Beginning at age 19, Cotie was pimped out or walked the streets, offering sex for money for her next high. She was repeatedly physically and emotionally abused and sexually assaulted.

Cotie didn’t have help to avoid what she and others like her call “the life,” but the University of Louisville is working to give victims like Cotie assistance to leave that life behind or elude it altogether.

Sex and labor trafficking combined are, as defined by the National Human Trafficking Hotline, “a form of modern-day slavery in which traffickers use force, fraud or coercion to control victims for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or labor services against their will.” Nationally, more than 8,500 cases of human trafficking were reported in 2017. Almost 6,100 involved sex trafficking, but researchers warn that as many as two-thirds of cases are never reported.

Several departments on UofL’s Belknap and Health Sciences Center campuses began working a few years ago to address human trafficking through the university’s quadruple enterprises of education, research, clinical care and community engagement. Today, the university is leading the way nationally in educating health care providers to recognize signs of trafficking.

UofL’s approach to studying the problem is truly transdisciplinary. Faculty members in social work, criminal justice, engineering, law and medicine are investigating various aspects, from the mental and physical health of victims to the routes and logistics of the actual trafficking.

Cotie didn’t have access to most of UofL’s services until she was leaving the life. But if she had, it could have made a world of difference.

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The University of Louisville’s new president thrives on personal connections.

“I just love people,” she said. “In this job that helps me. It’s a good job for somebody who enjoys interacting with many different kinds of people.”

Bendapudi was named UofL’s president in April, and with the announcement came a sense of forward motion. She sees part of her role as president as re-energizing the students, faculty, staff, alumni and community who believe in UofL.

It’s not just social interaction that boosts Bendapudi’s effervescence, it’s her dedication to making sure anyone she engages becomes the best version of themselves.

“It’s about getting people to see the possibility, getting people to give each other the benefit of the doubt, and to realize that we’re all here to serve a very noble purpose,” she said. “In higher education, there’s a sense that we’re doing something that impacts the future. We don’t know the student we’re educating today, what they will go on and do; we don’t know the professor we’re supporting today, what great discoveries they’ll make. There’s that sense of possibility and that sense of excitement, and to me, we will be lifted up when we have that strong sense of why we’re all here together.”

Lifelong learning

Neeli Bendapudi realized the value of education at an early age. “I really believe in the transformative power of higher education,” she said. “It’s part of my own family story, and so many others’ stories.”

Her story began in Visakhapatnam, a coastal city in southeast India. When she was five, her father traveled to the United States to further his education and make a better life for his family. Her mother stayed in India with Bendapudi and her two sisters. When her father returned to India after four years in America, he began teaching and her mother — while raising three girls — went back to school to earn her own doctorate. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Bendapudi followed her parents into the education field.

“When I was very little, I would play school,” she said. “Even when I was young, I had a very deep love and deep conviction that this is what I wanted to do.”

When she was 20, her father introduced her to one of his students, Venkat Bendapudi. Venkat gave her books about education, women and women’s rights, and she was smitten. The couple were married three months later and have supported each other as they worked their way through graduate degrees, doctorates and professional careers.

The couple has one daughter, Sirisha. Early on, Sirisha Bendapudi saw the emphasis her mother placed on education.

“My mom always made learning feel like so much fun,” she said. “She used to make up tests for me to take as a reward. Six-year-old Sirisha would beg her for another math test because I was just so excited to know more about the world. That’s all her doing. Without a doubt, her intellectual curiosity and love of learning is always an inspiration.”

After earning her undergraduate degree and MBA in India, Bendapudi came to the United States to earn her doctorate at the University of Kansas. She went on to teach marketing at Texas A&M and The Ohio State University and spent two years in the private sector before returning to Kansas as business school dean in 2011.

Bendapudi was made provost and executive vice chancellor of Kansas in 2016. She became famous at Kansas when, as provost, she provided her personal cell phone number to the entire freshman class, a tradition that she intends to continue at UofL.

“The students’ educational experience is our number one priority. I want them to know there’s somebody that they can reach out to if they need something,” she said. “The other good thing about it is that if they reach out to me as a last resort, it means they have run into roadblocks and that gives an incentive for everybody else to make sure they don’t reach me. It sets a positive pressure.”

