Athletics 2016–17 ANNUAL REPORT ON THE COVER (from lower left) national championship Lee Kiefer 4 NCAA individual titles Anna Rohrer 4 ACC individual titles in 2016–17

ON THE BACK COVER (from lower left) Kanaley Award winners: Perkovic (top left) Olmsted (top right) Robinson (bottom) Kiefer (center)

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME INSIDE Letter from Fall Sports 01 48 48 Football 48 Soccer (M) Year in Review 49 Soccer (W) 49 Cross Country (M) 02 3 Academics 49 Cross Country (W) 6 Alumni Updates 50 8 Athletics Advancement 10 Community Commitment Winter Sports 12 Compliance 13 Facilities 50 50 Basketball (M) 15 Honors and Awards 51 Basketball (W) 18 Marketing 51 Hockey 21 Media 52 & (M) 23 Mendelson Fund 53 Swimming & Diving (W) 24 Monogram Club 53 Track & Field, Indoor (M) 26 Sport Performance 53 Track & Field, Indoor (W) 28 Student Welfare and Development 54 Fencing (M) 47 NACDA Cup 54 Fencing (W) 60 By the Rankings 61 Championship Events Spring Sports Headed to Notre Dame 62 NCAA Update 55 55 55 Softball 56 Tennis (M) Features 56 Tennis (W) 32 32 Shining Light of the Irish 57 Lacrosse (M) Camelot Has Flickered Out 57 Lacrosse (W) 34 Irish Head Coaches: 58 (M) They Are Notre Dame 58 Golf (W) 36 Corey Robinson: Way More Than Meets the Eye 58 Track & Field, Outdoor (M) 38 Lee Kiefer: Best of the Best 58 Track & Field, Outdoor (W) 40 Jessica Harris: Making 59 Rowing Mom Proud 42 Kanaley Winners Go Above and Beyond 44 Replay: NCAA Title in My Eyes

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT SEASONS IN REVIEW

JACK SWARBRICK VICE PRESIDENT, James E. Rohr Director of Athletics

iv Today, the common narrative that surrounds All of our Irish winter sports teams—in insists that the pursuits of men’s and women’s basketball, hockey, excellence in academics and athletics are men’s and women’s swimming and diving, incompatible. This cynical view insists that men’s and women’s indoor track and field, today’s student-athletes are not really stu- and fencing—either qualified for the NCAA dents at all, but are instead a kind of semi- bracket or otherwise scored points in the professional athlete whose only interest is NCAA Championship. In fact, Notre Dame honing their athletic skills. was the only team in the country to appear in NCAA brackets in both men’s and At the University of Notre Dame, we reject women’s basketball and hockey. that cynical view. We reject it not merely as a matter of philosophy, but more impor- All of the success stories of the past year tantly as a matter of practice. To be more have at their foundation the instruction, precise, the students who participate in encouragement and counsel provided by varsity athletics at Notre Dame offer com- the remarkable educators who coach at pelling evidence—every day and in every Notre Dame. The contributions of these way—that elite level athletics can be fully talented men and women were brought into integrated into the educational mission of a focus as we marked the passing of Notre great university. Consider just a few of these Dame coaching legend and examples from this past year: celebrated the news that Muffet McGraw had been selected for induction to the Nai- Senior Lee Kiefer (UND.com/Kiefer17) led smith Basketball Hall of Fame. Both Ara and the way to Notre Dame’s NCAA champion- Muffet produced championship teams and ship in fencing by winning her fourth NCAA All-Americans, but both would also be quick individual title in and also achieving the to tell us that their greatest achievements can No. 1 ranking in the world in her event. be found in the impact they had on the lives Sophomore Anna Rohrer (UND.com/ of the young men and women they taught. Rohrer17) captured four individual ACC That is what the business of athletics is titles in 2016–17—one in cross country, one at the University of Notre Dame—great in indoor track and field and two more in coach-educators changing the lives of distance events outdoors. talented student-athletes for the better. These individual stories of success are the And that is what we will continue to do foundation of another year of team success because “We Are ND!” at Notre Dame: The fencing team won the combined men’s and women’s NCAA title, accomplish- ing that feat in extraordinary fashion in terms of margin of victory. Jack Swarbrick Jeff Jackson’s hockey team advanced to Vice President the NCAA Frozen Four—and Muffet James E. Rohr Director of Athletics McGraw’s women’s basketball team won a fourth straight Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title and ACC Tournament crown on its way to an NCAA regional title-game appearance.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 1 YEAR IN REVIEW YEAR IN REVIEW 2016–17

2 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME ACADEMICS

athletes at 97 percent (with Stanford) and tied for fourth among black student- athletes at 90 percent (behind Stanford at 95, Duke at 94 and Northwestern at 91). In football, Notre Dame ranked sixth at 93. Notre Dame graduated 95 percent of all women competing in varsity athletics to rank second among its peer institutions based on the federal calculations (behind Stanford at 97). Among men, Notre Dame’s 87 percent federal rate was third (behind Stanford at 93 and Northwestern at 90). Notre Dame graduated 78 percent of its black student-athletes, ranking tied for fourth based on the federal rate, and Irish football players graduated at a 79 percent rate to rank tied for seventh.

For the 11th time in 12 years, Notre Dame Notre Dame wins 10th ranked No. 1 on a percentage basis in terms straight national title of number of GSR 100 scores, among all in graduation rates FBS schools. Eighteen of Notre Dame’s 22 men’s and Notre Dame in November claimed a share women’s programs posted GSR numbers of the 2016 national championship for that ranked them best in the nation within graduating student-athletes in all sports—in their sports—and 11 produced federal the process posting the top NCAA Gradu- graduation rates that led all FBS institutions. ation Success Rate (GSR) figure (98) for its student-athletes for the 10th straight Notre Dame research showed Irish student- year. The GSR number for all Notre Dame athletes in 2016 ranked No. 1 in three of 10 student-athletes rated the Irish first (tied sets of standings—ranking second in one with Stanford) among the football-playing other and third in two more. For the 10th institutions in the NCAA Football Bowl year in a row, Notre Dame led the nation in Subdivision (formerly Division I-A). The GSR categories for all student-athletes (at 2016 NCAA figures were based on entering 98) and female student-athletes (99). Notre classes from 2006 through 2009. Dame’s GSR figure for male student-athletes (this year at 97) ranked first for the seventh Notre Dame’s institutional research deter- time in eight years. mined additional academic highlights based on the NCAA-issued GSR and federal figures: In addition to its No. 1 GSR ranking for all student-athletes (98), Notre Dame finished Eighteen of 22 Irish athletic programs tied for first among female student-athletes analyzed posted GSR figures of 100 percent, at 99, tied for first among male student- and 10 produced federal rate 100 scores.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 3 YEAR IN REVIEW

02 Notre Dame 03 Three claim 04 2016–17 Academic among national NCAA postgraduate All-Americans leaders in NCAA APR scholarships Four Irish athletes won CoSIDA Aca- demic All-America honors in 2016–17: four-year numbers Two Notre Dame graduate soccer players, Evan Panken and Michael Shipp, as well as Drue Tranquill (football first team), junior, Twelve Notre Dame athletic teams former Irish football player and University Fort Wayne, , 3.74, mechanical earned 1,000 scores—more perfect student body president Corey Robinson, engineering scores than any other NCAA Foot- were all 2017 recipients of one of the *Lee Kiefer (women’s fencing, at-large first ball Bowl Subdivision school except NCAA’s most prestigious honors—an NCAA team), senior, Versailles, Kentucky, 3.65, one—in the annual set of Academic postgraduate scholarship. The scholarships science/pre-professional Progress Rate statistics issued in May are one-time, nonrenewable educational by the NCAA. grants of $7,500. Jonathan Fitzgerald (men’s fencing, at- large third team), junior, East Brunswick, Notre Dame’s number of perfect scores Panken became the first Notre Dame men’s New Jersey, 3.42, Arabic/peace studies of 1,000 has ranked either first or second soccer player to be recognized on the among all FBS programs for 12 straight ACC All-Academic Team in each of his four Jessica Harris (women’s track and field/ years. Leaders in the 2017 data were seasons, adding to his All-ACC third-team cross country third team), junior, Cock- Stanford (14), Notre Dame (12) and Boston performance in 2016. He graduated with eysville, Maryland, 3.84, theology College (11). a degree in pre-professional studies and * also a first-team selection in 2015 Four Notre Dame men’s teams—cross coun- Spanish from the College of Science in the try, fencing, soccer and tennis—registered spring of 2016. Panken will attend medical perfect 1,000 scores. Eight Irish women’s school at Northwestern University. teams—basketball, cross country, lacrosse, Shipp was a member of the Notre Dame softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track defensive corps and played a key role in all and field and volleyball—also earned perfect nine Irish shutouts during the 2016 season. scores. This marked the second year indoor A 2015 CoSIDA Academic All-America first- and outdoor track and field were combined team honoree, he graduated with a degree into one score. in pre-professional studies and Spanish Ten other Notre Dame teams produced from the College of Science in the spring scores of 988 or better: men’s ice hockey of 2016 and will attend medical school at (997), men’s track and field (996), men’s Georgetown. lacrosse (995), men’s swimming and diving Robinson graduated from the program of (994), baseball (994), men’s golf (993), liberal studies, added a minor in sustain- women’s rowing (992), women’s soccer ability and boasted a 3.836 cumulative (991), women’s fencing (990) and women’s grade-point average. A first-team Aca- golf (988). demic All-American in 2014, Robinson was Over 12 years’ worth of APR numbers, the a two-time Rhodes Scholar applicant and Irish men’s cross country team has earned a one-time finalist and served as a student 1,000 score every year. Notre Dame men’s assistant football coach for Notre Dame golf and men’s track and field have each in 2016 after a three-year career as a wide produced 11 perfect scores. Women’s tennis, receiver. He finished his career with 65 men’s fencing, men’s tennis, softball and catches for 896 yards and seven touch- women’s cross country all have earned eight downs and then served as Notre Dame’s 1,000 scores—while women’s fencing and student body president in 2016–17. women’s swimming and diving have earned six each. The NCAA also recognized teams that posted multiyear APR scores in the top 10 percent of all squads in their respective sports with public recognition awards. Notre Dame had 14 of its programs honored for the multiyear achievement (second most among all FBS schools)—men’s cross coun- try, men’s fencing, men’s lacrosse, men’s soccer, men’s tennis, men’s track and field, women’s basketball, women’s cross country, women’s lacrosse, softball, women’s swim- ming and diving, women’s tennis, women’s track and field and volleyball.

4 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 05 Four earn ACC postgraduate scholarships Notre Dame senior women’s fencing standout Lee Kiefer, senior women’s soccer player Kaleigh Olmsted and former Irish football player Corey Robinson were among 54 student-athletes selected for the Weaver-James-Corrigan Awards, part of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s postgradu- ate scholarship program. Irish senior men’s lacrosse mid- fielderSergio Perkovic was among nine individuals chosen as Weaver-James-Corrigan Honorary Award recipients. The Weaver-James-Corrigan 06 Adams wins cial needs from 2011–14, a NICU and pediatric postgraduate scholarships therapy volunteer at the St. Joseph Regional are presented to selected Fulbright grant Medical Center and a member of the Wash- ington Trails Association, a hiking group that student-athletes who intend Irish women’s soccer goalkeeper Kiley Adams, advocates for environmental issues. She was a to pursue a graduate degree a 2017 Notre Dame graduate, has spent her Sorin Scholar and part of an elite research group following completion of their academic career working on research to improve funded by Notre Dame’s Flatley Center for Under- undergraduate requirements. people’s lives. She will continue that initiative in graduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE). She also Kiefer, Olmsted and Robinson 2017–18 as one of a record 38 University students worked as an undergraduate researcher in Notre received $5,000 toward their and alumni to have been awarded grants by the Dame’s Language Lab, conducting research on graduate education and were Fulbright U.S. Student Program. honored because they per- spoken language production and comprehension formed with distinction both Adams, a biological sciences major who joined in adults. the women’s soccer program as a sophomore in the classroom and in their The ACC annually names a scholar-athlete of after playing two seasons with Notre Dame’s respective sport while demon- the year in each of 27 sports—and Notre Dame club team, will study abroad in India next year. strating exemplary contact in had one of those selections in 2016–17: the community. The Edgewood, Washington, native has previ- ously received grants from Notre Dame to serve * Men’s Lacrosse—Sergio Perkovic The Weaver-James-Corrigan as an early intervention special educator in Vidya Honorary Award goes to those Notre Dame had 445 of its athletes named to Saga in Chennai, India, during the summers of the ACC Honor Roll for 2016–17, recognizing all student-athletes who plan to 2015 and 2016. pursue professional careers student-athletes who achieved at least a 3.0 in their chosen sports follow- Adams is a fourth degree black belt in Tae- grade-point average for the entire academic ing graduation. The Weaver- kwondo, is involved in several advanced research year. Only Duke with 489 had more among ACC James-Corrigan Award is initiatives and has been an advocate for envi- institutions. named in honor of the ACC’s ronmental issues, as well. She was a researcher first three commissioners, and volunteer at the Multicare Good Samaritan the late Jim Weaver and Bob Hospital Children’s Therapy Unit from 2009–15, a James and . TOPsoccer “buddy” coach for kids with spe- Corrigan served as director of athletics at Notre Dame from 1981–87). With this year’s four Notre Dame honorees, the Irish have produced 15 Weaver-James- Corrigan postgraduate schol- arship recipients in four years as a conference member.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 5 YEAR IN REVIEW

ALUMNI UPDATES

Bob Crable, a two-time a 12-10 Irish victory over the extension to the Heisman University Board of Trustees consensus All-America sixth-ranked Wolverines in Trophy’s greater outreach to members elected in May, filling linebacker in football at Notre Ann Arbor. He now works in athletes who are providing one of two spots designated for Dame and the most prolific commercial real estate with opportunities to those less recent graduates. Tucker tackler in Irish history, was Capital Real Estate Partners in fortunate. Page received his earned a bachelor’s degree in named to the National Football Cincinnati while also serving as award at the 82nd Annual accountancy from Notre Dame Foundation’s president of the Crable Invest- Heisman Memorial Trophy Gala in 2014 and is a consultant for Hall of Fame Class of 2017. With ment Group. He’s also president Dec. 12, 2016, in New York City. McKinsey & Company. She is 46 former players and six of the Crable Foundation, which one of the most decorated Justice Page added to his former coaches selected, Notre helps fund education oppor- student-athletes in University list of honors in June when Dame boasts more honorees tunities for student-athletes of history, capped by her selection Minneapolis’ Ramsey Middle than any other school in the team sports to attend Catholic in 2014 as NCAA Woman of the School was renamed Justice country. schools. Year—the­ first from Notre Dame Page Middle School. Students and the first women’s soccer Crable will be inducted with the Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion had campaigned to remove player from any university. entire 2017 class Dec. 5, 2017, in added three banners to the the name of Alexander Ramsey, New York City. The 2017 class rafters in 2016–17—with David who had a résumé that included The Jacksonville, Florida, native also will be recognized at the Rivers in men’s basketball and stints as the first governor of helped the Fighting Irish to four National Hall of Fame Salute Niele Ivey and Beth Cunning- the Minnesota Territory and consecutive NCAA Champion- at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl ham (both current Irish the state’s second governor, ship berths during her career in Atlanta following the 2017 assistant coaches) in women’s from 1860 to 1863, a period (2010–13), including the 2010 season. Crable will be honored basketball joining the Ring that included the Dakota War national title and a spot in during an on-campus salute at of Honor. in southern Minnesota. the 2012 NCAA quarterfinals. the Notre Dame home football Tucker received the 2014 ACC When the former Irish star hit The Atlantic Coast Confer- game versus Temple in 2017. Scholar-Athlete of the Year his fifth home run of the 2017 ence each year names an ACC award and a 2014 NCAA Post- A two-time Irish captain under season on April 22, it marked Legends Class to be honored graduate Scholarship. She also head coaches the eighth of Trey Mancini’s at the ACC Men’s Basketball was a first-team Capital One (Crable played for him in 1978– young MLB career with the Championship—and in 2017 Academic All-America selection 79–80) and Gerry Faust (Crable Baltimore Orioles. According to the former Irish player feted in 2012 and 2013, making her played his senior season under STATS, LLC, with eight homers was Gary Brokaw. only the 15th Notre Dame stu- him in 1981), Crable led the Irish through his first 17 career Former Irish hockey players dent-athlete in school history in total tackles in three straight games, Mancini tied the major Bryan Rust and Ian Cole both to earn first-team Academic seasons—in 1979 with a Notre league record for most all-time played key roles as the 2017 All-America honors twice. Dame single-season record 187, through 17 career games. He NHL Pittsburgh Penguins won in 1980 with 154 and in 1981 with joined ’s Carlos Delgado Former Notre Dame and the Stanley Cup for the second 167 (plus two interceptions). (1993–94) and Colorado’s Pittsburgh Steeler standout year in a row, this time defeat- Crable joins fellow linebackers Trevor Story (2016). He also tied running back Jerome Bettis, a ing the Nashville Predators. Manti Te’o (2010–11–12) and Bob the MLB mark with seven home Pro Football Hall of Fame Olson (1967–68–69) as the only runs in his first dozen games. Former Irish basketball enshrinee in 2015, was inducted Irish players to lead Notre Dame All-American Pat Garrity was into the Chicagoland Sports The Heisman Trophy Trust in tackles in three consecutive named to the Colorado Springs Hall of Fame in September named former Notre Dame campaigns (tackle statistics go Sports Hall of Fame as part of 2016. Bettis received the Gale football All-American, College back through the 1956 season). its class of 2017. Sayers Lifetime Achievement and Pro Football Hall of Famer Award. His season tackle totals in 1979 and retired Minnesota Supreme Former Irish football captain (187) and 1981 (167) remain the Court Justice as the and current Dallas Cowboys The Notre Dame men’s two best single-season marks 11th Heisman Humanitarian offensive guard Zack Martin soccer team in May held its in Notre Dame history. Crable Award winner. The award was earned All-Pro honors after the alumni weekend to celebrate was a mainstay of the 1980 Irish given in recognition of Page’s 2016 season for the second the 40th anniversary of the defense that ranked fourth in tireless efforts in assisting time in three years and was program gaining varsity status. the country in total defense students of color in furthering selected to the 2017 NFL Pro The Notre Dame Monogram (213.2 yards allowed per game), their education. Not only does Bowl for the third straight year. Club hosted a brunch for the 50 fifth in scoring defense (10.1 the Heisman Trust honor the Meanwhile, Minnesota Vikings former players who returned for points) and eighth in both rush- most outstanding college safety Harrison Smith was the weekend events, which ing (109.8 yards) and passing football player each year, but it chosen to the 2017 Pro Bowl included the program’s annual defense (103.0 yards). Crable also provides for underprivi- first team, his second straight awards banquet and an alumni was perhaps best known for leged and underserved youth Pro Bowl selection. game inside the Loftus Center. his field-goal block with six communities throughout the Former Notre Dame women’s The weekend also featured the seconds remaining against nation. The Humanitarian soccer standout Elizabeth current squad posting a 5-0 Michigan in 1979 that preserved Award was created as an Tucker was one of five new victory over the under-

6 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 18 national team in front of a children. As the foundation’s 01 capacity crowd at Alumni president, Parseghian has In memoriam Stadium. helped raise more than $45 Former Notre Dame student-athletes and coaches who passed million over two decades for Former Irish football away in 2016–17 included: research. In 2013, Parseghian standouts Dave Casper and was elected to Notre Dame’s Dick Erlenbaugh, 1965 Tom Hawkins, 1959 gradu- Mike Golic were named to the Board of Trustees. Parseghian graduate, 1963–64 Irish men’s ate, two-time Irish men’s Mike Ditka Gridiron Greats Hall received an honorary degree basketball captain basketball All-American, Notre of Fame at a June event in Las from Notre Dame in 2009. Dame career rebounding leader Vegas benefitting the Gridiron Bill Fischer, 1949 graduate, Greats Assistance Fund and Former Irish women’s tennis 1947 and 1948 consensus All- Ara Parseghian, Notre After the Impact Fund. The star Quinn Gleason checked off American in football, 1948 Dame head football coach GGAF’s mission is to assist a major box within the first year Outland Trophy winner, 1983 1964–74 (95-17-4 record), 1980 dire-need retired NFL players of her professional tennis career College Football Hall of Fame National Football Foundation who were pioneers of the game in June, claiming her first inductee, 1982 Notre Dame College Football Hall of Fame and who have greatly contrib- professional title at the ITF Villa Monogram Club president inductee uted to the NFL’s popular del Dique event in Argentina. A Ralph Guglielmi, 1955 Ailish Sheehan, 2015 status. Services include medical 2016 graduate, Gleason assistance, transportation costs defeated three seeded oppo- graduate, 1954 unanimous graduate, Notre Dame rower, for medical evaluations and nents in five matches, including All-America quarterback, 2001 2017 World University Champi- surgeries, dental assistance, No. 1 seed Victoria Bosio of College Football Hall of Fame onship bronze medalist inductee housing assistance, financial Argentina in the title match. Tom Suddes, 1971 graduate, assistance for utilities, medica- After dropping the first set to longtime coach tion and coordination of Bosio in the championship and referee services for food and other match, Gleason came back to day-to-day necessities. The win 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-2. mission of After the Impact Former Notre Dame basket- Fund is to facilitate comprehen- 02 ball standout Monty Williams 2016–17 Irish draftees sive treatment and provide a received the inaugural Sager support network for military BASEBALL HOCKEY (JUNE 23) Strong Award June 26 at the veterans, professional athletes National Hockey League NBA Awards in New York City. and their families. RHP : D Nick Leivermann: 7th round Now vice president of basket- 4th round Colorado Avalanche (187th Three former Notre Dame ball operations for the San (121st pick) pick) football all-stars—tight end Antonio Spurs, Williams lost his LHP Sean Guenther: 7th round D Matt Hellickson: Mark Bavaro, wide receiver/kick wife Ingrid (also a Notre Dame 7th round Miami Marlins (209th pick) returner Raghib Ismail and graduate) in a car accident in New Jersey Devils (214th pick) offensive tackle Aaron Taylor— February 2016 in Oklahoma RHP Brad Bass: 7th round F Anders Bjork: appeared on the 2018 National City. The award is named after Detroit Tigers (215th pick) 5th round, 2014 Football Foundation’s College Craig Sager, longtime TNT/TBS RHP Brandon Bielak: Boston Bruins (signed in Football Hall of Fame Football sideline commentator who lost 11th round May 2017) Bowl Subdivision (formerly his battle to leukemia in Decem- Houston Astros (331st pick) G Cal Petersen: 5th round, NCAA Division I-A) ballot. The ber 2016. RHP Evy Ruibal: 16th round 2013 Buffalo Sabres (signed ballot contained names of 75 A three-time Irish tennis Los Angeles Dodgers (490th with Los Angeles in July 2017) players and six coaches vying All-American from 2004–06, pick) for induction. MEN’S LACROSSE Catrina Thompson was named C Ryan Lidge: 20th round Major League Lacrosse For her years of selfless, head women’s tennis coach at New York Yankees (602nd pick) MF Sergio Perkovic: 1st round dedicated service to Notre the University of Minnesota in Boston Cannons (2nd pick) Dame and to those struggling June 2017. Thompson, who WOMEN’S BASKETBALL with rare diseases, Cindy owns the Notre Dame record Women’s National Basketball D Garrett Epple: 2nd round Parseghian, class of 1977, for doubles wins at 104, had Association Atlanta Blaze (18th pick) PG Lindsay Allen: 2nd round received the prestigious 2017 been an Irish assistant coach WOMEN’S LACROSSE New York Liberty (14th pick) Sorin Award in June from the from 2014–17. United Women’s Lacrosse Notre Dame Alumni Associa- Former Irish distance star FOOTBALL League tion. Established in 1965, the Molly Huddle in June won the National Football League A Cortney Fortunato Rev. Edward Frederick Sorin, 10,000-meter run at the USATF QB DeShone Kizer: 2nd round Long Island Sound C.S.C., Award is conferred on a Outdoor Championships in Browns (52nd pick) Notre Dame graduate who has MF Casey Pearsall Sacramento for the third offered distinguished service to DL Isaac Rochell: 7th round Long Island Sound straight year. That qualified her the University. Parseghian is Los Angeles Chargers (225th for the IAAF World Champion- MEN’S SOCCER president of the Ara Parseghian pick) ships in August in London. Major League Soccer Medical Research Foundation. Huddle has won six USATF D Brandon Aubrey: 1st round She and her husband, Michael titles in her career. Toronto FC (21st pick) Parseghian (also class of 1977), started the foundation in 1994 to find a cure for Niemann-Pick Type C disease, a rare and fatal genetic disorder that claimed the lives of three of their four

