February is here and so is the arrival of spring sports season at Temple. Men’s and Women’s Tennis have already begun their respective seasons and this Saturday Women’s Lacrosse opens its 2024 campaign against Colgate at Howarth Field. A few days later our Golf team heads to Puerto Rico for its first tournament of the season, the Palmas del Mar Collegiate. It will only be a few more weeks before Men’s Crew and Women’s Rowing hit the water for competition and our Women’s Track team switches to its Outdoor season. There are plenty of Owl teams to cheer on over the next few months.

Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day and in celebration of this day Temple Athletics hosted not only a clinic for elementary school girls from Philadelphia area schools, but also a lunch (sponsored by Temple University’s Sport, Tourism, and Hospitality Management program) and panel discussion on the transition to college, expectations for participation in a varsity sport and a tour of campus. The day also included a networking breakfast with Temple alumni and our current female student-athletes.

On Friday, February 2, over 40 Temple student-athletes traveled to the Wells Fargo Center as well as the Comcast Technology Center to take part in the Made in Philly: Comcast Experience. Spearheaded by Temple University Trustee and former Owl soccer player Bret Perkins, who is the Senior Vice President for External and Government Affairs at Comcast Corporation, our student-athletes had a full day of panel discussions as well as touring the corporation’s facilities. Special thanks to our own Tara Evans, Director of the Nancy and Donald Resnick Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes, and Alyssa Drachslin, Coordinator for Leadership and Professional Development, for coordinating this special day.

On Feb. 10, Temple Athletics is hosting, Diamond Dreams: Investing in Women’s Sports at Temple, prior to our women’s basketball game against USF. The event is dedicated to fostering support and generating donors for women’s sports. The event will be filled with camaraderie, nostalgia, and a shared commitment to the future success of our women’s athletic programs. Each year we will identify a singular project to support one program and rotate across other teams on an annual basis. The goal of this year’s event is to raise funds to assist our women’s rowing program in purchasing a rowing shell for the 2025 season.

As we begin Black History Month, I'm reminded when Temple Football had a very special visitor when the team was in Birmingham to play UAB back in November. Rev. Arthur Price, Jr., who serves as Pastor of the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, spoke to members of the Temple Football travel party on the history of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which became known around the world when a bomb exploded, killing four young girls attending Sunday School and injuring more than 20 other members of the congregation on Sept. 15, 1963.

“It was such an honor to have Rev. Arthur Price, Jr. speak to members of our team when we were in Birmingham,” said Temple head coach Stan Drayton. “It was such a startling detail of what happened so many years earlier. While football will always be a high priority for us when we travel, the ability for our student-athletes to learn history in this manner is priceless.”

Today is National Signing Day for College Football. Coach Drayton and his staff had added 23 players during the December signing period and bolstered that with an additional eight players today. Click here to see the entire Temple Football recruiting class.

Spring Football is right around the corner and our Temple Owls have begun their preparation for the start of the official start of spring practice sessions on March 12. The team will work out for five weeks leading up to the Cherry and White Game on Saturday, April 13. Look for more details regarding the Spring Game in the coming weeks.

When the Owls take on Charlotte on Sunday, Feb. 11, Temple will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its 1999 Men’s Basketball team that advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight. That Owl team, which entered the tournament as an at-large selection with a 21-10 record to earn a #6 seed. Led by a balanced attack featuring Mark Karchner, Lamont Barnes, Rasheed Brokenborough, Quincy Wadley, Pepe Sanchez and Kevin Lyde, the Owls defeated Kent State, Cincinnati, and Purdue before falling to top-seeded and national runner-up Duke in the regional final. Members of the team will be honored in an on-court halftime ceremony.

Men’s Basketball returns to the Liacouras Center after consecutive heart-breaking overtime road losses to East Carolina and Tulane to host one of the top teams in the AAC, Memphis, on Thursday. Let’s pack the Liacouras Center to give our Owls a tremendous home court atmosphere.

Women’s Basketball has a big showdown at the Liacouras Center Saturday against South Florida. Both teams are 6-4 and one game out of first place in the AAC. The game will also be the team’s Play for Kay charity game with a postgame autograph session with the team.

Fencing is coming off an impressive showing at the Northwestern Duals, defeating #2 Notre Dame and #13 Ohio State at the tournament. Now 17-10 and ranked 9th in the nation, the Owls travel to North Carolina this weekend for the Tar Heel Duals.

Golf opens its spring season at the Palmas del Mar Collegiate in Humacao, Puerto Rico Feb. 11-13.

Gymnastics, which placed second at last weekend’s Auburn Meet, will stay local this week, is competing at Penn this Friday.

Women’s Lacrosse opens its season on Saturday with a home match against Colgate.

After playing its first five matches of the spring season on the road, Men’s Tennis has its home opener this Saturday against Siena at Penn’s Hecht Tennis Center.

Like the men, Women’s Tennis will play its first home matches of the spring at Penn’s Hecht Tennis Center, taking on Siena (Feb. 10) and Villanova (Feb. 11).

Women’s Track set several personal records while competing at the 32-team Scarlet Knight Open on Feb. 2-3. Amira Green and Obiamaka Igwenagu led the way, winning the high jump (1.7m) and long jump (5.6m), respectively.

Special shoutout to our Athlete of the Weeks since our last edition of From The Nest: Men’s Basketball – Jahlil White was named Big 5 Player of the Week (2/5); Women’s Basketball – Aleah Nelson was named OwlSports.com Athlete of the Month for January; Women’s Gymnastics – Brooke Donabedian was named OwlSports.com Athlete of the Week (1/29). Women’s Track – Obiamaka Igwenagu was named OwlSports.com Athlete of the Week (2/5).

As we approach the start of Spring Football, do not forget to renew your Temple Football season tickets for the 2024 campaign. Our home schedule for the 2024 season includes American Athletic Conference foes: Army, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, and Tulsa. We will also play host to Coastal Carolina and Utah State to round out our full home schedule. We hope you share in our optimism for the coming year and with the support from you and fellow Owls, Lincoln Financial Field will be a great home field environment.

Temple Talk with Adam Fisher debuted on Nov. 2 (6-7 pm) at Maxi’s Pizza, Subs and Bar which is located on the Temple University main campus. (1926 Liacouras Walk). The 12-episode show airs live on The Varsity Network App and is tape-delayed on 1210 AM WPHT, the home of Temple Basketball. Temple Women’s Basketball will be featured on each show with second-year head coach Diane Richardson and players talking about their season.

Reminder that ESPN+ is the home of Temple Athletics. Watch Temple athletics events via an ESPN+ subscription.

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

Both our men’s and women’s basketball teams had tough overtime defeats on the road last week.Coach Rich has her team battling for the conference regular season title in a closely contested race, while men’s team has been competitive despite its record under first-year coach Adam Fisher. Hope to see you at the Liacouras Center this week as both teams are in action.

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