Ask the AD Transcript - June 20, 2018 - Kansas State University Athletics

K-State Director of Athletics Gene Taylor (GT) sat down with Brian Smoller (BS) to give a quick update on recent happenings in the department and answer fan questions, covering topics like the new leader of the baseball program and hunt for tennis head coach, along with Catbacker Tour wrap-up, facilities updates and a hint at the coming strategic plan.

BS: The biggest news in the last couple of weeks, Pete Hughes named the new baseball coach at K-State, what are your thoughts a couple days, weeks removed from that process.GT: We're very excited about Pete. He's got a great family first of all, it was great to meet the family during the introduction process. Pete's been busy – we introduced him and he's been on the road seeing recruits and trying to get his staff together. He hasn't had a chance to meet a lot of people, he's been busy, but very excited about the energy he's bringing, the experience he's bringing and I think he's going to be a great fit for us.

BS: Danielle Steinberg, who had done a tremendous job with the tennis team, was just announced at Colorado, so you have another coaching search.
GT: We appreciate Danielle, she's done a tremendous job like you mentioned, went to the NCAA Tournament this year, won a match in the NCAAs. She had a chance to go and we wish her the best. We hate to lose good coaches like that but it gives us another chance to do another search, and again, very similar to the baseball search, there's a lot of interest in our tennis position. We have some great facilities, we had a great year, so that brings candidates that are interested. We're pretty far down the path on this search. We've identified some of our top candidates. Scott Garrett, our sport administrator for tennis, is leading that search so we'll probably start doing some interviews here and within the next couple weeks have a tennis coach in place.

BS: People may want to draw some conclusions based on your first two hires in your tenure here, what might these hires indicate?
GT: Every search is different. Whatever reason for coaches to leave, the situation is different. In the baseball position, we were looking for head coach experience, somebody that had turned programs around. In that particular search, we identified qualities we were looking for. The tennis coach is a little different – it's a much more successful program, coming off an NCAA Tournament. We don't feel we necessarily need to have a sitting head coach, if we get one great, but we've got some great assistants in the pool. Every situation is different so we evaluate it, sit down and talk and say what do we need to get the best coach for this particular position. Every search is different, but there are certain qualities you look for – obviously good people, people who understand your program, people who understand what they're walking into, understand the expectations. Those things don't change a great deal, but each search is different.

BS: The Catbacker Tour wrapped up, what are your thoughts being out for year two now?
GT: It was great. Last year I was so new, I didn't know a lot of people – your head is kind of spinning. This year was a lot more enjoyable, but I didn't get a chance to see as many Catbacker events as I wanted to because of my schedule. The one thing that continues to be reinforced is our passionate fanbase. It's so fun to see them come out – most of them are involved with golf tournaments, we have a dinner, we bring speakers out, head coaches, assistant coaches, I get a chance to go out. The love they have for our program is very evident. Some are bigger events, some are 300, some are 75 or 100, but they're all full of passion. Wyatt Thompson does a tremendous job. He does every one of them, and we have a great staff, our entertainment folks, the hospitality folks put that on – it's a lot of fun. Hopefully next year I can do more than I did this year.

BS: First question is about the large pile of gravel in the East Stadium Parking Lot, but talk about facility updates in general going on this summer?
GT: I think that pile is for our track project – we're pulling out all of our current track and getting it completely redone. We're hosting the Big 12 Championships in 2020 so we're going to be installing a brand new track. There will eventually be new lights put in there. We just finished the East Side Club area in the football stadium, that's really nice, that upgrade, I just walked through there the other day. Then we're going to start on the infield of Tointon Family Stadium, we're going to redo the outfield wall, put some padding up. It's kind of the first phase of the baseball project. We've got those on-going and then we'll eventually get into the bigger projects like soccer and baseball like we've talked about already.

BS: Also there continues to be some cosmetic stuff on the Bramlage Coliseum concourse.
GT: On the concourse, you'll see some updates there with some graphics, both in Bramlage and maybe in Vanier, you'll see some upgrades in graphics there as well. Lot of little stuff – price tag they're not little – but little projects.

BS: Work continues on the Facility Masterplan and Strategic Plan, for those that don't remember, what can you tell us about those documents?
GT: The Strategic Plan for me personally, as an athletic director that's just been here for a year is what is the direction I want to see our department go. Last year, when I first got here, I visited with every one of our staff members, some for as much as an hour or hour and a half. I wanted to get their vision, what our staff felt was important for K-State, what direction we wanted to go to continue to be successful. I took that information and brought in a company to help us put together a plan of what are those most important priorities that we feel direct our program. We took those top priorities and underneath those will put goals and objectives to lead our program for the next three to five years. It was really input from all the staff, at all levels here at K-State Athletics. We took our senior team and our directors and said ok, what's important for us to continue to move our program forward – facilities, athletic success, student-athlete success academically, diversity and inclusion, all those things. Within those top seven priorities, what are those goals we want to reach within the next 3-5 years and we'll put that out probably in the next month or so.

BS: Speaking of successful, how about Cliff Rovelto and the track and field team?
GT: Just a tremendous year, another women's Big 12 Outdoor Championship and the men finished third, but then they take 15 to nationals and had tremendous success. We had the high jumper TJ win a National Championship in the high jump. Just a tremendous track season again for Coach Rovelto and his staff, absolutely.

Kansas State University Athletics

Ask the AD Transcript - June 20, 2018

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