FORT MYERS, Fla. – Director of Athletics Ken Kavanagh announced today the promotion of several administrative staff leaders entering the 2022-23 academic year.
 
Lauren Freeman has been promoted to Associate Athletics Director for Internal Affairs and will serve as the department's Senior Woman Administrator (SWA). Nicole Neal has also been elevated to serve as the Associate Athletics Director for Health Performance and Administration.
 
New to the FGCU Athletics Executive Staff are Matt Ring who was promoted to Assistant Athletics Director for Advancement/Eagles Club and Randy Popple who was elevated to Assistant Athletics Director for Strength and Conditioning.
 
Susie Lennertz was also named the Assistant to the Director of Athletics after previously serving as an Assistant Director of Financial Operations.
 
"Amidst the departure of three valued veteran contributors, we are extremely blessed to have a core of remaining folks who are more than prepared to step into these expanded roles. In particular, Lauren has quickly garnered tremendous respect from staff both inside our Athletics Department and across our campus and will do a great job as our new SWA. Likewise, Nicole, Matt, Pops and Susie have demonstrated they are more than capable of the assumption of additional duties and responsibilities and we are excited to witness each of them taking on these new opportunities."
 
The announcement comes after the retirements of three longtime athletics executive staff members during the summer: Patricia Blankenship (Assistant to the Director of Athletics), Mike Estes (Senior Associate Athletics Director for Administration), and Kathy Peterson (Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Services/SWA).
 
Freeman is in her third year with FGCU, after spending the prior five at the University of Georgia. A native of Cincinnati, she was elevated from the role of Assistant Athletics Director for Financial Operations. In addition to overseeing the financial and internal operations of FGCU, she will also continue to serve as the sport administrator for swimming and diving, add volleyball and will now be the secondary administrator for women's basketball. She is a double-graduate of Georgia with a bachelor's degree in sport management (2014) and a master's degree in organization development (2019). She is actively involved with Women Leaders in College Sports (WLCS) and was selected as one of 90 women across the nation to attend the WLCS 2019 Institute for Administrative Advancement in Washington, D.C. In June 2021, Freeman took part in the TopConnect AD 2021 Leadership Symposium. She has been recently selected to the 2022-23 DI-AAA Athletics Directors Association Mentoring Program.
 
Neal, who is in her ninth year with FGCU in 2022-23, previously served the Eagles as the Assistant Athletics Director for Health Performance and was the athletics trainer for the men's basketball program since July 2018. A native of High Point, North Carolina, she previously served as the department's head athletics trainer working with the men's basketball program since the fall of 2014. With 28 years of experience, including 17 previously at N.C. State University, where she earned master's of parks, recreation, tourism and sport management (2016), Neal manages FGCU's eight-member sports medicine staff. In her new role, Neal will continue oversight of the sports medicine staff, as well as the strength and conditioning unit, while serving as the sport administrator for the cross country and softball programs and handling additional administrative responsibilities. She earned her bachelors of science from High Point University (1994) and also has a master of science in exercise movement and science from the University of Oregon (1997). She has served as a moderator at the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) annual symposium and has been a member of the North Carolina Board of Athletic Trainer Examiners since 2012. Neal possesses several professional certifications, including NATA, as a strength & conditioning specialist, performance enhancement specialist, corrective exercise specialist, and sound assisted soft tissue mobilization technique.
 
Ring is in his seventh year with FGCU Athletics. A native of Muncie, Indiana, he was previously the department's Director of Advancement from 2018-22 after spending his first two years as the Assistant Director of Advancement and Eagles Club Coordinator. In his role, Ring is responsible for the annual fund and the Eagles Club, as well as fundraising major gifts, scholarships, and capital projects, including the EAGLE Campaign, which launched in December of 2019. Ring also oversees the ticketing office and is the fundraising liaison for baseball, women's basketball, swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, and men's and women's cross country. He will also serve as the sport administrator for the baseball program. Ring came from the Miami Dolphins, where he worked in their membership development and services offices.  He earned a bachelor's degree in sport administration with a minor in business administration from the University of Cincinnati (2014), where he was a four-year member of the baseball program and served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for three years. Following that, he received a master's in sport administration from the University of Louisville (2015).
 
Popple is in his 16^th year with FGCU having serving as the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for all FGCU sports. A native of Sidney, New York, he oversees all aspect of the strength and conditioning for every athletics team at FGCU and his duties include designing and implementing strength, conditioning and speed programs for men's and women's soccer, men's and women's golf, and men's and women's cross country. Additionally, he will now serve as the sport administrator for men's tennis. He has 38 years in college and professional sports.  Popple served as an assistant strength coach at the University of Florida for eleven years and as the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for the Minnesota Twins Major League baseball club for nine seasons before commencing his Eagle tenure in 2007. A graduate of the University of Florida with a bachelors in exercise and sports science (1987), he is a current member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS). 
 
Lennertz joined FGCU Athletics in September 2017 as the primary administrative contact for the Outdoor Sports Complex (OSC). A native of, Key Biscayne, Florida, she facilitated coordination between the OSC coaches and staff and the Athletics Business Office, including reconciliations, payroll, contracts, and property records. She also assisted with team and individual travel arrangements for 11 teams and staff members, as well as tracking expenditures and processing reimbursements. In April 2021, Lennertz was selected by her colleagues as the Florida Gulf Coast University Outstanding SP Employee of the Year. This past spring, she was honored with FGCU Athletics' annual Stanley "Butch" Perchan Award, bestowed upon a tremendous teammate to student-athletes and fellow staff alike. Prior to commencing her career in athletics, she worked with the FGCU Testing Center for three years. She is a graduate of Florida State University, where she earned a bachelors in recreation and hospitality management.
 
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E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to achieve our newest goal - a $10 million campaign to address student-athlete needs in continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, and strength and conditioning as well as departmental needs in facility expansion and improvement as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and the purpose of the E.A.G.L.E. Campaign - Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence. Join Our Team and pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of tomorrow!

#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.

ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 92 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11 seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 45 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men's golf team became the first program to earn at at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as four of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 26 consecutive semesters. The past five semesters (Fall 2019 – Spring 2022) saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
 
--FGCUATHLETICS.COM--