Campus update -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL 

Good morning readers, checking in with you before heading out for vacation.  Looking forward to the break from the work force.   

UofL definitely slowed its hiring but the medical residents are currently moving to town and in the process of onboarding.  I've been managing a large load at work to prepare for the influx and my vacation as well. 

As Case covered yesterday, WBB is adding to the coaching staff and I look forward to meeting them sometime soon. 

With the recent administrative changes, UofL is currently going through some major shifts in the dynamic of the institution.  Technically, my department has been eliminated and I am moving to a different one.  We shall see how the chips fall in the coming weeks.  

I've been enjoying the College World Series between Texas and Texas Tech which was forced to a game 3 last night and the Cards Baseball program was able to bring the post season back to town so whether you're heading out to the ballpark or watching the championship from the couch, enjoy the weekend!

As Always, 

Go Cards

~Daryl

2024 Recap -- Jared's Favorite Photos -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

2024 Recap

Happy New Year's Eve! What a wild 2024 it has been for Louisville Athletics. While it may not have been the most successful year across women's sports at Louisville, there was still plenty of joy and excitement across the board.

Women's basketball made the NCAA Tournament again. Their regular season was packed full of ranked ACC opponents- Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, and Syracuse. The Cards have a winning record to start this new season despite facing a plethora of ranked foes again.

Lacrosse had one of its best seasons in the Scott Teeter era. They upset ranked Clemson, set a program record for regular season ACC wins, and advanced to the second round of the ACC Tournament for the first time ever.

Softball finished the season above .500. We saw the return of alumnae Carmyn Greenwood and Taylor Roby, who are coaching for Western Kentucky and Clemson, respectively. The Cards had upset wins over Arizona, Duke, Florida State, and Clemson.

Field hockey, relying heavily on younger classmen, had a down year. Their strength of schedule remained in the top 15. A majority of the starting roster is eligible to return next year.

Women's soccer finished above .500 and had a much improved offensive production from the previous year. They did get an upset win over ranked Cal.

Volleyball had a majorly successful season. The Cards opened the season with a win over top-10 Wisconsin at the KFC Yum! Center in the AVCA Showcase. Their season concluded as National Runner-Up at the KFC Yum! Center. The season saw wins over ranked opponents in Pitt (a big Final Four win), Stanford, Purdue, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Creighton, Tennessee, and Georgia Tech. Anna DeBeer, Elena Scott, and Charitie Luper were all taken in the Pro Volleyball Federation draft.

2024 also saw Paulie take a short hiatus from Cardinal Couple following a medical procedure. The rest of the crew stepped up to cover games in his absence and welcomed his return with open arms. 

Jared's Favorite Photos

I take thousands of pictures each year, partly due to covering over 100 Louisville games each year. 2024 was no different. While it would be impossible to share every picture I've taken over the last year, I do want to share a few of my favorites.

Volleyball celebrates a trip to the Final Four

Elena Scott gets a kill during warm-ups

Women's soccer celebrates a goal

Field hockey scores a goal

A rainbow shines over Trager Stadium

Anna DeBeer gets air time for the kill

Field hockey celebrates a goal

Louisville stretches out for a goal

A runner is tagged out at the plate

A plane flies over the lacrosse stadium before Thunder Over Louisville

The Cards celebrate a walk-off victory

The Ladybirds show off their Daytona routine

Co-Ed Cheer shows off the Daytona routine

All-Girl Cheer shows off the Daytona routine

Softball celebrates a home run

RBI hit for softball

Player intro "selfie"

Finger roll layup

Behind the back goal for lacrosse

Louisville celebrates an upset victory

Last but not least, the Cardinal Couple Crew (not one I took)

I look forward to many more photos and much more to celebrate across Louisville women's sports in 2025!

We also wish our good friend and writer Daryl Foust the best day ever today, as she marries her long time beau...Thomas Irwin. It is always a joy to get opinions and articles from Daryl and we wish her all the happiness in the world. She's a great example of the joy and excitement of women's  sports, here in out neck of the woods.  

