As I highlight what is happening with Temple Athletics in this edition of From the Nest, I must pause and think of the people and communities that have been impacted by the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Ian. My thoughts are with those who have suffered losses during this past week.

Our 2022-23 Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Leadership team was announced last week. Junior Emma Nesbitt from field hockey will serve as SAAC president with rowing senior Riley Hackett named vice president. Rounding out the rest of the five-member leadership team is field hockey senior Sydney Beck (event coordinator), rowing senior Kendyll Petronick (SAMH Chair), golf sophomore Joey Morganti (Treasurer), women's track senior Sophia Gulotti (Social Engagement Coordinator), and football redshirt-sophomore Wisdom Quarshie (DEI Chair).

Congratulations to the student-athletes for taking on these important leadership roles.

On September 14, I was able to meet with members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation to highlight Temple Athletics as well as discuss current and future NIL proposals in Congress.

The meetings with our representatives were on Capitol Hill in D.C. and were coordinated by Temple's Governmental Relations Staff. A special thanks to Ryan Frascella for his work in arranging these visits.

Speaking of Hall of Famers, our own Dr. Nikki Franke will have a busy month as she will be honored twice for her 50-year coaching career. Coach Franke will first receive the David P. Montgomery Lifetime Achievement Award at the Wanamaker Awards Luncheon on Oct. 26. Eight days later on Nov. 3, the fencing legend will be inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. Congrats Coach Franke!!

Field Hockey continues to lead the way for our fall sports as head coach Michelle Vittese and her student-athletes cracked the Top 25 on Sept 20, the first time since the 2014 season. The team improved to 9-3 with a pair of victories this weekend, including a 3-2 win over Drexel on a goal by Tess Muller with no time on the clock. The nine wins are the most since the 2014 team posted a 14-7 record.

Football posted its first shutout since the 2016 season, defeating UMass 28-0. The Owls defense continued its scoreless streak in its American Athletic Conference opener, holding Memphis scoreless in the first half. The high-scoring Tiger offense, however, took advantage of turnovers to hand the Owls a 24-3 loss.

Women’s Volleyball split a pair of AAC home matches this weekend and now stand at 7-8 overall and 1-3 in conference play.

Women’s soccer notched its first win of the season with its 5-0 victory over LIU Saturday while Men’s Soccer is mired in a three-match losing streak.

After a two-week break, Golf is currently competing in the Ironwood Collegiate Classic at the time of this post.

Men’s and Women’s Cross Country are on a two-week break with their next competition scheduled for Oct. 14 at the Penn State National Open.

Women's Tennis sent four players to the ITA Northeast Regional Championship this past weekend. Play was highlighted by a standout doubles performance from Jamie Wei and Maiko Uchijima, who advanced to the quarterfinals, earning a bid to the prestigious ITA Super Regional Tournament.

Our Men’s and Women’s Basketball schedules are complete with the release of the American Athletic Conference dates last week. Our men’s team opens on Nov. 7 at home against Wagner and then four days later hosts Big 5 rival Villanova on Friday, Nov. 11. Our women’s squad opens at Princeton on Nov. 7 with Coach Richardson and her team making their home debut against Georgetown at the Liacouras Center on Nov. 12.

Season tickets are on sale now for both teams. Click here to purchase and support our Owls!!

I want to give a shoutout and huge thank you to two of our great supporters – Nancy and Donald Resnick. The couple was recognized during our football game against UMass in recognition of the 10th anniversary of the Nancy & Donald Resnick Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes. In the past 10 years nearly 2,000 student-athletes have completed their degrees in hundreds of different majors, while Temple University has developed a reputation as an elite destination for student-athlete academic success – ranking near the top of all NCAA performance metrics.

This would not be possible without the generosity of Nancy and Donald Resnick. As Temple Athletics begins its celebration of a decade of the Resnick Center, please join us in thanking Nancy and Donald Resnick for their commitment to student-athlete success and helping Temple provide an exceptional experience for its student-athletes.

In case you missed this, Temple student Minu Patel, a student manager with the football team, was featured on Good Morning America as part of the 10-year anniversary of the Verizon Innovative Learning program. Minu has been part of this amazing program from her middle school days and was part of her school's student-run IT program, the “Tiger Techs”. Throughout high school and while continuing to pursue her degree at Temple Minu has gone back numerous times to both middle schools in her district to mentor a group of students (primarily focusing on girls) and encouraging them to take a step forward in STEM. Check out her inspirational video below!

I would like to thank Dr. Scott Gratson from the Klein College of Media and Communication for providing our Athletics Senior Leadership a tour of our wonderful campus on Sept. 20. Dr. Gratson gave our staff a detailed history of Temple University, including the history of campus buildings, new and old. Next time you are walking through main campus be sure to look at the architecture and see if you can find the grotesques.

Temple had a school record four players get drafted into the NFL in 2020: Matt Hennessy (Falcons), Harrison Hand (Vikings), Shaun Bradley (Eagles), and Chapelle Russell (Buccaneers) with four more players getting signed as undrafted free agents. Temple is the only team outside of the Power 5 conferences to have multiple players drafted to the NFL from 2016-2020. In all, Temple has 24 current players in the NFL, the second most of any school outside of the Power 5. Thirteen of the league’s 32 teams will sport some Cherry and White this season. Furthermore, when adding coaches and team personnel into the equation, there are 79 people in the NFL with ties to Owl Nation.

This past week we spotlighted Katie Goldbridge Ganzelli, our Marketing Coordinator for On-Campus Initiatives. Katie is doing a great job in her new role engaging our student body and bringing awareness of our athletics teams and home contests to our students.

Special shoutout to our Athletes of the Week/Month since the last edition of From The Nest: Football – Layton Jordan, OwlSports.com Athlete of the Month (September); Alex Odom, OwlSports.com Athlete of the Week (9/26); Men's Soccer - Sawyer Koza, Soccer Six Rookie of the Week (9/27); Women’s Soccer – Katie Coritz, OwlSports.com Athlete of the Week (10/3).

If you are looking for a nice event to socialize with our rowing and crew alums and support a good cause, stop by the 2022 BeyerFund.org Rowing Scholarship Social on Saturday, Oct. 15 at our East Park Canoe House. Named in honor of former men’s crew alum Jamie Beyer (’96) who lost his battle with cancer in 2018, the fund has created a scholarship in Jamie’s name in support of Temple Rowing.

Green is the color for mental health awareness nationally, and since 2017 the AAC has used the green ribbon as the symbol associated with the Pow6rful Minds Campaign. In conjunction with Pow6rful Minds week (Oct 3 - 8). Temple Athletics hosts Green Games in the month of October each academic year where we recognize and promote mental health awareness. This fall there will be eight green games with the first being this week with Volleyball vs. East Carolina (7 pm) on Oct. 5.

Please come out and continue to support all our Temple Athletics teams. Below is a link to our composite schedule.

Missed an edition? See all past newsletters HERE.