The Buzz Magazine - Fall, 2012

ANGLING FOR RESPECT

Fall 2012

Motivated and feisty, Tevin Washington enters senior season as one of Tech’s most prolific quarterbacks

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Fall 2012 • Volume 6 , Number 1 EDITOR

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Dean Buchan

David Johnson, Danny Karnik and Sam Morgan

WRITERS

DESIGN & LAYOUT

Simit Shah Jack Wilkinson Adam Van Brimmer Matt Winkeljohn

Summit Athletic Media www.summitathletics.com

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Fans flocked to Yellow Jacket Fan Day Aug. 4 at Bobby Dodd Stadium

(photo by Danny Karnik).

In This Issue 4

ANGLING FOR RESPECT

14

TOUGH ROAD BACK

6

MORE THAN A PASSING FANCY

18

ON-TIME ARRIVAL

8

EUROPEAN SWING

24

THE COAL MINER’S SON

MODERN FAMILY

30

THE TECH SIDE OF LIFE

10

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Motivated and feisty, Tevin Washington enters senior season as one of Tech’s most prolific quarterbacks

Senior Nicki Meyer was slow to warm-up to volleyball, but now it’s a passion

Tech’s volleyball team made memories and faced stiff competition on an 11-day tour of Europe

Big-hearted Marcordes family has grown with two trips to Ethiopia

Mary Kate DuBard has waited nearly two years to return to competition

McCamish Pavilion is right on schedule and right on point

Georgia Tech beloved head trainer Jay Shoop has impacted the health and lives of people from Capitol Hill to Pebble Beach There is no place Jim Terry would rather be on a fall Saturday afternoon than Bobby Dodd Stadium

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Arke.com

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fb football

ANGLING FOR RESPECT

Motivated and feisty, Tevin Washington enters senior season as one of Tech’s most prolific quarterbacks

E

By Adam Van Brimmer

Every tug on the fishing line brings a sense of foreboding for Tevin Washington.

He knows from experience his prey is probably a bass or a bream, the two most populous fish in the Coosa River near Washington’s hometown of Wetumpka, Ala. But maybe – just maybe – the nibbler belongs to another fish species, one that will require Washington to do more than tug, reel and slip off the hook.

“I’m scared to catch a catfish,” Washington said. “I don’t want to take it off the hook. They’re a little feisty.”

The same could be said for Washington, the catfish of Georgia Tech quarterbacks. He’s been on the hook as the Yellow Jackets starter for going on three seasons now, and every time fans and media demand coach Paul Johnson take him off and throw him back on the bench, Washington gets plenty ornery.

“Tevin has always had a lot of confidence in his own abilities,” Johnson said. “No matter what everybody else thought, he thought he was the best guy.”

Many among the Tech faithful have spent the last season-and-ahalf calling for another guy. Since the night in 2010 Washington received the football equivalent of a battlefield promotion, fans have referred to him as a “stand-in,” “caretaker” and “bridge to the future.”

Yet Washington has been the starter since his predecessor, Joshua Nesbitt, suffered what would prove to be a college careerending injury just before halftime of a Nov. 4, 2010 game at Virginia Tech. Barring injury, Washington is likely to take the first snap in the Jackets’ return to Blacksburg, Va., in the Labor Day season opener.

And should he finish his career as the starter come December or January, he will probably go down as one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in Georgia Tech history, at least from a statistical

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The Buzz

perspective. Washington currently ranks third all time in rushing yards and touchdowns by a quarterback as well as career passing efficiency and is just outside the top-10 in touchdowns responsible for, total offense yardage, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.

Yet given a choice, Washington would rather the critics continue to lament his perceived shortcomings than take notice of his accomplishments.

“Some would call them naysayers; I call them motivators,” Washington said. “For anybody to say anything negative about me is a positive to me. It makes me want to work that much harder to prove them wrong. After the last two seasons, it’s just second nature to me.”

Athletic Upbringing

Washington’s mentality could lead you to believe he grew up hard, in a broken home or on the streets of an inner city.

Only he didn’t. His father is an assistant superintendent of schools and a former basketball coach. His mom is a secretary with an educational association.

As for Wetumpka, it’s more town than city. Home to approximately 6,000 residents and hailed for its natural beauty and its outdoor museum dedicated to Greek arts and culture, Jasmine Hill Gardens, Wetumpka is a nice place to grow up.

Nightlife for teenagers is confined to the local skating rink, Skate-On 2000. When Washington wasn’t rolling around the rink or fishing in the Coosa River, he was playing football with the neighborhood kids on the street in front of his house or shooting hoops at a friend’s house.

Lewis Washington hooked his son on athletics early in life. A star college basketball player at Faulkner, a small Christian school in Montgomery, Ala., the elder Washington went into coaching and teaching after graduation.

Washington will be the first Tech quarterback to play as a graduate student since George Godsey in 2001.

Tevin became his father’s team’s manager and ballboy at the age of five.

“I was a gym rat; basketball was all I played,” Tevin Washington said. “If my dad keeps coaching basketball, I would never have played football. With the seasons overlapping, he wouldn’t have let me.”

Lewis Washington moved into an administrative role while Tevin was still in elementary school, however, allowing for a broadening of Tevin’s athletic interests.

Washington went on to be a threesport star in high school, starting three years at quarterback for the Wetumpka High football team. He was a first-team all-state selection in Alabama’s highest classification as a senior.

“Tevin was the best basketball

player that Opelika never had,” said his father, who coached at Opelika, near Auburn, prior to moving the family to Wetumpka.

“We stay in Opelika, basketball would have dominated his life. He probably would have spent his time in the gym and not on the football field.”

Strange Road To Starter

For all the prep accolades, Washington has forever been the underdog – or fish – in college.

