Buzz Magazine - Winter 2017

LIVING LEGACIES

SONS OF YELLOW JACKETS FOOTBALL GREATS CARRYING ON THE FAMILY TRADITION

WINTER IS

HERE Coming off NIT and WNIT finals appearances, Georgia Tech’s basketball teams face increased expectations in 2017-18

WINTER 2017-18

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EDITOR Mike Stamus ASSOCIATE EDITORS Kevin Davis Mike Flynn Alex Keator Liz Ryan WRITERS Jon Cooper Simit Shah Adam Van Brimmer Matt Winkeljohn PHOTOGRAPHY Bryan Savage Clyde Click Danny Karnik National Football League DESIGN & LAYOUT Summit Athletic Media www.summitathletics.com ADVERTISING – IMG COLLEGE General Manager – Dave Bouteiller For information on advertising, please call (404) 733-1330

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5 | A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW

Expectations have been raised as Josh Pastner’s basketball rebuild enters second season

11 | WHEN IN ROME

Women’s basketball coach MaChelle Joseph believes travel is “the greatest form of education,” and the Yellow Jackets do a lot of it

PLACE AT 14 | RIGHT THE RIGHT TIME

Former Jacket defensive back Kofi Smith has taken advantage of some opportune moments and lessons learned at Tech

18 | PINCH-HITTERS EXTRAORDINAIRE The Buzz is published four times a year by IMG College in conjunction with the Georgia Tech Athletic Association. The price of an annual subscription is $9.95. Persons wishing to subscribe or those wishing to renew their subscription should send a check or money order (credit cards not accepted) to: THE BUZZ IMG College 540 N. Trade St. Winston-Salem, NC 27101 All material produced in this publication is the property of IMG College and shall not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission from IMG College and Georgia Tech. The appearance of advertising in this newspaper does not constitute an endorsement of the advertiser and/or the advertiser’s product or service by Georgia Tech or IMG College. The use of the name of the University or any of its identifying marks in advertisements must be approved by Georgia Tech and IMG College.

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Georgia Tech softball stepped up to the plate and came through in the clutch for Puerto Rico hurricane relief

22 | LIVING LEGACIES

Sons of Yellow Jacket football greats carrying on the family tradition

27 | A-T FUND | DONOR PROFILE

The Robbins family love affair with Georgia Tech started out with an ROTC scholarship and a baseball tryout

28 | A-T FUND | RUSS CHANDLER STADIUM Russ Chandler Stadium Renovation - Phase II

29 | A-T FUND | SWARM WEEK IS BACK

Celebrate the pride and passion of Georgia Tech Athletics while helping us grow our donor base of support.

31 | COMPLIANCE CORNER

Explaining the NCAA’s new time demands legislation

BASKETBALL

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TOUGH ACT

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The Buzz

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TO FOLLOW EXPECTATIONS HIGHER AS JOSH PASTNER’S BASKETBALL REBUILD ENTERS SECOND SEASON

BY ADAM VAN BRIMMER WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

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BASKETBALL | A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW

The reigning ACC defensive player of the year, Ben Lammers was made a pre-season first-team All-ACC choice at the conference media day.

FACT

Appearing in its ninth NIT last March, Georgia Tech advanced to the championship game for the first time since 1971.

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he calls of “Encore! Encore!” began to echo even before Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball team made it to the Madison Square Garden locker room.

The Yellow Jackets’ Cinderella 2016-17 season had just ended with a loss in the National Invitation Tournament final. They had exceeded all expectations in their first season under coach Josh Pastner, winning 21 games, knocking off Atlantic Coast Conference powers North Carolina, Florida State, Notre Dame and Syracuse during the regular season and advancing to the NIT championship.

All with a short playing rotation led by a true freshman.

Pastner didn’t want the ride to end. Neither did a fan base excited about hoops for the first time since Jarrett Jack and Co. had put the thrill back into the Thrillerdome more than a decade earlier. That it happened during a scheduled demolition for the program— Pastner was told prior to his hiring he was to “blow things up”—made it that much more magical.

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The success also set a lofty bar for Pastner’s second season this winter.

The fact is the encore may not match the earlier sets, Pastner acknowledges. And while that may leave the fan base wanting more in the short term, the Yellow Jackets remained focused on building the program back to glory, even if that process is what Pastner calls a “slow grind.”

“We overachieved last year, which was positive, but it doesn’t change the timeline within this program,” Pastner said. “Our chemistry and team unity were almost perfect a season ago. The guys we have this year are very close, but it’s a different group. We could be better from a talent and development standpoint and not win nearly as many games.”

CULTURE FIRST Pastner and the Yellow Jackets can count one win before the new season tips off on November 10 against UCLA. The “cultural pillars” of the program— toughness, positive energy and self-motivation— are firmly anchored. And with 10 eager-to-please

newcomers on the roster, Georgia Tech is blessed with an abundance of intensity.

“The main reason for our success last year was we were a hard-working team,” senior center Ben Lammers said. “We rarely had more raw talent than the opposition. As our talent level improves, we’re going to keep up the work ethic and see what happens.”

Credit Pastner for that outlook. A popular adage in college sports is that teams tend to reflect their head coach, and perhaps nowhere does it hold truer than at Georgia Tech.

Pastner has what is known in sports circles as a “high motor,” a relentless drive for success professionally and for life in general.

He describes it as an “attitude for gratitude,” an appreciation for life, and admits he has always been wired for high energy.

His idiosyncrasies draw chuckles from those close to the program, be it the wee-hours workouts on the treadmill or his insistence that he answer every email, including those from fans of both the Yellow Jackets and their rivals.

“We’ll be on a road trip at dinner, and he’ll be over there on his laptop answering random emails between bites,” Lammers said. “He attacks everything he does with full energy; he’s always on. You can’t be around that as much as we are and not get caught up in it.”

Pastner is going great lengths to expand that sphere of influence. He’s engaged players from the Bobby Cremins era, the true glory days of Georgia Tech basketball, through phone calls, meetings and invites to practice. Georgia Tech is “not my program, it’s their program,” Pastner maintains.

The approach has been well-received, and more and more former Yellow Jackets are embracing the program. Greats like Dennis Scott are conduits to a segment of the alumni base that disconnected from the program when Cremins departed in 2000.

“Right now, the old school Georgia Tech diehards, the gold-and-blue-bleeding Tech engineers, are at home waiting to see if it’s time to come back out and support the team like they did back when Bobby Cremins set the city on fire,” Scott said. “I got news for them: People want to be around Josh. The time is near.”

looking to see whether Georgia Tech has enough playmakers.

