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mat1992

Q&A with TL

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A CONVERSATION WITH

Director of Athletics, Tim Leonard and SID Emeritus, Pete Schlehr
Pete Schlehr served as the Tigers' media relations director for 36 years before retiring in 2011 – a couple of years before Tim Leonard arrived. Every so often the two get together when questions not normally asked are answered to provide a different insight into athletics at Towson University.

PS - Towson's women's spring programs are enjoying quite a spring, in particular softball, golf, lacrosse and track. What's behind the success? How much of it is coaching?

TL - There are three things that allow you to win; coaches, student-athletes and the resources we provide them so they can be successful, and that's where the donors play such a huge role. In softball Lisa (Costello) is having a good spring because she's a good coach. Despite a few uncharacteristic seasons, she's come back strong this year (36-11). For Sonia (LaMonica) and her staff, this just might be her best team yet (No. 8 nationally). So in both situations I would credit the coaching staff because of the quality of student-athletes they've brought into their programs, the motivation they're providing everyone and the support they're getting from the rest of us to meet their needs. In track and field (defending CAA champs) it's all Mike Jackson. He's a special coach. He made a quick turnaround when we won our first-ever women's outdoor conference championship last year. The guy can coach. He can develop young people. He can make them perform at a higher level. Lisa (Ferrero) is the same way. She inherited a golf team that was all in place before she got here. She obviously knows how to play golf at a high level. Change is never easy but the team managed to get through it. The third place in the recent CAA tournament is our highest finish ever.

PS - Some of our programs are celebrating 50th anniversaries. Do you think these programs are where they should be after 50 years?

TL - We have quite a few programs that began during the 1968-69 season, those being men's swimming and diving, men's golf and football. In the grand scheme of things 50 years isn't very long. We haven't been at it as long as other places have so - are we there yet or are we where we want to be? Truthfully, there are only a handful of schools who can say they are where they want to be. There a lot of factors. It's not just a football program, or it's not just an athletics director. Based off our history, how we've grown, where we thought we'd be - is it in our DNA to say that we should be playing for a national championship or is it in our DNA to say that we have evolved from Division III to Division II to Division I-AA/ FCS? Depending upon your definition we haven't been in FCS that long. We haven't been FCS as long as Montana, Eastern Washington and some of those Big Sky schools who were charter members in Division I-AA. We're much more recent but we've shown we can be competitive and arguably, we play in the most competitive FCS conference in the country. It's hard. It's hard to win in this league and in the CAA. But we've certainly proven we can. Now what we have to do is prove we can do it every year. But again, it's not easy. There is a significant resource and funding gap between the top of this league and everybody else.

PS - We're a mid-major. What are some of the keys in sustaining a mid-major program?

TL - It's really two things. It requires commitment from the university and good coaches. If you have good coaches they will stay longer because they want to win, they want to be at a place where they know they can win. They will be able to bring in the right student-athletes to allow us to compete. That's really difficult at this level.

PS - University president Kim Schatzel has talked about the Maryland Legislature's approved funding for improving and redesigning the main campus athletic fields that will allow for five times the number of team practice hours in addition to a new women's field hockey field. What does this truly mean for athletics?

TL - It's huge. We go back to talking about university commitment. We're trending in the right direction. We're committed to facilities here, particularly for the court sports. They're in really good shape. I honestly believe we have the best facilities setup in our conference for men's and women's basketball and volleyball. Is there somebody in the league that might have one part of that better? Possibly but in the combination of everything with the Arena, the new offices, the weight rooms, the slow transformation of the Towson Center into a practice facility, the fact that this is all joined together, all in one, it's the best setup in the CAA. Now we've got to get the field sports there. We have a nice venue for them to play in but we don't have a great setup for efficiency for practice. That's what the fields' initiative is going to do for us that Dr. Schatzel was referencing. That should be completed for the most part in the next two years. The next focus we really have to attack is our annual operational budget. I'm not big on we have to have the biggest budget in the league to prove you can be the best. But you want to make sure that you have good coaches, that you give the kids a chance to compete in the classroom, eat right, have the proper nutrition, provide strength and conditioning, sports medicine, all those things and that's a never-ending battle in terms of the associated costs.

PS - That segues nicely into the question of how important is Towson's annual athletics campaign?

TL - It's really big and I don't know if people truly understand its impact. We never really had a true, dedicated annual fund where we're asking people to give every year at same time for unrestricted support. It's only been in the last couple of years that we've really tried to focus on that at Towson. That is huge for us because if we're ever going to grow our operational budget, the fundraising component is a big, big part of that. That has the most opportunity for growth. You're only going to sell so many tickets. But fundraising is as large as you can get it to be. There's nothing stopping it from getting there other than the participation and the dollars people put into it. In the past we've been too focused on project giving. If we had this immediate need for something, say $5,000, we'd ask everybody to pitch in and when that need was met they wouldn't think of us again until the next project. We've got to make that evolution now to where people think of us every year as a part of their philanthropic giving. An annual fund is about participation. Those that can give more, great. Do it. But it's about participation so everybody can be a part of this. It's not like we're building a big facility and all we're concerned about are six and seven figure gifts. If all somebody can do is 25 bucks that's great. If you can give $25,000, that's great too. It's about participation and consistency. Create that habit of giving every year to the annual fund.

PS - What's so important about making the contribution before June 30th?

TL - That's the end of our fiscal year. We have a certain number that we budget towards that is going to come in from our unrestricted annual fund. We have to hit that number or else we could run the risk of getting upside down. We pretty much know what we're going to raise but we'd like to have the confidence to know it's going to be $50,000 or $100,000 more. The good news is the figure is rising. When I first got here that number was zero. We weren't budgeting a fundraising total. It was sports specific. We still need those but to get our overall operating budget up that benefits the entire department - that's what those Tiger athletics funds are used for. That's why that's important so we can add that as a revenue line to our budget. Over time that becomes very significant.

 

 

 

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Sure, he's basically saying that the Field Hockey field behind the Softball Field is just the start. I've been hearing about a new indoor facility for years for outdoor sports. They can't just use the Towson Center in the winter.

 

 University president Kim Schatzel has talked about the Maryland Legislature's approved funding for improving and redesigning the main campus athletic fields that will allow for five times the number of team practice hours in addition to a new women's field hockey field. What does this truly mean for athletics?

TL - It's huge. We go back to talking about university commitment. We're trending in the right direction. We're committed to facilities here, particularly for the court sports. They're in really good shape. I honestly believe we have the best facilities setup in our conference for men's and women's basketball and volleyball. Is there somebody in the league that might have one part of that better? Possibly but in the combination of everything with the Arena, the new offices, the weight rooms, the slow transformation of the Towson Center into a practice facility, the fact that this is all joined together, all in one, it's the best setup in the CAA. Now we've got to get the field sports there. We have a nice venue for them to play in but we don't have a great setup for efficiency for practice. That's what the fields' initiative is going to do for us that Dr. Schatzel was referencing. That should be completed for the most part in the next two years. 

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These upgrades are long overdue. Getting extra practice fields (turfed) will help out with recruiting! I just hope one of the turfed fields will be an indoor facility (The lower practice field would be the perfect place for it) That would allow teams to practice in bad weather, cold weather (for the outdoor spring sports) and just help bring us in line with JMU and Delaware.

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16 hours ago, etiger said:

These upgrades are long overdue. Getting extra practice fields (turfed) will help out with recruiting! I just hope one of the turfed fields will be an indoor facility (The lower practice field would be the perfect place for it) That would allow teams to practice in bad weather, cold weather (for the outdoor spring sports) and just help bring us in line with JMU and Delaware.

AGREED

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