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 7 YEAR IN REVIEW

ATHLETICS ADVANCEMENT

01 Shaping the such as summer internships, A $600,000 scholarship “Our gift to endow a lacrosse study abroad experiences and endowment was established scholarship is an expression future of men’s sports performance initiatives. by an alum in honor of former of our gratitude to Notre Dame player and current academic Like the ceremonial bagpiper and to Coach Corrigan for his lacrosse adviser Adam Sargent. leading the team onto the field exemplary and long-standing When you consider Kevin Cor- of competition, men’s lacrosse 209 gifts were made to leadership of the men’s lacrosse rigan’s 30-year tenure, it’s not is leading the way in its charge men’s lacrosse on ND Day program. It is a privilege to surprising to see the alumni, to create permanent and totaling $13,030, which led to give back and to help ensure family and friends of Irish growing resources. It began the lacrosse program also that the program will have the lacrosse acting as pioneers in with the endowment to create receiving $10,700 in ND Day necessary resources to always their philanthropic support of the Baumer Family Head Men’s challenge funds. the program. The program’s compete at the highest level Lacrosse Coach in 2015. Con- standard of excellence has The impact of these gifts is while upholding the academic sider the following support in always extended beyond the substantial in helping Cor- and spiritual values that make the past year: playing field. rigan’s program provide 12.6 Notre Dame unique.” An endowment was scholarships. Endowment In 2015 Notre Dame launched established to fund an funds ensure these resources KEVIN AND KATHLEEN an initiative designed not assistant coach position. will continue to be in place O’CONNOR only to impact today, but forever, protecting the pro- also—even more importantly— Kevin (’91) and Kathleen gram from financial risk and firmly establish a bright O’Connor created the making certain Notre Dame future for Irish teams and O’Connor Family Scholarship, has what it needs to provide student-athletes. Through this which will fully endow a the nation’s best student-ath- endeavor, Notre Dame athlet- grant-in-aid. lete experience. ics has received 56 endow- An endowment was ments in the last three years. established by an anonymous Thirty-three of those support alum, which will fully endow a endowed grants-in-aid, while grant-in-aid. 23 others fund opportunities

8 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 03 FY17 progress toward top priorities Endowing Grants-in-Aid (Scholarships): 8 new endowed GIAs Endowing Coaches and Excellence: 8 new endowments for excellence and coaching positions Rockne Heritage Fund: $4.5 million in funds raised to support scholarships and general budget (15.5 percent increase)

04 Did you know benefactors 02 Rockne made possible... Heritage Fund 24 laptops for underprivileged student-athletes to use AD Circle 17 aid packages for unpaid internship opportunities The Athletics Director’s 40 personal experiences (one for each student) participating in Circle is the premier athletics ND Christian Athletes annual giving level at Notre Dame. Gifts of $25,000 or 2 international travel experiences for teams more to the AD Circle (part 150 wearable GPS devices for training of the Rockne Heritage Fund), provide Notre Dame 2 Irish Invasion camps for Notre Dame Football to recruit top vice president and James E. talent Rohr athletics director Jack 2 medical devices, including a balance testing system for Swarbrick flexible funds to concussion protocol and a portable ultra-sound machine address new initiatives and critical budget needs. Mem- bers are privy to experiences that include elevated ticket and parking status for football, special weekends on campus and unique opportunities away from campus such as this year’s VIP Experience at the PGA Championship. In the past year membership in the AD Circle has grown to 72 benefactors. Their gifts have been a driving force in growing the Rockne Heritage Fund to more than $4 million annually, a 120 percent increase from just three years ago.

05 for international travel or new Notre Dame equipment. This year, athletics Day programs received 1,046 gifts totaling $40,611. The donor In its fourth year, the Univer- voting provided athletics an sity’s Notre Dame Day event additional $56,898 from the has emerged as a tremendous $1 million challenge fund. The asset for special projects of top five programs ranked Irish teams. Most programs by donor participation were use the celebratory fundrais- men’s lacrosse, men’s soccer, ing event to reach out to fencing, women’s soccer and alumni, family and friends rowing. regarding needs such as funds

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 9 YEAR IN REVIEW

COMMUNITY COMMITMENT

The community commitment division in the department of athletics extends the Holy Cross mission and the impact of collegiate sport through service to and engagement of others. The three primary focuses include 1) annual signature initiatives aligned with the athletics department pillars of community, excellence, education, tradition and faith, 2) an emphasis on collaborative initiatives to advance other department and University outreach projects, and 3) a facility outreach initiative, which centers on maximizing use of Notre Dame athletic facilities for community engagement on multiple levels.

01 Academy, Lincoln Primary Education Signature Center, Harrison Primary Cen- Extra Yard for ter and St. Adalbert Catholic initiatives Teachers School participated in the pro- Excellence 2016 marked the gram. Each principal selected second consecutive Summer Camps a student from his/her school year Notre Dame Notre Dame’s sports camps who demonstrated academic Olympic gold medalist, served athletics partnered continue to promote excel- excellence, a positive atti- as keynote speaker. Paqui Kelly, with the College Football lence in athletic performance tude, high moral character wife of Irish head football coach Playoff Foundation in the by extending learning oppor- and excellent attendance. Brian Kelly, also spoke to the Extra Yard for Teachers initia- tunities to youth across the Each student was recog- students about her experience tive. Notre Dame was one of country and in the Michiana nized in front of an assembly as an educator and a first-gen- 74 schools that participated. community. The camp sessions of peers, principal, teachers eration college graduate. It was a remarkable year as in 2016 included 10,139 partici- and parents. Irish student- 726 gifts were received from A total of $941,591 has been pants, 650 camp counselors, athletes Kristin Baer (volley- 683 individual donors, raising raised in the first two years of 18 sports and 56 individual ball), Robert Whitacre (men’s $399,476 directly benefiting engagement with the Extra sessions. In addition to bring- swimming), Alyssa Lanting, the Alliance for Catholic Edu- Yard for Teachers initiative. ing the community to campus, Reilly Lanigan, Molly Treble cation (ACE) program. In addi- In 2015 and 2016, a collabora- the camps poured $1,486,546 (women’s swimming), Patrick tion, Notre Dame raised $1,600 tive team effort earned Notre back into the local economy. Connolly, Mark Gormley, for public school programs via Dame athletics the No. 1 Mark Mishu and Nate Norman Camp Scholarships the Donors Choose website. ranking among all 74 schools (men’s soccer) presented the Camp scholarships—awarded The generous $100,000 match that participated. awards on behalf of Notre for a third consecutive year— received from the College Dame athletics. The cheer- went to a record seven local Football Playoff Foundation leaders and leprechaun also South Bend elementary school proved to be an added incen- Tradition participated in the celebration. students. Perley Fine Arts tive for benefactors. Gratitude Week These donations, coupled with Notre Dame student-athletes the match, resulted in a grand celebrated the legacy of for- Rev. total of $501,076 raised for mer University president Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. the 2016 EYFT initiative. In an , effort to promote and inspire during Gratitude Week, send- a culture that fosters a desire ing 261 thank you cards, mak- to attend college (one of the ing 703 phone calls and video four tenets of the initiative), a messages, thanking mentors, banner ceremony was con- donors, former Monogram ducted at St. Adalbert Catholic winners and other community School in South Bend. The members who have positively entire student body, faculty and impacted their collective col- staff participated—and Kate lege experience. Markgraf, a Notre Dame Mono- gram winner, national champion soccer student-athlete and

10 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Faith performed the opening athlet- 02 for student-athletes. Lou’s Lads ics department Mass and Rev. Athletics partnered with Bread Mass Cards Paul Doyle, C.S.C., presided of Life/Lou’s Lads Food Drive In order to provide support Collaborative over the Ash Wednesday Mass. supporting the Northern Indi- and prayers to intercollegiate initiatives ana Food Bank and helped col- athletics colleagues and Notre Sustainability The athletics department also lect over 1,800 items of food. Dame athletics family members Athletics is partnering with the partnered with various who have experienced difficult University’s Office of Sustain- department and campus STUDENT-ATHLETES, circumstances, loss or hard- ability to determine areas of entities to provide support to COACHES AND TEAMS opportunity going forward, ship, the office of community address immediate needs in Notre Dame’s 26 varsity teams examining current practices commitment created a special South Bend and nearby participated in 102 community relative to sustainability in athletics department Mass card. communities. Those efforts outreach activities, with 724 venues in line with Pope Since its inception a year ago, capture the community impact student-athletes perform- Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato more than 100 Mass cards the department, divisions, ing 9,964.5 hours of service. Si’” (Praise be to You). That have been sent to athletics teams and coaches have had The Irish softball team ranked collaboration will result in colleagues and members of due to their contributions. first in community outreach, the rollout of exciting activa- the Notre Dame family. One Those partnerships and efforts logging more hours than any tions in Mass per semester has been include: other varsity program. in 2017. In addition, they have designated to honor the FIGHTING IRISH FIGHTING participated in the Green ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT recipients. University president FOR FLINT Ambassador and Green Office DIVISIONS, STAFF MEMBERS Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame athletics part- Certification Program. nered with Catholic Charities of The Notre Dame Monogram Shiawassee and Genesee Club helped collect 37,000 counties to provide donations pounds of food for 1,500 San to Flint, Michigan, in order to Antonio families during the aid in the water crisis. 2016 Shamrock Series weekend in San Antonio. Over the last UNITED WAY two years, 47 Monogram Board Athletics participated in the members volunteered six hours United Way drive that raised in the Habitat for Humanity $280,963.68 for St. Joseph home build sponsored by the County. athletics department. FIGHTING IRISH FIGHTING HUNGER recorded more than 317,000 views of community-related Irish teams raised $30,570, stories on und.com. collected 500 pounds of food and provided 240,000 meals THE NOTRE DAME TICKET from all 26 varsity teams, Community to Michiana families. OFFICE provided 1,445 tickets athletics staff members from Habitat for Humanity to various Irish home athletics seven divisions and alumni HARPER CANCER The 2016–17 Habitat for events through the Vet Tix Monogram winners all rolled up RESEARCH INSTITUTE Humanity build was located on Foundation. their sleeves to build homes in Athletics established a part- St. Peter Street in South Bend, STUDENT WELFARE AND Notre Dame’s neighborhood nership with Harper Cancer just a few blocks from campus DEVELOPMENT hosted for families in need. A house Research Institute and collabo- and around the corner from multiple seminars, First Year blessing took place on April rated on a number of initiatives the inaugural build embarked Orientation and team work- 28 with athletics colleagues, including Coaches vs. Can- on three years ago. shops including 1,700 student- family, friends, neighbors, Rev. cer, Month of Hope, ND and athletes. Three years, three families, Mark Thesing, C.S.C., and Rev. USC Partners for a Cure and three houses … 600 volunteers Jim Bracke, C.S.C. potential summer internships comprised of student-athletes

03 Maximizing access to facility spaces Athletic Spaces Commencement During the course of the 2016–17 academic year, more than 1.3 Ten commencement ceremonies were held in the Compton Family million guests visited 24 Notre Dame athletics facilities. They par- Ice Arena, Joyce Center Fieldhouse, Purcell Pavilion, Rolfs Sports ticipated in everything from youth, club and varsity competitions, Recreation Center and Notre Dame Stadium over graduation week- summer camps, and the ND- Lixin Fencing Friendship end in 2017. The athletics department played host to more than Program, to coaches clinics, urban adventure games, planet and 5,500 graduates and 39,000 guests in those five facility spaces. the poor conferences, engineering teaching and mentoring work- shops, Masses, residence hall dances, banquets, wedding recep- tions, career fairs, luncheons, commencements and many other special events.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 11 YEAR IN REVIEW

COMPLIANCE

02 Time management leads the NCAA legislative agenda In January 2017, the 65 NCAA Division I institutions that are mem- bers of the five autonomy conferences (including Notre Dame as a member of the ACC) adopted comprehensive legislation to better manage time spent by student-athletes related to athlet- ics participation. The time management package, effective, Aug. 1, 2017, increased the number of days off for all student-athletes (to a minimum of one day per week in season, two days per week out of season and 21 additional days throughout the academic year) and redefine a “day off” to include not just direct athletics events, such as practice and competition, but anything required and related to athletics. Swarbrick and Bodensteiner again demonstrated the potential of LEAD1 to add value to its members with the creation of comprehensive educational materials in the area of time manage- ment. The materials were created by the 20-plus members of the LEAD1 Time Management Working Group, spearheaded by Bodensteiner and Notre Dame assistant athletics director Claire Leatherwood Slebonick, and were ultimately provided to all LEAD1 members to assist in implementation of the complex legislation.

01 In addition to the time management legislation, NCAA Division I Notre Dame continues members adopted comprehensive football legislation designed to leadership role in national benefit football student-athletes and prospective student-athletes, primarily in the area of recruiting. The new legislation creates an LEAD1 organization early signing period in December (to complement the February Notre Dame vice president and James E. Rohr director of athlet- signing period), mitigates the practice of hiring individuals associ- ics Jack Swarbrick continued to chair the Division 1A Athletic ated with prospects as a means of attracting the prospect, limits Directors Association in 2016–17. During the previous year, the the number of prospective student-athletes who can sign at an association named former Maryland and professional basketball institution in any given year to 25, makes permissible official visits standout, U.S. Congressman and Rhodes scholar Tom McMillen as in April of a prospect’s junior year and increased to 10 the number executive director and moved its headquarters from Dallas, Texas, of countable assistant coaches each institution may employ. to Washington, D.C. During 2016–17, under Swarbrick’s contin- The sport of lacrosse also took significant steps to improve ued leadership, the association embarked on a comprehensive recruiting. The NCAA Division I members adopted new legislation branding review and, as a result, changed its name to LEAD1. To designed to delay the verbal commitments of prospective student- assist the athletic director members of LEAD1 (who represent the athletes in men’s and women’s lacrosse. Lacrosse, like many other 129 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision schools), the association sports, has developed a culture where prospects routinely com- continues to provide increased resources in the areas of advo- mit to a university as freshmen in high school. The new legislation, cacy, legislative services and education, business analytics and which prohibits contact between coaches and lacrosse prospects professional training. To that end, Swarbrick loaned Notre Dame prior to September 1 of the prospect’s junior year in high school, senior associate athletics director Jill Bodensteiner to LEAD1 for could serve as a test case for similar legislation in other sports if it a two-month stint at headquarters in Washington, D.C., during the effectively eliminates “early recruiting.” summer of 2017. Bodensteiner’s work included the creation of a comprehensive, five-year summary of issues facing intercollegiate athletics that will serve as a strategic plan for LEAD1 and the creation of content for a September 2017 annual convention that will include LEAD1 members and several members of the Congress.

12 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FACILITIES

01 Notre Dame Stadium: even more an icon after all these years Irish football facility continues tradition of campus integration When the - designed Notre Dame Stadium opened for business in the autumn of 1930, it was described as “a monument to sportsman- ship, a tribute to fighting youth, and an amphitheater devoted to modern athletics.” Eighty-seven years later, the years, to the University’s Commencement ment of Psychology offices and classrooms newest version of the University’s home ceremony. Exactly 20 years ago, in 1997, on the third, fourth and fifth levels. Downes for football qualifies as all that and a whole it added 20,000 new seats to its resume. Club hospitality space is on the seventh and lot more. Now, in 2017, the stadium location includes eighth floors—and the ninth level includes a Long considered one of the most iconic three new structures on the east, west and press box and radio booths that opened in athletic facilities in the world, Notre Dame south sides, as well as extensive renova- 2016, as well as additional hospitality areas. Stadium in 2017 takes on a new role—not tions on the north end and major game O’Neill Hall on the south end is the home to only as a centerpiece of the University’s day improvements for fans throughout the Department of Music and Notre Dame campus and physical plant but also as one the venue. Those upgrades include wider Sacred Music. It includes LaBar Family of the most effective combinations and seats in the lower bowl, upgraded conces- Performance and Rehearsal Halls on the commitments to athletics, academics and sion and restroom facilities, a 1930s Art first floor, Michuda Family Visiting Artist student life anywhere in major college Deco look to the main concourse, plus new Rehearsal Hall as well as a lecture hall and sports. The stadium location now becomes displays at Gate C honoring Irish football music library on the third level and music a day-to-day destination for University award winners. departmental offices and practice rooms students, faculty and staff—representing Duncan Student Center on the west side on the fourth and fifth levels. South Club a perfect melding of old and new. includes Hagerty Family Café, Hiller Mid- hospitality space is on the fourth level. “The towering spire of the Church (the field Commons, Innovation Lounge and The north end features a renovated Notre Basilica of the Sacred Heart) above the several other new restaurants on the first Dame locker room and Schivarelli Lounge new wall, high as it is, carries with the cross floor; Grojean Family Loft, a student media dedicated to game day recruiting, plus a at its top the higher purpose of Notre center and climbing wall on the second new visiting team locker room and post- Dame to the surrounding campus. The floor; the Tripp and Sheila Smith Center for game media areas. The traditional tunnel golden Dome, surmounted by the figure of Recreational Sports on the third and fourth entrance for the Irish squad has been Our Lady, loses nothing through the … new level; and the Meruelo Family Career Cen- redone to include additional brickwork—and structure, but rather seems to include it in ter on the fifth floor. Dahnke Ballroom is on there’s a new visiting team field entrance at the embracing gesture of the holy hands the seventh level and Rasmus Family Club the northeast corner of the field. … . No one can come to the new Stadium is on level eight. The ninth floor includes without absorbing … this other, this deeper, various football game management and At the top of O’Neill Hall on the south end Notre Dame.” University hospitality booths—while NBC is a new Diamond Vision high-definition video board which is more than 54 feet That quotation came from an editorial in the Sports works from a new broadcast posi- high and more than 95 feet wide, with October 1930 Notre Dame Alumnus maga- tion on the seventh floor. more than 4.7 million physical pixels. zine—yet it couldn’t be more true today. Corbett Family Hall on the east side Dedications were slated for Duncan Stu- For nine decades Notre Dame Stadium includes the Rex and Alice Martin Digital dent Center Sept. 1, Corbett Family Hall has been home to national championship Media Center and Notre Dame Studios on Sept. 8 and O’Neill Hall Oct. 27. football teams, Heisman Trophy win- the first floor, Department of Anthropology ners and All-Americans—and, in recent facilities on the second floor and Depart-

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 13 YEAR IN REVIEW

01 New facilities McConnell Family Boathouse The McConnell Family Boathouse was dedicated on Sept. 9, 2016.

Harris Family Track & Field Stadium Phase one of the Harris Family Track and Field Stadium was completed in 2017; phase two is now funded and will com- mence in the coming years.

Murphy Family Team Room The Murphy Family Team Room was completed in June 2017.

