Messages

Thanks to everyone on the board who made a gift today, I know that many of you did! Just wanted to give the Fan Zone a quick update on what we are doing with Athletics today as part of the Day of Giving. We are having an Athletic Alumni Challenge, with two prizes available. The team which has the greatest number of its alumni make a gift today (of any size, to any area of campus) will get an additional $5,000 this year. Also, the team which has the highest percentage of its alumni make a gift today will also win $5,000. Both prizes can be won by the same team, resulting in an extra $10,000 for that team.

The coaches have done a great job promoting this to their alumni and we have had hundreds of gifts come in just for athletics. So far for the day we have received over $20,000 spread across every team. It has been very cool to see the rallying of support from past student-athletes for the current group of Crusaders. The Challenge will end at midnight tonight and then we will have to do the final tallying over the next couple of days to declare the winner(s).

I do not have any inside information on this, but based on my reading of the publicly released master plan
http://www.valpo.edu/masterplan/assets/docs/VU%20MP%20Exec%20Summary_final.pdf
I believe a new dorm will be constructed south of Memorial-Guild, roughly where the old Linwood Apartments used to be.

We are expecting a great turn out for the UIC game tomorrow. About 100 fans have registered for the event at Hawkeye's Bar and Grill before the game. Men's basketball has used up their allotment of seats behind their bench, and our Alumni Relations office has sold an additional 170 tickets for the game. Should be an exciting day for Valpo in the city!

It used to be a common practice at many of the larger schools to have special dorms for student-athletes. Then the NCAA instituted a rule (mentioned in the article) that no dorm could comprise more than 50% student-athletes. For a while that kept the practice in check. Now it seems that things have reached the point at some of the wealthiest schools that the rule no longer has a deterring effect, as they are simply willing to build the facility twice as large as they need for their athletes and then fill half of it with non-athletes. Although still not general students, but rather non-athletes working with the athletic department, ie. student trainers, managers etc.

Sometime in the last couple of years University Dining Services took over responsibility for all concessions in the ARC (other than the Culver's ice cream cart). They do a great job. The prices are similar to those at a high school game, but with a greater variety of options like those found at pricier pro sports venues. Here is the menu from the main arena floor concession stand which has the largest number of items available.

Anyone interested in nominating individuals or teams for the Hall of Fame can do so. Here is a link to the form.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/media/pdf/HallOfFameNominationForm.pdf

Any nominations received at this point would be considered for the next class being inducted in February of 2015. The HOF's bylaws are also online which include the length of the waiting periods.

http://www.valpoathletics.com/media/pdf/HallOfFameBylaws.pdf

For those of you piecing together the schedule you can add two games (home and away) against the UCF Knights of the new American Athletic Conference.

http://www.ucfknights.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/ucf-m-baskbl-sched.html

Also, I know that Alumni Relations has plans to make sure that their events are more accessible from the athletics website this season.

Here are some pictures of the area being discussed.

This is the main entrance on the south side of the ARC, from across Union Street. The flag pole is obscured in this shot by tree foliage.


Here are the trees on the south side of Union Street, seen from the same spot as the first photo.


This is a close up of the area just west of the main entrance. The "bald" area in the middle is where the original ARC sign used to be located.


This is the landscaping on the south side of the ARC. Some other posters on here might know better than me, but I think the stairs to nowhere in this shot show where the main entrance to the building was before the ARC addition was put on in 1984. Now they just lead to windows of the main athletic administrative offices.


Here are the trees on the west side of the ARC, in between the original Hilltop Gym and the current location of the Victory Bell.


Finally, a bonus pic for the board. Here is the football team in the middle of their conditioning, as seen from the top of the south bleachers. In the background the Porter Hospital Parking Garage between LaPorte Ave. and Lincolnway is now clearly visible because all of the hospital structure has been razed.

Coach Muckian is well respected here and was definitely not let go. He is getting married this summer and got a job in New England for family reasons.
http://www.saintanselmhawks.com/sports/fball/coaches/Bob_Muckian

Most of the property on McIntyre Ct and out at Eastgate is owned by the University, but not all of it. Porter County makes a lot of real estate information available online so you can easily see who owns the different parcels.

http://porterin.mygisonline.com/

The article below offers a lot of insight into Coach Avent's current situation at NC State.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/05/29/2925274/nc-state-baseball-avent-succeeds.html

The Chicago Cubs have posted that Bryce will be singing during the 7th inning stretch this Friday (5/31).

http://vineline.mlblogs.com/2013/05/29/first-pitchseventh-inning-stretch-lineup-529-62/

The game starts at 1:20pm and is against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The game will also be on the radio on WGN 720AM and on TV on Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

For anyone in the Valpo area...

