Florida Senate - 2009                            (NP)    SR 2744
       
       
       
       By Senator King
       
       
       
       
       8-03341-09                                            20092744__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution honoring and congratulating the
    3         Jacksonville University Dolphins football team on
    4         winning their first Pioneer Football League
    5         championship and participating in the program’s first
    6         postseason bowl game.
    7  
    8         WHEREAS, Jacksonville University started its
    9  intercollegiate football program in 1998 and in its first 10
   10  years of competition the nonscholarship team enjoyed only one
   11  winning season, and
   12         WHEREAS, under the institutional leadership of University
   13  President Dr. Kerry Romesburg and Athletics Director Alan
   14  Verlander, former University of Florida quarterback Kerwin Bell
   15  took over the reins as head coach of the Dolphins program in
   16  2007 and suffered through a 3-8 season before leading the
   17  Dolphins to their most successful season ever in 2008, finishing
   18  with a regular season record of 9-3 overall and 7-1 in the
   19  Pioneer Football League, and
   20         WHEREAS, on the final day of the 2008 regular season,
   21  Jacksonville University hosted the University of Dayton, the
   22  conference’s defending champion, and with an amazing second half
   23  rally defeated the Flyers by a score of 19-14 before the largest
   24  crowd in the school history to win the Pioneer Football League
   25  championship, and
   26         WHEREAS, the Dolphins were led by some outstanding
   27  individual performances in 2008, with four players earning First
   28  Team All-Conference honors, including Pioneer Football League
   29  Freshman Offensive Player of the Year Josh McGregor, four
   30  players earning places on the Second Team, seven players earning
   31  All-Conference honorable mention, and Coach Kerwin Bell being
   32  named Pioneer Football League Coach of the Year, and
   33         WHEREAS, the 2008 conference championship earned the
   34  Dolphins their first postseason bowl game, a matchup with the
   35  State University of New York at Albany, the champion of the
   36  Northeast Conference, in the Gridiron Classic in Albany, New
   37  York, on December 6, 2008, and
   38         WHEREAS, the team’s outstanding season brought tremendous
   39  excitement and pride to the Jacksonville University campus and
   40  the entire city of Jacksonville and further exemplified the
   41  dramatic improvement in all of the university’s athletic
   42  programs, from rowing and soccer to track and field and
   43  volleyball, NOW, THEREFORE,
   44  
   45  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   46  
   47         That the Florida Senate honors and congratulates the
   48  Jacksonville University Dolphins football team for winning their
   49  first-ever Pioneer Football League championship and
   50  participating in the program’s first postseason bowl game, the
   51  Gridiron Classic, and extends its best wishes to the Dolphins
   52  football team and to the entire Jacksonville University
   53  community for continued athletic and academic success.