A Letter from Athletic Director Pat Chun

October 4, 2018

Dear Cougar Family,

It's October in Pullman! I've learned that around the Palouse, the fall means ideal temperatures, amazing colors and, apparently, Cougar Athletics flexing its collective muscles at every turn.

Our fall sports teams have amassed a 25-4 overall record and three teams are ranked in their respective Top-25 polls.

Leading off is No. 7 soccer, currently the only team in the country with a perfect record.
No. 15 men's cross-country just finished 11th out of 33 schools at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational with 10 of the top 15 cross-country programs in the country at the race.
No. 22 volleyball is winning despite competing in the toughest conference in the country, as every Pac-12 school has a winning record and 9 of the 12 schools ranked nationally.
Our women's cross-country team is ranked No. 9 in the west region and continues to rise.
At 4-1, our football team continues to get better each week and is garnering national attention.

Congratulations to volleyball, soccer, cross-country and football for their incredible starts. Each team set lofty goals which remain attainable. We appreciate the support that you give our teams at home and on the road and our student-athletes feel your love and passion and we cannot thank you enough. This past Saturday was my first real experience witnessing our Martin Stadium home field advantage. Thank you to all the students and fans in attendance. The volume and energy you brought during the critical fourth quarter made a difference in the outcome.

Homecoming
2018 WSU Homecoming was jammed pack with events both impactful and rewarding. Our teams went 5-0 at home over the weekend, and if you went to a Cougar Athletics event, you witnessed victory!

Thanks to Tim Pavish and the WSU Alumni Association for all of their efforts with Homecoming. Tim afforded me the opportunity to speak with some of our alumni leaders in town for their annual meetings and, at the conclusion of our talk, Tim presented me an Adopted Cougar Award. It was a very humbling moment for me as a new member of Coug Nation. Every Coug that I meet is fiercely loyal to WSU and has a heart the size of the state of Washington. I will proudly display the award in my office and look forward to many more opportunities to partner with our alumni association.

Conference Policy
Last week we received many questions regarding the officiating at our football game. All Pac-12 personnel, including the President, our coaches and myself are prohibited from oral or written communications regarding officiating matters of any nature except with the conference office. We may not make derogatory public comments on officiating in the media, on radio or television shows, at booster group events, in press releases or other institutionally published materials, or under any conditions when their comments may become public. Let me just assure you that we are in regular contact with the conference on any controversial calls.

Suicide Prevention Awareness Month Concludes
In September, we set out to raise awareness for suicide prevention and mental health. It was inspiring to see our student-athletes take action and engage in tough and honest conversations about suicide. We will continue throughout this academic year with more initiatives to bring light to suicide prevention awareness and mental health awareness. In September, WSU Athletics:

Released a Public Service Announcement led by our student-athletes, which reached more than 140,000 people simply through Twitter and Facebook.

Displayed the National Suicide Prevention Awareness Ribbons for the entire month in Martin Stadium.

Encouraged our student-athletes and staff to participate in two very important programs in a unique combined educational platform: Behind Happy Faces, which normalizes the concept of mental health and empowers participants to take charge of their lives; and Step Up!, a bystander intervention program that educates students on how to be proactive in helping others.

Hosted former Cougar quarterback Ryan Leaf who returned to campus and shared his "Lying to Myself" message with our student-athletes. Ryan gave a very personal talk on accountability, spirituality and community that impacted everyone in the room.

As a reminder, here are some resources that are available to those in need:

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline 1-800-273-8255
The Pullman 24-hour crisis line 509-334-1133

Cougar Athletic Fund
Over the past few weeks, I have traveled to Yakima, Spokane, Portland, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Seattle visiting with passionate Cougs. Thanks to all of the CAF members who took the time to introduce me to other Cougs and for your continued support of WSU. I am proud to announce that we have reached our $10 million fundraising goal for Project: B.T.O (Back to Omaha), to renovate and enhance Bailey-Brayton Field. Our baseball program needs to get back to its rightful place at the College World Series in Omaha and our facility plays an important role in that journey. The project will impact the development of our current student-athletes and send a loud message to future Cougs that we are committed to bringing our baseball program back to the top of the Pac-12.

We continue to seek new Cougar Athletic Fund members. All gifts go directly to support scholarships for our 458 student-athletes. Our student-athletes are winning on the field, maintain a 3.1 cumulative grade point average, perform countless hours of community service and represent WSU with class and pride. We need your support more than ever. Thank you to our CAF members for what they do and if you are interested in more information about the CAF, please call 509-335-0220.

The greatest days of Cougar Athletics are in front of us. October will take us to even greater heights. We look forward to seeing you in Pullman sometime this month!

Go Cougs!

Sincerely,

Patrick Chun
Director of Athletics

Washington State University Athletics

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