A note from SAU Athletic Director Ray Shovlain

April 16, 2010

Dear Bee Backer,

I wanted to take this opportunity to provide you a brief overview of the state of St. Ambrose University Athletics and urge your continued support through the John Deere Classic Golf Tournament and The Birdies for Charity Program. This is a unique fundraising opportunity for SAU Athletics with all administrative costs covered by John Deere allowing for 100% of your donation to come back to the athletic department along with a guaranteed 5% total pledge bonus paid by the tournament.

St. Ambrose University recently completed one of our most successful years in the history of our athletics program during 2008-09 and we are having an equally successful year in 2009-10.

We had more than 40 student-athletes earn NAIA Academic All-American honors during 2008-09 and will surpass 40 Scholar-Athletes again this year. Academic All-American honors are given to juniors and seniors who are eligible by earning a cumulative GPA over 3.5 and being impact athletes in their programs. In 2008-09, we again were one of the top NAIA schools in the country with 16 scholar teams, teams with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0.

We currently have over 700 student-athletes participating in our SAU Athletic Leadership Academy which challenges our student-athletes to attend two leadership and two personal growth seminars throughout the year. It also challenges the student-athletes to be involved in at least three community outreach experiences.

We have won the Commissioner’s Cup from the Midwest Collegiate Conference in 2007-08 and 2008-09, the first two years of the Cup’s existence. The Commissioner’s Cup recognizes the school whose Athletic Program was most successful in competition. We again are in the race to earn the Commissioner’s Cup heading into the spring of 2010.

During the 2008-2009 academic year, our teams earned six conference championships and qualified for the National Championships in 11 total sports. We have already won four conference titles in 2009-10 and look forward to winning more this spring.

I challenge any athletic program, at any level in the country, to match the success of our student-athletes. Success has become the norm over the past decade and with your support we strive to continue this tradition.

Please consider making a pledge through The Birdies for Charity Program. You may make an online pledge using this form. Our bird number is #317 and charity name is SAU Athletics. Pledge forms may be returned to the athletic department until July 2, 2010. We greatly appreciate your continued support of St. Ambrose Athletics and look forward to continuing our tradition to “Bee #1” during the 2010-2011 seasons.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Good luck and continued success!

Take care,

Raymond J. Shovlain
Director of Athletics
Assistant Professor of Business
Head Men’s Basketball Coach