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Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Steve Vacendak, former Duke and ABA Basketball player, and 2017 inductee into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. After graduating from Duke University, he was drafted by the San Francisco Warriors in the fourth round of the 1966 NBA draft, but he never played for them. Instead, he played professional basketball for the American Basketball Association and later joined the sales staff at Converse Rubber Company.

In 1980, he went back to work at Duke as an associate athletic director for five years. Perhaps his most significant contribution to his alma mater came during this period when he strongly recommended an unknown young coach at Army – Mike Krzyzewski or Coach K – for the Duke head coaching job. Ironically, Vacendak also played a big role in recommending that NC State consider Jim Valvano for their open head coaching job and State hired Jimmy V just nine days after Duke hired Coach K. After working at Duke, he became the director of athletics and head basketball coach at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

You can learn more about Vacendak at https://www.ncshof.org/stevevacendak

Mark Your Calendar

3/6/24 – Kevin Kelly, Club Member and Senior Games Leader
3/20/24 – Bob Bender, Retired College and Pro Basketball Coach
4/3/24 – Special Guest Speaker

The Speaker for our next meeting will be Tyler Parsons, General Manager of the Durham Bulls.  Parsons joined the Bulls in December 2022 after serving as the General Manager of the Lansing Lugnuts for the previous five seasons.  During his tenure in Lansing, he helped usher in a new affiliation with the Oakland Athletics in 2021, as well as league-promotion to the High-A Central League.  He was named the High-A Central League’s Executive of the Year in 2021.  Prior to Lansing, he was the General Manager of the Johnson City Cardinals and Martinsville Mustangs.  He began his career in baseball with the Forest City Owls as the Director of Fun, and has previous sports experience with Central Michigan Athletics, Mid-Michigan Community College, Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart Academy and Rivals.com.  Tyler is a graduate of Central Michigan University, where he received both his Bachelors and Masters degrees.

Tyler is an avid Detroit Lions fan, enjoys hiking in his spare time, and has visited 19 National Parks in the United States.  He is joined in Durham by his wife, Kelsea, his daughter, Sawyer, and their dog, Knox.
Thanks for the info, https://www.milb.com/durham/ballpark/front-office-staff)

MARK YOUR CALENDAR
2/21/24 – Steve Vacendak, former Duke Basketball Star
3/6/24 –Kevin Kelly, Club Member and Senior Games Leader
3/20/24 – Bob Bender, Retired College and Pro Basketball Coach

The Speaker for our next meeting will be Elliott Avent, Head Baseball Coach at NC State. Avent, who is NC State’s all-time winningest coach with 998 victories (1,222 in his 35-year head coaching career), has taken the Wolfpack to the NCAA Tournament in 20 of the last 27 seasons and 15 of the last 19. Avent captured both ACC and National Coach of the Year honors in 2003 and was named USA Baseball’s College Coach of the Year in 2021.

In 2023, Avent reached another impressive milestone, notching his 1,200th career victory with a resounding 14-4 win at Miami on March 12. Avent became the 29th Division I coach to ever reach 1,200 career victories and concludes the 2023 season as one of just six active head coaches with more than 1,200 career wins. The 27th-year skipper led the Wolfpack back to the NCAA Tournament in 2023, finishing the season with a 36-21 record. Avent enters the 2024 campaign in Raleigh just two wins shy of 1,000 coaching victories at NC State.

Under Avent’s tutelage, the Wolfpack landed a league-best three players on the ACC All-Freshman Team (Dominic Fritton, Eli Serrano III and Cannon Peebles). Fritton and Peebles both also earned multiple Freshman All-American honors following their 2023 campaigns. Wolfpack catcher Jacob Cozart and NC State third baseman LuJames Groover III earned Second Team All-ACC and Third Team All-ACC accolades, respectively.
(Thanks for the info, www.GoPack.com)

Mark Your Calendar
All Meetings at Croasdaile Country Club
2/7/24 – Tyler Parsons, General Manager, Durham Bulls
2/21/24 –Special Guest Speaker
3/6/24 – Guest Speaker

The Speaker for our next meeting will be Braden Holloway, Head Swimming and Diving Coach at NC State. Since being named to the position, Holloway’s tenure has been full of success. After capturing the 2013 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Men’s Coach of the Year honor, he has gone on to win that award nine times (2013, 2015-2020, 2022, 2023). Holloway was also the 2017 ACC Women’s Coach of the Year.

Holloway most recently guided his squads to the best combined national finish of any men’s and women’s programs across the country as the men placed fourth at the NCAA Championships and the women finished fifth. He directly coached Katharine Berkoff and Kacper Stokowski both to 100-yard backstroke national titles as the Pack swept the event. He also led NC State’s men back to the top of the podium at the 2022 ACC Championships.

