Deke Copenhaver

Deke Copenhaver currently serves as Mayor of Augusta, Georgia. A native of the Augusta area, Mr. Copenhaver has a varied background which includes serving as a principal in a real estate firm and being the Executive Director of the Central Savannah River Land Trust.  Deke currently serves on the various boards in the community including the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area, the Augusta State University Foundation, the Georgia Conservancy, the Augusta Museum of History, the Family Y of Metro Augusta, the Georgia Alliance of Land Trusts and the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation. He’s a member of the Kiwanis Club of Augusta and Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church, where he serves as a deacon.  Georgia Trend Magazine recently recognized Deke as one of the 100 Most Influential Georgians of 2007. 

"As Augusta's proactive downtown redevelopment efforts begin to shape the bright future of our City Center, we now have the opportunity to provide an anchor tenant to our City's beautiful riverfront by creating a multi-use entertainment facility in a new downtown baseball stadium.  As the Watermark mixed use development begins to take shape as an anchor at one end of our RiverWalk, the possibility of having a new stadium, as well as our new Trade and Exhibit Center, to serve as an anchor at the other end truly excites the imagination.  As the Garden City, one can only imagine the positive attention that would be drawn to Augusta by a complex that not only features a stadium, shops, and restaurants, but that also adjoins beautiful botanical gardens to provide for a "park within a park" setting.  The pedestrian activity generated by these projects will certainly serve to showcase our riverfront in a manner that has never been done before.  It is the firm belief of our committee that this public/private partnership will serve to further develop our riverfront into a destination that citizens and visitors alike can enjoy for generations to come.  I encourage you to join with us in making the dream of a vibrant and thriving riverfront a reality by supporting a project that will serve as a catalyst towards our City reaching its vast, yet often untapped, potential.  Let's bring baseball downtown!"

Steven J. Cassell, PE, PTOE:

Mr. Cassell is a 1995 Graduate of The Ohio State University with Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering and is a registered professional engineer in the State of Georgia.  Mr. Cassell has over twelve years of experience encompassing several aspects of the Civil Engineering field, most notably: traffic engineering, site development engineering, and environmental engineering.

Mr. Cassell is currently employed with the City of Augusta as the Assistant Director of Engineering in the Traffic Engineering Division.  In this position, Mr. Cassell manages and oversees all aspects of Traffic Engineering for the City of Augusta and Richmond County including traffic studies, access management, signal timing, signal design, signal installation, signal maintenance, street markings, sign installation and maintenance, and street lighting.

George Sancken

Mr. Sancken is a Registered Representative with Transamerica Financial Advisors and President of Westover Memorial Park. Mr. Sancken wants Augusta to live up to its potential as a great city and a great place to live.

Tammy Stout, CSEE

Ms. Stout is an Executive Director for Greater Augusta Sports Council (GASC), which promotes the area to event planners across the country as a sports destination for more than a dozen niche sports.   Ms. Stout believes that an improved stadium location will provide a more competitive venue offering attractive and complimentary surrounding development.        

Timothy E. Moses

Tim Moses is a technology and business lawyer in Augusta, who has served the Augusta community in a number of capacities over the years.  Mr. Moses volunteered to serve on the Downtown Stadium Committee to help build a brighter future for Augusta and a sense of “community” for all citizens.

Walter Dukes

Mr. Dukes the Region Vice- President of Georgia Power and Chairman of the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce.  Mr. Dukes is involved because he cares about the development of Augusta, the downtown area, and this region.  Mr. Dukes wants to help shape the Vision of Augusta for the next 25 years.

Margaret Woodard

Ms. Woodward is Executive Director of the Downtown Development Authority of Augusta, an independent public agency that works with the local government and the private sector to strengthen the economic climate of the central business district.

Barry White

Mr. White is President & CEO of the Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau (“CVB”), which enhances the economic growth of the region by attracting leisure and meeting visitors and by fostering the development of visitor-related facilities and events. 

Dianne King

Ms. King is Executive Director of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.  Ms. King is participating as liaison to the GGHF Board of Directors.