Happy Tuesday, Happy New Year's Eve, and Go Cards!

Jared

Josh Heird Extended Through 2030 -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

ULAA Votes to Extend Heird Through 2030

Photo by GoCards

Fans flocked to social media Sunday evening and Monday morning following the announcement of a special ULAA meeting scheduled for 3:00pm Monday. There was no expected bad news that anyone seemed to know about in advance, but the topic of personnel matters certainly raised concerns across CardNation. It's crazy to think Louisville and the fans have been through that much craziness and trauma that everyone's minds went straight to bad news.

In fact, we were blessed with good news as the University of Louisville Athletic Association (ULAA) Board voted to extend the contract of Josh Heird through 2030. Heird, whose title is University of Louisville Vice President and Director of Athletics, had been 2.5 years through a five-year contract.

The move is not official yet. The ULAA Board does not get final say. It now passes onto the Louisville Board of Trustees, who are scheduled to meet this coming Thursday at 1:00pm. There is every indication that the UofL BOT will approve the contract extension.

Photo by Sports Illustrated 

"This is a vote of confidence that I want to be able to provide," said UofL president Kim Schatzel. "I am happy to take this to the board. I believe that we have one of the finest athletic directors in the country serving the University of Louisville, and the building of the team and confidence and performance he has brought to the athletic department are things we want to continue. He's the right person for the role."

Heird has already played a critical role in the two most profitable programs at UofL- football and men's basketball. He oversaw the departure of Scott Satterfield and the hiring of current football coach Jeff Brohm. Brohm is 18-8 with an ACC Championship game appearance under is belt in two years.

Heird also helped with the negotiation of Chris Mack's exit during the 2021-2022 men's basketball season. Following the recommendation and support of major donors, Heird hired Kenny Payne. However, after two unsuccessful years, Heird negotiated the departure of Payne and the hiring of current basketball coach Pat Kelsey. 

Note: Heird was interim AD at the time of Mack's departure and the hiring of Payne.

Josh Heird and Amy Calabrese at UofL Volleyball

With Heird as AD, Louisville has been selected as a host location for the NCAA Championships for volleyball (2024) and field hockey (2026). Louisville as also been selected to host the first and second rounds of the 2027 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. 

Following the 2023-2024 season, nine Louisville teams advance to the postseason. Louisville All-Girl Cheer won its 10th consecutive NCA National Championship. On the academics side, Louisville had a 93% graduation rate and set another record for number of student-athletes on the AD Honor Roll.

From a financial standpoint, UofL has been able to work and structure new deals since Heird arrived. Louisville finalized a $41 million deal for the naming rights to change Cardinal Stadium to L&N Stadium. Louisville also finalized an agreement with Angel's Envy to rename the Brown and Williamson Club to the Angel's Envy Club at the football stadium. UofL also recently formed a partnership with local bourbon brand Mr and Mrs Bourbon. 502 Circle, Louisville's first NIL collective, was founded and partnered with UofL in 2022.

Heird is the third full-time athletic director Louisville has had in nearly 30 years. Tom Jurich served i as AD from 1997-2017. Vince Tyra served in the same role from 2018-2021. 

There are plenty of folks who still look back on the Jurich days or Tyra days, but Heird has been finding ways to help balance the ever-growing Athletics budget, especially with increased travel costs due to the addition of Stanford, California, and Southern Methodist to the ACC. Heird has also been a regular to several Louisville Athletics events.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Conference changes and realignment --it's anyone's guess. --MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 WHAT WILL THE FUTURE BRING FOR LOUISVILLE?

As we look forward to the fall sports and the new challenges for our Louisville women's sports squads, we also wonder how conference changes will affect how our teams do ...and if there are more conference realignments and changes ahead? 

I wonder how long the "Pac 2" will exist and who will eventually take the two remaining members  (Washington State and Oregon State). Will the Mountain West team up with them? What would you call such an alignment? Would they attract others? 

Will certain members of the ACC continue to rattle their swords and speak of leaving to join "so and so" or "those guys" and what will the newest members of the ACC bring and have success at in their initial season? It would sound weird to say Caiifornia dominated the Atlantic Coast...wouldn't it?

