Regala grew up wanting to play soccer in college, but as he got older he fell more in love with baseball, the team aspect of it, and playing on both sides of the ball and realized he wanted to play college baseball.

After this realization, the question of where he would play then arose for him. With no Division I offers, he turned to the head coach of the Division I baseball program in his hometown of Abilene, Rick McCarty.

McCarty was no stranger to Regala on and off the baseball field. McCarty said he watched him play high school football on Friday nights at Wylie High School while watching his daughter, who is a year younger than Regala, be a cheerleader.

He also added that his son played Little League baseball with Regala’s younger brother, Dylan, and made it to the Little League World Series.

“There’s a lot of crossover with family, community, events and all those things,” McCarty said. “I’ve gotten to see Braden for eight years now. So just to watch him mature has been pretty neat.”

Once Regala discovered ACU and McCarty’s culture, he fell in love with it, and he knew he wanted to grow his faith at ACU and become a better baseball player.

At 5-foot-8, Regala is undersized for his position compared to the typical Division I outfielder. He has not let this stop him.

“I kind of use it as motivation,” he said. “Just to also speak to other kids that are younger that size doesn’t really matter in baseball. You can achieve your goals, no matter how big or small you are.”

Despite Regala’s size, McCarty said he has a lot of things going for him, including being a switch hitter, his speed and his short game defensively.

When Regala arrived for his freshman season, he was not the only former Wylie Bulldog on the roster. Fellow outfielder Reese Borho, a year older than Regala, had already been on the roster for a year.

In his freshman campaign, Regala stood out as the team’s starting center fielder, batting .295, leading the team in stolen bases with 29, recording an on-base percentage of .342 and earning the No. 3 spot on a SportsCenter Top 10 for a diving catch against Dallas Baptist.

McCarty said off the field, Regala checks all the boxes and represents the team well in the community.

“He’s got this smile,” he said. “He’s one of those guys when you walk in the room, the temperature kind of goes up because he’s just got a good personality.”

After his freshman season, he and Borho were joined by another former Bulldog, senior infielder JT Thompson. Thompson joined the Wildcats after two seasons at Ranger College and one season at Rutgers.

From Little League baseball to varsity football, it has been a long time coming for these three to play together at the collegiate level.

Borho, who committed to ACU a year before Regala, knew they would be playing together at ACU, but it was a pleasant surprise when Thompson called Borho last summer to tell him he was coming back to Abilene.

Regala recalls the first time all three of them played together was his sophomore year of high school when they were on the varsity football team together at Wylie.

“That was kind of the first time we were all three together,” Regala said. “That kind of carried over into baseball and started building a tighter bond to each other.”

One moment the trio had this year was when all three were in the outfield together and created an “all Wylie outfield,” as Regala called it.

Thompson said it was awesome not only for them but for their parents, who have known each other for years.

“My mom comes up to me after the game and hugs me,” he said. “She shows me a picture as soon as the game’s over, and we’re all dancing in the outfield after a win. Like it should be. All the Wylie boys.”

Another full-circle moment these three had this season was when the Wylie Little League came to Bullock Brothers Ballpark for a night of practice with the Wildcats.

Thompson described it as a déjà vu moment for them growing up in Abilene, going to ACU games and wanting to play for the Wildcats.

“It’s awesome to leave an impact on those kids,” Regala said. “Just driving around being from Abilene, it’s nice to go to a restaurant and see one of those kids and they remember your name. Just getting to talk to them and encourage them and be a role model for them. It’s pretty neat.”

The post Abilene native inspires next generation of baseball players appeared first on The Optimist.

Currently, on the north side of campus, just west of Elmer Gray Stadium, lie the intramural fields, where students gather for weekly games – games that one might think determine the difference between life and death. 

Hordes of people circle the fields watching, cheering for their friends, yelling at referees and gasping at plays. 

Intramural sports continue to fuel culture within the campus community, with university administration acknowledging the growing support and planning to expand the intramural fields.

Shirley Makolo, sophomore nursing major from Mansfield, and Caroline Myers, freshman nursing major from Princeton, enjoy going to the games to support friends. 

“It’s exciting because most of my friends participate,” Makolo said. “It’s fun going and watching them, cheering them on. It’s just a fun activity to get people together.” 

Myers agreed, saying she enjoys simply going to watch. 

