Wade, a native of Nashville, Tenn., and a Franklin Road Academy graduate, began his coaching career with Clemson University, where he served as a Graduate Assistant from 2005-2006, before becoming the Director of Basketball Operations from 2006-2007. From there, he went on to spend the next two seasons at Cambridge University, and then Richmond, where he gained enough recognition to become Smart’s first hire at VCU. Over four years, Wade assisted Smart to a 111-37 record, including finishing 27-9 and a No.23 national rank this season.

“UTC is hiring an absolute star in Will Wade,” VCU head coach Shaka Smart said, according to gomocs.com. “Will is extremely bright, hardworking and diligent. No one will spend more time building relationships with student-athletes than Will. There is no question in my mind that he will be a tremendous success.”

Even new Lady Mocs basketball coach Jim Foster had some positive things to say about Wade. “I’ve known Will Wade since he was 8 years old.” Foster said. “He impressed me then with his passion for athletics and nothing he’s done in the last 22 years has changed my opinion. He is a hard worker who knows how to surround himself with successful folks. I look forward to working with him on a daily basis.”

What Mocs fans can look for in Wade is a new, full court, up-tempo style of defense he calls “chaos.” This defense comes from his days at VCU under Shaka Smart, where their defense, “havoc,” became well-known after the Rams’ 2011 Final Four run.

With the new “chaos” defense, Coach Wade has already set some goals for his team this season such as leading the SoCon in scoring, being in the top 20 nationally in the turnover margin, shooting 35 percent or better from three point range, and ranking in the top 40 nationally in offensive rebounds. Defensively, Wade wants his team to be in the top three in scoring defense for the SoCon, top 20 nationally in steals, and record 35 or more deflections per game.

At the press conference, Will Wade plans to embrace his new position, and plans to give that spark the team needs.

“I am very appreciative of the opportunity to be the head men’s basketball coach here at Chattanooga,” Wade said. “This is a tremendous opportunity and I couldn’t be more excited. I have spent the last four years at Virginia Commonwealth University with Shaka Smart and he has made such an incredible impact on my career. I really wouldn’t be here today without Coach Smart and having him to lean on. I am very appreciative of him, and one of the great things for working for Coach Smart is that after every season – and this happened to be the season after we went to the Final Four – he brought me into his office and told me that he knew my goal was to be a head coach. He asked me to give him a list of three or four colleges that were somewhat realistic that I would love to be at and number one on my list was Chattanooga. There’s nowhere else I would rather be.”

But Wade’s connections to UTC go beyond just his new hiring. His cousin, Geep Wade, was a former Mocs football player, as well as a current assistant coach.

Within the first three months on the job, key goals Wade hopes to establish are building relationships with the players, finalizing the coaching staff and lastly, recruiting.

For the program, Wade and the Mocs should provide an exciting and interesting season that all fans can look forward to.

Foster, a 2013 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, has won six consecutive Big Ten titles with Ohio State. Before being fired from Ohio State Foster made it clear he wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel.

“Chattanooga has always been one of our favorite places, going back to the early 90’s when the SEC tournament was hosted in this city,” Foster said to Nooga.com. “I have always had a favorable impression of Chattanooga because of that and have been back often with my wife. [Former head coach Wes Moore] has done an absolutely terrific job of building a program that I have a lot of respect for. I am ready to work.”

Foster has been the head coach at Vanderbilt and St. Joseph’s along with his last job at Ohio State. He has accumulated 783 wins and a .718 winning percentage in his career.

Foster led Ohio State to six straight Ben Ten titles, and 10 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and was named the Big Ten coach of the year four times.

“His career speaks for itself. He has achieved success at both the collegiate and international levels, while maintaining programs that graduate student-athletes and prepare them for productive and meaningful lives,” Blackburn said to Nooga.com.

“It was apparent from the beginning of this process that the strong tradition of excellence surrounding our women’s basketball program would attract a well-qualified candidate pool,” Blackburn said to Nooga.com. “I had no idea that we would be able to hire a Hall of Famer like Jim Foster.”

Last year, UTC was named the top climbing university by the magazine, and this year is set against Maryville in the first round bracket for top adventure college. Several other campuses are competing, including Warren Wilson, University of Tennesee, Knoxville and University of North Carolina-Ashville.

Chuck Cantrell, associate vice chancellor for communications and marketing, said right now it is a tight competition between UTC and Maryville.

“We are doing super compared to all of the other brackets, but the Maryville folks are really putting up a fight. In fact, UTC and Maryville both have more votes than much larger campuses, like Penn State,” Cantrell said in an email.