14 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME HONORS AND AWARDS

01 Axel Kiefer Major ACC Men’s Fencing awards Fencer of the Year in Foil The Atlantic Coast Con- Ariel Simmons ference presents a series Men’s Fencing of major awards to top Fencer of the Year in Epee performers in each of 27 Lee Kiefer sports—and in 2016–17 Women’s Fencing eight of those awards went Fencer of the Year in Foil to these individuals from Notre Dame: Francesca Russo Women’s Fencing Brianna Turner Fencer of the Year in Saber Women’s Basketball Gia Kvaratskhelia Defensive Player of the Year Women’s Fencing Anna Rohrer Coach of the Year Women’s Cross Country Jon Gallagher Performer of the Year Men’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Year

02 Fighting Irish baseball team as Kaleigh Olmsted most ever by a Notre Dame O.S.C.A.R.S. an undergraduate. Women’s Soccer | Senior midfielder. He was a Tewaaraton Irish student-athletes, coaches The Woodlands, Texas Award nominee, Senior CLASS Lee Kiefer and administrators gathered to A three-year starter for the Award finalist, three-time first- Fencing | Senior celebrate their successes on the Irish, Olmsted capped her team All-American, three-time Versailles, Kentucky field, in the classroom and in solid Notre Dame career with All-ACC selection and a 2017 Kiefer made Notre Dame, col- the community the night after a four-goal, five-assist 2016 Weaver-James-Corrigan Award legiate, and American fencing spring semester classes ended campaign and was named to recipient. Perkovic was one of history in 2017, becoming the at the 16th annual O.S.C.A.R.S. the All-ACC first team, ACC the Irish team captains in 2017. first Irish student-athlete to win (Outstanding Student-Athletes All-Tournament Team and four individual national cham- Monica Robinson Celebrating Achievement & All-ACC Academic Team. A pionships in the same event Women’s Tennis | Senior Recognition Showcase) at captain in 2016, Olmsted made and just the third four-time Valley Center, Purcell Pavilion. Here’s a look her presence felt beyond the champion in collegiate fencing Robinson won 134 combined at the 2016–17 Notre Dame pitch as a two-time participant history. On the national level, singles and doubles matches O.S.C.A.R.S. award recipients: in Notre Dame’s Rosenthal she became the first Ameri- in her four years at Notre Leadership Academy and a BYRON V. KANALEY AWARD can women’s foilist to earn Dame, including a 73-48 member of the Student-Ath- Perhaps the most prestigious a No. 1 world ranking by the record in singles. She ranked lete Advisory Council. Olmsted honor awarded to Notre International Fencing Federa- as high as 10th nationally in was active in the community, Dame student-athletes, the tion. On top of her individual doubles, qualifying for the working on her own fundraiser Byron V. Kanaley Award has success, she helped lead the 2015 NCAA Doubles Champi- (called NoBody is Perfect) been presented since 1926 at Irish fencing squads to the onship while being named to benefitting the National Eating commencement exercises. It ninth national championship in the All-ACC third team that Disorders Association. goes to the senior monogram program history in 2017. As a same season. In 2017, she was athletes who have been most junior in 2015, she was named Sergio Perkovic honored as an All-ACC sec- exemplary as students and a first-team CoSIDA Academic Men’s Lacrosse | Senior ond-team selection. Robinson leaders, as selected by the All-American and the ACC Bloomfield Hills, Michigan was also a Rosenthal Leader- Faculty Board of Athletics. The Scholar-Athlete of the Year Perkovic in 2017 became the ship Academy participant awards are named in honor of (repeating that honor in 2017). seventh player in program and held a tri-captain spots a 1904 Notre Dame gradu- history to reach the 100-goal in 2016–17. ate who was a member of the milestone and finished with the

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 15 YEAR IN REVIEW

FRANCIS PATRICK appearance in program his- man of the Year and NFCA 40 goals and added 69 assists O’CONNOR AWARD tory. One of five finalists for National Freshman of the Year for 109 points, ranking tied for Notre Dame in 1993 began the 2017 Mike Richter Award, Top 3 finalist, Wester was just 42nd on Notre Dame’s career presenting the annual Fran- Petersen was selected to the the eighth two-time captain in points list. cis Patrick O’Connor Award, NCAA Northeast Regional all- Irish softball history (serving as Dana Bouquet named in honor of a former tournament team after posting the sixth solo captain in 2017). Softball | Senior Notre Dame wrestler who died wins over Minnesota and COMMUNITY CHAMPION Santa Maria, California in 1973 following his fresh- UMass Lowell. He finished the AWARD Bouquet was a three-time ACC man year at Notre Dame. The season with a 23-12-5 record This award was established to Academic Honor Roll recipi- award is presented, upon to go with a 2.22 goals-against recognize the contributions of ent and was a pivotal member nomination by their head average, a .926 save percent- Notre Dame student-athletes of Irish softball’s sweep of the coaches, to the student- age and six shutouts (tied for to the University community Trophy Award during her four- athletes who best display the most in the country). and the community at-large, in year Irish career. In addition total embodiment of the true Monica Robinson terms of embodying the spirit to all Notre Dame softball’s spirit of Notre Dame as exem- Women’s Tennis | Senior of leadership, commitment and community service initiatives, plified by their contributions Valley Center, California selflessness. including the annual Strike- and inspiration to their teams. Robinson was a four-year out Cancer event that helped Kiley Adams starter for the Irish, working her raise in excess of $200,000 to Lindsay Allen Women’s Soccer | Senior directly benefit pediatric cancer Women’s Basketball | Senior way up the lineup until reach- Edgewood, Washington patients, Bouquet traveled to Mitchellville, Maryland ing the top singles and doubles Adams joined the Irish as a the Dominican Republic over Allen set both Notre Dame and spots in 2017. She served as a sophomore goalkeeper after her 2016 fall break for a ser- ACC records as a senior for vice president of Pangborn Hall, playing two seasons with the vice trip at a local school and single-season (282) and career was a Dream Team member Notre Dame women’s soccer orphanage. (841) assists. She guided the with Madison Elementary club team. She was involved Irish to a fourth-consecutive School and was active with in several advanced research Jane Fennelly ACC regular-season title and Fighting Irish Fight for Life. initiatives and was an advocate Women’s Tennis | Senior a fourth straight ACC Cham- She also self-published her for environmental issues. She Rathmines, Ireland pionship crown, earning MVP own children’s book for her was a researcher and volunteer Fennelly was a solid contributor honors at the ACC Champion- Spanish minor. at the Multicare Good Samari- to the Irish lineup after arriv- ship with her event-record 33 Steve Vasturia tan Hospital Children’s Therapy ing on campus, most notably assists. The three-time Nancy Men’s Basketball | Senior Unit from 2009–15, a TOPsoc- in doubles where she amassed Lieberman Award finalist did Medford, New Jersey cer “buddy” coach for kids with a 47-37 record. To her credit not miss a start in her 149- Vasturia capped his career special needs from 2011–14, are many hours volunteering game Irish career, during which with the Irish as one of just two an early intervention special with Fighting Irish Fight for time she led the team to a 139- Notre Dame men’s basketball educator at Vidya Saga in Life, Habitat for Humanity, This 10 record. players to score 1,400 points, Chennai, India, during the sum- Counts, South Bend Center for Eva Niklinska dish out 300 assists and shoot mers of 2015 and 2016, a NICU the Homeless, Dream Team, Fencing | Senior 85 percent from the free-throw and pediatric therapy volunteer Perley Fine Arts Academy, Granger, Indiana line, joining Chris Thomas. In at the Saint Joseph Regional Bingo Night at Creekside Niklinska was a four-year 2016–17, he set the program Medical Center and a mem- Village Nursing Home, Notre starter and Monogram recipi- single-season record for free- ber of the Washington Trails Dame tennis clinics and the ent as an epeeist on the Notre throw percentage (91-100, Association, a hiking group that Growth Learning Center. She Dame women’s fencing squad. .910) and finished second on advocates for environmental is a public relations manager With plans to head to medical the career free-throw percent- issues. for Love Your Melon, a non- school in 2017, she assembled age list (.853). In 2017 he was profit that sells apparel to raise Anders Bjork a 4.00 cumulative GPA to go named to the ACC Champi- money for cancer research. Hockey | Junior along with myriad research onship all-tournament team Mequon, Wisconsin Tyler Newsome credits. She also has national (which he also made in 2015) Bjork posted a career-high 52 Football | Junior and international volunteer and was an All-ACC honorable points on 21 goals and 31 assists Carrollton, Georgia experience to her credit, most mention pick and a Jerry West in 2016–17. While also spending A two-year Monogram winner notably her Handwritten Award finalist. a great deal of time volunteer- and starting punter, Newsome Hearts organization, which Karley Wester ing at nearby Perley Fine Arts ranks second in school history she founded in 2011 to deliver Softball | Senior Academy on a weekly basis, he with a career average of 44.0 handwritten letters and season Huntington Beach, California became the second player in yards per punt. He captured gifts to patients in the oncol- Wester finished her senior NCAA hockey history to be a the Irish Around the Bend ogy and renal wards at the campaign as arguably the Hobey Baker Top 10 finalist and Award at the 2016 Echoes, an Saint Joseph Regional Medical most accomplished player to a Hockey Humanitarian Award award given to the Irish foot- Center in Mishawaka, Indiana. ever suit up for Notre Dame. finalist in the same season. He ball player who best serves the Cal Petersen A two-time National Fastpitch had six game-winning goals community. Newsome received Hockey | Junior Coaches Association (NFCA) in 2016–17, tied for fifth in the the ACC’s Top Six for Service Waterloo, Iowa All-American (2014 and 2016), country. He was named the Award in 2016, presented annu- As a junior captain in 2016–17, USA Softball Collegiate Player NCAA Northeast Regional Most ally to six student-athletes from Petersen led the Irish to their of the Year finalist (2015 and Outstanding Player. Skating in each conference institution who third NCAA Frozen Four 2016) and the 2014 ACC Fresh- 115 career games, Bjork scored show outstanding dedication

16 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME to community service and Monogram Club and the Notre TOP GUN AWARD Saint Joseph Regional Medical outreach programs. He has Dame Alumni Association. The Top Gun Award is given Center in Mishawaka, Indiana. volunteered with these football annually to the Notre Dame Softball CHUCK LINSTER AWARD community events: Football graduating senior student-ath- This marked the sixth time in The Chuck Linster Award is 101, Roofsit 2016, Lift for Life, lete with the highest cumula- seven years the Notre Dame given annually to a senior Chicago Backpack Donation, tive grade-point average. softball team claimed the member of Notre Dame’s Football Service Friday, Make- Trophy Award, including five Eva Niklinska cheerleading, student man- A-Wish, Food Bank of Northern straight academic years dating Fencing | Senior ager or student athletic Indiana, Halloween Party, Saint back to 2013. Irish softball has Granger, Indiana trainers programs who has the Mary’s Kids Christmas, Shop- become a mainstay for this Niklinska has assembled a highest grade-point average. With-A-Player and South Bend honor due to the program’s 4.00 cumulative GPA to go Daniel Brndjar Center for the Homeless. along with myriad research ever-growing Cancer Men’s Basketball Manager credits. She also has national TROPHY AWARD initiative held each April. Senior The Trophy Award was estab- Through proceeds from the and international volunteer Allentown, Pennsylvania lished in 2006 to recognize the annual Strikeout Cancer series experience to her credit, most A four-year manager for men’s team that has demonstrated and trivia night, Notre Dame notably her own Handwrit- basketball, Brndjar posted a a commitment to community softball has raised more than tenHearts organization, which 3.971 cumulative GPA with a through its unparalleled service $200,000 to directly benefit she founded in 2011 to deliver double major in theology and to Notre Dame, as well as South pediatric cancer patients since handwritten letters and season applied computational math Bend and surrounding com- 2011. gifts to patients in the oncol- and statistics. munities. The Trophy Award is ogy and renal wards at the sponsored by the Notre Dame

03 McGraw 04 Team GPA joins Naismith award Hall of Fame This award is presented annu- ally to the Notre Dame varsity A sterling coaching resume athletics program that reg- that includes 853 wins, a isters the highest combined national championship and grade-point average during three consensus national each of the preceding two coach of the year honors semesters, as well as overall received its capstone in April during that two-semester as Notre Dame’s Karen and span. Kevin Keyes Family head women’s basketball coach Men’s Soccer Muffet McGraw was named The men’s soccer program led a member of the Naismith the athletic department with Memorial Basketball Hall of the highest average GPA over Fame’s Class of 2017. the last two semesters, post- ing a cumulative 3.496 mark. Compiling a career record of 853-227 (.771), McGraw is the Three Irish Teams in Brackets sixth-winningest female coach Notre Dame was the only in women’s basketball history institution to earn spots in the 2017 NCAA Championship and 10th overall. Her 765 wins Final Fours and five national championship brackets for men’s basketball, at Notre Dame alone make her one of just four games, standing among the elite ranks of Pat women’s basketball and men’s female coaches to win 750 games at the same Summitt, Geno Auriemma, Dean Smith, Mike ice hockey. That marked the school. She is the winningest single-sport coach Krzyzewski and Roy Williams. in Notre Dame athletic history. sixth time all three Irish teams McGraw is the first Naismith Memorial Bas- have made NCAA brackets in A 2011 inductee in the Women’s Basketball Hall ketball Hall of Fame inductee from the Irish the same year. It also hap- of Fame, McGraw’s tenure is highlighted by women’s program and the seventh from the pened in 2007, 2008 (the the 2001 national championship, seven Final school overall. Among the six on the men’s hockey team advanced to Fours, 15 Sweet 16s and 24 NCAA Championship side is former Notre Dame director of athlet- the NCAA title game), 2011 berths (including an active run of 22 in a row). ics Edward “Moose” Krause who elevated the (hockey advanced to the Notre Dame’s run of five consecutive Final Four women’s program to varsity status in 1977. Frozen Four and women’s trips from 2011–15 ties for the second longest basketball played in the NCAA streak in women’s history. Hall of Fame induction weekend is set for Sept. 7–8, 2017, in Springfield, Massachusetts. title game), 2013 (the women’s She is one of just six college coaches (men’s or basketball squad played in the women’s) to win 800 games, appear in seven NCAA national semifinals) and 2016 (the men’s basketball squad advanced to an NCAA regional final).

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 17 YEAR IN REVIEW

MARKETING

01 Notre Dame introduces new pricing model for football tickets Notre Dame is implementing tiered pricing for home game football tickets beginning with the 2017 season, creating greater access and afford- ability for many fans, while increasing prices for the most desirable seats. The Univer- sity historically had charged the same price for all tickets Significantly improved cell A new audio system with including free parking in White to football games, with fans service. concert-quality sound. Field, free entry to all general in the end zone paying the admission sporting events, same as those on the 50-yard Fully renovated and In addition, a tunnel has been Blue-Gold Game tickets line. The new structure, which historically themed con- added to the northeast corner and merchandise discounts. offers eight price points courses celebrating the of the lower bowl for visiting Access to purchase away, bowl for publicly available seats original Notre Dame Stadium, teams, and, to improve player and Shamrock Series game ranging from $45 to $250 as well as new way-finding and spectator safety, seating tickets will continue. Season depending on location and the signage and decorative for the Notre Dame March- tickets for 2017 include seven opponent, is commonly used lighting. ing Band has been relocated games (there is no Shamrock in college and professional from the field to the student A 96-by-54-feet HD video Series game) but are priced athletics as well as at venues section. All other field seating board for live game action, for six games. There will be for plays, concerts and other also has been removed. replays, celebratory moments no increase in ticket prices for performances. in Notre Dame’s history and The enhancements to the sta- the 2018 season. The student An annual gift to the Univer- information about various dium led to an examination of season ticket price for 2017 sity per ticket to gain access University initiatives and the University’s overall ticket decreased by $5. to season tickets varies by achievements (there will pricing structure for all fans in seat location. The pricing be no advertising). order to both broaden access to Notre Dame football—espe- changes are revenue neutral, Nearly 150 video monitors cially for young alumni and meaning income derived from placed at various locations families—and to place the ticket sales in the stadium throughout the concourses, appropriate value on stadium bowl in 2017 and 2018 will be including on concession stand seating based on bowl loca- the same as it was in 2016. façades. tion. Upgrades to seating and Renovated restrooms on the The new model offers eight other new amenities within upper and lower concourses. the stadium will result in an bench seat price points—four improved fan experience for Ribbon boards 3 3/4-feet in the lower bowl and four in those attending home football high running the length of the upper—with many fans games. The enhancements to Corbett Family Hall on the in the end zones and corners the stadium include: east side of the stadium and seeing a reduction in the Duncan Student Center on the cost of season tickets and Replacement of wooden west for game information, fans on the sidelines seeing bench seats in the lower bowl including clock, score, down an increase. As has been the with galvanized steel clad in and distance. practice for several years, tick- dark blue vinyl and a widening ets are priced at three levels from 16 to 18 inches to match Renovated concession- based on the opponent. those in the upper bowl. stand exteriors with new portable stands and a Season ticket members Wi-Fi throughout the refreshed concession menu. receive several new benefits, stadium.

18 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 02 Notre Dame and Vivid 03 Big Ten hockey up next join ranks Notre Dame’s first season playing hockey in the Big Ten Confer- ence will feature Irish home games in 2017–18 at the Compton Notre Dame and Chicago-based Vivid Seats, a nationally recog- Family Ice Arena against Michigan (Jan. 7, Feb. 16), Michigan State nized technology and industry leader in the secondary ticketing (Feb. 23–24), Minnesota (Nov. 24–25), Ohio State (Feb. 9–10), Penn space, have formed a partnership that offers Irish fans cutting- State (Nov. 10–11) and Wisconsin (Jan. 19). All three rounds of the edge technology solutions when buying and selling tickets for all Big Ten Men’s Hockey Tournament will be held at campus sites Irish athletic events. (higher seeded teams are hosts), with best-of-three quarterfinals Under the partnership, Vivid Seats became the official ticket March 2–4, single-elimination semifinals March 10 and the title marketplace of the Fighting Irish. In this capacity, Vivid Seats game March 17. leverages its leadership in facilitating secondary ticket transactions on behalf of Irish fans everywhere. For the first time, Notre Dame fans now have a safe and secure destination to buy and sell their 04 tickets on the secondary market. 250th straight sellout at Expanding beyond the traditional secondary ticketing partnership, Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame and Vivid Seats collaborated in 2017 to launch the Two dates in Notre Dame bookends of sorts for Notre Notre Dame Ticket Exchange powered by Vivid Seats, a uniquely football history qualified as Dame’s remarkable string of Notre Dame marketplace that serves as the hub for Irish fans to relatively unremarkable in most home sellouts that reached buy and sell tickets. The Notre Dame Ticket Exchange utilizes respects: 250 in a row (and a just-as- Vivid Seats’ best-in-class e-commerce technology to accurately amazing 298 of 299) in 2016 On Nov. 14, 1964—late in Ara and efficiently process the hundreds of thousands of transactions against . expected through the platform. Parseghian’s first year as Irish head coach—top-ranked and The 1964 game marked the Every confirmed transaction is covered by Vivid Seats and Notre unbeaten Notre Dame sold out first of nearly 50 sellouts in Dame with a 100 percent buyer guarantee that assures an on-time its 34-7 victory over Michigan succession at Notre Dame delivery of authentic tickets to fans or their money back. Notre State at Notre Dame Stadium. Stadium. The huge success Dame fans receive VIP customer service, 365 days per year and The official attendance that during the Parseghian era seri- can access the marketplace at und.com/ticketexchange, by afternoon came in at 59,265— ously began the conversation visiting vividseats.com or by calling the Vivid Seats’ concierge back in the days when Notre suggesting Irish home football line at 844-224-5240. Dame still used turnstile counts tickets were going to be hard Among a number of innovative features coming with the cre- to track spectator numbers. to find. The lone blip came in ation of the Notre Dame Ticket Exchange are blended primary (That policy changed two the final home game of the and secondary ticket listings so Irish fans can choose from the years later in 1966 when the 1973 national championship full universe of locations and prices that are available. Fans still University began using 59,075 season. The contest against Air know when they are buying a ticket from Notre Dame or another as the consistent sold-out Force, originally set for a Sat- fan, and they won’t need to search multiple sites. Additionally, figure.) Yet that figure was urday, was moved to Thanks- Notre Dame season ticket holders and participants in the Notre hardly a surprise considering giving Day at the request of Dame football ticket lottery receive special access, incentives and the Spartans routinely played ABC Sports. That meant the rewards for utilizing the Notre Dame Ticket Exchange. to capacity audiences at Notre game was not included as part Dame Stadium (and before of the student season-ticket The creation of the Notre Dame Ticket Exchange was part of a much that at ). package—and the end result larger technology transformation in the Notre Dame ticket office. A was that “only” 57,236 fans Nearly a decade later, on renewed focus on the fan experience led to dramatic enhancements (about 2,000 short of capac- Sept. 26, 1974, Purdue took in the season ticket renewal and football ticket lottery application ity) showed up to see the Irish advantage of two early Irish processes for the 2017 season. Additionally, Notre Dame is under- thrash the Falcons 48-15. So turnovers at Notre Dame taking an ambitious mobile initiative that aims to deliver all ticket that first home game of 1974 Stadium, built a 24-0 lead management functionality, which includes buying, selling, transfer- against Purdue qualified as before the first period was ring and donating your tickets, in a native mobile application. the beginning of the current over and held on to defeat the streak that hit the 250 mark defending national champion against Temple. In its own way, Irish 31-20. The attendance it counts as one of the more figure came in at the custom- remarkable streaks in Irish ary 59,075. athletic history. What’s noteworthy about those two contests? They serve as

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 19 YEAR IN REVIEW

05 Here is a grid that shows when each ACC team plays Notre Dame/ACC football Notre Dame: games for 2026–37 official Opponent at Notre Dame Stadium at ACC Site Notre Dame football games against Atlantic Coast Conference Boston College 2028, 2035 2030, 2033 opponents from the 2026 season through the 2037 campaign Clemson 2028, 2034 2027, 2031 are now official. Notre Dame and the ACC in May announced 60 (Labor Day), additional games (30 home, 30 away) between the Irish and ACC 2037 programs—with Notre Dame slated to continue to play five con- Duke 2030, 2035 2027, 2033 tests per season versus league members. Florida State 2030, 2032, 2036 2026, 2029 Georgia Tech 2027, 2029 2032, 2036 The 30 home dates at Notre Dame Stadium feature two games Louisville 2026, 2032 2030, 2033, each against 12 teams and three each against Florida State and 2035 Miami. The 30 road games include two each against a dozen Miami 2028, 2031, 2037 2032, 2034 opponents and three each at Clemson and Louisville. The 12-year North Carolina 2030, 2036 2026, 2031 slate includes two Labor Day Monday night road contests—Aug. North Carolina 30, 2031, at Clemson and Sept. 1, 2036, at Virginia Tech. Here is State 2031, 2037 2029, 2035 the complete schedule (other dates to be announced later): Pittsburgh 2033, 2036 2028, 2034 2026 2032 Syracuse 2026, 2034 2029, 2037 1. at North Carolina 1. FLORIDA STATE Virginia 2026, 2034 2031, 2035 2. VIRGINIA 2. at Georgia Tech Virginia Tech 2027, 2033 2028, 2036 3. LOUISVILLE 3. LOUISVILLE (Labor Day) 4. at Florida State 4. at Miami Wake Forest 2029, 2032 2027, 2037 5. SYRACUSE 5. WAKE FOREST 2027 2033 1. GEORGIA TECH 1. at Duke 06 Notre Dame announces 2018 2. at Wake Forest 2. PITTSBURGH 3. at Duke 3. at Boston College and 2019 schedules 4. VIRGINIA TECH 4. VIRGINIA TECH Notre Dame’s 2018 and 2019 football schedules are now 5. at Clemson 5. at Louisville official: 2028 2034 2018 2019 1. BOSTON COLLEGE 1. SYRACUSE Date Opponent Date Opponent 2. at Pittsburgh 2. at Pittsburgh Sept. 1 MICHIGAN Sept. 2 at Louisville 3. MIAMI 3. at Miami Sept. 8 BALL STATE Sept. 7 Bye Week 4. at Virginia Tech 4. CLEMSON Sept. 15 VANDERBILT Sept. 14 NEW MEXICO 5. CLEMSON 5. VIRGINIA Sept. 22 at Wake Forest Sept. 21 at Georgia 2029 2035 Sept. 29 STANFORD Sept. 28 VIRGINIA 1. WAKE FOREST 1. at Virginia Oct. 6 at Virginia Tech Oct. 5 BOWLING GREEN 2. at North Carolina State 2. BOSTON COLLEGE Oct. 13 PITTSBURGH Oct. 12 USC 3. at Syracuse 3. at Louisville Oct. 20 Bye Week Oct. 19 Bye Week 4. GEORGIA TECH 4. DUKE Oct. 27 Navy (San Diego) Oct. 26 at Michigan 5. at Florida State 5. at North Carolina State Nov. 3 at Northwestern Nov. 2 VIRGINIA TECH Nov. 10 FLORIDA STATE Nov. 9 at Duke 2030 2036 Nov. 17 SYRACUSE Nov. 16 NAVY 1. at Boston College 1. Sept. 1 at Virginia Tech Nov. 24 at USC Nov. 23 BOSTON COLLEGE 2. NORTH CAROLINA (Labor Day Monday night) Nov. 30 at Stanford 3. at Louisville 2. PITTSBURGH 4. FLORIDA STATE 3. FLORIDA STATE One home game in either 2018 or 2019 may be relocated to an off- 5. DUKE 4. at Georgia Tech campus site as part of Notre Dame’s Shamrock Series scheduling 5. NORTH CAROLINA initiative. 2031 1. Aug. 30 at Clemson 2037 (Labor Day Monday night) 1. at Clemson 2. MIAMI 2. NORTH CAROLINA STATE 07 Attendance notes 3. at Virginia 3. at Syracuse Irish teams in women’s basketball and men’s lacrosse ranked in 4. at North Carolina 4. MIAMI the top 10 nationally in 2016–17 in average attendance. Football 5. NORTH CAROLINA STATE 5. at Wake Forest ranked in the top 15. Men’s soccer and hockey stood in the top 20. Women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse finished in the top 30. Notre Dame teams in football, hockey, and men’s and women’s basketball all averaged at least 90 percent of capacity in terms of attendance. Irish teams in hockey, men’s lacrosse and women’s basketball all rated in the top 10 in percent of capacity, with football in the top 12.