Major college recruiters doubted his ability to play quarterback. Coaches at the big schools, including Georgia Tech’s then coach Chan Gailey, recruited him as an athlete, or a player with the potential to play running back,

Washington In The Tech Record Books 2nd -- season rushing yards by a QB (986 in 2011) 2nd -- season rushing TDs by a QB (14 in 2011) 2nd -- season pass efficiency (155.4 in 2011) 3rd -- career rushing yards by a QB (1,540) 3rd -- career rushing touchdowns by a QB (18) 3rd -- career pass efficiency (139.8) 3rd -- season rushing touchdowns (14 in 2011) 3rd -- season TDs responsible for (25 in 2011) 5th -- season touchdowns (14 in 2011) 7th -- season total offense (2,639 in 2011) 11th -- career TDs responsible for (31) 11th -- season rushing attempts (242 in 2011) 11th -- season points scored (84 in 2011) 12th -- career total offense (3,631) 13th -- career rushing yards (1,540) 13th -- career rushing touchdowns (18) 14th -- season rushing yards (986 in 2011) 17th -- career passing yards (2,090) 17th -- career touchdown passes (13) 17th -- season touchdown passes (11 in 2011) 19th -- career touchdowns (18)

wide receiver or defensive back.

Several smaller schools, such as Alabama State, Memphis and Troy, offered him as a quarterback, but Washington wanted to go to a major program.

Enter Paul Johnson. Hired to replace Gailey two months before signing day in 2008, Johnson recognized Washington’s dual-threat potential. Washington had run for better than 2,000 yards in high school while passing for more than 5,000, and for a new coach in need of versatile quarterbacks to run his option offense, Washington seemed a godsend.

“We got a late start obviously, and when we saw him, we felt like he could do what we needed at the position,” Johnson said. “That and he was still out there available.”

But Washington wasn’t the only option quarterback in the 2008 recruiting class. Georgia Tech also signed Jaybo Shaw, who had run a triple-option offense throughout his high school career. Shaw quickly cemented his position as Nesbitt’s backup and the heir apparent.

By the spring of 2010, however, Shaw was staring at his third year as a backup. Nesbitt had led Georgia Tech to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game in

2009 and achieved legend status.

Shaw had not taken a redshirt year and understood that while he’d ultimately be Nesbitt’s successor, he’d only be a starter for one year.

Shaw decided to transfer to Georgia Southern rather than stay at Tech. The Eagles had just hired one of Johnson’s assistants, Jeff Monken, and the new coach made it clear he would install Johnson’s offense at Georgia Southern.

Shaw followed Monken. Washington was promoted to secondstring quarterback by default. He’d played in just one game, throwing just one pass, at that point.

Eight-and-a-half games into the season that fall, he became the starter. He still holds that position today, only now he’s a veteran leader with the experience and skills to reach the lofty standards set by Nesbitt.

And he still has plenty of that catfish-like fight in him.

“My whole mindset since I got to Georgia Tech has been to go out and work the hardest and put myself in position to be successful,” Washington said. “When I am in competition, even if I’m the third or fourth guy, my mindset is to outwork everybody else to put myself in the best position I can day by day.” ■ www.ramblinwreck.com

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MORE THAN A PASSING FANCY Senior Nicki Meyer was slow to warm up to volleyball, but now it’s a passion

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By Adam Van Brimmer

For Nicki Meyer, sixth-grader, volleyball didn’t take.

Sore wrists and forearms.

Jammed fingers.

“More shagging and chasing balls than playing,” said Meyer.

She might as well play golf. At least then she could work on her tan.

“I had no interest at first. None,” she said. “It’s one of those sports that until you’re decent at it, you don’t really like it. But she kept pushing me.”

“She” is Shelley Meyer, Nicki’s mother. Shelley grew up playing multiple sports, but volleyball was her favorite. She married an athlete – a college football player and Major League Baseball draftee named Urban Meyer, who has since coached two college football teams to national titles at Florida and is now the coach at Ohio State.

And Shelley Meyer understood the value of athletics, how playing sports builds character, develops discipline and helps young people

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The Buzz

channel their energy in productive ways.

The next summer, Nicki came home with a pamphlet for a Junior Olympic travel volleyball team. Her friends wanted to play; therefore, she showed renewed interest in the game.

The club approach proved more intense than what Nicki previously encountered. The coaches taught her the proper mechanics and techniques. She began passing and hitting rather than shagging and chasing. And her wrists and forearms toughened up.

“She made so much progress in one season of club,” Shelley said of Nicki. “Volleyball went from something she didn’t really seem to care for to her passion.”

A decade later, Meyer is on the cusp of what will likely be the final year of an accomplished volleyball career. She helped her high school team to a Florida state title in 2007 and was a second-team all-state player the next year. Since joining Georgia Tech’s volleyball team in

2009, she’s become the team’s defensive linchpin.

She will likely start the upcoming season at libero, the back-row defensive specialist prohibited from taking part in attacking when the ball is above the net.

“Volleyball is a very technical sport, one of the few where you can literally get better every day,” Georgia Tech coach Tonya Johnson said. “Nicki has the intense work ethic and the understanding of the game that you need to constantly improve.”

Striving For Success

Meyer’s drive is part nature, part nurture.

Growing up a football coach’s daughter, she had an innate understanding that athletic success “went beyond practicing and playing.” And since nothing seemed to come easy to her and quitting was taboo in her family, she was forced to work to develop her skills.

She started in soccer at age four.

She tried ballet a year later “but she wasn’t very graceful,” according to her mother.

She moved onto gymnastics and loved it until a growth spurt robbed her of coordination.

Her newfound height lent itself to volleyball and basketball, at least until she topped out at 5-foot-6 her freshman year of high school. Her coach began to slowly transition her from outside hitter to libero to utilize her lateral quickness and willingness to dive all over the floor for digs.

“I still thought of myself as a hitter, but I’d always taken pride in playing the back row,” Meyer said. “Going from playing three out of six rotations back there to six out of six really wasn’t that big a deal.”

At least not until she arrived at Georgia Tech. Keeping the ball off the floor was enough in high school. At the college level – in the highly competitive Atlantic Coast Conference – digs are only one measure of defensive success.

The libero must also be a pinpoint passer who can set up the setter.

Meyer was as unsure of her passing skills as one of her father’s quarterback recruits.

Fortunately, she tutored for two years under arguably the greatest

defensive specialist in Georgia Tech volleyball history, Jordan McCullers.

“The passing ate me alive my freshman year, but she found a way to pull me out of the zeroconfidence mentality,” Meyer said of McCullers. “She just broke it down and made it simple-stupid for me. I was overthinking and that was my problem.”

Leaving A Legacy

Meyer thinks this season could be Georgia Tech’s best in a while.

