$300,000 Lou Ortmayer Volleyball Scholarship Fundraising Effort Underway

Efforts are underway to endow a volleyball scholarship in honor of retired Davidson professor, and the pioneer of the volleyball program, Lou Ortmayer. The goal is to raise $300,000 through gifts and pledges by June 30, 2017, in order to create a scholarship to help attract and retain talented scholar athletes for the program. To date, more than $133,000 has been pledged to the effort.

The scholarship was announced during the program's 30th Anniversary event Nov. 5. Alumnae from every decade joined current players and supporters of the program to cheer on the Wildcats in their regular season finale and to celebrate together during an evening reception.

Ortmayer was a political science professor at Davidson from 1977-2015, devoting 38 years of his life to serving Davidson College and the surrounding community. Ortmayer coached the first women's volleyball team on campus, and his passion and dedication turned what was a club team into a varsity sport at Davidson. Each year, the best teammate on the volleyball team is awarded the Lou Ortmayer Award, honoring Ortmayer's selfless servitude to the college and the volleyball program alike.

"Volleyball became a meaningful sport because of the way the team came together and became, in many ways, like a family," said Ortmayer. "It's the ultimate team sport, and it brings out the best in Davidson and Davidson students."

"Davidson College is able to attract many of the top scholar athletes in volleyball, but our yield rate is too low," said Head Coach Chris Willis. "We've had countless outstanding scholar athletes interested in attending and playing volleyball for Davidson, but they have accepted full-ride scholarships to similar institutions. This scenario plays out too often."

Outright gifts to the scholarship as well as multi-year commitments are the most popular ways to give. In addition, gifts of stock as well as company matching programs are other ways to increase the impact of a gift.

"Our five-year goal is to raise the endowment for six scholarships, which is three and a half more than we currently have," added Coach Willis. "With The Davidson Trust supplementing our athletic financial aid, I'm confident we can attract and yield the scholar athletes necessary to win at the top of the Atlantic 10."

All pledges to the Lou Ortmayer Scholarship will count toward the college's $425 million Game Changers: Inspiring Leaders to Transform the World campaign.

For more information on how you can support the Lou Ortmayer scholarship, please contact the Davidson Athletic Fund at daf@davidson.edu or 704-894-2396.

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$300,000 Lou Ortmayer Volleyball Scholarship Fundraising Effort Underway

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$300,000 Lou Ortmayer Volleyball Scholarship Fundraising Effort Underway

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