Freshman Anna Claire Robinson, Pegram, Tenn., said these competitions are important because they bring attention to the University outside of academia.

“I ride my bike everywhere in Chattanooga and I love the hiking around here. I think that when people think about UTC they don’t necessarily think about the wonderful woods and city that they are getting right outside their door,” Robinson said. “To be voted the top adventure school would bring people to UTC who really enjoy where they live and take advantage of it.”

Cantrell says that the best way to help the University win is by voting and voting often.

“People can vote every day and can vote from multiple computers and devices. Tell your friends. Tell your students. Tell your family. Post it. Tweet it. Text it,” Cantrell said in the email.

Students can find the brackets at http://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/best-adventure-school/, and are allowed one vote a day.

Danny Freeman, a Chattanooga junior, said the week of discussion and workshops was initially meant to happen across the UT System of schools, however it was unable to take place everywhere this year.

The event did take place on the Knoxville campus, where it received national attention for the content planned for discussion, including backlash from Republican Sen. Stacey Campfield, who began a campaign to cut funding to the University.

According to a press release from UTK, the criticism of the event prompted UTK Chancellor Jimmy Cheek to announce that the campus will not use state tax or tuition dollars to fund the events planned.

This announcement caused the administration to withdraw $11,145 originally budgeted for the event, according to the release.

Although UTC has never had a branded sex week, there have been various programs on sexual awareness or sexual identity, Jim Hicks, dean of students, said. These programs were not state funded, but activity funded because the University does not have that many state dollars for programming, he said.

Freeman said he became involved in the UTK event after reading a news article on the controversy.

“After reading the article, I talked with some of my friends at UTK and asked them to put me in contact with organizers. I wanted to see what I could do to support them from Chattanooga.”

Then, on April 15, Freeman and three other UTC students joined UTK students in a “Speak Out” protest against the withdrawal of university funding for the event.

“Students voiced how tired we are of waiting on our public officials to act,” Freeman said. “Sex Week happened because students decided that we can’t afford to wait for our schools to start teaching us about safe sex, consent, how men can stop sexual assault, STD testing and respect for people’s gender identity and sexuality.”

Robert Fisher, a Clarksville, Tenn., sophomore and newly elected SGA president, said while he was not fully informed of what happened with the event at UTK’s campus, he would be interested in hearing about a program for UTC’s campus.

“To my understanding … Sex Week in its entirety was primarily focused on promoting sex education, and a majority of the week, at least in terms of program offerings, was not extremely atypical. With that being said, I would really have to discuss the event with potential Sex Week planners before I could personally offer support or speak broadly for the student body,” he said.

A large part of the reason Sex Week is necessary is because students in Tennessee public schools are restricted in their sex education, Freeman said.

According to information through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Tennessee ranks 11th in the nation in reported cases of STDs, with approximately 60 cases per 1,000 people.

Alex Niel, a Knoxville junior who transferred to UTC from the Knoxville campus, said he supports both his former and current classmates in their efforts to promote Sex Week across UT campuses.

“Sex Week is very important not only to educate the student body on issues regarding health but to promote responsibility and open communication,” Niel said. “Especially considering the rate of STD’s, a lot clearly still needs to be talked about in a better way.”

Hicks said as long as the programming was educational he would support the idea of a Sex Week.

“A week of activities or a week of educational programming around sexuality is would certainly not be something that I would oppose,” Hicks said. “It’s all in how it’s done. I think a lot of times we let the marketing or the naming of programs determine what we think about them, and there are times when you use outlandish titles to get people interested in the program. For me it’s what the content is, and if it’s serious content, if it’s important content for health, and it’s done by people who are professionals, then I don’t have a problem with it.”

He said the previous on-campus programs have been successful and students would likely support the event as well.

“The programming that we have done around this topic has been popular and well-attended, so I don’t know why—if we did it right and marketed it right, why students wouldn’t attend,” Hicks said.

Freeman said he hopes more students will come forward and voice their opinions, and a Sex Week event can be planned successfully for UTC next year.

Eventually, he said, he would like for Sex Week to take place on every UT System campus.

“We are adults. We pay tuition. We pay taxes that fund this school. We have sex. It is our right as college students to organize educational events that we see a need for on this campus,” he said.

Students who are interested in participating in this event can contact the student-led group at utc.sexweek@gmail.com.

Chattanooga Police responded to a pedestrian struck call in the 2100 block of Bailey Avenue around 11:30 p.m. Upon arrival they found that two pedestrians had been struck by a car as they were trying to cross the road, according to a news release from the Chattanooga Police Department.

