Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt's Monthly Comments

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Athletics Director Kirby Hocutt welcomes your comments and ideas. Your email will be read by Kirby and answered by either him or a member of the Ohio Athletics staff. Please include your name and hometown, and if you are a Bobcat let us know your class year. Thank you for your interest, your participation and your support of Bobcat Athletics.

November 23, 2005

Dear Bobcat Fans,

It is a great time to be a Bobcat! The conclusion of the Fall Quarter provides us with an excellent opportunity to pause and reflect upon the tremendous success our student-athletes have experienced over the past month. National television appearances, Mid-American Conference championships, individual accomplishments and ESPN.com are just some of the highlights from the past few weeks!

As I am sure you are aware by now, our volleyball program has continued its dominance by securing its third consecutive regular season title as MAC champions! In fact, over the past three years our volleyball team has won more MAC titles than they have lost MAC matches (3 regular-season championships, 3 conference tournament titles, and only 1 conference loss)! For the second year in a row, the team has gone undefeated in conference play. This is truly a special accomplishment in the history of intercollegiate volleyball and I know you share our pride and delight in what this program continues to achieve. The other teams that plan to participate in the NCAA tournament had better be prepared to face the Bobcats!

Last week, Head Volleyball Coach Geoff Carlston and Co-Captain Holly Schetzsle informed me of an Ohio Athletics tradition. It has become routine that after winning a conference championship the team is invited to the athletic director's home for dinner. Diane, my wife and I are excited to continue this tradition! In fact, Drew, our 3½ year old son is ready to challenge the team to an air hockey tournament!

On November 4th, our football program once again represented our great institution for the entire nation to see. The football game versus Toledo, broadcast on ESPN2, received a national 1.13 rating which represents over 1 million households! It was exciting for us to talk about a Mid-American Conference East Division Football Championship in the middle of November. With the tremendous progress our football team made during the 2005 campaign, I am confident we will be talking football championships each and every November!

I have enjoyed the opportunity to travel this season and attend football games at many other MAC stadiums. I am convinced Peden Stadium offers the finest game day experience in the Mid-American Conference! Our on-campus location, the Hocking Hills, the Hocking River, and TailGreat Park make game day at Peden Stadium a truly special event. Working together, I am confident we can replicate the Pittsburgh and Toledo attendance and atmosphere each and every home game. It is our hope to have next years football schedule released in the first few months of 2006. I encourage all of you to make plans to be at Peden Stadium for every home football game. We need your turnout to create a true home-field advantage!

Speaking of our football schedule, as I am sure many of you have seen, we recently announced future football dates with the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Missouri Tigers. Our priority related to scheduling will be to create an overall balance that positions our program to compete for the MAC Championship. We are currently working on finalizing our fourth non-conference game for the 2006 season. While a national television opportunity may play a part in any scheduling decisions, it is our goal to have six home football games each season.

As you may have heard us say, athletics facilities make a dramatic difference and are some of the most distinguishing characteristics when recruits evaluate schools. When recruits visit campuses to determine where they can best contribute to the success of a team, they compare our athletics facilities to all other MAC schools. While we have some of the finest facilities in the MAC, we must continue to maintain our current position as a leader in this area, while also keeping an eye towards the future.

The $1.4 million Peden Tower renovation project will ensure we maintain our position as a leader in providing first-class facilities and resources for our student-athletes. Phase I of the Peden Tower project was completed prior to kickoff of the 2005 season and included renovation of the athletic training facility, which includes a state-of-the-art aquatic rehabilitation area, as well as the creation of team and position meeting rooms. Phase II of the Peden Tower renovation project centers on the fifth floor, which houses the coaching offices and recruiting space. We are in the process of making final edits to the design of the fifth floor and anticipate construction to begin in January 2006. We will continue to provide you with updates as this project progresses.

I had my first glimpse of Bobcat Basketball at the exhibition game versus Mercyhurst. I was very impressed and inspired by the incredible atmosphere created by our students and the O Zone! There is indeed tremendous excitement towards the 2005-2006 season as our men's team is positioned to defend their MAC Tournament Title!

This pre-season excitement has captured attention across the nation. On Friday, November 11th the Bobcat Men's Basketball team was prominently placed as the lead story at ESPN.com, as analyst and college basketball expert Andy Katz selected our Ohio Bobcats as this year's "It" school. Research shows more than 5 million people a day visit ESPN.com. What great exposure for Ohio University and our basketball program!

Our student-athletes are not only winning in competition, they are also very successful in the classroom. A number of student-athletes have won individual academic awards. I am extremely proud of their on-going commitment to academics and by the way they commit themselves to the daily pursuit of excellence. Listed below are those student-athletes that have received conference academic awards to date:

Football
Austen Everson - MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week
Matthew Miller - MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week

Volleyball
Melissa Griffin - MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week (three times this season)

Soccer
Larissa Najjar - Academic All-MAC Team
Tiffany Horvath - Academic All-MAC Team and Academic All-District 4 Second Team by CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine

Field Hockey
Chelsea Mearig - Academic All-MAC Team
Lauren Stahlhuth - Academic All-MAC Team
Jennifer Cote - Academic All-MAC Team

Cross Country
Ali Green - Academic All-MAC team
Carime Reinhart - Academic All-MAC team
Craig Leon - Academic All-MAC team
Brian List - Academic All-MAC team
Brian King - Academic All-MAC team

As a department, we will place an increased focus on enhancing our presence throughout the state of Ohio. We recently enjoyed two very successful events, one in Columbus and one in Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Buddy Byers hosted a reception at the Columbus Athletic Club on Wednesday, November 2nd. Two weeks later, Bill Dillingham, Chuck Emrick and Rick Brown hosted a luncheon at the Union Club in downtown Cleveland. I would like to publicly thank all of these individuals for their tremendous hospitality. These events allowed me the opportunity to meet a number of Ohio alumni and fans who live in and around these two vital cities.

As I continue to travel throughout the state and surrounding area, I am very excited about the shared vision we have for our athletics program. Working together, I am confident that we will firmly establish our athletics department as the model program in the Mid-American Conference. We embrace the expectation of comprehensive excellence!

As we move forward, our athletic administration will base all decisions and actions on three critical questions. By asking ourselves the questions listed below, we will maintain our focus and properly align our department with the mission of the university: