Brenau University - News

[Brenau] Brenau Athletics to Host First Annual Homecoming Event

Gary Bays — 2010-09-03T11:26:35-06:00

[Brenau] Brenau Swimmers and Hoopsters Volunteer at Triathlon

Gary Bays — 2010-08-24T07:53:12-06:00

Gainesville, Ga - The Brenau University Basketball and Swim Teams served as volunteers at the Hall County Habitat for Humanity Triathlon held last Saturday to raise funds for the activities of Habitat for the coming year. There were a total of 23 coaches and athletes from the two teams that came out in a driving rainstorm to assist with the event.

There were a total of 150 competitors in the adult division in which each athlete swims 500 yards, bicycles 15 miles and runs 3 miles. That was followed by a kids division of nearly 80 children that competed. The swimmers from BU served as "angels in the water" during the swimming portion of the competition and the basketball team helped out at the transition station and throughout the biking and running courses.

"This was a great opportunity for all of us to get involved with an organization whose mission is giving back to others," said Brenau swim coach Blaire Bachman. "We had so much fun and can't wait to get involved with helping build a house this year."

[Brenau] Brenau University Athletics Partners with Career Athletes

Gary Bays — 2010-07-30T09:51:07-06:00

Kansas City, Kan. (July 30, 2010) - Brenau University Athletics recently agreed to a multi-year

partnership with Career Athletes. The partnership between Career Athletes and the Brenau University athletic department provides a national representation of unique networking opportunities

and career development resources for current and alumni athletes. Brenau University Director of Athletics, Mike Lochstampfor, stated, "The opportunity to partner with Career Athletes helps meet one of our foremost objectives as a department and a university. This relationship will enable us to provide current student-athletes with additional career options as well as making the connection and allowing for crucial mentoring opportunities between current and former student-athletes. We look

forward to a long term partnership with Career Athletes!"

This Online Career Community Network will provide benefits such as mentoring, professional networking, virtual career coaching and 12 years of best practices from the leading and largest career services organization assisting athletes, athletic departments and campus career centers. The Brenau University "Community Network" consists of current and alumni athletes from the institution as well as local, regional and national employers all managed and monitored by Career Athletes at its home office in the Kansas City area. Individual members of Career Athletes are also able to network with over 65,000 former college athletes from across the nation while having access to over 5,000 career opportunities exclusive to www.careerathletes.com.

DJ Washington at Career Athletes explains that beyond an athletic department's initiative assisting with career opportunities and educational resources; it also helps when there is already a foundation on campus toward academic success. "We are pleased to assist Breanau Athletics with its commitment toward career development of athletes, but it is also just as important to recognize the program's culture of achievement in community service, academic performance and athletic success," shared Washington, Vice President, Career Education and Training. Brenau is no stranger to success as indicated by additional achievements during the 2009-2010 academic year:

Brenau boasted 21 student-athletes on the Dean's List for the Fall 2010 Semester and 24 in the Spring.
Twenty five student-athletes were named to the SSAC All Academic Team and seven selected as NAIA Daktronics Scholar Athletes.
Twelve student-athletes were recognized as SSAC All Conference Performers and one player selected as NAIA All American.
The Brenau Swim Team was selected as the Champions of Character Team at the NAIA National Championships.
Tennis qualified for the NAIA National Tennis Championships and finished as the sixth ranked team.
Softball finished their season ranked 16^th overall in the NAIA.
Brenau student-athletes were also involved in twelve different community services projects throughout the previous school year. Brenau University and the student-athletes are ready to bring another successful academic and athletic year.

[Brenau] NAIA Scholar Teams Announced for 2009-10

Gary Bays — 2010-07-29T11:05:31-06:00

Kansas City, Mo - The NAIA has announced the scholar teams for 2009-10 and five Brenau teams have been recognized. Cross Country, Soccer, Softball, Swimming and Tennis were among the 857 teams nationwide to earn this distinction.

For a team to be considered for the NAIA Scholar Team award, it must have a minimum 3.0 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) as defined by the institution. The team grade point average must include all varsity student-athletes certified as eligible.

To see the NAIA Press Release, click here: http://naia.cstv.com/

[Brenau] Personnel Changes Announced in Brenau Athletics

Gary Bays — 2010-07-02T08:39:55-06:00

Gainesville, Ga - Athletic Director Mike Lochstampfor has announced several changes in the coaching staff at Brenau for the upcoming school year. All four of the coaches bring significant Hall County roots to their assignments and have strong connections to Brenau as well.

