MORROW, Ga. – For the fifth straight year, throughout the summer, the Clayton State Sports Information Office is counting down the Top-10 stories of the year following an impressive 2018-19 campaign.
Today, we release the No. 5 story of the season – Major Hires and Record Department Numbers Highlight 2018-19. Make sure to check
www.ClaytonStateSports.com every Friday to catch the latest release.
Story No. 5: Major Hires and Record Department Numbers Highlight 2018-19
Not all major storylines from the 2018-19 campaign came from on the field, court, track or course – a fact evidenced by a handful of extremely important occurrences that both help to shape the success of the program and illustrate the continued interest in it.
Perhaps the biggest of those came right at the top as
Clayton State Athletics named Ryan Erlacher just the fourth full-time Director of Athletics in program history on August 30. He would take over for Tim Duncan who had departed for Division I Northeastern near the end of the 2017-18 campaign and would set the tone as the Department charted a new path for the first time in four years.
It wouldn't be the only splashy hire for the Lakers as they would do something in the Fall of 2018 that most Division I schools can't claim.
That would be to say that they have on staff not only an Olympian but four-time medalist with the
hiring of internationally known Chris "Fireman" Brown as assistant track & field coach. He would help make an immediate impact as he shared his experience with Laker student-athletes and helped those same individuals deliver three Peach Belt Conference individual titles.
These moves did not go unnoticed by either the general public or pillars of the local business community. Clayton State Athletics' community partnership program, Laker Sports Marketing, would
increase by 260-percent while there would be a 112-percent increase in the number of community partners that joined the program.
In addition to those numbers, a year that began with yet
another successful Cambridge Computer Laker Club Golf Classic would see a record-setting performance during Clayton State University's Give4Dreams on Thursday, March 14. That day Athletics would
shatter all previous Department records for the event by raising $24,015, all of which would go to benefit Laker student-athletes.
Finally,
www.ClaytonStateSports.com would see
record viewership numbers across the board for the fourth straight year. Among those would be the most users in a single year and the program would deliver nine of the Top-10 highest single day viewership numbers in the program's recorded history.
The Schedule
Every Friday throughout the Summer and leading up to the 2019-20 preseason, the SID Office will release the list one at a time beginning with the No. 10 story on June 7. The No. 1 story in Clayton State Athletics, as chosen by the Sports Information Office, will be released on Friday, August 9.
Countdown to the Top-10 Clayton State Athletics Stories from 2018-19
No. 1 – Coming August 9
No. 2 – Coming August 2
No. 3 – Coming July 26
No. 4 – Coming July 19
No. 5 – Major Hires and Record Department Numbers Highlight 2018-19 (July 12)
No. 6 – Women's Basketball Returns to NCAA Tournament for 13th Time in 15 Years (July 5)
No. 7 – Men's Track & Field Delivers Multiple Individual League Championships (June 28)
No. 8 – Undefeated Start Leads Women's Soccer Back to PBC Tournament (June 21)
No. 9 – Men's Basketball Garners Record-Setting Honors (June 14)
No. 10 – Men's Soccer's Late Run and Individual Accomplishments (June 7)
Honorable Mention (May 31)
