Bill Chaves was named as Eastern Washington University's Athletic Director on August 17, 2007. Chaves becomes Eastern's 13th athletics director in the last 40 years, including the ninth since Eastern became a member of NCAA Division I in the 1983-84 school year and a member of the Big Sky Conference in 1987-88.
August 2009
Dear Eagle Family,
Where did the summer go? I guess in the world of intercollegiate athletics, the more appropriate question is where did July go as June and August seem to be just as busy as any other month on the calendar.
I waited a bit into August to type this letter so that I could include information about our 23rd Annual Ron Raver Memorial Golf Tournament. On a sun-splashed day, we again filled up two courses with eager golfers to help us raise funds for the athletic department. This year Indian Canyon and The Creek at Qualchan played host to the tournament and it just was a great day. Thank you to so many people and companies that make this happen annually. Special thanks though to our title sponsor, Harvest Foods, as well as Pepsi, Agra Beef and Odom Corporation -- they all just did a spectacular job. If you have never played in this tournament, please think about putting it on your radar screen for 2010 -- you will not be disappointed.
Since I last wrote, the Big Sky President's Cup results came out for the 2008-09 academic year. For the second consecutive year, our student-athletes again posted the highest grade point average in the conference with a cumulative GPA of 3.22. Adding in both athletic and academic performance, our department finished fourth overall in the standings. A congratulations goes out to all of our student-athletes who achieved this great honor as well as our coaches, staff and Eastern community who made this possible.
As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, we are awaiting the arrival of our fall teams so that we can kick off the 2009-10 academic year. We are looking forward to this year as many of our teams have high hopes for the upcoming seasons. I would be remiss if I did not remind you to please consider purchasing tickets for the upcoming year as well as joining the EAA. Our student-athletes could use all of your support that is possible.
A couple of final items -- a number of you have asked me about the status of our appeal with the NCAA regarding the postseason play in football for the 2009 season. The Appeals Committee has invited us to Indianapolis on August 17th to hear our appeal. As for the process/decision timetable, we have yet to receive that information.
Our 2009 Eastern Hall of Fame class was announced (see the two links below) and all of our newest honorees will be inducted on October 10 prior to our home football game with Weber State. Congratulations to these well deserving Eastern greats!
http://www.goeags.com/genrel/releases/09HallofFameRelease
http://www.goeags.com/genrel/releases/09HallofFameReleaseService-Contribution.doc
"See" you in September and Go Eagles!
Bill
