An Update From AD Jon Gilbert

Pirate Nation:

Competition is heating up for the Pirates with the start of our spring sports and you will be able to see all the action via the ESPN+ platform or on ECUPirates.com. Our staff is prepared to stream 96 home events in the next 89 days. All home volleyball, baseball, softball, lacrosse and soccer events will be available for our fans via a stream and the action begins today on ESPN+ with the Pirates women's lacrosse team battling Furman at 3 p.m.

The American Athletic Conference TV deal with ESPN gives ECU Athletics a national audience daily and will be beneficial for the Pirates brand. I hope you have watched our basketball productions on ESPN+ and witnessed the quality of the broadcast. With the overlapping of fall and spring sports, we spent considerable time analyzing our composite schedule over the coming months. We aren't required to stream all home competitions, but we feel strongly broadcasting all home events will enhance the department's profile and aid in recruiting future Pirates. You will see more ESPN+ broadcasts next year when we have less events occurring at on the same date and time.

It's obviously a tall task for our staff to produce nearly 100 events in a three-month period. These aren't "normal" times, so we understand the need to be flexible due to weather and COVID-19. Please check ECUPirates.com regularly for the streaming schedule.

We hope you enjoy the broadcasts.

Black History Month
Please check out the videos and graphics on our social media platforms as we celebrate Black History Month. ECU Athletics partnered with the Black Student-Athlete Organization (BSAO), led by Pirates track student-athletes Shellbi Chapman and Naomi Whitaker, to highlight current and former student-athletes and coaches.

Personally, it has been very informative to learn about the great history of student-athletes and coaches who have come through ECU Athletics. We have a phenomenal group of current student-athletes who amaze me daily with their determination, discipline and leadership skills.

Working Behind the Scenes
Our athletics staff continues to move forward through the pandemic and so many people have gone above and beyond to keep our department moving in the right direction. I want to make this section a normal part of From The Helm where I can identify certain staff members. As I was thinking about two individuals, a phrase that comes to mind is unsung heroes. I looked up the definition of unsung hero and it fit them perfectly – "one who does great deeds but receives little or no recognition for them." That sums up all the medical personnel across our country who fight to keep us safe daily from COVID-19. Unsung hero also describes the work of Mike Hanley and Greg Pierce.

Mike Hanley, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student Services, added an important responsibility during the pandemic. Mike serves as our department's COVID coordinator and has been instrumental in our daily fight against COVID-19. As a department, we have conducted 10,560 COVID-19 tests as of yesterday and these tests are coordinated by Mike and our training staff. I can remember returning from Dallas after last year's men's basketball conference tournament was cancelled and Mike was the one who greeted our student-athletes on their return. He has been a mainstay ever since when it comes to COVID and our protocols.

You will never hear Mike complain about the additional work because of his passion for helping Pirates. So much work is involved behind the scenes with COVID-19, tracking close contacts and positive tests, keeping our teams on a regular testing schedule and making sure we are following all the necessary protocols set forth by our medical staff, conference and NCAA. Thank you, Mike, for your dedication and commitment.

Greg Pierce, who was promoted to Associate Athletics Director for Video Services, has been instrumental in developing our ESPN+ production team and overseeing the completion of a state-of-the-art control room. Greg has been with ECU Athletics for 19 years and I think he would admit this has been the most challenging of those years.

With a pandemic and limited staff in the building, Greg kept everything on schedule to begin our in-house ESPN+ productions with the start of basketball season as required by our contract with ESPN. Greg, along with his staff of Brandon Smith and Mike Myles, produce our ESPN+ streams and streams on ECUPirates.com. You won't see many days over the next three months where there's not a home athletics event, so it means a lot of long days at the office. We are in good hands with Greg's leadership and his team.

Men's Basketball on Pause
The men's basketball team paused all activities earlier this week after multiple individuals tested positive within the program. A positive test results in contact tracing and quarantining of individuals so we made the decision to postpone our next three games. We will continue to follow the advice of our medical staff and could return to practicing at some point next week.

This is difficult news to deliver to our student-athletes. We have a group of young men who have worked extremely hard on the court and been diligent about following all the necessary protocols off the court. It's the reality we are living in right now, but our top priority will always be the health and well-being of our student-athletes.

I want to congratulate the men's basketball team on a historic win over fifth-ranked Houston on Feb. 3. It was the first win in school history over a team ranked in the top five of the Associated Press Top 25 poll. The win marked the 200th of head coach Joe Dooley's career and junior Jayden Gardner earned American Athletic Conference Player-of-the-Week honors.

Football Season Tickets on Sale March 1
We are prepared to put 2021 football season tickets on sale March 1. The AAC is putting the final touches on the conference schedule and the full schedule should be released soon. Prices for season tickets will not increase from a year ago. Prices will range from $300 to $99 depending on location. The home slate includes games against South Carolina, Charleston Southern, Cincinnati, South Florida, Temple and Tulane. Our marketing staff have come up with several promotional items that will be rolled out in the coming weeks.

Make sure you get caught up all the Pirate news from the last week:
•Matthew Jabs (women's swimming and diving) and Kirstin Burgess (women's tennis) returned to their respective positions of head coach. Full story
•Lacrosse student-athletes Nicole LeGar and Liz Blumthal were named to the 2021 AAC Preseason All-Conference Team. Full story
•The Pirates track and field program participated in the Brant Tolsma Invitational. Full story
•Junior Lindsay Yentz secured all-league honors for the first time at the American Athletic Conference Cross Country Championship. Full story
•A dominant fourth quarter helped the women's basketball team to a key road win at Memphis. Full story
•Congrats to Adler Augustin on his first career win as the volleyball team knocked off North Carolina A&T 3-1 (25-17, 25-22, 23-25, 25-14) in the season-opener. Full story

As I have written before, it's frustrating not to see all our Pirate fans in attendance for our events. We do hope for a return to normalcy soon because you are what makes ECU Athletics special. Tune in to ESPN+ and stay up to date with our teams.

Go Pirates!

Jon

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