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Graduating Champions campaign announced

By Grace Remington, Sports Editor

Miami University Athletics officially launched the Graduating Champions Campaign, an $80 million capital campaign directed towards improving Miami's athletics facilities and increasing support for scholarships.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 25 for the new David and Anita Dauch Indoor Sports Center, Director of Athletics David Sayler announced the campaign had already raised $49 million during its year-long silent phase. The campaign's end date is summer 2017.

Sayler said he hopes that in the long-run, the numerous improvements will lead to a significant increase in revenue for the athletic programs, which ultimately leads to healthier student-athletes and a supportive fan base.

"It will help us increase dollars, revenue in the athletic department," Sayler said. "It'll do that in the way of scholarship support … then you have the ability to recruit better student-athletes who can train year-round in the different facilities we're building, which will help them in their goals of getting conference championships, which increases ticket revenue and fan support. When you're winning championships, those things tend to follow."

Miami added a weight and conditioning room to the Goggin Ice Center in summer 2014 and completed the first round of Millett Hall renovations this year.

The Gunlock Family Athletic Performance Center is the campaign's next focus. It will serve as the football program's new home and will include a sports medicine and rehabilitation center open to all MU student-athletes. Gunlock is expected to break ground within the year.

The campaign funds also contribute to the Legacy Project at Hayden Park, which adds a locker room, coaches' offices and equipment and training rooms for the baseball team. The project will open this fall.

Additionally, the Miami Athletics plans to add a soccer stadium complex, an indoor tennis facility, further renovations to Millett Hall and a facelift to the Yager Stadium press box.

A substantial increase in scholarship support tops the to-do list, in order to improve recruiting abilities and reduce scholarship demands on the overall athletic department budget.

Several student-athletes have already begun to reap the benefits from Miami's new facilities.

"All of Miami's student-athletes are driven by the desire to fulfill our greatest potential, and that requires opportunities for continued growth and progress," junior Miami soccer forward Haley Walter said in a press release. "New facilities like the David and Anita Dauch Indoor Sports Center help us get to that next level. I've always felt fortunate to play the sport I love at the collegiate level, and the Graduating Champions Campaign is showing just how invested our alumni and friends are in our success."

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Various Miami alumni have contributed to the campaign. John Harbaugh, an '84 grad and head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, donated an undisclosed gift and is eager to contribute the athletic program's revamp.

"I believe strongly in what Miami gave me as a young man and in the value it still offers to young men and women today," Harbaugh said in a press release. "It is exciting to see the commitment by Miami's leadership to the Graduating Champions Campaign and to experience the energy within Miami Athletics today, from the administration and coaches to the support staff and the student-athletes. This is a very important time for the future of Miami Athletics, and I'm honored to be a part of it."

Sayler said the campaign's title - "Graduating Champions" - is used so frequently around campus because it explains the values of Miami Athletics.

"It sends a clear signal as to what's important at Miami, and that's that you're going to graduate from Miami," Sayler said. "But also, 'champions' is a metaphor for a lot of things in life: we want you to win the conference championship while you're here … but we're also going to prepare [athletes] to be champions in life and go out and live a productive life in whatever field they choose. We really thought it was an all-encompassing phrase that captures a lot of the essence of what we're about. I think the message to send not only to recruits, but to our alums who are living that 'graduating champions' moniker, is that I think it connects to them as well. It connects it on a lot of levels for us."