The Keydet Club Board of Governors met in Lexington Sept. 5–6, 2025. On Friday evening, the Keydet Club hosted the second annual fall Athletics Kickoff Party at Outpost 1839, an exclusive stewardship opportunity. Great catering, live music, and a bonfire paired well with the enthusiasm and conversation with our many great coaches in attendance. I want to extend a warm Keydet Club welcome to new coaches Tony Skiles, cross country, and Taylor Mendoza, lacrosse. We expect big things!
At the board meeting Saturday morning, before the Keydet football team’s dominant performance, we had a productive time together as a board. A few takeaways for me:
- VMI cadets continue to be anything but ordinary. For the first 30 minutes, Diamond Baker ’26 (track and field), Rob Peters ’27 (basketball), and T.J. Johnson ’28 (basketball) joined the meeting and shared about their current VMI experience. What an impressive trio!
- Excellent fundraising efforts resulted in a 5% increase in giving year-over-year to more than $7.6 million and an almost 10% increase in the number of donors.
- It continues to be an exciting era for NCAA Division I athletics, and Jamaal Walton ’07, director of intercollegiate athletics, and his staff are educating us on the key issues while welcoming input on how we can continue to raise the bar for our programs—the VMI way!
Looking ahead to the new fiscal year, the Board of Governors is excited to work with newly appointed Lt. Gen. David Furness ’87 in his role as the 16th VMI superintendent, and we look forward to continuing to deepen collaboration between the BOV, Institute, and Alumni Agencies partners.
I’d like to close with a sincere thank you to all of our donors. We are humbled by each and every Keydet Club supporter and invite others to join in the pursuit to enhance academic, military, and athletic victories for VMI’s cadet-athletes.
Rah Virginia Mil!
Kelly Sweppenhiser ’06
Keydet Club President