“She is exceptionally gifted at making people feel welcome,” Sirisha Bendapudi said. “That’s authentic, too. She genuinely does want a close relationship with everyone she meets, and she has never met a stranger. You could be in a room of 500 people and she can instantly make you feel like the only person there.”

Vim and vigor

While Bendapudi can certainly energize a crowd — and the individuals within it — she’s not a performer. She doesn’t turn her charisma off when she steps away from the spotlight. Her enthusiasm is ingrained within, said Michael Wade Smith, Bendapudi’s chief of staff at Kansas who followed her to UofL.

“As everyone at Louisville is noticing now, she’s captivating and energetic; she’s authentic and real,” he said. “This is a cool human being.”

“She is what you see,” her husband, Venkat Bendapudi, said. “Either in the house, outside the house, just with me or just by herself.”

Smith has seen time and time again how Bendapudi’s blend of liveliness and drive has benefited those she meets. Take Smith’s own case for example: While he was teaching high school as part of Teach for America, he was introduced to Bendapudi at an alumni event. At the time, he was considering returning to school for an MBA, and Bendapudi had just been named dean of the School of Business at the University of Kansas. The two chatted, but Smith was pretty set on not returning to Kansas for graduate school.

“She got my number that night, and she called me to recruit me about every six weeks for two years,” he said. “Neeli made it impossible to make any other decision.”

Smith returned to Kansas for his MBA, and Bendapudi then hired him as chief marketing officer for the business school. When she became provost, he followed her to that office, eventually becoming chief of staff.

“When you meet Neeli, she immediately figures out what you care about, what’s interesting about you and she elevates and amplifies it in an incredible way that gives people confidence, that makes them work harder, that makes them work smarter and stronger,” he said. “She motivates people to just increase what they thought they were capable of. It’s truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

Bendapudi is at UofL because she believes in the mission of higher education, Smith said. Perhaps she also is here because underneath her vivacity, Bendapudi has a serious competitive side. When she sees that change is possible, she is determined to make it happen.

She plans to engage that competitiveness for the betterment of the university and its people.

“The leader’s job at every level is to look at the people reporting to you and say, ‘Am I doing everything I can to make you be your best, and do your best and live up to your potential?’.” she said. “But it’s not just one-way. I also expect people to push me, to hold me to my word, to believe in me, to believe the best of me. If they think I’m doing something that’s not right, I expect they would tell me.” Bendapudi acknowledges the past issues that have plagued the university and does not shy away from tackling those issues head-on and being open in sharing her plans.

“Talk is cheap,” she said. “To me, what will matter is not what we say, but how we act. Do we really stand for transparency? Are we all truly doing our best to put the university first, what’s right for the university? That to me is the key.

“What could be more noble than really investing in the future of humanity? Because who we educate here, from Louisville, we give to the world.”

Beginning at age 19, Cotie was pimped out or walked the streets, offering sex for money for her next high. She was physically and emotionally abused and sexually assaulted.

Cotie didn’t have help to avoid what she and others like her call “the life,” but the University of Louisville is working to give victims like Cotie assistance to leave the life behind or elude it altogether.

Sex and labor trafficking are, as defined by the National Human Trafficking Hotline, “a form of modern-day slavery in which traffickers use force, fraud or coercion to control victims for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or labor services against their will.” Nationally, more than 8,500 cases of human trafficking were reported in 2017. Almost 6,100 involved sex trafficking, but researchers warn that as many as two-thirds of cases are never reported.

Several departments on UofL’s Belknap and Health Sciences Center campuses began working a few years ago to address human trafficking through the university’s quadruple enterprises of education, research, clinical care and community engagement. Today, the faculty involved share information, and the university is leading the way nationally in educating health care providers to recognize signs of trafficking.

UofL’s approach to studying the problem is truly transdisciplinary. Faculty members in social work, criminal justice, engineering, law and medicine are investigating various aspects, from the mental and physical health of victims to the routes and logistics of the actual trafficking.

Cotie didn’t have access to most of UofL’s services until she was leaving the life. But if she had, it could have made a world of difference.

•âśÄ˘âśÄ˘

Cotie grew up in a small town near Lexington, Kentucky, with abusive parents who used alcohol and drugs.

“My addiction started with drinking,” she said. “My mom had keg parties, and it was normal for all the kids to come to my house. I grew up watching my family grow pot. My mom hung the marijuana plants in my closet to dry them. And she later started smoking crack.”

