TO: Fans, Friends, Alumni, and supporters of Oakland University Athletics

I would like to congratulate all of our student-athletes who earned Academic All-Summit League honors and were named to The Summit League Commissioner's List. We led the league this season with 146 selections to the Commissioner's List and 208 academic all-league honorees. Congratulations to all of our student-athletes for this tremendous recognition.

In addition, I would like to recognize Jessica Boyle (women's soccer), Laura Kwiatkowski (women's golf) and Jackie Hynson (women's swimming and diving) for posting the top female grade point average for the 2008-09 academic calendar. All three of these talented student-athletes achieved a 3.97 GPA. For the men, Andy Lawrick (men's cross country) also tallied a 3.97 GPA, while Martin Sandell (men's soccer) had a perfect 4.0 GPA while finishing his master's degree.

For overall team GPA, seven of our women's programs attained a 3.0 GPA or higher, including cross country (3.42), golf (3.36), basketball and volleyball (3.31), swimming and diving (3.27), softball (3.24) and track and field (3.02). Two men's programs accomplished this feat, led by cross country (3.22) and baseball (3.15).

The athletic department would also like to applaud Jeff Decator's efforts at the NCAA Regional Championships in Louisville, Ky. Despite tweaking his hamstring at the end of the 100-meter dash in the league championship, in which he won, Jeff competed at the regional and represented Oakland well. I'd also like to commend Pat Cassady for qualifying in the 5,000-meter run at the USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships where he finished 13th.

Thanks to the entire department for their help in getting the most of our student-athletes in and out of the classroom.

Ticket Discount Offer Extended
Men's and Women's Basketball season ticket discount offer extended until Wednesday, July 15. We are offering 10 percent off the purchase of 2009-10 men's and women's basketball season tickets packages. Please use this opportunity to get a jump start on the upcoming seasons.

Summer Camps
With the difficult economic times, we appreciate all those Golden Grizzly fans continuing to send your sons and daughters to our summer camps. So far the camp season has run smoothly and we have had great feedback from participants. If you are interested in future camps, please visit our camps website HERE for information.

Golden Grizzly Golf Classic
We are hosting our annual golf tournament for the athletic department on August 24 at Katke-Cousins and Sharf Golf Courses on the campus of Oakland University. For more information for this event, please contact Chad Thompson at 248.370.4034 or thompso5@oakland.edu. This has been a very entertaining event and gives our supporters a chance to interact with our coaches and administration.

Please continue to send me your feedback whenever possible. While I cannot guarantee a personal response to every e-mail that we receive, please know that they will all be read, so I do encourage your participation in this process. Some of your questions/comments could become subjects for future issues of Grizzly Bites.

I also encourage you to share this letter with any OU fan that may not have access to the internet. Our mission is to inform and engage as many Golden Grizzlies supporters as we possibly can.

I want to thank you for your continued support of Oakland University athletics as we move forward with our vision for excellence.