Born & Bred // August 2017 // Back to School

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AUGUST 2017

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BACK TO SCHOOL

CHAPEL HILL COMES ALIVE AGAIN

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WELCOME

Letter from the Editor

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Last month, Roy Williams was nice enough to appear on the Carolina Insider podcast. During the course of that interview, he revealed something that might have been even more impressive than his three NCAA championships.

As you probably know, Williams has a demanding schedule. He coaches the Tar Heels, and on the days they’re not playing, he’s usually recruiting or practicing. But during the course of the 2016-17 school year, he said, he managed to see each of the 27 other sports in the Carolina athletic department.

That’s fairly amazing. Just from a pure scheduling standpoint, it’s not an easy accomplishment.

Gymnastics, for example, only had four home meets all season.

But, as Williams told us on the podcast, there’s a simple reason for why he makes the effort to see as many Tar Heel athletic events as he possibly can: “I am a Tar Heel.”

We all are. That’s why you’re receiving this magazine. And as the 2017-18 athletic year begins, I’m taking Williams’ comment as a challenge. At some point during this school year, I want to go see a Carolina athletic event in a sport I’ve never seen.

It doesn’t matter if I understand the rules. It doesn’t matter if I know the opponent. It just matters that the Tar Heels are playing.

Maybe you’d consider giving it a try with me. You’re already coming to Chapel Hill at some point this year. Check the newly redesigned GoHeels.com and see what other teams are playing that day.

Consider it a New Year’s resolution. I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s Eve. Working on this Back to School issue, I figured

PRODUCED BY THE RAMS CLUB EDITOR IN CHIEF ADAM LUCAS CONTRIBUTING WRITERS LEE PACE & SHAWN KREST PHOTOGRAPHY JEFFREY CAMARATI & J.D. LYON, JR. DESIGN JUJUBE SPORTS PUBLISHING

out why: it’s because of false advertising.

The new year doesn’t really start on January 1. Not in my opinion. The new year starts when football is in training camp and you’re still learning the new jersey number changes in your favorite sports and you first walk through the gates of your preferred campus venue after the long summer desert of college sports.

A ball dropping in Times Square doesn’t signify the end of a year. We have the release of the Learfield Directors’ Cup final standings for that. By the way, Carolina finished fifth in 201617, the athletic department’s 20th top-10 finish in the 24-year history of the award. The rest of the Atlantic Coast Conference combined has 18 top-10 finishes.

In August, we don’t have any of those scoreboards. We just have uncertainty and hope and maybe a little bit of trepidation.

We don’t know yet exactly which kind of year this is going to be. They can’t all be like 2017, when we were able to celebrate on Franklin Street and watch last-second wins in Kenan and see multiple top-ten teams play across campus throughout the spring.

But a bad year in Chapel Hill is better than a good year in…well, almost anywhere. Here’s the thing: every year finds a way to be fun. That should be more obvious now than ever before. After all, without Kris Jenkins and the pain that accompanied his shot in 2016, we probably don’t get to celebrate the 2017 national championship.

Happy New Year, everyone. See you at the games.

ADAM LUCAS Editor in Chief ramsclub.com

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I’ve never gotten over the first time I entered Wilson Library. I never knew there were so many books in the world.” —SHELBY FOOTE, AUTHOR

the

BACK TO SCHOOL edition

ON THE COVER: A new school year means new classes, new rosters and new gear.

COVER BY J.D. LYON, JR.

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BACK TO SCHOOL

12 Words from the Wise Tar Heel coaches who are also UNC alums offer advice to incoming student-athletes

BY ADAM LUCAS

BACK TO SCHOOL

18 Making The Jump

Preparing for life as a college athlete requires a unique blend of mental and physical training

BY SHAWN KREST

BACK TO SCHOOL

to Kenan 24 Back This season will mark a continuation of the

evolution of football Saturdays as an event in Chapel Hill

BY LEE PACE

24 EDITOR’S LETTER p. 3

32 TAR HEEL TICKER p. 6

BACK TO SCHOOL

28 Class Reunions

The 2017-18 athletics year will mark milestone anniversaries for several historic Tar Heel teams

BY ADAM LUCAS

36 CAROLINA EVERYWEAR p. 8

BACK TO SCHOOL

32 Facilities Update

Massive on-campus construction projects mean some teams will play elsewhere this school year

BY ADAM LUCAS

BACK TO SCHOOL

36 One and Not Done

Marvin Williams’ commitment to his education showed a balance between books and basketball

BY ADAM LUCAS

FIRST PERSON

40 Larry Fedora: A Critical Time of Year Larry Fedora writes about his approach to training camp

BY LARRY FEDORA

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TA R H E E LT I C K E R FROM THE RAMS CLUB

MEMORIES OF CAROLINA

The Rams Club is fortunate to have several former UNC student-athletes on staff. We asked a handful of them what memories are brought back as they walk across campus during the first weeks of classes.

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BRIAN BERSTICKER, MEN’S BASKETBALL Director of Member Services

When I think about returning to campus as a studentathlete, I think about new beginnings, new teammates, the 12 minute run, the start of football, catching up with old friends you had not seen over the summer, sitting on the “wall” with friends/teamates in between classes. This place is so special to so many people. My mom and dad used to tell a funny story about dropping me off back on campus and moving me in. They would say that as we would be driving up Franklin Street, coming up the hill, just as we would get to the edge of campus, a smile would come across my face, as if they knew I had returned home.

SUE WALSH, WOMEN’S SWIMMING

BRIAN CHACOS, FOOTBALL

Director of Scholarship Donor Development and Student-Athlete Relations

I think if you were a football player playing for Coach Bunting, mid-August wasn’t a pleasant time as we were just in the midst of 3/2 a days with a lot of full pads and contact, living in Avery dorm where the air conditioning worked half the time and not being in anywhere near the conditions the guys are in today! The bright side was that we were back together with our brothers motivating each other every day to be the best that we could be and to represent ourselves and university the right way. We also knew that our classmates were coming back to campus soon which would bring a whole new level of energy for us to feed off of.

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Associate Executive Director Scholarship & Legacy Gifts

I can clearly remember as a freshman feeling the jitters of an unfamiliar place, getting lost trying to find my first class and looking totally like a freshman with a map in hand! I wondered how I had missed the fact on my recruiting trip that it is very, very humid and hot in August in NC and that my dorm room did not have air conditioning! And yet, as a senior, I wondered how three years had passed by so quickly and how I was ever going to leave this special place without being in tears. And I recalled the reasons I chose to attend The University of North Carolina and smile at the thought that I would choose Carolina all over again.

G A M E D AY I N C H A P E L H I L L

WHERE TAR HEELS BELL TOWER

TAILGATE

GENA COVINGTON WEBB

JOYCE & DICK MORGAN

TRACEY MELNICK

JACKIE & MIKE STOUT

TONY JARRETT

SHERRI CLARKE

DUSTIN DUKE

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.

BOWLES LOT

LAURINBURG, N.C.

PHILIP WHITFIELD

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

KRISTEN & BRAD ERDMAN WESTERVILLE, OH

RALEIGH, N.C.

METHODIST CHURCH

GREENSBORO, N.C.

PAT REED’S

KENAN WOODS

SOUTHERN SHORES, N.C.

TED ELKINS

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.

PEG DIXON

LEICESTER, N.C.

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C A R O L I N A E V E R YWE A R Rams Club members like to wear their Carolina Blue, and they’ll wear it all over the US and the world. If you have a photo of you in your Carolina gear in front of notable landmarks in the US and abroad, send them our way to be a part of Carolina EveryWear!