Cotie emulated her mother and life went downhill from there. She dropped out of high school and drugs consumed her. Cotie’s early marriage initially helped curb her substance abuse, but “one day, I picked up a drink and I couldn’t put it down.” She then gave birth to twin girls. Drink gave way to pills and then to intravenous drugs. Her husband was sent to prison — Cotie doesn’t volunteer why — and she needed to support herself and her daughters.

She’s hesitant in talking about how the trafficking first started: “I needed money to take care of my children, and I met people that told me there was maybe somebody I could go meet to maybe make money with.”

She was understandably uncomfortable — at first. Then, “I was making money … so it became normal-like. I justified the behavior to take care of my children. But really it was for me to keep my addiction going.”

Cotie eventually lost her house, job and car. Her daughters were removed from her custody. One day, after an arrest for passing a cold check, she went to her small county hospital and told a lie to get help. “I told them, ‘Either you help me or I’m going to harm myself.’ ”

After a short stint in a recovery program, a counselor who knew Cotie was caught up in sex trafficking told her about Louisville’s Kristy Love Foundation.

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Founded and managed by Angela Renfro, the Kristy Love Foundation provides assistance to women trying to leave the life. Renfro herself is a survivor. “Kristy Love” was the name her pimp made her use.

“We help survivors have healthy options,” Renfro said. “What society says is normal isn’t normal to us. The women here get a taste of freedom from trafficking, drugs, alcohol. It makes them drive even more like I did — to fight for that [new] life and not go back to the other one.”

Jennifer Middleton, associate professor in UofL’s Kent School of Social Work, turned to the Kristy Love Foundation to implement Project STAAR: Survivors of Trafficking Creating Art, Agency and Resilience. Middleton, social work colleague Lesley Harris and doctoral student Jaime Thompson help small groups of survivors make art. The art empowers them to create and also launches group discussion of their experiences during counseling sessions.

“Their stories were phenomenal, really heartbreaking,” Middleton said.

Cotie was one of the participants and hers was just one of the affecting stories UofL researchers heard. Theresa Hayden, assistant professor of criminal justice who directs UofL’s Human Trafficking Research Initiative with Middleton, has provided other examples to students in her human trafficking course.

“Their eyes are opened the first week of class,” said Hayden. “It’s exploitation of human rights — and the greed that drives them [traffickers] …. They begin to see that vulnerability, that victimization.”

The growing exposure to information about trafficking was transformative for Hayden. Her educational and research experiences led her to chair the board for PATH (People Against Trafficking Humans) Coalition of Kentucky, a nonprofit devoted to education, awareness and, ultimately, plans for a home with trauma-informed services for 18- to 24-year-old survivors seeking a safe place.

The lack of a home is a major factor for youth victims, and research coordinated by UofL and several community partners is providing data needed to bolster policy and enforcement measures to combat the problem. The Youth Experiences Survey (YES), conducted by UofL found 40 percent of 132 homeless youth aged 12-25 surveyed in Louisville and Southern Indiana in late 2016 reported they were victims of sex trafficking, mostly in exchange for money or lodging, and the average age of their first such experience was 16.

“Everything we’re doing builds on the YES survey,” Middleton said. “It served as a call to action in our community and our state.”

“Human trafficking represents the worst form of abuse, often to children, and it is increasing in Kentucky,” Attorney General Andy Beshear said. “Research such as UofL’s study is important and will help our efforts to combat this form of modern-day slavery.”

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While Cotie was in the life, she occasionally visited an emergency room or trauma center but received little understanding from the providers. “Once, I was hallucinating on meth, and the emergency room discharged me after four hours. It was like I didn’t matter. I was telling them I had a problem but they wouldn’t help me.”

Although Cotie’s negative experiences did not occur at UofL, ensuring trafficking survivors receive proper care is something the university is working to address. Nationally, as many as 88 percent of trafficking victims interact with health care professionals. However, the health care workers’ ability to recognize the signs of trafficking often is severely lacking.

The UofL School of Medicine created a simulation-based medical education curriculum to prepare students to recognize victims and intervene on their behalf. The only such curriculum in the nation, the Medical Student Instruction in Global Human Trafficking, or M SIGHT, uses online learning, medical documentation and standardized, patient-based simulation to prepare students to see the signs of human trafficking.

