First, congratulations to our women’s track & field team for capturing their fourth straight ACC Indoor Championship. The seniors have created a winning culture on and off the track, and we could not be more proud of them for the way they represented Clemson this weekend. Congratulations as well to Interim Director of Track & Field Shawn Cobey and his entire staff for an outstanding performance.
Our student-athletes are the most valuable assets within our organization. With that in mind, I invited all of our student-athletes to come in for a question-and-answer “town hall” meeting on Monday of last week. The concept is something I have done at previous institutions, where student-athletes ask questions of the administration to see if we can better assist their day-to-day lives.
Through the help of Student-Athlete Advisory Committee leader Ginty Porter, the student-athletes produced a number of questions. The questions were then given to our senior staff, and we formulated answers. We had an excellent turnout of over 100 student-athletes who displayed great energy during our hour-long dialogue! We discussed a number of important issues and wanted to reassure them that, like their respective coaches, administration cares deeply for their needs.
I look forward to continuing dialogue and interaction with our student-athletes. Two of them, football’s Tajh Boyd and volleyball’s Alexa Rand, were guest speakers at the IPTAY National Meeting on Saturday, Feb. 16. Both were phenomenal, and part of a very successful event that was held in Clemson for the first time.
We had about 700 IPTAY members in attendance at what turned out to be an entertaining evening. Brad Brownell, Nancy Harris and Dabo Swinney spoke on behalf of their respective programs, and did a great job. The event provided an opportunity to see the wonderful folks who give of their time and volunteer within IPTAY to raise funds for our student-athletes. It was also an opportunity for us to thank the leadership within IPTAY’s Board of Directors, from current President Charles Dalton to President-Elect Fred Faircloth. IPTAY makes Clemson Athletics incredibly unique, and we celebrated that fact on Feb. 16.
As we progress toward the end of the fiscal year, we hope to have pieces in place in a number of different areas. We are still studying the department across the board – from facilities to staff to organizational direction. We are not only searching for a chief executive officer of IPTAY – a newly created position – but we also must find replacements for Katie Hill in the business office and Rebecca Bowman in academic services. These are all key administrative positions, and we are going to conduct due diligence to find the right fit. The process never stops to allow you time to put it all together, but that is the challenge we look forward to facing.
We want to thank both Becky and Katie for years of loyal and outstanding service to Clemson Athletics. Both are caring individuals who will be missed tremendously, but we certainly wish them nothing but the best in their future endeavors.
Go Tigers!Dan Radakovich
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