The Yellow Jackets return five seniors, four of whom are so close personally they can anticipate each other’s actions. Meyer, Monique Mead, Annie Czarnecki and Susan Carlson shared a four-bedroom apartment two years ago.

“Your personality and relationships with others carries over onto the court,” Meyer said.

“Trust plays a big role in vol-

leyball, and the more you know someone the more you know how they think and how they will react.

We’re in each other’s heads all the time.”

Also rattling around Meyer’s brain are memories of her freshman season, when the Yellow Jackets won 21 matches and made the NCAA tournament. They failed to return to the postseason the last two years, much to Meyer’s and her classmates’ chagrin.

“Our freshman year, we won, we won enough and we went” to the NCAAs, Meyer said. “The last two years, reality hit. We have to do more to get back there.”

Coach Johnson is hoping to tap into that frustration this fall.

“It’s important that this group of seniors go out on a high note,” Johnson said. “I ask them all the time, ‘What kind of legacy do you want to leave? What do you want to be remembered for?’ These seniors have the type of bond to respond to that.” ■

Nicki Meyer

Growing up the daughter of a football coach – current Ohio State coach Urban Meyer – Nicki learned early the hard work it takes to be a successful college athlete.

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EUROPEAN SWING

Tech’s volleyball team made memories and faced stiff competition on an 11-day tour of Europe

By Adam Van Brimmer

G

Georgia Tech’s volleyball team learned many foreign phrases in May during an 11-day tour of Croatia, Slovenia and Italy.

The one they will all remember is in English, however: “When in Europe ...”

The trip featured a vibe foreign to the Yellow Jackets. All typically live a regimented existence, their lives “scheduled to the second”

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The Buzz

because of their school, volleyball and personal commitments.

Yet the swing through Europe was a relaxing one, with plenty of free time for exploring and shopping. A day in Venice highlighted the trip, along with a visit to the Croatian hometown of Yellow Jacket junior Ivona Kolak.

Georgia Tech also played seven matches

against professional and national teams during the trip, winning four.

“It was one of the best experiences I’ve had since I’ve been here,” senior Nicki Meyer said.

“The more relaxed atmosphere hasn’t carried over since we got back, though. We snapped back into it with 6 a.m. workouts. The leisurely feel was left in Europe.” ■

fb football

The Marcordes family—Parents Bill and Dawn, and children Tyler, Hayley, Tess, Bryce, Linda and Remi

MODERN FAMILY

Big-hearted Marcordes family has grown with two trips to Ethiopia

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By Adam Van Brimmer

Nothing excites eight-year-old Linda Marcordes these days quite like a TV ad or a promo that features football players.

Anything football sends her running in search of her parents or older siblings to ask the same question.

“Is that Tyler?”

The Tyler in question is Georgia Tech linebacker Tyler Marcordes. He is her big brother, at least as of the end of May. That’s when Tyler’s parents, Bill and Dawn Marcordes, adopted Linda and brought her to the United States from her homeland of Ethiopia.

Linda is one of two adopted children in the Marcordes family – two-yearold Remi, also a native of Ethopia, joined the family in 2011 – and Tyler’s fifth sibling.

“It’s been so awesome getting to know her and Remi and seeing the constant smiles on their faces,” Tyler said. “Knowing you can do that for someone who wasn’t as well off as you are is pretty special. They became part of our family right away.”

Led by the family matriarch, Dawn, the Marcordes have a “huge heart for kids.” Tyler is the eldest of the Bill and Dawn’s four biological children at age 19. Haley, age 17, is the oldest girl in a clan that also features 15-yearold Tess and 14-year-old Bryce.

Dawn broached the idea of expanding the family through adoption a

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few years back after seeing the impact adoption had made on several family friends. The Marcordeses applied through a service to adopt an infant in 2010 and were called to an Ethiopian orphanage to claim Remi in May 2011.

The idea to adopt a second, older child came during that trip to Africa.

“We saw there were a lot of older kids who weren’t being adopted,” Bill Marcordes said. “Everybody wants infants that they can raise from the time they are babies. We thought that if we decided to adopt again we would go for an older child.”

Bill and Dawn decided quickly to adopt again. They applied and received a referral, figuring it would take the year-and-a-half that it did to adopt Remi for the second adoption to come through.

They were on a plane to adopt Linda just 10 days later.

Tyler spent several weeks with Linda soon after she arrived at the Marcordes home in Normal, Ill. He introduced her to football, “but she seemed more interested in kicking the soccer ball around.”

Linda may lack a desire to participate in football, but she’s anxious to watch the game, particularly one of Tyler’s games. Bill is planning at least one family trip to Atlanta for a game this season.

“She can’t wait,” Bill said. “Everything is such a new experience for her.

She’s never seen snow. She’s never been to the beach. It’s July and she asks

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every day if it will snow tomorrow. She’s truly a blessing.”

When Linda finally does witness Tyler playing for the Yellow Jackets she’ll see a player who’s had the coaching staff buzzing since he first arrived on the Flats last summer.

Tyler is one of those late-bloomers who the Georgia Tech coaches almost missed. He entered high school five years ago as a 5-foot-8, 135-pound runt, albeit one with tremendous speed and agility. He was a star quarterback for Normal Community West High School but was still undersized going into his junior year.

He sent game film to several schools, including Georgia Tech, and even visited the school during a southern swing of unofficial visits.

Tech’s coaches weren’t that interested at the time.

Marcordes had his growth spurt the summer before his senior year. He reached 6-foot-4 and broached the 200-pound threshold on the scale.

Furman, a Division I-AA program in South Carolina, wanted him. He attended some camps and impressed coaches. He enjoyed a “breakout” senior season, averaging 9.5 yards per carry, throwing for more than 700 yards and accounting for 26 touchdowns.

His home state’s flagship program, the Fighting Illini, offered him a scholarship.

By November 2010, Marcordes was wrestling with his commitment decision. He and his father decided to visit Furman again with plans to either firmly commit there or rule it out. They

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flew into Atlanta the day before the visit and stopped by Georgia Tech just to check in at what Tyler considered his “dream school.”

The coaches took notice of the bigger, stronger Marcordes.

“I didn’t think he was a quarterback but I knew he was something,” Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson said.

