Letter from the AD: December 2023 Edition
12/22/2023 12:00:00 PM | General
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Dear Bobcats, Happy Holidays from all of us in Bobcat Athletics! As we all prepare to celebrate the holiday season, I hope we can enjoy this time in good health, surrounded by those we care about. Thank you for your continued support and all you do to make Montana State, especially Bobcat Athletics, truly special. As the fall semester has come to an end, we congratulate our eleven student-athletes who graduated this past week. Your support allowed them to strive for and achieve championship level success at MSU. Thank you for your continued support and join me in wishing each of them their best as they start their professional careers. Once a Bobcat, Always a Bobcat. Volleyball capped its best season ever at MSU under first-year head coach Matt Houk. The Bobcats finished the season with the most wins (24), most conference wins (12), first conference championship game appearance, first post season appearance and most postseason wins (3). Kira Thomsen became the all-time leader in kills, and she shares the honor of being named Academic All-District with Jourdain Kamps. Both are now finalists for Academic All-American honors. MSU men's cross country finished 13th at the NCAA Championships, their second-best finish in school history. However, it was their lowest all-time point total at the national meet. Matthew Richtman became only the second two-time All-American in MSU history by finishing 26th overall. Bobcat Football qualified for the FCS Playoffs with the 6-seed and finished the season with an 8-4 record. The 32 wins the past three seasons are the most wins ever in a three-year period for any MSU football team and the current streak of 5 consecutive playoff berths is also a program record. The Bobcats have celebrated numerous All-Americans and standout quarterback Tommy Mellott won the prestigious Doris Robinson Scholar Athlete Award top scholar- athlete in the FCS. MSU golf, tennis, and rodeo teams all finished their fall seasons and are gearing up for the spring while the ski teams are chasing snow for training and begin their competition schedule in January. For more information on all our teams go to the Bobcat Athletics website. Basketball single-game ticket sales are on sale now. Both teams are growing together, and we have already witnessed some great games in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse this season. Get to the Brick and support the defending Big Sky Conference Champions by purchasing your tickets here. As announced on November 17, we are well on our way to reaching our fundraising goal for the new indoor athletics facility. Since that announcement, an additional $1M has been raised, meaning we are only $2M away from meeting our goal. If you are interested in helping us complete this transformational project, please click here. In the coming weeks we will share more details on the project. We are excited about the impact it will have on our entire department and community. With our goal of a new indoor athletics facility in sight, I think it is important to remember the facility upgrades that have been completed since 2021: 1. Bobcat Athletic Complex 2. Bozeman Health Academic Excellence Center 3. Men's and Women's Basketball locker rooms 4. Volleyball locker room 5. Brick Breeden Fieldhouse athletic training room 6. D'Agostino weight room 7. Athletics Wellness Center 8. Stock Family Rodeo Facility These facility enhancements are rooted in our vision to create a first-class student-athlete experience dedicated to academic success, competitive excellence, and personal development. Each of these spaces plays a critical role in the development of all Bobcat student-athletes and positively impacts their experience on campus. I believe we are seeing the results we are in part due to these facility enhancements. As I stated in the previous letter, our costs to provide a first-class experience for our Bobcat student-athletes continue to rise, the need to focus on supporting the Bobcat Club has never been more important. As the fundamental resource for recruiting and retaining championship-caliber student-athletes, the Bobcat Club is critical to the success of our athletic programs. Since 2016, Athletic scholarship expenses have risen more than $1M, and your support of the Bobcat Club and of our student-athletes is more essential than ever. To make an end-of-the-year gift to support Bobcat student-athletes, click here. Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) is a hot topic and as we have seen, NIL combined with the Transfer Portal can change the way any roster looks at the end of a season. There are many ways to contribute and support Bobcat student-athletes through NIL. The two I want to highlight are the Bobcat Collective and the MSU Bobcat Exchange. Click the links to learn more on how to support our current student-athletes. I also want to thank Brandon Vancleeve and the Bobcat Collective for leading the charge in NIL for MSU and putting us in a position to be competitive in this space. As college athletics continues to change, we are committed to being at the forefront, providing the best resources to compete for championships. It is an exciting time but also an uncertain time. With that said, our athletes continue to excel in the classroom and competition, and it is our goal and responsibility to ensure that continues. As a fan and donor, thank you for your continued support and enabling our programs to achieve at the highest level. Happy Holidays and Go Cats Go! |
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Leon Costello Director of Athletics |