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To have your photo included: -Send your photo digitally to bornandbred@ramsclub.com.

-Identify everyone in your photo and the location of the photo.

Here are the “Rules”: -At least one person in the photo has to be a Rams Club member -You must be wearing Carolina gear -You must be in front of a notable landmark (sorry, as cool as Kenan Stadium and the Smith Center are, they don’t qualify).

SHOW US YOUR COLORS!

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1) Jeffrey Finn of Charlotte, NC, in Beaver Creek, Colorado; 2) Barbara & Ed Newnam of Wake Forest, NC, at Rainbow Falls in Hilo, Hawaii; 3) Deborah Roberts Alvord of Cary, NC, at the Parthenon in Athens; 4) Elizabeth Littleton, Robert Stewart & Charlotte Stewart of Stokesdale, NC, at the Jimi Hendrix statue in Seattle; 5) George & Donna Rawlins of Reidsville, NC, at the Tour-Thru Tree in Klamath, California; 6) Rob & Lee Merrill of Asheville, NC, at the Matterhorn Zermatt, Switzerland; 7) Jere Freeman IV & Clayton Freeman of Wilmington, NC, at Paine Towers in Torres Del Paine National Park, Chile; 8) Charles II, Ryan & William Greene of High Point, NC, at the Colosseum in Rome; 9) Jake Mario, Jeremy Shaw, Carter Mario & Bobby Shaw of Wilmington DE, at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis; 10) Grady & Holly Crumpler of Raleigh, NC, in Bora-Bora; 11) Terry Whitaker of Greenville, NC, in Roatan, Dominican Republic; 12) Dee & Ed Lowdermilk of Chapel Hill, NC, at the Great Pyramids in Egypt; 13) Carly Collette of Chapel Hill, NC, in Dubai; 14) Kelley, Michael, Claire & Taylor Burch of Charlotte, NC, in Whistler Mountain, BC; 15) Victor Peter Paul Malaca, Teresita Malaca & Mike Malaca of Raeford, NC, at the Chamorro Cultural Festival in San Marcos, CA; 16) Lisa & Lauren Hamlett of Oak Ridge, NC, on the Ramshorn Slope in Vail; 17) Jerry & Sue Gambill of Cary, NC, at the Mesa Arch in Canyonlands Park, Utah; 18) Andy Leonhardt, Carter Keller, Susan Keller, Michelle Leonhardt, Missi Mann & Chet Mann of Sanford, NC, in Harbour Island, Bahamas

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19 20 19) Tommy & Denise Green of Summerfield, NC, at the King Kamehameha I statue in Kapaau, Hawaii; 20) Gena Covington & Evan Webb of Laurinburg, NC, at their wedding in Chapel Hill; 21) Antonio, Joe & Anastasia Bafia of Raleigh, NC, at the Aqueduct in Segovia, Spain; 22) Jack Arey of Shelby, NC, at the top of Rockefeller Center in New York; 23) Karen Rolandelli, Chris Brogdon, Leigh Brogdon, Erin Rolandelli & Trisha Rolandelli of Charlotte, NC, the top of Diamond Head in Honolulu; 24) Cheryl Miller of Cuming, GA, in Denali Park, AK; 25) Cindy & Joe Xavier of Toronto, Canada, in Grimsey Island, Iceland; 26) Rubin Hicks of King, NC, at Pilot Mountain, NC; 27) Mary Nickerson of Mebane, NC, at the Final Four Fanfest in Phoenix; 28) Mike & Ann Johnson of Apex, NC, at Mt. San Jacinto State Park in Palm Springs, California; 29) Chris Schleter of Washington, UT, at Red Square in Moscow; 30) Harry Covington of Laurinburg, NC, in Ketchikan, Alaska; 31) Kate & Sloan Golson of Tiburon, CA, at the Eiffel Tower in Paris; 32) Chris Snyder, Jabari Snyder, Chris Snyder, Brooke Gentry Snyder, Betsy Gentry & Bryan Gentry of Cleveland, TN, at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo in Chattanooga, TN; 33) Jim Trimm of Chapel Hill, NC, at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monaco; 34) Scott, Casey, Caroline & Jo Ann Cabaniss of Raleigh, NC, by Michael Jordan’s Championship Trophies in Chicago, IL; 35) Matt Shytle & Laina Balafas of Durham, NC, in St. Kitts; 36) Allen & Laura Hicks, Teresa & Bob Scheppegrell of Greensboro, NC, at the Louvre in Paris; 37) Peyton Black of Raleigh, NC, at Dragon’s Back Trail in Hong Kong; 38) Eric & Heather Hill of Whiteville, NC, at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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WORDS FROM THE WISE

Tar Heel coaches who are also UNC alums offer advice to incoming student-athletes PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI

ROY WILLIAMS Men’s Basketball

The first thing is look at your experience as a total experience, not how many minutes you play or shots you get. Look at the total experience and understand you’re going to be challenged every day. Are you up for the challenge? If you want to play here and be one of the best, can you accept the challenge to be thought of as the best? If not, you’re going to cheat yourself and cheat the team. Enjoy the journey to try and be the best you can be.

RICH DESELM Swimming

• Be grateful for the opportunity to be a student-athlete at UNC and thank people in your support structure • Go to class • Use the support services that are offered • Be an academic asset to your team • Meet as many people as you can • Find something to embrace outside of academics and athletics • Get your parents to visit often and, if they can, get them to take you to dinner to as many of Chapel Hill’s awesome restaurants as possible • Work hard, work smart, compete with pride for your school and team mates • Have fun!

“Look at the total experience and understand you’re going to be challenged every day. Are you up for the challenge? If you want to play here and be one of the best, can you accept the challenge to be thought of as the best? If not, you’re going to cheat yourself and cheat the team. Enjoy the journey to try and be the best you can be.”

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“You must embrace every moment you have on campus by getting involved in every facet of UNC Chapel Hill, by supporting your athletic teams, joining clubs and finding social events that will help you explore the amazing Tar Heel campus.”

JOE BRESCHI Men’s Lacrosse

My advice to incoming students would be to challenge themselves academically, figure out what motivates them and most importantly, make friends that will last a lifetime. You must embrace every moment you have on campus by getting involved in every facet of UNC Chapel Hill, by supporting your athletic teams, joining clubs and finding social events that will help you explore the amazing Tar Heel campus. Make no mistake, these are the best four years of your life and the memories will be everlasting.

SARAH HANEY Rowing

My advice would be to not bite off too much your first semester and even your first year.

Concentrate on your academics first and your sport in order to set yourself up for success in your collegiate career. Once you have a firm foundation, then you can start adding additional things to your experience.

My next advice would be to be selfish with your time. You know when you need to study so don’t be afraid to leave a social situation to head to Loudermilk or the library.

As a student-athlete, you will have an exhaustive list of people who are here to help you—help you achieve all of your goals academically and athletically. Please use your professors, coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, academic counselor, sports medicine staff, student-athlete development staff, etc.

We are all here because we want to see you succeed so do not be afraid to reach out to any and all of us..

CLINT GWALTNEY RICK STEINBACHER Senior Associate Athletic Director

Focus on your first year of academics, and establish a good GPA your first year. It is very hard to bring up a GPA once it starts low, but it is equally hard to bring a good GPA down once you have established a good one.

COREY HOLLIDAY Associate Athletic Director

If you are a male, the 60/40 female/ male ratio will work in your favor no matter how bad looking you are Rick Steinbacher and I are classic examples!

