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.

December 22, 2005

Dear Bobcat Fans,

I hope this correspondence finds you doing well and enjoying the holiday season! While we in the Athletics Department are looking forward to the point in the year when we get to spend time with our families, we are also looking forward to January and the start of the winter quarter. It will be good to see many of our student-athletes who have been away and enjoying their winter break!

Since my last column, many great things have happened in the Ohio Athletics family. There are three points in particular that I would like to highlight at this time:

1) Ohio Volleyball - The historic season for our 2005 volleyball team came to an end on Friday, December 9. I know each of you share our pride in the manner in which our volleyball team has represented Ohio University during their journey to the NCAA Sweet 16. This team has achieved national prominence and has been recognized as one of the best programs in the nation! Ohio Volleyball received an all-time-best national ranking of 14, beat nationally-ranked Ohio State and Tennessee and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time in the program's history. Coach Geoff Carlston's team currently holds the nation's longest home court winning streak, has not lost a Mid-American Conference match in over two years and won its third consecutive conference championship! Wow! This team and coaching staff truly exemplify what it means to be an Ohio Bobcat! We look forward to honoring our volleyball team at an upcoming basketball game and to raising their MAC Championship and NCAA Sweet 16 banners! We will communicate the selected date well in advance so each of you can make plans to be in the Convo to show your support for the 2005 Ohio Volleyball Team and congratulate them on an outstanding season.

2) Coach Kevin Kuwik - It was great to see Coach Kevin Kuwik back on the bench for the basketball game at Cincinnati! I had the chance to say hello to Kevin by way of email, but this was my first opportunity to personally meet him. I have heard so many remarkable things about him and look forward to seeing Kevin around the Convo on a daily basis. It is an honor for us to have Kevin Kuwik as a part of the Ohio Bobcat family.

3) National Recognition - We are also excited about the recent announcement that Ohio University received a grade of "A" from the Black Coaches Association (BCA) for how the university conducted its search for a head football coach last year. Ohio University was one of only five schools nationally to earn an "A" and one of only two schools to receive a perfect score in the recently released "A Hiring Report Card for NCAA Division 1-A and 1-AA Football Head Coaching Positions in American Higher Education."

In addition to the three highlights mentioned above, I am pleased to communicate to you the hiring of Robert Andrey as Associate Athletics Director for Business and Internal Operations. Robert has spent the past five years at American University as the Associate Athletics Director for Business and Administration. His experience includes time at Temple University, Lehigh University and Lafayette College. Robert will join our staff on January 16 and will be a tremendous asset to our department and community.

We are also in the interview process for hiring an Associate Athletics Director for Marketing, a position vacated when Paul Ladwig departed for Fresno State. This position has attracted interest from marketing professionals from coast to coast. We look forward to making an announcement related to this position in the near future.

As I have stated numerous times in these columns and in other public settings, it is a great time to be a Bobcat! We have 537 tremendously talented student-athletes that we are fortunate to work with on a daily basis. We have a group of coaches and staff that possess the passion and desire to continue to serve our 537 student-athletes and provide them the opportunities to pursue their academic and athletic goals. With your continued support and teamwork, we will establish our athletics program as the model in the Mid-American Conference which all others aspire to emulate.

From the Ohio Athletics Department and from me and my family, we wish each of you a Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you in the Convo in 2006!

Go Bobcats!
Kirby