Beach Athletics Cross Country Phone-A-Thon

Dear Friends and Family,

The Track & Field and Cross Country teams at Long Beach State have enjoyed much success in recent years, much to the credit of so many that have given their effort and contributions to help our student-athletes succeed. 

By our standards, success is mearsured in three ways:  Performance in the classroom, in the competitive arena, and our contribution to our athlete’s development as people serving a community.  Achievement as an end goal begins with a process that sets us up for success. 

Over the last three years we have invested $31,000 to ensure every student-athlete received the tutorial support needed to advance them in the classroom. The investment is working.  Our women and men continued their consecutive streak of achieving national All-Academic Team recognition with a team cumulative GPA of 3.00 (men at 5 years, women at 21 years).  If our athletes are successful, it is reflected on their resumes when they go out and apply for jobs in their career field. 

At Long Beach State, we love to win.  We continue to send high numbers of qualifiers to the NCAA post-season and we have won the Big West Championship four out of the last five years in the men.  Our women are on the rise and are positioning themselves for a run at a conference title.  In 2017, our men and women won in a head to head dual meet with UCLA.  We still have much to accomplish, yet so much to be proud of at this present time. 

Other significant expenses include travel and housing athletes in the dorms when we practice during winter and spring breaks and in the NCAA post-season when school is out.  Equipment is also a major expense as we uniform over 100 members for practice and competition.

Here is where you come in.  To help defray expenses, our team will be kicking off our annual Student-Athlete Phone-A-Thon on September 21st.  With the rising costs of tuition, room & board (almost 50% over the last four years), we project the need to raise over $100,000 in equipment needs and an additional $150,000 this academic year to provide the necessary resources and operational needs to our student-athletes.  A gift from you of $100 or more would help us reach our target in this portion of our overall fundraising campaign. Your commitment and support would truly make a difference in the success of our young student-athletes and our program.

Let me be the first to express our gratitude for your support of our annual Phone-A-Thon. Your gift will help deserving young men & women continue their pursuit of athletic and academic excellence before they move on to make major contributions to society through their chosen profession. Your contributions during our upcoming Phone-A-Thon will go a long way to produce leaders, champions, and scholars.

Please call me at (562) 618-1020 if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Andy Sythe, Head Coach