GW Athletics Hall of Fame Spotlight: Karen Ercole

Arriving in Foggy Bottom in 1991, Karen Ercole's career with GW Athletics had a humble beginning. She started as one of two academic advisors aiding all of the Buff and Blue student-athletes with an office housed in a converted furnace closet in Stuart Hall.

Over the next 24 years, Ercole helped lead a period of tremendous growth for the athletic department in its academic support and career development programming. Along the way, she played a hands-on role in supporting the academic journeys of thousands of Buff and Blue student-athletes.

After a run as an academic advisor that included supporting men's basketball during one of the most successful periods in program history, including working with the 1993 Sweet 16 team that will also be enshrined as a group in this class, Ercole moved into a leadership role overseeing the academic assistance unit and eventually taking on the title of Associate Athletics Director for Educational Support Services and Student-Athlete Development.

On Ercole's watch, GW was able to grow its support system for student-athletes with the creation of a student-athlete development office focusing on career readiness, leadership development and community service initiatives.

Highlights that took development opportunities beyond the classroom included the creation of a leadership academy, an annual fall orientation and a mentorship program. She also served as the department's senior woman administrator and deputy Title IX coordinator.

These days, Ercole still lives locally in Fairfax Station, Va., and continues to help young people as an educational consultant. She will officially be inducted soon into the GW Athletics Hall of Fame, alongside seven other celebrated individuals and one historic team.

Ercole looks back on an accomplished career supporting the Buff and Blue in the second edition of our Hall of Fame Spotlight series.

What does this honor mean to you?
"Honestly, I still can't really believe that I'm being inducted. It was funny because when (Director of Athletics Tanya Vogel) called to tell me I said to her, 'If you could've asked me to list 500 things that you may have called me about, that would not be on the list.' It just never went through my mind.

"In all seriousness, I really do feel as though it's a huge honor. I'm really humbled by it, most especially because I know first-hand what high standards GW has in every aspect of what it does. To be recognized like this as meeting or exceeding those standards is such a compliment. It's nothing that I ever fathomed in all the time that I worked there or since I've left."

Karen Ercole poses with members of the GW Athletics Academic Support Team. — *Ercole poses with members of her academic support team.*

The athletic department and world of college athletics changed so much during your career. What was the best part of working in GW Athletics over that time?

"Talk about changes. Just from a facilities standpoint and the staffing numbers, it's incredible to think about what's happened. Lerner Health and Wellness didn't exist. What's now sorority and fraternity row was a parking lot for the Smith Center. Physically, the campus really changed, and that was in answer to meeting the demands of what the students wanted, what their parents wanted, what GW wanted to be as one of the premier institutions in the country.

"I was really proud of the fact that the athletic department kept pace with that vision. That was to really provide for the students in every facet of their growth. It's such a critical time for them in their lives to provide programming and development in those areas. GW really increased the programming and staffing at the career center, and at the same time, the athletic department did the same thing."

"Back when I started, you think about development of the student-athlete, it was excellence in athletics and academics, but as we continued to grow and the university did, it was so much more than that. That's when we really worked on things like community service programming and leadership programming and career development and the mentoring program. All of those things came out of a need and a desire to really help the student-athlete become a really well-prepared and full person when they left us."

What makes GW student-athletes so special?

"Definitely one thing that always stuck out in my mind is that they know they're coming to GW as student-athletes for more than just an athletic experience and more than just championships. They've been so incredibly successful academically and athletically in high school or prep school or wherever they were, and they come in with the intention that they are going to excel in so many areas, and they want that for themselves.

"What I loved the most about working with them was that amazing desire to be successful in so many different areas and being uncompromising in our expectation that they would meet that. For the most part, it was not too much of a push to get them to think that way because they were uncompromising in what they wanted out of the experience."

Head Academic Coordinator Karen Ercole presents the SAAC Senior Female Athlete Academic Award to softball shortstop Elana Meyers at GWs Senior Honors Luncheon (May 8, 2006). — *Ercole presents softball Hall of Famer Elana Meyers Taylor with the Senior Female Athlete Academic Award.*

It's got to be exciting for you to be inducted the same year as the Sweet 16 team. What are your memories of those guys and that run?