Holloway has led the Wolfpack to 361 All-ACC performances, 454 All-America performances, 78 ACC individual titles, and 46 ACC relay gold medals.
In addition to his accomplishments at the collegiate level of coaching, Holloway has mentored 12 Olympians during his career. That number is highlighted by program alumnus Ryan Held, who claimed a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics as the third leg of Team USA’s winning 4×100 meter freestyle relay team. Holloway recently served as the men’s head coach for USA Swimming’s squad at the 2019 World University Games in Naples, Italy. There, he helped lead Team USA to a total of 40 medals at the meet, marking the most overall podium finishes and most first-place finishes for the United States in World University Games history.
(Thanks for the info, gopack.com)

Mark Your Calendar
All Meetings at Croasdaile Country Club
12/20/23 – Christmas Luncheon featuring N&O’s Luke DeCock’s “Year in Sports” wrap-up
1/3/24 – NO MEETING
1/17/24 – WE’RE BACK!

The Speaker for our next meeting will be Wes Moore, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at NC State. Since taking over the Wolfpack on April 5, 2013, Moore has posted a 242-81 (.749) record and led NC State to seven NCAA Tournament appearances and postseason invitations each year. He has guided the Pack to a 115-49 (.701) clip in the ACC, a league that consistently ranks among the top conferences in NCAA Division I women’s basketball. Seven of Moore’s 10 seasons have concluded in top-four finishes in the 15-member league. All 10 of his seasons in Raleigh have been winning seasons, and nine have included 20+ victories. He guided his team to four-straight NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 berths (2018, 19, 21, 22), highlighted by the program’s second-ever Elite Eight appearance in 2022.

Moore also led NC State to three-straight ACC Tournament titles for the first time in program history. The team’s win in 2020 was its first conference tournament championship since 1991, and the team repeated in 2021 and 2022. On March 2, 2023, in the first round of the ACC Tournament, Moore earned his 800th career win. He became the fifth active, third-ever ACC and 15th NCAA Division I coach of all time to reach that mark and accomplished it in his 1,048th career game. Moore is the first coach in history to advance three different teams to the NCAA Tournament at the Division I (NC State), II (Francis Marion) and III (Maryville College) level.
(thanks for the info, GoPack.com)

Mark Your Calendar
All Meetings at Croasdaile Country Club
12/6/23 – Braden Holloway, Head Swimming & Diving Coach, NC State
12/20/23 – Christmas Luncheon featuring N&O’s Luke DeCock’s “Year in Sports” wrap-up
1/3/24 – NO MEETING

The Speaker for our next meeting will be Art Chase, Senior Associate Director of Athletics/External Affairs at Duke. He previously held Associate Sports Information Director (2000-04), Sports Information Director (2005-10), Assistant Director of Athletics/Sports Information (2011-13), Assistant Director of Athletics/External Affairs (2013-17) and Associate Director of Athletics/External Affairs (2017-18) titles before being elevated to his current position in October, 2018.

A member of the Duke Athletics executive leadership team, Chase serves as the primary administrator for the football program working with head coach Mike Elko. Chase oversees the department’s Communications, Marketing, Photography and Ticket Operations divisions while chairing the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame Committee. In addition, he serves as the department’s primary liaison with the institution’s communications groups and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Football Foundation’s Bill Dooley Chapter, having served a two-year stint as the organization’s president in 2020-21.

After graduating from Guilford College in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in sport management, Chase served two years as an Assistant Sports Information Director at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. After a three-year stint as the Sports Information Director at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., he returned to The Citadel as SID, holding the position for four years until accepting a position on the Duke staff.

Mark Your Calendar
All Meetings at Croasdaile Country Club
11/15/23- Wes Moore, Head Women’s Basketball Coach, NC State
12/6/23 – Special Guest Speaker
12/20/23 – Christmas Luncheon featuring N&O’s Luke DeCock’s “Year in Sports” wrap-up

The Speaker for our next meeting will be David Shumate, the Director of Broadcasting for the Blue Devil IMG Sports Network. In this role, he serves as the play-by-play voice for Duke football and men’s basketball games.

A native North Carolinian, Shumate graduated from Appalachian State University in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science degree in communication with a concentration in electric media and broadcasting. He started freelancing with ISP Sports—earning $30 to call a coaches’ show, maybe $100 for a football game—where he’d drive two hours each way and barely break even. He became an administrator in the Greensboro school system, which brought him closer to ISP in Winston-Salem and left him time in the evenings for announcer gigs. The following year, Shumate moved to Auburn as a temporary fill-in. But when the team’s longtime announcer died from cancer, he stayed on for two years there before moving back to Winston-Salem, where he steadily progressed at IMG College (the multimedia rightsholder for sports at more than ninety schools, including Duke; IMG acquired ISP in 2010).

