
From the Quad
6/12/2023 3:55:00 PM | General
Presented by Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist
Good Afternoon Demon Deacon Nation,
OMAHA DEACS! What an incredible 48 hours for our baseball student-athletes, coaches, staff and Wake Forest fans everywhere as Coach Tom Walter's ballclub blasted the Alabama Crimson Tide inside David F. Couch Ballpark on Sunday to advance to our first Men's College World Series since the Deacs brought home the NCAA title in 1955! Another record crowd was on hand inside David F. Couch Ballpark for the lifetime memory of our players dogpiling, fireworks going off atop the scoreboard and later an on-field celebration of players, families, baseball alumni and fans.
Coach Walter has built one of the best team–first cultures I have ever witnessed, which is buoyed by incredible performances like third baseman Brock Wilken setting the all-time home run record for the Atlantic Coast Conference with his three-dinger outburst on Sunday!
The Men's College World Series is an iconic festival as fans of all eight participating schools and baseball enthusiasts from around the world flow in-and-out of Omaha for the duration of the 10-day event. We expect to see thousands of Demon Deacons fans there so even if you can only get there for one or two games, hit up your buddies and make it happen!
The Deacs will fly by charter on Wednesday to the Cornhusker state (buy your Omaha MCWS gear here!) and we're slated to begin action on Friday or Saturday against either Texas or Stanford on ESPN! Complete game times and schedule will be released this evening. With that, the complete bracket can be viewed here.
Because each school is only allotted a small number of tickets, the easiest way for Deacon fans to get tickets is by using the Men's College World Series website, where you can select the specific game(s) in which Wake Forest is competing.
All Deacon Nation is invited to DJ's Dugout to kickoff the Men's College World Series three hours before our first pitch of Game 1! Register now for this DEACTOWN Omaha Kickoff event here! Additionally, family, friends and fans are invited to gather at Hilton Omaha to send off the team to Charles Schwab Field prior to each Wake Forest game. Stay tuned to @WakeBaseball social media channels and your email inboxes as we will send out updated times for these team send off events.
If the Deacs do not play on Friday when two games will take place at Charles Schwab Field Omaha, join our fan tailgate at Blur inside the Hilton Omaha, which will serve as the DEACTOWN pregame home base throughout the weekend and next week during Bracket Play. Get discounted tickets exclusively for Wake Forest fans to enjoy this premium tailgate experience each day of the Men's College World Series. For planning and capacity purposes, buy your tailgate tickets now while we have spots available.
A complete schedule for the entire College World Series can be viewed here and all the Wake Forest fan information is centrally located on our postseason central webpage! When planning your trip, check out our travel guide for a list of places to book for your stay!
While this memorable postseason run continues, we closed the book on our home season inside The Couch where we hosted program-record 65,094 fans and had four sellouts, including capacity crowds throughout the entire Regional & Super Regional. Please join me in thanking our hard-working staff members in event and facility operations, fan experience, communications, creative, Rhino Sports & Entertainment Services, ASM Wake Forest, Spectra, Budd Services, SME, Winston-Salem Police, Fire & EMS, Forsyth County Sheriff's Department and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Additionally there are many others who helped deliver the Best Fan Experience in North Carolina all season long!
Specifically this past weekend, between the area high school graduations inside Joel Coliseum and at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex, along with the Super Regionals inside Couch Ballpark and our football camps at Truist Field, there were 60,000 attendees amongst these events over the course of the weekend. Additionally, many of these individuals and families attended multiple events at the same time.
It was truly a special weekend for our entire greater Winston-Salem community.
Women's Golf Recognized at White House on NCAA National Champions Day
Question: If you are the AD at Wake Forest, what do you do at 7 a.m. the morning after winning a super regional and advancing to the Men's College World Series?
Answer: You fly to Washington D.C. with WGCA National Coach of the Year Kim Lewellen for our national champion women's golf team to be honored at the White House on NCAA National Champions day.
The Wake Forest delegation accompanying Coach Lewellen and Lyons Family Associate Head Coach Ryan Potter included President Susan R. Wente, Ph.D., Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame member Dianne Dailey, and other very special Demon Deacon guests. We appreciate Don Flow, Marie Arcuri and Flow Automotive providing first class transport from Smith-Reynolds Airport to our nation's capital and back home!
Luke Tewalt Garners All-American Accolades at NCAA Championships
Behind a stellar 57.13 400-meter close, junior Luke Tewalt earned his first All-America honor as he placed fourth (!) in the men's 5000m final last Friday at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Austin, Texas. Not to be forgotten in his final race as a Demon Deacon, graduate student Zach Facioni was named an Honorable Mention All-American after finishing 21st in the event. These two dynamic distance runners are the only Wake Foresters to earn All-American honors in the 5,000m run in program history. Of note, Zach became just the fifth Demon Deacon to earn All-America honors in back-to-back seasons.
