Katy Lonergan is the Associate Athletics Director for Strategic and Football Communications at Notre Dame. She is joining Dick Corbett Head Coach Marcus Freeman as he travels around different parts of the country visiting with Notre Dame Alumni Clubs, representing Notre Dame Football at various fundraising events. For Day 1 of the blog, click here!
Wednesday, May 3
11:45 a.m.
It was an absolutely beautiful day in Columbia, South Carolina so we officially started the day by walking to lunch downtown, eventually settling on a Mexican restaurant called Cantina 76. The food was delicious, but the opportunity to sit outside for a meal was the best part, as South Bend spring has apparently decided to delay its official arrival this year.
Next on the schedule was an opportunity for some professional development, but first let me provide some context: Coach Freeman, as many of you are aware, is an avid supporter of the other athletics teams across campus, in particular women’s basketball and head coach Niele Ivey. He and his family get out to as many ND women’s basketball games as possible and helping him keep up with the various scores and standings of Niele’s team and the other Irish programs as their seasons unfold is one the many parts of my job that is a lot of fun to take part in. While Coach Freeman is certainly interested in how all of our ND teams are doing, he truly has taken a special interest in the women’s basketball team. He takes pride in knowing all of the players’ names and keeping up with how they are each doing on the court.
Due to his interest in women’s basketball and with us being in Columbia, Coach Freeman took the time to stop in and visit two-time National Champion women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley.
A little side note: If you listen to Coach Freeman speak, you certainly have heard the term ‘the bumpy road to better’ and that is definitely the literal path we took to meeting up with Coach Staley! Swayed by the beautiful weather, we decided we would walk to see her, only we did not yet know exactly where we would be meeting her. Needless to say, our first guess was wrong and maybe even our second guess! But after about an hour of walking the enormous University of South Carolina campus, we made our way to Coach Staley’s office!
Coach Freeman enjoyed getting to sit down and connect with Coach Staley on a number of topics, which not surprisingly included championship culture, NIL and the transfer portal.
4:30 p.m.
It was time to depart Columbia and make our next stop, Chapel Hill, North Carolina for a visit with the Eastern North Carolina Alumni Club.
6:00 p.m.
The ENC Alumni Club hosted us at the University of North Carolina’s on-campus hotel, The Carolina Inn. Coach Freeman again began the event by hosting a VIP meet and greet, signing memorabilia and taking photos.
We sat down for dinner around 7 p.m., and Coach Freeman and Joanna were thrilled to have a special guest in Notre Dame alum and current UNC athletics director, Bubba Cunningham and his wife, Tina, at their table. Dolly Duffy again led an entertaining fireside chat with Coach Freeman and the audience wrapped up the session getting to ask their own questions. In case you are keeping score at home, the top three questions in Chapel Hill were NIL, transfer portal and … what will Notre Dame’s 2023 offense look like???
The event was hosted by Dr. Lynn Damitz, who has organized the club’s ND Celebration for 14-straight years. A 1989 Notre Dame graduate, Lynn really knows how to throw an event! She and her host committee gifted our travel party with several tasty treats, most with a local Carolina flavor.
9:00 p.m.
It was time to sprint back to the airport to catch a flight to our next destination, Charleston, South Carolina. While the flight was a smooth 45 minutes, a quick check with Coach Freeman’s Apple Watch showed he had taken roughly 25,000 steps on the day (10,000 of which I can verify came by way of guessing where we might find Coach Staley’s office!).
Thursday, May 4
10 a.m.
Being on the road does not stop some regular business from taking place, so the first task of the day came in the form of Coach Freeman sitting down to record a podcast with the team reporter for the Saints. They wanted to get his perspective on their new second round draft pick, Isaiah Foskey. He enjoyed sharing with Saints fans exactly what they will see from Notre Dame’s all-time sack leader and he was also able to throw in some talk about free agent signee, kicker Blake Grupe.
12 p.m.
For lunch, we had a special stop in mind as Dr. Mark and Lisa Hartman, parents of quarterback Sam Hartman, hosted us for lunch at their new home in nearby Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. An added bonus was Sam being able to join us as he had arrived home earlier in the day upon completing his first semester as a Notre Dame graduate student.
Lisa prepared an amazing kale salad – Sam’s favorite – and we got to hear stories about Sam growing up. While the family is new to the area, Sam has already established his favorite spot out back where he spends the majority of his time when he is home. He and Coach Freeman led the group out to the Hartman’s dock and he took to his favorite pastime – fishing.
2:30 p.m.
Our afternoon consisted of taking the time to walk around downtown Charleston. These trips are pretty busy, so to have some down time and be able to explore Charleston for a couple of hours was nice.
6:00 p.m.
Our third and final alumni club event of the week was with the Notre Dame Club of Charleston. As with the previous two club events, the first 30 minutes was spent signing items and taking photos. A very pleasant surprise in Charleston was having 2022 football grad Leo Albano and his family attend.
Additionally, there was an obvious buzz in the air as Sam Hartman and his parents were also able to attend the event, providing the Charleston club with a special night.
Following dinner, Coach Freeman and Dolly made their way to the front of the room for their traditional fireside chat. After about a 20-minute conversation between the two of them, the Charleston crowd had the pleasure of hearing from Sam Hartman as well. Coach Freeman summoned Sam to the front to join him for the final 15 minutes of programming and the audience Q&A portion of the event.
Not surprisingly, Sam was a big hit with the crowd, and among the things we discovered during this part of the program are that 58 people in the Charleston club are booked to attend the season-opening game in Dublin, Ireland and that the ‘South Bend spring’ has been a little colder than Sam is used to!
Our Charleston Club hosts were phenomenal and made the event very welcoming. They closed out the evening presenting Coach Freeman with a couple of gifts–after this tour, his office walls will certainly be covered! A special thank you to Bob Earl and Christen Hall for their hospitality.
8:30 p.m.
We are now halfway through the May Alumni Club tour and just over half way through the events for the week as we head back to the airport. Next stop: Sarasota, Florida. The flight took about an hour. Coach Freeman’s favorite way to pass time on the flights is to play cards, with his favorite games being Spades, Booray and Tonk. On tonight’s flight the games of choice were Booray and Tonk, and the record should stand that he did not walk away the winner.
Check back in on Sunday for updates on Days 4 and 5 of our trip!
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