Prior to moving to Durham, Shumate spent the previous five years as IMG’s Director of Audio Operations. His broadcasting experience includes play-by-play duties for the Mid-American Conference championship football game (2010-16), SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament (2011-17) and SEC Baseball Tournament (2013-17). Shumate also handled basketball play-by-play responsibilities for Auburn, Connecticut, Duke, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt, Washington, and West Virginia between 2011-17.

Mark Your Calendar

11/1/23 – Art Chase, Senior Associate Athletic Director, Duke
11/15/23- Wes Moore, Head Women’s Basketball Coach, NC State
12/6/23 – Special Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker for this meeting will be George Bell, former Harlem Globetrotter and the tallest man in the United States. Born in 1957 in Portsmouth, Virginia, Bell is the tallest man in the United States at 7 feet 8 inches (234 cm) as recognized by Guinness World Records. He was a deputy sheriff in Norfolk, Virginia, he played college basketball at Morris Brown College, Biola University, then played with the Harlem Wizards and Harlem Globetrotters.

Bell was featured on the AMC show Freakshow, throughout its two seasons. In an interview for the show, he revealed that he had appeared as an alien who landed on top of the L.A. Coliseum at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He also appeared on season 4 of American Horror Story. He first showed signs of his impending tallness when he was 9 or 10, Bell said, but through high school he never grew so tall that he felt out of place. By the time he hit his early 20s, however, his height had exceeded 7 feet. When he last measured himself, about 20 years ago, he said, he was 7 feet 7 inches. But the measurements for the Guinness book showed he had grown another inch. Bell said he has a medical condition called gigantism, which causes excessive growth hormone secretion during childhood. (Thanks, Wikipedia)

Mark Your Calendar
All Meetings at Croasdaile Country Club
10/18/23 – David Shumate, Radio Play-by-Play Announcer, Duke
11/1/23 – Art Chase, Senior Associate Athletic Director, Duke
11/15/23 – Wes Moore, Head Women’s Basketball Coach, NC State

Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Jolene Nagel, Head Volleyball Coach at Duke University. Jolene Nagel became Duke University’s fifth head volleyball coach in 1999, joining the Blue Devil staff after successful stints at Cornell and Georgetown.

Under her guidance, Duke has earned a reputation as one of the elite programs on the East Coast. Nagel has led the Blue Devils to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances, including an ACC-record seven consecutive trips to the postseason event from 2005-11.

A perennial contender in the ACC, Duke has recorded 20 or more wins in 14 of Nagel’s 19 campaigns and consistently finished among the top three in the conference. Nagel earned her 600th career victory September 9, 2017 as the Blue Devils downed TCU in straight sets. With the win, Nagel became the 22nd active NCAA D- I head coach to reach 600 career victories.

The winningest Duke volleyball coach on record, she also ranks among the league coaching leaders in overall winning percentage, ACC winning percentage, ACC wins and NCAA Tournament appearances.

Nagel began her coaching career in 1983 as a graduate assistant at Kent State University following graduation from Edinboro University. In 1985 she accepted a position as first assistant coach at the University of North Carolina and spent three seasons in Chapel Hill before moving to on to Cornell in 1988.  (thanks, GoDuke.com)

Mark Your Calendar
All Meetings at Croasdaile Country Club
10/4/23 – George Bell, former Harlem Globetrotter and USA’s Tallest Man
10/18/23 – Special Guest Speaker
11/1/23 – Art Chase, Senior Associate Athletic Director, Duke

Our guest speaker for this meeting will be Jon Scheyer, Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Duke University.  Scheyer was named the 20th head coach in Duke University’s storied basketball history on June 4, 2021.  He enters his second season as head coach in 2023-24, with vast experience on the Duke bench, having served on Mike Krzyzewski’s staff since the 2013-14 season. His previous roles with the Blue Devils include special assistant, assistant coach, and the previous three years as associate head coach.

Leading the Blue Devils to a 27-9 mark in his first season, Duke captured the ACC Tournament title and went undefeated at home as Scheyer became the first coach in the conference’s storied history to post an undefeated home record in a debut season and the first to lead a team to an ACC title as both a player (2009, 2010) and as a head coach (2023).

Scheyer was named a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Coach of the Year Award, presented annually to the best first-year coach in college basketball.

Scheyer and his wife, Marcelle, play an active role in the Durham community, starting the “Scheyer Kid Captain” program in 2022-23. The program provides a connection between the Duke Basketball program and the life-saving work performed daily at Duke Children’s Hospital by inviting a patient and family from Duke Children’s to spend a gameday with the team, attend practice and sit behind the bench.

Mark Your Calendar
All Meetings at Croasdaile Country Club
9/20/23 – Wes Moore, Head Women’s Basketball Coach, NC State
10/4/23 – George Bell, 7’8″ Former Harlem Globetrotters player
10/18/23 – Jolene Nagel, Head Volleyball Coach, Duke