Soaring to Victory

What do you need to win a conference championship EVERY SINGLE YEAR?

Opportunity is knocking.

“Not since 1982 and the ‘Dirty Dozen’ has there been a greater chance to impact Georgia Southern athletics, the University and the community than the $36.6 million Soaring to Victory Capital Campaign,” said John Mulherin, president of the Georgia Southern Athletic Foundation.

“This is our generational opportunity.”

The Campaign’s vision is to put student-athletes in position to win conference and national titles and to earn their University degrees. “It is about rings and diplomas,” Mulherin said. “We’ve got to hire and retain the best possible coaches, we’ve got to attract the best possible athletes, provide facilities and upgrade technology for the fans.”

At the direction of Athletics Director Sam Baker, Mulherin approached every coach and asked, “What do you need to win a conference championship every single year?”

“The Campaign provides the means to meet those needs,” said Mulherin.

Phase I of the Campaign includes a $10 million football operations building – one that promises to be one of the nation’s best at any level. “Though we have been the standard for others in terms of our on-the-field success, we have continually had to overcome facility issues in competing for prospects and in player development,” said head football coach Jeff Monken. “We are now at the point where we have fallen behind. The facility will not only create the recruiting advantage that we desire, but will allow us to better train and prepare our team to continue to play championship-level football and position us to be an elite program at this level for decades to come.

“It will also give us the necessary facility to be a viable candidate for a move up if repositioning of college football conferences takes place in coming years,” Monken said.

The building’s impact will ripple far beyond football. “It will also help other athletic programs at the University by providing better space utilization and training for more than two-thirds of our athletes in other sports,” said University President Brooks Keel.

Moving football into a new facility frees up the current offices in the Parrish Building to become home for the athletics program, taking it and other sports out of the basement of old Hanner Gym. It frees up the Iron Works weight room and current sports medicine areas for timely and efficient use by other sports.

Work on the entrance to Hanner Fieldhouse can move forward along with a transformation of the current practice fields into a new lighted track/soccer stadium and a relocation of the football practice fields to the current track/soccer facility.

The Campaign also addresses another major need: coaching continuity. “Continuity wins championships,” said Mulherin. “Right now, if a better-funded program wants to lure Eagle coaches away, the Athletic Foundation is limited in its ability to respond. The Campaign would create a funding source to keep the University competitive year to year with other programs,” he said.

“The Campaign goal is simple,” said Baker. “It is time to transform the face of Georgia Southern athletics for future generations.”