I get a lot of questions about Travis Gantt, Julius Delbridge and Damien Ward - two who were All-Conference players in 2007 - but ineligible in 2008. The kids have finished Summer 1 work and paired with the work they did in the spring we anticipate them being in good standing for the fall. All are in good standing with school but they have to establish GPA standards that the department requires them to have to participate in sports.
The team had a great spring academically overall. Team GPA was 2.77 and we had 34 kids with better than a 3.0 GPA. We reduced student athletes with less than 2.0 to 12. That improves the mean score, too. Kids should be proud of that effort and a lot credit goes to Coach Healey in academic support. He goes the extra mile with these kids in some of the difficult classes.
The staff has been finalized for the fall of 2009 also. Eight of last year’s staff will return in the same capacity. In some of my restricted positions it is our gain that Adam Martiny, Troy Shaffer, and recently Ben Taylor are committed to return in ‘09. We get high value and experience in positions that most people have to fill with young guys that sometimes you have to spend a lot of time teaching. Tyler Corvin, who recently finished his Masters at Virginia Tech, will join us as an offensive assistant. He will fill the role Graduate Assistants fill at the Division I level and take the lead in a lot of the off the field and computer type work that is done to support the program. He will help on the offensive side of the ball and has special teams background which we plan on using.
As coaches we spend the summer doing the behind the scenes work to prepare for August camp. We had our final freshmen orientation on Friday and the admissions and financial aid people have done a great job in securing a 500+ freshmen class with elevated standards. More people want to come than are beds available but in recruiting we are always on the lookout for the late gem that might be out there. Our numbers are good, and retention is high from the spring, but I am going to withhold judgment until we find out how many “players” are on the team versus “members.” There is an important difference in this respect.
Go BC,
Coach Clark