Defensive coordinator Al Groh wanted to meet with Tyler the next day, but the Marcordeses declined, citing the trip to Furman. Tech assistant coaches understood and told them to call if something were to fall through.

That night, Bill Marcordes called the Furman coaches to confirm the appointment for the next day.

“Glad you called,” the Furman assistant said, “because we just got fired. Save yourself the trip.”

Tyler called Georgia Tech a few minutes later, explained the situation and arranged to meet with Groh the next day. A little more than two months later, he signed a scholarship letter with the Yellow Jackets.

Tyler spent the last year-plus gaining weight – he went from 215 pounds on signing day 2011 to 240 this summer – and learning the linebacker position. The transition has been a challenge but not a difficult one.

Linebacker is in his blood, after all – his father was an all-conference linebacker at Illinois Wesleyan in the late-1980s.

Marcordes is likely to open this season as a

Redshirt freshman Tyler Marcordes made his way to Tech from Illinois.

regular on special teams and a backup at outside linebacker. And he looks forward to the day his mother, father, grandfather and all five siblings, including his newest one, are in the stands at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

“It will be crazy having everyone down here,” Tyler said. “It’ll be a big cheering section for sure.” ■

CC Cross Country

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TOUGH ROAD BACK

Mary Kate DuBard has waited nearly two years to return to competition

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By Adam Van Brimmer

Technically, Mary Kate DuBard could have already gone out on top.

Her most recent cross country race was her best. She covered six kilometers in a time of 20 minutes, 32.24 seconds, the fastest of the Georgia Tech runner’s career. Yet it was a few seconds too slow to reach DuBard’s definition of the top -- the NCAA Championships.

A foot injury compounded the frustration of that near miss. That last race came in November 2010, DuBard’s junior year. She developed plantar fasciitis, a painful inflammation of the tissue along the bottom of the foot near the

heel, the following summer.

The affliction sidelined her for all of the 2011 season. Meanwhile, she moved to within five credit hours of graduation.

She faced a choice a few months back: Finish school during the summer session and move on with life; or come back, take those last classes in the fall and make one more run at the top.

“It wasn’t a difficult decision at all,” DuBard said. “The last time I ran in competition I had a (personal record) and barely missed out.

I’m faster now than I was then, and I want to reach my ultimate goal of running at nationals.”

Doing so would put DuBard in top company at Georgia Tech.

Only three other female Yellow Jacket runners -- Beth Mallory in 1995 and 1996, Becky Megesi in 1998 and Renee Metivier in 2000 and 2001 -- have competed individually in the NCAA Championships in the program’s nearly three-decade history.

An NCAA run would also put DuBard in position to one day possibly join her high school track coach, Jim Watkins, in the Georgia Tech Hall of Fame. Watkins ran track at Georgia Tech in the early and mid-1960s and was inducted into the hall in 1974.

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NCAA and Hall of Fame aspirations aside, DuBard’s return will benefit the team as well. She is one of only two seniors and three upperclassmen overall on the roster.

Her drive and work ethic will set the tone this year – and beyond, said coach Alan Drosky.

“We have a good group of young distance runners making progress but they need somebody with her focus and dedication around,” he said. “The program should really take a step forward.”

Tough Road Back

This time last year, any step by DuBard, forward or backward, was a painful one.

She spent the summer of 2011 studying abroad in Europe. She continued to train, putting in her miles and stretching. Sometime in late July, though, she felt tightness in the arches of her foot.

The twinges must have something to do with her heels, she thought. She shared her struggles with her mother, who warned of plantar fasciitis. Karen DuBard had suffered through bouts with the ailment herself.

Back off, she told her daughter.

Mary Kate DuBard did not heed mom’s advice. Some days, her feet loosened up enough to make her think she was getting better. She kept training, intent on readying herself for her senior season.

The pain returned again and again and “came to a head” just before the Yellow Jackets opened fall practice.

“We tried to get it to calm down,” Drosky said. “It wouldn’t calm down.”

DuBard shut it down in August with hopes of salvaging the end of the season. The inflammation eased gradually only to flare again once she resumed training. She tried cortisone injections in both feet but found the treatment too “uncomfortable” to undergo regularly.

Once the season ended, she underwent a shockwave treatment that relieved the plantar fasciitis but all but knocked her off her feet for a month. She resumed training in January with an eye toward track season but didn’t begin to regain her strength until March.

She competed on the track, running the 5,000 meters, and slowly returned to form.

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She encountered no training problems this summer. She ran in the mornings and afternoons with the aid of orthopedic inserts in her shoes. She kept a tennis ball close at foot and rolled it back and forth,

stretching and working the tissue between the heel and the toes, when seated behind a desk during her summer internship.

DuBard is anxious to hit the trail in competition again this fall.

“She has a chance at a pretty special season,” Drosky, said.

“Having to wait for it should push her to reach the top.” ■

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ON-TIME ARRIVAL

McCamish Pavilion is right on schedule and right on point

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By Adam Van Brimmer

At least once a week, just about every week since his hiring, Georgia Tech men’s basketball coach Brian Gregory dons a hard hat and tours the home, sweet home he’s yet to move into.

“To see it go from a hole in the ground with the dome over it to almost a finished project has been great,” Gregory said of McCamish Pavilion, the Yellow Jackets’ soon-

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to-open on-campus arena. “Every time my excitement grows because something new has been added: a coat of paint, a section of chairs, a layer of cement. It’s inspiring.”

McCamish Pavilion is the reinvention of Alexander Memorial Coliseum. Built on the same footprint of the half-century-old “Thrillerdome” at the corner of 10th and Fowler, the $50 million

project is to be completed in September. Fans will get a look-see at open houses scheduled to coincide with Georgia Tech’s football games later that month, and the men’s basketball team will officially open the facility with its Nov. 9 season opener against Tulane.

The women will make their McCamish debut two days later on Nov. 11 against Tennessee.

“Our fans are going to be pleased,” athletic director Dan Radakovich said. “It will have the same unique feel the coliseum had only with modern amenities.”

Georgia Tech retained the signature structural elements of Alexander Memorial Coliseum in the overhaul. The domed roof remains, albeit of a different material than original in order to improve

energy efficiency, as do the erector set-like steel girders that support the dome. And the pavilion should be just as loud, if not louder, than the coliseum due to the inclusion of a second deck that hangs over the edges of the court.

