View from the Corner Office
11/11/2009 4:00:00 PM | Athletics
Well, we are in full swing with another athletic season underway, and two months in, it has already been an exciting year. One of the biggest announcements we made was about our decision to move the annual Battle of the Piney Woods to Reliant Stadium in Houston. I first want to take this time to thank everyone involved for making this happen. I appreciate the positive comments from fans and everyone for understanding what we are trying to accomplish. As with anything, there is anxiety about change and we know you have some concerns, but this gives us a great opportunity to really build a university community event in the Houston area.
The main reason behind this move is the presence of our large alumni base in Houston. We are always trying to break that barrier in the Houston market from a media standpoint. With the announcement at Reliant Stadium, I think we saw a glimpse of what this game can accomplish. We had media coverage there from three of the four major television stations in Houston as well as a good presence in the Houston Chronicle, which is very important to us.
This also ties into what we are trying to accomplish with Bearkat Champions. With our initiative in moving our program forward; especially in football, baseball and basketball, these types of events are critical to the success of Bearkat Champions. It is extremely important that our fans and alumni step up and support this event at a higher level.
The Lone Star Sports and Entertainment group and the Houston Texans thought this game was important and wanted to be associated with it. We hope our incredible fan base feels the same way and we see that commitment in the form of orange shirts next October at Reliant.
This also goes into what we talked about with scheduling last time. We have announced our 2010 schedule will have Baylor on it and in 2011 we will play Texas A&M again. Who we schedule, where we schedule and when are all a big part of the success of our program and we look at all factors involved when scheduling opponents.
Quite a deal
With basketball season about to officially get underway, I wanted to also remind you about a great opportunity we are giving fans for the next three days. We will have tickets for sale online only for one dollar to any men's and women's game in November and December.
This is not to devalue our product, but this is an encouragement to get people to come to our nonconference games and build some momentum heading into the most important part of our season, Southland play. A few years ago we started using an online ticketing system, and while we always have tickets available for purchase at our ticket office, we want to encourage our fans to go online to make their ticket purchases. That is why this offer is only available online.
Ladies getting the job done
It has been a great fall for two of our women's sports this season. The volleyball team is in the hunt for a Southland Conference title and the soccer team had its highest Southland finish ever.
The volleyball coaches and team have done a tremendous job this season. With some of the turmoil and losses this program has had and with the addition of new people coach Gray and staff have created a positive environment. They will be wrapping up the regular season this weekend and then will be at the Southland Tournament next week in San Antonio and we wish them the best of luck.
The soccer team just got back from its postseason tournament where they advanced to the semifinals for just the second time in the program's short history. The Kats did it with a flair for the dramatic, scoring a goal with 13 seconds left against UTSA to force overtime and then getting a late goal in overtime to beat the Roadrunners.
Tom Brown has done a great job with this program in such a short amount of time and I am looking forward to more success from him and this team, as the Bearkats look to become one of the teams to beat in the Southland.
Special Bearkat
I want to take this time to recognize a very special athlete in our track and field program. Cody Stark had a great article a while back in the Huntsville Item about Julius Michael, a distance runner on the men's team, reconnecting with is family in Sudan after leaving them 12 years ago. Last month, Julius took his citizenship exam and officially became a citizen of the United States. What he has gone through to get himself to this point is truly a remarkable story. We get worked up about a lot of things in athletics from time to time, but when you see a story like this, it reminds you of why we got into the business to begin with.
