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13BENSE LEAVES

LEGACY OF VISIONARY

LEADERSHIP5

UWF ALUMNUS DEDICATED TO

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE

27

FALL 2016 | Alumni & Friends Magazine

UWFFOOTBALLTHE VOYAGE STARTS NOWP. 15

UWF FOOTBALL

Kicking Off a New Tradition

In 2011, University of West Florida President Dr. Judith Bense stood before the student body at a pep rally, raised a white helmet high for everyone to see, and proclaimed her

intention to launch a college football program. “B

uilding

a stronger stud

ent life is part of U

WF’s strateg

ic p

lan,” Bense said

at the time. “[Footb

all is] visible, g

ets attention and

will help

us recruit students and

attract the com

munity. W

e must create reasons to stay in N

orthwest

Florida once you com

plete your d

egree and

build

a comm

on affi

nity and rally p

oint for our students and

comm

unity.”

This Septem

ber, that d

ream b

ecame a reality. The A

rgos

comp

eted in their inaug

ural gam

e on Saturday, Sep

t. 3 ag

ainst Ave M

aria University in A

ve Maria, Florid

a.

BY A

MY

MIN

CH

IN

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On Sept. 10, the Argos hosted M

issouri U

niversity of Science and Technology for their first hom

e game at Blue W

ahoos Sta-dium

, surrounded by the sense of excite-m

ent generated by players, coaches, UW

F students,

faculty, staff

and com

munity

mem

bers who gathered to witness history in the m

aking. Bense’s announcem

ent in August 2011 was the culm

ination of an 18-month pro-

cess that included recomm

endations from

an athletics visioning team and, later, the

UW

F football feasibility comm

ittee, which gave a positive recom

mendation for adding

football. The UW

F Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory Com

mittee endorsed the recom

-m

endation in July 2011.“Athletics is often the front porch of an

academic institution. It creates com

munity

engagement and is a source of tradition and

pride for the campus,” said U

WF Athletic

Director Dave Scott. “A lot of work has taken place to bring football to U

WF. It’s great to

be a part of something new, and it wouldn’t

have happened without her vision and a great adm

inistration leading the way.”An im

plementation plan was put together

to develop all aspects of the football program

in anticipation of beginning competitive

play this fall. The timeline was offi

cially an-nounced in Septem

ber 2013, and that same

month U

WF reached an agreem

ent to play its hom

e games at Blue W

ahoos Stadium in

downtown Pensacola.Built in 2012, the waterfront stadium

is hom

e to the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, a Dou-

ble-A professional baseball team and m

inor league affi

liate of the Cincinnati Reds. Of the announcem

ent, Pensacola Mayor

Ashton Hayward said, “This is one of the

most exciting tim

es in Pensacola’s history. A m

ulti-use stadium in our com

munity was

envisioned all along. With student-resident

halls in the Historic Pensacola Village and

offices in Belm

ont-DeVilliers, football is an-other exam

ple of the University establishing

a strong presence in our downtown.”An on-cam

pus stadium is part of the U

ni-versity’s long-term

plans, but Blue Wahoos

Stadium will be the Argos’ hom

e for the fore-seeable future.

“To watch UW

F play football in down-town Pensacola is historic. It’s never hap-pened before and we are the hom

etown team

,” Scott said. “It also gives us an op-portunity to be a part of the com

munity,

engaging in ways we were not able to be-fore and creating awareness for all of our athletic program

s.”

Laying the FoundationBringing football to U

WF required a sig-

nificant fundraising effort and the right lead-ership to guide the young program

.W

ith startup costs projected at $1.5 mil-

lion, the UW

F Football Founders group began raising m

oney for facilities, uniforms,

practice equipment and m

ore. The football program

budget is funded year to year by a com

bination of existing athletic fees, schol-arships, private giving, corporate sponsor-ships and ticket sales. U

WF is partnering

with the Blue Wahoos organization to co-

“To watch UWF play football in downtown Pensacola is historic.”

WID

E RECEIV

ER G

age Krull after

a reception at the 2016 B

lue-White

Spring game at U

niversity Park.

2009A

thletics V

isioning

Com

mittee

2010A

thletics Facilities Master Plan

Athletics Fundraising Feasibility Study

Title IX C

omm

ittee Review

2012Student Life Im

plementation

Com

mittee

2014Football H

ead

Coach and C

oaching

Staff H

iredSecured A

greement

for Location to Play H

ome G

ames

2015First Football Signing C

lass and

First Year of Practice

Football Practice and Support Facilities C

onstruction Begins

2016U

WF Football

First Season

2011Football Feasibility C

omm

ittee

WEST FLORIDA FOOTBALL

TIMELINE

2013Football Founders C

omm

ittee

F

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Fall 2

016

ordinate corporate sponsorships, and Blue W

ahoos co-owner and PGA Tour star Bubba W

atson purchased the first sponsorship for his newly-opened candy store, Bubba’s Sweet Spot.

