General | March 20

Welcome to Spring Huskie Fans!
 
Spring has sprung here in DeKalb! I know that, not by the calendar, or the melting snow piles, or even the first hint of green grass. No, I can tell because after months of practicing at all hours of the day and night in the beautiful Chessick Practice Center, our spring sports teams can finally practice, and even play home games and matches, outside! It's a beautiful thing, and I hope you'll come out and support our baseball, softball and tennis student-athletes as the weather warms up over the next couple of months.
 
Spring also means spring football and I can't wait to see our new head coach, Thomas Hammock, and his coaches in action on the practice field with the Huskies. There is a lot of returning talent with 14 starters back from our defending MAC Championship team, and Thomas has said that every position is up for grabs, so I know there will be some great competition. This spring, Coach Hammock is inviting all Huskie fans to a pair of open practices, on Saturday, April 6 at 1 p.m. and at the annual Huskie Bowl on Saturday, April 20 at 9 a.m.
 
Immediately after the Huskie Bowl practice in Huskie Stadium, head over to the Chessick Practice Center as we are once again cleaning out the equipment closets for the Huskie Gear Sale! From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., check out fantastic deals on new and used items from multiple NIU sports programs, including cleats, uniforms, shoes, t-shirts, shorts and more. At last year's gear sale, I was amazed by the stacks of brand new athletic shoes (especially in large sizes) available at unbelievable prices!
 
Speaking of gear, I am excited to announce that we have extended our existing relationship with adidas for the next seven years. Look for more details on this soon! 
 
In addition to the Gear Sale and Huskie Bowl, the Huskie Athletic Fund will hold its annual Donor Appreciation Luncheon on April 20 at 11 a.m. in the Barsema Hall of Champions, where Coach Hammock and his staff will be on hand to visit with fans. Then at 1 p.m., the Huskie baseball team will take on Kent State at Ralph McKinzie Field.
As either a new, or returning, donor, I encourage you to purchase or renew your football season tickets for 2019 and make your Huskie Athletic Fund donation before the April 26 deadline! As mentioned in the last Frazier's Corner, there is a whole new energy and attitude surrounding our football program with the arrival of Coach Hammock, and we would love for you to be a part of it. Your paper renewal forms will hit mailboxes next week, but you can check out the 2019 Donor Guide here, and purchase or renew season tickets anytime online at NIUHuskies.com or in person at the NIU Athletics Offices in the Convo.
 
As we stabilize our athletics operations, we are bracing for more department budgetary reductions. These reductions make season tickets, the Huskie Athletic Fund Annual Fund and fundraising events like our upcoming fourth annual Victor E. Ball, even more important for our teams and student-athletes. The 2019 Victor E. Ball will be held Saturday, April 27 at the NIU Naperville campus (1120 E. Diehl Rd, Naperville). Join me, our head coaches, student-athletes and emcee David Kaplan for a great evening including dinner, a silent and live auction, and the opportunity to hear Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ferguson "Fergie" Jenkins and trailblazing former professional tennis player and executive Katrina Adams. We'll close out the evening with an interactive performance from Windy City Dueling Pianos that I am really looking forward to.  If you cannot attend this year's Victor E. Ball, please consider participating in the online silent auction beginning April 12 or making a donation to support cost of attendance scholarships for our student-athletes.
 
Before we get to April, though, I'd love to see you at the NIU Convocation Center this Saturday (March 23) for the 2019 Mid-American Conference Gymnastics Championships. With seven teams competing in a seven-rotation meet, the action is non-stop, and you will be treated to amazing, Olympic-level feats by some of the most fearless athletes you have ever seen. The Huskies have had a record-breaking season and are looking to finish it with the first MAC gymnastics championship in school history. The action gets underway at 2 p.m. and you can get tickets at the door or in advance.
 
The MAC Gymnastics Championships are the final athletic event in the Convo this school year. It's worth reiterating that NIU's arena is much more than an athletics facility, it is a valuable asset for the entire northern Illinois region. In fact, earlier this month, the Convo was the site of nine events in a 12-day span, from NIU basketball and gymnastics, to NIU admitted student day (March 4), to a pair of IHSA (Illinois High School Association) Supersectionals on March 5 and March 12 to the IESA (Illinois Elementary School Association) Wrestling Championships on March 8-9. Over the course of those nine days, more than 17,000 people came through the doors, many from counties outside of DeKalb. There is no doubt this building has become a center of activity for NIU Athletics, Northern Illinois University and DeKalb County, with events throughout the year that draw thousands of visitors to our community. 
 
As we move from our indoor (winter) sports into the spring seasons, I want to congratulate Huskie wrestlers Brit Wilson and Bryce West on their NCAA Championships berths and wish them well as they compete in Pittsburgh this week. With their qualification to the national meet, NIU has extended its streak of sending a wrestler to the NCAAs to 48 consecutive years. Wow!
 
The Huskie Basketball teams both wrapped up their seasons in Cleveland last week, marking the first time since 2014 that both squads advanced to the quarterfinals of the MAC Basketball Tournament. It was fun to be in Ohio with both teams, and even more fun when the NIU men's team upset No. 2 seed Toledo to make the semifinals for the first time since 2003. I loved the way our men competed down the stretch, first winning back-to-back road games to earn a home first-round conference game, then demolishing Ohio and finally coming out on fire to take down No. 2 Toledo. The momentum from this year's finish and tournament run should propel our young nucleus of players going forward!  
 
What a great career for Levi Bradley, who finished as one of the Top 10 scorers in school history and played in a school-record 132 consecutive games. Congratulations also to Eugene German, after earning second team All-MAC honors for the regular season, he put on a show in the tournament – to the tune of 27 points per game in the three tourney games - to become just the third Huskie named to the MAC All-Tournament team.  

The NIU women's season ended in Cleveland versus No. 2 seed Ohio after a thrilling one-point win over Western Michigan in the first round of the MAC Tournament. The Huskies finished with 19 wins, an impressive accomplishment after playing with a short bench throughout the season. The best news is that NIU will welcome back starters Courtney Woods and Janae Poisson and more next season as second team All-MAC choice Mikayla Voigt was the lone senior on this year's roster. Voigt, a nursing major with a 3.93 GPA, was named a second-team All-American and finished her career fifth on the Huskies' all-time scoring list.  
 
Student-athletes like Mikayla and Levi, Brit, Bryce and so many more are the reason I'm here at NIU, and the reason our coaches and staff are so committed to making this athletic department and university the very best it can be. I invite you to seriously consider joining us for the Victor E. Ball to meet, and support, these outstanding young men and women in person.  
 
Go Huskies!


Sean T. Frazier
Associate Vice-President and Director of Athletics