Emergency personell transported Svgik, a Memphis freshman, and Butler, a Mount Juliet, Tenn., freshman, to a local hospital for treatment, according to the news release. Svgdik died due to his injuries.

Butler said she does not remember the accident because she received a concussion. But the last thing she said she did remember was giving Svgdik a hug, a kiss, then grabbing his hand to walk across the street.

“The witnesses all said as soon as he saw the car coming he pushed me out of the way,” Butler said. “He is my hero, and that is really all I have to say about the accident. He’s my handsome guardian angel.”

Butler said as a person, Svgdik was a sweet man with many friends. He also enjoyed playing the guitar.

“He was amazing at playing guitar and probably spent half of his days playing guitar and singing to us all,” Butler said. “We loved every second of it.”

Butler said Svgdik’s laugh could make anyone laugh.

“And that boy laughed so much,” Butler said. “It was wonderful.”

Butler said Svgdik cared about many people.

“He always put others before himself,” Butler said. “He was an amazing man.”

Traffic investigators believe the car was eastbound on Bailey Avenue when it struck Svgdik and Butler. Charges may be filed pending the outcome of the investigation, according to the news release.

Chuck Cantrell, associate vice chancellor for communications and marketing, said whenever UTC loses a student, it is very jarring for the campus.

“Despite having almost 12,000 students and more than 1,000 faculty and staff, we are a very close knit community,” Cantrell said. “When we suffer a tragedy like this, it affects us all.”

Cantrell said UTC’s thoughts are with family and friends of Svgdik and Butler.

“Most importantly, our thoughts are with the family and friends of the student who was lost and also with the student who is still recovering,” Cantrell said. “Thankfully, she is expected to be okay. Members of our counseling staff and our housing staff have been working with the students, helping them cope. We have been in contact with the families and are working to do what we can to help them.”

Blackburns most recent position was the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Administration at the University of Tennessee: Knoxville, where he was a member of the Volunteers’ executive staff.

“After an exhaustive search that produced an incredibly strong pool of highly qualified candidates, David Blackburn clearly distanced himself from the group as the right person to lead the Mocs,” Chancellor-ellect Dr. Steven Angle said, according to gomocs.com. “He has a proven track record of fundraising, administration and integrity that is a perfect fit for our University.”

As a 1990 graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Tennessee, Blackburn has over two decades of experience in college athletics.

Blackburn started his career serving many roles within the program and worked with then-head football coach Phillip Fulmer back in 1993.

“I am extremely grateful to Dr. Angle, (Interim Chancellor) Dr. Bogue and the search committee for the opportunity to lead the Mocs,” Blackburn said, according to gomocs.com. “UTC has a very strong athletics program that focuses on the comprehensive excellence of its student-athletes; academically, athletically, and socially. This strong foundation provides tremendous opportunity and potential for growth.”

During his time at Tennessee, Blackburn served as the athletic department liaison to the Thornton Center, the student-athlete academic support unit.

Blackburn was appointed to various search committees for head coaches and upper level departmental staff. He also participated in the design and construction of Tennessee’s new $48 million football training center.

Blackburn was one of three finalists for the position named late last week. He ran against  Wake Forest’s Mike Buddie and former MTSU and NC State Athletic Director Lee Fowler.

A public reception will be held Tuesday, April 23 at 3 p.m. in the University Center on campus. Blackburn will officially start his duties the next day on April 24.

Blackburn will have to hit the ground running. His first big job for the University will be filling the voids that have been opened in the last month, namely finding and hiring new coaches for men’s and women’s basketball.

Although the search for the two new head coaches for UTC’s basketball teams is important, Blackburn will also be in charge of fund raising for UTC’s athletic department.

From 2011 to 2012, only 13 percent of the athletic department’s budget came from donations–that number must have a dramatic increase.

“Certainly that’s always a concern everywhere,” Blackburn said, according to Nooga.com. “The ability to take steps as it relates to growing resources, which allows you to provide so much better support for the student athletes, whether it be academic support, how they live day to day, or facilities.”

Blackburn’s background in fundraising is one of the key factors in his hiring at UTC.

“I think the growth potential here is one of the things that’s exciting,” Blackburn said, according to Nooga.com. “With about half of the alumni living in the area, there’s a lot of potential for growth, to reach out to people that care.”