Hiring a coach was an early priority, and

in Spring 2014, Bense and Scott introduced Pete Shinnick as the U

niversity’s first foot-ball head coach. A 25-year coaching veteran, Shinnick previously served as a head coach at Azusa Pacific U

niversity and University of

North Carolina-Pem

broke.“W

e talk about building champions for

life, so it was important for us to select

someone that fit into our fam

ily here in U

WF athletics,” Scott said. “W

e were look-

ing for someone that could build a team

and put academ

ics first.”Shinnick was hired by U

NC Pem

broke in 2005 to bring football back to the school after an absence of m

ore than 50 years. He built

the Braves into a nationally ranked NCAA

Division II team and com

piled a record of 50-24 in seven seasons. At form

er NAIA

powerhouse Azusa Pacific, Shinnick’s teams

posted a mark of 53-22 and earned two na-

tional semifinalist finishes.

Shinnick’s work to build a team at U

WF

began with filling a coaching staff and re-cruiting players. Focusing prim

arily on the region from

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to Tam

pa, Florida, he and his staff signed two Division I transfers in Decem

ber 2014 and added re-cruiting classes in both 2015 and 2016, bring-ing the current roster to 120 players.

“UW

F is a great institution where our

student-athletes can get a phenom

enal education, and they get to do it in Pensacola,” Shinnick said. “W

e’re opening the eyes of a lot of parents and po-tential U

WF students.”

Going into the season, Shinnick spoke positive-ly about the strides the program

has made over the last two and a

half years. “I feel very good about where we are. Any young team

has to overcome som

e am

ount of depth, but we’re ready to com-

pete. We have a great schedule put together

by Dr. Bense and D

ave Scott.”

Engaging alumniU

WF is in good com

pany among schools

that play NCAA football. According to the

National Football Foundation, in 2015, the

number of colleges and universities now of-

fering football at some level reached an all-

time high at 773, with 32 football program

s added at N

CAA, NAIA or independent insti-

tutions between 2011 and 2014.“M

ore people are interested in and en-gaged with U

WF on all fronts than ever be-

fore because of football,” said Dr. Brendan

Kelly, vice president of university advance-m

ent. “Football has gotten people excited about U

WF athletics, but also about U

WF

science and engineering and all of our aca-dem

ic programs. For a lot of people, it’s

made U

WF relevant.”

Kelly described an encounter with a

UW

F alumnus from

the class of 1969 at a football scrim

mage.

“He said it was the first event he’d attend-

ed on campus in 30 years,” Kelly said. “H

e

was proud of his degree and the academics

at UW

F, but he said he’d been waiting for a reason to com

e and visit, and a way to love his U

niversity.” U

WF football began a full season of prac-

tices and invited the public to attend four scrim

mages on cam

pus during Fall 2015. An-other scrim

mage at Blue W

ahoos Stadium

drew 3,000 fans. Earlier this year, the team

scrimm

aged before 2,000 fans at its Univer-

sity Park artificial turf practice field for its first-ever spring gam

e.

Exciting Students“Football creates an atm

osphere that is enticing for the U

WF student experience,”

said Dr. Kevin Bailey, vice president of stu-dent affairs. “W

e’ve seen the anticipation building. People in the com

munity are asking

about it and student organizations want to get in on it.”

One thousand free student tickets are available for each hom

e football game. A

points program that rewards students’ atten-

dance at other UW

F sporting events has been used to determ

ine eligibility for tickets.“From

student tickets, to tailgating, to our first football H

omecom

ing game, there is an

excitement to be a part of it,” Bailey added.

“It allows us to create some new traditions

around football. A fight song is forthcoming,

but a lot of the traditions will develop organi-cally. For exam

ple, we don’t have an estab-lished rival yet, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

UW

F’s first Gulf South Conference game

is Sept. 24 at Valdosta State. Hom

ecoming is

Oct. 22, when UW

F hosts Shorter University.

“The last five years seem like the blink of

an eye, but UW

F football is finally here,” Bai-ley said. “I give Dr. Bense all the credit. H

er drive and her leadership have gotten us to this point.”

“Any young team has to overcome some amount of depth, but we’re ready to compete.”

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All times listed as Central Time | Home events in green | * Gulf South Conference game All schedules are subject to change | Visit GoArgos.com for broadcast information.

9 | 3AT AVE MARIA

11 AM

9 | 10MISSOURI S&T

6 PM

9 | 17AT CHOWAN

5 PM

9 | 24AT VALDOSTA STATE*

6 PM

10 | 1FLORIDA TECH*– COASTAL CLASSIC

6 PM

10 | 8AT MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE*

2 PM

10 | 15AT DELTA STATE*

2 PM

10 | 22SHORTER* – HOMECOMING

12 PM

10 | 29WEST ALABAMA*

12 PM

11 | 5AT NORTH ALABAMA*

1:30 PM

11 | 12WEST GEORGIA*

12 PM

WEST FLORIDA FOOTBALL2016 Schedule

UN

IVERSITY O

F WEST FLO

RIDA

fans cheer on the West Florida

Argos Football team

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