Georgetown Athletics

With 80+ accomplished coaches and 700+ student-athletes, Georgetown is home to an astounding amount of athletic talent.

Support for student-athlete scholarships and endowed coaching chairs enables Georgetown to recruit and retain the talented and motivated people who compose our 30 intercollegiate varsity programs. Investing in competition venues and training facilities is also crucial as we seek to attract the most promising scholar-athletes and coaches.

STUDENT-ATHLETE SCHOLARSHIPS

Athletics scholarships are essential in recruiting the best and brightest student-athletes to the Hilltop, where they can develop their talent, character, and leadership abilities—lessons that transcend any sport and last a lifetime.

Increasing the number of scholarships we can offer—and permanently endowing a greater share of the athletics scholarship budget—will play a critical role in the strength of our athletics program.

COACHING EXCELLENCE

To attract the best talent, we must pay coaches competitively, provide stability, and demonstrate long-term investment. Endowing coaching positions shows our commitment to attracting and retaining coaches who will carry on our culture of excellence.

Professional development is similarly crucial. Offering our coaches and staff ongoing training ensures they understand the Georgetown context; connects them with peers; and sets them up to be effective leaders, educators, and mentors.

SPACES TO COMPETE, TRAIN, AND CONVENEE

Competition venues and training facilities are critical elements of our student-athletes’ daily experience—and directly tied to their competitive success. Investing in facilities both on and off the Hilltop will enable us to attract the most promising scholar-athletes and coaches. On our space-constrained campus, our needs are many. But several priorities stand out:

• Preserving and enhancing McDonough Arena, which houses the competition spaces, locker rooms, and coaching offices for most of our athletics department.
• Upgrading Shirley Povich Field, home to our baseball team—through improvements which would strengthen infrastructure.
• Continuing the improvements at Cooper Field, where the extraordinary generosity of the Cooper family has made possible substantial upgrades to the press box, seating capacity, and game-day locker rooms. The next step is replacing and enhancing the playing surface, which is used by 300+ of our student-athletes, as well as Georgetown students participating in intramural sports and adding a video scoreboard.
• Elevating other spaces used by Georgetown’s varsity programs, including our softball, golf, swimming and diving, soccer, and rowing teams.

To learn more about or contribute to this priority, please contact Scarlett Schneider, Ph.D. at scarlett.schneider@georgetown.edu.

Deeply motivated to succeed in all that they do, Georgetown’s student-athletes earn an average GPA of 3.67. This requires extraordinary commitment: these students need grit, discipline, courage—and support.

Expanding the university’s network of academic support will position student-athletes to pursue their academic passions and engage fully in the opportunities of a formative college education.

168 HOURS: A STUDENT-ATHLETE WEEK

168 hrs in a week; medians collected from the 2015 NCAA GOALS study

To learn more about or contribute to this priority, please contact Scarlett Schneider, Ph.D. at scarlett.schneider@georgetown.edu.

The very ambition that drives student-athletes’ achievement also exposes them to significant vulnerabilities. Inspired by the 2015 NCAA initiative “Mind, Body, Sport”—a blueprint for addressing student-athlete needs—and our own Catholic and Jesuit tradition of cura personalis, we embrace the opportunity to care holistically for our student-athletes.

MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS

In 2017, Georgetown Athletics hired its first-ever clinical psychologist dedicated to and trained specifically in the needs of collegiate student-athletes, putting us at the forefront of student-athlete health and wellness in the BIG EAST Conference. Now we must secure this important program’s future and increase its reach.

NUTRITION AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES

Nutrition programs affect more than athletic performance and involve more than just re-fueling. A truly comprehensive approach includes a full-time dietician steeped in college athletics, individualized nutrition plans, and a dedicated space to ensure that student-athletes are meeting their nutritional needs for performance and competition, recovery and repair, and emotional and brain health. Thanks to a generous investment from an alumnus, in January 2020, Georgetown Athletics welcomed a full-time nutritionist, the first in the BIG EAST Conference.

Offering unlimited access to fueling for 700+ student-athletes requires significant resources, and sustained donor investment will help ensure that student-athletes have access to every nutritional resource they need.

SPORTS PERFORMANCE

The physical demands of modern athletic competition require sport- and athlete-specific training, recovery, and technology for optimal fitness and muscular health. That means deploying wearable technology, offering individualized programming, and—most crucially—expanding our team of sports performance coaches.

To learn more about or contribute to this priority, please contact Scarlett Schneider, Ph.D. at scarlett.schneider@georgetown.edu.

Formed in fall 2019 as part of the athletics department’s strategic plan and commitment to promoting a deep understanding and appreciation among the diverse members of our community, the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Action Team seeks to shape a culture where all student-athletes, coaches, and staff have a sense of belonging. The working group has identified three priority areas:

• Enhancing education, programming, and resources
• Ensuring talent acquisition and retention
• Fostering outreach and service

In June 2020, Georgetown Athletics received a gift from the Behrens Family to establish a new position—the Executive Director for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Athletics—to lead this important work on a permanent basis. Going forward, donor support will help:

• Grow the number of educational and professional development opportunities we offer our student-athletes, coaches and staff
• Establish and strengthen our relationships with organizations who are dedicated to DEI work such as the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE)
• Provide student-athlete affinity groups a budget for student-led initiatives
• Augment training for coaches and staff to increase cultural competencies
• Increase our engagement with the DC community

To learn more about or contribute to this priority, please contact Scarlett Schneider, Ph.D. at scarlett.schneider@georgetown.edu.

The Annual Fund for Georgetown Athletics is the bedrock of varsity athletics on the Hilltop. By contributing to the Annual Fund, Georgetown alumni, parents, fans, and friends help provide essential resources for 30 Division I varsity programs and 700+ student-athletes, including coaching, travel, equipment, and scholarships.

Growing the Annual Fund for Georgetown Athletics is critical to the future growth and success of Georgetown Athletics.