An Update From AD Jon Gilbert

Hello Pirate Nation!

We are excited about this month and what we have planned on campus. So many different activities and sporting events to attend. Make sure to visit ecupirates.com for all the dates and times.

Season Ticket update
We anticipate a busy month of football season ticket sales as we push toward our goal of packing Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in 2019. The deadline is May 1 for Pirate Club members to be included in the reseating process. We accept orders after the date but everyone committed prior to the deadline will have priority. Season ticket sales are currently a little over 4,000 and we really need a big finish this month.

Track and Field to host meet
We hope you can join us on campus this Friday and Saturday to watch our men's and women's track and field teams compete in the Bill Carson Invitational at the Bate Foundation Track & Field Facility. This is an important event for our coaches and student-athletes because it's the one opportunity each year they get to showcase their talents in Greenville. Other schools competing will be Charlotte, The Citadel, Coastal Carolina, UNC Wilmington and St. Augustine.

Coach Curt Kraft will honor our senior student-athletes with a special ceremony on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. Admission is free, and parking will be available outside Clark-LeClair Stadium. Please check ecupirates.com for more details. Hope you can make it out to support our track and field program.

Are you ready for Pigskin Pig-out?
When I accepted the position at ECU, one of the events I looked forward to the most was my first Pigskin Pig-Out. Well, it's right around the corner beginning on Friday, April 12. We hope you are making plans to tailgate all weekend, eat lots of barbecue, enjoy our two live bands and take in the Purple & Gold Spring Game on Saturday, April 13. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.

The Pirate Golf Classic will lead off the activities with a shotgun start Friday morning at Brook Valley Country Club before the Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium gates open later in the day at 5:30 p.m. Interested participants for the golf event can register HERE.

Our staff has planned a ton of activities for all ages with inflatables, a meet and greet with Coach Houston and our student-athletes, and the opportunity to run through drills in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. Admission is free all weekend!

If that is not enough entertainment, you will have an opportunity to dunk the AD on Saturday. I will be in the Dunk Tank on Saturday morning so please come by and try to soak me.

Women's Tennis on a roll
We have so many great stories in our athletic department but one I think needs special recognition is the success of our women's tennis team. The group stands at 18-2 with 18 straight wins. Yes, 18 consecutive wins! They hit the road for two matches this weekend at North Carolina Central and at Richmond before returning to Greenville to host Cincinnati on Friday, April 12, and Connecticut and South Carolina State on Saturday, April 13 to wrap up the regular season. Make a point to come out and see this special group of women led by head coach Tom Morris.

Baseball continues success on field and in stands
Cliff Godwin's baseball program opened American Athletic Conference play with back-to-back sweeps of UCF and South Florida to sit at 21-6 with nine straight wins. Duke visits Greenville on Wednesday for a 6:30 p.m. first pitch. With the weather warming up, let's get as many people as possible into Clark-LeClair Stadium to welcome the Blue Devils.

Speaking of big crowds, we currently rank 18^th in the country in home baseball attendance with an average of nearly 3,000 fans per game. Your support is simply fantastic and it certainly gives us a decisive home-field advantage. Honestly, I think 3,000 might be a little low because we have a hard time counting everybody that hangs out in The Jungle!

I can't write about baseball without mentioning sophomore Jake Kuchmaner. Twenty-seven up and twenty-seven down at Maryland on March 17 for only the 28^th perfect game in NCAA baseball history. My wife and I had the opportunity to sit with Jake last month at the baseball kickoff banquet and he's an impressive young man who also serves on our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Special thanks
I had the opportunity to speak to more than 4,000 prospective Pirates and their parents last weekend on Admitted Students Day. Thanks to Chancellor Cecil Staton, Provost and Senior Academic Officer Ron Mitchelson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Chris Stansbury and his staff for allowing athletics to have a role in the event. I'm still learning all the great academic programs this university offers to students and was amazed to hear about the 503 student organizations on campus. Lot of ways for students to be engaged at ECU.

New leadership for women's basketball
By now you have probably heard about our new women's basketball coach, Kim McNeill. We gave her a Pirate Nation welcome last weekend with a multitude of events including a meet and greet with Pirate Club members, throwing out the first pitch at a softball game, the opportunity to speak with our football team during practice, and I can't forget the delicious breakfast at The Scullery in Uptown Greenville on Saturday morning.

We are excited to have Kim and her family in Greenville. I was really pleased with our process during the coaching search and I truly believe we found the perfect fit. Kim is passionate about building a family environment with our student-athletes and she will install an exciting brand of basketball that our fans will enjoy.

Coach McNeil has an impressive pedigree. She's been an assistant in the ACC, SEC, Pac-12, Atlantic 10 and Colonial Athletic Association. She took over a Hartford program in 2016 that had won 40 games and not posted a winning record in the three previous years. Coach McNeil and her staff won 59 games and finished with a winning record in all three of her seasons leading Hartford.

Bottom line, she's a Winner and she's now a Pirate!

Conference TV deal with ESPN announced
You might have read last week about the 12-year contract extension the American Athletic Conference signed with ESPN. The agreement really solidifies the AAC as one of the premier conferences in FBS and Division I athletics.

Under the terms of the agreement, The American will have more football and men's basketball games on ESPN's primary networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU) than ever before. In addition, AAC schools will join a number of premier brands (including Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL, Major League Soccer, PGA Tour, Top Rank Boxing, Grand Slam tennis and the UFC) on ESPN+, a digital distribution platform, which allows more games in more sports available to more fans than ever before. ESPN+ is available in 100 percent of the homes in the United States and has more than 2 million subscribers.

So what does this mean for ECU Athletics?

Well, it's a major step forward and reflects the caliber of schools and competition in our conference. This deal will allow ECU's brand to be showcased across the country, and our fans will have greater access to view Pirate programming as a result of this agreement. The additional money we receive each year will help stabilize our budget. We will continue to provide more information about what changes fans will see beginning on August 1, 2020, but right now our focus is on building an infrastructure to deal with the necessary requirements to put on a first-class production. We will have operating costs and additional staff expenses as we meet the requirements set forth by the conference and ESPN.

Come see us on campus!
We never underestimate your loyalty, your passion and commitment to the Pirates and we again thank you for your support. See you on campus soon!

Go Pirates!

Jon

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