Pirate Pride On Display Tuesday

Tuesday morning, the Pirates made three stops - complete with the National Championship trophies - as the Savannah community continues to welcome home the Armstrong Atlantic State tennis teams.

Senior Iuliia Stupak, junior Paul Bishop, head coach Simon Earnshaw and assistant coach David Secker were guests on Savannah's First News with Ray Steele on 630 AM WBMQ. From there, the quartet went to the sets of Mid-Morning Live with Sonny Dixon and Jody Chapin at WTOC TV 11, Savannah's local CBS affiliate. They were preceded by former AASU VP Joe Buck, who is now the School Board President for Chatham County. You can view the interview from WTOC TV's web site.

Just past noon, the members of the team still in Savannah (a few of the players had early flights to return home for the summer - remember, final exams at AASU were back in the first week of May, so school has been out for as much as two weeks for many students here) were invited to join the Southside Rotary Club for lunch and a much deserved congratulations from some of the most well-respected pillars of the community in the Coastal Empire area.

And finally some celebration links to share with you - up first, Josh Centor of the NCAA, who runs the doubleazone blog posted about the championship celebrations at the NCAA DII Spring Sports Festival, including a video capturing the celebrations of all six champions who were crowned on the week. View the post here, including watching the women's team and men's team celebrate together after the Pirate men clinch their match, and watch head coach Simon Earnshaw get dunked.. with a little direction from assistant coach David Secker.

Second, links of video that I shot of the final points encoded thanks to Compass Interactive. You can view the women's here and the men's here.