ONWARD TO
VICTORY ATHLETICS ADVANCEMENT NEWSLETTER FALL 2016
WELCOME We bring you the fourth edition of the Onward to Victory newsletter as a terrific fall sports season transitions into NCAA Championship pursuits and winter sports. Women’s Soccer won the regular season ACC crown and is preparing to host early-round games in the NCAA Tourney as a #2 seed. Men’s Soccer has climbed as high as #1 in the national rankings and now moves into the NCAA’s as well. A seven-win Volleyball program just a year ago has rebuilt into a team poised to pass the 20-win mark and vie for the ACC title. And on the gridiron, while victories have been hard to come by, the team continues to fight each week in pursuit of a bowl. Winter sports will soon be in full swing as well, with Men’s and Women’s Basketball preparing to tip-off next week. Hockey sits at ninth nationally early in the season and Swimming & Diving opened the season by winning the Dennis Stark Relays. As a whole, the span of success across the department seems ready to challenge any high water marks set from years past But as the fates of these great teams unfold on the fields, courts, ice, and pools, perhaps the greatest highlight this fall was welcoming back to campus The Honorable Alan Page over Miami weekend. Page, who perhaps best embodies the proof of concept for excelling at the highest levels academically and athletically, returned for the Monogram Club’s 100th year celebration. He spoke to groups across campus including law students, current student-athletes, former athletes, and donors to name a few. While his accolades—NFL MVP, NFL and College Football Hall of Famer, 22-year Minnesota Supreme Court Justice, and founder of the esteemed Page Education Foundation—set an almost unreachable bar, he reminds us all of the distinct and meaningful mission of Notre Dame Athletics. Rooted in the values of excellence, education, faith, community, and tradition, the experience to wear the blue and gold is, and should be, a life changing experience.
DONOR IMPACT
20 38 40
summer-student internships funded by benefactors
New Rockne AD Circle Memberships
14% 2,400 $26.9
of scholarships covered through the endowment (goal is to endow 100%)
2015-2016 ACADEMIC YEAR DONOR IMPACT BY THE NUMBERS
leadership gifts (commitments of $100,000 or greater)
donors to Rockne Heritage Fund
million raised for endowment purposes (highest in the ACC)
CAPITAL PROJECTS
Harris Family Track and Field Stadium
McConnell Family Boathouse Dedication
Basketball Practice Facility
Murphy Family Baseball Team Room
Four facility projects related to Notre Dame Athletics are either recently completed (McConnell Family Boathouse), under construction (Harris Family Track & Field Stadium and Murphy Family Baseball Team Room), or on the horizon (basketball practice facility). These spaces will create new homes and training spaces for eight Fighting Irish teams, and are constructed with an emphasis on building community and a commitment to excellence.
NEWS
WATCHND
TICKETS
supportND
CONTACT US: call (574) 631-1353 or email athletics advancement@nd.edu
BLEACHER REPORT
ADAM DONALDSON The Bleacher Report has been covering Notre Dame Football since mid-August. We had the chance to sit down and talk with Adam Donaldson, the Lead Producer/Director for Bleacher Report in its partnership with Notre Dame. Adam, can you briefly explain the partnership between Bleacher Report and Notre Dame. How did this all come about? Bleacher Report’s CEO and Founder, Dave Finocchio, is a Notre Dame graduate and has a great relationship with Jack Swarbrick. Dave spoke with Jack about what Bleacher Report could provide for Notre Dame from a social media perspective. This project was the first of its kind where we would be creating content specifically for our social media channels. We generate roughly 40 million social interactions per month across all of our platforms. What is Bleacher Report’s role on campus with the football team? What are you trying to accomplish? We are trying to tell celebratory stories about Notre Dame and its student-athletes. We want to use our skill set and platform to help push out meaningful content that resonates with our entire following, but is specifically targeted at a younger generation.
What is the dynamic of the Bleacher Report staff on campus? How many members are here in South Bend and what are the different roles on the team? We’ve got four members on our team: I produce and direct; Tom Filip is our lead cinematographer, senior editor, and assists with producing/directing; Matt Buckman is a cinematographer, editor, and will shoot and edit for us; George Gaza is a cinematographer and editor. He will shoot and edit for us as well. Who has been the funniest player on the team to work with or interview? I’ve got to give that award to senior defensive lineman, Jarron Jones. He’s always dancing and laughing. He’s got some pretty smooth moves too. And he’s an incredible athlete to watch on the field.
