Byrne Notice presented by Mercedes-Benz
4/23/2020 1:56:00 PM | General
A-Day at Home
While we wish we could have met for our traditional A-Day festivities on campus, we hope you were able to enjoy A-Day at Home, the 2020 rendition courtesy of Big Al. He and a few members of his team cruised through several neighborhoods in Tuscaloosa and Northport, greeting fans and stopping for socially-distanced photo ops along the way. A huge thank you to staffers from marketing, Crimson Tide Productions, cheer, UAPD and Ford for helping to make this happen.
NFL Draft
Tonight is the night! The 2020 NFL Draft kicks off at 7 p.m. CT with coverage on NFL Network, ABC and ESPN. This is projected to be another big year for the Crimson Tide, and we wish the best to our former players as they take this next step in their lives. Also, Coach Saban will take part in the Draft-A-Thon live Thursday night, where proceeds will benefit COVID-19 relief efforts.
Taylor Morgan: My Turn Behind the Camera
In our latest in the great Alabama Stories: The Crimson Tide in Their Own Words series, soccer player and SEC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Vice Chair Taylor Morgan talks about going from being interviewed to doing the interviewing as she studies news media at Alabama. This led her to intern with the Tuscaloosa News during the spring semester.
Crimson Tide Honor Roll
A number of honors have poured in for our student-athletes recently. Women's golf senior Kenzie Wright was named a WCGA All-American, marking the 15th year in a row that a member of Mic Potter's squad has earned All-America accolades. The swimming and diving teams picked up several honors when the Southeastern Conference announced its annual awards last week, including a league-best nine swimmers and divers who earned First Team All-SEC honors. Tanesha Lucoe was named the SEC Female Freshman Diver of the Year and Zane Waddell brought home the Commissioner's Trophy (high point scorer at the SEC Championships) and was voted the SEC Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Between first-team, second-team and all-freshman honors, Coley Stickels' teams earned 17 SEC certificates in 2020. We also saw Sam Fischer and Alba Cortina Pou named to the SEC Community Service Teams for men's and women's tennis, respectively. We are always proud to see our student-athletes excel athletically, academically and in the area of community service and are pleased when their accomplishments are recognized at the conference and national levels.
SEC Academic Honor Roll – Winter Edition
The Crimson Tide placed 60 student-athletes on the Winter SEC Academic Honor Roll, which was released today. The winter list includes men's and women's basketball, gymnastics and men's and women's swimming and diving. Our honorees included Zane Waddell (men's swimming and diving), Shea Mahoney (gymnastics) and Jordan Lewis (women's basketball), who were all voted the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year for their respective sports. Zane and his teammates led the men's SEC swimming and diving teams with 18 spots on this year's list. Congrats to all our student-athletes who earned this honor and helped bump our total between the fall and winter lists to 138, with the spring and first-year honor rolls still to come.
Ongoing Social Campaigns
If you haven't already, I encourage you to visit Alabama Athletics on social media where we recently started a pair of social campaigns, beginning with Hey Bama. Hey Bama is a video series that catches up with Crimson Tide coaches and student-athletes and talks about anything from their seasons to what types of food they're cooking at home right now to TV shows they are watching. Another fun aspect of Hey Bama is that fans have the opportunity to submit questions on social media prior to the interview being recorded, so if you see a coach or a student-athlete you have a question for, feel free to engage! We're also showing photos daily of our team's top moments of the past decade. This will surely bring back great memories for so many as we certainly have plenty to celebrate from the last 10 years.
Zooming with the SEC Office
In the time of the Zoom meetings, Crimson Tide student-athletes have taken part in two such affairs this week. On Tuesday, UA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee members Alize Ford (track and field), Sam Fischer (tennis) and Taylor Morgan (soccer) collaborated with commissioner Greg Sankey, others SEC staffers and their peers for a Southeastern Conference SAAC Meeting, with our current situation and how to best navigate through these times being the primary topic. As our president, vice president and SEC vice chair, respectively, Alize, Sam and Taylor do a fantastic job representing the Tide. On Wednesday, Tyler Barnes (men's basketball), Jordan Lewis (women's basketball) and Mac Jones (football) Zoomed in as part of the SEC Leadership Council. Their meeting had a similar focus, which, like the SAAC meeting, also included discussions on key national issues such as name, image and likeness legislation as well as transfer waivers and all sports one-time transfer waivers. And just like their SAAC counterparts, Tyler, Jordan and Mac continue to be great ambassadors for Alabama in these important talks.