20 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MEDIA

01 Fighting Irish 03 Fighting Irish 04 CoSIDA writing Media wins for Media wins Emmy awards Signing Day show Fighting Irish Media added to its collec- Notre Dame senior associate athletics tion of award hardware in 2016, picking director and Fighting Irish Media executive Fighting Irish Media in June was honored up a pair of statuettes at the 58th Annual editor John Heisler received a best-in-the- for its 2017 football signing day show at Chicago/Midwest Regional Emmy Awards nation plaque for his story “Counsell, Mur- the ninth annual College Sports Media presented by the National Academy of phy Continue Their Three-Decade ‘Conver- Awards at the Sports Video Group College Television Arts & Sciences. sation’”—an in-depth look at former Irish Sports Summit in Atlanta. FIM returned baseball captain and current Milwaukee to the CSMA stage for its seven-hour live FIM earned awards for Outstanding Brewers manager Craig Counsell and his production of Notre Dame Football Sign- Achievement for Sports Programs-Pro- former Notre Dame head coach Pat Mur- ing Day (in the Outstanding Live Non- gram Series for “Onward Notre Dame: phy, now the Brewers’ bench coach. The Game Production Category, Collegiate Mutual Respect”—which traced the history story was rated No. 1 in the nation in the Athletics Division) after winning its first of the Notre Dame-Navy football series— story-with-video category of the CoSIDA trophy in 2016. CSMA winners and finalists as well as for Outstanding Crafts Achieve- Writing Contest. are selected by a blue-ribbon panel of ment Off-Air: Writer-Short Form, awarded industry peers and celebrate the best in to former FIM producer Javi Zubizarreta. Another print piece authored by Heisler— ”Anatomy of a Victory,” based on spend- college sports video production. “Onward Notre Dame” is a documentary ing game day on the football sidelines series developed by FIM that chronicles and in the locker room at the 2016 Notre the rich stories of Notre Dame football, Dame-Syracuse football game—was 02 past and present. The first show pre- NBC accounts for named best in the district in the event miered in 2012, a production of NFL Films, coverage category. $100 million for Notre and was recently redesigned when FIM Dame financial aid took over production in 2015. Zubizarreta, a 2011 Notre Dame alumnus Notre Dame’s two-and-a-half-decade rela- who earned his bachelor’s degree in film, tionship with NBC Sports to televise Irish television and theatre, was awarded the home football games has resulted in more Emmy for his work on the Notre Dame than $100 million being allocated from Football Primers during the 2015 sea- contract revenues to University financial son. The videos evolved over the season, aid. Athletics has contributed in excess of becoming a quick hit on the themes and $4 million per year of revenue from the relevance of the week’s game. NBC Sports agreement to the University’s financial aid program. NBC began televis- ing Notre Dame home games in 1991, and the 2015–16 school year pushed the overall figure past the $100 million mark for the first time in terms of actual undergraduate scholarship dollars dispensed. There have been 6,899 students who have benefit- ted from scholarship awards owing to the NBC relationship—with $103,323,144 in actual aid received over 25 years. The University also has used NBC contract revenue to endow doctoral fellowships in the Graduate School and for MBA scholar- ships in the Mendoza College of Business. The Notre Dame-NBC partnership and resulting financial aid contributions were recognized during the 2016 Notre Dame- Michigan State football game at Notre Dame Stadium.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 21 YEAR IN REVIEW

06 Fighting 05 Four top-rated Irish events Irish Media: By Notre Dame qualified as the only school in the country to have multiple football and men’s basketball games rank among the top 50 most-watched sporting events in 2016 outside of the National Football the numbers in League and the 2016 Summer , according to figures compiled by Sports Media Watch. 2016–17 Notre Dame had four events rank among the top 50—two football games and two men’s basketball Total video views on all contests. Of those 50 events, 16 were college football games and seven were men’s college platforms increased 28.15 basketball contests. percent from the previous year Alabama led all institutions with five appearances (all football), while Ohio State had four (all foot- (2015–16). On-demand viewing ball). The only programs with more than Notre Dame’s two men’s basketball appearances were Vil- improved 30.06 percent. lanova and North Carolina (three each). Social media impressions increased 23.95 percent. Here are the Irish events that made the top 50: Notre Dame is the first university with two team 29th: Notre Dame 6.4 rating 10.95 million viewers ABC (2016 Irish regular- Twitter accounts of 500,000 vs. Texas season football or more followers (football opener on Sunday and men’s basketball). night) Notre Dame has the 35th: Notre Dame 5.8 rating 10.11 million viewers TBS (2016 NCAA Men’s third-highest YouTube vs. North Carolina Basketball Champion- subscriber base among ship Elite Eight game) university athletic depart- 38th: Notre Dame 5.6 rating 9.76 million viewers ESPN (2016 Fiesta Bowl) ments. vs. Ohio State Notre Dame is the second 50th: Notre Dame 5.4 rating 8.39 million viewers CBS (2016 NCAA Men’s school with four Twitter vs. S.F. Austin Basketball Champion- accounts of 100,000 or more ship second round followers (football and men’s game) basketball and the Brian Kelly and Fighting Irish accounts). Notre Dame has 17 Twitters accounts in the top 25 in their respective categories. 06 Irish-Longhorn rating Notre Dame is one of six schools with a top-25 social Notre Dame-Texas on ABC (10,945,000 viewers on Sept. 4) media account in Twitter, ranked as the third most-watched game on television of the 2016 Facebook, Vine, Instagram, college football regular season. ESPN streamed its four most- YouTube and Pinterest. watched regular-season games in 2017 and Notre Dame-Texas (194,000 on Sept. 4) rated fourth. Unique visitors to UND.com increased 33.73 percent compared to a year ago. Unique visitors to WatchND.tv increased 66.8 percent. Time listened/viewed (hours) improved 36.54 percent in terms of live digital audio and WatchND live events (men’s and women’s basketball, hockey and volleyball games). Men’s basketball produced 1,896,142 Facebook views, 82 percent from one video featuring Matt Farrell. Men’s basketball also merited 2,510,291 Twitter views, 73 percent from that same Farrell video.

22 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME MENDELSON FUND

For a decade, the Mendelson Fund for Athletics Excellence has provided incremental dollars and non-budgeted funding for Notre Dame’s Olympic sports programs. The fund generates annual income to assist Irish coaches in supporting the development of their athletes and ultimately increasing the visibility of their programs. The fund’s market value stands at more than $2.9 million. These were projects approved in 2016–17:

MENDELSON FUND MENDELSON FUND OCTOBER 2016 APPROVED ITEMS MAY 2017 APPROVED ITEMS MEN’S TENNIS...... $7,272 SPORTS MEDICINE...... $37,170 Norma Tec PULSE Recovery (2) PULSE Recovery Package Standard* Provides intermittent pneumatic compression recovery PULSE Full Body Recovery Package Standard* STRENGTH & CONDITIONING...... $23,675 PULSE Lower Body Recovery Package Standard* Fusion Smart Speed Timing System PULSE Recovery Package Short* To be used for both women’s and men’s teams PULSE Leg & Arm Recovery Package Standard* SPORTS PERFORMANCE...... $25,000 PULSE Short Boot Set* 2 x FD4000 unilateral force plate systems with associated ForeDecks propriety software PULSE Recovery Package Tall Technology system used to monitor and assess force-velocity PULSE Carry Case metrics central to athletic performance. NormaTec Zero Gravity Chair WOMEN’S LACROSSE...... $11,110 *Equipment to aid in the athletic recovery for student-athletes Fiber cable for camera project providing efficient and effective steps in their recovery Fiber cable process. MEN’S SOCCER...... $7,365 BASEBALL...... $24,000 Hawk Grips/Stim Machine Trackman including installation and extended lease Hawk Grips-soft tissue mobilization; stim machine-deep Provides volumes of data on pitchers and hitters. tissue repair VOLLEYBALL...... $725 Vertec Tests the height of players’ jumps MEN’S LACROSSE...... $9,262 Insight Replay Video System Provides coaching staff with immediate replays of practices and games providing instant feedback to players. MEN’S SOCCER...... $5,364 MacBook Pro Computers (2) and Apple Care Upgraded computers will be used for video processing and editing.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 23 YEAR IN REVIEW

MONOGRAM CLUB

01 100th anniversary celebration The Notre Dame Monogram Later that day members gath- Club’s 100th anniversary cele- ered at the club’s pregame bration culminated Oct. 28-29 reception inside the Mono- during the Notre Dame-Miami gram Room. Justice Alan Page football weekend. The club (1967/football), the Monogram welcomed back its member- Club’s Edward “Moose” Krause ship to take part in a variety Distinguished Service Award of activities and events on and recipient, was the featured around campus. speaker. Club membership then ventured to Notre Dame Friday evening featured the Stadium to form the tunnel the club’s official 100th anniver- current Irish team ran through sary celebration reception prior to its victory over the at Notre Dame Stadium. The Hurricanes. club welcomed hundreds of members and guests to the Following the game, the club marquee event, which took held its annual Mass and place inside a transformed and meeting inside the Monogram enhanced Knute Rockne Gate Room. At the annual meeting, at the North Tunnel. The fes- the club officially welcomed tive atmosphere set the tone its three new directors: Jes for the weekend and provided Christian (2014/track & field), 03 Justice Alan Page receives a unique fellowship opportu- Jeff Faine (2003/football) and nity for many individuals who Jennette Rauch (2005/athletic Award have been key figures in the trainer). The Monogram Club During the 100th anniversary celebration weekend, the Monogram club’s rich history. was honored to have Notre Club presented its highest honor, the Edward “Moose” Krause Dame president emeritus and On Saturday morning, mem- Distinguished Service Award, to Justice Alan Page. The presenta- club member Rev. Edward A. bers of the Monogram Club tion took place during a luncheon inside Club Naimoli, and Page “Monk” Malloy, C.S.C. (1963, board of directors took part also was honored on the field during the football team’s show- ’67, ’69/basketball) celebrate in service opportunities at the down with Miami. Page, a member of both the College Football the Mass along with Mono- Food Bank of Northern Indiana Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was selected as gram Club chaplain Rev. Mark and the Habitat for Humanity the award’s recipient for his work on the Minnesota Supreme Court Thesing, C.S.C. (1981, ’85, ’92). house build that was spon- and in establishing the Page Education Foundation. sored by Notre Dame athletics.

04 Stayer Center partnership 02 Inaugural Award As a way to increase the and online. The programs can presented to Jim Gibbons impact of the Monogram benefit Monogram winners Career Network, the Mono- seeking to develop skills and In honor of its 100th anniversary, the Monogram Club established gram Club developed a part- knowledge for their current the Jesse Harper Award and its first recipient was Jim Gibbons nership with the Stayer Center careers, as well as those tran- (1953/baseball, basketball), a longtime member of the University for Executive Education at the sitioning to a new profession, community. The award recognizes Monogram Club members who Mendoza College of Business. whether from another industry have demonstrated a committed involvement with the Notre Dame This unique relationship pro- or following a professional athletics department and University throughout their professional vides active Monogram Club sports/Olympics career. lives. Gibbons was presented the award in November. members with a discounted rate for non-degree profes- sional development programs delivered both on campus

24 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME 05 Scholarships 06 Honorary monograms 08 Celebrating success The Monogram Club awarded The Monogram Club awarded honorary mono- The Monogram Club continued its tradition of its postgraduate scholarships grams to Rev. John Conley, C.S.C. (1973, 1977), recognizing success of current Irish teams by to Eva Niklinska (fencing) and Joe Mendelson, Tony Rolinski and Martin Stone. bestowing conference championship rings, team Evan Panken (soccer). During MVP awards and postseason gifts. The club Conley is the Notre Dame hockey team their outstanding Notre Dame annually allocates more than $72,000 for chaplain and has served as rector of Siegfried careers Niklinska and Panken those items. Hall for 20 years. each won a national champi- The Monogram Club also recognized one of onship, were Dean’s List stu- Mendelson established the Joseph T. Mendel- Notre Dame’s most storied teams. The club and dents and contributed mightily son Endowment for Athletics Excellence, which the Notre Dame athletics department welcomed to the community. This marked provides funding so that Notre Dame’s Olympic back the 1966 national championship football the ninth year the Monogram sport programs can enhance their high-perfor- team for its 50th reunion celebration, which took Club awarded a postgraduate mance technology capabilities. place the weekend of the Notre Dame-Michigan scholarship—a nonrenewable Rolinski has been a member of the Notre State home football game in September. grant of $5,000 to attend Dame strength and conditioning staff since 1998 graduate school—to one male and currently works directly with the men’s and one female monogram basketball and hockey programs. winner. Since the scholarship’s inception, the Monogram Club Stone is the only head coach in the 19-year has awarded $90,000 to the history of the Irish rowing program. recipients. The Monogram Club’s Bren- nan-Boland-Riehle Scholarship Fund continued to provide 07 The Club around the financial assistance to Notre Dame students who are country the sons and daughters of The Monogram Club hosted a variety of recep- monogram winners. Since its tions and Monogram Career Networking events inception in 1980, the scholar- throughout the United States. Stops included ship has issued over $5 million New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, San to more than 300 Notre Dame Antonio, Indianapolis and Austin, Texas. students. Additionally, through the Monogram Club’s team hosting program, Notre Dame teams were able to take advantage of unique cultural opportuni- ties while traveling for competition. Some excur- sions in 2016–17 included trips to the Georgia Aquarium for the swimming and diving and track & field teams while they were competing in Atlanta—and the cheerleading squad visited Dis- neyland while in California for the football team’s game against USC.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 25 YEAR IN REVIEW

SPORT PERFORMANCE One of Notre Dame’s primary objectives is to support and improve athletic performance through the application of science, medicine and technology. Central to this is a philosophy that aims to create systems and structures to maximize the impact of technical expertise, environments, technology and service delivery on an athlete’s ability to optimize performance. Sport performance staff members are empowered to gain insights through athlete monitoring and profiling that allow implementation of valuable interventions. Here are details of key 2016–17 initiatives:

Establishment of the Mastrovich Fund for Sports Science as the CoachMePlus, an app-based platform now providing the sports first of its kind at the University, facilitating research and academic performance staff with the opportunity to centralize collected initiatives between the College of Science and Notre Dame athletics data. The system enables athletes to report data on a daily or that utilize scientific expertise to understand and improve the scheduled basis as well as provides the opportunity to visualize performance and well-being of Irish student-athletes. The annual and report that information to sports performance team members, funding is being utilized to launch sports performance analytics coaches and athletes. research projects between the Department of Applied and Wellness questionnaire data (the majority of Irish teams, Computational Mathematics and Statistics (ACMS) in the College including football, now collect and assess), enables understanding of Science and the sports performance team in athletics. Working of what is impacting athletes on a day-to-day basis, how they are closely with Alan Huebner (assistant teaching professor and director coping with stress and how they are recovering and adapting to of undergraduate studies in ACMS) and Jordan Webb (head of training on a day-to-day/week-to-week basis. sport science/strength and conditioning coach in athletics), undergraduate students in the College of Science are applying RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) data collected across four data analytics to the massive data sets generated by sport sports. RPE is the athlete rating for each session completed, performance technology to identify opportunities to enhance the whether it be practice, games (competition), strength and performance, health and well-being of Notre Dame student- conditioning or rehab sessions. With this information, training athletes. Two College of Science undergraduate students began loads are developed for given sessions based on the athletes’ their research fellowships in June 2017. perception of the difficulty of the session. Partnering with Australian Catholic University and securing two Five teams acquired the latest heart rate monitoring technology exercise science students to serve as interns with Notre Dame’s to monitor athletes’ internal load, or response to training, and inform strength and conditioning team. staff about physiological demands placed on athletes. The goal is to understand what it costs an athlete to perform a specific effort. Continuing the valuable partnership with the Under Armour Athlete Performance Team on product innovation testing and Strength and conditioning staff use of Catapult (GPS) provided performance technology exploration. objective external load data. Used across seven teams, including football, it provides an understanding of each sport and the physical Adding DARI as the newest technology central to our sports demands required of it, then links those details to practice plans. science portfolio. DARI, a markerless motion capture system used The aim is to assist coaches in planning practice sessions, to ensure to generate “movement blueprints” for every athlete, was com- optimal performance in games, and to enable appropriate levels of pleted during the academic year. These reports accurately direct training stress for athletes. Catapult also monitors physical perfor- efforts for each individual to minimize injury and enhance perfor- mance to understand if an athlete may become overtrained or is mance. undertraining. It assists in return-to-play protocols, ensuring athletes Establishment of the Class of 1966 Pete Duranko Fund for are where they need to be prior to returning from injury, and it Student-Athlete Safety in the fall of 2015. That enabled Dr. Matt makes interventions to decrease the risk of injury. Leiszler, football team physician, and Rob Hunt, director of athletic Force plate assessments provided profiles of athletes as it training and rehabilitation, to make use of these elements: pertains to their physical abilities, trainability and fatigue. The • C3Logix concussion baseline and evaluation platform, neuro- long-term goal is to be able to profile athletes on the plate to cognitive assessment of concussion. understand how they compare to previous or current athletes, how a training intervention has impacted their physical qualities, and • EyeSync eye movement tracking device for concussion how fatigue is impacting their ability to perform. Through partner- evaluation. ships with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres and ongoing conversations • Portable wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) device—used with departments on campus (including computer engineering), primarily in conjunction with transcranial magnetic stimula- algorithms will assist in providing additional usable information in tion, while also exploring potential research possibilities with these areas. Strength and conditioning coach Geoff Puls partnered faculty on campus. on a successful grant application with Duda Family Professor of

26 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Engineering Patrick Flynn to explore bespoke force-plate applica- tions within the weight room setting. Fusionetics provided specific interventions for each athlete based on screenings in which the created intervention is designed to help create symmetry for athletes and enable them to move “better” and more efficiently. About 150 undergraduate student members from a variety of majors joined the Sports Analytics Club, advised by Scott Nestler, an associate teaching professor in the Mendoza College of Business. A select group of these students will be working alongside staff from a variety of sports to help undertake data analytics and data mining that will serve to inform coaches and support staff.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 27 YEAR IN REVIEW

STUDENT WELFARE AND DEVELOPMENT

01 Excellence ROSENTHAL LEADERSHIP ACADEMY This program, named after former Notre Dame director of athletics Dick Rosenthal, is designed to develop and enhance strong leadership on Notre Dame athletic teams by providing targeted emerging and existing leaders with progressive program- ming. The 2016–17 version of the Rosen- thal Leadership Academy included 121 participants across all 26 Irish varsity programs. Teams, during their offseason, participated in an overnight retreat and four workshops. Targeted growth areas included self-awareness, empathy and perspective taking, skill-building and commitment to institutional and team goals. STUDENT ATHLETE ADVISORY COUNCIL (SAAC) Seventy-eight athletes across all sports enriched the overall athletic experience by contributing in the areas of community, influencing the legislative changes including a program designed by Brianna camaraderie, career, communication and happening on Aug. 1, 2017. Turner (women’s basketball). The evening’s highlights included the following awards: character. SAAC president Karley Wester Camaraderie-building events Mikey Wynne (softball), vice president designed to help foster a sense of Byron V. Kanaley Award: Awarded to Drue Tranquill (men’s lacrosse) and community and support across and the senior monogram athletes who have (football) participated in the ACC SAAC among sport teams featured costumed been most exemplary as students and meetings in Greensboro, North Carolina, kickball on Halloween at Melissa Cook leaders. Lee Kiefer (women’s fencing), as Notre Dame delegates. Stadium, a Putt-Putt golf night at Kaleigh Olmsted (women’s soccer), During the 2016–17 academic year, SAAC Warren Golf Course sponsored by the Sergio Perkovic (men’s lacrosse) and was involved in the following initiatives: Notre Dame golf teams and the Monica Robinson (women’s tennis) continuation of the IrishOn3 initiative. were chosen by the Faculty Board on SAAC representatives spearheaded Athletics as the 2016–17 recipients. an initiative regarding student-athlete PERFORMANCE ORIENTATION DAY mental health and achieving optimal During Performance Orientation Day, Francis Patrick O’Connor Award: performance through a petition drive, student-athletes participated in a values- Presented to one male and one female resulting in the creation of two counsel- based, decision-making seminar followed Notre Dame student-athlete who ing and sport psychologist positions to by the Welcome Back BBQ. Student-ath- display the true spirit of Notre Dame as address student-athlete mental wellness letes from all 26 teams attended the BBQ. exemplified by their contributions and inspirations to their respective teams. and performance enhancement/mental OUTSTANDING STUDENTS CELEBRAT- Lindsay conditioning support. ING AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS The 2016–17 recipients were Allen (women’s basketball), Eva SAAC representatives contributed to SHOWCASE (O.S.C.A.R.S.) Niklinska (women’s fencing), Cal the development of new NCAA legisla- The 16th Annual O.S.C.A.R.S. were hosted Petersen (hockey), Monica Robinson tion surrounding student-athlete time by men’s soccer student-athletes Andrew (women’s tennis), Steve Vasturia (men’s demands. In conjunction with the office Cupero and Chris Hubbard and show- basketball) and Karley Wester (softball). of compliance, SAAC representatives’ cased the many talents and accomplish- voices were heard at the national level, ments of Notre Dame student-athletes

28 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Community Champion Award: Recognizes the contributions of Notre Dame student-athletes to the University community and the community at large. Kiley Adams (women’s soccer), Anders Bjork (hockey), Dana Bouquet (soft- ball), Jane Fennelly (women’s tennis) and Tyler Newsome (football) earned the award for their time and service to others. Top Gun: Awarded to a graduating senior with the highest cumulative GPA and who has competed on an intercol- legiate team for at least three years. Eva Niklinska was the graduating senior with the highest cumulative GPA.

02 STUDY-ABROAD PROGRAMS Education Notre Dame has expanded the number of POSITIVE TRANSITION SEMINARS short-term study abroad programs that Positive Transition Seminars provided were piloted initially in 2015. This expan- teams and athletes with opportunities to sion has enabled and increased the number promote social connectedness, purposeful of Irish athletes participating in 2017. This goal-setting and time management. In year 53 Notre Dame student-athletes 2016–17, the offices of student welfare and participated in study abroad programs all development conducted 23 seminars over the world, including in Brazil, , across varsity sports. Ireland, Greece, Japan, Israel, England, , South Africa and Spain.