“I’ve never been great at sports,” Myers said, “but I enjoy going and supporting my friends, seeing them do good or just enjoy themselves playing the sport.” 

While many students like Myers and Makolo watch from the sidelines, more than 1,100 students compete as players. 

And this is not a strange ACU phenomenon: Millions of college students in the U.S. play club, intramural and recreational sports.  

Clubs, friend groups and people with a simple mutual interest in sports join to compete in games and tournaments. 

Studies have linked recreational sports participation to reduced stress levels and improved mental health, particularly among students balancing heavy academic workloads. 

A journal article by Tyler Prochnow, “Intramural sports social networks and implications for college student physical activity, sense of community, and retention,” found significant evidence that participants in recreational sports have a greater sense of community and retention to the university compared to non-participating students. 

At ACU, intramural participation includes anything from basketball to flag football to pickleball to volleyball. Each sport offers two leagues: champion and recreation.  

Champ is for competitive teams, who are in it to win it, and rec typically draws teams just looking for fun. The league provides space for anyone to play, meaning intramurals are not limited to former high school athletes. 

IMLeagues is the heart of intramurals. Students can create or sign up for teams on the app or website of IMLeagues, where schedules can also be found.  

Dante “Gator” Hibbert, director of intramurals and club sports at ACU, emphasizes the community aspect. Hibbert said intramurals are a source of enjoyment for friends. 

“It’s the best thing on campus to do with your friends, have fun and still be competitive,” Hibbert said. 

During each season, teams play once, occasionally twice a week, with games typically lasting an hour and providing students with a space to forget about academics, Hibbert said, labeling intramurals as an escape. 

“I think that students should play intramurals,” Hibbert said, “because I think intramurals is the ultimate getaway, from classes, from everything.” 

Hibbert’s assistant, Darius Thompson, built on the community aspect of intramurals, saying it is a big part of campus life.  

With intramurals being a melting pot of majors, clubs and classification, Thompson said it is a great way to meet new faces. 

“This also is another way of interacting with other students here,” Thompson said. “We have half of the student population participate in intramurals, so it’s just a good opportunity to do that.” 

Thompson started as a student in undergrad, then became a referee, and now is the assistant director of intramurals. Thompson said intramurals were integral to his time at ACU as a student. 

“I wasn’t in club,” Thompson said, “but intramurals were vital to who I was as a student.” 

When Thompson was hired as a referee, he played on the zebra team – a team made up of the referees. Thompson’s first game he ever refereed was a flag football rivalry game. 

Knowing student turnout will be high and games will be heated, the intramural directors schedule rivalry games to take place in the third week of each season. 

Thompson said he enjoys refereeing rivalry games because the energy of the games feeds off the large crowds. 

“It is my favorite thing to do: to sit in the middle of the field, stand there at the captain’s meeting and not see the fence,” Thompson said, “to just see people.” 

One core memory Thompson recalled was during the Sigma Theta Chi versus Ko Jo Kai flag football game, when a group of sophomore Siggies drove up in a truck, yelling and honking. 

“They made a huge scene, and it really pissed off the Kojies,” Thompson said. “It just made the environment that much better.” 

Another highlight from refereeing rivalry games for Thompson was after the 2025 Gamma Sigma Phi versus Galaxy flag football championship, when the winning team had a rather loud and bright celebration. 

“There were fireworks spouted off campus right after the game ended,” Thompson said, “which is fun.” 

The university administration has acknowledged the importance of intramurals to campus life and plans to accommodate the growing support for intramural sports with new fields. 

Kevin Campbell, senior vice president for operations, said a new field for intramurals has been in the works for six to seven years. 

“Students are more proactively communicating to us the importance that intramurals is playing,” Campbell said. 

They also found a correlation between intramural participants and a more positive view of the university within their studies.  

“One thing that stood out to us was that our students who love intramurals are raving fans about ACU,” Campbell said. “The people who are most likely to tell everybody how much they love ACU are students who are heavily involved in intramurals.” 

Campbell spoke about the environment at intramural games compared to that of other universities. He said if you go to intramural fields at other institutions, the only people nearby will be the players themselves. 

“And at ACU, it’s that plus spectators, plus animals,” Campbell said. 

Campbell said they are looking to build fields that will not only benefit intramurals but also add to student experience by adding a big screen for score keeping and for movie nights. 