The McCamish Pavilion design is so true to the Thrillerdome’s heritage that Gregory worries more about his team doing the building proud than vice versa.

“The tradition of the Thrillerdome is still there but it needs to be rekindled,” Gregory said. “It’s about rebuilding a great tradition in a brandnew venue, which is similar to what we’re trying to do in rebuilding the program.”

Reclaiming Home-Court Advantage

McCamish Pavilion could have the feel of a Shakespearean theater in its debut season.

The tenants – the men’s and women’s basketball programs – are at intriguing points. As Gregory alluded to, the men’s team is rebuilding.

Gregory generated plenty of buzz in his first season last winter as his players embraced his hard-nosed approach. They return all but one of their key contributors this season and add six newcomers.

MaChelle Joseph’s women’s team, meanwhile, is coming off a program-best 26-win season that saw the Yellow Jackets reach the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 for the first time ever.

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The players can’t wait to bring their dramas back to campus after spending last season playing home games at Philips Arena and the Arena at Gwinnett Center.

“Playing in our environment will be so much better,” said Ty Marshall, a star on the women’s team. “When I visualize what it’s going to be like when the lights come on and the videoboard is playing and all the rest, I just know it’s going to be a great atmosphere.”

Gregory expects the building to be “electric” because it will reintroduce the basketball programs to the students. The men’s team played all its Atlantic Coast Conference games just a mile from campus last season, at Philips Arena, yet the student support sagged. Co-eds were all but nonexistent at women’s games out at Gwinnett.

“It made you realize how important it is to play on-campus, where students can shoot over to the arena in a matter of minutes from their dorm rooms or classrooms or labs or the library,” Marshall said. “It’s going to be good to have them back.”

Alumni and fans have shown interest in having the Yellow Jackets back on the Flats, too. Georgia Tech has sold approximately 4,000 season tickets for men’s games already, enough to nearly half-fill the 8,600-seat building. Radakovich expects another spike following the open houses once fans experience McCamish Pavilion for the first time.

“Once people see it, sit in the seats and get a feel for what it will be like here this season, tickets will go,” he said.

Anticipation Building

McCamish Pavilion has captivated Tech fans’ attention since the public unveiling of the plans in October 2010.

Georgia Tech decided to replace the coliseum after it was determined $23 million in repair and maintenance costs would be required to extend the building’s life for another decade. The school found a $15 million donor to kick-off the project in the family of Hank McCamish, a 1950 Tech grad and the founder of a highly successful life insurance company.

The Board of Regents approved the project on Oct. 20, 2010, and a ceremonial groundbreaking was held the following May, shortly after Gregory took over as the coach of the men’s basketball program. Demolition began seven days after the groundbreaking, and reconstruction began in November 2011.

The renovations proceeded at a rapid pace. The audio and video systems installations began just

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The Buzz

six months after the contractor switched from demolition mode to construction.

Radakovich credited the cooperation between Georgia Tech, the contractor Whiting-Turner Contracting and the architect Populous for keeping the project on schedule.

The wait, while relatively short when it comes to construction, wasn’t difficult for the athletic director. He doesn’t tour the facility regularly like Gregory does. But he understands the excitement those in both the men’s and women’s programs feel in anticipation of the building’s opening.

“The coaches have done a good job of making the players understand that better things will come in the future and that sometimes you have to go through growing pains before you get to where you want to be,” Radakovich said. “I know they’ll appreciate that the moment they take the McCamish Pavilion floor for the first time.” ■

gt georgia tech athletics

THE COAL MINER’S SON

Georgia Tech beloved head trainer Jay Shoop has impacted the health and lives of people from Capitol Hill to Pebble Beach

By Matt Winkeljohn

T

There is so much texture to Jay Shoop that it is difficult to know where to begin so . . . how about we tape this and look back upon it later?

The man so often has tape in his hands, after all, that if you were to erect a statue of Georgia Tech’s director of sports medicine (head athletic trainer from 1987-’99 and ‘02-present), you’d have to put a roll in bronze. Tape has become an extension of his being: around, down, under, back up . . . rip! He whips it around like a fencer would a blade. Again, up the other side of a big man’s foot . . . rip! Slap!

Omoregie Uzzi, the Yellow Jackets’ big, senior offensive lineman, sits on a table beneath Bobby Dodd Stadium. Shoop is girding Uzzi. “I don’t want anybody but Jay doing my ankles,” Uzzi says. “Been that way since freshman year.

It’s strong and comfortable.”

Shoop doesn’t look up. “Everybody’s got their favorites,” he says softly. “Some players go to . . . “ Uzzi: “Jay’s being modest.”

If it’s possible to boil down Shoop’s 43-year career -- the one that landed him in the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame in June -- to bite size, there you have it: he’s wrapped up and tended to many things (“We probably spend, just on adhesive tape, about $60,000 a year,” he says.), people trust him, and he’s not going to brag about any of it.

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The Buzz

He’s humble as a coal miner’s son.

Problem is, the tape thing undersells drastically the depth of James Shoop much like a biographer trying to paint the picture of a man’s life in just 1,400 or so words would end up with stick figures on a napkin.

How many coal miner’s kids from towns as tiny as Wise, Virginia (population: 3,200 or so) do you know who’ve been called to Washington to lobby the halls of Congress, who’ve helped drive legislation through the labyrinth of state

politics in order to legitimize his profession, who’ve worked three Olympiads, who’ve played Augusta National, Pebble Beach and so many great golf courses all while having truly earned the title “patriarchal figure” at both work and play?

There’s Jay Shoop.

“I think that he is family first, through and through, and he brings that to the work place,” said Tech athletic trainer I-Shien Shiao. “I don’t think you could go to another training room

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staff and have this much diversity. Our backgrounds, our ethnicity, our religions . . . he is very open-minded, and he brings family values. We’re all part of a family.

“We’ll tease each other and say, ‘Did you see your dad today, or Grandpa?’ Everybody’s an uncle, or a sister or a brother in this facility. You see so many former athletes come back and give him a hug.”

Hug a trainer? Shoop wanted to be an athlete.