Freshman scoring sensation Josh Okogie is back, as is Lammers, a difference maker around the rim on both ends of the floor.

Veteran Tadric Jackson returns, too.

The rest of the expected contributors are true freshmen and a transfer student.

“The veterans have to be great leaders for us, and the new guys need to figure out where they fit in,” Pastner said. “I won’t have a real feel for how talented we are until we play a few games and see what we can do with the lights on.”

Those lights will be bright—the ESPN television channels will broadcast 15 games, and all but five games will be televised live through some TV outlet. The schedule is appealing, with non-conference games against UCLA, Northwestern, Tennessee and Georgia. And the league slate is favorable from a competitive record standpoint, as the Yellow

THE VETERANS HAVE TO BE GREAT LEADERS FOR US, AND THE NEW GUYS NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHERE THEY FIT IN

Tadric Jackson averaged double digits off the bench last season.

EVERYONE LOVES A WINNER The inferno Scott describes needs a spark, and in the ACC, the ignition source is almost always talent. All but the most Pollyanna-ish of Yellow Jacket fans head into this season WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

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BASKETBALL | A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW

Josh Pastner (right) is relying on four freshmen to play a lot, including point guard Jose Alvarado (left).

BY THE NUMBERS

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Georgia Tech is the only ACC team that returns three players who averaged 12 points per game or more in 2016-17.

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Jackets face league powers North Carolina, Duke and Florida State only once.

Many message board schedule geeks—those who sit down with the slate before the season and go game by game in an attempt to prognosticate a final record—have already predicted an NCAA tournament appearance for Georgia Tech.

More seasoned basketball minds look once again at the perceived talent and take a more cautious position.

“I don’t think expecting them to make the NCAAs is fair,” said Jon Babul, a former Yellow Jacket player who now works in the Atlanta Hawks’ front office. “You have a great core coming back and a philosophy of how to play and compete in place. But is that enough at this level?”

TALENT SEARCH Pastner has a blunt answer to Babul’s query about Georgia Tech’s current talent level.

No, they don’t have enough.

“We’re going to need several recruiting classes, and we as a staff need to be perfect

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in our evaluation and development,” the coach said. “Not everyone is right for us, and we’re not right for everyone.”

Recruiting can be an enigma at Georgia Tech. Cremins had an almost uncanny feel for talent, plucking kids from a variety of backgrounds from all over the country, bringing them to a challenging academic setting in the heart of a major city, and melding them into a perennial NCAA tournament contender.

His successor, Paul Hewitt, had some talent wins as well, most notably with the teams anchored by Jack, B.J. Elder, Will Bynum and Luke Schenscher, but also underachieved with NBA-caliber talent on the roster in other years.

“Georgia Tech is a unique job in that here you play at the highest level of college basketball, but you must also meet the academic challenge in the classroom,” Babul said. “Sometimes you end up with recruits who check one box but not the other. That’s Josh’s challenge, to find top talent that checks both boxes.”

Recruiting today is evolving at a dizzying rate, due to the influence of social media and the trend of NBA stars joining up to form super teams. The landscape is almost “unrecognizable,” said Scott, and few programs beyond the marquee brands— Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, UCLA—hold much name credibility with recruits.

“It’s all about energy and the ability to speak the language of the 17-, 18- and 19-year old,” Scott said. “Gone are the days when a highprofile recruit looked at the school as a place to gain the skills to become a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer. Today, they see school as a place to have fun, and things like the climate and whether a program is a Nike or a Converse or an Adidas school are major factors.

“And because they know each other from camps and AAU ball, they all talk to each other and influence each other.”

Pastner and his staff are leveraging the millennial mindset. They are active on social media and digital platforms and make the most of Atlanta’s location and the school’s ties

to NBA players by opening Georgia Tech’s practice facilities to the pros in the offseason.

That, too, gets communicated digitally.

The more mentions a program gets, the greater the awareness. High-profile wins and postseason runs help, but recruits today are much more intrigued by where your program can go than where it is or has been.

And Pastner’s energy and playing style—a free-flowing offense and hard-nosed defense— translate well, Scott said, both with the bluest of the blue chips and that second tier of talent, the players who are likely to stay three and maybe even four years before turning professional.

“We had a slogan when I played for the Orlando Magic: Heart and hustle,” Scott said.

“At the end of the day, kids want to compete.

They love that. Those players who aren’t oneand-done talents but who are great college athletes? That’s the type of program they want to be a part of.”

Not coincidentally, that’s the type of program Pastner is committed to developing. The encore is just the beginning.

FACT

Thanks to its Midtown Atlanta location and state-of-the-art basketball home, McCamish Pavilion, Georgia Tech was selected to host two Atlanta Hawks preseason games in October.

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BASKETBALL

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The Buzz

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WHEN IN ROME WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACH MACHELLE JOSEPH BELIEVES TRAVEL IS “THE GREATEST FORM OF EDUCATION,” AND THE YELLOW JACKETS DO A LOT OF IT

BY MATT WINKELJOHN

M

aChelle Joseph really likes her basketball team’s versatility, but there’s no truth to the rumor that the Georgia Tech women’s basketball team is going to mix it up this season by speaking Italian on the court.

Well, maybe a little.

With three Italian players on the roster, all of the Yellow Jackets brushed up on the language before an Aug. 6-19 trip to the country, and everybody knows at least a little thanks to guards Antonia Peresson and Francesca Pan. They learned basics before Tech took advantage of NCAA guidelines that allow basketball programs to practice early and take an international tour once every four years.

The Jackets focused more on playing four exhibition games and taking in the sights while visiting 10 cities in Italy, including Venice, Florence and Rome. Players and coaches also visited Vatican City.

“It was very exciting being able to go to such a beautiful place, and see things like the Sistine Chapel, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum in Rome, just having that experience in college is a great thing,” said senior forward Zaire O’Neil.

“We attempted to learn Italian, but it is a very hard language. We talked about just the common courtesy things to do just to help us get through.”

Tech’s summer adventure was especially rewarding for Peresson, as the Jackets played three of their four games in the senior guard’s hometown of Pordenone and another in Venice, where she also once lived.

“When I heard I was going to be able to go with my team, I was even more excited because I was able to show them around my home country,” Peresson said. “I had an opportunity to play literally in the gym where I used to play since I was, like, 5 years old.”

