September 2014Welcome to the first edition of the Reddies Report from my desk in the Duke Wells Center! In this space, I will attempt to keep you updated on a monthly basis on what’s happening in Henderson State Athletics. It is such an exciting time on campus as the students are back and we are just days away from the beginning of the 2014-2015 athletic season for the Reddies. This is always a fun and exciting time!
Before we look ahead to a new season, let’s briefly look back at the highlights from a very busy and productive summer in the HSU Athletic Department:
- We were able to outfit the weight room in the Formby Athletic Center with all new equipment for our 300-plus student-athletes. This shows our student-athletes we are committed to their safety and their physical development and this new equipment is a tremendous addition to our department.
- Don Dyer Court in the Duke Wells Center received a facelift this summer, including a new floor design.
- Thanks to a generous donation from HSU Alumnus Greg Clark, the Fieldhouse will soon be receiving new carpet in the offices and hallways and a new rubber flooring in the softball and baseball locker rooms.
- New signage was added to Carpenter-Haygood Stadium to showcase the great history of Reddies football. This signage includes all the conference championships and post-season appearances.
- The Reddie Hall of Honor was moved to the Donor Room at the HSU Fieldhouse, which is now the Hall of Honor Room. We are excited to have our Hall of Honor in an athletic facility and in a venue that hosts numerous athletic related events throughout the year.
- Back in August, we welcomed
Frank Keenan (
@Frank_Keenan) to the HSU Athletic Team as Assistant Athletic Director for External Affairs. Frank has hit the ground running in the important areas of corporate sponsorships, social media, student and youth booster clubs and soon he will be putting together game day scripts and promotions. Frank is a tremendous addition to our team and he is doing great things for Reddie Athletics.
- Thanks to the generosity of HSU Football Alumnus Charlie Gibbs and his challenge to his fellow football alumni, we were able to raise some significant funds through the HSU football matching gift program this summer. Charlie will be receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award at Homecoming and we are very appreciative to him and all of our Loyal Reddies who support our student-athletes and coaches through the Reddie Club.
- The Reddie football and men’s basketball programs hosted successful and enjoyable fundraiser golf tournaments in Glenwood and El Dorado, respectively. It was great to see so many Reddies supporting our teams and we made many new friends at the events as well.
- Several HSU athletic programs hosted camps and clinics for youth in the community, bringing many people to our campus. Now that our student-athletes have returned to campus, we will once again be involved in a wide variety of campus and community engagement endeavors. We will always give back to those who support us and I am so proud of our student-athletes and coaches for helping others through events such as move-in day, Reddie to Serve, elementary school visits, Make-A-Wish and other important community engagement endeavors.
- Henderson State University Athletics has announced a new partnership with Southwest Arkansas Media for radio broadcasts of Reddie Athletics in 2014-15. The Reddie Sports Network will include ESPN 106.9 FM in Arkadelphia, covering all of southwest Arkansas; and ESPN 100.7 FM and 1310 AM Malvern, which also covers Hot Springs. In addition to the Southwest Arkansas Media stations, The Reddie Sports Network will also include 920 AM, The Sports Animal in Little Rock for the 2014 football season.
The Reddie Sports Network will be also available on-line at
hsusports.com.
In addition to Reddies football, other HSU sporting events will be broadcast throughout the year on the Reddie Sports Network through Southwest Arkansas Media stations.
I want to thank Southwest Arkansas Media owners Michael Wilkins and Ken Henderson, as well as general manager Andy Hodges for their commitment to this partnership that will allow us to cover more Reddie athletic events in 2014-2015. We are also tremendously excited to have a Little Rock affiliate and we appreciate Jeff Ward from 920 The Sports Animal and the Arkansas Radio Network for providing our alumni and fans in Little Rock with a station to listen to Reddies football on.
