The Ultimate Guide to the Team's 2023 Season_Pages

The East Carolina Pirates SPORTS MAGAZINES APRIL / 2023 ecupirates.com INSIDE THE THE ULTIMATE WORLD OF THE GUIDE TO ECU PIRATES THE TEAM’S 2023 SEASON // East Carolina 2023 Reports #theeastcarolinapirates

DONT QUIT. + YOU’RE ALREADY NE IN PAIN. QU GET A REWARD FROM IT. THE EAST CAROLINA PIRATES are a college football team that represents East Carolina University (vari- ously “East Carolina” or “ECU”). The team is a member of the American Athletic Conference, which is in Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Mike Houston is the head coach. The Pirates have won seven conference championships and nine bowl games. The Pirates have 20 All-Americans over its history. Four players have their jerseys retired. Numerous Pirates have played in the NFL, including ten current players. The team played its inaugural season in 1932. The team played home games at College Stadium on the main campus from the 1949 to the 1962 season. With the exception of the 1999 Miami football game, they have played their home games at Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium every year since 1963. The stadium is located south of East Carolina’s main cam- pus near the intersection of South Charles Boulevard and 14th Street. Dowdy-Ficklen underwent an expansion in 2010, raising the capacity of the stadium to 50,000. The Pirates announced a $55 million renovation project to Dowdy-Ficklen in 2016, which will add a new tower above the south side stands, among other things. The coaches and administrative support is located in the Ward Sports Medicine Building, which is located adjacent to the stadium. Strength and conditioning for the players occurs in the Murphy Center, a $13 million indoor training facility which was completed in June 2002 and which is located in the west end zone of Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium. The Pirates also practice and train at the Cliff Moore Practice Facility, which was fully renovated in 2005 and which has two full-length NFL-caliber fields.

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Photo By. Greg Thompson MIKE HOUSTON THE 51 years old Michael Glenn Houston is an American football coach who is currently the head coach at East Carolina University. Before joining ECU, he coached at James Madison, where he won the 2016 FCS championship, and at Lenoir-Rhyne and The Citadel. Houston played tight end at Mars Hill, where he earned a degree in Biology in 1994. He started his coaching career as defensive coordinator at Forbush High School and then moved to T.C. Roberson High School, where he was eventually promoted to head coach. In 2006, he joined Brevard College as defensive coordinator and associate head coach. A year later, he became the defensive coordinator at Lenoir-Rhyne before being promoted to head coach in 2011. In his three seasons there, he led the Bears to the national championship game and set an NCAA all-division rushing record. Houston became the head coach at East Carolina University in 2018, where he has led the team to their first winning season in six years and their first bowl game appearance since 2014. In 2022, Houston led the Pirates to an 8-5 record and a victory in the Birmingham Bowl against Coastal Carolina University. COUCH

Photo By. ECU PIRATES Photo By. ECU PIRATES THE HEAD COACHING RECORD WITH ECU East Carolina Pirates have had a mixed performance in recent years, with a record of 22-24 since 2019. They finished 3rd in their conference in 2021 and won the Military Bowl, and in 2022 they finished 6th in their conference and won the Birmingham Bowl. Photo By. ECU PIRATES Photo By. ECU PIRATES The East Carolina Pirates | MAGAZINE

Photo By. ECU PIRATES The individual in question is a college football player who began his career as a tight end but switched to the defensive side of the ball in the spring of 2021. He has appeared in 29 career games and made nine starts, with 50 total tackles, 6.5 career tackles for loss, and 4.0 sacks. In 2022, he was named a Preseason Third-Team All-American Athletic Conference selection by Athlon Sports. During the 2022 season, he played in several games, starting in most of them, and recorded a number of tackles, sacks, and quarterback hurries. In the 2021 season, his first playing on the defensive side, he started eight of 12 games, making 49 tackles, sharing the team lead in sacks and ranking second in total tackles for loss. Before college, he was a football and basketball player in high school, playing receiver/tight end and linebacker.

JEREMY LEWIS OUTSIDE LINEBACKER Hometwon. Greenville 33 years old Photo By. ECU PIRATES IMPOSIBLE IS NOTHING The East Carolina Pirates | MAGAZINE

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ONE TEAM ONE DREAM EAST CAROLINA PIRATES BASEBALL The East Carolina Pirates baseball team is an intercollegiate baseball team representing East Carolina University in NCAA Division I college baseball and participates as a full member of the American Athletic Conference. The Pirates have made regular appearances in the NCAA Tournament. As of 2021, they have the most NCAA tournament appearances without a College World Series appearance. The Pirates are coached by Cliff Godwin and play their home games at Clark-LeClair Stadium, named after donor and alumnus Bill Clark and former coach Keith LeClair. Every year, the Pirates host a baseball tournament in Greenville in honor of Coach LeClair called the Keith LeClair Classic.

