Features
Bull Speed Ahead
By BRIAN SIEGRIST, USF Athletics and PENNY CARNATHAN, USF Advancement
If supply chains cooperate, this fall’s incoming freshmen will be attending Bulls games, concerts and festivals in their own Tampa campus stadium by the time they’re seniors.
Will they watch from bleachers, chairs or a mix? In the shade or the sun? Will they have a concourse for pregame pizza?
Those questions and more should be answered by next spring. In March, the USF Board of Trustees voted to move forward with the stadium’s design phase, expected to take about a year. Students, alumni, faculty, staff and USF friends will have opportunities to weigh in.
Leading the effort is Populous, an architectural firm whose projects include 1,325 stadiums in 34 countries. The $22 million authorized for this segment of construction will come from gifts and investment earnings, not the state or students. Longtime USF benefactors Carol and Frank Morsani, Life Member, and Jeff and Penny Vinik kicked off fundraising with gifts of $5 million each in 2022.
The target stadium capacity is 35,000, says Jay Stroman, co-chair of the Campus Stadium Planning Committee, USF senior vice president of Advancement and Alumni Affairs and USF Foundation CEO. Located on Sycamore Fields, on the east side of campus, it will be designed to accommodate multiple uses year-round.
“This stadium will be so much more than a building,” Stroman says. “It will energize our community and showcase USF’s culture of achieving excellence in all forms.”
Leveling the Playing Field
For 26 years, Bulls football players have contended with the special challenges that come from outdoor practice in Florida: intense heat, humidity and violent thunderstorms from summer through early fall. The grand opening of the Porter Family Indoor Performance Facility in January levels the playing field for these student-athletes.
“I’m at a loss for words,” says senior quarterback Gerry Bohanon, who used the new building for winter and spring workouts. “I don’t think people really understand what a blessing this is to have this facility.”
The 88,000-square-foot air-conditioned training center’s amenities include a 100-yard turf field, named Savage Field, observation deck, outdoor plaza, scoreboards, video work area and locker room. By providing shelter from the weather, it ensures multiple teams can enjoy their full practice schedules. It’s already a draw for new recruits, who find it yet another great reason to choose USF.
More than 500 donors paid for the
$22 million training center. The largest gift, $5.1 million, came from the J.D. Porter
family, for whom the facility is named.
“The Porter Family Indoor Performance Facility will be a game-changer for our student-athletes as they prepare for their next competition — especially on days with inclement weather,” says USF President Rhea Law.
Men’s basketball welcomes 2023 National Coach of the Year
Even as he was being introduced as USF’s 11th men’s basketball head coach, Amir Abdur-Rahim was adding another honor to his trophy cabinet: the 2023 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year award, spotlighting the nation’s top mid-major head coach.
Abdur-Rahim comes to Tampa from Georgia’s Kennesaw State University, which he led to a historic 2022-23 season. The Owls finished with a 26-9 record, regular season and tournament titles in the ASUN Conference, and the program’s first Division I NCAA Tournament berth.
“Kennesaw State has gone from off the map to an attractive destination for players,” said Angela Lento, vice president of CollegeInsider.com, which helps select the annual Hugh Durham Award recipient. “What a season.”
The honor coincided with the announcement in March that Abdur-Rahim would join USF Athletics.
“Everything that we were looking for in a leader for our men’s basketball program, we found in Amir,” said Michael Kelly, USF vice president and athletics director. “He is a man of high character who is a proven recruiter, program-builder and winner that creates unparalleled student-athlete experiences. In our conversations, it became clear that he has a vision for USF basketball and his enthusiasm and tenacity will rally Bulls Nation around our men’s basketball program.”
At Kennesaw State since 2019, Abdur-Rahim oversaw progressive growth in men’s basketball, doubling the program’s wins every season.
A native of Marietta, Georgia, he was also named the 2023 ASUN Conference Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year. KSU’s 15 league wins were five more than the program’s previous record of 10, while the Owls tied for fourth in the nation with 10 road wins (10-6).
Leap to the top
He would have preferred a personal best but senior Romaine Beckford says he’s good with a history-making national championship.
Beckford captured the high jump title when he soared to 7 feet, 4 1/4 inches at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in March. He’s USF’s first high jump national champion and the track and field program’s first to hold a national title in three decades.
“It’s a very big deal to do it for USF, for my high school and for my hometown,” says Beckford, who attended Buff Bay High School in his hometown of Portland, Jamaica. “I would rather have a personal best (he has jumped 7 feet, 5 inches), but when you’re going for a championship, you go for the win.”
After he graduates this spring with a degree in communication, he hopes to snag another national title at the NCAA outdoor championships in June. Then, he wants to represent Jamaica at the world championships.
“I’m extremely excited for Romaine … He’s my first national champion,” says Erik Jenkins, head coach for track and field and cross country since 2019.
“He has set the platform for other student-athletes to come here and get a quality education in a great city and help us build this program to whatever it can be.’’
Top of the Pyramid – Again
USF’s Coed Cheer team celebrates its third consecutive national championship at the Universal Cheerleading Association College Nationals in January. The University of Kentucky, the only other program with three consecutive first-place finishes, placed second.
USF’s All-Girl team also brought home a national title, its first from college cheerleading’s premier competition.
Members of both squads are full-time students who practice year-round. In addition to cheering at every home football and basketball game, and select volleyball games, team members entertain at community events and non-sporting USF events.
It’s madness!
Women’s basketball gave Bulls reason to scream themselves hoarse during a season that ended in March with a 26-5 record and the program’s second conference title in three years.
They went on to USF’s ninth NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, March Madness, as the No. 8 seed in regional competition, defeating ninth-seeded Marquette University in the first round and losing to top-ranked defending champion University of South Carolina in the second.
Team members Elena Tsineke (pictured) and Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu were named Co-Players of the Year by the American Athletic Conference — a first for the program in this conference.
The two players also scored another program first in April when both were selected in the same WNBA draft. Tsineke was chosen by the Washington Mystics in the second round with the 20th overall pick and, seconds later, fellow senior Mendjiadeu went with the 21st overall pick to the Seattle Storm.
The program is led by José Fernandez, head coach since 2000. Eight of the team’s nine NCAA Tournament appearances occurred on his watch.