03 Faith NOTRE DAME CHRISTIAN ATHLETES (NDCA) Forty Notre Dame student-athletes representing all 26 teams attended weekly meetings to provide a place of refuge to inspire spiritual growth and community. NDCA provided a platform for student- athletes to give their testimony of experi- ences and growth as Notre Dame Christian athletes. This opportunity aids in their development of articulating ideas and leading others on their journeys of faith. This year NDCA designed a T-shirt, hosted a gratitude-themed Thanksgiving dinner and began to outline a prayer book for student-athletes made by student-athletes.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 29 YEAR IN REVIEW

04 Community COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT BY THE NUMBERS From volunteering at Special Olympics events to serving meals at the local homeless shelter, student-athletes engaged the community in more than 100 community outreach programs. During 2016–17 student-athletes accounted for 9,965 community service hours. GETTOKNOWME_ND ON INSTAGRAM Former football player KeiVarae Russell initiated the “Get to Know Me” Instagram account in 2015 to encourage people at Notre Dame to engage with each other by asking questions, rejecting judgments and getting to know one another. To date the account has 597 followers and continues to grow. Fourteen posts this year have highlighted student-athletes from women’s basketball, cheerleading, fencing, football, men’s lacrosse, rowing, women’s soccer, men’s soccer, softball and volleyball. FIGHTING IRISH FIGHT FOR LIFE (FIFFL) Fighting Irish Fight for Life in 2016–17 paired 16 Irish teams with 15 patients (ages 4-16) in Memorial Hospital’s hematology/ oncology unit. Signature FIFFL events included a National Letter of Intent signing party and a Strikeout Cancer softball game. These opportunities provided patients with opportunities to spend time with their Notre Dame teammates. One of the strongest relationships built during the 2016–17 year was between the women’s lacrosse team and its teammate Landau. committed to making Shannon Hendricks (women’s soccer) Emma Claire Fontenot and the women’s a difference in his students’ lives. Drew Recker (football) lacrosse team communicated with Landau PEDIATRIC CHRISTMAS PARTY regularly via email, which lifted the spirits THIS COUNTS! Approximately 200 student-athletes from of both the team and Landau. Additionally, Sponsored by Saint Joseph’s Regional all 26 teams attended the Pediatric Landau traveled to every home game to Medical Center and partnering with Meijer, Christmas Party, along with 150 guests— support his teammates and brought 20 student-athletes taught students from patients from both Memorial Hospital and flowers to the seniors on senior day. This is Perley Fine Arts Academy about making Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center and just one of the impactful experiences healthy lifestyle choices. Students their families. Playing “Santa” at this year’s student-athletes and patients have had in engaged in different stations such as Pediatric Christmas Party was Irish Around the FIFFL program. nutrition, stretching, dancing, rowing The Bend award winner and Community and volleyball. STUDENT-ATHLETES IN LOCAL Champion award winner, SCHOOLS Tyler Newsome (football). One-hundred sixty-five student-athletes GREEN DOT engaged in mentoring local students in Partnering with the Gender Relations their neighborhood schools during 2016–17. Center and the Division of Student Affairs, Anders Bjork, a junior on the hockey team, student-athletes participated in a Green took his mentoring role to a new level. “Mr. Dot poster campaign to promote violence B,” as he is affectionately known at Perley, prevention. Posters featured these spent countless hours helping students student-athletes: with academics as well as life. A constant around the building, Mr. B provided a warm Emily Geyer (women’s soccer) smile and the consistency that his students Corey Robinson (student body president, needed. Moving on the the NHL, Mr. B has football) already laid the groundwork to stay involved at Perley and continues to be Bridget Geyer (rowing)

30 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Malcolm Johnson 05 LIFE AFTER ND including (1998/ Tradition Life After ND, the Irish student-athlete football), Dr. Brian Ratigan (1993/ IRISHON3 career development platform, addresses football), and Christina Glorioso (1995/ A newer tradition for Notre Dame athletics the need for student-athletes to connect student manager), as well as employers was the IrishOn3 initiative. Created by their academic pursuits with career from JP Morgan, Goldman-Sachs and former SAAC president Jes Christian, discernment and world of work experi- Credit Suisse. Between 15 and 40 IrishOn3 encourages student-athletes to ences, which often proves challenging student-athletes attended each lunch. support one another at varsity sporting given the time demands of the Notre Job Shadowing: Fifty-three student- events. Using Twitter as a forum, student- Dame student-athlete. Additionally, Life athletes took part in career develop- athletes tweet pictures of themselves at After ND leverages the strength of the ment opportunities over winter break. the events using the hashtag #irishon3, Monogram Career Network to create The Monogram Club connected competing to see who can attend the myriad opportunities and connections student-athletes with former monogram most sporting events. This year’s winners with student-athlete alumni to help bridge winners locally or in the student-ath- were softball, swimming and diving and the gap from student to professional. lete’s hometown to provide short-term football. During the 2016–17 academic year, Life externships and job shadowing oppor- ORIENTATIONS FOR FIRST-YEAR After ND hosted a number of opportuni- tunities. STUDENT-ATHLETES ties to engage in career development: Post-Career Fair Networking Mixer: Ongoing programs included the Summer Future Planning for Student-Athletes: Forty student-athletes met with 10 Bridge Orientation and First Year Orienta- Sixty student-athletes attended different companies immediately tion. In addition to hearing from athletic workshops in drafting resumes, following the winter career fair in department staff and campus partners on strategies for finding and funding Club Naimoli. how to successfully transition into collegiate internships, networking basics and life, first-year student-athletes were given industry meet and greets. the opportunity to network with other first- year student-athletes in a social setting and Life After ND lunches: Student-ath- receive tips for success from upperclassmen. letes networked with notable alumni

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 31 FEATURES

SHINING LIGHT OF THE IRISH CAMELOT HAS FLICKERED “I have compared playing for Ara Parseghian at Notre Dame to Camelot under King Arthur, a place of high ideals and purpose. The difference is that Camelot is a myth. The Era of Ara was real, with a leader who challenged us to strive for important goals on the field and in life. As one of Ara’s Knights, I am forever grateful to have had OUT the chance to be part of it.” By John Heisler —FRANK POMARICO IN HIS 2015 BOOK “ARA’S KNIGHTS: ARA PARSEGHIAN AND THE GOLDEN ERA OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL”

AMELOT ENDED IN EARLY AUGUST Former Irish quarterback recalls how Parseghian AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE reacted after the signal-caller’s noteworthy sophomore season debut against Purdue in 1966 (16 completions on 24 attempts for 304 yards DAME. in a 26-14 Notre Dame victory over the eighth-ranked Boilermakers). That’s a reference to the sort of idyllic Hanratty oozed confidence; Ara responded with corrective critiques. football paradise and atmosphere that Said Hanratty in 1980 to Skip Myslenski of the Chicago Tribune, College Football Hall of Fame coach “He knew I could become obnoxious and hurt the team, so he Ara Parseghian created in his 11 seasons burst my balloon. He wasn’t going to let me get a big head. I (1964–74) that produced 95 victories and walked out of there thinking, ‘Geez, I got a lot of work to do a pair of mythical national championships for the Irish. C tomorrow.’ It was like going back to square one. He was a genius.” His death Aug. 2—coming at age 94—ends a more than 50- Much of that reverential approach came through the way Parseghian year association with the University, beginning with the 1964 turned around the Irish program when he was hired away from football season. Northwestern—probably not coincidentally after his Wildcat teams His charismatic and passionate intensity didn’t fall by the wayside defeated Notre Dame four straight times. In a historic series that after he retired from coaching. Parseghian launched himself into the dates to 1889 and spans 48 games, that quartet of victories (1959– fight against multiple sclerosis—a disease that had afflicted several in 62) marked the lone Wildcat triumphs between 1940 and 1995. his family, including his late daughter Karan—and then later devoted The on-the-field productivity of Knute Rockne and extensive time and resources to create, promote and fundraise for (still the all-time two winningest coaches in NCAA history by the Ara Parseghian Medical Foundation, now housed at Notre Dame. percentage) certainly suggested that Notre Dame football had That effort battled Niemann-Pick Type C, an incurable disease that seen its share of glory years. Yet, when Parseghian came to claimed the lives of three of his grandchildren. campus, the Irish had endured two-win seasons three times in Parseghian ran the Irish program with a stern hand, yet his the previous eight years. Those same eight seasons produced a charges—players, assistant coaches and administrators—lovingly combined 45 defeats, the worst stretch in Notre Dame history in and reverentially held him in the highest regard. In maybe the terms of cumulative losses. ultimate compliment, the 1966 Notre Dame Football Guide in The Akron, Ohio, product and Miami of Ohio graduate (he played Parseghian’s biography suggested, “He invented desire.” for , who went on to do great things at Ohio State)

32 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME took over a 2-7 Irish squad when he was named to the job in years as a head coach—and never returned to the field or looked December 1963. He promptly created the biggest season-to-season back (other than to coach in the final College All-Star Game in turnaround in Notre Dame history, the greatest by any team in the Chicago in 1976). 1964 season and the seventh largest (six and a half games) in major Hanratty told Myslenski, “My freshman year there was his second college annals, at that time, The Irish spent the month of November year, and he was striking, a very good-looking guy. But about five ranked No. 1 in the polls and finished 9-1. years later I saw him at a banquet in New York and thought, ‘My That ’64 team came ever so close to winning the national title— God, what have you been doing to yourself?’ His hair was grayer. falling 20-17 on the road to USC in the season finale on a Trojan He looked tired. He did not have the bounce. He’d slowed down. It touchdown pass in the final two minutes. Despite that blemish, wasn’t Ara.” Notre Dame received the MacArthur Bowl from the National Yet Parseghian only knew one way to go about his duties—with Football Foundation. Parseghian’s record from there—including clip-on ties and loafers giving him precious more time to work. the 1966 and 1973 national titles—speaks for itself. The Irish never once lost consecutive regular-season games in his 11 seasons. “You have to operate in a manner based on your own personality, on your own makeup,” he told Myslenski. “I did not change over The 1964 turnaround created the years. I remained excitable. I such an impact that 45 years always got emotionally involved.” later noted sports author Jim Dent wrote an entire When he had had enough, he book—titled “Resurrection”— walked away. about that Notre Dame Parseghian’s decision to football season. continue calling South Bend Parseghian’s stay in South home—he eventually moved Bend featured some other from his West Washington noteworthy circumstances: Street home to Granger— meant he remained a fixture The success of his teams on the Notre Dame scene and led the University to reverse a resource for the Irish football its position on playing in coaches who followed. Though postseason bowl games, with Parseghian’s game day intensity Ara leading the argument prompted his preference to that Notre Dame needed to watch Irish games on television participate in those contests from home, he remained close to be considered for national friends with his successors— championships. notably and Brian Home game Friday night Kelly with whom he participated pep rallies at the Old in golf and other events that Fieldhouse, with Parseghian benefited the foundations of and his team in the balcony, that trio. were legendary affairs in Early mornings in Ara’s coaching those years. And with women days generally found him at not arriving at Notre Dame until the last few years of Ara’s tenure, Milt’s Grill in downtown South Bend, sharing coffee and football assuredly campus life took on a different dynamic in those early talk with longtime South Bend Tribune sports editor Joe Doyle. seasons. And his later years saw him headline the ROMEO group (Retired While linear radio remains a college football staple, the Mutual Old Men Eating Out), a lunchtime conclave of his Notre Dame Radio Network flourished during Parseghian’s time, with nearly associates and local businessmen. He played golf regularly until 400 stations carrying Irish games. On the television side—and his hip issues made that unrealistic some years back. with the NCAA limiting live games to a few per team per season— Yet, even with the landmark bowl wins over the likes of unbeaten Notre Dame benefited greatly from its Sunday morning replays and top-ranked Texas and Alabama teams joined with the white- produced by the C.D. Chesley Company. Those two networks hot intensity of the rivalry with USC, it’s the players who could made household names of announcers Van Patrick, Al Wester, best define their coach. Lindsey Nelson and Paul Hornung for Irish followers. Talk to 1964 captain Jim Carroll or his 1966 counterpart, . The rekindling of excitement in South Bend meant that Notre Dame merited coverage from not only publications like Sports Listen to the memories of (he won the Heisman Illustrated, but also Time and Life Magazines, including Time cover Trophy in Ara’s first season in 1964), Hanratty, Joe Theismann or appearances by Parseghian in 1964 and Hanratty and Jim Seymour Tom Clements—just a few of the stars who played quarterback in 1966. under Parseghian. Tom Pagna, Parseghian’s longtime offensive backfield coach and Recall the passionate manner in which former Irish lineman and close confidante, had this to say in his 1976 book “Notre Dame’s athletics director spoke of the turnaround in 1964. Era of Ara”: “I suppose it could have happened at another school, Long after they had played for the Irish and graduated, they still a place where football tradition had once been grand and glorious had the sense that whatever relationship they had with their head and then diminished for one reason or another. But certainly coach, it amounted to something special and ongoing. regeneration of those programs would not command as much 1960 marked the release of the movie “Camelot” (and the election national attention at it did at Notre Dame. And I doubt it would of John F. Kennedy as president), hence the then-current pop have as much impact if it were to happen today at Notre Dame.” culture reference. Yet, with all the success, Parseghian’s intense approach took its The final curtain on the Era of Ara, in all its Camelot-like euphoria, toll. He made the decision to step away from coaching after 24 has come down.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 33 FEATURES

IRISH HEAD COACHES: THEY ARE NOTRE By John Heisler DAME

ONE OF THE THREE ATTENDED “I knew about Notre Dame relative to its traditions, its history, its THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE pageantry, its Catholic traditions,” says Kelly, the winningest active coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision. “If you’re an Irish Catholic DAME. from Boston, you follow only one football team and that would be They come from the Philadelphia, Notre Dame.” Washington, D.C., and Boston areas, Adds McGraw: “I remember watching Digger (Phelps, former Irish respectively. men’s basketball coach) beat UCLA (in 1974 when the Bruins were Yet today they occupy three of the unbeaten and No. 1). I remember being in college where all the kids most visible positions within athletics were watching that game, and we were all cheering for Notre Dame. Nat the University as head coaches in women’s basketball, men’s “I loved football growing up. My dad was a huge Notre Dame fan, basketball and football. my husband was a huge Notre Dame fan—so it was easy to cheer for the Irish.” Muffet McGraw came to Notre Dame in 1987. “I went to DeMatha High School (in Bethesda, Maryland) and Mike Brey followed in 2000. taught U.S. history,” says Brey. “I remember the band sat up top Brian Kelly arrived in 2010. (at basketball games) and the pregame music was the Notre Combined they’ve already spent 50 seasons on the sidelines in Dame Victory March. I don’t know if it’s fate, an omen, karma, all South Bend—and all are in the prime of their coaching careers. of the above. I always had kind of a connection and felt it would be a good fit.” All three came from East Coast upbringings—and all three had their own appreciations for Notre Dame, despite no obvious However much or little Kelly, McGraw and Brey knew about Notre connections. Dame’s athletic approach before they arrived, they’ve come to appreciate the institutional philosophy:

34 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Says Kelly, “I think we all love challenges. We’re not just “Winning the national championship intellectually developing you. We are developing you socially, “We’re not just (in 2001) was the pinnacle, it was the spiritually—and we’re going to develop you physically. That’s intellectually greatest,” says McGraw, whose Irish have what makes it special, and that’s what I love about it.” been to the NCAA Women’s Basketball developing you. Final Four five of the last six seasons. “But “I love working at a place where integrity matters,” says McGraw. We are developing every year we want to get back there and “I love that we are committed to excellence in everything we do it again.” do. We want to win a national championship, and we want to be you socially, 100 percent in our graduation rates. Notre Dame stands for so spiritually—and “This is a select group,” says Brey about many great things, and for me to be a part of that? That’s why we’re going to his program, the only one in the country I’m here.” develop you to advance to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Elite Eight in both 2015 and 2016. “This is Adds Brey, “Notre Dame allows me to be the teacher I am. The physically.” a special club. Culture eats strategy and missions of the institution, the philosophy of the institution are BRIAN KELLY talent for breakfast every day. Our culture very much in line with how I’ve been trained as an educator. My is as good and productive and strong as parents were both teachers. What got me hooked was how their any of them out there.” students or their players loved them and gravitated to them and how they would talk about them to me when my parents weren’t “When I dream “It’s about dreaming big,” says Kelly, around. Wow! What an impact.” about the future whose unbeaten Irish played in the title game after the Kelly and McGraw recall how their personal priorities formed in of Notre Dame 2012 season. “One of my greatest fears is their youth. women’s basketball, that we don’t dare to dream big enough.” “Coming from a middle-class, blue-collar family, you pick up on I see it being the Notre Dame vice president and James the values that are important to you, that frame who you are,” E. Rohr athletics director Jack Swarbrick says Kelly. “More important than anything else, it keeps you elite program in believes his head coaches have the ability humble.” the country—some to be as influential from a teaching and Says McGraw, “I’ve always been driven to be the best. It’s all place where leadership standpoint with Irish student- about winning, it’s never about me personally or about awards. every kid in the athletes as any other individuals That drive to win has just always been inside me. When I was in country dreams on campus. grade school we used to have races at the annual school picnic. In Kelly, McGraw and Brey, he knows he’s When I won, I think I was in second grade, and I thought, ‘What about coming. got three of the very best who embrace a great feeling—I think I’m going to do that again.’ That was it— I want to win what competing at a championship level that was my goal from then on. I had to win.” championships, I is all about. It hasn’t taken long for the Irish head coaches to understand and want to be the team Beyond Notre Dame Kelly won two NCAA appreciate the expectations that come in South Bend. that everybody’s Division II national titles in his years at Kelly says, “There are the highs and the lows because Notre Dame gunning for—the Grand Valley State, while Brey as an can excite you and scare you at the same time. What scares one with the best assistant at Duke helped the Blue Devils me is not providing enough resources for our players. We’re in to the NCAA Final Four six times (with a very competitive business, and we want to make sure we’re players, the best two titles). providing our athletes with the very best on a day-to-day basis.” staff and the best And there are plenty of other examples “We had our team meeting Sept. 1,” says Brey. “I sat there university.” of Irish head coaches with championship looking out before I went up to speak to them. And I thought, MUFFET MCGRAW pedigrees—Jeff Jackson in hockey (he ‘Their eyes are big and I have to make all their dreams come won two NCAA titles at Lake Superior true.’ That’s a lot of pressure. It motivates you to be on your toes State), Kevin Corrigan in men’s lacrosse and to connect. I don’t want to let them down.” (his Irish have been to the NCAA “I want my guys And the three know how they want their programs to be viewed: championship weekend five times overall to look back and and four times since 2010), Bobby Clark McGraw says, “When I dream about the future of Notre Dame say, ‘That’s the best in men’s soccer (his 2013 Notre Dame women’s basketball, I see it being the elite program in the teacher I had at team claimed the NCAA crown) and country—some place where every kid in the country dreams Jim McLaughlin in volleyball (he won Notre Dame.’ That’s about coming. I want to win championships, I want to be the an NCAA men’s title at USC and an team that everybody’s gunning for—the one with the best players, so energizing to NCAA women’s title at Washington) the best staff and the best university. For me, we want to win. lead a group that’s among them. That’s what I want.” full of believers, While Swarbrick knows the intercollegiate Adds Brey, “I want my guys to look back and say, ‘That’s the that wants to do athletics landscape poses its own set of best teacher I had at Notre Dame.’ That’s so energizing to lead a it together—to see challenges, he doesn’t lose any sleep when group that’s full of believers, that wants to do it together—to see them celebrate it comes to leadership in his locker rooms. them celebrate great wins but doing it together. That moves me on a daily basis.” great wins but He knows his Irish student-athletes are in doing it together. good hands. “We’ve got a great vision toward the future,” says Kelly. “We want consistency. After you gain consistency, you then can That moves me on achieve the great heights we all want and that’s a national a daily basis.” championship.” MIKE BREY Kelly, McGraw and Brey also know the ultimate goal and how they can position themselves to reach it.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 35 FEATURES

By John Heisler

NIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME WIDE in an epic 2015 battle against Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston and his defending national champion Florida State team. RECEIVER AUSTIN WEBSTER ABSOLUTELY REMEMBERS The single play Robinson may well be best remembered for did not count—what might have been the game-winning TD reception MEETING COREY ROBINSON FOR with 13 seconds left against those unbeaten Seminoles, a play THE FIRST TIME. negated by an Irish penalty. It was June 2014. Robinson already had His career numbers show 65 receptions, 896 yards, seven Ucompleted his first full year in South Bend with the Irish football touchdown catches. squad. Webster was beginning summer school classwork in advance of his freshman football season that fall. And yet all of that barely touches the surface of what Robinson meant to Notre Dame. Says Webster, a senior captain of the 2017 Notre Dame football squad, “He was the first guy to come up and introduce himself. He Remember the song “Is That All There Is?” that Peggy Lee said, ‘Hi, I’m Corey Robinson, if you need anything, let me know. crooned back in 1969? I’m here for you.’ She made those verses famous nearly three decades before “I was no one at that point. For him to introduce himself before I Robinson was born—yet that’s the question Robinson was asking had ever enrolled in the fall—from Day One you got a sense of the after his initial semester on campus in the fall of 2013. aura about him, how he interacted with his teammates. “My first semester I just did football and school. It took up a ton “If you wanted to talk about anything he would talk for hours of my time,” he recalls. “When I put my head up for air, I only and be fully invested in any conversation. You were the most knew the people in my section in my dorm (Knott Hall) and my important thing at that time. teammates (in football). “He’s either going to cure cancer, solve world hunger or become “I thought, ‘There has to be more to college than just this.’ I looked president.” for other ways to get involved.” Robinson’s athletic resume at the University of Notre Dame Robinson became the athletics representative to Notre Dame ranked as an impressive one. student government—and a whole new world of connections opened up to him. A year later he became vice president of the He earned three monograms as a wide receiver for the Irish. As Student-Athlete Advisory Council. In January of his junior year a sophomore in 2015 Robinson caught 40 passes (second on the he ran for student body president and won. Slated to graduate in team). He had eight receptions for 99 yards and two touchdowns