“Next time that our basketball teams are in the playoffs, we’d set up a big LED screen,” Campbell said, “so they can pile onto the lawn and watch.” 

The long-term goal is to foster more opportunities for student connection.  

“We want to create an outdoor green space where students can play Spikeball,” Campbell said. “They can do all kinds of things, you know, not just play flag football on that field.” 

Construction is expected to begin in 13 months if the administration can raise enough funds to cover the expenses. 

The week of April 20 marked the last week of soccer, with only tournament games left to be played. Next up is softball season.  

Students rallied last weekend to play a one-weekend tournament of slow-pitch co-ed softball – where spectators piled in the stands, cheered for their friends, yelled at referees and gasped at plays, marking the final intramural season of the spring semester. 

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The goal of the initiative was to not only offer support, but to build community and then to be in that community with them. It is that “togetherness aspect,” Robbie said, that inspired the name of the initiative. 

“We are along for the ride with these patients,” Gabriel said, “We’re actually bouncing around ideas, and eventually, we settled on tandem initiative, because it’s kind of like, we are working in tandem with these patients, right?” 

In establishing the Tandem Initiative, the brothers said they wanted to fulfill needs that are not typically met.  

A group of students decorates care packages for Comfort Through Chemo (Photo courtesy of Robbie Alatrash).

“What we kind of wanted to focus on was more of those emotional needs as personal needs,” Gabriel said, “because I don’t think that there are a lot of organizations out there doing that.” 

Robbie, senior biochemistry major, and his younger brother Gabriel, sophomore mechanical engineering major, are from Pearland. The two started the initiative in 2024, knowing they wanted to provide support to cancer patients – but they were not quite sure how. 

“The idea was to support cancer patients in some capacity,” Robbie said, “We didn’t really define that at the time that we started the initiative.” 

After some brainstorming and fundraising, they were able to create and deliver care packages with snacks and pastimes to patients at Henrick Medical Center undergoing chemo infusions. 

Robbie is a volunteer at Hendrick in the chemo infusion clinic. Throughout the process, he said he has been able to touch base with patients, taking advice about what worked and was favored in the care packages. 

“The decision to pivot towards art was, in large part, because our patient feedback was very, very much in strong favor of the nonfood items that we provided,” Robbie said. 

Students color paper bags to decorate care packages for Comfort Through Chemo (Photo courtesy of Robbie Alatrash).

Although this is the first time Robbie and Gabriel have built their own organization, Gabriel had some experience. Frequently visiting the campus activities board, Gabriel found himself involved in organizations like the Honors Council.  

“I was just signing up for all these organizations, and I think that was foundational,” Gabriel said, “because it kind of gave me experience in how to operate on campus.” 

After figuring out the nuts and bolts of positions and paperwork, Gabriel said the process has been organic as they have been able to receive face-to-face feedback to understand and adapt to community needs.  

Alongside care packages with art supplies, puzzles and word searches, Robbie and Gabriel established an online community, allowing patients to share their artwork by posting on Instagram. 

Looking ahead, the Tandem Initiative aims to expand into pediatrics. For anyone interested in supporting or following the Tandem Initiative in their journey, the Instagram can be found here, and Comfort Through Chemo fundraising can be accessed here. 

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It wasn’t always like this for Hazzard, though. From touching the net to touching the backboard, to touching the rim and, then finally, getting his first dunk at 14 years old, he was filled with excitement when he finally accomplished his goal.

However, this excitement surrounding this newfound ability wouldn’t last long. Three months later, he would tear both of his hamstrings, preventing him from playing basketball and derailing his dreams of playing college basketball.

The injury forced him to miss an entire year, including the summer between sophomore and junior year, a key time in college recruiting. Doctors told him he wouldn’t gain the ability to bear a full load again because of the way he tore his hamstrings, but this was not the case for him.

Throughout his entire journey back, his personal coach, who had coached him since he was in seventh grade, was his biggest supporter. During his recovery, Hazzard became closer to the Lord through his coach.

“He built my relationship with the Lord,” Hazzard said. “I found my identity in basketball, and whenever I lost everything, it felt like I entered a phase where I felt like I just lost my identity. And he helped me refocus on God.”

