Athletics Director Greg Byrne's weekly email discussing Wildcat Athletics
February 8, 2012
CRITICAL LEADERSHIP
The Arizona Board of Regents announced yesterday that a finalist to succeed Dr. Gene Sander on a fulltime basis would be visiting campus February 13. We welcome Dr. Ann Weaver Hart from Temple University, and trust in the exhaustive search process undertaken by the search committee. Dr. Hart has been a positive force behind many institutional successes at Temple, including several moves that produced results for its intercollegiate athletics program. As ABOR announced, Dr. Hart is “the finalist” for the position and it’s expected that her visit is the penultimate step in introducing her as our new leader. Obviously, as one who reports directly to the university president, I’m eager to begin that new relationship. Welcome Dr. Hart to the University of Arizona!
PASSION
We talk all the time of how each of us can make a difference in moving our program forward. Well once again, each of you who attended the recent White Out men’s basketball game and ESPN College Gameday did just that. Take a look at the attached video that was put together by our excellent video production team. This will be another great opportunity to show the country that the passion and enthusiasm for Arizona Athletics is on a level few can match. Enjoy! http://youtu.be/UKLuFjS1YcY
SUCCESS ON THE LINKS
Congratulations to head coach Laura Ianello and our women’s golf team for winning the Wildcat Invitational and beating No. 1 UCLA by 12 strokes. Freshman Manon Gidali, the individual medalist, and the squad broke a few school records at the Golf Club at Vistoso Sunday-Tuesday. Gidali shot rounds of 67, 66 and 70 (204, -12), replacing Lorena Ochoa's previous school-record best of 206 (-10) from Trysting Tree Golf Club (Corvallis, Ore.) in 2001.
HI CORBETT OPENER
Our baseball team opens its season in its new home at Hi Corbett Field on February. 17. We sure hope you can join us as we embark on a new era. The spectator amenities will be second to none, major league quality, as we’ve discussed before. I’m giving you an extra week to plan so you can be there. The three-game series against North Dakota State starts with a 6:00 p.m. game Friday (February 17), which will include a postgame fireworks show! Also the first 4,000 fans will receive a free commemorative Opening Day collector’s ticket. Be there and wear the colors! Tickets are available at the McKale Ticket Office (520-621-CATS) and online atArizonaWildcats.com,
We’re giving fans another chance to get a sneak peek at the facility as baseball hosts a “Meet the Team” event this Friday night from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Fans can come down to the ballpark and watch the end of an intrasquad scrimmage, take a tour of the facility, and get autographs from the team. The student-athletes are very excited to meet the fans and show off their new home. Admission and parking are free for Friday’s “Meet the Team” event.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS
We have been finalizing our academic numbers from the fall semester and I want to congratulate our student-athletes, academic support unit (CATS Academics), coaches and faculty in what turned out to be a very successful semester! Take a look below at some of our highlights.
· Over 47% of UA’s student-athletes (214 of 452) earned a 3.0 or higher fall semester GPA
· Nearly 25% (109) earned a 3.5 or higher GPA
· 34 student-athletes earned a perfect 4.0 semester GPA
· Nine sport programs earned a 3.0 or higher team semester GPA
· 14 of UA’s 18 sport programs earned higher team GPA’s in fall 2011 compared with fall 2010
(Indoor and outdoor track rosters are considered 1 sport program – men’s track and women’s track represent 2 teams in the 18 total)
PAC-12 BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
March Madness is just around the corner and it starts with the 2012 Pacific Life Pac-12 Basketball Tournament. Once again the tournament is being held in Los Angeles at the Galen Center (women’s basketball) and Staples Center (men’s and women’s basketball). The tournament dates are March 7-10. Historically we have always had great support in LA, especially from our Southern California alumni. We hope to see you there again to cheer on our men’s and women’s basketball teams to a Pac-12 Tournament Championship and an automatic spot in the NCAAs. The deadline to order all-session tickets is rapidly approaching (February 15). Call the McKale ticket office at 520-621-CATS or order online at ArizonaWildcats.com.
A LOOK AT ALUMNI LETTERWINNERS
This past Sunday was a big day for two of our Alumni Letterwinners and on one of the biggest stages in the world, the NFL Super Bowl. As many of you already know, alumni football tight end Rob Gronkowski had a breakout season with the New England Patriots. What you might not know is there was another alumni Arizona football player involved with the Super Bowl. Former offensive lineman Tom Quinn is the special teams coordinator for the New York Giants. Unfortunately one letterwinner had to win and one had to lose. Congratulations to Coach Quinn on the Super Bowl victory in an exciting and hard fought game!
If you’re an Alumni Letterwinner, please note the deadline to complete the A-Club Alumni Letterwinner online survey is February 13. Your feedback is important to us, please click here to participate.
SCHEDULE NOTES…
Read on, it’s February and that means a full slate of action by most of our programs… Bear Down!
The men’s basketballteam, fresh off its sweep of the Bay Area schools, defends the home court this week with games at 7:00 p.m. Thursday against Colorado and at noon Saturday against Utah. Thursday’s game is on ESPN and the Saturday contest on FSN, but we don’t just need whiteouts – we want SELLOUTS. Get your tickets at ArizonaWildcats.comand help us keep McKale the best and toughest basketball venue in the league!... The women’s basketball team takes the mirror trip, to Colorado on Thursday and to Utah on Saturday… Help our gymnastics team square the mark in the State Farm Territorial Cup Series in its home meet in McKale Center against ASU at 7:00 p.m. Friday. We dropped an earlier match in Tempe. Tickets are available online at ArizonaWildcats.com… Our softball team opens its season on the road in Tempe at the Kajikawa Tournament, with one game Thursday, two games Friday, two games Saturday (all five of those at the Tempe Sports Complex) and one game Sunday at Farrington Stadium. Check the schedule for game times and take the drive north… Women’s tennis plays San Diego State at 10:00 a.m. Saturday at the Robson Center on campus… Men’s tennisplays a pair of matches in Minneapolis Friday and Saturday… Ourswimming and diving teams will compete at a non-T-Cup dual meet in Tempe at 1:00 p.m. Saturday…Men’s and women’s track and field will split for meets in Boise, Seattle, Fayetteville, Ark. and New York on Friday and Saturday… Men’s golf gets the week off after winning its own Arizona Intercollegiate the last time on the links…
AMAZING COLORS
Red and blue (and white) are really nice colors. Don’t forget to wear them at every opportunity, like maybe around the world! Contestant Art Velez (below) shows some allegiance with his outfit and sidekick J.J. Carrell as they prepared for the new season of CBS-TV’s “Amazing Race” show. This could be a great opportunity for Art to take our colors across the globe all by himself and, of course, put them on national TV for all to see…
Two-year-old Jaelin Johnson poses with Wilma while supporting our women’s basketball team. Jaelin attends every game with her mom Deborah!
Below are 1968 alumni of The University of Arizona, who met as members of the then Phi Lambda Phrateres. Friends for 47 years, they took a trip to NYC in celebration of their 65th birthdays.Seen here in front of the 9/11 Memorial are ( from right to left) Delann (Kurner) DeBenedetti, Helenmaree (Archbold) Schneider, Mary (Reilly) Grady and Diane (Hourscht) Penning.
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