Entering her 15th season as head coach, Joseph has taken the Jackets on four summer trips, and choosing the destination for this one was easy.

When she made the decision about 18 months earlier, Peresson was already on the team, Pan had been recruited out of Bassano del Grappa and would soon be a freshman, and Tech was recruiting Lorela Cubaj, a current freshman from Terni.

Joseph sees multiple benefits of taking these trips, which are funded by program donors.

“Having Antonia and Francesca here, I was already in the process of recruiting Lorela, and we knew there were players in Italy that we wanted to recruit, so that was basically a nobrainer for me,” the coach said. “One of the most important parts is the cultural experience, because I believe the greatest form of education is travel ... some of our players have never been out of the United States.

“The second thing is team building and the experiences they have together. Being out of the

The Yellow Jackets visited Antonia Peresson’s home gym (as a youngster) for a game in Pordenone.

FACT

Three Georgia Tech women’s basketball studentathletes hail from Italy – Lorela Cubaj, Francesca Pan and Antonia Peresson.

WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

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BASKETBALL | WHEN IN ROME

Peresson and her teammates visited the city hall in her hometown of Pordenone and also the Roman Colosseum.

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The Buzz

country and trying different cultures and foods, and just seeing things that they’ve only seen on television ... doing things off the floor gives them a tremendous opportunity to build chemistry.”

Sophomore guard Chanin Scott treasures her first trip to Europe.

“It was cool to see where Antonia’s from. She showed us all the streets, and she knew where the gelato places were.

She was like a tour guide, our navigation system,” Scott said. “After every game there were a lot of people around. A lot of family and friends came to see her play.”

Pan, who was the ACC Freshman of the Year last season after averaging 11.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, made the trip but didn’t play after spraining an ankle while playing in July for the Italian National Team.

She nonetheless thoroughly enjoyed the Jackets’ foreign tour.

“It was nice to show my team my home country. I showed them what my life looked like, and what’s my culture and where I’m from,” Pan said. “Of course, I also got to see my family and some friends.”

Some of these Jackets have left the U.S. with their team before, as Tech played in the Cancun (Mexico) Challenge in the fall of 2015, and last fall played in the Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas.

The Jackets will go back to that eight-team tournament Nov. 23-25.

Basketball was a little different in Italy, as Tech played by international rules using a slightly bigger ball on a court that was about three feet shorter. The 3-point line was also nearly two feet closer, and the biggest difference was a 24-second shot clock as opposed to the 30-second timer in NCAA games.

Also, in the event of an offensive rebound, the shot clock would reset to 14 seconds.

“I thought it was great,” Joseph said of the shorter shot clocks. “I think it’s something that would be good for women’s basketball; it

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speeds the game up, and makes it a lot more up-and-down.

“It really fits what we do as far as pressing and trapping and running ... I liked the way the game was played at a faster pace.”

Tech returns its top six scorers from a team that went 22-15 last season, losing 89-79 to Michigan in the WNIT championship game in triple overtime, yet the Jackets valued early practices before and during the trip.

There are four scholarship freshmen in the 6-foot-4 Cubaj, guards Taja Cummings (5-6) and Kierra Fletcher (5-9) and forward Daijah Jefferson (6-2). Forward Breanna Brown (6-3) is a graduate student from Oregon State.

“I think it benefitted us a lot just to know what the freshmen do well, and Bre, who is a new player, just to get a feel for each other and kind of pick up where we left off last year with the chemistry,” O’Neil said. “I think it has helped us build a great amount of trust and respect for each other.”

The Jackets twice beat a Bosnian under-19 team handily, and also had little trouble with a Slovenian squad. They trailed a professional team, Celje Slovenia, 25-21 at halftime before rallying to a 60-41 win.

“We had the opportunity to practice in the summer, which put us a little bit ahead of where we were last year and now the freshmen know the system,” Peresson said. “I feel like right now we already know how to play with each other.”

Joseph would always jump at the chance to get ahead in practice, of course, yet that’s not the only reason she enjoyed Tech’s summer adventure.

“It was great getting to practice with them, see what they do in game situations. The practices before we went were huge. Being able to put our system in, it’s just been a real advantage. The timing could not have been better.

“It was an unbelievable experience. The basketball part of it was great, but the more important part was seeing the Leaning Tower of Pisa and their faces when they saw that, going to Florence, and walking around the Duomo.”

Even two months later, O’Neil smiled broadly while looking back on the Jackets’ trip to Italy.

“The Colosseum was amazing, and to be able to go down underneath and actually look inside of it from the top and bottom, especially at night, was fantastic,” she said. “It’s definitely an experience of a lifetime. That’s why I’m very thankful for Coach Jo and our donors and the people who helped us see this.”

ATHLETICS

RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME FORMER JACKET DEFENSIVE BACK KOFI SMITH HAS TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF SOME OPPORTUNE MOMENTS AND LESSONS LEARNED AT TECH

BY MATT WINKELJOHN

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ofi Smith has a fabulous job as the youngest president and CEO of the Atlanta Airlines Corporation, and running Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport’s facilities keeps his blood going.

But he’ll gladly go back in time to re-visit his Georgia Tech-record 90-yard fumble return and jump like it’s game day again.

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Or maybe he’d kneel.

This is certain: a 5-9, 178-pound defensive back and special-teams standout from Florence, Ala., Smith treasures that moment against Wake Forest on Nov. 21, 1998, and he believes in the power of prayer to this day.

“I wasn’t a superstar and all I wanted was one touchdown. I prayed to God, ‘Please let me

Smith earned all-ACC honors as a defensive back and was team captain in 1998, when the Yellow Jackets earned a share of the ACC championship.

have one touchdown,” Smith recalled. “Coach [Randy] Edsall, our defensive coordinator . . . called the perfect play, a corner blitz. Everything timed up where they had a sweep my direction, and I was coming untouched . . .

“Angels made him drop that ball and it took one bounce into my arms, and I was like a missile. As soon as I hit the end zone, I looked up to heaven on my knees with my arms out and all I was saying was, ‘Thank you God, thank you God.’“ Smith is no less quick to thank Georgia Tech for his success in the business world, although after landing a great job as a production manager with Milliken & Company in LaGrange upon graduating in 1999 with a degree in industrial engineering, he left for ... football.

After playing part time in 2001 and 2002 with the Columbus Wardogs of the old arenafootball2 league, he left the business world in 2003 to chase the professional gridiron dream full time.