Nathaniel Turner Simkins

Turner Simkins is the Project Director for the traditional neighborhood development, Hammond’s Ferry, a public/private initiative involving the City of North Augusta, Leyland Alliance, LLC, of Tuxedo, N.Y., and Civitas of Charleston, SC.  He is also a Vice President with Blanchard & Calhoun real estate.  A graduate of Washington and Lee University, Simkins served for over 10 years as a project director and vice president with Jack Nicklaus Development Corporation.  Locally, he is involved with many civic and professional organizations.  He is past chairman and continues to serve on the boards of  the Augusta Canal Authority and the Central Savannah River Land Trust.  He also serves as a director of the South Eastern Natural Sciences Academy, Augusta Tomorrow, and the Metro Augusta Chamber of Commerce.   A member of the Builders Association of Metro, he is past president of the Sales and Marketing Council.  He has served on the boards of Main Street Augusta, the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art and the Historic Augusta Revolving Fund.   He is an alumnus of Leadership Georgia and is a member of the National Town Builders Association, the Urban Land Institute and  the Congress for New Urbanism.  He lives with his wife and three sons in Augusta, Georgia.

Clint Bryant

Mr. Bryant has served Augusta State University for the past 19 years as the Director of Athletics and the past 10 years as Administrative Associate to the President.  In addition to his duties as Augusta State, Mr. Bryant is heavily involved in the Augusta community, most recently having launched the C.A.R.E. Commission, a group of concerned citizens, to address the issue of teenage gang violence in the Augusta Area.  Mr. Bryant serves as Chair of the Planning Subcommittee.

Phin Hitchcock

Mr. Hitchcock is the Director of Fireside Ministries, which provides job skill training for unemployed men in our city.  Mr. Hitchcock also works with the children at Heritage Academy and is the volunteer coordinator for the renovations of the Hougton School building for Heritage Academy.  Mr. Hitchcock believes that bringing the baseball stadium into the business district of Augusta will create additional businesses, provide more jobs, and have a positive impact on our entire city.  He is also convinced that the downtown baseball park can be the catalyst in bringing together our wonderfully diverse community in the city and the CSRA.

George Patty

Mr. Patty is the executive director of the Augusta-Richmond County Planning Commission.  Mr. Patty was involved in the initial renaissance of downtown Augusta in the 1980’s along with Augusta Tomorrow and others, and believes that the time has come for the City and private partners to again step forward. Mr. Patty is open to ideas on how that might best be done, but believes that downtown baseball has certainly been an effective catalyst in the cities he has visited.

Chris Flannery joined the Ripken Baseball Group in 2002. With more than 20 years of executive management, marketing and business development skills; Chris runs the day to day operations of all divisions of the Ripken Baseball Group. During the past five years the company has expanded operations from Maryland to Augusta, GA and Myrtle Beach, SC. Today the Ripken Baseball Group encompasses   professional baseball teams in Aberdeen, MD and Augusta, GA; a professional services company Ripken Management & Design; Ripken Amateur Baseball the country’s leading baseball instructional camp and tournament destination in Aberdeen and Myrtle Beach, SC, and Ironclad Authentics a leading memorabilia and licensing company. Additionally, Chris serves on the board of the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation a 501©3 dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth. Prior to joining Ripken Baseball Chris most recently served as Vice-President of Marketing for Altura International/Shop.com in Monterey, CA and prior to that, the native of London, England was an executive at West Marine in Watsonville, CA from 1996-2000. West Marine is the largest supplier of boating equipment in the world. While there he developed and managed international strategic growth for West Marine catalog and retail operations.

Mr. Eiseman, has spent over 15 years in the sports industry and began his career with Ripken Baseball in 2002 as General Manager, leading the start-up of the Aberdeen IronBirds.  Under his guidance, the IronBirds have become one of Minor League Baseball's most successful franchises. 

