From The Desk Of TK

Dear Eagle Fan,

I know it may not feel like it, but summer is coming to an end and fall is right around the corner. Our football team is three games in and enjoying an off week while men's and women's soccer and volleyball are well underway. We even have a couple of our other sports like cross country, men's and women's golf, men's and women's tennis and rifle getting into the swing of things. Suffice to say, it's a busy time around the athletic complex.

I wanted to take a little time to catch you up on a few things going on around here.

Let's start with football game day. We are aware that there were a few bumps in terms of the fan experience and believe me, we are working on them. We had several meetings on Monday after the game to go over them and continue to evaluate our processes. We're listening to your feedback and have made several changes to improve your experience in and around the stadium. We had a great crowd against Maine, especially from our students, and I hope we have an even bigger one next weekend against Louisiana. Our goal for the rest of the season is to #FillTheHill with students. But we also need to fill the upper deck and give this team the support it deserves.

With the fall sports already in action, it won't be long before basketball cranks up. Earlier this week, we released details on the completion of the first phase of the Hanner Renovation Project that I mentioned in an earlier letter. Our basketball teams now have a stand-alone practice gym which should be a huge recruiting boost for our teams. Season ticket renewals and preorders are underway at GSEagles.com/Tickets. I hope you'll all make plans to join us in Hanner Fieldhouse in a few months.

I also wanted to update you on a few internal items within the department. I have taken on the role of advisor to our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and we have already met twice this year to discuss their ideas and how to make their playing experience a better one. Each of our 15 programs has at least two representatives and we meet monthly to bounce ideas around, talk about what they see being done around the country and how to continually keep improving. Ashley Kubel of our swimming program is our new president and I look forward to working with her and this group this year.

Also, for those of you who follow our student-athletes on social media, you may have noticed a strong effort to provide them with content to share. We have partnered with INFLCR, an Alabama-based company that provides a platform for sports team properties to store, track and deliver their content across their influencer network of athletes, coaches, media, etc. Simply put, by giving them better content to share, it helps build their brand and in turn, helps us expand our brand. Our student-athletes want to tell their stories and this platform allows them to share photos and videos to their fans in a unique way. Both ours and our student-athletes' engagement numbers and follower counts have seen quite a rise since we began using INFLCR and I hope we can continue to help them prepare for life after sport in unique ways.

Next week, I will be in Washington, D.C., to attend the LEAD1 Institute. This event welcomes senior-level college athletics administrators for three days of educational seminars where we will discuss such topics as mental health awareness, likeness image payment and much more. I look forward to reporting back what we discussed in a future letter.

Before I forget, I have to give a huge congratulations to Steven Fisk for representing our country in The Walker Cup, which is basically the Super Bowl of amateur golf. He and 11 other top Americans rolled past Team Europe to take home the trophy!

Congratulations to Steven Fisk and the United States Walker Cup Team on winning the 47th Walker Cup!! They won on foreign soil, the 1st squad to do that since 2007! #GRIT 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸 #GATA pic.twitter.com/U47ZJHS3y0
— GS Men's Golf (@GaSouthernGolf) September 8, 2019

Below, I leave you with a video of Dr. Marrero discussing the importance of college athletics. We're off to a great start with our new president and I think this clip shows that he understands the "front porch" mentality we have talked about before. I look forward to a continued relationship with President Marrero.

I hope to see you all next Saturday as we host Louisiana in the Sun Belt Conference opener. Let's #PackPaulson and #FillTheHill.

Hail Southern,

Tom Kleinlein
Director of Athletics, Georgia Southern University

Schedule

Players Mentioned

Steven Fisk

Ashley Kubel

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