A Great Week!

Tuesday was a special day for our athletic staff and me. We were honored to have Jim Copeland spend the day with us. Jim has been the Athletics Director at William & Mary, Utah, University of Virginia, and Southern Methodist University. I had the pleasure of spending 11 years at SMU working under Jim’s leadership. He is a dear friend of mine and I have never made a career decision without speaking with Jim. Jim shared so many great ideas and thoughts about how we can get better as an athletic department at Radford University.

After doing a lot of travelling recently it has been good to be in Radford for a few days. I really enjoyed meeting with four terrific student-athletes Tuesday night. Corin O’Donnell, Paul Caruso, Josie Hanners, and Ashley Carlson are outstanding student leaders in our Student Athlete Advisory Committee. We talked about a number of issues and I am certain I learned a lot more from them than they learned from me. We are so lucky to have students like these four. They are smart and motivated and each has a great influence on our campus community. I am also certain we will see great things from these four as they graduate and embark on what I know will be successful careers.

One of the most exciting games I have seen recently was our women’s basketball game against William & Mary this past Friday. The Highlanders played exceptional basketball and beat a William & Mary team that has been predicted to be among the best in this season’s Colonial Conference race.

The Highlanders returned to the Dedmon Center last night and played an excellent game against Navy, winning 63-51. It was a terrific team effort. Kelli Darden had a fantastic game scoring 21 points and pulling down 16 rebounds. Forward Corrie Feritta had 15 points and 12 rebounds. It is very rare in the game of basketball to have two players finish with "Double/Doubles." Congratulations to Kelli and Corrie! Taleia Morton and Johnette Walker also had excellent games as well as the rest of our team. Our next three games are on the road and I want our alumni and fans in the following areas to come out and support this outstanding basketball team. We play in Boone, NC Monday, December 3rd against Appalachian State, Saturday December 8th at VCU (4:30pm) in Richmond, and Sunday, December 16th against Wake Forest in Winston Salem, NC. These are big road games and our team needs your support.

I want to once again thank our student body for the great turnout for the Men’s game against Southern Virginia last Wednesday. We had a large and enthusiastic group of students come out to cheer on the Highlanders. I want to continue to emphasize to all Highlander Fans that to wear RED at all of our contests. We want to be loud and visible

Our Men’s Basketball Team has a busy week with games at Presbyterian in Clinton, SC Saturday, December 1st, at Gardner Webb Monday, December 3rd, and finally back home to the Dedmon Center Saturday, December 8th when we take on Campbell University.

Best of luck to our Men’s and Women’s Track teams as they open their indoor season at Appalachian State this Saturday in a big invitational meet.

I was thrilled to get a phone call from Chris Hawkins this week. Chris is a Radford University graduate and current Assistant Basketball Coach at Tulane University. Chris and I played together at Radford and he is one of my all time favorite teammates. Chris was a tremendous leader as a player and he has great reputation as a coach and recruiter in college basketball. He has a great love for Radford University.

I hope everyone has a safe weekend.

Go Highlanders!