OUR CASTLE STADIUM Clark-LeClair Stadium is the home of Pirate baseball at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. The stadium was named after Pirate alumnus and key contributor Bill Clark and former Pirate skipper Keith LeClair. The stadium has 3,000 Stadium bleacher seats, plus space for several thousand more spectators in “The Jungle”. There are concession and restroom facilities at the stadium plus a family picnic area. Amenities include the Pirate Club fundraising and hospitality suite and a private suite for the LeClair family. The stadium is home to the ECU Invitational and the Keith LeClair Classic. NAIA TOURNAMENT In 1961, the ECU Pirates won the NAIA Baseball World Series championship to claim East Carolina’s first national championship in baseball. The East Carolina Pirates won 13–7 over the Sacramento State Hornets. Since then, the Pirates have yet to make it to a national championship. Photo By. ECU PIRATES

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ECU MEN’S BASKET- BALL TEAM The East Carolina Pirates men’s basketball team represents East Carolina University in NCAA Division I college basketball and competes in the American Athletic Conference. The Pirates are coached by Mike Schwartz.

HISTOURY OF OUR PIRATES East Carolina University’s basketball program has a rich history dating back to 1931, when it became the first intercollegiate sport at the university. The Pirates joined the NAIA North State Conference in 1947, where they won the conference title in 1953-54, and appeared in the NAIA National Tournament twice. In 1953 and ‘54, they won two district titles before losing in the first round of the national finals. Ten years later, ECU made the jump to Division I as a member of the Southern Conference and became a full-fledged member during the 1965-66 season. They captured the SoCon tournament title in 1972 and reached the NCAA tournament for the first time. Three years later, ECU returned to the postseason when it received an invitation to the inaugural Collegiate Commissioners Tournament, losing to Arizona in the first round. After 15 years as a member of the CAA, ECU joined Conference USA in 2001-02 and spent 13 seasons in the conference before becoming a member of the newly formed American Athletic Conference in 2014-15. The Pirates have had four players reach the NBA level, including Theodore “Blue” Edwards, Oliver Mack, George Maynor, and Charles Alford. The East Carolina Pirates | MAGAZINE

Photo By. ECU PIRATES Photo By. ECU PIRATES “PIRATES HOOP DREAMS: VICTORY THROUGH TEAMWORK & DEDICATION”

SMITH- WILLIAMS CENTER Photo By. ECU PIRATES The Smith-Williams Center, which is structurally connected to Minges Coliseum, is the headquarters for and is devoted exclusively to the men’s and women’s basketball programs, providing them with a state-of-the-art venue in which to practice, train and condition. The 49,000-square-foot (4,600 m2), multi-level facility, which opened in 2013, features mirror-image practice courts, locker rooms, coaches’ offices, meeting rooms, and train- ing rooms for each program, and houses the Athletics Hall of Fame, which features an interactive display of the history of intercollegiate athletics at ECU. Named in honor of principal donors Harry and Tammy Smith and Walter and Marie Williams, the center has a total project cost of $17 million that was funded entirely through private gifts. The Smith’s commitment of $1 million toward the Step Up To The Highest Level Campaign in December 2011, coupled with leadership gifts from the Williams family and contribu- tions of numerous other donors enabled the construction of the facility. Each court is named for donors who contributed significantly to the Step Up To The Highest Level campaign. The floor inside the women’s practice gym is called Barnhill Court, in recognition of the financial support of Bob Barnhill of Tarboro. The men’s gym floor is named Rogers-Whitaker court, in appreciation of the monetary gifts of Mike and Janet Rogers of Cary, N.C., and Don and Donna Whitaker of Virginia Beach, Va. Whitaker was a two-year ECU basketball letterman for coaches Dave Patton and Larry Gillman. Photo By. ECU PIRATES Photo By. ECU PIRATES The East Carolina Pirates | MAGAZINE

The East Carolina Pirates The East Carolina Pirates are the athletic teams that represent East Carolina University (ECU), located in Greenville, North Carolina. All varsity-level sports teams participate at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (Football Bowl Subdivi- sion (FBS) for football) level as a member of the American Athletic Conference. The school became an NCAA member in 1961 ecupirates.com