A Message From The Athletics Director - June
Hurricane Fans,
It’s a little quieter than usual on our campus, which gives us a chance to catch our breath and also reflect on another outstanding year for Miami Athletics.
Fourteen of our 18 programs made postseason play. Our football team won 10 games for the first time in 14 years and earned an invitation to the Capital One Orange Bowl. Volleyball won 22 matches and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Both basketball teams punched their tickets to March Madness. Women’s tennis made its 12th Sweet 16 appearance in the past 13 years. Men’s tennis advanced to the NCAAs for the first time in seven years. And our women’s track and field team was crowned ACC outdoor champions in thrilling fashion in front of our home crowd at Cobb Stadium.
Overall, our student-athletes earned 64 All-ACC honors, nine individual ACC titles and 18 All-America accolades. Estela Perez Somarriba (women’s tennis) and Olga Strantzali (volleyball) won ACC Player of the Year in their respective sports. Football head coach Mark Richt was named ACC Coach of the Year and Walter Camp National Coach of the Year, while Randy Ableman was named ACC Female Diving Coach of the Year and Amy Deem was named ACC Outdoor Track & Field Women’s Coach of the Year.
In the classroom, our 2016-17 NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores were released last month and the results were again outstanding. Twelve of our programs were recognized for perfect scores of 1,000 in 2016-17 and three programs – men’s cross country, golf and women’s tennis – were honored for perfect multi-year APR scores. Meanwhile, our cumulative GPA after the spring semester was 3.09, the ninth consecutive 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA. Our student-athletes continue to excel in the classroom, and our dedicated coaches and academic staff members work tirelessly to help them achieve these results. Congratulations to all!
This week we formally introduced our new head baseball coach, Gino DiMare, at a terrific event at the Newman Alumni Center. Gino has been an integral part of Canes Baseball for more than two decades, first as a player and then as an assistant and associate coach for 18 years. I can’t think of a better person to represent our baseball program going forward. Please join me in congratulating Gino, his wife, Denise, and their four daughters.
Diver David Dinsmore – one of the aforementioned ACC individual champions — recently won two medals at the 2018 FINA World Cup in Wuhan, China. David took bronze in the men’s 10-meter platform and another bronze in the team event. Congratulations to David!
Three UM football legends are on the 2019 ballot for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. Linebacker greats Ray Lewis and Dan Morgan, along with former head coach Dennis Erickson, are among the 76 players and six coaches from FBS included on this year’s ballot. The announcement of the 2019 class will be made on January 7, 2019. Good luck to Ray, Dan and Dennis!
Enthusiasm for the Hurricanes’ upcoming football season continues to rise throughout South Florida and we are poised to sell out our season ticket allotment at Hard Rock Stadium for the first time in school history. If you haven’t already secured your seats for 2018 please call 1-800-GO-CANES or visit hurricanesports.com/tickets.
Season tickets for men’s basketball went on sale last week. We have a terrific home slate at Watsco Center in 2018-19, featuring games against fellow NCAA Tournament teams Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, NC State and Virginia Tech. Season tickets start as low as $160 and can be purchased at hurricanesports.com/tickets or by calling the ticket office at 1-800-GO-CANES.
Speaking of men’s basketball, the NBA Draft was held Thursday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where two Hurricanes – Bruce Brown and Lonnie Walker – heard their names called. I know that head coach Jim Larrañaga, like all of us, is extremely proud of both of these young men. Congratulations to both Bruce and Lonnie!
If you’ve been on campus you might have noticed the towering structure rising above the Hecht Athletic Center. The magnificent Carol Soffer Football Indoor Practice Facility is scheduled to be completed in August, and our crowdfunding campaign that focuses on outfitting the interior continues to build momentum. Your donations will help us finish this project the right way, and elevate this facility to one of the best in the country. Visit Give2IPF.com to pledge your support.
We also recently launched the Building Women Champions campaign, an initiative that will enhance scholarship support, leadership development and career coaching for Hurricane female student-athletes. Please visit buildingwomenchampions.com to learn how you can help.
For the latest information on each of our varsity teams, please be sure to visit HurricaneSports.com or follow us on Twitter @MiamiHurricanes. Our fall teams will be back in action before we know it. In the meantime, I hope your summer is off to a great start. Enjoy this month’s magazine!
Go Canes!
Blake James