Who has been the funniest coach on the team to work with or interview? I’ve got to give this award to Jake Flint, the Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning. Jake is just awesome. His intensity is incredible and fits perfectly with what he’s trying to accomplish. He’s trying to motivate and mold these student-athletes into the strongest, fastest, and healthiest athletes he can, and it’s obvious he’s doing a great job. His intensity rubs off on everyone, including my staff and me. He’s always trying to get us in the weight room for a ‘pump!’ What has surprised you most about Notre Dame? I’ve heard about the atmosphere on game days at Notre Dame, but hearing and actually seeing is two different worlds. There is nothing like a game day at Notre Dame, period. Between the traditions, fan base, and exceptional campus, it’s something that is truly amazing and should be experienced by everyone at least once in their lives.
What has been the best moment working with the football team this far? The Brodie Smith Frisbee trick shot video shoot we did was hilarious. You were probably able to see the final product where all the players that were involved were actually catching the frisbees, but let’s just say we have a LOT of footage where frisbees were not caught. I think the guys had a great time doing something unique and different. It was awesome to get to show off all the different beautiful elements of campus.
Brodie Smith Trick Shot Video Brodie Smith Trick Shot Video
A Day in the Life of an ND Football Player
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STUDENT-ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT
DRUE TRANQUILL FOOTBALL
SAFETY
MAJOR: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING HOMETOWN: FORT WAYNE, IN DORM: SIEGFRIED HALL
JR.
Why did you decide to come to Notre Dame? Because it’s the perfect combination of faith, family, football and academics. Faith is a super important aspect of my life and Notre Dame gives you the opportunity to grow in your faith. Family – the people here are incredible and I’m close to my family which is really important to me (from Fort Wayne). I’m the oldest of five so I get to watch my siblings grow up. Why did you choose engineering? I chose it because I grew up loving to build things. My dad is an engineer and God gifted me with the understanding of math and science. I came here and thought I would try it and see how it worked out. It hasn’t always been easy though. I actually struggled with (my major) second semester freshman year. I always seemed to value relationships over my problem sets and I wasn’t sure engineering is really what I wanted to do. I felt gifted in engineering so I decided to finish what I’m called to do. It’s hard at times and challenging but it’s all worth it. What resource that ND offers to student-athletes has been most beneficial to you? So many. Honestly, as student-athletes you go through so many different seasons and ups and down and Notre Dame always seems to provide a resource for what I need at that time. Academic services my freshman year was amazing just getting adjusted to school. Second semester freshman year- SAAC (Student-Athletic Advisory Council) welcomed me in and helped me be a part of something bigger. Student Welfare and Development (SWD) and Rosenthal Leadership Academy (RLA) helped me interact with more student-athletes. Football operations (Like Chad and Ron) helps us getting engaged in the community. Building my resume with the student-athlete career center and the scooter service when I tore my ACL. All of it was amazing and all of it has helped me in my career here at Notre Dame thus far. What is the most unique opportunity ND Athletics has afforded you? Going to Israel. I got to study abroad for 3 weeks, take a theology class and be in a place that means so much to me with my faith and it has so much history. What has NDCA (Notre Dame Christian Athletes – the fellowship group run through Student Welfare and Development) been like for you? It’s been an incredible community to connect with student-athletes from other sports and I can connect spiritually with other athletes and it’s a time to come together be present and be still. It’s a vulnerable atmosphere and you realize sometimes you’re not the only one struggling. Everyone pretends they’ve got everything together here but none of us really do so it’s nice to have the time to be present with others and acknowledge that and be lifted up and strengthened by our faith through this community. What has been your favorite athletics memory so far at ND? I would say FSU in 2014 but we lost and that was devastating. However, it was such a great atmosphere during that game. It was a lot of fun. This other week after beating Syracuse was pretty memorable as well. We had such a great time in the locker room and it was so great to enjoy each other after a rough start to the season. We’ve had a lot of distractions with coaching personnel and rumors going around about Coach Kelly so it was really cool to come together as a family and just celebrate and have fun. People were dancing, laughing and crying. It was such a great locker room environment.
