COACHES TOUR

[ALEX LIFESON]

Anyone going to the Coaches Tour wingding on Monday?

[BIGHORSE]

COUNT ME IN.

[AusTxPony]

I'll be there in Austin, anyone else?

[PonyKai]

I'll be there Tuesday night in Fort Worth.

[PK]

I'll be there tomorrow night.

[Water Pony]

I'll be there tomorrow night.

For those of us in the hinterlands, please provide a recap of the comments.

Thanks

[PK]

Damn...I knew I should have kept my mouth shut. I'm not much of a journalist, but I'll try to pay attention between the gin and tonics.

[Corso]

I'll be there!

[2112]

i'm out on this one. i should start hiding behind my computer like stallion and jtstang, it looks safer and cheaper.

[PlanoStang]

Coaches tour? Where is this advertised? You have to give a couple
mil to get an invite?

Oh yeah, where's my Mustang Alum Magazine I used to get back before
the DP, and Pye took over. Guess Pye was Copeland 0.1. Copeland was
version 1.0 through 1,9, and Orsini is busy at work on release 2.0.

Guess the Mustang Club is too over populated to use the coaches tour
as a membership drive.

[RGV Pony]

Coaches tour? Where is this advertised? You have to give a couple
mil to get an invite?

Oh yeah, where's my Mustang Alum Magazine I used to get back before
the DP, and Pye took over. Guess Pye was Copeland 0.1. Copeland was
version 1.0 through 1,9, and Orsini is busy at work on release 2.0.

Guess the Mustang Club is too over populated to use the coaches tour
as a membership drive.

Isn't it called "SMU Connections" or some such? It still comes out, a few times a year it seems like.

I agree with you on the Coach's tour...this is the first time I remember not seeing an email about it. Unfortunate, because I would've extended my stay in Dallas by a day this weekend.

[ThadFilms]

I'll be there in Austin, anyone else?

I too will be at the ATX event.

[PK]

Coaches tour? Where is this advertised? You have to give a couple
mil to get an invite?

Oh yeah, where's my Mustang Alum Magazine I used to get back before
the DP, and Pye took over. Guess Pye was Copeland 0.1. Copeland was
version 1.0 through 1,9, and Orsini is busy at work on release 2.0.

Guess the Mustang Club is too over populated to use the coaches tour
as a membership drive.

Isn't it called "SMU Connections" or some such? It still comes out, a few times a year it seems like.

I agree with you on the Coach's tour...this is the first time I remember not seeing an email about it. Unfortunate, because I would've extended my stay in Dallas by a day this weekend.

I got my first notice of the Coaches Tour in the mail. It was post marked April 19th. An e-mail was sent out last Thursday. It has been on smumustangs.com since May 1st.

If you didn't get the mailer or an e-mail, then your data at the Mustang Club is probably not up to date. I would suggest in that case that you renew your membership and give them your correct contact information.

Last I heard, the MC was finally able to access the alumni data base also. Now I don't know for a fact whether or not they sent out notices to folks on that data base too, but they did have membership applications available at the function so I expect they had tried to get non-members to attend also.

Edit: One other thought. The MC may have restricted the announcements to people living in close proximity to the cities where the tour is going.

[PK]

Brief summary (I told you I'm no journalist). The coaches each talked for about 10 minute and covered a lot of things including information about selected players...most of which I can not remember because I did not have anything to write with or on (so shoot me).

In the order of their appearance:

Rhonda Rompola.

She is looking for this year's team to win the CUSA championship and get us back to the NCAA tournament. That is at least their goal. They will have 5 seniors this year, 1 junior, 4 or 5 (I believe) sophmores and 2 freshmen. She said that the scheduling of opponents is somewhat based upon the experience level of our team and that this year they are up grading the schedule to include better teams such as Texas A&M (which she thinks may be a top 15 team) and Texas Tech among others. Both she and Doherty are excited about the new practice facilities which should be ready for use by mid-October this year.

Matt Doherty.

Talked about spending lots of time recruiting and selling the program which included playing golf with Eric Dickerson at a special tournament. He related how Eric is very interested in SMU and how it is doing. Talked about how pleased he was with his latest recruiting class. That all the players are athletic, fast, good ball handlers, good passers and good shooters. He said they were kind of the type of players that the Warrior's players are. Of course he also said that time will tell whether or not they become the the players he invisions them becoming. He also said he would have 4 recruiting spots available next year.

Phil Bennett.

He stated that they have made changes in the way they are coaching certain parts of the game to better prepare the team for playing those late season games that have meaning. They are stressing toughness, both physical and mental toughness. He is really please with the improvements in the strength and conditioning program as are the other coaches.

We have 10 offensive starters from last year returning and 8 defensive starters returning...10 if you include Charlie Berry and Brandon Jones (I think that is the correct name) who were both out last year, but have started in the past. We will be two deep next year across the board with players that have played at least 5 games each.

He expects Justin Willis to get better and better even though this spring he still wasn't at 100% due to his hand having been broken when a recruit we wanted (but didn't get) slamed a car trunk lid on Justin's hand. Cory Slater did very well in spring training and will be a very good backup quarterback who will see some playing time.

Over all Bennett is pleased with where the team is and expects to have a good year. He refrained from making statements of expectations beyond that, but he knows what is expected by his boss...and fans.

Steve Orsini.

He has now filled out his staff with people he thinks will help us up grade our visibility and help gain our top 25 goal. He stressed that it was important to increase our revenue from our sports and from our supporters. We have 70 million dollars worth of facilities improvements under way or on line. He told Turner that and Turner said that's great as long as you raise the cash to do it. The basketball practice facilities are under construction. New Tennis facilities are next. For WaterPony, the new natatorium is scheduled to be under construction in summer 08.

He also stressed that it was important not only to purchase tickets, but to show up for the games. The latest NCAA rules on the average 15,000 attendance requirement for football is that if you cannot maintain that attendance level, not only does your football program lose it's Div. 1 status, your whole athletic program loses it's Div. 1 status.

[PonyKai]

And speak of the devil...

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