Senior Associate Athletic Director

The next four years in Chapel Hill will be the greatest years of your life. You will meet the best friends you are ever going to have, you will get a degree from one of the greatest academic institutions in the world, you will be competing for championships with 21 awesome head coaches and 750 other amazing student-athletes, and you will learn that Chapel Hill is a magical place to be a student. Every day you will be among the best and brightest students and athletes in the world, so do everything you can do to exhaust your potential, become your authentic self, and have a lot of fun along the way.

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WORDS FROM THE WISE

Tar Heel coaches who are also UNC alums offer advice to incoming student-athletes

ANSON DORRANCE Women’s Soccer

I would first advise them to read through the list of core values we provide our incoming student-athletes, especially No. 1, 3, 6 and 12.

What I would also recommend to all of them is jumping into everything on campus.

I love the emphasis on arts on this campus.

One of the greatest hires in the history of the University of North Carolina was Emil Kang. He is the czar of the arts on campus.

Look at what he brings into Memorial Hall every school year.

My advice would be for students to pick out one event per month to attend at Memorial Hall. If they go to six events per school year at Memorial Hall, by the time they graduate they will have lived an incredibly rich life on campus.

One thing I find that most parents of incoming student-athletes and incoming student-athletes are worried about is the adversity the kids will feel in college. What I tell them is they will have some sort of failure in an academic class or they won’t play as much as they would like. But these are some of the most extraordinary life transforming experiences in the lives of their children. They should embrace them. The parents should not protect their kids from the chaos of the universe. They should allow the incredibly safe environment of college to expose this chaos to them. They need to have the experience of not starting, or struggling in a class, to see if they can muster the resilience to keep coming back and never quit.

“The parents should not protect their kids from the chaos of the universe. They should allow the incredibly safe environment of college to expose this chaos to them. They need to have the experience of not starting, or struggling in a class, to see if they can muster the resilience to keep coming back and never quit.”

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DORRANCE CORE VALUE QUOTES:

Core Value 1: Be tough.

“The true joy in life is to be a force of fortune instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” -- George Bernard Shaw Core Value 3: Be focused.

“College is about books. And by the word ‘books,’ the proposition means this: College is about the best available tools--books, computers, lab equipment—for broadening your mastery of one or more important subjects that will go on deepening your understanding of the world, yourself and the people around you.

“This will almost certainly be the last time in your life when other people bear the expense of awarding you four years of financially unburdened time. If you use the years primarily for mastering the skills of social life—as though those skills shouldn’t already have been acquired by the end of middle school—or if you use these years for testing the degree to which your vulnerable brain and body can bear the strains of the alcoholism with which a number of students depart campus, or the sexual excess that can seem so rewarding (to name only two of the lurking maelstroms), then you may ultimately leave this vast table of nutriment as the one more prematurely burnt-out case.” -- Reynolds Price Core Value 6: Be Positive. “ . . . everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms– to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance . . . in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person (you are is) the result of an inner decision . . . therefore, any man can . . . decide . . . that (this) last inner freedom cannot be lost.” -- Viktor E. Frankl Core Value 12: Be Grateful “Finally there is the question of whether we have a duty to feel grateful. Hundreds of generations who came before us lived dire, short lives, in deprivation or hunger, in ignorance or under oppression or during war, and did so partly motivated by the dream that someday there would be men and women who lived long lives in liberty with plenty to eat and without fear of an approaching storm.

HARLIS MEADERS Track & Field

It was the summer of 1988, yes before you were born, and I was about to embark on a journey that would change my life forever. Like most 18-year-old boys, I knew everything. I knew that Carolina was a great school and I would be surrounded by some of the brightest minds and best athletes in the country. I knew that I would have to study late and work hard to be successful because my parents had told me a thousand times.

My 18-year-old ears heard them say, “Study.. blah…blah…not everyone gets this chance…. blah…blah…we believe in you and blah..blah.”

Now at the age of… well you can do the math, I realize that at 18 I knew but I really didn’t know. At 47 years old, for those of you who didn’t bother to do the math, now I know what I knew, but didn’t truly know, you know.

Of course, you think you do you’re 18… but you don’t. So, I will tell you.

Somewhere during the next four to five years, in addition to all you learn in the classroom, you will meet people and have experiences that will change your life forever, you will love, you will cry, you will laugh and at the end of it all you will bleed Carolina Blue and then you will really know how special this place and this opportunity really is.

Welcome to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and into the Tar Heel Family.

“Suffering through privation, those who came before us accumulated the knowledge that makes our lives favored; fought the battles that made our lives free; physically built much of what we rely on for our prosperity; and, most important, shaped the ideals of liberty. For all the myriad problems of modern society, we now live in the world our forebears would have wished for us— in many ways, a better place than they dared imagine. For us not to feel grateful is treacherous selfishness.

“Failing to feel grateful to those who came before is such a corrosive notion, it must account at some level for part of our bad feelings about the present. The solution—a rebirth of thankfulness—is in our self-interest.” -- Gregg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox

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WORDS FROM THE WISE

Tar Heel coaches who are also UNC alums offer advice to incoming student-athletes

MIKE FOX Baseball

This is part of the letter the baseball program sends to all incoming freshmen: Prior to your arrival this summer it is important I let you know several of my thoughts and the policies and procedures under which we operate our baseball program here at The University of North Carolina. There are a few things it is important you know right from the start. I love players who hustle, are self–motivated, clean cut, polite, attend class, are attentive, RESPECTFUL, positive, hardnosed, fearless, trustworthy, self-confident, hard-working, those who are never satisfied and those willing to sacrifice personal gains for the benefit of the team. I do not like profanity, laziness, earrings, negativity, lack of effort, disrespect, tardiness, elevated egos, individuals, mental mistakes, disrespect, lying, excuses, bad attitudes, selfishness and those who think they are above the rules.

An unwillingness to meet the standards and expectations of Carolina baseball will not be tolerated. It is very important that you read and learn our team standards that will be handed to you at our initial meeting. This will be the only time in your career that our team standards will be reviewed and documented.

You represent the University of North Carolina and our baseball program now and every day going forward, and you are expected to do so with class, distinction and pride.

You have been afforded one of the greatest opportunities you will ever have academically and athletically and I expect each of our players to keep this first and foremost in their minds. Please do not take this opportunity for granted! Our coaches wish to surround ourselves with players who have a passion for baseball and are willing to work hard at the game. However, we also want players who are committed to academic excellence and those who are great representatives of our program.

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the right manner off or on the field are an embarrassment to our program and university. They normally do not last!

In my 34 years of college coaching I have seen some talented players lose their athletic opportunity because of poor choices, poor habits and an unwillingness or inability to put their priorities in the right order. With every choice you make there are consequences. If you choose not to attend class there are consequences.

If you choose not to use tutorial help in a class there are consequences. If you choose your social life over your academics and baseball there are consequences. If you choose not to practice, lift or condition daily with total commitment there are consequences.

If you choose to have a generally bad attitude there are consequences. If you choose your girlfriend over academics and baseball there are consequences. I have seen all the pitfalls there are and, despite my warnings, players still fall into them. Why? Because you have choices in front of you each day and only you can make them when you are in college.

Make an effort to look to the future a little and not just see one day at a time.

It is important you see the whole picture and realize your freshman year you are laying the foundation for your entire college career and even beyond.

It is simply a matter of self-discipline. If you have it, you will do fine. If you do not, you are in for a difficult struggle. Carolina has a number of resources for student-athletes but a personal nursemaid for each athlete is not one of them! You may very well be on

your own for the first time (your first night of freedom is coming) and it is extremely important that you be responsible. Those who cannot handle this new found freedom find themselves in trouble quickly.

