Press Release

Oglethorpe University Hosts 2004 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Spring Festival
Event to Bring 1,000 Athletes to Atlanta During April 22-25

ATLANTA - Oglethorpe University will host the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Spring Sports Festival which will be held on and around the Oglethorpe campus the last weekend in April 2004. The SCAC Spring Sports Festival was last held at Oglethorpe ten years ago and has rotated through the other nine universities belonging to the SCAC since then.

The Spring Festival sponsored by Coca-Cola Enterprises with supplemental support by Chick-fil-A will bring together over 1,000 college athletes from these ten schools. Athletes will compete in eight sports: baseball, softball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, and men’s and women’s track and field. Competition will determine conference champions and NCAA Division III championship advancement.

Oglethorpe will host the SCAC Baseball Championship at Anderson Field in Hermance Stadium on the campus of Oglethorpe University. Games will begin on the morning of Thursday, April 22 and include the top three teams from both the SCAC’s Eastern and Western Divisions. Along with Millsaps, DePauw, Trinity, Rose-Hulman and Southwestern, Oglethorpe will compete in this year’s SCAC baseball tournament. Coach Dan Giordano will lead Oglethorpe’s Stormy Petrels who have qualified for the SCAC Baseball Tournament in 12 of the 14 SCAC Championships. This year, they returned 12 lettermen including three position players and six of nine pitchers. The nine freshmen and transfers will have a large impact on the Diamond Petrels.

Bob Unger, Oglethorpe University’s athletic director and head coach for both the men’s and women’s track teams, will be busy overseeing the festival while also coaching his two teams. The SCAC Track Meet Championship has grown so large it will be moved to the Georgia Tech campus. Unger is currently coaching his 15th track season at Oglethorpe. This year, the Stormy Petrel women’s team returns more All-Conference performers than the men’s squad. The women will attempt to improve on last year’s fifth place finish. The men continue to build a foundation and seek to advance their SCAC standing.

The SCAC Tennis Championship will be hosted at the DeKalb Tennis Center and nearby Blackburn Park. Coach Peter Howell of Oglethorpe University will direct the three day event with help from assistant coach Karen Piering. The women’s team looks to be much improved with four new starters and expects to improve on their ninth place finish of last year. With two new additions, the men’s team will now have more depth and anticipates the challenging SCAC competition.

The Renaissance PineIsle Resort and Golf Club is the site for the men’s and women’s SCAC Golf Championships April 23-25. Coach Jim Owen’s squad will attempt to capture their fifth consecutive SCAC Golf Championship which would be their sixth in seven years. Senior All-American Trent Erb will defend his title of 2003 SCAC Player of the Year. Erb and junior Corey Garner, a two time First Team All-SCAC performer, will give the Stormy Petrels a strong one two punch. This year the SCAC Championship boasts the deepest field in SCAC history and may be the most balanced tournament with seven SCAC schools all ranking in the top 44 in the nation.

The women’s golf team is looking for its best SCAC finish in the inaugural season under head coach Jim Owen. The Petrels return two seniors, Jennifer Brown and Stephanie Peccia, and are led by junior Heather March, sophomore Megan Elliott, and a pair of freshmen, Leigh Kite and Jaclyn Crissey. The SCAC Tournament will feature the nation’s top ranked team DePauw in addition to No. 15 Rhodes and No. 17 Trinity.

Rounding out the SCAC Spring Festival is the Fast Pitch Softball Championship. Oglethorpe hosts this competition at Georgia State University's Panthersville Athletic Complex in southeast Atlanta. Last year, the 2003 SCAC Eastern Division Champion, Sewanee: University of the South, lost to Western Division Champion Millsaps College in the final game of the SCAC Tournament Championship in Terre Haute, Ind. It was the Millsaps Majors’ first SCAC Softball Championship and first NCAA National Tournament appearance. The SCAC’s first ever win at the NCAA Championships was the Millsaps 7-2 victory over Mt. St. Joseph's (Ohio) at Emory University in an elimination contest. The Majors will look to defend their 2003 title when the 2004 tournament commences on Friday, April 23. The tournament runs through Sunday, April 25.

The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) was formed to provide an association through which the member institutions may encourage organized competition in intercollegiate sports among teams representative of their respective student bodies. Members of this conference share a commitment to pairing high academic standards with quality athletic experiences. SCAC schools also operate under the principle that participation in sports should be solely from student interest and enjoyment of athletic competition, and that no financial aid shall be given to any student which is conditional upon athletic ability or participation in intercollegiate sports.

The SCAC consists of ten of the nation’s highly selective, small universities. It encompasses seven states and includes the following schools: Centre College, Danville, Ky.; DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.; Hendrix College, Conway, Ark.; Millsaps College, Jackson, Miss.; Rhodes College, Memphis, Tenn.; Rose-Hulman Institute, Terre Haute, Ind.; Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas; Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas; Sewanee: The University of the South, Tenn.; and Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Ga.

###