2017-18 Pioneer Club Campaign to raise community awareness and support of Tusculum Athletics

With a $100,000 goal, Tusculum College kicked off the 2017-18 Pioneer Club campaign with a breakfast held at the Greeneville campus on Thursday, July 20.

“We appreciate all you do,” Tusculum Athletic Director Doug Jones told the campaign leaders and volunteers at the breakfast. “What you do and the support you provide helps us to be better able to make a positive difference in the the lives of our student-athletes.”

This year’s Pioneer Club campaign will be led by five team captains, Angelo Botta, Doug DeBusk, Justin Jeffers, Curtis Morrison and Dr. Craig Shepherd, and Jones. These captains will lead groups of volunteers who be working in the community to raise awareness and support for Tusculum athletics over the coming year.

Team captains for the 2017-18 Pioneer Club campaign are preparing for the annual effort to provide resources for the Tusculum College athletic programs. From left are Tusculum Director of Athletics Doug Jones, team captains Angelo Botta, Dr. Craig Shepherd and Doug DeBusk. Not pictured are team captains Justin Jeffers and Curtis Morrison.

The Pioneer Club is the fundraising organization of Tusculum Athletics and provides financial support to 20 athletic programs. The Pioneer Club began in 1991, and year after year, has been built on a solid foundation of support from alumni and friends of Tusculum College.

Athletics at Tusculum College are a big part of campus life; there will be almost 600 student-athletes on campus in the fall, about half of the traditional student body. Jones outlined some of the projects that will be supported through the Pioneer Club campaign, including the resurfacing of Pioneer Field with synthetic turf. The field is used for both fall and spring sports, including football, men’s and women’s soccer and men’s and women’s lacrosse.

In addition, projects that the Pioneer Club effort will support include a resurfacing of the tennis courts, updates to the softball facilities, weight room enhancements and a continuing upgrade in equipment for live streaming of games.

The purchase of equipment to enhance live streaming of Tusculum Pioneer athletic events online was one of the major projects that was supported through Pioneer Club efforts in the last year. Online streaming has provided Pioneer fans and parents of student-athletes a way to watch events when they cannot attend in person, and Tusculum is now receiving inquiries about its live streaming by fellow schools in the South Atlantic Conference.