If you want to wish the team well before they head down to Bloomington, they will be leaving from Emory Bauer Field at 3pm CT this afternoon.

There are a lot of cool pictures from graduation on Valpo's flickr page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valparaiso_university/

Including this one...


Also Ryan's picture has been added to the wall in the Hilltop Gym along with all the other past Crusader greats who won conference POY honors.

[why would anyone believe them]

I'm sure that whoever represented Valpo conveyed how they have big plans for facility improvements in the future, but why would anyone believe them. Excuses and promises don't make for a very convincing presentation.

I think an effective response to a question like this could be made. One possible example would go something like this: "Over the last 20 years this University has said that it would build a Center for the Arts, a Library, a Student Union, an Arts & Sciences Building, a Welcome Center and an addition to the Engineering Building. Now all of these buildings are here, just like we said. So when we say that in X years projects Y and Z will be complete, you can rest assured that it will happen."

I doubt you will see anyone selling the exact shirts that the players got. If you look at them closely you can see that there is no team logo on them and I would guess that no business would try to sell championship t-shirts to Valpo fans that don't include our logo.

I participated in the College Bowl all four of my undergrad years at Valpo. It was a great event and a lot of fun!

A flagrant 2 foul does not automatically result in a suspension for the next game, unless it involved fighting. Otherwise it is at the discretion of the conference as to whether or not a suspension is warranted. If the conference was going to suspend a player there would be a public announcement about it. The fact that there has been no announcement yet leads me to believe that Bobby will be eligible to play tonight.

I will be at the Pavilion tonight for the game. If anyone attending would like to meet up, please send me a PM! Thanks and GO CRUSADERS!

Thanks everyone for the kind words and enthusiasm for Valpo Athletics!

I wanted to chime in on a couple points that have been raised. First, about the Athletics Strategic Plan. My understanding is that it has been endorsed by the Board of Directors and that it should be made available to the public (probably through ValpoAthletics.com) sometime in January 2013. Second, my primary responsibility is for Annual Giving, which is usually defined as gifts between $100 and $20,000 that are solicited on an annual basis for the purpose of supporting program operating budgets and student-athlete scholarships. Fundraising larger donations for major facilities improvements falls under Major Gifts. This is a common distinction used at most Division I athletic programs. The University is currently in the process of hiring an additional fundraiser specifically for Athletic Major Gifts. Between the two of us we will be tasked with significantly improving Valpo's fundraising efforts in both areas so that the department can support the University's educational mission and achieve the goals laid out in the Strategic Plan.

I am leaving soon for St. Louis, so I won't be able to participate in this discussion for a while. I hope that everyone is excited for the big game tomorrow. Also, anyone who is in the Valpo area, don't forget that the women will be taking on the Billikens at home in just a couple hours. GO CRUSADERS!

Good Afternoon Fan Zone Posters!

I am a long time lurker on this board who wanted to take a few minutes to introduce myself. My name is Matt LaBarbera and I was just recently hired as the Associate Director of Annual Giving for Athletics (actually today is my first day). I am a 2008 graduate of Valpo with a B.A in Political Science. As a student I spent time as a manager for the basketball team, as well as working for the Community Research and Service Center and as an Assistant Editor for The Cresset. Also my senior year I was involved with the VUCRU and the Student Rewards Program. In 2009 I completed my MBA at Valpo. After that I spent a year at the Wolfpack Club, which is the athletics fundraising organization for North Carolina State University. Since then I have worked at the Harre Union managing events and spent a year and half at Neulion Inc, a company that provides ticketing and donor management software to athletic departments across the country, including Mississippi State, Duke, Utah and a host of smaller schools.

Now I am looking forward to taking what I have learned at these places and helping to apply it back at Valpo! We are going to be taking a very hard look at how we do all of our athletically related fundraising, with an eye toward making sure that all our coaches have the resources they need to win Horizon League championships!

I have always enjoyed this online community since stumbling upon it several years ago, and think that it is a huge positive for the athletics programs and the University in general. I am also hoping to meet many of you in person over the coming months and years. Along those lines, I will be at the game in St. Louis this Sunday (and at the Alumni event on Saturday). If any of you are going please PM me as I would love to introduce myself. Thanks!

-ml2