The Community Engagement

Warhawk Women’s Football

I am a strong advocate for the development of female sports, particularly football. You can only imagine how delighted I was watching the recent Warhawk Women’s Event tagged Football 101.

You will be surprised to know that the population of females in the student body far outnumbers that of males (Nick Bruno, ULM President put the figure at sixty-seven percent). Looking at this figure it will make sense to extend the athletic program toward women.  Bruno highlighted the importance of women participating actively in extracurricular activities in his opening speech,

“We have a great number of women who have come to ULM and go into professional fields to pursue their career. But while they’re here, we want them to be more engaged with our athletic program and all the extracurricular activities.”

Source: ULM Warhawks

I think this call is coming at the right time given the tremendous success of the male Warhawks in the current season. The female team will build off the tempo set by the male team – and do better.

Support For Female Football At ULM

Unlike in some universities around the nation, the support for the ULM female football has been tremendous; from the president to the team coaches down to the male students. Each time the female Warhawks has a program, the turnout is always impressive.

The first time ULM journeyed into women football clinic, the supporters that turned out at Bayou Pointe was around two hundred. The creation of the Warhawk Women will also help the athletic department raise more funds considering that Warhawk Club is the principal fund-raising arm of the department.

At the event the co-membership chair, Toni Bacon said the ULM will continue the effort of providing women with the opportunity to become more engaged. Bacon also said that Warhawk Women will provide friends and alumni of the university the opportunity to network in order to support the ULM Warhawk Athletics.

The attendees at the event had the opportunity to learn what the “buck” position and “RPOs” means. The attendees also listen to the head coach Matt Viator speak about how he met his wife Schantel who was a cheerleader while he was coaching high school football. The event was brought to a close with the colorful display of the hottest ULM gear which will be available this fall for games.

The Recent Pep Rally In Quad To Kickoff Conference

I was surprised when I learned that the last pep rally to hold in in ULM was in 2012. I am delighted to know that it returned this year. Getting attendees to such a gathering is not always an easy task but ULM Athletics was able to pull this off by offering free food, gears, and unlimited fun.

ULM was able to host the 2018 Conference Kickoff Pep Rally with the help of the Campus Activity Board and the Warhawk Women. The event which provided a community engagement opportunity featured players and coaches from the three athletic teams of the school namely football, volleyball, and soccer.

Addressing the students, the head coach of the volleyball team, Russ Friedland mentioned that it was a huge opportunity for coaches to talk to the students and invite them to the games. The truth is that many students don’t actually know that the games are free to watch, talk more of the play schedule of the university team.

Coach Matt Viator also used the opportunity to announce the second home game of the Warhawks inasmuch as the team has enjoyed some great moments in the 2018 season including the presence of Dough Pederson as an honorary coach, {NOTE TO DEVELOPER: Kindly link “presence of Dough Pederson as honorary coach” to the article “#2 Honorary Captain Pederson Savors Special Moments”} the team has also suffered a good number of losses including a tough one to Texas A&M.

I think breaking free from the mindset of being an underdog should be the primary role of the coach. The coach needs to make his players understand that they can achieve anything they set their minds on – because you can hardly live beyond your imagination. The surprise speech of the night came from David Griffith, a senior linebacker. Students with a vibrant nightlife were treated to good music that kept them in the quad all through the night.