As the Ball State University coaches sat around the 10 a.m. Department of Intercollegiate Athletics meeting Tuesday, there were mixed opinions on the necessity of the athletic department's restructuring project.
"I'm not sure if it was needed," said men's tennis coach Bill Richards, who has coached with the Cardinals for 36 years. "I think that if we tried to continue the way we were we would have been fine. But people are just trying to find a way to get coaches better resources to win."
Every Ball State coach was affected differently with Tuesday's reconstruction. However, the general consensus among the coaches was that a better athletics department will be one that is better organized.
With the new athletics landscape, Karin Lee, associate athletic director and senior women's administrator, will be responsible for 14 athletics programs, while Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tom Collins will now supervise five sports.
Collins said the change was meant to improve communications within the athletics department.
Despite the plan's focus on Lee being responsible for the majority of Ball State's athletics programs, Richards said, he does not anticipate a bottleneck effect to be created with multiple coaches attempting to contact one individual.
"She definitely has a lot on her plate," Richards said. "As long as the person you report to has an open-door policy, communications shouldn't be a problem."
Women's tennis coach Kathy Bull said she considered the recent controversy surrounding former men's basketball coach Ronny Thompson to be a communications breakdown in the department.
While she is unsure of the success Ball State's new project will generate, she said, each member of the Cardinals' athletics family is committed to doing what is best for the university's perception.
"It was a tough summer with the basketball situation," Bull said. "I think it was the best approach to figure out what is going on. We are all kind of absorbing it. We all have the hope that it will point it in the right direction."
First-year women's volleyball coach Dave Boos, whose previous supervisor was Lee, said he didn't consider his team affected either way by the change. However, Boos said he thought a change was necessary.
"In the long term, the stronger the department is as a whole, the stronger the volleyball program will be," Boos said.
Historically, changes to Ball State's athletics department experienced positive results, Richards said. Looking back on his experience during the past 3 1/2 decades, he said, as long as the coaches and the athletics department have the same goal in mind, no negatives will come from the reconstruction.
"When I came to BSU we had separate women's and men's departments," Richards said. "I've seen numerous athletic directors, and I don't think this is out of the norm at all. Coaches talk that we have high-maintenance and low-maintenance athletes. As long as all the coaches do their job and remain low maintenance, everything should be fine. We are all in this to win."
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