Staff report

SALISBURY — The Catawba Chiefs Club has continued its growth during the 2019-20 school year, surpassing the 700-mark for members.

Jeff Childress, associate AD for athletic development and director of the Chiefs Club, said the goal is still 750 for the year.

According to Childress, it’s the third year in a row that the club has shown growth, going from 525 members to over 700.

“This has been an especially strong year,” said Childress. “Credit should be given to our Chiefs Club board of directors, its president, Bucky Cline, and to a special challenge from Bill Graham.”

Graham is Catawba’s chairman of the board of trustees as well as a former student athlete at the college. Graham challenged the Chiefs Club last July to set the goal for 750 members. Childress said that Graham offered special incentives that created a lot of interest, which helped find 256 new members

“Some of the new members may have been members in the past but were not members during the 2018-2019 membership drive,” said Childress. “It also says a lot about Bill Graham that he also attends a lot of our home athletic events and has a genuine special interest in Catawba athletics, our student-athletes and our coaching staff.”

Childress also praised Larry Leckonby, the college’s director of athletics. “Larry has been very involved with our Chiefs Club board, very supportive of our ideas and plans to increase our membership, our special events for Catawba athletics, and helping to keep our coaching staff, as well as the Salisbury Community, involved with our Chiefs Club,” added Childress.

Childress sends out a weekly Chiefs Club e-newsletter, keeping members up to date on results, the schedule of upcoming games, and news about special events and athletic projects. Each week, the e-newsletter highlights former student-athletes who join the Chiefs Club, including some of their past team photos.

“Our main charge this year was to retain the members we had last year, as well as getting in touch with our former student-athletes to let them know more about our club,” continued Childress.

A new feature this year was the addition of a business listing that has now grown to 83. Childress said that most of the businesses are in the Salisbury area and are very visible each week in the Chiefs Club e-newsletter.

The Chiefs Club also conducts Catawba championship team reunions, an effort which gets former student-athletes back on campus. Reunions have celebrated 10-, 20-, 30- and 35-year championship team reunions.

In the past three years, reunions have been held for championship teams which include: 1982-83 men’s basketball, 1992-93 women’s basketball, 1998 men’s and women’s soccer teams, 1988 football, 1999 football, 1995 men’s golf and 1985 women’s softball.

This fall, the Catawba and the Chiefs Club will celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the women’s soccer program at Catawba, and the championship team reunions for 1990-91 men’s soccer, 2000 football and 2001 men’s tennis.

“This year we also did a campaign for the parents of our current student-athletes, and will again be hosting a dinner for our current senior student-athletes,” said Childress. “This will be the third year for our senior student-athlete dinner and it is also starting to pay off with more of our recent graduates already giving back and staying involved.”

Unfortunately, the coronavirus situation has shut down the remainder of the spring season at Catawba, affecting baseball, softball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s tennis and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s golf, and the newest sport at Catawba, beach volleyball.

But Childress said that the Chiefs Club is still looking forward to the year-end events, including the Catawba Golf Classic, held in May, a fund-raiser for the football program, and the club’s campaign in 2020-21.

For more information about the Catawba Chiefs Club, contact Jeff Childress at 704-637-4265 or jchildre@catawba.edu.