Initially, listen to your coaches, upper class teammates, counselors, advisors, teachers, and parents more than you listen to your ‘friends’. They may not always give you the best and most sound advice. Listen to those with experience and who have your best interest at heart. It is also very important that you are organized as time management and attention to details will help you manage your daily responsibilities. There is enough time in the day to get everything accomplished if you plan ahead, are organized and prioritize! You may feel overwhelmed at times but you will make it! All those before you have and you will too.

It will not all be smooth sailing while you are here. You will fail. Baseball is a game of failure. You will have good days and bad days, hopefully many more good than bad. You may struggle in a class or do poorly on a test or paper. You may not play well or have an opportunity to play. You may become injured or sick. However, it is how we respond to adversity that ultimately defines each of us. Just like life, college is about learning, growing, changing, maturing and finding out who you are. It will not all be easy.

No one said it would be. You will have to work. You will have to sacrifice. You will have to COMPETE. You may have to deal with adversity. But keep your eye on the rewards and not the obstacles.

The reward is winning. The reward is a Carolina diploma. The reward is personal

accomplishment. The reward is goals met. The reward is friends for life. The reward is becoming a man. The reward is Omaha perhaps! And all these are most definitely worth it.

There is only one door upon which you can enter our program; the We/Us door.

Individual goals and accomplishments run secondary to our team goals and accomplishments. The single most important factor in the success of our program this past year was unselfishness.

Unity, commitment, discipline, pride, organization, fun, and balance are the traits necessary for a successful program and I hope that you want to be a part of our efforts to continue building one of the nation’s finest baseball programs.

We expect to win an ACC and National Championship while you are here. You must have this as your primary goal as well.

The team comes first and the program is ALWAYS bigger than both you and me.

We raised the bar significantly for our program from 2006-2014. This year that bar was raised again. It is not coming back down. We have come about as close as you can to winning a National Championship and not doing so. Prior to 2015 (from 2006-2014 and 2017) Carolina has more wins (491) than any program in the country. There are very high expectations for our program and its’ players and coaches because of our past success. We will embrace these expectations and work as hard and smart as we can to meet them. We will win a baseball National Championship for The University of North Carolina. It is only a matter of when.

“There is only one door upon which you can enter our program; the We/Us door. Individual goals and accomplishments run secondary to our team goals and accomplishments. The single most important factor in the success of our program this past year was unselfishness. Unity, commitment, discipline, pride, organization, fun, and balance are the traits necessary for a successful program.. ” ramsclub.com 17

BACK TO SCHOOL

MAKING THE JUMP PREPARING FOR LIFE AS A COLLEGE ATHLETE

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IN HER FOUR YEARS ON THE UNC WOMEN’S LACROSSE TEAM, MARGARET CORZEL WAS SECOND-TEAM ALL-ACC, A THREE-TIME CAPTAIN AND A MEMBER OF A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM. AT ONE TIME, SHE WAS ALSO A FRESHMAN. “My welcome-to-college moment came, literally, at the first her lacrosse season started. Shelton’s field hockey team and practice,” Corzel recalls. “I walked onto the field, and there Joe Sagula’s volleyball program start their season before fall was a tradition where we had an upper-classmen vs. undersemester classes begin. classmen scrimmage. So the freshmen and sophomores had “We consider second summer session to be a significant to go against the juniors and seniors.” part of our preseason,” Sagula says. “If they’re not here in the The game is one of coach Jenny Levy’s ways of showing the summer, they’re going to be behind.” incoming student-athletes just what level they need to reach One of Sagula’s former players, Erin (Berg) Lindsey, knows to play in her program. the feeling of jumping right into a college season.

“They’ve got to adjust to the demand and load on their “You jump right into fall camp, basically,” says Lindsey, who energy system,” Levy explains, remains UNC’s all-time career “because everything is ratcheted assists leader, 19 years after she

BY SHAWN KREST up another notch. The running, the finished her playing career. “You PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI AND UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS lifting, the practice environment don’t have school, so you can is all way more intense than go double-days on practice or anything they’ve ever experienced.” three times a day. I think physically, not having ever practiced Like most freshmen, Corzel learned the lesson the hard way. at that level or trained for that amount of time, it probably “I mean, just the physical nature of that scrimmage,” she happens to every freshman volleyball player at some time in says. “You’re getting pushed down onto the ground. You see the preseason—the questions: Oh my gosh, what have I gotten them slinging it over your head and making all these crazy myself into? Can I do this? I’m so bad!” plays.”

“That’s where I realized I had a lot of work to do to keep up with all of them,” she concludes.

Going from high school to college is a big transition for everyone, but for student-athletes, it’s an even bigger jump. In addition to the challenges of time management, being away from home and college-level classes, incoming freshmen who play a sport also need to cope with the huge leap in quality of opposition.

“Most of them were the best player on their high school team,” Carolina field hockey coach Karen Shelton says. “Well now, everyone out there was the best player on their team.”

The jump is even tougher for athletes in a fall sport. At least Corzel had a few months to get used to classes before

“YOU’RE COMPARING THAT FEELING TO BEING THE STAR AT WHEREVER YOU’VE COME FROM AND ALWAYS BEING ABLE TO HANDLE MOST ANYTHING, PHYSICALLY,” SHE CONTINUES. “I WENT THROUGH THAT MOMENT AND ASKED THOSE QUESTIONS DURING THE FIRST THREE DAYS OF PRESEASON.” ramsclub.com 19

BACK TO SCHOOL

Despite the initial pain, it’s possible for incoming freshmen to survive the transition to college athletics and even thrive. In fact, despite their trauma-laden memories of the experience, both Corzel and Lindsey were singled out by their coaches as being two of the players who best handled the transition and arrived on campus most ready-to-go.

Corzel credits her early success to studying. While she was getting manhandled on the field during the early scrimmages, she had an understanding of the game.

“The level of play was a lot higher,” she recalls, “but I think being able to have a really high lacrosse IQ was something that really helped me. It helped me to cope with the much faster pace.”

Now an assistant lacrosse coach at Cornell, Corzel recommends that incoming freshmen spend the months before heading to campus studying the game.

“There’s so much opportunity to watch college games now,” she says. “You can stream them on the internet, watch on local cable providers. When I was in high school, preparing for college, that just wasn’t as available. You’ve just got to want to embrace the game and love it. You’ve got to want to play the game and watch it and learn from all that is available now. I think the more you take advantage of that is just awesome.”

Her former coach, Levy, also puts emphasis on getting her incoming freshmen mentally prepared.

“We usually have the team, as a whole, read a book during the offseason,” she says. “We have different groups read different books to have some awareness of what they’re doing. Some kids will just naturally have that awareness, because they’re sensitive. Then other kids kind of fly by the seat of their pants.

They come in, and they’re winging it.”

Levy wants her players prepared not just for the work on the field but for everything that college life entails.

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August 2017

“THERE’S DEFINITELY A PERIOD OF TIME WHERE THEY HAVE TO ADJUST TO THE PACE OF PLAY AND THE INTENSITY OF PLAY ON THE FIELD,” SHE SAYS. “SOME WILL ADJUST FASTER THAN OTHERS. WITH WOMEN ATHLETES, IN PARTICULAR, I’VE FOUND THAT IF THEY’RE NOT TAKING CARE OF THEIR OTHER STUFF, ACADEMICALLY AND SOCIALLY, THEY’RE GOING TO STRUGGLE ON THE FIELD TO FIGURE IT OUT, UNTIL THEY GET ALL OF THOSE PIECES ORGANIZED FOR THEMSELVES.” While Levy focuses on the holistic approach while waiting for her spring sport to begin, Sagula has more immediate concerns as the school year begins.

