Athletics Archives

RAFYs celebrate Transylvania Pioneers on Sunday

Posted on May 22, 2018July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University celebrated its standout student-athletes Sunday during The RAFYs, the school’s newly renamed sports banquet held at the end of each academic year at the Clive M. Beck Center. The event recognized the achievements of more than 400 Transylvania athletes on 26 varsity teams—not only on their fields of play, but also in the classrooms and community. The RAFYs culminated a successful athletic season at Transylvania, with six teams competing in NCAA Division III national championships. Some of the top honors this year went to the women’s lacrosse and golf teams, which had the most successful seasons in their programs’ history. The awards are named after the Pioneers’ new bat mascot, Raf. 2017-18 winners at The RAFYs Pioneer Team of the Year – Women’s Lacrosse Female Pioneer Athlete of the Year – Renae Morton, Softball Male Pioneer Athlete of the Year – Tyler Joy-Brandon, Men’s Soccer Coach of the Year – Tyrus York, Women’s Golf Female Rookie of the Year – Shelby Wuest, Women’s Lacrosse Male Rookie of the Year – Drew Dodds, Men’s Swimming Team Community Service Award – Men’s Soccer Inspiration Award – Carlee Clemons, Women’s Basketball George Stopp Academic Achievement Award – J.T. Henderson, Men’s Tennis Highest Team GPA – Women’s Golf Female Senior Leadership Award – Katherine Stachowski, Women’s Lacrosse Male Senior Leadership Award – Brandon Heller, Men’s Lacrosse

And the Assist Goes To…

Posted on January 3, 2018June 19, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

Transylvania Women’s Basketball Try to picture a basketball player at the pinnacle of success. Multimillion-dollar shoe contract. Flashy cars. Autographs. Ego. Of course not all successful basketball players are like this. In fact, members of Transylvania’s women’s basketball team strive not for individual glory but for humility and generosity. Coach Juli Fulks drills into her players’ heads this culture of giving, which she sees as necessary to the game as shot blocking and lay-ups. Fulks goes around to every player as they stretch to get ready for each Monday’s practice, and she asks them to talk about how they’ve served others during the past week. And it’s not just the players who are expected to give of themselves. It’s a top down thing—the coaches serve the players just as the seniors are asked to serve their younger teammates, and so on. “We are not the program that expects the freshmen to come in and do the laundry,” Fulks says. “The core fundamental of our team is servant leadership.” This ethic is most evident with the team’s many community engagement efforts—whether they are teaching basketball skills to youth at the YMCA, playing a game with Special Olympics athletes or spending an afternoon at a local retirement home. Perhaps less evident is how being servant-leaders helps them win games. “I think team culture is the number-one factor in being able to win high-level championships,” Fulks says. “And you can’t do that without

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Our Mascot

Posted on December 7, 2017May 22, 2023 by Office of Marketing and Communications

In 2017, Transylvania announced a new Pioneer athletic mascot, Raf, who pays homage to the university’s legendary professor, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, a charismatic naturalist whose tomb is on the first floor of Transylvania’s main administrative building, Old Morrison. The campus also boasts a café bearing his name. For nearly two decades, Transy was without a Pioneer mascot. Raf was developed through a combination of two years of interviews with current and prospective student-athletes and extensive marketing research. Rafinesque’s passion for bats is the stuff of legend. John James Audubon described hearing a loud commotion one night while Rafinesque was staying at his cottage. Apparently, some bats had fluttered into Rafinesque’s candlelit room through an open window to feed on moths. Raf attacked the bats with the famous ornithologist’s favorite violin, destroying the instrument in the process. While Rafinesque was overjoyed at what he thought was the discovery of a new species, Audubon didn’t share his excitement—both because he doubted it was even a new species, and obviously because of the violin. Today, Transylvania’s mascot is a Rafinesque’s big-eared bat. These Kentucky forest dwellers with freakishly large listeners play an important ecological role by keeping insect populations in check—just as Raf plays an important role at Transy by firing up crowds at Pioneer sporting events and helping recruit new students.

Transylvania Athletics inducts five standouts into Hall of Fame

Posted on October 30, 2017July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University on Saturday inducted five of the school’s former athletes into the Pioneer Hall of Fame. These standouts—Billy Bradford, Brian Macy, Lee Morrison, Ashley Sanders and Greg White—were honored during a banquet and ceremony at the Clive M. Beck Center. “All five embody the spirit of what it means to be a Transylvania Pioneer Hall-of-Famer,” said Holly Sheilley, vice president for enrollment and student life and director of athletics. “They all had a tremendous impact upon their Transylvania community during their time as undergraduates and continue to represent Transylvania in their lives as stellar ambassadors.” Bradford, who graduated in 2002, competed as a diver for the Transylvania swimming and diving team for four seasons, going on to qualify for the 1999 NAIA National Championships where he finished as the national runner-up in the 1-meter diving event. Bradford appeared in two NAIA National Championships (1999, 2001) and was undefeated in conference championship meets. He then served as the diving coach at Transylvania from 2003 until 2009. Macy ’00 excelled in two sports during his time at Transylvania. He was a foundational member of the revived baseball program, playing from 1997 through 2000. As a junior, Macy set the Transylvania single-season record for strikeouts in a season with 70. In his senior season, he commanded a 10-5 record and compiled a team-best 3.53 ERA. In four years at Transylvania, Macy collected 270 career strikeouts. He also competed for the Transylvania

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Transylvania first Kentucky school to offer women’s varsity collegiate triathlon

Posted on July 26, 2017July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Triathlon and Transylvania University Athletics today announced Transylvania is the first school in Kentucky—and the 15th in the nation—to add women’s collegiate triathlon as an NCAA varsity sport. The NCAA Division III women’s triathlon team will begin competing in the 2018-19 season. The addition of women’s triathlon to Transylvania’s varsity sport offerings was made possible through a $70,000 grant from the USA Triathlon Foundation. The USA Triathlon Women’s Emerging Sport Grant is distributed to select NCAA membership institutions to develop, implement and sustain women’s triathlon programs at the NCAA varsity level. The sport’s competitions include stages of cycling, running and swimming. “With a multitude of existing events and recruitable athletes in the region, as well as its proximity to other varsity women’s triathlon programs, Transylvania University was a perfect fit to add NCAA women’s triathlon,” said Tim Yount, chief operating officer at USA Triathlon. “More importantly, the Transylvania Women’s Triathlon program was made possible by leaders within the athletic department and the school as a whole who believe in the future of this sport at the collegiate level.” “We are so excited to have the opportunity to start a women’s triathlon team at Transylvania,” said Holly Sheilley, Transylvania vice president for enrollment and student life and director of athletics. “As we were exploring the possibilities, the support received from local triathletes and USA Triathlon made this an easy decision in the end. Dedication, passion, hard

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