A Message from Samford's Deputy Director of Athletics for Development and Corporate Affairs, Bo Kerr
Dear Bulldog Club supporters,
Greetings from my home office. I pray that each of you are doing well and making the best of these challenging times. Although our student-athletes, coaches and support staff may not be on campus, they are still hard at work. Online classes are ongoing as our student-athletes are working hard to finish the semester and in many cases complete their degrees. Our coaches are busy providing support, recruiting and managing potential rosters for next fall while our support staff continues to run our department remotely. You likely have seen where the NCAA has granted this year’s spring sport student-athletes with an additional year of eligibility, giving them another opportunity to return for another year of competition. As you can imagine, this will present several challenges as it relates to managing our rosters and budgets moving forward.
From a budgetary standpoint, we are looking for ways to try to offset lost revenue from the NCAA, ticket sales, facility rentals and other annual revenue streams. In doing so, we have put very strict guidelines in place to control spending for the remainder of the fiscal year. We are also looking at creative ways to reduce budgets for next year while maintaining our commitment to provide a student-athlete experience that is second to none in the Southern Conference.
Now more than ever, we must be good stewards of our resources to meet the needs of our student-athletes. The need and gratitude for your support is greater than ever before! I am proud to serve at Samford and I am proud of the team of fundraising professionals that I have the privilege to work alongside each day. Aaron Greenwood, Doug Kovash, Kasey Bodine and Maggie Rountree work tirelessly on behalf of our student-athletes, and I cannot recognize them enough for the great work they do day in and day out.
While a lot has changed in the past month, what has not changed is our commitment to meeting the needs of our student-athletes. Because many of you have asked how you can help Samford and in response to those questions, Samford has launched the Forever Samford – Meeting Student Needs Campaign, an effort focused especially on meeting our students’ needs. If you would like to support these efforts, you can make a gift online by clicking here. To designate your gift to the Bulldog Club or a specific team, just choose “other” for your designation and tell us where you would like to direct your gift (ie. Bulldog Club, Women’s Basketball, etc.). In addition, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor the first $100,000 given to the campaign will be matched.
As I reflect on this academic year, I am amazed at the accomplishments of our student-athletes, including 8 SoCon Championships in our fall and winter sports! I am convinced that given the opportunity to complete our spring seasons it would have been a record-breaking year for Samford Athletics. While the athletic competitions have been suspended for the year, what has not stopped is our work academically. Our academic support staff led by Paige Mathis is hard at work and I am confident our student-athletes will once again finish the semester with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better. REMARKABLE!
Looking ahead to the fall, we can only hope that our beautiful campus will return to normal operations. We all look forward to welcoming students back to campus, football season and our other fall sports. Finally, I would also be remiss if I did not mention basketball. Our women’s basketball team is coming off SoCon regular season and tournament titles, and the future of that program is extremely bright under Coach Kuhns. On the men’s side, new Head Coach Bucky McMillan is already hard at work assembling an outstanding staff and recruiting talented players who understand what it means to be a Samford Bulldog. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Coach McMillan for a long time and I know you will all be proud of the product he is going to produce on and off the court.
In closing, I want to say thank you. Your annual gift to the Bulldog Club is the lifeblood of our 17 men’s and women’s teams. Many of the accomplishments of our student-athletes would simply not be possible without your support. I want you to know the impact you are making and how much we appreciate your continued giving. May God bless you during these uncertain times. In the words of Ralph Abernathy, “We may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future!”
Go Dogs!
Bo
