Dear Eagle Nation, 

I hope everyone has had a great summer and gotten a chance to relax with friends and family this summer. I'll be heading down to New Orleans on Sunday with Coach Lunsford, Tyler Bass and Kindle Vildor, along with our athletics communications staff, for the Sun Belt Media Day. That can only mean two things: summer is over, and football is right around the corner! It seems like yesterday that Tyler was drilling that field goal at the horn to beat Eastern Michigan, but we're just 44 days away from kicking things off in Baton Rouge and only 14 days from the start of camp.

While classes don't begin until Aug. 19, a lot of our freshmen have been on campus for a month now taking classes and getting adjusted to college life. Reggie Simpkins and his staff have a great program in place - and it's one of only a few in the country. His team helps to ease the transition to Georgia Southern and begin to prepare them for success on the field, in the classroom and for life after they leave Statesboro. We started doing this two years ago, bringing our freshmen in a week before summer session B to cover various topics that we felt would aid them in transitioning to Georgia Southern. These topics include classroom etiquette, expectations of a student-athlete, time management, the tutoring process and much more. From all reports, things are going well. Some of our freshmen miss mom's cooking, but everything else seems to be going well for them.

As with any campus, summer is a time where a lot of construction projects take place. With fewer students and traffic on campus, it's the perfect time to get those cranes and bulldozers in. We're no different as the first phase of the Hanner Renovation project we announced in February has begun. The first phase includes converting an area in the back to a stand-alone practice facility for the men's and women's basketball teams. This will ease some of the traffic and scheduling congestion in the main area and allow our teams to have a place they can use 24-7. You can see the beginning stages of the project below.

Coach Howard was talking about the new practice gym, and I wanted to share her quote with you: "The renovation of the basketball courts in our practice facility is a major improvement for the basketball program as a whole. As coaches, we are tasked with preparing student-athletes for peak performance during competition. The practice facility is a space that is readily available for us whenever we need it. The courts being a replica of the main courts we use for actual games is a major bonus. It's a subliminal advantage for our student-athletes.  Furthermore, it demonstrates to current student-athletes and recruits that Georgia Southern is invested in the program. I want to express my gratitude to the administration, alumni, and donors for sending such a message. This is huge! Hail Southern!"



The project will also include a stand-alone practice gym for volleyball, and then we'll turn our focus to the front lobby and lower-level improvements. We are currently finalizing construction plans for the expansion of the front lobby which will include the creation of an athletics hall of fame. This project will begin as soon as fundraising is completed. If you're interested in contributing to the fundraising efforts for the project, please contact Sally Scott at swscott@georgiasouthern.edu.

Football season tickets continue to progress as we are closing in on 6,000 sold and have already surpassed last year's number. Supporting the team by purchasing tickets and filling up Paulson Stadium gives us a tremendous home-field advantage and is one way to impress bowl scouts looking at potential teams for their game.

As you saw, we are on the search for a new women's soccer coach after Brian Dunleavy resigned to take an assistant coaching spot at Mississippi State. While this is not the optimal time to be looking for a coach, I have full confidence in the search committee to find a coach who is a good fit for our program and department and is ready to come in and hit the ground running.

Lastly, I'm proud to report the athletics staff has completed our strategic review of the previous year, which is based upon survey information from fans, student-athletes and coaches. This information allows us to formulate our plans for this year to help achieve the goals that we set forth in our five-year strategic plan that was released last year. 

Our first event is an exhibition match for women's soccer on Aug. 15 as well as our annual fall Fan Fest and Coaches Caravan in Statesboro on Saturday, Aug. 17. Then we'll begin playing games that count shortly thereafter. I hope to see all of you at as many events as you can attend. Remember, season tickets are on sale for all of our fall sports!

As always, #HailSouthern

Tom Kleinlein
Director of Athletics, Georgia Southern University