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status report from the AD: "I'm very optimistic" Chancellor's Note: When we started "FYI" last spring I promised to periodically make this space available to other voices. This is such a month. Ken Bothof has brought professional leadership to our intercollegiate Athletics program at a critically important junction. I know the community is intensely interested in the success of Phoenix Division I athletics — I am reminded of this at nearly every public gathering. It is important we be open in communicating our results and our vision. That's why I gladly yield the balance of today's column to Ken for a program report. — Bruce Shepard Thank you, Bruce. I too, know how important Phoenix Athletics is to this community and all of Northeastern Wisconsin. It seems as though each time I’m out in the community I am asked about the future of our program. I am averaging at least one public speaking appearance a week—last week it was the Green Bay Retired Men’s Club and this week it’s the Green Bay Monday Noon Optimist Club. They want to know about our new Phoenix Fund Drive, our move to the new Resch Center, and the prospects of our women’s basketball program. They wouldn’t be asking if they didn’t care. People do care. That’s a reason I made the decision one year ago to come to Green Bay. The key is “pride.” People here are intensely proud of their community and their teams, including the Phoenix. They want us to succeed and they’re willing to help. I’m also glad their enthusiasm, while genuine, isn’t overwhelming, unreasonable, or misdirected. You don’t have to follow college sports closely to know the dangers when priorities get pushed out of whack. In Green Bay, at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, our priorities are solid. &nbp; It starts with realistic expectations. We’re expected to strive for excellence in the classroom and on the playing fields, to represent an excellent institution with class and integrity, to make our campus and community proud (there’s that word “pride” again), and operate in effective and efficient fashion given available resources. |
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Bothof, UW-Green Bay Director of Intercollegiate AthleticsSpeaking of resources, that’s something I do: Speak of resources. Fund-raising is always the No. 1 challenge for university athletic directors. It’s also the No. 1 question I hear when I talk to the media or our fans: “ Ken, will Phoenix Athletics ever generate enough funding to be competitive with the big’ schools ?”My answer, without trying to be cute, can be any of the following. Take your pick, they’re all correct: “ No.” “ Doesn’t matter.” “ We’re almost there already.” I say “no” because we’ll never have the resources of a Big Ten school, although we compete against them in almost all of our sport programs. Our annual budget is about 1/10th of some of the budgets in the Big Ten. 7nbsp; I also say “it doesn’t matter” because our goal is to compete financially, academically and competitively with the other schools in the Horizon League. We’re working on the finances, and I believe we can be competitive in that area, but in the meantime we continue to compete and succeed. That’s what we instill in our student-athletes. They know they represent a quality academic institution, that our alumni who take the MCAT or CPA or other tests match the best in the nation. Our athletics teams strive for the same, to be as well prepared, as dedicated as their competition from bigger or “better-funded” schools. (There are practical limits to this philosophy, of course—the playing field is not always level—but more on that later.) 7nbsp; Finally, “we’re almost there already” is also a valid answer. We already are competitive in many sports. And not far from doing it on a consistent basis in others. Our men’s soccer team knocked off a Top 25 team in Wisconsin. Our Nordic skiers have challenged for NCAA team honors. Even in a down year, the men’s basketball team beat Butler and played some other big programs close. Coach Borseth and the Phoenix women were a minute away from upsetting Texas, on their home floor, in the Big Dance last spring. |
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