Many Thanks This Holiday Season

With the Holiday season upon us, I'm taking a moment to reach out to all of our constituencies who touch, shape, and form, in so many ways, Central Michigan Athletics.

Without you, our friends and neighbors, our campus community and the greater Mount Pleasant community, we would not be able to provide an outstanding experience for our student-athletes and CMU students who have once again supported us tremendously in 2024-25.

It is you, our partners in the community, that strengthen the bond between our institution and the place we call home.

We thank our longtime partner, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, and we look forward to the continued collaboration and cooperation as we seek to improve and enhance the quality of life of citizens in the region with educational initiatives and cultural events.

We thank all our student-athletes, coaches and staff who have already made the first four months of the 2025-26 season memorable, with our football team, under first-year coach Matt Drinkall, headed to the GameAbove Sports Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit on Dec. 26. We hope you can join us to watch our Chippewas play in their first bowl game since 2021 as they take on Northwestern of the Big Ten with a 1 p.m. kickoff. If you can't make it to the game, it will be carried live by ESPN.

Ahead of the GameAbove Sports Bowl, our CMU wrestling team welcomes Cal State Bakersfield and American on Sunday, Dec. 21 for the annual Chippewa Challenge, a tribute to legendary CMU coach Tom Borrelli, who retired after the 2023-24 season. CSU Bakersfield and American are coached by Borrelli protégés Luke Smith and Jason Borrelli, respectively. It's a big day for CMU wrestling as we celebrate Alumni Day in conjunction with the dual meet. We hope to see you at McGuirk Arena on Sunday.

We look ahead with our men's and women's basketball teams as they open Mid-American Conference play. The Chippewa women entertain Northern Illinois on Dec. 20 and then welcome Ohio for a New Year's Eve matinee, while the CMU men entertain Ohio on Dec. 30. The CMU women, under third-year coach Kristin Haynie, have enjoyed a solid Pre-MAC campaign with wins over the likes of Purdue and Butler, while the Chippewa men continue to make strides under first-year coach Andy Bronkema.

As we enter the new year, we look ahead to our gymnastics and track & field seasons. Coach Christine MacDonald's gymnastics squad opens on the road on Jan. 9 and then opens defense of its MAC championship against rival Western Michigan in its home opener on Jan. 18; our track & field team hosts its annual Jack Skoog Open at the Skoog Indoor Track on Jan. 16.

We're thankful for a new addition to the ever-growing Chippewa Family, Madison Skye Drinkall, the daughter of coach Drinkall and his wife Kim, born on Oct. 30 and who shares a birthday with one of the giants in CMU Athletics lore, the late Roy Kramer, who sadly passed away in early December. We honor Mr. Kramer and send our deepest condolences to his family.

We thank all on our campus and in the great Mount Pleasant community for your support in the Fired Up Food Drive, a competition between CMU Athletics and the athletic departments at Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan universities, and which draws participation from all of our MAC brethren.

We're thankful, as always, for the support that we receive from the university community overall as we strive in partnership toward the ultimate goal, which is to make the pursuit of a well-rounded education a fulfilling experience for all on our campus. Last week, two dozen student-athletes received a bachelor's degree or an advanced degree as we anticipate our 54th consecutive semester with a cumulative grade point average of 3.00 or better.

In addition, we're thankful for the entire student body, our CMU faculty and staff, and the mid-Michigan community as a whole for their support at our athletic events, both at home and away. Particularly heartening was the enthusiastic support that we have seen at Kelly/Shorts Stadium throughout the fall for our home football games, including the 28,605 – the ninth-largest crowd ever to watch a CMU game in the 53-year history of the stadium – when we hosted Eastern Michigan on Sept. 27.

We're thankful to all our supporters and we wish Happy Holidays to those near and far who continue to support our three pillars: Student-athlete experience, exceptional fan experience, and performance leaders and we build those three pillars on a foundation of rigor, relevance and excellence. Also join me in celebrating all that was accomplished with the help of our supporters by CMU Athletics in 2025 and all that is to come in 2026.

Central Michigan University Athletics

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