Hazzard’s mother, Whitney, described it as a “soul-searching time” because they didn’t know if God was shutting the door on a thing Hazzard loved so much. She said they took it one day at a time, hanging onto Scripture, and his ambition for the game never went away.

But by the time he began playing basketball again, he was behind on his development, he said. Despite this setback, he continued to play basketball through high school, and during his senior year, he fell in love with the idea of dunking.

Since he wasn’t going to play college basketball anymore, he found dunking a way to enjoy the sport he still loved.

Hazzard poses for a picture while spinning a ball on his finger (photo courtesy of Cameron Hazzard)

“I just kind of thought it was fun,” Hazzard said. “I was doing it in warmup lines, going crazy, and my coaches would get upset at me because they were like, ‘You need to focus on being in the post.’”

Now Hazzard, a sophomore triple major in information systems, finance and accounting from Little Elm, has a 50-inch vertical jump, 1-inch short of the world record, and an Instagram account, “hazzardous.dunks,” with 17,600 followers, where he posts his dunks.

He started the Instagram account as a side account when he got to college, originally to store clips of him dunking. It soon became more than just a place for him to store his clips. After starting the account in August, it wasn’t until eight months later that one of his videos hit 1 million views.

His videos fell upon the right people’s eyes, and he received an invitation to London during the summer to compete in three dunk contests. After competing in these, he knew that this was something that could be more than just a side hustle.

Hazzard was doing something he never envisioned as possible — being paid to go out and do something he loved.

Another opportunity arose for him when he was invited to Los Angeles for NBA All-Star Weekend to do a pregame show, but he was forced to decline after suffering a broken hand a week before he was scheduled to be there.

The injury was a setback, but it was nothing new to him.

“He will set his mind to something,” Hazzard’s mother said. “It doesn’t matter what setback happens, like tearing his hamstring or breaking his hand. He just trusts God with what happens and just keeps pressing on.”

Once his hand heals, he plans to get back to where he was before the injury and then fly out and work with larger dunk influencers and “show off in front of his childhood legends.”

Despite the success of his Instagram and being flown out for dunk contests, Hazzard still must balance the crazy schedule of a college student. During the day, he’s a triple major, a part of the Big Purple Marching Band and concert band and completing a 20-hour internship. At night is when he finds time to do his workouts and record videos of himself dunking.

Even though his schedule seems crazy, he said he feels that dunking is his getaway because of how much he loves dunking and basketball.

Hazzard’s mother said he has been humble through all his success on and off the court.

“He doesn’t have a big head at all,” she said. “He doesn’t ever come across as if he deserves anything. To him, it’s just the next obstacle, it’s the next hurdle.”

With the followers and views he’s gotten, he has been asked for advice, and he has found that being able to give advice to people and have them take it has been rewarding.

One piece of advice he offered to those chasing their dreams like him:

“It’s OK to obsess over something to an extent,” Hazzard said. “Once you start obsessing over something and it’s just consuming your mind, if you believe in yourself and you’re just enjoying the process, you can eventually get to that point where you achieve your goals.”

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“I was in the dirt every day,” Huth said. “We just went to a different place in the forest and spent the whole day there. There was no toilet. Just go to the forest.”

This built up a childhood of trying anything. From soccer, tennis, ballet, judo, and other things, Huth seemed to accidentally brush up against her later most prominent sport.

“Track was actually the last sport I started,” Huth said. “I just went to practice with my best friend … we’re just jumping over boxes, having fun.”

Nele Huth, sophomore multi-event sophomore, competes in the high jump during the 2026 Wes Kittley Invitational. (Photo by Callie Brimberry)

That fun quickly turned to commitment because, unlike schools in America, if you want to play a sport in Germany while in school, you have to find a club system to play for.

For Huth, track always came easily, and after going to practice with her friend and talking to her parents about joining a sport, she learned her father ran track, which grew the love even further. Despite that, what came just as easily as the sport were the injuries.

Huth went through a foot injury, hip injury, torn tendons, among other things, consistently having her sidelined, at times facing surgery that would cause her to lose her ability to walk. The injuries took a toll not just physically but mentally, while going through depression and an eating disorder.

“I had like so many injuries … and I was like, ‘OK, should I quit,’” she said.

Instead of quitting, her life shifted into a break, stepping away from the track for nearly 10 months while traveling around Europe.

“That trip helped me so much because I completely lost connection to like reality and to all my problems,” she said.

