Greetings Redbirds!
I sit down to write this note six months to the day after starting this amazing job. It has been a whirlwind for me and my family, but truly an amazing experience. Beth and I are jumping into life in Bloomington-Normal and our kids are in school, playing sports, and making friends. We've felt at home from the beginning because of the outstanding welcoming nature of this community. When I started, I shared my core values with our department: Relationships, Integrity, Service, Excellence. I'm proud to say our department is using those to guide our work as we enter the fall season.
The good news is that everything I believed to be great about ISU when accepting this position is true. We are positioned extremely well to dominate this conference. This year alone we've won league titles in Volleyball, Softball, Women's Indoor Track, Men's Cross Country, and Women's Tennis. We won the MVC All Sports Trophy for the second straight year, the first time in two decades we've gone back to back for that award. In addition to our athletic success, we had great achievements academically. Our department GPA was a 3.3 this spring, with 334 student-athletes on the AFNI Honor Roll. I could not be more proud of our student-athletes and coaches for the work they're putting in to continue our success in competition and in the classroom.
I have been spending a large part of my time working on raising money and awareness for an Indoor Practice Facility, a desperate need for all our programs. Right now, our teams use Horton Field House for practice and workouts during inclement weather, putting an enormous strain on that facility. Quite simply, it is not suited for our teams due to a lack of space and poor playing conditions. Our vision is to create a highly functional 100-yard indoor field space that will serve the needs of our student-athletes and coaches, the Illinois State student body, Bloomington-Normal and surrounding communities. We have made tremendous progress on this project and I will continue to provide updates of our positive developments towards the completion of this project, the largest of which was our recent $2 million donation. This project is our top priority moving forward and we are excited about the enthusiasm we have encountered when meeting with potential donors.
We continue to evaluate the athletic facilities here at ISU and have some exciting projects we are pursuing in addition to the Indoor Practice Facility. We are in the beginning stages of fundraising for a new locker room for the Track and Field and Cross Country programs, a project that is over halfway to its goal in the first week of work. We've secured private fundraising from a group of donors for a new facility for our baseball program, a hitting and pitching building that will provide an indoor space for year-round use. We are evaluating the locker rooms of each program and will be making necessary improvements through fundraising to each of those. Every project I plan to pursue will have our student-athletes best interest in mind. I'm going to work tirelessly to provide them the best opportunity possible at Illinois State. Every upgrade I mention is sorely needed for us to continue to recruit and retain high-level student-athletes.
The state of Illinois has been relaxing COVID-19 restrictions and we are planning to have full capacity at our sporting events next year, an update I'm truly excited to share. Now more than ever, we need your support as we return to "normal". Our student-athletes have worked extremely hard and cannot wait to see fans in the stands again. Your support, both financially and in person, will be extremely crucial to our success as we move forward.
I'm very excited to welcome President Terri Goss Kinzy to the Redbird Family. I'll be working with President Kinzy in the near future to schedule events for our donors to meet her and hear her vision for the University and the future of ISU Athletics. She has an outstanding reputation and history for her work with athletics while at Western Michigan University and I'm excited to work closely with her to support the vision of Illinois State.
Thank you for all you do to support Illinois State Athletics, our student-athletes, and coaches. This is a special place with special people and without you, we wouldn't be able to achieve the success we have and set out goals higher in the future. I can't wait to see everyone in the fall!
Thank you,
Kyle Brennan
Director of Athletics
