USC says thank you to athletics department workers with unique end-of-year lunch
The end of a trying year for the University of South Carolina athletics department is nearing its conclusion.
In a school year that saw seasons directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; budgetary cuts and furloughs university-wide; and an athletic department spending deficit that could near $30 million, the school treated its athletic department employees to lunch Monday with a litany of food trucks that parked in front of South Carolina’s Athletics Village.
Staffers were told about the food trucks last week. When they arrived Monday, the bill had been footed.
“We’re still having some Zoom meetings — we’re having some in-person — but we’re getting closer to back to normal,” USC athletic director Ray Tanner told The State on Monday. “... And so this was kind of a special time. The morale has been lifted greatly by just having a lunch where you can see somebody and be outside.”
The idea was originally conceived by Megan Kennington, South Carolina’s assistant AD for event management and internal sport operations, as a way to show an appreciation for the work done by the department this year under less-than-ideal circumstances. It also was an opportunity to bring people together in a way the pandemic has limited since it bore down on the United States last spring.
For Tanner, the 2020-21 academic calendar has been one filled with trials and tribulations. South Carolina mustered the nearly $15 million to buy out former football coach Will Muschamp, while a national search eventually landed Shane Beamer as his replacement.
Tanner also told the board of trustees in September that the school’s athletic revenue could see a projected drop of $58 million in part due to Williams-Brice Stadium being limited to 20% capacity during the 2020 football season, though that final number remains to be tallied.
Budgetary measures and cuts aside, Monday was a chance for co-workers to gather and celebrate. Staffers from Beamer’s contingent were on site. So, too, was head women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley and her cohort, in addition to slews of other varying coaches, athletic department officials and USC workers.
The school expanded to full capacity for last weekend’s home baseball series against Tennessee. And Williams-Brice will be at 100% capacity this fall, USC announced Wednesday.
For the first time in months, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel in a year and time that’s been as difficult as any in Tanner’s nine years as athletic director. On Monday, coaches and administrators could finally feel a semblance of normalcy amid a year that’s been anything but.
“Optimism is abound right now,” Tanner said. “We’re guarded, but we are more optimistic now than we ever have been.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 2:55 PM.
