A Message from the Athletics Director - April
Hurricane Fans,
The spring semester is winding down and many of our student-athletes are not only preparing to compete, but also preparing for graduation.
Our primary goal at Miami Athletics is to Build Champions, which means helping our student-athletes succeed in competition, in the community, in the classroom and in life. The crowning achievement of a successful journey through The U is walking up on stage at Watsco Center to receive your degree, and 54 of our student-athletes will be making that walk on May 10. Congratulations to all of them and thank you to our academic services staff for all of their assistance and support along the way.
Spring football wraps up this Saturday at noon as Manny Diaz’s team holds its annual Spring Game Presented by Gulf Mechanical Contractors at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. This game will give our fans throughout the state, and especially in Central Florida, the opportunity to see the Canes in action before we return to Camping World Stadium on August 24 to kick off the regular season against Florida. Admission to the Spring Game is free and you can reserve your general admission tickets by visiting hurricanesports.com/tickets. We hope to see many of you there!
The Hurricane Club will also be hosting a pregame brunch in the CenterState Club at Camping World Stadium. Manny and I will both be there to talk about the upcoming season. For ticket information visit bigtime.games/canesbrunch. And if you haven’t secured your season tickets for the 2019 season at Hard Rock Stadium call 1-800-GO-CANES or visit hurricanesports.com/tickets.
Gino DiMare’s baseball team (26-12) has won six straight games and five of its past six ACC contests, including UM’s first-ever sweep of Virginia in Charlottesville this past weekend. The Hurricanes currently lead the ACC in batting average (.295) and rank second in home runs (50). Miami jumped into the national rankings this week at No. 23 and faces another big conference road test at seventh-ranked Louisville starting Thursday at 6 p.m. Good luck to the Canes!
Both of our tennis teams have completed their regular seasons and head to the ACC Tennis Championships this week in Cary, N.C. Our women’s team, coming off a 6-1 win over No. 19 Virginia on Senior Day, is ranked 21st and seeded fifth in the conference tournament. They will open play Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. against either Clemson or Virginia Tech. Our men’s team is also seeded fifth – its highest seed in eight years – and will open play Thursday morning at 9 a.m. against either Clemson or Boston College. Good luck to both of our tennis teams!
Patti Rizzo’s golf team, ranked 20th in the nation, also heads to North Carolina for its conference tournament this week as the ACC Women’s Golf Championships tee off in Greensboro on Thursday. The Hurricanes – one of five ranked ACC squads — are seeded fifth and will be paired with Virginia and Clemson in the opening round. Good luck to our golfers!
Amy Deem’s track and field squad continues to impress. Our women’s team is ranked 10th in the country, led by Michelle Atherley, the reigning NCAA Indoor Pentathlon champion, who broke the school record in the heptathlon (5,966 points) last Saturday at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational. Meanwhile, the men’s 4×400 relay team broke a 23-year-old school record by posting a time of 3:06.75 in the event. The Hurricanes are off this weekend before returning to action April 26-27 at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville.
Our diving team put on a stellar show at last month’s NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas. David Dinsmore (platform) and Briadam Herrera (three-meter) both placed second, while Alicia Blagg finished third in the three-meter. The Hurricanes also swept the 2019 ACC Diving Awards as Randy Ableman won both Men’s and Women’s Diving Coach of the Year, while Herrera and Blagg won Men’s and Women’s Diver of the Year, respectively. Congratulations to all!
Rowing competed at the Lake Natoma Invitational in Gold River, Calif., last weekend as the Canes Varsity 8 finished third in all three of its races. Next up for Dave Sanderson’s squad is a trip to Chapel Hill, N.C., to face North Carolina, Duke, UCF and Navy on April 27.
We are excited to announce that both of our basketball teams are going on a 10-day tour of Italy in August. The men’s tour (August 9-18) includes visits to Rome, Florence and Como, while the women’s trip (August 7-16) features stops in Rome, Florence and Venice. The men will play four games and the women will play three, with each team having at least one per stop. Both teams’ opponents are still to be determined. Our fans are encouraged to join us on tour! To learn more about the men’s tour, contact Chris Cohen in the Hurricane Club at cohen@miami.edu. For additional details on the women’s tour, fans can contact Alfonso Restrepo in the Hurricane Club at fonzi@miami.edu.
Hurricanes legend, Super Bowl champion and Class of 2019 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Ed Reed headlined our annual Football Alumni Dinner last Friday, which for the first time was held in the beautiful Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Facility. I want to again extend my heartfelt thanks to Carol Soffer and her family for the lead gift for this magnificent facility. We have already raised more than $36 million but are not done yet — and we still need your support. Your donations will ensure that this facility continues to be one of the best in the country. Visit Give2IPF.com to pledge your support.
For the latest information on each of our varsity teams, please be sure to visit HurricaneSports.com or follow us on Twitter @MiamiHurricanes. Enjoy this month’s magazine!
Go Canes!
Blake James
