Athletics Meeting February 8, 2024

The Committee on Athletics meeting was held on Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 3:47 p.m. in Meeting Room 201 of the Freeman Center with the Chair of the Meeting Rector Lindsey Carney Smith, presiding.

Present Board Members

Rector Lindsey Carney Smith, Esq., Chair
Regina Brayboy
William Estrada
John R. Lawson
LTC (R) Boris G. Robinson
The Honorable Ronald L. Tillett

Absent Board Members

Sean D. Miller

Present from the University

William G. Kelly, President
Kenneth Kidd, Deputy Chief of Staff
Jennifer Latour, Chief of Staff
Adelia P. Thompson, VP of Advancement, External Engagement and the Arts

Others Present

Curtis Davidson
Lisa Duncan Raines
Rob Lange
Kyle McMullin
Deborah Roundtree
Mary-Margaret Wells
Mason Field (Student Speaker)
Mikey Thompson (Coach)
Dr. James Kelly

At 3:47 p.m. Chair Lindsey Carney Smith, Rector called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone present.

Chair Lindsey Carney Smith called for a motion to approve the minutes from the November 16, 2023 Athletics Committee meeting. Will Estrada provided the motion, seconded by Regina Brayboy. The minutes were unanimously approved.

Kyle McMullin began by introducing Mason Field, a soccer student-athlete that spoke about his experience in athletics. Mr. Field shared how his experience as an athlete has been rewarding because of the people at CNU. His teammates will be lifelong friends, and his coaches have challenged him to be his best and have done everything they can to support him.

Mr. McMullin provided a review of the success of fall athletics. We were one of two NCAA Division 3 schools that qualified for the NCAA tournament in field hockey, volleyball, women’s soccer, men’s soccer and football. Johns Hopkins is the other institution to have accomplished this in 2023.

Football won their conference championship and participated in the NCAA tournament for the first time in nearly 10 years.

During the fall, Christopher Newport hosted four different NCAA events on campus, including the Division III Field Hockey National Championship weekend. Our campus had visitors from not just the U.S. but all over the world as there were international students who competed and their families who traveled here for the competition games.

Championships for Winter sports will be on campus competing very soon. The Coast-to-Coast Indoor Track & Field Championship will be held in the Freeman Center on February 16-17, 2024 and we will also be hosting the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Championship on February 22-24.

Spring sports teams have begun practicing and are currently underway right now. The Men’s Tennis team competes Friday night and Softball, Men’s Lacrosse, and Women’s Tennis all kick off their seasons this weekend.

Academic and Fundraising: Athletes continue to excel in the classroom. The cumulative GPA for student-athletes is 3.05 at the end of the fall 2023 term. Non-athletes have a cumulative GPA of 3.04. 94% of student-athletes are in good academic standing- compared to 92% of the general student population.

Private support for athletics is key to ensuring our teams have what they need from an operational standpoint. Our fundraising goal for athletics is $1.2 million and we are currently at almost $700k. We are projecting that we will reach our goal by the end of the fiscal year– especially with CNU Day approaching in March.

Mr. Lawson inquired if we have considered approaching community businesses and soliciting their support of athletics and identifying the alumni that work in different companies and employ those alumni/employees to ask their companies for support for CNU Athletics.

Mr. McMullin introduced Mikey Thompson, Head Coach of Men’s Lacrosse, who discussed lacrosse athletic recruitment.

Mr. Thompson discussed the recruitment strategy for men’s lacrosse which focuses on identifying students who will succeed academically, and socially and help the program compete for national championships. Mr. Thompson also discussed how they begin recruiting prospective students during their sophomore and junior years of high school.

Curtis Davidson from the Office of Admission spoke about the process of recruitment and how their office coordinates with coaches to give admission presentations when there are campus visits by prospective student-athlete groups and how they ensure that our coaches are provided general admission information about the University to help disseminate that information to students they are recruiting.

Mr. Lange spoke about the role that athletics plays in recruiting the university’s freshman class and highlighted that students being actively recruited by coaches have the highest yield rate of any segment of the freshman class at more than 60%. PLP students yield at 30% and the general rate is 19%. He also mentioned that coaches bring students to campus each year that would not consider Christopher Newport without their interest in competing in varsity athletics.

Mr. Lange concluded his remarks by confirming that the university would not be able to meet its enrollment goals without the effort of the coaches actively recruiting high-achieving athletes.

Ms. Carney Smith concluded by underscoring that the conference and financial challenges facing athletics continue and that the committee will need to play an active role in supporting athletics so that we can fulfill the promise of a championship experience we have made to students and their families.

At 4:59 p.m. Chair Lindsey Carney Smith called for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Will Estrada made the motion for the meeting to be adjourned and it was seconded by Boris Robinson.