I read a interesting rant in one of the comments sections of a site I read occasionally...about how the nation should divide into seven regions for DI sports and create seven "super conferences". The Northeast, East, Southeast, Central, Midwest, Southwest and West. The idea is an intriguing one...there are 363 DI schools, so, obviously, there just might need to have subconferences with the conferences. And, how would independents Notre Dame, UConn and UMass react to this in football?  

Imagine the conferences haggling over border lines for placement. Imagine UofL and UK in the same division but IU and Purdue in different ones? I know, too much thought requests for a Monday morning, right? 

Schools used to take pride in their number of conference title wins and domination over other conference foes. All that might be erased, down the road. Imagine Virginia Tech and Virginia in two seperate conferences...imagine Maryland and West Virginia being matched up again with the regional rivals they used to have. 

I guess all we can do is cheer for our favorite team and hope that they do well in whatever conference they might end up in down the road. For Louisville, who began years ago in the MVC and made strides thru various conferences until they reached the ACC, the thought maybe isn't as weird as Kentucky fans getting used to being in something other than the SEC. 

Interesting times ahead.,,,stay tuned and let's review it five years from now...shall we? Or maybe five months...

paulie

Spring Semester Academic Success -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Athletics Posts High Spring 2024 Academic Ratings

For those of you who have been with us at Cardinal Couple for a while, you are familiar with our praise of Louisville Athletics both athletically and academically. Louisville student-athletes post some of the best academic numbers on campus each semester and the spring 2024 semester followed suit.

505 student-athletes were named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll for the spring semester. The only requirements to make the list are that the student must carry at least a 3.0 GPA and must be an active student-athlete for one of Louisville's 21 sports or a member of the spirit squad (band, cheer, Ladybirds). The cumulative GPA among all student-athletes at Louisville was a 3.311, the 27th straight semester (13.5 years) that the GPA was 3.0 or better. An impressive 98 student-athletes posted a 4.0.

UofL's graduation success rate was a school record 93%, beating out the previous school year's 92%, per the NCAA. It is nearly impossible for a school to post a perfect 100% graduation success rate due to student-athletes transferring out or going pro. Basketball, golf, field hockey, soccer, and volleyball are the women's programs to post a perfect 100%.

The highest GPA of any team at Louisville was women's soccer, who posted a cumulative 3.704 GPA. The top performer men's team was men's golf, with a 3.497 team GPA.

As someone who graduated from Louisville with a 3.25 GPA, I'm impressed by the strong academic numbers that UofL continues to post every semester. As a retired member of the marching band and pep band, I can proudly say that I was a part of this prestigious Athletic Director's Honor Roll back in the day.

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cardinal Uniform Pick'ms -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Hello Cardinal fans 

Daryl again on a Thursday morning.   I think Jared and Paulie have been working on sharing some new content for us which I believe they will share Friday and I'm looking forward to that...so I gladly traded writing days with Jared.    

Looking ahead towards summer months... I was chatting with a coworker earlier this week about some of my favorite uniforms we've seen out of each program over the years so I thought it would be fun to pick some out and also an opportunity to share some of the images captured by our own Jared Anderson over the last school year.  

In alphabetical order...  first up, 

Field Hockey

The pinks!!!  

These uniforms really stand out to me because of the pink accents on the black base of the uniforms.  I don't think we have another program that does the pink out game quite like hockey!

Lacrosse 

   The classic whites with red accents!   

My favorite part of these uniforms is the solid red stripe on the bottoms.   Its a small touch but I think it really stands out and gives the uniforms that extra pop of red it needs.  

Softball

The mix-n-match!!!                             Softball has a unique ability to be able to mix and match the pieces of the uniforms and still be able to pull it off.  I do really like the white top and black bottoms with the classic horizontally striped socks.  

Volleyball

                                                                                                                   

The red back!!!                               This is a unique look for the volleyball program and I really love the cursive script.  Red is the dominant color but the white block on the front of the uniform really make these stand out among the others. 