“One of the unique things about being in my sport is you don’t have a lot of time,” he says. “The fall semester is often a time to get acclimated, whereas a fall sport athlete is thrown into the sport right away. So, what you know first is your sport and teammates and coaches. That’s the first thing you know. Next thing you know is how to get to all your classes. And all the other stuff comes last.

Sometimes, for a while as a freshman, you just basically know the five classes you have to go to, those buildings. You know the academic center. You know the weight room. You know your dorm. You know the locker room. You know the gym, and that’s

about it. You don’t have a lot of time to experiment or to find out and explore in the fall.”

Meanwhile, on the court, all Sagula’s freshmen know is that things are moving fast.

“Speed of the game is the biggest difference,” he says. “The ball, in our sport, goes faster. It’s hit harder. So getting acclimated to the speed of how fast the game moves, from being able to block real fast, jumping and matching up with people, the fact that the serve comes at you harder and tougher.”

There’s not a lot a player can do to prepare for that, other than being immersed in it.

“During the summers, I want them to play as much volleyball as possible, with their teammates,” Sagula says.

While coaches can’t work with the team in the offseasons, the upperclassmen organize games during the summer. “We can’t do anything with them,” Sagula says. “The only thing they can do is just go play. We tell them not to worry about doing individual things. Just go and compete. Get up to speed with the game as quickly as possible. Just be around the game, touching a ball as much as possible.”

Lindsey came to Sagula’s program after playing for successful high school and club programs. She credits that high level of competition with helping to get her ready for Carolina.

“I had great coaches who sent a lot of players to Division I volleyball,” she says. “So I wasn’t intimidated by the level of play.

I think that allowed for a lot of confidence. It was just a matter of getting through the training. Before coming to campus, I did the workout plan that they sent us, but I still don’t think that prepares you physically for D-1 training. Looking back, I still wish I’d worked out more. You’re doing it on your own. I mean, there might be a lot of athletes out there that were a lot more disciplined than I was. You just don’t have any idea how hard it’s going to be.”

The fact is, even with all the preparation, freshmen are going to be a little wide-eyed for the first few weeks of their sport.

“They’re not perfectly adapted,” Sagula says of his freshmen.

“They’re still going to be the young kids. They’re still learning to play the game again, at the college level, with the expectations that the coaches have on them.”

“There’s always a little bit of getting used to it,” Levy agrees.

“We hope that we recruit competitive kids who are excited by that challenge and not overwhelmed.”

Lindsey went on to be an assistant on Sagula’s staff for several years, as well as a head coach at Dartmouth, before taking her current job as an assistant at Stanford.

“We tell our recruits this all the time, in all the different places I’ve been: Being a D1 athlete is hard,” she says. “It’s hard physically. It’s hard mentally. It’s hard emotionally. It’s just a lot of work. There’s just going to be a lot of times throughout the process that you’re going to be uncomfortable.”

“And frankly,” she adds, “that’s where all the good stuff comes from in the end.”

JENNY LEVY’S SUMMER READING Women’s lacrosse coach Jenny Levy asks her team to read a book each summer in preparation for the new school year. This year’s three selections, organized by class and listed below, all originally came from the reading list of women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance. Both Levy and Dorrance have won national championships at Carolina and often praise the incredible resources available to them within the athletic department simply by learning from other coaches.

FRESHMEN From the professors who teach NYU’s most popular elective class, “Science of Happiness,” a fun, comprehensive guide to surviving and thriving in college and beyond.

SOPHOMORES, JUNIORS AND SENIORS In Choose to Matter, Julie Foudy, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and former captain of the US National team, takes you on a journey to discover your authentic self.

TEAM LEADERS AND THOSE WHO ASPIRE TO BE The founding editor of The Wall Street Journal’s sports section profiles the greatest teams in history and identifies the counterintuitive leadership qualities of the unconventional men and women who drove them to succeed. ramsclub.com 21

22

BORN & BRED

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ramsclub.com 23

BACK TO SCHOOL

Back To Kenan This season will mark a continuation of the evolution of football Saturdays as an event in Chapel Hill

BY LEE PACE PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI AND TAILGATE GUYS

E

ERNIE WILLIAMSON, THE ORIGINAL AND LONG-TIME EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF

the Rams Club, used to say that “basketball is a game, football is an event.” Indeed, tailgate parties, reunions and fraternity court blowouts are the domain of football Saturdays in the fall.

Tar Heel fans will find a number of improvements and tweaks to their “Back to Kenan”

experience starting with the California opener on Sept. 3—from new tailgating venues to comfortable seating in two sections (with more on the horizon for 2018) to an everexpanding menu of concessions options.

“We need to make six or seven Saturdays kind of ‘lock down days,’ reasons to be in

Kenan Stadium and Chapel Hill, celebrating Carolina football,” says Brian Chacos, a former Tar Heel lineman and now on the Rams Club staff. “We want our fans to say, ‘I’m not going to the beach, I’m not going to the mountains, I’m going to Chapel Hill.’ I think we have a number of things in place this year addressing why you should come six or seven Saturdays every fall.”

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BORN & BRED

August 2017

ramsclub.com 25

BACK TO SCHOOL ENHANCED TAILGATING

Most notable is a new partnership with an Alabama-based company that operates tented villages in and around nearly a dozen SEC and Big 12 schools. Tailgate Guys creates venues for fan gatherings, supplying for its clients a menu of tents, tables, chairs, coolers, TVs and food, along with setup and breakdown assistance.

“

“Our model is based on creating a community. We take a large green space and organize it. It can be as simple as a tent, table and chairs for 10 friends to a 20-by-20 tent with a TV, fans and cocktail tables.”

NEW SEATS AT KENAN

“Our model is based on creating a community,” says Parker Duffey, founder, president and CEO of Tailgate Guys. “We take a large green space and organize it. It can be as simple as a tent, table and chairs for 10 friends to a 20-by-20 tent with a TV, fans and cocktail tables. You make the booking and we hold your hand through the entire process.

You pull your car up to a designated location on game day, our ‘butlers’ meet you at your car and get you set up in your tent. We do all the work so you can have fun enjoying game day with your friends.”

The new arrangement has prompted the rearranging of many of the various open spaces around Kenan Stadium. Tar Heel Town, the pre-game hub of kids’ games, food trucks and entertainment, has been moved to Polk Place in front of Wilson Library. The northern half of Polk Place closer to South Building will be used for large campuswide gatherings such as Homecoming and Monogram Day. Tailgate Guys will move into the amphitheatre area to the west of Kenan Football Center and create what should be an attractive, lively and energetic hotspot of tailgating activity. They will also offer tents in the quadrangle around the Bell Tower and within the woods to the north of Kenan Stadium.

“Chapel Hill as a town and a campus has a certain nostalgia that a lot of campuses do not have,” Duffey says. “It’s a special place. For us to tie in is a natural fit. We will build a sense of scene and community and culture that will be very unique. You do not have a lot of open spaces, but instead you have beautiful courtyards and old oak trees, meandering walkways that wrap around and through campus and the woods. It’s a sharp scene. I think we can really enhance it.”

The last two football seasons, Aaron Wright (UNC ‘97) and friends have parked at Bynum Hall on north campus and set up an elaborate tented tailgate home on Polk Place, just in front South Building. A few other families have done so as well, with up to a half dozen tents popping up for big games. Wright has long felt Polk Place could work wonderfully as a pre-game destination similar to the Grove at Ole Miss and is glad to see Carolina take steps to be more creative in its gameday atmosphere.

