What can a strong athletic program at the Division III level mean for the college?
It can mean a lot for the alumni, it can mean a lot for the community, for faculty, staff, students. It can mean invaluable
memories for the student-athletes themselves. I think it touches on everything. I expect our whole department, first and
foremost, to be ambassadors for the College. I think it’s critical that we do a lot of reaching out to the entire community, not just to Clinton. I already have a couple of plans in mind. As an example, I can envision a day each season when we have an all-day clinic, and anyone who has anything to do with that sport can come up. If it’s a coach, we have some coaching clinics; if it’s a young kid, we have some clinics for the kids to participate in.
Sportsmanship is a huge buzz across the country. I have to be honest, I’m many times appalled at the conduct of students at Butler games, students at almost every college and university I visit. I’m appalled by parent conduct at my own daughter’s youth soccer games. I think that’s an endeavor for us to take on as well.
From the campus standpoint, we can be a rallying point, we can be a source of entertainment, we can be an outlet to have fun and do things.We need to work to integrate ourselves throughout the whole
campus. Either you’re a part of the community or you’re not, and Hamilton embodies community.
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Along those lines, what is your vision for this intercollegiate program?
The only way you’re going to get to Indianapolis is to drive for an hour and a half to two hours through cornfields from any direction.When I took on the lacrosse program at Butler, there wasn’t a single high school lacrosse program in the state of
Indiana. And yet we were going to take on building a Division I lacrosse program. So it’s assessing along the way points you want
to reach with the program. And the point I kept coming back to with my assistants was, “Too many people keep telling us we can’t win here. Tell me why we can’t.”And each time somebody would have an answer, we would find a way to refute it. We just kept marching forward, building a more and more successful program.
I would say the same thing here. To me, defining success would be asking Hamilton student-athletes one, two, five years out: 1) Did they have a great experience here? And 2)Would they come back if they had to go to school all over again? Our drive should be [to hear] “yes” and “yes.
