Men's Soccer | 10/25/2016 2:43:00 PM

STATESBORO – Over the weekend, the Georgia Southern men's soccer program and the Eagle Soccer Alumni Association (ESAA) welcomed several alumni back to Statesboro for a series of events held around the Eagles' Sun Belt Conference home game against Hartwick. Former players representing teams from the very first squad in 1980 all the way up to a couple years ago were in attendance for an alumni forum Friday night, a friendly round of golf Saturday morning, the team's pregame meal Saturday afternoon and a social following the Eagles 2-1 victory over the Hawks Saturday night.

"Anytime we can provide an opportunity for our alumni to come back to campus, it's a special thing," Eagle head coach John Murphy said. "We had a great weekend that included several rounds of golf, plenty of opportunities for friends and former teammates to get together and reminisce as well as chances for our alumni to meet and interact with our current team. The energy that came from this weekend was passed on to our players and I really think it helped inspire our performance Saturday night against Hartwick. It was just a great example of how events like this weekend benefit everyone involved. I appreciate my coaching staff for making the extra effort to set these events up and we hope to do two of these a year here in Statesboro and two in the Atlanta area."

Friday night, five alumni, including Arthur Franklin (1984-87), Alan Woodrum (1998-2001), Reed Norton (2012-13), Ben Freakly (2000) and Mike Kinion (1980) met with the current team during an alumni forum held in the Gene Bishop Fieldhouse. The panel-style forum allowed the alumni to share their stories on a range of topics, including but not limited to how they came to Statesboro, the state the program was in when they played for the blue and white compared to where they see it now, as well as how their experience as a student-athlete prepared them for the real world. The forum also allowed the current team to ask questions of the alumni.

The quintet of former players represent a host of knowledge and outside experience. Franklin is currently a teacher in the Bulloch County school system and also spent several years in the financial sector in Atlanta, Woodrum is an assistant provost at Georgia Southern, Norton is a member of the Eagles' coaching staff and also played this past summer in the United Soccer Leagues (USL) Premier Development League (PDL) with the South Georgia Tormenta FC, Freakly is the head coach and general manager of Tormenta FC as well as a performance psychology consultant for the military's special operations forces and Kinion is with First Landmark Bank.

"It was a fantastic night. To be able to provide the current team with some perspective, the University and athletic department do an excellent job of preparing out students for the real world, but I feel that as a program we need to help that along by providing events like this, where we get the guys together and not necessarily talk about soccer," Murphy said. "We talked about what they are going to do in the next phase of their lives after graduation. And by bringing back former student-athletes who had varying experiences both on and off the field here, it adds some perspective and it certainly adds some depth. It was just a fantastic night, we shared some laughs but there were also some very poignant stories from our alumni. I know our guys appreciated them taking the time to come speak to them, and I really appreciated what they did as well."

Saturday morning, a group of alumni joined the current coaching staff for a friendly round of golf at a local golf club before joining the team back on campus for the pregame meal. Many of the alumni then joined the close to 500 fans that came out to support the Eagles as they defeated Hartwick in a crucial Sun Belt Conference game at Eagle Field. Following the game, the alumni, family and friends joined the 2016 Eagles in the Bishop Fieldhouse for a post-game reception and social hour. Also in attendance were alumni Mark Churchwell (1983-84), Nick Lane (2010-13), Kevin Lievsay (1981-82) and Tom Troutman (1980-83).

The weekend was put together by Murphy, assistant coaches Geoff del Forn, Daniel Alvarado and Norton with special assistance from Hannah Youmans, the Alumni and Donor Relations Coordinator for the Georgia Southern University Athletic Foundation.

A second ESAA event will be held on Saturday, Nov. 19 in Atlanta as part of the rivalry football game between Georgia Southern and Georgia State. The function will include the True Blue Tailgate, tickets to the game and a post-game social at a local establishment.

Alumni of the soccer program interested in these events and more can sign up to receive more information at GSEagles.com/GATA.

The Eagles will face their toughest opponent of the season Tuesday night as they travel to Clemson, S.C. to take on the nationally-ranked Clemson Tigers at Riggs Field. The Eagles and No. 5 Tigers will play on the ACC Network Extra, part of the ESPN family of networks, with kickoff slated for 7 p.m.

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