“I was making great money, and to leave to chase football in arena 2 for $200 a week.

That decision was the best decision that I ever made. However, those who loved me most they were really [unhappy], and thought it was the worst,” he said.

“They will love you right out of your dream.

I didn’t allow that to happen. I was chasing my dream.”

It should not come as a surprise that Smith made that decision through prayer.

That grew up with him in Florence, where “my mom taught me how to pray.”

While he starred as a quarterback and defensive back at Bradshaw High, his friend

Roderick Jones excelled at the other high school in town, Coffee.

Then, Jones was murdered as a senior while Smith was a junior.

Jones had a son, Deondrick, on the way at the time of his death.

“We started playing football together at six years of age. We grew up playing together or against each other, the same as basketball,” Smith said. “Rod was a star at Coffee – Rod was a year older than me. We were always in each other’s life.

“His girlfriend, Michelle ... when she went into labor, I was working at this restaurant and her mother called me. As I was standing in front of the nursery, something spoke to me ... in a very clear, audible voice and said, ‘This is your son; take care of him.’”

And that’s why after playing arena football in 2003 for the Norfolk (Va.) Nighthawks, in 2004 for the Corpus Christi (Texas) Hammerheads and in 2005 for the Quad Cities (Iowa) SteamWheelers of various indoor football leagues, Smith stuffed his cleats in the back of the closet.

Deondrick Jones was on his mind.

“My son was about to turn 14, and I knew that his dreams were going to take precedent over mine, and I had to get back into making some real money,” Smith recalled. “He was going to be driving and want a car in two years and then he’s going to be ready for college.”

Frustrated by multiple rejections of his resume, Smith – who had been selling furniture back in Alabama between arena seasons – decided, “I always wanted to have WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

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ATHLETICS | RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME

Smith, shown here recently speaking to Tech’s studentathletes, is responsible for managing an operational and capital budget of $150 million annually and approximately 7.2 million square feet of facility operations at HartsfieldJackson International Airport.

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my own business, and apparently I was pretty good at selling.”

So he went into real estate, securing his residential license.

Working in Alabama and Georgia, that didn’t go as well as he thought it might, so he considered transitioning to commercial real estate and called to seek advice from former Georgia Tech linebacker Lucius Sanford, who is the executive director of Tech’s Letterman’s Club.

Upon learning of the upcoming Georgia Tech Hall of Fame dinner, which would induct his former teammate, linebacker Keith Brooking, Smith attended.

“I called Lucius, and I was telling him what I wanted to do from a commercial real estate standpoint, and he was telling me things I should do,” Smith said. “And Lucius told me I should come. I asked how much it was, and he said $50. I said, I don’t got it. He said, ‘Come work it, be a host. Help me check people in.’”

That dinner turned Smith’s life.

He sat across the table from former Tech baseball player Jahmal Overton, who he met while they were student-athletes on The Flats, and Linc Facility Services Southeastern manager Edwin Hilder.

“Hilder was looking for a facility manager. When he and Jahmal were talking, in their conversation for General Mills, Jahmal said ‘You should talk to Kofi,’” Smith recalled. “Ed got up and said, ‘Jahmal said some great things about you.’

“I said, ‘If it’s anything close to plant engineering and has to do with manufacturing, I could do it.’ He told me to send him my resume.

I sent it that night, and was hired in two weeks.”

Smith won several awards while running GM’s plant in Covington, Ga. from 2006-08, and more after Linc moved him to into the facility manager position for Delta Air Lines at Hartsfield-Jackson.

Not long after he earned his MBA from Tech in 2009, he was promoted to director, supervising all of Delta’s facilities at the airport.

The Atlanta Airlines Terminal Corporation – which manages all facilities at the airport – hired Smith in Oct. 2010 as deputy executive director. Eight months later, in June 2011,

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he promoted to CEO at the age of 35 – the youngest ever to ascend to the position.

Not bad for a guy who took a three-year break to go play a little arena football.

Chalk that up to Smith and Tech’s push.

He had limited knowledge when he visited The Flats on his recruiting visit, and Smith was locked in on being a Vanderbilt Commodore even after Tech defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable called and said, “We’d like you to come down a visit.”

“I was going to be a doctor, and that’s why I was interested in Vanderbilt,” he said.

“When I got to Tech and realized it was the No. 1 industrial engineering school. [Running back] Curtis Holloman and I were on the visit together, and we said, ‘We’re coming here.’

“Nashville had nothing on Atlanta. I had never seen so many sights, so many beautiful women, all the sights that’s not the right reasons to pick a school, but I’m glad I did.”

As a newbie at Milliken, he had little idea what was going on, yet he got up to speed quickly and won multiple industry awards. Credit, Tech.

“I knew nothing about the procedures behind what we were doing, or the financial structure, but Tech taught me how to source resources.

I knew how to go find people,” he said. “If you were saying something I didn’t understand, I would write it down, and get it on my calendar just to know.

“Tech had broken down my [fear] of being afraid to go ask for help. You have to release all your pride. I didn’t graduate Tech with honors.

I graduated with a 2.7 (grade point average).

I understand I’m not the smartest cat, but I know how to deal with people, and that was my Google.”

Some may want to highlight the fact that he manages the busiest airport in the world, a sprawling facility that covers some seven million square feet with an operating budget of more than $150 million.

Give him a chance, and he’ll talk football first.

“The gift that they gave all the seniors was a picture and that’s the picture they put in my frame, of me on my knees looking up to the sky,” said Smith, who has a 4-year-old son with his wife, former Tech student Nicole Lewis. “[God] allowed me to make that touchdown on Senior Day, my last home game at Bobby Dodd Stadium. My mom, dad and Deondrick were able to see it. That touchdown couldn’t have come at any better a time.”

SOFTBALL

PINCH-HITTERS EXTRAORDINAIRE GEORGIA TECH SOFTBALL STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE AND CAME THROUGH IN THE CLUTCH FOR PUERTO RICO HURRICANE RELIEF

BY JON COOPER

A

case of bottled water costs around $10.00. A 20-pack of AA batteries runs around $20. Those are routine items for many people.

Yet the purchase of EITHER and its delivery to Georgia Tech in early October may have would have been a huge benefit to someone on the island of Puerto Rico. At the very least it helped bring a semblance of normality back to them.

