Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 14 No. 1 | August 2021
inside.hokiesports.com 27 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL DIRECTOR Jamie Little (’89) is the newly-elected Monogram Club Director for Women’s Basketball. She played basketball for VT as a point guard in ’85-89, with a medical redshirt in her senior year. She holds three degrees from VT: a BA in Elementary Education and MA (1992) & PhD (1999) degrees in Instructional Technology. Jamie currently works as an Education Specialist for Radford City Schools, and one day a week works on the VT campus as a Virginia Tech/Radford City Schools Liaison through the VT Center for Educational Networks and Impacts. Jamie says: “I’m so excited to be able to serve our great University and VT sports in this capacity! I loved my time as a Virginia Tech athlete as well as the affiliations I’ve had with VT over the years since. I’m looking forward to connecting with WBB alumni and helping to build the Monogram Club and its network of athletes. Please reach out if I can help you connect with us. Thanks!” Jamie Little-’89 (littlej@vt.edu ). VOLLEYBALL When Meredith Tremel (’94 ) arrived in Blacksburg in August of ’90 to play volleyball for VT and study civil engineering (CE), she had no idea Blacksburg was going to be her forever home. She came to VT due to the strong engineering degrees offered, as well as her love of sports and interest in furthering her volleyball career. She loved every minute of her time with VT athletics and fondly remembers her team, conference travels and hard work that went into playing Division I volleyball. Meredith (Tremel) Jones (’94) says, “Looking back, my teammates were a wonderful group of people who helped me be well rounded, become a strong supporting member of a team, stay competitive and keep me responsible and focused while a student-athlete at VT. ” As her time passed in Blacksburg and Meredith committed to enrolling in a master’s program in CE, she reached out to Blacksburg Parks and Recreation to possibly coach youth volleyball. When Town resources personnel saw her application, they knew of an existing civil engineering internship within the Town of Blacksburg and guided her to pursue that instead. Come to find out, that internship was a three- year experience for Meredith and led her to her first job after graduate school as Town Engineer for Blacksburg. Part of her focus during her 10 years as the Town Engineer was developing recycling initiatives and developing and supporting environmental projects. Also, during this time Meredith met her husband-to-be Steve Jones and they married in 2005. They have twin sons, Cole and Hayden, who were born in 2010 and their commitment to living in the Blacksburg area continues. Meredith no longer works for the Town of Blacksburg but is heavily involved in her engineering career as the Vice President of Eden and Associates —a regional engineering firm where Meredith specializes in Civil Engineering and Land Development. Over recent years, she has been involved in the planning, design, and construction of the extended runway at the VT Montgomery Executive Airport. She also has worked closely with private landowners and local investment companies supporting their plans to develop land in and around the Blacksburg area. Meredith also has taught adjunct courses in the CE department including Sustainable Land Development and Municipal Engineering. She loved the time she had teaching and giving back to the university community as an adjunct professor and says, “I really enjoyed helping students learn about the real world of civil engineering and land development in the most sustainable way.” Meredith loves many things about Blacksburg and the New River Valley. She is delighted to be able to work there and raise her family in this special place! As she looks back on her final year of high school, she sure is happy that she chose VT! The Blacksburg community is lucky to have had Meredith’s arrival in 1990 and still be here over 30 years later contributing positively to sustainable development and a safe and thriving community! Volleyball alumnae athletes can reach out to Meredith at jonesmt@comcast.net. Volleyball alumnae are encouraged to reach out to Michelle (Ames) Hall (’92) , VB Representative and Monogram Club Director, to expand their connections with the team and other VT alumnae, as well as learn more about volleyball news and events (mhall@rcps.org ). LACROSSE On Saturday, June 19, 2021, the girl’s lacrosse team of Broadneck High School (Annapolis MD) celebrated a 12-11 victory over Arundel HighSchool at LoyolaUniversity’s Ridley AthleticComplex inBaltimore. In doing so, they secured the Maryland 4A State Championship Title . As an assistant coach for the Broadneck team, Stephanie Jones (’06) is very used to wearing maroon. A graduate of Broadneck herself, she was a co-captain and co-MVP for the Broadneck Bruins, who won a 4A State Championship under her leadership in 2002. She also received first team All-America accolades in high school. Later, she added some burnt orange to her uniform when she played for the Hokies Lacrosse team from ’02-06. Stephanie scored over 100 goals during her career at VT and was team Captain during both her Junior and Senior seasons. Stephanie said “Being a part of a team– through all the ups and downs, doing it all together with people you love- is one of the best experiences a person can have. I certainly learned that at Virginia Tech playing alongside, what would be, my lifelong friends. That is something I have worked to instill in our team at Broadneck High School. Winning the Maryland 4A State Championship is something we work towards every season, and was an amazing way to end our season, but our program really focuses on the “We > Me” mentality, trusting your teammates and fighting every day for, and with, them.” Jones’ focus on the “ We > Me ” mentality really seems to have paid off. Head Coach Katie Kelly told the Washington Post about her Championship team, “I think they just have moments where they feel each other and they’re super connected,” Kelley said. “Even some of the stuff they do, I’m like, ‘How did they just connect on that?’ And it’s the “connections” that makes being part of a team so special for Jones, at Broadneck, and at VT. For more about VT Lacrosse and the Monogram Club contact Kris Longo (kristin@longocreative.com ). CROSS COUNTRY/TRACK & FIELD The annual Cross-Country Alumni Meet returns after a 1-yr. hiatus! The program looks forward to welcoming back to Blacksburg all Cross Country and Track & Field Alumni-Athletes on the weekend of September 10-11! Alumni-weekend festivities begin Friday evening with races at the VT Buford Meredith Cross Country course. The alumni race will kick things off, followed by the men’s and women’s varsity races. After the meet, all alumni are invited to a BBQ dinner in Rector Fieldhouse for an opportunity to engage with the current coaching staff and athletes. Families are welcome! On Saturday, the Monogram Club will host a CC/T&F reunion tailgate in Lot 1, prior to the VT/Middle Tennessee football game. Football tickets will be available for purchase through the Monogram Club. For more information, contact Brian Walter-’90 (bwalter@vt.edu ), CC/T&F Director of Operations Katie Kennedy-’18 (katiek4@vt.edu ) or visit the Hokie Track Club website (hokietrackclub.com ). FOOTBALL While much of the past year has been anything but normal, that hasn’t kept the VT Football Alumni from getting together… well, via Zoom meetings at least. We were fortunate enough to have several Zoom Happy Hours to keep us connected. The two most recent were Continued on page 28
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