Our first broadcast on the Reddie Sports Network will be Saturday night, September 6 as the Reddies open the season taking on Southern Nazarene in Bethany, Okla. It’s a 6 p.m. kick and airtime will be 5:30 p.m. Once again, Phil Elson, R.J. Hawk and Hunter Lively will be the broadcast team for Reddies football.
In addition to the list above, there have been many internal improvements in the last several months in team travel, academic advising, registration and other vitally important areas that are not in the public eye yet they are at the forefront of running a first-class program focused on student-athlete success in the classroom and on the various fields of play. These are just some of the highlights from a very busy and productive summer. There are more exciting things on the horizon as well. I can assure you our coaches and staff are working hard to make a great place even greater every day!
Last week at our student-athlete welcome meeting, I unveiled our vision, purpose and core values for our student-athletes. The focus was to educate our student-athletes on what is expected of them. At the meeting, we handed out t-shirts with the hashtag #ImReddie . We are asking everyone to use this hashtag in social media this year relating to Henderson.
To us, #ImReddie is more than a hashtag. It means our student-athletes are proud to be Reddies, they are “Reddie” to put in the time and effort to be successful in the classroom and on the various fields of play, they are “Reddie” to compete and they are “Reddie” for all the opportunities on the horizon and their total student-athlete experience can help make those goals and dreams a reality in the future.
Now we look ahead to a new year of competition, which begins Friday as volleyball hosts the HSU Classic with matches at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the Duke Wells Center. Saturday, Reddies cross country will run in the Bob Gravette Invitational hosted by OBU at 9 a.m. Action continues for volleyball on Saturday in the HSU Classic with matches at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and the two-time defending GAC Champion Reddies football team travels to Bethany, Okla. to take on Southern Nazarene Saturday night at 6 p.m.
I hope you have the chance to get out and support our teams this weekend and throughout the year!
The football home opener is going to be an exciting and historic event for Henderson State. We were very fortunate to be selected to host the
CBS Sports Network/NCAA Division II National Game of the Week on Thursday, September 18 at 7 p.m. vs. Southeastern Oklahoma. This will be the first-ever live nationally televised game broadcast from the Henderson State Campus. This will be a tremendous opportunity to showcase Henderson State, Reddies football and Arkadelphia to a national television audience. Pre-game activities will begin around 5 p.m on Sept. 18. This will include a concert, inflatable games for kids, an HSU Alumni Tailgate and much more. We want the stadium to be full for the national television audience, so please record the game and come join us for our first home game and a historic event for Henderson State University!
This year we will be offering a shuttle service from main campus to the stadium on home football gamedays. The Reddie Gameday shuttles are small busses that will run from 12
th and Wilson Street (near Smith Hall) so fans can park in the multiple lots around that location. The shuttles will begin running 2.5 hours prior to kickoff and will run until an hour after the game. The shuttle will drop fans off at Duke Wells if you want to tailgate and mingle and it will also drop fans off at the main gate of Carpenter-Haygood Stadium. The Reddie Gameday Shuttles will be free to fans and they will allow us to access more parking on campus while ensuring our fans who take advantage of the parking on main campus are dropped off at the main gate and returned after the game!
In the offseason, we added 100 additional Reddie Club seats at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium. The section was sold out last year so we added more seats to accommodate that growth. By donating at the $500 level and above, you can receive two chairback season tickets, a parking pass, free Pepsi and popcorn at your seat, a game program and access to the Hall of Honor Room at halftime. We have a very limited number of these seats still available. If you are interested in joining the
Reddie Club at the football season ticket level, please feel free to email me at
jonessh@hsu.edu.
We had several football players deliver season tickets around the Arkadelphia community last Friday evening and it was great for them to interact with the Loyal Reddies who support our programs.
Don’t forget, you can keep up with the Reddies at
HSUsports.com and through Twitter (
@ReddieAthletics), Facebook (
ReddieAthletics) and Instagram (
@Reddie_Athletics).
We look forward to seeing you at the games!
In Reddie Spirit,
Shawn
