Consigliere
Co 2020 Cali Award Winner, Record Thru 5 Games
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- Aug 27, 2011
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As most are aware, part of our SyraCRUZ NIL Program funds guest appearances by Orange student athletes from sports other than football. We have hosted representatives from men's and women's basketball and lacrosse as well as men's soccer and had paid out appearance fees in excess of $6000 to more than a dozen players going into yesterday's tailgate.
We had our first hiccup in the program with the scheduled appearance of Chris Bell and Justin Taylor from Coach Autry's inaugural men's hoops squad. Both players asked me to reach out with their apologies and explain their schedule conflicts.
I received a call from Pete Corasaniti around 2 pm yesterday. Pete told me he was with Chris and Justin who told him that they had a commitment to join us yesterday at 5 pm in the Henry Street Lot. Pete explained that they had a rescheduled practice at 3 that would run 1:45 to 2 hours in length and that they would not be able to make it by 5. He committed to get them showered, dressed and en route as quickly as possible with hopes that they would be no more than 30 minutes late.
Well, best laid plans...
Justin apparently took an elbow at the end of practice from Naheem McLeod and needed some medical attention to stop the bleeding. Chris initially waited for him, but when it became apparent that this would take more than a couple of minutes he headed out to meet with us. Unfortunately the short drive from Melo to the Henry Lot wasn't so short with Parents weekend game day traffic clogging the streets around campus and the 5 minute drive took over half an hour. Chris did arrive a little after 6, greeted the crowd and immediately began circulating and mingling. Justin did make it, but didn;t arrive until about 6:45 when we were well into teardown. Neither had a chance to enjoy any of our fantastic tailgate fare and while I was comfortable certifying and releasing payment to Chris, I explained to Justin that from a compliance perspective I needed some semblance of a deliverable from him. We'll talk in the next day or two and working theory is that Justin will record a video that I will post here and consider to be a virtual visit. Justin felt terrible as we've been working for over a year to try to get him as a guest and offered to forego any appearance fee, but I felt comfortable offering this alternative.
As has been our experience with all of our guests, Chris and Justin seem to be great representatives of their programs and our University and were genuinely disappointed that they were unable to get the full Fine Mess experience and meet everyone. We talked about an unofficial visit to the Wake Forest game where we will be hosting men's lacrosse players, and if schedules align they will come by again to mingle.
My sincere apologies for the disappointment and thanks for your understanding.
We had our first hiccup in the program with the scheduled appearance of Chris Bell and Justin Taylor from Coach Autry's inaugural men's hoops squad. Both players asked me to reach out with their apologies and explain their schedule conflicts.
I received a call from Pete Corasaniti around 2 pm yesterday. Pete told me he was with Chris and Justin who told him that they had a commitment to join us yesterday at 5 pm in the Henry Street Lot. Pete explained that they had a rescheduled practice at 3 that would run 1:45 to 2 hours in length and that they would not be able to make it by 5. He committed to get them showered, dressed and en route as quickly as possible with hopes that they would be no more than 30 minutes late.
Well, best laid plans...
Justin apparently took an elbow at the end of practice from Naheem McLeod and needed some medical attention to stop the bleeding. Chris initially waited for him, but when it became apparent that this would take more than a couple of minutes he headed out to meet with us. Unfortunately the short drive from Melo to the Henry Lot wasn't so short with Parents weekend game day traffic clogging the streets around campus and the 5 minute drive took over half an hour. Chris did arrive a little after 6, greeted the crowd and immediately began circulating and mingling. Justin did make it, but didn;t arrive until about 6:45 when we were well into teardown. Neither had a chance to enjoy any of our fantastic tailgate fare and while I was comfortable certifying and releasing payment to Chris, I explained to Justin that from a compliance perspective I needed some semblance of a deliverable from him. We'll talk in the next day or two and working theory is that Justin will record a video that I will post here and consider to be a virtual visit. Justin felt terrible as we've been working for over a year to try to get him as a guest and offered to forego any appearance fee, but I felt comfortable offering this alternative.
As has been our experience with all of our guests, Chris and Justin seem to be great representatives of their programs and our University and were genuinely disappointed that they were unable to get the full Fine Mess experience and meet everyone. We talked about an unofficial visit to the Wake Forest game where we will be hosting men's lacrosse players, and if schedules align they will come by again to mingle.
My sincere apologies for the disappointment and thanks for your understanding.