When she returned from her trip, she made the spontaneous decision to get back into things, go to the United States and try to give track another chance. While researching agencies, she applied for one and did not tell anyone.

“I signed up for the agency without telling my parents,” Huth said, “but they got an email. That’s how they found out.”

The ball started rolling from there and with the support of her parents, the countless calls and conversations with coaches around the world landed her at ACU.

“I got here … and I literally didn’t know anyone,” she said. “Different country … didn’t know the coaches … didn’t know anyone here.”

That also came courtesy of a program change where new staff were implemented after her recruitment, before she arrived on campus.

Associate Head Coach Anthony Acklin said when he first met Huth, he was not sure what she would be like, but that quickly changed.

“She works hard … does whatever I ask her to do,” Acklin said.

That work ethic stems from Huth rediscovering what she had been missing.

“I got here, started practice, really enjoyed it, because I finally had a team again,” she said.

Her mindset shifted. The pressure was gone, replaced by joy.

“If you see me competing, I’m just like smiling like a little kid,” she said. “I’m just happy.”

Part of the reason to be happy is helping others through hard times as well, which she said she feels is a big way she connects with her teammates, which her coach seconds.

“She’s very supportive of [her teammates] and cheering everyone on, making sure everyone is doing everything they can to get better,” Acklin said. “We need more like her.”

Outside of the leadership role, the success comes on the track as well, including a recent school women’s indoor pentathlon record at the Western Athletic Conference Championships. But for Huth, that is not the greatest victory, but instead appreciating the chance to move forward.

“It’s like a new chapter now,” she said. “The old chapter with depression, injuries, just everything is just over … It is a new chapter I can start writing.”

Huth said she looks back on the moment and stands firm in her own personal conviction: never quit.

The post Huth refuses to quit, rewrites story at ACU appeared first on The Optimist.

Courtney McGaha, director of student productions, said what has set this freshman class apart is their excitement to participate.  

“There’s not just a lot of them,” McGaha said. “They also are wanting to be so involved. And that has been such a blessing for all of student engagement, but especially for student productions whose purpose it is to build community.” 

Mimicking the record-setting involvement in Freshmen Follies in the fall, around 270 freshmen signed up to participate in Sing Song, so with 100 students filling one act with about 70 extra freshmen. 

The remaining freshmen were combined with sophomores and juniors to create a mixed class act.

McGaha said they asked the freshmen if they would be OK combining with upper classmen to create the mixed class act. 

“The ones that we picked were like, ‘Bring it on, we love that,’” McGaha said.

“The vibe from that group has been very positive, very exciting.” 

A freshman participating in the mixed act, Daniel Grumm, mechanical engineering major from Fremont, California, said the sophomores in the group bring experience.

“We have two freshmen directors,” Grumm said, “and the sophomores are helpful to have people who have done Sing Song before because they know a little bit more about the proceedings.”

Getting involved in ACU traditions as a freshman presents opportunities to build community, McGaha added. 

“I think it’s really easy to just kind of stay in a lane and be like, ‘OK, I’m gonna go to my class and then there’s people around me in my dorm and that’s it,’” McGaha said.  

Organization, clubs and traditions introduce students to people outside of their academic department and residence hall. 

“You’re meeting other people you wouldn’t meet otherwise,” McGaha said, “finding people that you wouldn’t necessarily just stumble across, and I think that makes it so much easier to build community, to build multiple communities.” 

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April is Occupational Therapy Month, a month meant to raise awareness and celebrate the benefits of OT. For first-year students in the occupational therapy graduate program, helping people through OT has become a part of their daily life. 

“Occupational therapy is a type of therapy that really focuses on getting back, or helping people get back, to things that bring them meaning and purpose,” said Reagan Gary, graduate student from Anson. “We really focus on occupation-based intervention, so things like helping them do self-care again, community management and being able to drive again.” 

Since OT work is in a wide variety of settings and populations, M.C. Gunn, graduate student from Waco, said it can be difficult to define.

“Occupational therapists literally can work with people from like birth, like in the NICU, all the way to end of life care in hospice, and basically everything in between all of that,” Gunn said. “We kind of have a hard time defining it because depending on the setting and population you’re with, one OT’s day-to-day job could look completely different from others.”

One of the most common misconceptions about the word “occupation” in OT is that it means job, Brianna Steele, graduate student from May, said. 