Pair of Demon Deacons, Including ACC Champ Michael Brennan, Set to Compete at 123rd U.S. Open
Wake Forest junior men's golfer Michael Brennan, who became the 23rd Demon Deacon to win an ACC individual title, is set to play at LA Country Club this weekend in the 123rd U.S. Open after qualifying by shooting 3-under-par over two rounds at the Woodmont C.C. in Rockville, Md. two weeks ago. He will join Major Champion contender Cameron Young as the two Wake Foresters to compete in the historic, annual event. The action in the U.S. Opens begins tomorrow. Click here for the pairings and tee times.
Meanwhile on the world stage, three Demon Deacons competed at the Arnold Palmer Cup this past weekend where Team USA, led by two-time ACC Player of the Year Rachel Kuehn and Emilia Migliaccio, helped defeat Team International in this exciting event. Emilia competed against her teammate, Lauren Walsh, in singles play and our Deacs shined overall with great performances.
Not to be outdone, Demon Deacons alum Siyun Liu captured #EpsonTour Championship!
Removal of Vacant Deacon Boulevard and Baity Street Buildings In Progress
Fans attending the NCAA Super Regional at Couch Ballpark last weekend may have noticed the big D.H. Griffin excavator staging to begin demolition on the empty buildings on Baity Street and Deacon Boulevard. These structures have been vacant for many years and are in various states of disrepair, so removing them will both improve safety as well as improve the functionality for our gameday operations for home games this fall at Truist Field as we continue to deliver the Best Fan Experience in North Carolina.
But don't worry - the Last Resort bar and Wake Forest's Nanotechnology building will remain in place!
Under strong leadership from President Susan R. Wente, Ph.D. and the University Space Planning Group, Wake Forest continues to strategically plan how we can best leverage our real estate assets for the long term benefit of the University and Winston-Salem community.
Mark Your Calendars! Less Than 150 Days Until Opening Night at LJVM Coliseum
Following the on-field celebration yesterday, I hustled over to campus for a 4 p.m. orientation session with newly arrived student-athletes and as our Demon Deacons return to campus for summer school and are in the midst of offseason workouts. There's less than 150 days until Opening Night as the Deacs will begin their seasons at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Monday, November 6. Entering his fourth season in DEACTOWN, Steve Forbes and an exciting new roster will start their season against in-state foe, Elon. Meanwhile, the second season of the Gebbia era with a top-25 recruiting class the Deacs will begin against Wofford. Game times and broadcast information will be announced at a later date.
Make your season ticket deposits today, starting at just $25 for women's basketball and $50 for men's basketball. Season tickets for both teams are scheduled to go on sale on June 20. Along with your purchase of a women's basketball season ticket package this season, there are many added benefits exclusive only to those who buy season tickets. Additionally, Wake Forest men's basketball will be starting season ticket sales in the summer, which means seat selection will take place from June 20-30! Season ticket holders or deposit purchasers have automatically been opted in to the seat selection process.
For questions or assistance, please contact the Wake Forest Ticket Office at 336-758-3322 ext. 1 or tix@wfu.edu. Regular office hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
ACC Tabs Carson to Bolster Women's Basketball
Congratulations to ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips on hiring Jackie Carson as Senior Associate Commissioner for Women's Basketball! Carson brings tremendous experience as a head coach, student-athlete and a wealth of administrative experience, currently serving as one of two coaches on the NCAA Women's Basketball Oversight Committee (WBOC) and as a member of the WBCA Board of Directors. She will begin her tenure with the ACC on July 5 and we look forward to her coming to Winston-Salem to meet with Coach Megan Gebbia, our student-athletes and our staff!
From the Quad Big 3
Finally, here are today's Big 3 ways to help the Deacs:
Finally, as always, please continue to send your thoughts, ideas and suggestions to me at wfuad@wfu.edu.
Go Deacs!

John Currie
Director of Athletics
Good Afternoon Demon Deacon Nation,
OMAHA DEACS! What an incredible 48 hours for our baseball student-athletes, coaches, staff and Wake Forest fans everywhere as Coach Tom Walter's ballclub blasted the Alabama Crimson Tide inside David F. Couch Ballpark on Sunday to advance to our first Men's College World Series since the Deacs brought home the NCAA title in 1955! Another record crowd was on hand inside David F. Couch Ballpark for the lifetime memory of our players dogpiling, fireworks going off atop the scoreboard and later an on-field celebration of players, families, baseball alumni and fans.
Coach Walter has built one of the best team–first cultures I have ever witnessed, which is buoyed by incredible performances like third baseman Brock Wilken setting the all-time home run record for the Atlantic Coast Conference with his three-dinger outburst on Sunday!
The Men's College World Series is an iconic festival as fans of all eight participating schools and baseball enthusiasts from around the world flow in-and-out of Omaha for the duration of the 10-day event. We expect to see thousands of Demon Deacons fans there so even if you can only get there for one or two games, hit up your buddies and make it happen!
The Deacs will fly by charter on Wednesday to the Cornhusker state (buy your Omaha MCWS gear here!) and we're slated to begin action on Friday or Saturday against either Texas or Stanford on ESPN! Complete game times and schedule will be released this evening. With that, the complete bracket can be viewed here.
Because each school is only allotted a small number of tickets, the easiest way for Deacon fans to get tickets is by using the Men's College World Series website, where you can select the specific game(s) in which Wake Forest is competing.
All Deacon Nation is invited to DJ's Dugout to kickoff the Men's College World Series three hours before our first pitch of Game 1! Register now for this DEACTOWN Omaha Kickoff event here! Additionally, family, friends and fans are invited to gather at Hilton Omaha to send off the team to Charles Schwab Field prior to each Wake Forest game. Stay tuned to @WakeBaseball social media channels and your email inboxes as we will send out updated times for these team send off events.
If the Deacs do not play on Friday when two games will take place at Charles Schwab Field Omaha, join our fan tailgate at Blur inside the Hilton Omaha, which will serve as the DEACTOWN pregame home base throughout the weekend and next week during Bracket Play. Get discounted tickets exclusively for Wake Forest fans to enjoy this premium tailgate experience each day of the Men's College World Series. For planning and capacity purposes, buy your tailgate tickets now while we have spots available.
A complete schedule for the entire College World Series can be viewed here and all the Wake Forest fan information is centrally located on our postseason central webpage! When planning your trip, check out our travel guide for a list of places to book for your stay!
While this memorable postseason run continues, we closed the book on our home season inside The Couch where we hosted program-record 65,094 fans and had four sellouts, including capacity crowds throughout the entire Regional & Super Regional. Please join me in thanking our hard-working staff members in event and facility operations, fan experience, communications, creative, Rhino Sports & Entertainment Services, ASM Wake Forest, Spectra, Budd Services, SME, Winston-Salem Police, Fire & EMS, Forsyth County Sheriff's Department and the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Additionally there are many others who helped deliver the Best Fan Experience in North Carolina all season long!
Specifically this past weekend, between the area high school graduations inside Joel Coliseum and at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex, along with the Super Regionals inside Couch Ballpark and our football camps at Truist Field, there were 60,000 attendees amongst these events over the course of the weekend. Additionally, many of these individuals and families attended multiple events at the same time.
It was truly a special weekend for our entire greater Winston-Salem community.
Women's Golf Recognized at White House on NCAA National Champions Day
Question: If you are the AD at Wake Forest, what do you do at 7 a.m. the morning after winning a super regional and advancing to the Men's College World Series?
Answer: You fly to Washington D.C. with WGCA National Coach of the Year Kim Lewellen for our national champion women's golf team to be honored at the White House on NCAA National Champions day.
The Wake Forest delegation accompanying Coach Lewellen and Lyons Family Associate Head Coach Ryan Potter included President Susan R. Wente, Ph.D., Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame member Dianne Dailey, and other very special Demon Deacon guests. We appreciate Don Flow, Marie Arcuri and Flow Automotive providing first class transport from Smith-Reynolds Airport to our nation's capital and back home!
Luke Tewalt Garners All-American Accolades at NCAA Championships
Behind a stellar 57.13 400-meter close, junior Luke Tewalt earned his first All-America honor as he placed fourth (!) in the men's 5000m final last Friday at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Austin, Texas. Not to be forgotten in his final race as a Demon Deacon, graduate student Zach Facioni was named an Honorable Mention All-American after finishing 21st in the event. These two dynamic distance runners are the only Wake Foresters to earn All-American honors in the 5,000m run in program history. Of note, Zach became just the fifth Demon Deacon to earn All-America honors in back-to-back seasons.
Pair of Demon Deacons, Including ACC Champ Michael Brennan, Set to Compete at 123rd U.S. Open
Wake Forest junior men's golfer Michael Brennan, who became the 23rd Demon Deacon to win an ACC individual title, is set to play at LA Country Club this weekend in the 123rd U.S. Open after qualifying by shooting 3-under-par over two rounds at the Woodmont C.C. in Rockville, Md. two weeks ago. He will join Major Champion contender Cameron Young as the two Wake Foresters to compete in the historic, annual event. The action in the U.S. Opens begins tomorrow. Click here for the pairings and tee times.