The brainchild of Olivia Mittel, associate professor of pediatrics, M-SIGHT trains medical students in “trauma-informed care, which is health care delivered with an understanding of what patients experiencing trauma need,” she said. “The training helps future physicians learn how to ensure confidentiality, ask non-judgmental and open-ended questions to glean information and gradually progress from less invasive to more direct questions.”

M-SIGHT includes a standardized patient simulation where an actor portrays an adolescent female with symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease, as well as the characteristics of victims of human trafficking: poor eye contact, reluctance to communicate with the physician, inconsistencies in what is communicated, tattoos that could suggest branding and evidence of physical abuse. The goal of the simulation and its application is not to force intervention, but rather to build trust, said Carrie Bohnert, director of the standardized patient program at UofL and Mittel’s M-SIGHT colleague.

Medical schools from Harvard, University of South Florida and University of Arkansas have expressed interest in UofL’s training. “There is a wide array of methods for creating human trafficking simulations, and we hope our process will inspire others to create similar interactive educational programs,” Mittel said. Adds Bohnert: “The ultimate goal, of course, is to help human trafficking victims receive both the health care they need and interventions that stop their exploitation.”

UofL clinical care providers already are helping trafficked patients. Physician Jennifer Green is the only child abuse pediatric fellow in Kentucky and specializes in treating patients who are suspected of being physically abused. Emily Neal is a forensic nurse specialist and sexual assault nurse examiner who works with her.

How they treat these patients can be as individualized as the experiences the patients have. After reporting suspected sex trafficking cases to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) and law enforcement, Green and Neal assess their acute medical state to determine if they need testing for sexually transmitted diseases, detox treatment to withdraw from drugs or alcohol, or psychiatric intervention for acute psychosis.

“Once the acute conditions are addressed, then we evaluate their chronic medical state,” Green said. “We have a global, multidisciplinary approach to these patients, trying to address their complete medical and psychological needs.”

With law enforcement and CHFS taking the lead, health care providers stay involved with the patient as long as they can. “We know about 70 percent of sex-trafficked minors experience post-traumatic stress disorder,” Neal said. “These kids need long-term care to fully recover from their experiences.”

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Cotie didn’t have the help the School of Medicine provides, but for a while, she did benefit from UofL’s STAAR sessions at the Kristy Love Foundation.

After one particularly intense group session in May, Cotie emerged from the group in tears. She initially agreed to be photographed for this story, but was in no shape to participate. She rescheduled for two days later. By that time, however, Cotie had disappeared.

“It happens sometimes,” Renfro said. “We pride ourselves on being a home, and people come to the home and people leave the home. But we always take them back. They always can come back home.”

The care providers and researchers know the help they offer can be what finally makes a difference in the lives of survivors like Cotie. Unfortunately, victims often leave treatment programs or stop asking for assistance. But Middleton and her UofL colleagues who have taken up the issue of human trafficking are committed to making a positive impact.

“We’re all really passionate about this issue and trying to combat it.”

But the full story of sports at UofL doesn’t end with varsity teams. The university’s Sports Club program, which operates under the oversight of the Intramural Recreational Sports department, has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2002, there were six club sports. Now, there are 24 with more than 400 students participating in clubs that range from aikido and bowling to table tennis and ballroom dancing.

Some of these teams, including ice hockey, lacrosse, volleyball and rugby, are highly competitive, with rigorous practice and travel schedules. They often represent the university at the top levels of college club athletics. Just this spring, the UofL Men’s Volleyball Club became the first from the school to claim a national club sports title, winning the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation Division 1-AA National Championship in St. Louis.

The bowling team won its first tournament this year, and men’s lacrosse was a runner-up in its conference division. The rugby team was the 2018 Mid-American Conference champion. Last season, the hockey club finished with its best record and won a third straight playoff conference championship.

Winning more than trophies

The accolades go on and on, but Sports Club Coordinator David Rice defines success differently. “I tend to think of success as consistently being a positive presence for the students,” he said. “That’s as good as winning a national championship.”

Research shows that being engaged in groups such as club sports bolsters
student success and retention.

“It gives them a place to relieve stress, meet people, interact, work out and do something positive with their time instead of destructive, because we all know that college students can get off track,” Rice said. “That’s where a lot of our positive impact comes from.”

