General | 2/9/2017 4:32:00 PM

Dear Eagle Nation,

As we start the spring sports season, I wanted to give you some insight into what is happening with our department. As many of you know, we've added 'Leaders' to our department's 'Rings and Diplomas' mantra. Our goal is to put just as much emphasis into developing quality citizens for our communities as we do in winning games and earning degrees.

In doing so, we have established various programs to foster leadership within our student-athletes. This spring, Dr. Tim Elmore, author of Habitudes®: Images that Form Leadership Habits and Attitudes, and members from Growing Leaders will join our department to conduct Habitudes training. Habitudes is a customizable system that is built to provide young adults with the habits and attitudes that make us all better leaders. Our student-athletes will receive leadership training to develop resilience, emotional intelligence and ownership.

Our department continues to positively represent Georgia Southern University. On the field, our men's soccer team won a regular season title during Coach John Murphy's inaugural year and team members also received a collection of awards. In the classroom, over half of our student-athletes received a 3.0 GPA or higher during the fall semester. Among these student-athletes are 77 Dean's List recipients as well as 35 scholar-athletes who earned a perfect term GPA of 4.0 and were named to the President's List.

As I look at our department and the accomplishments we have made, I am reminded of a question I often ask our staff, "what is your 'why?'" What motivates you to do your job and do it well? The answer for me is easy, it is our student-athletes. Our student-athletes and their future motivate me to provide them with the resources to win championships, earn an education and learn the skills to be effective leaders.

So I leave you with this thought, "what is your 'why' for Georgia Southern Athletics?"

Best,

TK