It is great to see and feel the buzz on campus with the start of the fall semester. Hopefully everyone had an enjoyable and healthy summer. Here at Temple Athletics, we have been busy with several initiatives to support our student-athletes and coaches as we prepare for a successful 2022-23 academic year.

Today marks the end of an era here at Temple Athletics with the retirement of Dr. Nikki Franke as our head fencing coach. The only coach in the history of the sport at Temple, Nikki led our program for 50 years, winning an amazing 898 matches, including the 1992 NCAA Championship. We have been so incredibly fortunate to have her as our coach and a role model for our student-athletes. No one is more beloved in the athletics department as well as on campus as she also taught and mentored our students for five decades in Temple University’s Department of Public Health. Her accolades and success are endless, but it will be her presence that will be missed the most. (Click here for press release)

Please join me in welcoming our new fencing coach, Jennie Salmon. Jennie, who recently coached the women's and men's fencing teams at Brandeis University for four years, was a two-time team captain (1993, 1994) as well as a two-time foil All-American while competing for Coach Franke here at Temple. She also helped the Owls to three top-three finishes among women's programs at the NCAA Championships and was an honorable mention All-American on our National Championship team in 1992. (Click here for press release)

We celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX on June 23 and our iconic coach, Dr. Nikki Franke, was featured that week on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Nikki will also be inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 3.

And the regular season is up and running as women’s soccer opened its season with 1-1 tie against Big Ten foe Maryland at the Temple Sports Complex on Aug. 18. All other fall teams are in camp preparing for their seasons to begin. Admission is free to our fall sports contests except Football.

I hope to see you at the games supporting our student-athletes!

As you may have seen, we welcomed three new members of the leadership team Derek Horne, Ed Stoner and Tia Withers, who will join myself, Jessica Reo and recently promoted staffers, Kristy Bannon, Justin Miller, Lee Roberts and Tim Thiess on our Executive Leadership Team. These additions and promotions solidify our executive leadership staff and provide Temple with an extremely talented and knowledgeable administrative team to lead the athletics department.

I had the pleasure of welcoming back to campus and honoring our 1972 Baseball team as they celebrated the 50th anniversary of their third-place finish at the College World Series. After stopping on campus to receive commemorative jerseys and hats, the team toured our new state-of-the-art Charles Library. We later watched the Phillies win. It was a great turnout by the team, and we will welcome them back, and all our teams and individuals celebrating anniversary seasons, at our home football game against UMass on Sept. 24. It will be our first annual Champions Day celebration.

I would like to give a shoutout to two of our top golfers, Conor McGrath and Ethan Whitney, on representing Temple at the 122nd US Amateur last week. It is the first time Temple has had two current members of the team compete at this prestigious event since current assistant coach Matt Teesdale and Brandon Matthews played in the tournament in 2014.

Congratulations are also in order for departing student-athletes, Michelle Joyce (women’s cross country and track) and Elaine Tierney (women’s rowing). Michelle is one of two American Athletic Conference nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year award and also earned an AAC Postgraduate Leadership Award. Elaine became the first Temple women’s rower to earn a spot on the US Senior Women’s National team since 2007 when she and her Vesper Club teammate Solveig Imsadahl won the lightweight women's pair at the US Rowing Summer National Championships.

I had the pleasure of visiting with the Temple Student Government President Gianni Quattrocchi last week to discuss ways we can better work together to support our student-athletes during the 2022-23 season.

In closing, I hope you enjoyed this first edition of From the Nest. Look for a new edition every two weeks.

GO OWLS!!!