Wikipedia

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

(Redirected from Wake Forest Demon Deacons women's cross country)

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Wake Forest University, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Logo
UniversityWake Forest University
ConferenceACC
NCAADivision I (FBS)
Athletic directorJohn Currie
LocationWinston-Salem, North Carolina
Varsity teams18
Football stadiumAllegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium
Basketball arenaLawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Baseball stadiumDavid F. Couch Ballpark
Soccer stadiumSpry Soccer Stadium
MascotDemon Deacon
NicknameDemon Deacons
Fight songO Here's to Wake Forest
ColorsOld gold and black[1]
   
Websitegodeacs.com

Wake Forest has won a total of 10 national championships in six different sports; six of these championships have come since 2002. Wake Forest is sometimes referred to as being a part of "Tobacco Road" or "The Big Four", terms that refer to the four North Carolina schools that compete heatedly against each other within the ACC; these include Duke University, North Carolina, and North Carolina State, as well as Wake Forest.

Originally, Wake Forest's athletic teams were known as The Old Gold and Black or the Baptists, due to its association with the Baptist Convention (from which it later separated itself). However, in 1923, after a particularly impressive win against Trinity College (predecessor of Duke University) a newspaper reporter wrote that the Deacons "fought like Demons", giving rise to the current team name, the "Demon Deacons".

The Athletics Director was Ron Wellman, who won multiple Athletic Director of the Year Awards for his work during the 2007–2008 school year.[2] In 2019, Wellman announced his retirement, effective May 1, 2019. On March 2, 2019, Wake Forest named alum John Currie as its new athletics director,[3] and later promoted to vice president in July 2024.[4]

Teams

edit
 
The Atlantic Coast Conference logo in Wake Forest's colors
Men's sports Women's sports
Baseball Basketball
Basketball Cross country
Cross country Field hockey
Football Golf
Golf Soccer
Soccer Tennis
Tennis Track & field†
Track & field† Volleyball
† – Track and field includes both indoor and outdoor.

Football

edit
Main article: Wake Forest Demon Deacons football
 
Demon Deacons players at the 2016 Military Bowl

Wake Forest's football team was ranked in the Top 25 in the nation by the AP Poll during most of the 2006 season. They won the 2006 ACC Atlantic Division Title and the 2006 ACC Conference Championship by defeating the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 9–6 on December 2 in the ACC Championship Game in Jacksonville, Florida. The win sent Wake Forest to the Orange Bowl to play Big East champion Louisville, where they lost to the Cardinals. This made Wake Forest the smallest school to ever compete in the Bowl Championship Series. Of all schools that play Division I FBS football, only Rice and Tulsa have smaller undergraduate enrollments, and Wake has the smallest undergraduate enrollment of any school in the Power Five conferences.

For his part in the record-setting season, coach Jim Grobe was unanimously selected ACC Coach of the Year, and handily won the AP Coach of the Year award several weeks later. Coach Grobe signed a ten-year contract in 2007.

Wake Forest followed its success in 2006 with another excellent year and finished the regular season with a record of 8 wins and 4 losses. During the season, the Demon Deacons were briefly ranked in the Top 25. Their success throughout the year earned Wake Forest an invitation to the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina. Played on December 29 in the Bank of America stadium (home of the Carolina Panthers) the Demon Deacons defeated the Connecticut Huskies 24–10.

Wake Forest plays its home football games at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium (formerly Groves Stadium).

Basketball

edit

Men's basketball

edit
Main article: Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's basketball
 
Wake Forest (in white) v Drake in 2017

Wake Forest is generally regarded as a competitive program in men's basketball, frequently qualifying for the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship (20 times in the school's history). The men's basketball team has made 16 straight postseason appearances (through their NIT appearance in 2006), the longest such streak in the ACC. They reached the Final Four once, in 1962. The school's famous basketball alumni include Billy Packer, a guard on the 1962 Final Four team who became far more famous as a basketball broadcaster; "Muggsy" Bogues, the shortest player ever to play in the NBA; Randolph Childress, for his MVP performance in the 1995 ACC Tournament; Dallas Mavericks star Josh Howard; 2006 NBA Rookie of the Year Award winner and Phoenix Suns star Chris Paul; and two-time league MVP, three-time NBA Finals MVP and five-time NBA Champion, San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan.[5]

Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum is the home venue for the Demon Deacons basketball team. Skip Prosser, Wake Forest University's men's basketball coach since 2001, died in Winston-Salem on July 26, 2007. One of Prosser's assistant coaches, Dino Gaudio, was named to replace him. After the firing of Dino Guadio at the end of the 2010 season, Wake Forest hired Jeff Bzdelik as their head basketball coach. Jeff Bzdelik resigned as head basketball coach on March 20, 2014. Steve Forbes is now the head coach of Wake Forest.[6]

Women's basketball

edit
Main article: Wake Forest Demon Deacons women's basketball

The women's team have played since 1971, and they have been to the NCAA Tournament just twice, in 1988 and 2021. They have reached the ACC Tournament semifinals in 1986, 1988, and 2012.

Women's field hockey

edit

Recent athletic honors include three consecutive NCAA Field Hockey national championships in 2002, 2003, and 2004 under Head Coach Jennifer Averill. In 2005, the Deacs were defeated in the semifinal round by Duke University, in the 2006 championship game by the University of Maryland, and in the 2018 semifinal round by North Carolina. The Deacs have contended for the National Championship 18 times, the most recent in 2022. Other championships include the 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2014 ACC Tournament championships.

Golf

edit
 
Arnold Palmer

The men's golf team has had several successful years, winning national championships in 1974, 1975, and 1986.[7] The team also finished as national runner-ups on four other occasions in 1969, 1970, 1987, 1997. Three Demon Deacons have won the individual national title: Curtis Strange in 1974, Jay Haas in 1975, and Gary Hallberg in 1979. Since the NCAA went to pre-national championship regional competitions in 1989, Wake Forest has won three regionals: 2005 (East), 2006 (East), and 2008 (Central).[8]

They have won 20 conference championships:

The women's golf team has had some success as well. They won 6 ACC team championships in 1986, 1994, 1995, 2009, 2010, and 2022. They have also won 7 ACC individual championships in 1986, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2009, 2010, and 2011. In the NCAA regionals, they had won their region twice, 1994 (East) and 1995 (East). Jennifer Kupcho won the individual national title in 2018 and the Augusta National Women's Amateur in 2019.[11] Wake Forest advanced to the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship six straight years, 2018–2024 (no championship held in 2020 due to COVID-19), finishing as runner-up to Duke in 2018, then winning their first national title in 2023, defeating the University of Southern California in the NCAA Championship match play finals.[12]

Several well-known players include Arnold Palmer, Lanny Wadkins, Jay Haas, Billy Andrade, Bill Haas, Curtis Strange, Robert Wrenn, Scott Hoch, Webb Simpson, Will Zalatoris, and Grayson Murray.

Soccer

edit
Main articles: Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's soccer and Wake Forest Demon Deacons women's soccer

Wake Forest is a consistent national title contender in men's soccer. In recent years several players from the program have played professionally in Major League Soccer, including Brian Carroll, Will Hesmer, Brian Edwards, Michael Lahoud, Michael Parkhurst, James Riley, Scott Sealy, Sam Cronin, and Wells Thompson. In 2006 the team advanced to the final four of the NCAA tournament where they were defeated in a penalty kick shootout by the University of California, Santa Barbara. They captured the 2007 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship defeating Ohio State.

Tennis

edit
 
Noah Rubin

Noah Rubin played for Wake Forest; he had won the 2014 boys singles championship at Wimbledon, and the US 2014 boys' national championships in singles and doubles. In 2014-15 for Wake Forest he was an All-American and the runner-up in the 2015 NCAA singles championship.

The Wake Forest Men's Tennis team won the NCAA Division I Team National Championship in 2018, beating runner-up Ohio State 4-2 at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex. That Demon Deacons team was led by freshman Bar Botzer, who clinched the National Championship. Wake also won the ITA Division I National Men's Team Indoor Tennis Championship in 2018.

Women's volleyball

edit

Women's volleyball is a varsity sport at Wake Forest.[13][14][15] The team is part of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).[16] In March 2019 head volleyball coach Bill Ferguson was indicted and charged with racketeering as part of the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal, in which he is accused of accepting $100,000 to help a student get into Wake Forest illegally as a purported volleyball recruit.[17] The university placed Ferguson on administrative leave.[18] He later resign in August 2019.[19]

Baseball

edit
Main article: Wake Forest Demon Deacons baseball

Wake Forest won the 1955 College World Series in baseball. In 2023, the Deacons reached No. 1 in the Top 25 national rankings and won the ACC regular-season title.

