Today marks my one year anniversary since I joined the Coug Family and I can't thank everyone enough for welcoming my family into the Coug Family. We quickly learned why Pullman is called "home" to so many alums and why it is so important to find your way back! As ESPN's Lee Corso stated emphatically during College GameDay's inaugural visit to the Palouse on October 20, "This is a special time and this is a special place." We couldn't agree anymore!



Reflecting back on my first year, we are proud of all the great work done by our student-athletes, coaches and staff and by the incredible support of our alums, donors and fans. We had so many exciting highlights on and off of the fields of competition, including WSU records set in: overall student-athlete GPA, APR scores and Cougar Athletic Fund donations. In addition, we had multiple Top 25 finishes for our teams, including football at No. 10 in the nation, volleyball at No. 16, men's cross country at No. 23 and almost 30 All-Americans across all sports! We also enhanced our student-athlete welfare programs, initiated a campus-wide mental health awareness campaign and did some building and renovations in athletics.



In 2018, approximately 25 percent of our athletics staff changed over and we boast some of the most talented professionals in the country who have a great understanding of our roles within athletics. We have added diversity to our department as well with more than half of our recent hires being women and/or ethnic minorities.

This year, 2019, will be our most important year ever and we must all come together to reach even greater heights. We will continue to harness our model of total student-athlete development and continue to ensure that the growth of our young people academically, athletically and socially remains our top priority. In the fall, we will launch a Strategic Plan initiative that you will learn more about and we will work to increase donations to our Cougar Athletic Fund, fundraise for our Indoor Practice Facility and find new revenue streams to support our athletics program.



Natalie and I and our daughters could not be happier to be in Pullman. I want to thank President Kirk Schulz and the AD search committee of Dr. Nancy Swanger , Jack Thompson, Gary Schneidmiller, Greg Rankich and Abu Kamara for their belief in me and for helping to make this first year a memorable one.



The best days of WSU Athletics are directly in front of us!

Go Cougs!





Sincerely,

Pat