STUDENT-ATHLETE INTERNSHIPS There are 52 weeks in a year. For a Notre Dame student-athlete, most of these weeks are spent on-campus where he/she is either taking classes and studying, or is on the field playing in games or practicing. Weekday parties are replaced by late hours at the library. Long winter and spring breaks are replaced by quick holiday visits. And, maybe most importantly for a studentathlete’s future, the freedom to choose how to spend summer is replaced by off-season training and summer school. So what can be done to help prepare them for life after college? Enter the summer-internship program. With the support of generous athletics benefactors, this new area of focus provides aid and helps make it possible for student-athletes with stringent summer schedules to receive aid for shortterm, unpaid, or underpaid opportunities. Often times a student-athlete will only have a 3-6 week window to pursue their own personal goals outside of their sport, but when accepting a position for less than eight weeks, these student-athletes do not qualify for the primary aid opportunities through the Career Center. The gifts from our benefactors, however, make these opportunities a reality.
Isaac Rochell at Street Bean Coffee
This past summer, 20 student-athletes were given the chance to intern at companies around the country including but not limited to:
Bank of America Merrill Lynch BMO Harris Bank Boston University Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences Child Development Labs Bradford Woods Chicago Cubs Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Commonwealth Engineers, Inc. Compass Point Securities LLC Dee Physical Therapy E&J Gallo Winery Harper Cancer Research Institute Pricewaterhouse Coopers Street Bean Coffee Sylera HK Company Limited Under Armour Van Leeuwen & Company, LLC Vennli Wilson Sporting Goods Career Fair September 2015 Zephyr Graf-X
Additionally, the gifts will further on-campus career development through training, mentoring, and networking programs. Moving forward, there is an ongoing need for additional monies to support our student-athletes in their summer internship endeavors. We thank everyone who has helped support Irish athletes in this way.
FORMER STUDENT-ATHLETE NEWS
Day with the Cup Over the Nevada football weekend, former Irish hockey standouts Bryan Rust ‘14 and Ian Cole ‘11 brought the Stanley Cup to South Bend for a campus tour, taking pictures by Touchdown Jesus, the Golden Dome, and even saying a prayer with the Cup at the Grotto. Rust and Cole both played a key role in the Pittsburgh Penguins 4th Stanley Cup Championship during the 2015-2016 NHL season.
Irish in Rio Notre Dame qualified 10 current and former athletes for competition at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Four of those athletes came home with medals. Here is how the whole group fared:
MOLLY HUDDLE
MARIEL ZAGUNIS
MELISSA TANCREDI
After becoming the first woman to win both the 5,000 and 10,000 meter runs at the US Olympic Trials, Huddle broke the American record in her 10,000 meter run at the Olympics with a time of 30:13.17.
With a bronze medal as a member of the U.S. sabre squad, Zagunis earned her 4th Olympic medal, tying the record for most Olympic medals earned by an athlete with Irish ties.
Tancredi defeated Brazil in the third place game to earn a bronze medal. Her best game came against Germany where she scored both goals in a 2-1 victory during group play.
Track & Field, USA
Sabre, Fencing, USA
Soccer, Canada
LEE KIEFER
Foil, Fencing, USA Kiefer made a run all the way to the round of 16 in the women’s individual foil competition.
BUCKIE LEACH Fencing, USA
Leach and his two foil fencers, Nzingha Prescod and Lee Kiefer, both advanced to the round of 16 in the individual competition.
MARGARET BAMGBOSE Track & Field, Nigeria
Bamgbose ran a 51.92 in the semifinals of the 400-meter dash and placed seventh in her semifinal heat.
ANGIE AKERS
Beach Volleyball, Netherlands Akers and her team of Marleen van Iersel and Madelein Mappellnk had their Olympic run come to an end after a close 2-1 loss in the round of 16 to Switzerland.
NATALIE ACHONWA
Women’s Basketball, Canada Achonwa played in all six contests, averaging 5.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. Team Canada finished third in Group B with a 3-2 record.
KELLEY HURLEY- EPEE
GEREK MEINHARDT Foil, Fencing, USA
Meinhardt earned a bronze medal with the men’s foil team. In the individual competition, he posted two victories before falling in the quarterfinals.
AMANDA POLK Rowing, USA
Polk earned a gold medal in the women’s eight, posting a time of 6:01.49. It was the US women’s eight team’s 11th consecutive world/Olympic title.
Fencing, USA
Hurley helped the USA women’s epee team finish fifth overall. She was knocked out of the individual competition in the round of 32.
COURTNEY HURLEY- EPEE Fencing, USA
MONTY WILLIAMS
Men’s Basketball, USA
Williams won a gold medal with the USA men’s basketball team, who won gold for a third consecutive Olympic games.
Hurley, like her sister Kelley, helped the women’s epee team finish fifth overall, and was knocked out of individual action in the round of 32.