Off to Camp Tontozona

Who is ready to head up the mountain? Preparing to climb Mt. Kush? I am #ALLin on Camp Tontozona next week as is our football team, staff and whole department. A lot of work has gone in to getting Camp Tontozona ready for our return.  Our Athletic and Operations Facilities offices, under the direction of Sun Devil graduate, Mike Chismar, has put in some serious overtime. When it comes to taking care of our fields, no one leads the charge better than another Sun Devil graduate, Pete Wozniak, a veteran of 17 Super Bowls. We know Camp Tontozona is rustic and you can’t control rain, but a proud tradition is back for our players and our fans.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the gallery of Camp Tontozona photos provided by former players, it is a wonderful way to look back at some great memories (outside of the photo of Danny White in his underwear). But please don’t ask us to find horses to put players on as they did in the early 1970s. Yes, that happened. See it here.

Practices start on Wednesday, August 15. We will have a morning and afternoon practice that day. We also hope to see you at the Saturday, August 18 morning scrimmage.

Former Players Step Up

Who was the first former player to step up and donate when we announced the “Return to Camp T” Campaign back in May? If you guessed 1987-88 tight end Gary Knudson, you are right. Gary is CEO and Founder of Ad Sport. He attended the press conference, the Camp T. former player breakfast, and is a football season ticket holder. Thanks to Gary for getting us started up the mountain. Want more? How about former walk on Vince Amoia who played from 1984-85, earned a scholarship and saw action with the New York Jets. He owns American Chiropractic & Physical Therapy in Scottsdale. He attended the Camp Tontozona press conference, donated to the Camp Tontozona fund, also attended the Camp Tontozona former player breakfast, contributed to the football reunion weekend to offset costs and is a football season ticket holder. I have one more for you. If you live in Flagstaff, and your kids need to go to the dentist, we give you Rose Bowl Center, Kirk Robertson. Kirk is a consistent donor and attends home football games and has a goal to repay his scholarship. Check out Kirk and his Sun Devil wife, Jessica, as they are true examples of Sun Devil pride.

Men’s Basketball Fan Forum

We have had some great feedback from the Fan Forums we did in the Spring with both Coach Graham and Coach Sendek, and even the one I did back in April. We will have another one Monday, August 13 at 6:30PM with Coach Sendek and Evan Gordon. The focus will be about the progress of the six newcomers this year as well as our three freshmen all of which are on campus and ready to go. The Fan Forums are an excellent way to get an update on your Sun Devils, and the best part is you can call in from home by dialing 1-877-229-8493 with ID 19543 . If you have any questions about the Forums, email Abbey Carter with our Sun Devil marketing team and she will pass along the details. Here is the one Coach Sendek and Mesa’s own Jahii Carson did in the spring and we hope you dial into the next one!

Sun Devils Serve

The community service hours of our student-athletes continues to go up. A recent example is a trip by men’s basketball to Andre House as they helped prepare meals, feed those in need and then cleaned the building. All of our teams are doing great work in the community. Here is a video and photo gallery of the men’s basketball visit and plenty more to come on this subject in these blogs down the road. Please know it is a high priority of our department to be heavily involved in our community.

Guess Who I Met

I was lucky enough recently to meet the happily married Sun Devil couple of women’s tennis All-American, Reka Cseresnyes, and javelin thrower, Jared Schreiber. Coach Sheila McInerney does a great job keeping former players connected and was giving a tour when I saw them in the lobby. Reka and Jared live in Budapest, Hungary (which is where my son Dylan, a new Sun Devil, just returned from). Both Reka and Jared are very successful, which is no shock when you look at their student-athlete acumen. Reka was ASU’s female Pac-10 medal of honor recipient in 1998. The male winner? Her good friend Pat Tillman. Reka and Jared took a photo with their three future Sun Devils and Coach McInerney in front of Pat’s mural on the first floor, which was naturally a bit emotional. That shows Sun Devils as family at its best. Here is a recent story on Reka done by our friends at the ASU Alumni Office..enjoy!

Sun Devil Hero Comes Home

If you haven’t heard, that Anthony Robles guy is a pretty big deal now. Check out his website to see all the good he has going on his life. His speaking tour has him all over the nation, and his book is coming out in October. Now picture this…you are a Sun Devil freshman student-athlete. It is your freshman orientation weekend. You are in a room and have heard numerous talks about time management, getting your sleep and where to pick up your books. You are tired…until on Monday, August 20 at 1 p.m., your guest speaker is Anthony Robles. We are thrilled to have Anthony on campus to address our freshman student-athletes. We want them to believe they are unstoppable from the second they step on campus. What better person to say it?

Hope to see you all on State Route 87 real soon and on August 30 at Sun Devil Stadium when we take on NAU. In the meantime, continue to #speakvictory and let us know what we can do to continue to make Sun Devil athletics enjoyable for you.

Go Devils!

Steve Patterson
Vice President for University Athletics