Blaire Bachman, who was recently hired to coach the Tigers swim team, graduated from Gainesville High School and has served as a lifeguard and swim instructor at the Brenau pool for many years. Beth Henson, who is replacing RaeAnne Boothe as Assistant Basketball Coach, was an outstanding player at Gainesville High School and spent a year at Georgia before finishing her collegiate career at SCAD. Henson's sister, Meg, just graduated from Brenau after playing three seasons for the Tigers. Marilyn Anderson, new assistant soccer coach, graduated in May after a stellar career at Brenau where she was an All Conference selection. Anderson played at West Hall High School before coming to Brenau.

Softball Coach Devon Thomas will be moving to full-time status at Brenau after serving as the softball coach on a part-time basis since 2003. Thomas has been a teacher and coach at Chestatee High School for the past 14 years and also grew up in Hall County. The softball program has risen to national prominence under his direction, winning the SSAC Championship and advancing to the NAIA National Championships in 2009 and finishing as the 16th ranked team in the NAIA this past season.

"I am excited about the new additions to our staff and the opportunity to bring Devon Thomas on

board full-time. Coach Thomas has demonstrated his ability to successfully grow our softball program and I look forward to its' continued success in the future. I anticipate he will make the seamless transition to his new administrative responsibilities and look forward to the positive impact that all of our new additions will have on both our department and Brenau University," said Lochstampfor in making the announcements.

[Brenau] Brenau Summer Sports Camp Schedule Released

Gary Bays — 2010-06-03T08:00:37-06:00

Gainesville, Ga- The 2010 edition of summer sports camps at Brenau University will kick off on June 14 with softball and will finish on July 20 with a basketball camp. The softball camp will be held "Under the Lights" at Chestatee High School under the tutelage of Brenau Head Coach Devon Thomas from June 7 - 9. Those players going into 2nd - 7th grade will have their session from 4 - 6 pm and rising 8th - 12th graders will have a session from 6 - 8 pm. You can get more information by contacting Coach Thomas at dthomas2@brenau.edu.

Coach Mike Lochstampfor will host a soccer camp the week of June 14 - 18 that will run from 9 am to noon each day. The previous week's session from June 7 - 11 has been cancelled. This is a great opportunity for young soccer players to develop and improve fundamental skills while learning more advanced tactical components of the game. For more information and a camp brochure, contact Coach Lochstampfor at mlochstampfor@brenau.edu.

Coach Gary Bays will offer a basketball camp from July 20-22 that will meet from 9 am to 4 pm each day and lunch will be provided. Contact Coach Bays at gbays@brenau.edu for more information. The soccer and basketball camps are open to boys and girls, while the softball camp is for girls only.

[Brenau] Brenau Athletes Volunteer at Fallen Heroes Road Race

Gary Bays — 2010-04-13T08:05:05-06:00

Lake Lanier Islands, Ga- Brenau cross country coach Susan McIntyre organized a group of Golden Tigers coaches and athletes to help conduct the Second Annual Fallen Heroes of Georgia Road Race last Saturday morning. There were 35 representatives of the cross country, soccer, swimming and basketball teams that pitched in to help monitor and time the 10K, 5K and 1K races. The event pays honor to the men and women from Georgia who have given their lives in military service to their country and drew 1500 participants in only the second year. "I have never been more proud of our student athletes than I was today," said Coach McIntyre. "They represented our school in the very best way possible."

[Brenau] Think Pink Week at Brenau

Gary Bays — 2010-02-03T10:03:29-06:00

Gainesville, GA- The Athletic Department at Brenau University is participating in Pink Week, which is a program to raise awareness and create support for Breast Cancer Research. At this week's two home basketball games, a special effort will be made to raise funds that will be given to the Gainesville American Cancer Society to be used for the support of Breast Cancer Research. There will be seven breast cancer survivors that will be recognized at the Thursday game against Southern Poly beginning at 6:00 pm.

[Brenau] A Message From The Athletic Director

Gary Bays — 2010-02-03T09:12:02-06:00

Gainesville, GA- As we get excited about the beginning of our spring semester sports, I wanted to commemorate the superb accomplishments we had and are having with our fall and winter sports. Brenau University Athletics had a goal-breaking season with many of our sports and notable final rankings in the SSAC last fall. The Golden Tiger's volleyball team began the season on an eight game win streak en route to the best season in the history of the program. Along the way they broke many statistical records, had a player - Karen Green- named first team all-conference, received a 4^th place conference finish and a 24-11 overall record. The cross country team had some great individual showings throughout the season and finished in a respectable 5^th place at the NAIA qualifying meet. The soccer team played their most challenging schedule to date, beating several NAIA Top 25 teams, producing several all conference players and Brenau's all time scoring leader in Lily Futrell. The Golden Tigers spent the first half of the season ranked in the Receiving Votes category of the NAIA's Top 25 Soccer Coaches' Poll.