“This is exactly what I’ve been hoping for for years,” he says. “I think

26

BORN & BRED

the concept will gain traction as people get a feel for how it will work.

The ease and convenience are going to be well worth the cost. For the 12 o’clock games, you can get back to your tent at 3:30, sit back and watch the late games and have someone else tear it all down.”

Virginia Platto is a 1998 Carolina grad who lives with her husband and two children within walking distance of campus and plans to use the Tailgate Guys this fall.

“We have people come from out of town for a lot of the games, and I think this is a great idea,” she says. “So many schools are already doing this, and I think it will help with the atmosphere. Plus, it’s one less thing to worry about—let them do the work and clean up. You can enjoy yourself with your family and friends.”

Once inside the stadium, fans will be struck by the visual appearance of two sections in the lower bowl in the northeast corner—from roughly the goal line to the 20 yard-line on the visitors’ side. Gone are the aluminum bleachers and seatbacks and in their place are approximately 1,600 Carolina blue individual chairs with backs and armrests. Sections 110 and 111 nearly sold out with fans interested in testing the 22-inch wide seats. The chairs are slightly curved to allow a taller individual to have room to spread his legs out, and seat bottoms will automatically pop up to allow more convenient passage of fans in and out of rows.

“We’ve listened to our fans, and seat comfort is at the top of the list of things we need to address,” Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham says. “Three things inside the stadium are very important—seat comfort, concessions and bathrooms. We’re working hard on all three of those.”

“

August 2017

“It was pandemonium. Lines were 30, 40, 50 people deep, people waiting 15 minutes to get their BLT and thrilled to be doing it. We had the same sort of energy and ‘controlled chaos’ we have at the store in Kenan Stadium. It’s great for us because alumni who might have remembered Merritt’s from years ago can reconnect.”

QUINTESSENTIAL CHAPEL HILL CUISINE

This will be the second football season with Aramark, the Athletic Department’s food services vendor, on the initiative to bring Chapel Hill dining institutions into the Kenan Stadium concessions menu.

Merritt’s brought its legendary BLT sandwiches, Al’s Burger Shack its cheeseburgers and fries and Italian Pizzeria 3 its pizzas and sub sandwiches to the football experience last fall and plan to be back in 2017.

Aramark and stadium maintenance staffers worked with Merritt’s, for example, to set up a concession venue on the southwest concourse that mimics the look of its store on South Columbia Street.

“It was pandemonium,” Merritt’s business manager Mark Breedlove says. “Lines were 30, 40, 50 people deep, people waiting 15 minutes to get their BLT and thrilled to be doing it. We had the same sort of energy and ‘controlled chaos’ we have at the store in Kenan Stadium.

It’s great for us because alumni who might have remembered Merritt’s from years ago now can reconnect.

“I think it’s fun to take a part of the fabric of Chapel Hill like Merritt’s and bring it right into Kenan Stadium.”

Other local restaurants with a presence this year will be Makas Empanadas and Chronic Tacos. Makas is popular at its Durham store for its Spanish-themed pastries baked and stuffed with chicken, beef and other fillings. Chronic Tacos is a fast-growing Mexican grill that operates out of Meadowmont Village, just east of the UNC campus.

“We still have typical concessions fare—pizza, hot dogs, popcorn, pretzels—but it’s important to bring in local vendors who resonate with fans,” says Adrian Beros, the GM of the Aramark operation in Chapel Hill. “We’ve upgraded our technology significantly the last couple of years, hopefully to get people in and out of lines faster and back to the game.”

Stadium officials have allocated more attendants and maintenance staffers to the restrooms in hopes of making them cleaner and pleasant to use, while acknowledging that in due time the restroom infrastructure in the stadium needs an overhaul and expansion.

TRAFFIC FLOW

Traffic is another hot spot among Tar Heel fans, though squeezing 60,000 fans into a stadium in the center of an historic campus that prides itself on green and leafy aesthetics over black and paved parking lots will always be a challenge.

Rick Steinbacher, senior associate athletic director at Carolina, believes that ongoing initiatives and adjustments to traffic flow with help from the Kimley Horn consulting firm will help fans’ access and egress from campus. A centralized command center on game day brings officials from UNC, the town of Chapel Hill, the police department and Highway Patrol together to monitor dozens of cameras positioned all over campus, Chapel Hill and the surrounding arteries.

The traffic light cycles have been adjusted all over town to help inflow traffic on main roads like highways 54, 15-501 and 86 before a

Tailgate Guys supplies all tailgating equipment, reserved space, infrastructure and concierge services necessary for your game day to be hassle free. The company will offer three tailgate locations, just steps from Kenan Stadium, and has partnered with four caterers to offer a wide range of quality catering options.

For tailgate packages, visit tailgateguys.com

game and outbound after the game. Additional turn lanes have been established at certain intersections.

“Little tweaks can make a big impact,” Steinbacher says. “If you can add a turn lane and cut the wait time at Manning Drive and 15-501 intersection in half, that can have a major chain reaction.”

Town officials and game operations staff are continually looking for ways to improve bus service—one idea being considered is bringing busses from the Friday Center on a road behind Finley Golf Course, thus avoiding the incoming snarl on Hwy. 54—and smart-phone applications are being developed that soon will allow fans to get directions from the app on traffic conditions, suggested routes and parking availability.

Of course, the best solution to improving traffic is coming early and leaving late. With improvements like the Tailgate Guys, comfortable seats and a Merritt’s BLT, there are more reasons than ever to do just that.

ramsclub.com 27

BACK TO SCHOOL

Class

REUNIONS The start of school means a brand new athletic year, but it also means a new set of memories as more legendary Tar Heel teams and individuals celebrate milestone anniversaries.

BY ADAM LUCAS PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI AND UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

Here are some moments you’re likely to hear about this year.

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August 2017

Fifth anniversary

5

OF GIOVANI BERNARD’S GAME-WINNING PUNT RETURN AGAINST NC STATE (2012)

Then:

NC State and Carolina were tied at 35 with 30 seconds remaining.

But Tom O’Brien made the mistake of punting to the electric Bernard, who hauled the punt back 73 yards for what became the gamewinning score. The Tar Heels tacked on a two-point conversion to win, 43-35.

Now:

Bernard is in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Legacy:

Given all the factors—rivalry game, a frustrating five-game losing streak to the Wolfpack, a beloved player making the play, the stadium-rocking Kenan reaction—the Bernard return might be the single most memorable play in Carolina football history. It’s certainly the signature moment of the Larry Fedora era so far.

10 Then:

Tenth anniversary

OF THREE STRAIGHT COLLEGE WORLD SERIES APPEARANCES

The Diamond Heels went back to Omaha for a third straight year with what might have been the best team in the cycle of overwhelming success that saw them eventually make five trips to Omaha in six years. The 2008 team had a core of future major leaguers in the everyday lineup, including Kyle Seager, Dustin Ackley and Tim Federowicz. The weekend rotation was Alex White, Adam Warren and Matt Harvey, with fellow future big leaguer Rob Wooten coming out of the bullpen along with Brian Moran, who had a sensational year. But Carolina ran into a red-hot Fresno State team at the College World Series and fell short of a national title.

Now:

Seager is a Seattle Mariners fixture, while White and Harvey have battled injuries. Warren is back with the New York Yankees this year, where he is a bullpen mainstay. Carolina has not been back to Omaha since 2013.