36 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME honor as that May 2016, Robinson was required to continue his year in office “Every day at body as an undergraduate so he took on an additional minor presents in sustainability (his degree was in liberal studies). Notre Dame I’ve to a current student- “My work here was unfinished,” says Robinson. “This (serving as been surrounded athlete. Rower student body president) was an opportunity to do something Anna Kottkamp good for the university I loved. How could I serve this by people who earned recognition community better? It was an incredible experience.” want to make as valedictorian of the For every line Robinson added to his football resume, he Notre Dame senior class added two others away from the gridiron: a difference.” in 2015. Fencer Alex Coccia was elected student body He traveled to South Africa to study psychology and sport COREY ROBINSON president in 2013–14 and won a and did service work in Brazil. He spent three weeks in Jerusalem Rhodes Scholarship. with a group of Notre Dame students, studying the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. Ironically, Robinson had more time to devote to his role as student body His 3.83 grade-point average helped earn him first-team president when he stepped away from football in June 2016 after Academic All-America honors in football in 2015. suffering a third concussion in a 12-month period. He continued to He played piano and ukulele in a campus indie rock band work with the Irish receivers as a student coach during the 2016 (named “Rolfs Aquatic”) with football teammates and roommates campaign. Romeo Okwara (now with the NFL New York Giants) and Scott “That was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to Daly—and Jordan Foster, an economics major from San Antonio. make,” he says. “But I couldn’t walk away from my team. He wrote two musical albums (recorded one of those) and “Football has meant much, much more than just X’s and O’s on authored a screenplay. Saturday. Football has been a great tool for me to tackle life. How He twice was a Rhodes Scholar applicant and once was a finalist. can I handle adversity? How can I work in a team environment? Those are all valuable lessons I wouldn’t trade for the world. He and former Irish track & field student-athlete Andrew Helmin What happens when you’re done playing the game? Notre Dame helped create a nonprofit enterprise (One Shirt One Body) that prepares you for that.” found a way for athletes at programs all over the country to donate their extra athletic apparel to local communities. Robinson’s father, David, was a 10-time NBA all-star with the San Antonio Spurs—though Corey knows his dad as much through the He spent two months as a research assistant in the Notre Dame lens of his father’s extensive post-basketball achievements. Law School in the summer of 2016. Says Corey, “The greatest lessons I’ve learned about culture are He and Rachel Wallace co-organized Race Relations Week through the Spurs. You’ve got to buy into an ideal for how their (along with a series of other events throughout 2016–17) on team operates, no matter how talented you are. And the proof is campus to encourage more campus dialogue on racial justice. in the pudding.” His student government administration focused on a After his May 2017 graduation he spent the summer as an intern commitment to end sexual assault on campus, addressing safety in New York at Gagosian, a contemporary art gallery. Regardless concerns while also supporting the wider “It’s On Us” campaign. of where Corey ends up, David made certain his son understood He earned an ACC postgraduate scholarship, traveling to some of the advantages Corey enjoyed growing up. Greensboro, North Carolina, in April 2017 to receive the honor. “I told him from an early age 99 percent of kids haven’t seen what He authored a series of first-person pieces for the Sports you’ve seen or been in the positions you’ve been in. You have a Illustrated website. tremendous responsibility to use the gifts you’ve been given, and the legacy you leave is going to be how you impacted the people Notre Dame vice president and athletics director Jack Swarbrick around you. How did you inspire people? That’s what leadership is used the phrase “no limits” when he talked about Robinson: about. I think he understands that—he takes that very seriously.” “He just has so much energy, so many ideas.” Adds Corey, “The biggest lesson I learned is to listen to the people David Robinson notes his son’s sustained interest in serving mankind: you lead. People at Notre Dame want to change the world. Every “He’s going to blaze a trail and people are going to follow.” day at Notre Dame I’ve been surrounded by people who want to make a difference.” Notre Dame student-athletes have had a good run when it comes to major accomplishments. In 2012 former Irish fencer Mariel The title of that age-old Peggy Lee song—“Is That All There Is?”— Zagunis served as flag-bearer for the U.S. Olympic Team at the is not likely to be a question ever proffered when it comes to Summer Games in London. In 2014 the NCAA elected Irish soccer Corey Robinson. player Elizabeth Tucker as Woman of the Year, as prestigious an

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 37 FEATURES

LEE KIEFER: BEST OF THE BEST By John Heisler T 5-FOOT-4 AND LESS THAN 100 POUNDS, LEE KIEFER CAST AN UNASSUMING SHADOW WALKING THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME CAMPUS. Yet that ultra-slim silhouette was in direct opposition to the resume she left behind as an Irish student-athlete. Those who matched her strides should know they accompanied a young woman who may well qualify as the most accomplished Aindividual in the history of athletics at Notre Dame. As a competitor for the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, Kiefer, at age 18, already had proven herself as a world-class athlete in her sport of fencing before she ever attended a class at Notre Dame. In London she was the only teenager in the fencing field of 38 women and the youngest U.S. women’s foil entrant in 46 years (she finished fifth, falling in the quarterfinals to the eventual silver medalist). Five years later (she skipped a year in South Bend to train for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro) she graduated in 2017 having not only lived up to but also probably exceeding anyone’s greatest expectations for her as a collegiate athlete. She was that rare individual who started her college career as the best in the country in her craft and finished five years later having won virtually everything there was to win in her sport. She won four consecutive NCAA individual titles in foil (the only other fencer to do that since the NCAA began sponsoring fencing in 1990 was Penn State’s Olga Kalinovskaya from 1993–96). In the process Kiefer led Notre Dame to the NCAA team title in 2017—and she achieved the No. 1 ranking in the world in her discipline. Looking for a chink somewhere on that resume? Good luck. Kiefer had fencing in her blood when she set out from her Versailles, Kentucky, home—foil in hand. Her father, Steven, (now a neurosurgeon) captained the fencing squad at Duke in 1985 and was a two-time NCAA qualifier in foil (he started as a walk-on). Her older sister Alex fenced at Harvard, was a four-time foil All-American (2011–14)—and, like her sister would do two years later, won an NCAA individual crown as a freshman. Lee’s younger brother Axel was a sophomore at Notre Dame in 2016–17— claiming a gold medal in foil at the 2016 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, snaring the runner-up honor in 2017 and twice earning All-America honors. In 2013, the year Lee won the first of her four NCAA titles, she finished 32-6 during the regular season and then won all but one of

38 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME “Lee Kiefer was a difference maker. That her 25 NCAA Championship can’t be over- bouts. The one loss? It came at the hands of her older stated.” sister Alex. MAUREEN MCNAMARA The stack of fencing accomplishments amassed by Kiefer is gargantuan: A record four NCAA individual foil titles. First-team All-America honors in those same four years (2013–14–15–17). An NCAA team title with her Notre Dame teammates in 2017. Two Summer Olympic Games appearances in 2012 and 2016. The No. 1 world ranking in foil, coming off a Grand Prix victory in March 2017 in Long Beach, California. ACC women’s foil champion and ACC foilist of the year in 2015. “It was so amazing that Lee won the clinching bout, the one that mattered most. She has won every single thing imaginable. She’s Member of ACC champion teams in 2015 and 2017. the first U.S. women’s foilist to be No. 1 in the world. She’s going First-team All-Midwest Fencing Conference in 2013 and 2014. to med school. And yet she gives her heart for her team. Junior World Championships silver medalist in 2011. “Elyssa Kleiner (Irish sophomore foilist) was going to the world championships the following week. And, yet, before Lee’s match Cadet World Championships silver medalist in 2011. in the final four she’s trying to get people to come to practice that Seven-time Pan American Championships gold medalist next week so they could help train Elyssa. She was so invested in (2009–16). the team that she was thinking about someone who did not even fence in the (NCAA) competition. FIE Grand Prix champion in , Italy, in 2016. “I want to see the next person that can do what Lee Kiefer did Member of five Cadet World Championship teams, seven Junior (four individual NCAA titles). She deserved to close it for us and World Championship teams and eight Senior World Championship everyone felt that way. Everyone stormed the strip, picked her up teams. and threw her in the air.” Off the strip, Kiefer was a first-team CoSIDA Capital One Academic The Notre Dame staff member who has known Kiefer the longest All-American (she was a pre-med major with a 3.647 grade-point is Buckie Leach, the longtime foil coach for the U.S. team and now average) in 2015 and 2017 and was the 2015 ACC Women’s Fencing an Irish assistant coach. Leach would see Kiefer at World Cup events Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She traveled in April to Greensboro, and traveled a great deal with her and her club coach, Amgad North Carolina, to receive an ACC Postgraduate Scholarship. Kiefer Khazbak. And Leach loved the way Kiefer embraced the team was one of four winners of the 2017 Kanaley Award, given to the aspect of what essentially is an individual sport. senior Notre Dame athletes who are most exemplary as students and leaders. She began medical school in the fall of 2017 at the “She’s really driven,” says Leach. “Once she gets something in her University of Kentucky. head it doesn’t come out very easily. What I saw was her growth as an athlete on a team. Her time with Notre Dame, becoming a Somehow not convinced? captain, being exposed to this environment—all that made her Kiefer also was a regular nursing home volunteer during her Notre very team-oriented. She was a good captain, a tough captain, Dame years. She participated in a Juvenile Diabetes Walk, Notre because she held everybody to the standards she had.” Dame’s annual Pediatric Christmas Party and was part of the The thought of Kiefer dealing with the challenges of both medical Fighting Irish Fight for Life initiative. She worked with a Center school and the rigors of training for the 2020 Summer Olympics for Social Concerns seminar on understanding mental illness. outwardly appears daunting. Leach is convinced Kiefer will do just Says Notre Dame assistant athletics director Maureen McNamara, fine: “It would be difficult if she was trying to become No. 1 and who serves as the sport administrator for fencing: doing medical school at the same time. But she’s already at the top—she just needs to maintain. I think she sees individually or as “Lee Kiefer was a difference maker. That can’t be overstated. a team we have a good chance for a medal.” “When she trained and competed in the Olympics (and missed Leach never worries about Notre Dame’s superstar becoming too the 2016 season at Notre Dame) there was a definite gap the team impressed with her own accomplishments. experienced. Lee was only one person, yet it felt like we lost three people. The chemistry, leadership and results were tremendously “All those things you win pale to the people you know and the affected by her absence. We have great leaders in our program, people you’ve met,” Leach says. “Twenty years from now she’ll but there are some people you just don’t replace. That is Lee Kiefer. remember the relationships, not the medals.” She is without a doubt the most impressive fencing student-athlete A long list of Notre Dame administrators, coaches and teammates we have seen in this program.” will long remember Kiefer. Ariel Simmons was a freshman on the 2017 Irish team that won The best there ever was in a Notre Dame uniform? She just the NCAA title. He made a major contribution in his own right, might be. advancing to the men’s epee semifinals. Yet, when looking back at the championship events in Indianapolis, he couldn’t stop talking about Kiefer:

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 39 FEATURES JESSICA HARRIS: MAKING MOM PROUD By John Heisler

Oh I’m in pieces it’s tearing me up But I know a heart that’s broke is a heart that’s been loved So I’ll sing Hallelujah, you were an angel in the shape of my mum When I fell down you’d be there holding me up Spread your wings as you go And when God takes you back He’ll say Hallelujah you’re home “The absence —from “Supermarket Flowers” by Ed Sheeran is what you HE SMILE ON JESSICA HARRIS’ FACE TRAVERSED FROM ONE HIGH have to carry CHEEKBONE TO THE OTHER. forever.” The junior Notre Dame distance specialist from Cockeysville, Maryland, had just nosed JESSICA HARRIS out Clemson’s Grace Barnett to win the mile in February 2017 at the Atlantic Coast Conference Indoor Track and Field Champi- onship in South Bend. TThe victory qualified as a signature moment of Harris’ running career. The cheering and applause that wafted over her from the pro-Notre Dame Loftus Sports Center crowd suggested she’d effectively given birth to her own fan club. Yet, as Harris says, “I felt so distinctly alone.” That’s because her mother Sylvia “Cookie” Harris wasn’t there to share it. I took the supermarket flowers from the windowsill Threw the day old tea from the cup Packed up the photo album Matthew had made Memories of a life that’s been loved Her older brother Joe graduated from Notre Dame, but Harris had been headed for an appointment at the U.S. Naval Academy. The night before Harris was slated to send in her signed commitment papers, Cookie sat with her daughter and explained that her dream was for Harris to attend a Catholic university, in particular Notre Dame. Harris had a few reservations, but her mother asked her to com- mit to Notre Dame for a year and assured her she could transfer if it wasn’t the right fit. So Harris (her dad, Andy, is Maryland’s 1st District representative in Congress as well as a practicing anesthesiologist)

40 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME honored her mother’s wish and trekked to South Bend, ultimately to major in theology and public policy with nursing in her future plans. After the first two days of classes, Harris was in her Pasquerilla East dormitory room when her rectress came in holding a cell phone. On the other end was Harris’ brother Joe with the news that their mother had been hospitalized after suffering a heart . Joe assured Harris that their mother would be okay, and she headed to the residence hall chapel, only to have her rectress return with the cell phone. This time the news was different. Took the get well soon cards and stuffed animals Poured the old ginger beer down the sink Some days the burden is particularly heavy. Other days the load is Dad always told me don’t you cry when you’re down lightened and the bricks dissolve into pebbles. But mum there’s a tear every time that I blink “Some days it’s still really, really heavy, but I think I’ve gotten “Five minutes before the start of our cross country practice she stronger,” she says. called me after learning that her mother had died,” Irish assistant Harris and her mother had volunteered together, attended Mass, coach Sean Carlson recalls. “She was in her dorm, and by the time combined on household chores. I got there she was packing for a flight home.” “She was always happy, always laughing, always loud,” says Harris. The entire Irish men’s and women’s track team—including some “She was vibrant and vivacious. I’ve found myself the last couple team members that didn’t even know Harris yet—went to the of years emulating a lot of things about her.” Grotto that same night and prayed. “They all hurt,” says Carlson. Cookie attended many of her daughter’s races, despite under- Harris spent four complicated days at home for her mother’s ser- standing little about the sport. vices with her two older sisters and two brothers. When she returned to campus, her roommate and others did their best, but as Harris “She called it the track and the field,” says Harris. “She had no says, “No one teaches you how to deal with a grieving friend.” idea. She just loved coming to see me race. She didn’t care if I finished last.” Carlson attempted to help Harris sort out her future: “We had a couple of talks because she was thinking about transferring some- I hope that I see the world as you did ’cause I know where back home. I talked to her about, ‘Would your mother want A life with love is a life that’s been lived you to go back home and help your family or would she want you So I’ll sing Hallelujah, you were an angel in the shape of my mum to continue working toward what your goal has been, running When I fell down you’d be there holding me up at one of the best universities in the country?’ She saw that just Spread your wings as you go because something major like this happened in her life, it didn’t And when God takes you back mean she had to give up on her goals.” He’ll say Hallelujah you’re home Harris over time learned what Notre Dame came to mean for her. Harris’ passion for running blossomed magnificently in 2017. She won a pair of gold medals at the ACC indoor meet, also helping “I wasn’t going to come here. This wasn’t meant to be. And yet the Irish distance medley relay to a victory. She finished 13th in now, as important as my family is to me, I’ve never been more the mile at the NCAA indoor championships and helped the Notre confident that this is my family here at Notre Dame, too.” Dame distance medley relay team to eighth place and All-America I fluffed the pillows, made the beds, stacked the chairs up honors. Her 10th-place finish in the 1,500 meters at the NCAA out- Folded your nightgowns neatly in a case door championships made her a second-team All-American. John said he’d drive, then put his hand on my cheek Yet, as she crosses the finish line she’s still prone to scanning the And wiped a tear from the side of my face stands for her mom. “I want to tell her this is what I’ve been work- Three months later, during the 2015 indoor season, Harris broke ing for,” says Harris. three school records in her first three meets—first in the 1,000- Yet that seemingly ever-present grin suggests that Harris some- meter run, then the 600 meters, then the 800. how has found peace. “That’s pretty impressive for a freshman,” says Carlson. “She’s gone through this heartache, but when you see her run At the 2015 NCAA indoor championship Harris earned first-team she’s smiling,” says Irish associate head coach and distance spe- All-America honors by helping the Irish distance medley relay cialist Matt Sparks. “She stuck it out and we’re all happy she did.” squad to an eighth-place finish. In the words of singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran’s mournful ballad, “She is very good at not showing when maybe she’s hurting Cookie has seen the person—and the quality runner—daughter emotionally,” continued Carlson. “After she broke the 600 record, Harris has become. she broke down and cried. She said, ‘Is that what I’m supposed to It’s likely that somewhere Cookie is smiling, too. be doing or am I supposed to be going home?’ She was hurt and did not run outdoors that freshman year. I sensed that was one of Hallelujah, you were an angel in the shape of my mum the hardest times because she had a lot of time for things to sink You got to see the person that I have become in. She went home that summer and you expect it be like it always Spread your wings and I know was. Now it was completely different.” That when God took you back He said Hallelujah you’re home Harris wished she could wake up to some form of normality. Even- Hallelujah, you were an angel in the shape of my mum tually she found solace in the comfort of practice at 3:30 every You got to see the person that I have become weekday afternoon. Slowly she came to grips with her loss. Spread your wings and I know “The absence is what you have to carry forever,” she says. That when God took you back He said Hallelujah you’re home Harris likens grieving to carrying around a backpack full of bricks.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 41 FEATURES KANALEY WINNERS GO ABOVE AND BEYOND By John Heisler HE ANNUAL WINNERS OF THE Irish head fencing coach Gia Kvaratskhelia calls coaching Kiefer BYRON V. KANALEY AWARD TOOK the greatest honor of his career: CENTER STAGE MAY 4 AT THE “During my 20-year coaching career, I have had the opportunity O.S.C.A.R.S., THE YEARLY ATHLETIC to teach Olympians, NCAA champions and USA Fencing champi- DEPARTMENT GALA TO HONOR ons and finalists. I can say, without hesitation, that none pos- TOP-ACHIEVING NOTRE DAME sessed the combination of determination, work ethic, talent and humility that defined Lee. STUDENT-ATHLETES. “Athletically, her accomplishments were staggering. Frankly, The Kanaley Awards represent the most it’s difficult to encompass the full scope of her athletic success. Timpressive combinations of success in athletics, academics and Reaching these heights on their own required a grueling level service. They go to those seniors judged “most exemplary as of discipline. What separated Lee even more was the way she students and leaders.” brought the same tenacity she displayed on the fencing strip to The four seniors honored—Lee Kiefer (women’s fencing), Kaleigh all areas of her life. Within our program’s community, Lee served Olmstead (women’s soccer), Sergio Perkovic (men’s lacrosse) and as an ideal team captain—leading her teammates vocally and by Monica Robinson (women’s tennis)—represent NCAA champions example, while remaining fiercely loyal to Notre Dame, our pro- (both team and individual), All-Americans and All-Atlantic Coast gram’s values and her teammates. Conference players. “Notre Dame fencing boasts nine team national championships, They won ACC Postgraduate Scholarships, boasted glossy grade- 34 individual national championships and more than 300 All- point averages and made a difference in the Notre Dame/Michi- Americans. However, Lee’s success is unsurpassed in our program’s ana community. history. Despite this, she stayed grounded and approachable and Each one possesses a resume for which any college student displayed true care, friendship and loyalty towards her teammates.” would trade. Kvaratskhelia and other Irish fencers were amazed on the final Law school professor Tricia Bellia, chair of the University’s Faculty day of competition in Indianapolis at the 2017 NCAA Champion- Board on Athletics—which makes the selections—will tell you that ships when Kiefer, minutes away from her foil title bout, spent assignment is a labor of love. her time recruiting teammates to help Elyssa Kleiner train the following week for the world championships. One day Kiefer won Still, Irish fans are spoiled because the combination of top-flight both a team and individual NCAA title—the next she was back on accomplishments on the field, in the classroom and in the commu- the fencing strip in the north dome of the Joyce Center helping nity are more expectations than anomalies at Notre Dame. make a teammate better. She currently ranks No. 1 in the world in So what made this quartet (all of them team captains in 2016–17) women’s foil. stand out?

Consider what those closest to them say about the four honorees: KALEIGH OLMSTED, women’s soccer LEE KIEFER, women’s fencing Olmsted (like Kiefer, she is headed to medical school) was the Kiefer (from Versailles, Kentucky), a pre-professional major, women’s soccer team MVP, an All-ACC pick and an all-tournament achieved almost mind-boggling athletic success, helping her 2017 selection at the 2016 ACC Championship. Notre Dame team win an NCAA title and winning four consecutive Her coach, Theresa Romagnolo, was more taken with the way her NCAA individual titles (that has happened only 19 times at the team captain led: NCAA Division I level).