[Brenau] Fall Sports Athletes Recognized at Banquet

Gary Bays — 2009-12-01T13:13:12-06:00

Gainesville, GA- Athletic Director Mike Lochstampfor hosted the First Annual Fall Sports Banquet last night on the campus of Brenau University in which the coaches and athletes from Cross Country, Soccer and Volleyball were honored. Coach Susan McIntyre started off the awards presentations by recognizing her runners and presenting each with their yearly acheivement awards. Several special awards were given as Freshman Ashley McCoy took home the Most Improved Plaque, Junior Shkurte Ejupi was named the Golden Tiger Award winner and Junior Audra Cochran was recognized as the Most Valuable Runner.

[Brenau] SSAC All Academic Fall Sports Team Announced

Gary Bays — 2009-11-11T11:57:21-06:00

Atlanta, GA- The fall sports edition of the All Academic Team for the Southern States Athletic Conference have been announced and 10 student athletes from Brenau have been recognized. In order to be included an athlete must have completed two terms of attendance and earned at least 24 semester hours while attaining a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher based on all courses completed and be participating in a sport during that season.

[Brenau] SSAC Approves Major Expansion to 16 Institutions

Gary Bays — 2009-09-29T10:56:19-06:00

(Monday, Sept. 28, 2009) Dr. Paul Conn, Chair of the Southern States Athletic Conference Board of Presidents, announced today that the conference has agreed to expand its membership and restructure its conference play to take effective for the 2010-11 academic year. Joining the conference are Belhaven College, Loyola University New Orleans, Spring Hill College, University of Mobile, and William Carey University. These institutions join recently announced Truett-McConnell College in increasing the SSAC membership to 16. The quality of these new institutions, the numerous sports they sponsor and their past regional and national successes, are strong indicators of the Southern States' commitment to being a premier NAIA conference in the country.

President Conn expressed, "It is a genuine pleasure to welcome these five fine institutions to our conference. Each provides top-quality education to students, and each is committed to the student-athlete as a part of the total educational enterprise. These are schools that understand the priority of academic life for student athletes. They will be a great fit for our conference."

This new membership allows the SSAC to restructure its conference into two divisions. Belhaven, Loyola, Spring Hill, Mobile, and William Carey will join Auburn University Montgomery and Faulkner University to make up the Western division. The remaining Southern States schools along with Truett-McConnell will make up the Eastern division. Each team will play their regular season conference games within their division with season-ending championships in each sport bringing together qualifying teams from both divisions. A listing of the membership and the sports they sponsorships is provided below.

One advantage to the expansion is that it increases championship opportunities in 13 sports and ensures automatic qualifiers for each. There will be enough teams competing that each sport in Southern States competition will have at least one automatic bid to the NAIA national tournament and multiple bids in most team sports.

SSAC Commissioner Kurt Patberg agreed with Conn about the quality of these institutions and discussed other major benefits of this 16-member, two-divisional version of the conference. "We have been able to create unique divisional-play opportunities, generate a conference membership that, combined, should elevate the exposure of our institutions regionally and nationally through sports competition and increased marketing opportunities. Furthermore, this expansion enhances the quality of our 13 championships. Exciting times for the Southern States are on the horizon, with signs pointing toward great future success for our league," Patberg said.

For further information, contact Kurt Patberg at commissioner@ssacsports.com or by calling 404-434-5146.

[Brenau] Fourth Annual Pep Rally is Monday

Gary Bays — 2009-08-28T10:39:02-06:00

Brenau's Athletic Dept. is welcoming back its athletes with a Pep Rally on August 31^st at 8:30 pm in the Brenau gymnasium! This is going to be a great celebration to kick off the fall season and recognize all of our athletes, sports programs, and their achievements. This year's event is going to be even more interactive allowing attendees to try their hand (or foot) at some athletic games and intermingle with some of our great Brenau athletes.

[Brenau] Brenau Athletics Launches New Website

Gary Bays — 2009-08-24T10:45:58-06:00

The Brenau University Athletic Department has launched a new website that debuted on August 19. The site will be hosted by SIDHelp and has been under construction for most of the summer. The idea for a new site originated after discusssions with Greg Black, the SSAC Sports Information Director, whose company also hosts the conference website.