611
Shardonay Blueford Associate Director of Compliance sblueford@athletics.gatech.edu (404)894-0416
Christina Chow Compliance Assistant cchow@athletics.gatech.edu
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