That was true for Brittney Tooker, a senior psychology major who is captain of the women’s Ultimate Frisbee team. She joined to stay fit and meet people but she ended up falling in love with the sport and making many close friends. A native of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, she’d like to stay in Louisville after graduation because her Ultimate Frisbee connections mean so much to her.Ěý

“It definitely changed the way I see campus,” she said. “It opened doors for me and helped me meet people and challenged me to be more outgoing.”

Club sports allow some students to continue competing even if they can’t play at the varsity level. Rice said there are more than 8 million high school athletes in the U.S. Of those, only 420,000 play at the NCAA level.

“That’s where we come in,” Rice said. “They want to keep playing. It’s the love of the game.”

And, there are numerous sports UofL’s athletic department doesn’t sponsor at the varsity level, such as men’s volleyball. Before college, senior engineering student Sam Bibelhauser played volleyball for St. Xavier High School in Louisville and for the Louisville Fury Volleyball Club. When he got to UofL, he noticed there were several good players from those programs here.

“I was looking around thinking, ‘We have the tools; why don’t we have a team?’ ” he said.

He worked with the Department of Intramural and Recreational Sports to get one started. Now, three years later, with a national title in the bag, Bibelhauser looks back and sees value in all the work he and his teammates put into creating and leading the club. When he was interviewing for different co-op opportunities for next year, he found himself telling stories about his experiences with volleyball. He ended up landing a co-op with NASA.

“It was a lot of hard work, there were obstacles — for me and the club — but we worked through them together, and that experience is irreplaceable,” he said. “It’s made for great memories. It’s a totally student-run organization, and running it with the team’s executive board made for a great life experience.”

Tackling the challenge

The commitment — in time and money — is significant. Clubs are on their own for expenses, including equipment, travel and fees. Hockey Coach Brian Graham said each of the 25 players pay $3,000 in dues every season. Much of that goes to pay the $280 hourly rate at the Iceland Sports Complex where they train and play.

To reduce costs for players, the team raises $40,000 to $50,000 each year selling jerseys, tickets, T-shirts and other merchandise, along with what sponsors give. Graham, whose day job is in insurance, volunteers 20 to 30 hours a week running the club. He actively recruits, with all but four of his players coming from out of state, and one from as far away as Alberta, Canada.

“It’s a passion project,” he said. “I love it.”

Still, he can’t help but wish for funding assistance for his players, or for a rink on campus where UofL students could come and cheer for the team. The club often draws 700 fans for home games and sells out for the raucous UK match.

“The guys are treated as athletes on campus,” Graham said, not “club athletes.”

Rice said he’d like to be able to offer club funding, too, or at least have fields with artificial turf for the clubs to host matches. Currently, teams vie for use of the SGA Intramural Sports fields behind the Speed School, but those aren’t available unless weather is good.

Clubs must often pay for space or play in parks, where the fields might not be in ideal shape.

Still, students say the chance to play the games they love, at the prime of their athletic abilities, is worth the sacrifice.

“It’s absolutely changed my life,” Tooker said. “It’s meant everything to me.”

UofL makes education more palatable for the public by providing unique opportunities to engage with scientists through events like Astronomy on Tap and Beer with a Scientist, with visits to the Owsley Brown II Portable Planetarium, or by sharing neurological research during Brain Days.

“Community engagement does take different forms,” said Henry Cunningham, director of community engagement at UofL. “A major aspect of this work is using the knowledge and expertise of faculty and students to inform the community on various topics. This is seen with “Beer with a Scientist”, where researchers share their research in a bar setting in lay language that everyone can understand.”

“A lot of people don’t have access to scientists,” said Levi Beverly, assistant professor of medicine and creator of the Beer with a Scientist series. “I think we take it for granted working on a college campus.”

Lessons and lagers

Beer with a Scientist and Astronomy on Tap are two similar lecture series from very different beginnings. Beer with a Scientist began four years ago after Beverly, a New York City native, moved to Louisville and wanted to start an underground science program that was similar to those in his hometown.

The event offers just what the name entails: beer at Against the Grain Brewery and a chance for the general public to become informed on a different science topic each month. Lectures are typically given by UofL faculty on topics ranging from biomedical sciences to artificial intelligence.

