Spring Offers Reflection & Opportunity To Progress

Pirate Nation:

This is a wonderful time of year with the weather warming up, our student-athletes are back from spring break ready to finish strong in the classroom, and spring sports are headed into conference play.

Tomorrow, March 12th will mark my 100^th day on the job. It's hard to believe it's ONLY been 100 days – the East has been so welcoming to me and my family.

From the very first day, my plan was to listen more than I talk. It was and still is important for me to listen to my team, gather feedback from YOU, find out the needs of our department and prioritize them in the right way. The conversations with all of Pirate Nation have been so valuable as we analyze ways we can improve. We are going to be transparent about our goals and aspirations and ask for your support. We need consistent progress and make sure we are always ascending as a department.

As I reflect on my first 100 days – several things come to mind that our staff has accomplished; we hired a head football coach in Mike Houston, formed our Senior Leadership Team (J.J. McLamb, Ryan Robinson, Caroline Bevillard, Alex Keddie, Stephanie Coleman, Phillip Wood and Mike Hanley) finalized our 2019 football schedule, initiated plans for a new turf football practice field, plans to renovate our weight room this May, reorganized our compliance department and will be posting a job soon for our first full-time nutritionist to work with all of our 460 student-athletes.

The one thing I have come to understand in my time at ECU is the passion of Pirate Nation.

A couple weeks ago at Clark-LeClair Stadium, weather was in the low 50s, drizzle was coming down, sun nowhere in sight, quite frankly, it was horrible baseball weather. I assumed (wrongly) our attendance numbers would be way down. The Jungle was packed while fans in the bleachers were covered in blankets. I can't tell you how much that means to our student-athletes, coaches and staff. It makes me excited to come to work and be your athletics director. Being a Pirate is a privilege and it's not something I take for granted.

Let me express my sincere thanks for your support of our men's and women's basketball teams this season. I'm incredibly proud of the effort our student-athletes, coaches and staff put towards finishing the season strong.

The women's program faced its share of adversity this season but continued to believe in each other and never stopped competing. The group finished 11-5 at home and won three of their last four games including a win last week in the conference tournament. Coach Nicole Mealing, the assistant coaches and staff have done an admirable job leading the team. It's a group I will never forget because they fought until the end.

Over the past month, I have spent time with our women's basketball team as we begin the search for our head coach. We are looking for a coach that will articulate a plan of how we can be successful in a very competitive conference, bring an abundance of energy to improving our student-athletes on and off the court, be community-minded and have an ability to recruit at a high level. We will find the right person to lead the Pirates into the future.

Coach Dooley continues to implement his plan of rebuilding our men's program and I think they took major steps forward this season. Part of building a program is setting the foundation and building the right culture. Who can forget the home win against nationally-ranked Cincinnati in January? The staff is looking to finish the recruiting season strong and add a few pieces to a roster that will make a significant jump in 2019-20. The team continues to compete, and I look forward to watching the group in the conference tournament this week.

Are you ready for some football?

Coach Houston holds his first spring practice on Friday and has 14 practices scheduled before the Spring Game on April 13 which is part of the Pigskin Pigout Party. The weekend will allow our coaches, staff, student-athletes and alumni a chance to interact with our fans while enjoying some Eastern North Carolina barbeque. Stay tuned for an updated schedule in the next week, including bands that will be performing, times for the annual equipment sale and more.

Speaking of football, our student-athletes continue to make a difference in the community. Coach Houston and life skills coordinator Danielle Morrin orchestrated a special morning earlier this month on Read Across America Day where 85 football student-athletes along with assistant coaches read at 10 different elementary schools in the area. That's a significant group of children that were impacted and you will continue to see that kind of community engagement from our student-athletes.

I hope everyone had the opportunity to read Coach Houston's letter to our fans last month in the Daily Reflector. One part really hit home for me in the letter. Coach Houston wrote about the passion and energy of Pirate Nation being more than he could have ever imagined. Count me in the same boat!

In staff news, we are excited to welcome Alex Keddie back to our department as she assumes the role of senior associate athletics director for compliance. Previously, Alex served two roles in ECU's compliance division beginning as a graduate assistant in 2012 and served as the coordinator in 2015. Alex will be the perfect fit for our compliance program and to our Senior Leadership Team.

I hope you are enjoying our new segment on social media, 60 seconds with the AD. Being a TV host is not in my future, but our goal is to give you access behind the curtain and allow you to see our coaches, student-athletes and others in a different way. We have some colorful personalities lined up for the spring.

I asked for a football season ticket update as I started this letter and was just told we have sold nearly 2,200 tickets. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We have a way to go to reach our goal, but we are off to a great start. Still plenty of time to get involved!

Other special notes about our department as we work our way through March:

Special thanks to staff members in facilities, event management, marketing, video, ticketing and media relations for their work over the past month with so many events on campus. We appreciate YOU!
Congratulations to our men's golf team for winning the ECU Intercollegiate at Brook Valley Country Club.
Junior women's golfer Dorthea Forbrigd has two Top 2 finishes this season, including a share of second last week at the 2019 Suntrust Florida Gator Invitational.
The women's tennis team, coached by Tom Morris, is ranked 49^th by ITA - the highest ranking in program history. The squad is back home on Thursday to play Charlotte at 2 p.m. at the River Birch Tennis Complex on Arlington.
How about a 5-3 start for our women's lacrosse team? The win total already surpasses the inaugural season from a year. Really proud of the program Amanda Barnes-Moore and her staff are building. If you get an opportunity, come check them out.
Congratulations to Cliff Godwin and his team for the win at nationally-ranked Mississippi last week and sweep of Marist over the weekend.
The softball team returned from a weekend in Boca Raton and Miami, Fla., winning two games in the Parent's Weekend Tournament hosted by Florida Atlantic and FIU.
The men's tennis squad is off to a 11-3 start including 6-1 at home.
The men's swimming and diving team finished second at the 2019 American Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championship. On the women's side, Marianna Vignoli, Mary Warker and Catherine Johnson each earned all-conference honors.
Best of luck to Curt Kraft and our track program as we open the outdoor season this weekend in Charlotte.

We continue to make great progress but have plenty of work ahead. None of this progress is possible without YOU, so I encourage you to attend one of our many athletic events. Not only does it impact our student-athletes, it makes a huge difference for our athletics department.

As we move forward, I want to thank every member of Pirate family. Your attendance and support are crucial on our voyage to the top.

Go Pirates!

Jon

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