Delta State University

July 1, 2009

Dear Basketball Alumni,

I hope this letter finds everyone well. The month of June has come and gone, our camps are done and again I felt they were very successful. We had 70 kids entering, 3rd thru 6th grades to participate in our Delta State Mini Dribblers Camp. Our Junior-Senior High School Individual Camp that we have restarted after 15 years went from 8 kids last summer to 25 this summer. Team Camp had 15 high schools compete over the weekend. We had a great local turnout with Coach Willie Thomas of West Bolivar winning it again this past Sunday afternoon. I am also thankful for Coach Jason Broom and his Northwest Rankin Team that have been so faithful over the years coming back and supporting his college basketball program. We are going to try and have a Father/Son Camp right before school starts in order to generate more interest in our Basketball Program.

Right now we are focused on adding more to our recruiting class and finishing up our schedule for the upcoming season. I would like to sign a younger center that can score off the block to compliment our 6-9 power forward that we signed in May. We are also looking for a point to replace our senior to be Chad Akins, a preseason All-American player. So if anyone sees another Scott Nagy, David Hannan, Dwaun Warmack, Ramon Gary, Todd Kimble, Joseph Nickels and this list goes on and on, please call me.

I am mighty proud of our guys this past year. We finished the year 21-9 and made the NCAA Tournament for a conference record setting 14th time. Even more amazing, we had 10 players on our team to obtain a 3.0 grade point average or higher which set another conference record that was made by Harding University in 2001, placing 6 students on the Academic All-Conference Team.

We are very excited about the potential of this upcoming year’s team and we want you to be involved. We would like to invite everyone’s family back for our 2nd Annual Basketball Alumni Open House on Saturday, September 19, 2009. Come by the Walter Sillers Coliseum between 11:30-1:30 to see the renovations, meet our team, coaches and enjoy lunch. After the open house, you and your family can enjoy all the Pig Pickin’ festivities that afternoon with the football game to follow that evening. I am also asking everyone that was ever a part of this basketball program to start setting aside $100.00 a year for our program. I would like to have this program/your program self supported. Our goal is to win a National Championship. As we diligently work toward this goal, year in and year out, we want to maintain a college basketball program that we can all be proud of. Thank you for your support. 


Sincerely, 
Jason Conner
Head Coach, Men's Basketball