We have completed our athletic seasons. You have read all the game recaps on NewberryWolves.com, or perhaps you heard Jimmie Coggins on WKDK updating our listeners to everything happening with Newberry College athletics.

All of us have endured a very challenging time that Covid-19 delivered. It was, and still is, a real game changer for everyone. We moved our fall sports to the spring. Our student-athletes and coaches had to follow protocols set by the NCAA and the South Atlantic Conference and by Newberry College. We tested our athletes nearly 6,000 times for Covid-19. We had some bumps along the way, but I am incredibly proud that all our teams competed this year. We were blessed to have Tiffany Herrin and her Sodexo team provide meals for our student-athletes round the clock. We also need to give a major thank you to Dean of Students Dr. Sandra Rouse, and all of her team for their help with the execution of all of our policies and procedures for dealing with Covid-19.  We thank our faculty and our President's Council for their constant support and guidance. We also thank AJ Rusnak and our Aramark team for their hard work with our facilities and grounds.

We have a group of people that you do not read about or hear about that we need to thank and appreciate. I am very proud of our athletic support staff team that handles all our game operations. Let us start with Associate Athletic Director Wayne Alexander, and his game operations assistant Alexis Carrillo. These two make sure each game venue is prepared and ready. They attended every athletic event we hosted – and were there early and late. Their work ethic is amazing and appreciated.

We also need to thank Director of Athletic Communications Thomas Holland, and his three interns: Tim LaDuca, Stevie Larson, and Brendan Shriver. We cannot host an athletic event without this crew. They keep statistics and write recaps of every contest, home or away. They handle all of our social media posts and arrive early and stay late six or seven days a week.

Now, let us thank our Strength and Conditioning staff, led by Head Strength Coach Tony Bixler and Assistant Deon Edwards. What a phenomenal job these two have done, along with help from interns Rebecca Reeves, Alex Wheet, and Daphne Heyaime.

Who is the group that works crazy hours to make sure our student-athletes are taken care of with the prevention and treatment of injuries? Our Sports Medicine team deserves much credit for enduring 5:30am practices and evening practices ending at 9pm. That means our sports medicine team was here before, during, and after each practice. Head Trainer Greg McMillen, and Associate Trainers Neil Ehlers, Derek Knight, Sarah Lyon, Breanna Malbranche, and interns Breanna Allen, Brianna Bernet, Chris Buck, Marcus Hong, and Jimmy Wilson came through for our student-athletes and coaches. Their role is critically important, and they took care of our 700 student-athletes.

Other important people that we need to appreciate are our compliance officers – Wayne Alexander, Casey Petrusic and Liz Doherty. They make sure our student-athletes and coaches are in in compliance with NCAA and South Atlantic Conference legislation. Casey also serves as our Senior Woman Administrator.

We also need to thank Sharon Bryant. She has done a great job with our Athletic Club and serves as our ticket manager.

My last thank you goes to my Executive Assistant, Kitty Odom. She works hard every day to help me and to help our student-athletes and coaches.

Obviously, I love when our fans stand up and cheer on our Newberry teams. But right now, I want to give a standing ovation to all our support staff that works hard to give our student-athletes the best student experience that we can deliver.

Thank you to our support staff for a job well done!