Student Employee of the Year
We have so many outstanding students that work within athletics, and this year, we are so proud to announce that we not only had two of the five finalists from the entire campus, but we also had the overall winner for top student employee at UA. Congratulations to Sarah Trimmer from our marketing and digital media team for bringing home the top honors this year! Also, congratulations to Emily-Kate Taylor from our business office for being selected as a finalist and to the other 14 nominees, who have done an outstanding job for their respective departments within Alabama Athletics.
Winner
- Sarah Trimmer
Finalist
- Emily-Kate Taylor
Nominees
- Dana Berry
- Westly Brooks
- Sarah Cassibry
- Jessica Cochran
- Lance Holmes
- Nick Macon
- Sanders McKnight
- Alexis Robbins
- Elliott Roman
- Alex Slocum
- Ally Thomasson
- Braedan Snow
- Jordan Wynn
- Allison Young
The Crimson Standard Update
We are continuing to make progress with the renovations to the Mal M. Moore Facility and Bryant-Denny Stadium. The seat allocation process for everyone who has secured seats in the Champions Club, Terrace Club, Loge Boxes and new skyboxes will begin during the month of May. We wanted to remind everyone with seats in those new areas that the Tide Totals points calculation for seat selection priority will occur on May 1. If you would like to make a contribution to improve your points total for seat selection, you can make a gift online at www.crimsontidefoundation.org. If you would like to make your gift over the phone, you can call 205-348-9727 and someone will call you back to process your gift.
There is very limited inventory available in the Champions Club, so if you are interested in learning more about this new premium seating area, please visit our website or email ctf@ia.ua.edu and someone will be in touch with you as soon as possible. Remember, if you secure seats in the Champions Club by May 1, you will be able to use your Tide Totals Priority Points to achieve the best possible seat location.
Your support of the Crimson Standard has been vital to bringing this project to fruition, and we are deeply appreciative of your generosity. We are looking forward to the time that our players will be back on the field and we will be able to cheer them on to a Crimson Tide victory! If you have any questions or need assistance, please call 205-348-9727 or email ctf@ia.ua.edu.
SEC Faculty Achievement Award Winner
Dr. Subhabrata Chakraborti was recently recognized as the 2020 SEC Faculty Achievement Award recipient for The University of Alabama. Dr. Chakraborti, who has taught at UA since 1984, is a professor of statistics in the Culverhouse College of Business. He has co-authored two books and published more than a hundred articles in peer-reviewed journals. Congratulations, Dr. Chakraborti!
University Spotlight
For the remainder of the school year, UA students will provide free online tutoring and academic engagement sessions as part of the LIFT Program, which is a joint initiative of the Culverhouse College of Business Dean's Office and The Culverhouse School of Accountancy. Over 125 students from 30 states are serving on this team, using methods such as videoconferencing, telephone conversations and YouTube tutorials to assist with some of the challenges education is facing at this time.
#RollTideFriday
This week, we're giving a shout out to healthcare professionals showing their Crimson Tide pride on #RollTideFriday. First, we have Dr. Jimmy S. Tu from the Northport Medical Center ER here in Alabama, and secondly, we're featuring Dr. Bob Dimick headed to work in Pensacola, Florida. Thank you both, and thank you to all those working in the healthcare profession as we fight through this pandemic.
Dr. Jimmy S. Tu
Kyle Nelson
Remember to use the hashtag #RollTideFriday in your social posts and tweet your photos to me at @Greg_Byrne. We will select two photos to feature in each blog and add even more to our #RollTideFriday Fan Hub. Let's keep these great photos coming!