He grew up playing ball, and still hits the little white one with great passion. By the time college became a consideration, which rarely was the case in his tiny corner of far western Virginia, it was not going to pay the way. He was smallish, and the rigors of his neighborhood had some physical effect upon him that he does not want us to talk about.

His high school football coach had nudged him toward being a student manager and arrangements were made to attend fairly nearby East Tennessee State University, in Johnson City, with the help of a student manager work scholarship. Jay Shoop does not waste opportunity.

“It was a means to help pay for college,” he says. “Nobody had any money.”

The goal was to be a sportswriter.

In almost no time, Former ETSU head trainer Jerry Robertson saw something distinct in Shoop in that fall of 1965.

“He was going to be a journalism major, and probably be the next Grantland Rice,” the semi-retired Robertson said in referencing a legendary sportswriter. “He started out as a student equipment manager. The one student trainer I had dropped out, and we moved Jay over to the training room. After the first week, he became the unofficial spokesman for the equipment managers and trainers. He became a leader immediately.”

Robertson was/is the first of two men Shoop will cite as landmark influences in his work life. As Jay saw what Richardson did, new wheels began turning.

“The way he helped people, the kind of person he was, his commitment… he had a purpose, and I liked that,” Shoop says. “Things started changing; I could see myself being like him. He was a true mentor . . . although we had a doctor there, they came to him first. He was like the town doctor for the school.”

Shoop’s first Georgia Tech connection soon began evolving.

ETSU’s head football coach was John Robert Bell, a member of the 1943 Tech team that had won the SEC title and beat Tulsa in the Sugar Bowl to become the first team to play in all four major bowls (Orange, Rose, Cotton and Sugar). From ‘53-’66 (when Bell became head coach at ETSU), he was an assistant under Bobby Dodd on the Flats, many of those years spent as the Yellow Jackets’ chief recruiter.

“He had his senior council on the football team,” Robertson said. “Jay Shoop was so well thought of by the athletes and staff that coach Bell had him on the senior council.”

By this time, Shoop was on track to become a professional athletic trainer, yet he’d get close to Rice after all. In finishing the best season in school history (10-0-1), the Buccaneers went to the Division II Grantland Rice Bowl in ‘69.

“Coach Bell introduced the senior players and Jay Shoop was also introduced on national television before we played Louisiana Tech,” Robertson said. “They (La Tech) had a quarterback named Terry Bradshaw. It

26

The Buzz

was a great day for our seniors and East Tennessee. It was not a great day for Bradshaw.”

ETSU sacked Bradshaw 12 times, and won 34-14.

Before long, Shoop became the head trainer at Furman University.

That’s how he came to meet his second milepost man, former Falcons head trainer Jerry Rhea. The NFL team held its training camps on the Greenville, S.C., campus in the early ‘70s and Shoop worked alongside the Birds.

“He had just gotten out of school,” said Rhea, who is retired and living in metro Atlanta. “Very caring, quiet leadership. I was a screamer and he wasn’t. He was someone you admired because he didn’t ruffle. He saw humor in a lot of things that others didn’t.”

A few years later, Shoop joined Rhea’s staff with the Falcons and before he moved on in ‘82, the two men pushed through the Georgia legislature a bill designed to license athletic trainers. Rhea was the chief plunger.

Shoop and others pushed just as hard.

“We were trying to improve the profession,” Shoop said. “We worked, worked, worked . . . two years it went to the house and got beat. I don’t remember the numbers, it was like 280-71. So [head trainer] Warren Morris from the University of Georgia, who had helped us, said, ‘We need to go talk to the Speaker.’ “ That was big time. Late longtime Speaker of the Georgia House Tom Murphy was legendary for getting so much done one way or another.

“The three of us went into his office. He said, ‘I heard about that. I don’t think those boys knew what they were voting on. We’ll see if we can’t bring it up in a coupla days,’ “ Shoop recalled. “Sure enough, somebody re-introduced it a couple days later. It won by something like 280-70. That right there is politics. I was there. I saw it.”

In the telling of this story, like so many that Shoop tells, there is incredulousness. He doesn’t do anything, let alone tell stories, to big-time anybody. The man marvels over what’s happened in his life.

Everyone who has ever known him well is likely to tell you that he is a man of great, great faith. It is a rock-solid lock that Jay Shoop thanks the Lord every day for many things, and a good bet that his list includes all that he’s seen and done.

“Georgia Tech affords me that. With the Olympics going on now . . . what a great opportunity Georgia Tech afforded me. I went to Barcelona, Lillehammer, [the Goodwill Games in] St. Petersburg, Russia, to get ready for Atlanta [ in ‘96],” he says. “That wasn’t me; that was all Georgia Tech that put me in a position. Gosh, what great experiences and opportunities.”

After leaving the Falcons in ‘81, Shoop became head trainer for the USFL’s Michigan Panthers in ‘83-’84 and then re-joined former Falcons coach Leeman Bennett with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in ‘85 and ‘86.

From there, Georgia Tech.

Shoop came on board in ‘87, and by ‘88 former athletics director Homer Rice had convinced him to chaperone the Georgia Tech Sports Medicine clinic, which to this day helps rehabilitate former athletes, professors and all manner of folk -- adjacent to the business of treating Tech student-athletes.

His work running the training room for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta -- all while the Tech football team prepared for the upcoming

season in Dahlonega, Ga., and Shoop made daily trips back and forth to north Georgia -- was epic.

A one-year tour with the Detroit Lions and a year of sabbatical interrupted Jay’s Tech time. He returned in ‘02 and has been running the show since.

Much respect goes to Shoop from not only his staffers and the thousands of people whom he has treated, but from his peers as well.

Earlier this summer, he was asked to participate when Texas congressman Pete Sessions began pushing a bill on Capitol Hill. He was invited by a group that included the Dallas Cowboys’ team doctor (who also works for the University of Texas), the Green Bay Packers’ team doctor, and a physician from Duke to work on improving a wonky law.