That kind of relief was, and still is, something desperately needed as the island tries to recover from Hurricane Maria, a category 4 hurricane, which hit for almost 30 straight hours with a ferocity described by Jeff Weber, a meteorologist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, as “a 50- to 60-mile-wide tornado (that) raged across Puerto Rico like a buzz saw,” and left people in vast areas throughout the island without electricity and clean drinking water.

Doing something to help, was the No. 1 priority for Georgia Tech softball coach Aileen

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Morales and assistant coach Charissa “Reese” Mariconda. Both have ties to Puerto Rico, as Morales has immediate family there, while Mariconda has friends there, and both know teammates and coaches, as they’ve been friends since 2007, when they were teammates with the Puerto Rican Softball Federation.

“It’s something that has directly impacted my family and people that are close to me back in Puerto Rico,” Morales said. “So, obviously, knowing that not only people are suffering but also people who are part of your family are struggling to get basic necessities is just, in my opinion, a real easy thing to want to help. We’re very fortunate to have what we do every day -to have running water and to have power and electricity. There’s a whole country right now that doesn’t have that same luxury. To me, you have an obligation to help people, to help those in need, especially when you have a means to do it.”

DOING SOMETHING TO HELP WAS THE NO. 1 PRIORITY FOR GEORGIA TECH SOFTBALL COACH AILEEN MORALES AND ASSISTANT COACH CHARISSA “REESE” MARICONDA. BOTH HAVE TIES TO PUERTO RICO, AS MORALES HAS IMMEDIATE FAMILY THERE, WHILE MARICONDA HAS FRIENDS THERE, AND BOTH KNOW TEAMMATES AND COACHES, AS THEY’VE BEEN FRIENDS SINCE 2007, WHEN THEY WERE TEAMMATES WITH THE PUERTO RICAN SOFTBALL FEDERATION. The Yellow Jackets played in a tournament last February in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“Seeing and hearing about what everybody has been going through, the driving force behind it is to help those in need in any way possible,” said Mariconda, whom Morales credited with doing “a ton of the leg work.”

“When tragedies happen like this, obviously it hits a little closer to home, when you’re hearing about it day-to-day with your inner circles.“ With no time to lose, Morales and Mariconda used the team’s fall home dates in early October to create a make-shift supply drive for hurricane relief for the U.S. territory. With the blessing of the Athletic Association, the team made Mewborn Field a drop-off site for goods from fans or simply people wanting to help out.

Morales made it clear she preferred fans show their commitment by donating material goods after talking with Edwin Mercado, her coach with the Puerto Rican Softball Federation.

“He was very clear about what people needed,” she said. “To me, it’s easy to write a check. It takes a lot more time for you to go to the store and buy some water and have to drop it off or bring canned goods or bring diapers, whatever it might be. It really gives you a way to relate to what’s going on when you’re buying this item for somebody and knowing that, ‘Wow, I’m really lucky that I have this and have access to this and other people don’t.’”

While tables were set outside of Mewborn Field, the Athletic Association and the entire campus also got on board, setting up dropoff tables all around campus, including inside the Edge Center during Georgia Tech’s Career Fair.

“The campus has done an awesome job,” said Morales. “We got hooked up with some people that we didn’t even know, just through this process. Campus had five or six different collection sites -- I think they were working more through FEMA, which is fine. Every little bit helps.

They collected a tremendous amount of items as well. Ivan Allen College was one of the donation sites. Through the Athletic Association, we’ve had tables and bins. Everybody just giving a little bit is a huge help. It’s just been great to see the support and people be willing to help out.”

“It was exciting to see a table full of goods, a table full of canned goods, diapers, water, all those things,” she added. “It was really cool to see there were multiple pallets that we sent down but to see people be willing to contribute in some capacity because every little bit does help.”

Getting supplies from the campus and directly into the hands of those that needed them

saw yet another member of the Georgia Tech softball coaching staff pitch in, as assistant coach Allison Owen, the team’s pitching coach, contacted her dad, who used his connections with Delta Air Lines to transport the nearly five pallets of materials over.

“We were able to put a couple of pallets through on Delta’s flights,” said Morales. “They have some disaster-relief protocols, which allow you to basically get your items on flights as long as you get them down there to the airport.

Another option Mariconda found was called Operation Boricua, essentially a privately funded group in which a Georgia resident flew in supplies via his fleet of private planes.

“We got the supplies to Ivan Allen College, and they put it on the second leg as far as getting those supplies out to the organization which will bring them over there and deliver them,” said Mariconda. “They actually have somebody that will be delivering them first-hand.”

Morales considered herself fortunate that her family got through the storm safely, although not unscathed.

“I was very fortunate. My dad had already spoken to my abuelas (grandparents). He had spoken to them within 24 hours. I don’t know how they had service, but they did,” she said. “But seeing the pictures, seeing your grandparents’ house, seeing it flooded, and seeing them making dinner because they made a fire in their backyard -- that was the only way they could cook food, that’s definitely a really tough thing to see.”

Then there are the irreplaceable things that are lost forever.

“Everything they have in their daily life has been altered,” she said. “It’s just very surreal to see that and know that, their everyday life has just completely been turned upside down.

Just realizing how quickly your circumstances can change without anything that you’ve necessarily done.’

“There are a lot of people that I’ve met in being associated with the Puerto Rican National Team, our coach, Coach Edwin, his family lost everything,” she added. “I mean people work their whole lives to build a home and to build a life for themselves and to have something just taken away from you that quickly, in an instant, it reminds us how lucky we are and how much we should appreciate the day-to-day.”

Georgia Tech men’s basketball appreciated the gravity of the situation and on Oct. 28, held WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

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SOFTBALL | PINCH-HITTERS EXTRAORDINAIRE

Head coach Aileen Morales (right) competed internationally for Puerto Rico from 2007-10, and assistant coach Reese Mariconda (left) competed alongside her in 2007.

a scrimmage against Georgia I choose to focus on the positive and the good that we’re doing. That’s ultimately what we can State at McCamish Pavilion, control. At the end of the day, if you focus on all with all proceeds going to the negative, you’re not going to be very happy. hurricane relief in Florida, So we’re just trying to do the best we can.”

Texas, and Puerto Rico.

