The Lion Athletics Association has done an incredible job this past year! Former President JR Matheu and current President David Vial have helped generate approximately $200,000 in new dollars. This has not only helped us with our budget cuts so that our coaches don't have to make changes in their budgets, and we are also making some facility improvements from a new baseball hitting facility, new baseball signage at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni and new soccer and softball offices.

During these trying economic times, your support to the LAA is more vital than ever and we will start our annual membership drive soon.

On the field, baseball has had another tremendous start picking up wins over Tulane, Alabama, Central Florida and South Alabama. The Lions represented themselves well on the national stage as they took two out of three games to open the season at Florida International. All three games were shown on ESPN3 and behind a great pitching effort from Brandon Efferson, the Lions snapped the 56-game hitting streak (two shy of the NCAA Division I record) of FIU's Garrett Wittels.

Jay Artigues' squad opened Southland Conference play last week with a three-game sweep at UTSA and will host McNeese State on March 18-20 in Hammond. We hope to see you there.

The Southeastern golf team is expecting to have another great year under coach Tim Baldwin. The Lions finished third recently at the Louisiana Tech Bulldog Classic and will compete in three more events this spring before looking to defend their Southland Conference title.

In track and field, congratulations goes to coach Sean Brady's squad for a successful beginning to the outdoor season. Southeastern earned a sweep in the Tulane Team Challenge in New Orleans and finished third overall at the Cowboy Relays in Lake Charles. Strong efforts at the Tulane meet from Shannon Grover and Judith Schultheis helped them claim Southland Conference Athlete of the Week honors.

Also, we're proud of the effort of track's Adonson Shallow, who capped a very impressive career at the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas. Shallow earned All-America honors after finishing third overall in the weight throw. He becomes the fifth track and field student-athlete since 2005 to earn All-America honors and the first in Indoor competition.

Coach Pete Langlois' softball team picked up a great league win over UT Arlington and will return to host Louisiana Tech on March 19 at North Oak Park. The Lady Lions will host Central Arkansas in a three-game series on March 26-27 and will host LSU on March 29. We look forward to seeing a lot of green in the stands for those games.

The Southeastern women's tennis team is battling hard and opened Southland Conference play with a win over UTSA. Coach Jason Hayes' squad faces Nicholls State in league play on March 19 and will face Alcorn State and Southern Miss in a pair of home matches to be played in Covington at Stone Creek Club and Spa. If you're in the area, please come out and support the Lady Lions.

We look forward to seeing you at events on campus this spring. We encourage you to buy season tickets for the remaining baseball and softball games this spring and to purchase football season tickets for this fall.

Go Green! Go Gold! Go Lions!

Sincerely,

Bart Bellairs
Director of Athletics