Notes On A Scorecard
11/6/2013 12:00:00 AM | General
Nov. 6, 2013
DISTINGUISHED GUESTS
It's always great to have our Board of Trustees on campus. We very much appreciate their support and look forward to our upcoming meetings this week.
SEEKING YOUR INPUT
We want to thank all of our ticket purchasers who recently completed the survey on the game-day experience when attending a TCU football game. We're always striving to find ways to improve our fan experience. As we've mentioned previously, we engaged with the Disney Institute over the summer in a year-long training program on ways to better serve you. When it comes to customer service, no one does it better than Disney. We appreciate your time and effort in completing the survey.
PACKING THEM IN
Congratulations to our soccer program and marketing staff on TCU leading the Big 12 in attendance for a second straight season! We averaged 1,301 fans per home match, 325 more than the next-closest school. Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium was truly the place to be when head coach Eric Bell and his squad took the field. We wish them the very best tonight as they face Texas Tech in a first-round game at the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City.
LOOKING AHEAD
In case you missed the news from yesterday, our 2014 football schedule has been announced. The seven home games are the most we've had since 1930. When including road dates at Baylor, Texas and SMU, 10 of our 12 games will be played in state. That includes Thanksgiving (Nov. 27) versus the Longhorns in Austin. Please see the following link for our complete schedule: Click Here
MEN'S GOLF REUNION
Current PGA Tour member J.J. Henry, 1972 Masters champion Charles Coody, TCU head coach Bill Montigel and our Lettermen's Association hosted the inaugural TCU Men's Golf Reunion last weekend. More than 65 Horned Frogs celebrated with a dinner at Joe T. Garcia's on Friday. The group then gathered at both J.J.'s famous game-day tailgate and the Lettermen's Tailgate prior to watching the football game versus West Virginia.
STRONG SHOWINGS
As you might know, the winners of the Horned Frog Classic advance each year to play in the Acura College Alumni National Championship. We're proud to report our TCU team (pictured below, left to right) of Tom Hervey, Justin Davidson, Jeff Goodsell and Brandon Immel finished second in the nation last weekend at Pinehurst in North Carolina. Their two-day score of 245 was 43 under par. Congratulations gentlemen!
If you haven't played in the Horned Frog Classic at Colonial, be sure to join in the fun next October. This year's 35th-annual Horned Frog Classic raised $245,000 in scholarship support for our men's and women's golf programs.
ON THE DOCKET
Nine of our 20 sports will be in action this week, including the opening of our men's and women's basketball seasons. As mentioned earlier, soccer begins Big 12 Championship play tonight at 8 versus Texas Tech in Kansas City. Also this evening, volleyball is at Prairie View A&M before returning to the Rec Center on Saturday for a 1 p.m. match with Baylor. Men's basketball begins its second year under head coach Trent Johnson when it faces SMU on Friday night at 6:30 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. If you're headed to Ames for Saturday's football game, make sure to support our women's swimming and diving program as it competes Friday evening at Iowa State. Men's swimming and diving will be at the Texas Shootout in San Antonio on Saturday. Women's basketball has its season opener Saturday at 7 p.m. versus Louisiana-Monroe in the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, while rifle hosts Alaska. Equestrian is in Las Cruces this weekend for a pair of competitions against South Dakota State and host New Mexico State. Women's tennis will be in action in Rolling Hills, Calif., at the Jack Kramer Invitational.
BIG 12 CORNER
Based on this week's BCS Standings, no league has more top 25 conference matchups over the remaining weeks of the season than the Big 12 with four. Forty percent of the teams in the Big 12 are ranked in the current BCS Standings. Only one other league has a higher percentage. A team in the Big 12 doesn't contend for the conference title because of the teams not on its conference schedule. Everyone plays everyone! Fifty percent of Big 12 teams are bowl eligible. No other league has a higher percentage.
MEET THE STAFF
Ryan Higginbotham is in his second season as an assistant coach with our women's soccer program. He serves as the top recruiting assistant as well as coaching the field players. Ryan is used to wearing purple. A graduate of Furman, he was a standout player and later an assistant coach at his alma mater which also dons purple as its primary color. Ryan is a Dallas native who came to us after serving as the director of coaching for the girls division at the Dallas Texans Soccer Club. He helped lead the Texans to four national championships. Ryan and his wife, Julie, have a son, Brayden.
SPANNING THE GLOBE
If you have some images of you or family and friends flashing the Horned Frogs hand sign or wearing TCU apparel from all points worldwide, please send them my way (delconte@tcu.edu) for us to share.
NAME THE MOVIE QUOTE
Last Week's Answer: Napoleon Dynamite, when asked what he did over the summer, said, "I told you! I spent it with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines!"
This Week's Quote: "When you buy a hat like this, I bet you get a free bowl of soup, huh?"
COMPLIANCE CORNER
The soccer coaches at Ocean State University (OSU) would like to go watch a first-round game in the NCAA soccer tournament. An institution in the area is hosting a team that OSU will be playing this spring during the non-championship segment.
Is it permissible for the OSU coaches to attend the NCAA tournament game since they will be playing one of the teams in the spring?
Yes. NCAA Staff Interpretation - 8/13/13 - Scouting Restrictions not Applicable to NCAA Championships (I) - states that the off-campus, in-person scouting prohibition does not preclude an institution's coaching staff from attending an NCAA championship contest in which a future opponent participates (e.g., an opponent on the institution's non-championship segment schedule participates in a fall NCAA championship).
KEEP IN TOUCH
Please let us know if you ever have any questions or concerns regarding our program. This is also your program and we value your feedback. We welcome all calls and emails.
Go Frogs!
Christopher M. Del Conte
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics
