Post Interview Notes and Reflection

I interviewed Rachel Egan, the Athletic Director at Division III, Frankenstein University.

 Questions and Answers: 

1. What exactly influenced you to become an Athletic Director?

“Opportunity, I was working on Wall St. and got the opportunity to become a Coach and from there on my career took off, and here I am 30 years later the Athletic Director at Frankenstein.”

I’ve read that you were either the Athletic Director or a coach at D-I, II, and III, what are some of the differences in the Divisions. Communication wise, was it harder or easier at the higher Divisions?

“Division 1 is easier but they’re is more reporting, with division 3 the institution handles a lot more things than at the division 1 level. There is more data to capture and more policies forms at the D-I level but it was easier for me there because I was only a coach, not the Athletic Director like I am at the D-III level ”

2. I imagined as the head of a department, you’re really busy, what type of documents do you make to stay organized?

“Well first off, I usually keep everything electronically, such as recruitment forms, and eligibility forms to make sure the student athletes are eligible to play. Also we just started this new page called Front Rush, it holds all the athletes records. I do write things down in my notebook like a to-do-list and team scheduling but mostly everything electronically. Then of course there are scholarship forms which are just written contracts between the University and the student athlete.”

3. What kind of things do you make a document or notes of daily to make sure you are caught up with everything?

“We hold a staff meeting once per month, were I ask the staff to give me their request for their agendas this way we can work on scheduling and make it fair for everyone. In one of our first meetings I always give out my “leadership statement” that I make which stats what it takes to become a better leader.”

4. Can you name a bad situation, and how do you respond to bad situations surrounding a team or a student athlete?

“First we always collect all the facts before responding in any way, then we always stick to our policies and check which rules were broken. When it’s a situation involving a student athlete I always have the coach present and if the student broke any of the University policies then we always support the policies and add any sanctions if necessary.” “I always meet first face to face with the student or coach to let them what will happen or what has happened, but I always send a follow up email just so there’s a written document of what actually happened.”

^And how about a good situation?

“This is what we love, usually we will put any success on our website for our students and staff to see. We’ll then put out a flash release statement so even if you’re not trying to see it, it may just pop up.” “We also put it on all our social media pages and then even send an article to the hometown of the student athlete so it could be put in their local newspaper.”

5. Do you prefer to respond with verbal or written communication? And Why?

_____________________________________________________________________

6. How do you interact with your employees in order to keep a good relationship?

“Success belongs to them, any failure belongs to me” “I always send out daily emails to each individual staff member to catch up with any of the latest news and also send out a group email to all the staff members. We also make check in meetings with the coaches to see how they’re doing.”

^How do you communicate with people outside of the University, maybe like other Athletic Directors from different Universities or even the NCAA board of directors?

“Usually always communicate with them through emails, and on some occasions through phone calls to make sure we’re definitely on the same page.” “I make federal reports and also NCAA reports for all our student athletes when I’m communicating to people outside of the University.”

7. What inspires and motivates you to continue to do the work you do everyday?

“The students and how passionate they are about playing their sport and the fact that I can help and make that possible for them motivates me everyday.”

8. Could you name a project or something that you may be working on right now, and how many times a day do you find yourself working on it?

“EADA - Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, it is a law that requires us to make available gender equity information about our programs.” “We are also working on looking to add another sports team to our University, so we are doing a lot of evaluating right now and considering which one is best for us.”

9. Lastly, what would you say is the most important thing to do everyday to enjoy and make this job easier than what it could be.

“Staying in touch with all the student athletes sending out blast emails to stay caught up with everything.” “Writing down anything that happens this way I won’t forget about it.”

Reflection:

I really connected to this interview because I’ve been around sports my entire life so I completely understood her the whole time and what she was talking about it. I also connected to this interview because I learned what documents and daily reminders she writes down and that’s exactly what I was looking to get out of this interview.

Specific Questions: #2, #3, #4 & follow up to #4

I think what worked best was the questions I asked and the specific answers I got. This worked extremely well because I didn’t go in there blind and with random questions. I knew exactly what I wanted to get from this interview and preparing my questions and also preparing myself to ask follow up questions helped a lot with that. Another thing that worked was improvising questions to make Rachel really get specific with the answers she was giving me.

I think one big thing that I didn’t do to well was copy down her answers as fast as she was giving them. If I could change that I would definitely ask to record the interview this way I could slow it down and get everything and anything I might’ve missed.