42 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME LEE KIEFER KALEIGH OLMSTED SERGIO PERKOVIC MONICA ROBINSON women’s fencing women’s soccer men’s lacrosse women’s tennis

“Kaleigh and her senior class took over a team that had graduated school and hopes to give pro tennis a whirl. Her most impressive a great number of starters and leadership and her class took on the credentials are the many ways she gave back. task of leading in a different way with a lot of inexperienced players. A double major in marketing and Spanish, Robinson (from Valley “They did a tremendous job, making each player feel important Center, California) authored and illustrated a children’s book for and valued and pushing the charge of demanding a tougher, her Spanish major. Vice president of Pangborn Hall, she also was a hard-working mentality every day. As a captain she ultimately Dream Team member with Madison Elementary School in was responsible for exemplifying this behavior and demanding it South Bend. of others, and she did so wonderfully. Not only did she play with Said Irish women’s tennis coach Jay Louderback: great intensity and quality, but she also inspired others to raise their levels and believe in their abilities to do so. It was wonderful “Monica’s time spent with our adopted young cancer patient, to see her grow into a leader who learned how to motivate others Sophia, was amazing. Sophia signed her national letter of intent around her for the good of the team. with our program Monica’s freshman year. After that, Monica accompanied Sophia to several medical treatments, took her to “One of our three losses this last year came when Kaleigh could not the movies and attended Sophia’s birthday parties. travel to play in the game due to injury. Not only did we miss her performance on the field but most importantly her leadership.” “Sophia and her parents are incredibly thankful for Monica’s com- mitment over the last four years. Every time Sophia attended our Olmsted (from The Woodlands, Texas), who will take a gap year matches and saw Monica, her eyes lit up. You could see on her before beginning her medical studies, began her own fundraising face how much the time Monica spent with her means. I think project at Notre Dame—NoBody is Perfect, designed to combat this was Monica’s most important accomplishment in her time at eating disorders and raise resources for the Feeding Hope fund for Notre Dame.” clinical research at NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association). For years the Kanaley Awards were presented at Commencement, with the rest of the student body often unaware of the winners. That SERGIO PERKOVIC, men’s lacrosse changed with the introduction of a year-end athletic honors banquet Perkovic (from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan), a three-time and has more recently been highlighted by the O.S.C.A.R.S. event. first-team All-American for the Irish, knows what his future holds Only one winner was chosen through 1965. Three honorees were thanks to his Notre Dame degree in finance—and a job at Credit designated for the first time in 1971. The list of winners reached Suisse in New York City. four in 1990, six in 1994 and seven in 2009. That’s only a sliver of what Perkovic brought to his highly rated Robinson was the 13th women’s tennis player to be celebrated Irish men’s lacrosse unit. with the Kanaley; Olmsted represented the 11th women’s soccer Pat Healy, a starting senior defender on the 2017 Notre Dame player to win; Kiefer was the eighth women’s fencing honoree; and squad and one of Perkovic’s closest friends, appreciated the quiet, Perkovic was the fourth men’s lacrosse player feted. low-key way his classmate conducts his business. Of the 218 overall winners, 30 have come from the Irish football “His work ethic was unparalleled on our team—he did it by program, 15 from men’s track and field, 13 each from baseball, example, in the classroom, on the field. He was always pushing men’s soccer and men’s fencing and 12 from men’s basketball. himself and that just raised the level of everyone else around him. Carol Lally (women’s basketball) qualified as the first female That’s the biggest thing. It was his determination to be successful winner in 1979. Among women’s sports, 13 Kanaley winners have in everything he does. come from tennis, 11 from soccer, nine each from basketball and “He brought other guys along with him—he was a great mentor to volleyball and eight each from fencing and softball. a lot of the younger guys on offense and the team in general. He’s Check back in a dozen years. always been a good leader.” The odds are good the resumes of Kiefer, Olmsted, Perkovic and Robinson will be shining just as brightly. MONICA ROBINSON, women’s tennis As longtime national radio commentator Paul Harvey used to close Robinson, a second-team All-ACC selection for 2017, won 134 his pithy vignettes, “And now you know the rest of the story.” combined singles and doubles matches and ranked as high as 10th nationally in doubles. She may eventually head to graduate

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 43 FEATURES REPLAY: NCAA TITLE IN MY EYES RIEL SIMMONS, A FRESHMAN FROM then you do something stupid. The first day I won nine bouts (out BELLAIRE, TEXAS, COMPETED IN of 15) and Dylan won eight, which is pretty good. We kept saying EPEE FOR THE 2017 UNIVERSITY we have to forget about it—just do our jobs tomorrow. OF NOTRE DAME FENCING SQUAD. They make it a two-day format because the intensity and emotion Simmons, who advanced to the individual and mental energy exhaust you. We just wanted to eat and sleep semifinals in his event to earn first-team Thursday night. That next day we only lost one bout each—we All-America honors, and his teammates killed it. Dylan ended up one bout away from being an All-Ameri- journeyed to Indianapolis for the 2017 can and I got into the final four. My mom flew up and this was the NCAA Fencing Championships. They first time in college she’d seen me fence. I’d look at the coaches Atook that event by storm, finishing with a dominating victory and the team and they’re giving it their all cheering for you and (186 points to 161) over runner-up Ohio State. This is Simmons’ you realize you’re giving it your all fencing. first-person account of how the Irish did it in winning their It all happens so quickly. I hated it and loved it at the same time. ninth NCAA title on a weekend loaded with emotion and high- I loved the amount of energy—it was unlike any event I’ve ever level performances. fenced. The first day everyone is kind of feeling out the water. The

second day was even more intense because everyone is trying to I kind of had an idea of what to expect, but only the shell of what finish in the final four. Epee was kind of a free for all with eight I thought was going to happen actually happened. The emotions matches on Friday. We had to give it 10 times more than we did and all the other things you go through—nothing can prepare you the first day. After each bout the emotions were unbelievable. If for that. you won you did not hear silence for a full minute after the bout. It When we got to Indianapolis Wednesday it was kind of the calm was “We are ND” and “Here come the Irish” and it was just boom- before the storm. We all hung out together that night, but we ing. We knew and foil were winning because we could hear weren’t talking much fencing. We knew once we woke up it was the energy over there. And just like that it’s done. game time. I was spent after the 23 pool bouts. I got 15 of them—and I was Foil went first, so it was Axel (Kiefer) and Kristjan (Archer) at nine, gone emotionally. Then the team part is over and it’s just the four then Dylan (French) and I were in epee at 11:30 and sabre (Jonah individuals left. I lost a little intensity, and I ended up losing in the Shainberg and Jonathan Fitzgerald) was at 1:30. By the time I semifinals. It was cool, but it’s different because it doesn’t count got there the foil guys were already fencing. It was a little scary for the team. to watch. The competition was on a hockey rink with stands all When the men were done Friday we’re doing our best not to think around, and it was obvious everyone was going to be watching us. about the standings and what it meant. But all the guys know We saw there were a lot of people cheering for the Notre Dame they’re done fencing so they can just look at numbers. We were guys, and that was great. We warmed up, got in our zone and tied with Ohio State after Friday, and we couldn’t do anything then we got ready to fence. about it. But we put all our faith in the girls—we knew they could Dylan and I were intense and tense at the same time. You have to take it home. They have a good history of killing it at NCAAs. But know in this tournament you’re going to lose bouts, and the most it’s 10 times more stressful watching than being on the strip. important thing is to have a short memory. You lose a bout and By Saturday night we were all optimistic, but it’s like “we can do you go to the next one. If you keep thinking about it you’ll lose it” rather that “we did do it.” Nobody wants to jinx it. The last few your next one and the one after that and the one after that. This years we were close, but we hadn’t gotten it. We’re excited, but tournament is not about you, it’s about the team. So if you get we’re all freaking out at the same time. into a funk you’re not just losing for yourself, you’re losing for your team. So you have to put your ego aside and forget that you lost Then on Sunday, while we thought the guys did a good job, the a bout and win the next one. It’s about bringing back the trophy. girls blew us out of the water. Four of the six girls got 79 bouts. All six guys got 86. The girls got 100 points—that’s freakishly high. I lost a few bouts and so did Dylan. We did a good job of reset- They were averaging winning two or three more bouts than the ting, but I was very frustrated every time I lost a bout. Some of the guys and that’s huge. My friends from other schools kept telling matches you lose you wouldn’t lose in a normal situation—but you me, “Notre Dame’s got this.” But you did not really feel like you get too excited, too scared, too happy you won the last one, and

44 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME were destroying all these other schools until it’s all over. You can’t just say it, you still have to do it. In the end we won by such a huge margin and a lot of it was that every- body just kept their heads down. On Sunday we knew exactly how many more bouts we needed. At one point it was seven and then five. Then Lee Kiefer was up, and she ends up the hero. It was so perfect that she was the one who had a chance to clinch this for the team. There was a Snapchat story that one of our friends took and it said, “Here Come the Irish.” It’s just a video of all the Notre Dame fans in the stands running over to where Lee is going to fence. She ended up winning 5-1, and I’m standing there in front with an ND flag waiting to unfurl it. (Sophomore foilist) Sabrina (Massialas) is watching us and she gives us a thumbs up, but she did not know this was the bout. We let her know that this was it. As soon as Lee won, Sabrina ran up and told her that we had won. We’re all screaming and hugging. They told us we had to stay in the stands, but we came down there anyway. We all did this—it wasn’t just one person. This was the entire group, it was the people who came before us, it was the coaches, it was everything we did right this year. It was crazy to see it all come together. We weren’t the No. 1 ranked team coming into this. People were predicting us second or third, and last year we were fifth. Out of 12 fencers we had nine All-Americans (Lee Kiefer, Amanda Sirico, 2017 individual sabre champion Francesca Russo and Simmons earned first-team honors; Massialas, Archer, Axel Kiefer, Shainberg and Fitzgerald won second-team recognition). That’s how you win a national championship. Everybody got double-digit points. We took pictures with the trophy, and then we jumped on the bus and came home. It was the most emotional weekend I’ve ever had and it was over like this (snaps his fingers). We had probably 30, maybe 40 team members come on their own time and money to support us. That’s what this team is—it’s a family that came together when we needed it most. You had to be there to experience it. It was beautiful.

“It was ‘We are ND’ and ‘Here come the Irish’ and it was just booming.” ARIEL SIMMONS

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 45 SEASONS IN REVIEW SPORTS 2016–17

46 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME NACDA CUP Notre Dame finished 23rd hockey (83), women’s in the final Directors Cup basketball (73), women’s all-sports standings for cross country (66), men’s 2016–17 in the tabulations soccer (64), men’s lacrosse sponsored by Learfield and (60) and men’s basketball the National Association and women’s tennis (50 of Collegiate Directors of each). Notre Dame qualified Athletics (NACDA). The for spots in the brackets Irish scored points in nine in both the 2017 and 2016 women’s sports and six NCAA Championships in men’s sports in addition men’s basketball, women’s to 100 points from the basketball and hockey— combined NCAA Fencing the only institution to Championship title. Top accomplish that feat in point-scoring programs in each of those years. 2016–17 were fencing (100),

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 47 SEASONS IN REVIEW

FALL SPORTS FOOTBALL 4-8 MIKE McGLINCHEY

Junior safety Drue Tranquill was named to the 2016 Academic All-America® Division I Football Team, as chosen by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The mechanical engineering major has a 3.73 grade- point average and has been named to the University’s Dean’s List during three of his six semesters at Notre Dame. He’s the first Irish football student-athlete to receive the honor since Corey Robinson earned first-team accolades in 2014. Robinson received one of the NCAA’s highest honors—an NCAA post- graduate scholarship. The 2016–17 Notre Dame student body president graduated with a degree linemen, respectively, to be Jon Gallagher, the from the Program of Liberal MEN’S Studies, added a minor in named first- or second- leading goalscorer (14) in sustainability and boasted a team All-American in the SOCCER the conference, was named 3.836 cumulative grade- last five years. the 2016 ACC Offensive point average. Robinson, a 12-7-2 Player of the Year. Gallagher and Aubrey were All-ACC two-time Rhodes Scholar #14 FINAL RANKING (NSCAA) first-team selections, while applicant and one-time 3-3-2, 3RD IN ACC COASTAL finalist, became the first DIVISION Evan Panken was an Notre Dame football ACC CHAMPIONSHIP All-ACC third-team choice. student-athlete to receive QUARTERFINALS Tommy McCabe was the honor since 2008 and NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP THIRD selected to the ACC 18th in program history. ROUND All-Freshman team. Senior left tackle Mike The Irish earned the McGlinchey earned Brandon Aubrey No. 13 national seed in the second-team All-America completed his senior NCAA Championship honors from the Associated season as an NSCAA bracket. Press and third-team All-America third-team Notre Dame made its accolades from Phil Steele. selection and was named to 19th appearance in the the NSCAA Scholar Junior left guard Quenton NCAA Championship in All-America first team. Nelson claimed second- 2016 and its 11th as one of Aubrey was chosen in the team All-America honors the event’s 16 national first round (21st overall) by from both the Associated seeds. The Irish were the Toronto FC during the 2017 Press and Sports Illustrated. top overall seed in both MLS SuperDraft. 2012 and 2014 and won the McGlinchey and Nelson 2013 NCAA title as the third are the fourth and fifth seed. Notre Dame offensive

48 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME KAELA LITTLE

WOMEN’S SOCCER 13-3-5

#21 FINAL RANKING (NSCAA) 7-1-2, TIE FOR 1ST IN ACC ACC CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND

Taylor Klawunder was named to the NSCAA All-Southeast Region third team. Kaleigh Olmsted earned All-ACC first-team honors, Jennifer Westendorf copped All-ACC second- team recognition and Klawunder, Sandra Yu and Kaela Little were named to the All-ACC third team. Westendorf was also recognized as an All-ACC Freshman team selection. Goalkeeper Kaela Little posted 13 solo shutouts and combined for two more. She achieved career highs Rohrer won her first MEN’S in goals-against average individual ACC Champion- (0.41), saves (91), save CROSS WOMEN’S ship and was named ACC percentage (.910) and solo Female Cross Country shutouts (13). She ranked COUNTRY CROSS Performer of the Year. first in the conference in COUNTRY Rohrer received her second save percentage and 10TH IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP cross country All-America shutouts, second in #11 FINAL RANKING (USTFCCCA) honor and was a Honda goals-against average and 2ND IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP The Irish finished 10th at Sport Award nominee for fourth in saves. She finished 11TH IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP the ACC Championship cross country. her career ranked first in behind Anthony Williams’ program history in solo The Irish finished second 28th-place spot and shutouts (38) and save The Irish made their 15th at the NCAA Great Lakes Christopher Marco’s percentage (.838), third in straight appearance at the Regional meet as Rohrer, 47th-place finish. minutes (7,249:45) and NCAA Championship, Heffernan (10th) and goalkeeper starts (78) and Marco raced to 54th at finishing 11th overall with Aragon (13th) turned in fourth in goals-against the NCAA Great Lakes two top-50 individual top-15 performances. Anna Rohrer average (0.66). Regional meet. finishes. Notre Dame won the finished third overall at the National Catholic Champi- Notre Dame made its Notre Dame placed NCAA Championship. onship, led by five of the 24th consecutive appear- second in the National top 15 finishers. ance in the NCAA Champi- Catholic Invitational, Notre Dame placed onship, the second-longest recording five top-20 second as a team at the active streak (behind only finishes in the race. ACC Championship, following top-10 finishes by North Carolina). The Irish had two Rohrer (she won the race), runners, Marco and Annie Heffernan (second) Williams, named to the and Danielle Aragon All-ACC Academic team. (ninth).

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 49 SEASONS IN REVIEW

BONZIE COLSON

VOLLEYBALL 22-10

13-7, TIE FOR 6TH IN ACC

Notre Dame’s 22 wins were the most in a season since 2005 and the 13 conference wins were the most in the ACC in Irish program history. Sam Fry, Caroline Holt and Ryann DeJarld were each named second-team All-ACC selections, while first-year player Jemma Yeadon earned a spot on the league’s all-freshman team. It marked the first time four Irish players earned regular-season conference recognition in the same year since Notre Dame joined the ACC in 2013. Holt thrived in running the Irish attack from the setter position. Notre Dame was 18-4 in matches the junior transfer played, matches, recording a career including 9-1 in ACC play. high of 12 in two matches. Holt averaged 10.97 assists Yeadon led the Irish per set to lead the Irish and attack with a team-high rank second in the ACC. 2.94 kills per set and The 10.97 assists per set WINTER recorded double-digit kills rank second in the Notre in 19 matches, including six Dame record books since straight to close out the the NCAA switched to 2016 campaign. 25-point sets in 2008. SPORTS DeJarld finished the year seven NCAA wins over the MEN’S with 572 digs, ranking third past three seasons are tied all-time for digs in a season BASKETBALL for first for most in program in Notre Dame history. history over a three-year DeJarld was second in the 26-10 span. ACC in digs per set (5.02) #14/#20 FINAL RANKINGS (AP/ Junior forward Bonzie and aces per set (0.39). The USA TODAY) Colson was named to the libero totaled 44 aces on 12-6, TIE FOR 2ND IN ACC All-ACC second team, while the season, placing her in a ACC CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNER-UP junior guard Matt Farrell, tie for sixth in the Irish NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP SECOND senior forward V.J. record books for aces in ROUND Beachem and senior guard a season. Steve Vasturia were each Fry ranked second on the The Irish advanced to the named honorable mention. team in kills (255), kills per second round of the NCAA Colson was an Associ- set (2.38) and blocks (102). Championship for the third ated Press third-team Fry had 10-plus blocking straight season—the team’s All-American, a Wooden performances in three

50 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME Award Final 15 selection, a Year, leading the league Dame’s NCAA Lexington WOMEN’S Naismith Award Top 30 with 86 blocked shots. Regional while claiming candidate and a Karl a spot on the Naismith BASKETBALL A third-team All- Malone Trophy finalist. Trophy’s midseason Top American and the ACC 33-4 30 list. The Notre Dame regular Championship MVP, season was keynoted by #2/#5 FINAL RANKINGS (AP/USA Lindsay Allen set both Karen and Kevin Keyes home wins over ninth- TODAY) school and ACC records for Family Head Women’s ranked Louisville and 15-1, 1ST IN ACC both single-season (282) Basketball coach Muffet 14th-rated Florida State. 1ST IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP and career (841) assists. McGraw was a member of NCAA LEXINGTON REGIONAL After the season she was the Naismith Memorial Notre Dame defeated RUNNER-UP the 14th overall pick in the Basketball Hall of Fame’s Virginia and Florida State at WNBA Draft by the New Class of 2017. the Barclays Center in York Liberty. Brooklyn to reach the ACC Brianna Turner earned Notre Dame became the Championship final for the first-team All-America Arike Ogunbowale only team in the nation to second time in four honors and repeated as the earned Most Outstanding win its conference regular- seasons. ACC Defensive Player of the Player honors in Notre season title outright and its conference tournament title in each of the past five years (2013–17). The Irish claimed a No. 1 CAL PETERSEN seed in the NCAA Champi- onship for the sixth year in a row.

HOCKEY 23-12-5

#4/#5 FINAL RANKINGS (USA TODAY/USCHO.COM) 12-6-4, 4TH IN HOCKEY EAST HOCKEY EAST CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS 1ST IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP NORTHEAST REGIONAL NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP FROZEN FOUR (NATIONAL SEMIFINALS)

The Irish made their ninth appearance in the NCAA Championship. At the NCAA Northeast Regional they defeated No. 1 seed Minne- sota 3-2 and No. 2 seed UMass Lowell in overtime 3-2 to advance to the Frozen Four for the third time in program history. High-scoring junior Anders Bjork posted a career-high 52 points on 21 goals and 31 assists. He was named a second-team East CCM/AHCA All-American, earned first-team Hockey East All-Star honors and was a finalist for both the

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 51 SEASONS IN REVIEW

Hobey Baker and the Hockey at the NCAA Division I morning prelims of the 200 ship. It was Notre Dame’s Humanitarian awards. Prior Championship in school breaststroke, good enough first championship in diving to signing a three-year history in 2017. The Irish sent to finish in the top eight. as a member of the ACC. entry level contract with a record-tying nine individu- Jackson advanced to the Coumos also earned fourth the NHL Boston Bruins, he als to the meet and finished finals and placed eighth at place in the men’s 3-meter suited up for Team USA at with a program-record 29 1:55.24. dive. points to place 25th. the 2017 IIHF World Jackson set the school Junior Justin Plaschka Championship. Notre Dame finished record in the 100 breast- netted Notre Dame’s first Bjork, junior goaltender third at the 2017 ACC stroke (52.25) and com- silver medal of the 2017 ACC Cal Petersen, junior Championship for the peted on two relay school Championship. He swam defenseman Jordan Gross program’s first podium records (200 and 400 19.38 and edged Chad Mylin and sophomore forward finish at the conference medley). of Florida State (19.39) for meet. second place. Plaschka’s Andrew Oglevie, who Junior Joe Coumos time bested the school scored the overtime winner Senior Trent Jackson made school history when record that teammate Daniel against UMass Lowell, were earned All-America honors his score of 420.00 earned Speers (19.45) had broken in named to the NCAA at the NCAA meet. He him the 2017 ACC men’s that morning’s prelims. Northeast Regional swam 1:53.58 in the 1-meter diving champion- All-Tournament team. Petersen, who turned pro in the summer of 2017, ended the season by making his 90th consecu- tive start in the Notre Dame net—the fourth-longest streak in Division I history. TRENT JACKSON He was named a 2017 Hockey East First Team All-Star and was also a Mike Richter Award finalist. Sophomore defenseman Dennis Gilbert was named a Hockey East Third Team All-Star and was also named the league’s Best Defensive Defenseman. Gross was named an honorable mention All-Star, while freshman Andrew Peeke was the only defenseman named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team.

MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING 9-2

#19 FINAL RANKING (CSCAA) 2-2 ACC 3RD IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP 25TH IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP

Notre Dame registered its most successful performance

52 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME JESSICA HARRIS

Tabahn Afrik earned Notre Dame’s second individual medal at the ACC meet at 42.86 in the 100 free. The time was an NCAA B-cut standard time, and it marked Afrik’s second medal of the tournament after he earned his first as a member of the 200 freestyle relay team that earned a bronze.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING 10-1

#24 FINAL RANKING (CSCAA) 3-1 ACC 7TH IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP 44TH IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP

Notre Dame concluded its breakthrough season with a strong showing at the 2017 NCAA Champion- ship, sending a school- Dolan and Sofia Revilak the Clemson Tiger Paw record 10 athletes. Freshman Abbie Dolan broke its own record in the broke the 100 and 200 free Invitational. Senior Catherine Mulquin relay at 1:28.93. The second records at the ACC meet. The Irish finished eighth finished 15th in the morning came from the foursome of She swam the 100 free in overall at the ACC Champi- prelims of the 100 back at Mulquin, Meaghan 48.70 and the 200 free in onship. Jake Dumford took the NCAA Championship in O’Donnell, Erin Sheehan and 1:44.65. fifth in the mile at the ACC 51.72, which earned her Dolan in the 400 medley meet, and the 4x400-meter honorable mention All- relay. That group came in at relay unit also took fifth. America honors. 3:33.38—besting the time of MEN’S Anthony Shivers threw a Mulquin set the school 3:33.93 set in 2014. school-record 20.50m in record in the 100 back Sophomore Alice Treuth INDOOR the weight throw at the (51.72) and competed on swam the 200 backstroke TRACK & ACC Championship. four relay school records at the NCAA meet in (200 and 400 medley as 1:53.45 to set the Notre FIELD 8TH IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP well as 200 and 400 free). Dame record and placed 54TH IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP WOMEN’S She also swam the 50 free 26th. Treuth broke Kelly at the NCAA meet for the Ryan’s record of 1:53.57 first time in her career, and (2013). Nathan Richartz tied for INDOOR her time of 22.52 finished sixth in the pole vault at the Freshman Erin Sheehan TRACK & 40th—fourth-fastest in NCAA Championship, good earned a bronze medal with school history. for All-America honors. FIELD a third-place finish in the 5TH IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP The Irish relays set two 100 butterfly at the ACC Richartz placed third in 33RD (TIE) IN NCAA schools records at the Championship. Her time of the vault at the ACC CHAMPIONSHIP NCAA meet. The first came 52.22 in the 100 butterfly Championship and also The Irish tied for 33rd at in the 200 free relay as gave the Irish their first recorded first-place finishes the NCAA Championship. Notre Dame’s quartet of medal of the event. at the Meyo Invitational and The distance medley relay Katie Smith, Mulquin, Abbie squad of Jamie Marvil,

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 53 SEASONS IN REVIEW

ARIEL SIMMONS

Jessica Harris, Payton Miller and Kelly Hart received All-America honors, the fifth straight year the Irish women’s DMR claimed that distinction. Anna Rohrer finished third in the 5,000 meters, and Jessica Harris placed 13th in the mile. Notre Dame came in fifth at the ACC Championship after Rohrer won the 5,000-meter title, Harris won the mile and the relay squad took gold in the distance medley relay. Indi Jackson finished sixth in the shot put at the ACC Championship. Jackson set the school record in the shot put with a 16.23-meter throw at the Alex Wilson Invitational.