“Occupation is anything that gives your life meaning, your purpose, or that takes up your time,” Steele said. “Nobody thinks washing your hair is an occupation, but it is, especially for someone who’s had an accident. Until you’re in that position, you don’t know anything about it, but we just want to get the word out there, because, I mean, it’s our job. We’re advocating for ourselves, but then also advocating for our patients.”

Gunn agreed and said she has an autoimmune disease, but OT was never offered as an option for her. After learning more about it, she chose to pursue the career after she saw its impact.

“It’s something that I really think that I could have benefited from,” Gunn said. “That’s just deepened my love for our profession and for pushing out what OT is, and kind of advocating that all types of people, whether they look like they need it or not, can really benefit from occupational therapy.”

Clay Ray, graduate student from Pampa, said he worked with an OT after he was diagnosed with a learning disability. 

“For about a year and a half, two years, my occupational therapist worked with me one day a week for two years, and it really stuck with me because I know this profession works,” Ray said. “I know from experience. And I tell people all the time, like, if it wasn’t for her, I’m not here, I’m not in college. I’m not in grad school.”

Graduate students in the Occupational Therapy program present on their 3d prosthetic hand project. (Photo courtesy of MC Gunn)

Through the university’s program, students take classes for about a year and a half. Then, they go into clinical field rotations. After rotations, Master’s students can sit for their board exam to become a registered, licensed occupational therapist, and Doctoral students can come back and complete a capstone research-based project before they can sit for their board exam.

They also have the opportunity to create prosthetic hands and other projects as well as spend a day using a wheelchair to travel around campus. 

“We’re learning about all kinds of adaptive equipment, seating and mobility,” Gunn said. “Universal design is a really big aspect. We even get down to visual adaptations, like hearing aids, hearing adaptations, and kind of different things in the lecture, and then the lab is where we go to the maker lab at ACU, and we actually make and design our own adaptive equipment.”

For some projects, the students are assigned a population, and they get to choose what they want to make. Steele recently made a coffee pot for the older population.

“You could always say, well, there’s Keurig, but that’s not what’s meaningful to them, and that’s not what they want to do,” Steele said. “Once you’re that old, you’ve done it so many times, it’s like muscle memory. And so basically, we made a wooden base and that you could slide into the coffee pot and put the coffee pot on it, and then strap it in and pull it out, and then it has a base that’s swinging, and you can pour it. So it doesn’t take a lot of arm strength.”

Each student said the projects help them grow and learn to think more critically because they have to apply information to make decisions about how to help each individual. 

“It’s just a deep level of critical thinking and clinical reasoning,” Gunn said, “and a lot of the time there’s not really a right or a wrong answer. That’s been kind of a big challenge for all of us to get out of that mindset of like, well, ‘I want to be right.’ It’s not always right, and you just have to do, what’s best for your patient and what’s best in that moment.”

Gunn said that through the challenges, she has become more empathetic toward others.“Some of the stuff we’re learning and the stuff that we see is honestly kind of hard and can be really sad sometimes,” Gunn said, “But that’s the beauty of our profession, is we can take that compassion and that empathy, and we can bring meaning into people’s lives and help them regain independence.”

Ray said last semester humbled him and reminded him to be thankful for the ability to do what may seem like simple tasks.

“You don’t need to take stuff for granted,” Ray said, “because you could be in a different situation where it might take you an hour to do something, or you might not be able to do that kind of stuff anymore at all. I mean, it’s a blessing.”

Gunn highlighted how the university and the professors in the program reiterate compassion.

“Nothing about our body and the way that we move and this life that we live is by accident, and it’s all a very intentional design,” Gunn said. “I just feel like our profession is honestly not really one that you can–I don’t know how people can do it without a deep faith because I just feel like OT is really the hands and the feet of Jesus on this earth,” Gunn said.

More information about the university’s graduate OT program can be found on the university website.

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Warner is a cardiologist and the CEO of the Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center and executive vice president at Ohio State. Before that, he worked for 20 years at UT Southwestern as a cardiologist.

Holt is the vice president of post-production for Dude Perfect, a sports comedy group and YouTube channel known for doing trick shots.

These awards are given to alumni who are known for making a difference in their careers, said Craig Fisher, director of alumni relations and annual projects.