Legacy:

The 2008 group cemented Carolina’s place among the national elite and solidified the notion that the Tar Heels were a program, not just a two-year blip on the national radar.

ramsclub.com 29

BACK TO SCHOOL anniversary

Twentieth

OF THE FLORIDA STATE-CAROLINA JUDGMENT DAY GAME

Then:

20

The most charged Kenan Stadium atmosphere of this generation greeted a top-five showdown between the Seminoles and Tar Heels.

ESPN broadcast from on site in Chapel Hill, and students rushed the gates and filled the student section hours before kickoff. The game itself was a letdown, with a powerful FSU squad taking a 20-3 win in a game they deemed a “sod game.”

Now:

Carolina continues to tweak the gameday atmosphere in an effort to rediscover the magic of that November evening. It’s pretty simple, though: put two top-five teams in Kenan late in the season and it will once again be raucous.

Legacy:

This game is the cornerstone of the “what Kenan gameday could be” plan. On that day, at that time, Kenan Stadium was the center of the college football universe. It can be done. Now the challenge is doing it again.

25

Twenty-fifth anniversary

OF THE 1993 BASKETBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Then:

Donald Williams was the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four as Carolina vanquished Kansas in the national semifinals and Michigan’s Fab Five in the national title game, giving Dean Smith his second national championship.

Now:

Perhaps the most overlooked of Carolina’s six NCAA championships, the 1993 team was the perfect example of a team greater than the sum of its parts. Eric Montross works with the Rams Club and the Tar Heel Sports Network. Multiple other members of the ’93 team, including Derrick Phelps, Brian Reese, George Lynch and Scott Cherry, have gone into college coaching.

30

BORN & BRED

August 2017

Legacy:

Fittingly, Carolina will play Michigan this season in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, marking the first meeting between the two programs since the 1993 championship game. Look for the Tar Heels to honor the 1993 team early in the 2017-18 campaign.

Thirty -fifth anniversary

OF CAROLINA’S FIRST NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP IN WOMEN’S SOCCER

Then:

35

Carolina had won the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women championship in 1981. As one of the only varsity women’s soccer programs in the region, head coach Anson Dorrance assembled formidable talent. Twelve teams competed in the inaugural NCAA championship in 1982, and Carolina beat Central Florida 2-0 to win the title. The Tar Heels went on to win 12 of the first 13 NCAA championships, 14 of 16, 16 of 19, and 21 of the 35 events that have been held.

Now:

The Tar Heels advanced to the national semifinals in 2016 and last won the NCAA title in 2012.

Legacy:

Dorrance perfectly described the 1982 team as “pioneers.” His program has produced some of the most important players in the history of women’s soccer.

ramsclub.com 31

BACK TO SCHOOL

FACILITIES UPDATE Massive projects underway on campus will create stunning new facilities for multiple Tar Heel teams. While those are under construction, however, you’ll need to find a few of your favorite Carolina squads at temporary locations during the 2017-18 school year. All new sites are scheduled for fall 2018 completion.

OLD HOME: FETZER FIELD

2018 HOME:

NEW HOME:

TBA

FINLEY FIELDS ATHLETIC COMPLEX (MASON FARM RD.)

FRANCIS HENRY STADIUM

FETZER FIELD

MEN’S SOCCER

FETZER FIELD WOMEN’S SOCCER 32

BORN & BRED

August 2017

NEW STADIUM

DUKE

KENAN STADIUM

VARIOUS STATEWIDE LOCATIONS WAKE MED SOCCER PARK

(AT PREVIOUS SITE OF ERINGHAUS FIELD)

NEW STADIUM

(AT PREVIOUS SITE OF FETZER FIELD)

NEW STADIUM

(AT PREVIOUS SITE OF FETZER FIELD)

COMING SOON

Part of the facility project is a new indoor practice facility for Tar Heel football, which will be part of an enhanced practice complex that includes a 120-yard turf indoor field, plus 120-yard turf and grass fields outdoors.

NEW STADIUM

FOOTBALL PRACTICE FACILITY

FINLEY FIELDS ATHLETIC COMPLEX

NEW STADIUM

(AT PREVIOUS SITE OF FETZER FIELD)

(MASON FARM RD.)

(ENTRANCE ON RIDGE RD.)

(AT PREVIOUS SITE OF ERINGHAUS FIELD) ramsclub.com 33

AS TIMELESS AS THE GAME THAT

INSPIRED IT. Beneath the longleaf pines in the heart of North Carolina is a place where golf is more than a game, it’s a way of life. A place with more courses than days of the week.

And more championships than anywhere in America. The place is Pinehurst. And it’s waiting for you.

SUMMER TEE PACKAGE $1,704*

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O R N is&perB person R E D based on double

© 2017 Pinehurst, LLC

3 Nights accommodations at The Carolina Hotel 4 Rounds of golf Breakfast and dinner daily

Through your gifts to scholarships, facilities, team support and unrestricted annual giving, you provide Carolina student-athletes with life-changing experiences.

TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE HELPED ACCOMPLISH.

28

800

VARSITY SPORTS

STUDENT-ATHLETES

(Fourth most among Power 5 institutions)

STUDENT-ATHLETES RECEIVING SCHOLARSHIP ASSISTANCE

450

43 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS (most in ACC history)

65

INDIVIDUAL OR RELAY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

20

TOP 10 FINISHES IN THE LEARFIELD DIRECTORS CUP (out of 22 years)

270

ACC CHAMPIONSHIPS (most in ACC history)

113

TAR HEELS HAVE COMPETED IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES

16 TEAMS

WITH A PERFECT 1,000 APR SCORE IN 2015-16

385

TAR HEELS HONORED IN 2016-17 ACC ACADEMIC HONOR ROLL

YOUR GIFTS IMPACT STUDENT-ATHLETES FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES

ramsclub.com 35

BACK TO SCHOOL

ONE AND

NOT DONE

BY ADAM LUCAS

36

BORN & BRED

August 2017

PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI, BRANDON HUMES, BOB DONNAN, NBA ENTERTAINMENT/GETTY IMAGES, AND UNC ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS

MARVIN WILLIAMS’ COMMITMENT TO HIS EDUCATION SHOWED A BALANCE BETWEEN BOOKS AND BASKETBALL

As

Marvin Williams attended dozens of summer school classes after leaving Carolina after one season, he grew accustomed to being recognized.

It was more frequent earlier in his NBA career, when the memories of some of his exploits during the 2004-05 campaign were more fresh in the minds of students. At that point, many students had also been in school during the national championship year, when Williams came off the bench in every game and made memorable plays like a vicious dunk at Florida State and one of the most famous shots in the Roy Williams era, a game-winning putback at the Smith Center to cap a comeback against Duke. ramsclub.com 37

BACK TO SCHOOL

Marvin Williams had completed just one summer session and two regular semesters of classes when he was selected second overall by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2005 draft. That meant he would be set for life. Over the course of the next 11 years, he would sign professional basketball contracts worth a combined $123 million.

He didn’t necessarily need a degree. But he’d made a promise.

“When I left school early, I told my mother I would finish,” Williams said. “And I promised Coach Williams I would finish.”

It was a slow process. To Marvin, it was a matter of taking whatever classes he could squeeze in each summer. He thought of it more as a summer-to-summer activity rather than a lengthy, decade-long progression. In the summer of 2014, however, as he neared his degree, he realized exactly how long he’d been working towards a degree.

“When I was younger and first started coming back, it caused a little more of an uproar in the classes,” he said. “As I got older, I got less attention. The last year, on the very last day of class, a girl asked if she could take a picture with me. She told me that she and her father were really big fans, and I thought that was great. We took the picture. And then she said, ‘When you guys won the national championship, I was in sixth grade.’