All photos and opinions compiled by Mary Gower

Contributed photo by Nooga.com

Best Latin Food- Conga

Conga Latin Food, located on Main Street a couple of doors down from the well-known Niedlov’s, has some of the best and most authentic Latin food in town. The food is primarily Salvadorian with other South American flavors. Menu highlights include the guacamole, which is served with banana chips, their delicious empanadas, and the different toppings—including chimichurri, a topping made with cilantro and onions, and a delicious mango salsa. 

The Crash Pad, a fairly new place for students and travelers to stay, say on their website they want to “further establish Chattanooga as an ultimate outdoor destination by providing a base camp and community hub for adventurous travelers.” They have certainly done so, and they have quickly become involved in the local community, participating in such events as MainX24, a 24-hour block party celebrating the local flavor of Chattanooga’s South Side.

 

Best Hostel- The Crash Pad

The Crash Pad, a fairly new place for students and travelers to stay, say on their website they want to “further establish

Contributed photo by Nooga.com

Chattanooga as an ultimate outdoor destination by providing a base camp and community hub for adventurous travelers.” They

have certainly done so, and they have quickly become involved in the local community, participating in such events as MainX24, a 24-hour block party celebrating the local flavor of Chattanooga’s South Side.

 

 

 

 

Contributed photo by Nooga.com

Best Dessert – Hot Chocolatier

 

The Hot Chocolatier, located on Main Street, offers gourmet chocolate with a twist. They have a cake called “The Hottie,” a chocolate cake featuring hot cayenne pepper flavors, and various quirky treats, like a mustache-shaped chocolate and various flavors of macaroons.

 

Best Coffee Shop – Stone Cup

Contributed photo by www.tripadvisor.com

 Stone Cup is located on the North Shore directly on Frazier Avenue. They have great coffee and snacks, but their main virtue is in their indoor/outdoor structure that looks out over Coolidge Park and the river. It’s a great place to go study and relax, since you can choose to sit in the sun or chill out on a couch. Best part? They have a beer license as well, so you can make a smooth transition from day to evening. 

 

Best Summer Activity – Blue Hole

 

Photo by Hannah Lazar

The Blue Hole, and really all of Chattanooga’s swimming spots, are a great way to enjoy the summer, get outdoors, and keep cool. You can choose to hike, swim, or just relax at all of these spots. But two disclaimers are needed: park rangers do not look kindly on beer coolers, and under no circumstances should you leave valuables in your car. 

Best Free Event – Nightfall Concerts

 The Nightfall concert series is an outdoor, weekly live music event that takes place in Miller Plaza downtown every Friday night. The series is free and features great local and regional artists, as well as local vendors. It’s a family-friendly event and smoking was recently banned, making it enjoyable for all. It’s also a very dog-friendly event, so one is bound to run into plenty of playful puppies while enjoying the music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chattanooga is no stranger to live music during the summer months.

With annual festivals like Riverbend, or the summer-long event, the Nightfall Concert Series, and even its own local concert venue, Track 29, Chattanooga offers a diverse portfolio of live music events to locals and avid fans alike.

No less than 600,000 people will be attending Riverbend during its nine-night festival of music beginning June 7, according to their site. Starting in 1982, Riverbend has been an annual event in Chattanooga and has brought thousands of artists from different backgrounds and style of music to the area to play.

This year, Riverbend has one of its biggest names to date, Cee Lo Green. Attendees also have the option to  see Dierks Bentley and even Lynyrd Skynyrd.

A student intern with TVA, Rachel Frye, said she was recommended to attend Riverbend by her employers.

“I’m really excited to see what so many people are talking about when I hear about Riverbend,” she said. “It should be fun, and I’m planning on bringing some friends from work and class with me.”

Nightfall, a unique concert series titled with the headline, “Music Lives Downtown,” is held every Friday night beginning May 11th until September 7th in Miller Plaza. Local artists begin at 7pm, with headlining acts beginning around 8pm.

Several local food trucks and beverage vendors set up alongside the plaza and offer food and drink to those in attendance. The names are not as big as Riverbend’s, but Nightfall provides local artists an opportunity to play and get their name out to the public and offers a different atmosphere that has a community vibe.

Track 29, Chattanooga’s local concert venue, will host many big name artists this summer, such as Three Days Grace, Hollywood Undead, The Flaming Lips, Bassnectar and The Dropkick Murphys. Each group offers their own kind of music, from rock to dubstep.

Students, locals and fans are all welcome to attend a show and see their favorite artist or experience a new one. Karen Henderson, a Fine Arts film professor at UTC, said she encourages students to go.

Those interested can visit the festivals’ or Track 29’s websites for more information about upcoming events this summer.