Athletics Director Digest » August 11
8/11/2022 10:01:00 AM | Athletics Director Digest
I hope this message finds you enjoying the last weeks of summer.
As we move into the start of the 2022-23 athletic calendar with the opening of soccer, football, and volleyball training camp, I want to update you on several ongoing initiatives as well as some notable developments both in our department and in the greater Rice community.
The upcoming year will be one of great change at Rice, with the inauguration of Reginald DesRoches as the eighth President of Rice University. Former President David Leebron served Rice with great distinction since 2004 and through his leadership and support, our department is embarking on a historic new chapter with the American Athletic Conference less than a year from now. President DesRoches is firmly committed to seeing Rice Athletics become a marquee program and a perennial contender in every sport as we move forward.
Last fall we announced a comprehensive capital campaign with a goal to raise $100 million by 2025 in anticipation of our move to the AAC. As you know, the domino effect of other moves in collegiate athletics expedited our timeline for changing conferences to next July, but I am pleased to report that we're making significant strides forward in preparation for joining the American.
Our first phase of the modernization of Rice Stadium will be completed in time for the home opener vs. McNeese State on September 10, and the installation of a new synthetic playing surface at Reckling Park is on track for completion in October. We also have significant projects underway at the Ley Track, the George R. Brown Tennis Center and Tudor Fieldhouse.
To keep pace with our capital campaign, we have restructured our development team to better serve each of you. The Owl Club team, including annual giving, events, and stewardship will report to Tanner Gardner as part of our overall external relations efforts. We have just announced Ryan Hall as our new Associate AD of Development. Ryan will lead the Owl Club's annual giving program, special events, and stewardship. Additionally, we are recruiting a Director of Development who will focus on major gifts, reporting jointly to me and our central campus development team. This position will also be critical as we seek to achieve our $100M fundraising goal in the Be Bold Campaign.
Our capital campaign continues to move forward, and FY22 was a banner year for athletics fundraising. Nearly 1,900 Owls supporters committed just under $20M, the third highest amount in the history of Rice Athletics. This total includes two landmark gifts, from the Bixby family for the Head Baseball Coach Endowment and the Moody Foundation for programmatic endowments in baseball and track and cross-country programs. The total also includes more than $500,000 towards the EmpowHer Owls campaign, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX by raising support for our exceptional female student-athletes. We have now raised over $56M towards our $100M fundraising goal in the Be Bold Campaign. I'm grateful for the exceptional generosity by so many of our supporters!
Our long-standing partnership with Houston Methodist was the catalyst for the development of the Houston Methodist-Rice University Center for Human Performance where physicians, academic researchers and university students will work side by side with student athletes, trainers and coaches to advance research and education in human performance.
With our move to the American on the horizon, our immediate goal is to make our last year in Conference USA one to remember. The focus of our coaches and student-athletes is firmly on the year ahead. We are hosting a pair of C-USA Championships at the end of the academic year (men's tennis at the end of April and baseball in May) which will give us a tremendous opportunity to showcase two of our signature venues and close out our 18 years in the conference in memorable fashion.
The first two months of the academic year will see Rice honor a number of distinguished Owls. On Friday, September 16 (and again the following night during the football game vs. Louisiana), we will recognize the first four black men who were recruited to compete for Rice in addition to the first two black female student athletes who wore the blue and gray in competition. This year marks not only the 50th anniversary of Title IX, it is also the 50th anniversary of the graduation of the first of these trailblazing men. Final details for this event will be released next week.
In October, the 19th "An Evening for Rice's Honour" will recognize six distinguished individuals who have honored Rice in competition and in their professional careers. The tremendous support this biannual event at the River Oaks Country Club generates for Rice Athletics has laid the foundation for so much of our progress over the years. Registration for the event, which has traditionally sold out, is now live and I hope you can join us. Anyone wishing to register can do it here or email Cole Tennyson at ct63@rice.edu.
Before I close, I wanted to reflect upon the previous 12 months of achievement by our student-athletes both in the classroom and in competition.
As a department, we were once again honored with the C-USA Academic Excellence award (our 14th in 17 years), with eight sports earning the team honor and nine sports receiving perfect scores in the latest NCAA Graduation Success statistics. Seven of our student-athletes were named their respective sport's C-USA Scholar Athlete of the Year while a conference-best 323 of our student-athletes were named to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll.
Grace Forbes closed the athletic season in remarkable fashion. She swept C-USA Female Track Athlete of the Year and C-USA Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive year and gave Rice its third Michael L. Slive Conference USA Female Athlete of the Year winner in the last four years, joining Erica Ogwumike (2019 and 2020). Her second-place finish in the NCAA 10,000 meters was the highest finish by an Owl at the women's championship since 2001.
Volleyball finished the conference slate undefeated to capture a C-USA regular season title and earned a fourth consecutive berth in the NCAA tournament. The team also advanced to the round of 32 for the second time in the last three years. Nicole Lennon closed her career earning All-America recognition for the third time, while teammate Carly Graham earned her first All-America honor.
Three Owls were named their sport's C-USA Freshman of the Year (Arielle Hayon in swimming, Hayuan Huang in men's tennis and Raghav Chugh in golf).
Women's swimming, which will become the first team to represent Rice in competition in the American this year, won a school-record seven individual gold medals in their final C-USA Championship.
The progress for Rice Athletics over the last 12 months has created momentum and anticipation of a brigh future. Your support has been instrumental in all we have accomplished together. Your continued support will be essential in the coming year, and I hope you will join us in person to cheer on the men and women who represent Rice so spectacularly well.
Go Owls!
Joe Karlgaard