They’ve pledged that their best won’t go “My parents’ place got wiped out. It was gone,” said away from the people of Puerto Rico, even once the news cycle moves on. coach Josh Pastner, whose “People are going to be interested in parents lost everything donating right now because it’s current, but in Hurricane Harvey. “For people it’s devastating. Think in six months, the need is still going to be there,” said Morales, who cited the team’s idea about it. People work their of an equipment drive for the National Team whole lives. You go to work, once bigger priorities have been taken care you work hard, you buy a home … it’s your of. “We’ve talked about this as a staff. We’ve house, it’s your sanctuary, then for it to just be definitely talked about continuing to make a wiped away, it’s a bad thing.” push throughout the academic year because, Morales was grateful to Pastner and the unfortunately, the farther you get removed from Athletic Association. any of these natural disasters the easier it is for “I think that was an awesome idea,” she said. people to kind of forget. But I do think we have “Coach Pastner has family who was affected enough ties back to Puerto Rico from family

by Harvey and I respect him using his platform to friends, to coaches, that it is very prevalent to help. It is exciting to see the Georgia Tech community ban together and help those in need.” in our minds because it’s people that are immediately being impacted.

Morales and Mariconda know there is still much “This is not a one-time event,” she added. more to be done and are not done fighting. Their “We’ll try to push it again in the spring, sleeves are rolled up and they’re ready for more. probably a couple of home games as well, “Obviously we would love to be able to go down there and help physically if we could,” said just to kind of remind people, ‘Yes, there are still people struggling.’ I have a platform Mariconda. “But since there isn’t a way to do to help. That’s what we’re going to do, at that, the next best thing is to be as involved as we could, to do what we can on our end here as least help in some capacity. It’s not about donating hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. far as making sure that the necessary supplies It’s about every person just contributing in a get to where they need to go and the people small capacity and doing a little bit to help the that are in need of them are getting helped in greater good.” any way that we would be able to help.”

Mariconda encourages people to be proactive Morales is resolute and keeping positive, in continuing to find ways to help out. despite what she sees in news reports.

“There are a ton (of places) that they would be “I know there are multiple challenges that able to reach out to,” she said. “I know that the come with disaster relief. Everybody wants woman that we worked closely with things to happen as for the second of supplies, she quickly as possible,” and her husband are heavily she said. “It is involved in the assistance frustrating sometimes problem with Puerto to see different things Rico. She actually in the media and feel works closely with like people aren’t restaurants and local being helped or organizations as far aren’t being heard as retrieving but at the end of supplies and then the day, all we transferring them. So can control is the the same operation part that we play that we went in it. Is it upsetting?

—AILEEN MORALES through.”

Sometimes, yes. But

PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE INTERESTED IN DONATING RIGHT NOW BECAUSE IT’S CURRENT, BUT IN SIX MONTHS, THE NEED IS STILL GOING TO BE THERE

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FOOTBALL

LIVING LEGACIES SONS OF YELLOW JACKET FOOTBALL GREATS CARRYING ON THE FAMILY TRADITION

BY ADAM VAN BRIMMER

T

ry as they might, Tre and Bruce Swilling can’t avoid the shadow of their father Pat’s legacy at Georgia Tech. The family name is right there, on the fascia of Bobby Dodd Stadium overlooking the playing field, among the greatest of the Georgia Tech greats.

“It’s cool, really cool, to see his name up there, but after my first game as a Yellow Jacket, I was over it,” Tre Swilling said. “We’re here to leave our own mark.”

Swilling’s sentiment echoes around Georgia Tech’s locker room, one densely populated by Tech legacies. Seven current Yellow Jackets are the offspring of former Jackets, and four of the fathers were teammates on The Flats in the first half of the 1980s.

Only three other major college programs— Clemson, Michigan and Iowa—have more

Pat Swilling (center) was an All-American in the mid-1980s for the Yellow Jackets’ famed Black Watch defense. His sons Tre (left) and Bruce (right) are freshmen for the Jackets this season.

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legacy players on their rosters.

At Georgia Tech, the influx of familiar names, like Swilling, Roof, Cooksey, Henderson, Ivemeyer and Smith, has some alumni and longtime fans harkening back to bygone days.

Pat Swilling and Ted Roof, whose son T.D. is currently a freshman linebacker, were the backbone of the Yellow Jackets’ famed Black Watch defense. The Black Watch also included defensive lineman Kevin Henderson, whose son, Kyle, is playing the same position for today’s Jackets.

Other legacies include linebacker Tyler Cooksey, whose father, Tom, was a Yellow Jacket nose guard in the late-1970s and played a year in the NFL, offensive lineman Bailey Ivemeyer, whose dad, John, blocked for coach Bill Curry’s teams in the early-1980s, and

AT GEORGIA TECH, THE INFLUX OF FAMILIAR NAMES, LIKE SWILLING, ROOF, COOKSEY, HENDERSON, IVEMEYER AND SMITH, HAS SOME ALUMNI AND LONGTIME FANS HARKENING BACK TO BYGONE DAYS.

Ted Roof (93) was Swilling’s teammate on the Black Watch defense. His son, T.D., is playing as a freshman for the Jackets this season.

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FOOTBALL | LIVING LEGACIES

Tom Cooksey was a linebacker under Pepper Rodgers in the 1970s, and son Tyler is a sophomore linebacker.

offensive lineman Trey Smith, whose father, Dan, was a kicker in the mid-1970s.

Beyond nostalgia, the ties to the past are just that … in the past, at least within today’s team.

“It resonates more with the fans than it does in the locker room,” head coach Paul Johnson said. “None of our guys remember seeing their fathers or their teammates play, at least not here at Georgia Tech. That said, I’m sure it means a lot personally to the sons of former Yellow Jackets to be able to carry on the tradition and play where dad played.”

PRESSURE-FREE ZONE Callaway Plaza, located outside Bobby Dodd Stadium’s north grandstands, is the traditional postgame gathering place for players’ families.

The locker room and players’ lounge is located underneath those stands, and the Yellow Jackets spill out into that plaza as they exit the facility.

Inevitably, Bailey Ivemeyer will find his father, John, talking to former teammates Pat Swilling and Kevin Henderson.

“It’s fun to come out and see them talking and reminiscing,” Ivemeyer said. “And the best part is, none of them put any pressure on their sons to live up to their accomplishments.”

As Tre Swilling said, each of the sons came to Georgia Tech to make their own name, not bask in the familiarity that

EACH OF THE SONS CAME TO GEORGIA TECH TO MAKE THEIR OWN NAME, NOT BASK IN THE FAMILIARITY THAT COMES WITH BEING A LEGACY PLAYER.

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comes with being a legacy player. All looked hard at other schools, and most claim the family connection had little to do with their ultimate decision to attend Georgia Tech.

