Wayne State Warrior Club with Over 400 Student-Athletes, the Cost of Managing a Successful Athletic Program Requires Regular, Private Support
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IN THIS ISSUE... Senior forward Ashley King was a finalist for the 2008 Hockey Humanitarian Award and the Wooden Citizenship Cup. Her achievements off 1.............................................................................From the Director the ice coincided nicely with the accomplishments 2.............................................................. Department News & Notes of her team on the ice, as the Warriors put together 3.............................................................Swimming/Fencing Recaps their best season in program history, rewriting the 4..................................................................Women’s Hockey Recap school record book along the way. 5............................................................ Women’s Basketball Recap More women’s hockey on page 4 6..................................................................Football Season Tickets 7.................................................................................. 90 Foundation 8................................................................ Baseball/Softball Recaps The Wayne State baseball team had one of its 9....................................................Men’s Golf/Men’s Tennis Recaps most successful seasons, both on and away from the field, in school history. Indicative of that sucess 10...................................................Winter/Spring Award Recipients was redshirt freshman Michael Wiseman, who 11 ....................................................2007-08 All-America Recipients received GLIAC All-Academic and Academic All- 12................................................Winter 2008 Academic Honor Roll District honors in addition to the GLIAC Freshman 13............................................................ Department News & Notes of the Year award. 14-15 ...................................................................................... Donors More baseball on page 8 16............................................................. Upcoming Special Events IBC ................................................................................ Warrior Club Redshirt senior Ryan Johnson completed his WARRIOR WITHIN WSU career with a fourth All-GLIAC First Team Compiled and edited by the WSU Sports Information Office award and a second PING/GCAA All-Region honor. He and All-American redshirt sophomore ASSISTANT A.D./MEDIA RELATIONS Jeff Weiss Joe Juszczyk led the Warrior golf team to a ASSISTANT SPORTS INFORMATION DIR. strong finish this past spring, including a berth in Tom Gorman the NCAA Super Regional. More golf on page 9 CONTRIBUTORS Rob Fournier, Director of Athletics Jeff Evans, Assistant A.D./Marketing & Tickets Mekye Phelps, Sports Information Intern Many Wayne State student-athletes enjoyed Angie Ruth, Director of Development fruitful seasons academically, while others were rewarded for their athletic achievements. Some PRINTING Think Arbor - Royal Oak, Michigan student-athletes, such as senior first baseman Lindsey Perry, accomplished both. She was a PHOTOS Second Team All-GLIAC selection as well as one Mark Hicks (WestSide Photo), NCAA Photos, Ron Harper, of 25 Warriors with a term GPA of 4.00. Lauren Hoadley, Patricia Skaggs, Arinett Ross and Tom Gorman More awards on pages 10-12 Entire contents are copyrighted by WSU’s Department of Athletics ON THE COVER Four Wayne State University student-athletes earned All-America accolades during the 2008 spring season: junior pitcher Anthony Bass (Trenton, Mich.), sophomore tennis player Antoine Marenaud (Bordeaux, France), senior pitcher Molly Yetman (Cambridge, Ont.), and redshirt sophomore golfer Joe Juszczyk (Dearborn Heights, Mich.). They are among 32 WSU student-athletes to garner All-America honors in the 2007-08 academic year. More All-Americans on page 11 WWW.WSUATHLETICS.COM THE ONLINE HOME OF WARRIOR ATHLETICS FANS AND MEDIA can always access up- to-date information on every WSU athletic team including weekly releases, statistics, rosters, biographical information on the individual coaches and teams, and selected team media guides. The site also provides links to the The student-athletes, coaches, staff and alumni of the Wayne State Department NCAA, the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic of Athletics would like to thank President Irvin D. Reid for his decade of service Conference (GLIAC), College Hockey America to the University. The Warriors wish him well in his future endeavors. (CHA) and other sport-related sites. From the Director WARRIOR WITHIN than the comparable fulltime campus population. The numbers CLIMATE CHANGE are for the class that started in 2001 which should be the first BY ROB FOURNIER of many to come that have enjoyed the benefits of summer aid, peer mentoring and the resources of an academic success area What a spring! And I am not talking for athletes housed in the Matthaei. For those that continue to about the weather (which was not too support our initiatives you should take special credit for your part bad either). For the first time in the 90 in those achievements. year history of Wayne State athletics I recently received a letter from a person who had played every spring sport team advanced to their baseball at WSU in the mid nineties. He was responding to a respective NCAA postseason tournament. In a long athletic year communication by former baseball student-athletes David that has its usual unexpected twists the spring sport campaign Croskey and Bill Avery who are heading up a campaign to raise was rewarding and exemplary. A special acknowledgment should money to make additional improvements to our replica Fenway go out to not only the student-athletes of the baseball, golf, men’s Park stadium. Needless to say, he was upset over his experience tennis and softball programs but to head coaches Jay Alexander, some eleven or twelve years ago as a member of one of those Mike Horn, Dennis Royal and Gary Bryce. Their successes have baseball teams. I have to admit I never get discouraged by those allowed WSU to propel itself to its highest national ranking among notes (which are by far the exception) but I am dismayed. Some 295 Division II programs in our history. And coming off last year’s are still living in the past…and for some strange reason, I do not all-time high of twenty-fourth in the nation, the final standings to be think that history will be changed. Ah, but the future, well maybe released in late June promise unprecedented recognition of some we might have some affect there. hard-working young men and women. One of those projects that will help future baseball student- In the following pages you can read about the successes of athletes is our phase II baseball project. To complement our new those sport programs in more detail including regular season stadium, infield, bullpens and amenities, we are prepared to add conference championships (baseball and softball), the top golfer state of the art, seventy-five foot in-ground dugouts. The project in the region in Joe Juszczyk and continued growth by an upstart will cost $135,000 but with a grant from major league baseball, tennis group that is changing the league perception of the tennis the earlier mentioned campaign, a personal gift by Mr. Croskey program. and an athletics contribution of $15,000, we will start the work Spring is also the time of our annual Academic Recognition in the coming weeks to be completed by September. We will Luncheon that we started seven years ago sponsored by DeMaria also continue to look for people who will support this endeavor. Construction. The event brings together student-athletes who Obviously we will do it without some, but like any good team, have achieved at least a 3.50 grade point average or better there are many others ready to step up. I hope you will be one and who in turn invite their favorite professor to be part of that of them. The year long 90 Foundation celebrating nine decades celebration. This year we had a record ninety-five (95) student- of athletics is another good way to assist many projects that lead athletes in that exclusive category and in this just completed directly to the successes mentioned earlier in this piece. There term, twenty-five student-athletes had a perfect four point grade are seventeen new major projects to be started in the coming average while eleven of the seventeen teams had team grade months on the athletics campus. They will continue to change point averages above 3.00. The overall average for nearly four our landscape and the services we offer our student-athletes and hundred (400) student-athletes from the spring was 2.98. Talk fans. And I can assure you our recent competitive, academic and about good weather. And in the most recent federally mandated community successes will continue because of those who look to graduation study, Wayne State’s student-athletes received a four the future with us. I see only clear skies ahead. year degree at nearly a twenty percent higher rate in five years 1 WARRIOR WITHIN Department News & Notes Wayne State Athletics Records Best National Ranking In School History The Wayne State University Department of Athletics placed 23rd in the nation (out of 295 schools), the best finish in school history, in the final 2007-08 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Directors’ Cup Standings. The Warriors earned a school-record total of 449.50 points as 10 of the 17 sports participated in their respective NCAA Championships. “I look at this final number in the context of our other two objectives - - academic