“One of my passions is disseminating information to the public,” said Beverly. “I wanted science to be accessible to the public in an informal venue.”

Beverly started Louisville Underground Science, a group of people passionate about sharing all things science, as a sponsoring body for the public lecture series. “Originally it was just me trying to start a talk,” he said. “I didn’t want to have to use university resources.”

Astronomy on Tap, an event series that originated in New York City in 2014, was brought to Louisville the following year by Gerard Williger, a physics and astronomy associate professor. When Williger arrived at UofL in 2005, he was one of only a few astronomers at the university and wanted to use Astronomy on Tap as a way to increase awareness of the astronomy program. “I had a desire to build up our program through public outreach,” he said.

Astronomy on Tap is held once a month at Monnik Beer Company where participants can enjoy local brews while learning about topics ranging from interstellar dust’s role in the galaxy to the science behind multiverses.

Brain building

Brain Days is the brainchild of Kristopher Rau, senior research associate in UofL’s Department of Anesthesiology and past president of the Louisville Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. The annual, two-day event was started in 2017 and is held at the Kentucky Science Center. It features hands-on activities designed to educate families about neuroscience.

“I’ve had a passion for community service and science and I wanted to combine my passions through this program,” said Rau. “We try to develop a variety of different stations that can reach several target audiences.”

The 2018 event featured 88 volunteers and 24 stations on all three floors of the science center. Activities included: Building a neuron using pipe cleaners, Styrofoam balls, and beads; constructing a cardboard brain hat; and putting together a giant spine puzzle.

Collectively, the Brain Days scientists and clinicians logged more than 415 volunteer hours to expose over 1,700 visitors to neuroscience.

“I feel that instilling a culture of science outreach is so important at UofL,” said Rau. “From my perspective, our outreach program benefits everyone who is involved. It benefits the public by advancing science literacy. It gets kids of all backgrounds excited about neuroscience and it breaks down that ‘ivory tower’ and helps the public see us for who we are — a group who, while not always perfect, are regular people trying to do our jobs to advance medicine and improve everyone’s health.”

Out-of-this-world education

UofL’s Owsley Brown ll Portable Planetarium was originally created to alleviate some of the logistical hassles and financial constraints of student field trips. With the help of an advisory board and donors, the portable planetarium was funded in 2012.

The programming for the portable planetarium is connected to K–12 science content standards that were developed by states to improve science education for students, but is also customizable depending on the location of the portable planetarium and the curriculum instructors want taught. The portable planetarium regularly visits elementary, middle and high schools, and occasionally makes appearances at community festivals and events.

“The value the portable planetarium offers to the community is evidenced by the increased number of bookings from year to year,” said Thomas Tretter, director of the Gheens Science Hall & Rauch Planetarium.

“Educators appreciate how easily their students grasp complex, difficult concepts in this unique, visually-rich environment.”

The portable planetarium features an inflatable domed ceiling with a projection system that provides participants virtually the same experience they’d have at the planetarium located on the university’s Belknap Campus.

“Viewing the portable planetarium brought the universe to life for our students at Valley High,” said Alicia Gruenwald, biology and chemistry teacher at Valley High School. “Surrounded by the stars, students envisioned the cosmos through new eyes. This experience led students to deeper understanding and new questions.”

Psyched about research

Psych 410, a Psychology Department course also known as “giving psychology away at the University of Louisville” allows students majoring in psychology to share what they have learned with children in the community.

Students in the class design and share with schoolchildren demonstrations of psychological findings for an event called “Get Psyched.” The first event was held on UofL’s campus in 2016 but has since moved off campus to local schools including Shelby Traditional Academy, a public elementary school close to campus. Over the years, “Get Psyched” activities have covered topics such as spatial navigation, taste perception, delayed auditory feedback, and conformity.

“I think it’s a win-win,” said Judith Danovitch, associate professor in UofL’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and instructor of the course. “It gives students an opportunity to show off what they’ve learned and it gives kids in the community a chance to learn about psychology in a way they might not normally experience.”

The last “Get Psyched” event had upwards of 50 attendees from more than 20 different zip codes. Children and parents participated in eight different student-led demonstrations and a research study, and they had the chance to learn how psychology impacts their daily lives.

