Dear Cougar Family,
 
With the start of the new academic year only a few weeks away, it is a great time to reflect on the extraordinary accomplishments of the 2017-18 year for the Cougars. Our student-athletes, coaches and staff continue to raise the bar of excellence and achieve at the highest levels of collegiate athletics. 
 
We are proud of all that we have accomplished as an athletic department. Athletically, there were so many outstanding moments that generate pride for us Cougs. Football reached its third-straight bowl game, soccer advanced to the Round of 16 for the first time in school history, cross country had both men and women represented at the NCAA Championships, and volleyball made it back-to-back second round appearances at the NCAA Championships. Rowing made it sixth-straight appearance at the NCAA Championships, a program record, while tennis, women's golf and men's and women's track and field all had individuals reach the NCAA Championships. Additionally, the Cougars had nine All-Americans, three individual conference champions and 24 all-conference selections.
 
Academically, the accomplishments were equally impressive. During the 2018 spring semester, WSU student-athletes combined to average a 3.02 grade point average and maintain a 3.10 cumulative GPA, the highest in program history. Multiple athletic programs posted their best semester and cumulative GPA's, 158 student-athletes were named to academic all-conference teams while three student-athletes, rowing's Paige Danielson and track and field's Kyler Little and Chandler Teigen earned Academic All-America honors. Senior Casey Schoenlein earned the Pac-12 Volleyball Scholar-Athlete of the Year while Danielson received the 2018 NCAA Elite 90 Award, given to the top rowing student-athlete at the NCAA Championships.
 
We are committed to our goal of providing a world-class student-athlete experience. As a staff, we have worked tirelessly to find revenue streams that allow us to fund scholarships, build facilities and provide opportunities for our student-athletes. I am proud to say that as the 2017-18 fiscal year closed, the Cougar Athletic Fund set records for both annual giving revenue at $7.76 million and overall giving at $15.49 million. The CAF has seen record growth with tremendous increases in annual giving, 58 percent over the past four years, not to mention huge jumps in our Champions ($25,000) and Leadership Circles ($10,000) membership. This could not have occurred without the support and commitment of our CAF members. For that, we thank you and look forward to raising the bar even higher in 2018-19. 
 
We continue to make strides toward our baseball stadium renovation and enhancement project: Back to Omaha (BTO). We fully expect to have it fundraised in short order and will then turn our attention to the Indoor Practice Facility and Bohler renovation and enhancements.
 
As we move forward, a final thank you to every CAF member, alum, fan and friend of Cougar Athletics. We are excited knowing the best days of Washington State Athletics are ahead of us. We can do more with you!
 
Go Cougs!
 

 
Pat