Ripken Baseball in 2002 as General Manager, leading the start-up of the Aberdeen IronBirds.  Under his guidance, the IronBirds have become one of Minor League Baseball's most successful franchises.  In 2002, Jeff was recognized as one of Baltimore's "Top 40 Under 40" by the Baltimore Business Journal.  Prior to joining Ripken Baseball, Jeff spent 8 very successfully seasons with the Las Vegas 51s, the Los Angeles Dodgers Triple-A Affiliate (his last season as Executive Vice President).  In 2004, Jeff received the Larry MacPhail Promotional Award for the Aberdeen franchise's continued success in areas of marketing, promotion, and community relations.

In 2004, Jeff was promoted to Vice President of Professional Baseball for the Ripken Group, including the added responsibility of overseeing Ripken Management & Design as well as Ripken Professional Baseball, the parent company of the Augusta GreenJackets, Aberdeen IronBirds, Ripken Stadium, & Lake Olmstead Stadium as well as future franchise acquisitions. 

Brad Usry

Mr. Usry is President of Fatsville Enterprises, Inc. Mr. Usry is a lifelong Augustan with five businesses in Augusta.  He feels professional sports teams and organized youth sports are a great foundation for communities and are one of the best economic development components. Mr. Usry was a proponent of Downtown-Riverfront stadium before Lake Olmstead Stadium was built.

Karyn Nixon

Ms. Nixon is the Executive Assistant to Mayor Deke Copenhaver.  Her prior experience was with Private Banking at Chase Manhattan Bank and Sullivan and Co. in New York City.  As a mother of 2 young children, Karyn feels the downtown waterfront in one of Augusta’s jewels and would love to see development that all citizens of Augusta would enjoy.

Commissioner Calvin Holland

Commissioner Calvin Holland represents District 5 in Augusta.  Commissioner Holland was in the field of education for thirty-eight years and is the retired principal of Glenn Hills High School.  He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc., Richmond County Association, Georgia Association of Educators, National Association of High School Principals, National Education Association, Optimist Club and Optimist International.

As a Commissioner of Augusta – Richmond County, I am committed to working for all citizens to help make Augusta a more progressive city.  I am concerned about the economic development that will increase the growth of business and job opportunities.  I am also interested in providing better recreational facilities and health programs for our youth and senior citizens.  Reducing criminal activity is a main concern to ensure a safe community for our people.

Owner of the Augusta GreenJackets and the newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cal Ripken is baseball’s all-time Iron Man.  He retired from baseball in October, 2001 after 21 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles.  His name appears in the record books repeatedly, most notably as one of only eight players in history to achieve 400 home runs and 3,000 hits. 

In 1995, Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played (2,130) and voluntarily ended his streak in 1998 after playing 2,632 consecutive games.  Although he finished his career at third base, this future Hall of Famer is still best known for redefining the position of shortstop.

Ripken’s name has become synonymous with strength, character, endurance and integrity.  His philosophy of working hard, playing with passion and enjoying the game has made a tremendous impact on the sport and on fans everywhere.  In 1999, Babe Ruth League Inc. changed the name of its largest division (5-12 year-olds) from Bambino to Cal Ripken Baseball.  Presently, over 700,000 youths play Cal Ripken Baseball worldwide.

Now Ripken is using the platform that baseball has provided him to help grow the game he loves at the grassroots level.   

Ripken has always placed a strong focus on giving back to the community.  In 2001 he and his family established the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, in memory of the family’s patriarch.  The Foundation helps teach life lessons through baseball to disadvantaged youth from all over the country and gives them a life-changing experience.  The foundation has refurbished fields throughout Maryland, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Boys & Girls Clubs across the country and helped thousands of kids enjoy baseball experiences that they would otherwise never encounter.  Additionally, the foundation has teamed up with NikeGo, the non-profit arm of Nike, to donate over $1Million of baseball and softball equipment to school systems across the country.

Among his many on-field accolades are: AL Rookie of the Year (’82), two time AL Most Valuable Player (’83, ’91), two time Gold Glove recipient (’91, ’92), two time All-Star MVP (’91, ’01), a world record 2,632 consecutive games and 19 All-Star Game selections.  In 2001, Cal was honored when fans named his 2,131st consecutive game Major League Baseball’s “Most Memorable Moment” in history through a program run by MLB.