“It honors lifetime achievement that brings honor to the university through  personal and professional  excellence and service to the university, church or community,” Fisher said. “So, it’s a combination of looking at your career, but also how you live your life.”

Fisher said nominations are always open, and anyone can make a nomination. This year, they received nominations from all over the world. These nominations go into a pool of candidates, which is evaluated by the alumni advisory board.

“They look at the research that’s been done and have a discussion,” he said. “They will go through and select the recipient. That’s usually done in our fall meeting.”

Fisher said he is excited to highlight the work of the two alumni and have them as representatives of the university.

“These are two great representatives of the university,” Fisher said. “We’re excited to honor them Sunday.”

The post Warner, Holt nominated outstanding alumnus and young alumnus of the year appeared first on The Optimist.

Each performance is about three and a half minutes, presenting months of preparation of costumes, choreography and sets. 

The 2026 Sing Song’s group consists of the following:

• • Tamil Adele, senior criminal justice major from Midland
  • Cierra Zamora, senior music teaching major from Caldwell
  • Barrett Roberson, sophomore psychology major from Abilene
  • Elliot Hembree, junior physics major from Southlake
  • Laci Jackson, senior theatre major from Grapevine
  • Brinkley Fecci, junior communication disorders major from McKinney

Courtney McGaha, director of student productions, said Sing Song is important because it’s a chance for the campus to come together, as it invites not just current students, but alumni, faculty, staff, parents, friends and the Abilene community. The event draws more than 900 participating students every year.

“Sing Song is one of ACU’s biggest and most loved traditions,” McGaha said. “There’s always going to be a very special place in my heart for the upstage acts, the actual competition itself, and class acts specifically because that’s where my experience was in.”

Originally, the hosts and hostesses were called the masters of ceremonies, who introduced and bridged the gap between acts. More recently, they began adding songs to the group performance that followed. Now, the host and hostesses entertain the audience with their own performances to fill time. 

McGaha said the audition process is very thorough and aims to see how the hosts and hostesses perform holistically. 

“We want to see their solo voice, who they are as a performer, but we also want to see their stylistic range,” McGaha said. “We need to be able to have people that fit any song genre.” 

Around 12 students are called back to perform for a larger panel of judges. They are taught a new song on the spot to see how they perform in a group. Once chosen, they hit the ground running with rehearsals and voice lessons. 

“This group of hosts and hostesses is actually very different from the last couple of years. They have a lot more distinct styles,” McGaha said. “Their solos are a lot more unique this year. We have very wide genres being performed.”

Barrett Roberson, sophomore psychology major from Abilene, will be a host for the first time this year.

“There’s the class acts, there’s the sorority and fraternity acts and that’s usually what most people seem to be interested in,” Roberson said. “In between those, we have our numbers to make it one cohesive show.”

Roberson said he signed up because he missed high school theater and wanted to experience a similar, fun opportunity. He recalls what the process was like and points out that you can change the song you’re performing from what you audition with.

“You sing two songs that are different stylistically,” Roberson said. “I did a song from a musical and an Elvis song.”

He said when you get called back, it’s a completely different environment and audition process.

There are six hosts and hostesses this year, and they have to rehearse collectively.

“You have to see if you can blend with each other vocally, how well you can sing different parts, read music, dance, and how quickly you can learn those things,” Roberson said. “You have to be able to be with them as a unit.”

Roberson said he did not expect anything out of the audition, but he made the cut.

“I almost took my name off the list because of the prospect of having a chance of getting it,” Roberson said. “It was a huge shock, especially being a sophomore.”

Roberson will perform “Cry Me a River” by Michael Bublé, but with a surprise twist.

Laci Jackson, a senior theater education major from Grapevine, said she directed the class act her freshman year and the Ko Jo Kai act her junior year. She always knew that she wanted to direct it, especially having grown up attending Sing Song. Being a hostess, however, was an idea that came from her college bucket list.

“It was the last thing I had to accomplish,” Jackson said. “I didn’t really think I would get it, to be honest, because a lot of people audition. It’s just been the most wonderful experience.”

While directing and hosting both require hard work, Jackson said they’re quite different.

“It’s a different type of work. I had to do a lot more prep work for Ko Jo Kai,” Jackson said. “This time around, it’s more self-focused. It’s definitely less stressful in the sense that I’m not carrying the weight of a whole act; I just have to worry about myself.”