The fathers insist they didn’t push their sons to join the Yellow Jackets. Even Ted Roof, the Yellow Jackets’ current defensive coordinator, stayed at an arm’s length during his son T.D.’s recruitment decision making.

“He only has one chance to do this; this is his experience,” Ted Roof said. “It has nothing to do with me.”

The familiarity of the family name at Georgia Tech now drives T.D. He inherited his father’s competitive streak—as a boy, he adopted the Georgia Bulldogs as his favorite team for a brief period to create rivalry in the household—and sees the next four years as his chance to oneup dad.

“I’m not going to pressure myself to be as good as he was but I am going to push to be as good as I can be,” T.D. Roof said. “At the end of my career, we’ll sit down and compare.”

‘BLEEDING GOLD’ For the Yellow Jacket legacies, dad may have resisted the urge to push Georgia Tech on his son, but there were other subtle influences.

Take the gold-and-white memorabilia scattered around the houses and the Techbranded apparel in the boys’ closets. Or the many visits to Bobby Dodd Stadium—many admit the family has had season tickets for decades—to watch games.

“I’ve followed Georgia Tech for as long as I can remember,” Tre Swilling said. “Some of my best memories as a kid were around coming to games seeing Calvin Johnson and being around all the players afterwards and all my dad’s teammates during the game. If a Georgia Tech guy was playing in the NFL or in the NBA and the game was on TV, we sat down and watched it.”

Georgia Tech alums do bleed gold, and resistance on the part of their offspring can be futile. Tyler Cooksey was dead-set against attending Tech because his father played there.

He was ready to commit to North Carolina until a “courtesy recruiting visit” changed his mind.

He felt “at home” with the program.

“Now, I love when people talk to me about my dad as a player,” Cooksey said. “I guess he had a mean streak and was an animal, fighting guys in practice even. I don’t do that, but it’s

cool to be part of the tradition.”

The legacies often times catch themselves thinking about the father-son connection. They do play in the same stadium as their dads and even walk the same path to the same practice fields as their fathers.

They also faced the same challenges, on the field and in the classroom.

“Hearing my son talk about the locker room and practice and classes brings it all back for me,” John Ivemeyer said. “While things change, much of it is still the same. Like the workouts, you hear them complain, and you say to yourself, ‘I know someone else who used to talk about that.’”

Being the sons of former Tech players has created a unique bond between them.

Roof and the Swillings are roommates. Roof, Jordan-Swilling and Cooksey have a natural connection as linebackers, as do Ivemeyer and Smith as offensive linemen.

“Having so many legacies here together is special because it’s something we have in common and it connects us,” T.D. Roof said.

“It’s not easy playing where your dad played, and each of us understands that.

“The fact that so many of us are here together and can make history together much like our fathers did is a great thing.”

John Ivemeyer was a key member of the offensive line at the same time Roof and Swilling played. His son Bailey is a sophomore this year.

WWW.RAMBLINWRECK.COM

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL’S MOST COVETED COACHING AWARD

Scholarship, Leadership & Integrity Named for legendary Georgia Tech® coach Bobby Dodd, The Dodd Trophy was established in 1976 to honor the FBS football coach whose program represents three pillars of success: Scholarship, Leadership and Integrity. The award honors the coach of a team with a successful season on the field and equally as important, stresses the importance of academic excellence and desire to give back to the community.

“No one else in the country could coach like Dodd.”

– PAUL “BEAR” BRYANT

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CELEBRATING OUR GOLDEN SEASON This year, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl celebrates its Golden Season – our history, traditions, and successes as the nation’s 9th-oldest bowl organization. The Bowl has come a long way over the last 50 years, and we’re proud that the journey started in 1968 with our very first game here at Georgia Tech®, and has led us to become one of the top Bowl games in the country.

On Jan. 1, 2018, the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will play its 50th Anniversary game in Atlanta’s new, state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and will feature an elite matchup of two of the country’s top ranked teams.

Visit CFAPB.com and join the celebration!

ALEXANDER-THARPE FUND

CREATING A PATH FOR OTHERS ROBBINS FAMILY LOVE AFFAIR WITH GEORGIA TECH STARTED OUT WITH AN ROTC SCHOLARSHIP AND A BASEBALL TRYOUT

BY SIMIT SHAH

Growing up in Ohio, Rick Robbins wanted to go to college, maybe a prestigious institute like Georgia Tech, but his family could not afford it.

“Thankfully, there was a counselor at my school who took an interest in me and introduced me to the Marines,” he explained.

An ROTC scholarship was attainable, so Georgia Tech entered the picture.

“At that time, it was a free application,” Robbins remembered. “Being perfectly honest, that didn’t hurt.”

Upon arriving in Atlanta in 1976 as a chemical engineering major, Robbins decided to the try out for the baseball team, coached by Jim Luck.

“Literally, they had freshmen tryouts.

There had to be at least 100 kids out there trying to make the JV team. Three of us got asked to stay on to practice with the varsity, and I was the only one to make the team. I was 18 and cocky, so I expected to make the team,” he laughed. “I didn’t know any better.”

As he acclimated to college life, Robbins realized that ROTC might not be the right path for him, even though it was helping to pay for school. What happened next was a pivotal moment – Coach Luck connected him with financial aid, and Robbins was able to continue going to school and play baseball while working summer jobs.

“That was a lot of help to a kid like me, it literally changed my life,” he said.

“Years later, as I read about scholarships in various publications, it struck me that I could help a kid down the road who just needs a start.”

In 1998, the Robbins Family Baseball Scholarship was established.

Another defining moment for Robbins during his time at Georgia Tech came at a fraternity-sorority mixer during his sophomore year. He met Cindy, who

was a second generation Yellow Jacket (with two younger siblings who would later attend Tech as well).

Rick and Cindy later married, and two of their three children attended Georgia Tech.

After their oldest daughter went to the University of Texas, Stephanie enrolled at Georgia Tech as a member of the volleyball team, joining as a walk-on.

She eventually earned a scholarship as a senior and also served as president of the Ramblin’ Reck Club.

She also has the distinction of being featured in the 2008 official Institute annual public service announcement commercial that airs during televised sporting events.

Her father recalled a family photo at a volleyball game when the kids where young.

“They couldn’t have been more than 10 or 12 years old in that photo at a game, and now Steph is out there playing on the court. As a father, it was really a ‘pinch me’ kind of moment.”

Their son Brian would also attend Georgia Tech, where he was a member

of the swim team. Brian continues to be involved in the swimming and diving alumni activities.