The late Charlie Tyra, UofL basketball’s first All-American, was responsible for many of those big moments. But if you look closer, especially in recent Cardinal history, you’ll see that Vince Tyra was there.

He was in Freedom Hall in 2010 when Louisville basketball played its final game there and sophomore Kyle Kuric’s 22 points led to a win over Syracuse, the No. 1 team in the country. Tyra and his son, Cooper, were in St. Petersburg, Florida, for then head coach Charlie Strong’s first bowl game, the 2010 Beef O’Brady’s bowl where the Cardinals beat Southern Miss 31-28. It remains Cooper’s favorite bowl game to this day.

Tyra was in St. Louis in 2009 with his mother and niece when Angel McCoughtry and Louisville’s women made their first trip ever to a Final Four. He was in New Orleans for the men’s basketball 2012 Final Four and in Atlanta for the 2013 national championship. He was in Omaha last year for the baseball team’s fourth appearance in the College World Series.

“It’s just been deep in our blood, this whole Louisville thing,” he said.

“This whole Louisville thing” is now Tyra’s official job. Charlie Tyra, the All-American father, is one of the most famous figures of Louisville’s past, but it’s the son, Vince, who now leads the future of Cardinal athletics.

When he was named athletic director in May, Tyra took over a program that had grown tremendously over the previous decade — inclusion in the ACC, facility expansions, national champions in swimming, track and field and more. But the past couple years brought a few bumps that got UofL Athletics off track.

Tyra’s fandom never wavered, of course, through the successes and the turbulence. The former baseball star knew he could step up to the plate when UofL needed a hit — and a captain. His experience as a student athlete, his accomplishments as a businessman and his die-hard support of UofL are an undeniably good combination.

“In the situation our athletics department was in, we needed more than just someone doing the job, but someone who has a true understanding of what UofL athletics is truly about,” said Mark Becker, head women’s tennis coach after Tyra’s hire. “I am from Louisville and am someone who bleeds UofL red, so I am ecstatic that we have someone who is a real UofL fan leading our department.”

Being a Cardinal is something special, and Tyra tries to share that with those he works with today. “As I talk to teams and our coaches and our student athletes, I point them to our logo, and I point to the teeth,” he said. “We’re competitive, we’re fierce, we’re hard-working. All those things that we resemble are in that logo, that teeth of the bird. We are unique.”

As the state’s top high school baseball player, he chose to play his college career at the University of Kentucky. Even in a sea of blue, Tyra was there in Cardinal red. “The truth be told, while I was at Kentucky, if there were other games besides baseball being played I was cheering for Louisville. I caught grief while I was playing there for being a fan of Louisville,” Tyra said.

His time as a college player gave Tyra the tools necessary to work hard for the student athletes he interacts with today. Yes, he wants to get Louisville athletics at the top of its game, but more importantly, he wants to support the students.

“The student-athlete experience is what I’m after,” he said. “I want these kids to leave here after their time on campus either hating having to leave or sad to go. That’s up to all the coaches and staff to be good stewards and surrogate parents so that they have a terrific student athlete experience — emotionally, physically, competitively.”

So, much more often than the big moments and the chaos that comes with an elite NCAA program, Tyra can be found there — among the everyday lives of the UofL community.

“I don’t view myself as just the athletic director,” he said. “I view myself as a leader on campus, whether that’s with the students, the faculty, the alumni, the SGA, our Board of Trustees, or our ULAA board. I can provide leadership outside of what I’m tagged with as a title.”

Still, the title of athletic director is one that this lifelong Cardinal wears with pride. After all, “I’m a Louisville kid,” he said.

And wherever there’s a crowd of fellow “Louisville kids” cheering on the Cardinals, rest assured, Tyra will be there.

While UofL swimming may not have the same deep history, the program’s trajectory is indeed on a similar path. In the past four years alone, UofL has crowned three NCAA champions in the pool — Joao De Lucca, Kelsi Worrell and Mallory Comerford.

The team also features young up-and-comers, like Nick Albiero, son of head coach Arthur Albiero. Much like UofL’s team, the father-son duo are making waves in the ACC and around the world. This past year, Nick represented the USA World Junior Team, where he earned a silver medal. His dad was selected to lead the U.S. as head coach at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships in August in Tokyo.

