Indianapolis, Ind. – Georgia Tech associate head coach Eric Reveno, who led a student-athlete voter engagement effort on campus that became a nationwide movement, has been honored for that service with a Guardians of the Game Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
The NABC announced Friday the recipients of the 2020-21 NABC Guardians of the Game Awards, representing the association’s core values of advocacy, education, inclusion, leadership and service.
A total of eight NABC member coaches will be honored including Colorado head Tad Boyle for advocacy; Leonard Hamilton, head coach at Florida State, for education; Michigan State associate head coach Phil Martelli for leadership; Saint Francis University head coach Rob Krimmel and Georgia Tech assistant coach Eric Reveno for service.
Three coaches will share the Guardians award for inclusion: Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker, Kentucky head coach John Calipari and Frank Martin, head coach at South Carolina.
Reveno is in his fifth season on the Tech’s men’s basketball staff, having earned a top-level reputation in developing the Yellow Jackets’ post players and leading the implementation of analytics at a high level in the program. He also handles many other responsibilities within the program such as scheduling and budget.
Struck by the civil unrest and racial injustice last summer and in a meeting with his team members, Reveno had the revelation that college athletes needed to take action and one way to do that was to become more involved in national and local elections. All of Georgia Tech’s sports immediately embraced the effort and declared Election Day as a day off from team activities. Over many months, Reveno reached out to his coaching colleagues across America and the AllVoteNoPlay campaign was launched, eventually leading to the establishment of making Election Day as a required day off from practice and competition nationwide.
Basketball coaches from all levels joined forces to help student-athletes register and educate themselves on the voting process with many campus arenas used as polling places.
This group of eight will receive their awards on Friday, April 2, during the AT&T NABC Guardians of the Game Awards Show. The show is the finale of the 2021 NABC Convention, being conducted this year on a virtual platform due to the pandemic. The NABC holds it convention each year in conjunction with the NCAA Men’s Final Four.
The show will be broadcast live on Stadium (https://watchstadium.com) beginning at 6:30 p.m. EDT.
Tech, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion, has a 17-8 overall record and opens play in the NCAA Tournament at 4 p.m. Friday as a No. 9 seed against No. 8 Loyola Chicago at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. The game will be televised on TBS.
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The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the A-T Fund’s Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes, and the Support The Swarm Fund, created to give fans an opportunity to help Georgia Tech athletics maintain its recent momentum through the financial challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic! To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
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Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball team is in its fifth year under head coach Josh Pastner, having won the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship after finishing fourth in the regular season. Tech has been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1979, winning four ACC Championships (1985, 1990, 1993, 2021), playing in the NCAA Tournament 16 times and playing in two Final Fours (1990, 2004). Connect with Georgia Tech Men’s Basketball on social media by liking their Facebook Page, or following on Twitter (@GTMBB) and Instagram. For more information on Tech basketball, visit Ramblinwreck.com.
