Team Toledo,
The single-most important thing we do as an Athletic Department is to support and nurture the dreams and aspirations of our student-athletes. It is a central tenet of our Strategic Plan fly wheel -- “generate student-athlete success” -- and ultimately our reason for being.
You have probably heard me say before that I want all of our student-athletes to compete for a championship, earn a meaningful degree, and go on to be as successful as possible after graduation. We’ve had a chance to see all three of those landmarks hit the mark in a big way for our student-athletes in the past few weeks:
- Quinyon Mitchell was No. 22 pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, the highest Rocket draft pick in 31 years and the only Group of Five player taken in the first round;
- Both our men’s and women’s tennis teams won MAC Championships in tournaments played on our own campus, giving our Athletic Department five MAC Championship titles this year and an unprecedented 11 MAC crowns over the past two seasons;
- More than 70 student-athletes earned the right to receive their diplomas at the 2024 Spring Commencement ceremony at Savage Arena.
The value of college athletics-- to our student-athletes, to the University and to our community – has never been more evident. Almost all of our Rockets will leave here with a diploma, most of them will win or at least compete for a MAC Championship, and some of them, like Quinyon, will reach incredible heights that help shine a national spotlight on Toledo. The value of college athletics has never been more clear, and it has NEVER been a better time to be a Rocket!
