| | We hope you are enjoying this gorgeous time of the year. This is always a special time around college athletics as our fall sports are in full swing and basketball is on the horizon. We hope you find the information below about your UNLV Intercollegiate Athletics department useful...
Academic Goals - UNLV Athletics
This past summer, our senior administrative team went through exercises of identifying goals for UNLV Athletics. Over the next few months in these updates, we will share these goals with you. Today we start with our Academic Goals:
- Student-athletes shall demonstrate academic performance at a higher standard than that of the general student population with regards to six-year graduation rate and overall GPA.
- Student-athletes who remain at the University after exhaustion of their competitive eligibility shall graduate at a rate greater than 90%. (It was 79% for 2009-10.)
- A minimum of 12 teams (out of 17) will achieve a team semester GPA of 3.0 or higher each semester. (For Spring 2010, we had 10.)
- 50 percent of all student-athletes will achieve a semester GPA of 3.0 or higher. (Just over 50% achieved this for Spring 2010.)
- Each sport shall demonstrate solid evidence of academic performance, student retention and timely graduation through achievement of a multiyear APR score of 940. (Through the 2008-09 academic year, 13 teams had achieved a multiyear APR score of 940 or higher.)
My Thoughts On Rebel Football
A lot of people - and rightfully so - have asked me about my feelings on our football team's performance to this point. It's probably fair to say I have never been accused of being a pessimist. That said, while I try to live my life being an optimist, my job also calls for me to be a realist ... Entering this season, we knew new head coach Bobby Hauck and his staff were going to face a tremendous challenge in their first year at UNLV. We knew the schedule was tough, but it's fair to stay no one expected it to be this tough. As of this past Sunday, four of the five teams that have beaten us are in the AP Top 25. Plain and simple, that's nearly an impossible task for any first-year coach trying to build a program.
And the challenges this season are not done. Two of our three remaining home games are against teams currently in the Top 25 - No. 4 TCU (Oct. 30) and No. 23 Air Force (Nov. 18). That said, we're still excited about the possibilities that lie ahead with our remaining seven games this season. We are currently 1-1 in Mountain West Conference play and will face six straight conference opponents. Although our team is a little banged up and very young, there is a sense of anticipation about being able to measure ourselves against league opponents over the next month and a half and work to pick up some victories.
No one is content with being 1-5 - particularly the coaches. Coach Hauck is a proven winner. He runs his program with discipline, integrity and an amazing work ethic. That is a winning combination in any industry and we are confident it will be here. He inherited a challenge when he arrived at UNLV. He took over a program that has enjoyed just one winning season in the past 15 years and he is laying the foundation for future success. Right now that is not equating to results as measured by wins. But with 43 freshmen on the roster and small improvements being seen daily, the future is bright for this program.
All we ask of you is to stay loyal and stay positive. Turning this program around is a great challenge for all involved. But it will be that much sweeter for all of us when our football program is competing for bowl appearances annually under Coach Hauck. And I have no doubt in my mind that will be in the future for UNLV.
Runnin' Rebel FirstLook this Friday night
We hope to see you out at the Thomas & Mack Center this Friday night at 7 p.m. for FirstLook 2010, the first official practice event for our men's basketball team. The event is free. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. ... The best seats available to purchase as season tickets will be marked and we will have ticketing and Rebel Athletic Fund representatives available for questions and to help you purchase season tickets on-site ... Coach Lon Kruger's team returns all five starters from last season's NCAA Tournament appearance and we're looking forward to another season as the Runnin' Rebels have established themselves once again as one of the top programs in the West ... And make sure to add Saturday, Oct. 30 to your calendar at 11 a.m. for our Lady Rebels' Rise-N-Shine practice event.
Men's basketball season tickets - Rebel Athletic Fund
Did you know that GREAT men's basketball seats are available in all sections of the arena to purchase as season tickets? Call the Rebel Athletic Fund and reserve your season tickets today and support Runnin' Rebel Basketball. "Get Your Reb On!" Call the Rebel Athletic Fund today at (702) 895-1533 for more information on the best available season tickets.
Rebel Golf Recognition
Watching the recent PGA FedEx Cup race should make Rebel fans proud of coach Dwaine Knight's amazing men's golf program at UNLV. UNLV is the only school in the nation to have three alums finish in the top 21 of the 2010 FedEx Cup (Charley Hoffman, Adam Scott and Ryan Moore). In fact, UNLV has seven former players currently on the PGA Tour - Chad Campbell, Skip Kendall, Bill Lunde and Chris Riley join Hoffman, Scott and Moore ... In his 24th season as coach, Knight has led the team to an NCAA-record (tie) 22 consecutive NCAA Regional appearances and 17 NCAA Championship finals appearances with 11 top-15 finishes (including a national title). He has also produced 39 All-Americans.
Rebel Ranch at Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
Speaking of golf, be sure to join us sometime next week (Oct. 20-24) at Rebel Ranch at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open PGA event at TPC Summerlin ... Wednesday through Sunday will feature special programming in the Rebel Ranch tent including UNLV men's golf (Wednesday), UNLV's men's soccer (Thursday), UNLV students (Friday), UNLV Alumni Association (Saturday) and the Rebel Coaches (Sunday). Click here for more information.
Meet Julio Freire - Sr. Associate Athletics Director of Development
Julio Freire joined us in July as the new leader of the Rebel Athletic Fund (RAF) overseeing our department's development efforts. I've had the pleasure of knowing Julio for the past 13 years, including working with him for three years at the University of Arizona where he did amazing things with the development team ... As a former middle school principal, Julio (who was a student-athlete at Arizona State University) is dedicated to enhancing the educational experience for our UNLV student-athletes. As you may have heard him say already (he has been all over town in just three months), "we want our student-athletes to graduate with diplomas in one hand and championships in the other." Julio possesses two master's degrees (counseling and education administration) and he and his wife, Cherie, have a son, Christopher (8), and a daughter, Gabriella (6) ... Julio has done a great job building the RAF with some new faces as well as some people UNLV fans have worked with for years. Former Notre Dame student-athlete Jay Vickers joins the staff (also from Arizona) as associate athletics director and works with three familiar faces as development officers - Emily Eskin (a former UNLV women's soccer player), Brian Finn and Gary Plumlee (a former New Mexico student-athlete). The team also includes Karen Lee and former UNLV softball player Kendall Fearn, who play crucial roles in servicing our donors. Erin Andrews has recently joined the team as an intern.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about UNLV Athletics. We look forward to seeing you soon. Go Rebels ... And Get Your Reb On!!!
Sincerely,
Jim Livengood
Director of Athletics
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