“There is a law that says our doctors cannot carry black bags across state lines. When I say black bag, I mean with controlled substances, the medications that we’ve used for years and years,” he says. “When we got there . . . we had a congress person from Washington, Louisiana, Tom Price from Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and [Sessions]. We go in this big room with a great big, long table. Every congressperson had three people with them, and they all had iPhones and iPads, and [Sessions] told us, ‘When we get in there, if we get three minutes, we’ll be doing good.’ “ And . . . it went well. After Shoop & group were in there for at least 20 minutes, he says, “We left with a pretty good feeling,” especially after the invocation of analogies like doctors from neighboring states not being allowed -- legally -- to climb in their cars and drive to assist after Hurricane Katrina, at least not by way of taking their own supplies.

The next step was just as humbling as the first had been uplifting.

“We meet with the head of the judicial branch, a lawyer,” Shoops says.

“She looks over at the guy who wrote the bill . . . and she ripped us apart.

She looks at the doctor and says, ‘Doctor, do you realize that we have 1,276,000 pharmacies in this country that we’re trying to regulate, and you want us to worry about carrying pills to Buffalo, N.Y.?’ “ Here, Jay chuckles as he is wont.

“I was on the couch between two doctors, and we were squirming, boy.

I don’t know that it will ever get out of committee, but it was a great experience for me to be asked to go and see how government works,” he says.

“We were in the halls of Congress! She said, ‘You just take them to the emergency room.’ “ We could go on about Jay Shoop, but time and space dictate.

This story is not much about that, but it’s worth pointing out that when asked about Shoop’s greatest attributes mentioned him as, “a great son.”

His parents -- -- are both still alive, and he visits them frequently. They are the foundation of him.

Silly sentence, that one is, but with depth and great, great meaning.

Jay Shoop, whose many friends point out that he is a man of great, great faith (he does as well), has built a career off of the concept of faith in family.

He and wife, Anne, share a son, a daughter, five grandchildren, and siblings.

The “family” goes far, far beyond that. Shoop collects more stuff than you could imagine: sports memorabilia, civil war field amputation kits, photos, bees (he gives neighbors honey go assuage fears about the hives in his back yard), stories and -- above all -- relationships.

That’s why, when the wife of a dear friend died unexpectedly early in the night a while back and the new widower opened his garage door hours later just before dawn, Shoop was standing there . . . trying not to weep.

Shiao knows.

“One was one of our freshmen defensive linemen came in with no symptoms and ended up having a heart condition that caused him to be disqualified. It was easy to see in Jay’s expressions how much he cared, and having that kid’s parents in . . . it wasn’t about ending his career; it was more about emphasizing that he could live the rest of his life without football,” she said. “He’s really good about exercising the realistic view in life.

“And the end of every year, he’ll invite us over to his house for a low country boil. Everybody knows where we fit in, and what we’re good at, and what we need help with. We’re all there helping out, contributing, like a family.” ■ www.ramblinwreck.com

27

gt alumni spotlight

Patrick Whaley, Founder/CEO of TITIN weighted apparel, lives a truly renewed and blessed life.

In May 2009, as a rising Georgia Tech senior, Whaley was shot in the chest during an assault and robbery in downtown Atlanta, and survived.

Whaley, who earned Eagle Scout recognition at 15 years old, was mentally prepared for hard work and reverently determined for the road to recovery, but his battle to recuperate from this horrendous assault impacted him on a much deeper level. He struggled emotionally and physically, but remained unwilling to sacrifice his goals. During Whaley’s recovery period, he was motivated to improve the effectiveness of requisite physical therapy elements and used his own invention to exceed all expectations as he regained his strength and endurance against all odds. As a result of this success, Whaley unexpectedly opened up an entirely new marketing strategy and remains determined to introduce a line of weighted exercise apparel designed for therapeutic usage, which will augment Whaley’s primary focus of TITIN’s patented line of weighted athletic apparel that targets a distinctive audience of talented athletes.

Whaley returned to the Georgia Tech campus in August 2009 and continued his education with a rigorous fulltime senior schedule. With the help of the Atlanta Police Department, Patrick successfully put his three assailants in prison in October 2009. Whaley proudly graduated in August 2010 with his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering after having completed a full Co-Op rotation with a local firm who specializes in a broad range of information technology solutions and factory automation expertise.

While he was well on his way to a physical and mental recovery, Whaley struggled to financially back his dream; even resorting to pawning his beloved Eagle Scout ring to continue funding his invention in every possible way he could think of. He believed then, and now, that TITIN can make a real difference in helping people live a better life. Whaley continues to stress “[his] tireless devotion to TITIN isn’t about earning money, it’s is about giving back and encouraging people to be more fit. There is NO shame in showing up and losing... [the shame] is in NOT SHOWING UP!” Despite the financial issues, Patrick continued to believe, whole-heartedly, in his designs and invention. He entered into the 2010 Georgia Tech InVenture Prize Competition, and his patented, weighted exercise apparel won First Place and the People’s Choice Award, totaling $20,000 in winnings. He quickly invested that money into his business and continued to grow and improve his product line.

TITIN Awards: ■

First Place: Georgia Tech InVenture Prize Competition

■

People’s Choice: Georgia Tech InVenture Prize Competition

■

“Most Fundable”: Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition

■

Most Bankable: Rice Business Plan Competition (Largest competition in the world)

■

Outstanding Product of the Year: Global Venture Labs

■

CNN’s 2010 “The Next Big Thing”

After many long years of diligent dedication, the USPTO officially approved and accepted all terms of his patent for TITIN (originally known as OmegaWear) in April 2012. Whaley’s brand focuses on a patented, form-fitting, hyper-gravity training shirt that places anatomically correct, integrated weight gels over each major muscle group to improve strength, speed, agility and endurance. TITIN gear increases caloric burn, provides targeted muscle endurance, and includes the additional benefit of assimilating centrifugal forces of motion, thereby decreasing physical stress applied to the body’s joints.

TITIN products have not only been successfully marketed within the USA since it’s official product launch in March 2011, but is sold lucratively in seven other countries to date. Patrick continues to manage TITIN’s daily business operations, as he remains focused on innovative product research and development while continually responding to client feedback regarding product performance, user needs and requirements. Whaley recently opened a new office space and warehouse in Alpharetta, in conjunction with a formidable VC based in London, England. The two companies joined forces in a partnership and will combine resources to expand their unique business opportunities exponentially.