"I laugh because I'm still in touch with a lot of them, and I've been to some of their weddings and things like that. It was the first pretty big group of students that I worked with there. I spent a lot of time with them because I was assigned to men's basketball at the time and traveled with them. What made them really special is that they were just a really fun group of guys who really liked each other.

"We had study sessions everywhere we went. I remember that run to the Sweet 16. When we were leaving from the first-weekend site down in Arizona and heading out west to Seattle. It was just too much of a trip to come all the way home and then go back out, so we left directly from there. I spent hours and hours with them just making lists of what they needed. At that point, a lot of things weren't online, so we had people back at GW to go into their rooms to get extra books that they needed. We were in touch with their professors, and we found a way to make it work.

"I just remember Mike Jarvis saying to them, 'Hey, we're here, but school doesn't stop. We're going to keep doing what got us here.' There was never a day that he said, 'We're not going to worry about school today. Let's focus on basketball.' He really recognized that they were better just doing what they were used to doing and not being in a different kind of mindset.

"Those guys never complained. That's just what we did. They had a lot of fun, but when they got down to business, they were serious about it. It was just really great to work with them. They made me laugh a lot, and they were really respectful of what I was trying to help them do and that made all the difference."

Karen Ercole works with Shawnta Rogers. — *Ercole works with men's basketball Hall of Famer Shawnta Rogers.*

Beyond that, what are some of your other favorite moments?

"It's a slide show in my mind of different events and pictures and people, but there are a couple of things that stand out to me that I think are Only at GW moments.

A number of years ago, we started a leadership day when everyone came back for the fall. I will never forget the first one that we did out at the Mount Vernon mansion. We had all 400 and some student-athletes out there. It took a ton of organization. We had so much help from great coaches and other administrators, but the academic staff essentially organized it and we had divided all the student-athletes into different teams. We didn't know how it was really going to work, how much they were going to buy into it.

"I just remember one moment in between running from one spot to another. It was a beautiful day, and there were still non-GW people visiting Mount Vernon. I just saw dozens and dozens of people stopped and watching our student-athletes. They had bought into it. They were having so much fun in their different groups. There were hundreds of them everywhere.

"To see them in that moment, we were learning about our namesake but also reinforcing our values as GW Athletics. I just thought, 'I don't know if this would've happened any other place.' That was really rewarding and just amazing to me and reminded me of how great our coaches and student-athletes are."

"It's so many little things. Traveling with women's gymnastics one time to their regionals and seeing them just represent GW so well. One other memory that sticks out in my mind is I was working with Shawnta Rogers. Men's basketball had won a huge game vs. Xavier (on Senior Day in February 1999), and he had hit a winning shot that everyone knew he was going to take. He took it and he made it, and we won the conference outright.

"It was a Saturday, and he had a huge, huge paper due that Monday. He and I arranged prior to that to meet afterward, and I remember meeting him on the steps in the lobby and us sitting down and spending about an hour together right after the game. He was still in his uniform just talking through what he had to because he was going to go home and finish the paper.

"There so many amazing student-athletes like that through the years. Like, 'I just hit that huge shot, but I still have business to take care of.' I think of so many of those instances. Megan Hogan, same thing. She had a couple of amazing races that the first thing she did when she finished was come back in to talk through some academic things she had to get through. Most 18- and 19-year-olds would be off celebrating, but they wanted to make sure everything was taken care of. That always really stood out to me."

What did you learn being part of that environment?

"I know that I really grew as a person every day, every month, every year that I was at GW. Because I learned so much from every student, every coach, every administrator. I just built a lot of friendships that lasted a lifetime, and I can't underscore enough that it's a real team effort in the athletic department.

"I really felt like no one succeeded alone, myself most of all. I spent a ton of time with coaches talking through what we were seeing. Together, we worked to solved problems. We helped kids achieve what they wanted and helped some excel and exceed what they thought they could do.

"That's one thing that has always made GW Athletics so incredible – the investment that everyone has in the student-athletes and the fact that they're willing to collaborate and work as a team in the best interest of the student-athletes."

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

GW Athletics Hall of Fame Spotlight: Karen Ercole

Related Videos