MEN’S FENCING 30-8 college fencer to win four NCAA championships and At the NCAA Midwest #2 (TIE) FINAL RANKING WOMEN’S one of just 18 Division I (COLLEGEFENCING360.COM) Regional, Simmons claimed athletes to accomplish the 1ST IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP silver in epee, while Virgile FENCING feat. 1ST IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP Collineau came in third in foil and Fitzgerald placed 35-4 Kiefer was also elevated

third in sabre. #1 (TIE) FINAL RANKING to the FIE No. 1 senior foil The men combined with (COLLEGEENCING360.COM) ranking, becoming the first the women to claim the The Irish repeated as 1ST IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP American woman to top ninth NCAA Championship ACC champions, with 1ST IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP the rankings. in program history. Notre Archer (foil) and Simmons Dame’s final total of 186 (epee) each claiming Francesca Russo also points was the highest for individual weapon gold The women combined repeated as an NCAA the Irish in an NCAA title medals. For his efforts in with the men to claim the individual champion, victory and the highest for both the individual and ninth NCAA Championship winning the 2017 title in a winning team since Penn team championship, in program history. Notre sabre after also capturing State’s 191 in 2010. Simmons was named the Dame’s final total of 186 the 2015 crown as a event’s most valuable points was the highest for freshman. Rookie Ariel Simmons fencer. the Irish in an NCAA title won first-team All-America Joining Kiefer and Russo victory and the highest for honors after advancing to Simmons was named the as a first-team All-American a winning team since Penn the NCAA semifinals in epee. ACC Fencer of the Year for was Amanda Sirico, who State’s 191 total in 2010. Four more men earned Epee, while Kiefer took placed third in epee. home that title for foil. second-team recognition: Lee Kiefer made Notre The Irish women boasted Fitzgerald was a third-team Kristjan Archer (foil), Axel Dame and collegiate NCAA Midwest Regional CoSIDA Academic All- Kiefer (foil), Jonathan fencing history by captur- champions in sabre and foil, American in the at-large Fitzgerald (sabre) and ing her fourth individual as Russo and Kiefer turned division. Jonah Shainberg (sabre). NCAA title in foil. Kiefer in outstanding days. Also became just the third

54 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME ALI WESTER

at .439. He saved his best for last, earning a spot on the ACC Championship All-Tournament team for his performance in Notre Dame’s two games. Against eventual tournament champion Florida State, Podkul homered twice— then, against regular-sea- son champion Louisville, the sophomore went two for five with a run scored. Southpaw Michael Hearne capped his career, becoming the club’s No. 2 weekend starter. The graduate student finished second in the ACC and 19th nationally in walks per nine innings, issuing free passes at a 1.21 clip, which also ranks as the sixth-best season figure in program history. For his career, Hearne finished with a walks-per-nine rate of 1.49, the second-best mark in Notre Dame baseball history. In 13 starts in 2017, Hearne did not issue more medaling for the Irish was than two walks in a single Sirico who claimed third in appearance. epee. The Irish repeated as ACC champions and swept SPRING SOFTBALL the individual titles with Sabrina Massialas (foil), 34-23 Russo (sabre) and Sirico (epee) taking home 13-11, 5TH IN ACC individual gold medals. ACC CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS SPORTS NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP REGIONAL Massialas was selected as PARTICIPANT the ACC Championship BASEBALL doubles and triples. During Most Valuable Fencer. ACC play, he was 19th among conference hitters 26-32 Outfielder Karley Wester Kiefer was named the with a .322 average while closed one of the best ACC Women’s Fencer of 10-20, 7TH IN ATLANTIC DIVISION his 14 doubles in 30 league careers in Notre Dame the Year for Foil and Russo ACC CHAMPIONSHIP PARTICIPANT games ranked second. In history with her fourth earned ACC Women’s addition, the centerfielder Fencer of the Year for straight selections to both Matt Vierling collected committed just one error on Sabre honors. Kiefer also NFCA all-region and third team All-ACC honors the year, while recording 10 was a first-team CoSIDA All-ACC teams. after leading the Irish in assists. Academic All-American in A two-time (2014 and batting average (.320), Second baseman Nick the at-large category (she 2016) NFCA All-America homers (seven) and RBI Podkul was the only Irish won that same honor in choice during her Notre (42) while starting all 58 player besides Vierling to 2015). Dame tenure, Wester games. The sophomore start all 58 games. He finished the 2017 season as ranked 23rd in the league in finished third on the team the active Division I softball batting average and among with a .285 average while national leader with 323 the conference’s top four in ranking second in slugging

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 55 SEASONS IN REVIEW

to the All-ACC first team, Hagar was named to the career hits. Her career hits, MEN’S batting average, stolen while Reed and Rochford All-ACC first team for his bases and runs scored represented the Irish on the TENNIS second career All-ACC totals were all Notre Dame All-ACC second team. honor. 13-13 softball program records. Notre Dame played in the The ITA named Hagar Karley Wester, Ali NCAA Championship for #50 FINAL RANKING (ITA) its Most Improved Player Wester and Morgan Reed the 19th straight season. 4-8, 10TH IN ACC for the Midwest Region were each named to the ACC CHAMPIONSHIP SECOND following the season. That NFCA Mid-Atlantic all- ROUND award annually goes to a region first team. Melissa senior. Rochford was selected to Josh Hagar advanced to the NFCA Mid-Atlantic the second round of the all-region second team. NCAA Singles Champion- WOMEN’S Four members of the ship in his first NCAA Notre Dame team claimed appearance. Hagar finished TENNIS All-ACC honors. The Wester the year with a No. 57 18-10 sisters were each selected national ranking in singles. #29 FINAL RANKING (ITA) 7-7, 5TH (TIE) IN ACC ACC CHAMPIONSHIP SECOND ROUND NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP SECOND JOSH HAGAR ROUND

Senior Monica Robinson became the program’s first National ITA/Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship and Leader- ship award winner in May after earning the regional honor earlier in the month. She was also named the Most Improved Player for the Midwest Region. Freshman Zoe Spence was tabbed as the ITA Midwest Region Rookie of the Year. Robinson was selected for the All-ACC second team, her second career all-league honor. Since their first appear- ance in the NCAA Champi- onship in 1993 the Irish have made 24 postseason appearances in 25 sea- sons—and only twice have the Irish failed to win a first-round match when making the tournament.

56 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME WOMEN’S CASEY PEARSALL LACROSSE 11-8

#18/#18/#19 FINAL RANKINGS (IWLCA/US LACROSSE/INSIDE LACROSSE) 4-3, 3RD IN ACC ACC CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTERFINALS NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND

Cortney Fortunato was selected as a Tewaaraton Award nominee for the third straight season after reaching the 300-point milestone for her career. Fortunato and Casey Pearsall earned IWLCA All-America honors, as Pearsall was recognized on the first team and Fortu- nato received a spot on the second team. It marked Fortunato’s fourth All- America selection and the third of Pearsall’s career. Fortunato and Pearsall received first-team IWLCA All-West/Midwest acco- lades, while Alex Dalton earned a spot on the third-team recognition and marking the first time the all-region second team. MEN’S attackman Ryder Garnsey Irish had two players on the The Irish had three merited honorable mention same team with 100 or LACROSSE members of the 2017 team honors. Epple, Perkovic and more goals in their careers. receive All-ACC accolades. 9-6 Sexton earned All-ACC The Irish ranked No. 1 in Fortunato and Pearsall recognition—and all three #8/#8 FINAL RANKING (INSIDE the country for two weeks made the first team, while were second-team All- LACROSSE/US LACROSSE) during the season, accord- Dalton was named to the America picks by Inside 2-2, 3RD IN ACC ing to the Inside Lacrosse second team. Lacrosse (media voting). ACC CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNER-UP and USILA polls—and they Notre Dame made its NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP Perkovic earned the finished No. 1 in the NCAA’s sixth straight trip to the QUARTERFINALS Byron V. Kanaley Award final rankings for toughest NCAA Championship and and Weaver-James-Corri- schedule. finished the season 11-8 gan Award (honorary ACC The United States Notre Dame advanced to with a 4-3 record in ACC Postgraduate Scholarship) Intercollegiate Lacrosse the NCAA quarterfinals for play. The conference record during the season and was Association selected the eighth year in a row, the equaled Notre Dame’s best a finalist for the Senior defenseman Garrett Epple, best active streak in the in the ACC since the team CLASS Award. midfielder Sergio Perkovic country. joined the league. and LSDM John Sexton to Perkovic and teammate its All-America first team. Mikey Wynne both reached SSDM Drew Schantz earned and surpassed the 100-goal milestone for their careers,

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 57 SEASONS IN REVIEW

EMMA ALBRECHT

54-hole tournament with his 201 (-9) to claim medalist honors at the Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf Classic, eclipsing the previous record by seven strokes (Max Scodro’s 208 in the 2012 NCAA Central Regional).

WOMEN’S GOLF #66 FINAL RANKING (GOLFSTAT) 10TH IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP

Sophomore Emma Albrecht led the Irish with a 73.56 stroke average, qualified for the NCAA Columbus Regional as an individual and tied for 13th at that event. She was Yestingsmeier Match Play Kevin Conners/Battle at the Notre Dame’s top finisher in MEN’S and Battle at the Warren). Warren). five of nine tournaments and her placement at the GOLF Irish had four individual Notre Dame set a school 10TH IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP NCAA regional marked the medalists on the year (John record (since 1990) with a second-best finish in Felitto/Notre Dame Kickoff team season stroke average program history. Notre Dame won four Challenge, Blake Barens/ of 289.52. Sophomore Isabella events in 2016–17 (Notre Fighting Irish Gridiron Golf Barens set a school DiLisio tied for third at the Dame Kickoff Challenge, Classic, Ben Albin/George- record (since 1963) for a Westbrook Spring Invita- Georgetown Invitational, town Intercollegiate and

Handrigan named Irish men’s golf coach John Handrigan, associate men’s golf coach at the University selections along with four GCAA All-America Scholars and 29 of Florida and the 2015 national assistant coach of the year, academic All-SEC selections. was named head men’s golf coach at Notre Dame in July 2017. A Bracebridge, Ontario, , native, Handrigan played Handrigan came to Notre Dame following a six-year tenure collegiately at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania. at Florida. He served as the Gators’ associate head coach in Briefly playing professionally on the Canadian Tour and the 2016–17 after spending the previous five years in Gainesville Great Lakes Tour, Handrigan began his coaching career at St. as an assistant coach. Florida won five tournaments in 2016–17 Francis, serving as an assistant coach from 2000–03 before and advanced to the NCAA Regional Championship, raising taking over the head coaching reigns at Coker College in the Gators’ total to 11 tournament wins during Handrigan’s ten- Hartsville, South Carolina. Handrigan led the Cobras to the ure. He also helped guide Florida to five NCAA regionals and Division II NCAA Championship in 2006, four straight NCAA four NCAA Championship appearances. regionals and a 2006 conference championship. Handrigan was awarded the 2015 Jan Strickland Award, Handrigan went from Coker to Queens University in Charlotte, emblematic of the national assistant coach of the year as rec- spending two years there as the head coach of both the men’s ognized by the Golf Coaches Association of America. Notably, and women’s golf teams. He was named the women’s confer- the award honors a coach for his work with student-athletes ence coach of the year in 2009. Handrigan returned to the both on and off of the golf course. Handrigan was a finalist Division I ranks at Kansas, spending the 2009–10 and 2010–11 for the award in 2013 as well. During his time with the Gators, seasons with the Jayhawks. he mentored 10 individual tournament winners, capped off Handrigan earned a pair of degrees from St. Francis, a bach- by Alejandro Tosti winning the 2017 elor’s degree in business management in 2000 and an MBA Championship. He coached six All-Americans and nine All-SEC in 2002.

58 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME TREASA O’TIGHEARNAIGH

5,000-meter races, giving her four conference championships between cross country and track this year. Aragon placed second in the 1,500 at the ACC Championship, earning All-ACC honors, while Harris came in fourth in the 800 and 1,500. The distance medley relay squad of Aragon, Harris, Kelly Hart and Payton Miller set a program record, surpassing both the indoor and outdoor DMR marks.

ROWING #16 FINAL RANKING (CRCA/US ROWING COACHES) 3RD IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP 16TH IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP

Three Notre Dame rowers claimed All-ACC honors at the league tional and posted a 74.77 Nine individuals qualified championship regatta, as WOMEN’S stroke average for the for the NCAA East Regional Erin Boxberger received season, ranking second on meet in Lexington. OUTDOOR first-team recognition and the team. Treasa O’Tighearnaigh Notre Dame finished 12th TRACK & earned second-team Notre Dame shot a 280 at the ACC Championship. honors. Freshman Emily (-8) in the third round of Richartz won his second FIELD Stinebaugh was named the #21 FINAL RANKING (USTFCCCA) the Betsy Rawls Longhorn career conference champi- ACC Freshman of the Year. Invitational, the third-lowest onship in the pole vault. 7TH IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP team round in program Boxberger and Anthony Shivers set the history. O’Tighearnaigh were school record with a 217-3 Jessica Harris finished named to the CRCA MEN’S throw in the hammer throw 10th and Danielle Aragon All-Region 3 first team and at the Michael Johnson was 12th in the 1,500 meters Gretchen Bruggeman was a OUTDOOR Invitational. at the NCAA Championship, second-team pick. while Anna Rohrer took Richartz set the program TRACK & 16th place in the 10,000 Notre Dame’s top finish record with an 18-1 vault meters. All three received at the ACC Championship FIELD and first-place finish at the 12TH IN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP second-team All-America came from a second-place Louisville Invitational. honors. finish by the first varsity eight, which lowered its Nate Richartz finished Nine individuals qualified time by over 26 seconds ninth in the pole vault and for the NCAA East Regional from the prelims. Matthew Birzer was 13th in meet in Lexington. 2008 Irish rowing alumna the high jump at the NCAA The Irish finished fifth at Amanda Polk won a gold Championship. Both the ACC Championship. medal at the 2016 Summer claimed second-team Rohrer won back-to-back Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, All-America honors. titles in the 10,000- and the Brazil, with the U.S. women’s eight.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 59 SEASONS IN REVIEW

BY THE RANKINGS

Here’s where Notre Dame teams in 2016–17 finished in the final polls:

1ST women’s fencing (fencing360.com) 2ND men’s fencing (fencing360.com) 4TH hockey (USA Today) 5TH women’s basketball (USA Today) 8TH men’s lacrosse (Inside Lacrosse) 11TH women’s cross country (USTFCCA) 14TH men’s soccer (NSCAA) 16TH rowing (CRCA) 21ST 26TH 18TH women’s soccer women’s indoor ST women’s lacrosse (NSCAA) track & field (USTFCCA) 1 (IWLCA) 21ST women’s fencing 19TH women’s outdoor 29TH (fencing360.com) men’s swimming and diving track & field women’s tennis (CSCAA) (USTFCCA) (ITA) 20TH 24TH 50TH men’s basketball women’s swimming men’s tennis (USA Today) and diving (ITA) (CSCAA)

60 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME US SENIOR OPEN COMING TO NOTRE DAME

The Warren Golf Course on the Notre Dame campus will be U.S. Amateur sectional qualifiers (2001, 2004, 2008, 2011, the host site for the 2019 U.S. Senior Open Championship 2012 and 2014), two U.S. Open local qualifiers (2009, 2011) Links. Dates for the championship are June 27–30. The and several tournaments conducted by the Western Golf Warren course will be the first collegiate course to host a Association and the Indiana Golf Association. U.S. Senior Open Championship. It will be the 16th USGA The U.S. Senior Open Championship was first played in 1980. championship held on a campus layout. The championship for golfers age 50 and older is open to The Warren Golf Course previously hosted the 2010 U.S. any professional and any amateur with a Handicap Index® Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, as well as six not exceeding 3.4. THREE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP EVENTS HEADED TO NOTRE DAME The NCAA awarded three of its championship events to the University of Notre Dame: The Warren Golf Course will be the institutional host in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil location for an NCAA Women’s Golf Stadium in 2013 for an NCAA quarterfinal Regional Championship on May 11-13, 2020. doubleheader. The 2021 event will mark the first time men’s lacrosse will be played at Notre Dame Stadium will serve as the Notre Dame Stadium. The University played venue for an NCAA Men’s Lacrosse host to the 2008 Championship quarterfinal doubleheader Women’s Lacrosse Tournament at Notre on May 23, 2021. Dame Stadium. The Joyce Center will be the site of Notre Dame previously played host to the the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Fencing NCAA Men’s Fencing Championships in 1970, Championships on March 24-27, 2022. 1977, 1982 and 1987, the NCAA Women’s The Warren Golf Course previously was the Fencing Championships in 1987 and the site of the 2005 and 2010 NCAA Division I combined NCAA Men’s and Women’s Fencing Men’s Golf Regionals and the 2011 and 2015 Championships in 1992. The 2017 NCAA NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Regionals. It Men’s and Women’s Championships were will be the host site for the 2019 U.S. Senior held in Indianapolis—with Notre Dame serving Open Championship. as institutional host. The Irish also served Notre Dame has played host to NCAA as institutional hosts for the men’s champi- first-round games in the men’s lacrosse onships in 1985, the women’s championships championships each of the last seven years in 1985 and combined men’s and women’s and nine times overall (since 2011 at Arlotta championships in 1990, 1995 and 1998—all of Stadium). The University also served as those held at nearby Saint Mary’s College.

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 61 SEASONS IN REVIEW

NCAA UPDATE

01 Notre Dame Public Statement on the Committee on Infractions Report On Nov. 22, 2016, the NCAA Committee on Infractions (COI) issued a public infractions decision involving the University of Notre Dame.

The violations in this case stem from Code to the facts discovered as part and penalty framework. The violations, impermissible academic assistance of the investigation. The institution described below, fall into three provided by a former student athletic ultimately determined to specially categories: trainer (“student trainer”) to several adapt the Honor Code to those facts, Category 1 Violations (Bylaws 10, now former student-athletes on the which resulted in the adjudication 14, 16): During the 2011–12 and 2012–13 football team. Under NCAA rules in of several instances of academic academic years, the student trainer place at the time of the academic misconduct among students then committed academic misconduct with misconduct, the student trainer enrolled at the University. Several two football student-athletes. The two was deemed an “institutional staff other potential instances of academic student-athletes also committed member”—the same status as if she misconduct were not adjudicated academic misconduct without the were a coach, athletic department because they involved former involvement of the student trainer or administrator or academic counselor. University students, to which the other institutional personnel. As a Notre Dame discovered the potential Honor Code does not apply. result of the academic misconduct, the misconduct when a member of its Five then current football student- institution imposed grade changes in Academic Services for Student- athletes were found responsible courses completed by the two football Athletes (ASSA) staff became under the Notre Dame Honor student-athletes during previous suspicious that the student trainer Code for academic misconduct semesters. Once those grade changes provided impermissible assistance discovered during the comprehensive were applied, the new academic to one football student-athlete on investigation. As a result, those records of the two student-athletes a paper. Because the ASSA staff students faced sanctions from the were deficient in certain respects and recognized the potential provider’s University, including temporary the institution’s certification of their name as a student trainer, it notified dismissal and grade changes in eligibility to compete during the 2012 both the Compliance Office and prior courses in which the students or 2013 football seasons was the University’s Faculty Athletics received impermissible assistance; in retroactively rendered erroneous. Representative. Thereafter, under a significant number of cases, that the direction of its Vice President Category 2 Violations (Bylaw 16): impermissible assistance came from and General Counsel, the institution During the 2011–12 and 2012–13 the student trainer. conducted an exhaustive investigation academic years, the student trainer to determine whether the student Notre Dame is extremely disappointed provided academic extra benefits to trainer provided impermissible that several students failed to meet six football student-athletes. All six academic assistance to any other institutional expectations regarding student-athletes subsequently student-athletes. The investigation academic honesty. The Honor Code competed after receiving the benefits. outcomes reflect the Notre Dame included interviews and the review of Category 3 Violations (Bylaws 10, 14, approach to most instances of student more than 95,000 emails. 16): During the 2012–13 and 2013–14 misconduct, which is educative and At the end of the investigation, academic years, one then football developmental in nature. the institution concluded that the student-athlete committed academic student trainer may have provided Upon completion of the institutional misconduct in five courses. The academic assistance to several process, Notre Dame worked closely student-athlete acted without the football student-athletes—some of with the NCAA Enforcement Staff involvement of the student trainer or whom were still enrolled and others to determine whether any NCAA other institutional personnel when he who were no longer enrolled at Notre rules were violated. Ultimately, violated institutional academic honesty Dame. Because the Notre Dame through a process known as summary and integrity policies. The institution Academic Code of Honor (Honor disposition, Notre Dame and the subsequently reduced the student- Code) contemplates the adjudication NCAA enforcement staff agreed upon athlete’s grades for the five courses, and of alleged violations in current courses the facts relevant to the enforcement as a result he completed an insufficient rather than courses completed in of NCAA rules; the violations of NCAA number of credits during both the 2012 previous semesters, members of the Bylaws 10, 14 and 16 that resulted from fall semester and during the 2013 fall academy at Notre Dame considered those facts; and the overall level of semester. The student-athlete competed whether and how to apply the Honor the case under the NCAA’s infractions during the 2013 football season.

62 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME The University of Notre Dame, the seasons; Notre Dame is appealing NCAA Enforcement Staff and the COI that penalty. agreed that the violations set forth It is important to note that the above constituted an overall Level II penalties do not include scholarship violation of NCAA rules. Under the restrictions, a postseason ban, coach four-tiered violation structure, Level I or other personnel suspension or is the most serious and Level IV is the recruiting restrictions. least serious. In addition, under the NCAA violation structure, violations Please know that Notre Dame is are characterized as “aggravated, committed to providing the academic standard or mitigated.” All entities resources necessary for football and agreed that the overall violations in other student-athletes to succeed this case were Level II - Mitigated. at the University of Notre Dame. We are disappointed in the academic As a result of agreement upon the misconduct that took place and violations set forth above and the led to these violations, and we are overall categorization of Level II - currently undertaking comprehensive Mitigated, the COI imposed the efforts to further reduce the risk of following penalties against the such misconduct in the future and University of Notre Dame: provide even better support for our Public reprimand and censure student-athletes. As a result of this academic misconduct case and the Disassociation of the former student subsequent institutional actions, we trainer from Notre Dame athletics for believe that Notre Dame will have the two years best student-athlete personal and Probation for one year (Nov. 22, academic development programs in 2016, through Nov. 21, 2017), which the country. includes and requires: A copy of the NCAA press release and Enhanced education regarding the entire Public Infractions Report are NCAA rules (with a focus on available here: http://www.ncaa.org/ academic misconduct and extra about/resources/media-center/news/ benefits) and submission of a former-notre-dame-athletic-training- compliance report detailing such student-acted-unethically-committed- efforts academic-misconduct. Notification to football A copy of Notre Dame’s press release prospective student-athletes about is available here: http://grfx.cstv.com/ the violations, penalties and terms photos/schools/nd/sports/ of probation m-footbl/auto_pdf/2016–17/misc_ Public dissemination of a non_event/16NCAAappeal.pdf summary of the case Vacation of individual records of the involved student-athletes $5,000 fine paid to the NCAA Note: The COI also imposed a penalty requiring vacation of team records for the 2012 and 2013 football

ATHLETICS ANNUAL REPORT 63 DEPARTMENT OF ATHLETICS (574) 631-6107 ATHLETICS BUSINESS OFFICE (574) 631-8112 I ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS (574) 631-7516