“I was like, ‘Sixth grade! Wait a minute! How old am I?’” The answer is that Williams is now 31 years old. He has three seasons remaining on his most recent deal with the Charlotte Hornets. He’s been a consistent double-digit scorer in the NBA, and is coming off a season in which he averaged 11.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.

And he is also a college graduate. According to most reports, he is the only one-and-done player to earn his college degree. A whopping 115 college freshmen have been picked in the NBA Draft since Williams was chosen in June of 2005. He is the only college graduate among them.

“I believed in him 100 percent that he could do it,” says Roy Williams.

“He believed it, I believed it, and there was never any doubt in my mind.

But over time, I started to realize how hard it was. He got approximately 30 hours as a full-time student here. That left him with approximately 90 hours. Every summer, I would see him back here working, and it made me admire him even more.”

38

BORN & BRED

August 2017

He didn’t do it alone. Part of the reason Marvin wanted to spend his summers in Chapel Hill was to be able to work out with Tar Heel strength and conditioning coordinator Jonas Sahratian, and play in the legendary Carolina summer pickup games with past and current Tar Heels.

It was his mother, Andrea Gittens, who first observed it would make sense for him to combine his summer workouts with summer studies.

Gittens knows about hard work. When Marvin was growing up, the daily routine was to drop Gittens off at the Washington State Ferry at 6:45 a.m. for the one-hour 7:20 a.m. ferry ride to Seattle. Walk 25 minutes uphill to her bookkeeping job. Leave work at 6 p.m. to catch the ferry back to Bremerton, and arrive back home—hopefully—by 8 p.m.

That was her schedule every day. So she didn’t consider it to be too much work to suggest to her son that if he was going to work out in Chapel Hill during the summers, he might as well study in Chapel Hill during the summers. Basketball academic advisor Jenn Townsend stayed in touch with him, reminding him when it was time to register and keeping track of his progress towards his degree.

It required some sacrifices. Williams’ frequent training partners were Sean May (who completed three years of college) and Deon Thompson (who finished four). Both earned their diploma before Williams. But even after they were graduates, they continued to build their offseason training schedules around Williams’ class schedule, so they could continue to work out together. They’d seen how hard he worked, and wanted to do whatever they could to support him.

“Sean never complained once about having to wake up at six in the morning so we could get in the weight room before I went to class,” Williams says. “And Jonas was huge for me. He could come in extra early just for me. There was a summer where I was lifting every morning at 7:30, and he was every day. I’m so appreciative of everyone who was so supportive of what I was trying to accomplish.”

It wasn’t just his college teammates who observed his studies. The NBA life is replete with almost daily travel. Charter flights are the norm, and players often pass the time playing cards or watching movies.

Williams, for most of his first decade in the pros, could often be found with a textbook or a laptop, working on his next class. It wasn’t unusual

for him to stop by the equipment manager’s office so he could print his newest paper.

Summers are cherished in the NBA. Players use the time off to travel on their own, to visit exotic destinations they don’t see during the season. Tropical destinations are a favorite. Williams, however, always came back to Chapel Hill.

His effort was noticed by professors. Dr. Deborah Stroman had Williams in two classes. “He was a very thoughtful and personable student,” she says. “He was patient and thoughtful in his comments during classroom discussion. I found that he completely embraced the undergraduate student experience. He didn’t ‘hide himself’ as an exceptionally talented and wealthy professional athlete, but rather displayed confidence and pride that he was there to focus on academics and complete his degree.”

Stroman was so impressed by Williams she later invited him back to address her MBA class, where he was a huge hit. The professor,

along with Roy Williams, made it a point to be in the Smith Center in December of 2014 for Marvin’s graduation ceremony.

Both player and coach get emotional when they talk about the other.

“I hope Coach Williams is proud of me,” Marvin says. “I really can’t put into words what he means to me. He came to Bremerton and gave a kid a chance to be something. I can’t thank him enough for what he’s meant to me and my family. In my life, this is the greatest thing I’ve accomplished.”

“Marvin doesn’t just want to be a basketball player,” Roy Williams says. “He wants to be a person who can go out in this world and make contributions and be good to people. I remember Marvin’s career—the dunk at Florida State, the shot against Duke, I remember all those things. But those will be further down the line for me when I remember Marvin Williams, because I am so proud of all the other things he has done. I can’t imagine being any more proud of him if he were my own son.”

BASKETBALL CLASS OF 2017 The Carolina basketball senior class of 2017 celebrated a

second big achievement this spring when all five seniors graduated on Mother’s Day. The quintet of Nate Britt,

Kanler Coker, Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks and Stilman

White had won a national championship just six weeks

earlier, and now have a Carolina diploma to go with the title trophy.

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“A critical time of year”

T

Training camp is a great time of year. You’re still working on start to develop a personality. Each winter, the new group of fundamentals, and you’re installing some basics and making leaders take over the team, and that continues throughout sure everyone understands everything that is happening. We spring ball and through the summer. The leaders have already want them to have the basics down, so that when we come been established. As we’re getting into camp, we’re starting back to those things in certain gameplans during the season, to get a feel for the chemistry of the team. the recall happens more quickly.

As we see the chemistry develop, we’re learning more It’s a critical time of year for us, and a lot of planning goes about the freshmen. We’ve had them for the second session into it. I start planning our training camp in late April and early of summer school, but as a coaching staff, as you watch them May while the coaches are on the road recruiting. When they throughout camp, you start to get a feel for whether they’ll be come off the road at the end of May, we able to help us. Once they sign, we give script out every practice. We finalize the them a workout plan, and if they follow entire camp around the middle of June. that plan, they’re doing everything we’re I ask all the coaches what their doing with the older guys. But they’re “By this point in the year, we’ve objectives are with their position group, doing it on their own, so you never and then I ask the coordinators for their already seen the 2017 team start know how that will go. As the summer offensive, defensive and special teams progresses, we transition them into the to develop a personality. Each emphasis. I come up with an overall rest of the team. winter, the new group of leaders objective for camp for us. We share that There’s a pretty simple way to tell if with the team and break it down by you’ve had a successful camp: if you get take over the team, and that position. For us, it’s always about using through it healthy. That’s the whole goal. continues throughout spring camp to prepare for the entire season.

You want to have a fresh team that is ball and through the summer.

I’m following a formula that I believe excited about the season. If that’s where works, but you always have to be willing we are before Sept. 2, then we’ve had a The leaders have already been to adapt. New scenarios always come established. As we’re getting into good camp. up, or NCAA rules might change, and you camp, we’re starting to get a feel have to be flexible.

For example, there are no more two-afor the chemistry of the team.” days. When we were practicing twice a day, camp was much more physical. It’s not as hard as it used to be, and that’s important, because you have to keep your guys healthy. It doesn’t do you any good to get them beat up.

But camp still tells us a lot about our team. In that period before classes start, from about six in the morning until 10:30 at night, it’s all football in everything we do. You get to be around them at meals and throughout the day and you find LARRY FEDORA out a lot more about the team and what it’s made up of.

Football Head Coach Training camp is tough. So every day, we’re learning about

“

the mental toughness of the team.

Because there is so much time together, we have to give them some off time to do some fun things as a team, like going to the pool or seeing a movie or going bowling. We have those breaks planned out before camp starts. I know when we’re going to be at a point in camp when they need a break. They know we’re going to push them hard, and the carrot dangling at the end is that we’re going to take a break occasionally.

By this point in the year, we’ve already seen the 2017 team

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August 2017

CAROLINA INSIDER PODCAST HOSTED BY JONES ANGELL AND ADAM LUCAS

POWERED BY

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BORN & BRED

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