The rise of UofL swimming can be traced back to about 15 years ago, when Arthur Albiero moved his young family to Louisville, a city he had not stepped foot in prior. Arthur himself
was a college swimmer, winning the Division II NCAA title in the 200 individual medley for Oakland University, where he met his wife, Amy, who also swam.

After college, the Albieros headed to Kenyon College in Ohio, where Arthur was hired as a graduate assistant under swimming giant Jim Steen. Under Steen, Kenyon College won 31 consecutive NCAA DIII national championships. No other program in any sport or division has come close to this feat.

“I called it the Jim Steen accelerated learning program. At that time, I wasn’t sure if coaching would be a career, but I knew I invested a lot of time and energy into the sport and it would be silly to put it in a box and put it away,” Arthur said.

He spent three years learning the ins and outs of Steen’s program before moving on as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama.

“I knew if I was going to coach, I wanted to coach DI. That’s where the best of the best are. The biggest shock was for me to go from Kenyon to Alabama. There’s something powerful to be said about a winning culture. You can’t quantify it, but you can see it and
you can feel it and you certainly know if you don’t have it. Alabama did not have it,” Arthur said.

By his fourth year in Tuscaloosa, the culture started to change. Three swimmers went onto the Olympics.ĚýAfter that fourth year, an opportunity to coach at Louisville came up. At the time, UofL’s program had less than four full scholarships on the men’s side (the limit is 14), one assistant coach and the six-lane, dated Crawford Pool. Arthur was excited about the idea of building something from the ground up.

With Arthur Albiero at the helm, UofL has gone from the bottom of Conference USA to the top of the Big East to the top of the ACC. This year, both the men’s and women’s teams finished in the top 10 in the country. Arthur was named ACC Coach of the Year. Nick was named ACC Freshman of the Year.

“I did not see that coming. I knew he was going to get better and I knew he was going to have a great experience based on his personality. He delivered exactly what we talked
about,” Arthur said.

Nick, who followed big brother Estefan’s footsteps to swim for UofL, said he also was surprised. Though he likes to keep his swimming goals private, he said his main focus is to keep getting a little bit better every day.

“My focus is simply enjoying the process, having fun, working hard, and whatever happens in the future happens,” Nick said.

The Ladybirds dance team, the co-ed cheerleaders and the all-girl cheerleaders returned from the 2018 NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship with four national titles between them.

That gives the Ladybirds 19 total championships, including three straight double titles (in hip hop and team performance). The co-ed squad has 18 titles, while the all-girl squad has 15.

“The consistency of excellence is what makes it a legendary program,” said Todd Sharp, head coach of the Ladybirds and spirit coordinator for men’s and women’s cheer, dance and mascot.

Sharp, Ladybirds coach Sheryl Knight and cheer coaches James Speed and Misty Hodges keep their teams working year-round. During the school year, teams have practice at least four days a week, and they perform at football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball and baseball games. Even when the students are on summer break, they’re sending the coaches videos of themselves tumbling.

“We work out, we have extremely tough practices,” said Madison Clark, a fifth-year senior on the Ladybirds. “We are pushed to our limits. But being able to represent the university the way we do is incredible.”

“One thing we’re blessed with in this community is that the general public knows what being a Ladybird means, they know what it means to cheer for Louisville,” Sharp said. “Our fans have been educated about what it takes to be on these teams and they are proud of us.”

While the Louisville community has been supportive, the rest of the country got a chance to see what being a Ladybird is like during the first season of “So Sharp,” a reality show on Lifetime that followed Sharp and the team during their run for the 2017 championship.

“The Ladybirds legacy was strong before ‘So Sharp,’ but I think it really showed how hard these kids work,” Sharp said. The impact of the show was evident in tryouts for the 2018-19 squad when dancers from across the country showed up to audition.

The show may have furthered the Ladybirds reach, but the UofL spirit groups have long maintained a reputation for trendsetting. “Whatever we wear to nationals one year, all of a sudden you see different teams wearing it the next year. A lot of programs that try to beat us come at us with our own game,” Sharp said. “We always try to be the leader instead of following the leader.”

Calvin Koneman, a senior cheerleader, said the current teams are inspired by their alumni. They work through the pain, the stress, the sweat that are required to be elite athletes and performers so they can keep up the winning tradition.

“In the end, it’s all worth it,” Koneman said. “The championships speak for themselves.”