Published on October 26, 2015  

It has become commonplace:  another regular season SoCon championship for Samford soccer.  The win came Friday evening at East Tennessee State University, with a final score of 1-0.  But there has been nothing common about this season.  Throughout each day this fall, and stretching back several years, Coach Todd Yelton and his wife, Shauna, and their family and friends have been battling Shauna’s cancer.  During her time as the director of our campus health center, Shauna provided much-needed care to hundreds of our students and employees.  Now it is our turn to care for her.  

In an exchange with Todd early Saturday morning, he wrote these words to me:   “This has been a tough journey.  However, the Almighty continues to show up in our desperation.  We often speak of family.  It has become a cliché in sports.  However, this team, the athletic department and the Samford community have demonstrated that we really do love one another.  I am humbled by the love that our team and their families have demonstrated to us.  We often speak of how much we love and care for one another.  To this group it's much more than a cliché as they demonstrate that daily.  I am moved beyond being able to express how proud I am of this group.”    

The world is better because of Shauna and Todd Yelton.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 5,791 students from 49 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.