Championships

edit

NCAA team championships

edit

Wake Forest has won 10 NCAA team national championships.[20]

 
"Rolling the Quad" is a WFU tradition that is done after major victories in athletic competition

NCAA individual championships

edit

ACC Athlete of the Year

edit

Male Athlete of the Year

edit
Year Athlete Sport
1955 Dickie Hemric basketball
1962 Len Chappell basketball
1995 Randolph Childress basketball
1997 Tim Duncan basketball

Female Athlete of the Year

edit
Year Athlete Sport
2002 Bea Bielik tennis
2005 Kelly Dostal Field Hockey

Screamin' Demons

edit

Student attendance of Wake Forest football and basketball games was formerly high, in part due to the program known as "Screamin' Demons". At the beginning of each respective athletic season students on the Reynolda Campus could sign up for the program whereby they pay $15 for each season; in addition to the slightly better seats than the other students in football (not enforced) and seats behind the rim in basketball, this gets students a football shirt in the fall and a tie-dye T-shirt in the spring along with a card that serves as an automatic pass to the sporting events. They lose this privilege if they miss two of the games. Most students sign up because ticket distribution to non-Screamin' Demons is unreliable. Through the planning of Sports Marketing and the Screamin' Demons program, basketball game seats in the students section are difficult to attain without participating in the Screamin' Demons program. In 2011, sports marketing lowered the student allotment, and very few students currently attend.

Now, the Screaming Deacons app operates as a way for students to receive their free tickets to Wake Forest sporting events, with students earning rewards points for attendance at games. These points can be exchanged for prizes.[22]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Logos & Branding – Wake Forest University". November 24, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  2. ^ "Ron Wellman Earns Second AD of the Year Award". Cstv.com.
  3. ^ "After messy exit at Tennessee, John Currie gets a fresh start at Wake Forest". www.si.com. March 2, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  4. ^ Pantages, Will (June 27, 2024). "Wake Forest, John Currie Ink Long-Term Contract Extension". Wake Forest University Athletics. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  5. ^ "Deacs in the NBA". godeacs.com. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  6. ^ "Jeff Bzdelik out at Wake Forest". CBSSports.com.
  7. ^ "Wake Forest's NCAA Championship Teams" (PDF). Grfx.cstv.com. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  8. ^ "Wake Forest Demon Deacons – NCAA Regional History" (PDF). Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  9. ^ "Wake Forest wins first women's golf title with 3-1 win over Southern California". AP NEWS. May 25, 2023. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
  10. ^ "Wake Forest Demon Deacons – ACC Championship History" (PDF). Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  11. ^ "World Amateur Golf Ranking Player Profile". World Amateur Golf Ranking. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  12. ^ "Wake Forest wins first women's golf title with 3-1 win over Southern California". Associated Press News. May 25, 2023. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
  13. ^ Geiger, Will; Aubrey, V.; Mass, Aaron (March 2011). Wake Forest University 2012: Off the Record. ISBN 9781427496348.
  14. ^ Flair, Ric; Flair, Charlotte; Shields, Brian (September 19, 2017). Second Nature: The Legacy of Ric Flair and the Rise of Charlotte. ISBN 9781250120571.
  15. ^ The College Board College Handbook. 2003. ISBN 9780874476804.
  16. ^ "SportsRecruits | Wake Forest University (North Carolina) Women's Volleyball Recruiting & Scholarship Information".
  17. ^ "Wake Forest coach accused of accepting six-figure bribe to help student get into the university | | journalnow.com".
  18. ^ "Wake Forest coach accused of accepting six-figure bribe to help student get into the university | | journalnow.com".
  19. ^ Murphy, Kate (August 23, 2019). "Wake Forest volleyball coach charged in national college admissions scandal resigns". Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  20. ^ "Championships Summary Through June 28, 2018" (PDF). NCAA. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  21. ^ Communications, Wake Forest Athletic (May 21, 2018). "Jennifer Kupcho Wins NCAA Championship". godeacs.com. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  22. ^ "Screaming Deacon Rewards - FAQs". Screaming Deacon Rewards. Wake Forest. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
edit
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wake Forest University athletics.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wake_Forest_Demon_Deacons&oldid=1257467871"