TITIN clients range from genuinely devoted Crossfit athletes to numerous NCAA/D-1 athletic teams to enthusiastic weekend warriors. Players from the NBA, NFL and PGA, Pro Boxers, and Olympic athletes, along with many elite competitors from various athletic backgrounds and disciplines all recognize TITIN’s innovative technology and celebrate TITIN’s abundant intrinsic benefits.

Whaley remains intensely proud and deeply humbled by the outpouring of progressive customer support and profound acknowledgments that TITIN continues to receive from friends and fellow competitors, alike. Stay tuned, as Patrick Whaley has just scratched the surface of this gigantic athletic apparel marketplace with TITIN and even a “short conversation” with Whaley will leave you scratching your head as his creative mind moves faster than most people can process in one setting. Patrick characteristically quips; “It’s a gift...and a curse!”

Check out TITIN’S athletic videos and product information on his website at www.TitinTech.com and remember, everyone...TITIN UP YOUR WORKOUT!!

28

The Buzz

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THE TECH SIDE OF LIFE

There is no place Jim Terry would rather be on a fall Saturday afternoon than Bobby Dodd Stadium

a

By Simit Shah

As an executive for The Coca-Cola Company, Jim Terry attended the best sporting events all over the world, including the summer and winter Olympics, Super Bowls, the Final Four and Masters, but there’s nothing that compares to his favorite.

“There’s no place I’d rather be than a Georgia Tech game,” he declared.

Talk to Terry for a few minutes, and it’s easy to tell that gold and white flows through his veins. His passion for Georgia Tech can be traced back to his father and grandfather, both big Jacket fans dating back to the Alexander era.

However, Terry’s allegiance began thousands of miles away. He was born on DavisMonthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz. His father was a Colonel in the Strategic Air Command, so the family moved often.

Terry has early memories of checking the Sunday morning newspaper while in California to see if the Jackets prevailed on fall Saturdays.

“My father loved Coach Dodd,” Terry remembered. “He didn’t think there was a better football coach or gentleman than Bobby Dodd.

He cared more about the well-being of studentathletes than wins and losses. He had a deep admiration for Coach Dodd, and he instilled that in me.”

In 1965, Terry’s father retired from the military, and the family moved back to Decatur. He attended Southwest DeKalb High School, the same as his parents.

“I always knew I wanted to go to Georgia Tech, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be anywhere near Georgia by the time I graduated high school,” he said. “I’m glad that we were back here, because it was my first choice.”

Terry started his freshman year in 1968 with aspirations of becoming an astronaut. Like many Tech students before and after him, he found the academic environment as challenging as advertised.

“I had kind of a rough start,” he admitted.

“I had a hard time on the front end. They told you at orientation to look to your left and right, because two of you aren’t going to make it. I was almost one of those two. I had a lot of help those first few quarters from my Kappa Sig fraternity brothers.

“It was very challenging and very competitive,” he added. “I knew that if I got a degree from Georgia Tech, it would be a differentiator and help me get a job in the business world.”

Terry found his academic footing and graduated with a degree in Industrial Management

30

The Buzz

Jim Terry

in 1972. He was weighing five job offers and settled on Coca-Cola.

“I took the job because of the great reputation Coca-Cola had as a company in the U.S. and globally,” he said. “The career opportunities we discussed in the interview process were endless. Plus, I would be selling the number one brand in the world. I knew if I did well, I’d end up back in Atlanta. So I walked right across the street.”

His career at Coke saw him based in Charlotte, Cincinnati, Dallas and Denver as he rose up the ranks and managed many of company’s major accounts across multiple trade channels and some of the largest bottling groups for Coca-Cola North America.

“Georgia Tech was really my springboard into the business world,” he reflected. “If it hadn’t been for Georgia Tech and that degree, I’m not sure what would have happened. The degree prepared me for the real world and taught me a lot about persistence and perseverance.”

In 1985, he was transferred back to Atlanta (“Just in time for New Coke,” he quipped), which allowed him to reconnect with Georgia Tech.

A senior vice president at Coca-Cola, Walter Dunn, knew Terry’s passion for his alma mater and introduced him to athletics director Homer Rice, fundraising chief Jack Thompson (who Terry calls “the best on the planet”) and school president Pat Crecine.

From that point until his retirement last year, Terry was the point person for every major contract development, sales and marketing promotions, and alliance partnerships involving Georgia Tech.

“Even as I moved into other jobs at Coke, I kept that role,” he said. “It was important to me and very meaningful to me to steward that relationship.”

Supporting the Jackets became a family affair for Terry’s wife Becky and twin daughters, Sara Beth and Meg. “We brought them to just about every event

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on campus while they were growing up. We have pictures of them over the years with Coach (Bobby) Ross, Coach (Bobby) Cremins and Coach (George) O’Leary. They grew up Georgia Tech, Saturday on the Flats and nights at the Thrillerdome.”

In fact, he brought them along in the spring of 1993 to see Cremins after he announced his departure to South Carolina.

“We went to his office,” he recounted. “It was before he actually left, and I was trying to talk him out of it. I tried, but he said, ‘It’s time for me to go.’ When we got back in the car, Meg turns to me and says, ‘We can’t win without Coach Bobby.’ That was a tough ride home. Thankfully, he came back.”

The twins remain diehard Tech fans while graduating from Auburn.

Upon retiring from Coke after 39 years, Terry wasn’t ready for a life of leisure, so naturally he turned his attention towards Georgia Tech. He signed on as a sales and marketing consultant with the athletic department, working with athletics director Dan Rada-

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kovich, associate athletics director Wayne Hogan and IMG general manager Tom Stipes.

“Now it’s all about how I can help Georgia Tech,” he explained.

“I want to use my marketing knowledge, sales experience and expertise to help grow the fan base and sales revenues for Georgia Tech. In this role, I get to represent Georgia Tech at various functions and events as part of GTAA. That is also very rewarding to me.”

Terry also serves at the chairman of the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation, which annually honors the coach “whose program represents the Dodd coaching qualities both on and off the field.”

“There’s not another award like that,” he said. “It’s not based on just wins and losses. We want this award to be the Heisman Trophy for coaches. We do the presentations on campus, and we’re the only ones that do that. It lets the fans, players and the coach’s family be a part of it. The base platform of the award centers on doing The Dodd Way with leadership, scholarship and integrity at the center.” ■ www.ramblinwreck.com

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