An Update From AD Jon Gilbert

Pirate Nation:

I hope you are enjoying the warm weather and have exciting plans for the summer. It's been a busy time in the athletics department as we continue to push football season ticket sales, prepare for the strong possibility of a NCAA Baseball Regional on campus, initiate construction on several different projects and create more fan-friendly items for our fans.

Let's jump into what we have going on with the Pirates with academics leading the way.

Academic success
To say 2018-19 was a great academic year for our student-athletes would be an understatement. It's important to recognize our student-athletes for their work but also our academic advisors, support staff and coaches. It takes everybody committing to the importance of academics to have consistent success in the classroom.

Seventy-one student-athletes graduated earlier this month and our student-athletes combined for a 3.14 cumulative GPA for the academic year and 3.11 GPA for the spring semester. Sixty-four percent of our student-athletes earned 3.00 GPA or better in the spring semester.

We had 13 programs finish the 2018-19 year with a cumulative 3.0 GPA or higher and 11 posted a 3.0 GPA or higher for the spring semester. Here are a couple additional highlights from the 2018-19 school year:

Women's golf led the department with a 3.77 GPA for the year followed by men's tennis (3.59), women's cross country (3.58) and women's tennis (3.52).
Our nationally-ranked baseball team had a cumulative 3.43 GPA and a 3.48 semester GPA with three student-athletes on the Chancellor's List and 12 on the Dean's List.
The football team produced the highest GPA for a semester in program history with a 2.74 during the spring.
Men's basketball set a program record for the highest spring cumulative GPA in 2019 with a 3.10 and a 3.14 GPA for the fall semester.
Women's swimming set a program record with a 3.49 cumulative GPA, while women's golf set the all-time mark with a 3.88 semester GPA.

Free admission for home events
We are excited to announce FREE ADMISSION to all home volleyball and women's soccer games beginning this fall. Our senior leadership team spent considerable time analyzing the metrics and feel strongly this decision will have a positive impact on attendance at these home events. We want all supporters to come to campus and support our student-athletes. Our hope is free admission will allow more groups able to attend home events.

The 2019 women's soccer schedule was released earlier this week with the regular season getting underway on August 22 against George Mason at Johnson Stadium. Coach Jason Hamilton returns 19 players and will welcome 10 newcomers. I'm looking forward to watching this team compete for an American Athletic Conference Championship. Volleyball will be releasing their schedule in the coming days.

Increase in Pirate Club membership
The Pirate Club has seen a steady increase in number of donors and pledges from 2018. Total donors increased by 400 members and pledges are up over $500,000 from this time last year. In addition, almost 1,200 Pirate Club donors have increased their annual commitment from 2018 to 2019

Your support of the Pirate Club is critical for its annual fund which helps support student-athlete scholarships, facility enhancements and other departmental needs. Please consider joining our ECU Family at ecupirateclub.com.

Big week for baseball
Congratulations to our nationally-ranked baseball team for winning the American Athletic Conference regular season championship. I loved seeing our fans and interim chancellor Dan Gerlach late Sunday night at Clark-LeClair Stadium to welcome the team back from Wichita State at 11 p.m. Your loyalty and support are appreciated. Coach Cliff Godwin summed it up best, "This championship is for everybody that has been a part of it."

The Pirates host Memphis for a three-game series beginning tomorrow night. I looked at the forecast this morning and it looks to be nothing but sunny skies. Our seniors and recent graduates will be honored on Friday prior to the first pitch and Saturday will be Fan Appreciation Day with numerous giveaways planned throughout the game. In addition, Saturday will also be the Greenville Pirate Club Armada beginning at 11 a.m. at Johnson Stadium. Come out early and hear from Cliff Godwin, Mike Houston and Joe Dooley. We will be serving a tailgate-style meal with hamburgers, hot dogs and all the fixings beginning at 11:30 a.m. We will also have inflatables for your children to enjoy!

Football season ticket update
As we head into the latter part of May, we are nearing 12,500 football season tickets sold. When I took this position last December, I promised Pirate Nation we would be transparent in everything we do. I was asked last week at a Pirate Club Armada event in Williamston what our goal is for the year and it's right around 17,000. We had a record 22,830 season ticket holders in 2011. We aren't expecting that number in 2019, but I know we are excited about our football program under the direction of Mike Houston.

We were encouraged by our number of season tickets prior to the priority deadline, but it's imperative we get a big push over the next three months. We had more than 500 accounts not renew, and those accounts will be contacted over the next month with hopes of getting them on board again. We have great seats still available in all areas. Our Pirate Club and ticketing staff would love to discuss with you the various options available including payment plans. Give them a call and secure your seats for 2019. Also, expect an announcement within the next couple of weeks for the first two home game kickoff times against Gardner-Webb and William & Mary.

Facility Update
We broke ground on the new turf football practice field last week, replacing a surface that was nearly 15 years old. The new turf should be completed by the end of June. Work will begin soon on the new auxiliary turf field located at the former Hight Field Parking Lot which will be used by all sports.

Our student-athletes are working out at the state-of-the-art Campus Recreation & Wellness Center on the main campus for the next 30 days while a complete renovation is done to the weight room inside the Murphy Center. New equipment, weights and updated graphics are all a part of the renovation.

Minges Coliseum – home court of the Pirates' men's and women's basketball and volleyball programs – will also have a new look in 2019-20. We are close to finalizing a new design for the Williams Arena court and will also be adding graphics in different concourses.

Construction is complete with the football offices in the Ward Sports Medicine Building, the first renovation since 2005.

Congrats to women's golf team
The ECU women's golf team advanced to the NCAA Regional for the 13^th time in the program's 19-year history. The Pirates finished eighth in the Auburn Regional, the highest NCAA Regional finish in school history. While Vanderbilt won the regional, the Pirates finished ahead of several teams including Alabama, Clemson, Houston and California. Congrats to our student-athletes and coaches for their work this year.

NCAA Track & Field update
We are hoping to have as many eight track and field student-athletes qualify for the NCAA East Preliminary in Jacksonville, Fla. from May 23-25. Official qualifiers will be announced on Thursday.

Active on social media
Our staff has been working hard to connect with as many supporters as possible and that includes engagement on social media. Our main athletics twitter account @ECUAthletics ranked 12^th among college athletics accounts for highest interaction rates in April. The success comes from a collective effort of marketing, media relations, ticketing and video departments.

Stay tuned to a special "60 Seconds with the AD" tomorrow morning!

Go Pirates!

Jon

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