A title, historic wins, court stormings, field stormings, and a football revival
Remember the fall of 2022? Football was at its lowest point in decades. Everyone knew our basketball teams were well behind the pack in the ACC. We had major success in volleyball and golf, but where the eyeballs were, Georgia Tech didn’t impress.
Fast forward a year and a half, and undeniably the whole of Georgia Tech athletics is in a much better place in June 2024. During the most recent Scions of the Southland, we closed with a quick recap of every sport, to which we came to the conclusion that none of them were headed in the wrong direction or backwards. It’s a testament to the strategic and coordinated turnaround the athletic department has made to get competitive and relevant in as many sports as possible. It netted Tech their first national championship in 17 years.
In this here Best of Georgia Tech, we think you’ll come away thinking the same. If you want to see just how far we’ve come in just one year, we did this same list last year, and it’s wild how different it is.
Same as last year, we’ve invited members of the FTRS staff and the Georgia Tech sports media ecosystem to vote on multiple categories. the categories remain the same with one additional section: Team of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year, Male Athlete of the Year, Moment/Play of the Year, Newcomer of the Year (freshman or transfer), Best Game/Match of the Year, Coach of the Year, and a Special Recognition category for things that barely missed the cut in another category. For categories polled on Twitter (Male and Female Athlete of the Year, Coach of the Year), those were also taken into consideration.
Team of the Year – Golf
GTAA
Golf undeniably was the best team on campus, finishing the season as an NCAA Semifinalist a year after being the national runners up. Christo Lamprecht at worst was the #2 ranked player throughout the season, setting the program single season and career scoring records in his final year as a Jacket. Hiroshi Tai won the individual national championship, bringing Tech it’s first NCAA title in any sport since 2007 (women’s tennis). They are the stalwart of consistency for Georgia Tech. What Bruce Heppler has maintained in the midst of incredible competiton just in the ACC alone will eventually leave him as one of the best coaches in Institute history.
Honorable Mentions: Volleyball, Football
Female Athlete of the Year – Mallorie Black
Danny Karnik – GTAA
The transformation Georgia Tech Softball took in just one season at the plate is potentially the most remarkable change in form from the entire athletic year. Hunter Bunch, Tech’s hitting coach, came in and simplified hitting for the team, let the girls do what was natural to them, and it turned into one of the best offensive seasons in team history. Third baseman Mallorie Black was the head of that offensive beast. She hit .373 (14th in ACC, 154 points better than 2023) with 19 homers (T2nd in ACC) and a .473 OBP (13th in ACC). Those 19 homers are 7th most in single season program history, and were the most by any Jacket since Kelsi Weseman’s 21 homers in 2011. She led the Jackets in homers, average, hits, runs, doubles, slugging, and RBIs.
She’s been named to NFCA’s All-Southeast Region 3rd Team, Softball America’s 2nd Team All-America, won ACC Player of the Week twice, and became Tech’s first ever National Player of the Week since Jen Yee in 2010. No athlete on campus showed this much growth year over year and became one of the best in the nation at their position.
Honorable Mentions: Carol Lee, Bianca Bertolino, Tamara Otene
Male Athlete of the Year – Hiroshi Tai
Photo by C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
He’s a reigning national champion, what more is there to say? He became the fourth individual champ in school history, joining Watts Gunn (1927), Charlie Yates (1934), and Troy Matteson (2002) in the exclusive club. His 70.74 scoring average is the 14th best in school history, and his career 71.12 average is 5th best in program history. The fact Christo Lamprecht, who set the program single season scoring average and career scoring average, didn’t win this is pretty remarkable. But, trophies last forever, as will Hiroshi’s name in our history books.
Honorable Mentions: Christo Lamprecht, Drew Burress, Haynes King
Moment/Play of the Year
My happiest moment of the year was marrying the love of my life. A close second was watching us pull the upset against Miami. I know many people view this as more of a choke by Miami instead of a great win by us, but I still say that the win displayed great effort by GT and a never say die attitude I haven’t seen from us in a while. I still watch clips of the drive because it feels so good. – Logan Sandor
Shoutout to Paul Moala for stripping the ball and Kyle Kennard for landing on the fumble to ensure the offense had a chance to complete the Miracle in Miami Gardens.
The other candidate was easily one of the best moments all year, Naithan George’s layup to put Tech permanently ahead for the upset win over UNC:
Newcomer of the Year – Drew Burress
Danny Karnik – GTAA
In a year with a long time golf records broken and plenty of swimming records broken, the most impressive single game feat came from Drew Burress. He became the first Jacket ever to hit four home runs in a single game, is the national freshman of the year, sits in the top 10 nationally in WAR, and was one home run away from tying Kevin Parada’s single season program record. He may not be at Tech for four years with how high his draft prospects should be in the future, but for now we got to see one of the best single seasons in Georgia Tech history.
Honorable Mentions: Haynes King, Eric Singleton Jr, Sabyne Brisson
Best Game/Match – October 26, 2023: Georgia Tech 46, #16 North Carolina 42
Danny Karnik – GTAA
Homecoming 2023 had everything: an inventive win by the Invention Studio in the Mini-500, a beautiful day for tailgating, the return of Paul Johnson to celebrate his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, and the biggest upset for the program since Lance Austin returned the field goal against Florida State. Even after the Miami win, this was a statement win showing Georgia Tech could no longer be an afterthought in the ACC. The presence of Paul and the fact Tech ran for 348 yards felt like the program had healed and could be all systems go without the baggage of the previous administration still lingering. And then, we got to storm the field in the best release of raw emotion for the Tech fanbase in years. – Jack Purdy
Honorable Mentions: Gasparilla Bowl, Volleyball vs. #3 Louisville, NCAA Golf Championship Round 4, Basketball vs. #3 North Carolina
Coach of the Year – Brent Key
Danny Karnik – GTAA
In his first season as the head coach without the interim tag, Brent Key was tasked with rebuilding basically every aspect of Tech football, from the on field product to the culture they portrayed. They came out with energy we could believe in, accountability we could trust in, and a process that could net real results, and it brought the team to a 6-6 season, good enough for a Gasparilla Bowl berth and one of the biggest come from behind wins in program history to win that bowl. No one had more responsibility to fix the public image of Tech than Brent, and he’s done so by leaps and bounds. He is the forefront of what a Tech Man looks like and can do for their Institute. He’s brought hope to the fanbase and a commitment to do whatever it takes to make Tech one of the toughest opponents for whoever we play.
Honorable Mentions: Bruce Heppler, Michelle Collier, Hunter Bunch, Buster Faulkner
Special Recognition – Baye Ndongo
Danny Karnik – GTAA
One big name not mentioned yet that played massive part in the story of Georgia Tech sports this year is Baye Ndongo. One of the biggest holes in general on campus was the lack of a quality big man, and Baye came in as one of the biggest gamechangers in the ACC. It was never a bad time watching him play. Pairing him with the #12 ranked recruiting class coming in this season, and we might just see Ndongo competing for awards bigger than we give here.
Thanks to Ken Sugiura + Chad Bishop from the AJC, Jackson Caudell from All-Yellow Jackets, Rod Mackenzie from gojackets.com @ 247Sports, and Rohan Raman + Joseph Henderson from The Technique for joining us in coming up with this list.