Wingate, N.C.----The Wingate University women’s basketball team hosts the inaugural Future Bulldog Day Wednesday, as the Bulldogs will face Lander in a 12 noon Southeast Region game in Cuddy Arena. Future Bulldog Day is an event for local fifth-grade students to visit the Wingate campus for a day and enjoy tours, motivational speakers and NCAA Division II basketball.
 
Six local elementary schools will send 432 students and chaperones to the event. Five schools from Union County (Wingate, Union, Rock Rest, New Salem and Union Academy) and one school from Stanly County (East Albemarle) will make history Wednesday by attending the inaugural Future Bulldog Day.
 
“We are thrilled about the inaugural Future Bulldog Day and the opportunity to expose elementary-age children to the doors which can open to them through higher education,” Wingate head coach Ann Hancock says. “Hopefully, the students seeing our campus and the possibilities which exist at the collegiate level…will spark and motivate them to want to excel when they return to their classrooms.”
 
“The chance for East Albemarle fifth-grade students to explore life on the ‘other side’ of the river will prove for some to be an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and experience,” East Albemarle Elementary School principal Dr. Rhonda Gainey says. “We are truly grateful for the opportunity to take part in the inaugural Future Bulldog Day at Wingate University; we look forward to a day full of excitement, opportunity and a win for the Bulldogs!”  
 
Hancock and her teams hosted several similar events during her time as head coach at UNC Wilmington. “Mike Merrill was our director of basketball operations at UNCW,” Hancock says. “He was very instrumental in getting the Education Day event from idea to reality.”
 
Hancock is quick to credit local businesses for their Future Bulldog Day involvement. “Papa John’s Pizza and SunTrust Bank have been tremendous partners in supporting this project and helping get it off the ground,” Hancock says. “We look forward to continuing to join with the community to make Wingate University and Union County a great place to live and work.”
 
WINGATE UNIVERSITY

Wingate University, ranked as the 6th “best value” in the South by U.S. News & World Report, serves nearly 2,700 students on three campuses in Wingate, Matthews and Hendersonville, N.C. Founded in 1896, the University offers 35 undergraduate majors, 37 minors and career concentrations, numerous pre-professional programs, graduate degrees in business, accounting, education, physician assistant studies and sport administration, and doctorates in pharmacy and education. With a 14 to 1 student/teacher ratio, Wingate students gain the tools and support needed to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life.
 
In addition to a robust intramural athletics program, Wingate student athletes compete in 22 NCAA Division II sports. The University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past six years.
 
Wingate is first among NCAA Division II Academic All-America®-producing private colleges in the 2000’s with 52 selections. Among North Carolina’s colleges and universities, Wingate’s 52 Academic All-America® honorees are tied for first (with Duke University) during this millennium. Wingate’s 61 lifetime Academic All-America® picks are tops among all SAC schools. For more information, go to www.wingatebulldogs.com.