While Jackson said she loved directing Sing Song, she is grateful for the opportunity and is glad to be able to just have fun this time around.

“I’m very blessed to be with a group of people that are excited to be there, and we’re putting in a lot of work,” Jackson said. “It’s really full circle.”

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“Boundless Origins” was initiated by Green’s interest in Chinese art. Green said he had been mirroring his paintings after the formats of Chinese art. A colleague and friend of Green’s, Dr. Berlin Fang, loaned Green a book of Sheng’s drawings after seeing Green’s artwork. 

Boundless: A U.S.-China Collaboration Exhibition (Photo by Callie Leverett).

From Abilene to Tongcheng, Green and Sheng began communicating via letters with the help of Fang’s translations. As the two artists conversed, Green said they noticed similarities between their works.  

“I sent some copies of some of my work, and he sent some copies of some of his paintings,” Green said. “From that conversation, we decided that our works had a lot in common and were responding to historical traditions and Chinese art.” 

The two decided to have their own independently created works displayed together. Exhibitions of the corresponding artwork are displayed in the Brown Library.

Green said he is grateful that he branched out to connect with someone he does not know. He said he encourages students to move outside their comfort zone. 

“There’s some fear that one would hold about reaching out to somebody you don’t know and having a conversation,” Green said. “I just found that this was a really positive experience, and it opened doors for conversations that I would likely not have had. Other good things came from it: friendship, collaboration and art exhibitions.” 

The collaboration between Green and Moore started in the fall after Green attended one of Moore’s poetry readings at the Grace Museum. Moore’s poems were responses to an exhibition of corresponding artists.  

Green said he was in the process of bringing the exhibition to ACU as he watched Moore present his poems at the museum. Knowing that Chinese art often includes poetry, Green said he figured asking Moore to do the same would be a good idea. 

Mikhail Fortner, junior English major from Burnet, and Dr. Steven Moore posed together for a selfie. (Photo courtesy of Steven Moore)

“I asked him if he would be willing to think about involving his students in the spring when he taught his poetry class,” Green said. “He loved the idea.” 

Moore said he had his students visit the exhibition in January and respond through poetry. On Feb. 19, the students showcased their poems in the Brown Library reading commons area. As the student poets spoke, the art flashed on a screen behind them, allowing the audience to visualize the artistic conversation. 

The poetry reading was well attended, Moore said, speaking to the return of public support for poetry that has been absent in recent years. 

“It is so hard to get people excited about poetry, or it’s so hard to get people to show up to an event, celebrating poetry,” Moore said, “but I was blown away.” 

When people say poetry is not for them, Moore said he reminds them that poetry is for everyone.  

“All of us are poets, whether you realize it or not,” Moore said. “Picasso says, ‘Everyone’s born an artist, but the trouble is to remain an artist when you grow up and to continue to be an artist as you grow up.’ And so, I think that’s true of poetry.” 

For this purpose, Moore shows the movie “Dead Poets Society” in class. The film is a 1989 Oscar-winning film, directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Schulman. It highlights perceiving poetry as passion, rather than solely a segment in an academic curriculum.  

Moore said that, in showing the movie, he seeks to remind students how embracing poetry can change the world. Regardless of major, Moore said he encourages students to take these classes. 

June Skelly, senior English major from Fort Worth, performs an original poem (Photo courtesy of Steven Moore).

Ava Clayton, junior mechanical engineering major from Flower Mound, reads an original poem (Photo courtesy of Steven Moore).

“I think every single soul is a poet,” he said, “There’s just something about society when one grows up, that either they just fall away from poetry or they just don’t see the value of it.” 

On the day of the reading, not only was Moore impressed by the event turnout, but many from the audience responded with positive feedback. Moore said faculty, staff and students approached him with compliments. 

“A lot of the students, they just came up to me and just said they were deeply moved; They were deeply touched by what the poets said,” Moore said. “They just enjoyed the incredible colors and visions and sights and sounds that they wrote about, and they did a fantastic job.” 

Each poet had unique poems to present. A few students responded to the entire exhibition, and others focused on specific pieces.  

“They were varied, some were long, and some were short, but all of them were heartfelt, and intriguing, and offered insight into their own perspective on what they had seen,” Green said. “Yeah, I really enjoyed that.” 

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