Meanwhile on the world stage, three Demon Deacons competed at the Arnold Palmer Cup this past weekend where Team USA, led by two-time ACC Player of the Year Rachel Kuehn and Emilia Migliaccio, helped defeat Team International in this exciting event. Emilia competed against her teammate, Lauren Walsh, in singles play and our Deacs shined overall with great performances.
Not to be outdone, Demon Deacons alum Siyun Liu captured #EpsonTour Championship!
Removal of Vacant Deacon Boulevard and Baity Street Buildings In Progress
Fans attending the NCAA Super Regional at Couch Ballpark last weekend may have noticed the big D.H. Griffin excavator staging to begin demolition on the empty buildings on Baity Street and Deacon Boulevard. These structures have been vacant for many years and are in various states of disrepair, so removing them will both improve safety as well as improve the functionality for our gameday operations for home games this fall at Truist Field as we continue to deliver the Best Fan Experience in North Carolina.
But don't worry - the Last Resort bar and Wake Forest's Nanotechnology building will remain in place!
Under strong leadership from President Susan R. Wente, Ph.D. and the University Space Planning Group, Wake Forest continues to strategically plan how we can best leverage our real estate assets for the long term benefit of the University and Winston-Salem community.
Mark Your Calendars! Less Than 150 Days Until Opening Night at LJVM Coliseum
Following the on-field celebration yesterday, I hustled over to campus for a 4 p.m. orientation session with newly arrived student-athletes and as our Demon Deacons return to campus for summer school and are in the midst of offseason workouts. There's less than 150 days until Opening Night as the Deacs will begin their seasons at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Monday, November 6. Entering his fourth season in DEACTOWN, Steve Forbes and an exciting new roster will start their season against in-state foe, Elon. Meanwhile, the second season of the Gebbia era with a top-25 recruiting class the Deacs will begin against Wofford. Game times and broadcast information will be announced at a later date.
Make your season ticket deposits today, starting at just $25 for women's basketball and $50 for men's basketball. Season tickets for both teams are scheduled to go on sale on June 20. Along with your purchase of a women's basketball season ticket package this season, there are many added benefits exclusive only to those who buy season tickets. Additionally, Wake Forest men's basketball will be starting season ticket sales in the summer, which means seat selection will take place from June 20-30! Season ticket holders or deposit purchasers have automatically been opted in to the seat selection process.
For questions or assistance, please contact the Wake Forest Ticket Office at 336-758-3322 ext. 1 or tix@wfu.edu. Regular office hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
ACC Tabs Carson to Bolster Women's Basketball
Congratulations to ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips on hiring Jackie Carson as Senior Associate Commissioner for Women's Basketball! Carson brings tremendous experience as a head coach, student-athlete and a wealth of administrative experience, currently serving as one of two coaches on the NCAA Women's Basketball Oversight Committee (WBOC) and as a member of the WBCA Board of Directors. She will begin her tenure with the ACC on July 5 and we look forward to her coming to Winston-Salem to meet with Coach Megan Gebbia, our student-athletes and our staff!
From the Quad Big 3
Finally, here are today's Big 3 ways to help the Deacs:
- Mark your calendars for all the matches as the 2023 Wake Forest volleyball schedule has been released! In 2022, Coach Randi Smart led the Deacs to a 17-14 overall record, marking the first time since 2001 that the program produced back-to-back winning seasons. Join us in Varsity Arena as another fun run to the postseason awaits!
- If you enjoyed the sold-out Winston-Salem regional and super regional baseball action, go ahead and make your $50 deposit now for 2024 season tickets, which are not only a great value but also boosts your priority for future Couch Ballpark postseason access!
- Remember the 'One More Rule' and get your tickets for Opening Night at Truist Field, which is slated to kickoff on Thursday, Aug. 31 at 7 p.m., or for Week 2 (Saturday, Sept. 9) when we welcome the SEC's Vanderbilt Commodores for an early start at 11 a.m. for Unrivaled Weekend, leading off a four-game live slate that day on ACCN. The most economical way to secure your seats is through season tickets - which just shot past last season's purchase total! For questions or assistance, please contact the Wake Forest Ticket Office at 336-758-3322 ext. 1 or tix@wfu.edu. Regular office hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Finally, as always, please continue to send your thoughts, ideas and suggestions to me at wfuad@wfu.edu.
Go Deacs!

John Currie
Director of Athletics
Players Mentioned
Wake Forest Football Head Coach Jake Dickert Press Conference (Week 5)
Monday, September 22
Football Media Availability (9/18/25)
Thursday, September 18
Matt Barrie SportsCenter at Wake Forest with Demond Claiborne
Wednesday, September 10
Matt Barrie SportsCenter on Wake Forest Campus (Arnold Palmer Complex)
Wednesday, September 10