 

  

Women's Basketball

                                                                  ALL WHITES!!!                                                                                          When it comes to basketball, I love the classics.   I want the all white uniforms with red lettering and that classic Louisville script.   Nothing else compares.   Nothing.  The wing on the leg was added more recently I believe and it was a welcome addition.  I think its a cool feature for a Cardinal look.  

Women's Soccer

The reds!!!!!                                                                                                        The soccer program has the ability to put some of the best Cardinal uniforms (kits) out there.  The 'notebook' style top is probably my favorite look from recently.  The thick solid black stripe down the leg also makes a great accent for pictures too and makes the Cardinal athletes look like they're actually flying.  Clever. 

I hope everyone is enjoying getting ready for the summer months!   Ill be 33 the next time I check in with ya!!!   EEEK!!! 

A special "Thanks" to Jared for the extensive, and excellent work he puts in for the site with his photography and game atendance work.  Believe it or not, he does have a full time job in addition to all the photo-taking he does for the site and he even dabbles in taking pictures of men's sports. A busy guy,

As Always,

Go Cards 

~Daryl 

Pre-Season Isn't Completely Behind Closed Doors - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Pre-Season Sometimes Peeks Out

(A quick note from your scribe today to thank the Cardinal Couple crew for covering the past couple of Sundays while I was on a much-needed vacation.  I'm back and refreshed and more ready than ever to get this athletic season started.   --  Jeff)

All three of Fall sports teams that we closely follow here at Cardinal Couple are in the thick of pre-season practices now, Field Hockey, Soccer, and Volleyball are all getting after it.

Mostly pre-season practices are private and fans don't have access, but occasionally the action peeks out a bit.

Field Hockey may be the easiest to glimpse, just based on the structure of Trager Stadium where the team practices and plays.  We're not necessarily encouraging people to go watch, but the playing surface at Trager is visible from a number of spots outside of the stadium facility, so seeing the team in practice happens if you're passing by the stadium while the practices are going on.

Soccer, of course, is also an outdoor sport with an outdoor facility, but the structure of Lynn Stadium on campus does generally prevent seeing the playing surface from outside of the facility with just glimpses through the gates possible.

Volleyball is the indoor sport of the Fall, and their practice and playing facility doesn't have any visibility from outside, but the team absolutely loves playing beach volleyball in addition to their normal indoor form, and the coaching staff does usually indulge them in that during pre-season practice.

This year, Volleyball took to J-Town Beach to play yesterday.  Details are extremely scarce, but apparently they formed smaller teams and played in some sort of tournament form.  The event was also held in support of the Lesley & Rhyan Prather Foundation.

Lesley and Rhyan Prather were, you may remember, the mother and daughter killed in a car wreck on I-70 near St. Charles Missouri on the way to a club volleyball tournament in Kansas City.  Lesley Prather played collegiate volleyball at UofL as Lesley Drury, and was the sister of UofL Volleyball Director of Ops Sarah (Drury) Petkovic.  Also killed in the car wreck were Carrie McCaw and her daughter Kacey.  McCaw played collegiate volleyball at Syracuse.

The Lesley and Rhyan Prather Foundation was created to help women, children, and families deal with tragedies such as car wrecks, pediatric or adult illnesses, and fires.  The foundation's web presence can be found at lrpfd.com.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

A quartet showed up for the CCRHP yesterday, though we didn't try to pull off any singing numbers, I for one was sporting a voice for photography as I'm continuing to try to overcome and recover from a bit of a bug I picked up during my vacation somewhere in the North Atlantic.

The gang rejoiced that there were actual games on the schedule for the week with Soccer kicking off the official season on Thursday vs Indiana State.  Field Hockey scrimmaging  Bellarmine and Volleyball having their Red vs. Black  scrimmages on Friday and Saturday.

We then touched on a bit of news from the week, and then gave some predictions for regular season records.

Check out the podcast at it's home:  https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Summer-Slump-Winds-Down-e27gv5k

-- 

JMcA