“Seeing two of our three kids wearing white and gold, competing for Georgia Tech, and then graduating was surreal.”

Following in their family footsteps, Stephanie and Brian each endowed their own scholarships in recent years with the Garfrerick Family Volleyball Scholarship and Robbins Family Swimming Scholarship.

“It’s something I was always passionate about, especially after earning a scholarship my senior year,” said Stephanie. “I’ll never forget Bond (Shymansky) telling my parents and me.

I made the decision about five years later to save to start a scholarship.”

The gesture fills Rick Robbins, the first in his family to attend college, with pride.

“It was pretty awesome, as you can imagine. They haven’t been spoiled.

They are not independently wealthy. I’m so impressed that they are thinking about this in their 20s. It’s just incredible.”

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RUSS CHANDLER STADIUM RENOVATION - PHASE II THE VISION THE IMPACT THE CHALLENGE Phase II renovations for Russ Chandler Stadium are driven by our vision for Georgia Tech baseball: to enhance player development, to improve the fan experience, and to celebrate Tech’s rich baseball history.

The concourse level will feature an atrium that also functions as a Georgia Tech Baseball Hall of Fame.

It will be the first thing fans see when they enter the stadium — an iconic point of entry —intended to serve as both a welcome and a celebration.

The atrium is also designed to convert into a 40-seat teaching auditorium on non-game days.

Other features in the planned upgrade include a new outdoor plaza; a new high-tech scoreboard; all-new, expanded restroom facilities and concessions (including a premium club area); a new alumni locker room; and an expanded training facility that will be open year-round for Tech players, and available to alumni/Major League Baseball players during the offseason.

To greatly enhance player development functions within the stadium, Phase II renovations also include a training center, three 20-foot-wide batting cages, two 10-foot-wide pitching tunnels, and a video analysis room. The batting cages and pitching tunnels will be divided by retractable netting with turf flooring and a raised pitching mound.

Each of these improvements and innovations will culminate in a huge step forward for Georgia Tech baseball.

Phase II renovations to the Russ Chandler Stadium will create a new, significantly enhanced fan experience.

It will serve as a boon to recruiting the best, most academically qualified baseball players from around the nation. And it will give Tech baseball alumni a place where they can connect, practice, and work out with coaches, other alumni, and current players.

Yellow Jackets baseball holds a special place in Georgia Tech history. This facility will take that to a new level for future generations of players, alumni, and fans. And it will forever be tied to the transformative philanthropy and unwavering support of our many generous alumni and friends.

Each of these improvements and innovations will culminate in a huge step forward for Georgia Tech baseball. Phase II renovations to the Russ Chandler Stadium will create a new, significantly enhanced fan experience. It will serve as a boon to recruiting the best, most academically qualified baseball players from around the nation. And it will give Tech baseball alumni a place where they can connect, practice, and work out with coaches, other alumni, and current players.

Yellow Jackets baseball holds a special place in Georgia Tech history. This facility will take that to a new level for future generations of players, alumni, and fans. And it will forever be tied to the transformative philanthropy and unwavering support of our many generous alumni and friends.

For more information about supporting the renovation of Russ Chandler Stadium, Phase II, contact Jim Hall in the Alexander-Tharpe Fund at (404) 894-5414.

SHOW US YOUR FLAG! SWARM WEEK IS BACK! November 20-25, 2017

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HAPPY HOUR equals HALF PRICED APPETIZERS Monday thru Friday from 4pm - 6pm and Late Night from 10pm - Close

THE PAUL JOHNSON RADIO SHOW Mondays 7-8 PM live at Three Dollar Café in West Midtown.

Come be a part of the live audience and enjoy great food and drink.

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COMPLIANCE CORNER

BY LANCE MARKOS, ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR COMPLIANCE

EXPLAINING NEW NCAA TIME DEMANDS LEGISLATION On August 1, 2017, new NCAA rules went in to place in an attempt to provide a better balance for student-athletes between their obligations as a student and as an athlete. Specifically, new legislation dictating the provision of additional days off, a day off that is more truly off than previously required, and notification of schedules in advance so that students may plan other activities went in to effect.

Each sport is now required to provide LANCE MARKOS additional days off during the academic year or during their playing season in ASSISTANT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR FOR COMPLIANCE addition to the already mandatory “weekly day off” that has long been required.

Specifically, each sport must find 14 additional days off that they hadn’t previously provided to each student-athlete. In addition, following the end of each sport’s season, the student-athletes will be provided seven consecutive days off before they are able to resume any athletically-related activities.

In addition to the extra days off that now must be provided to each student, there are new restrictions to what activities may actually be required to occur on a day off. Previously, only countable activities (i.e. practice, competition, lifting) were not permitted on a required day off.

Now, almost all required activities are prohibited on a required day off. For instance, a team that traveled to an away game under the previous rules would have been able to count that as their day off provided no countable activity occurred.

Now, a day off may no longer include team travel.

In addition to team travel, other activities such as serving as a host during a recruiting visit, media and fundraising activities, and yes, even compliance meetings are no longer permitted to occur during a student-athlete’s day off. Only in very limited instances, primarily devoted to sports medicine or academics, may a student-athlete now be required to participate in any activity related to their sport on their day off.

Shoshanna Engel Associate Director of Athletics for Compliance sengel@athletics.gatech.edu (404)894-8792

Lance Markos Assistant Director of Athletics for Compliance lmarkos@athletics.gatech.edu (404) 894-5507

Compliance Office Phone Number: (404) 894-5055

The final component that went in to place was the requirement that student-athletes receive their schedules in a timely manner.

This will permit student-athletes to better plan their schedules outside of their sport’s requirements and give them a measure of certainty when doing so. With the challenge of balancing their sport, their academics, and their social lives, providing the students with a schedule to plan their time out was a foundational piece of the new legislation.

This package of new legislation is the result of a long-term effort to better balance the demands that are placed on our studentathletes. As with all new legislation, there is a period of adjustment for everyone involved and will likely result in future enhancements going forward as additional adjustments are considered for implementation.

As always, if you have questions about any compliance-related matter please do not hesitate to contact a member of the compliance office staff.

Bret Cowley Director of Compliance bcowley@athletics.gtaa.edu (404)385-0611

Shardonay Blueford Associate Director of Compliance sblueford@athletics.gatech.edu (404)894-0416

Christina Chow Compliance Assistant cchow@athletics.gatech.edu

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